I went to the "Step it Up" event at ASU today, and here's my take on what I saw. I'll freely admit beforehand that I came late (The event was from 11 to 3, and I showed up at about 1), but I'm still going to talk about what I saw.
The Step it Up events sounded, on paper, pretty cool. Lots of Congresspeople were involved, Al Gore supported them, seemed like a good way to raise awareness of climate change as an issue in the national consciousness, or at least in a few more individuals' consciousness. Really, though, I was disappointed in what I saw.
Now, I will tell you outright that I missed the local Congressman (Henry Mitchell) speaking. Maybe that was really impressive, and I'm not even telling half of the story. I talked to some folks who did see him, though, and they couldn't come to a consensus about what his speech was really saying, so I'm going to take that as at least anecdotal evidence that I didn't miss too much. Other than that, there wasn't a whole lot to speak of. There was a table supporting the Green Party, who have evidently never heard the (admittedly true) platitude that the perfect is the enemy of the good. There was a group there showing how sun ovens could be used to make cookies and chicken, which admittedly is a nice way to use the otherwise oppressive Arizona sun, though it's kind of impractical for a dorm-dweller like me who doesn't have anywhere to put them. There was a group there pushing for conservation efforts on behalf of local fauna, and one tiny table who were (laudably) pushing the necessary message that the American "car lifestyle" is frankly suicidal. These are all well and good, really.
What really disappointed me, though, is that I saw almost no calls for supporting environmentally sound leadership. The message was more "Drive less! Turn down your thermostat! Recycle more!" than "Call your elected officials and demand that we do something about it!" Although I understand that apocalyptic doomsaying doesn't attract people's attention in any meaningful way, surviving the next few decades is going to involve more than just switching to CFL bulbs. That's not to say that they're, or that it's good to not encourage people to drive less or conserve water, but the issue has moved out of the hands of the individual public, and this event, to my eyes, did very, very little to change that narrative. Individual citizens will be important, yes, but changing your lightbulbs won't help in the way that changing the minds of those in power will. If a thousand people start carpooling and switch to CFLs, that will be better than not doing so, but won't help much in the long run. If those same thousand people, though, call their Congresspeople and demand that the environment be brought closer to front and center in the narrative of the political sphere, well, that'll do a lot more, I think. And if those same thousand people convince their friends and families that the climate crisis is the number one issue facing humanity and vote accordingly in the upcoming elections (both primary and general) to get environmentally minded leaders elected, then that'll be still more. But really, I only saw a few very small, relatively quiet calls for environmentally minded leadership at this event, and only because I was actively looking for them. I don't fault the people working at this event. I know their hearts are in the right place, and I don't think of them as enemies. I don't want to come off as a concern troll, but I don't know any other way to say this. Sun-baked cookies taste good, but they won't save us from ourselves. Ten thousand people switching to environmentally friendly light bulbs won't stop the polar ice from disappearing. This issue has grown out of our control, and we need to put people in power who are willing and able to take action to stop our planet from panicking. And I didn't get that at Step it Up.