Here’s an update from Bill McKibben, who has recently been traveling non-stop promoting 350 and the October 24 Day of Action.
I spent a blissful 18 hours this week at Pearson College on Vancouver Island near the Canadian city of Victoria–but actually, though we were in a sublimely beautiful spot on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, we were also smack in the middle of the entire globe.
Pearson College, you see, is one of the United World College campuses scattered around the globe, taking kids from around the world at the end of high school and beginning of college for two years of instruction culminating in an International Baccalaureate degree. When I say around the world, I mean it: I spent the day with uoung people from Yemen, Serbia, Wales, Ireland, Angola, Uganda, Guatemala–the 200 kids studying at Pearson come from 100 countries.
And they understood 350 intuitively and immediately–soon people were offering to set up actions for October 24 on virtually every continent. And they’re the kind of young people–smart, committed, articulate–who will be able to follow through. It was one of the most valuable visits I’ve made on this long year of organizing. Thanks to Nico Hawley, we’re also working with alumni of other UWC campuses, who have just the kind of network we msot need.
But don’t think all the action is overseas. The students who will be at Pearson next fall promise a specctacular 350 event on Oct. 24–and out at the nearby marine ecological reserve that the college operates, preserve manager Ryan Murphy pledges something spectacular of his own. He lives there by himself (except for the sea lions, elephant seals, and pigeon guillemots, not to mention cruising squads of orca), but I bet he’ll cook up something magnificent.