It’s Getting Hot In Here

(Written by the Sierra Student Coalition Publishing Group)

For those of us in school, the semester is coming to a close and our student organizations are wrapping up projects for the year. We face the next academic season with the full knowledge that we are entering an era of new politics and new opportunities, and that many decisions await our communities, our campuses and our nation. As we expand the scope of our movement and the impact of our work, we are beginning to recognize the diversity of our own stories: the victories that we have won and the setbacks we have encountered, the hopes and fears for our future, and the strain and joy of pushing a country forward.

The Sierra Student Coalition Publishing Group invites the youth movement to share your personal stories throughout the coming year – starting now. Fill out our brief questionnaire with your group or as an individual as you reflect on your semester along with the challenges and the victories that it presented. We want to publish and distribute your stories to inform and expand nationwide dialogues among youth on what we have done and how we have done it. This is your opportunity to help other groups learn from your successes and challenges without having to re-invent the wheel, so to speak.

Continue reading ‘Share Your Story with the Movement!’

The Camp for Climate Action will be an inspiring five days of workshops and grassroots direct action aimed at stopping the expansion of the world’s biggest coal port in Newcastle, Australia. The Australian Climate Camp is one of seven being held around the world in July and early August 2008.

Climate change is the biggest threat to our future, and coal is the biggest cause of climate change, yet the Australian coal industry is still expanding. We need real action to keep fossil fuels in the ground - and we’re running out of time! One thing is certain, we can’t wait for Governments or the fossil fuel industry to solve the climate crisis. We must start to create the change we want to see ourselves.

The camp is a collaboration between environment groups, community organisations, student groups, and individuals.- hopefully now including you! Groups already involved include Friends of the Earth Australia, Rising Tide, the Australian Student Environment Network and individuals from local climate action groups.

Continue reading ‘Getting Excited about Climate Action Camp Newcastle July 10 – 15, 2008′

For the past year, thousands of activists across the country and organizations including Rainforest Action Network, Rising Tide North America, Coal River Mountain Watch, Appalachian Voices, Mountain Justice Summer, SEAC , Energy Justice Network, Blue Ridge Earth First!, and many more have joined together to pressure Bank of America to stop funding coal. From financing mountain-top removal minining, to investing in new coal-fired power plants, Bank of America is financing the destruction of our climate and communities - and no amount of green PR and marketing will change this fact.

From hundreds of rallies and protests at bank branches; guerilla theater closing ATM’s; shareholder resolutions, confronting bank executives, and direct action at their offices, Bank of America is feeling the pressure to rethink their investment policies! Come join us at Bank of America’s annual shareholder meeting this month - and make sure every one of their executives, board members, and shareholders hear our demands for a just, sustainable future!

Please help promote this call to action, and organize your community to join us in Charlotte April 23rd!

Fore more info, visit www.dirtymoney.org or contact mleonard@ran.org Continue reading ‘CALL TO ACTION – Protest Bank of America’s Shareholders meeting!’

You may have heard this piece of wisdom in Econ 101. “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” Someone is footing the bill.

The mass material affluence that characterizes much of American society is a testament to the power of our economic and political system. The cities we inhabit, the cars we drive, the gadgets we use, the ways we communicate, the food we eat, and the energy we consume are all products of its success.

But remember, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” Someone is footing the bill.

Allow me to modify that statement. There is no such thing as a dollar menu. Transactions inflict costs on the real world that are not reflected in a market pricing system.

A friend of mine is particularly fond of McDonald’s Dollar menu, and makes a habit of ordering $1 cheeseburgers. The $1 he spends covers the costs McDonald’s has incurred - buying the ingredients, shipping, operational, and labor costs - and of course a slice of profit. However, those are only a fraction of his cheeseburger’s true cost. Enter the world of externalities.

The Economist defines an externality as “An economic side-effect. Externalities are costs or benefits arising from an economic activity that affects somebody other than the people engaged in the economic activity and are not reflected fully in prices.” (1) My friend’s dollar spent does not include the side-effects of cheeseburger consumption, such as longterm costs of carbon emitted by transport and methane toots of former cows. Entirely unconsidered is the irreversible loss of biodiversity from the conversion of rain forest to industrial soy-bean monocrops to feed the hamburgers-in-waiting of American factory farms (2). Humans and nonhumans alike bear the cost of our externalities.

Continue reading ‘Sustainable Justice’

On Fossil Fools Day congressional lawmakers confronted the five largest publicly traded oil companies on their record-high profits and sky-high prices. Youth climate activists seized the opportunity to remind the oil executives and Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming that we too have a stake in creating an oil-independent future.

Students from University of Maryland-College Park, American University, and organizations in the Energy Action Coalition held a “Billionaires for Big Oil” rally outside of Congress’s Cannon Office Building. Full press release and pictures can be found here.

After the hearing we attempted to give a “Fossil Foolie” award to Exxon-Mobil Senior VP, Stephen Simon. He didn’t seem amused:

Video credit to Claire Roby, Senior at American University

The bustling halls of the United Nations climate negotiations still ringing in my ears, it’s been an incredible few months since I and other youth delegates from SustainUS returned from Bali. So many friends and neighbors emailed or stopped by to say “Thanks for sending your email updates from Bali!” and “Welcome home!” I still feel the excitement of working with the best & brightest of the youth climate movement around the world.

Upon returning from Bali as a US youth delegate, I was filled with hope that humanity will create a global consciousness by rising to meet the climate emergency. In the last few months, worsening scientific predictions have only strengthened my belief that we are the leaders we seek. It’s up to us. We have the power to make the climate emergency, and the immense economic opportunities we will realize from solving it, our top priority. A bold, broad movement is needed on a scale larger than the mobilization for World War II. This mobilization will only be accomplished by unleashing a renewed civic engagement.

Continue reading ‘Post-Bali Dispatch: “Lighting Up” a movement in Upstate New York!’

Fossil Fools Day is making a splash around the world. We are following dozens and dozens of actions in the US, UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand! Here’s a brief update on some of the bigger actions thus far - but more are still to come! Solid media coverage on many of these actions on Reuters, BBC, Associated Press and beyond! For the latest news all day- check out FossilFoolsDay.org

8 Arrested as North Carolina, USA Residents Shut Down Construction at Cliffside Coal Plant

At 6:30 this morning, North Carolina residents locked themselves to bulldozers to stop the construction of Duke Energy’s massive Cliffside coal-fired power plant being built 50 miles west of Charlotte, NC. “In the face of catastrophic climate change, building a new coal plant is tantamount to signing a death sentence for our generation,” said local farmer Matt Wallace, while locked to a bulldozer. The concerned citizens also roped off the construction site with “Global Warming Crime Scene” tape and held banners that read “Coal Fuels Climate Change” and “Social Change, not Climate Change.” (more…)

We’re actively looking for donations to get people out of jail!

Continue reading ‘Fossil Fools Day Highlights From Around The Globe!’

Word on the street has it that The Governator is bringing together a Captain Planet-team of state governors to begin taking solid steps to fight climate change. That’s a great opportunity for Yalies and other locals to get together to stage their own climate change demonstrations and talks. (GET PHOTOS, GET VIDEOS, and POST AWAY!) I’ll highlight more as the details unfold. Check out Yale Daily News highlights from Thomas Kaplan:

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is scheduled to visit Yale next month to deliver an address on climate change, University officials confirmed last week.

Continue reading ‘Governors Unite: Landmark Global Warming Conference to take place at Yale’

Here in NYC with the Billionaires for Dirty Energy–the ultimate Fossil Fools. Over 30 of them blockaded and locked down on Citi’s HQ this afternoon decrying Citi’s investments in the RISKY business of coal and climate.

“Coal has lost its appeal as a predictable investment; it is fraught with uncertainty,” said Billionaire, Lauren “Bring Me My Car” Valle-t, prior to being arrested by NYPD. “Bottomline, CITI is mortgaging our future and compromising their own long-term competitiveness.”

Two were arrested after they chained themselves to the doors of Citi HQ.

Even the “money handlers at the temple” have decided that coal is too RISKY to invest their money in. They hope today’s action will spread to the investment banks at Citi who spend 200 times more on dirty energy than they do on renewable energy.

Pics here

At 6:30 this morning, North Carolina residents, including former Energy Action Coalition fellow and organizer, Christine Irvine, locked themselves to bulldozers to stop the construction of Duke Energy’s massive Cliffside coal-fired power plant being built 50 miles west of Charlotte, NC. “In the face of catastrophic climate change, building a new coal plant is tantamount to signing a death sentence for our generation,” said local farmer Matt Wallace, while locked to a bulldozer. The concerned citizens also roped off the construction site with “Global Warming Crime Scene” tape and held banners that read “Coal Fuels Climate Change” and “Social Change, not Climate Change.”

We’re actively looking for donations to get people out of jail!

Continue reading ‘NC Youth Stop Coal Plant Construction: 8 arrested!’