Feeling good, Obama supporters? That was a pretty good debate run Barack had. Conventional wisdom was that he bested John McCain in three straight, with undecided voters declaring him the victor in each one. Obama’s got the ‘Big Mo’ now. The Republican party is a discredited mess, and with the economy being what it is, the Democratic candidate seems poised to come out ahead on November 4.

Just like John Kerry. And Al Gore.

And you know how those contests turned out.

Debate audiences gave Gore and Kerry the win in their debates with the idiot savant Bush, Jr. But when the smoke cleared, the debate performances didn’t mean a thing. This year’s crop of Democrats may point to a radically different political landscape, one that favors their party by wide margins. They’ll point out that Obama is seen as more likable, as Bush was, and that he’s got more money to spend in the final days than his rival, as Bush did. Given the extreme closeness of the last two elections, it may be tempting to think, “This time it’s got to turn our way. It’s just got to.” Fortunately Barack Obama is having none of it.

Yesterday he warned a crowd of supporters in NYC about getting too giddy with two words, “New Hampshire.” [www.cbsnews.com]

“You know I’ve been in these positions before where we were favored and the press starts getting carried away and we end up getting spanked,” Obama said, reminding the faithful of their setback in the Granite State primary. Today, on his way to Virginia, Obama reiterated that sentiment, calling attention to one of the flaws in the Democratic DNA, the ability to “snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.” [www.afp.com]

“Don’t underestimate our ability to screw it up.” He added: “I want everybody running scared. Over the next 18 days, other than your family and your job, I want you to make a decision that there is nothing more important than bringing about this change that we need.”

When you go out to a nice restaurant, you don’t fill up on the free bread sticks. You save some appetite for the main course. You stay hungry. If you’re an Obama supporter, don’t get sucked in by the echo chamber of your friends and like-minded co-workers. If you’re an independent and look at Obama’s record-setting cash haul and think, “Eh, he doesn’t need my help, he’s got it in the bag,” don’t be foolish. Obama may not be up against Bush, who, for all his utter incompetence once he got the job, was a highly skilled and intuitive campaigner and a much better liar than John McCain, and he may not be facing the Rasputin of politics himself, Karl Rove. But he is facing those who studied at Rove’s feet, and they’re following the playbook just as Karl wrote it, with robo-calls so disgusting they’ll make your toes curl. [tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com] And if you’re not familiar with the Bradley Effect, maybe you should be [en.wikipedia.org]. Then there’s the continued hackability of Diebold’s electronic voting machines and the usual voter suppression tactics the GOP rolls out every four years…..In short, the most Democratic-favored landscape you can imagine may not be enough. And even if it were, it would be foolhardy to behave as if it was.

A few good debates and surging poll numbers are good, certainly better than not. But when you’re trying to defeat the Death Star, there’s no room for overconfidence, even if you are a Jedi.

(Luke blows up his first TIE fighter)

Han Solo: Great, kid. Don’t get cocky.

– Michael Turner

1. What’s your favorite political movie?

My father’s films: ROME, OPEN CITY and PAISAN

2. What role do you feel art plays in politics?

Art reflects the emotion of the people. Art provides a glimpse into how we feel as a population.

3. What do you think is the biggest issue for the next generation of Americans?

Protection of the environment

4. Who was the first political candidate you were excited to vote for and why?

Al Gore. I became a US citizen right before the election and this was the first time I was able to vote as an American

5. What factors are important to you in choosing a president?

Sincerity and pragmatism. I’m looking for a candidate that can admit problems and can find a way to solve them

6. What issues would you like to see politicians focus more on?

The economy and how to restore America’s reputation abroad. We also need to learn moderation and prudence, especially around our consumption, and how this can help protect our environment.

7. Which issues would you like to see politicians focus less on?

Political attacks. They distort the truth through sound bites. It’s hard to sort through the noise and understand their positions

8. Which candidate’s initiatives do you feel better address environmental concerns?

Obama

9. This is your soapbox - shout it out! What do you need to get off your chest?

America has always been a role model to the rest of the world. We need to restore our reputation abroad

10. Do you have any recommended links, books or movies so people can learn more about the issues you care about?

Learn history. It’s amazing how things repeat themselves. Look back to look forward.

Extra Credit: Fill in the blank. _________ for change.

OBAMA for a change.

Check out Isabella Rossellini’s GREEN PORNO [www.sundancechannel.com] as featured on SUNDANCE CHANNEL and find out what kind of GREEN PORNO star you are!

Al Gore’s commitment to the environment inspires hope. Here’s an individual who could have gone in any direction after being the Vice President and very nearly becoming the President in 2000. Given all that opportunity, Al Gore chose to focus on the environment because he rightly sees that it is not just panda bears and gorillas that need protection from extinction, it is humans that are facing extinction. Of course, extinction technically draws near when population levels of an organism drop to dangerously low levels, and is often combined with a limited amount of habitats where the organism lives.

Humans are endangered because we are held to a higher standard for extinction. As has been said many times before, intelligence and self awareness distinguish human beings from the majority of life forms on the planet. Our capacity for communication and learning means that we are capable of predicting our own extinction hundreds of years before it actually occurs. Humans also harbor the capability and the predilection to change the surface, air and water on the planet in truly global fashions.

Al Gore started the Alliance for Climate Protection in order to bring more people into the process of caring about the lives that we lead. In the same way as a boat’s wake can be dangerous to marine animals, so to does the wake of the human being affect organisms far and wide.

It is refreshing to visit a non-profit organization’s website that contains a very simple but thorough set of tools for making a difference on an important issue. When that issue also happens to be climate protection, well that makes this blog post writer extremely happy. Make sure you get engaged with saving the biosphere at Alliance For Climate Protection [www.wecansolveit.org].

You will find that the website is displayed in a very easy to follow format. If you find great resources on the website and begin to take action to mitigate climate change, we hope you will take that opportunity to login to Sundance Channel and make a “Green Action Taken” Marker on Eco-mmunity Map. Outlining your contribution for the world to appreciate could be the inspiration that gets another person to follow your example. You can also link to any map marker on Eco-mmunity Map by clicking the “grab link” button and pasting that info in your MySpace, Facebook or Miscellaneous Website.

Al Gore is going to address world leadership at the climate conference in Bali. After just winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Gore can advise this conference with an indisputably important message about climate change [www.sundancechannel.com]. He is going to bring a petition with him when he visits the conference. The aim of the petition is to convince the assembled world leaders to sign a climate treaty [www.sundancechannel.com] by the year 2010.

Why so soon? Our time is running out. The climate crisis is a grim reality. In this case we are dealing with a grim reality that can mostly be avoided if we act quickly. A healthier planet can only come to be if the citizens of this planet decide to get involved in shaping their own future.

Al Gore wants to make it easier for each world citizen to contribute towards a balanced climate, and signing a petition is all you need to do in order to help out. If we can create millions of signatures on this petition, it would go a long way to forcing all the world leaders to stop ignoring the climate problems.

Please consider taking a minute of your time and Stand With Al Gore At The Climate Conference [www.climateprotect.org].

Van Jones is a journalist and an activist. Normally people would associate his work with civil rights and human rights, but since Al Gore received the Nobel Peace Prize, we have seen some evidence that these issues are inextricably connected to the green movement. Issues of poverty, lifestyle and carbon footprint all contribute to a person’s ability to affect the world positively. Civil rights problems, fewer employment options and growing poverty in America are also promoted by less access to natural resources like clean water, healthy foods and energy sources.

Mr. Jones directs the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, where he works tirelessly to secure jobs for young kids from poor neighborhoods. The hope is to create a life for these young kids who otherwise end up in dead end careers like “pimp”, “gang member” or “drug dealer”. While this endeavor continues in earnest, Van Jones has recently decided to pursue a specific type of job prospect for the youth of America. Mr. Jones has officially launched his campaign, called “Green For All”, and the Ella Baker Center is running the initiative.

The initiative has been self-described by the Ella Baker Center as a “Green-Collar Jobs Campaign”. The idea is to provide job training for the poverty stricken section of the American populace, especially the young people. By training these young people to install windmills, solar panels, create biofuels locally and to weatherize houses, the Green For All campaign will be raising up the most hard-pressed and depressed section of the American population while simultaneously insuring that America can distinguish herself as a leader among nations who care about preventing climate change.

Please comment on this article if you’ve found it interesting or exciting, and thank you for joining us on the Green Blog.

Make sure that you visit the Green For All Website [greenforall.org] and find out how you can take part in the initiative or to help provide funding.

Simran Sethi moderates Q&A session with Former Vice President Al Gore in Real Time

MSN is honored to host former Vice President Gore who will answer climate crisis questions in real time from the public. Covering questions on how to make your home more green or how to make small, yet effective, changes to your daily routine, Gore will offer simple tips and tricks that can help impact climate change. This online interaction is associated with Live Earth, concerts for a climate in crisis at MSN [LiveEarth.msn.com] on 7/7/07.

This event starts on Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at 1:30 PM EST.

The event will be moderated by Simran Sethi, an environmental journalist from Sundance Channel’s “The Green”.

To submit questions for the interview, simply send an email to goreonmsn@hotmail.com.

In a surprise move, President Clinton recently announced a strategic partnership with the Mining Industry to fight poverty all around the world. The cause is called “The Clinton-Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative”. So far, the initiative has been bank-rolled by two very big hitters, the Canadian investment mogul Frank Giustra and Carlos Slim Helu, a Mexican telecommunications billionaire.

The initiative is extremely interesting because the mining industry has historically been suspect in its treatment of indigenous workers and the local environments around mining sites. However, in a press statement, Clinton refers to “bad mining and good mining”, thereby letting everyone know that the initiative is planning on endorsing the aforementioned “good mining” companies. Clinton goes on to say that “We will also focus hard on sustainable development…”; “We believe there is money to be made for these people with a responsible environmental policy.”

In light of this initiative by Bill Clinton, the humanitarian works of Jimmy Carter and certainly Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, as well as many other examples; Ex-Presidents seem capable of doing more good for the environmental movement than a sitting president. Perhaps being the leader of the free world means your hands are tied when it comes to dealing with huge, macroscopic issues like the environment?

Bill Clinton hopes to rally the entire industry of mining or at least the majority of it so that people can see that with a little effort, an initiative like this can maintain a strong business in natural resources but can also empower the poor people who work in those industries. Mr. Clinton is already thinking about the next industry as can be seen in this quote: “Once we demonstrate that an entire industry can rally behind an initiative like this, we hope to engage other sectors and other businesses in development initiatives.”

Watch Simran’s Webisode
Host of THE GREEN Online, Simran Sethi challenges us to think creatively
about the environment.

Simran asks, “Is nature your muse?” but she is really getting at the
larger question of what role aesthetics, or art, plays in environmentalism.
After all aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that originally grew out of
the contemplation of nature and it’s relation to our left-brain rationalism
(the normal subject of philosophic discourse).

Simran goes on to ask what role art and science play in influencing culture. Again, what she’s really getting at here is something larger. Isn’t it our culture of consumption that drives our self-conscious destruction of the environment? And conversely, cultural appeals are at the heart of the successful campaigns like Bono’s Red campaign [www.joinred.com], or Al Gore’s new Live Earth concert series [www.liveearth.org]. So if culture plays a role in the choices we make and those choices affect the environment then shouldn’t we consider what drives cultural change if we really want to change from destroying to celebrating our planet? And isn’t art at the heart of the process of cultural change? And doesn’t the environmental movement have a similar goal at heart as aesthetic theory (Schiller’s), namely to reconcile the sensual and rational parts of our own nature?

A lot of questions. Sorry, but they are important things to consider as we
make choices about what clothes to wear, what cars to buy, or whether to buy a car at all and on and on. We make aesthetic choices every day, or rather we make decisions based on our “taste” and aesthetic considerations are at the core of those choices whether we are conscious of them or not. So take a moment and think about the art and culture that has influenced your perspective on the environment and share them with us. We’d love to hear about some of the films, music, designs, etc that have given you a new perspective on our planet. Whether it’s land art [en.wikipedia.org], or Art from the Arctic, or An Inconvenient Truth, or whatever it may be, we want to hear about it. And maybe we’ll discover a host of little ways, and maybe even some big ways, to affect meaningful change!

Join the discussion [www.sundancechannel.com]

THE GREEN in Second Life

And be sure to come with questions as Simran hosts her next discussion in Second Life. This week Simran will be at our Sundance Channel Cafe in Second Life at the following time:

What: Join Simran Sethi, host of THE GREEN on Sundance Channel, in Second Life for weekly discussion forums on environmental issues and
solutions.
Date: May 8
Time: 10pm EST / 7pm SLT (Second Life Time)
This Week’s Topic: BUILD - Does culture influence the environmental choices we make every day?
Where: THE GREEN forum will take place in the Main Screening Room on Sundance Channel Island.

You may have heard Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins, and Derek Smalls are reforming (again) in support of a good cause, Al Gore’s mega SOS/Live Earth concert series. Of course Marty DiBergi (who coined the term “global warming”) was instrumental in getting the band back together, and he’s documented his efforts in a new 15-minute short film.

The short opened the Tribeca Film Festival last week, and now you can watch it at liveearth.msn.com. [www.liveearth.msn.com] (Make sure to click the video link in the middle of the article for the video) See the new tune “Warmer Than Hell” and hear the trio discuss raising money to buy ferrets and caesar salad. Also Nigel’s been raising miniature horses. (Wonder if they eat miniature bread). [youtube.com]

During the past year or 18 months, the subject of global warming has experienced a meteoric rise to the top of the list of worldwide environmental concerns; from Al Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth [www.climatecrisis.net], to the cover story in Time magazine this week, it’s hard to turn around without hearing something about it. TreeHugger thinks all of this mainstream media coverage and “Hollywood-ization” of the topic is great — the more people that are aware of the problem, the better — but the idea that our world is slowly but deliberately warming can easily leave you with an overwhelmed, powerless feeling. For the rest of the week, we’ll be looking at and working on ways to combat that feeling, lay out some tools and ideas for mitigating our individual contributions to climate change. This is a huge topic (one that we’ll just barely scratch the surface of in one week) and it may seem small and trivial to look at it from the individual’s level, but one million people doing one thing still adds up to one million. Step one: calculate your carbon footprint.

Before we get too far, let’s lay this out there without delving into the science too far: burning fossil fuels creates carbon dioxide, which is a gas that traps heat in our atmosphere; this series of actions is primarily responsible for global warming. Your carbon footprint is created when you add up your day-to-day and less frequent behavior that results in carbon dioxide emissions. That means when you drive your car, turn on your lights, cook or heat with natural gas (or heating oil) or fly on an airplane, you’re adding to your footprint. Calculating what impact your behavior has on the atmosphere is not only the first step toward mitigating your personal impact on global warming, but it contextualizes your impact with real-world behavior (driving less = less global warming, on the simplest of scales) and shows you how changing your behavior can have a positive effect.

Working from the idea that you can’t make positive changes until you know what changes to make, carbon calculators make it easy by just asking for a few numbers you can get from utility bills and gas and travel receipts. Fill in things like how many people live in your home, how many kilowatt-hours of electricity you use, how far you fly in a year and how many miles you drive, and, presto! There you have it, and congratulations! You’ve made the first step toward reducing (or totally canceling) your personal contribution to global climate change.

Sounds easy enough, no? While each calculator might come up with slightly different numbers, they should all land you in the same ballpark (and when we’re talking several tons of emissions per person per year, a little bit way is a small drop in the bucket). With that small disclaimer said, TreeHugger recommends the calculator provided by the collaboration between SafeClimate and the World Resources Institute [www.safeclimate.net], along with Carbonfund’s calculator [carbonfund.org] for a very simple, very quick and easy calculation. Similarly, the calculator at the website that supports [i]An Inconvenient Truth [www.climatecrisis.net] will provide good answers and give you a good idea of where you stand without taking too much time or asking for information you’ll have to go digging back into the utility bill archives or guessing to get. All told, it shouldn’t take more than 10 or 15 minutes.

So, now that this is done, what do you do next? We’ve got all week to cover that, but we’ll be looking at carbon-responsible products and companies, along with how to reduce and offset your carbon emissions and shrink your carbon footprint; all together, you’ll have a good, easy-to-follow regimen for helping make the world a cooler, safer, greener place for us all.