Alden Meyer: Climate Alliance Tells World: Trump Doesn’t Speak for U.S. on Climate Change

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

Thank you for donating

If you've made a donation and wish to receive thank you gifts for your donation, be sure to send us your mailing address via our Contact form.

See our thank you gifts for your donation.

The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

Subscribe to our Weekly Summary & receive our FREE Resist Trump window cling

(Car window cling)

Email us with your mailing address at contact@btlonline.org to receive our "Resist Trump/Resist Hate" car window cling!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.

BTL Blog

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Special Programming

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Progressive Resources

A compilation of activist and news sites with a progressive point of view

Share this content:

|

Subscribe to BTL

Podcasts: direct or via iTunes

Subscribe to Program Summaries, Interview Transcripts or Counterpoint via email or RSS feed

If you have other questions regarding subscriptions, feeds or podcasts/mp3s go to our Audio Help page.

Between The Lines Blog

Stay connected to BTL

Learn how to support our efforts!

Tweets by @BTLRadioNews

Climate Alliance Tells World: Trump Doesn’t Speak for U.S. on Climate Change

Posted June 21, 2017

Interview with Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy with the Union of Concerned Scientists, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

Donald Trump’s June 1 announcement that his administration is withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord has prompted more coverage in the corporate media of the climate crisis than that of several preceding years. Because the Paris agreement stipulates that any signatory nation must wait three years before finalizing its withdrawal, the first day the U.S. can officially withdraw is Nov. 5, 2020, one day after the next U.S. presidential election. However, Trump announced that his administration would do nothing to fulfill previous climate pledges made by President Obama, so it’s not clear how much difference it makes whether the U.S. is officially inside or outside of the voluntary pact, to which all but two other nations in the world agreed.

But a move the same day as Trump’s announcement could offset the effect of policy changes at the federal level to reduce climate pollution. On June 1, the governors of California, New York and Washington state announced the formation of the U.S. Climate Alliance, pledging to uphold the objectives of the Paris Agreement by reducing carbon emissions 26 to 28 percent, compared with 2005 levels by the year 2025. Within a few days, the bipartisan group attracted nine other states and Puerto Rico to join. Later, ten other U.S. governors, the mayor of Washington, D.C. and hundreds of other mayors of U.S. cities declared they would work toward the same goals, without officially joining the Alliance.

Together, the members and supporters of the alliance represent 57 percent of the U.S. population, and contributes 40 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy with the Union of Concerned Scientists, who has worked on climate issues for decades. Here, he explains how the Climate Alliance can exert influence on local and national policy outcomes on climate change. [Rush transcript]

ALDEN MEYER: The U.S. Climate Alliance, which is a state mechanism along with more than 1,200 mayors, businesses, investors and college and university professors, have announced that they are still in the Paris agreement and they will do their utmost to meet the U.S. commitments under Paris. This is a remarkable development. It’s obviously greatly welcomed by countries around the world. Just yesterday the prime minister of Fiji, who is the incoming president of the Conference of the Parties to the framework agreement, named Gov. Jerry Brown of California as his special envoy for state and regional action, and Gov. Brown, along with Gov. Inslee of Washington state and Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon all announced they’ll be going to the next climate summit meeting in Bonn, Germany, in November. Mayor Bloomberg has been very actively working with representatives of cities and mayors around the country on this issue. And so there’s no doubt that there’s been a sharp reaction to President Trump’s announcement of withdrawing the U.S. from Paris, and these mayors and governors and business leaders and others are trying to make clear that President Trump does not speak for America on this issue and that there’s tremendous support for the Paris agreement, for climate action, for the clean energy revolution and all the jobs and economic prosperity that can bring, and they will be taking this message that we are still in to the rest of the world.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Are there things that are going to make it harder or even impossible for states and cities to do what they want to do?

ALDEN MEYER: Well, there’s two issues here. One is, can the federal government get in the way of state action or local action to reduce emissions? In certain areas it can. For example, California has the right under the Clean Air Act to set stronger standards for vehicle emissions than the federal government. They have a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency to exercise that authority. That’s one of the concerns California has, that the Trump administration may try to withdraw that waiver and that would lead to a court fight. The other issue is, who represents the U.S. at these negotiations? Clearly, the states and the cities and the business leaders do not formally represent the U.S.A., – they can’t formally take positions on behalf of the U.S. or negotiate with other countries, but they can send a very important political signal that major elements of U.S. society remain committed to Paris. They will do their best to make sure we meet the emissions reduction commitments we agreed to under the agreement, and that President Trump and his administration represent a short-term aberration in U.S. climate policy and not a long-term trend and that after he leaves office, hopefully, the next president will return to the negotiations and the U.S. will be back in formally as a country.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Are you optimistic about the world’s ability to address the climate crisis before it’s totally too late?

ALDEN MEYER: Well, this is a trend that’s been building steam over many years now, and we expect to see more cities and states and businesses join this loose coalition because these officials recognize that climate change is already having impacts on their communities, on their budgets, on their infrastructure and unless we address the climate crisis, those impacts are only going to get worse. They also understand that the clean energy economy, which is one of the main solutions to climate change, offers tremendous economic development and employment benefits to those who show leadership, which is one of the reasons you’ve seen both Democratic and Republican governors and legislatures, over the last decade or so, adopt renewable standards for their utilities, requiring a larger share of electricity generation to come from renewable sources, and these standards are very popular, including in Republican states, because they bring economic employment and tax benefits to local communities.

So this is a trend we’ve seen building for awhile. I think what President Trump did with his announcement of withdrawal from Paris is galvanize it to come together in a more public and unified way to present a united front that the U.S. is still in as a country, as a society, no matter what the current president says. So that’s welcome. But this trend will continue; it will build, and I think it will be clear to the rest of the world that the U.S. as a whole is still very committed to climate action even if our president isn’t.

For more information, visit Union of Concerned Scientists at ucsusa.org.