April 22, 2013

Earth Day Exclusive: Tim DeChristopher Speaks Out After 21 Months in Prison for Disrupting Oil Bid

In a Democracy Now! exclusive on Earth Day, climate change activist Tim DeChristopher joins us for his first interview since being released from federal custody after serving 21 months in detention. DeChristopher was convicted of interfering with a 2008 public auction when he disrupted the Bush administration’s last-minute move to sell off oil and gas exploitation rights in Utah. He posed as a bidder and won drilling lease rights to 22,000 acres of land in an attempt to save the property from oil and gas extraction. The auction itself was later overturned and declared illegal, a fact that DeChristopher’s defense attorneys were prevented from telling the jury. His case is the subject of the documentary, “Bidder 70,” which will screen all over the country today to mark his release and Earth Day. The founder of the climate justice group Peaceful Uprising, Tim DeChristopher joins us to discuss his ordeal, his newfound freedom, and his plans to continue his activism in the climate justice movement.

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Filed under: climate change global warming civil disobedience disobedience oil fossil fuels Environment earthday 
March 4, 2013
Climate Change Science Poised to Enter U.S. Classrooms

Inside Climate News:

New standards recommend teaching man-made global warming in all science classes. Some textbook publishers to incorporate curriculum immediately.

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Filed under: climate change global warming Environment education fossil fuels oil coal fracking 
March 3, 2013
New poll: Americans support a carbon tax

Friends of the Earth:

A recent poll (see a short summary) commissioned by Friends of the Earth and conducted by the leading polling firm Mellman Group found that about 70 percent of Americans had a favorable response to a carbon tax.

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Filed under: fossil fuels carbon climate change global warming economy 
February 19, 2013

Report:Right-Wing Group Funding Climate Change Denial Propaganda at Previously Unknown Scale

Democracy Now:

While the secretive Donors Trust has given millions to a variety of right-wing causes, denying climate change appears to be its top priority. An analysis by the environmentalist group Greenpeace reveals Donors Trust has funneled more than one-third of its donations — at least $146 million — to more than 100 climate change denial groups over the past decade. In 2010, 12 of these groups received between 30 to 70 percent of their funding from Donors Trust. We’re joined by Suzanne Goldenberg, U.S. environment correspondent for The Guardian, who has written a series of articles detailing the ties between Donors Trust and opponents of climate change science. “The goal here is to create this illusion that there is a really strong movement against the science of climate change and against action on climate change,” Goldenberg says.

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Filed under: propaganda climate change global warming Environment Mental environments fossil fuels oil koch 
February 17, 2013

Media giant Comcast, the owner of NBCUniversal, censored this climate change ad targeting state support of the fossil fuel industry after Exxon threatened to sue.

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Filed under: climate change fossil fuels free speech global warming oil comcast Mental environments media reform 
January 27, 2013

Award-winning animated video outlining the history of fossil fuels and humanity, produced by the Post Carbon Institute

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Filed under: climate change fossil fuels Environment 
November 28, 2012
World Bank Climate Report: Stand Still for the Apocalypse?

Chris Hedges, Truthdig:

Humans must immediately implement a series of radical measures to halt carbon emissions or prepare for the collapse of entire ecosystems and the displacement, suffering and death of hundreds of millions of the globe’s inhabitants, according to a report commissioned by the World Bank.

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Filed under: climate change Environment global warming fossil fuels Profit over People 
November 27, 2012
Michael Klare: A Thermonuclear Energy Bomb in Christmas Wrappings

Tomdispatch:

Let’s face it: climate change is getting scarier by the week.  In this all-American year, record wildfires, record temperatures in the continental U.S., an endless summer, a fierce drought that still won’t go away, and Frankenstorm Sandy all descended on us.  Globally, billion-dollar weather events are increasingly dime-a-dozen affairs, with a record 14 of them in 2012 so far.  So is a linked phenomenon, the continuing rise in the volume of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, especially from burning fossil fuels, that get pumped into the atmosphere.  The latest figures from 2011 indicate that those gases once again made an appearance in record amounts with no indication that abatement is anywhere on the horizon.

With new studies and more data, it seems, come ever more frightening projections of just how much the temperature of this planet is going to rise by 2100.  After all, as Michael Klare, TomDispatch regular and author of the invaluable The Race for What’s Left, points out, the International Energy Agency’s latest study suggests a possible temperature rise by century’s end of 3.6 degrees Celsius.  That should startle the imagination, involving as it would the transformation of this planet into something unrecognizably different from the one we all grew up on.  And keep in mind that it’s by no means the top estimate for temperature disaster.  A new World Bank report indicates that a rise of 4 degrees Celsius is possible by century’s end, a prospect that bank president Jim Yong Kim termed a “doomsday scenario.”

In the meantime, the most comprehensive study to date of how humans have affected the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere predicts that the planet’s temperature could rise by an unimaginable 6 degrees Celsius by 2100.  These days, it increasingly looks like we’ve entered the lottery from hell when it comes to Earth’s ultimate temperature — especially now that a recent report from the United Nations Environment Program suggests carbon in the atmosphere has increased by 20% since 2000 and that “there are few signs of global emissions falling.” 

With this in mind, consider the latest “good news” reported (and widely hailed) in the world of fossil fuels, courtesy of Michael Klare.

Read more..

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Filed under: climate change global warming Environment fossil fuels us foreign policy 
November 20, 2012

Why did the percentage of Americans who say they believe that climate change is caused by human activity drop from 71% all the way down to 44% between 2007 and 2011?

Why is climate change denial most pronounced is the states that have been most deeply affected by it? 

Is the business model of the fossil fuel industry really ‘at war with life on this planet’?

For anyone seeking a clearer understanding of climate change politics in the United States, listen to this excellent interview of Naomi Klein by Bill Moyers.

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Filed under: climate change global warming Environment Mental environments propaganda Profit over People fossil fuels sandy 
November 18, 2012
Stunning: BP Settlement Is Worth a Fraction of Last Year's Profits

Public Citizen:

We’re stunned. This settlement is pathetic. The $4 billion penalty is equivalent to just a fifth of the company’s 2011 profits.
The point of the criminal justice system is twofold: to punish and to deter. This does neither. It is a weak-tea punishment that provides zero deterrence to BP or other companies. Consider that after the 2005 Texas refinery explosion that killed 15 people, BP pleaded guilty to a criminal charge and paid a fine. Now, after a 2010 event that killed 11 people, BP is again pleading guilty and paying a fine. Zero deterrence.
Although the government is right to pursue manslaughter charges against two individuals BP employees, the settlement is inadequate to address BP’s repeated criminal conduct. 
The government must impose more meaningful sanctions. Nothing in this settlement stops BP from continuing to get federal contracts and leases. BP will earn more in annual federal contracts than it will pay in penalties as a result of this. That’s appalling.

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Filed under: Profit over People corporate state fossil fuels Environment oil 
November 14, 2012
Global warming talk heats up in U.S., revisits carbon tax

Associated Press:

Climate change is suddenly a hot topic again. The issue is resurfacing in talks about a once radical idea: a possible carbon tax.

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Filed under: Environment climate change global warming fossil fuels obama 
October 30, 2012

Bill McKibben on Hurricane Sandy and Climate Change: “If There Was Ever a Wake-up Call, This Is It”

Democracy Now:

The megastorm comes at a time when President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney have refused to make climate change an issue on the campaign trail. For the first time since 1984, climate change was never addressed during a presidential debate. “It’s really important that everybody, even those who aren’t in the kind of path of this storm, reflect about what it means that in the warmest year in U.S. history, … in a year when we saw, essentially, summer sea ice in the Arctic just vanish before our eyes, what it means that we’re now seeing storms of this unprecedented magnitude,” McKibben says. “If there was ever a wake-up call, this is it.” We’re also joined by climate scientist Greg Jones from Southern Oregon University.

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Filed under: climate change Environment fossil fuels global warming Hurricane Sandy Sandy 
October 27, 2012

Who Owns the World? Noam Chomsky on U.S.-Fueled Dangers, from Climate Change to Nuclear Weapons

Democracy Now:

In the week when President Obama and Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney debated issues of foreign policy and the economy, we turn to world-renowned political dissident, linguist, author and MIT professor, Noam Chomsky. In a recent speech, Chomsky examined topics largely ignored or glossed over during the campaign: China, the Arab Spring, global warming, nuclear proliferation, and the military threat posed by Israel and the U.S. versus Iran. He reflects on the Cuban missile crisis, which took place 50 years ago this week and is still referred to as “the most dangerous moment in human history.” He delivered this talk last month at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst at an event sponsored by the Center for Popular Economics. Chomsky’s talk was entitled “Who Owns the World?”

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Filed under: USA us foreign policy Environment climate change fossil fuels nuclear Arab spring occupy china obama romney Israel Israel Palestine 
October 25, 2012

Kickstarter:

The Yes Men Are Revolting is a funny, action-packed adventure. With the environment on the brink of collapse, we ask a pressing question: at a time when corporate forces have bought and sold democracy, how can we effect real change? Our answer: get every viewer involved in the struggle.

For the last four years we’ve worked with dozens of groups on infiltrations, impersonations, and mass actions to try to make a difference. Check out the video on this page for a little taste! After the part where we ask for your support, you’ll see a scene where we hold a press conference pretending to be from the US Chamber of Commerce (big-money lobbyists who spend hundreds of millions blocking and dismantling environment, labor, housing, and health laws). The press conference goes well, and the Chamber’s real PR guy even shows up—comedic vigilante justice at its best. Stay tuned to this page for more videos in coming weeks.

But as we continued pulling off actions like the one against the Chamber, the Obama years rolled by, and as money’s chokehold on democracy got tighter, we got more frantic. We even took it out on each other, and our “band” almost split up. But then, a sequence of unbelievable global uprisings, from Tahrir Square to Occupy Wall Street, got us excited about the idea of a global revolution–and we began to realize that we can do it too.

Then, energized by our involvement with the Occupy movement, we came to realize our true role in social change. Now, we’re hatching our most ambitious plan ever.

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Filed under: activism occupy Wall Street we are the 99% Environment climate change fossil fuels inequality obama romney oil coal fracking citizens united global warming 
October 23, 2012
2012: The First Time Since 1988 That The Debates Completely Ignore Climate Change

Think Progress:

1988. That was the year of James Hansen’s now famous congressional testimony on climate change. It was also the first year that climate change came up in the presidential debate cycle. On October 5, 1988, Chicago Tribune reporter Jon Margolis asked Vice Presidential candidates Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle about climate change and fossil fuels:

“We’ve all just finished – most America has just finished one of the hottest summers it can remember. And apparently this year will be the fifth out of the last nine that are among the hottest on record. No one knows, but most scientists think, that something we’re doing, human beings are doing, are exacerbating this problem, and that this could, in a couple of generations, threaten our descendants’ comfort and health and perhaps even their existence. As Vice President what would you urge our government to do to deal with this problem? And specifically as a Texan, could you support a substantial reduction in the use of fossil fuels which might be necessary down the road?”

Both agreed that it was time to act.

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Filed under: Environment climate change fossil fuels 2012 US presidential election Mental environments