Van Jones at PowerShift 2011: “While They’re Stuck On Stupid In DC, Your Generation Is Rising”

Van Jones gave a passionate keynote address to 10,000 youth climate activists at the Power Shift conference in Washington DC to “shift the power” and lead the clean power revolution. He argued that both parties need to be held accountable for their failures, and that activists must explain that the climate movement isn’t just about “hippie power” and baby boomers but that it is a vision of liberty and justice for all.

“You have to be wise enough to hold both parties to high standards,” he said.

Jonwa also discussed President Obama, who hired him as a green jobs adviser but then fired him after he came under fire from Glenn Beck. Jones said Obama is like the friend who could be an A-plus student, but is only getting C’s and D’s.

Here is the transcript:

The most important time in American history.
Not just have a green job, but a green career.
Not pollution, but solution.

People behind me share your ambition, and your fears.

Worst economy in 2 generations.
Join on Monday – the briefcases.

Don’t leave anybody behind.
Wealthy people have the solar panels.
The poor have the big energy bills.
The poor can’t afford the solar panels.
Shift the power.
We can’t afford the poor people NOT to have solar panels.

I love rich folks. But they tend to live in the hills where it is shady.
Poor people live in the flat places where it is hot.
How about we have the solar panels there
and have the energy companies write them some checks
to put some food on the table.

Thank you so much for your work.

Your generation has to stand together.
You don’t know yet but the entire planet,
the children of all species are banking on you.
DC is having a bipartisan failure to rescue this economy,
this planet.
While they are stuck, you can act.
Your generation is rising.
Biggest generation ever had.
Baby boomers transformed America.
244 years of enslavement.
Broke Jim Crow in 4 years, first black president.
You are bigger than the baby boomers.
You are more diverse
more ecologically conscious.
How many have a laptop computer
smart phone
iPad? Good. I don’t have one either. My birthday is coming up.
If you have a laptop, or smart phone or iPad
you have more and better computing power than the entire US government
had when they put a man on the moon.
You are a walking technological superpower.
Stop using them as toys. Start using them as tools to change America.

You have to make a decision.
Freedom riders – 19 to 25 years old.
You are not the leaders of tomorrow – you are the leaders of Today.
Shift the power.
Don’t just hold one party accountable.
Hold both parties.

If you have a friend who should be an A+ student, getting C’s and D’s,
you’d put on peer pressure to achieve higher.
If you are a hero, for ensuring your friend gets an A,
aren’t you a bigger hero for helping your other friend get an A on his presidency?

Don’t stop there politically.
We have an energy system
a civilization
powered by death.
Fueled by death.
Why do they call them fossil fuels?
Oil – dead for 60 million years.
Coal – dead for 300 million years – pull out of ground.
Burn in industries. We burn death.
We act shocked, having pulled death out of the ground,
that we get death out of the skies.
Let’s stop fueling death.
(cheers)

Let’s stop digging those holes in America.
Shift the power.
Look at the sky, at the sun.
The Suadi Arabia of solar power.
Look at the wind.

Look at the eyes of the workers who could be building solar turbines.

Look at grandmothers who know how to do community gardening.

Look at Native Americans.

Shift the power – change the way we power our buildings and machines.
How we power our bodies.
Those two together can change America.

Shift the power – but don’t just stop there.
Go home.
Shift the power at the Thanksgiving table,
with your Uncle Joe.
Start dominating the discussion.

Shift the power – not just for Democrats, lefties. It is for everybody.
You have the opportunity.
Don’t you believe in liberty.
As energy consumers for the rest of our lives,
shouldn’t we be able to power our own communities.
Have our own solar panels and wind turbines,
producing our own energy.
Shouldn’t we have the liberty of America
power in a new way.
We are not going to build wind farms in New York City.
We are going to build the wind farms in the red states.
Something for people of all colors.
Shift the discussion.
We understand that renewable energy is hippy power.

We like our hippies.
But it is also cowboy power, farmer power, …

Don’t let anybody divide you.
Glad the Tea Party is talking about liberty.
I love liberty.
Pledge of allegiance says,
“Liberty and Justice for All”
Justice for minorities, women, gays, …
Shift the power.
Shift the power.
Thank you very much.