They contend that their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property are being violated by the government. They also contend that the government’s behavior is violating the public trust doctrine that holds the government responsible for the preservation of certain vital resources for use by the public, including, in this case, a healthy climate system.

Interestingly, the lawsuit was originally filed under the Obama administration. In November of 2016, the lawsuit cleared a major hurdle, thanks to U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken, who denied motions filed by the government and the fossil fuel industry to dismiss it. She so ordered that it should go to trial.

“Exercising my ‘reasoned judgement,’ I have no doubt that the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is fundamental to a free and ordered society.” – U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken

This is major! It could disrupt the way environmental advocacy is being conducted globally. Already in the Netherlands, a court hearing a similar plea ordered the Dutch Government to reduce carbon emissions by 25% over a five-year period. Other analogous lawsuits are being brought in South Africa, Austria, and Pakistan.

The issue here is simple. If the government is in a position to promote or discourage the use of fossil fuels through laws, taxes, and permissions, are they liable for negatively effecting your life, liberty, and property? And if they promote the use of fossil fuels, are they violating the public trust?

So, the crux of the issue boils down to whether it can be proven in a court of law, that human activity and burning of fossil fuels in fact causes climate change. Unlike politics, where you can have 99% of the scientists agree that human activity causes climate change, and still say “It’s a debate,” in a court of law, a preponderance of facts still matter.

Speaking of facts, the plaintiffs had to submit a request that the Department of Justice preserve all documents relevant to the lawsuit, including climate change information and information on energy and emissions, and, get this, cease any destruction of these documents! This was right after the new administration’s immediate ploy to remove climate change information from the White House and other federal agency websites.

Julia Olson, chief legal counsel for the plaintiffs and executive director of the advocacy group, Our Children’s Trust, said “Destroying evidence is illegal and we just put these new US Defendants and the Industry Defendants on notice that they are barred from doing so.”

The new administration especially does not want this to get to court where a decision will be based on the facts. That’s why they have filed a motion to stay litigation and appeal the district court’s decision to clear the lawsuit for trial. They know that if this gets to trial and the plaintiffs prevail, like they did in the Netherlands, they could be ordered to reduce emissions whether they wanted to or not.

Unbelievably, the government’s argument against preserving the critical documents that could prove the relationship between the burning of fossil fuels and climate change is that it would put an unnecessary burden on the government just to maintain these files that already exist!

We support the children and young people who are taking this novel and noble action. We put our faith in the court system which must decide on the facts. Let the court end the “debate” and demonstrate its counterbalancing power to help future generations avoid catastrophe. Even a reluctant government would have to execute a court order. Find out more about this landmark lawsuit at Our Children’s Trust.

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Can the Kids Save the Environment? appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Gasoline automobile manufacturers are already heralding the demise of alternative energy vehicles by saying “This is not the time for alternatives.” Sales of gas guzzlers are up again. Are we really that short sighted?

If we truly do price alternatives out of the market, what have we done? Are we making a full-on commitment to go with carbon fueled vehicles until we run out of “cheap” fuel? The President of the United States says we cannot burn up all the hydrocarbon energy that is in the ground without taking the global temperature up 2 degrees Centigrade. The vast majority of the world’s climatologists agree that an increase over 2 degrees Centigrade will result in a runaway greenhouse effect.

In the past few years we have seen fracking take off all over the U.S. Aside from the questions of safety and long-term pollution, there is a greater issue. It’s flooding the market with cheap hydrocarbon fuels. The good news for the U.S. is that it is much less dependent on imports from unstable, dictatorial, or downright adversarial countries. The bad news is that carbon fuel itself is threatening our future no matter how cheap or domestically available it is. In other words, there’s a much bigger issue at stake.

Who wants to face their grandchildren when they ask, “Gee, Grandma, didn’t you realize what carbon fuels where doing to the environment that I now have to live in?” What will we answer? “Gosh, Honey, it was so cheap back then, and we didn’t think it would happen so fast!’’

If cheap carbon fuel puts alternatives out of business, what kind of vehicles will the emerging markets buy? And won’t that just accelerate the process with more exhaust from an ever-increasing number of hydrocarbon burning vehicles? Don’t they have a right to enjoy our standard of living too, even if it accelerates global climate change?

We often hear the argument, “But where are those electric cars getting their power from if not predominately fossil fueled power plants anyway?” That may be true in the short run, but won’t it be easier to produce sustainable electricity than to change all those fossil fuel vehicles?

So, it all comes down to saving alternative energy vehicles by making them more attractive than carbon burners that consume cheap gas.  When gas was expensive, alternative energy vehicles had an advantage. If you didn’t invest to save the environment, you might do it to save a few bucks. But in this particular moment in time, gas is cheap, so why spend our good money to protect the environment?

Don’t get us wrong, we are also thrilled with the lower cost of fuel but are very concerned with the implications to the market for the alternatives. We think alternative energy vehicle technology, like other technologies that have improved our lives such as the railroads and the interstate highway system, should be subsidized to at least be price comparative to fossil fuel vehicles. We need this technology to flourish to reduce carbon emissions.

Now that gas is cheaper, isn’t it time to use those savings to keep alternatives alive and well so they will be the choice of the emerging world and a potential savior for our environment?

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Should We Allow Cheap Gas to Kill Alternative Energy Vehicles – Again? appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Even though we are beginning to see the negative effects of man-made climate change, we continue to fill up at the pump! Why? Because we still think it’s cheaper than owning an alternative energy vehicle!  We are waiting for the day when clean air vehicles and power generation are cheaper than fossil fuels. Shouldn’t we be looking at the total costs of a tank of gas? Shouldn’t we be measuring miles per dollar instead of miles per gallon?

Super storms, deadly winters, droughts, and generally unseasonable weather are already here. The costs are adding up, and we are paying to repair the damages and higher food prices. Shouldn’t all this be added to the dollars per mile? Just because it comes out of a different pocket, aren’t we all paying for it anyway? So is it really “cheaper” to continue with fossil fuels?

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently released its report. Among other warnings, it stated carbon dioxide levels are rising almost twice as fast as they did in the last decades of the 20^th century. Otto Edenhofer, a German economist and co-chair of the committee who wrote the report said, “If we lose another decade, it becomes extremely costly to achieve climate stabilization.”

Sure, we all should be considering the real cost of climate change, but as human nature would have it, we are more concerned with the immediate cost of getting to work, the store, and the vacation. Never mind the down-stream financial consequences (let alone the survival of man as we know it). We somehow think the day of reckoning is still way off in the future. So we continue to wait for a cheaper solution.

How far away is that solution anyway? How much longer do we have to wait until we reach the economic tipping point where alternatives to destructive methods of making power and getting around are more economically desirable?

According to the UN climate report, some alternatives are already cheaper! The cost of wind and solar have dropped dramatically as a result of mass production, government subsidy and tax advantages. It now competes directly with coal, the major culprit in climate change. Hopefully developing countries like China will make the right financial choice for the long run and (finally!) for the short run as well.

What about getting around? Progressive governments have already slapped increased mileage and emission standards on fossil fuel vehicles. However, we are very heartened by last month’s announcement by Elon Musk. He is the founder of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, and investing billions in the world’s largest battery manufacturing plant which will dramatically reduce the cost of batteries and significantly extend the range of electric vehicles. Bravo!

We all vote with our dollars but we all still look for the most efficient short-term use of those dollars. We are finally at the tipping point where we can begin to satisfy our short-term needs and reduce our long-term costs. Alternatives are getting cheaper all the way around! So now the earth, and everything and everyone on it, has a better chance of having a good future. Use your dollars to vote for a happy Earth Day, everyone!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Earth Day – Put a Buck on It! appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Michael & Bonnie were used at work place culture experts on KGO 810 Radio and interviewed by host, Matt Ray, about the Time Business & Money article “7 signs it’s time to quit your job”

To listen to the interview, please the play button below.

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post KGO 810 Radio Interview on "Quitting your job" appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.