Yosemite cap made by The Parks Company in the USAHi, I’m Joe Galliani, the Creative Greenius, and I’ve been a creative director, writer, brand strategist and subject matter expert for some of America’s most successful and demanding corporations.
I was a top gun-for-hire freelancer from 1987 to 2011 – with a long break from 2009 to 2011 to work pro bono as a volunteer on environmental issues and projects.
From January 2012 to October 2013 I served on the staff of CBS EcoMedia where I was the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Public Affairs. Our team funded environmental, education and wellness projects across the USA. I left when the climate crisis demanded my full time attention and I went back to work as the pro bono Organizer of South Bay Los Angeles 350 Climate Action Group.
From May of 2014 through September of 2017 I worked full time as the Chair of the South Bay Clean Power working group, and in that capacity brought Community Choice Aggregation to Los Angeles County.
I’ve spent my entire career inventing and delivering creative solutions that inspire and motivate people to action. Long before my professional career began, my love for unspoiled wilderness and wildlife drove me to the green side.
Mike and Joe at Glacier National Park 199820 years ago, in 1997 I co-founded The Parks Company, along with my business partner and best friend, Mike Baggetta, one of the most talented fine artists and gifted graphic artists of our generation. Together we created America’s first and only national park catalog company raising money for the parks with every sale.
When I turned 60 in 2017 I took a one year sabbatical, a “Year Of Joe” which I wrote about for Thrive Global. I rediscovered my love for writing plays and since then I’ve written 17 one act plays that have been produced at the Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica.
I continue to consult behind the scenes with environmental activists and a handful of elected officials and I help advise the Los Angeles Times and other news media with #JoeTakesOnTheNews
Creative Greenius 
I love your site. Keep it up !
Congratulations! fine work and I agree that the corporate elite will shower their buddies with money and get nothing done.
They don’t care about this planet, or harmony for that matter either, they just use it as an excuse to squeeze more profits out of well intended people.
You’re a visionary; honest and skillful.
Hope you can help in this solar endeavor for Tribal Nations we spook about last Thursday at the South Bay Environmental Services Center event.
Nat
Greenius:
Thanks Nat. I’m currently in San Diego doing a solar install for GRID Alternatives on a Habitat for Humanity house here in El Cajon. But I look forward to talking to you about solar for the Tribal Nations upon my return.
i want to help!
magically,
z
Greenius,
Well, sleeper, I’m afraid helping “magically” just isn’t going to cut it. But perhaps you’ve got some mojo I’ve not yet experienced… Wanting to help is good, but actually helping has that beat by miles. Thanks for checking in.
how can homeless people help mankind cut our greenhouse gas emissions?
there must be something?
The Greenius: If you’re serious with these questions – and it’s hard to imagine you are – I think homeless people have enough to do just trying to survive and I’m not worried about their carbon footprint while they’re without a place to live. I think our efforts are best aimed at those who already have a place to live, and a car to drive and a job to go to. Let’s get those folks to cut their GHG emissions before we start adding more on the to-do list of those who don’t even have a roof over their heads or a bed to sleep in.
A Retrofit America Program!
What we need is what the only candidate for President that I know of that ever talked about this, former Gov. Jerry Brown of CA, now CA Atty. General:
To Retrofit America or a Retrofit America Program!
Houses, Buildings and Hotels, that should be demolished or re-done!
We haven’t really ever had program as such in this country!
Not just a Mimi Eisenhower Program, that destroys historical landmarks as we have seen with boondoggles here in the recent years,
Shutting down libraries and re-building them in places that are loud, etc. etc. putting money in politicans and developers pockets!
But programs that preserve historical landmarks by retrofitting them and hotels, etc.
Not just limited to Federal Buildings.
We have all kinds of decrepit buildings such as homes, old business buildings, apt. buildings and old hotels, that have needed to go down for years and years and even decades now, but have not because of real estate ventures that only involve the buyer of property to exploit.
Typical buyers do not put or invest money into these types of things. They merely get into them for fast profit and make terrible landlords as in slum lords.
Cities, Counties, and States, cannot afford to pay for to demolish buildings that have already way past depreciated in value, and thus bring down the value of the whole area.
Thus, making Malls the next target for another mega church!
Nothing wrong with churches but this is what is happening.
Unless cities, counties and states get major funds to develop plans that best suit the interests of the people in terms of cleaning up neigborhoods and re-building, America will continue to slowly crumble due to same old business as usual real estate rookies, etc.
It takes groups of investors to go in on business deals for organic food stores, etc. etc.
Not lone business people trying to get rich off of being terrible landlords who don’t want to invest in the best interest of the building or who can’t come up with new ideas.
They have no ideas!
So the continual trend leads to a crumbling America that not everyone can even see or realize.
These types of people don’t see the picture of what is happening.
We don’t have new apt. complexes because they are to busy buying up the old decrepit ones!
So it continues down this recycling destructive path!
That leads to a crumbling America within it’s cities.
Patrick S. Tanner
Owensboro, KY
From the Greenius:
Thanks Patrick, Appreciate you weighing in from the Bluegrass State of Kentucky.
Since the bulk of all buildings people use are those already existing and not brand new buildings, I am also a very big fan of retrofitting those buildings to be be more energy efficient in all the possible ways. We need to get our electric companies to decouple their profits from sheer kilowatt use alone or they will never encourage their customers to use less energy. Here in California we’ve done that and it’s been a tremendous success for many years now.
Hi Joe,
I’m a primary school teacher writing to you from Luxembourg (unfortunately one of the worst per capita climate polluters in the world), and i totally share your feelings about nature and your goals for a greener society. I’m happy and thankful that talented and devoted people like you invest their resources in the promotion of holistic action for the benefit of our precious and irreplaceable planet. But i also have two tricky questions concerning the general stance of ecologically oriented groups:
1) On the one hand these groups favour systemic thinking, but on the other they often seem to ignore the systemic, incredibly complex nature of the Earth’s biosphere (as postulated by the Gaia hypothesis and other creative scientific interpretations). We cannot know, at this time, how the planet as a whole is going to react and adapt to the threat posed to its stability by greenhouse gases. I therefore think it is irresponsible to spread panic and irrational behaviour in the context of climate change, especially with respect to the Copenhagen summit (as if one meeting decided forever on the fate of the world). Am i wrong?
[The Greenius: Yes Georges, you are wrong. You do not grasp where we are in the timeline. We needed to start taking drastic action 12 months ago. I’m afraid it’s you people who are afraid of telling people the cold, hard truth who are hurting us most. I believe it is irresponsible in the face of what’s happening to urge more caution and kid gloves. It’s time for a slap in the face and a kick in the ass. We’ve tried your method of motivating people. It doesn’t work and it dooms us.]
2) I wonder if it’s wise to support the notion that concerning the philosophy of life there are just two monolithic blocks: the good altruistic green guys caring about the future and the bad selfish profit makers (‘evil empire’). Again, reality is presumably more complex. Even the managers of the carbon-based economy have families and think about the future; [Greenius: I have seen very little evidence of this] many of them are probably open to new ideas concerning healthy investment, and some of them are already adapting their activities to the needs of a holistic economy. Those people should be sought out and encouraged, shouldn’t they?
[Greenius: How much longer will you allow the coal and oil industry workers to put their own paycheck against the health and well being of the rest of us? Should I be equally worried about the fate of mercenaries who want to drive trucks in Iraq for a big payday too? These greenhouse gas spewing industries and their workers have known for decades how lethal the impacts of their products are. They have never cared. They have ALREADY sold out their families for money. You can seek them out and encourage them if you want. I would rather put them out of work and force them to stop killing people. You just don’t understand the stakes or the sense of urgency necessary here in 2009 Georges. We have already used up the time you want to spend worrying about the wrong people.
You seem like a nice person, but nice people will not save us. Until people like you wake up and recognize the reality of the situation we’re in, then you’re just wasting our time with words when you should be out in the streets doing something that will reverse the course we’re speeding down.]
Dear Joe, i wish you all the best with your incredibly important work, and i hope that many other gifted human beings will be inspired by what you do and follow suit.
Georges
[Greenius: If only wishes could save us now, Georges. But we need to be working full time now, not wishing on a star. 20 years from now the primary kids you’re currently teaching will not accept that when you had your last best chance to do the right thing – you were urging caution.
We do not need another Neville Chamberlain we need a Winston Churchill and we need him today.]
Hi Joe –
Glad I found your blog, and that you’re on the side of the “angels” (and future generations). What is going on in the media – in the U.S. in particular but even up here in Canada – is truly amazing to behold; scientific truths are ridiculed and belittled by people with just enough knowledge to be dangerous, and the public and politicians seem to be on their side. Goes to show what money can buy!
Will be checking back. Keep up the good fight!
hello Joe,
i really proud of you. i am writing from Mongolia. i live in the capital city Ulaanbaatar witch high air polluted. today our planet earth is under threat.
i feel bad for this situation and i feel worse i did nothing. i wanna do campaign anti climate change, and start it from my country. could you advise me from where i can start and what projects i can start.
if we’ll not start today, tmw will be late.
Thanks Helen,
I suggest you get in touch with 350.org in Mongolia to work on climate change issues in Mongolia. Here’s a link to an update from Chimgee Baasandamba in Mongolia from August 2010 about her efforts.
http://www.350.org/en/about/blogs/update-mongolia-350-training-turkey
I’d start by contacting her.
Good luck and let us know about your efforts!
And you’re right, tomorrow is too late and we’re already overdue to make drastic changes.
Love reading your blog! We have a brand new post here that I think you may enjoy: http://blog.max-r.net/2012/08/14/beyond-sustainability/
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