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.
When I ask friends why they don’t vote, I always get one of two answers:
1) “I don’t like either of them.”
2) “My vote doesn’t count anyway.”
I understand the frustration of having to choose between two politicians whose lips are spouting misleading statements when they’re not kissing babies. Indeed, presidential campaigns more closely resemble the circus than a democratic process. And the primary process often produces the lowest common denominator because the party machinery tends to support party hacks who fit their mold, even when another candidate is more popular nationally (see John McCain in 2000). But this is no excuse not to vote.
In life we are faced with choosing between the “lesser of two evils” all the time. Do the in-laws stay with us, or do we spring for the hotel? Do you swallow that last bite which is going to make you feel uncomfortable or do you let it go to waste? Do you wear deodorant that you know they haven’t done enough studies on to know if it’s safe, or do you alienate your co-workers. My point is that life is filled with imperfect choices and we do the best we can with what’s put in front of us. Neither candidate may be ideal, or even be close to the person that you’d want to see lead the country, but if the last 8 years have taught us anything, they’ve taught us that things can always be worse. There is a candidate that will do a better job running the country, even if only slightly better, and it is incumbent on all of us to do the best we can to determine who that person is.
In the Congress, our representatives have the choice to vote yey, nay, or present (usually when it’s politically expedient). There’s another name for voting present … it’s called pushing the “chicken” button, and constituents don’t like it. We expect our representatives to stand up and vote, even when it’s difficult. But if we expect our leadership to make the tough choices, we must also expect it of ourselves. We must set the example for them by putting our doubts and concerns aside and doing what is necessary to make democracy work. Only then will we be able to demand with impunity that they do the same.
I also understand the frustration with the Electoral College voting system. Because I live in California, why should my vote count any less in determining who the next president is than someone voting in Ohio? There’s something inherently anti-Democratic about it. Why doesn’t the popular vote determine who wins? Of course we have a proud history of defending States rights in this country, and the Electoral College system was set up to safe guard people who live in less populated areas from being frozen out of election process.
While this is important, it has the effect of raising the value of one person’s vote over another given geography. I’m not going to defend the Electoral College system because I have real problems with it, but it’s simply not true to say that your vote doesn’t count. We all have local elections that are important and I guarantee you that your vote will directly affect who your Congressman is, or who your Senator is. These are the guys that ought to be subjected to the judgment of the voters, but congressional voting turnout in off-year elections is under 50%. In many cases, these guys get free rides back to Capital Hill where they can continue to doing a poor job. If for no other reason, you must vote in presidential elections so that you can choose your local representation. And believe me, these people are the ones who are going to make more of the decisions that directly affect your life.
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I heard you can use a rock for deodorant. Does that really work or is it hippie legend?