Missed Van Jones in Seattle? Watch a video of his talk here

Thursday morning, I attended Climate Solutions' morning breakfast and lecture with Van Jones. Jones spoke for 30 minutes about the Gulf oil disaster, where we can go next and how Seattle is leading the way. One of the things that stuck in my head is that he said the fact that the spill happened isn't a tragedy. The tragedy will happen if we don't learn from the disaster. He also said the oil situation is worse than Hurricane Katrina because it speaks to the endemic problem of oil use in our country.

If you missed it, you can watch a video of his whole talk here, courtesy of Climate Solutions. If you've never heard Jones speak before, you might want to set aside 30 minutes and give it a go. He is a funny, charismatic, impassioned speaker who was extremely gracious in his references towards the Obama administration. (However, after listening to him speak for 30 minutes, I couldn't help asking myself how much it cost to bring him out here). Watch the video here: http://vimeo.com/12117354 .

There's lots of commentary out on this in the Seattle media scene. Alex Steele, the eco-maven, wrote a great blog post here. The Seattle Times had a quick overview of a later talk at City Hall, while Joel Connely took his columnist stab at it here. There was also a lot of coverage via Twitter #VaninSeattle. Enjoy the holiday weekend!