Tales of Change

BP Sued in Ecuadorian Court For Violating Rights of Nature

Democracy Now reports briefly today on a lawsuit filed against BP for the Gulf Oil Spill for violating the rights of nature (see the clip in the video below at 6:25). The Rights of Nature was added to the Ecuadorian Constitution September 28, 2008 by an overwhelming margin through a national referendum. You can read the English language complaint here (I've also embedded it below the video):

We are filing this lawsuit because the international system of rights is clearly biased towards protecting the interests of transnational corporations that make excessive, irresponsible and predatory use of their rights to property and free enterprise, based on a development philosophy that is antagonistic to nature.

We are filing this lawsuit to break with the longstanding colonial logic of positive rights, which closes the doors to us for demanding fulfilment of the rights of Pachamama in formal spaces and limits us to alternative spaces such as Courts of Opinion, where, although we honourably exercise our right to have and to demand our rights, decisions are not binding on the transnational corporations or on the governments who back them, and thus they do not serve as an effective means to guarantee that the crimes denounced will not be repeated.

We submit as grounds for the admissibility of this suit both factual and legal grounds. With regard to the former, as we will presently demonstrate, the oil spill has global impacts: it impacts the ecosystems of every one of the countries of which the plaintiffs are nationals.

With regard to the latter, we base our claim on the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008, which obliges all public officials, including constitutional court judges, to protect subjects of rights, establishing as duties of the Ecuadorian state, among others: To guarantee the rights of nature (Art. 277), To protect nature from the negative effects of anthropogenic disasters (Art. 389), To establish effective mechanisms for the prevention and control of environmental pollution, for the recovery of degraded natural areas, and for the sustainable management of natural resources (Art. 397-2).  

Ecuador worked with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) which helped draft the language for the rights of nature based on other work that it had been doing with communities in the United States. CELDF recently helped Pittsburgh pass an ordinance to ban natural gas drilling/fracking within the city limits.

I appreciate CELDF's work because of the way they get activists to break out of failed regulatory fights which end up permitting certain levels of corporate harm and into right's based local lawmaking which allows communities to once again choose a path of self-determination. 

How To Save the Planet Now: Admit We've Failed

It’s time for climate activists to admit our tactics have failed. I commend the movement for all of its efforts but the recent congressional takeover by Republicans demonstrates how ineffective we’ve been. Karl Rove is right, “Climate is gone.”

And we’re not alone. The first two years of Obama’s presidency have seen the failure of many progressive groups: anti-war and health care activists most notably.

So, who is winning? The wealthy, especially executives of multinational corporations. In Sunday’s New York Times, Nicholas Kristof wrote:

“The richest 1 percent of Americans now take home almost 24 percent of income, up from almost 9 percent in 1976. … C.E.O.’s of the largest American companies earned an average of 42 times as much as the average worker in 1980, but 531 times as much in 2001. Perhaps the most astounding statistic is this: From 1980 to 2005, more than four-fifths of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent.”

We’re in the midst of a rapidly escalating class war marked by an increasingly successful movement by corporate leaders seizing power and rights from individuals.

Perhaps the greatest harm from this war is the nearly complete failure by Congress and the Obama administration to curb greenhouse gas emissions and move us in a significant way towards cleaner energy solutions.

The Supreme Court’s recent Citizens United decision was a massive victory that opened the floodgates for unlimited anonymous spending which helped Republicans gain control of the House on November 2nd. And, they’ll spend even more in 2012.

Thanks to Republican victories in state legislative races, they’ll be solidifying these gains for the next decade: the GOP gets to redraw 147 more Congressional districts than Democrats (see also gerrymandering).

The tactic of electing democrats to legislate sensible climate policy is clearly a dead end.

Time to Give Up on Failed Tactics

So, when the Democratic party starts rallying progressives and environmental nonprofits to get behind their candidates for 2012, it’s time to say, "No more!" When democrats say “if Republicans gain control of the Presidency and Senate, everything we care about will be lost,” we have to remember that President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid never even brought the climate bill up for a vote.

In fact, it’s democrats who solidified the conservative voting bloc for the Citizens United case. Twenty-two democrats voted to ratify the nomination of Supreme Court Justice John Roberts  and none filibustered the nomination of Justice Alito.

Similarly, when <insert large environmental nonprofit here> asks you to make an end of year donation, instead ask them if they are ready to abandon their failed tactics. Hold onto your wallet and ask them what they plan to do differently.

So, How Do We Save the Planet?

First, we have to recognize that our movement has failed because we’ve hitched its success to the votes of elected officials whose influence is legally bought and paid for by corporate interests on an ongoing basis.

Climate activism is doomed as long as corporate money retains a central role in elections and government policy.

Second, we have to begin questioning the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and its long history of granting rights not found in the Constitution to corporations. If not for the questionable Bush v. Gore decision, Roberts and Alito might not even be on the Court. Scalia, Thomas, Roberts and Alito routinely rule on the side of wealthy shareholders. Says the People for the American Way:

“What is striking today, however, is how often the Roberts Court, like its predecessor the Rehnquist Court, hands down counter-intuitive 5-4 victories to corporations by ignoring clear precedents, twisting statutory language and distorting legislative intent. From labor and workplace law to environmental law, from consumer regulation to tort law and the all-important election law, the conservative-tilting Court has reached out to enshrine and elevate the power of business corporations --what some people have begun to call ‘corporate Americans’--over the rights of the old-fashioned human beings called citizens.”

Finally and most importantly, it’s time for environmental nonprofits and climate activists to work together in coalition to restore individual rights and reject this corporate takeover of our society.

We have to put as much effort as we’ve put into educating the public about climate change into educating people about how the rise of corporate power is blocking sensible climate policy, destroying our environment and putting future generations at risk.

With fifteen million unemployed Americans and anger on the left and the right about Citizens United, there is a huge opportunity to organize against the continued consolidation of corporate power.

Climate organizations and activists of all kinds need to unite to lead a movement to restore rights for individuals and the environment and reject the dominance of corporate power and money in our public institutions.

After Citizens United, with Republicans in control of the house and redistricting and many democrats already influenced by corporate interests, we’re not going to win by playing elections or by playing by the same old rules.

Be Like Mike, McGinn - and Bike to Work

Mayor Mike McGinn of Seattle bikes to work. Join StreetFilms as they go along for the ride. via The Daily Weekly

The joy (and benefits) of composting at home!

Composting is easy and has great benefits for you and your community. First of all, by composting, I have almost no trash each week. I've switched down to a tiny trash bin which saves me upwards of a $120/yr, reduces the amount of waste pick up and transfer and lightens the load on our landfill.

I've been composting at home for a couple of years now but it wasn't til last year that I got a proper two cone setup to make it easier and more productive.

I used to use a stainless steel bin in the kitchen pictured at right, but it turned out to be easier just dropping my food waste into a plastic bag which I keep in the freezer. The freezer bag solution is waste free, has no smell and less mess. 

Seattle has a great composting program. They will sell you inexpensive green bins and offer a composting guide for download. When one cone is 2/3 full, you switch to the other while the first one gradually turns into soil I can use in my organic garden. I use the larger bin pictured for yard waste. 

I've had no problems at all with outdoor smell or pests. That may be because I'm a vegetarian. If you have meat scraps in your compost, you may need to secure your compost bins from rodents and raccoons.

Everyone in the world with a yard or shared yard space should be composting. For apartment dwellers, there are even small indoor compost systems that work even more quickly. Read about Darren Barefoot's experience with his apartment composter. The Nature Mill Pro XE composter costs 50 cents in electricity monthly and generates new compost soil every two weeks.

I forgot to mention that composting is fun! It's great to finish cooking a great meal and then recycle all my scraps right into the compost bins, and eventually back into the garden.

Check out Better World Club - an environmentally sensitive auto club

I've been a Better World Club customer for over a year now - and luckily haven't had to use their services, but I encourage you to check them out. They are a environmentally aware auto club.  In their own words:

Better World Club Provides Nationwide Roadside Assistance. We are the Nation's Only environmentally friendly auto club. Membership Includes eco-travel Services, Discounts on hybrid car rental, insurance Services, Free Maps, Auto Maintenance discounts and bicycle roadside assistance. We donate 1% of annual revenues toward environmental cleanup and advocacy. Some auto clubs lobby against the environment, while others don't lobby at all. BWC advocates for the environment. Join the club that reflects your values.

Check out their prices here. They even have bicycle memberships!

Peace Arch Border Crossing Now Has Traffic Signals to Stop Idling Cars

I've wondered about this for a long time. With the thousands of cars that sit idling their engines, wasting gas at the border each year, why isn't there a signal-based system that sends groups of cars forward so people can turn off their engines and relax a bit. Now, there is...

The U.S. - Canadian border south of the upcoming Vancouver 2010 Olympics now has traffic signals to group cars waiting at the border to prevent unnecessary idling and greenhouse gas omissions. Super cool!

I went through there recently during a quiet day when the signals weren't needed but I for one and am excited to wait in line to try out the system sometime soon :) Just kidding, I hate waiting in line. But, I'm really glad this system is now in place.

Note: according to @DavidSuzukiFdn, 10 seconds of idling uses more fuel than restarting the engine.

Print Double Sided

I've been impressed with the affordable Epson Artisan 810 which offers an automatic duplexer for double-sided printing, all for less than $190. Combine this with its capability of printing 2-top or 4-top pages per page and it'll help you save a tree.

Build Your Dream Green Home

While in Portland this past week, I got a brief night time tour of my friends' Dustin and Garret Moon's amazing green home, The Commons, currently under construction:

The Commons is designed to reach beyond today’s highest green building standards and become the first U.S. home to meet the Living Building Challenge. The Commons will generate all its own energy - without fossil fuels, reclaim all its water, be free of unhealthy materials and be a place of beauty and community.

 

The vision for the commons is inspiring and it's really amazing the progress they've made. They are making all of their design documents public at the end of the project. Hopefully, their work will provide a path for others in the future. 

Be sure to follow their blog and Flickr feed.

Watch video coverage of their efforts from a recent Renovation Nation episode. Part 1 is embedded below. Watch the rest here.

Pay As You Drive Auto Insurance

A friend sent a note from Seattle's Sightline Institute that they are trying to bring a Pay As You Drive (PAYD) auto insurance pilot to Washington. 

Sightline answers: What is Pay As You Drive?

Car insurance is currently sold like an all-you-can-eat meal plan: once you've made the purchase, you may as well gorge. Traditional low-mileage discounts don't come close to capturing the difference in accident risk between high- and low-mileage drivers; those who drive less are penalized.

Pay-as-you-drive insurance would make buying car insurance more like buying gasoline: the less you drive, the less you pay. Insurers would offer motorists a per-mile rate that would also incorporate existing rating factors, such as a driver's crash history or geographic location.

Evidence suggests that low-mileage drivers are a large untapped market.

Sightline goes on to cite the benefits:

Initial research estimates that pricing insurance by the mile could cut total driving by 5 to 15 percent, which would slash the huge environmental impacts of the automobile and lessen the number of crashes and claims. A 10 percent reduction in driving is estimated to result in a 17 percent reduction in crashes.

For taxpayers: Reduced driving would also save money on roadwork. Oregon Environmental Council, a nonprofit group working to pilot PAYD in Oregon, estimates that PAYD insurance could trim the state's road-related costs substantially over the next 20 years.

I don't quite understand why this hasn't happened yet - especially given the free market's proclivity to meet the needs, wants and desires of consumers. Could it be that the auto insurance market isn't a truly competitive, diverse, consumer driven marketplace? Say it isn't so.

As I don't commute to a regular day job, I drive a lot less than most people (aside from my girlfriend who exclusively cycles). It would be nice to pay less on auto insurance based on the time & mileage I actually use.

This is America - it's the greatest country on earth, shouldn't I have the right to pay for auto insurance based on how much I actually need active coverage?