We now live in a world of veritable science fiction. Last week, scientists reported that our delicate, life-giving global atmosphere has reached a new level of danger: 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide concentration. There hasn’t been this much heat-trapping CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere in at least 3 million years, long before human beings evolved. If there was ever a wake-up-call moment on global warming, a time to become really alarmed, it’s now!
Appalachia Rising Delivers Dirty Water to EPA
Over 100 people, primarily Appalachia residents, took action today at the headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C., calling for the EPA to use its powers to end mountaintop removal.
15 people, including a couple of youth no older than 10, risked arrest by sitting in front of a main entrance to EPA. They sat next to about 75 one-gallon containers of dirty and toxic water brought to DC by Appalachian residents, the kind of water produced by mountaintop removal operations.
Another Fracking Fire!
I should be a firefighter. I think I’d be great. When I retire from advocacy, I might pursue my true calling. Keep in mind that my faith in my firefighting abilities is almost entirely baseless. I have no training, no particular skills, nor the will or courage necessary to run into burning buildings to save lives and properties.
But in a sheer metaphorical sense, I’m already a firefighter. Every so often unexpected problems arise that need serious attention. Look no further than the George Washington National Forest, where natural gas companies appear to be on the brink of successfully convincing the Forest Service to overturn its 15-year ban on fracking. Sound the alarm. This is a fire that must be put out immediately!
Climate Wake-Up Call Reaches Dominion Shareholders!
Today I attended my third Dominion Resources annual shareholder meeting, the company’s 104th. And woah! What a day! The company, which provides 2/3 of Virginia’s electricity, announced the results of voting on a resolution addressing the financial risks of climate change, which I worked with a shareholder to introduce. It received an unprecedented 22% of the shareholder vote! While that may not sound like much, in the shareholder activism world, anything over 10% is extraordinary. Resolutions are typically introduced not with passage as the goal but with the intention to educate board members and shareholders.
Outside of the meeting, which was held at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, about 20 activists volunteering with CCAN, Sierra Club and Appalachian Voices held their own “exhibit” of altered artwork to represent the unrecognizable future of rising seas, extreme weather disasters and destroyed mountains that Dominion is leading Virginia toward. The “masterpieces” included a Starry Night marred by mountaintop removal mining, The Birth of Venus submerged by rising seas — a reality all too close to home for residents of Hampton Roads — and Napoleon, with CEO Tom Farrell moonlighting as the emperor of climate pollution.
Dominion is Virginia’s biggest climate polluter and a major purchaser of coal from mountaintop removal mining. On the other hand, the company has yet to bring a single kilowatt of utility-scale wind or solar power online for Virginia customers.
Activists got a pleasant surprise when Delegate Peter Farrell, son of Dominion CEO Tom Farrell, wandered by. The Virginia General Assembly member stopped to check out the action, and listened as one of his constituents explained we were there to call attention to Dominion’s climate pollution and the impacts of the company’s fossil fuel-fired energy. Then he asked to take a picture of our artwork featuring his CEO father!
Back inside the meeting, I presented the resolution (item 8 on the 2013 proxy) calling on leadership to report on risks posed to shareholders by climate change, especially extreme weather. The proposal noted that the three most costly extreme weather events in Dominion’s 104-year history– Hurricane Isabel, Hurricane Irene, and last year’s derecho– have all come within the last decade. In presenting the resolution to the shareholders at the meeting, I talked about residents of coastal Norfolk whose houses have flooded repeatedly due to sea-level rise and increasing storm activity. I pointed out that these folks who live in ground zero of the climate crisis are examining the risks posed by climate change and deciding what to do. Some are literally raising their houses up on platforms to avoid the water, some are moving inland and some are buying solar panels to lower their contribution to the crisis. Clearly 22% of Dominion shareholders agree with me that the company needs to take a cue from Norfolk residents and examine what’s coming and decide where to go.
Other proposals received solid support. A proposal to link executive compensation to sustainability metrics received 7%, one related to mountaintop removal coal mining received 6% and one related to nuclear power safety received 4%. In recent memory, the highest vote percentage received by a shareholder resolution that the Dominion board urged shareholders to reject — in other words, all of the environmentally focused resolutions — was 16%. That was received by a 2011 proposal related to the community impacts of power plant retirements.
Do the math: The movie
Millions of Americans have recognized the need to take action now to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, and the latest movie from 350.org highlights the movement’s growing strength. Watch the movie, and then join us in action!
Study: VA & MD vineyards dead by 2050
Global warming will shift world’s wine-growing regions
Have a favorite local vineyard in Virginia or Maryland? Make sure to get its wine while you can. A study released recently by Conservation International and Environmental Defense Fund found that the world’s wine-growing regions will shift as the planet heats up. While other studies have examined the impact of climate change on specific wine-growing regions, like California, this is the first one I’ve seen that provides global maps.
Check out the map I pulled from Environmental Defense Fund’s Google Earth flyover video:
Why will the warming of the planet by a few degrees have such a dramatic impact? Wine grapes are incredibly delicate crops. Even small changes in temperature can mean the difference between a $100 Cabernet Sauvignon and cooking sherry. With ripening timelines shifting, some vintners in California have been forced to harvest their fruit in the middle of the night to get it when it’s cool. Warming can also bring more risk of bacterial diseases, like Pierce’s disease, to vineyards.
Athena Vineyards in Heathsville, VA participates in Climate Impacts Day in May 2012
Keeping up the pressure against KXL
As part of an ongoing effort to fight the Keystone XL pipeline, community members and Virginia Commonwealth University students met with Senator Mark Warner’s staff during Earth Week to set the record straight on the Tar Sands pipeline project.
'Black liquor' a rip-off for Frederick ratepayers
The Frederick News-Post
By Mike Tidwell
There has been some confusion recently about a proposed piece of legislation in Annapolis called the “black liquor bill” (HB 1102). Tragically, this bill came one vote shy of passing, even though it would have ended a huge loophole in state law forcing Maryland’s electricity ratepayers to give millions of dollars in subsidies to out-of-state paper mills that contribute nothing to the cleaner energy that Marylanders want.
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Hunger Strike on 27th Day
As I write this Brian Eister is on the 27th day of a water-only climate hunger strike outside the American Petroleum Institute in Washington, D.C. The only thing he has consumed since April 1st is water, sodium and potassium.
Brian’s latest posts on his website, http://www.1future.net, report on both his continuing resolve but also the hunger and physical difficulties he is experiencing. On the 26th day he wrote, “The days are dragging on and hunger has become quite intense, but the sacrifice I am making here is modest. . .”
Hampton University celebrates Earth Day with first ever Environmental Justice panel
Cross-posted from Wearepowershift.org
For Hampton University in Hampton Roads, Virginia, Earth Day marked a new day in history for the school: Hampton’s inaugural Environmental Justice & Sustainability panel. Over 100 students came out to the panel discussion Monday evening to hear from professors, fellow students, and local non-profit organizers to learn about environmental and climate justice and how they can take action on their campus, in the local community, and beyond.