What the Haiti Quake Means for the Climate Movement

Originally at ItsGettingHotinHere.org

As the planet heats up, disasters are becoming more frequent and severe. When they hit, the most vulnerable among us often bear the brunt of the impact. Haiti is a country with a long history of slavery and struggle. In recent years their people have been ravaged by hurricanes, corruption, and severe poverty. Add Tuesday’s magnitude 7.0 earthquake with aftershocks in a city of 2 million to that picture and imagine what people are going through.

As I write this, people are still trapped underneath broken buildings waiting to be rescued. For hours, days, and weeks ahead people will need medical care, food, water, and support. For years to come, Port-au-Prince will need people who are invested in their recovery emotionally, physically, and economically.

Planet Green has a list of 10 ways you can help to get blankets, medical supplies, water, and relief to the people of Haiti right now. At the least, please take 10 seconds to text “Yele” to 501501. This will automatically donate $5 to the relief efforts of the Yele Haiti Foundation through your cell phone bill. If you have other good actions people can take, please share them in the comments of this post.

In this time of distress, climate change is probably the last thing on many peoples’ minds. However, as someone whose life is centered on the issue, every time a natural disaster hits, I think about fossil fuels. Most people associate climate change with sea level rise, droughts, floods, and storms. In recent years researchers have uncovered evidence that as sea levels rise and water or ice is displaced, pressure on the underlying rock can trigger seismic or volcanic activity.

Understanding Copenhagen

I spent eight weeks traveling Europe with a group of 13 AVAAZ climate activists from five different continents, organizing for a better Copenhagen.  For the past three days I’ve been trying to make sense of what happened in the final moments of that journey.

The story of Copenhagen began in Bali, Indonesia two years ago. After an intensive two weeks of negotiations, 192 countries, including the Bush Administration, signed on to the Bali Roadmap, a plan to complete a binding global climate treaty in Copenhagen. The Bali Roadmap was a political agreement acknowledging that the evidence for the planet warming is “unequivocal”, and that further delays in reducing emissions would further increase the risks of “severe climate change impacts.”

Fast forward to 2009 – after two years of high level negotiations and new peer-reviewed scientific findings warning that climate change is accelerating faster than previously anticipated, the stakes had been raised for Copenhagen. In the first week and a half of the negotiations, leaders from small island states like the Maldives and Tuvalu and from African countries already being thrust into water-related conflicts from extreme drought resisted threats and bribes from developed countries as they insisted on an ambitious and fair legal treaty committed to containing warming below 1.5 degrees C. Tensions ran high and the talks were deadlocked as rich nations and emerging economies blamed each other and the most vulnerable.

After nine hours of direct negotiations from world leaders on the final day, a weak agreement was reached by a diverse group of interests. The three-page Copenhagen Accord is by all accounts far short of the ambitious and fair legal treaty promised in Bali. While it does finally tie emerging economies like China and India in with the United States under the same climate agreement, it also punts most of the hard decisions down the road another year.

At most the Copenhagen Accord can be called another baby step forward, when the world needed a bold leap. The reason for this colossal failure of leadership was a No Ambition Coalition of the United States and China. Held hostage by fossil fuel lobbyists and an addiction to a 20th century growth paradigm, China held out against a legally-binding outcome and international verification of emission targets while the United States refused to budge from their weak emission targets.

Copenhagen is dark but spicy.

I’m in Copenhagen. It’s dark, but spicy.

Once again I am doing two of my favorite things:

1. I am organizing climate change action (See photos and twitter).

2. I’m growing a mustache for kids, this time from Europe! Remember, a “Magnum P.I.” sponsorship is just $25. People tell me when they do the Magnum P.I., their happiness increases to Danish proportions. (Sponsor my face here. Watch my face here.)

My impression of Copenhagen on my second week here:

It’s Dark.

1. Daylight dwindles at 4pm here. Even when it’s not dark, the clouds make it so. That’s crazy.

2. Last week Obama squished hopes for a full legal climate change treaty at the two week UN conference in December, saying he prefers a two-step process finishing in 2010.

It’s Spicy.

1. Denmark is the happiest country in the world. So that’s fun. People make a living wage, crime rates are low, health care is free, and the locals get to listen to silly foreigners try to pronounce street names like “Gaestraeksvej” all the time.

2. Copenhagen gets to host the most important global meeting since World War II in a couple weeks. More than 65 heads of state have already committed to attending it. The only country on the planet where this “COP” is not front page news is – you guessed it – the USA. We’re a little busy debating health care to death and the merits of Taylor Swift versus Michael Jackson.

Calling all radicals: unite for Kerry-Boxer

Cross-posted from Grist.

As an activist who has been arrested for civil disobedience, organized national climate mobilizations, protested outside of coal plants and worked for Greenpeace, I am calling on my friends and colleagues to fight for the Kerry-Boxer “Clean Energy Jobs Act” and a strong global treaty in Copenhagen. On Monday Senator Barbara Boxer and Energy Secretary Steven Chu said there is a chance of passing a climate bill in Congress before the international talks in Copenhagen this December. Many of us have spent the better part of a decade preparing for this moment. While supporters of the Kerry-Boxer legislation fend off well-financed attacks by the fossil fuel industry, they simultaneously face opposition from progressive voices within the climate movement.

It’s time for radicals and moderates to come together around what are for. Being right isn’t enough. Each of us must be loud and strong and boisterous in defense of our cause. Oppose offsets and giveaways to the fossil fuel industry. But let us fight hardest for what we believe in – a strong climate bill and a stronger global treaty – than what we fear.

In November 2000 I had the privilege to be one of 200 young people from the U.S. and Africa invited by Greenpeace to lobby delegates at the UN Climate Negotiations in The Hague, Netherlands. We stood below a stage listening to four middle-aged Inuit women, who had traveled outside of their homeland for the first time. They were coming from Alaska, a place where winter temperatures had increased 6 degrees since 1950. Fighting back tears we listened as the women told us of men falling through melting ice while traversing age-old caribou hunting routes. They spoke of dwindling food supplies from altered seasons and seeing mosquitoes in a region that had never known such things. They felt the climate crisis first-hand and were reaching out to us in partnership.

Instead of leaving us in fear, the women joined together in a traditional dance. At that moment we knew what we were fighting for: a strong global climate treaty – to preserve hope, love, community, tradition. The lesson for me: in a crisis, fight hardest for what you believe in, not what you fear. While we should never be afraid to oppose weaknesses and flaws in a policy, they should not rule our agenda or define our movement.

Five years to remember

What does this town mean to me? Philadelphia has four giant blocks with the letters “L” “O” “V” and “E” on them. Paris has the Louvre and a bunch of old elegant things mixed with a history of ladies fainting. But San Francisco takes the cake when it comes to love.

Why? Well, it’s about putting on a sumo suit and wrestling people in medieval costumes on Casey and Jess’s 30th birthday party in Dolores Park. Still wearing the suit, I get pile-driven by a large but gentle professional wrestler. The love is about deliriously “winning” Bay to Breakers three times wearing short-shorts, flaring mullet hair, and an orange safety vest that chafes. It’s about shakin’ booty with friends in gorilla suits at our Justin Timberlake-themed Shiny Party. It’s my white-ass doing the bump-n-grind on free funk Friday’s at Elbo Room.

Every November I had one month to grow a mustache and strut my stuff to benefit little children. Then there’s the crowded bed at the Bordello, swapping clothes in Big Sur, getting nearly knocked off a raft on the American River by my newest sibling, poetically fending off an attack by a flock of gulls on the beach, riding giant ice cubes down a grass hill, and hopping from Ginger’s houseboat to Smitty’s and back to the boat outrageously.

I’ll never forget the naked Jesus Buddha man at Zeitgeist. I don’t know why I just said that.

San Francisco has been my life for five years. I’ve lived in the corner of a room for a month, on numerous couches, a closet, four apartments, and nearly in an oven. I’ve ran a half marathon twice with little sleep and less training or stretching. I’ve seen friends come and go and come again. Jobs have come and gone and come and gone (sometimes three times with the same job). Relationships have done the same (sometimes five times with the same person). I’ve been a mess at times, and riding sky high at others.

So, on August 12th I’m moving to Boston.

What?! Why? I know. It’s crazy to leave all of that. But it’s time. My baby niece Gwenyth and nephew Simon are transcending babyness. My grandparents are not Benjamin Button. I have a ridiculous amount of siblings (5), two brilliant parents and some long-time friends back east. As much love as San Francisco has brought me, I’ve always known where home is.

Leaving hurts. It’s scary. I have no idea how well my whiskers will perform in a sea of red-haired Irishmen at Mustaches for Kids Boston. I’m not sure if I’ll make any friends without my trusty costume basket (oh damn! did I really get rid of all that?! come back giant orange sombrero!). Luckily, I kept my tight red pants and green spinny hat for emergencies.

But hey. It’s time to take that leap. Faithfully.

Luckily, today is not goodbye. There is still a month of raucous summer mischief ahead in the Bay. And as for mischief and Boston, it’s like my cheesy project management professor used to say about trouble-makers on your staff, “Bring it on! I’m ready!”

Stay off my subwoofer!

Portia likes to play with cords. It’s quite a thing having your own animal. I had cats all growing up in Vermont, but it was my sister and mom who scooped the poop and dribbled the kibble. That, I’ve learned, makes a huge difference.

Portia comes to us for everything. Petting, feeding, sleeping, and most of all, cord frenzy. In two months with us this cat has eaten two ipod headphones, speakers connected to a subwoofer, and chewed half way through Maddy’s computer powercord. It’s intense.

Economic Recession is nothing

Crossposted from Itsgettinghotinhere.org

Nothing compared to ecosystem collapse that is.

Spreading hands as dry and cracked as the orchards he tends, the stout man his mates call Tank explained what damage a decade of drought has done.

“Suicide is high. Depression is huge. Families are breaking up. It’s devastation,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve got a neighbor in terrible trouble. Found him in the paddock, sitting in his [truck], crying his eyes out. Grown men — big, strong grown men. We’re holding on by the skin of our teeth. It’s desperate times.”

A result of climate change?

“You’d have to have your head in the bloody sand to think otherwise,” Eddy said.

Ten years ago I traveled to Adelaide, South Australia, the driest province in the driest continent on Earth. I spent five months of my Junior year in college studying sustainable development, environmental politics, and climate change. It was the first time I grasped the issue of global warming. At that time, the drought described by Tank had only just begun.

Now, ten years later, Australia is teaching me a new lesson – as depressing as they may be, articles about climate impacts can still teach us something.

My climate reading for today all started with this news story about global warming creeping into Joshua Tree territory. Have you no decency, Mr. Crisis. That’s my tree you’re messing with.

Get smart

It seems smartness is in these days. Hillary is talking about “smart power” diplomacy. Obama wants to bring back the science. And just last night I picked up a witty and thoughtful copy of the New Yorker and read an entire article. With no offense to Texas or the old addage, Keep It Simple Stupidhead, I’m pretty down with this change.

One reason I’m excited about smartness is the “smart grid”.

GridWise Talks Smart Grid in the Stimulus

The “smart grid” isn’t really a thing. It’s anything that helps the power grid communicate better. It’s a slogan to talk about upgrading the electricity grid so that it can waste less and do more.

Obama tucked $11 billion for the smart grid in the $825 billion Stimulus that just passed the House. If the Senate gives the thumbs up to those $11 billion, that will mean really big things for the black wires that connect to our houses.

Right now our electricity grid is not so smart. No disrespect to the diligent engineers, operators, and regulators who put the thing together over the years, but the thing can’t communicate for shit.

I really like things that run smoothly. I have five siblings and grew up fighting over the TV remote. I know what chaos looks like. Rachael wants to watch pony cartoons. Warren and Ben want to watch Fraggle Rock. Heather and Adam want to watch Princess Bride for the third time this week and I’m fuming because we’re missing the Super Bowl and nobody else knows or cares what a football is. Because we each want different shows and are clueless about how to communicate with each other, we end up with mom stomping into the room, shutting off the TV and telling everybody to stop fighting and go outside.

I’m not an expert on this, but here’s my understanding of the current electrical grid:

The power grid isn’t exactly like my childhood experience of watching television, but it does have similarities. There are more than 1000 different utility companies spread across the country whose job it is to sell power to hundreds of millions of households and businesses. Each are connected to centralized distribution and transmission centers that channel power from large power plants far away. Decisions about how much power to transmit, when, and how are determined by operators and regulators with different rules and guidelines in different regions.

While the complex system is a mess, the real kicker is that the system doesn’t communicate very well. The people running the show don’t know how much electricity is being used until well afterward. Communication only goes one way most of the time. To find out how much electricity I’m using, the utility has to come to my house and physically check my meter. If I want to save electricity in my house, I have to look at my monthly bill, compare it to other bills, and try to figure out what I should turn off, turn down, or replace. If I have a solar panel, a turbine in my stream, or some other way of generating my own power, unless my state has a “net-metering” law, I can’t sell the extra power that I produce to the grid or to anyone else (unless they’re really gullible).

The smart grid fixes all of this business. Smart meters on your house combined with smart technology up the wire show you and the utility what appliances are using what amount of electricity at what times. If we know how much we’re using and the utility knows how much electricity we need, we can get what we need and even store or generate our own power and sell it back to earn some extra cash.

The smart grid is like we get the internet for the grid. It’s sweet. Let’s get one.

VIDEO: The Day Before

Tomorrow is ‘Stache Bash 2008. With a last minute push, my mustache has now raised $839 for school kids in need. I’m just $161 away from my goal of $1000! Even more incredibly, I’m currently in 24th place, which if it holds up in this sprint to the finish, would put me squarely in the beauty pageant for mustache growers I’ve been training for all year.

You’ve got until 5pm PST tomorrow (12/17) to sponsor my mustache for kids. Please pick a project to fund with a $25 Tom Selleck sponsorship:

www.joshmustache.com

In the midst of all of these wind sprints, pushups, and whisker-curls, I managed to get sick yesterday. I’m wheezing like a hound on cigarettes. The coughing and sneezing has kept Maddy awake and disturbed my housemates all day. However, I’m determined to heal by the time the ‘Stache Bash rolls around tomorrow night at 8pm at the Rickshaw Stop. While sitting on my tush, I managed to make one final video to thank all of my generous mustache sponsors. Enjoy!

Invest in Mustache

Dear friends and family of my upper lip,

This is my big ask.

I wonder if you could find it in your heart this holiday season to sponsor my mustache. It would make life for school children in poverty a little bit better and would give me a chance to compete in the event that I’ve prepared for all year long.

Please sponsor my mustache with a “My Name is Earl” $50 or “Magnum P.I.” $25 donation for school kids:
http://www.joshmustache.com

To say thanks, I’ve just completed a new ‘stache video just for you.

2008 is not like other years in the land of Mustaches for Kids San Francisco.

This year, only the top 20 mustache growing fundraisers are guaranteed a spot in the ‘Stache Bash. For those who don’t know, ‘Stache Bash is the big event on December 17th where men who have been growing a mustache for a month get on stage to answer questions about their mustache and impress the judges for four grueling rounds. The winner is crowned “Sweetest ‘Stache” 2008. In previous years all growers were given a chance to compete, but currently I’m about $300 short of making it into the Top 20 fundraisers.

I need your help. Feel free to go big and donate at the “Burt Reynolds” level of $150 or go small with a $5 “Frida Kahlo” gift:
http://www.joshmustache.com

Today I was asked an important question. The answer is “no”. There is absolutely zero overhead taken in your donation on behalf of my mustache. 100% of the funds you give will be given through DonorsChoose.org to a elementary school teacher’s class project for her kids.

Thanks to Jess for your $50 gift today and thanks to all those who have sponsored my soup-strainer thus far. If just 30 more people sponsor with a $25 gift or greater, I’ll reach my goal of $1000 and catapult right into the big show on 12/17!

In the spirit of giving, please invest in my mustache today:
http://www.joshmustache.com

With all the love and gratitude my upper lip can muster,
Josh

P.S. If you’re in the Bay Area, please join me at ‘Stache Bash at the Rickshaw Stop next Wednesday 12/17 at 8pm.

P.P.S. Please help out by spreading my mustache videos (#1, #2, #3) with a personal ask to your friends to sponsor me and support the kids.