Dear friends,
The White House refused to accept our offer of a free solar panel installation on 10/10/10.
That's why we need to lead by example, and show our leaders how work gets done.
Can you start or join an event in your community on 10/10/10?
I just walked out of a disappointing meeting with the White House: they refused to accept the Carter solar panel we came to Washington to deliver and said that they would continue their "deliberative process" to discuss putting solar panels back on the White House roof.
Well, we're done deliberating. When Pakistan is under water, Russia is on fire, and millions of people are ready for clean energy jobs, it's not time to deliberate: it's time to get to work.
Today marks the one month countdown to the 10/10/10 Global Work Party. Will you help us celebrate by signing up to register or attend an event today?
We entered this morning's meeting buoyed by the over 40,000 of you who signed our letter requesting President Obama to make the retrofit. We were equally heartened by the hundreds of work parties that have been registered since our road trip began on Tuesday. And we were humbled by reports of the amazing work being planned in places like Zimbabwe, where a group of students will be installing solar panels on the roof of a rural hospital for 10/10/10.
I'm also incredibly proud of the three students from Unity College who stood right up to the officials we met with and explained to them that if they wanted to communicate about the greening of the government they should do something in a place where people pay attention.
This week's road trip got incredible media coverage in places like Newsweek, the Washington Post, USA Today, and more. Thousands of you helped spread the word on Facebook and Twitter. Hundreds of you signed up new work parties to show how you're leading this movement for climate solutions. Because in the end, that's what it is going to take: a movement.
Your efforts are building incredible momentum. In the last month, big partners like Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club, and the World Council of Churches have joined the 10:10 Campaign and 350.org in planning for 10/10/10. The day will be a moment to bring our entire movement together and show our so-called leaders what real leadership looks like.
As for the Carter solar panel, it's going to stay in Washington for now, ready for President Obama to come take it home. And as for me, I'm going to head home myself for a few days of rest before hitting the road again to drum up support for 10/10/10.
Your hard work means the world to us, let's keep up the fight.
Onwards,
Bill McKibben
PS: This week was a big week for our online growth too -- we're super close to 100,00 supporters on Facebook. Push us over the edge: Click here to invite your facebook friends to join you.
You should join 350.org 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.
Just left a meeting with the White House...
Community Solar - A New Model for Local Ownership?
Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:
via Everything from the New Rules Project by jfarrell on 9/9/10
A new report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), Community Solar Power: Obstacles and Opportunities, examines nine community solar projects, the policies that made them possible, and the (substantial) barriers that remain. Successful community solar power projects in Colorado, Maryland, and North Carolina are knocking down the price of residential-scale solar photovoltaics (PV) by 25% and giving opportunities to renters and people with shady roofs a chance to go solar.
read more
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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
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.
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
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.
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.
(www.350.org/map)
(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:
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.
- 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.)
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
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.
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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:
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. ![]()
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.
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.
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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.
The best way to solve the climate crisis?
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Earth Hour: 8:30 PM - 9:30 PM
8:30 to 9:30pm local time, hundreds of millions of people around the world will switch off their lights and participate in Earth Hour, the largest climate awareness event ever held. As climate change will effect people on every continent, we think a united, global call for action to address the problem is needed.
Quote from the Google Blog here
"composting enriches soil and reduces the need for water, fertilizers, and pesticides"
Living in the country, I have the luxury of a backyard compost pile. Right now it’s overflowing with acrid slop, but eventually it will yield dark, rich soil nutrients for the garden. If my potato peels, leftover rice, and parsley stems had been buried in a landfill, deprived of sun or air, those same scraps would have given rise to methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.Read the full article in the Boston Globe Magazine section here
Nationwide, there’s a lot of potential in all that slop. In 2008, Americans generated nearly 32 million tons of food waste, and less than 3 percent of that was composted, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Do you compost?
Letter from Bill McKibben: Actions underway!
Dear Friends,
It's been a week since we sent you our plan for how to strengthen our campaigning in 2010--a plan that's based on ideas sent in by thousands of people from around the world.
I've spent that week on the move: I've given big talks in Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Texas, New Mexico, and California in the United States; now I'm in Oslo, Norway. I've talked with colleagues in South America, Africa, and Asia; the 350.org team has checked in with friends and partners all around the world.
And what we're hearing is: real excitement about everything, especially the Global Work Party planned for 10/10/10. In fact--and this goes way beyond our wildest hopes--there are already 431 actions scheduled for that day. It's hard not to be impressed with the diversity and creativity of the plans that are streaming in: everything from a "Green Sneakers" team going door-to-door to educate their community about energy efficiency retrofits, to the installation of a new wind turbine in a Kenyan village--and hundreds and hundreds more all over the world. Some people are even getting an early start--check out this picture that just arrived yesterday from a tree planting work party in the Philippines.
I've spent that week on the move: I've given big talks in Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Texas, New Mexico, and California in the United States; now I'm in Oslo, Norway. I've talked with colleagues in South America, Africa, and Asia; the 350.org team has checked in with friends and partners all around the world.
And what we're hearing is: real excitement about everything, especially the Global Work Party planned for 10/10/10. In fact--and this goes way beyond our wildest hopes--there are already 431 actions scheduled for that day. It's hard not to be impressed with the diversity and creativity of the plans that are streaming in: everything from a "Green Sneakers" team going door-to-door to educate their community about energy efficiency retrofits, to the installation of a new wind turbine in a Kenyan village--and hundreds and hundreds more all over the world. Some people are even getting an early start--check out this picture that just arrived yesterday from a tree planting work party in the Philippines.
431 actions in a week blew us away--but we need to keep this momentum going. Can you help us break the 500 mark by the end of the week and show the world that we are truly ready to get to work?
http://www.350.org/oct10
You can register right here to organize a work party in your community--you don't need to have all the plans sorted out yet (though we've got a great list of ideas here) and you can fill in the gaps later. And you don't need to have ever done anything like this before--the team at 350.org will provide resources, how-to guides, and more to make sure anyone can pull off a successful climate solutions project in their community.
My sense from talking to so many people is, everyone understands the underlying message. Which is not that we're going to solve climate change one solar panel at a time. Instead, it's that by getting to work in our communities, we can demand that our so-called leaders get to work in parliaments, palaces, and congresses the world over. "If I can get up on the school roof and put in solar panels," one man told me in Texas, "then our US Senators can surely do the work they're paid to do."
But people are focusing not just on the Work but on the Party too. They know that doing things like this together can be the truest kind of fun, the kind that leaves you feeling good at the end of the day. Tired, but good. And they're understanding the Global too, figuring out the power that comes from doing the same thing as people all over the world at the same time. Laying out a bike path in your town, and knowing that people are doing the same thing on five other continents--it reminds us all that our hopes for the future are pretty much the same.
Not all the week's news has been good, of course. Researchers reported on Monday that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere climbed yet again last year1, meaning we have that much less time to get turned around and heading back towards 350. But there's only one way to do it, and that's together.
431 actions already scheduled means the ideas so many of you sent us were the right ones--that you figured out how to capture people's imagination. Now let's make it really count.
Onwards,
http://www.350.org/oct10
You can register right here to organize a work party in your community--you don't need to have all the plans sorted out yet (though we've got a great list of ideas here) and you can fill in the gaps later. And you don't need to have ever done anything like this before--the team at 350.org will provide resources, how-to guides, and more to make sure anyone can pull off a successful climate solutions project in their community.
My sense from talking to so many people is, everyone understands the underlying message. Which is not that we're going to solve climate change one solar panel at a time. Instead, it's that by getting to work in our communities, we can demand that our so-called leaders get to work in parliaments, palaces, and congresses the world over. "If I can get up on the school roof and put in solar panels," one man told me in Texas, "then our US Senators can surely do the work they're paid to do."
But people are focusing not just on the Work but on the Party too. They know that doing things like this together can be the truest kind of fun, the kind that leaves you feeling good at the end of the day. Tired, but good. And they're understanding the Global too, figuring out the power that comes from doing the same thing as people all over the world at the same time. Laying out a bike path in your town, and knowing that people are doing the same thing on five other continents--it reminds us all that our hopes for the future are pretty much the same.
Not all the week's news has been good, of course. Researchers reported on Monday that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere climbed yet again last year1, meaning we have that much less time to get turned around and heading back towards 350. But there's only one way to do it, and that's together.
431 actions already scheduled means the ideas so many of you sent us were the right ones--that you figured out how to capture people's imagination. Now let's make it really count.
Onwards,
Bill McKibben and the 350.org Team
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