Flanked by Majora Carter, Jessy Tolkan, Billy Parish, and Kal Penn, Erica Williams of Campus Progress kicked off today’s College Democrats of America’s panel on climate change at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO.

A more accomplished panel speaking on behalf of the youth climate movement would be near impossible to put together. (photo right: Kal Penn signing the Power Vote pledge)

The panelists began by speaking a bit about their personal stories which led to their work in the clean energy movement. It was a particularly poignant and important starting point as it provides the backbone for the extraordinary nature of what the panelists are doing throughout the United States.

Billy Parish – a co-founder of Energy Action Coalition – described the point at which he knew clean energy would be his life’s work. It was a trip to India. “The moment I knew…was when I hiked to source of the Ganges and saw the glacier there from which 450 million people get their water - and which scientists talked about being gone in a very short amount of time. While I first thought my work would keep me in India, I then thought about my own country (the United States) which uses 25% of the world’s energy, and the changes that needed to be made here.”

Kal Penn – an activist as well as an actor in such films as The Namesake and Harold and Kumar, and on the popular television show House – is pursuing a masters in international security, and early on found that so many of the important factors related to security were also related to energy. Penn, like Parish, consequently became interested in the ways that the world’s highest energy consumer (the U.S.) could implement changes. When asked how his role as an actor could impact the opinions of young people towards energy, he referenced the launch of the Toyota Prius. When the Prius first came out, it was people like Leonardo DiCaprio who made it as strong a status symbol as a Mercedes among the wealthy and trend-setters. He was also quick to add, though, that while celebrity endorsements can be helpful, they are often empty and need to be backed up by the bold initiatives of grassroots efforts.

Majora Carter - founder of Sustainable South Bronx and co-founder of Green For All - shared the story of those in the South Bronx where she works. She challenged policy makers and analysts to take a deeper look at the real cost of having an environmentally impoverished community – saying we need to look at it from all angles including economics, security, and health. Her charge (and her work) is to empower the economically challenged to be on the front lines of the green movement, to not only lead the green charge, but to also pull people out of poverty.

“It’s in all of our self-interests to think about the ways we can mitigate climate change …and it’s not just changing light bulbs. Until we as a society realize that it’s going to take EVERYONE to create a new, green economy, we won’t get there.”

The discussion was lively and challenging, with questions from the crowd addressing controversial topics like oil man T. Boone Pickens’ wind energy initiative and the high cost of gasoline.

A main point made by Energy Action executive director, Jessy Tolkan, is that there is still a problem on college campuses across the country with the same old folks being involved. As great as it is when anyone takes any positive action, “5-7 white kids who come at these issues from an environmental perspective, is not enough to create the kind of revolution that we need.”

Similarly, the point was made that we enviros and energy advocates have to preach beyond the choir; that is to say: Power Vote and similar efforts need to reach those for whom the environment is not a top priority .

We need to communicate “where is the ‘there’ that we’re going” to more people remarked Erica Williams. It’s clear that “policy makers don’t really care about our issues. At least not enough so far to take bold action. How do we change this insider-activist ballgame into real action among the non-committed?”

This is an extraordinarily important question, and one that will continue to be addressed throughout the next several days here at the Democratic National Convention.

What are your ideas?