350.org is taking solar back to the White House. Literally.

We're hauling solar panels to Washington DC and inviting President Obama to join the world on 10/10/10. But President Obama needs to know that he won't be alone on 10/10/10, so start or join an event today.

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Dear Friends,
 
Well, I'm getting to work a few weeks ahead of 10-10-10, and wanted to send along the story to get you fired up for the big day.
 
I'm trying to type this as the biodiesel van I'm sitting in bumps down the highway from the state of Maine on the east coast of the USA. We left tiny Unity College yesterday morning, bound for the White House with stops in Boston and New York -- and we're carrying a piece of history with us.
 
It's one of the solar panels that the American president Jimmy Carter installed on the roof of the White House in 1979, 31 long years ago. Here's what Carter said that day: "A generation from now this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people."
 
Sadly, the panels were taken down a few years later during the Reagan administration. Not because they stopped working -- but because we stopped thinking carefully about the future. The folks at Unity College salvaged them from a government warehouse and put them on the roof of their school cafeteria, where they still work fine.
 
But now they've agreed to donate one solar panel back to the White House, in the hope that it will spur Obama to pick up where Carter left off...

The sheer scale and urgency of climate change often leaves me pessimistic, but working as the 350.org Pacific coordinator, has given me a constant stream of hope.

Recently the Tongan Youth Congress has mobilised an ambitious plan of coastal planting to protect themselves from climate change. On every Saturday in the lead up to Oct 10th they are moving along the coast planting, cleaning up the beach and inspiring communities around them to get involved. That's what local leadership for our planet looks like.

Last year on Oct 24th, we had actions in every Pacific Island nation - and this year Pacific voices will be ringing even louder on Oct 10th with a powerful message: "Global leaders get to work on climate change - because we are!"

Whether it's students from Vaiala Beach Primary School in Samoa planting out mangroves or communities in the Northern Marianas, Tuvalu, Kiribati, or the Solomon Islands getting to work, we can be sure that the Pacific will be doing much more than it's fair share to tackle this biggest of challenges.

We just have to make sure that global media and global leaders know it--so back to work for me...