Coming off the week of the successful 72 Hours for Clean American Power campaign, we continue our work to protect the Clean Air Act and get the Senate going on climate legislation. 1Sky ally Greenpeace floated a banner to show polluter-lawmaker relationships while Senator Inhofe flies the flag of Dirty Coal. India officially joined the Copenhagen Accord... conditionally. That, Green Patriot Posters, and a climate champ Senator tells scientist to learn from Sylvester Stallone below.
This was the week of 72 Hours for Clean American Power. You probably heard about the massive call campaign from us, but lots of groups were a part of this effort, and several posted reports back from supporters who called. We also read more this week about green job efforts both ongoing and in the works. Finally, a friend of the climate change movement came out with a great video showing the growth of the movement in 2009. more »
From 1Sky Michigan Climate Precinct Captain Mark Miller. You can read more from Mark on his blog.
During last week's President' Day Actions, a number of 1Sky coordinators, organizers, and volunteers met up with senators while they were back home in their states. The goal was to deliver our message loud and clear: Americans (and voters!) want strong federal legislation to curb carbon emission and transition to a clean renewable energy future now -- and we oppose Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) efforts to gut the Clean Air Act!
Senator Carl Levin spoke last Monday morning, President's Day, at the Kalamazoo Regional Chamber of Commerce's Legislative Connection event. I went primarily to ask him about his support for climate and energy legislation. I had written to him last year about this issue, and his written reply... well, I touch on that in my question to him.
As the Senator came in, I shook his hand, and reminded him that I had sat next to him one night at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. So, when we came to question time, he called on me first. (The video does not capture my question or the first few words of Sen. Levin's answer.)
As we here in Maryland prepare for another crazy snow weekend, we look back on a busy climate week. The biggest carbon emitter countries handed in their Copenhagen Accord homework, business leaders went to DC for clean energy, and the flame of competition traveled with zero emissions. Read on.
Last night, I went to hear what President Obama had to say at a Gen44 event organized by the Democratic National Committee (note that I took time off from 1Sky to attend the event because 1Sky is a 501(c)(3) organization and we can’t -- and don’t -- do any electoral work).
Anyway, I happened to catch President Obama on a rope line and decided on the fly to challenge him on the mythology of clean coal since our base has been so concerned about his repeated calls for clean coal (and nuclear and oil drilling) alongside real renewable energy solutions. My partner Louis captured the exchange on his iPhone.
Here is what happened and a transcript as best as I can put it together since the audio isn’t great, especially on my voice -- although Obama comes through loud and clear and we have our work cut out for us!
This week's action in the climate community has been centered around doing everything we can to stop an appropriations bill amendment that would greatly damage the Clean Air Act's ability to regulate carbon emissions. More information came out regarding the coal and oil lobbyist who worked on the amendment and others involved.
Here at 1Sky, we know that making calls, sending emails, and writing letters to the editor are incredibly important ways to make your voices heard to senators. It is nice, however, when the decision-makers in Washington, D.C. can hear from us in more creative ways. Last fall you all did just that, and today we took them right to your representatives in Congress.
Happy first blog round-up of 2010! Congress is still on recess, but progress doesn't go by the legislative calendar. This week, a big focus of the blogs was on the science behind climate change. Thankfully there are some great scientist bloggers to explain it to the rest of us. more »
This will be my last blog from Copenhagen. I fly out at 7am tomorrow and I can’t wait to see my family after a very long and intense two weeks.
Everyone around me who is locked out of the negotiations and watching the speeches continuing inside the Bella Center seems exhausted, tense, frustrated, and depressed. Many faces -- including my own -- are tear-stained.
President Obama reportedly got off Air Force One and moved immediately into a Heads of State meeting. From there, he moved to address the plenary in what appeared to be a serious, determined and frustrated mood (read full text of his speech here or watch the video). He said he did not come to talk - that he came to act. And that we have to come together to address a common threat.
