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Earth Day is around the corner, and this year we’re taking it back.

Earth Day was founded in 1970 to, in the words of its founder, “bring an overwhelming insistence of the new generation that we stem the tide of environmental disaster.” Now each year I see Earth Day come and go with too much greenwashing and not enough action.

This year, we want to try something a little different: we want to Take Back Earth Day by organizing bold actions on our campuses.

Already students are organizing incredible Earth Day actions — from hundreds of students at Mizzou who will rally to demand their school shut down its dirty coal plant, to high schoolers from across Minnesota who will unite to lead a March to Demand Climate Action.

The Vermont Senate Committee on Government Options held a hearing today on bill S131, which is a bill to divest the State's Retirement Funds from Fossil Fuel companies (woot!). Although this was only one of multiple hearings on this bill, there were only 4 of us able to testify today in the tiny room, including a lobbyist from the American Petroleum Institute. After a ridiculous testimony from the oil lobbyist, I said this to the committee:

Grand Aspirations is now accepting applications to participate in our 2013 Summer of Solutions programs!  Apply here!  This blog post is from Growing Food and Sustainability in Middleton, WI.

Hello friends, and happy spring!

I’m Sara, a first-year intern at Growing Food and Sustainability. I wanted to tell you all a little bit about one of the great things I have been able to do with our team so far this year. Beginning last fall, I began working with our GFS team at Clark Street Community School; over the past few months, I have been fortunate enough to co-lead their weekly Ecology Club meetings. In our 90 minutes together on Friday mornings we have had some amazing discussions already, and I imagine they will get even better as times goes on and we move from inside the classroom to outside in the garden.

Clark Street students helping us clean up the youth farm last fall

A lot of what we have been talking about over the winter season has related to general questions of sustainable living. Currently, they are working away at a bottle-recycling program with other organizations in their school, and we have started some plants under light tables–just to get our hands a little dirty this winter! We have also done some great asset-mapping exercises to help them realize how effective they can really be as agents for change, and how their talents and networks really matter when it comes to making a difference.

Crossposted from Checks & Balances Project

Grover Norquist is a familiar player in Washington debates, renowned for convincing nearly every Republican in Congress to sign a pledge to not raise taxes. But Norquist’s main job is not as a principled advocate for his brand of limited government but functioning as a paid lobbyist for whatever corporate interests are ready to write him a check. Norquist is a prominent pundit for Big Pharma and Big Tobacco, and now, he’s also batting for Big Oil.

Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), is at the forefront of the latest fight against renewable energy in the United States.

Conservative front groups and fossil fuel interests are attacking renewable energy standards in a coordinated assault to protect profits generated from fossil fuel-based electricity. Twenty-nine states have renewable energy standards and twenty-two of those have become fierce battlegrounds.

This coordinated attack on clean energy bears resemblance to the effort by Big Tobacco to prevent public health laws from impacting the profitability of tobacco companies. And it turns out, a lot of people working to dismantle renewable energy laws are deeply connected to Big Tobacco. Some, like Grover Norquist, even worked with Big Tobacco on their misinformation campaigns and are now turning their lobbying power to attack state clean energy policies.