Connect This: How Youth Climate Change Organizers Use Technology to Build a Grassroots Movement

1 Sky, EAC, and Focus the Nation have just launched some seriously cool tools online to collaborate with one another for on-the-ground-action, so tune in if you’re curious to see what they’ve developed. — Summer Rayne Oakes

Summer Rayne Oakes

From Summer's home page: "What's in a title? i stopped trying to define what i do. I'm over the whole title thing. Titles are too limiting. But by all means, if you need them to help define or communicate what i do, then I'm not going to be the one to stop you."

"i don't have rules; never did...and probably never will. Rules have too many boundries."

Summer Rayne Oakes is a Udall environmental scholar, National Wildlife Federation fellow and United Nations U.S. Partnership Youth Emissary. Based in New York City, she travels the world modelling eco fashions, writing on sustainable style and speaking on sustainable design and environmental activism.

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Summer Rayne speaks at Mashable's Social Good Conference

Summer graduated from Cornell University —an entomologist and environmental scientist by training. In 2000 in the midst of her studies, Oakes embarked on a journey of cause-related modeling and innovative sustainable design/development projects to push sustainability issues through fashion and media, a position which earned her the name of “The Eco-Model ” . In addition to this, Summer Rayne is now a spokesperson, resident expert, and youngest Board of Advisors for Planet Green , Discovery Network’s new eco-lifestyle network that launched June 4, 2008 to 50 million households. She is the author of Style, Naturally: The Savvy Shopping Guide to Sustainable Fashion and Beauty

From Summer's Web site "I’d like to be aboveboard with all of you: I consider myself an activist first and foremost. You can call me many titles, but that is the word that I feel best describes who I am, what drives me—and that’s the work that I am most proud of. I am one of the lucky ones: I’ve always had a passion. It was with me the day I was born. I have known nothing else…And sometimes, that alone, shakes me to the core."

"Everything I do—whether it is as a model, author, host, creator, consultant, or collaborator—is influenced, if not defined by my activism. I specifically seek out programs and work that specifically enable, enhance, or add to the work that I am most passionate about; programs that will bring important issues to a wider audience and make them more relevant to all of our lives; and to empower individuals and all of us collectively."

"I firmly believe that we all want—or at least would like to be (whether we know it or not)—part of something that is greater than all of us. This is why I am here. This is why you are here. Oftentimes I get the question, “What can I do? ” If questions answered questions, I would reply: “What are you capable of? ” Moreover, what are you interested in doing? That of course is not the answer anyone is looking for, but it serves as a rhetorical reminder of our own personal interest in making a difference. It touches on the assumption that you, like me, all want to do better, not only for ourselves, but the rest of the planet."

"How I live out my life may not look or feel like how you live out your life and that’s totally cool. We all come from different backgrounds, different cultures, and are all in different places in our lives. Do what works for you where you are in life. Light your own fire, blaze your own path, work hard…and most importantly, live by example."

Livestream Archive of Social Good Conference presentations.

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