Standing together in climate disasters

Dear Friends,

Sometimes 'climate change' can seem like an abstraction. That is, until you see it in action, as we have this summer in Pakistan, in the mountains of China, in Ladakh, and in the overheated peat bogs of central Russia.

This is all part of the reality we face in our current world of 392 ppm CO2. Our main work is to try and slow down the climate crisis before it gets worse--by getting to work on climate solutions that can get us back to 350.

But working to create a safe climate future doesn't mean we don't need to try and help the victims of the climate crisis along the way. When our comrades and colleagues issue a call for assistance, we do everything we can to respond.

The recent floods in Pakistan have displaced 20 million people, and nearly a fifth of the country is literally underwater.  The scale of the suffering is difficult to fathom--and though relief efforts are underway, reports from the ground indicate that the response has been far too small and slow to provide the level of relief needed.
That's why we hope you'll take a moment to send some money off to the relief agencies and local groups dealing with the recent climate disasters:

www.350.org/disasters

All of the countries recently devastated by the floods, mudslides, and heatwaves were hugely active in the International Day of Climate Action last October 24 (check out the photos below) and they're all planning events for 10/10/10: the Global Work Party.  It's both tragic and inspiring to see the pictures of a fifth of Pakistan underwater--and in those same areas see amazing events registered 10/10/10.

In the face of a changing climate, we hope you'll send some money to the victims of climate disasters--and that you'll keep working in your community to build this movement.

Many thanks,

Bill McKibben for the 350.org Team

P.S. We're sure you've seen the heart-wrenching images of Pakistanis underwater, Russians coping with fire, and the Chinese recovering from devastating mudslides. We thought you might like to see a more hopeful set of pictures from these countries:


Pakistan
Russia
China


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350.org is an international grassroots campaign that aims to mobilize a global climate movement united by a common call to action. By spreading an understanding of the science and a shared vision for a fair policy, we will ensure that the world creates bold and equitable solutions to the climate crisis. 350.org is an independent and not-for-profit project.

What is 350?
350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Scientists measure carbon dioxide in "parts per million" (ppm), so 350ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need a different kind of PPM-a "people powered movement" that is made of people like you in every corner of the planet.

Countdown

Dear friends,

Today marks an important milestone for the 350 campaign--it's the 8th of August, and we're precisely two months away from Global Work Party on 10/10/10. 

We're calling 10/10/10 "A Day to Celebrate Climate Solutions."  I know what many of you are thinking: Celebrate? What do we have to celebrate?

It's true, with all the devastating climate news out there in the world right now -- floods in Pakistan, environmental disasters in China, heatwaves across much of the planet, and a dead climate bill in the US Senate -- it's easy to get depressed.

Yet, looking over all the events now being planned for the 10/10/10 Global Work Party, I can tell you that we're making progress. Your efforts are building a powerful movement--a movement strong enough to last us through these tough times. 

We've still got a steep mountain to climb, and with politicians trying to back away from strong climate action your work is needed now, more than ever before.

If you're not yet involved, please join thousands of people across the planet by Finding or Starting an event for 10/10/10.

Find an event
(www.350.org/map)
Start an event
(www.350.org/oct10)

Want to start an event but aren't sure quite what to do on 10/10/10? Read 350.org/workparty-ideas to help plan your 10/10/10 event.

I know that organizing an event is a big thing to ask of you--much harder than clicking a petition or emailing a politician. But organizing with our friends to transform our communities is fun too--and it's what it's going to take to make real progress.

We know that without organizing, we won't be able to build a movement large enough to push our politicians to take real climate action. A strong and vibrant climate movement will create the political space for our champions to lead; take-on the big polluters and bought-off politicians who are blocking progress; and help us implement innovative climate solutions from the ground up.

And the best part? Getting to work building this movement is easier than you think. 

All across the planet right now, people like you are taking a few hours out of their week to start planning a community event for 10/10/10. They're figuring out that organizing a Work Party is just like organizing a normal party, you just need to:
  • Pick the time and the place
  • Choose some activities (try figuring out how to cut your emissions 10% in 2010--think planting trees, installing efficient lightbulbs, and fixing up bikes.  For more ideas, click here.)
  • Plan some entertainment (a local band, some engaging speakers, or an art project--like painting a mural about climate solutions.)
  • Invite the person you're trying to impress (invite that girl or guy you think is cute, but also be sure to invite your local politicians and tell them to "Get to work!")
  • And make sure to take photos (that's how we'll show the world all our good work, and stitch together a powerful global mosaic of action.)
Your event will be united with thousands of other events around the world. You'll also be supported by some great organizations, like our allies at 10:10, Greenpeace, and many others who have signed on to make the day a big success.

Together, we'll send a powerful signal to our world leaders: we're getting to work, what about you?

With so much at stake, it's not surprising that the allies of the big polluters are trying to convince the public that progress is impossible, that we'll never see government action on climate change. But we know that it's not a lack of technology or science or good policy that's holding back progress: it's a lack of political will.

With your help, we'll create that political will from the ground up. It's the work that's worth doing, and it is the work that will really make a difference -- if we stand up and do it together.

Please join thousands of people across the planet by signing up an event for 10/10/10 today: http://www.350.org/oct10

Thank you,

Jamie Henn for the 350.org Team
P.S. Let the world know: 10/10/10 is going to be HUGE, and the two month countdown is on.  Click here to share it on Facebook and click here to share it on Twitter.


You should join us on Facebook by becoming a fan of our page at facebook.com/350org and follow us on twitter by visiting twitter.com/350

To join our list (maybe a friend forwarded you this e-mail) visit www.350.org/signup

350.org needs your help! To support our work, donate securely online at 350.org/donate

You are subscribed to this list as shersteve@gmail.com. Click here to unsubscribe


350.org is an international grassroots campaign that aims to mobilize a global climate movement united by a common call to action. By spreading an understanding of the science and a shared vision for a fair policy, we will ensure that the world creates bold and equitable solutions to the climate crisis. 350.org is an independent and not-for-profit project.

What is 350?
350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Scientists measure carbon dioxide in "parts per million" (ppm), so 350ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need a different kind of PPM-a "people powered movement" that is made of people like you in every corner of the planet.

Patriot Place completes new 525-kilowatt solar power system

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:


via Wicked Local Franklin News RSS by Heather McCarron/STAFF WRITER on 8/5/10

Pat Place solar
Red, white and blue aren't the only colors that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft cares about.

The chairman and CEO of The Kraft Group is also very much into green, and he demonstrated that in a big way with this week's completion of a solar power system that will generate about 525 kilowatts of clean, renewable energy at Patriot Place.

At a ceremony overlooking Gillette Stadium and The Hall at Patriot Place on Monday, Kraft joined executives with Constellation Energy, Evergreen Solar Inc. to highlight the project at Patriot Place, the Kraft Group's shopping, dining and entertainment destination next to the stadium on Rte. 1.

"This is good business and the greening of our environment is important for our children and grandchildren," said Kraft.

The new system is only the latest of the green technologies and practices in place at Patriot Place, which was built using sustainable design practices that include low-emitting construction materials and white roofs to facilitate heat island reduction.

The complex also has an on-site wastewater re-use system that, according to publicity materials, saves millions of gallons of water annually, in addition to solar-powered trash bins that reduce waste volume and energy consumption.

"This project is a cornerstone of Patriot Place's sustainability initiatives and we are proud that its visibility will help promote practical and cost-effective commercial applications of solar power," said Jim Nolan, Sr. VP of Finance, Administration and Operations for Gillette Stadium/Patriot Place.

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said he is impressed with the use of green technology and the installation of the new solar grid at Patriot Place.

"When someone of (Robert Kraft's) stature as a business leader and promoter of economic development shows you that the environmental movement can be not just a chore, but a source of economic strength and growth, I hope others pay attention," said Frank.

Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles noted that, through the leadership of Gov. Deval Patrick and efforts such as those at Patriot Place, the state is on track "for a 20-fold increase in solar power over a four-year period."

"This new 525-kilowatt array at Patriot Place is another chapter in the Commonwealth's solar success story," he said. "I congratulate Patriot Place, Constellation Energy and Evergreen Solar for a project that will have a huge public profile throughout football season and beyond."  

Constellation Energy's Projects & Services group, a subsidiary, began work on installing the photovoltaic array last November.

According to a release from The Kraft Group, the array is already supplying about 30 percent of the power to the shopping center, spanning the rooftops of seven buildings — including The Hall at Patriot Place.

The grid includes 2,556 solar panels from Evergreen Solar that, it is estimated, will generate more than 625,000 kilowatt hours of power each year. According to estimates from Constellation Energy's Projects & Services Group, it will create more than 12 million kilowatt hours of power over 20 years and will prevent more than 8,800 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere — equivalent to taking more than 1,600 passenger vehicles from the road for a year.

Things you can do from here:

Get mad. Then get busy

Dear friends,

350.org co-founder Bill McKibben just published a provocative piece on how to change the dynamics of the climate debate in our country.  It's spreading like wildfire around the internet, and I wanted to make sure 350.org supporters had a chance to read it.

Please pass it on to anyone who is losing faith--and everyone who is wondering how to get to work on the greatest challenge humanity now faces.  And if you haven't yet gotten involved with 350.org's big day of action on 10/10/10, now's the time: find an event near you or start your own.
As Bill says, "the time has come to get mad, and then to get busy."

Onwards,

May Boeve for the 350.org Team
P.S. Can you take a few seconds to get Bill's article in front of more people? Share it on Facebook by clicking here, or on Twitter by clicking here.

We're Hot as Hell and We're Not Going to Take It Any More
Three Steps to Establish a Politics of Global Warming
By Bil McKibben (Cross Posted from TomDispatch.com)

Try to fit these facts together:
  • According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the planet has just come through the warmest decade, the warmest 12 months, the warmest six months, and the warmest April, May, and June on record.
  •  A "staggering" new study from Canadian researchers has shown that warmer seawater has reduced phytoplankton, the base of the marine food chain, by 40% since 1950.
  • Nine nations have so far set their all-time temperature records in 2010, including Russia (111 degrees), Niger (118), Sudan (121), Saudi Arabia and Iraq (126 apiece), and Pakistan, which also set the new all-time Asia record in May: a hair under 130 degrees. I can turn my oven to 130 degrees.
  • And then, in late July, the U.S. Senate decided to do exactly nothing about climate change. They didn't do less than they could have -- they did nothing, preserving a perfect two-decade bipartisan record of no action. Senate majority leader Harry Reid decided not even to schedule a vote on legislation that would have capped carbon emissions.
I wrote the first book for a general audience on global warming back in 1989, and I've spent the subsequent 21 years working on the issue. I'm a mild-mannered guy, a Methodist Sunday School teacher. Not quick to anger. So what I want to say is: this is fucked up. The time has come to get mad, and then to get busy.

For many years, the lobbying fight for climate legislation on Capitol Hill has been led by a collection of the most corporate and moderate environmental groups, outfits like the Environmental Defense Fund. We owe them a great debt, and not just for their hard work. We owe them a debt because they did everything the way you're supposed to: they wore nice clothes, lobbied tirelessly, and compromised at every turn.

By the time they were done, they had a bill that only capped carbon emissions from electric utilities (not factories or cars) and was so laden with gifts for industry that if you listened closely you could actually hear the oinking. They bent over backwards like Soviet gymnasts.  Senator John Kerry, the legislator they worked most closely with, issued this rallying cry as the final negotiations began: "We believe we have compromised significantly, and we're prepared to compromise further."


And even that was not enough.  They were left out to dry by everyone -- not just Reid, not just the Republicans. Even President Obama wouldn't lend a hand, investing not a penny of his political capital in the fight.

The result: total defeat, no moral victories.


Now What?
So now we know what we didn't before: making nice doesn't work. It was worth a try, and I'm completely serious when I say I'm grateful they made the effort, but it didn't even come close to working. So we better try something else.

Step one involves actually talking about global warming.  For years now, the accepted wisdom in the best green circles was: talk about anything else -- energy independence, oil security, beating the Chinese to renewable technology. I was at a session convened by the White House early in the Obama administration where some polling guru solemnly explained that "green jobs" polled better than "cutting carbon."

No, really?  In the end, though, all these focus-group favorites are secondary.  The task at hand is keeping the planet from melting. We need everyone -- beginning with the president -- to start explaining that basic fact at every turn.

It is the heat, and also the humidity.  Since warm air holds more water than cold, the atmosphere is about 5% moister than it was 40 years ago, which explains the freak downpours that seem to happen someplace on this continent every few days.

It is the carbon -- that's why the seas are turning acid, a point Obama could have made with ease while standing on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. "It's bad that it's black out there," he might have said, "but even if that oil had made it safely ashore and been burned in our cars, it would still be wrecking the oceans." Energy independence is nice, but you need a planet to be energy independent on.

Mysteriously enough, this seems to be a particularly hard point for smart people to grasp. Even in the wake of the disastrous Senate non-vote, the Nature Conservancy's climate expert told New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, "We have to take climate change out of the atmosphere, bring it down to earth, and show how it matters in people's everyday lives." Translation: ordinary average people can't possibly recognize the real stakes here, so let's put it in language they can understand, which is about their most immediate interests. It's both untrue, as I'll show below, and incredibly patronizing. It is, however, exactly what we've been doing for a decade and clearly, It Does Not Work.

Step two, we have to ask for what we actually need, not what we calculate we might possibly be able to get. If we're going to slow global warming in the very short time available to us, then we don't actually need an incredibly complicated legislative scheme that gives door prizes to every interested industry and turns the whole operation over to Goldman Sachs to run.  We need a stiff price on carbon, set by the scientific understanding that we can't still be burning black rocks a couple of decades hence. That undoubtedly means upending the future business plans of Exxon and BP, Peabody Coal and Duke Energy, not to speak of everyone else who's made a fortune by treating the atmosphere as an open sewer for the byproducts of their main business.

Instead they should pay through the nose for that sewer, and here's the crucial thing: most of the money raised in the process should be returned directly to American pockets. The monthly check sent to Americans would help fortify us against the rise in energy costs, and we'd still be getting the price signal at the pump to stop driving that SUV and start insulating the house. We also need to make real federal investments in energy research and development, to help drive down the price of alternatives -- the Breakthrough Institute points out, quite rightly, that we're crazy to spend more of our tax dollars on research into new drone aircraft and Mars orbiters than we do on photovoltaics.

Yes, these things are politically hard, but they're not impossible. A politician who really cared could certainly use, say, the platform offered by the White House to sell a plan that taxed BP and actually gave the money to ordinary Americans. (So far they haven't even used the platform offered by the White House to reinstall the rooftop solar panels that Jimmy Carter put there in the 1970s and Ronald Reagan took down in his term.)
Asking for what you need doesn't mean you'll get all of it.  Compromise still happens. But as David Brower, the greatest environmentalist of the late twentieth century, explained amid the fight to save the Grand Canyon: "We are to hold fast to what we believe is right, fight for it, and find allies and adduce all possible arguments for our cause. If we cannot find enough vigor in us or them to win, then let someone else propose the compromise. We thereupon work hard to coax it our way. We become a nucleus around which the strongest force can build and function."

Which leads to the third step in this process. If we're going to get any of this done, we're going to need a movement, the one thing we haven't had. For 20 years environmentalists have operated on the notion that we'd get action if we simply had scientists explain to politicians and CEOs that our current ways were ending the Holocene, the current geological epoch. That turns out, quite conclusively, not to work. We need to be able to explain that their current ways will end something they actually care about, i.e. their careers. And since we'll never have the cash to compete with Exxon, we better work in the currencies we can muster: bodies, spirit, passion.


Movement Time
As Tom Friedman put it in a strong column the day after the Senate punt, the problem was that the public "never got mobilized." Is it possible to get people out in the streets demanding action about climate change? Last year, with almost no money, our scruffy little outfit, 350.org, managed to organize what Foreign Policy called  the "largest ever coordinated global rally of any kind" on any issue -- 5,200 demonstrations in 181 countries, 2,000 of them in the U.S.A.

People were rallying not just about climate change, but around a remarkably wonky scientific data point, 350 parts per million carbon dioxide, which NASA's James Hansen and his colleagues have demonstrated is the most we can have in the atmosphere if we want a planet "similar to the one on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted." Which, come to think of it, we do. And the "we," in this case, was not rich white folks. If you look at the 25,000 pictures in our Flickr account, you'll see that most of them were poor, black, brown, Asian, and young -- because that's what most of the world is. No need for vice-presidents of big conservation groups to patronize them: shrimpers in Louisiana and women in burqas and priests in Orthodox churches and slumdwellers in Mombasa turned out to be completely capable of understanding the threat to the future.

Those demonstrations were just a start (one we should have made long ago). We're following up in October -- on 10-10-10 -- with a Global Work Party. All around the country and the world people will be putting up solar panels and digging community gardens and laying out bike paths. Not because we can stop climate change one bike path at a time, but because we need to make a sharp political point to our leaders: we're getting to work, what about you?

We need to shame them, starting now. And we need everyone working together. This movement is starting to emerge on many fronts. In September, for instance, opponents of mountaintop removal are converging on DC to demand an end to the coal trade. That same month, Tim DeChristopher goes on trial in Salt Lake City for monkey-wrenching oil and gas auctions by submitting phony bids.  (Naomi Klein and Terry Tempest Williams have called for folks to gather at the courthouse.)

The big environmental groups are starting to wake up, too.  The Sierra Club has a dynamic new leader, Mike Brune, who's working hard with stalwarts like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. (Note to enviro groups: working together is fun and useful). Churches are getting involved, as well as mosques and synagogues. Kids are leading the fight, all over the world -- they have to live on this planet for another 70 years or so, and they have every right to be pissed off.


But no one will come out to fight for watered down and weak legislation.  That's not how it works. You don't get a movement unless you take the other two steps I've described.

And in any event it won't work overnight.  We're not going to get the Senate to act next week, or maybe even next year. It took a decade after the Montgomery bus boycott to get the Voting Rights Act. But if there hadn't been a movement, then the Voting Rights Act would have passed in… never. We may need to get arrested.  We definitely need art, and music, and disciplined, nonviolent, but very real anger.

Mostly, we need to tell the truth, resolutely and constantly. Fossil fuel is wrecking the one earth we've got. It's not going to go away because we ask politely. If we want a world that works, we're going to have to raise our voices.


Bill McKibben is founder of 350.org and the author, most recently, of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. Earlier this year the Boston Globe called him "probably the country's leading environmentalist" and Time described him as "the planet's best green journalist." He's a scholar in residence at Middlebury College.


You should join us on Facebook by becoming a fan of our page at facebook.com/350org and follow us on twitter by visiting twitter.com/350

To join our list (maybe a friend forwarded you this e-mail) visit www.350.org/signup

350.org needs your help! To support our work, donate securely online at 350.org/donate

You are subscribed to this list as shersteve@gmail.com. Click here to unsubscribe


350.org is an international grassroots campaign that aims to mobilize a global climate movement united by a common call to action. By spreading an understanding of the science and a shared vision for a fair policy, we will ensure that the world creates bold and equitable solutions to the climate crisis. 350.org is an independent and not-for-profit project.

What is 350?
350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Scientists measure carbon dioxide in "parts per million" (ppm), so 350ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need a different kind of PPM-a "people powered movement" that is made of people like you in every corner of the planet.