It’s Getting Hot In Here

The story of smokestacks and tailpipes (Abridged version)

So, here’s what happened. A few hundred years ago we decided it was time to create companies. To get lots of people to buy what our companies were selling, we started looking beyond the towns we lived in for a market for our goods. As we sought out bigger and bigger markets for our goods, we had to create more and more powerful and efficient ways of producing and transporting those goods. Camels were better than peoples’ backs. Boats were better than swimming. So on and so forth. Eventually, one thing led to another, companies got bigger, markets got bigger, people got bigger and more plentiful, and we decided to start producing and transporting our goods using artificial energy that comes from burning stuff. Henceforth, there were smokestacks and tailpipes. Fast-forward 150 or so years and we’ve got billions of people doing this along with some global warming.

The thing is, we might have noticed that it wasn’t the best idea to produce and transport everything with this artificial energy that creates ugly smoke if it weren’t for the fact that as we were throwing away resources, we started throwing away people too. As the smokestacks and tailpipes grew and the ugly smoke got unbearable in cities, we decided to start putting the pollution machines in places where poor people lived. So, all the digging up and burning of really dirty rocks and really dirty liquids went ahead as if it were normal for years and years. Occasionally we’d hear about people choking in coal mines or birds dying from oil spills or gas exploding all over the place, but it all seemed like a necessary by-product of having companies and getting more things.
Continue reading ‘Drop it like it’s hot’

Originally posted at http://www.dreamreborn.org/ on March 17th by Van Jones:

On April 4, 1968, a sniper assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The preeminent civil rights leader of his time, King had come to Memphis, Tennessee, to aid striking sanitation workers. He was only 39 years old.

Forty years have passed since that fateful day. As of this month, Dr. King has been gone from us longer than he was ever here. As we pass this milestone in history, we gather in Memphis to remind ourselves and the world that - though a bullet killed the dreamer - it did not kill the dream.

Dr. King had a vision of an America as good as its promise, and a world at peace with itself. That vision lives on in the hearts of hundreds of millions - including two generations of adults and a rising generation of teen-agers, all of whom have been born since King’s passing. The time has come for us to step forward. We must take full responsibility to advance the cause of justice, opportunity and peace.

It must be said that we are stepping onto history’s stage at a frightening time—at a time when “the Market” is free, and the people are not.

A time of global warming and global war. A time of mass incarceration of people, and mass extinction of species. A time of “no rules” for the rich, and “no rights” for the poor. A time when our courts seem to give nothing but evictions and convictions to those on the bottom. A time of increasing profits for the few, and decreasing options for the many. Continue reading ‘Shining a New Light - Some words from Van Jones’

This April 4th will mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. People from across the US will travel to Memphis Tennessee to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy.

Quantum Shift TV and Green for All have created this special video contest to give YOU a chance to be among them, and attend the Dream Reborn Conference in Memphis April 4th - 6th.

The conference will explore ways to help build a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty and into prosperity.

Dr. King had a dream in his day, a vision of equal protection and equal opportunity. What does that dream look like today? What is your version of the dream? What is your vision of an economy that’s both green and fair — for you, your family, your community, the nation or the whole world? We want to know, and we want to send one lucky winner to Memphis!

So set up your web cam, and send us a short video (no more than 3 minutes, please!) describing what the ‘Dream Reborn’ means to you. We’ll pick the winner from among the top 3 contestants as ranked by the Quantum Shift community.

This contest is open to youth ages 14-22 in the US only. Videos are due by March 20th, and we’ll announce the winner on the 21st. That’s just around the corner. So get busy. What does the ‘Dream Reborn’ mean to you?

>> Visit the Contest Page
>> Watch the Contest Intro Video

Green For All has just produced a new video with Van Jones and leaders in the new eco-equity movement about what you’ll find in Memphis at the Dream Reborn April 4th-6th. Check it out!

The Dream Reborn will be a historic gathering of visionaries from low-income communities and communities of color who are working to build a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. The conference takes place on the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination and will honor his legacy while celebrating new visionaries for green pathways to prosperity. The impressive list of speakers will include Van Jones, Majora Carter, Paul Hawken, Winona La Duke, D’Army Bailey, Afeni Shakur, Robert Bullard, Jerome Ringo, Rinku Sen, and many others.

Continue reading ‘Dream Reborn - The Video’

I’ve been working on environmental campaigns this whole decade. I’ve helped to keep nuclear power out of the Kyoto global warming treaty, started a community bike program at my college, and lobbied to pass a big and bold clean energy policy for the world’s largest university system. All of it has involved inspired new activism from a lot of young people like myself. Now I find myself working on something that could be more powerful and meaningful than anything I’ve been involved in before. It’s called the Dream Reborn and I’m asking you to be a part of it..

Donate $10 to sponsor a low-income youth to come to the Dream Reborn:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/goals/show/1976

I am working to recruit 100 friends and allies to pitch in $10 in the next seven days to raise $1000 for low-income youth to get to Memphis for this historic event. (Please feel free to make this a little easier for me by passing the word on to your friends as well and giving even more than the cost of a movie ticket.) The story is that on April 4th-6th, 2008 Green For All, a new organization who I am now working for, is hosting a conference in Memphis, Tennessee to launch a new “community of practice” for environmental jobs for pathways out of poverty. It starts on the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination while he was speaking out for economic justice for sanitation workers. The conference will honor his legacy and celebrate the new visionaries of the green economy, low-income people and people of color who are working to bring green jobs to people who most need work.
Continue reading ‘The Dream Reborn: A Call for Support’

According to Wikipedia, people of color in the United States represent 26% of the total population. In August, Energy Action Coalition did a survey of 467 students and youth involved in the Campus Climate Challenge with 78.9% identifying themselves as white and 6.6% declining to answer. These numbers suggest that the green movement may not be as homogenous at the grassroots as it seems. However, a survey mentioned in Grist this week suggests that the demographics at the staff level for mainstream green groups are decidedly white. I’m not a sociologist, but experience tells me that when your staff lacks diversity, issues that are important to communities of color consistently stay off the agenda, whether the group is well-intentioned or not. Here is the skinny from Grist:

When it comes to race, the actual color of the green movement is decidedly white. According to a survey conducted from 2004 to 2006, more than one-third of U.S. mainstream green groups and one-fifth of eco-related government agencies have no nonwhite staff members. Minorities tend to join up with grassroots environmental-justice groups, leaving mainstream groups open to the consistent criticism that they are elitist. And while environmentalism was undeniably elitist in its beginnings — in the early 1900s, the movement was led by whites trying to protect wild land and animals from the masses — at this point, surveys indicate that nonwhites care just as much about eco-issues as whites do, from climate change to deforestation to pesticide use to air pollution. Success in the ongoing effort to bring everyone together will get results, says activist Charles Jordan: “Once society sees this is really going to be color-coordinated, I think we’re going to perform miracles.”

Where is the soul of a movement? What is the history of environmentalism? What do race and class have to do with it? What can one organization do to overcome past failures and start winning the big fights? These are some of the questions that we asked ourselves when the members of Energy Action Coalition decided to read “Soul of Environmentalism” in the summer of 2007. In the spring, the Council of Energy Action had voted to enact a new Anti-Oppression plan for the coalition that would help to educate staff and organizations about vital issues of discrimination, privilege, and injustice. The plan was also intended to serve as a catalyst for challenging the dynamics that have built an environmental movement that often puts men in management positions more often than women and generally lacks representation from low-income communities and communities of color. The core elements of this new Anti-Oppression plan were a 2-day summer training on anti-oppression for all coalition staff and the institution of one reading per semester focused on a topic related to anti-oppression or social justice that would be combined with facilitated discussions with the staff of each organization and anyone else who’d like to participate.
Continue reading ‘Thoughts on the Soul of a Movement’

Two years ago Hurricane Katrina woke people up to the vulnerabilities caused by the disparities of race and class in the United States as well as the vulnerabilities caused by government incompetence at many levels. In many parts of New Orleans, people are still living in a desperate situation. Although there are signs of revival, a crisis of drowning and displacement in September 2005, has evolved into a crisis of homelessness, unemployment, violent crime, and un-recovered insurance claims. It is a city in need of deep investment in infrastructure and community resources. It was frustrating to hear from people when I was there how millions of dollars of aid was in limbo because the city hadn’t made a decision on what to do about the Lower 9th Ward, the area of the city hit hardest by the hurricane and flooding. There were rumors about building a golf course or upscale condo complexes or a giant casino.I haven’t been able to find what the latest plans for the 9th Ward are, but came upon an interesting article about a project Brad Pitt and others are doing called Make It Right. The project is intended to spur rebuilding of homes in the Lower 9th Ward through investment in 150 green homes. Although the green building project with green design guru William McDonough got me fired up when I read about it this morning, I was a little surprised to see how the designs looked compared to the shotgun homes I saw during my visit:

Even still, I’m excited to see a forward-thinking initiative like this making progress and hope it continues.

I’ve been surfing the net all morning trying to catch up on the Energy Bill debate. It’s reminded me of one thing: Congress is a muddy place.

Approval ratings for these people are down around 20%. If you visit on the wrong day, you might catch senators fillibustering popular tax breaks for energy efficiency or flip-flopping and forking over $10 billion to the coal industry. Even our beloved Speaker Pelosi, who rallied the crowd with chants of “80 by 50″ and “we want more” at Power Shift has since gotten her hands dirty along with Senator Reid by plucking clean energy tax credits from the Energy Bill. But, before I suck all the hope out of you and send you screaming for plane tickets to Denmark, there is a bit of good news.

Continue reading ‘Congress Risks Coal in Stockings’

What’s the most significant cause of male pattern baldness? Hair loss.

What causes the common cold? Cold weather? Actually, not really. According to my source, a cold comes from viruses that are given a break from allergies, stress, and perhaps menstrual cycles.

Anyway, the latest big cause of global warming has been revealed by scientists: it’s global warming. I’m serious and it’s scary.

Apparently not only is the world warming from the buildup of carbon in the atmosphere, but that buildup combined with ozone layer depletion has caused the Southern Ocean to get a lot windier recently. This windiness has been mixing up the water, bringing carbon up from the deep sea and allowing less CO2 to dissolve from the atmosphere into the water. The net result of all this mixing and faultiness of our carbon sinks is that carbon concentrations in the atmosphere have grown 35% faster than the world economy, which was completely unexpected by the climate scientists.