It's Getting Hot In Here

Right now concerned students and community members in Bellingham, Washington are working to stop one of the most deadly new fossil fuel projects in the world: a coal export terminal that would send tens of millions of tons of coal brought in by train to global export markets.  To build their group and strengthen of the movement they seek to create, these passionate activists are raising funds to send a delegation to this month’s Localize This! Action Camp.  But they need our help: with twelve days to go before the fundraising deadline, the group has set a goal of raising $1,200.  If you can pitch in, please visit their fundraising web page here.

Why donate to this effort, when so many worthy causes are out there?  The answer, quite simply, is that the fight against coal exports is one of the most important in the climate movement.  If even one proposed coal export terminal like the one moving forward in Bellingham goes through, it will be a disaster for the climate, facilitating construction of some of the largest coal plants in the world and displacing renewable energy investments in developing countries.

But this tragedy doesn’t have to happen.  Members of communities targeted by coal export proposals are already organizing to stop export terminals from being built and re-claim power over the energy future of their communities.  So far these efforts have been very successful in shifting the debate around coal and turning coal export terminals into a sticky issue for politicians.  Now these activists need our help bringing their movement to the next level.

Though there are now several proposals to build coal export terminals in both Washington and Oregon, the one in Bellingham has progressed further than any other toward applying for permits it needs to move forward.  If we can defeat this project, it will send a positive message all up and down the West Coast.  The work of organizers in Bellingham is thus a critical piece of the worldwide effort to reclaim community power from the coal industry.

I can’t think of a better cause to give money to right now.  If you’re able, please consider donating to help Bellingham activists grow the movement for a cleaner future in Washington.

All around the country it seems that environmentalists are forced to play defense in this election: prop 23 in California, the many members of Congress who voted for the weak American Clean Energy & Security Act, and various Senators with good environmental records.

But there’s one race in the heart of the heartland where we can make a huge victory for sustainability: Francis Thicke’s in Iowa.

Francis Thicke is an organic dairy farmer with a PhD in soil science. He is challenging a Big Ag-backed incumbent to be the next Iowa Secretary of Agriculture. Besides the US Secretary of Agriculture, Iowa’s is the most influential in the country when it comes to the operation of our food system. Electing Francis Thicke would be a huge gain in preparation for the next federal Farm Bill. So what happens in Iowa matters for the whole country. Michael Pollan and Bill McKibben agree.

Here’s the campaign ad, written and produced for free by young people working on the campaign.

And if you need another reason to get involved, polls show the race is very close.

Company Responsible for Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster Actively Seeking to Silence Local Critics

Massey Energy has filed a politically motivated civil suit, also known as a Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation (SLAPP) suit, against fourteen activists arrested last year in relation to a protest on a mountaintop removal mining site. (Photos.) The suit seems to be part of a larger strategy on the part of the mining company to intimidate and silence critics of the company’s safety record and controversial mining practices, particularly mountaintop removal coal mining.

Since the spring of 2008, Massey has filed at least four SLAPP suits against activists in West Virginia working to end mountaintop removal, none of which have yet been resolved. Commonly used to exhaust critics by burdening them with the cost of a massive legal defense, SLAPP suits have been banned by at least 26 states and one territory has protections against SLAPP suits. West Virginia does not have a ban, but its courts have adopted some protections against them.

Donate to the activists legal defense.

Continue reading ‘Massey’s Energy’s dirty strategy: ignore worker safety, persecute environmental activists’

In the spring of 2009, students members of ReEnergize Texas wanted to convince the Texas Legislature to pass a bill letting them create campus green funds amidst talk of “the worst recession since WWII.” It was no small feat, but through smart lobbying, a statewide summit and lobby day, and a strategic Earth Day phone bank among other tactics, together they prevailed.

So what did this victory earn them? The opportunity to convince students at public universities across Texas to increase their own fees despite tough economic times and rapidly rising tuition. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, some might say. But that’s not how these tenacious organizers saw things.

ThinkGreenFund.org from Public Citizen on Vimeo.

Then in early March, student bodies at the state’s two most prominent public universities voted in favor of creating green funds – UT Austin with 71% support, and Texas A&M with 57% support. Just a week earlier the state’s most prominent private school, Rice University, had created its own green fund in a campaign not related to ReEnergize Texas.
Continue reading ‘Texas Green Funds Passing Despite Economy’

In a previous post I expressed a vision in which we organize to elect ourselves to local government. It’s a daring idea, one which some like us have previously embraced on their own, running for candidacies from both sides of the aisle.

Now is time to expand their success to a broader constituency and elect ourselves to local public office.

If the progressive youth movement is going to get itself elected to local positions we’ve got to start now. We must rapidly address and neutralize divisive distractions such as personality politics and disparate ideas. We’ve got to be pragmatic now: we have a world to save.

The effort to elect ourselves to local office needn’t interfere with current efforts on other fronts: there are enough of us to accomplish many goals at once. We are a vast army, and there are untapped constituencies to enlist.

Further, as Jessy Tolkan stated, if we’re going to shift society’s momentum, we need grow ten times larger. That means embracing and cooperating with similar movements. There are many that share complementary goals with the sustainability movement.

In this moment we must cooperate, highlighting our general agreement regardless of our particular ideals and without regard to our personal self-promotion. We should model the Continental Congress, who reasoned through their differences without deviating from their expressed goal: a general movement based on their common struggle, common frustrations and common good. Continue reading ‘Elections 2010 FTW’

@UNFCCC #COP15 #FAIL. You could have tweeted it before any arriving delegates strolled from their jets to their waiting limos. All that sign waving (and wow was there a lot of it!) inspired millions waving their own banners at home, but the windowless plenary wasn’t paying attention. A significant number of anarchists got beat up and gave the mainstream media their cover story. In the end we observed a handful of rich countries smoking cigars in a backroom, playing dice with human life. The UN, of course, did “take note.” So did we, and clearly we’re not clicking any “Like” buttons on this one.

What are we going to do? Shout louder? Damn straight. Sign 365 new petitions before COP16? Hell yes. Consolidate our resources into the most powerful lobbying organization in the world? YE… um, what?

Not kidding. There are limits to non-violence. We’ve reached them. It’s time to enter the ring, line the gloves with brass knuckles and bloody the opposition. I mean that figuratively. Put the brass knuckles down.

In concrete terms, we must, right now, consolidate our movement, enlist the best of the best lobbyists, persuade middle-America into a sustainability frenzy and get ourselves elected to local government where we can be most effective. Our united campaign must start immediately. We’ve got until the elections next November.

That’s the general vision. Details after the jump.
Continue reading ‘A Time For Pragmatism’

Good Afternoon Climate Champions,

The SustainUS Agents of Change COP-15 delegation needs your help! Each of our 26 delegates is working to raise funds for the SustainUS delegation as well as a Latin American Youth delegation for travel to Copenhagen.

We’ve submitted a proposal to the Brighter Planet Project Fund, and have an opportunity to win $5000 for the delegation. Your 3 votes can help us get even closer to our fundraising goals. Voting goes until Nov. 15th, and the race is incredibly close. As of right now, we cling to a razor-thin 27-vote lead.

We’ve had a solid lead all of last week, but over the weekend, another group started gaining on us, so we’d really appreciate your votes. The funding will help us make sure that economic status doesn’t prevent any of our delegates from attending the negotiations in Copenhagen, and will also help the delegates put more of their energy into fundraising for a Latin American youth delegation.

Voting is simple:
1) Visit http://brighterplanet.com/. Sign up or log-in. If you’re a new member, you’ll have to confirm your email address before you can vote.
2) Go to http://brighterplanet.com/project_fund_projects/68 or click on the Project Fund tab.
3) Vote up to three times for the Agents of Change project.
4) Share far and wide!

The Brighter Planet Project Fund seeks to foster local leadership and seed worthy community projects that will help people fight or adapt to climate change. Grants are available every month and Brighter Planet members decide—as a community—which project to seed.

Thank you so much for your support!

The SustainUS COP 15 Delegation

cross-posted on SustainUS’s Agents of Change blog

As reported by the BBC last week, the President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, will have to skip the United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen because, well, they just can’t afford it.

The low-lying island nation is at serious risk of disappearing under rising oceans caused by global warming, but can’t afford to fight for its own survival at the negotiations, citing the financial crisis. The Maldivian economy ranked 186th in 2008, and more than 20% of Maldivians are below the poverty line, with average income per person at $4,400.

It’s an extreme example of a common problem – those with the most to lose from global warming often have the least representation in the UN climate debate. All of those flights and hotels add up, and poorer countries can’t bear the costs. Many developing nations only have one or two government delegates, and the UN has a fund that only covers at most one delegate per country.

Continue reading ‘Most Threatened, Least Represented’

Youth climate leaders launch a new media initiative to put Survival front & center on international stage, pressure delegates in Copenhagen

San Francisco, CA.— On August 11, hundreds of youth climate activists, supporters, artists, and community members gathered at Minna Gallery to launch a global network of youth journalists who will use video, photography, and blogs to report from the front lines of the climate crisis in the lead up to the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December.

The new media project is called Project Survival Media, and its goals are ambitious: Launch seven youth-directed new media teams, one from each continent; Report on compelling and under-told climate change stories; Leverage this media using the vast organizing and distribution networks that youth have built to spread their message; and Influence the international dialogue in the lead up to the UN Climate Negotiations.

“What if, on all seven continents, there were young people equipped to globally broadcast pivotal stories about the climate crisis?” says youth organizer and Project Coordinator Shadia Fayne Wood.

“What if these young people were empowered to amplify disenfranchised voices and propel the principle of “Survival” to the forefront of the political debate? Climate change is not a future threat – people all over the planet are suffering from different effects of climate change right now, and they don’t have time to wait until a solution becomes politically feasible.” Ms. Wood also pointed out that there is a real need to breathe life into the statistics of the climate crisis, and that new media has the potential to do just that. Continue reading ‘Project Survival Media Launches from Minna Gallery, SF’

Cross-posted from SolveClimate

While the planet’s future climate is being determined by lawmakers in Congress and the United Nations Conference of the Parties this December, some students who are too young to vote are taking their future into their own hands. Oregon’s Corvallis High School was named “America’s most eco-friendly school” in the Earth Day Every Day School Challenge, where the combined effort of teacher Colleen Works, the CHS Green Club, and the school’s Political Action Workshop and Economics of Conscious Consumption classes won $20,000 to put toward a large solar panel installation. In all, 460 groups applied for the grant, evidence of the rapid growth in youth green initiatives across the country.

Teens are aware that climate change and its associated challenges will define their generation’s work, said CHS Green Club Co-President Chris Becker. For many of them, the inspiration to take action doesn’t come from fear as much as from the opportunity to create “cool” solutions.

“I think young people definitely understand this is a huge issue, probably bigger than anything any generation has ever faced before,” Becker said. “We showed in this past election that we can step up, and I hope that this generation will only become stronger, even more organized, and even better connected so we can solve this climate crisis and save our planet.”

The CHS Green Club has an ambitious renewable energy goal for Corvallis High: It wants to install 100 kilowatts of solar panels within 10 years, providing the school with a third of its current electrical demand. As the club points out on its web site, the solar panels will serve multiple purposes by reducing the school’s carbon footprint, lowering utility bills and educating students and the community. With the Wal-Mart grant on top of their efforts so far, they’ll need about $30,000 more to complete the first 10 kW phase. The students aren’t going it alone, though. The school’s faculty and administrators, plus community leaders, are behind the project. Continue reading ‘Students Lead Charge to Power School with Renewable Energy’