By making your global warming group part of the Youth Climate Action Network, you have taken on the challenge of working together with other groups just like yours towards accomplishing the aims of the various initiatives that the network is currently undertaking.  This year we have 8 GREAT network goals to work on!  Take a Look:

(Network Initiative 1) Focus the Nation - Focus the Nation is a day designated as a national teach-in about global warming.  It will take place on January 31st at high schools and colleges all over the nation.  We encourage all Youth CAN members to register as a Focus the Nation group at www.focusthenation.org  For our part in the teach-in Youth CAN groups will be focusing on integrating climate awareness into every part of the school day. We will provide and promote the use of relevant lesson plans for teachers in all disciplines (send us links that you find and we’ll post them on an educator’s page on our website where you may direct your teachers who want to access them. The plan is to give every educator in Youth CAN schools the option of choosing to educate their students about global warming and climate action on the 31st if they are so inclined.  It will be network members jobs to  encourage faculty participation!  BLS Youth CAN will be hosting an informative assembly for juniors and seniors at Boston Latin School that day, which is, of course, an option for all other network groups too.  Other ideas are to screen a relevant film that day and invite the student body, invite a global warming speaker, have an Al Gore Trainee do the Gore slideshow presentation (we have a list of contacts), encourage students in your school to calculate their carbon foot print, or kick off some sort of an energy saving drive.  BLS Youth CAN sold CFLs last year through NSTAR and we raised $5,000.00!

(Network Initiative 2) School Bus Idling and a Change to Bio diesel - Pretty self-explanatory. The smog released by idling buses is a major contributor to CO2 emissions. Although already banned by law, school bus idling has continued to be a problem. It’s frustrating that something that’s so easy to fix – just turn off the engine until the bus leaves – still hasn’t happened in many instances.  We suspect a respectful nudge is needed.  The network will be investigating ways to appropriately press the point!  Watch the www.blsyouthcan.org

network page for downloadable info sheets and flyers that will help you raise awareness about the issue, as well as for sample letters that you can ask your members send to the appropriate legislators and administrators.  We also invite you to share your ideas on this problem with us at contactus@blsyouthcan.org  In addition, we hope to begin to advocate for a switch to bio- diesel fuel being used in school buses, and will be launching an investigation into the merits and the means. 

(Network Initiative 3) Think Outside the Bottle Pledge - The United Nations warns us that by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population – more than five billion of us – will lack access to water. .Buying bottled water contributes to this problem and other environmental issues on several fronts:  First, because many people in the U.S. purchase one or more bottles of water in plastic water bottles every day, and then throw the bottles out when they’re done, they add to our ever-increasing mountains of non-biodegradable land fill waste.  Even those who conscientiously recycle their plastic water bottles cause problems, because the energy used to make the bottles, bottle the water, transport the water, and recycle the water bottles all contribute to emissions, and non of it is necessary!  The fact is, in the United States we already have access to good drinking water, it’s called tap water (besides, did you know that 40% of bottled water in the U.S. and Canada is sourced from municipal tap water?)  Finally, buying bottled water contributes to the privatization of our access to water world-wide.  There is an increasingly urgent water shortage in the world. By drinking bottled water, we’re exacerbating the problem by leaving less clean water for others do drink.

The network will be taking on the challenge of getting people to take the Think Outside the Bottle Pledge http://www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org/  and to stop buying bottled water.  BLS Youth CAN invites you to get creative and film a few 30 second Public Service Announcements to help promote the Think Outside the bottle concept.  We’ll post them on our website!  Or you can borrow the PSAs that we’ll be making.  Try having students at your school bring in and register their reusable, non-disposable water bottle with your Youth CAN members.  Reward homerooms who have full participation!  Start a trend.  Print out the Think Outside the Bottle flyers on the network page at www.blsyouthcan.org

(Network Initiative 4) 2nd Annual Youth Climate Action Network Global Warming Youth Summit at MIT – date to be announced (sometime in late March or early April) watch the BLS Youth CAN website for details www.blsyouthcan.org  We’d love your input about what the summit should look like this year (ideas for content, activities, speakers.)  If you’re a network member, and you’d like to help us plan the next summit, let us know by emailing the student coordinator of the youth summit planning committee Queen Arsem-O’Malley qmkaty@aol.com

(Network Initiative 5) Step it Up 2 will take place November 3rd 2007.  It will be a day of nation-wide rallies focused on the problem of global warming.  There will be great speakers and performances.  BLS Youth CAN attended last year and promoted our upcoming global warming youth summit at MIT.  We’ll be doing the same this year, and encourage all network members to turn out and support the event.  It’s a lot of fun, and a great way to get the necessary inspiration for the work we’re doing! http://www.stepitup2007.org/article.php?list=class&class=20

(Network Initiative 6) Other Events In addition, there are a number of other events that BLS Youth CAN will be attending, and to which we encourage network member participation:

•Bioneers By the Bay  - Connecting for Change – October 19th – 21st UMASS Dartmouth http://www.connectingforchange.org/

•Tipping Point – a state-wide training and lobby day aimed at passing climate change legislation.  October 30th from 9-3 Starts at the Appalachian Mountain Club, Cabot Auditorium, 5 Joy Street Boston MA 02108 and concludes at the Capitol to lobby reps! Interested students should contact amiller@smith.edu or kfortin@smith.edu

•Power Shift 2007 - This fall, youth from across the country will convene in Washington, DC to change the climate on global warming in the United States. Together, we will create a shift in the fight for a clean and just energy future.November 2 – 5th College Park, MD  http://powershift07.org/

•6th MCAN Global Warming Action Conference, Sunday Nov. 18, 2007 at MIT  http://www.massclimateaction.org/meetings.htm

•Boston Shines – watch for a date sometime in April http://www.cityofboston.gov/neighborhoods/bostonshines.asp

•Wake Up The Earth – Tentative Date May 3rd 2008 http://www.spontaneouscelebrations.org/earth.htm

(Network Initiative 7) Earth Day – Apple Computer Recycling @ UMASS Boston - Apple will recycle computers at UMass Boston on Earth Day, April 22, 2008.  BLS Youth CAN and network members will help promote this day in their communities in advance of the event, as well as lend volunteers on the day of the event to check in computers, move computers, and help with crowd control, etc.  Look for promotional flyers on the network page soon at www.blsyouthcan.org

(Network Initiative 8) Help Grow the Youth Climate Action Network – There’s strength in numbers!  The first annual Youth CAN global warming youth summit at MIT was a great success last year (47 different schools attended), and many students left the summit with ideas for clubs of their own. Some of those clubs are already under way! We gave each student a starter kit, which contained informative and interesting books about climate action, ideas for fundraisers and activities environmental clubs, and an outline of the steps we took to establish a successful, proactive, and fun group.  We have additional starter kits reserved for schools who want to start a global warming group.   Help us encourage other groups to get started.  If you know someone at a school that doesn’t have a global warming group, encourage them to ask for a starter kit, and get one going (www.contactus@blsyouthcan.org) Encourage any groups that you know of who are working with youth on global warming issues to become either a Youth CAN member group or a Youth CAN partner group,