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Billy Parish Keynote Address

by Daniel Parr, '07, '08
Billy Parish

"I think it's critically important that we as young people speak our truth -- but how we speak it is just as important -- that we speak it with love and respect," said Billy Parish, co-founder of the Energy Action Coalition and EarthVision keynoter.

Parish, an integral figure in the youth climate-change movement, shared his story with EarthVision attendants, harkening back to his life-changing trip to India, hiking along the Ganges River. It was there that he met some scientists studying the rapid retreat of a glacier and learned first-hand the effects of such climate change.

When he realized that the U.S. generates over 20% of the world’s globe-warming emissions but only has 5% of the world’s population, he decided not to wait to take direct action. Parish dropped out of Yale and committed his life to educating others about the importance of political action on this crucial issue.

Although his efforts started small -- with a handful of people and no budget -- his experience underscores that grassroots efforts can have a huge impact. Campus support for climate change rallies has grown tremendously in recent years, and the success of events like PowerShift 2007 in D.C. and the nationwide Campus Climate Challenge campaign prove it. The campaign has led to groundbreaking climate policy in the California school system and at Penn State University, largely thanks to a sit-in staged by students.

Parish urged everyone to look at the tremendous example of Ghandi’s Satyagraha philosophy of nonviolent resistance as the best way to get the message of climate change across.

The effectiveness of that philosophy has been a tremendous help to Energy Action’s initiatives across the country. EarthVision participants responded with cheers and applause when Parish announced that Energy Action Coalition’s Presidents’ Climate Commitment initiative had, as of this morning, led to 529 colleges committing to being climate neutral and producing no net carbon emissions from their campus or donors.

Parish is optimistic about the tremendous vigor and intelligence of his generation. ”Young people have every right to be confused… to be angry about what’s going on,” he said. “But instead of feeling those things, young people are trying to fix them all around the country… this is a generation that sent tens of thousands of young people to the gulf coast after Hurricane Katrina.”

Parish went on to say that “Young people have been at the forefront of every major social movement in this nation’s history. I believe that you all – all of us – are the ones that are going to lead it.”

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