Carbon Polluters Have Pushed True Cost of Their Pollution Onto The Rest Of Us For Too Long

graphic: Senator Whitehouse Facebook page

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Posted on March 12, 2013 on Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s Facebook page:

We pay for carbon pollution in far too many ways. Today, Rep. Henry Waxman, Rep. Blumenauer, Senator Schatz, and I introduced a carbon fee discussion draft. Our goal is to begin a collaborative process that results in legislation that not only reduces carbon pollution but also makes sure ALL of the revenue generated through the carbon fee is returned to the American people.

Learn more at http://whitehouse.senate.gov/ClimateChange and join the #CutCarbon conversation.

COP 17 in Durban – Day 1

Today is the first day of the U.N. climate talks in Durban South Africa. As I wrote earlier, many people’s expectations (including mine) for a meaningful and binding international climate treaty coming out of these 10 days is low. It seems, sadly, that unbridled capitalism will triumph over humanity’s need for clean water, clean air, and a stable climate. The Alberta-based Pembina Institute put it this way:

Comparing the frustratingly slow pace of international negotiations on climate change against the ever-increasing urgency of climate-change science, it is hard to be optimistic. The level of ambition currently being demonstrated puts the world on track for irreversible and catastrophic climate change.

I recently heard someone say “Power is power.” Imagine if we lived in a world where everyone, whether they are an African living in remotest Sudan or a Pakistani in the highest Karakoram mountain or a New Yorker in Manhattan, could put up a solar panel or wind turbine to run their laptop or power their schools. Citizens of the world could get around without lining the pockets of Big Oil and Gas, as they rely on electric cars, or e-bikes, or accessible public transport. Parents wouldn’t need to be the gate-keepers of toxins to protect their children from poisons in the food they eat or the air they breathe, as sustainability becomes the norm in agriculture and industry as well as transportation, and clean water and air become the standard around the world rather than the exception.

The fossil fuel industry recognized several decades ago, before most environmentalists and certainly before most politicians (who still don’t get it), that a fundamental paradigm shift is required to address the climate crisis, and this shift threatens these corporations’ bottom line. They are fighting for their lives, and fighting dirty; and they don’t care about the lives of the most vulnerable or about our children’s future.

Christiana Figueres, who replaced Yvo de Boer as head of the U.N. climate secretariat in 2010, said Sunday the stakes for the COP17 negotiations are high, underscored by new scientific studies. Figueres said under discussion at COP17 was: “nothing short of the most compelling energy, industrial, behavioral revolution that humanity has ever seen.

As investigative reporter William Marsden said on CBC Radio’s The Current this morning, it’s time to bring the science to the table, and let the science, not politics and the fossil fuel industry, dictate what should be done. Yet the industrialized nations, the big emitters, have been increasingly ignoring the science and muzzling scientists. In its 2011 World Energy Outlook, the International Energy Association has said that the world is at risk of being locked into an ‘insecure, inefficient and high-carbon energy system’ that will lead to average temperature increases of 3.5 C, and called for immediate action because if the world’s energy infrastructure isn’t changed by 2017 CO2 emissions will be locked in and catastrophic climate change will be set in motion.

Where are the parents, who should be in the streets demanding our governments take the science seriously and protect our children’s future?  It’s time for parents and grandparents, as well as young people, to get noisy and get active. Otherwise, we’re facing mutually assured destruction.

Suggestions For Immediate Actions:

The Council of Canadians has an action for Canadians to send a message to the European Union to uphold the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) which labels tar sands oil as a high carbon, and encourages suppliers to reduce emissions and promotes the use of cleaner fuels over dirty fuels. For details on how to send a message of support for this clean fuel policy, go to the Council’s Action Alert page.

Join Citizens Climate Lobby, a nonprofit non-partisan international group focused on creating the political will for a sustainable climate and empowering individuals to have breakthroughs in exercising their personal and political power. Dr. James Hansen said at the Keystone XL Pipeline protests:

“Most impressive is the work of the Citizens Climate Lobby, a relatively new,  fast growing, nonpartisan, nonprofit group with 35 chapters across the United States and Canada. If you want to join the fight to save the planet, to save creation for your grandchildren, there is no more effective step you could take than becoming an active member of this group.”

CCL has introductory calls on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month, contact me at 350orbust@gmail.com or email ccl@citizensclimatelobby.org. Or check out their websites:

Citizens Climate Lobby International

Citizens Climate Lobby Canada

Whatever you chose to do, the important thing is to do something. For those of us who have a future generation depending on us, doing nothing isn’t an option any more.

The World After 9/11

North America, in case you haven’t turned on a computer, television, or radio this past week, is remembering the terror attacks on the twin towers, and the Pentagon, ten years ago tomorrow. Gerald Kaplan wrote in yesterday’s Globe and Mail:

Of the million stories that reflect the world since that moment, here’s the one I find most revealing. As a direct result of toiling in the ruins of the twin towers, many New York firefighters, police officers and other emergency workers became seriously ill, some terminally. These “first responders” have been lauded to the hills for their heroism, often in the most cringe-worthy manner by craven political opportunists. Saints, they were, saints, my dears, and we’ll never ever forget their sacrifices.

Late last year, the American government proposed a bill to provide funding to aid these damaged saints. A no-brainer, eh? Not in post-9/11 America. In fact the Republican members of Congress united to oppose such funding unless the tax cuts George Bush had gifted to the top 2 per cent of Americans were extended. Only when they were shamed publicly by Jon Stewart did the Republicans finally relent. But fear not. They of course won those continuing gifts to the filthy rich when President Barack Obama caved on raising America’s credit limit.

Writ small, this is the history of the post-9/11 world in the United States, in Canada, in Britain, and wherever else business interests and conservative politicians have been able to have their way with us – us being the vast majority of the world’s population.

 Naomi Klein’s revelatory book Shock Doctrine, Kaplan goes on, is an accurate description of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate much of the world through the exploitation of people and destabilized countries. He concludes that:

Osama bin Laden inflicted a terrible crime on the American people. America’s elites and their allies have done the rest.

Photo: used under Creative Commons License

More links:

Naomi Klein: Katrina, 9/11, and Disaster Capitalism

The Radicals Are The People Who Are Fundamentally Altering The Composition Of The Atmosphere

From Tar Sands Action, an update on Day 4 of the two-week action in Washington DC against the Keystone XL pipeline project:

Montana residents and Hollywood stars will be featured at Day 4 of the Tar Sands Action at the White House. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which 162 Americans have been arrested protesting this week, would run through Montana and six other states.

Among those planning on being arrested today are film-star Margot Kidder, who played Lois Lane in four Superman movies, and actress Tantoo Cardinal, an iconic Cree actress who appeared in Dances with Wolves, Legends of the Fall, Smoke Signals and more. Cardinal, who was born in Ft. McMurray, Alberta, the capitol of the tar sands, was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2009.

Cardinal will risk arrest to stop the destruction of her homeland and push President Obama to help shut down the tar sands by denying a permit for the Keystone XL.

Everyone who has participated in the Tar Sands Action thus far is out of police custody.

Here’s a video from Josh Fox, Academy Award-nominated director of Gasland, about the tar sands action:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5QqsLsMroM]

More links:

Tar Sands Action

Climate Mama: Kids In Tow, Tar Sands Pipeline Protest Here We Come

Dozens Arrested Outside White House During Oil Sands Protest

Australia Steps Up Climate Fight, U.S. Republicans Step Back In Time

With the announcement yesterday of a new carbon tax proposal, Australia is set to become the world leader on addressing climate change. Right now, Australia leads the world in per-capita carbon pollution. The carbon tax, which has been described as “modest, riddled with exclusions, bribing voters and corporations“, is still the best national carbon plan in the world. It is expected to pass in both houses of parliament before the end of the year, but the Conservative opposition and the Australian coal industry seem determined to whip up public sentiment against the carbon tax (remember, Australia is where climate scientists have been receiving death threats and über-denier Monckton is invited back regularly ). Right now, polls indicate 60% of the population is opposed to carbon pricing, and Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s Labor government is the most unpopular in 40 years. A lot is riding on the government’s ability to convince voters that it’s time to tackle climate change.

In the meantime, closer to home, U.S. Republicans, bowing to their tea party members, are set today to repeal legislation that promotes energy-efficient light bulbs, one that was signed into law by none other than President George W. Bush and is now embraced by industry. Sounds like the Mad Hatter’s tea party in Washington these days!

More Links:

Australia Carbon Tax Modest Beginning

Australia Steps Up Climate Fight, Unveils Sweeping Carbon Plan

Climate Scientists Angered By Denier’s Death Threat Campaign

Republicans Defend “Personal Liberty” in Fight To Ban Energy-Saving Lightbulbs

Carbon Fee and Dividend: Building a Green Economy

Huge Sand Storm Causes Power Outages, Closes Airport in Phoenix

Some incredible footage from a huge sandstorm that blanketed Phoenix Arizona yesterday. One local resident said:

I have been in Arizona for 20 years and have never seen a storm this size. Once the dust reached us it was as dark as the middle of a moonless night.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lay5xKSStqA]

Get ready for more and more extreme weather, folks, as our atmosphere continues to heat up thanks to our addiction to fossil fuels. As Chief Oren Lyons said when addressing the UN’s Permanent Forum On Indigenous Issues back in 2007:

There is no mercy in nature; nature has none. It has only law, only rule. You don’t abide the rule, you suffer the result.

Want to hear more about the connection between extreme weather and climate change?  Check out these links:

Jeff Master’s Weather Underground: 2010 – 2011: The Earth’s Most Extreme Weather Since 1816?

Climate Progress: West Texas Sees Worst Drought Since Dust Bowl

An Introduction to Global Warming Impacts: Hell and High Water

Or have you had enough information, and are ready to move from “Well-Informed Futility Syndrome” to action, to protect your future, along with your children’s and grandchildren’s?  Moving from Futility Syndrome to action not only means your children have a chance at a better life, it also does wonders for your mental health!  I’m speaking as one who suffered from this syndrome until I was inspired by 350.org to take a stand back in October of 2009.  Check out these links, and/or contact me at 350orbust@gmail.com for practical ways to work on the most pressing issue of our times:

350.org: Moving Planet, Sept 24, 2011

A Rising Movement: 2010 Year in Review, 350.org

Citizens Climate Lobby (Canada)

Citizens Climate Lobby

An invitation to take action, and possibly engage in civil disobedience to demonstrate against the Keystone XL Pipeline project, was recently issued by leading North American activists, including Bill McKibbon, David Suzuki, Danny Glover, Naomi Klein, Dr. James Hansen, Maude Barlow, Tom Goldtooth, and others:

The short version is we want you to consider doing something hard: coming to Washington in the hottest and stickiest weeks of the summer and engaging in civil disobedience that will quite possibly get you arrested.

Click here to the read the full invitation and to respond.

Take Time To Renew Your Spirit

There are so many societies in which the elite made decisions that were good for themselves in the short run and ruined themselves and societies in the long run….

Similarly, in the United States at present, the policies being pursued by too many wealthy people and decision makers are ones that — as in the case of the Mayan kings — preserve their interests in the short run but are disastrous in the long run.

~Jared Diamond, author of “Collapse: How Societies Chose to Fail or Succeed”

quoted in Climate Progress

Climate Scientist Heidi Cullen On The “C-Word”

Climate Quote of the Day:

But even though we don’t have all the answers — and maybe never will — we do know enough to act. And that is really the bigger point, the one I try to bring home when the phone rings. The recent National Research Council’s “America’s Climate Choices” report advised Congress that we know enough to get started on preparing for climate change and preventing the most severe consequences, and we need to get started right away. Almost anything we do to protect ourselves in the future from this hotter world we’re creating, will also protect us right now from many of the extremes Mother Nature throws at us. We can’t afford to wait.

Heidi Cullen, Climate Scientist in an article in today’s Huffington Post, The C-Word

Joplin, Missouri tornado damage

More links:

Climate Central

Quarantine the Kochs: Billionaire Brothers Associated With One Political Scandal After Another Now Infecting Canada

Rachel Maddow on the Koch brothers, the U.S. billionaires who are using their money to oppose action on climate change, clean energy, and environmental regulation:

“[The Koch brothers] names pop up in every scummy political scandal, one after another. From the wisconsin union busting and the phony astroturf bus tours to the questionable partiality of the American Supreme Court Justices. It feels like every time a really gross new political scandal erupts, big or small, there’s the Koch brothers, with a chair pulled up to the table….every time you turn over a political rock, there they are…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71SWF3FvEQM]

The campaign to boycott these toxic brothers is growing.  For more information, go to the “Boycott and Defeat Koch Industries” page on Facebook, or to go How You Can Boycott the Kochs on alternet.org

Need any more reasons to boycott the Kochs?  Here’s U.S. Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) thanking David Koch for supporting his election in 2010 and making a plea for help in his re-election campaign next year.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnkipn-gJK4]

And now, the Koch brothers are infecting Canada, in (where else?) the Alberta tar sands. Check out Koch Brothers Set Up Shop In Tar Sands Territory. But that’s not all – their oily tentacles have reached my home province, Ontario, as well: Koch Brothers Continue Their Canadian Takeover

More links:

‘War on Science’:  Committee From Koch Votes To Deny Climate Change

Waxman: All That Seems to Matter is What Koch Industries Think