It’s Getting Hot In Here

This is the second post in a multi-part series on youth climate heroes from around the country.

Our youth climate movement is connected like no other movement in our world’s history. Thanks to the internet, we can instantly communicate with people around the country and globe – like I am doing right now – and spread awareness, organize, and make change!! Right??

It sounds almost like it should be easy by now! And yet, “making change” — and especially knowing when we are making change and what that even means– is really hard.

Over here at ACE, we have been lucky enough to work with over 40 high school students from around the country this past summer. Many of them shared their stories with us.

And now, each week, we will share a youth climate hero story. The students we are profiling are taking one of the boldest steps, getting involved in the first place. Their projects really span the gap of what is possible and have the power to show others what it can mean to get involved.

Check out Yassaman Sarvian’s story – and Team Marine:

Here’s a recent article/interview from Earth Island Journal with Dr. James Hansen. It’s Hansen on why he hates coal, what he thinks of the President, the current climate bill and global climate negotiations, as well as his take on Ghandian Civil Resistance

James Hansen on Ghandian Civil Resistance

A recent New York Times article pointedly asked whether NASA climate scientist Dr. James Hansen still matters. The subtext to the story was, has Hansen been too vocal and too unconventional in his criticism of Washington’s response to climate change to be taken seriously?

Hansen, dubbed by some as the “father of global warming,” has been connecting the dots between science and politics since his groundbreaking 1988 testimony to Congress about the greenhouse effect. In the last year, however, Hansen has gone far beyond talking about climate change. He’s now taking direct action to stop it. Continue reading ‘James Hansen Hates Coal: Dr. James Hansen on Ghandian Civil Resistance’

This weekend duel climate convergences happened, and are happening, in California and Pittsburgh,PA.

On Friday, the West Coast Climate Convergence (WCCC) gathered in Richmond Ca in the shadow of Chevron’s Richmond refinery.  Organizing, educating, networking, strategizing and action planning dominated as community activists from up and down the West Coast joined the process.  Organized primarily by the Mobilization for Climate Justice-West (MCJ-West), plans were made for Oct. 24, Nov. 30, solidarity actions with the upcoming protests in Copenhagen and beyond.  MCJ-West is a coalition and spokes council of over 30 organizations fighting for climate justice.

The day after the WCCC, a lively march and protest went from Sen. Barbara Boxer’s office to Chevron’s downtown offices in San Francisco’s Financial District before taking over an intersection with a parachute banner.

In the east, the 3 Rivers Climate Convergence have organized their camp for weeks amidst heavy police repression at the G20 summit.  The 3 Rivers Climate Convergence kicked off today for a week of action, education and organizing opposite the Sept. 20-23 International Coal Conference. Continue reading ‘Resistance is Fertile; West Coast and 3 Rivers Climate Convergences Build Power in California and Pittsburgh’

This morning brought big news that shook the tone and message of today’s wake-up call: Gordon Brown upped the ante by committing his attendance to the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen, being the first major head of state to do so. Luckily the Action Factory was awake early, diligently preparing ourselves for the days’ event. Our original action was planned to feature four world leaders, none of which included Prime Minister Brown, until the news broke. We excitedly shared the news amongst ourselves, and amended our action to feature just President Obama, Chancellor Merkel, and Prime Minister Brown as the world leader’s asleep on the job- but now with an added twist.

Arriving to the location of our event, I grew excited seeing three different TV stations already set up and speaking with our media. The event grew larger as time passed, with more and more reporters looking to find out what had brought so many dedicated citizens to this park corner on a Monday afternoon. Continue reading ‘Pittsburgh: Our Calls for Climate Action Answered’

Guest Posted by:  Guillermo Maciel – Focus the Nation Campaign Director

It has been over a week now, and I am realizing that I am still furious. I am deeply concerned with the continued partisan banter. As you may know one of our strongest voices for social and environmental justice, within the Obama administration – Van Jones, has been pressured by right wing smear tactics into resigning his post as Green Jobs Czar and Presidential Advisor. I may understand Van Jones’ reasoning for his resignation, and partially agree with Arriana Huffington’s the glass is half full’ commentary (not her intended purpose), yet I AM FIRED UP! The ghost of campaigns past, ‘Old Washington Politics as Usual’, is rearing its grimace in the face of the Youth Climate Movement. It is happening in the health reform debate, and it is leaking into our greatest climate morale moment.

Continue reading ‘WHAT THE FTN!? – How Long Shall They Tear Down Our Climate Champions, as We Stand Aside and Look!’

©Robert van Waarden
At 12:18 today, a small crowd of people gathered in flash mob style on the Dam Square in the heart of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. They were one of thousands of events around the world in an international Global Climate Wake UP Call. Organized by the TckTckTck campaign and Avaaz.org, the events are still happening across the globe as I write and I am sure we will see more posts shortly.

Click for more images from the Amsterdam event or the flickr group from Avaaz.org for images from around the globe.

On September 24, students and youth all over the country will be taking action and calling on their Senators to pass a strong climate bill that creates millions of new jobs and protects our future.  The Student PIRGs have teamed up with Campus Progress, the Energy Action Coalition, and the Clean Energy Works youth table to make thousands of calls into the Senate from strategic states.

It’s not too late to plan your own call-in day event – download the TOOLKIT with a three-day plan!

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is set to introduce comprehensive legislation to combat global warming next week.  Student Leaders will be targeting key states to pass the Senate climate bill and strengthen key provisions (in House-passed ACES) including the Clean Air Act loophole and the Renewable Electricity Standard.

This week, as the G20 meets in Pittsburgh, the international community is looking to the United States Senate to pass a global warming bill before the next phase of Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009.  As young people, we need to pressure our Senators to pass a bill this fall!

Here are a couple examples of the dozens of events going on around the country – overall, we plan to make 5,000 phone calls into the Senate on Thursday! Join us by planning your own event (here’s the easy how-to toolkit)!

• Denver, CO -  Students from CU Denver’s COPIRG chapter will be holding a day of action to promote clean energy in Colorado. Using a 10-foot model turbine to gather 300 signatures and generate 100 phone calls into their Senators’ offices and incorporating music, dance, and art from various other student groups, the COPIRG students will raise awareness and build support for strong clean energy legislation among students on the Auraria campus. New Era Colorado, Sustainable Campus Program, and Environment Colorado will also hold informative tables at the event in order to gather more support and visibility for the issue. Overall, COPIRG will educate and engage 1,000 students around clean energy jobs and climate change.

• Bloomington, IN – Students from the Indiana University’s INPIRG chapter will a calling Senator Bayh on Thursday, September 24, asking him to be their global warming super hero.  Over 150 students will pose next to a model 8 foot tall “Senator Super Hero” and student leaders will generate 100 calls into the Senator’s Washington, D.C. office during the event.  In addition, students will be educating over 300 of their peers about what they can do to reduce their carbon footprint.

Students and young people are ready for the clean energy economy.  Let’s call on our Senators to pass a stronger version of the house-passed American Clean Energy and Security Act this fall.

The DC Action Factory has hit the ground running in Pittsburgh, with our time drawing near to the first mass action of the G20 week: a global wake up call for climate action.

At noon tomorrow, scores will gather on the corner of 7th and Penn in downtown Pittsburgh, all with their alarm clocks set to 12:18. At that time, a cacophony of noise will sound, and the crowd will rush forward to the sleeping leaders–President Obama, Chancellor Merkel, President Medvedev, and Prime Minister Harper–who will be located in the middle of the brick square, sleeping on the job with their country’s

flags as blankets. The crowd will literally wake-up the G20 members and demand that they take bold action this week on climate policy that will lead us into a promising and productive Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December [the last day of this being 12/18]. Continue reading ‘From the Front Lines of the G20: A Global Climate Wake-Up Call’

Yesterday, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) joined Third Way and the Breakthrough Institute in releasing a new report that calls for the creation of a new “National Institutes of Energy” and a dramatic increase in federal funding for energy research and development.  The report, titled Jumpstarting a Clean Energy Revolution with a National Institutes of Energy, argues that these two measures are necessary to make clean energy cheap and get America running on clean energy.

Modeled after the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a National Institutes of Energy (NIE) would be designed to most effectively channel R&D funding toward the development of new, low-cost commercial clean energy technologies.  The NIE would function as a nationwide network of regionally based, commercially focused and coordinated innovation institutes.

“Clean energy is the future of our nation, but it can also create jobs now,” Sen. Brown said. “Done right and well funded, increased research and development of new clean energy technologies will drive innovation and reduce our dependence on foreign energy.”

The report also calls for a sustained increase of $15 billion in annual federal clean energy R&D funding, as proposed by President Barack Obama.  Continue reading ‘Fund a National Institutes of Energy’

Sometimes it’s better to laugh than cry, and believe me, the reality that we might rely on carbon offsets as a primary means to reduce our global warming emissions is enough to make me weep. The situation is so absurd that Greenpeace this week launched thecroc.org, a satirical look at how carbon offsets could undermine both U.S. legislation and the U.N. climate negotiations by giving big polluters a giant loophole to continue dirty business as usual.

Carbon offsets often do not deliver promised results. Offsets from forest projects are especially unreliable because the deforestation they are supposed to stop in one area can easily move elsewhere. The use of these sorts of offsets would not only give big polluters a giant loophole, it could actually increase global warming pollution.

In addition, as carbon credits are paid for and traded under a new cap and trade system, low-quality offsets threaten to corrupt those new markets. Cheap offsets could literally act as “sub-prime” carbon credits, creating huge financial risks. This risk was demonstrated yet again this week when the U.N. actually shut down SGS UK, one of the world’s leading carbon offset accreditation firms, after it was unable to show that its staff had thoroughly vetted offset projects.

The SGS embarrassment was a blow to backers of offset schemes and it should be a wake up call to policymakers as they work to craft new climate agreements both here and internationally. The ACES bill that cleared the House earlier this year has up to 2 billion tons of offsets available per year.

Because the situation is so ridiculous, Greenpeace had a bit of fun and developed CROC, a fake government agency that confers the benefits of carbon offsets to the average citizen. Users can get credit for doing some good for the environment, which they can use to do some thing bad to it, just like corporate polluters do. Check out the PSA above and follow CROC on Twitter!