Keynote speaker, Jon Welling­hoff, Chair­man of the Fed­eral Energy Reg­u­la­tory Com­mis­sion heads off an all star list of movers and shak­ers in the sus­tain­able futures field, in Port­land. Also on the docket, guber­na­to­r­ial can­di­date and mem­ber of the Global Warm­ing Advi­sory Com­mit­tee, Bill Bradbury.

The event will be held at the Dou­ble Tree Hotel, 1000 NE Mult­nomah St, Port­land, Oregon

My beau­ti­ful daugh­ter, Sarah, wrote this today, moved by the dire need to pre­serve her planet for all youth.

How long will you wait?

How long will you watch?

The world isn’t all it used to be.

Now, there are mor­tal mon­sters, wait­ing just behind the smoke screen.

Guns, wars, drugs, a thou­sand things to watch for, to warn against, while peo­ple hide behind the veil they have made.

Sunny beaches har­bor giant jel­ly­fish, because we’ve destroyed their nat­ural habitat.

Ice is melt­ing, sea lev­els ris­ing, polar bears can’t swim for­ever, and Santa Claus isn’t going to fix our prob­lem for us.

The flow­ers are wilt­ing, the corn isn’t grow­ing, and the oil is burn­ing away our pro­tec­tion shield.

The trash is build­ing, buried in the earth, out of sight out of mind…

How long will you wait?

How long will you watch?

There isn’t time to waste, there isn’t a sec­ond chance to take, here we ask, for you to stand, against the fig­ures that would have us destroy a true masterpiece.

Don’t wait and don’t just watch.

By Sarah Geddry, Age 14