It’s Getting Hot In Here

As the ad campaigns intensified before tonight’s primaries, Hillary Clinton made the seriously Energy Dumb decision to promote a gas tax holiday as a way of demonstrating her supposed affinity for “the hard working American middle class.” Too bad the gas tax holiday won’t help anybody’s pocketbook but the oil companies. I guess Mrs. Clinton missed the memo from every single energy and economic policy expert out there! (Seriously, every one of them!)

While his opponent pandered for votes with empty promises of $30.00 in cash, Barack Obama, to his very strong credit, took the Energy Smart position and called the gas tax holiday proposal what it is: “a pander,” a cheap trick to buy your vote.

Here’s Obama’s clear, honest, Energy Smart response on the gas tax holiday (speaking on Meet the Press earlier this week)…

Continue reading ‘Barack Obama Shows Off His Energy Smarts on Gas Tax Holiday’

[Update - May 1st, 2008: "Burning the Future: Coal in America" will be airing again soon on the Sundance Channel, May 13th, 16th, and 18th. In addition, the DVD's will go on sale next week on the film's website: www.burningthefuture.com.]

Can coal ever be clean?

These guys are spending tens of millions trying to convince you, the American voter, that the future of America’s energy lies with “clean coal.”

A new documentary film, “Burning the Future: Coal in America” aims to clue Americans in on why “slightly less deadly coal” is probably a more accurate term for what the spooked coal industry is trying to push these days. Or maybe “laundered coal.” But “clean?” Well check out the trailer and see what you think:

Continue reading ‘Can Coal Ever Be Clean? Check Out “Burning the Future: Coal In America” to Find Out’

So, if you are regular reader of It’s Getting Hot in Here, you may have noticed that I have been a little absent recently. Why, you might ask, as what could be more exciting than sharing information with the youth climate movement? Well, I have been working on a project behind-the-scenes that I want to share with you all.

I have been working on launching Fired Up Media. Let me take you for a spin. Fired Up Media just won Project Slingshot for our Youth Action TV proposal, so we are terrifically excited and want to tell all of you about what we are doing!

What is Fired Up Media? Fired Up Media is a growing network of videographers, editors, and journalists reporting from the front lines of the youth climate movement and disseminating through the Fired Up Virtual Newsroom. The network has grown out the diverse media projects of the youth climate movement, such as It’s Getting Hot in Here, I Shot Power Shift, and CSSC TV.

Fired Up Media is harnessing dynamic advances in digital communications and new media, creative social entrepreneurship, and existing youth media on and off-campus to build a revolutionary media network. Read more here.

What do we do? Fired Up Media is launching two major projects this summer, Fired Up: Youth Action TV and Fired Up Africa.

Read more after the fold.

Continue reading ‘Introducing Fired Up Media’

On Fossil Fools Day congressional lawmakers confronted the five largest publicly traded oil companies on their record-high profits and sky-high prices. Youth climate activists seized the opportunity to remind the oil executives and Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming that we too have a stake in creating an oil-independent future.

Students from University of Maryland-College Park, American University, and organizations in the Energy Action Coalition held a “Billionaires for Big Oil” rally outside of Congress’s Cannon Office Building. Full press release and pictures can be found here.

After the hearing we attempted to give a “Fossil Foolie” award to Exxon-Mobil Senior VP, Stephen Simon. He didn’t seem amused:

Video credit to Claire Roby, Senior at American University

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change might have happened 4 months in the past but the video footage is still coming strong both in supply of footage and the messages from the youth that attended.

Here is a video featuring Jonathan Joanassie Edward Epoo who is an Inuit youth working to educate and engage other youth on the current changing conditions that climate change is causing to the region he lives in and to his culture.

Looking for an amazing experience working with other youth leaders of the climate movement this summer? Check out the Summer of Solutions:

We’ll be using the principles of Open Space organizing to empower participants to engage in creative action on their own terms, yet as vital members of the team. As student climate organizers at Macalester College, the organizers have been building grassroots community partnerships and strategic initiatives around green manufacturing, entrepreneurial community energy efficiency, community-based clean energy development, and much more for the past two years. Using this base and our collective skills and insights, we will work together to advance these initiatives and create more while building a base of young leaders ready to lead their communities all across the country towards a sustainable future. We will realize the Climate Positive Vision by using “a mind-set that engages eagerly in the opportunities inherent in solving the climate crisis” to generate the solutions that will get us there. In the process, we’ll meet lots of amazing people, discuss so many amazing things, build skills that will last a life-time, and have lots of fun!

The Summer of Solutions will be June 1 - Aug 1 in St. Paul, MN. If you’re interested in helping build innovative solutions to climate change, fill out the simple application by one of the priority deadlines: April 1, 15, or 29 - PLEASE apply ASAP! After you apply, we’ll help you figure out how to get paid through various programs/ fundraising that we’ll help you with. The application and much more info can be found at
http://grandaspirations.org/summerofsol/summerofsolutions.html.

Questions (AND Applications) can be sent to summerofsolutions@gmail.com. We hope you can join us!

If this won’t fit your schedule, but you’re looking for other amazing options, check out the Summer Opportunities Page.

While this isn’t strictly climate or energy related, I figured I’d pass on this humorous video today (planting trees helps solve climate change, right?). Enjoy, and TGIF!

Continue reading ‘Some TGIF Humor: Treeless Squirrel Says “Plant Trees Please”’

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

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:

Architecture 2030 selects winners of graphic design contest. Students use face/body paint to send a clear message: “No Coal!”

If you could only use a single still image, your own face or body as a canvas, and body paint as your medium, how would you communicate the powerful message: “No Coal!”?

That was the challenge laid out by Metropolis magazine, USGBC, American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), and Architecture 2030 in their “Face It” graphic design contest, part of Architecture 2030’s ReVERBerate project, launched on January 30th-31st (along with Focus the Nation).

The entries, from students across the nation, were varied and creative. Many were frankly stark and disturbing! Check out the submissions here.

And without further ado, here are the winners in the three categories: face, black-and-white, and body:

Check below the fold for the grand prize winner and some good runners up (my picks,

may take a while to load given the number of images)…

Continue reading ‘Face It Contest Says “No Coal!”’