Just about one year ago today, Barack Obama was inaugurated as President. Hopes were high among progressive-minded people, including climate activists. Finally, we had a President who got it on the need for action to address the deepening climate crisis. But here we are a year later and things look very different. The United States, including Obama, played a generally problematic role up to and at the Copenhagen climate conference, dismissing the widespread call by a big majority of the world’s countries for emissions reductions consistent with the climate science. The Obama administration played this role despite the bad-weather impacts …

The huge—and hugely disappointing, as far as the official results—Copenhagen world climate conference has just concluded. Since the worldwide celebrations of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth are coming up later this week, I thought I would study the words of Jesus in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to see if any of what he said there was of relevance to what just happened in Copenhagen. It is. In Matthew Chapter 7, verse 20, as part of a parable about how to know who was good and who was not, he stated, “you will know them by …

In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. -- Albert Schweitzer Six months ago, I went through a period of depression that was probably the lowest I’ve felt, for a sustained period of time, in 40 years. The reason? It was what was happening back in April, May, and June in the House of Representatives as they worked to put together comprehensive legislation to address the climate crisis. For two months …

The 350.org International Day of Climate Action a week ago was unprecedented, historic, stirring, and inspiring. Watching the pictures scroll across the computer screen at 350.org from literally all over the world, seeing the very concrete evidence of a worldwide grassroots movement for climate justice, was truly unforgettable. It was impossible not to feel that, yes, despite the very long odds, we actually may be able to win the race to prevent looming, catastrophic climate change and to enact climate and social justice. What is the one thing most needed right now if we are to win this race? Oct. …

On Oct. 2, 140 years ago, Mohandus Gandhi was born in Gujarat province in India. I didn’t learn this from the New York Times, CNN, or any other mainstream media source. I didn’t learn about it from progressive media outlets, although it is very possible that one or more of them publicized it and I missed it. I learned about this as a result of being invited to speak yesterday at William Patterson University in northern New Jersey by a professor who organized a program about Gandhi’s relevance for today. Thanks to Balmurli Natrajan, Director of the Gandhian Forum for …

The guest post below is by my CCAN co-worker, Keith Harrington. This past week, on the heels of “Climate Week” and attendant Copenhagen preliminaries in New York, Elizabeth Kolbert wrote a nice article in the New Yorker in which she mused over what it would actually take for the US to show real leadership on climate change. http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2009/10/05/091005taco_talk_kolbert. None of the suggestions Kolbert offered at all resembled the Senate climate bill Senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry unveiled Wednesday. While an improvement over the Waxman Markey bill, overall the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act falls far short of …

This coming week, in New York City and Pittsburgh, there will be important United Nations and G20 meetings that could advance the process of coming up with a new international treaty to address the climate crisis. This coming week will also see the opening salvo of “civil society” groups in the streets taking action to press their demands for not just any treaty but one that is strong and fair, one that reflects the deepening of the crisis. From Dec. 7-18, in Copenhagen, Denmark, 190 or so nations will come together in for the annual U.N. Climate Conference, but this …

More than once over the last several years I have talked with people who understand the deep hole humankind has dug for itself because of our reliance on fossil fuels and the dominant system's environmentally destructive model of  "development." They have difficulty seeing a way that we will ever get out of this hole. Intuitively, they see little hope that we can avoid climate catastrophe. They ask me why I'm doing what I'm doing given that likelihood. What I say to them is, OK, let's assume the worst. Let's accept that it is unlikely that we will be able to …

The last week or so has been the right-wingers-at-town-hall-meetings moment, and it looks like it’s going to be supplemented by something similar but different: rallies organized by fossil-fuel-supporting corporations in the states of Texas, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Colorado, Tennessee, Indiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Florida, South Carolina, Alaska, Illinois, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Missouri, and Arkansas.  Late last week, Greenpeace released a memo written by the leader of the American Petroleum Institute (API) to heads of oil companies -- apparently given to Greenpeace by a less-than-loyal employee of one of the API member companies. The …

British scientist and author James Lovelock has just had published a follow-up book to his 2006 book, "The Revenge of Gaia: Earth's Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity." This 2009 one is entitled, "The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning." Throughout both books he presents scientific evidence to support his view that humankind has already caused so much damage to the Earth, burnt so much coal, oil and natural gas, cut down so many forests, and unthinkingly overdeveloped so many cities and towns in an environmentally destructive way, that the chances of humankind surviving a worldwide climate catastrophe …