No Impact Man

An invitation from 350.org to help wake up our world leaders

Dear World,

This is an invitation to help build a movement--to take one day day and use it to stop the climate crisis.

On October 24, we will stand together as one planet and call for a fair global climate treaty. United by a common call to action, we'll make it clear: the world needs an international plan that meets the latest science and gets us back to safety.

This movement has just begun, and it needs your help.

Here's the plan: we're asking you, and people in every country on earth, to organize an action in their community on October 24. There are no limits here--imagine bike rides, rallies, concerts, hikes, festivals, tree-plantings, protests, and more. Imagine your action linking up with thousands of others around the globe. Imagine the world waking up.

If we can pull it off, we'll send a powerful message on October 24: the world needs the climate solutions that science and justice demand.

It's often said that the only thing preventing us from tackling the climate crisis quickly and equitably is a lack of political will. Well, the only thing that can create that political will is a unified global movement--and no one is going to build that movement for us. It's up to regular people all over the world.  That's you.

So register an event in your community for October 24, and then enlist the help of your friends. Get together with your co-workers or your local environmental group or human rights campaign, your church or synagogue or mosque or temple; enlist bike riders and local farmers and young people. All over the planet we'll start to organize ourselves.

With your help, there will be an event at every iconic place on the planet on October 24—from America's Great Lakes to Australia's Great Barrier Reef--and also in all the places that matter to you in your daily lives: a beach or park or village green or town hall.

If there was ever a time for you to get involved, it's right now. There are two reasons this year is so crucial.

The first reason is that the science of climate change is getting darker by the day. The Arctic is melting away with astonishing speed, decades ahead of schedule. Everything on the planet seems to be melting or burning, rising or parched.

And we now now have a number to express our peril: 350.  

NASA's James Hansen and a team of other scientists recently published a series of papers showing that we need to cut the amount of carbon in the atmosphere from its current 387 parts per million to 350 or less if we wish to "maintain a planet similar to that on which civilization developed."

No one knew that number a year ago—but now it's clear that 350 might well be the most important number for the future of the planet, a north star to guide our efforts as we remake the world. If we can swiftly get the planet on track to get to 350, we can still avert the worst effects of climate change.

The second reason 2009 is so important is that the political opportunity to influence our governments has never been greater. The world's leaders will meet in Copenhagen this December to craft a new global treaty on cutting carbon emissions.

If that meeting were held now, it would produce a treaty that would be woefully inadequate. In fact, it would lock us into a future where we'd never get back to 350 parts per million—where the rise of the sea would accelerate, where rainfall patterns would start to shift and deserts to grow. A future where first the poorest people, and then all of us, and then all the people that come after us, would find the only planet we have damaged and degraded.    

October 24 comes six weeks before those crucial UN meetings in Copenhagen.  If we all do our job, every nation will know the question they'll be asked when they put forth a plan: will this get the planet back on the path to 350?  

This will only work with the help of a global movement—and it's starting to bubble up everywhere. Farmers in Cameroon, students in China, even World Cup skiers have already helped spread the word about 350. Churches have rung their bells 350 times; Buddhist monks have formed a huge 350 with their bodies against the backdrop of Himalayas. 350 translates across every boundary of language and culture.  It's clear and direct, cutting through the static and it lays down a firm scientific line.

On October 24, we'll all stand behind 350--a universal symbol of climate safety and of the world we need to create.  And at the end of the day, we'll all upload photos from our events to the 350.org website and send these pictures around the world.  This cascade of images will drive climate change into the public debate--and hold our leaders accountable to a unified global citizenry.  

We need your help—the world is a big place and our team is small.  Our crew at 350.org will do everything we can to support you, providing templates for banners and press releases, resources to spread the word, and tools to help you build a strong local climate action group.  And our core team is always just a phone call or e-mail away if you need some support.

This is like a final exam for human beings. Can we muster the courage, the commitment, and the creativity to set this earth on a steady course before it's too late? October 24 will be the joyful, powerful day when we prove it's possible.

Please join us and register your local event today.

Onwards,

Bill McKibben - Author and Activist- USA
Vandana Shiva - Physicist, Activist, Author - India
David Suzuki - Scientist, Author, Activist - Canada
Bianca Jagger - Chair of the World Future Council - UK
Tim Flannery - Scientist, Author, Explorer -Australia
Bittu Sahgal - Co-convener, Climate Challenge India - India
Andrew Simmons - Environmental Advocate, St. Vincent & The Grenadines
Christine Loh - Environmental Advocate and Legislator - Hong Kong

Five New York State Senators who oppose the well-being of the people and the planet--and how you can help

OK, those are strong words for a headline, and I'll explain, but first, let me beg you to forward this email to every New York State resident you know. If you are a NYS resident, please URGENTLY phone your State Senator (instructions below) in support of the plan--known as the Ravitch plan--to bail out our transit system.

Bloggers, please feel free link to or post this text for your readers. Everyone else who is internet-savvy, please Digg, Stumble or Twitter about it. New York needs your help!

Across the country, citizens are surging into our mass transit systems in the highest numbers in 50 years. This is great news for the planet since a subway ride, on average, causes less than a third of the greenhouse gas emissions of a car ride. It's also great news for the people since it means we can stop spending the average 15 percent of our incomes on running our cars; our city children can stop getting asthma from our exhaust fumes.

The problem is that, in the midst of this surge in ridership, economic conditions mean many of our nation's transit systems are having to cut service and raise fares, forcing the recent converts back to their cars again.

Here in New York, though, the Ravitch plan to avoid service cuts and minimize fare hikes actually has a chance. If you are New York State resident, your support is crucial. Please URGENTLY call your State Senator (see instructions at the bottom of this post).

Sheldon Silver, Speaker of the New York State Assembly, the lower house, says he has enough votes to pass the measure that would fund the transit system by levying a small tax on commuters and instituting a $2 toll on bridges that currently allow cars to pass free into Manhattan. The measure is also supported by Governor Paterson.

In other words, recession or not, we in New York City might keep our transit system intact just when we need it most.

Except for five problems. The names of those five problems are Democratic Senators Ruben Diaz, Ruth Hassell-Thompson and Pedro Espada of the Bronx and Carl Kruger and Kevin Parker of Brooklyn. They are threatening to rupture the small Democratic majority in the State's upper house by voting with the Republicans--who care less about helping their transit-dependent citizens than painting a tax-and-spend picture of the Democrats.

Now, I know it may look like I am giving knee-jerk support to the Democrats here, but if you remember, I blasted the Democrats for not supporting the toll-based congestion-pricing scheme in New York City last year. My motive is not partisan; it is environmental and supportive of a high quality of life. I support a robust, good, pleasant, transit system for Americans. It's good for the planet and good for the people.

But here in New York, Diaz, Espada, Hassell-Thompson, Charger and Parker have turned against the people. Their argument is that the burden will fall unfairly on their outer-borough constituents who drive to Manhattan. But they are being duplicitous. According to the Daily News, inhabitants of their districts overwhelmingly use transit rather than cars by a factor of ten to one. And those transit riders will all face service cuts if the Ravitch plan does not pass.

So what's the real reason for their opposition? Holding the people hostage for political gain. It's rumored that the rebels want something from the Democratic party leadership that they're not getting--so they're causing as much trouble as they can till they get it. What that "it" is, exactly, is something that only they and the party leadership know.

But they need not prevail, especially in these times when the good of the people should be coming before petty, careerist politics.

A vote on this issue could come as early as this week.

We New York State residents must URGENTLY let all our Senators know that we support the Ravitch transit plan. All you have to do is call the central Senate switchboard at (518) 455-2800, say that you'd like your senator's office, and give your zip code. Once you're connected, just say that you'd like your senator to strongly support the Ravitch transit plan.

PS Don't forget to email this post to as many New York State residents as you can.

PPS By the way, I'd love for folks to leave comments here at the blog (NoImpactMan.com) saying how their phone calls with their senators went.

How I made a clean energy difference in Washington

I used to wonder: What does it matter if I choose to use planetary resources more carefully? Can I really make a difference?

I might also have asked: What does it matter if I choose to show up at a rally to advocate for clean energy and end to coal burning? I will be one of thousands who may make no difference to the political process, at least that's what the pessimist in me used to want to say.

But then I learned that the first question is not whether or not I can make a difference. The first question is whether I want to be the kind of person who tries. And that's where the power lies: if I don't believe I make a difference then I won't even try and I can't. But I do believe I can. And trying has taught me that we all make a difference.

We all make a difference. This is our world and our life. We just have to live as though that is true to make it true.

That's why, on Monday, I joined thousands of others at the Capitol Climate Action, a protest against a coal-burning planet in the middle of DC. It's a symbol--a coal-burning plant that powers the United States Capitol at a time when we need to move away from coal rapidly.

And it's not just about climate. The local city councilor stood up and told us that 14 percent of the area's children suffer from asthma, thanks partly to the power plant.

So I stood in the freezing cold, in the snow, with leaky shoes, and felt proud of the bunch of other people who had shown up because they wanted to be the type of people who try. When thousands of people care enough to take the time and stand in the cold, doesn't that make a difference to you?

Read more about the action here and here and here.

On not putting a kid with cancer in my gas tank

Today, I went to see director Joe Berlinger's new documentary Crude, about the toxic mess left behind when Texaco withdrew from the Ecuadorian Amazon in the 1990s. I listened to a man talk about how his little boy died 24 hours after a Texaco oil spill tainted the water supply. I watched mothers crying about their 17- and 18-year-old children with cancer.

People ask me, if one person or family tries to use fewer planetary resources--in this case, oil--what difference does that really make? Well, whether it saves the planet or not, who can say for sure? But doesn't it make you feel better to use less of something when you know that the result of producing that something causes the kind of suffering shown in the photos (courtesy of Chevron-Toxico.com) below?

For Amazon Watch's list of everyday actions you can take, click here. To donate to Amazon Watch, which is fighting to help recover the costs of a clean up--estimated to be in the billions of dollars--from Chevron (who took over Texaco), click here.

 

Rainwater runs off unlined waste pits of crude oil like this one, left behind in the Ecuadorian Amazon by Texaco, into the water supplies. The health effects are catastrophic.

Maria Machay holds a photo of her husband who died when a small sore that "grew and grew" turned out to be cancer.

 

Jairo Yumbo was born with a deformed hand.

 

Rosero Mendez was also born with a deformed hand.

Pamela Ramirez was born with an eye defect.

Want to come to Washington, DC with me?

As Kate Sheppard from Grist puts it:

Some 10,000 young people will be descending on Washington, D.C., from Feb. 27 to March 2 for the Power Shift 2009 conference, where they'll be organizing to put pressure on political leaders to take action on climate change.

On the last day of the event, they're planning a massive protest at the coal-fired plant that provides power to the U.S. Capitol, and organizers are hoping it will be the largest display of civil disobedience against global warming in United States history.

I'll be there on March 2nd. Will you?

You can read more about how to participate here.

You can watch more about why you might want to participate below:

Some good news, some bad

Yesterday I watched a video of Harvard psychologist Daniel Goleman's talk at the 2007 TED (you can watch it here). Goleman discussed brain research which says we are hardwired for empathy and compassion. If we see someone in pain, we automatically want to help.

Unless we aren't paying attention.

Goleman said that we get so wrapped up in our own lives and preoccupations that we can walk past an injured person on the street without stopping to help. The problem, though, is not our lack of compassion. It's our lack of attention. It's not that we don't want to help. It's that we literally don't see the pain.

Speaking about the environment, Goleman went on to say that the good news is that as long as we can get people to pay attention, because of the empathy hardwiring, they will make the right environmental choices. The trick is getting people to pay attention.

The bad news is, according to the Washington Post, is that "the pace of global warming is likely to be much faster than recent predictions, because industrial greenhouse gas emissions have increased more quickly than expected and higher temperatures are triggering self-reinforcing feedback mechanisms in global ecosystems."

According to the BBC, Stanford University Professor Chris Field, one of the author's of the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, said at the recent annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, "Without effective action, climate change is going to be larger and more difficult to deal with than we thought."

In other words, we're compassaionate animals as long as we're paying attention. That's great. The problem is, we don't have too much longer to start paying attention.

Cartoon by Patrick Rowan courtesy of Picture Works.

Ostentatious individual action as a form of activism

Way back when I was first contemplating the possibility of the No Impact Man project, my main concern was with finding ways to bring attention to our environmental crises. I wanted everyone to change.

As I thought of different ways to write about the crises, I began to worry that I would only be preaching to the choir. The liberals read the liberal polemics; the conservatives read the conservative ones; everybody congratulates themselves for sharing ideas with the book author.

In other words, I didn't imagine I could find a finger-wagging approach that would change anyone's mind. That's when I started realizing how many planetary resources me and my little family were unconsciously using up. I thought, if I want to help, maybe I could start with myself.

Then, at a certain stage, people questioned my sincerity, because I was writing a book and a blog and someone was making a documentary. I understand the gripes. It costs resources to make all these things.

But the point is that I wanted to make a point of leading by example. Maybe if I was willing to ostentatiously question my lifestyle choices, others would, in turn, question theirs. More importantly, perhaps my work would show in stark relief the cultural systems that make living sustainably so difficult for the individual.

The question becomes whether the resulting change of minds and actions and engagement in the issue is worth the use of resources? I guess the answer is not really for me to say.

But what I will say is that I think the more each of us is willing to put ourselves on the line and be open about the concerns we have, the farther the ripples travel.

By way of evidence, I'm including an email below, which is typical of many I have received. I don't include it because I want to blow my own horn. I include it because I wonder if this approach suggests a way forward for changing more minds and engaging more people.

What are you thoughts about ostentatious individual action and the ripple effect as an activist technique? What are its limitations? What are its strengths?

Here is the email:

Just wanted to say thank you to you and your wife for opening up your lives in No Impact Man.

I got to sit in the front row at the Library for the Sundance premier of your movie and it did have an impact on me.  It has only been a week since I saw your movie, but in that time:

-I haven’t purchased anything in a package (although I do see a few challenges ahead);
-Started carrying around a handkerchief;
-Got a mini-whiteboard instead of using so many Post-It Notes;
-I’ve told 20 people about your movie (and never mentioned the toilet paper, because it can distract people from the real message…);
-Talked on the local radio station about your movie (last Saturday and yesterday);
-Wore your button yesterday to a presentation I gave to the Park City Council and mentioned your movie in the presentation (last night the Park City Council adopted an updated Environmental Strategic Plan); and
-Have, as you suggested, started living more consciously.

And while you didn’t mention it explicitly in the movie, in the Q&A you did talk about how trying out these alternative behaviors provided you the opportunity to live more consciously.  It is quite a profound feeling -- the power of making different choices.

Keep up the good work.

Diane Foster

An invitation to illegally occupy a coal power plant from Bill McKibben and Wendell Berry

Bill McKibben sent me this note over the weekend and asked me to share it with you. Thoughts? Plans to attend?

Dear Friends,

There are moments in a nation's—and a planet's—history when it may be necessary for some to break the law in order to bear witness to an evil, bring it to wider attention, and push for its correction. We think such a time has arrived, and we are writing to say that we hope some of you will join us in Washington D.C. on Monday March 2 in order to take part in a civil act of civil disobedience outside a coal-fired power plant near Capitol Hill.

We will be there to make several points:

• Coal-fired power is driving climate change. Our foremost climatologist, NASA's James Hansen, has demonstrated that our only hope of getting our atmosphere back to a safe level—below 350 parts per million co2—lies in stopping the use of coal to generate electricity.
• Even if climate change were not the urgent crisis that it is, we would still be burning our fossil fuels too fast, wasting too much energy and releasing too much poison into the air and water. We would still need to slow down, and to restore thrift to its old place as an economic virtue.
• Coal is filthy at its source. Much of the coal used in this country comes from West Virginia and Kentucky, where companies engage in "mountaintop removal" to get at the stuff; they leave behind a leveled wasteland, and impoverished human communities. No technology better exemplifies the out-of-control relationship between humans and the rest of creation.
• Coal smoke makes children sick. Asthma rates in urban areas near coal-fired power plants are high. Air pollution from burning coal is harmful to the health of grown-ups too, and to the health of everything that breathes, including forests.

The industry claim that there is something called "clean coal" is, put simply, a lie. But it's a lie told with tens of millions of dollars, which we do not have. We have our bodies, and we are willing to use them to make our point. We don't come to such a step lightly. We have written and testified and organized politically to make this point for many years, and while in recent months there has been real progress against new coal-fired power plants, the daily business of providing half our electricity from coal continues unabated. It's time to make clear that we can't safely run this planet on coal at all.

So we feel the time has come to do more--we hear President Barack Obama's call for a movement for change that continues past election day, and we hear Nobel Laureate Al Gore's call for creative non-violence outside coal plants. As part of the international negotiations now underway on global warming, our nation will be asking China, India, and others to limit their use of coal in the future to help save the planet's atmosphere. This is a hard thing to ask, because it's their cheapest fuel. Part of our witness in March will be to say that we're willing to make some sacrifices ourselves, even if it's only a trip to the jail.

With any luck, this will be the largest such protest yet, large enough that it may provide a real spark. If you want to participate with us, you need to go through a short course of non-violence training. This will be, to the extent it depends on us, an entirely 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. There will be young people, people from faith communities, people from the coal fields of Appalachia, and from the neighborhoods in Washington that get to breathe the smoke from the plant.

We will cross the legal boundary of the power plant, and we expect to be arrested. After that we have no certainty what will happen, but lawyers and such will be on hand. Our goal is not to shut the plant down for the day—it is but  one of many, and anyway its operation for a day is not the point. The worldwide daily reliance on coal is the danger; this is one small step to raise awareness of that ruinous habit and hence help to break it.

Needless to say, we're not handling the logistics of this day. All the credit goes to a variety of groups, especially the Energy Action Coalition (which is bringing thousands of young people to Washington that weekend), Greenpeace, the Ruckus Society, and the Rainforest Action Network. A website at that latter organization is serving as a temporary organizing hub: http://ran.org/get_involved/powershift_and_mass_civil_disobedience_updates/. If you go there, you will find a place to leave your name so that we'll know you want to join us.

Thank you,

Wendell Berry, Bill McKibben

Photo of Capital Power Plant courtesy of Daily Life.

"The Impact of Having No Impact"

I'll be giving a talk in Davenport, Iowa, on October 11 (details here). For that reason, the River Cities' Reader ran a story about the No Impact Project. It begins:

Colin Beavan's thought was hardly unusual. Most of us have wondered whether all our accumulated belongings and technology make our lives better.

"We're consuming way too much stuff as a civilization," Beavan said. "And we have an idea that's because we need all these things. When people tend to talk about living environmentally, they tend to think of depriving ourselves. The question became in our year: Would we be less happy or more happy? Would we actually find that there were some greater satisfactions than consuming resources to be had? And if that was the case - which it was in our case - might it be possible for our culture to design itself in such a way so that it uses fewer resources but also gives us happier lives?"

Read the rest here.

Someone who made a difference

Tonight I was at the fund-raising dinner of Transportation Alternatives (I'm on the board), and a citizen activist named Mary Beth Kelly who works with TA was honored.

We've talked a lot on this blog about whether one person can make a difference. In her own way, about her own agenda, Mary Beth has really done so. We can be like her, too.

Watch a short video about her below. Here is StreetFilm's introduction to the video:

In June 2006, [Mary Beth Kelly] and her husband Dr. Carl Henry Nacht were bicycling home from dinner on the Hudson River Greenway in Chelsea when an NYPD tow truck turned sharply into the bike lane at 38th Street and 12th Avenue. Despite signs telling drivers to yield to pedestrians and cyclists, the tow truck did not slow down as it headed toward a riverfront tow pound. The truck struck Carl, injuring him severely. He died four days later.

Bicycling was an integral part of Carl and Mary Beth's lives. Their first date was done on bikes and they often took their bikes on vacation. A physician at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, Carl regularly used his bike to commute to the work and to make in-home visits to sick patients.

Rather than forsaking cycling after Carl's death, Mary Beth and her children Zoe and Asher got right back on their bicycles. Perhaps most important, Mary Beth has emerged as an outspoken and eloquent advocate for New York City cyclists. She now serves on the advisory council for Transportation Alternatives, where she is working to create and pass comprehensive complete streets legislation in honor of her husband.

[If you had troubles with the video, it's working now.]