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Twenty three million young people, a record high, voted in the historic election last November. More than 10,000 of them are participating today in the largest mass civil disobedience on climate change in U.S. history. The target of their action, the Capitol Power Plant, sits just blocks from Capitol Hill, which according to the students “symbolizes the stranglehold coal has over our government and future.” The march is the culmination of a weekend-long event organized by Power Shift ’09, a national youth summit determined to solve the climate crisis. A coalition of more than 90 organizations is joining Power Shift ’09 for the Capitol Climate Action. Today’s activists are comprised of people from diverse geographies, backgrounds and faiths all determined to peacefully disrupt the operations at the Capitol Power Plant, risking arrest to protest coal. The marchers are demanding a moratorium on coal and are pushing “for projects like solar power and green roofs, energy efficient buildings and other initiatives that they believe can both stimulate the economy and stabilize the climate.”

GUESTS: Nina Rizzo, Global Exchange’s Power Shift organizer, and Alisa Ahmadian, a UCLA senior involved with Power Shift

For more information, visit www.powershift09.org.