Welcome to the Forward on Climate blogathon on Daily Kos, a week of action diaries by an amazing lineup of Kossacks and a who's who of eco guest writers leading up to this Sunday's #ForwardOnClimate Rally in Washington, D.C., the largest climate rally in history.

Below you'll find all the information you'll need to become part of this exciting movement. If you can make it to the National Mall in Washington D.C. to urge President Obama to say no to the Keystone XL pipeline, great!

If you can't, there are many other opportunities to get involved. Below the orange squiggle you'll find an extensive list of solidarity rallies across the country, some of them attended by fellow Kossacks. If you can't make it to a rally, you can show your solidarity by supporting the diaries that will be posted throughout the week.

Without further ado, here is all the information you'll need, sprinkled with my personal story of how I convinced my inner gremlin that it's time to take a stand.

As wise Kossack WarrenS likes to point out: "Remember, if we fail on climate change, nothing else matters."

The overall picture, thus, is far from rocket science: We are all sitting in the same living room, with all our cars and planes and farms and factories blowing greenhouse gases at full steam, but there's no window to be opened or ventilation system to dilute the fumes to some other far away place. There's only one atmosphere surrounding us, and the only way to keep us all from roasting is to take our collective foot off the proverbial gas pedal. Dilution is no longer the solution to pollution.

Easier said than done, I know. Since the problem is on such a large scale and the causes so multitudinous, it's tempting to do nothing at all. Unlike most other natural systems on this planet, the human mind — at its most unrefined — can be a master of dualistic, reductive reasoning, thriving on juxtaposition and zero sums. "What good does it do to drive less if a single flight emits more carbon than my car does in an entire year?" the little voice in our head laments. "Why bother turning the lights off when I leave the house while a thousand new coal fired plants are going online in China every week?" the testy gremlin lodged inside the noggin kvetches.

I myself am not immune to the temptations of this type of reductionism, generally retreating to my "be the change you wish to see" comfort zone when faced with taking a more confrontational stance against entities that constitute a significant institutionalized part of the problem.

There are a whole range of smack-talking gremlins in my head cautioning against hypocrisy and overreach. First and foremost, there's the old guilt monger grumbling "how can you tell Chevron to refrain from selling all the oil they're sitting on when you've just booked your flight to France?" Other favorites on the list of inaction excuses range from "I'm not angry enough to protest" and "it doesn't make a difference whether I'm there or not" to "I can be of better service working behind the scenes." And yes, there's even a John Lennon gremlin, slyly singing "you say you want a revolution, weheeell you knooow, you better free your mind instead." Om Shanti Shanti, all the way past 400 parts per million of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

It was Bill McKibben, who in his milestone Global Warming's Terrifying New Math article summed up our convulsive inertia when it comes to the biggest threat of our time. "Since all of us are in some way the beneficiaries of cheap fossil fuel," he wrote, "tackling climate change has been like trying to build a movement against yourself – it's as if the gay-rights movement had to be constructed entirely from evangelical preachers, or the abolition movement from slaveholders."

Following his own assessment, Bill could long ago have let himself be devoured by entire armies of naysaying critics, both in- and outside his head, and just stayed hunkered down at home, writing books about how screwed we are. You know the drill by now: "How can you justify burning fossil fuel traveling across the country while telling people to divest from fossil companies? Aren't these companies just giving us what we want? Why aren't you talking about [insert other important related issue]? Aren't you just pushing all the polluters to poor countries?"

Instead, he decided to mobilize people from around the world, educate the country about the math, take on the biggest fossil fuel producers, and organize the largest climate rally in American history to take place this Sunday, February 17th, at the National Mall in Washington D.C.

"Forward On Climate" Rally - February 17, 2013, 12:00 pm, Washington, DC Link - feel free to post on your Facebook pages. There are Kossack Meet-ups Coinciding with Forward on Climate Rally. Send eeff a kosmail if you're interested in connecting the night before or the night of the event. Check New Day diaries for the latest updates and RSVPs. Also, if you're trying to hitch a ride to Washington D.C. from other places around the country, check the Sierra Club's excellent bus list.

Doing the Math with Bill.

When I interviewed Bill last November, I realized that the time had come to stop drowning in nuance and take a stand. I needed to get out of my comfort zone, defy myself and all my gremlins, because if we're serious about making the big changes needed to keep this planet from frying, the one thing we cannot do is stay the same, both in our head and in the world.

So I took Bill's challenge to get off my ass and do something beyond reducing my own ecological footprint and waxing poetic about it. I'm in the Bay Area, so one thing Bill said we could do here is to go to Chevron's shareholder meeting in San Ramon and tell them to become an energy company instead of an oil company. I had this idea for a Bike the Math action that I took to my local 350 group. They immediately jumped on it and we're going to make this happen in May.

But that's another diary. What happened through my engagement with 350bayarea.org is that I realized how many people there really are who are fired up and ready to go on a whole list of campaigns ranging from tar sands direct action to getting climate disruption warning labels on gas pumps. And the next big thing, of course, happens to be a Forward on Climate Solidarity Rally right in downtown San Francisco that has gone from a modest side event to over 70 organizations endorsing and over 1200 rsvps in just a couple of weeks.

So this is where I will be on Sunday, along with the 350 folks and a bunch of SF Kossacks, and I hope you will be able to join us or any of the other solidarity rallies listed below.

Forward on Climate Rally SF

WHEN: Sunday, February 17th, 1-3pm
WHERE: One Market Plaza, 1 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94105
WHAT: Join over 70 organizations and thousands of citizens to encircle the State Department Office at One Market Plaza. Demand that the Department reject the permit for Keystone XL.

Click here to RSVP: www.350bayarea.org/forward_on_climate_bay_area_rally

This will be the biggest climate march that we know of in Bay Area history, with folks coming from as far away as Sacramento and Santa Cruz. California has made extraordinary and bold progress toward halting the climate crisis, but if President Obama does not take similarly bold action, our state will suffer the consequences along with the rest of the world.

To connect with other SFKossacks, send navajo a kosmail or check New Day diaries for the latest updates and RSVPs.

It doesn't mean we're blameless in this mess we've made. It doesn't mean we can't also continue to work on making personal changes. It doesn't mean we can't work for the kind of infrastructure we'll need to live in a less fossil-fueled world. It doesn't mean we can't be sensitive to the contradictions inherent in the out-of-balance-with-nature's-systems civilization we've created.

It just means that we're ready to stop the madness of burning every last drop of oil we know of, so that we can at least have a chance to be the change we wish to see in the world.

Time to take a Stand!

As Meteor Blades wrote in last night's Night Owls thread and the SF Chronicle is reporting today in Thousands protest Keystone XL pipeline, yesterday's turnout at the Forward on Climate rally in San Francisco was quite impressive, and the about 4000 people (5000 according to 350 Bay Area) who showed up were quite spirited, considering that it was just one of many side dishes to the main course taking place in Washington D.C.

Put together by 350 Bay Area and 350 Silicon Valley on pretty short notice, over 80 organizational partners signed on and helped make this event a huge success, and as always with these things in SF, a great party.

Of course, thanks to the great navajo, SF Kossacks got together for a meetup to bring up rally numbers and have a fun day together. After snacks at the MarketBar in the Ferry Building, ten of us walked over to the State Department Building at 1 Market, where we bumped into a few others Kossacks during the course of the rally.

SF Kossacks showed the colors at the Keystone XL protest in San Francisco. Left to right, TLO™, remembrance, patg, Lorikeet, Meteor Blades, dharmasyd, navajo, kimoconner, Glen The Plumber.

This is a story about something that is right in this world. It's a story of inspiration and real world solutions, a down to earth celebration of the most basic yet profound connection we have to the planet that sustains us — its soil and crops. It's also a simple appeal for support of a transformational project that combines human ingenuity, ecological healing, and more widespread and equitable access to life-enhancing nutrients for everyone.

Farmer and MacArthur Fellowship recipient Will Allen has been a giant in the urban farming and food justice movement for years. His organization Growing Power is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary of connecting inner city residents with the land they live on, developing community farms and food centers that provide access to high-quality, safe, healthy, affordable food for everyone.

One of the biggest challenges of growing enough healthy local food in dense urban areas is to secure enough acreage to run a viable farm, so Growing Power's most recent endeavor is the realization of a state of the art, 5-story Vertical Farm in the middle of Milwaukee. Their design was recently nominated as a finalist out of entries from 100 countries in the Architecture & Farming category of the Architizer A+ Awards.

The five-story Vertical Farm will expand Growing Powers greenhouse and aquaponics operations currently spread over a two-acre site in the City of Milwaukee.

If the following description of the vertical farm doesn't convince you, please follow me below the fold to learn more about Will Allen and his vision to grow healthy food, people, and communities.

Imagine a five-story farm in the middle of a city! This innovative design developed by The Kubala Washatko Architects, Inc. will expand Growing Power's greenhouse and aquaponics operations currently spread over a two-acre site in the City of Milwaukee. Five stories of south-facing greenhouse areas allow production of plants, vegetables, and herbs year-round. Educational classrooms, conference spaces, demonstration kitchen, food processing and storage, freezers, and loading docks further support Growing Power's mission as a local and national resource for sustainable urban food production.

Cast-in-place tilt-up concrete panel construction provides an affordable, energy efficient, structurally stable, and long-lasting building shell appropriate for intensive farming operations.

Energy and water flows throughout the building are carefully designed. The building absorbs sunlight and takes advantage of solar convective currents. Heat generated by the sun is stored via underground thermal mass and used to warm the building in winter. Roof-mounted photovoltaic panels and thermal solar panels generate a portion of building energy needs. Use of natural daylight reduces energy use. A closed loop of water and nutrients circulates throughout the building; fish wastes are used as food for plants, while plants clean and filter the water for fish. Rainwater falling on the building is collected and stored to support the system.

The Vertical Farm expands and improves year-round retail space selling fresh, nutritious, and affordable food. The Vertical Farm also creates an active outdoor market area that will become a community gathering place for work, learning, and social activities.

From the Department of Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is, last week the city of London announced one of the largest cycling transportation development budgets in the history of the bicycle, qualifying it as one of the world’s largest public works projects.

And here I thought we're doing quite well in my city of San Francisco, even re-enacting some old world magic at last weekend's kickoff to our Sunday Streets season.

This occasional taste of what it would be like if streets were for people and not cars is, of course, all fine and well, and as one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the U.S., SF even has a solid bike plan to more permanently improve safe streets for cycling. However, there is only so much tinkering around the edges you can do before you run up against the limitations of a fundamentally car-centric infrastructure and the realization that bigger, more systemic changes that require bigger and bolder investments are needed. So ultimately, the resources allocated to making these big infrastructural changes a reality is where the intertube meets the bike lane, and London has just made a huge statement that it is serious about doing so.

Here's a sampling of what you can do with £1 billion ($1.4 billion):

• A new 'Central London Grid' of bike routes in the City and West End, using segregation, quiet streets, and two-way cycling on one-way traffic streets, to join all the other routes together
• A new network of 'Quietways'– direct, continuous, fully-signposted routes on peaceful side streets, running far into the suburbs, and aimed at people put off by cycling in traffic
• Substantial improvements to both existing and proposed Superhighways, including some reroutings
• Major improvements to the worst junctions, making them safer and less threatening for cyclicsts

Last Saturday was one of those days on the calendar that seems to magically attract all the cool happenings around town. Usually with multiple invitations on the same day you end up having to make some tough choices (and I did miss the SF Kossack meetup), but this time all the different events connected perfectly, not just timing-wise, but thematically.

In fact, there was a certain artistry and synergy in the sequence of the three places that were calling me that I couldn't help but think of my day as a triptych, the 3-paneled format often used in photography, stringing together separate images that are variants on a theme.

Under the broader themes that could perhaps best be summed up as SOIL ∞ SOCIAL ∞ SURVIVAL, here's my visual interpretation of the day, captioned by the event links, and some more thoughts and photos of the journey below.

The Great Compost Giveaway || "B" Socially Responsible Conference || Climate Ride

A couple of days ago I went to a panel discussion entitled A Story of Shuttles at SPUR, the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association. For those of you not living in SF (and the Bay Area), what's come to be known as "The Google Bus" is a whole fleet of privately run corporate limousine buses that are shuttling employees in the tech industry from hundreds of pick-up places near their homes in SF to their workplaces in Silicon Valley. The premise, according to company representatives at the panel, is that their predominantly young, under 35 workforce is "nauseated by the suburbs" and would rather commute up to 80 miles (round trip) to San Francisco every day than live near their workplace, and so the companies' job is to make that trip as comfortable as possible, to attract and retain their workforce.

According to the SFMTA, there are now almost 40 companies running these shuttles with over two hundred stops across the city. Google alone runs over 100 buses and 380 trips daily across the Bay Area, which has earned them the honor of being the poster child for the luxury liner phenomenon. However, the trend was first started about 7 years ago by some of the more established biotech companies in South San Francisco like Genentech. It wasn't really a big deal when there were just a handful, but the last two years has seen such a rapid explosion of these behemoths into our neighborhood streets that it feels a bit like an invasive species.

Most of these buses are anonymous entities that often make everything and everyone else dwarf in comparison and clog up the streets...

but some of them are a bit more ostentatious in their destination...

They load and unload in the public transit (MUNI) bus stops, and quite frequently just double-park right in an intersection.

Two deep, about to unload "customers," cars honking and pulling dangerous maneuvers to get past.

They are pretty much everywhere now, even on Valencia St, which has been transformed into a bicycle highway and people friendly walking corridor in recent years, but as a cyclist during rush hour you now have to contend with these guys turning on and off at random intersections. I guess this is one way to get big corporate billboards into a neighborhood that prides itself on protecting its small local merchants from chain store invasions.

There are some much touted benefits of reducing automobile trips on Bay Area roads, and I definitely appreciate and applaud the good intentions behind these buses, but as someone who has written quite a bit about sustainable urban design, these buses, while addressing one small transportation sliver of the whole livable city ecosystem, raise a whole range of other social, cultural, economic, and environmental issues that are basically being treated as externalities by the people who are enabling the flooding of these private "yachts on wheels" deep into city neighborhoods, without much public discussion.

SPUR's description of the panel had me excited because I thought it would delve into some of the broader ramifications of this transformation:

Those big buses are tough to miss. As employer shuttles sprout up across the Bay Area, what do they tell us about our region, its workers and its employers? What are the benefits and challenges that accompany their increasing presence? This forum will take a closer look at how and why some employers manage worker transportation.

Tomorrow, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is going to vote on whether or not to urge the city’s retirement board to divest over half a billion dollars from the fossil fuel industry. This is a landmark resolution to divest the city's pension fund -- one of the largest pools of money the city holds -- from the top 200 fossil fuel companies, and would be by far the largest commitment to divestment by a city to date.  

The bad news is that this is going to be a very close call, as divesting 8.7% of holdings in its Employee’s Retirement System is a big deal, even for a city government known for its pioneering spirit and progressive values.

The good news is that if you are a San Francisco resident you can send a quick message to the Board of Supervisors today to make your voice heard in support of divestment. They do read them and numbers matter, especially to supervisors that might be on the fence about this.

This is where the action will be tomorrow morning, and I know that Bill, Jamie and the rest of the 350.org gang will be watching closely. If you're not a SF resident writing a letter you can still send some big love and abracadabra vibes towards this place mañana...

Below, some more thoughts and pics from the hearing a couple of weeks ago when Supervisor John Avalos introduced the resolution that urges the retirement board to divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in sustainable alternatives: clean energy, local energy retrofits, and more.

Remember, it's San Francisco, anything can happen!

This just in!

San Francisco Board of Supervisors Unanimously Pass Fossil Fuel Divestment Resolution urging the city’s retirement system to divest over $583 million from the fossil fuel industry

SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors (SFERS) passed a unanimous resolution this afternoon calling on the San Francisco Employee Retirement System to divest over $583 million invested in the 200 corporations that hold the majority of the world’s fossil fuel reserves.

The resolution makes San Francisco the third city in the nation after Ithaca and Seattle to push for fossil fuel divestment. If the SFERS Board agrees to the Supervisors’ request, it will become the largest pension fund in the country to divest from the fossil fuel industry.

I wrote about this more in-depth yesterday, when it wasn't altogether clear that this gutsy resolution, introduced by Supervisor John Avalos who said that "divestment is an important part of our city response to climate change," would pass.

But today, at around 2.30pm in Room 244 at City Hall, after about a 20 minute discussion among the supervisors, the resolution to divest 8.7% of holdings in its Employee’s Retirement System from fossil fuels and reinvest in sustainable alternatives like clean energy and local energy retrofits, was passed unanimously.

The San Francisco Employee’s Retirement System (SFERS)  is a roughly $16 billion pension fund that serves more than 52,000 active and retired employees of the City and County of San Francisco and their survivors. According to SFERS Executive Director Jay Huish, the fund currently owns $583.7 million of public holdings in 91 of top 200 fossil fuel companies. Some of SFERS’ largest fossil fuel holdings include $112 million in ExxonMobil, $60 million in Chevron, $26 million in Shell Oil, $17 million in Occidental Petroleum, and $11 million in the China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

The so-called "carbon bubble" is the result of an over-valuation of oil, coal and gas reserves held by fossil fuel companies. According to a report published on Friday, at least two-thirds of these reserves will have to remain underground if the world is to meet existing internationally agreed targets to avoid the threshold for "dangerous" climate change. If the agreements hold, these reserves will be in effect unburnable and so worthless – leading to massive market losses. But the stock markets are betting on countries' inaction on climate change.

This is Supervisor Kim's — excuse the pun — money quote:

More than just make a statement, we're making a statement with our dollars.

Feeling a need for community? Cohousing can provide affordable space and neighbors to share it with.

Temescal Creek cohousing community in North Oakland.

The full article below the squiggle, sprinkled with some extra photos I took during my visits with three Bay Area cohousing communities.

If you're in the Bay Area and want to do something exciting, fun, and meaningful to voice your concerns about climate change and the fossil fuel industry's long-term business plan, here it is... (and if not, please help spread the word)

Bike the Math to Chevron's shareholders at their Annual General Meeting in San Ramon. Let's tell Chevron to stop fueling climate chaos and become a renewable energy company!

When: Wednesday, May 29th
Where: Dublin/Pleasanton BART, 8am
What: Light to medium 6 mile ride to Chevron Headquarters in San Ramon along Iron Horse Trail, arriving at approximately 9am

RSVP at 350BayArea.org or join Facebook Event page

It's easy to despair these days. If the terrifying math of global warming hasn't put you in a paralyzing funk, the imminent Arctic ice death spiral surely will. The numbers are daunting — 350 parts per million is what climate scientists say is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere, and this month levels surpassed 400 parts per million for the first time in human history. The numbers, frankly, are very overwhelming, and coping mechanisms can range from screaming into the computer screen to throwing your hands up in the air and tuning out altogether.

When I interviewed Bill McKibben on his Do the Math tour last November, I thought my main contribution to the Herculean efforts to get us all collectively off the dangerous fossil-fueled path was to keep writing about possible solutions, highlighting the many ongoing efforts, from renewable energy developments to zero waste to simple living to sustainable urban design ideas.

It's not that I will stop doing that, but talking to Bill made me realize that I had to step up my game. I needed to get out of my comfort zone, defy myself, and take a stand, because if we're serious about making the big changes needed to keep this planet from frying, the one thing we cannot do is stay the same, both in our heads and in the world.

When somebody asked in the Q&A after his Do the Math talk what we in the Bay Area could do specifically to stop or at least slow the fossil madness, Bill encouraged people to pressure their universities and cities to divest from fossil fuel companies, which is now happening all over the country. It was the next thing he said, however, that made a lightbulb go off in my head. "You should all go to Chevron's shareholder meeting in San Ramon and tell them to become an energy company instead of an oil company" made a lot of sense to me.

However, I thought we could really drive home the point if a bunch of people rode in on their bicycles to relay that message. Why not bike the math to Chevron, I thought.

I mentioned the Bike the Math idea at the very end of my post, and a day later Janet Stromberg from 350BayArea.org invited me to come to their general meeting. Turns out they had just formed a Chevron Watch campaign and the folks running it thought biking the math to the annual general meeting was a really good idea. We started meeting at the office of the Richmond Progressive Alliance, a group that has been fighting Chevron for years over their dirty refinery that is polluting local communities. Next, groups like West County Toxics Coalition, Communities for a Better Environment, and Asian Pacific Environmental Network (who graciously provided another meeting space) joined.

Things really took shape when Adam Zuckerman and Paul Paz y Miño of Amazon Watch, a group that has been arranging for members of indigenous communities in Ecuador to speak at Chevron shareholder meetings for years, joined our meetings. They told us what goes on inside the shareholder meeting and what to expect outside, welcoming our efforts to draw attention to Chevron's irresponsible business practices and lend moral support for shareholders willing to speak out.

More recently, we found out that groups as diverse as U.S. PIRG, Common Dreams and Tri-Valley Moveon are planning to be there, bringing attention to Chevron's $2.5 million contribution to the Congressional Leadership Fund and promoting the Green Century resolution directing Chevron to refrain from spending corporate funds to influence electoral politics in the wake of Citizens United.

The True Cost of Chevron

In a way, Chevron represents all that is wrong with our economic, political, social, business, environmental philosophies, but I think there are some upsides to that. For one, it reminds us how all those things are connected and it speaks to the same larger imbalance and injustice within which these corporations are allowed to thrive, offering an opportunity for a larger movement to grow around the various issues.

Even more importantly, it shows that the solutions are interrelated. If Chevron were to shift its business towards renewable energy, it wouldn't have to drill in fragile ecosystems near indigenous communities or refine ever more oil in aging refineries. Likewise, if Chevron were to become a Benefit Corporation, it would care about the above, plus take the investment bubble in fossil fuels seriously and heed reports suggesting that markets are now overlooking the risk of unburnable carbon.

I'm not naive enough to think that Chevron will become a Benefit Corporation or renewable energy company any time soon, because this is the oil executives' thinking we're up against:

Charlie Rose: Whether it’s Alaska or offshore or wherever it may be, is your philosophy “Drill, baby, drill!?"

Rex Tillerson, CEO ExxonMobil: No. My philosophy is to make money. If I can drill and make money, then that’s what I want to do. For us, it’s about making quality investments for our shareholders. And it’s not a quality investment if you can’t manage the risk around it.

That's why I'll be Biking the Math to Chevron on May 29th, and I hope you will join me.

Tomorrow bright and early a bunch of Bay Area cyclists and I are going to bike the math of climate change to Chevron's shareholders and call for the company to be a part of the renewable energy future rather than be the unsustainable, fossil foolish, retro backwards 20th century dinosaurs they are right now.

I wrote about how this all came about in Don't just count the carbon, BIKE THE MATH!.

But really, what makes this story so powerful is how it highlights how everything is connected and how this one mega oil company represents all that is wrong with the way things are. From greed, shortsightedness and exploitation to political corruption, externalized costs, environmental destruction and social injustice, Chevron is one of those entities that are at the core of a planet out of balance with all the pain and suffering that entails.    

So here are the specs for our bike ride tomorrow, and below some impressions from today's press conference that brought together a powerful coalition of people who will be gathering in- and outside tomorrow's shareholder meeting to hold this rogue behemoth accountable for its actions and bring attention to the true cost of Chevron.

Bike the Math to Chevron's shareholders at their Annual General Meeting in San Ramon. Let's tell Chevron to stop fueling climate chaos and become a renewable energy company!

When: Wednesday, May 29th
Where: Dublin/Pleasanton BART, 8am
What: Light to medium 6 mile ride to Chevron Headquarters in San Ramon along Iron Horse Trail, arriving at approximately 9am

RSVP at 350BayArea.org or join Facebook Event page

Well, there couldn't be a better symbolism of yesterday's shareholder meeting at Chevron's San Ramon headquarters than today's headliner in the business section of the San Jose Mercury News: a bunch of inspired cyclists biking the math of climate change to the oil giant's front gate, sitting right on top of the article about the meeting during which Chevron CEO John Watson brags to shareholders about record oil profits.

Chevron touts strong year, skeptics question company's environmental record

SAN RAMON -- During a contentious annual meeting Wednesday, Chevron executives touted the company's $26 billion in annual profit and robust production efforts, but skeptics peppered management with pointed questions about its environmental practices.

...

The annual meeting grew heated, with some speakers complaining about the time allotted to talk. One called for Watson to be fired. Another complained that Chevron was not tough enough in debunking what he described as the myth of global warming.

...

Outside the meeting at Chevron's headquarters in San Ramon, dozens of protesters demonstrated, brandishing signs saying "Free America from the tyranny of oil,""Fire Watson" and "Chevron makes orphans."

The above clip is from today's business section in The SF Chronicle, which is behind a paywall, but the title Chevron CEO faces down critics ("Chevron Pushes Back" in the print version) gives you an idea of its drift.

There is, however, the very telling interview with John Watson on the SF Gate blog today where he says that cutting carbon will take a long time. He probably means until Chevron and their oily colleagues have drilled for every last drop and he's sipping tropical cocktails at his Arctic mansion.

“I think we can make some progress on carbon emissions as well, but I think it’s going to take a lot longer than people think if you’re going to balance out all of those factors.”

“One of the things that’s happened is we’re spending a lot of money subsidizing energy that isn’t going to get us to the kind of reduction in carbon emissions that people would like it to.”

While he stops short of calling money spent on solar power and other renewables wasted, Watson says the country should focus more on conservation and early-stage research on new energy technologies.

He probably means the way Germany has been wasting all its money on solar and renewables and is well on its way to 35 percent renewables by 2020 and at least 80 percent by 2050. Did I hear "new energy technologies?" You couldn't possible mean for solar and other renewables, Mr. Watson?

Of course, his enthusiasm level for a carbon tax is very low.

While a carbon tax could drive conservation, Watson sounds less than enthusiastic.

Closer to home and most recently, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson sums up the fossil industry's enthusiasm for conservation: "My philosophy is to make money. If I can drill and make money, then that’s what I want to do."

As mighty freewayblogger pointed out the other day, Chevron should just change its name to 450.org.

And that's exactly why a bunch of concerned citizens and I BIKED the math to Chevron yesterday: to refute their lazy, greed-disguising argument that change is impossible and Chevron is just giving people what they want — more oil, more convenience, more waste, more pollution, more greenhouse gases.

Below the fold, photos and impressions. All photos are mine, except the ones credited otherwise.

Epic rant by David Letterman on the fracking that's going on all over this land...

My little attempt at a transcript below the fold...

If you thought bike sharing was going to be the definitive end of the world for New York's old guard elite, wait till they get their fingers on Mayor Bloomberg's plan to require food composting in NYC.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has tried to curb soda consumption, ban smoking in parks and encourage bike riding, is taking on a new cause: requiring New Yorkers to separate their food scraps for composting.

From San Francisco on Track to Become Zero Waste City, starring citisven — a San Francisco horror movie! Photo: Debra Baida

Granted, it'll initially only be a voluntary program that would compost about 10 percent of the city’s residential food waste, but in a city as big as New York that will still account for 100,000 tons of food scraps per year.

However, as Mayor Bloomberg said in his most recent State of the City address, this is as much an economic issue as it is an environmental one.

“We bury 1.2 million tons of food waste in landfills every year at a cost of nearly $80 per ton,” he said. “That waste can be used as fertilizer or converted to energy at a much lower price. That’s good for the environment and for taxpayers.”

The bad news for all those freedom-loving patriots who prefer to throw their shit wherever the hell they please (because we all know that in the Land-of-the-Free you would never have any rules and laws that would regulate where you can toss your crap) is that this voluntary pilot program will most likely turn mandatory soon with the support of whoever will be Bloomberg's successor after he leaves office at the end of this year.

Two leading Democratic candidates for mayor, Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, expressed strong support for the program — including the plan to eventually make it mandatory.

“We’re going to lock it in,” she said. “When New York makes composting part of everyday life, every other city will follow through. This is going to create an urban trend.”

But this issue goes far beyond trash, and New Yorkers are just beginning to learn about the deeper win-win-win situation of composting food waste that has been demonstrated by San Francisco's zero waste efforts.

So below the squiggle, some more info on San Francisco's groundbreaking zero waste initiative.

Okay, so I admit it. I'm a glutton for non-gluttitude. Sensitive to waste. Trash talker. Reluctant consumer. A reuse geek. A composting fanatic. German.

No matter how much I tried to focus on the heaps and heaps of super awesomeness of people, panels, power-shifting, and parties at NN13, I just couldn't help but being deflated by the heaps and heaps of plastic cups, plastic water bottles, single-use everything, overflowing trash cans, and general lack of attention to leaving the place the way we found it.

This is how I felt walking through the building and at most events (replace bags with plastic cups)...

It was often a pretty lonely existence, just me and my Klean Kanteen, surrounded by water bottles everywhere...

photo by debra baida

Despite some heavy detective work I couldn't find out who exactly to blame for my inner the conference's garbage crisis, so let's just say it was Barack ObamaEdward SnowdenDavid GregoryGlenn GreenwaldGlen the Plumber's fault and get on with it.

Because as we all know, being progressive is about making things better, so my hope is that by bringing attention to this issue, things could be improved a little at NN14. Maybe a lot. Is a zero waste conference possible? Maybe not 100%, but if you don't try, you won't find out.

The good news is that the folks at Netroots Nation are very receptive to the idea. In fact, after my wild garbage chase throughout the conference (described below the orange squiggle), a simple email after I returned home yielded a quick response from Eric Thut, Operations Director at Netroots Nation. In a nutshell, there were a lot of false assumptions regarding resource recovery at NN13 and they would love to make NN14 more eco-friendly. Any suggestions and community participation on how to make it happen are welcome and encouraged. We can gather ideas in the comments, or you can also email him directly at eric at netrootsnation dot org.

If there are any Detroit eco-people reading this, it would be great to hear what's already going on recycling and composting wise in the city, and how NN14 may be able to work with the convention center and the city to leave the smallest footprint possible next year.

For more detail and my trashy impressions from NN13, read on...

You know you've come a long way in the fight for equality when the people you come across at the Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco are these guys.

On the right is Mitch Mayne, one of the driving forces behind reconciling Mormons with the LGBT community post Prop 8. Aside from being a really nice guy, he also showed a good sense of humor when we ran into him this morning as everyone was gearing up for a historic parade celebrating the demise of Prop 8 and DOMA:

"Don't worry, it'll be more than just the two of us joining the parade."

Indeed, he was not lying, as just a couple of hours later about 150 Mormons marched down Market Street to celebrate LOVE in all shapes and forms along with tens of thousands of San Franciscans.

We've come a long way. While there's still work to be done in the struggle for equality, today was a day to celebrate the truly remarkable progress that has been made in the last few years, culminating in this week's Supreme Court rulings.

Speaking of for the Supreme Court: "Put a ring on it!"

Below the orange engagement diamond, a photo journey through a marvelous day in San Francisco...

Independence is a big and important word in American history and culture. A noble concept in and of itself, it reaches far and deep into the country's mythology and its people's collective psyche. The U.S.'s independence as a nation is rooted in the rugged individualism among its citizens, a way of life that has been boosted by an unprecedented freedom from the constraints of nature and resources. From suburban McMansions to airplane commutes, there is a reason why the U.S. is advertised to immigrants like myself as the land of unlimited possibilities.

However, this perceived independence that is reinforced by material possessions and boundless mobility, is coming at an ever-increasing cost: The dependence on fossil fuels and all the problems associated with it. From fighting wars in oil rich countries, to epic oil spills, to the devastating effects of climate change, our ostensible emancipation from the constraints of nature that enabled us to create the illusion that we could go it alone is coming back to bite us.

This (re)post is part of a mini-blogathon leading up to Independence Day, organized by James Wells and dedicated to re-purposing this holiday by declaring independence from that which is unhealthy and wrong, whether in the environment or some other aspect of our lives.

INTERdependence

The Art of Recology: The Artist in Residence Program 1990-2013
San Francisco Airport Museum, March – October 2013
United Terminal 3 (exhibition viewable by ticketed passengers)

This exhibition presents over one-hundred pieces made by forty-five artists during their residencies at Recology. All of the works on display were made in the art studio at the San Francisco Solid Waste Transfer and Recycling Facility and constructed from materials the artists scavenged from the Public Disposal and Recycling Area. Founded in 1990, the Recology San Francisco Artist in Residence Program promotes recycling and reuse, and encourages people to reflect on how their consumption practices affect the environment. Over one-hundred Bay Area artists have participated in the program since its founding.

Having a reputation as one of San Francisco's most trashy, wasted, and rotten reporters, I was kindly invited by the composting conglomerate to go on an artist-led tour of the exhibition, an offer I just couldn't throw away refuse. If you find yourself in the United Terminal at SFO over the next three months you will literally not be able to miss this extraordinary show, but for those without travel plans I'd like to share a few impressions of a collection that SFO Museum Curator of Exhibitions Tim O’Brien says conveys "the need to change our view of material goods and their disposal in the waste stream."

The Styrofoam Hummer, by Andrew Junge

When Andrew Junge began his residency, he was impacted by the amount of Styrofoam that entered the waste stream and decided to make something from this rightfully maligned material that would be a metaphor for consumption and waste—and so the Styrofoam Hummer was born. The life-sized replica of the civilian and military vehicle was constructed from hundreds of pieces of packing material that he formed into blocks, assembled, and hand-shaped.

Last Dive at the Farallones, by Ethan Estess

Passenger viewing Ethan Estess'Last Dive at the Farallones: 100,000 marine mammals killed per year. Made from copious amounts of plastics and rope found during his student artist residency at the SF Transfer Station, the sculpture calls attention to the perilous state of our oceans.

Evening News, by Sandy Drobny

Textile artist Sandy Drobny explains to SFO Museum Curator Tim O’Brien how she worked with a variety of scavenged materials while at the dump, including caution tape, twist ties, plastic shopping bags, and inner tubes to fashion a series of aprons and other garments. This full-length gown, Evening News, was made from the ubiquitous bags used to deliver newspapers.

If you're in the Bay Area, this Saturday is a great opportunity to come out to Richmond and let Chevron know that we're serious about moving away from fossil fuels and holding that corporate giant accountable for the damage they do to communities around the world.

Summer Heat RALLY & MARCH
Saturday August 3rd
Gather: Outside Richmond BART station
Time: 10 am, Saturday August 3
March: From Richmond BART to Chevron refinery
Shorter March & Kids’ Events: George Carroll (aka Washington) Park, Pt Richmond, 11:15 am
Rally: Chevron refinery, S. Castro St gate
Special Guests: Bill McKibben & local speakers
RSVP here

On August 3rd, the one year anniversary of the Richmond Chevron refinery explosion and fire, two powerful forces, 350BayArea.org and the environmental justice groups organizing in Richmond, California, are coming together and taking action in Northern California to stop climate chaos and move towards a just, renewable region and world.

The moment has come to stand up to the industry that is wrecking our future.  

Please come together with 350.org, 350 Bay Area, the Richmond Progressive Alliance, Communities for a Better Environment, Gathering Tribes, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, local unions, community groups and others on the one-year anniversary of Chevron's Richmond refinery explosion and fire.  Together we will march, rally and protest at the gates of the Richmond refinery. Let's tell Big Oil we will not allow their business as usual to destroy our communities and planet.

JOIN SUMMER HEAT RICHMOND

Hell is indeed freezing over and angels are dancing and popping corks everywhere. In an August 1st op-ed in the New York Times, former administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency William D. Ruckelshaus (1970 to 1973, 1983 to 1985), Lee M. Thomas (1985 to 1989), William K. Reilly (1989 to 1993), and Christine Todd Whitman (2001 to 2003) make the Republican Case for Climate Action.

First, they say denial is not a river in Egypt and it's time for Republicans to stop acting like stubborn 15-year olds clinging to their belief in Santa Claus.  

There is no longer any credible scientific debate about the basic facts: our world continues to warm, with the last decade the hottest in modern records, and the deep ocean warming faster than the earth’s atmosphere. Sea level is rising. Arctic Sea ice is melting years faster than projected.

Yowza!!

More below the orange sluice of reality...