…. By Installing 8,000 Energy Efficient Light Bulbs In Limited-Income Communities. Joining a Nationwide Day Of Action To Call For Green Jobs Now!

Article by Beth Bond and the LRAM Team!
ATLANTA – Saturday, September 27th, residents and students of metro Atlanta joined tens of thousands of concerned citizens across the country for a national day of service and action. Let’s Raise A Million, a student founded non-profit to bring the message of green and sustainable living to limited-income communities, was one of the national day of services spot light events. The event demonstrated that people are ready to build an inclusive green economy and communities of service.
With over 100 students, community residents, and Atlanta Firefighters in attendance, a press conference and rally were held. With speakers from as faraway as Oakland, California and as esteemed as Chief Kelvin Cochran of the City of Atlanta Fire Department, the audience learned about how the light bulbs and detectors would make positive changes in the neighbor’s lives.

FREE energy audits, complete exchange of light bulbs and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors were distributed at five locations including Adair Park, Historic West End, Peoplestown, Vine City, and the Georgia Dome. These communities of modest means received a full complement of compact fluorescent light bulbs provided by, in part, The Home Depot and TCP, exchanged by student volunteers.
Students from Agnes Scott, Clark-Atlanta, Emory, Georgia Tech, Morehouse, Spelman and the National Wildlife Federations high school program spread out from the rally at Adair Park and took a first step in learning about community service at its most basic level. The goal was to distribute 8,000 “clean” compact fluorescent bulbs on Saturday and many teams returned with their bags donated by IKEA almost empty. All the cardboard boxes and light bulbs removed from homes were recycled.

“With the state of our financial institutions, we need a green economy now, more than ever before! With these free ‘clean bulbs’, we provide a framework to begin a conversation about energy conservation and green jobs.” said event coordinator Tony Anderson, of the Let’s Raise a Million Project.

Students returned to the park for funnel cakes powered by solar panels provided by GreenLeaf Music. The day was a great success says event organizers. Organizers highlighted the students commitment to make a difference in a meaningful way to citizens who all too often get left behind in economic conversations, as a driving reason to such high levels of participation.

The Let’s Raise A Million Project, a student-led project that is raising funds for obtaining, and installing one million energy efficient light bulbs over four years to be delivered to households with modest means. The first pilot site is now operating in Atlanta’s West End.

Climate Riders arrive at the Capitol

After 320 miles of gorgeous country with 100 amazing people, Climate Ride 2008 is over.

Upon arriving in the Capitol, Climate Riders heard from Representatives Earl Blumenauer of Portland, OR and Lloyd Doggett of Austin, TX - two cities taking leadership roles on the issue of emissions reduction and clean energy, and from Rafe Pomerance of Clean Air - Cool Planet and myself from Focus the Nation.

“We are here today because the global scientific community tells us that if we do not stabilize and begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the next few years, we may be faced with runaway climate change - a world that looks like the nastier parts of the bible, literally fire, flood and famine.

It’s scary stuff, but we aren’t here out of fear. We are here out of a love of our country, a love for this planet and a sincere belief in the possibility of a better tomorrow. Global warming is the greatest challenge civilization has ever faced, and our generation knows that solving it is our greatest opportunity.

Weatherizing and solarizing ever building in America won’t just generate and conserve energy - it is an opportunity to create millions of green collar jobs - green jobs that pay a family wage and provide pathways out of poverty for millions of Americans.

Investing heavily in research, development and production of clean energy technologies won’t just wean us of our addiction to fossil fuels. It is an opportunity to revitalize the ailing American manufacturing sector, and to re-establish America as a world leader - not one who coerces nations with the power of its military, but who inspires the world with the power of its ideas and innovation.

Negotiating an international climate treaty is not just a way to address global greenhouse gas emissions. It is an opportunity to reshape the international order to be more inclusive, more cooperative and more equitable.

All around the country, Americans are rising up. Initiatives like 350.org, 1sky, Green For All and Focus the Nation are bringing together communities and politicians to discuss available solutions to global warming, and to accelerate their implementation.

Many members of Congress are standing with us, and we applaud them. To those who have yet to join us, I say now is the time to either step up, or step out of the way, because there is no time to waste.

This is not a green issue, this isn’t a blue issue or a red issue - this is a red, white, and blue issue. To every patriotic American I am telling you, now is the time to stand up and do something, because we must stop global warming, we can stop global warming, and we will create a more just and prosperous clean energy future - not just for our children here in America, but for all of Earth’s citizens, for all generations to come.”

Three of the six protesters arrested at the Dominion Resources North Anna Nuclear Power Plant were found guilty of trespassing today in the Louisa County Courthouse. The charges stem from conducting an alternative tour and sit-in at the Dominion Power Nuclear Information Center on August 7th.
The judge rejected their defense of necessity and sentenced Paxus Calta to 30 day in jail with 15 suspended. He reports to jail on September 29 pending his appeal and is available for interview until then. Sue Frankel-Streit and Spot Etal were fined $1,000 with $700 suspended. All three are banned form entering Dominion property for a period of two years. About 20 supporters gathered in front of the courthouse with signs displaying their anti-nuclear message.

“What is a greater harm here? That Dominions nuclear information center was inconvenienced and had to close 30 minutes late or that an untested new nuclear reactor will overheat Lake Anna when it is already getting to over 100 degrees most summers?” asks Paxus Calta, one of those arrested and a member of the People’s Alliance for Clean Energy (PACE) a group of concerned Louisa and Albemarle County residents who want real renewables and efficiency solutions instead of the proposed new reactor.

“Dominion wants to build a dangerous new reactor when it has no place to put the waste for the current two. These plants are already a toxic nightmare and we don’t need anymore in this area,” Says defendant Sue Frankel-Streit. “Dominion and the State are failing to address the problems of climate change and of nuclear toxins. We need a different way to make decisions about energy, because the solutions being proposed are failing to serve the people.”

Three other protestors from this action pled guilty last month and were fined $1,250, given a ninety day suspended sentence, two years of probation and a stay-away order from Dominion. Prosecutor Tom Garrett justified the harsh sentence (he had requested $2500 fines), saying the protestors should pay for overtime served by police monitoring a five-day climate change convergence held in Louisa from Aug.5-10th. The defendants have filed an appeal.

The planned new reactor at Lake Anna is one of the first of many nationwide being touted as a solution to global climate change. The protestors maintain that nuclear power is a false solution to the climate
change problem with costs and dangers that far outweigh any benefits. They cite enormous costs requiring massive government subsidies to construct the plant, dangers to the community caused by the lack of any viable plan to safely transport and store the toxic nuclear waste and project that construction of the plant could take ten years or more. The Louisa County protest is part of a series of international events calling for safe and renewable energy solutions.

For more information about the events visit www.climateconvergence.org

Just this past week in Delhi, I spoke to an Indian friend gearing up for vacation who is heading to Gangotri glacier in the north of India with his young son. His logic was pretty terrifying — Bangkok, he said, would still be around in 10 years; Singapore will still be shining and clean; the Western Ghats (most of them) will still be luscious forests; some beaches in Goa will still be here. The usual Indian upper class tourist destinations just don’t offer the same urgency. He told me that he’s just not sure his son will get another chance to see the glaciers.

Gangotri is the glacier that feeds the river Ganges, the lifeblood, both spiritually and agriculturally of India. The Himalayan glaciers, many say, provide the water to feed more than 40 percent of the world’s population, and are predicted to be gone in less than 50 years. Is this Climate Tourism? A terrifying and defeatist last ditch attempt to visit the last years of the most climate vulnerable places? Is Alaska seeing a tourist peak, not only because Sarah Palin has told us just how close it is to Russia, but because we’re not sure how much longer the permafrost to support our cars will be there? Is the Great Barrier Reef seeing tourism peak? What about Bangladesh? The Maldives? I’m only half joking. The consideration of carbon tourism is defeatist. It’s depressing. And it’s carbon intensive.

So when the UN World Tourism Organization (the other WTO!) announced that this year’s theme for World Tourism Day was Responding to the Threat of Climate Change, I wasn’t surprised. Again, like World Health Day calling on UN to take action to protect health, the World Tourism Organisation called on the tourism industry to more quickly move towards carbon neutrality and the UN to take firm action on the issue. But there’s even more to it than that! Continue for more…

Francesco Frangialli, Secretary-General of the UNWTO said:

Our call to action is hence to change habits and position renewable energy at the forefront of international response by promoting the action-oriented Davos Declaration Process, encouraging tourism stakeholders to adapt, to mitigate and use new technology and secure financing for the poorest countries to face the challenge of climate change.

It’s actually a double sided coin. Eco-tourism benefits have given communities additional reasons to protect their ecological resources, including their coasts. And many tourists to these precious ecological destinations see the fragility of the world around them and the impacts of their actions. Plus, Tourism Industry may be able to drive other industries to action. Even in New England, many have been driven to action on climate change mitigation because of fear that the skiing and foliage tourism industry will nosedive with climate changes. In fact, just last week, the University of Vermont released a preliminary report on their findings that climate change will reduce foliage brilliance and change timings. So maybe tourism can help spur action.

At the same time, the UNWTO’s 2008 study, Climate Change and Tourism: Responding to the Global Challenges, showed that the industry produces 4.9 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, primarily through long-haul flights! Regardless of how green we make our hotel buildings, how few towels are washed by hanging them on the back of the door, the solar water to heat the jacuzzis, luxury tourism (or any tourism) is carbon intensive. There will still be flights. And offsets. Can the UNWTO really find a solution such that every tourist actually has to fund the creation of a renewable energy or forestation project in the country they visit? Or, as Benito Muller of Oxford has suggested, the $5 international air travel levy that could fund adaptation projects on a massive scale. 3 years ago, a similar program was launched to fund medicines for HIV and AIDS.

From both sides of the coin, it’s clear that tourism and climate change are really interconnected: tourism does represent a flow of capital from one location to another (potentially to fund climate solutions, but also generally to create jobs and industries, which when lost to climate changes will really affect these communities) and tourism also represents an almost guaranteed production of carbon emissions. Unless, of course, its a stay-cation, a chance to support your LOCAL economy and explore your neighborhood. A staycation doesn’t mean secluding yourself from the world, but sharing moments and experiences with your community.

The UNWTO, of course, didn’t take World Tourism Day as a chance to promote staycations, but that doesn’t mean I won’t! Look who’s talking, I’ll admit. But I don’t need to see the glaciers to know they’re melting, though I hope I will before they’re gone, and home in Delhi, the upcoming holiday is a perfect time for a nice long staycation…