Direct Action

More here if you want it…

Eban Goodstein at Focus the Nation checked in with us yesterday to report on the progress they’ve made in reversing the climate crisis, and it’s pretty impressive. Eban says they got a million students at 1,800 schools involved in the effort and that they discussed the issue with 75 congresspeople and governors. They also got a ton of great media exposure for the cause and Eban feels like they’re really getting somewhere.

But where we go next is always more important that where we’ve been. As I noted to a close associate this very morning, it’s onward and upward. So Focus the Nation are urging us all to dialogue with our government representatives and share the solutions that exist. They’re also asking us to share the film the 2% Solution ,which talks about how we can achieve an 80% cut in annual CO2 emissions by 2050.

There’s a lot more going on and the easiest way to connect to it is to just head over to their website and join the fray.

A quick reminder that tomorrow is StepIt Up’s National Day of Climate Action. Find an event near you, and let your voice be heard. The stakes are as high as they get, and it’s up to each of us to do whatever we can and then some to pull this beautiful world back from the brink.

It’s going to be a little quiet around here during the next couple of days as most of the staff heads to the hills outside Stowe for a two-day retreat. That makes it a perfect time to dump my virtual in-box out on the table and see what seems post-worthy.

A new survey finds that Americans are getting ahead of the political curve when it comes to the climate crisis. 62% think that we’re headed for major trouble if we don’t act decisively and soon. Encouragingly, 40% say a presidential candidates position on this burning issue will be extremely or very important to them. Still, we apparently aren’t quite ready to put our money where our viewpoints are. 67% are against carbon taxes on gasoline and 71% are against taxes on electricity. In other words, we don’t want to pay the price of global warming but we don’t want to pay the price of avoiding it either.

But here’s the thing: with a little investment, we could all cool out. According to a study released last week by the alarmingly named National Security Space Office, we have the technology necessary to build a bunch of giant solar space things that could collect enough energy from the sun every year to supply the entire world with all the power it could squander seven times over. The energy would be beamed back to earth via lasers or microwaves (will we also be able to set our bowls of ramen noodles outside for convenient heating?). Of course, we’d have to build these orbiting juicers and get them up there, but with crude oil closing in on $100 a barrel, giant solar space things are actually getting cost-competitive. Something tells me that if you (ahem) taxed petroleum and other energy sources to account for the environmental damage they cause, we’d be launching them even as I write.

I would now to pause to throw some serious love Step It Up’s way. I’m crazy for this group. They’re taking it to the streets and making some good solid noise about the climate crisis. Demanding attention in ways than cannot be ignored by even the highest and the mightiest no matter where it is they’re sitting on their hands. That’s what I’m talking about, Willis. Getting in their faces. Refusing to back down. And not taking no for an answer.

The Step It Up event last spring was pure genius and highly effective. It got a lot of people involved and thinking. And it got noticed. Now comes Act II: a National Day of Climate Action on November 3rd. Just like last spring’s event, anyone can organize an event in their community. (It’s easy to do.)

The idea this time is to have events be held at places named for great leaders of the past, whether local or national, to invite your local and national politicians and candidates to attend, and to demand that they support three key priorities:

1. Five million green jobs conserving 20% of our energy by 2015.
2. Freeze climate pollution levels now and cut them 30% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.
3. And place a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants.

Let me hear you say hallelulah, children. Count me in. I love the inviting politicians part. They can’t hide from this one. Step It Up also has
a very inspiring video that demands to be viewed. It’s a trailer for a new climate crisis film called Everything’s Cool. And Step It Up has teamed up with 1 Sky, a great new group working on the issue as well. One climate. One Future. One Chance. The change is coming. Be a part of it. Our kids are counting on us.

We can, you know. It’s really not as hard as it looks.

I know, I know… You pick up the paper, read the headlines, and run screaming from the room in a blind war-fevered eco-panic so overwhelming the only way out you can see is to barricade the door, cut the cables, kill the lights, and hole up in the basement surrounded by soft pillows and a nice fluffy comforter with a case or two or ten of good merlot and that Sex in the City DVD set you got for Christmas but haven’t been able to watch because who’s got time for Carrie and the girls when dinner’s burning, the kids are screaming, the phone’s ringing and the nattering nabob on the evening news just said we have about ten minutes until humanity’s warranty on the whole operation expires?

But wait. Because there’s proof all around that we can do this. Kill the war and cool the world and not be so bush-wacked over it all. If you know what I mean… In fact, there are steps being taken in the right and better direction all the time. And some of them are pretty big. You just have to know where to look. I’d suggest right here…