It’s Getting Hot In Here

That’s right Kristen, sharing the stage with the inspiring rise of a south-side Chicago singer (Jennifer Hudson did it!) and the hilarious Ellen Degeneres, the fight against global warming and the documentary feature “An Inconvenient Truth” are out in front and shining.

America is watching: the documentary has taken home the Oscar for best Documentary Feature. Amazing, but that’s not all. The star former Vice-President Al Gore and Academy award winning actor and environmental activist Leonardo Dicaprio took the stage early on to talk about the climate crisis and feature that in the first time in Oscar history, the Oscars go green. Check out the Oscars’ online attempts to get people thinking green here.

I can’t believe it. Melissa Etheridge beat out Dreamgirlz for the Oscar for Best Orginal Song. The movie’s anthem I Need To Wake Up took home the statue. She thanked the star Al Gore saying, “He taught is that it’s not a Republican or Democratic issue, not red or blue, we’re all green.” Damn right.

Mother Jones, a prominent progressive media outlet, has taken notice of the Climate Week of Action in April Rabkin’s latest post. Referred to the Climate Week of Action as “the largest student protest of global warming yet,” the MotherJ post goes on to highlight some of the successes of the week including the delivery of letters to Gov. Machin of West Virginia asking for a new elementary school in Marsh Fork. Check out the post!

Michael Alfano, executive vice president of New York University, announced last week that NYU would purchase some 118,000,000 KWh of wind power. It will be the largest purchase of wind power by any U.S. college or university, according to the EPA’s Green Power Partnership Program.

NYU President John Sexton commented on the role the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York last month had in prompting the move. “It was a sobering dialogue, one that has caused me to think even more deeply about what role universities play in addressing the greatest challenges of our time.”

People, this is huge and fabulous. NYU sale will also be the largest purchase of wind power by any institution in New York City and the 11th largest purchase nationally.

The Fenner Windpower Project, Town of Fenner, Madison County, New York

Along with wind turbines and environmental women, tackling the global warming challenge is becoming sexy, or at least worthy of discussion on cable television.

Both the Sci Fi Channel and the Weather Channel are lining up fall air time for the global warming issue.

Last week, the Sci Fi Channel launched Visions for Tomorrow, a national public affairs campaign that inspires viewers to “meet the growing challenges of tomorrow.” The first year focuses on Energy and the Environment. Click here to see their PSA.

On Sunday, the Weather Channel priemeried the Climate Code with Dr. Heidi Cullen, a show about the science, the stories and the reality of global warming. The show is tied with their online campaign One Degree, where one degree “can change the world.” Click here to see a preview of The Climate Code, which airs every Sunday at 5:00PM ET on the Weather Channel.

The BBC reported yesterday that a number of delegates walked out of a risque dance show that served as the entertainment for an Australia-New Zealand Climate Forum taking place in Canberra. 

Everyone seems to now agree that it was “inappropriate” and the Australian government revoked its sponsorship. 

Maybe the best way to mix climate change and sex is to replace fishnets and balloons with lectures on the effects of climate change on temperature-dependent sex determination.  Now that’s hot. 

A staffer for the Harvard Green Campus Initiative and former Agent of Change with SustainUS has been crowned Miss Rhode Island. In additional to classical piano and the swimsuit competition, Allison Rogers impressed judges with her platform of raising public awareness about global warming, which she considers to be the greatest problem our country faces. The Harvard Crimson has reported that Ms. Rogers wanted to raise the public profile of global warming, and so she entered the Miss Rhode Island pageant.

To learn more, read the post on Grist about the new Miss Environmentality.

Youth Engage U.S. Government Delegation to CSD The delegation of the U.S. government at the ongoing U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development met with a group of youth activists today in New York. The youth representatives consisted of a diverse group of youth including members of SustainUS and the Citizens Network for Sustainable Development.

The youth thanked the State Department for inviting a youth advisor to their delegation this year but delivered a clear message that our energy future in the U.S. must be based on renewable energy and that there are serious obstacles to dirty, fossil fuel.

In a last minute change of heart, the U.S. State Department brought on Elsie Flemings, one of the co-coordinators of SustainUS-Maine, to serve on the U.S. delegation as a public sector advisor. Having an official youth delegate greatly increased our capacity to lobby the U.S. government to take our case studies into the negotiations and to facilitate mutual communications.

Continue reading ‘Youth Engage U.S. Government Delegation to CSD’

Youth climate leaders from around the world will coverge on the Youth Energy Blast in New York on April 29, 2006 at Columbia University with the mission of sharing their skills and preparing for the 14th Session UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), themed this year around energy development & climate change.