The Purpose of Massachusetts Climate Summer

As this is my final night as an active member biking with the Massachusetts Climate Summer program, and in response, or perhaps more accurately after being inspired by Jay's visit to the Cambridge team tonight where he re-focused us on the goals of our actions, I want to remind, encourage, inspire and/or introduce you to what we, in general, will accomplish this summer.

We are trying to find the people in Massachusetts who also have identified this huge problem and care about solving it. We are empowering those who feel hopeless to act, because of the enormity of this problem, to make them leaders in the climate movement.

In my experiences, I have felt so overwhelmed by the huge amount of work and the seeming majority of people who do not care or aren't willing to do anything to save the world's future. I would like to share one metaphor from the Awakening the Dreamer symposium that we have been facilitating which stuck out to me the first time I heard it and continues to bring me hope:

When a caterpillar begins to eat like crazy, up to 100 times its own weight, before its transformation, tiny cells called "imaginal cells" begin to awake in the caterpillar. They begin to find each other and cluster together. Even though they are in the minority, they gather and determine the genetic direction for the whole caterpillar. The rest of the cells dissolve into a nutritive soup and allow the imaginal cells to lead its evolution, which of course is to become the colorful, wonderful, and beautiful butterfly. If you had only seen the caterpillar and its cocoon, how could you possibly believe, or even simply imagine, that it could change so drastically?

With every person we meet that refuses to talk to us about this issue, chooses to ignore it, or slams a door in our face, we must remember that we do not need everyone, nor do we even need a majority of people for us to realize our dream of a clean and sustainable future for the world. Many people cannot imagine that it can be done, but who could imagine that an awkward 80-legged caterpillar could turn into a beautiful golden-winged butterfly? We believe, and we know, that it can be done, and that we have the resources to do it. We are finding those other "imaginal cells" out there in Massachusetts, then in America, and then around the world, that will guide the direction our world will head in. The others that don't care will not stop us. Our politicians and leaders will see just one message (as those who stand idly-by do not care enough to organize and send a message together), that a strong group of deeply committed citizens demand that we cap the world's carbon-levels in the air at 350-parts per million, and that we will not stop demanding this until it happens! Otherwise, there will be no more world left to care about.

"Never doubt that a small group of commiteed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead

I'd like to thank everyone in the Mass Climate Summer program whom I've met in the past three weeks, and especially to my friends in the Cambridge team, for an amazing experience and for giving me such hope and inspiration for the future. I have personally grown so much in so little time, and it was incredibly refreshing to meet other passionate people who so deeply want to work towards this beautiful goal. I promise I will read the blog religiously and will see you all back in Boston at the end of July!

-Keane