It reached into the 90s today in Denver. And it was almost that hot in The Big Tent – much to hot too blog. Still, the sessions were terrific. Most had a green focus, but poverty and voter rights were discussed, too.
However, there was a common thread: Change must be a grassroots movement. There needs to be public outcry. People need to get active, register to vote, make change in their own communities, and demand change on a federal level.
That can be said about all our issues, whether it’s the mothers movement, the economy, healthcare, and so on.
Left Behind: What Katrina and a Stolen Election Taught Us About Race and American Politics
- James Rucker (ColorOfChange.org)
- Scott Myers-Lipton (Gulf Coast Civic Works Project)
- Jonah H. Goldman (National Campaign for Fair Elections)
- Stephen Bradberry (Louisiana ACORN)
Rescuing a Planet Under Stress - Plan 3.0
- Lester Brown, Author of Plan B 3.0
Now or Never - Climate Solutions
- Moderator Lester Brown
- Randy Hayes, Climate Policy Officer at the World Future Council
- Chuck Kutscher, Principal Engineer and Manager of the Thermal Systems Group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
David Orr, Author, Enviromentalist, named “an Environmental Hero for 2004” by Interiors & Sources Magazine - Betsy Taylor, executive director of the Center for a New American Dream
Climate Problems and Solutions, Local to Global
- Introduction by Daryl Hannah
- Moderator: David Orr
- Bill Becker, Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project
- Robert Kennedy, Jr, Chief Prosecuting Attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and President of Waterkeeper Alliance
- Michelle Wyman, Executive Director for the US Office of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
Some sound bites:
- Create a new WPA type project with H.R. 4048: Gulf Coast Civic Works Project to rebuild the Gulf Coast after Katrina.
- Climate change is a misnomer. Instead, we have an environmental problem that should be called Planetary Destabilization. These are not normal times, these are drastic times. And saving civilization is not a spectator sport.
- Energy is not a supply issue, it’s an access issue.
- We need to become energy producers, not consumers.
- Green collar jobs cannot be outsourced.
- We need to open the power grid to everyone and create an open market place. Energy entrepreneurship.
- Our addiction to oil is destroying our country’s wealth, economy and prestige.
- There are profits in “green.”
- Need to reduce CO2 emissions 80% by 2020.
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