That is what various student groups and organizations gathered to discuss on the last day of Black History Month. The Will Steger Foundation sponsored Clean Air: the New Civil Rights Struggle at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities last week with a diverse coalition of partners, including Sierra Club, Black Motivated Women, Black Student Union, Native American Law Students Association, Black Law Student Association, American Indian Student Cultural Center, and EcoWatch.

This past Tuesday YEA! MN (Youth Environmental Activists of Minnesota) teamed up with MPIRG (Minnesota Public Interest Research Group) to create a youth centered lobby day at the state capitol. Tons of youth from around Minnesota, came to the event. Everyone was excited to learn about the legislative process and make a difference in our state’s environmental policy. Students learned how to lobby with their designated senators and representatives from a workshop lead by MPIRG. Then everyone divided into groups to learn more specifically about the topics on which they wanted to lobby on. The topics were the solar standard in Minnesota, the recycling refund act, Voter ID, and environmental defense of existing bills. Students met with senators and representatives in meetings MPIRG had set up. The day concluded with all the participants singing Let’s Use the Sun (to the tune of Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles) written by Shira Breen and the South High School environmental club, The Green Tigers.

YEA! MN and MPIRG youth team up to advocate for solar and other environmental policies at the MN state capitol.

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Letter from the Executive Director

A few articles caught my eye in the Minneapolis based Star Tribune last month. Of course I was proud of Will Steger’s opinion piece on climate literacy, published on January 27th: Will writes “if the nation is to address climate change, it must begin with a public that is climate literate.” You can read the piece here.

Another article in the paper was the new plant hardiness zone map released by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), used by gardeners to select plantings that will be compatible with temperatures in their area. The climate change deniers in the Bush Administration pulled a similar map from circulation in 2003 because of the clear northward trend of planting zones. USDA insists that this is not a climate change map but when compared to the previous map, issued in 1990, the warming trend is hard to miss.

Finally, the U.S. Energy Information Administration recently released its Annual Energy Outlook 2012 report, citing that the United States consumed less coal and imported oil in 2011 than it did in 2005. While current emission levels are not on target to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by 17 percent by the year 2020, EIA’s forecast shows that new fuel-economy standards are helping Americans reduce their daily oil consumption. Locally, in Minneapolis, the city has experienced a 12.8 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions without cutting electricity use over the past six years. The reduction may be the result of cleaner energy such as wind and solar as well as more fuel-efficient cars. The city is currently revising a new Climate Action Plan.

Read more about our program highlights in this month’s e-newsletter.

Sincerely,

Nicole Rom, Executive Director

Letter from the Executive Director

Arctic Oscillation Diagram

It’s hard not to notice the lack of winter across most of the country, at least in the lower 48 states. Two weeks ago a January heat wave smashed records from North Dakota to California before spreading into the Northeast. At least 1,500 daily record high temperatures were set during the period from January 2-8, including Minnesota. Real winter weather is just around the corner though, thanks to the Arctic Oscillation. The Arctic Oscillation is a pattern of atmospheric pressure that helps steer the jet stream in the Northern Hemisphere and is transitioning into a new phase. When it’s in a “positive phase” as it has been so far this winter, cold air tends to remain bottled up in the Arctic. In fact, the Arctic Oscillation has been extremely positive this winter, with the Arctic Oscillation index reaching its second-highest level on record, dating back to 1950. This is the opposite of how things were in December 2010 and January 2011, when the Arctic Oscillation was extremely negative and several major snowstorms slammed the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Scientists do not fully understand what influences the behavior of the Arctic Oscillation, but some studies show links between it and the loss of Arctic sea ice, which is due in large part to global warming, and other research suggests that solar activity can have an effect on it as well. Our friend and Minnesota weather guru Paul Douglas was on MPR’s Midmorning show recently discussing our weird weather and more. Listen here.

At a recent school visit in Proctor, Minnesota in early January, Will Steger explained the difference between weather and climate and talked about how he navigated his expedition teams without a GPS unit using wind, the sun, and weather as a guide. Students were surprised to learn how skills he learned as a young child enabled him to survive in the Arctic. Learn more about Will's early observations and journals in our online classroom.

Sincerely,

Nicole Rom, Executive Director