HeadCount Blog

What do you get when you mix four White House cabinet members, a slew of campaign-workers-turned-staffers, and 120 or so young climate activists? Something to tell your grandkids about.

I had the privilege of attending the White House’s Clean Energy Economy Forum yesterday. The name doesn’t quite reveal the nature of the event. Most of the people in the invite-only audience were under 30 and a few hadn’t reached drinking age. It was a peace offering of sorts from President Obama’s top advisers to young leaders in the environmental movement, many of whom were rapidly turning on the administration for seemingly not making energy policy a priority.

More specifically, the meeting was spurred by a “demand” (I hate that word, but it seemed to work here) from the Energy Action Coalition, an amalgam of 50 youth-oriented environmental groups. The EAC launched It’s Game Time, Obama to insist that the President meet with young people to discuss climate change and attend the U.N. Climate Change Summit this month in Copenhagen. There has been little movement on climate change since the House passed a controversial energy bill in June, and Obama was fairly silent on the issue until the last two weeks. That also spurred EAC executive director Jessy Tolkan took to the Huffington Post to assail Obama the president and Obama the candidate for wearing two different faces on energy policy.

The White House was livid. So livid that they invited everyone over to talk it out.

Wait a second. Are we talking about government being responsive to the people? Could the administration care what critics have to say? Does it actually want to have an open dialogue with activist groups? Is this really happening?

I can tell you as an eye witness that it is, at least on the surface. And after spending three and a half hours at this potentially historic meeting, I’m fairly convinced it goes beyond rhetoric. The administration appears to be making an earnest attempt to reclaim young Americans – particularly socially and environmentally conscious young Americans – as a core base of support. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, while on the way to see Phish in Philadelphia, I got an unexpected email from…the White House.

We would like to invite you to join us for a Clean Energy Economy Forum to discuss the important role young leaders have in creating and sharing this opportunity. The event will bring together emerging leaders from non-profits, businesses, and community groups along with experts from federal agencies, members of the Cabinet, and White House officials to engage in a dialogue.

So, I guess some people at the White House heard that nearly 75% of the people we registered voted in the last election. They also probably realize that if they want to get popular support behind initiatives like climate change, the music community is a good place to start.

A few more emails started coming in. The next was from a key environmental group, the Energy Action Coalition, inviting me to a brainstorming and strategy session of youth-oriented leaders attending the White House meeting, which is Wednesday afternoon.

It’s no coincidence that this is all happening now. The U.N. Climate Change Summit is in Copenhagen next week and President Obama has vowed to go there and work toward an international agreement. If he succeeds, and Congress backs him up, we will take the most important steps in history toward averting a climate crises. If he fails, or can’t win popular support at home, many scientists say we’re about to reach the point of no return.

You may say, “HeadCount and climate change. Huh?” Well, actually we’ve been working behind the scenes with JamBase and artists like Dave Matthews Band and Pearl Jam to launch an initiative called “Music for Action” that will encourage fans to speak out on climate change. We also devote a page of our website to Sustainability and Climate Change – one of six issues we’ve tackled in 2009.

It’s exciting to know that people of influence recognize the impact HeadCount and the music community can have on the issues facing our country. We are still strictly nonpartisan and our message remains the same: “Make Your Voice Heard.” What’s changed is that our message is now pertinent 365 days a year, not just on Election Day.

We’re also fostering discussion about health care in the music community, through a poll and an upcoming series of articles on this blog.

We have big plans for the midterm elections next year, directly tying our Get Out the Vote effort to the key issues we’ve been working on.

I will report back from the White House meeting and let you know about our next key steps as an organization. Thank you for all your support, this year and in years past. If you have any thoughts or insights that might be helpful in preparing for the White House meeting, feel free to pass them along. I can be reached at andyb@headcount.org

The meeting will be webcast here at 4 p.m. EST on Wednesday, December 2, if you want to check it out.

Federal agents raided Gibson Guitars‘ Nashville factory yesterday, seizing wood, guitars, computers and files. Sources told the Nashville Post that Gibson is suspected of violating the Lacey Act by helping to illegally import Madagascar rosewood into the U.S. via Germany.

Clearcut logging has destroyed thousands of acres of lemur habitat unique to the island, threatening the animal with extinction. Scott Paul, director of Greenpeace’s forest campaign, defended the company’s record to The Tennessean, saying, “Historically, Gibson has shown an awful lot of leadership; they are one of the manufacturers far ahead of the field.” The raid, he says, “proves that even if you’re very serious about buying only certified, well-managed supplies, it’s still possible to get caught up….There are a lot of middle men between the guitar manufacturer and the company that is logging the ground [and] a lot of people who are not that honest in the timber business worldwide.”

Madagascar, an island off the east coast of Africa, is home to 47 types of rosewood and a uniquely diverse blend of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. This includes 88 species of lemur, an animal the Malagasy people have traditionally regarded as sacred. Rosewood sells for $5,000 per cubic meter. Despite strong opposition from environmental groups, the new president of the financially strapped nation, Andry Rajoelina, issued an executive order in September legalizing the export of rosewood and ebony. Read the rest of this entry »

On July 16, Wal-Mart announced that it will require all of its product suppliers to calculate the environmental impact of their products. Wal-Mart will compile the information into a green rating system to be displayed alongside the product’s price tag.

Since Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer, this move will certainly set an important example for other companies. Alex Salkever of Daily Finance characterized the move’s impact here:

Wal-Mart has done something huge here, something amazing that the environmental movement has failed to do in forty years of struggles. Wal-Mart has forced transparency and accountability on the entire consumer products market, a move that will have profound and long-ranging effects not only on what we buy but also on what chemicals go into our homes, our bodies, and ultimately into our ecosystem. In other words, if this plan goes through, Wal-Mart could become the greenest company on Earth.

Some drawbacks: expect prices on these products to rise because it costs money to track and report this information.  Also, you’ll feel weird saying nice things about Wal-Mart.