Overwhelmingly white, the green movement is reaching for the rainbow

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2004259901_pacificpgreen09.html

Sunday, March 9, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM

Overwhelmingly white, the green movement is reaching for the rainbow

By Paula Bock

"What's a nice black guy like me doing in a movement like this?"

Van Jones strides the stage at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, a charismatic lawyer who grew up in rural Tennessee, graduated from Yale Law, and founded the Ella Baker Center for jobs and justice in Oakland.

Tall, 39, his pate shaved, he cuts a striking silhouette in a black turtleneck and blazer, but it's his daring message that electrifies the crowd. He's in Seattle to talk about "The Unbearable Whiteness of Green" and how the environmental movement needs to include people of color and the poor if there's any hope of slowing global warming.

...

"The Prius people, the polar-bear crowd are great," Jones says. "We're not mad at them. We like them! At the same time, if the only people who can participate are the kind who can afford to put solar panels on their second home, the green movement is going to be too small to fix the problem. If we want to beat global warming, there's no way to do it without helping a lot of poor people. If you design a solution that does not do that, it's a solution that's too timid."

...

[kestrel91316]

1. I consider myself a serious environmentalist, and I'm not only NOT

a rich white lady, I'm fast headed toward poor.

[wtmusic]

2. With low-maintenance electric cars poor people and the environment

would benefit, but both get in the way of Detroit's bottom line -- or so thinks Bob Lutz.

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. Low-maintenance electric cars would be great

Now, all we need is low-maintenance, affordable electric cars.

[spag68]

3. A government program

to put pv and thermal systems on all roofs, with a steep subsidy, will employ many people and hopefuly many of them will be persons of colar and women. Jobs that pay a reasonable wage solve more problems then any handouts.

[all.of.me]

4. There was a great interview with Van Jones in The Sun magazine this month.

I'd never heard of him before, so it opened my eyes to who really needs to be greened. It changed my perspective and focus of my work. He is speaking at the ASES conference in San Diego in May.

[silverweb]

5. Van Jones is an amazing guy.

He has effectively combined environmental, peace, and social justice movements into one "be the change" theme.

My daughter heard him speak at UC Santa Cruz and sent me a good bit of information on him and his center in Oakland. I've become a great admirer.

More _here_ and _here_.