July 20, 2008
TANGLED UP IN GREEN:
Democrats: It's not easy being green: Eco-friendly convention vexes caterers, organizers, spinners (Valerie Richardson, July 20, 2008, Washington Times)
Only three state delegations have agreed to eliminate entirely their carbon footprints by purchasing travel offsets, despite the pleas of convention organizers.The heavily vegetarian "Lean 'N Green" menu has touched off a slew of gripes, ranging from caterers who can't find enough Colorado-grown organic vegetables to Denver City Council member Charlie Brown calling menu planners "the food police."
The biggest environmental disaster to befall the convention hit two weeks ago, when the Barack Obama campaign announced that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee would make his acceptance speech at Invesco Field at Mile High stadium.
The decision to move to the stadium threw a Chernobyl-sized wrench into the sustainability plan. Switching the venue from the Pepsi Center, which seats fewer than 20,000, to Invesco, which holds 78,000, threatens to saddle the convention with the Shaquille O'Neal of carbon footprints.
Democratic officials have remained tight-lipped on the environmental impact of the move, saying they're still crunching the kilowatt numbers.
The telecast of his speech will be ecoporn! Posted by Orrin Judd at July 20, 2008 9:24 AM
Point taken on the Colorado vegetable harvest, but be aware that greater Cleveland has enough microbreweries that you actually could get away with limiting a convention in Cleveland to local booze.
Posted by: Mike Morley at July 20, 2008 2:27 PM> be aware that greater Cleveland has enough microbreweries that you actually could get away with limiting a convention in Cleveland to local booze.
Aw, you beat me to it! And for the hard stuff there's always Paramount Distillers... no single-malt Scotch, maybe, but plenty enough "social lubricants" to go around.
Posted by: Guy T. at July 20, 2008 5:01 PM
Half of Colorado is rock at an angle, and all of it is semi-arid. Limiting yourself to Colorado-grown organic veggies is like holding a convention in Cleveland and limiting yourself to local booze.
Posted by: Bob Hawkins at July 20, 2008 10:23 AM