Bill McKibbon

The Fight Of Our Time: Breaking The Power of the Dirtiest And Richest Industry On the Planet

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Reposted from Watching The Deniers, here’s a recent video from Bill McKibbon which is a call to action.  In the video Mr. McKibbon:

shares this call to action for what could not only be the biggest fight of our time, but of all time. The fossil fuel industry is quickly destroying the planet, and making the fight to protect our future increasingly challenging as industry lobbying, and unabated growth continues. We all need to come together and rally behind leaders like Bill McKibben, 350.org, and countless others, to save this planet. How? With passion, spirit, and creativity, and as Bill says, sometimes putting our bodies on the line.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSuzNSHPv6c&feature=player_embedded]

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Will you join the fight?

350.org

Global Warming: Most Of Us Say Catastrophe, Big Oil Says Opportunity

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I’m back from a short canoe trip  on a small lake just an hour’s drive from our house. The weather was warm & dry, the conversation lively, the food delicious (despite not catching any fish) and we only had to flee from the mosquitoes around dusk.

Here’s what’s coming across my desk as I catch up on the week’s climate change news:

Bill McKibbon published a hard-hitting article in Rolling Stone magazine this week, Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math: Three Simple Numbers That Add Up To Global Catastrophe – And Make it Clear Who The Real Enemy Is. Here’s an excerpt:

If the pictures of those towering wildfires in Colorado haven’t convinced you, or the size of your AC bill this summer, here are some hard numbers about climate change: June broke or tied 3,215 high-temperature records across the United States. That followed the warmest May on record for the Northern Hemisphere – the 327th consecutive month in which the temperature of the entire globe exceeded the 20th-century average, the odds of which occurring by simple chance were 3.7 x 10-99, a number considerably larger than the number of stars in the universe.

Meteorologists reported that this spring was the warmest ever recorded for our nation – in fact, it crushed the old record by so much that it represented the “largest temperature departure from average of any season on record.” The same week, Saudi authorities reported that it had rained in Mecca despite a temperature of 109 degrees, the hottest downpour in the planet’s history.

…To make a real difference – to keep us under a temperature increase of two degrees – you’d need to change carbon pricing in Washington, and then use that victory to leverage similar shifts around the world. At this point, what happens in the U.S. is most important for how it will influence China and India, where emissions are growing fastest. (In early June, researchers concluded that China has probably under-reported its emissions by up to 20 percent.) The three numbers I’ve described are daunting – they may define an essentially impossible future. But at least they provide intellectual clarity about the greatest challenge humans have ever faced. We know how much we can burn, and we know who’s planning to burn more. Climate change operates on a geological scale and time frame, but it’s not an impersonal force of nature; the more carefully you do the math, the more thoroughly you realize that this is, at bottom, a moral issue; we have met the enemy and they is Shell.

Meanwhile the tide of numbers continues. The week after the Rio conference limped to its conclusion, Arctic sea ice hit the lowest level ever recorded for that date. Last month, on a single weekend, Tropical Storm Debby dumped more than 20 inches of rain on Florida – the earliest the season’s fourth-named cyclone has ever arrived. At the same time, the largest fire in New Mexico history burned on, and the most destructive fire in Colorado’s annals claimed 346 homes in Colorado Springs – breaking a record set the week before in Fort Collins. This month, scientists issued a new study concluding that global warming has dramatically increased the likelihood of severe heat and drought – days after a heat wave across the Plains and Midwest broke records that had stood since the Dust Bowl, threatening this year’s harvest. You want a big number? In the course of this month, a quadrillion kernels of corn need to pollinate across the grain belt, something they can’t do if temperatures remain off the charts. Just like us, our crops are adapted to the Holocene, the 11,000-year period of climatic stability we’re now leaving… in the dust.  Click here to read the full article.

Arctic Ready: Shell Advertisement by egilaslak

Feel like jumping off a cliff after reading that? Here’s some links to great editorial cartoons, a little bit of humour to help you through the rest of your day:

And some good news for Canadians: the court challenge brought by the Council of Canadians with regard to seven ridings where the election results in the last federal election were close enough to have been affected by the robocalls made to NDP and Liberal voters has been given the green light to proceed, despite being opposed by the seven Conservative MPs who won those seats. Read the full story on CBC.ca  If you want to learn more about election fraud and Canada, you can read an interesting article,  Vote-moving Canadian Election Fraud, on Rabble.ca.

This week, Greenpeace and The Yes Men got some more fun out of their Arctic-Ready website, a parody of Shell that pokes (well-deserved) fun at their environmental record and their plans to drill in the pristine Arctic. The first stage of the campaign was launched several weeks ago when a video was released, purporting to be taken during a Shell Arctic launch gone wrong (see here). That was revealed as a spoof, but the activists weren’t done getting attention and mileage out of this action:

Not to be discouraged, Yes Labs released a fake press release from “Shell” threatening to take legal action against the campaign’s originator.

It was sent from the email address alerts@shell.com, included a false quotes from a real company spokesperson and warned journalists against the “counterfeit website” at ArcticReady.com.

Once again, Greenpeace and Shell were trending. Once again, many fell for the stunt. Click here to read the full story.

Here’s a video about the real story behind  the initial parody video, a private send-off for Shell’s arctic rigs (Kulluk and Noble Discoverer) at the Seattle Space Needle:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InL4ONJh9fA&feature=player_embedded]

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Have a wonderful weekend (don’t forget to hug someone you love).

Robert Redford And I Occupy Vancouver

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Never let it be said that as a climate activist I’m not occasionally smitten by the desire to do a little Hollywood star-gazing. In the past, I’ve been known to scour the streets of Winnipeg for Brad Pitt when he was in filming in Old Market Square, or (going back even farther in my murky history) trying to catch a glimpse of Timothy Hutton (back when he was still a celebrity) when he was in Churchill for several weeks on location and I was working in the port town. I’ve never had any luck, and that hasn’t changed. I found out this morning that Robert Redford and Chris Cooper were seen filming near Occupy Vancouver. The Huffington Post reported:

Many passersby watching fire officials and city workers carry out safety adjustments at Occupy Vancouver on Tuesday got a in little stargazing, too, as Hollywood legend Robert Redford also made an appearance near the encampment.

I was at Occupy Vancouver while the fire officials and city workers walked through the site!  I even went around the corner and noticed the film crew at work, but having walked by a film crew the day before on Granville Street without seeing anyone interesting, I didn’t bother to go any further. It turns out some things in life are consistent, my luck in just missing celebrities being one of them!

Here’s another hero of mine, Bill McKibbon from 350.org, in a video put out by Tar Sands Action after the victory against the Keystone XL pipeline last week, a cause championed by Mr. Redford as well:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7e4Cfc-KRGA]

And here is Redford talking about why the Keystone XL pipeline is such a bad idea:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=E6AyQBChpO0]

*OMG – I just got on Twitter after I posted this and found out that BILL MCKIBBON was also at Occupy Vancouver last night – and so was I, for a few minutes but my husband has less time to Occupy while we’re visiting this city, so we left about 10 minutes after we got there.  I CAN”T BELIEVE IT!! That would have been so amazing, to hear him speak. But like I said, my luck is consistent if not good!*

Time For The 99% To Occupy Wall Street, And For Wall Street To Stop Occupying Our Atmosphere

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Powerful words from Bill McKibbon and 350.org on Occupy Wall Street:

This morning, the folks standing up for the rest of us, and for a just and sustainable system, may be evicted from Zuccoti Square by a Canadian company, Brookfield Real Estate. Avaaz.org sent out a call yesterday to contact Mayor Bloomberg as well as Brookfield CEO Richard Clark, making it clear that their actions are under national and international scrutiny. The contact numbers are:

  • New York mayor Michael Bloomberg: +1-212-772-1081 ext 12006
  • Brookfield CEO Richard Clark: +1-212-417-7063
  • Brookfield US headquarters: +1-212-417-7000
  • Brookfield Canada headquarters: +1-416-369-2300
  • Brookfield Australia headquarters: +61-2-9322-2000

If you’d like to report your call on the Avaaz website, click here.

*Update*: Zuccotti Park clean-up scrapped,

According to an email sent at 11:33 p.m. Thursday, Brookfield’s chief executive officer Ric Clark told Holloway, “Based upon input from many, we have decided to postpone the cleaning operation for Zuccotti Park which is currently scheduled to commence at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning. “We now plan on deferring this work for a few days while we attempt to work out an arrangement with the protesters.” Click here for the full story on DNAinfo.com

 

 

McKibbon: The Sky Does Not Belong To Exxon

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Bill McKibbon addressed the crowd gathered in Washington Square this past Saturday as part of “Occupy Washington”. Here is the text of his speech, thanks to the crew over at It’s Getting Hot in Here:

Today in the New York Times there was a story that made it completely clear why we have to be here. They uncovered the fact that the company building that tar sands pipeline was allowed to choose another company to conduct the environmental impact statement, and the company that they chose was a company was a company that did lots and lots of work for them. So, in other words, the whole thing was rigged top to bottom and that’s why the environmental impact statement said that this pipeline would cause no trouble, unlike the scientists who said if we build this pipeline it’s “game over” for the climate. We can’t let this pipeline get built.

On November 6, one year before the election, we’re going to be in DC with a huge circle of people around the White House and they’re going to be carrying signs with quotations from Barack Obama from the 2008 campaign. He said, “It’s time to end the tyranny of oil.” He said, “I will have the most transparent government in history.” We have to go to DC to find out where they have locked that guy up. We have to free Obama, because there is some sort of stunt double there now. So on November 6, I hope we can move, just for a day, Occupy Wall Street down to the White House and get them in the fight against corporate power.

The reason that it’s so great that we’re occupying Wall Street is because Wall Street has been occupying the atmosphere. That’s why we can never do anything about global warming. Exxon gets in the way. Goldman Sachs gets in the way. The whole fossil fuel industry gets in the way. The sky does not belong to Exxon. They cannot keep using it as a sewer into which to dump their carbon. If they do, we’ve got no future and nobody else on this planet has a future.

I spend a lot of time in countries around the world organizing demonstrations and rallies in solidarity. In the last three years at 350.org, we’ve had 15,000 rallies in every country except North Korea. Everywhere around the world, poor people and black people and brown people and Asian people and young people are standing up. Most of those places, don’t produce that much carbon. They need us to act with them and for them, because the problem is 20 blocks south of here. That’s where the Empire lives and we’ve got to figure out how to tame it and make it work for this planet or not work at all.

Thank you guys very much.

The video is below. The reason the crowd keeps repeating what McKibben is saying is that the police have prohibited all forms of sound amplification, so the demonstrators have taken to using what they call the “human microphone”—speakers address the crowd in short phrases which are then repeated across the crowd as many times as is necessary for all in attendance to hear what’s being said. The pipeline he refers to, right at the beginning, is the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, currently in the final review phase by the State Department.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13S5uqPLJUk&feature=player_embedded#!]

More links:

Pipeline Review Is Faced With Question of Conflict

Tar Sands Pipeline Provokes Americans To Civil Disobedience

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photo by Shadia Fayne Wood,via Tar Sands Action

Saturday August 20th marked the start of the largest act of civil disobedience for the climate in U.S. history. Over 2,000 people from across the U.S. and Canada are arriving in Washington, D.C. to send a message to President Obama that our children’s future is more important than oil profits. Obama will be deciding the fate of the massive new Keystone XL Pipeline that would bring Alberta tar sands oil across the U.S. to be refined in Texas. NASA scientist James Hansen has described the Canadian tar sands as a “carbon bomb” and warned that if they are fully developed it will be “game over” for the climate.

The police moved in within a few minutes of the 50 or so participants lining up at the White House fence. Several participants held two large banners that read “Climate Change is Not in Our National Interest: Stop the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline” and “We Sit In Against the Keystone XL Pipeline. Obama Will You Stand Up to Big Oil?” while the rest of the group sat-in on the sidewalk  in front of the fence. More than 50 people were arrested on Saturday, and they remained in jail on Sunday as 45 more people were arrested as they stood peacefully in front of the White House. Today, 50 more people are planning to stand there to remind Obama of what is at stake in his upcoming decision (it is his, and his alone to make – Congress doesn’t have a vote in the pipeline decision).

Not all of us concerned about climate change can be in Washington this August. I considered it, but prior commitments to family and friends won out; I also will admit to being nervous about being arrested in a foreign country. As well, I don’t think this will be the last time that those of us deeply concerned about our children’s future will be asked to participate in civil disobedience, so I will have other opportunities to act.

There are some things that those of us watching those courageous souls in Washington can do to support them:

  • 350.org is asking for messages of support for the participants in the Washington action. Write a short message of support, hold it up and take a picture of it, and send it as an attachment to photos@350.org with Tar Sands Action Solidarity from (*Wherever you live*)” in the subject. These pictures will be projected on the walls of the training spaces for everyone who is preparing to for the sitting-in to see. For more info, go to 350.org.
  • The coalition organizing the protest, Tarsandsaction.org, is accepting donations and new sign-ups for the sit-in throughout the next two weeks.
  • Email or write President Obama asking him to defuse the tar sands carbon bomb by refusing permission for the Keystone XL pipeline.
    E-mail address: (5000 character limit) http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
    Mailing Address: The White House
    1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
    Washington, DC 20500

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More links:

NYTimes: Protest Makes Canada-To-U.S Pipeline Project Newest Front In Climate Clash

70 People Arrested In Opening Day of Tar Sands Action

Send Your Messages of Support to 2,000 Brave Souls Sitting In At White House

Whatever You Do, DO NOT Draw A Connection Between Tornadoes And Climate Change

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Today’s article is cross-posted from 350.org. It was published in Monday’s Washington Post and is written by Bill McKibbon, founder of the global climate campaign 350.org, and Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College.

Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of rubble like this week’s shots from Joplin, Missouri, you should not ask yourself: I wonder if this is somehow related to the huge tornado outbreak three weeks ago in Tuscaloosa, or the enormous outbreak a couple of weeks before that—together they comprised the most active April for tornadoes in our history. But that doesn’t mean a thing.

It is far better to think of these as isolated, unpredictable, discrete events. It is not advised to try and connect them in your mind with, say, the fires now burning across Texas—fires that have burned more of America by this date than any year in our history. Texas, and adjoining parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico, are drier than they’ve ever been—the drought is worse than the Dust Bowl. But do not wonder if it’s somehow connected.

If you did wonder, you’d have to also wonder about whether this year’s record snowfalls and rainfalls across the Midwest—resulting in record flooding across the Mississippi—could somehow be related. And if you did that, then you might find your thoughts wandering to, oh, global warming. To the fact that climatologists have been predicting for years that as we flood the atmosphere with carbon we will also start both drying and flooding the planet, since warm air holds more water vapor than cold.

It’s far smarter to repeat to yourself, over and over, the comforting mantra that no single weather event can ever be directly tied to climate change. There have been tornadoes before, and floods—that’s the important thing. Just be careful to make sure you don’t let yourself wonder why all these records are happening at once: why we’ve had unprecedented megafloods from Australia to Pakistan in the last year. Why it’s just now that the Arctic has melted for the first time in thousands of years. Focus on the immediate casualties, watch the videotape from the store cameras as the shelves are blown over. Look at the anchorman up to the chest of his waders in the rising river. Click here to read the rest of the article on the Washington Post.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZlGrTpXS4U&feature=player_embedded]

To find out how to help those devastated by the recent tornadoes, go to the Salvation Army or Red Cross websites.

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More links:

Floods, Tornadoes, And Climate Change

Joplin Disaster Spurs Media Whirlwind on Link Between Climate Change Extreme Weather and Tornadoes


It’s Been A Year Since The Gulf Oil Disaster Began – Have We Learned Our Lesson Yet?

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One year ago today, the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sprang a “leak” which was more like an erupting volcano after an explosion on board which killed 11 men and injured 17 others.  The underwater volcano spewed black tarry oil into the pristine waters of the Gulf of Mexico for the next 89 days, devastating marine and wildlife habitats and permanently disrupting the livelihoods, and often the health, of the people living on the coast. Have we in North America learned anything from that experience?  Has there been a sea change in attitudes, and a subsequent move by state and federal governments to decisively to wean us off of our addiction to powering our homes and industry with toxic dead things and towards renewable clean energy?  It seems not – the fossil fuel industry, and it’s mouthpiece, the U.S.(and Canadian) Chambers of Commerce, have mighty deep pockets and lots of influence with our political leaders.  But there are signs of hope. Last weekend in Washington, D.C., 10,000 young people got together at PowerShift 2011.  It was an action-packed, inspirational weekend.  Here is Bill McKibbon’s address to the young leaders, reposted from 350.org:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdF8wz4Jwm8&feature=player_embedded]

All right, listen up. Very few people can ever say that they are in
the single most important place they could possibly be doing the
single most important thing they could possibly be doing. That’s you,
here, now.

You are the movement that we need if we are going to win in the few
years that we have. You have the skills now. You are making the
connections. And there is no one else. It is you.

That is a great honor and that is a terrible burden. There is no one else.

The science is the easy part in this, grim, but easy. 2010 was the
warmest year on record. And it was warm. We were on the phone one day
with our 350 crew in Pakistan and one of them said, “It’s hot out here
today,” and I was surprised to hear him say it  because it’s usely hot
in Pakistan during the summer. He said, no it’s really hot . We just
set the new, all time Asia temperature record, 129 degrees. That kind
of heat melts the arctic. That kind of heat causes drought so deep
across Russia  that the Kremlin stops all grain exports. That kind of
heat  causes the flooding that still has 4 million people across
Pakistan homeless tonight.

It’s tough, it’s grim, but the good news at least is that it’s clear,
the science. We have a number: 350 parts per million. 350, the most
important number on earth. As the NASA team put it in January 2008,
“any value in the atmosphere greater than 350 parts per million  is
not compatible with the planet on which civilization developed and
which life on earth is adapted.”  Getting back to 350 pars per million
will be very very tough, the toughest thing human beings have ever
done, but there is no use complaining about it, it’s just physics and
chemistry. That’s what we have to do.

But if the scientific method has worked splendidly to outline our
dilemma, that’s how badly the political method has worked to solve it.
Think about our own country, historically the biggest source of carbon
emissions. Last summer, the Senate refused to even take a vote on the
tepid, moderate, tame climate bill that was before it. Last week, the
House voted 248 to 174 to pass a resolution saying global warming
wasn’t real. It was one of the most embarrassing votes that Congress
has ever taken. They believe that because they can amend the tax laws
they can amend the laws of nature too, but they can’t. I’m awful glad
a few of you went up to the visitors gallery to talk some sense to
them last week.

Even the White House. Two weeks ago, the interior secretary, who spoke
here two years ago, Ken Salazar, signed a piece of paper opening up
250 million tonnes of coal under federal land in Wyoming to mining.
That’s like opening 300 new coal fired power plants and running them
for a year. That’s a disgrace.

But you know what. We understand the physics and chemistry of
political power. In this case, it’s not carbon dioxide that rules the
day: it’s money.

Many of you are in the District of Columbia for the first time and it
looks clean and it looks sparkling. No, this city is as polluted as
Beijing. But instead of coal smoke it’s polluted by money. Money warps
our political life, it obscures our vision, but just like with physics
in chemistry there is no use whining. We know now what we need to do
and the first thing we need to do is build a movement.

We will never have as much money as the oil companies so we need a
different currency to work in, we need bodies, we need creativity, we
need spirit.

350.org has been like a beta-test for that movement. It began with
youth here at Power Shift four years ago. It’s now spread around the
planet. In the last two years, there have been 15,000 demonstrations
in 189 nations. CNN called it the most widespread political activity
in the planet’s history. But it needs to get bigger still. On the
first Earth Day in 1970 there 20 million Americans in the street, one
in ten Americans. That’s the kind of size we need.

And so, on September 24 we need your help. September 24 is the next
big day of action. We’re calling it Moving Planet and in those 189
nations, people will be in motion. Much of it will be on bicycles,
because the bicycles is one of the few tools that rich and poor both
use. Who here knows how to ride a bike? All right, September 24, I
cannot wait to see the pictures. We are not going to wait for the
politicians to move, we’re going to create the future that we need
ourselves.

But that movement doesn’t just need to be bigger, it needs to sharper
too, more aggressive.

You know what, at Copenhagen we got 117 nations to sign on to that 350
target. That was good, but they were the wrong 117 nations. They were
the poorest and most vulnerable nations. The most addicted nations,
led by our own, weren’t yet willing to bit the bullet, so that’s where
we’ve got to go to work.

That work, to deal with that money pollution, that work starts Monday
at ten o’clock in Lafayette Square, across from the White House and
next to a place called the US Chamber of Commerce.

The Koch Brothers are high peaks of corruption, but the US Chamber of
Commerce is the Everest of dirty money. It boasts on its web page that
it is the biggest lobby in Washington. In fact, it spends more money
lobbying than the next five lobbies combined. It spent more money on
politics last year than the Republican National Committee and the
Democratic National Committee combined and 94% of that went to climate
deniers.

We cannot stop their money, but we can strip them of their
credibility. They claim to represent all American business, but they
don’t. 55% of their funding came from 16 companies. They don’t have to
say who those companies are, but it’s easy to tell when you watch what
they do. They spend their time lobbying to make sure the planet heats
up as fast it possibly can.

They sent a legal brief to the EPA last year, saying that they should
take no action on climate change, because if the planet warmed, humans
could alter their behavior and their physiology to deal with the
problem. I don’t even really know what that means, alter your
physiology. Grow gills? I don’t know. But I can tell you this. I am
too old to change my physiology and you all are too good looking. But
I will adapt my behavior. Every day now I will roll out of bed and go
to work fighting them. Hell, I will go to bed at night and try to
dream up new ways to fight.

We’re going to adapt our behavior all right. We’re going to adapt our
behavior now to fight on every front. I’m sorry if that sounds
aggressive, but there we are.

Twenty-two years ago, I wrote the first book about climate change and
I’ve gotten to watch it all, and I know that simply persuasion will
not do. We need to fight. Now, we need to fight non-violently and with
civil disobedience. You will hear from my friend Tim DeChristopher in
a moment and more to come, but if you’re going to go that route, one
thing you need to make sure that you manage to get across in your
witness is that you are not the radicals in this fight.

The radicals are the people are the people who are fundamentally
altering the composition of the atmosphere. That is the most radical
thing people have ever done.

We need to fight with art and with music, too. Not just the side with
our brain that likes bar graphs and pie graphs, but with all our heart
and all our soul. Tomorrow or tonight, you need to go down behind Hall
B downstairs and help them build the art work for Monday morning.

We need to fight with unity. We need to have a coherent voice. That’s
why, last week we joined with our friends at 1Sky to build this
bigger, stronger 350.org. We need to speak with one loud voice,
because we are fighting for your future.

So far, we’ve raised the temperature of the planet one degree and
that’s done all that I’ve described, it’s melted the arctic, it’s
changed the oceans. The climatologists tell us that unless we act with
great speed and courage that one degree will be five degrees before
this century is out. And if we do that, then the world that we leave
behind will be a ruined world.

We fight not just for ourselves, we fight for the beauty of this
place. For cool trout streams and deep spruce woods. For chilly fog
rising off the Pacific and deep snow blanketing the mountains. We
fight for all the creation that shares this planet with us. We don’t
know half the species on Earth we’re wiping out.

And of course, we fight alongside our brothers and sisters around the
world. You’ve seen the pictures as I talk: these are our comrades.
Most of these people, as you see, come from places that have not
caused this problem, and yet they’re willing to be in deep solidarity
with us. That’s truly admirable and it puts a real moral burden on us.
Never let anyone tell you, that environmentalism is something that
rich, white people do. Most of the people that we work with around the
world are poor and black and brown and Asian and young, because that’s
what most of the world is made up of, and they care about the future
as anyone else.

We have to fight, finally, without any guarantee that we are going to
win. We have waited late to get started and our adversaries are strong
and we do not know how this is going to come out. If you were a
betting person, you might bet we were going to lose because so far
that’s what happened, but that’s not a bet you’re allowed to make. The
only thing that a morally awake person to do when the worst thing
that’s ever happened is happening is try to change those odds.

I have spent most of my last few years in rooms around the world with
great people, many of whom will be refugees before this century is
out, some of whom may be dead from climate change before this century
is out. No guarantee that we will win, but from them a complete
guarantee that we will fight with everything we have. It is always an
honor for me to be in those rooms. It is the greatest honor for me to
be with you tonight.

No guarantee that we will win, but we will fight side by side, as long
as we’ve got. Thank you all so much.

More links:

The Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill

Power Shift 2011

It’s Time For Some Action and Inspiration

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350.org, founded in 2007 by author and environmental activist Bill McKibbon and a team of university friends, was the catalyst for my involvement in the climate action movement.350.org spells out clearly what is known about the warming of earth’s atmosphere: 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is what experts say is the safe limit for humanity. That is what is required to sustain life and civilization as we know it. And we are now above that. 350.org inspired me to move from being a climate change avoider to actively working to ensure my daughters have a chance to live in a world that’s not irreparably damaged by human activity.

As 350.org says of 2010:

It’s been a tough year: in North America, oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico; in Asia some of the highest temperatures ever recorded; in the Arctic, the fastest melting of sea ice ever seen; in Latin America, record rainfalls washing away whole mountainsides.

So we’re having a party.

Circle 10/10/10 on your calendar. That’s the date. The place is wherever you live. And the point is to do something that will help deal with global warming in your city or community. We’re calling it a Global Work Party.

In case you need more inspiration, here’s a video compilation of the amazing momentum that the climate movement gained in 2009.

2009 was an important year for the global climate change movement. From India to USA, from Ethiopia to China, people all over the globe took action, demanding fair and bold action to stop dangerous climate change. As world leaders met in Copenhagen for the UN climate talks in December, millions marched in the streets around the world.

In 2010, the movement is growing EVEN BIGGER. Visit http://350.org to get inspired and take action.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOf6EN45aRc]