Friends,

Yesterday Time Magazine declared that Keystone had become the Stonewall and the Selma of the climate movement -- and today we got a reminder of just how tough those fights were, and how tough this one will be.

On a Friday afternoon, with Secretary of State John Kerry half a world away and D.C. focused on the budget fight, the State Department released a new environmental impact statement for the pipeline. Like the last such report, it found that approving a 800,000 barrel-a-day fuse to one of the planet’s biggest carbon bombs was “unlikely to have a substantial impact” on the tar sands or the climate.

That, in a word, is nonsense -- some of our most important climate scientists in the U.S. have written the State Department to explain exactly how dangerous Keystone is. Just yesterday Europe’s top climate diplomat pointed out that it would send a truly terrible signal to the rest of the world.

President Obama will be making a decision in a few short months. I won’t lie: today’s report makes the odds look even tougher -- and the power of the fossil fuel lobby hasn’t waned one bit.

But I’m reminded that the last time the State Department issued an environmental impact statement about the pipeline, we were just beginning this fight. That day in 2011, 50 people were arrested at the White House during the very first wave of protests against the pipeline.

This time around we’re tens of thousands of people stronger, and once again, I think we are just beginning to fight.

I lost my voice during Forward on Climate, and I wasn’t even braving the cold in DC like 40,000+ amazing climate activists were. I was in sunny San Francisco (not to rub it in), standing on a corner outside of One Market Plaza, where a U.S. Department of State office is located, cheering over a brass band while serving as a monitor for a nearly 5,000 person solidarity march. Organized by over 70 Bay Area environmental and social justice organizations, this action was one of two dozen or so solidarity events that took place in conjunction with the big DC action on February 17th.

So much support came in from all across the nation, with each city adding their own local twist to the #noKXL message. In Medford, Oregon, artists constructed a giant salmon made of over 1200 recycled cardboard tiles. Actor Ed Begley Jr. emceed for a 1,000+ person rally in Los Angeles and another thousand marched in Denver. St. Paul, Minnesota, sent off a DC-bound train full of folks in style by hosting a press conference inside the Amtrak station. Iowans across the state started their weekend by hand-delivering letters to their representatives. In Chicago, where President Obama previously served as a state senator and community organizer, hundreds of students marched to a U.S. Department of State office. Washington state made it a week of action. And the list goes on and on!

Medford's giant salmon. Photo by Rory Finney.

The quantity and quality of these solidarity events is a true testament to the power of a national movement united for climate action. And with modern technology and social media the thousands of miles of distance between DC and where I was in San Francisco didn’t even feel that far; we were all standing together for the same vision. I ended the day with the most profound love and respect for the climate movement as I’ve ever felt and my feelings only grow stronger each time I see the photos we’ve received from all of these actions.

I invite you to check out these photos for yourself here! And if you have any from a solidarity action you attended we would love to add them to the album - just email them as an attachment to forwardonclimatephotos@350.org with your location as the subject line.

Just over a week ago, the island of Mauritius, located in the Indian Ocean was struck by prolific flooding - but it was barely reported by media anywhere. Deepti Panray, who works with the local NGO, Environmental Protection and Conservation Organisation sent us this first hand account. Our thoughts go out to the people of Mauritius as they recover from the devastation.

Today my country has suffered a shock that has traumatised the whole population. We have been experiencing torrential rains since last night Tuesday 12th February 2013. And as I am typing this now, rain is still pouring outside. My country has had to face flash floods and land slides as a result of such strong torrential rains. Many people are without shelter and food tonight. Drains and rivers were overflooding, barriers built quickly to keep the water at bay did not hold long enough before roads were flooded. People woke up in the middle of the night with metres of water inside their homes. People had to tie their cars to their garages so that the water would not carry them away. So many people were injured trying to save the bare minimum to survive and sustain their families.

No strategic plans were put into place despite the calamities of the last floods in 2008. The Disaster Management Committee is owned by the government and only kept making public statements in the press to say that everything is under control while people in dire straits kept calling local radios. The population of Mauritius will not forget the events of today and I hope they will learn from what happened because this is going to happen again and again in the face of climate change.

The extreme weather events that took place in Mauritius today are signs of the direct impact Climate Change has on our weather patterns. Not only have we been experiencing a more diverse set of micro climates but we have now faced prolonged torrential rains that have resulted in flash floods and landslides. People's lives are at stake and no disaster management plans have been put in place so far. Most of our population are still ignorant about the phenomenon of climate change and its related impacts and issues. An ignorant population makes us even MORE vulnerable to climate change. And ignorant stubborn leaders and authorities who refuse to face the unavoidable makes us the MOST vulnerable.

This experience has made me tense and very angry. We are helpless against the forces of mother nature but this does not mean that we have to be totally ignorant in dealing and adapting to impacts of Climate Change. Mitigation, adaptation and resilience are key to challenging and hopefully overcoming extreme weather events associated with climate change impacts. I feel powerless in the face of the series of bad decisions that local authorities keep taking, previously during the 2008 floods that shocked the country and now during the actual floods that are still happening throughout the island of Mauritius.

I wish I could voice out my opinions so that more people could hear me out and become aware of how ignorant we presently are and how this ignorance is causing more damage to us. I wish people would stop blindly following what the government says they must do. I wish those people would take charge and mobilize to make the local authorities realize that they have a responsibility towards the population. I feel it is time we take our futures in our own hands and make those global shifts happen because whether we like it or not, climate change is catching up with us. I feel it is time we just stop simply reacting.. but start choosing to ACT!