It’s Getting Hot In Here

cross-posted from www.watthead.org

By Mark Kimbrell. Note, this post does not necessarily represent the opinions or priorities of Focus the Nation, and instead represents the author’s sentiments alone.

Last week represented defeat after defeat for the climate movement and progressive forces in American Politics. One of the most left-leaning members of the Senate (RIP) has been replaced by Republican Scott Brown, thus disrupting the Democrats’ majority and the prospects for health and climate legislation. Not that the Democrats have necessarily been honoring their campaign promises, or representing the wishes of our movement- nevertheless it’s a wound.

The Supreme Court has opened the floodgates on Corporate giving, and rolled back all progress made through past campaign finance reform. A decision that will no doubt increase the already massive influence of coal and oil interests over the US government and US public. Climate Change has once again been buried in the issue dog pile under health care, military adventures, and Wall Street reform. All while the coal industry’s iron hammer – Senator Murkowski has launched an all out blitzkrieg on the EPA’s ability to regulate under the Clean Air Act. And to top it all off, wouldn’t you know it- it looks like global climate talks won’t reach a pact by year’s end. Surprise, surprise….

After last week’s bludgeoning, it’s pretty clear that the writing is on the wall. With corporate money flooding into political coffers and misinformation campaigns with more ease, and Brown’s election signaling trouble ahead for democrats, our window of opportunity to make progress on our issue seems to be prematurely closing. It raises an important question: the game has changed- have we? Taking a quick glance at the upcoming activities and priorities of the youth ranks it’s clear that we haven’t changed enough, and it seems to be time for our movement to take a long hard look in the mirror.

Continue reading ‘Time for the Climate Movement to Take a Look in the Mirror’

“Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!”

As we’ve fought for our clean energy future, we’ve passionately chanted these words again and again, asserting that citizen action is what truly drives political change.   With the growth of our movement, we’ve all engaged in amazing citizen actions, pressuring our elected officials to solve the climate crisis in every way we know how.
Despite our continued efforts, Copenhagen was a flop, and our elected officials are falling victim to big oil and big coal.  We can’t afford to watch this happen.  It is time for us to ramp up the action.  We need to take democracy back.

After witnessing the devastating effects of U.S. inaction in Copenhagen, we created the Show Me Democracy campaign.  We aim to pull our generation together to demand that the United States step it up dramatically before the next major international climate negotiations in Cancun, Mexico this December.  But this time, we are going to do more than just send emails and write petitions.  We are going to consistently engage our elected representatives, storming Senate field offices across the country with a simple, united message: take immediate action to halt global warming at home… and then go to Mexico in December with a serious plan for an international climate change agreement.

Continue reading ‘THIS Is What Democracy Looks Like’

There’s a lot of chatter about what President Obama is going to say in his State of the Union address this Wednesday. There’s no doubt that President Obama’a agenda, along with that of the Democrats has taken a serious blow of recent with the loss in Massachusetts. Obama has had a much more fiery, populist tone to his speeches and remarks in the last week, and the two buzzwords I read him focusing on in his State of the Union speech is jobs creation, and policies for the middle class. While I’m sure there will be a nice paragraph or two dedicated to clean energy and green jobs, I think President Obama should make clean energy the centerpiece of his address.

It’s a great opportunity to correct the greatest blunder of the Democrats and Obama’s Presidency. Continue reading ‘The State of the Union: Clean Energy or Bust’

Cross-posted from the ACE Blog – Hot and Bothered

ACE Educators Bridget and Michael are on a march to the 2010 ESPN Winter X-Games, in Aspen, Colorado! We’re going to be delivering the ACE presentation to over one thousand students in 5 schools in the Roaring Fork Valley and rockin’ it at the X-Games on Thursday!

Check out our video: ACE’s March to the Winter X-Games volume 1

ACE has teamed up Disney, ESPN, and the Aspen Ski Co for the Winter X-Games to raise awareness about the science of climate change and the opportunities for young people to take action to stop it – we want to make sure there’s always going to be snow to shred in Aspen. Keep up with us at acespace.org/blog

ACE is launching the DOT – Do One Thing – campaign at the Winter X Games. What are you doing to lower your emissions and raise your voice? What’s your DOT? Tell us by texting “DOT” to 30644!

We’ll be blogging all week with X-Games athletes, local high school students from the beautiful Roaring Fork Valley, and of course, from the X-Games on Thursday and Friday! Check out the blog for daily updates and if you have any questions or want to give us a shout out, make sure to shoot us an email!

In a few weeks, I will celebrate seven years to the day since becoming involved in the youth climate movement.  A few weeks after that, I will officially be an old lady at the ripe old age of 27.  Back in my day, we walked uphill both ways in the snow to youth climate conferences, which we ran on zero dollars and planned while subsisting on only one flavor of (stale) Clif Bar for days on end. I jest a little, but the point is this:  It’s getting old in here.
Continue reading ‘Climate Generation: It’s Getting Old In Here’

Authored by: Lydia Courtright and Julia Peckinpaugh – student interns with the Kentucky Beyond Coal Campaign.

Over one year ago the Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal ash storage facility in Kingston, TN gave way – spilling over one billion gallons of toxic coal ash into the surrounding community.  Even today, the devastating impacts of the coal slurry spill on nearby family homes and surrounding ecosystem have imprinted our memories.  The incident also leads us to beg the question, “what happened urgency sense of commitment to remedy the issue so that other communities would be safe from future spills?”.

TVA coal ash spill Dec, 2009

We know that over the past year – since the disaster – the has EPA concluded that coal ash and other coal plant waste materials, are highly toxic, and should not be stored in wet ponds or discharged into ground or surface waters. According to the agency, coal ash contains heavy metals, including selenium, mercury, arsenic, and lead, and has caused documented damage to community health and ecosystems across the country. Continue reading ‘Administration Must Act to Classify Coal Ash As Hazardous Waste’

It’s been five days since authorities escorted Josh Graupera and Isabelle Rozendaal away from the Bee Tree site on Coal River Mountain where the two were supporting the ongoing tree sit against mountaintop removal.  Since their arrest and incarceration for trespass and conspiracy, the two have been released from jail at a bail of $1,500 each, and not without special thanks to those who contributed donations at http://www.climategroundzero.org!

Josh Graupera, 19, Lancaster PA before the action started.

Climate Ground Zero activists and others are initiating a call-in to Massey Energy headquarters in Richmond today regarding the safety of the tree sitters and the overall dangers of MTR.  More information is available at the end of this post.

Josh Graupera is a 19-year-old resident of Lancaster, PA, and has agreed to share some of his experiences about the action and his arrest.  Josh explained the role he and Isabelle shared in the action was to “ensure the safety of the sitters, and communicate with first-responding security and police, making sure confrontations don’t escalate out of hand.”

Continue reading ‘Coal River Tree Sit Day 5: Inside the Action’

While Eric Blevins is holding out up in the trees with fellow activists Amber and David to successfully halt blasting at Coal River Mountain, I’d like to share with you some inspiring words which he delivered this past December at a protest at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection in Charleston.  Eric spoke on behalf of Mountain Justice, and was joined on the stage by the likes of former WV congressman Ken Hechler and Robert Kennedy Jr.  The genuine and profound framing and delivery of Eric’s speech has stuck with me since that day.  And as he sits up there, defending this mountain, I hope his words inspire you, as well.

Mountain Justice is a regional movement, moving to abolish mountaintop removal. And this region unites us. Whether we live in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia or Alabama, we are united by these mountains.  Appalachia unites us.

These mountains are divine creations.  They deserve our love and respect.  The people who live in these mountains are divine creations.  They deserve our love and respect.  The plants and animals who live in these mountains are divine creations.  They deserve our love and respect.   The fresh mountain air and fresh mountain spring water are divine creations.  They deserve our love and respect.  We must love the creator and all of the creator’s creation.  If we all give them the love and respect they deserve, then they will heal us every day, for generations and generations into the future.  If we continue to desecrate and destroy them, they will leave us, probably within a generation.

Coal River Mountain is a divine creation.  It deserves our love and respect and it deserves to live.

Continue reading ‘These Mountains are Divine Creations’

Written by Lance Brisbois, Holly Jones and Juliana Williams

While Robert Kennedy Jr. and Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, debated mountaintop removal coal mining last night, the momentum against coal is building across the country and world.  Beginning yesterday, three activists with Climate Ground Zero halted blasting on Coal River Mountain, and they are continuing their tree sit today despite Massey’s intimidation efforts which include felling trees near the activists and deafening noise machines.  Delhi, India, with a population of over 12 million residents, announced that it will shut down all five of its coal-fired power plants over the next four years.  Earlier this month, Rising Tide in Australia blocked coal trains in protest of the weak outcomes of Copenhagen.

As David Aaron Smith, 23, Amber Nitchman, 19, and Eric Blevins, 28 protest mountaintop removal in two oak trees  and one tulip poplar on Coal River Mountain in southern West Virginia, Don Blankenship (CEO of Massey Energy) and Robert Kennedy, Jr. (Founder of Waterkeeper Alliance) debate the same issue farther north in Charleston.

Liveblogging of the debate: (Juliana Williams, Becca Rast & Nora Graubard will be liveblogging.  Juliana from within and Becca Rast & Nora Graubard from Rock Creek, WV)

8:00 – Thanks for tuning in, we welcome dialogue about this debate on the blog – please let us know what your impressions were!!

7:59 –   We are disappointed by lack of reference to Climate Ground Zero “enviros”. Check out further updates on our brave friends in the trees and their struggle with Massey at www.climategroundzero.org.  Learn more and show your support! Continue reading ‘LiveBlogging: Youth in Trees, Kennedy on the Ground – Everyone v. Massey”’