It’s Getting Hot In Here

In a surprise move yesterday evening, Canada’s unelected senate held a vote on the Climate Change Accountability Act, and killed it.

The bill would have forced Canada’s government to set long-term targets for emissions reductions in line with science: 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, and interim targets for 2015-2045, as well as report on progress to parliament on a regular basis. It was a simple framework requiring the government to come up with a plan – nothing more, nothing less.

The lack of willingness to take action on climate change at the federal level in Canada is nothing new. We’ve had years of stalling under Stephen Harper’s minority conservative government that goes far beyond simply failing to act, to intentionally derailing international efforts to make progress. Last year at the climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Canada was named “Fossil of the Year” for continual obstructionism and inaction.

The real surprise here is the outright and flagrant subversion of democracy.

Continue reading ‘Unelected Canadian senate kills climate bill’

4.12am A group of us are following the final plenary inside the Bella Centre in Copenhagen. The atmosphere has erupted in the last hour, and we’re going to give a play-by-play as things develop from here. For detailed updates as it happens, follow some of our writers on Twitter:

Ben Powless -   Zoë Caron -   Juan Hoffmaister -   Matthew Carroll -   Liz McDowell -   Caroline Howe

The story so far…

Chairman Rasmussen did an interesting opening dance, introducing the infamous “President’s Text” that the media so willingly lapped up as a done deal and amazing breakthrough earlier today as the official outcome to the negotiations. He had the nerve to describe the draft text as having been put together by a “representative group of leaders from all regions around the world”, then he told delegates there would be 60 minutes for consultations by regional groups and closed the meeting.

Venezuela starts banging on their desk continuously, as Rasmussen is leaving until the audience in the plenary hall and other government delegates start clapping. Rasmussen comes back on the mic, apologising for having accidentally (hmm) missed a point of order by Venezuela.

One by one, countries respond to both the process, and content of the text:

Continue reading ‘Liveblog: Copenhagen End Game’

“Lead, follow, or get out of the way!”, was what Power Shift Canada told the Canadian Government loud and clear on October 24th. Since then, youth across the country have been rallying, calling and dancing to demand that the Canadian government adopt Bill C-311 (the Climate Change Accountability act) which would mandate targets to cut global warming pollution in line with science. “It’s time to listen,” we told them, and all these efforts have finally started to pay off. The minority Harper government used stalling tactics to delay a vote on that bill in committee most likely until 2010, but the Canadian parliament just passed a motion that Canada should put forward the first target from the delayed bill as the Canadian position in Copenhagen. It passed 137-124 with the united support of all three opposition parties: Continue reading ‘Canadian Parliament Supports Strong Copenhagen Target’

Check out this new video from the Tck Tck Tck campaign.

www.timeforclimatejustice.org

C-Change is a youth-led project to raise awareness of climate change among young people in England. Today there is a climate change day of action happening at and around City Hall in London. Young people from across London are attending a conference about what steps we can all take to tackle climate change.

Alongside the conference, C-Cast radio is broadcasting live from London, online and across 15 radio stations around the UK… a combination of music, documentaries, debates with experts, interaction and live sessions from the conference. Building on the concept of many individual actions coming together to deliver a big impact, people will end the day feeling educated, empowered and ready to do something about climate change.

It began half an hour ago. Tune in to C-Cast Radio live, or download the podcasts at switchonswitchoff.org.

As the UN climate talks continue in Bali, and many countries continue trying to make progress on international agreements on dealing with climate change, Canada’s conservative government seems to have a different plan – do the bidding of big oil and sabotage all progress at the climate talks, contrary to the wishes of most Canadians. So far has Canada slipped, under the current government, from its former position as bastion of international diplomacy at the Montreal negotiations two years ago, that at the weekend Canada won the “fossil of the day” award, for doing the most to block progress at the negotiations.

It’s time to make some noise, Canada: head on over to avaaz.org and tell Harper to stop blocking the UN climate talks. It only takes a minute.

Once you’ve done that, read on for more contact details. A phone call is worth a thousand emails…

Continue reading ‘Tell Harper: Stop Blocking UN Climate Talks’

C-Change, a new youth-led campaign to change attitudes and raise awareness of climate change in England, has just kicked off with its first major event, a battle of the bands competition. Supported by UK indie band Klaxons and solar-powered recording studio The Premises, unsigned bands can upload an mp3 of their music onto the C-Change website, where anyone and everyone votes for their favourite band. The top five get to play live at a free concert at Party for the Planet in London in July, and the winning band gets to spend a day at The Premises laying down their track by renewable energy.

Head on over to switchonswitchoff.org to vote, and if any It’s Getting Hot In Here UK readers are in a band yourself (and aged 11-21) what are you waiting for? Join the battle!

James and Jo have been together since they met at school. They cheat on each other regularly – James with an ex-girlfriend he can’t let go of, and Jo with a man who delivers stationary to her office who’s name she doesn’t know. To offset their cheating they fund Chris and Mim through Cheatneutral. In return for the payments from Cheatneutral Chris and Mim promise to remain loyal and faithful to each other so that James and Jo can carry on cheating.

Sound familiar? At its root, this is basically the same insane logic big business has sold to the governments, individuals, and even NGOs of the world in convincing them that carbon offsetting is a genuine solution to climate change. In a hilarious satire of carbonneutral.com, CheatNeutral exposes the rediculous flaws in the entire concept of carbon offsetting. Their five ways that Cheatneutral is like carbon offsetting should be required reading for any government official working on climate change policy.

CheatNeutral – Helping you because you can’t help yourself.

Global warming has, for the first time, washed an inhabited island entirely off the face of the earth.

The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India’s part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true.

At least 70,000 people are at immediate risk of becoming environmental refugees as a direct result of climate change. If current predictions of sea level rise are correct, we can expect that number to be millions in years to come.

Full article at independent.co.uk

When the going gets tough, and people remain ambivalent towards the simple steps they can take in their lives to reduce their energy use, it seems there’s only one thing for it… It’s time to start breaking into people’s apartments, changing their light bulbs, dropping bricks in their toilets, and switching off their appliances by stealth, obviously!