Greenpeace

This past Sunday, 50 concerned citizens gathered at the Texas state capitol.  Their message for Texas politicians: It’s time for a clean energy revolution. 

Austin City Councilman Chris Riley addressed the group.  Riley spoke of the state’s need to transition away from polluting 18th century technologies in favor of capitalizing on the state’s massive wind energy potential.

Despite the fact that Texas already consumes more coal than any other state, Rick Perry’s political appointees at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality are looking to build 12 new coal fired power plants. 

Given that the state already ranks #1 in mercury pollution, Texas communities simply cannot afford to bear the cost of more coal pollution.  It’s time for Texas politicians to get to work for people, not polluters. 

Check out this blog on online activism by Activist Network Intern, Matthew Duma. Cross-posted from his blog.

Today’s information streams are flowing faster than ever. It’s getting harder to stay up to date on current events, changing policy and increasingly fluid trends. Coupled with the fact that America is the most overworked nation with the least amount of vacation time it is a wonder that anyone has time for anything outside of working, sleeping and eating. So, how then can we expect to keep an eye on the environment? How can we be sure that our water tables are not being poisoned, our air quality is not being compromised and that our right to a clean and hopefully stable Earth will be protected? 

One solution is social media, that is, the use of online communities to bring together all walks of people to work cohesively on the many problems that plague our planet. Online Social Networks (OSNs) are a valuable resource that allows people, no mater where they live, to connect and share information. Whether it’s a link to a YouTube video, an interesting Grist.org article, a new posting on Care2.com or an online petition. These OSN’s have allowed a condensation of content on the web in easy to access sources and have also given many groups a very powerful web presence. 

 
It's all about making your voice heard, whether it's online or on the streets!

Here at Greenpeace, we are taking full advantage of these tools. OSNs allow us to gather eco-warriors together on the web and share every kind of resource imaginable with them. This is an amazingly powerful tool because it allows us to take our organizing to another medium, and most successful environmental campaigns rely on having a large group of supporters all working together for a common goal. With a resource like Facebook we can send out campaign updates as soon as they happen to thousands of supporters, or we can launch a new Toolkit to all members of our Activist Network and Student Network simultaneously. Heck we can even work to change the environmental impact of the tools we are using, like with our Facebook Un-Friend coal campaign.

So what does this mean for you? It means that in one afternoon you can sign a petition to stop an old nuclear power plant from leaking toxins into a local water source, download a new Toolkit to stop Dirty Energy Money from funding our elected officials, help us reach more ears by Re-Tweeting something from our Twitter feed and comment on an article posted on our Facebook Fan Page…all this and it only took up about 10 minutes of your lunch break. The old excuse of, “I just don’t have time” doesn’t apply anymore. As we work to streamline our online content we are also introducing more comprehensive and useful tools and information, making it easier everyday for YOU to get involved. So why wait? Get involved now and while you’re at it, tell us what you think (Fill out a quick survey to help us offer you a better Online experience)!

For the Planet,

Matthew Dumas

Every semester, ten to fifteen students come from all across the country to be part of the Greenpeace Organizing Term (GOT), our semester long training program for students who want to learn how to be effective environmental leaders back on campus.  These students are driven, motivated, and passionate about making a difference - and every semester, I am astounded by the work they are doing before they even come to San Francisco or Washington, DC.

Many students are hard at work fundraising to cover the tuition and living expenses for the GOT.  They’ve turned their efforts into opportunites to engage their communities in the work they’ll be doing during their semester with Greenpeace. 

These students are often balancing their school work with part time jobs on top of their incredible fundraising efforts, and it seems that more and more students are getting creative with how they’ll fundraise for the upcoming semester.  Here are some highlights from our incoming Spring 2011 class (so far!):

Zayna Robles has created her own GOT fundraising website, where folks can see the progress she has made with fundraising so far, contribute to her goal, and stay posted on what she’ll be doing throughout her semester in San Francisco.

University of Arkansas - Little Rock student Porntip Israsena has been using tons of online resources to fundraise for her semester.  She has even created a day of action for donating - click to RSVP to her “25 on the 25th” event on Facebook!

Amanda Fagan had a beach clean up shortly after being accepted to the Greenpeace Organizing Term, and has created a Facebook group to keep folks updated on all of her fundraising efforts.

And that’s not all our students are doing this semester!  Be sure to follow the Greenpeace Organizing Term Twitter for updates on what else our incredible incoming students are up to, as well as updates on our current GOT class!

Disclaimer: Contains references to Shakespeare, for those who never want to think about high school or college English classes again.

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this
special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature:
for any thing so o'erdone is from the purpose of playing, whose
end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold as 'twere the
mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature, scorn her own
image, and the very age and body of the time his form and
pressure.

Hamlet Act 3, scene 2, 17–24

These insightful words come from the lips of Hamlet himself, in Shakespeare’s famous play of the same name. Hamlet is describing the purpose of “playing” (acting, in modern terms) to a group of thespians that have come to perform for the royal crowd. The purpose of theatre, according to him, is to “hold the mirror up to nature”- to nudge individuals and society into seeing the reality of their actions by watching similar actions unfold on a stage before them. Since the dawn of theatre, it has been used to teach its audience, even if they may leave with more questions than answers. As someone who graduated with a theatre major and is very passionate about environmental issues, I see many opportunities for the theatre to “hold the mirror up to nature” both on and off the stage. Theatres need supplies and energy sources to make that magic happen on Opening Night- things like large quantities of lumber and paint for set-building, electricity for lights and sound, and paper for programs. Recently, I’ve become curious about the ways theatres are making changes in their production processes to become more efficient and sustainable. Here are just a few of the ways I’ve read about that theatres are becoming greener:

• Recycling set pieces (wood, metal, plastic) and reusing flats by repainting when possible, revamping props from old shows instead of buying new ones

• Presenting plays that deal with environmental issues or issues of sustainability

• Buying more energy-efficient stage lamps

• Recycling programs from performances by giving them to the next audience

• Recycling cans from concession stands, avoiding styrofoam cups

• Replacing theatre’s bulbs with compact fluorescents

• Unplugging all unnecessary appliances in the Scene Shop when not in use

• Purchasing non-toxic paints

Theatre should move us forward. A relevant, thought-provoking play has the power to change a person’s life or attitude about a particular issue. Theatre can be an excellent agent of social change. The theatre shouldn’t shy away from the environmental movement, but should embrace it openly by operating in a sustainable fashion and daring to present a performance once in a while about an environmental issue. Back in Shakespeare’s day, sustainability probably wasn’t the top priority for those in charge of managing The Globe Theatre, but I’m happy to see that many theatres today are taking advantage of their position to improve their communities and hold the mirror up to nature.

 

After collecting nearly 1,000 petitions calling for Michigan State to quit coal and switch to 100 percent renewables, two very visible protests at Board of Trustees meetings, one birddog of Michigan State’s President Lou Anna K. Simon, one march through campus on 10/10/10, one die-in, one screening of the film Dirty Business, and numerous interviews, newspaper and TV coverage – students with MSU Greenpeace met with the Michigan State University administration!

On Tuesday, MSU Greenpeace met with Fred Poston, Michigan State’s Vice President of Finance and Operations. In their 45-minute meeting, seven MSU Greenpeace members presented Mr. Poston with a powerpoint presentation and 20-page report that they researched and wrote themselves investigating potential energy sources for use on campus.

As MSU Greenpeace members Justine Becker, Dillon Kuiava, and Tabitha Skervin explained that coal is dirty, dangerous energy, something remarkable happened. In mid-sentence, Mr. Poston practically cut them off, agreeing with them! He knows that coal is destroying the environment, wrecking communities in which it is extracted and burned, and that we must stop using coal for the sake of future generations. MSU Greenpeace research coordinator Adam Liter, who was lead spokesperson at the meeting, was very excited that Mr. Poston agreed with them regarding coal use on campus.

They then cut to the chase, with three bold asks in the meeting:

1.) Michigan State must commit to stop burning coal as soon as possible, and create a timeline for transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy.

2.) Michigan State must be more transparent, and commit to sharing research reports and including students in the decision-making process regarding its transition to an alternative energy source.

3.) If Michigan State decides to burn natural gas, it must commit to not using gas harvested from hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”

Mr. Poston could not commit to shutting down the coal plant, nor could he commit to Michigan State using natural gas that is not harvested from destructive fracking. This is pretty much what MSU Greepeace members expected.

However, there was something they got that they were NOT expecting, an invitation to join the University’s energy steering committee! Michigan State is creating a steering committee of students and professors that will work hard to develop a plan for energy use on campus. The committee will present this plan to the Board of Trustees in Fall 2011. Soon after the Board of Trustees will vote to decide the future of Michigan State’s energy future.

Will Michigan State take this opportunity to lead the nation by shutting down the largest on-campus coal plant in the United States and becoming a university powered by 100 percent renewable energy?

I certainly hope so. 

In the next weeks, MSU Greenpeace will continue to working hard on the campaign. They will review a Michigan State energy audit that Mr. Poston is providing them in early December. Students will present their concerns to the Board of Trustees on December 10th, and you may see another visibility event or two. Perhaps similar to their die-in last week?

Well done to Adam and the MSU Greenpeace members! Keep up the fight and make sure you celebrate all your hard work this semester! Join me in congratulating them, and if you’re at Michigan State and ready to join the fight for renewable energy post a note on their Facebook page!

On Saturday, Nov 13th, 53 people rode 19 miles from Boston to Salem to show solidarity with the residents of the area in shutting down Salem Harbor coal plant.

The Salem Harbor coal plant spews toxic chemicals like mercury and sulfur dioxide into our air and water every year. The plant spews waste into the air, wastewater into the Atlantic, and coal ash into the land. The hundred thousand people who live within 3 miles of the plant live with this toxic legacy every day.

Riders and residents both asked Governor Deval Patrick to join with them in shutting down the plant and coming up with a plan to use the area in a green and productive way that would benefit everyone in Salem.

 

It was a perfect day for a ride, as Greenpeace volunteer Brian Kardon led the bicyclists through the neighborhoods north of Boston toward Salem. 

Bikes Not Bombs and Students for a Just and Stable Future joined with Greenpeace in organizing the event.

Once in Salem, the riders joined with SAFE (Salem Alliance For the Environment) and Healthlink, as well as other local residents, for a rally to show that there is a powerful coalition of groups and residents from all over the greater Boston area standing with them. Everyone urged the Governor to join with us and end the nearly 60 year toxic legacy of Salem Harbor.

 

We launched our Greenpeace Twitter Champs project last week, and are quite psyched about this effort to work more closely with our top Twitter supporters!

But how do we decide which supporters are true Twitter Champs? Well, we’re figuring that out for ourselves as a matter of fact. This is all a building process, but below you’ll find some of the ideas inspiring our strategy as we get this going:

Retweeting our Tweets

Our Twitter Champs help us get our message out to their own audiences who trust them, and RTing is central to being a top supporter on Twitter. @Joan_Gala has been especially sensational in this regard!

If you are a Twitter Champ we will be asking you to RT some of our tweets, and if you want to be a Twitter Champ RTing us consistently is the most direct way to become one.

Adding to our Tweets

It’s impossible to include every hashtag or account name we might want to include per tweet, but our supporters can add them in to their versions to help direct our message to an even more more expansive audience.

We also want to hear what you think about our tweets, if only because it brings more exposure for the issue the tweet is supporting. Our recent twitter interactions with @megan_bray and @JAHnessa have been particularly fantastic in this vain!

Motivation to be a Champ

Being a top supporter for us is no spectator sport, so we want to make sure all of our Twitter Champs are excited to help us make a difference.

We put a lot of weight on this since we want people who will really get into it. This is especially because being a Twitter Champ isn’t only about helping us----we want it to be a reward for those who help us as well!

Our Twitter Champs will only get out of this what they put into it though, so it is helping us help you. @retrohousewife5 and @TexasVegetarian have both shown a lot of early motivation to be champs, for instance.

Now remember that this is all a building process, so keep telling us what you think by commenting on this blog or by shooting us a message on twitter!

 

Photo via amitbhawani

This just got forwarded to me and I can't wait:

Save the date! On November 19 at 9 pm, we will embark on an inspiring journey with His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales to meet visionaries who are changing the way we think about nature and pioneering new ways to live sustainably on Planet Earth. HARMONY: A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT OUR WORLD paints a picture of a growing awareness in people around the world that cuts across boundaries of geography, race, economic status, and religion. It’s a bold call on us all to make a difference now, while we still have the chance.

Not excited? Then check out the HARMONY trailer:

Also, in partnership with HARMONY, TckTckTck, a global coalition working to stop the worst effects of climate change, will be launching a global, call-to-action called mosaic:EARTH, a giant collaborative online media project. Thousands of people will be adding photos and videos to build a spectacular image of the Earth as seen from space. Double clicking on particular image and one can read/listen to the individual’s message. Check it out!

Brandon (B-Train) Davis is the Campaign Coordinator in the Greenpeace Denver Frontline Office. He has been with Greenpeace for the past 9 months and enjoys hugs, social change, corporate accountability and vintage blazers.

The nation’s campaign coordinators met at the Greenpeace San Francisco office for a training last weekend. It was awesome. Thanks to Elise, Amy, and Natalie, we now have the skills necessary to effectively organize our offices and train members of our communities using non-violent direct action. We are going to kick some butt in the next few weeks (non-violently, of course), and I can’t wait to see how each office will approach the next few weeks of our campaign.

Right now our grassroots focus targets Pizza Hut and their support of unsustainable palm oil. It’s surprising how little we discussed Pizza Hut at the training. Instead of dwelling on a greasy pizza chain, we learned how to strategically organize campaigns for any situation. Strategy always trumps tactics in the long run, whether you’re playing chess, fighting wars, or saving a rainforest—and we ain’t no tacticians.

On that note, I really enjoyed meeting my fellow strategists from around the country (shout outs to Jeff, Nick, Amy, and Emily). They’re all amazing people. We danced (apologetically), laughed (sometimes with apologies), and had an all around good time while we took notes and debated the influence of a man’s wife over the ability of that man to give us free falafel. Sorry, Nasser, you got power mapped, but your falafel is delicious.

After a long weekend of training, schmoozing, and loitering in front of 710 Ashbury St., I’m back Denver feeling set up for success. I can’t wait to get our community more involved with Greenpeace activism. Watch out for big things coming out of D-town. Scoooot!

Attention, attention: Are you a Greenpeace supporter? Are you on Twitter? Are you a champion?

Greenpeace USA is bringing together our top supporters on Twitter, aka our “Twitter Champs!”

We’re starting by making a Twitter list, which we will be using as a shout out to our most motivated Greenpeace tweeters and a tool to organize some very cool projects. It will also help us engage and interact with all of you that much more! 

Our Twitter Champs are already people who are helping us out on Twitter, but we want to harness the collective energy better by bringing you into one place. We’re hoping that when we work together we can really make a difference.

Likewise, Twitter Champs is very much about showing appreciation to all of you who are helping us out so much already. We want to make sure you get credit for being Twitter leaders for Greenpeace, which is why we’ll be using Twitter Champs to sing your praises!

So, are you a Greenpeace Twitter Champ, or do you have what it takes to be one? Let us know, and we’ll be in touch soon as we get this project rolling.

---Harry

P.S. Special thanks to Alan Rosenblatt of the Center for American Progress Action Fund for suggesting this idea at Care2’s Cutting Edge Integrated Social Media Strategies webinar.

Update: so what makes a Twitter Champ, anyways? So far we're focusing on: retweeting our tweets, adding to our tweets, and motivation to be a champ.

We have over 600 coal plants in the United States belching toxic and heat-trapping emissions into the atmosphere every single day. Coal is dirty, dangerous energy, and it is the largest contributor to climate change worldwide.

So why am I smiling today?

I am smiling because Michigan State student activists are fighting like hell to shut down their campus coal plant, which burns 250,000 tons of coal each year and is the largest on-campus coal plant in the United States. In these past two weeks I have smiled, done fist pumps, laughed joyfully, and high-fived practically every colleague in the Greenpeace San Francisco office, telling them about the amazing work MSU Greenpeace has done on their coal campaign.

Student activists in the group MSU Greenpeace are making waves on campus. Last week, they were featured on the front page of the campus paper in an article all about activism on campus! According to the article, MSU Greenpeace is a great example of modern-day activism, and activism at Michigan State is on the rise!

One week ago today, MSU Greenpeace members attended their second Board of Trustees meeting this semester, to raise concerns about the coal plant and the lack of transparency in the administration. Students entered the fancy conference room dressed up in nice slacks and dresses. Shortly after the meeting started, they simultaneously held up signs to protest the campus coal plant, while wearing surgical masks. This chilling image raised several eyebrows. Clearly in response to the students' protest, Michigan State President Lou Anna K. Simon spoke before the audience about the need to reduce carbon emissions. This semester, the administration has yet to meet with MSU Greenpeace to discuss the coal plant. However, within hours after their protest, the students received an email inviting them to meet with Fred Poston, Vice President of Finance and Operations!

Thrilled with the success of last week’s protest and scheduling a meeting with Vice President Poston, the students didn’t stop there. Just yesterday, ten students walked into a busy courtyard, wearing black “Quit Coal” t-shirts and soot on their faces. After a student suddenly screamed, one-by-one, the students fell over, dying from the impacts of dirty coal. Justine Becker, a freshman studying environmental biology, said this about yesterday’s die-in:

We wore makeup resembling coal smeared on our faces, surgical masks, and our "Quit Coal" shirts. Everybody was coughing and wheezing, walking bent over and in zigzag lines – then someone let out a screech and we all fell over dead. Another student narrated the event. As people walked by, many stopped to take pictures and ask questions.

Thanks to the hard work from MSU Greenpeace, Michigan State is facing increased pressure to shut down its coal plant and transition to 100 percent renewable energy. MSU Greenpeace activists are getting national attention, and all eyes are on the administration to do the right thing. President Simon and the Board of Trustees must commit to transitioning from coal to 100 percent renewable energy, and provide a timeline for making this process happen. The ball is in their court.

Stay tuned for updates from next week’s meeting with Vice President Fred Poston, where students will ask for a commitment to shut down the coal plant and switch to 100 percent renewable energy. If you’re at Michigan State and want to get involved, contact MSU Greenpeace on their Facebook page. Or just drop them a virtual high-five by posting on their Facebook wall!

Until then, I’ll continue to smile, jump up and down, and high-five my officemates. Down with dirty coal!

If you’re heading to the movie theatre this weekend you might just be going to see Denzel Washington’s new block buster action-packed movie, Unstoppable. When a train carrying toxic chemicals gets loose on the tracks, it puts thousands of lives at risk as it hurtles through communities with chemicals that could spread a poison gas cloud for miles. And of course, it’s Denzel’s job to stop it.

This sort of scenario is just what we here at Greenpeace are also trying to stop with our chemical security campaign. In fact, our friend Andrew Salomone has produced his own sweded trailer, meaning his own limited budget remake, on the subject. Check out the trailer for the movie we’d like to see, “It’s Stoppable:”

Unstoppable wouldn’t have a plot if companies like Dow did the right thing and switched to safer alternatives.

So tell congress when it comes to a chemical disaster, It’s Stoppable. Take action to prevent a toxic nightmare in your community.

For more information, check out this post from Greenpeace Toxics Campaigner, John Deans.

 

It's late evening in Portland, OR as I leave the Metro Council building where a coal hearing just ended. I leave with a few students from the student body at Reed College and we discuss the experience. An overwhelming amount  - about 80%- of the people testifying at the hearing spoke for the earliest possible closure date of the Oregon coal plant, the Boardman Power Station. That is no big surprise I guess however this hearing was requested by the owners of the plant, Portland General Electric (PGE). The community was not notified about the hearing until mid-last week. The hearing wasn't advertised to the public. It was yet another way Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) caters to PGE's every demand. Yet despite the short notice the vast majority at this hearing spoke out for the immediate closure of Boardman.

 

The only people speaking on behalf of letting this plant continue to pollute our air and water were a few businesses and associations with direct financial ties to PGE. Even when PGE is buying voices, its support can't even compare to ours.

The passionate and somewhat frustrated people testifying tonight raised great points. After a suit clad PGE executive and a chamber of commerce director spoke about how we can't afford to do anything for public health or the environment, a young childcare worker making minimum wage testified. The childcare worker, Mr. Kitko, said that if he would have to pay a little more for electricity, that choice was easy because we cannot buy a new planet and we can't give new lungs to all of Oregon’s children. After his testimony, one of the PGE representatives asked him about his funny looking shoes and if he runs in them. He answered that he does everything in that pair of shoes because it's the only pair of shoes he owns.

By: Kentuckians for the commonwealth

Many people spoke of the health impacts and the deaths associated with burning coal. One bold man, an Intel employee, called the DEQ obsolete, rubber stamping whatever PGE puts in front of them. Many people were frustrated that the DEQ again has allowed PGE to sidetrack procedures by allowing PGE to repeatedly submit the same proposal in slightly different packaging over and over again.

One of the testimonies questioned how keeping this plant open for another 10 years would save the economy and bring all these new businesses and jobs to our state. He asked "wouldn't that have happened in the past 30 years that the plant has been operating". Ha! People spoke of the lost opportunity associated with keeping the plant operating for another 10 years and dumping another 500 million dollars into it. Why not spend that investment on a lasting solution that has been proven to supply more and better jobs (wind energy currently employs more people in the US than the coal mining industry)?

It was scary to hear from a physician the impact on fetuses from the toxins emitted by coal burning, but great to hear about how much money we can save in healthcare costs by quitting coal.

I am proud and happy to have stood with the real people and groups of Oregon on such short notice and to have overwhelmed the owners of a coal plant, PGE, at their own hearing! I am also happy to have represented an organization that would never sell its name and voice to a corporation. Don't underestimate the power of people!

- Sofia 

PS. You can join this fight and submit your own testimony by sending your comments to the DEQ via email. Send to NewBart4PGE@deq.state.or.us

Last night, the BBC aired an interview with former BP CEO Tony Hayward where he admitted that BP was “not prepared” for the disaster in the Gulf, describing their initial response as “making it up day to day." As Allison Kilkenny says, Oh Really?

Yet the beleaguered Hayward says that we should all let bygones be bygones on that one. This is because the real tragedy was the intense media scrutiny occurring afterwards, leaving poor Tony feeling “demonized and vilified.”

But Tony doesn’t stop there. No, he feels the need to reiterate that his ONLY fault was his poor handling of the media. In fact, he has the gall to say that he thinks he “may have done better” if he had gotten a degree in acting instead of geology.

Reports like these aren’t the only ones where BP puts the onus squarely on the media though. In fact, BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg straight up said that the only reason Hayward was ever removed as CEO after doing such a “great job” was simply to help rebuild the BP “brand and reputation”.

That’s just the problem: it’s working. BP is rebuilding their image by chastising the media for hurting their feelings. By extension, they are masking the truly sociopathic mentality that is at the heart of corporate environmental abuse.

Dirty energy companies have yet to change their corporate policies that reward managers for keeping costs down above all else, and are preventing a real public accounting for the entirely avoidable deaths and destruction. Until this nihilistic mentality is exposed, it won’t be changed, and the blasts, spills and deaths will undoubtedly continue.

Now, since the real causes of the oil spill aren’t making the headlines, we have to work even harder to counter Big Oil’s spin ourselves.

So, even if it risks demonizing and vilifying the likes of poor Tony Hayward, how about Taking Action to Stop the Next Drilling Disaster!

Brittany Cooke is one of ten students currently living in Washington, DC as part of the Greenpeace Organizing Term (GOT).  The GOT has just wrapped up their campaign trip for the semester - read Brittany's story below for more information about what campaign the class worked on! 

This October, the Fall GOT participated in our first collective demonstration.  The culmination of our training and campaign work resulted in an event and a preceding week of store-front actions.  

We are currently involved in the Pizza Cut campaign, which is an effort to urge Pizza Hut to cut their contract with palm oil supplier Sinar Mas.  Sinar Mas is responsible for a large amount of the current rainforest destruction in the Paradise Forests of Indonesia.  Currently, the corporation is engaging in the reckless deforestation of the region in order to expand their palm oil plantations.  Indigenous people are pushed out of their homeland, several endangered animals such as the Sumatran tiger, orangutan, and sunbear are pushed closer to extinction each day, and the amount of climate pollution they contribute is unfathomable.  With the realization of all of this frightful information, our campaign wanted to inform consumers and concerned citizens alike and to enable them to take action. 

Our campaign was a two-week movement to garner attention and support to the issue.  Time spent during the first week was a complete recruitment drive of Temple University students. We hit the streets to post-card, phone bank, gather volunteers, and hold an anticipated store-front event.  The GOT was able to showcase our newly formed organizing skills while adding momentum to the movement.  Everything orchestrated in our first week solidified our power during the second week of campaigning, which was an entire week of store-front actions throughout the greater Philadelphia area.

As a collective ten, we divided up the roles of a successful campaign, ensuring each of us would get a slight taste of every position.  Each day you faced a new challenge of tackling a specific aspect of our campaign.  The roles we delegated included: manager delivery, banner holding, call collecting, media, and the coveted orangutan role-play.  

Each position was as important as the next; each completed a clear and concise delivery of our message to the public.  Manager delivery included meeting with and discussing our campaign with the manager of each location while distributing a packet of information on the issue and beckoning the manager to make a call urging that Pizza Hut cut ties with Sinar Mas.  Banner holding displayed our main campaign visual.  Call collecting consisted of several of us passing out fliers and pressing passersby to make a call in to Pizza Hut headquarters to demand an end to rainforest destruction.  Media contacted and pursued local media outlets to draw mass attention to our Philadelphia actions.  As for role-play, there were several spectacular orangutan costumes for us to wear, which became the show-stopping portion of our public endeavors! 

Our contributions, energy, and solidarity were satisfying ways to put the pressure on Pizza Hut to stop serving up rainforest destruction!

Be sure to follow all that the GOT class is up to on Twitter!

Hey all, Alex from the Greenpeace Activist Network here...

Just thought I would give a quick shout out to all of the Lead Activists in the Network and honor them by blogging about how awesome it has been to work with you all! I have been doing a fellowship with the network for the last 4 or 5 months now, recruiting, coaching, and driving campaign tactics with our network of over 900 amazing volunteers across the country, and may I just say, what an amazing group of people!

These are folks who have day to day lives, like the rest of us, but decided somewhere, sometime that on top of that, they were going to go out, on their free time, and organize their community around all of our issues. How totally awesome is that?! The best thing about it is that we have people setting seemingly wild goals on their own, and then smashing them! I mean, we are talking like 900+ hand written letters to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to stop the BP Liberty Drilling project gathered by one person. Scratch that, we had multiple Lead activists break that! Last count we had over 3,800 letters sent to the Secretary of the Interior. I am just glad that my Fellowship is with Greenpeace, and not the White House! Could you imagine? "Good morning Alex." "Good morning Ken, we have another burlap sack of hand-written letters from people upset about the BP project..."

Yesss!

Anyhow, it doesn't stop with letters. We have launched our Stop the Dirty Energy Money tactic with our Lead Activists and I am pleased to say, that this tactic is RAD. Now that elections are over, we can start to really pressure these folks! Let's show them that enough is enough. No more bribes from the oil and coal industries to fund climate denial, and a climate policy that includes oil spills, toxic sludge in our rivers, poor air quality, and the destruction of our mountains for profit!

If you are ready to take action as a volunteer, and help us win our campaigns, spread activism, and rouse your community with simple, creative, and powerful tactics, then check out the Activist Network by going here.

Also, check out the brand new version of the Rainbow Warrior, the Activist Network Newsletter, to see some awesome stories of Lead Activists across the country, here!

For the Walrus,

Alex Holmes, signing off.

Quinlan Brennan is an intern with the Student Network at Greenpeace. In the lead of to the mid-term elections, Quinlan has been researching the money flowing from corporate polluters to politicians campaigning for office. With the election over, Quinlan has these thoughts on how young Americans can take action to beat dirty energy money in our politics:

This past Wednesday, after months of record spending by corporate polluters in the 2010 midterm elections, we all woke up to a new political reality covered in dirty energy money. Big coal and oil companies spent millions to buy elections across the country. I've had enough & so have most people my age. 

So, I spent some time on the streets of Washington, DC getting people to show their support against the corrupt elected officials who take cash from dirty energy companies.

After talking to a couple groups of people, I finally seemed to find an opening line to draw people in. By simply asking if they have a minute to take a picture, people were willing to stop. Then I explained that companies like BP, responsible for the largest environmental disaster in our nation's history, are also playing dirty in our politics, buying influence with OUR members of Congress. This got people’s attention.

I found that once I explained about where some politicians' get their campaign cash, individuals seemed interested to take a picture and stand up against funding from polluters. I also noticed that while a few people will ignore you, keep trying and don’t single out certain groups, because lots of people are fed up with dirty politics.

This was my first time doing something like this and although at times it may be a little frustrating, when you get people that agree to take a stand against the dirty energy money in Congress it makes everything worth while and can be a lot of fun! See:

Follow our Student Network on Twitter @GreenpeaceSN to see more as other students get these photos on their campuses. And join us. After this election, we have to tell our Congress that NO polluter money should be in their pockets or in our energy policy.

Some facts as I know them:

• I am a coordinator of the  San Francisco Greenpeace Organizing Term (GOT).  
• I talk to current students and campus organizers on the phone, recruiting the best and most passionate students for the GOT. 
• Our GOT application deadline for the spring 2011 class in San Francisco is tomorrow, November 5th. 
• I very frequently believe that I have the very best job in the entire world, because I get to spend time with students across the country, getting to know what motivates them, what sparks a fire, what they refuse to stand for. I learn what gives them hope, and what makes them mad.  

Before I go any further, let me reiterate: deadline to apply for the Greenpeace Organizing Term is Friday, November 5th. 

 The election results this week were upsetting on many levels, and it can be especially hard to see the numbers on voter tunout among young adults.  But I talk to the youth voters everyday and I know that apathy isn't the problem as much as we face a government and administration that lacks  muscle to enact the change necessary for a green and peaceful future, and elections funded by corporate polluters. We also face a society that seems unable to have meaningful dialogue about the necessary changes, like affordable and accessible education, sane energy policy and a science-based approach to climate change. Conversation is dominated by economic fear, and corporate money is snuck through under the guise of research. The wolves may be running the henhouse, but I'm not about to ask young adults to hold their nose and don a wolf suit.

On college campuses across the country, students are demanding that their universities shut down coal plants, divest from university-owned strip mines, and invest in the sustainability initiatives that their brochures advertise.  Students are organizing, and they are building real power.  And at the GOT, we are prepping students to become these leaders, training and empowering them to make change,  whether it’s at the ballot box, in the office of their university president, at a power plant, or at the point of consumption of products tied to deforestation.

                                                                            

We believe that “commitment is the currency of organizing.”  That’s why we developed the GOT to be an entire semester of trainings, campaign simulation, planning and execution, actions, travel, and game-changing campaign briefings from Greenpeace staff. From the GOT, students go back to their campuses and communities and stand up for what they believe in and make change. But the first rule is: you gotta show up.

The GOT can be challenging, both for participants  and for coordinators. Some students have never organized anything before they arrived at the GOT, and find themselves merely three months later planning an action or writing out a three-month campaign plan. I have been bursting with pride and hoarse with laughter. I have challenged our GOT students to be more strategic, and I myself have been challenged to be a better listener and mentor. I’ve stayed anxiously awake until dawn planning to make sure everything goes smoothly, and I’ve fallen asleep with a deeply satisfied exhaustion, knowing that the GOT students have everything covered.

So, tell us what you are excited about. Tell us what you hope for, what you are upset by, and what future you want to see. We want to hear you. We want you to apply to the GOT.  

Are you angry at the corporate polluters who bought the election? Are you BPissed? Well, we’ve got the perfect way for you to blow off steam! It’s called The Big Online Oil Spill, our new game that allows you to show your friends what happens when dirty energy companies like BP run the show.

What is The Big Online Oil Spill? It’s a new experiment in online social gaming built by some friends of Greenpeace over at Vanksen. It gets the oil flowing online instead of offshore, but you get to call the shots of where it spills instead of BP. Now that the spill in the Gulf is out of the headlines, The Big Online Oil Spill allows players to keep the spotlight on oil giants by splashing digital oil all over the web, one page at a time. It works like this: you simply go to the game, select almost any website or Facebook profile, squirt some oil on it and share!

So, are you game? Then I have a challenge for you: head over to The Big Online Oil Spill, and spill some oil on five of your friends' websites or Facebook profiles.

Not only will you be able to turn your anger at corporate polluters in Washington into a few laughs, but you never know what you may unlock. And who knows, if enough people play, it may just help prevent the next disaster.

Also, be sure to provide us some feedback on the game by commenting on this blog. It is an experiment and a work in progress (for example, the game can't spill oil on every website). We want to know what you think!

Enjoy the game, and don't worry, it's OK if you start chanting "Spill Baby Spill!"

Note: When you spill oil on a website, you are not actually effecting the site but creating a temporary layer on it for comedic purposes.

The dust from Tuesday’s election is still settling but it seems to me that one thing is CLEAR –  by injecting millions of dirty energy dollars into politicians’ pockets this election cycle, big oil and king coal have succeeded in polluting not only our air, water, and communities, but now our democracy too.

So what do we do? Anyone that cares about the health of our planet and the health of our government needs to stare the problem of dirty energy money straight in the face and call that spade a spade. So, here’s what we’re up to:

 

On campuses across the country students are starting to mobilize. Young Americans KNOW that during this election their representatives cozied up to polluters like BP and Massey Coal and they’re not fooled. Anything this 112th Congress does around energy and climate will be directly influenced by the polluting industries that bought their election. So – we’re calling them out. 

As campuses capture hundreds of images of young Americans demanding an end to dirty energy politics, they’re also using those images to engage with the media and pressure their newly elected/reelected congressmen and women.

Start following us on twitter @GreenpeaceSN, where we’ll be posting twitpics of our activists’ work after this election. And keep an eye on the hashtag #dirtyenergymoney.

This election doesn’t change the fact that we all deserve clean air and water, and that our leaders should side with the people they represent, not corporate polluters. But it does change the reality on the floor of Congress, with more allies of corporate polluters in control.  So, if you, like us, want clean energy jobs NOW, not later, and an end to the era of polluter power – take on the REAL problem, the problem of dirty energy money in Congress.

Follow us on twitter @GreenpeaceSN and download your own dirty ben franklin money to start taking pictures on your campus to call out this Congress. Just message us on twitter and we’ll hook you up.

It is not hard to see the influence of dirty energy money in this year's close  Senate race in Colorado. Hannah Nichols, a volunteer activist in Denver, shares a disappointing story about her run-in with current Senator and candidate Michael Bennet (CO).

Hannah writes in her blog post "Coal, contributions, and candidates in Colorado": 

Last night, I had the opportunity to meet Senator Bennet at a “Women for Bennet” event in Denver, CO. It was a quaint, pleasant gathering of perhaps 50 middle-aged, middle-upper class women in a private house. With a sliding-scale campaign contribution, you could enjoy wine and hors d'œuvres, and the opportunity to meet Senator Bennet in a casual setting including a Q&A.  As a new voter and proud Democrat, I was excited to be there with so many other like-minded women.

Senator Bennet and his wife each gave a little speech, mostly concerning the importance of voting and encouraging others to vote. They also made some pleasant statements about their children. It was sweet, even enjoyable. Not much like a campaign rally, more like a meeting of friends.

When Senator Bennet opened up the floor for questions, I proudly raised my hand. I’ve been volunteering with Greenpeace and local coal campaigns in Colorado for almost a year. Climate change and energy are among my top priority issues as a voter. I asked: “Senator Bennet, coal is a major issue here in Colorado. The public, small buisnesses, and state legilsators have all demonstrated a desire to transition off of fossil fuels into alternate and renewable sources of energy. However, the federal government continues to heavily subsidize the coal industry, among the other fossil fuel industries. I feel that this transition cannot be truly realized here in Colorado or across the nation until the federal government ends subsidies for coal. What is your stance on federal subsidization of the coal industry?”

Now, Bennet is famous for avoiding questions with elaborate, long winded, evading responses. And he was not pleased with this question and verbally expressed his displeasure with the question and with me personally in front of the entire crowd. When he finally got around to answering, he mumbled something about foreign oil, about the need for stronger federal legislation (duh), and, the real kicker, our need to continue to fund research to develop “clean coal” technology. He even claimed that while proof of coal being produced “cleanly” did not currently exist, finding the solution to “clean coal” was a worthy endeavor.  

Not only was I shocked by his angry response to my honest question, I was even more shocked by his answers. Clean coal?!?

While I was leaving,  I was stopped and interrogated as if I were some sort of infiltrator or spy. Two of his staffers asked me who I represented and what organization I was with. The media? Senate hopeful, Ken Buck? I told them, honestly, I was just a student citizen interested in personally learning more about the positions of my candidate and my representative. What had I done wrong besides ask a question he didn’t like?

I voted for Senator Michael Bennet today however, I must say, my vote was given bitterly. I am not anti-Bennet; I still maintain that he has voted the right way on a number of important bills and legislation and at least he believes in climate change, unlike his opponent Ken Buck. But, I am disappointed which is almost worse. Senator Bennet, like most members of Congress, takes considerable donations from the coal and oil industry and at least in Bennet’s case, it looks like those contributions paid off. Bennet is being a good boy. Despite overwhelming support for a new energy economy in Colorado, he supports keeping those tax-payer dollars flowing towards the same dirty energy because it keeps the pockets of the politicians nice and full.

Friday, October 22 at an Ohio TV station debate, I questioned both OH-18 Congressional District candidates, Zack Space and Bob Gibbs, on the fact that they've taken huge contributions from the coal industry. How could they support the energy revolution we need when they both take money from the coal industry?

Check out the video, my question begins at minute 41:

Wow! Not only did they both completely dodge the question, but Mr. Space claimed there’s such a thing as “clean coal” and Mr. Gibbs DENIED GLOBAL WARMING.

I wonder if it’s because both of them have indeed taken huge sums of money from the coal industry. How much money, you ask?

Zack Space - $174,050 (since 2006)
Bob Gibbs - $27,499 (2010 campaign)

Ohio is full of candidates running for election on November 2nd who’ve taken money from the coal industry and their employees and PACs . Here’s just a short list:

Rob Portman - $32,250 (2010 campaign)
Lee Fisher - $35,900 (2010 campaign)

Steve Stivers - $46,700 (2010 campaign)
Mary Jo Kilroy - $7,300 (since 2008)

Pat Tiberi - $250,406 (since 2001)
Paul Brooks -  $6,800 (2010 campaign)

The good news is that they are all being called out. A letter to the editor in one of Ohio’s biggest newspaper, the Columbus Dispatch, called on Tiberi, Space and Kilroy to “give back every penny of the coal industry’s dirty money”.

And Wednesday, the Stivers campaign, Kilroy campaign, Fisher campaign, and Portman campaign were all the recipients of large novelty checks from some well-dressed “Coal CEOs”. These checks showed the contributions each candidates had taken from dirty energy companies. We made sure they knew that taking money for polluting industry means they aren’t listening to the people!

We had a blast delivering the huge checks, but at the Ohio Republican Party office where the Stivers campaign was headquartered, we weren't greeted warmly - to say the least! A staffer cracked the door just enough to squeeze his head out and demand to know what we wanted. He  had no interest in hearing that we were bringing the Stiver’s campaign funding from the coal industry, he just told us to leave. We were able to talk to him just long enough to hand off the huge novelty check for the Stivers Campaign! Hmmm...some campaigns just don’t like to hear from their “donors,” I guess!!

Also, at the Kilroy campaign headquarters the staff refused to accept their check from the coal industry “CEOs” claiming that Kilroy wasn't taking dirty energy money.  Well that's not what campaign filings say!

Is your politician's ear being bought off by the coal and oil industry?  Check DirtyEnergyMoney.org or OpenSecrets.org and call them out, too!