Posts Tagged ‘food and water watch’

Being Thankful: Climate Change Activism in the USA

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011


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On November 28th, countries from all over the world gather in Durban, South Africa for the next round of UN talks on Climate Change. Given the “divided” house in the USA, hope for wide ranging solutions at this time are low – however, progress at the margins and education on the reality of climate change are important messages that will come out of this event.

At the grassroots level here in the US there is much to cheer about and be thankful for! Consider sharing and discussing these “wins” with the kids in your life around the Thanksgiving table this year. Show your kids that there IS hope and that regular people have “power” to make change as we continue to fight and win ongoing battles in the war we are fighting against climate change – for their future and ours!

1. Tar Sands Action – Keystone XL Pipeline, postponed!
2. Fracking – Delaware River Basin Commission cancels its November 21st meeting due to pressure by environmental groups!
3. The vast majority of Americans do care about climate change and want our government to address it. See the latest national poll on this by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication.

As scientific studies continue to tell us that human caused climate change is real and happening now, in large part due to our use of fossil fuels, we need to call our politicians on this, and demand that they stand up and be counted, as we work together to avert the worst impacts of climate change. Moving into the 2012 election cycle, they will listen, so we need to speak up. This is reality, make sure your politicians know you won’t be voting for them unless they take this issue as seriously as you do.

The oil and gas industry has spent close to $1 billion over the last 10 years convincing us we NEED oil and gas for energy security, jobs and the economy. Lets turn the paradigm upside down, where it should be, we NEED to stop our addiction to fossil fuels. We NEED our government to support the next “Marshall Plan” putting people to work building windmills, solar farms, and other renewable resources, transmission lines and sustainable investments in our future. We NEED to move beyond fossil fuels to a clean energy future for our children and ourselves.

We at ClimateMama are thankful for you, our community, and to all of those working at the grassroots level to lift the veil, choose reality and together support a better, cleaner, more sustainable world for us all!

Best,

Climate Mama

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Posted in Climate Mama News, Earth Day is Every Day | No Comments »

Freaked about Fracking

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011


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Guest Post by Ronnie Citron-Fink, Moms Clean Air Force

(Grab the kids in your life and learn more about Fracking from Ronnie. Fracking is likely coming “home” soon to an area near you – unless we do something to stop it….)

“Hey, how you doin’?
I just came by to say hello.
I work for the gas company.
I just happen to be in the neighborhood, you know.
But I was thinkin’, you must be tired of workin’ that rake and that hoe.
I could make you lots more money than those potatoes.” ~ No Fracking Way, Marc Black

While traveling along the Massachusetts Turnpike to visit my children in Boston a few weeks ago, I listened to a radio interview with Marc Black. He’s the singer/songwriter who wrote the song, No Fracking Way, which tells the story of farmers who are approached by gas companies to drill on their land.

What Is Fracking?
Hydro-fracturing or fracking is a method of gas extraction where water, sand and highly toxic chemicals are injected deep into the earth at high pressure to fracture rock formations and release natural gas. Once the gas is liberated, it comes to the surface and can be used as a source of energy.

Fracking Comes Home
Fracking has been kicking up its dirty heels in the Northeast, particularly along the Marcellus Shale region of New York and Pennsylvania. I’ve been a New Yorker my whole life, so when I discovered New York ranks as the highest state in HAP (Hazardous Air Pollution), it was daunting to me to learn gas companies are using persuasive practices to pad their pocketbooks and advance an agenda to pollute the land, water and air…all in the name of “cleaner” energy.

This stuff drives me crazy if I don’t learn more. So I contacted singer Marc Black. When we met, he made it perfectly clear that while the problem of fracking is complicated, the premise is simple. He explains…

“There’s nothing political about a poisoned well and breathing polluted air. Energy companies with the backing of some politicians are clamoring to drill. They laud natural gas as a source of jobs and a “cleaner” solution to our dependence on foreign oil. What they neglect to tell people is that their wells, land and air become polluted”

To Frack Or Not To Frack?
Since natural gas production has been linked to emissions of benzene, formaldehyde, carbon disulfide, ethane, toluene and xylene. Even short-term exposure to these compounds may produce nausea, dizziness, and respiratory problems, and long-term exposure may be linked to brain tumors, leukemia, and breast cancer. If that doesn’t freak the fracking daylights out of you, maybe this will:

Three More Reasons Why Fracking Is A Problem:
1. Vast amounts of water are required.
2. Since hydro-fracking disrupts fault lines, the process is feared to cause earthquakes.
3. Fracking has never gone through an independent federal environmental impact assessment and is not subject to federal regulations. While the natural gas industry should be required to abide by the same regulations as any other energy producing industry, the fracking process is mostly unregulated due to numerous exemptions in federal laws.

3 Things We Can Do:
1. Ask for a full disclosure of chemicals used in the fracking process (some states already are beginning to require disclosure).
2. Tell the politicians that we do not support spending hundreds of millions of dollars to gut the Clean Air Act and weaken the EPA’s ability to reduce dangerous pollution.
3. Advocate for “real” clean renewable energy, like solar and wind.

“So when the man comes up to you and he says
I wanna give you all this money to poison your land
What will you say, huh?” ~ Marc Black

More:
Join: Moms Clean Air Force and join parents who are fighting for the right to clean air.
Learn: Check out the New York Times in-depth feature, Drilling Down.
Watch: Host a fractivist party.

THANKS RONNIE FOR AN INFORMATIVE AND INTERESTING POST. ONE MORE THING YOU CAN DO, PARTICULARLY IF YOU LIVE IN NEW YORK, NJ OR PA.

ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21ST, THE DELAWARE RIVER BASIN COMMISSION WILL HOLD A CRUCIAL VOTE IN TRENTON, NJ ON WHETHER TO ALLOW FRACKING – A DECISION THAT WILL IMPACT CLEAN AIR AND THE WATER SUPPLY OF MORE THAN 15 MILLION PEOPLE. LEARN MORE AND FIND OUT WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP FROM FOOD AND WATER WATCH.

BEST,

CLIMATE MAMA

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Posted in Health & Fitness, In The News, Politics, Renewable Energy, Take a Stand: Action & Advocacy | No Comments »

First State to Ban FRACKING – Go New Jersey!

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

Go New Jersey! On June 29th, New Jersey became the first state in the USA to ban “fracking” a process used to extract natural gas which has quickly become extremely controversial. “Fracking” is and will be more and more in the news and we all need to get educated on this subject, talk to the kids in our lives and figure out “what price we are willing to pay” for fossil fuels. We need to start “making noise” and demanding more investment and infrastructure to support renewable forms of energy. As parents, we all want clean air and water for our children and we should demand a clean and renewable future for them to grow up in. We need to be more vocal on energy issues so that processes that remain “secretive and unconventional” like fracking, become more open and clear to all of us before we accept them as “done deals.”

“Today, New Jersey sent a strong message to surrounding states and to the nation that a ban on fracking is necessary to protect public health and preserve our natural resources,” said Senator Bob Gordon (D-Bergen). “Any benefits of gas production simply do not justify the many potential dangers associated with fracking such as pollution of our lakes, streams and drinking water supplies and the release of airborne pollutants. We should not wait until our natural resources are threatened or destroyed to act. The time to ban fracking in New Jersey is now.”

According to Food and Water Watch: “fracking involves injecting water, sand and toxic chemicals deep underground to break up dense rock formations and release natural gas. Opponents of fracking cite the high potential for water and air pollution as a leading reason to ban the practice. Over 1,000 cases of water contamination have been reported near fracking sites. Public opposition to fracking has escalated in recent months, with concerned residents and environmental and consumer advocacy groups campaigning against the practice in New Jersey and the surrounding states, where gas companies have been ramping up plans to drill in the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation which extends up the East Coast. Fracking operations in Pennsylvania alone are expected to create 19 million gallons of wastewater.

While the NJ Senate and Assembly have passed this bill, it needs to be signed by the Governor to become law. Join us in encouraging Gov. Christie to make NJ the first state in the nation to ban the dangerous practice of fracking. Learn more about fracking and how you can sign onto state and national petitions at the Food and Water Watch website.

If you missed our Video Peak of the Week on Fracking, share “What the Frack” now with the kids in your life, an irreverent look at fracking.

At the same time, the NJ legislature is fighting off pressure from the Koch brothers funded group, Americans for Prosperity, as well as oil and gas industry attempts to push back environmental policy in New Jersey – a leading state in the nation supporting renewable energy and fighting global warming pollution. At the end of June, the NJ legislature passed resolutions to keep the state in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a 10 state compact to fight climate change and lower greenhouse gas emissions by setting a cap on power plant emissions. The NJ legislature also passed a resolution which would make it difficult for the Governor to unilaterally remove NJ from RGGI. At the end of May, Governor Christie stated that he was going to pull NJ from RGGI, but offered no concrete reasons or rational for this decision. Governor Christie still states he will veto the recent legislation and pull NJ from RGGI..stay tuned as the “fight for clean energy continues!”

NJ environmental groups, including Food and Water Watch, the Sierra Club and Environment NJ have been working together to grow a coalition and coordinated effort of state wide environmental groups and private citizens that will lobby the legislature and inform all NJ residents of the efforts by private interest groups to threaten environmental policy and clean energy advances in New Jersey that have been years in the making.

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Posted in In The News, Politics, Renewable Energy, Take a Stand: Action & Advocacy | 2 Comments »

Welcome to Climate Mama

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You are a mother, a father, a grandparent, an uncle, an aunt, a teacher or a child at heart. When you hear the Native American saying, “We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”, it makes you stop for a moment and think. You love nature, travel, adventure and believing in a world that is special and unique. Climate change and global warming are words that alarm you, that often seem too big to get your arms around. You care about what’s happening to the world and notice small changes in your own life that seem to point in the direction of a threatened environment. But you wonder if these changes are real, and if they are you can’t imagine what you can do to help change what is happening.

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Climate Mamas and Papas

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Climate Change so often seems too big to get our hands around. We wonder where we can start and how we can actually make a difference. Each one of us has a different path that we will follow. Some of us cut a wider swath than others, but each of us has a role to play. We would like to introduce you to some amazing individuals, Climate Mamas and Papas who are making a difference, who are, through their daily lives, affecting the lives of all of us. They inspire us, empower us, and challenge us to reach for the stars, to strive to do the best we can to help change the crash course we are currently on with our environment. Lets meet some of these amazing people and find out what inspires them. Meet our featured Climate Mama, Desiree Di Mauro today!

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The Climate Reality Project is one of the world’s leading organizations dedicated to mobilizing action around climate change. With a global movement that is more than 2 million strong and a grassroots network of trained Climate Leaders, Climate Reality is "spreading the truth and unleashing the cultural momentum to solve the climate crisis."

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