Learning the Talk and Walk of Climate Solutions on Thompson Island

Standing under a maple tree at the edge of the quadrangle on the “campus” at Thompson Island in Boston Harbor, Ross Gelbspan, Adam Wehrbach, and John Passacantando are in animated conversation.

Catching sight of these three — respectively, a Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist and author of The Heat Is On; the former president of the Sierra Club and head of Common Assets Trust and the Apollo Project; and the Executive Director of Greenpeace USA — I think that George Bush and Dick Cheney would like to know what they are saying.

But this weekend, those who will benefit from this level of environmental strategic and organizing talent are NOT likely to be the President or his administration; instead, they will be 36 men and women from around the country, here to learn about global warming and how to pass their knowledge on. They have come together for the second annual Boston Climate Education Project weekend training, hosted by Clean Air-Cool Planet, Green House Network, and the Massachusetts Climate Action Network.

Participants arrive on Thompson Island for “Building the Movement to Stop Global Warming:
Speaking and Organizing on Climate Change” workshop

Ross Gelbspan (in green) facilitates a conversation about climate messaging

John Passacantando leads a “break-out” on activism that combines motivation
with a chance to appreciate July in Boston Harbor

The training is designed to address climate science and economics, messaging and activism, solutions and obstacles to progress. For nearly 48 hours, participants gather on this beautiful island–where discussion of renewable power sources is punctuated with views of the Hull wind turbine spinning across the harbor, and the contemplation of sustainable development and lifestyle choices is made less abstract against the backdrop of downtown Boston’s hovering skyline—to gather information and ideas that they can take back to their homes, jobs and communities.

The group is diverse: A mom from Maine with her kids and husband, planning on a web campaign to get people to make incremental changes in their lifestyles; a photographer and DJ from New York City, figuring out how to put his talents to use; a marketing executive from the Pacific Northwest, ready to apply her skills to the task; teachers, business people, city planners, politicians, folks from the non-profit world, artists, a physicist – and L.A.’s Green Power Girl.

Susan Cox is Green Power Girl, teaching school kids throughout L.A. to be energy heroes.	Global Man-About-Town Pincas Jawetz, who works on international climate issues through the UN and the International Sustainable Energy Association	Multi-tasking: Focused on the task at hand, participants traded stories and inspiration over meals.

They will learn in presentations and Q&A sessions what they need to know from Gelbspan, Wehrbach, and Passacantando, as well as from Sonia Hamel, Special Assistant to the Director for Commonwealth Development in Massachusetts; from climate scientist Barry Rock of UNH; from Dr. Eban Goodstein, economist and Director of the Green House Network – and, from Dr. Suess’s Lorax, ably played by Carter Brooks.

In their lectures, Gelbspan details just how high the stakes are in the battle over global warming; Wehrbach urges a commitment to personal action to defend the assets common to us all in the skies, the oceans, the water and the land; and Passacantando relates the ways that passion and creativity can push issues over the top and into the public consciousness. Barry Rock and Eban Goodstein define the science and give an overview of the issue, while Sonia Hamel shares her definitive view of public policymaking in the Massachusetts Governor’s Office.

A Meeting of the Minds: (from far left, clockwise)
John Passacantando, Ross Gelbspan, Barry Rock, Sonia Hamel, Adam Wehrbach share their expertise

Perhaps more importantly, over coffee, meals, and in sidewalk and hallway conversations the “students’ get up close and personal with Ross, Adam, and John. They look for ways to learn from, and collaborate with, the work of Clean Air-Cool Planet, MCAN and the Green House Network. They inform themselves about the efforts of their contemporaries in other geographies and sectors. And in studio-like sessions where they practice speeches and outline organizing strategies, they share their visions and hopes, their stories and plans – as well as a lot of laughter.

In a jam-packed two and a half days, they will become remarkably close, a group resembling a family returning from a reunion. At the end, on the boat ride back across Boston Harbor, it seems clear they have learned a great deal, and gained almost as much from their newfound, common energy and spirit.

—Bill Burtis

Photos courtesy of Martijn Mollet