tagged w/ 350.org
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Last Saturday people around the world volunteered, documented, educated, and protested to connect the dots on climate change. We're just getting started. Please join us at http://www.350.orgLast Saturday people around the world volunteered, documented, educated, and protested... more
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If we’re going to tell this story — and it’s the most important story of our time — we’re going to have to tell it ourselves.
by Bill McKibben, via TomDispatch
The Williams River was so languid and lovely last Saturday morning that it was almost impossible to imagine the violence with which it must have been running on August 28, 2011. And yet the evidence was all around: sand piled high on its banks, trees still scattered as if by a giant’s fist, and most obvious of all, a utilitarian temporary bridge where for 140 years a graceful covered bridge had spanned the water.
The YouTube video of that bridge crashing into the raging river was Vermont’s iconic image from its worst disaster in memory, the record flooding that followed Hurricane Irene’s rampage through the state in August 2011. It claimed dozens of lives, as it cut more than a billion-dollar swath of destruction across the eastern United States.
I watched it on TV in Washington just after emerging from jail, having been arrested at the White House during mass protests of the Keystone XL pipeline. Since Vermont’s my home, it took the theoretical — the ever more turbulent, erratic, and dangerous weather that the tar sands pipeline from Canada would help ensure — and made it all too concrete. It shook me bad.
And I’m not the only one.
New data released last month by researchers at Yale and George Mason universities show that a lot of Americans are growing far more concerned about climate change, precisely because they’re drawing the links between freaky weather, a climate kicked off-kilter by a fossil-fuel guzzling civilization, and their own lives. After a year with a record number of multi-billion dollar weather disasters, seven in ten Americans now believe that “global warming is affecting the weather.” No less striking, 35% of the respondents reported that extreme weather had affected them personally in 2011. As Yale’s Anthony Laiserowitz told the New York Times, “People are starting to connect the dots.”
Which is what we must do. As long as this remains one abstract problem in the long list of problems, we’ll never get to it. There will always be something going on each day that’s more important, including, if you’re facing flood or drought, the immediate danger.
But in reality, climate change is actually the biggest thing that’s going on every single day. If we could only see that pattern we’d have a fighting chance. It’s like one of those trompe l’oeil puzzles where you can only catch sight of the real picture by holding it a certain way. So this weekend we’ll be doing our best to hold our planet a certain way so that the most essential pattern is evident. At 350.org, we’re organizing a global day of action that’s all about dot-connecting; in fact, you can follow the action at climatedots.org.
The day will begin in the Marshall Islands of the far Pacific, where the sun first rises on our planet, and where locals will hold a daybreak underwater demonstration on their coral reef already threatened by rising seas. They’ll hold, in essence, a giant dot — and so will our friends in Bujumbura, Burundi, where March flooding destroyed 500 homes. In Dakar, Senegal, they’ll mark the tidal margins of recent storm surges. In Adelaide, Australia, activists will host a “dry creek regatta” to highlight the spreading drought down under.
Pakistani farmers — some of the millions driven from their homes by unprecedented flooding over the last two years — will mark the day on the banks of the Indus; in Ayuthaya, Thailand, Buddhist monks will protest next to a temple destroyed by December’s epic deluges that also left the capital, Bangkok, awash.
Activists in Ulanbataar will focus on the ongoing effects of drought in Mongolia. In Daegu, South Korea, students will gather with bags of rice and umbrellas to connect the dots between climate change, heavy rains, and the damage caused to South Korea’s rice crop in recent years. In Amman, Jordan, Friends of the Earth Middle East will be forming a climate dot on the shores of the Dead Sea to draw attention to how climate-change-induced drought has been shrinking that sea.
In Herzliya, Israel, people will form a dot on the beach to stand in solidarity with island nations and coastal communities around the world that are feeling the impact of climate change. In newly freed Libya, students will hold a teach-in. In Oman, elders will explain how the weather along the Persian Gulf has shifted in their lifetimes. There will be actions in the cloud forests of Costa Rica, and in the highlands of Peru where drought has wrecked the lives of local farmers. In Monterrey, Mexico, they’ll recall last year’s floods that did nearly $2 billion in damage. In Chamonix, France, climbers will put a giant red dot on the melting glaciers of the Alps.
And across North America, as the sun moves westward, activists in Halifax, Canada, will “swim for survival” across its bay to highlight rising sea levels, while high-school students in Nashville, Tennessee, will gather on a football field inundated by 2011’s historic killer floods.
In Portland, Oregon, city dwellers will hold an umbrella-decorating party to commemorate March’s record rains. In Bandelier, New Mexico, firefighters in full uniform will remember last year’s record forest fires and unveil the new solar panels on their fire station. In Miami, Manhattan, and Maui, citizens will line streets that scientists say will eventually be underwater. In the high Sierra, on one of the glaciers steadily melting away, protesters will unveil a giant banner with just two words, a quote from that classic of western children’s literature, The Wizard of Oz. “I’m Melting” it will say, in letters three-stories high.
This is a full-on fight between information and disinformation, between the urge to witness and the urge to cover-up. The fossil-fuel industry has funded endless efforts to confuse people, to leave an impression that nothing much is going on. But — as with the tobacco industry before them — the evidence has simply gotten too strong.
Once you saw enough people die of lung cancer, you made the connection. The situation is the same today. Now, it’s not just the scientists and the insurance industry; it’s your neighbors. Even pleasant weather starts to seem weird. Fifteen thousand U.S. temperature records were broken, mainly in the East and Midwest, in the month of March alone, as a completely unprecedented heat wave moved across the continent. Most people I met enjoyed the rare experience of wearing shorts in winter, but they were still shaking their heads. Something was clearly wrong and they knew it.
The one institution in our society that isn’t likely to be much help in spreading the news is… the news. Studies show our papers and TV channels paying ever less attention to our shifting climate. In fact, in 2011 ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox spent twice as much time discussing Donald Trump as global warming. Don’t expect representatives from Saturday’s Connect the Dots day to show up on Sunday’s talk shows. Over the last three years, those inside-the-Beltway extravaganzas have devoted 98 minutes total to the planet’s biggest challenge. Last year, in fact, all the Sunday talk shows spent exactly nine minutes of Sunday talking time on climate change — and here’s a shock: all of it was given over to Republican politicians in the great denial sweepstakes.
Continued at linkIf we’re going to tell this story — and it’s the most important... more
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'It’s important for all of us whose lives are being damaged to know that it’s right that we get a little angry at those forces causing this problem.'
Across the planet now we see ever more flood, ever more drought, ever more storms. People are dying, communities are being wrecked — the impacts we’re already witnessing from climate change are unlike anything we have seen before.
But because the globe is so big, it’s hard for most people to see that it’s all connected. That’s why, on May 5, we will Connect the Dots.
In places from drought-stricken Mongolia to flood-stricken Thailand, from fire-ravaged Australia to Himalayan communities threatened by glacial melt, we will hold rallies reminding everyone what has happened in our neighborhoods. And at each of those rallies, from Kenya to Canada, from Vietnam to Vermont, someone will be holding a…dot. A huge black dot on a white banner, a “dot” of people holding hands, encircling a field where crops have dried up, a dot made of fabric and the picture taken from above — you get the idea. We’ll share those images the world around, to put a human face on climate change–we’ll hold up a mirror to the planet and force people to come face to face with the ravages of climate change.
Anyone and everyone can participate in this day. Many of us do not live in Texas, the Philippines, or Ethiopia — places deeply affected by climate impacts. For those communities, there are countless ways to stand in solidarity with those on the front-lines of the climate crisis: some people will giving presentations in their communities about how to connect the dots. Others will do projects to demonstrate what sorts of climate impacts we can expect if the crisis is left unchecked. And still others of us will express our indignation to local media and politicians for failing to connect the dots in their coverage of “natural disasters.”
However you choose to participate, your voice is needed in this fight — and you can sign up here: www.climatedots.org
These will be beautiful events, we’re sure. But they will also have an edge. It’s important for all of us whose lives are being damaged to know that it’s right that we get a little angry at those forces causing this problem. The fossil fuel industry is at fault, and we have to make that clear. Our crew at 350.org will work hard to connect all these dots — literally — and weave them together to create a potent call to action, and we will channel that call directly to the people who need to hear it most.
May 5 is coming soon; we need to work rapidly. Because climate change is bearing down on us, and we simply can’t wait. The world needs to understand what’s happening, and you’re the people who can tell them.
Please join us–we need you to send the most important alarm humanity has ever heard!
Onwards,
Bill McKibben'It’s important for all of us whose lives are being damaged to know that... more
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This headline and the comments that follow are my personal opinion as a member of 350.org.
May 5, 2012 is Connect the Dots Day when people all around the Earth will speak out against global warming and the havoc it is reeking on people’s lives and ecosystems facing extinction.
Do we not yet realize that this is a problem dwarfing all political and economic considerations? We are talking severe famine and mass migrations here people.
This is not the future crisis that we once thought we could leave to our children to deal with. It is happening today, faster than anyone imagined. Denial is no longer a convenient option.
This is not just another Earth Day when we can all feel good about planting a tree or cleaning up litter one day a year. It is about taking real action by making ourselves heard loud and clear! If we don’t demand a reduction in fossil fuels now it will be too late (if it isn’t already too late).
As a Baby Boomer may I just add how very disappointed I am in my generation? Was it all just a pipe dream???This headline and the comments that follow are my personal opinion as a member of... more
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From Bill McKibben for 350.org:
Dear friends,
Good news this time.
At some point every one of us at 350 has thought to ourselves a little despairingly: is the world ever going to catch on to climate change? Today is one of those days when it feels like it just might happen.
A story on the front page of yesterday’s New York Times described a new poll -- Americans in record numbers are understanding that the planet is warming because they’re seeing the “freaky” weather that comes with climate change.
And the story ends by describing the next step in this process: May 5, the giant Connect the Dots day that people are joining all around the globe: www.ClimateDots.org
When the zeitgeist conspires to help our efforts, we need to make the most of it. Two weeks is plenty of time to organize a beautiful photo for May 5, one that will help spread this idea. Are you in a place where flood and rain have caused havoc? Ten people with umbrellas can make a memorable “climate dot” for all the world to see. You’ll think of something appropriate for your place -- and you can find lots of examples and ideas here.
This movement is growing quickly, and with not a moment to spare -- new data from scientists like Jim Hansen at NASA shows that our carbon emissions have already made extreme weather many times more likely. We can’t take back the carbon we’ve already poured into the atmosphere, but if we work together hard and fast then we can keep it from getting steadily worse.
Earth Day is coming up this weekend, and there will be thousands of events across the US. Each one of them is a great place to spread the word about the big day of action on 5/5. When you’re on the front page of the Times it’s a sign that the message is starting to get through -- but only one American in 300 reads that newspaper. Now it’s up to all of us to make sure that everyone around the world gets the message, and Connect the Dots day on 5/5 is our best chance to do that. Please join us.
Onwards,
Bill McKibben for 350.org
P.S. It is key to remember that these photos from May 5 are not just for their effect on that day. We need a bank of images showing the human face of global warming -- pictures we’ll use for the hard and direct political work of the next few years. If people don’t know there’s a problem, they won’t try to solve it. So let’s show them on 5/5. Here's a heartbreaking example, from some local activists in Texas [above].From Bill McKibben for 350.org:
Dear friends,
Good news this time.
At some... more
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[Last week] Barack Obama wrapped up his first trip to Oklahoma as President. He arrived just after a week of floods, capping off a winter that never came, which followed the hottest and driest summer Oklahoma had seen in thousands of years, perhaps ever.
But he wasn’t in Oklahoma to talk about these climate disasters. He was there to laud his administration’s fast-tracking of the southern leg of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. In his speech today, President Obama didn't connect the dots between fossil fuel extraction, climate change, and the extreme weather that has reshaped so much of the American landscape this past year.
It’s a painful reminder that sometimes we must be leaders ourselves, before we can expect our elected officials to follow. It’s clearly up to us to connect the dots.
Today 350.org is launching a global day of action to call attention to these and other climate disasters, here on the same day as the President’s announcement. Across the planet now we see ever more flooding, ever more drought, ever more storms. People are dying, communities are being wrecked -- the impacts we’re already witnessing from climate change are unlike anything we have seen before.
If we're going to do these communities justice, we need to connect the dots between these disasters and show how all of them are linked to fossil fuels. We're setting aside May 5th for a global day of action to do just that: Connect the Dots between extreme weather and climate change.
Anyone and everyone can participate in this day. Many of us do not live in Oklahoma, the Philippines, or Ethiopia -- places deeply affected by climate impacts. For those of us not in directly-impacted communities, there are countless ways to stand in solidarity with those on the front-lines of the climate crisis: some people will be giving presentations in their communities about how to connect the dots. Others will do projects to demonstrate what sorts of climate impacts we can expect if the crisis is left unchecked. And here in the US, it’s particularly important that we make the connections clear to our elected officials -- beginning with President Obama.
However you choose to participate, your voice is needed in this fight -- and you can sign up to host a local event here: www.climatedots.org/start
350.org has done giant global days of action before (over the last three years we've helped coordinate over 15,000 events in 188 countries) and they're always beautiful moments when our movement stands together. This year we'll use that same captivating tactic to draw attention to the struggles of our friends around the world -- the communities already feeling the harsh impacts of climate change.
These will also be beautiful events, we’re sure. But they will also have an edge. It’s right that we get a little angry at those forces causing this problem. The fossil fuel industry is at fault, and we have to make that clear. Our crew at 350.org will work hard to connect all these dots -- literally -- and weave them together to create a potent call to action, and we will channel that call directly to the people who need to hear it most.
May 5 is coming soon; we need to work rapidly. Because climate change is bearing down on us, and we simply can’t wait. The world needs to understand what’s happening, and you’re the people who can tell them.
Please join us -- we need you to send the most important alarm humanity has ever heard.
Onwards,
Bill McKibben[Last week] Barack Obama wrapped up his first trip to Oklahoma as President. He... more
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As 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben explains in the video, we're gearing up for a major new fight to end the billions of dollars in subsidies the fossil fuel industry receives each year -- the tax-breaks, handouts, and loopholes that are just adding to the record-breaking profits that these companies are already making. And perhaps most importantly, getting rid of fossil fuel subsidies across the board would be a huge step to cutting carbon emissions and putting us back on a pathway to 350 ppm.
The subsidies battle is gaining momentum, and fast. In a recent speech, President Obama called for an end to subsidies to Big Oil and said, “Let's put every single member of Congress on record: You can stand with oil companies or you can stand up for the American people.”
As you probably know, we haven’t agreed with President Obama on everything, but we think getting every member of Congress on the record is a great idea. As a first step, we just launched this short and simple petition that reads: "I call on Congress to end all subsidies to fossil fuel companies, and invest in green jobs and clean energy instead."
Please take a minute to add your name to the petition calling for Congress to put an end to fossil fuel subsidies. Over the next month, we'll ramp up the pressure -- on Twitter, on Facebook, over the phones, and in district -- to get every politician to tell us where he or she stands on these subsidies. For now, we'll use this petition to show Congress how important this issue is -- and when we launch our big push to get every member of Congress on the record, they'll know that we have an army of concerned citizens who have our back.
As Rev. Lennox Yearwood of the Hip-Hop Caucus says in the video, “To make this movement successful, we have to continue to keep the pressure going.” We couldn't agree more. Along with taking on fossil fuel subsidies, we're gearing up for some massive new efforts to build this movement:
- Taking on more iconic fossil fuel fights across the country and around the world.
- “Connecting the Dots” between climate change and extreme weather -- expect more on that front very soon!
- Training and supporting thousands of new climate leaders to strengthen our movement.
- And lots more…
None of this work is possible without your participation and leadership. As Bill says in the video: “This fight is going to be a lifetime fight. I’m so, so, so grateful to all of you who are playing such a huge role in it.”
On we go,
May Boeve for the 350.org TeamAs 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben explains in the video, we're gearing up for a... more
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I just received this great e-mail from 350.org about the 35,553 petitions signed last week on behalf of President Nasheed of the Maldives.
Dear friends,
You may not know me, but I’m writing to thank you.
My name is Zaheena. I’m a young Maldivian, recent university graduate, former 350.org intern, and member of the Maldives’ movement for democracy. I’m writing to personally express my gratitude. Your outpouring of support for President Nasheed’s safety, and the plight of democracy and peace in the Maldives, was truly inspiring.
In under a week, an incredible 35,553 of you signed our petition to world leaders.
Last week, I was able to travel to Washington, DC to hand deliver your messages to the political desk that handles Central and South Asian affairs at the US State Department. Here’s a picture of us about to make the delivery.
The response from the State Department was standard boilerplate, but they were clear that your messages made a difference--and I believe them. International pressure was crucial in making the democratic elections of 2008 happen and in bringing democracy to the Maldives, and will be important in restoring democracy.
After the frightening events that took my country by surprise a few weeks back, thousands of people marched in the capital Male’ protesting the coup d’état and calling for democracy and justice. In recent days all political parties agreed to early presidential elections, giving us hope that we will overcome these trying times democratically.
I am so grateful to know so many people care about my homeland, and I sincerely believe that if the world keeps an eye on the Maldives, things will start to change for the better.
There is much in common in the battle against climate change and for democracy--the right to a healthy and dignified life--and this can happen when people are free to speak their minds, make decisions over their own resources, and have the power to act against injustice.
Thanks for all the work you do in your own community to fight climate change, and for standing in solidarity with our fight for climate safety and democracy.
Onwards,
Zaheena RasheedI just received this great e-mail from 350.org about the 35,553 petitions signed last... more
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In 24 hours, the 99 percent flooded the U.S. Senate with more than 800,000 messages opposing the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. This afternoon, 781,000 of the signatures to the Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline emergency petition were hand-delivered to the U.S. Capitol in boxes of 20,000 names each by members of 350.org, Green For All, and other climate hawks. “In Kentucky, over 2,000 people gathered at a rally opposing mountaintop removal mining picked up their cell phones and called Sen. McConnell to tell him to stop pushing Keystone XL. In New York City, dozens of people visited Sen. Schumer’s office and got him on the record opposing the pipeline. Petition deliveries also took place in Ohio, Maine, North Carolina, New Mexico, and elsewhere.”In 24 hours, the 99 percent flooded the U.S. Senate with more than 800,000 messages... more
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There's a new battlefront in the fracking fight: the Delaware River Basin, which provides water to five percent of the country's population. And anti-fracking dreamboat Mark Ruffalo is asking for help in fighting against fracking there.
You don’t have to take Ruffalo’s word for it -- you probably want to fight fracking anyway. When 350.org asked supporters what they should fight for while Obama sits on the Keystone XL decision, twice as many people voted to fight oil and gas fracking than for any other cause.There's a new battlefront in the fracking fight: the Delaware River Basin, which... more
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Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of rubble like this week’s shots from Joplin, Mo., you should not wonder: Is this somehow related to the tornado outbreak three weeks ago in Tuscaloosa, Ala., or the enormous outbreak a couple of weeks before that (which, together, comprised the most active April for tornadoes in U.S. history). No, that doesn’t mean a thing.
It is far better to think of these as isolated, unpredictable, discrete events. It is not advisable to try to connect them in your mind with, say, the fires burning across Texas — fires that have burned more of America at this point this year than any wildfires have in previous years. Texas, and adjoining parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico, are drier than they’ve ever been — the drought is worse than that of the Dust Bowl. But do not wonder if they’re somehow connected.
If you did wonder, you see, you would also have to wonder about whether this year’s record snowfalls and rainfalls across the Midwest — resulting in record flooding along the Mississippi — could somehow be related. And then you might find your thoughts wandering to, oh, global warming, and to the fact that climatologists have been predicting for years that as we flood the atmosphere with carbon we will also start both drying and flooding the planet, since warm air holds more water vapor than cold air.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhCY-3XnqS0&feature=player_embedded
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-link-between-climate-change-and-joplin-tornadoes-never/2011/05/23/AFrVC49G_story.html
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An op-ed by Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org, narrated and illustrated by Stephen Thomson of Plomomedia.comCaution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of... more
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In this week’s webisode, author and Climate Expert Bill McKibben tells us about his 10/10/10 day of action, which he calls “the most widespread day of civic engagement on any issue at any time in the planet’s history.”In this week’s webisode, author and Climate Expert Bill McKibben tells us about... more
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Check out this video about the global climate change action taking place on Sunday all over the world.Check out this video about the global climate change action taking place on Sunday all... more
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by Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium blogger
Congress comes back into session next week, but environmentalists and climate change activists have given up on the legislature. Instead, activists are planning to spur popular concern about these issues, until calls for change are so loud that Congress must listen.
Today, climate change reformer Bill McKibben will ask President Obama to reinstall a solar panel that first graced the White House roof during the Carter presidency. In the months to come, advocates hope to lead more radical direct actions that force more Americans to confront the issues at hand—and hopefully pressure change from the bottom up.
For the past two years, Congress has flirted with action on climate change, only to shy away time and time again. Environmental groups have spent record sums on courting lawmakers to no avail. McKibben and other environmental advocates are now convinced that they must bypass elected representatives and instead work to convince constituents that the country must do something to address global warming.
Direct action
McKibben, the environmental author who now leads an international climate campaign called 350.0rg, along with Phil Radford and Becky Tarbotton, both heads of environmental groups, wrote to potential allies against the energy industry in Yes! Magazine.
“We’re not going to beat them by asking nicely,” the three wrote. “We’re going to have to build a movement, a movement much bigger than anything we’ve built before, a movement that can push back against the financial power of Big Oil and Big Coal. That movement is our only real hope, and we need your help to plot its future.”
These three leaders see a greater role for direct action in pushing America to scale down its energy use, move towards renewable energy, and abandon its dirty energy habits. As civil rights and suffrage advocates suggest, to move the populace, ”to effectively communicate both to the general public and to our leaders the urgency of the crisis,” climate activists must “put our bodies on the line.”
Those for who have suggestions on how to move forward can contact these leaders at climate.ideas@gmail.com. They hope to draw on submitted ideas for actions in the spring.
Clean Energy Victory Bonds
Those less inclined to take to the streets still have options for supporting clean energy. The Nation’s Peter Rothberg suggests supporting the idea of Clean Energy Victory Bonds (CEVB), as conceived by the group Green America. This idea requires Congress to pass legislation, but “it seems like a no-brainer,” Rothberg writes.
“According to Green America, CEVBs would benefit the economy, the environment, and investors, by uniting individuals, communities, and companies to help finance the rapid deployment of renewable energy projects and energy efficiency upgrades,” he says. Other benefits: it’s a safe and potentially flexible investment, and the bonds could help create 1.7 million jobs.
Easy to ignore climate change
At this point, the push for direct action almost seems like a more sensible investment of political energy, at least. Climate change has dropped in importance for most Americans, so it’s easy for Congress to ignore the problem. As Kevin Drum explains for Mother Jones, “The high-water mark for public opinion on climate change was in 2005 or so, and we’ve been losing ground ever since. Until we get it back, Congress is going to continue to do nothing.”
It appears that, without broad popular pressure for some sort of action, Congress feels comfortable leaving aside even policy proposals that the majority of Americans support. One of the sticking points of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) energy bill has been a renewable energy standard (RES), a requirement that the country will increase the percentage of its power generated from clean energy sources within a certain time frame.
R-e-s-p-e-c-t
The idea is popular, as David Roberts writes at Grist, citing a Pew/National Journal poll showing that 78 percent of all respondents and 70% of Republicans favored an RES.
“Not many policies get this kind of bipartisan support these days,” Roberts writes. “People are fond of saying energy should be a bipartisan issue and surely reasonable people can agree, etc. Well, here it is, happening.”
What’s more, an RES would go a long way towards spurring private sector investment in clean energy. Lew Hay, the CEO of NextEra, a major clean energy company, has said that an RES would spur his company to invest billions of additional dollars in wind and solar development.
East vs. Midwest
Passing an RES would also mean pushing the renewable energy industry to hash out a viable infrastructure for a clean energy future.
“As the nation looks to move to a renewable energy standard, a lot of that really comes down to how to meet the energy needs of the East coast,” Jamie Karnik, the communications manager at a wind advocacy group, told The Washington Independent’s Andrew Restuccia. “Certainly people who are building wind in the Midwest, have their eye on the eastern market.”
The problem is, Restuccia reports, that entrepreneurs on the East Coast want a chance to develop off-shore wind farms. Ultimately, the country will need new electric lines to transport energy created from clean sources, but right now, competition among clean energy manufacturers could delay the construction of those lines.
Maybe climate change activists can come up with some ideas to push the clean energy industry along faster, too.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the environment by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Mulch for a complete list of articles on environmental issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Pulse, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.by Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium blogger
Congress comes back into session next... more
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In the closing hours of 2009, people from around the world gathered to witness and attempt to influence the activities of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 5th Meeting of the Parties (COP/MOP 5) to the Kyoto Protocol.
Current Green called into Copenhagen each day to get the perspective of activists, policy experts, and environmental enthusiasts.
We circled 'round and asked the people we interviewed to check back in with us and give us their 20/20 perspective on their experience. Our first entry comes from Kevin Buckland, the art ambassador for 350.org, Kevin was featured in a crowd pleasing segment that featured...dancing penguins.
Kevin's update:
In the cold memory of Copenhagen there is a story the delegates never saw. They missed the story that is writing itself in the arms and eyes of those who shall inherit this earth. And they are not meek. The future is not being written for them, but by them – and they are not waiting for permission because they are not asking permission. You do not need permission to survive.
As the lines of the illiterate UN documents sprawls across the pages of years, as the UN debates, as the oceans warm, as nothing changes the changing – there is no need to wait for permission, because there is no question to be asked. For no question can be asked aloud without the same carbon and oxygen breathe that answers itself. You do not ask about survival, you survive. We survive.
In Copenhagen the past attempted to create the future, but this is not the way things work. The past does not create the future; the future becomes the past –stories get written backwards, and retrospectively. For all their planning and pouring over the careful words that led to a long declaration of nothing, the delegations missed the future slowly claiming the present.
As the delegates rang for room service – the future was sweeping the years from abandoned factory floors. The dust lay deep, but many hands cleaned the many windows and let in the light air of change. They cleaned the floors where thousands of unknown but caring bodies would come to sleep; bodies that had hitched through winter days, slept on trains, piled into cars and across illegal borders. They came because they knew they had to, because the future is in motion, like a flock of birds it steers the wind.
As the delegates’ carbon planes landed and oil limousines idled outside airports, the future walked their backpacks and bodies the last few kilometers to a place where they had been told they could sleep: for the promise of a roof to house their dreams of change.
If the delegates had to clean the floors they slept on – if they had to sweep up the broken glass and cover the broken windows with broken cabinets – would they have come to repair this world?
The past sat at long tables, claiming each day another day of the present to past. Consuming time until it became their own; while their eyes in Peru watched the dry corn leaves brown, their hands in Bangladesh pulled again at the mud, and their feet in Kenya had to walk away; they all breathed in, and that silence resonated loudly throughout the conference center. They breathed out and formed a song that they sang in the streets of Copenhagen, that tells of a story writing itself in brooms and wood-ovens and paint. This is not the story of the UN document – that is a story that doesn’t say anything. It is the story being told in the empty spaces between the lines of their text.
As the delegates were served their foreign fruits and cheeses – fresh from Peru with pesticides from America and picked by barely paid hands, as they cut another slice—all over the city the future was searching - jumping into dumpsters and finding so much fruit it took three trips on the bicycle just to bring it all back.
As the delegates handed their bank card to the waitress, vast and free communal kitchens served long lines waiting in the cold. Who would hold a full plate and sit on the floor of the large hall, and eat with a metal fork the stew and kernels of sharing, where all eat the same and there are more people than plates.
As the delegates signed-off and put their computers to sleep, the future sang and painted shields long into the night – warmed well by so many hearts and a woodstove they had made from the old oil drums of an unimaginably wasteful world.
As the future stood, arms linked and singing within sight of the Convention Center, their songs drifted in to fill the spaces between the lines of the UN document. As the future was beaten by police, as the future was put into cages…
The future is free, because they are the ones who decided to create change. They were not paid like the police to stand in their lines and protect something, they were not chauffeured from dinner to the hotel. They were moving themselves, and moving history. The past cannot hold back the future with their brackets and clauses, because the future is not a question. The future is writing itself already. We are not waiting for a document, we are the document.
Related content:
Kids vs Global Warming: Alex Loors gives the low down from Copenhagen
Youth stage sit in inside the Bella Center: Kimia Ghomeshi calls in from Copenhagen
Photojounalist Kris Krug on documenting the Copenhagen protestsIn the closing hours of 2009, people from around the world gathered to witness and... more
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Protesters inside the Bella center are staging a sit in and are live-blogging at It's Getting Hot in Here.
There latest entry read:
Young people from all over the world are staging a sit-in at Bella Center until we get a Fair, Ambitious, and Binding climate treaty and reading the names of all 11 million signers of the TckTckTck petition. Sen. Kerry just shook each of their hands. Some were just dragged away.
Protestors outside are experiencing violent interactions with the police:
Press Release from the organizers of the action:
(Copenhagen – Denmark) – At 5:00 p.m., more than 50 international youth staged a sit in at the United Nations Climate Change Conference to demand that world leaders produce a fair, ambitious and legally binding climate treaty. While sitting in a main corridor of the conference centre, the youth read off the names of 11 million of the world's citizens who support the need for a fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement to come out of Copenhagen.
“We're not leaving until we get a fair, ambitious and legally binding treaty,” said Ann Wang, a youth delegate from China. “We need such a treaty to help ensure the survival of millions of the world's most vulnerable citizens whose lives and cultures are threatened by the effects of climate change.”
“As heads of state and world leaders arrive here in Copenhagen, we want them to know that we're going to be watching and acting to ensure they deliver us a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal,” said Germany's Julia Grauvogel.
These young people were not alone in their demands. “We are supported by 11 million citizens of this planet who want their leaders to deliver a fair, ambitious and legally binding climate treaty,” said Josh Solnick of the United Kingdom.
While sitting in solidarity, separate groups of youth simultaneously read off names from the list of 11 million people who signed an online petition demanding a that world leaders produce a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal in Copenhagen.Protesters inside the Bella center are staging a sit in and are live-blogging at... more
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Sex sells...but will it get people to contact their political leaders in the name of climate change?
That's what 22 year old model Cameron Russell was aiming for when she produced the video below of models stripping in the name of climate change. Cameron explains,
We were so inspired by the pictures we saw coming in from around the world on 350.org , that we wanted to help. We figured we'd try to get the point across the best way we know how--with clothes, or really, with the lack of clothes.
Who ever said that 350 parts per million is our “natural state”? After all, the past million years or so has CO2 levels see-sawed between about 180 and 285 parts per million. The 350 is a ‘best estimate’, best calculation as to the safe level of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere for a prosperous human civilization.
Right now, humanity is adding enough Co2 into the carbon cycle (mainly, but not solely, from burning fossil fuels) to add about 2 ppm per year. We need to drive down our emissions that drive increased CO2 levels and then continue the process so that we are actually reducing CO2 levels.
So what next, pole dancing for climate change ? (I'm imaging polar bears in bikini's. Is that sick and wrong?)
Related content:
Like this video? You might like these other 60 second PSA's made in the name of climate change
Why I'm not an activist but say "yes" to 350.org
The Fun Theory: Inspire behavior change with laughter not with facts?
The climate event that might just save the world: 350 (video interview with founders and activists)
Sex sells...but will it get people to contact their political leaders in the name of... more
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Honestly, I wanted to to nothing more than put in my winter garden this weekend, but atlas, the largest climate event in history was taking place, so I hopped on my bike and coerced a friend to take the biodiesel ferry with me across the bay so we could take part in the 350 event in San Francisco.
OK, so here's the dealio: It was an amazing event that ignited the imaginations of people around the world to get involved with climate change. When ever you are feeling lo, head on over to the 350.org flickr site and bask in the inspiration.
The strength of 350 is a clear, focused, informed message that spoke to people who might not self identify as activists.
The message: There is a problem: we have too much CO2 in the air to live in a healthy way on the planet.
A solution: Send a message to our negotiators at Copenhagen to take decisive action.
The variety of people who showed up at the SF event was a testament to their ability to bring together people across platforms who are interested in protecting the environment. Code pink was there, Green Peace was there, dogs who eat vegan were there, polar bears where there.
Umbra of Grist caught up with founder of Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org at the NYC event in Times Square.
What I found at the event in San Francisco was the mixing of old world of activism that points and yells at the problem and says, "broken!" and the new world activism that only has time to say, "here is a solution." The speakers were there to keep us entertained and informed while we formed a big 350 (I was in the 3). But honestly, I couldn't hear most of them. It's not that they weren't speaking loud enough. They were, after all, yelling. They were yelling at me. I don't like being yelled at. There is a reason why activists yell, for many years they had to because no one was listening. They had to do radical things to capture the attention of the media and the public.
Now I should confess that I don't like the word activist. Its a bit like "feminist" somewhere in the mix of life, the media, and society the term took on a "dirty" and negative association.
And while some of my dearest friends and people I deeply respect self identify as activists, and while many of my dearest friends even associate me as an activist (I show all the tell tale signs: I have gone to marches, I've contacted my political leaders, I over share on facebook about environmental news) when I try on the identity, it feels more like rusty stifling armor than a well fit glove.
Here is when I dropped the identity forever: When living in Virginia a few years back I drove up to New York City to attend what was at that point the largest protest on the planet against the Iraq war. It was an an amazing event. There were so many of us marching that the police took down the barricades. It was...peaceful, and there were people of every race and age present.
The next day I looked in the newspapers and nothing was there. A two line report in the back page of the New York Times reporting that some hoodlums had jumped on cars. All of a sudden I felt sick to my stomach. Something was wrong. Very wrong. And I couldn't put my finger on it.
That's when I found the following quote by Mother Teresa:
I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.
What she said resonated. I haven't attended anti-rally as a participant since. (I have attended in the role of the media, because I believe they are important stories to tell.) But I wanted my personal participation, my voice, and energy to go toward events and organizations that are focused on finding the solutions.
With that said, I attended the 350 rally as a participant because I heard a "yes" in their message. Yes to a clear goal. Yes to our political leaders making decisions that will create policy that will think seven generation ahead..and yes to that it will take creativity and fun to engage the world in this issue.
The interview with 350 I posted on Current provoked an interesting discussion and criticism about 350 not gathering people to take more concrete action, and Janforgore questioned why didn't they surround 350 power plants. I think you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. 350 had a mission: raise public awareness, show political leaders that people around the world are engaged with the issue and will support them. Mission accomplished. What you choose to do at that pool of information is up to you.
Meanwhile, here is an excerpt from a sample speech that the 350 organizers gave to their organizers around the world to read:
We rally around the number 350 because it is the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, and so 350 defines what is necessary for the earth to continue as we have known it. We have relied upon the patterns of rainfall and ice and sea level that have marked this world for the ten thousand years of human civilization. If these patterns shift dramatically, the first victims will be the people living closest to the edge--people who have already begun to suffer from drought, from flood, from the spread of disease. We will not stand by and let that happen.
The second thing I'd like to say today is that you're part of something that matters. The climate crisis is such a huge issue that it's always hard to see what difference any of us can make--especially when our foes include some of the most powerful entities on earth. We can't match them in money, but they can't match us in numbers, in spirit, in dedication. And we have a secret weapon, which is the power that comes from scientific observation. Today we are taking that number 350 and making it the centerpiece of the debate over climate. We are reminding the world's leaders that they can give all the speeches they want, but that won't change the way that physics and chemistry operate. We are standing up for scientific reality, and in so doing reframing this debate in a way that will echo through the UN Climate Talks in Copenhagen and beyond.
And the last thing I would like to say today is more personal: it's a great privilege to be able to get out of bed in the morning and think to yourself, "There's nothing more important than this that I could be doing today." Take a moment to think about the amazing fact that across the globe today, people are doing just what you're doing, hoping just what you're hoping, believing just what you're believing--and together we are making these deeds, hopes, and beliefs add up to something truly transformational.
Related content:
350: Will THIS event event save the world?
The fresh face of the modern day farmer (video)
The no bulls**t report from Bangkok about the climate talks (video)
Hilarity continues in the name of climate change: hello survivaball
Honestly, I wanted to to nothing more than put in my winter garden this weekend, but... more
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I received an email this morning from my dear friend Julie that ended with, "I want to know who has the hope, the plan, the way out. If there is one. What is it?"
It's the question on the tip of many of our tongues these days. So in honor of Julie, a little round up of news that promises to inform, inspire, and make you laugh out loud at least once.
A video interview with the founder of 350.org, Bill McKibben, and the organizers behind what is going to be the largest (and by far the most colorful) climate event in history this weekend: (awesome pictures from around the world)
If you want to skip my commentary and just cut to the video:
If you are needing a sobering dose of wisdom from an elder: you may want to see Alaska Elder Sarah James' talk from this past weekend at Bioneers.
If you haven't seen the Yes Men's latest storm on Washington, you are missing out. Mostly because there is a man dressed in a huge white survavball who rolls down the capitol steps howling as he goes (Iaugh out loud funny).
If you are looking for another way into understanding Copenhagen, then allow me to introduce you to the guys who are affectionately called "climate stawkers"
Now if you are needing to rekindle the fire in your belly, enjoy meeting these 15-22 year old youth who were awarded the Brower Youth Award for climate activism last night
Enjoy, and by all means, tell us what inspires you~I received an email this morning from my dear friend Julie that ended with, "I... more
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It's the question of the hour, right? Can we save the world from the destruction that the scientists are predicting?
350.org has coordinated the largest climate event in history to demonstrate that people around the world want to live in a safe and clean environment. But it's not your grandma's brand of protest. Actually...there will be no protest. No picketing. No parades. No police barricades. Just millions of people from around the world making images of 350.
When 350.org founder Bill McKibben says he is, "...tired of losing and it's fun to take the bad guys down a peg or two..." he wasn't kidding. McKibben skyped in to speak with Current Green from his home in Vermont while 350.org staffer May Boeve and climate activist/bike rider Adam Taylor of Ride 350 came in to our online studio to discuss what went into organizing what is predicted to be the largest climate event in history.
If 350.org has anything to do it with it, yes we can save the world from the predicted effects of climate change. The organization was made for the sole purpose of insuring that everyone knows the following fact:
350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide—measured in "Parts Per Million" in our atmosphere. 350 PPM—it's the number humanity needs to get back to as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change.
The bad news: we have already surpassed 350.
The good news: People around the world are organizing to put pressure on their climate negotiators who are preparing their stance for Copenhagen.
The current stats on the event (which get larger by the minute): 162 countries are signed up to participate (including Iraq, Afghanistan, Nepal, Honduras...) and more than 3,700 actions/events.
Are you participating? Show us your pictures! Tell us your story!
Related links:
Save the planet with pranks, tutus, and acts of civil disobedience (video)
The no bull shit youth report from Bangkok (video)
The 350 group on Current
How to green your campus (video)It's the question of the hour, right? Can we save the world from the destruction... more
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