On August 5, 2007, over a thousand miles away from each other, marchers in Iowa and New Hampshire converged on the capitols of each state calling for real global warming solutions and the creation of a clean energy economy: 80% cuts in carbon by 2050, and 2 million new clean energy jobs across the country. Click here for press coverage.

Both marches had a great turnout. But more important than the numbers was our spirit: hopeful yet determined, loud and joyful, united in our vision and our call - we are the leaders we've been waiting for to create a clean energy economy here in this country and around the world. There'll be more reflections to come, but for now, check out our photos, videos, and next steps - and thank you to all who made this journey possible!

"Welcome to Litchfield, walkers. Folks are talking amongst themselves. Come back next year and see the fruits of your labor - you got all the local farmers to participate. Hoorah!"
- Liana Eastman, farmer, Nesenkeag Coop Farm

Liana Eastman and her husband, Eero Ruutila, welcomed us last evening to their organic farm, tucked between Nesenkeag Brook and the Merrimack. This morning we awoke to sweetbreads and strawberries from the farm stand down the road, and Liana spoke of how the March had started the farmers talking – she said the participation of the farms in this event had helped forge at tighter community. "Think of the amount of work we could get done if we had this many community members coming by like this all the time," she said.

When the heat neared 90, we set off, already sweaty but powered on by a good morning swim and early press coverage on NPR, international radio, and the front page of The Nashua Telegraph. As the temperature broke 100 degrees and our voices cracked from singing "Ooo, it's hot out here" perhaps too many times, Stonyfield came to the rescue with a donation of ice cream for lunch.

A few blocks and blisters later, we arrived in a very different place than where we had started – Manchester, or fondly referred to by many as Manchvegas, a business capitol for the state. There we were greeted by Representative Lilly Mesa and others who highlighted for us the importance of business in building a green economy.

Every day we're finding the critical but scattered parts of a green economy here in New Hampshire – at the farms we stay at, from the words of the people we meet. Now we just need to piece it together.

Join us on Sunday for the Rally to ReEnergize New Hampshire, and help us piece together the workings of a clean energy economy in the Granite State - here, we can lead the nation in the right direction.

And join us tomorrow as well, as we walk from Manchester to Hooksett!

You should see our office: coffee donations stacked high, green flags and green shirts, maps and laptops, the lavender walls barely showing beneath lists of our endorsers and newspaper clippings. It’s not that we’re messy (well, that could be true); people just keep showing at our door, asking to help – friends, neighbors, and the guy from the bagel shop downstairs.

And it’s not only the office that’s swelling with activity – it’s the whole Granite State. Now we have a bus coming from Portsmouth and carpools from Hanover. Newspapers are publishing letters from natives of Amherst, Hooksett, and Nashua daily. A woman we met at the Canterbury Fair yesterday remarked, “You guys are everywhere.”

It certainly feels like it – one second I’m on the phone with the Governor’s secretary, and the next I’m wondering if I bought enough pancake batter for next Saturday’s celebration of New Hampshire maple syrup. Amidst the hype and excitement growing all across the state, it’s easy to forget why exactly New Hampshirites are set on walking five full days in the first place.

One farmer reminded us this morning. Eero Ruutila looked out over his rows of summer squash and said, “for the past three years, it’s flooded. It hurts everything. The climate never used to be like this.” He’s in his 21st year of managing the Nesenkeag Cooperative farm, where the March to Re-Energize New Hampshire will stop for food, music, and words from Bill McKibben on Wednesday night. Farmer by summer, artist by winter, and an every season advocate for the land he works, Eero knows what it takes to build a community around a green enterprise. The farm cultivates nearly 100 organic crops: the specialty varieties go to restaurants in the area, and the others he gives to food banks to feed low-income families. A walking, breathing almanac, Eero’s spoken at nearly every NOFA conference across the state, educating on sustainable farming.

While Eero cut grain this morning, we weeded the garlic, built a stage, dried the rye, and strung our banners, visible from the road. Eero stepped back, approved, and said, “Now we just need people to come.”

So much for the march being a youth-led action. After last weekend, I feel old. I suppose that’s what happens when you try to catch the attention of 20,000 hip teenage girls with a five-day walk across New Hampshire.

On Saturday, Carol, Lindsey and I set off with our hot new technicolor dream banner to the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, MA. We’d reserved a booth at the Fray concert through Reverb, a nonprofit that helps big-time musicians make their tours climate-friendly. Reverb’s been behind the greening of musical tours for Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews, Bonnie Raitt, and Guster, among others. (Guster’s campus consciousness tour through Middlebury was where we first met Reverb founder Lauren Sullivan and plugged into their summer shows.)

Listen marchers, we have a tough act to follow. Her name’s Granny D, and ten years ago, she would’ve walked from Nashua to Concord… and onward to California. That’s what she told me, anyway, and I don’t doubt it. At the age of eighty-nine, she embarked on a march of her own – 3,200 miles across the country, braving deserts and snow storms, speaking out in favor of campaign finance reform. Now at ninety-seven, she says she’s a bit slower than she used to be, but she still plans to walk the first and last mile of the March to ReEnergizeNH.