The Bolivian Government: "Mother Earth or barbarism"

I missed President Evo Morales’ speech on Tuesday at the official opening of the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. Asking several friends who were there how it was, they all were surprised by its relative mildness, for Morales. The main things he called upon people to do, my friends said, were to use clay dishes, stop drinking coca-cola and stop eating industrial agriculture-raised chickens.

Perhaps President Morales was holding his powder to allow his Vice President, Alvaro Garcia Linera, to give the rousing speech. This is what he did that afternoon at a major plenary session on the Univalle Campus in Tiquipaya. It was a comprehensive overview of what is happening because of climate change (dried up rivers, melting glaciers, desertification, forest destruction and more) and the cause of it (the economic system of capitalism which turns people and nature into commodities for private gain no matter who and what gets hurt). “Capitalism is ready to destroy nature,” he said.

Linara made clear his government’s belief that we are at the beginning of a certain worldwide catastrophe if humanity does not get serious right now. He used the figures of 260 million people who have been affected already by climate change and 200 million who have emigrated because of it.

Linara went on to put forward a very different solution than many in the United States, including many environmentalists, believe is the solution. For Linara, it’s not new technology that is going to save the world. What will save it, he said, is when “we take the Bolivian Indigenous, the Bolivian peasant model and make it universal. We need a new civilization that’s not about consumerism but about meeting basic needs. Humans must recognize that Mother Earth has rights and we have obligations to respect them. Our new model must be consensus-based, dialogical and rooted in personal relationships with nature. We need new forms of production, and we need new ethics.”

He referenced Rosa Luxemburg, a socialist leader from over 100 years ago, when he called, not for “socialism or barbarism,” her call, but for “Mother Earth or barbarism,” and he put forward five things that we must do:
Continue reading

Day Two of the Cochabamba Conference

The daily culture of the World Conference on climate change in Cochabamba, Bolivia is an experience that many present will never forget.The work of the conference is taking place in three ways:

  1. via 17 working groups putting together proposals as to what should go into an overall document coming out of the conference;
  2. a series of large plenary sessions with panels of speakers addressing a range of subjects related to the overall theme of the conference; and
  3. dozens of self-organized events by organizations which are here on a wide range of subjects, also related to the overall theme.

But as significant as this work, this addressing of issues and planning for the future, is the amazing daily culture of the World Conference, as it has unfolded like a beautiful flower over the last two days.

Continue reading

Walking on Two Legs

At the end of my third day in Cochabamba and after the first day of the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, it has become very clear that “walking on two legs” is very much what is taking place and will be taking place.

This is the case as people have been walking from venue to venue in the part of Cochabamba where this historic conference of many thousands is taking place. I must have walked at least 3-4 miles today, but it was a joy to be doing so, exploring this town and seeing all my companeros and companeras doing the same thing, all of us, seemingly, in high spirits, glad to be here standing up for Mother Earth and all its life forms.

I was reminded today of the experience I had at the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta, Georgia in 2007: many thousands of people, a hot climate, a large majority of people of color (in this case, primarily Latino and Indigenous peoples of Bolivia and other South American countries), a palpable feeling of solidarity and interconnection, and realistic hope that this gathering will advance the climate justice movement.

But there’s another way that people who are here will have to be “walking on two feet.” Continue reading

MD General Assembly 2010 – Clean Energy Victories and Session Summary

This year, CCAN and our partners continued the fight to keep Maryland at the national forefront on clean energy policy. We fought for a number of bills aimed at shoring up Maryland’s hard-won carbon cap and building on other clean energy policy victories of recent years. It was a tough fight, given the state budget difficulties and a state Senate that environmental groups were ready to declare an environmental dead zone at the end of the session. But, thanks to the hard work and dedication of grassroots activists across the state and many dedicated environmental advocates, we managed to score some victories for the climate at the final hour. At the top of our agenda this year was the fight to get a comprehensive energy plan for Maryland. Having a statewide comprehensive plan is absolutely essential to ensuring that Maryland is able to meet its ambitious climate and clean energy policy goals while creating thousands of new clean energy jobs in the process. House Bill 522 and Senate Bill 910, if passed, would have required the creation of a state energy plan that is consistent with all state environmental laws and required the Public Service Commission to review proposals with respect to that state plan. Sadly, both bills died in committee. However, thanks to the clear public support for this important energy blueprint, some legislative leaders recommended administrative action. So we are now working with Governor O’Malley and his administration to create a comprehensive energy plan. Stay tuned for more info on this effort. In addition to the comprehensive energy plan, CCAN fought for a variety of other important clean energy initiatives including an expansion and acceleration of the solar portion of the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, the creation of clean energy loans programs, improvements the state’s net-metering policies, and an effort to prepare the state to cope with the stronger storms we are starting to face as a result of climate change.

Here a summary of how those bills fared:

Solar Energy: SB 277/HB 471 (WIN!) The Administration bill accelerating solar energy production in Maryland passed. However, the targets for accelerating the solar energy production were significantly weakened in the final version passed by the House.

Net Metering: SB 355 and HB 801 (WIN!) Both bills will improve our net metering law, requiring utilities to pay for excess power generated by solar power or other on-site generators.

Clean Energy Loans: SB 720/HB 1014 (LOSS) This common sense bill would have helped property owners afford clean energy projects, but was ultimately defeated, largely because of hard-fought lobbying efforts by the banking industry, which would have faced competition from the loan program.

Climate Adaptation: SB 1092 (LOSS) This bill would have empowered the state to study the connection between this past winter’s historic snowstorms and climate change, assess the future likelihood of such strong storms, and take steps to finance our emergency and disaster preparedness forces to deal with such future storms. Despite dying in Finance committee, the committee leadership is planning to work with the governor’s office to try to accomplish the goals of the bill.

With three wins and two losses, this Session wasn’t a perfect one for climate and clean energy policy but it certainly was one in which we carried Maryland further down the path towards the clean energy future. Big thanks to all of you amazing activists out there who proved that even in a tough year for environmental legislation, the power of grassroots action can achieve wins for the climate. We’re looking forward to continuing to work alongside you next session, and in the coming months in our ongoing efforts to win victories for the climate.

If Only this was an April Fools Joke

The tweet making its way around the youth climate movement: “wishing Obama’s #drilling plan was a Fossil Fool’s Day joke- not funny, nor worth the costs.”

That’s what youth across America feel after President Obama’s announcement yesterday.

Is this a joke? We voted in record numbers, knocked on doors, made phone calls, and dragged our friends to the polls with the hope that we were voting for clean energy and climate change solutions. Instead our leaders didn’t lead in Copenhagen, we still don’t have a climate bill, and now President Obama wants to open up half of the east coast to offshore drilling.

I wish this was a joke. It’s not a funny one. This is our future. Our jobs. Our economy at stake.

The last few weeks youth across the country voted to Define Our Decade to show what we wanted as a generation. Overwhelmingly youth voted to use 100% clean energy in the next decade. We didn’t vote for more of the same, or selling out to industry. And it isn’t what will motivate us to turn out to the polls in 2010 either.

As Morgan Goodwin wrote:

Youth, the millennial generation so inspired by Obama to vote in record numbers, have the most to lose from the expansion of drilling. Even some coastal governors and senators will be angry about the announcement because of the small amount of oil and huge environmental risks. If white-haired governors and senators are worried, what about young people who are thinking about protecting this coastline for us and our children, long after the tiny amounts of energy have been extracted?

Obama inspired our generation to turn out to the polls, and he can do it again if he moves to actually inspire us. But youth across the country have longer memories than this short-sighted political thinking. Under this proposal the first lease sales for drilling would be held in 2012, a year that Obama will be hoping to connect with us and convince us he stands for our interests. That’s not change we can believe in. If young people don’t believe him, they aren’t going to be inspired to vote.

No joke.

Reason #12: China is winning the global clean energy race

Forty years after the first Earth Day, the world is in greater peril than ever, but there is also an unprecedented opportunity to build a new future.

We need an “Earth Day Revolution” to bring about historic advances in climate policy, renewable energy, green jobs, and to catalyze millions who can make personal commitments to sustainability by mobilizing the power of people to create change. We need the Senate to stop stalling and start acting on clean energy and climate solutions for America.

That’s why we’ve joined others in presenting Congress with 40 reasons to take action. Every day until Earth Day activists will deliver another reason to offices of Congressional leaders.

CCAN’s very own Chelsea Harnish joined others to deliver reason #12 to Senator Webb and Warner’s Richmond offices. Her message? China is winning the global clean energy race. Her method of communicating her message? An actual race.

A very dangerous road

On Tuesday the Senate’s march to pass Gov. Martin O’Malley’s $32 billion budget hit a roadblock when an item was raised that attempted to withhold $250,000 from the University of Maryland law school until it disclose its legal clinic’s clients.

The UMD environmental law clinic is investigating whether a pile of waste on an Eastern Shore farm came from the massive chicken farms in the area. The chicken farmers, including corporate giant Perdue, claims the waste came from the people of Ocean City. The Maryland Reporter has the story.

It is clear that this blatant attempt by Maryland’s factory farms (and general assembly members that are friendly to these interests) to gut the University of Maryland’s Environmental Law Clinic funding is a political maneuver used to intimidate and squash efforts to address real environmental violations that are destroying the Chesapeake Bay.

Breaking: Anti-MTR Activists Risk Arrest at EPA HQ with Elaborate Protest

Cross-posted from it’s getting hot in here

In an attempt to further pressure EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to enforce the Clean Water Act and halt mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR), activists early this morning erected two 20-foot-tall, purple tripod structures in front of the agency’s headquarters. A pair of activists perched at the top of the tripods have strung a 25-foot sign in front of the EPA’s door that reads, “EPA: pledge to end mountaintop removal in 2010.” Six people are locked to the tripods and say they won’t leave unless Administrator Jackson commits to a flyover visit of the Appalachian Mountains and MTR sites, which she has never done before.

This is the latest in a series of actions and activities aimed at pressuring the EPA to take more decisive action on mountaintop removal coal mining. Today’s tactic is modeled on the multi-day tree-sits that have been happening in West Virginia to protect mountains from coal companies’ imminent blasting. Called the worst of the worst strip mining, the practice blows the tops off of whole mountains to scoop out the small seams of coal that lie beneath.

“We’re losing our way of life and our culture,” said Chuck Nelson, who worked as a coal miner in West Virginia for three decades and came to DC to support today’s protest. “Mountaintop removal should be banned today. The practice means total devastation for communities, the hardwood forests, the ecosystems, and the headwaters. Why should our communities sacrifice everything we have?”

Continue reading

Wear Green, Vote Green


Today, instead of just wearing green- take a quick green action: VOTE in the national Define Our Decade campaign! The two questions will help to define what our generation wants to see in the next decade. It’s a new year, and a new decade, and with that comes new opportunity. As our elected leaders struggle to make progress on climate and energy legislation in Washington, a grassroots movement has grown and won real victories in our local communities. We can’t let the “political realities” of corporate-influenced policies define our future. It’s time for us to set our own course, on our own terms, and Define Our Decade! Check out Ethan Nuss’s blog post for some more inspiration!

After you vote- get friends to join in too- the more votes the more powerful our message is. Post the link on your facebook profile (http://energyactioncoalition.org/define) and your friend’s walls. Send it over your list servs. And while you are at it- tweet it out! Wearing #green for #stpatricksday? Then, you should help Define #OurDecade with clean, green energy. Vote now!

Climate Legislation, Science and Activism

It is a very unfortunate fact that what the U.S. Senate does about the climate crisis, and when, is decisive when it comes to the possibility of an eventual solution to that absolutely critical issue. If the Senate does nothing, or very little, this year or for the next few years, the odds of staying this side of climate tipping points and avoiding climate catastrophe are definitely worsened, and they’re not so good right now.

The conventional wisdom among the inside-the-beltway, established environmental groups is that the hope for action lies with the legislation-writing process currently taking place under the leadership of Senators John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham. But two of the most significant political developments last week as far as Senate climate legislation took place elsewhere.

One was the public announcement via an email from Bill McKibben sent to 350.org’s far-flung network that “we’re joining a group of our best allies in backing the proposed Cap-and-Dividend approach that would stop letting big polluters pour carbon into the sky for free.”

The other was the public letter from AARP, the 39-million member organization of seniors, to Senators Maria Cantwell and Susan Collins, authors of the CLEAR Act cap-and-dividend legislation. In their letter [pdf] they commend Cantwell and Collins for their “continuing leadership” and for offering “a thoughtful, bipartisan approach to reducing harmful carbon dioxide emissions while also mitigating potential energy cost increases to consumers.”

Strengths and Weaknesses

There’s a lot that is good about the CLEAR Act (Carbon Limits and Energy for America’s Renewal), especially in comparison with the Waxman-Markey ACES bill passed by the House of Representatives last June. It would make fossil fuel polluters pay for their poisoning of our atmosphere, with no free pollution permits. In the first year, 2012, that the legislation would take effect, they would need to pay, cumulatively, as much as $126 billion dollars via a 100% auction of pollution permits. Putting a price on carbon in this way, all by itself, is an important step forward.

A steadily-declining cap on carbon pollution would be enacted so that, over time, prices for carbon-based fuels would go up and co2 emissions would go down as a steady national shift takes place to energy conservation, efficiency and renewable energy. There are provisions for a tightening of this cap relatively easily by way of a simple majority (no filibuster allowed) of both houses of Congress in support of a Presidential proposal. There are no problematic “carbon offsets.” Wall Street and speculators are prevented from buying or selling permits. 75% of the money raised from the auction each year will be returned in equal monthly payments to every legal US resident. A family of four will receive approximately $1,000 a year to help with the higher energy prices the oil, coal and natural gas companies will pass along. Analyses have shown that about 3/4 of all U.S. Americans will actually gain additional money to spend via this program. The remaining 25% of the auction revenue will be put into a “Clean Energy Reinvestment Trust (or CERT) Fund” for various programs to reduce U.S. and international greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, for clean energy, energy efficiency, transition assistance and similar purposes.

A key feature of the CLEAR Act is its understandable, transparent architecture. It is 39 pages long, compared to 1,428 for the House-passed ACES bill.

There’s a lot to like about this proposal. Continue reading