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Articles by John Passacantando

John Passacantando's career has taken him from Wall Street to philanthropy to a leading role in the global fight to stop climate change. He worked for Jude Wanniski -- the "high priest" of supply side economics -- and is a committed practitioner of non-violent civil disobedience as taught by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. He has a master's degree in economics from New York University, as well as a record of a dozen arrests for engaging in peaceful protest. He has been quoted in every major newspaper, appeared on most major news programs and has been a regular commentator on environmental issues for Fox News programs.

Passacantando recently completed eight years as executive director of Greenpeace USA, the longest serving director in the history of the organization. In addition to select speaking engagements, Passacantando is now developing a series of business ventures under the theme From Crisis to Opportunity. He is also working on a book that explains the economic crisis to a lay audience while proposing the development of a modern economy that draws on the creative powers of citizens.

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There is a silver lining to the turmoil over the Senate climate bill.Photo: Pranav Singh via FlickrOver the weekend we got the news that three grim-faced men weren’t going to be able to help on global warming. The only Republican supporter of the not-yet-unveiled-but-widely-described Senate climate bill, Lindsey Graham, had a new demand. Not only did he insist that the bill subsidize the building of nuclear power plants and open up our coasts to oil drilling — conditions since met by the White House — he wanted the Democrats to hold off immigration reform so it wouldn’t hurt some Republicans running for Senate. It’s rumored that he also wanted Caps tickets for the final game on Wednesday evening and a guarantee from the White House that they would beat the Canadiens.

Weird. But I felt happy. Which is weirder still. I’ve worked for almost 20 years to stop global warming, and I feel joy when the Senate global warming bill begins to unravel. How did we get here?

The bill that Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) — aka KGL — keep threatening to introduce is reputed to be mo... Read more

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