philaroneanu blog

I started reading Eric Pooley’s Climate War yesterday – a nailbiter account of how our leaders didn’t pass any significant climate legislation from 2006 to now, which roughly corresponds with the years I’ve spent pushing for just that every hour of every day. The first half of that time, we had a deadlocked Congress and feckless president, and we had no chance of getting anything through – but we did have the beginning of a broad-based movement to prevent dangerous global warming. And despite a campaign framed by a genuinely progressive story, President Obama hasn’t achieved anything close to what can be called significant progress on climate and energy, despite the smart clean energy champs he recruited to top posts.

But Obama’s hands-off plan on climate isn’t the only reason the US Senate dropped climate like a bad date. In his book, Pooley describes the incredibly complex dealings Senators like John Kerry and Lindsey Graham made with utilities, oil companies (including BP) and the nuclear industry to pull together a bill that eventually collapsed under its own weight yesterday. Democratic Majority leader Harry Reid wouldn’t even bring a climate bill to the floor for a vote.

Nobody in power, except for a notable few, was twisting any arms on climate. And therein lies the age-old lesson about democracy that we all seem to forget when our guys are in charge: change doesn’t happen without power from below. It’s not enough to chase around Senators and officials whispering in their ears. Climate deniers and the right-wing media machine deserve a lion’s share of the blame. Obama deserves our ire, too, as do the US Senators on both sides of the aisle who continue to shamelessly deflect responsibility and cast doubt on science.

But a movement doesn’t give up because a piece of legislation (weak juice at that) falls through the cracks. A movement soldiers on, gets creative and multiplies. Since 2006, the climate movement has mushroomed – faster and larger than any movement in recent memory. The Tea Party’s got nothing on the climate movement. In every corner of the country, and all around the world, there are millions of people ready for an era of prosperity and clean energy. The polling shows most people want action now, and we’re going to continue to grow that majority until it becomes a political liability.

We’ll start by showing our leaders that we’re getting to work on clean energy in our own neighborhoods, towns, cities and states on 10/10/10, the Global Work Party, and we’ll build movement leaders in every congressional district before November. Know this: we’re here to stay.

This is the most important point: nobody’s going to do it for us. We deserve inspirational leadership from our elected officials and our President, but it’s up to us to build the movement to make change inevitable. I have to believe we can do that, because failure isn’t an option.

I’m in the waning hours of a 4-day trip to Seattle. As I sit here waiting to board a red-eye back to muggy Washington DC, I thought I’d recount the awesomeness of Seattle, list-style:

1. Stayed at the Maxwell Hotel, where the theme is Pineapple, and they have COMPLIMENTARY bike rentals. I highly recommend the place - It’s right by the space needle, and I borrowed a bike every day I was here, cruising around downtown in style. The decor is…um…quirky.

2. Drove an hour into Snoqualmie-Mt. Baker State Forest and hiked to beautiful alpine lakes Talapus and Ollalie, walking on snow (!) along the way and catching a few breathtaking vistas of the Cascades. Too much for an east-coast boy like me to handle.

3. Ate tasty Greek and Cuban food with friends and family in the Berkeley-esque Fremont neighborhood, and stopped in at the Theo chocolate factory to tickle the tongue with unique chocolate delectables.

4. Went for a jog along the waterfront, stopping to ogle large metal objects at the Olympic Sculpture Park. Sunset over the Puget Sound.

5. Ate croque madame, had a bomber latte and watched Argentina rip South Korea a new one, all in the space of a couple hours at Cafe Presse in Capitol Hill. A francophile would be satisfied.

6. Met with the good folks over at Grist to talk climate. They’re not only good people, but funny and smart. Three cheers for Grist!

7. Late night drinks with the cuz at White Horse Trading Company, a bar Yelp describes as ‘cute’ and ‘filled with miscellany.’ Good times.

8. Pike Place Market. Cool, but not as cool as I want it to be - maybe I’m just being curmudgeonly?

That’s about it. 4 Full days of good coffee, good food, fun people and a gorgeous city, despite its moist reputation. I would come back anytime.

Cross-posted from 350.org:

After a string of bad news about fossil fuel companies shirking responsibility and our politicians following suit, it’s hard to believe that it’s happened again. Today, over the objections of tens of thousands of community members and over 190+ civil society groups, the World Bank board of directors voted to approve a $3.75 billion loan to South African national utility Eskom for a massive 4800 MW coal-fired power plant. it’s the largest loan of the kind made in history, and it didn’t come without a fight.

Yesterday, dozens of activists in Washington DC joined with tens of thousands of concerned people around the world calling on the World Bank to reject the dirty loan, and to prevent catastrophic climate change while dealing ensuring decent lives for the poor of South Africa. Here’s a video from the event:

350.org campaigners, along with allies in the US and South Africa, have been working tirelessly to put pressure on the World Bank and the United States — the Bank’s largest shareholder — to reject the loan and instead invest in clean, profitable renewable power and energy efficiency. In addition, the loan represents a conflict of interest, with the ANC (South Africa’s ruling party) invested in Hitachi South Africa, the manufacturer of the plant’s turbines. The ANC stands to gain $1 billion on the deal, while the poorest are facing electricity price increases of up to 200% over the next three years. While we may have lost this fight, a few pieces of news show that the US Treasury and the World Bank didn’t take the decision lightly, and will consider future coal projects more carefully:

• The US Treasury sent a letter indicating that it abstained from voting on the loan, condemning the plan, and raising “…concerns about the climate impact of the project and its incompatibility with the World Bank’s commitment to be a leader in climate change mitigation and adaptation.” http://treasury.gov/press/releases/tg635.htm

• Netherlands, UK, Italy and Norway also abstained from the vote, which is unprecedented.

• Powerful US legislators Patrick Leahy, John Kerry and Barney Frank raised concerns about the loan and other fossil fuel loans moving forward.

• Civil society groups from around the world effectively shined the spotlight on the World Bank’s poor lending practices and South Africa’s corrupt and mismanaged energy sector.