If you are like me, it's easy to be cynical on Earth Day. For one day the public's attention is turned to the environment, but largely what they see is advertisements for superficial eco-products, greenwash from some of the biggest and dirtiest corporations, and talking points from politicians - there is very little discussion of creating a bright green economy that can address our economic and environmental crises and provide opportunities to communities who are too often stricken with environmental injustice.
It's easy to cast Earth Day off as nothing but a wasted opportunity, but only if we waste it. This should be our day! It's up to each of us to talk to someone about why we do what we do, and recruit them into our efforts. Take a moment to talk up your great work, celebrate!
I'll start: Today, as we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, I'm excited because I'm actually thinking about the future. Millennials are on a generation-wide mission to transform our society and economy to one that works for us, to one that will provide millions of jobs for our generation, and put us to work staving off the climate crisis.
We are visioning another world. We want our country to be powered by 100% clean electricity by 2020, and we are going to work for it. This spring in hundreds of communities and on hundreds of campuses young people began to envision how their own communities could work to this. And as we celebrate here in the U.S., our local and nation visions are being connected with the global movements at the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. Our friends and colleagues have accepted the invitation of Bolivian President Evo Morales to join hundreds of governments, and thousands of community and environmental justice leaders from across the world to envision another world and plan how to make it real.
And our work is beginning to pay off: Last week another coal plant was put on hold in Kentucky, and campuses are beginning to take the next step to move beyond coal by retiring existing coal plants. Just yesterday the President of the University of Montana announced that they'll be carbon neutral by 2020. And we aren't letting up. Last night we heard that ActivUS, a student group at Iowa State University, got their student government to pass a resolution to move the campus beyond coal, and this morning young activists from across Massachusetts woke up from their Leadership Campaign "sleep out" on Boston Commons to go lobby their legislature to move the state to 100% clean electricity by 2020.
Our political demands of elected officials are being backed up by our own progress, and we intend to build on this. This summer, Energy Action Coalition is joining a host of other great summer initiatives like the Summer of Solutions to actually get to work building the clean energy economy. In 10 locations around the country, over 200 young people are dedicating their precious summer breaks to getting to work in the communities. In a number of the locations like Cleveland, OH, Detroit, MI and Washington, DC this means building demand for home weatherization and green jobs through community engagement. In Fredricksburg, VA and Salt Lake City, UT it's a matter of fighting dirty coal and tar sands development and promoting the true solutions to our energy crisis: energy efficiency and renewables.
We are taking all of the great local work to build an electoral campaign from the ground up. Supporting one another to organize around the elections around local issues and campaigns that will continue to inspire and mobilize Millennials to turn out to the polls in record numbers. This is new stuff, this is different, and it's exciting.
As I write this, it dawns on me that maybe part of the reason these stories aren't the headlines of Earth Day is because they aren't confined to a single day. Our generation is learning to treat every day like Earth Day, and is learning how to take real meaningful action that is hard to encompass in a sound bite. If our generation succeeds, the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, in the year 2020, is really going to be a moment of celebration.
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www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261031/chinese-government-renewables
b) While Sweden's dropped its greenhouse gas emissions 14% since the 1990 Kyoto Accords, its GDP has nearly doubled. Germany, with the strictest environmental/GHG regs in Europe, now has the world's 4th largest economy, while more than doubling its GDP.
www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/7204/fromdepartment/7204/page/4
www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:DEU&dl=en&hl=en&q=german+gdp#met=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:SWE
So, saying going green will kill our economy is RUBBISH!
Meanwhile, we're
c) 38th in life expectancy, just 2 years ahead of MEXICO. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
d) 18th among 36 industrialized nations in education.
www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/11/19/US-slipping-in-education-rankings/UPI-90221227104776/
e) DEAD LAST in TRADE BALANCE ~$730 Billion deficit, $585 Billion behind Spain.
China and Germany have surpluses of $352 and $252 Billion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_current_account_balance
f) 12 western hemisphere countries have universal health care, including Cuba and Trinidad; 30 in Asia; nearly all of Europe. WE DON'T.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_health_care
It's high time we roll up our sleeves and just ignore the useless naysayers because we're COMPETITORS, not QUITTERS!
Keep up the great work!!! 'lm committed to reducing our Y energy load in our sandbox!! Inspired & locally committed!
oil platform in the Gulf for Earth Day. Just a couple of weeks ago we
were hearing (again) the "Drill Baby Drill" refrain and repeatedly
being told "Nothing can go wrong with offshore drilling." Ask the
eleven missing platform workers if thats true. If you can find them.
We heard oil would be contained in the platform design. The Miami
Herald reported an oil slick moving away from the platform this morning.
Pretty much the entire economy of Florida is one way or another
dependent on tourism. Good luck if oil sludge washes up on the beaches.
The numbers I've heard are $60-$70B per year in touristry. Ask the folks
in Alaska if anything can go wrong. And Exxon STILL hasn't paid their
bill. They've stiffed Alaska. Ask the folks in Santa Barbara if anything can
go wrong. And we don't even ask for a Security Deposit up front? I'd
suggest $120B Oil Industry deposit (2 years) in case something DOES go
wrong and the oil companies walk out without paying their tab...AGAIN.
But there's an easy way to tell if oil companies are lying to us. Are their lips moving?
Do you think it would make more of an impact if we alloted it to a month?
Thanks,
Pete
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http://eriecontractor.com