It’s Getting Hot In Here

As this Grist article recently stated  “Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE,  has taken off like wildfire since the concept was first introduced in Berkeley, Calif. in October ‘07. PACE allows private property owners to pay for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects through an addition to their property tax bill, overcoming the high upfront costs that prevent most property owners from investing in such retrofits.”

Numerous states around the country have adopted legislative changes that allow municipalities within them to set up these kind of clean energy loan programs that give out loans to residents and businesses, and collect the repayments over a considerable period of time through their property taxes.  My student group UMD for Clean Energy at the University of Maryland made this kind of a loan fund for energy efficiency a major election issue last fall in our local College Park city council elections.  With enthusiasm from the city council to establish such a program, we faced a setback when the state of Maryland did not adequately permit municipalities to do this.  Our focus turned to advocating for legislation in this Maryland legislative session that would allow us to create our own clean energy revolution in College Park.  An added positive is it would clear the way for other municipalities all around the state to do PACE as well. Continue reading ‘UMD for Clean Energy calls for Maryland to set the PACE’

Tessa is a campus organizer for the Show Me Democracy campaign, and below is her account of the University of Oregon’s first Show Me Democracy Senate Field Office Visit!  To join us in demanding comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation from our representatives NOW, click here, and be sure to get on our Climate Bill S.O.S. leaders call tonight (Thursday, March 4th) at 9pm EST/6pm PST.

written by Tessa Barker, UO Climate Justice League Show Me Democracy Campaign Coordinator

Students at the University of Oregon want a strong climate bill now! Support on campus for passing climate legislation that would cap carbon and help to create a clean energy economy has been growing throughout the school year.  In November, we organized the regional Powershift West conference, drawing over 500 young leaders to the University of Oregon campus; in December, a delegation of UO students went to the International Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen.  And now, despite the lack of true results from COP-15, student leaders are more determined than ever to pass a strong climate bill in the US before it’s too late, and we are ready to show our community what democracy really is.

On February 18^th, students from the UO’s newly founded Climate Justice League and I rode our bikes to the courthouse for the first of many lobby days as part of the national Show Me Democracy Campaign.  At the heart of this campaign to develop broad-based support for a strong climate bill is community outreach.  From day one, students in our group have been working to build coalitions with members of the wider community, ranging from business leaders, to farmers, to faith-based groups.  The goal is for representatives from each of these groups to eventually join us in lobbying our senators.

Continue reading ‘University of Oregon Students Bike to Eugene Senate Field Office to Engage in Democracy!’

Today more than 170 people rallied outside of the Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC’s) Annual General Shareholder meeting (AGM) in Toronto after a series of creative non-violent actions all morning. Inside, First Nations Chiefs and community representatives from four different Nations demanded RBC phase out of its Tar Sands financing and to recognize the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent for Indigenous communities. Afterward, Indigenous leaders lead the crowd in a march to rally outside both RBC Headquarters buildings.

Other cities across Canada supported the First Nations voices inside the AGM as well with solidarity actions from (click on a city for pictures) London, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, Victoria and more. Check out photos from those and our events in Toronto. And beautiful photography from Allan Lissner.

And see some preliminary media coverage from the Wall Street Journal and Yahoo.

Since 2007 RBC has backed more than $16.7 billion (USD) in loans to companies operating in the tar sands—more than any other bank. Called, ‘the most destructive project on Earth,’ Alberta’s tar sands projects will eventually transform a Boreal forest the size of England into an industrial sacrifice zone complete with lakes full of toxic waste and man-made volcanoes spewing out clouds of global warming emissions.

Outside the shareholder meeting school children, bank customers of every age, First Nations community representatives joined Rainforest Action Network, Indigenous Environmental Network, No One Is Illegal, and Council of Canadians made their outrage at RBC’s investments heard – to the thumping beats of street Samba band, the crowd shouted “Cultural Genocide: who do we thank? Dirty investments from Royal Bank!”

Inside the shareholder meeting, Chief Al Lameman of Beaver Lake First Nation, Alberta,Vice Chief Terry Teegee of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council of BC, Hereditary Chief Warner Naziel of the Wet’suwe’ten First Nation of BC, and Gitz Crazyboy of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation addressed RBC CEO Gordon Nixon directly about the way tar sands extraction projects have jeopardized their health and their rights.

Downstream communities have experienced polluted water, water reductions in rivers and aquifers, declines in wildlife populations such as moose and muskrat, and significant declines in fish populations. Tar sands has all but destroyed the traditional livelihood of First Nations in the northern Athabasca watershed.

Continue reading ‘Indigenous voices challenge Royal Bank tar sands policies, supported by hundreds at shareholder meeting’

Update on Chevron’s misleading response to the delivery.

On Sunday, Emergildo Criollo, an Indigenous leader of the Cofan people in Ecuador, traveled from his home in the Amazon rainforest to personally deliver a message to the oil giant’s new CEO John Watson.

Yesterday, Emergildo Criollo (and a bunch of supporters) boarded a donated bio-diesel bus and went to John Watson’s home in Lafayette, CA and then to Chevron headquarters in San Ramon. Emergildo traveled all this way to appeal to Watson “one man with sons to another.”

He came bearing a powerful letter from other Indigenous and community leaders from the region in Ecuador that Chevron systematically poisoned with toxic oil and waste dumping. As well as the 325,000+ signatures of support from people all over the globe – probably many of you – who are also urging Chevron to do the right thing and clean up Ecuador.

Unfortunately, John Watson (who has never been to Ecuador to witness the devastation that 18 billion gallons of oil waste his company is responsible for has caused) refused to listen to Emergildo’s story and accept the petitions. In a totally un-shocking move Chevron instead sent out the big dogs in their PR department (Rhonda I. Zygocki, Vice President, Policy, Government and Public Affairs, Silvia M. Garrigo, Manager Global Issues and Policy at Chevron Corporation, and Gary Fisher, General Manager, Corporate Public Policy.) Continue reading ‘Indigenous Ecuadorean Leader Confronts Chevron- Updated’

Cross posted from CCAN’s blog.

Thanks to the constant updates that is my Twitter feed, this week I discovered NASA’s Earth Observatory website. This website shows satellite images of the Earth- many tragic (arctic sea ice), some providing glimpse of hope (burn recovery in Yellowstone) and some simply bizarre (the growth of Dubai.) Perusing the images and attempting to interpret the changes from image to image was intriguing until the timelapse of mountaintop removal stopped me completely. I no longer marveled at the ability to capture such images, I was sickened at what we are doing to our mountains in Appalachia. I’ve seen mountaintop removal sites in person, but these images clearly show the scale and the permanence of the destruction.

According to the website:
“Below the densely forested slopes of southern West Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains is a layer cake of thin coal seams. To uncover this coal profitably, mining companies engineer large—sometimes very large—surface mines. This time-series of images of a surface mine in Boone County, West Virginia, illustrates why this controversial mining method is also called “mountaintop removal.”

I wanted to share some of the images, though watching the timelapse video on the website is even more compelling.

1984

Continue reading ‘Scars on Our Mountains’

Today the Yale Project on Climate Change is releasing a report entitled, “The Climate Change Generation?: Survey Analysis of the Perceptions and Beliefs of Young Americans.” Here is an excerpt from the Executive Summary:

Photo Credit: Dakota Fine

American adults under the age of 35 have come of age in the decades since the “discovery” of man-made climate change as a major societal problem. The oldest of this cohort was twelve in 1988, when NASA climate scientist James Hansen testified at a Senate Energy Committee hearing that global temperature rise was underway and that human-produced greenhouse gases were almost certainly responsible. For this reason, the conventional wisdom holds that young Americans, growing up in a world of ever more certain scientific evidence, increasing news attention, alarming entertainment portrayals, and school-based curricula, should be more engaged with and concerned about the issue of climate change than older Americans.

However, contrary to this conventional wisdom, Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 are, for the most part, split on the issue of global warming and, on some indicators, relatively disengaged when compared to older generations. Continue reading ‘Youth Less Concerned About Global Warming than their Elders?’

Protestors call on top tar sands financier to protect Indigenous rights and climate

TORONTO—More than 150 people gathered outside the RBC Annual General Shareholder Meeting today to protest the bank’s leading role in funding the contentious Alberta tar sands. People concerned with the impact of tar sands projects on First Nations, water quality and the climate came from every corner of Canada to ensure that the bank heard the message: ‘stop bankrolling the tar sands.’

Outside the shareholder meeting school children, bank customers of every age, First Nations community representatives and leading environmental groups rallied with brightly colored signs and chants. Inside the shareholder meeting, Chief Al Lameman of Beaver Lake First Nation of Alberta,Vice Chief Terry Teegee of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council of BC, and Hereditary Chief Warner Naziel of the Wet’suwe’ten First Nation of BC addressed RBC CEO Goron Nixon directly about the way tar sands extraction projects have jeopardized their health and their rights.  Continue reading ‘Over 150 People Call On RBC to End Tar Sands Financing at Annual General Shareholder’s Meeting’

The Summer of Solutions is a program run by Grand Aspirations designed to train youth activists to create, implement, and strengthen community projects in order to find solutions to climate change, economic recession, and environmental injustice. This blog series is brought to you by the national media working group for Grand Aspirations, and each week we will be featuring a different local program. This week, we’re featuring the Twin Cities, MN!

After two summers of amazing work and programs in the Twin Cities, the TC Summer of Solutions Planning Team is back in business and ready to amplify their already very strong programs!

Programs in the Twin Cities: The TC Summer of Solutions is the first program run, and two of the projects from that very first summer are still maintained.

Cooperative Energy Futures (CEF) is a business that connects home- and business-owners in St. Paul with the resources to weatherize homes and implement very practical energy efficiency strategies to save energy and money. The broad vision of CEF is to reframe the debate about energy and climate change by demonstrating how the average household can play a role in building solutions through community collaboration. First envisioned in early 2008, and is running strong today. Continue reading ‘Twin Cities Summer of Solutions hits the ground running!’

Originally an op-ed in the University of Maryland newspaper Diamondback.

You might be surprised who just encouraged Catholics to go green for Lent: the Pope. Pope Benedict XVI has been called “the green Pope” because of his efforts to make the Vatican carbon neutral and his use of religious doctrine to advocate for humanity’s moral responsibility to care for the planet. In 2008, one of the new sins announced by the Roman Catholic Church was “polluting the environment.”

It’s important not to view the leadership of Pope Benedict on environmental issues as an anomaly in the religious community.  Despite the stereotype that environmental disputes such as climate change pit religious conservatives on one side versus godless liberals on the other, environmental stewardship is meteorically rising as a top issue in the religious community. Continue reading ‘Environmentalism and religion: The climate of faith’