SustainUS is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of young people advancing sustainable development and youth empowerment in the United States. Through proactive education, research, and advocacy at the policy-making and grassroots levels, we are building a future in which all people recognize the inherent equality and interdependence of social, economic, and environmental sustainability.
Despite some excellent pro-climate change action sound bites, Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar, still supported the use of coal.
Addressing a limited crowd, Salazar was one of many Obama administration cabinet members to come to Copenhagen. His speech was very rosy and filled with all the things us COP-15 delegates wanted to hear. Salazar reminisced oh his youth growing up on the wide expanses of his family’s farm in New Mexico, where he learned for a young age the importance of preserving wild lands and our natural resources. He discussed the importance of the wild lands that – get this – sustain us.
Like all Obama officials I’ve heard so far, he spoke about the importance of addressing climate change and starting the clean energy economy. He talked about bringing the US “out of the darkness” and toward a potential agreement. He mentioned the glaciers in Glacier National Park are melting, and may be gone altogether by 2020. He even quoted the native American adage about borrowing the Earth from our children.
But, when it came time for questions, it was just another typical politician up there. He skirted around all the tough questions like a pro. He dodged a question about stopping mountain top removal mining. Instead, he talked about how important coal is to the US because it’s an “abundant resource,” and therefore we need to commit to making it less dirty when we burn it. He also ignored questions about off-shore drilling in Florida and calls for following “science-based targets” for the US Congress.
Climate targets in the US Congress? He said he’s working with Congress everyday to pass through climate legislation, which in the House, of course, is only 17% below 2005 levels. Not exactly strong enough to reach 350 part per million.
He did give a shout out to US Youth here at COP-15 for making climate change action a priority, but he didn’t agree that we need science based targets, aka to aim for 1.5 degrees or 350ppm.
So, is Salazar a nature loving climate change action hero or just another coal-hearted American politician? See below for more details on his speech, and I’ll let you decide..
After rambling on for a while, amidst some yawns, Salazar did spout off a ton of details about what the Obama administration has done since taking power. Some of this was new information for me, and was good to know (but perhaps should be verified!)
A. Obama Administration is working to build renewable energy sources on public lands.
Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab assessed that there’s potential of 1,000GW of offshore wind here in the US- enough to power the entire country
New goal of achieving 20% wind by 2030. Achieving this goal would create 250,000 jobs
Cutting the red tape to make siting renewable power generation on public lands is easier
1st ever exploratory leases for off-shore wind in NJ and Delaware (don’t know exactly what they need to explore!)
Set aside 1,000 square miles for solar on public lands
$41 million for rapid move to large scale solar
5300MW of wind and solar ready for construction (I believe he said on public lands) by the end of 2010. Enough energy to power 1.6million homes and create 50,000 jobs. It’s the equivalent of 15 coal fired power plants at 350MW each.
Also important to achieving these goals is to upgrade the grid. US currently working to fast-track 1,000 new miles of transmission projects.
B. Carbon Capture and Storage
USGS survey recently found that 90billion Metric Tons of Carbon is sunk by US lands. It’s the equivalent of 30% of US CO2 emissions per year.
US needs to protect and restore ecosystems, and protect areas from development. 3 million acres of land lost to development each year in the USA.
C. Adaptation
US needs more landscape management, education initiatives, partnerships to protect wild lands, climate change impact data, etc.
D. Coal:
Coal is an abundant resource and therefore is important for the US
Don’t ask when we’ll stop using coal, but ask how we can reduce the pollution and carbon emitted from coal when it’s burned
Time is flying here in Copenhagen. The question is, are we flying in a private jet or gracefully soaring like an eagle? Are we headed towards an outcome in Copenhagen that will continue to support a dirty energy economy that pollutes greenhouse gases without thought of its grave impacts on the ecological systems and habitability of this earth or one that will give us, and future generations, a chance at a beautiful, sustainable future.
This pointed question is at the middle of today’s activities in the Bella Center. This year, global youth at the UNFCCC acquired a more formal status, that of a “constituency”. Constituency status, initially just given to “BINGOs” (Business and Industry NGOs) and “ENGOs” (Environmental NGOs), allows NGOs falling under particular umbrellas to have greater access to the UNFCCC Secretariat by way of funneling shared issues and requests through one or two representatives or “focal points”.
To celebrate the addition of YOUNGOs to the list of constituencies to the UNFCCC, today, December 10, we’re hosting Young and Future Generations Day in cooperation with the Secretariat. We have 1,000 youth running around the convention center with bright orange t-shirts asking negotiators, NGO leaders and press, “how old will you be in 2050″ and demanding that negotiations “don’t bracket our future”. We’re also handing out 1,000 orange scarves to our supporters in country delegations and leading international NGOs.
I’m currently sitting in a Side Event (where NGO observers have a chance to speak on various issues related to the COP-15 negotiations) presented by SustainUS on Youth Voices on REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). The opportunity to hold events such as this forest side event with its quiet, academic tone is a necessary part of youth involvement at COP alongside our other actions.
credit: Robert vanWaarden
Sometimes our loud, media-grabbing actions such as supporting Tuvalu’s call for new, transparent discussions for a legal treaty yesterday outside of the Plenary hall or crashing an Americans for Prosperity live telecast event held outside of COP (yes, this is the one where Lord Monckton repeatedly calls us Nazis and Hitler Youth) paint youth involvement into a corner – one where it can be difficult to see our deep understanding of the climate policy and ecological science.
Yesterday, Lord Monckton called us “Hitler Youth who know nothing about climate science” but the bright minds in this forests side event, and the young people from the world over whom I’ve talked to around the entire convention center, disprove him time after time.
We are a force to be reckoned with, not just because of our numbers or our energy, but also because of our knowledge climate science and our understanding of what is at stake. Our compassion for one another, for the small island states and the world’s poorest communities, and for future generations is overwhelming and contagious.
I’m so energized to keep working in this movement, and to keep appreciating the importance and the power of youth even as I get older. Today is my birthday and I’m now 24. On December 10, 2050, I’ll have just turned 65. By that point in time, official retirement age will probably be over 70, but even it if it isn’t, I’ll probably still be hard at work managing environmental issues.
P.S. Haven’t gotten me a birthday present yet? Consider donating to my Copenhagen Fund. A $5 donation helps me buy a meal at the Bella Center (where food is subsidized, thank goodness) or a bit of tap water in the city of Copenhagen… And hey, it’s tax deductible!
Saturday, December 12, marks the day of international vigils for climate (350.org/vigil) and the 37th day of an international hunger strike. Four members of the strike, called Climate Justice Fast!, are accredited delegates to the summit. Two people in Australia and one in the U.S. are also on the 37th day of the hunger strike.
The original fasters have refused food and drunk only water since November 6. One long-term faster, 61-year-old Michael Morphett of Australia, was hospitalized Tuesday for dangerously low blood pressure.
Another faster, Daniel Lau, is an Australian graduate student in Economics preparing for a PhD in Denmark. He worked for eight years in the steel industry, the single most intensive point source of CO2 in Australia. He joined Climate Justice Fast! one week after the strike began, though he had never been involved in political activism before.
"Climate change is the defining challenge of our generation. A hunger strike clearly symbolizes the value of the lives and livelihoods at stake, and the urgency with which we must act. I am fasting to pay penance for the ways in which I have and continue to contribute to climate injustice and to call for governments, boardrooms, families, and all people everywhere to act with conscience, meet the science, and unite to create a sustainable future."
Sara Svensson, a 25-year old long-time climate activist from Sweden who began fasting on Nov. 6, added "We must begin examining and fixing the root causes of the climate crisis - our reliance on fossil fuels, and a development paradigm that sees excess as a virtue and rewards abuse of people and the planet."
Inside the Bella Center, Deepa Gupta, founder of the Indian Youth Climate Network, and two Greenpeace executives, along with many, many others, will be fasting in solidarity for the twelve days of the climate talks.
To achieve climate justice, Climate Justice Fast! calls for governments to commit to reducing atmospheric carbon to 350ppm, as well as the provision of 195 billion USD per year from wealthy, high-emitting countries to support adaptation efforts, forest protection, and low-carbon development in those countries first and worst impacted by climate change.
Recent announcements from world leaders – including President Obama, who will be joining negotiators on December 18th – indicate that a legally-binding international climate treaty won’t be signed at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen this December.
Anna Keenan, a 23 year-old Physics graduate from Australia and one of the key organizers of Climate Justice Fast! said “I am still calling on governments to negotiate a fair, ambitious, and binding treaty. If our leaders do not, the world’s most vulnerable people, and our children, are set to suffer the catastrophic consequences of a problem they did not create.”
The long-term fasters will continue fasting until at least the end of the Copenhagen Climate Summit. The circumstances under which the hunger strike will end are not yet decided."
Blog - Agents of Change
The original fasters have refused food and drunk only water since November 6. One long-term faster, 61-year-old Michael Morphett of Australia, was hospitalized Tuesday for dangerously low blood pressure.