New York City hasn’t earned a reputation as being the most environmentally-friendly. And despite a thriving farmer’s market system citywide, many wonder where to find any “green” activism like that in Portland, OR or other cities.

In the World Trade Center site, apparently. Earlier this month, Greenworks New York City launched a new initiative, “Imagine the New York Region Thriving Green and Just,” at its annual conference at the New York Academy of Sciences headquarters in the brand new skyscraper at 7 World Trade Center. Entrepreneurs of green technology mingled with local citizens and City officials, sharing their enthusiasm about solar roofs and roof gardens to grow food in our urban environment.  Attendants learned about benign underwater rotors harnessing the energy of the rivers surrounding Manhattan Island to produce electric power without carbon or other pollution, thus preventing further damage to the health of our New York City children, bedeviled by asthma from coal and oil particulates in the smoggy air. And through the room’s floor-to-ceiling windows, we could see all the way to Connecticut, New Jersey and the Long Island shore.

Such talk of change and progress felt especially ironic at 7 World Trade Center, with all the latest in friendly eco-tech, ecologically sound design. It’s the only building mounted there, as the roiling financial crisis keeps holding up construction on plans to build the “world’s tallest building” — in other words, macho energy and corporate greed combining to put us at risk once again. Let’s hope that we can have a beautiful public park and memorial, a stone’s throw from the Statue of Liberty and the expansive New York harbor, on this misbegotten site.

Today I joined Medea Benjamin, Blaine Clark, Leslie Angeline, Jay Marx, David Swanson, Cindy Sheehan and Bev Rice at the incredible Capitol Power Plant mass action today at the Capitol Plant in Washington, protesting its “clean coal,” timed with the incredible PowerShift 2009 Conference that began Friday night.

(Here’s me, Desiree, Leslie, and Medea with economic theorist and environmentalist Wendell Berry last night…)

We started at 12:30 p.m. at the rally behind the Rayburn building with thousands of activists.  We met up with fellow activist and actress Daryl Hannah to be on her team for the day.

John Quigley, who has produced CODEPINK’s famous aerial images, joined in and we marched with our favorite green team Rainforest Action Network.

The spirit is high  – we just finished circling the power plant leaving a team of hundreds at each entrance we passed.  We are now at the main entrance listening to journalist and environmentalist Bill McKibben, Bobby Kennedy and environmentalist Terry Tempest Williams.  We are here bringing the pink “War is not green!” message!

(Here’s Blaine with Mike Klein and Mike Brune of Rainforest Action Network)

Check out more photos here!