Drop It Like It’s Hot

The story of smokestacks and tailpipes (Abridged version)

So, here’s what happened. A few hundred years ago we decided it was time to create companies. To get lots of people to buy what our companies were selling, we started looking beyond the towns we lived in for a market for our goods. As we sought out bigger and bigger markets for our goods, we had to create more and more powerful and efficient ways of producing and transporting those goods. Camels were better than peoples’ backs. Boats were better than swimming. So on and so forth. Eventually, one thing led to another, companies got bigger, markets got bigger, people got bigger and more plentiful, and we decided to start producing and transporting our goods using artificial energy that comes from burning stuff. Henceforth, there were smokestacks and tailpipes. Fast-forward 150 or so years and we’ve got billions of people doing this along with some global warming.

The thing is, we might have noticed that it wasn’t the best idea to produce and transport everything with this artificial energy that creates ugly smoke if it weren’t for the fact that as we were throwing away resources, we started throwing away people too. As the smokestacks and tailpipes grew and the ugly smoke got unbearable in cities, we decided to start putting the pollution machines in places where poor people lived. So, all the digging up and burning of really dirty rocks and really dirty liquids went ahead as if it were normal for years and years. Occasionally we’d hear about people choking in coal mines or birds dying from oil spills or gas exploding all over the place, but it all seemed like a necessary by-product of having companies and getting more things.

Right. Then there was global warming. Now it made some more sense. All of that smoke and junk that goes into the air when we burn dirty rocks and liquids doesn’t just choke poor people nearby and then disappear. It’s actually pretty thick stuff and it stays in the atmosphere, trapping heat all over the place for a long time. About twenty years ago smart people told the government that this was happening and we’d all have lots of floods and storms and droughts and stuff pretty soon. They thought that was okay though and didn’t do anything. Then we decided to watch Al Gore’s movie and started re-thinking our tailpipe/smokestack strategy.

The Dream Reborn experience

I’m not going to write a long essay about this because I’m sitting chilly in my tiny room and itching for some lunch, but I want to get down a few of the best links from the Dream Reborn conference. This is the thing that I spent 3+ months organizing with Green For All out of our new office in Oakland. We brought 1100 job trainers, policy specialists, green activists, students, church-folk, business-people, and other enthusiasts to Memphis for a 3 day gathering on the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s Assassination. It really was an incredible moment in the trajectory of my career as an activist and a person. This is because it was a gathering of low-income people of color (70% people of color, 50% from modest means) for the cause of creating an inclusive green economy and opportunities for everybody. I’ve always tried to incorporate work for clean energy, environmental protection, and climate solutions together with work for justice and equity for people who need it the most. This conference was the beginning of realization of that vision for many many people.

Here are some things to share:

• A juicy, tear-inducing video of interviews with attendees throughout the conference who shared their own “dreams” that weaves in quotes from Dr. King
• A re-mixed audio clip of Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr.’s keynote speech talking about the importance of the Hip Hop movement in the new freedom movement (Sadly, I actually missed this speech as I was coordinating volunteers)
• A sweet interview that Green For All founder, Van Jones did on The Colbert Report the week before the conference
• An article in the greenie-humor blog, Grist, that links to other dispatches from Memphis
• A few of the estimated 3 trillion giddy quotes and comments people sent to us after the event: “Powerful” “wonderful, wonderful” “beautiful” “totally incredible” “a new stepping stone” “a true gift, a privilege, and a pleasure” “an opportunity of a lifetime” “more than a conference – a transformative experience” “a spring board for my return to activism”
• The Green Economy is Coming – a video by Applied Research Center, one of our partners for The Dream Reborn
• All the Flickr images from The Dream Reborn
• All the news stories that we’ve collected about the event
• The Dream Reborn networking group on the enviro-networking-website, WiserEarth
• Presentations and other resources from the speakers we saw
• Some reflections from Van on what the conference meant to him as a Black man from nearby Jackson, Tennessee who’s fought for racial justice and environmental jobs for people in need