It’s Getting Hot In Here

Last week, respected political tech blogger Micah Sifry pointed out on techPresident that the Oil Spill is a metaphor for our times, in which actionable information gushes around the internet with no meaningful filter that will encourage people to actually do something with the bad news they receive. Describing the disturbing streaming video in the Gulf Coast, he wrote:

But it is also a quintessentially 21st century spectacle, and the way we are experiencing it is yet another warning of something that is deeply broken about how we use information today: we consume shocking images almost entirely without taking meaningful action in response.

He’s right, a lot of people consuming shocking images without doing anything, but perhaps a better question is why doesn’t the media acknowledge all the people who ARE doing something?

There is inspiring action being taken, we just aren’t hearing about it. Why is the media devoting so much time to the oil video when, through the Energy Action Coalition alone, there were 45 actions across the country two weeks ago calling for this to be our Crude Awakening? Continue reading ‘Responding to Disaster’

The following was written a week ago, after the coalfield community group, the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, marched on their local coal-hugging regulatory agency. Sorry it’s a little late, but I’ve just come down from Pine Mountain in Kentucky where Mountain Justice hosted its 6th annual Mountain Justice Summer Camp (and then on to Lexington). Here’s to the long haul towards a better Appalachia, and yet another long summer of action to end the reign of King Coal!

Please support the work of the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards by clicking this link to keep up the pressure on the EPA in order to Keep Ison Rock Ridge Standing.

Late Monday morning, June 1, 2010, around 20 Wise County residents gathered at the offices of the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy in Big Stone Gap, Va to rally in opposition to A&G Coal’s proposed Ison Rock Ridge surface mine. Picketers held signs with slogans including, “Ison Rock Ridge is families. Keep it standing!” and “Don’t blast our homes.” As part of the rally, two individuals delivered a “Certificate of Failure” to the DMME for failing to protect communities. Continue reading ‘Coalfield Group Deliver’s “FAIL” award to Coal-Hugging Regulatory Agency’

Lexington Protest Shames PNC’s Mountaintop Removal Financing

PNC Bank is the biggest US financier of Appalachian mountain destruction

LEXINGTON, KY – Concerned citizens rallied in downtown Lexington today to express their anger at PNC Bank for financing mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining. Local activists were joined by members of the group Mountain Justice and residents from mountaintop communities, who spoke out about the direct impact that this destructive form of mining has on their community, health and environment.

“Several banks have realized that they shouldn’t be involved with companies that are causing the total annihilation of a culture by their use of MTR. It’s unfortunate that PNC, like Massey, is putting profits over people and over God’s creation,” said Mickey McCoy, a Martin County resident whose community was affected by a coal sludge spill in 2000.

Also present at the protest were a colorful street-theater troupe of ‘clowns,’ who acted out a performance of a coal company blasting the top off a mountain, then extracting a bag of money and passing it between U.S. Banks like a hot potato, to symbolize PNC Bank doing business with companies that other banks have moved away from.

The protesters paid a visit to the PNC branch at Main and Deweese streets and released a banner inside attached to some helium balloons, which said “PNC + Your Money = Toxic Tap Water.” Activists also passed out literature about the issue to bank customers and employees and delivered a letter to the bank branch manager asking that PNC end their financing of mountaintop removal.

“PNC Bank was a recipient of bailout funds, so their investments in MTR represent my tax dollars. I am vehemently opposed to the destruction of the mountains, forests and communities of Appalachia, and I’m concerned by the impacts of strip mining on water quality in central Kentucky,” said Martin Mudd, a Lexington resident and activist with Kentucky Mountain Justice. Continue reading ‘Lexington Protest Shames PNC’s Mountaintop Removal Financing’

This past weekend marked World Environment Day, a UN-sponsored green washing extravaganza.  The focus event for the Americas in Pittsburgh featured a world record-setting flotilla of kayaks and canoes, a policy-oriented “Water Matters” Conference, a screening of the new doc Gasland, and a lot of signs declaring it World Environment Day.

The ironies abounded – from Coca Cola (notorious for stealing water from impoverished communities in India) and other corporations speaking about water conservation to a celebration of our precious, yet terribly threatened and already oh-so-contaminated three rivers with their sewage overflow, toxic dumping and now unregulated natural gas drilling, called “fracking” in the Marcellus Shale.

It wasn’t all a loss though as we seized the opportunity to call attention to the terror of gas drilling in our state and beyond.  Several residents did a successful on-kayak banner deployment demanding we “Stop Drilling Marcellus” at the flotilla (release below the jump). Members of the Pittsburgh Student Environmental Coalition (PSEC) planned a dance mob that got rained out, but didn’t stop them from collecting petitions and talking to tons of locals about the threat of fracking.  And the capstone was a screening of Gasland (watch this movie!) to a packed house of over 200 people who united in collective anger, frustration and a call for a ban on drilling, at least until substantial regulations are in place.

Overall the day gave us, local residents, an opportunity to elevate the dialog on this terrifying threat to our rivers, drinking water and land, even while allowing for corporations and politicians to flaunt astro-turf green pasted on smiles. Continue reading ‘UN World Environment Day: A Sham, An Opportunity’

<cross-posted on SustainUS’s Agents of Change blog and The Climate Community

The United States earned the 1st Fossil of the Day Award here at the  United Nations climate negotiations in Bonn. Nearly a week had passed where no country had acted badly enough in the negotiations to deserve a shameful Fossil, until the U.S.’s nomination.

The U.S. grabbed the title for blocking a discussion on greenhouse gas mitigation actions. The discussion would have helped build consensus on post-2012 actions to stop greenhouse gas pollution. Lack of a clean energy and climate law is pushing the U.S. to block an international discussion on future climate agreements (sound familiar?).

The discussion had been proposed by the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). Many AOSIS countries are under extreme threat from rising sea levels and other worsening climate impacts. They also have some of the least capacity to deal with these impacts, and have contributed to climate change pollution the least of most nations.

The Fossil of the Day awards, run by the Climate Action Network (CAN), were created to highlight the countries doing the most to block progress in the United Nations negotiations.

Official press release from CAN:

Continue reading ‘U.S.A. Earns 1st Fossil of the Day in Bonn’

Caroline just posted a great piece sharing her opinion that President Obama isn’t showing the kind of leadership he needs to after the BP Oil spill, especially in comparison to strong statements from Indian leaders  who are talking about the need to end our dependence on fossil fuel. I too want Obama to do more — but I also think there’s been a fundamental shift in U.S. politics. We need to seize this moment to push a truly clean energy agenda, both in the U.S. and here in Bonn, Germany, where the UN Climate Negotiations are continuing …

The growing demand for strong, clean energy and climate legislation in the United States in the wake of the BP oil disaster should provide new momentum for the international climate talks taking place right now in Bonn, Germany.

For those diplomats in Bonn who may have their heads too far stuck in acronyms and policy papers to have noticed what’s been happening across the (now oil covered) seas in the U.S., here’s a quick update.

For over 50 days, a veritable volcano of oil has been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, destroying the local environment, wrecking livelihoods throughout the region, and, most recently, drenching sea birds in black, toxic sludge.

In fact, the only thing spreading faster than the spill has been public outrage. Here in the U.S., our nightly news and front pages have been filled with stories of everyday Americans (and even some formerly drill-baby-drill politicians) calling for action against the oil companies, government reform, and real solutions to our addiction to dirty energy. Angry citizens have protested at BP gas stations across the country. Rallies from New Orleans to Washington, D.C. are becoming louder and more intense. Online, hundreds of thousands of people have joined Facebook groups and signed petitions to repeal tax breaks to Big Oil or press criminal charges against BP. Over the next month, a renewed round of actions and protests are being planned.

Continue reading ‘U.S. Crude Awakening Needs to be Felt at Bonn Climate Talks’

I’m writing this from New Delhi, thousands of miles away from the tragically polluted Gulf Coast, and I’m crying. This crisis has felt so far away from me over the past few weeks, as I’m sure the droughts of Andhra Pradesh and the water crises in Karnataka have felt far from people in Washington D.C. for so many years. Last night, someone asked me why the United States was so slow to act when a global crisis was already affecting so many people here. That’s just it — it’s affecting people here. Climate change isn’t affecting Americans in the same way, yet.

But the Gulf Coast oil spill IS. So why don’t they get it? When Barack Obama sent Organizing for America an email this morning, why did he first make me cry with the sadness of the real impact of communities there – the destruction of ecosystems, of livelihoods, of entire communities – and then make me cry with the deep sadness of his misunderstanding of what the real crisis is. The email said, “That is why, from the beginning, we have worked to deploy every tool at our disposal to respond to this crisis.” He’s wrong:

I have not seen a real response. I have not seen ambitious energy policy that will remove America from fossil fuels. I have not seen a ban on offshore drilling (which cannot be done without risks, no matter what BP says). I have not seen fierce speed in responding to a leak, nor fire in response to a company which did not plan for a disaster. This same email said, “If laws are inadequate, they will be changed.” All laws are inadequate that do not get the United States towards an clean energy economy and off of our fossil fuel addiction.

However, last night, on World Environment Day, I heard Farooq Abdullah, India’s Minister of New and Renewable Energy, (remind me why the US doesn’t have one?) say very clearly: You’ve seen the crisis in the Gulf Coast, and while it is far away, the same crisis could happen close to us if we continue our dependence on oil. “The time has come that our dependence on fossil fuels must end.”

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made a bold step, committing to 20,000 MW of solar in the next 10 years. Why can’t Obama? As Friedman said really nicely, “Mr. President, this is your time, this is your moment. Seize it. A disaster is an inexcusable thing to waste.” If Manmohan isn’t wasting the oil spill, why is Obama? If Farooq Abdullah gets it, why can’t America?

Cross-posted from EnergyActionCoalition.org

“We want safe jobs and clean energy
No more oil spills – Arrest BP!”

Was the thunderous chant echoing off the monolithic walls of BP’s DC headquarters today when hundreds of protestors turned out in force to deliver them a “Crude Awakening.” From the mouth of our megaphones BP got a strong dose of people power as we rallied and called for a “Citizens Arrest” of CEO Tony Hayward on the charges of criminal negligence.

More than a dozen network news cameras captured our outrage at BP’s criminal negligence to prevent and stop the unfolding disaster in the Gulf. (Check out the initial report from ABC News). Under the hot sun the energy of the crowd was palatable as we chanted and carried images of BP CEO Tony Hayward in a striped prison jumpsuit.

I MC’ed as speakers from Public Citizen, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, and Hip Hop Caucus (video) read aloud the charges against BP that included: polluting the political process, disregard for worker safety, price-gouging consumers and taxpayers, and violations of environmental laws.

The timing of the action couldn’t have been better; this week Attorney General Eric Holder announced he was opening a criminal probe of the oil giant. Holding BP criminally accountable is a bold step toward ensuring that the families on the Gulf get compensation for the vast damages to their lively-hoods.

Continue reading ‘Hundreds Stage BP “Citizen’s Arrest” – Demonstrate the Power of the People’

As crude oil washes up on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and continues to gush unabated from ocean floor, you would think that even pollution-friendly Senators would be wary of voting for an anti-science resolution that does nothing but pad the pockets of Big Oil. If that Senator is Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, however, you would be wrong.

Next Thursday, June 10th, Murkowski will finally introduce her long-threatened Dirty Air Act resolution which would strip the EPA of its authority to regulate greenhouse gasses. It’s shocking that at this moment — when we should be holding oil companies accountable for their reckless environmental destruction — Senator Murkowski is pushing to let them off the hook.

It’s time for clean energy solutions, not another Big Oil Bailout!

We want to create a visual that senators can’t possibly miss, so all next week young people will be out in force on Capitol Hill and in states around the country wearing large oil barrels to demand senators oppose the Dirty Air Act and support comprehensive climate legislation.
Continue reading ‘Look Out for Oil Barrels’