Earth Equity News

Our 2009 Targets: Congress and Coal. By Ted Glick, CCAN, March 8, 2009. "[As Gary Houser, an Ohio coal country activist, said] The action in DC [on Monday] was more than a display of youthful exuberance. It was an aligning of this movement with the power of that truth. It was a moment for genuine celebration. While the battle has not yet been won, what was witnessed yesterday by those of us fortunate enough to be there may well have been a genuine turning point. The moral authority of our movement is now in the ascendancy, while that of the coal industry is in rapid decline'... Neither Power Shift 09 nor the Capitol Climate Action were in any way one-shot deals. Instead, they were the opening shots of an escalating campaign all throughout the year. Why is 2009 so important? It's important because we finally have a President who understands that we need to take action to address the climate crisis and is doing so despite resistance from coal and oil interests and their paid mouthpieces in Washington, and despite his public support for non-existent "clean coal." But it's particularly important because of the international negotiations going on toward a stronger world treaty, negotiations which will culminate at the U.N. Climate Conference in mid-December in Copenhagen, Denmark. If that conference is to succeed -- and it needs to because global warming is an urgent global problem -- the world needs to see that the U.S. is prepared to reverse course and, instead of obstructing, give leadership to the world's efforts to prevent catastrophic climate change."