It's Getting Hot In Here

Art has always played a key role in social change. I remember singing “This Little Light of Mine” before I knew anything about the Civil Rights Movement. I still feel a tightening in my stomach every time I see “Guernica” and can’t avoid feeling a bit more hopeful when I see Shepard Fairey’s iconic Obama.

This November, 350.org is hosting the first planetary scale art show to try and get a new perspective on one of our first truly planetary challenges: global warming. Check out the new website here:

http://earth.350.org

I’ve pasted a piece by Bill McKibben that introduces the project below, but I’m curious to hear from all of you. What role does art play in social change? What good “climate art” do you see out there? What’s the best chant or song you’ve heard, the best poster you’ve ever seen, the short film that got you moving?

The Globe as a Canvas
by Bill McKibben

The idea behind EARTH is simple—we wanted to remind everyone that we are dealing with the first truly global problem we’ve ever faced. What better way than to use that globe as a canvas, for the first truly planet-scale piece of art?

Continue reading ’350 EARTH: Art and Climate Change?’

Check out this new video from the Tck Tck Tck campaign.

www.timeforclimatejustice.org

One would think that with a name like It’s Hot In Here, the hosts of the University of Michigan based environmental news/grooves radio show would have been in touch with It’sGettingHotInHere for years. And that maybe the two were even closely related.

Surprisingly, this is not the case, and I was overjoyed to be introduced yesterday to Jennifer, aka “Gina Gettum”, co-conceiver and host of the environmental news/music show on WCBN-88.3-FM-Ann Arbor since March 2008.

I asked Gina to tell me a bit about her show, and she said that the main goal of It’s Hot in Here is just to have a good time. “We hear so much doom and gloom with regards to environmental issues in the media, but the fact is that most of the people in this movement, the people working on these issues, and the people we want to engage with aren’t. We’re fun, sexy people. We like to stay positive, informed and rock out to great music. So, our show is quirky, fun, and full of laughter and sound effects. But it’s still smart and informative.”

Each show is built around a compelling environmental issue. Gina says “we’re lucky to be based in Ann Arbor, where we regularly draw upon the University’s and city’s wealth of academic and professional green-spertise!” Former guests of It’s Hot In Here have included fellow students, professionals and activists, as well as climate guru Joseph Romm, New York Times Bestselling Author John Perkins, former New York Times International Reporter Howard French, UM Professors Rebecca Hardin, Tom Princen, Andrew Hoffman, and Mark Wilson.

Continue reading ‘It’sGettingHotInHere.org Meets It’s Hot in Here Campus Radio’

Today has been a busy day for us over at Checktheweather.net.  Check the site for some of the hottest stories of the day. We talking everything from Tar Sands to the fact that Cynthia Mckinney and 21 others have just been held hostage today by the Isreali Navy.

While you’re reading the news make sure you download our latest mixtape The Truth Vol. 1 Music to Save the World to. Featuring tracks by Mos Def, Lauren Hill, Common, Talib Kweli, Santigold and more.

Check out what Dead Prez has to say about those Fly and Intelligent Robin Hoods on Checktheweather.net

So you really wanna know the Hood Forecast? Checktheweather.net daily!

Checktheweather.net recently got the opportunity to sit down with legendary rap duo, Dead Prez. You may remember them from songs like “It’s Bigger Than Hip-Hop” and “Mind Sex”. The dynamic Florida raised, Brooklyn based duo are back again with their latest album The Pulse of the People: Turn off the Radio Vol. 3. During our conversation with M1, we discussed the concept behind Pulse of the People and what makes it a “Green” Hip-hop album.

CTW:What was the concept behind The Pulse of People, What kind of vibe can listener’s expect?

M1: We wanted to catch history being made at a moment. We wanted to catch it from every angle. It is a checking of the pulse of the people at this time; from feel good songs, to hood songs, to Africa.

CTW: What are some of your favorite songs on the Album?

M1: I really love the Africa Hot song.The chorus is hot and on the hook we got people speaking in arabic and swahili. I also like Warpath we rap from the identity of police officers who murder and continue to murder Africans in our community it’s like a rock song. Another song was Summertime, really like the vibe.

CTW: What makes this album a “Green” Album?

M1: Green in many ways not only are we using this as a way to know more about ourselves the concept of green in this country has not been made totally for the african community that’s why we make songs like healthy. We also printed the album on recycled paper and included 5 hood reasons to “Go Green”.  One of the main reasons being because it’s healthy. The album was also produced by our comrade DJ Green Lantern.

CTW: Where do you see this Green Movement going for people of color around the world?

M1:Well at this time I think we have to translate it. It should hit you from a emotional standpoint, but also from an economic aspect,  African people have to get on and see it as a way of economic development. Also how it relates to our general health; that’s why we die so soon. We have to really make it relevant because we are the ones being hurt the most. We need to use this as a way to open up avenues and make it work for working class people.

(editor’s note: CTW had more questions but M1 had to dip to finish filming Dead Prez’s new video which is sure to drop SOON. Check back with us soon for the update on this story)

Visit Checktheweather.net to listen to tracks off their Brand New Album and find out the Forecast For Green Justice For All.

Last week, a few members of IYCN headed down to Dharavi, India’s largest slum and the true heart of Indian recycling to participate in RESPECT RECYCLE, an incredible event organized by our friend and road tour colleague Jitin Abraham, 21 Tigers, IYCN, and Acorn Foundation. We had a chance to visit some of the recycling facilities in Dharavi, places where women were sorting through tiny pieces of electronics to sort out metal, places where all of the cardboard of the city flowed in and out, sorted by shape and size, pieces of old plastic phones sorted and melted. It was beautiful, toxic, unbelievable and heart-breaking all at once.

The event of REspect REcycle was to draw attention to the work of Bombay’s ragpickers and pay homage and respect to the work they do daily to protect our planet, our health, and our cities. Methane emissions from landfills are a serious component of India’s greenhouse gases, and improving recycling units are a bit part of the solution. Several artists of Timbaland Productions headed into Dharavi to show RESPECT to Bombay’s rag pickers and the entire recycling industry that is based out of Dharavi, by celebrating music, graffiti art and sculpture at a gym in Dharavi. Continue reading ‘REspect REcycle’

From Cleveland resident and Oberlin alum Lora DiFranco:

This past weekend was probably one of the best of my life. How can you top the combination of music, activism, and community? My friend Matt Scheuermann organized the weekend-long DIT Fest in Kent, Ohio because he wanted to exhibit how the “do-it-yourself” ethic can be a lot more effective and fun when we “do-it-together.”

While I’ve been a fan of punk since my early high school days, it was just last year that I was exposed to the DIY punk scene. The bands I’ve become friends with burn their own CDs and package them using recycled beer boxes. Concerts are held in musty basements where vegan cupcakes are a more widely accepted currency than cash. These bands realize that there’s more to their music than record sales, MTV, and money. In fact, it goes beyond music and into activism.

I learned a lot very quickly from this new community, and decided to try to apply the DIY ethic to my own life. I’m passionate about stopping the unnecessary waste that our civilization creates, so I decided to write about it (trust me, you wouldn’t want me to sing about it) and publish a zine called GreenLight with my friends. We’re currently working on our 4th issue, which is going to be all about food- local food, food desserts, climate impacts of food choices, etc.
Continue reading ‘Do-It-Together Fest’

The hottest bands, freshest sounds, and fiercest messaging of the month—from my ears to yours. (And some have got to do with Energy Action. Check ‘em out). Originally for Treehugger.com and HuffingtonPost.com

5. Ben Jelen
I saw Ben play live for the first time at the Replay store during their Earth Day party. His dreamy piano-playing and sweet nature somehow makes his call-to-action on environmental issues an easy pill to swallow. Easy on the eyes as much as on the ears, the young musician’s songs often share a central theme: Our world is in flux and we need to wake up and do something—as individuals, as communities, and as a united planet.

His latest album “Ex-Sensitive” include great songs like, “Wreckage,” “Pulse,” and “Where Do We Go”—all are head-bobbing, danceable tunes that are easy to jam out to while giving your State Representative a piece of your mind about the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act and Green Jobs bills. Wreckage, a deeply penetrating song with a dark-but-uplifting melody, is actually an achy love song to the earth, written in response to our warming globe:

“I can feel the sunrise

Barely breaking through the trees

I don’t want to miss you

I don’t want you missing me,”

Continue reading ‘Top 5 Buzzworthiest Music Moments of the Month’

This is a great video skit from the Blue Man Group I just ran across (thanks to Architecture 2030). It’s old, I know, but new to me. Check it out:

I just received this sermon from one of our movement’s finest chaplains and co-founder of Religious Witness for the Earth, Reverend Fred Small. I wept when I read it.

The New Youth Climate Movement

A sermon by Rev. Fred Small

First Church Unitarian, Littleton, MA

November 11, 2007

“And now abide faith, hope, and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

So wrote Paul the Apostle to close the thirteenth chapter of his famed letter to the Christian community at Corinth. It’s still my favorite passage in the Bible, no matter no how many weddings I hear it at. Love is the most important thing, the one essential thing, the most powerful force, I believe, in the universe.

And that’s a good thing, because my faith and hope have been taking quite a beating lately. If faith demands confidence in the outcome and hope optimism, then global warming can really do a number on faith and hope.

Continue reading ‘Words From Our Movement Chaplain’