G20Voice » Pittsburgh

Mass Meditation for Peace, Obama’s speech, Michael Froman press conference

Quietdown — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:15:12 +0000

For all my dilettantish enthusiasm for consciousness studies and all things esoteric, my actual meditation chops, never great to begin with, have been pretty rusty lately. The presence of so many others proficient in the art helped me slough some attention-rust this morning, whether or not the consciences of any nation-state puppet heads or central banker puppeteers kicked in as a result.

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I refrained from giggling throughout the news conference, but admit I nearly lost it when Obama said, “We went into Afghanistan not because we were interested in entering that country or positioning ourselves regionally, but because al Qaeda yada yada,” then bragged about how, “… the minute I came into office we initiated a review, and even before that review was completed, I ordered 21,000 additional troops into Afghanistan.”

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At 6, Senior Council on Foreign Relations Fellow and now Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economic Affairs, Michael Froman dropped by to take bloggers’ questions, all of which were climate-related (and answered with the same vague commitments to do something, somehow, at some point, moving forward, but cautiously), save mine, which pertained to central bank and G-20 secrecy. Froman basically responded there was no time for the G-20 to discuss trifles like central banks submitting to audits and “coming clean”, as Obama insisted Iran do about their nuke program, and that the G-20 isn’t secret because, look, I’m here talking to you, Obama just said a bunch of stuff, and a lovely Leaders’ Statement was issued summarizing all the stuff the G-20 discussed in secret.

For more, including photos and video by Jessica Silver, visit Pittsburgh Alpha to Omega.

Rendell On Green

CaraJette — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:04:17 +0000

On Friday, I had the opportunity to listen to Pennsylvania Governor Rendell talk about Pennsylvania’s green initiatives. The governor addressed the bloggers and NGO representatives stationed at the August Wilson Center during the G20 in Pittsburgh.

Climate protesters hit the streets in Pittsburgh during G20 meeting

Emily Gertz — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:33:34 +0000

Young activists from the Avaaz Action Factory joined the mass “People’s March” into downtown Pittsburgh on Friday afternoon, not far from the site of the G20 Summit, after holding their own climate-focused march in the morning. Their Twitter-friendly slogan is “G20 Climate FAIL,” criticizing what they say has been a lack of action toward a global climate treaty. …see photos and read more at Grist…

G20 cans fossil-fuel subsidies, but fails to make other climate-conserving moves

Emily Gertz — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:31:12 +0000

On Friday afternoon, President Barack Obama formally announced that the world’s 20 major developed and developing nations had agreed to gradually eliminate fossil-fuel subsidies. It was the only climate-specific policy directive to come out of the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Pittsburgh, and it fell far short in the view of climate activists, who were hoping for a firm proposal on “climate finance”—G20 aid to poor nations for help in adapting to and mitigating climate change. …read more at Grist…

Climate at the G20: White House briefs bloggers on climate discussions

Emily Gertz — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:29:52 +0000

Climate activists were underwhelmed by what came out of this week’s Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh in the way of formal climate change commitments.
True, the heads of state of the 20 leading developed and developing economies agreed to phase out fossil fuel subsidies “in the medium term.” But they couldn’t come to a consensus on climate finance — aid from richer nations to poorer, directed at adapting to and mitigating the impacts of global warming. …read more at Change.org …

The Climate War

CaraJette — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:19:51 +0000

What do Brazil, Mexico, China, India, and South Africa have in common? They’re all developing countries meeting in Pittsburgh this week that have plans for addressing their emissions and dealing with Climate Change.

SurvivaBall: Your individual climate-change adaptation strategy

Emily Gertz — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:26:39 +0000

The world’s most upstanding corporate citizens, like Halliburton, Monsanto, and ExxonMobil, take climate change seriously. It’s a serious opportunity for profit. That’s why, in addition to spending millions to perpetuate the energy, environmental, and subsidy policies that sustain their ongoing operations, they’ve created this “gated community for one” — the SurvivaBall. …read more at Grist…

Boxer, Kerry will introduce Senate climate bill next week

Emily Gertz — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:12:15 +0000

Last night at Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum, Teresa Heinz read a message from her husband, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), that set the gala crowd to cheering: He and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) will introduce a climate bill in the Senate next Wednesday….read more at Grist…

Climate at the G20: Obama to press cuts in fossil fuel subsidies

Emily Gertz — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:15:12 +0000

After three days of an all-climate schedule in New York City, featuring Tuesday’s all-day United Nations Climate Summit, I’m now in Pittsburgh to cover the meeting of the Group of 20 (G20) major economies. My thanks to Grist and G20Voice for helping me to be here. Given that the heads of state chewed over global warming at the United Nations Climate Summit on Tuesday, where will climate figure into tomorrow’s G20 agenda of meetings? …read more…

Police show of force at Lawrenceville writers collective, Daniel McCloskey interview

Quietdown — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:41:09 +0000

At 1:30 am on September 21, Lawrenceville’s Cyberpunk Apocalypse writers collective was harassed by a large contingent of shotgun-wielding police, apparently part of a series of pre-summit “shows of force” which also targeted the Landslide Community Farm and Seeds of Peace. Apocalypse owner and futurian Daniel McCloskey says police told him the Apocalypse was ‘on a list‘.

Mp3s of my interview with Daniel can be downloaded from Pittsburgh Alpha to Omega or streamed from G20 Bed & Breakfast.

“Battle of Lawrenceville” to “G-Spot”, interviews