Latest Articles
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The movement’s greatest challenge is its own lack of diversity
The following is a guest essay by Marcelo Bonta. Marcelo is founder and director of the Center for Diversity & the Environment and the Young Environmental Professionals of Color. He is also a senior fellow with the Environmental Leadership Program and a member of the advisory board of the Orion Grassroots Network.
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How Do We Diversify?Diversifying the environmental movement is one of the greatest challenges we face this century. Not only is it the right thing to do, but the movement needs to keep up with the rapidly changing demographics of the U.S. if it is to remain effective. Today, people of color in the U.S. amount to over 100 million people (about one third of the population), and by 2050, their numbers will more than double, growing to almost 220 million (over 50 percent of the population). People of color already constitute a majority of the population in California, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Texas.
The political and social implications of an increasingly diverse population and nation are vast. Communities of color have a mounting influence on society and politics, including the distribution of public finances, the way cities develop and grow, and the strength and creation of environmental laws and policies. Diversifying is not only a great challenge but also a great opportunity.
Can you imagine if the environmental movement was effective at engaging people of color and leveraging their substantial support and talents? Millions of new supporters would surely translate into more political victories for the environment, more public support, more members, a larger volunteer base, richer partnerships and more financial support. In other words, the movement would be potentially more successful and influential than it ever has been before.
Furthermore, people of color support environmental issues at a higher level than their white counterparts.
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Landowner hopes to mine mother lode of uranium in Virginia
A 200-acre plot of earth in Virginia is not the unassuming farmland it appears. It harbors what is thought to be the largest deposit of uranium in the U.S. — 110 million pounds of the stuff, worth almost $10 billion and able to supply every U.S. nuclear power plant for two years. Unfortunately for drooling […]
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Darth Nader endorses Edwards instead of Green Party candidate
Ralph Nader’s endorsement of Edwards sure sounds more like an undorsement of Clinton. Questions: Is Nader’s endorsal opposition to Clinton more irrelevant to her chances than another Nader presidential run would be, or the same amount of irrelevant? Will this cause Edwards to lose support, as Dem primary voters deploy the sensible heuristic that the […]
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Cheney and Johnson probably conspired, ho hum
On this business with the EPA giving Waxman all its papers: I doubt it will turn up anything actionably illegal. We’ll see a great deal of circumstantial evidence pointing to already obvious conclusions: the White House, probably Cheney’s office, urged Johnson to reject the waiver. Messaging was coordinated. The Bush administration cut a deal with […]
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Cargo ship to use massive kite-like sail on trans-Atlantic voyage
A huge cargo ship is set to cross the Atlantic Ocean this month with some help from a massive kite-like sail that could offset up to 15 percent of its fuel use on the journey. It’s hardly a return to purely wind-powered shipping, but it’s a start for the hugely polluting maritime shipping industry. “This […]
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Charitable foundations move to align investments with philanthropic goals
Charitable foundations have historically considered their philanthropic goals to be separate from their investments, often fearing that socially responsible investing could harm their returns. Recently, though, many foundations are moving to harmonize the social and environmental effects of their investments with their charitable missions. The Ford Foundation, the second-largest in the U.S., and some smaller […]
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Gwyn Prins and Steve Rayner on climate change
Today's members of the "Inhofe 400," Gwyn Prins and Steve Rayner, do appear to have expertise on climate change policy. Prins is the professor and director of the Mackinder Centre for the Study of Long Wave Events at the London School of Economics, while Rayner is professor and director of the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization at the University of Oxford.
As such, they are different from those that I have previously highlighted (here and here), who were true skeptics of human-induced climate change, but didn't have the credentials or credibility in the climate change arena to be considered "experts."
So Prins and Rayner have credibility in their area of expertise, but are they actually skeptics? The first sentence of the executive summary of their report, "The Wrong Trousers," (PDF) says:
We face a problem of anthropogenic climate change, but the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 has failed to tackle it.
I would say that Prins and Rayner do not doubt the reality of human-induced climate change.
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Indian car company to sell world’s cheapest car
India-based Tata Motors plans to launch what it’s billing as the world’s cheapest car later this year, a five-seater selling for about $2,500. The roughly 58-miles-per-gallon “People’s Car” hopes to lure less affluent folks in India and other developing countries who often rely on ultra-cheap two-wheeled motorbikes and scooters for transport. The car will be […]
