General

This is a guest blog from Caeli Quinn, Co-Founder and Director of Climate Ride. 1Sky was a partner at this year's Brita Climate Ride. -- Luis

I'm thrilled to announce that Climate Ride 2009 registration is now open at www.climateride.org.

It's New Year's resolution time. Are you thinking of giving up chocolate or resolving to go to the gym more? Instead, make this New Year's revolution!

I resolve to:

• Be an agent for change
  
  
• Raise my voice
  
  
• Ride my bike more
  
  
• Meet new people
  
  
• Get in shape
  
  
• Take my message straight to my elected officials
  
  
• Do something unforgettable

You can do all of this on a 5-day bike ride.

Bumped to highlight updated version featuring another awesome field & outreach team member, Sarah Schwarz. -- Luis

Here's our latest campaign video produced by our film fellow Monica Pinzón. Meet the 1Sky Organizing Team, starring Adi, Ada, and Melisa and Sarah:

We were tipped off by blogger Adam Siegel that Sen. James Inhofe, (R-OK) the ranking Minority member on the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, released a deceptive report purporting that doubts exist among scientists about global warming.

Over the past two weeks the news wires have been buzzing with news from the UN climate talks in Poznan, Poland. While negotiations occurred inside, grassroots action heated up outside, and in other parts of the world.

Thousands of climate protesters, some dressed as polar bears, devils or penguins, demanded on Saturday swifter action from the United Nations to combat global warming.

Outside U.N.-led talks in Poland aimed at pushing 187 countries toward stiffer targets to fight global warming, some 1,000 demonstrators said governments were risking the planet's future by delaying action to squabble over who was to blame.

Several thousand more protesters took part in a march through London to demand "urgent and radical action" from the British government on climate change.
…

Marches, bicycle rides and other events were scheduled around the world on Saturday to mark a "Global Day of Action on Climate," said the Global Climate Campaign, an umbrella group for participants.

London police said between 4,000 and 5,000 people took part in a rally which organizers said was aimed at reminding governments not to let the issue of climate change slip down a global agenda dominated by the financial crisis.

Gillian just released a statement about President-elect Obama's recent energy and environmental appointments:

"The Obama transition team has announced a green environmental dream team of brilliant, science-driven advisors. We finally have leadership who understand the seriousness of the threat of climate change and know what to do about it. But we will not sit back and put our feet up, resting assured that the announced appointments of Dr. Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy, Carol Browner as head of the new National Energy Council, and Lisa Jackson as Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator means guaranteed success. Leaders, no matter how brilliant, are not magicians. No leader can affect change without an army of people behind them demanding that change.

Read the full statement here.

Following up on Betsy's blog, Bill McKibben delivers some great news from Poznan:

Giving the climactic speech at the Poznan global warming conference, Gore set the new bottom line for action on global warming, right where we've been suggesting: 350 parts per million. The old goal of 450 parts per million is "inadequate," he said. We "need to toughen that goal to 350 parts per million."

The line, which drew the longest applause of the day, was a remarkable repudiation of established targets that have driven the climate debate for more than a decade. Now the world's leading scientific authority on global warming and the world's leading political authority on global warming have said the same thing: 350 is the target we have to hit. Let's get to it.

Here's some video of the concluding portion of Gore's speech (h/t to oneclimate.net), and a fuller account of the speech.

I’ve been in Poznan representing 1Sky for five days. More than 10,000 delegates and activists from nearly 190 nations are working on a framework for a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. During the past few days, the sun has shone rarely and gray skies have blanketed the city. The non-stop drizzle reflects the general mood here.

I love the wonderful traditions we share during the holidays -- ugly reindeer sweaters… bad gifts you can't wait to return… brick-hard fruit cake… recruiting your friends and family to join the movement for bold climate action…

OK, you caught me: maybe that last one isn't quite as traditional as the others -- but it should be! Because the only way we'll solve climate change is by involving millions of Americans -- including your family, friends and neighbors -- in a massive grassroots movement for change. And the holiday season is the perfect time to do it. So we've decided to make this easy and fun by creating a series of holiday e-cards you can share with those you love -- and introduce them to the climate movement in the process.

So check out these e-cards and share them with all your friends and family. And check back for more cards to come!

So nice to hear the President-elect say what we know to be true: “climate change is a matter of urgency.” Anyone else can say it, but it sounds better and means ever so much more when the President-elect says it.