What do you think is the most effective way to turn this idea into real policy? Add your suggestions here for how you think we should run an advocacy campaign to advance the idea – including the overall strategy, messaging, targets, and tactics.

Approach this from the standpoint that people reading this forum already agree with you on the importance of the issue, and are asking "What can we do to help make this a reality?"

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1. 

   Several people involved in the ecoart movement contacted Rob after the first round and asked that, for the second round, he include art and artists as crucial to the sustainability agenda. He agreed wholeheartedly (thanks so much, Rob) and so we got "artists" in his statement. Now there is a request for how to move forward with sustainability. Here are our ideas!
   
   Art has a vital role to play in healing our nation and restoring hope. Artists around the world have been working effectively for years to lead the transformation to a sustainable civilization, addressing environmental health, social justice, education and culture through collaborative partnerships with scientists, engineers, architects, landscape architects, schools, environmental agencies, communities and residents. Many of these projects help raise awareness of environmental issues, engage the public in solving problems creatively and beautifully, and reconnect people to local history. The following proposals emerged from discussions with colleagues in the field of ecological art in the US and internationally. We urge President Elect Obama’s administration to incorporate this artistic energy as you look towards renewing a sense of civic pride, public service and ecological stewardship in our country.
   
    
   
   1.  Federal agencies such as the EPA, Energy, HUD, Department of the Interior (especially the USFWS and Parks), NASA, NOAA, should work with the NEA/NEH to create artist fellowships, residencies and develop cultural programs at museums and parks that foster eco-art practices.
   
   2.  Cultural diplomacy through the Department of State should  appoint ecoartist-ambassadors, cultural emissaries who work through U.S. embassies, to collaborate with their foreign colleagues to develop eco-art projects and bioremediation efforts with local partners across the globe and especially in developing countries.
   
   3.  Explore program opportunities within the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation to bring  eco-artists into local schools, colleges and universities to inspire American students to become more excited about the study of science and learn about energy efficiency and green design.
   
   4.  Incorporate eco-art into the work of the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps to advance a widespread 21st century WPA-style works program to address urgent infrastructure and restoration needs in informative and aesthetic ways.
   
   5.  Expand the Obama stimulus plan for creating new green collar jobs to include ecological artists and encourage the formation of collaborative and multidisciplinary teams that can approach old problems in new and systemic ways.
   
    
   
   You can learn more on sites such as: http://ecoartspace.org, http://greenmuseum.org and http://sfeap.org , and work with us to engage and value creativity and diversity, the way nature would.
   
    
   
   (Thanks to text contributors: Mary Jo Aagerstoun, Sam Bower, Xavier Cortada, Chris Freemantle, David Haley, Eve Andree Laramee, Amy Lipton, Aviva Rahmani, Tricia Watts, Linda Weintraub, and many others from http://ecoartnetwork.org.)

   Suggested by Mary Jo Aagerstoun on 01/16/2009 @ 11:07AM PT

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2. 

   If a national gas tax is put in place (50 cents) it will generate approx. $75 billion annually.  Over 8 years the funds could be used to offer additional rebates on wind/solar energy, hybrid cars, etc.  This also places a clear tax on of the key sources of the problem - fossil based fuel.
   Gas is currently cheap and might get cheaper.  Americans can afford/accept a tax at these levels.  As gas prices rise we have seen Americans fundamentally change their behaviors/attitudes towards their cars.  
   This will impose a burden or sacrifice on the population which many will say we can't bear it now.  Now is the time for such an action.  We need to show the strength of our convictions that we can change decades of inaction at a time when the price is manageable.

   Suggested by Arun Arora on 01/16/2009 @ 10:01AM PT

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3. 

   Dear rob, i'm glad you made it to the top 10 ideas. Especially because you really care, and were responding to the questions in this discussion. You posed that you wanted to include suggestions and enlarge your proposal in every workable way. Let me add a name for a panel of experts: Jim Starry. In the last 40 years, he  contacted numerous people in the high and highest ranks for his solutions concerning the environment. We (Recyclus.com) took up the challenge to advance this worldwide. He certainly would be the much-needed advisor for new plans to become real. His airport design Starrport saves 1.000 gallons of fuel per flight! His invention of driving a car to clean the air is another example of most advanced practical thinking. Next to the StarrTran, which would use 1/20 of the energy of today's mass transport systems. This is real sustainability with a big S. And he would be happy to contribute (of course, he has to be rewarded abundantly as well).

   Suggested by freed schmitter on 01/16/2009 @ 09:01AM PT

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4. 

   Rob, Congratulations on making the top 10!  For many if not most Ecological Economists the best way to achieve a Sustainable Society is through the price system.  With the right price system that puts the "true cost" of the enviroment into eveything that is produced EVERYONE automatically becomes and environmenal activist.  This can be done with the "Green Tax Shift" that removes taxes from honest work and enterprise (like inventing a new wind turbine) while raising taxes on the use of our natural resources (Land, Air, and Water).  With higher prices for land (includes resource extractions such as oil and coal), air, and water people will buy resource conserving technologies and we will move toward a more Sustainable Society.  Certainly, however, we need to use the Green Tax Shift revenues wisely so that eveyone -- especially the economically disadvantaged -- are provided with a "safety net" and will receive an "Earth Inheritance" citizen's dividend that could go into, for example, their retirement, health savings, housing, and energy transition accounts.  Also, all species should be provided their safety net too by protecting large areas of habitat from human destruction.  Bottom line: Tax Waste, Not Work!

   Suggested by Paul Justus on 01/16/2009 @ 08:48AM PT

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