Great news from The Atlantic-

White House Agrees to Talk About Solar Panels on the Roof

Environmentalist Bill McKibben has been campaigning for the last few weeks to get solar panels put back on the roof of the White House.

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From a press release this morning:

McKibben has been in back and forth negotiations with the White House for the last 48 hours to push for them to accept the panel and show they have a plan to get solar back on the White House roof — a California solar company, Sungevity, has already offered to install a new set for free. As of Thursday morning the Administration has offered to meet with McKibben and his team and says they are discussing the proposal to put solar back on the White House roof.

Folks like McKibben, A Siegel, and others have been tireless advocates for clean energy. It is nice to know that we may (finally) be making a difference & scoring an important victory with regards to this issue.

“We keep hearing, ‘We’ll see’ and ‘It’s complicated,’” McKibben said. “Compared with the other things Obama has to do, it seems relatively easy.

You can’t filibuster the roof.”

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350.org has done so much great work to get people active on climate issues. Will you take a moment to support their latest efforts?

Put Solar on the White House. That is a great symbolic gesture to get the ball rolling.

This achievement will be an important symbol to the world that the United States is committed to realizing the environmental and economic benefits of clean energy.

Sign the petition to pressure President Obama to replace the solar panels removed by Reagan 3 decades ago.

Get involved with the campaign to make our solar voices louder & brighter!

Solar on the White House on Facebook

Put Solar On It

We thought our leaders should have a chance to get personally involved too, which is why we’re today launching a special campaign aimed just at them.

Each one has a roof over their heads–in India at the Rashtrapati Bhavan; in Mexico they call it Los Pinos, and in Washington it’s the White House.

Those roofs need solar panels–and we hope they’ll go up on October 10, just as around the world people are taking practical action in their own communities. It’s remarkably easy to send a message to your leader–just click here for instructions:

Sign the petition to tell World Leaders to Put Solar On their nation’s prominent government buildings.

But that’s not all.

We have just over 2 months before 10/10/10 when there will be global action to raise awareness about the urgency of climate change.
Ideas For Your 10/10 Work Party

#2 Go Solar
Working on a solar project is a great way to demonstrate the clean energy future right in your community. Whether its installing a solar panel on a local school, building a solar cooker for your community, or putting a solar hot water heater on your house–it is a great way to work with the planet, not against it.

Get involved today to find or organize an event in your area.

Another new aspect of this movement:

The Solar Bill of Rights

Sign their petition which has received over 20,000 sigs in its first 2 weeks:

Speak Up Now and Sign the Solar Bill of Rights

Join the Movement to Bring Solar Energy to the American People

In the midst of some of the worst energy disasters in America’s history—the Gulf oil spill, the coal ash sludge in Tennessee and the West Virginia coal mine explosion—lawmakers in Washington haven’t listened to the American people.

Sign the Solar Bill of Rights today and this fall SEIA will march to the U.S. Capitol and deliver your name, and thousands of others, to key Congressional leaders and the Obama Administration, urging them to enact policies to expand the use of solar energy in the United States.

Learn more details about the Solar Bill of Rights and the policies needed to deploy more solar in the U.S.

This week in climate change is a new weekly series devoted to climate change and related news. The hope is that we can engage in constructive debate about the issues raised by the topics presented, and coalesce around the action items proposed each week.

The diary for now will appear Wednesday afternoons, around 1PM Pacific.