iMatter Movement

MONDAY 12/15/14 4 p.m. PST — HBO iMatter Movement video—“Saving My Tomorrow,” features youth involved in the fight for climate change. Here’s the Trailer.

My May 2012 post on the iMatter Movement shared about kids (and adults), first marching to protest climate change, then relying on the public trust doctrine to sue the federal and states governments. The public trust is “a legal doctrine that imposes a fundamental, fiduciary obligation on all governments to protect our shared natural resources.” The goal of the suits is to force governments to create the recovery plans necessary to turn around or weaken the direction of global climate change.

Government isn’t the only focus. The Movement’s Youth Council, 3 Step “Revolution” for Change asks us all to change the way we Think, Live, and Act. The Movement’s website lets the children tell their stories in video. Stunningly beautiful and moving.

COP 20 Lima, Peru

Opening ceremony COP20
Wikipedia image

“I believe in order to get change we need to have massive mobilization. …governments are not going to move by themselves, they’re not going to choose to place people over profit. They’re not going to choose to align their policies with humanity, unless they are pushed to do so.” Emily Williams, California Student Sustainability Coalition * Interview “What Now for Climate Change? Youth Movements from Lima to Paris”

A broad coalition of California students are challenging public and private university fossil fuel-related investment practices. Radio KGNU interviews Emily Williams, Campaign Director of the California Student Sustainability Coalition about the nature of campaigns for change, particularly divestiture and sustainability. Just this week, California’s Chico State University became the first public university to commit to fully divesting all investments in fossil fuels within four years.

The 2005 United Nations (UN) Climate Change Convention (COP 11 or COP/MOP 1) spawned the concept of an International Youth Climate Movement(Wiki). Every year, the number of youth organizations attending the conference and working for climate change back home grows. Here are a few: Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Indian Youth Climate Network, UK Youth Climate Coalition, Kenya Youth Climate Network, Climate Youth Japan, China Youth Action Network.

I want to grow in a world where all these young people, and many more like them, are in charge.

If you are an environmental youth group working on climate change, add your website and mission in the comments. And tell us how it’s going.

“Live as if our future matters.” Alex Loorz, founder iMatter

Example of cold-stunned sea turtles
photo by permission: Matthew Godfrey
North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission

Winter water temperatures at Cape Cod and along the Eastern seaboard are known to catch a few “dawdling” sea turtle youngsters off guard each year. If they fail to beat flippers toward Florida soon enough, the consequences can be dire. It’s called “cold stunning,” and since mid-November, 1200 sea turtles, mostly Kemp’s ridleys, have washed ashore (“stranded”) along the beaches of Cape Cod Bay. Valiant efforts of professionals and scores of volunteers have saved most, but three hundred have died or were found dead.

Sea turtles are reptiles, so when the water cools below their ability to adapt, they become the equivalent of floating ice cubes. It’s no joke, though. Their vital systems drop so low they can’t eat, swim, avoid predators, or fight off infections, like pneumonia.

As reported in today’s New York Times, “the usual trickle (of cold-stunned turtles) has turned into a flood.” According to ClicktoHouston.com, fifty Kemp’s ridleys were transported to Galveston’s Sea Turtle Hospital for treatment. Some went on to the Houston Zoo.

By 2010, decades of conservation efforts had increased Kemp’s ridley nests to the highest level since 1985. I visited Padre Island National Seashore that year to watch the first hatchling scramble to the sea after the Gulf oil spill. Sadly, nesting success rates for the Kemp’s ridley have declined since. Every turtle saved now resets the clock, shifting this smallest and most endangered of sea turtles again onto the path away from extinction. We can all help.

Kemp’s ridley hatchlings-Padre Island National Seashore June 2010
Photo: Katy Pye

The Massachusetts Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary is working around the clock and the sheer number of rescued turtles has stretched resources big time. If you want to donate supplies or funds, that would be terrific. If you also pass this call through your social networking–and in-person–pipelines, so others can help, you are one, fabulous turtle angel!