Thanks to everyone who came out to Central Park this passed Sunday to be part of the Human Countdown, the kick off event for Climate Week NY°C. With close to 2,000 people in attendance, the event was an enormous success and is sure to send a resounding and visually arresting message to President Obama and other world leaders that New Yorkers want a global climate treaty.
The Orion Grassroots Network is hosting a climate conference call this week for its members and friends, on Wednesday 9/16 (tomorrow), called 'An Inconvenient Update' -- and it's for anyone who's looking to get up to speed on the latest in climate science, policy, and solutions, post-Al Gore movie and pre-Copenhagen. Dr. Phil Rice of The Sustainability Institute and Tina Clarke, a trainer for 350.org, will lead the conversation and the incomparable Bill McKibben will hopefully be joining the call as well, schedule-dependent. The call is at 2 pm ET and is free, except for the usual long distance charge. Feel free to join us to hear the latest, have your questions answered by our panelists, and share your thoughts. Dial in info is listed here.
What a week! Work-wise, it was only four days long. Timewise, it felt like years! This week, we try to piece together stories ranging from Van Jones to Senate committees to walruses, and more.
The 1Sky Board of Directors wishes to express its deep gratitude to Van Jones for his exceptional vision, leadership and commitment to our nation. He has also been a tremendous colleague and ally in the development of 1Sky.
Van Jones, the White House's top advisor on Green Jobs, resigned this morning in the wake of a focused campaign by the right wing to unseat him. In all the stories swirling around Glenn Beck/Fox's smear campaign on my long time friend and colleague Van Jones, I hardly recognized who they were talking about.
We just posted this press release about our Back to D.C. nationwide actions this week. The pic on the right is from an event in Iowa, and I've also included a slide show below made up of more pics from this week's actions. This is what real grassroots clean energy action looks like!
State Representative Pricey Harrison (from Greensboro) was there as well as representatives from clean energy businesses, labor and faith communities. State Representative Harrison along with U.S. Representative Howard Coble attempted to enter the event. While Representative Coble was allowed entry, Representative Harrison (who represents the district in which the event was held) was denied access. Also allowed into the event were activists from FreedomWorks, a right-wing group that has ties to big business and the oil industry. [Emphasis added.]
Yesterday, the Public Citizen Texas team drove down to Houston to crash the American Petroleum Institute's Energy Citizen event. Billed as a "grassroots" rally against the cap and trade bill currently before Congress, this event was nothing more than a company picnic.
