Obama's Defining Moment, Huge Tar Sands Action Coming (+ Top Activism & Politics Stories)

I received an email from 350.org the other day with a link to a great Bill McKibben article in the Washington Post. Worth a read. Here’s the intro:

Ain’t eBay grand? For $10 you can buy a sack of 50 assorted Obama ’08 buttons, and that’s what I’ve been doing. If you look closely, you might see them this weekend on the lapels of some of the global warming protesters holding a sit-in outside the White House.

Already, more than a thousand people have signed up to be arrested over two weeks beginning Aug. 20 — the biggest display of civil disobedience in the environmental movement in decades and one of the largest nonviolent direct actions since the World Trade Organization demonstrations in Seattle back before Sept. 11. (Among the first 500 to sign up, the biggest cohort was born in the Truman administration, followed closely by FDR babies and Eisenhower kids. These seniors contradict the stereotype of greedy geezers who care only about their own future.)…

Full piece here: A watershed moment for Obama on climate change.

As McKibben said, thousands have signed up to descend on Washington starting this weekend, willing to get arrested for climate justice. As you can see in the headlines and video below, some of these people are climate scientists, some are actors, and many more are common citizens. Are you signed up to join in?

Here’s Mark Ruffalo telling you why you should care about this and get involved this weekend or coming weeks:

And here’s more from 350.org on how you can get involved in this or another big action:

1) At the end of the Tar Sands Action on September 3rd, we’re joining a coalition of partners to organize a big rally in DC. At the rally, we’ll take the big “Stop the Tar Sands!” petition signed by hundreds of thousands of people (sign it here if you haven’t already!) and deliver it directly to White House officials.  There will be music and protest signs and fiery speeches — as well as a massive “aerial art” project to take our call to action and turn it into something beautiful.  If you haven’t signed on to the “Stop the Tar Sands!” petition yet, please do so now.

2) We’re gearing up for Moving Planet, the massive global day of climate action coming up on September 24th. There will be events large and small, events bike-powered and solar-powered — and we’ll weave them all together into a single global story and a powerful call to action to demand true leadership on the climate crisis. Not yet involved with Moving Planet? Click here to join or start a local event.

It’s going to be a fun couple of months — as Bill said to me today: “It’s hot as heck in Washington, but right now there’s no place I’d rather be; we’ve finally got a chance to unleash the power of the climate movement in our nation’s capitol”

Tar Sands

  1. Climate Scientist Joins Tar Sands Protest: ‘It’s Unethical For Us To Stand By While The Greed Of Others Results In The Destruction Of Our Biosphere’ [or see: Climate scientist willing to face arrest at tar sands pipeline protest]
  2. After 12 Oil Spills in One Year, TransCanada Says Proposed Keystone XL Pipeline Will Be Safest in U.S.
  3. More Big Oil Astroturf Across The Country: Missouri Front Tells Activists To Plant Anti-EPA Questions
  4. National Congress of American Indians opposes Keystone XL tar sands pipeline

Other Activism Stories

  1. Introducing the “Uprising Calendar” (beta)
  2. Earth Preaching
  3. Can We Crowdsource A Solution To Climate Change?
  4. One More Push Can Preserve Federal Safe Routes to School Funding
  5. Public Health Advocates Fight Polluter Campaign On Smog Standards
  6. The video that StarKist, Bumble Bee and Chicken of the Sea Don’t Want You to See
  7. Shale Gas Outrage Rally And Freedom From Fracking Conference In Philadelphia
  8. SRTS Conference 2011: NYC Student Activist Inspires National Audience
  9. Solidarity Fights Apathy
  10. Electric Co-op Members Come out Strong to Oppose Coal at Annual Meeting, Push Board’s Backs Against the Wall

Crazy GOP — Scary Perry, Loony Bachmann, and More

  1. Rick Perry’s Meager Environmental Efforts May Be Too Much For Republicans
  2. Bachmann Promises to Drop Gas to $2 a Gallon: Some Possible Solutions
  3. Rick Perry Signed Unconstitutional Law Nullifying Federal Light Bulb Law
  4. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has “Gutted” Renewable Energy Programs in Favor of Natural Gas
  5. Huntsman Spox: ‘Science clearly was not a mandatory course for Gov. Perry’
  6. Perry’s Climate Lies Win 4 Pinocchios as Huntsman Aide Says GOP Can’t Win “If We Become the Anti-Science Party.”

Other

  1. New York’s Transportation Guru
  2. Smog Polluters Recycle Disproven Claims Of Economic Disaster If Americans Choose Clean Air
  3. Become What You Despise? Why “Beating” Conservative White Male Climate Deniers May Mean Joining Them
  4. Aliens may destroy humanity to protect other civilisations, say scientists

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