Climate Hope: On the Front Lines of the Fight Against Coal

In the spring of 2007, after Energy Department analyst Erik Shuster circulated a document revealing that 151 new coal-fired power plants were slated for construction, climate scientists sounded the alarm. Coal is the most carbon-intensive and plentiful of the fossil fuels. If the wave of massive new facilities was built, there would be little chance of preventing greenhouse gases from reaching truly dangerous levels. In response to the crisis, hundreds of local and regional groups, along with a handful of national groups, rose to the challenge of blocking the wave of proposals. Climate Hope: On the Front Lines of the Fight Against Coal reveals for the first time the organizing methods and political tactics that enabled underdog activists in state after state to take on and defeat Big Coal, one of the most politically dominant industries in America. By late 2009, following two years of intense mobilization, opponents had derailed at least 109 proposed plants, bringing the coal boom to a sputtering halt.

The fight to stop coal is a bright spot in the worldwide effort to fight global warming. According to Dr. James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, phasing out coal emissions is "80% of the solution to the global warming crisis." The grassroots organizing methods developed by the movement to stop new coal-fired power plants provide a positive example of ordinary people mobilizing, fighting, and winning. Learn more at ClimateHopeBook.com

Contents:
Chapter 1: The 80% Solution
Chapter 2: 151 Time Bombs
Chapter 3: Inside the Swarm
Chapter 4: But We'll Freeze in the Dark!
Chapter 5: What About China?
Chapter 6: Hurricane Politics
Chapter 7: Kansas
Chapter 8: Direct Action
Chapter 9: The Education of Warren Buffett
Chapter 10: Progress Report: 59 Coal Plants Down
Chapter 11: Unicorns, Leprechauns, Clean Coal
Chapter 12: War Against the Mountains
Chapter 13: The Grandmother Rebellion
Chapter 14: Cowboys Against Coal
Chapter 15: Sierra
Chapter 16: Taking It to the Streets
Appendix A: Protests Against Coal
Appendix B: Coal Plants Cancelled, Abandoned, or Put on Hold

Ted Nace is the director of CoalSwarm.org, a collaborative information clearinghouse on coal. He founded Peachpit, the world's leading publisher of books on digital graphics and desktop publishing. His previous books include Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy (Berrett-Koehler, 2003, 2005).