Video:"We simply ask that you let us live"

On Monday I had the privilege of meeting one of the global climate movement’s greatest new leaders, President Nasheed of the Maldives. The Maldives is a nation of tiny tropical islands located in the Indian Ocean off the tip of the Indian Sub-continent. (Don’t worry I had to look it up too. Map here). This archipelago is the home to 350,000 people who will have their lives destroyed by the climate threat if we fail to act.

I met President Nasheed on Monday night in New York City at a Climate Justice event in which we both spoke at as part of Climate Week NYC. A man of short physical stature President Nasheed has a commanding presence with his illuminating humor and tremendous bravery.

When Mary Robinson, the event moderator and former UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, questioned him about what policy platform he was proposing to the UN he paused and said with a beaming smile: “We simply ask that you let us live.” The audience, myself included, joined him in laughing at his whimsical tone. However, mid-chortle I was suddenly overcome by a deep sadness. I will not soon forget the gravity of his simple plea for human decency and survival. For the 350,000 people of his nation clean energy is not about a lifestyle choice. It is the choice between life and death.

In President Nasheed own words: “Sea level rise of even half a meter would make much of it [the Maldives] uninhabitable; meanwhile, ocean temperature spikes could destroy the coral reefs that protect these islands from the waves.” In his passionate speech to the UN General Assembly (video here) he said that failure to reach a deal in Copenhagen will mean that “our country will not exist.” Wow. Almost unimaginable.

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"What do we want? Clean Energy! When do we want it? Now!"

This is a guest post from University of Mary Washington student and UMW Ecology Club activist, Tori Wong.

Green hardhats, American flags, congressional petitions and an endless supply of energetic optimism filled the lawn of Hurkamp park in downtown Fredericksburg Thursday night as University of Mary Washington students and community organizers joined together to show support for clean energy and to take action to make it happen.

The event, which featured speakers from the Spotsylvania County government, local clean energy businesses, the Rapahanock branch of the Sierra Club, and the UMW Ecology Club, was one of six “Clean Energy, Bright Future” rallies planned in Virginia for the evening of September 17th. The goal of the rallies was to create public support and demand for a national climate policy as Congress considers legislation to cap global warming pollution and invest in education for a clean-energy economy. The Fredericksburg rally was coordinated in part by the Sierra Club and the University of Mary Washington’s student-run environmental group, the Ecology Club.

At the rally, UMW students set up “action tables” where they encouraged all attendees to fill out postcards to Virginia Senators Warner and Webb. These postcards will be sent by the thousands to the senators’ offices to show Virginia’s, and especially Virginia college student’s support for strong clean-energy legislation. They were also writing letters to the editors of all local newspapers, showing their enthusiasm for taking action towards clean energy.

University of Mary Washington senior, Nate Delano opened the rally with the well-known Mark Twain quote, “There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist,” and was followed by Doris Whitfield, Chair of the Rappahannock Group of the Sierra Club, Bob Bennett, Founder of Energy and Environment, Inc. an international renewable energy company based in Spotsylvania County and Henry “Hap” Connors, Chancellor Supervisor for the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors. All speakers emphasized the importance of action and optimism, and applauded the wonderful turnout especially of young people and college students.

URGENT: Call Your Senators Today!!

I’m thinking many people who read our blog have heard this by now…But, just in case you’ve gotten an email from us or one of our coalition partners today and haven’t gotten around to making this call, now’s the time. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has introduced a rider to the Senate Appropriations bill that would halt the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases from stationary sources – i.e. coal plants, oil refineries, the biggest carbon polluters nationwide.

Gotta love those judges…

gavel Yesterday, the 2nd circuit court of appeals in New York overturned a lower court decision brought by 8 states against 5 of the largest electricity providers in the country. The court said that greenhouse gases, like traditional air pollutants, can be considered under common law as a “nuisance”. The decision provides yet another “feather” in the proverbial legal “cap” of progressive states and environmental advocates to address CO2 emissions from the biggest climate change offenders via the courts. Way to go 2nd circuit! Continue reading

Pittsburgh to Host G-20 and G-20 Protests

Today, September 22nd, is the first day of the United Nations opening session in New York City where heads of state from all over the world are speaking publicly about the climate crisis and, in some cases, what their country is doing and intends to do about it.

Two days from now, some of these same heads of state will travel west to Pittsburgh, Pa. for a summit meeting of the G-20. Part of the G-20 agenda is the climate crisis; specifically, how on-going negotiations can be advanced so that at the United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in December, a new and stronger climate treaty than the Kyoto Protocol can emerge.

Climate activists and other activists will be taking part in a variety of actions outside the G-20 meeting in the streets and elsewhere. There will be a number of climate-related activities. The major one is taking place on Wednesday evening when the Alliance for Climate Protection’s Repower America campaign, the United Steelworkers and the Blue Green Alliance will conclude their Clean Energy Jobs Tour with a rally beginning at 7 pm. The Jobs Tour, a month-long campaign with more than 50 events in 22 states, highlighted how a transition to a clean energy economy will create jobs while reducing harmful carbon pollution and our dependence on foreign oil.

The Wednesday evening event will feature musical entertainment, including Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, the Pittsburgh Gospel Choir and Grammy-award winning artist Kathy Mattea. Scheduled speakers include Pa. Governor Ed Rendell, Steelworkers President Leo Gerard, Carl Pope of the Sierra Club, Rich Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO and Rev. Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus.

The event will take place in Point State Park. Click here for more information.

Other climate-related events include a Wednesday afternoon forum on “Challenging the G20’s Agenda of Corporate Globalization, a Thursday morning breakfast with Larry Schweiger, President/CEO of the National Wildlife Federation and a Thursday afternoon Jobs and Climate Solutions Press Conference featuring youth leaders from the United States and India.
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Copenhagen: Turning Point or More of the Same Old Same Old?

This coming week, in New York City and Pittsburgh, there will be important United Nations and G20 meetings that could advance the process of coming up with a new international treaty to address the climate crisis. This coming week will also see the opening salvo of “civil society” groups in the streets taking action to press their demands for not just any treaty but one that is strong and fair, one that reflects the deepening of the crisis.

From December 7-18, in Copenhagen, Denmark, 190 or so nations will come together in for the annual U.N. Climate Conference, but this one is particularly important. One reason is that it will be the first one in eight years where the U.S. delegation will be led by people who believe that climate change is real, serious and that action is needed to address it. But much more significant is that this is the U.N. conference that was planned, two years ago at a UN climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, as the place and the time that the world had to come up with a much stronger international climate treaty than the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol became operative on February 16, 2005, and as of sometime in 2012 it will no longer be in effect. The countries which signed it and agreed to reduce their emissions by an average of 5% below 1990 levels have until then to do so. At that point, if there is no international treaty that has been negotiated, ratified by enough countries and gone into effect, there will be nothing that replaces the expired Kyoto treaty.

Since it is expected that it will take at least two years for enough countries to ratify a treaty, the Copenhagen conference has been seen as critical so that there’s no gap in between Kyoto and a new treaty. However, as we’re less than three months out from Copenhagen, with 15 actual negotiating days between now and the end of Copenhagen (including five days in Barcelona, Spain Nov. 2-6), and with a significant number of major issues unresolved and points of conflict, especially between the countries of the Global South (developing countries) and the Global North (developed), it is not looking hopeful for any kind of treaty, much less a good one, to be adopted and signed at Copenhagen. Continue reading

We ARE SCREWED!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 21, 2009

“WE’RE SCREWED”: MEDIA HEIST BLANKETS CITY WITH “SPECIAL EDITION” NEW YORK POSTTabloid Tells Truth About Climate Change and How It Will Affect City, World

Early this morning, nearly a million New Yorkers were stunned by the appearance of a “special edition” New York Post blaring headlines that their city could face deadly heat waves, extreme flooding, and other lethal effects of global warming within the next few decades. The most alarming thing about it: the news came from an official City report.

Distributed by over 2000 volunteers throughout New York City, the paper has been created by The Yes Men and a coalition of activists as a wake-up call to action on climate change. It appears one day before a UN summit where Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will push 100 world leaders to make serious commitments to reduce carbon emissions in the lead-up to the Copenhagen climate conference in December. Ban has said that the world has “less than 10 years to halt (the) global rise in greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences for people and the planet,” adding that Copenhagen is a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.”

Although the 32-page New York Post is a fake, everything in it is 100% true, with all facts carefully checked by a team of editors and climate change experts.

“This could be, and should be, a real New York Post,” said Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men. “Climate change is the biggest threat civilization has ever faced, and it should be in the headlines of every paper, every day until we solve the problem.”

The fake Post’s cover story (“We’re Screwed”) reports the frightening conclusions of a blue-ribbon panel of scientists commissioned by the mayor’s office to determine the potential effects of climate change on the City. That report was released in February of this year, but received very little press at the time. Other lead articles describe the Pentagon’s alarmed response to global warming (“Clear & Present Disaster”), the U.S. government’s sadly minuscule response to the crisis (“Congress Cops Out on Climate”), China’s alternative energy program (“China’s Green Leap Forward Overtakes U.S.”), and how if the US doesn’t quickly pass a strong climate bill, the crucial Copenhagen climate talks this December could be a “Flopenhagen.”

The paper includes original investigative reporting as well. One article (“Carbon counter counts New Yorkers as fools”) reveals that Deutsche Bank – which erected a seven-story “carbon counter” in central Manhattan – not only invests heavily in coal-mining companies worldwide, but has recently entered the business of coal trading itself.

The paper has the world’s gloomiest weather page, covering the next 70 years rather than just 7 days. The “Around the World” section describes the disproportionate effects of climate change on poorer parts of the world, including extreme droughts, floods, famines, water shortages, mass migrations and conflicts. Developing countries will bear the brunt of climate change effects even though they have done very little to cause the problem.

But the paper isn’t all doom and gloom. An article called “New York Fights Back” notes that the carbon emissions of Big Apple residents are only one third the national average, and that the city is building 1800 miles of bike paths, planting one million trees, and replacing its fleet of police cars with hybrids. There’s also a page of black-humor cartoons (in one, Charlie Brown finds Snoopy drowned), a gossip section that takes no prisoners, and a number of truly cheerful ads – for sex (“Awesome. No carbon emissions.”), tote bags, bicycles, and tap water (“Literally comes right out of your faucet!”).

Another ad promotes civil disobedience, encouraging readers to visit http://BeyondTalk.net and pledge to risk arrest in a planned global action November 30, just before the conference in Copenhagen.

“We need strong action on climate change,” said David Solnit of Mobilization for Climate Justice West, one of the partners in BeyondTalk.net. “But history shows that leaders act only when people take to the streets to demand it. That’s what needs to happen now.”

This paper is one of 2500 initiatives taking place in more than 130 countries as a response to the “Global Wake-up Call” on climate change. For more information,visit http://www.tcktcktck.org/wakeup

Contact: The Yes Men , 347-254-7054, 646-220-4137 Fake New York Post: http://www.nypost-se.com/ PDF of the paper: http://nypost-se.com/todays-paper Video News Release: http://www.nypost-se.com/video City report on climate change: http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/pdf/2009/NPCC_CRI.pdf Wake-up call: http://www.tcktcktck.org/wakeup

Drink up! It could be your last!

I personally prefer my brew with fewer hops, but apparently I may not have a choice!  Clearly polar bears drowning and glaciers melting have not been enough to motivate the world into unified action to stop climate change  But apparently our precious brew is being threatened.  Can we get behind saving our precious hops.  This article below comes from New Scientist.

In all seriousness climate change legislation is drifting away.  That’s why this week we are generating hundreds of phone calls to our Senators so they realize that life as we know it could change forever if they don’t take action now.  We are asking folks to call on Wed.  Click here for details>>>

Read on for me details on the newest victim of Climate change::  Precious HOPS!

IF THE sinking Maldives aren’t enough to galvanise action on climate change, could losing a classic beer do it? Climatologist Martin Mozny of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute and colleagues say that the quality of Saaz hops – the delicate variety used to make pilsner lager – has been decreasing in recent years. They say the culprit is climate change in the form of increased air temperature.

Mozny’s team used a high-resolution dataset of weather patterns, crop yield and hop quality to estimate the impact of climate change on Saaz hops in the Czech Republic between 1954 and 2006. Best-quality Saaz hops contain about 5 per cent alpha acid, the compound that produces the delicate, bitter taste of pilsners.

The study found that the concentration of alpha acids in Saaz hops has fallen by 0.06 per cent a year since 1954, and models of hop yields and quality under future global warming scenarios predict bigger decreases (Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2009.02.006).

It’s not just Czech hops that are at stake here, says Francesco Tubiello, a crop specialist at the European Commission and a lead author of the agriculture chapter of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. “The famous hop-growing regions of eastern Germany and central Slovakia are facing the same situation,” he says.

Is beer the final straw??  Are you ready to tell our Senators to support STRONG CLIMATE legislation?  It’s more than just our frosty beverages at stake.  Across the country this week we are generating thousands of phone calls to our Senators so they don’t forget to make climate a top priority. 

We’ve made it easy… Click here to give a call.

Wise County Plant Isn't Necessary: Richmond Times Dispatch LTE

This LTE was published in the Richmond Times Dispatch

Wise County Plant Isn’t Necessary

Editor, Times-Dispatch: Although the news article, “New Permit for Coal-Fired Power Plant Pleases Both Sides,” quotes Dominion Virginia Power as claiming that the Wise County coal plant is vital to meeting Virginia’s future energy needs, the opposite is true.

An independent study found that Virginia can keep energy use flat over the next 15 years simply by investing in cost-effective and existing energy-efficiency technologies. We can avoid constructing any new generation facilities just by weatherizing homes, upgrading heating and cooling systems in office buildings, and updating lighting in factories. These same technologies would bring 10,000 new jobs to the commonwealth, while the costs associated with the coal plant would actually force the Virginia economy to contract by move than 1,400 jobs (a conservative estimate given pending climate legislation).

Dominion’s claim that its coal plant will help the economic wellbeing of Southwest Virginia also misses the mark. Our reliance on coal allows for the devastating practice of mountaintop removal coal mining, which is ravaging Southwest Virginia. Tops are ripped off mountains, streams are blocked by waste, and then the coal is transported out of the community, suffocating people with the toxic dust that blows off coal trucks.

The alternatives to coal are real. The new energy future broke ground in Virginia last month when construction began on our very first wind farm in Highland County. This project makes Virginia a leader in the region and marks the beginning of a bright future for the commonwealth. Virginia has incredible renewable energy potential — our offshore wind potential is the highest in the South. When coupled with efficiency improvements, it is clear that coal plants could be a thing of the past.

Lauren Glickman, Virginia Campaign Coordinator, Chesapeake Climate Action Network.