While many Muskingum college students were excited about Friday night parties somewhere on campus, two of Muskingum College's vans were parked at a little terminal beside Patton Hall.
Boarding those buses were 13 Muskingum students, including myself, armed with our sleeping bags, backpacks and excited faces.
We were excited about an event that was different than weekend parties on campus. Their destination, a six-hour drive from New Concord, is Washington D.C. The students attended the three-day nation wide youth summit called Power Shift 2007, about global warming, green energy and environmental issues.
Frankly speaking, I was not strongly concerned about global warming because I had not really faced any problems, although I had watched An Inconvenient Truth. I was more concerned about wars all over the world because I could not stand people getting killed in unreasonable armed conflicts.
At six in the morning of Nov. 3, we got up from uncomfortable sleeping bags and prepared to go to the University of Maryland, where Powershift 2007 was hosted. On a very cold morning, we found ourselves among around 5,000 university students all over the United States.
On the first day, we separated to go to panel discussions. I could not imagine that the panel discussions would have had such a huge impact on me.
One of the panel discussions was about climate impacts, adaptation, development and global security. Climate change will have a significant effect on agriculture, water resources, health care and so on. According to Oxfam.org, 150,000 people die every year due to climate change, 100 million people will be flooded by end of the century and 30 million people may be hungry because of climate change by 2050.
I could not believe that climate change would have such a huge impact to the Earth and people.
Even though climate change is ongoing and gets worse day by day, human beings still produce carbon dioxides and other greenhouse gasses, including myself.
Society is still seeking a way of get out of oil addiction as well. Gawain Kripke, one of the panel speakers, said that climate change will depend on how humans will respond in the next 15 years, but humans will still face huge impact of climate change even if we try to stop producing carbon dioxide, because of the large amount in the air. Along with the above reasons, the speakers claim that people need to make a power shift from dirty energy, such as oil, coal and so on, to clean energy such as wind plants and solar panels.
For instance, Jordan starts the national commitment by adapting to solar power to shift its power. One survey predicted that solar power will produce 10 percent of electricity in Jordan. In the U.S, solar panels have been used particularly in the southwest area. However, the rates of producing electricity by solar panels are still low.
In order to adapt the clean energy needed for a power shift in United States, the federal government will need to invest approximately 500 billion dollars, which the United States' government is hesitant to do. It is hard to switch from one power source to another, but humans do not have time to argue or delay anymore.
Our group of Muskingum students met a man from New Orleans. He drove a trailer house with a "STOP GLOBAL WARMING" sign. He said that he realized how climate change effects people when Hurricane Katrina hit the Southern coast of the United States because global warming generates larger and stronger hurricanes. Hurricane Katrina is one of the results of climate change. We also got a precious opportunity to listen to first-hand experience of climate change at congressional hearing on Nov 5.
The ten Alaskan students appeared in front of the House Selected Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, along with hundreds of other students, including us. One of the Alaskan students shared her experience with tears - her family will have to move out of the land where her ancestors settled thousands years ago, because of effects of climate change.
At noon, hundreds of college students were gathering for rally on the U.S Capitol West Lawn. While a couple police officers were watching them in the distance, students demanded that 20 percent of electricity be sustainable by 2015, that five million "green jobs," such as installing solar panels and other non traditional energy industry be created, and that pollution levels be reduced by 80 percent by 2050.
Students played drums, waved signs,and hollered in unison: "Remember! Remember! Remember! November 5th!" The voices surrounding me made me think that I was a part of them and the roundness of the united voices seemed to be the power of the youth, the impact of demand, and the will of the activists.
When I think of the current environmental issue, I realize two things. One thing is that I no longer should think about borders between countries, because global warming is not the issue of one country but the world. Another is that I should not think of myself as just a college student because I am an individual who has potential abilities and social responsibilities for our future.
Power Shift 2007 summit changed my life 180 degrees from being just a normal college student to being an active student. I think that all Muskingum students who went to the summit should be called fighting Muskies, not just Muskies. A special thanks goes out to Ashley Campbell, who organized the trip.
