It’s Getting Hot In Here

The historic gathering of the worlds most affected by climate change is kicking off in Cochabamba this week. Delegations of grassroots activists from the U.S. are going to help give a voice to the “South within the North” – communities on the frontlines of the impacts of climate change and resource extraction and fossil fuel development. Below is the first blog from Jason Negrón-Gonzales of the Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project on his way down to Bolivia. For up-to-the-minute reports back from Cochabamba check out Global Justice Ecology Project’s Climate Connections Blog.

Dispatch 1: Rumbo a Cochabamba
Jason Negrón-Gonzales

I’m writing from the plane in route to Cochabamba for the People’s World Conference on Climate Change and Rights of the Mother Earth.  For those who aren’t familiar with the conference, it was proposed by Bolivian president Evo Morales in the aftermath of the COP15 conference in Copenhagen last December.  While that conference was billed early as “Hopenhagen”, this week’s meetings in Cochabamba, Bolivia hold the real seeds of hope for a global response to climate chaos that is rooted in justice, equity, and historical accountability, and led by global social movements of workers, farmers, and the poor.

What’s at stake?

While the world needed and hoped for a responsible and sufficient (if not radical) response to climate change, or at least a solid step in that direction, instead what we got in Copenhagen was more of the same: corporations and developed countries trying to extend their advantage and wealth.  The class character of the debate was striking.  One the one hand, delegates from Global South and Indigenous communities who are least to blame for emissions and are facing the loss of the livelihoods and homelands were demanding strong action now.  On the other, economic powerhouses like the US, which consumes about a quarter of the global energy supply, refused to be accountable for the environmental impacts of their economies and way of life.

Continue reading ‘Dispatch 1: Rumbo a Cochabamba’

I have to agree with what author Bill McKibben had to say last Thursday about federal climate policy:

“The Obama administration has done more in its year and a half in office on climate change than all the other presidents of the global warming era combined. On the other hand, you know, I’ve drunk more beer than my twelve-year-old niece.”

The same could be said for climate policy in Massachusetts. Compared to a lot of places, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is ahead of the curve on climate change and green job creation. The average Bay State resident burns 13.24 tons of CO2 per year, 9th lowest in the United States. In the last 20 years, Massachusetts has lowered per capita CO2 emissions by about 1.6%. The trouble is, the laws of physics and chemistry don’t give points for effort. Either emissions will be reduced aggressively enough to avoid dangerous tipping points for the earth’s climate, or not.

According to the landmark “Copenhagen Diagnosis” released in December 2009, to “secure a decent chance of avoiding dangerous human interference with the climate system”, the world must reduce emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 85-90% below 1990 levels by 2050. In Massachusetts, that would mean getting from about 13.5 tons of CO2 per person per year in 1990 to around 8 tons by 2020 and 2 tons by 2050. Getting there is going to take courage.

Massachusetts Legislators don’t have to look far to see what leadership looks like. On March 4th a coalition of 32 organizations and businesses came together to form the Commonwealth Challenge. The campaign is producing results..

Continue reading ‘Courage’

The following is an excerpt from a science-fiction/future history story I am currently writing set in my home town. It is actually a piece of backstory. The story itself focuses on the society which arises a century after this conflict, in my attempt to envision a future we might hope to strive for. ~ Emily Jacke

Summer illuminates the treetops with gold and deepening shades of green. The dense foliage filters the light before it touches the ground below, patches of sun and shade flickering across the bracken and pine needles and loam. A wind hurries a creak from the bows of an ancient pine and rustles the soft leaves high above. Between two oaks a broken bike path wanders, the asphalt cracked, chunks strewn along the edges. Less than a century ago, lovers met here in the shade, paused on their titanium bicycles to look around, chugged water artificially infused with electrolytes from disposable plastic bottles, carved their names into the bark of two saplings. The lovers and their bicycles and their electrolytes are long gone now; the letters disappear into the trunk, raised scars in the bark swallowing themselves and their meaning.

Agent DH Storm 862, Senior Resource Reconnaissance Official for the Eastern American Army Expedition (DHS862 SRRO for the EAAE), dismounts his battered army scooter before the oaks, glancing up at the shadowy canopy above. The names on the trees do not impress him, their age does not fill him with awe; instead, after a quick evaluation of his surroundings, he makes a note on a clipboard and removes a can of paint from the holster on his bike. Nothing moves; the air is heavy. The quiet tears with the spraying noise of the paint marking a red X on the trunk of the tree. Instantly the air fills with the hissing of a dozen snakes. DHS862 stops, snaps the can efficiently back into the holster and draws his handgun, pointing it down at the ground. Continue reading ‘Create Our Climate: Savages’

Cross-posted from Americans for Energy Leadership

China is building an ambitious “Solar Valley City” as a new national center for manufacturing, research and development, education, and tourism around solar energy technologies. as part of the Chinese government and industry’s efforts to promote clean energy technology and grow the nation’s global market share (see video below beginning at 10 seconds).

Solar Valley City is located in Dezhou, Shandong Province, where I visited last month as part of a delegation from Stanford University, and it is unlike any city you’ve seen before. The city houses over 100 solar enterprises including major firms like Himin Solar Energy Group Ltd, the world’s largest manufacturing base of solar thermal products, and Ecco Solar Group. According to reports, around 800,000 people in Dezhou are employed in the solar industry, or one in three people of working age.

“China’s solar thermal industry and Himin’s complete industrial chain are examples for the rest of the world. That sounds brash, but it’s true,” said Himin’s CEO Huan Ming in 2009, now one of China’s richest men. Himin specializes in solar thermal technology, producing over twice the annual sales of all solar thermal systems in the United States, and it is quickly expanding into solar photovoltaics and other technologies.

Continue reading ‘WATCH: China building ambitious “Solar Valley City” to advance solar industry’

reposted from On the Level: Car Free Blog

by Maya

The San Francisco Green Fest was an interesting mix of good intentions and
greedy opportunism. We held an “Alternate Green Fest to expose the fact
that there is more to preserving life on planet Earth than hemp jewelry!
Now that the Green Festival is happening twice a year in SF, we think it’s
time to ask some serious questions about the message that the festival is
sending to the wider society- namely that if everyone drove a Prius, put
solar panels on their home, and offset their annual flights to Thailand,
that we could “save the planet.” The reality is that nothing could be
further from the truth.

How did the term “environmentally friendly” come to mean “slightly less
environmentally destructive”? The truth is that human beings have the
ability to be truly “friendly” to the environment, crafting a new
reciprocal relationship with nature rather than the current exploitative
one, based on wisdom from indigenous cultures.

Though many of the individuals who put on the festival are well
intentioned, trying to “green” a fundamentally destructive culture can
only perpetuate the damage and delay real solutions. Continue reading ‘Shopping Won’t Save Us’

Yesterday was tax day.  Nearly every citizen in this country pitched in and paid their taxes.  This money went to pay for critical social services – like the Fire Department, Hospitals, Police, and more.  Unfortunately, some of it went to subsidize industries and corporations that are hurting our communities, our national security and our environment.

Large corporations, like oil companies, are moving their money to offshore banks to avoid paying taxes. This phenomenon is egregious because these companies aren’t paying their fair share.  What’s worse is that they dodge taxes while taking federal subsidies.

Earlier this year President Obama moved to eliminate $36.5 billion in subsidies to oil companies over the next 10 years.  That’s a good start for companies that do everything they can to avoid pitching in.

The American Petroleum Institute (API), which lobbies for the fossil fuel industry in Congress, immediately attacked the President’s idea – calling it a new energy tax when ordinary Americans cannot afford new taxes.

Despite the rhetoric of API and the rest of the dirty energy lobby, however, what the public really can’t afford is continuing to subsidize the most profitable companies in the world with our tax dollars.  Every dollar we give to oil companies is one less dollar that can be used for innovation and new technologies that will move us into the 21^st century.  According to a wide-range of research compiled by the Center for American Progress, clean energy technology creates more jobs than staying with the fossil-fueled status quo.  In addition, eliminating

While oil companies continue to receive billions in subsidies, new energy technologies like solar, wind and geothermal receive far less and yet, they remain the fastest growing sectors of our economy.  As young people, we understand the need for a clean energy future – its time for the Senate to invest in the new technology and innovation.  More and more of us are graduating from school and entering the job market, and we are excited about the opportunities of a clean energy job. We hope the Senate is paying attention.

Another round of applause for the youth who showed up to confront Big Coal at the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Here’s a video that captures not only the youth action, but some impressive words from the committee members. Enjoy

Chase: Stop Funding MTR

May 6 Day of Action Against Chase’s Mountaintop Removal Investments

Join Rainforest Action Network and allies all over Appalachia and the country in stopping Chase’s investments in mountaintop removal.

WHAT: Chase: Stop Funding MTR; Day of Action against Chase’s Mountaintop Removal Investments
WHERE: Your Town USA
WHEN; May 6, 2010
CONTACT: dirtymoney@ran.org or 1-800-989-RAIN
INFO: www.dirtymoney.org

Did you pledge to end mountaintop removal?  Want to do more than click a link and send an email?  Now’s your chance!

Join Rainforest Action Network, Coal River Mountain Watch, Climate Ground Zero, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Waterkeeper Alliance, Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping, United Mountain Defense, Rising Tide North America, Mountain Justice and people all over the country as we send a message to JP Morgan Chase to stop financing mountaintop removal!

We’re organizing actions on campuses, in the streets and out in front of Chase’s branches and offices around the country.  From the hills and hollers of Appalachia to the great cities of San Francisco, New York and Chicago to the towns and neighborhoods where people are pledging to end mountaintop removal, this campaign will send a loud and clear message to Chase—Stop Funding Mountaintop Removal!

Destroying Appalachian Mountains for Dirty Energy
You wouldn’t believe this is happening in America.  One of the biggest environmental disasters in recent history is happening in our own country, and JP Morgan chase is financing it – to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars every year.  Mountaintop removal involves literally blowing the tops off historic Appalachian Mountains to extract a relatively small amount of dirty coal.  Mountaintop removal, which provides a mere 7 percent of the nation’s coal, is done by clear-cutting forests, blowing the tops off of mountains, and then dumping the debris into streambeds.  In the process, mountaintop removal poisons essential drinking water supplies and pollutes the air with coal and rock dust – and undeniably catastrophic reality for the people of Appalachia.

Bankrolling an American Tragedy
JP Morgan Chase is the largest US financier of mountaintop removal coal mining.   According to Bloomberg, in the last two years Chase has financed some of the top corporate producers of mountaintop removal coal. These companies include Massey Energy – the largest mountaintop removal coal producer in Central Appalachia, and Arch Coal – operators of Spruce Mine in West Virginia. The environmental impacts of the Spruce mine are so severe that the EPA is moving to close it down. Imagine if JPMorgan Chase took this money and invested it in renewable energy alternatives! Continue reading ‘Chase: Stop Funding MTR; May 6 Day of Action Against Chase’s Mountaintop Removal Investments’

From April 9^th to 11^th I attended the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change interim negotiations in Bonn, Germany.  This session was the first meeting of the convention since Copenhagen in December and the goal was to create a negotiating schedule for the months leading up to COP16 in Cancun.  It was supposed to be everything that Copenhagen wasn’t: low-key, productive, and inclusive. I wish I could tell you that the meetings were efficient and resulted in an action plan for 2010, but I cannot.  In fact, by 6:30 pm on Sunday when I left to catch a train back home, the plenary sessions for the day had yet to begin (they were scheduled to start at 11:30 am) and no decisions regarding further meetings of the UNFCCC before Cancun had been reached. Despite the lack of journalists, disgruntled Non Governmental Organizations, and activists taking to the streets in frustration, the United Nations could not even get it together to schedule some meetings and come up with an action plan for how to move forward after the failure that was Copenhagen.

Meanwhile, outside of the United Nations territory, climate change is wreaking havoc on communities and youth are struggling to understand why the United Nations feel the freedom to waste our time when climate change is happening now and will not delay no matter how many meetings do or do not happen.  Last week in West Virginia, 29 employees of Massey Energy died as a result of an explosion at a mining site, the worst coal mining tragedy since 1970.  On April 15^th, several activists attended a hearing on Capital Hill titled “The Role of Coal in a New Energy Age” and confronted dirty energy CEOs about the human and ecological implications of coal mining.  And all across the nation, youth climate activists are meeting with their elected officials and informing that they need to Show Me Democracy by taking leadership on climate change legislation.  Clearly, activists and climate change are not waiting for the United Nations.

Continue reading ‘Climate Change and Activists Won’t Delay, But United Nations Will’

Cross-posted from WWF-Canada’s Blog

The House of Commons in Canada yesterday pushed through the Climate Change Accountability Act, Bill C-311 into its third reading because of a major shift made from within the Liberal Party of Canada.

The position of the Liberal caucus was not unanimous or certain before a motion was put forward yesterday. The Opposition Motion put forward by Member of Parliament David McGuinty yesterday was not only well-written, issue inclusive, and forward-thinking, it also included crucial goals, time-lines and events that Canada must focus on in order to engage with other world leaders on cutting emissions. Continue reading ‘Canada’s Climate Bill Makes it to 3rd Base’