Dispatches from the Youth Climate Movement
This video says it all.
Pollution and poverty are inextricably linked. People of color are almost three times more likely than whites to be hospitalized or die from asthma and other respiratory illnesses linked to air pollution. A New Sound invokes the pain of the gray economy and the promise of a new day. It tugs at your heart and asks you to be part of a growing movement for change. Give it a look. If you like it, please share it.
By Rising Tide
“Oceans turn increasingly acidic, wiping out calcareous plankton and further hitting surviving coral reefs-much of the marine food chain endangered. One summer in every two has heat waves as strong as the 2003 disaster in Europe, when 30,000 died. Drought, fire and searing heat strikes the Mediterranean basin. Greenland tips into irreversible ice melt, accelerating sea-level rise and threatening coastal cities around the world. Hundreds of millions live in peril of the rising seas. Polar bears, walrus and other ice-dependent marine mammals extinct in the Arctic. Glaciers in Peru disappear, threatening the water supplies to Lima. Declining snowfields also threaten water supplies. A third of species worldwide face extinction as the climate changes-the worst mass extinction since the end of the dinosaurs.”
This rather rosy scenario painted by author Mark Lynas is the reality we can expect to inhabit if the planet heats another 3.6 F degrees. Doesn’t’ sound like much fun, does it? Well unfortunately for us, 3.6 F also happens to be the degree to which our benevolent leaders at the G8 decided is ok to allow our world to heat up. Last month with much fanfare and backslapping the world’s 7 richest nations (plus Russia), who not coincidentally are responsible for the lion’s share of global emissions, set the bar for the collateral damage they are willing to accept in order to preserve their economic stranglehold on our planet.
On Sept 24 and 25th the G20, an outgrowth of the G8, will be meeting in Pittsburgh in an attempt to salvage this global economic order. The G20 includes all the G8 countries plus the next twelve largest economies and “emerging economies.” The G20 countries account for 80% of the world’s global gross national product. Many of the G8 leaders remarked at this year’s summit that it is becoming irrelevant, and that the G20 is where the real decisions will be made. Before this year’s G8 summit German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated, “I think the G20 should be the format that, like an overarching roof, makes decisions about the future.” While the G20 summit in Pittsburgh is largely focused on pumping some blood back into global capitalism, we cannot afford to overlook how the abstract world of global finance has very real world affects when it comes to climate and justice.
CLIMATE CHANGE THE BIGGEST LOSER OF G20 SUMMIT. That was what one headline read in the Guardian newspaper after this spring’s G20 summit in London. As part of the G20’s plan to revive the global economy, member nations have pledged over 1 trillion dollars. The question of course is where does this money go to? There’s not much info out there, but we know that car manufacturers, not exactly a low carbon industry, are getting a piece of the pie. In addition a good chunk of the money is earmarked for the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and assorted regional development banks, none of which have a very clean record when it comes to energy policies. From 1994 to 2003 the World Bank spent over $24.8 billion on fossil fuel projects. Meanwhile the IMF is well known for lending money to countries on the condition that they pay off the loans by upping resource extraction, including fossil fuels, and industrial scale logging. While the final communiqué from the London summit made vague references to sustainable development and green economies, there were no concrete commitments that the money was going to anything other than business as usual. Continue reading ‘Climate Movement, meet Global Capitalism. Global Capitalism, meet the Climate Movment: On the G20 and the fight for climate justice’
Today, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon outlined the four principles the United Nations is hoping will guide the discussions this December in Copenhagen when world leaders come together for the international climate summit. He noted “What is needed is the political will. We have the capacity. We have finance. We have the technology. The largest lacking is political will.”
The four political issues that the Secretary-General feels must be resolved in order for us to hit the scientific targets needed to avoid catastrophic climate change are:
He also re-emphasized his slogan for the Copenhagen summit which is “Seal the Deal,” signifying his hopes that the meeting is not just a token get together, but results in tangible resolutions that will set the global community on a path towards resolving this issue.
Do you think the four goals that Secretary Ki-moon outlined are specific enough?
Are there other points that you think should be in the top four goals of Copenhagen?
Let us know in the comments section below. Thanks!
Cross-posted from: here
Back in July, I made a post almost immediately after Japan’s prime minister decided to dissolve parliament, realizing this could be a big opening for a new climate leadership from Japan when we need it most. As I observed then, the main Japanese opposition party that may take power favors considerably more aggressive emissions targets of 25% below 1990 levels by 2020. This is in comparison to only 8% below 1990 levels for Japan’s current leadership. Please see my previous post on this subject on why Japanese leadership on this issue going into Copenhagen could be a big deal. Below is a press release I just got on how polls say Japanese voters support these strong emissions targets. Of course it would make sense that if a party is so unpopular it has to dissolve parliament, the current status quo is not going to poll well, which was why my previous post on this topic was optimistic for change. Continue reading ‘Japan Poll: Vote for Climate Leadership’
For a number of years, a coalition of groups have been fighting Dominion Energy’s proposed coal-fired power plant in southwest VA. Using tactics ranging from lobbying to letter writing to lawsuits to protests to lockdowns outside Dominion’s Richmond HQ and the actual plant site itself in Wise, VA.
Today, those efforts of raising awareness and putting pressure on political, corporate and legal systems have paid off as “a Richmond Circuit Court judge ruled today that the State Air Pollution Control Board violated federal environmental law in permitting Dominion Power’s coal-fired power plant in Wise County in the southwest corner of the state.”
This is a great victory in fighting coal-fired power and coal in general around the country.
Big props to the coalition fighting the plant. Continue reading ‘Judge Rules Dominion’s Wise County, VA Plant Air Permits “Unlawful”’
On August 1st, I reported on the results of Oregon’s 2009 legislative session, and expressed a hope that Governor Ted Kulongoski would veto two bills rolling back incentives for renewable energy in this state. I’m incredibly excited to say that I just learned Kulongoski vetoed both bills this past Friday!
The bills Kulongoski struck down were House Bill 2472, which attempted to roll back the amount of money set aside for tax credits to renewable energy projects; and House Bill 2940, which would have undercut the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard that the Oregon legislature passed in 2007. You can read the press release here.
With the specter of these two bills gone, the overall picture coming out of Oregon’s 2009 session looks a lot better. We passed some groundbreaking laws on clean energy and green jobs, which I described in my August 1st post. And now our governor has shown that his commitment to building this state’s green energy economy is more than just talk. Congrats to Governor Kulongoski: we need more leaders like him!
P.S. – if you live in Oregon, you can call Kulongoski and thank him at 503-378-4582
Update: Here’s the video of yesterday’s lockdown and protest.
Protesters demand federal EPA takeover of WVDEP, Huffington’s resignation
CHARLESTON, W.VA.— At 9:30 a.m., four protesters entered the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) and locked themselves to the office entrance. They are demanding that the agency hand over control of key programs to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) and that WVDEP Secretary Randy Huffman resign. Around them, dozens of demonstrators reiterated those demands. Inside the WVDEP, the four protesters are displaying signs that read “Closed Due to Incompetence” and “Department of Encouraging Pollution.”
Twelve protests in West Virginia since February 2009 have demanded an end to mountaintop removal, and over 90 citizens have been arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience. Continue reading ’4 Lockdown at WV Dept. of Environmental (No)Protection’
Cross-posted from Adopt a Negotiator campaign.
Governments have before them (in the aforementioned LCA session) anegotiating text: a framework of what the next step after, or within, the Kyoto Protocol will be. This document is public and available for download here.
(Note: this text appears to only currently be available in English. Don’t worry though – I hear that English is becoming the universal language anyway. The United Nations is probably testing the waters for a United Language – and where better than to test it then in practice!)
The chair who is running the LCA session has also written a personal note to set the tone for the talks. (Note: Also only in English, in true United Language fashion).
You may also… Wait for it… Watch the web-cast LIVE of the UN negotiations. (!!!)
(Warning: This may bring feelings of over-stimulation. Who needs Wii when you have Yvo de Boer?)
I emailed Canada’s Chief Negotiator this morning to check in on the United Nations climate change discussions happening this week in Bonn, Germany. He soothed my heart by responding immediately from his BlackBerry amidst the main LCA session.
(LCA stands for Long-term Cooperative Action – or, more descriptively, Leaders Can’t-get-enough Airtime — or, more solution-oriented, Lend Canada Advice — or, depending on the day, Let’s Clap for the Americans.)
We’re heading into five days of climate talks. Here’s where we left off, and where we need to go:
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