Joel Francis Offers Prop 23 Challenge: Explain Yourself Mr. Koch

I’m imagining the scenario in my mind’s eye:

Joel Francis, the Cal State senior who challenged billionaire Charles Koch to meet him “anytime, anywhere in the state before election day” to debate Prop 23, shows up tomorrow afternoon at the office of Koch Industries in Wichita, Kansas.

Ding-dong.

“Hello?”

“Yes, this is Joel Francis, California resident and concerned citizen. On behalf of millions of young Californians, I’m here to talk with Charles about why he is meddling with our democracy by funding a proposition that would roll back progress on climate action and cause billions of dollars in new clean energy technology and green jobs to dry up.  Is he in?”

“Yes. Just a moment, he’ll be right down.”

Then Joel proceeds to demolish Koch in a debate that is aired during prime-time in front of millions of eyeballs.

Here’s the challenge:

Well, it might now go down like that, but we’ll find out soon.

Joel is part of Power Vote CA, a project of the California Student Sustainability Coalition.  The network of thousands of students are urging Californians to pledge No on 23. Opponents of Prop 23 have dubbed it the “Dirty Energy Proposition“ because both out-of-state oil companies and the billionaire Koch brothers (via Flint Resources) have chipped in most of the millions behind this attempt to kill clean energy investments and green jobs creation in California.

Find out more about Prop 23.  Check back soon for updates.

Follow me on Twitter @vanlenning.

Bioneers 2010: Million Kid March For Climate Action Announced

Alec Loorz, founder of Kids vs. Global Warming, began his career as a climate change activist when he was 12 years old. You read that right, 12! That’s when he saw Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” that “changed his life forever.” He became so moved that he has been speaking truth to power, organizing and empowering youth, and speaking to large audiences ever since. He’s now a junior in high school and a winner of a Brower Youth Award.

At Bioneers 2010 last weekend Loorz announced the iMatter March planned for Mother’s Day, May 8, 2011. He called it a “million kid march” for climate and energy action.  He is calling on youth and supporters from all around the nation to organize and turn out on Mother’s Day to raise awareness about climate destabilization, our relationship with the biosphere, and to call for strong action on energy.  Loorz understands that it is his generation that will have to live with the decisions made by today’s so-called leaders.

Alec believes that “youth have a unique sense of moral authority on this issue. It’s our planet now. And we are going to have to grow up and face the consequences of what the world does, or fails to do.”

If you haven’t had a chance to hear Alex Loorz speak, do yourself a favor and watch the TED talk video below. Loorz is a powerhouse of youthful exuberance and a born leader. It’s hard not to get pumped up by Loorz’s talk of revolution and a new way of living.

Next month iMatter will be launching a global map for organizers to register their actions and providing tools for leaders to turn their marches into reality.  You can also get the iMatter app to help connect youth from around the world to one another and coordinate actions.

Follow me at @vanlenning.

Crush Dirty Energy Prop 23 Video Round Up

With just over two weeks left until election day, more and more Californians are pledging to vote no on Prop 23, the deceptive dirty energy prop funded by out-of-state Texas oil companies and the billionaire tea-party funding Koch brothers.

Several awesome videos have come out recently–some serious, some funny–but all getting the message out about the importance of defeating Prop 23 if we want to move towards a clean energy future.

The song “Valero Oil of Texas” was first performed at the Berkeley and Oakland rallies organized by the Credo Action/Greencorps folks, with lyrics written by volunteers Nancy Schimmel & Bonnie Lockhart.  Here’s a new video out with more instruments and professional production. It’s sure to go viral.

The Stop the Dirty Energy Prop folks asked Californians to send in photos of themselves showing their opposition to Prop 23.  Here is the resulting video:

Van Jones Makes Calls With Citizens to Urge Voters to Crush Prop 23

Becky Bond and Van Jones rehearse before calling voters to urge No on Prop 23

(Published on Ecolocalizer) On Sunday evening Van Jones joined hundreds of San Francisco Bay Area residents at the First Congregational Church to call voters to urge them to vote no on Proposition 23.

Prop 23 is the deceptive ballot initiative funded by Texas oil companies and the billionaire Koch brothers that would suspend California’s landmark greenhouse emission reduction law AB 32 (Global Warming Solutions Act).

Regular engaged citizens as well as luminaries like George Lakoff joined Van Jones, Michael Kieschnick (CEO & President of Credo/Working Assets), and Becky Bond (Credo Action’s Political Director) to make calls.  They all underscored the importance of not merely beating Proposition 23, but crushing it overwhelmingly. Organizers also emphasized that since voters can begin mailing in their ballots this week it is critical to contact as many as possible.

“This is not a fight we picked. They are on our turf, in our backyard, using our rules,” Kieschnick said of the out-of-state oil companies Valero and Tesoro and the billionaire Koch brothers.

Van Jones reminded the crowd of their recent history of mass mobilizing against the invasion of Iraq and on-going wars. “We’re getting the moment back for this movement,” Jones said.

“These people are not spending hundreds of millions of dollars to crush your dreams because you suck. They don’t have lunatics on TV twenty-four-seven because you lack power.  They’re doing this because you do have power, you are a force to be reckoned with,” Jones said.

“Do you think they’re getting up in the morning trying to figure out how to create jobs for Californians?” Jones asked, then hilariously play-acted crying on the part of the CEOs of Tesoro and Valero.  The two CEOs put out an editorial on Friday complaining they were just so tired of being cast as villains, after even Schwarzenegger called them out for “self-serving greed.”

Poor them.

The words of Jones and Kieschnick rallied the crowd to action.  Out came the cell phones and everybody started making calls.  Volunteers made thousands of calls and had hundreds of great conversations about Prop 23.

As Kieschnick said, “The old guard oil companies won’t go easily into a future where they don’t dominate the energy scene. We have to win here, crush it here, or it is a big step backwards.”

Credo is continuing to contact voters everyday until election day. Consider plugging in whatever way you can, but the most effective thing is to call voters and get pledges to vote no and volunteer. So consider volunteering a few hours of your time to phone-bank.  That’s environmentalism in action.

Take Action: Go to the Credo Action Campaign site to find your local office and events.



West Coast Green Arrives: “We need a new design assignment as a species”

“We need a new design assignment as a species.”

So says innovative architect and sustainable design leader William McDonough, one of the keynote speakers on the first day of West Coast Green 2010 in San Francisco.  McDonough set the tone for a conference that has earned a reputation for being the largest conference on innovative sustainable solutions for the built environment.  West Coast Green is a people-buzzing, info-bursting, idea-busting experience, with more workshops, green products, demonstrations, art, books, and break-out sessions than you can get your head around.

So, I’ll pull out some highlights from the first day.

McDonough, Van Jones, and Doug Davis from Intel launched the day with some cutting-edge ideas and examples, mixed with tried-and-true motivational techniques. McDonough, author of Cradle to Cradle, is known for his critique of our status quo industrial processes but is even more appreciated for inspiring people with his vision of where we need to go and can go. He served up plenty of insightful questions and stories that captured well some of the major value and framing problems we are confronting as a civilization.

He also didn’t pull any punches. He provoked the crowd with questions like, “What if you are doing the wrong thing efficiently?” He argued that “being less bad is not the same as being good,” which is the subject of a chapter in his book Cradle to Cradle.

Imagine if I cut 10% of my toxic waste or 30% of my pillaging.  Hmm, what about the rest?  From a  whole-systems perspective, McDonough makes the case that we have to eliminate the concept of waste altogether.  Waste from one process or system is fuel for another.

Van Jones’ role was to inspire, encouraging values-transformation and self-reflection.  We’re the embodiment of Hope.2, he said, so go out and make the difference with that unique dream that you share with others.  He said that the solution is as much an inner-outer transformation as it is a top-bottom and grassroots-up process.

Of course Jones also made the case for the Green Economy that he does so well,  reminding us (and presumably policy-makers & legislators) that we have a nation to repair and retrofit and urging us to put automakers back to work making wind turbines, making homes and buildings energy efficient, and building public transit infrastructure.

“Homes don’t retrofit themselves.”

Stay tuned for a report back from some of the break-out sessions and follow @vanlenning and @Ecolocalizer on Twitter.

You can watch live streaming video of the Keynote Speakers from westcoastgreen2010 at livestream.com.

Non-violent Direct Actions Against Mountaintop Removal in D.C., 100+ Arrested

W.V. Resident and Coordinator of Appalachia Rising Katie Rooth Arrested at Today’s Day of Action in D.C.

“Hey hey, ho ho! MTR has got to go!”

So chants the people gathered in D.C. today to demand an end to mountaintop removal mining.  Today’s Day of Action is the culminating event of Appalachia Rising’s 3-day mobilization.

In the morning, marchers first stopped at the Environmental Protection Agency with the message, “Do your job!” Here is a clip from the rally. The mobilization continued to the White House, where West Virginia resident Larry Gibson, climatologist James Hansen, and others addressed the people gathered.

“We cannot enrich the experience of a few at the expense of many,” Hansen told the crowd. Hansen, Gibson, and several others were arrested.

Earlier, members of the Quakers, Rainforest Action Network, and Appalachia Rising conducted a direct action at the doors of the PNC Bank, a key mountaintop removal financer (and TARP-funds recipient, by the way) in downtown D.C.  They were removed by police and arrested, including West Virginia resident and Appalachia Rising Coordinator Katie Rooth.  All the while, Reverend Billy Talen (of Church of Life After Shopping and What Would Jesus Buy? fame) gave a Sermon on the Mountaintop, after which he also was arrested.

Appalachia Rising Mobilization at the White House (Photo Credit: RAN)

Activists made a visit to the headquarters of Army Corps of Engineers, where several Rising Tide members were taken out of the building after occupying the office.  After the crowed formed a circle around the building, two Kentucky coalfield residents were granted a meeting with officials from the Army Corps of Engineers.

Reports coming in have said over 100 people have been arrested so far.

Dr. James Hansen, Appalachian residents and retired coal miners arrested are all calling for the abolition of mountaintop mining and immediate veto of Spruce mine project.

Follow @App_Rising and hashtag #apprising and #mtr for updates.

Photo Credit: Rana_X and Rainforest Action Network