Education and action in green by example are Blue Planet Almanac’s subject this month. Blue Planet Almanac’s stories will focus on the applied experiences of the broadcasting Miss Arkansas, Tamara Henry, Mike Flynn, co-founder of the watershed green business conference, Opportunity Green as well as Opportunity Green board of advisors member, entrepreneur and Red Bull pro athlete Jamie Simon.

Tune into HealthyLife.net on Monday, January 25, 2010 at 8:00 AM Pacific, and click “Listen Live” to absorb the knowledge that Mike, Tamara and Jamie can provide about individual green choices, with examples of how to live them every day and also expand your sphere of green influence and action.

Tamara Henry on CNN’s Local Edition

Tamara Henry brings a wide variety of talents to an interpretation of green and blue, which includes having been Miss Arkansas, an actress, a green broadcaster with Green T With Tamara television with an emphasis on the choices inherent in cherishing the Earth, and also a documentary producer with Vanilla Fire Productions. Tamara will discuss those experiences including her new involvement with the Miss America Pageant as it endeavors to go green for the first time since it’s 1921 beginnings with Tamara’s Green Is Gorgeous interactive eco-contest.

Mike Flynn, educated as a mechanical engineer but possessing uncommon approachability, is Opportunity Green’s co-founder. From the Opportunity Green Website, Mike is: “… the quintessential upcoming, young green entrepreneur who has removed ‘mutually exclusive’ from the outdated attitude in business toward social responsibility and profitability.”

Mike is a heavy-duty surfer and snowboarder, but: “… in 2007 at UCLA, Opportunity Green put together a sold-out green business conference for 500+ attendees that featured keynotes like Kevin Wall from Live Earth; inspiring, educating, and connecting a business community towards an environmentally sustainable mindset.

After the (initial) success of Opportunity Green 2007, Mike and four friends took a hiatus from corporate life to create Feral Green, where they embarked on a humanitarian and ecological adventure and surf trip from Newport Beach, California to the Southern tip of South America in a vegetable oil burning 4×4 truck. The Feral Green mission was to educate and promote alternative fuels and ecological conservation in classrooms and communities throughout Latin America.”

CNN Local Edition with Opportunity Green’s co-founder Mike Flynn

Opportunity Green’s 2009 speaker and workshop line-up included founders and distinguished pros from Clorox, Method Home, LA Department of Water and Power, Johnson & Johnson, BusinessWeek, Wired magazine, X-Prize Foundation, Barney’s New York, Ecofabulous and The Story of Stuff.

Opportunity Green has also created a very successful contest to encourage the best and brightest in sustainable business and technology with its OG25: “…a peer-nominated, interactive quest to seek out rising stars and innovative enterprises redefining our future and proving that business is a real force for change… open to the most promising start-ups committed to building the new green economy. OG25 highlights the importance of initiatives in clean technology, product design, mobility, social innovation, water and resource conservation, food systems, community development and more.”

Jamie Simon, president of Canopy Strategies and founder of Powerzoa

Jamie Simon’s new company, Powerzoa was one of OG25’s winners in 2009 for its Powerzoa product. As President of Canopy Strategies and Founder of Powerzoa:  “…Jamie’s primary responsibility is to identify programs that restore the environment, increase profitability, reduce risk, and improve brand value for large and small corporations.

As a former World Champion and Red Bull athlete in Freestyle kayaking, Jamie has a deep connection to nature. Her goals include finding the intersection of nature and business where they profit most, and delivering this unique intersection through her work in corporate social responsibility.

Powerzoa is a smart plug that fits between your appliances and wall outlets.  The plug measures your energy usage and sends data to a personalized website where you can schedule appliances to turn on and off automatically, saving electricity, lowering energy costs and helping the environment.”

Jamie is a board member for Opportunity Green, and recently finished her 10 years with Red Bull North America as its Director of Sustainability. Before that post, Jamie oversaw Sports Marketing Programs and Field Marketing for Red Bull.

Blue Planet Almanac radio airs live with host Mike Austin on HealthyLife.net on the 4th Monday of each month at 8:00 A.M. Pacific Time. Blue Planet Almanac is also re-broadcast later in the week and shows are archived three days after airtime at that same site, with some available through the links at this site. HealthyLife.net is an all-positive talk station and has over 3 million listeners monthly in 104 countries and all 50 United States.

Jamie is currently the President of Canopy Strategies and Founder of Powerzoa.

As President of Canopy Strategies, Jamie’s primary responsibility is to identify programs that restore the environment, increase profitability, reduce risk, and improve brand value for large and small corporations. As a former World Champion and Red Bull athlete in Freestyle kayaking, Jamie has a deep connection to nature. Her goals include finding the intersection of nature and business, where they profit most, and delivering this unique intersection through her work in corporate social responsibility.

Powerzoa is a smart plug that fits between your appliances and wall outlets.  The plug measures your energy usage and sends data to a personalized website where you can schedule appliances to turn on and off automatically, saving electricity, lowering energy costs and helping the environment.

Jamie is a Board member for Opportunity Green.

Jamie was the Director of Sustainability for Red Bull North America (2008-2009). Prior to her career in Sustainability, Jamie oversaw Sports Marketing Programs (2003-2007) and Field Marketing (1999-2002) for Red Bull.

- Leilani Münter releases a Great Horned Owl -

Adventurers Leilani Münter and Jeremy Symons join us Monday, December 28, 2009 at 8:00 A.M. Pacific on Blue Planet Almanac radio. Blue Planet Almanac is also re-broadcast later in the week and shows are archived after airtime. HealthyLife.net is an all-positive talk station and has over 3 million listeners monthly in 104 countries and all 50 United States.

Environmentalists are where you find them – sometimes in unlikely places. Saving Earth will take our daily, constant action, guided not only by leaders who know what to do in front of cameras and mics – but also captains who can last the grind and hyperbole of government legislative machinery. In both positions, courage and nimble minds are prerequisite for challenging, controversial and sometimes thankless positions where it’s your job to be an agent of change.

Realizing this, Blue Planet Almanac strives to remain realistic about humanity’s values and value. Having had long experience as an environmentalist when it was unpopular as well during its highest fashion, one thing remains incontrovertibly constant to me; people tend to avoid things they find inconvenient and gravitate toward those that require minimal effort. It’s simple… humankind won’t act to save its own planet unless it’s pushed, both noticing and respecting one of its own doing something important they like. That means any change is gonna be a messy, sloppy process.

- Jeremy Symons at the UNCCC in 2006 -

This month’s Blue Planet Almanac radio presents you with the adventure stories of both a courageous captain and a leader, exemplified by national racer and international model Leilani Münter and her friend-at-arms Jeremy Symons, National Wildlife Federation’s (NWF) respected spokesman on environmental and energy issues. Münter and Symons predict the tides of environmental change, partnering in advancement of thoughtful environmental values in both public and government arenas. Symons is just returning from Cop 15 on behalf of NWF. It’s my understanding from Jeremy that he was one of the few NGO execs allowed to watch President Obama’s last-minute, but reportedly successful, effort to bring China to the table.

Think of Münter’s role as an example for Americans because she lives many things middle America respects and admires. And let the first one of us who’s without environmental sin cast the first stone. Now, we already know that an overly emotional environmentalist -  although there are now many who are realistic – would pronounce Münter the beast and Symons as the beauty. ;)

But stand back for the moment from what you think about environmentalists and be open to what’s really happening. How would you describe an environmentalist? Think about how you and your friends live. Is your carbon footprint low, can you say you live like David Brower or John Muir did? Do you know how to calculate your carbon footprint? Will you ever want to experiment with living off-the-grid as did Les Stroud? At least 95% us will never answer “Yes” to most of those reasonable questions. Only a handful of us can. We’ve branched so far from our roots we’ve forgotten how they grow.

In this moment, few of us can connect the dots from the United States’ use of most of the world’s resources to negative climate and environmental changes. Yet our social and cultural conditioning often insists that whoever creates a mess must clean it up. So, why aren’t we cleaning up our own messes by being, for example, the first ones at Copenhagen’s negotiation tables? When you look at American’s web of resource use and who really has an impact on climate and planetary change, the country that has caused most of the problems has been last to show up. That means you and I.

Münter in NextEra Energy's 59 and Danica Patrick's 88, testing at Daytona 12-20-09

So start from where you’re standing. Now, if you’re interested in creating positive environmental change, wouldn’t you want the ears of the largest audience possible? Which audience would that be in the United States? How about sports fans? Sports are a big deal here, as in every country. Is it football fans who’d listen? You tell me.

How about auto racing? It’s big – some say the number one spectator sport in America. Auto racers as environmentalists??? That’s daffy, right? In motor racing, “Going Green“ literally means the green flag which starts the race, making racers plant their right foot on the accelerator pedals of their cars. Now ask yourself if a motorsport like auto racing is going to change most effectively from inside its own ranks. I can think of at least four racers including me who want to continue racing but green it acceptably. And three of them are pro with regular entries in nationally-televised series.

But, change things must, and there will be early adopters of new ways of doing things in every sport. The American Le Mans series, for example, in 2009 launched its Green X Challenge sponsored by Michelin and has also partnered with the Nature Conservancy to Adopt an Acre. Now, Münter’s #59 NASCAR ride (National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing) is sponsored by NextEra Energy Resources – and appears to be one of the few cars bankrolled by an alternative energy company in auto racing. NextEra claims it’s the largest wind and solar power generator in America, with over 90% of its power derived from clean or renewable fuels.

So what’s accepted as the biggest auto racing series in the United States? How about NASCAR? Would its fans be interested in environmental topics? NASCAR is frequently mentioned as having the second-highest TV ratings of any regular season televised sport. And its fans are legion and loyal, so that if they’re running with you, you’ve got some influence to your agenda.

- SportingNew's 2009 collectible, the 50 Most Beautiful People of NASCAR -

The 122 year-old SportingNews now thinks NASCAR fans might listen to environmental topics, and so just featured two NASCAR racers as environmentalists, Brian Vickers and Münter. With an average paid circulation of 632,258 and around 4,000,000 readers, SportingNews just published its second collector’s yearbook, the “50 Most Beautiful People of NASCAR.” At the SportingNews Website, Münter is featured on its yearbook’s cover. At newsstands, her picture is one of seven and inside she received the most ink about her environmental interests.

The vegetarian Münter races in NASCAR’s ARCA-RE/MAX series and IndyCar’s IndyLights. At the time of this writing, she’s testing in a Mark Gibson Racing Dodge at Daytona Speedway.

Snippets from Leilani’s experience include that she…

• is an ambassador for the National Wildlife Federation.
• holds a bachelors degree in biology specializing in ecology, behavior and evolution from UC San Diego.
• has volunteered at a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center.
• worked as a stunt and photo double for Catherine Zeta-Jones and has an IMDB entry.
• has modeled for magazines which include Italian Vogue, Esquire and Men’s Journal and even Reader’s Digest’s 10 Reasons to Love America.
• made periodic trips to Capitol Hill to speak before Congress about environmental legislation.
• has blogged for the Huffington Post.
• purchases an acre of endangered rain forest every time she races.
• has been filmed for the 2010 premiere of “Guardians of the Earth” on Discovery Channel’s Planet Green.
• set a new track record at Texas Motor Speedway as she finished 4th, highest finish for any woman racer.
• is the fourth woman in history to race in the Indy Pro Series.
• spoke at a Climate Action Rally on the steps of Capitol Hill alongside Senators Barbara Boxer, Joe Lieberman and John Kerry.

Münter’s complement in public and government arenas is NWF’s “policy captain” Jeremy Symons, Senior Vice President for Conservation and Education. NWF bills itself as America’s largest conservation organization and strives to inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our children’s future.

Symons is responsible for directing National Wildlife Federation’s overall efforts to fight the greatest threats to wildlife, by advancing effective solutions to global warming and restoring America’s wildlife conservation legacy in the face of new threats. NWF would like to help families across America rediscover the wonders of nature.

(l-r) - Jeremy Symons of NWF, Steve Sawyer of Greenpeace and unidentified delegate at 2006 United Nations Conference on Climate Change -

Symons has…

• served as Executive Director of NWF’s global warming campaign.
• stood among NWF’s top spokesmen on environmental and energy issues, having appeared on NBC Nightly News, Fox News, CBS Evening News, CNN, the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, ABC World News Tonight, National Public Radio and in other media.
• worked with Congress and other elected officials to advance global warming policies and clean energy initiatives.
• been acknowledged as one of the nation’s top nonprofit advocates by the respected The Hill newspaper.
• been climate policy advisor at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
• worked on climate change and other environmental issues with Oregonian Senator Ron Wyden.
• served as co-chair of the U.S. Climate Action Network, a coalition of more than sixty organizations across the nation.
• earned a masters degree in public policy from Georgetown University and a bachelors degree in environmental studies from Brown University.

Symons is a “Go to” guy for knowing exactly what’s happening about the United States’ understanding of all things environmental. The legislation developing behind the scenes about hot environmental topics like global warming or even biological diversity are the kinds of things Jeremy fields day-in and day-out. So his perspective for America and its children is infinitely valuable. After all, we’re still living on a planet borrowed from our children.

Hear the adventures and stories that Leilani and Jeremy have to tell us about their missions and successes, Monday, December 28, 2009 at 8:00 A.M. Pacific on Blue Planet Almanac radio. Blue Planet Almanac radio airs live with host Mike Austin on HealthyLife.net on the 4th Monday of each month at 8:00 A.M. Pacific Time. Blue Planet Almanac is also re-broadcast later in the week and shows are archived three days after airtime at that same site, with some available through the links below. HealthyLife.net is an all-positive talk station and has over 3 million listeners monthly in 104 countries and all 50 United States.

President Nasheed of the Maldives Addresses the Climate Vulnerable Forum.

As you watch this, consider who should take action and who should pay for clean-up. The more I look into this, the more convinced I become that the only way to get anything done will be to holler and wave our arms at President Obama, for example by calling his office and writing to him with a sense of urgency. The world is still awaiting America’s commitment to positive, adequate change.

And here’s an interesting thought for you. The countries which have created and still comprise most of the problem are doing the least. Should a country which caused .5% of the problem suffer for a country which caused 40% of the problem. Most of us would say, “Of course not.” Well, ladies and germs, if that’s the case then what are we doing about it?

Shouldn’t the U.S. be paying its percentage? What do you think? As I watch our world stumble through this, I’m reminded of Robert Fulghum’s book, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” From a poster in the men’s restroom of a restaurant near my home, these bold, italic ‘excerpts’ from that come to mind:

• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don’t hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
• Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
• And then remember the Dick and Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.

Bill McKibben (photo Nancie Battaglia)

Because this month’s Blue Planet Almanac is discussing the climate talks in Copenhagen, and because I share Bill McKibben’s overall sentiments about the United States’ slovenly posture for those talks, I want to turn you on to this evening’s essay which Bill has posted at Mother Jones, “Mr. President: Time to Quit Fibbing and Spinning.” Bill is a well-known author on climate change, grassroots organizer and founder of 350.org, which CNN called the creators of “the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history.”

Bill will speak with Blue Planet Almanac during our 11-23-09 show at 8:00 AM Pacific on HealthyLife.net about America’s needs for the talks at Copenhagen. Blue Planet Almanac radio will also be rebroadcast that same day at 8 PM Pacific, and available thereafter for download. Pass the word about this to all your voting friends, because humanity’s out of reaction time. Unless we put our foot on the brakes, now, we can expect especially nasty consequences to our studied inaction. Contact the White House now for your children, asking President Obama to show up at Copenhagen ready to get to work, so your children have an Earth worth inheriting.

Andrew Light of the Center for American Progress

Providing another perspective for us will also be internationally recognized expert Andrew Light, involved with a mere 17 books on environment and technology, who is Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. Since you’ll get fatigued from hearing my violins about this, consider what Andrew said the first time I talked to him, asking him straight away why he does the work he does. Without hesitation he answered, “For my six month old son.” Andrew coordinates many aspects of  “international climate change policy and the future of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, for the Center for American Progress.“

Ben Jervey of Adopt-A-Negotiator

And because most Americans – including me – truly need a fast education about what’s happening with the United Nations Climate Change Convention in Copenhagen, I’ve also invited the younger but especially perceptive Ben Jervey to provide his first-hand stories from his role with the clever Adopt-A-Negotiator campaign at the U.N.’s just-completed talks in Barcelona. Ben has the experience of years working with the legendary Natural Resources Defense Council as an editor and writer, lately at their OnEarth magazine, and also works with the collaborative Good.is.

We look forward to you joining us to hear what these three fine men have to say about what we must do!

Blue Planet Almanac radio airs live with host Mike Austin on HealthyLife.net on the 4th Monday of each month at 8:00 A.M. Pacific Time. Blue Planet Almanac is also re-broadcast later in the week and shows are archived three days after airtime at that same site, with some available through this link. HealthyLife.net is an all-positive talk station and has over 3 million listeners monthly in 104 countries and all 50 United States.

Blue Planet Almanac radio offers thoughtful perspectives on conscious, green living on our favorite planet. With fascinating interviews, news and product reviews, caller participation about Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability are encouraged, including science and policy of importance to Earthlings. Listeners can have their say in an environment that matters or simply listen to leaders in their field.

Here at Blue Planet Almanac’s news site are Web links to stories, news and reviews from the radio hour, where listeners and Web surfers can reflect, comment and have input on information from the radio hour. Blue Planet Almanac – good choices for Earthlings.

Join us!

Michael S. Hopkins, Editor in Chief, MIT Sloan Management Review (click to enlarge)

One of the oldest ways to get someone’s attention about environmental concerns is to holler at them and wave your arms in the air. While that still has its place, the best way to get a bear’s attention is with honey, not vinegar. Over recent years thousands of forward-thinkers worldwide, including Michael S. Hopkins, Karen Solomon and Mike Flynn noticed this and acted upon it. In a largely capitalistic world, the only way anyone’s gonna make significant progress in sustainability is to monetize it.

Greenpeace, that doesn’t mean we don’t love you… sometimes the Conscience Police “gotta slap someone upside the head” with negative media to get a company’s attention. Of course, many people and companies can be found who try their best to greenwash their business and customers but over the long term, the only businesses that will succeed will be those with genuine interest in heartfelt sustainability. And those companies were the rule rather than the exception at the third annual Opportunity Green business conference in Los Angeles just a few days ago.

(l-r) Zem Joaquim of Ecofabulous, Colin Bryant of Paladin Capital, Adam Lowry of Method, Julie Gilhart of Barneys and Rich Steinberg of Mini (click to enlarge)

Opportunity Green’s tagline is “being green + being profitable” and 56 top-flight speakers held forth on a wide variety of topics from overviews of mass consumerism, to marketing, to the history of green technology, product design, to the business of sustainability, to next generation transportation. By quick visual estimate, around 35 companies set booths to discuss their green services and products. And since picking our path into the future is important, Opportunity Green also created a nifty competition, the “OG25” to select, “twenty-five sustainable start-ups chosen for their stand-out approaches to creating real change through business.”

The net effect that Opportunity Green has on your life is simple – in months and years to come, many of the discussions which took root here will bear fruit as products and services which you’ll use.

Chris Jordan's new rendering of Hokusai's famous 'Great Wave off Kanagawa' - made instead from plastic debris (click to enlarge)

Setting everyone’s intention at the first session was attorney-turned-photographer Chris Jordan, who showed unedited photos from his just-finished expedition to Midway Atoll. Getting one’s brain wrapped around humanity’s influence on Earth takes focus and perspective, but since a picture’s worth a thousand words Chris’s work drives home the point that our species is out of reaction time. Sobered, arrested and sad would be how I’d describe many of us felt as we watched Chris flick through his photographic montages to show us what we’ve done.

Chris’s unedited Midway photos and especially striking photographic montages like the ironic homage to Hokusai shown here, depict humanity’s influence via our debris from places like the Eastern Garbage Patch. These beautifully horrible images must be pondered to be believed. Also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, this soup of humanity’s toxic debris about twice the size of Texas is contained in one of five ‘pools’ in the Earth’s oceans called gyres.

If you’re reading this you owe it to yourself and your children to click through to Chris’s site. His compilation from Midway is below – Downer Alert! – get yourself some coffee or tea before you watch this, take a little time and remember that we can correct our mistakes.

Chris Jordan’s “Midway: Message from the Gyre”

But Opportunity Green is here to help us focus on solutions to problems like these that Chris is able to show us, bringing some of the world’s best organizations together to compare notes. Keith Kegley of the X-Prize Foundation even hinted during his presentation that they’re considering working on solutions to the debris of the gyres. Hundreds of the best companies in their field attend or present at Opportunity Green including legends like Yvon Chouinard’s Patagonia. Co-founders Karen Solomon and Mike Flynn have done a fabulous job with their brainchild, and it looks like a particularly bright childhood will lead Opportunity Green into brilliant maturity.

In addition to Opportunity Green’s strong profile in the business world – as exemplified by BusinessWeek’s Helen Walters video interview of Len Sauers, Procter & Gamble’s Vice President for Global Sustainability – the conference has already drawn attention from wider media. The Los Angeles Times, Glamour magazine, the New York Times and CNN are all carrying stories about Opportunity Green.

CNN Local Edition’s interview of Opportunity Green’s co-founder Mike Flynn & Emilie Cowan.

A nonprofit or two were even represented, including Bud Moore’s Algalita Marine Research Foundation, one of the first groups to give the Earth a heads-up about the Eastern Garbage patch and the other four marine gyres which attract toxic plastic detritus. Algalita’s Anna Cummins was on-hand to outline its programs and told Blue Planet Almanac that Algalita is planning to survey the other four marine gyres in its brand new 5 Gyres project. Anna showed up on a bicycle carrying everything she needed for her Algalita booth for Opportunity Green. She was also a land crew-member of the Junk Raft, a first ocean-going vessel constructed from 15,000 plastic bottles and a Cessna 310 cabin, which sailed in Summer 2008 and predated the upcoming launch of David de Rothschild’s Plastiki.

Adam Lowry, Method (click to enlarge)

Another excellent example of the thinkers and doers to be found at Opportunity Green would be Method co-founder Adam Lowry, who spoke to conferees with broad strokes about how to keep one’s heart in his business, complementing his head. Lowry’s accessible style and thoughtful approach to creating and maintaining his business have put Method products on the shelves of major American retailers including WalMart and large grocery chains. If you asked Lowry why he co-founded Method, he’d tell you he was tired of the minimal options he found for everyday products. And Lowry was only one of hundreds of conferees exercising their brainpower and hearts to do green business.

Freya Williams, OgilvyEarth (click to enlarge)

Freya Williams, co-founder of OgilvyEarth, Ogilvy’s sustainability practice division, also shone brightly as a forward thinker. Conceived as a positive means to focus vital attention on the upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen, Williams’ presentation on the development of OgilvyEarth’s Hopenhagen, showed us the “campaign for United Nations Secretary General Ban-ki Moon to help effect a positive outcome from the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009.” Followers of Blue Planet Almanac can sign the petition for Hopenhagen at the upper-right corner of any page.

Volunteer Amanda Crater of CraterCom & BusinessWeek's Helen Walters clowning at the after party

An interesting philosophy which Opportunity Green’s founders expressed was the extensive logistical help from their volunteers, who looked to be around 30 in number. In a balanced atmosphere of Fortune companies and startups, trained volunteers were at our service to provide directions to sessions, find vendor booths and help media reps locate presenters. This should be taken a good sign that Opportunity Green is attracting thoughtful talent at every level and isn’t strictly about profit. All the volunteers either knew how to answer questions and solve problems, or knew exactly who to ask. At Opportunity Green’s closing presentation the volunteers were thanked profusely for their invaluable logistical assistance.

So, when millions of us are using the thoughtful green products and services launched at Opportunity Green, we can thank the thousands of companies and volunteers who made it a point to get involved and do their best for everyone. If you want your business to be sustainable, and to be on the leading edge of the movement that’s really gonna save humanity’s biscuits, then you might consider putting your head together with others of like mind at this excellent conference of some of the best and brightest.

From Adopt a Negotiator, here’s Ben Jervey’s report on the United States’ absolute absence of action at the pending climate crisis talks. America’s lead negotiator was appointed by Hilary Clinton, but takes his marching orders from President Obama. There aren’t many times when I embarrassed to admit I’m an American to citizens of other countries. But now is one.

If any American wants climate change solved, the only way it’s gonna happen is if you write or call Obama’s office. If you want your children to inherit a world worth living in, take action now. There will be no tomorrow.

President Obama, it’s now time to earn that Peace Prize.

O.K., O.K. – I know I like tacky humor,  but this is very funny!

By the way, about Copenhagen – Do you know where your Obama is?

Above: Actor and marshal arts expert Jet Li speaking on climate change for Cop15.

Here are some excellent questions which, if you’ve come to read this, will strike you as the sort which could be answered:

Is our species’ environmental clock really at 11:01 P.M.? With perfect prose and profound metaphor I would like to assure you it is, but half-a-century of experience and intuition about how humanity lives can’t help me put that into a sound-bite or paragraph. But, with patient, long-suffering experts like Tom Lovejoy telling us that we can expect that 1/4 to 1/3 of all species on Earth will perish unless we quickly pull our act together – now – that should get your attention and make you step into action. Tom also agreed that there’s no computer or scientist’s consortium – no modeling process – to accurately estimate the outcome of our species’ environmental influence.

Above: Desmond Tutu speaking on climate change for Cop15.

So if one assumes for the moment that we’re really in the middle of a big problem, what would be the next big step we could take to solve it? Would a multi-national conference with our best leaders be a good place to get rolling? Then the process of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change would be that place, known lately in the media as Copenhagen, Cop-15 and other slang.

Above: Denmark’s Prime Minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, speaks about climate change for Cop15 and mentions the YouTube setup to send your video directly into the meeting’s conference rooms.

If the things above are what’s happening, and they are, then what has the United States done about its part in the Cop15 process? Who are the players? What’s the agenda? The meeting of our elected and appointed officials starts on December 7, 2009 in Denmark. If you look around the Web or listen to the old broadcast media you won’t find anything of substance about what’s being done. Do you want anything positive to come of this?

Why would the process, goals and names of our U.S. delegation to the Copenhagen meeting – from one of the world’s model democracies, with one of the world’s most respected leaders be so hard to find? Does the president of one of the most powerful and influential nations in the world, responsible with China for most of global warming, have a video that says exactly what he’s going to do to solve these problems?

These are questions we’ll try and resolve on the next Blue Planet Almanac, 11-23-09

Time marches on. Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod inspired the crew from XPlane Visual Thinking to produce yet another version of Fisch’s “Did You Know?” Here’s the latest, 4.0:

Karl Fisch, Arapahoe High School, Centennial, CO

Here’s Karl’s blog, The Fischbowl, at which you could find all the history behind the “Did You Know?” series.

After talking with a new friend this morning who described himself as a Luddite, I was inspired to nose around in my old e-mails to reflect on my relationships with actual living humans. The truth is I could relate to what he says; I often feel like a Luddite although I’ve run a computer network and I’m involved in new media.

And although my friend feels like a Luddite, I find his thoughtful perspective on humanity to be infinitely valuable. Because we’ve become enthralled with our new technological toys, he understands things about human social structures most of us either forgot – or never knew.

As I mined my e-mails, I re-discovered the 2006 land of Herr Fisch’s original, phenomenal viral vid, “Did You Know?,” more affectionately remembered with its catchy tagline, “Shift Happens.” When I found Karl immersed in his creative datacloud in 2007, I corresponded to thank him. Here’s his original vid:

- The Woodland Hills band of the 350 tribe -

As did tens of thousands of people around the Earth, in 181 countries and at least eight languages, at 5,200 events – today I laid on grass in a park with 67 others, enumerating “350.”

Would you like to know what 350 means? See our little band’s link at the 350 organization’s Website.

Tanya Peel of All Green Things in Woodland Hills, California organized us. Thanks, Tanya and thanks to photographer Jim Brammer!

Shade's a good thing.