It’s Getting Hot In Here

This is an outrage. Tim DeChristopher was hailed as a hero for derailing Bush’s last minute illegitimate public land auctions. He introduced a new form of civil disobedience, but by his account – signed in legitimately, was handed a paddle, and bid. The new Justice Department should realize that these punitive measures only have a chilling effect and show the disproportionate power these extractive industries have over our political and judicial system.

Student is charged with obstructing Utah land auction – Los Angeles Times.

A college student was charged with two federal felonies Wednesday for what he contends were acts of civil disobedience — making false bids to run up auction prices on oil and gas parcels on public land near Utah’s national parks….A grand jury charged [Tim] DeChristopher with one count of interfering with a federal auction and one count of making false representations at an auction, Tolman said. The penalty could range from no punishment to a combined sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $750,000 fine.”

You want to know who should be arrested? The corrupt staff of the US Mineral Management Service at the Department of Interior. Read what the New York Times found out about that:

“[T]he Interior Department agency that collects oil and gas royalties has been caught up in a wide-ranging ethics scandal — including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct.”
Sex, Drug Use and Graft Cited in Interior Department – NYTimes.com.

Guess who was auctioning off our land to private mining and oil interests? The Bureau of Land Management, of the Department of Interior. So who really should be facing felony charges? It sure as hell isn’t Tim DeChristopher.

Read more about this story at the late JohnnyRook’s diary at SolveClimate.

You may have seen this photo, on the left, from the Bonn meeting of the UN Climate Negotiations. It seems simple enough, two men sitting at a table with a framed photograph perched in front of the microphone. Yet, it shows how everything has started to change on the fight to create a global agreement in Copenhagen this December. Why? It demonstrates how everything is in our hands now.

First, lets start with the framed photograph itself. You probably can’t see it too clearly, so lets take a look at the original. Floating above a sea of signs, Ethan Nuss of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network is speaking to the Power Shift 09 Lobby Day Rally in front of the US Capitol building. He is wearing a suit, but he is holding a megaphone. It is wicked cold out, due to a freak snowstorm. Ethan is an incredible speaker and despite the crowd noise is inspiring all the young people in the crowd, who are vigorously waving their signs, and fired up to go lobby Congress.

What does this have to do with Yvo de Boer, the UN’s top climate official and the Executive Secretary (think Secretary of State, not your dentist’s secretary) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – the body charged with creating a global agreement on climate change, and why did he put this framed photo up? In Poznan, Poland – there was an intergenerational inquiry on the role of youth and the UN climate process. There, I recorded Yvo de Boer state that, ” I think that civil society loses its power, when NGOs put down their banners and put on suits.” He spoke on how young people need to provide the passion, the activism, and not lose sight of their goals in policy thickets. He also called for governments to live up to their promises to include youth representation. See Unicef’s reporting on it, here.

At Power Shift 09, there was an incredible effort to document the conference and tell our own story. Our New Media Warroom, filled with bloggers, photographers, and videographers hailing from the Obama campaign, youth climate organizations, and Fired Up Media – recorded the incredible gathering.

Robert vanWaarden, the leading international youth climate photographer, came with Fired Up Media to shoot the conference. He captured some of the most stunning images you will see of Power Shift, showing the importance and vitality of the youth climate movement. He took this photo of Ethan and the Power Shift rally. Two days after the rally, Yvo de Boer came to Washington DC to speak at the Brooking Institute, a thinktank, where a lineup of speakers talked about political ‘realities’ that will force compromising on Capitol Hill. You can read a bit about it, here. Robert and I printed out the photo, met with Yvo and told him, “We may have put on suits, but we are never putting down our signs.” Continue reading ‘The Story of One Photo Shows How the World Has Changed’

Washington, DC – The United Nations climate process is an obsession with a subset of the environmental community, the only route by which Global Warming can be tackled on the scale it requires. To many others, it can be vague or confoundedly policy heavy, with a jargon and acronym laden language impenetrable to outsiders. Many large US-based environmental organizations have siloed their staffs, with an international climate team staying focused on the UN Process, while field teams focus on domestic legislation. Almost all of them rely on a skeleton crew at the Climate Action Network, where a few staff members in a small walk-up office juggle the process both of developing a coherent policy position for environmental organizations at the UN level, as well as coordinating joint communications, southern capacity building, and logistics.

However, the UN climate process is coming to a defining moment, at Copenhagen, this December. With the Obama administration moving rapidly on turning on its head the old Bush climate policies, it would appear that the stars are aligning for a global climate treaty to be crafted with the United States onboard, the accomplishment that escaped the Kyoto Protocol. However, the road to Copenhagen goes through the American Midwest and despite the rolling plains, the road appears to be rocky.

The Kyoto Protocol was never brought to the US Senate, where a a two-thirds vote is required to pass a treaty, as a resolution aimed at attacking the treaty passed 95-0. The only senator that Vice President Gore thought he could bring on for sure, was the late Senator Wellstone. Now, it appears as environmental and industry lobbyists head to the Hill to clash over a climate treaty, there is a growing strand of Washington thought that promotes delaying domestic legislation until after the Copenhagen conference, to 2010. The Guardian recently published an article titled, “Barack Obama May Delay Signing up to Copenhagen Climate Change Deal” highlighting the role of “as many as 15 Democratic senators who represent “rust-belt” states dependent on coal mining, steel production and heavy manufacturing, all big emitters of carbon.”

I sat through a talk at the Brookings Institution, a heavyweight beltway thinktank, where Carlos Pascual said “We can’t let the calendar defeat us.” and urged a longer-term outlook, due to the same roadblock role of Democratic Senators from the Rust-Belt and Midwest. I may put up the video, as it is a textbook portrayal of Washington ‘conventional wisdom’ being established on an issue. In response to my question about this position, the concept that the political calculus may shift in the midwest was never even considered, let alone the role of the emergence of a broad-based citizen’s movement on global warming.

Two days before, I was in the middle of the largest lobby day on climate in history, as the participants of Power Shift 2009 – including student leaders from each of the states those senators represent – came to visit their representatives in the midst of a freak snowstorm capping off an extraordinary conference where participants, including a seemingly endless array of administration officials, arrived in shirtsleeves.

Yet, in Washington, the global climate treaty is seen as a matter for experts, lobbyists, and academics, not citizen activists. Despite the appointment of Van Jones to the White House to work on Green Jobs and reports like the McKinsey report outlining that stabilizing emissions has a close to net zero cost, the lens of climate vs. economy is still alive and well, as dirty industry leans on senators facing rising unemployment and shuttered factories in the Midwest. Big environmental groups are working on a plan to synchronize their international and field programs, but is it too late to influence a conference in December, where many of the decisions will be made in the lead up?

Copenhagen is likely the last opportunity where Europe will invest its political capital in a global treaty, if the United States does not join. Developing countries, both the highly vulnerable developing and island nations, and China, with its major climate efforts announced in Bali and Poznan, are losing patience. Yet, the Midwest is still the linchpin, even if Obama uses Congressional-executive agreement to pass the treaty as law. Minnesota seems to be the model for a midwest embracing climate solutions as key to its success.

Following the legacy of Wellstone, Senator Klobuchar and Senator-elect Franken are strong supporters of climate action. Minnesota has emerged as regional wind powerhouse, erecting turbines at a blistering pace, yet the most promising project for the rust-belt is called ARISE. A blueprint for launching green manufacturing at shuttering plants, with an alliance of labor, students, and local government officials, it is charting a new path forward for the region. Michigan is shedding jobs at an atrocious rate, but one of the few bright spots is the opening of a new high-tech battery plant for GM’s Volt and a solar energy materials plant.

Renewable energy has been demonstrated to produce four times the employment of fossil fuel investments of the same size, so the Midwest should be clamoring for renewable energy investments. Yet, utilities, railroads, and car companies remain opposed to strong climate legislation. Washington seems to have made up its mind about which side Democratic senators from the midwest will be on, but political winds shift, sometimes dramatically, when social movements or events change the dynamic.

Will the students returning from Power Shift form the backbone of a coalition of faith groups, labor, and young people able to connect the dots between Copenhagen and clean energy in the Midwest? The fate of what many climate scientists think might be the last chance to act before critical tipping points are hit lies in the balance. Will Steger, the polar explorer, is bringing an expedition of young people from the Midwest to Copenhagen – instead of his more usual arctic treks. Perhaps there, they will be able to tell the story of how they took a different road to Copenhagen than expected and surprised Washington.

So I am very excited that the Fired Up: Youth Report segment on the International Youth Delegation at the Poznan climate talks, is live!

This was our test case to see if we could tackle TV to cover the incredible work that young people are doing all over the world to respond to global warming and to build a just and sustainable world. Guess what? It is airing March 2nd, the day the largest lobby on climate in US history will go down, along with the Capitol Climate Action.

First Poznan, next we are going to be covering Power Shift, which starts TODAY! Expect to see youth reporters filming all over the DC Convention Center, as this story is too hot for just words or to leave to the traditional media. Come say hello and tell us your Power Shift story!

However, check out our segment on the incredible alliance between threatened island nations and the international youth delegations that emerged at the Poznan climate talks. Power Shift is happening in the US of A, but it is becoming the global story with Power Shifts happening in Australia, the UK, and who knows where next! Take a look!

The Maldives/Youth Segment starts at 12:39.

For a little more information about where this will be shown and who helped put this together, below the fold is some information about LinkTV’s EarthFocus.
Continue reading ‘Fired Up: Youth Report – First Poznan, Now Power Shift 09!’

Even if you don’t know who Glenn Beck is, because you might have the good sense to avoid blowhard talking heads on Fox News, he seems to think he knows who we are. He thinks the youth climate movement are “Hitler Youth”, brainwashed by Al Gore to lead us into fascism.

Glenn Beck said: “Well, tonight — oh dear, this may not go well — when I finish this story, some may believe we’re on the way to the Hitler Youth … Are we having the new Hitler youth? Is that what this is? The new Hitler youth? I’m sorry, that’s so politically incorrect. The new green guard.” Source

You can see his scaremongering for yourself, recorded by Crooks and Liars:

Well, I know who and what Glenn Beck is. Glenn Beck is a bigoted, paranoid liar who will stoop at nothing to smear and destroy those who he sees as foes to the voodoo economics and dirty energy companies his ideology supports. He is a fossil fool and he should be exposed as one.

For a sampling of his smears and lies:
The first environmental justice advocate elected to congress, Keith Ellison, also was the first Muslim representative. Rep. Ellison was a mentor to me and a proud American who has stood up against the excesses of the Bush Administration. What did Glenn Beck ask him, when Keith went on his CNN show?

“With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, ‘Let’s cut and run.’ And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, ‘Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.’ And I know you’re not. I’m not accusing you of being an enemy, but that’s the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way.” Source

Glenn seems to enjoy labeling environmental activists as fascists or communists or socialists, referencing Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, saying “It’s like Hitler” and denied Global Warming by using fossil fuel funded ‘experts’ on numerous occasions. Source

He also lied about oil production from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, claiming it would produce seventy times more than it could and decades earlier. Source

The fact that a someone who is a serial liar and slanderer has such a prominent position in our media shows how far we have to go. Glenn has a right-wing radio show, and has a national cable TV show. If you want to express how disappointed you are that Glenn Beck would smear the diverse and independent youth climate movement, that draws from communities across this country, from indigenous youth to evangelical youth.

What can you do?

You can email his producer, stu@glennbeck.com, to express your disappointment. In fact, I think Glenn Beck is a very good candidate for Countdown on MSNBC’s Worst Person in the World. Feel free to nominate him here: countdown@msnbc.com

One week ago, Kingston, Tennessee, woke up to find that over one billion gallons of coal ash sludge had surged out of a poorly built and poorly maintained containment pond, one of three at the Kingston Coal Plant, after the dam holding back acres of inky black and toxic coal ash sludge failed. The Tennessee Valley Authority, the federal corporation that operates the Kingston Coal Plant, first reported that 360 millions gallons of coal ash sludge had flooded over 400 acres of local watersheds and river, then the estimate was revised to 540 million gallons, and now the best estimate puts the amount as over 1 billion gallons. This puts the amount spilled as more than 100 times larger than the Exxon Valdez disaster and, in fact, more than every drop of petroleum used in the United States that day. This coal sludge spill is simply unprecedented in size and scale and should become the stunning example of exactly how dirty coal really is.

Numbers aside, as it is impossible to really comprehend the scale of the disaster in words – this is a very dramatic example of how our consumption and reliance on coal is quite literally reshaping our world. Whether by flooding 400 acres of beautiful Tennessee valleys and rivers with six feet of coal ash, or blowing the tops off of literally hundreds of mountains in Appalachia, or changing the global climate itself through massive releases of carbon dioxide – the coal industry has perhaps the greatest impact of any industry in the world – yet we barely know it. Coal plants intake almost 20% of the United States’ freshwater, uses almost half of our freight railroad capacity, and leaves behind scarred landscapes, poor and exploited communities, kills vulnerable people – in fact, the Kingston Coal plant is estimated to cut short the lives of over 149 people a year – and coal is the leading source of global warming pollutants from the United States.

Coal power devours landscapes, poisons the land and water, and yet it remains virtually unregulated in critical areas of impact. Smokestack emissions of sulfur dioxide (SOX), nitrous oxide (NOX), and mercury are regulated – to a certain extent – with SOX regulated through a Cap & Trade system that has been adopted by most large environmental groups as the mechanism to tackle global warming. However, federally mandated scrubbers on coal plants have led to the concentration of pollutants in coal ash, everything from arsenic, lead, mercury, thorium, and uranium. Yet, coal ash is not regulated as toxic waste – although the EPA is ‘considering’ doing so’.

The Bush Administration has even worked at redefining the word ‘fill’ to allow the coal industry to be unregulated by the Clean Water Act and allow the destruction of mountains and pushing the rubble into streambeds and valleys. Carbon dioxide is still unregulated, despite efforts to pass a federal climate bill and the Supreme Court ruling that the Executive Branch is obligated to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Unregulated, unaccountable, and corrupt is the way that many coal companies operate. Little surprise then that TVA announced as a safety measure that residents impacted by the coal ash spill should boil their water – thereby concentrating the heavy metal contaminants – instead of providing safe drinking water to residents. Continue reading ‘Kingston Coal Ash Sludge Spill Over a Billion Gallons: Time to Take a Hard Look at the Coal Industry’

The world is halfway through the process to create a global climate treaty to respond to Global Warming. In the halls around me, government, NGO, and UN negotiators are painstakingly working through the process to create a draft text for this treaty. The last decade has been a period where climate campaigners and negotiators knew where they stood, with the Bush Administration blocking progress, the European Union leading on the UN process, and environmental organizations facing off against the Oil, Gas, and Coal industries. Suddenly everything has changed, with Obama’s election, the EU Climate Package failing, and the Canadians having a parliamentary crisis – a financial crisis dragging down the automobile companies – and newly emergent actors like the youth movement, trade unions, and justice advocates showing up onto the global scene.

Nevertheless, with a financial crisis diverting attention from the climate crisis and backsliding among traditional advocates for strong international climate action – there is a lot of frustration and fear on the behalf of many Non-Governmental Organizations. One of the bright spots of the Poznan climate talks has been the arrival of large and energized youth delegations, including representatives of countries such as India, that have inspired many people here. Yet, despite the ever-growing level of international cooperation there remains two paths that this movement could take – that will have major consequences on the outcome of the global negotiations.  Continue reading ‘Which Path Will the Youth Climate Movement Take?’

Ok, so I have some exciting news for everybody. A wild horde of wonderful youth delegates have descended on the UN Climate Negotiations in Poznan, Poland to pressure governments to act, build an international network, raise some hell, and be lulled to sleep in side-events by policy lectures by established NGO leaders. So, with 500 youth delegates running around and reporting on the developments in Poznan there is a lot of online content flowing from a fleet of new and established youth climate blogs, websites, and youtube channels.

Well, all that creative energy needed an established outlet, which you can now find at YouthClimate.org – Voices from the International Youth Climate Movement. It might not look like too much yet, but it is aggregating content from 17 youth climate blogs writing on Poznan, 3 embedded photoshelter galleries by professional photographers affiliated with Fired Up Media, a press room with releases and advisories, reports on actions and events, a Twitter Feed of #poznan, and a Mogulus Video Stream aggregating youtube videos.(h/t to Jon Warnow of 350.org for putting it together in days)

That means…go there now! Check it out.

If you are curious about the various blogs and outlets aggregating to YouthClimate.org – They are listed here:
350.org, BUNDjugend Klimaretter, Climate Crisis, COOLA NER, CoolClimate – спасем климат вместе, Countdown to Poz ’n’ Hagen, Dealing with theGlobal Crisis, EcoLeague International Team/ NEAYEN, FairClimate Blog, FeedBulletin for: generationclimat, It’s Getting Hot In Here, Izzykb’s Weblog, Maayke Aimée Damen, Planet in Limbo, SustainUS, The DailyUN, TIGblogs – Group – Canadian Youth Delegation to Poznan, UK Youth Delegation » Blogs, Eco Singapore – United Nations Climate Change Conference 2008, IYCN – What’s With The Climate?

There are also photos from Robert VanWaarden (read his blog, too), and videos put together by Adam MacIsaac

Cross-posted from Fired Up Media.

Hey everybody, so I wanted to update you on all the incredible progress we have been making on developing the communications capacity of the youth climate movement – with Fired Up: Youth Action TV. It has been a huge learning curve, starting with blogging and YouTube video and moving into the world of TV production. However, Fired Up Media is starting to produce our first TV content. We partnered with LinkTV’s Earthfocus, with the support of Focus the Nation and Clif Bar, to introduce the youth climate movement. Watch EarthFocus 9 now!

We gathered archive footage, learned how to edit, compose, and identify TV quality film…but this was only the beginning. The big success was producing the content at all! With our next segment, we are getting more ambitious and are sending a team to UN climate negotiations, to tell the story of young people trying to build a global movement to build a sustainable world. (With three editors of It’s Getting Hot in Here, Shadia Wood, Christine Irvine, and me!)

As to whom will be seeing it…Link TV is the first nationwide television channel dedicated to providing Americans with global perspectives on news, events and culture. Currently, the channel is available as a basic service in more than 31 million U.S. homes that receive direct broadcast satellite television (DBS). Pretty exciting, as the channel is available in 1 out of all 4 US households.

Continue reading ‘Fired Up: Youth Action TV Launches!’

Kansas has long been a place where great contests for the soul of the country have been fought. The scars of the violence from “Bloody Kansas” lie mostly buried, with memorial plaques bearing witness to where homes burned and people died over whether Kansas would join the United States as a free state or slave state. Kansas eventually joined the United States as a free state, rejecting the premise that some must live as slaves in a repudiation that helped precipitate the Civil War. The progressive populism of Kansas helped launch the Progressive era and the curbing of the Robber Barons.

We all know there is a new great contest for the soul of America, to whether or not to rise to the Climate Challenge, take responsibility for its role in changing the world’s climate, and lead the world in developing the clean energy revolution needed to solve our economic and ecological crises. Kansas is again on the forefront.

In a state that many had written off as deep Red and beholden to right-wing arguments against either acknowledging or addressing Global Warming, Kansas Governor Sebelius took a courageous step few other governors would take and blocked the building of two new dirty and dangerous coal plants.

She did so in the face of a legislative revolt, vetoing repeatedly the misguided efforts to push the plants through. In fact, she used the Supreme Court decision, Massachusetts vs. EPA, as her justification, thereby setting the stage for a future President of the United States to do so with a Coal Moratorium.

For added impact. Notice the signs, in the hands of two ministers as well as students, Wind not Coal, being furiously whipped around by the strong winds. For a higher quality version, please watch it here.

Kansas citizens are likewise standing up and demanding to be heard that they support clean energy, not dirty and dangerous coal. For evidence, see this footage of dozens of Kansas citizens coming together to protest the 14th dirtiest coal plant in the nation: you can see its plume of dirty smoke in the background.

So, with the nation watching where Kansas is going, the answer is blowing in the wind. Kansas gets it.