Time Out New York's Green Issue (Related) Last week’s issue (July 5-11) of Time Out New York (TONY) was the magazine’s “Green Issue” and their cover really made you want to turn the page to see what it was all about. Jam packed with information about how New Yorkers can lead a more eco-friendly lifestyle, it also includes features about shopping, green building and sites to see, such as the Queens Botanical Garden where the cover photo was taken by
controversial photographer Spencer Tunik (Related) . Our favorites included the
“B.S. Factor” (Related) where TONY scrutinizes the green life and events (Live Earth included) to find the truth behind the green fad, as well as
“What Shade Are You?” (Related) The latter discusses different “shades of green” and how a resident of NYC can help the environment, even if they do nothing at all or at least the bare minimum. With so many different boutiques to choose from in NYC we also appreciated their insight into where we can find the latest eco-chic. Is running for exercise your thing? You might want to check out TONY’s review on air pollution – it’ll make you think twice about this evening’s trek. We couldn’t take our eyes off this issue…and it might not even be making its way to the recycling bin. All articles are available online by searching “The Green Issue.”
::Time Out New York (Related) ...
Harry Potter 7: "The Most Greenwashed Book of All Time" (Related) Everyone is gaga over HP7 being "the greenest book of all time" and showing the silly graphic showing the "impact reduction" of its publishing worldwide. We knew that Raincoast Books in Canada has published its version in ancient forest free 100% recycled paper, but they did that for HP6 and all of their books, nothing new there. We know also that the author asked that all of her publishers use 100% recycled content.
Yet the biggest publisher of them all, Scholastic, serving the American market, refused. TreeHugger emeritus
Hank Green (Related) notes that "only 65% of the pulp used in HP7 (American edition) is certified ancient-forest friendly." So 130,000 trees have been saved but how many have been chopped because of Scholastic's intransigence?
That 35% of a doorstop the size and print run of the American Harry Potter probably represents more trees lost than any other book published in the States this year. Hank says " Scholastic is being fairly backward and profit-driven here. How much cash do they really need to haul here. Honestly, they could pass the cost onto the consumer and absolutely no one would mind. "
It is surprising that smart
American (Related) green
websites (Related) would fall for this international averaging out of Scholastic's boreal clearcut.
::Eco-Geek (Related) UPDATE: A commenter accuses me of being negative again: "Can't we just be happy with the efforts they did make, not the efforts they didn't?" No, not when they are calling it "the greenest book of all time" which it clearly is not. We applaud them for their efforts, not their public relations.
...
Home Building With A Twist For The Future (Related) When Kern County School District Superintendent Larry Reid decided it was time to
take steps within the school district to improve air quality and reduce CO2 emissions (Related) he found he had an unlikely ally,,, Homebuilders. That's because for each new home built in the area developers contribute about $1200 into a fund to be used to help offset the pollution put out by the process as a result of a settlement between them and the Sierra Club.
Predictably, developers weren't so happy at first about the added cost to their building budgets, but now they've found that virtually every developer in the area has to make some sort of payment to help protect the environment, and the money is certainly being put to good use. Reid's used the $330K his district received from the fund to help offset the added cost of purchasing 7 additional clean burning compressed natural gas (CNG) buses, bringing the total to 38 of the 89 buses in the district that now run on the cleaner fuel. And at 160K per bus as opposed to 120K for the traditional diesel variety, the fund has really helped make the purchase possible. Long term, the fact that CNG is ultimately about one-third cheaper than diesel should help further offset the costs as well. Ultimately he's looking to replace all of the buses,
a worthy goal for every school district and municipality in the country. (Related) via:: The Bakersfield Californian (Related) ...
Book Review: Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming (Related) Chris Mooney (Related) is not one to mince words. Within the first few pages of his latest book, he immediately sets out to clarify an important point, one that will likely take many readers aback: "Global warming did not cause Hurricane Katrina, or any other weather disaster."
In so doing, he helps set the tone for much of what the book will scrutinize: not whether global warming directly triggered the strong hurricanes we've already witnessed, but whether it is likely to further strengthen or otherwise alter the behavior of hurricanes. This point also relates to a greater overall theme that Mooney emphasizes throughout
Storm World (Related) : the fact that most of science, meteorology and climate science included, is often fraught with more unknowns and uncertainty than clear answers.
After giving a brief synopsis detailing his personal experience dealing with Hurricane Katrina (a catastrophe he helped portend several months beforehand in the pages of
The American Prospect (Related) The American Prospect ), its aftermath and the genesis of his book, he plunges right into the early and extensive history of meteorology. What is interesting to note is that many of the characters and fundamental disagreements that he chronicles during this period, known as the American Storm Controversy, would find parallels years later in our modern hurricane-climate debate. ...
Kids in Silicon Valley With a Great Green Dream! (Related)
While it’s true that the principals behind Silicon Valley's green energy start-ups have many worries, homework usually isn't one of them. That’s not the case, however, behind a new venture called Calsunergy. The chief executive hopes to launch the company before beginning eighth grade in the fall. The chief technical officer is just getting ready to start sixth grade. And the company's chief financial officer and vice president of marketing are readying themselves for only the fifth grade! ...
Vatican Does Planetary Penance (Related) Vatican City recently announced plans to offset the tiny nation's carbon emissions to zero for (the Year of Our Lord) 2007. Partnering with the American firm
Planktos (Related) and Hungarian company KlimFa, the Vatican will sponsor the planting of hundreds of trees in Hungary. The sponsorship is a bit of a formality as the two firms have volunteered to absorb the costs of planting the holy trees. But all three partners acknowledge that the project presents a major opportunity to raise awareness about global climate change and the possibilities for helping to mitigate the impact. The Vatican has made recent overtures toward environmental action, including
installing solar panels (Related) to power an audience hall and
calling on the faithful (Related) to care for creation. "You can emit less carbon dioxide by not using heaters or by doing without a car. Or you can do penance, in this case by planting trees that convert CO2 into oxygen," said Monsignor Melchor Sanchez de Toca Alameda, an official at the Pontifical Council for Culture. Via
::Life In Italy (Related) ...
Enviro Themes Will Be Scripted Into NBC U Storylines (Related) Looks like my
wish for 2007 (Related) is coming true. With the greening of the Evan Almighty film production and the promise of the
Get on Board (Related) campaign that eco practices would extend to the entire NBC Universal media conglomerate, Variety's
web exclusive (Related) indicates that, at least from a content perspective, things are on track. Next November, environmental themes will be scripted into programming as part of a week-long " Green is Universal " initiative. Bravo Media president Lauren Zalaznick, head of NBC U's Green Council, said that all NBC U networks would participate including broadcast, the cable networks, news, sports, daytime and latenight. Understand who
Zalaznick is (Related) . Amongst her credits are: co-producer on the movie Kids , producer of environmental- toxicity-horror-arthouse
classic (Related) Safe (Related) , and VH1 executive producer of VH1's pre-blog meta show
Pop Up Videos (Related) and Divas . Most importantly you not only remember those last two shows, you are also aware of VH1 as a network and a brand. Why? Because Zalaznick was called in to use her ample skills to rebrand, that is, redesign that network. It should come as no surprise that we TreeHuggers like
good (Related) redesign (Related) just as Zalaznick becoming NBC U's Green Tsar is a wise appointment. Of this new green scribing initiative, Zalaznick says: For the first time ever, the massive resources of the entire NBC U family will stand together behind a single pro-social cause.
More and a video scene from The Office when you jump....
The Green Light for Season Two of Sundance Channel’s THE GREEN (Related) We’re thrilled to announce that Laura Michalchyshyn,
Sundance Channel (Related) EVP and GM Programming and Creative Affairs, has announced that Sundance Channel has ordered second seasons of the solution-based series
Big Ideas for a Small Planet (Related) , as well as interstitial series Eco-Biz and Ecoists . In addition the network has acquired the U.S. rights to the second season of the BBC series It's Not Easy Being Green . Said Michalchyshyn:
THE GREEN (Related) is a year-round commitment for Sundance Channel. In addition to the dozens of documentary films and other short form programming we air, we continue to slot in new series to keep the block current and fresh. Behind THE GREEN scenes and video clips below the fold....
A Global Warning: The Game? (Related) Ever wanted to find a
fun (Related) ,
interesting (Related) way to get kids to consider the implications of their action,
particularly in regards to global warming (Related) ? Well, that's the idea behind this latest enviro-game for kids, where the decisions they make in the beginning can have powerful repercussions for their character down the road. The game itself is the brainchild of a husband and wife development team in France who came home one day to find a dumping company setting up an immense landfill next to their home in Burgundy. That really hit home and got them thinking about the environment, and ways they could get kids involved protecting the planet using their given talents as software developers.
Using the experience of having a landfill set up next to their home in the real world, they’ve worked it into the game as kids need to work with a “hero” of their choice to help stop the dump company and save the planet by choosing strategic, earth-friendly behavior “cards” which then have an impact on their character’s life in the game. Of course, decisions are not always easy, as in the real world where balancing a multitude of needs and interests often makes the best decision difficult to reach. Along the way kids will get to learn more about various environmental subjects. Those include waste, chemicals, CO2 emissions, self-sufficiency, and the availability of water. And for the moment they’re offering a limited but free download of the game as a trial run, so if it sounds like fun to you
head here and give it a shot (Related) .
via:: Jasmin Malik Chua...
The Big Ask (Related) This is the month for celebrities to show their stuff in support of climate change. Many are advocating political action to pressure governments to act. First we had Live Earth and now it's the Big Ask, an on-line petition. Started by Friends of the Earth, the campaign hopes to force the government to cut CO2 emissions by three per cent each year. A recent survey revealed that over two thirds of people in the UK want the Government to introduce a new law requiring carbon dioxide emissions to be cut annually.
Celebrities attaching their name and You-Tube clip to the cause include Jude Law, James Blunt and Gillian Anderson. So far 171,432 people have participated by using their camera or mobile phone to record a short video clip of themselves asking their MP to support the campaign. When they join the march, their MP will automatically receive a link to the recording. All of them can be viewed at the good looking website. ::
The Big Ask (Related) Via ::
the london paper (Related) ...
Recently we learned that schools in parts of Canada were going to be focusing on the environment by incorporating it into the curriculum
at every grade level (Related) . That was clearly great news, but I pointed out that an edict from on high can mean many things in a bureaucracy as vast and complex as a school system. The biggest challenge that I can see to that initiative will come from getting teachers to actually be able to integrate it in
meaningful ways (Related) into the classrooms, especially when so many people are just becoming aware of the necessity of going green to begin with, teachers included.
And now there’s a study in Israel that shows huge gaps in that country between the declarations about the purpose and extent of environmental education and its actual implementation in the classroom. According to one of the study’s authors, Prof. Alon Tal, there are substantial gaps in knowledge among pupils concerning various environmental subjects, and they are not familiar with the most basic issues. The report's conclusions state that most local pupils have not been exposed to the subjects in question in a productive way. There are very few updated materials on ecological issues, and curricula rarely include a practical component like helping to improve the environment in the school vicinity. In questionnaires given to the student body, many answered only half or fewer of the questions correctly.
...
"Why is it prohibited? asked the savage....The controller shrugged his shoulders. "Because it is old, that's the chief reason. We haven't any use for old things here."
"Even when they are beautiful?"
"Particularly when they are beautiful. Beauty's attractive, and we don't want people attracted by old things. We want them to like new ones."
Giles Slade quotes Aldous Huxley from Brave New World 's brilliant attack on consumerism, in "Made to Break": Technology and Obsolescence in Americ a, about the design and marketing of goods to encourage their replacement. George Bush was not far off when asked what people should do after 9/11, he said "go shopping." -that has been the message in America since World War 1, when store keepers put up signs saying "Clear the Track for Prosperity." Building to last was counterproductive, as Henry Ford learned at great cost from General Motors, who introduced annual model changes and almost wiped him out. From its beginnings in shirt collars and razor blades, our disposable culture with rapidly changing styles and technology is creating a mountain of waste that will bury us.
Slade was asked by a reviewer at Grist: How do we undo this cycle of consumption? "A lot of really sophisticated people devoted a lot of time and thought to developing this system," he says. "We need to look at the problem creatively and rethink it. Our whole economy is based on buying, trashing, and buying again. We need to rethink industrial design." ...
The book that explains what motivates us to buy new things; It is perhaps a bit weak in the later sections about modern technology and computers in particular, but nobody can argue with his conclusion "The golden age of obsolescence -- the heyday of nylons, tailfins, and transistor radios -- will go the way of the buffalo."
::Made to Break (Related) ...
I haven't read the book, but I wonder if it is really about "undo this cycle of consumption"... As McDonough & Braungart so aptly put it, it shouldn't have to be a problem to consume (they point to the example of ants, which consume biomass faster than humans even though they are 4x as many (in mass!))...
Personally I think sustainability is not just about durable products, but also about degradable products!
Ewout says:
I agree with Ewout, it is about producing Natural and Technical Nutrients. and this ones to be consumed over and over.
Many people think that Sustainable "Things" should Last a long time, Technical Nutrienyt should, but there are also Things, Natural Nutrients, that last not even days.
Cradle To Cradle is the only sustainable philosophy that requires that people keep the economy working similar to the way is working now.
The solution is not "less is better".
I agree with the commenter above. Like it or not, we live in a society that is rabid for newness. Sure, we can create products that will last for generations. But will people keep them that long, or will we just end up with mountains of solidly-built products lasting and lasting and lasting in landfills for generations?
Unless the mindset of culture reverses, which seems highly unlikely to me, it would be better to build disposable products that biodegrade and feed the earth, so that people can continue to feed their own shopping habits. Is that co-dependent? Maybe. But I also think it's a lot more practical than wishing and hoping that millions of people will change over night.
As George Monbiot says, we should be more materialistic, ie have more respect for the things we use.
I bought this book and it is a great summary of some of the processes involved in selling stuff. Here's a quote (from the SIlicon Valley Toxics coalition):
"Where once consumers purchased a stereo console or televison set with the expectation that it would last for a decade or more, the increasingly rapid evolution of technology has effectively rendered everything 'disposable'"
Design and designers speed up this trend by meaking products more attractive and usable, and then making the next generation even more attractive and usable.
Perhaps manufacturers should be banned from releasing a product until it is a mature design??
MY says:
Anyone remember "The Waste Makers" by Vance Packard?
Candy Spillard says: