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March in March: Reclaiming California Education
On Monday, March 5th, I had the privilege of attending the March and Rally in Support of Higher Education at the California State Capitol in Sacramento.
NEWS RELEASE: Palo Alto Leading the Charge on CLEAN Programs
Silicon Valley leaders approve CLEAN Program to increase local production of cost-effective renewable energy.
California Considers a Cottage Food Law
Since the homemade food renaissance has taken root in California, there’s been no shortage of home picklers, jammers, and bakers. But under current state laws, it’s a misdemeanor for those home artisans to sell their goodies in the open marketplace.
Capitalism vs. the Climate (Part 1)
There is a question from a gentleman in the fourth row. His question for the panelists is this: “To what extent is this entire movement simply a green Trojan horse, whose belly is full with red Marxist socioeconomic doctrine?”
Wonders of Cookin’ with Cashews: Creamy Cashew-Pepper Penne
For my very first Green Grub post, I decided my grand debut recipe must be vegan, of course, and this thought naturally led to the decision to make one of the main ingredients this, a staple of vegan cuisine – cashews.
Applications Open for Summer of Solutions 2012
Applications are now open to join Summer of Solutions (SOS) programs across the country, including Oakland and Los Angeles. Summer of Solutions is a people-powered program for youth (ages 14-30) to develop their leadership and build just, sustainable economies in their communities.
11 important clean energy provisions in Obama’s budget proposal
President Obama’s proposed 2013 budget invests in clean energy to help power the engine of economic growth. The budget would direct funds to efficiency and renewable electricity technologies to create jobs and boost domestic manufacturing, and would also make manufacturing more efficient.
Beyond environment: falling back in love with Mother Earth
Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh explains why mindfulness and a spiritual revolution rather than economics is needed to protect nature and limit climate change.
The New Student Activism
Ashley Ward, an aspiring idealist with waning faith in the world, was standing in the newsroom of her college paper at Humboldt State University in Northern California when a fellow student rushed in with startling news.
Battling The Bottle: Students And Industry Face Off Over Water
Bottled water is trickling away from college campuses nationwide, thanks to the efforts of student activists and the non-profit groups that support them with campaigns like Ban the Bottle. But that’s not going over too well with the International Bottled Water Association.
No, that’s not snow: Pesticides coat California’s Central Valley
I am driving along a state road with Becky, a local activist, who is narrating from behind the wheel. “I once stuck around to see them spray and I had to turn the car around and get out of there, the smell was so overpowering.”
Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning in France
A French court on Monday declared U.S. biotech giant Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer, a judgment that could lend weight to other health claims against pesticides.
24 Hours to Stop the Pipeline - Be the Solution
Every once in a while an opportunity comes along for all of us to be the solution. This is one of those times. We’re collecting a half million messages to stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in the next 24 hours.
LEED Certifies 10,000th Project
In the midst of ongoing discussions on the program’s merit, the Green Building Certification Institute announced that the 10,000th commercial project has been LEED-certified, according to the U.S. Green Building Council. The Live Oak Family Resource Center in Santa Cruz, Calif. was awarded LEED Platinum by the institute, — a community center providing families with…Read more »
Chile’s Commander Camila, The Student Who Can Shut Down a City
Camila Vallejo’s call for better and cheaper education has seen student protests transform into a two-day nationwide shutdown. Her press conferences can lead to the sacking of a minister. The street marches she leads shut down sections of the Chilean capital. She has the government on the run, and now even has police protection after receiving death threats.
Banning Corporate Personhood: How Communities Are Taking the Law Back from Big Companies
This is the story of individuals speaking up when the gas corporations are attempting to control their hometowns and of individual becoming increasingly involved in their local government, collaborating with each other as they face drilling throughout the area.
Join the Activist Network! Intern with Greenpeace
Do you want to join the fight for climate justice with the world’s largest independent environmental organization? Greenpeace has several incredible volunteer internships available in San Francisco! You’ll get the chance to work on the most pressing issues of our time - saving ancient rainforests, protecting our oceans, stopping toxic threats, and launching a clean energy revolution.
Fuel-efficient vehicles could save $7.2 billion annually in California health costs
May 10, 2011 Susan Carpenter, LA Times California could save $7.2 billion in healthcare costs — and prevent more than 400 premature deaths — annually if the state adopts a 64 miles- per-gallon equivalent fuel economy standard, according to a report released Tuesday by the American Lung Assn. in California. The Road to Clean Air…Read more »
Why I Lived With My Garbage For a Year
From Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2010, I saved every piece of my garbage. No, I’m not homeless, and I didn’t lose my mind. I decided to save my trash—in my bedroom—because I started to realize how living in a consumer culture like ours means using a lot of “disposable” products. We buy things, use…Read more »
Tim DeChristopher found guilty, shows power of nonviolent civil disobedience
Climate activist Tim DeChristopher, who was put on trial in Salt Lake City, Utah, this week for his interference with an oil and gas auction held at the end of the Bush administration, on Thursday was found guilty by a jury. He faces a sentence of up to 10 years, to be determined by a…Read more »
Al Gore to Deliver Keynote to 10,000 Young Environmental Leaders at Power Shift 2011
Former Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore will join 10,000 youth activists at Power Shift 2011 as the opening keynote speaker on April 15, 2011. Gore, who is chairman of the Alliance for Climate Protection, will be speaking about climate change and how we can take action to solve the climate crisis. For four…Read more »
Environmentalists stand up to Obama, win big
Under intense pressure from green groups and their members, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) announced Friday that Republican proposals to gut the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act were off the table in budget negotiations. “Neither the White House nor Senate Leaders is going to accept any EPA riders,” Reid said. Reid’s pledge…Read more »
Our Chance to Get Clean Energy Right
It’s springtime and birders, rock climbers, wildflower lovers and maybe even some long-lost U2 fans are flocking to the boulder-strewn desert wilderness just east of Palm Springs. But unless we act quickly to curb climate disruption, soon the one thing they won’t be able to find in Joshua Tree National Park is an actual Joshua…Read more »
Koch-Funded Climate Skeptic’s Own Data Confirms Warming
This week, a climate hearing was held in the US House of Reps. Six ‘experts’ on climate were brought in, but only three were scientists. And it turns out that one of the GOP’s star witnesses — a scientist who’s been vocal in his skepticism of global temperature records, the physicist Richard Muller, of University…Read more »
Students gather at UCSC for food and justice summit
With journalists like Michael Pollan and books like “Fast Food Nation” bringing national attention to nutrition and food justice, it’s no wonder that 300 students from 40 California campuses gathered at UC Santa Cruz Saturday for the fifth annual “Real Food Challenge.” The conference, founded in 2007 with the intention of educating students about the…Read more »
Students Rally Against Prop 23 Supporters in Rancho Mirage
UCSD was one of several universities represented at a rally against oil company executives held on Jan. 30 in Rancho Mirage, where a secret meeting was held by energy conglomerate Koch Industries and Tea Party members. The rally was organized by the California Student Sustainability Coalition, an organization that works with universities across the state…Read more »
Thousands Converge on Koch Brothers Billionaire’s Caucus; 25 Arrested
Twenty-five protesters were arrested in Rancho Mirage, California today, at a protest in front of the Rancho Las Palmas resort, site of the “Billionaire’s Caucus,” an annual meeting put on by the Koch Brothers and other corporate entities and conservative movement operators. Riverside Sheriff’s deputy Melissa Nieburger said that the sheriff’s department did have contacts…Read more »
Strengthening the Roots Convergence 2011
Held at UC Santa Cruz Feb. 18-20, this year’s fourth annual Strengthening the Roots Convergence is going to be bigger than ever. Thanks to the help of partner organizations throughout the region, this year’s STR will strengthen the roots of our movement for just and sustainable food by bringing 450+ students and allies together for workshops,…Read more »
Study: California’s Prop 26 undermines green, health laws
A little-noticed California ballot initiative would “erect significant barriers” to funding state environmental and public health laws, according to a new study. Proposition 26 “could have substantial and wide-ranging impacts on implementation of the state’s health, safety and environmental laws,” according to a Tuesday analysis by the UCLA School of Law. Prop 26 would expand…Read more »
Greens Vs. Big Oil and Prop. 23
To save California’s global-warming law, a 23-year-old finds his rage — and 60,000 friends Read more
Obama: No on Prop. 23 and ‘corporate polluters’
Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Shultz, Robert Redford, Bill Gates, James Cameron, Leonardo Di Caprio and Al Gore have all weighed in to oppose California’s Proposition 23, a November ballot initiative. Now comes the uber-endorsement for the No on 23 campaign: President Obama. Read more
Will Texas oil companies pay for their support of Prop 23?
Snap! The Texas oil companies that are the chief backers of Prop 23′s bid to scrap climate regulations in California are now facing shareholder scrutiny of their political spending. Shareholders of Los Angeles-based Occidental Oil also filed a resolution demanding that the company evaluate the costs and benefits of that company’s controversial political spending. Read more
Investor groups balk at oil companies’ support of Prop. 23
Shareholder organizations are expected to offer resolutions challenging L.A.’s Occidental Petroleum and two Texas firms over their contributions to the campaign to suspend California’s emissions law. Read the full story
Van Jones Slams Koch Industries’ Role In Prop 23
Well before the conglomerate Koch Industries plunged $1 million into Prop 23 — a ballot initiative in California to essentially repeal the state’s revolutionary clean energy climate change law AB 32 — the Wonk Room revealed that front groups controlled by Koch had been working to promote Prop 23. Americans for Prosperity, the front group founded and financed by Koch Industries’ executive David Koch, had organized Tea Party rallies in favor of Prop 23 and produced online ads distorting California clean energy. Read more
California’s Climate Battle Heats Up
As temperatures reached a record-breaking 113 degrees in downtown Los Angeles Tuesday — it was so hot, a National Weather Service thermometer stopped working — the fight for California’s climate future is also heating up. Come election day, California voters are in danger of undoing “one of the most progressive pieces of environmental legislation ever enacted,” thanks to a ballot measure pushed by handful of big out-of-state oil companies to kill California’s landmark global warming law. Read more
Arnold Lashes Out at Valero, Prop 23
Proposition 23, the initiative that would suspend California’s greenhouse gas laws, is not about saving jobs. It is about greed, said California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Speaking at a Commonwealth Club event in Santa Clara, the governor lashed out at the companies-particularly Valero, Koch Industries and Tesoro-trying to effectively get rid of the state’s carbon regulation law, known by its bill name AB 32. Technically, Prop 23 would suspend AB 23 until employment falls below 5.5 percent, something that has occured only sporadically in the last few decades. Read more
Convergence in T-Minus 17 Days!
Happy Tuesday everyone! The convergence is less than THREE weeks away and we here at UCSB are excitedly getting our campus ready for all your shining faces and brilliant minds! Get ready for a weekend in beautiful Santa Barbara that is at once intense and relaxing, inspiring and energizing. There will be amazing farm-fresh local…Read more »
Save the Date: Governors’ Global Climate Summit 3
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and other subnational leaders, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme and United Nations Environment Programme, is hosting the Governors’ Global Climate Summit 3. This summit will take place November 15-16, 2010 at the Mondavi Center on the campus of the University of California, Davis. Join global experts from government, business,…Read more »
Report Unveils Greater Threat to Drinking Water from Coal Ash
Now nearly 140 coal ash sites have proven water pollution problems Knowledge is king, and now we know more about the extent of damage coal ash sites across the country are causing to our drinking water. A new report issued today by Earthjustice, the Environmental Integrity Project and Sierra Club offers data that documents water…Read more »
‘The Majestic Plastic Bag’ A Nature Mockumentary
With the California Senate preparing to vote on AB 1998 — a bill that would ban plastic bags statewide — Heal the Bay has released a hilarious mockumentary in the vein of a BBC nature film, following the travels of “one of the most clever and illustrious creatures: the plastic bag.” Narrated by Academy Award-winning…Read more »
Floods, fire, and fiddling
Legend has it that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. These days, Congress fiddles while the world burns. More precisely, it’s Russia that’s burning at the moment, with a record heat wave and forest fires being blamed for as many as 15,000 deaths so far. Also troubling is the drought, which prompted the Russian government to…Read more »
Strong public support for climate law, but battle brews
Despite a whole lot of brouhaha over AB 32 and the proposition to derail it, two-thirds of California residents continue to back it — a percent unchanged from last year. So says a poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California. But the results don’t put the climate law in the clear in November….Read more »
Paved with Good Intentions: Fiscal Politics, Freeways and the 20th Century American City
Stuck in traffic in Washington, DC in 1959, President Eisenhower was shocked to learn that the delay was being caused by Interstate Highway construction. Surely the Interstates were being built between cities, not in them. The President demanded to know who was responsible for this state of affairs, only to be told that he was;…Read more »
Ensuring Food Security Means Protecting Pavlovsk Seed Bank
Riddle me this: What’s more valuable, global food security or a batch of luxury homes? I know, seems like kind of a no-brainer. Keeping the world fed should obviously come before some new McMansions. But apparently a Russian court thinks otherwise. SIGN THE PETITION Yesterday, a Russian court declared that the Russian Federal Fund of…Read more »
Crabs provide evidence oil tainting Gulf food web
To assess how heavy a blow the BP oil spill has dealt the Gulf of Mexico, researchers are closely watching a staple of the seafood industry and primary indicator of the ecosystem’s health: the blue crab. Weeks ago, before engineers pumped in mud and cement to plug the gusher, scientists began finding specks of oil…Read more »
New ocean garbage patch discovered
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a mess of trash and plastic that moves around the north Pacific Ocean and is roughly the size of Texas. It has a high concentration of plastics and chemical sludge. Photos from the patch of trapped sea turtles and tires will snare the attention of even the most stone-hearted…Read more »
More Oiled Birds Than Ever Being Found
More than three weeks after BP capped its gushing oil well, skimming operations have all but stopped and federal scientists say just a quarter of the oil remains in the Gulf of Mexico. But wildlife officials are rounding up more oiled birds than ever as fledgling birds get stuck in the residual goo and rescuers…Read more »
Real Food Challenge Summer Leadership Training Aug. 26-29
The West Coast Summer Leadership training will be held in Atascadero, CA (near San Luis Obispo) this summer to help students share their experiences and build organizational skills. Only 25-30 students are accepted for the training, and spots are filling up! This is a great way to learn from fellow students and devise strategies to…Read more »
China says ocean cleared of oil 10 days after spill
Chinese officials said Monday that an oil slick in coastal waters has been cleaned up 10 days after a massive explosion sent an estimated 1,500 tons of crude into the Yellow Sea along the northeastern port city of Dalian. But beaches along Dalian’s long shoreline remain closed indefinitely, with oil covering rocks and pebbles on…Read more »
Scientists Confirm Underwater Plumes Are From Spill
Florida researchers said Friday that they had for the first time conclusively linked vast plumes of microscopic oil droplets drifting in the Gulf of Mexico to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The scientists, from the University of South Florida, matched samples taken from the plumes with oil from the leaking well provided by BP. The findings…Read more »