NASA Goddard Director against Cap-and-Trade

...Vice President Al Gore, who perhaps has done more than anyone to raise awareness of climate change, is evidently deceiving himself. "I saw him on Larry King last night," says Hansen, "and what really worries me is that he sounds optimistic that we're now on a track to solve this problem." He lets out an incredulous chuckle. "We're not, however, on a track, and that's clear."...

..."There's a huge gap between their public position and the realities of their policies," he says. "That's the situation we have now in Congress," he adds, alluding to the cap-and-trade legislation that is currently being reviewed by the US Senate. He opposes the bill, in large part because of the offsets system that would allow polluters to continue spewing emissions, but also because political horse-trading has brought in provisions that will enable aging coal plants to stay in operation. The only solution, Hansen says, is to "phase out fossil fuels". And the best way to do that, he contends, is through a carbon tax — or, as he puts it, "a rising price on carbon emissions"....

...individuals cannot solve the problem. "If you reduce your carbon footprint, one of the effects is to reduce the demand, and if a lot of people do that, it makes [fossil fuel] cheaper so somebody else can burn it," says Hansen... nature.com

Connecting People with Jobs

Autosprawl is subsidized by the whole of society, but most of the profit goes to the auto, fossil-fuel, and homebuilding industries. Many small business are hurt because their workers cannot afford a car to get to the job.
In central Texas, this problem has been recognized. The solution? Free public transit for poor workers. We hope they will see the benefits and remove fares entirely.

COLEMAN — The Central Texas Rural Transit District, or City and Rural Rides (CARR), has received a grant that will provide free public transportation for select Brown County residents.
“We were awarded a Job Access Reverse Commute program grant, which is funded by the Texas Department of Transportation,” said Adel Hunter, support service manager for CARR. “The grant is designed to help low-income workers and individuals to get to and from work, as well as dropping off any children at day care, prior to going to work or training. Brownwood Bulletin

Antarctic ice loss worse than IPCC 2007 estimate

...In 2007 the UN Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) predicted sea levels would rise 18 to 59 centimetres (7.2 to 23.2 inches) by 2100, but this estimate did not factor in the potential impact of crumbling icesheets in Greenland and Antarctica.

Today many of the same scientist say that even if heat-trapping CO2 emissions are curtailed, the ocean watermark is more likely to go up by nearly a metre, enough to render several small island nations unlivable and damage fertile deltas home to hundreds of millions.... Independent/UK via CommonDreams

U.S. Senate candidate wants free public transportation

...Robinson, who is running against state Sen. Scott Brown for the GOP nomination in the race for the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s vacant seat, is suggesting the MBTA bailout as part of a proposal to make all public transportation nationwide free. Robinson aides said there are cities in Washington and Oregon that offer free public transit... Boston Herald

Join Free Public Transport Advocates in Copenhagen

The UN climate meeting, COP15 in Copenhagen, is approaching at breakneck speed and most of us lay our fears and hopes in the hands of the world leaders, wishing that they will come up with a sustainable climate agreement. But we can't afford to leave it all to them.

We want to make COP15 not only a global, but a local issue as well, because it's only through local actions we can achieve global change. We have to shift focus: from abstract percentages and climate targets to concrete political measures. A powerful climate adjustment requires comprehensive infrastructural changes in the transport sector. The key to climate adjustment is to be found in the cities, where most of the emissions are generated. Through simple reforms such as planning our cities for public transport, bicycle and pedestrian transport, we can actively reduce car traffic and cut the emission rates in our cities.

So far, the local transport sector has been sadly neglected in the climate debate, and we doubt that COP15 will produce any change in that area. It's up to us to make this important issue visible and put it on the agenda. Even though the inflation in car traffic is one of our biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions and unnecessary oil use, few cities have any serious plans to radically decrease their car traffic. 

Freeing public transport from fares would effectively create incentives for car drivers to choose public transport instead. With just a marginal tax-raise (in Stockholm, capital of Sweden, all commuters who earns less than 5000 Euros a month would benefit from this), the public transport system could be made free at the point of entry. Free public transport is one solution to pollution!

If you are going to Copenhagen in december, please join us in the pink block in the big demonstration on the 12th. And if you are not – make a demonstration at home and turn to your local politicians with demands for a radical, climate friendly transport policy with investments in public transport and zero fares!

Best wishes from Planka.nu - The Swedish free public transport group

Campaign for Free Public Transport wins Respect

Excerpt from the Respect Annual Conference Report

...A message to the Respect Conference from Peter Cranie, the Green Party candidate in the North West at the European Elections supported by Respect, was read out to an enthusiastic ovation. Motions on electoral alliances, supporting the People’s Charter, the political content of our election campaign and alternative strategies to deal with the economic crisis were passed... Respect agreed to affiliate to the Campaign for Free Public Transport. [our emphasis]

Campaign for Free Public Transport Website
Respect Party Website

Hi Michael - Welcome to the Free Public Transport Movement!

10 ideas to save the world (or at least to delay the collapse)
1. Higher taxes on fossil fuels, electricity and animal products
2. Decentralisation of the power generation sector
3. Free public short-distance transportation, lower prices (e.g. by waiving taxes) for trains and buses.
4. Public information campaign about climate change in TV, schools etc.
5. Labelling of consumption goods and services with their ecological footprint (or at least carbon + water footprint)
6. Subsidies, binding standards and incentives for ecological renovation of buildings
7. Cancelling subsidies for non-organic agriculture, coal mining, air traffic and other harmful industrial sectors
8. Starting a decarbonisation competition among cities and other local entities
9. Establishing a “Green GDP”
10. High taxes on luxury goods and services

The basic idea is, that polluting goods and practices become more expensive while others should be cheaper. I´m shure, additional cost (e.g. for gratis public transportation) could be compensated with higher revenues for polluting and luxury products. And not to forget the financial side effects of the suggested measures. If we, for instance, reduce private transportation, we also save money for road building and maintainance, less traffic jams save working time, less pollution and accidents help to reduce health costs etc.
Michael's Climate Blog Berlin Germany

Can we afford free public transit?

People frequently ask us, "how would you pay for free public transit?" Here is our reply: currently the price of oil is artificially low because many of the costs are externalized. Here is an example of an externalized cost:

"In many villages in the vicinity of the oil facilities, locals are not able to drink the water anymore," said Stieglitz. "Locals who drink this kind of water can get diarrhea and the subsequent dehydration of the body, which might lead to death in those areas if left untreated." read the whole article on Voice of America

If public transit were free, then demand for oil would drop precipitously. The oil suppliers would lose political power, and public policy could force them to internalize their costs. Clean drinking water would be just one of the many benefits of free public transit and would more than justify the investment.

TckTckTck

Moldova - Free Public Transport struggle continues

On Thursday, more than 100 pensioners and invalids resumed their protest actions demanding free public transport travel in front of the City Hall.


INFOTAG, 12 November 2009, 15:32

The cost of autosprawl: stronger cyclones

Video of cyclone in Bangladesh.
Gabura :: Oxfam GB

...I think a bloc of carbon-neutral, developing nations could change the outcome of Copenhagen.
At the moment every country arrives at the negotiations seeking to keep their own emissions as high as possible.
They never make commitments, unless someone else does first.
This is the logic of the madhouse, a recipe for collective suicide.
We don’t want a global suicide pact.
And we will not sign a global suicide pact, in Copenhagen or anywhere.
So today, I invite some of the most vulnerable nations in the world, to join a global survival pact instead.
We are all in this as one.
We stand or fall together.
I hope you will join me in deciding to stand.
Address by His Excellency President Nasheed at the Climate Vulnerable Forum
Read the whole speech here...

Biofuels do more harm than good

Biofuels: Making the climate crisis worse, not better

Biofuelwatch actively supports the campaign for an EU moratorium on agrofuels from large-scale monocultures. Agroenergy monocultures are linked to accelerated climate change, deforestation, the impoverishment and dispossession of local communities, bio-diversity losses, human rights abuses, water and soil degradation, loss of food sovereignty and food security.

There is a lot of talk about replacing fossil-fuels with agricultural "renewables." It is only accelerating global warming. Follow the links above to see the evidence of this.

Instead of trying to save the autosprawl system we need a mass movement for free public transport - now.

£40 billion more for banks - green investment goes begging

However, instead of taking over these banks entirely as it did with Northern Rock, the Government decided instead to allow these banks’ shareholders to keep their shares, giving them a financial value they wouldn’t otherwise possess. In so doing the Government effectively unnecessarily transferred many £billions of ‘taxpayers’ money directly to the value of the share portfolios of those banks’ current and former investors.

...And if such huge sums of money can be found almost at a drop of a hat to ’sort out the banks’ (the £40 billion injection today just further shores up existing investors, will not create any new jobs, but rather is to be accompanied with staff cuts) why not much smaller amounts for environmentally ‘friendly’, job creation and economically more reflationary measures such as a massively expanded public transport system that is fully integrated, publicly owned and free to everyone at the point of use, such as is being advocated by the Campaign for Free Public Transport?  socialistresistance

UK - Money given to banks was enough for 10 years of free public transport

Members of the Greater Manchester Campaign for Free Public Transport in Oldham Town Centre Day.
We argued our case repeatedly over the loudhailer, handed out around a thousand of our latest "Case for" leaflets and got around 200 people to sign our petition.
We need to organise similar open air events throughout the country as a campaign and not just in Greater Manchester, if we are to put what we are fighting for on the political agenda.
Website       Facebook

What is an externality?

According to Forbes Investopedia: A consequence of an economic activity that is experienced by unrelated third parties.

Fossil-fuel companies, real-estate developers, and automakers in the U.S. have made profits for years from the auto-system of human transport. Many economists have hailed the "great success" of the "American way of life." But these profits have uncounted costs - externalities. The people of Ecuador are paying for the auto-system "miracle" with higher cancer rates, a consequence of an economic activity that is experienced by unrelated third parties. read more on CommonDreams or click here for a list of autosprawl externalities.

More Autosprawl Subsidy, Make it Stop!

GMAC is the perfect example of the unity of the auto and sprawl -- autosprawl. Now the beleaguered U.S. workers cannot afford their car-only-accessible houses, nor their car payments, they are defaulting on their loans. The autosprawl system is melting, and the taxpayer must come to the rescue. But when we say "make public transit fare-free," we hear the moron chorus  "nothing is free" " who will pay?" "cannot afford it" ... blah blah blah. Let's get a grip, America.

Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- GMAC Inc., the lender that received two government bailouts totaling $13.5 billion, is in talks with the Treasury Department to receive a third lifeline...

GMAC posted a $3.9 billion second-quarter loss tied to rising loan defaults, including a $727 million deficit in the auto-finance unit. The firm also offers home loans through its Residential Capital unit, which once ranked among the biggest subprime mortgage lenders....

350 Reasons to oppose Carbon Trading

•Carbon trading puts corporate profits above stabilizing the climate• Carbon trading was initially created to make emissions reductions more affordable for corporations and other big polluters. With over 1 million species’ (including humans’) futures in question, does it not seem a bit perverse to even have corporate profitability as part of the equation for solving climate change? We need solutions that first and foremost address the climate crisis, not making it easy on those responsible for it. Read more at 350Reasons or read PDF now.

Phlippines suffer the true cost of fossil-fuels

SAN FRANCISCO - October 22 - Chevron Corporation's recent nomination to the State Department's annual Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE) for its Philippine-based operations was met with opposition from US and Philippine environmentalists. In response to the nomination, FACES sent a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging the State Department to rescind the nomination. CommonDreams

Chevron owns an oil terminal in Pandacan, an urban district in Manila. The massive Pandacan oil depot sits on over 81 acres of land and is owned by Chevron Philippines Inc. (formerly Caltex Philippines Inc.), Petron Corp., and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. Since 2004, Chevron and its partners have operated in a joint venture called the Pandacan Depot Services Inc. (PDSI).
Catastrophic spills, leakages, and explosions have sickened the community. In 2001 dozens of students at the neighboring PUP campus suffered headaches and vomiting during a gas leak. In early 2006 40,000 liters of oil leaked from the depot. In 2008 a defective tanker carrying 2,000 liters of gasoline and 14,000 liters of diesel caused a deadly explosion near the depot exit gate, alarming officials and residents. Chevron has not implemented a comprehensive warning system to alert residents of danger. True Cost of Chevron

The cost of not having free public transit

We have tried to list all the externalities of the private auto and sprawl. But the list keeps growing and growing. People ask, "can we afford to have free public transit"? The answer is "we can no longer afford not to have it". In the article quoted below from ClimateProgress they show how NRC counts more externalized costs.

...The report estimates dollar values for several major components of these costs. The damages the committee was able to quantify were an estimated $120 billion in the U.S. in 2005, a number that reflects primarily health damages from air pollution associated with electricity generation and motor vehicle transportation. The figure does not include damages from climate change, harm to ecosystems, effects of some air pollutants such as mercury, and risks to national security, which the report examines but does not monetize... NationalResearchCouncil via ClimateProgress

Hundreds of millions of years of stored CO2 released in a few decades

Laid-off auto workers can work on public transit

...Public transport creates 25% more jobs than the same investment in building roads or highways. At a meeting of the Policy Board of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) hosted by De Lijn from 13 to 16 October 2009 in Ghent, Belgium, worldwide leaders of the public transport sector called on governments to invest in the public transport sector. Carfree Blogosphere

Moldova - Seniors fight for free public transport

Maia Laguta, head of the Salvgardare Association and organizer of the elderly protests in the last few weeks in downtown Chisinau, announced during a press conference today that protests will resume.
The elderly are protesting a Chisinau city council decision to hike water consumption and public transportation fees, and to get rid of free public transportation for retirees. Imedia

Don't fall for road toll scam

The US system of transporting people in automobiles does not work. It has never worked. It was forced down our throats. It has caused war and environmental damage. It is has drained the economy and bankrupted the government.

Many people are coming to recognize this. They see free public transit as the way to provide some relief from the auto system.

Those who profit from the auto system are desperate to save it. They have their trolls in government do everything possible to undermine any investment in public transit.

Now they are pushing the idea of putting tolls on existing roads. Don't fall for this scam. We need plans that stop the subsidy of roads, not ones that just get the subsidy money from more places.

Why is US Military in Pipelineistan? Here is why:

China, Russia bolster ties with gas, trade deals
BEIJING (Reuters) - Russia and China bolstered their close but increasingly imbalanced relationship on Tuesday when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ushered through a tentative gas supply agreement and deals worth $3.5 billion. Reuters

Poland: Two protests for free public transportation

Anonim, czw., 09/24/2009 - 19:37

Thursday session of city council Wroclaw was object of attack by members of Initiative for public transport. (NieKasuj - don't pay ticket)

Activists want to draw attention to this question. They went onto the room of city council but they were kicked out and told that no politician support this idea. But they received the statement with the arguments for free public transport. Then activists went away from politicians to main square in Wroclaw to give leaflets and information about campaign to people. Many people support.

Campaign was started by Wroclaw ZSP. Also some other people support this campaign. Page of campaign is http://www.niekasuj.pl/ Wroclaw took place another information action as part of campaign for free public transportation (http://niekasuj.pl). The action was organized by Wroclaw group of ZSP along with other people who go into campign.

There were the flyers given out and collected the signatures for making referendum about free transport. Many passengers supported this action and signed petition supporting referendum.

More people joined campaign. There is profile on Nasza Klasa (it's Polish version Facebook). Already more than 200 people are on it after just two weeks.

ZSP says that people are tired of bad ideas of politicians to spend money like 20 millions zloty for fountain when transport doesn't work, houses falling apart, etc.

http://www.zsp.bzzz.net/node/168
http://www.zsp.bzzz.net/node/167

infoshopnews

No such thing as green cars

By now, it should be obvious that private automobiles are environmentally unsustainable. Yet many people still cling to the fantasy of “Green Cars”. Such people tend to focus only on alternative fuels and the emissions that come out of a car’s tail pipe. They ignore the fact that half the greenhouse gas and pollution a car will emit during its lifetime is created in its manufacture and disposal …and in the manufacture and maintenance of the roads on which it travels. The plastics in a car’s body, interior and tires, the steel in its frame, the lubricants it uses, and the asphalt and concrete it drives on all require petroleum to manufacture and maintain. Andy Singer on CarfreeNetwork

Don't spend your holiday looking for parking

Towns and cities that are trying to be pleasant and attract vacationers realize that traffic and parking are annoying. That is why around the world many beach and ski resort towns have free buses. Now the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia is joining that group. But we should be asking ourselves, if it is affordable and more pleasant, why not have free buses in our town?

Sunshine Coast Council is pushing ahead with plans to provide a new free holiday bus service to ease congestion and parking problems during the busiest time of the year.
...The concept has won strong support from local business and tourism groups, who say traffic gridlock around some holiday hot spots during the Christmas-New Year period must be addressed.
...“We know it won’t completely solve the problem but it is a start and we hope it will also encourage new passengers to consider public transport as an option all year round.”
...“The Sunshine Coast is growing but putting more and more private vehicles on our roads is not sustainable,” she said.mysunshinecoast.com

new blog: Fare-Free Australia