Clean Coal Fail

Meet Anne. Anne is excited about cleaning coal. She has a basin, a washboard, and some soap. Here she goes…

Slideshow by Jay

Thanks to Kathy Selvage and Antigone Ambrose for the inspiration!

Obviously coal isn’t clean and we need your help to spread the word. Coal Country is a stunning new documentary that reveals the devastation of mountaintop removal coal mining to the forests, streams, and communities of Appalachia. We need to get this film in the hands of Americans nationwide. Help get the word out and end mountaintop removal coal mining by hosting a Coal Country House Party. Deadline is November 1st.

Virginia youth for 350 parts per million.

cross posted from thinkaboutit.eu

This weekend, in conjunction with 350.org’s International Day of Climate Action, more than 100 students from across the Commonwealth of Virginia converged on the campus of George Mason University in order to plan the next phase in the fight for a clean and responsible future for Virginia the United States, and the globe.

Virginia Power Shift 2009 was marked by a wide array of workshops, panels and speakers, ranging from greening your daily living, political and direct action training (with help from the folks at AVAAZ), and new and diverse ways to spread and grow the youth environmental movement.

The phenomenal lot of keynote speakers included Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Jessy Tolkan, director of the Energy Action Coalition, and Gillian Caldwell from the 1Sky campaign, all key personalities in the struggle to end human-caused climate change. Representatives from Repower America and SustainUS offered valuable insight into the role of youth within America’s nonprofit and NGO culture. Continue reading

Would you want these kinds of benefits?

Late last week, after resolving a lawsuit by environmental and public health organizations, EPA officials announced that they have set a deadline for developing standards to limit mercury and other toxins emitted from coal-fired power plants by Nov. 16, 2011. According to the EPA, coal-fired plants in this country emit nearly 50 tons of mercury each year, or about a third of the nation’s total mercury emissions. Initially when the suit was filed last year, only 28% of coal plants used scrubbers for pollution controls. However, these scrubbers are creating another environmental problem: contaminated drinking water. According to an article in the New York Times, one of the biggest threats to our waterways is coal-fired power plants. Yet there are no federal regulations on the proper disposal of toxins from coal plants into waterways or landfills. The EPA announced earlier this week it will begin looking into the contamination effects of fly-ash, a coal by-product created when coal is burned.

In a report released by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation earlier this month, mercury emissions from the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative’s (ODEC) proposed coal-fired power plant for the Hampton Roads region in Surry County would further damage waterways leading into the Chesapeake Bay where state advisories are already posted due to the high levels of mercury contamination.

All of this comes on the heels of a report by the National Academy of Sciences stating that the annual cost of health issues related to emissions from coal-fired power plants was about $60 billion in the United States.

Surry County and the rest of the Chesapeake Bay community don’t need these kinds of “benefits”. Join us in saying NO to this plant.

Dedicated, Enthusiastic Students Rock Maryland Power Shift!

McDaniel students are pumped!
Over a hundred students gathered at the University of Maryland, College Park over the weekend for the first ever Maryland Power Shift. The participants, from over fifteen different Maryland and D.C. schools, gathered on Saturday to participate in the 350.org International Day of Action in D.C. and on Sunday for a conference on grassroots organizing around environmental issues.

On Saturday students stood out in the crowd with green Power Shift t-shirts and led the 350.org march in DC with enthusiastic cheering: keeping everyone’s energy high. Sunday was also a big success. Students had a chance to meet fellow activists from other schools to share ideas, tips, and excitement!

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Washingtonians are NOT just fair weather activists!

Goucher students in front of White HouseWhat an incredible experience standing in front of the White House with hundreds of soaked, dedicated people taking part in a historic, global event! Standing there Saturday we were connected to schoolchildren in Ghana, mountain climbers in Vermont, women in Bangladesh, and activists in Egypt.

If you haven’t already, please head to www.350.org and spend a few minutes watching the pictures from around the world. As Bill McKibben wrote as he watched images flood in from every corner of the globe, “I finally saw what a climate movement looked like — and it looked diverse and creative and beautiful.”

Rally in Lafayette ParkYou can also check out the great images from the DC action. Thanks to Chris Eichler and Mark Fenton for these inspiring pictures.

Finally, Grist has a great roundup of coverage from across the world, including commentary by CCAN’s very own Keith Harrington and this account of the DC event by freelance journalist Carrie Madren.

There’s much to be done yet. But right now take a minute to soak in the pictures from across the globe and savor this accomplishment. It’s not every day you can be part of the most widespread day of political action the world has ever seen.

Rising seas, rising awareness

The Baltimore Sun

By Mike Tidwell

Here’s an idea: Why don’t the residents of Smith Island – at the fragile center of the Chesapeake Bay – rent a few scuba-diving suits and hold a town hall meeting under water?

Scientists say a huge part of the Chesapeake region could be below water in a few decades due to rapid global warming. So why not practice up? Just grab a few wetsuits and goggles and rehearse for the aquatic life to come.

Continue reading

Maldives underwater? Maryland's Smith Island will go first!

Yes I’m very concerned about the drowning nations of the South Pacific and Indian Ocean. But Maryland’s Smith Island — population 300, eighty miles from the White House — will be totally gone before any of these island nations disappear. See below my op-ed in today’s Baltimore Sun and watch a quick video about how global warming is ALREADY drowning AMERICAN islands right now.

Please join me and hundreds of thousands of other human beings worldwide this Saturday for the “International Day of Climate Action.” Visit www.350.org for an event near you, including a big one at Meridian Hill Park in Washington, DC from noon-5pm.

Rising seas, rising awareness
Climate change threatens to drown Maryland’s coasts and islands, but it’s not too late to act

By Mike Tidwell
Baltimore Sun
October 22, 2009

Here’s an idea: Why don’t the residents of Smith Island – at the fragile center of the Chesapeake Bay – rent a few scuba-diving suits and hold a town hall meeting under water?

Scientists say a huge part of the Chesapeake region could be below water in a few decades due to rapid global warming. So why not practice up? Just grab a few wetsuits and goggles and rehearse for the aquatic life to come.

A similar rehearsal took place last week in another island area: the archipelago nation of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. Sitting at underwater tables, atop underwater chairs with fish darting about, the country’s president and Cabinet ministers held a “global warming summit” to ask the world to stop the rising seas that could eventually submerge their entire country.

But as TV networks broadcast this bizarre meeting back to the U.S., you could almost hear the “tsk, tsk.” We comfortable Americans tend to view really big catastrophes – things like famines and tsunamis – as far-away matters involving people usually too poor or under-educated to plan better.

This mindset helped blind us to the pre-Hurricane Katrina dangers of New Orleans. And it’s blinding us today to the shared threat of climate change in places like Smith Island, not to mention Manhattan Island and most of south Florida. Continue reading

Oct 24, 2009- A Turning Point in Human History- Be There

If you’re still looking for a good reason to come out and join our big International Day of Climate Action rally and march in DC on Saturday try this on for size: the day of action won’t simply be the biggest day in the history of the global climate movement; it could very well be one of the biggest days in human history. And that’s not an exaggeration.

The truly wonderful thing about Saturday’s action is that it will be much bigger than just a single rally, or a single march on a single location in a single city in the world. It will be a truly global event. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it will be the first truly “global event” in history. For while there have been global days of action for this and other causes before, as far as I know none of them have ever included more than 4000 actions taking place in almost every single country on the planet. And while any given world cup final or Olympic opening ceremony may draw a global viewing audience of hundreds of millions, the ultimate measure of any “global” event lies not in its scale but in its spirit. And in terms of its global spirit I’d say our Day of Action on Saturday will beat even the Olympics hands down.

As the first truly global-scale crisis humanity has ever faced, the climate crisis is forcing us for the very first time to start perceiving ourselves as a true global community, facing a common threat as a species, as a global civilization. It’s forcing us to act globally, and seek solutions globally, as a true global community rather than as a collection of competing nations negotiating our way towards compromises that preserve our individual interests. By its very nature the global climate movement is leading us all through a door to a new era of global consciousness, to a transformation not just of the way that we consume energy, but of the way that we perceive ourselves, and our relations and responsibilities to each other.

So, considering that the Day of Action on Saturday will be the first truly global-scale expression of the movement that is driving us toward that new era of global consciousness and solidarity, I think it’s safe to say that it will be the first truly global event in human history. And those of us who participate in it won’t just be helping to usher in a new stage in the global climate movement; we’ll helping to usher in a new era of human history, a new era of global community.

And come snow or rain or heat or gloom, I’d say that’s definitely something to show up for. Go to www.350.org/dc today to RSVP today and claim your place in the vanguard of our global future.

Continue reading

In Richmond? Join the Clean Energy Parade this Sat.

For those of you who can’t make the trip for the history-making rally in DC this Saturday, I just got word of another rally on Saturday in Richmond. The Clean Energy Works campaign, a coalition of environmental, labor, faith, and national security organizations working to pass national clean energy legislation, will be marching in Virginia Union University’s homecoming parade! VUU is a historically black university in the City of Richmond. This year their parade will include a group marching in support of less pollution, more jobs, and greater security.

Everyone loves a parade. They’re an American institution. Plus clean energy will make us more secure and independent. What could more American than that?

Clean Energy Works is looking for folks who are excited about clean energy and green jobs in Virginia to march in VUU’s homecoming parade with them. They’ll be walking with beautiful, bright signs, t-shirts, flags and green hard hats. It should be fun!

If you’re interested, meet at the corner of 10th and Leigh streets at 9am on Saturday the 24th, continue down Broad St. and then right on Lombardy to the campus.

You can contact Antigone Ambrose if you have questions!
804-225-9113 ext. 112
Antigone.ambrose@sierraclub.org. More details below the fold. Continue reading