Some celebrities from the entertainment industry in the US got together in this video from the Sierra Club, America’s oldest grassroots environmental organization, to thank President-Elect Obama “for the extraordinary leadership he has already demonstrated on environmental issues”.

The celebrities, like Pierce Brosnan and Edward Olmos, (The only ones I recognised) talks about “policy issues that Barack Obama can begin addressing on day one in order to tackle global warming and start making the clean energy future a reality”.

Watch the video: (more…)

A new “Green Bible” which is said to embrace environmentalism and the need to protect the Earth has apparently sparked some controversy among evangelicals in the US, the United Press International reports. The Green Bible, has been endorsed by the Humane Society and the Sierra Club and has so far been sold in 25000 copies.

“Other evangelicals are concerned the Green Bible will mislead Christians because it does not interpret Scripture literally, said James Taylor, a founding elder at Living Water Christian Fellowship in Palmetto, Fla.

“These groups don’t have a religious focus; they have a desire to spread their environmental message,” Taylor said of the essayists who contributed to the Green Bible, which contains a foreword from Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu.”

Yes, these religious fundamentalists are worried that the “Green Bible” won’t follow the Bible literally. You know, they are worried that the “Green Bible” won’t say that it is alright to own a slave or sacrifice animals as well as humans as it is “pleasing to the Lord”. Or that it is alright to murder and rape people in the name of a fairy-tale God. It makes my mind boggle that people still in the 21st century believes in religious dogma and superstition. Will we ever be able to leave the Dark Age?

Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection, Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the League of Conservation Voters have launched a “Reality Coalition” to tell the American public that there is no “clean coal”.

“The reality is that there’s not a single home or business in America today powered by clean coal,” said Brian Hardwick of the Alliance for Climate Protection. “If coal really wants to be part of America’s energy future, the industry can start by making a real commitment to eliminating their pollution that is a leading cause of global warming.”

Hardwick continued: “It is high time for the coal industry to come clean and admit to the American people that today clean coal is not a reality. No matter how much they say it in their advertising, coal can’t truly be clean until the plants can capture global warming pollution. With so much at stake, we can’t afford to hang our hats on an illusion.”

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Nidhi Jamwa from the Centre for Science and Environment India asks in the organisations journal Down to Earth “why green projects in India are hot favourite of international NGOs?”

Nidhi Jamwa focuses on a recently started green Sierra Club initiative in India that will try “to explore other ways of creating a robust dialogue on developing a green economy” and to “network, collaborate and share information”:

“There it goes again. It is always India and China that are the two emerging villains of climate change. The developed world has built their infrastructure and created wealth, based on technologies that are high on carbon emissions. Even now, it refuses to deliver on its promise to bring down carbon emissions. Yet goes about patronising the developing world on the need for green economy.

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Kansas Governor Katherine Sebelius said this when she vetoed a bill last week that would have allowed the construction of two new coal fired power plants:

Of all the duties and responsibilities entrusted to me as governor, none is greater than my obligation to protect the health and well-being of the people of Kansas.

Stephanie Cole, a Sierra Club spokeswoman, said that this…

…sends a message that Kansas is willing to be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.

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