Update on my climate activism

The month of my last blog post, in January of 2012, I helped start 350 Madison, the local group of the international climate change organization 350.org.  All of my energies have been directed toward that so I haven't had a chance to blog here very much!  To see what our group has been up to in the last year and a half, check out our website at 350madison.org.

One of my last blog posts here was about the Keystone XL pipeline - I declared it essentially dead, but unfortunately this is a zombie pipeline that just won't die!  While we've been effective at delaying what was once called a "slam dunk" project, there are powerful forces at play in the Canadian government and US fossil fuel industry.  An honest assessment of the risks of KXL, which has to include its effect on climate change, has not been completed.  Instead, the US State Department contracted the environmental assessment out to a company that is a member of the American Petroleum Institute and works with TransCanada (the pipeline company that wants to build KXL).  Not exactly an impartial judge for this project's effects.

So, because the political process is being altered by the power of industry, we're fighting back with people power.  In February 2013, I rode a bus overnight with 150 fellow Wisconsinites to Washington, D.C. for the Forward on Climate Rally - the largest climate rally in US history with over 40,000 people in attendance.  We called on President Obama to lead on climate change, starting with the rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline permit application.  Here I am in front of the White House: