Daily Loaf

What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Upcoming film screening and discussion about the creation of sustainable communities hosted by Code Green Community – Join Code Green Community at this upcoming event where the organization’s director Eric Stewart highlights an emerging community revolving around the creation of sustainable communities.

Van Jones talks green economy and sends Glenn Beck some love at the NAACP Awards (video) – Last Friday night, Van Jones accepted the President’s Award at the NAACP Image Awards, bestowed upon him for his efforts in promoting a green economy. Jones gave a moving acceptance speech about those unemployed and living in economic uncertainty, urging us to repower America in a “clean way”.

Tonight: Join Repower America’s “72 Hours for Clean American Power” to support clean energy legislation – Join the kick-off event today: “72 Hours for Clean American Power”, to connect tens of thousands of Florida constituents to their Senators in D.C. and to local Senate offices in an attempt to show the breadth and depth of support for clean energy legislation.

USF St. Pete lectures on marine challenges ahead due to climate change (3/3-4) – Check out the annual Eminent Scholars Lecture Series: “Current Challenges in Marine Science: Ice Sheets and Sea Level; Ocean Acidification” at the College of Marine Science at USF St. Petersburg  Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, March 3rd and 4th.

InGREEDients: Should we fear what’s in our food? (trailer) – With the recent influx of food documentaries and exposés, comes yet another that forces us to take a look at the gritty (and frightening) reality of what is really in our food.
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Last Friday night, Van Jones accepted the President’s Award at the NAACP Image Awards, bestowed upon him for his efforts in promoting a green economy. Jones gave a moving acceptance speech about those unemployed and living in economic uncertainty, urging us towards green jobs to repower America in a “clean way”.

Jones said he’s willing to walk through fire and brimstone “until we get the job done” for a prosperous, innovative and united country.

He then went on to shower Glenn Beck with words of love and stated that we should work together as one country, rising above the slander Glenn Beck has spread to discredit Jones. “Let’s be one country, let’s get the job done.”

Even though he stepped down as Obama’s “Green Jobs Czar” last September, he’s still fighting the fight and keeping true to his word about advancing this nation through clean energy and green jobs. Van Jones has recently accepted a position at the Center for American Progress as a Senior Fellow and leader of the new Green Opportunity Initiative, which will focus on creating economic opportunity in distressed communities. He is also currently teaching environmental and economic policy at Princeton University.

Video after the break:
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What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Green your diet with these foodie iPhone apps – Whether you’re a strict vegan or just looking to eat healthier, here’s a list of just some of the many iPhone apps for greening your groceries, cooking, and dining.

Obama explains the difference between climate change and extreme weather (video) – Thank you, Obama, for finally publicly addressing the issue of climate change to all of the deniers out there.

Dependence on foreign oil threatens our nation’s security – Operation Free, a coalition of veterans who are against oil dependence, states that America’s oil addiction raises the cost of oil worldwide and pours funds into the pockets of foreign regimes that hold anti-American sentiments, harbor terrorists, and threaten America’s national security.

New study shows factory farms breed mutated superbugs with antibiotic feed – There’s no need to use antibiotics at all, except to add a few dollars to the bottom line.
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On Friday, the NAACP will award Van Jones the President’s Award for 2010 at their Image Awards ceremony.

Van Jones has moved quickly through the spotlight as good guy, recognized by Time last May as one of the top 100,  to bad guy when he resigned as Obama’s Green Jobs Czar on Labor Day. Last night Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the NAACP, announced on a CNN special that Jones would receive this prestigious award.

The official notice from the NAACP says Jones embodies the spirit of the NAACP Image Awards — an entrepreneurial spirit that comes with a sense of social responsibility. His plan to retool the American economy by creating millions of new “green collar” jobs is groundbreaking, not only because it opens up a new sector of American industry, but also because it does so in a way that creates jobs and protects the environment.
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What does it mean for an economy to be green? How do green investments and green jobs help the short-term economic recovery and long term transition?

If you’re asking these kinds of questions, consider attending the National Council for Science and the Environment’s expert- and information- packed conference , January 20-22, in Washington D.C.

The NCSE will host its 10th national conference, ‘Science, Policy and the Environment: The New Green Economy’, to address green jobs, partnerships, green buildings, economic transformation, green investments and education. Learn about eco-systems, climate change, green industry and technological innovations from luminaries like Paul Hawken of The Ecology of Commerce fame, Van Jones and Charles Holliday, Chairman and former CEO of DuPont.
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What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Eco-adventurer takes ‘Plastiki’ expedition to the Pacific Garbage Patch- Eco-adventurer David de Rothschild plans to sail 11,000 miles from San Francisco to Sydney by way of the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch on his 60-foot catamaran called the Plastiki.

The truth about Van Jones: Communist? Nope. Revolutionary? Hope so. – From what I’ve known about Jones as a person and his work the past four years, I would say it’s pushing it to call him a communist. As for being a revolutionary, he is indeed a leader in the Green Revolution.

What we need to form Florida’s green economy- A green economy, based upon ethics, entrepreneurship and decentralization, would be the way to move forward for this state and our country.
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Last October, an economy that had been running its course for the past three decades was laid to rest. Our country has been on a nearly 30-year credit bubble where we have binged on cheap credit to buy up homes at ever increasing values. This 30-year ascent made us think it could be forever. But this bubble was based upon unsustainable principles and ecological destruction. We destroyed as much land as we could to produce quickly and consume as much food, building supplies, minerals as we could get from the land as fast as possible. We utilize an extremely dense energy source — fossil fuels — to live lifestyles that are historically similar to those that kings lived before. In order to accomplish all this, we have put ourselves in debt for decades to come. We have borrowed from the future to live in the present for far too long.

Here in Florida the Ponzi scheme of real estate flipping ended as well. As my carpenter friend remarked: “We worked ourselves out of a job.” The University of Florida released a demographic report showing that 58,000 people left the state of Florida this year, ending our over 60-year growth pattern. This is a turnaround for a state that based its economic model on perpetual growth. An economy strictly based upon tourism and building is falling apart. We are already witnessing the vast decline in state resources and even our own governor is leaving for Washington D.C. But I’m here, and I’m a native of Florida and I’m not leaving my state any time soon. I’ve been researching a green economy for the past year and a half and I believe it’s the way to move forward for this state and our country. It’s based upon ethics, entrepreneurship and decentralization — a return to a local living economy.
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In April, Van Jones was recognized by TIME as one of the 100 most influential people on the planet for the work he did with Green for All and the U.S. government.

Sunday, in the midst of a quiet Labor Day weekend, Van Jones resigned as special advisor on green jobs for the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Glenn Beck, Anne Coulter, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly all promoted the idea that Jones was a threat to our national security. Once the now-infamous video surfaced showing what he said about Republicans last year during the campaign and long before he went to DC, Cenk Uygur on The Young Turks gave him two weeks, max. Turns out that prediction was optimistic.

So the Jones controversy became just another firestorm to stir up,  something to discredit the president with and distract from the most important conversation today – health care. But in case you’d never heard of Jones before all this brouhaha, here’s more: Read the rest of this entry »

It’d be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous.

Flame-throwing and name-calling are all fine if they come from the right, but let a Democrat — or worse, a black Democrat — or still worse. a black Democrat with a green agenda working  in the Obama administration  — let that guy call Republicans names, and WHOA! He has got to be STOPPED.

And worse yet, let that black Democrat be the founder of  a group that led a succesful advertiser boycott against the crazy-like-a-Fox right-wing media opportunist Glenn Beck, a guy who gleefully throws around absurd accusations like calling Obama a racist — and well, that black Democrat not only has to be stopped, he has to be publicly tarred and feathered. Read the rest of this entry »

Van Jones has been selected by TIME magazine as one the 100 people influencing the world today. Here’s what Leonardo DiCaprio has to say about him.

Recently, Larry King asked Van during his CNN interview if he liked being called Obama’s new “green czar”. Van quickly dismissed the term saying, “I don’t like it. I call myself the green jobs handy man. They chop the heads off czars. My job is to help Barack Obama get his idea from signing a signing ceremony where he signs a bill to ordinary Americans signing back paychecks.”  Read the rest of this entry »