Green Economics (News)

BOOK PARTY / FORUM
Playbook for Progressives: 16 Qualities of the Successful Organizer Eric Mann
 
SAN FRANCISCO
Tuesday October 11th 6-8:30pm
at 518 Valencia Street
Hosted by POWER
 
OAKLAND

OAKLAND Thursday October 13th 6-8:30pm
(Rescheduled - Date To Be Determined)
Hosted by Causa Justa::Just Cause
 
“Eric Mann has written an essential field guide for community organizers. His voice is crisp and clear, and his footsteps on the pavement are sharp. A pragmatic primer for all radicals.”?—Vijay Prashad, author of The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World
An organizing manifesto for the twenty-first century, Playbook for Progressives is a must-have for the activist’s tool kit. This comprehensive guide articulates pragmatically what is required in the often mystifying and rarely explained on-the-ground practice of organizing. Here, Eric Mann distills lessons he learned from over forty years as an organizer, as well as from other organizers within the civil rights, labor, LGBT, economic justice, and environmental movements.

Come hear the author first hand and get your own copy of this exciting new book!!
Read more about the Playbook for Progressives here.
 
Eric Mann is a veteran organizer with the Congress of Racial Equality, Students for a Democratic Society, and the United Auto Workers Union. He is presently the director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles and a member of its Bus Riders Union and Community Rights Campaign.

 

By Wyatt Buchanan

The California Air Resources Board violated state environmental law in 2008 when it adopted a comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gases and again last year when it passed cap-and-trade regulations, a San Francisco Superior Court judge has ruled in a tentative decision.

If the decision is made final, California would be barred from implementing its ambitious plan to combat global warming until it complies with portions of the California Environmental Quality Act, though it is not yet clear what the air board would have to do to be in compliance. The state's plan, which implements AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, would reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

The Air Resources Board and those who brought the lawsuit, a variety of environmental groups represented by the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, a San Francisco organization, have until Tuesday to respond before the court makes a final ruling.

By Margot Roosevelt

Environmental justice, a movement to focus attention on pollution in low-income communities, is a burning cause for Lisa Jackson, the first African American to head the U.S. Environmental Protection agency.  Over the last several months, Jackson has toured poor white, black and Latino communities with a message: Eco-issues aren't just for rich folks.

On Saturday, the EPA chief took a bus tour of low-income neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay area, stopping at a Superfund site where the federal government is coordinating toxic chemical cleanup, and an urban food cooperative.

PLEASANTON -- In its bid to become the greenest city in the state, Pleasanton will host a Green Scene Fair for local employees and residents from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 21 at the CarrAmerica Conference Center, 4400 Rosewood Dr.

The fair will feature 75 vendors that specialize in green practices, including air, water, waste, commuting and transportation, healthy homes and healthy living and energy. Fuel efficient vehicles will also be on display and sustainably produced food will be sold.

The event is part of a series of activities the city has planned as part of its climate action plan it will adopt as part of a settlement it reached with Urban Habitat. The environmental justice group sued the city and won over its voter-approved housing cap of 29,000 units, saying it prevented the city from meeting is share of regional housing needs.

For more information visit www.pleasantongreenscene.org.

Robert Jordan covers Dublin and Pleasanton. Contact him at 925-847-2184.

10 October 2010 - 12:00pm - 5:00pm

Fed up with all the hot air around climate change? Then roll up your sleeves and get down and dirty Oakland-style, with hundreds of your friends and neighbors this October 10 at Laney College!

We'll revitalize Laney College's community garden, offer skills-building workshops, pass the mic to dynamic speakers, and bring together local leaders for climate justice. Help support Oakland's climate action plan by building community access to healthy, affordable food! We'll also kick off a statewide Clean Energy Tour featuring some of Oakland's top hip hop talent, while educating folks about the threat to our communities from Prop 23.

Sponsored by the Oakland Climate Action Coalition, Bay Localize, Ella Baker Center, CommuniTree, Greenpeace, HOPE Collaborative, and Laney College this will be an anchor event among dozens of gatherings happening around the Bay Area as part of 350.org's "Global Work Party" on 10.10.10. Get involved with local climate solutions!

This event is FREE and open to the public. Yummy local food also available.

RSVP today at:
http://action.ellabakercenter.org/site/Calendar?view=Detail&id=100241

Share with your friends on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=123984270983846

Join us for the Bay Area's biggest day of climate action ever!

Sunnyvale Horizon 2035 Committee Public Outreach Meeting

 

Help shape the future of Sunnyvale by attending the Horizon 2035 Committee's Public Outreach meeting on the Climate Action Plan. Help plan for Sunnyvale's future Transportation, Land Use, and Climate policies that will affect everything from the location of businesses to what kind of light bulbs will go in streetlamps!

The meeting will be held at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at the City Council Chambers in Sunnyvale (456 W. Olive Avenue). For updates on Horizon 2035, visit www.Horizon2035.inSunnyvale.com

Please see flyer for more information. We hope to see you on the 29th!

By Joshua Arce

When San Francisco’s Sunset Reservoir solar project is completed later this year, it will be one of the largest installations of its kind in the country. A sea of 25,000 solar panels kicking out five megawatts of clean, green energy, Sunset Reservoir holds the distinction of drawing 30 percent of its project workforce from the city’s most economically disadvantaged communities, including Bayview Hunters Point.

Sunset Reservoir also holds the distinction of being the first solar project in the country to be shut down by a community protest.

By Yvonne Liu

“Green jobs” has become the latest buzz-word, with stimulus monies pouring into green job creation programs around the country. There is a window of opportunity to ensure equity, transparency, and accountability in the green economy, as demonstrated by emerging success stories. Blacks and Latinos experience unemployment rates that are 70 and 50 percent higher, respectively, than the rate for whites. This is the green promise, that those communities most devastated by the recession -- women and people of color – can mobilize to ride the green wave.

The Obama administration’s special adviser for environmental jobs, Van Jones, has resigned citing what he described as a “vicious smear campaign” against him. For the past month, Fox News has run a series of reports on Jones’s alleged association with communists and his decision to sign a petition calling for a congressional probe of the 9/11 attacks. Jones is the founding president of Green for All and author of the book The Green Collar Economy. We speak with James Rucker, who co-founded the group Color of Change with Van Jones, and with Malkia Cyril, founder of the Center for Media Justice. We also talk to Ben Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP.

By  Bernard Marszalek

Two weeks ago sacked workers on the Isle of Wight, off the British coast, occupied their plant to protest the loss of 600 skilled jobs. The Danish owned transnational Vestas Turbines closed the manufacturing plant and the accompanying research facility claiming that it was unprofitable. This was the only wind turbine manufacturer in Britain.