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) ...
Having made little effort to hide his
disdain for the Live Earth concerts (Related) , Bob Geldof has instead decided to take on climate change by throwing his considerable weight behind several renewable energy projects in Africa. In doing so, Geldof has joined forces with a British energy company,
Helius Energy (Related) , which is pinning its hopes on the jatropha curcas plant's oil-rich seeds.
The jatropha plant, an ancient bush that grows all across the continent, makes seeds that, once dried and crushed, yield an oil that can be used to run diesel engines. "Power through renewable energies is and will be a major tool for developing countries, particularly for rural populations," said Geldof at a recent news conference. "The potential is enormous, i think it will be extraordinary if the model is replicated in other parts of Africa, it will have life-changing effects."...
TH Forums Highlights: Is Organic Better, Slow Food and More (Related) TreeHugger Forums (Related) is nearing 1,000 green topics, the good, bad and ugly aspects of the green world continue to come out, in an increasingly diverse range of ideas and thoughts. To add your own flavor to the green goodness that's brewing,
register for free (Related) and log in today. Here are some of the recent highlights...
1)
river-runner (Related) say, "Joseph Newman as far as I am concerned is probably one of the most important ideologists of our future. He has been kicked in the arse by the fed, humiliated by corporate America, and has the nuts to keep on going. This bloke has (many years ago)
invented a way of providing energy with close to 0 electrical power (Related) ". He's been a
hot topic (Related) in the forums lately; why doesn't the rest of the world know him?
2) Forum user
mglass (Related) ponders
whether eating organic might actually be bad for the environment (Related) . "According to a recent article in The Economist , this might be true. Read more about it here and voice your opinion!"
3) As long as we're talking food, forum user
gizzigoo (Related) says, "I'm not sure if any of you have
heard of slow food (Related) , but in Australia it is very linked to organic local growers and it is also a social thing, about enjoying our foods and an appreciation of what we have. A firm defence of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life." More good discussion after the jump...
...
Some Parents of Large Families Strike Back at Critics (Related) Not too long ago we featured the fact that parents of large families have
come under fire (Related) for having so many kids and the impact that has on the environment. Let’s face it, the more children one has, the more people there are to consume resources and put a strain on the planet. But The Guardian has an interesting article interviewing several large families in the UK about their situation, and I thought it was interesting to see where they’re coming from…
Take the Corbet family for example, they grow their own vegetables, they compost their waste, they're avid freecyclers, most of their clothes are second-hand, and to reduce their carbon footprint they don't drive anywhere on Fridays. In almost every way, the Corbets are a model green family, but as mom Angie puts it "We've got five kids." She goes on to point out, “And as far as some people are concerned, that completely negates everything else you do to reduce your impact on the planet's resources." She also resents the fact that
she's persona non grata in the green circles around her home in Wimborne, Dorset, arguing that “…when people reach a certain level of education they tend to choose to have fewer children. And since that means some people in our society are choosing to have fewer than two per couple, that means there's the scope for some people to have more." She says that larger families have to live more frugally than the couple next door with two kids who spend like crazy on all kinds of items, many of which are completely unnecessary and bad for the planet.
...
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: