philaroneanu

What's Next for the Climate Movement?

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:14:07 -0400

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.

http://greatpowerrace.org

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:34:32 -0400

http://greatpowerrace.org

Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek Ballad of the Black Gold

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:54:26 -0400

Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek Ballad of the Black Gold

Things I did in Seattle

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 22:40:20 -0400

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:

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.
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.
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.
Went for a jog along the waterfront, stopping to ogle large metal objects at the Olympic Sculpture Park. Sunset over the Puget Sound.
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.
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!
Late night drinks with the cuz at White Horse Trading Company, a bar Yelp describes as ‘cute’ and ‘filled with miscellany.’ Good times.
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.

Video

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:21:18 -0400

March to the White House: Obama's Crude Awakening

Tue, 11 May 2010 17:00:44 -0400

photo: Chris Eichler

I just got back to the 350 office here in Washington DC, and my feet are soaked. It’s been drizzling all morning, and me feet got soaked — but the rain didn’t dampen the spirits of the more than 100 concerned DC, Virginia and Maryland residents who showed up for a march from the Department of the Interior to the White House.

We carried a banner that read “OBAMA: THIS IS YOUR CRUDE AWAKENING” that traveled all the way from New Orleans, where gulf coast residents wrote messages to the President and signed the banner. Their messages about their families, favorite places to fish and lie on the beach and the jobs they’re losing becuase of the oil disaster were incredibly powerful, and I felt their words resonate as we rallied.

We marched to the White House to send Obama a message that fossil fuels are not worth the cost in lives and livelihoods, and that this moment must be a crude awakening for our politicians: It’s time for President Obama to lead on clean energy, to end offshore drilling and to solve the climate crisis.

We have the opportunity to create clean, secure jobs, protect wildlife, our coasts, and prevent disasters like this one from ever happening again. But we can’t do it by subsidizing fossil fuels or through giveaways to oil, gas and coal companies. BP made $6 billion in profits in the first quarter of this year alone, and yet they didn’t spend $500,000 on a safety valve that could have stopped the gusher almost as soon as it happened. Obama’s Department of the Interior approved the rig without demanding any proof that it would be safe — BP’s disaster preparedness plan was “Don’t have a disaster.”

This is a moment when our politicians need to wake up and call the gulf oil disaster what it is: a terrible example of what fossil fuels are doing to our planet. But it’s even more. It’s an opporunity to help the people of the gulf coast and the rest of the world switch to clean, safe energy and away from destructive, polluting fossil fuels. Anything less would be cowardly and irresponsible.

We’re Webby award nominees! Please vote for 350.org and...

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:03:47 -0400

We’re Webby award nominees! Please vote for 350.org and Free Range Studios by going here: http://www.freerange.com/webby.html

via information is beautiful

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:43:40 -0400

via information is beautiful

South Africa Dirty Loan Approved

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:09:28 -0400

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.

gel-lit night shots

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 10:06:49 -0400

Kite festival on the Mall.

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:27:12 -0400

Kite festival on the Mall.

Photo

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:04:42 -0500

Great visualization from Infrastructurist

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:34:33 -0500

Great visualization from Infrastructurist

Leading peek-a-boo-ologists agree: Global Warming is a myth.

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:01:39 -0500

Leading peek-a-boo-ologists agree: Global Warming is a myth.

"Karaoke-related killings are not limited to the Philippines. In the past two years alone, a..."

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:11:00 -0500

“Karaoke-related killings are not limited to the Philippines. In the past two years alone, a Malaysian man was fatally stabbed for hogging the microphone at a bar and a Thai man killed eight of his neighbors in a rage after they sang John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.””

- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/world/asia/07karaoke.html?em

This is how you slow-jam fiscal policy.

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:33:10 -0500

This is how you slow-jam fiscal policy.

Salvador Dali…and a Rhino

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:54:36 -0500

Salvador Dali…and a Rhino

Oh shit!

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:34:46 -0500

Oh shit!

Telling our story.

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:13:00 -0500

cross-posted from itsgettinghotinhere.org

Obama graced the House chamber yesterday with a speech reminiscent of his candidacy rather than his presidency. That’s a good thing, because his so-called base needed a reminder that he’s in Washington not just to wade knee-deep into the political swamp of DC, but to affect change from inside out. He wasted no time before really digging into Congress:

To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills. And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that sixty votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well.

I sincerely hope congress takes at least this piece to to heart, because for clean energy advocates, the rest of the speech was a mixed bag. He bulked up his language on nuclear, coal and offshore drilling, a questionable political move in support of questionable technologies, while at the same time rightly highlighting clean energy legislation as a jobs-creator.

As the cap and trade bill, mired in a bi-partisan swiss-cheese factory, limps towards the finish line (or not), I look at our friends and colleagues in the labor, immigration, LGBTQ and other movements and I notice their coalitions growing impatient. The campaign promises Obama made to those groups, and the subsequent moving parts (chief among them health care, financial markets reform, don’t ask don’t tell…etc.) are all stalled.

Many pundits blame this on Obama and his lack of leadership - which to some extent is true, especially on climate change - but I think we ought to look within our own movements to discover what happened during 2009.

Remember back to those heady days a year ago when Obama was inaugurated? Millions of Americans, despite a failing economy and a decade of do-nothing politics held hope in their hearts, thanks in part to candidate Obama’s inspiring campaign. Right at that moment, as a progressive constituency, we made our first tactical error: we let the Obama administration shape our own narrative.

While there will always be civil society groups who align themselves with the positions of politicians, the progressive wings of our movements drank the kool-aid, and our political power has suffered ever since. How could we expect concerned Americans to swallow emails from top progressive groups calling on them to “Pass a climate bill” with huge giveaways to polluters or “Support health care reform” without a serious public option? It’s about time we stop taking our talking points from White House press releases and start telling our own story.

It turns out that having a progressive President is only part of the equation — In 2010 we need to rethink our strategy, and tell our own progressive story that activates concerned citizens and voters around the country, far away from the transactional politics of Washington. The youth climate movement, more than any other group, has the ability to define what a clean energy future means to us.

Our friends and colleagues working on health reform, immigrant and human rights, GLBTQ issues and finance reform have a responsibility to do the same. A perennial discussion among climate activists is that we need to “reach out” to other progressive constituencies. I hate the word “outreach,” but I do like making friends, so I suggest we all get busy making friends with organizers and campaigners who are ready to shape a new kind of progressive vision, not tied to the White House and Congress as much as Americans’ desire for a better world for themselves and their children.

But the US leads in production of unobtanium.

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:55:20 -0500

But the US leads in production of unobtanium.