By BRUCE LESNICK On Nov. 18, the Obama administration banned oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans for the next five years, while allowing drilling projects to go forward in the Cook Inlet (southwest of Anchorage, Alaska) and in the Gulf of Mexico. The media have noted the strong possibility that when … Continue reading Nationalize the energy industry!
By CHRISTINE MARIE “People gonna rise like the water,” the most poignant of the new songs of the climate justice movement, makes a strong prediction. And the potential breadth and power of that people was on display in a new way on July 24, as close to 10,000 marchers took to the streets on a … Continue reading 10,000 protesters demand ‘Clean Energy Revolution’
By CARL SACK Humanity is faced with a worsening climate catastrophe. In June, levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere topped 400 parts per million at the South Pole, a concentration not seen on this planet in the last four million years. Scientists at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, which is registering … Continue reading Pipeline fighters resist climate catastrophe
By MARTY GOODMAN The Algonquin is a “natural” gas pipeline under construction about 45 miles north of New York City and a mere 1500 feet from the accident prone Indian Point nuclear-power plant in Buchanan, N.Y., in the Hudson Valley. Construction may be put on hold temporarily, pending a federal and state safety study urged … Continue reading N.Y. gas pipeline halted?
By MICHAEL SCHREIBER Despite protests by residents and environmental groups, clear cutting of trees has begun in northeastern Pennsylvania for the 124-mile Constitution Pipeline, designed to carry Marcellus Shale fracked gas to New York and New England. Megan Holleran says that the loggers are destroying about 90 percent of her family’s sugar maple trees, devastating … Continue reading Clear-cutting starts for Constitution Pipeline
By CARL SACK After 10 days of talks at the COP 21 climate conference in Paris, negotiators from 195 countries celebrated the adoption of an agreement that calls for a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5o Centigrade above pre-industrial levels. On one hand, the agreement goes farther than any previous accord to acknowledge the … Continue reading Paris climate talks produce hot air
By CHRISTINE MARIE Connecticut climate justice activists are calling for a statewide mobilization on Sept 17 at the site of a state government hearing preliminary to the issuance of air quality permits to a power plant to be sited on Towantic Hill in the rural town of Oxford. On that date, a call to action … Continue reading Connecticut activists target fracked gas
By CARL SACK Despite the imminent perils of global warming and global ecosystem collapse, capitalism has accelerated the assault on Earth’s environment. Faced with the need to grow or die, the global capitalist economy requires ever more non-renewable natural resources and fossil fuels, whatever the environmental cost. Serving their corporate overlords, government regulators pay lip … Continue reading Fracking must be banned!
By DANIEL ADAM The People’s Climate March, scheduled for Sept. 21 in New York City, is poised to live up to its promise of mobilizing the largest number of people that the U.S. has ever seen against the mass production of greenhouse gases. With more than 1000 endorsing organizations, buses scheduled to leave from more … Continue reading Join the People’s Climate March
By CHRISTINE FRANK Since 2008, chief climatologist and activist James Hansen has been proposing fee and dividend as a means to curtail fossil fuel use and draw down carbon in order to prevent catastrophic climate change—a very real prospect that is looming ever closer. He has advocated the plan as an alternative to market-based carbon trading … Continue reading An ineffective solution to climate change
By CHRISTINE FRANK Three hundred grassroots activists met in Dallas the first weekend in March to share information, network, and strategize over how to end the hydro-fracturing of shale gas in their rural and suburban communities. The Marcellus, Utica, Eagleford, and Barnett shales were well represented, the latter two being in Texas. It was in the Barnett … Continue reading Activists discuss how to stop frack attack
By DANIEL ADAM The struggle against climate change is registering real signs of progress. The rise of indigenous struggles in Canada, including the “Idle No More” movement, and the two national mobilizations against the Keystone XL pipeline in the U.S. are particularly significant. Bipartisan backing for the acceleration of the most vile extraction methods in … Continue reading Climate movement must tackle profit system
By JAMES THOMAS On Sunday, Feb. 17, as many as 50,000 people rallied and marched in winds and near freezing temperatures in Washington, D.C., to protest Transcanada's proposed Keystone XL Pipeline. The demonstration, dubbed Forward On Climate Change, is believed to have been the largest climate change action in U.S. history. The Sierra Club, 350.org, … Continue reading Mass climate change protest in DC
By BARRY WEISLEDER The movement to oppose Keystone XL is huge in Canada. It ranges from activists and scientists to indigenous peoples of the threatened Canadian plains and boreal forests, where the tar sands are located. It includes rural farmers and ranchers, and important sections of the labour movement. Dave Coles, President of the Communications, … Continue reading Movement rises against XL pipelines
By CARL SACK Several protests took place in 2012 against hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process that extracts natural gas from shale bedrock by injecting highly toxic chemicals thousands of feet underground. The fracking boom has killed livestock and contaminated drinking water supplies in several states. The movement to ban fracking continues to gain steam … Continue reading Fracking destroys our health, climate
By JAMES THOMAS The Occupy Wall Street movement has helped many in the United States to recognize the influence that corporations have over political life. The predatory practices of the major financial institutions, our society’s deepening inequality, and the irreconcilable differences between the 99 percent and the 1 percent have all been brought to the … Continue reading Fracking threatens health, environment
