It’s Getting Hot In Here

Photo Credit: Christine Irvine

This week the bell sounded for round 2 in the US climate change saga with the opening hearing of Sen Boxer’s Environment and Public Works Committee. Over 100 youth organized by the Avaaz Climate Action Factory DC were there, in senators faces, showing them how to get a strong climate bill. Kanye West and Daft Punk provided the inspiration for the week with the theme: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.

Harder – oversight on coal plants.
Better – Renewable Portfolio Standard and investments in international adaptation.
Faster – emissions reductions targets.
STRONGER – leadership in the Senate and a stronger bill!

Continue reading ‘Avaaz Action Factory helps Senators pump it up and make a STRONG climate bill’

This is the latest action alert from Avaaz.org.

Join the call for a strong climate treaty!
There are only months left to build a strong global climate treaty — but some G8 countries are putting its future in doubt.

The G8, meeting in Rome this week, is weighing a pledge to limit global warming below 2 degrees centigrade, the level at which scientists say a deadly climate chain reaction becomes dangerously likely. Canada, Japan, and Russia are trying to veto the 2-degree limit — and an immediate global outcry is needed to rescue it. Add your name to the petition, and Avaaz will deliver it with stunts and meetings in Rome this Wednesday and Thursday!

We call on our leaders to go to Copenhagen and sign a global climate deal that is:

AMBITIOUS: enough to leave a planet safe for us all.
FAIR: for the poorest countries that did not cause climate change but are suffering most from it.
BINDING: with real targets that can be legally monitored and enforced.
Start now. Harper, Medvedev, Aso, and other leaders gathered in Italy–agree a 2-degree target!
Sign the petition here, and stay tuned for updates of youth climate action throughout the week.

I walked out of the US Capitol on Friday evening just as a torrential downpour started.  The sky opened up, and all the humid DC air released its pent-up energy in a big, blustery storm of thunder, lightning, and horizontal rain.  It was a fitting conclusion to a very intense and stressful week of working on climate legislation.

The entire day was a long and crazy adventure in politics.  I started my morning at 8am in a demonstration in front of the White House in anticipation of Angela Merkel’s visit with President Obama.  The Avaaz Action Factory had giant green hard hats and cut-outs of the two leaders were there to show the domestic and international press that Americans expect a lot more from both leaders.  Read more about that action here,  and see the coverage in the Boston Globe.
But my day wasn’t over.  After heading back to my house to read updates on the climate bill and send off some tweets urging DC folks to come to our afternoon rally, I left with our van of props for the Capitol.  That rally, organized by the Energy Action Coalition and Chesapeake Climate Action Network and the Avaaz Action Factory had been thrown together in 2 days with news of the upcoming vote with one major goal: insert ourselves into the climate debate as saying, “We want more!” (Photo in WSJ).

Continue reading ‘What happened on Friday’

Guest post by Julie Erickson

All the climate buzz this week has been about the now notorious ACES bill that comes to a floor vote in the US House of Representatives today. But anyone who wants real action on climate change must remember the ultimate prize – the UN treaty to be negotiated in Copenhagen this December.

It was with international politics in mind that a group of activists showed up this morning at the German embassy ahead of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s arrival. Anticipating the Chancellor’s scheduled Friday meeting with President Obama, they put on a performance with larger-than-life cutouts of the two leaders surrounded by enthusiastic, dancing, six-foot wide green hard hats. The activists called for the two leaders to commit to keeping the international limit of warming to 1.5°C (above pre-industrial levels) and reminded them that climate

change presents an opportunity to create green jobs and new economic prosperity if we make a bold transition to clean energy.

Obama and Merkel are meeting this week and are expected to talk about what positions they will take on climate at the upcoming G8 Summit and at the UN negotiations leading up to Copenhagen. If both convey that their respective countries take climate change seriously and are ready to lead by committing to no more than 1.5° of warming, it could have a significant impact on the negotiations. While the EU has committed to keeping warming below 2°, and Obama has been an outspoken advocate for green jobs since before even taking office, neither leader has shown the leadership or made the commitments necessary for a strong global agreement.
Continue reading ‘GIANT DANCING HARD HATS WELCOME MERKEL TO THE US’

Co-written by Morgan Goodwin and Rob Price, members of the Avaaz Action Factory

A buzz accompanied the lunchtime rush at Longworth Cafeteria on Capitol Hill today as staffers and Reps looked at their watches and talked amongst themselves ready to witness an activist flash mob making a statement about the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES). Flash mobs are Internet organized convergences of people for a pre-organized purpose.

Over 30 young activists converged on the cafeteria, cleverly wearing the suit-and-tie disguise that is customary there, and doing nothing out of the ordinary until at precisely 12:15 pm they froze like statues. Where groups of ‘mobbers’ stood close together, frozen, reaching for ketchup, adjusting glasses, adjusting a hair clip, paused mid-stride etc, the effect was striking. At the end of two minutes of stillness one member of the ‘mob’ yelled out tick, tick, tick, a catch cry of Tck Tck Tck a global campaign for urgent climate action run by the Global Humanitarian Forum and supported by a broad coalition of climate groups.
Continue reading ‘Flash Mob for Climate Justice’

Young people aren’t waiting around for climate policy – we’re taking action around the world and we’re in the rooms where the debate is happening.  For months now, law-makers in Washington have been under the watchful eyes of youth climate activists, sometimes referred to as the ‘green-shirts’.

We’ve been writing about the hearings, tweeting about the hearings, and mobilizing the grassroots all over the country to make more noise so we can deliver that message to our politicians here.

Today (Tuesday June 15th), we’re trying something new.  A new twitter feed will be keeping watch on the climate hearings with a special focus – Lets Talk About Climate, Baby!  >>> Follow Lets Talk About Climate on twitter.

Lets Talk About Climate’s mission is very simple.  Bring the debate back to the seriousness of the issue at hand and the solutions required to address it.  Lets talk about climate change, lets talk about what will actually fix it.  Lets talk about carbon levels in the atmosphere – both where they are now and where they need to be.  Lets talk about how survival is non-negotiable.
Continue reading ‘Lets Talk About Climate, Baby!’

Cross posted on the Eastern Energy Systems blog.

Solar rebates are really good right now, but they’re not simple or straightforward. Three different rebates typically combine to make solar pay for itself in as little as 4 years (in Long Island, for instance) and make the owner money after that. But those rebates are from 3 different places – and they don’t apply to everyone.

Two of the major rebates are tax credits. The federal government agreed to increase its tax credit from a cap of $2000 to a full 30% of the cost of the system. This can be over $20,000 for many homes. New York state, like many states, has a 25% tax credit which is still capped at $5000. Unfortunately – and this is the key – you need to pay income tax to get these.

While its great that the government is able to provide such a strong incentive, they rule out a large percentage of the population who don’t pay any income tax, and therefore can’t receive the tax credit.  And yet, Americans over 65 have the highest rate of home-ownership: 80% in 2008. Whey are we ignoring this large percentage of the population, effectively preventing them from making investments with their money and their homes that will benefit future generations and make them more secure against rising energy prices after they stop working? Continue reading ‘Solar Rebates for All’

This post is a contribution to the Special Breakthrough Issue, “After Power Shift: What’s Next?”

Continue reading ‘What’s Next?’

“Dude, I just want to pass some bold national climate legislation,” said Jake Brewer, Internet Director for the Energy Action Coalition.  This was 2 days before Power Shift 09 began.  The office was a blur of people banging away on laptops and juggling phones.   Thousands of students were already in transit to Washington DC, and a hundred people like me had come to help out in the final months, weeks or days to make the weekend a success, because it needed to be a success.

We are the youth climate movement, the moral leadership of our country, and we are going to stop climate change.  We face the most complicated challenge in history while working in the context of wars and terrorism, a plunging stock market and a turning point in America’s history.  And through all this, we really need to reduce our green house gas emissions to build a just, sustainable and prosperous society. Continue reading ‘The Climate Campaign’

I’m here at Power Shift ‘09 with 11,000 of my closest friends, and we’re trying to pass bold national climate legislation.  We know that one lobby meeting on Monday, while amazing, isn’t going to be enough to get what we need.

That’s why Power Shift is asking everyone to pledge to hold an in-district lobby meeting with their senator or representative during congressional recess, April 6th -19th.  We have over members of congress taken already, and we have a ton of time left!

If you’re at Power Shift, come over to the table and make sure your rep is up on the map.  If you’re at home, (sorry you couldn’t make it!) start thinking about how to bring Power Shift to your district.

We’re everywhere.  Increaste the pressure until we win!