It’s Getting Hot In Here

Cancun, Mexico, Dec 2, 2010 – Indigenous Peoples of Canada and their allies from around the world are in Cancun at the COP-16 climate summit demanding real action to reduce fossil fuel pollution. Over twenty people with color-coded T-shirts that spelled out the words “Shut Down the Tar Sands” in both English and Spanish gathered in front of the Maya building to directly deliver their message to UNFCCC delegates. Participants included Indigenous community representatives from fossil fuel impacted community across Canada and the U.S., many carrying personal banners linking tar sands with the destruction of their territories.

Melina Laboucan-Massimo of the Lubicon Cree comes from a community impacted by tar sands. “We have seen the destruction of our lands happen right before our eyes. Our water is being contaminated and we are seeing droughts throughout the region. My family used to be able to drink from our watershed, and now within my lifetime we can no longer do so. Young and old people alike have developed respiratory illnesses as neighboring plants emit noxious gases into the air. First Nations and farming communities have reported health effects to the wildlife and livestock. The area is drastically changing – I fear for the future of my homeland.”

The tar sands are the fastest growing source of GHG emissions in Canada. Unless Canada changes track emissions from the tar sands industry are set to triple to over 120 millions tonnes. Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Indigenous Environmental Network said, “Our communities demand real solutions to address the climate crisis and that means shutting down the tar sands and a moratorium on new fossil fuel development.”

Continue reading ‘At COP16 Cancun: Canadian First Nations Representatives Deploy Giant Human Banner Demanding End to Tar Sands Development’

Cross-posted from the Sierra Student Coalition: www.ssc.org/blog

In the political aftermath of COP15 in Copenhagen, many point fingers at US and Chinese leadership for stagnating the UNFCCC process and ultimately decimating the prospects for a legally binding climate treaty. The current gridlock is woven with mistrust between two superpowers- the two world’s largest economies and carbon emitters- that hold they key to meaningful global climate action on the international political arena. The bitter dynamic between the US and China in climate politics can be strangling, depressing, and frustrating.

But on Tuesday, US and Chinese Youth transcended the systematic mistrust that has characterized the diplomacy between our two nations for years. In an air-conditioned hall inside the Poliforum (a Cancun basketball arena), we held our first workshop to formally launch the US-China Youth Climate Exchange. Coordinated by seven US and seven Chinese youth delegates, this workshop was the culmination of a two-month long planning process that included hours upon hours of awkwardly-timed conference calls, skype chats, and email chains. As a member of this core team, I can attest to the difficulty of hopping on the phone at 11pm EST on a Saturday night (10am Sunday in Beijing) in a dorm infested with college freshman that had a bit too much Four Loko. But the extraordinary geographic distance aside, we managed to form a cohesive team and lay the groundwork for two weeks of intensive collaboration at COP16 that features multiple workshops, shared actions, core meetings, and a ‘diplomacy dinner’. Continue reading ‘COP16 US-Chinese Youth Climate Exchange: Modeling the Collaboration We KNOW We Need’

At approximately 10:45 AM EST Thursday, FIFA (Soccer’s international governing body) announced Qatar as the host of the 2022 World Cup. The announcement, which shocked people around the world, came minutes after Russia was announced as the World Cup 2018 host.

The announcement has not been without controversy. From questions about strong cultural differences and laws to the heat and overcrowding. Not to mention size issues – Qatar is a small nation of only 1.6 million people. Richard Spencer of The Times (UK) wrote about the cultural controversy surround Qatar, “I wonder if today’s decision might have come at just the wrong time.”

Continue reading ‘Qatar 2022 – A Carbon Neutral World Cup?’

Pinwheels and signs set up at the EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Right now hundreds of young people from all over the world are in Cancun, Mexico fighting for an international climate treaty.  And today, we’re taking over Washington, D.C. as well.

Over the past month students across the country held actions on their campuses to show our demand for the clean energy solutions we need and today those voices are reverberating throughout our nation’s capital. We’ve set up displays at the Environmental Protection Agency and near Capitol Hill showing off the bright, colorful pinwheels handmade by students from across the country.

Join the effort by posting your own messages to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Facebook and Twitter today.

This week the EPA celebrates their 40th anniversary, just in time for us to celebrate their awesome recent work to protect public health and stand up to Big Coal.  Their actions to implement new rules for polluting energy sources will help safeguard our communities by reducing pollution in our air and water.

At the same time, we’re working on our campuses to retire the fleet of more than 60 campus-based coal plants and move all our schools off coal to 100 percent clean energy solutions.  We’ve come to D.C. to show that we’re leading the way and ask our nation’s leaders to follow.

SSC Students put up pinwheels and signs on the pathway to Capitol Hill

Already schools like the University of North Carolina, University of Illinois and Western Kentucky University have committed to stop burning coal on campus. We’re on the way, but still have a lot of work to do and need our leaders in Washington to join us in creating a cleaner, safer, healthier energy future.

So let Lisa Jackson know you’ve got her back when she steps up to the plate to take on Big Coal.

Our generation was lucky enough to grow up with the EPA, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and other federal environmental policies and we must ensure we maintain these critical protections for the health and prosperity of our and future generations.

Cross-posted from WWF-Canada Blog –  November 29, 2010

(c) Fredy Mercay/WWF

I have arrived at the United Nations climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico. The first thing I saw as I drove away from the airport in a shuttle was a massive billboard advertisement for the NISSAN Leaf, “100% electrico” car.

 The second thing I saw before we reached the outer perimiter of the airport property was a Monarch butterfly. It brought me back immediately to my childhood tape deck, playing a David Suzuki sing-along on Monarch butterflies.

With an icon of a solution to climate change, and an icon of biodiversity, Day One in Mexico was symbolic of our work as a whole. We ultimately attend these international negotiations on climate change out of our interest to protect biodiversity by implementing solutions to climate change. Continue reading ‘Signs of change: Day One at the COP16 climate talks in Cancun, Mexico’