Faith-based Climate Forum: 2020 Vision - Climate Leap Forward

2020 VISION: CLIMATE LEAP FORWARD    

A Forum to Meet the Climate Crisis

WHEN: Saturday, February 29, 9 AM - 3 PM

WHERE: Westminster Presbyterian Church, Buffalo [Map]

COST: $10, Students $5;  Lunch provided

REGISTER: Click here
NOTE: Register Before Wednesday, February 26 at 5:00 PM

Click image to enlarge

Keynote Speaker: Rev. Dr. Jim Antal

The Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, author of the acclaimed book, Climate Church, Climate World, is immediate past President of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church Christ and a long-time climate activist, speaker and author.

Foreword by Bill McKibben

Breakout Group Topics and Facilitators

• Youth Climate Strike - Rev. Micah Nutter Dowling
• Creation Justice for Congregations - Roger Cook and Rev. Katelyn Nutter Dowling
• Eco-Justice on West and East Sides of Buffalo - Joshua Wallace
• Our Sacred Waters - Lynda Schneekloth
• Renewable Energy (Wind/Solar) - Bob Ciesielski
• WNY as a Region for Climate Refugees - Brendan Mehaffy
• Climate Disaster Relief Responsibility - Rev. Amos Acree
• Is Climate Change Real: What Scientists Tell Us - David Kowalski

Space is limited. For more Information and to Register, click here
NOTE: Ticket Sales Close Wednesday, February 26 at 5:00 PM

This conference is made possible in part by a grant from the Lilly Endowment.

An Electrifying Plan to Address the Global Climate Crisis

Stanford Researchers Have an Exciting Plan to Tackle The Climate Emergency Worldwide

TESSA KOUMOUNDOUROS  | 27 DEC 2019  |  SCIENCE ALERT

Things are pretty dire right now. Giant swaths of my country are burning as I write this, at a scale unlike anything we've ever seen. Countless animals, including koalas, are perishing along with our life-supporting greenery. People are losing homes and loved ones.

These catastrophes are being replicated around the globe ever more frequently, and we know exactly what is exacerbating them. We know we need to rapidly make some drastic changes - and Stanford researchers have come up with a plan.

Using the latest data available, they have outlined how 143 countries around the world can switch to 100 percent clean energy by the year 2050.

This plan could not only contribute towards stabilizing our dangerously increasing global temperatures, but also reduce the 7 million deaths caused by pollution every year and create millions more jobs than keeping our current systems.

The plan would require a hefty investment of around US$73 trillion. But the researchers' calculations show the jobs and savings it would earn would pay this back in as little as seven years.

"Based on previous calculations we have performed, we believe this will avoid 1.5 degree global warming," environmental engineer and lead author Mark Jacobson told ScienceAlert.

"The timeline is more aggressive than any IPCC scenario - we concluded in 2009 that a 100 percent transition by 2030 was technically and economically possible - but for social and political reasons, a 2050 date is more practical."

Here's how it would work. The plan involves transitioning all our energy sectors, including electricity, transport, industry, agriculture, fishing, forestry and the military to work entirely with renewable energy.

Jacobson believes we have 95 percent of the technology we need already, with only solutions for long distance and ocean travel still to be commercialized.

"By electrifying everything with clean, renewable energy, we reduce power demand by about 57 percent," Jacobson explained.

He and colleagues show it is possible to meet demand and maintain stable electricity grids using only wind, water, solar and storage, across all 143 countries.

These technologies are already available, reliable and respond much faster than natural gas, so they are already cheaper. There's also no need for nuclear which takes 10-19 years between planning and operation, biofuels that cause more air pollution, or the invention of new technologies.

"'Clean coal' just doesn't exist and never will," Jacobson says, "because the technology does not work and only increases mining and emissions of air pollutants while reducing little carbon, and there is no guarantee at all the carbon that is captured will stay captured."

The team found that electrifying all energy sectors makes the demand for energy more flexible and the combination of renewable energy and storage is better suited to meet this flexibility than our current system.

Quick Reads on ENERGY and CLIMATE

Going 100% Green Will Pay For Itself in Seven Years, Study Finds

A Stanford University professor whose research helped underpin the U.S. Democrats’ Green New Deal says phasing out fossil fuels and running the entire world on clean energy would pay for itself in under seven years.

It would cost $73 trillion to revamp power grids, transportation, manufacturing and other systems to run on wind, solar and hydro power, including enough storage capacity to keep the lights on overnight, Mark Jacobson said in a study published Friday in the journal One Earth. But that would be offset by annual savings of almost $11 trillion, the report found.

“There’s really no downside to making this transition,” said Jacobson, who wrote the study with several other researchers. “Most people are afraid it will be too expensive. Hopefully this will allay some of those fears.”

Read more at Bloomberg

---

If the World ran on Sun, It wouldn’t Fight over Oil  
by Bill McKibben

No one will ever fight a war over access to sunshine – what would a country do, set up enormous walls to shade everyone else’s panels? (Giant walls are hard to build – just ask Trump.) Fossil fuels are concentrated in a few places, giving those who live atop them enormous power; renewable energy can be found everywhere, the birthright of all humans. A world that runs on sun and wind is a world that can relax.

Read more at The Guardian

---

Warren Buffett is spending billions to make Iowa 'the Saudi Arabia of wind'

Warren Buffett is spending billions to turn Iowa into "the wind capital of the world, the Saudi Arabia of wind," he told the Financial Times.

Berkshire Hathaway's billionaire boss isn't emulating Greta Thunberg, however. Rather than leading the charge on climate change, hoping to cut carbon emissions at any cost, he told the newspaper he was simply taking advantage of government incentives for renewable-energy investments.

"We wouldn't do [it] without the production tax credit we get," he said.

Read more at Business Insider

---

ExxonMobil Eyes $3.4-$3.6B Gain From Norway Asset Divestment

Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM expects a gain of $3.4-$3.6 billion from the divestment of Norwegian assets. This will likely give a boost to its fourth-quarter 2019 results. The company’s recent regulatory filing showed that the gains from this divestment can offset lower margins from chemicals and refining businesses.

Read more here

---

New York Confirms Plan for 1GW-Plus Offshore Wind Solicitation in 2020

The Empire State’s second offshore wind procurement targets 1 gigawatt of capacity — “and perhaps substantially more.”

New York confirmed plans to issue its second solicitation for offshore wind farms this year, expected to add at least 1 gigawatt to the state’s pipeline.

The upcoming solicitation, to be overseen once again by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), will run alongside a separate competitive process to award $200 million in public funding for offshore wind-related port infrastructure improvements, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo, who gave his 10th State of the State address on January 9, 2020.

The offshore wind solicitation "is expected to yield at least an additional 1,000 megawatts of clean power, and perhaps substantially more," according to a detailed document (PDF) laying out the various plans in Cuomo's 2020 State of the State.

The new capacity will come on top of the 1.7 gigawatts of capacity the state awarded in its first offshore wind solicitation last summer to developers Ørsted and Equinor.

Read more at Greentech Media

---

Alaskans See Impacts of Climate Crisis as Arctic Warms Two Times Faster than the Planet

Climate Crisis plays out in Alaska.

Arctic warming twice as fast as rest of planet. 

By Bill Weir, CNN Chief Climate Correspondent | September 09, 2019

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) - Alaska's summer of fire and no ice is smashing records.

With the Arctic warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, America's "Last Frontier" feels like the first in line to see, smell and feel the unsettling signs of a climate in crisis.

There are the smoky skies and dripping glaciers, dead salmon and hauled-out walrus but scientists also worry about the changes that are harder to see, from toxic algae blooms in the Bering Sea to insects from the Lower 48 bringing new diseases north.

The head shaking among longtime locals really began on the Fourth of July, when at 90 degrees, Anchorage was hotter than Key West.

A dome of hot, dry air over the southern part of the state refused to budge. When lightning struck the Kenai Peninsula, it was just the beginning of a wilderness inferno unlike any other in memory.

Like rainy clockwork, Alaska's fire season usually ends August 1 but the Swan Lake fire is still burning and only 37% contained. To the relief of exhausted fire crews and worried residents, September is bringing the first moisture in weeks but the most populous part of the state is still swallowing more smoke than ever.

"We've had more than twice as many smoky hours in 2019 than in any other season, and in fact, almost as many as all other years combined," says Brian Brettschneider, a climatologist at the University of Alaska.

Strolling in short sleeves atop the rapidly melting Spencer Glacier, Brettschneider lists one superlative after another, pulled from a century's worth of records that predate Alaskan statehood. "Eight of our top 13 warmest days on record are this year," he says. "We didn't just get a little bit past the old marks, we really blasted past them."

He points to the bare rock and dirt 150 feet above us where the glacier once stood. "This is half as thin as it was not very long ago." Every drip is headed to sea, which makes what is happening here directly relevant to New York, Miami, Dubai, Osaka, Hong Kong and countless beach towns in between. According to the European Space Agency, melting Alaskan ice has contributed more to sea level rise than Greenland, Antarctica or any other part of the world.

And then there are the fish, so vital to the economy. While Bristol Bay saw another epic salmon run this season, more and more streams are just too warm for the fish to spawn.

"We definitely have reports from around the state where we've found dead fish that have not made it to their spawning grounds," says Sue Mauger, science director for the nonprofit Cook Inletkeeper. "They still have the eggs inside and have not spawned. Those are just lost future generations."

She has been measuring streams for almost two decades and while the warming trend was obvious, she is stunned by the speed. "The temperatures we saw this summer were what we expected for 2069 -- we're 50 years ahead of where we thought we would be for stream temperatures."

Climate Crisis: Senator Sanders releases a Green New Deal plan along with ways to pay for it

Bernie Sanders unveils $16 Trillion Green New Deal To Combat Climate Crisis

The 2020 Democratic candidate’s climate plan offers a detailed vision that would expand public ownership of utilities and make electricity “virtually free” by 2035.

By Alexander C. Kaufman | Aug 22, 2019 | HUFFPOST

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders released a sweeping $16.3 trillion climate plan on Thursday, vowing to create 20 million jobs and completely zero out planet-heating emissions by 2050.

The proposal outlines easily the most ambitious vision for a Green New Deal to date, with calls to massively expand public ownership of everything from power generation to groceries. With Washington Gov. Jay Inslee ending his climate-centered bid for the Democratic nomination a day earlier, the plan vaults the Vermont senator ahead of his 2020 rivals on what’s emerging as the defining policy issue of the Democratic primary.

At a moment when record wildfires are raging from the Amazon to the Arctic and Greenland is losing up to 12.5 billion tons of ice in a single day, the plan is dense with detail and frank in its goals. Where other proposals, including those from Inslee and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) depict expanded regulatory regimes and public spending aimed at spurring private investment, Sanders charts out a path to a hospitable global climate through Nordic-style social democracy.

“The scope of the challenge ahead of us shares some similarities with the crisis faced by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1940s,” the plan states. “Faced with battling a world war on two fronts ― both in the East and the West ― the United States came together, and within three short years restructured the entire economy in order to win the war and defeat fascism. As president, Bernie Sanders will boldly embrace the moral imperative of addressing the climate crisis.”

The campaign declined a request to interview Sanders on Wednesday evening.
  
 The plan opens with Sanders vowing to slash U.S. emissions 71% below 2017 levels by 2030 with 100% renewable electricity and zero-emissions vehicles. He declares war on the fossil fuel industry with kproposed bans on fracking, drilling on public lands and all imports and exports of oil and gas, and threatens companies with civil and criminal charges for pollution and obstructing climate action. He pledges $200 billion to help developing countries reduce their own climate pollution by 36% in the next decade.

Citing the nuclear disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima, Sanders, long a critic of nuclear power, swears off new reactors and promises a moratorium on future licenses to existing plants. His plan rules out geoengineering the climate or deploying technologies to capture carbon dioxide from fossil fuel plants, which he derided as “false solutions.” It’s unclear whether he’d consider carbon capture technologies for difficult-to-decarbonize industries like cement making.

Generous pledges for workers animate Sanders’ proposal. The plan, which comes the same week the campaign released its proposal to boost unions, promises five years of unemployment insurance, a wage guarantee, housing assistance, job training, pension support and priority job placement for all workers displaced by the transition. It offers “early retirement support for those who choose it or can no longer work.” It proposes high wages and union protections across nearly every sector.

What stands out first is Sanders’ clear answer to the perennial question of how to pay for it.

There’s the money saved: $1.215 trillion from “scaling back military spending on protecting global oil” and $1.31 trillion from federal and state welfare “due to the creation of millions of good-paying, unionized jobs.”

Then there’s the money earned: $6.4 trillion from selling electricity produced by the Energy Department’s regional power marketing authorities, $3.085 trillion from “making the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution, through litigation, fees, and taxes, and eliminating federal fossil fuel subsidies,” $2.3 trillion from income taxes on the 20 million new jobs the plan creates, and an additional $2 trillion from forcing “the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share.”

Those pushing a Green New Deal, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and the grassroots group Sunrise Movement, have shied away from talking numbers, even as Republicans fabricated a bogus $93 trillion price tag. Instead, advocates have pointed to the costs of sticking to a business-as-usual. The Sanders plan touches on that, too, highlighting that the costs of catastrophic warming could total $70.4 trillion over 80 years.

“This plan will pay for itself over 15 years,” the policy memo reads. “Experts have scored the plan and its economic effects.”

The 13,840-word document includes 85 dollar signs. Sanders sets aside $5.9 billion for regional economic development plans, with the lion’s share ― over $2.5 billion ― earmarked for Appalachia. There’s $15 billion for coal miners’ Black Lung Disability Fund. Another $25 billion goes to clearing the national park maintenance backlog. The restored Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal program that planted 3 billion trees in the 1930s, gets $171 billion.

NY Renews Coalition Comments on Governor Signing Ambitious Climate Bill into Law

NY Renews, a coalition of over 180 environmental, justice, faith, labor, and community groups released the following statement on the Climate Leadership and  Community Protection Act:

“Today, the Governor signed the nation’s most ambitious climate bill into law. This would not have been possible without years of work from community, environmental, labor, and justice organizations throughout the state.

For four years, NY Renews has done the meaningful work of uniting New Yorkers under the banner of climate, jobs, and justice. Our coalition put forth nation-leading policy to address the climate crisis while investing in the communities most impacted by the effects of climate change.

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act makes New York the nation’s leader in legally-mandated emissions cuts. For the future of humanity and our planet, we need to move off fossil fuels towards a renewable economy, and we hope we can inspire other states to follow our lead on bold climate action.

In addition, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act includes a climate and equity screen, to make sure climate policies do not disproportionately burden environmental justice communities. It also includes a commitment to allocate 35% of the benefits of state climate funding to communities on the frontlines of the crisis. Given the Governor’s dismissal of environmental justice priorities throughout the legislative session, it is clear that these provisions were included in the final bill due to overwhelming public pressure from New Yorkers across the state.

Climate Crisis is Our Third World War -- Requires a Bold Response

The climate crisis is our third world war. It needs a bold response

Joseph Stiglitz | June 4, 2019 | The Guardian

Critics of the Green New Deal ask if we can afford it. 
But we can’t afford not to: our civilization is at stake.


Advocates of the Green New Deal say there is great urgency in dealing with the climate crisis and highlight the scale and scope of what is required to combat it. They are right. They use the term “New Deal” to evoke the massive response by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the United States government to the Great Depression. An even better analogy would be the country’s mobilization to fight World War II.

Critics ask, “Can we afford it?” and complain that Green New Deal proponents confound the fight to preserve the planet, to which all right-minded individuals should agree, with a more controversial agenda for societal transformation. On both accounts the critics are wrong.

Yes, we can afford it, with the right fiscal policies and collective will. But more importantly, we must afford it. The climate emergency is our third world war. Our lives and civilization as we know it are at stake, just as they were in the second world war.

When the US was attacked during the second world war no one asked, “Can we afford to fight the war?” It was an existential matter. We could not afford not to fight it. The same goes for the climate crisis. Here, we are already experiencing the direct costs of ignoring the issue – in recent years the country has lost almost 2% of GDP in weather-related disasters, which include floods, hurricanes, and forest fires. The cost to our health from climate-related diseases is just being tabulated, but it, too, will run into the tens of billions of dollars – not to mention the as-yet-uncounted number of lives lost. We will pay for climate breakdown one way or another, so it makes sense to spend money now to reduce emissions rather than wait until later to pay a lot more for the consequences – not just from weather but also from rising sea levels. It’s a cliche, but it’s true: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

The war on the climate emergency, if correctly waged, would actually be good for the economy – just as the second world war set the stage for America’s golden economic era , with the fastest rate of growth in its history amidst shared prosperity. The Green New Deal would stimulate demand, ensuring that all available resources were used; and the transition to the green economy would likely usher in a new boom. Trump’s focus on the industries of the past, like coal, is strangling the much more sensible move to wind and solar power. More jobs by far will be created in renewable energy than will be lost in coal.

Read more at The Guardian

Joseph E Stiglitz is a university professor at Columbia, the 2001 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, a former chief economist of the World Bank and the author, most recently, of People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent

~    ~    ~

U.S. Senator Schumer blasts Republican Denial of Human-caused Climate Crisis

By David Kowalski

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) delivered an important speech on the Senate floor (Feb. 14), standing up for the reality of a climate change crisis, its human causation, and the need for Congress to act to address the existential threat to the planet, our children, grandchildren and all of us right now. 

Schumer issued a challenge to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Republican colleagues, most all of whom deny the reality of human-caused climate change. Schumer said:

"I challenge leader McConnell to say that our climate change crisis is real, that it is caused by humans, and that congress needs to act. 

That is what two-thirds of the American people agree with, two-thirds.

I would say to our Republican colleagues this is no game. It is no joke. Climate change is deadly serious. And the time for all of us to treat it that way is now before it is too late."

Schumer's speech was a response to McConnell's plan to bring the Democrats' non-binding 'Green New Deal' resolution up for a vote so that he and Republican Senators could vote against it.

Schumer said: 

"I hope the American people are paying attention because they need to see what's going on here. The American people need to see that this is all there is to the Republican plan to deal with climate change. This is all they can muster. A political stunt, not designed to make progress, not designed to move the ball forward." 

"So when the Republican leader says he wants to bring the 'Green New Deal' up for a vote, I say go for it. Bring it on!"

Schumer concluded, "Let's see if anything is changed since 2015 when only five brave Republicans were able to vote yes on a resolution saying climate change is real and caused by humans."

The full Senate session was taped by C-span. I made a Video clip of Schumer’s climate speech. To view the Video clip on the C-span website, click here.

Below is the Transcript of U.S. Senator Schumer's Climate Speech:

Climate Bill addresses Justice for Communities and Workers

Climate protection bill would hit renewable goal

In a recent Another Voice column (“Energy policies can be pro-business, pro-environment”), the authors gets things half right.

The Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA), the focus of their article, is also pro-community and pro-working families! If enacted, the CCPA would commit New York State to a just transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050.

This transition would impact the entire economy, from energy generation to transportation to how we heat and cool our buildings. It would require that state agencies apply climate and equity filters to all decision making. This would ensure that no New Yorkers get left behind during the transition and that state government is accountable to climate goals.

The CCPA was perhaps the first climate bill in the country to take justice for communities and workers seriously. It acknowledges the disparate impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities and would support implementation of community-based climate solutions. The bill would redirect 40 percent of existing state climate and clean energy funding to vulnerable communities to enhance climate resiliency and reduce energy poverty by opening up access to renewables and energy efficiency.

The CCPA would also set job standards for industries called into action by public sector investments so that workers and their families can thrive as our economy transitions.

Global consensus has been reached that we’re now living through an intensifying climate crisis. The CCPA is a commonsense response to this crisis and represents a transformative strategy for achieving a just transition for all New Yorkers.

Clarke Gocker

Buffalo

Published on 12.18.2018 at BuffaloNews.com

 ~     ~     ~

To read the text of the Climate and Community Protection Act and see the bill's co-sponsorship in the NYS Senate, click here

ALBANY RALLY: Break Free from Fossil Fuels - May 14th

New Coalition Funded to Create a Clean Energy Economy

$4 million grant to help coalition push green energy initiatives

By Mark Sommer |  The Buffalo News | March 17, 2016

A coalition of eight local groups announced Thursday an effort to bring renewable energy and good-paying energy jobs to the Buffalo Niagara region.

Crossroads Collective will pursue its goals with $500,000 a year over the next eight years, thanks to a $4 million grant from the Boston-based Chorus Foundation. Buffalo joins communities in Kentucky, California and Alaska among the four chosen nationwide.

“When we say 100 percent clean energy, 100 percent clean jobs, we’re not saying 90 percent, we’re not saying 70 percent,” said Aaron Bartley, executive director of People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH Buffalo). “We’re saying our communities demand and need 100 percent good jobs now in sectors that will heal the earth, bring climate justice to our communities and confront the climate crisis that is confronting our world, and that are rooted in the needs of our people.”

Franchelle Hart, executive director of Open Buffalo, said the newly announced coalition wants to propel Buffalo into a cleaner energy future. Legislation will be pushed on a state level to codify renewable energy objectives. Low-cost home insulation will be expanded. Cultural initiatives will promote the green economy message. And there will be money for researching who benefits and how from the energy status quo.

A new report by the Partnership for the Public Good, one of the eight groups, indicates state energy policies that switch to green energy initiatives could provide significant health and economic benefits. The partnership’s Sam Magavern praised PUSH’s Green Development Zone, a 25-block area he said has become a national and even international model.

“Almost nowhere in the country have they figured out how to rebuild a blighted neighborhood with green affordable housing, with urban farming, with community gardening, with storm-water management, and to do it with the people in that community leading the charge, making the plans and getting some of those high-quality jobs in the process,” Magavern said of PUSH’s efforts.

“There is a better and cleaner way to deal with our energy needs,” said Niagara Council Member David A. Rivera. “We’re asking our state legislators and everyone to join in with us and codify this and make it a part of the law,” he said. 

~    ~    ~  

Rise Up for Climate Justice Rally - Sept. 24, 2015 | Photo N. MacFarlane

Pope Francis inspires Local Citizens to Act on Climate

By David Kowalski

Last Thursday, Pope Francis spoke to Congress and reminded the members about his Encyclical on man-made climate change. "I call for a courageous and responsible effort to 'redirect our steps' and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity," Francis said.

It is the consensus of climate scientists that human activity is to blame. Primarily due to burning fossil fuels in industrialized countries, the atmosphere is rapidly accumulating levels of greenhouse gases far exceeding those observed over the past 800,000 years.

Consequently, the planet is experiencing a record-breaking warming trend, causing ice at the poles and glaciers to melt, sea-levels to rise and deadly heat waves. Severe droughts and uncontrollable wildfires are occurring in some locations, while unprecedented floods are happening in others.

On the same day that Francis spoke to Congress, citizens gathered at Niagara Square in Buffalo for a rally: Rise Up for Climate Justice! People from all walks of life participated: Faith leaders, community activists, students, teachers, indigenous people, environmentalists, performers, union leaders and local politicians.

The rally is the beginning of a citizen campaign leading up to the UN Climate Change Conference at the end of the year. Government leaders from around the world will meet and aim to arrive at a universal, legally-binding agreement to address the problems of global warming and climate change.

Paris will be the site of the 21st of such conferences. In the past, most governments, including our own, have failed to come to a binding agreement. Consequently, the problems have worsened and become more harmful to humans and more difficult and expensive to solve.

We can no longer delay. This is a crisis and governments must agree on global solutions now!

And so we rallied in Buffalo to call attention to the environmental pollution and the climate crisis impacting the lives and well-being of humans here and around the globe.

We rallied to call attention to the injustices of the crisis. Poor, undeveloped countries, least responsible for the pollution problem, remain susceptible to the impacts but lack the resources to adapt. Furthermore, our own children and future generations will inherit the consequences of the pollution problems that human activity is creating now.

We rallied for practical solutions to the crisis, including:

1. Adopt energy efficiency measures to reduce both energy usage and global warming pollution
2. End subsidies and investments for dirty fossil fuels
3. Invest in clean, sustainable energy

And we rallied so that our elected leaders will hear our message and feel our frustration concerning government inaction.

We need strong leaders to rise up to the challenges of the crisis and to realize the benefits and opportunities that will result from solving the crisis.

We need to remind our elected officials that there is a climate crisis and that they need to recognize it and take action. Finally, we need to elect strong leaders who are not beholden to the polluting industries responsible for the crisis.

For more information and photos of the Rally for Climate Justice, click here. 

Current Climate Pledges are not enough to limit Global Warming to 2 deg. C (3.6 deg. F)!

CLIMATE MARCH in NY CITY - Reserve Bus Seats Now!

HOP on the BUFFALO BUS to NY CITY 

for the

 People's Climate March

  

In September, world leaders are coming to New York City for a landmark UN summit on the Climate Crisis. The UN Secretary­ General is urging governments to support an ambitious global agreement to dramatically reduce Global Warming Pollution.

With our future on the line and the whole world watching, we'll take a stand for justice to bend the course of history.

On September 21st, the People's Climate March will peacefully flood the NY City streets in historic numbers to demand the world we know is within our reach: 

• a world with an economy that works for people and the planet

• a world safe from the ravages of climate change

• a world with good jobs, clean air and water, and healthy communities

Over 1000 groups, representing social justice, schools, different faiths, businesses, unions and more, have signed on in support of the People's Climate March together with the Sierra Club, 350.org and other environmental groups.

Hundreds of Climate Rallies will also be held around the World!

This promises to be the Largest Climate Action Ever!

Join us on Sunday, September 21 in New York City!

Reserve a Seat on the Buffalo Bus
  

Area Residents & Students: Sierra Club Niagara Group and local allied groups have chartered Buses to NYC.

• Full Fare is $50 round trip

• Scholarship Fare is $25 for students and others who need support

Buffalo Buses will depart at 11:30 PM on Saturday Sept. 20 from UB South Campus on Main St. (NFTA Park & Ride parking lot) and will return around 11:30 PM on Sunday Sept. 21 

Click Here to Buy a Bus Ticket Online!

or

Pay by Check 

(Note: Checks for Bus Tickets not accepted after Sept. 12, 2014)

Make check out to “Sierra Club Niagara Group” (write Climate March in the notation) and mail it to: Larry Snider, 69 Burdette Dr., Cheektowaga, NY 14225. Provide your contact information including an e-mail address and phone number. Your seat(s) will be reserved when the payment is received as long as there are seats available.

 

Consider Sponsoring Riders: If you can not go to NYC but wish to show your support, consider sponsoring riders by making a Donation Online or by sending a Check (see address above - write Donation in the notation).

Thank you for your support!

Questions? Email niagarasierra@gmail.com

or Call 716-984-2833

For Updates, visit niagarasierraclub.com

Watch this inspiring video from PeoplesClimateMarch.org

Invitation: People's Climate March in New York City

By PeoplesClimateMarch Org .

This is an invitation to change everything.

In September, world leaders are coming to New York City for a UN summit on the climate crisis. The UN Secretary­ General is urging governments to support an ambitious global agreement to dramatically reduce global warming pollution.

With our future on the line and the whole world watching, we'll take a stand to bend the course of history.

We'll take to the streets to demand the world we know is within our reach: a world with an economy that works for people and the planet; a world safe from the ravages of climate change; a world with good jobs, clean air and water, and healthy communities.

To change everything, we need everyone on board.

Sunday, September 21 in New York City. Join us.

Already over 300 different groups representing youth, parents, faith communities, labor unions, and more have signed on in support of the march. 

Buffalo Area Residents & Students: Sierra Club Niagara Group and local allied groups are organizing Buses to NYC and offering Scholarship Tickets to students and qualified participants.

To show your support and get in line for the Buffalo Bus to NYC, 
visit: http://j.mp/BfloBusToNYC

Questions? Email sierraclub.climatemarch @ gmail.com  
  

Watch this Video!

 Mass Mobilization of PEOPLE is a way to shock the system into ACTION. 

MOBILIZE.  MARCH.  MAKE HISTORY. 

For more information visit PeoplesClimateMarch.org

Remembering Superstorm Sandy - It's Time to Act on Climate

Fossil fuels divestment campaign is gathering momentum
From university students to church groups, a united global effort will politically bankrupt the fossil fuel industry.

By Bill McKibben   
| Environment | theguardian.com.

Excerpts:
The world has a choice when dealing with climate change. One is to decide it's a problem like any other, which can be dealt with slowly and over time. The other is to recognise it as a crisis, perhaps the unique crisis in human history, which will take rapid, urgent action to overcome.

Science is in the second, scared camp – that's the meaning of the IPCC report issued last month, which showed that our planet is already undergoing climatic shifts far greater than any experienced in human civilisation, with far worse to come.

And those of us urging divestment from fossil fuel stocks are in the second camp too – we recognise that business as usual is quite simply impossible.

In the US, a number of colleges, churches, and universities have begun to divest those stocks, arguing that they can't both simultaneously decry the wreckage of the climate and try to profit from it for a few more years.

The trustees of San Francisco State University recognised that it made no sense to have, on the one hand, a physics department understanding climate change and on the other hand, an endowment full of oil and gas stocks.

The United Church of Christ, which traces its roots back to the Pilgrims, decided it couldn't pay the pastor by investing in companies that are running Genesis backwards.

In addition, UK university students are increasingly engaged in divestment campaigns as evidenced by the work undertaken by People & Planet. To date there are 19 active divestment campaigns across the UK including universities with the largest endowments: Cambridge, Oxford and Edinburgh.

Everyone involved in this campaign understands that divestment won't in fact bankrupt Exxon or BP or Shell, but they also understand how important it is to politically bankrupt them. These are now rogue industries, committed to burning more carbon than any government on earth thinks would be safe to burn. Their irresponsibility belongs to their executives and boards of directors – but it also belongs to anyone who holds their shares. If you think that climate change is a true crisis, then the time has come to sever your ties.

Read the full article here.

~ ~ ~

  ~ Superstorm Sandy Hit New York One Year Ago Today ~

TONIGHT: Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at 7:00 PM
Sierra Club Niagara Group will remember Sandy and screen “Comfort Zone” -- a one hour film on what Climate Change will do to Western New York.

Place: Schenck Hall at Daemen College, Main Street in Snyder [Campus Map]

The program is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Bill McKibben Addresses Climate Crisis at UB Commencement

Bill McKibben speaking to UB graduates - D.Kowalski photo

Bill McKibben, world-renowned author, environmentalist and educator, delivered the 2013 commencement address of the University at Buffalo's School of Architecture and Planning on May 10.

McKibben wrote The End of Nature (1989), the first book on global warming for a general audience, and more recently, Eaarth - Making a Life on a Tough New Planet (20
10).

McKibben founded the global climate action campaign, 350.org, and has been steadfast in demanding that political leaders take steps to address the climate crisis.

In his address to the graduates, McKibben cited Superstorm Sandy, which he said "drove the Atlantic Ocean into the New York subway system." He added, "If you had any doubts about the vulnerability of our technological civilization to the new and souped-up Nature we are creating, that should have ended."

McKibben urged the graduates to call for change, referring to the climate crisis as "one of the central tests of your life, a test of both your skill and your character." He said "your training is now not just an end to a profitable rewarding career, but something that our society badly, badly needs."

VIDEO: It opens with Robert G. Shibley, Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning, followed by an introduction of Bill McKibben by Subhashni Raj (3:54), Masters Degree recipient and a Pacific-350 organizer from Fiji. Subsequently, Shibley presented McKibben with the Dean's Medal (8:00), and then Bill McKibben delivered his address to the graduates, faculty and guests (11:22 to 29:00). 

Watch the video on YouTube: Click here.

UPDATE May 21, 2013: A TRANSCRIPT of Bill McKibben's speech and transcripts of the introductions and the medal presentation were kindly provided by Alan Oberst. To view the transcripts, Click Here.