It’s Getting Hot In Here

“I think the bicycle has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives a woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. The moment she takes her seat she knows she can’t get into harm unless she gets off her bicycle, and away she goes, the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.” – Susan B Anthony

While we all know that bicycling is a critical alternative mode of transportation, those living in cities of bike lanes and traffic laws often forget just how challenging riding bicycles can be, and just how empowering and emancipating it can be. The following is crossposted from the India Climate Solutions blog, written by Rudmila Rahman of Arohi Cycling

On Friday, February 25, a group of 30 passionate women from diverse walks of life got on their bicycles and rode through Dhaka to promote bicycles as an alternative means of mobility for women in Bangladesh. We cycled more than 5 kilometers together, through the streets of Dhaka, in the rally organized by Arohi – Bangladesh’s first women’s cycling initiative aimed to gather a critical mass of individuals who are interested to promote cycling for women in Bangladesh in order to ride a bicycle to work, school or for recreation, with an aim to break the stigma attached to a girl on a cycle.

They believe this, in turn, will promote freedom of mobility in Dhaka for women, as well as a cleaner environment. Bangladeshi women face significant barriers from family, neighbors and society in getting on a bike a riding around town in bright daylight. Freedom of mobility is seriously curtailed in Dhaka if women don’t feel safe to travel independently in their own city. Over 35% of female commuters in Dhaka depend on a cycle rickshaw and as more major roads ban these rickshaws, daily mobility for women is threatened furthermore. Arohi’s tagline: “Pedaling the way to empowerment” summarizes the links that we plan to draw between cycles, mobility and empowerment.
Continue reading ‘Cycles of Change: Pedaling to Empowerment in Dhaka’

Yesterday morning President Obama spoke at Georgetown University and laid out his vision for securing our energy future. Speaking directly to the students in the room, the President told us:

“We need you to dream big. We need you to summon that same spirit of unbridled optimism, that bold willingness to tackle tough challenges and see those challenges through that led previous generations to rise to greatness.”

We agree, now is the time to dream big. Our dream is a 100% safe, equitable, and clean energy economy, and we’re working to build it — but what President Obama is proposing is a dirty energy nightmare:

• Despite the nuclear crisis in Japan, the Administration has suggested more support for this dangerous energy;
• Last week, they announced they’re opening 2.35 million tons of coal mining in the Powder River Basin, enough coal to scorch the planet;
• And just this morning reports are breaking that President Obama may cave to Big Polluters and accept amendments to the budget that would handcuff the EPA and jeopardize clean air.

Dirty energy is placing an unbearable burden on the American public, and Big Polluters are being handed massive handouts at the expense of critical programs like the EPA and Planned Parenthood.

Is it too much to dream of an America where polluters are held accountable for their disasters? Is it too much to dream of an America where people aren’t burdened with the cost of pollution? Is it too much to dream of an America where citizens are in charge of our energy decisions, not big polluters? We don’t think so. Continue reading ‘President Obama, Dream Bigger’

Things have been heating up in Michigan over the past few months, especially here in the Sixth Congressional District. Michiganders are tired of the status quo in Michigan, everything from runaway dirty energy politicians to constant attacks on education funding. Students and communities are not taking it lightly and have been coordinating a fight for our own rights to breath clean air, drink clean water, and to live in healthy, vibrant communities. If you haven’t heard, Congressman Fred Upton, Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee has proposed massive attacks on the EPA, including budget cuts and limitations of their authority to regulate carbon emissions and clean air.

Congressman Upton hasn’t always been this way; historically a moderate and supporter of nuclear energy, elected to represent Michigan’s Sixth District since 1987. Any reputation as a moderate quickly vanished during the 2010 elections when he accepted campaign contributions from Koch Industries and more dirty energy companies than ever. Upton’s constituents are not necessarily going along with this change in views, recent polls of his district by NRDC show nearly 62% of them disagree with his dismantling of the EPA by reducing their enforcement on carbon dioxide and other pollutants. The survey also found 67% of his constituents agree that “Congress should let the EPA do its job”. We won’t stand for it.

Continue reading ‘Things are Heating Up in Michigan’

solreka.com

Got hope and change?

Supply-sider David Stockman was full of it in 1981 when the Reagan Revolution swept the country. Stockman, a rising star in GOP politics, became Reagan’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget and quickly began looking for ways to curtail the dreaded “welfare state.” And while I don’t agree with his pro-business slash and burn economic philosophies, Stockman found very quickly was that beltway politics (both Democrat and Republican) undercut any attempt to change business as usual. You can get the details in his memoir “The Triumph of Politics.”

Similarly, the reality of D.C.’s climate politics have triumphed over any sort of legislative action to curtail climate change. Last summer, the climate bill died an irrelevant death in the halls of a legislative body bought and sold to a new Gilded Age of Corporate America. And remember, the end product had loopholes for corporate giveaways large enough drive a heavy haul through.

Still to hedge their bets, the Sith Lords spent $121 million in 2009-2010 to flood D.C. with lobbyists to kill the climate legislation. And to keep things interesting in the 2010 election cycles, the oil side of the business spent $19,588,091 on the U.S. political process. And the coal side of things spent $10,423,347.

Do we really think we can outspend or out lobby these amounts of money?

Now, the big greens are telling us that an embattled Lisa Jackson and Environmental Protection Agency are our best hope (there’s that word again) for saving the planet from King Coal and Big Oil’s doomsday economy.

Does anyone really believe this bullshit anymore?

If we follow what Obama does and NOT what he says things make a lot more sense. A couple of recent examples exposing the administrations real energy politics include:

• Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that they’d be opening up big tracts of public land for coal mining. Salazar even exaggerated the volumes of coal to where the coal companies called bullshit on him.
• Peabody Energy and Arch Coal are racing to build coal export terminals on the Washington coast to export the dirty black rock to Asian markets. The Dept. of Interior just green lighted these port expansions by opening up the Powder River Basin coal tracts.
• Despite the Japanese nuclear meltdown (a FUCKING nuclear meltdown!), Obama’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission extended the license of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. When announcing, the opening of Powder River Basin coal tracts, Salazar even told us that nuclear power was a part of America’s energy security future.

It’s time to build power and work for solutions beyond what Obama, Al Gore or Lisa Jackson can do for us. Any sort of dramatic shift on the fossil fuel doomsday economy (i.e. a real revolution) is not going to be led by those sitting comfortable (coal powered) air conditioned offices in Washington D.C. It’s going to be led by those of us in towns, cities and communities all over North America. And not necessarily in liberal bastions like San Francisco or Seattle, but in red states and conservative rural areas where the real damage is being done.

A global movement of climate justice organizers and direct actionistas has been building People Power against the root causes of climate change for quite some time. In North America, our fight to stop climate change and fossil fuel extraction is happening right now all over the country: Continue reading ‘The Triumph of Climate Politics’

Originally posted on the Power Shift blog

We have one hundred meetings set up with U.S. Congressional offices. That’s right — one hundred different meetings set up with your representatives. This April, we’ll tell them what matters to us. We’ll show up at the offices of climate deniers like Inhofe and Upton and we’ll pass our message along.

Congress might be at recess, but we aren’t playing around.

In 2007, we swarmed the halls of Congress in our green hard hats and told our elected officials what they needed to hear — youth were calling for a clean and just energy future. In 2009, we wore our green t-shirts (and the hard hats) and participated in the largest lobby day on a single issue in U.S. History. We demanded that they cut carbon emissions and pass strong climate legislation. Continue reading ‘Announcing Lobby Day: Power Shift Visits to Capitol Hill’

The situation at the damaged nuclear reactors in Fukushima is dire. Two days ago, three workers were exposed to water containing radioactive materials 10,000 times the normal level in the basement of Reactor No. 3.  This reactor is especially dangerous because it contains MOX fuel, a mixture of uranium and plutonium.  And, things got worse yesterday.  The Japanese authorities have now said that the reactor vessel in unit 3 may have breached, which means that much greater amounts of radiation from the MOX fuel could be released.

<<< Cross-posted from www.powershift2011.org >>>

Before we know it, you and I and thousands more passionate, inspired, committed young people will be in DC at Power Shift 2011, preparing for a clean energy revolution.

We’re opening the weekend with a special event from 2pm – 5:30pm on Friday, April 15.  Will you and your group arrange your travel so you make it?

http://www.powershift2011.org/conference/wakeup

The Generation Waking Up Experience, called a WakeUp for short, will help us launch Power Shift fired up and inspired to take action.  Through music, exercises, dialogue, and video featuring Van Jones & Majora Carter among others, we’ll explore the critical questions facing young people and society.

Will you arrange your travel so you can participate in this powerful event?

http://www.powershift2011.org/conference/wakeup/rsvp

Continue reading ‘A good reason to arrive early for Power Shift 2011′

Amidst discouraging news that the Obama administration is expanding coal mining and investing in dangerous nuclear policies, I’m glad to report on an important victory against dirty energy in the Pacific Northwest.  Yesterday NW Natural Gas and other companies withdrew their permit application for the Palomar liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline project.  One of three proposed LNG pipelines in Oregon, Palomar would have transformed the Northwest into a gateway for a high-carbon fossil fuel not currently imported anywhere on the US west coast.  The defeat of Palomar marks the end of a years-long grassroots battle.

LNG is a fossil fuel with a carbon footprint much greater than ordinary natural gas, imported from regions of the world like the Middle East, Russia, and Peru.  LNG companies are trying to make inroads in Oregon, but grassroots activists have held them back so far.  Almost a year ago the Palomar pipeline application was indefinitely suspended – this happened shortly after the Bradwood LNG import terminal (which Palomar was supposed to connect to) was cancelled.  Now energy companies have officially given up on Palomar.  Should they try to resurrect the pipeline later, they would have to start from scratch and it would be treated as a completely new project.

There are still two proposals to build LNG infrastructure in Oregon: the Oregon LNG pipeline and terminal on the Columbia River, and the Jordan Cove project in southern Oregon.  But I believe the elimination of Palomar and the Bradwood terminal marks the beginning of the end for LNG.  Activists who have been fighting the Palomar pipeline for years can now channel their energy into defeating the remaining two LNG proposals and other fossil fuel projects.  Already both Oregon LNG and Jordan Cove LNG are years behind schedule and struggling to obtain permits they need to begin construction. Continue reading ‘Grassroots Power Defeats Dirty Gas Pipeline in Oregon’

There are many ways to view the communities impacted by industrial activity. Brett Ciccotelli is paddling a kayak solo from Pittsburgh, PA to New Orleans, LA for the next couple of months. He plans to document the impact of energy, in particular coal, on that watershed and its communities. I will occasionally cross post his updates for this community. If you have a chance to stop and see him along the way, he will be taking out at towns along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

Coal smoke over the Ohio River.

On December 2, 1875 Nathaniel H. Bishop launched a small boat into the Monongahela (Mon) River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After several hours the Mon joined the ice covered Allegheny and the two rivers below his “sneakbox” the Centennial Republic became a third, the Ohio. Three years later he published an account of his trip from Pittsburgh to the Gulf of Mexico. In it he describes the region around Pittsburgh:

“The use of the soft bituminous coal in the towns along the river, and also by the steamboats navigating it, filled the valley with clouds of smoke. These clouds rested upon everything. Your five senses were fully aware of the presence of the disagreeable, impalpable something surrounding you. Eyes, ears, taste, touch, and smell, each felt the presence. Smoky towns along the banks gave smoky views. Smoky chimneys rose high above the smoky foundries and forges, where smoke-begrimed men toiled day and night in the smoky atmosphere.”

And later in Wheeling, West Virginia he writes of smoke and soot that coated his small boat and of an oily shine that covered the river for miles downstream.

One hundred and thirty-six year later dark clouds no longer linger over Pittsburgh or blacken the fresh snow…

Read the rest of the article here: http://banksofthebasin.com/2011/03/11/coal-smoke-over-the-ohio-river/

Continue reading ‘Coal Smoke Over the Ohio River’