It’s Getting Hot In Here

Good Afternoon Climate Champions,

The SustainUS Agents of Change COP-15 delegation needs your help! Each of our 26 delegates is working to raise funds for the SustainUS delegation as well as a Latin American Youth delegation for travel to Copenhagen.

We’ve submitted a proposal to the Brighter Planet Project Fund, and have an opportunity to win $5000 for the delegation. Your 3 votes can help us get even closer to our fundraising goals. Voting goes until Nov. 15th, and the race is incredibly close. As of right now, we cling to a razor-thin 27-vote lead.

We’ve had a solid lead all of last week, but over the weekend, another group started gaining on us, so we’d really appreciate your votes. The funding will help us make sure that economic status doesn’t prevent any of our delegates from attending the negotiations in Copenhagen, and will also help the delegates put more of their energy into fundraising for a Latin American youth delegation.

Voting is simple:
1) Visit http://brighterplanet.com/. Sign up or log-in. If you’re a new member, you’ll have to confirm your email address before you can vote.
2) Go to http://brighterplanet.com/project_fund_projects/68 or click on the Project Fund tab.
3) Vote up to three times for the Agents of Change project.
4) Share far and wide!

The Brighter Planet Project Fund seeks to foster local leadership and seed worthy community projects that will help people fight or adapt to climate change. Grants are available every month and Brighter Planet members decide—as a community—which project to seed.

Thank you so much for your support!

The SustainUS COP 15 Delegation

By Jennie Hatch

Over the past few weeks I have been discouraged, disappointed, frustrated, and sometimes terrified by the coverage of town hall health care debates across the country.  The misinformation and mob baiting by the right has gotten out of control.  It’s enough to want to make me put down my carefully-laid activist plans for Copenhagen and go work for Healthcare for America Now.

I say that only partially as someone whose future health and financial security quite literally depends on reforming the health care system.  The other part of me—the climate activist—is freaking out for an entirely different reason.  Six months ago, everyone wanted to reform the health care system.  It was one of Obama’s most popular issues—so popular that he was willing to make a promise that we would have health care reform by the end of the year.  Now, one of Obama’s top issues has caused his approval ratings to sink, has inspired nasty comparisons to Hitler, and is ground zero for those who want to ruin Obama’s agenda.

Some of that of course is a failure in messaging by democratic leaders.  However some of it is more insidious and discouraging for us.  Remember, this is an issue that was not nearly as controversial as climate change.  Sure, the way that heath care would be reformed was still up for debate, but the if of health care reform was not on anyone’s radar.  Heath care’s rocky path this summer should be a warning to us climate activists.  The way the health care debate is going is bad for people working on climate change for at least two reasons, and I think we need to focus some of our energy on the health care debate if we want to continue making strides on climate change. Continue reading ‘What the Health Care Debate has to do with Climate Change’

(posted for Lauren M)

Want to play a roll in ending Mountaintop Removal? In launching our new, green economy? Then RSVP this week for the 4th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington.

March 14th – 18th citizens from around the nation will come to Washington DC to lobby for the Clean Water Protection Act (CWPA). The Clean Water Protection Act is designed to end Mountaintop Removal and protect the quality of life for residents who face frequent catastrophic flooding, coal slurry spills, pollution and loss of drinking water as a result of mountaintop removal coal mining.

In 2002, the Bush Administration issued a rule change that redefined “fill material” in order to include mining waste. After the rule change, “mining waste” was considered as acceptable “fill material”. Thereby allowing coal companies to dump millions of tons of “mine fill” (ahem, mining “waste”) into streams and valleys.

In short, the 2002 rule change was designed for the explicit purpose of “legalizing” the egregious practice of mountaintop removal mining.

That’s why supporting the Clean Water Protection Act – written to reverse the 2002 rule change thus making valley fills illegal – is an essential first step to unequivocally ending the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining.

Last year’s week in Washington was a tremendous success — more than 120 people from 19 states attended over 150 meetings with Congressional offices!

Now, in the 111th Congress there is unprecedented opportunity to pass the Clean Water Protect Act. Mach 14th -18th, citizens around the nation will come Washington DC to urge their members to unequivocally end mountaintop removal mining by co-sponsoring the Clean Water Protection Act.

Will you join? Register at – http://ilovemountains.org/action/wiw2009

Scholarships are available on a needs basis, but only if you register by this Friday; final registration deadline is February 25th.

Can’t come? Join the call-in day, Tuesday, March 17th — you can participate from anywhere. You can also sponsor a participant by making a contribution.

Ending Mountain Removal through passage of the Clean Water Protection Act is our nations’ first step in making a clean break from dirty energy -join us.  To register and find out more, visit: http://www.ilovemountains.org/action/wiw2009.

By Lauren McGrath

On Dec 22^nd, TVA’s coal ash spill – believed to be the largest industrial spill in our nation’s history – released over a billion gallons of coal sludge into the surrounding communities in Eastern TN. Today, around 10am Central Time, TVA reported a second spill—albeit more contained—at their Window’s Creek coal burning plant in Northeastern Alabama.

The announcement of the second spill arrives one day after the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee held an oversight hearing on TVA and the coal ash spill. In yesterday’s hearing committee chair, Senator Boxer, opened:

“Let me describe what happened at 1 AM on Monday, December 22, 2008 near the Kingston TVA coal-fired power plant. An earthen wall failed on a 40-acre surface impoundment holding coal ash. More than one billion gallons of waste rushed down the valley like a wave, covering more than 300 acres. The volume of ash and water was nearly 100 times greater than the amount of oil spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster….At the spill site, the US EPA has found river water with arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium and lead above drinking water standards.”

The chair followed her opening remarks, noting that she would press for more stringent compliance, and that it was critically important that protective standards for coal-ash waste be created.

Senator Alexander of Tennessee – where the major coal spill occurred – said that while he’d like to see the state and TVA do more, he would like to see TVA turn this tragedy into a technological success story by finding innovate ways to use or sell coal ash waste in the future. Continue reading ‘Three Weeks in the Life of TVA: Two Coal Ash Spills, One Senate Hearing.’

After President Witoelar tried to reconvene parties to the session, the delegation of China demanded that session be adjourned until the Foreign Ministers concluded on the informal talks on others still on the agenda. The secretariat suggested that they could break for a few minutes, and China responded by demanding an apology for the lack of respect  for trying to push the agenda while the Foreign Ministers met separately. China questioned if the UNFCCC Secretariat was really the Secretariat of everyone, or just a few countries.

As negotiations go on for hours, the tensions continues to grow.  Are Parties ready for a Bali Breakthrough?