It’s Getting Hot In Here

Co-authored by Alex Tinker and Jenny Bedell-Stiles

West Virginia, Thursday, March 20^th: “We could be investing in renewable sources of energy, and in clean coal technology, and creating up to 5 million new green jobs in the bargain, including new clean coal jobs.”

Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s words yesterday were as hard to swallow as the sulfur dioxide rich output of dirty coal-fired power plants. The clean coal mythology must be stopped. Coal isn’t clean, it isn’t green and it has no place in the renewable-energy future we must rapidly make into a renewable-energy present if we are to avoid the worst-case scenarios of global warming.

Today, Friday March 21^st, he made no mention of this fuel to thousands in Portland, Oregon. He talked about the clean energy revolution. He gave an anti-nuke shout out (to our aging hippies). He touched on cap and trade. He even talked about green jobs revitalizing our economy.

There was no mention of deriving green jobs from clean coal. Sure, it’s common (and savvy) for our political leaders to alter their message by location. But we, the climate positive movement, are a united and connected force and we’re listening to the differences in message Barack is sending us. While not contradictory, he’s telling folks from each region what we want to hear.

This morning, Barack said that as president, he would tell the American people what we need to hear, and not just what we want to hear. Barack, as the next president of the United States, you need to start telling us that coal must be weaned from our energy generation sources.

Coal has a powerful lobby in Washington, and there are important general election states with substantial coal industries. The climate movement needs to think long and hard about what would become of all those coal families if we got our coal moratorium.

Articulating the vision of an inclusive green economy to the people who stand to lose the most from the necessary changes is critical to the success of this movement. Articulating to the new President in 2009 our firm demand for aggressive action to tackle climate change is critical to the survival of the human race.

Tell the Obama campaign what renewable energy really is.

Only five days left before the application deadline for Project Slingshot – three $10k grants to propel your ideas for global warming solutions into action. One winner in each category – Artists inspiring their communities, Outdoor fanatics protecting the places they love to play and Innovators challenging our expectations – will receive up to $10,000 to make their ideas a reality this summer.

The application deadline is this Saturday, March 15^th. Winners will be announced on Earth Day when they’ll be invited to Clif Bar headquarters to meet experts in the field of their projects and strategize on how make them succeed.

This is a huge opportunity for three inspired individuals to devote an entire summer to activism. The award provides for a $5,000 stipend for living and up to $5,000 for project expenses. If you have an idea, give it a shot!

Project Slingshot is a partnership of Focus the Nation and Clif Mojo. For more detail see the official rules, or go to www.mojoslingshot.com.

18 months ago NASA scientist Jim Hansen said we have “no longer than a decade, at most” to hold global warming to a manageable range. If business as usual continues, Hansen said, “we would be producing a different planet.”

What Hansen doesn’t mention is that “business as usual” is an economic system that is fundamentally unjust which is perpetuating wars of empire and widening the gap between the ultra-rich and the global poor even more rapidly than it heats the planet.

The first victims of climate change won’t be it’s main culprits but rather those who are already the victims of the system of production causing it. “It’s the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit,” said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Our movement can’t stop with the climate. The radical re-invention of our world demanded of us in the coming years must do more than stave off one acute symptom of industrial capitalism (climate change), it must aggressively tackle the chronic impoverishment, suffering, insecurity and injustice experienced by most of Earth’s people, who live with their necks under the boot of the first world.

Indeed, we must produce a different planet. We must produce a planet where all people have access to dignified housing, employment, health care and education and have a say in decisions made by their governments, and where the right to existence of all living things is respected.

If we stop global warming without building a sustainable, equitable economy accessible to all, we will have missed the greatest opportunity our civilization has ever known. This isn’t just a time of crisis, it’s our time for revolution.

Focus the Nation and Clif Mojo want to propel your creative climate activism ideas into action. We’ve partnered to form Project Slingshot, providing three $10,000 grants to be awarded to Outdoor Fanatics, Artists and Innovators. Grant application deadline is March 14^th. Recipients will be announced on Earth Day, April 22^nd. Apply now!

Outdoor Fanatics: How will you protect the places you love and play?

Artists: How will you inspire your communities to take action on global warming?

Innovators: How will you challenge our expectations?

This is a huge opportunity to develop your ideas into actions that will change minds. For more information, watch the video promo and visit www.mojoslingshot.com.

You’re thinking, “If only we could get Congress to actually pass some of these policies…” We won’t stop until they do! So far Focus the Nation teams have invited more than 150 members of Congress to participate in dialogs on global warming solutions. 30 Congressional offices have confirmed so far, and we’re getting more every day. Check out who’s coming to Focus the Nation and what’s happening around the country.

The Focus the Nation Choose Your Future Vote is now officially open. “Build Green: Carbon Neutral by 2030” is out to an early lead with “Create Green Jobs” and “Invest in Clean Energy” close behind. What solutions do you want to see? Vote on your top five solutions now!

In other exciting news, Edward Norton will make an appearance on the 2% Solution web-cast along with Senator Bill Nelson and Governor Crist of Florida, Governor Napolitano of Arizona, Van Jones, Hunter Lovins and Stephen Schneider. Check out the trailer with Ed Norton and if you haven’t already, sign up to host a screening in your community.

Wait, there’s more: Project Slingshot, a partnership between Clif Mojo and Focus the Nation, is offering $10,000 scholarships in three categories – Outdoor Fanatics protecting the places they love and play, Artists inspiring their communities, and Innovators challenging our expectations. You all fall in to one of these categories, so apply now!

(LTE Published in The Christian Science Monitor Dec 21)

Regarding the Dec. 18 book review, “Newt Gingrich explains why red staters must turn green“: I am heartened to see this article (and Mr. Gingrich) touch on the need for cooperation on global-warming policy.

Unfortunately, the political status quo cannot and will not address greenhouse- gas emissions enough to prevent the worst-case scenarios. Never before has an issue required collective action on the scale this emergency demands, and never before has our country been so divided and unable to cooperate. The scientific evidence rolling in is daunting, but I have hope.

The technologies and policies to stop global warming, grow a green economy, and lift people out of poverty already exist. What’s missing is the political will in Washington and a unified demand for action from people on both sides of the aisle.

On Jan. 31, 2008, more than 1,000 college campuses in all 50 states plan to hold simultaneous teach-ins as a part of Focus the Nation. Members of Congress, along with countless local and state legislators, have already been invited to participate in solution-oriented roundtable discussions on global-warming policy.

As a parent, I urge all concerned citizens, journalists, and politicians to help us focus on global-warming solutions together.

This Monday Congress agreed to guarantee loans for up to 80% of construction costs for new nuclear reactors. The legislation directs the Department of Energy to provide $20.5b for nuclear energy, $10b for renewables and $8b for “clean-coal” technology.

Numbers don’t lie. Only $10b of almost $40b in this bill is going towards the solution. What Congress is saying with this allocation is that renewables come in a distant second behind the already proven dangerous nuclear option.

What can be done to impress on Congress the need for real investment in real renewable energy? Focus the Nation teams have invited more than 140 members of the House and Senate to come to their campuses and discuss global warming solutions. That means about 400 of them still need to hear from you.

There’s another number of note here. Even if we generously assume that all the historical safety issues with nuclear reactors have been solved and that we can adequately secure them from terrorist attacks, nuclear power has a very low EROEI (energy returned on energy invested) ratio. Depending on whose numbers you use, nuclear plants may in fact take more energy to construct, maintain and deconstruct than they generate over their lifetimes, which is to say the EROEI is less than one.

Wind turbines have an EROEI between 18 and 25, and produce no emissions. Could it be any clearer?

Apparently it needs to be made a whole lot clearer to decision-makers in D.C. On Jan. 31, hundreds of local and state elected officials are already committed to engage with us on global warming solutions. It’s time to turn up the heat on Federal legislators and demand their attention.

We’re all ravenous for real policy solutions to global warming, but some are feeling the hunger pains more than others.

At the Climate Change and Higher Education conference on November 26^th, 2007, with the presidents of Arizona State University, University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University as well as 200 students, educators and administrators in attendance, Focus the Nation campus organizer and UA student Vincent Pawlowski announced he would be joining Ted Glick of the U.S. Climate Emergency Council in fasting until Congress passes strong climate change legislation.

Already, hundreds of local and state politicians have confirmed attendance at Green Democracy roundtables, as has the first US Representative. With more than a thousand events and counting planned around the country, Focus the Nation will be the biggest day of education and action on global warming solutions to date. As the event grows, our appetite at headquarters is growing too. We want every politician in America to get an invitation to discuss global warming solutions.

Find out what events are happening near you, or sign-up now to get something started. As climate activists, we have a lot on our plates. Our workload isn’t lightening any time soon. Stay hungry.

1Sky is based on three pillars: create 5 million new Green Jobs, start a firm Moratorium on New Coal, and reduce emissions to 30% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% by 2050. Focus the Nation’s Choose Your Future Vote in January will present millions of voters with a menu of global warming policy solutions, including those and more.

Focus the Nation’s combination of education, civic engagement and action is without precedent. On January 31st, the nation-wide teach-in will include tens of thousands of professors from all disciplines focusing on global warming solutions for America.

Organizers in all fifty states are inviting hundreds of Senators and Representatives to participate in Green Democracy, a carbon-neutral platform for DC-District engagement on global warming policy solutions. From a room in the Capitol they will sit down in front of a computer and video-chat with their constituents on campuses across the country.

The culmination of the event is the nation-wide vote on policy solutions. What do you think we should do about global warming? Should we invest in new clean energy technology, or so-called “clean coal?” Should we create new green jobs or new nuclear reactors? Should we make our cars cleaner or transition away from cars altogether?

You all have strong opinions on what the solutions should be. Make them heard, and start 2008 with solutions in mind.

The buzz in Congress about Focus the Nation has representatives calling our Civic Engagement Director asking “Where’s my invitation?”

Want to know what your rep has to say about global warming? The Green Democracy model is providing a day of carbon-neutral DC-to-district engagement on global warming solutions for America.

There is no excuse for Congress not to give us the dialogue we deserve on real global warming solutions. We’re working with Sight Speed and Congress to set up a room in the Capitol on January 31^st where politicians will sit down and video chat with their constituents in a non-partisan, solution-oriented discussion on climate change.

Many teams have already sent the first wave of invitations. What about your senators and representatives? If you’re a Focus the Nation organizer, get those invitations out before the winter holidays – we’ve already written them – all you have to do is print, sign and send! If you aren’t, find a team in your town to help out or sign up to form one right now!

Are you being represented in Congress? Make your voice heard on January 31st.