A dangerous milestone

One of the most well-known climate scientists and environmental activists, Bill McKibben named his organization 350.org after the percentage of greenhouse gas concentrations that is considered safe for life on earth to continue.

We have now surpassed that number and there appears to be little hope that government or corporations will do what is necessary to ensure that those concentrations don’t increase.

“The fact that it’s 400 is significant,” Jim Butler, the global monitoring director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research Lab, told The Guardian. “It’s just a reminder to everybody that we haven’t fixed this, and we’re still in trouble.”

Government failure

Meanwhile, efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions by controlling the coal and oil industries, the main contributors of carbon dioxide trapped in the atmosphere, have been mostly futile. A long string of Climate Change Conferences have been huge failures and governments seem impotent against the fossil fuel lobby.

The global meat production industry is responsible for releasing huge quantities of methane into the atmosphere, which is 72 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Although greenhouse gases occur naturally, since the onset of the industrial age, human-caused emissions have increased by roughly 125 ppm – the highest concentration in roughly 800,000 years, according to Butler. Recent research shows that dinosaurs, which ate vast quantities of greens that were then digested and released as methane gas, may have caused the last global warming event.

Creeping south

Readings taken in Alaska, Greenland, Norway, Iceland and Mongolia show carbon dioxide concentrations  of 400ppm or more, but scientists say those numbers will fall in the summertime when plants absorb co2. They add that it is just a matter of time before more southerly locations show readings this high.

Al Gore lambasted governments for their apathetic response to climate change upon hearing the news while the International Energy Agency, which just last week announced that global carbon emissions rose by 3.2% in 2011 to a whopping 34.8 billion tonnes, The Guardian reports, adding that is becoming increasingly unlikely that the world will achieve Europe’s goal of keeping temperatures from increasing by 2 degrees based on our current pollution and greenhouse gas levels.

:: The Guardian

Image credit: melting iceberg, Shutterstock

More on Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Emissions:

Giant Plumes of Gurgling Methane Could Fast-Track Planetary Warming

Destroying the Planet for Beef

Interview: Bracing for a Warmer Planet With Bill McKibben

The post Grim Greenhouse Gas Milestone Dims Hope for Less Climate Change appeared first on Green Prophet.

Whilst Christians make up a tiny minority of the Middle East’s population, their faith does have a lot to say on climate change

From Jews celebrating Sukkot in green style, Muslims promoting a green hajj and Baha’is working to promote sustainability, the Middle East is something of a green faith haven. However, the role that the Christian community plays in promoting environmentalism both in the West and the Middle East tends to get overlooked. In this post, I explore various Christian values such as ‘love thy neighbour’ and caring for the poor which are encouraging church-goers worldwide to tackle the global issue of climate change.

Sharing Equally and Living In Dignity

Around a month ago, Christian leaders alongside Rabbis and Imams met in Jerusalem to talk about the role that faith can play in resolving the ecological crisis. At the event, Bishop Shomali of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said, “We are accountable for how we use this Earth. The earth is like our home, and those who live in the same home should know how to live together…The main religions should study ecological issues together because we have a common destiny. ”

Indeed, it is widely held in Christianity that the earth and its resources are for people to share equally and all humans have the right to live in dignity. In the past, poverty has been seen as the major barrier to realising this equality but now a consensus is slowly emerging that climate change – and the unfair impact it will have the world’s poor – is another dimensions which needs to be addressed.

Ending Poverty and Love Thy Neighbour

Over the weekend, I joined a protest of over 1,000 Christians in the UK who called on the government to do more to protect the poorest from the impacts of a warming planet. Many of the people I spoke to told me that a sense of justice and the need to protect the poorest from droughts and floods had brought them to the rally. At the heart of their motivation to take action was the ‘love thy neighbour’ principle which meant that they couldn’t stand by whilst the planet becomes more inhabitable and more people are pushed into poverty.

In fact, some environmental leaders such as Bill McKibben (who is a Christian) have already called on environmental and faith organisations to get together to halt runaway global warming. Speaking at a faith and sustainability lecture in Cambridge, he also explained that the West had so far failed in its duty to ‘love thy neighbour’. Even when you take into account the aid that the West has given to the developing world, McKibben insisted that it still didn’t make up for the greenhouse gases that they had also sent which would have profound impacts on the planet and their ability to live their lives.

With this in mind, it’s high time that people of all faiths got together, acknowledged the injustice of changing climate and worked together to halt it.

Photo by Arwa Aburawa

For more on green faith in the Middle East see:

Middle East Leaders To Launch Green Hajj Guide

Jews, Muslims, Christians In Israel Unite For Planet Earth

Under Siege In Iran: Baha’is Advocate Social Action, Human Rights and Sustainability

The post Green Christians Fight For Climate Justice appeared first on Green Prophet.

The stifling heat of the Middle East may be one reason why people prefer to take the car rather than walk or cycle but that doesn’t mean that they don’t support the creation of cheaper and better public transport. Indeed, hundreds of people from across the Arab world joined 350.org’s worldwide ‘Moving Planet’ campaign by getting on their bikes and walking on September 24, 2011. Their actions were amongst an estimated 2,000 events taking place in over 175 countries which were part of an international day of green action.

Bill Mckibben who leads the green organisation 350.org said in a recent interview that he was happily surprised at the level of support the Middle East has shown on environmental issues in the past. And judging by the campaigns carried out in support of 350.org’s latest climate action on green transport- the region has proved itself once more.

In Egypt (above), over 600 people gathered in Cairo to march and cycle in support of ‘Moving Planet’ and to highlight the vulnerability of Egypt’s precious river Nile to climate change. Supporters also held banners demanding the use of clean energy and better transport for all Egyptians.

More than 200 men, women and children rode bicycles, picked up trash from the streets, and informed Iraqi citizens about the importance of environmental protection in the Iraqi city of Sulaimani (above).

In Kuwait, a small group of youths got together to organise a Youth4Change run at Mishref Park to celebrate ‘Moving Planet’ – millions of people are biking, skating, marching and embodying a beautiful array of creative ways to get moving without fossil fuels.

‘Leave Your Car at Home!’ reads this banner above as Lebanese and internationals embark on a bike protest by occupying the road along the Meditarrean-bordering Corniche in Beirut that is ordinarily full of car traffic, mostly with just one person in each car.

The Tel Aviv Rollers (above)  also took to the streets on roller blades as part of the Moving Planet call to move beyond fossil fuels on September 24, 2011.

Turkey held various events in Izmir, Ankara and Istanbul. These included a bike orchestra, street art performances and hundreds of local citizens also cycling through their cities to highlight the need for greener transport

:: All images via 350.org/flickr. Chris De Bruyn in Iraq/ Ahmed Selweq in Egypt / Kerstin Bruun-Hansen in Lebanon.

For more on Green transport in the Arab world see:

Rediscovering Cities Via the Oldest Form of Eco-Tourism: Walking

One 1 in 25 Emiratis Use Their Legs To Walk

Dubai Goes Car-Free For A Day

Israeli Cyclists Mark Green Transportation Week

The post Middle East Joins Worldwide Campaign For Greener Transport (Photos) appeared first on Green Prophet.

I speak to the recently arrested environmental author Bill McKibben, who insists that campaigners need to be more confrontational about their demands (and start wearing ties)

I think it’s fairly safe to say that Bill McKibben has had an eventful couple of weeks. As well as being imprisoned for three days at the end of August for protesting against the Keystone XL Pipeline project – which NASA climate scientist James Hansen has warned could mean ‘game over’ for the planet if given the go ahead – his organisation 350.org recently launched a campaign to promote green transport and he is currently touring the UK. I spoke to him in leafy and surprisingly sunny Cambridge where he was giving a talk at the KLICE and Faraday Institute Conference on ‘Faith and The Crisis of Sustainability’.

Fossil Fuel Industry Makes ‘More Money Than God’

For more than two decades, we’ve had clear scientific evidence telling us that if we are serious about keeping the planet habitable we must to stop burning fossil fuels. Yet all these years later and we are no closer to the elusive agreement or solution we are desperately after. Copenhagen, where the last major environmental summit took place, failed to convince leading polluters to cut their emissions to the extent needed. So where are we going wrong?

Well, according to Bill McKibben the problem is pretty obvious- it’s the the fossil fuel industry. Making ‘more money than god’, McKibben insist that they have been ‘drowning out the science’ and blocking potential change. So in response, environmental campaigners need be tougher than they have been- they need to take more risks and become more confrontational. He explains that whilst community and local action is important, alone it isn’t enough to bring about the change that we need to see.

Wear A Tie And Get Arrested

As such he sees the protests (and subsequent mass arrests) outside the White House against projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline as justified and necessary. What’s more, it’s the older campaigners who have contributed more to climate change and have less to lose from a criminal record who should be taking the risks- preferably wearing a tie or a dress to highlight that they are ordinary people. As McKibben adds, fossil fuel companies that are changing the face of the planet in dangerous ways are the real ‘radicals’.

The Environment Is Not Just For White People

I was able to steal McKibben away from his adoring fans after the lecture for a quick chat on the environment and the Middle East. He told me he was quite surprised at the level of support 350.org got three years ago from the region when they joined 5,200 demonstrations in 181 countries in a day of international action on October 2009. Jordanians, Palestinian and Israeli worked together in a joint protest whilst campaigners in countries as diverse as Yemen, Egypt and Lebanon marked the event by highlighting the number 350, which is the safe level of carbon per million parts in the atmosphere.

Still, it’s clear that the movement is new and developing so McKibben advises that we give it a gentle nudge in the right direction if it strays from the green path. McKibben also points out that the diverse range of support 350.org receives illustrates that caring for the environment isn’t a white, rich person’s issue. Rather, people of all races are concerned about the future especially those who understand that it is the poor and vulnerable who are going to feel the pinch more than anyone else.

A Protest For Justice And Survival

It clear that this injustice- of poorer nations such as Bangladesh (which Mckibben has visited) having to deal with the impacts of a warming planet caused by rich nations- is what keeps McKibben going. Yes, its true that some scientists say it’s too late and some politicians say the odds are too high, he explains, but we must continue to fight to protect poorer nations such as the Maldives whose very survival is at stake.

And the way that we are going to do this, he insists, is by making our protests louder, more confrontational, more engaging and more beautiful.

:: Images via 350.org and tarsandsaction/flickr.

For more on Mckibben and environmental issues see:

Why The Middle East Should Support The Keystone XL Pipeline Protests

Interview: Bracing For A Warmer Future With Bill Mckibben

Middle East Joins 350.org’s International Climate Change Protest

Cairo’s Climate Art Of Epic Proportions

The post We Interview Bill McKibben: Be More Confrontational appeared first on Green Prophet.

The right wing has long maintained that America should reduce its oil dependency on the Middle East. Considered the root of the last war in Iraq and a compelling reason for Gaddafi to hold on so tightly to power over Libya’s oil fields, Republicans have pushed through a series of catastrophic measures to secure their own oil supplies in the United States. But this time, some of the country’s most respected scientists and environmental activists are risking arrest to fight the latest such folly.

Fast-tracked for presidential approval by the Energy and Power Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Panel, the $7 billion Keystone XL Pipeline poses one of the greatest dangers humanity has ever experienced. The 1500 mile pipeline would transport heavy crude oil (or bitumen) evacuated from Northern Alberta’s tar sands to Texas refineries. If burned, this heavy crude oil would release up to 82% more carbon emissions into our atmosphere than conventional oil. More emissions = more erratic climate changes = worsening quality of life for everyone. One hundred and fifty protestors have already been arrested in Washington D.C., where they are putting pressure on President Obama to make good on the promises that got him elected.

The man America elected in 2008

The man who convinced the American public while campaigning for President that he would fight to clean up the country’s appalling environmental record but has since signed off an array of ruinous coal and oil exploration projects, Obama has to approve the bill that would allow TransCanada to build a pipeline that scientists say would set off a massive carbon bomb.

Second only to China, America produces more carbon emissions than any other country (though the UAE produces more per capita.) And the American dream of having more cars than any one family needs, eating an endless supply of food shipped across the world, and wearing the fanciest clothes stitched together by poor people living in substandard conditions has encouraged many developing countries to pursue a similar model. None of this can happen without oil and most of us are completely hooked.

Oil addiction

This relentless addiction to oil has given multi-billion dollar corporations the perfect excuse to pursue increasingly-risky (and profitable) programs to supply the demand that has pushed carbon levels in our atmosphere well beyond the 350 parts per million that scientists agree is safe for earth. This addiction is also behind the devastating famine in East Africa, rising temperatures in the Middle East, and floods in Pakistan that displaced millions of people.

But if President Obama approves the Keystone XL Pipeline, we will beg to have today’s comparatively comfortable weather patterns returned to us.

World-renowned climatologist Jim Hanson explains that if Alberta’s 300 billion barrels of tar sands oil are released into the earth’s atmosphere, we are effectively signing our own death sentence. Since we share an atmosphere, President Obama has the power in his hands, right now, to decide whether we in the Middle East (and others in Europe, Africa, Antarctica, South America, and Australia) have a future. That’s a lot of pressure to put on one man.

The weight of the world

It would be an easy call if  special interest groups and the right wing weren’t holding a political gun to the President’s head. Politically, Democrats risk seeming weak on domestic security if they don’t approve this pipeline, but we’ve seen in the Middle East that environmental pressures will eventually create even more serious security risks.

Consider the economic insecurity associated with stronger hurricanes (Irene is heading for the East Coast as we go to press), more drought in Texas, an equally dry Mexico and subsequent influx of desperate immigrants. And what of the country’s nuclear power plants, two of which were shut down after yesterday’s earthquake in Virginia that was felt as far north as Toronto, Canada? Do we want another Fukushima disaster on our hands?

Oil industry people will worry about the loss of income that would result from an energy independent America, a valid concern, except China will be happy to step in and buy up all of our oil. That’s not enough to convince leaders in the Middle East to pressure Obama to make the right decision. But climate change should.

Jordan and Yemen are running out of water. Israel will rely almost exclusively on desalination in the next two years, and the UAE and other Gulf countries already do. These are just a few of the problems we have to confront as a warming planet wreaks havoc on our climate. Each year, we set new records for high temperatures in a region that is already almost unbearable during summer. Do we really want TransAmerica Pipeline, other rich oil barrens, and the American right to decide an even more miserable future for us?

1.15 Billion tons of CO2

The Guardian reports that the Australian Government released a study called the Critical Decade Report which showed that humanity has a chance of surviving if we can keep this century’s carbon emissions below 1 trillion tons. Just 20% into the decade, and we have already released 300 billion tons or 30% beyond what is sustainable (and continue to produce more oil-hungry humans at an exponential pace). In 50 years, the Keystone XL Pipeline alone is expected to release a further 1.15 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, so that Americans don’t have to pay reasonably high prices at the gas pump, eat less food, or focus their collective attention on developing renewable energy alternatives.

Bill McKibben from 350.org, who we have interviewed on Green Prophet, is behind one of the largest civil disobedience efforts to take hold of America in far too long. He and other career scientists have been arrested for blocking a road to the White House to urge President Obama to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline.

One has to think: what would cause hundreds of America’s most reserved and studious citizens to risk having a criminal record? Probably only something incredibly serious. We ought to take note, and we ought to give them our support.

More on 350.org and the fight to curtail carbon emissions:

Interview: Bracing for a Warmer Future with Bill McKibben

The Middle East’s Carbon Emissions at a Glance

Israel Plans to Combat Carbon Emissions

image via transition voice

The post Why the Middle East Should Definitely Support America’s Keystone XL Pipeline Protests appeared first on Green Prophet.

Who the hey is Alexandra Kollontai, you ask? Why, she is the author of  The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman. Of the year 1917, a time when Bolsheviks were amassing their discontent, she wrote: “One of the most burning questions of the day was the high cost of living and the growing scarcity of vital necessities. Thus the women of the poverty-stricken strata had an indescribably hard time of it.”

Sound familiar? It should: food prices are rising and water’s running out in places (Yemen is considering moving its capital since Sana’a is almost bone dry). And worldwide men and women are putting down their, ahem, collective foot. So it’s familiar, but it’s not 1917. Instead, we are fully ensconced in a decidedly warmer 2011, surrounded by people who dangerously refuse the facts, people like the incendiary Glenn Beck.

One of our favorite organizations, 350.org made it on to Glenn Beck’s latest hitlist: for encouraging Egyptians, Jordanians, South Africans, Indians, and Americans around the world to show their commitment to a saner, cleaner future, Bill McKibben and his amazing posse were branded “communistic.”

In a delightful tongue-in-cheek editorial published in the Washington Post, the head communist himself describes his new found calling:

And the next morning, on my first full day as a communist? I spent most of it outdoors, at the annual New England festival for young cross-country ski racers. More than 500 kids from across the region were competing, and I was standing on the toughest hill cheering. And here’s the thing – at least with the first- and second-graders, I was cheering for everyone equally. Not only that, but did you know where this particular type of skiing was invented? Norway.

Pretty sinister stuff, hey? Definitely the kind of behavior we’d associate with the leader of the 2011 Red Wave. The question is, why has Glenn targeted Bill – one of the world’s most respected people and the first to sound a very important and very loud alarm about the state of our planet?

Well, because he’s in favor of moderation. Because he demands corporate responsibility – real corporate responsibility. Because Bill knows that we can’t keep on living on the hog – at least not without some serious consequences: for us, and for the hapless generations to follow. But Glenn was really trying to deflect attention from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which Bill McKibben has recently criticized. Here’s what he wrote about that:

And yet I scourged them – because they’ve spent the past few years opposing any action on climate change. Indeed, they submitted a petition to the Environmental Protection Agency arguing that it should avoid regulating carbon emissions because, in the event of global warming, “populations can acclimatize to warmer climates via a range of behavioral, physiological, and technological adaptations.”

To me that sounds absurd. Instead of the 16 companies that provided more than half the chamber’s budget adapting their business models to a world of safe renewable energy, they wished all people everywhere and forever to change their physiologies. But now I see that my protests can be read as a gesture of support for human solidarity, with all that implies.

You don’t have to be a communist to want clean water, clean skies, or decent food. For everyone. You don’t have to be Red to be Green. But one must question the intelligence of a person who would choose absolute chaos over peace, starvation over satiety, thirst over clean water, or cancer-causing airborne pollutants over a deep breath of fresh air.

If I’m a scarlet communist for wanting those things, then I’ll follow Bill McKibben any day.

:: Washington Post

More on Bill McKibben and the communist”ic” 350.org campaign:

Green Prophet’s Interview With Bill McKibben

Review of Bill McKibben’s Deep Economy

Get Mad With Bill McKibben

Cairo’s Climate Art Of Epic Proportions

image via souravdas

The post If Bill McKibben’s A Communist, Call Me Alexandra Kollontai appeared first on Green Prophet.

The holidays are over and winter has finally set in. What better opportunity to sink into a cozy couch and catch up on your reading? Maybe your New Year’s resolution is to help improve the environment in the Middle East, start a green business, or cooking blog? Here are some resources to help you start the revolution.

Do you know intuitively that biodiversity is important, but don’t have the details to back up your argument?

Are you unclear why fossil fuel discoveries, such as the Leviathan gas field in Israel, are nothing to throw a party over?

Starting with Hot, Flat and Crowded, a great eco starter book, and continuing with French adventures and some cooking tips, our list will help you understand the science behind the rhetoric while simultaneously offering a glimpse into a saner way forward.

Hot, Flat and Crowded by
Thomas L. Friedman

http://www.greenprophet.com/2010/01/11/16033/friedman-hot-flat-crowded/

Start your winter right by getting to know why we need to go green and the advantages of the green revolution. The need for a green revolution is presented through the lenses of business, science, homeland security, and macro-economic stand points. The book addresses the major environmental challenges we are facing today such as energy, poverty, climate change, and loss of biodiversity and proposes ways for world leaders, the planet, and the world to help abate these crises.

Read the Green Prophet review for Hot, Flat and Crowded here

Strategy for Sustainability by
Adam Werbach

Werbach discusses the roles of national corporations and their effect on the environment and the global economy. He uses his “Seven Tenets of a Strategy for Sustainability” to describe the role and consequences of a world with limited resources. He emphasizes the power of modern day cooperation and their need to part of the solution when dealing with the global environmental crises we are approaching.

Read the Green Prophet review for Strategy for Sustainability here

The Final Call With A Questioning Eye
by Leo Hickman

Hickman discusses the effects of tourism on the world’s resources and its effect on local communities and ecology. He balances facts and figures with personal observations and behind-the-scene interviews with bartenders, prostitutes, cruise captains, local people, industry leaders and public officials. Exploring the rights and responsibilities of all concerned, he highlights the socio-economic factors at play in countries aspiring to develop and gain wealth; the increasing uptake of opportunities for tourists; and globalization.

Read the review on Final Call With a Questioning Eye here

Mama Nazima’s Jewish-Iraqi Cuisine
by Rivka Goldman

Come read 100 old-fashioned recipes that evolved out of the centennial Jewish presence in Iraq, plus a synopsis of Jewish history there. Around the recipes are comments and traditional Arab proverbs revealing glimpses of the old Jewish-Iraqi culture. Another is the author’s memories of her mother, to whom she dedicated the book; and a third, Iraqi anti-Semitic persecution culminating in a pogrom in 1941, and the community’s exit from their ancient home in 1950.The recipes themselves are appetizing and easy to follow. The author lays great claim on the nutritional benefits of the food, which is easy enough considering that almost every recipe includes fresh vegetables.

Read the review on Mama Nazima’s Jewish-Iraqi Cuisine here

French Lessons
by Peter Mayle

Mayle describes the travels of a British ex-pat who left Provence to get a better taste of food festivals in other regions. He samples all of the delicacies of the region and experiences a wine tasting that goes on all afternoon and needs “a medicinal bottle of champagne” to cure the resulting hangover. Other adventures include a truffle auction that kicks off at early Mass. A marathon where sweating, cross-dressing runners wait for each other to catch up. And hilariously, the proper etiquette involved in kissing a fellow Frenchman.

Read the review on French Lessons here

Deep Economy
by Bill McKibben

Deep Economy advocates for less economic growth. The central theme is that what we need is Better rather than More. Author Bill McKibben believes, as do a growing number of economists, that we have to choose between one and the other. He writes, “…growth is no longer making most people wealthier, but instead generating inequality and insecurity.”

Read the review on Deep Economy here

Finitude
by Hamish MacDonald

The dystopian future MacDonald writes about in this novel could happen anywhere on Earth, and therefore serves as a potent wake-up call about global warming. On one level, it’s a fun read, and on another, it’s what the future may very well look like.

Read Green Prophet’s review on Finitude here

More green book reviews:

The Good Life, by Leo Hickman

Precycle, by Paul Peacock

Animals in Islamic Tradition and Muslim Culture, by Richard Foltz

(This list was complied by Green Prophet intern Dorothy Etra)

The post 7 Books To Start The New Year Green And Right appeared first on Green Prophet.

I was taught the value of balanced writing free of slanted language.  “Let the facts speak for themselves,” my noble university professors proclaimed. “Don’t appeal to emotion.” But as a working environmental journalist emotionally and intellectually saturated with dismal reports like BPs never-ending pursuit of carbon-emitting fossil fuels, and temperatures escalating as a result, I frequently want to dump the nicey nicey and say Hey! Wake up. I like my job so I don’t dare. But Bill McKibben, the acclaimed author of Deep Economy who has plenty of job security, does dare. In a recent diatribe published all over the world, he finally dropped the F-bomb on the energy policies (or lack thereof) that have set our planet on fire.

Dismal facts

First, in a Huffington Post article, McKibben sets the stage with the kinds of facts that are meant to speak for themselves, that should rise any sentient being out of a deep slumber, after which they should march down to their local government representative to say “Yo, what are you doing to fix this?”:

* According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the planet has just come through the warmest decade, the warmest 12 months, the warmest six months, and the warmest April, May, and June on record.

* A “staggering” new study from Canadian researchers has shown that warmer seawater has reduced phytoplankton, the base of the marine food chain, by 40% since 1950.

* Nine nations have so far set their all-time temperature records in 2010, including Russia (111 degrees), Niger (118), Sudan (121), Saudi Arabia and Iraq (126 apiece), and Pakistan, which also set the new all-time Asia record in May: a hair under 130 degrees. I can turn my oven to 130 degrees.

Even more dismal reaction

Then McKibben demonstrates America’s political apathy resigned to let us all boil in this hot pot of climatic misery:

* And then, in late July, the U.S. Senate decided to do exactly nothing about climate change. They didn’t do less than they could have — they did nothing, preserving a perfect two-decade bipartisan record of no action. Senate majority leader Harry Reid decided not even to schedule a vote on legislation that would have capped carbon emissions.

Our own leaders are similarly slow to act. Although America is guilty of contributing a bigger plume of emissions into the atmosphere, a lot of oil and gas originates in the Middle East, and we keep generating incentives to keep up the pursuit. For example, our headlines this week alone revealed that Israel gave Egypt’s East Mediterranean Gas Company a 20-year tax exemption for gas exports.

The atmosphere ain’t no open sewer

So how do we fight these short-sighted, profit-driven conglomerates, according to Bill? We do it in three steps.

First, we stop skirting the issue and state the truth in terms that every person understands: we’re heating up, the heat is causing a gushing avalanche of climate change, and we have to put a stop to it.

Second, we state the necessary terms. Carbon emissions must be taxed, not rewarded.

“That undoubtedly means upending the future business plans of Exxon and BP, Peabody Coal and Duke Energy, not to speak of everyone else who’s made a fortune by treating the atmosphere as an open sewer for the byproducts of their main business,” writes McKibben.

Get mad!  Organize

And then, we get mad, and we organize. McKibben’s non-profit organization 350.org amassed a gathering of 5,200 concerned citizens who brought awareness to the importance of keeping carbon emissions below 350 parts per million in order to maintain the conditions conducive to current life.

On 10-10-10, they’re getting together again to form a Global Work Party. People from all over the world will install solar panels, dig gardens, and lay out bicycle paths. While McKibben realizes these projects won’t stop climate change, and that we’re up against a formidable economic foe (oil and gas money), the project will at least demonstrate the people’s willingness to work for change.

We can join the Global Work Party on 10-10-10. And every day before and after we can ride bikes, reduce our waste, and recycle; and hopefully we will continue to support the independent farmers and artists and entrepreneurs who have eschewed the careening capitalist model for something more holistic, something more sensible.

But if we want to cool down our planet, apathy is not an option.

:: image courtesy of flickr and story via Huffington Post

More Maddening News from the Middle East:

How Does Noise Pollution Impact the Red Sea?

Syrian Celebrities Spread Green Message in Damascus With Balloons?!?

Record Hot Summer Ignites Forest Fires in Iran

The post Get Mad With Bill McKibben: 10-10-10 appeared first on Green Prophet.