that GREEN blog

ORGANIZATIONAL SIGN-ON STATEMENT WILL BE RELEASED WEDNESDAY TOO

MAKE SURE YOUR GROUP IS ON

Dear Friends,

According to numerous reports, Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) have decided to go ahead and release their climate bill on Wednesday, May 12, without the backing of Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and despite the ongoing calamity of the BP Gulf oil spill.

We don’t expect the bill to be markedly different from what we had previously reported: it will be a taxpayer-funded bonanza for the nuclear power industry, will still support offshore oil drilling (though perhaps a bit less stridently than before), will still support “clean coal,” will still remove EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and will still seek vastly insufficient carbon reductions.

We intend to go ahead and release a grassroots statement blasting the bill and its dirty energy provisions on Wednesday as well. It will be important to get into the same news cycle as the bill’s release. Because it is obviously no longer being released on the Chernobyl anniversary, we have reworked the statement. It is below, along with the current list of signers.

Organizations: Please check the list and make sure your group has signed on. If you haven’t yet signed on, please consider doing so. To sign on: send your name, organization, city and state to nirsnet@nirs.org.

If you have signed on, please check to make sure you are properly listed, and let us know of any changes.

Individuals: We know you want to have a say too! But we can’t send out 100-page press releases with everyone’s names on them! So we are preparing a new Senate letter and letter-to-the-editor campaign, and we’ll get that out to you on Wednesday or Thursday.

We hope you’ll keep supporting our efforts with your activism and your financial help. You are what makes this work possible. If you can make a tax-deductible donation to our outreach fund, please do so here.

Thanks for all you do,

Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org
www.nirs.org

Minneapolis based Target (NYSE: TGT) announced Tuesday that it is rolling out a massive nationwide recycling initiative with centers at the front of each of its 1,740 U.S. stores. The recycling stations will accept aluminum, glass and plastic beverage containers, plastic bags, MP3 players, cell phones and ink cartridges.

“The launch of store recycling stations allows us to continue to partner with [our guests] to curb unnecessary waste in our stores and our communities, ” said Shawn Gensch, vice president of brand marketing, Target.

Over the course of the last several months, retail chain Target has ramped up its sustainability programs and image, partially in response to retail giant Walmart’s big push to become more sustainable, which includes programs to green its supply chain, use less energy and produce less waste.

But Target isn’t just copying the sustainability programs their friends down in Bentonville, Arkansas are rolling out (though they should probably copy some of them), they’re forging their own path with some unique programs of their own, recently announcing they would no longer sell farmed salmon.

And whether they would admit to it or not, the Target recycling move puts a bit of pressure back on Walmart to up the ante, thereby contributing to a kind of ’race to the top’ — at least until the term was commandeered by the Obama administration.

More Information: http://www.matternetwork.com/2010/4/target-opens-recycling-centers-all.cfm

Whether you’re a foodie or just a food lover … Whether your tastes lean towards comfort food or haute cuisine, the POV (Point of View) series invites you to get your pots, pans, televisions, computers and friends ready for the special broadcast of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Food, Inc., on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 9 p.m. on PBS,
in celebration of Earth Day. (Check local listings.)

Food, Inc. asks: How much do we know about the food we buy at our local supermarkets and serve to our families? Though our food appears the same as ever, it has been radically transformed. Producer-director Robert
Kenner and investigative authors Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) lift the veil on the U.S. food industry, exposing how our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations. The livelihood of the American farmer and the safety of workers and consumers are potentially at risk. Food, Inc. reveals surprising — and shocking — truths about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we may go from here.

Beyond the national broadcast, the POV website (www.pbs.org/ipov/foodinc) will offer viewers many opportunities to learn and participate:

• Invite your family and friends over for a healthy, delicious, affordable and sustainable potluck meal. Then watch Food, Inc. and discuss the many issues it raises. POV will be giving away books, DVDs, sustainable food items and more to potluck hosts and participants.
• Plan your party with POV’s Potluck Party Guide, which features an online invitation, checklists, discussion topics, links, resources and recipes. (See samples below.)http://www.pbs. org/pov/foodinc/ party_kit. php
• If you missed the broadcast, watch the film online in its entirety from April 22-29 at http://video. pbs.org.
• Join our Potluck Campaign and you may be selected for a free POV gift basket — Visit the POV website (www.pbs.org/ pov/foodinc) from April 22 to May 3 to enter the giveaway. Gifts include autographed copies of Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Food, Inc. DVDs, autographed Food, Inc. movie posters and more. POV will select gift basket recipients the week of May 3 — Check back for details.
• Blog/Tweet/Facebook about your potluck — POV wants to know what you served, who joined in, what you thought of the film and what you talked about. Blog about your potluck and send us a link. Tweet @povdocs to tell us what you ate. Fan POV on Facebook and leave us a comment about your party.
• Calling all bloggers — Food bloggers are joining the Food, Inc. potluck campaign by sharing recipes, reaching out to their readers, hosting potlucks and more. Bloggers, including the cooks behind Food 52, Not Eating Out in New York, Last Night’s Dinner and many more sites, will be encouraging their readers to host potlucks and discuss the issues raised in the film.

http://www.pbs. org/pov/foodinc/ blogger_info. php

• Take action and take part — The social action network Take Part has partnered with POV to help viewers find out how to support healthy school lunches, and stay up to date on the issue by reading the Hungry for Change Blog.
• 10 Simple Things You Can Do — Take steps to change your diet and change the food system with these tips from the Food, Inc. filmmakers.
• Schools and community groups — Are you interested in hosting a public Food, Inc. screening and/or potluck? It’s simple — Just join the POV community network http://www.amdoc. org/outreach/ events/, request Food, Inc. and
  we’ll lend you a screening kit that includes a DVD.

/Source: American Documentary Inc. news release/

Betty Jones, author at 50 Must Read Green Engineering Blogs So for you out there looking at Green Engineering as a career move, check out the blogs where it is being discussed in real time.

Betty wrote:

“In all its varied incarnations – technology, architecture, civil, construction, materials science, transportation, energy, computers, and product design among them – the field of engineering has something to offer mankind’s quest to keep the planet as clean, safe, and sustainable as possible. The following blogs wonderfully illustrate how creative, innovative engineers are synthesizing their studies with the environmentalist movement as a means of bettering Earth for current and future inhabitants.”

Lofty goals, logical implementation. And thanks for that one Betty…excellent resource!

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, documents Cuba’s emergency transition to local organic agriculture, renewable energy, and large-scale mass transit. The transition occurred following the Soviet collapse in 1990, when their massive subsidies of imported oil and food to Cuba were halted.

In this documentary, ordinary Cubans talk about the immediate hardships they faced. Their GDP dropped by more than one third, transportation nearly stopped and food became scarce – the average Cuban lost 20 pounds during the first years of this economic crisis. But far from focusing on hardships, the film is an inspirational celebration of the power of community.

Cuba’s experience provides a living model for how the rest of the world can respond to the coming world oil production peak and irreversible decline some oil experts say will occur this decade. “Everyone who is concerned about Peak Oil needs to see this film,” said Richard Heinberg, author of “The Party’s Over” and “Powerdown”. “It is a story not just of individual achievement, but of the collective mobilization of an entire society to meet an enormous challenge.” For more information, visit http://www.powerofcommunity.org.