Earthprints-Step Lightly

My 3 Days With Al Gore’s Climate Reality in San Francisco

Last week, I was fortunate to be an attendee at the Climate Reality Leadership Corps training with Al Gore. A thousand people from around the world- 58 countries and 47 US states- made the pilgrimage to San Francisco to be part of this training and that alone was truly inspirational. Bette Midler was in the house. Grammy Award winner Kathy Mattea spoke about her story and journey with the Climate Project and the language of nonviolent communication. One very striking point is that while the U...

Island President: Mohamed Nasheed and a People’s Fight for Survival

On February 7, 2012, Mohamed Nasheed, the democratically elected President of the Maldives and an outspoken climate change activist, was forced to resign his office due to the threat of violence from a coup d'etat lead by military forces loyal to the former dictator. A documentary, The Island President recounts his rise to power and fight to get a fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement that recognized the science of climate change at the UNFCC COP 15 in Copenhagen in December of 2009....

Climate Change: Game Over or Just Beginning

The Club of Rome, a global network of independent thinkers, has also issued a new report this week: The Report says the main cause of future problems is the excessively short-term predominant political and economic model. “We need a system of governance that takes a more long-term view”, said Professor Randers, speaking in Rotterdam. “It is unlikely that governments will pass necessary regulation to force the markets to allocate more money into climate friendly solutions, and must not ass...

Connect the Dots on 5/5/12 With 350.org

Bill McKibben on US Bullying Climate Talks, COP16 and 350

Image by 350.org via Flickr Broadcasting from Cancún, Mexico where the COP16 Climate Summit is taking place, Democracy Now caught up with author and  350.org co-founder Bill McKibben. Here is an excerpt from that interview (embedded above): AMY GOODMAN: For more on the issue of the WikiLeaks cables and the international climate change talks, I spoke with the longtime environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben here in Cancún. He’s the founder of 350.org and the winner ...

10/10/10 -7347 Global Work Parties in 188 Countries- the Biggest Event Ever on Planet Earth

"It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it, And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it." -Eleanor Roosevelt And there was a whole lot of work going on yesterday. According to 350.org's co-founder, Bill McKibben "it was the most widespread day of political engagement in the planet's history, and a real chance for people across the world to say the same thing: We're fed up with the inaction of our leaders on climate, and we want them to work half as hard as we're...

What will you be doing on 10/10/10?

Participating in a  Global Work Party to celebrate climate solutions, we hope. On 10/10/10, people from all over the world will be coming together to implement solutions to the climate crisis. From tree plantings to beach clean-ups, from community gardens to bike rides, from solar panels to wind turbines, we'll collectively begin changing our world from the bottom up. At all of these events, we'll be taking photos with a call to action for our political leaders. We'll tell them, "we're ge...

Global Warning, Our Oil Addiction and Living on a New Planet

Narrated by Leo DiCaprio, this clip is based on the book by Thom Hartmann, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late. "Picture this, a blue planet protected by a thin layer of atmosphere that keeps temperature, air and water in perfect balance to maintain life. In the cold depths of space, this planet is a virtual paradise, the only one know of its kind. And, it is our planet, Earth. But something is wrong...human civilization and our re...

350.org Founder, Author Bill McKibben on “Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet”

Ahead of Earth Day and Cochabamba, Bolivia’s indigenous summit on climate change along with the anticipated unveiling of a Senate climate bill this coming week, Democracy Now spoke with someone who sounded one of the earliest alarms about global warming. In 1989, Author Bill McKibben wrote The End of Nature but his warnings were largely ignored. Below are some excerpts from that interview. BILL McKIBBEN: On his new book, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet:  Look, the planet that we l...

James Hansen on Cap-and-Trade, Tipping Points and Where We Go From Here

In a recent interview, post- the COP15 Conference, the nation's top climate scientist and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, James Hansen discussed his views on cap and trade, tipping points and how we can move forward in the aftermath of Copenhagen. Hansen also has a new book, Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity where he discusses these issues at length. The entire interview with A...