LEGO: Everything is NOT Awesome

Via Greenpeace International:

Shell’s global advertising deal with LEGO is part of a carefully thought-out strategy by Shell to buy friends who can make its controversial Arctic drilling plans look acceptable and misleadingly associate it with positive values. LEGO is one of the most beloved and admired toy companies in the world, and Shell knows that this deal will not only increase profits, but also improve the reputation of a company known for recklessly threatening the fragile Arctic ecosystem.

As part of the co-promotion, LEGO has branded Shell’s logo on a special set of its toys. By placing its logo in the hands of millions of children, Shell is building brand loyalty with the next generation of consumers. Shell has launched an invasion of children’s playrooms in order to prop up its public image, while threatening the Arctic with a deadly oil spill. We can’t let Shell get away with it.

If we convince LEGO to cut ties with Shell, it will be a major blow to Shell’s strategy of using deals with popular brands to distract from its Arctic drilling. As millions stand up to expose Shell’s true face, it will become harder and harder for Shell to get the public support it needs to destroy the Arctic.

*

[youtube=http://youtu.be/qhbliUq0_r4]

*

Click here to tell Shell & Lego to stop playing with the Arctic

Business leaders warn global warming is bad for the economy

If you are an investor, the risks of climate change should matter to you. That’s the message from the Risky Business Project, led by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, billionaire financier Tom Steyer and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. These business and political leaders have come together to quantify the economic costs. Judy Woodruff talks to Paulson about the project.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/m6-n6Y8zRj0]

*

Risky Business Project quantifies climate change costs

Indians And Cowboys Join Together To Reject & Protect

On April 22, an alliance of pipeline fighters — ranchers, farmers, tribal communities, and their friends — called the Cowboy and Indian Alliance rode into Washington DC and set up camp on the National Mall.

For 5 days, they will hold ceremonies and demonstration to remind him of the threat this tar sands pipeline poses to our climate, land, water and tribal rights.

On April 26 [note date change], the Alliance has invited friends and allies against the pipeline to join us as we conclude our camp and march together to make an unmistakable message to Pres. Obama.

 

[youtube=http://youtu.be/QvMK9yTfMxM]

*

The Cowboy Indian Alliance is raising funds to support Cowboy Indian Alliance members to send the strongest message possible to President Obama this April and beyond. Your contribution will make sure organizers from along the pipeline route can make it to DC and bring all of the beauty and power of our movement along with them, and support this fight for the long haul as we continue to work to stop the pipeline together.

Some of the things you’ll help fund include:

– Direct support for Cowboy Indian Alliance members
– Food, logistics and spiritual items for the camp
– Ongoing work to build support to stop Keystone XL while President Obama approaches his final decision

Go to BoldNebraska.org/RejectandProtect

#NoKXL

It's Up To Us To Decide The Future

Global weirding has begun. We still have time to act, but not an indefinite amount of time:

[youtube=http://youtu.be/_EWOrZQ3L-c]

*

Produced by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and Globaia and funded by the UN Foundation. The data visualization summarises and visualizes several of the most significant statements in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) recent Fifth Assessment Report, (Working Group I summary for policymakers, the Physical Science Basis). In 2014, IPCC will publish summaries concerning societal impacts, mitigation and adaptation.

Surprise! Putting Price On Carbon Is A Job-Creating Bonanza

[youtube=http://youtu.be/VVZN1GGwya0]

*

SAN DIEGO, MARCH 3, 2014 – An aggressively-priced carbon tax in California, with revenue returned to the public, would actually grow the state’s economy and increase jobs, according to a new study released by Citizens Climate Lobby.

The study, prepared for CCL by Regional Economic Models, Inc. (REMI), looked at the economic impact of revenue-neutral taxes that start low and level off at $50-, $100- and $200-per-ton on carbon-dioxide emissions. In each case, the study examined two methods of revenue return – across the board cuts to income, sales and corporate taxes (ATB) and direct payments to households through a fee and dividend (FAD) system.

Under the most aggressive scenario – a carbon tax steadily rising to $200 per ton of carbon-dioxide by 2035 – the study found that the “tax swap” could add 300,000 jobs in California, increase annual GDP in 2035 by $18 billion, increase annual income by $16 billion by 2035, and reduce carbon emissions to less than 75% of 1990 levels.

“Detractors have said over and over that a carbon tax will tank the economy and kill jobs,” said Mark Reynolds, Executive Director of Citizens Climate Lobby. “This study blows that assumption out of the water. It shows that a carbon tax will actually create jobs and be good for the economy, provided the revenue from that tax is recycled back into the economy.”

Under the Fee and Dividend scenario – revenue returned directly to households – the $200-per-ton tax would see a net gain of 236,000 jobs in California by 2035 with GDP up by $2.5 billion annually.

The REMI study does not suggest that a carbon tax should replace California’s cap-and-trade system set up under AB 32. In fact, the study says “it is perfectly possible for the two to coexist and reinforce the same objectives of reducing carbon emissions (both policies).”

Last summer, REMI prepared a similar report about the effect of revenue-neutral carbon taxes in Massachusetts – the highest scenario $45 per ton of CO2 – which found that, like the California study, the state would see an increase in jobs and GDP. Since then, three of the five Democratic candidates for governor in Massachusetts have announced their support for a carbon tax.

“Economists from both ends of the political spectrum have argued that a carbon tax, with revenue returned to the public, is the most efficient and effective way to reduce emissions that are changing our climate,” said Reynolds. “We now have the studies to back up those assertions, and there will be more to come.”

Citizens Climate Lobby, a non-partisan advocacy organization with more than 150 chapters in North America, advocates for a national revenue-neutral carbon tax and will hold its 5th international conference in Washington D.C. June 22-24 2014. CCL plans to have volunteers meet with every congressional office on Capitol Hill.

More links:

Think Progress: Surprise! Even a Crazy-High Price On Carbon Would Help California Businesses

Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church Votes to Divest from Fossil Fuel Companies

trinity st paul divests*

The congregation of across the country Trinity-St Paul’s United Church in Toronto voted unanimously on Sunday at its Annual General Meeting to lend its voice to the fast-growing divestment movement, and to ensure that its own funds are not invested in any of the world’s 200 largest fossil fuel companies. The vote confirms a long-standing commitment to climate justice, which has been a key priority of the congregation for the past decade.

Jeanne Moffat, a member and representative of the Climate Justice Group of Trinity St. Paul’s, sees the decision as deliberately aligning with Christianity’s core teachings of justice. “For too many years governments have not dealt decisively with the impending climate chaos, largely to the peril of low- income countries and low-lying regions of the world. Low-income countries are neither responsible for the heat-trapping gases that will cause more droughts and floods, nor do they have the resources to adapt. Not to act in the face of the realities of climate change is to violate our call to justice. We call upon all people of faith to join us in this movement.”

The timing of the decision coincides with other churches’ and institutions’ decisions to stop profiting from the companies whose business model includes plundering the planet. The decision represents clear dissatisfaction with the inadequate climate policies of the world’s wealthiest countries.

“We have been working on climate justice for well over a decade as individuals and as a congregation,” says Moffat, who proposed the motion on behalf of the Climate Justice Group. “We have been part of a range of campaigns to call for climate action at the scale and pace needed to avert climate catastrophe. We see this as a necessary, logical step in the mass movement away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy and energy efficiency. This movement is growing and growing fast. We invite our sibling congregations across Canada to support this movement away from the fossil fuels that threaten all of Creation.”

Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church is a congregation of the United Church of Canada. Trinity-St. Paul’s seeks to live the love, justice and freedom of Jesus Christ. Worship of God, nurture of one another, and the struggle to be faithful to God’s call lie at the centre of its community and its outreach.

The United Church of Canada is the largest Protestant denomination in Canada with over 3,000 congregations and other ministries across the country.

su-divestment-graphic*

GoFossilFree.org

Trinity-St Paul’s Church: Climate Justice

Can Fossil Fuel Divestment Prevent The Carbon Bubble From Bursting?

The Real Math on Renewable vs Nonrenewable Energy Jobs

406 Billion dollars in government subsidies go to the fossil fuel industry per year to create 7 million jobs globally. Renewable energy provides 5.7 million jobs already, but with 60 Billion dollars, less than one sixth of government support.

*

do the math on renewable jobs
graphic: 1,000,000 Strong Against Offshore Drilling

*

Read more at International Renewable Energy Agency’s website.

Take action at EndFossilFuelSubsidies.org

Coal Train Blues

Counterfeit Cash, a Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash tribute band based in Portland, Oregon, has just released a new music video, “Coal Train Blues,” a cover of the Man in Black’s famous hit “Folsom Prison Blues.”

The revised lyrics tell about the health and environmental risks that coal exports pose to communities across the Pacific Northwest, including the beautiful Columbia River Gorge.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/0uS1VVDVw5k]

*

Links:

The Planet: Coal Train Blues

Friends of the Columbia Gorge