Forward on Climate Change!

I went to the Forward on Climate Change rally Sunday in San Francisco.

I thought about all the things I should have done to promote my pet project, Idle Free Oakland, especially since the excitement these days comes from Idle No More, but with so much on my plate this spring, I couldn't get myself quite organized. But I'm so glad I went! It was the largest climate rally ever, and I'm hoping my presence might make a difference.

It was lovely. Well-organized, peaceful, fun, and short. Native Americans opened with prayers, the air smelled like sage, and there were cute dogs everywhere. We really have to stop Keystone XL, and here's why.

The rally was sponsored by 350.org, which is the organization that's giving us the best leadership on this terrible worldwide problem. It's about science, and it's about math, and they explain it so simply:

• Our climate is changing because of too much atmospheric CO2.
• The safe upper limit for atmospheric CO2 is 350 parts per million.
• We currently have 394 ppm (this changes; see the carbon calcuator in the column on the right>>>)
• We need to get BACK to 350. Like, asap!

Stuff I liked:

• A polar bear
• A "Leave it in the Ground" sign
• A high school senior who said, "You guys are always talking about a better future for your children and grandchildren. Well, I'm a kid... and I want a better future for myself!"
• These kids with their cool signs
• Speakers who really believe we can get back to 350 in our lifetime.
• San Francisco's upcoming resolution to divest and ballot option to go all green energy.
• A guy who is trying to educate folks about Thorium, which looks like the answer to nuclear energy.
• Another speaker recalled learning about climate change in school in the 1970s. "We've wasted 40 years of inaction in 'debate'." Idle no more, right?

This guy with the mask and the sign says it all.

Can you stand up with me and millions of others and and tell the guy "NO KXL?" Here's a petition. Here's another.

5 Wishes for our Second Term

I only have five small wishes for the next four years. Okay, they're big wishes. But they're good ones that will make the country more safe, sane, and sustainable.

1. End oil subsidies*
2. Stop Education Reform
3. Overturn Citizens United
4. Bring back the Public Option
5. Ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Some of these are links to petitions, others are still links are to more information. Please share any new developments and serious petitions in the comments here or on FB.

*(subwishes include subsidizing renewables, ratifying Kyoto protocols, and adopting 350ppm as a national security priority)

What kind of pie does the 99% need now?

Occu-pie! Photo by Howard Dyckoff/Oakland Local
The sweet side of the movement! Photo by Howard Dyckoff/Oakland Local

YES on #Occupy!

Here's my Letter to the Editor on 10/21... (read all of them here).

Like individuals, banks and corporations must take responsibility for their mistakes and failures. Like individuals, they need to contribute taxes to the greater good and do their part to keep our schools, hospitals, and roads open. 

Unlike other recent political movements -- funded by the superrich to serve their own political interests (Google 'tea party funding') -- the Occupy Wall Street (which is everywhere) movement unifies many grass roots movements under a common banner of economic justice.

Our popularly-elected president is powerless to turn the tide of corruption alone. The 1 percent uses its financial savvy to exploit loopholes for their own benefit. They throw their wealth behind politicians who glorify ignorance and block measures that would help the people. They hire the best PR firms to help spread fear-based propaganda and Orwellian doublespeak to the mindless media, keeping Americans bickering about the news instead of working together to help ourselves. Why? To protect their bottom line.

Mathematically, the 99 percent cannot all be on the left. We are the growing poor, the diminishing middle class, and yes, even the well-off and wealthy.

We are the exhausted "thousand points of light" who have been shoring up the system since trickle-down economics began. Our personal freedoms, our personal finances, our human rights, our cities, our schools, our environment, and all species are all in trouble -- and to occupy is to say, "enough!"