So Fresh and So Green

Photo Credit: Getty, A Bolivian Guarani native woman at the Cochabamba Conference

On April 22, the 40th Earth Day, in Cochabamba, Bolivia the nation’s president Evo Morales organized an alternative to the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference Accord. People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth was forged. There were 25,000 Bolivian climate activists, politicians, intellectuals, scientists and celebrities, more than 15,000 indigenous people and thousands of grass roots groups from over 100 countries in attendance. Read more about it HERE

Topics discussed included local agriculture, the rights of indigenous people, halting climate change and social reconstruction.

They site imperialism and specifically capitalism as the major cause of our warming planet. On May 7th Morales took this new contract with the planet to the United Nations. This is some of what those in attendance put forward as a better approach to the issue of climate change. Do you think you could agree to some of this? (more…)

If you like it then you shoulda put a bookmark on it!

Photo Credit: Getty

Above: Bolivian Vice President, Alvaro Garcia Linera (L), Bolivian President Evo Morales (2-L), his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez (C) and Nicaraguan commander Tomas Borges (R) participate in a World Climate Change Conference at the Feliz Capriles stadium in Cochabamba, Bolivia on April 22, 2010. April 22 marks the 40th Earth Day, which urges local action and increased awareness to understand and respect the environment.

Seems like many of the voices locked out of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference found a voice here and I applaud the formation of a separate conference. All the attention and all the protests, though well intentioned, in Copenhagen reinforced the idea that change would come from those invited and allowed to be heard at that conference. I simply don’t believe in that.

If we have to wait for large, wealthy nation’s to act in everyone’s interest or save our lives we’ll be waiting a long time. And so will our grandchildren, if the world is still inhabitable by humans by the time anyone young now has grandkids. It’s good to know there are many that don’t want to take the Copenhagen concessions and tricknology as our only options.

Here’s some footage from the excellent coverage Democracy Now! did. (more…)

If you like it then you shoulda put a bookmark on it!

Sure Earth Day is over but the message is good all year round. Here’s a PSA from environmental group Greenpeace. If you like white hands this video is for you, but seriously there is a clear and powerful message here.

You can learn more about them on their about page at greenpeace.org

If you like it then you shoulda put a bookmark on it!

I thought I might take some time out to throw out some link love and highlight some Earth Day eco-conscious stuff around the net for you.

The lovely Quiskaeya takes a look at The Effects of Poverty on the Environment

At a loss for what to do on Earth Day? Earth 911 gives you 5 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day in 5 Minutes

At Black Into Green in Gloria a green avid gardener, lover of the great outdoors, mother and blogger who writes about going green form the African American perspective. This is what she has planned this earth day Earth Day Again, Already?. What I enjoyed reading even more today was Gloria’s 2010 Green Goals. What’s cool about her post today is that you can see she’s so active and likely on track with her 2010 goals. Go Gloria!

Treehugger offers a cornucopia of Earth day treats. Here’s a few: (more…)

If you like it then you shoulda put a bookmark on it!

I like to think it’s Earth Day Every Day on this site and while I realize treehugger.com will probably have some great stuff today for you as usual, I’ve decided to give you something you can’t get there- what I’ve learned about Earth Day.

As I’ve written before I grew up with a love of nature and science but I’ve considered that as a Black person interested in the environment I may have gotten into this in a different way than The Great Majora Carter and The Great Van Jones. As a teen I was able to take my love of nature into the classroom. In high school I was desperate to avoid chemistry class. It seemed hard and uninteresting. I managed to get Environmental Science class which I took for a year.

Finally, my chance to study this and get credit for it. My first class didn’t disappoint. My teacher was a young, cool white dude with cool, young white dude hair- I know you know what that is. He came in with (more…)

If you like it then you shoulda put a bookmark on it!

I’ve always preferred the underwater nature specials most of all so I’ll bet this one will be enjoyable.

From disney.go.com: Disneynature OCEANS is an inspiring adventure into a liquid world few of us have ever seen before. Yet the oceans cover more than 70 percent of our planet.

Here’s the trailer (more…)

If you like it then you shoulda put a bookmark on it!

Nia Long did an ad and a video for animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). She also did a photo ad to help put the T&A in PETA. It’s nice to see the Love Jones actress around again, but naked Nia or naked any chick isn’t going to make me stop anything. Difficult to even remember what the ad is for…or against.

“All living things should have the freedom to live” she said in the interview. She also mentions that animal rights and not supporting the fur trade were things she didn’t consider before becoming a mother. That all sounded really heart felt to me. But I thought her statement about animal cruelty being “no different from slavery or the Holocaust” was hyperbole, though it seems like a popular point of view in some circles. I almost feel like she’s trying to oversell her case to her interviewer. This feels like the type of statement some in PETA were waiting to hear a real live Black person say.

This is actually being called:

Animal cruelty is not like the Jewish Holocaust (I’m assuming that’s the holocaust she’s talking about) nor is it like the Trans Atlantic African Slave Trade. (more…)

If you like it then you shoulda put a bookmark on it!

In a conversation with my dad, we’ll call him Mr. Toussaint, he told me global warming would be a problem the Earth would fix itself. “The Earth didn’t start these problems,” I replied. “These problems are man-made or human-made and therefore should be human solved.” He respectfully disagreed and I, maybe disrespectfully, disregarded his position as being that of a man of a certain age.

More recently I heard a speech from Leonard Peltier, “American activist, member of the American Indian Movement” and political prisoner. He explained his own and a general American Indian view on environmental issues that was framed in terms of Mother Earth.

He explained Mother Earth was the life-giver and we are acting in a destructive manner by polluting Earth with toxins and nuclear waste. I assumed I knew to whom we were being destructive and thought “yeah, how about that, we should really do something.”

He went on to explain corporations and most environmental activists were incredibly arrogant in their thought that they could “Save the Planet”. He said Earth was here before us and would be here after us. Earth could sustain what we do to it but WE could not sustain what we do to it. We would die before the Earth would.

Then it all made sense. “Saving the Planet” never really made sense to me. (more…)

If you like it then you shoulda put a bookmark on it!