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http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/16/stuffed_and_starved_as_food_riots

From Raj Patel interview, 16 April 2008:

But at the same time, there’s a political story here, and it’s a longer-term political story about how countries have been forced to abandon their support for farmers and to abandon things like grain supplies and grain stores. And this is a longer-term story, and it involves organizations like the World Bank and the World Trade Organization that have a fairly iron control over the economies of most of the poorest countries in the world. And what the World Bank and what the WTO and, to some extent, the International Monetary Fund have done is force these countries to tie their hands behind their back, effectively, and to bind them very firmly to an international economy in food. And the consequence of that is that when the price of food goes up, these economies have very little recourse and very little possibility of defending themselves economically.

…

I mean, to some extent, there’s a lot of creative denial about the suffering that these organizations cause. I mean, certainly within the World Bank, when I worked there, there was a banner, sort of five stories high, as you enter into the World Bank building, with a beautiful African child on it and beneath it the slogan, “Our dream is a world free of poverty.” And certainly, there’s a sort of myth-making enterprise within the World Bank that everything they were doing was for the benefit of the poor, whether the poor liked it or not. So I certainly think that there’s a sense that when things are tough, it’s tough love that comes from the World Bank.

…

But in the twentieth century, the poster child for corporate malfeasance is the United Fruit company. The United Fruit Company controlled vast swathes of Central America, and it’s for their control of that part of the world for growing bananas that we have the term “banana republic.” And “banana republic” is a sort of abject case of blaming the victim. These banana republics existed because the tin-pot dictators who ran them were in the thrall and responsible to the United Fruit Company, rather than actually to the people over whom they ruled. Now, the United Fruit Company found itself in Guatemala, where a democratically elected president wanted to institute just a basic fair system of taxation. And so, he wanted—this was Jacobo Guzman, I believe, who wanted to tax the land at a fair market value. Now, rather than allow that, the United Fruit Company called its friends in the CIA, who instigated a coup. And as a result of that coup, there was a bloody civil war for forty years; 200,000 people died; and also, we could have cheap bananas. Now, that kind of utter manipulation of international economies is something that isn’t just happening in the global south; it’s happening right here in the United States.

http://www.wecansolveit.org/page/s/unlikelyalliance

Check out the video ^.

Al and Tipper recently poured $300 million dollars (presumably from Occidental Petroleum stock dividends) into an ad campaign promoting bipartisan pursuit of climate solutions. The idea is to bring together two “polar opposites” (get it?) and have them agree on the urgency of addressing climate change before poking at each other’s lower priorities, such as state executions or religious tolerance. So far, I’ve seen the one with Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson, sharing a sofa on a beach in black and white (get it?). Supposedly, there’s a Nancy Pelosi/Newt Gengrich one out there, but I haven’t found it yet.

Could someone please give Al Gore a public office so he doesn’t have to waste his time debating endorsement contracts with “thought leader” celebrities? If a Democrat wins the White House, I hope he gets made Secretary of Energy (although I’d settle for Agriculture–he wouldn’t be in the news as often, but it’s a way bigger budget). If we don’t act fast, he’s going to be out on the streets with a cardboard sign around his neck that reads, “Will Lose Elections for Food.”

Now, while this gimmick is easy to pick apart, that doesn’t mean the message is invalid. I got a really strange feeling when I first saw this ad, because it warped my usual perceptions; here were Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson agreeing on something I supported. What was I supposed to do with that information? It helped me illustrate the difference between a locally-driven and ideologically-driven movement. It relates to a larger problem I’ve noticed among my resistance community. We can be very dogmatic, and this creates a superficial obstacle to parternships with the potential for projects, campaigns, and movements that make a historical impact. Usually, this breaks down to highschool cliquishness with a bigger vocabulary. A student group I’m involved in, Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville (SPEAK), recently began working with another student group, Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE), on a green jobs initiative in Knoxville. This collaboration began in Memphis, at the 2008 Dream Reborn Conference. Since then, I’ve encountered criticism ranging from disappointment to disdain from some of the other activist groups on campus. Without ever having met with the members of SIFE or reviewing the plan we were developing together, these students were prejudiced against the project because of a knee-jerk reaction to the phrase “Free Enterprise.” Since when did trying to sustain oneself and one’s community independent of a larger grid make you a sell-out? This is one more reason why an open-ended, consensus-based movement is more resilient and influential than an ideologically-driven program. There’s a difference between a swarm and a flock.

Richmond – At 7:55am this morning, activists with Blue Ridge Earth First! established a blockade at the entrance to Dominion Power’s James River headquarters, (120 Tredegar St.). Three youth activists locked themselves to one another, blocking both lanes of the only road in and out of the office complex for close to an hour. Supporters stood-by holding signs and banners demanding No Coal for Virginia. This action is the latest in a growing campaign challenging Dominion’s proposed coal-fired power plant in Wise County, VA. The youth activists maintained the blockade for approximately an hour. Traffic was congested into the office building several hundred yards, spanning from Tredegar Street all the way through Cary Street. The police arrived on scene within twenty minutes. After 45 minutes, the police dragged the three locked down to the side of the road. The group remained there for 20 minutes afterwards. Supporters waved banners and signs, while the blockade was preserved. The three activists locked down were released within an hour after the start of the action. Since Dominion announced its plans for the plant in 2006, protests, petitions, public comments, and other displays of opposition have poured out from communities across the state. If built, the power plant would release 5.4 million tons of CO2 annually, making it one of the biggest polluters in the state. The plant would also emit other greenhouse gases, 49 pounds of mercury, and other dangerous pollutants into our air and water. Furthermore, the plant would accelerate the rate of mountaintop removal mining in Virginia. Mountaintop removal has already destroyed 25% of Wise County’s Mountains, and threatens the lives of all Appalachians. Government officials have received almost 3.8 million dollars in campaign contributions from Dominion in just over a decade. This collaborative relationship has left many Virginians feeling misrepresented by their elected officials. “We’ve voiced our objections in large numbers and continue to exhaust regulatory processes. Dominion and our Virginia legislators are still pushing dirty coal down our throats. It’s clear that if this thing is going to be stopped, we the people are going to have to stop it,” said Hannah Morgan, a former Wise County resident and current landowner who was locked down in the blockade. Participants traveled from all corners of the state for this action. They represent the youth voice opposed to Dominion’s coal-fired power plant. “Climate change is jeopardizing my future and I’m not going to just sit by and let Dominion lock us into another generation of dirty coal,” added Barbie Spitz, a student who participated in the roadblock. The youth movement has been gaining momentum around this campaign, demanding Dominion and Virginia politicians implement clean, renewable energy in place of dirty coal. This action comes in accordance with several previous others from around the region.

Blue Ridge Earth First! (BREF!) maintains that the climate initiatives being presented by corporations and government have been focused on promoting consumption-based, profit-driven “solutions” that only serve to maintain business as usual. “There’s no such thing as clean coal. It’s time our entire energy paradigm shift away from all dirty sources, including nuclear, which creates a permanent supply of hazardous waste. We need to move towards efficiency, conservation, and the decentralized generation of safe sources such as wind and solar,” said Willie Dodson, an Earth First! activist from Blacksburg.

Last weekend, a team of students and I volunteered at the first-ever Energy Ethics Conference in Knoxville, “Energy & Responsibility: A Conference on Ethics and the Environment” presented by the UT Philosophy Department.  The planning committee for this conference featured some of the most experienced and dedicated leaders in our area’s environmental community, and I had a great time taking in the discussions from world-renowned scholars, analysts, and researchers.  You can find a full list of the papers that were discussed with abstracts and credentials on the conference website.

By far the highlight of the weekend for me was the chance to participate in the Student Caucus on the last day of the conference, where a handful of young people were given the opportunity to prepare a Youth Statement that would be published in the book that’s coming out of the conference, as well as a number of journals and websites.  It was an honor to work as an editor for this statement, and a challenge to carry out a consensus writing project on a two-hour deadline.  While I was listening to the statement being read and watching the audience reactions, I got the distinct feeling that my citizenship began there and then.  Now I gotta go parse out the meaning of sustainable citizenship…

Anyway, reproduced here in full just for you, the Youth Statement of the Student Caucus at the 2008 Energy & Responsibility Conference:

The youth of the world have inherited a transformative mandate from the generations that have come before us. Deprived of the luxury to treat the future as a landfill, the unprecedented urgency of this mandate compels us to build a radically new world of healthy, just, and sustainable communities within our lifetimes. We are genuinely angered by the wasteful economy we were born into and we are committed to intergenerational dialogue with those who all their lives have fought the struggle we now take on. Amid uncertainty, we find hope; and in the long shadow of the challenges that loom on our horizons, we have no choice but to seek the light of opportunity.

We envision a just and sustainable world, a world of healthy communities living in harmony with their natural environment. Recognizing the solutions to global pollution and global poverty as inseparable, we are committed to opening spaces that transcend borders and disciplines for democratic, international conversation. To that end, we must address the threat of human development to the biodiversity of the planet and the threat of cultural dominance to the indigenous knowledge that must inform our global solutions. The privilege of leadership comes with the responsibility to defend the rights of all voices as we define a vision of the future.

In addition to empowering a planetarian imagination, we are committed to decentralized solutions on the grassroots level grounded in the principles of distributional equity and environmental justice. As we forge the policies and infrastructure of the future, we can no longer violate the self-determination of local communities around the world nor the intrinsic value of the biosphere that makes our lives possible. In our own communities, we are committed to nurturing future generations by actively promoting civic engagement and increased ecological awareness in our schools and in our homes. Building on the traditions of democracy and human rights, we must create an ecologically comprehensive definition of social justice embracing lifelong nutrition education, localized food security, and consideration of the long-term impacts of the choices we make as consumers and citizens every day of our lives. We sow the seeds of tomorrow in the soil of today.

We call upon all citizens, policymakers, and business leaders to implement the inexcusably neglected knowledge of solutions already in place for a renewed and equitable relationship with the planet. In addition, while we include advocacy and research in a diversity of tactics, we believe that global challenges call for local solutions from the inside out and the bottom up. It has fallen to our generation to cultivate healthy, sustainable communities across the planet. The work before us is large, but we are up to the task. We will bring upwardly mobile green-collar jobs into disenfranchised communities. We will advance access to environmental education to promote stewardship and sustainability in the lives of children. We will pursue technological innovations for climate-neutral production as we transition from where we are to where we have to go. And in our professions and amongst our peers, we will cultivate an ethic of democracy, compassion, and justice as practices necessary to the survival of the planet. The decisions we make today will have a greater impact on the future than at any other point in history. We call on you to be voices for the future in the lives you live today. The future simply cannot wait. The time to act is now.

University of Tennessee
April 12, 2008

Aside from being a bastion of the market liberalism that keeps international trade treaties from addressing climate change solutions, WSJ offers insight into the systems that produce the events that most other news sources just announce and dismiss. This article shows how the Clinton and Obama campaigns have unexpectedly raised the relevance of coal controversies to the outcome of the presidential race. Excerpt below, full article here.

Coalfields Turn Into Battlefields Push for New Plants
Divides Democrats
In Rural, City Areas By STEPHEN POWER in Wise, Virginia, and NICK TIMIRAOS in Levittown, Pa.
April 14, 2008; Page A6The race for the Democratic nomination hinges on a handful of states where coal is still king. That puts Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in a bind: how to attack global warming without threatening an industry that provides half the U.S.’s electricity and more than 80,000 mining jobs.

Campaigning in the Pennsylvania presidential primary this month, Senators Clinton and Obama are championing technology to capture and store carbon-dioxide emissions from coal — while vowing to invest in renewable energies such as wind and solar power.

BURNING ISSUE

The News: The Democratic race is shifting to states that depend heavily on coal, putting Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in a bind as they try to appeal to green audiences. The Backdrop: Coal producers and their allies are spending heavily to bolster public support for coal. The Politics: In some states, efforts to build coal-fired plants are pitting Democrats in rural areas against city and suburban dwellers worried about climate change and air pollution.

“Coal is going to remain a major player in American energy,” Senator Clinton told the Pittsburgh Business Times last month.

“We are the Saudi Arabia of coal, and it could be a very important way for us to meet our long-term energy needs,” Senator Obama told voters Wednesday in Levittown, Pa.

By. Carly Sothoran

 

College of Charleston students and Charleston community members joined thousands of people across the globe in an international day of action against the fossil fuel industry.  Alliance for Planet Earth, the student environmental group at the College, hosted a rally in Marion Square where participants demanded a halt to Santee Cooper’s proposed coal plant to be located on the Great Pee Dee River.

 

Over 50 protestors addressed the ridiculousness of a new coal plant by dressing in clown outfits, waving signs and handing out “coal plants.”  Numerous petition signatures were collected against the coal plant and pedestrians received informational flyers on clean energy alternatives.  “Today’s event was about letting the youth’s voice be heard, encouraging people to take action and insisting that Santee Cooper invest in efficiency and renewable energy rather than a new dirty coal plant” said event spokesperson and Alliance for Planet Earth member Carly Sothoron.

 

Guest speakers, Ian Sanchez of Lowcountry Environmental Education program and Dr. Matt Wasson of Appalachian Voices, discussed the absurdity of building a technologically outdated coal plant in South Carolina and the advantages of energy efficiency and renewable sources like wind and solar.  “Building this coal plant from an economic, health, and environmental view is a kick in the teeth to the young and future generations” stated Dr. Wasson.

 

Our state spends over $740 million a year on out of state coal.  If we want an energy independent South Carolina, it is time to invest in our own home grown energy sources.  This new coal plant will emit 3,500 tons of ozone-forming nitrous oxide, 7,500 tons of soot-forming sulfur dioxide, and 900 tons of lung-damaging particulate matter each year, along with 8.7 million tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.  According to DHEC’s draft air permit, this plant is permitted to emit annually 138 pounds of toxic mercury!

 

Enough fooling around with fossil fuels!  Clean energy and efficiency will make South Carolina a healthier and greener place to live.

Fifty of Georgia’s youth and community renewable energy and climate justice leaders gathered at the Georgia State Capitol on Thursday, March 20th, to urge Governor Sonny Purdue to begin working toward a just energy state economy, and deny two new coal plant proposals in the state.

Photo By: Aleta Johannaber, aletamarie@bellsouth.net The event came just three days after a report, which identified Georgia to be second in increased Carbon Emissions from existing coal plants since 2002 (first only behind Texas). Rally organizers pointed to two new coal proposals; one proposed in Southwestern Georgia by Dyengy/Ls Power, the other proposed in Middle Georgia by a coalition of Georgia EMC’s, as major financial and health risks for Georgia; and as major roadblocks for the growth of the states renewable energy economy. Rally attendees sported 6-10 ft homemade wind-turbines, larger then life dirty coal pieces, and a 25 ft. inflatable coal plant, to emphasize the need to divert from the potential 14 million tons of new C02 and move forward to renewables and efficiency. High School Senior Kelsea Norris and Georgia State Student Kasumi Kato spoke at the event about Governor Purdue’s responsibility to lock Georgia’s youth into the growing renewable economy, and move away from fossil fool dependency that would continue Georgia’s history of poor air quality and severe water shortages Early County Native Tom Barksdale spoke to rally attendees about other states leadership in rejecting dirty and risky plans to build new coal plants, and on the diligent effort that community members and students from around the states have put into changing Georgia’s weary energy economy future. Several Governors, including Kansas Governor Kathleen Sibelius and Florida Governor Crist, have taken strong imitative to block new coal plants in the state, and Rally attendees urged Purdue to follow their lead in helping to create large scale investment opportunities for Georgia’s renewable energy economy. Student’s, after symbolically “tearing down” the inflatable coal plant and replacing it with the homemade wind turbines- to the call and respond chant “Hey People? Yea! Coal is Over! Yeaa! Tell Purdue to Invest in Wind and Solar!”- went into the capitol to lobby legislatures on creating and supporting renewable energy legislation. Several students also releases a balloon banners which had the “No Coal” painted over the silhouette of the State of Georgia, into the Georgia State Capitol building.

Tenn. shouldn’t be a ‘cheap place to mine,’ Gov. Bredesen says of effort

By Tom Humphrey (Contact)
Wednesday, March 19, 2008

NASHVILLE - Plans for expanded coal mining in East Tennessee, much of it in the Sundquist Wildlife Management Area, would be jeopardized by a proposed increase in the state’s coal severance tax, National Coal Corp. officials said Tuesday.

The tax bill’s sponsor, Sen. Doug Jackson, D-Dickson, said the state shouldn’t make it easy to strip mine, however, and he has Gov. Phil Bredesen’s support.

“I think of mining as kind of a necessary evil,” Bredesen said, pointing out that after talking to Jackson, he understands the proposed tax rate would put Tennessee on par with other coal-mining states.

read more: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/mar/19/bill-to-increase-tax-paid-on-coal/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3phcSY5xzI

Focus the Nation and Clif Mojo want to sponsor your project to spread the word on climate change! Three awards of $10,000 each are available to the winners. Submit proposals to Project Slingshot before March 15.

BOONE, NC and WASHINGTON, DC – Advocates for the mountains and coalfield residents today opened a new front in the fight against destructive coal mining, filing suit in Washington, D.C. District Court to stop federal investment in new power plants that would enshrine coal for another generation.

The suit, filed by the North Carolina-based Appalachian Voices and Canary Coalition, states that the federal government shouldn’t be in the business of subsidizing coal plants without knowing the true environmental costs – including impacts of ultra-destructive mountaintop removal coal mining. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 included $1.65 billion in tax incentives for new coal plants, $1 billion of which has been allocated to nine projects around the country.

“The fact is that there’s no such thing as clean coal as long as our mountains are getting clear-cut, blown up and bulldozed down,” said Mary Anne Hitt, Executive Director of Appalachian Voices. “Right now, the electricity that powers your home may well come from mountaintop removal coal. We need fewer coal plants, not more.”

Mountaintop removal coal mining is an extremely destructive form of strip mining found throughout Appalachia, with some mines as big as the island of Manhattan. Coalfield residents say that it tears apart communities, poisons water supplies, pollutes the air and destroys our nation’s natural heritage – while only making the climate crisis worse.

“Members of the Canary Coalition and all people who live, work or vacation in western North Carolina are feeling the impact of existing coal-burning power plants on our health and the environment,” said Avram Friedman, Executive Director of the Canary Coalition. “Asthma related to ozone pollution is the largest cause of absenteeism in our public schools. Emphysema plagues the elderly in this region. Heart and lung disease related to fine particulate sulfur dioxide has been documented by the American Lung Association. We are threatened by tropical diseases migrating north due to global warming caused by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. The status quo of air quality in western North Carolina is unacceptable. Building and operating a new coal-burning power plant such as Duke Energy’s planned expansion at Cliffside is unacceptable.”

Of the nine experimental coal facilities that have received tax incentives, none have conducted an environmental impact assessment (EIA) looking at the impact of coal on the environment – as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The nine facilities include a Duke Energy projects in Edwardsport, IN and in Rutherford and Cleveland Counties, NC; a Mississippi Power Company project; an E.ON U.S. & Louisville Gas and Electric project in Bedford, KY; a Carson Hydrogen Power project in Carson, CA; a TX Energy project in Longview, TX; a Tampa Electric project in Polk County, FL (that is currently delayed); and two anonymous coal gasification projects.

The effort to end mountaintop removal has been gaining steam over the past year. As of today, the leading Congressional plan to end the practice has 129 co-sponsors – dozens more than last Congress, and only halfway through this session.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zk8APxaiRg

Here’s to the Long Haul get rowdy with “Dancing on the Ruins of Multinational Corporations” in the streets of Valdosta, Ga., during the Downtown Getdown for SSREC 2008!

Originally posted Feb 19th, 2008
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/

Early Monday morning dozens of concerned community members from Palm Beach County and all over the nation put their bodies on the line to halt construction of FPL’s West County Energy Center (WCEC), demanding energy efficiency, truly clean, renewable energy and a moratorium on development in south Florida. Everglades Earth First! blocked the main entrance to the WCEC site, a proposed massive 3800 MW gas-fired power plant that would emit 12 million tons of CO2, a leading greenhouse gas, every year. The plant is currently under construction despite ongoing legal challenges to the plant’s needed permits and certification, which have been spearheaded by the local Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition.

A dozen activists locked themselves together through metal pipes as 200 supporters rallied around them. The blockade stopped work on the construction site for six hours before a total of 27 people were arrested.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10764313@N05/

from United Mountain Defense (http://www.unitedmountaindefense.org/)

Hey all,

So we are a little less than 14 days out from MJSB Virginia 2008. We are really excited about it. We have got a big chunk of the schedule all worked out, and we’ve got really great workshops, trainings, community service opportunities and action opportunities lined up. So check it out at www.mjsb.org. And Register!! And forward this message along to interested parties.

We really need folks who are planning on coming out to register on the website. We need to know how much food to buy! And to set up carpooling, and cover fundraising.

The energy is building here in the little southern town of Valdosta Georgia, as youth from across the Southeast begin to trickle in, volunteering their time to prepare for what promises to be an exciting, and in many respects epic, weekend. Thats right, one more day, until Southern Energy Networks 5th Annual South East Student Renewable Energy Conference!

This year, more then 400 students from more then 8 states will converge to hear the stories of gulf-coast/appalachian community members and young people whos lives have been dramatically effected by fossil fuels extraction, dirty energy production, and the worst effects of global warming. Students and Youth come to share experiences, knowledge, and insight on the many ways campuses leading the way in healing America’s dirty energy addiction, with a strong dose of clean and health energy justice.

Most importantly, however, we come to rejoice in and celebrate the fellowship and stewardships of our peers who share with us the heavy burden of strengthening one of our nations weakest links in the international struggle to save our climate, our communities, and our futures.

 check out this awesome video about the FTN lobby day that Georgia students put together when over 50 of them descended on the capitol to talk about global warming and dirty energy in Georgia.

Georgia’s History of Denial Fuels Youth Action

Since September, the Georgia legislature has been hosting hearings on the credibility of global warming science entitled “Global Warming: Fact or Fiction”, in which the legislature continues to conclude; “There are too many opinions out there to draw any conclusion on the subject.” Students and youth are taking leadership on the issue, which is lacking in large portions of the state’s legislature and utility companies like Georgia Power and Southern Company (both of which actively lobby against the Nation Renewable Standards).

On thursday January 31st, though, Students and professors from more then 1,300 campuses across the country engaged in ‘green’ teach-ins and events to educate peers and constituents of the solutions to and importance of strong action on, global warming.

In Georgia, more then 50 students from 7 colleges and universities joined as Georgia Students for Sustainability, in order to host a youth-led global warming lobby day in Atlanta.

The Focus the Nation event began with a press conference at 10am on the capital steps where student leaders Sarah Parsons, Emory, and Mcnair Wagner, Georgia State, among others, called for legislators to listen to the youth voice on the issue of climate change and to take immediate and strong action in the state. Students then held around 20 lobby meeting with state representatives about the clear possibility of building a stronger state economy through renewable energy legislation.

The lobby-day also included a “Lunch-n-Lobby” with many state representatives where You-Tube videos, made by students from across the state, were shown to state representatives. The video’s highlighted more the need for Georgia to take a lead in creating green jobs, a state renewable energy standard, and to put an end to coal development in the state.

Currently the students in the state are fighting two proposed coal plants, one proposed by the Dynegy corporation, which has proposed coal fired power-plants in six other states, recently moved dangerously closer to starting it’s project when a state judge approved the State Environmental Protection Division’s granted Air-Quality Permit.

“As young people across the nation, it’s our imperative to take action on this moral issue, and to work with legislators and businesses to improve our futures by passing strong renewable energy and energy efficiency policies, which will make the world healthier, and create new, longer lasting jobs.” said Sara Parsons, a student at Emory University, and Focus the Nation lobby day coordinator.

If you know me at all, you know I’m a Carolina basketball fanatic and you know it’s a little painful for me to write about a job well done by Duke basketball fans.

Rivalries run deep here on Tobacco Road and it’s not everyday that the Cameron Crazies (the nickname for Duke students who go to extremes to cheer for their men’s basketball team in Cameron Indoor Stadium) don anything other than their usual dark blue paint. But for the NC State game on January 31st, the Focus the Nation team at Duke (rockstar Kelsey Shaw and company) convinced fans to wear green t-shirts that read “Bleed Blue, Live Green” and cheer for solutions to climate change along with their (overrated) team.

The shirts were not the only green aspect of the game. Students and other fans were asked to sign the Duke Sustainability Pledge, a commitment to researching and implementing climate friendly lifestyle changes. Furthermore, the University Athletic Department purchased carbon offsets equivalent to the electricity, steam and transportation consumed by the game, working in partnership with the renewable-energy company NativeEnergy.

Duke’s greening of the basketball game could not have happened without the work of STAR Sports for Environmental Change. Star Sports is an amazingly innovative organization helping teams, athletes, and sporting events to use the power of global sports and its powerful media reach to anchor community efforts to reduce carbon emissions by 25% or more in 3 years. (Check out the sweet commercial about sustainability efforts at Alabama and Colorado at Boulder that they ran during the Independence Bowl last fall)

So for the first time in my life, I cheered for Duke (but then damned them all to hell as usual). Go Heels!

Earlier this week, the North Carolina Division of Air Quality (NC DAQ) issued the final pollution permit required for Duke Energy to begin construction and operation of a new 800-megawatt coal-fired power plant at Cliffside. Major bummer.

As you can expect, advocacy groups and citizens in North Carolina are extremely disappointed with the Division of Air Quality’s decision to grant Duke Energy a permit to build this global warming machine in our backyard. We have been working to stop this outcome for almost two years now.

Cliffside is irresponsible beyond belief—at a time of an impending climate crisis, fish advisories due to mercury contamination, and a statewide drought, the NC DAQ has decided to invest over $2 billion of ratepayer money in a coal plant that could be inoperable soon. We’ve been pushing the DAQ particularly hard on the issue of mercury. When the draft permit came out last fall, students around the state rallied to reject it. The following week, the DAQ announced they were re-visiting the permit to specifically look at the mercury levels. The new and final permit only reduces mercury by .001 pounds for bituminous coal and .047 lbs for sub-bituminous coal. Wow! A whopping .001-pound reduction when they burn Appalachian coal. Talk about a token reduction!

It gets worse. The new permit “requires” Duke to take an equivalent number of megawatts offline in North Carolina (other than the existing units at Cliffside) and invest in carbon offsets so the plant is “carbon neutral” by 2018. Sounds nice, right? Wrong. The 800 megawatts comes from several different facilities throughout the state that are not baseline electricity plants. Duke rarely uses them and therefore they are not do not have the carbon equivalent of the 800 megawatts that will run 24/7 at Cliffside. Plus, Duke had announced plans to take those plants offline in 2007 so there is really nothing new here.

According to the NC State Energy Office, there are numerous clean energy options including energy efficiency, solar, wind, biomass and peak power shifting available right now. New public policies combined with economic incentives and enforcement can also help reduce our energy consumption and increase investment in renewable technologies.

Nationwide, plans for dozens of coal plants have been rejected by regulators or dropped by the power companies themselves. Duke, too, could show real leadership during this transition to a clean energy economy instead of continuing to harm our health, waste our water, and threaten future prosperity by burning coal. Despite the misguided issuance of this air permit, environmental, public health and public interest groups will continue to fight against the expansion of Cliffside.

Students at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill kicked off Focus the Nation with a clever event that brought a little “Love Connection” to the youth climate movement.

Last night, about forty students participated in the first “It’s Getting Hot in Here” Speed Dating party. Because, really, with the climate changing, who has time for the drawn-out pleasantries of real-time dating?

The UNC Focus the Nation team (which has been busting their butts to host an AMAZING Focus the Nation) organized the party as a way to publicize for next week’s main events.

“Speed dating is a way to reach out to people who may not have heard about Focus the Nation and to get the conversation about climate change started,” said Jarrett Grimm, a North Carolina Focus the Nation rock star.

The daters were given a list of icebreaker questions to ease the awkwardness. Questions included from “Do you rock or roll?” to “How many compact fluorescent lights do you have in your house?”

Many of the daters walked about with dates for the “Save the Ales” bar night on the 31st. Siiiigh, climate love.