Brendan Smith is an oysterman, activist and street artist. He is co-founder of Global Labor Strategies and the Labor Network for Sustainability, and a consulting partner with the Progressive Technology Project.

As a member of the emerging “green jobs” movement, Brendan runs an organic oyster farm off the Thimble Islands of Long Island Sound. Along with his partner Nicola Armster, he has been selling their green recycled art on the streets of New York City for more than a decade.

Brendan has published two books, In the Name of Democracy (Holt/Metropolitan) and Globalization From Below (South End), and co-produced the PBS documentary Global Village or Global Pillage?, which was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2000. His commentary has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Guardian, CBS News.com, YahooNews and the Baltimore Sun Times. He is a graduate of Cornell Law School.

He has worked previously for Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — both as a senior legislative aide and staff on the U.S. House Banking Committee — as well as a broad range of trade unions, grassroots groups and progressive politicians.

Contact his at www.brendan-smith.org.

Blog Entries by Brendan Smith

A Green Art Manifesto

Posted December 18, 2009 | 01:47 PM (EST)


[For more than a decade my partner and I have sold our green art on the streets of New York City. While we're battling the frigid December winds in Union Square Park this holiday season, the climate protection movement is out in force on the streets of Copenhagen. In...

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We're Number One (in Financial Damage From Climate Change)

5 Comments | Posted December 11, 2009 | 06:35 PM (EST)


This week, just in time for the Copenhagen climate convention, the annual Global Climate Risk Index was released, telling how vulnerable each country in the world is to the costs of climate change. Guess who was number one in financial losses from climate change? The United States.

Surprised? There's a...

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Will Climate Protection Legislation Protect Workers Too?

Posted November 12, 2009 | 10:35 AM (EST)


One great fear is blocking public support for climate protection: The fear that protecting the planet will destroy millions of jobs.

Without a bold program to protect workers from the effects of climate protection, the struggle against global warming can all too easily come to be perceived as a struggle...

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What the CBO Isn't Telling Congress: Climate Change Threatens Million of Jobs

4 Comments | Posted November 6, 2009 | 06:39 PM (EST)


While fewer and fewer people are willing to publicly deny the validity of global warming science, those who oppose action to protect the climate have taken up a new strategy: Denying that climate change will have a major impact on the U.S. economy.

This denial is rejected by most economists...

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World Leaders Fiddle While the World Burns: Time for a New Climate Strategy

2 Comments | Posted October 6, 2009 | 06:42 PM (EST)


Obama's climate czar Carol Browner said last week there will be no U.S. climate protection legislation before the Copenhagen conference and that she doesn't know if a global agreement on binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions can be made in Copenhagen. She added that she had hope for progress...

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Unions Need to Sever All Ties with Anti-Climate Bill Groups

7 Comments | Posted October 2, 2009 | 12:23 PM (EST)


Under escalating pressure from activists, Nike, the utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric Company, and others have publicly resigned from the US Chamber of Commerce over its opposition to climate protection policies. It's time for labor unions to follow suit by cutting all ties with groups opposing...

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Green Workers Need a Voice in the Climate Change Debate

Posted September 24, 2009 | 03:25 PM (EST)


Working out on my oyster boat this week, I've been slurping my catch and wondering what sort of future lies ahead for those of us who work in industries already being impacted by climate change.

Some like me will be the first to experience the negative effects: I run a...

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AFL-CIO Convention: Solidarity with Van Jones?

Posted September 11, 2009 | 10:44 AM (EST)


The attack that drove "green jobs czar" Van Jones from the White House last week is an attack on labor and on workers' best hope for good jobs. If labor wants to promote green jobs, labor should embrace Van Jones -- publicly, loudly, and fast -- at the upcoming...

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From Scorched Political Earth to Scorched Actual Earth

Posted April 15, 2008 | 11:10 PM (EST)


Jim Barrett, executive director of Redefining Progress, lays awake at night worrying about global warming's "nightmare scenario." He's concerned that poorly designed measures to cut greenhouse emissions might lead to an anti-environmental political revolt.

As Barrett recently explained to a group of trade unionists and environmentalists who came...

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