Category: Blog

“Forget the Petraeus report — what historians will note about September 2007 is that the Northwest Passage was free of ice for the first time since humans started keeping track.” — Bill McKibben, Washington Post, Sept 29, 2007

If there is one good thing that came out of the administration’s “Climate Summit” this week it was that it solidified, for those who needed further proof anyway, that President Bush will do anything he can to avoid providing any leadership on climate change. This week’s solution to the mounting public pressure accumulating in Washington was to create a parallel reality, one where mock conferences are more important than international negotiations, and false solutions take precedent over real action.

Even the Washington Post seems to be picking up on this:

President Bust assured the rest of the world yesterday that he takes the threat of climate change seriously and vowed that the United States “will do its part” to reduce the greenhouse gases that are warming the planet, but he proposed no concrete new initiatives to reach that goal.

As if that’s a surprise.

In a seeming rebuttal to this embarrassing turn of events, the Post also published a powerful op-ed by Bill McKibben — who chooses in dramatic fashion to not only confront the reality that Washington ignores, but highlight the competing realities between science and politics that has placed us in our current predicament.

Consider the news from the real world, the one where change is measured with satellites and thermometers, not focus groups: Arctic ice is melting on an unbelievable scale — an area the size of Britain disappeared each week in late summer as the record for minimum ice cover, set in 2005, was shattered by more than 400,000 square miles, meaning about a 27 percent loss.

Historically this tactic is not always a popular one. People don’t like to hear scary stories about what tomorrow may bring, and this reality is part of the reason why our politicians and even some of our fellow citizens have been so slow to acknowledge what civilization is facing.

But McKibben isn’t looking for a message that resonates, he — like many of us — is begging for an inkling of leadership, a shred of bravery from someone who isn’t discouraged by seemingly insurmountable obstacles, but willing to believe that we can confront and defeat our adversary. We’ve had such leaders before.

What we need to know, and soon, is: What does reality look like to you? Can you close the gap between science and politics? Who will lead on the great issue of our day?

After 20 years of inaction the race is finally underway. Global warming has a huge head start; the sprint to catch up is the story of our time.

Story of our time indeed Mr. McKibben. Sounds to me like our search for a “leader” is over. Now we simply must convince those in Washington to follow.

It is easy to get bogged down when you fight global warming — be it from new bad news about the Greenland Ice Sheet melting faster than expected or from the staggeringly slow pace at which many of our local, state, and federal governments are working to achieve real global warming solutions. There are days when it would be easy to say that, “we can’t do it,” “i think we have waited to long,” and “the opposition is too strong.”

The feeling of disempowerment, like you can’t ever make a difference no matter how hard you try, over your effect on global warming is our movements biggest enemy because disempowered people are inactive and complicit to the ‘business as usual’ mentality.

Last Wednesday, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network held its first in a series of five activist trainings designed to empower and educate citizens so they can not only be effective in their efforts to fight global warming, but also be leaders for others in the movement. The Climate Organizing Leadership Development (COLD) training series first session attracted about 15 activists to the Friends of the Earth Office in downtown DC to learn about the history of social movements and how our fight to stop global warming is part of a long line of successful and powerful social movements.

Attendees of the first COLD training were very impressed with quality of the presentation and the straightforward and well-informed training. The training featured a lecture and interactive breakout sessions.

There are four more COLD training sessions left that anyone can sign up for. Get Active. Get Organized. Get COLD!

GM, proud maker of the Hummer and the biggest contributor to global warming of any auto maker in the world, recently hatched a brilliant idea: Re-publish nine recent Post articles on global warming (including one about my solar home in Takoma Park) and pepper these truthful, serious pieces with deeply deceptive ads promoting GM’s “green” bona fides.

That’s right, this past week GM paid for an entire six-page advertising supplement in the Washington Post. It’s a brilliant PR strategy on GM’s part. They cannot be accused of messing with the facts since they’ve used actual stories written by Post reporters. And coupling their “green” products with authentic pieces of climate reporting lends these products an element of legitimacy.

“Gas-friendly to Gas Free” is their slogan throughout. The five technology / issue areas they discuss are:

• Fuel Efficiency
• E85 Ethanol
• Hybrid
• Electric
• Fuel Cell

I won’t get into a blow-by-blow refutation here (for a more in-depth analysis, read A Siegel’s blog post on DailyKos). Suffice it to say that the company has spent millions of dollars, year after year, lobbying Congress against even fractional increases in fuel economy standards. In one spasm of anti-environmental fervor, the company organized rallies all across the country in 2004 featuring company vice presidents trashing efforts to require U.S. vehicles to get just 7.5 more miles to the gallon, a target that would bring America up to China’s automobile standard. And in 2006, afraid that rising gas prices would discourage Hummer sales, the company gave away gasoline stipends to drivers in California and Florida.

This is not the only example of blatant green washing going on this week. This Tuesday ConocoPhillips is holding a “conversation on energy.” Yep, the nation’s third largest oil company wants to know your thoughts on “energy solutions.” ConocoPhillips is holding a series of town hall meetings across the country and one of these meetings is happening right here in Columbia, MD at 6:30 PM tonight. This is a blatant attempt by a major oil company to green wash its record, and it’s happening right in the heart of Maryland! For more info, read the Baltimore Sun blog post about the event.

What can we do to refute this gross green washing? I’ve written a letter to the editor of the Washington Post calling them out on making money on GM’s deeply deceptive ads. And we’ve asked our supporters in and around Columbia, Md. to spend this evening demanding that ConocoPhillips stop destroying our climate and get serious about renewable energy. If you’re in Md., we hope you can make it to the town hall meeting tonight. If not, educate yourself, write letters and do not accept that these companies, some of the worst polluters out there, are even close to doing enough to save our life-giving climate.

The Washington Post featured a local high school’s green renovation in Titans of Ecology, which began

At the brand-new T.C. Williams High in Alexandria, a modern “green” school, students say the environmentally friendly design has led to a serious lifestyle change: They can’t doze in class anymore because sunlight pours in from practically every angle.

Going green means more attentive students … at least, fewer students napping.This one of those benefits from Going Green, being more environmentally and energy sensitive (aware) when building, that many don’t realize. Putting aside all the environmental benefits (real benefits), being Energy Smart, Environmentally Smart is, well, simply being smart. Continue reading