FOSSIL FREE FAST - THE CLIMATE RESISTANCE: Live-streamed January 31 at 8PM

 On January 31st, the day after Trump’s first State of the Union, Climate movement leaders and Community organizers will gather in Washington D.C. to share our plan to win at ‘Fossil Free Fast: The Climate Resistance.’

The event will feature: Senator Bernie Sanders, 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, Rev. Lennox Yearwood from Hip Hop Caucus, Jacqueline Patterson from the NAACP, and many other exciting speakers and performances.

This event has ended, but you may watch a video recording of the event at C-Span - Click Here

This inspiring event will be live-streamed at 8:00 PM ET -- and thousands across the country will watch with their friends and family. Will you join them?


Watch a short Video: Click Here


Sign up for a watch party near you -- or if there isn’t one happening yet, sign up to host one!  

Go to: https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/fossil-free-fast/


Watch TONIGHT, Wednesday 1/31 at 8 PM:
Livestream Link

For more information, see the following article at Common Dreams:

Fossil Free Fast: A Climate Resistance Game Plan for 2018 
With the transition to 100% renewable energy, we have perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity to rebuild our economy in a more just and equitable way.

The Climate Resistance Strategy for 2018:
- stop all new fossil fuel projects
- a fast and just transition to 100% renewable energy for all
- continuing and expanding the fossil fuel divestment movement

Read more at Common Dreams  

 

Naomi Klein, Author & Activist: Polluting Industries, Climate Disruption and Justice

Speech by Naomi Klein

delivered on the day of the historic announcement that New York City is divesting from fossil fuels and suing five oil majors who knowingly deepened the climate crisis.

For a very long time, our movements have been insisting that principles of justice need to be at the center of the response to the climate crisis – a crisis that plays out in the most perversely unjust ways right now.

Justice means that people who did the least to create this crisis but are bearing the heaviest risks and most toxic burdens need to be first to benefit from green economic development and job creation.

Justice also means that workers in polluting industries are not sacrificed or left behind. And justice means something else too, something most politicians are loath to talk about because the wealth and power of fossil fuel companies is so vast.

It means that the corporate interests that did the most to get us into this mess – with their pollution and with their campaigns of wilful misinformation – are going to have to pay their true share of the tremendous costs of climate disruption, and of delayed transition. Because right now we have it upside down and backwards.

As it stands, the costs of sea level rise and ferocious and unprecedented weather events are offloaded on to the public, with taxpayers stiffed with the ballooning bills. And as governments absorb these costs, there is less money for schools, for affordable transit and housing, for health care. And, in yet another bitter irony, this hurts the people who are already impacted by climate change the most.

This city saw all this in dramatic fashion during Sandy, when it was the people in public housing who were left for weeks in the cold and dark.

Meanwhile, the extravagant profits from destabilizing our planet’s life support system, earned from ignoring and suppressing the scientific consensus – well, those are systematically privatized.

Earlier this decade, ExxonMobil alone made $45 billion in profits in a single year– more than any company in history. Enough to pay Rex Tillerson, then its CEO $100,000 a day.

In short, the status quo means the poor are paying again and again for the polluters to get even richer. It’s a world upside down. But that starts to change today.

By suing these five oil majors who knowingly deepened the climate crisis, and simultaneously beginning the process of divesting $5-billion from fossil fuel companies, New York City is taking a game changing first step in turning the world right side up. And not to overstate the case, but I actually think this could change the world.

There have been lawsuits before that have tried to sue the fossil fuel giants for climate damages. The tiny Arctic community of Kivalina, population 383, which attempted to recover the costs of having to relocate. Some citizens of the low-lying Pacific Island of Vanuatu– population 300,000 – that began a similar suit. A lone Peruvian farmer, suing a German coal giant for the risks to his home. A small group of Gulf Coast Mississippi homeowners, with the help of a scrappy lawyer, who tried to sue the fossil fuel companies after Hurricane Katrina.

These have been valiant attempts, but in every case, the industry has relied on the relative weakness and poverty of its accusers, sometime managing to quash suits before they were filed.

And that is why today’s news is so historic. Because bullying isn’t going to work here the way it has in the past. This lawsuit is coming from the largest city in the most powerful country on the planet, a city which also happens to be the financial capital of world.

And now that New York City has thrown down in such a big way – on divestment, on polluter pays — it’s going to embolden all kinds of other actors to step up as well. Other cities around the world. Universities. Foundations. Other states. Even entire nation states.

As of today, everyone needs to up their ambition. Be bolder. Move faster. It’s what our planet requires. And it’s what justice demands. No politician on the planet is doing enough. But there can be no doubt that the bar for what it takes to call yourself a climate leader has just been dramatically raised.

The full text is at GoFossilFree.org

Inspired by NY City's Lawsuit against Fossil Fuel Companies over Climate Change, USA's 2nd Biggest City Considers Similar Move

Los Angeles could become the next city to sue fossil fuel companies over climate change

Natasha Geiling - Jan 17, 2018 - ThinkProgress

When New York City announced last week that it would be suing five of the world’s most powerful fossil fuel companies for their role in creating — and perpetuating — global warming, environmental activist Bill McKibben lauded the move as “a major tipping point” in the movement to companies accountable for climate change.

Now, the second largest city in the United States appears to be following New York’s lead, exploring the potential for filing a similar lawsuit against fossil fuel companies. On January 13 — just three days after New York publicly announced its lawsuit — two Los Angeles city councilmembers introduced a motion asking the City Attorney to look into legal options against fossil fuel companies, as well as prepare an official legal statement in support of New York City’s case.

Councilmember Mike Bonin (D), who introduced the motion along with Councilmember Paul Koretz (D), told ThinkProgress that the inspiration for the motion came directly from the example set by New York.

“When I saw the news about what de Blasio was doing, it made me say, ‘Why the hell aren’t we doing this here?’” Bonin said. “We like to think that the winds blow from the West to the East, but occasionally, the winds come back.”

Bonin, who represents the western part of Los Angeles, including many of the city’s coastal neighborhoods, called the potential lawsuit part of a “multi-pronged” approach to tackling the issue of climate change through city government. In 2016, the city council unanimously supported a motion to transition to 100 percent renewable energy, and that the local transportation agency has taken steps to transition its municipal fleet of buses from diesel engines to electric. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) has pledged to push forward with local climate action in the face of the Trump administration’s federal agenda, which has prioritized fossil fuel extraction over renewable energy.

"We are facing a federal government that is engaged in — if I was going to be charitable, a dereliction of duty, but I think it’s actually a deliberate sabotage our our planet," Bonin said. “It’s incumbent upon the cities to lead.”

If Los Angeles does decide to file a lawsuit against fossil fuel companies, it would join a group of seven other cities and counties — which, save for New York, are all located in California — seeking to hold companies similarly accountable. Six of those cases claim damages associated with climate-fueled sea level rise, and ask that fossil fuel companies pay into a fund to help offset the cost of updating infrastructure to withstand rising waters. Only Santa Cruz — which filed its lawsuit in late December — is attempting to tie the action of fossil fuel companies to not just sea level rise, but changes in the hydrologic cycle resulting from an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases — things like drought and wildfire. While it’s unclear what route Los Angeles would take if it chooses to pursue a lawsuit, Southern California recently witnessed the largest wildfire in modern recorded history this December, fueled by a combination of above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation that scientists say is consistent with climate change. To make matters worse, in the wake of December’s Thomas Fire, parts of Southern California experienced heavy rain that caused the scorched soil to turn into devastating mudslides, killing 20 people.

“It’s personal for me,” Bonin said about climate change. “We’ve been living through a couple months of real hell with wildfires and mudslides, and it really underscores the importance of not just getting off of fossil fuels but taking whatever steps we can to get there.”

Presentation: The Death of Fossil Fuels -- What Shape will it Take?

The Sierra Club

Climate & Clean Energy Writers Group

presents

Thursday, January 25, 2018 at 6:00PM - 7:30PM

Crane Branch Library, 633 Elmwood at Highland

2nd floor Meeting Room

Free & Open to the Public - Writers and non-writers

Experts tell us that we need to leave 80% of current fossil fuel reserves in the ground if civilization is to survive climate change. Can this happen? Will this happen? How will fossil fuel interests be brought under control? Under the laws of supply and demand will fossil fuels get really expensive or cheap as they become an insignificant energy source? 

Contact billnowa@gmail.com for more information
 

Educational Presentation: Divest from Fossil Fuels? YES!

DIVEST FROM FOSSIL FUELS?

YES!!

Educational Presentation

by

Rev. Peter Cook, Executive Director

NYS Council of Churches

Monday, January 22, 2018    7:00 PM

St. Joseph’s University Church - Community Hall

3269 Main St, Buffalo  14214 [Map]

SAVE THE PLANET AND THE PEOPLE

Sponsored by the Interfaith Climate Justice Community of WNY

 

The NYS Council of Churches participates in the Divest NY campaign and Rev. Cook will help ICJC focus on ways that we might become involved.  The Council of Churches also advocates for the NYS Climate and Community Protection Act, legislation that would allow NYS to reach 100% renewables by 2050 or before.   

Please plan to attend this important meeting.

 Free & open to the public.

GOOD NEWS
•    Governor Cuomo recently announced that he supports divesting New York’s public pension funds from fossil fuel companies. 
•    New York City and the State together plan to #DivestNY’s $390 billion pensions from fossil fuels: “an undeniable victory for the global divestment movement”

 

Bill McKibben, 350.org co-founder, issued the following statement:
"The dam has broken: after years of great activism,  New York has taken a massive step towards divesting from fossil fuels. Coming from the capital of world finance, this will resonate loud and clear all over the planet. It’s a crucial sign of how fast the financial pendulum is swinging away from fossil fuels.”

New Yorkers Celebrate as NYC Mayor announces Divestment from Fossil Fuels, Files Climate Lawsuit

[Click image to enlarge]

#DivestNY victory reverberates around the world as New Yorkers vow to keep up the fight for bold climate action


 January 10, 2018  |  350.org

New York, NY — Today, following over five years of persistent campaigning from New Yorkers, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the City is moving forward with full fossil fuel divestment. The city’s five pension funds, a combined $191 billion, will divest $5 billion in securities from over 100 fossil fuel reserve owners.

New York’s announcement brings the total number of global divestment commitments to 810 institutions representing more than $6 trillion in assets.

“New York City today becomes a capital of the fight against climate change on this planet. With its communities exceptionally vulnerable to a rising sea, the city is showing the spirit for which it’s famous: it’s not pretending that working with the fossil fuel companies will somehow save the day, but instead standing up to them, in the financial markets and in court,” said Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org. “Ever since Sandy, New Yorkers understand the risk, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable. Now, thanks to Mayor de Blasio and his team, the city is fighting back, and in ways that will actually matter.”

In addition to this multi-billion-dollar hard-won divestment, Mayor de Blasio announced the City is launching a lawsuit against five major oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, and ConocoPhillips for climate damages. With New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman investigating ExxonMobil, and seven municipalities across California fighting similar damage lawsuits, this announcement adds significant momentum to the #ExxonKnew campaign to hold fossil fuel corporations accountable for the role in climate destruction.

“New York City is standing up for future generations by becoming the first major city to divest our pension funds from fossil fuels,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “At the same time, we’re bringing the fight against climate change straight to the fossil fuel companies that knew about its effects and intentionally misled the public to protect their profits. As climate change continues to worsen, it’s up to the fossil fuel companies whose greed put us in this position to shoulder the cost of making New York safer and more resilient.”

Naomi Klein, author and activist, said, “Emanating from the financial capital of the world, the message of today’s historic announcement is unmistakable: investing in fossil fuel companies is a high-risk, bad bet. New York City is now leading cities and states to not only divest from fossil fuel companies but also insist that the corporations that profit from destabilizing our shared planet pay for the mess they knowingly created. As of today, the entire fossil fuel sector finds itself under a cloud of huge potential court-imposed costs, as well as the growing global momentum of investor flight. That means no matter how many oil and coal leases the Trump Administration hands out, the economics of new drilling will make less and less sense. This is very good news.”

“Today is a momentous day in the fight against corporate greed exploiting our communities and fueling climate chaos,” said Betámia Coronel, US Reinvestment Coordinator, 350.org. “While the oil-washed White House rolls back protections, New York City has leapt forward in modeling climate leadership. Divesting our city’s pensions from the dirtiest companies is an enormous hard-won first step; holding companies like Exxon accountable for their role in climate deception is next. Today’s announcement is a rallying signal to cities all over the world that the dawn of a fossil free world has arrived.”

This New York City announcement is sending ripples around the world, reinvigorating divestment fights from California to Japan and beyond. The San Francisco pension board is scheduled for a long-awaited divestment vote on January 24.

On January 31, the day after the State of the Union, 350.org is launching Fossil Free US, with leaders including Senator Bernie Sanders, Bill McKibben, Varshini Prakash, and Rev. Lennox Yearwood speaking at a livestreamed event in Washington D.C. to lay out the plan for the climate resistance in 2018 and beyond.

350.org is building the global grassroots climate movement that can hold our leaders accountable to science and justice. Our network extends to 188 countries. 350 uses online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions to oppose new coal, oil and gas projects, take money out of the companies that are heating up the planet, and build 100% clean energy solutions that work for all. 

New York City will Divest from Fossil Fuels -- Filed Lawsuit against Major Oil Companies

Empire State Building on Jan.10, 2018
[click image to enlarge]

Climate Action: Mayor, Comptroller, Trustees Announce First-In-The-Nation Goal to Divest From Fossil Fuels

January 10, 2018  |  NYC.gov

City also filing suit against five largest fossil fuel companies, seeking damages to help protect city from climate change

NEW YORK—Mayor Bill de Blasio, Comptroller Scott M. Stringer and other trustees of the City’s $189 Billion pension funds today announced a goal to divest City funds from fossil fuel reserve owners within five years, which would make New York City the first major US pension plan to do so. In a first-in-the-nation step towards the goal of divestment, the Mayor and Comptroller will submit a joint resolution to pension fund trustees to begin analyzing ways to divest from fossil fuel owners in a responsible way that is fully consistent with fiduciary obligations. In total, the City’s five pension funds hold roughly $5 billion in the securities of over 190 fossil fuel companies. The City’s move is among the most significant divestment efforts in the world to date.

"New York City is standing up for future generations by becoming the first major US city to divest our pension funds from fossil fuels,” said Mayor de Blasio. “At the same time, we’re bringing the fight against climate change straight to the fossil fuel companies that knew about its effects and intentionally misled the public to protect their profits. As climate change continues to worsen, it’s up to the fossil fuel companies whose greed put us in this position to shoulder the cost of making New York safer and more resilient.”

“This is a first-in-the-nation step to protect our future and our planet – for this generation and the next. Safeguarding the retirement of our city’s police officers, teachers, firefighters and city workers is our top priority, and we believe that their financial future is linked to the sustainability of the planet. Our announcement sends a message to the world that a brighter economy rests on being green,” Comptroller Stringer said. “It’s complex, it will take time, and there are going to be many steps. But we’re breaking new ground, and we are committed to forging a path forward while remaining laser-focused on our role as fiduciaries to the Systems and beneficiaries we serve.”

The Mayor also announced that the City has filed a lawsuit against the five largest investor-owned fossil fuel companies as measured by their contributions to global warming. The City will be seeking damages from BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, and Royal Dutch Shell for the billions of dollars the City will spend to protect New Yorkers from the effects of climate change. This includes damages to pay for harm that we’ve already seen and damages that are necessary to address harm we expect to happen over the course of this century.

New York City’s lawsuit seeks to recover the billions needed to fund climate change resiliency measures that the City needs to implement to protect the City, its property, and its residents from the ongoing and increasingly severe impacts of climate change. This includes physical infrastructure, like coastal protections, upgraded water and sewer infrastructure, and heat mitigation, but also public health campaigns, for example to help protect residents from the effects of extreme heat. To recover from past harm and prepare for future events, New York City is already executing an over $20 billion resiliency program to protect New Yorkers and build resilience against rising seas, more powerful storms, and hotter temperatures.

Recently uncovered documents make it clear that the fossil fuel industry was well aware of the effects that burning fossil fuels would have on the planet’s atmosphere and the expected impacts of climate change as far back as at least the 1980s. Nonetheless, they deliberately engaged in a campaign of deception and denial about global warming and its impacts, even while profiting from the sale of fossil fuels and protecting their own assets from the effects of rising seas and a changing climate. More than half of the greenhouse gas pollution from the fossil fuel industry has occurred since 1988, according to a recent analysis. Sea levels have risen about one foot since 1900 with much of that rise due to climate change, the most powerful storms are becoming more frequent, and flooding is becoming more frequent and intense.

Governor Cuomo's 2018 Climate Announcements Fall Short, says NY Renews Coalition

January 3, 2018  | NY Renews   

In his 2018 State of the State address, Governor Cuomo announced several significant climate-related initiatives – but fell short of supporting a comprehensive and equitable plan to hold polluters accountable and move New York State to 100% renewable energy on a timeline commensurate with the urgency of the crisis. 

“The Governor has moved New York from a walk to a jog on climate, but what we need is an all-out sprint,” said Rahwa Ghirmatzion, Deputy Director of PUSH Buffalo, a member of NY Renews.

The Governor’s support for congestion pricing, the augmented emphasis on offshore wind and energy efficiency, and the inclusion of equity concerns in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), all represent real progress and warrant sincere praise. But with an issue as grave as climate change, we do not have the luxury of mistaking positive steps for truly sufficient policies.

The Governor should have taken the opportunity to support a comprehensive legislation package that reorients all sectors of the economy and governance to creating a 100% renewable future and holding corporate polluters accountable for the damage they cause to New Yorkers’ health and well-being. The legislative platform proposed by the NY Renews coalition embodies those goals, through the Climate and Community Protection Act (S6617A/A8270A) and a soon-to-be-released proposal for massive investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy, underwritten by a corporate polluter fee.

“With climate change doing real damage to communities of color from Houston to Puerto Rico, this is a historic moment that requires more than incremental steps. Ultimately, Cuomo’s legacy will be judged in jobs created, disasters averted, and the urgency and equity of his climate vision,” said Eddie Bautista, Executive Director of NYC Environmental Justice Alliance, a member of NY Renews.

A study from the University of Massachusetts found that putting a modest $35/ton fee on corporate polluters’ emissions would generate over $7B and 150,000 new jobs for New York every year. That revenue could be invested in building clean energy infrastructure, improving mass transit, supporting fossil fuel industry workers, sustaining communities burdened by climate change, and more. It’s a simple, common sense approach to fighting the climate crisis: price pollution, and fund solutions. In his general embrace of congestion pricing for NYC, he’s already demonstrated a willingness to do just that, albeit on a small scale. To truly lead the just transition our communities so desperately need, he will need to think bigger in 2018 and enact a fee for all emissions from corporate polluters, not just those coming out of tailpipes in lower Manhattan.

Governor Cuomo still has an opportunity to include the Climate and Community Protection Act and a corporate polluter fee in his executive budget in the next few weeks, which would help ensure their passage into law.

NY Renews is a state-wide coalition of over 100 groups: labor unions, community groups, environmental organizations, faith communities, environmental justice advocates and more. We find inspiration in our diversity of perspectives, and strength in our breadth of expertise. 
Join us at NYRenews.org


UPDATES:
Jan. 9, 2018: Cuomo has to do more to tackle climate crisis. By Clarke Gocker, PUSH Buffalo, Director of Policy & Strategy. Letter in The Buffalo News

Jan. 10, 2018: State needs to expand clean, renewable energy. By Ellen Banks, Sierra Club Niagara Group, Chair of Climate & Energy Committee. Letter in The Buffalo News
 

Governor Cuomo's Proposal for New York's Clean Energy Jobs and Climate Agenda

On January 2, 2018, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo released the 20th proposal of the 2018 State of the State: a comprehensive agenda to combat climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and growing the clean energy economy. 

As stated in Cuomo's proposal, by further strengthening the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and welcoming new state members, New York will continue its progress in slashing emissions from existing fossil fuel power plants. In addition, unprecedented commitments announced today to advance clean energy technologies, including offshore wind, solar, energy storage and energy efficiency, will spur market development and create jobs across the state.

"New Yorkers know too well the devastation caused by climate change, and in order to slow the effects of extreme weather and build our communities to be stronger and more resilient, we must make significant investments in renewable energy," Governor Cuomo said. "With this proposal, New York is taking bold action to fight climate change and protect our environment, while supporting and growing 21st century jobs in these cutting-edge renewable industries."

Below are highlights listed in Gov. Cuomo's proposal:

• Expand Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and Reduce Emissions Equitably From the Highest-Polluting, High Demand "Peaker" Power Plants

• Issue Solicitations in 2018 and 2019 to Develop at Least 800 MW of Offshore Wind Projects and Foster Offshore Wind Industry and Workforce in New York State

• $200 Million Investment to Meet Unprecedented Energy Storage Target of 1,500 Megawatts by 2025 In Order to Increase Transmission of Clean and Renewable Energy

• Create the Zero Cost Solar for All Program for 10,000 Low-Income New Yorkers

• Reconvene Scientific Advisory Committee on Climate Change Disbanded by the Federal Government

• Governor Directs the Establishment of Energy Efficiency Target by Earth Day

• Regulations to Close all Coal Plants to be Adopted

The full text of the Governor's proposal is here.

For reactions to the Governor's proposal by NY Renews, a state-wide climate & energy coalition, and by local groups, click here. 

Economic Inequality: Beware Plutocrats, the Pitchforks are Coming! TED Talk by a fellow Plutocrat

"Beware, fellow plutocrats, the pitchforks are coming"

TED Talk by Nick Hanauer 

Nick Hanauer is a rich guy, an unrepentant capitalist — and he has something to say to his fellow plutocrats: Wake up! Growing inequality is about to push our societies into conditions resembling pre-revolutionary France. 

 

 Hear his argument about why a dramatic increase in minimum wage could grow the middle class, deliver economic prosperity ... and prevent a revolution.  

 

TED - Ideas Worth Spreading

Link to the Transcript is HERE.