Weekly Round Up: September 21- 25, 2009

Energy and Environment

A Pittsburgh Protocol

CAP President John Podesta and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Chief Rajendra Pachauri explained that this week's G-20 summit needs to prevent an increase of climate change's serious impacts, while Nina Hachigian and Bruce Jones underscored the need to forge a more fair G-20 membership to better grapple with global decision making.

Senior Fellow Andrew Light discussed in an Ask the Expert video what we can expect on energy and climate change during the G-20 summit and what our country should bring to these discussions. CAP also helped separate myths from reality on international climate change negotiations for the upcoming U.N. Climate Summit this December.

Earlier this week, John Podesta, Kate Gordon, Bracken Hendricks, and Benjamin Goldstein put forward a framework for investing in clean-energy systems and energy efficiency. And "Easy Being Green" looked at a new documentary that explores the challenging yet rewarding experiences of being green.
 

Economy

Leveling the Playing Field

A report by Christian E. Weller and Amanda Logan examined data on the current recession and made the case for policies to erase economic discrepancies between minorities and whites. Weller, Logan, and Scott Levy also showed that state deficits will continue to drag on growth and jobs through 2009 and 2010. And Weller argued in a new economic snapshot for September that continued public support for investment in health care, energy, education, and innovation are necessary to bring back millions of lost jobs.
 

Media and Culture

Loving Thy Neighbor

Three products and an event focused on the increasing presence of faith communities in the immigration debate. A report from Sam Fulwood documented the growing number of faith communities across the nation that are standing up for immigration reform, and an interactive map gave more information on these communities. A video also showed Fulwood visiting Greensboro, NC, to take a look at how faith communities are mobilizing around immigration. Finally,  a CAP event on Tuesday gathered faith leaders to encourage people to think of the moral imperative underlying the immigration reform debate.

Eric Alterman and Mickey Ehrlich’s Think Again tackled the far right’s successful attack on ACORN and how they easily manipulated the mainstream media, and Ruy Teixeira noted in a public opinion snapshot that conservative views on President Barack Obama should not be confused with the views of the American people.
 

Domestic

Graduating with Promise

Cynthia Brown and Valerie Shen observed that the Graduation Promise Act, introduced this week in the Senate, would help address America’s dropout challenge. Meanwhile, Saba Bireda highlighted Philadelphia’s new policies to eliminate seniority from hiring decisions and to revise the teacher evaluation system, among others.

Finally, in his latest Ask the Expert video Senator Tom Daschle discussed how families would be affected by health care costs if reform is not passed this year, how such reform would help women, and why incremental approaches to health care would fail to solve our health care problems.