Green

HeadCount hosted a poll on health insurance last fall, asking users whether they had insurance, and if so, who provided it. Now, they are planning to launch a new poll every few weeks. Their first is "Solutions on Climate Change".

What's the best way to fight climate change?

• Strict limits and regulations
• Personal responsibility
• Taxing carbon and greenhouse gas emissions
• Climate change is a bunch of hooey!
• Other

Go vote, and afterwards, add a comment about why you voted the way you did.

HeadCount is also partnering (one of nine non-profits participating) with Reverb's new Green Music Group. HeadCount, along with various venues, labels, artists, and groups, will be working together to make the music industry greener.

Reverb, a non-profit organization involved in the industry and in climate change movements, founded the project and the launch event was held late last month. GMG is meant to be large-scale and widespread - which explains the great number of artists signed on, and their diversity. Their website lists four essential goals:

1. Creating an engaging online community of musicians, music industry leaders, and music fans all committed to addressing our greatest environmental concerns.

2. Facilitating large-scale greening of the music community through touring, venue, and label standards, resource development, green grants mentoring, and viral video and public service campaigns.

3. Providing environmental nonprofits with a megaphone for their cause, allowing them to expand their reach and support base.

4. Creating a sustainable green music guild to support and inform the efforts of the music community and position leaders in the music industry as voices for change, working to shine a light on the most pressing environmental issues of our time.

Seems like good stuff to me. Other groups, venues, artists, and labels involved include:

Warner Music Group
Brushfire Records
American Airlines Arena
Verizon Wireless Center
Comcast Center
Barenaked Ladies
Linkin Park
The Roots
Guster
and more!

GMG also has partnerships with DoSomething.org, The Sierra Club, and other groups. Overall, it looks like they've drawn in some big enough names to actually make some waves and get something done in the industry. We'll keep an eye on them to see what develops.

• Check out this great NYTimes profile of Brian Deese, the 31-year-old in charge of dismantling GM.
• Congrats to @arimelber, who the Stimulist notes is an up-and-coming young pundit and 'kind of a big deal.'
• SCOOP44 exclusively interviews EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who says Millennials "get" green activism.
• Students rally around moderate candidate in Iranian elections.
• Teach for America has huge numbers this year, though not without criticism from the NEA.
• Find out what's the deal with the swarm of clueless conservative rappers.
• The Class of 2009 is making adjustments while faced with a challenging job market and rising interest rates.

Saturday night reading... check it out:

• Mother Jones and Campus Progress are looking for "campus hellraisers" to profile in the September-October 2009 issue of Mother Jones. Check it out (self-nominations are allowed).
• A "No on Gay Marriage" campaign is an epic fail with young people.
• Christian punk and heavy metal music is blurring the lines between young evangelicals and secularists.
• MTV has announced that TRL, having been canceled last November, will be replaced by the Alexa Chung Show. The new show reportedly will heavily emphasize Twitter through courting online reaction to its music videos and celebrity guests.
• Some good news and some bad news from a survey regarding youth (ages 13-29) attitudes toward the Green Movement:

  Good: Youth see the Green Movement as "responsible" and "cool," and they believe it to be a very worthy cause.
  
  Bad: Many youth believe the Green Movement to be too demanding on a personal level, too time-consuming and too inconvenient.

• Tens of thousands of young Americans will be educated and trained to deal with America's energy problem, thanks to President Obama.
• An article in BusinessWeek calls for more business schools to rein in Millennial entrepreneurs by focusing increasingly on problem-solving.
• Terry McAuliffe is seriously hemorrhaging some youth voters in Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial primary.

It's hard to believe that a third of a year has passed between Election Day and now. But in that time, we've seen lots of analysis of Obama's sizable margin of victory among youth voters. We know technology and President Obama's familiarity with pop culture gave him an advantage, but we've also determined that Obama's platform had quite a bit to do with his youth appeal as well. One thing I'd like to look at today is the "green" movement and what kind of an effect Obama's leadership on this topic might have for Millennials in the future.

In a post on the New York Times blog "Green Inc." this week, Kate Galbraith discussed the boom in students taking environmental studies classes at college. Galbraith collected information from professors of environmental science/studies programs at various institutions across the country.

At colleges around the country, students seem to be flocking to environmental studies.

At Boston College, 17 students minored in environmental studies in 2003; this year 44 students will do so (assuming everyone graduates).

Iowa State University has seen the number of students enrolled in environmental studies and environmental science programs soar from 99 students in fall 2003 to more than 150 last fall.

[...]

At the University of Virginia, “We have definitely seen an increase in majors over the past two-three years, but where we have really increased are the environmental science courses we teach to non-majors,” said Jay Zieman, the chair of the University of Virginia’s environmental sciences department in an e-mail message. “That number has increased 45 percent over the past five years.”

The one slight outlier of my four-college survey was the University of Pennsylvania. The number of undergraduates majoring in environmental studies peaked at 44 in 2002, but now is down to 32 (still higher than the 20 in 1999). However, the number of master’s degrees in environmental policy hit a 10-year high last year, and the university has seen a spurt of master’s enrollment in related areas like hydrology.

Many of these increases certainly were already occurring prior to President Obama's candidacy and election. However, that doesn't mean there's not a relationship between the two worth examining.

Energy issues were a large part of President Obama's campaign in 2008. Obama announced in his energy plan that he planned to create five million new jobs by expanding the green sector of the economy, and broaden the number of economic opportunities for underrepresented Americans, such as veterans and youth.

Invest in Our Secure Energy Future and Create 5 Million New Jobs

Barack Obama and Joe Biden will use a portion of the revenue generated from the cap‐and‐trade permit auction to make investments that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and accelerate deployment of low‐carbon technologies. The investments will focus on three critical areas: 1) Basic Research; 2) Technology Demonstration and 3) Aggressive Commercial Deployment and Clean Market Creation.

• Invest In A Clean Energy Economy and Help Create 5 Million New Green Jobs. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will strategically invest $150 billion over 10 years to accelerate the commercialization of plug‐in hybrids, promote development of commercial scale renewable energy, encourage energy efficiency, invest in low emissions coal plants, advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, and begin transition to a new digital electricity grid. The plan will also invest in America's highly‐skilled manufacturing workforce and manufacturing centers to ensure that American workers have the skills and tools they need to pioneer the green technologies that will be in high demand throughout the world. All together these investments will help the private sector create 5 million new green jobs, good jobs that cannot be outsourced.

• Create a “Green Vet Initiative”. The renewable energy economy is exploding in the United States. In terms of venture capital alone, private investment in the sector topped $2.6 billion dollars in 2007. At the same time, more than 837,000 troops who served in Iraq or Afghanistan are now veterans. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will ensure that more of our veterans can enter the new energy economy. They will create a new “Green Vet Initiative” that will have two missions: first it will offer counseling and job placement to help veterans gain the skills to enter this rapidly growing field; second, it will work with industry partners to create career pathways and educational programs.

[...]

• Create New Job Training Programs for Clean Technologies. The Obama‐Biden plan will increase funding for federal workforce training programs and direct these programs to incorporate green technologies training, such as advanced manufacturing and weatherization training, into their efforts to help Americans find and retain stable, high‐paying jobs. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will also create an energy‐focused youth jobs program to invest in disconnected and disadvantaged youth. This program will provide youth participants with energy efficiency and environmental service opportunities to improve the energy efficiency of homes and buildings in their communities, while also providing them with practical skills and experience in important career fields of expected high‐growth employment. Participants will not only be able to use their training to find new jobs, but also build skills that will help them move up the career ladder over time.

Millennials loved what Obama was selling. As we know from Eric Greenberg's Generation We, in which he cites Greenberg Millennial Survey data,

...not only does Generation We embrace the cause of environmental protection and a new energy paradigm, they have a real sense of urgency about it. For example, in the GMS, 74 percent say, “We must make major investments now to innovate the next generation of nonfossil fuel based energy solutions,” compared to just 26 percent who say, “We should continue on our current path, gradually shifting the mix of sources used to meet our energy needs.” In addition, 94 percent agreed that “our country must take extreme measures now, before it is too late, to protect the environment and begin to reverse the damage we have done.” Seventy-four percent say this situation is either a “crisis that our country must address immediately” or a major problem.

Even though President Obama's candidacy came after the Millennials' progressive, green-minded views came to fruition, there's still a chicken and egg thing going on here.

It's no secret that Obama's language over the course of the campaign targeted Millennials. They reappear above: Urgency. New paradigms. Investment. Here at FM, we've frequently discussed the importance of such a substantive campaign targeting youth so heavily.

But what is that importance? Put differently, now that 1.) we have many more students majoring in environmental studies today than we did five years ago, and 2.) President Obama is attempting to change the paradigm in the energy discussion, what does that portend for Millennials?

One possibility is that Millennials -- known for being collaborative, institution-dwellers, and earth-minded -- use these skills and traits to rise within corporations and institutions by developing "green" expertise. I see this quite a bit in my higher ed circle. Many colleges and universities, concerned with their bottom lines, are now looking for advice on how to become more sustainable (and more economical). A simple Google search for "sustainability coordinator" reveals a host of different schools who have the positions on their payrolls, like Duke, University of Idaho, and the University of Dayton. Many of these coordinators are young professionals (Millennials) who are using their technological expertise and more green-focused college educations to get a foot in the door, while creating positive change. So, while Boomers may still be in the captain's seat at most organizations, Millennials are proving their worth, stamping their values on these institutions.

This is just one more example of the importance of a president who invests in the future. More opportunities for young people. More opportunities for the country. And, in this case, more time for the earth.

Some reading material when you have time to take a break from the craziness:

• Music for Democracy has launched its "Be the Change" project:
  

  Hip-hop stars Chingy, Q and MC Lyte have joined forces with two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer-songwriter Graham Nash in an innovative get-out-the-vote effort that aims to mobilize young voters for election 2008 by leveraging the power of social networks. On November 4, music fans who sign up for "Be the Change" will receive an automated call from the musician of their choice to remind them to go to the polls. A selected number of voters will receive calls from the musicians themselves.

• A recap of why Election 2008 deserves the "historic" label, especially given the generational tensions.
• A commentary on why youth will show up at the polls this year.
• Attention political junkies: Google has created an elections map complete with results since 1980 for each state.
  
• Andy Kroll writes a couple (#1 and #2) posts on pushback on the Hip Hop Republicans and what they're doing to change the culture and approach the contemporary GOP has taken over the last decade or two.
• Want to watch the election results with some fellow liberals? Living Liberally lets you know where you can go.
• 35,000 Colorado mail-in votes from newly-registered voters could be nullified, thanks to confusion over the need to include an ID.
• Obama's not the only politician popular among young voters.
• A public-private partnership to fix our ever-mounting problems. A Green New Deal. Sounds pretty good, huh? Read more.
• Anna Quindlen at Newsweek has her own commentary on the potential of Millennial voters on Election Day

Here's an interesting writeup in the Washington Post of a 2006 Green and Gerber study showing that public shame may be the highest motivator for civic participation. I'm not kidding.

Here are the results of Gerber and Green's experiment, in which a controlled sample of voters were matched up against groups that received four different messages about an upcoming election:

"These were the most homely pieces of direct mail in the history of direct mail," said Green, who works at Yale University. "They were sheets of computer paper. They had no graphics and used block courier type. They are the exact opposite of the slick four-color mailings that campaigns send out."

Homely though they were, the letters had a powerful effect. The control group's turnout rate was slightly less than 30 percent. Among those who received the "civic pride" letter, turnout was 6 percent higher than the control group's. Among those who were told they were being studied, it was 12 percent higher. Among those who were shown whether they had voted in the previous election, the turnout was 16 percent higher.

And telling people what everyone in the neighborhood had done the previous Election Day -- and letting them know that they would be similarly informed about the current election -- boosted turnout by 27 percent.

Shame and publicity - peer pressure - can be a powerful motivator, it seems. And when the government/campaign/party is going to snitch on you, people get their butts out to vote.

The effectiveness of snitching on neighbors exceeded that of live telephone calls and rivaled that of laborious, face-to-face canvassing, the political scientists wrote in an article published in the American Political Science Review this year. Direct mail costs peanuts compared with other techniques.

Interestingly, Green and Gerber trace the decline in voting among Americans of all ages to the rise of the secret ballot. Their theory: voting used to be a very public and social act. Once those social bonds were severed, turnout declined:

Elections in the mid-19th century were festive affairs, and people gathered to carouse, jostle one another and vote. They sometimes cast their ballots on a stage to cheers and jeers. Voting, even their choice of candidates, used to be extremely public.

A series of progressive reforms in the late 19th century turned voting into a private affair. Campaign operatives were kept clear of polling stations. People got to vote in secret, and few knew whether their neighbors voted.

Turnout plummeted.

What this suggests is that, besides civic pride and political conviction, a central reason people vote is that democratic participation is an intensely social act. Politics, candidates and campaigns offer us zones of connection with other citizens -- even our political opponents. It gives millions of people common topics of conversation.

It's too late to really incorporate this kind of messaging into a campaign, but it raises some interesting possibilities for the 2010 midterms.

Some reading to supplement your weekend down time:

• The Daily Trojan's recent piece covering each candidate's youth vote operation can be found here (and yes, the fact that they think McCain has any outreach to youth points to the accuracy of the article and the competence of those interviewed. Look at this:
  

  Ann Crigler, director of the Department of Political Science and a professor of political science at USC, agreed that youth voters are targeted because they are not yet devoted to either party.

  "The youth vote is really important because it is traditionally not aligned with a party or candidate yet, so people want to get them to participate because they haven't traditionally," Crigler said. "It is easier to attract those who aren't already committed to a party."

  I don't think that's why it's important, and I don't think that's true. A recent poll in swing state Ohio, for instance, shows that Obama is preferred over McCain by a margin of 60-33 percent.

• Florida is now requiring that all potential voters have an ID in order to vote.
• What a difference having a Democratic head of elections makes in Ohio -- Secretary of State Jennifer Bruner is attempting to prevent vote caging.
• Apparently the GOP doesn't care about copyright law when their power is threatened.
• PowerVote: getting one million green youth voters to the polls.
• The 2008 presidential campaign invades college orientations.
• An excellent piece in the Cornell Daily Sun finds that McCain is in favor of cutting and running -- from the youth vote.

Stuff you should know and see that I won't be blogging in depth:

• Looks like we have another YEO! John Tyler Hammons, a 17 year old freshman at the University of Oklahoma was elected the mayor of Muskegee, a town of 38,000 people. He ran on a good government platform and won in a run-off against the former mayor, capturing 70% of the vote. Way to go John. - The Politico
• Young evangelicals continue to abandon Bush and the GOP over Iraq and the economy. - Huffington Post
• The Godfathers of GOTV testing and research, Gerber and Green, have a new book out pimping Peer to Peer as the best form of organizing. Direct mail and robo-call consultants everywhere are not happy. - Campaigns and Elections
• Two articles say that Obama will need the "senior vote" if he is to beat McCain. I tend not to agree. There are more voters under 30 than over 65, and in some contests we are already performing on par with their turnout. It all depends on how many new young voters show up in November. - Democratic Strategist
• Obama is the king of voter-generated music tributes. - The Politico
• Republicans held a fashion show on the National Mall to show off their new convention swag. This was my favorite photo. And no, this is not a joke. - Minnesota Monitor

Who at the GOP thought it was a good idea to bring back MC Hammer pants? And I'm pretty sure that if that little girl were a lib'rul, we'd hear wingnuts screaming about flag desecration.