Wake up, Sleep Out

This Thursday Students for a Just and Stable Future, a newly-formed, Wesleyan-led student coalition is kicking off a campaign to push Connecticut to a 100% clean electricity future.

Join us in sleeping out for the week leading up to Earth Day to declare our independence from dirty energy and push Connecticut’s policy makers to put the state on a path to 100% clean electricity in ten years.

Wesleyan is known as a center for environmentalism and activism.  SJSF aiming to rekindle that legacy and affect meaningful positive change in Connecticut’s energy policy. Students know that 100% clean electricity in ten years is the kind of bold move that needs to be made to protect our future.

Moving away from dirty electricity is an aggressive goal, but it is a feasible one for the state.  Connecticut is attached to a regional electricity grid, which would allow it to tap into substantial potential renewable energy sites in New England, such as wind power from northern Maine or off the Cape Cod shore.  Connecticut already has taken some of the most aggressive moves of any state against polluting electricity and climate change.  In 2001, Connecticut committed to a long-term goal of reducing emissions to eliminate any dangerous threat to the climate.  That commitment was reaffirmed in the Climate Change Act of 2004 and the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008.  Connecticut has already made commitments to cut its reliance on dirty electricity to 50% by 2020.  But Connecticut need to act more quickly to truly keep its commitment to eliminating harmful climate effects and to begin reaping the benefits of a clean energy economy.

Kicking off our campaign, students at Wesleyan and across the region are going to be sleeping out for the week leading up to Earth Day, to take their own stand against dirty energy.  But this campaign is about more than individual action.  We want to demonstrate to state policymakers that clean energy is crucial issue.   Clean energy doesn’t require moving outdoors.  It just requires leadership that will ensure that everyone in Connecticut has access to 100% clean electricity.

Join us—for an hour, a night, or the whole week—and help us send the message. Stand with fellow Wesleyan students, joining with students in the state, as we call on Connecticut leaders to recognize resonant concern among youth in Connecticut, and ask them to honor their commitments and move our state to a clean electricity future.

Check out after the break for the week’s schedule:

Thursday, April 15th

5:00pm – Nothing Less than 100%, Nothing More than 350!- Students for a Just and Stable Future

5:30pm – Clean Energy and Young People’s Influence on CT Politics- State Representative Matt Lesser

Friday, April 16th

4:30pm – Mountain Justice, Tell the Story: Coal and Mountaintop Removal

5:30pm – marching band?

7:00pm – street theater

Saturday, April 17th

3:00pm – WesRum (re-using materials)

4:30pm – Local greening initiatives

Sunday, April 18th

4:30pm – Copenhagen: Lessons Learned

Monday, April 19th

3:00pm – Yoga

4:30pm – Why 350? With Wesleyan E&ES Professor Dana Royer

5:30- Nonviolent Direct Action

Tuesday, April 20th

2:00- Field Organizing Strategy

Wednesday, April 21st

4:30pm – The Ecology of Climate Change, with Wesleyan Biology Professor Barry Chernoff

5:30pm – Coalition Building

Thursday, April 22nd (Earth Day!)

6:00pm – Earth Day Feast with WesFresh and Farmer’s Market!!!!