Climate Equity Links

This does not in any way pretend to be a comprehensive list of climate equity links.  On the other hand, it’s not padded out either.  All this stuff is useful, some is indispensable.  

350.org

350.org is an international campaign dedicated to creating an equitable global climate treaty that lowers carbon dioxide below 350 parts per million.  Which is about as close to safe as we can still get.  This is a fabulous organization, no doubt about it.

Blue Green Alliance

The Blue Green alliance is perhaps the hub of the effort to to link between US environmental and labor groups. Its had a rocky history, but that goes with the territory.  Blue-Green has survived and regrouped, and has earned indispensable status.

Centre for Science and the Environment (CSE)

India’s CSE, well known among Southern environmental NGOs, has been enormously influential in the climate equity movement since 1990s publication of Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain’s Global Warming in an Unequal World.  Their whole (extensive) site is well worth exploring, though the real focus here is to their EquityWatch work, which is reanimated from time to time during flash points in the negotiations.

Climate Action Network (CAN)

The Climate Action Network is a global coalition of over seven hundred independent organizations working the climate issue.  See, in particular, its ECO newsletter, which CAN publishes from all major international climate meetings; there’s really nothing else like it. The US Climate Action Network is, of course, the web home of the US region of CAN. It also provides a portal to the climate pages of most of the major U.S. environmental groups.

Climate Change Denial

An occasional but very clear-headed look at the social-psychology of denial. And by psychology we don’t mean that old-school nonsense that treats the individual apart from society. As if!

Climate Code Red

This blog, edited by David Spratt, is one of the best in the business, particularly if you want to stay close to the science.  Which is not to say that it’s not a great source of info and analysis on the political side as well — but the focus is the science, which is to say, the emergency.  In fact, Climate Code Red, the book, which David Spratt and Phillip Sutton published in 2008, was one of the very first to tell it straight.  This is an “all hands on deck” situation.

Climate Ethics blog

This blog is run by professional philosophers, and yet it strives to be extremely relevant to the global climate justice debate. We won’t say that all of it is excellent, or even useful. But some of it is, and quite so. Don Brown in particular, the force behind the blog, knows his way around the debate, and it shows.

The Equality Trust

From the people who brought you The Spirit Level, this is a nice portal into the inequality debate, as it is (very rapidly) developing, in the UK and in general.   And before you conclude that all this is just a matter of economic justice, take a look at the argument (in the book) that we’ll not be able to get our arms around the climate problem until we put the inequality problem in center stage.

Energy Action

One of the broadest climate coalitions in the US, Energy Action is focused on the universities and thus overlaps with Focus the Nation and all sorts of other student-led initiatives. The level of commitment in these circles is high, and its a damn good thing.  The universities are critical.

Focus on the Global South

Focus has long been one of the global justice movements indispensable organizations. And that was even before it moved in climate.  It’s voice is the voice of the cosmopolitan South, with a clear-headed, take no prisoners perspective.  It’s offerings are notable for unusual depth and compelling analysis.

Global Commons Institute (GCI)

Aubrey Meyer of London’s GCI has been working for well over a decade to put contraction and convergence onto the international agenda. And come what may, there’s an irreducible truth here at the end of the day.  This list would be incomplete without a reference to C&C.

Global Footprint Network

Footprint analysis has long been indispensable to honest, no-bullshit pedagogy on the environmental crisis, but that’s hardly the end of its possibilities. GFN is pushing the footprint approach farther than its its ever gone before, and to fine effect.

Great Transition Initiative

A global network (of senior environmental policy wonks from around the world) elaborating visions and pathways for a future of enriched lives, human solidarity and a healthy planet. The GTI is particularly notable for its paper series, which is dense with insights and ideas.

Heatisonline.org

Ross Gelbspan’s site, and his classic proposal, which couples the Tobin tax with progressive fossil fuel efficiency standards, and his evolving thoughts. This is good stuff, and well worth consulting.

Inequality.org

This is the single best US site on inequality, as far as I can tell.  It’s maintained by the folks at the the Institute for Policy Studies Program on Inequality and the Common Good.  Kudos.   And check out their great 2-minute video on US inequality!

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

The IPCC is the global scientific authority of last resort when it comes to climate change, and this remains true despite the IPCC’s conservativism (a long story that’s not appropriate here). All of its major reports are available via the Web site, though you may have to root around a bit to find them all.

International Forum on Globalization

The IFG, one of the keystone organizations of the old anti-globalization movement, is now focusing on what it calls the triple crisis of climate change, peak oil, and resource depletion. Definitely one to keep an eye on, particularly if you’re interested in the politics of trade and international property rights.

International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

IISD hosts Climate-L, the premier list for announcement of climate-related activities and publications, the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, a dry but objective review of the daily activities at major global environmental negotiations, the annual Development and Climate Days meeting that takes at every climate COP, and gobs of other important stuff.

Jim Hansen’s homepage

Jim Hansen, of course, is one of the worlds leading climate scientists; hes certainly one of the most influential, one of the most prolific, and one of the most courageous. Indeed, his latest writings are nothing less than terrifying.

Just Transition Alliance

The Just Transition Alliance is a US Environmental Justice organization with a fine history and a really fine name. Just transitions is what this is all about.

Labor Network for Sustainability

The Labor Network for Sustainability is a green meets labor project, but with a twist.  Unions are big part of the picture, but not in the old way.  This is a voice of a new labor movement, a green labor movement and a global one, one that’s bent on reinvention, come what may.  Very, very good stuff.

Mobilization for Climate Justice

This seems to be the best current portal into the grassroots climate justice network in the US.  The links go pretty much everywhere, some to founder groups, some to messaging and strategy specialists, some to international groups and networks.   Most are US focused, and few have any patience left.  Some of the here is kind of cobwebby, but most is contemporary and some is absolutely current.  A very useful and unifying site.

On the Commons

Now here’s something new! An good, well-maintained website focusing on the new commons movement. Definitely check it out, because this is the single best entry point to a burgeoning movement and a fascinating, indispensable literature.

RealClimate

If we had to pick three absolutely indispensable climate websites, realclimate climate science by climate scientists would have to make the cut. And this despite the fact that it has no explicit commitment to social justice. Because, lets face it, avoiding global climate catastrophe is in itself key to any real justice agenda. And were not going to avoid it unless we understand it.

Rising Tide

Rising Tide is the grandfather of anarcho-climate radicalism, and this site, which services a large network of mostly-UK based climate activists and action groups, is the place to go to find out whats its up to, and where it’s headed.  This is not static coalition, not by a long shot.

Stockholm Environment Institute US Center

SEI is one of the oldest groups in the climate game, but the US center is relatively new. Its notable because its staffers are hard core environmental scientists, but also visionaries working hard to find new ways forward, ways that are actually adequate to the challenge. SEI-US is EcoEquity’s principle partner in the Greenhouse Development Rights project.

Stop Climate Chaos

A very broad and diverse coalition of British environmental, development, and ecumenical organizations.  Good stuff.

Sustainable Energy and Environment Network

SEEN, based at Washington’s Institute for Policy Studies, has long been a leader in the drive to reform (or abolish) the World Bank and, beyond that, to do whatever’s necessary to drive renewables and justice to the center of the global institutional agenda. And there’s no reason to think that its work will be done anytime soon.

TrillionthTonne.org

Count-down timers have always been popular on the internet.   Here’s one that will really curl your hair.  And this one is science based!

Third World Network

Anti-globalization activists will know the Third World Network well.  And climate activists will know that, at this point, it is also extremely influential in the climate world, where it is one of the influential of all Southern voices.  Here’s a link to TWN’s climate page, and its one to watch.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

The UNFCCC’s portal hosts all the documents from the official climate negotiations, and all sorts of related materials.The Framework Convention is already law, by the way, even in the US. George W. Bush’s father signed it in 1992, and it has been ratified by the U.S. Senate.