Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums joined other Bay Area city officials, business and community leaders this week to announce that Oakland is a partner in five federal stimulus grants expected to be awarded by the California Energy Commission. They are, in total, worth more than $40 million and are expected to provide more than 4,000 jobs.  The 5 stimulus grants awarded to Oakland were out of only 12 grants awarded across the state.  As the City of Oakland develops its ground-breaking climate action plan, the timing of the grants could be no better.  And as its local communities struggle with some of the hardest hits from the recession, the empowerment this money could bring to the city is invaluable.  Finally, some (energy-efficient) light for the Town.  Oakland holler back!

Read a more detailed article on the announcement HERE.

Arrested Development brings a fresh green track from their new album STRONG, speaking on global warming, respecting our earth, not littering and honoring our history. The video is beautiful…. catch the sun & cloud moments at the end (hella cute). Much love to the AD crew for this one!
Produced by Speech, song written by the whole group. Chorus written by Tasha Larae.

National TV Special Investigates the Color Lines in Recession and Recovery, Feb 12, 9:30 PM EST

Tune in to Link TV Friday, February 12, for ColorLines: Race and Economic Recovery on DIRECTV Channel 375 or DISH Network Channel 9410 at 6:30 Pacific, 7:30pm Central and 8:30 pm Eastern. For those without DIRECTV/DISH, the entire show will also be available online at colorlines.com starting Feb 12. Then join Colorlines on Twitter @racialjustice, as they host a roundtable discussion on what we’ve seen. More info at Link TV.

Check out the preview:

Much love to the homie Markese Bryant (and that good Green for All production) for a dope song and video:

Artists – G4A is taking new submissions (til Feb 8, 2010) for The Dream Reborn Story Contest. Win $1000 for your inspiring green economy art. Check it out here.

Check out the new Green Launchpad program at City College of SF.

For more info visit the CCSF Green Launch Pad on Facebook

via grindforthegreen.com

Witty, witty.  Grist – one of the best green blogs in the Matrix – lays out the last decade’s biggest green stories.

Check it out here.

The headlines:
POP ‘TIL YOU DROP: Celebs and movies and magazines and TV go green 

BABY BOTTLE BLUES: The backlash against BPA and other toxic nasties

FORGET SNAIL DARTERS: Climate takes over the environmental movement

IT’S NOT JUST FOR TREEHUGGERS ANYMORE: The green tent gets bigger

YADDA YADDA YADDA: U.S. politicians talk about climate change

LOCAL GETS VOCAL, ORGANIC GOES MANIC: The sustainable food movement comes into its own

OH SAY CAN YOU CEO: Biz wakes up to green

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID!: Climate scientists panic; public yawns

SPINNING INTO SPUTTER: Climate treaties tank

KA-CHING: Saving the world makes cents

STRAIGHT OUTTA GNASHVILLE: Al Gore’s excellent adventure (haha maybe my favorite one!)

REMEMBER THE TITANS: China and India take the helm

TRICK OR TREATY: Bush pulls out of Kyoto

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES: Obama gets elected, pushes green initiatives

SLURRY WITH THE CRINGE ON TOP: The backlash against coal

In case you missed this season’s issue of Race, Poverty & the Environment, the amazing folks at Grind for the Green were featured in a piece about youth of color who are using hip hop to spread environmental awareness in Bay Area hoods. Check it out below.

And in the same issue, ChecktheWeather.net’s co-founder Ellen Choy co-authors an article on Richmond, CA’s Chevron refinery and climate justice organizing! Get the whole issue online here.

Youth in Action: Greening Hip Hop

The Greening of Hip-Hop: Urban Youth Address Climate Change and Sustainability

By Eric Arnold

Twenty-year-old aspiring rapper Tre Pound was born in San Francisco’s Hunters Point, a predominantly low-income community of color with the dubious distinction of housing the two most toxic Superfund sites in the United States, as well as power and sewage treatment plants. Asthma, cancer, and diabetes rates in that area are all disproportionately higher than in other parts of the Bay Area. “I kinda knew where I was living wasn’t environmentally safe,” says Pound, but the public school he attended provided little information about industrial pollution or climate change.

Pound says he frequently incorporates socially-aware themes into his music, but he had never made an environmentally-aware rap song until he signed up to compete in Grind for the Green’s (G4G) Eco-Rap battle. He ended up winning the competition, earning a $1000 prize and studio time, by outpacing several other contestants with his eco-friendly flow during G4G’s second annual free concert at the Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco.

Pound is just one voice in the growing number of youth voices engaged in community organizing for social change. Millions of young people around the world participate in social activism. According to Wiretap Magazine, there are more than 600 youth-led community organizations currently creating green jobs, removing toxic waste, combating corporate pollution, and fighting against violence in their communities.

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Thanks to our homies at Greenjar.net for the heads up.

When Adidas released the GRUN collection first in 08, they made a statement about eco-friendly street wear.  They’ve re-released a new collection, this time with dope jackets and sneakers.  The whole collection uses eco-friendly materials and an environmentally sound production process.  Green capitalism? Maybe.  But the hip hop generation can’t ignore its devotion to street wear as expression, especially from such a pivotal/historical brand as the 3 stripes.  We gotta applaud for the effort.

Dear UN:

We are losing faith in you quickly. Please advise.

With love,
Future Leaders.

As Copenhagen boils with anxiety about today’s mass climate justice action at the Bella Center, all I can do is lower my head at the United Nations in complete disappointment.

Shutting out thousands of representatives of civil society from entering the UN conference this week, without showing a drop of compassion, has put me teetering on the edge of renunciation. We came to the UN conference to represent ourselves, as young leaders from the US and youth of color who believe that our presence here matters, and that the story we share can benefit the international community. What we faced Monday night and Tuesday morning, standing in the incredible line of 2nd week registrants waiting to get their badges – waiting a total of 7 hours in freezing temperatures, was offensive. And, from what we found out, we were lucky that it was only 7 hours – people we interviewed had stood for 9 hours on Day 1, only to be turned away on Day 2’s attempt after another 3-4 hours. A pregnant women, a high-profile expert consult to the Mozambique delegation, waited both days only to be forced to leave because of fear of her and her baby’s health. And not once did we receive clear updates on our potential to register as we stood in line. Not once did they show any compassion to the thousands of dollars and false hopes these thousands of people had spent to make it merely 20-30 feet from the Bella Center, only to be told that the UN could not accommodate numbers anywhere near to what was expected. Many got on early flights home.

I write this post as an indignant member of the next generation of climate justice leaders, who had nevertheless held onto her faith in an entity who has practically failed to address climate change for the past 15 years of the UNFCCC’s operations. The democracy here in Copenhagen is quickly crumbling before me, before the eyes of the two ESLI youth delegates that came with me and before the rest of the international community. Not to mention, police raids and preemptive arrests targeting young people has turned Copenhagen into a place of fear. Access to UN climate negotiations was already assumed to be limited to civil society – but now we know that we are blatantly not welcome.

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350-400 people were arrested in the first mass protest in Copenhagen today, reaffirming that civil society groups are determined to stay loud and clear on their message for a fair, equitable agreement out of COP15. See this Democracy Now! summary of Week 1 in Copenhagen, which tells a good comprehensive story of what’s going on inside and outside. Featuring Kate Horner of Friends of the Earth.