It’s Getting Hot In Here

“It isn’t 350, but 288ppm is better. “


Video: Ellard Vasen

As the rain fell on downtown Amsterdam, the Netherlands, we reached 288 People Per Museumplein dancing the Charleston in the shape of ’350 NU’. Translated as ’350 Now’ it was a fun, electric action that joined over 5000 actions across the globe for the 350.org international day of action. MOVE YOUR FEET for CLIMATE ACTION! – voor een BETER KLIMAAT! was followed by a march through the downtown of Amsterdam calling for 350ppm.

Young and old danced the Charleston, a 1920s swing dance, to communicate their desire for a treaty that commits the countries of the world to a target of 350parts per million CO2.

A photographic gallery of the event can be found here.

Images ©Robert vanWaarden

Today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, more than 15,000 young people marched to call for 350ppm, as part of the International Day of Climate Action on October 24. Here’s part of an email from one of the lead organizers of the action, Tinebeb Yohannes, cross-posted from 350.org:

One of the biggest events with over 15,000 participants for Climate Action took place at Yekatit 12 Martyrs Square at Sidit Kilo, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The event began with a procreation of marching band, the Ethiopian Police Federation, followed by students from more than 15 primary and secondary school in the city. After a welcome speech by our own 350 representative (Lily) an opening speech was made by the representative of H.E. Green Hero Girma Woldegiorgis, President of the F.D.R.E, Ato Assefa Kesito, followed by a brief presentation on climate change and its impact by Mrs Akille Assefa from the Ethiopian National Metrological Services Agency.

A short speech was also made by Ato Alemayehu Akalu, Director of Tenakebenaand Ginfle Cleansed Youth Association. The most impressive part was that the students that came to this event had used their own creativity to create unique and outstanding slogans and banners related with 350 and climate change. There was great media coverage from local (ETV, ENA and Ethiopian Environmental Journalists Association/EEJA/) as well as international media. Various guests were also present at the event including Grace Mwaura from African Youth Initiative on Climate Change from Kenya, 350 reporter and camera women- Emily Taylor, representatives of Forum for Environment and one of our 350 volunteers, Amrote A. Assefa, from Oxfam America.

Originally at the Breakthrough Institute

Climate change legislation recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and now under consideration in the Senate will “succeed in perpetuating business as usual and fail to avert catastrophic climate change,” according to a new Greenpeace report quietly released yesterday.

Titled “Business as Usual,” the report was prepared on behalf of Greenpeace by David Sassoon, who publishes the climate news site, SolveClimate. It is written as a “plain-spoken” analysis meant to be “a call to action to the President of the United States,” according to the document.

“In order for federal climate legislation worthy of this nation to pass Congress, we see no alternative to active and principled engagement from the Oval Office,” Greenpeace writes.

The report levels five key criticisms of current Congressional legislation, calling attention to what Greenpeace describes as “five points of maximum danger” that the environmental group argues must be addressed to ensure climate legislation is capable of spurring “a swift transition to a clean energy future.”

While we certainly don’t share Greenpeace’s position on all (most) climate matters, this new report levels a pointed and impassioned critique of current Congressional climate action well grounded in the details of the pending legislation. Here’s a ‘Cliffs notes’ version of the full report below the fold…
Continue reading ‘Greenpeace: Climate Legislation More Likely to Perpetuate Fossil Fuel Economy than Spur Swift Transition to Clean Energy’

The fun never stops in West Virginia coal country.

This morning, just before dawn, four individuals chained themselves across a haul road on a strip mining site in Kanawha County, West Virginia to protest mountaintop removal mining. Four more joined them on site in support roles, unfurling two banners, one reading simply “Stop” and the other reading “Stop Mountaintop Removal.” This action was part of the ongoing Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience.

All eight have been arrested and charged with trespassing asked to leave, conspiracy and obstruction. Bail is set at $2000, cash only, with no ten percent bond option. The arrestees include Ryan Olander, Maureen Farrell, Jonathan Irwin, Erika Zarowin, Andrea Lai, Alexander Lotorto, William Wickham and Jacqueline Quimby. Continue reading ’8 Arrested on Kanawha Co. Strip Mine Resisting Mountaintop Removal’

Two for the globe…

So many reasons to attend 350′s International Day of Climate Action this Saturday! What’s yours?

ACE will be getting down at several events across the country.  Find us, click HERE!

Look for the ACE tshirts and/or tables at the events.  If you say the password “climate hero” when you see us, you may win a secret prize…

My favourite blog from the last few weeks came from Leela Raina of the Indian Youth Climate Network. Tracking one of the Indian negotiators at the UN negotiations in Bangkok, she came up with eleven cruelly funny reasons for “Why I Shouldn’t Date an Annex-1 Guy”. You can see the full link at http://www.whatswiththeclimate.org/2009/10/07/why-i-shouldnt-date-an-annex-1-guy/

Now I’m a happily married man with three beautiful children, but I still feel the need to defend the good name of at least some of us Annex-1 guys. So I’ve compiled a list of ten good reasons “Why Annex-1 Guys Can Be A Good Date After All” in response to Leela’s:

1.      He is not willing to COMMIT.

We’re not afraid of commitments. We Europeans have already opened our hearts, and we’re ready to go even further if shown a little more love. We’re not alone. Our Japanese buddies have shown they’re in the mood for love, and after Bangkok nobody could doubt how serious those Norwegian guys are.

And we’re looking for a long-term relationship. We’re not just after a five year fling, or a relationship that ends in 2020 – we’re offering the best years of our lives, right up to 2050.

Continue reading ‘Why Annex 1 Guys Can Be A Good Date After All’

As further proof that the Obama administration is serious about tackling climate change kissing up to big oil, the Dept of Interior announced today that it would go ahead with a second round of federal oil shale leases. While most news outlets focused on the DoI scrutinizing royalties for shale oil, the real news is that the Obama administration is opening up our public lands to destructive oil extraction. “With this new round of [research, development, and demonstration] leases, we hope to move closer to responsibly and sustainably developing our oil shale resources,” said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Of course there is nothing responsible or sustainable about oil shale. The process of extracting oil shale is similar to tar sands. The land is  strip mined, then the oil is baked out of the rock by heating it to high temperatures. This is a process that destroys the land, uses massive amounts of water (most US oil shale is in arid climates), and uses massive amounts of energy. If tar sands are any indicator, it may take as much as 1 barrel of oil to extract two barrels of oil, greatly boosting the carbon footprint of shale oil. Continue reading ‘Obama administration moving forward on oil shale development on public lands’

How do we take our calls for clean energy, climate justice, and a sustainable economy from being seen as neat ideas to being seen as the game plan?

Getting the institutions we are working with to see a green economy as their game plan is key to the big picture changes we are working for. When we demonstrate a solution as a route to success on existing goals, rather than just a cool side-project, we open up whole new reserves of commitment, ingenuity, and resources to make it possible. It also becomes much more important: conceding to obstacles is no longer acceptable.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Macalester College’s sustainability plan and the how that it provides to make big ambitious goals both meaningful and realistic. In this post, I’ll explore the importance of moving from neat ideas to game plans in creating the commitment to that process in the context of Macalester’s journey. I recognize that this is just one tiny microcosm of the bigger picture, but I hope that it will serve as an example about how we move much larger institutions towards viewing the green economy as a game plan for success, and thus working with us as collaborators. They might even go outside the traditional sustainability boxes to think about broad institutional strategy.

So let’s get started:

Continue reading ‘From Neat Idea to Game Plan’

As the world mobilizes for bold climate action on Oct. 24, Rising Tide North America, Carbon Trade Watch, Mobilization for Climate Justice-West and the Camp for Climate Action are spreading the word about the biggest financial scam in history–Carbon Trading!

Carbon Trading puts corporate profits before climate justice.  We need to dispel the misguided notion that carbon trading has anything at all to do with climate change mitigation, or the present and future well being of our communities.

Rising Tide North America is doing this by mobilizing it’s network to put the word out online and offline.  To better do this, we’re using various outreach methods including Facebook, Twitter and the 350 Reasons website.

On the website you can get our new zine about the 350 reasons why carbon trading won’t work.   To download it just go here.

Jessy Tolkan declares that if Politicians want the support and votes of the millions of young people who turned out for last summer’s historic election they need to push for strong, bold, science based legislation.

Thousands of young people across the country are gathering now to send this message. Get to one near you.

Continue reading ‘Power Shift Sweeping the Nation’