climate change ennui / discussion / training

Here are some more or less direct quotes from people when I talk to them about environmental issues:

"I don't know enough." "I'm not sure what to do." "The problem is too big." "Well we're screwed anyway. Let's drink PBR and be apathetic until the climate refugees come knocking on our doorstep and our ridiculous food system falls apart." "I got mine." "I would prefer it to be 100 degrees and 100% humidity." (a direct quote from myself. winter go away.)

These sentiments and their variations are understandable given the society we live in. In order to move past these points to a place where we can take action together we're hosting a discussion next Monday, the 21st, at 7 PM in the SEIU Office (5585 Pershing Ave). If you feel as if you don't have the information needed to act then please stop on by. If you also feel as if you aren't empowered to act, that the problem is too big, etc., then again please come on out. These concerns are perfectly understandable, and it is sometimes useful to work through them with other folks. This isn't going to be a therapy session, but it's worth acknowledging that this world is pretty adept at making people feel not empowered and not in control.

Other upcoming activities ...

The MORE-RAMPS-BMIS Winter Action Camp has an intensive two-day training this weekend that you can still sign up for. This will be an excellent opportunity for people who want more skills in tackling environmental issues. The organizations involved will bring their experiences from working and living in Saint Louis, Appalachia, and the Navajo and Hopi Nations and will blast you with all sorts of knowledge and skills. This really is a rare opportunity and I would highly recommend attending if you can!

And for those that are interested in more spectacular things ... There are some particular local corporations that are guilty of a great deal of environmental devastation that are no doubt gearing up security measures and having chats with local law enforcement. While police lines protecting corporations that are culpable for the most violence and destruction in this society is passé, there may be some fun surprises in store for those that keep their eyes peeled in the upcoming days. January is for having fun!

STL Climate Change Year in Review - Drought, Cease-and-Desists, and Acción!

Hello everyone.

Have you enjoyed your nice turkey dinners? Have you enjoyed / endured your families? Have you done away with your ironic Christmas sweaters and steeled yourself for the reality of the new year? Time for resolutions and reflection and etc.!

2012 was a bit of a doozy for climate change shenanigans. Globally we had the Doha climate talks and record high carbon emissions, nationally we had many environmentalists nearly weep with joy since Obama was still physically capable of speaking the words "climate change" (acting on it appropriately still a different matter), regionally we suffered from one of the worst droughts in US history, and locally Saint Louis still reigns supreme as CO2 Emissions HQ.

Also locally, concerned groups and individuals have continued to hammer at Peabody Energy, the world's largest coal company, for its unique role as a perpetrator of climate change. Unions and environmental groups took aim at the tax-dodging polluter at its shareholder meeting as part of the 99% Spring. The city-wide sustainable future ballot initiative has taken off, and 2012 also saw the first concerted targeting of institutions in Saint Louis that provide cover for or legitimize what Peabody does. The message is that cities are not havens or playgrounds for powerful, polluting corporate interests.

Lots-o'-laughs, bit of police state and corporate intimidation, and new strong relationships formed ... but what's the point? How do you know you're doing anything useful? Well one way to measure success is by the reaction of the interests you are opposing. Peabody Energy was nice enough to acknowledge in the kindest terms (by way of a cease-and-desist letter) the work that a number of people in Saint Louis have been doing:

It's hard to interpret this cease-and-desist letter as anything other than a glowing review and so we were delighted to accept it. Because they are so supportive, Peabody should know that "disruption of its annual shareholders meeting, vandalism of one of its billboards, ... and an untruthful claim" regarding one of its "philanthropic partners" is just a preview of what's headed their way this year. Until they take the keen business advice given to them by some disruptive shareholders of not existing, then their continued exploitation of people and the planet will be brought to light in potentially unflattering ways.

Of course Peabody is really just a collection of legal documents, folks collecting paychecks, and executives capable of the normal sort of cognitive dissonance-enabled death wishes needed in order to satisfy their shareholders while avoiding reality. The struggle is broader than a handful of corporations, and there will be plenty of discussion to go around on how best to address climate change (see below for such opportunities). Anyone can get involved!

So what's some stuff going on right now??!?....

The STL Sustainable Energy Future Ballot Initiative is on its way to collecting the requisite number of signatures to get on the next ballot for a city-wide vote. No longer will giant extractive industries (or their lobbyists and lawyers) be able to get tax breaks from a city that needs to get its head on straight about who should benefit from such tax breaks. There are signature-gathering caravans heading out regularly so if you'd like to get involved then contact Arielle at arielle@organizemo.org.

MORE, RAMPS, and BMIS are jointly hosting a Winter Action Camp this month. You can still register for a two-day intensive training open to the public on January 19th and 20th (contact arielle@organizemo.org for info). In addition to this intensive training there will be a community-wide discussion on January 21st at 7 PM at the SEUI Office (5585 Pershing Ave) to address what should be done on the ground to confront climate change. This discussion will go beyond the usual suspects of what's generally offered as a solution to climate change and allow for people to get informed and get empowered.

On a personal note, because climate change is the most important issue in my life, I spend a great amount of time trying to figure out how to convey my thoughts on the matter. Am I being too radical or not radical enough? Am I being too preachy or am I not being honest about what I know is at stake? Am I not acknowledging the high amount of privilege I have to be able to say and do things I think are necessary? How should I appeal to every type of person? I really don't like writing, and I hate "messaging."

I don't know what it takes to convince anyone reading this to act for the preservation of the environment. I can relate personal stories, I can give dire facts, I can share what gives me hope, but I don't know what of that will work. And so what I would ask is that you take the time to consider your actions, and constantly reassess what is best for you to do, and to be honest when doing so. I beg that you do this, because so far what we have been doing collectively as a species is not working, and we are running out of time. I have reason to believe that we can succeed, and I know that you don't have to feel powerless. You're not.

Blowing the Whistle on Peabody's Coal Train

I'm reposting this from Dave Scott, a teacher in Saint Louis and former resident of West Virginia. It's a great piece on the city, Peabody, and the very real harm that being in bed with corporations can wreak on communities. If you want to fight back then please try and make it out to a meeting this Thursday at 6:30 PM at the World Community Center (438 North Skinker). We'd love to see you there!

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            I’m writing to you today as a transplant to the great city of St. Louis. It’s been almost ten years since I said goodbye to the country roads and green rolling hills of West Virginia where I lived the first 29 years of my life. Since then, I’ve spent nine years in our schools getting to know the city through the eyes of my students. This is the time of year when I’m typically arranging new music, and planning performances for my high school band; however, I received some sad news this week that's turned my attention back to the Mountain State. I write to you today in memoriam of the longtime environmental activist, Larry Gibson, from Kayford Mountain, WV.

            Larry Gibson spent his entire life on the property that had been passed through his family for generations. During the late 1980’s, when Mountaintop Removal became the primary mining technique used in the region, Gibson found himself surrounded by the constant blasting and toxic dust storms created by coal companies as they forever change the Appalachian skyline. It’s fair to say that he didn’t become an activist by choice. Watching the life on his mountain home explode into a dusty moonscape was just the beginning of his ordeal.

You see, coal isn’t the only thing that lies under the surface in West Virginia. Through the process of blasting away the mountaintops, many toxins and carcinogens are pulverized into one poisonous mixture which is either discharged into the wind, or simply bulldozed onto the rivers and valleys below. The latest study conducted by Dr. Michael Hendryx at West Virginia University suggests that the airborne sulphur, silica, and other particulate matter that drifts miles away from the surface mines is responsible for increases of cancer, kidney disease, and other ‘unexplained’ illnesses that are plaguing the coal fields. Other studies conducted by Duke University and WVU have also found high levels of selenium, cadmium, chromium, lead, and arsenic downstream from the mountaintop removal sites, and in well water nearby. Over 1,200 miles of Appalachian streams, which were once home to a diverse population of fish and wildlife, have been covered by these valley fills. In many cases, ground water that had been depended upon for more than a hundred years has been contaminated.

            According to the research performed by Appalachian Voices in 2006, there is a very direct correlation between mountaintop removal sites and the most poverty-stricken counties of the region. This is no coincidence; the more affluent people of New York and Pennsylvania would never stand for the permanent destruction of the Catskills or the Poconos. The state of West Virginia, which has been characterized for generations as having the most corrupt politicians in the country, has allowed coal companies to operate without paying taxes for several decades. Of all the characteristics of my home state that I would love to see here in St. Louis, it’s a shame that political companionship with the mining industry offers the most remarkable similarity.

One of the responsible parties for the environmental destruction throughout Appalachia is a familiar name in the St. Louis region, and a part of our own skyline. It’s from behind the tinted windows above Keiner Plaza that Peabody Energy operates the corporate machinery used for drilling away at EPA regulations and the pensions of retired miners. Don’t believe for one second that this apparatus isn’t being used on St. Louis. According to the analysis attached to the Peabody tax abatement proposal of 2012, our city’s public schools are expected to lose 1.96 million dollars over the next decade. That money would be very useful in hiring more reading specialists, more math specialists, and more classroom teachers.

As a teacher, it pains me to tell you how these coal companies have demonstrated their disdain for public schools in West Virginia. Their operations around Marsh Fork Elementary forced teachers to remove coal dust from the chalkboards every morning. In this small rural school, there were four teachers and two former students diagnosed with cancer over a six year span. In 2012, the school was forced to relocate due to the building of a containment pond which houses millions of gallons of heavily polluted water known as coal slurry directly adjacent to school property. According to coalimpoundment.org, these earthen dams that are built to hold this toxic sludge have failed sixty five times over the years, leaving those local communities and wildlife habitats devastated.

Here in St. Louis, our public schools may not be in eminent danger of a coal dust explosion or a flash flood of coal slurry, but they are victims of the mining industry nonetheless. Allowing Peabody to exist in our city with a free pass on school funding is nothing short of depraved indifference. While our schools have been concentrating their efforts on accreditation, they are also responsible for serving the ten meals that many of our students count on each week in addition to their one shot at the American dream. Our schools aren’t failing, as much as our local leaders and businesses are failing them. It’s not the intentions of this corporate giant to answer the prayers of those who hope that their children will escape the poverty and crime that curse our city. However, it is our mayor’s duty to protect us from corporations who would take a government freebie with one hand while stealing opportunities from our children with the other.

It’s evident that the Peabody Corporation has actually found a source of renewable energy here in St. Louis. It’s called political power. The utility rates may run a little higher during the election cycle, but buying elections is what keeps the lights on at Peabody- that is unless we, the taxpayers of St. Louis, decide to throw the switch. Just like Larry Gibson from Kayford Mountain, we have no choice in St. Louis. We can no longer afford to support a mayor who will offer this company a tax shelter five hundred miles away from the destruction along Coal River, or within one mile of the poverty here in our city. The people of St. Louis expect corporations to pay their fair share in taxes like the rest of us. That new banner atop the Peabody Building boasts of the company’s record of ‘helping people’; it seems feasible that someone in the city government could demand that they live up to the simplicity of that slogan and pay their share in municipal taxes.

 Larry Gibson, the man affectionately known as the Keeper of the Mountains said, “They tell us we’re collateral damage. Well, I ain’t collateral damage. I’m somebody.” As a parent and teacher, I’m here to tell you that the students of Saint Louis Public Schools are somebody too. They don’t deserve to be left behind by City Council, or the financiers of Mayor Slay’s reelection campaign. Please, make your plea to end Peabody’s tax abatement in the City of St. Louis. Call the Board of Aldermen at (314)-622-3287, or Mayor Slay’s office at (314)-622-3201.

Loesch Lies About Climate Change At Koch Brothers Rally

At a rally this weekend organized by astroturf Americans for Prosperity, which just happens to be funded by the Koch brothers, who just happen to own a number of oil refineries and bankroll the leading climate change denial groups in the country, Dana Loesch declared that Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" was not allowed into British schools because it was "fiction:"

Here's the typical fact-free nonsense of Loesch:

And the British high court, told the educational system that they're not allowed to show this film. Why? Because it's fiction. Because it's propaganda. They said there was a number of things wrong with the film...wrong with the facts used to support this theory in the film. Nine of them were super-huge...they had a bunch of other complaints...but they're not allowed to show it in school districts.

Actually, the judge wrote that the film was, "substantially founded upon scientific research and fact" and said that he had "no doubt" that, "Al Gore's presentation of the causes and likely effects of climate change in the film was broadly accurate." The judge did note 9 errors, but allowed the film to be shown in schools as long as it was accompanied by a"guidance note" that presented a contrarian point of view on those nine claims.

Among the claims that the judge said were persuasive and "supported by a vast quantity of research published in peer-reviewed journals worldwide and by the great majority of the world'd climate scientists":

• (1) global average temperatures have been rising significantly over the past half century and are likely to continue to rise ("climate change");
  (2) climate change is mainly attributable to man-made emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide ("greenhouse gases");
  (3) climate change will, if unchecked, have significant adverse effects on the world and its populations; and
  (4) there are measures which individuals and governments can take which will help to reduce climate change or mitigate its effects."

So, in absolutely no way does this ruling support Loesch's claim that climate change is "fiction" or "junk science." And her claim that the film can't be shown in schools is wrong.

Loesch was, however, able to dispell some rumors about her education by stating that she had, in fact, completed a 9th grade science course and that it provided all of the information she needed to know that the world's leading scientists are all secret socialists plotting to steal money from upstanding citizens like the Koch brothers.

The full video, with even more ridiculous antics, can be found Doug Edelman's vimeo page.

National Academy of Sciences: Urgent Action is Needed on Climate Change

The reports stress an even greater urgency than was expressed by the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Five more years of research convinced the scientists that things are even worse than was believed. The National Research Council recommends that the U.S. cut its carbon emissions by up to 80%, from 2012 to 2050. Of course, NASA just separately reported the hottest April, the hottest January through April, and the hottest 12 months on record.

Read all about it at Daily Kos.