Announcing the Foolies « It’s Getting Hot In Here

Unroll the green carpet, strap on an eco-gown, and get voting! The first annual “Foolies”- the official awards of Fossil Fools Day- have begun.

Vote in the online poll and this year’s winners will get a “special” delivery of their awards on April 1st, Fossil Fools Day . Vote today!

Nominees for this year’s top prize include the CEOs of General Motors, Bank of America, ExxonMobil and Dynegy, as well as the premier of Alberta, Canada.

Organized by the Energy Action Coalition, Co-op America and Rainforest Action Network, the “Foolies” recognize the world’s biggest contributors to our devastating global addiction to fossil fuels. The awards feature five different categories: Fossil Fool of the Year, Outstanding Performance in Corporate Greenwashing, Most Inauspicious Newcomer, Lifetime Achievement and Biggest Human Toll.

Check out the full listing of the nominees and VOTE TODAY!

Nominees for Fossil Fool of the Year, to be given to the individual who has made the most significant contribution over the past year to the development and dissemination of fossil fuel-related pollution, include:

Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, for keeping America addicted to oil by mass producing vehicles more inefficient than the Model T, and for suing the state of California for attempting to reduce vehicle greenhouse gas emissions;
Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America, for the bank’s massive financial support of the coal power and mountaintop removal coal mining industries;
Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, for neglecting to use his company’s record-breaking profits to develop cleaner, more secure energy alternatives;
Ed Stelmach, Premier of Alberta, Canada, for promoting oil extraction from Canada’s infamous Alberta tar sands, a project which has the potential to lay waste to an area the size of the state of Florida; and
Bruce A. Williamson, CEO of Dynegy Corporation, for proposing to build more coal-fired power plants than any other power company in the United States.

You will also have the chance to decide which individual has most effectively fooled the public into believing his or her company is benefiting the environment (Greenwashing); which individual represents a company or organization that has burst into the public consciousness in the past year as a major contributor to climate change (Newcomer); the individual who has done the most over the course of a career to further global warming (Lifetime Achievement); and the person who most negatively impacted human lives in the name of fossil fuel development in 2007 (Biggest Human Toll).

Check out the full listing of the nominees and VOTE TODAY!

About

As a sophomore at Walter Johnson High School in Maryland, Yochi was recruited to join the SSC's Montgomery County Student Environmental Activists. After a couple of weeks of hanging out with the SSC'ers, he started organizing what turned into a county-wide campaign that gained media attention and attracted the support of the county council. While an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, Yochi founded a business partnership called Brewing Hope with farmers in Chiapas, Mexico. Working with students, faculty and businesses interested in promoting the fair trade system, Yochi set up a program that not only sold coffee, but also created a relationships between coffee growers and latte drinkers. Brewing Hope's student delegations visit Mexico to learn about coffee production and meet with indigenous communities while farmers from Chiapas travel to speak at educational events in the Midwest. He turned over the management reins of Brewing Hope to study the connection between biodiversity, economic sustainability and coffee certifications in Central America. Yochi now works at Co-op America, the national green business network, expanding the market for fair trade products and pressuring businesses to adopting forward thinking policies on climate change. Yochi's first blog was titled "The Neoliberal Chopping Block"

It’s Getting Hot In Here