From Dr. Jared Ball, Green Institute Communications Fellow


A four-part series on Hip-Hop

Professor Ball examines corporate power, the fraudulence of pop culture, and the colonization of Black America, as seen through the focal lens of Hip-Hop. The content of hip-hop has been a public controversy and with this four-part series, the Green Institute looks at an issue that is far
deeper than the lyrics in commercial hip-hop music.

Letter from the former Editor of the Green Institute online magazine - GP360
Steven Schmidt, Clearwater, Florida

I first became involved in setting up the website of the Institute with Dean Myerson. With Dean, I set up Green Policy-GP360 and GreenPolicy.us as an extension of the Institute into serious, ‘think tank’ research, writing and multi-channel outreach. Our efforts produced a number of papers, conferences, research studies and online tools.

Our work, ultimately, added another level of diversity to the green movement and network. The GreenPolicy site, a Wikimedia project, will continue independently, restructured, as a source of green ‘best practices’ in the form of model green-related legislation, proposals, resolutions, ordinances and online forms/templates, government sources, methods and apps that can be used to become effective at the local, community and public level.

Green Policies,

Resolutions, and Ordinances

GreenPRO is a database of local policy. With over 2000 entries and covering a broad range of Green and progressive GreenPRO issues,is the best resource available on the web for local policy. With Google maps to show you where the entries are from,

background pages to discuss how the ordinances came to be, and the ease of searching on a wiki, GreenPRO is easy to use for the activist, local officeholder, and student of public policy.

GreenPROlives at http://www.greenpolicy360.net/.

Former Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate

Rosa Clemente

The Green Institute has commissioned Rosa Clemente to write four articles describing her issues and her experience in the campaign with Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney.

Rosa's first article is called "Why President Elect Barack Obama is not the first Hip Hop President" and was just published by the Green Institute.

It has been 45 days since the Hip Hop generation helped usher in the first Black male President of the United States of America. Since that historic night, many within Hip Hop culture, like writer Greg Kot of the Boston Globe, entrepreneur Russell Simmons, artists Common, Jay-Z and P. Diddy, have declared President-Elect Obama the first Hip Hop president. In my humble opinion they are wrong, dead wrong. It does not matter how many Hip Hop pundits, non-profit organizations, and recognizable figures within the culture declare it. Much like an MC or B-Girl battle, I'm ready to challenge that declaration.

Read the full article here. Rosa's future articles for the Green Institute will look at violence against immigrants and her vision for the Green Party, among other issues. Please check back for these articles.

Rosa lives in North Carolina with her family.



This is what Florida looks like if Greenland melts

The Climate Crisis

  • Aviation and Climate Change
  • The Tipping Point
  • Climate Change: The Education Challenge
  • and much more . . .

Read the details and learn.

Global Greens 2008

In May of this year, Greens from all over the world met for the second Global Greens Gathering in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The objectives were to:
  • promote the Global Green Charter among the Green Parties of the world, as
    well as kindred groups and society at-large;
  • stimulate and facilitate action on matters of global consequence; and
  • deepen communication among Green Parties and Federations everywhere

The delegation of Green representatives approved fice declarations as well as a group of resolutions. See www.globalgreens.org for details.