With the legislative and executive branches of government firmly committed to pretending climate change doesn’t exist, will the courts act to protect the environment and the citizens of America? Don’t bet on it. Here’s why.
Erin Schrode is a citizen activist that can inspire us all. Learn about how this young woman is shaping activism, engagement, and politics at home in California and beyond.
Last week, climate activist Tim DeChristopher received a warm welcome on the David Letterman Show. The 12-minute interview with Dave was productive and seemed to give the host a little insight into climate activism. DeChristopher had a chance to discuss climate activism, the upcoming documentary Bidder 70, and the events leading up to DeChristopher’s imprisonment. During the interview,
As he and all of us rightfully shouldn’t be…. Waging Nonviolence recently conducted a wonderful interview with climate superstar Mohamed Nasheed, former president of Maldives. Here are some striking words (refreshingly but also depressingly pointed) from the interview: What do you think of the American environmental movement? I’m very disappointed by the slow pace
I recently had the pleasure of attending a panel discussion on Climate Change here in Chicago which featured WGN’s popular Chief Meteorologist, Tom Skilling, and University of Illinois Atmospheric Science Professor Don Wuebbles. Dr. Wuebbles is a heavyweight in the field. He has a seemingly endless CV, which includes being the lead author on
I recently received a note on our site from a Paul Wex about a song and video related to climate activism that he created. It’s quite a beautiful combo, imho, so here it is: http://vimeo.com/38304136 On the Vimeo page, he wrote: “There is no doubt that nature will be stronger than us, sooner or
One of my favorite activism events: tons of people get together to ride their bicycles along the East or West coast to raise awareness about climate change, raise awareness about one of its best solutions — bicycling, and raise money for organizations promoting global warming and environmental action, especially bicycling. The event, if you’re
Anyone who has looked into the matter honestly knows that global warming and climate change severely threaten young generations. As reported a few times previously, some members of that young generation are pushing for action now, through legal action. One such story is of an 11-year old Navajo named Jaime Lynn Butler. On May 4,
If only they were so honest. But, when the oil company and its shills can’t be, a grassroots effort to reveal them can be. Following up on the video at the bottom of the page, where a climate activist punked a fossil fuel astroturfing campaign, here’s a video from Greenpeace’s Polluter Watch campaign that tells
Hundreds, or maybe thousands, have been marching in Durban and across Africa to push for strong climate action. As I wrote last week, a climate change caravan made its way from Northern Africa to South Africa for the climate change conference occurring there this week to push for real, strong climate action. Furthermore, there has
1. Activists occupied KFC on two continents last week. More from the Dogwood Alliance: “Colonel Sanders and various woodland creatures made appearances at over 150 KFC restaurants across the country and various locations in Europe to deliver a message, ‘Stop destroying Southern forests for your throwaway packaging.’ The iconic KFC bucket and other KFC
With song and stories, people around the world are taking to the radio airwaves, sharing the realities of the climate crisis and calling on people to grow the climate movement in the lead up to the 2011 UN Climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa. From today through 2nd December, we’re running an exciting new project
The civic momentum to stop the Tar Sands Keystone XL pipeline continues to grow. Today, thousands of people got out and encircled the White House to show their solidarity in opposition to this train-wreck of a project. If you don’t know much about the the Tar Sands Keystone XL pipeline and are just tuning in
QUICK NEWS: The tremendous UK climate activism film Just Do It is available to the public now! Partnering with Dogwoof, the DVD is about to be available to buy on Amazon and in retailers. However, you can also buy it on Just Do It’s website and let more of the money go back to the creators.
“Complete with deleted scenes, video from behind the scenes and extra shorts, the Just Do It DVD is a veritable romp of direct action mischief not to be missed,” the people behind the movie state.
There are a lot of good videos out there on global warming and climate change, and solutions to them. Sometimes, though, I have a hard time finding the one I’m looking for. So, I thought I’d create a piece with all the best global warming and climate change videos I know of (and I’ll add to it as new ones are created).
350.org has been adding dozens and dozens of posts, videos, pictures, etc. It’s worth a long scroll. But highlighting a few posts that stood out to me, here’s a video from the Philippines:
Check out these top action opportunities of the week!
I was in the UK for 4 days to visit a friend and then to be interviewed by CNBC for it and Harvard Business Review’s Energy Opportunities series. So, fell a little behind on daily activism news. But here’s a roundup after catching up. A ton of great activism (using the term a little generously today) stories — check them out!
24 Hours of Climate Reality, Al Gore’s new, big push to raise climate awareness and promote the solutions available to address climate change today, is tomorrow, September 14. You can check in right here tomorrow at any time for live streaming of this worldwide event. The live streaming will occur below…
Check out these top activism stories of the past day or so:
By Bill McKibben
Dear Friends,
The last two weeks have been spectacular.
In Washington DC, phase one of the tar sands campaign has just come to an end, and 1,252 North Americans have been arrested in a massive civil disobedience campaign. This historic groundswell was focused on stopping the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline — but it also sent a larger message that people everywhere are willing to take bold action to move our planet beyond fossil fuels.
By Bill McKibben
Dear friends—
Here’s the battle plan we promised—a few hours late, because it’s been a big job wrapping up phase one of this campaign.
Check out these top tar sands activism stories, followed by the most recent email from 350.org on this topic and more activism news:
Tar Sands activism and arrests continue at the White House, and activists around the world are now joining in from a distance in solidarity. Check out this note and call-to-action from 350.org that I received yesterday (and then more activism stories of the past day or so below that):
Long before US climate activists were getting arrested in front of the White House for a little civil disobedience, UK climate activists were chaining themselves to airplanes and climbing large coal power plants in the UK. I have thought for awhile now that UK climate activism has been seriously out-doing our US climate activism. But a lot of changes are in the works, and discussions of new directions. Here’s a note from leading UK climate activist group Climate Camp on an important meeting coming up this weekend:
Climate change and tar sands activism continued at the White House today, with actress and activist Daryl Hannah (also covered by Think Progress), Greenpeace USA executive director Phil Radford, and more getting arrested.
Another big environmental activism story of the day was a letter from Tim DeChristopher from prison.
The stream of activists willing to get arrested in front of the White House to try to block the development of the Tar Sands XL pipeline in the U.S. continues to flow strong. Today, over 140 activists were arrested, including top NASA climate scientist Dr. James Hansen.
Here’s a full repost from Climate Progress by leading climate activist Mike Tidwell, who I had the pleasure of meeting a few years ago when I lived in Virginia. It’s on how activists overwhelmed the authority figures trying to squash their efforts at justice. Enjoy. Following the repost are other top activism stories of the day.
Received this a week ago from 350.org. Just got around to watching it. Worth a share. Really like the music that kicks in about halfway through it.
Some top environmental, climate, animal activism news from the past week or so….
At the end of 2010, I wrote a piece on an exciting, fabulous, inspiring documentary on UK climate change activism over on Change.org. The film is actually launching today.
Researching the piece, I discovered all sort of awesome UK climate activism I wasn’t aware of before. It made me really respect the direct action climate change movement in the UK, which seems to be leagues ahead of the US direct action movement. I just ran across the documentary — Just Do It — again and thought it was high time (British English) to share it with folks over here on Planetsave.
Friends of a fellow Important Media writer, 3 ballet dancers, made a statement this week by interrupting BP’s 3rd Summer Screen in Trafalgar Square, London. The ballet dancers danced a short piece based on Swan Lake, “with the classic tale used as analogy for BP’s controversial investment in the Canadian tar sands,” the UK Tar Sands Network reports.
Some activism news from around from the past week or so….
Yes, you read that right, 16-year-old Alec Loorz, who I’ve written about a couple times before, is taking his concerns about catastrophic global warming and how it will affect his and future generations to another level. Beyond the direct action and online activism that he is a clear leader in, he is now suing the United States of America.
10 days ago, he wrote: “This morning I filed a lawsuit against the United States of America, for allowing money to be more powerful than the survival of my generation, and for making decisions that threaten our right to a safe and healthy planet.”
International youth marches organized by iMatter Movement and Mother’s Day Marches this coming week “will mobilize the largest number of youth ever to demand concrete actions against climate change,” according to a news release I received yesterday on a matter I’ve been long awaiting.
I did a short preview of Power Shift 2011 last week. Unfortunately, living across the pond (and half a continent away), I wasn’t able to make it to the event. If you’re like me & wish you could have been there, here are a few great videos from the event, videos of wonderful speeches on global warming, climate change, and activism by Tim DeChristopher, Al Gore, and Bill McKibben.
Continuing on with our continuing coverage of and commentary on 350.org’s “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Doesn’t Speak for Me” campaign, news is that 350.org is partnering with the 10,000-strong Power Shift 2011 youth climate conference on Monday, April 18 in Washington, DC. You can reserve your spot there and keep up with news about the conference over on Facebook.
Nike, Apple, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Levi Strauss, General Electric, General Motors, Shell, and other large international companies have opposed the US Chamber of Commerce, as well as a number of local chambers of commerce.
Joe Romm of Climate Progress recently had an interesting post on an email from Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp on “how we begin to rebuild public support for climate action and the political will to pass climate legislation.”
I decided to chime in after reading the post with my own 2 cents. Thought I’d share that here.
Tim DeChristopher has inspired a ton of people since his big oil and gas drilling monkey wrenching in 2008 (and I imagine before that as well). I’ve seen a couple of really interesting stories on people inspired by him who got fired from their jobs as a result and think they’re worth sharing with you.
I wrote about Tim DeChristopher’s trial, the courageous and inspirational action that led to it, and ways of supporting him a couple weeks ago. For the backstory, check out that link or watch the video above. The Salt Lake Tribune has a full transcript (though, maybe not entirely perfect, as it’s not official) of DeChristopher’s
This is a story I think I’ve touched on in the past on here and surely one I will be covering continuously in the next month or so. It also inspires a ton of ideas in my head for where the environmental and climate action movement should be headed and where I think this blog,
Wow, no joke, Mark Hertsgaard nailed it in some key interviews with “climate cranks” in Washington this week. Explicitly pointing out that the most prestigious, overarching scientific bodies in the world have supported climate scientists’ work and conclusions and have stated that accelerated and potentially catastrophic climate change caused by humans is happening; that the
Mark Hertsgaard, author of one of the books we’ll soon be giving away, Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth, talks about climate change, climate cranks, the threats facing “generation hot,” and what we need to do today in the video above. Worth the quick watch. I also got word recently that Hertsgaard
Not long ago, it was revealed that the UK police force had spies infiltrating climate activism groups in order to set them up and gather evidence on them. While one of the most famous, Mark Kennedy-Stone, actually seems to have changed sides after years of involvement with climate activist groups (as a spy), the method being
Other than what we’ve already covered, of course, here’s our weekly global weirding news link drop. A little more than normal given our extensive coverage of the mass bird and fish deaths that are occurring right now (and, thus, our inability to get to other important news). Coal prices soar as warmest sea surface temperatures
I covered the Ratcliffe on Trial climate activism case here on Planetsave a few weeks ago. The gist of this story is as follows: 20 of the 114 activists that were arrested in a school in Nottingham (UK) in April 2009 are on trial now on suspicion of conspiring to shut down Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station. The activists
This is a little bit of a last-minute announcement, but if you don’t know what to do this weekend and are in the UK, or if you are just a super-enthusiastic climate change activist, there is a big climate camp gathering in the UK this weekend, November 6th and 7th. It will be in the
