Greenpeace – Making Waves: Yesmen launch new ‘Exxon’ fuel, Exxon rolls out the legal heavies

The Yesmen, corporate pranksters (with a conscience) par excellence, have done it again with their unique and often hilarious brand of identity correction – this time nailing climate criminal numero uno ExxonMobil. They sneaked in to an oil industry conference to announce ExxonMobil plans to turn billions of climate-change victims into a brand-new fuel called Vivoleum.

Now the Yesmen have claimed some notable scalps in the past including announcing the closure of the WTO and Dow’s clean up of Bhopal. But Exxon immediately rolled out scary sounding legal notices (also nothing new for the Yesmen) but often internet providers get very scared by expensive corporate lawyers writing nasty letters. Despite the fact that the right of parody is legally protected, their provider immediately took down their site. Here’s the Yesmen’s newsletter – if you’re interested in free speech on the internet, or happen to be a friendly hosting service these great folks need your help! And their film is really good watch too.

Continue reading Yesmen launch new ‘Exxon’ fuel, Exxon rolls out the legal heavies…

Zero Carbon NOLA and the Clean Hub

Article PhotoAfter the Gulf Coast hurricanes, plenty of people (most of them a safe distance outside the disaster zone) suggested that the architectural destruction presented an unprecedented opportunity to rebuild sustainably. Lots of designs and competitions have emerged in the 22 months since the storms, proposing various strategies for addressing survivability, efficiency, and environmentally-sound construction. Today a small group of architects, community activists and scientists gathered at Tulane University in New Orleans to talk about these issues in the context of a proposed rebuilding plan for the Lower Ninth Ward’s Holy Cross neighborhood that they say will produce the nation’s first and only climate neutral community. The presentation streamed as a live webcast (which should be viewable here but isn’t up as of this writing), so I had a chance to attend virtually from my desk in Seattle. The members of Zero Carbon Nola call the circumstances in the Lower Ninth a “perfect storm” — but not in the way you might think. They consider it a perfect storm of sustainability, due to the fortuitous collision of public attention, celebrity support, and throngs of willing volunteers. Bob Berkebile, an architect from Kansas City Missouri, began today’s talk on an optimistic note… (more)

(Posted by Sarah Rich in Green Building at 5:10 PM)