Posts Tagged climate

GREEN FESTIVAL CELEBRATES 10TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 29-30

The nation’s largest green living event comes to Los Angeles Convention Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACTS: Georgia Malki
Denise Hamler
Phone: 828-333-9403 x 125
202-872-5303
Georgia@sevenstarevents.com
denisehamler@greenamerica.org

Summer Eco-Fashion at Green Festival

LOS ANGELES – The nation’s premier green living event comes to Los Angeles October 29-30 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. This year, Green Festival celebrates a ten year milestone with over one million attendees in eight cities.

This unique experience celebrates positive solutions working in our communities.  It is where people come to meet renowned authors, actors, visionaries and community leaders; shop with hundreds of green businesses; participate in DIY workshops; enjoy live music and local vegan and vegetarian cuisine; and join friends at the organic beer and wine garden.

“In Mayor’s Villaraigosa ongoing commitment to make Los Angeles one of the world’s Greenest Cities,  he is happy to welcome Green Festival  to Los Angeles and looks forward to opening the festival on October 29th, says Romel Pascual, Deputy Mayor of Environment for Los Angles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa.

Ten stages and pavilions will host more than 125 inspirational and educational speakers and teachers, including: Dolores Huerta, Amy Goodman, Tom Hayden, Marianne Williamson, Rev. Lennox Yearwood and the Hip Hop Caucus, John Perkins, Starhawk, Mark Hertsgaard, David Korten, Jeffrey Smith, Jodie Evans and many more.

Spanish language programming will include Latino cooking demonstrations, greening your home and garden, and activities for the whole family at the Green Kid’s Zone.

“We are excited to host the inaugural Green Festival in Los Angeles and bring Angelenos together to learn how to bring sustainability into their lives,” says Jonathan Parfrey, Climate Resolve Executive Director and a commissioner at the Department of Water & Power Board.  ”For those of us who care about Los Angeles and its future, the Green Festival is a place to talk about climate change and how to prepare to adapt.”

With the holiday season just around the corner, Green Festival is the perfect location to support local businesses all in one location.  The Green Marketplace profiles hundreds of green and socially responsible businesses and organizations. Attendees browse everything from green, non-toxic home furnishings to organic clothing to Fair Trade gifts, children’s toys and much more.

“Whether you go to shop, learn, or experience art and music, Green Festival has it all, it is a great place to celebrate what is working in our communities and find the sustainable solutions that fit your lifestyle,” says Denise Hamler, Green Festival Director.

Green Festival offers something for the entire family. Peruse the latest in earth-friendly casual wear and couture in the eco-fashion show. View socially and environmentally impactful film shorts at the Communications Revolution Stage and the Sierra Club Green Cinema. Discover the latest in environmentally responsible construction materials and methods in the Green Building Pavilion. Move and meditate in the Yoga and Movement Pavilion. Empower your inner entrepreneur and find your next green career with Green Business Seminars.

Check out the latest in all-electric and hybrid transportation at the Ford Pavilion and enjoy a test drive right at the Green Festival.  Join Ford in celebrating social and environmental innovation in the community and vote for local individuals and nonprofits to win a $5,000 Ford Community Green Grant.

A joint project of Green America and Global Exchange, Green Festival is a non-profit 501c3 event to explore and build sustainable solutions for successful communities and a healthier environment.

Engage with Green Festivals online at www.GreenFestivals.org.

Connect with Green Festival on Facebook and Twitter @GreenFestival.

Sign up for the Green Festival Newsletter at www.greenfestivals.org/newsletter for program updates and giveaway opportunities.

Become a Green Festival volunteer and get free admission volunteer@greenfestivals.org.

Green Festival Partners make the event possible: Ford, The Los Angeles Times, Sierra Club, Earth Balance and Democracy Now.

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About Green America

Green America is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1982, providing the economic strategies, organizing power and practicing tools for businesses and individuals to address today’s social and environmental problems. Its Green Business Network is the largest national network of businesses screened for their social and environmental responsibility.  www.greenamerica.org

About Global Exchange

Global Exchange is a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world. Since its founding in 1988, Global Exchange has successfully increased public awareness of root causes of injustice while building international partnerships and mobilizing for change. www.globalexchange.org

About Seven-Star, Inc.

Seven-Star, Inc. is the nation’s premier green full-service event company focusing exclusively on green events. Since 1999, Seven-Star has provided turn-key green event services for environmentally responsible and socially respectful (eR/sR) festivals, trade and consumer expositions, conferences and concerts. Events include the greening of the 2007 International Live Earth events, 2008 Democratic National Convention events, and Green Festivals. Seven-Star is the first event company to win the EPA’s Gold Waste Wise Award for Excellence in recognition for their proprietary system of event waste diversion, which has consistently achieved greater than 92%.www.sevenstarevents.com

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‘I’m scared out of my mind’—but still getting arrested to stop the tar-sands pipeline [VIDEO]

“More than 100 activists have been arrested so far for protesting against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline in front of the White House — and more are getting locked up every day. At least 2,100 people have signed up to participate in the two-week sit-in, which kicked off on Saturday and will continue every day through Sept. 3. Not all of the protestors are intending to get arrested, but expect hundreds more to serve some time in the clink.”

‘I’m scared out of my mind’—but still getting arrested to stop the tar-sands pipeline [VIDEO] via Grist

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VIDEO: Bill McKibben Answers Questions about the Tar Sands Action

“Wednesday August 3rd, Bill McKibben took to LiveStream to give an updates on the action answer questions from folks who will be attending. Here is a recording of that conversation.”
VIDEO: Bill McKibben Answers Questions about the Tar Sands Action via Tar Sands Action

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VIDEO: Chicago author urges black community to go green

“The green movement is more popular than ever, but experts say socioeconomic barriers like high crime and lower household income keep the trend from catching on in all communities.  When a tankless water heater costs $1,500 more than a standard one, environmentalism often takes a backseat to saving money. Kaitlin Meehan shares one local author’s quest to get the black community to go green.”

SEE VIDEO: Chicago author urges black community to go green via Medill Reports Chicago

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Tim DeChristopher Is Going to Jail, Now It's Our Turn

‘”The idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs more defenders.” –Ed Abbey

“The Eyes of the Future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time.” –Terry Tempest Williams

There’s something about the redrock canyons that seems to inspire great writing — I was lucky enough to know Ed Abbey and to count Terry Tempest Williams as a great friend. Both wrote — and both fought. They fulfilled the duty they owed that great landscape. They fought to protect great chunks of land

And they’re joined by Tim DeChristopher, sentenced today to 24 months in prison for a creative act of resistance straight out of the Monkey Wrench Gang. He didn’t damage anything except the pride of the Bureau of Land Management, when he posed as a bidder and won 14 parcels of land at an oil-and-gas lease auction. They were gorgeous pieces of land that he protected — but far more, he was acting on behalf of every landscape left on the planet.”

Tim DeChristopher Is Going to Jail, Now It’s Our Turn via Bill Mckibben – Huffington Post

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It's Hotter Than It Used to Be; It's Not as Hot as It's Going to Be

“Holy crap it’s hot. People, animals, and crops are dying.

But not only is it hot, it’s hotter than it used to be. And it’s our fault. Welcome to the future of climate change.

Let’s keep this simple: we know the Earth is warming up — the data are unambiguous.* We know that humans are largely responsible — the scientific community has been clear. And we know that the massive efforts to deny these two facts have confused policy makers, the public, and the media and have seriously delayed taking any sort of effective policy action to slow climate changes.

What this delay means, however, is rarely discussed, but in the most straightforward terms:
It’s going to get even hotter. A lot hotter.”

It’s Hotter Than It Used to Be; It’s Not as Hot as It’s Going to Be via Peter H. Gleick – Huffington Post

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Al Gore Launches Climate Reality Project

Al Gore turned from a waffling politician to a leading climate action activist a few years ago. If someone mentions Al Gore now, probably the #1 association that comes to mind is global warming, due to his wildly popular and influential film “An Inconvenient Truth” and resulting Nobel Peace Prize. While there are probably thousands upon thousands of trolls spreading misinformation about Al Gore and climate change across the internet, confusing the public and hurting a very respectable man’s reputation, Al Gore and his message are tremendously needed today.

We are facing unprecedented catastrophe and Gore is doing his best to avert that. His latest effort, launched yesterday, is the “Climate Reality Project.”’

Al Gore Launches Climate Reality Project via Zachary Shahan – Planet Save

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How the West was lost to wildfires

“Arizona is burning. Texas, too. New Mexico is next. If you need a grim reminder that an already arid West is burning up and blowing away, here it is. As I write this, more than 700 square miles of Arizona and more than 4,300 square miles of Texas have been swept by monster wildfires. Consider those massive columns of acrid smoke drifting eastward as a kind of smoke signal warning us that a globally warming world is not a matter of some future worst-case scenario. It’s happening right here, right now.

Air tankers have been dropping fire retardant on what is being called the Wallow fire in Arizona and firefighting crews have been mobilized from across the West, but the fire remained “zero contained” for most of last week and only 18 percent so early in the new week, too big to touch with mere human tools like hoses, shovels, saws, and bulldozers. Walls of flame 100 feet high rolled over the land like a tsunami from Hades. The heat from such a fire is so intense and immense that it can create small tornadoes of red embers that cannot be knocked down and smothered by water or chemicals. These are not your grandfather’s forest fires.”

How the West was lost to wildfires via Chip Ward – Toms DispatchGrist

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The Safe Bet: Renewables

“We live in a world dominated by risk. Corporations obsess over it; governments are ruled by it. Those in power make decisions based on the likelihood of unforeseen events—sudden conflict, popular uprisings, disasters. As we enter the second decade of the twenty-first century, we’re beginning to see a new pattern, a new landscape of threat, emerging from the wreckage of Fukushima, Macondo and Misrata. A series of unexpected events have overthrown governments and brought huge companies to the point of collapse. It’s time for the decision-makers to realize that dirty energy is no longer the safe bet. Renewable energy is safer, smarter and more resilient.”

The Safe Bet: Renewables via Kumi Naidoo – The Nation

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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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