I will be one of three featured speakers on the EPA’s national webcast on Dec. 3rd, sharing how to engage the public in stormwater management through an effective initiative: 10,000 Rain Gardens. Already there are more than 700 reservations for the webcast, about 50% better than a recent webcast.

The campaign for hearts and minds in Kansas City will be my focus. I will share the television ads featuring Mayor Kay Barnes and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II. Afterwards the resources we share include the now active green YouTube,  World Goin’ Green , and the 10,000 Rain Gardens website that Judy Allmon did such a terrific job producing last spring.

Mayor Kay Barnes and officials announce the Black & Veatch rain garden, Kansas City

This town has so many fascinating faces. With Steve Lawton I took a wonderful walking tour of Pacific Heights, learning the history of San Francisco’s “painted ladies”. These Victorian homes are a symbol of San Francisco in the same way that the Golden Gate bridge, the Presidio, the bay and the marina capture other dimensions. We saw hundreds of Victorians on a glorious 78 degree day, savored the full moon over Union Square, shopped at Gump’s, took a 350Z convertible quickly around the bends to Muir Woods, bought macadamia nuts and pears by the side of the road above Sausalito, ate seafood on the water, and talked politics with cabdrivers.

We visited Steve’s longtime friends, Joe and Ashley Criscione, who are pictured above as we toured their private vineyard in Napa Valley. They make the best wine no money can buy, and the 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon they gave me has since won rave reviews from singers and artists in Kansas City, Bukeka Shoals and Brigid Greene.

Obama sign in SF window

After Bukeka had one glass of the Criscione’s private label wine, Bukeka belted out her signature song, “I Am Worthy of Love” at my kitchen table, and I saw the molecules in the glass actually dancing!

We decided she should sing this song at the Obama inaugural, and I believe she will.

Oh yes, and we did something I’ve wanted to do on a dozen trips past and never had the time or the connections to pull it off.  Steve got us reservations on a Friday night at Chez Panisse, where we had the most fabulous five course meal at Alice Waters’ restaurant in Berkley.
Chez Panisse is where the simple food movement began in America several decades ago.

I have now purchaased  ”The Art of Simple Food”, but don’t worry, that  doesn’t mean I will learn to cook. I’m giving it as a  wedding gift to my daughter-in-law Kim’s sister, Carrie Cronin, at next week’s shower.

Paul Hawken (author of “Blessed Unrest”) and Jack Canfield, of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame, both addressed the crowd. But of course, Lynne Twist stole the show. She is one of the most open-hearted and charismatic women on the planet, and she can squeeze money out of a banker in an economic crisis, I’m certain of it. 

I was invited to the luncheon by Elizabeth Murray, who I met at the Children & Nature Network meeting in Nebraska in September. Go to her website to see the most beautiful images of Monet’s garden, which she has been instrumental in restoring and documenting for the past 25 years. Liz couldn’t be there and had graciously arranged for me to be at a table hosted by my new friends, Jody and Noel. We had a delightful afternoon getting to know each other, and I found myself warmly embraced by this former Disney landscape designer (Jody) and her British beau, Noel. 

The highlight of the luncheon was meeting the leader of the Anchuar rain forest tribe afterwards and having my picture taken with him. The Pachamama Alliance’s efforts to preserve the planet’s vital heart has had amazing results, including policy now written into the constitution of Ecuador that gives legal rights to nature. The Achuar tribe has built an eco-lodge and now has an airplane (thanks to a $100,000 donation from Jack Canfield and his wife) in order to encourage travelers to visit and experience the rain forest firsthand.

In the lobby after the luncheon, while reaching for a brownie, I found myself nose to nose with another Kansas Citian, June Holte. I had last seen her a month before at Obama headquarters in KC, and we met when I brought Majora Carter to town as our second speaker in the “Conversations on the Environment” series. Turns out June is one of the top trainers for Pachamama Alliance. She introduced me to everyone!

He uses natural light well, and can capture high-speed sporting events or quick kids in their element. My third son, Taylor is a full-time student at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he plays basketball and studies photography and videography. I recently received a phone call from America’s Funniest Videos, and they plan to use one of his submissions in a future show.

Curious?

Mouth-watering product photography

Carrotmob, originating in San Francisco, is spanning across the globe, with Kansas City heading up the most recent mob effort.

Carrotmob’s goal is to improve the world by helping companies embrace socially responsible choices. The primary focus is the environment. Historically, the fact that corporations must keep profit as their top priority, has meant that the environment has suffered, since companies have made more money by harming the planet. Recognizing this, Carrotmob campaigns are designed to put rewards in place that will make environmental responsibility the more profitable choice. Companies will make the environmentally responsible choice, not because of negative pressure, or morality, or a boycott, or a petition…there are enough sticks out there. This is a big juicy carrot. They will make the right choice because they won’t be able to resist the profits.

This fall, Carrotmob KC, a group of passionate citizens, approached 15 different Midtown and area businesses with an interesting proposal. “We’ll bring a mob of paying customers, if you commit the highest percentage of revenue to going green.” This piqued a lot of interest, and a bidding war between the Midtown stores ensued. When the dust settled, Ed Sachs, owner of World of Spirits (1722 W. 39th St.) won with a high bid of 24%! This means that on Tuesday October 21st, 2008, 24% of the gross revenue collected between the hours of 5 and 10 p.m. will be used to make this business more energy efficient. If you don’t buy booze, you can purchase food and donate it to Harvesters, making your dollar 124% all for good. This is easy activism. 

The mob is still forming and in need of as many people as possible to show up for the event and support this business for making a huge commitment to the environment. Check out our video news release at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jGl6KfGtvs to get even a better idea of what Carrotmob KC is doing. Everyone wins. The consumer wins because they are buying stuff they normally would buy anyway except this time 24% of their dollar goes to reduce our carbon footprint, the business wins because they will make a lot of money and save money in the long run from the improvements they make to their store, and for that - the planet wins.

Show the world that you care about our planet and join the mob. Visit carrotmobkc.com where you’ll find all details along with a link to the Facebook group so that you can receive notifications and help spread the word.

Thanks, Babette 
816.260.0093

One of our economy’s liberators arrived last week in Missouri, a bell-weather state in this year’s presidential election, and  to loud applause Senator Joe Biden told an enthusiastic crowd of more than a thousand people that it’s time to “STAND UP FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS”.

We rose to our feet, cheering the end of the Bush era, one of the most dismal in our nation’s history. Afterwards, Joe worked the rope line for nearly an hour, stopping to have his picture taken with everyone who asked. He met John McGurk’s mom, and started his presentation by jogging around the podium and hugging Dutch Newman, whom he called “an old girlfriend of mine”. I’ve never seen Dutch glow quite as much as she did that warm afternoon at William Jewell College.

In talking to one of the secret service agents as we awaited our turn at the rail with Joe, we learned that Joe Biden is just as approachable and down to earth behind the scenes as he is in front of the cameras. In fact, the agent said he’s just a regular Joe, as genuine and real as anyone this 30-year career agent had ever met.

One of the lines that got people laughing was when he referred to the other vice presidential candidate. “Sarah Palin likes to say she was in second grade when I was elected to the United States Senate at the age of 29,” he said with a big grin. “Well, she was in 6^th grade the last time John McCain had a new idea!” 

He referred to McCain “lurching” from one idea to the next, continuing the policy of the Bush Doctrine by constantly shooting from the hip. In reviewing the policies of an Obama/Biden administration, I was pleased to hear him make a pitch for the new green economy, describing the need for green jobs that cannot be shipped overseas, and reminding us that Americans are innovators and entrepreneurs who can help tackle climate change with the same vigor that we used in launching the technological revolution.

Afterwards I spoke with Sam Myers, a northeast Missouri family friend who handles media advance work for Biden. He said they are feeling the bubbling up of hope at every stop, and people seem to be energized now more than ever.

Missouri may hold the key.

Kim and Lynn Hinkle work precinct in Missouri

Today, thousands gathered in the space between
the Gem Theatre and the Jazz and Negro Baseball
Museums, and there were so many people crammed
into the space that it was a sea of faces for
three blocks. 

As the crowd waited on a beautiful
fall day for Michelle Obama to take the stage
beneath the largest American flag I've ever
seen, I listened to the mothers who had brought
their children, the young people taking photos,
and the community organizers who held clipboards
with Voter Registration forms. 

The excitement in their voices was somewhat muted, until Michelle stepped on stage in a
red dress (my, Buck O'Neill is smiling in heaven at this sight!). 

Now it was urgent that people find a spot to see her in the flesh.
The television cameras and press stage were directly ahead of us, and unless a
cameraman straddled his tripod, we couldn't see Michelle a half a block away. 

Two elderly ladies in their suits were desperate to catch a glimpse.
Several of us moved aside and helped point the way through the legs and signs
and other obstacles. "There. There she is!"

The smiles of deep contentment on these sixty year old faces would have lit up a stadium.
Then it hit me. For them, the generation that came before us and survived the blatant
racism that counted their lives as less than mine, this is nothing short of a miracle.
To think they lived to see the day that a young African American woman would stand up
on a stage and ask them to vote for her husband for President of the United States
was a day they thought was in the distant future. 

As Barack Obama said in a speech I witnessed earlier this week in Washington, D.C.,
this is the moment when children stand on the shoulders of those who came before.

In this crowd in Kansas City, on this day, children were literally standing on the
shoulders of their parents to catch a glimpse of Michelle Obama. Unforgettable.

Lynn Hinkle

Daniel Schorr and Lynn Hinkle

When I hear that sonorous voice of Daniel Schorr rumbling through the airwaves on NPR, I stop what I am doing and pay attention; I know I am about to be enlightened. A man of courage and conviction who speaks truth to power, no matter the consequences, the words of Daniel Schorr have had a tremendous impact on our nation. The Edward R. Murrow-trained CBS journalist was on President Richard Nixon’s Enemy List in the 1970’s and is now nine decades into his prime…but let me tell you, he’s still got it.

I was in Washington D.C. for the Congressional Black

Caucus Annual Dinner and spent Saturday morning walking the Mall

with my coffee when I stumbled upon the Library of Congress National

Book Festival underway on a rainy day under big white tents. In one

glorious afternoon I listened to Eleanor Clift, Bob Schieffer, Cokie Roberts,

US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, and the truth-teller, Daniel Schorr..

Bob Schieffer 

Come to think of it, Daniel Schorr is more than my hero, he is the
conscience of a nation.

Lauren holds the first watermelon of the season

Smack dab in the middle of the country is the Arbor Day Foundation in Nebraska City, complete with a fabulous lodge and extensive grounds 
where people who care about kids and nature can explore what’s next on
the horizon. The eco-friendly playgrounds here are designed to bring
out the creativity inherent in children, and there’s not a monkey bar in sight.

Tree houses and marimbas are part of one naturally designed play area that cost one-third of the typical $100,000 playground, and the children
I observed there were happy to discover amazing things without asphalt separating them from the earth. The butterflies and worms and frogs were part of the fun! At the close of the second annual conference on Sept. 19, Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods” and founder of Children & Nature Network, announced that a bill to “Leave No Child Inside” had been passed in the US House of Representatives. Cheers erupted from the educators, parks and wildlife experts, health experts, parents and community organizers, all of whom had gathered together at the site where the first Arbor Day inspired the planting of one million trees in Nebraska on April 22, 1885.

The national movement envisioned by so many in the room was beginning to take shape with the support of policies and people who care about what Richard Louv describes as a human right: for all children to have access to nature and the amazing discoveries that await outdoors.

Lynn Hinkle with author Richard Louv and friend

     Moe supports conservation and improvement of our existing built resources, greening of the existing building stock and reinvestment in older and historic communities. “Any new building, no matter how much green technology it incorporates, represents a new impact on the environment,” he says. “An older building represents a heavy prior investment of resources and energy. If you tear that building down, that investment is wasted – but if you keep the building in use, you’re saving energy and conserving resources. That’s what people mean when they call preservation the ultimate recycling.”

     Moe is an outspoken advocate of controlling sprawl and encouraging smart growth. He has launched innovative initiatives to demonstrate preservation’s effectiveness as a tool for community revitalization and as a key element in the fight against climate change.

     The event begins at 6 p.m. with a free public reception. Make a reservation now by calling 816-701-3407.

Conversations on the Environment begin its second year of bringing thought-provoking environmental experts to Kansas City. Partners in the series include ASTRA Enterprises, BNIM Architects, the Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City Business Journal, Rainy Day Books, Kansas City Public Television, Bridging the Gap, Greenability Magazine and the City of Kansas City, MO.