EAC Asks Youth to Vote Green

Not everyone crowding the banks of the Charles River yesterday was watching the rowers—one crew of Harvard students was working to increase awareness about climate change.

Members of Harvard’s Environmental Action Committee collected pledges from young voters who promised to prioritize climate change issues in the upcoming presidential election, as part of the national Power Vote campaign that seeks to mobilize one million youth voters to support green goals.

The weekend also kick-started Harvard’s Sustainability Week, a University-sponsored celebration of green initiatives that the EAC has been heavily involved in running it over the next several days.

“Power Vote is something that the EAC can have behind a lot of our events [this week] and give more people a way to be actively involved,” said Lila G. Brown, ’11 who helped organize Power Vote at Harvard. “It is also a way to engage the public on a broader level outside of Harvard when everyone is talking about sustainability already.”

The Power Vote campaign aims to promote energy and climate issues by encouraging voters to focus on a platform that supports clean energy, green jobs, and cutting dependence on foreign oil. The pledge also commits voters to holding their representatives accountable to the platform once in office, with prepared instructions for lobbying, phone-banking, and organizing like-minded voters.

“The point is not just to get a bunch of pledges, stuff paper in people’s faces and ask them to care about the environment,” said Molly V. N. Bales ’10, a member of the EAC who gathered pledges this weekend. “The point is to create a relationship with people and get people thinking and discussing the issues.”

EAC members secured 200 pledges yesterday, including some from students at Brown, Simmons College, and Wellesley College, and volunteers said that those who stopped to talk were very “interested” and “receptive,” especially when volunteers discussed events planned for Sustainability Week.

“Climate change is a big issue for people, and they are excited to see that it is coming to Harvard,” Bales said.

The EAC will also be tabling for pledges in dining halls during the sustainable dinners being held this Tuesday in all undergraduate houses and at Wednesday’s Sustainability Celebration, which will feature keynote speaker Al Gore.

The EAC hopes to collect an additional 1000 to 1500 signatures, an “ambitious” goal whose success will be aided by the excitement Sustainability Week generates, said Ryan D. Zampardo ’09.

“We’re banking on the success and the weather of [Wednesday],” Zampardo said. “There is a chance that Gore may mention Power Vote in his speech, and if there is a heavy turnout at the event, it won’t be a very difficult sell.”

—Staff writer Natasha S. Whitney can be reached at nwhitney@fas.harvard.edu.