CFOW Weekend Update
September 19, 2019
Hello All – The focus of this Update is on tomorrow's Global Climate Strike march and rally in NYC. The last time I looked there were more than 2,500 events in 150 countries. Here in Westchester, there will be several rallies on Friday, as well as the big rally and march in Foley Square, NYC starting at noon. I've posted a calendar of events below, as well as links to a few good/useful/interesting bits of reading and viewing.
For those going to the Foley Square rally, a CFOW contingent is going together on the Metro North train leaving Dobbs at 10:48 and Hastings at 10:50. This train does not stop at Greystone, but there is another train leaving Greystone at 10:37 that will arrive at GCS at 11:30, as will the first train. I hope we can join up and also meet up with the Wespac contingent arriving at the same time. The rendezvous point is the clock/kiosk in the middle of the GCS waiting room. Good luck with that!
See you tomorrow.
Frank Brodhead
914-478-3848
Tomorrow's Climate Strike Events
As noted, the main event in our area is a rally and march in NYC. We'll assemble in Foley Square, near City Hall, from noon until 1 pm, and then march to Battery Park for a rally starting about 2 pm. Among the speakers will be 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who addressed the US Congress yesterday. NYC school students have been given permission to skip school to attend these events, so it could be pretty BIG.
In Westchester, I know of the following events. If you hear of additional events, please send a return email or post info about the event on the CFOW Facebook page.
In Hastings, there will be an event outside the Hastings high school starting at 11:55 and going until 12:30.
In Irvington, there will be two events/rallies at Village Hall. "Support the global movement of students"; from 11 am to 1 pm and from 3:15 to 4:30 pm (so students can attend).
In Peekskill, Mothers Out Front and other groups are hosting a rally outside Sen. Chuck Schumer's office at 9 am at 1 Park Place in Peekskill. More info.
In Croton, the Blue Pig (12 Maple Street) will host a rally starting at 11:30. The rally is titled "Action Steps," and will include many active/prominent speakers from the Croton/Peekskill area. For lots more information, go here.
In White Plains, there will be a gathering at the White Plains Presbyterian church, 39 N. Broadway, starting at 6:30 pm.
And NB, on Saturday, September 21st, the CFOW weekly vigil/protest/rally will also focus on the Global Climate Strike. As usual, we will meet at the Hastings VFW Plaza, Warburton Ave. and Spring Street, from 12 noon to 1 pm.
An active weekend!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
914-478-3848
SOME GOOD/ILLUMINATING CLIMATE READING/VIEWING
Just out this week is a book by climate activist/stalwart Naomi Klein, On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal. I'm about halfway through and like it very much. The book is reviewed and Naomi is interviewed in The Nation: "Naomi Klein Knows a Green New Deal Is Our Only Hope Against Climate Catastrophe"; and Naomi also spoke about her book and other things on Democracy Now! last Tuesday [Link]. The book is available ($27) from Book Culture (NYC) and many other stores.
'Americans are waking up': two thirds say climate crisis must be addressed
By Oliver Milman, The Guardian [UK] [
---- Two-thirds of Americans believe climate change is either a crisis or a serious problem, with a majority wanting immediate action to address global heating and its damaging consequences, major new polling has found. Amid a Democratic primary shaped by unprecedented alarm over the climate crisis and an insurgent youth climate movement that is sweeping the world, the polling shows substantial if uneven support for tackling the issue. More than a quarter of Americans questioned in the new CBS News poll consider climate change a "crisis", with a further 36% defining it as a "serious problem". Two in 10 respondents said it was a minor problem, with just 16% considering it not worrisome at all. More than half of polled Americans said they wanted the climate crisis to be confronted right away, with smaller groups happy to wait a few more years and just 18% rejecting any need to act. But while nearly all of those questioned accept that the climate is changing, there appears to be lingering confusion over why and scientists' confidence over the causes. There is a consensus among climate scientists that the world is heating up due to human activities such as burning fossil fuels for electricity generation and transportation, as well as cutting down forests. However, just 44% of poll respondents said human activity was a major contributor to climate change. More than a quarter said our impact was minor or nonexistent.
There is an even starker split on the findings of climate scientists. According to the CBS poll, 52% of Americans say "scientists agree that humans are a main cause" of the climate crisis, with 48% claiming there is disagreement among experts. [Read More]
Money Is the Oxygen on Which the Fire of Global Warming Burns
By Bill McKibben, The New Yorker [September 19, 2019]
---- Some of us have begun to change our own lives, pledging to fly less and to eat lower on the food chain. But, whatever our intentions, we're each of us currently locked into burning a fair amount of fossil fuel: if there's no train that goes to your destination, you can't take it. Others—actually, often the same people—are working to elect greener candidates, lobbying to pass legislation, litigating cases headed for the Supreme Court, or going to jail to block the construction of pipelines. … But what if there were an additional lever to pull, one that could work both quickly and globally? One possibility relies on the idea that political leaders are not the only powerful actors on the planet—that those who hold most of the money also have enormous power, and that their power could be exercised in a matter of months or even hours, not years or decades. I suspect that the key to disrupting the flow of carbon into the atmosphere may lie in disrupting the flow of money to coal and oil and gas. [Read More]
Trump v. Climate Emergency: A Formula for Catastrophe in the Arctic
By Michael T. Klare, Tom Dispatch [September 13, 2019]
---- The scramble for the Arctic's resources was launched early in this century when the world's major energy firms, led by BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, and Russian gas giant Gazprom, began exploring for oil and gas reserves in areas only recently made accessible by retreating sea ice. Those efforts gained momentum in 2008, after the U.S. Geological Survey published a report, Circum-Arctic Resources Appraisal, indicating that as much as one-third of the world's undiscovered oil and gas lay in areas north of the Arctic Circle. Much of this untapped fossil fuel largess was said to lie beneath the Arctic waters adjoining Alaska (that is, the United States), Canada, Greenland (controlled by Denmark), Norway, and Russia — the so-called "Arctic Five." … Pompeo claimed that we were now in a new era in the Arctic. Because climate change — a phrase Pompeo, of course, never actually uttered — is now making it ever more possible to exploit the region's vast resource riches, a scramble to gain control of them is now officially underway. That competition for resources has instantly become enmeshed in a growing geopolitical confrontation between the U.S., Russia, and China, generating new risks of conflict. [Read More]
