Because of a long-term disinformation campaign funded by oil and coal interests - six of the world's 10 largest corporations are oil companies - America has been complacent about the climate disruption that is happening. This is about to change.

Last week, a bicameral congressional task force was established by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Henry Waxman to address climate change. This followed President Obama's inaugural address, where he signaled climate change as a top priority, declaring: “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.”

And two weeks ago, a committee of independent advisers to the U.S. government released its first draft of a new National Climate Assessment—a 400-page synthesis of scientists’ current understanding of climate change and its devastating impacts in the United States.

As one of the millions of Americans working to pressure the United States to take action and protect our children from the consequences of our addiction to fossil fuels, I am finally beginning to feel a realistic hope. I believe 2013 is the year of change.

I am a single mom and have devoted all of my time and resources to these issues with my son, Alec Loorz, since he was 13 years old. We have spent his entire teenage years on the road as he passionately called his generation to action in hundreds of speeches, panels and presentations. We’ve inspired and supported thousands of youth leaders to stand up for their future as the moral authorities on the crisis that affects them most, organizing tens of thousands in 200+ cities and 45 countries to march in the streets with a united message: “Our Future Matters” (more than your profits).

We have also sued the United States government to protect the atmosphere as a public trust on behalf of our children’s futures. And now we are working on an initiative that could actually be the catalyst for the large scale change we need.

The youngest generation now finds itself at the center of a coalition that represents not “tree huggers” but the 99% of the rest of us who realize we can’t fund our own space station retreat to protect our children from the increasing consequences of climate disruption.

Included are the NAACP, the Farmer’s Union, the Quakers, Catholics and Evangelicals. There are business leaders, insurance companies, investors, military generals and mayors; parent groups, youth groups, civil rights groups, Democrat groups and even Republican groups. The coalition is committed to working together to motivate Americans from all walks of life to engage in just and equitable climate solutions.

We are proposing that step one is a national summit led by President Obama. We need our Commander-in-Chief to position the climate crisis as a top priority and invite expert scientists, planners, politicians and business leaders to share the knowledge of what is actually happening to our planet -- and what we can do about it. Solutions exist and are working on a small scale, and it’s time to ramp it up. The summit would present a platform for a Man on the Moon or New Deal-type of moment. Call it President Obama’s “Lincoln moment”: to address the climate crisis as a moral issue, beyond politics, and on the grand scale of mobilization it needs.

An “inside-outside” proposal that could break open the levees of denial and manipulation from oil interests that have frozen action on the climate crisis, the summit would trigger long term action to address the crisis at all levels of society. This will not be another “conference” of talking and positioning, but one of doing.

In a recent study by the Yale Project on Climate Communications, 77% of Americans said the climate crisis should be a central priority of the president and Congress. The poll also cites an 88% majority of Americans feel the U.S. should make an effort to reduce global warming, even with economic costs. The lessons of Sandy are teaching us that the economic costs of doing nothing are actually higher than any investment in change. Almost three quarters of Republicans said that the U.S. should use more renewable energy than we do today.

While the majority of Americans are by now awakened to the reality of climate change, most people have been unable to grasp the more sobering reality that our lifestyles are responsible for disrupting our planet’s systems that we depend on for our survival. Most citizens don’t yet get it that if we continue to allow the fossil fuel industry to rake in billion dollar profits every quarter, we are creating unjust dangers to our children’s personal safety, health, economy and well-being.

Most people also don’t know, thanks to friends like Fox News and the fierce Democrat/Republican impasse, that there are proven solutions that can be put into place right now to stabilize the atmosphere and address a lot of other problems, like job creation and national security through energy independence. We could be working right now to build resilience to climate impacts, reduce emissions and create new industries and jobs as we become world leaders in renewable energy while creating a new paradigm for triple bottom line business models.

The climate summit would give the president a platform to take a stand for our children’s future on one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced. President Obama, with a few leading Republicans at his side, could tell the American public that addressing climate disruption is one of our top national priorities. Imagine the impact of educating the public with a series of short, motivational presentations from business leaders, experts, artists, mayors and scientists who inform citizens of proven, just and equitable ways to prepare for and prevent the more difficult climate impacts our children will face in the upcoming years.

And imagine that it is beamed into satellite action-planning meetings in hundreds of cities across the country, and linked by television and webcasts to every American household. The President could outline the actions he’s directed his agencies to take to support resilience building and emission reductions, with an announcement that they will begin developing a national strategy to address climate disruption over the long term.

While such a summit may have looked like a pipe dream even a year ago, it doesn't anymore. Events last week confirmed this possibility. The summit would provide the opportunity to make the connections between the climate crisis and the economic systems that caused the problem, and which are preventing decisive action. The Occupy movement is an integral part of the solution as it will take a nothing less than a global mobilization to bring about the broad and deep changes that are needed.

While others in our coalition are focusing on the very real benefits of a green energy economy, the voices of the youngest generation will also be heard. Their interests are their own survival, and the survival of their children and millions of other species who are at risk of extinction. As my son Alec always ends his speeches, “Who’s ready to stand up, unite across generations, and show the world that we matter?”

You can sign the petition pressuring President Obama to lead a National Climate Summit.

Victoria Loorz is the co-founder of Kids vs Global Warming with her 18 year old son, Alec Loorz.