COPENHAGEN, DENMARK - Fifty young Americans took over a climate denier conference hosted by a prominent conservative organization this evening in Copenhagen, rushing the stage and telling the live TV audience that a clean energy future is the real road to prosperity in America. The young people, merely a fraction of the more than 350 US youth in Denmark for the UN climate negotiations, entered a session of the Americans for Prosperity "Hot Air Tour" speakers series and were able to drop two banners and gain access to the conference's stage. The live event was webcast to over forty climate denier rallies in cities across the United States. Here's the video.
The students entered the event in small groups, joining a paltry audience of five conference attendees, who had come to hear climate denier Lord Christopher Monckton speak about the Copenhagen climate negotiations. After the first five minutes of the event, student representatives from SustainUS, the Sierra Student Coalition, the Cascade Climate Network, and other American youth NGOs displayed banners reading "Climate Disaster Ahead" and "Clean Energy Now." After security agents at the event took the banners, the young attendees began a chant of "Real Americans for Prosperity are Americans for Clean Energy." The chant lasted five minutes, as the youth took the stage and displayed their message for the live video feed being sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, despite evasive action by Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips and his camera crew. As they left the stage, Lord Monckton repeatedly called the activists "crazed Hitler Youth" and "nazis."
"Clean energy creates jobs," says Rachel Barge, a 24-year-old entrepreneur from San Francisco, CA who was the first young person to raise her voice at the event, "These climate action delayers and science deniers are stealing bold, new economic opportunities from the American public." Laura Comer, 21, of Strongsville, OH, seconded Barge, saying, "We're representing the majority of Americans on this, particularly young Americans. The real America wants clean energy - not more fossil fuel-funded lies about the science."
"We are Americans for prosperity too," says Ethan Buckner of the Sierra Student Coalition, "Prosperity that's created through a new clean energy economy that will revitalize the American economy and provide millions of clean energy jobs for our generation and all generations to come." "We need a strong climate and clean energy bill from Congress and a science-based and just treaty in Copenhagen in order to jump start this new energy economy Americans are calling for so loudly," adds Ben Wessel of SustainUS, "The youth of America are ready to move forward into a sustainable future, and we need our elected officials to join us. We refuse to sit quietly today while our leaders decide the future of tomorrow." --Jamie Racine