LIME reports from the Green Festival, held in San Francisco, Nov. 14-16, 2008

Some pretty smart and thoughtful people come to the San Francisco Green Festival. We decided to ask them what’s the first thing President-elect Barack Obama should do, once he takes office (after he cleans up the financial crisis, of course).

Van Jones, founder and president of Green for All and author of The Green Collar Economy

Retrofit America. There are so many people who need work, and there is so much work we need to get done, in terms of weatherizing buildings, blowing in insulation, doing things that will cut carbon, bring down energy prices, but also put people to work. We think connecting people who most need work to the work that most needs to be done — that way you can beat global warming and the recession at the same time.

Joshua Onysko, founder & CEO Pangea Organics

Make a commitment that he is going to gain the support, not only of the people who voted for him, but the people who didn’t vote for him. He’s the only president in my lifetime that would have the ability to unite this country once again.

Gary Paul Nabhan, author of Where Our Food Comes From founder of Renewing America’s Food Traditions Initiative

Focus on the recovery of small and medium farms and get us off our addiction to fossil fuel and fossil groundwater by returning to the diversity of seeds and breeds that are adapted to American places. We want to do that through a new American Heritage Picnic holiday.

Bryan Welch, publisher and editorial director of Odgen Publications, Inc. (Utne Reader, Mother Earth News, Natural Home)

I’d like to see the president set a policy that we’re going to go all-renewable energy in 20 years. I don’t see any other reasonable alternative in the conservation area than an all-renewable energy policy. It’s achievable within 20 years, and it’s the kind of leadership the world needs.

Ellis Jones, author of Better World Shopping Guide

In his original campaign, Obama was talking about opening up government so that people could see more how it operates. It would be amazing if we start to see exactly how our tax dollars are spent, and then begin with a kind of mock voting system where we get to vote for how we would spend our tax dollars. And then slowly move to a situation where citizens actually control 1% of our budget — where we, through our voting, the engaged citizens go online, read about it, and decide where 1% of our budget goes.

Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now and co-author of Standing Up to the Madness

End torture. End war.

Jared Blumenfeld, director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment

Empower states that are taking action to come up with best practices. There’s been a huge amount that has happened. There’s been a huge amount that has happened. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We need to bring that process together. Ultimately, implementation for what we need to do to get out of the climate crisis is going to happen at the local, state, and regional level.

Are their ideas on target? What do you think the new president should do first?

Photo credit: E.B. Boyd