From the frontlines

We've received an urgent call to action from our friends and Green Jobs Now partners at Coal River Wind in West Virginia. Richmond, Va.-based Massey Energy has announced plans to begin mountaintop removal Wednesday (tomorrow, September 10) on Coal River Mountain, an area of West Va. with enormous wind power development potential. Blasting Coal River Mountain will eliminate some of the potential for the production of clean wind energyand the creation of good, green jobs, and it will be harder for local residents to stop the continuation of the mining once it has started.

Governor Joe Manchin has the power to stop this catastrophe--and Coal River Wind needs your help convincing him to grant Coal River Mountain a stay of execution. Call Gov. Manchin today at 1-888-438-2731 or sign the Coal River Wind petition. You can find out more about Coal River Mountain and what you can do to save it at the Coal River Wind website.

The following is another guest post from Caeli Quinn, Co-Founder and Director of Climate Ride, a multi-day bicycle ride to raise money and awareness of climate change. Click here for more details.

Who are the more than 100 people who have raised money to ride their bicycles 300 miles from the Big Apple to the nation’s capital, to make a statement about climate change and renewable energy? Do they have calves like Lance Armstrong? Personal fortunes like Paris Hilton? Aspirations of political fame? A chemical imbalance?

And the reports just keep on coming! Brooklyn resident Megan Dietz, who blogs at The Sunny Way, visited the office of Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) last Friday. She reports on her meeting with legislative aide Jehmal Hudson:

I felt good at the end of our meeting, like I had brought a new perspective into the room and I had also gotten what I wanted—a good read on where my Representative sits on the issues that matter to me. It was really great of Jehmal to take the time to speak with me, hear me out, and provide the information I requested. Overall it was a very positive experience.

It took me three phone calls to get an appointment with Senator John Cornyn's (R-TX) Washington energy specialist through teleconference from his Austin office. Cornyn simply wasn't available without months of advanced notice (I can’t believe that is really true for everybody, but that's what I was told). We met at 10:30 AM that morning for a half hour.

The following is a guest post by Annie Brown of Virginia. Annie helped organize a visit to the office of Senator Jim Webb as part of our August recess call to action, and then kindly agreed to write about her experience for our blog. -- Sarah

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of working with a wonderful group of people participating in 1Sky’s National Call to Action. Tommi Drum, Susan Davis, Don Davis, and I were 4 of the 1,700 people who signed up to participate in this action that encouraged constituents to have meetings with their Members of Congress to promote the 1Sky pledge.

The following is another guest post from Geraldine Carter, Co-Founder and Director of Climate Ride, a multi-day bicycle ride to raise money and awareness of climate change. Click here for more details.

We're now just one short month away from beginning Climate Ride, and exciting new developments arise each week. The latest news? Two of our support vans and our luggage bus will be powered by veggie oil!

It’s August and it’s definitely getting hot! As you all know, there has been an enormous response to our national call to action during the Congressional recess, which entails “turning up the heat” on your Member of Congress and demanding action for bold climate change policy.

The following is a guest post from Geraldine Carter, Co-Founder and Director of Climate Ride, a multi-day bicycle ride to raise money and awareness of climate change. Riders will bike from New York to Washington DC from September 20-24. Click here for more details.

Cyclists young and old are pedaling to raise awareness of climate change. Routes range from one-day rides to pan-America adventures, and each journey comes with its own flair. With so many impassioned and energetic people organizing tours of their own, we suspected there might be a greater interest in a large-scale bicycle ride to raise awareness of global warming. Turns out, our hunch was right.

You may remember last month I posted a guest blog from Leah Gourlie and Kelsey Stone, two avid bikers and climate activists who are trekking across America this summer to raise awareness about global warming and donations for 1Sky. Fortunately for us, Kelsey and Leah have been keeping a blog about their adventure, called Biking Across the Country, that you should definitely check out.

This is a guest blog from Ben Wessel, a 19-year old college student at Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT. -- Luis

Recently, I had the good fortune to visit the most amazing and pristine wilderness on the planet – the Arctic. Accompanied by 17 other young people from nine different countries, I was lucky enough to travel to the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard as a part of a program entitled the Voyage for the Future.