It’s Getting Hot In Here

Rising Tide North America is pleased to announce the release of our latest publication:

The Climate Movement is Dead:

Long Live the Climate Movement

In the aftermath of the COP15 talks in Copenhagen, the inability of the Big Greens, governments, and market approaches to find genuine and sustainable solutions to climate change is undeniable. As author Naomi Klein so aptly observed at the end of COP15 talks, “A particular model of dealing with climate change is dying.”

In the same uncompromising spirit as Rising Tide publications such as Deal or No Deal, and Hoodwinked in the Hothouse, CMID:LLCM delivers a timely critique of the failures of this “particular model” as exemplified by the mainstream NGOs who have grown all too cozy with corporations and the political establishment. It explores the ways in which “green” capitalism,electoral politics, and market mechanisms, far from solving the climate crisis, are some of the climate movement’s biggest obstacles.

Not content with mere polemic, CMID:LLCM charts a course that diverges from the dominant discourse of the mainstream climate movement. The essay lays out a strategy of supporting and escalating frontline struggles againstdirty energy while building a new global climate movement from the ground up, based around core principles of climate justice, grassroots power, solidarity, and direct action.

The Climate Movement Is Dead: Long Live the Climate Movement is a must-read for anyone left disenchanted by the mainstream climate movement, and all who are ready to step it up and fight for climate justice.

You can download a digital copy to view online or print yourself. Continue reading ‘The Climate Movement is Dead: Long Live the Climate Movement’

Michigan, and its neighbors Indiana and Ohio sit at the forefront of the recession. Once the cornerstone of American manufacturing, the drop in U.S. based auto manufacturing has left thousands unemployed in the Midwest and the Millennial generation in search of an economic future. In the Midwest where unemployment hovers at 15% in Michigan – the highest jobless rate since early 1983 – combined with a growing national trend of jobless young people, emphasized by the Labor Dept.’s report that the employment rate of 16-to-24 year olds has eroded to 46.6 percent — the lowest ratio of working young Americans in that age group, including all but those in the military, since WWII, it is time for us as young people to chart a new economic path, we must Define the Decade for the auto states as the decade we become the clean energy manufacturing states.

The potential of the green economy in the Midwest cannot be overstated – it could revitalize our economy while maintaining environmental equity, thus sustaining future generations. Closed auto plants could be retrofitted to pump out solar panels, wind turbines and advanced transportation to power the new clean energy United States economy. However, the fossil fuel industry led by forces trying to push through 8 coal-fired power plants in Michigan have led major marketing and public relations campaigns, to win over the jobless with the promise of job security through building more fossil fuel based infrastructure. This being the case, public opinion and commitment to building the green economy will deepen only once people can see, participate in, and benefit from concrete community-based energy solutions. So this must be our focus as we dive head first into 2010 and a new decade.

Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition, Global Exchange and the Energy Action Coalition have some exciting work planned to get us started. Read on to get the details.
Continue reading ‘Hey Michigan, Let’s Define Our Decade w/ our leadership & vision for green economy revitalization’

Check out 0:18 and 0:56

Two questions:

1- Who is advising this man and where is their information coming from?

2- When JFK said the following, did they have the technology required to get to the moon?

“We will go to the moon not because it is easy but because it is hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”

The World Bank wants your opinion. No, seriously.

On February 9th, I attended a civil society consultation with representatives of the Bank’s social development and environment divisions, hosted in the middle of the United Nations Commission for Social Development. The Bank is preparing only its 2nd ever Environment Strategy, and is accepting input from pretty much any organization that either fills out their online form or attends one of their consultation meetings held throughout the world.

The first phase of consultations ends February 15, but you can keep making submissions and comments through August 15, both on big picture stuff like funding fossil fuel projects and details like economic modeling and surveying methodology.

It’s Getting Hot In Here bloggers and commenters have had a few things to say about the Bank recently, so here’s your chance to tell them directly.

Learn more about the consultations: wwwr.worldbank.org/environmentconsultations

Or jump straight to the submission form.

I’ve been reading a lot lately about the new loosely joined movement called the Tea Party.  My initial reaction, like many liberal progressives, was to simply ignore them, to brand them “tea baggers” and assume they would dissipate as quickly as they had appeared.  But that didn’t happen and the more I read about the movement, the more I worry.  But I worry not because I’m afraid of Sarah Palin running for president or Glenn Beck calling the shots.  I worry because the tea party is made up of a diverse group of folks; Obama voters, gun lovers, out of work people, evangelicals, young and old.  And as far as I can tell, they’re all united by one thing: complaint.  Not a unified vision for a better America.

Now I know there’s a lot to complain about right now.  The economy stinks, China is rapidly passing us up, folks are out of work (including my father), Wall Street execs are receiving lavish bonuses as they fail the American people.  But it’s the lack of a solution oriented focus that has me worried.  United by complaint, the Tea Party is able to grow, but in the end, what more can the outcome be than simply more complaint.

I see a similar reactionary complaint style in the climate movement, especially in the Big Greens.  We complain about Copenhagen, we complain about the Clean Air Act under fire, we complain about Obama and the Senate.  Myself included.  But it’s heartening to see some of the grassroots groups forming in the wake of Copenhagen.  Like the fine folks of Show Me Democracy and the Consequence Campaign as well as the older but still great Summer of Solutions.

If I had one wish for the youth climate movement in 2010, it would be for us to get more proactive and less dependent on big business, government and big green.  They’ve gotten us nowhere so far and it’s about time we started showing America what solutions look like.  The politics of complaint that the Tea Party movement embodies will only continue to dig us into a partisanship quagmire.

Cross-posted from www.watthead.org.

Whether you support, find yourself wobbling in between or vehemently oppose (like me) the continued occupation of Iraq and the expanded occupation of Afghanistan, odds are you join me in the sentiment that Obama’s newly released $708 billion 2011 defense budget is not only obscene, but also represents a disastrous sense of fiscal priorities considering the current state of America. In fact, I am willing to bet my bottom dollar that if the veils of misinformation were removed, and American political dialogue shifted into the realm of the somewhat logical, most common Americans would agree with that sentiment of obscenity (especially our “fiscally conservative” brethren).

This new budget represents a historic high in military spending, even surpassing President George W. Bush who took us into the margins of the criminally insane with his post September 11th defense budgets. Yes that’s right- our new visionary and “progressive” president is throwing more dollars at the Pentagon than good ole W. In fact Obama’s 2011 budget is the largest proposed defense spending since World War II.

According to the Center for American Progress, this proposed spending represents a 3.4% increase from the 2010 fiscal year baseline defense spending, and an increase of $173 billion (36%) from just five years ago. A new study by The Center for a New American Security puts the numbers in perspective by estimating that after adjusting for inflation, Obama’s new budget is 13 percent higher than the defense budget at the peak of the Korean War, 33 percent higher than at the peak of the Vietnam War, 23 percent higher than at the peak of the Cold War, and 64 percent higher than the Cold War’s average. We now comprise close to 47% of global defense spending and around 8 times what China (the second place finisher) is currently spending on defense.

Continue reading ‘A Big What If – Finding Clean Energy Dollars in Obama’s War Chest’

The coal industry in the Pacific Northwest received a heavy blow yesterday with the release of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s (NWPCC’s) Sixth Power Plan, describing how the region encompassing Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana can cost-effectively shut down at least half its coal plants (including coal plants outside the region that supply these states with electricity) by the year 2020.  The NWPCC failed to include this move to phase out coal in its official recommendation, for such is the power of the coal lobby.  Yet the fact that the Council did include the analysis in its Sixth Plan is a testament to the hard work of climate activists in the lead-up to the Plan’s release.

During the fall of 2009, the NWPCC held hearings on its Sixth Plan throughout the Northwest.  Back then, it was unclear whether the final plan would analyze how our region could begin moving away from coal at all.  Yet by the end of the year, the Sierra Club and allied organizations had turned out hundreds of people to hearings in Oregon, Washington, and Montana, to urge the Council to use its own studies to show that a coal-free Northwest is possible.  I myself attended hearings in the Oregon cities of Portland and Eugene, where I heard NWPCC members remark repeatedly on how impressed they were with public involvement in this process, and with the turnout of young people to both hearings.  Continue reading ‘Major Analysis Shows Road to a Coal-Free Northwest’

By Xixi Sun

Well, I am not yet 25 and definitely not yet leader of the world, but I am amongst the 700 international youth right here in London attending the inaugural One Young World summit. We were all born after 1984 and we represent youth from all 192 countries on this planet. Early this year I was lucky enough to be sponsored to attend. We are here to discuss the challenges faced by our generation and topics include climate change, interfaith dialogue, global business, media, global health and developing leadership for a positive future.

Here I want to tell you what Day 1 of this summit makes me think.

Having heard speeches made by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sir Bob Geldof and Lord Mayor of London Boris Johnson yesterday at the opening ceremony, we started our day with the welcome session by hosts David Jones and Kate Robertson. The first plenary session is on Environment and its protection. Having attended COP15 last December with the China Youth COP15 team, I am glad to see that youth today have not lost hope. They have different views on why Copenhagen has failed, but they all agreed that actions need to be taken now and we cannot wait for the decision-makers to make decisions. In the video from Senator John Kerry he mentioned the youth campaign “How old will you be in 2050?” That T-shirt is still in my Beijing home and reminds me of the campaigning events we had in the Bella Centre. As many have said, it’s not the end, it’s just the beginning. And this OYW summit is not just a nice trip to London. There’s work, hard work to be done. This summit will be producing a youth resolution, where each part will be voted to pass by the 700 participants. Continue reading ‘One Young World – 25 today, leading the world tomorrow’

Cross-posted from the RAN Understory

By Nell Greenberg

In the last couple of weeks a slew of articles have come out announcing last year’s earnings for some of our favorite CEO’s.

• JP Morgan Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon received a bonus of over $16 million ;
• General Mills Inc. chairman and CEO Ken Powell received $13.4 million in compensation, up 105 percent from $6.5 million in fiscal 2008;
• and, Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) CEO Gord Nixon was paid C$10.4 million in 2009

From investments in mountaintop removal coal mining and coal-fired powerplants if you’re Chase’s Jamie Dimon and financing of the horrific Alberta tar sands if you’re RBC’s Gord Nixon to supporting Indonesia’s rampant rainforest destruction for palm oil if you’re General Mill’s Ken Powell, profiting from environmental destruction is alive and well.

While it is no surprise that big businesses and big banks are raking in billions even as the unemployment rate hangs around 10%, I can’t help but be a touched shocked at the flagrant arrogance of these CEOs. Even as many of us dream of a new set of values and a new model for our economy and our society, business success is still measured by the old paradigm of continuous growth and maximized return on investment. You grow and you get rich or you die.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Continue reading ‘Want an Awesome Yacht? Destroy the Environment.’

Good news for the climate in 2009 came in the form of a host of local victories and unprecedented civil society coordination at the international climate negotiations, both of which demonstrated that across the U.S. and the world, the call for real climate action is alive and growing.  But in other obvious and important ways–stalled US climate legislation, an anti-climactic Copenhagen climate summit, a resurgence of climate skepticism in the media– it was not the 2009 many of us had hoped for.  So- What now?  What next?  A national summit or series of regional climate summits in the US could help answer those all-important questions by pulling together the collective wisdom of those in-the-know: on-the-ground citizen climate leaders.
Continue reading ‘If you want to know, just ask…’