Tag: green

This is a cross-post from the Center for American Progress.

The 2011 awards season is officially upon us. Environmental films aren’t traditionally thought of as number-one stunners when competing against movies such as “Inception” and “127 Hours,” but since last year’s Oscar for Best Documentary went to “The Cove,” a film exploring the annual slaughtering of dolphins in Taiji, Japan, a new trend may have started in which environmental films are more welcome in the spotlight.

Below is a list of four green films to keep your eyes on this season.

“The Last Mountain.” A standout among the too few environmental documentaries premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, documentary filmmaker Bill Haney’s “The Last Mountain” takes a look at coal mining in Coal River Valley, West Virginia, and the “battle over protecting our health and environment from the destructive power of Big Coal.” The film brings to light questions of Big Coal’s apparent stronghold over the democratic process and what that means for our future.

Massey Energy, the third-largest coal company in the United States and the single-most destructive coal mining company in history, has literally blown the Coal River Valley to pieces with the force of “explosive power the size of a Hiroshima bomb each week.” Haney’s film follows those people fighting “a fight for our future.” He captures their attempt to stop the destruction of the last-standing mountain in the region and their efforts to promote clean energy alternatives for powering the valley. Simply developing a wind farm on the mountain could provide power for the whole region, keep the mountain intact, and create jobs for the surrounding communities

In an ever apparent effort to prove that there is nothing the company can’t do, Google has officially become a utility. Yes, you read that right: Google can now add “green utility” to its laundry list of bold and ingenious ventures.

In 2007, Google made headlines when it announced the company intended to voluntarily become carbon neutral. To achieve this goal, they’ve vastly minimized their energy consumption (no small feat considering the magnitude of their data centers), begun powering their facilities with renewable energy, and purchasing offsets for the carbon emissions they cannot eliminate directly.

So when the opportunity arose for Google to directly purchase wind power from the source, it seemed to be a natural growth of this commitment to sustainability. Yesterday, the company announced that it will begin a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement to buy 114 megawatts of wind energy generated at NextEra Energy Resources’ Story County II facility in Iowa. This comes after announcing in May that the company had invested $38.8 million in two North Dakota wind farms.

With its track record of successful innovation, Google could give the wind power industry a much-needed boost. The company has plans to seek more long-term wind power purchase agreements. Welcome to the clean energy revolution, Google Energy LLC. We’re happy to have you.

P.S. Google- We could really use some help over here on the east coast, if you aren’t too busy. Have you heard of the Mid-Atlantic bight?

Today, instead of just wearing green- take a quick green action: VOTE in the national Define Our Decade campaign! The two questions will help to define what our generation wants to see in the next decade. It’s a new year, and a new decade, and with that comes new opportunity. As our elected leaders struggle to make progress on climate and energy legislation in Washington, a grassroots movement has grown and won real victories in our local communities. We can’t let the “political realities” of corporate-influenced policies define our future. It’s time for us to set our own course, on our own terms, and Define Our Decade! Check out Ethan Nuss’s blog post for some more inspiration!

After you vote- get friends to join in too- the more votes the more powerful our message is. Post the link on your facebook profile (http://energyactioncoalition.org/define) and your friend’s walls. Send it over your list servs. And while you are at it- tweet it out! Wearing #green for #stpatricksday? Then, you should help Define #OurDecade with clean, green energy. Vote now!

Police spy on climate activist while global warming goes unarrested
By Mike Tidwell, published on Grist
Mike Tidwell.

Photo: chesapeakeclimate
Terrorist Activist Mike Tidwell (at podium) exhibiting clearly threatening behavior.
Photo: chesapeakeclimate

I’m not sure what’s more shocking: the news that the Maryland State Police wrongfully spied on me for months as a “suspected terrorist,” or that, despite surveillance of me, officers apparently wouldn’t recognize me if I walked into their police headquarters tomorrow.

I’m a former Peace Corps volunteer, an Eagle Scout, church member, youth baseball coach, and dedicated father. I also happen to be director of one of the largest environmental groups in Maryland, a nonprofit that promotes windmills and solar panels in the fight against global warming. So imagine my shock to get a police letter last month saying I was one of 53 Maryland activists on a terrorist watch list that has been discontinued because — can you believe it? — there’s “no evidence whatsoever of any involvement in violent crime.”

Matters turned especially Soviet-esque on Oct. 14 when I called the police requesting a full copy of my surveillance file. A spokeswoman told me I could visually inspect the file, but I couldn’t make photocopies, I couldn’t bring an attorney, and the police would be destroying the entire file after I read it.

And bring a valid photo ID, she said, to make sure you’re who you say you are.

A what? Really? You spied on me, for God’s sake. Continue reading

Consumers lost an estimated $8 billion because of unused gift cards in 2006. Best Buy alone received $43 million in unused gift cards