San Francisco Speaks

S.F. Mayor Gavin Newsom and Jared Blumenfeld speak. This is not classic Newsom. Take a look:

California Assembly Awards & Recognizes Jaime Lerner

RIchard Register, on behalf of Fiona Ma, presented Jaime Lerner with an award of recognition for his accomplishments and influence on the State of California.

Here’s video, followed by a 5 minute interview with Mr. Lerner.

Conference Opening Preview

The full video (compliments of James Minton) in a much higher quality form will post first thing Thursday (once we have our ops in order). In the mean time, Ian brought a digital camera into the main hall and grabbed this preview of our opening plenary.

Public Radio International’s “Living on Earth” hosts Jaime Lerner

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Air Date: Week of April 18, 2008

Jaime Lerner is the three-time mayor of Curitiba.

Curitiba, Brazil’s model sustainable city, was largely the brainchild of Jaime Lerner. As three-time mayor of the city, he created a rapid transit bus system, increased the amount of green space, and encouraged children and adults alike to recycle. Jaime Lerner joins host Steve Curwood in the LOE studios and says all cities have the potential for environmental success.

Featured Presenter: Eric Holt-Giménez

Today’s featured Ecocity World Summit presenter is Eric Holt-Giménez, executive director of FoodFirst/Institute for Food and Development Policy. Eric is the author of the latest Food First Book, Campesino a Campesino: Voices from Latin America’s Farmer to Farmer Movement for Sustainable Agriculture which chronicles the development of this movement in Mexico and Central America over two and a half decades. Eric worked with farmers, participated in their farmer-to-farmer trainings, and recorded their triumphs with his camera and pen. Eric comes to the summit from the Bank Information Center in Washington D.C. where he has served as the Latin America Program Manager.

“Successful social movements are formed by integrating activism with livelihoods. These integrated movements create the deep sustained social pressure that produces political will—the key to changing the financial, governmental, and market structures that presently work against sustainability.” - Eric Holt-Giménez

He was interviewed recently on Berekely’s KPFA, where he discussed the environmental fallacy of biofuels, and the greater impact that they have on the environment. “How did such a bad idea gain such incredible currency?” Listen and find out. (via RAN)

Interview: Biofuels Interview on KPFA

Eric also wrote a great article on the subject last June, elaborating on the biofuels myth.

The Great Biofuel Hoax

Some of his best known work was in Central America, working with farmers to lessen their dependence on banks and technology, and minimize the impact they exert on the environment.

Reflections on Sustainable Agriculture in Latin America

And finally, we have Eric speaking at a conference. (In Spanish)