The first in a series of posts catching up the blog since our return from Bali…

In December 2007 our crew shipped off to the UN Climate Conference in Bali, Indonesia.  Global warming wasn’t exactly stopped in Bali – the UN international processes have a tendency to live up to their reputation of making snail-paced progress.  Looks fun, eh?  Fortunately, the ground is being laid for some real breakthroughs down the road, assuming the US will sign on and cooperate with, if not lead, this global effort.  

One of our tasks while in Bali was bearing the good news and energy from the US grassroots climate movement.  We were most definitely well-received by those willing and interested to talk to a few 23-year-olds at a UN conference.  And rest assured, the rest of the world is thrilled to know that all of you all are out there organizing for action in this country.  It means a lot to folks that you, we, the grassroots, don’t intend to let this issue slide by without real action.  But we still have a long ways to go till all our communities and all our leaders have stepped up to the climate challenge at the appropriate scale.  We have to keep the movement moving.

While in Bali, we were also thrilled to meet and learn more about all the great folks building the movement in their own lands.  With just a handful of those efforts combined, one petition alone had over 2 million signatures calling for action.  The grassroots is a sizeable force.

Youth from around the world, organizations of all sizes and missions – they’re all taking on climate change in their own way.  And increasingly large amounts of the worlds attention is turning to the international processes of figuring out how exactly we’re going to collectively address this global challenge.  During the conference itself, we teamed up with several of the grassroots groups there to help pull off the great aerial photo calling for action now – just one symbol of how ready everyone is to work together for real action.  The grassroots is ready.

And so, despite the slow pace of the UN meeting itself, we left Bali seeing real opportunity, sensing real hope for what can come.  More action is brewing.

Now back in the states (aside from finding our new homes, as we headed to Bali homeless), we’re looking into all kinds of ways we might help from our US vantage point to see action through.  There’s much to be done.  Fortunately, the winter has not been an idle one…

Click here to continue reading updates since Bali.

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