The Farley Mowat Receives a Boarding Party

She’s sailed the seas from the peaceful fjords of Norway to the Whale Wars of the Antarctic’s frigid waters.

She’s faced angry Japanese whalers and mean Canadian Coast Guard cutters. (Mean Canadians? Hard to believe, but there are, indeed, five or six of them.)

(The Farley Mowat in her Sea Shepherd days)

But when we tramped about the Farley Mowat on a chill, steel-grey Halifax morning, the ship was cold and quiet and dark. She’d committed the unforgivable crime of driving near the Canadian seal hunt while green. This created the potential for all manner of danger and loss of life and limb, so the Canadian Fisheries Minister, wishing to avoid an unpleasant scene, had her boarded, her Sea Shepherds’ crew arrested, and the ship impounded and towed to Nova Scotia.

That’s where we found her almost two years later. Her great motors stilled, her generators silent, she’s been sitting dockside, waiting.

Waiting, as it turned out, for TENTHMIL owner Steve Munson. He’d always dreamed of trading in his horse and saddle for a ship and cap’n’s chair, and when he heard the Canadian Government was auctioning off the Farley, he leaped at the chance.

Now he was seeing his 180-foot, 657-ton purchase for the first time – stem to stern, engine room to captain’s quarters. And while things looked a bit chaotic – spare parts strewn in random piles across the galley tables; dust and trash through the crew’s berths – he found the ship in sound shape, if not yet seaworthy.

“She’s looking good,” he said, surveying the deck from the bridge of his vessel. “There’s a little rust, and the wiring is a mess, but the engines are in good shape.”

That’s good, because by summer he wants the Farley Mowat back on the ocean – this time refitted as a research vessel.

The Farley Mowat mobilizes against illegal Japanese whalers:

(Originally appeared at TenthMil.com)

Martin Luther King and the Possibility of Change

"Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream."

I have friends who don’t believe in change.

They insist that no matter how hard we try, no matter what we do, things won’t get better. They tell me “the man” has too much power, and nothing we do can ever make things right. They don’t believe we can overthrow the fossil fuel dinosaurs of oil and coal in order to move forward with renewable green energy. They don’t believe we can stop the bleeding in habitats across our country and across the globe; stop the bleeding and start the healing.

But I know that’s not true. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.

Barely a year ago, I saw a Black man take the oath of office. Who would have believed that would ever be possible?

We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.

Let me tell you a little family history, by way of illustration.

My grandfather was born in Poland; as a poor immigrant he put himself through medical school. But he went into private practice, because when he graduated in 1929 there wasn’t a hospital in Toronto that would take a Jew on staff.

Don’t tell me things can’t change.

My mother went to one of the best high schools in Toronto, Harbord Collegiate. She probably could have become a doctor, too - hell, she was the top student in her class; she could have been ANYTHING. But when she met with her vocational counselor, he took a look at her outstanding record and told her “You’re very precise. You’ll probably make a wonderful clerical worker.” In those days, women didn’t become doctors or lawyers or corporation presidents.

Don’t tell me things can’t change.

When Barack Obama was born in 1961, his prospects were even worse than my mothers. She was a woman, and a Jew, but at least she was white. Black men didn’t become doctors or lawyers. Black men were called “Boy” even when they had grey beards. Black men couldn’t eat at lunch counters or piss in public restrooms or stay in hotels. Black men who spoke up or talked back or didn’t know their place were regularly lynched across the South and even in the North – hunted down like animals by angry mobs and hanged or shot or worse.

Don’t tell me things can’t change.

You now that’s not true. You’ve seen it with your own eyes.

I have a dream - that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

Twenty years ago I, as a young reporter, saw Jesse Jackson speak at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, and marveled that this was even possible. In what had only a few years before been the heart of segregation country, this man – this Black man - electrified the nation. Everyone knew he could never be elected President, of course, but it was amazing that he had run a serious campaign and earned millions of votes.

Watching that speech, I never dreamed that in just 5 election cycles, I’d be watching a Black man take the oath of office as the 44th President of the United States.

I have a dream - that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Jesse Jackson lost the nomination to Michael Dukakis, of course, who proceeded to get his ass handed to him by the first George Bush. A bully and an oilman, Bush won that election by ridiculing his opponent, just as he ridiculed his next opponents four years later as “Bozo and Ozone Man”. Yes, that’s what he called Bill Clinton and Al Gore; laughing at them for caring about the planet. But this time he got HIS ass handed to him.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Mahatma Ghandi.

They ignored us and continued pumping their oil and digging their coal. Then they laughed at us – called us “Ozone Man” and “Treehugger” and “Dirty Hippie”.

Now they are fighting us. But the tide has turned.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now… It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Change happens because we will it. Change happens because we make it happen. Inch by inch, heart by heart and mind by mind.

Don’t just sit there - do something! Go the the Martin Luther King Jr Day of Service website and find volunteer opportunities in your neighborhood that you could be doing right now!

And if you do, post a comment here and tell us what you did.

(Originally appeared at TenthMil.com)

Obama Budget Cuts Oil Money, Adds Renewables

After criticism for not talking enough about renewables in his SOTU speech, President Obama’s new budget shows us the money - according to a White House statement, more than $6 billion. But is it enough? You’d think that with a total of $3.8 trillion on the table, a few more crumbs could have been tossed toward energy - and planetary - security.

“The President’s budget cuts wasteful spending while making wise investments in innovation and clean energy that will put Americans back to work, save families money and keep our nation competitive in the global marketplace,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “This budget supports new approaches to energy research and invests in the next generation of scientists and engineers, and it will spark new clean energy projects nationwide, including restarting the American nuclear power industry.”

“America must move to a clean-energy economy,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said. “We believe that the taxpayers should receive a fair return on the resources that belong to them.”

The DOE reports the good news on the fossil fuel front, as the new budget cuts the following:
* Eliminating more than $2.7 billion in tax subsidies for oil, coal and gas industries. This step is estimated to generate more than $38.8 billion dollars in revenue for the federal government over the course of the next 10 years.
* Another $8.5 billion would come in by cutting a tax break oil and gas companies currently get for taxes paid oversees.
* Terminating Ultra-Deepwater exploration program, saving $50 million.
* Canceling planned expansion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, saving $71 million.
* There’s also a new fee on “non-producing” leases - a modest $4 an acre that would encourage companies are currently sitting on leases without doing any drilling or exploration (even while they try to get more and more areas opened up for leasing) to start doing something with them. That is estimated to bring in $1.15 billion.

There is also word that $2.3 billion in tax breaks for coal will be cut over 10 years as well.

And for green energy:
* More than $217 million in new funding for science research and discovery, including an additional $40 million for the existing Energy Frontier Research Centers program and $107 million for Energy Innovation Hubs.
* $300 million for the Advanced Research Project Agency – Energy (ARPA-E);
* Lending authority to support approximately $40 billion in loan guarantees for innovative clean energy programs. (But $36 billion of that is an increase in guarantees for new puclear plants)
* More than $108 million in new funding to advance and expand research in the areas of wind, solar and geothermal energies.
* $43 to the EPA for greenhouse gas reduction under the Clean Air Act
* There are also millions more in funds for water cleanup, including $300 million to restore the Great Lakes (we’ll be writing more about this)

Energy Boom breaks out some more numbers:

$4.7 billion in clean energy technology investments at DOE, including:
* Nearly $2.4 billion, an increase of $113 million, for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs including $302 million for solar energy, $220 million for biofuels and biomass R&D, $325 million for advanced vehicle technologies, and $231 million for energy efficient building technologies.
* $545 million for advanced coal climate change technologies to focus resources to develop carbon capture technologies with broad applications to advanced coal power systems, existing power plants, and industrial sources.
* $300 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy to accelerate game-changing energy technologies in need of rapid and flexible experimentation or engineering.
* $793 million for clean energy activities and civilian nuclear energy programs, including research and development and infrastructure programs. The budget includes a new cross-cutting research program to address technology needs for all aspects of nuclear energy production.

And as Josie Garthwaite at Green2Tech notes,

Makers of green energy equipment could also benefit under a proposed $5 billion expansion of a tax credit first created as part the stimulus package, which covers up to 30 percent of the costs for new, expanded or retooled greentech equipment factories. That likely comes as welcome news for the companies behind several hundred projects that didn’t make the cut for $2.3 billion in credits awarded last month under the oversubscribed program.

Garthwaite also points to something missing from this budget: revenue from carbon allowances, “signaling dwindling confidence that the Senate will pass a bill with a cap and trade system this year.”

But President Obama doesn’t appear ready to throw in the towel on that one yet. In a press conference, he said “Because our future depends on our ability to break free from oil that’s controlled by foreign dictators, we need to make clean, renewable energy into a profitable kind of energy. That’s why we’ll be working with Congress on legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy.”

You can get the DOE budget here or the Federal Budget here if you want that level of detail.

Do Something Now!

If you want a quick way to get involved, write to your Senator/Congressperson and tell them you support increased money for green energy.

Drop a note to President Obama thanking him for supporting renewables.

(Originally appeared at TenthMil.com)