It’s Getting Hot In Here

An international group of young climate advocates on the stairs of German Bundestag in Berlin. This post's author is showing the middle * in the word "F***ING"

I type these lines in early August, on the eve of the UN intersessional climate talks in Bonn, Germany. I am few hundred miles away from Bonn at the moment, staying late into the night at the climate action center in Berlin. The space is shared by the twenty young organisers from Avaaz and 350.org coming from 15 different countries of the world. One hundred twenty days separate us from the biggest and the most important political meeting in history of humanity. Bigger than the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 and arguably more important than the Yalta Conference in 1945, it will be a test of humankind’s readiness to leave its short-sightedness, selfishness, nationalism, and greed behind, and unite itself, for the first time ever, to prevent a planetary catastrophe and together build a happier, more sustainable world. The meeting is, of course, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change also known as the Conference of Parties (to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC) or simply COP-15 as it is usually referred to by politicians, activists, scientists and lobbyists from around the world.

Continue reading ‘Survival is not negotiable!’

This essay wraps up and brings together a series of reflections on tropical deforestation issues which I published while writing from Iquitos, Peru, earlier this summer (you can see those shorter pieces here, here, and here).  I know it’s long for a blog post, but to those concerned about the fate of tropical forests I hope it will be interesting.  This issue is way too complex and multi-faceted for the essay to be much shorter!

What it REALLY Will Take to “Save the Rainforests”

Continue reading ‘Rainforests for Social Justice’

Sitting outside of our (soon to be evicted) community house in Omaha, Nebraska I reflect on the Omaha Summer of Solutions.

By some accounts our program could be perceived as a failure. We didn’t mobilize a million, a thousand, or even a hundred to demand clean energy investments in Nebraska and we didn’t shut down a coal plant (yet). We lost volunteers and participants every month and by July we didn’t have anything substantial to put on paper and say we accomplished. But on closer examination we achieved much more than other campaigns that I have been apart of can claim.

Continue reading ‘The End is a Beginning, is an End is a …’

Simcoe County has begun building a dumpsite on the Alliston Aquifer, one of North America’s purest groundwater resources. With climate change accelerating concern for the world’s water resources, this construction project has come under particular scrutiny.

Farmers have been opposing the site for the past 20 years, even when it was just a proposal. For several months there has been growing opposition and First Nations peoples, local farmers, community members, cottagers, and southern Ontarians are joining together to tell city councilors to halt construction.

While there have already been several rallies at the site since early May, on July 25th,  about 2500 people came to rally for a one year moratorium on Site 41 development to ensure proper testing will be done. People want the tests to incorporate current levels of rainfall and water table variability, and to address how climate change coupled with a dump site will be affecting their water sources.

Currently, published engineering reports are anything but transparent, and do not adequately address concerns of groundwater contamination. The dump site was approved in 1990, and engineering reports only allow for a 20mm change in the water table. Since 1990, the water table has already changed more than that and with the affects of climate change being more severe than they were in 1990, there will be even more changes in the water table level and rainfall that will affect groundwater contamination. Aboriginal women have been blocking access to the Site, in protection of the water.  Now, many local people are joining to help block site access. Polls show that 85% of people support the ongoing blockade.

The County wants the blockade to end and site construction to continue, but citizens continue to fight against their elected officials and urge them to protect the pristine water and impeccable farmland. Continue reading ’84 Year-old Man Arrested: Protesting Against an Illegal Dump Site’

There’s a lot of negative energy out there, with tea-baggers disrupting town halls, lobbyists forging fake letters, and a the growing frenzy that seems to be engulfing politics in this country.  If this is how the fight for clean energy and health care reform is going to be won, and we feel like we have the people and resources to make our case strongly, than we need to step up to this challenge today.

But lets keep something in mind: we will never win by being more ass-holish than the ass-holes.  We’ll never be more sleazy,  and we’ll never be as good at saying ‘No’.  Even those of us that oppose the violent and dangerous coal industry are committed to offering peaceful and prosperous solutions.  We, as a movement for clean energy, are positive, constructive force for change.

This week has been so busy, that this piece didn’t get nearly the attention it deserved, and I want to bring it up now as we close out the week, as an positive example.  Sometimes our champions just need some encouragement, they just need some high fives, so they can go fight for what we know we need.

Cross posted from ActionFactoryDC.blogspot.com, by Oscar

Mysterious youngsters clad with monochromatic signs asking for a “Strong Global Climate Treaty” appeared early Thursday morning in front of the State Department Building in Washington DC.

State employees as well as unaware commuters were welcomed by the unusual sight of individuals aligned down the street holding signs that read “Strong Global Climate Treaty, Needs Todd Stern, Todd Stern, Needs Hope, High Five,” where one of them masked as Todd Stern (Special Envoy on Climate Change for the United States) awaited them with a raised hand ready to receive the support that he needs in the form of high fives.

Continue reading ‘Todd Stern Needs High Fives’

Even Slim Shady himself wouldn’t do something like this!

The same dirty energy organization that was behind last weeks scandal of forging letters to politicians saying Americans are not in support of new jobs and clean energy are at it again.  They are launching a $1 million campaign to PAY people so fake “activists” can attend town hall meetings and public events and pretend they oppose strong climate and energy legislation!!! <insert outrage here!>

They’re hoping these hired locals will be louder voices than ours so our elected officials think their constituents are not in favor of creating new jobs and investing in clean energy…which they likely are!  So shady!!!

This is why we need to grow our movement bigger and louder than ever! PLEASE take a second to join the movement that thousands of other young people have joined and helped build.  In the coming weeks we will notify you of different ways that you can get involved on a local and national level, but it starts by taking a few seconds to click here and sign up.

Also, post this link to this blog on your Facebook or Twitter status so your friends can join the movement as well.

Thank you for joining us in the fight!

Pete Griffin
Energy Action Coalition
Campaign Director

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $377 million in funding to establish 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) pursuing potentially path-breaking basic and translational research at the cutting-edge of clean energy innovation. Of this funding, $277 comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, otherwise known as the stimulus package) and $100 million comes from the DOE’s FY2009 budget. The funding will be sustained over the next five years, with the DOE committing $100 million of its budget to the research centers each year.

“Meeting the challenge to reduce our dependence on imported oil and curtail greenhouse gas emissions will require significant scientific advances,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu as he announced the new funding for EFRCs. “These centers will mobilize the enormous talents and skills of our nation’s scientific workforce in pursuit of the breakthroughs that are essential to expand the use of clean and renewable energy.”

The majority of EFRCs are based in universities, with several harnessing the skills and resources of the national laboratories, and just three awarded to non-profit organizations and private corporations. Over the course of the program, these centers will employ over 1,800 people in research into four primary realms: Renewable and Carbon-Neutral Energy (including Solar Energy Utilization, Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems, Biofuels, and Geological Sequestration of CO2); Energy Efficiency (Clean and Efficient Combustion, Solid State Lighting, Superconductivity); Energy Storage (Hydrogen Research, Electrical Energy Storage); and Crosscutting Science (Catalysis, Materials under Extreme Environments).

Continue reading ‘Secretary of Energy: Breakthroughs Essential to Fully Meet Nation’s Energy Challenges’

Bonner and Associates pissed us off, so a few of us at the Action Factory, a group of young climate activists living and working in DC, took our clothes off in the rain to demonstrate the NAKED FRAUD of this astroturf lobbying firm.
Bonner and Associates, who were working for the Hawthorne Group, whom in turn were working for American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, forged not 1, not 6, but 12 letters to not 1 but 3 congressmen. All three of these companies are outraged, claiming to have fired the ‘deviant’ employee who supposedly acted on his or her own. They were so ‘outraged’ that they didn’t notify the congressmen who received these letters. They were so ‘outraged’ that they even forgot that Bonner has been caught using almost the same tactics before, making them look very stupid for hiring them in the first place. That’s pretty much blind with outrage.

Once the intense anger of the moment subsided, we grabbed a camera and headed back to Bonner’s office first thing Monday morning to get to the bottom of this. Keep in mind, we’re not professional journalists, and I apologize in advance if our ‘outrage’ clouds our judgment on ethical conduct. But, I think that you’ll enjoy joining us on this search for democracy. Bonner and Associates seems to have stolen it, so it only made sense to start looking at the scene of the crime…

Some thoughts:
*People seem pretty unsure of whether forging letters is illegal
*We’re not legal experts – what are the legal consequences for mail fraud? forging names and signatures? Lying to congress?

Update:
Sierra Club’s letter to the DOJ spells out some of the legalese and next steps.  Read it on the Wonk Room

Also, watch Rachel Maddow’s ongoing series on “Unnatural Mail Enhancement”

A shortened version of this post was published at Today’s Campus.

The sustainability movement on college and university campuses has grown immensely this decade. In just a few years, sustainability has gone from a debate in a few campuses to a reality in virtually most colleges and universities. Behind this movement of colleges and universities trying to become sustainable is the energy of students who have organized to push sustainability forward in regards to funding, awareness, policy, and practice.

Students have organized themselves to pressure schools to do more on areas like energy and climate change, waste, food and water, and transportation. But at the same time, another group of non-activist students has been emerging to push sustainability from a different angle. This group is made up of students who don’t necessarily want to become active organizers on campus, but instead want to help colleges and universities research and develop new technologies, practices, and designs that can lower society’s ecological footprint.

There is a strong need to create opportunities for students to develop technologies, practices, and designs that can make campuses more sustainable. While many institutions have been integrating sustainability into curricula, few are actually creating research opportunities that directly engage students in creating or improving the solutions that can help us become more sustainable faster. To add to the lack of student research opportunities, there isn’t a vibrant organized community of students pushing to create these opportunities, probably because such students are simply interested in helping develop solutions but not ready to organize to make such opportunities available.

Continue reading ‘Student Opportunities: Research and Development for Sustainability’

UPDATE: Check out this video from the Hay Point action

I got forwarded this tonight from some of my friends down under.  Daring, bold and inspiring Australian Greenpeace direct actionistas have shut down one of the largest coal export terminals in the world with lockdowns and a climb team on the Queensland coast.

Early in the morning, they entered the facility.  The climbers scaled a 50 metre coal loading machine and have been there over 24 hours dangling like fruit bats.  The lockdown team was cut out.

Over 54,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions have been saved and coal ships are backed up waiting for the facility to be cleared.

Further north in Cairns, Kevin Rudd is meeting with Pacific Islander leaders discussing cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.  Those most severely affected by climate change are demanding that Rudd act with daring and bold policy to stem the worst effects of climate change. Continue reading ‘Australians Shut Down Giant Coal Export Terminal’