From Green Right Now Reports

Ready to spend a little time in the dark to show that you aren’t in the dark about climate change? Earth Hour 2010 is just around the corner.

Image: myearthhour.org

The event – organized by the World Wildlife Fund and scheduled for 8:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, March 27 – once again will feature millions of Americans turning out their lights for one hour in support of action on climate change. In 2009, an estimated 80 million people in the U.S. and nearly a billion around the world participated on some level, resulting in the lights going dim at such iconic venues as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, New York’s Empire State Building, the Sydney Opera House and the Great Pyramids of Gaza.

[Read more →]

From Green Right Now Reports

Calling themselves “Clean Energy Patriots,” dozens of environmental leaders today asked the U.S. Senate to quit serving the interests of “Big Oil” and take action on behalf of Americans who want clean energy and climate solutions.

The leaders from nearly 50 environmental and social responsibility groups signed a declaration at the U.S. Capitol. It demands that the Senate quit stalling on climate action, and kicks off a 40-day countdown until Earth Day, which celebrates its 40th anniversary on April 22.

They urged citizens to join in what they are calling the Earth Day Revolution.

[Read more →]

From Green Right Now Reports

Live Earth today announced a series of concerts in April as part of the Dow Live Earth Run for Water to raise awareness and funds to help solve the global water crisis. Melissa Etheridge will headline the event in Los Angeles and Rob Thomas will perform in Atlanta.

Organizers said the events will take place in nearly 100 cities across 50 countries around the world on April 18. Additional artists will be announced for events in Chicago, Minneapolis, and New York.

Dow Live Earth Run for Water will include a 6km run/walk (the average distance many women and children walk every day to get water), along with a water education village and other live musical performances.

Etheridge, who won an Academy Award winner for Best Song for the Al Gore documentary An Inconvenient Truth, said she believes “strongly that it is our duty as a society and as individuals to preserve our planet and its resources.”

[Read more →]

The Addison Conference Centre in Texas features large windows to let in light, yet overhangs help block out mid-day heat. (Photo: The Town of Addison)

By Tom Kessler
Green Right Now

Much as a forest fire clears the land and leaves behind essential nutrients to enrich a new generation of growth, the devastation of the travel and meetings industry caused by a global economic collapse has left a few seedlings. One of them is the nascent green meeting industry, which has more than gotten a foothold. In many respects, green meetings are fast becoming the only kind of meetings.

[Read more →]

By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

This weekend, while fans get ready for the Saints face off against the Colts at Sun Life Stadium for Super Bowl XLIV, the NFL will be running some of its own green plays.

All leftover food from Super Bowl events will be donated to local agencies under the leadership of Daily Bread Food Bank. Over 65,000 pounds of leftover prepared food was donated after last year’s Super Bowl.

[Read more →]

From Green Right Now Reports

Real estate developer and author Frank McKinney has built opulent mansions, including a $24 million oceanfront estate called Acqua Liana in Palm Beach that he promotes as the biggest green certified manse in the world .

But the Florida real estate entrepreneur also has been building sustainable housing for the poor for many years, including in Haiti. (Which is why we’re skipping the discussion today about whether ginormous homes like that Palm Beach manse are truly green, and will accept that this house, certified by the U.S. Green Building Council and Energy Star, occupies a special rarified category.)

Caring Village residents in Haiti, before the earthquake

[Read more →]

From Green Right Now Reports

World Wildlife Fund announced today that Earth Hour 2010 will take place on Saturday, March 27, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., with many of the nation’s most iconic landmarks dimming their lights for one hour in what is expected to be the largest call for action on climate change in history.

WWF said the initial list of U.S. landmarks taking part in the event includes Mount Rushmore, Empire State Building, the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign, Harrah’s Caesar Palace and the MGM Mirage on the Las Vegas Strip and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. New Earth Hour participants in 2010 will include Montezuma Castle National Monument in Arizona and the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Indianapolis. Other local landmarks taking part include Atlanta’s Bank of America building and the Pike Place Market sign in Seattle.

[Read more →]

Green Right Now Reports

The two week summit on climate change in Copenhagen wound to a close Saturday with the United Nations issuing a news release that many nations had agreed upon the issues that need to be addressed.

The agreement, seen either as a foothold or a failure in the fight against climate change, fell far short of the hoped-for signed treaty that would have included firm commitments on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the countries around the world.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it “an essential beginning.”

“The importance will only be recognized when it’s codified into international law … We must transform this into a legally binding treaty next year,” he told the BBC.

The accord provides for industrialized nations to commit to specific emissions reductions targets by stating them within the agreement by the end of January, 2010. The top GHG-polluting nations include China, the United States, Russia, India and Japan, followed by Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Iran.

Here is the news release from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the arm of the UN that oversaw talks:

[Read more →]

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Collected here are some of the responses to Obama’s announcement this evening of an agreement between certain key nations at Copenhagen. They speak for themselves. We’ll add more as they arise.

Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director of Oxfam International:

“This agreement barely papers over the huge differences between countries which have plagued these talks for two years.

“The deal is a triumph of spin over substance. It recognizes the need to keep warming below 2 degrees but does not commit to do so. It kicks back the big decisions on emissions cuts and fudges the issue of climate cash.

[Read more →]

By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

The University of Kansas, the city of Lawrence, and ESPN are teaming up to showcase the school’s sustainability efforts. On December 19, 2009, the Kansas men’s basketball team will host Michigan at Allen Fieldhouse for a “Green Game”, which will showcase the crimson & blue’s environmental efforts not only within athletics, but the campus as a whole.

Along with a student produced recycling video, ESPN has produced two videos that will highlight two key sustainability initiatives taking place at the University of Kansas. The first will show the school’s recreation and fitness center, which uses the kinetic energy from 15 exercise machines and then feeds it pack into the building’s electrical grid.

[Read more →]

Propelled to action by student protesters who’d been sleeping out in Boston Common for several weeks, Massachusetts state officials introduced a bill this week to study making the state run entirely on green energy.

It wasn’t exactly what the protesters had demanded — a bill promising to put the state on 100 percent clean energy by 2020 — but it was a good compromise, student leaders said.

“We’re happy…This is a step in the right direction and it seems very practical and rational to get this task force going first,” said Dan Abrams, who handled communications for the campaign. “This task force is charged with proposing ways to get 100% clean electricity by 2020. We’ve given them the goal and asked them to figure out how to get us there. We know it can happen and we know it needs to happen. We have our own policy recommendations that we’ve come up with from our own research and experts and we would like to see what experts on this task force will propose.”

[Read more →]

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
When they roll out the red carpet in Copenhagen, it will be green.

Copenhagen carpet, green even though it's red

Actually, it will be red in color — we wouldn’t want our world leaders walking on tertiary color, say. But it will be eco-friendly, because among those firms that will get to show their green wares on this world stage are a Belgian company that makes carpets for large events, and a US bioplastic maker that’s replaced oil-based fibers in carpet with a plant-based product called INGEO.

[Read more →]