Climate Justice and the 99% (VIDEO)

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday September 06, 2015 · 10:01 AM PDT

2015/09/06 · 10:01

~~reposted from HuffPo, where this article appears as "Climate Truth, Justice, and the American Way," by Communitopia president Joylette Portlock, Ph.D.

The overwhelming scientific consensus is that humans are warming our planet by burning fossil fuels and cutting down trees. 97% of climate scientists agree about this. But the agreement doesn't stop there; the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also went to a lot of effort to create equally strong reports about who will be hurt worst, and it turns out, climate impacts are not distributed equally across all of humanity. Climate change is being caused by the richest humans and the impacts will be borne largely by the poorest. This, of course, is not news to anyone thinking about it for a minute, especially those of us who recently marked the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall with grim remembrance of some of the disparities in who is most vulnerable during and after disasters.

Unlike Pope Francis, who eloquently casts climate change as a moral battle, a matter of justice for the poor, in his recent encyclical, Laudato Si, the scientific community never actually comes right out and says this is a matter of right and wrong. Instead, the IPCC says things like:

"People who are socially, economically, culturally, politically, institutionally, or otherwise marginalized are especially vulnerable to climate change and also to some adaptation and mitigation responses."

--- which is, arguably, scientist-speak for "this is totally just not fair at all, you guys."

So what are we to do? And must we remain solemnly grim and horrified while doing it?

It's possible I may be biased, because my personal fight for climate justice has led to lots of silliness, laughs, and even wearing a cape from time to time. This is not typical. But our latest video in the Don't Just Sit There - Do Something! series points out that when it comes to climate change, while there really is a right and a wrong course of action, heroes and villians -- we can choose inspiration over despair. It's up to us to become the heroes that we're looking for.

I know that, especially as a U.S. resident who is thankfully not hurting for basic necessities, some climate-friendly changes are easier and faster to make than others. Recently, my family took a big step that was a long time coming, buying a used Chevy Volt. For years, we've known our next car would be electric, and the day finally came. Unsolicited, unsponsored review? It's GREAT, and honestly, the personal benefits far outweigh the peace of mind that I get from knowing my carbon footprint is that much lower. I mean, it's no invisible jet, but driving the Volt is smooth and quiet and really, genuinely fun. Even the 2012 model makes you feel like you live in the future. Or at least, like you live in a future you'd approve of. One that protects not only the weakest among us, but also all future generations.

Personal changes and policy changes (like the recently finalized, historic Clean Power Plan to reduce climate pollution from the U.S. power sector) are what will get us to that better future, for everyone. So let's keep fighting for truth, justice, and a new, clean-energy-based American way.

~~~
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Thank you, as always, for your comments, recs, tips, and reshares.

--
Communitopia's mission? Through use of new media and project-based campaigns, to slow climate change and create healthier communities by identifying, researching, and advocating for individual, community, and federal solutions to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and improve community resilience. Our three-word mission is "Making Green Mainstream."

If only the Sunshine State's rulings on solar and energy efficiency could be chalked up to ignorance

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Monday December 01, 2014 · 1:21 PM PST

2014/12/01 · 13:21

Twenty-nine states across the nation have mandatory renewables portfolio standards in place. These require that a certain percentage of electricity consumed in the state be generated by renewables—solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, tidal, hydropower—by a certain date. Seven other states have non-binding standards.

Some of these RPS are aggressive, so much so that they were ridiculed when they were first passed. At the top of the heap: Maine—40 percent by 2017; New York—30 percent by 2015; California—33 percent by 2020; Colorado—30 percent by 2020; Hawaii—40 percent by 2030. Some of these standards are lame and most of them were imposed long after they should have been. But at least they've got them. And deadlines for meeting the standards can always be set for an earlier date.

Most of those states also have active energy-efficiency programs in place. Not surprisingly, those with the best RPS also have the best energy-efficiency programs.

But not Florida. Not only does the Sunshine State not have an RPS and not permit leasing and power purchase agreements, its Public Service Commission also just voted 3-to-2 to let Florida's solar rebate expire at the end of 2015 and "cut the energy efficiency goals of the state’s utility companies by more than 90 percent, a move that was based off of proposals from Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric, and Florida Power & Light." Here's Katie Valentine at Climate Progress:

And environmentalists and renewable energy advocates in Florida also aren’t happy about the PSC’s vote. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a group that’s pushed for more solar-friendly policies in Florida, said in a statement that the PSC’s vote represents an “abdication of its responsibility as stewards for energy consumers.”
“Instead of siding with customers, the PSC sided with monopoly utility shareholders, once again, by setting meager goals that promote the construction of new power plants — which earn the companies a hefty profit, while leaving fewer opportunities for customers to lower energy use and save money on bills,” SACE said in the statement. “The line between the PSC and the monopoly utilities they are charged with regulating has become increasingly blurred.”

Even though Florida is ranked third in solar potential among the states, it ranks only 12th in accumulated solar installations, and it was only 18th in new solar installations added last year.

As far as is known, the PSC majority didn't ask what Duke, Tampa Electric, and Florida Power & Light plan to do about the ongoing global warming that makes South Florida, in the words of Sen. Bill Nelson: "ground zero for sea level rise."

Perhaps they take the view that whatever Florida does to boost renewable energy and improve energy efficiency won't make a dent in curtailing the global emission of greenhouse gas. Therefore, why bother? So much easier just to meet the needs of Duke and other providers of conventional power by following their antediluvian advice.

Sunday's climate report on hell and high water makes it clearer than ever that delay is denial

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Monday November 03, 2014 · 9:43 AM PST

2014/11/03 · 09:43

Chris Mooney, newly at The Washington Post—no doubt to the chagrin of climate denier George Will—wrote last week:

According to a number of scientific critics, the scientific consensus represented by the [International Panel on Climate Change] is a very conservative consensus. IPCC's reports, they say, often underestimate the severity of global warming, in a way that may actually confuse policymakers (or worse). The IPCC, one scientific group charged last year, has a tendency to "err on the side of least drama." And now, in a new study just out in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, another group of researchers echoes that point. In scientific parlance, they charge that the IPCC is focused on avoiding what are called "type 1" errors—claiming something is happening when it really is not (a "false positive")—rather than on avoiding "type 2" errors—not claiming something is happening when it really is (a "false negative").
The consequence is that we do not always hear directly from the IPCC about how bad things could be.

Yep. The consequence is that the delayers—those people with political clout who accept the scientific consensus about global warming but are too chickenshit to take action to reduce its impacts—have been aided in their procrastination by the IPCC's striving not to appear alarmist in the five assessments it has issued over the past 24 years. Grim as the latest 116-page report officially released in Copenhagen Sunday is, and strong as the warnings in it are, it still gives delayers room to hem and haw and whine about how moving too quickly will ruin the economy. Still pretending that the environment and economy are two separate entities.

The report's bottom line? The carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide that the industrial age has poured into the atmosphere is now at its highest levels in at least 800,000 years, hundreds of millennia before modern humans emerged. The greenhouse gas burden is warming the planet's atmosphere and oceans and could in a worst-case scenario, if unchecked, increase the average global temperature 4.6° Celsius (8.3° Fahrenheit) by the turn of the century. The damage from such an increase would be, in the language of the IPCC report, "severe, widespread, and irreversible."

It is labeled the Synthesis Report because it pulls together material from the 5,000 pages of the panel's Fifth Assessment of climate change, three earlier reports released in stages starting in September 2013. The conclusions of those reports are based on the work of 800 scientists compiling the results of 30,000 scientific papers. The IPCC also put together a 40-page version of the Synthesis Report, a Summary for Policymakers. The report comes just a month before almost every nation on the planet sends delegations to the climate talks in Lima, Peru. Those are a precursor to 2015 talks in Paris that are meant to do what has so far eluded world leaders: forging an effective plan to deal with climate change that everyone can sign onto, including the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases: China, Russia, India, the European Union and the United States.

The goal is to come up with a carbon-cutting plan to keep the world's average temperature from rising above 2°C (3.6°F). On Sunday, R.K. Pachauri, chair of the IPCC, said in a release that no part of the globe would go untouched by climate change:

“We have little time before the window of opportunity to stay within 2ºC of warming closes. To keep a good chance of staying below 2ºC, and at manageable costs, our emissions should drop by 40 to 70 percent globally between 2010 and 2050, falling to zero or below by 2100. We have that opportunity, and the choice is in our hands.”

Little time indeed. But 2100 is three generations, the kind of deadline that the delayers can seize on to keep dinking around, ignoring the 2050 deadline.

More on the report can be found below the fold.

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Thursday September 18, 2014 · 4:22 PM PDT

2014/09/18 · 16:22

Proposed efficiency rule on new commercial air-conditioning units will cut their energy usage in half.

The Obama administration took several small steps in the right direction on energy policy Thursday when it announced the Department of Energy's proposed new standard for commercial air-conditioning units, the Department of Agriculture's plan to add 540 new renewable energy and efficiency projects in rural areas and a plan to train 50,000 solar installers. The DOE estimates that the air-conditioning rule alone would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 million metric tons by 2030, and that the whole energy package could cut them by 300 million metric tons.

Plus save consumers $10 billion.

Here are some excerpts from the White House fact sheet on the proposed rule and projects:

To continue to build a skilled solar workforce, DOE’s Solar Instructor Training Network is launching a veterans’ job training pilot project at up to three military bases this fall. The pilot project will connect a talented Veteran population with DOE’s extensive network of more than 400 community college-based solar training institutions. The network will assist at least 50,000 highly-qualified new solar installers to enter the industry by 2020. [...]
If finalized as proposed, this [air conditioning] standard will save 11.7 quads of energy over the lifetime of units shipped over 30 years. That is equivalent to more than half of all the residential energy used in one year, making this potentially the largest energy savings estimated for any efficiency standard issued by DOE to date. [...] This year, DOE has issued seven final energy conservation standards, and when combined with the final rules already issued under this Administration, they will get us more than two-thirds of the way to achieving the President's goal of reducing carbon pollution by at least 3 billion metric tons cumulatively by 2030.

At the current rate of CO₂ emissions, that 3 billion tons would amount to a 4 percent cut of the cumulative total over those 15 years.

The plans and proposals today are a far cry from what the administration would like to see in federal support for renewable energy infrastructure. If only Congress would cough-cough display some far-sightedness.

Please read below the fold for more on this subject.

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Tuesday September 16, 2014 · 4:12 PM PDT

2014/09/16 · 16:12

Governor Jindal pretends his energy plan is balanced.

"The reality is right now we've got an administration in the Obama administration that are science deniers when it comes to harnessing America's energy resources and potential to create good-paying jobs for our economy and for our future."
—Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal

The governor made that comment at a breakfast Tuesday as part of his presentation of a slick, 47-page energy plan: Organizing Around Abundance: Making America An Energy Superpower.

As is made clear in that document, saying the administration is filled with science deniers is really just cover for one more round of the old "pointy-headed Washington bureaucrats" sneer made popular by another Southern governor two generations ago: George Wallace.

Give Jindal credit for clever weasel wording. Early on in the energy plan, Charles Krauthammer's commentary is approvingly cited:

I’m not a global warming believer. I’m not a global warming denier. I’ve long believed that it cannot be good for humanity to be spewing tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. I also believe that those scientists who pretend to know exactly what this will cause in 20, 30, or 50 years are white-coated propagandists.

Neither a believer nor a denier. That's what Ben Geman at the National Journal labels "soft skepticism." If Jindal decides to run for president in 2016, that straddle would work to give him maneuvering room between the Republican hard-core that views global warming as a hoax and the small but somewhat saner wing of his party. It's an asinine stance. And probably not politically that smart either. Here's one of the innumerable scientifically backed synopses of reality from the World Meteorological Society:

Climate is always changing. However, many of the observed changes noted above are beyond what can be explained by the natural variability of the climate. It is clear from extensive scientific evidence that the dominant cause of the rapid change in climate of the past half century is human-induced increases in the amount of atmospheric greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), chlorofluorocarbons, methane, and nitrous oxide.

A key objective of Jindal's plan is obvious. "Radical" appears 23 times in the document: "left-wing radical environmentalists," "radical environmental ideology," "radical leftist ideology," "radical EPA," "radical policy changes," "radical NGOs," "radical policy agenda," etc. Somebody read the book on how repetition makes propaganda work.

More on this subject can be found below the fold.

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Wednesday August 27, 2014 · 1:39 PM PDT

2014/08/27 · 13:39

Several newspapers published summaries of leaked copies of the latest draft report of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Tuesday. The news ain't good. But it's not new. Greenhouse gas emissions, the report says, are probably "unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years." That was hundreds of thousands of years before modern humans emerged.

In the three decades from 1970 to 2000, the report stated, global emissions of greenhouse gases grew at 1.3 percent annually. But from 2000 to 2010, emissions expanded to 2.2 percent a year.

The report is a 127-page "synthesis" of three highly detailed analyses making up the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report released over the past year. It's meant to highlight the panel's latest findings in a more easily understood summary. What's different is the language. That's being described as blunt and stark. And it includes words like "irreversible":

“Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen. [...]
Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems.”

Of course, the authors were cautious not to say "we're f#%@&cked" unless the deniers and delayers and fossil fuel fools are shoved out of the way. More's the pity. When you have a five-alarm fire underway, it's not alarmism to say so. Still, the report uses the word “risk” more than 350 times and “irreversible” 48 times.

Included in the report is a by-now familiar litany of expected impacts, many of which are already happening. Among them: rising sea levels from melting polar icecaps, Greenland and glaciers; ever more acidic oceans that make life difficult for many marine species; torrential rains; floods; droughts; heat waves; crop failures; extinctions; and violent conflict. The report also stated that global warming would “slow down economic growth, make poverty reduction more difficult, further erode food security, and prolong existing poverty traps and create new ones, the latter particularly in urban areas and emerging hot spots of hunger.”

Below the orange feedback loop is more analysis.

HoundDog

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday March 02, 2014 · 11:25 AM PST

2014/03/02 · 11:25

Often, when I get depressed, I scan for articles about developments in solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, and other kinds of renewable energy generation. Good news seems to be easily found in these areas. My brain is tired, so I'm just sharing links to these six articles without my usual pictures, analysis, attempts at humor, and wit, to see if I can get started today before it is time for bed.

The Economist reports A way to double the efficiency of solar cells is about to go mainstream.

SUNLIGHT is free, but that is no reason to waste it. Yet even the best silicon solar cells—by far the most common sort—convert only a quarter of the light that falls on them. Silicon has the merit of being cheap: manufacturing improvements have brought its price to a point where it is snapping at the heels of fossil fuels. But many scientists would like to replace it with something fundamentally better.

John Rogers, of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is one. The cells he has devised (and which are being made, packaged into panels and deployed in pilot projects by Semprius, a firm based in North Carolina) are indeed better. By themselves, he told this year’s meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, they convert 42.5% of sunlight. Even when surrounded by the paraphernalia of a panel they manage 35%. Suitably tweaked, Dr Rogers reckons, their efficiency could rise to 50%. Their secret is that they are actually not one cell, but four, stacked one on top of another. ...

Dr Rogers gets round this by using a different material for each layer of the stack. He chooses his materials so that the bottom of the band gap of the top layer matches the top of the band gap of the one underneath, and so on down the stack. Each layer thus chops off part of the spectrum, converts it efficiently into electrical energy and passes the rest on.

Dr Rogers has overcome the cost barrier of the expensive materials needed for these "tuned" semi-conductors by placing them in a matrix of half a millimeter wide dots covered with a larger array of cheap glass lenses which focuses light from a much larger surface area onto the smaller more expensive photovoltaic material. This article is filled with brilliant production engineering innovation details for the more interested reader.

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Saturday February 08, 2014 · 6:44 PM PST

2014/02/08 · 18:44

Every week Daily Kos diarists write dozens of environmentally related posts. Many don't get the readership they deserve. Helping improve the odds is the motivation behind the Green Diary Rescue. In the past seven years, there have been 261 of these spotlighting more than 15,994 eco-diaries. Below are categorized links and excerpts to 88 more that appeared in the past seven days. That makes for lots of good reading during the spare moments of your weekend. [Disclaimer: Inclusion of a diary in the rescue does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.]

KXL Night of Action. The Coalition Builds!—by noise of rain: "It was cold tonight. So cold that batteries start to get weird, that cameras quit working, that you stand amazed when over 100 people turn out to protest dirty oil, the scraping of the Canadian Shield, the delivery of toxic sludge to an international market for the rich to get richer. The Overpass Light Brigade brought the "sidewalk soapbox" out tonight; our portable PA system that allowed for spirited chants which kept us warm. We held the sign KXL = CLIMATE CRISIS, having decided to focus on what it is and what it will do rather than the political question of who will approve or reject it. We even had the first DIY Drone Brigade action: a video drone as part of the citizen produced media circus, rising into the air over the streets, almost swatted down by a passing city bus, capturing entirely new video views. Did I say it was cold? It was so cold that the drone camera couldn't even focus! [...] Get active. Sign stuff. Call people. Join groups. Do stuff. Resist. Disrupt. Disobey. End this criminal cartel of Earth Eaters. Run the Extractors out of the county! Send them to the Asteroid Colonies, where they can stockpile mineral wealth and dream of rich humus soil musky with moisture and crawling with life. This is my offering tonight: paddle with the sweet bozos and singers and poets and holders of the light. Tell your children that you fought like hell."

Detroit Light Brigade

House Republicans Attempt To Take Control Of California Water—by Richard Lyon: "By now most people have probably heard that California and other western states are facing what could be the worst drought since Europeans first arrived on the scene. There is simply not enough water to go around and choices are going to have to be made among the various competing interest. The main battle line is being drawn between agricultural interests and environmental use. Congressional Republicans are using their legislative artillery on behalf of agribiz. Big dams, bitter feuds and some political bombshells surface in a California water bill slated for lickety-split House approval next week. One new dam would be authorized for the Upper San Joaquin River. Another would get a green light to store Sacramento River water at a new Sites Reservoir. The existing Shasta Dam, already the state's seventh largest, could grow taller."

Organic Farmers Face Their Own Version of Baumol's Disease—by marc brazeau: "Nathanael Johnson's recent interview with veteran organic farmer Tom Willey made about a dozen great points and raised about a dozen vexing issues. I'd like to look at just one of them. In the interview, Willey is outlines two problems with one solution. One of those problems is going to get more difficult for organic producers over time. Willey says: [On the value of farmer's labor] Because we think that growing other people’s food is as important as, you know, being people’s pastor or doctor or lawyer, and those professions are certainly well compensated. So why have farmers always had to take it in the shorts economically? And grow food for so many people and work so many hours and so hard for so little remuneration? I don’t have his permission to say who he is, but there’s a very successful and highly revered organic farmer on the East Coast, and two years ago he had a horrible bout with cancer and he didn’t have the money for health insurance. I mean that is just unconscionable. And he is feeding many people some of the best organic products that we know of. It’s just not right."

You can find more rescued green diaries below the composted squiggle.

Meteor Blades

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Saturday October 05, 2013 · 2:46 PM PDT

2013/10/05 · 14:46

Every week Daily Kos diarists write dozens of environmentally related posts. Many don't get the readership they deserve. Helping improve the odds is the motivation behind the Green Diary Rescue. In the past seven years, there have been 242 of these spotlighting more than 14,754 eco-diaries. Below are categorized links and excerpts to 44 more that appeared in the past seven days. That makes for lots of good reading during the spare moments of your weekend. [Disclaimer: Inclusion of a diary in the rescue does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.]

Green Diary of the Week

The Oceans are Dying: Oxygen is Depleting, Acidity Rising at Fastest Rate in 300,000,000 Years—by FishOutofWater: "Today's explosive increase in human CO2 emissions and warming of the oceans are recreating the conditions of the great Permian extinction 300 million years ago when massive volcanic eruptions in Siberia triggered the release of enormous amounts of stored carbon. A leading theory is that deoxygenation and acidification of the oceans led to the bacterial production of toxic hydrogen sulfide gas which poisoned species dependent on oxygen.

By the end of this natural catastrophe 90% to 95% of all marine species were extinct. The biodiversity of the oceans took 30 million years to recover. The next mass extinction event may have already begun. [...] Human CO2 emissions directly cause both global warming and ocean acidification. But that's just the beginning. Mixing tends to decline in warming waters because a warm fresh surface layer is substantially lighter than colder middle and deep water. The surface layer tends to float and not mix. Organic carbon is always falling from the surface to deeper waters. Bacteria oxidize the fallen carbon to CO2. This process reduces oxygen levels and increases the acidity of the water. When the rate of mixing declines the residence time of water in a layer increases, so acidity levels tend to rise and oxygen levels drop in layers below the surface as the climate warms."

••• •• •••

You Can't Own ALL the Solar, Mr. Monopoly, Not with Your Huge Profits—by AnneBB: "Imagine making 14 percent post tax profit with no competition in a captured market, on electricity service, over 4 times what some other utilities make? That's the pleasure of being Xcel Energy in Colorado. And right now they aim to protect all that by laming Colorado's net metering policy, the nation's best policy for rooftop solar, the power generation that can be owned at the household and which lowers peoples' power bills so much. It's one thing to allow a company to make a fair return on investment, it's quite another to let that monopoly turn your state into the company's cash cow moving to destroy the growth of distributed generation and the local ownership it entails. In Germany, the world center of distributed generation, small operators like families and farmers own 10 percent of the entire nation's power generation, an astonishing accomplishment and an integral part of how they achieved 20 percent renewables on the grid."

••• •• •••

Sunday Train: Unleashing the Political Power of Bio-Coal—by BruceMcF: "This essay is about undermining that political power at its base, by creating more jobs from a direct rival to coal production than Big Coal can offer. Once a better deal is made available, with more employment, more value-added circulating locally, and no destruction of people's health through the hauling up of poisonous by-products from underground, the foundation on which Big Coal's political power is based is in a position to fracture. What is that direct rival to coal production? Biocoal production. Biocoal is a solid fuel made from biomass by heating it in an inert atmosphere. The result is either charcoal, or if the process temperature is mild, a product called torrefied wood. Charcoal and torrefied wood can be called by common name biocoal. Compared to untreated biomass biocoal has several advantages. It has high energy content, uniform properties and low moisture content. Biocoal can be used in coal fired power plants, which have difficulties with other biomass based fuels, such as wood chips."

You can find more rescued green diaries below the sustainable squiggle.

Bill McKibben

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday December 22, 2012 · 2:52 PM PST

2012/12/22 · 14:52

John Boehner, Wayne LaPierre: essentially guys devoted to making sure nothing ever changes. It's painful just to look at. So, meet Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, henceforth known as Santa Claus to the environmental movement.

Earlier today he announced that city funds would never be invested in fossil fuel companies again, and urged the city's pension fund to divest. This is a powerful political statement: it is the leader of one our biggest cities (a clty tied to the nation's and the world's economic future) declaring that he doesn't want to be tied up with the dirty energy companies bent on wrecking our future.

It made me proud that he cited the Rolling Stone article I wrote last summer explaining why the fossil fuel companies are the bad guys in this fight--I'm glad it has 121,000 likes on Facebook, but much gladder it's helping change policy. But the real factor was the outpouring of people determined to stand up to Exxon et al. We kicked off our DotheMath tour in Seattle, with Mayor McGinn up on stage--he saw the huge sold-out crowd at one of the city's biggest concert halls, and he knew that this movement would have his back if he did the right thing.

We've got 192 college campuses now with active divestment fights. Every one of them will know about this soon, and it will give them heart. And now we've got a template for activists in every city around the country and soon the world. Mayor McGinn, you're a hero.

Here's the account of McGinn's bold decision from gofossilfree.org, which is the hub of the emerging divestment movement. And here's the text of his statement:

To the members of the Seattle City Employees’ Retirement System Board:

I write to you today to ask that you refrain from future investments in fossil fuel companies and begin the process of divesting our pension portfolio from those companies. I recognize that this process will require a thorough evaluation of the portfolio’s performance, assets, and investment strategies. City staff stand ready to assist you in this work.

Climate change is one of the most important challenges we currently face as a city and as a society. We have watched in recent weeks as weather influenced by climate change has caused significant damage and financial losses to cities and states on the East Coast. The projections suggest that the problem could get much worse. According to Bill McKibben and 350.org, fossil fuel corporations now have 2,795 gigatons of carbon dioxide in their reserves, five times the amount considered safe to avoid catastrophic climate change.

I believe that Seattle ought to discourage these companies from extracting that fossil fuel, and divesting the pension fund from these companies is one way we can do that. The City’s cash pool is not currently invested in fossil fuel companies, and I already directed that we refrain from doing so in the future. In addition, I am asking the Deferred Compensation Plan Committee to develop options for City employees to allow them to move their investments out of fossil fuel companies if desired, and to offer fossil fuel free investment choices to them refrain from future investments in fossil fuel.

The City of Seattle’s finance director informs me that two of the system’s top 10 investments are with ExxonMobil and Chevron. The pension system has currently $17.6 million invested with these two firms, which represents roughly 0.9% of the system’s $1.9 billion in assets. I understand that it is likely the system has investments in other fossil fuel-related entities as well.

There is a clear economic argument for divestment. While fossil fuel companies do generate a return on our investment, Seattle will suffer greater economic and financial losses from the impact of unchecked climate change. Our infrastructure, our businesses, and our communities would face greater risk of damages and losses due to turbulent weather that climate change causes. As a waterfront city, several of our neighborhoods and industrial districts are at risk if climate change causes a significant rise in sea level.

I believe that Seattle’s pension funds should be invested in companies that can provide a good return on our investment without putting our city and our future at risk. I am ready to work with the City Council and the pension board to make this happen.

Sincerely,

Mike McGinn
Mayor of Seattle

Can Weathercasters Become Climatecasters? CCSOS

ClimateBrad

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday August 24, 2012 · 11:15 AM PDT

2012/08/24 · 11:15

Brad Johnson here - I'm sitting in the lobby of Boston's Park Plaza Hotel right now, attending the American Meteorological Society 40th Annual Broadcast Meteorology Conference. Over 200 of the nation's top TV meteorologists are here to discuss their profession and how to best serve their viewers' interests. No challenge is greater than the one they face than manmade climate change. The political, social, and economic pressures on weathercasters are great, and many here are afraid to talk about the science of how the burning of fossil fuels is changing our weather. They feel isolated and overwhelmed, and are unsure if there would be a positive response from their viewership for taking the personal risk to talk about global warming on the air. Below are some stories about the meteorologists in attendance who have taken the plunge and are demonstrating that talking about global warming isn't just okay, but it's the right thing to do.

Poll

38 votes Show Results

What do think is the top reason meteorologists don't talk about climate change?

38 votes Vote Now!

What do think is the top reason meteorologists don't talk about climate change?

My meteorologist does!

1 vote

It's too hard for them to know and understand the science

0 votes

They're ideologically opposed to climate action

2 votes

They don't believe it's their job to talk about human influence on weather

5 votes

They're afraid of local Tea Partiers

3 votes

They don't want to upset station owners

5 votes

They've been told by management not to talk about global warming

16 votes

They don't believe their viewers would reward them for talking about climate

1 vote

I don't watch TV or follow local weathercasters on Facebook/Twitter

5 votes

Climate Change SOS: Building a Corps of Climate Leaders

Al Gore

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday August 24, 2012 · 9:10 AM PDT

2012/08/24 · 09:10

Over this past week, the Daily Kos community has enjoyed an invigorating and broad-ranging conversation about climate change – from the science and politics of the issue to how it is impacting our social and personal welfare every day. It is clear from the comments and passionate discussion here on Daily Kos that Kossacks are not only engaged in the debate, but are committed to action. That is true of the broader world as well.

We know climate change is happening, but that concentrated and cooperative action on the national and international stage is severely lacking. Although political progress has been frustratingly slow, I remain hopeful. Because I can tell you that the collective sense of urgency about finding solutions to climate change has never been greater.

This energy and excitement is not found in the Daily Kos community alone. I just spent several days with 1,000 individuals from across the world from 58 countries who were just trained as Climate Leaders for the Climate Reality Leadership Corps. These people are students, professionals, and leaders in their communities. More importantly, they are not just dedicated to educating their friends and family, they are actively working to solve the climate crisis.

Though I have been doing these trainings for years, I have never been as thrilled about the kind of passion, commitment and local action I’ve been hearing about from individuals all around the world. People are optimistic about the future – about the kind of movement we can create, the innovative solutions we can develop, the choices we can make for a more sustainable future.

Together we can win the conversation and spark meaningful action to combat climate change. Let’s start today. Join Climate Reality online to learn about our I’m Too Hot campaign and to request a Reality presentation in your community. And, in the comment thread, tell us all how you talk about climate change in your community and what excites you about the potential to solve it.

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