Scheduled for Sept. 21 in New York City, the People’s Climate March will coincide with September’s UN Climate Summit, where world leaders including President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping will be in attendance in answer to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon summons to consult on climate change.

Key organizations, representing hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and millions nationwide, hosted the press conference today to explain the goals of the mobilization and to share expectations for the UN summit. Representatives from New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, Sierra Club, 350.org, UPROSE and a number of local unions were there, as well as faith leaders, speakers from superstorm Sandy-impacted communities and millennials.

“The voice of youth is crucial in the People’s Climate March,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of UPROSE. “They are the first and last generation that can make a difference in this global crisis. We have to work inter-generationally to build momentum for frontline communities and provide our people with the resources to address this complex issue.”

“With our future on the line and the whole world watching, we’ll take a stand to bend the course of history.” Photo credit: Clara Vondrich

The People’s Climate March will highlight the climate crisis and the need to act now with bold solutions. More than 500 organizations—from community and labor groups to international NGOs and faith organizations—around the world have joined to organize or endorse the event. They describe the motivation for the march as follows:

With our future on the line and the whole world watching, we’ll take a stand to bend the course of history. We’ll take to the streets to demand the world we know is within our reach: a world with an economy that works for people and the planet; a world safe from the ravages of climate change; a world with good jobs, clean air and water, and healthy communities.

“To the untrained eye, this looks like an alliance of unusual bedfellows—labor joining hands with faith joining hands with national environmental groups,” said Eddie Bautista, executive director of New York City Environmental Justice Alliance. “But the idea that there is choice between environment and economy is a dated paradigm. The climate change march is not about slicing and dicing a political agenda—it’s a big tent. We invite all with an interest in the future.”

Bill McKibben, 350.org founder, hopes you’ll be there. In an EcoWatch blogpost he said, “We need to show just how big and unified our movement has grown, from the environmental justice advocates fighting fossil fuel pollution in our communities to the students demanding divestment on our campuses, from the scientists who have seen their warnings so far ignored to the clergy now showing real moral leadership.

If you’re wondering how to react to the devastating news that the Antarctic is melting out of control: New York. If you’re scared like I am by the pictures of the fire and drought across the West: New York. If you’re feeling like it’s time to change the trajectory of this planet: we’ll see you in New York.”

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DaveMurphy4561

Go Nuclear and Dump Biofuels, Mexican Scientist Proposes

March 2, 2013 • 9:48AM

Biofuels
cannot possibly represent a solution to Mexico’s energy problems, says
Dr. José Ricardo Gómez Romero, a professor in the Dept. of Basic
Sciences and Engineering at the Iztapalapa campus of Mexico’s Autonomous
Metropolitan University. Instead, he recommends the country direct its
research efforts to nuclear energy and forget about biofuels altogether.

Speaking Feb. 28 at the roundtable “Biofuels: Solution or Problem?”
at the II Nanotechnology and Environmental Quality Symposium at the
Metropolitan University’s Azcapotzalco campus, Gómez Romero pointed out
that the corn, wheat, sugar cane, and other food crops now used to
produce biofuels can’t even cover 10% of the current 784,000 barrels
daily of national gasoline consumption—not to mention the implications
of using food to produce fuel in a nation such as Mexico.

Dr. Gómez Romero said Mexico would do better to redirect its research
efforts to nuclear energy, as it is a clean and more sustainable form
of energy. Unfortunately, he added, its development in Mexico was
halted due to fears about its safety, provoked by “certain sectors.”
Biofuels, he underscored, offer no solution, either in quality or
quantity.

At the same seminar, Dr. Joaquin Pérez-Pariente forcefully condemned
the use of food as fuels, noting that biofuels production meant
producing corn and other crops for the sole purpose of “burning them in
cars.” Huge tracts of fertile land will be taken out of production for
food, he warned, creating greater scarcity.

The director of the Institute of Chemical Catalysis and Petroleum
from Spain’s Council of Scientific Research asked what “social criteria”
was used to dictate using food for fuel, and debunked the notion that
biofuels are “clean” fuels.

OHDisqusNSA666100

What are the “certain sectors” which the Dr. says are provoking fears about the safety of a nuclear program in Mexico?
How are these “certain” people provoking fear?