“Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., President and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, will be in Seattle Friday May 20, and Saturday, May 21, keynoting this year’s Green Festival-Seattle. Linking the issues of poverty and pollution, Rev Yearwood will address rising asthma rates and other health disparities from air pollution among youth and communities of color in Seattle.”
Seattle Green Festival Features Rev. Lennox Yearwood on Asthma Epidemic via The Skanner
“The Rev. Lennox Yearwood is speaking on the Green Festival Main Stage at 2 pm on Saturday: “Green Mojo: How the Green Movement Can Get It Back, and Keep It In the Future”.
His Background -Rev. Lennox Yearwood: A pacemaker within the green movement, Rev Yearwood has successfully bridged the gap between communities of color and environmental justice for more than three years. In 2009, Yearwood led the Hip Hop Caucus to create the Green the Block campaign in partnership with Green for All. In result, the Hip Hop Caucus is the first organization to launch a national grassroots campaign from the White House. In 2010 Yearwood was named one of the 100 most powerful African Americans by Ebony Magazine, and one of the 10 Game Changers in the Green movement by the Huffington Post. Now, in 2011 the Hip Hop Caucus is fighting poverty and pollution at the same time with the One Planet. One Voice. campaign. Money matters when it comes to environmental justice. One Planet. Once Voice. addresses the disproportionate affects of pollution on impoverished communities. Yearwood’s unique influence promoted Discovery Communications to produce a full-length documentary covering his life and leadership.
Lee Callahan interviews the Reverend here:”
Hip Hop Caucus Comes To Seattle Green Festival via CBS Seattle, Heard on AM 1090
“The right-wing media machine is a large part of the reason why denial of climate change persists in the United States long after the rest of the world has acknowledged the problem. Over the past few days, I’ve gotten a close-up look at how the machine works, because I’ve been its target.
Last Tuesday, February 15, I went to Capitol Hill on a mission: to confront the climate cranks who still refuse to accept what virtually every major scientific organization in the world, starting with our own National Academy of Sciences, has concluded: man-made climate change is real, happening now and extremely dangerous.”
Climate Cranks Gin Up The Right Wing Noise Machine via Mark Hertsgaard – Huffington Post
“With the nation mired in war half a world away, a catastrophic oil spill imperiling coastal waters and the economy sputtering, the president rallied the nation around a common goal.
“Restoring nature to its natural state is a cause beyond party and beyond factions,” he said, calling on Congress to strengthen environmental safeguards, invest in cleaner fuels, promote more efficient cars and crack down on corporate polluters. “Clean air, clean water, open spaces, these should once again be the birthright of every American. If we act now, they can be.”
Barack Obama, 2011? Hardly. That was President Richard M. Nixon in 1970. In his State of the Union Address, the Republican leader put environmental protection near the heart of an agenda that garnered widespread bipartisan support.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49514.html#ixzz1E9EkKxp2
Nature isn’t red or blue. It’s green via John Adams – NRDC – Politico
“SAN FRANCISCO — California’s landmark law on curbing greenhouse gases, which is well on its way to taking effect, has hit a legal snag in the form of a tentative judicial ruling that state environmental regulators failed to follow legally required procedures.
Judge Ernest H. Goldsmith of San Francisco Superior Court issued a tentative opinion — a rarely used procedure that gives the prospective loser in the case a chance to make new arguments or take new actions before a final decision — saying that the rules creating a cap-and-trade system were adopted without proper analysis of alternatives.”
California Law to Curb Greenhouse Gases Faces a Legal Hurdle via Felicity Barringer – New York Times Environment
NRDC Obtains Carbon Offsets to Highlight Need for Clean Energy Agenda
WASHINGTON D.C. – January 25, 2011 Tonight will be rich in symbolism, as Democrats and Republicans mingle among the seats in the House chamber during President Obama’s State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress.
In another symbolic gesture, NRDC has ensured that not one gram of carbon dioxide pollution will remain in the atmosphere as a result of the president’s motorcades tonight between the White House and the Capitol.
That’s because NRDC has purchased “offsets” to make the round-trip carbon neutral — a first for a State of the Union presidential motorcade.
“Offsetting the president’s motorcades is meant to put on tonight’s agenda an awareness of the need to move America more vigorously toward a clean-energy economy, and that personal actions matter,” said Peter Lehner, executive director of NRDC.
“The president will tell us that nothing is more urgent than reviving our economy. We can put millions of Americans back to work by investing in renewable fuels and greater energy efficiency. A clean-energy agenda will boost our economy and strengthen safeguards that protect our health, our waters, our lands and the air we breathe.”
To ensure a carbon-neutral motorcade, NRDC has purchased renewable energy carbon offsets through the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. The Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit foundationspecializes in carbon “offsets,” which are credits that anyone can buy to compensate for or lessen their carbon dioxide pollution imprint. The credits fund projects that create a reduction of, or capture, carbon dioxide pollution somewhere else.
“This is no substitute for reducing the emission of carbon dioxide pollution,” Lehner said. “But offsets can raise awareness and show that we all should act to do what is possible.”
http://www.nrdc.org/media/2011/110125.asp
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About NRDC
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 1.3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world’s natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Livingston, Montana, and Beijing. Visit www.nrdc.org
E.P.A. Limit on Gases to Pose Risk to Obama and Congress via John M. Broder at NY Times
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued its plan for establishing greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution standards under the Clean Air Act in 2011. The agency looked at a number of sectors and is moving forward on GHG standards for fossil fuel power plants and petroleum refineries—two of the largest industrial sources, representing nearly 40 percent of the GHG pollution in the United States. The schedule issued in today’s agreements provides a clear path forward for these sectors and is part of EPA’s common-sense approach to addressing GHGs from the largest industrial pollution sources.
“We are following through on our commitment to proceed in a measured and careful way to reduce GHG pollution that threatens the health and welfare of Americans, and contributes to climate change,” Administrator Lisa Jackson said. “These standards will help American companies attract private investment to the clean energy upgrades that make our companies more competitive and create good jobs here at home.”
Several states, local governments and environmental organizations sued EPA over the agency’s failure to update the pollution standards for fossil fuel power plants and petroleum refineries, two of the largest source categories of GHG pollution in the United States. Under today’s agreement, EPA will propose standards for power plants in July 2011 and for refineries in December 2011 and will issue final standards in May 2012 and November 2012, respectively.
This schedule will allow the agency to host listening sessions with the business community, states and other stakeholders in early 2011, well before the rulemaking process begins, as well as to solicit additional feedback during the routine notice and comment period. Together this feedback will lead to smart, cost-effective and protective standards that reflect the latest and best information.
The Clean Air Act requires EPA to set industry-specific standards for new sources that emit significant quantities of harmful pollutants. These standards, called New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), set the level of pollution new facilities may emit and address air pollution from existing facilities. The Act allows flexible and innovative approaches that take into account cost, health and environmental impacts, and energy requirements. EPA must also periodically update these standards to reflect improvements in control technologies.
Earlier this year, EPA issued a common-sense approach to GHG permitting for the largest industrial sources. This approach, the GHG permitting guidelines issued in November, and these standards will give power plants and refineries a clear and sensible path for addressing GHG pollution.
EPA will accept public comment on these two agreements for 30 days following publication of notice in the Federal Register.