MetaFilter posts tagged with environmentalism

Only the super-rich can save us!

gerryblog — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:19:14 -0800

SLJaredDiamondOp-Ed: As part of my board work, I have been asked to assess the environments in oil fields, and have had frank discussions with oil company employees at all levels. I’ve also worked with executives of mining, retail, logging and financial services companies. I’ve discovered that while some businesses are indeed as destructive as many suspect, others are among the world’s strongest positive forces for environmental sustainability. ...What’s my evidence for this? Here are a few examples involving three corporations — Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola and Chevron — that many critics of business love to hate, in my opinion, unjustly.

Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide!

grapefruitmoon — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:26:11 -0800

An oldie, but apropros for Earth Day. Join Penn & Teller in banning the nefarious Dihydrogen Monoxide!

Solar Prayers

ericbop — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:41:09 -0800

Once every month, Jews bless the moon. Once every 28 years, they bless the sun! This custom dates back to the Talmud, but is also found in other sacred Jewish texts, such as The New York Times. Sometimes, there are misunderstandings. [pdf] Previously reserved to a pious handful of observant Jews, it's on the mainstream media radar this time around, possibly because of its environmental implications. Here's an interesting depiction of the ritual in modern American history, which explicitly deals with its connection to solar power.

The Transition Handbook

sciurus — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:12:57 -0800

The Transition Handbook should be helpful to you if you are a proponent of planned energy descent and independence from fossil fuels and would like to start a Transition Town of your own.

The transition model emboldens communities to look peak oil and climate change squarely in the eye and unleash the collective genius of their own people to find the answers to this big question: for all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how are we going to:

significantly rebuild resilience (in response to peak oil); and

drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to climate change)?
The Transition Network

If you're interested in learning more about the movement, don't miss:

Sustainable Development or Green Menace?

JVA — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:16:50 -0800

Apparently some members of the far-right have figured it out! Environmentalists are communists! Being green is tantamount to an attack on "Western culture, and the Judeo-Christian and Islamic religions". Think this is just an American phenomenon? Think again...

Leadership for the 21st Century

daHIFI — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 07:56:38 -0800

Leadership for the 21st Century Harvard Business School hosts moderator Charlie Rose in a roundtable discussion concerning the credit crisis, housing, American leadership and foreign affairs. Participants are the 2008 HBS Alumni Achievement Award recipients, including eBay (and McCain advisor) CEO Meg Whitman, GE CEO Jeff Immelt, Venture Capitalist extrordinaire John Doerr, Indian business juggernaut Anand G. Mahindra, and former World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn. This aired on PBS last night and it was some of the most honest, intelligent, and inspiring discussion I have heard in some time. While the only transcript I could find is a paid one here, this 100 minute video should be required viewing for anyone working in a fortune 500 company, or those interested in politics, environmentalism, technology, foreign policy or the election. I only caught the tail end of last night's airing, (and I'm watching the whole thing as I post this) but a couple of things that really stood out for me: Mahindra's statements regarding the schizophrenia of India toward America; Doerr's excitement on the potential for future innovation around climate change technology and call for the restoration of DARPA; and the general optimism of the participants, especially that of Immelt, whose company's stock is at a 50 year low. If the last half hour of this could light a fire under my butt, then I would love to see what the whole thing does to the Mefite population.

Heed the Birds

Knappster — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:38:12 -0800

Brian D. Collier is attempting to teach the starlings to say the name "Schieffelin." Eugene Schieffelin introduced European Starlings into New York City's Central Park in 1890 and 1891. The descendants of these birds have damaged trees and crops, transmitted diseases, bullied native species, and even brought down a Lockheed Electra in 1960, killing 62. But they are not without their charms. Starling flocks in flight are a sight to see (previously). And starlings are skilled at recognizing song patterns and can even mimic human speech.

West documents one hapless bird, caught in a web of string, shrieking "Basic research!" at its owners; another screeching "I have a question!" as it squirms while having its feet doctored. The speech patterns of one bird routinely precedes its rendition of "hi" with the sound of a human sniffle--a combination traced to his caregiver being allergic.

Collier is using this skill to turn the species into an environmental teaching tool. He has mounted a project to teach the starlings to speak the name of their patron.

The first and most simple strategy is to find a starling and shout "Schieffelin" to it. Research by West and King has shown that starlings have the ability to learn a word or phrase after hearing it only once. To increase the success rate, I recommend repeating "Schieffelin" as many times as possible to an individual or group of starlings.

"Eventually, the starlings themselves will begin to carry the name "Schieffelin" through their North American population. Research by West and King has shown that starlings can learn sounds from one another. With the teaching of just a few "Schieffelin" can spread, as a virus would, through a population."

Urban farming, Architecture, and Art

lunit — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:47:56 -0800

P.F.1 (Public Farm One) is a project designed by WORK Architecture Company for MoMA and P.S.1's Young Architects Program. P.F.1’s intent is to "educate thousands of visitors on sustainable urban farming through the unique medium of contemporary architecture." An artist in Providence, RI developed a similar installation called Green Zone, "an organic vegetable, herb, and flower garden planted in the detritus of wartime consumption: used tires, shopping bags, shoes, and other repurposed containers" at local venue Firehouse 13.

Don't Say It Can't Be Done! -- This Brave Nation

carsonb — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:52:40 -0800

Pete Seeger and Majora Carter sit down together and bridge the generational gap with a discussion on environmentalism, activism, history, and music. A kind of "living history" project composed of short videotaped conversations, This Brave Nation brings together the most intelligent, passionate and creative voices of one generation with the activists, journalists and artists of the next to dialogue on loves, lives, politics and history. A coordinated effort from The Nation and the The Brave New Foundation.

A number we can live with

dead_ — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:05:41 -0800

Today marks the official 8-language launch of 350.org and the start of global action against climate change. But what does this 350 number even mean? As author Bill McKibben and a c h o r u s of scientific voices suggest, it means everything to the planet. If we want an earth at all, we'll need an Earth at 350.

Greening the DNC

mattbucher — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:01:16 -0800

This summer in Denver, at the 2008 Democratic National Convention fried foods will be forbidden at the committee's 22 or so events, as is liquid served in individual plastic containers. Plates must be reusable, like china, recyclable or compostable. The food should be local, organic or both. It's all part of Greening 2008 Convention. They've filmed some webisodes to "peel back the curtain" on the greening process, but not many delegations have signed up for the competition yet.

What Gets Left Behind

netbros — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:17:43 -0800

Federal and state government officials and border activists say the garbage dumped in the Sonoran Desert by illegal immigrants and their smugglers is staggering. The cleanup is costing taxpayers millions. The Southern Arizona Project(pdf) is a multi-year program setup by the Bureau of Land Management to mitigate the impacts to the ecology by illegal immigration and smuggling. In 2006 alone, more than 1.18 million pounds of trash was collected along the southern Arizona border.

Screw this

psmealey — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:50:38 -0800

Unscrew America!! Flash 9 Activism designed to promote interest/activity in replacing regular old incandescent lightbulbs with energy-efficient CFL and LED bulbs.

Bridging the Green Divide

lunit — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:12:25 -0800

"It used to be that the more radical you were on environmental issues, the farther you were from working-class people, poor people, and people of color, because you were making individual lifestyle changes that alienated you from the majority. You looked different; you ate different foods; you wore different clothes. Working-class people were shopping at Wal-Mart and eating at McDonald’s, and you were mad at them for it. With this new environmentalism, the more radical you are on environmental solutions, the closer you are to the working class." Van Jones works to create "green-collar" job opportunities to train disadvantaged workers in emerging green industries. Jones is the co-founder of the Ella Baker Center, an Oakland-based organization running the Green-Collar Jobs Campaign, the founder of Green For All, and the co-founder of Color of Change. He also writes for the Huffington Post.

“One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

HVAC Guerilla — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:14:21 -0800

On Saturday, March 29, 2008, at 8 pm in each time zone cities around the world will go dark: Sydney will follow Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra; In the Philippines, in Manila the lights will go out; Bangkok in Thailand; Tel Aviv in Israel; Suva in Fiji; Copenhagen in Denmark; In North America, Atlanta followed by Chicago, Toronto, Phoenix and San Francisco will be black. It’s Earth Hour. This year’s global initiative was announced at the Bali Climate Convention with twelve flagship cities participating and many more joining. In the U.S. Earth Hour this year is lead by Chicago joined by ComEd and the Chicago Chamber of Commerce. Earth Hour aims to reduce carbon emissions for an hour to the equivalent of taking 480,000 cars off the road and heighten awareness of climate change and energy consumption. Last year on March 31st about 2.2 million people participated in Sydney, Australia. While there is criticism as to how much this actually helped to cut energy consumption (PDF file), the difference was certainly visually striking. (More photos here and odder ones here)

Green Team!

lazaruslong — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 14:27:45 -0800

Green Team! NSFW language, Will Ferrell and Friends.

Neptune's Navy: The life and opinions of Paul Watson, anti-whaling vigilante

Kattullus — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 20:57:12 -0800

A list of Watson’s campaigns in the eighties reads like a catalogue of Tintin adventures. In 1981, he secretly entered Siberia to document a Soviet food-processing facility that was converting illegally harvested whale meat into feed for animals at a fur farm. He succeeded in avoiding the K.G.B. and in outmaneuvering the Soviet Navy around a pod of gray whales. (Greenpeace, which visited the facility the following year, got caught; one of the Greenpeace activists told me, “I was taken into a room with a K.G.B. guy who asked, ‘Do you know Paul Watson?’ ”) In 1982, from a chartered airplane, Watson dropped paint-filled light bulbs on a Soviet trawler in the northern Pacific. He has used spoiled pie filling, fired from water cannons, as a weapon at sea. During the Falklands War, he contacted the British Navy and offered to assist its fleet by ferrying medical supplies to the front—“so I could head off any Argentine move to kill penguins,” he told me. The British declined the offer.

Neptune's Navy [print], the life and opinions of Paul Watson, anti-whaling vigilante and founder of Sea Shepherd. Sea Shepherd has graced the front page many times before: Sea Shepherd and Nisshin Maru, Yarrr! Sea Shepherd, Sea Shepherd saves dolphins and Sea Shepherd and photoshopping.

Put Up or Shut Up

chuckdarwin — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:42:07 -0800

Last weekend's PICNIC'07 conference in Amsterdam featured a Green Challenge: to come up with the best marketable green idea that could be developed and sold to consumers within two years. Dutch decentralized renewable energy company Qurrent took down the big €500,000 prize for the Qbox: a device which creates optimizing energy algorithms for all devices in a home. See also: Green Thing.

The New New Environmentalism

salvia — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 09:50:50 -0800

Not ones for subtlety, the Death of Environmentalism guys (previously) are at it again with a Manifesto for a New Environmentalism. Their Apollo Alliance is getting early support from both Clinton and Obama. But it's not the only "new environmentalism" out there. There's this New Environmentalism, while others would include both market-based approaches among the the idols of old environmentalism.

Acquittal in Joan Root murder trial

mkultra — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 09:41:19 -0800

Joan Root, who spent most of her life in Kenya, was a noted naturalist and filmmaker (along with her (former) husband. She was murdered by gunmen at point-blank range in January, 2006 in her home on Lake Naivasha. Lake Naivasha is the only fresh water source in the Great Rift Valley, and has become increasingly endangered by pollution and overuse for irrigation, and Root spent considerable time fighting to protect it. Today, a Kenyan magistrate acquitted the four suspects in her murder, calling the testimony of 13 witnesses "defective".

Give Your Heart to the Hawks

a louis wain cat — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 00:10:56 -0800

The California poet Robinson Jeffers, though once popular enough to make the cover of Time Magazine, is for various reasons now a somewhat obscure figure- however, he has attracted increased interest in recent days both for the quality of his work and his pantheistic personal philosophy, which anticipated much future environmentalist thought. [more inside, with links to poems]

Farewell Satya

homunculus — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:15:39 -0800

Satya Magazine's final issue is online. They're closing down after 13 years. Some articles from their back issues are also online.

Environmentalism and the free market

knave — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 12:48:53 -0800

Orion Magazine hosts a two-part essay on the environmentalism movement's attempts to fit within free market capitalism, and the problems therein. Part one, The Idols of Environmentalism, focuses on the cross purposes of capitalism and environmentalism, and the apparent impossibility of the two working together. In part two, The Ecology of Work, the focus is on the human impact of the work and consumption culture.

Can America Survive Suburbia?

lonefrontranger — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 19:58:03 -0800

The National Automobile Slum: I propose that we now identify the human ecology of America precisely for what it really has become: the national automobile slum.-- James Howard Kunstler “Can America Survive Suburbia?”

Next Up: Nuclear waste reefs

nevercalm — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 09:50:15 -0800

Artificial reef off Fort Lauderdale coast now an ecological disaster. Then: A 1972 Goodyear news release proclaimed the reef would "provide a haven for fish and other aquatic species,' and noted the "excellent properties of scrap tires as reef material.' Now: "They're a constantly killing coral destruction machine."