The first big victory against coal power plants in Virginia came a few days ago in a town of about 300. In a statement of independence, environmental justice, and the power a few people can have on the biggest issues facing our environment today, town councilors voted 3-2 to retain their zoning rights regarding a coal power plant proposal and essentially prevent the plant from being built (at least for now).

Big coal brought in all their artillery of propoganda, promises for jobs and a better living environment, and tax revenues for the town, but small groups of informed and regional activists, along with residents willing to listen and think for themselves, helped to stop this process from moving forward in its normal way in the small town of Dendron, VA. They came up with clever tactics and got enough support from the people in the area to make the decision-makers not only listen but vote in a significant and landmark way.

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The man in question is Daniel Andreas San Diego who’s 31 years old and describes himself as an animal rights extremist. The crime that got him onto the list is the planting of nail bombs in San Francisco in 2003. It’s alleged that San Diego was involved in the campaign that targeted researchers involved in animal testing.

San Diego also has links to SHAC: Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, and in January, in the UK, lengthy prison sentences were given to seven members of the organisation after an investigation over several years by Kent police.

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What do CarrotMobs and sugar cubes have in common?   Other than finding their way into your Easter basket, they are the businesses and tools developed by Virgance to create change through consumer organizing.

Thus far, businesses dedicated to “doing good” have been the purview and passion of big names and big businesses.  Bono launched DATA and (RED).  Bill Gates started the Gates Foundation and Home Depot has become synonymous with Habitat for Humanity.   However this past Tuesday Virgance, a San Francisco start-up, threw a little party to celebrate the next stage of their Activism 2.0 model, the acquisition of Green Options Media Network.

Virgance was founded in San Francisco by two business partners interested in elevating activist efforts by connecting them with social networking tools and access to funding.    Not convinced that “for good” had to mean not-for-profit, President and serial entrepreneur, Steve Newcomb began “looking at activism as a potential start-up industry” because he wanted to do more than just start another technology company.

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Here is the first of a series of installments shining a light on what these environmental superheroes are doing to help heal Mother Earth. I only hope the actions of the “Trust-Us League” inspire the masses!

Under the angry, doughy, white exterior lie the ‘green’ innards of men with an undying love for the earth and all of its creatures.

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Protip #5: How to create win-win situations and gain popular support

Pan Wenshi was recently featured by the International Herald Tribune for his success working with locals in a small Chinese village to protect the white-headed langur. But it wasn’t until Pan lent a hand to help locals that he began to realize success. After Pan helped a villager to get clean drinking water, the villager freed a langur from a trap and brought the animal to Pan, who learned from the experience. Now, Pan advocates for new schools and health clinics in the area where the langurs live. In return, he gets local support. “When you help the villagers, they would like to help you back,” says Pan. “Now, when outsiders try to trap langurs the locals stop them from coming in.”

Pan’s success grew when he won an environmental award that allowed him to install biogas collectors. The villagers could now cook without the toil of chopping firewood and the langurs benefited by slowed deforestation. Serving the needs of others has allowed the langur population in Pan’s nature reserve to expand from 96 to over 500. “This [serving the human community] is the most important thing we can do,” says Pan. “If the villagers can’t feed themselves, the langurs don’t stand a chance.”

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An environmental group had been distributing decals that fit perfectly onto Canada’s $1 loonie coin for the past week, but now the Royal Canadian Mint has ordered that they cease and desist.

The Dogwood Initiative began distributing the decals in order to call attention to the government’s support of a plan that would allow oil tankers to come closer to British Columbia’s north coast. The decal effectively turned the water surrounding the loonie black to represent the damage of an oil spill.

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Rob Gilchrist, a former activist, had spied on 9 different peaceful environment and animal welfare groups over the past 10 years before his girlfriend discovered suspicious emails, New Zealand’s Sunday Star-Times reported in a 3,200-word expose today.

“Protests are part of a healthy democracy,” said Rochelle Rees, Gilchrist’s girlfriend. “The police are supposed to be protecting that but instead they are inhibiting it. It’s foolish of them since stomping on peaceful protest is the best way to make people more extreme and push them underground.”

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Among those receiving a letter from the Maryland State Police last week was Josh Tulkin, of the Energy Action Coalition. Apparently, during a thirteen month period from 2005-2006 when Tulkin worked at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, State Police gathered intelligence and created a file for the young environmental activist.

The most striking about the revelation is that Tulkin has never been arrested, has no criminal record, and has never done anything to warrant his investigation—or subsequent listing—as a suspected terrorist.

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Ikea is going plastic bagless. Last year the Swedish king of oh-so-cool home economy — by various definitions — committed to cut from 70 million bags to 35 million. It passed its goal, reaching a current 92 percent reduction. Now the goal is to use no plastic bags.

Source: Greenbang

So here we go:

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College activists are greening it up by kicking the lights off while they’re having fun with a bit of sexy recycling — and whatnot. But that’s just one of the campus ‘green’ scenes, as reported in Grist’s series on campus activism. It turns out there are ways to make saving the planet hip and sexy while being of benefit to the beer bong crowd. (Please drink responsibly.)

Source: Grist

Expert findings, personal research and a discreet fact-finding visit to the Dominion Farms project in Siaya, a rural agricultural district, also homeland of Democratic presidential contender, Barack Obama’s father, is all it took to conclude that the letter-writing group partly funded by the New Earth Foundation may have made the goof of the decade.

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Young people were busy then, ripe with lofty ideals about clean air, clean water, a cleaner environment and making the earth we live on a cleaner and safer place. They spoke out, paraded, chanted, ranted, raved and demonstrated, not all that bad, those efforts did indeed bring about some change.

If you’d rather hear the podcast, it’s here. This post contains additional media. Click here to view the full post.

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Gavin has majors in French, Italian, and Comparative Literature from the University of California, Davis. He currently teaches English language in Gangneung, South Korea.

Gavin’s favorite environmentally-minded work has included: co-founding the grassroots Nature Conservation Club at about age 8; interning for the Jane Goodall Institutes’s Roots & Shoots (R&S) program; representing R&S at the World Social Forum VI in Caracas, Venezuela; volunteering at the Marine Mammal Center of Sausalito; being a research assistant for a CAL lab studying climate change in Colorado; bicycling lots.

Join me as Gavin and I talk about his world, and Eco Worldly.

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Link to Barefoot Solar Engineers mentioned in my summation.

Link to Eco Worldly

But in 1989, one brave woman who we now know as Wangari Maathai, dared the then Daniel arap Moi government at the same park and took a heavy beating, spending time in hospital. Then and now, Uhuru Park, has been the darling of environmentalists and politicians in Nairobi alike. For politicians, it is where declarations on Grand Marches to Freedom have been made to the people; for environmentalists, Nairobi’s only serene recreational public park with an artificial pond, is too valuable for just being a talkshop. It is where Freedom for the Planet, ala Wangari Maathai, began. She almost single handedly stopped the Moi regime from putting up a 60 story business complex as a gift to the ruling KANU party and the world noticed her work that started in 1977 with the formation of the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots environmental non profit.

The Face of Environmentalism in Africa
Maathai is the face of environmentalism in Africa. No other African environmental activist has won as many accolades, including the Goldman Environmental Prize, as she has and when she in 2004 bagged the Nobel Peace Prize for her lifetime struggles and achievements for a greener Africa and the world her countrymen and women thought one of their own had finally been recognized by the global community. Shalini Ramanathan, a clean energy advocate, writing in Grist calls her “outspoken, accomplished and passionate” about the environment and what she stands for. The British Broadcasting Corporation has called her a leading campaigner on social matters.

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As many commentators have remarked, how can one possibly benefit from being bought a virtual drink? An empty gesture.

No empty gestures on this page though.

Stop Global Warming

Picture courtesy of Flickr here.

A much needed boost to city landscapes here in the UK.

And perhaps boots up the backsides of local authorities who thought citizens such as me were unaware of what was going on.

And beginning to disappear.

I don’t personally think that a city environment is a natural environment for an ape species. I don’t think any of us do.

We adapt. But we still need to see greenery.

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