Category: Climate Change

Cognitive Dissonance Sunday

9/12/2019

This past Sunday, Rev. Dr. Collin Bossen, interim senior minister at First UU Houston, delivered one of a series of sermons on the topic of hope. He began his talk with reminiscences of his participation in the massive "Teamsters & Turtles" protests against the World Trade Organization's meeting in Seattle 20 years ago last week. I loved reliving the Battle of Seattle with him, although in 1999 I was watching it all via IndyMedia from 2,000 miles away.

After all the warm-fuzzy nostalgia, I became a little perturbed and more than a little perplexed.

A towering majority of my congregation identify as Democrats. It's practically assumed that UU's are Democrats by default, a great many of them on the progressive wing. Voting for Democrats and cheering on favored candidates in primaries are practically autonomic reflexes in this crowd. I noticed a few fellow-congregants in the sanctuary yesterday getting the same nostalgic feels from Rev. Bossen's recounting of anti-corporate demonstrations and the movements they sparked.

So why the perplexity and perturbation? It boils quickly and neatly down to this:

How the Olympic-size fuck does anyone who agrees with the sentiments of the WTO protesters—not to mention the Occupy Wall Street activists of 2011-12—justify continuing to vote for Democrats in our national elections? or even our state and local elections?

Climate Strike in Houston, Featuring TS Imelda

21/9/2019

High school student as the Climate Strike rally at Houston's City Hall holding up a pasteboard saying,

Climate Strike Houston was promoted as a family-friendly event. One young activist pushed the envelope a bit.

Well, we did the thing. In our own small-town-in-a-big-city way, we did the thing. More than a thousand of us, probably closer to two thousand, skipped school and work (which for many was closed due to the remnants of Tropical Storm Imelda) to gather at City Hall.

Imelda showed up too, about 45 minutes into the rally. By 1 pm, quite a few of us were soaked through, as if we had all cannonballed into the reflecting pool at Hermann Square without stripping down first.

The young climate-strikers gave some speeches, ranging in quality from pretty good to excellent, on a barely adequate public address system. There were clever signs and lots of sincerity. After about an hour and a half, some young'ns started a slippery game of tag on the lawn. A few elected officials and candidates showed up, but they wisely did not try to hijack the proceedings from the young leaders.

Through the downpour, there were chants of "We're Still Here!" As, indeed, we were.

Chronicle: GPTX Ballot Access and Climate Policy

19/9/2019

Chronicle photo of ten Green Party candidates with fists raised at a press conference during the Green Party's 2016 national convention at the University of Houston.

Green Party candidates from Texas and across the country hold up their fists after speaking at a press conference at the Green Party Convention at the University of Houston Friday, August 5, 2016 in Houston. (Michael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle)

PDiddie's comment on the most recent entry alerted me to Marina Kormbaki's article in the Chronicle's online edition. (UPDATE: GPTX comrade Don Cook has informed us that the story is also in the print edition, on page A-3.) I had thought that the author would send me a message when it went to digital press; perhaps Janis Richards, Laura Palmer, and I will hear from her today.

As coverage of the Green Party in mainstream papers goes, Kormbaki's piece is above average. It contains no obvious factual errors and treats the Party as a legitimate political movement, not just a one-off human-interest story. It certainly doesn't hurt that Kormbaki works for a German news outlet aligned with the Social Democrats, a party whose role as leaders of the left is gradually shifting to the Greens, as is happening elsewhere in Europe.

The photo selected to accompany the article features some Greenfolk I love and admire, such as the late Ashely "Flashe" Gordon (on the right end, partially obscured by a camera). This photo helps bust the persistent myth that the Green Party is just for old white recovering hippies. It is a microcosm of the convention delegates and the Party as a whole: diverse in ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, and other dimensions.

Busy September Reminders

9/9/2019

See the Activist Calendar for additional information, included street addresses.

In case you'd like to join in the fun:

Tonight 9 September: Howie Hawkins visits Houston, fresh from appearances in Dallas and Austin.
Tomorrow 10 September: Green Party Houston meets at the home of Deb Shafto and the late George Reiter. Part of the evening will be devoted to brainstorming about a permanent meeting space.
Thursday 12 September: Supposedly right here in Third Ward a painstakingly curated subset of the Democratic presidential candidates will be not holding a debate on climate policy. Some climate activists will gather nearby, at the corner of Blodgett and Ennis Streets, near TSU's athletic facilities, to express their disappointment in the Democratic National Committee for not adopting the climate-debate resolution.
Wednesday 18 September: Extinction Rebellion HTX has its second meeting at the AFL-CIO Hall. The main focus of that meeting will be preparations for...
Friday 20 September: Houston's contribution to the international Climate Strike will take place at City Hall at noon, facilitated by the Sunrise Movement. Walk out of school or work to show your concern for an issue far more important than that trig test you'll probably miss.

Apart from XR HTX, another organization in which I participate will have a delegation at the Climate Strike: namely, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston. Look for them in their yellow Side with Love t-shirts (formerly known as Standing on the Side of Love). There will be a planning meeting in the church's Fireside Room following the service, on Sunday the 15th at about noon.

The Rebellion Is Underway in Houston—Maybe

5/9/2019

It's no longer a secret that Extinction Rebellion now has a presence in Houston. What kind of presence, we won't know for a bit, at least not until 20 September. Even if I knew, I would not say.

I can tell you that some people who showed up at last night's XR HTX organization meeting will appear at the Climate Strike rally outside Houston's City Hall on that Friday afternoon, but I can't tell you who will show up or what (if anything) they will do there.

DNC = Debate Not on Climate

26/8/2019

The Democratic Party's leadership has now officially become an obstacle to sound climate policy. This Buzzfeed story has the important facts—maybe not all the facts, but it tells the story more clearly than any other I have seen thus far. Prog Twitter is articulately making its collective displeasure known as well.

Considering that I haven't considered myself a Democrat in nearly a quarter-century, and considering that I was expecting the resolution to be voted down, I'm probably more miffed about this than I should be. It's less about the vote itself than the fact that millions of self-identified Progressives (and even Radicals) will still cling to the Democrats because the Republicans are so much worse.

1. The DNC voted against holding a climate debate even though Democratic voters and all the major Democratic candidates wanted one.

It raises serious questions about corporate influence on the party apparatus.

Let's follow the money.https://t.co/ukyoqbwABd
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) August 26, 2019

The DNC Climate Debate Debate Isn't Over Yet

23/8/2019

□□BREAKING□□

□Our official statement on the DNC vote□

Stay tuned for more details & next steps forward. pic.twitter.com/PzHLITxV90
— Sunrise Movement □ (@sunrisemvmt) August 22, 2019

I would like to dedicate this entry to the late David Koch, capitalist royalty from my wife's hometown of Wichita, the Libertarian Party's 1980 nominee for vice president, and funder of multiple conservative-to-libertarian think tanks that churn out reams of climate-denier propaganda. The news of his death—from natural causes, not by guillotine—certainly doesn't sadden me, but I'm not exactly celebrating. His dying will not bring an end to the international neoliberal nightmare in which he and brother Charles have played a starring role.

A glance at Koch's wiki entry reminds us that, odious as he may have been on far too many issues, he continued to hold some libertarian positions that even Greens could appreciate.

Will the circumstances of the disbursement of his billions will be announced? Stay tuned.

*****

Last night I was one of dozens of Angry Tweeters after seeing the news about the Democratic National Committee's resolution to conduct a presidential debate dedicated to climate disruption. Here is my bit from last week concerning this matter. The Resolutions Committee voted 17-8 against the measure. I am less angry this morning, as the full picture emerges, but still ready & rarin' to rag on the chicken-shit Democratic leadership.

The Sunrise Movement reports that the resolution may still face a vote of the entire DNC, where it has a chance of passing. Sunrise remains cautiously optimistic, given that the Resolutions Committee did pass an amendment to the resolution which would allow two or more candidates to appear together in events that the DNC does not directly sanction—e.g., outside of the televised debates. The amendment was then voted down along with the resolution itself, so nothing has changed on that front.

As Sunrise's statement implies, the optimism stems from seeing people-power in action, from Sunrisers themselves exerting real and sustained pressure on policy-makers. You and I may believe that the Sunrisers are barking up a hearing-impaired tree, but I love that these teens and 20-somethings are learning first hand where the ropes are and how to pull them. So I remain optimistic about their dedication to this issue and, by extension, to every issue connected to it.

If These Young People Are the Future, We'll Be OK

14/8/2019

Sunrise Movement protesters hold up signs and banners, including a banner reading,

Sunrise Movement youth travel to the Harris County Democrats' HQ in FIfth Ward to request that the September presidential primary debate be dedicated to climate change.

"So, it's a little complicated. We are bipartisan [sic], so we don't support specifically any party. We feel that both [sic] parties have failed to take action to the extent that they should, but we recognize that it is much more likely that it is much more likely that a climate debate would happen at a Democratic debate rather than a Republican. So that is what we've decided to focus on."

These young people get it. They understand that climate is not the same as weather (unlike two different climate-denier debate coaches they mentioned). They know who Greta Thunberg is and understand the importance of Climate Strike, a version of which they plan to conduct on Friday 20 September. They can give examples of intersectionality as it relates to the climate crisis. They also get that not everyone in their schools will have the depth and breadth of knowledge that they do, but they have the will and the patience to explain this multi-faceted issue.

These high-schoolers at the Sunrise Movement rally for a Dem climate change debate GET intersectionality. pic.twitter.com/pZyyJxuBnC
— David Bruce Collins □☮ (@dbcgreentx) August 14, 2019

Is Al Gore Officially a Prophet Yet?

2/8/2019

Remember what Al Gore said about Greenland in "An Inconvenient Truth"? It's happening. https://t.co/2p5Dpr2QAE
— David Bruce Collins □☮ (@dbcgreentx) August 2, 2019

Back in 2016, former Vice President Al Gore came to Houston to deliver the two-day Climate Reality Project speaker training, and Kayleen signed up for it. She got to spend some time with one of her heroes: She had shown excerpts from An Inconvenient Truth to her World Geography students back in her teaching days.

Gore, a Democrat to his very marrow, became less of a hero in her eyes when he came out in favor of his old friend Hillary Clinton in her quest for the presidency. The whole movement lost its luster as Kayleen discovered that the overwhelming majority of those present for the training placed their faith in the Democratic Party and its candidates to solve the impending climate crisis. Cuz we know that President Barack Obama dedicated his entire eight years in the White House to reversing climate change, starting at the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009--NOT!

So Kayleen, dejected, never did any Climate Reality speaking gigs. As consolation she did meet a new friend who came to the training from Zimbabwe, and who is now studying climate science in Paris. So we may have someone to visit if we ever make it to France.

None of the text below, which mentions several Democrats by name, is meant to imply that I'm turning into a Democrat. Generally, I vote for Democrats in local races in which there is no Green running. I will promote candidates and elected office-holders whose views I find genuinely progressive—regardless of how the Democratic Party establishment may treat them, regardless of occasional votes that seem at odds with the progressive agenda. I will defend them from baseless smears propagated by any party or media outlet. (Your findings of progressivity may vary, and that's OK: even Greens don't agree on everything.)

Is Houston Srsly Taking Climate Action Srsly?

9/5/2019

Houston's Chief Sustainability Office Lara Cottingham runs through the Climate Action Plan presentation at the CAP community meeting.

Houston's Chief Sustainability Office Lara Cottingham at the Climate Action Plan community meeting at Metropolitan MSC on West Gray Avenue, 8 May 2019

Color this old Greenie impressed. The City of Houston appears to get it, and the City's chief sustainability officer obviously does.

Last night at the Metropolitan Multi-Service Center, Lara Cottingham gave what I perceived as a stellar presentation regarding Houston's governmental efforts to stay in compliance with the targets of the Paris Climate Accord. The principal target, to which more than 400 US municipalities of various sizes have committed, is net carbon neutrality by 2050. Here is the PDF of the PowerPoint that she has used at a series of community meetings.

You may know that our alleged president unilaterally withdrew the United States from the 2015 agreement. The Republican-controlled 114th Congress never acceded to President Obama's wish that the Accord be given the force of a treaty, so His Orangitude and his oil-soaked cronies decided in 2017 to ditch it. However, cities and states have gone out of their way to affirm their commitment to the agreement and actually do something about it—including our own Petro Metro, under the leadership of Mayor Sylvester Turner.

In the ensuing months, the City came up with a plan and gave it the no-nonsense name "City of Houston Climate Action Plan." Cottingham announced last night, as she has at other community meetings, that implementation of the CAP is scheduled to begin in late 2020.

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