Blog

(in order of appearance)

Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben is a writer who published the first book on climate change, The End of Nature, for a general audience in 1989. It has since been printed in more than 20 languages. Bill is also an activist and in 2007 led the effort to the organize Step It Up. Demanding that Congress enact curbs on carbon emissions that would cut global warming pollution 80 percent by 2050, Bill, along with six college students, organized 1,400 global warming demonstrations across all 50 states of America that took place on April 14, 2007. Currently he has launched a global effort fighting climate change, 350.org. The most recent science tells us that unless we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million, we will cause huge and irreversible damage to the earth. The goal of 350.org is “to spread this number around the world in the next 18 months, via art and music and ruckuses of all kinds, in the hope that it will push those post-Kyoto negotiations in the direction of reality.”

Ross Gelbspan
Ross Gelbspan retired in 1992 after a 31-year career in journalism as a reporter. As special projects editor of The Boston Globe, he conceived, directed and edited a series of articles that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984.

His first major article on climate change, which appeared on the cover of the December, 1995 issue of Harper's Magazine, was a finalist for a National Magazine Award.

In 1997, he published a book on the global climate crisis titled: The Heat Is On: The High Stakes Battle Over Earth's Threatened Climate (Perseus Books). The book has also been published in German, Italian and Portuguese. The book received national attention that summer when President Clinton told the press he was reading The Heat Is On.

In 2004, Ross published Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists Have Fueled the Climate Crisis -- and What We Can Do to Avert Disaster. That book received the lead review in the Sunday New York Times Book Review which was written by Al Gore.

Gelbspan has appeared in numerous radio and television interviews, including "Nightline," "All Things Considered" and "Talk of the Nation." He was invited to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland in February, 1998, where he addressed government ministers and leaders of multi-national corporations.

Kelle Louaillier
Kelle Louaillier has been with Corporate Accountability International for two decades, serving as director of international outreach, campaign director, development director, and associate director before becoming the organization’s executive director in 2007. Under her leadership, Corporate Accountability International (formerly Infact) helped move General Electric out of the nuclear weapons business, spearheaded grassroots efforts behind the passage of the global tobacco treaty, and launched the nationwide Think Outside the Bottle campaign. Louaillier has been the driving force behind the campaign’s rapid expansion with corporate shareholders, city officials, campuses and faith communities across the country. Prior to joining Corporate Accountability International, Louaillier taught math in the Central African Republic and worked to empower homeless youth in Seattle. She holds degrees in French, philosophy and mathematics from Seattle University.

John Passacantando
Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, the world’s largest environmental action organization, John Passacantando is at the forefront of the fight for clean air, clean water and the survival of the planet.

Over his seven years as Executive Director, Passacantando has been instrumental in guiding a tremendous shift in public awareness and concern about the conditions of our planet. As the environment is one of America’s greatest concerns, this issue now crosses all lines: progressive, conservative, young, old. In fact, many corporations are changing the way that they do business, balancing how to positively impact the bottom line with the quality of life that affects us all.

In spite of this progress, the situation is still serious. The Federal government continues to establish roadblocks and thwart international cooperative efforts. Developing nations are adding to the problem. Many corporations still continue to pollute, and many individuals are not on board with a greener, less wasteful, more energy efficient lifestyle.

A one-time political conservative and supply side economics disciple, he was converted to the environmental cause in 1987 when Mike Roselle, founder of Earth First! and the Ruckus Society, scaled Mt. Rushmore and hung a giant gas mask on George Washington—landing Roselle in prison and Passacantando in the ranks of the environmentalists.

Judy Bonds
Julia “Judy” Bonds is a co-director for Coal River Mountain Watch. She is a coal miner’s daughter, and granddaughter. She is Appalachian American and her family has lived in the Coal River Valley in West Virginia for ten generations.

Julia has been fighting for social and environmental justice for Appalachian coalfields since 1998. In 2003, she won the coveted Goldman Environmental Prize for North America, and that award speaks volumes about the stereotype of the “ignorant hillbilly”.

Since winning the award Julia and others at Coal River Mountain Watch have gone out on the road to educate America about the Clean Water Act, about where their electricity comes from and who pays the true price as well as to dispel the Appalachia stereotype

Julia worked on safety issues on overweight coal trucks and is on the Governor’s Safety Committee for commercial trucks. She was named the “Earthmover Award” in GEO Magazine and is on Organic Style Magazine’s Environmental Power list. She was recently featured in the Marsh issue of National Geographic, the first “green” issue of May’s Vanity Fair and in the July issue of “O” (Oprah Magazine). focusing on tough, West Virginian women. She was also featured in the April 21st “green” issue of People Magazine.

Rolf Skar
Rolf Skar graduated summa cum laude from St. Olaf College with degrees in psychology and philosophy. From 200 feet up in a Douglas-fir to the halls of Congress, Rolf has worked to protect forests for the last ten years. As campaign director of the Oregon-based Siskiyou Project, he was at the center of a national struggle to defend roadless wildlands and old-growth reserves from the Bush administration. In 2004, he was named the National Forest Protection Alliance delegate of the year. Rolf currently serves as a senior forest campaigner with Greenpeace in San Francisco.

Jeffery Hollender
President and Chief Inspired Protagonist for Seventh Generation, Jeffrey Hollender is a well-respected leader in the socially and environmentally responsible communities.
Jeffrey has led Seventh Generation from its humble beginnings to its current position as the nation’s leading and fastest growing brand of natural home and personal care products, and the leading authority on issues related to making a positive difference in the health of the planet and its inhabitants through our everyday choices.

Jeffrey frequently addresses social and environmental responsibility at regional, national and international venues. He is a member and former Director of the Social Venture Network, a group of socially-conscious business executives. He has served as a Board member and Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility.

Mark Floegel
Mark Floegel is a senior investigator in Greenpeace US’s research unit. A former journalist, he has been working with public advocacy issues since 1987. In that time, he has worked on issues such as the effects of chlorinated chemicals on human health and the environment, particularly pertaining to pulp and paper mills, toxic waste incinerators, sustainable fisheries, sustainable forestry, renewable energy, acid rain and sustainable agriculture. During the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s, Floegel worked as an organizer for CongressWatch in Washington, DC. He has worked with various Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) through the years and has worked with Greenpeace in Washington, DC and Seattle, WA. He currently resides in Vermont.

Gary Cohen
Gary Cohen is co-Executive Director of Health Care Without Harm. Their mission, to transform the health care sector worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, is fueled by their goal of creating an ecologically sustainable health care system that is no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. Health Care Without Harm is an international coalition of hospitals and health care systems, medical professionals, community groups, health-affected constituencies, labor unions, environmental and environmental health organizations and religious groups. Gary serves on the International Advisory Board of the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal, India, which offers free medical care to the survivors of the Union Carbide chemical disaster.