Six activists from the environmental group Greenpeace boarded a coal carrier bound for South Korea on the outskirts of Australia's Great Barrier Reef Wednesday calling for an end to exports of the fuel:

The Guardian reports:

The activists boarded the ship from inflatable boats at sunrise and had previously been on board the Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace's own purpose-built ship. They presented a letter to the captain explaining the action and have set up camp at the bow of the ship.

A spokesman for Greenpeace on the Rainbow Warrior said: "We are calling on the rest of Australia to take whatever action is possible to ensure that we do not double our coal exports. We cannot deal with the climate change that will result from that."

According to research commissioned by Greenpeace, Australia's coal export expansion is the second-largest of 14 proposed fossil fuel enterprises. "We cannot pretend Australia is playing its part to avoid dangerous climate change if these shipments continue," said Greenpeace senior climate campaigner Dr. Georgina Woods.

"Australia's coal exports are the nation's greatest contribution to climate change and plans are under way to roughly double the volume of coal we export," Greenpeace said in a statement.

"Yet every tonne of coal that is exported will return to us as climate change: bushfires, heatwaves and drought."

Ports on the Barrier Reef coast currently export 156 million tons of coal each year, and there are plans to expand that to 953 tons within the next decade. By 2020 an estimated 7,000 ships will traverse the reef every year, up from 5,000 in 2010.

"We have no idea how it's going to play out at this stage," said protester Emma Giles from on board the Panama-flagged ship.

"Either the coastguard will come and get us, or we end up in Korea."

The fossil fuel industry is killing us.

They have five times the amount of coal, gas and oil that is safe to burn -- and they are planning on burning it all. Left to their own devices, they'll push us past the brink of cataclysmic disaster -- life as we know it will be irrevocably altered forever. Unless we rise up and fight back.

Do The Math chronicles follows the climate crusader Bill McKibben as he works with a rising global movement in a David-vs-Goliath fight to change the terrifying math of the climate crisis.

This growing groundswell of climate activists is going after the fossil fuel industry directly, energizing a movement like the ones that overturned the great immoral institutions of the past century, such as Apartheid in South Africa. The film follows people who are putting their bodies on the line the Keystone XL Pipeline and leading universities and institutions to divest in the corporate polluters hellbent on burning fossil fuels no matter the cost.

The film also features a veritable who's who of the climate movement including Dr. James Hansen (Director, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies), Naomi Klein (Author, The Shock Doctrine), Lester Brown (President, Earth Policy Institute), Michael Brune (Executive Director, Sierra Club), Majora Carter (Founder, Sustainable South Bronx), Jessy Tolkan (Co-Executive Director of Citizen Engagement Laboratory), Phil Radford (Executive Director of Greenpeace), James Gustave Speth (Co-Founder of Natural Resources Defense Council), Mike Tidwell (Executive Director, CCAN), Van Jones (CNN Correspondent & Author, The Green Collar Economy), Bobby Kennedy Jr. (President, Waterkeeper Alliance ), among others.

Join the Movement at http://www.350.org

The American Lung Association released this Red Carriage television advertisement to highlight the efforts of big corporate polluters who are working to block clean air protections. Children, seniors and millions of others with chronic lung disease need to be protected from air pollution.

The ad highlights what's at stake if Washington weakens clean air protections, and drives home the implications of the choice we face as a nation -- a dirty coal fired future, or one powered by clean, renewable energy.

The Clean Air Act reduces our exposure to the harmful effects listed above by regulating emissions of ozone, particle pollution, and other pollutants. Nationally in 2010, the Clean Air Act prevented:

160,000 premature deaths;

1.7 million instances of asthma attacks;

41,000 respiratory hospital admissions; and

45,000 cardiovascular hospital admissions.

For additional information, check out the following:

Healthy Air Resources

American Lung Association

There's a new front line in the battle to prevent catastrophic climate change.

Arrested Development star Alia Shawkat (aka Maeby) explains the truth about the coal industry's plans to export American coal.

Multi-billion dollar coal companies like Arch, Ambre, and Peabody want to ship the coal buried under the United States to Asia, releasing disastrous amounts of carbon pollution, just to line their own pockets. This expansion in US coal exports could release more carbon pollution than any other new fossil fuel project in the United States.

Coal exports out of the Pacific Northwest could pose a bigger climate threat than the Keystone XL pipeline. Coal companies are scheming to export over 150 million tons of coal through the region. If we're serious about halting the worst impacts of climate change, we must do something to stop Arch, Ambre, and Peabody's plans, and keep this coal in the ground.

The good news is that there is a growing movement to stop coal exports. In the past few months alone, over 10,000 people have turned out to public hearings in the Pacific Northwest to say no to new coal export terminals.

Globally, renewable energy can power our homes, cars, and businesses, and make these massive extraction projects irrelevant. That's why Greenpeace is calling on elected officials to put people over profits and put the brakes on coal export expansion. The Obama Administration can declare a moratorium on new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin.

Visit Quit Coal for more information. Because we deserve safe, clean energy.

Centralia, Pennsylvania has suffered through underground coal mine fires that caused sinkholes, carbon monoxide plumes and underground temperatures that left it uninhabitable. It's been evacuated and condemned.
What else could possibly go wrong?

Rig Runs Aground in Alaska, Reviving Fears About Arctic Drilling

One of Shell Oil’s two Arctic drilling rigs is beached on an island in the Gulf of Alaska, threatening environmental damage from a fuel spill and calling into question Shell’s plans to resume drilling in the treacherous waters north of Alaska in the summer.

Fiscal Cliff Deal Extends Wind Tax Credits One Year

The wind energy industry in the U.S. breathed a sigh of relief as Congress passed a fiscal cliff deal on Tuesday that included an extension of the wind energy tax credits for wind projects that start in 2013.

West Antarctic Ice Sheet Warming Twice Earlier Estimate

US researchers say they found the first evidence of warming during the southern hemisphere's summer months. They are worried that the increased melting of ice as a result of warmer temperatures could contribute to sea-level rise.

Gas Prices Hit Record High in 2012

Annual gas prices hit a record high in 2012, the AAA motor club said Monday. On average, the national gas price for the year was $3.60 per gallon, eclipsing last year’s record of $3.51 per gallon. AAA attributed the increase to weather events and global turmoil.

Chernobyl Mammals Tracked in Snow

Scientists studying the ecology of the Chernobyl exclusion zone in Ukraine have made the most of freezing conditions there - using footprints in the snow to study the population of mammals. (Slideshow)

Emerald Coal Sued In Pennsylvania For Allegedly Polluting Waterways

A citizens' group has sued a longwall mining company in southwestern Pennsylvania, claiming it is polluting key waterways — including at least one high-quality fishing stream — that feed the Monongahela River.

12 Eco-Stories to Restore Your Faith in Humanity

We often hear people complaining that there is much more bad news in the media than good news. This is even frequently the case with eco-news. Looking back over 2012, it turns out that there were plenty of upbeat eco-stories this year that demonstrate how individuals, schools, companies and even cities are making positive impacts. Click through to see a dozen stories that might just help restore your faith in humanity.

Leading Environmentalist Rebecca Tarbotton of Rainforest Action Network Dies at 39

In case you missed the sad news, Leading environmentalist and human rights champion Rebecca "Becky" Tarbotton, executive director of the organization Rainforest Action Network (RAN), has died at the age of 39. Tarbotton was vacationing in Mexico with her husband and passed away after a swimming accident.

Continue reading »

The planet Earth has lost a great friend...

Via Democracy Now!:

Leading environmentalist and human rights champion Rebecca "Becky" Tarbotton, executive director of the organization Rainforest Action Network (RAN), has died at the age of 39.

According to RAN, Tarbotton died Wednesday on a beach in Mexico while vacationing with her husband and friends. The coroner ruled cause of death as asphyxiation from water she breathed in while swimming.

"Tarbotton was the first female executive director of RAN, and a strong female voice in a movement often dominated by men," quotes RAN in a press release. "Under her leadership, RAN was engaged in protecting endangered rainforests and the rights of their indigenous inhabitants. Most recently, she helped to design the most significant agreement in the history of the organization: A landmark policy by entertainment giant, Disney, that is set to transform everything about the way the company purchases and uses paper."

Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman wrote about Tarbotton’s work this May after RAN activists climbed 100 feet to suspend a banner on Charlotte’s Bank of America stadium, where President Obama was scheduled to make his nomination acceptance speech. The banner read "Bank of America" with the word "America" crossed out and replaced with "Coal." Tarbotton told her: "Bank of America is the lead financier of mountaintop-removal mining, which is a practice of mining which is really the worst of the worst mining that we see anywhere, essentially blowing the tops off of mountains in Appalachia, destroying people’s homes, polluting their water supplies. And that’s even before it gets into the coal plants, where it’s burnt and creates air pollution in inner-city areas and all around our country ... [it’s] the canary in the coal mine for our reliance on fossil fuels."

Tarbotton was interviewed several times on Democracy Now! over the years. You can watch her last appearance above.

Tarbotton was interviewed on Democracy Now! in 2010 when she spoke about efforts to defeat a ballot initiative that would effectively repeal California’s landmark global warming emissions law.

"Becky was a leader’s leader. She could walk into the White House and cause a corporate titan to reevaluate his perspective, and then moments later sit down with leaders from other movements and convince them to follow her lead,” said Ben Jealous, executive director of the NAACP and a close friend, upon news of her passing. “If we had more heroes like her, America and the world would be a much better place."

Our deepest condolences to all the family and friends of Rebecca.

Since the 1970s, the coal industry has been deploying deceptive advertising campaigns to scrub its image and delay important clean air standards. They use the same arguments year after year - environmental protections will cripple the economy, the science behind pollution problems is inadequate, and that coal is already clean.

Check out the coal industry's deceptive advertisements at www.quitcoal.org/coalads

These are themed days of action in resistance to the system and in solidarity with the 99%. Individual, autonomous affinity groups welcome to plan whatever inspires them.

10/1 – SHUT DOWN K STREET day of action. Meet at 7 AM at McPherson Square to shut down the street where corporate lobbyists, bankers, and the 1% do their shady dealings with the government. Bring tents, sleeping bags, other items as needed. Individual, autonomous affinity groups welcome to plan whatever inspires them.

10/2 – Bank/economic day of action. Meet 7 AM at Bank of America, Pennsylvania & 15th St NW, to “foreclose” a bank. Meet 1 PM at same location for march to deliver “bailout money” to social services, schools, and the people.

10/3 – Lobbyists day of action. A day to stick it to the notorious lobbyists, one-percenters, and Citizens-United Super PAC campaign donors who are undermining democracy and imperiling our system.

10/4 – 99% solidarity day of action. Visiting our 99% friends in shows of solidarity, and uniting together against the oppression of the 1%.

10/5 – Earth, sustainability, and energy day of action. A day of opposing industrial agriculture, GMOs, hydro-fracking, pollution, oil, coal, and other dirty energy, and working toward a healthy, sustainable planet.

10/6 – OCCUPY DC FREEDOM PLAZA ANNIVERSARY, a day for calling for an end to wars and militarism. The Occupy DC Freedom Plaza location began on the anniversary of our invasion of Afghanistan on October 6, 2001. This October 6, join Occupy DC to oppose war and militarism, and call for US troops out of Afghanistan now!

10/7 – Occupy Democracy day of action. A day for calling for a true democracy, one month prior to Election Day. Meet 5 PM in McPherson Square for a general assembly to display what a real, egalitarian, horizontal democracy might look like!

A year ago, on October 1, 2011, ecstatic that the 99% had begun occupying Wall Street, brave activists here in Washington DC began occupying McPherson Square on K Street, the corridor where corporate lobbyists, bankers, and the 1% come to wield their power. On October 6, more fearless members of the 99% began occupying Freedom Plaza in downtown DC, about ten blocks to the south. Two active camps were established with several hundred occupiers between the two of them. They survived the snow and rain of winter and persecution from the police, until the police violently raided the camps in the second week of February 2012.

There are more reasons than ever to occupy -- to dwell in the places where the 1% do their corrupt dealings, and refuse to leave. Join the 99% as we reclaim our democracy, our future, our world.

[Via]

Since the 1970s, the coal industry has been deploying deceptive advertising campaigns to scrub its image and delay important clean air standards. They use the same arguments year after year -- environmental protections will cripple the economy, the science behind pollution problems is inadequate, and that coal is already clean.