Happy Friday Kibitzers, as always you are free to skip all this gibberish and head straight for the comment section. That is where the real fun is and I know you've been waiting all day to post that perfect pootie picture you found earlier. Fun must be had. And as this is the start of the 3-day Labor Day weekend I thought we should keep it light and happy.
Back in December my wife (remembrance) and I went to Bill McKibben’s “Do the Math” tour, this was an informative and inspiring event. His presentation offered a basic understanding of climate change causes and effects along with two proposed actions that people could work on to apply pressure from the bottom up. As he toured the country local 350 chapters began forming. I quickly joined my local group.
One action is to fight the Keystone XL Pipeline. He asked if some people would be willing to risk arrest to bring attention to our cause. According to a recent poll 1 in 8 Americans would be willing to engage in non-violent civil disobedience. Over 600,000 people signed a petition to ask President Obama to reject the pipeline and 1.2 million commented to the State Department. Under pressure from Friends of Earth, the State Department’s Office on the Inspector General opened an investigation into the TransCanada connected ERM Group’s environmental impact report. Even the EPA attacked ERM’s report as under estimating the environmental impact. Everyday it gets easier for President Obama to reject the pipeline.
The pipeline is both a symbol and a tool to bring awareness to climate change. Rallies, protests, arrests and decent media coverage have strengthened and increased support against the pipeline. The pipeline always felt like a winnable battle, but Bill McKibben’s other proposed action, divestment, I questioned. Would this be an action people would rally around? Could they get universities, cities, religious institutions, and government agencies to divest from what had always been a safe investment? Well, they did and they can. The list of universities, cities and other public agencies is growing. Even President Obama called for divestment during a recent speech at Georgetown University.
“Convince those in power to reduce our carbon pollution. Push your own communities to adopt smarter practices. Invest. Divest."
Pres. Obama
One recent and local win was convincing the Santa Clara Valley Water District to divest from fossil fuels. Tuesday night the board voted unanimously to divest. Led by Water district director Brian Schmidt they became the first water district in the country to divest.
"We are confronting and adapting to climate change impacts on water supply, flood control and watershed restoration, so we shouldn't be funding the same companies that are the cause of these problems"
Brian Schmidt
The fossil fuel industries’ spokesman Tupper Hull of the Western States Petroleum Association responded with the usual cliché…
"Petroleum energy provides billions of people worldwide with mobility, comfort, security and economic prosperity"
…Almost sounds like he is tired of even trying to fight the obvious.
Of course these are just small battles won, but this grassroots movement is having an impact. So this weekend we can enjoy a sense of accomplishment. Maybe go on a hike in the beautiful mountains near my home and enjoy what we fight to protect.
"We've done our best for so many years to play defense against bad ideas from the fossil fuel industry, like the Keystone pipeline, Everybody's getting a kick out of playing offense for a while."
Bill McKibben
What is this you ask, no photos? Here are a couple from last weekend, TLO™ and I went to pick-up trash at the creek. The event was organized by State Senator Jim Beall.
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