Cross-posted from the ACESpace Blog (our partners at the Alliance for Climate Education)

Colorado has a lot at stake when it comes to a warming world: shorter (if any) ski seasons, disease and sharp economic downturn are just a few of the projected impacts. As the X Games get going in Aspen this week, students in Colorado are working hard to make sure there is always snow to shred!

Here at ACE, we’re psyched to be a part of the action. We’ve teamed up with Disney, ESPN, and the Aspen Ski Co to bring climate education to the 2010 Winter X-Games. Two ACE Educators – Bridget and Michael (me) – have been on a ‘March to the X-Games’ whirlwind tour of the Roaring Fork Valley between Monday 1/25 – Thursday 1/28, where we’ll be presenting LIVE FROM THE X-GAMES!

We’ve been interacting with hundreds of students in the past two days and it’s clear: Colorado students are ready to take on climate change. Their schools are using natural light, solar energy, and engaging students in conversations about the environment, wilderness, and sustainability.

For folks in the Roaring Fork Valley, the mountains and natural habitats define their world – talking to students it’s clear that there is love for being outdoors: hiking, biking, and water sports in the summer and snow sports in the winter.

Young people recognize the changes in our natural world, and we understand the ways that climate change is tied to pollution, environmental justice, and community health. We always can learn more, but we’re ready to take action.

Check out our videos from the first two days on the March to the X-Games:

ACE’s March to the Winter X-Games volume 1 from ACE Space on Vimeo.

and

We co-presented with Meg Olenick and Spencer O’Brien – two X-Games superstars- on Monday and are presenting LIVE FROM THE X-Games on Thursday. Keep with us on acespace.org/blog for all the updates.

What are you doing to lower your emissions and raise your voice on climate change? What’s your DOT?

Several partners of Clean Energy Works launched a series television ads across seven congressional districts, including the ad below targeting Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and the stain of Big Oil and their contributions.

Other targets include Reps. John Boehner (R-OH), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Lee Terry (R-NE), Jason Altmire (D-PA), Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO), and Dennis Rehberg (R-Montana).

Power Shift is a campaign organized by Energy Action Coalition and fueled by young people across the country to DEMAND BOLD ACTION on CLIMATE AND ENERGY. We are urging President Obama and the Congress to pass a strong and comprehensive climate and energy plan that creates millions of new jobs, ends our dependence on dirty energy, brings America lasting security and reduces harmful global warming pollution.

We are inheriting an economy and climate in crisis, and if Obama and Congress don’t act NOW, WE will be the ones who pay.

After 9/11, we volunteered to help those affected and we served in uniform. After Katrina, we spent our vacations rebuilding homes and served back in our own communities. And in ’08, we volunteered for campaigns, filled polling booth lines, and rocked the political establishment. Now, WE are the ones struggling to pay our bills, find decent jobs, and pay off our loans. And if we don’t act soon on climate change, WE will be the ones who will pay the price for more storms like Katrina, more wildfires like California, and more resource wars like Darfur.

If we act NOW, we can re-power our economy with clean energy jobs…But Obama and Congress can’t do it alone.

As the nations of the world prepare to meet in Copenhagen this December to negotiate a binding global climate treaty, Obama and Congress have the chance NOW to pass a comprehensive climate and energy plan for America, and they need our help. We can turn our schools into thriving centers for energy innovation, education, and workforce training. We can put America back to work weatherizing every home, installing solar panels on every roof, and slashing our nation’s electric bill. And we can send President Obama to Copenhagen this December with the commitment of America to lead the world toward a fair, ambitious, & binding global climate treaty.

So here’s our game plan: Tell Obama & Congress we want a clean energy jobs bill NOW, and remind them THEIR jobs depend on it.

The dirty energy industry has spent millions of dollars and countless hours lobbying, wheeling and dealing. Luckily, more young voters turned out in 2008 than ever before, and nothing can silence the voices of an entire generation. It’s our jobs, our future, and OUR time to speak up. We’ll set up phone booths in our campus & town squares and flood every Congressional office with calls until every phone is ringing off the hook. We’ll put the heat on our Senators in their hometown newspapers with an explosion of Letters to the Editor. And across the country, we’ll rally at Power Shift Regional Summits and show our leaders the strength of our movement.

Join the campaign NOW at www.WeArePowerShift.org

Power Shift is a project of the Energy Action Coalition. Founded in June 2004 by youth climate leaders, the Energy Action Coalition unites a diversity of organizations in an alliance that supports and strengthens the student and youth clean and just energy movement in North America. The 36 active and 14 supporting partners of Energy Action Coalition work together to leverage our collective power and create change for a clean, efficient, just and renewable energy future.

53.4%. That is the percentage of unemployed millennials (who are not currently in school), and that number is what the Campus Progress Economic Opportunity campaign is all about.

Our generation came of age at a turbulent time faced with the failure of conservative economic, environmental, and foreign policy.

WE are the ones fighting 2 wars with countries that didn’t harm us instead of eliminating terrorism at the source, WE are the ones accumulating unprecedented amount of debt due to increasing college costs and the deregulation of the credit card industry, and WE are the ones that will be dealing with the worst CO₂nsequences of the climate crisis if we fail to act now!

At Campus Progress we are organizing events to encourage recent grards to get a clean energy job, we are providing support to emerging journalists who want to break the news on the most recent environmental disaster, and we are helping young people with ambitious campaigns in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Oklahoma, Florida, South Carolina, the District of Columbia, among others. We are also creating innovative multimedia to highlight the connections between the climate crisis and other progressive issues:

So join the Campus Progress Network and get access to all of our fantastic resources to take your activism to another level!

ACE :: Alliance for Climate Education is taking climate change back to school, literally! Around the country, trained ACE educators bring in-person, science-based, free, multimedia presentations to high schools. In our presentations, we cover the facts behind climate change and what students can do to stop it. This fall, we’re on track to reach 140,000 high school students with our program. Here’s a trailer of what we do:

After every presentation, we see that high school students get it when it comes to climate change. They realize human-caused climate change is real and that it is the most urgent challenge of their generation. We also see that students are ready to take it to the next level and do something about climate change.

And so, beyond presentations, ACE helps students get involved through action toolkits, grants, scholarships, leadership trainings, social networks like Facebook and more. Check out scholarship winner Kristine Cabuago!

You may also notice that in our name is the word Alliance and we strive to be just that! We look to connect and direct students to national and regional organizations wherever possible and help them plug into the larger climate movement (ie: please contact us if you are a national or local climate organization that works with young people!).

And so on this Blog Day of Action, we want you to know that high school students are powerful and they can change the course of humanity. It is our hope here at ACE that we can support students with the knowledge, tools and resources they need to make a difference.

Below are the full digital details on ACE:
• If you’re a high school student and you’d like to have an ACE presentation at your school, email: info@climateeducation.org
• Watch our trailer: http://www.youtube.com/ClimateEd
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/acespace
• Website: http://www.acespace.org