Change is in the air! Today, one of the worst eras in American history will come to a close (lasting legacy of economic depression aside), and a new, almost certainly MUCH better era will begin. It is time to celebrate.

How will you celebrate the end of the Bush regime and the beginning of the Obama Presidency? With the passing of one very depressing era, and the start of a new, very hopeful one, I am considering several ways to commemorate the event.

Perhaps it is time to show my pride as a liberal American. Be PROUD to be a liberal American. Our nation was founded on liberal principles and we should remind everyone around us that it is PATRIOTIC to be liberal.

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This week Obama named one of his best cabinet picks yet: Dr. Steven Chu, director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, former chair of Stanford University's physics department, and Nobel Prize-winning (for research in laser cooling and trapping of atoms) physicist, was named Obama's Energy Secretary. Chu also has been an early and strong supporter of alternative fuels and renewable energy research. THIS is the kind of leadership this country needs!

It should be noted that this is the FIRST Energy Secretary who is genuinely an expert on energy.

Dr. Chu's impressive biography can be found here.

Here's a video of Steve Chu at the Davos Annual Meeting, 2007, talking about Climate Change:  read more »

Here's an interesting rundown of the polluters in Brooklyn from the Josh Skaller for City Council website. The worst polluters in Brooklyn are (not in order): Con Edison - Hudson Ave Station, Gowanus Generating Station, Kings Plaza Total Energy Plant, American Sugar Refining Inc, Brooklyn Navy Yard Cogeneration Plant. These people are poisoning our air and water. Just a reminder of how bad pollution in Brooklyn can be, let me remind you of what the Gowanus Canal looks like: (two out of five lovely pictures of the canal taken by my wife July 26th, 2008)

See the lovely phase change between the solid slick and the water? Here's what it looked like on the opposite bank:

Yes...that is a glass bottle embedded and suspended by the muck.  read more »

November 15th--L.I.V.E. World Summit 2008

The L.I.V.E. World Summit 2008 will take place at the Millennium Broadway in New York City on Saturday, November 15, 2008, from 8:00am-6:00pm. The L.I.V.E. World Summit offers industry leaders, innovators, social entrepreneurs, and student leaders with an opportunity to focus on solutions to some of the most pressing problems facing America and the world today: climate change and the environment, poverty and sustainable development, economic growth and stability, global health, energy and power, food and water crises, empowering women, and education.

Join SSBx's Executive Director, Miquela Craytor for her panel on Green Development: Best Practices in Sustainability Around the World

Other speakers include:
Alexandra Cousteau, Founder, Blue Legacy; Co-Founder, EarthEcho, National Geographic Emerging Explorer

Bruce Wrobel, Chairman & CEO, Sithe Global; CEO, Seacom and Global Alumina, Founder & Chairman, All for Africa

Connie Duckworth, Founder & President, Arzu, Inc.; Former Partner, Goldman Sachs.

Dina Powell, Managing Director & Global Head of Corporate Engagement Goldman Sachs  read more »

Global warming is hitting us already. It is no coincidence that some of the biggest storms and an unexpected number of storms are hitting us now. Nor are food shortages coincidence...nor are they caused primarily by biofuels. Extreme weather, an expected part of global warming, is hitting us hard, damaging crops around the world. Crops are established based on a particular climate. That climate has changed and it will take time for agriculture to adapt and infrastructure to be put into place. Time and money.

Global warming isn't our future. It is our now.  read more »