It’s Getting Hot In Here

Today, on Dr. King’s Birthday,  most America’s thoughts are turned toward this amazing man, what he brought to our nation and to our people.  On this day, we remember the struggle in that faded color tv kind of way, where racism was this ugly part of us that passed on into the afterlife, or at least only lives in the southern US.  Our eyes water with inspiration and we are thankful that things have changed.  However,  we sometimes forget how much more of that long road we still have to march.

His day is a reminder, of what those who have gone before me had to live through, and how each of us have played a role in our own collective punishment.

His day is a reminder to me, that it we must celebrate life, culture, our growing movement and how they all intertwine.  Let’s break open the paint, the pianos, and utilize art and music, let’s dig deeper into our creative beings in order to communicate our message more effectively.  Let us take that same approach when thinking of solutions to this massive problem.

His day is a reminder to me, that it is not just enough to celebrate.  We must also recognize the black community in this country, still struggling for basic human rights. We must honor the vision of so many, including Martin Luther King Jr. and re-shape how we interact with one another in this world.

Continue reading ‘We Have a Lot to Work on…Our Vision, Today’s Reality’

Peabody has a new ad campaign where they put sunglasses on a piece of coal and try to make it look “cool.”

Uhhh, isn’t that ironic? Coal the leading source of green house emissions in the heating of the planet trying to look “cool.”

There are also the eerie parallels between the coal industry and the tobacco industry as many point to resemblances to cool coal and Joe Camel. Both industries use a lot of marketing and public relations to sugarcoat their products. The reality is that tobacco caused a lot of health problems  and coal causes a whole list of health and environmental problems (look at the recent TVA spills in east Tennessee if you don’t believe me)

Yesterday Van Jones delivered brilliant testimony on re-building our economy the right way. Here is the video:

Read the full text here.

I’m sitting a couple blocks north of the White House and the buzz around here is intense.

People are arriving by the busload, the metro lines are already having problems, and in 5 days, millions of people will descend on the National Mall for the inauguration of a new President.

Continue reading ‘Hope is not a strategy’

Update: National Coal is claiming no more than 600 tons of coal were dumped, and it was on their own property, FYI.

I can’t believe this — 1100 TONS of coal dumped in Tennessee and I can’t find ANYthing about this anywhere on-line except via the good folks with Sierra Club and Save Our Cumberland Mountains in Tennessee. If you are fed up and fired up and ready to stand in solidarity with communities in Tennessee check out Mountain Justice Spring Break www.mjsb.org which will be happening near the TVA Ash Dam Disaster March 7-15, 2009 and will encourage service projects and direct action against TVA’s criminal negligence.

But before you do that, please note the discrepancy from when the spill happened to when it was discovered — appears to have been a cover up. From SOCM’s press release:

A coal train operated by National Coal Corporation over turned on Friday, January 9, 2009, spilling approximately 1100 tons of coal next to the New River in Scott County, Tennessee. Eight rail cars, which typically hold 120 tons of coal, were involved.  The contamination was discovered on Monday, January 12, 2009 by Steve Bakaletz, a Wildlife Biologist with the National Park Service at the Big South Fork (BSF) Recreation Area’s Oneida Office.

According to Mr. Bakaletz, cleanup had been ongoing through the weekend following the wreck but had not been completed by the time he discovered it. Video of the spill was taken by BSF employees. Mr. Bakaletz notified Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on Monday after he discovered the spill. TWRA’s Sundquist WMA is nearby but was not directly impacted. The New River supports 2 endangered species of fish.

Photograph by Antrim Caskey at Kingston Fossil Plant, TN

The stunning negligence of the Tennessee Valley Authority to protect people, land and water from toxic coal waste pollution has prompted agencies to take a new look at coal pollution, including my state of Iowa.

The Iowa Environmental Protection Commission just announced today its decision “to pursue landfill-style regulations at coal-ash disposal sites, turning away industry pressure that threatened to delay the action.” (emphasis added)

Over a year ago the Iowa Department of Natural Resources announced it was going to start requiring the lining of coal ash pits, but under pressure from the utilities and the University of Iowa, the DNR caved in to call for “up to three years to see whether the toxic ash was polluting waterways before requiring liners and monitoring at new disposal sites.”

We know that even “safe” disposal sites can generate catastrophic pollution of our land, homes and water from the coal waste they hold (Exhibit A: Kingston, TN, Exhibit B: northeast Alabama, Exhibit C: Ocoee River, TN)

Here’s my favorite part:

“In ’87, when we started discussing this, … we were assured by industry and DNR at the time that this could not possibly cause a problem, that this was a great beneficial use,” and wouldn’t get into groundwater, said Commissioner Paul Johnson of Decorah, a former state lawmaker and former DNR director. “Since then, we’ve found out that that is not true.”

Duh!  You’d have thought it would take them less than 21 years to come to that conclusion.  Continue reading ‘Iowa Cleans Up Its (Coal) Act: Cites TVA as Factor’

Put together a promo tool from around the way. Getting really excited about PowerSHIFT! If this video has already been posted my apologies in advance

Over winter break, I got to speak on the phone with a senior Congressional aid. The conversation moved at breakneck speed, covering Congressional caucuses, faith leadership, and celebrity contacts (we left messages for Sean Penn and Dan Reed!). But what stuck in my head was this comment: “Legislators on the Hill still joke about global warming. They joke that we will all die of some heat wave…you all are doing such important work, because these legislators just don’t understand climate change.”

Youth know that we are not talking about some one-time catastrophe, there is no impending “doomsday”. We are talking about weather events that displace thousands at a time, slow change (by human standards) that will shift life’s foundations around us, and that will change the meaning of seasons as we know it. Our generation also knows that we will be the ones finding solutions, and that Congress can give us a head start. Or not.

The connection must be made between legislators who will be making the policies that affect our lives, and the youth who really get the scale and enormity of our challenge. This connection must be made soon, repeatedly, and forge a partnership across generations. We will have many opportunities to do this over the next few months, and we must take advantage of them.

The first of these opportunities is on February 5th. The National Teach-In on Global Warming is connecting campuses, congregations, and communities directly with their US representatives.

There are now 140 schools around the country who have asked their congressperson to engage in direct video-dialogue on February 4th or 6th, and we are shooting for HALF of Congress. Over the course of these three days, Congress will hear from their constituents in-district about climate change, providing a powerful counter-point to the lobbyists housed across Pennsylvania Ave.

Let’s close the climate education gap on the Hill, and tell our representatives face-to-face how much we know, and how much we care.

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NATIONAL TEACH-IN GOALS FOR 2009

WEBCAST: “The First 100 Days.” Show the Teach-In web-cast, featuring David Orr, Hunter Lovins, Ray Anderson, Betsy Taylor and Billy Parish. Follow up with discussion of the recommendations of the PCAP.

CLIMATE DIALOGUE: Involve key decision-makers in round-table dialogue. Invite your US Senator and/or Representative to engage in video-dialogue via SightSpeed and ask them what they plan to do.

TEACH-IN: Engage the Nation around 4 concrete policy recommendations from the Presidential Climate Action Project, or other solutions options.
1. Cut carbon 40% below today’s levels by 2020.
2. Create millions of Green Jobs: Weatherize, solarize and rewire the nation.
3. Revitalize America’s economy: Lead the world in renewable technology.
4. Promote carbon neutral power.

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The movement converges on Washington in 2009. Together, we will construct the solutions that we need. Take a look at the Materials provided by our Partners to see how many solutions opportunities there are, from 350’s international networking to Interfaith Power and Light to CARE’s humanitarian efforts!

Represent your state: Sign Up to Host a Teach-In.

Coal is dirty.  From mining, to waste disposal, to global warming.  From New Mexico to New New England, to Appalachia — from rural to inner-city–folks are working to fight coal injustice and build new power for clean energy. But our work is only beginning, and we need your help.

I’m completely fired up about this new landmark effort to Power Past Coal. From January 21st until April 30th dozens of groups around the country and joining together to have 100 Days of Action in 100 Days to Power Past Coal! Crazy? Probably. Necessary? Yes.  But, we need folks like you to let us know about events in your community working for clean energy and working to Power Past Coal if it’s going to be a success.

Be part of the Power Past Coal movement!  Please add your events which expose the true cost of coal and work for clean energy solutions to the website today! Spread the news and stories of dirty coal far and wide. Plan and register an action. Recruit your friends. Stand in solidarity with the people who have been fighting coal for too long. And join us as we set the course for our nation’s energy future. Take action. Tell your story. Join the movement.

In this episode we unveil the Power Stache, take a tour of the convention center and watch a video put together by the Sierra Club.

Links and transcript available at http://www.powershift09.org/blog/vlog

Send Questions and Comments to theteam@energyaction.net