EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the first-ever Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) from Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. yesterday.  The long-awaited air pollution rule promises to prevent 34,000 deaths otherwise caused from toxic pollutants released from power plants including mercury, arsenic, cyanide, nickel, chromium, lead and more.

In making the announcement, Administrator Jackson focused on children’s health issues, including cases of asthma (which her own son is battling), birth defects and impaired brain development caused by mercury in the air.

The U.S. has been waiting a long time for this. It took more than two decades of negotiating and 900,000 public comments (20,000 from RAN activists), but the final MATS rule marks a great step forward for clean air in this country.

The Obama administration has yielded mixed news on the environmental front all year, so it was cheering to hear a strong, bold announcement like this one be issued forth by the EPA despite Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski’s attempts to instill fear in the heart of the public over the new standard’s effect on energy reliability.

Even after two decades of undulating process, Senator Murkowski called the pace of the EPA rulemaking “reckless” when in fact continuing to allow outdated coal plants to operate is much more so. EPA estimates show the new safeguards “will prevent as many as 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks a year. “ If the rule had been finalized ten years ago, would 111,000 people still be living, and 47,000 heart attacks prevented?

The finalized rule will likely affect the future of about 40 percent of coal-fired power plants in the U.S., which operate substandard to the rule’s particulate pollution requirements. The utility companies operating these plants are weighing up the economics of retiring plants versus investing hundreds of millions of dollars in life-extending retrofits for the aging plants.

We have a clear understanding of the negative impacts that burning coal has on our health, economy, and climate. With the solar and wind industries booming, we know how to produce electricity without endangering ourselves. As we head into 2012, it is well past time to phase out of coal entirely and transition to cleaner and renewable energy sources. If you’d like to be a part of that transition, joining RAN’s campaign to shift the biggest U.S. banks away from coal financing and towards clean energy is a great place to start.

Lisa Jackson concluded her press conference at the children’s hospital with some hurdles the EPA encounters,  “If we started hiring engineers instead of lobbyists and scientists instead of lawyers, we [the EPA] would be able to do our job much faster for the American people.” I absolutely agree.

RAN Banner at Occupy Oakland, Nov. 2, 2011

The mainstream coverage of the Occupy Oakland demonstrations has been, by and large, so shallow and narrowly focused it is outrageous. Last night’s shut down of the Port of Oakland left many of us with a deep sense of optimism and inspiration from participating in a collective action with tens of thousands of people from all walks of life — young and old, black and white, Teamsters and Longshoreman, anarchists and hipsters — people from across all divisions of class and identity, gathering peacefully to express a deep dissatisfaction of the status quo with a firm and remarkably unified voice.

It was an amazing experience. It was electric and it was vast — the numbers being reported by the press are wildly low. I saw it with my own eyes.

That a couple dozen yahoos got excited and burned some trash cans after the day of marching was over is annoying, and their actions are counterproductive and devoid of strategy, but the fact that the national media across the board fetishized this minor property destruction to the point where it eclipsed the historic nature of what happened yesterday has many of us incensed. Not surprised, though, because this kind of rote sensationalism is Big Media’s standard MO, and it makes me mad as hell.

It also makes me want to call on this new movement to begin to target these corporate media giants alongside the other corporations undermining our democracy. The editors of these outlets are far more dangerous than the few amped-up kids in the streets who threw some water bottles at cops after midnight.

RAN's Robin Averbeck and Hillary Lehr at Occupy Oakland March

When the media systematically makes its headlines of our mass gatherings out of side stories about the antics of a few, they irresponsibly elevate the actions of a tiny percentage into the public perception of the whole. Every time they parrot the same predictable bullshit about “protestors turning violent” while failing to meaningfully communicate the larger context or the momentous nature of the moment, they are doing a disservice to us all.

Eventually, we are going to need to start calling them out for it in a big way.

“We all know, or at least sense, that the world is upside down: we act as if there is no end to what is actually finite — fossil fuels and the atmospheric space to absorb their emissions. And we act as if there are strict and immovable limits to what is actually bountiful — the financial resources to build the kind of society we need. The task of our time is to turn this around: to challenge this false scarcity. To insist that we can afford to build a decent, inclusive society — while at the same time, respect the real limits to what the earth can take.” – Naomi Klein, Author/Activist, REVEL Awardee

Tomorrow, many of the RAN staff will be out of the office. We will be shutting off our computers, leaving our desks, and joining hands in the streets of Oakland. We will be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with hundreds who identify with the Occupy movement and Occupy Oakland’s call for a ‘General Strike.’

We’ve been getting questions about why an environmental organization concerned with protecting forests, their inhabitants, and our climate would be supportive of a movement calling out the systems and institutions that maintain our country’s wealth and power inequality?

Here’s why.

Rainforest Action Network believes the social, economic, and environmental crises sweeping the planet are inter-related symptoms born of the same root causes.

Put simply, unchecked corporate power is dangerous and destructive to both people and the planet. Mother Earth is as much a member of the 99% as any one of us.

Central to RAN’s mission is the analysis that in order to protect the environment we must strike a balance between economy and ecology. Since our start in 1985, we’ve found that the same institutions and the same logic that is destroying our economy is also destroying our environment, and that the most effective way to protect the world’s natural resources is by challenging those corporations whose business models rely on this environmental destruction.

So long as corporations are granted free reign to pursue short-term profits at the expense of the long-term health of our environment, our economy and our communities, there will continue to be a race to the bottom where environmental and social costs are externalized and benefits are concentrated into the hands of fewer and fewer.

But what if that business model did not exist? What if corporations valued our environment, our health, and our well-being? What if our government worked not for the highest bidder but for the highest interests of its people and the planet? What if people from all walks of life joined together to say we’re ready for a new system because the one we have is not working? That is the promise and potential that Rainforest Action Network sees in the Occupy movement.

At RAN, we are fighting for a world where corporate accountability matters. Where our food system does not include ingredients derived from the destruction of rainforests and Indigenous communities. Where our financial system is just and does not unjustly bankroll industries, like the coal industry, that are poisoning communities and our climate. If we are going to win, if we are going to achieve these goals, we cannot do it one commodity at a time, one bad act at a time, or even one company at time. We need a broad movement willing to ask for what the world needs, and unwilling to settle for anything less.

A few weeks ago, author and activist Naomi Klein told RAN staff and supporters that what she sees with the Occupy movement is a moment that proves we are “more popular than we could have ever imagined.” It is a moment to dream big and feel what is possible. It is a moment to realize that our demands for ecological and economic sanity are not unreasonable, they are essential, they are popular, and they are one and the same.

And it is not only that the problems of economic inequality and environmental destruction are inextricably connected; the solutions to these problems are intertwined as well. The key to protecting our environment and protecting each other is the same. The key is us.

We are the people who can redefine the underlying values that govern our society and rebuild our economy based on long-term needs, not short-term greed. We are the innovative people willing to take risks and to do what’s needed. We are all part of the same movement.

So whether your primary concern is rainforest destruction, climate change, home foreclosures, the concentration of wealth, or corporate power, this is your fight. You are invited. You are needed.

Becky White and the Secret Mission have just released this catchy and hilarious protest anthem/call to action track and music video — featuring RAN’s own Executive Director Rebecca Tarbotton on violin — called “Man Up!” The song calls on people to gather at the White House on November 6 to persuade President Obama to make the right decision and oppose the disastrous Keystone XL Pipeline project, the fate of which is being decided by his Administration right now.

The movement to stop this massively destructive pipeline has brought together a wide array of unlikely allies and has exploded into a national political force to be reckoned with in a very short amount of time. Please check this out and share it widely to spread the word on this crucial and time-sensitive issue!

The White House. Nov 6. Be There.

These are the final moments before President Obama makes a decision to approve or reject the construction of the dirty and dangerous Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. On November 6, exactly one year before the election, thousands will come together to completely encircle the White House in an act of solidarity to convince President Obama to make the right decision to reject the Keystone XL.

More than 4000 have already signed up to participate. This is fantastic, but we need thousands more!

Please don’t stay at home this Sunday wondering whether your presence would have made a difference. Come stand with us for clean energy, for human rights, for all of our futures. Sign up now!

“So many lives are on the line right now. The system is crashing. It’s crashing economically and it’s crashing ecologically. The stakes are too high right now for us not to make the most of this moment.” — Naomi Klein at Occupy Wall Street

Driven by relentless and ill advised palm oil expansion, Kalimantan’s carbon rich but relatively unproductive peatlands are being rapidly drained and burned. Across Indonesia, peatland destruction is releasing up to a billion tons of carbon dioxide a year – equivalent to emissions from 200 large coal power plants – in addition to fomenting wide social conflict and destroying critical habitat for orangutans, tigers and other species. Yet economic activities on peat contribute less than 1% to Indonesia’s GDP.  Emissions from sparsely populated rural Central Kalimantan alone now exceed those of Jakarta, a sprawling traffic-choked mega-city of more than 10 million people.

Smoke Over Indonesia Photo: Creative Commons

From September 20-22, Central Kalimantan played host to the annual meeting of the Governor’s Climate and Forest Task Force (GCF).  The GCF brings together California with 15 tropical forest states from the Brazilian Amazon, Peru, Mexico, Indonesia and Nigeria covering 20% of the worlds tropical forests to promote the development of REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) mechanisms in carbon markets. Ironically, with heavy smoke from peat fires disrupting flights in and out of the province, the meeting almost had to be relocated to Jakarta.

REDD was initially promoted by industrialized countries as a quick, easy and cheap way to address climate change under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change as part of a wider fossil fuel emissions reduction agreement, but prospects for such a new international agreement have declined precipitously since the debacle at the Copenhagen Conference of Parties two years ago. While the urgency and importance of protecting peatlands and tropical rainforests is undeniable, at the same time, the true challenges and complexities of trying to define and implement REDD payment mechanisms on the ground at the sub-national level were in full display at the GCF meeting.

Suwido Limin shows dam constructed to restore drained peatlands and slow GHG emissions

At the formal level, the outcomes of the GCF meeting were fairly straightforward.  Delegates agreed to accept the Brazilian state of Matto Grosso and Madre de Dios in Peru as new members. The next GCF annual meeting will be hosted by the state of Chiapas in Mexico. The GCF established a new fund, with $1.5 million in seed money from the U.S. State Department, to assist with state capacity building. Efforts to expand GCF membership in Europe were endorsed.

Discussions among stakeholders and rights holders in the GCF side events and corridors profiled some of the greater challenges and controversies. Perhaps foremost among these is the need for rights based approaches to promote durable and just forest stewardship and green development, which was put forward forcibly by Indigenous and forest community organization participants.

A strong statement was delivered to the GCF meeting by forest dependent community representatives from Aceh, Papua, Central Sulawesi and Kalimantan calling for, “guarantee on people’ full involvement and representation in every process and stage, especially in the project’s decision-making processes…rights and access to complete and comprehensive information…the right to manage and to utilize the forest and resources within it, which we have inherited from our ancestors…every decision concerning the benefits for the people should be defined by the people themselves.” Underlying and supporting this perspective, including from many GCF delegates, is a growing recognition that durable forest stewardship can only be achieved with full involvement, understanding and support of the forest dependent communities themselves.

As Odigha Odigha (a Goldman Environmental Prize winner who RAN worked closely with in the 1990s), representing Nigeria’s Cross River State put it, “The people in the forest are the ones that must fully understand what REDD is because they have the final responsibility, not people in London, not people in Washington.” Similarly, the former Governor of Papua strongly emphasized community rights and empowerment in his proposals for promoting low-carbon green development pathways in Indonesia’s most heavily forested province.

The GCF delegates have largely returned home, but here in Borneo the peat smoke remains.  Yet, reasons for optimism in Central Kalimantan can still be found in some locally led initiatives. Native Dayak, Sudwido Limin, is not waiting for REDD to take action.  At the tropical peatland research center that he established, Sudwido showed us how they are damming up drainage canals in abandoned peatland areas, restoring forest cover and fighting peatland fires in a community based approach.  The methods they are developing could be widely applied, and combined with a strict prohibition on further peatland conversion would go a long way to leashing in Indonesia’s soaring greenhouse gas emissions. Jakarta, are you listening?

Rainforest destroying palm oil is an ingredient in roughly 50% of all packaged goods sold on grocery store shelves. It is used to make a wide variety of food products from cookies to breakfast cereals as well as cosmetics, soaps and detergents, and is largely responsible for the decimation of Indonesia’s precious endangered forests. In fact, the expansion of palm oil plantations is one of the biggest causes of rainforest destruction and carbon pollution in the world today.

We need these forests far more than we need palm oil. That’s a fact.

The infographic below shows exactly how pristine rainforests get turned into palm oil plantations, how they make their way onto our grocery store shelves and into our homes, and what we can do about it.

Click to view full-size infographic

Until recently very few people had even heard of palm oil — much less understood its connection to deforestation, species extinction and climate change. As public awareness about the problem with palm oil gains momentum, agribusiness giants like Cargill are starting to feel the pressure to transform how business is done in the palm oil industry. But the truth is, most people still have no idea that a huge percentage of the products they bring into their homes contain palm oil connected to the destruction of rainforests.

Knowledge is power. Please share this infographic with your friends and family so we can build the necessary consumer demand for change. Email it, blog it, tweet it, Facebook it. Thank you.

Earthdance has partnered with Critical Beats and Cyberset Music to create this one-of-a-kind compilation featuring contributions from Govinda, Bluetech and DJ Spooky in collaboration with Amazon indigenous musicians. Download the new album today!

Some of the world’s hottest DJs, including Govinda, Bluetech, and DJ Spooky, teamed up with Indigenous musicians from the Amazon to create some truly inspirational music. Now it’s your turn to inspire and be inspired by their beats.

Earthdance International, Critical Beats for the Climate, and Rainforest Action Network are teaming up to promote the new compilation, called Critical Beats For Gaia. Proceeds will directly benefit frontline rainforest communities through RAN’s Protect-An-Acre grants program.

RAN’s most recent Protect-An-Acre grantshave supported everything from deforestation mapping and case studies in Indonesia to the Achual community’s permaculture project in the Peruvian Amazon. This work is central to RAN’s mission, as this is where real change happens: on the ground, from community to community. While we can shift markets and demand accountability for U.S.-based corporations, it’s vital to do this work in solidarity with and in support of frontline and Indigenous communities most impacted by the destructive practices we are all trying to stop.

Each year, Earthdance International organizes people around the world to promote synchronized world-wide “events for peace” in September. This fantastic group helps connect activists, meditation communities, peacemakers, and organizations to grow a just and sustainable world, starting with ourselves and our communities and then working to spread the peace globally.

Now, Earthdance and Critical Beats for the Climate have teamed up to create even more possibilities to support frontline communities through the release of this beautiful new compilation. Critical Beats for Gaia features so many incredible DJs and producers, it is the perfect opportunity to spread awareness through music and reach out to people who want to be part of the solution.

Athletic Director Tom Osborne said that University of Nebraska athletic events are designed to “entertain and unify our fan base” — not be “divisive.”

Divisive would be one word to describe the Keystone XL pipeline, which aims to transport dirty tar sands oil from Canada down to refineries on the Gulf Coast. Another word to describe the project would be just plain “wrong”.

We stand with Nebraska and ALL those opposed to TransCanada’s sponsorships and their plans to build a pipeline across North America, which is a catastrophic threat to our communities, our climate, and our planet.

“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the Everest of dirty money.”

Have you heard of the Partnership to Fuel America? It sounds innocent enough, but it’s actually a campaign launched by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to promote the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

The U.S. Chamber would like you to imagine it as the voice of all American businesses, but it has more in common with the American Petroleum Institute than with your local chamber of commerce. In fact, according to 350.org, some 55% of the Chamber’s funding comes from just 16 companies. Who are these donors? We don’t know (yes, it’s actually a secret). We can make a good guess, though, by looking at where the money goes.

The Chamber spent $132 million on lobbying in 2010 — $32 million on the midterm elections alone,  with 94 percent going to candidates that deny climate change. And almost all the politicians the Chamber helped elect made dismantling environmental regulations a top priority. This, in addition to a long history of science denial, makes the Chamber’s position on global warming clear. Such staunch opposition to climate action has led corporations like Nike, Apple, Microsoft, and PG&E to distance themselves from the Chamber.

However, for some reason the Chamber sees a need to cast itself as a moderate on climate and energy. On its web site, for example, it claims to support a “comprehensive legislative solution” for climate change. That’s easy to say now that every legislative solution has been killed, largely thanks to the Chamber’s lobbying. And the Chamber fiercely opposes EPA carbon regulations — the only federal option left on the table.

Click to view larger infographic

In comments sent to the EPA, the Chamber insisted that global warming really isn’t a problem:

Overall, there is strong evidence that populations can acclimatize to warmer climates via a range of behavioral, physiological, and technological adaptations.

I’m sure the folks in Texas suffering from the historic drought will be happy to hear that.

If you need further evidence of whom the Chamber works for, consider this: It sided with Chevron in the Amazon pollution lawsuit. While international law experts criticized a U.S. federal judge for barring the enforcement of the $18 billion verdict against Chevron, the Chamber had this to say about the oil giant’s appeal:

At bottom, this appeal involves a carefully tailored solution in a case containing extraordinary, unrebutted evidence of a plan to shake down a United States corporation.

More recently, the Chamber has taken a stand in favor of smog, aka ground level ozone, by opposing tighter pollution standards. Having beaten down climate and clean energy bills, the Chamber is now working with its friends in Congress to blanket-bomb decades of green achievements, from the Clean Air Act to the EPA itself. The Partnership to Fuel Pollute America is just the latest step in the Chamber’s plan.

The Keystone XL pipeline could be disastrous for the regions it crosses, and the accompanying tar sands expansion would be disastrous for the climate, according to top scientists. In an open letter, they warned that energy sources like the tar sands will “leave our children and grandchildren a climate system with consequences that are out of their control.”

I guess they haven’t heard that we can just change our physiology.

If the quote about “physiological adaptations” sounds familiar, that’s because Bill McKibben mentioned it in his Powershift speech:

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 [the Chamber's agenda]….

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.

Do you want to join the fight against the Chamber’s agenda? If so, here are some ways to take action:

• Sign the petition asking President Obama to block the Keystone XL pipeline expansion. Although the State Department is ready to give the project a green light, the President has the final word; he can approve or stop the pipeline with a signature.
• Support and spread the word about the Tar Sands Action. For two weeks (until September 2), over 2,000 activists will gather in Washington, D.C. to protest the Keystone XL. The event began on August 20 with 70 arrests in front of the White House (but you don’t have to get arrested to participate).
• Own a business, or know someone who does? Tell America that the U.S. Chamber doesn’t speak for you. We can’t take away the Chamber’s money, but we can undermine its credibility. So far, over 6,000 businesses have signed 350.org’s statement opposing the Chamber.

“If A Tree Falls” examines the story of a group of environmental activists who were based in Oregon in the late 90s. It offers a history of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), and asks why it was classified by the FBI in 2001 as the nation’s “Top Domestic Terrorist Threat”?

The story is told to us through the perspective of Daniel McGowan, who is currently serving seven years in Federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy and arson charges. We first meet him at his home in New York, where he is preparing for his trial. Daniel comes across as articulate, compassionate and devoted to his family, a very likeable guy.

Daniel’s preparations are illustrated with 10-15 year old footage from Oregon, including non-violent direct actions blockading old growth logging in Oregon, tree sits in Eugene, and confrontational policing. One of the most distressing scenes shows police officers rubbing pepper spray directly into the eyes of protestors who are locked to the ground and unable to move. The narrative implies that it was the failure of peaceful actions like these and the violent response of the police that motivated individuals like Daniel to take more extreme action.

Other footage shows the fires that were set by the ELF: logging company offices and a university research facility razed to the ground. While these fires were clearly economically destructive, do activities where no one is killed or injured really constitute the label of ‘terrorism’? Since Daniel lives in New York, there’s a convenient juxtaposition with 9/11.

There are interviews with a broad cast including loggers, police and many other activists. The success of this film, a winner at Sundance, owes much to the balance it provides.

One of the threads linking “If A Tree Falls” with “Just Do It” (JDI) is the heavy-handed police response to peaceful activism.

In JDI we are introduced to Marina. In the opening scenes Marina is asked why the British police have classified her as a “Domestic Extremist”. The extremist label seems absurd. Marina’s main activity at protests is making copious quantities of tea and offering cups to activists, police, workers and security guards. These cups of tea help Marina to connect with others in a calming manner. Also, she says, it’s “much better to save the alcohol for the after-party”.

JDI is an “embedded documentary.” Director Emily James spent two years following English climate activists as they planned and executed nonviolent direct action on airport runways, at coal-fired power stations, at banks, and at the Copenhagen climate summit.

I’ve never seen the planning of a direct action filmed like this before (apparently James went to lengths to hide all the footage until the actions were over to ensure security for the folks involved) and this makes it very educational. We learn about different action techniques: lock-ons, affinity groups, consensus-decision making and, somewhat ironically, security protocol.

I’m struck by the incredible energy of the activists. They all speak to the fact that time is running out to halt climate change and that they feel utterly let down by policy makers. With comments such as “I want to feel like I’m doing something, rather than nothing and not just watching the world go to shit.” The focus is very much on the actions and the motivations and politics are either glossed over or simplified.

That said, it’s fast-paced and nicely shot. After watching “If A Tree Falls” I felt despair about the implosion of a peaceful environmental movement. JDI reminds me that it’s very much alive and thriving. I recommend watching them both.

JDI is raising funds to bring their film to the U.S. You can find out more and support “Just Do It” here.

Tar sands oil site

In a letter released today, twenty top scientists wrote to President Obama to ask him to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline, the 1,700 mile-long fuse that, if lit, could help ignite climate chaos.

If built, the pipeline would carry bitumen from Canada to the Gulf Coast, putting fresh water supplies at risk and further increasing our dependance on oil at a time when we should be investing in clean energy sources.

The letter, signed by Dr. James Hansen, Dr. Michael Mann and other prominent scientists, is a powerful reminder of the choices that now confront us: Will we continue to develop sources of energy from fossil fuels, essentially choosing to double down on the dirty and dangerous technologies that have led us to the brink of catastrophe? Do we have the resolve and the vision to build a better energy system fueled by clean sources of energy that don’t pollute our communities and damage our shared climate? And do we want to leave a legacy of pollution for the generations to come?

The 1,500 people who have registered for the Tar Sands Protest in August have collectively answered those questions by saying that they’re ready for a world powered by clean energy. You can find out more information here.

The full letter is available here.

President Obama:

We are researchers at work on the science of climate change and allied fields. We are writing to add our voices to the indigenous leaders, religious leaders, and environmentalists calling on you to block the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada’s tar sands.

The tar sands are a huge pool of carbon, but one that does not make sense to exploit. It takes a lot of energy to extract and refine this resource into useable fuel, and the mining is environmentally destructive. Adding this on top of conventional fossil fuels will leave our children and grandchildren a climate system with consequences that are out of their control. It makes no sense to build a pipeline system that would practically guarantee extensive exploitation of this resource.

When other huge oil fields or coal mines were opened in the past, we knew much less about the damage that the carbon they contained would do to the Earth’s climate system and to its oceans. Now that we do know, it’s imperative that we move quickly to alternate forms of energy — and that we leave the tar sands in the ground. We hope those so inclined will join protests scheduled for August and described at TarSandsAction.org.

If the pipeline is to be built, you as president have to declare that it is “in the national interest.” As scientists, speaking for ourselves and not for any of our institutions, we can say categorically that it’s not only not in the national interest, it’s also not in the planet’s best interest.

Image: Goldman Environmental Prize

One mother’s dedication can make a difference.

Ursula Sladek was spurred into action after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. A mother of five small children from Germany’s Black Forest region, Ursula was alarmed by the detected radiation in local produce and even on neighborhood playgrounds. Her concerns for her children’s health and the safety of their daily activities inspired her to seek out alternative sources of energy.

Germany was, and still is, largely dependent on nuclear energy. But, the good news is that the country just last month passed a law which will close all of their nuclear plants down by 2022.

Initially, Ursula focused on behavior-changing practices piloted within her own home, then spread the changes by educating her neighbors throughout the farmlands of Schoenau, a small town in Black Forest, Germany. Ursula recalls seeing her son turn off a light even with his cut finger before he was whisked away to the hospital for stitches after a run in with a kitchen knife. Conserving energy was ingrained into her children’s brains. Eventually, Ursula took her energy independence goals a step further and started installing solar panels on her own home and some others within her community. Ursula worked with her neighbors as a group to urge the local power company, KWR, to increase their renewable energy sources, but KWR wasn’t keen on the proposals and refused to budge.

Image: Goldman Environmental Prize

So the group took matters into their own hands. They formed Schoenau Power Supply (EWS), and vied for the license to operate the power grid when KWR’s license went up for renewal in 1991. KWR requested an inflated price, but Sladek’s group raised the exorbitant purchasing cost and took the license in 1998. They even sued KWR for illegal price fixing, after the fact.

Today, Schoenau Power Supply is collectively owned by 1000 citizens. Schoenau’s energy sources are 100% green, primarily hydropower, but also sourced from solar panels, wind turbines, and co-generation plants. Residents have individual units that power their own homes, but can also sell surplus energy to the grid. In total, EWS provides over 400 million KwH to 100,000+ customers. (For a quick comparison, Pepsi Bottling Group uses 426 million KWh annually)

Ursula Sladek focuses on the big picture as well — she educates her customers on how to conserve energy, build their own solar plants and co-generators, and provides financial support and incentives. EWS is another inspiring example of combining community, business, and green initiative to provide a better future. Sladek’s success is a testament to the fact that huge corporations don’t always have to win, and they certainly aren’t the only answer.

Earlier this month, AEP announced that upcoming EPA clean air regulations (which have now been announced) may mean that the company will need to close 25% of their coal fleet. This proclamation was of course meant to scare legislators into taking the EPA’s power to enforce the Clean Air Act away. Then news broke that AEP is putting its money where its mouth is — lots of money.  AEP spent a reported $2 million lobbying in the 1st quarter of 2011. $2 million in just 3 months!!!

The New York Times responded to AEP  in an editorial blasting the company for misleading the public about impacts of EPA regulations, bullying the agency, and failing to address real concerns about its aging coal fleet. The EPA also responded during a US Senate hearing by clarifying that most of AEP’s plant closures won’t be because of the EPA, they will be because AEP’s fleet is too old to compete in energy markets.

Over the past month, AEP has demonstrated that it is a coal company that is willing to lie to the public and spend millions to influence politicians and erode the ability of democratic institutions such as the EPA that were created to ensure clean air and water for all Americans. Which leads me to wonder, which banks are behind AEP?

A quick look at AEP’s financing shows that in the past 2 years (since June 2009) several banks have provided large sums of money in the form of bond underwriting to AEP. Some of the most interesting include*:

• Barclays Bank provided $300 million
• UBS provided $190 million
• Morgan Stanley provided $175 million
• Citi and JP Morgan Chase each provided $87.5 million
• Wells Fargo and Credit Suisse each provided $75 million

All of these banks should cut ties with AEP. Financing a company like AEP that undermines democracy and burns climate-killing coal is irresponsible at best.

* All research is sourced from Bloomberg

This rightfully raises the question, “Will the Indonesian Forest Moratorium help save forests and reduce record greenhouse gas emissions being released by Indonesia, or will it fall short and allow logging as usual to continue?”

Businesses hoping that Indonesia would move forward with a robust moratorium on issuing new rainforest clearance permits are sorely disappointed by the large number of loopholes and exemptions in the final document, issued five months late after intense palm oil and pulp and paper sector lobbying to weaken it.

A government moratorium on issuing new forest clearance permits was one of four main forest-related climate commitments made by the President of Indonesia as part of a $1 billion agreement with the government of Norway signed last year. Various economic studies have indicated that curbing deforestation, improving forest governance and promoting a shift to low carbon rural development would be positive for Indonesia’s GDP growth and international competitiveness.

Unfortunately, the moratorium’s final specifics fall far short of the proposals put forward by reformist leaders in Indonesia and international expectations. The moratorium is loaded with exemptions and exceptions. Secondary natural rainforests, including critical tiger and orangutan habitat, huge areas of virgin rainforest slated to become sugarcane plantations, large new mines, and all existing permits, including a large number issued by the Ministry of Forests hours before the moratorium was originally scheduled to start, mean that widespread deforestation will continue.  At least two-thirds of the primary forest and peatland area included in the moratorium are estimated to be forest areas that were already illegal to clear under pre-existing laws and regulations.

But with palm oil and other commodity prices soaring, Indonesia’s plantation conglomerates have seemingly let greed for more land blind them to the wider national interest. Working with mining sector and pulp and paper interests, the conglomerates successfully lobbied to gut the moratorium and ensure that it remained under the control of the corruption-ridden Ministry of Forests, which proved the winner in a struggle with honest reformist elements over the design of the moratorium’s scope and its implementation.

International buyers of palm oil and paper products are growing increasingly wary of sourcing from Indonesia due to the high rates of deforestation, widespread social conflict, high climate emissions, negative impacts on tigers, orangutans and biodiversity and pandemic levels of corruption.

Indonesia is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the U.S. Some 85% of Indonesia’s emissions come from clearing of natural rainforests and draining of carbon-rich peatlands, which are also important habitat for endangered orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos. Deforestation is driven by expansion of the palm oil and pulp and paper sectors producing goods for the global commodity markets. These controversial products are in turn entering into the supply chains of leading companies around the world, where they can pose reputational risks to many highly valued brands.

Rainforest Action Network encourages responsible corporations to continue to publicly support strengthened efforts by the Indonesian government and business sector to promote economically positive low carbon development pathways and permanent protection for peatland and forest areas.

While I welcome Bank of America’s continued acknowledgment that reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions is critical for combating the climate crisis, Bank of America must move quickly beyond commitments to reduce the carbon footprint of direct energy consumption by their offices and set ambitious targets to address the much larger carbon footprint of Bank of America’s financing of coal and other dirty energy.  The climate footprint of Bank of America’s financing activities is estimated to be one hundred times larger than the size of its operational carbon footprint.

By profiling efforts to address  the GHG emissions from their internal operations while quietly  ignoring the GHG impacts of the billions of dollars that the bank provides each year for the extraction and burning of dirty fossil fuels like coal, Bank of America is at risk of misleading the public as to the  true climate impacts of the company’s business.

As just one example, since 2009 Bank of America has provided financing for ten of the largest utilities operating coal-fired power plants, the biggest source of domestic GHG emissions, including participating in a $750 million bond issue for Duke Energy which is building the controversial Cliffside coal power plant. The 800 MW plant will emit over 240 million tons of CO₂ over its expected “useful” lifetime, equivalent to the emissions from adding one million new cars to the road each year. Bank of America financing relationships in the U.S. power sector alone contribute to the release of more than 10% of total US emissions.

Bank of America should immediately commit to developing a more robust climate policy that includes: shifting the balance of financing in its utilities portfolio from dirty power sources, like coal, to cleaner, renewable energy.

Image by Greenpeace.

The secretive Koch Brothers — two billionaire oilmen who own Wichita, KS-based Koch Industries, the second largest privately owned company in the US — have been getting a lot of attention lately. And I’m willing to bet they’re not too happy about any of it. The latest revelation is that Koch interests process a quarter of the climate-destroying tar sands oil brought into the US.

The Kochs are notorious for their greed-driven efforts to block all sorts of environmental and climate policies that would cut into their bottom line. Naturally, their self-serving agenda is meeting with increasing protest.

For instance, the Kochs’ held a top-secret strategy session earlier this year — attended by conservative heavyweights like House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, former Attorney General Ed Meese, and Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips — that was met with a massive protest. And when it was revealed that Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas attended a Koch event shortly before rendering the tragically misguided Citizens United judgment, which sparked outrage and a fiery debate on judicial ethics.

Given their preference for secrecy, the Kochs can’t be thrilled that their extensive involvement in the tar sands has now become public knowledge.

As Sustainable Business puts it:

It turns out the Koch Brothers have a very good reason to spend millions of dollars to get Americans to question the validity of climate change. One of their businesses handles about 25% of tar sands imports into the US — they’re one of the biggest refiners of Alberta oil sands crude oil.

Koch subsidiary, Flint Hills Resources, operates a Minnesota refinery that’s capable of processing 320,000 barrels of crude a day, about four-fifths of which is sourced from Alberta.

They don’t want clean energy laws to impact those operations.
Separating oil from tar sands requires huge amounts of water and energy (much more than conventional refining), resulting in much higher greenhouse gas emissions. Tar sand refineries would be early targets of greenhouse gas regulations, which is why they’re trying so hard to handcuff the EPA.

While the Koch Brothers say regulations would kill jobs, what they would actually do is force them to invest in cleaner technologies.

It’s important to keep exposing the Kochs. They use their considerable influence over our nation’s political process to protect their personal fortunes, plain and simple (each of the brothers is worth a reported $21.5 billion — not a typo folks, $21.5 BILLION — thanks to ever-increasing energy prices). The Kochs don’t have anyone’s interests at heart but their own. Exposing them helps weaken their hold on the politicians who were elected to represent us.

They’re feeling the heat: The Kochs have just registered to lobby the Alberta, Canada government. Perhaps they’re getting nervous that the pressure will cause decisionmakers in Alberta to rethink their commitment to producing oil from the tar sands. So the Kochs are doing the only thing they know how to do: Throw their money around, buy influence, try to force their skewed view of the world on the rest of us, and to hell with the consequences for the rest of the world.

*Update: It’s just been brought to my attention that DeSmogBlog already has the full scoop on the Kochs’ lobbying efforts up in Canada. As you would expect, they’ve engaged some of the top lobbying firms and some very well-connected people, including a former executive assistant to a Canadian cabinet minister.

Rally in Annapolis, MD to support Wisconsin workers

For one thing, the attack on worker’s rights in Wisconsin matters for environmentalists because it matters for everyone. A war on workers is a war on all of us.

Across the country, many of us are public workers or have family or friends that are. We also depend on public school teachers and every other public worker to maintain the daily business of our cities. A country that can no longer protect, let alone respect, the people who teach our children, repair our roads, maintain our sanitation, and care for our sick threatens the well being of all average people. When governments eagerly go after their own public workers, we have to ask ourselves what else they are willing to compromise.

On another level, if you’re concerned about the environment you should care about what’s happening in Wisconsin because the same people, the same corporate interests that have orchestrated this attack on workers are also lobbying to slash funding for the EPA, working to destroy any notion of climate legislation and securing massive handouts for big polluters.

Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Ag have bought and paid for our democracy, and it is their agenda that our elected representatives are serving. Billionaire polluters like the Koch brothers who funded the crippling of last year’s climate bill and are now going after the EPA, are also funding this attack on our state’s teachers and other public workers. The same big corporations that have a vested interest in minimizing environmental regulations are pushing to cut the power of workers.

Wednesday’s passing of Governor Scott Walker’s shameful bill stripping union workers of their half-century-old right to bargain collectively is not about the state’s budget deficit. As author Naomi Klein told Rachel Maddow this week: “Unions are the final line of defense against privatization of the public sector.”

Instead of using the economic crisis to scapegoat public school teachers who educate our nation’s children on already paltry budgets, why doesn’t Governor Walker and his cronies go after the $4 billion worth of subsidies given to Big Oil?

From our air and water to our teachers and nurses, the corrosive hold of corporate interests on our political system is damaging all of our most precious resources. Undermining the power of unions and the voices of their members is first and foremost about cutting down one of the largest forces standing up against corporate power. Their private sector counterparts have already been all but destroyed by the same corporations and government backers.

What’s happening in Wisconsin is the result of turning our democracy into a dirty poker game. A game where only the very rich and powerful have a hand, the antes are the in the billions and the stakes are our country.

Lastly, what’s happening to workers across the country should matter to environmentalists because our movements need the strength of workers and unions, and their movements need us. For far too long we have been divided into niche issues. It is past time we show up for each other. Not only because it’s right, but also because that demonstration of collective power is the only way to win. Can you imagine the day that all environmentalists, union members and educators, pro-choice activists, immigration and racial justice activists all worked together? That is the day when we win our country back.

Co-authored by Nell Greenberg, Communications Director of Rainforest Action Network.

With Tim’s trial happening at the same time as the democratic uprising that is spreading across North Africa and the Middle East and the labor rights protests that are spreading across the Midwest U.S., we thought it would be a good time to ask three of the U.S. environmental movement’s savviest activists what they make of all of this. Specifically, we wondered what lessons we can draw from the peaceful uprisings happening around the world and how we can apply those lessons to the climate movement. In response, RAN’s own Rebecca Tarbotton, 350.org’s Bill McKibben and Phil Radford of Greenpeace USA had this to offer:

Dear friends,

Last week, a jury in Utah found Tim DeChristopher guilty for standing up to the oil and gas companies in an effort to protect our health and our climate.

Just in case the federal government thinks that it’s intimidating people into silence with this kind of prosecution, think again. In fact, this is precisely the sort of event that reminds us just why we need creative, nonviolent protests and mass mobilizations.

Over the last six months we’ve witnessed big changes in the world that affect our need for creative, nonviolent protest. They include:

• The wild and extreme weather that marked the end of the warmest year on record, with flooding in almost every corner of the planet;
• The complete collapse of efforts on Capitol Hill to do anything about climate change;
• The passing of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which grants corporations unfettered influence over our elections.

We’ve also seen a historic outpouring of people power to combat these environmental crises, reclaim our democracy and disrupt corporate influence. From the exhilarating outbreak of the freedom movement across North Africa and the Mideast to the amazing stand for democracy and worker’s rights in Wisconsin, we are seeing the strength and effectiveness that average people can have when we stand together.

There have been a growing number of inspiring examples of civil disobedience across the United States to protect the air we breathe, the water we drink and the climate that we depend on. On February 17, Greenpeace activists scaled a coal plant in Bridgeport, CT as part of an escalating campaign against the dirtiest coal plants across the country. Just five days before, one of our great environmental sages, Wendell Berry, joined a sit-in at the Kentucky governor’s office to protest mountaintop removal coal mining.

Taken together, all of this confirms our belief that we need to continue to escalate the struggle for climate action.

It is not one event but a wave of actions that trigger social change. Paul Revere was not the only rider to warn of the British advance, and many people refused to move to the back of the bus before Rosa Parks. It is actions like Tim’s that can create ripples that expand exponentially.

In a recent interview, Tim issued a challenge to all of us to seize the power we already have to make a difference:

We think we have no power when in fact we have more than enough power. Right now, we have a big enough movement to win this battle; we just need to start acting like it. That’s the message that the climate movement really needs to internalize. On an individual level, it means making the commitment that we’re going to be powerful and effective agents of change; on the movement level, it’s about making the decision that we’re really going to win this battle.

We worry sometimes that we may have waited too long to get this battle going in earnest; the science is dark, and the politics are tough. But we know, from watching our inspiring colleagues around the world who are facing great dangers head on, that the best time to act is now. Over the coming weeks, each of our organizations, working together and individually, will be pursuing a variety of strategies to try and spark more mass, direct action.

Tim DeChristopher took a brave and lonely stand; it’s time to make sure that in the future bravery comes in bigger quantities.

Coal kingpin Ambre Energy is making a major push to build America’s first West Coast coal port in the Pacific Northwest. That’s right: Ambre has chosen the breathtaking Columbia River as its main artery for the Longview coal port, which would ship millions of tons of coal each year to Asia. And that’s why the company’s Salt Lake City headquarters was chosen as the site of the protest today. More than 50 people from labor organizers to environmental activists have come out today to draw a line in the sand. They are saying, “We don’t want this dirty coal burned here in the U.S., and we don’t want it burned anywhere else, either.” They held three big banners right in front of Ambre’s headquarters: “Stop Coal Exports,” “Ambre Energy: Exporting Pollution,” and “Clean Energy Clean Air.” Here’s how RAN’s own Scott Parkin, who helped organize today’s protest, put it:

Plain and simple, coal export terminals continue the mining and burning of coal at a time when phasing out coal is essential to our health. With Ambre Energy’s coal export terminals, the U.S. is exporting our problems, our pollution, instead of solving them with clean energy advancements.

As the U.S. begins to shift away from carbon-emitting, coal-fired power plants, coal producers are gearing up to ship more coal overseas. Advocates for clean energy, the environment, and public health and safety have coalesced to oppose Ambre, which is leading the push for West Coast export terminals. If Ambre’s Longview terminal goes through it will open the way for dozens more like it, continuing the mining and burning of dirty coal for decades. Several different organizations participated in today’s rally, including the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers. Jim Cooksey, a representative of the union, had this to say about the protest:

We are concerned about the exporting of coal to overseas markets in that there are no environmental standards once the coal leaves our borders. The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers understands the issue of climate change and is looking to secure alliances with other labor and environmental organizations to find solutions that protect workers and the environment.

Today’s protest at Ambre’s headquarters comes on the heels of a 50-person rally yesterday in Longview, WA where residents who will be directly impacted by the export terminal gathered. They are demanding that the permit for the Longview terminal be revoked immediately. Controversy over the Longview terminal has been building. Just last week it was revealed that Ambre Energy planned to construct the Longview export terminal with the capacity to annually ship up to 60 million short tons of western U.S. coal, even as it told state and local government officials that it would build a facility one-twelfth that size. U.S. coal exports to China and India are expected to increase to 86.5 million tons, up from 79.5 million tons in 2010, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Peabody, the No. 1 coal producer in the U.S., has said it will release plans for its own West Coast port by the end of this quarter. If people are successful in stalling Ambre’s Longview terminal it would have a ripple effect across the sector, challenging the plan to develop coal export capacity along the coast. You can help too. Lend your voice to the fight against coal exports today: Tell politicians in Washington State to protect the health of their people and waterways and block the Longview coal port.

UPDATE: Slideshow from the rally
Video from the rally

Ultimately, several official inquiries into the matter cleared the climate researchers of any wrongdoing. Several newspapers even printed retractions, but the damage was done. Many folks came away feeling the credibility of the field of climate science had just been dealt a serious blow, and the world’s leaders had the cover they needed to commit to nothing more than a non-binding political agreement in Copenhagen — an agreement that most agree will do nothing to deal with the enormity of the problem it purports to address.

This week, a for-real climate scandal emerged: Pat Michaels, a prominent climate denier and senior environmental studies fellow at the Cato Institute, testified before Congressman Henry Waxman’s Energy and Commerce Committee in February 2009 that only about 3% of his funding came from the dirty energy industry — but then last August Michaels publicly admitted that he actually gets more like 40% of his funds from Big Oil.

Our friends over at Greenpeace USA just broke the story that Rep. Henry Waxman is now calling for an investigation into whether or not Michaels deliberately misled Congress when he lied about the sources of his funding.

Of course, none of this should really surprise anyone. During that particular congressional hearing, Michaels was the only “expert” who stated that climate change was not a serious issue requiring congressional action, and that regulation responding to what he called “overestimated” global warming scientific data could have a “very counterproductive effect.” As Waxman wrote in his letter to the new Republican Committee Chairman Fred Upton calling for an investigation, “Among the scientists who testified before this Committee on the issue of climate change in the last Congress, Dr. Michaels was the only one to dismiss the need to act on climate change.” Unless Michaels has access to totally different data from the rest of us, it was pretty obvious he was being paid to downplay the severity of global warming.

Now, I’m not saying that all climate deniers are funded by dirty energy industries… just that I can’t fathom why anyone would advocate doing nothing in the face of a crisis as dire as global warming if they weren’t being paid handsomely to do so. I’m not surprised at all to find out Pat Michaels is no exception to that rule. Hell, being a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that Michaels is on the dirty industry payroll.

Help blow this story up — this is an actual climate scandal, unlike “Climategate.” It’s being called Skepticgate. Tweet it (#Skepticgate), post about it on Facebook, blog it, whatever you can do. Force the media to pay as much attention to this real climate scandal as they did to the bogus climate scandal pushed by dirty industry-funded hacks.