It’s Getting Hot In Here

Thought y’all would be interested in checking out this invitation from some of the world’s top climbers to get someplace high on October 24. If you’re like me, the mountains are a big inspiration for doing the work that we do, whether it’s the outrage of MTR that motivates you to protest or some time unwinding in the wilderness that refuels you for the struggles ahead. Please pass it on:

Dear fellow climbers –

We have access to parts of the world few of our fellow citizens ever see, and we have a particular set of skills not many share. We’re asking you to bring those two things to bear next Oct. 24 in a one-day project that we hope will have some measurable impact on changing the world.

Because you’ve been up high, you’re aware that global warming is fast melting the world’s glaciers.  In fact, scientists who have drilled glacial cores around the world tell us this melt is growing ever faster, to the point where in the lifetimes of all of us it may endanger not only the alpine world but also the billions of people who live downstream and depend on these glaciers for drinking and irrigation. So far, though, the political response to climate change has been too slow.

Continue reading ‘Invitation to Action from World’s Top Climbers’

On May 26 Shell goes on trial in New York for their complicity in the death and abuses of Ogoni people. Check out photos of a protest happening now in San Francisco!

For more information, check out Justice in Nigeria!

Bill McKibben has an oped in today’s Los Angeles Times about the importance of the work y’all are doing: building a global movement to take on the climate crisis. As Billy wrote in his recent post, it’s going to take a new type of thinking and a new kind of tactics to get strong climate action. Bill writes,

In fact, the problem is pretty simple: The environmental movement isn’t big enough. It’s one of the most selfless of advocacy efforts. But the movement has been sized to save whales and build national parks and force carmakers to stick catalytic converters on exhaust systems. It’s nowhere near big enough to take on the fossil fuel industry, the biggest player in our global economy. It’s like sending the Food and Drug Administration to fight the war in Afghanistan.

Exxon Mobil Corp. made more money last year than any U.S. company in the history of money. That gives it more clout than all the green groups combined. Which is why, if the Copenhagen conference is going to be anything but a disaster, we need to build a stronger movement. All around the world. Very fast.

Read the whole article here.

This . . . is  . . . amazing.

Wind turbine destroyed after ‘octopus UFO’ seen in sky
Telegraph.co.uk

Dozens of residents claimed to have seen bright flashing spheres is the skies near Louth, Lincolnshire, where a 290ft turbine was mangled in a mystery collision.

One woman said she saw an object fly towards the wind farm, while others described the lights as being linked by “tentacles”, leading locals to dub it the octopus UFO.

I’m just waiting for the American Enterprise Institute to leap to the defense of octopus UFO’s who are clearly endangered by wind turbine construction. Who knows, maybe a Yeti is actually to blame for the TVA coal spill? If only we can harness these octopus UFOs to go after oil rigs like the one in the photo . . .

Earlier today, high up in Leh, Ladakh, one of the most remote and mountainous areas of India, over 1,500 people gathered for a beautiful display of their concern for climate change and their call for a world returned to less than 350 ppm CO2.

Ladakh, like more and more places around the globe, is already facing real challenges in face of climate change — unpredictable weather, floods, and the prospects of diminished water supply from glacial melt.  All this and more, is reason enough for the people of Ladakh to stand up and call for bold action around the world as they did today.

Fortunately, news of the 350 movement is gradually reaching more and more parts of the planet, and in Ladakh, a visiting student, Will Wickham, carried the message with him.  When he a arrived a few months ago, he met others interested in leading a new 350 project there, and today we get to enjoy the remarkable images of the first 350 event to take place at over 3,500 meters (roughly 12,000 ft).

Continue reading ‘Monks and More Call for 350 in Ladakh, India’

So proud of my alma mater right now:

*Relax for a sec and watch the video.

Kennedy went to Berlin, Nixon went to China . . . Obama goes to Poland?

Let’s hit 50,000 invites today!

Bill McKibben has a new column in Orion Magazine this month that makes a compelling case that creative and symbolic political action rather than individual life-style changes are our best shot at combating global warming. Don’t take my word for it though (I work with the guy and am a bit partial), check out the article and forward it on to the next person that tells you youth should worry about changing their light-bulbs not their politicians. Here’s an excerpt:

“We naïvely believe that it takes 51 percent of the people to make change in a democracy, but it clearly doesn’t—5 percent is plenty, if those 5 percent are engaged in symbolic action that can force the kind of legislative change that resets the course for everyone. In the civil rights movement, for instance, the strategy was not to desegregate the country one lunch counter at a time—there were way too many lunch counters. Instead, you use the drama of the fight over one lunch counter to help drive the Civil Rights Act, which puts the full power of the federal government behind the idea that anyone can order a hamburger wherever they want to. And here’s the thing: I bet less than one-quarter of 1 percent of Americans took part in a protest during that great movement, but it was more than enough.”

Click on to read the whole column.

Continue reading ‘“Multiplication Saves the Day”’

Check out the latest video from the 350 Invite campaign – - over 40,000 people have sent Obama and McCain invitations to the upcoming UN Climate Meetings. And we’re beginning to get the candidates’ ears:

As Bill McKibben said recently, “[The next President's] presence would electrify the meeting, show the world that the U.S. is once more serious about its international obligations, and begin the task of focusing Americans on the question of climate, really for the first time.”

Send an invitation today!

Cross posted from Pushback.org.

Talk about a consensus: 90 percent of young people around the world think global leaders should do “whatever it takes” to tackle climate change, according to a new United Nations Environment Program survey.

The survey questioned 12-to-18 year-old’s in five countries (Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa, and the United States), all key players in upcoming international climate negotiations. Concern about global warming is highest in Brazil (96 percent) and South Africa (91 percent), followed by India (85 percent) and the U.S. (82 percent). Fewer youth in frigid Russia (70 percent) seem to be concerned, but they still constitute a clear majority.

Youth are also clearly connecting the dots between climate change and failed political leadership.

Continue reading ‘Ninety Percent of Young People Want Action on Climate Change’