Environment
On rare and welcome occasion we meet uncompromised green activists and writers completely focused on winning, and utterly void of bullshit.
Two such specimen are Mike Roselle and Jeffrey St. Clair. Not surprisingly, their recent books are pleasures to behold.
My long-time Greenpeace co-conspirator, Roselle is a “legend in his own crime” who exceeds his advance billing and then some. His TREE SPIKER (St. Martin’s Press) tells of a hard-scrabble Louisville childhood well-suited to the gritty green activism required to save forests and stop nukes. From a race along the edge of juvenile delinquency to some of the funniest jail tales you’ll ever read, Roselle constantly amuses and inspires.
From the wrong side of the logging camps to the tops of tripods meant to save those very trees, Roselle sings a song of guts and glory without pomp or guile. Like all good organizers, Mike knows Rule One is “never be boring.” Then there’s the one about knowing you can win---and doing it.
Two such specimen are Mike Roselle and Jeffrey St. Clair. Not surprisingly, their recent books are pleasures to behold.
My long-time Greenpeace co-conspirator, Roselle is a “legend in his own crime” who exceeds his advance billing and then some. His TREE SPIKER (St. Martin’s Press) tells of a hard-scrabble Louisville childhood well-suited to the gritty green activism required to save forests and stop nukes. From a race along the edge of juvenile delinquency to some of the funniest jail tales you’ll ever read, Roselle constantly amuses and inspires.
From the wrong side of the logging camps to the tops of tripods meant to save those very trees, Roselle sings a song of guts and glory without pomp or guile. Like all good organizers, Mike knows Rule One is “never be boring.” Then there’s the one about knowing you can win---and doing it.
SUMMARY
There are solutions to the climate crisis. What people and the planet need is a just and sustainable transition of our societies to a form that will ensure the rights of life and dignity of all peoples and deliver a more fertile planet and more fulfilling lives to future generations.
We, participating peoples, communities, and all organizations at the Klimaforum09 in Copenhagen, call upon every person, organization, government, and institution, including the United Nations (UN), to contribute to this necessary transition. It will be a challenging task. The crisis of today has economic, social, environmental, geopolitical, and ideological aspects interacting with and reinforcing each other as well as the climate crisis. For this reason, we call for urgent climate action:
. A complete abandonment of fossil fuels within the next 30 years, which must include specific milestones for every 5-year period. We demand an immediate cut in GHG of industrialized countries of at least 40% compared to 1990 levels by 2020.
There are solutions to the climate crisis. What people and the planet need is a just and sustainable transition of our societies to a form that will ensure the rights of life and dignity of all peoples and deliver a more fertile planet and more fulfilling lives to future generations.
We, participating peoples, communities, and all organizations at the Klimaforum09 in Copenhagen, call upon every person, organization, government, and institution, including the United Nations (UN), to contribute to this necessary transition. It will be a challenging task. The crisis of today has economic, social, environmental, geopolitical, and ideological aspects interacting with and reinforcing each other as well as the climate crisis. For this reason, we call for urgent climate action:
. A complete abandonment of fossil fuels within the next 30 years, which must include specific milestones for every 5-year period. We demand an immediate cut in GHG of industrialized countries of at least 40% compared to 1990 levels by 2020.
"Will you still need me? Will you still feed me?...."
--the Beatles
The moment has come. The first Baby Boomer cohort has turned 64.
It officially happened on midnight December 31-January 1, 2009-10.
I celebrated the moment 7 hours and 24 minutes early by jumping into a tiny cove in the Florida Bay.
The chilly but exhilarating water demanded an answer: Will we green the Earth? Will we win social justice? Will we get to Solartopia?
Unlike so many of you reading this, I am not a Boomer. The demographic officially extends from January 1, 1946 to December 31, 1964. It is a giant elephant of a population explosion swallowed by a decades-long python of a population decline.
The soldiers coming back from World War II multiplied like rabbits. The Boom was worldwide. In the US it birthed some 76 million children.
--the Beatles
The moment has come. The first Baby Boomer cohort has turned 64.
It officially happened on midnight December 31-January 1, 2009-10.
I celebrated the moment 7 hours and 24 minutes early by jumping into a tiny cove in the Florida Bay.
The chilly but exhilarating water demanded an answer: Will we green the Earth? Will we win social justice? Will we get to Solartopia?
Unlike so many of you reading this, I am not a Boomer. The demographic officially extends from January 1, 1946 to December 31, 1964. It is a giant elephant of a population explosion swallowed by a decades-long python of a population decline.
The soldiers coming back from World War II multiplied like rabbits. The Boom was worldwide. In the US it birthed some 76 million children.
As the Copenhagen climate talks collapsed, an unheralded but hard-fought No Nukes victory moved us closer to a green-powered Earth.
It happened in upstate New York, where the Unistar Nuclear Energy front group asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delay its application to build a reactor at Oswego, near Syracuse. Meanwhile, in Texas, the San Antonio city council's deliberations over building two new reactors has disintegrated into recriminations, resignations and firings over a multi-billion-dollar price jump in projected cost estimates, a furor that could doom reactor construction there as well. In Vermont, Entergy has threatened to shut its Yankee reactor if the legislature does not approve a complex maneuver that would allow its owners to escape certain financial liabilities.
Throughout the US, while the corporate media hypes a "renaissance" of new nukes, facts on the ground say the opposite is happening. The longer that trend continues, the more likely we are to win a world powered by the Solartopian technologies that really work, including wind, solar, geothermal, sustainable bio-fuels, increased efficiency/conservation, and more.
It happened in upstate New York, where the Unistar Nuclear Energy front group asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delay its application to build a reactor at Oswego, near Syracuse. Meanwhile, in Texas, the San Antonio city council's deliberations over building two new reactors has disintegrated into recriminations, resignations and firings over a multi-billion-dollar price jump in projected cost estimates, a furor that could doom reactor construction there as well. In Vermont, Entergy has threatened to shut its Yankee reactor if the legislature does not approve a complex maneuver that would allow its owners to escape certain financial liabilities.
Throughout the US, while the corporate media hypes a "renaissance" of new nukes, facts on the ground say the opposite is happening. The longer that trend continues, the more likely we are to win a world powered by the Solartopian technologies that really work, including wind, solar, geothermal, sustainable bio-fuels, increased efficiency/conservation, and more.
The epic fight over carbon emissions is barely the tip of how we survive.
Mother Earth demands that fossil/nukes be transcended. This green-powered leap defines our technological, economic and ecological survival.
But climate chaos and financial ruin do not stand alone. Green gadgetry aside, we don't get to 2030 unless we confront:
The power of the corporations;
Social justice and ballot-based democracy;
Ending waste and war;
Growing food that's truly organic;
Empowering women while harmonizing population growth.
1) Blunting carbon emissions alone will never solve our climate crisis. Nor will it be done without taming the most powerful institution humans have ever created: the global corporation.
Right now no mere government, or gathering of them, can seriously challenge the networked clout of globalized industry and finance.
Corporations claim human rights…and the military clout to enforce them…but no human responsibilities. Their sole mandate is to make money. Human and ecological considerations are ultimately nil.
Mother Earth demands that fossil/nukes be transcended. This green-powered leap defines our technological, economic and ecological survival.
But climate chaos and financial ruin do not stand alone. Green gadgetry aside, we don't get to 2030 unless we confront:
The power of the corporations;
Social justice and ballot-based democracy;
Ending waste and war;
Growing food that's truly organic;
Empowering women while harmonizing population growth.
1) Blunting carbon emissions alone will never solve our climate crisis. Nor will it be done without taming the most powerful institution humans have ever created: the global corporation.
Right now no mere government, or gathering of them, can seriously challenge the networked clout of globalized industry and finance.
Corporations claim human rights…and the military clout to enforce them…but no human responsibilities. Their sole mandate is to make money. Human and ecological considerations are ultimately nil.
Greenville, SC -- Two protesters locked themselves to the 1.5 million pound generator destined for Duke Energy’s Cliffside coal plant in Rutherford County, North Carolina. Protesters are vowing to prevent the generator, which has been traveling across South Carolina on a 300 foot trailer, from reaching the coal plant. “Our nation has no choice, we must stop burning coal. The only choice that we can make is whether we do that in time to still have breathable air, drinkable water, a livable climate, and standing mountains,” said, Catherine Anne. Protesters also draped a large banner from the top of the generator reading, “Stop Cliffside.” After blocking the shipment for about an hour, four people were arrested including the two who were locked down. Their names are: Julia Allen Page, Paul Webb Loomis, Catherine Ann MacDougal, and Rachel Anne Scarano.
The Afghan War may now doom our ability both to cope with the global climate crisis and to fairly deliver health care in this country.
If Barack Obama announces an escalation, Copenhagen and the Climate Bill will become meaningless. And the prospects for a single-payer health care system or even a token public option will disappear.
At 11pm Tuesday, December 1---after Obama's speech---we in central Ohio will gather at the Federal Building to either celebrate Obama’s courageous decision against escalation, or to inaugurate what will certainly be hard years of bitter civil struggle against yet another senseless war. Freepress.org, Solartopia.org and other peace, green and social justice organizations ask others around the world to consider joining us in your own home towns.
If there is no escalation, we can celebrate a small step forward in Copenhagen, where Obama has said he will join with Chinese leadership in a 17% reduction in carbon emissions. Joining with the Chinese in setting ANY target is good global politics.
But this is nowhere near enough. Nor is it anywhere near what’s possible.
If Barack Obama announces an escalation, Copenhagen and the Climate Bill will become meaningless. And the prospects for a single-payer health care system or even a token public option will disappear.
At 11pm Tuesday, December 1---after Obama's speech---we in central Ohio will gather at the Federal Building to either celebrate Obama’s courageous decision against escalation, or to inaugurate what will certainly be hard years of bitter civil struggle against yet another senseless war. Freepress.org, Solartopia.org and other peace, green and social justice organizations ask others around the world to consider joining us in your own home towns.
If there is no escalation, we can celebrate a small step forward in Copenhagen, where Obama has said he will join with Chinese leadership in a 17% reduction in carbon emissions. Joining with the Chinese in setting ANY target is good global politics.
But this is nowhere near enough. Nor is it anywhere near what’s possible.
This is what I know;
The worst exposure was 16 millirems of radiation. 6 millirems is a chest Xray. The normal exposure over 365 days or one yr for employees at any nuclear power plant is 2000 millirems.
Now, PA has 20 Nuclear Power Plants, all of them leaking tritium w/o licensees and getting away with it. All of them are subject to about the same leaks during repairs. Unit 2 has been shut down at TMI and is regulated through a dummie fedral corp that Excelon has that leases it to oversee the "management of regulating the already damaged unit' which is fancy for legal papers that make it legal to continue practice of work at TMI.
The worst exposure was 16 millirems of radiation. 6 millirems is a chest Xray. The normal exposure over 365 days or one yr for employees at any nuclear power plant is 2000 millirems.
Now, PA has 20 Nuclear Power Plants, all of them leaking tritium w/o licensees and getting away with it. All of them are subject to about the same leaks during repairs. Unit 2 has been shut down at TMI and is regulated through a dummie fedral corp that Excelon has that leases it to oversee the "management of regulating the already damaged unit' which is fancy for legal papers that make it legal to continue practice of work at TMI.
Yet another "perfectly safe" release at Three Mile Island has irradiated yet another puff of hype about alleged "green" support for new reactors.
The two are inseparable.
In 1979, when TMI's brand new Unit Two melted, stack monitors and other critical safeguards crashed in tandem. Nobody knows how much radiation escaped, where it went or who it harmed. Cancers, leukemia, stillbirths, malformations, asthma, sterility, skin lesions and other radiation-related diseases erupted throughout central Pennsylvania. Some 2400 families sued, but never got a full public hearing in federal court.
Unit Two had operated just three months when it melted. By a 3-1 margin, three central Pennsylvania counties then voted that TMI-One, which opened in 1974, stay shut. But Ronald Reagan tore down that wall.
This week TMI's owners were forced to evacuate 150 workers when radioactive dust "unexpectedly blew out of a pipe being cut by workers." Exelon was "trying to determine exactly how and why it happened."
The two are inseparable.
In 1979, when TMI's brand new Unit Two melted, stack monitors and other critical safeguards crashed in tandem. Nobody knows how much radiation escaped, where it went or who it harmed. Cancers, leukemia, stillbirths, malformations, asthma, sterility, skin lesions and other radiation-related diseases erupted throughout central Pennsylvania. Some 2400 families sued, but never got a full public hearing in federal court.
Unit Two had operated just three months when it melted. By a 3-1 margin, three central Pennsylvania counties then voted that TMI-One, which opened in 1974, stay shut. But Ronald Reagan tore down that wall.
This week TMI's owners were forced to evacuate 150 workers when radioactive dust "unexpectedly blew out of a pipe being cut by workers." Exelon was "trying to determine exactly how and why it happened."
The Columbus Free Press spoke with Zoe Beavers of Climate Ground Zero on Saturday Nov 22, as two concerned citizens, Dea Goblirsch and Nick Martin, locked down to a drill rig on Coal River Mountain’s Bee Tree mountaintop removal site, effectively stopping blasting. There will be a national day of action on Dec 7 in Charleston, WV to stop mountain top removal mining.
Zoe Beavers : We’ll they’ve started blasting on Coal River Mountain in order to build a road so they can start their mountain top removal (on Coal River Mountain). They’ve actually started blasting close to the impoundment that holds 9 billion gallons of toxic sludge. They’ve started 200 feet from the edge of the impoundment to do this blasting for the road. There are a couple of folks there-Dea and Nick-- and they’ve locked themselves down to the drill rig to halt the blasting. Dea is actually locked down in the cab of the drill rig and Nick is locked down to the cage on the outside of it.
Columbus Free Press: This is going on right now as we speak ?
Zoe Beavers : We’ll they’ve started blasting on Coal River Mountain in order to build a road so they can start their mountain top removal (on Coal River Mountain). They’ve actually started blasting close to the impoundment that holds 9 billion gallons of toxic sludge. They’ve started 200 feet from the edge of the impoundment to do this blasting for the road. There are a couple of folks there-Dea and Nick-- and they’ve locked themselves down to the drill rig to halt the blasting. Dea is actually locked down in the cab of the drill rig and Nick is locked down to the cage on the outside of it.
Columbus Free Press: This is going on right now as we speak ?