More BAD action on climate later

My blog action day post on climate change will probably be a few days late--
I'm preparing a talk on the phases of movements for the student climate conference, Powershift '09, this Saturday in Chapel Hill, NC.

the workshop will be a repeat of the one I did in November 2008.

-- End--
Click Here to Read More..

Tolstoy on Causation

The human mind cannot grasp the causes of phenomena in the aggregate. But the need to find these causes is inherent in man’s soul. And the human intellect, without investigating the multiplicity and complexity of the conditions of phenomena, any one of which taken separately may seem to be the cause, snatches at the first, the most intelligible approximation to a cause, and says: “This is the cause!"

-Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace

Click Here to Read More..

Important August Essays on the Eco-Crisis

All the essays agree on one thing: big changes are ahead of us, and soon.
All of the essays below are by some of the top eco-thinkers alive.

Paul Kingsnorth and Paul Monbiot debate the future in the (UK) Guardian

Northwest US-based Tom Atlee on the Great Turning

NY Times eco-columnist Andy Revkin on a new stage in humanity

Sharon Astyk (upstate NY) and Rob Hopkins (Devonshire, UK) debate Permaculture and Transition Towns.

Click Here to Read More..

Buses from Downtown Asheville to SEE Expo and back

ROUTE 6 AIRPORT/HENDERSONVILLE TO Southern Energy & Environment Expo

( I am posting this on my private blog to enhance skimmability. You can also find it somewhere on their website. Maybe. If you're lucky.)

Asheville Transit Route 6-Airport/Hendersonville Road will stop at the 9th annual Southern Energy & Environment Expo at the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center on Friday, August 21 and Saturday August 22 (but not Sunday). From downtown Asheville, the route will make seven trips to the agricultural center as part of its regular schedule (which means rides cost $1, exact change- four quarters or a dollar bill).

Asheville Transit will provide service to the bus stop near gate 1 at the agricultural center. The first trip will arrive Friday and Saturday at 9:15 a.m. and the last trip will leave at 6:15 p.m.

Bus service is not available on Sunday.

Route 6 will stop at the expo about 10 minutes before arriving at the Asheville Regional Airport, as part of its current schedule Friday and Saturday. Route times include: 9:15 a.m.; 10:45a.m.; 12:15 p.m.; 1:45 p.m.; 3:15 p.m.; 4:45 p.m., and; 6:15 p.m.

The Asheville Transit Route 6 schedule can be found at www.ashevilletransit.com under “maps and schedules.” 

For more information, contact Asheville Transit at 253-5691, iride@ashevillenc.gov or by going to www.ashevilletransit.com.

Click Here to Read More..

Help make video this Saturday noon

Mountaine and I are doing a video this Saturday noon. We need extras.
Can you join us?
Facebook signup: http://bit.ly/p9xeR
-- Jim
*************************************

Hiya friends.
I'm involved in the October 24th global day of activism/education on sustainability, organized by the great folks at www.350.org. It's about the need to reduce carbon in the atmosphere from the current 390 parts per million (dangerous and rising) to 350 (much safer). Check out the website - this is HUGE.

One of the events I'm working on is a simple bit of street theatre that can be replicated easily around the world. It's called the "350 move". There is strong interest from the 350.org people in our getting a short video made quickly, so they can publicize it to the groups in over 80 countries gearing up for the big event on October 24th.

This Saturday August 1st, promptly at noon, at the downtown Asheville Vance Monument, some of us will meet to do 2 things - review the plan for the street theatre and make some final tweaks, and then get it videotaped. I hope it takes only an hour - if more, not much. Can you be a part of this? We need warm enthusiastic creative bodies! We're gonna meet at the Vance Monument, and choose a place to go depending on the weather. If you're pretty sure you'll come, please send me an email at mountaine at gmail . Or just show up.

If you can, bring a cardboard sign that says "350" on it. Dress the way you'll want to look for the world audience - a variety of styles (some in business clothes) would be great.

And if you can serve as our videographer, let me know right away. We have the offer of a video camera to borrow, but best if we have someone with a camera who knows how to use it, and perhaps do a wee bit of editing after the fact if necessary.

Grateful for who you are,
Mountaine


End of post
Click Here to Read More..

To Obama and Constitutzia!

IN 1825, Russian officers staged a coup against the Tsar's absolute monarchy, and in favor of a constitution. Feeling their power after their army had defeated Napolean 13 years before, and back from occupying Europe where they got to read, talk and study with avant-garde thinkers, they saw their chance in 1825.

**********
The old czar died, and the more popular, more liberal older son, Constantine, chose love over office, choosing to marry a non-royal Polish girl. He renounced the chance at a throne in favor of his younger brother Nicholas.

The liberal officers staged a revolt, getting their men to cry "Constantine and Constitution!". Unfortunately, many of the common soldiers thought that "Consitutzia" was Constantine's wife. The premature revolt failed.

This month, June 2009, hasn't seen so many people in the streets since 1989 (Romania, East Germany, China). As of Sunday morning, July 5th 2009, it's an open question as to whether the forces of free election and popular participation will win in Iran and Honduras, both countries in which the American taxpayer funded CIA has done much to help kill, torture and imprison earlier advocates of change in the fifties, sixties, seventies in both countries, and in the eighties in Honduras.

Unlike earlier US administrations, Obama is sending signals to those who would use teargas and clubs that they don't have a friend in the White House. It's about time.

Here's to Obama and Constitutzia!
And to the fact that we now know the difference between Michelle and Constitution.
Click Here to Read More..

Courage

Type your summary here
MOre later if I get time

Type rest of the post here
Click Here to Read More..

Massacres Don't Work for Long

It seems rare enough that unarmeddemonstrators are fired upon by police/national guard/soldiers. And it is frequent that there are agents provocateurs.



Clubbed, yes; fired upon, rare enough so that I could name a few prominent ones:

• Bloody Sunday, St. Petersburg, 1905
• Bloody Sunday, Dublin, Ireland 1920
  
• Ludlow Massacre, Ludlow, Colorado, 1914
• Everett Massacre, Everett, WA 1916
• Sharpeville, South Africa 1960
  
• Orangeburg Massacre, Orangeburg, SC 1968
• Tlatelolco massacre, Mexico City, Mexico, 1968
  
• Kent State Shootings, Kent, OH May 4th, 1970
• Jackson State Shootings, Jackson, MI 1970
  
• Bloody Sunday, Derry, Northern Ireland, 1972
• Black Friday, Tehran, Iran, Sept. 8, 1978
  
• Greensboro Massacre, Greensboro, NC 1979*
  
• Tianamen Square Massacre, Peking, 1989
• Devil's Curve, Bagua, Peru, 2009
• ?? Teheran, Iran, 2009

None of these are forgotten or swept under the rug. That I can name them years later proves that. As do the wikipedia articles.
* The Greensboro demonstrators were shot by the Klan, but acquitted. The subsequent rift led to a Truth and Reconciliation process.

**Nothing more after this**

Click Here to Read More..

Mandela and ‘The Elders’ Aim to Save the World

Mandela and ‘The Elders’ Aim to Save the World
http://abcnews.go.com/International/TenWays/Story?id=3389067
Written by Kate Snow
Saturday, 04 August 2007
JOHANNESBURG — The Elders, a new alliance made up of an elite group of senior statesmen dedicated to solving thorny global problems, unveiled itself today in Johannesburg. The rollout coincided with founding member Nelson Mandela’s 89th birthday.

After a grand entrance, Mandela, the former South African president, announced the rest of the Elders.

The members include Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop emeritus of Capetown; former U.S. President Jimmy Carter; former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan; Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and Mohammed Yunus, the Nobel laureate and founder of the Green Bank in Bangladesh. The group plans to get involved in some of the world’s most pressing problems — climate change, pandemics like AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, violent conflicts.

It was an extraordinary gathering;

a who’s who of famous international leaders, with enough emotion to move some of them to tears.

Under a large white futuristic dome, British billionaire Richard Branson and rock star Peter Gabriel, who conceived the idea for the Elders, gathered enough star power to change the world, or at least that’s the hope.

“The structures we have to deal with these problems are often tied down by political, economic and geographic constraints,” Mandela said. The Elders, he argued, will face no such constraints.

Seven years ago, Branson and Gabriel approached Mandela about the Elders idea, and he agreed to help them recruit others. “This group of elders will bring hope and wisdom back into the world,” Branson said. “They’ll play a role in bringing us together.

“Using their collective experience, their moral courage and their ability to rise above the parochial concerns of nations ? they can help make our planet a more peaceful, healthy and equitable place to live, ” Branson said. ” Let us call them ‘global elders,’ not because of their age but because of individual and collective wisdom.”

Calling it “the most extraordinary day” of his life, Gabriel said, “The dream was there might still be a body of people in whom the world could place their trust.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who moderated the event and will serve as its leader, was moved to tears after Gabriel sang an impromptu accapella version of his hit song “Biko,” written about a famous South African political prisoner.

Branson and Gabriel have raised enough money — some $18 million — to fund this group for three years.

Also onboard are names less well known in the United States, including Indian microfinance leader Ela Bhatt; former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland; former Chinese ambassador to the United States Li Zhaoxing.

The group left an empty seat onstage — symbolically — for an elder who was invited, but could not attend because she is under house arrest in Burma, Nobel laureate and human rights advocate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Mandela and Carter emphasized the group’s ability to talk to anyone without risk.

“We will be able to risk failure in worthy causes, and we will not need to claim credit for any successes that might be achieved,” said Carter.

Carter said the group does not want to step on or interfere with other positive work that nations or organizations are doing but wants to supplement that work.

Several members acknowledged that the actual activities and actions of the group remain to be determined. There are no titles, no ranking of the members. And it is not clear if they will travel as a group, deploy individual members to global hot spots, or simply sit in a room together to develop strategies or assist those who are suffering find help.

But they certainly have high hopes.

“I didn’t like the title “elders,” because I didn’t feel like an elder,” said Yunus to laughter, “but I like the idea.”

Yunus said the world is without direction and he hopes the Elders can provide some direction.

Speaking of the Elders, almost in the way one would describe a cartoon about superheroes, Mandela said, “The Elders can become a fiercely independent and positive force for good.”

Annan added that the group does not “intend to go and take on Darfur or Somalia and resolve it singlehandedly. We don’t have a magic wand,” he said. But he argued that the group could intervene and perhaps force parties to honor agreements.

“There are certain crimes that shame us all,” said Annan. “We all have a responsibility, and I hope the Elders will take the lead in asking the question: What can we do to move the situation forward?

“Sometimes by saying ‘this is enough we can’t take this anymore it must stop,’ we are making a difference,” Annan continued

Mandela and Branson both celebrated birthdays today. At 89, Mandela looked frail. He walked with a cane and Carter helped him to the podium. But once Mandela got there, he stood tall and easily delivered some 10 minutes of remarks.

“He, as you know, walks sedately,” Tutu joked.
Click Here to Read More..

How to put the Copenhagen Countdown Clock on your website

Concerned about climate change?
One of the most important things we can do on this planet is to create a strong climate treaty at the UN Climate conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.

And the most important element in drafting a strong treaty is creating an overwhelming public demand in all the countries of the world for this, in the face of reluctant governments and corporate lobbying and greenwashing.

And the key to creating that overwhelming public demand is getting people's mindshare focused on the climate negotiations.

And a good way to do that is to create a small public reminder of the negotiations.

If you have a website, here's something you can do in under two minutes (that's how long it too me):
How to put the Copenhagen Countdown Clock on your website

To put the clock on your website do the following:

A: From the homepage http://unfccc.int follow the link that say's "How to
use the countdown clock on your
website" [http://unfccc.int/home/items/4688.php]
Copy the html code from any of the boxes depending on which version of the
clock you want to use into their webpage.

B: Follow the instructions in A.

(Nothing more in the "more" section below.

Type rest of the post here
Click Here to Read More..