On Movement Transformation via It's Getting Hot In Here
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Advice, fwiw via It's Getting Hot In Here
I do fall easily into using religious language. It comes natural, it’s the way I was raised.
But seriously, the advice not to put one’s faith in people, that’s just good sense all day long. No shared ideology or affiliation should encourage us to turn off our skills of critical observation when dealing with others of our kind. Trust the people you have a reason to trust and be on the lookout for false friends.
I have friends who’ve held my head and hands and brought me tea when I was so sick I just wanted to be put out of my misery. I trust them. I have friends and family who helped me when I didn’t know where my rent or grocery money was coming from. I trust them. Settled and done.
Then there are people who’ve argued and worked and fought for the... Stupidest. Problem. Ever. via It's Getting Hot In Here
At some point, I’m going to turn this into a longer and better linked post, but this has got to be said. Right now. Again.
The worst thing, the most depressing thing, about global warming, isn’t the melting ice cap or the short time horizon. It certainly isn’t the current state of our technological advancement or knowledge, which is largely sufficient to the problem. It’s the stupidity, inactivity, timidity, shortsightedness and fecklessness of humanity’s ruling elites. Really. That’s why I think the proper way to refer to it is as a suicide pact, because it’s both deliberate and avoidable.
Consider that we’ve got at present tremendous financial liquidity. The environmentally unsustainable suburbs are emptying out like mad due to wave upon... Don’t Miss Cascade POWER SHIFT: Mobilizing Youth for Climate Justice! via It's Getting Hot In Here
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Bush Administration Proposes $10 Billion Christmas Present From Joe Taxpayer to Big Oil via It's Getting Hot In Here
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Yuletide Gifts from Washington D.C.: Reflections on a Frustrating Week of Federal Energy, Climate Politics via It's Getting Hot In Here
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BaliBuzz: Youth Statement to High-Level Plenary in Bali: “This is our last chance” via It's Getting Hot In Here
Yesterday, the International Youth delegations read a powerful statement to the high-level plenary in at the climate conference in Bali. Giving the UN climate conference’s closing statement, it was a defining moment. The incredble speakers were Anna Keenan from Australia, Karmila Parakkasi from Indonesia, Whit Jones from SustainUS in the United States, and Bambou Chieppa (a 13-year old girl). At 4 minutes, the statement was powerful and concise — and called for bold action.
I helped coordinate the drafting of the statement, and it was an amazing experience. Written together by the Indonesian, Japanese, American, Australian, Canadian, Belgian, and French youth delegations, it was a true international collaboration. I am so proud of the inclusive and consensus process we... BaliBuzz: U.S. Finally Dragged Kicking And Screaming into UN Climate Deal via It's Getting Hot In Here
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Keeping Up the Power Shift: Senate Set to Take Second Stab at Energy Bill via It's Getting Hot In Here
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Keeping Up the Power Shift: Take Action on the Senate Energy Bill This Weekend! via It's Getting Hot In Here
(From Timothy DHT:)
So the Senate blocked the Energy bill.
That’s the Update. Here’s the Action.
We have to prevent the Senate energy bill from being weakened during negotiations this weekend. If it is and the Senate passes it, it will force reconciliation with the House bill, which will cause weakening of the final package. There is a very outside chance that we can muster enough seats in the Senate to override the veto, but even if they don’t, a final vote will give everyone a clear picture of where their Senators stand - which is crucial as we move into ‘08 re-elections.
I was recently alerted that the Capitol Hill switchboard will open all weekend to receive your calls - and those from thousands of youth climate leaders nationwide. I am asking you to call...
Keeping Up the Power Shift: Act Now to Help Pass Historic Clean Energy Bill via It's Getting Hot In Here
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Keeping Up the Power Shift: Time to Ask Congress for a Down Payment on the Future via It's Getting Hot In Here
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Billy Parish Tells Congress “This Young Generation is Ready to Carry Out a Historic Power Shift” via It's Getting Hot In Here
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NWF Campaign Targets “Final 50″ House Lawmakers to Sponsor Global Warming Bills via It's Getting Hot In Here
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Time To Step Up the Power Shift: Legislative Shenanigans Underway on Congressional Energy Bill via It's Getting Hot In Here
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Norway draws the line: Cars simply are not “Green” via It's Getting Hot In Here
We all know that we are surrounded by corporate greenwashing - but do we realize the extent we fall prey to it even as conscious, sincere environmentalists? The term “green” is one of the most popular adjectives in modern advertising today to the point where it has become largely meaningless. But even the most conscious of us still fall prey to using the term in a very casual, relative sense that reinforces the memes of greenwashing.
We casually say something is “Green” simply because it’s slighter more environmentally friendly than it’s peer, or as compared the “normal” or “standard” reference point of total environmental disregard. But we should be careful on our language - and re-frame the debate. Most things described as...
World to bet the farm on carbon trading? via It's Getting Hot In Here
It’s one thing for a campus to claim its gone carbon “neutral” solely by buying carbon offsets, but no one would even suggest that it would make sense for all of the emissions “reductions” of the entire industrialized world to actually just be projects like co2 sucking tree plantations located in the developing world.
Anyone with a solid grasp of climate science and international politics knows that we need to make major real reductions in fossil fuel use here at home; the rich shouldn’t just be able to pay the poor to reduce carbon use. Right?!?
Well apparently Yvo de Boer, leader of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the entity responsible for the Kyoto Protocol feels otherwise. In a recent interview with the BBC Boer stated flatly that...
3 weeks until the Convergences for Climate Action! via It's Getting Hot In Here
COME CO-CREATE AN ALTERNATIVE TO AN ENERGY-DEPENDENT WORLD!
In less than one month, from August 8-14th, regional North American Convergences for Climate Action will bring hundreds of social justice and environmental activists together to fight the fossil fuel empire and create truly sustainable, bio-regionally appropriate and community-based responses to climate change. The events on the West Coast and in the Southeast are modeled after the inspiring 2006 Climate Camp in the UK, which will reemerge this year at Heathrow Airport from August 14th-21st.
Part networking and activist skills training, part community sustainability demonstration site, the Convergences aim to invigorate the Climate Movement by pulling together communities of resistance. We aim to inject an anti-oppression,... Obama and Clinton Need to Do Better via It's Getting Hot In Here
MoveOn.Org just held a straw poll on climate change, and John Edwards won by a landslide. Over 100,000 voted based on short video responses to questions asked by MoveOn members, and Edwards got 33%, more than the next two candidates (Kucinich and Obama) combined. See the press release here.
I like Edwards, partly because I think he has the best climate plan of the top-tier candidates, but it’s disheartening that the front-runners, Obama and Clinton, haven’t offered a plan remotely to the scale of the problem.
Dan Carol, a co-founder of the Apollo Alliance, wrote a brilliant open letter in the Huffington Post to Obama urging him to match his bold rhetoric with a bold plan:
My gut is that the answer lies in marrying a call to national service around energy efficiency and...
Video Heat on Presidential Candidates via It's Getting Hot In Here
Check out this awesome new video message to the presidential candidates from Indiana University law student Jay Heeter. Jay points out that global warming is the number one issue facing young people and asks the candidates for their plans to cut carbon emissions 80% by 2050....
MoveOn’s new Town Hall: Climate via It's Getting Hot In Here
I know that a number of us at It’s Getting Hot in Here have talked about a candidate debate about climate…well, here is our chance. MoveOn, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and the Campaign for America’s Future have partnered to setup a Virtual Town Hall Meeting on Climate! They are voting on which candidates to invite and are even soliciting video questions from members to ask the candidates. So if you haven’t made a No More Hot Air video yet…now is the time . I would love for there to be a youth question at the Town Hall from a member of the It’s Getting Hot in Here community. So check it out!
I am including part of their email, so you can get a sense of how serious they are about this issue. With 3.3 million members, this shows the... Coal-to-Liquids: Energy Security (without the security part) via It's Getting Hot In Here
We spend a lot of time here at It’s Getting Hot In Here talking about energy independence and clean energy. We think producing energy locally is an important part of reducing our carbon dioxide emissions. Energy efficiency, wind, solar and other sources of energy can and are being used in the US effectively and economically. Once in a while something comes along under the banner of “energy independence” that just doesn’t sound right. Increasing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) was one of those. The newest and baddest is coal-to-liquids.
A process developed in the 1920s by German researchers Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch, it was used by the war machine in Nazi Germany and Japan during WWII to try and get around the problem of petroleum...
Principles into Practice via It's Getting Hot In Here
I have been thinking about what the youth climate movement’s Statement of Principles might look like if we were to start to put them into practice. Here are some thoughts:
We call on our leaders to follow these guiding principles as they make decisions that will determine our future:
A just climate policy must be scientifically based – The US must enact mandatory caps on greenhouse gas pollution that ensures the peak and decline of global carbon emissions before 2015 towards a minimum of 80% emissions reductions below 1990 levels before mid-century in order to avoid a climate catastrophe.
In Practice: Pass national climate legislation. In my opinion, passing the Safe Climate Act in the U.S. House and the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act in the U.S. Senate are...
Meet the Candidates - Barack Obama via It's Getting Hot In Here
This is the fourteenth in a series of posts outlining where the 2008 presidential candidates stand on climate and energy issues. The information was culled from resources developed by Courtney Fryxell and the League of Conservation Voters. You can get additional information on the candidates at HeatIsOn.org.
We will be updating this info on a regular basis and I would love to know what you think about these posts and about the candidates. Its clear that the 2008 presidential will be the most important on climate and environmental issues in decades. Your vote can help make the difference in electing a president who will take bold and just action to reduce global warming and one who will continue the status quo.
SENATOR BARACK OBAMA D-IL
Website: www.barackobama.com
Energy Plan:...