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Green jobs workshops with Kevin Doyle

Kevin Doyle. Wondering how you can find a well-paying, challenging job without checking your values at the door? Want to find out what’s real and what’s hype in the field of green careers? Light a beacon in the job smog by bringing Grist’s Green Jobs Guru, Kevin Doyle, to your campus in the fall of […]

China announces clean-air proposals for Olympic Games

Many Beijing-area factories and cement plants will close for two months beginning in late July as a key part of the effort to clean the city’s famously polluted air for the Olympic Games, Chinese officials said. Other clean-air measures include banning the use of half the city’s 3.5 million vehicles, disallowing spray paint and other […]

A roundup of news snippets

• Students win contest with vehicle achieving a jawdropping 2,843 miles per gallon. • Governors will come together to discuss climate this week. • World Bank is worried about food prices. • Canadian officials seize the ship of seal-hunt protesters. • Bangladesh faces a climate refugee crisis.

Salmon fishing season canceled in California, Senate extends renewable-energy credits, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Climate Change We Can Believe In I Spy Something Green Braking a Catch Diversifying Your Stalk Portfolio Happy Renew Year! Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Cake and Iceberg Guitar Heroes? They’re the Tops

Hunting season ends with Japan catching fewer whales than planned

Japanese whalers had a quota of 850 minke whales for the just-ended hunting season but are heading home having caught only 551, which the country’s Fisheries Agency blames on “sabotage by activists.” The militant Sea Shepherd Society had been all up in whalers’ biz throughout the season. Anti-whalers were quick to point out that hunters […]

Meet the global activists who won this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize

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 […]

All salmon, all the time

Fishery managers voted to cancel the chinook salmon fishing season off the coast of California and most of Oregon in light of the fish population's rapid collapse. The commercial fishery is worth an estimated $30 million ...

... many fishermen considered supporting the ban on West Coast salmon fishing in light of this year's record low catch. "There's likely no fish, so what are you going to be fishing for?" said one.

... while some other fishermen went ahead with a pre-season barbeque, although it was less well attended than in past years ...

Adam Werbach calls for a new movement of a billion consumers

On April 10, Adam Werbach gave a speech in San Francisco calling for a new "blue" movement of consumers pushing for sustainability (previewed in this post). Here's the full text of the speech for your reading pleasure. (Watch video here.)

The Birth of Blue: A speech to the Commonwealth Club by Adam Werbach

In 2004 I came here to the Commonwealth Club and performed a eulogy for environmentalism. Eulogies by their nature are the last word on the subject. But I made a promise on that cold December day to come back in the spring and share a set of solutions. It took me a few more years than I thought, and the world has changed a fair bit since that time, but I'm back.

Let me quote from that speech:

A reasonable case [could] be made that environmentalism needed to package seal pups, redwoods, clean air, Yosemite, clean water, and toxic waste under the brand of "environmentalism" in order to pass a raft of environmental laws in the 1970s. But for at least 20 years and maybe longer, the basic categorical assumptions that underlie environmentalism have inhibited the environmental movement's ability to consider opportunities outside environmental boundaries.

It is at moments like these that we need to take a hard look in the mirror.

We must not trade our fear of what will come next for our affection for environmentalism.

I remember shaking as I spoke, knowing full well that the reaction would be swift and harsh. No one likes to be called dead when they perceive themselves to be alive.

Friday music blogging: Grand Archives

Long ago in a galaxy far away, there was a Seattle band called Carissa’s Wierd that played hushed, pretty, melancholic music they called “slow-core.” They had some modest local renown and then drifted away. Though they never found chart success, the band did prove extraordinarily fruitful at producing kick-ass descendants. Singer Jen Ghetto went on […]

A roundup of news snippets

• Activists ask officials to halt the slaughter of Yellowstone bison. • Palazzo Las Vegas named largest green building in the world. • North Dakota and Montana may harbor up to 4.3 billion barrels of oil. • Clean diesels get ready for their closeup. • California authorities say aerial spraying against moth totally not why […]