Portland Chinese Garden's struggles with pandemic, racism, housing crisis |The Story| Sept. 28, 2021

Sept. 28, 2021 on The Story: Old Town, once a pride and joy of Portland's downtown corridor, is struggling to survive. We talked with Lan Su Chinese Garden Executive Director Katherine Nye about how the pandemic, a growing houseless crisis and racism have impacted the garden.  

Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman delivers a poem at Biden's inauguration. Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman, the Youth Poet Laureate of 2017, delivers a poem at President Joe Biden's inauguration, January 20, 2021, Washington, D.C.

Hub Culture journalist EDIE LUSH interviews SARAH SEVERN, director of stakeholder partnerships for NIKE at COP 15 in Copenhagen. The BICEP partnership of 17 global companies calls for legislation on climate change. Ms. Severn addresses the progress so far in furthering climate legislation in the United States.

In this week's address, President Obama discussed new actions by the Environmental Protection Agency to cut dangerous carbon pollution, a plan that builds on the efforts already taken by many states, cities and companies. Carbon Pollution Standards here. Published on May 31, 2014

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Then President-elect Barack Obama in a speech (video) to the Global Climate Summit, November 18-19, 2008 Beverly Hills, California, promising "a new chapter of American leadership on climate change."

See also, Climate Change Talks, President Obama, 2009, here.  He speaks on Climate Change, 2013, here.

About doing public good as a private citizen.

Former President Bill Clinton (SFS'68) told an audience in Georgetown's historic Gaston Hall that being a good citizen in the 21st century "requires every thoughtful person to try to do some public good...We are on an unsustainable path to the future...the world is awash in too much in inequality and unsustainability." He ends with "If you want to serve you must begin with the stories."  Published on May 2, 2013

Madame Gro Harlem Brundtland and Jim MacNeil, key leaders in the Brundtland Commission, held public hearings in cities and slums around the world to create Our Common Future in 1987. In doing so, they broke through ideological barriers and found a way to reach consensus.

To order Madame Brundtland's book from Amazon click on image or visit your local book store.

Speech of Sha Sukang on the High Level Consultation on 'Realising Inclusive and green growth: Business & Industry Consultation with Government and Civil Society.',World Forum, The Hague, the Netherlands, 11 April 2012.  More information on the Rio+20 Summit

Deirdre Kent is co-founder of the New Economics Party in New Zealand and here she discusses some specific recommendations for transforming our economic system to a sustainable one. Visit their Website for more information and ideas. 

Isarithmic maps are essentially topographic or contour maps, wherein a third variable is represented in two dimensions by color, or by contour lines, indicating gradations. I had never seen such a map depicting political data — certainly not election returns, and thus sought to create them.The isarithmic depiction does an excellent job of highlighting several broad patterns in modern U.S. political history. 

This animated interpretation accentuates certain phenomena: the breadth and duration of support for Roosevelt, the shift from a Democratic to a Republican South, the move from an ostensibly east-west division to the contemporary coasts-versus-heartland division, and the stability of the latter.

More broadly, this video is a reminder that what constitutes “politics as usual” is always in flux, shifting sometimes abruptly. The landscape of American politics is constantly evolving,  as members of the two great parties battle for electoral supremacy.