Egypt Election: Muslim Brotherhood Candidate Could Face...
For years, Democracy Now! has closely followed the issues of global warming and climate change. We reported live from the three recent U.N. Climate Change Conferences in Cancún, Copenhagen, and Durban. In addition, we attended the World Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change hosted by Bolivia in 2010. We have interviewed many of the world’s top scientists, writers, policy makers, activists, indigenous leaders and academics who focus on these issues. We also continue to follow the local and global environmental movements who are organizing to directly confront the root causes of global warming, advocate for climate justice, and to provide sustainable alternatives.
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The Long, Hot March of Climate Change
By Amy Goodman with Denis Moynihan
The Pentagon knows it. The world’s largest insurers know it. Now, governments may be overthrown because of it. It is climate change, and it is real.April 12, 2012 | Blog Post -
From Political Prisoner to Climate Activist: Ousted Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed Speaks Out
In part two of our interview with ousted president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, he describes the battle for democracy in his country after he was forced out at gunpoint in February. To his surprise, the United States instantly recognized the man who took his place. Nasheed was a longtime pro-democracy activist who was jailed...April 09, 2012 | Story -
Part 3: Ousted Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed Says He Plans to Run for Office Again After Coup
We continue our interview with ousted Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed and ask him if he plans to seek office again. "I will contest the coming elections," Nasheed says, noting that, "if the coup was so popular, we would have seen people coming out, rejoicing with the military." [includes rush transcript]March 29, 2012 | Blog Post -
Ousted Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed on the Coup that Ousted Him & His Climate Activism
Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed, ousted in a coup last month, joins us in studio along with Jon Shenk, director of "The Island President," a new documentary about Nasheed’s rise to power and his climate activism. The tiny Indian Ocean state of Maldives remains in a state of political turmoil seven weeks after...March 29, 2012 | Story -
Bill McKibben: Winter Heat Wave Underscores Need for Obama to Reject, Not Fast-Track, Keystone XL
As President Obama heads to Oklahoma today to announce the fast-tracking of the southern portion of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Oklahoma to Texas, we speak with 350.org’s Bill McKibben. The pipeline approval comes two months after Obama rejected a proposal for the 1,300-mile Keystone XL pipeline from the Alberta tar...March 22, 2012 | Story -
Michael Klare: GOP Promises of Lower Gas Costs Belied by Dwindling Supply of World’s Oil
We look at rising fuel costs, one of the major issues raised by the Republican contenders in the 2012 presidential campaign. Since the beginning of the year, the average of price of a gallon of regular gasoline has jumped 16 percent to more than $3.80. Earlier this week, President Obama partially blamed his Republican rivals,...March 14, 2012 | Story -
Chicago Residents Win Closure of Toxic Coal-Fired Power Plants After Health Ailments Spark Campaign
Chicago has announced an agreement to close two of the nation’s oldest and dirtiest coal plants. For more than a decade, residents near the Fisk and Crawford coal-fired power plants have complained of the pollution, saying the mercury and carcinogenic particulate matter aggravates asthma and potentially other illnesses....March 01, 2012 | Story -
Coup in Maldives: Adviser to Ousted Pres. Mohamed Nasheed Speaks Out from Hiding as Arrest Sought
The first democratically elected president of the tiny Indian Ocean state of Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, has been ousted in what he has described as a coup d’état at gunpoint. A longtime pro-democracy activist who was jailed for six years, Nasheed has achieved international prominence as a leading campaigner to save island...February 09, 2012 | Story -
Ousted Maldives Pres. Mohamed Nasheed a Leading Voice for Island States Threatened by Global Warming
For years, Mohamed Nasheed was the most vocal world leader on the threat climate change poses to residents of small island states. After becoming the first democratically elected president in Maldives, he pledged to make the nation the first carbon neutral country and once held a cabinet meeting underwater. We discuss Nasheed’s...February 09, 2012 | Story -
"Gasland" Director Josh Fox Arrested at Congressional Hearing on Natural Gas Fracking
The Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox was handcuffed and arrested Wednesday as he attempted to film a congressional hearing on the controversial natural gas drilling technique known as fracking, which the Environmental Protection Agency recently reported caused water contamination in Pavillion, Wyoming. Fox directed...February 02, 2012 | Story -
Obama’s Support for Natural Gas Drilling "A Painful Moment" for Communities Exposed to Fracking
Last week, President Obama called the United States "the Saudi Arabia of natural gas" in a speech about boosting domestic energy production. That concerns Wyoming farmer John Fenton, who already has more than two dozen gas wells on his property. The Environmental Protection Agency ruled in December that water contamination...February 02, 2012 | Story -
Robert Redford Praises Rejection of Keystone Pipeline: We Can’t Afford to Be at the Mercy of Big Oil
We’re broadcasting from Park City, Utah, home of the Sundance Film Festival, the nation’s largest festival for independent cinema. Over the weekend, we spoke with Robert Redford, the founder of Sundance. He’s well known as an actor, a director, a producer, but part and parcel of who he is is an activist. We...January 23, 2012 | Story -
"Climate Apartheid." By Amy Goodman
The U.N.‘s 17th “Conference of Parties,” or COP 17, negotiations were extended, virtually nonstop, through Sunday, in hopes of avoiding complete failure. But despite optimistic pronouncements to the contrary, many believe the Kyoto Protocol died in Durban.December 14, 2011 | Blog Post -
Climate Activists: Durban Deal is "Very Weak" Agreement, Lacks "Ambition, Equity, Justice"
The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, has ended with an agreement to start negotiations for a new legally binding climate treaty to be decided by 2015 — and to come into force by 2020. Negotiators also agreed to a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol and the initial design of a Green...December 12, 2011 | Story -
"Don’t Kill Africa": Climate Activists Occupy Durban Talks Demanding Binding Emissions Cuts
During the final official day of the United Nations climate change talks in Durban on Friday, more than 150 activists "occupied" the conference as they marched through the halls calling for a fair, legally binding agreement before being told to leave by U.N. security. Protesters were careful not to disrupt the actual...December 12, 2011 | Story -
The Lost Decade: Bolivian Pablo Solón Decries Climate Deal Postponing New Emissions Cuts Until 2020
In 2010, then-Ambassador Pablo Solón headed Bolivia’s climate negotiating team for the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico. However, for this year’s climate summit he joined climate justice activists outside the official conference in the streets of Durban demanding the United States, and other historically...December 12, 2011 | Story -
U.S. Publicly Shifts Climate Stance in Face of Widespread Criticism — Then Quietly Backtracks
Talks at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Durban have entered their last official day, with focus now on a European Union-sponsored road map calling for a new climate treaty to be negotiated by 2015. The treaty would impose binding cuts on the world’s biggest emitters of the heat-trapping gases, but would not likely...December 09, 2011 | Story -
"Get It Done": Urging Climate Justice, Youth Delegate Anjali Appadurai Mic Checks U.N. Summit
A number of protests are being held today at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban to protest the failure of world leaders to agree to immediately agree to a deal of binding emissions cuts. Anjali Appadurai, a student at the College of the Atlantic in Maine, addressed the conference on behalf of youth delegates....December 09, 2011 | Story -
Obama Admin Denounced for "Startling Level of Obstructionism and Defeatism" on U.N. Climate Deal
For analysis on where the U.N. climate change talks stand, we are joined by two guests who have been closely tracking the role of the U.S. negotiating team over the past two weeks. Kate Horner is a policy analyst at Friends of the Earth, and Michael Dorsey is an assistant professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College....December 09, 2011 | Story -
Developing Countries Call for Green Climate Fund Independent of Western Control
Martin Khor is the executive director of the South Centre, a research center of 51 developing countries. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, we caught up with Khor to discuss the negotiations over a new Green Climate Fund to help the developing world tackle climate change, the U.S. role in the summit, and...December 09, 2011 | Story
Job Openings
Columns
By Amy Goodman with Denis Moynihan
Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan, spoke Wednesday at the Pentagon, four stars on each shoulder, his chest bedecked with medals. Unlike Allen, many decorated U.S. military veterans left the streets of Chicago after the NATO summit without their medals.
Web Exclusives
In an extended interview, David Bronner, president of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, discusses the history of the company, why they put sustainability and social justice ahead of profits, the organic and GMO labeling movements, the U.S. war on hemp, and why they refuse to sell out. [includes rush transcript]
Human Rights Watch’s Kenneth Roth examines why the U.S. has not pressured Bahrain to release pro-democracy activists. He also discusses Syria and the conditions in Israeli jails and courts that prompted 1,550 Palestinian prisoners to go on a hunger strike. [includes rush transcript]
