Climate Matters from Brighter Planet on VimeoWinning videos will be broadcast nationwide to more than 50 million homes via Link TV, Free Speech TV, and online venues including Think MTV and HuffingtonPost.com. Winners will also be featured in a high-profile event for media, policy-makers, and the presidential campaigns.

The ten videos with the most views per day will be judged by a select panel that includes award winning documentary filmmaker and producer Rory Kennedy (Ghosts of Abu Ghraib) and Academy award-winning producer Tia Lessen (Trouble the Water, Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine), among other notable individuals.

For official rules, list of judges, and more details, visit: http://climatematters.brighterplanet.com/terms.html

Green for All is asking for your support:

Yesterday, our champions in the House of Representatives fought a tough battle and secured $22.5 million for the Green Jobs Act in the fiscal year 2009 House Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (LHHS) Appropriations bill. Many other programs are getting slashed in this tough budget year. But with help from your emails to Congress, we were able to secure the $22.5 million for this new program. It’s not the full $125 million, but it is progress of which we can be proud.

But the appropriations process isn’t over yet. Next week it goes to the Senate.

On Tuesday, June 24 the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee will vote on their version of the fiscal year 2009 LHHS bill.

Click here to tell your Senators to fully fund the Green Jobs Act.

Recently on Dot Earth of the New York Times, Andrew Revkin weighed in on an investigation of NASA’s possible suppression of findings and shared specific insights:

“Our investigation,” the report said, “found that during the fall of 2004 through early 2006, the NASA Headquarters Office of Public Affairs managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public.”

Revkin also noted that Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, the New Jersey Democrat who wrote the request for the inquiry stated:

“Global warming is the most serious environmental threat we face, but this report is more evidence that the Bush administration’s appointees have put political ideology ahead of science,” Mr. Lautenberg said in a statement e-mailed by an aide. “Our government’s response to global warming must be based on science, and the Bush administration’s manipulation of that information violates the public trust.”

There is no doubt that this type of suppression is having an impact on our government policy or the lack thereof. Our partners at 1Sky are mobilizing for strong climate legislation from the next Congress. In the mean time we will continue to push for the truth.

Additional media: Clip from Everything’s Cool

The Oakland Food Connection, is an environmental justice organization in the Bay Area that brings together practical gardening, food security and nutrition to urban schools. One of their projects includes creating a rooftop vegetable garden at a local elementary school. I found out about this project on RyanIsHungry.com, where Ryanne explains, “These vegetables will serve as more than just a healthy meal, they’ll help educate kids and their parents about the possibilities that exist beyond processed, packaged foods and the often limited variety of produce sold in stores.” It’s my hope that they will also be turned on to issues around industrial agriculture and its negative consequences that spans economic, labor, and the environmental issues. Check out the video to hear from the director of the Oakland Food Connection and learn more.

Other environmental justice organizations that focus on green jobs are also receiving more attention as the climate justice movement is growing. In the extra from the Everything’s Cool Activist DVD, Green Job Revolution , Van Jones who is the Founder and President of Green for All explains that there is only one solution to the ecological and the economic crisis: we need a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Green for All is at the forefront of the national movement to building an inclusive green economy.

Check out the Green Job Revolution video below to hear more of what Van Jones has to say and see what the Chicago-based organization Growing Home is doing to provide job training and create employment opportunities for homeless and low-income people in Chicago within the context of a non-profit organic agriculture business.

Solutions are rooted in every city and town in America. Today and all year long – since Earth Day is everyday – let’s support and celebrate efforts for environmental justice.

Movie and Action: Stop the Fossil Fools from acting like Everything’s Cool with Climate Change!­

Everything’s Cool explores what it will take to move America from laggard nation to world leader on addressing global warming and ushering in a new energy economy.

Working Films has brought together the filmmakers and messengers featured in Everything’s Cool and the Energy Action Coalition. We invite you to host a movie and action night for Fossil Fools Day on April 1st. Join thousands of youth from around the world who are taking action against the biggest fossil fools and building a cleaner and just energy future.

Hold on… this is bigger than changing your light bulbs!

Register your movie and action here. If you are one of the first 100 to sign up, we will send you the special edition Activist DVD free of charge. All other activists may purchase the DVD for the affordable price of $10.

Tie your screening to an action!
After you’ve registered your screening. Find out ways that you can promote green job creation, get clean energy policies passed on campuses and other local and national action ideas by checking out the Energy Action Coalition.

Make your screening meaningful, check out the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities and Cool Counties campaigns and get involved by urging your local government to move forward with innovative energy solutions that curb global warming, save taxpayer dollars, and create healthier cities!

1. Outdoor Fanatics: How will you protect the places you love to play?
2. Artists: How will you inspire your communities?
3. Innovators: How will you challenge our expectations?

Everything’s Cool filmmaker Judith Helfand is on a panel of judges who are renowned for their commitments to climate justice; including Billy Parish of the Campus Climate Challenge, Denis Hayes of the International Earth Day Network, and Rocky Anderson Mayor of Salt Lake City from 2000 – 2008.

For more information on this grant program, including how to apply, watch the video below and visit the Project Slingshot website.

Broadcast Schedule:
Tuesday, January 22 at 9pm
Wednesday, January 23 at 2:10am
Friday, January 25 at 12:35am
Friday, January 25 at 10:35am
Sunday, January 27 at 3:35pm
Monday, January 28 at 7pm

Downtown LA’s Laemmle Grande 4-Plex
345 S. Figueroa Street
Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90048
(213) 617-0268
www.laemmle.com
Showtimes: Fri-Sun: 1:10 PM, 3:20 PM, 5:30 PM, 7:40 PM, 10:00 PM
Mon – Thurs: 5:30 PM, 7:40 PM

NYC’s Cinema Village
22 East 12th Street
New York, New York 10003
(212) 924-3363
www.cinemavillage.com
Showtimes: 1:10 PM, 3:20 PM, 5:10 PM, 7:00 PM, 9:10 PM

Special NYC Question & Answer sessions
Fri. Nov 23rd 7:00pm w/ filmmakers Daniel B. Gold, Judith Helfand and Adam Wolfensohn with character Rick Piltz
Sat Nov. 24th 1:10pm w/ filmmaker Judith Helfand and Greenpeace
Sat Nov. 24th 7:00pm w/ filmmaker Judith Helfand
Sun. Nov 25th 7:00pm w/ filmmakers Daniel B. Gold and Judith Helfand and Green Drinks
Mon. Nov 26th 7:00pm w/ filmmaker Daniel B. Gold and NY League of Conservation Voters
Tues. Nov 27th 7:00pm (limited seating left) w/ filmmakers Judith Helfand and Adam Wolfensohn and NRDC
Thur. Nov. 29th 7:00pm w/ filmmaker Adam Wolfensohn and Hazon

Everything’s Cool is a must see for anyone who is wondering whether to change their light bulbs or how to vote.

Visit the website to watch THE TRAILER!

Going to Power Shift this weekend? This is not only your chance to connect with 5,000 other youth climate change activists, its’ also your chance to catch up with one of the stars of Everything’s Cool and one of the bad boys of the climate change movement, Michael Shellenberger. That’s right the famous, or in some circles, infamous co-author of The Death of Environmentalism will be at Power Shift to talk about his vision for a new energy economy. Thanks to our Friends at Energy Action, you can read a great interview with Michael at the It’s Getting Hot in Here blog. Check out what Michael has to say about the youth climate movement and then find out how to host a screening and watch him and fellow bad boy Ted Nordhaus in action in Everything’s Cool.