Distributed by the Green Party of the United Sates, http://www.gp.org)
For Immediate Release
May 9, 2012
Contact: Ryan D. Harbage
Tel: (347) 470-0210
Email: [email protected]
INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED ENVIRONMENTALIST LAUNCHES RUN FOR U.S.
CONGRESS CITING NEED FOR MASSIVE REORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT AND
BUSINESS TO DEAL WITH WORLD CRISES
A New York City author whose book and documentary film No Impact Man
helped bring climate change into popular consciousness today announces
his candidacy for the United States House of Representatives. Colin
Beavan PhD will run on the Green Party ticket in New York’s 8th
Congressional District, following the vacancy left by the retirement
of Representative Edolphus Towns.
Beavan rose to prominence as a spokesman for the international
environmental movement after worldwide press and media interest
followed the release of his film and book. His campaign, citing
“growing world crises” in climate, environment, economics, and energy
production, calls for a complete change in priorities including an end
to consumption-based economics, massive decentralization of government
and business, and huge investment in local communities.
“The economic system is supposed to make people safer and happier, but
it can no longer do that because it wasn’t designed to deal with our
new planetary crises,” says Beavan. “The tired old
Democratic/Republican debate over taxation isn’t going to fix it. We
need to create a new, more stable system based on investment in people
and local communities instead of shareholders and corporations. We
have to face up to climate change, the end of oil, and the failure of
consumption to make people happy. Robust local economies help solve
all these problems.”
Government investment in local businesses creates ten times more jobs
than investment at the national level. Local economies have lower
reliance on foreign oil and create less climate pollution. Creating
conditions to allow people, talent and profits to stay within their
communities lowers crime, increases access to education and provides
support to at-risk populations like children and the elderly.
“We have a crazy system where our communities’ human and financial
capital are siphoned away by far-away corporations and government.
Then, we beg the same institutions to send us jobs and services. What
if we strengthened our communities and didn’t have to send our wealth
away in the first place? We’d have healthier communities, happy and
safer people, much less crime and a greater quality of life for all.”
Colin Beavan’s campaign organization is an all-volunteer group of
citizens who have decided to leave their previous party affiliations
out of disillusionment with the lack of solution-based conversation in
American politics. Beavan’s campaign will issue a series of policy
positions in the coming weeks, all of which will be based on
strengthening community health, happiness and security in the 8th
Congressional District. The campaign will launch a series of listening
meetings, to solicit the views of the community in two weeks.
Meanwhile, basic campaign policies, based on strengthening local
community include:
• Corporate money out of politics
• A constitutional amendment making the right to vote inalienable
• Massive voter registration and civic engagement promotion
• Keeping youth out of prison (treatment not incarceration)
• An end to stop and frisk
• Food stamps for use at farmer’s markets
• Tax breaks for sole proprietorships
• Massive shift of military spending towards education
• U.S. leadership on climate change mitigation and adaptation
• Community-based assisted living programs for the elderly
• Encouragement of service rather than product-based economies
• Prioritizing human connection before goods consumption
The non-electoral goals of Beavan’s campaign include:
• Instigating conversation about emergent world issues effectively
ignored by Democrats and Republicans
• Modeling civility and cooperation in politics
• Massive voter registration
• By running a volunteer campaign organization, modeling renewed civic
participation to community, nation, and world
• Promoting community self-determination
All the relevant documentation has been filed with Federal Elections
Commission to make Beavan’s candidacy official. He is uncontested in
his congressional district’s Green Party primary and will go straight
to general election in November. The Green Party’s ballot status in
New York State means his name will appear on the ballot.
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Colin Beavan rose to prominence as a spokesperson on environmental and
quality of life issues after his year-long experiment in extreme
environmental living, No Impact Man, exploded in the international
media. He is the founder and executive director of No Impact Project,
an international non-profit that empowers citizens to make choices
that support the planet, their communities, and help them live a
happier, healthier life.
A long-time activist, he sits on the board of directors of New York
City’s Transportation Alternatives, and is on the advisory councils of
Just Food and 350.org , a global organization dedicated to solving the
climate crisis. Prior to becoming a champion of the environment, Colin
earned his PhD at the University of Liverpool, spent a decade helping
social housing providers, drug treatment agencies and hospitals get
funding, and wrote books.
The campaign website is at http://www.votecolin.org.
Hi-res images can be found at http://www.votecolin.org/media
For further information or to arrange an interview with Colin Beavan,
please contact Ryan Harbage at (347) 470-0210 or [email protected].
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/252016/october-08-2009/colin-beavan
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/84653/april-09-2007/colin-beavan
http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/
http://www.noimpactdoc.com/index_m.php
http://us.macmillan.com/noimpactman/ColinBeavan
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