be the change you want to see in the world

VoteForEnvironment.ca was designed by Canadians who believe what the vast majority of the world’s scientists have told us: we are out of time and we must start to reduce our fossil fuel pollution now to save the planet from dangerous climate change.

We believe that the Harper Government’s collusion with the Bush White House to obstruct progress on climate change at recent international summits does not reflect how Canadians want their leaders to behave on the world stage. The Harper and the Conservative Party are simply not in step with what scientists say is needed, with Canadians’ concerns, and with economic benefits of dealing with climate change.

All the other major Parties have programs that seriously address our critical climate concerns and are talking about them in this election.

If those of us who care about the environment don’t work together across party lines, the pro-environment vote will be split as it was in the last election and Harper will be re-elected.

We are the majority. But our electoral system hasn’t kept up with Canada’s changing political landscape.

Here is how our dynamic riding by riding prediction system works:

This site calculates what the likely vote totals would be for each party based on today’s polling.

The method is simple and straight forward. The provincial average for any party on election day 2006 resulted in a certain number of votes for that party in any given riding — and a defined ratio of provincial average support to votes in a riding. That ratio is applied to an average of polling results for this election to calculate the number of votes the current support level would result in for a given party. This allows you to see how the votes would split today and who would likely win each riding.

Of course this assumes the quality of candidates and the overall situation in each riding is the same — which is not always the case. In some ridings the situation changes dramatically, shifting that ridings relationship of votes compared to the provincial average. To account for this the site applies corrections where, for instance, one party is not running a candidate. These corrections are completely transparent and if you don’t agree with them they are easy for you to reset for yourself.

This simple but effective math tool make it easy for you to decode what all these polls we see on television likely mean for your riding. As the functionality is expanded over the coming days you will be able to see what the myriad of public polls mean for not only the results in your riding but also for who forms government on October 15th.

We have identified your riding as a swing riding if an NDP, Bloc or Liberal candidate could have won in 2006 if at least one-third of the opposition party supporters had voted for the leading opposition party in that riding. We also point to the ridings where the Green party is competing to win a seat this time. Where strategic voting will have no effect on reducing the chances of a Conservative win, we refrain from a recommendation.

Why have we done this? To make the best possible information available to Canadians so we can stop splitting the vote and achieve government change not climate change. Please check this website often for updates and tell your friends who share our values of putting the environment above partisanship.

Please check this website often for updates and tell your friends who share our concern about vote splitting electing an anti-environment Conservative government.

I am thrilled to announce the launch of Coal-is-Dirty.com. This site was built by my company Catalyst Internet, Inc in conjunction with Junxion Strategy, Inc. for the DeSmogBlog team. It is a tool aimed at challenging the idea that coal is a viable fuel for our future energy needs.

Working with the DeSmogBlog team has been a great experience, and I have learned a lot from them about high-stakes PR, astroturfing, greenwashing and how the spin machine works. I have reposted Kevin Grandia’s launch message below. Please visit the site to see it in its entirety.

Welcome to the Clean Coal Body Slam

by Kevin Grandia

For too long the idea of clean coal has gone unchallenged.

A lot of people have received an email from yours truly over the last four months with the subject line: “Clean Coal Body Slam.” I thought it explained the intentions of this project very well.

Along with Greenpeace USA and Rainforest Action Network, we have pulled together some of the best and most outspoken leaders on the environmental, public health and economic effects of America’s addiction to coal, including:

Jeff Goodell, contributing editor at Rolling Stone and author of Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future.

Jeff Biggers, author of In the Sierra Madre and The United States of Appalachia and a regular contributor on Huffington Post.

Page van der Linden, contributing editor on Daily Kos and longtime campaigner on nuclear and coal issues.

Kert Davies, Research Director for Greenpeace in the United States and the architect for the well-known ExxonSecrets.org campaign and the recently launched StopGreenWash.org

JW Randolph, staff Legislative Associate for the powerful Appalachian Voices organization and manager of the Appalachian Voices blog.

Ted Nace, the director of Coal Swarm, a group that works to support the grassroots movement opposing coal.

David Novack, producer and director of the great new documentary, Burning the Future: Coal in America, which chronicles the environmental devastation of the coal industry in West Virginia.

Kate Rooth, who works for Greenpeace in the United States promoting climate, forests and oceans issues. She works with the Research Unit to support campaign and action work and is also a non-violence trainer.

Mark Fiore, who the Wall Street Journal recently called “the undisputed guru of the form,” creates animated political cartoons from an undisclosed location somewhere in San Francisco.

Richard Littlemore, Senior Writer for the award-winning site, DeSmogBlog.com.

These are amazing people, doing amazing work and I am very confident they will deliver the clean coal body slam so many people are looking for.

For a while now, whenever I mentioned the term “clean coal” people would roll their eyes and groan, “clean coal,” usually followed by a rolling of the eyes or a mock gagging, eyes bulging expression. Most people know coal isn’t clean, but that hasn’t stopped the coal industry from trying to convince us otherwise.

In mid-January the Washington Post ran a story about a newly launched $35 million “clean coal” campaign to be run by an organization called “Americans for Balanced Energy Choices” (ABEC). An organization run by Americans, but paid for by the coal industry.

If “clean coal” was not already engrained in the public lexicon, $35 million is sure to finish the job. The goal for ABEC, who has since changed their name to “American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity” (ACCCE), is not to make coal clean, it is to sell the idea that coal is clean.
In essence, this site exists to sell the idea that coal is dirty. Pretty easy to do when you consider the facts and clear out the rhetoric. Like the fact that mercury emissions from coal fired-power plants continues to rise and that carbon capture and storage remains an elusive pipe dream that will take another 40 years to deploy on a commercial scale.

We don’t have $35 million (not even close), but I hope this site can serve as a nexus of information for people interested in knowing the dirty facts about clean coal.

So click around, enjoy the site, check out the videos, the fact sheets and the articles.

If you’re writer, let us know if you would like to contribute. If you’re not a writer, but have a good story idea please let us know.

Drop us a line and tell us what you think of our work, sign up for our weekly e-alert and please tell everyone you know about the site.

Regards,

Kevin Grandia

Managing Editor

www.coal-is-dirty.com