Satyagraha… Say what?

Amidst the flurry of media and rhetoric on the campaign trail, the historic events of Tuesdays election, and the looming questions of where we go from here, there is only one word that comes to mind: Satyagraha.

For me this strange sounding word has a very personal meaning. Mohandas Gandhi coined it during his peaceful struggle to win Indian independence from the oppressive British Empire. In Hindi it translates roughly as “Truth-Force”. Gandhi defines it as, “Truth (Satya) implies Love, and Firmness (Agraha) Continue reading

Obama Wins; Will the People?

ted glickFuture Hope column, November 5, 2008
By Ted Glick

“It was, however, the inauguration of a president [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] who promised to look to the forgotten man and the passage of legislation which promised to protect the forgotten industrial worker that gave the discontented an Continue reading

Welcome Obama: Yes We Can lead on climate!

reengage reprioritize reinvest

Please join us in congratulating President-elect Obama and the newly elected Congress! As Sen. Obama said in his victory speech, it’s time to “join in the work of remaking this nation,” and we couldn’t agree more. Here is our chance — right now — to work with our new leaders to make sure our vision of a clean energy future becomes reality.

Make no mistake, no matter how committed our new government is to taking action, nothing will happen without your involvement. Some very important decisions will be made in the next few weeks and we want to make sure our call for climate action is heard loud and clear.

Join us on Tuesday, November 18th at 12 noon as hundreds come together on Capitol Hill to call for Climate Action Now! We will be welcoming our newly elected leaders and calling upon President-elect Obama to attend the crucial United Nations Climate Conference in Poznan, Poland in December.

Will you join us on the Hill? Register here>>

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On Election Day, Activists Put Climate Change on the Ballot

climate petitionOver 2000 people signed a petition on Nov. 4 to urge our newly elected leaders to take strong action on climate change in their first 100 days in office.

Voters for Climate Action Petition

I am a voter and am looking for bold climate solutions from the next president and the 111th Congress. Our top priorities are:
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Hey Virginia: CCAN is hiring!

VA State Campaign Coordinator

The VA State Campaign Coordinator, based in the beautiful city of Richmond, will be working with CCAN’s Campaign Director to build our grassroots base across much of the state while planning and implementing our state legislative strategy in Virginia’s capital, Richmond. This is an organizing position that requires the ability to be a strong public leader while possessing an aptitude for the legislative process. The applicant will be maintaining and expanding our base of volunteers, e-activists and coalition partners outside Northern Virginia to leverage our network for both state and federal campaigns. Learn more>>

Virginia Campus Organizer

The Virginia Campus Organizer will be responsible for running the Campus Climate Challenge on campuses across Virginia. Utilizing organizational and coalition resources, the Virginia Campus Organizer will serve as the ground support for this campaign, outreaching and training students, planning events and actions, and educating and mobilizing youth to speak out about clean energy and climate change to political leaders. Learn more>>

Want to know how awesome it is to work at CCAN? Watch this short video from CCAN’s staff:

High-Tech, High-Income, High-Polluting Virginia

Article by Mike Tidwell, published in the Washington Post

Sunday, November 2, 2008; B08

Mention the words “Northern Virginia” and the hyphenated adjectives come to mind: fast-growing, high-tech, well-educated, high-income. Fairfax County has a higher percentage of high-tech workers than Silicon Valley. No wonder the presidential candidates can’t seem to stay away.

So here’s the surprising question for every Northern Virginia voter: Why is this high-tech region, so dedicated to a “knowledge-based” economy, utterly dependent on an energy system as old as the Confederate States of America? Northern Virginia gets the lion’s share of its electric power not from wind turbines or solar farms but from coal: a shocking 1,180,400 tons of raw coal each year, nearly half of the region’s total load. And it’s not “clean coal” or “high-tech” coal. Just black, sooty, “rip it from the ground and set it on fire” coal. You’d think it would be different. You’d think Northern Virginia would be a leader in developing clean, sustainable energy at a level equal to its high-tech, high-education status.

You’d think.
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