Ohio Student Environmental Coalition

As school starts again and politics heat up- not only our planet through inaction on climate change, but the media with talk of the upcoming elections, we have some choices to make: ignore the election, work for a specific candidate, OR continue to fight for our issues. In Ohio, students are calling for all candidates to ‘break the silence on climate change’ and ‘ban fracking’. Our organizing will encompass both a ‘punch back to the industry’ and continued accountability of elected officials every step they take.

From registering voters, to bird-dogging, to banning fracking on campuses and divesting from dirty polluters- WE WONT STOP TILL THEY WILL. Ohio proved it’s power at Don’t Frack Ohio when we called out Gov. Kasich and our corrupted legislature for catering to the industry and selling our state. We also reached the gas industry itself with our action at Don’t Frack Ohio. It was never more apparent that grassroots power can challenge corporate polluters, then when they felt the need to host a counter event to launch ‘Truthland’ at a failed attempt to challenge our action.

Update: Join a Youth Call this Thursday May 31st at 9 ET to get updates on the action, and prep with dozens of other youth leaders who are organizing for Don't Frack Ohio. RSVP and get the call information on Facebook.

Great News: as of this weekend, there are now over 1,000 people signed up to be a part of the Don’t Frack Ohio Action in June, and close to 200 of them are students!!

People are joining the action for all kinds of reasons: they’re disgusted at the way our democracy has been sold to the fracking industry, worried about feeding our addiction to fossil fuels on a warming planet, or just plain scared of how fracking will destroy our way of life.

If you haven’t heard yet… it’s about to get HOT in Ohio this summer. Not just the post-finals-week-at-the-beach kinda hot… we’re talking about something even better; the politically-hot-cause-we’re-taking-the-fracking-industry-to-task-and-making-’em-sweat-on-home-turf HOTT. OSEC is kicking off summer vacation by teaming up with 350.org for Don’t Frack Ohio: a long weekend full of movement building strategies, trainings, and especially a big huge action that’s gonna rock Ohio’s statehouse the way earthquakes rocked Youngstown last fall (but better).

You might be asking yourself.. “Ohio? What’s so important about Ohio?” …. Well, Ohio and the Midwest, are Ground Zero for the Climate Fight, and Ohio especially has become the new front-line for the movement to end fracking; in just two years Ohio has gone from 4 permitted horizontally fracked wells to over 85, and the industry doesn’t plan on stopping until it hits a few thousand. Which means OSEC students aren’t planning on stopping anytime soon either; check out what we’ve done since Midwest PowerShift, and join us in Ohio June 14th-17th.

President Obama kicked off his re-election campaign in Columbus, Ohio this weekend... coincidence? I think not. He is acknowledging the youth vote that won him the election, starting with the largest University in one of the most important swing states. Two main messages were clear: “I believe in you. I’m asking you to keep believing in me.” & “Corporations are not people.”

.. and for the most part, WE AGREE. Corporations are not people. Students are outraged that student debt has reached 1 TRILLION DOLLARS in a society plagued with unemployment and where corporations get bailed out to keep financing decisions that only benefit them.