Rally at Dominion TOMORROW!

rallyTomorrow, May 8, citizens of Southwest Virginia will deliver the Mile-Long Petition for Clean Energy opposing the proposed Wise County coal plant to Dominion Virginia Power’s Richmond headquarters.

YOU ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND TO HELP US MAKE A STRONG SHOWING! This will be an opportunity to show the strength of our opposition to the plant, build our network of plant opponents, and highlight the issue for the media and the public. It will also be a chance to celebrate the great progress we are making in this fight!

WHAT: Rally for Clean Energy

WHEN: Thursday, May 8th at 12:30 PM

WHERE: Kanawha Plaza in Downtown Richmond (Between Canal and Eighth Sts. Midtown)

RSVP: www.chesapeakeclimate.org/may8

TRANSPORTATION: Free transportation from Southwest, Blacksburg, Charlottesville, and Northern Virginia will be provided. For details on free transportation, e-mail mike@appvoices.org or call 434-293-6373. There is also a ride board set up at http://distance.erideshare.com/, password “may8”

We will hear from speakers who envision an energy future that places the public interest over corporate special interests, including people who live with the reality of severe pollution and mountaintop removal in their communities. This celebration of our strength will also include music from gifted Virginia artists Trees on Fire and Whiskey Rebellion. Religious leaders who have joined the fight against the plant will speak to the moral imperative that our policies reflect caring for the earth and its inhabitants. You should consider bringing sun protection, drinking water, and a blanket.

Ride a Bike from NYC to DC, Stop Global Warming – ClimateRide.org

CCAN Members and all those who want action on global warming: Announcing the first ever multi-day supported bike tour to raise money and awareness to stop global warming.

From September 20th to 24th, Climate Riders will bike from NYC to DC. Along the way, expert speakers will address the group, and the ride will finish with a lobbying effort in the capital. This is a unique event — a fund raiser and a climate conference on wheels.

Check out www.climateride.org for more info, or send an email to info@climateride.org. And yes, if you register, you will get a biking jersey with the above logo on it.

While we admit that the funds raised will not go to CCAN, they will go to two organizations taking the lead in global warming action and education: Focus the Nation and Clean Air – Cool Planet. Thanks to CCAN for letting us post here, and hopefully we will see some of your members pedaling with us. It will be an event you never forget.

Connecticut gets my boyfriend

boyfriendConnecticut became a leader today when their legislature passed a GWSA-type bill, creating mandatory caps on Connecticut’s global warming pollution. The bill was passed unanimously, 35-0 in the senate today and is expected to be signed by Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell. It would require pollution cuts to 10% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% below 2001 levels by 2050.

Connecticut joins New Jersey, California and Hawaii in passing a bill that requires mandatory greenhouse gas emission reductions, similar to Maryland’s Global Warming Solutions Act. These states are creating the patchwork effect that will put pressure on the national leaders to pass a similar bill.

We’re all congratulating Connecticut’s victory here, if it’s a little bitter from our own loss this year. It’s like watching your friend walk arm and arm with the guy you’ve been dreaming about. I’m sure it’s going to be dreamy and romantic watching Connecticut’s green economy booming. I’m sure the thrill of wind turbines and solar panels will be great, for them. I’m just going to sit here at home and watch re-runs of HGTV’s Green Home. I’ll be fine!

Saying goodbye to CCAN

josh

Dear partners and friends,

After three and a half years of amazing climate action, I have decided to leave Chesapeake Climate Action Network. May 16th will be my last day. This has truly been one of the best experiences of my life, and by far my most gratifying work environment. I have worked on amazing legislation, run exciting campaigns fighting coal in Virginia or rallying for healthy air in Maryland. I’ve hung out with Senators, got my picture taken with the Governor, even attended the United Nations. But the best experience by far has been working with all of our amazing volunteers. CCAN is only as strong as its base of people. And by that record, we have all made CCAN a powerhouse.

And yet… after all of this work, I am eager to explore new opportunities. Since before I came to CCAN, I have been drawn to electoral politics, and I have decided to leave to pursue work around the upcoming elections. As any of you who I work with know, I love the good fight, and I’m excited to get my hands wet fighting to elect more strong climate leaders. Continue reading

So long, and thanks for all the fish

paulDear CCANers,

As many of you have heard, I will be leaving CCAN on May 16th to pursue new opportunities. The last year and a half that I have spent with this organization has been one of the most thrilling and challenging times of my life. I was given the opportunity to spend time doing what I loved to do, working with people to fight global warming. I was fortunate enough to have worked in both the Maryland and Virginia campaigns, getting to meet people all over the region that shared my views and passion.

It has been a great joy for me to work with the CCAN staff, the amazing volunteers, and fight global warming at the grassroots level. I will never forget my time here, and the beautiful relationships that I have forged.

Thank you for everything you do.

Paul

8 tornadoes in VA – signs of global warming?

tornadoesEight tornadoes blew through Virginia on April 28, leaving 145 families homeless and 200 injured. The Washington Post reported that cost estimates could top more than $21 million. See a moving picture gallery of the tornado here>>

The storm, despite the fact that it was confined to a few neighborhoods, put the city at a standstill. The most severe tornado ran along a 10 mile path that reached a quarter mile wide, demolishing houses, stacking cars on top of another and literally stripping the roof off a shopping center. Families were denied entrance to their homes as the rain damaged what was left of their belongings. This was a sudden and astonishing tragedy that, though it took no lives, will take considerable effort to recover from.

One of the tornadoes, in Suffolk, was rated “Severe” intensity. There have only been 9 other tornadoes of this intensity in this region since 1966, 42 years. 2008 has already set early tornado season records. 232 tornadoes were reported in the US in February, beating a previous record set in 1972 at 83.

Tragedies like this force us to ask ourselves what could have been done to prevent the damages this stormed caused and are we prepared to deal with future extreme weather events? These are difficult questions to consider, but we may have to consider them more if global warming continues unabated. A recent study by the NASA Goddard Institute shows that our area can expect stronger wind events because of a warming climate. “In the warmer climate simulation there is a small class of the most extreme storms with both strong updrafts and strong horizontal winds at higher levels that occur more often, and thus the model suggests that the most violent severe storms and tornadoes may become more common with warming.” Continue reading

Chesapeake Governors Sign Climate Declaration

20 governors, including Governors O’Malley and Kaine, signed the Governor’s Declaration on Climate Change at the 2008 Conference on Climate Change held at Yale University. The declaration states that first, a federal-state partnership is critical to success on climate change action; second, state-based actions have paved the frontier of climate change policies; and third, mandatory state and federal action should be rewarded and encouraged. The governors pledged to work with the next president to shape federal action on climate change, taking the lessons learned from actions in their states into account. Governors from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia and Washington all signed the pledge. Read the pledge here>>

Annapolis Blues Society hosts CCAN benefit

Letter from John Jensen, organizer of the Annapolis Blues Society:

Dear Friends,

On May 24, 2008…8:00 PM I’m taking part in the effort to raise awareness of our “global warming situation” by putting together a music concert to benefit the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN).

Some great musicians have joined in to make up a great bill for the evening: Neil Harpe will be playing his traditional blues, the Joe Byrd Trio is doing some jazz music, Julia Gibb is bringing her Hawaiian style hula group to show us some beautiful authentic dancing and music, and Tina Ward is coming down from Baltimore to perform some of her original music. And I’m doing a couple of my original blues songs on the theme of Global warming as well as a couple of classics.

All in all it should be a pretty stimulating evening. Plenty of the CCAN people will be there to chat with, so if you actually do care about getting active in the Climate Change Movement it will be a good chance to meet some of likeminded individuals.

The tax deductible donation of $50 gets you a reservation and a seat at the Powerhouse at Loews Annapolis Hotel. Once again May 24, 8:00 PM. You can pay online at www.annapolisbluessociety.com and click on “buy tickets.”

I hope you can join John and the rest of the Annapolis Blues Society for this benefit! CCAN is really looking forward to taking part in this exciting event!

PS: Listen to some of the acts here>>

Climate Super Rally Podcast and Video!

Want to hear the full speaches? Check out our podcast:

(Click to Play)


logo.gifNotes: Dr. Hansen joined the Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners and Amy Goodman of Democracy Now at our Earth Day rally on April 22nd, 2008. Both Ms Goodman and Rev. Wallis have recently released books addressing the issue of global warming.

Continue reading

Inextricably Tied to Coal

Living in an apartment building in the heart of Washington, DC I don’t feel a deep connection to coal mining. I drink my coffee in the mornings and read about the tragedy at Sago mine or China’s voracious appetite for coal. From my dining room table though, West Virginia feels far away and China could practically be in other universe.

Turns out I’m much more connected than I care to imagine. This Sunday, the Washington Post ran a great piece by David Fahrenthold about DC’s connection to mountaintop removal coal mining.

MUD, W.Va. — This is a place where “moving mountains” is no longer a figure of speech. Here, among the steep green Appalachians, mining companies are moving mountains off their pedestals to get the kind of coal that Washington needs.

Though this isolated mine is more than 400 miles from Washington, the two places share a powerful connection: coal. The D.C. region, with its need for electricity skyrocketing, has been burning steadily more coal, buying almost a third of its supply from this part of Appalachia.

Bob White in WVAMountaintop removal is a radical form of coal mining in which entire mountains are literally blown up — and it is happening here in America on a scale that is almost unimaginable.

Central Appalachia provides much of the country’s coal, second only to Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. In the United States, 100 tons of coal are extracted every two seconds. Around 70 percent of that coal comes from strip mines, and over the last 20 years, an increasing amount comes from mountaintop-removal sites. In Virginia 29 mountains have already been destroyed by mountaintop removal mining.

Dominion Power has plans to build a new $1.8 billion coal-fired power plant in Wise County — a county that has already lost 25% of its mountains to mountaintop removal. Dominion’s proposed plant would burn mostly Virginia coal, which would increase the demand for coal and thus increase mountaintop removal mining.

No matter where you live in Maryland, Virginia or DC, part of your electricity comes from coal that was mined using mountaintop removal.

Check our your connection to mountaintop removal using Appalachian Voices’ web tool that allows you to track exactly where your coal comes from.

One way you can help stop the destructive practice of mountaintop removal in Virginia is by making sure Virginia doesn’t build any new coal plants.

Take action! Sign the petition against new coal in Virginia>>