Check it out:

Speaking of “Small People”

Will the Energy Bill Hurt or Help All Americans?

here’s a quote:

As we move forward, how can we ensure that legislation will bring real and tangible benefits to low-income communities? Any piece of energy legislation should protect the lowest-income consumers from higher energy bills while also creating real jobs and economic opportunities in vulnerable communities. Put another way, such proposals should minimize the pain and maximize the gain.

Quick summary: Van thinks its a step in the right direction, but not a leap. And as we’ve become fond of quoting around here lately, “you can’t cross a chasm in two jumps.”

It’s Earth Day 2010, and Van Jones has a new interview on Climate Progress about Earth Day 2.0.

Check it out, right after you Take Action for a Cleaner Future by Contacting Congress Now!

From my friend Christina Polcari:

What if Obama announced a plan today that promised green jobs for our urban youth, window panes and lower energy bills, urban gardens and lower medical bills, clean air and clean streets?

The Yes Men dare us to think so. They dare us to imagine the world is as we wanted it just for a minute. Earlier this week in Copenhagen, Canada dropped jaws when it announced a radical reversal of its climate change policy at the COP15. It was exactly the kind of action the world has been waiting for–bold and badass. But it was all a prank, compliments of the Yes Men.

We wanted a global deal out of the COP15. The Yes Men put the spotlight on countries standing in the way to publicly humiliate them. Because the people, the media, and the UN responded, and for a moment, we saw the change we believe in.

Last night, Jayme and Mahfam sat on the rogue Yes Men stage at the “Good COP15″ to tell our leaders about how urban communities are building a better environment and a better economy. People working together on projects like Green the Hood are the true agents of change.

This week, Mahfam has made us realize we need to go back home and “blow up our efforts and take them to the next level…to scale the movement.” She’s absolutely right. Coming from a global conference, to me, the next level looks more local. Our leaders can and must take bolder action but we have to do even more at home to show them exactly what that action looks like. Here’s to the next steps for our communities, the ones to scale the movement and to give our leaders no room to budge.

Heather Box and Jayme Montgomery on Davey D’s Hard Knock Radio

Check out this interview about COP15 and the talks in Copenhagen, aired on 12/17/2009 on Davey D’s Hard Knock Radio. Jayme and Heather talk about the mood of the conference as well as some of the intense protests they saw. Hard Knock Radio airs every day at 4PM on KPFA: check out the page for the show here!

Also, check out this clip from Heather, interviewed on 12/18/2009 on the KPFA Morning Show:

Heather Box on the KPFA Morning Show – 12/18/09

Heather talks about the general atmosphere in Copenhagen and the mood after President Obama’s speech about the climate negotiations. The KPFA Morning Show airs every weekday at 7:00 AM Pacific time on KPFA: check out the page for the show here!

This message comes from Josh Lynch, an organizer with AVAAZ Action Factory:

Friends -

On Tuesday morning I posted this note on facebook:
“If you could see what is happening here in Copenhagen you would be outraged. After two decades of negotiating climate change policy to death, wealthy countries are blocking a real deal with weak targets and loopholes. The next 72 hours I will need you to act to seize the moment of Copenhagen. Please be prepared to act.”

Now is the time to act. First I will ask for what is needed. Then I will explain some context.

1. This is going to sound crazy. I need as many of you who possibly can to organize a sit-in in your Senator’s office to read 12 millions names of global voices demanding a fair, ambitious, and
legally-binding climate treaty in Copenhagen. The first sit-in of this kind was a nine-hour act of civil disobedience by 19 international youth outside the main plenary in Copenhagen. This sparked solidarity reader sit-ins at the Canadian Prime Minister’s office and the U.S.
State Department on Thursday. On Friday youth are calling for a non-violent civil disobedience to demand a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty on the final day.

Here is a guide to help you pull it off:
http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/12/17/solidarity-sit-ins-spread-resources-for-your-own-event/

The original story:
http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/12/17/live-blog-youth-activists-refuse-to-leave-before-everyones-voices-are-heard/

2. Call President Obama (202-456-1111) to urge him to “support the call of the most vulnerable nations for a 350ppm carbon reduction target and a goal of keeping temperatures below 1.5 degrees celsius in the global climate treaty.” This has been a critical demand of vulnerable nations in Copenhagen fighting for their survival.

That’s it. Now some context as promised.

A TRANSFORMATIONAL MOMENT
These are no ordinary times. The moment to tackle climate change on a global scale was twelve years ago. The US opted out of Kyoto and has since fought for business as usual while the planet remains in desperate need of a heart transplant and the worlds’ poor face increasing famine, flooding, and disease. In this unique moment, world leaders must act.

More than 100 heads of state are now in Copenhagen. It has already become a transformational political moment for the climate movement. Everyone is talking about the backlash for Danish police to peaceful demonstrations and the preemptive move by the UN to kick out 14,700 members of civil society before the high level summit on the final two days. What’s even more important than the silencing of our voices in Copenhagen is the fact that President Obama and the U.S. Congress have yet to listen to the voices of millions of their own citizens and those around the world calling for an ambitious, fair, and binding global climate treaty now. I can tell you from being in the belly of the beast – our voices WILL be heard.

RICH AND POOR: OUR FATES ARE BOUND TOGETHER
Small island nations, Africa, and developing countries that are least responsible for global warming pollution have shown the most leadership and courage for a fair, ambitious, and binding treaty in Copenhagen. They have worked without office space out of small booths
with NGOs, and withstood intimidation and isolation from wealthy countries throughout COP15. All of us who live in the U.S. and other wealthy nations must know that our fates are all bound to theirs. Experts warn that if we allow warming to reach 2 degrees celsius, the rich may build levees to hold back the seas for a while, but resource conflicts will escalate, crops will fail, and diseases will spread in every corner of the planet. As Africa burns and the people of Tuvalu and the Maldives are forced to evacuate their islands, the planet will reach climate tipping points that put the future of all humanity at risk.

STEPS FORWARD TODAY
The COP15 climate talks have stalled these past ten days over and over again on the issue of low ambitions from the US and other wealthy countries and the issue of ensuring the treaty is legally-binding. Today there was finally movement on both fronts. First, Hillary Clinton arrived and shocked many by supporting a global finance target for developing countries of $100 billion/year by 2020, conditional on strong measures to ensure transparency in the use of the funds. Afterwards, China came out and supported some steps to allow transparency of climate finance reporting, an issue they had previously stood steadfast against for sovereignty concerns.

There now does seem like there could be a reasonably ambitious deal in Copenhagen. We are still more likely to end up in a collapse or delay scenario, I am hearing. Regardless, countries will need to return in 6-12 months to finish the details of the agreement. The problem with even the optimistic end of the current scenario is that ‘close enough’ doesn’t cut it on climate change. If carbon emissions are slashed, but not enough to prevent the Greenland ice shelf from melting, sea levels are expected to rise by six feet – with devastating consequences for coastal cities like New York, London, Amsterdam, and hundreds more.

THE REAL STORY OF COPENHAGEN
There is so much hope and possibility amidst the crisis of Copenhagen. A global movement is growing up here. Simple solutions that create jobs for people living in daily poverty are gaining global attention. The world’s most vulnerable are finally gaining the attention of world leaders – if not with actions, at least with words. What gives me hope is the resolve of people living in crisis who I’ve met here in Copenhagen. People in our group have talked to people from Lebanon, Israel, and Sudan who have lived with conflict their whole lives, but have come here because of climate change and a solidarity they feel with others around the world ready to do something about it.

I hope that you will act with me today and hold President Obama accountable to restoring global good will and reaching a real deal in Copenhagen. Further, I hope the stories of what has happened here these past two weeks and for me, four weeks before that, will leave you inspired rather than discouraged. Struggle is to be expected when something really matters. It is the only way change is possible.

With love and conviction,
Josh

Follow all of Jayme’s copenhagen coverage at http://youngvoter.org/cop15

Cold, Snowing, 100′s of police, 1000′s of marchers, banners, Amerie on the radio…

Angry, frustrated, trains shut down, young, old, global climate movement.

All words used to describe my experience at the Reclaim Power protest. While folks in the U.S. were safely tucked in their beds, thousands of young people from around the world gathered in the streets of Copenhagen to demand access to the Bella (convention) Center. To demand real policies that will reverse climate change and save planet earth.

It saddened me to see a man, eyes fire-red from being peppered sprayed, snot hanging from his nose, talking about how all he wanted was to have his voice heard. It was at that moment that reality set in. There are millions of people around the world already suffering from climate change. Their frustration is not unlike the thousands of displaced workers in Milwaukee looking for something to put them back to work. These protesters were just trying to express what they know to be right, but don’t have access to do so.

From my viewpoint, the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Global warming, increasing unemployment, and escalating wars all the while people around the world are crying, “enough!” And our leaders can’t let go long enough to listen and figure out a way to push the stop button. This, like so many other similar experiences, come down to the same thing…POWER.

No matter how disempowered I might feel right now, I will be up tomorrow to do it all again.

Just hopped off a video announcement from Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency and definitely a top pick on the short list of D.C. insiders who are really taking their title/mission to heart.

On what is coincidentally (purely surely) the first day of the international COP15 summit, the EPA announces that their thorough (musta been really thorough) analysis of all the available facts leads to one simple conclusion: greenhouse gases “threaten the public health and welfare of the American people.”

There’s more:

“These long-overdue findings cement 2009’s place in history as the year when the United States Government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution and seizing the opportunity of clean-energy reform,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.

Great talking point from Mrs. Jackson and my instinct thinks she’s legit. When asked on the call about the timing of the EPA’s announcement, when House reps have indicated no movement on environmnetal legislation until early Spring (months from now), Lisa Jackson said the EPA did not want to wait to get the ball rolling and hoped that Congress would “follow the ball.”

Translation: watch out, world. Apparently it’s not a pre-requisite of American political power to actually lose total touch with the land and your people!

Keep it up, Mrs. Jackson.

This is a few days old i.e. another epoch in internetz time but I bet when society crashes and we burn our laptops for plastic scented warmth, we’ll kill for the chance to one more snarky blog post, to tag one more pic of the person we were before Nature takes our headphones off and smacks us back to the Ice Age.

By which I mean, is anyone really surprised that not only do we have to confront the awesome, shame-on-us specter of global destruction as a simple truth – we are consuming the world, will we do anything about it? – but also as a classic opportunity for government conspiracy, what we don’t know will kill us, of course the Man is savvy to the fact that famine and hedonism are mutually exclusive and you’ll catch more of us flies if you act like the honey is gonna flowwwww forever.

Turns out “[t]he world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit,” with the United States quite specifically called out for encouraging a false representation of 1.) how much oil is undiscovered [how do they know?!] and 2.) how much we’ve got left in our fields.

Consensus is growing that this roller coaster we call Life™ is already over the hump, we’re hurtling down hill to a NEW epoch the people at the Center for Egregiously Named Memetics call Peak Oil. When you hit Peak Oil, your oil production enters a phase called “terminal decline….” yeah, it looks kinda like this:

Now, I for one am sure the proud business and government leaders of the United States didn’t want to lie about the world’s oil reserves, no, that’s illogical! I’m sure it was a minor lie, really just a fib, that snowballed into a conspiracy, it was out of their hands – really – and now that the truth is out, wow, we can get right down to those “New Energy Solutions” that sound just so neat.

I don’t know about yall, but I say let’s burn it while we got it. It’s a cold Friday in Brooklyn, the leaves are off the trees…you know what would cheer me up?

I am disgusted to learn that Van Jones resigned from his position of Green Jobs czar for the Obama Administration.  I do not know what to think about our country.

I am a Southern Man, born in North Carolina, raised in Mississippi.  My history is slavery, is grits, is catfish and racial distrust, confederate flags and soulful music that hits you in your guts.  I am not an anarchist, and I dare you to come inside the ‘conservative stronghold’ of Mississippi and call me one.  I am no radical, I am a lover of freedom and truth, of intelligence and change meaning growth, meaning the desire to do what is right even in the face of incalculable danger.

I was not born loving America, but it grew on me.  I was born like all organisms, outside of identity, inheriting the genes and attitudes of my forefathers and for that I thank my parents, two beautiful, wonderful Mississippi natives who grew up in a time when family, when community, meant everything.

Sound familiar?  That’s the America we all love, right?  The America that has been co-opted by certain individuals, people who hide behind some cloak of political party, hide behind the walls of commercial entities that, increasingly, appear to me to be the threats and dangers to Truth, to Justice, that we are so afraid of.

America, what have we become?  Honestly, honestly, does anyone think Glenn Beck is the answer?  He sits behind his desk.  His interns – unpaid, low paid, low wage sycophants – develop our news and Glenn Beck adds the fire.  But he is no pastor, this is no religion and this is nothing we can believe in.  His language is the language of oppression, of fear, and I refuse, I absolutely refuse, to be afraid.

I am America.  I am some small and burning part of it, and I am flawed, I am self centered but I try to uphold the greatest tradition, the most beautiful idea of which humanity ever conceived: the belief in Honor.
It’s just a word, and unfortunately, sadly, rarely heard today.  Honor in my mind is as archaic as woven battle tapestries and the Edge of the World and we have pushed them both aside to embrace a superficial, artificial cult of manipulated truth.

What use is honor when a man who stood up truly is cast aside by his own leaders?  This is supposed to be Van Jones, and I have gotten distracted.  I am so sad.  I do not understand where we went wrong, why we can’t change, but know – I know this personally, from all my years of being – that shame, gut wrenched embarrassment, is often my most effective tutor.  And so I write this now, a nothing call out to the anti-void which is the Internet (the point where having everything, horrifically, means nothing) and to my ancestors, to all the Pattons and Furrs who made me, to my brothers and cousins, to my loved ones and friends, to those who hate me, who laugh at me, who do not know me and do not care: please stop.

We have to stop what we are doing.  What we are doing is disgraceful.  Glenn Beck is not my enemy, but he is a banner man for all the lies, for all the manipulations that sprout the weeds in our eternal garden.

Two years ago the name Van Jones meant nothing to me.  I was a democrat, a liberal thinker, and I knew humanity was pillaging our world and that was wrong.  That was dishonorable, a curse on our own family, a shameful and disgraceful act that would, in time, reveal to any thinking creature – plant, animal, alien or future human if we’re lucky – that, for some sad span of years, my people lost their way and became brutes, became unchecked predators in what was/will be our Earth’s night.

I knew these things because they felt true to me.  The debate about ideology often forgets that each child born is a tabula rasa, free to develop some sense of rightness with the guidance of his or her surrounding.  What the world showed me is its landscape, torn by our hands and tools; its elements, ripped and changed by our pursuit of power; its balance, the delicate eternal cycle of Life disrupted, undone.  I saw and see those things and know my part, know my own thirst for power and see it as an alcoholic man watches his whiskey: savior and satan inside the same package.

Any man who wishes to can, in the company of his compatriots, cast my image as a freak, as the Other, and we have truly shown our hatred of the Other.  I do not write to change you.  I write to ask you, where is your own Honor?

There was a time – for most of time, indeed, outside of time and before our conception of its ticking – when Honor didn’t have to be a word.  The duty to protect ones family, to love ones neighbors, to create shelter from the storm, that all was honor.  The instinctive defense of the young, protection of the old, relation to the Just, that all was honor.  There was a time when men who looked for answers, felt the peoples’ suffering, were held up as heroes.

In this, our modern day and age, we think ourselves above it all.  We are taking this world for granted, and I am shamed.  I am shamed and stricken.  Van Jones is a symbol and a focus for my realization that we are brushing aside our heroes.

President Obama, shame on you.  Your victory is not the idle play of poll numbers and thinktanks; the only real victory now will be humanity’s conquest of our shameful lust for conquest.  We have come full circle and now confront Life’s abyss. No man can call himself a man who will not stare, with wide stretched eyes, into the time of lies that we are living.

The world is failing.  No, we are killing the world.  Honor did not depart us; we have cast out honor, in favor of political punditry, biased accusations.  We are shaming ourselves, we should all grow out our hair, refuse to bathe, as it is mockery of our inner sickness that we’ve progressed and can cosmetically paint ourselves beatific.

If Glenn Beck feels he is right, he is mistaken.  I know that as an honorable man. Glenn Beck will never save us, but Van Jones might have.  And if he is the man of honor I believe him to be, he will keep fighting, indeed, has said he will not stop, and I believe him.

I hope that I will fight as well.  Sometimes a man must feel the wall at his back; must look around and see no friend, feel no warm admiration, and must dare all for that which he thinks right.

I do not know if I have it inside me.  I do not feel fated; I am the blank slate, the Southern man who felt the sunshine of true love cast by parents and grew in it.  I have been lucky, I feel that I can see both sides of our true story, and I know the future is unwritten, but the lines that I lay down – be they significant or paltry – I will write with honor, because I know that the world needs us, that humans are nothing if not of earth, that we came from it and will die in it, fertilize the soil with purity or be cast as trash on trash.

I am not afraid, but I am sad.

Oh well, our spirit lives.

Saw something crazy over on Huffington Post today about midwestern states and ten degree rises in temperature by 2010; farmers will be effed, oh they will be seriously effed (and what do farmers grow? Food. And who eats food? We do!), but the best part of the article is the classic regurgitation of what could surely be the epitaph on civilization’s uncelebrated tombstone: “[S]enators from Kansas, which will be most ravaged by climate change, are unlikely to support legislation addressing it.”

Let me try to understand. And yes, it has been said; I know I beat my head against it with nearly every environmental article I read. The planet is boiling, and our elected officials ‘are unlikely’ to support legislation addressing it?

What should we do to pull their heads out of the clouds and get them down here on the ground where the birds and bees are dying, crops are failing and all of Earth’s alarm bells are shrieking out our danger? Not that many of us can can hear, we’ve all got fingers in our ears, we use our chemically whitened teeth to rip the plastic off our burgers/ipods/American Apparel V-neck Summer Tees.

Feels kind of like life in an ivory tower; close the shutters, turn on your central air, and you can easily forget that your kids’ kids’ kids are gonna spend their days dressed in retro leather drinking irradiated water and scrounging pre-apocalyptic twinkies from the ruins of this little thing called Life.

This has to be the realization of a horrible Catch 22 situation: to accomplish anything in our society, one must amass power through cultural appeal, moderation and strategic alliance building; but the System is so far gone, our captains of industry and politics are so beyond the point of no return, that anyone who lets intuition drive his/her analysis of our environmental situation will end up ostracizing themselves because increasingly, horribly, it just doesn’t look like there’s a way out of this mess.

We’re on a super fast train riding magnetic tracks off a thousand foot cliff and we’re stuck arguing about a coal vs. solar powered caboose? We need to stop the effing train!

But no one wants to talk on that level, because 1.) it makes you sound crazy and 2.) the American zeitgeist says that ‘well, action is better than just words, so even though I just scratch the surface at least it’s something, right?”  Sure.  Ride the subway in New York City and marvel at Con Ed’s helpful tips for how to be a greener citizen.  I’m sure that deciding what you want to eat for your midnight snack before you open the refrigerator is the miracle for which we’ve all been waiting.

But I don’t know what to  do.  Real talk, I feel a horrible guilt ridden duality; I enjoy my job. I love the internet, I want freaking ipods and American Apparel, but I think our society is seriously messed.  We’ve sold the land out, and like a plane ride to a foreign country with a fake passport and a duffel full of cash, the baubles I’ve collected and the bullet points on my resume read like a sociopath’s sick manifesto. I’m a convicted convict.  So right to live in the age we live but there’s always a catch, ain’t there?

And this time, it’s the Climate.  It’s the air we breath.  We think we’re making major progress – civil rights, women’s rights, universal health care – but we’re still pushing the limits of what we can get wrong, and I’m afraid we’re going to take the whole planet with us.  And I know it sounds stupid, but that just doesn’t feel fair.

We’re humans, damnit; religion, space travel, 808s and heartbreak…all this time, I thought we were something special.  So why can’t we feel the world’s pain?

Who says we can only farm in rural areas? Despite the obvious challenges of urban farming, community gardens are popping up in parks, vacant lots, and even on rooftops across the nation.

And with good reason. While it may be difficult to find space, fertile soil, and even people interested in the cause, the benefits are endless. Researchers have found that urban farming can foster good health and community involvement, while being easier on the wallet. In fact, every $1 invested in community garden results in $6 of vegetables.

Yet saving money is just the beginning. Urban farming increases the sustainability of our cities, promotes concern for the environment, and fosters community involvement. Considering that most urbanites hardly even know their next-door neighbors, we certainly can’t expect to always know who produces our food. Urban farming, however, can alleviate both problems simultaneously.

In addition to the social and environmental benefits, growing our own food has positive effects on our health. And I don’t just mean physical health. Research has also shown that horticulture can lead to better mental health. Working with plants has even been proven to reduce stress, blood pressure, and muscle tension.

Urban Peak, a non-profit organization, is using such benefits to help the homeless youth of Denver. The organization provides young adults with food, shelter, and now, the advantages of urban gardening. “I think there’s a sense of accomplishment in the garden…This will be a sense of accomplishment that they can translate into other areas of their life like school or looking for a job,” states Anne Harris, member of Urban Peak. Though the long term benefits have yet to be determined, one thing is clear…Such feelings of accomplishment and involvement cannot be obtained at a McDonald’s or Burger King.

Don’t get me wrong; of course it’s nice to have access to fast food and delivery at any hour of the night. However, who’s to say that our favorite cities can’t offer both convenience and sustainability? There may be a certain satisfaction in consuming that pizza slice at 4am. Yet, maybe it’s time to experience the pride that comes along with consuming something we’ve cultivated ourselves.

Bet you’re used to hearing about how bad McDonald’s stance towards the environment is, about how the corporation razes the rainforest to make room for cattle and creates millions of tons of waste each year. But have you heard the latest? A new McDonald’s restaurant opening in North Carolina on July 14th will have a station to charge your electrical car in the parking lot.

Yup, it’s true. You’ll soon be able to order a burger and charge your car at the same time.
Granted, it’s just one restaurant out of the more than 30,000 McDonald’s around the world. And electric cars probably won’t even be on the roads in any great number until 2011. At this point, it seems more of a symbolic gesture than anything that will impact change.

But you’ve gotta start somewhere, right? Give McDonald’s credit; it’s installing the first charger of its’ kind in the United States. Plus Ric Richards, the owner of the innovative McDonald’s in Cary, North Carolina, has gone even further and constructed the entire building using environmentally-friendly materials. I’d say that’s a step in the right direction.

What do you think? Is this just a PR campaign to divert attention from McDonald’s appalling environmental record? Is it too early to impact real change? Or is it a sincere effort to clean up their track record and pioneer a new era of environmental responsibility?

Countless men and women across the country will agree with this one: your first ride was your first love. You probably remember it as junky and cheap, prone to breaking down every morning, but you loved it just the same. Let’s face it: even though it probably guzzled gas like Gatorade and needed to be started just the right way or else it might have blown up, it was still yours. In the near future, 16 year olds will remember the first time they plugged their car in, rather than the first time they filled up the gas tank.

Let’s hear about some electric cars and green jobs, after the jump!

When I say electric car, bells and whistles go off. I automatically think of a car no bigger than my shower that is as fast as a skateboard being pulled by a golf cart. But some crazy changes have happened in the past 10 years to completely revamp the way Americans get around, making the institution of the automobile cheaper, more environmentally friendly and basically.. cooler.

In the picture above, you’ll see what’s called a Tesla S Model. Named for eccentric scientist Nikola Tesla, who revamped the study of electricity, it’s an American car, run completely by electricity that is both stylish, fast and.. well, out of my price range. It’s about as fast as a Porsche and costs about $50,000.

But some news just came out today: in what can be called huge news on the green jobs front, Nissan is opening up an electric car plant in Tennessee, that will reinvigorate the economy of the area by investing in green technologies. This could mean that an affordable, ecofriendly car could be in homes nationwide relatively soon… at least, that’s what President Obama is pushing for. Here’s a quote from a recent speech he delivered at an Electric Car Research Center in California:

It won’t come without cost, nor will it be easy. We’ve got 240 million cars already on the road. We’ve got to upgrade the world’s largest energy grid while it’s already in use. And other countries aren’t standing around and waiting for us; they are forging ahead with their own bold energy plans.

But we have faced tough challenges before. And at our best, we have never relied on hope and chance alone. Time and again, we have tapped those great American resources: industriousness and ingenuity.

President Obama has invested $2 billion into the research and development of new electric vehicles, so the era of the cool electric car may be closer than we ever imagined.

As a red-blooded, patriotic American male, I take it as my civil right to eat cheeseburgers and french fries. I’m totally aware that it’s not necessarily good for me, but hey, it tastes good and it’s cheap. I wouldn’t call myself a burger aficionado, but let’s just say that every now and then, a Big Mac totally hits the spot.

I sense that some of you out there are jonesing for some Mickey D’s right now. Maybe you should reconsider. The meat that comes from fast food places comes from factory farms, which John Salley, former NBA star and contributor to 99Problems.org, has beef with in this promo video for the documentary Food, Inc:

Okay, I get it. Bad for the environment. But it’s cheap. Actually, you’re paying a higher cost than simply environmental health. Let’s hit up the dollar menu, after the jump!

It looks like this movie could pose some interesting ideas.. why is it that we can go fill up on the dollar menu at Mickey D’s for 1/3 of the price of making a meal at home? Is eating healthy too expensive for you? What do you think of John Salley’s argument?

Today’s story reminds us that every day, the things we do to bring change to the world will have lasting repercussions. Ken Saro-Wiwa was an environmental activist from Nigeria, who brought about non-violent protests against the Shell Oil company, who led a group called Movement For The Survival of the Ogoni People.

In Nigeria, the Ogoni’s health were endangered by the massive amounts of pollution shell was generating by extracting oil. As the movement was gaining traction, the fear of Shell Oil was rising. It is widely speculated that Shell paid off security officials, who subsequently tried and executed Saro-Wiwa along with several of his fellow activists on false charges.

However, all was not lost. Fifteen years later, the Ogoni are starting to make some traction against the oil company. Check out this news from Treehugger:

The [Ogoni] brought [a case] against the company under an obscure US law that allows foreigners to sue companies for human rights abuses has just been settled out of court. Though $15 million may seem a paltry sum to repay the vast injustices done to their people, and the murder of some of their brightest, perhaps the international attention garnered from this case will draw some attention to their plight. And even though Shell hasn’t publicly admitted any wrongdoing, sometimes, actions speak louder than words.

Chalk this up as a hard fought victory for the little guy against multinational corporations. Ken’s legacy will live on in the hearts of anyone who wants to bring change to the world.

According to a study released by the Natural Resources Defense Council, if California were to implement a few widespread water saving techniques, “they could save more than enough water to meet the needs of the three major cities of San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles”.

Water conservation plays a key factor in environmental health. The Natural Resources Defense Council stated that if business were to adopt a few new tactics in terms of how they are run, individual mechanisms can reduce water use by over 50 percent.

Take a look at some of the specifics after the jump and stay tuned for a pretty interesting Youtube video:

• Water efficient commercial dishwashers can reduce water use in restaurants by up to 25 percent.
• Hotels can cut the amount of water they use by 38 percent by switching to water efficient washing machines.
• By changing their irrigation tactics, landscapers can reduce their water use by up to 50 percent.

By converting to environmentally friendly technologies, the amount of water saved could ease some of the pressure on the California water supply and effectively provide water to three major California cities, San Francisco, San Diego and LA.

Really fascinating stuff, right? Oh, it gets cooler.

It’s not just the use of water that is of interest, these days. It’s the ownership. A documentary came out last year called Flow, about the topic of water ownership. Check it out:

When Isaac started his voter registration campaign, he quickly came to realize there were many more issues to tackle in Colorado. Like the struggle of single mothers to hold jobs and raise their kids. Or ex cons who can’t find a job, anywhere.

What is it that sometimes turns us against the needs of our neighbors? We must look past the superficial, past our varied histories or roads taken, and see that we need each other to get where we want to go: a healthier community, with equal rights, and neighbors who help you get what you need.

The League was there on the scene at Power Shift 2009 and we want to congratulate all the participants for the biggest, most inspiring energy conference yet. Van Jones was on the scene, The Roots were on the scene…for a few days D.C. was the home of ten thousand kids from across the country, and the passion and inspiration we saw is all the motivation we need to know that Green Jobs are the way of the future, and we’ve got to spread the word.

So, without further ado, we present LYVEF’s Power Shift 2009 coverage.

Astronauts can see trash in the ocean from space? That’s insane. We have got to get up for our planet, make a stand like this ol’ world deserves. We’re not just gonna talk at you, though; this week we’ll be bringing you info you can use to start tipping the balance from pollution to people power.

This is our world, and we gotta stand up in the greatest tradition of American society; stand up for change when it seems impossible, when all the odds are against us. The world is at stake, and everything that we have is imperiled. There’s never been a more important moment to be on the right side of history!