Greenius To Preach Community Choice & Climate Justice in South L.A. Church

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You friendly neighborhood Creative Greenius is one of the keynote speakers at next Tuesday night’s California Crossroads to talk about his work with South Bay 350 Climate Action Group and South Bay Clean Power to help the 15 cities of the South Bay and their neighboring communities 100% renewable energy by 2025 and why they need to get there that quickly.  

RSVP on Facebook here.

Wendy Greuel Our Best Bet To Get To 100% Renewable Energy In Time

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Joe Galliani in Keep Hermosa Hermosa hat receiving his 2014 Environmental Hero Award from the City of Manhattan Beach and V.O.I.C.E. with Sona Kalapura Coffee, Manhattan Beach Mayor Amy Howorth, State Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, Kaye Gagnon of V.O.I.C.E and Councilman Wayne Powell.

To those of you who know me best and have been reading Creative Greenius since we started publishing in October 2007 it seems pretty silly that any candidate for elected office would seek my endorsement or think that it would do more good than harm.

And you would think that would be especially true for anyone running to become our United States representative from this 33rd Congressional District – the person who will be following the great Henry Waxman in that position.

But in fact, both Wendy Greuel and Marianne Williamson have each reached out to me and I have taken their asks seriously and with more thoughtfulness than usual given the crossroads we find ourselves at climate wise. Without Henry Waxman as our Representative we lose a giant.

I’ve spent time talking with Marianne Williamson’s policy advisor over the last couple of weeks and just this Wednesday I had the pleasure of meeting with Marianne one-on-one for about 90 minutes at my own spiritual sanctuary, our beloved South Coast Botanic Garden on a spectacular summer-like morning.       

What Does Henry Waxman Know About Climate That Made Him Quit?

Congressman Henry Waxman receiving environmntal award at 2013 Earth Day Celebration, Manhattan Beach (c) Joe Galliani
Congressman Henry Waxman receiving environmental award at 2013 Earth Day Celebration, Manhattan Beach (c) Joe Galliani

When the one guy in all of Congress who understands the latest science on climate change best, the guy who has the most experience and knowledge of the environment and how to get life-changing legislation passed like the clean air act, the clean water act, the laws that forced our government to acknowledge AIDS, not to mention having kicked the tobacco industry’s ass – when that guy announces he’s sticking a fork in it and he’s done – then you have to ask yourself this question –

What does Henry Waxman know about what’s coming next and what our government intends to do about it that made him throw in the towel and quit?

If he thought he had passed the carbon tax or climate bill torch to someone else he was confident would bring it across the finish line he would have said so.

If he thought we were already in great shape and had the plans in place to prevent or respond to the worst of what’s coming he would have mentioned that too.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence at all that Waxman’s announcement came during the same week as the President’s decidedly weak on climate SOTU or the same week the State Department’s report on the XL pipeline’s impact on climate was released.  There are no coincidences when a 20 term Congressmen picks his adios announcement day.

Congressman Waxman in a Tesla, contemplating how fast he could drive away from DC in one of these EVs. (c) Joe Galliani
Congressman Waxman with 66 District Assemblyman Al Muratuschi, in a Tesla Roadster, contemplating how fast he could drive away from DC in one of these EVs. (c) Joe Galliani

I think Henry called “No mas!” because he knows the politics has terminally trumped the science and that there will be no adequate response on climate from our United States government – either from the Congress or from the White House which gave lip service to Waxman but not the kind of support he needed – the kind Obama is happy to approve if it means killing Osama Bin Laden, but not if it means killing his relationship with the fossil fuel industry.

Waxman knows that the Canadian tar sands are game over for the climate. He knows that fracking California just helps put the unneeded nail in the coffin and that our current national orgy of oil production is the climate’s Sodom and Gomorrah.

Waxman knows that the White House isn’t listening to Michael Mann or James Hanson – let alone Al Gore or Bill McKibben. The same way they wouldn’t listen to Steven Chu after they picked him to be their energy expert.

How many times do they have to piss on your leg while telling you it’s raining before you get it?

I think Henry got it and now he won’t be taking it any more.

If I’m wrong then you’ll see Waxman take the lead in the climate hawk community and come out swinging on climate the day his term ends.  If that happens I’ll welcome it and work side by side with him.  350.org would be a good place for him to land.  Plenty of heavy lifting left to do, Henry.

But personally I think at age 74 Henry’s had it.  He doesn’t see any signs that we’re going to go Fossil Free and 100% Renewable Energy in time to prevent a 2+ degree rise in global temperatures and the destiny that brings with it.  And that absence of hope comes from a career in DC and being able to smell the crazy juice being guzzled down by the corporate right and their shameless suckups and sycophants.  

Fair enough, Henry.  Go in peace.  But your friendly neighborhood Greenuis still has plenty of juju and mojo to keep me going for whatever comes next.  I’m in it till I see how it all ends.  

And I’m ALL in.

I’ve Done The Math – Now I’m Doing Something About It

IMG_1859 copyWhy would your Creative Greenius walk away from his high-paying, highly rewarding executive role at CBS EcoMedia where I was working to fund environmental, education, and wellness projects all across the USA, just as the company hit more  growth milestones and was likely to pay generous bonuses?

Biz card - Oct 18, 2013, 9-33 AMThe answer is simple and direct – because I have done The Math. 

And so it is that I resigned from my position as Director of Strategic Partnerships and Public Affairs for CBS EcoMedia effective  the first of this month and I will now be devoting my full time to working on climate change response with the South Bay 350 Climate Action Group, the South Bay Bicycle Coalition and 350.org

I had no other choice once I did The Math and saw what things add up to – and how little time we have left before the global temperature goes past the Game Over limit of 2°C.

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

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
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.

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

Source of an Epic FAIL

Image 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.

icelandic waterI 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?

Creative Greenius and the Marine Exchange Transformation

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 Was Right!” says US Congressman Inslee from Washington State

In one of the Creative Greenius’ most highly read posts, written on July 29 of this year, I said there was no difference between today’s global warming deniers and the heads of the tobacco industry a few years back.

Yesterday my position was correctly stated by Rep. Jay Inslee a democrat from the great Pacific Northwest state of Washington who tore the authors of SuperWeakEconomics a new one for all their lies and hack writing in their new, already discredited book.