Tag Archives: clean energy

Facebook’s new logo–which one’s a no-go?


Back in February 2010, Greenpeace called on Facebook to unfriend coal and embrace renewables to power their massive data centers, giving them a deadline of April 22 (Earth Day) of this year. Since then, over 600,000 Greenpeace supporters have called on Facebook to take action and according to Greenpeace International Executive Director, Kumi Naidoo, Facebook is listening (atleast the founder’s sister, Randi Zuckerberg is).

Even if you overlooked coal’s impact on climate change, and the levels of mercury it emits (along with a laundry list of other harmful effects), the American Lung Association found that coal-powered electricity alone caused “over 13,000 premature deaths in 2010, as well as almost 10,000 hospitalizations and more than 20,000 heart attacks per year.” Considering that many of these people are current or would-be Facebook users, Randi would certainly do well to sway her brother before Facebook triples their current energy consumption (by 2020) to a level higher than that of France, Germany, Canada and Brazil combined.

To view Greenpeace’s recent TV ad, and to get info on how you can help convince Facebook to unfriend coal, visit the Greenpeace blog.

Joe’s cartoon archive and twitter ramblings

The Republican Book on $cience [cartoon]

Since taking over the House, the Republicans have utilized their sway to continue their attack on the environment.

Any time you fight to weaken clean air and water standards, carbon (etc.) emissions standards, and make every effort to make the world a less healthy place to live, one has to wonder (though apparently few do) “Why are you doing this?”.

Possible reasons:
Hatred of hippies– Good for rallying support, but not a reason to poison the earth.
Trying to “weaken BIG government”– Same response as above (but I’ll come back to this one).
Looking out for your constituents who hate clean drinking water, and love asthma, cancer, and extreme weather– I’d imagine that’s too small of a base to really fight for.
Doing the bidding of BIG business– That is the only real reason these attacks are taking place. The noise from the right is a constant call to take power away from “BIG government”. In attempting to do so they are knowingly giving power to big business. Rest assured that these businesses are making themselves rich while poisoning the rest of us.

We can be on either side of the political spectrum, but we cannot give any politician (Democrat or Republican) our blind faith. Politics is not religion, nor is it a sport. There are way too many examples of politicians (individually AND collectively) doing what’s best for their careers or their bank account, as opposed to what’s best for all people that we have to be critical supporters. We cannot be blind followers. Politicians and polluting industries are taking advantage of the extreme polarization of our great country to push personal agendas.

Pay attention. Read the links below (in regards to the current Republican vs. the Environment offensive). Read more. Inform yourself with fact and avoid the bias and opinion that perpetuates dishonest and corrupt agendas.

From Grist: Politifact finds Republican claim to be false; Republicans don’t give a sh*t
From Ecopolitology: Republicans Attempt to Stifle Action on Climate Change
From PlanetSave: GOP Only Political Party in World to Reject Climate Science?
From Discover Magazine (Chris Mooney): Liberals, Conservatives, and Science
Chris Mooney’s book: The Republican War on Science
Grist again: Fred Upton’s EPA-blocking bill will put more of your money in oil industry pockets

Joe’s cartoon archive and twitter ramblings

Hank D and the Bee: D-U-M Dumb!

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More info
From Grist: Obama’s energy gambit: a call for less coal
From EcoSnobberySucks: Did Obama double talk the State of the Union?
From PlanetSave: Obama’s State of the Union Address [VIDEO]
From Popular Science: World’s Largest Underwater Turbine Installed

Follow the rest of the Hank D and the Bee series at JoeMohrToons.com. For cartoon updates and other green goings-on, follow Joe on Twitter @GreenCartoons.

Koch Brothers–Tilting at Clean Energy (cartoon and article=”cartoonicle”)


The idiom “tilting at windmills” (or turbines) derives from the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. It means to attack imaginary enemies, or fight unwinnable or futile battles. Big Oil and Coal (and others) are in a futile battle against clean energy. Clean energy will inevitably emerge victorious. Unfortunately, when oil billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries (apologies for putting their names on the horse and ass’s asses) fight unwinnable battles you can be certain the pointless battles will last a lot longer than they should. Putting approximately 100 million dollars of their money into right-wing coffers to keep fellow polluters happy and federal regulations lax, Koch Industries is more than eager to fight a battle that compromises our future and greatly compromises the future of our children. The same children to which they are now eagerly marketing.

The brothers have also been enthusiastically supporting the Tea Party. They are doing a fine job of fooling the new political movement into believing that a victory for the Tea Party and their backers is a victory for good old “Joe America”.

What the Joes really need to do is look further in to who is telling them what, and why. A little digging will certainly uncover that most major polluting industries are in the pockets of many of their Republican and Tea Party heroes (Democrats too, but less so. Hence their slogan “the lesser of two evils”).

If billionaire polluters help elected officials get into office then who do you think they are beholden to? Who are they working for? You, the people, their constituents, the Joes they are polluting, or the billionaires who got them there? And why are these billionaires cow-towing to the Joes? Could it be that they want you to have their backs when “crazy, radical, hippie, liberals” (read, folks who like clean soil, air and water) call them out on the poison they release into our environment in extremely dangerous amounts? It could.

Name calling and turning Joe against Joe is a game politicians, corporations and billionaires have long played to keep us distracted so they are free to do whatever their extremely tiny, crusty, brownish-grey hearts desire. Which (to keep it simple) is ONLY to make more money.

Money is the root of all evil. And unfortunately evil is a beautiful flower of deception that keeps us from focusing on the root.

Let’s all try to pay closer attention to who is yelling at whom and why. Use your critical mind to find out why, and please avoid any misdirected hostility. Otherwise, you are the fertilizer that helps Evil grow.

Evil needs you. You do not need evil–no matter how pretty it may seem.

Republican Energy Plan (cartoon)


Same old same old from the right side of the aisle. As Treehugger columnist, Brian Merchant recently shared, “they are the only major political party of any democracy in the world that gets away with denying climate science.”
Scary.

More on the ever-tan Mr. Boehner:
John Boehner on the Issues (scroll down for “Energy and Oil” and the “Environment”)

Is China Blocking Progress to Ensure Green Energy Dominance?

Is China Blocking Progress to Ensure Green Energy Dominance? Reposted From Wend magazine’s Greenery page.

Grist Article: Did China block Copenhagen progress to pave way for its own dominance in cleantech?

Old King Coal’s New Nursery Rhyme (cartoon)

Originally posted on RedGreenandBlue.org on 9/24/09
Mean Joe Green #74: Old King Coal’s New Nursery Rhyme.
Will we be able to move away from dirty fossil fuels to new clean energy sources in the near future? Not if Old King Coal has his way…

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Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Talks Dirty Coal at Bonnaroo, and More (audio)

Mean Joe Green #50: “Pork” Confusing to GOP

Originally posted on RedGreenandBlue.org on 2/6/09

Republicans have blasted the latest bailout package as being full of “pork”.

Hmmm–pork (barrel spending) by definition, is spending for projects that will benefit a certain group of constituents.

This article in Grist highlights all who will benefit from the “green pork” in the package.

Regarding increased fuel efficiency Obama shares:

This is what they call pork. You know the truth. It will not only save the government significant money over time, it will not only create manufacturing jobs for folks who are making these cars, it will set a standard for private industry to match. And so when you hear these attacks deriding something of such obvious importance as this, you have to ask yourself — are these folks serious? Is it any wonder that we haven’t had a real energy policy in this country?

Regarding clean energy:

After decades of dragging our feet, this plan will finally spark the creation of a clean energy industry that will create hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next few years, manufacturing wind turbines and solar cells, for example — millions more after that. These jobs and these investments will double our capacity to generate renewable energy over the next few years.

And regarding energy efficiency:

This will save consumers money, this will spur innovation, and this will conserve tremendous amounts of energy. We’ll save through these simple steps over the next 30 years the amount of energy produced over a two-year period by all the coal-fired power plants in America.

Americans with lungs, and a heating bill sure does cover a large group of constituents. Sorry folks, but spending that will do wonders to clean up the earth and positively affect all earthlings is not “pork”.
Pork?

Related articles

Economic Stimulus Package: Will Obama Push for a Smart Grid?
Mean Joe Green #49: Economy Hurting the Republican Image
One man’s hybrid is another’s pork