Wednesday, July 6, 2016

ANTI-FOSSIL FUELS NEWSLETTER #5, DIVESTMENT #2

KEEP FOSSIL FUELS IN THE GROUND CAMPAIGN, NEWSLETTER #5,
FOCUS ON FOSSIL FUELS DIVESTMENT, JULY 6, 2016.
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and ECOLOGY
(#1 August 5, 2012; #2, March 15, 2013; #3, Jan. 4, 2015; #4 (Divestment #1) June 13, 2015.)

OMNI
CAMPAIGN AGAINST FOSSIL FUELS NEWSLETTER #3, January 4, 2015.

What’s at Stake: 
     Bill McKibben concludes a recent essay with these words:  “…fossil fuels are the problem in global warming—and fossil fuels don’t come in good and bad flavors.  Coal and oil and natural gas have to be left in the ground.  All of them.”*   If the past is a strong clue to the future, the fossil fuels industry--its officers, boards, and investors--will never voluntarily give up extracting fossil fuels until every last drop of coal, oil, and gas are consumed.  They must be compelled.  Divestment is one way to force the industry to do what is right for the planet and future generations.   When asked what OMNI might add to its climate portfolio, OMNI’s Climatologist Robert McAfee wrote:  After fee and dividend the next biggest impact on keeping coal in the ground is the divestment from fossil fuel companies. Just like we did during the 1980's with divestment from S African corporations to stop Apartheid. There is a movement call for fossil fuel divestment. The University of Arkansas should get rid of any fossil fuel stocks.   Robert    (For readers unfamiliar with its history, OMNI has had an active, outstanding fossil fuels fee/dividend committee for several years.) 
     To the familiar BDS applied against South African and now Israeli apartheid, Naomi Klein might add blockade.  See This Changes Everything, Chap. 9, “Blockadia” (and passim).    The BDS Movement against fossil fuels could be BBDS: Boycott, Blockade, Divestment, Sanctions.  And more pressure methods are available to us.  We’ll need every pressure: the big rich of fossil fuels, the owners, the 1% won’t relinquish their money and political power until they are forced to justly share, or until fossil fuels are no more.  Read Jane Mayer’s Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right.  *(McKibben, “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Chemistry,” The Nation, April 11/18, 2016).




Contents Campaign Against Fossil Fuels Newsletter #5, Focus on Divestment #2

Divestment Campaign
States
     California
Colleges
      Movement Growing   
     Anti-FF Students Forming Coalitions with Anti-Private Prison Activists
      La Sala and University of Maine: Not Only Divestment, But Also Reinvestment
      A Point of View from Yale U
      Union Theological Seminary
      Diane Rehm Show: Divestment Movement Expanding Beyond Colleges
Organizations
      350.org
Also Keeping Fossil Fuels in the Ground for the People and the Planet
Affirmative Government: 
      Obama, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Curb Arctic Drilling
     Analogy to Philly Soft Drinks Tax: Philly Soda Tax Gets Thumbs-Up From Council.
             Use Taxes to Prevent Harms and Support Help, Increase Fossil Fuels Taxes and Use Revenue for Renewable Energy. 
Law:  Citizens Suing Corporations
Public Service Organizations:  Oil Watch, Latin America and Africa

A Few Realities
Climate Change Is Happening
Arid and Semi-Arid Regions are Expanding

The Great Regulator of Climate—the Forest Carbon “Sink”—is Fast Disappearing.

Climate Change is $Denied$$
Oil Industry’s Clean Air Fight Prepared for Its Climate Denial


DIVESTMENT
STATES

BY KATIE VALENTINEhttp://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/plugins/cap-byline/bird_blue_16.png SEP 3, 2015 PHOTO/RICH PEDRONCELLI
The California Assembly passed a bill Wednesday that prompts the state’s public employee pension funds to divest from coal.
The bill passed the Assemby with a vote of 43 to 27, and will require the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) — which combined are responsible for $476 billion in assets — to remove all holdings in companies that get at least half of their revenue from coal mining. The divestment would have to be completed by July 2017.  MORE

COLLEGES
31 October 13 ,  Reader Supported News
Students Rise Up to Fight Climate Change With National Divestment Network 
Dinah DeWald, Common Dreams 
DeWald writes: "The fossil fuel divestment movement is powerful, and marks a new phase in environmental and climate justice struggles ... Together, students have decided to fight this industry in our school communities, and support the work of others fighting this industry on all fronts." 


Campus Activists Unite in Call for Divestments at Colleges by Collin Binkley, Associated Press
December 29, 2015.
BOSTON ― Campus activists who often fight in parallel with one another for their respective causes are now starting to form alliances as they turn up the pressure on some U.S. colleges to financially divest from industries that run counter to their beliefs.
Student groups that have long called on colleges to stop investing in fossil fuels have begun working alongside students demanding divestment from the prison industry, a movement that has gained momentum recently with support from black student organizations.
Coalitions created this year at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and the University of Pennsylvania have pressured their institutions to drop investments in fossil fuels and prisons and in companies that have ties to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, demands that students previously pursued separately. At Tufts University near Boston, divestment groups against fossil fuels and Israel banded together with a coalition opposing investments in private prison companies.
“There’s a consciousness with the younger generations that these are not single issues,” said Zakaria Kronemer, a national organizer for the Responsible Endowments Coalition, a New York nonprofit group that helps students campaign around what they see as crucial social-justice issues. “It doesn’t make sense for us to be working in silos anymore.”
Beyond the call for divestments, students have thrown other causes into the mix. After fighting to get Columbia University to divest from fossil fuels, a student group organized a coalition with five other campus groups that tackle issues such as racism, sexual assault and workers’ rights. Together, as the Barnard Columbia Solidarity Network, they issued merged demands to campus administrators.
“I don’t think they’ve dealt with anything like this,” said Daniela Lapidous, a senior and a group member. “Only by building these coalitions will we win any of our demands.”
The collaborations have had some success. After students staged a joint sit-in this year, the president of Wesleyan agreed to endorse divestment from the prison industry.
Advocacy groups that help students organize say they expect to see more crossover coalitions at colleges. Already, students from several universities are trying to establish a national umbrella group that would unite students across schools and causes. National environmental groups have offered online training to students on the perks of solidarity.
“Increasingly, the climate movement has seen how deeply intertwined the climate crisis is with issues of racial and economic injustice,” said Jenny Marienau, a divestment campaign manager for the environmental group350.org. “I don’t think it’s just a numbers game, though. I really do think there’s deeper alignment.”
Students against fossil fuel investments, for example, point to a recent report from Columbia predicting that rising temperatures will pose a health risk at prisons.
Even with the help of newly formed coalitions, though, students have struggled to get colleges to disclose their investments. The Wesleyan group, named the Coalition for Divestment and Transparency, criticized the school because students have no way of knowing if Wesleyan invests in contentious industries.
Of the 30 public universities with the largest endowments, only nine released any of their investment holdings in response to a recent Associated Press records request. None of the 20 private colleges with the top endowments ― the smallest of which tops $3 billion ― provided any records.
Colleges guard their investments closely, contending that disclosure would tip their hand to competitors. Some students and faculty say colleges should invest only in socially responsible ways, but colleges and financial experts counter that endowments are meant primarily to generate revenue.
Often, administrators can’t even trace all their institution’s investments.
Most big universities now invest in hedge funds, said Jessica Matthews, head of the mission-related investing practice at Cambridge Associates, which advises colleges on investments. While those types of funds pose a challenge to divestment, she added, there are some fossil-free hedge funds available to schools.
Research has been mixed on whether divesting from fossil fuels would hurt a university’s endowment. Some colleges counter that it’s better to work with companies on changes rather than cut ties with them.
Still, Matthews said she sees some evidence that universities are heeding the calls of campus activists. Over the past two years, more than 70 colleges have sent inquiries about divestment, a surge over previous years. Most have been focused on fossil fuels, she said, but there has been growing interest in prison divestment.

https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gifMeaghan La Sala, “Not Just ‘Divestment,’ Climate Justice Needs ‘Reinvestment.”  Yes! (Fall 2015). 
I.              The “student- led fossil fuel divestment movement” is successful: in 3 years, “34 schools have committed to moving investments out of that deadly sector.”  The same could be achieved with prisons and Israel.
II.              But what then?  Equally important is the reinvestment of the money into beneficial activities—such as, revolving loan funds,  community-managed cooperative funds, and a myriad of specific investments such as alternatives to prisons. The Reinvestment Network is helping student divestment movements.  --Dick
LaSala, Not Just “Divestment” Google Search, August 21, 2015, revealed the following, page one
Common Dreams NewsCenter
Jan 26, 2015 - "Our responsibility is not just to talk about carbon in the atmosphere but to talk ...
bangordailynews.com/.../fossil-fuel-divestment-a-sma...
www.350maine.org/divestment_climate_justice
Apr 26, 2014 - The Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) is just one example of a group doing this kind of organizing.


e360.yale.edu/feature/why_the...divestment.../2898/  Yale University
Jul 27, 2015 - The fossil fuel divestment campaign has so far persuaded only a handful

https://utsnyc.edu/divestment/
Union Theological Seminary
Not only is Union a moral leader, it's also a resident of Manhattan with long ties to the city's leaders, meaning that divestment now has a foothold in the world's ...

THE DIANE REHM SHOWhttps://thedianerehmshow.org/wp-content/themes/wamu-show/img/logos/npr_logo_rgb_white_noURL_75.png
Wednesday, Jul 01 2015 • 11 a.m. (ET)
Environmental Outlook: The Growing Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement 
ListenTranscript
·         Related Links

Hundreds of demonstrators march May 15 to the French Consulate to demand the French government and French company Engie stop supporting coal in South Africa and support sustainable renewable energy instead. GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
It began on college campuses, students lobbying their schools to pull out of investments in coal, oil and gas companies. Recently, however, the fossil fuel divestment movement has expanded beyond university walls. Last year, heirs to the Rockefeller oil fortune announced they’d purge a portion of their portfolio of coal and tar sand investments. Earlier this month, Norway voted to cull coal stocks from the holdings of its government pension fund, worth $890 billion.
Guests
·         John Schwartz science reporter, The New York Times.
·         Frank Wolak director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development and a professor of economics at Stanford University
·         Robert Massie senior advisor, Boston Common Asset Management, initiator of the Investor Network on Climate Risk and author of "Loosing The Bonds: The United States and South Africa in the Apartheid Years"
Related Links
Topics + Tags
·          Comments
·         The Diane Rehm Show
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·         1Join the discussion…
People can just disconnect from the grid? Am I supposed to take that seriously? What a nonsense argument.
If clean energy were available I would purchase it. It isn't available. It isn't available because entrenched interests stymie any movement away from a fossil fuel based economy.
Divestment is the only option. Business will never move towards renewables so long as one drop of oil (one lump of coal, etc) is left.

It better not take 150 years to get off fossil fuels. At the rate we're burning them, we will exceed 2 degrees C in the next 10 years and once we pass 4 degrees C, life on earth will be wiped out. I don't see much movement away from fossil fuels. What are we waiting for?
We are waiting for the last few holdouts who, for ideological reasons, will never be convinced. I think we have gone way past the point of 2degreeC increase. I think a 4degreeC increase is, basically, assured at this point.
We could have done something twenty or thirty years ago but decided not to do so. No amount of cutting, at this point, is going to be sufficient- especially with 7 billion people (with an expectation of at least 9 billion by 2050).  [POPULATION GROWTH]
You cannot cut fast enough to cover the added energy demands of another 2 billion people. But if we cannot agree to cut CO2 emissions I don't see how we will agree on limiting population growth.
One of the largest components of university carbon footprints is faculty travel. Universities can help combat greenhouse gas emissions by taking steps to decrease travel. For example rather than bringing in four or five candidates for a faculty or administrative position phone or televideo conferences can be used to narrow the field. Universities can press for changes to rules mandating how the national science foundation reviews proposals so that the panels meet by phone rather than onsite at the nsf. Rather than the American chemical society and the American geophysical Union holding two annual meetings they can hold one per year. Funding agencies can limit the amount of conference travel for many proposals. 
  
Government won't act. Business won't act.  [Divestment] is the last option for people and is entirely appropriate. Until we change the fundamental basis of our economy (cheap fossil fuel) most of us will be stuck using the same old, dirty, energy forms.
There may be a more effective way of creating change. Divestment is a 
tool BUT --
follow the money. Institutions/endowments should refuse to 
buy bonds/debt from these companies AND shame the underwriters who issue
it. Push lenders to stop lending the way the Quaker Action Group did. 
No matter how large the company, it always carries debt. (endowments 
-- check your fixed income portfolio as well as your stocks. you may be
in for a big surprise). It's a smaller, far more targeted approach to 
financially pushing companies towards responsibility as well as easier 
and perhaps much faster.


ORGANIZATIONS
350.ORG:   FIGHTING BACK AGAINST CC
350.ORG DIVEST FROM FOSSIL FUELS CAMPAIGN PLUS
Dear Friends,
Last weekend, the radio show This American Life did a special episode on climate change and dedicated a third of the program to covering Bill McKibben, our Do The Math tour, and the growing fossil fuel divestment movement.
I want to share the episode with you because I think it really gets at the heart of what this fossil fuel divestment effort is all about. After you listen, I hope you’ll be inspired to start or join a local divestment effort on your campus, at your church, or in your community.
Once you’ve listened, be sure to share the link with your friends and family -- oftentimes, a good story is the best way to get someone involved in a new campaign.
This American Life airs on more than 500 stations around the country and reaches 1.8 million listeners, so it was some great exposure for our growing campaign. In the past few weeks, we’ve also gotten big coverage on All Things Considered, Marketplace, Businessweek, and The Associated Press. It's starting to get through to people: divestment is not only the moral thing to do, but also the smart thing (the AP went so far as to do its own analysis, concluding that "by one measure, endowments would have been better off had they divested 10 years ago").
This campaign is beginning to really add up. Five colleges have now divested from fossil fuels. 13 cities across the country have committed to pursue the goal. And religious institutions are quickly taking up the call, from the United Church of Christ in Massachusetts, to the First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City, to Lutheran denominations in Oregon.
You can find or start a local campaign here: gofossilfree.org
As Bill says in the This American Life piece, divestment is a powerful moral statement that makes it clear that the fossil fuel industry is a rogue industry, outlaws against the laws of physics and chemistry. We may not be able to bankrupt these companies, but we will show that they are morally bankrupt. And by taking away the industry’s social license, we will weaken their political power, turning Big Oil into this generation’s Big Tobacco, a pariah industry that politicians are forced to turn against.
This divestment effort is one of the most exciting campaigns we’ve ever run here at350.org. Many thanks to the thousands of you who are already helping lead this fight. For everyone else, now’s a great time to get involved.
Happy listening,
Jamie
350.org is building a global movement to solve the climate crisis. Connect with us on Facebook andTwitter, and sign up for email alerts. You can help power our work by getting involved locally, sharing your story, and donating here. 350.0RG DIVESTMENT CAMPAIGN

Off to a great start!

\Dear friends,
Last week, we launched a new platform to help people organize fossil fuel divestment campaigns in their communities.
We’ve been blown away by the response: there are already almost 100 new divestment campaigns up and running across the country! And that’s on top of the over 300 college and university campaigns currently underway.
We’re off to a great start, but if we’re going to make a real impact on the fossil fuel industry, we need this campaign to grow even larger.
Getting started on a local campaign is simple:
·  Get a petition started so you can build your local group and start showing your city, state, or religious institution that there’s public support for divestment. 
·  Set up a local meeting and email petition signers, your friends, and local groups to get them involved.
·  Plan your campaign: we’ve got some great resources on the website and our crew will be on hand to provide support every step of the way.
Your fellow organizers are already racking up some impressive wins: the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee voted to divest this week, Vermont state-senators are hearing testimony in favor of a divestment bill, and big moves are underway in San Francisco, Seattle, and elsewhere.
Together, we’ve also started an exciting discussion about the potential for sustainable reinvestment to help revitalize our economy while protecting our environment (the $200 million your city might have invested in the fossil fuel industry is a lot of money that could go towards energy efficiency, new industries, and more).
And our local efforts are making a national impact. Politicians have talked about divestment on the Senate floor, the New York Times ran a front-page Business Section story on the campaign, and think-tanks and big banks like HSBC are talking about downgrading fossil fuel stocks.
I just joined 350.org two months ago, and I’m amazed at how much we’ve accomplished already. Now, we need to keep up the momentum. Your local divestment campaign will make a big difference.
Click here to get started.    Onward, Jay
350.org is building a global movement to solve the climate crisis. Connect with us onFacebook and Twitter, and sign up for email alerts. You can help power our work by getting involved locally, sharing your story, and donating here. 

Now is the time to end offshore drilling.
Genny Roman - 350.org  6-8-16 <350 org=""> Unsubscribe
1:50 PM (11 minutes ago)
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mment deadline June 16th. Sign on now to end offshore oil drilling.
Friends,
Over the last year, we’ve seen huge wins for the climate movement. President Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, Shell abandoned their Arctic drilling plans, and the first international climate agreement was signed in Paris.
On most days, it feels like the political tide is turning. But our fight to keep fossil fuels in the ground is far from over, and nowhere is this more true than where I come from -- the Gulf Coast.
In 2015, the Obama administration unveiled a 5-year offshore drilling plan, opening new areas for oil and gas extraction in the Arctic, off the Atlantic coast, and in the Gulf of Mexico.
Earlier this year, the Atlantic was removed from the draft plan, but the Arctic and the Gulf are still at risk. Meanwhile, both of these regions are heavily impacted by both our changing climate and fossil fuel extraction. They're experiencing some of the most rapid sea-level rise and land loss on the planet, and have been subject to devastating oil spills.
If drilling is unsafe in the Atlantic, then it’s unsafe on all our coasts. It's time to end offshore drilling everywhere.
Impacted communities in both the Gulf and the Arctic are standing together and fighting back. If President Obama wants to be seen as a climate leader, then he needs to be accountable to communities like mine on the front lines of climate impacts. Coastal communities know exactly what’s at stake if drilling continues in the Arctic and the Gulf -- their cultures, land, and livelihoods.
President Obama has the power to stop new offshore drilling without interference from Congress. This is a unique opportunity for the President to listen to communities on the ground and cement his legacy as a climate leader before he leaves office.
Climate change touches all of us. Let's make sure offshore oil and gas stays where it belongs -- deep under ground.
In unity,
Genny Roman & the rest of the 350.org team
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350.org Donor Bulletin: April 2016350.org

Dear friends,
We're very excited that Break Free is only a couple weeks away. After months of preparation, the committed, widespread, and creative climate movement is joining together to take action.
As noted writer Grace Paley wrote, "the only recognizable feature of hope is action." The climate movement is full of hope -- what choice do we have when climate change is already upon us, yet we do not know how serious the future impacts will be? 
Taking action is what makes the 350 team who we are. The lead up to big mobilizations requires us to build and test relationships; analyze strategic opportunities; make long-term plans (yet stay nimble); and remember to take breaks every now and then too.
We also take hope from news of victory -- including this week's cancellation of a major Kinder Morgan natural gas pipeline!
Thank you for all you do to be in motion and action with us. And if you don't yet know where you'll be for Break Free, it's not too late to make your plans.
Very Warmly,
May Boeve
May Boeve
Executive Director

How The Epic Global Resistance To Fossil Fuels Is Growing
Photo: 350.org

A few of the inspiring ways that people are stepping up to keep fossil fuels in the ground across the globe. Read more.

Campaign Update: UK Divestment
Photo: 350.org

Over the past couple years, 350.org has worked with partners to build a fossil fuel divestment campaign from the ground-up in the United Kingdom. We raised our campaign profile through our partnership with… Read more.

Kinder Morgan Cancels Major Natural Gas Pipeline
Photo: Ben Nelms/Reuters/Landov

Congratulations to all of our partners and allies who opposed the Kinder Morgan pipeline in the Northeastern United States. Read more.

Yale Pledges to Divest From Coal and Tar Sands
Photo: Alex Zhang

Yale’s step toward divestment from coal and tar sands speaks to the power of the youth fossil fuel divestment in the US and globally. This news comes at a time when hundreds of students and dozens of campaigns have been taking action on campuses. Read more.

Defending The Defenders
Photo: Loi Manalansan

We are deeply discouraged and saddened to see so many stories in just the past few weeks of violent attacks against peaceful activists calling for justice and saying no to extractive industries. Many of these have resulted in death, injury, and intimidation… Read more.

350 Trainings Website Launched
Photo: 350.org

Leading a training? Want some tools for facilitating online or face-to-face group meetings? Working on a local climate action? Find tools and techniques that will help you and the people around you overcome obstacles and work together. Learn more.





RELATED SUPPORTS FOR THE PEOPLE
Government Agencies
Taxing Harms to Purchase Good
Courts
Public Service Organizations

Victory! Arctic Ocean offshore drilling leases cancelled!
Dan Ritzman, Sierra   2015 Club reply@emails.sierraclub.org via uark.edu 
7:07 AM (4 hours ago)
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Dear Dick,
Wow! What a win for America's Arctic!
The Department of Interior announced they are cancelling all offshore drilling leases in our Arctic Ocean for the next two years. Also, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management denied Shell and Statoil's requests for an extension of their current Arctic leases.1
This is your victory. Every person who sent a letter, made a phone call, attended a rally in support of protecting the Arctic, and even took to the water to join other kayaktivists protesting Shell's plan to drill owns this win.

Now, President Obama has the opportunity to further his climate legacy and keep more dirty fuels in the ground. Another round of leases has been proposed in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans for 2017 to 2022. We know drilling is dirty, dangerous, and must not be allowed to go forward. Let's raise our voices together and tell President Obama to cancel the proposed leases for both coasts.

Send your letter today! Thank President Obama for taking steps to protect the Arctic Ocean, and tell him to put an end to the next cycle of proposed leases in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans.

The "Shell No" movement has shown that people power can and will continue to overcome Big Oil. Let's celebrate this victory and make sure our oceans continue to be protected from an industry with an unforgivable track record.

Take a moment to thank President Obama for making the right call and encourage him to keep Big Oil out of our Arctic and Atlantic Oceans forever!

Thanks for all you do to protect the Arctic,

Dan Ritzman
Director, Arctic Program
Sierra Club
Source:
1. Department of Interior press release: "Interior Department Cancels Arctic Offshore Lease Sales", 10/16/2015.

This email was sent to: jbennet@uark.edu
This email was sent by the Sierra Club85 2nd St San Francisco, CA 94105


 SUING CORPORATIONS
Joyce Hale  3-10-16
2:08 PM (10 minutes ago)
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to Jacqueline, Zola, Carol, David, Carrie, me, Art, Pat
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My good friend, Elisabeth Radow in New York, has been one of the attorneys representing the two families in Dimock, PA.  You will recall that it was their water contamination by Cabot Oil & Gas that provided the inspiration for Josh Fox's Gasland documentary.  The long preparation for the trial has now paid off with the court's ruling.  It will probably be appealed, but knowing Elisabeth, the case is probably pretty tight.


Sometimes the light of justice is able to shine!

Oil Watch:  International Oil Exploitation Resistance, Google Search, March 19, 2015
Latin America and Africa
www.oilwatch.org/en/
Los Angeles, CA – Amazon Watch and Yasunidos, a campaign comprised of a collective of Ecuadorian and international environmental organizations and ...
Hoy Oilwatch Latinoamérica se une a las distintas ...
President of the Republic of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, has ...
The objective of Oilwatch is to build a network of national and ...
As the Niger Delta boils and as Nigeria looks towards a bleak ...
westafricaoilwatch.org/what-we-do/
We research and publish periodic 'report cards' that assesses both host governments and international oil companies commitment to safe and responsible oil ...
See Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything, Chap. 9, “Blockadia.”  The BDS Movement against fossil fuels could be Blockade-Divestment-Sanctions—or better yet:  BBDS: Boycott, Blockade, Divestment, Sanctions.  And?  We’ll need every pressure: the big rich, the owners, the 1% won’t give up their money which is their political power until it is taken from them, or until fossil fuels are no more.


BENEFICIAL TAXES:   SUGAR TAX/FUEL TAX
Bottom of Form
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ANALOGY:  USING TAXES TO DRIVE OUT HARMS AND TO SUPPORT HELP: INCREASE FOSSIL FUELS TAXES AND USE REVENUE FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY.
JARED BREY AND HOLLY OTTERBEIN   |   JUNE 8, 2016 |   75 COMMENTS
Mayor Jim Kenney is now one step away from securing a major first-term victory, after a City Council committee voted Wednesday evening to approve a new tax on sugary drinks and diet sodas in order to fund his priorities: expanded pre-K, community schools, and an overhaul of the city’s parks, libraries and recreation centers.
Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/tag/soda-tax/#OGOocBiERPs4svLU.99
“Philadelphia Mayor Proposes Sugar Tax.”  AD-G (June 9, 2016).
Problem:  Power of fossil fuels industry and the millionaires and billionaires invested in it is immensely greater than that of the soda pop industry.  Imposing a tax on anything by which the Koch brothers enrich themselves is difficult to imagine.


EFFECTS OF OIL PRICE, Depends on your angle.
In the WaPo,former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers argues that the lowest oil prices in years provide a perfect opportunity to enact a carbon tax without slowing the economy.
“Oil Glut Likely to Be Severed, Analysts Say.”  Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (July 23, 2015).  The “oversupply” from OPEC has increased.  Consequently investment has decreased and “70,000 workers cut.”   


REALITIES (URGENTLY NEEDING ATTENTION: Every Environmentalist Organization Should Be Well-Read Regarding the Connections for Full-Spectrum Protest)
Climate Is Changing: Droughts Increasing, Trees Decreasing
Arid and Semi-Arid Regions are Expanding
New Study Shows How Climate Change Is Already Reshaping The Earth
BY JOE ROMM SEP 3, 2015 CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
A landmark study in the journal Nature documents an expansion of the world’s dry and semi-arid climate regions since 1950 — and attributes it to human-caused global warming.
This expansion of the world’s dry zones is a basic prediction of climate science. The fact it is so broadly observable now means we must take seriously the current projections of widespread global Dust-Bowlification in the coming decades on our current CO2 emissions pathway — including the U.S.’s own breadbasket.



The Great Regulator of Climate—the Forest Carbon “Sink”—is Fast Disappearing.
Trees Are Disappearing From The World At An Alarming Rate
BY KATIE VALENTINEhttp://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/plugins/cap-byline/bird_blue_16.png SEP 2, 2015 CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
Some tropical countries saw an “alarming” surge of tree cover loss in 2014, according to a new report.
The report, published Wednesday by the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch, uses data on tree cover loss — a measure of the removal, natural or human-caused, of all kinds of trees, whether they’re in a forest or on a plantation — from the University of Maryland and Google. That data show that in 2014, the planet lost more than 45 million acres of tree cover, with tree cover loss in tropical countries accounting for more than half of that total. Tropical countries alone, the report found, lost nearly 25 million acres of tree cover in 2014, a chunk about the size of South Korea.  MORE:   http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/09/02/3697519/tree-cover-loss-2014/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cptop3

We Must Go Negative: Capture Carbon and Bury It
Clay F. Naff.  “Humanity’s Last Stand:  How We Can Stop Climate Change Before It Kills Us.”  The Humanist (July-Aug. 2016).  Go directly to paragraph 22, his main point:  “…even changing our gas engines for electric motors and swapping coal-fired plants for geothermal, nuclear, wind, solar or some future renewable won’t be enough.”  In case we missed it, he repeats in his final paragraph: “…a single human lifetime is all that remains before catastrophic effects set in. . . .in addition to replacing fossil fuels we must boldly strive one way or another to put carbon back where we found it” to diminish those effects(17).   Naff mentions five methods:  natural storage:  restoring forests, growing algae and kelp; engineered storage: coal-fired decomposition of CO2, ff emissions run through chemical bath.   Needless to say, all pose immense problems either technological or political.


CLIMATE CHANGING, INDUSTRY DENYING
Bill Moyers in Conversation
BillMoyers.com 6-9-16  via mail215.atl61.mcsv.net 
Jun 7 (2 days ago)
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Through the Smoke and Fumes Committee, the industry blurred the science surrounding air pollution and worked to forestall unwanted regulation. By Neela Bannerjee, David Hasemyer and Lisa Song
READ More
Should owners, CEOs, board members be prosecuted and imprisoned for deceiving government regulators, their investors, and the public?


OMNI NEWSLETTERS
For research purposes, specific subjects can be located in the following alphabetized index, and searched on the blog using the search box.  The search box is located in the upper left corner of the webpage.
Newsletter Index:  http://omnicenter.org/dick-bennetts-peace-justice-and-ecology-newsletters/dicks-newsletter-index/

Contents: Fossil Fuels Newsletter #4, Divestment Campaign #1, June 13, 2015
Introduction
Fossil Free, Gofossilfree.org    
Universities Divesting
       Student Movement    
       Oxford
       Stanford
       Harvard
Religions:  Unitarian-Universalist Association (UUA)
350.org Divestment Campaign



END ANTI-FOSSIL FUELS CAMPAIGN, FOCUS ON DIVESTMENT #2, FF NEWSLETTER #5, July 6, 2016

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Dick's Wars and Warming KPSQ Radio Editorials (#1-48)

Dick's Wars and Warming KPSQ Radio Editorials (#1-48)