Tag: climate change

Sandy Reminds Us to Harness Winds and Mitigate Their Wrath

Maryland was just hit by Hurricane Sandy, the largest storm ever recorded to hit the East Coast, but not as hard as states like New Jersey and New York:

“We all dodged a bullet on this one,” Anne Arundel County Fire Battalion Chief Steve Thompson said Tuesday from the county’s emergency operations center. “If that storm would have wiggled a little bit south, with those winds, it would have been a doozie.”

Yet, 300,000 people from Virginia to Baltimore remained without power Tuesday evening and many areas of the state experienced extensive flooding. The fishing pier on Ocean City’s iconic boardwalk is now half-gone. Sadly there were also a couple storm related deaths in Maryland as well as a number of injuries.

As we begin to rebuild, the first thing we must do is make sure everyone is safe and has what they need to survive in our state and across the country. Please donate if you can to the American Red Cross as they most certainly will need more robust funding in the coming years and decades.

Once we get back on our feet, with the metro running in DC and the subways back on track in New York City, we must immediately focus on what we can do to lessen the wrath of ever-worsening storms like Sandy. Perhaps Stephen Lacey and Joe Romm put it best when describing the link between human-caused climate change and these new super-storms:

Hurricane Sandy: The worst-case scenario for New York City is unimaginable

What might Hurricane Sandy do to New York City? See excerpts below from my 2006 book The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America’s Coastal Cities (Simon and Schuster/Free Press). It’s a depressing title meant to help shock us into preventing these worst-case scenarios from coming true via global climate change. But it might now be too late for parts of imperiled New York. As you read, keep in mind that as of Sunday night October 28th, the National Hurricane Center was forecasting that the storm could hit anywhere between Delaware and Rhode Island, with a surge tide as high as 11 feet in some places. Even if New York City avoids a direct strike, it is still facing a potentially “worst-case scenario” in terms of surge tides.

climate change global warming Hurricane Sandy Mike Tidwell

VA climate action at sprint-to-the-finish Obama rally

After watching three presidential debates in which climate change was mentioned a grand total of zero times, Richmond area CCANers struck with our well-known banner at today’s big swing-state candidate appearance in sunny Byrd Park!

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Virginia Students Pledge to for a Clean Energy Future

Just days after the second Presidential debate, Barack Obama returned to Virginia today to rally his supporters in the last few weeks before the big day. While thousands of students, community members, and families lined the streets of George Mason University to show their support for the President, I was pleasantly surprised to find that one thing was on a lot of people’s minds: climate change. And they weren’t happy about it.

climate change Virginia

Standing up to Dominion's Rip-Off, in October and beyond

What could have prepared Dominion executives for the tremendous showing of customer outrage and dissatisfaction unleashed the week of October 1st! Without our dedicated climate warriors who participated and supported the Week of Action, Dominion would continue to quietly, and legally, get away with setting up a $76 million bonus for themselves while playing keep-away with Virginia’s clean energy future. Since the Week of Action, the clean air advocates and climate protectors of Virginia got control of the ball, and for a change Dominion representatives have had to respond to some hard questions from reporters.

The Stand Up to Dominion Week of Action was so successful because of the participation of clean energy supporters from all around Virginia, and it was especially uplifting to have everyone sharing their reasons for taking action.

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Climate-denying ostrich greets U.S. Senate candidates Tim Kaine and George Allen

Climate ostrich and animal keeper news interview

This is a guest post from CCAN fall intern Norah Berk. Check out all the pictures from the ostrich action on CCAN’s flickr account.

Starting at around 9 a.m. today, demonstrators began to line Dolly Madison Blvd across the street from the Capitol One Center in McLean in anticipation of the debate between the two candidates that would take place just a few hours later. Amidst others holding signs for their favored candidate, CCAN staff and volunteers proudly stood holding the “STOP climate change” banner that Obama once set eyes on. At 10 a.m. special guest Cleopatra, The Queen of Denial (an 8-feet tall climate-change denying ostrich), appeared. Her presence called attention to both candidates’ denial of the urgent need for renewable energy in Virginia over dirty, yet so-called “clean”, fossil fuel options.

climate change Senate Virginia

Talking climate and the state of the Bay at Hampton Bay Days

At Hampton Bay Days this past weekend, the high-jumping Dock Dogs weren’t the only ones who made a splash! Thanks to all our local volunteers, CCAN had two great days of outreach promoting clean energy and enlisting the help of festival-goers to bring clean energy to Virginia! As the only organization educating the public on the impacts of climate change to the Chesapeake Bay region, it was a perfect opportunity to talk about how to move clean energy away from fossil fuels and toward renewable solar and wind power for the sake of our waterways and our coast.

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CCANers to Ryan in Virginia: No KXL

The day after the Republican National Convention of 2012 concluded, Ryan appeared today at a rally in Richmond Virginia in stifling 100-degree August heat on an airport tarmac, and local climate activists greeted him with a clear message to pass on to his running mate Mitt Romney: No Keystone XL Pipeline.

While candidate Romney spent the day reaching out to Americans affected by flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac, recalling the damage done by Hurricane Katrina and the risk of stronger storms hitting the Gulf Coast and mid-Atlantic as the climate changes, Ryan addressed a sizable swing-state crowd. As he began to bring up the issue of energy and speak about Virginia’s coal reserves and the need to use it, local activists took a stand for the climate and unfurled a banner for the candidate to read.

climate change Keystone XL pipeline oil Richmond Virginia

Barack Obama Drives Past CCAN Banner at Charlottesvile Rally

As excited motorists, bicyclists, and people on foot passed by, local citizens and I held up a banner telling the president that his “‘all of the above energy’ policy won’t stop climate change.” Even the air tingled with excitement, as the crowd’s cheers echoed from the pavillion and the ever-present security forces barely hid their anticipation. After getting politely removed to a nearby location on Market, I knew that the moment I was waiting for, when we would show the President our message for more clean energy, was near.

climate change Keystone XL pipeline President Barack Obama Rally Virginia

Crying Over Colorado

Reading the article below by Julia Olson made me cry.

One of the big memories of my childhood is a one-month vacation trip my family took when I was 14 years old, driving from Lancaster, Pa. to Colorado and staying in Manitou Springs, just outside of Colorado Springs, for two weeks. Now, Manitou Springs is burning.

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