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.
The decision by Supreme Court Justice David Souter to step down from the bench may not be as game changing as it seems at first blush.
Although Justice Souter was nominated by George H.W. Bush in the hopes of getting a conservative on the bench, his voting record since has been that of a centrist and a real disappointment to the right. His decision to step down in Obama’s first year in office, rather than moving the decision up to the end of the Bush presidency, would seem to confirm his allegiances.
The fact that it may not completely swing the balance of power on the Supreme Court does not mean, however, that deciding on a replacement to Souter is not an extremely important decision for Obama’s administration.
During his time in office George W. Bush managed to get two young, ultra-conservative judges appointed to the US Supreme Court. These young, like-minded justices ensure that President Bush’s legacy will endure over the coming decades, even as his Presidency is remembered as the most pathetic in American history.
Obama supporters are pressuring the President to get a similarly strong liberal judge appointed to the court. Since 7 of the 9 Supreme Court Justices are white males, there is also strong pressure for Obama to nominate a female and/or a minority. To his credit, Obama has gone out of his way to declare that merit will be the deciding factor in his nominee, emphasizing “empathy” and the law’s impacts on people’s daily realities.
During last year’s Presidential election US News and World Reports cited a paper by Richard Posner and William Landes which found that four of the five most conservative Supreme Court Justices since Franklin Roosevelt’s Presidency currently sit on the bench (Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, and Alito). Another, Anthony Kennedy, finished 10th most conservative. Although Souter and the next two Justices expected to depart (Ginsberg and Stevens) are viewed as centerists or lefties, if President Obama ends up making three appointments during his time in office he can shape the make-up of the court for the next generation.
Obama’s nominee to replace Souter (and any further nominees he makes) can have a profound effect on the environment. In 2007 the court ruled that the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Clean Air Act, but by a slim 5-4 margin. This means that there are four justices sitting on the Supreme Court who do not believe the Environmental Protection Agency has the right to protect the environment… four global warming deniers.
The Supreme Court has a history of setting precedents which act as catalysts to socio-political progress in the United States for several generations afterward: a notable example is Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, which paved the way for desegregation.
Environmental issues are likely to play a large political role in the coming decades, as greenhouse gas concentrations reach critical mass while technological advances and political willpower make environmentally sustainable development a real possibility.
Obama’s nomination to replace Souter can play a huge part in ensuring that the Supreme Court enables progress on environmentally sustainable development, rather than holding it up.
Great post, this is a big deal. Maybe you could do a post on the nominees once they’re announced? I’d like to know where they stand environmentally
Terry Waltham
May 7, 2009 11am EDT
woah I didn’t know about the 5-4 decision on GHG regulation. That’s scary. Here’s hoping Obama picks someone who won’t politicize the Court. Seems pretty unlikely…
Tarek
May 7, 2009 1pm EDT
Four of our supreme court justices deny global warming? THAT is scary.
Jake P
May 27, 2009 4pm EDT
Here’s to hoping Sotomayer’s green! I’d love to hear your thoughts on Sonia if you have any insight Ted
Ed Campbell
May 31, 2009 4pm EDT
Should this be raised at this time?
The First cannon of judicial ethics says:
A JUDGE SHALL UPHOLD THE INDEPENDENCE AND INTEGRITY OF THE JUDICIARY, SHALL PERFORM THE DUTIES OF THE OFFICE IMPARTIALLY, AND SHALL AVOID IMPROPRIETY AND THE APPEARANCE OF IMPROPRIETY IN ALL OF THE JUDGE’S ACTIVITIES .
RULE 1.01: PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN THE JUDICIARY
A judge shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the independence,* integrity,* and impartiality* of the judiciary.
I do not find any fault in the current nominee to the United States Supreme Court for being a woman, a Latino, for having made remarks on her qualifications as superior to the qualifications of any Caucasian. I would hope she is environmentally friendly, But I do find fault with her appointment violating the spirit of the first cannon of Judicial Ethics, that a judge should appear impartial. Litigants will be hesitant to turn to courts where the Justices appear stacked against them and this undermines the rule of law. Judge Sonia Sotomayor would become the sixth Roman Catholic justice on the Supreme Court. There are only nine of them, so that would mean that two thirds of the Justices, 66+%, would be Roman Catholic in a country where less that 25% of the population practices that religion. That religion predisposes its members, by life long training, faith, and in some cases, rule, to take certain positions that are likely to come up for hearing before the court. Any Appointee will not commit before they go onto the bench what position they may take in a case, but the appearance is there, however they may deny this will influence their rulings. The very appearance of six Roman Catholic Justices on the court gives the appearance to all litigants that if they appear on one side of those issues, be if choice, school prayer, school vouchers or other issues, they will not get a fair hearing. Of course, with the church’s and Popes stand on capital punishment, some might be inclined to support such a person in hopes of abolishing the death penalty. Only one Roman Catholic Justice on some of these issues has taken a position not supported by the church. I believe this is a far more important consideration than any other and should bar Judge Sotomayor from being confirmed by the Senate, no matter how good of a Judge she has been and how worthy of the position she may otherwise be. In fact, I believe it should have prompted her to decline the nomination at this time and should prompt her to withdraw. It is just not the appropriate time to appoint one more Roman Catholic to the court and preserve the diversity of the court in representing the religious views of this country. It appears to threaten the first amendment’s freedom of religion that is so much a bedrock of our society. I know these remarks are politically incorrect but feel they must be made.
Ed Campbell
.
JakeP
July 6, 2009 3pm EDT
Valid points Ed. I share your concern with having another Roman Catholic appointed. Not because of the Roman Catholic belief’s, but because when the court is too heavy in any one demographic (race, sex, religion, etc.) it is not necessarily reflecting the US appropriately. That being said, it is difficult to have a perfect mix, so if we can add an intelligent woman who has a history of taking into account all religions when she votes, I think it’s a solid nominee.
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Great post, this is a big deal. Maybe you could do a post on the nominees once they’re announced? I’d like to know where they stand environmentally
woah I didn’t know about the 5-4 decision on GHG regulation. That’s scary. Here’s hoping Obama picks someone who won’t politicize the Court. Seems pretty unlikely…
Four of our supreme court justices deny global warming? THAT is scary.
Here’s to hoping Sotomayer’s green! I’d love to hear your thoughts on Sonia if you have any insight Ted
Should this be raised at this time?
The First cannon of judicial ethics says:
A JUDGE SHALL UPHOLD THE INDEPENDENCE AND INTEGRITY OF THE JUDICIARY, SHALL PERFORM THE DUTIES OF THE OFFICE IMPARTIALLY, AND SHALL AVOID IMPROPRIETY AND THE APPEARANCE OF IMPROPRIETY IN ALL OF THE JUDGE’S ACTIVITIES .
RULE 1.01: PROMOTING CONFIDENCE IN THE JUDICIARY
A judge shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the independence,* integrity,* and impartiality* of the judiciary.
I do not find any fault in the current nominee to the United States Supreme Court for being a woman, a Latino, for having made remarks on her qualifications as superior to the qualifications of any Caucasian. I would hope she is environmentally friendly, But I do find fault with her appointment violating the spirit of the first cannon of Judicial Ethics, that a judge should appear impartial. Litigants will be hesitant to turn to courts where the Justices appear stacked against them and this undermines the rule of law. Judge Sonia Sotomayor would become the sixth Roman Catholic justice on the Supreme Court. There are only nine of them, so that would mean that two thirds of the Justices, 66+%, would be Roman Catholic in a country where less that 25% of the population practices that religion. That religion predisposes its members, by life long training, faith, and in some cases, rule, to take certain positions that are likely to come up for hearing before the court. Any Appointee will not commit before they go onto the bench what position they may take in a case, but the appearance is there, however they may deny this will influence their rulings. The very appearance of six Roman Catholic Justices on the court gives the appearance to all litigants that if they appear on one side of those issues, be if choice, school prayer, school vouchers or other issues, they will not get a fair hearing. Of course, with the church’s and Popes stand on capital punishment, some might be inclined to support such a person in hopes of abolishing the death penalty. Only one Roman Catholic Justice on some of these issues has taken a position not supported by the church. I believe this is a far more important consideration than any other and should bar Judge Sotomayor from being confirmed by the Senate, no matter how good of a Judge she has been and how worthy of the position she may otherwise be. In fact, I believe it should have prompted her to decline the nomination at this time and should prompt her to withdraw. It is just not the appropriate time to appoint one more Roman Catholic to the court and preserve the diversity of the court in representing the religious views of this country. It appears to threaten the first amendment’s freedom of religion that is so much a bedrock of our society. I know these remarks are politically incorrect but feel they must be made.
Ed Campbell
.
Valid points Ed. I share your concern with having another Roman Catholic appointed. Not because of the Roman Catholic belief’s, but because when the court is too heavy in any one demographic (race, sex, religion, etc.) it is not necessarily reflecting the US appropriately. That being said, it is difficult to have a perfect mix, so if we can add an intelligent woman who has a history of taking into account all religions when she votes, I think it’s a solid nominee.