Climate Activists Hit Hard With 'Do the Math' National Tour
Source: The Nation
LOS ANGELESLess than a week after the presidential election, a fired-up crowd of climate activists cheered Bill McKibben and the Do the Math roadshow at their UCLA stop. Do the Math is on a three-week caravan traveling by biodiesel-powered bus, with a stop in Washington, DC, to challenge the president to take quick action on the environment.The 21-city tour promises to be a model for progressives committed to aggressively pushing Obama and Congress even before Obamas second term formally begins in January.
350.org, the sponsoring organization for Do the Math, is calling on colleges, religious institutions and public pension funds to make no new investments in fossil fuels, "wind down" current investments in five years. Divestment would lead fossil fuel providers to begin to curtail lobbying activities in Washington, DC, and prepare to transition to a future as "energy companies." The strategy is partly modeled on the global campaign of divestment from South Africa, although the analogy is incomplete. South Africans were carrying out a liberation war that could not be defeated, with powerful African-American and clergy constituencies in America. Legislators like Maxine Waters and Willie Brown carried divestment bills for seven years before being signed in California, tipping the balance against apartheid. Despite its efforts, 350 is not inclusive of black or Latino constituencies although is message is one of environmental justice. The UCLA event was overwhelmingly white on a campus where a majority of undergraduates are non-white.
Read more: http://www.thenation.com/article/171225/climate-activists-hit-hard-do-math-national-tour
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)barbtries
(28,811 posts)i have a 401k and none of the choices are really clean and no green energy anywhere. i asked.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,047 posts)SunSeeker
(51,737 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,445 posts)Thanks for the thread, octoberlib.