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On October 2, I led a climate protest inside the offices of the Boston Globe.OK, it was really a meeting in a small conference room with editorial page editor Peter Canellos and members of his staff. But it was, in essence, a protest.I used to be a card-carrying member of the mainstream media; just a few years ago, I was the editor of the Globe's Ideas section. Peter is a former colleague.With me was Craig Altemose, founder and executive director of Better Future Project, a Cambridge-based non-profit dedicated to climate action, on whose working board I serve as a volunteer. We were joined by two members of BFP's advisory board: MIT's Kerry Emanuel, one of the country's leading climate scientists (and, until recently, a Republican); and Boston College's Juliet Schor, a sociologist and economist who is a respected thinker on climate and the economy. Last year, Altemose was arrested protesting the Keystone XL pipeline at the White House along with another advisory board member, Bill McKibben of 350.org, and 1251 other concerned citizens.

“Wall Street C.E.O.’s — the same ones who wrecked our economy and destroyed millions of jobs — still strut around Congress, no shame, demanding favors and acting like we should thank them,” Ms. Warren declared in her prime-time speech at the Democratic National Convention. That was the Elizabeth Warren who earned the adoration of millions of people across the country, the one who spoke truth to power and was not worried about sounding indiscreet. And it is what they expect of her now that she has a powerful new platform in Washington.

E + ducere: “To lead or draw out.” The etymological Latin roots of “education.” According to a former Jesuit professor of mine, the fundamental sense of the word is to draw others out of “darkness,” into a “more magnanimous view” (he’d say, his arms spread wide). As inspirational as this speech was to a seminar group of budding higher educators, it failed to specify the means by which this might be done, or the reason. Lacking a Jesuit sense of mission, I had to figure out for myself what the “darkness” was, what to lead people towards, and why. It turned out to be simpler than I thought, in some respects, since I concluded that it wasn’t my job to decide these things, but rather to present points of view, a collection of methods—an intellectual toolkit, so to speak—and an enthusiastic model. Then get out of the way. That’s all an educator can, and should do, in my humble opinion. Anything more is not education, it’s indoctrination.

Fracking Sand May Pose Health Hazard To Workers, Residents Posted: 11/16/2012 7:25 pm EST Updated: 11/16/2012 7:51 pm EST reddit stumble 58212826158 Get Green Alerts: Sign Up React: Inspiring Enlightening Infuriating Scary Helpful Amazing Innovative Adorable Follow:  Video, Marcellus Shale, Fracking, Fracking Health, Fracking Sand, Fracking Silica, Fracking, Mining, Occupational Health And Safety, Public Health, Sand Mining, Silica, Green News The first time Bill Ferullo saw the white plumes drifting from a natural gas fracking site, he got out of his car to take

Climate Justice Advocates Slam Doha's Emerging 'Sham of a Deal' 'Sluggish' climate talks missing essential ingredient—Urgency—as COP18 climate summit in Doha nears end - Jon Queally, staff writer With terms like "sluggish" "tough-going" and "extremely sour" used to describe the tone and progress of the UN climate talks in Doha on Friday, the hope for an agreement that could actually meet the ever-escalating challenges of global warming caused by human pollution was seemingly at an all-time low. On what was scheduled to be the conference's final day, campaigners say the climate agreement being generated in Doha is "an empty shell" and "an insult to our futures." Climate campaigners and civil society groups are convinced that the commitments being exchanged among the international delegates are not nearly enough, exposing the ongoing futility of trying to get rich nations to take responsibility for their outsized carbon footprints or increase their meager financial commitments to developing nations.

Bill McKibben on Hurricane Sandy and Climate Change: "If There Was Ever a Wake-up Call, This Is It"

9 Reasons Why 2013 Was Not The Best Year In Human History

At 16 years old, her resume is already more impressive than some twice her age. On the day we spoke, she was busy wrestling a solar panel project into fruition, laying the groundwork for a farm at her high school, and gearing up to deliver a TEDxKids B.C. talk titled “Don’t Eat Your Farmer.”

are the Native Peoples of the Western Hemi

el environmental policies of the Inca, the managed sub-climax forest successions in the Eastern Woodlands and the Three Sisters method of high-output low-soil-loss agriculture exemplified in the Finger Lakes area by the Haudenosaunee people. The European conquerors and immigrants paid little attention to the land management skills of their victims and it was only in the 1980s that modern science began seriously investigating the Native achievements and their relevance for the wider society.

The coolest green infrastructure you are likely to see Print this page Posted November 27, 2012 in Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably Tags: greenfutureslab, greeninfrastructure, landscapearchitecture, seattle, smartercities, smartgrowth, sustainablecommunities, universityofwashington Share | | |   Just yesterday, I was making the case for bringing more nature into urban environments, to soften the perceived and real effects of density and thus make density more appealing.  Today, I came across maybe the best example I have seen.  It is certainly the best I have seen integrated into a vertical wall; this is key in downtown districts, where green space on the ground can be hard to come by.

OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire signed an executive order today underscoring the importance of recommendations from her Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification to address the growing problem of ocean acidification in Washington, which threatens the state’s shellfish resources and its $270 million shellfish industry.

Challenges & Competitions Challenges and competitions enable the Federal government to tap into the expertise and creativity of the public in new ways. Challenges and competitions are high-risk, high-reward policy tools that can foster collaboration and participation in government activities through the process of co-creation.  As an inducement of participation, challenges and competitions may offer a variety of “prizes”, including cash, recognition, or the deployment of a winning solution.Why Challenges & Competitions?Challenges and competitions are important mechanisms for spurring innovation, solving tough problems, and helping agencies to advance their core missions.

Last week the UK Guardian published a bombshell piece on the origins of the fatefully dreadful decision to try to sell the climate bill without talking about the climate The story describes a March 2009 meeting at the Old Executive Office Building, the White House informed the leading environmental groups that it had decided climate change was not a winning message. The blunt headline: Revealed: the day Obama chose a strategy of silence on climate change

In just the last two months of the campaign, outside groups linked to dirty energy sources or the promotion of a dirty energy agenda spent more than $270 million on TV ads in the presidential, House, and Senate races and industry ads promoting oil, gas, and coal interest, and more than $31 million was spent on energy-related ads, according to a Center for American Progress Action Fund analysis of data from Kantar Media’s CMAG. This includes more than $109 million spent in congressional races with $21.7 million on energy-specific ads. During that time, more than 59,600 spots ran on energy and environmental issues in the presidential race and key House and Senate races.

By Monday night, the debate about "climate silence" was in full voice. Al Gore weighed in, tweeting during the course of the debate: "Where is global warming in this debate? Climate change is an urgent foreign policy issue."The Green party's presidential candidate, Jill Stein, who went so far as to label Obama a climate change denier in an interview with the Guardian for his failure to discuss the issue on the campaign trail.Other commentators argued allowances should be made for Obama's failure to discuss climate on the campaign trail, and his middling support for environmental concerns while in the White House.Since the rise of the Tea Party conservatives in 2010, energy and climate change have emerged as among the most contentious issues dividing Republicans and Democrats.

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was the latest to get arrested after she brought supplies to activist treesitters attempting to block construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas. Stein issued a statement criticizing both President Obama and Governor Romney for their policies on fossil fuels:

Germany Is Running Out of Energy Options