Nathanael Greene's Blog: The Media and the Environment

NRDC runs biofuels ads: if we're going to use them, let's do it right

2009-04-28T17:54:47Z

Starting today, we're running a series of print and internet ads trying to sharpen the distinction between biofuels done right and biofuels done wrong.

The animated web versions of the ads are running on the front page of Politico.com today. Check'em out! They'll also be in the Congressional Daily am print version today, the Congressional Quarterly Today print version on 4/29, and Politico print version on 4/29.

The ads direct people to our biofuels page on NRDC's web site. This page in turn encourages folks to take action to help get biofuels right and to check out our more detailed discussion of the potential and challenges for bioenergy on our new renewables section of the website, which I wrote about yesterday.

Why now? Because the debate about what kind of energy and environmental future we will have is happening now. Between the rules to implement the RFS2, implementation of the stimulus package, and the broader debate about climate policy, right now our country is deciding whether advanced biofuels will help us build green jobs, a stronger economy and a safer economy or divert investment to fuels that do more harm than good.

Go see "Everything's Cool"

2007-11-28T03:48:46Z

Tonight I had the pleasure of seeing "Everything's Cool," an uplifting documentary about various people that have been trying to get the message out about the urgency of global warming and what we can do about it. The film has enough detail and basics on global warming to be accessible to everyone, while focusing on the fascinating and critical challenge of getting the public to believe and engage. Specifically, the movie follows the efforts of folks like Ross Gelbspan and Bill McKibben from late 2004 through late 2006.

The movie also does a great job of showing how the fossil fuel industry through their mouth pieces at Cato and CEI have waged such a successful disinformation campaign just by creating the fiction of uncertainty or debate around the reality of global warming and urgency of action. As part of this, the movie follows Rick Piltz, the whistle blower who exposed Bush administration censoring and editing science reports on global warming. (Check out Climate Science Watch to see the great work that Piltz is up to now.)

Part of makes the movie so uplifting is that in the period covered there has been such a sea-change in awareness and concern about global warming. So these visionary messengers (one nun calls McKibben a modern day prophet) actually go from feeling like Paul Revere without a horse to actually having a horse, as Gelbspan puts it. But of course, the big question we were left with at the end is will it all add up to action?

Well, the movie's directors are trying to leverage the movie for all the action it can drive. Check out their web site at www.everythingscool.org, and you can learn about ways that they're already using the movie to educate and inspire. And if you're in NYC or LA, you can find showings near you. For the rest of the country, keep you eye out at local colleges and Step It Up gatherings for showings and also watch for it on Net Flix.

I give the movie and the effort behind it two thumbs up.

The Daily Show on Cape Wind

2007-08-08T16:20:12Z

First let me say that if I had to only choose one fake news source it would be the Daily Show. Funny, funny stuff. And it only gets funnier when John and has crew takes on issues close to home. Well Tuesday night, Jason Jones did a segment on Cape Wind and how the dread proposed wind turbines will KILL OUR CHILDREN!!! My folks own and run a bed and breakfast on Nantucket, and my little family and I are spending August there, so this is doubly close to home. And the final personal link: the segment includes Barbara Hill the executive director of Clean Power Now, the great local group that doing a bang up job spreading the word about the benefits and importance of the proposed project. Barbara is great, and I can only wonder how she kept a straight face.

Enjoy: