Mr. McKibben goes to Madison

Bill McKibben, the prominent writer and environmentalist who founded 350.org, spoke at Green Day in Madison on April 17th. His presentation focused on the reasons he sees political activism as the primary route to effective change.

Mr. McKibben's first book, The End of Nature, was published in 1989 and was one of the first books to warn of the effects climate change could wreak on our world. Since then, he has written on many environmental subjects, and also started one of the largest environmental movements in history. McKibben is a professor at Middlebury College in Vermont, and with six of his students he founded 350.org. This movement is based on the report by James Hansen (top climate expert and Iowa grad!) that 350 ppm is the upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere to maintain a livable world. The first day of action for 350.org was October 24, 2009, when 5,281 sites around the world held demonstrations supporting the 350 ppm goal. Millions of people participated, making it what some called the biggest display of political activism on any subject in history. Pictures from these demonstrations are on their website and are truly inspirational.

In his presentation last week, McKibben described the overwhelming response of this movement he'd started. McKibben pointed out that if you look at all the pictures from these demonstrations around the world, it completely refutes the label put on who environmentalists are. Many say that environmentalism is a white liberal elitist issue, a classist issue, and that it's a luxury once you have your needs met to live comfortably. On the contrary, these demonstrations were attended and organized in majority by the poor, young, non-white in the world. The most moving story of that day of action in October was that of an orphanage in Indonesia. The children and their caregivers collected plastic bottles all day to spell out 350. Along with a picture of them with their bottles, they included a message in broken English: "Even though no one caring about us, we caring about the Earth."

On feelings of defeat or cynicism: "Some people say that there's a good chance it might be too late, that we've already done too much damage to our Earth, and that the chance is high that any actions we take won't be big enough or fast enough. Well, being alive right now requires that we do everything in our power to lower the percentage chance that it's too late."

On his belief that individual lifestyle changes are not enough to make the huge changes necessary, and why political activism is key: "We're not gonna do this one lightbulb at a time, or even one country at a time. If we're gonna do this, it has to be one world at a time or not at all."

What an inspirational leader.

Earth Day 40

In the forty years since the first Earth Day, much progress has been made environmentally. The open and flippant pollution by industries and individuals is no longer looked at as normal because of that first Earth Day starting the process of stigmatizing such behavior. Many governmental policies and programs, including the Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, occurred in the three years following the 1970 Earth Day. The original Earth Day taught us what a group of motivated, organized, passionate, everyday people can achieve when united. It showed us that our government will respond when forced to do so by its people. While these are important strides, the amount of progress since then is dismal when compared to how far we have to go.

The achievements of the first Earth Day have had great effects in the United States, but the problem of climate change is obviously global. Therefore, it is overdue that action be taken to address the global nature of this problem. Placing a price on carbon is the first step toward doing this. The potential effects cannot be overstated. If the US adjusts the marketplace to include the externalities of carbon release, the rest of the world will likely follow. The major emitters need to be financially responsible for the effects their actions are having on the environment.

Earth Day was primarily organized as a political movement, to gain national attention and place political pressure for change. Today, we need to re-focus on the political side of environmentalism. This is a non-partisan issue. The future of human civilization is bigger than any petty partisan politics. Next week, a bipartisan energy and jobs bill will be presented in the Senate that will propose a carbon pricing system. Sponsored by Kerry (D), Graham (R), and Lieberman (I), it will be the most important piece of legislation in recent history, as it has the potential to alter our country's and our world's trajectory.

We can either sit by and wait for other countries to take the first major steps toward rescuing our future, or we can choose to continue to be the leaders of the Free World. This is the time to make your voice heard. This is the moment we must stand up and tell our elected officials what is right and what needs to be done. This bill must pass and become law. While it will not be perfect, we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We need a price on carbon. Period.

The complete guide to modern day climate change

Climate Progress, the wonderfully insightful blog by Joe Romm (the former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Energy under Clinton), features a post today called The complete guide to modern day climate change. It is a great compilation of evidence, graphs, data, and summaries of the leading climate change research. Complete with all sources, it is a great primer for anyone interested in becoming more familiar with the facts of climate change. Check it out!

Biking now a "real" transportation mode!

Great news for the bicycling enthusiasts! The Obama Administration has announced that its transportation policy will give bicycling and walking the same importance as automobiles when determining federal fund allocation and planning. Ray LaHood, the Transportation Secretary, announced the policy on his blog in conjunction with an announcement by the DOT. Recommendations include clearing snow from bike paths and including biking and walking lanes on roads and bridges.

The Huffington Post has an article about the reactions to this announcement (click here).

Obviously, the biking world is very excited about this policy, catapulting LaHood to rockstar status. Certain trucking and manufacturing industry representatives and Republican lawmakers are not so pumped. One congressman, Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), questioned if LaHood had been on drugs while writing the policy. His main problem with the policy is that it would be using the federal gas tax to fund these alternative transportation modes. This money is currently used to repair highways and rail transit systems. (Interestingly, aka hypocritically, LaTourette supported federally funded bicycle paths in his own district.)

I think this is actually the perfect way to fund clean, green transportation options. It's the equivalent of a carbon tax. The first step is getting the infrastructure in place. Then, if you choose not to use the biking/walking paths, you should be charged a small fee (in the form of the gas tax) for the carbon footprint you are leaving. On the other hand, if you choose the greener transportation option, you are being rewarded by having your lower gas use equate to lower taxation. Where else should the money come from, if not the Department of Transportation? It's all transportation. Prejudicing the system toward the "big bucks" manufacturers and industries and against the individual is not responsible governance. If we don't at least create the infrastructure and give people the option of eco-responsible transit, then the entrenched powers and habits will never change. We can't ask people to change their behavior if we don't give them the means to do so through safe and well-designed alternatives.

Something is better than nothing

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman wrote a piece for New York Times Magazine last week on the economics of climate change solutions (see article here).

It's a very good overview of the approaches our government is debating in regards to climate change policy, i.e. cap-and-trade vs. emissions tax. He also discusses the politics of inaction and pessimism surrounding these issues, laying out the economics of action vs. inaction. I find this very important considering that opponents like to talk of the prohibitive costs of the proposed policies to the US economy without considering the deferred costs that will occur without said policies. Lastly, Krugman throws his support behind immediate action on a large and fast scale. The technology and economic analysis are all ready to go, and now political will is all we are waiting for.

In the vein of pessimism that Krugman discussed, some responses to Krugman's article criticized him for not having realistic, attainable goals and for expecting too much from our political and market-place sectors. In assessing these criticisms, political blogger Kevin Drum of Mother Jones takes a tone that I find inspiring and spot-on. It's easy to say that it's too difficult to try these recommended actions, but what other choice do we have?

"I think it's too easy to be overwhelmed by the scope of the climate change problem. It's unquestionably fantastically difficult, and any sober look at human nature, developing country growth, and capital stock inertia suggests that we're going to have a very hard time meeting our most ambitious goals. But there really are pretty feasible ways of getting a lot of the way there, and if carbon pricing and other programs motivate the next Thomas Edison to invent something remarkable a year or a decade before it might have otherwise happened, who knows? That might get us the rest of the way.

And if it doesn't? Well, look: three degrees of temperature increase is still better then five degrees. Six inches of sea rise is better than 12 inches. A hundred million dead is better than a billion dead. This stuff is worth doing even if it's not perfect. After all, what is?"

- Kevin Drum, Mother Jones

To read the rest of Kevin Drum's post, click here.

About my blog

In surveying all the issues for which I have passion, the underlying unifier is justice.  Justice means fighting for the underrepresented, the underprivileged, the underdog. Striving for justice means doing everything we can, with everything we have, to speak for those who can't speak for themselves.

This blog will be a forum for discovery and discussion of the wide range of environmental and social justice issues present in our world. Through this endeavor, I hope to gain a grasp on which actions we need to take that will lead to the pursuit of a Just Earth.

"Set yourself earnestly to discover what you are made to do, and then give yourself passionately to the doing of it."

--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.