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| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
We shall overcome
Courage and song at Green Corps training |
Ken Ward |
16 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Last Friday, I lead a favorite Green Corps workshop on protest songs. When I first taught the session, years ago, I said that an organizer or campaigner might only be called upon to sing two songs in their career: We Shall Overcome at civil rights gatherings, and Solidarity Forever at labor conferences. The two experiences are very different. We Shall Overcome pours forth with spirit. Folks hold hands and sway in unison, while Solidarity Forever is generally ploddi ... |
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| Topics: environmental movement, grassroots activism, music, politics (all these topics) |
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Top heavy?
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David Roberts |
04 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| John Stauber on MoveOn et al: MoveOn has fallen into the same top-down rut that all the big national public interest and environmental groups are in. MoveOn raises millions and millions of dollars each year, but the dollars go into marketing, advertising, and candidates, and not into empowering the 3.2 million people on their list. Similarly, the Big Green environmental organizations, the largest DC-based environmental lobby and marketing entities like Environmental ... |
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| Topics: environmental movement, grassroots activism, politics (all these topics) |
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A common language of dispute
Three models for environmental analysis and planning |
Ken Ward |
04 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| There are several fundamental areas of disagreement that underlay the ostensible topics of debate here on Grist. I have pulled together three planning and training devices used by organizers and campaigners in the PIRG tradition, as well as Green Corps, that are helpful in surfacing and naming such disagreements -- a common language for dispute, if you will. Continuum of environmental action A strength of environmentalism had been the flowering of its forms and ... |
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| Topics: environmental movement, grassroots activism, politics (all these topics) |
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Case study of EDF's cold shoulder toward environment
EDF's support for self-cooling cans got deservedly chilly reception |
Gar Lipow |
28 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Ken Ward posted an intelligent critique of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). I want to anticipate a response. EDF always says something along the lines of 'We are getting the absolute best deal available. Go with us, or you will end up settling for something worse, probably nothing.' Let's set the wayback machine to 1997 and look at a case where the mainstream environmental community did not go along with EDF. Briefly: The Joseph Company wanted to market soda in a ... |
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| Topics: climate, Environmental Defense Fund, environmental movement, grassroots activism, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics) |
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Dude, where's my coalition?
Progressives discover there is no coherent energy movement to take advantage of this moment |
David Roberts |
21 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| I talked with lots of people inside and outside the green movement at Netroots Nation, and one theme arose again and again. Everyone agrees that the energy issue is more salient every day, in virtually every area of politics (economy, foreign policy, etc.). Lots of people are now being pushed to address it. They're looking around for a pre-existing coalition to hook into, and since energy thinking has been outsourced to the green movement for decades now, that's the o ... |
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| Topics: energy, environmental movement, grassroots activism (all these topics) |
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Green and proud
Don't be afraid to claim the term 'environmentalist' |
Gar Lipow |
06 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| A number of Grist contributors have grumpily said things along the lines of, 'I'm not an environmentalist,' or 'I'm not sure I'm an environmentalist.' Environmentalism comes in all flavors. Wanting to protect natural environments because they benefit humans is a perfectly valid form of environmentalism -- in fact, I'd argue more valid than the 'humans are evil, tapeworms are virtuous' variety. If you want to protect our world against the worst consequences of global war ... |
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| Topics: environmental movement, grassroots activism (all these topics) |
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Greening the city
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David Roberts |
05 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| They're making green videos over at The New Republic -- here's the first one, from Dayo Olopade: |
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| Topics: environmental movement, grassroots activism, New York City, video (all these topics) |
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350 or bust
The 350ppm challenge to U.S. environmental organizations and the importance of McKibben's 350.org |
Ken Ward |
19 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Bill McKibben spoke about 350.org recently at the Jamaica Plain Forum. Coming on the heels of recent talks by Ross Gelbspan, also at the JP Forum, and Jim Hansen, in Lexington, Mass., Bill's talk completed a trifecta of area appearances by climate action patriots. My friend Andrée, who attended all three events, said: 'Hansen has the reserve of a scientist, and the certainty of someone who knows he is right. McKibben is just like his writing -- philosophical, wry ... |
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| Topics: Bill McKibben, climate, economy, environmental movement, grassroots activism, James Hansen, politics (all these topics) |
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Just Forget All the Bad Stuff for a Day
World Environment Day is June 5 |
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04 Jun 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 4:55 PM on 04 Jun 2008 Thursday is World Environment Day, and you will no doubt celebrate by donating to Grist. (Thank you!) Once you've got that out of the way, you can also help out our dear environment by packing a lighter suitcase when you travel, jogging in the park instead of on the treadmill, using a wind-up alarm clock, and ditching your electric toothbrush, says a 202-page United Nations report called &qu ... |
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| Topics: environmental movement, grassroots activism, holiday, New Zealand, news, United Nations (all these topics) |
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Early warning signs at the Global Warming Café
The Climate Policy Paradigm has reached its endgame |
Ken Ward |
20 May 2008 |
Gristmill |
| It takes effort to suit up in the quasi-business/academic garb of the professional environmentalist and enter the lion's den of DC politics or the state houses. Our beliefs are so fundamentally at odds with the very fabric of civic life that it requires an effort of will, particularly in the early years, not to scream bloody murder and run for the door. Over decades, layers of accommodation and polite behavior have built up by accretion, while our rough edges have been w ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, environmental movement, grassroots activism (all these topics) |
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Fortune Brainstorm Green
Da yoots! |
David Roberts |
21 Apr 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Cute! We're now hearing from Avery Hairston, founder of an NGO called RelightNY -- oh, and a 16 year old high school sophomore. He's all rumpled and nervous and brainy. I want to go muss his hair. RelightNY raises money to buy and distribute CFLs -- 20,000 so far, 50,000 more planned for this year. He's showing us slides of him and his friends carrying boxes of lightbulbs to senior citizen homes, inner city schools, public housing, etc. He keeps saying how "a ... |
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| Topics: energy, energy at home, environmental movement, grassroots activism (all these topics) |
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Goldman videos
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Adam Browning |
17 Apr 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Video of Goldman Prize speeches here and here. |
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| Topics: environmental movement, grassroots activism, heroes (all these topics) |
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They're the Tops
Meet the global activists who won this year's Goldman Environmental Prize |
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13 Apr 2008 |
Grist Feature |
| Think changing the world is impossible? Think again. From a polio-stricken musician who's spreading the word about clean water in his native Mozambique to a pair of Ecuadorian activists taking on Big Oil, this year's seven Goldman Prize winners prove that a little heart and a lot of sweat can make a big difference. Press the arrows to scroll through the photos. Each year, the Goldman Prize -- f ... |
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| Topics: environmental justice, environmental movement, grassroots activism, heroes, progress (all these topics) |
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May the truth force be with you
Gandhi, King, and climate change |
Guest author |
11 Apr 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This is a guest post from Jonathan F. P. Rose, co-founder of the Garrison Institute, presenting a public forum on 'Satyagraha: Gandhi's Truth Force in the Age of Climate Change' April 13 at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City. ----- Mahatma Gandhi In recent days, we commemorated the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., who died 40 years ago this month. And some have also recalled that King was influenced by Gandhi, learnin ... |
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| Topics: climate, environmental movement, grassroots activism, greenhouse-gas emissions, politics (all these topics) |
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The faces of green
The Dream Reborn: diverse speakers and audience with a common vision |
Erik Hoffner |
10 Apr 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Jennifer Oladipo is a writer from Louisville, Ky., whose recent Orion article 'Global Warming is Colorblind' was just reprinted in Utne Reader. She was in Memphis last weekend to see firsthand what the green jobs movement is about. (To read more Grist coverage of the Dream Reborn conference, see Pat Walters' dispatches from day one and day two.) ----- The hopeful skeptic in me was the part most drawn to The Dream Reborn conference hosted by Green For All last week ... |
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| Topics: business, environmental justice, environmental movement, grassroots activism, green jobs (all these topics) |
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Martin Luther King Jr. and crossing boundaries
MLKJr.'s words about Vietnam apply to Iraq and the environment |
Jon Rynn |
04 Apr 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Forty years ago, writes the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne, liberalism's moments seemed to have passed: From the death of John F. Kennedy in November 1963 until the congressional elections of November 1966, liberals were triumphant, and what they did changed the world. Civil rights and voting rights, Medicare and Medicaid, clean air and clean water legislation, Head Start, the Job Corps, and federal aid to schools had their roots in the liberal wave that began to ebb when ... |
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| Topics: environmental movement, grassroots activism, legislation, politics (all these topics) |
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A dream reborn
Forty years gone: MLK's dream today would be colored green |
Van Jones |
04 Apr 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The following are my introductory remarks to the Dream Reborn conference, beginning today and running through the weekend in Memphis, Tenn. Forty years ago today, on April 4, 1968, a sniper assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King had come to Memphis, Tennessee, to aid striking sanitation workers. The preeminent civil rights leader of his time, he was only 39 years old. Four decades have passed since that fateful day. As of this month, Dr. King has been gone fro ... |
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| Topics: economy, environmental justice, environmental movement, grassroots activism, green jobs, politics, Van Jones (all these topics) |
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Know Thy ELF
'Eco-terrorism' suspected in Seattle-area arson |
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03 Mar 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 11:18 AM on 03 Mar 2008 Four unoccupied multimillion-dollar homes burned in a Seattle suburb Monday in what officials have reason to believe was eco-related arson. Explosives were found in the homes, and a spray-painted sign out front -- "Built green? Nope black! McMansions in RCDs r not green" -- bore the initials of radical environmental group the Earth Liberation Front. The Woodinville, Wash., homes were built wi ... |
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| Topics: Earth Liberation Front, eco-terrorism, environmental movement, grassroots activism, news, placemaking, Seattle (all these topics) |
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Idiot protest or brilliant parody?
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David Roberts |
01 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| I got a strange PR release today that sent me to this. I've read it over pretty closely and I still can't tell whether it's intended to be parody. If it is parody, it's quite clever -- really nails the self-righteousness arms race underway in the eat-your-own faction of the green movement. If it is serious, it may rank as the stupidest environmental protest ever, and that is against some fairly stiff competition. |
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| Topics: environmental movement, grassroots activism, politics, TV (all these topics) |
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Oh, Mother
Russia's environmental movement rocked by serious mommy issues |
David Roberts |
29 Oct 2007 |
Gristmill |
| You thought there was dissent inside the U.S. environmental movement? Welcome to Russia, where last summer a band of 20 protestors outside a nuclear reprocessing plant was attacked by masked thugs with bats and pipes, leaving one dead from a cracked skull. One of the attackers turned out to be Pavel Rikhvanova, the 19-year-old son of Marina Rikhvanova -- one of Russia's most famous environmental protestors, and the woman who had organized the very protest he assaulte ... |
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| Topics: environmental movement, grassroots activism, Russia (all these topics) |
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Organizers or TV stars?
How should the environmental movement spend its money? |
Glenn Hurowitz |
11 Oct 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Tonight will witness the biggest social event of the D.C. environmental calendar: the Green Corps 15th anniversary bash. All the green glitterati will be there to honor Rep. Ed Markey and John Lewis with awards -- and more importantly, to raise money to support training organizers for the environmental movement. I've been helping out with the event for the last few months and I'm excited about it. It's made me reflect on how much the environmental movement has ... |
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| Topics: environmental movement, grassroots activism, politics (all these topics) |
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Fighting Fire Retardants with Fire
An interview with Mary Brune, founder of Making Our Milk Safe |
Amy Linn |
19 Sep 2007 |
Grist Feature |
| Editor's note: Last year, Grist introduced readers to MOMS as the activist group was targeting Target's sales of PVC. In this interview, we catch up with co-founder Mary Brune to find out about the group's latest campaign. OK, so David slew Goliath. He never had half the battle facing Mary Brune and her fellow mothers in their crusade against the $500 billion-plus chemical ind ... |
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| Topics: environmental movement, grassroots activism, green living, health, parenting, special series (all these topics) |
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Theories of eco-impotence
Why is green so low on the political agenda? |
David Roberts |
27 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Why, with green so ubiquitous in media and culture, is it not higher up on the political agenda? Emily Gertz says it's because the green grassroots aren't involved in party politics. Matthew Yglesias points to new survey data from American Environics (PDF) which indicate that concern for the environment is broad but shallow. While everyone claims to care about environmental issues, nobody -- not even those who rate their concern the highest -- makes them a priority i ... |
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| Topics: elections, environmental movement, grassroots activism, politics (all these topics) |
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Re-vamp New Hamp(shire)
Marching for climate action in the Granite State |
Kate Sheppard |
24 Jul 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Remember all that hubbub about Step it Up? Though we haven't heard much about it since the successful event back in April, in many communities across America, the momentum continues. As part of the fallout, groups are working to 'reenergize' communities with more actions and events, especially in states that will play a big role in deciding who the presidential nominees will be. This week, we heard from friends in New Hampshire about their upcoming 'March to ReEnerg ... |
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| Topics: environmental movement, grassroots activism, New Hampshire (all these topics) |
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Environmental riots
And demonstrations |
Kit Stolz |
24 Jul 2007 |
Gristmill |
| One of punk's great anthems was one of the Clash's first great songs: White riotI wanna riotWhite riotRiot of my own. This was a sincere wish on the late Joe Strummer's part, and to some extent, his wish came true. The punk movement was a riot in music. His audiences were uncontrollable and he liked that, mostly. He saw a few riots and wanted more, to get people stirred up, showing their desires, demanding change. Could the ferment in present-day environmenta ... |
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| Topics: China, Dominican Republic, environmental movement, grassroots activism, Greece, Ivory Coast (all these topics) |
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