Creative Greenius

Hey Google! Lets Reinvent Detroit Together Using Our Creative Greenius Before The Opportunivors Scavenge It

July 27, 2013July 29, 2013citizen volunteer, Community Activists, energy efficiency, environment, green building, green buildings, green education, green jobs, renewable energy, Saving Energy, solar power, SustainabilityLeave a Comment

One of the houses Power House Productions is transforming in Detroit - and none too soon. — One of the houses Power House Productions is transforming in Detroit – and none too soon. *photo by Galliani (c)*

I went to Detroit last month and found myself in neighborhoods that looked like they had been attacked by enemy forces, had lost their battle and had now surrendered and in most part been abandoned. The house above looks good compared to what I’m talking about.

Greenius on the job at Gompers Elementary School in Detroit

I didn’t just find myself in Detroit, I went on purpose to help bring books to public school kids who need them and to meet with an amazing neighborhood activist (more about that to come) who is using his creative greenius to create an alternative reality in the heart of one of the worst-of-the-worst places in Motown even in better times then these – and that was before bankruptcy was forced upon the city and its people.

And now Detroit has hit bottom and many are ready to give up on both the city and its people.

But not this Creative Greenius who says – like how it happened or not, Detroit offers a clean slate.

Detroit is an unprecedented opportunity to use the tremendous assets already in place to reimagine and reinvent its post-industrial future and address the great challenge of the 21st century – no, it’s not dealing with deficits or pension obligations, it’s adapting to climate change and building a sustainable society that can survive.

So obviously this isn’t a job for any known political figure or member of the existing power structure – none of them will ever be confused with the best and the brightest and they’re the Clyde Crash Cups who screwed the pooch to begin with.

No this is a job for the company I’ve long been a stockholder of – Google.

Continue reading ➞ Hey Google! Lets Reinvent Detroit Together Using Our Creative Greenius Before The Opportunivors Scavenge It

L.A. Times Takes A Bath In Dirty Water With Icelandic Bottled H20 Scam

March 30, 2013July 28, 2013environmentLeave a Comment

Source of an Epic FAIL

I’ve been seeing the bullshit full page ads for Icelandic Glacial water in the print edition of the Los Angeles Times for months now and every time I do it pisses me off.

If you know the Creative Greenius you know that I am easily pissed off by the charlatans, greenwashers and pompous posers who prey upon the ill-informed and gullible and that’s exactly what Icelandic Glacial water is and does.

I might have even kept it to myself if the shell that is left of the L.A. Times hadn’t delivered an actual bottle of this snake oil water right along with my newspaper last week.

Unsolicited and unwanted I’ve now got to find a sustainable way to use this crap before I recycle their lying bottle which says the water is “Glacial” despite it actually not being. But hey, it was “inspired” by glaciers in much the same way its “carbon neutrality” is inspired by a cynical and phony marketing ploy.

Icelandic makes a big deal about being 100% carbon neutral which means they have a self-certification from a new certification company they set up and are the first “customer” of. But I’m betting they didn’t include the carbon footprint of shipping all the sample bottles to all the points of distribution for Times delivery people and then the footprint of all the cars and vans delivering all those subscriber papers inside of the plastic bags that were also required. And I’m guessing they’re not counting that jet fuel for the contest winner’s flight to Iceland. But hey, it’s the inspiration that counts, right?

Continue reading ➞ L.A. Times Takes A Bath In Dirty Water With Icelandic Bottled H20 Scam

The Judas Party Gets Its Silver For Selling Out their Saviors

March 17, 2013March 17, 2013carbon producers, climate change, energy efficiency, environment, fossil fuels, green education, Killer Coal, politics, renewable energy, sea-level rise, solar power, Sustainability2 Comments

It’s kind of a shame that our kids’ futures are being crucified since they’re the ones we need to resurrect us

In the many years I spent studying for the priesthood I learned that the stories of Jesus Christ’s years on our planet serve as models and lessons for all of us.

So it’s as obvious as a bad face lift that we are going through the stations of the cross and that climate change is our crucifix.

It’s been the Republican party, in the type cast role of Judas Iscariot. And the silver they betrayed us all for came from today’s Pontius Pilatus and the Romans – the dirty fuel industry top executives whose empire stretches farther and wider than Caesar’s ever dreamed of.

But unfortunately the way this version of the story is being written there is no Easter and Black Friday becomes Groundhog Day – doomed to repeat ad infinitum.

That’s because when it comes to humanity, vision and a sense of the future of their own brand, the Republican Party and their supporters makes the ancient Romans look like Quakers.

Continue reading ➞ The Judas Party Gets Its Silver For Selling Out their Saviors

Creative Greenius and the Marine Exchange Transformation

August 31, 2012June 11, 2019environment, renewable energy, solar powerLeave a Comment

For those of you wondering what your friendly neighborhood Greenius does when he’s not blogging or hanging out with 999 other climate activists at Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership Corps training, the answer is he works for a living. And he works hard in his role as Director of Strategic Partnerships and Outreach for CBS EcoMedia. When he’s not working away at his Manhattan Beach office with his fellow EcoMedia colleagues, or on the road traveling from community to community across the country participating in ribbon cuttings, groundbreakings, grand openings and celebrations of environmental EcoAd funded projects, healthy WellnessAd funded projects or student related EducationAd funded projects, your Greenius is now helping to tell the EcoMedia project stories in videos like this one:

While I wait for the rest of this country to wake up and smell the climate change, every single day I work at EcoMedia I’m making positive progress on behalf of the environment, on behalf of the health and wellness issues that go hand in hand with an unhealthy ecosystem and on behalf of improving the education young people need to survive not just the job market but to face the challenges of global warming and the consequences it will bring them. It’s all thanks to EcoMedia’s President and Founder, Paul Polizzotto and the vision he had that made EcoMedia a reality and made it a division of CBS. And of course to Paul’s great eye for talent.

And just in case you were wondering – the Greenius speaks only for himself personally with this blog post and no one should think I’m speaking on behalf of CBS EcoMedia or that they approved this message. And shouldn’t that be more than enough for you when it comes to weight and credibility? Yeah, I thought it would.

Greenius Will Meet With Al Gore To Talk Climate Reality

July 26, 2012August 18, 2012citizen volunteer, climate change, environment, fossil fuels, green education, renewable energy5 Comments

Joe Galliani Selected As Climate Leader Just As Global Warming Reaches Tipping Points

After five years of studying, writing, advocating, volunteering, community organizing and now working professionally to try and make a positive difference on the issue of global warming – all in the face of relentlessly increasing world temperatures and rapidly rising greenhouse gas emissions – I have reached the point of one last stand.

We may well be as doomed as doomed can be already – as I frequently tell my friends that we are, and the “Hell and High Water” may already have arrived earlier then even Joe Romm’s dire predictions, but I’m not quite ready to cash in my chips and give up the ghost. I can’t offer you any scientific hope to hang your sporty new fedora on, or any magic bullet news that might yet save the day, but I just don’t have it in me to piss on the fire and call in the dogs so I can go quietly into that good night.

Continue reading ➞ Greenius Will Meet With Al Gore To Talk Climate Reality

Your Greenius Earth Day Reality Check: Waiting For The Magic Bullet

April 22, 2012April 22, 2012Bicycles, carbon producers, climate change, electric cars, energy efficiency, environment, Environmental Politics, fossil fuels, Killer Coal, politics, recycling, renewable energy, Saving Energy, solar power, Sustainability, water conservation4 Comments

Today is Earth Day 2012, a day filled with celebrations of the environment and all the things being done to try and improve it and make it more sustainable . You can go to events where you recycle your old paper tax records, your motor oil, your cellphone, computers and other electronics.

You can go to festivals and visit the booths of green nonprofits and solar energy companies, take part in composting workshops, learn about wildlife protectors and electric car companies. You might even get the chance to hug a person wearing a polar bear costume.

You can participate in beach cleanups, ride your bicycle with large groups in parades or march in protests against coal-fired power plants, polluters and planet-pummeling profiteers. You can even watch NBC-Universal TV and see how they turned their logo green and laugh at their funny PSAs about cutting your energy use or carbon footprint.

But what you cannot do at any Earth Day event – or any other day’s events – is change the sense of urgency of the U.S. government or the majority of our population about taking the immediate and dramatic steps necessary to avoid runaway climate change or the hell and high water that’s coming with it.

Continue reading ➞ Your Greenius Earth Day Reality Check: Waiting For The Magic Bullet

While Fossil Fools Ignore Climate Crisis EcoMedia Acts Aggressively to Protect Environment

April 1, 2012April 2, 2012carbon producers, climate change, energy efficiency, environment, fossil fuels, green buildings, green education, News Media, renewable energy, Saving Energy, solar power, Sustainability, water conservation, wildlifeLeave a Comment

The latest news on global warming could not be worse. Climate scientists now agree that we won’t be able to restrict warming to just 2 degrees – which would have been bad enough. Those in the know, including NOAA say there is no doubt that the world’s extreme weather is being caused by climate change. And last week’s The Planet Under Pressure conference, made up of planet’s top scientific experts on the climate issued an urgent plea for action as we reach the tipping points for runaway global warming from which there will be no reversal or respite.

“Civilization is at risk,” they warned.

But no one is listening. You don’t read these stories in your newspaper or on mainstream news sites or see them on your TV news. The fossil fuel industry floods the airwaves and Internet with lethal lies and propaganda in a nonstop assault on reason and intelligence. News of the Mega Millons lottery jackpot and the gunning down of individuals in American cities trumps the most important story of the last 100 years. Distracted by the bread and circuses of our time and doomed by our own lizard brains half of the United States population believes that global warming is a hoax designed to make scientists wealthy. Every Republican running for President of this country agrees with that ruse and vows to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency. Nothing I do can change any of that.

Faced with this bizzaro world reality I have opted out of futile protests and demonstrations and chosen to do the only thing I can do – increase the amount of renewable energy, energy efficiency, tree plantings and sustainability practices in the most effective way I can. Which is why I now work for EcoMedia, who is responsible for doing all of those things, and more.

Continue reading ➞ While Fossil Fools Ignore Climate Crisis EcoMedia Acts Aggressively to Protect Environment

Environmental Charter High School Gets Solar; Greenius Goes EcoMedia

February 5, 2012February 7, 2012citizen volunteer, energy efficiency, environment, green building, green education, renewable energy, solar power, Sustainability, water conservation1 Comment

Ribbon Cutting & Greenhouse — Alison Diaz (with scissors) along with ECHS staff and supporters about to cut the ribbon in front of Environmental Charter High School's new solar-powered greenhouse. (photo by Glenn Marzano)

I have seen the future and it looks like a solar-powered greenhouse, a solar-powered pump driving aquaponics, a non-toxic termite treatment for buildings, students growing their own fruits and vegetables on their high school campus irrigated by captured rainwater, and other sustainable practices paid for by grants from corporations with no strings attached.

Event banner — The on-stage banner heralding the ribbon cutting event @ ECHS. (Courtesy of CBS EcoMedia)

In a still repressed economy during an era when “no new taxes” is the mindless mantra that forces cutbacks and the elimination of educational programs and resources, the only place the dollars are going to come from are nontraditional, innovative sources. You can argue the merits of that if you want, but I’m done arguing. I just want to see projects get funded, renewable energy put to work, energy efficiency retrofits instituted, conservation measures adopted and sustainable practices replace business-as-usual before the climate crisis makes any positive action a moot point.

That’s why for the past week I’ve been working at my new job in Manhattan Beach where I’ve transitioned from the volunteer advocacy efforts I’ve been contributing since 2008 to a professional role in sustainability partnerships for CBS EcoMedia. EcoMedia employs exactly the kind of nontraditional, innovative business practices I’m talking about through their EcoAd program – the kind of innovative business practices that found me on the campus of Environmental Charter High School (ECHS) in Lawndale on Friday morning to celebrate the ribbon cutting for their new solar-powered greenhouse.

Continue reading ➞ Environmental Charter High School Gets Solar; Greenius Goes EcoMedia

Greenius Plants Tree to Help Restore Hope

January 13, 2012January 15, 2012citizen volunteer, environment, SustainabilityLeave a Comment

383988_10150519116109258_699679257_10669253_1252360991_n — The Greenius with his friend and fellow volunteer, Charles, getting ready to dig and plant.

Man, I can’t believe it’s been over a month now since I wrote in this space about the vandals who destroyed the trees and native plants at Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park over Thanksgiving. But time has afterburners when the holidays roll around especially when your friendly neighborhood Greenius is in such demand locally. It’s a blessing to be sure, but things fall through the cracks, as witness my update on, as Paul Harvey used to intone, “the rest of the story…”

The good new is, it’s actually good news for a change. Very good news indeed.

Continue reading ➞ Greenius Plants Tree to Help Restore Hope

Join the Greenius to Defeat Vile Vandals & Restore Hope & Trees

December 4, 2011December 5, 2011citizen volunteer, environment2 Comments

Let me tell you how pissed off I was the day after Thanksgiving when I read this headline in the Daily Breeze:

“Vandals Uproot Saplings Planted by Youngsters“

The story in a nutshell read, “Forget the financial loss. Vandals crushed a lot more than that this week when they ripped out fledgling oak trees and smashed other plants being cultivated by dozens of young people from across the South Bay in Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park.“

It steamed my chaps and I wasn’t about to let it go. I work with a lot of great young people in my environmental efforts and to find out that low class creeps, whoever they are, think they can destroy the best efforts of kids giving their free weekend time to try an improve one of our local parks was just something I am not willing to put up with. And you shouldn’t either. That’s why I’m asking you to join me next Saturday, December 10, at 9am at Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park, to work with Martin Byhower, who heads up the park’s volunteer restoration efforts, and the young volunteers, to repair the damage and help them with their restoration efforts. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the spirit of the season.

Continue reading ➞ Join the Greenius to Defeat Vile Vandals & Restore Hope & Trees