350 Updates

N. America
Sara Camp
Sara Camp

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What a nightmare.

We are deeply saddened and frustrated to hear that yet another oil spill has occurred in the U.S., this time in Michigan.

As our friends in the Midwest cope with the potentially devastating environmental, economic and health impacts of 800,000 gallons of oil flowing freely down the Kalamazoo River, we can’t help but wonder – when will Congress finally say “enough”?
 
It has been just over 100 days since BP’s oil gusher began spewing millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf, and we had all hoped that when Congress saw how dangerous oil production is, they would finally realize that the supposed benefits are not worth the costs.
 
But they didn’t.
 
We had hoped that, backed by the climate movement that you helped build, the Gulf oil spill would motivate our leaders to take a courageous stand against fossil fuels.
 
But it didn’t.
 
Congress has killed our only hope for a climate bill this year, and now, 100 days after the Gulf disaster, another oil spill is wreaking havoc too close to home. So we've got more work to do to get our message out, because it's not yet being heard in Washington.
 
Now more than ever, we need to demonstrate to Congress that we’re ready for a clean energy, low-carbon economy. They need to see how climate change and fossil fuel addiction are affecting our lives, and they need to see what we’re doing to be part of the solution.
 
We’re ready to turn up the heat on our Senators during the August Recess. If you’d like to join us, go to www.350.org/heat. And as always, please feel free to write to us at organizers@350.org with any thoughts, insights or updates as we prepare for the Global Work Party on 10/10/10.
 
 
 

 
May Boeve
May Boeve

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They blew it, Let them know it.

After a week has passed and the news has sunk in about US Senate inaction on climate change, it's time to get organized. That's a common reframe here at 350.org, but with an entire month-long Senate recess starting August 9, it's time to get prepped.

If you live in the U.S., your senator is coming home to visit, and this is a great time to really let them know how outrageous it is for them to throw up their hands about the climate crisis during this session.

So we hope you'll take a look at the toolkit we made, and sign up to "shadow" your senator during the recess.

We made a little video guide as to what not to do, take a look:

 

 
Asia
Will Bates
Will Bates

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Bangladesh and West Bengal -- Check! Check!

In my excitement to blog Indian President Patil's annoucement that the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Indian President's residence and office, now has solar power, I forgot to mention a few neighboring leaders also helping lead the way with solar installations...

It was back in April that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the installation of solar panels on the Prime Minister's office in Dhaka!  So she got started even before we launched PutSolarOn.It.

And in the same neighborhood, the Governor of West Bengal in India, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, installed solar panels on the Kolkata Raj Bhavan, the Governor's Residence, in December of 2009.  And in case you're thinking "Oh, it's just a Governor.  No big deal."  West Bengal is a state of over 90 million people!  And this Governor's initiative was also supported by President Patil in Delhi, so certainly she was moving in this direction already.

It's very exciting to see leaders taking these steps.  And we'd love to see even more, which is precisely what PutSolarOn.It is trying to help achieve. But of course, solar installations are just first steps -- helping raise public interest and momentum towards more ambitious, transformational actions.  So what better way to thank and celebrate these leaders solar achievements by inviting them to a party -- the 10/10/10 Global Work Prty! 

If you're in India or Bangladesh, use this as a chance to send an invitation to President Patil, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Governor Gandhi, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too.  (Online tools to support sending those invitations are coming soon, but feel free to find your own way starting now).

 
N. America
Jamie Henn
Jamie Henn

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Carbon Nation pushes the USA to Get to Work

Looking for a good movie to help spread the word about clean energy solutions? Look no further than Carbon Nation, a great new film that shows how the US can get off carbon here and now. Here's a clip about what the Department of Defense (not your usual "birkenstock wearing hippies" as one general puts it) is getting to work on clean energy:

If you're interested in watching some more clips or learning more about the Carbon Nation film, make sure to join their Facebook page.

And as you're planning about your 10/10/10 work party, think about how you can best document the work that you are doing in your community. Making a short movie about your work is a great way to share some inspiration with people around the world.

Here at 350.org headquarters, we'll be looking to collect video from around the world on 10/10/10 so that we can get good clips to the media and out to supporters all over the planet. Send us a good video and who knows, maybe it will end up on CNN or in a film like Carbon Nation

 
May Boeve
May Boeve

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Just in time for the school year

Back-2-CoolAt the same time that we're gearing up for the Fall launch of the Great Power Race, there are some other great activities underway from our partners. Climate Counts has a great program called Back-2-Cool that profiles companies' records on climate change. This is very timely as students and parents consider back to school purshcases. Climate Counts focused on the sectors most involved in school shopping.  In the face of lacking federal action, this is a great way to gauge how companies' PR matches their records!

Check it out on Facebook here.

 
May Boeve
May Boeve

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Interview with 350 Athlete Spencer Paxson

Spencer Paxson recently killed it at the National Mountain Bike Championships, finishing seventh overall which is particularly notable because when he isn't mixing it up with other top-ranked professional riders, he's working 40-50 hours a week developing wind and solar projects around the country for Ridgeline Energy, a Seattle-based renewable energy development company.

Here's what he's been up to:

What does a day in the life of Spencer Paxson look like?
There is rarely a dull one, that is for sure.  Here's a classic from last week: Up at 6:45 to kit up for a short morning spin, getting into the office early to sort out the next week's worth of race travel..and devouring a bowl of Kozy Shack rice pudding.  Put away the bike suit and get down to business by 8:00 for a meeting to discuss environmental permitting and construction timelines for a large wind project, then complete a research project for implementing GIS into the small-scale solar-PV site prospecting.  The afternoon is spent on the phone coordinating with project managers and tending to various tasks.  By 6:00 it's time to roll out the door to the weekly crit series at Seward Park, great mid-week training for this time of year.  I'm feeling good these days for all the big races coming up, so my teammate and I go on an early break and lap the field, catching enough cash winnings for a stop by my favorite burrito truck on the way home.  Mellow-out time with some good music...and maybe some ever-ongoing bike maintenance before leaving for a big race in Colorado the next afternoon...  

Compare training and Mountain Bike racing to the sustainability movement?  What can each learn from each other?
Good planning, discipline, sacrifice, patience, balance, confidence...Both involve setting specific goals, and achieving those goals depends upon recognizing incremental achievements along the way.  I started preparing for Nationals in February, and as with any big endeavor, there were plenty of times along the way where it would have been easy to become disenchanted by the small defeats along the way.  Not every training day is warm and sunny, and many races are finished far from the podium  I'm trying to be competitive against others who get paid to ride their bikes with lots of time for training, and with the best equipment and advanced coaching.  Having those luxuries someday would be awesome, but for now I am motivated by my lack of those elements.  I've learned that once you realize that a passion makes you part of something larger than yourself, it's a waste of time to view that passion (bike racing, sustainability movement, music, renewable energy, etc.) in opposition to the other obligations of life.  It has to be integrated.  Embrace the challenges, then the little defeats turn into fuel, and then you focus on all the little achievements on the way to the big one.  350 seems to be driven in a similar way.  Big goals have to be balanced with everything else, priorities have to be connected to one another.  For me, I treat racing like the job, albeit the fun one (even though working on wind projects is really fun, too), with a workman-like approach to training and racing, where the default setting is "win", meaning "ride well"...even if I've experienced a setback.  I feel like setting these standards for myself has informed the rest of what I do, and it would certainly cross over to something like the sustainability movement.  

Are there other riders on the scene that understand 350?
I've definitely seen more green wrist bands this year.  I see a number of other 350 athletes on the mountain bike circuit, and people who don't know about it are always curious to find out.

What are your plans for the rest of the year?
For general plans, I just moved into a house, and can't wait to build a fully functional bike shop in the basement.  At work, I'm looking to take on a larger roll at work as Permitting Manager, handling the timelines, budgets, and the thorny details of everything from federal land permits, avian surveys, to Renewable Portfolio Standard eligibility. For racing plans, I have my sites set on the World Cup Finals in Windham, NY at the end of August, and am hoping my performance at Nationals will be good enough to earn me a spot on the US team for the World Championships in Quebec this September.  Regardless, the season has been a big success.  Soon enough it will be time for a break, then cyclocross, and then prep for next year.

350.org is hosting a work day on 10/10/10, do you have any plans?
I'll be at a bike race.  Getting people on their bikes is a good way to promote the fight against global warming and right now that is my work.

 
N. America
Sara Camp
Sara Camp

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350 Miles : 350 Postcards

The following is a guest blog post from our friend Jamie Pleune, an environmental lawyer and lead organizer for a powerfully symbolic event that will begin on 10/10/10:

“Hope is an action not an emotion.”  A rabbi spoke these words in the sweltering heat, standing on a patch of lawn near the Capitol.  His voice, hoarse with age, shook with emotion as he spoke to the small crowd—proxies for the desired audience—Congress.  Hope is hard to come by these days.  We are living in a time of existential crisis.  Even though the consequences of climate change threaten the lives and safety of millions of people around the world, our leaders refuse to act to curb our national patterns of indulgence.  In this political environment of denial, I struggle to find hope, so I was glad to hear of it described as an action.  But, if hope is an action, what kind of action does it entail? 

 
Jamie Henn
Jamie Henn

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Racing on the World Stage

Last week, students from across China came together in Shanghai for the International Youth Summit on Climate Change. One of the topics at the summit: the Great Power Race, our growing student clean energy competition. (The photos in this post are of some of our lead GPR organizers at the US and Indian buildings for the Shanghai World Expo).

There’s been a lot of news lately about China’s investments in clean energy. Late last week, Chinese officials announced that they would institute a carbon trading program as part of its 12th five-year plan which will begin in 2011. You can read more about the announcement here. China is clearly already moving down the track towards a clean energy future.

In contrast, the US Senate seems to be walking away from the track altogether. On Thursday, Senate majority leader Harry Reid announced that he wouldn’t put forward a comprehensive climate bill this year.

There’s still a chance that Congress could take some small steps forward. Most important, would be passing a strong Renewable Energy Standard. Today, 27 senators wrote a letter in support of the measure, which would could create 274,000 jobs in the US. In their letter, they wrote: “We urge you to ensure that we give our country the opportunity to win the clean energy race by including the Renewable Energy Standard in energy legislation that is considered this summer.”

At least some people in the US government are getting the message.

India also made an exciting announcement today. Just a matter of weeks after we launched the PutSolarOn.It campaign, President Patil of India announced that the President's estate, Rasthrapati Bhavan, is now a certified green building, including the installation of solar power. Now that’s getting to work!

With over 500 campuses now registered for the Great Power Race, it looks like the race for clean energy is heating up around the world. Can we get to 1,000 registered campuses by September 1st? It’s going to be a challenge, but that’s what this Race is all about. Together, we can show our political leaders that you don’t walk away from tough challenges like climate change. You take a deep breath, stretch your legs, and start running towards them.

 
Jon Warnow
Jon Warnow

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What would you do with $1000 for climate action?

In case you missed it, 350.org has teamed up with our old pals at Brighter Planet and our new partners at Global Greengrants for something new and interesting: a web-powered microgrant contest for grassroots climate-action on 10/10/10. 

All you need to do is go to the fund website for your region submit your project idea by August 7.  And without further ado, a post about the effort, crossposted from the Brighter Planet blog:

Empowering 350.org’s Climate Action Fund

In the latest chapter of our perennial partnership with 350.org, Brighter Planet will provide the technology and underwriting to make 350′s crowdsourced Project Funds for Climate Action a reality.

Last fall, 350.org organized what CNN called “the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history,” inspiring more than 5,000 events in 181 countries as part of the International Day of Climate Action. They continue to push the issue of climate change to forefront, inspiring a much needed sense of urgency in the fight to prevent catastrophic global change. Their slogan for this year, “Get to Work,” encourages grassroots action around the world, challenging people to step up and be the drivers of change in their communities, forcing our leaders to take action. In conjunction with 1010global.org, which has already signed close to 80,000 people since January in demanding a 10% annual reduction in carbon emissions, 350.org has put forth 10/10/10 as a global day of action.

Beginning today and leading up to the 10/10/10 Work Parties, 350.org will give out eight $1000 microgrants every month through their 350 Project Funds for Climate Action, funding Work Party projects that raise awareness about climate change, promote renewable energy, and show clearly that progress is possible.

 
Asia
Will Bates
Will Bates

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Putting Up Solar in India! Score!

Check!

Just a matter of weeks after we launched the PutSolarOn.It campaign, President Patil of India has announced that the President's estate, Rasthrapati Bhavan, is now a certified green building, including the installation of solar power! Click here for the full announcement.

Score for India, score for PutSolarOn.It, and score for the planet!  Which country will be next?

Ask your leaders to put solar on their roof today: click here.