Yes We Can!

According to Sloan Barnett, the New York Times best-selling author behind Green Goes With Everything, our color of choice can even coordinate with red, white and blue. That’s why Barnett is asking you how you would green the First Family’s official residence.

Green the White House is a campaign to educate Obama’s staff on the importance of setting an example by making the casa blanca entirely green, from the light bulbs to the gardens. One suggestion: making the Rose Garden pesticide-free. Have a brighter idea than LEDs? Share it with American on GreentheWhiteHouse.com. You can submit your ideas via video on the site. 

The advisory board includes Frances Beinecke, the President of the Natural Resources Defense Council, as well as two of Yale’s best from the Environmental Law department. (Don’t hold it against them that they gave W. a degree.)

At the end of the campaign, five teens who submit ideas will be awarded an iPod shuffle, among other prizes, courtesy of youth activist group, Do Something. Here are the organization’s official rules.

C’mon – do it for your country.

XO, The Green Gamine

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Fall Back, Sunshine: Obama Considers Global Cooling

The Obama administration announces that global warming is worse than ever and that it plans to take some radical action in an attempt to reverse the damage. One drastic option is to shoot pollution particles into the air to reflect the sunshine. Talk about progressive.

They’re calling this new chemical and physical science combination geoengineering, the controversial science of tinkering with the climate to save the ice, and the polar bears while they’re at it. Since the consequences of avoiding the issue can be “really intolerable,” says John Holden, a concerned physicist, now is the time to act. The British Parliament is also considering the idea. 

Holden does warn us against going to extremes. While he agrees that geoengineering should be kept on the back burner just in case, he thinks some ideas go a step too far – like one Nobel laureate’s concoction of a faux-volcano. Still, he admits, desperate times may call for desperate measures.

Do you think we have to reinvent the environment to save it?

XO, The Green Gamine

Coen Brothers Care About Coal

The Coen Brothers are known for the Academy Award-winning dark farce, such as Fargo and No Country for Old Men. Now they’ll be known for their unique brand sarcastic activism. 

Joel and Ethan Coen recently filmed a TV informercial, arguing that coal is not, in fact, an eco-friendly way to produce electricity. Starring a Bob Barker-esque host demonstrating the “benefits” of toxic “clean coal”, the Brothers’ short is a 50’s-themed, 30-second spoof that will sure to have you both laughing and thinking.

We can thank the Reality Coalition, a partner of the Alliance for Climate Protection, for the Brothers’ small screen directorial debut. The group states on its website: 

Coal cannot be called ‘clean’ until its CO₂ emissions are captured and stored safely. Let’s be clear: There are no U.S. homes, factories, shopping centers or churches powered by coal plants that capture and store their global warming pollution.

They argue not that clean coal cannot exist, just that it doesn’t – yet. But perhaps the bros have hit a funny bone, one that will inspire the Obama administration, a major proponent for clean coal engineering, to get on it.

The Center for American Progress released research two months ago stating that although coal companies could take strides towards carbon capture and storage – a “promising” form of clean coal technology – they have not been dishing out the dollars to do so. Again, perhaps a part of Obama’s stimulus package will help this movement along.

Until then, Coen & Coen will continue to film shorts for the Reality Coalition, and their message could only go one of two ways: coal companies will feel forced (Amen!) to implement clean coal technology into their blueprints for the future, or viewers (and coal companies accordingly) will find the task impossible. Hopefully for us, it’ll be the former.

XO, The Green Gamine

What Goes Around Comes Around

When teens strive for green karma, Do Something’s Melanie Stevenson makes it all happen.

(dosomething.org)

Melanie Stevenson peers her brown peepers around the doorframe of her modest corner office, keeping an eye on what is affectionately referred to as the “bull pen” – a noisy open space of slick granite carpeting, jumbled desks, and frantic interns. Sporting a neatly coiffed, coffee-colored ‘do and a constant smile, she pivots her petite frame towards a sizable, nondescript map hanging on the wall behind her. To spice it up, she has painstakingly stuck to it thirty metallic stars in patriotic colors.  Each star represents the hometown of a member of Do Something’s Youth Advisory Board, a motley crew of student activists Stevenson refers to as her right hand.

Pairing tan tweed pants with a fitted black v-neck and some chunky, ebony jewels, Stevenson, 24, has mastered youthful style. It is fitting then that she, as the Community Outreach Associate for Do Something, a New York-based, national youth activist organization, helps to provide resources for teens with big dreams. Though the organization offers an education in activism for any youngster with a wide-eyed vision, Stevenson’s focus is on those who think green.

Most recently, she headed the group’s second annual “Increase Your Green” competition, a partnership with National Grid that challenged middle school and high school students nationwide to construct a game plan to “greenify” their school. Eight winners were awarded grants ranging from $500 to $1500. Last year, 15 schools completed the challenge. This year, 400 schools applied and 45 were given the green light to single-handedly create sustainable schools, tripling the success rate. In addition, the number of environmental clubs registered with Do Something has nearly doubled in the last year.

Teen greening has gone global. In addition to Do Something, teens have joined a host of green initiatives, such as girl-power group Teens Turning Green, community-based Planet Green Schools, the global initiative Youth Venture, and the Energy Action Coalition, which has teamed up with Climate Challenge to educate teens on the effects of global warming. In a recent, national campaign for energy efficiency, Power Shift, a collection of 50 environmental clubs belonging to the Coalition, was active on 300 campuses with nearly 300,000 young participants. Still, these teens are hungry for more.

This overwhelming increase in eco interest among young adults signals a new generation of treehuggers. Gone are the poster children of Birkenstocks, Rastafarian locks, and an appreciation for all things psychedelic. These modern day hippies exchange face time for Facebook and gossip for Gossip Girl. Their version of Woodstock is a Jonas Brothers concert. Many do not have their licenses—many have yet to be kissed. Still, Stevenson says that particularly in the wake of the new administration, Generation Y (or is it now O?) has assembled itself an affable army of environuts in search of an alternative to an inconvenient truth. But they need a touch of guidance, and the dollars to get it done. Enter Melanie Stevenson.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Presidents.

(AP/kidthing.com)

Sure, seven-year-old, four-eyed delight Aaron Van Blerkom, may be snagging all the spotlight by asking our newly appointed Santa Claus to make it rain candy (that’s your cue, Obama). And with a smile like that, who could resist that sly dog?

However, at three years his senior, I find Miss Sasha Townsend‘s request a bit more timely (and gamine to say the least). While witnessing the inauguration both in and outside of D.C., Townsend, along with over 4,500 other children, scribbled political pleas to President Obama – a laundry list of concerns from a four-foot perspective.

Co-sponsored by the National Education Association and kidthing.com, the campaign was entitled the “Dear Mr. President” project. One hundred and fifty of the most urgent (or perhaps most hilarious in the case of Mr. Van Blerkom) were considered for a free compilation e-book, which was released today.

Here is what Miss Townsend, at the innocent age of 10, had to contribute:

“I would appreciate it if you would try to make this a greener planet and try to bring home the troops and end the war,” the fifth-grader wrote. “I am very luckey because I am not part of a military family, but it saddens me to hear about all the people who die in Iraque and know that somewhere In the world people are greiving over a lost family member.”

Stop war and make the world a greener place – two of the most pertinent issues on Obama’s short list. Other issues that made the cut included the recession, disaster relief, and medical cures for diseases such as AIDs and cancer. A hardcover edition of the e-book will be sent to the President himself. Sweet, though not nearly as sustainable.

The e-book, on the other hand, simultaneously teaches kids the importance of literacy and sustainability. Though, considering the letters themselves, the only thing we need to teach these kids is how to make their dreams a reality. (Once we figure it out for ourselves, we should let them know.)

My oh my, we are raising idealistic children these days. Still, I think we have something to learn from them. If a ten-year-old girl is aware of the importance of going green, we old farts (in comparison) certainly have no excuse.

Now, use your day off wisely and go plant a tree.

XO, The Green Gamine

P.S. Here’s a clip of the students who wrote for the “Dear Mr. President” project. Too cute – and all too relevant.

Obama: The Wizard of Oz?

(treehugger.com)

President Obama seems to have designed a stimulus plan that will turn our whitewashed capital into the Emerald City. Now, with that plan passed in part, our president can lay the first brick in our yellow brick road back to economic stability. He’s spoken about greening the country and the economy, offering more opportunities for the newly coined “green collar” worker. But just how green is Obama’s new plan?

In an EcoSolutions article featured on CNN.com, some experts weighed in. World Resources Institute worker, Robert Heilmayr, says that, “green components have a long-term efficiency gain.” He also claims that for every billion dollars invested in green energy, there will be a $450 million surplus.

Obama himself has said: “I don’t care whether you’re driving a hybrid or an SUV — if you’re headed for a cliff, you’ve got to change direction. Some alternatives to our current, wayward path? Improved fuel efficiency, for starters, along with the state-regulated, vehicle emission standards. 

However, some startling amendments have been made to the stimulus bill. The energy efficient federal building fund has gone from $7 million to $3.5 million, only 25% of the Environmental Protection Agency Superfund has stuck, and the Energy Loan Guarantees are out entirely.

Seems like a Catch 22. We need to jump start the economy as fast as we can and yet, does that mean we disregard our immediate surroundings, without which a stable economy would be irrelevant? I’m sure Obama will find alternatives; green tax cuts, for instance, have been proposed. The problem seems to stem not from a misunderstanding on the part of our new leader, but on his fickle senate.

The long-term investment in energy is just the first step in creating an economy that will last us beyond the Obama administration. Science and studies have proven that we can trust in the technology and in the kickback. What are we waiting for?

XO, The Green Gamine