Green Right Now Reports

Rallying for a clean energy bill in Massachussetts, noted climatologist Dr. James Hansen told students this weekend that they must take the future in their hands.

Massachusetts Sleep Out (Photo: Ian McClellan)

“Our universe is incredibly unjust and inequitable for young people and future generations. ” Dr. Hansen said. “Unless someone can change the direction, young people are really in trouble. Our governments are not taking actions or planning actions that will achieve this.”

[Read more →]

By Harriet Blake
Green Right Now

It’s not just environmental lobbyists who are gearing their words toward strong action at the upcoming Copenhagen climate change negotiations.

At a recent appearance in New Orleans, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, dubbed the “Green Patriarch” by Al Gore, minced no words about the urgency of addressing climate change:

“We have reached a defining moment in our history…the point where absolute limits to our survival are being reached,” and we “instead of living on income, or the available surplus of the earth, we are consuming environmental capital and destroying its resources as if there is no tomorrow.”

[Read more →]

Green Right Now Reports

Health reform has gripped your attention and dominated your computer and TV screens for weeks now.

In case you’ve got little time to spare to study up on climate legislation coming down the pike soon after this huge debate, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change has boiled it down to a summary report.

[Read more →]

By Abrahm Lustgarten
ProPublica

A version of this story appeared in the Albany Times-Union [1] on Oct. 8, 2009.

A preliminary report [2] from a consultant hired by New York City warns that “nearly every activity” associated with natural gas drilling could potentially harm the city’s drinking water supply and that while the risk can be reduced with strict regulations, “the likelihood of water quality impairment…. cannot be eliminated [2].”

[Read more →]

From Green Right Now Reports

In a nod to greener times, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the Congressional Record is now being printed on 100 percent recycled paper. The Speaker received her first environmentally friendly copy of the Congressional Record Friday from the U.S. Government Printing Office.

Each day the federal government’s General Printing Office produces 4,130 copies of the Congressional Record — despite the document’s availability online. But that number is down more than 75 percent from 1995 because of the Internet.

[Read more →]

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

January Jones, star of the Mad Men TV series and an ocean advocate, went to Washington this week to lobby for the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 and stronger US leadership for saving the ocean’s top predators.

“We should be scared FOR sharks, not of them,” said the Golden Globe nominee. “The survival of sharks and the health of our oceans depend on it.”

Jones met with various members of Congress, including Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The actress, best known for her role as Betty Draper in the critically acclaimed Mad Men series on the American Movie Channel, became a spokesman for Oceana’s Save Sharks campaign earlier this year.

[Read more →]

By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

Four-time heavy weight boxing champion Evander Holyfield is ready for another fight. Except this time, he is fighting for the planet. Known as the Real Deal in the sports world, Holyfield will also be going by a new nickname, Lean Green Fighting Machine. Friday morning, Holyfield announced that in partnership with Global-NES-Georgia, Inc., he plans to build a 40 acre solar energy farm on his estate in Georgia.

[Read more →]

By Harriet Blake
Green Right Now

Daryl Hannah brings a personal sweetness and actor’s intensity to the stage of environmentalism, a term she doesn’t like.

Like many environmental terms — green, eco, sustainability, organic – “companies have co-opted and glommed onto these words,” she told an audience in Fort Worth this week. Luckily, she says the public is learning to be more informed.

“People are making ethical choices that help all living things to thrive, not to just sustain,” said the casually dressed actress who has starred in many memorable films such as Splash (with Tom Hanks), Steel Magnolias (with Sally Fields), Roxanne (with Steve Martin) and two Kill Bill movies directed by Quentin Tarantino.

[Read more →]

From Green Right Now Reports

When Jay Leno launches his new prime-time show next week, he’ll include a “Green Car Challenge.”

“We have celebrities in green cars race and we see who the fastest green celebrity is,” Leno said in a statement. “And if some crash and burn, YES!”

Ford said its all-new battery electric Ford Focus will be the exclusive vehicle for “Green Car Challenge.” The battery electric vehicle, specially made for the show, foreshadows elements of the electric Focus that Ford will begin selling in North America in 2011.

[Read more →]

From Green Right Now Reports

Oceana raised nearly $900,000 at last weekend’s second annual SeaChange Summer Party, where it honored celebrities Glenn Close and Morgan Freeman.

The gathering supporting the ocean protection group was star-studded. Attendees included Oceana board member Ted Danson, last year’s honorees Harrison Ford and John Picard; Kate Walsh, Aaron Peirsol, Lauren Hutton, Anne Heche, Jeff Goldblum and many others.

[Read more →]

From Green Right Now Reports

EcoDriving, a national initiative to promote green driving habits, has won the support of 10 more governors. The Southern Governors Association announced yesterday the latest states to join the EcoDriving movement that was launched a year ago by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), Gov. Bill Ritter (D-CO), the Environmental Defense Fund and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

“EcoDriving was introduced to empower consumers to take green driving into their own hands by adjusting their driving and vehicle maintenance habits,” Dave McCurdy, president and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said in a statement. “The educational program offers Americans a simple way to be more fuel efficient, and save at the pump.

[Read more →]

By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

Last week, President William J. Clinton made a stop in Chicago to address the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment at its annual Climate Leadership Summit. Since leaving office, President Clinton has spent his time focusing on issues that, to him, make a difference. One that the former president has chosen to tackle is the environment, and in his opinion, the economy and the environment go hand in hand.

In his view, the future is green and in relation to the economy, green is gold. Count him among those who believe we can best increase economic activity by investing in the new emerging energy economy.

[Read more →]