Dispatches from the Youth Climate Movement
Last week, House Speaker John Boehner’s office released a video that tried to make the case to build the Keystone Pipeline. The video contained more than a few factual errors, so we decided to make a followup video to make sure folks know the truth. Enjoy!
Join us in Washington, DC at 12pm on Tuesday, January 24 to Blow the Whistle on Congress!
And here’s Boehner’s original video:
I started reading Eric Pooley’s Climate War yesterday – a nailbiter account of how our leaders didn’t pass any significant climate legislation from 2006 to now, which roughly corresponds with the years I’ve spent pushing for just that every hour of every day. The first half of that time, we had a deadlocked Congress and feckless president, and we had no chance of getting anything through – but we did have the beginning of a broad-based movement to prevent dangerous global warming. And despite a campaign framed by a genuinely progressive story, President Obama hasn’t achieved anything close to what can be called significant progress on climate and energy, despite the smart clean energy champs he recruited to top posts.
But Obama’s hands-off plan on climate isn’t the only reason the US Senate dropped climate like a bad date. In his book, Pooley describes the incredibly complex dealings Senators like John Kerry and Lindsey Graham made with utilities, oil companies (including BP) and the nuclear industry to pull together a bill that eventually collapsed under its own weight yesterday. Democratic Majority leader Harry Reid wouldn’t even bring a climate bill to the floor for a vote.
Nobody in power, except for a notable few, was twisting any arms on climate. And therein lies the age-old lesson about democracy that we all seem to forget when our guys are in charge: change doesn’t happen without power from below. It’s not enough to chase around Senators and officials whispering in their ears. Climate deniers and the right-wing media machine deserve a lion’s share of the blame. Obama deserves our ire, too, as do the US Senators on both sides of the aisle who continue to shamelessly deflect responsibility and cast doubt on science.
Cross-posted from 350.org:
After a string of bad news about fossil fuel companies shirking responsibility and our politicians following suit, it’s hard to believe that it’s happened again. Today, over the objections of tens of thousands of community members and over 190+ civil society groups, the World Bank board of directors voted to approve a $3.75 billion loan to South African national utility Eskom for a massive 4800 MW coal-fired power plant. it’s the largest loan of the kind made in history, and it didn’t come without a fight.
Yesterday, dozens of activists in Washington DC joined with tens of thousands of concerned people around the world calling on the World Bank to reject the dirty loan, and to prevent catastrophic climate change while dealing ensuring decent lives for the poor of South Africa. Here’s a video from the event:
Obama graced the House chamber yesterday with a speech reminiscent of his candidacy rather than his presidency. That’s a good thing, because his so-called base needed a reminder that he’s in Washington not just to wade knee-deep into the political swamp of DC, but to affect change from inside out. He wasted no time before really digging into Congress:
To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills. And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that sixty votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well.
I sincerely hope congress takes at least this piece to to heart, because for clean energy advocates, the rest of the speech was a mixed bag. He bulked up his language on nuclear, coal and offshore drilling, a questionable political move in support of questionable technologies, while at the same time rightly highlighting clean energy legislation as a jobs-creator.
As the cap and trade bill, mired in a bi-partisan swiss-cheese factory, limps towards the finish line (or not), I look at our friends and colleagues in the labor, immigration, LGBTQ and other movements and I notice their coalitions growing impatient. The campaign promises Obama made to those groups, and the subsequent moving parts (chief among them health care, financial markets reform, don’t ask don’t tell…etc.) are all stalled.
Many pundits blame this on Obama and his lack of leadership – which to some extent is true, especially on climate change – but I think we ought to look within our own movements to discover what happened during 2009.
Remember back to those heady days a year ago when Obama was inaugurated? Millions of Americans, despite a failing economy and a decade of do-nothing politics held hope in their hearts, thanks in part to candidate Obama’s inspiring campaign. Right at that moment, as a progressive constituency, we made our first tactical error: we let the Obama administration shape our own narrative.
While there will always be civil society groups who align themselves with the positions of politicians, the progressive wings of our movements drank the kool-aid, and our political power has suffered ever since. How could we expect concerned Americans to swallow emails from top progressive groups calling on them to “Pass a climate bill” with huge giveaways to polluters or “Support health care reform” without a serious public option? It’s about time we stop taking our talking points from White House press releases and start telling our own story.
It’s been over a week since the Copenhagen climate talks ended. Most bloggers and pundits have taken a couple days off from 24-7 prognostication, so it feels safe for me to venture into the fold and submit my humble take on what happened at COP15, and what it means for the global climate movement. First, I’d like to look back at the last couple years of the climate movement leading up to the Copenhagen talks.
note: this is a long post – click here to see the whole piece
The movement comes of age
Let’s step into our time machine for a moment and take a trip back to Bali, Indonesia, where COP13 was held in December 2007. Still logjammed by the Bush administration’s oil-slicked representatives, delegates from other countries agreed to the Bali Roadmap, basically an agreement to keep moving towards an agreement, with vague topical goalposts along the way: technology transfer, forests, financing, adaptation and, of course, the elusive carbon cuts.
Even with the US delegation blocking progress at every level, there was a sense of momentum, and with US elections coming up, a flickering light shown at the end of the tunnel. In 2007, the climate movement also came of age.
All over the world, climate activists — in particular young people — realized that nobody would save the world from catastrophic climate change for them. They would have to do it themselves. In Australia, India, the US, all over Africa, in Mexico, China, Europe and the Middle East, activists began forming coalitions of social justice, environmental, faith and other progressive groups to take on the fossil fuel interests and intransigant elected officials.
While many of these groups existed before 2007, a combination of innovative public campaigning, shocking scientific reports and natural disasters vaulted climate change into the center of the political arena. In a sense, that year was when the global climate movement came of age – two major organizing pushes in the US (Step It Up 2007 and Powershift 07) inspired a rash of similar events around the world over the next two years. As the Bali negotiations came to a close, the movement learned about a new number that would set a goalpost for years to come: 350 — the safe level of carbon in the atmosphere in parts per million.
While the results of the Bali negotiations proved to be nothing more than a band-aid on the international climate negotiation process, the two weeks spent there helped activists forge relationships and ideas that would serve us well throughout the next two years.
Leadership is contagious. President Nasheed of the Maldives delivered a powerful speech yesterday at the opening of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, which included leaders from Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Ghana, Kenya, Kiribati, Maldives, Nepal, Rwanda, Tanzania and Vietnam and other countries. The focus of his speech was to bring attention to the dire consequences of coming out of the Copenhagen Climate Talks this December with a weak or non-binding agreement. His words speak for themselves:
Members of the G8 rich countries have pledged to halt temperature rises to two degrees Celsius.
Yet they have refused to commit to the carbon targets, which would deliver even this modest goal.
At two degrees we would lose the coral reefs.
At two degrees we would melt Greenland.
At two degrees my country would not survive.
As a president I cannot accept this.
As a person I cannot accept this.
I refuse to believe that it is too late, and that we cannot do any about it.
Copenhagen is our date with destiny.
Let us go there with a better plan.
Nasheed called on all nations to push for carbon neutrality in order to ensure the survival of his country and all the most vulnerable people around the world:
After all, it is not carbon we want, but development.
It is not coal we want, but electricity.
It is not oil we want, but transport.
Low-carbon technologies now exist, to deliver all the goods and services we need.
Let us make the goal of using them.
Finally, he made the distinction between what might be considered a good deal in Copenhagen, and one that would ensure the end of his people:
At the moment every country arrives at the negotiations seeking to keep their own emissions as high as possible.
They never make commitments, unless someone else does first.
This is the logic of the madhouse, a recipe for collective suicide.
We don’t want a global suicide pact.
And we will not sign a global suicide pact, in Copenhagen or anywhere.
So today, I invite some of the most vulnerable nations in the world, to join a global survival pact instead.
Today, President Nasheed and leaders from vulnerable countries around the world signed a declaration calling on developing countries to up the ante and develop using clean energy and sustainable technology, and for rich nations to commit to fast and deep carbon reduction paired with significant assistance to poor nations.
Let’s join with heads of state from the most vulnerable countries in calling on our leaders to go to Copenhagen and sign a fair, ambitious, and binding deal that gets us back to 350ppm. Anything less would be a suicide pact. Leadership is contagious, and we can be the virus.
Today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, more than 15,000 young people marched to call for 350ppm, as part of the International Day of Climate Action on October 24. Here’s part of an email from one of the lead organizers of the action, Tinebeb Yohannes, cross-posted from 350.org:
One of the biggest events with over 15,000 participants for Climate Action took place at Yekatit 12 Martyrs Square at Sidit Kilo, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The event began with a procreation of marching band, the Ethiopian Police Federation, followed by students from more than 15 primary and secondary school in the city. After a welcome speech by our own 350 representative (Lily) an opening speech was made by the representative of H.E. Green Hero Girma Woldegiorgis, President of the F.D.R.E, Ato Assefa Kesito, followed by a brief presentation on climate change and its impact by Mrs Akille Assefa from the Ethiopian National Metrological Services Agency.
A short speech was also made by Ato Alemayehu Akalu, Director of Tenakebenaand Ginfle Cleansed Youth Association. The most impressive part was that the students that came to this event had used their own creativity to create unique and outstanding slogans and banners related with 350 and climate change. There was great media coverage from local (ETV, ENA and Ethiopian Environmental Journalists Association/EEJA/) as well as international media. Various guests were also present at the event including Grace Mwaura from African Youth Initiative on Climate Change from Kenya, 350 reporter and camera women- Emily Taylor, representatives of Forum for Environment and one of our 350 volunteers, Amrote A. Assefa, from Oxfam America.
This is cross-posted from 350.org:
We have an exciting announcement today! One of the world’s greatest leaders on climate change, President Mohammed Nasheed of the Maldives, has issued a statement calling on citizens around the world to take action on October 24 as part of the International Day of Climate Action. President Nasheed has been a vocal advocate for 350 ppm, the only climate target that can protect the survival of his island nation. Please take a look at the video below and read Nasheed’s endorsement of the 350 target and the October 24 Day of Action. But most important, pass it on, and help build this movement to protect the survival of all nations and peoples.
Climate Change Requires a Real Movement
by Mohammed Nasheed, President of the Maldives
Here in the Maldives, it’s easy to see why the math of the current climate change debate just doesn’t add up — and why negotiators are going to have to work a lot harder before the Copenhagen climate conference if they’re interested in the survival of much of the planet. Continue reading ‘Breaking: President Nasheed Calls for 350 Action on October 24!’
This is cross-posted from Kelly Blynn, Latin America and Caribbean coordinator at 350.org
We´re excited to pass along the news about some really energized youth from the Caribbean who are planning big things for October 24th and beyond. This past August, 30 Caribbean youth from 13 countries converged in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic for the Caribbean Youth Environment Network (CYEN)´s 4th Youth Exchange. As a part of the week long Exchange, 350.org worked with CYEN to organize a 3-day long training on climate change advocacy, media, and the UN process. In addition, the youth there produced the Santo Domingo Caribbean Youth Declaration on Climate Change, which calls for 350ppm – you can download the statement here. Please watch the video from the training above and read the article (many thanks to Panos Caribbean) below for more information about how Caribbean youth are taking action. For more info on CYEN, visit their website at www.cyen.org.
Caribbean youth rally for climate change
Continue reading ‘Caribbean Youth Call for 350ppm, Urgent Action in Copenhagen’
Phil has been a campus clean energy activist and helped organize Step It Up 2007, the largest national open source grassroots campaign to stop global warming. He is currently working on building an international movement, focusing specifically on mobilizing and educating people in Africa and the Middle East. His new project, 350.org, will stitch together a creative, powerful and unstoppable global movement pushing for bold and comprehensive action on climate change on the international level.
