environmental issues and greenwashing - Articles - Zimbio

You can’t beat intelligent debate - but this isn’t it

Fri, 17 May 2008 14:52:12 GMT

posted by giles

Intelligent debate is crucial to the development of biofuels. It is right and proper that people with ideas put them forward and that those idea are rigorously challenged, by people who think it is wrong or bad.

Sadly, however, some students at Brown University and their half witted friends at Greenwash Guerillas, don’t think this is the right way to go about things. It would seem that silencing critics is easier as New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman was pied by the Greenwash Guerillas while giving an Earth Day Lecture at Brown University. (see the video at the end of this piece.)

There is a long history of organizations and governments who chose to squash comment and opinion that they didn’t agree with; the Nazis, Pol Pot, Stalin, Robespierre to name a few. I’m sure Greenwash Guerillas and the students at Brown are proud to be associated with such company.

Perhaps the next step for The Greenwash Guerillas set-up a book burning night where they can get rid of any book that they consider transgresses their greenwash rules.

Whatever happened to the idea, often attributed to the great thinker Voltaire:

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

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Clean Energy Will Have to Wait till Next Year

Tue, 15 Oct 2008 16:06:32 GMT

posted by rushprnews

Browse > Home / BREAKING NEWS, ENVIRONMENT, PRESS RELEASE / Clean Energy Will Have to Wait till Next Year

October 15, 2008

Congress Lifts 26-year-old ban on coastal ofsshore oil drilling

WASHINGTON,DC(RUSHPRNEWS)10/15/08–Here’s the bad news: before it left on recess, Congress voted to lift the 26-year-old ban that protected our coasts from offshore oil drilling. The oil giants will now be allowed to operate as close as three miles off the spectacular coastlines of California, Florida, the Carolinas and other vulnerable states.
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The pressure on Capitol Hill was intense. President Bush and Big Oil have been pandering to economically-stressed Americans for months, promising that “Drill Here, Drill Now” is the panacea for high gas prices. In the end, members on both sides of the aisle swore they were only doing the bidding of their constituents.

That may be, but those constituents are going to wake up tomorrow with a bad case of buyer’s remorse. Oil from new coastal rigs won’t reach gas pumps for ten years. When it does, the impact on prices will be negligible. In the meantime, our most beautiful beaches will face the threat of catastrophic oil spills, global warming will intensify, and oil companies will grow richer.

This summer’s oil shock was the loudest wake-up call we’ve had in thirty years. Congress could have responded by passing visionary legislation, championed by the NRDC Action Fund, to make cars get 50 miles per gallon and put millions of plug-in hybrids on the road, powered by a cleaner electric grid fed by renewable energy.

Galvanized by your support and activism, we fought hard for that vision of a clean energy future, but we couldn’t prevail in the face of so much political fear. Congress panicked, then doubled down on the Bush-Cheney energy fiasco by giving away our coasts.

Now the good news: this fight is far from over. For starters, coastal drilling can’t begin without a prolonged process of environmental review and lease sales. That task will fall to the next president. No matter who that is, I can promise you this:

any president who proceeds with coastal drilling will meet a buzz saw of legal opposition from our partner organization, NRDC.

And, in a sign of better things to come, this Congress did improve fuel efficiency standards for vehicles, and it did extend tax credits for solar, wind and other renewable sources of energy.
Â

Come January, the NRDC Action Fund will be back on Capitol Hill making the case that America’s environmental and economic salvation lies in a high-tech, clean energy future — one that creates millions of jobs, cuts global warming pollution and kicks our oil habit once and for all. With the election season behind us and a new Congress awaiting us, I believe our cause will prevail in 2009.

I know we can count on you to make your voice heard in the new Congress. Thank you.

Frances Beinecke
President
NRDC Action Fund
Â

P.S. You can help us stop coastal drilling and fight for clean energy legislation by making an online donation now:

https://www.nrdcactionfund.org/coastaldrilling_102008 Your support will help us wage and win the next rounds in this battle to save our coasts and kick America’s oil habit.

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Thomas Friedman - A Wonderful Day for a Pie!

Wed, 1 May 2008 20:33:00 GMT

posted by barbarany_9
As I walked out my door today, I breathed in the lovely May air. My lilac bush is flourishing and my newly planted alium are about to flower, my windchimes tinkled softly and birds chirped around my birdbath; in short - it's a wonderful day.

And my wonderful day is unspoilable. Why? Because of the below. The journalist I like to hate, the worst hire the 'New York Times' ever made (among numerous poor decisions), warmonger and narcissist-supreme - Thomas Friedman - was pied.

Yes, I said PIED.

Greenwash Guerrillas Pie Thomas Friedman at Brown University

YouTube Censors Video; Pie Thrower Faces University Disciplinary Procedures

For the video of this momentous event - CLICK HERE

Providence, RI - New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman was pied by the Greenwash Guerillas while giving an Earth Day Lecture at Brown University. The Greenwash Guerillas targeted Thomas Friedman because of his support for U.S. military intervention in the Middle East, neo-liberal economic policies that harm the world’s poor, and especially for promoting bogus solutions to the global climate crisis.

“We sought to expose the hypocrisy of allowing Friedman, who is known for his influential support of U.S. wars for oil in the Middle East, to call himself an environmentalist,” explained Greenwash Guerrilla Margaree Little. “He has blood on his hands that no amount of ‘green’ can wash away.”

Little, a Brown University student identified as one of the pie throwers, faces University disciplinary hearings, potentially including expulsion. Colonel Custard, the second pie thrower, remains at large.

Little and Custard jumped on stage as Friedman began his talk, entitled “Green is the new Red, White & Blue.” The talk focused on how green technology and corporate environmentalism can restore the United States to its “natural place in the global order.”

They tossed two green-colored cream pies at Friedman and dashed off as leaflets denouncing Friedman were thrown to the crowd. According to the pamphlets, “On behalf of the earth and all true environmentalists - we, the Greenwash Guerillas, declare Thomas Friedman’s ‘Green’ as fake . . . as the cool-whip covering his face.”

The Greenwash Guerillas object to Friedman’s support for nuclear power, coal power, industrial biofuels, and carbon trading markets. “These false solutions are smokescreens, intended to generate massive corporate profits while creating global humanitarian and environmental disasters,” said Colonel Custard.

Video of the pie throwing incident was posted on YouTube, and received close to 70,000 views in 36 hours, making it one of the most popular videos on the site. Without notice, YouTube abruptly censored the video, removing it from the website. Hundreds of news outlets, blogs, and websites had linked to the video. The Greenwash Guerillas have reposted the clip at: www.GreenwashGuerrillas.org

“Given the many other pieings on YouTube(1), the removal of the video can only be understood as an act of political censorship,” said Little. “It’s a sad commentary on how free we are to speak when confronting power.”

“The Greenwash Guerillas chose the harmless and humorous tactic of pie-throwing because our goal was to take this perpetual charlatan off his new green pedestal,” said Colonel Custard. “Friedman’s support for coal and nuclear power is as misguided as his counsel on Iraq.”

This is the second time Friedman has been hit by a pie. In October 2002, he received a banana pie to his face while promoting his writings on free-market globalization in Boston.

SOURCE & VIDEO

California dreamin’ Changing the World in “2112″

Thu, 26 Sep 2008 13:51:42 GMT

posted by rushprnews

Browse > Home / ENVIRONMENT, FILM / California dreamin’ Changing the World in “2112″

September 26, 2008

Climate activist sets sights on ‘global warming’ movie set in year 2112

by Dan Bloom

HOLLYWOOD (RUSHPRNEWS) o9/26/2008– While most people go about their daily business, mindful of the news about climate change and global warming, Mike Roddy, 61, wants to do something about it.

He’s not a climate activist, he’s not a science expert, and he doesn’t have a Ph.D. in climatology. But Roddy’s steaming mad about the road the world may very well be headed down — towards climate apocalypse! — and for the sake of his son and future descendants, he wants to do something about it.So he’s writing a screenplay, with some help from some Hollywood pals.

Roddy earlier had a long career as a housing developer and has built housing on four continents. In fact, after the big Kobe Earthquake in Japan in 1995, he travelled there to help build post-quake housing for survivors, too.

But what occupies his mind (and time) these days is climate change, and the possibility that global warming might turn the future into a nightmare of unspeakable sights.

So to work out his own demons and put his anxieites into creative play, he’s working on a screenplay now about what humankind might face in the near future, if things go from bad to worse. The green activist wants to make a movie about the impact of climate change, and he wants the Hollywood production to serve as dramatic a wake up call — to prod people and governments into taking action now!

The Yucca Valley, California resident has titled the movie “2112″.

Part of Roddy’s inspiration comes from a friendship with Hollywood screenwriter and UCLA writing professor Robert Roy Pool. Does that name sound familiar? Pool wrote the original story for the movie that became “Armageddon” in 1998. Roddy has discussed climate change issues with Pool and knows how Hollywood works as well.

“Bob has been a great inspiration to me on this project,” Roddy said. When asked what got him started on the movie project, Roddy replied: “I’ve been reading up on global warming for about ten years and published an article last year about deforestation and climate change in the USA. I’ve also spoken to some of the top scientists in the field, like professors Schneider, Harmon and Harte. The biggest problem everyone seems to feel, is political will, which comes from public opinion.”

“So I figured that since the media is timid and corporate, the best way to reach the public is to make a movie showing what the future may look like. The evidence shows that the world of 100 years from now is likely to be devastated and chaotic,” he said.

“Plenty of scientists think that in 100 years, average global temperatures could easily be 5 degrees centigrade higher than today.

The consequences are vast, including mass extinctions, reduced arable land and fresh water, and unbearable climates in most of the world,” He said.

When asked who has inspired him in his research and thinking about climate change and global warming, Roddy said: “I have been inspired by Mark Lynas’ book “Six Degrees”, the IPCC reports and supporting studies by Bill McKibben, Harte, and images of what future survivors cities might look like.”

Roddy is also part of a global online community of climate bloggers.

“It has been fun and very educational to blog on Dot Earth, a very important blog run by science reporter Andrew Revkin at the New York Times,” he said.

Roddy said he wants to place his movie sets inside underground Arctic cities, based on research he has done on the Internet, and he says these cities, located underground, “are very plausible in 100 years, since infantry even today can destroy most buildings.”

About the movie script that he is working on day and night, Roddy had plenty to
say: “The working title is ‘2112′, the year the movie takes place.

Locations
are Houston, where the remnants of the fossil fuel people live, and the a river valley in Alaska, where most of the action takes place. The theme? The theme is survival in desperate circumstances.”

“James Lovelock in the UK says this time in human history will be called ‘the cull, since vicious fighting over scarce resources is highly probable, and this fighting is central in the movie,” Roddy said.

Roddy also explained what some of the locations will look like: “There will be a so-called polar city in the Tatshenshini Valley that is attacked twice, first by a group of refugees from Peru, and then again later at the movie’s climax by an organized and well armed force of mercenaries from Houston.”

“The defenders operate from underground, moving rapidly and using surprise and ingenuity,” he added.

“Subplots include intermarriage with the new invaders, children in the settlement developing close and intuitive relationships with nature (similar to those of the original natives), descendants of the oil companies financing the second invasion- and a snapshot of their prior and current lives in Houston — and indoor scenes showing how people have adjusted to a world of scarcity,” Roddy added.
This is not Roddy’s first attempt at a Hollywood screenplay. “This is my second time to write a movie script. The first script was a true story, about the Nuxalk Indians of the Bella Coola Valley of British Columbia defending their land against loggers. Bob Pool, who wrote the story for the movie ‘Armageddon’ in 1998, helped me on that one.”

When asked how he intends to find a producer to greenlight his movie script, Roddy noted: “My current script is well under way, but it will take a few months to polish it. I know a few people in Hollywood, and I will work with an agent and through my own contacts to try to sell it. We will probably need to find private money, from a wealthy and concerned individual.

The movie’s impact would far exceed that of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, which only grossed US$30 million domestically. A hit action movie these days can gross US$200-300 million, not counting video and overseas. A lot more people will pay to see an action movie than a documentary, and it affects them more viscerally.”

“This is what we need to effect change. Even ‘The China Syndrome’, which was a modest hit, had a lot do with closing down the nuclear power industry.”

As for who will star in the movie, Roddy said he had a few ideas: “I’d like to see Viggo Mortenson play Nigel, the lead character, because he can play a military leader who is a little haunted and unconventional. Penelope Cruz would be good as the Peruvian love interest. Ned Beatty could play the oil company executive in the drunken golf cart scene. I would like to see the director chosen among Peter Jackson, Ridley Scott, and Oliver Stone.”

Money? As always, there is the issue of money. Lots of money.

“We will need around US$120 million for production, to attract talent and pay for the production values we will need for a polar cities war movie.

Another $100 million is needed for sales and marketing, but that could come from joint venturing with a studio at that point,” Roddy said.

In terms of a time frame, Roddy said he hopes to get the movie made as soon as possible, adding:
“I’d like to see a 2012 release date. So the movie will be set 100 years in the future.

We need to get to work on changing the way we use energy and work the land, and quickly.”
Mike Roddy has big dreams and high hopes for his movie project about climate change and global warming, to use it as a wake up call for humanity. Meanwhile, his daily life in California keeps him grounded and busy.

“I traveled all over the place as a kid, including a year in Japan, because my father was a colonel in the U.S. Army,” Roddy recalled. “I graduated from UC Berkeley, majoring in social science, but took a lot of hard science courses, too.”

Roddy also commented: “For 15 years, I have been a relentless enemy of the timber industry, and feel the same about the oil and coal companies as well. I’m a fighter, for important causes. Climate change is a very very important problem that we need to tackle. That’s why I am devoting my time now to bringing this Hollywood screenplay to the silver screen.”

It is Roddy’s son who inspires him in many ways, he says.

“My son Malcolm is 12, and concern for his future is my main motivation,” he said. “If this movie succeeds, it could be the single most important step toward his having a decent future. With all the talk about global warming, governments aren’t really doing much because the people don’t register it closely enough. This could help.”

Is Roddy optimistic or pessimistic about the future of our planet Earth? He explains his feelings this way: “I’m not optimistic about massive and short term switches to alternative power, for the reasons we’ve talked about on the New York Times’ Dot Earth blog:
too many entrenched financial interests, inertia, greed, and reluctance to act decisively to improve things in the distant future.

We can solve this problem if we act quickly and aggressively in the next 10 years, but I see no evidence that this will occur.”

Regarding the use of the idea of polar cities in his movie script, Roddy said that “polar cities are central to the movie, because that’s where most of the action located.”

He added: “The town is underground, strictly for military defense. The world of 2112 will be full of desperate climate refugees and invaders.

Earlier sci fi movies that took place underground were ‘Outlander’, ‘Twelve Monkeys’, and ‘A Boy and his Dog’. These were eerie, surprising movies. Others that had key underground locations were ‘Resident Evil’, ‘Wargames’, ‘Stargate’, and the ‘Mummy’ movies. Underground settings are actually very cinematic.”

Here’s hoping Mike Roddy finds an angel to greenlight his very important climate change movie project. God knows, there must be an angel out there, somewhere. Sir Richard Branson? A young philanthropist who feels strongly about fighting climate change?

“I’m hoping we can get this movie made,” Roddy said. “This one is not about money or fame, it’s about the Earth, our home planet. I am doing this for my son.”

About the Author: Dan Bloom is a Rush PR News environmental news columnist. He is currently doing research on climate change as international director of the Polar Cities Research Institute. Write him at danbloom@RushPRnews.com

photo: Kathryn Blume in The Boycott

Posted by Dan Bloom · Filed Under ENVIRONMENT, FILM

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The appreciating value of fuel helps us appreciate the value of fuel

Mon, 12 Aug 2008 10:33:00 GMT

posted by sementivae

Am I the only one not perversely pleased by the appreciating fuel costs? Fuel has always treated with a complacent immortality, sort of petroleum version of The Everlasting Gobstopper. Now the price is rising, we are forced to use fuel prudently, more intelligently (though only intelligent in as much as it is economic - seeing as most of our aims nowadays are relative to monetary wealth).

This pleases me because the harder it is for people to manage fuel costs, the closer we come to an understanding - understanding but no epiphany - about the true cost of fuel for the Planet. By that I mean, how much our mass over-reliance upon oil costs the Planet.

To have the fuel 'problem' pushed to crisis point could bring about a much needed reorientation of humankind's goals. Without a reliance on fuel, then we are free to explore the kinder energy alternatives.

As far as I can tell, there are two ways in which the oil industry will eat itself - that inflation reaches such a peak that it is unaffordable and consequently the oil industries go bust. Or that oil reserves just deplete until a few drops and consequently the industries will go bust. As both outcomes (hyperinflation or no oil left) are ostensibly mutually inclusive - two sides of the same coin - fate is a spinning coin that will either fall on heads or tails. The fate will be the same no matter what, just it will take one of two forms.

In a film about the oil industry, Syriana, Matt Damon conducting business affairs with a Middle-Eastern prince, forecasts for the Prince that

"[A] hundred years ago you were living in tents out here in the desert chopping each other's heads off and that's where you'll be in another hundred years"

Not only the death of the oil industry bring about the regressive transformation of Emir to Bedouin, but return the world entire to a more pastoral existence. England would closer resemble that as described in the works of Romantic poets, on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution and Blake's Satanic Mills.

If the wish is to maintain modernity - by possessing oil indefinitely - to have our cars and our modern kitchens and our convenient hot water - then the only recourse is to diminish demand. In which case, birth-rates must be controlled or we accept the inevitability of war.

That is not to express admiration for war; at least not all wars. Indeed the invasion of Iraq for black gold was as deplorable as Cristobal Colon's plundering of the Caribbean for true gold half a millennium ago. (The enslavement and genocide of the Caribbean natives was an atrocity, no doubt.)

Still, I have never been enraptured with all aspects of modernity (I empathise with those women known as "time warp wives" who self-medicate with decades past), so anything to take us back in time would be welcome. For to go back in time in some respects, would be to go forward in others. Art and culture, for instance, has entered a new Dark Age (as Evelyn Waugh stated: art ended with the Impressionists) and I'm sure that would be remedied by exiting the psychosis of modernity.

My argument has always been that the period of history we have arrived at is an anomaly. We should not be here. It's as if we've hacked the code and made Life behave in a way it wasn't designed to.

Anyway, as I lie in baths which use a quarter of the hot water they used to, or try to stay in the higher, more economical gears wherever possible on the roadways, I do not absolutely prophecy a world no longer dependent upon fuel to be a cruel one.