This post is part of Blog Action Day, 8414 blogs and counting, all writing about climate change on the same day and together calling the US to take serious action on climate. Sign their petition here.
As a response to climate devastation, thousands of people have taken up in protest. In how they behave, in what they buy, in homes, in lobbying halls of congress, and on the internet. All with a message to spread: We need a new clean energy economy! Designing solutions such as solar and wind, along with reducing how much we do use as a state, can bring us together and provide jobs in a time of crisis.
It is especially important that everyone be involved in Climate activism in Massachusetts right now– Our senator, John Kerry (Follow on twitter, this is going to be essential in our lobbying approach) is long a champion of the environment and pushing new legislation that is sufficiently bold. But not enough to solve the real problems we face! Neither of the bills currently in Washington are strong enough to get us to 350, which is where our corn crop starts to melt and our coral reefs are gone already. We have to act, and fast. Kerry and Barack Obama can hopefully ride this wave of public support and bring home a great treaty for America. There’s broad support in the US, and Massachusetts is the “Saudi Arabia of Wind”. (Clean Power Now Website) Help us transform our energy future!
Get Involved
There are plenty of ways to get involved, right around you.
The easiest is to find a 350.org International Day of Climate Action Event nearby or help plan one with a local group. After that, join MAPS and its partners for a Sleep Out action until action is made at the Statehouse, MA. October to November we will be represented at the doors of the Statehouse or John Kerry’s lawn until better legislation comes up about this!
Sign/Support Blog Action Day! http://www.blogactionday.org/
MAPS Boston U,
-Eddie Miller
Follow me
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Massachusetts Power Shift Site
I see an organizational goal as the yardstick against which all planning, investigation, research,
philosophical underpinnings and action are measured. Strategy is the set of blueprints for achieving those goals, and tactics are the steps taken to implement these strategies.
I would further simplify and distill our goal, call it the over-arching goal if you will:
Reverse global warming.
Not simply stop it, because it has already gone too far (e.g., Hansen’s *maximum* “safe” level of 350 ppm, while we’re currently at 387 ppm), and positive feedback loops are taking it farther and faster than we had ever expected. The goal must be to turn it around. Is there any point in aiming for
less than that?
Just to take a couple of examples of how we might contemplate measuring our strategies against the goal as I’ve stated it:
1. Education – clearly, education of students, parents and community are essential. Most sources of information
are sorely lacking in honesty, clarity and effectiveness. The question with any educational effort is
whether and how well it moves us towards reversing global warming. Considerations would be content, medium,
style, viral effectiveness. Furthermore,
equitable and sustainable solutions require far more than substituting hybrids and lightbulbs – we will need to change our hyperconsumerist globalized lives. That’s fundamental culture change
- how do we grow our understanding and further the transition?
2. 100% renewable electricity by 2020 – does this meet the goal of ultimately ending Global Warming? Bluntly, no. But can we use it as a strategy to move in that direction – perhaps. We would have to think it through, and figure out how to use it as a short-term stepping stone to the larger goal. The 100% in ten years target will be out of date pretty quickly, but so much will have changed by then that we won’t even recognize our current efforts.
Comments?
Source: AL GORE, “Green Energy by 2018, (7/17 Speech)” Washington, DC: August 17th, 2008. watch at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt9wZloG97U
All around the world, people are stepping up. School children, college students, actors and actresses. Corporations, foundations, philanthropists, specialists… governments are convening this December in Copenhagen to discuss our future.
The hope is to stop rising melting ice and rising sea levels, that could soon take entire communities, beaches and shores. The main immediate threats are rising food and energy prices, availability of water, and increasing human migration due to changing temperature/seasonal conditions. A new Army report shows that the consequences could be grim, the scope and scale of which could condemn “billions” of people to poverty and result in the collapse of “much of civilization” by 2100 (!). When military people start talking like that perhaps we should listen.
The struggle for global environmental sustainability is inherently tied to all other struggles. Peace, social justice, security, equality all have a say in the outcome. It is a fight, most fundamentally, for the real solutions we know we need. It is a generational fight, on the hope that we can be that generation that uses our democracy to changes proactively and preempt a crisis. The costs of action are not that high, and the means mainly political.
Massachusetts Power Shift (or MAPS) has a plan this fall, and we’re looking for you to lend time to the cause. 100% Clean Electricity by 2020! 350 Parts Per Million in international climate law! We have exciting times ahead and no time to lose.
We are looking for club and group leaders, researchers, policy people, organizers, families of all race and ages. Won’t you join us the 19th for a meeting and training introduction? Sept. 19th at Northeastern University! Location: Google Map.
Q: What’s the plan??
A: See latest Leadership Campaign PlatformFall_’09_Platform, attached!
Send a policy support or inquiry to our policy team: tmooring@mit.edu!
Q: How do I get involved?
A: Please come to our intro training Sept. 19th at Northeastern University! They will be held in room 346 Curry Student Center at Northeastern University.
Directions:
1. Take the Green “E” line to the Northeastern T stop.
2. Walk back towards the Inbound Northeastern T stop, away from Forsyth St, towards Opera St.
3. Cross Huntington Ave towards the quad and academic buildings (there’s a big sign that says
Northeastern University outside the quad and a pillar on the right with a map of the campus that says Krentzmen Quad on it).
4. Walk through the quad and continue on the path between Richards Hall and Ell Hall.
5.Go down the stairs (outside).
6. The next building entrance you meet with sliding double doors on your left will be the Curry Student Center (there is a red awning that says Curry Student Center).
7. Enter the sliding doors and take a right. Walk straight until you reach the elevator on your left.
8. The room is located on the 3rd floor at 346.
Number as contact people for day of in case people get lost. Mine is 5163027861, Dan’s is 5185279168.
Questions please contact coordinator@masspowershift.org.
Or visit our website- http://masspowershift.org/
Great New York Times article today on the analysis side of renewable
energy targets:
Enjoy!
Congratulations to everyone who has been working on the anti-MTR Bank campaign! Here’s just released from BoA Headquarters:
As Bank of America expands our support and commitment to energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other low-carbon energy sources through our lending, investments, products and services, and operations, we recognize that at the present time, fossil fuels, and coal in particular, will continue to supply a significant amount of the energy needed to power our society.
There are environmental and other impacts associated with any energy source. For coal, these impacts result from extraction, processing and combustion. Bank of America continues to engage key stakeholders including coal producers, utility companies, leading universities, and the environmental community on energy, coal, the environment, and the necessary technologies to promote low-carbon energy. From these discussions, we have developed a policy that will ensure that Bank of America plays a significant role as a leading financial services company in promoting the responsible use of coal. Our policy is focused on the following elements:
Technology
Advanced technologies such as carbon capture and storage that capture carbon from fossil fuel plants and then sequester that carbon in geologic reservoirs will be necessary for addressing global climate change while enabling economies to flourish. Through our partnerships we will promote the necessary conditions for implementing carbon capture and storage on a global scale. We will employ our resources as a financial institution to promote the development and deployment of these advanced technologies to reduce the carbon emissions produced by the burning of fossil fuels.
Financial Services Policy
We will support, adopt, and adhere to leading practices for managing the environmental impacts associated with coal. Bank of America has taken a leadership position by committing to the Carbon Principles and reducing emissions associated with our utility portfolio as best practices for managing risks associated with coal.
Extraction
Bank of America is particularly concerned about surface mining conducted through mountain top removal in locations such as central Appalachia. We therefore will phase out financing of companies whose predominant method of extracting coal is through mountain top removal. While we acknowledge that surface mining is economically efficient and creates jobs, it can be conducted in a way that minimizes environmental impacts in certain geographies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf4RIieY1BI
Very slick youtube from ClimateCounts about purchasing power from consumers and the ability to move business.
And a group that organizes consumers to support a single store with collective buying power:
http://www.carrotmob.org/
The country needs a new growth strategy right now. We are observing institutions which we thought were the strongest in the world crumbling into pieces from peak Everything. People are scared, and looking for solutions. What are these going to be? The visionaries who speak the loudest will define what gets done under new leadership.
Some Good Ideas:
America Needs a New Growth Strategy. It’s Getting Hot In Here, 11/11.
http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2008/11/11/america-needs-a-new-growth-strategy/
Organic Transitions: Beyond the Gloom & Doom of Economic Depression, Climate Change, & Peak Oil. Organic Transitions Campaign.:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_15140.cfm
How to Save the Coal Industry
Really interesting ideas from a Kos blogger. If coal moratorium is impossible, first step: Stop MTR.
Daily Kos
Where do we start?
Obama:
“I was just reading an article in the New York Times by Michael Pollen about food and the fact that our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it’s creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they’re contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in healthcare costs. That’s just one sector of the economy. You think about the same thing is true on transportation. The same thing is true on how we construct our buildings. The same is true across the board. ”
-Barack Obama, NPR Interview 10/23/2008
Happy reading! Post vision comments here.
A great writeup by Grist today on the failure or success of different issues across the country:
Grist Election Central 2008
The outcomes of environmentally notable races and ballot measures
http://grist.org/feature/2008/11/03/election/index3.html
Obama will officially have a representative at the Poland talks next year. Congrats to 350.org, Greenpeace Project Hotseat, and all others who worked on this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_TD4OL-15U
The Secure Green Futures ballot initiative has won in EVERY SINGLE DISTRICT it appeared, and by a total landslide margin! At least 153,252 voters said YES to Secure Green Future yesterday, netting the ballot question an astounding 81.44% of the vote!
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/election_results/ma_localquestions/#Reduce%20greenhouse%20gasses
(they’re partying this Sunday, Music and Potluck:
Sunday, November 9th, 5PM
17 Trotting Horse Drive, Lexington)
Here’s to a new energy future!
Hot clean energy gossip!
Especially to power their energy-intensive data servers, google’s nonprofit is investing in a 4 trillion dollar alternative energy construction, especially in wind and, get this, geothermal power. It is an investment to impact the Great Plains and desert Southwest regions, and would be in line with Google’s goal “to help cut 88% of fossil fuel use and 95% of carbon-dioxide emissions by 2030.”
With all this talk about a live Al Gore Webcast October 29th, now is a good chance to catch up on the climate maverick’s latest antics.
Of course, I could just link you to his website: http://www.algore.com. That might be sufficient.
