No Impact Man

The new standard on climate change

For a long time now, James Hansen, chief NASA climatologist has been something of a voice in the dark, saying that, to avoid cataclysmic climate change, we must stabilize the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at no more than 350 parts per million (ppm). That is to say, essentially, that for every one million pounds of atmosphere, no more than 350 of them can be made up of carbon dioxide.

Hansen's analysis, by the way, is the basis for 350.org's worldwide day of action on October 24, when they hope millions of us around the world will turn out and let our leaders know that we believe in the 350 ppm standard.

There has been something of an uphill battle on the 350 thing up until now, because: 1. It requires huge amount of change, and 2. The International Panel on Climate Change (whose science was out of date) had called for a standard of only 450. (I, by the way, have been supporting the 350 standard for a long time and have both lobbied my local congressman for it and wrote my own piece of citizen's climate legislation in support of it.)

Anyway, today represents and important step forward. The head of the IPCC, Rajendra Pachauri, basically came out in support of the 350 standard. He said:

"As chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) I cannot take a position because we do not make recommendations," said Rajendra Pachauri when asked if he supported calls to keep atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations below 350 parts per million (ppm).

"But as a human being I am fully supportive of that goal. What is happening, and what is likely to happen, convinces me that the world must be really ambitious and very determined at moving toward a 350 target," he told Agence France Presse in an interview.

The trick now is to make sure politicians around the world hear the message. More than ever, Dr Pachauri's announcement reminds us that we must all turn out on October 24 to make sure they do. Click here to find your local action. I'll be there. Will you?

PS You can follow me on Twitter here and Facebook here.

Coal industry forges letters to Congress from citizen's groups

I don't mind a fair fight over the issues, but I hate liars and cheats.

In case you haven't heard, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity has repeatedly forged letters from citizen's groups and sent them to Congress in an effort to try to manipulate the defeat of legislation to mitigate global warming (read here, here and here).

As reported in the Charlottesville Daily Progress:

"They [the coal industry lobbyists] stole our name. They stole our logo. They created a position title and made up the name of someone to fill it. They forged a letter and sent it to our congressman without our authorization," said Tim Freilich, who sits on the executive committee of Creciendo Juntos, a nonprofit network that tackles issues related to Charlottesville's Hispanic community. "It's this type of activity that undermines Americans' faith in democracy."

The faked letter from Creciendo Juntos was signed by "Marisse K. Acevado, Asst Member Coordinator," an identity and position at Creciendo Juntos that do not exist.

My question is, if the coal industry actually has a realistic, fact-based case for the possibility of clean coal, why does it need to resort to fraud?

Zen and the Art of the Climate Ride

At the end of September, I'll be riding bikes along with a bunch of other folks from New York to Washington to give voice to the fact that we want our elected representatives to take care of the planet we depend upon for our health, happiness and security.

We want to let them know that we believe in a switch to renewable energy which will both develop an industry of new jobs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, make our air and water cleaner, and make our planet safer.

Anyway, I'm hoping you might join me. You can read more about Climate Ride here and sign up to join in here. In case you're wondering what it will be like, here is a post by Evan O'Neil, who completed the climate ride last year.

Ok, I'll admit it. I was going to buy a motorcycle for my 30th birthday last year. I had been in recovery from my suburban auto upbringing for nearly a decade, living without a car in New York City, true to my concept of the ‘climate good life.’ I had made my dull peace with the never-empty trash cans, the motors, engines, and  combustion. I had pushed the city limits on a bicycle and now I wanted more freedom.

I hit the birthday bars with some increasingly radical ‘green’ friends who started to shift me from the motorcycle idea. That night, my racing mind went online. There was a note, an invitation to Climate Ride.

5 days, 300 miles, 100 riders. Fund raising. Take the climate message straight to Congress. It sounded big. I didn't even have a bike with gears. But I was inspired, and click! I signed up. I later found out I was the first rider to register.

I had no way of knowing that Geraldine Carter and Caeli Quinn, the founders, were gambling when they launched Climate Ride. They had built it, but would anybody come? It was the first attempt ever to take a peloton of enviros to Washington to lobby for a clean energy future.

Soon enough though, the ride filled and I set about finding a bicycle, training in Central Park, tackling Nyack, the New York City Century, whatever miles I could get. My donations started to flow, even from people I'd never met in person. I was overwhelmed by the generosity. Those were the waning days of a lame duck oil president, but who cared? We were speaking for the eons. We were on a mission.

Ride Day finally arrived for our two-wheeled climate conference. It was a diverse group. There was the pastor from Alaska with tattoos and a goatee, the nuclear industry exec with a guitar on his handlebars. As the ride began, I fell into a pace line with new fast friends.

City turned to suburbs, and the suburbs quickly eased to countryside. Soon there were baby goats scampering and a Mennonite farmer parking his buggy next to my carbon-free steed. Vultures perched on the power lines, spreading their wings to warm in the morning sun.

All was hot, hilly, and awesome until Day Five, when an entanglement of wheels mangled my rear derailleur. So close to the finish, within a day's walk of where I grew up, it looked like my ride was going to fizzle. But the crew soon had me on a spare bike and racing to catch up with everyone for the final ascent up Capitol Hill.

In the end, we came, we saw, we lobbied. But I'll never forget when the route happened past Margaret Mead's house in Doylestown, PA. It was she who said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Journeys like Climate Ride make you remember this truth, and forget all about motorcycles.

A great eco-fundraising event in NYC

Hey folks, one of my favorite organizations involved with engaging citizens in making our habitat safe is having a fundraiser.

New York's Lower East Side Ecology Center works towards a more sustainable New York City by providing community-based recycling and composting programs, developing local stewardship of green space, and increasing community awareness through environmental education programs.

I mention LESEC in my forthcoming book as a world-class model for citizen engagement.

Help them out if you can!

Enjoy summer in NYC with a party by the East River!

Tickets:

$50 Supporter, $100 Friend, $200 Patron
Purchase Tickets
Children under 12 are free!
Honoring:

Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President
Dominique Camacho, Sustainable NYC

Dick Demenus & Jason Wu, Tekserve

Live music:

Ray Santiago - Afro cuba a la New York City

Silent Auction (list in formation):

The Aveda Institute, Fuerza Bruta: Look Up, Kiki Smith, Om Yoga, Recycle-A-Bicycle, Sustainable NYC, Tekserve, Uncommon Goods, The WNBA, and other goods from local artisans

Enjoy refreshments from some of the best NYC restaurants, using fresh, local ingredients:

Back Forty, The City Bakery, Counter, The Grocery, Habana Outpost, Kelso Brewery, Ready to Eat, Poco

Seasonal treats from the Union Square Greenmarket & Friends:

Baker's Bounty, Beth's Farm Kitchen, Bread Alone Bakery, Bulich Mushroom Co Inc., Cato Corner Farms, Durr, Lynnhaven Goat Cheese, Max Creek Hatchery, P.E. and D.D. Seafood, Phillips Farms, Red Jacket Orchards, Rick's Picks, Rockhill Bakery, Ronnybrook Farm Dairy, Silver Heights Farm Nursery, Union Square Wines and Spirits, Whole Foods Market

Celebration by the East River will take place at the Amphitheater, in the southern part of East River Park, across the FDR Drive from Corlears Hook Park at the intersection of Jackson and Cherry Streets.

An easy, automatic way to tell your Congressional Reps you want them to solve the climate crisis

In this crucial point in history, digging, stumbling, reposting or emailing the below could do an incredible amount of good for the entire world. Just saying! :)

This post is by Garth Moore and comes from the 1Sky blog. Click on the link, fill out the form and an automated system will call you and connect you to your representative's office. Do it now and let them know that you support the current climate bill in the House of Representatives.

Please, once you've made the call, leave a comment here on the blog and let us know what reaction you got and how it felt to exercise your democratic rights.

Most of us have probably never called our congressional representative's office before. We’ve attended rallies or sent e-mail, but a phone call is different. It’s difficult to know what to say, when to call, and to find the time to do it. But making a call for a timely, critical issue is the best way to make your voice heard.

Now is the time to make that call.

The next 7 days are critical for the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. The bill is moving through a mark-up process where it can become a strong bill or can be weakened by Big Oil and Dirty Coal lobbyists. These lobbyists want more oil, more coal, polluter giveaways, and for America to treat global warming as a hoax. They have the money and resources to push their agenda, but we have a voice.

This is where your phone calls count. Congress needs to hear from you: about your concerns to re-grow the economy, take on climate change, and create a clean energy economy that works. You can make that call right now.

Making this call is short and simple: visit our online call center and we’ll connect you toll-free to your representative’s office. We’ll give you talking points and you can give us feedback about your call with our online form. Relax and just speak from the heart.

Thousands of people have already called their representatives this week. Early reports from our callers note that some representatives have an active interest in the bill and some didn’t even know where it stands. The more calls we make, the more political push we can create to keep the bill strong.

Adding a phone call to your list of political achievements is a great first step and you can do it right now.

A list of companies who supported lies about global warming

Please digg this post or email it in order to spread it around as a way to show the below companies that you refuse to accept their distorting our democracy and engangering us in the process.

On April 23, Andrew Revkin of the New York Times published a story proving conclusively that the so-called Global Climate Coalition, a group representing industries with profits tied to fossil fuels, knew that they were lying when they ran "an aggressive lobbying and public relations campaign against the idea that emissions of heat-trapping gases could lead to global warming."

According to Revkin:

... a document filed in a federal lawsuit demonstrates that even as the coalition worked to sway opinion, its own scientific and technical experts were advising that the science backing the role of greenhouse gases in global warming could not be refuted.

“The scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied,” the experts wrote in an internal report compiled for the coalition in 1995.

A working democracy requires a correctly informed electorate. Deliberately lying to the public is a direct assault on the American system of democracy. To use power and money to lie to the American public is to distort our electoral process.

And to do it knowing what is at stake is just unfathomable. We are now at the point where we are near the climate tipping point. Without the efforts of the so-called Global Climate Coalition (GCC), and other organizations like it, we may have been able to get to work on this planetary problem a decade or even 20 years ago.

This is like a health insurance company refusing treatment to a child with cancer, except that we are talking about refusing treatment to billions of children--an entire planet's worth. In the course of it's work, according to SourceWatch, the GCC spent tens of millions of dollars on ad campaigns trying to stop action on global warming and made millions of dollars of contributions to politicians to influence their decisions.

The companies who exhibited this gross disregard for human life continue to wield power in the ongoing discussion about how to ameliorate the climate crisis. It is important to know, therefore, exactly which companies are prone to lie and distort the truth so we know not to believe them in the future.

For that reason, here, according to SourceWatch, is the list of members of the so-called Global Climate Coalition, who tried for so long to mislead us. I hope you'll digg or stumble or email this post around to make sure it is seen and read and to show these companies that we won't accept this kind of this behavior:

• Air Transport Association
• Allegheny Power
• Aluminum Association, Inc.
• American Automobile Manufacturers Association
• American Commercial Barge Line Co.
• American Farm Bureau Federation
• American Forest & Paper Association
• American Highway Users Alliance
• American Iron and Steel Institute
• American Petroleum Institute
• American Portland Cement Alliance
• Amoco
• Association of American Railroads
• Association of International Automobile Manufacturers
• Atlantic Richfield Coal Company
• Baker Refineries
• Bethlehem Steel
• BHP Minerals
• Chamber of Shipping of America
• Chemical Manufacturers Association
• Chevron
• Chrysler Corporation
• Cinergy
• CONRAIL
• Consumers Energy
• Council of Industrial Boiler Owners
• CSX Transportation, Inc.
• Cyprus-Amax
• Dow Chemical Company
• Drummond Company
• Duke Power Company
• DuPont
• Eastman Chemical
• Edison Electric Institute
• ELCON
• ExxonMobil
• Fertilizer Institute
• Ford Motor Company
• General Motors
• Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
• Greencool
• Hoechst Celanese Chemical Group
• Illinois Power Company
• Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp.
• McDonnell-Douglas
• Mobil Corporation
• National Association of Manufacturers
• National Lime Association
• National Mining Association
• National Ocean Industries Association
• National Petrochemical and Refiners Association
• Natural Rural Electric Cooperative Association
• Norfolk Southern
• Northern Indiana Public Serv. Co.
• Ohio Edison
• Parker Drilling Company
• Process Gas Consumers
• Shell
• Society of the Plastic Industry
• Southern Company
• Steel Manufacturers Association
• TECO Energy Inc.
• Texaco
• U.S. Chamber of Commerce
• USX Corporation
• Union Carbide
• Union Pacific
• Virginia Power
• Western Fuels Association

Getting arrested in DC--or not

I wanted to put in one last plug for Monday, March 2nd's Capital Climate Action, which begins at 1PM at Spirit Park of Justice (C St. SW and Capitol St SE, two blocks west of Capitol South Metro):

Join thousands of people in a multi-generational act of civil disobedience at the Capitol Power Plant — a plant that powers Congress with dirty energy and symbolizes a past that cannot be our future. Let’s use this as a rallying cry for a clean energy economy that will protect the health of our families, our climate, and our future.

This will be a peaceful demonstration, carried out in a spirit of hope and not rancor. We will be there in our dress clothes, and ask the same of you.

It’s time to take a stand on global warming. We can’t wait any longer for the changes we KNOW we can, and must, make today.

I will be there. I know some of you have questioned civil disobedience as a methodology on this blog. But to me, this is part of the individual action we've discussed here--living a life in line with your values.

Individual action vs collective action

Lest you all think, that with my recent calls for collective action, that I have abandoned individual action, please read my post at WorldChanging about how the two are in separable. Leave your comments there but leave them here too!

A continuing debate erupts within the environmental movement about the relative merits of individual versus collective action. Back in 2007, on the subject of individual action, The New York Times columnist Tom Friedman wrote,

You can change lights. You can change cars. But if you don't change leaders, your actions are nothing more than an expression of, as Dick Cheney would say, "personal virtue."

I heard criticisms like Friedman's constantly throughout a one-year project in environmental living that I took on under the moniker No Impact Man. What difference can one person make? Having had a lot of critics who forced me to look at the issue, I've come to some conclusions.

Firstly, there is one circumstance under which one person absolutely cannot make a difference: if that one person doesn't try. And if we don't try, who among us knows whether we have foregone the chance to influence the people around us? Which one of us knows for sure that, by applying our talents and efforts to what we believe in, whether we might become a Martin Luther King Jr. or a Bobby Kennedy or an Al Gore or a Betty Friedan or a Nelson Mandela?

Not that these great names are necessarily the most important aspects of movements...

Read the rest of the post here.

PS Did you guys know that the man character in this week's Law & Order was apparently modeled after me? Too weird.

How does a society effect rapid change?

I posted the last couple of days about the occupation of the Capital Power Plant, spearheaded by Bill McKibben and Wendell Berry.

Why were there so few comments? How come, when we talk about how to compost, we get a huge discussion, but when we mention civil disobedience, there is quiet?

Do we all agree that we are facing an emergency? Do we agree that we need rapid societal change in order to deal with the emergency? Do we have a better way to deal with this emergency than protests?

Sharon wrote:

"The problem I foresee is that no matter how effective this gesture is, it will probably only be a gesture. That doesn't mean it isn't worth doing, but the reality of the convergence of peak oil and climate change means that if we are to make real shifts in the situation, among other things, we'd have to a have a populace willing to do with a lot less... I am still a little mystified about why you don't actually ask your readers to do the thing that might actually matter - demonstrate, not just for one evening a la Earth Hour, but in their lives, that they are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices to shut down the coal plants."

Jen wrote:

"I'm waaaay over the protest model of civil disobedience. Don't get me wrong - I'm planning to go to this - but I want other options for political activism... It seems to me we need more - more ways to be activist. We need a new model for civic engagement that supplements sixties-style civil disobedience and inspires all those people who roll their eyes at this kind of protest. We need those voices too - how can we inspire them to speak?"

I have to admit to being flummoxed at times. The obstacles are great. There is still not a critical mass of people who believe we are in a crisis and who can overcome the influence of special interests in the political realm. Nor do there seem to be enough people willing to change their lifestyles to have sufficient effect to reduce our resource use substantially.

So, what?

Two things, I think: One is that we have to continue to look for and examine new methods of activism.

I like a model I call "distributed power," where we become self-sufficient enough in our energy generation and food growth, as examples, to take the power out of the hands of centralized corporations and "distribute" the power to the people. But again, we're back to the question of how to get enough people to participate.

The other way forward is to start from where we are. That is to say, if the only tools we have are dispersed individual action and gesture-like political action, then we accept that, for now, those are the tools we have. We can't afford to wait around until we have the best plan.

In other words, just because we don't know if there might be more efficient ways to start doesn't mean we shouldn't start. Just because we don't know what step four or five in the process should be, doesn't mean we shouldn't take step one.

Just because we aren't sure if we'll make a difference doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

When I say we, I don't just mean the radicals in the crowd. I mean all of us. If you believe, as I do, that there is an emergency, then it's time to stop outsourcing your concerns simply because you've never imagined yourself to be an activist.

It's time to try. It's time for all of us to try.

Why civil disobedience may be necessary on climate change

A couple of days ago, I posted an invitation from environmental activists Bill McKibben and Wendell Berry to participate in the occupation of the Capital Power Plant in March. Some commenters on this blog responded favorably. Some were concerned.

Susan Och wrote:

Civil disobedience is supposed to be a last resort, after you have exhausted all other avenues. How many of us have actually written to all of our elected officials, talked to all of our friends and neighbors, written our letters to the editors, or done absolutely all we can to curb our use of energy?

Let me tell you my position: I will be there.

I'm afraid we are at the place of last resort. If you don't yet understand why we need to take radical action to reverse the greenhouse gas emission trend, read here and here. This is an EMERGENCY.

It's a scientific emergency, yes, but it's also a political emergency, because governments around the world are not taking the scientific emergency seriously enough. It's up to us--citizens who aren't used to getting involved in politics and activism--to give those governments a wake up call.

Read a memo from Betsy Taylor of 1Sky reporting on how the  international response to the climate crisis at the recent climate change negotiations at Poznan is way too weak. Here's the highlight:

• "It’s going to take a lot more than the bureaucratic and chaotic process I watched in Poznan over the past two weeks for us to cut global warming emissions as deeply and quickly as scientists say is necessary.

  "I am not the only one who feels this way. Bill McKibben of 350.org, Al Gore, Dr. James Hansen, and most recently the Alliance of Small Island Nations (AOSIS) are all calling for deeper cuts in emissions and for public actions to turn things around. The path to a global deal in Copenhagen, just one year from now, will not be successful unless we have a louder, and more visible, bottom-up push for change. It’s time to get serious about mass mobilization."

• "According to several sources, including leaders from the wind industry with whom I spoke directly, lobbying by the coal, cement, steel and fossil fuel companies was furious, relentless and ultimately overwhelming in the context of the European fiscal meltdown. According to a senior EU Commission official quoted in the Financial Times, “about 90% of European manufacturers would qualify for free carbon permits under the package.”

• This deal won’t result in adequate CO2 reductions in the time we have. The last minute demands of the power plant and industrial sectors are a likely predictor of what we can expect in the States as groups battle for a strong climate bill in Congress. Lets face it, the U.S. fossil fuel lobby makes the European coal companies look like wimps.

• A growing number of experts and governments insist we must adopt a target of 350 ppm or 1.5 degrees C as the threshold for safe emissions. Right now atmospheric concentrations of CO2 stand at 387 parts per million, increasing by about 2 parts per million each year. We need a more fundamental and fast turn away from fossil fuel.

Here's what you can do right now to push for transformational change:

• Become a Climate Precinct Captain and take things into your own hands by organizing locally: local.1sky.org. 1Sky has developed an online tool to facilitate a constant offline drumbeat of action in every Congressional district across the country. Once you sign up for the tool, get at least ten neighbors and friends to get involved with the 1Sky campaign. E-mail Ada@1sky.org with questions.
• Join us at the largest climate convergence in history - Power Shift '09 -  or consider sponsoring someone else to attend. We need 10,000 people in Washington, D.C. screaming for change.
• Organize a 350 action for October 24, 2009 by signing on to 350.org and making sure that the world hears us loud and clear before next year’s Copenhagen summit.

As Betsy says, "This is not a time to just take advice from those of us in DC. It is time for every rabble rousing, child-loving, planet protecting person to get clear that we will not be okay unless we disrupt business as usual."