CCAN in Copenhagen: Dispatch from the future

First of all, imagine this: the people of Copenhagen, Denmark, generate one-sixth of the greenhouse gas pollution per capita as people living in Washington, D.C. One sixth! That’s the first thing you notice when you come to Copenhagen, as I have, for the international climate talks. I’m here to represent your voice as a dedicated CCAN supporter. I’m also here to see the future.

Denmark as a nation gets nearly 25 percent of its electricity from wind farms. The city of Copenhagen itself is full of bicycles. They’re everywhere. And the subway system is world class. I saw a guy on the subway Sunday in Copenhagen carrying a Christmas tree. On the train. People do everything here, go everywhere, without cars! And Danes, at the same time, are consistently ranked in surveys as some of the happiest people on Earth. Radically low-carbon and happy people.

So I’m seeing the clean-energy future in practice this week. Too bad the world’s top leaders Continue reading

Picture(s) of the Week

This week, two pictures made it into most inspiring picture of the week category, although I can only show you one on this blog. The first is from Avaaz Climate Action Factory, which pulls together some of the most creative and timely actions in my opinion.

Tuesday evening, while President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, dozens of activists with Avaaz.org released a hundred Chinese flying lanterns and a floating balloon banner just south of the White House.

According to Morgan at Avaaz’s Climate Action Factory in DC:

Chinese flying lanterns are a symbol of hope traditionally released to celebrate the new year. The Avaaz action highlighted China’s proactive domestic climate commitments as a source of inspiration for the UN climate summit in Copenhagen this December.

The other picture I can’t find online unfortunately. But if you check out B2 of today’s Washington Post, you’ll see a picture of Matt Means and Ed Bush busy installing what will be the largest solar-energy system in the Washington area at Catholic University. More than 1,000 panels will be installed on four buildings this fall.

Trick or Treat!

IMG00124Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. For one day of the year, you get to be someone (or something) else. Today, a few of us dressed up as green jobs workers and delivered a message to our Virginia Senators: We want clean energy jobs NOW! Wearing green hard hats, work boots and tool belts, we delivered our messages in style- by presenting the staff of Senator Webb and Senator Warner with a Frankenstein halloween bucket filled with candy and petitions from folks all across the Commonwealth who want Congress to pass a strong climate bill this year. We think they got the message!
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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

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.

Gandhi Today

Gandhi Today

“Somewhere there’s a sweet spot, that produces enough without tipping over into the hyper-individualism that drives our careening, unsatisfying economy. The mix of regulation and values that might make such self-restraint more common is, of course, as hard to create in China as in the United States; far simpler just to bless an every-man-for-himself economy and step aside. But creating those values, and the laws and customs that will slowly evolve from them, may be the key task of our time here and around the world.” Bill McKibben, Deep Economy

140 years today Mohandus Gandhi was born in Gujarat province in India. I didn’t learn this from the New York Times, CNN, or any other mainstream media source. I didn’t learn about it from progressive media outlets, although it is very possible that one or more of them publicized it and I missed it.

I learned about this as a result of being invited to speak yesterday at William Patterson University in northern New Jersey by a professor who organized a program about Gandhi’s relevance for today. Thanks to Balmurli Natrajan, Director of the Gandhian Forum for Peace and Justice, I’ve spent the last few days reflecting on this question.

When I was asked this question directly at yesterday’s forum, what came to mind is this: Gandhi is important, is of continuing relevance, because he wasn’t just a great, if imperfect, leader of India’s successful struggle for independence from colonial Britain. He is important because he understood that it was necessary for him personally, and for his people, to be about the process of personal and cultural change if they were to have a chance of truly lasting, truly revolutionary change, in the best sense of the term.

Gandhi did his best to live a life which reflected the values of justice and love which he understood were central to the teachings of all great spiritual leaders. He went on fasts that were directed not just against the British but for his own people, calling upon them to refuse to mimic English violence and repression in their struggle for independence.

The words of Gandhi that I have used most often over the years are these: “Fasting is the sincerest form of prayer.” I’ve used them as I’ve learned their truth, as I’ve learned about prayer, during long fasts that I’ve undertaken in connection with the campaign to free Leonard Peltier, against the Iraq war and for strong government action to address the climate crisis.

There’s another fast very much in the Gandhian spiritual and political tradition that will be taking place about a month from now, a Climate Justice Fast (http://www.climatejusticefast.org). This is a fast initiated by young people in Australia, Europe and elsewhere specifically directed at the leaders of the world’s governments as they move toward the Dec. 7-18 international meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark to try to come up with a stronger climate treaty than the Kyoto Protocol. As I write, things are not looking good at all that they will do what is needed.

Anna Keenan, youth climate activist and one of the initiators of this fast, wrote yesterday about Gandhi. She began with a quote of his, that “the world has enough for everyone’s needs but not for everyone’s greed.” She went on to “share another great Gandhi quote:

Virginia Coal Industry Moving to Get Vanity Plates

This is cross posted from the Wise Energy for Virginia Blog

This is the vanity plate that the Va Mining Association is pushing for. Virginia law requires the sponsoring organization (in this case the Virginia Mining Association) to collect a minimum of 350 prepaid licenses plate applications. Here is more on this from them.

I’m not even sure what to say about this, its just gross. Maybe we could get “Friends of Sanity” plates? More likely we could get “Friends of the Mountains” or “Stop Mountaintop Removal” plates.

If your interested, email me, seriously: mike@appvoices.org

Big day for our side; big blow to King Coal!

Not only was the Senate climate bill announced today, but Secretary Chu issued a dire warning to proponents of new coal-fired power plants and the EPA made two exciting announcements, further protecting our precious mountains and our planet from devastating practices.

Today, Senators Boxer and Kerry announced the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. The President weighed in for the first time on the climate debate stating that his administration is “deeply committed” to passing a climate bill. We are excited to hear him make this long awaited statement. While this bill is an improvement over the house-passed American Clean Energy and Security Act, by strengthening the 2020 emissions by 3%, it still doesn’t go far enough to stop climate change. We look forward to working towards a strengthened bill that will provide for real change to the climate crisis.

It seems that addressing climate change is truly a top priority for the Obama Administration. Just yesterday, while touring the Jefferson Laboratory in Newport News, VA, Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu was specifically asked by reporters about the same proposed coal-fired power plant in the Hampton Roads region that CCAN is currently fighting. Secretary Chu commented that he favors delaying new coal plants until existing power plants have the capabilities of reducing harmful emissions.

Continuing the momentum, the EPA announced this morning that all 79 mountaintop removal permits currently being reviewed by the Army Corps of Engineers must undergo additional scrutiny. These permits were halted earlier this month until further investigation by the EPA which has determined that each and every permit would likely result in significant harm to water quality and the environment and are therefore not consistent with the requirements of the Clean Water Act. The next step is for the Corps and the EPA to work in “enhanced coordination” within a 60-day period. While the Corps can issue a permit without the EPA’s approval, the EPA can take action under section 404c of the CWA, allowing the agency to block Corps permits.

Later in the day, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, announced steps the agency will take in regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. The proposal will require large industrial facilities- including power plants- that emit at least 25,000 tons of GHGs annually, to obtain construction and operating permits to cover these emissions. The EPA estimates 14,000 facilities will be effected by the proposed emissions threshold.

So what does this all mean for Virginia? Well first, passing a climate bill has the potential for creating 46,000 clean energy jobs. These jobs can boost the clean energy economy of our Commonwealth while making us a leader in this sector. Regulating greenhouse gas emissions of power plants will make the already $6 billion coal-fired power plant proposed for Surry County even more costly for consumers. There are better solutions for our energy needs through energy efficiency programs and renewable energy projects. The EPA scrutiny over the 79 mountaintop removal permits shows that King Coal can no longer get its way by destroying communities and impacting our climate. This is a great day for the environmental movement- especially for those of us working in Virginia. We haven’t won the war but the battle victory is ours.
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The Chamber of Commerce has no friends

This has been one exciting week for the climate.

Leaders came together in New York for a United Nations Climate Change Summit, climate activists geared up for the G-20 talks in Pittsburgh, and the whole world geared up for the big talks in Copenhagen.

CCAN’s Ted Glick, Andy Revkin at the New York Times and Anna Pinto, an indigenous rights activist from India, all appeared on Democracy Now! yesterday to talk about the all-important talks in Copenhagen.

“We’ve had a fossil fuel party for a century,” said Revkin during the interview. Watch it here>>

Earlier this week, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown committed to going to Copenhagen himself if it means securing a successful outcome. That phone call was part of thousands being placed across the globe as part of Avaaz.org’s “Global Wake-Up Call.” If their inspiring video is any indication (and I think it is), the coordinated “flash mob” actions went really well.

President Obama gave a heartening, although too tame, speech to the United Nations.

Our generation’s response to this challenge will be judged by history, for if we fail to meet it — boldly, swiftly, and together — we risk consigning future generations to an irreversible catastrophe.

At the same meeting, the President of Malidives gave an incredibly powerful, moving speech.

If things go business-as-usual, we will not live, we will die. Our country will not exist. We cannot come out from Copenhagen as failures. We cannot make Copenhagen a pact for suicide. We have to succeed and we have to make a deal in Copenhagen.

And to top it off, PNM Resources just abandoned its seat on the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, citing a fundamental disagreement over its approach to global warming.

According to NRDC’s Pete Altman:

The statement comes within hours of news of electric utility PG&E’s complete withdrawal from the US Chamber and a public statement from Nike expressing its disgust over the Chamber’s views on climate.

PG&E, Nike and PNM cited frustration with the Chamber’s call to put climate science on trial, which Chamber vice-President Bill Kovacs compared to the Scopes Monkey Trial. Kovacs later apologized for the remark. Earlier this spring, Johnson and Johnson made public its frustration with the Chamber’s position on climate.

Outlook for the Chamber of Commerce: not so good.

Outlook for the climate: Long way to go, but progress is being made.

Speaking of progress, don’t miss Lester Brown’s encouraging Op-Ed in the Washington Post’s Outlook section over the weekend.

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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