Act Now!

Verizon Wireless is Wrong

By Peter Rothberg

Do 87 million Verizon Wireless customers know that the company is a co-sponsor of a major climate-change-denying, union-busting, pro-mountaintop removal Labor Day rally staged by Massey Energy in Logan, West Virginia?

I didn't until reading a post by writer and activist Jeff Biggers at Huffington Post -- and I'm one of those millions of customers! On its Green Press kit site, Verizon crows that "environmental stewardship is ingrained in Verizon's heritage, and the company prides itself on having a positive influence on the environment in which it operates." The site provides links to solar energy resources and generally touts its green street cred.

Massey Energy, the largest producer of Central Appalachian coal, holds out no pretense of pro-environmental sympathies. In a 2008 landmark settlement which it fought tooth-and-nail, Massey agreed to pay $20 million in fines to the EPA to resolve more than 4,500 violations of the Clean Water Act for polluting waterways in West Virginia and Kentucky with coal slurry and wastewater.

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August 31, 2009

Torture Team Trading Cards

By Peter Rothberg

Attorney General Eric Holder's recent decision to appoint prosecutor John Durham to "examine nearly a dozen cases in which CIA interrogators and contractors may have violated anti-torture laws," according to the Washington Post, put the issue of torture back into the headlines.

Nonetheless, many progressive groups and writers, including The Nation's John Nichols, have criticized the scope of Holder's investigation as being wholly insufficient.

Evidence of the criminal activities of the Bush administration is exceedingly well documented – in memos, FOIA documents, congressional hearings, court documents, the testimony of victims, innumerable investigative news articles and books, and direct admissions by intelligence, military and former administration officials. This body of conduct is what needs to be investigated, as the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which filed the first habeas cases for Guantanamo detainees, has consistently argued.

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August 27, 2009

Save the Public Option

By Peter Rothberg

This post was researched and co-written by Sarah Jaffe, a blogger, freelance journalist and Nation intern.

The healthcare battle is in full swing with the past month's news being dominated by shouting scenes of corporate-sponsored "movements" confronting healthcare reform supporters at town hall meetings coast to coast.

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August 24, 2009

Yacouba Sawadogo's Vision

By Peter Rothberg

In the course of researching his forthcoming book on global warming, Living Through the Storm: How My Daughter's Generation Can Survive Climate Change, The Nation's environmental correspondent Mark Hertsgaard recently reported on what he considers one of the most encouraging developments taking place in the fight against global warming.

The story, as Hertsgaard explained recently on Public Radio International's The World, features West African farmers who rank among the poorest people in the world--and among those most threatened by climate change--who are taking effective steps to protect themselves, and sharing this knowledge with their neighbors far and wide.

The visionary behind the effort, Yacouba Sawadogo, was profiled by Andrew Leonard in Salon back in 2006, when Leonard explained how some three million hectares of degraded semi-arid land have been rehabilitated by farmers on their own initiative using traditional farming methods to restore soils damaged by desertification and drought largely thanks to Sawadogo's efforts.

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August 23, 2009

Bottled Water Sucks

By Peter Rothberg

I knew bottled water was a social ill but I didn't know how damaging it was until I saw an explosive and compelling new documentary called Tapped.

With style, verve and righteous anger, the film exposes the bottled water industry's role in suckering the public, harming our health, accelerating climate change, contributing to overall pollution, and increasing America's dependence on fossil fuels. All while gouging consumers with exorbitant and indefensible prices.

Claire Thompson summed up the problem well in her post on the movie at Grist:

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August 5, 2009