Greenpeace

     The GOT (Greenpeace Organizing Term) Team is wrecking positive environmental havoc in Madison, Wisconsin. Their 2nd day organizing for the Kleercut campaign brought 29 new Forest Friendly 500 (now past 600) businesses; 6 new Madison student leaders, and 1000 signed petitions. In addition to the excellent GOTters, there is a super Madison volunteer, Eli. Eli petitioned all day, got bucket donated in the afternoon to make into tree stumps, and is eagerly awaiting his second day of Kleercut petitioning.
    Further, the GOT alumni network is alive and thriving. Alum Kyle and Alumnae Stacy and Tanya are all in Wisconsin, helping the 20-plus team out.
    Way to go GOT! Keep checking back here for more GOT updates. It's sure to be an exciting summer!
    Sound like fun? You can do this too! Apply to the GOT program. Check out http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/getinvolved/the-greenpeace-organizing-term.

For a homework assignment, my little sister, Fiona, wrote an essay about me. Although she hasn’t gotten everything correct (FYI: the part about fixing in parks in San Francisco is not totally true; it was more like a plan that I had and told my sister about, and KC destroys ancient forests, not rainforests), the general drift is—well, incredibly sweet. The original essay also makes effective use of Clip Art, but as documented in previous blogs, I am computer illiterate, and thus wasn’t able figure out how to reproduce the original file here. Anyway, I will just quote the essay for you, and like every older sister, I will insert my comments into her essay with parentheses.

Fiona's Essay:

My sister Renata is the kindest person I know. [Ahhh…] She’s funny and has a great sense of humor. [Double Ahhhh. . .] She also cares about the earth. Renata works for Greenpeace. She also volunteers to fix parks in San Francisco for poor children to play in. Last but not least she is very nice to me and to everyone else. [It’s really easy to idealize someone who’s across the country, in San Francisco, while you’re in Westchester, NY, but, hey, never mind that!] Renata teaches me how to help the earth. [She might be referring to all the times she’s told me that she wants to live in our house, raise dogs, and own SUVs, and I’ve told her that she can raise as many dogs as she wants, and even move into my bedroom, but she may not own any of those monster cars.] She also taught me how to not use Kimberly-Clark products because this company destroys rainforests to make paper products [look at that- a 11 year old gets it]. I admire Renata because she gives herself to help the world!

Isn’t that the nicest? Try telling your sibs about the KC campaign and see what essays they write about you! I'll be away next week, but back in July, and I look forward to telling you about more exciting KC campaign events!

    Yes, we are closer to 600 Forest Friendly businesses than 500 (!!), but there are still ways for you to help out with the KC campaign. You can keep on recruiting businesses (the more we have, the stronger the statement we make). But what if you’ve recruited every business in your town/city/state/county? Well, if you have just absolutely exhausted your recruitment pool in your area (and even if you haven’t), there are some new things you can do.  
    Here’s one. Keep an eye out for large businesses/institutions that are using KC products. (In the US and Canada, these are the brands: Kleenex, Cottonelle, Viva, Windows, Scott, Surpass and Tradition; outside of the US and Canada: Kleenex, Cottonelle, Cottonelle Puppy, Andrex, Scottbrand, Hakle, Scottex.) Pretty soon you will be able to use Kleercut.net to report your “in the field” sightings, as well as find instructions on the next steps you can take after the spotting. So right now, keep your eyes open, and make your lists of businesses/institutions long! I’ve already spotted one—I was at the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s annual plant sale, and I noticed a KC toilet paper dispenser! (Which suggests that there is KC toilet paper in there . . .) How ironic!
    Also, if you have any tips/stories about recruiting businesses, don’t keep them to yourself! Send them to me (renata.silberblatt@sfo.greenpeace.org), and I’ll put them up on the blog for everyone to see.

    What does 535 businesses, 107% of our target mean? Well, if you’re looking at www.forestfriendly500.org, it means a number of things. It means that as of Wednesday, June 7th, 2006, 535 businesses have pledged not to use K-C products. It means that 535 businesses in the US, Canadian and farther away have chosen to take a decisive step against Kimberley-Clark’s needless, senseless destruction of ancient forests. That 535 businesses have stood up to Kimberly-Clark’s ridiculous and infuriating green-washing of their corporation. That these businesses have told the company it can say whatever it wants on paper and on the internet, but K-C’s true practices are no longer a secret.
    What 535 businesses, 107% of our target doesn’t mean is that we’re done. We need more businesses to take a stand against K-C. We need more people to know about what K-C’s Boreal destruction; we need more public outrage, more public pressure. Passing the 500 mark is great, awesome, impressive for sure. But think about how many businesses are out there—millions. Literally: the whole world. And shouldn’t the whole world be furious at K-C for what it’s doing?  
    I’ve been calling Forest Friendly businesses for about a week now, thanking them for taking a stand, and making sure that they want to join us in the next step of the campaign (having their business listed in an ad in a newspaper).  Strange but true: many of the businesses I’ve talked to have thanked me for including them in the campaign, for providing an outlet for them to show support. So, if doing your part to save ancient forests isn’t incentive enough to make you a Forest Friendly recruiter, chew on this: being a Forest Friendly recruiter also enables you to empower environmentally conscious small businesses that are often overlooked by environmental campaigns.
    PS: if you take a look at the Forest Friendly 500, you’ll see that Canadian businesses outnumber American one 2 to 1 (at least 2:1, I’ve only scanned the list). People of the USA! Come on! For the sake of self (forget national) pride, we cannot let our moral, sage, well-accented (as in, don’t Canadians have charming accents? I think so) northern neighbors beat us for the umpteenth time!  (Can you tell that my best friend from high school is Canadian?)

 I should have known better than to try to get a table at Revolution Café at 8:30 tonight. After all, it’s the only café in the Mission that’s open past 9, at least the only one that’s not a bar too. And anyway, it’s definitely the only coffee place around here that comes up with frequency on the CraigsList San Francisco Missed Connections Section—“cute barista at Revolution,” or “Hot guy with the headphones who let me share his table, Revolution 5 PM.”

It’s not a long walk from my house to the café—two blocks—but it’s annoying going anywhere lugging a laptop, especially my roommate’s, which is heavy. (Mine is heavy too, and too old to get wireless internet, if you can believe that.) Add to the bother of schlepping around a laptop, my natural neurotic state practically dictates that I’m going to be nervous that I’ll just break anything that’s not mine … so, well, you can imagine how I felt after I saw that I had left my house for no reason. I was not going to get a seat in this café; the line to order coffee was literally out the door.

Terrific. This brings me to where I am now, in my room, on my bed (the largest thing in my room), with my roommate’s heavy laptop sitting on my lap. A very fabulous looking mug of coffee (although it seems like a TV show interior designer might call this mug’s design “awful, earthy, 1970s”) is perched on the inside windowsill (the window’s molding?).

This whole situation reminds me of college, except that probably at college there would be a table for me at the café, and the café wouldn’t close until 1. Well, ok. Drinking coffee at 9:08 PM, while typing on a computer reminds me of college. And further, the whole idea that I’m doing work for work that isn’t really work (I mean, I’m writing a blog for god’s sake) also seems oddly similar to college, where the work (writing essays and reading books) I did wasn’t “work” either. 

But what a great lead-in because I want to talk about college. I want to tell you about two Greenpeace programs for college students that I had no idea about when I was in school, but that I wish I had known existed.

Change It! is a leadership training program that Greenpeace is running in partnership with Seventh Generation. Students selected for this program will be flown to D.C. to work one-on-one with Greenpeace mentors. These mentors will provide personalized training on campaign strategy, message development, lobbying, recruitment, and event planning. Students will travel offsite to participate in a campaign event and will emerge from the program with the skills and tools they need to become effective leaders in the environmental and social justice movements. Some of the guest speakers will include John Passacantando, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, and Jeffrey Hollender, President of Seventh Generation. The program starts on July 28^th, and I’ll be sure to keep you informed on some of the highlights (so that you’ll want to apply next year!). In the meantime, check out http://www.changeit06.org/index.vm.

The other opportunity you should be aware of is the Greenpeace Organizing Term (GOT) program. The GOT program is an action-filled semester and the best hands-on training for students to become environmental leaders. You’ll be making an investment in your leadership skills, getting training in grassroots organizing, media, direct action, and campaign strategy.  You’ll travel abroad with Greenpeace and join a team of incredible activists working to protect the planet. Sound good? Then apply. The summer term has already begun, and you’ve probably already picked your classes for Fall ’06, but, hey, what about Spring ’07? Check out http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/getinvolved/greenpeace-organizing-term. As enticement, through out the summer, I’ll be peppering this blog with fun stuff past/current GOT teams have done/ are doing.

Happy summer vacation to you! And, good night!