It’s Getting Hot In Here

Monstrous loads are headed down the Snake and Columbia River right now!

Exxon is currently barging massive (as in, longer than a hockey rink and heavier than the statue of liberty) tar sands equipment up the Columbia and Snake rivers to the port of Lewiston, ID. The oil industry wants to drive these huge loads of Korean mining equipment up widened scenic northwest highways to Alberta’s tar sands, to trigger massive expansion of one of the most destructive industries on earth. (See this article for a fantastic overview of the heavy haul project and its awful destructiveness)

It doesn’t seem to matter to Exxon that a federal judge has halted other shipments in their tracks in Idaho, or that concerned citizens, a U.S. Representative, and First Nation communities have voiced serious concerns about the destructive impact of the heavy hauls and the corresponding expansion of the tar sands in Alberta. Exxon thinks they can do whatever they want to increase their bottom line, even if it means blatant disregard for the will of us little people. They want to open this scenic corridor for huge, destructive traffic, and keep it open for decades to come. Such arrogance should be shocking, but unfortunately seems to be business as usual for tar sands companies.

If you’re in the Northwest, spread the word about Exxon’s arrogant behavior. Let your members of congress and local elected officials know that Exxon’s actions are unacceptable. If you’re near the Snake or Columbia Rivers and see these massive shipments go by, document them!

Chevron CEO John Watson was invited to speak about “The Energy Economy” at the University of Chicago business school, Chicago Booth this morning. The event provided audience members a chance to ask Watson questions, and as it just so happens, we have a few we’ve been meaning to ask him.

Some friends and I were concerned about Chevron’s attempts to evade both the law and the company’s moral responsibility to clean up the 18 billion gallons of toxic oil waste it deliberately dumped in the Amazon, killing 1,400 people and poisoning thousands of others. So we paid him a visit.

Chevron CEO John Watson flees up a staircase (Watson is on the top left) while we hold banners.

Dressed business casual, we came in early and each took seats in different parts of the room. We listened to John Watson distance Chevron from the BP oil disaster. He reassured us all that Chevron is a thoughtful oil company. He went on to say that, above all other objectives, “No goal is more important than operating in a safe and responsible manner.”

On that note, Debra Michaud, a University of Chicago alumna, jumped up to express her dismay that a fellow graduate would be involved in poisoning the communities of 30,000 people. She asked Watson to speak to Chevron’s toxic legacy in Ecuador.

Watson was quick to evade the question, claiming that the damage was not Chevron’s responsibility. He seemed relieved at the end, as if he was thinking, “Phew, glad that’s over.” But it wasn’t.

Continue reading ‘Activists Derail Business School Q&A With Chevron CEO John Watson’

Original post by Climate Justice Montreal on The Media Co-op

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A RECLAIM COLUMBUS DAY STATEMENT by Climate Justice Montreal

In 2009, Indigenous communities throughout the world called for a global mobilization “In Defence of Mother Earth” on October 12, 2010, reclaiming “Columbus Day” and transforming colonial holidays into days of action in solidarity with Indigenous peoples. Responding to this call and the demand for a day of action for ‘system change, not climate change’ issued by the global movements gathered in Copenhagen last year, Climate Justice Action has organized a day of direct action for climate justice. 

With increasing droughts, floods, natural disasters and the hottest summer on record behind us, ever more Canadians are realizing the present and future peril of climate change. But our political and economic system has locked us into dependency on infinite economic growth. It produces elites whose vision is pathologically short-sighted, rarely extending beyond the next financial quarter or electoral term.

So rather than scale back, as we know we must, Canadian elites are presiding over a final stage of colonial resource pillage – a frantic grab for the dirtiest and hardest-to-extract fossil fuels and minerals in ever-harder-to-reach geographic zones.

These new mines, oil wells, pipelines, swathes of clear-cuts and hydro-dams are almost always on or near unceded and treatied Indigenous territories. These sites of extraction have thus become sites of  resistance – because living and depending on these lands, Indigenous peoples are their first and fiercest defenders. And in the face of resource depletion, biodiversity loss, and climate chaos, their struggles are taking on vital importance.

Indigenous communities are resisting because their resistance protects and embodies alternatives – for sane resource management in Haida Gwaii, for conservation of watersheds in Gwich’in, for sustainable forestry in Barriere Lake, for imagining different relationships to the land from coast to coast to coast. Where polluting and carbon-emitting projects have been halted or delayed, minimized or regulated, we can usually thank Indigenous peoples. During these struggles, they have won a unique set of tools – Supreme Court precedents, constitutional rights, and international legal instruments – that establish a framework for self-determination and land restitution in Canada. Continue reading ’10 Indigenous Struggles Canadian Climate and Environmental Activists Should Support’

In one of the tightest governor’s race in the country, two very different candidates for the highest state-level elected office in Oregon. One, Democrat John Kitzhaber, is a former Oregon governor who wants to build up the state’s green economy, protect public health and wildlife habitat, and continue Oregon’s leadership role in the fight against global warming. Meanwhile Republican Chris Dudley—a basketball player with no political experience—opposes regulating carbon, is open to offshore oil drilling along Oregon’s coasts, and isn’t sure whether global warming is caused by human activity. The choice for Oregon couldn’t be starker.

A few months ago during primary season, I wrote about some of the major energy and environmental challenges Oregon’s next governor will have to take on. Since that time the candidate widely regarded as most progressive on environmental issues, former Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, has been eliminated from the race. Bradbury lost the Democratic primary to John Kitzhaber, and I won’t pretend that wasn’t a disappointment to me personally. But here’s why I’m still excited to cast my ballot in a couple weeks:

John Kitzhaber, who’s been endorsed by the Sierra Club and the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, is a very green candidate. It just happens that in the primary, he was up against someone with even better energy and climate plans. Kitzhaber’s green credentials were outshone by Bradbury’s in the primary—but running against almost anyone else (or in anyplace other than Oregon), Kitzhaber would have been the clear environmental choice. This is certainly the case now that it’s come down to a race between Kitzhaber and Dudley.

Chris Dudley has gotten as far as he has in the governor’s race mainly by outspending Kitzhaber. When an early poll showed Dudley doing better than expected in the polls, big business poured money into his campaign. Dudley apparently feels secure enough with his monetary advantage that he agreed to only one in-person gubernatorial debate, showing he’s more interested in being seen as a smiling five-second presence on TV than in actually digging into issues and concerns Oregonians care about. Continue reading ‘The Oregon Governor’s Race: Laying Groundwork for Progress on Clean Energy’

The 2010 Climate Bill fight is over, but now is the time to see what can learn from what happened.  For one thing, it wasn’t very good in the first place. As David Reberts notes over at Grist, the fact that a bill didn’t pass really isn’t a result of a failure on the part of the youth climate movement to make enough noise as much as it is a result of the elected officials just not understanding the implications and benefits to our economy that a bill could bring.  Even more telling is how Roberts also points out that the bill didn’t pass even though it was severely compromised:

“As it happens, extraordinary measures were taken in every iteration of the climate bill to protect Midwestern coal states: free pollution permits, consumer rebates sufficient to make the working and middle class whole, massive subsidies for CCS development, support for trade-exposed industries, pork for nuclear, on and on. The architects of climate legislation went to almost comic lengths to accommodate the substantive concerns of coal state senators. Coal utilities supported the damn bill!”

Coming out of all this, for the first time in quite some time, I am actually excited in the response the Obama Administration has started to take on climate. It is like some sort of super efficient L.E.D. light bulb clicked over in Washington D.C. this week.  In the past week, the White House held a conference call with youth environmental leaders, declared that solar hot water & photovoltaic panels are going up on the White House and the Department of Interior announced 750 MW of solar installation on public land.  Even more important than all of this is President Obama’s declaration that 2011 is the year that his administration will make significant headway on climate and energy.

Time to Seize Momentum

To truly build a clean energy economy, it is of my opinion that we need to open up the technology for every community and individual to have the opportunity to directly participate in said economy.  A great example of what this could look like is written about in Billy Parish’s recent piece in Huffington Post, describing one of the first community owned solar projects in the country.  The project involved a community in Maryland where residents that didn’t have much solar exposure, got together and formed a company, University Park Community Solar and approached a local church with a large roof and good solar orientation. In exchange for placing solar panels on it’s roof, the church would be guaranteed a long-term low price of electricity.

Continue reading ‘Renewable Energy Democracy: Obama’s Solar Panels and Deployment of Clean Energy Systems’

Reposted from the Understory

Wikipedia:Greenwashing (a portmanteau of “green” and “whitewash”) is a term describing the deceptive use of green PR or green marketing in order to promote a misleading perception that a company’s policies or products (such as goods or services) are environmentally friendly.

PNC prides itself on being the “greenest bank in the business” and last week further contributed to that delusion by opening a new “green” certified building as their regional HQ in Washington D.C.

Containing a “15,000 square-foot Eco-Skygarden covering half of the 12-story building’s roof” and “a three-story ‘climate wall’ of constantly falling water, which controls temperature and humidity in the lobby” the building is PNC’s latest big greenwash.

Why is this an exercise in greenwashing? Because, PNC is the largest funder of mountaintop removal in the U.S. They gave over $130 million to six of the eight largest mountaintop removal coal companies. Continue reading ‘How Do You Spell Greenwash? P-N-C’

The Seattle City Council voted 8-1 Monday to create a registry for residents who no longer wish to receive the yellow pages phone books. Though current opt-out systems exist from distributors, Seattle has become the first city in the United States to pass formal legislation.

This legislation is part of what the city call’s it’s responsibility to “develop and implement aggressive and effective waste reduction and source separation strategies,” and reaffirms the long-term goal of achieving 70% recycling.

Part of the legislation includes a fee to distributors who deliver yellow pages to those on the no-delivery registry, in addition to charging distributors to recycle unused books. Seattle Public Utilities estimates that nearly 2 million books are delivered annually in Seattle, costing $350,00 to recycle.
Continue reading ‘In Seattle, Phonebooks Now Optional’

This past weekend, the largest day of climate action in history, united tens of thousands of people all across the planet in “getting to work”.

People came together in communities across the world to make neighborhoods more efficient, grow food, install renewable energy, plant trees, create bike transit teams, and so much more. In the face of political inaction, a global economy that seems hesitant to go green or to recover, and a climate clock whose ticking is ever more audible in Pakistan’s floods and Russian fires, these people from all across the planet are getting to work and telling the world to do the same.

It’s a start.

Building a green economy is the work of a lifetime. We will not reinvent the electrical grid, rebuild our cities and their transit infrastructure, or renew our food system overnight. Rather than removing urgency, this long time horizon should heighten it while making our movement more thoughtful and strategic. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. Now is the absolute latest that we can get started, but it will be a long haul.

How will our generation survive this marathon race to a society that can sustain itself? The job market is slowly slipping, and our generation is the most unemployed, particularly for young people from low-income and minority backgrounds. The economic foundations on which young people have long relied to pay the bills, or drifted back to after the bright-eyed aspirations of youth fade from us are themselves fading. As a generation, we are increasingly finding ourselves with our backs to a wall in an uncertain world.

Its time to get to work. Continue reading ‘Getting to Work’

***Please reply to this posting with ideas for how we can creatively message these demands on Thursday evening, or other ideas for getting vocal.***

This past Monday, I was invited to join a youth environmental leader’s call hosted by the White House, geared toward energizing young voters around Obama’s environmental agenda. At the end of the call, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson fielded a few questions, including one from me; I asked her what Obama would do to make up for a lack of congressional action on climate change, both here in the U.S and in the lead-up to the U.N international climate negotiations in Cancun this November. Not surprisingly, her answer was vague and indirect.

The next day, I received exciting news from the White House. After a month of pressure from grassroots groups, President Obama made a symbolic step toward committing to clean energy leadership, by agreeing to outfit his home with solar panels and a solar water heating system. Despite the pride I feel for this movement victory, I am still left wanting.

After a long hiatus, Obama has given the green light to have solar power reinstated on the roof of the White House

Our country is lagging behind when it comes to building the clean energy future. Our largest clean tech investment thus far came from the stimulus package, and our federal government still insists on funneling money into destructive dirty energy projects. In the U.S oil industry alone, federal subsidies range from roughly $6 billion to a staggering $39 billion annually.

Meanwhile, our leaders’ lack of action has obstructed any meaningful progress on the international front. Not only has Congress failed to produce climate legislation, but this week at the U.N intercessional climate negotiations in Tianjin, China, instead of making headway in the lead-up to Cancun, U.S negotiators insisted on pointing the finger at developing countries for not taking enough action.

Youth in other countries are noticing this hypocrisy too. The day before Obama’s announcement to install solar on his roof, youth around the U.S circulated a letter written from Chinese youth and their university professors, addressed to U.S Special Envoy on Climate Change, Todd Stern, calling on the U.S to follow China’s example and make real strides toward clean energy development; by doubling domestic wind capacity and matching China’s solar growth rate within one year. Continue reading ‘What’s Next, Obama?’

By Kristina von Hoffmann, ACE Educator in Los Angeles

Ever thought about how fun it would be to ride your bike down LA’s historic streets, without any traffic getting in your way? I mean no cars, no honking buses, no exhaust… sounds like a dream, right?

Well, in conjunction with 350.org’s 10/10/10 Global Work Party, that dream is coming true! CicLAvia is blocking off 7 ½ miles of LA’s streets on Sunday, October 10th from 10 am to 3 pm – with an awesome rally at 12:30 pm on the route!

The event, which began in response to congestion and pollution in Bogotá, Colombia (sounds familiar, right?), will give you and your pals the chance to explore our city’s parks, churches, public art, and more, smog-free! Check out the 10 neighborhoods on the CicLAvia path here.

And while you’re biking around, why not swing by the Greenpeace and Sierra Club-sponsored Rally to Kick Coal and Oil Out of LA? Ethan, Sophie, and I will be there, holding it down for ACE. This rally will be taking place on the South Lawn at City Hall from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. – conveniently located right on the CicLAvia route!

Did we mention that Inception and Juno actress Ellen Page will be at the rally!? She will and… Continue reading ‘Smog free LA!? Make it happen on 10/10/10′