It’s Getting Hot In Here

Here are a couple of great articles by lefty author Naomi Klein about the anti-corporate movement of movements which converged in Seattle in 1999 at the shutdown of the World Trade Organization are re-converging around climate change in Copenhagen.

In both, Klein talks about how anti-establishment direct action movement are preparing to “throw down” around climate change and climate justice.   And that political winds are shifting towards more progressive positions on the role of capitalism, which values short-term profit and perpetual growth above all else.

Revisiting No Logo, Ten Years Later

Published in the Huffington Post

By Naomi Klein – November 16th, 2009

Almost ten years ago, on November 30, 1999, tens of thousands of protestors shut down a meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle. The activists were not against trade or globalization, despite the many misleading claims in the mainstream media. They were against a system of deregulated capitalism that was spreading around the world.

At the time of the Seattle protests, my first book, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies, was at the printer. The book looked as the war being waged on public space by a new breed of corporate “superbrands,” as well as the first signs of a fight back against corporate power. It was good timing for an author-activist: I had the rare privilege of watching my book become useful to a movement I believed could change the world.  More here…..

Copenhagen: Seattle Grows Up

Published in the Nation
By Naomi Klein – November 12th, 2009

The other day I received a pre-publication copy of The Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle, by David Solnit and Rebecca Solnit. It’s set to come out ten years after a historic coalition of activists shut down the World Trade Organization summit in Seattle, the spark that ignited a global anticorporate movement. Continue reading ‘Naomi Klein: Seattle Movements Coming of Age in Copenhagen’

UMD for Clean Energy, student group I’m Campaign Director of, has another article out about us in The Diamondback about our efforts during the College Park City Council elections, which culminated in a march to the polls, and got some pretty positive reaction. This new article also chronicles our presentation at a city council work session, where we put forth a proposal about tax breaks for green businesses.

UMD for Clean Energy makes waves on city council
By Brady Holt

Many of College Park’s longtime residents paint the university’s student body as a group that doesn’t care about the city.

But those residents may be surprised at where their city council is getting some innovative environmental policy ideas: the UMD for Clean Energy student group. Continue reading ‘UMD for Clean Energy Makes Waves on City Council’

An update from the front lines of Massachusetts

Last night, I slept in my bed.

Normally, such an action is not newsworthy, but for me, it was the first time I had slept in my bed since the night of October 23rd, 2009.  Like hundreds of other students, religious leaders, and community members across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts participating in The Leadership Campaign, I have been refusing to sleep in my home powered by dirty electricity until the state implements a policy before December 7th (the start of Copenhagen) to Repower Massachusetts with 100% Clean Electricity by 2020.

100% Clean Electricity is an ambitious goal, or so I’m informed. I invariably reply that sometimes the impossible is necessary. And the necessity of passing legislation, or actually beginning the transformation that will let us live in a just and stable world is understood by a staggering amount of people, both students and community members. At last Sunday’s Sleep-Out  on the Boston Common, we had well over a hundred people there. While that number may not be staggering, the fact that 120 people stayed to receive citations from police, even when explicity told they could leave, staggers me. Here are people who understand the seriousness of the crisis we are all in, people willing to stand by there values. Continue reading ‘Turning the Tide: Principled Determination in a Time of Crisis’

Cross posted from here- http://www.watthead.org/

After working tirelessly to push federal politicians to be accountable to the will of the people through Powershift regional summits, 350.org’s day of action, local events and direct actions, you’d think exhaustion would be setting in on the ranks of the US youth climate movement. Especially after the demoralizing blow that was delivered last weekend with the Obama administration’s official declaration that there will be no binding agreement at COP15. On the contrary, these young visionaries are just getting started!

With the chips stacked against meaningful action by the Senate and our administration, there is something contagiously spreading from campus to campus and community to community. Something political movements of the past that faced less dismal realities have lacked- unwavering hope. Not the kind of hope a charismatic politician espouses during campaign season to generate warm fuzzy feelings, or the kind that surges in the dark hours of prayer for a divine force to alter your circumstances.
Continue reading ‘COP15 and Beyond- The Climate Movement Fights On!’

An inspiring new video from smartMeme with leaders from frontline communities and allies talking about the Copenhagen moment.

By Tim DeChristopher. Cross-posted from PeacefulUprising.org

In the essential film The Story of Stuff, Annie Leonard says, “Our primary identity has become that of consumer.” This is certainly a disturbing notion for those of us who are trying to steer our society toward sustainability.  Perhaps even more disturbing, though, is the way that environmentalists endorse and ultimately perpetuate this mutation of our humanity.

The vast majority of times green groups ask people to act, it centers on changing our consumption habits.  At first glance this makes sense.  If consumption is the problem, shouldn’t we try to change the way people consume?  The catch is that every time we focus on how individuals can change their consumption, we are sending the message that their real power to make a difference lies in how they shop.  This simply reinforces the cultural myth that the most important part of who we are as people is our role as a consumer.

That myth is a lie.  We are much more than consumers.  We are citizens of what was once the greatest…

Continue reading ‘More Than Consumers’

Don’t have a plan for the Mobilization for Climate Justice’s day of action on November 30? Here are six corporations with offices in thousands of cities around the country that you can plan an action at. As many of you know, November 30th is the 10th anniversary of the Battle of Seattle, a day when people’s power triumphed over corporate power.  As corporate interests continue to derail real climate action on the national and international scene, it is more important than ever to confront these corporations head on.  Of course these are just suggestions, we encourage action against all climate criminals.

JPMorgan Chase

• HQ: New York, NY
• Branches/offices in 38 states, in all regions of U.S.

Financing Climate Change

• JPMC is the top corporate financier of the oil & gas industry in the world, having extended $385 billion in financing to the industry since 2000. (Bloomberg)
• JPMC is the 10^th biggest corporate financier of the coal industry in the world – and the 4^th-biggest in the U.S. – having extended $3.8 billion in financing to the industry since 2000. (Bloomberg)
• JPMC is the biggest corporate financier of mountaintop removal coal mining. They are the third-biggest financier of Massey Energy ($479 million since 2000) and the third-biggest financier of International Coal ($58 million). (Bloomberg)

Gambling on Carbon Markets

• JPMC’s Environmental Markets division is specifically devoted to carbon trading. They bought UK-based carbon trader ClimateCare for an undisclosed price in March 2008, and bought leading carbon trader EcoSecurities for $200 million in Nov. 2009.
• JPMC also belongs to both the European Climate Exchange and the Chicago Climate Exchange – as well as being a member in a number of groups that lobby for carbon trading, such as the Carbon Markets & Investors Association and the International Emissions Trading Association. Carbon Insider calls JPMC and Morgan Stanley the two biggest carbon traders in the U.S.
• JPMC received $95 billion in bailouts from the federal government in 2008 (in that year, CEO Jamie Dimon was paid $19.7 million). They played a major role in causing the subprime lending crisis (the cause of the current global recession): they provided financing to the top two subprime lenders in the U.S., Countrywide and Ameriquest. (“Do we trust JPMC to do a better job with carbon markets than they did with subprime markets?”)

Pushing a Corporate Climate Agenda

• JPMC is also involved in lobbying against strong climate policy. They’re a member of a number of particularly bad lobbying groups – including the International Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Council for International Business, and the European Federation of Energy Traders.

Existing Campaigns

• Campaign by RAN and allies over mountaintop removal and coal power finance. Active campaign; protests are ongoing. Numerous protests against bank bailouts, organized by labor & social justice groups. Continue reading ’6 suggested corporate targets for November 30th Day of Action’

By Teryn Norris & Devon Swezey

Originally published by The Stanford Review

You know the world is changing when the president’s first trip to Asia is defined by a new U.S. foreign policy dubbed “strategic reassurance” – convincing China that the United States has no intention of containing its growing power or endangering its foreign investments. As the New York Times put it, “When President Obama visits China for the first time on Sunday, he will, in many ways, be assuming the role of profligate spender coming to pay respects to his banker.”

You also know times are changing when China, the world’s greatest polluter, and other Asian nations are poised to dominate the burgeoning global clean-tech industry by out-investing the United States. That’s the conclusion of a large new report we co-authored called “Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant,” released this week by the Breakthrough Institute and Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (see coverage in Financial Times and Wall Street Journal). The report is the first to thoroughly benchmark clean energy competitiveness in four nations – China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States – and finds the following:

“Asia’s rising ‘clean technology tigers’ – China, Japan, and South Korea – have already passed the United States in the production of virtually all clean energy technologies and over the next five years will out-invest the U.S. three-to-one in these sectors… While some U.S. firms will benefit from the establishment of joint ventures overseas, the jobs, tax revenues, and other benefits of clean tech growth will overwhelmingly accrue to Asian nations… Should the investment gap persist, the U.S. will import the overwhelming majority of clean energy technologies it deploys.”

What do these two changes have in common? They both reflect the accelerating shift of global power from America to Asia, caused in large part by the serious mismanagement of U.S. economic policy. Continue reading ‘Winning the Clean Energy Race: A New Strategy for American Leadership’

Tuesday evening, amidst a historic Beijing meeting between President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, dozens of activists with the global campaigning network Avaaz.org released over one hundred Chinese flying lanterns and a floating balloon banner into the air just south of the White House.

Chinese flying lanterns are a symbol of hope traditionally released to celebrate the new year. The Avaaz action highlights China’s proactive domestic climate commitments as a source of inspiration for the UN climate summit in Copenhagen this December.

“China is no longer a legitimate excuse for inaction on climate,” says Ricken Patel, Executive Director of Avaaz. “In fact, it’s China that is bringing hope to a world frustrated by the failure of the US government to address this crisis. Contrary to what some Senators argue, China is doing more in many areas than the US to fight climate change.” Continue reading ‘Hope from China for a Climate Treaty as Obama Delays Progress’

What are you doing this weekend!?  ACE has some sweet plans for you — if you’re game.

Do you want to raise your voice by giving presentations?  Do you want to be trained to be one of the many inspiring and savvy young leaders out there?

YOU are invited to attend our first Southern California Student Leader Training. Join us to learn how to motivate others to go green and join the climate movement! Space is limited so apply ASAP!

What: Public Narrative Youth Presenter Training – How to effectively tell your story and inspire others to action!

Where: Environmental Charter High School 16315 Grevillea Ave, Lawndale, CA 90260

When: Saturday November 21st from 9:45am – 2pm

All you’ll need to bring is positivity and enthusiasm – we’ll provide lunch, liveliness and learning. But, remember space is limited so apply by Thursday, 11/19.

All you have to do is reply to sophie.korn@climateeducation.org with the information below and a few words about why you’d like to attend. Continue reading ‘Hey L.A. Climate Heroes!’