Presenting the 2010 Planet Defender

Thanks to thoughtful input from Rock the Earth members and friends, we present our 2010 Planet Defenders!

The winners in the three categories are:
Artist: Bonnie Raitt Community
Leader: Laurie David
Grassroots Activism: Louie Psihoyos

This year's winner in the Artist category, Bonnie Raitt is as known for her lifelong commitment to social activism as she is for her music. She has long been involved with the environmental movement, doing concerts around Forest, Oil, Mining and Water protection since the mid-70s. She was a founding member of MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) which produced the historic concerts, album and movie, NO NUKES in 1979. She has been especially active in the fight to preserve our Ancient Forests, performing numerous concerts, lobbying in Washington and getting arrested twice in support of a change in forest policy. This past year, Rock the Earth was blessed to have been a recipient of Bonnie Raitts' The BonTaj Collective Action Fund for environmental protection work. RtE applauds Bonnie Raitt for setting a stellar example of how to Rock the Earth in a conscientious manner.

Bonnie Raitt, musician/activist, : "As a long-time advocate for the environment and safe energy, it is such an honor to receive the Planet Defender award from Rock the Earth.
This organization has been a faithful non-profit partner in my ongoing effort to share the message of ultimate environmental responsibility with fans at my concerts. Thank you,
Rock the Earth, for helping to spread the word about protecting the environment and encouraging people to get involved at the local level. Keep up the great work!" 

Laurie David is devoted to stopping global warming. She founded the Stop Global Warming Virtual March at www.stopglobalwarming.org with Senator John McCain and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that is engaging religious leaders, sports figures, elected officials from all sides of the aisle, business leaders, and every day Americans to urge the United States to address the ticking time bomb that is global warming. Before working full time on environmental and political issues, Ms. David had a distinguished career in entertainment spanning two coasts. She began her career in New York City as a talent coordinator for the David Letterman show. Four years later she left to start her own management company, representing many of today's top comedians as well as comedy writers. She also produced several comedy specials for HBO, Showtime, MTV, and Fox Television. Upon moving to Los Angeles, Ms. David became vice president of comedy development for a division of Fox Broadcasting and developed sitcoms for Twentieth Century Television. A tireless advocate, her commitment to fighting global warming has earned Laurie our Planet Defender award as Community Leader.

"I am honored to be named one of 2010's Planet Defenders by Rock the Earth. It is inspiring to know there are so many people and organizations like Rock the Earth working tirelessly to protect the environment and raise awareness for environmental issues. Unfortunately, the globe is warming and it is going to take every one of us to solve this problem. It's not about everybody doing everything, but it is about everybody doing something and together, with small acts in our daily lives, and big acts from the international community, we all can help stop global warming," says Laurie David.

Executive Director of the Oceanic Preservation Society, Louie Psihoyos (rhymes with Sequoias) has been widely regarded as one of the top photographers in the world. His ability to bring humanity and wit to complicated science stories carries over to his filmmaking. An ardent diver and dive photographer, he feels compelled to show the world the decline of our planet's crucial resource, water. The Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS) is a non-profit organization founded in 2005 by photographers, filmmakers, and eco-activists. Sparked by the love of the oceans, and concern at their evident decline, OPS shows the world, through visual media, what is happening on 70% of our planet. OPS's first film, The Cove, won Audience Awards around the globe. It has also prompted many to take action to protect our oceans, its creatures, and our planet. Louie's commitment and passion to bring this to light on the large screen- garners him Rock the Earth's Planet Defender award as Grassroots Activist.

Louie Psihoyos says, "on behalf of all of us who have worked on film, “The Cove,” at the Oceanic Preservation Society it is a great honor to receive the Planet Defender Award. We set out to not just make a movie but to create a movement. Due to pollution, plundering and acidification everything in the oceans, from the great whales to plankton is in peril. These are huge issues but I have hope. We don't need turn around all of humanity - sometimes great social change comes from a few noble acts of passionate individuals. We at OPS tried to make a film that would create awareness about ocean issues and inspire viewers to help create change and we see that happening now - the movie is helping to create legions of activists."

This year's Planet Defenders join last year's recipients: the Musicians of Incubus; Van Jones of Green For All and Jessy Tolkan of Energy Action Coalition, as those we honor as individuals who embody Rock the Earth's mission to Defend the Planet One Beat at a Time.

Each Planet Defender recipient receives a one-of-a-kind award created collectively by Seattle artists Joe Benvenuto, Jason Garrett and Chico Raskey (Chico Artglass). The individuals who nominated our award winners receive a special Earth Day gift from Rock the Earth.

Rock the Earth Celebrates 40th Anniversary of Earth Day

Rock the Earth is happily celebrating with the world the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day with many different partnerships and events across United States!

DENVER EARTH DAY
In the city of Denver, for the second straight year, Rock the Earth, Greenprint Denver, and several neighborhood Green Teams are working together to conduct a big, multi-neighborhood Energy blitz on Saturday, April 24th.

COLORADO MAMMOTH RECYCLES
Also in Denver, the professional National Lacrosse League team, the Colorado Mammoth (NLL) are partnering with Rock the Earth on a Earth Month mobile phone recycling drive at their upcoming season finale (April 23) vs. Calgary at the Pepsi Center. Each fan who brings an old phone to the RtE booth for recycling will receive 50 free music downloads from eMusic and a 20% discount from Musictoday, and be entered to win the Grand Prize: 2011 Mammoth Season Tickets!! First Runner-up will win a pair of tix to the One Republic show at the 1st Bank Center (May 27), 2nd Runner-up gets a Mammoth merchandise fan pack, and all three prize winners get a meet & greet with their favorite Mammoth player!

FUSE TV HIGHLIGHTS ROCK THE EARTH
Fuse.TV, Madison Square Garden’s national music television network, is going Green Day all day in celebration of Earth Day on April 22nd  with “Green Day Earth Day.”  Starting at 11am EST, Fuse will be raising awareness throughout the day by featuring information on how viewers can do their part to conserve the Earth’s natural resources, and support select partner groups including Rock the Earth.  Go to fuse.tv/greenday for more info.

ASCAP EXPO
Music's leading performance rights organization, ASCAP (American Society Composers, Authors & Publishers) partnered with Rock the Earth to launch a Mobile Phone Recycling Drive. This year's ASCAP Expo starts on Earth Day (Thursday, April 22) and they wanted to do something to call attention to our ongoing phone recycling initiative.

Congratulations to the participants who won great prizes for their efforts in recycling:

Grand Prize winner of the ASCAP Expo Pass
Gary Brockhoff of Snellville, GA

1st Runner-Up
Weslie Brown of Los Angeles for the One-on-One artist session

2nd winner
Jon Tilman of Charlotte for the New Release CD 5-Pak from RCA/ JIVE Music Group

3rd winner
Emanuel Bramlett / Riverdale, IL for the 4-DVD Becoming Green Box Set

4th winner
Melissa Dunphy of Philadelphia for a LiveDownload Card.

On a side note, check out RtE Executive Director Shawn Kilmurray who was featured in the latest issue of ASCAP Playback, click here.

BAREFOOT TRUTH DONATES TICKET SURCHARGE
Northeast roots-rocker's Barefoot Truth donating 25 cents from each ticket sold from their 21-city record release tour in support of Rock the Earth (Day) raised a total of $650. The band's Threads tour, which kicked off February 12 in Boston, runs through mid-April and included stops in Nashville, New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

Read More.

REGIONAL ROCK THE EARTH (DAY) EVENTS & BENEFITS
Local businesses across the United States also are supporting Rock the Earth (Day), they include: Herbs and Arts in Denver will be donating 15% of their sales on Saturday April 24; jewelry bead shop, Sparkling Creations in Oregon is also raising money for RtE; Inner Vision Yoga, in Tempe and Chandler AZ is donating 10% of their revenue on Earth Day.

In New York, RtE partnered with Tomato’s House of Rock (THOR) music school for an Earth Day Fundraiser at New York City’s first fully-functioning green venue, the Brooklyn Bowl (also big supporters of RtE), on Saturday, April 17th. This followed the successful kick-off partnership event held in January at the Highline Ballroom (supported by D’Addario & Company, also in New York City, and the school’s six-week-long phone recycling drive. Students, ages 8-17 years old, extended a hand of support again to help raise funds via the April 17th Brooklyn Bowl gig, and through performing a mixture of Indie, classic rock and metal, they managed to raise $236 for RtE, bringing the school’s total year-to-date contribution to $1375.

Also on Sunday, April 17th, Rock the Earth volunteers participated in clean-up in Chicago. They partnered with Friends of the Park this year, and cleaned and mulched a playground at Montrose beach on the north side of Chicago. The RtE team spent over two hours on the project, and had a great time making new friends and connections.

On Sunday, April 18th - community of Charlottesville, Virginia hosted Earth Week Eco-Fair 2010 - on of which Rock the Earth was one of the leading education and outreach team to help spread the knowledge about how to repair and conserve the environment.

Rock the Earth thanks all for their generous support as we "Defend the Planet One Beat at a Time!"

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Proposed Project Greenpath Withdrawn: Environmental Community Celebrates

As mentioned in the January 2009 edition of Rock the Earth Notes, at the suggestion of percussionist, Wally Ingram, over the last year Rock the Earth has been working with local conservation organizations to stop a proposed power transmission corridor that would have impacted an important desert ecosystem, including the area in and around Joshua Tree National Park. Working in tandem with groups like the California Desert Coalition and the Wildlands Conservancy, Rock the Earth Education and Outreach across the United States educated thousands of concert and festival goers, inspiring many to write letters opposing the project.

On March 10, with only a day's notice in which the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) would be delivering a message about its Green Path North transmission line project, an expectant crowd gathered at the Yucca Valley Community Center. Moments later, the audience erupted with cheers, hugs, and jubilation upon hearing that LADWP had written to the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service formally withdrawing its right-of-way application for Green Path North.

The LA Times reported: "[f]acing enormous costs and fierce opposition from environmental groups, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on Wednesday announced that it has dropped plans to build an 85-mile-long 'green' power transmission line across desert wilderness preserves and scenic ridgelines." Government officials had apparently been inundated with over 50,000 emails, letters and postcards over the last three years opposing Greenpath.

David Myers, executive director of the Wildlands Conservancy based in Oak Glen, California, one of the local groups that lead the fight against Greenpath, said of the opposition: "It's a grand experiment in democracy," and that "The voices of over 60,000 people that sent letters, post cards and e-mails to the mayor has been heard," The end of Project Greenpath is great victory for the local community that fought so determinedly to stop it, and for Rock the Earth and the other groups that answered the call to mobilize the their members, to make Greenpath a national issue, and to protect the earth.

We in Rock the Earth want to thank those of you who took the time to send letters opposing this project. Without your efforts, this victory could not have been accomplished!

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RtE Challenges NPS on Snowmobiles Again

Almost since our inception, Rock the Earth has been fighting to remove snowmobiles from Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. During the Clinton Administration and after decades of study, the Park Service decided to remove snowmobiles from these parks. These rules were overturned as a result of lobbying and litigation by the snowmobile industry. Fortunately, the NPS is taking a fresh look at the issue and RtE chimed in this week in the Scoping process. To see a copy of our letter, GO HERE.

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Round 2 - Subways of Rochester, NY - Mobile Phone Recycle

Coming off the success of its first recycle cell phone drive in December, Rock the Earth will partner again with SUBWAY® Restaurants, of Rochester, New York, and Water Street Music Hall also of Rochester, for this second cell phone recycle drive. Recycle a cell phone, help the environment and get a free SUBWAY® sandwich for doing so, plus win prizes—it’s Part II of a major campaign to take place on May 14-16 with a kick-off concert at Water Street Music on Friday, May 7 featuring Trevor Hall.

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Upcoming Festivals with Phone Recycling Initiatives; Membership Discounts Available

Rock the Earth is excited to get out to the many music festivals this summer to continue educating and outreaching concert-goers on all of RtE's environmental projects. This year, we are strongly encouraging everyone to bring mobile phones to recycle to RtE booths at the following festivals: Summer Camp, Del Fest, Bonnaroo, Mountain Jam and CMA Fest. In addition, we are offering special discounts for members only to the following festivals:

Summer Camp Music Festival
(May 28 - 30) 3 full nights of moe and Umphrey's McGee!

Summer Camp is a 3-day music festival held Memorial Day Weekend at Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe, Illinois. Started in 2001, over the years the festival has grown from 15 bands on 2 stages over 2 days, to over 60 bands on 5 stages over 3 days.

This year's lineup includes 3 full performances by moe. and Umphrey's McGee, plus Gov't Mule, Keller Williams, STS9, Avett Bros., Railroad Earth, Steel Pulse, Cornmeal, Hot Buttered Rum, and many others. We are happy able to offer 3-day ticket / camping pass for $130 exclusively to RtE members. You must be a current member to enjoy this discount. Offer is non-transferable and tickets are limited. RtE Members should contact info@rocktheearth.org to purchase.

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Del Fest (May 27-30) Del McCoury Band, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Avett Brothers, and others in Cumberland, Maryland

Del Fest is 4-day Bluegrass and American Roots Music Festival Celebrating 50 Years of McCoury Music. The 3rd Annual festival on Memorial Day weekend will be hosted at the Allegany County Fairgrounds in Cumberland, MD. Line-up includes Del McCoury Band, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Avett Brothers, and many others. Rock the Earth members can purchase festival tickets for $30 off the price. Contact info@rocktheearth.org for more information or call the office at (303) 454-3304.

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Mountain Jam (June 4-6): Gov't Mule to Headline Sixth Annual Festival with Michael Franti & Spearhead, Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band, and, Others in Hunter, NY

Mountain Jam presented by Radio Woodstock and guitarist Warren (Gov't Mule, The Allman Brothers Band, The Dead) will return to Hunter, NY from Friday, June 4 - Sunday, June 6, 2010. The line-up includes Gov’t Mule as the anchor the multi-band bill for the sixth year in a row with Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, Michael Franti and Spearhead among many others. Rock the Earth members can purchase festival tickets for $130 for a 3-day pass with camping, a savings of $50. Contact info@rocktheearth.org for more information or call the office at (303) 454-3304.

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High Sierra Music Festival (July 1-4) Widespread Panic, Black Crowes and others under the stars in the High Sierra!

The 20th Anniversary High Sierra Music Festival will be held again this year in the scenic foothills of the incredible High Sierra Mountain Range near Quincy, California. This family camping experience will feature Widespread Panic, the Black Crowes, Avett Brothers, Railroad Earth, Bela Fleck, Ozomatli, and many others. Rock the Earth members can purchase festival tickets for $35 off the gate price, but hurry – tickets are limited and you must be a RtE member to benefit. Contact info@rocktheearth.org for more information or call the office at (303) 454-3304.

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FloydFest9 (July 22-25) Levon Helm Band, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Railroad Earth and others in concert in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia!

Now in its 9th year, FloydFest remains true its folk music roots while drawing top rock n’ roll talents like Grace Potter, Karl Denson, JJ Grey & Mofro, and the legendary Levon Helm to the beautiful setting that is Virginia's Blue Ridge. We are happy to once again offer RtE members a 10% discount off the starting ticket price. Contact info@rocktheearth.org for more information.

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In the Key of Green: Earth Day Sustainability Tips for Travel

You can help keep our skies clean and healthful by making a few adjustments to your daily, weekly or even monthly routine:

Park the Car, Even just Once a Week!
Decide to walk/bike, bus, carpool, and/or work from home.

Under Pressure?

Check your vehicle's tire pressure monthly. Properly inflated tires improve gas mileage, reduce tailpipe emissions, and extends the life of your tires. And you can save up to five cents a gallon!

Keep it well-tuned.
A well-maintained car pollutes less and gets better gas mileage.

Turn it off!
Avoid Idling your car! If you think you’ll be idling for more than 30-seconds, turn off the car. Skip the drive-thru, get out and go inside to get your coffee. Idling gets zero miles per gallon and can damage your engine's components.

Combine Your Errands.

Who doesn't want more time and money?! By combining your errands into fewer trips, you'll do just that!

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Volunteer Jam

Volunteer Jam provides an outlet to thank non-staff volunteers and supporters who have rocked it big time during the past month and have gone above and beyond in their generous contribution support of the Rock the Earth cause. We want to sincerely thank each of you for giving so generously of your time and in the value of your contributions: Cat Bauer, Briele Douglass, Rick Drumm, Jay Flanzbaum, Hugh Gilmartin, Allan Golden, Chris Harfenist, Annie Heller-Gutwillig, Brandi Honeycutt, Susan Honing, Kathy Kane, Allison Kramer, Heather Lylis, Joyce Mishaan, Danny Rosen, Lisa Shara, Deb Shufelt, Elyce Turner, Erin Tracey, Jaime Vagge, Eryn Wood, Dawn Woollen.

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What Rocks YOUR Earth?!       

For 25 years, Sandra Bernhard has been challenging fans and critics with her knife-edged humor, satire and emotive performances on film, television and stage.

1. What environmental issue(s) do you consider to be the most critical at this time?

Plastic. every time I get a drink, a bottle, a set of cutlery, open a complicated package I get a knot in my stomach. I have seen the pictures of the plastic island out in the middle of the pacific, and of course I wonder where we are headed with all of our carefree attitudes about it all of this. Why do we need so much? Why can't someone come up with (I know they have) a simpler way of packaging? This is one area I would love to help solve.

2. What has inspired you to combine environmental activism with your art?

Well I feel as if I keep things pared down in my life. When we are on the road I don't bring along a lot of extra people. I keep it very simple, I think engaging the audience shouldn't have to involve truck and plane loads of bells and whistles. Yes it's nice to set an interesting atmosphere, but I think as artists, we need to remember our goals to incorporate thoughtful elements to our work.

3. Where is your favorite place in nature to go to find solace or inspiration?

I love to be by the ocean more than anything. The endless walks and waves never cease to inspire me. but I do love being in beautiful cities as well, where the architecture and environment work in harmony. A walk along the seine is a very pleasant experience.

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Stay Connected

Rock the Earth invites you to follow our musings and up-to-the-minute events and issues coverage at www.Twitter.com/RocktheEarth, and become a fan of Rock the Earth on Facebook to stay updated on the most notable news stories, photos and events in the Rock the Earth realm.

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