Archive for June, 2011

Top 10 Climate-Ready Cities in the U.S.

“Cities are now home to a majority of the world’s population and are on the front line in the battle against climate change.  While action at the federal level in the U.S. has been painfully slow, cities in the U.S. are starting to lead by example at a local level. Cities must take an active role in helping their constituents (starting with themselves of course) to mitigate their impact on climate change as well as begin investing in appropriateclimate change adaptation solutions.

I felt that it was time to do some analysis on U.S. Cities which are positioning themselves to be leaders in climate capitalism. I have used proxies and a methodology for ranking the largest cities in the U.S. based on a range of factors including political commitment (as measured by number of commitments the city has made with the U.S. MayorsCarbon War Room Cities ChallengeClinton 40, and ICLEI membership), green buildings (LEED buildings per capita), university leadership (AASHE membership/capita), transit access and use (range of metrics on heavy and light rail usage per capita), clean tech investment (venture funds based in city with clean tech investments in 2010) and energy and GHG emissions (from a range of sources)*.”

Top 10 Climate-Ready Cities in the U.S. via Boyd Cohen – CO2 Impact / Triple Pundit

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Major Rally in Times Square Calls on Hershey Company to Stop Using Child Labor Chocolate

Kerry Kennedy, NYC Area Elementary and High School Students Tell Hershey They Don’t Want Chocolate Made by Exploited Kids

Human Rights Activist Kerry Kennedy calls on Hershey to stop using Child Labor at the Raise the Bar Hershey Rally in Times Square (Credit: Diane Greene Lent)

New York City – June 8, 2011 With World Day Against Child Labor right around the corner, hundreds students and concerned consumers gathered today in front of the Hershey Store in Times Square to call on Hershey to “raise the bar” by eliminating exploitative child labor from its cocoa production supply chain.

Human rights activist Kerry Kennedy also spoke at the rally.  She was joined by Lee Cutler, secretary treasurer of New York State United Teachers Union, as well as students, teachers and musical performers from the New York City area.

“The illegal use of child labor in chocolate production by Hershey and other chocolate-makers must stop,” said Kerry Kennedy, president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. “With this rally in Times Square, we are making sure that these companies hear that chocolate produced by children is a crime.”

A decade after major chocolate companies including Hershey agreed to eliminate abusive child labor, forced labor and trafficking from their supply chains, these abuses continue on West African cocoa farms. Hershey is lagging behind its competitors in implementing policies to end these abuses in its chocolate products. Families who grow cocoa also live in poverty due to unstable cocoa prices.  Students and consumers are calling on Hershey to take stronger action to end these labor rights violations and to start using Fair Trade Certified cocoa, which also guarantees farmers a stable price and additional funds for community development projects.

“The people at today’s rally represent the tens of thousands of consumers across the country who expect the companies they purchase from to care about the people who are at the very source of the products we buy” said Green America Fair Trade Coordinator Elizabeth O’Connell. “We are sending Hershey the message that it needs to make larger commitments to remove forced and child labor from its chocolate products.”

Global Exchange Fair Trade Campaign Director Adrienne Fitch-Frankel said:  “So many of us associate Hershey with sweet childhood memories.  The remarkable youth turnout at today’s rally shows that youth in the United States are outraged that, for a countless number of their peers in Africa, recollections of Hershey and childhood will mean bitter memories of exploitation in the cocoa fields.”

International Labor Rights Forum Campaigns Director Tim Newman said: “As World Day against Child Labor approaches this weekend, Hershey continues to lag behind its competitors in independently certifying that its cocoa is not produced by abusive child labor and forced labor. After ten years of broken promises, it’s time for Hershey to make firm commitments to sourcing Fair Trade Certified cocoa.”

The “Raise the Bar, Hershey!” campaign is organized by the non-profit groups Green America, International Labor Rights Forum, and Global Exchange. Over 30,000 consumers have taken action by sending e-mails, postcards, petitions, and making phone calls to the company asking it to end child labor. Campaign supporters across the country are joining the rally in solidarity by taking part in a national call-in day to Hershey headquarters (http://www.raisethebarhershey.org/take-action-call-hershey) and also through twitter by using the hashtag #HersheyGoFair.

For more information on Hershey’s corporate social responsibility record please read Time to Raise the Bar: The Real Corporate Social Responsibility Report for the Hershey Company. To read this report visit: http://www.raisethebarhershey.org.

To read why one local student is attending the rally today, please see this article by Ariana Taveras, a student in the class of 2012 at the Benedictine Academy in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ariana-taveras/why-i-am-marching-at-hers_b_871973.html.

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Why I am Marching at Hershey's Store in Times Square

“At Benedictine Academy, we believe that every child has the right to an education and to be treated with dignity. Child slave labor in the chocolate industrymust be stopped.

A new documentary was recently released, The Dark Side of Chocolate, about child slave labor. We saw how the children were getting beaten and working in the hot sun, unable to go to school,” says student Norky Diaz. Her classmate, Kai Alexander, adds “We knew we had to get involved because we care what happens to children. Chocolate child labor is immoral.” And that is just what we did. Kai Alexander, a passionate writer immediately connected her pen to her heart and wrote a rap/poem for the SHAC (Students helping All Children) Squad to use to raise awareness among their classmates and students in other schools. It is also being used as the soundtrack of our new short documentary about child slave labor in the chocolate industry.”

Why I am Marching at Hershey’s Store in Times Square via Ariana Taveras – Huffington Post

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NY assembly extends fracking ban for another year

“The New York State Assembly on Monday passed a one-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, a method of natural gas drilling already under a temporary ban in the state due to concerns that it might pollute drinking water.

The moratorium on new drilling permits would run through June 1, 2012, replacing the current ban set to expire later this summer, when state environmental officials are expected to release a report on potential hazards of “hydrofracking.”

The measure must also pass the Republican-controlled state Senate to become law.”

NY assembly extends fracking ban for another year via Dan Weissner – Reuters

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Five Reasons Why EVs Will Love L.A.

“Last week, I was fortunate to meet with two of the people driving Los Angeles’ transition to plug-inelectric vehicles (PEVs). Beth Jines, the Director of Sustainability for the City of Los Angeles, and Sarah Potts, City Director of Los Angeles for the Clinton Climate Initiative, are working together to navigate thecomplex issues of vehicle electrification and getting support from consumers and the private sector. They discussed how and why L.A. will be a leader in PEV adoption.”

Five Reasons Why EVs Will Love L.A. via John Gartner – Matter Network / Clean Techies

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ChicoBag takes on Big Plastic

“For six years, Andy Keller has waged war against the plastic shopping bag.

Now the bag is fighting back.

Keller is the founder and president of ChicoBag, a small firm in Chico making reusable shopping bags that compress into fist-sized pouches when not in use. He founded the business to give people an alternative to the ubiquitous disposable bags that often litter sidewalks, line streambeds, snag in trees and wash into the sea.

Makers of the plastic bags have taken notice.

Three of those companies have sued ChicoBag in South Carolina, accusing Keller’s business of causing them “irreparable injury.” The suit argues that ChicoBag’s website and marketing material contain false or misleading information in a deliberate attempt to “misappropriate … customers and potential customers.”‘

ChicoBag takes on Big Plastic via David R. Baker – San Francisco Chronicle

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California Senate votes to ban foam takeout containers

“Sandwiches, milkshakes and other food items frequently packaged in foam takeout containers will have to be packaged in other materials under a bill that cleared the state Senate on Thursday. SB 568 by Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) would prohibit food vendors and restaurants from dispensing prepared foods to customers in polystyrene foam beginning Jan. 1, 2014.

Expanded polystyrene foam, commonly known as Styrofoam, is a lightweight plastic that, when littered, is often carried from streets through storm drains into the ocean. It accounts for 15% of storm drain litter, according to the California Department of Transportation. It is the second-most-common type of beach debris, according to a study by the Southern California Coastal Water Quality Research Project.”

California Senate votes to ban foam takeout containers via LA Times Environment

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Is This Megadairy A Threat to Health and Livelihood of NW Illinois Residents?

“My guest today is Matthew Alschuler, press agent for HOMES [Helping Others Maintain Environmental Standards] Jo Daviess County, in far NorthWest Illinois. Welcome to OpEdNews, Matthew. Your organization is involved in something big right now. Would you like to tell our readers about it?

Sure! In December of 2007, a number of my neighbors learned that A.J. Bos, a California millionaire, was planning to build the largest industrial dairy east of the Mississippi near our homes. Jo Daviess County is dotted with traditional family farms, some of which have been in the same family for over 150 years. Agriculture and tourism are our county’s main industries, and this facility, with its 11,000 cows on a few hundred acres, threatened to destroy them both.”

Is This Megadairy A Threat to Health and Livelihood of NW Illinois Residents? via Joan Brunwasser – OpEd News

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GreenFest Seattle Recap

“Thanks to the hardcore and curious environmentals who came out to Green Festival Seattle a couple weeks back to visit our booth and discuss the intersection of gay and green. We had 77 sign-ups for our newsletter, along with great ideas and dozens more who already are connected to O4S. Our rainbow flag was flying, showing all the others who passed by on their way to talks on energy, building, food, etc that the LGBTQ community is gaining visibility in the sustainability world. Who doesn’t love that!”

GreenFest Seattle Recap via OUT For Sustainability

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Activist wants ban on paper coffee cups

“Gulp the coffee, skip the cup

Karin de Weille has launched a campaign in the heart of caffeine country to get people to kick the paper habit. “I think Seattle can push the frontier,” she said at Seattle Green Festival, a two-day celebration of ecofriendliness where the effort got its official start on May 21. The thin plastic coating that keeps most cups from turning to mush complicates recycling. Only a handful of cities try, including Seattle. But even if cups are recycled, it still requires enormous amounts of energy and resources to manufacture and ship them, de Weille told theSeattle Times. Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin endorsed the initiative, which urges participants to whip out their own reusable cups for mochas on the go or “for here.” Americans go through 56 billion paper cups every year, according to statistics compiled by International Paper. Starbucks alone gulps up 3 billion.”

Activist wants ban on paper coffee cups via St. Petersburg Times

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