Events

Brighter Green's Executive Director Mia MacDonald will be speaking on climate change and animal agriculture at the Seed Experience in N.Y.C. on May 18, 2013. Details:

Shifting the Global Debate: Climate Change & Animal Agriculture
3:00 PM
South Room

Mia MacDonald's talk will use facts, images, and documentary video to provide fascinating and compelling evidence of how animal agriculture is at the root of a host of environmental problems, including climate change, deforestation in the Amazon, desertification, and water stress. She will address how even as awareness of these realities is growing in the U.S., global meat and other animal products consumption is soaring and expanding into markets in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. However, she will also show how changing our agricultural practices and eating habits and adjusting policies and practices accordingly can be a part of the solution.

The Seed Experience features two days of vegan exploration. From the organizers' text: "Nourish your taste buds on scrumptious plant-based food from New York’s famed vegan restaurants – the best in the world! Get inspired by world-renowned speakers, champion athletes, and top chefs. Provoke new thoughts with award-winning films and their directors. Discover the vast market of cruelty-free products and services.

"The Seed invites the vegan-curious, vegan-skeptical, and vegan choir to explore what we have to offer today. You’ll gain understanding of the endless benefits of a compassionate, healthful, and earth-conscious existence of the vegan & plant-based lifestyle." For tickets please click here.

Please join Brighter Green and Tribal Link for an evening fundraiser for our collaborative East African Girls’ Leadership Initiative

Featuring an update on the initiative and a live performance by singer-songwriter Joy Askew.

In addition, Grace Koitumet, who works with SIMOO and directly with the students, will be in attendance and will speak about the program.

Light refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP to: research1@brightergreen.org

The East African Girls’ Leadership Initiative is a pilot effort that’s engaging deeply with 10 girls (five in Kenya and five in Tanzania from Maasai communities) to develop their skills, capabilities, knowledge, and confidence so that as adult women they can be successful community leaders and effective advocates for indigenous peoples and the environment at national and international levels, too. This is particularly important as climate change and the effects of globalization are felt more intensely by communities around the world, including those the girls come from in Kenya and Tanzania. The initiative takes its inspiration in part from the late Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai, for whom education and mentoring opened up a new world of possibility.

We sought to raise $1,500 at this fundraiser, which supports one girl's education, mentoring, rights and skills development workshops, and living expenses for one year. Recently, we received an anonymous matching grant of $1500 and are now increasing our fundraising goal to $3000, which would support two girls' education, living, and program costs for one year.

The fundraiser is free. We ask that you donate what you can; any donation amount is greatly appreciated. Donations will be accepted the night of the 6th, or if you’d like, feel free to donate beforehand at our Crowdrise site. If you cannot attend, please consider making a donation through Crowdrise.

Feel free to share this invitation with friends and colleagues.

*In addition to Brighter Green and Tribal Link, the East African Girls’ Leadership Initiative partners are PAICODEO in Tanzania and SIMOO and the Indigenous Information Network both based in Kenya.

Brighter Green will be exhibiting and presenting at the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP18) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 8th Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (CMP8) to the Kyoto Protocol. For more information, visit the the UN Climate Change Conference website

At the event, Brighter Green will:

Disseminate our policy research on climate change and intensification of livestock production for Brazil, China, India and Ethiopia.

Conduct an official side-event co-sponsored with HSI and the World Society for the Protection of Animals. Full details here(PDF).

Facilitate participation of a delegation to discuss climate change and animal agriculture. This delegation will include Eve Feng, a Brighter Green Associate from China, Xie Zheng, a musician and animal welfare/rights activist based in Beijing, and our Executive Director, Mia MacDonald.

Liase with civil society organization from around the world to share our research and perspective.

Host an exhibit space with Humane Society International and World Society for Protection of Animals for the duration of the conference.

Check back for news about the event after December 7th!

In celebration of and participation in Food Day 2012, Brighter Green is hosting an online event. Food Day is a nationwide celebration and a movement for healthy, affordable and sustainable food. We are screening three movies related to global industrial food production, produced by Brighter Green and by Green Planet Films. Please view the following videos and comment on our Facebook Food Day Event Discussion Page with any questions, comments, or further discussion topics.

Video 1: Brighter Green's very own What's for Dinner?—an eye-opening documentary that explores this terrain in fast-globalizing China through the eyes of a retired pig farmer in a rural Jiangxi province; a vegan restaurateur in Beijing; a bullish young livestock entrepreneur; and residents of the province known as the 'world's factory' contending with water polluted by wastes from pig factory farms. They personalize the vast trends around them, in a country on the cusp of becoming a world power. Given that every fifth person in the world is Chinese, what the Chinese eat and how China produces its food, affects not only China, but the world, too. Click on the video to start viewing.



Video 2: Jim Mason on Factory Farming. We just released this video in time for Food Day. Follow an interview with author, environmentalist, attorney specializing in human and animal concerns, and member of the Brighter Green advisory board Jim Mason. Click on the video to start viewing.

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Video 3: Alma, Beautifully shot, alternately joyful and horrifying, Alma captures the ecological cost of meat, dairy, leather, and lumber production in the Amazon. Film created by Patrick Rouxel and Green Planet Films. Click on the video to start viewing.

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Please take a look at the videos posted on our website all year long, which delve into the ever expanding livestock industry and its intersection with climate change, food security, resource use, and animal welfare in China, Brazil, India, and globally. Brighter Green Videos

Please follow up with any questions, comments or discussion topics on our Facebook page!

Join the discussion at Facebook Food Day Discussion.

For more videos on this topic, check out Vegucated, available for purchase. This full length documentary follows three meat- and cheese-loving New Yorkers who agree to adopt a vegan diet for six weeks. This entertaining documentary showcases the rapid and at times comedic evolution of three people who discover they can change the world one bite at a time.

Brighter Green's Executive Director Mia MacDonald is speaking at the Global Diet and Sustainability Conference on October 12th. This conference will focus on the global consumption of animal based products (meat, eggs, and dairy) and the negative impact these products have on humans, animals, and the planet. The discussion will also address ways to make global food systems more humane, sustainable, climate-friendly, and equitable. Mia will be joined on the panel by:

Sergio Moncada, Deputy Director of Farm Animal Protection at Humane Society International

Dawn Moncrief, Founding Director of A Well-Fed World

The panel will be moderated by Chris London, Assistant Professor in International Affairs at the New School.

Wine and refreshments will be served.

Brighter Green is proud to be a partner of the 2012 Brooklyn Food Conference. We have also organized a panel at the conference on the global reach and impact of the industrial food system, and we'll be tabling at the conference. Details:

Workshop #3 Slot
2:00 - 3:15 PM
5th Floor, Room 5E12
"Globalization, Food Security, Sustainability, Equity & Animal Welfare"
Mia MacDonald, Executive Director, Brighter Green
Sangamithra Iyer, Associate, Brighter Green
Christopher Schlottmann, Associate Director of Environmental Studies, New York University
Paul Shapiro, Senior Director of Farm Animal Protection, Humane Society of the United States

The conference includes over 175 workshops, a slate of well-known speakers, cooking demonstrations, family activities, expo for non-profits and profit companies, and more! The purpose of the conference is to forge deeper connections and stronger ties across the NYC food movement. The event is free but pre-registration is strongly encouraged to minimize a wait at the door as 5,000 people are expected.

For directions, and more details, see the Conference website. Facebook event here.

In celebration of Earth Week, Mia MacDonald is speaking on a panel at New York University titled, "Global Equity and Animal Agriculture." She will be joined on the panel by:

Lori Gruen, Professor of Philosophy, Environmental Studies, and Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies at Wesleyan University

Chetana Mirle, Director, Farm Animals, Humane Society International

Peter Li, Associate Professor of Social Sciences, University of Houston

Here is a brief description of the event:

The rapid globalization of the livestock industry, particularly the use of intensive systems of production, ought to be high on policy agendas for climate change, food security, equity, and animal welfare, but so far, the topic has been marginal in most of these arenas. This lack of attention risks forfeiting a crucial opportunity to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and create a more sustainable, equitable, humane, and climate-compatible food system. Countries in the global South, already most affected by global warming, have an opportunity to lead in a new direction, away from the Western model—with multiple benefits for their people, their environments, and the global climate.  The panel seeks to shed light on this topic, and encourage discussion about ways to address it in its multiple dimensions.

The event is part of NYU's Earthweek, and is co-sponsored by the following NYU departments and groups: Animal Studies Initiative, Food Studies, Sustainability Task Force, Earth Matters, the Environmental Studies Club, and the Earthweek Committee.

Please RSVP for the event here.

There is also a Facebook page for the event.

On Wednesday April 18, Executive Director Mia MacDonald will join Peter Li, Associate Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Houston, at a screening and discussion of "What's for Dinner?", a short documentary by Jian Yi that Brighter Green co-produced. The film explores the rising consumption of meat and dairy products in China and the growth in U.S.-style factory farming systems through the experiences of a young livestock entrepreneur, a retired pig farmer, and a vegan restaurant owner, among others. The screening and discussion is sponsored by the Animal Studies Initiative at New York University.

Please RSVP for this event here.

Mia MacDonald will be speaking at the State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity release celebration, along with other co-authors of the report and Worldwatch researchers. Mia contributed a chapter to this year's State of the World report.

Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity is the latest publication in the Worldwatch Institute’s flagship State of the World series, which remains the most recognized and authoritative resource for research and policy solutions on critical global issues. State of the World 2012 builds on three decades of experience to offer a clear, pragmatic look at the current state of global ecological systems and the economic forces that are reshaping them—and how we can craft more-sustainable and equitable economies in the future.

Event is free, but space is limited. Please RSVP here.
Reception with food and refreshments to follow.

Columbia University's Professor Gayatri Spivak has organized a tree-planting in honor of Wangari Maathai.

Mrs. Marian Kamau Chege and Professor Vertistine Mbaya (both on the Green Belt Movement's Kenya Board of Directors and many decades-long friends of Wangari Maathai) will attend as well. The Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Columbia University's Global Cultural Studies Department are the hosts.

The event is open to the public, but you need to RSVP: 212-408-0111 or special.events@parks.nyc.gov

Mia MacDonald will be speaking as part of the Environmental Humanities Project at Stanford University special lecture on Monday, March 12.

The Environmental Humanities Project provides a forum for an interdisciplinary approach to environmental issues. Their goal is twofold: to show the importance of environmentally oriented perspectives for transforming basic assumptions in humanistic research, and to foreground how humanistic approaches reshape inquiry about environmental issues in disciplines outside the humanities themselves.

Click here for a detailed campus map.

Event time is PST.

Brighter Green is on the host committee of this special event celebrating International Women's Day.

For International Women's Day 2012, Oxfam Action Corps NYC will be recognizing the contributions of women in fighting hunger and poverty, both locally and globally. Join special honorees:

Ellen Gustafson, The 30 Project
Nancy Romer, Brooklyn Food Coalition
Ceci Charles-King, Voices of African Mothers at the UN
Nancy Ortiz-Surun, La Finca del Sur
and moderator Christine Schiavoni, WhyHunger

Doors will open at 6:30, with the event scheduled to begin promptly at 7pm. In addition to honoring the four women listed above, guests are invited to bring the names of women who they would like to honor for International Women's Day. The evening will include discussions around women and food justice issues, followed by an award ceremony and questions and answers with the panel.

Please RSVP. The event is free and open to all.

Mia MacDonald is speaking at this event, honoring the legacy of Brighter Green Advisory Board member, Wangari Maathai, in the specific context of rural agriculture and women farmers.

Brighter Green's Mia MacDonald will be on a panel of speakers discussing the role of animal agriculture in climate change ("Agriculture Solutions to Support Food Security, Sustainability and Animal Welfare"), echoing the side event of the same name held earlier in the conference. More information can be found here. To learn more about the Civil Society Space at COP 17, click here.

Brighter Green's Mia MacDonald will be one of five speakers discussing the role of animal agriculture in climate change as part of an official side event at COP 17. Please see the flier for further details and other speaker information.

Mia MacDonald will be speaking about food, the economy, and the environment. Other topics at the conference include: the moral status of animals; Ubuntu and animals; culture, cultural ceremonies and animals; animal experimentation; and terrorism and animal activism. For more information, visit here: http://www.unisa.ac.za/Default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=26827.

Brighter Green will be exhibiting and presenting at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 7th Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (CMP7) to the Kyoto Protocol. For more information, visit: http://www.cop17-cmp7durban.com/

Join Brighter Green at Farm Sanctuary's first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: for Health, Environment, and Farm Animals, bringing together experts from the environmental, public health, and animal welfare movements, including Brighter Green's Executive Director, Mia MacDonald. This conference will be unique in its exclusive focus on factory farming and the problems surrounding it, and aims to reach a broad audience of professionals and advocates from the animal protection, health, and environmental movements to collaborate on these issues.

The conference program boasts over 30 speakers from a wide range of backgrounds, including authoritative presenters such as Executive Director of Food and Water Watch Wenonah Hauter, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine director of government affairs Elizabeth Kucinich and leading researcher in the field of diet and disease and author of The China Study Dr. T. Colin Campbell.

The conference program features a Thursday night welcome reception, plenary speakers and panel discussions on Friday and Saturday, and a Friday banquet dinner. Panels will cover a wide range of factory farming related topics, including climate change, public health risks, the emotional lives of farm animals, and a look at the economics of factory farming. There will also be Q&A sessions and exhibit tables showcasing healthy, sustainable, cruelty-free products and organizations.

With factory farms causing damage to animals, our health, and the environment every day, and with the 2012 Farm Bill coming up for a re-authorization vote, now is a more urgent time than ever for anti-factory farming advocates from across the board to come together. Please join us at the National Conference to End Factory Farming to discuss the issues and learn how to take personal, public, and policy action to make factory farming a thing of the past!

To register for the event, or get more information, click here.

The evening commemorates the 10th anniversary of the Small Planet Fund and the 40th anniversary of Diet for a Small Planet.

The event is free and open to the public, but registration is highly encouraged as space is limited. To register, click here.

What to Eat, the Farm Sanctuary produced short film that addresses the environmental impacts of our food choices, is screening at Green Screens, Monday. What to Eat, voiced by Jason Schwartzman, and created with the participation of Brighter Green and others, will air prior to the feature film, Planeat, a new documentary that chronicles the linkages between diet and disease.

Martin Rowe of Brighter Green will be one of three panelists asking the question, Do We Really Have to Go Vegan?" at American University's Earth Week discussions, hosted by the Philosophy and Religion Department.

Come celebrate the paperback release of Brighter Green colleague Anna Lappé's book Diet for a Hot Planet. Brighter Green's Executive Director Mia MacDonald will be moderating a panel discussion on the climate impact of our food choices, with participants including NYC Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, Anim Steel of the Real Food Challenge, and Angelines Moncha Alba Lamb of Slow Food USA.

Free and open to the public, but space is limited. Please RSVP here.

Brighter Green Executive Director Mia MacDonald is speaking at the Beijing 2011: Summit Forum on Science and Technology for a Carbon Neutral Society, taking place on Tuesday March 29.

Mia MacDonald will join a number of international speakers in a day-long discussion of low carbon research and development, specifically for China. Her presentation, "Climate Change, Food Security and Animal Agriculture: Issues and Options for China and the World," is inspired by the theme of this year's conference, "Low Carbon for a Better Future."

The event is organized by the STS Research Center of CASS, co-organized with the Advisory Office of Shanghai Municipal Government, Beijing Institute of Technology and sponsored by Suerte International Ltd.

Join the New York Coalition for Healthy School Food and the United Federation of Teachers Humane Education Committee for a conference on plant based nutrition, weight loss, and the climate impacts of what we eat. Speakers to include Brighter Green's Executive Director, Mia MacDonald.

This event is open to teachers of grades pre-K to 12, and reservations are required. Tickets are $25/each.

If you're in Cancun for the Climate Conference, come join Brighter Green for a morning workshop and learn about animal agriculture and its effects on climate and food security. We will be drawing from our recently published case studies and videos, and looking at how the intensification of animal agriculture is playing out in India, Brazil, China, and Ethiopia.

Panelists will explore the relatively unexamined livestock-climate change-food security-equity connection through case examples from Brazil, China, Ethiopia, and India. What are the urgent challenges and opportunities as industrial agriculture seeks roots in more and more countries? Among the issues addressed through presentation and discussion: What and who are at risk? What about the climate and use of resources? The animals? What are policy options at national and global levels?

Nobel Peace Laureate, Wangari Maathai, invites you to share an evening with her as she discusses her new book, Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World, in New York City. Doors will open at 6pm. For more information, please visit the event website.

Senior Brighter Green Fellow, Martin Rowe, will be addressing the environmental impacts of animal agriculture at Boston's upcoming Vegetarian Food Festival. Martin will discuss how animal agriculture lies at the core of a host of issues, from deforestation in the Amazon, to desertification, to climate change, and how small changes to your daily diet can have large climate impacts.

Brighter Green attends the 2010 Africa Animal Welfare Action Conference, the theme of which is 'Tackling Animal Welfare in Africa for Development.' Mia MacDonald will discuss innovations in animal welfare and best practices in conservation in a panel alongside Dawn Moncrief, founding director of A Well-Fed World, and Anteneh Roba, from the International Fund for Africa. The panel will explore the adoption of industrial animal agriculture in Africa, looking at Ethiopia in particular, and outline the possibilities to create more humane, sustainable food production systems.

For a copy of Mia MacDonald's presentation at the conference, click here.

As oil continues to spill in the Gulf, come out to Coney Island this Saturday to add your voice to the growing anti-offshore drilling movement.

Brighter Green Executive Director Mia MacDonald will be discussing the environmental impacts of factory farming. The panel, organized by the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Environmental Law Society, will also include Marisa Miller-Wolfson from Kind Green Planet and Dan Estrin from the Environmental Litigation Clinic.

Panel location: Tudor Room, Preston Hall, Pace Law School, 78 N. Broadway, White Plains, NY

Brighter Green intern Whitney Hoot will be attending the World People's Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth Rights in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The conference will bring together social organizations and indigenous representatives from around the world to draft a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth. Read Whitney's blogs.

"What's for Dinner?" director Jian Yi will be presenting a collection of his works at the Apple Store in Sanlitun, Beijing. Among clips Jian Yi will screen are some scenes from Brighter Green's forthcoming documentary. Some of the characters featured in "What's for Dinner?," including Giant Beanstalk lead singer Xie Zheng and Yu Li, owner of Beijing's Vegan Hut restaurant, are expected to attend, too.

Brighter Green's short documentary, "What's for Dinner?," (running time: 26 minutes) will be screened at the Copenhagen Klimaforum, the "people's climate summit," on Wednesday, December 16th at 9 p.m., with a panel discussion to follow. Directed by award-winning Chinese independent filmmaker Jian Yi, working with an all-Chinese crew, "What's for Dinner?" chronicles China's widespread embrace of industrial livestock keeping, and looks at the environmental, health and animal welfare consequences of these actions.

Deforestation and forest degradation are among the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions (approximately 20%). At the same time, forests are vital to the global ecosystem as well as crucial for human well-being. How can the global community act now to preserve these vital ‘lungs of the world’? Panelists will spotlight forest projects for mitigation and adaptation using rights-based approaches.

The livestock sector is another key contributor to global warming which at local levels causes drought, desertification and warmer temperatures. Panelists will explore how the livestock sector can adjust, and what role it can play in successful mitigation and adaptation efforts, including for forest protection and reafforestation?

Come listen to Brighter Green Research Associate Justine Simon discuss the connections between meat consumption and climate change. While eating locally and organic are important in terms of reducing your climate 'foodprint,' cutting back on meat and dairy may well be the most significant way to reduce your climate and other environmental impacts, both locally and globally.

Come listen to Brighter Green Associate Stella Zhou at the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival Festival. Stella will be discussing the current lost connection between food and its origin. She will also address the missing role of farm animals in present-day public health discussions, and will examine the growing trend of factory farming in China. The two-day event (it starts October 31) brings together food producers, national nutrition experts, award-winning chefs, and animal activists.

Food and climate change: it’s an essential connection. Join Brighter Green and other members of New York City's FoodPrint Alliance as we take part in 350.org's International Day of Climate Action. Come to Columbia University and learn more about our individual and collective “foodprints” and how to reduce them, and get your hands dirty in the process. We’ll be planting seeds for winter greens, talking about NYC “foodprints” and a city council resolution to reduce them, and showing films that delve into the connections between what we eat and the global climate. You can take a bite out of climate change with every meal.

Join Brighter Green Executive Director Mia MacDonald, Farm Sanctuary National Advocacy Organizer Jasmin Singer, and Kind Green Planet’s Outreach Director Marisa Miller Wolfson for a presentation on the connection between animal agriculture and global warming. As part of Climate Week, being held in NYC in conjunction with the UN General Assembly and special session on climate change, this workshop talks about the contribution of meat and dairy production to rising greenhouse gas emissions, and the steps we need to take to reduce our “foodprint” and sustain our planet. Co-sponsored with NYU Earth Matters! and the Sierra Club NYC Group.

RSVP: Mollie at campaignintern1(at) farmsanctuary.org

Mia MacDonald will speak about the ecological impacts of industrial animal agriculture at Farm Sanctuary's annual New York shelter Country Hoe-Down. Hear from chefs, writers, activists and Farm Sanctuary staff, attend a barn dance, and visit hundreds of rescued farmed animals: pigs, goats, sheep, cows, chickens, roosters and more. Each is an individual, like Lucas, pictured here. More details and registration information for the two-day hoe-down are available here. Read Lucas' story here.

If you live in New York City, please call your City Council person on Tuesday, July 21st to urge his/her support for the FoodprintNYC Resolution. The resolution calls for New York City to create a more local, climate friendly and healthy food system. This resolution's the first of its kind in the U.S. Lend your voice to seeing it adopted in the Big (green) Apple.
Climate Change and Food - New Yorkers, Take Action!

Brighter Green is attending the Nobel Women's Initiative in Antigua, Guatemala, both in its own right and also as a representative for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Wangari Maathai, with whom Brighter Green has partnered. For more information, click here. Executive Director, Mia MacDonald has blogged about attending the event at the Open Democracy website. Click here to read her daily posts. Also see video and photos from the conference and read updates on the proceedings and other blogs.

Executive Director Mia MacDonald will be speaking on a panel entitled, "Eating Green: Food and Climate Change," at The Future of Food: Transatlantic Perspectives conference, co-sponsored by the European Union and Boston University. The conference is free and open to the public. For more information, click here.

Executive Director Mia MacDonald will be speaking at the Brooklyn Food Conference as part of a panel on food, agriculture and global warming. Here's more about the conference from the organizers: Food issues hit home for all of Brooklyn–from school lunches, the rise in diabetes, and escalating food costs to immigration, farmers markets and local food challenges and delights, food touches us all. Come join us for a day of workshops, food demos, and a kids’ food fair. Lunch and dinner will be available for purchase. Dance following dinner. The conference will be FREE for all participants. For more information, click here.

Lars Lindqvist, CEO of Basecamp, will speak about Basecamp's approach to responsible travel: tourism for people, planet, and profit. Brighter Green collaborated with the Basecamp ecolodge in Kenya's Maasai Mara on an experiential learning visit. Both President Barack Obama and Brighter Green's Executive Director, Mia MacDonald, have visited Basecamp Maasai Mara -- although not at the same time....

Author, activist, Nobel Prize laureate and Brighter Green colleague Wangari Maathai discusses her new book, The Challenge for Africa (Pantheon, 2009), with Leonard Lopate of WNYC New York public radio. Maathai discusses her new book, The Challenge for Africa (Pantheon, 2009), with Leonard Lopate of WNYC New York public radio. Maathai offers a compelling look at the problems facing Africa and the promises of the future. She stresses the need for Africans to become self-sufficient, rather than relying foreign benefactors, and to pursue an identity rooted in their own ideals and solutions, instead of Western visions. This event is co-sponsored by The Department of Public Programs at The Cooper Union, The Institute for Sustainable Design at the Cooper Union, and MillionTreesNYC and is free and open to the public. For more information, call 212.353.4195, or visit Cooper Union.

In honor of International Women’s Day

The Public Health Student Group at Steinhardt,
NYC Sierra Club, Brighter Green & the Women’s Environment and Development Organization
Present:

“Half the Sky: Climate Change, Women, & Population”
An innovative panel discussion on the effects of global warming and its intersection with gender and population realities worldwide

Panelists:
Robert Engelman, Vice President for Programs, Worldwatch Institute &
Author of More: Population, Nature and What Women Want (Island Press, 2008)

June Zeitlin, former Executive Director, Women's Environment and 
Development Organization

Moderated By:
Dr. Sally Guttmacher, NYU Community Public Health Program Director
Mia MacDonald, NYC Sierra Club and Brighter Green

Urban parks are becoming our newest endangered species. The 20-year effort to secure a park in an 85-acre strip along 1.5 miles of Brooklyn’s East River waterfront is a prime example of how the seemingly good intention of creating “parks that pay for themselves” is leading to the actual demise of public parks,

The prospect of increasing commercialization of NYC parks, as well as efforts to mobilize public support for a genuine Brooklyn Bridge Park, will be discussed by Judi Francis, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, and Roy Sloane, who has led public outreach efforts as a board member of the BB Park Local Development Corp.
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Apart from $150 million committed by the city and state for construction, the Brooklyn Bridge Park will have to generate enough income to pay for ongoing operation and upkeep. The main source, under the approved plan, will be payments from owners of apartments in high-rise housing with 1,200 luxury units that private developers will be allowed to build within the park – a significant intrusion into its narrow swath of green space.

Come learn about the state of farming and the invasion of CAFOs (confined/concentrated animal feeding operations) aka factory farms in New York state. Learn how our food is grown and what's changing for the better, and not, and how to support local farmers. Speakers will include advocates, researchers and farmers. Tastings of locally produced food and wine. Co-sponsored by the Sierra Club National Sustainable Consumption Committee, the Food and Farm Committee of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter and local CSAs and community groups.

Brighter Green's Executive Director, Mia MacDonald, will speak at Portland VegFest 2008 on the theme "Your Burger or Your Car? Global Warming and Your Diet." We're looking forward to painting this (bright green) city even greener. To learn more about VegFest and to get a full list of all the great speakers and chefs who'll be there on May 9 and 10, click here.

Like many rural areas of the global South (or “developing world”), the effects of climate change are being felt in Maasai communities in Kenya. Droughts that used to be rare are becoming increasingly common. Rainfall patterns, once predictable, are now erratic. The changing climate is putting at risk the long-term viability of the herding livelihoods of the Maasai and other pastoralist societies. Green energy means lower greenhouse gas emissions and more trees left standing to combat desertification, reduce soil erosion, and offset CO2 in the atmosphere.

Solar and wind could provide heat for cooking and refrigeration to store vegetables and fruits in homes, and in health centers to store essential medicines and vaccines. Cell phones and laptops could be powered to facilitate the marketing of crafts and other locally produced goods, along with cross-cultural exchanges via the Web. This could lead to a new model of rural development, where young people don’t feel forced by lack of opportunity to leave for urban slums.

Francis ole Sakuda is the director and one of the founders of the Simba Maasai Outreach Organization (SIMOO) in Kenya. Daniel Salau Rogei is the program/financial officer for SIMOO. Both are local and international leaders in the areas of indigenous rights, livelihoods, community development, and environmental and cultural conservation. They are in NYC as part of a global delegation to the United Nations’ Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.