It’s Getting Hot In Here

As photo curator for 350.org’s International Day of Climate Action, I had the privilege of going through the 20,000 photos that inundated our flickr account.  Through this process, my heart started filling with all of your visual stories, the laughter, the sincerity, the time and effort it took to put an event together.

Out of all the photos that came in, the shots that evoked gasps or rapid chat messages to other 350 organizers were the photos of children and babies.

People have different theories on how to raise children and whether or not they should be involved in campaigns before they have consciousness or opinions.  Speaking as a former infant participating in environmental protests, I am an in full support of the 350kids movement. Continue reading ‘#350Cute’

Early Thursday morning, local climate activists dropped a banner reading “Save Coal River Mtn.” from the 18th Street overpass above the Vine Street Expressway. The banner contrasted images of a wind farm and a bulldozer; the bottom read, “Coal Is Over.”

Massey Energy Company, one of the largest coal producers in the country, began blasting at Coal River Mountain last Friday, in Coal River, West Virginia. Last year the state issued permits to conduct mountain top removal on the site, despite protest by local residents. Witnesses saw blasts and smoke on Friday near the Brushy Fork coal slurry impoundment.

Continue reading ‘Philly Activists Protest Blasting On Coal River Mountain’

Crossposted from Funding Our Future, the Campus Progress blog promoting policy that provides economic opportunities for our generation.

What time did you wake up yesterday morning? I woke up at 5 AM to go down to the Dirksen Senate Office Building and attend the first hearing for the new climate bill. The bill, co-sponsored by Senator Kerry (D-MA) and Senator Boxer (D-CA), is called the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act – aka CEJAPA and is similar in many ways to the recently passed American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) in the House.

Along with other 10 young people, dressed in Halloween garbs or green t-shirts , we tried to get into the hearing room to show that young people are paying attention and are ready to hold our elected officials accountable. Unfortunately, due to corporate hired linestanders, we weren’t able to get in. Linestanders you ask? Yup, here is how it works: Continue reading ‘Thoughts and Background on the First Senate Climate Hearing’

The coming trend in southern West Virginia as direct action heats up on mountaintop removal?

Joseph Hamsher, 22, Sentenced to 20 Days in South West Regional Jail for Lockdown at Massey Regional Headquarters

MADISON, W.Va.-Joseph Hamsher, 22, was sentenced to twenty days in South West Regional Jail for his participation in a Sept. 9 road blockade at Boone County’s Massey Energy Regional Headquarters. He went before Magistrate Charles M. Byrneside at 10:15 a.m. on Oct. 27 for a pre-trial hearing and plead guilty to conspiracy and trespassing asked to leave. Three other charges, also misdemeanors, were dropped as part of the plea agreement: destruction of property, failure to obey a lawful command and resisting arrest. Hamsher was the first of four protesters and one independent journalist arrested during the action to receive a pre-trial. Continue reading ‘Anti-MTR Activist Sentenced to 20 Days in Jail After WV Lockdown’

I like numbers, especially when they give feedback on how we’re doing.  Something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and am now just getting around to, is post a snapshot of stats on the blog for the past 30 days.  First, a little context, and then the top posts and numbers below the fold.

For this round-up I took the top posts that were posted in the past 30 days.  Some posts get more traffic from a high volume of google searches, but those searches don’t tend to focus on the youth climate movement.

In the last 30 days, we’ve had 106 posts from dozens of different authors, covering almost every corner of the globe, and a broad view of all that makes up this movement.  We’ve had 260 comments and there are 325 people registered to post.  We’ve had over 55,000 unique views, and it goes without saying, played a big part in the largest global day of climate action ever.

If you’re interested in learning more, check our technorati rank and read about what all this means at Fired Up Media. And for contributors, please look at the stats in the back-end to see more about where web-traffic comes from.

This post is a bit of an experiment.  IGHIH is a community project with hundreds of contributors, and we’re still learning how to get our voices out there louder than ever.  For thoughts about how to share community news like this easier, discussions about what this all means, and how we can do better, I’ll see you in the comments.

And now for the most viewed posts, most clicked links, etc…

Continue reading ‘How’s the Blog Doing?’

Posted on behalf of Dan Abrams, Boston Media Coordinator for The Leadership Campaign.

10/24 marked the International Day of Climate Action.  It was nothing short of spectacular: 4,000+ actions around the world all calling for 350PPM! However, the activism and work is not over.

We in Massachusetts recognize that October 24th was the beginning, not the end of our work.  After partnering with community groups in 350 actions during the day, we kicked off a series of state-wide Sleep-Outs.  Braving a torrential downpour, students from five colleges in Western Massachusetts joined together on the Amherst Common.  Students at Clark University braved the same rains in Worcester, while students at Tufts and Northeastern spent the night in soggy tents on their respective Boston/Medford campuses.

And then the real magic happened:  On Sunday, October 25th, over 100 students, clergy, and community members gathered on the Boston Common outside the MA Statehouse.  Over 70 of us stayed the night, refusing to sleep in our homes powered by dirty electricity, and instead pitching tents on the commons.  We will continue to refuse warm beds and a cozy night sleep until the state legislature has passed a plan to repower the Commonwealth with 100% clean electricity by January 1st, 2020. We, as Americans, and our brothers and sisters around the globe in developed nations, are involuntarily harming the planet and the people on it as we go about our lives in our homes, apartments, dormitories, and offices.  For most of us, we do not have the choice of what powers our homes.  We are pouring tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the only record we have of it are our monthly bills.  It is time that we step up and accept responsibility for what we are causing – Global Climatic Disruption.  We will not be subservient to the electric companies and we will finally take hold and choose how to run our lives.

Continue reading ‘MA Students Sleep-Out for 100% Clean Electricity Bill’

Written by Maryam Adrangi and Eriel Tchekwie Deranger. Cross-posted from the Understory.

A group of Canadian climate change activists caused a ruckus in Canada’s Parliament yesterday. In doing so, they brought their demands for bold action on climate change directly to the country’s leaders – and they didn’t stop until they were expelled from the Parliament building, with five of them being arrested and roughly dragged out.

During a Parliamentary debate, several protesters stood up in the House of Commons Observation Gallery and began chanting loudly, voicing their support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Bill C-311, the Climate Change Accountability Act.

This news video shows the reaction on the floor of Parliament while the protestors were chanting (skip to 0:50):

The observation gallery was mainly filled with youth listening to the Members of Parliament, who were bickering about pension plans. One activist stood up and yelled: “Canada needs to sign and ratify the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” Security rushed over, grabbed the individual, and quickly escorted him out as another individual stood up and shouted: “Pass Bill C-311 and take action on climate change.”

Continue reading ‘Canadian Youth Confront Parliament, Demand Action on Climate’

Cross-posted from the 1Sky Blog: www.1sky.org/blog

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held their first hearings on the Kerry-Boxer climate bill this morning and it was a doozy! The Senate is proud of its reputation of being the world’s most deliberative deliberative body and this morning’s hearings were no exception to the rule. Two of the most important provisions in the Kerry-Boxer bill — the 2020 pollution reduction targets and the EPA’s ability to regulate dirty coal — were called into question numerous times. Luckily, climate advocates have a bunch of champs on the EPW committee who stood up for what they believed in and wouldn’t be bullied by the obstructionist tactics or oppositional name-calling of clean energy opponents. Here’s a Top 5 list of the most strong, hard-hitting, and all-around awesome moments from this morning’s hearing:

1) Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): I very very strongly believe that it is time that these power plants are held accountable! They have dodged around the law for too long, and their corporate lobbyists have won against our children’s lungs, and I for one am fed up with it! So I for one will stand firm on the Clean Air Act, and I hope many of my colleagues will support me on that.”

Check out what Boston was up to on 350‘s day of action.  It was kind of like a big tea party meets block party meets rally meets AWESOME young people calling for bold climate action.

Plus, there are wetsuits.

An update from Coal River Mountain Watch and Appalachian Voices. You can take emergency action here.

Mountaintop Removal Mining to Destroy 6,600 Acres-and Wind Potential

Appalachian community advocates and environmentalists across the nation are expressing outrage that mountaintop removal coal mining operations have begun on Coal River Mountain in West Virginia, a mountain that has become symbolic in the nationwide campaign to end mountaintop removal mining. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection told the Charleston Gazette on Monday that blasting had begun last week, confirming local reports of blasts and smoke that were witnessed on Friday near the Brushy Fork coal slurry impoundment, the largest slurry dam in Appalachia with the capacity to hold 8.2 billion gallons. Slurry is the by-product of coal washing and processing operations and contains high levels of toxic heavy metals like mercury, selenium and lead.

For the last two years, local residents have campaigned for the opportunity to place a commercial-scale wind farm on Coal River Mountain instead of the mountaintop removal mining that has been permitted by the state. The Coal River Wind campaign has focused on asking West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin to rescind the mining permits for Coal River Mountain. So far, Governor Manchin has denied the group’s request.

“The Coal River Wind Campaign has been a symbol of hope for the people of the Coal River Valley,” said Lorelei Scarbro, organizer for Coal River Mountain Watch. “My neighbors are excited about the idea of jobs that allow them to produce energy in a way that is sustainable. Coal River Mountain, the last standing mountain in the valley, should remain intact as a symbol for a new day in the Appalachian coalfields.”

With no response from Governor Manchin’s office, residents and environmental groups are now looking to the Obama administration to intervene.
Continue reading ‘ALERT: Blasting Begins on Coal River Mountain’