Mayor Menino’s announcement comes after Massachusetts finalized a three-year plan to triple utility investments in energy efficiency. Boston and the State of Massachusetts are moving toward a clean energy future. But will it be enough?

An emerging coalition of faith, business, environmental, and workforce development groups are joining The Leadership Campaign in challenging the Massachusetts State Legislature to double-down on recent clean energy and energy efficiency investments by creating a task force to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2020. The campaign – The Commonwealth Challenge, launched on March 4th – is not your typical political initiative.

The motto of the Commonwealth Challenge is “When the people lead, leaders will follow.” 40 years after the first Earth Day, the people of Massachusetts are putting down their phones, pens, and signs and picking up caulk guns and home retrofit contracts. Residents of the Commonwealth are demonstrating a real solution – hire local workers, including workers with barriers to employment, to make homes more energy efficient and pay them family supporting wages and benefits. Following in the footsteps of Van Jones, Green For All, and the Green Justice Coalition of Massachusetts, the Commonwealth Challenge is creating a green collar economy that works for people and the planet. And along the way, people are measuring the results and holding themselves and their leaders accountable.

The Commonwealth Challenge aims to engage 3,000 residents by Earth Day, April 22nd, in saving 100,000 KWh of electricity. If each person saves 5% of their electricity the goal will be reached. 100,000 KWh is enough to power the homes of Beacon Hill, home of the State Legislature, for a full day. It’s also enough to create 2200 job hours for local workers, save residents $20,000 on their energy bills, and remove more than 370 tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

By retrofitting their homes to make them more efficient, residents are taking the first step toward clean energy revolution. But more has to be done if the planet is to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid dangerous climate change tipping points. On April 22nd, residents will present the results of their actions as a challenge to the State Legislature to lead the nation toward the next American Revolution – an energy revolution for good jobs and climate security. The way to get there – pass An Act to Create a Repower Massachusetts Emergency Task Force, a bill introduced on December 7th that would create a task force to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2020. At the same time, residents are challenging Massachusetts Senators Scott Brown and John Kerry to lead Congress toward finally putting a national price on carbon pollution.

It is not enough to simply promote home energy retrofits. Without a signal from customers or government that they should act differently, many companies will continue to weed out job applicants with barriers to employment such as the disabled, women, people of color, people from marginalized communities, and people who have ever been convicted of a crime. Contractors serving the Commonwealth Challenge must sign on to, the Green Collar Hiring Pledge, a promise by employers to pay fair wages and benefits, hire people with barriers to employment, and choose environmentally preferred products and practices. So far, three companies have signed on and are serving homes through the Challenge.

Before April 22nd, Neighborhood Captains across Massachusetts will organize “Energy Retrofit Parties”, phonebanks, canvass their neighborhoods, and show up at community events to sign people up to retrofit their homes. Thanks to significant subsidies and a group discount from Commonwealth Challenge Service Partners, a home retrofit is an easy sell for anybody in Massachusetts whether they own or rent their home. In fact, the initial energy audit and air sealing work is free. This flier explains what I am talking about.

After Copenhagen many people lost faith in the willingness of political leaders to step up to the plate to address the climate crisis. The question now becomes – what are we going to do about it? With coastlines eroding in the Maldives, fires and droughts raging in Africa, and desperate farmers turning to suicide in India, I believe that it is incumbent on all of us to take this challenge into our own hands. If governments won’t adopt a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty, we the people, have to use whatever power we have to decarbonize our economy and demonstrate the way forward.

Actions speak louder than words, but they also often begin with words. I have one question for people reading this.

Who do you know in Massachusetts? If you are inspired by what we are doing, I urge you to tell your friends and family in Massachusetts about the Commonwealth Challenge and encourage them to retrofit their home. 3,000 people might not seem like a large number; but the difference between 3,000 people signing a petition and 3,000 people signing up to schedule someone to come work on their home is significant.

Use the tools on this website to spread the word and become a fan of the Commonwealth Challenge on Facebook.

It is time to lead.

Keep reading + Scroll down for Action Form!

Two environmental activists appeared in court today accused of terrorism-related offences during the Copenhagen climate summit in December.

Natasha Verco, an Australian honours student, and Noah Weiss, an American citizen who lives in Denmark, will face similar charges in a trial which is due to last all week.

Verco, who has organised non-violent direct action in her native country and who has been part of the Climate Justice Action (CJA) network in the lead-up to the summit in Copenhagen, has been charged with organising violence, organising public disorder, significant damage to property, and organising disorder during the international talks on climate change which took place in Copenhagen last year. If found guilty, Verco faces a maximum of twelve and a half years in prison.

Speaking a day ahead of the start of the trial, Verco recalled her arrest: “On December 13 I was riding my bike down by the Copenhagen lakes,and a plainclothes police woman jumped out at me and pushed me off the bike. She took me to an unmarked police van with six or seven plainclothes policemen. I asked them ‘Are you randomly picking me up?’ and they said ‘No, we hunted you’. They held me by myself in an underground carpark for about 16 hours, I think. Then I was taken to Vester prison and held there for three weeks and two days. I was charged the day after I got to prison, but bail was refused because, they said, the investigation was ongoing and I would influence it if I was released.”

Verco and Weiss say they both had their phones tapped, along with 17 other activists, which is legal under recently introduced terror legislation in Denmark. Verco said: “I feel nervous and indignant at the same time, I wonder what the hell they’re going to argue because I can’t see what evidence they’ve got for these charges. And looking back at the calls that they’ve taped, it feels very invasive. Under the new terror laws they can do this, but it seems to me that applying terror laws to activists is steadily eroding the base of our democracy.”

Verco was heavily involved in organising the day of action on December 14, but was arrested before it happened. When it took place, she was still being held by police. “The police say that they prevented anything happening by taking me in. There was no violence, and no disruption of the public infrastructure, because they’d arrested me.”

During the fortnight of talks, dozens of protests from the small to mass rallies of 40,000 people, took place; the Danish police arrested nearly 2,000 people. The police are now processing nearly 200 legal complaints about the treatment of the arrestees. Verco and Weiss were both involved with CJA, the network which helped to organise some of the protests during the talks, most notably the Reclaim Power demonstration outside the conference centre for the negotiations.

Apart from Weiss and Verconone of the other activists charged during the protests, including the Greenpeace Four who were arrested and held for three weeks after unfurling a banner during a black tie event, have yet had their court dates set.

Take Action:

Follow THIS LINK to submit a letter to the Danish Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs, or manually Copy & Paste the following letter into an email. Sign your name and send to the following:

The Danish Ministry of Justice: jm@jm.dk

The Minister of Justice, Lars Barfoed: trm@trm.dk

Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs: um@um.dk

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lene Espersen: udenrigsministeren@um.dk

March 2010

To whom it may concern,

As a concerned citizen, I am writing to express my concern at the decision of the Danish government to bring charges against individuals arrested during the peaceful protests in Copenhagen during the COP 15 last December.

The international movement for Climate Justice which organized the mobilizations in Copenhagen is composed of many hundreds and thousands of groups and individuals worldwide who represent the interests of the majority of the people of this world. As a person who feels represented by them, I strongly condemn the repression of the Danish state which aims to stifle dissent, a right which is the basis of any functioning democracy.

I add my voice to those who demand that the charges against Natasha Verco and Noah Weiss and the other climate prisoners, like Stine Gry, Tannie Nyboe, Malthe Ege, Mads Kissow and Tadzio Muller, are immediately dropped. Freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate are basic human rights, and the citizens of the world are astonished by the fact that charges are brought against people for the organization of legal protests in Denmark.

The actions of the Danish state not only threaten Danish democracy, but threaten to set a worrying precedent globally that dissenting voices must not be heard – repressing and criminalizing those who struggle for social justice, real democracy and human rights worldwide.

I urge the Danish government to take all these voices into consideration and to make sure that the climate prisonners are immediately released– the world is watching.

The current climate crisis is a global emergency. In Copenhagen thousands of people protested against the UNFCCC that was imposing false business solutions instead of solving the problem.

Today the struggle for climate justice is a duty, not a crime.

Sincerely,

[your-name]

I’m talking about the first ever bona fide tar sands extraction project in the United States of America–right here, in my own backyard!

You might have heard about the tar sands extraction happening in Canada. This nightmarish debacle has transformed countless acres of priceless Canadian biodiversity into a sticky black cesspool, for primarily America consumption. Don’t take my word for it; do a simple Google image search for “Canadian Tar Sands.” After you’ve done that, imagine the effect these proposed tar pits would have on the land immediately adjacent to the sites. Now picture that land as Canyonlands National Park. I’m not making this up.

The citizens of the areas where the proposed pits would be created have had absolutely no say in the permit acquisition and decision-making surrounding this project—and the pits might potentially break ground this year. Did I mention the entire operation would be run by Canada-based Earth Energy Resources? The company made their excited announcement in November of 2009, although Grand County citizens weren’t made aware of the impending project until this month.

Utah Clean Energy, an independent organization devoted to exploring Utah’s potential for alternative and renewable energy resources, recently released a study that explains, in detail, how exactly Utah could create hundreds of new jobs and bring in millions of dollars in new GDP by exploring alternative energy and beefing up our energy efficiency standards. And yet, here in Utah, while 95% of our electricity depends on coal-fired power, our geographical uniqueness is fundamental to our state pride and one main source of tourism revenue, and water scarcity is fast becoming a frightening illustration of some of the foreseeable impacts of climate change, we (and by “we”" I mean a wealthy-but-desperate handful of powerful and shady Utah businesses) want to welcome an industry that would use between twice and five times as much water per barrel to produce oil–oil that wouldn’t even be ready for use before undergoing  an expensive and emissions-rich cultivation process.

Using tar sands, also known as oil sands, as a “cheap” source of fuel is a joke. According to the Pembina Institute, mining tar sands requires between 750 and 1500 cubic feet of natural gas for each barrel of oil. I’m not great at math, but that doesn’t seem terribly economical to my mind. The tar sands mining and extraction process produces three times as many CO2 emissions as regular oil production; the Alberta tar sands project is Canada’s number one source for CO2 emissions. As far as I can see, the only positive thing about introducing tar sands mining into the United States it that it might (and this is a BIG might) reduce our dependence on, and merciless exploitation of, Canada’s tar sands resources, which we are currently reaping without remorse to fuel our morning commute. Why import Canadian tar sands fuel, and the technology to destroy our own land and water for American tar sands?

When you assess the fact that it takes five liters of water to produce one of usable petrol via tar sands extraction, this starts to seem blatantly criminal in a desert state. The privatization of water is a scary dream that is slowly folding itself into our reality, and when you realize that water is required every step of the way with tar sands extraction—to move gas, to build new tar pits, and to provide a waste receptacle for the filthy pits once they are up and running—you start to wonder where all this water will come from, in Utah. Colorado and Nevada are not too excited about sharing their drinkable water with us, of late.

So, what will it be, America? Should we urge Utah to become a leader on the alternative energy frontier, securing our economic and environmental future for our children—or shall we allow her to regress a decade or three, and become the nation’s very first home to tar sands extraction—and its subsequent leader in toxic emissions and contributions to global climate change? My decision is made. We are exploring every avenue for ways to stop this project, and we will update you on how you can take action to help. The tar sands nightmare will not be allowed into my beloved home state and our fine nation, if I have anything at all to do with it.

[Note: We are still trying to figure out the best ways to take action, so as soon as we have a good outlet, we will let you know.]

Other resources:
www.nodirtyenergy.org/
http://oilsandstruth.org/
http://www.tarsandswatch.org/

As communications facilitator for Summer of Solutions, I’m featuring every program to paint a picture of the diversity of solutions young people are building across the country. This post will feature the amazing work happening in Burlington, VT and the dynamic leaders there.

The Summer of Solutions is a summer program designed to empower youth to create self sustaining community based solutions to environment and social injustice, climate change and economic insolvency. We work to build an inclusive, local community that connects across the country that will propel us into holistic, renewable energy economy.

There are seven projects happening this summer in Burlington. Some are continuations/expansions of last summer’s programs, and others are completely new.

The Programs: There are seven basic contiguous programs set to run this summer. Here’s a sampling of four programs:

1. Vermont Sustainable Heating Initiative

Last summer, participants worked with the Vermont Sustainable Heating Initiative to bring pellet-stove heating systems to low-income households. They received a grant for $20,000 to buy and install pellet stoves. Over the year, Tom and Beth Tailor have been keeping in touch with/checking up on recipients of the stoves. There are currently 15 different stoves in 2 counties in the state (Addison and Washington).

This summer, they are applying for another grant to expand this project. The program participants will continue the process of bringing pellet stoves to low-income households, and will be ahead of the learning curve, picking up the project after a year of research.

2. Bio-Fuel Feasibility study for Chittenden County

The program leaders received $25,000 in federal money, and $5,000 in local funding. This study will be researching the feasibility of starting a pellet manufacturing co-op in Chittenden County. Tom said that while it’s great to give pellet stoves to low-income people, a whole systems change also means a way to provide jobs. In particular, the manufacturing plant would be aimed at producing grass-based pellets, as a more sustainable pellet than wood.

3.  Passive Community Refrigerator/Freezer

Construction of a passive refrigerator freezer  construction for community use using W(n)IMBY {Why not  In My Back Yard}. The passive community freezer will freeze 2000 two liter soda bottles next winter and use them to keep the freezer cold year round.  It will be made in part out of recycled and natural materials. Construction of eatible landscape, including localavore rabbit warren, and sustainable gardens.

4. Vermont Engineering Summer Camp at UVM

Another aspect of the program involves educating high school students about green engineering. Last summer, Summer of Solutions program participants taught for a week at the Vermont Engineering Summer Program. According to Beth and Tom, this was one of the most fun aspects of the summer, and they are looking to partner as trainers again.

Last year, SoS participants and high school students built a small-scale, working windmill. This summer, a new strand of the engineering camp will focus on the engineering aspects of de-commissioning a nuclear plant.

The other three projects include starting a rabbit colony for meat and yarn, a permaculture garden, and a community garden.

To apply as a participant to Summer of Solutions – Burlington, go here:http://grandaspirations.org/apply/burlington.html

For more information, contact Tom and Beth Tailer at: tbtailer [@] hotmail[.]com

At first the student questioner probably thought my answer sounded like a mother answering her seven year old on why she couldn’t eat the cookie for breakfast, “Because I said so.” But really, it’s true that we have to make this decade one of the most transformative in American history. Period. Anything short of that is morally inexcusable. Over the next 10 years our generation will unleash the full power of the clean and just energy revolution and secure our climate from the duel threats of the economic and climate crisis. Why? Because we have to. This is not just a campaign slogan but the reality that we have inherited an insane global emergency and failure to rise to the challenge will result in the suffering of millions of our fellow human beings. We cannot continue to live under the corporate polluter domination that is poisoning our communities and disproportionally affecting communities of color the world over. I for one can’t live with it. And I keep going because I know that everyday there is a movement of people out there that feel the same way. Let us now let us speak with a unified vision for Our Decade.

Let’s face it Americans tend to think in terms of decades. What defined the decades in the last century, 50’s, 60, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s. etc? What images does this bring to mind? Poodle skirts, Woodstock, disco, big hair bands and Reaganomics. These are forever burned in our collective consciousness. (Plus, we are constantly reminded with cheesy VH1 flashback specials.) But seriously, what image will our grandchildren see when they look back on this decade? The image of healthy, sustainable communities powered by wind turbines? It’s ours for the making! Let them see that this was the turning point in American history when a generation said; “we can’t live like this” and summoned the moral courage to restore our nation to the promise of our most hallowed values. We have 10 years to turn this thing around and it’s up to us.

Starting today and over the next two weeks young people across the country are hosting gatherings and events to vote on our collective vision and commitment for Our Decade. There is incredible stuff planned all over the country (Find an event near you or host your own) check out some of the highlights:

• Today, voting booths are set-up at tables at Florida International University, University of South Caroline-Aiken, George Mason University, Central Michigan University and more!
• College and HS students from across Missouri are gathering at the “Show Me Sustainability” conference at Mizzou and will all take part in the Define Our Decade vote together!
• The Beyond Coal Campaign at Pennsylvania State University is constructing a big art installation of the “Foundations of Our Future” to emphasize the need for Penn State University to move beyond coal!
• Michigan State University students are following up on a coal plant hearing that they held, to have a community forum on how to move the campus to 100% clean electricity by 2020.

As part of these events, organizers will be asking their peers, and their communities how they want to define their decade, and will be asking them to take part in a national youth vote where we gauge how ambitious young people are for this decade.  Take a minute right now to add your vote and vision for reclaiming our future. And tell a friend!

Let’s make the next 10 years some of the most active and promising in American history. Our collective survival depends on it.

Jake Sully and Neytiri from 'Avatar'

While visiting my parents recently, my mother treated me to a 3-D showing of Avatar at a theater close to where I grew up. I went in with a fair amount of trepidation. I’ve been following the media coverage of the film, as well as conversations between friends and colleagues who had seen it in the weeks follow its premiere. I was feeling very nervous about the racial dynamics of the film, and though I’d heard many people describe the film as very pro-environment, I wondered how pro-environment a blockbuster movie could be; how much can its themes and messages really challenge the status quo of our fossil fuel-powered society?

After two and a half hours of pure visual spectacle, I left feeling a mix of emotions and with a ton of thoughts running through my mind. I felt angry. I felt very angry.

I felt angry that the Na’vi people needed an American to save them. I felt angry that the Na’vi people needed an American to save them from Americans! I felt angry for the truth at the heart of the action: the single-minded focus on profits over people and the environment, and the price indigenous people have paid for centuries.

The single most impactful moment for me was when the Head of Security, Colonel Quaritch, said ‘We’re going to blow a hole in their racial memory so deep they will never forget it.’ (I’m paraphrasing slightly.) Frankly, I was amazed that this line made it through the cutting room floor and in to the highest grossing film of all time. I can’t think of a similar line like it, and the reason it stands out to me is that I’ve never heard an acknowledgment from a figure like Colonel Quaritch that events like destroying sacred sites, environmental degradation, and violence do have a long-term impact. The consequences of such violence stay around for generations, and sometimes become deeply ingrained in a culture.

Our neighbors in Appalachia are all too familiar with the impact destruction can have on a culture and community. Mountains that were once home to cemeteries and burial sites with generations of a single family have been blasted away. What can root someone to a place more than knowing that his or her family lived and died there? Yet coal companies feel a few thousand dollars and paying below-market price for one’s home is just compensation. In Avatar, RDA Corp. felt that building a few schools and bringing vaccines would ingratiate them to the Na’vi. Schools and vaccines in exchange for your ancestral home and livelihood. Not quite a fair exchange.

In addition to processing my anger, I was also interested in asking my mother what she felt about the movie’s messages. In many ways, my mom represents her demographic well: married women in their late 40s and early 50s, working again, concerned about the economy, leaning right or solidly right in her politics. This is quite representative for the suburban Atlanta area where my parents live.

What did she think of the mining scenes: the endless, violent quest for energy sources? The corporate exploitation of another planet, and another people? She didn’t like any of these things, but here’s the kicker. When I asked, did the events of the film connect with anything happening in the world or United States today?

The answer: Nope. To be honest, my mother admitted not being very familiar with Mountaintop Removal mining, or Tar Sands mining in Canada. She felt strongly that what RDA Corp. was doing was wrong, but was unable to connect it to her life, or to our neighbors to the north. To me, this is the tragic failure of Avatar.

Earth-movers on Pandora

The parallels between Avatar and Mountaintop Removal are obvious. Other bloggers have also done great work drawing the parallels between Ecuador, Nigeria, even to the Disney version of the Pocahontas story (www.itsgettinghotinhere.com for starters). There are numerous scenarios to draw parallels from because the general arc of the story is so identifiable, so repeated across world history. The basic story is this: a multi-national, or in this case, multi-planet, corporation finds a valuable natural resource deposit near or in an area occupied by an indigenous community. The corporation tries various ways of “negotiating” with the locals, but ultimately ends up using violence and Western weaponry to take the resources by force. Perhaps there is a cultural go-between working the lines; someone from the colonizing culture who becomes familiar with the indigenous culture. This person will sometimes learn the value of the indigenous culture, and perhaps try to show the colonizers the error of their ways. In the end, it always ends the same, at least in real life.

RDA Corp. plane flies over mining pit

The unique angle Avatar has is its focus on the natural resource being an energy source. Unobtanium looks remarkably like coal, but is much more expensive and small amounts can be burned to create huge amounts of power. To get to the unobtanium, the corporation must use equipment and processes that look remarkably like those used in Mountaintop Removal mining in Appalachia or in Tar Sands mining.

This film is also unique in how the indigenous culture triumphs over the colonizers. However, they don’t do it alone.  In Avatar, the deity, Eywa, unites the planet of Pandora against the invaders, mobilizing all the planet’s different creatures, large and small, in the fight to preserve the planet. This could be an apt metaphor for Climate Change. Is the Earth signaling her alarm system? Telling us we’ve gone too far, and if we don’t retreat, rethink, and rehabilitate our ways, there will be significant human costs?

In addition to being the highest-grossing film in the history of film, Avatar is getting so much attention in the press for a couple of reasons. It was a huge financial gamble for Director James Cameron and the studio. Avatar is nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director, and it has also inspired tremendous international activism around environmental issues and human rights abuses. A few weeks ago, Palestinians dressed up as Na’vi people, drawing a comparison in their struggles against Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. Indigenous communities in the US and Canada have also compared the struggle of the Na’vi people in the film to their own lives, especially as the United States government has a long history of extracting valuable resources and fossil fuels from sovereign Native American land.

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards aired last night, and Avatar did not win Best Director or Best Picture. Avatar won a handful of awards for its technical achievements, which are well deserved. Had Cameron made it to the stage to accept an award, there would have been a lot riding on his statement. He recently claimed he is the greenest director of all time at a recent NRDC event. The quotes are captured in a write-up on Grist.org, here.

Had James Cameron won, I know what should have been in his acceptance speech: the recognition that the story of Avatar is hundreds of years old, and is being repeated with a slightly different cast every year, all across the Globe. Americans need to wake up, and realize the alarm is sounding. It’s time to act.

The team who won Oscars for Best Art Direction got close, saying “Avatar is a film about learning to see the world in new ways.” Winner Joe Letteri also said, “And just remember the world we live in is just as amazing as the one we created for you.” Not quite as direct as I would have liked, but it’s a start.

Hi, my name is Junior Walk, and my family has lived in the coal fields of southern West Virginia for generations.  It pains me to see my heritage destroyed and defamed, and to see my friends and family poisoned by unclean water.   So, I decided to take a little trip to Washington D.C. to put a stop to it.

Today, I’m in our nations capitol to stop the heinous practice of mountaintop removal coal mining.  I’m here with the Alliance for Appalachia, as an employee of Coal River Mountain Watch; I’m here as an environmental activist; I’m here as an affected coal field resident; but I’m mostly here as someone whom cares about people, and all other living things.

My meetings today were cordial, I met with the offices of three different congressmen.  The first one was on the fence about the Clean Water Protection Act, the second one will probably co-sign, and the third was already a co-signer.  I think we’re making serious progress here, we already have more than 160 co-signers, and we only need 40-50 more co-signers.

When this bill becomes a law, it will effectively end mountaintop removal by making valley fills illegal (which they were in the first place).  This would greatly benefit the people of Appalachia, save lives, and open up mountains like Coal River Mountain for use as wind farms.

So, here I am, I’ve never been into any city, never really had any experience outside of my neck of the woods, and I’m walking up the stairs to the legislature to talk to our representatives about what’s going on in out back yards.

I care about mountaintop removal, and by extension this bill  because it affects me directly as someone who lives in the coal fields, and someone who has seen and worked in the devastation.  There are plenty of people here  with me though that don’t live in the thick of it, or aren’t from Appalachia, and I am very grateful to them.  You can help too; call and urge your congressman to co-sign the Clean Water Protection Act – HB 1310.  Then call and urge your senator to act on the Appalachian Restoration Act – SB 696.  Also, to learn more about mountaintop removal and get involved, click here.

Take a moment and watch hundreds of those around the world taking action and inspiring others in the fight for climate justice.

All images (unless provided by 350.org) ©Robert van Waarden,
Music – “Open Road Kisses” by Small Affairs

©Stuart Matthews

Guest post and photography essay from photographer Stuart Matthews

In November, 2009, I visited Bangladesh to document the impact of global warming on the country and its’ people. I focused on how NGO’s such as Oxfam Great Britain are collaborating with the communities to develop initiatives like the ‘Cash for Work’ program. This provides an income to the individual workers who participate in developing the climate defenses around their community.

Bangladesh has an extremely vulnerable landscape with 80% of its land made up of low-lying deltaic plains with an altitude of only 10 meters above sea level or less. This land is subject to frequent flooding during the Monsoon season, with large quantities of water flowing down the Jamuna and Padma rivers, causing catastrophic erosion along the banks of a fragile, predominantly silt, landscape.

Skip to full slideshow

© Stuart Matthews

The unpredictable weather shifts have made it hard for the communities of Bangladesh to cope with changing climates. In May 2009 Cyclone Aila tore across the south-western coast of Bangladesh destroying more than 700km (434 miles) of coastal embankments and wiping out thousands of homes, leaving the people marooned or forced to take refuge in shelters. Seven months later the people are still forced to live on the embankments of the rivers.

Workers throughout the country, have been adapting the landscape by raising land and repairing the embankments to combat the rising tides, allowing residents to move back to some of the land that was made uninhabitable by the affects of Cyclone Aila.

I met Sardar Babu, who is one of the 1,300 workers building a 9,500ft Ring Dam in Shekaribari, Koira. This will cross 3 canals and create a barrier against the rising floods during the Monsoon season. In Sardar’s own words: “I am very happy to join this kind of work, I do not see myself as a construction worker, more as a worker for the people of Koira. We are concerned about what the future holds, this dam will allow us to return to our land and rebuild our homes.”

The Shekaribari community have been living on the river embankments since their houses were destroyed by Cyclone Aila in May 2009. Living on these embankments, however, is illegal and many residents have been forced to find shelter elsewhere because of eviction notices from the Bangladeshi Government.

Clearly Bangladesh is on the front line of climate change. My work has therefore been to introduce the viewer to the people that are actually being affected by climate change, every day, and how they are developing their landscape to protect their homes and adapt to the threats that climate change brings.

Click to see slideshow

“If you gave me only one wish for the next 50 years,” declared the world’s wealthiest man during last week’s TED 2010 conference, “I can pick who is president, I can pick a vaccine… or I can pick that [an energy technology] at half the cost with no CO2 emissions gets invented, this is the wish I would pick. This is the one with the greatest impact.”

Bill Gates is right. And he is not just talking about the impact on climate change, which does of course present a major threat. He is also talking about one of the most critical global imperatives to make poverty history: making clean energy cheap.

“If you could pick just one thing to lower the price of to reduce poverty, by far you would pick energy,” said Gates in his introduction. Gates should know as well as any development expert, since the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – the world’s largest transparent private foundation – has invested billions of dollars in extreme poverty alleviation since 1994.

Nearly 1.6 billion of our fellow human beings have no access to electricity, and around 2.4 billion people – over one third of global population – meet their basic cooking and heating needs by burning biomass, such as wood, crop waste, and dung. “Without access to modern, commercial energy, poor countries can be trapped in a vicious circle of poverty, social instability and underdevelopment,” concludes the International Energy Agency.

The direct health consequences of using primitive solid fuels like biomass and coal are severe. According to the World Health Organization, solid fuel use causes 1.6 million excess deaths per year globally, especially among women and children — the fourth largest risk factor in developing countries after malnutrition, waterborne disease, and unsafe sex, and the second greatest environmental cause of disease overall.

These numbers are staggering. Energy poverty is an extreme and dangerous condition, and its elimination must be one of the highest development priorities for the 21st century. Nobody on this planet should be forced to burn dung to feed their family and heat their home, and access to modern energy sources should be considered a basic human right.

The implication is that energy technology innovation today should be considered one of the world’s most important social and economic justice movements. The growing movement to make clean energy cheap, and to deliver that energy globally, has the potential to alleviate as much human suffering and injustice as some of the largest, concerted social movements in history.

Of course, driving down the price of clean energy technologies is also essential for reducing global carbon emissions. Until the price gap between low-carbon and high-carbon energy is bridged, poor and rich nations alike will continue relying upon coal and other fossil fuels to power their development. This would virtually assure climate destabilization.

The task is clear: to eliminate energy poverty and avoid climate catastrophe, we must unleash our forces of innovation – namely, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs – to develop a portfolio of truly scalable clean energy technologies, bring these technologies to market, and ensure they are affordable enough to deploy throughout the world.

If you gave me only one wish, then, it would be for the United States to launch a major public-private project to make clean energy cheap (or as Google puts it, “renewable energy cheaper than coal“).  This requires the development of a comprehensive, strategic roadmap for technology development and deployment, including the identification of specific technical hurdles and the various financial and human resources needed to overcome them. It will then require large-scale public-private investment in each stage of the energy innovation pipeline – from basic research and development, to applied R&D, demonstration, direct deployment, infrastructure, and education – eventually on the scale of $50-80 billion per year of federal investment.

The clean energy investments in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act were an important first step. Congress should take the next step today with a bipartisan plan to increase the federal energy R&D budget to $15-30 billion per year, on par with the National Institutes of Health, and to develop a comprehensive federal energy education program. If these investments are funded by a modest carbon price, then all the better, but we can no longer make energy technology policy dependent on the carbon pricing agenda. Clean energy innovation is an economic, national security, and human development imperative, and these public investments should be made with or without cap and trade.

The United States was a driving force behind the worldwide expansion of prosperity and security in the 20th century. Today, a new American project to make clean energy cheap can alleviate untold human suffering and injustice, develop the world’s strongest clean energy industry, and help save the world from climate destabilization. In short, it may be our generation’s single greatest opportunity to advance global prosperity in the 21st century and secure the lives of future generations. As Bill Gates put it, “This is the one with the greatest impact.”

Teryn Norris is Director of Americans for Energy Leadership, Public Policy major at Stanford University, and Senior Advisor at the Breakthrough Institute.