Fossil Fuel – Kristen Baumlier

350.org, a group that for several years has been working to battle climate change through organizing, events, and petitions has a new campaign for communities and cities to commit to moving away from Fossil Fools. The latest update from the campaign is that 11 cities have made a commitment to moving away from spending money on fossil fuels, and there are over 100 petitions active in various cities and states.

The cities that are committing to divestment so far range in size, like Bayfield, Wisconsin, which has just 530 residents, to large cities, like the City of San Francisco, where the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously this past week to push the city’s retirement fund to divest $583 million from the fossil fuel industry.

Citizens who are starting the petitions feel that we are all part of institutions, such as city and state governments, religious institutions, charities and non-profits that do work to do public good. Most of these institutions invest money in stocks and bonds, and have a responsibility to divest from an industry that’s negatively impacting the environment and our future, and reinvest in solutions to climate change.

You can start a petition to show that there is support for fossil fuel divestment, and there are materials to support you in getting started. To view the campaigns that are already happening in your area and get ideas of how to promote your petition, check out the website.

If you’re not up for starting a petition, the campaign encourages you to talk to your friends, neighbors, and coworkers about the issue, and see if others are interested in stating a campaign.

Image Source:
http://campaigns.gofossilfree.org/

Links:

http://campaigns.gofossilfree.org/

Tom Hansell, an artist and filmmaker I worked with as part of the artist group Fossil Fools has started a new film project called After Coal: Welsh and Appalachian Mining Communities.

This documentary film explores how two mining cultures face the challenge of their dependence on fossil fuels. Currently the Appalachian coalfields are struggling with chronic unemployment and environmental degradation, while Wales has experimented with strategies to rebuild their communities after the mines closed. As the Appalachian coalfields enter their last generation of mining, this documentary project will help map directions to a sustainable future after coal.

Tom is currently raising money in order to bring a video crew from the Appalachian Mountains to the historic coalfields of South Wales. Here they will revisit sites documented by Welsh Cinematographer Richard Greatrex and sociologists Helen Lewis and John Gaventa from 1974-1976. During the last decade of full scale mining in Wales, this team made over 150 videotapes of daily life — including rare footage of Welsh miners choirs performing with Appalachian musicians such as Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard.

The interviews, images, and, sounds gathered will be combined with this archival footage, creating a feature length documentary that compares the coalfields of Wales and Appalachia.

After Coal will consider what the Welsh experience after coal means for the last generation of Appalachian miners and their community. How do resource rich regions transition from their historic dependence on fossil fuels, while sustaining the community those fuels helped build? And, how can lessons from these areas speak to other resource dependent regions throughout the globe?

As of today – Tom has raised $2945 of the $5000 project goal.

The Center for Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State University is currently raising money to cover the costs of bringing a film crew to Wales in the spring of 2012.

To support this project, visit the website and click on the support button.

View the promo clip of the film

Image credit: Tom Hansell

Kristen Baumlier

Category: Fossil Fuel

Go Fossil Free Campaign: Eleven Cities Have Committed to a Future without Fossil Fuels

After Coal: Film project focuses on the transition from coal in Appalachia and Wales