Capitol Power Plant in Washington D.C.

This Weekend The Action Begins In Washington, DC.

Power Shift promises to be the largest youth climate conference ever held in the U.S. Two days later, youth and climate activists from across the country will take part in a mass mobilization at the Washington D.C. coal plant--known as the Capitol Climate Action.

In addition to sending hundreds of youth to Power Shift by bus, Global Exchange is sending two groups, one to each of these historic events, by train. During three days on the train, we'll have plenty of time to prepare for Power Shift and the protest, reconnect with old friends, and build community with new ones. We will also avoid dumping thousands of tons of CO2 into the upper atmosphere.

This is history in the making, and we don't want you to miss any of it. So keep up with Global Exchange on two blogs dedicated to each of these momentous events.

Stay up-to-date on two historic actions with Global Exchange
You do NOT want to miss this!Keep track of activities at GX's Power Shift blog.Follow events at the Capitol Climate Action at GX's Climate Justice blog.

Read more of Global Exchange's Climate Justice blogHeaded for the Capitol and it's 3AM on the California Zephyr
It's 3am on the California Zephyr and we're stopped in Salt Lake City, Utah. The California Zephyr is the Amtrak train we are on for the first leg of our cross-country trip to the Capitol Climate Action. It originated in the San Francisco Bay area and has so far passed through Sacramento, Truckee, Reno, Winnemucca, Elko and now Salt Lake City.

I ought to be asleep, but instead I'm checking out images and YouTube videos about coal mining in Utah.

There's a lot of coal mining in the eastern part of the state, which you could probably guess from names like Carbon County and Carbonville. Carbon County has some quaint old ghost mining towns you can visit to see what it was like back in the day, but mining companies don't spend a lot of time publicizing today's practices.Longwall mining.

Longwall mining is one of the preferred practices around here these days. Longwall mining chews up an underground slice of coal a couple of miles long and 500-1000 feet wide. It has a number of nasty side effects like, for example, the fact that after the longwall operation is done, there's a long chunk of earth missing. So the land above suddenly subsides, sometimes doing severe damage to above ground structures, changing the course of rivers and similar neat stuff.

Mining coal is just a nasty business. We need to leave the rest of this stuff in the ground.

Yesterday, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid announced that they wanted the Capitol Power Plant to quit using coal. That's an important victory for the Capitol Climate Action before the action even takes place next Monday.

But as nice as this success is, there are much bigger fish to fry. And that's the real point of the Capitol Climate Action. Coal needs to be abandoned everywhere.

Thank you, as always, for your work on behalf of peace & justice, Global Exchange


Source: Global Exchange