Robert Jensen is a professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas. He is the author of Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity; The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege; and Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity, among other works. He spoke to NLP’s Alex Doherty about the threat of environmental catastrophe. http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/a_world_in_collapse/

August has passed without any major town hall eruptions, but that doesn’t mean it is a quiet time in American politics. Midterm-election campaigns are heating up, and it’s becoming clear that these races could determine what gets accomplished in the next Congress.

This includes what we do — or don’t do — on clean energy and climate solutions.

The BP disaster has brought us powerful stories from fishermen whose livelihoods may have been destroyed for decades or longer. However long it takes for the Gulf’s sealife to recover, those who’ve made their livelihoods harvesting them will need to create a powerful common voice if they’re not going to continue to be made expendable. One powerful model comes from Seattle and Alaska salmon fisherman Pete Knutson, who has spent thirty-five years engaging his community to take environmental responsibility, creating unexpected alliances to broaden the impact of their voice, and in the process defeating massive corporate interests.

It seems clear that the environmental devastation of an entire region should take priority over the continued operation of an industry that is mired in corruption and recklessness. Perhaps it is fair that they lose some profits and some jobs as a result of this disaster.

Earlier today, I published a post that called for greater investment in bike paths. A few hours later, I stumbled across this George Carlin routine where he ridicules, among other things, people who call for greater investment in bike paths. Enjoy!

Conservation groups take huge donations from Big Coal, Big Oil and other corporations that make enormous profits while destroying the environment and the planet’s ecosystem. It’s time to expose this corrupt relationship and chart a new course to save the planet.

Working towards a sustainable future is a responsibility that will require dedication all 365 days of the year.

by Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium blogger

Environmental advocates from around the world gathered in Cochabamba, Bolivia, this week and resolved that, a year from now, they would hold a world’s people referendum on climate change to marshal support for the rights of the planet.

In honor of Earth Day, Gallup has just released polling showing how American’s opinions of the environmental movement have changed in the previous ten years. At first glance, the results aren’t pretty:

But as has been the case in several other recent polls, the change is due almost entirely to a sharp shift among Republicans. Gallup explains:

These results indicate that the decline in positive views of the environmental movement among Americans over the past decade is disproportionately the result of substantial declines among Republicans, which dwarf those among Democrats.

Using data provided by Gallup, I created this chart showing how Republican views of the environmental movement have changed in the past 10 years:

As you can see, nearly 50% of Republicans now think the environmental movement has done more harm than good, up from 28% just 10 years. And on the flipside, while 70% of Republicans thought the environmental movement did more good than harm in 2000, just 49% feel that way now.

Happy Earth Day, Republicans!

At least St. Al is sticking to his guns … unlike certain figures who shall remain nameless but whose names contain the letters like “B” and “O”.