It’s Getting Hot In Here

Stop Everything
Rebecca McNeil and Darcy Higgins

October 27, 2009

After the flash mob that appeared in Parliament yesterday, disrupting question period to call immediate attention to climate change, we had very mixed feelings.

The flash mob evokes tactics of yester-year, though a little more clever. To those of us who are used to doing campaign and policy work in the environmental sector, making incremental change by going in the front door with a suit and a tie (well a suit, anyways), it’s hard to not feel like this approach loses credibility for our whole sector and the point we are trying to make – that our government must act now to reduce climate change. Continue reading ‘Between Rocks and Hard Places’

From Athens Rising Tide:

Athens, OH- Local residents dropped a banner with the words: “Dear A.R.C; New Energy, New Jobs, New Opportunities for Appalachia= NO NEW COAL” from the Richland Avenue bridge this morning to guide the Appalachian Regional Commissions’ discussion in the right direction: new energy and new jobs for Appalachia does not include new coal.

“By making ‘new energy, new jobs, new opportunities for Appalachia’ the theme of this years conference, the A.R.C. is recognizing the importance of a sustainable energy economy in our region. And don’t get me wrong, that’s great, but I really hope they’re not sitting in that room thinking of ways to keep enabling the same thing they’ve been doing (blowing up mountains, putting massive sludge dams next to elementary schools, and constructing coal-fired power plants at an alarming rate) and calling it green, and sustainable, and a new opportunity. I want to believe that the A.R.C. is going to be a catalyst for making Appalachia a green-collar economic role model, but that is definitely not going to happen if coal stays in the picture.” Said a spokeswoman for Rising Tide Athens at this mornings’ event.
Continue reading ‘Appalachian Regional Commission Greeted With Guiding Words’

Editor’s Note: Hey everybody, I wanted to share a post I wrote up for the TckTckTck campaign that I think is a reflection on how a lot of us were feeling after the 350.org international day of action. -Richard

The 350.org international day of climate action this Saturday, was the second in a series of ground-breaking, record smashing days of citizen action around the world on climate change. It is simply amazing that the day of action was only one part of a drumbeat of worldwide and local climate events that have been building towards an enormous outpouring of climate action and activism at the Copenhagen climate talks. This December 12^th, a huge and growing global movement made up of ordinary citizens in almost every country in the world and international civil society will send a resounding message to the world leaders and negotiators in Copenhagen that the public is ready for them to sign a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty.

September 21^st, saw an wave of climate action, as local organizers around the world held over 2,600 events in over 120 countries, where people gathered, made noise to wake up the public to climate change, and called their political leaders to demand action this December at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen. Less than one month later, 13,599 bloggers from 156 countries, wrote about the need for climate action to a collective audience of over 18 million people for Blog Action Day. This weekend, supporters of 350.org and of strong action on climate change organized over 5,200 events in 181 countries. Notice a pattern?

Time is running out for action on climate change. Leading scientists have been warning that climate impacts are accelerating. This year we don’t have a movie like ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ raising awareness on climate change and magazines popping out green issues. Yet, I am more hopeful that we will see real action from world leaders than I have been since I started following the issue of climate change. Why?

Continue reading ‘International day of action heralds the emergence of a global grassroots climate movement’

We’ve heard and seen evidence that Massey Energy is now clearing and blasting for coal extraction on Coal River Mountain. We’ve had a lot of victories in the past few months, but this is ours and our allies line in the sand. Coal River Mountain is the symbol of our clean energy future and the dirty ugly past where corporations put profit over people.

Coal Rive Mountain is the site of a proposed wind farm.  Studies have shown that its ridges have the highest and most productive wind potential. The Coal River Wind Project has done research to demonstrate that a wind farm on top of the mountain could generate approximately 1.2% of West Virginia’s total energy needs, create 300 jobs in the area, and generate a long-term tax revenue stream. Every day that blasting happens, the possibility for the wind farm diminishes.

Not only  does it have great potential, but these operations are happening only a few hundred feet away from the Brushy Fork impoundment dam, which holds over 8.2 billion gallons of toxic coal sludge above Pettus, WV. If the dam bursts, nearly a thousand people in the Coal River Valley would likely lose their lives within minutes.

Ed Abbey once remarked: “At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoroeau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour.” Continue reading ‘Coal River Mountain: “Thus Far and No Further”’

In the midst of an annual utility conference today in eastern Cleveland, Representative Dennis Kucinich joined students from across the state and their allies to urge the utility not to build a proposed dirty coal-fired power plant in Southern Ohio. Kucinich said the issue is “important enough to come here this morning to let you know that I’m not just concerned but that I’m lending my voice to support these efforts.” He added, “this is something worth organizing over and fighting for.”

American Municipal Power (AMP) is hosting the 4-day conference, where its power plant committee may decide whether or not to start construction of the plant. The Ohio Student Environmental Coalition (OSEC) brought attention to the gathering by holding a press conference at the Intercontinental Hotel, where AMP’s conference is being held all this week.
Continue reading ‘Breaking: Rep. Kucinich Joins Students in Challenging New Coal Plant’

Royal Bank of Canada Die-In

Today in Ottawa, 100 concerned citizens staged mock deaths at the Royal Bank of Canada, accompanied by chanting and chalk outlines. Following a weekend of activity at Powershift Canada, the action called attention to RBC’s role as the lead financier of tar sands extraction.

The action in Ottawa continues a series of actions performed by RAN Toronto who are lobbying RBC to divest funding from tar sands projects. Tar sands oil has serious environmental, climate and human health impacts. Described by the United Nations Environment Program as one of the world’s top “environmental hot spots,” global warming pollution from tar sands production is three times that of conventional crude oil. Unconventional tar sands oil is derived from lower-grade, difficult and expensive-to-access raw materials, which have enormous consequences for air quality, drinking water and the climate.

To extract tar sands oil requires churning up huge tracts of ancient boreal forest and polluting so much clean water with poisonous chemicals that the resulting waste ponds can be seen from outer space. The health impacts to Alberta’s First Nation communities are severe, with cancer rates up in some communities as much as 400 times its usual frequency. In addition, as this oil spills into the U.S., refinery communities face air and water pollution from tar sands oil, which contains 11 times more sulfur and nickel and five times more lead than conventional oil. Continue reading ‘Die-In at Royal Bank of Canada Includes 100 Protesters Who Oppose the Bank’s Involvement In the Tar Sands’

DC residents with the activist group DC Rising Tide today publicly presented their demands that Pepco stop sourcing electricity from coal, and particularly coal from mountaintop removal coal mining.  The activists made their demands for renewable energy with a theatrical fight between “Pepcoal” and wind power in front of the headquarters of Pepco and its parent company Pepco Holdings.

“As a DC resident receiving my power from Pepco, I am outraged that most of that electricity comes from burning coal, especially from coal from the mountaintop removal coal mining destroying Appalachia,” said Erica Madrid.  The activists demonstrated the role that Pepco Holdings plays in the destruction of mountains and valleys in Appalachia by enacting a fight between coal and a coal-burning power plant and wind energy, with the mountains and the planet representing the stakes in the fight.

“Pepco is supporting the destruction of Appalachian mountains, communities, and streams, as well as the destruction of the global climate by using all that coal,” said Andrew Thomaides, as he handed out fliers to Pepco staff.

In 2008, the electricity that Pepco provided to DC residents came mainly (53%) from coal, and only 0.5% came from wind energy.  A large part of the coal burned for Pepco electricity has come from mountaintop removal
mining in Appalachia.  In addition, the parent company Pepco Holdings, Inc. owns two coal- fired power plants and a number of other fossil fuel plants.  Pepco Holdings renewable energy facilities represent less than 1% of the generating capacity of the facilities it owns.  The company is even planning the construction of two new fossil fuel power plants. Continue reading ‘DC Rising Tide:Pepco(al) under Fire for Sourcing Electricity from Coal’

The title says it all – we’ve gone global. And it’s not just because of Saturday.

Photo courtesy of 350.org (and inspiring people in London, Sydney, and Copenhagen)

I won’t even try to sum up the awesomeness that was the October 24th International Day of Climate Action. Instead, I’m thinking about how this fits into the even bigger awesomeness that is the international youth climate movement:

International Day of Climate Action – Yesterday was the largest day of distributed political activism ever. It was temporarily the top news story globally. While people of all ages can celebrate in making this day happen, youth played a huge role in creating and participating in many of the actions, in spreading the popularity of the day of action, and working behind the scenes (or more likely in the middle of them) as members of the 350.org staff. Continue reading ‘We’re Building a Global Movement’

Many, many thanks to all of you at IGHIH who took part in yesterday’s International Day of Climate Action from our tired-but-psyched, humbled, and completely blown-away 350.org crew. October 24 succeeded beyond our wildest imaginations — journalists are calling it the most widespread day of political action in history.

Stay tuned to the 350.org blog for more updates and some of the best highlights from the day. And if you haven’t had a chance to watch the slide-show or visit our Flickr page, take a moment. The photos are truly spectacular and drive home the real message of the day: we’ve got a huge, beautiful, international movement.

Read on for a few photos here (they’re 16,000 in our Flickr set right now):

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Continue reading ‘Oct 24: Most Widespread Day of Political Action in History’

Hi Everyone!

I’m working with an organization called Artfulchange and we are organizing one of the over 4500 actions happening worldwide for the International Day of Climate Action coming up on October 24th.

Artfulchange is an environmental non-profit that combines music and the arts with environmental action and awareness. We have launched our online carbon neutral benefit concert on this day of action! There is a streaming concert on our website and visitors can purchase MP3 and video downloads as well as art pieces from bay-area artists. All proceeds from these sales will go to benefit Energy Action Coalition, a coalition of 50 environmental and social justice organizations fighting for a movement towards clean energy: http://energyactioncoalition.org/

Visit the Artfulchange website on the 24th (TODAY!) to take part in this day of climate action. If you can’t make it online today, you can visit anytime after the 24th and still take part in this fundraiser to benefit Energy Action Coalition.

For more information: http://artfulchange.org/onlinebenefit.html

Please help us spread the word and make this fundraiser a success for the coalition.
I wish you all a happy and successful Day of Climate Action!

See you on http://artfulchange.org/!