Capitalizing on the cooperative spirit of the emerging green economy, hundreds of start-ups and Fortune 500 companies convened at UCLA over the weekend for the third annual Opportunity Green Business Conference. The two-day event–which was co-sponsored this year by the Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies–featured talks from green-tech visionaries, journalists, government officials and eco-minded business leaders. The event also served as a pivotal platform for collaboration and connections between firms on the cutting edge of the new green economy.

“We want to broadcast to the world that there are viable and highly profitable business opportunities that are environmentally responsible,” Opportunity Green co-founder Mike Flynn told The Los Angeles Times.

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Editor’s Note: Protect Dolphin is a subsidiary of EarthEcho International, a global nonprofit that provides funding for education and research to protect the oceans. TakePart sat down with Protect Dolphin spokesman Michael Towner to discuss ongoing efforts to protect dolphin populations off the coast of the American south.

Q. How did you first get involved with wild dolphin preservation efforts?

A. We were first contacted two years ago, and requested to analyze current marine mammal education and scientific research opportunities in the southern coastal states. Availability of adequate funding was a constantly recurring issue. We came up with the idea of creating specialty license plates in each of the five states, which would provide an ongoing sustainable funding source to facilitate educational and scientific programs for EarthEcho International, which was formed by Philippe and Alexandra Cousteau.

Q. What is ProtectDolphin.org doing to protect wild dolphin populations off America’s southern coasts?

A. The first EarthEcho “Protect Wild Dolphins” specialty license plate went on sale in South Carolina in September, and the funding that will be generated from it will soon allow EarthEcho to create ocean and coastal conservation, education and research programs that will focus on finding and empowering the implementation of solutions to the current environmental crisis.
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As Washington cobbles together a new American health care system, experts have made a sport of praising–and defaming–public health models from Switzerland to Saskatchewan. Whether or not you draw inspiration from abroad, it’s obvious that any international model beats the American status quo when it comes to cost.

America is the world’s leader in health spending, with a whopping 17 percent of our GDP being eaten up by health care, compared to just 11 percent in France, the second biggest spender.

Graphic by Graham Roberts / grahamyvesroberts.com

Even nations like Canada and the United Kingdom that depend almost exclusively on government-funded programs have managed to reduce costs to 11 percent of GDP or less–while covering a larger portion of their populations than we do. In an American system reliant on market efficiency, Adam Smith’s invisible hand has gone missing. America is spending more for less–but why? Read the rest of this entry >>

Editor’s note: With all the bad news out there, why not bid farewell to the week with an easy-to-digest roundup of our favorite forward looking and generally optimistic stories from the fine folks at The Stimulist. We’re just getting the series started, and would love to hear your feedback, good or bad. Email feedback@takepart.com to let us know what you think.

While President Obama and the Democratic leadership look to embrace the race debate at this week’s Beer Summit, the Republicans have come up with a strategy of their own–ignoring race entirely. GOP party chairman Michael Steele turned down a sterling opportunity to reach out to the Latino community at the National Council of La Raza this week, leading Alicia Menendez to ask, “if the GOP cannot get it together enough to send a high-profile representative to one of the largest gatherings of Latino leaders in the country, what should we expect when comprehensive immigration reform hits the House floor?” It’s no secret that the GOP is not the favored party of the Latino community come election day, but they could at least show some effort to reach out to constituents during the other 364 days of the year. If not, says Menendez, a huge segment of the American population could go unnoticed–which is bad for Latinos and even worse for the American people.
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The final vote to confirm President Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor will be held early next week before the Senators leave Washington for their summer recess. With the overwhelming support of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who voted 13-7 to endorse the nominee this week, Sotomayor will likely cruise to the bench.

Sotomayor, who would be the third female justice and the first Latina, has squarely received the support of the left and, surprisingly, a number of Republicans as well. So far, seven GOP senators have committed to voting for the Obama nominee, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R -S.C.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-T.N.), the third-ranking GOP Senate leader.
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Two weeks after human rights advocate Natalia Estemirova was found murdered, Russian journalist and Estemirova’s close friend Usam Baysaev has penned a powerful editorial for The New Republic discussing her work and the ongoing struggle for human rights in the Chechen Republic.

A former researcher for Human Rights Watch, Beysaev speaks of Estemirova’s courage in her attempts to bring human rights abuses in Chechnya to light. The two friends met in 1999 during the Russian military’s brutal campaign in Chechnya.  With the military blocking Chechen men out of the invaded areas, Beysaev said, women were the only ones allowed back into their villages, giving Estemirova and other female activists the opportunity to take the lead in documenting atrocities by Russian forces.
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Roche Pharmaceuticals and Google.org have teamed up to develop a comprehensive surveillance and research center in East Africa to predict and prevent the spread of new infectious diseases. In a region where a large number of diseases originate and new outbreaks are frequent, the new research venture could save thousands of lives in Africa and across the globe.

The project will concentrate primarily on arthropod-borne diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks. Using a Genome Sequencer FLX system donated by Roche, scientists will be able to monitor human and livestock populations for infection, conduct genetic research on emergent diseases and respond quickly to new threats. In addition, Google’s philanthropic arm has given a $5 million grant to the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and various Kenyan government agencies for advanced research on insect-borne disease discovery and prevention.
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Even though President Obama has repeated in press conferences and town hall meetings that health care reform is not about him, the debate on the Hill undeniably is.  The White House and the Democrats in Congress are looking to use Obama’s popularity to propel a reform program 50 years in the making, while the Republicans–lacking the votes to filibuster any proposal–hope to play the “we told you so” card should the system fail.

Although the GOP has become the Party of No on the topic of health care, their heckling from the sidelines may be having some effect on public opinion, whether from the Red States or those pivotal Blue Dog Democrats.  As the health care reform debate pushes on, it looks like Obama is losing some ground.
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With the August Congressional recess quickly approaching, health care chatter on Capitol Hill has reached a fever pitch. While Republicans fight reform and Democrats fight back, it is easy to forget that the outcome of this debate will extend far beyond the beltway–and it’s the role of the people to remind lawmakers of that.

Regardless of what the Right has to say, the majority of Americans support health care reform. A recent report put out by the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that 61 percent of Americans believe that it is more important to take on reform now than ever before.

For those in that majority, here’s how you can lend your voice to the discussion in a meaningful way:

1. GET EDUCATED

If the 1017 pages of the new bill are any indication, the bungled health care system will not be a simple problem to unravel or even understand. The new plan will create a complex mix of physicians, government agencies and private insurers. That means supporters of the bill must remain on top of the different policy arguments to ensure that the health care system they are supporting is the one that they really want.

Learn about the state of the current American health care system with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and read the latest from the country’s most prominent pundits and health care experts.
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