Parlez-Vous Green Campus?

I don’t know what they are feeding young climate activists in Australia lately, but they have to be the happiest, most optimistic, most energized, most POSITIVE environmental advocates I’ve come across in months.

Witness their recent #PowershiftOZ video, produced by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition:

Not familiar with Powershift? It is a youth-led climate summit which began in 2007 in Washington DC, USA, coordinated in large part by the Energy Action Coalition. The author of this post was actually a speaker at that very first event which drew 6,000 college students from across the country. Its purpose is to educate, motivate and empower young activists to precipitate a “shift” from dirty energy to clean energy.

The author (right) at Capitol Hill for Powershift 2007

Since then, Powershift has inspired North American regional as well as global spin-offs. To wit: Powershift Europe, Powershift France, Powershift Russia, Powershift Canada, Powershift Sweden, Powershift Italy, Powershift UK, and lastly but not leastly, Powershift Australia. An event much like Powershift called “Be the Change” was organized by the Indian Youth Climate Network in Delhi in 2009.

I haven’t come across any central web site or contact for global Powershift activities, but if you are aware of any such thing, please let us know in the comments section below. There is, however, a main site for the Youth Climate Coalition which seems to be an umbrella group for international Climate Coalition groups that are often behind the Powershift events.