Our holidays are over. Just passed too are our gift-giving days.

You have to hope everyone did well; that everywhere, squirrelly kids and wishful parents got what we prayed for. What’s more, we have to believe our generous shoppers and earnest present-wrappers feel just as good. Giving, our elders always say, is better than getting.

The Bush Administration gave us some good news during December’s last busy week. It was easy to miss. So many other important headlines were hitting us — the King of Soul, America’s healing President, Iraq’s demonic despot, all perished at year’s end.

It’s possible no one noticed our government’s big admission that polar bears are in big trouble. At the close of 2006, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conceded that continuity of the entire arctic species might be threatened.

Of course, it’s also possible not many of us new Americans care much about our furry friends way up north. Sure, they’re cute and cuddly, but our concerns tend to be more arms-length: is my job still in hand after the Christmas rush? Are our boys coming home with good grades, or with the cops just behind? How many relatives back home were hurt, are yet missing, or will always be missed, after last month’s furious storms?

We are often overwhelmed with more immediate worries.

But our old folks will tell you: a tiger lunching at a neighbor’s house will soon be visiting mine. We have a lot of animal analogies. [more]

Sustainable development (SD) and climate change (CC) are the foremost problems facing humanity in this century. “Focus the Nation” must be commended and supported, for raising the profile of climate change issues in the US, and engaging the brightest young students and concerned citizens in finding practical solutions.

The work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides convincing proof of the problem and suggests potential solutions. The way forward is to integrate climate change policies more fully into sustainable development strategy, and initiatives like “Focus the Nation” will help to achieve this. All individuals, communities and nations will need to work together to meet the challenge. Government, business and civil society must cooperate more effectively. The developing world, which already faces severe problems like poverty and hunger, will have to focus on adapting to disproportionately large climate impacts. The industrial countries, which bear greater responsibility for past and present emissions, must show leadership in taking meaningful steps to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, making full use of their better technological and financial capabilities. [more]

The data is in. The science is done. So what do we do now? I take my cue from Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his work against apartheid. Exclaiming ‘the end of apartheid stands as one of the crowning accomplishments of the past century”, Tutu credits international pressure, and in particular, the divestment movement of the 1980’s for helping end the racist regime of the South African government.

The divestment movement changed the course of history and we can do the same. Based on the premise that purchase-equals-power, this campaign encouraged Americans from all corners of the country to boycott businesses that did business with South Africa. This movement started on college campuses just like yours–and it succeeded in ending apartheid in South Africa…

This is my inspiration. And I know we can turn climate change around the same way. Because the divestment campaign got it right: Businesses respond to consumers…

Politicians and government listen to business. And the world as we know it can change. So let’s turn climate change on its head—and completely around—by using our buying power. Stay tuned to RenewUS.org for more on this…

Gary Hirshberg
CE-YO
Stonyfield Farm, Inc.

“Focus the Nation” provides an immensely promising prototype for focusing the entire world on both the imminent threat of irreversible, runaway climate change—as well as the truly inspiring potential of addressing that challenge in a coordinated, cooperative way. By coordinating students and teachers from colleges and universities around the country around a critically needed discussion of the climate crisis, Focus The Nation could become the catalyst for a set of constructive and unifying actions that could begin to pacify our inflamed climate and, at the same time, begin to mend a profoundly fractured world.

The urgency of the initiative is underscored by three recent declarations—from the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, from NASA scientist Jim Hansen and from Britain’s James Lovelock—that humanity is either very near or already at a point of no return in terms of staving off climate chaos. (Their statements are posted at: www.heatisonline.org).

Moreover, the rest of the world is ten years ahead of the U.S. in its understanding of the magnitude and urgency of the crisis. For instance, Holland is in the midst of cutting its emissions 80 percent in the next 40 years. Britain, Germany and France have vowed to cut emissions from 50 to 75 percent by 2050. And in England, even the leader of the Conservative Party recently wrote in The Guardian (U.K.) about the urgent and immediate need for strong action.

The timing is right. The urgency is compelling. And the act of focusing the energy of the country’s best and the brightest young minds on the climate crisis could be the transformative spark we have all been waiting for.

Ross Gelbspan
Author, The Heat is On and Boiling Point