Ted is always looking for ways to minimize his ecological footprint. Professionally, Ted is working to gain the skills necessary to turn his passion for sustainable development into action, as an entrepreneur or financing sustainable businesses.
Ted studied economics and international business at Saint Louis University’s campus in Madrid, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and was honored as the Distinguished Student in International Business for his class. As the founder and president of the SLU Madrid Business Club, Ted focused the club’s activities on sustainability.
While working for commercial real estate multi-national Jones Lang LaSalle’s Madrid office, Ted strove to implement sustainable practices both within the firm and for its clients. He proposed and designed an Environmental Sustainability Action Plan for JLL Spain. Green Building and Environmentally Sustainable Development remain a passion for Ted: he believes that the intersection of sustainable infrastructure and sustainable attitude is where we’ll find a sustainable society.
Ted currently works for a private equity firm in Madrid, learning skills that he hopes to apply to finance Environmentally Sustainable Development in the United States and around the world.
Tracy is the CEO and Founding Partner of Technical Green - a green industry career site focused on clean tech and green research and development.
Tracy's professional experience are in the recruitment advertising and non-profit sectors and she has for many years maintained a sustainable lifestyle.
Marie Oser is a best-selling author, columnist, and host/producer of VEG TV. A vegan lifestyle expert, and environmental advocate with a focus on nutrition and its role in disease prevention, Oser specializes in creating original gourmet recipes with a solid nutritional bottom line.
Many prominent medical and nutrition professionals endorse her work, including Dr. Colin Campbell, Professor Emeritus, Cornell University and principal researcher of the groundbreaking CHINA STUDY, and Neal Barnard, M.D. founder and president of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, DC.
Marie is president of VEGTV, Inc., a video production company producing content for TV and new media. VEGTV streams hundreds of lifestyle videos to more than 1,000 sites globally. In her role as Director of Product Development at Smart Planet Kitchen, she has created, Marie Oser’s Lean & Green, a new line of vegan and Fair Trade Certified products. Marie has appeared on CNN, ABC, National Public Radio, QVC, WUSA, WNBC, KCAL, KOVR, Home & Garden Television (HGTV), FINE LIVING, TECH TV, and Discovery Channel.
Vegetarian since 1971; vegan since 1990, Marie left a career in TV advertising to pursue her interest in food, health, and nutrition. Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, she studied psychology at St. Joseph’s University. Marie is a gourmet cook and organic gardener living in California, writing her 5th book and hiking every day with Travis, her Yellow Lab companion.
Cherl Petso is the Associate Editor at Disaboom.com, an online magazine for people with disabilities. Her writing expertise includes articles about the environment and sustainable living, and vegan/vegetarian issues. A vegetarian for 16 years and a recent vegan, Cherl is passionate about animal rights and issues. She enjoys writing about simple ways to lessen the impact on the Earth.
Cherl recently moved to Denver, Colorado from Bellingham, Washington. She enjoys hiking and hanging out with her puppy.
Nathanial Manning works for the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) as a Regional Analyst for Asia. He focuses on two programs for CCI, the Green Building Retrofit program and the Waste Management program. Nathaniel recently graduated from Brown University as an Environmental Studies Masters student, specializing in sustainable design and international carbon policy. Nat also completed a Bachelor of Arts in World Religions at Brown, focusing on the philosophy of ethics and the intersection between religion and politics. He is completing his Masters thesis on clean-technology-transfer within the UN's carbon credit mechanism (the CDM), which allows developed countries to invest in carbon mitigating technologies in developing countries with the purpose of promoting sustainable development.
Nathaniel has a long history of involvement in environmental development work ranging from waste-to-energy entrepreneurial ventures to designing sustainable homes for the Guatemalan chapter of Habitat for Humanity, to working for a tidal energy engineering firm in Singapore. Nat's passion is in how intelligent innovative solutions and technologies can be applied to create a sustainable and free world. When Nat thinks of the word "green" he does not just think of the word "environment" but how we as humans can design systems and solutions that create win-win situations.
Robert Cowin is a political consultant for environmental NGOs. His nomadic childhood reveals a world-class carpetbagger, but he masks as a Texan-New Yorker hybrid. Formerly with the National Environmental Trust (now the Pew Environment Group) in DC, he’s spent time on Capital Hill advocating for Kyoto ratification, clean air, renewable energy technology, and green energy policy.
Robert has also worked on marine conservation issues, directing the Conserve Our Ocean Legacy coalition in the Mid-Atlantic States which successfully worked to help strengthen and reauthorize the Magnuson Steven’s Act. He now happily lives in Southern California, flying back east often as he finishes his Masters in International Relations at Tufts University’s Fletcher School.
Dayanti Karunaratne is a freelance journalist based in Canada's capital city, Ottawa.
Since graduating from Carleton University's journalism program in 2006, Karunaratne has worked on the news desk at the Port Hope Evening Guide, the Ottawa Citizen, and the Molokai Times. Karunaratne's writing appears in the Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Magazine, the Globe and Mail, and other lifestyle publications.
Heather O'Neill is the founder of Eco to the People, a green living blog.
Before founding Eco to the People, Heather O’Neill wore so many hats in the field of journalism that even the Queen Mother would envy her collection. She has worked as the managing editor of a beauty trade magazine; as a copy editor for an online tech magazine; as the associate editor of a city magazine and as a newspaper reporter and columnist, and as the senior editor at the popular online newsletter ecofabulous.
Her work has appeared in many publications, including Parenting, Alternative Medicine, Natural Solutions, Marin Magazine, Greenwich Magazine and HOME.
Heather earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from California College of the Arts. She lives and works in San Francisco.
Sarah Palin considers herself an expert on energy policy. Moreover, John McCain considers her an expert on energy policy. He’s stated on many occasions that her chief responsibility as vice-president will be to spearhead our energy policy and forge the path to American energy independence. In her first major policy speech on energy, Governor Palin today said that “we have the resources to be energy independent.”
If we are talking about human resources and ability, I completely agree. Americans indeed, have the technological ingenuity and can-do spirit to be energy independent. But unfortunately, I think Governor Palin was referring to oil and natural gas resources. Perhaps someone ought to tell her that there are two very important reasons why we can’t “drill” our way to energy independence:
1) we simply don’t have a big enough domestic oil and natural gas supply
2) the climate crisis is far too serious to continue to rely on fossil fuels
According to the 2008 BP Statistical Review of World Energy the US has 2.4% of the world’s proven oil reserves, but consumes 24% of the world’s oil. It also shows that the US has 3.4% of the world’s proven natural gas reserves, but consumes 22.6% of the world’s natural gas.
These are the facts. It’s irresponsible to assert, or even imply that the United States can ever produce enough oil or natural gas from domestic reserves to meet our demand. If “drill baby drill” constitutes the bulk of Governor Palin’s energy policy it’s not much of an energy policy. We simply don’t have it, and I am disturbed by her statements to the contrary because they’re misleading at best.
James Hansen, one of the world’s foremost climatologists and head of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, estimates that at current carbon output levels, the world has approximately 10 years before we reach a “tipping point” and global warming permanently exceeds the reaches of man’s control. If the climate crisis is even half as serious as Dr. Hansen asserts, we should be doing as much as we possibly can to move towards renewable and low-carbon energy production. “But Palin made only a passing reference to solar power in her speech and instead renewed her call for more drilling in US coastal waters.”
This type of posturing may be politically expedient, but it lacks substance as an energy policy. In fact, it’s down right irresponsible given the reality of US domestic oil and natural gas supplies, and the seriousness of the climate crisis.
Someone should tell Mr.Cowin that there is more oil in Alaska then in all of Saudi Arabia. I don’t know what he believes, but alternative fuels aren’t ready to power this country. I’d much rather see my dollars go to hard working American drillers than terrorists in the Middle East. John McCain and Sara Palin want to build an energy bridge to the future where alternative fuels may be ready to take over. But in todays dangerous climate, we can’t wait for alternative energy sources to mature. We need to get off foreign oil soon. I know America is a wonderful place, but it isn’t fantasy land. There are certain facts of life that need to be recognized and addressed with practical solutions, not windmills and solar panals. These things may work on the scifi channel and in Hollywood, but not here on Earth. I bet your California dreamin………..
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Someone should tell Mr.Cowin that there is more oil in Alaska then in all of Saudi Arabia. I don’t know what he believes, but alternative fuels aren’t ready to power this country. I’d much rather see my dollars go to hard working American drillers than terrorists in the Middle East. John McCain and Sara Palin want to build an energy bridge to the future where alternative fuels may be ready to take over. But in todays dangerous climate, we can’t wait for alternative energy sources to mature. We need to get off foreign oil soon. I know America is a wonderful place, but it isn’t fantasy land. There are certain facts of life that need to be recognized and addressed with practical solutions, not windmills and solar panals. These things may work on the scifi channel and in Hollywood, but not here on Earth. I bet your California dreamin………..