Get Your Monkeywrenches Ready! Politicians Beg For Climate Change Wake Up Call

In this picture provided by the environmental group Greenpeace, Greenpeace climbers rappel down the face of Mount Rushmore National Memorial in Keystone, S.D. on Wednesday, July 8, 2009 to unfurl a banner that challenges President Obama to show leadership on global warming. Obama is at the G8 meeting in Italy to discuss the global warming crisis with other world leaders. A federal prosecutor says a dozen people were taken into custody on Wednesday after the incident. (AP Photo/Greenpeace, Kate Davison)

While the finely tailored and pampered leaders of the G8 met in Italy to talk the issue of climate change to death and do nothing tangible about it, activists with a more realistic sense of urgency started to take the necessary action to start cutting greenhouse gases right now.

Brave environmental activists from Greenpeace actually took a bold climate initiative today, doing so in my grandfather’s homeland of Italy, where they occupied four coal-fired power plants.  It’s a shame they didn’t hold those plants hostage until they turn those plants into “clean coal” plants. Your Greenius wishes he was there with them because coal-fired power plants are the enemy of mankind and deserve to be shut down until they stop killing people and the climate.

In the United States, a different set of high climbers made another powerful statement this time directly on the face of Mount Rushmore with a banner as long as Lincoln’s face reading:

“Americans honor leaders, not politicians. Stop global warming.“

Michael Jackson Comes Back From Dead to Blast L.A. Times Climate Change Coverage

Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, returned from the great hereafter this morning to condemn the Los Angeles Times for being a cause of global warming and then covering it up in the newspaper he mocked as,

Already more lifeless and brain dead than I am now!

The once Gloved-One threw down his ghostly gauntlet and said tomorrow’s memorial at Staples Center would be more rightly held for the L.A. Times since it was time to bury the now deceased legacy media member born in 1889 which he says shows no sign of life.

The L.A. Times isn’t a newspaper anymore, it’s an abusepaper that is part of the climate change problem, not part of the solution,

said the still world popular entertainment legend.             

That Super Sexy Clean Tech Roundtable, Part II of a Greenius Exclusive

If you’re like me you would have found yesterday’s gathering in Santa Monica a very sexy day at the beach.  And by sexy I mean hot and arousing, the way I get when serious people talk serious talk about renewable energy, about the revolution that’s needed to respond to climate change and about the reality of current world situation.  You know, the kind of stuff never discussed on television or in the newspapers anymore.  The kind of stuff that transcends the bread and circuses offered to the masses today.

The Broad Stage at Santa Monica College Parking Lot post Roundtable

But let’s face it, I’ve got a pretty unconventional sense of sexy and as one of the ace marketers of my generation I know what brand of sex sells best to the people.  That’s why I’d always like the features and benefits of any product I introduce to the mass market to be pointed out by someone like the young woman in the sunglasses above.  Having the world’s greatest car is nice.  But knowing how to sell it best is the kind of genius I can appreciate. 

Exxon/Mobil Guilty of Climate Change Coverup. Now Ordered Out of Torrance 3 Years Sooner.

I initially gave Exxon/Mobil till 2020 to get out of Torrance and clean up their toxic mess here in my town. But now that I’ve found out they’re still lying and covering up their role in climate change and the size of their own carbon footprint, I’m going to have to get tougher with them. Some people just cannot be negotiated with and need a swift, hard kick in the ass.  Sometimes they need several of them.

The global gangbangers from Exxon/Mobil are like that. They’ll forever claim to be reformed and rehabilitated but in the end they’ll always knife you in the back and sell crack to your kids. It’s just part of their DNA. They’ve been acting that way for generations.

That’s why I shouldn’t have been surprised when I read this today in the Guardian of England:

The world’s largest oil company is continuing to fund lobby groups that question the reality of global warming, despite a public pledge to cut support for such climate change denial, a new analysis shows.

Exclusive Greenius Coverage of Today’s Clean Tech Roundtable

I attended today’s Bryan Cave Clean Tech Roundtable at the Broad Stage at Santa Monica College – thanks to my pal Donna Gentry.

It was a terrific day spent on Renewable Energy and if you follow my Twitter feed you got some of the highlights during the three hour agenda.

The agenda included: Bob Foster, Mayor of Long Beach; Jeremy Snyder, General Manager of Tesla Motors; Steve Westly, Former State Controller, Bobby Shriver from the Santa Monica City Council, John Chiang, the California State Controller; Bill Locker, the California State Treasurer and the once and future Governor of California, Jerry Brown.

Ted Lieu Wants My Money, Wants My Vote, But Doesn’t Want To Talk About AB 920

I’m beginning to think that Ted Lieu only co-authored AB 920, the Feed-In Tariff bill as window dressing in order to try to pad his environmental resume.

Ted doesn’t talk about the bill in public, won’t put anything about it on his own web site, and looks down at his shoes and changes the subject if you ask him about the bill personally.

Why shouldn’t we conclude that Ted is practicing political greenwashing when he won’t show any backbone or courage and lobby on behalf of his own  bill even when you ask him to?

Until Ted proves otherwise, that’s the conclusion I have reached.  And in case you’re wondering, I’m a registered Democrat and a member of the Beach Cities Democratic Club, but fellow Democrat Lieu gets zero slack cut on this issue from me.

Ted Lieu used to be one of my city councilmen here in Torrance, but he didn’t stay local long because Ted had much bigger political ambitions than that.

Electric Company Too Scared To Tell Truth About Climate Change

If SCE Won’t Tell The Truth About Climate Change Why Should We Trust Them About Anything?

I attended the Southern California Edison’s free Solar session for homeowners last night.  I was there as a volunteer for the South Bay Environmental Services Center.  After my volunteer stint was over I stayed for the presentation and workshop.

Overall it was a good workshop with lots of solid basic information for people who don’t know much about solar but are considering a solar electric system.  Javier Burgos, a Project Manager with the SCE’s California Solar Initiative program gave a nice, if overlong and overwordy PowerPoint presentation.

The workshop was very well attended with over 130 local people showing up.  Their interest level was very high and they were a very attentive audience.

But it’s too bad Javier was too afraid to tell the truth about climate change to the people who came to his presentation hoping to get the facts and the straight story.

Jane Harman Will Vote Yes on Climate Change Bill While Holding Her Nose

I’ve been getting email after email from my friends at RePower America, MoveOn, League of Conservation Voters, the Apollo Alliance, Green Jobs for All and other smart, Green groups urging me to call my Congresswoman, Jane Harman to lobby her to vote for the historic climate change bill today in the House.

RePower America tells me Harman is wavering – but that’s not true.

Jane Harman feels exactly as I do.  This climate bill is an essential first step.  It’s been weakened and dumbed down by carbon-loving Democrats and the entire Republican Party and it’s not the bill it should be.  But it’s far better than no bill or the homage to fossil fuels the GOP has embraced like the sellouts and carbon collaborators they are.

So don’t waste your time calling Jane Harman’s office because she already gets it.  You’d be better off calling any Republican voting against this bill and telling them you will hold them personally responsible for the damage climate change does to your children and your grandchildren.  Tell them you know that they’re in the pocket of big oil and coal and that no amount of money and power they’ve gotten for their vote is worth the shameless pro carbon response they’ve clung to.

Big Greenius Thanks to Diane Moss, Jane Harman’s Environmental Deputy, for setting the record straight on this.  I met with Diane in her office last week and she’s been incredibly responsive and on top of the issues.  Looking forward to writing more about her but meanwhile -

Here’s the press release from Harman’s office:          

BREAKING NEWS: US Science Report Proves All Out Effort To Fight Climate Change Needed Right Now Or Everyone Is Screwed. Get It?

This is the cover of the report that was released by the The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) on Tuesday.  If you click on the cover you can get the report.

You should have read a headline in your newspaper that was as strong and provocative as my headline above because that’s how strong and provocative this news is.

But your dying legacy newspaper didn’t get it.  Neither did ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, HNN or any other major, mainstream outlet in the United States.  If you’re getting your news from those sources and acting accordingly, then you my friend, are already toast.  Burnt toast. 

Superstars of AB 811 Rock Palm Desert @ EcoMotion Conference

Part I – Burning Man’s Got Nothing On This “World Changing Revolutionary Movement”

Left: Bob Williams, Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets Right: Cisco DeVries, Renewable Funding

You know you’re at some kind of  special conference when all the sessions seem to end way too soon and the eight hour agenda blasts by like the all star jam session at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame dinner.

But that’s the way it felt to the Creative Greenius as I covered the EcoMotion Palm Desert AB 811 Conference on Friday at the University of California Riverside Graduate Center. Admittedly I am a geek when it comes to AB 811 type programs that give people loans to put solar on their roof and add energy efficiency to their homes.  And I tend to get a little fired up when I’m around people who actually make things happen instead of just pontificating about it.  Imagine that…

EcoMotion’s President, Ted Flanigan made sure Friday was one of those rare days filled with all substance and no smoke, mirrors or dog & pony shows.  What an exhilarating difference a well organized and smartly thought-out lineup can make. Just ask Los Angeles Lakers Basketball fans.