Podcast appearances and mentions of Michael Brune

Climate Champion, Michael Brune, plus NaturePositive.org, and the Rainforest Action Network.

Today we celebrate one of Alabama's first botanists and the poet who went by the pseudonym AE. We'll also learn about Wood Expert and xylotomist ("xy·lot·o·mist") who solved the crime of the century. We celebrate one of the 20th century's leading landscape architects. We also celebrate the Dog Days of summer through poetry. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about plant passion and inspiration in order to "Cultivate Green Space in Your Home and Heart." And then we'll wrap things up with the story of a touching 2014 botanical art installation around the Tower of London. But first, let's catch up on some Greetings from Gardeners around the world and today's curated news.   Subscribe Apple|Google|Spotify|Stitcher|iHeart   Gardener Greetings To participate in the Gardener Greetings segment, send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org And, to listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to play The Daily Gardener Podcast. It's that easy.   Curated News New National Wildflower Network Opens Major Routes Across UK for Pollinating Insects | The Independent "A national network of linked wildflower highways has been launched this week to provide more habitat for the UK's vital pollinating insects, including bees, butterflies, hoverflies, and moths. The newly completed B-Lines network for England has been launched by conservation charity Buglife with support from Defra. The scheme will create a vast interconnected web of potential and existing wildflower habitats across the whole country. Catherine Jones, pollinator officer at Buglife, said: "A complete England B-Lines network is a real landmark step in our mission to reverse insect declines and lend a helping hand to our struggling pollinators. We hope that organizations and people across England will help with our shared endeavor to create thousands of hectares of new pollinator-friendly wildflower habitats along the B-Lines." Buglife is asking people to grow more flowers, shrubs, and trees, let gardens grow wild and to mow grass less frequently, not to disturb insects, and to try not to use pesticides. Almost 17,000 tonnes of pesticides are sprayed across the British countryside each year. The country has lost 97 percent of its wildflower meadows since the 1930s and 87 percent of its wetlands. Both of these habitats support a huge array of wildlife."   Alright, that's it for today's gardening news. Now, if you'd like to check out my curated news articles and blog posts for yourself, you're in luck, because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There's no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.   Important Events   1901   Today is the anniversary of the death of botanist Charles Theodore Mohr. Although he was born in Germany and educated in Stuttgart, Charles became one of Alabama's first botanists. He emigrated to the United States in 1848. A trained pharmacist, Charles traveled the world before settling in Alabama, and he especially enjoyed collecting plant specimens in Surinam. Charles's travel log shows that he even participated in the California gold rush and lived Mexico, Indiana, and Kentucky before settling in Alabama. In 1857, Charles started Chas. Mohr & Son Pharmacists and Chemists in Mobile, Alabama. Charles spent his entire life collecting and organizing his specimens. In fact, by the time his book on the plants of Alabama was published, Charles was seventy-seven years old. After Charles died, his herbarium specimens were donated to the University of Alabama Herbarium (15,000 specimens) and the United States National Herbarium (18,000 specimens).   1935   Today is the anniversary of the death of the poet George William Russell, who went by the pseudonym AE. Russell attended the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin. There he met a lifelong friend - the poet William Butler Yeats. Russell became the editor of The Irish Homestead. His famous quotes include the following: "Our hearts were drunk with a beauty our eyes could never see." "You cannot evoke great spirits and eat plums at the same time."   1967   Today is the anniversary of the death of Wood Expert and xylotomist Arthur Koehler. Xylotomy is preparing little pieces of wood and then examining them under a microscope or microtome. Koehler worked as a chief wood technologist at the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin. Koehler's expertise led him to become one of the very first forensic botanists. When the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped in 1932, a homemade ladder was used to access the nursery. Koehler, along with 38,000 others, sent letters to the Lindbergh's offering prayers and assistance. Yet Koehler's expertise would become the linchpin to convicting the man accused of the crime, making Koehler one of the world's first official forensic botanists. Forensic botany is simply using plants to help solve crimes. Three months after the crime was committed, samples of the ladder were sent to Koehler. Koehler studied the pieces through his microscope discovered that four different kinds of wood were used to make the ladder—Douglas Fir, Ponderosa Pine, Birch, and North Carolina pine. In an interview with the Saturday Evening Post, Koehler was quoted saying, "I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but I have specialized in the study of wood. Just as a doctor who devotes himself to stomachs or tonsils … so I, a forester, have done with wood." A year later, Koehler was invited to see the ladder in person, and that in-person visit was revealing. Koehler discovered the ladder was handmade. He measured each piece to the nose, getting exact measurements. He understood how each piece was cut, how the pieces would have fit into a car, and then assembled at the Lindbergh home. Incredibly, Koehler was able to determine the origin of the piece of North Carolina pine used to build the ladder - it was sold in the Bronx. Ransom notes from the case lead police to hone in on the same area. Koehler was convinced the suspect would have the woodworking tools required to build the ladder. In the Lindbergh case, the wood from the ladder helped identify a carpenter named Bruno Richard Hauptmann. When the police arrested Hauptmann, they not only found $14,000 of ransom money but the evidence Koehler could link to the ladder: the saws used to make the cuts, the particular nails used to build the ladder and a missing floorboard from Hauptmann's attic that was clearly used in the construction of the 16th rail of the ladder. In fact, when the rail was removed, it slipped perfectly back into place in Hauptmann's attic - right down to the nail holes and nails on the board. Koehler estimated the chances of someone else supplying the lumber for the ladder to be one in ten quadrillions. Koehler's knowledge and testimony during the trial were vital to Hauptmann's capture and conviction. The "Crime of the Century" solved by carefully studying the only witness - a "wooden witness." It was Arthur Koehler who said, "In all of the years of my work, I have been consumed with the absolute reliability of the testimony of trees. They carry in themselves the record of their history. They show with absolute fidelity the progress of the years, storms, drought, floods, injuries, and any human touch. A tree never lies."     1996   Today is the anniversary of the death of one of the 20th century's leading landscape architects, Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe. Jellicoe was multi-talented, but his true passion was landscape and garden design, which he described as "the mother of all arts." He was a founder member of the Landscape Institute. Over his 70-year career, Jellicoe designed more than 100 landscapes around the world. Jellicoe designed the John F Kennedy memorial site by the River Thames in Berkshire. Jellicoe's final and most ambitious project was the Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas. Jellicoe imagined a design where visitors could walk through the history of the landscape, from the Garden of Eden and the gardens of ancient Egypt to a design inspired by Thomas Mann's novel The Magic Mountain (1924). As the Moody Garden website acknowledges, "It was the culminating work of his design career but has not, as yet, been implemented. We live in hope." Jellicoe's favorite garden was the gardens he designed in Hemel Hempstead. Jellicoe designed the Hemel Hempstead Water Gardens to improve the quality of life for the townspeople. Jellicoe designed a canal with dams and little bridges to take visitors from the town parking lot to shopping. Jellicoe designed the canal after seeing one of Paul Klee's paintings of a serpent. Jellicoe said, "The lake is the head, and the canal is the body," wrote Jellicoe in his book Studies in Landscape Design. "The eye is the fountain; the mouth is where the water passes over the weir. The formal and partly classical flower gardens are like a howdah strapped to its back. In short, the beast is harnessed, docile, and in the service of man."   Unearthed Words Here are some words about the Dog Days of summer - which officially started on July 3 and runs through August 11.   How hushed and still are earth and air, How languid 'neath the sun's fierce ray - Drooping and faint - the flowerets fair, On this hot, sultry, summer day. — Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon ("Lew-Pro-awn", Canadian writer and poet, An Afternoon in July   Cool in the very furnace of July The water-meadows lie; The green stalks of their grasses and their flowers They still refresh at fountains, never dry. — John Drinkwater, British poet and dramatist   Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world. — Ada Louise Huxtable, architecture critic, and writer   A ladder sticking up at the open window, The top of an old ladder; And all of Summer is there. Great waves and tufts of wistaria surge across the window, And a thin, belated blossom. Jerks up and down in the sunlight; Purple translucence against the blue sky. "Tie back this branch," I say, But my hands are sticky with leaves, And my nostrils widen to the smell of crushed green. The ladder moves uneasily at the open window, And I call to the man beneath, "Tie back that branch." There is a ladder leaning against the window-sill, And a mutter of thunder in the air. — Amy Lowell, American poet, Dog Days   "Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it." — Russel Baker, American journalist and satirist     Grow That Garden Library How to Make a Plant Love You by Summer Rayne Oakes This book came out in July of 2019, and the subtitle is Cultivate Green Space in Your Home and Heart. Michael Brune, the Executive Director of the Sierra Club, said, "I don't care what color your thumbs are —Summer Rayne Oakes will not only inspire you to connect with nature by taking care of plants but open your eyes to how even the humblest of them take care of us." Summer keeps over 500 species of live houseplants in her Brooklyn apartment. She's an environmental scientist, an entrepreneur, and (according to a New York Times profile) the icon of wellness-minded millennials who want to bring nature indoors. The book is 208 pages of plant passion and inspiration. It covers both plant styling and care. You can get a copy of How to Make a Plant Love You by Summer Rayne Oakes and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $15.   Today's Botanic Spark 2014   The outdoor public art piece called Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red was installed in the moat around the Tower of London. The work commemorated the centenary of the outbreak of World War I and was made up of 888,246 ceramic red poppies, one for each British or Colonial serviceman killed in the War. The title, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, refers to the first line of a poem by an unknown soldier in World War I. For this magnificent piece fo public art, Paul Cummins designed the ceramic poppies, and Tom Piper handled the conceptual design. Almost one million of Paul's ceramic red poppies appeared to burst forth from the Tower and then flow across the moat. Poppies seeped out of the Weeping Window and cascaded down a wall. Almost 20,000 volunteers helped with the installation. And, although it was started on this day in 2014, it was not completed until November 11 of that same year.

Michael Brune, the Sierra Club’s executive director since 2010, is one of today’s most inspiring and effective environmental leaders. Prior to joining the Sierra Club, he led Rainforest Action Network. Under his leadership, the Sierra Club has grown to more than three million supporters and is at the forefront of the drive to move beyond fossil fuels to 100% clean, renewable energy, while also protecting America’s remaining wild places.

Everyday Rockstar (0:00:00)Lisa and Richie feature this week's Everyday Rockstar. We want to feature you! You can nominate yourself or someone you love by emailing thelisashow@byu.edu with “Everyday Rockstar” in the subject line.  How our Diets Affect the Environment (0:04:31)We Americans can sometimes be wasteful with our food. According to the USDA, it's been estimated that we waste about 40% of our national food supply every year, which equals out to about 133 billion pounds of food. You may be thinking, so what if some of my food goes to waste? I eat most of it! But it can have some serious environmental impacts. Joining us today is Kathryn Kellogg, founder of lifestyle website Going Zero Waste, to discuss how we can be more eco-friendly in our food consumption.  Turning the Tide on Ocean Loss (0:14:10)One place has recently become home to over five trillion pieces of plastic, but it's not a recycling plant, or even a landfill. It's the ocean. Our oceans hold some of our most valuable resources, and yet, each year they get a little closer to destruction due to pollution, overfishing, and the extinction of marine life. It's hard to feel like you're able to make a difference when you're just one person and the ocean is thousands of miles wide and thousands of feet deep. So we invited Cristina Mittermeier, a conservation photographer, often featured on National Geographic, and one of the founders of SeaLegacy. She joins us to share her insights into how we can help save our oceans.  Fighting for Forests (0:26:19)The rate of deforestation is shocking—we're losing approximately 27 soccer fields of forest per minute, which adds up to 18.7 MILLION acres of forested land lost each year. I feel like the importance of our planet's forests is something we all kinda get, but it's a hard concept for me to fully wrap my brain around. This is an important discussion for us to have, because if we don't truly understand a problem that's this big, why would we feel motivated to help? To help, we've invited Kerry Cesareo onto the show to answer our questions today. Kerry is the Senior Vice President of the World Wildlife Fund's Forest department .  The Science of Climate Change (0:34:57)Whenever you hear someone talk about “Climate Change” you might wonder if it's actually as dire as they say. You've heard people argue both sides on YouTube and the news. You've heard multiple opinions about how severe the problem is. And you've always heard people reference “scientific experts”, but who are these so-called climate experts and what do they really have to say about all of this? Well, allow us to introduce you to one. Dr. Michael Mann is a distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State and the author of several books on climate change. His work has been a vital part in proving the severity of the earth's rising temperature to people and politicians since 2001.  Enjoying the Environment (0:44:33)We all care about climate change in different degrees. Maybe you're doing everything you can to help preserve our planet but are struggling to get your friends on board. Or maybe you love the earth but have never felt motivated to get off the sideline and actually make changes. So, if the science and facts we read about aren't enough to change anyone's behavior towards the environment, what will? Maybe the key is to spend more time in the nature we are trying to save. Joining us today is Michael Brune, the executive director for the Sierra Club . The Sierra Club is the most influential grassroots, environmental organization in the United States, and they motivate people to get outside and enjoy the benefits of nature.  Helping Animal Shelters (0:50:38)While our pets are enjoying the extra attention from everyone being home so often right now, there are many pets that don't have a home that are requiring some extra attention. Many animal shelters have had to close their doors right now, but that doesn't mean that the animals they're housing have stopped needing help. So, what can we do to help out our furry friends? Here to share some of her tips with us, is Holly Sizemore, Chief Mission Officer of the Best Friends Animal Society.  Finances in Marriage (1:09:26)One of the top stressors that contributes to divorce today is finances. Dealing with debt and other financial difficulties puts a strain on marriages and leads to a lot of blaming rather than problem-solving. With this looming fact in the air, we wanted go get some expert advice on what couples can do better when handling money so they can eliminate stress and keep their marriages together. Our next guest, Rachel Cruze, is a #1 New York Times best-selling author and host of The Rachel Cruze Show where she helps people learn the proper ways to handle money and stay out of debt. She joins us today to talk about how we can improve our finances for the sake of our marriages.  Home Before Dark (1:28:37)As we continue to be encouraged to social distance, it feels like we are in constant need of new shows to binge. Finding appropriate and uplifting programs that the whole family can sit down and enjoy together can be challenging. Luckily, Apple TV+ just released a family-friendly mystery thriller called “ Home Before Dark ” that we can stream now. Here to tell us all about this new show is Brooklyn Prince and Jim Sturgess. You can see 9-year-oldBrooklyn as Hilde and Jim as her father in the series.

Lisa and Richie feature this week's Everyday Rockstar, Kathryn Kellogg discusses food waste, Cristina Mittermeier talks about ocean loss, Kerry Cesareo gives tips for saving forests, Michael Mann explains climate change, Michael Brune gives tips for going outside, Holly Sizemore talks about animal shelters, Rachel Cruze gives financial advice, Jim Sturgess and Brooklynn Prince talk about their new show.

Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, speaks on his efforts to curb climate change by investing in renewable energy and by reducing our dependence upon fossil fuels.   ... Good hearts make the world a better place

Michael Brune is the Executive Director of Sierra Club, one of the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organizations in the United States. He is also the author of 'Coming Clean: Breaking America's Addiction to Oil and Coal.' In this podcast episode, Michael Brune sheds light on why we cannot forget about exploring and enjoying nature as a part of our environmental work; the role of mobilizing grassroots efforts to leverage the power of a collective in driving societal change; and more.   Episode notes: www.greendreamer.com/199 Green Dreamer Planners: www.greendreamer.com/planners Weekly solutions-based news: www.greendreamer.com  Support the show: www.greendreamer.com/support  Instagram: www.instagram.com/greendreamerpodcast

Dr. Devra Davis and Michael Brune speak with John on the Conversation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lucy Flores has come forward and accused Joe Biden of touching her and kissing her head. She says she is NOT accusing him of sexual harassment, but that women have agency over their own bodies and Joe Biden didn't respect it. She also says that it's disqualifying for him to run for President. Do you agree with that?The GOP is gearing up ot take on the ACA.....again. You're seeing more and more Republicans go on the record and saying that this is a BAD idea. And they blame Mick Mulvaney and the Freedom Caucus. We talk to Michael Brune from the Sierra Club, Jon Allen from NBC News and Elaina Plott from The Atlantic!

California Natural Resources Agency predicts severe heat waves, wildfires, ocean rise will cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars. Trump administration decimates Obama emissions rules for cars and power plants. Rise Up for Climate global day of action Sat 9/8. MICHAEL BRUNE, Executive Director of Sierra Club, shares good news, bad news, and ways to get involved.

Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, joins The Great Battlefield to discuss how they are responding to the Trump administration's dismantling of environmental protections, and what can be done to accelerate the country toward a clean energy economy. | Episode 118

The best of live interviews from GreenBiz events. In this episode: Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, says "we've turned a corner."

Bill Press welcomes Graham Vyse, Cate Martel, & Michael Brune to discuss 'left wing rhetoric' being blamed for the GOP congressional baseball shooting, what Ralph Northam's primary win in Virginia means for the future of the Democratic party, Robert Mueller's deep dive into obstruction of justice, & the Sierra Club's environmental crusade against Donald Trump - the full Thursday edition of the Bill Press Show!

Some of the most powerful business leaders in America have been among those to criticize President Donald Trump's plans to ban travel from seven mainly Muslim countries. In particular the bosses of some of the country's biggest tech firms have been quick to call on the President to think again. We'll hear from the billionaire chief executive of the cloud software firm, Stripe, Patrick Collison. We'll also hear diplomatic reaction, from a former US ambassador and government adviser Norman Eisen, and hear from Dr Betsy McCaughey, Republican Lieutenant Governor of New York State in the 1990s and an economic adviser to Mr Trump while he was the President-Elect. With almost daily stories about robots taking over everything from driving our cars, to our day to day jobs, are we all getting a bit hysterical about the prospect of artificial intelligence taking over our lives? Dr Chris Brauer from Goldsmiths University in London thinks so, and he'll tell us why. Throughout the hour the BBC's Rob Young will be joined from Dehli by Sushma Ramachandran, former chief business correspondent at the Hindu Times. And from San Francisco by Michael Brune, Executive Director of the environmental campaign group the Sierra Club. Picture: Demonstrators gather outside of the Trump Hotel International during a protest in Washington, DC. Protestors in Washington and around the country gathered to protest President Donald Trump's executive order barring the citizens of Muslim-majority countries Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen from traveling to the United States. (Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

CBS Travel News Editor Peter Greenberg has an extended conversation with Michael Brune of the Sierra Club.

Bill Press is out so executive producer Peter Ogburn is filling in. He welcomes Jonathan Levy, Michael Brune, Burgess Everett, & Vann R. Newkirk II to discuss the larger point about why Hillary lost, how the Sierra Club plans to fight back against Trump, another term for Nancy Pelosi, & the state of identity politics - all the big highlights from this Friday edition of the Bill Press Show!

President- elect Donald Trump has begun a victory tour of US starting in the state of Indiana where he's taken credit for stopping a thousand jobs at an air conditioning firm Carrier from going to Mexico. Can Mr Trump live up to his campaign pledges - and does it matter? We asked economist Irwin Stelzer at the Hudson Institute. Food giant Nestle claims is claiming a breakthrough that will cut the sugar in its chocolate by 40 per cent. The company suggests it can scientifically 'restructure' the sugar without affecting the taste. Professor Julian Cooper, chair of the Scientific Committee at the UK Institute of Food Science and Technology, explains the implications. About 10 million turkeys are consumed in the UK over the festive season. Rearing the birds however isn't as easy as you might think with natural predators like foxes providing a constant threat. Elizabeth Hotson has been finding out about a rather novel solution to the problem. Business Matters is joined from Washington by Michael Brune, Executive Director of the environmental organisation the Sierra Club and Madhavan Narayahan, columnist and writer in India for comment throughout the programme. (Picture Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

The fight in the US between oil and gas producers and environmentalists has taken on a more urgent tone lately, in part due to the country looking ahead to a new president. Senior oil editors Brian Scheid and Meghan Gordon speak with Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, about the...

A story of science detective work, corporate irresponsibility, and persistent activism with author Dan Fagin, whose book Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. Also, Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, who grew up in the Toms River area.

Dr. Dana Christensen, Associate Laboratory Director of the Energy and Engineering Sciences Directorate of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, discusses Coming clean: breaking America's addiction to oil and coal by Michael Brune, executive director of Rainforest Action Network. (Recorded June 10, 2009) "Michael Brune is a political activist who has been successful in bringing attention to social/environmental causes," says Dr. Christensen. "His success in gaining agreements from companies such as Home Depot and Lowe’s toward not selling old growth rain forest products is an example of how a small number of citizens can change corporate behaviors when the cause is defensible. Coming clean is his effort to change the purchasing habits of the general citizenry; a much greater challenge than influencing a small number of companies. Indeed, the general citizenry purchase electricity, not the coal used to produce the electricity, thus making the messaging even more difficult. The book represents an attempt to simplify the message about the impact that fossil fuels are having on our environment so that the general public will stand up and listen." Dr. Christensen has twenty-nine years of management experience in material science, nuclear energy, fossil and renewable energy, nuclear materials management and scientific research in support of government agencies and industries.

Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune, Edward Miller, a key union leader from First Union New Zealand and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown join CWA President Larry Cohen to discuss how we can defeat the disastrous Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal in 2015.

Michael Brune is executive director of the Sierra Club. Under his leadership, the organization has grown to more than two million supporters, and its Beyond Coal campaign has been recognized as one of the most effective in environmental history. Before joining the Sierra Club, he served as executive director of the Rainforest Action Network. He holds degrees in economics and finance from West Chester University in Pennsylvania. His critically acclaimed book, Coming Clean: Breaking America's Addiction to Oil and Coal, provides a detailed plan for building a green economy.

Hurricane Sandy, record wildfires and intensified cycles of drought and flood have awakened the American public to the climate crisis at hand. What few know is that, in large part because of successful environmental activism, including the retirement of dirty coal plants, the United States has become a global leader in the fight to reduce carbon pollution, while innovations in wind, solar and other renewables are generating more power, more jobs and a healthier quality of life every day.As  the leader of America's largest and most effective grassroots environmental organization, Michael Brune will discuss how averting the potential global catastrophe caused by climate disruption is also a historic chance to create a better world, powered by clean energy prosperity. Speaker: Michael Brune Executive Director, Sierra Clubhttp://www.worldaffairs.org/speakers/profile/michael-brune.htmlModerator: Maureen Blanc, Trustee, World Affairs Councilhttp://www.worldaffairs.org/about/leadership/executive-committee/maureen-blanc.htmlLearn more: http://www.worldaffairs.org/events/2013/climate-crisis.html

Big Green Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club Felicia Marcus, Western Director, Natural Resources Defense Council Karen Topakian, Board Chair, Greenpeace USA It would not seem a fruitful time to be on the frontlines in the fight to protect the environment in the United States, with the EPA under daily attack and climate legislation stalled. But the three environmental leaders participating in this Climate One panel note that many fronts exist outside of Washington, with at least one formidable adversary, utilities operating coal fired-power plants, forced to play defense. Until recently, says Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club, “every single conversation was about, Will we get 60 senators to pass comprehensive climate legislation – when that really represented just the tip of the iceberg, part of the conversation about climate change.” Brune and fellow panelists Felicia Marcus, Western Director, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Karen Topakian, Board Chair, Greenpeace USA, agree that D.C. politics will force environmental groups to play defense in the near term. They also stress that building grassroots support and presenting a positive vision of the future will be critical. “We’re trying to create a future in which we have clean energy, clean communities, and clean food. We have to deal not just with playing defense; we have to create a vision of the future that people are for,” says Marcus. Over the next three to five years, the Sierra Club will, as Brune puts it, focus on getting real and getting local. “It’s hard to motivate people around an issue where they get the moral imperative, but they don’t really understand what it is that you’re trying to do, and how your solutions will address the problems you’re identifying,” he says. For the Sierra Club, this means a return to its roots, a focus on the grassroots, says Brune, with the most visible manifestation of that effort its Beyond Coal campaign. Recently buttressed by a $50 million donation from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the campaign aims to force the retirement of one-third of the nation’s 600 coal-fired power plants over the next five years. Greenpeace likewise aims to retire old, dirty coal plants, says Karen Topakian. Its goal is 150 plants taken offline by 2015. “We’re making it tangible to people,” she says. “If you start talking about fuel in a way that’s abstract, people don’t get it.” “We are in alignment in fighting dirty fuels, and then creating an opening for clean fuels,” adds Felicia Marcus. “We’re at a place where we can use [clean energy] as a way to create and talk about a future that is at some level complex but at another much more clear to the average person.” For example, she says, NRDC is “doubling down” on an issue it has focused on for 30 years: “the very low-glamour, high-value issue of energy efficiency.” This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on September 28, 2011

Episode 33: Michael Brune was the executive director of the Rainforest Action Network when this episode aired. Michael is the author of the book, Coming Clean, Breaking America's Addiction to Oil and Gas. In this episode. Michael talks about alternative energy and the environment. Now Director of the Sierra Club, you can read Michael's blog here.