Comments RisingTideNA has made

  • Aren't you glad BP is a lead author (via their membership in USCAP) of the climate legislation in congress?

    On "Back to Petroleum": BP shuts clean energy HQ, slashes renewables budget, dives into tar sands posted 5 months ago 4 Responses

  • Protests target Environmental Defense's role

    Climate Activists Invade DC Offices of Environmental Defense, Daughter of ED Founder Accuses Group of Pushing False Solutions to Climate Change

    photos at: www.risingtidenorthamerica.org

    As the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change opened today in Poznan, Poland, grassroots climate activists took over the Washington DC office of Environmental Defense. The activists stated that they had targeted ED, one of the largest environmental organizations in the world, because of the organization's key role in promoting the discredited approach of carbon trading as a solution to climate change.

    Dr. Rachel Smolker of Global Justice Ecology Project and Global Forest Coalition read a statement, which said in part, "My father was one of the founders of this organization, which sadly I am now ashamed of. The Kyoto Protocol, the European Emissions Trading Scheme and virtually every other initiative for reducing emissions have adopted their market approaches. So far they have utterly failed, serving only to provide huge profits to the world's most polluting industries. Instead of protecting the environment, ED now seems primarily concerned with protecting corporate bottom lines. I can hear my father rolling over in his grave."

    The activists rearranged furniture in the office, illustrating how marketing carbon is "like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."  Others held signs reading "Keep the cap, ditch the trade" and "Carbon trading is an environmental offense."

    Leo Cerda, an indigenous activist with Rising Tide Ecuador said, "ED wants to turn the atmosphere and forests into private property, and then give it away to the most polluting industries in the form of pollution allowances that can be bought and sold. Not only is this an ineffective way to control emissions, it is also a disaster for the poor and indigenous peoples who are not party to these markets and are most impacted by climate change."

    ED has been key in establishing the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a business consortium advocating for a cap and trade system with extremely weak emissions reductions. US CAP allows polluters like Duke Energy, Shell, BP, DuPont, and Dow Chemical to claim they are green while continuing with business as usual. In recognition, activists awarded ED the "Corporate Greenwash Award," a three foot tall green paintbrush. "We think this award is appropriate since Environmental Defense spends more time painting polluters green than actually defending the environment," said Matt Wallace of Rising Tide North America.

    Opposition to carbon trading is growing as it becomes apparent that market based schemes do little to fight climate change while helping corporations rake in profits. Earlier this year, over 50 groups came together in the US to denounce carbon trading in a Declaration Against the Use of Carbon Trading Schemes to Address Climate Change. Globally, hundreds of environmental, social justice, and indigenous groups have come together to oppose such market based initiatives as inherently unsustainable and ineffective in creating a just transition away from fossil fuels.On Greens go nuts at U.N. climate talks posted 1 year ago 1 Response

  • just like europe...

    >A cap and trade system would require offsets to >be additional, verifiable, and transparent (not |>double-counted as something else somewhere in >the system).

    right, just like offsets under Kyoto's and the EU's cap and trade system. Oh wait, those [the CDM] were often bogus too, as mentioned in the article!

    I'm sure someday they'll get it right, be patient: it's not like we're in a hurry to stop the climate crisis...

    carry on polluting, nothing to see here.

    www.RisingTideNorthAmerica.org

    On Bogus offsets merely ease emitter's remorse posted 1 year, 1 month ago 8 Responses

  • Question to Ken

    Ken, I think this is a great essay, and was suprised you mentioned Rising Tide for criticism here since I think (?) you'd find most people active in our (100% volunteer network) agree with virtually all of what you said - perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't believe we fit with any of your criticisms.

    Were you were saying that our "program" [sic!] is too removed from "climate 24-7" because we believe that the environment can not be viewed in isolation of human oppression - especially when fossil fuel extraction and burning is involved?

    It would suprise me to hear that conflicts with your argument, but it's all I can think of...

    I just not sure what you were getting and and was genuinely curious.

    thanks for the article...

    www.RisingTideNorthAmerica.org

    On The Climate Policy Paradigm has reached its endgame posted 1 year, 6 months ago 21 Responses

  • How far we have to go...

    There is something striking about the coalescence of the energy bill and the meetings in Bali.

    Of course, one thing striking in both cases is with all of the progress (at least in terms of increased exposure and awareness to climate change and energy issues) how far we have to go...

    But what most of the environmental movement appears to be missing though is that the distance is not just about targets (reduce co2 a lot by this date, get us off oil): it's increasingly more about the devil in the details, socially, environmentally and even climate unfriendly crap that is supposedly being done to meet these aspirations, aspirations that we ourselves are driving.

    We say no to oil, so we they give us ethanol.
    We say reduce your carbon footprint, we get clean coal + tree plantations to offset it. Or nukes.

    And this isn't from the Republicans, nor just from the Democrats, this is just as much from the supposedly enlightened politicians in the EU, and increasingly from the environmental movement itself.

    I think Jihan Gearon, of the Indigenous Environmental Network said it best:

    "What scares me most about this [UN meeting] isn't that we came out of it with no targets or plan for post-Kyoto. It's that the atmosphere of the discussions seems to focus less on stopping climate change and more on how money can be made from the climate change problem, at the expense of Indigenous People."

    Or another observer this time from Via Campesina in Paraguay, relayed by
    Almuth Ernsting of Biofuelwatch:

    "If we hold up banners saying climate change kills and we want more government action, the very power groups driving the destruction, she warned, will cheer and might give us even more carbon finance or agrofuels. Instead, she suggested, we need to mobilize against the false solutions and for real, meaningful actions that will actually cut emissions and deliver climate justice...The time for marching for 'global action on climate change' without denouncing the false solutions and the drivers of climate change is over."

    I hope that we can all think seriously about our campaigning, and how a lot of messaging and actions plays right into the hands of polluters eager to capitalize on a public that is increasingly desperate for action, and politicians and energy companies more than happy to wrap up a greenwashed package of solutions for them.

    For more thought on this topic, see:
    http://www.altereconews.org/
    http://climatechangeaction.blogspot.com/2007/12/kyoto-mor ...
    http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071224/wysham
    http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/12/11/rigged/ (George Monbiot, it should be noted, bas by no means the first with this assessment, see http://www.oilwatch.org/)
    http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2007/12/13/climate-justice ...
    On Bali climate meeting goes overtime, drops specific emissions targets posted 1 year, 11 months ago 2 Responses

  • One thing missing from this write up

    One thing seriously missing from this write up was the striking and very impressive commitment of many of the youth at this conference to take the "environmental" movement beyond it's more narrow eco goals and transform it into a movement for environmental equity and social justice in the context of the energy and climate crisis.

    The connections between the prison industrial complex and climate change were discussed anti-oppression workshops were at the forefront of the discussions, and the majority of the keynotes were from the environmental justice - rather than the "traditional" environmental movement.

    For coverage of this, check out:
    http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/

    especially:
    http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2007/11/08/video-green-for ...
    http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2007/11/06/evon-peter-shar ...
    http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2007/11/06/green-jobs-not- ...
    http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2007/11/06/van-jones-pumps ...
    http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2007/11/03/we-want-more/On The youth climate movement proves itself at Power Shift posted 2 years ago 8 Responses

  • What a tragedy...

    It's sick that the environmental community has not been more deeply engaged in this, sick that Sanders has no major backing.

    If we ignore - no, worsen! - the utter failure of the European Union carbon trading regime are doomed to repeat it. It has indisputably led to higher electrical bills, higher corporate profits, and guess what: higher GHGs emissions!

    Most ngos (aside from the sell outs at Env. Def. NRDC, etc.) ever-so-briefly aligned against this carbon trading scam prior to kyoto, but it was short lived. Now it's only europeans and the non-wealthy countries where ecos up the fight.

    See www.carbontradewatch.org or www.wrm.org.uy
    If you haven't read up on the multitude of problems that have come about from Carbon Trading, you are missing the boat. Check out http://www.carbontradewatch.org/pubs/skyeng.pdf for a great introduction.On Why isn't Joe Lieberman scared of Bernie Sanders? posted 2 years ago 2 Responses

  • Protesters Disrupt Carbon Trading Expo

    Thought this might be interesting to folks!
    video online here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQaciEMMmKg

    Protesters disrupt New York City Carbon Trading Expo

    Action takes place as Carbon Trading legislation prepares to clear Senate committee

    New York City - Protesters with Rising Tide North America's "Greenwash Guerrillas" paid a surprise Halloween visit to the Carbon Market Insights conference in New York City today. Posing as delegates, two protesters took the stage at the exclusive event and presented the 700 attendees with a "Deed to the Atmosphere," denouncing Carbon Trading as a sham approach to the fossil fuels crisis. The action was the first in the US to target the growing Carbon Trading industry.

    "Carbon trading puts the most crucial decisions about the future of life on this planet in the hands of fossil fuel industry," said protester Jessica Starr "the very industry that got us into this mess in the first place."

    Though heavily criticized by environmental and human rights organizations world-wide, Carbon Trading is the primary mechanism for reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, as well as in Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner's (R-Va.) "America's Climate Security Act of 2007." The Carbon Market Insights conference brings together the leaders of the US financial, non-profit, and "eco securities" industries backing a domestic US Carbon Trading market.

    Lieberman and Warner's bill, S. 2191, is expected to clear the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee in November. If enacted, it would create a system of tradable permits in greenhouse gas emissions, which would be gifted to status quo polluters through 2036.

    As these permits may be bought and sold for enormous profits on the marketplace, the environmental group Friends of the Earth has stated that the "Lieberman climate bill may contain the biggest corporate giveaways in American history", valued at 1.5 trillion dollars. The European Emissions Trading System established under the Kyoto protocol has generated hundreds of billions of dollars of additional profits for the fossil fuel industry, yet most countries are failing to meet their greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

    "Gifting free, tradable property rights to the worst polluters does little to ensure reduction of greenhouse gas emissions," said David Lee, another of the Greenwash Guerillas "Carbon Trading and the Lieberman bill are a subsidy for big polluters disguised as a climate protection measure."

    The Liebermen Bill allows the largest greenhouse gas emitters to "offset" or nullify their emissions by financing carbon reductions projects that take place in other locations, stalling implementations of technologies that will reduce greenhouse gases here. These projects, frequently initiated in developing countries, shift investment away from emission-reducing technologies domestically, and have also been criticized for not always delivering promised reductions. These projects have led to the displacement of low-carbon use communities in favor of large scale "clean development" projects including hydroelectric dams and genetically modified tree plantations. In Uganda, villagers have been arrested and even killed after being ousted from their land for tree plantations which they dared to cut down.

    "Carbon offsets do little more than the selling of indulgences by Catholic churches in the 16th century," said David Lee "it's time to get serious about stopping climate change and shut these false solutions down."

    www.risingtidenorthamerica.org
    On Green groups battle over climate bills in the Senate posted 2 years, 1 month ago 13 Responses