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Climate Change

“Climate Change Is More Of A Problem Than We Anticipated”

Each new study on climate change shows that not only is the crisis here now, but changes are happening a century earlier than predicted. We speak with respected climate scientist, Dr. Michael Mann, about what we can expect in the next decades and what we need to do to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. We also cover recent movement news and upcoming actions.

56 Climate Activists Arrested Outside Of Cuomo’s office

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was protested in Albany on April 23rd over his policies on the environment and climate change. Fifty-six people were arrested, among them Green candidate for governor, Howie Hawkins. Protesters demanded Cuomo block all new natural gas infrastructure in the state, including pipelines and power plants; move transition to 100 percent renewable energy (not just electric energy), and tax emissions to fund the transition. Local groups also protested individual natural gas projects in their communities. In the civil disobedience portion of the action as" joyous, loud, beautiful-sounding singing" with people "gathered in a big circle in a room, 'The War Room,' on the same floor as the Governor’s office" The protesters "sat in a nearby hallway in a very big oval-like circle, lifting our voices as if the future depended upon it." In an op-ed explaining why it was necessary to risk arrest to save the planet from climate change, Hawkins describes five decades of activism that has included civil disobedience for clean energy, against carbon energy as well as against nuclear energy.

Earth Day: Conflict Over The Future Of The Planet

On this Earth Day, it is difficult to look at the state of the planet and the current political leadership and see much hope. In "Junk Planet", Robert Burrowes writes a comprehensive description of the degradation of the atmosphere, oceans, waterways, groundwater, and soil as well as the modern pollution of antibiotic waste, genetic engineering, nanowaste, space junk, military waste and nuclear, a description of a planet degraded by pollution impacting our bodies and health as well as the planet's future.

Has The Environmental Movement Peaked Or Best Days Ahead?

As someone who has followed these issues since the first Earth Day in 1970, April 22 is a perpetual mixed bag. Of American origin and still almost exclusively observed here, the day is a festival of good intentions – the metaphorically Earth-friendly pavement for a road to ecological Hell. That inaugural Earth Day featured a massive march down New York's Fifth Avenue. Walter Cronkite, the news anchor then known as "The Most Trusted Man in America," turned a prime time CBS News special. "Its demonstrators were predominantly young, predominantly white." Earth Day probably peaked on its twentieth birthday in 1990. Huge rallies similar in size to the recent anti-gun violence gatherings happened in many American cities. ABC ran a two-hour prime time special featuring the cream of Hollywood's crop...

From “Green Growth” To Post-Growth

The seduction of economic growth is all-pervasive. Even within progressive circles that claim to understand that growth is causing ecological destruction, there is hope in a new type of salvation: "green growth." This is the idea that technology will become more efficient and allow us to grow the economy while reducing our impact on the environment. In other words, we will be able to decouple gross domestic product (GDP) from resource use and carbon emissions. This is appealing to the liberal mind -- it provides an apparent middle ground and removes the need to question the logic of the global economy. We can continue on our current trajectory if we make the "right" reforms and get the "right" kind of technology. The hope of green growth is embedded everywhere, from the majority of domestic economic plans to major international policy schemes like the Paris Climate Agreement and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Boulder Sues Exxon Over Climate Change: Wildfires, Droughts And Water Are A Few Reasons Why

In Boulder, Colorado, climate change means extreme weather and wildfires. It means worrying about water security for people and farms, and about heat waves and mosquito-borne diseases. These aren't just future risks—they're problems the city and its surrounding county are facing now. On Tuesday, the city and Boulder County joined San Miguel County, home to the ski slopes of Telluride, in suing two fossil fuel companies—ExxonMobil and Suncor—over the costs of dealing with climate change. Their lawsuit is the latest in a string of legal actions by communities that are attempting to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the problems climate change creates. Until now, the plaintiffs had been coastal cities and counties worried primarily about sea level rise.

Working Class Town Goes Green, Protect Environment, Improves Lifestyle

Straddling the northeast branch of the Anacostia River just outside of Washington, D.C., is a half-square-mile patch of green called Edmonston. It’s a tiny Maryland town where, despite its distance from the Chesapeake Bay, the residents seem to understand that what they do here affects what happens there. What started in the early 2000s as an effort to ameliorate flooding on the town’s main thoroughfare has snowballed into a series of water quality-minded projects that are sprucing up streets, filling empty lots with community gardens and reducing the amount of polluted stormwater flowing into the Anacostia River. The projects also have burnished the town’s sense of identity, setting Edmonston apart from the maze of Maryland suburbs tucked inside DC’s bustling beltway in Prince George’s County.

Wind Farming Creating Jobs and Building New Economy in Texas

All along the straight-shot roads of Nolan County in West Texas, wind turbines soar over endless acres of farms, the landscape either heavy with cotton ready to harvest or flushed green with the start of winter wheat. The turbines rise from expanses of ranches, where black Angus beef cattle gaze placidly at the horizon. Here and there are abandoned farmhouses dating to the 1880s, when this land was first settled and water windmills were first erected. Occasionally a few pump jacks bob their metallic heads, vestiges of a once-booming oil industry still satiating an endless thirst. Every industry creates an ecosystem around it. If the wind turbines that sprouted in West Texas were huge steel trees, spinning sleek carbon-fiber blades 100 feet in length, then the wind farms—including Roscoe Wind Project and Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center, some of the largest in the world—were their forest.

David Buckel, Gay Rights & Environmental Activist, Dies In Protest Suicide

David Buckel, a nationally known advocate for gay rights and the environment died Saturday in self-immolation suicide in a wake-up call to save the planet. Buckel was 60 years old. His body was discovered shortly after sunrise at 6:40 a.m when firefighters responded to the fire. Buckel lived a life in service to social and enviornmental justice. Even in his death he sought to serve others. The NY Daily News reports he left two hand written suicide notes in a shopping cart nearby the blackened circle of burned grass.

The Most Important Climate Treaty You’ve Never Heard Of

Raise a hand if you've heard of the Gothenburg Protocol. No? Well, you're in good company. This treaty has been called an "unsung hero" in the fight against air pollution and climate change. It may be unknown in the United States, but it is a landmark international agreement, setting limits on how much black carbon and other pollutants countries can emit. Black carbon, or soot, is seen as a unique danger to the climate because its ability to accelerate warming in the atmosphere is many times stronger than carbon dioxide. It also speeds up the melting of sea ice. This double-whammy is responsible for a half a degree Celsius of warming in the Arctic so far.

Why WNC Should Be Worried About The Atlantic Coast Pipeline

Regulators have recently given Duke Energy and Dominion Resources permits to construct the 600-mile, $6.5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) from West Virginia, and Virginia, into North Carolina. In N.C., the pipeline will be 36 inches in diameter and will cross 1,300 parcels of land. It will carry at least 1.5 billion cubic feet of fracked gas per day. Some gas may possibly be available to North Carolina customers. Much, though will be headed to S.C. and beyond for export to China and Europe. Since the ACP is being built in eastern North Carolina, 200 miles from Asheville, many think that it is not our problem, and will not impact us. Nothing could be further from the truth.  The ACP will hugely impact all residents in N.C., including Asheville. Cost of pipeline: Since planning started, the cost of the pipeline has risen fast. Duke’s commitment is now about $3 billion.

Fossil Fuels On Trial: Where The Major Climate Change Lawsuits Stand Today

A wave of legal challenges that is washing over the oil and gas industry, demanding accountability for climate change, started as a ripple after revelations that ExxonMobil had long recognized the threat fossil fuels pose to the world. Over the past few years: Two states have launched fraud investigations into Exxon over climate change. Nine cities and counties, from New York to San Francisco, have sued major fossil fuel companies, seeking compensation for climate change damages. And determined children have filed lawsuits against the federal government and various state governments, claiming the governments have an obligation to safeguard the environment. The litigation, reinforced by science, has the potential to reshape the way the world thinks about energy production and the consequences of global warming.

Resistance Is Necessary To Overcome The Climate Crisis

The science is clear that we must no longer build new fossil fuel infrastructure and we must invest in clean sources of energy, yet oil and gas companies continue to receive permits to build more pipelines, compressor stations and refineries. in response, communities are organizing to stop these projects. We speak with Tim DeChristopher about how communities are using the necessity defense to defend their actions to stop the projects. And we discuss the state of the climate justice movement, how Big Greens are failing on climate justice and strategies for action.

Judge Rejects Exxon’s Attempt to Stop Climate Fraud Investigations

With a sharp rebuke, a federal judge on Thursday rejected Exxon's attempt to shut down two state investigations into whether the oil giant misled investors for years about the risks of climate change. U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Caproni dismissed Exxon's complaint with prejudice, meaning the company can't refile it. In the first line of her ruling, the judge describe Exxon's actions as "running roughshod over the adage that the best defense is a good offense."

County Denies Compressor Station Zoning Permit, State Seeks To Overrule

Bryans Road, Maryland - Over the course of three-and-a-half hours Wednesday evening, more than 60 people lined up to speak in opposition to the granting of a draft air quality permit to Dominion Energy Cove Point LNG, a necessary step for the construction of a controversial [fracked] natural gas compressor station in Bryans Road. The hearing follows a recent decision by the Charles County Board of Appeals not to grant Dominion a special exception to build the compressor station on a 50-acre parcel of land along Barrys Road.

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Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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