Working For Jobs

It’s not every day that the author of a new book — a sharp perspective on a topic that’s central to your work — approaches you and proposes that you make the entire thing available on your website. Usually, authors are more … parsimonious with their work.

So when Alex Steffen brought his Carbon Zero to Grist several weeks ago with this offer, I wanted to make absolutely certain I’d heard him right.

I knew he’d already raised a little money on Kickstarter to write the book. And I knew he was publishing Carbon Zero under the share-and-modify-friendly Creative Commons license. Still, I had to ask.

“So, you’re sure you want us to post the entire book? Really truly? You’re not afraid it’ll hurt sales? You won’t change your mind?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I’m most interested in getting these ideas out there.”

(Of course, if you like what you read, Steffen absolutely will not mind if you do want to buy Carbon Zero in its fully designed e-book format, available very shortly.)

I first encountered Steffen the way you probably did — through his work cofounding and editing the late, lamented blog called Worldchanging. He’s known for thinking realistically — but not too dejectedly — about how we might get to a greener future, and in a way that embraces technology without fetishizing it.

When I read Carbon Zero, it more than lived up to that reputation. It’s a brief but deep manual for imagining how our cities can become the solution to our climate woes. I think you’ll find it makes for bracing, inspiring reading that should serve as perfect pick-me-up after Sandy’s devastating East Coast visit. You may want to quarrel with some of Steffen’s arguments, but I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by the scope of his ideas or the urgency of his perspective.

This week, we’ll be posting all of Carbon Zero‘s six chapters (along with their occasional sidebars), a chapter each day till we’re done. You can begin at the beginning right here.

We’ll also bring Steffen over soon to talk more about the book and its ideas and answer your questions. As we post these fresh hunks of prose, the links on this contents page will light up — and once we’re done, they’ll stay lit. Ideas, after all, are a renewable energy source.

Filed under: Cities, Climate & Energy

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By Brad Johnson

Photo by Truthout.org.

Cross-posted from ThinkProgress Green.

Ethical Electric, a new venture by progressive activist Tom Matzzie, aims to transform how Americans get power. It’s an electricity delivery company that will provide 100 percent renewable electricity to its members, while also mobilizing them on progressive energy and climate action.

In an interview with Sarah Laskow for GOOD, Matzzie describes how he began working on Ethical Electric when his father, who had spent his life downwind of a coal-fired power plant, died of cancer in 2010:

I’d been a supporter of addressing climate change and clean energy as a progressive, but it became much more personal. I didn’t want to spend any more of my money on dirty energy. I wanted to only support 100 percent clean energy.

Laskow explains that Ethical Electric will operate in deregulated electricity markets as a competitive retail electric provider in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, starting this year:

In deregulated electricity markets, delivering power — maintaining the power lines and the infrastructure that make up the grid — and selling power are two different businesses. If all goes as planned, Ethical Electric will sell power sourced from renewable energy projects to customers, starting this fall in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

As the Washington, D.C., director for MoveOn.org, Matzzie mobilized efforts against the Iraq war. He was also director of online organizing for the Kerry-Edwards campaign in 2004 and the online mobilization director at the AFL-CIO from 2000 to 2004.

Filed under: Renewable Energy

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