Professor Kevin Anderson - Climate Change: Going Beyond Dangerous

For a clear explanation of where we are right now concerning climate change, check out this hour-long presentation by Prof. Kevin Anderson, climate scientist from the University of Manchester. This comes from the blog Climate Code Red, whose subtitle reads: "We face a climate emergency which requires actions at emergency speed far beyond "business as usual" and "politics as usual" to bring a rapid transition to a post-carbon, safe-climate future." Available at http://climatecodered.blogspot.com/2011/12/professor-kevin-anderson-climate-change.html.

Houston Hooker and Edd Bass

In this video,Arthur Potts in his TED TALK, goes over how he is trying to change the way restaurants are operating by making them more Eco friendly and creating less waste to go to the dumps. In one of his restaurants that he talks about, he explains how the kitchen itself is in the front of the restaurant instead of the back so people can choose how much food they want to consume there so there is not a lot of waste. Also other very important things that he has in his restaurants are reconditioned and reused items, worm farms, co0mpost bins, water tracks to make the water cleaner to reuse. Another restaurant that he owns uses the water channels temperature and current to power the entire restaurant's appliances, such as air conditioning. His vision is to encourage restaurants to create less waste and recycle all items that can be recycled. During his TED TALK, he explained how this was possible so that others can follow in his footsteps to creating a more sustainable future for restaurants.

Electric Cars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNeEVkhTutY

The Nissan Leaf represents the future of cars. Its electric and sustainable build contributes to sparing our environment. It has no tail pipe, so its not letting out any bad fuels, it runs on an ion battery and much more. It is a 100% electric, no gas car. If we aren't releasing the burning gas into the air, we aren't polluting the air through cars anymore. So why not do this for every car? If every car was electric the amount of fossil fuels going into the air would lessen greatly. These fossil fuels are what are causing problems such as global warming (as shown in this video) and if these fossil fuels stop coming into our environment at an unnatural rate, then global warming, and other things, would be much less of a problem. The fossils fuels are releasing the CO2 very very quickly and this heavy amount of CO2 is trapping heat and polluting our world. The less were releasing these fuels, the less were contributing to the pollution and the more were sustaining this world. Electric cars needs to be the future of cars if we want to sustain our world and create a safe environment for the future generations.

Building a New Green Economy- David W. Orr

In the video, “Building: A New Green Economy” by David Orr, he discusses how before our economic downturn, we were much more wealthy than we thought, and we lost it all very quickly. As a result, Orr wants to find environmental alternatives quickly and in inexpensive ways in order to withstand any problems presented in the future. Currently 7 billion tons of carbon are released into the air each year and the amount of carbon eliminated per dollar spent will either make or break our strive to obtain alternative energy resources. The author all states how we must become more self efficient and find new technology to start a new revolution and bring us back to prosperity and fairness. The main argument that he presents in the video is the need to bring all levels of sustainability into one project containing agriculture, urban renewal, education, and climate neutrality. The way this will happen is by having a downtown be a large part of the driving economy and build a green belt surrounding it. By doing so, we will have a cheap fossil fuel economy and the town will move to carbon neutrality. Orr finally concludes his speech by convincing the audience that we need to envision a better world that is not necessarily that same world we grew up in, but one that will be sustainable for everyone in the future.

Stephanie Kerbis and Gino Inzerillo

To imagine a sustainable future for the planet and its inhabitants is not an easy task at the present moment. However, when looking to implement change the corporate structure of capitalistic society seems to be an obvious and ever more accessible solution in the current state of the economy. As corporate giants look to win over every aspect of the consumer market, the role that each company plays as a sustainable part of the community is becoming ever more important. With the goal of the corporation in mind, it is important to take notice of how effectively and genuinely a company implements sustainable ideology. Cemex, the company we chose to analyze, is making conscious and genuine efforts to remedy realistic ecological problems in society.

"Sustainability is central to our business strategy and one of the keys to our future growth. As the largest concrete producer in the world, we have both a responsibility and a great opportunity to help lead the transition to a truly sustainable construction industry. That, in turn, would be a critical element of a low carbon economy."

Lorenzo H. Zambrano
Chairman of the Board and
Chief Executive Officer

Second nature is a nonprofit organization that is working to create a sustainable future by transforming higher education. At this moment, college students make up around 2% of the country's population. However, college student are the key to creating a sustainable future. If college students are given knowledge and skills for living a sustainable life they will be able to generate ideas that are beneficial to society. Currently 673 colleges are apart of the ACUPCC and are integrating the ideas of a green society in their curriculums. Hopefully this green trend will surpass the college student population and expand worldwide.

Second Nature

American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment

Santa Clara's Sustainability Practices

Celebrities Going Green

Making Sustainability as Cool as Entourage

"Let's begin to SHFT our lifestyles

to create a sustainable future"

Alexa Signorino & Caitlynn Wentworth

Celebrity Status

Celebrities can have a major influence in our movement in creating a sustainable future. As a celebrity Adrian Grenier has influenced so many of his fans to follow in his footsteps and go green. He started SHFT, a website, that can be looked at across the globe and persuade people that "sustainability is as cool as Entourage". Peter Glatzer has the ability to rally up followers to go green due to his position within the film making industry. Both celebrities have always been interested in going green, but now have used their stardom to spread word. Like Adam and Peter, celebrities from all over are starting to go green. Celebrities can truly make an impact in our efforts to reaching sustainable living because so many people look up to them and use celebrities as role models.

What Is SHFT?

SHFT is an organization created to show people that sustainability can come in all different forms. Changing

"SHFT is a multi-media platform founded by film producer Peter Glatzer and actor-filmmaker Adrian Grenier. Our mission is to convey a more sustainable approach to the way we live through video, design, art and culture." - SHFT

What Are The Webbys?

"The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996 during the Web's infancy, the Webbys are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which includes an Executive 750-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities, and Associate Members who are former Webby Award Winners and Nominees and other Internet professionals." - The Webby Awards

Electric Cars: Our Future?

This advertisement basically makes fun of society's addiction to fossil fuels. It is persuading audiences to purchase electric cars because they are a greener alternative to nonrenewable resources. Electric cars are currently the new trend of the automobile industry. According to studies, they use 35% to 60% less carbon dioxide pollution compared to the pollution from the oil of a conventional car.

Myths About Electric Cars

Rob Hopkins' Ted Talk

Rob Hopkins talks about the effect that oil is having on our planet. For many years, oil was a reliable source of energy, but it is no longer an infinite source of energy. At this point in time, consumers are using more oil than we are discovering and we can't keep consuming at this current level forever. He talks about how we need to move towards a more local mindset and find new sources of energy before it's too late. We need to resort back to values such as hard-work and determination because it isn't going to easy to transition towards new forms of energy.

In Transition -- The Movie

"‘In Transition’ is the first detailed film about the Transition movement filmed by those that know it best, those who are making it happen on the ground. The Transition movement is about communities around the world responding to and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities. It is positive, solutions focused, viral and fun.

In the film you'll see stories of communities creating their own local currencies, setting up their own pubs, planting trees, growing food, celebrating localness, caring, sharing. You’ll see neighbours sharing their land with neighbours that have none, local authorities getting behind their local Transition initiatives, schoolchildren making news in 2030, and you'll get a sense of the scale of this emerging movement. It is a story of hope, and it is a call to action, and we think you will like it very much. It is also quite funny in places."

Taken from In Transition 1.0 on Vimeo

To view the film, just go to In Transition--The Movie.

Transition Town: What's It All About?

Transition Towns New Zealand

Bill Rees on the Human Ecological Footprint

Urban Cities and Their State of Emergency

As we continue to abuse our environment, the less fortunate people of America suffer at a much higher degree than most might think. This is due impart because the waste of the upper class can be shipped to these less desirable areas, completely disregarding the wellbeing of their fellow citizens. Kunstler asserts that me must shift to a more localized community where people are responsible for their own waste, and thus will take their consumption more seriously. With this, urban areas will see an improvement in quality of life and as a whole, waste and pollution will be treated with more care since people will be responsible for what they produce.

As our environment continues to get worse, we turn a blind eye to the amount of hopelessness we are getting ourselves into. Kunstler believes this to be the “greatest misallocation of resources to date” and that our quality of civic life that we take for granted today will only continue to get worse unless we can reverse the negative actions we are placing on our environment. In the past, people took conservative approaches to their cities, where the towns never got too large, the people always provided for themselves, and people all depended on one another for the production of goods. The culture of civic design and the organization of cities went down the drain after the Industrial Revolution, and all of our principles of sustainability and space conservation went down the drain with it as well. We want to get to the point where we can dwell in a hopeful present, and not worry about a future full of despair.

Chipotle, The Sustainable Fast Food Movement

From the beginning, fast food chains have been producing and selling food in the fastest and cheapest way possible. Until recently, some chains have been promoting sustainable efforts in creating there food, although many have little evidence to support their claims. Many believe this effort is a hoax in order to make people believe that they are trying to be environmentally friendly. Unlike other fast food chains, Chipotle, under the control of Steve Ells has been using free-range animals, in local farms to produce their food. Steve Ells the Chairman and Co-CEO of Chipotle sparked a movement in fast food production before sustainability became popular. This shows that the core values of the restaurant have been there from the beginning and their efforts of being sustainable are solely to be sustainable rather than appear sustainable.

History of Chipotle

Annie Leonard and "The Story of Stuff"

Annie Leonard has put together a great film, entitled "The Story of Stuff." As with many good ideas, Stephen Colbert invited her to be interviewed on The Colbert Report. Her Story of Stuff is so popular, it's been viewed by millions. Check out her other films, "The Story of Cosmetics," "The Story of Citizens United v. FEC," "The Story of Electronics," and "The Story of Bottled Water." Coming out on Nov. 8--"The Story of Broke"--an interesting and controversial take on economics.

Green Business

Link:

10 Green Giants-Fortune Magazine

Video:

A dramatic change in the paradigm of capitalism is being experienced as the corporate world embraces sustainability. Reform is necessary in today’s capitalistic society because companies throughout the industrial revolution up to today have been living in a culture that tolerates waste. No more! Sustainability has become an important part in the production equation because businesses have recognized the advantages of operating sustainably. Businesses are still seeking to maximize production but with as little impact on their environment as possible. The first link is to a Forbes magazine article, called “10 green giants”. The article lists ten large revenue companies that are making headway in sustainable business operations. Companies like Honda, GE, PG&E, and Hewlett Packard stand out as well known names. For example, Honda has been investing in multiple forms of energy for their vehicles like, hydrogen fuel cell and natural gas. Honda is unique because it is a conglomerate, which has been a benefit to the consumer because Honda has been incorporating their car technologies in their other products within home energy as well as in infrastructure. However, big companies are not the only ones pursuing sustainability, small-scale efficiency in operations has grown in popularity with homeowners to small businesses. The second link is a video of an Australia-based company called, Green Biz Check, that offers green advising and counseling to small businesses. This company is unique because their job is not traditional; in fact, sustainable managing is a job that has emerged in the past decade. Many companies, large and small, are tackling the problem of sustainability in hopes that they will run a leaner, more cost-effective business because it will increase profits and ultimately create a life-sustaining culture.

Tracy Chapman--New Beginning

Paul Hawken on Blessed Unrest

The New Industrial Revolution

The New Industrial Revolution, you could say, began in the 1980’s. This video goes through a timeline of how different technologies became more readily available to the general public, therefore creating a new economic force. It started in the 1980’s when desktop publishing first became available to individuals so anyone with the “skill and drive” could become a publisher. Then, in the 1990’s “desktop video did the same for video production.” Now, people can “make TV at home.” Now, being in the 21st century we have the ability to create and establish just like conglomerate corporations do. Previously, it was only large corporations that were able to get their hands on patents for new products. In this video the example is Bob Kurns’ invention of the windshield wipers; because Kurns wasn’t involved in a large corporation he was not able to successfully manufacture them. Instead, Ford took his idea because he already owned a large business. Today, society supports micro-entrepreneurs so what happened to Kurns would not happen now. It took years for Kurns’ to be appropriately credited for his invention. Now, “business and work is spread around, everyone gets a piece.”

Creating a Sustainable US Economy

Jeffrey Hollender: Creating a Sustainable US Economy from Gregor Barnum on Vimeo.

Jeffrey Hollender is a visionary and authority on corporate responsibility, sustainability and social equity. He is working to drive systemic changes in the US economy and has written six books including The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win, How to Make the World a Better Place, a Beginner's guide and Planet Home: Conscious Choices for Cleaning & Greening the World You Care About Most.

Post by: Adrienne Ackerman and Rachel Miyata

Building A Whole Earth Economy

What is the relationship between Earth and the economy - and why is this relationship significant? Peter G. Brown presents his argument on this in his book Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy, in which he explores the current situation of the Earth and the economic system we reside in.

Brown presents to us five questions that we need to answer if we ever want to create that perfect mutual relationship between Earth and the economy. They are:

1) What's The Economy For?

2) How does it work?

3) How big should it be?

4) What's a fair distribution of it's burdens and benefits?

5) How should it be governed?

Meeting Oregon's Carbon Neutral Challenge

Willamette Valley Vineyard's sustainability manager Caitlyn Carey explains just how winemakers in Oregon have innovated to create a carbon-neutral industry.

What Would Sustainable Winemaking Look Like?

Find out how Oregon's winemakers are working to create sustainable vineyards, including wildlife areas in the midst of vineyards and sustainable practices that enable vintners to adopt climate- friendly practices. The Wine Spectator has put together an impressive series of videos emphasizing the ways in which Oregonians are changing their winemaking practices, from energy generation and field ecoculture to the processing and packaging of wines. If you were to draw a flow chart of their carbon neutral practices, what would it look like? What strategies do you see these farmers highlighting in their efforts to win the Carbon Neutral Challenge hosted each year by the Oregon Environmental Council?

Bill McKibben on Saving the Planet from the Bottom Up!

Bill McKibben is an author, environmentalist, and activist who wrote the first popular book about global warming. He is the co-founder of 350.org, an international organization which, on 10/10/10, organized a day of climate solutions projects-from solar panel installations to community garden plantings-and changed communities from the bottom up with over 7,000 events in 188 countries.

This video was recorded for Schumacher College.
Schumacher College is part of The Dartington Hall Trust, a registered charity, which focuses on the arts, social justice and sustainability.
For more information about Schumacher College and Dartington visit:
http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/ and
http://www.dartington.org/

AlJazeera's Earthrise-The Millennium Seed Bank

Efforts to achieve a sustainable world are in evidence in every corner of the world. Here, AlJazeera features Earthrise, a program that focuses on global progress toward sustainability. This particular show features an investigation into the Millennium Seed Bank in Sussex, England. AlJazeera tells us, "Kew's Millennium Seed Bank partnership in Sussex is the largest off-site plant conservation project in the world. Working with partners in more than 50 countries, they had by 2009 banked the seeds of 10 per cent of the planet's wild plant species." Seed banks like the ones featured here exist to save seeds in danger of extinction due to the overdevelopment of the planet.
I find it hopeful that there is such a thriving culture of support for sustainability spreading all over the globe. You'll find the entire series of episodes for Earthrise at the following URL:
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/earthrise/

Farmhearts Interview with Mark Ruffalo

 

An Interview with Mark Ruffalo: We Can Go Gracefully Into a Green Future, Or We Can Go Kicking and Screaming, But There Is No Choice

Sabrina Artel has traveled the country in her Trailer Talk BeeLine camper talking to people about fracking. She stopped in Yellow Springs, Ohio over Labor Day to share Trailer Talk's Shale Project and create a Bill of Rights for Water with community members fighting back against the industry landmen knocking on doors throughout the area. She writes, "I was reminded of the threat to our farms as I drove past acres of farmland with sunflower fields and beehives with No Fracking signs standing fiercely on the road. Heading west I traveled through tornado-flattened Joplin, drought-desperate Oklahoma and Texas, and a dismantled Route 66, recognizing the desperate economic situation this country is in and how enticing drilling can seem to those barely scraping by."

In this interview, she went to Callicoon, New York, to the Callicoon Youth Center, where she attended Haystock," a benefit for Farmhearts. Mark Ruffalo, actor, director, environmental advocate, and Catskill, New York, resident, joined her at the kitchen table of "Trailer Talk" to talk about Farmhearts, a nonprofit farm advocacy organization he helped found whose mission is to help local family farms by lending assistance in grants, helping to bring added value to a farm's existing products, offering grassroots and Internet support, and opening the door to the next generation of young farmers. They are committed to lending a hand to the hands that feed us, and their mission is to help local family farms survive and thrive.

Mark's story of the assault on our water supply in order to engage in hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as fracking, is a wake-up call to all of us. He tells of how farmers are being bought out with the money provided by oil companies to lease their land for the purposes of fracking, a process whereby toxic chemicals are blasted into the earth to recover oil shale. The toxins then enter the water table and poison the water that everyone relies on.

Mark Ruffalo ends his interview in this way: "There's a movement to try and attain [sustainable communities throughout the world]. There's energy to do it. And I see that happening here. I see it happening everywhere. You know, I see it happening throughout the world. When you topple a 7,000-year-old power structure like they have in Egypt, that's a leaderless movement; that's a movement that comes out of the collective consciousness of the people, of the community, and why they put themselves at risk -- why they exert that amount of energy -- is because they see something better. They believe in something better for themselves and for their children. And it's under that same belief, under those same principles, under that same vision, that I move forward in the world ... and that all of these people move forward in the world, you know? -- that all these people are here tonight. It's tangible. It's doable. We're fortunately at a place where we can realize these dreams."

You can listen to the podcast from that interview at the following link:

http://www.sabrinaartel.com/trailer-talk-shale-project/?powerpress_pinw=1034-podcast

Slow Food and Its Biggest Proponent Alice Waters

Here's a helpful introduction to the slow food movement--an interview with Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse in 1971, a restaurant that focuses on local food of every variety. Alice Waters has been preaching the virtues of cultivating fresh food for four decades. As Lesley Stahl reports in this 60 Minutes report, this world-renowned chef and restaurateur hopes a slower approach to the food we eat will keep us healthier and greener.

Chris Martin of Cold Play on Fair Trade

Oxfam America and Make Trade Fair teamed up to send Coldplay's Chris Martin to Africa to see firsthand the extreme poverty endured by so many and how fair trade in these areas can improve the lives of those who live and work there. For more information, visit http://www.oxfamamerica.org.

Trade Justice: Why World Trade Rules Need to Change

Here's a short animated clip on world trade and why things need to change. Animation from Trade Aid a New Zealand fair trade organization. 

Go FairTrade!

Evidently, FairTrade is huge in Great Britain. Here's a video made by a fellow student giving plenty of reasons to buy FairTrade products.

Why Fair Trade?

What is fairtrade? It's more expensive - why should we pay more? What's the point? Well, Fairtrade gives people the life that they deserve - that is theirs by right. In fact, every time you don't buy fairtrade, you are likely endorsing UNfair trade. I think all of us can see the moral injustice in this. Watch and see what you think...

Rant over, hope you enjoy! The song is 'Numa Numa' by O-Zone.

What Is Fair Trade?

Here, a UK student group has produced a show entitled "The Knowledge" and interviewed the founders of Fair Trade, to hear about their ongoing work to create a fairer system of trade, what exactly it is that they do and find out how each of us can get involved.

Fresh the Movie Preview

On October 18, we'll be discussing the film Fresh, for which you will have viewed and written a reaction paper. Here is a preview of that film. There will be a screening of the film and a copy of the film will be placed on reserve in the library. There are so many issues raised in the film that are great points of departure for discussion. You'll see many of them raised in this trailer. 

Michael Pollan, "Don't Eat Anything You See Advertised"

Michael Pollan is one of the nations leading writers and thinkers in this country on the issue of food. He is author of several books about food, including The Botany of Desire, The Omnivores Dilemma and his latest, In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto. In light of what he calls the processed food industrys co-option of sustainability and its vast spending on marketing, Pollan advises to be wary of any food thats advertised.

Michael Pollan on "Why Eat Local?"

Food journalist Michael Pollan encourages buying local food to conserve energy, support farmers, and preserve the natural landscape.

Michael Pollan on "Supermarket Secrets"

How do you make healthy choices at the supermarket? Food journalist Michael Pollan helps us navigate the grocery store to find fresh, whole foods.
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Michael Pollan on "No Free Lunch"

What's the link between cheap food and expensive health care? Food journalist Michael Pollan explains the relationship between what we spend on food and the rising cost of health care in America.

Wake Up! with Dr. Nadine Burke

How has our habit for junk food contributed to an epidemic of obesity and diabetes? Pediatrician Nadine Burke discusses the consequences of eating food high in sugar and fat.

An Introduction to Food, Inc.

What is Ecological Literacy?

For a fundamental understanding of ecological literacy, probably no one is more capable of explaining this than Fritjo Capra. Below you'll find further information on the need to spread ecological literacy through education from the Center for Ecoliteracy:

The Center for Ecoliteracy is dedicated to education for sustainable living.

We provide information, inspiration, and support to the vital movement of K-12 educators, parents, and other members of the school community who are helping young people gain the knowledge, skills, and values essential to sustainable living.

We base our work on these four guiding principles:
• Nature is our teacher
• Sustainability is a community practice
• The real world is the optimal learning environment
• Sustainable living is rooted in a deep knowledge of place

Through our initiative, Smart by Nature: Schooling for Sustainability, we offer both a strong theoretical framework and practical resources for combining hands-on learning in the natural world with curricular innovation in K-12 education.

We know that no single blueprint will work for all schools. Our seminars, consulting, books, teaching guides, and other publications support a diverse range of approaches to schooling for sustainability.

For more info please visit our site at:
http://www.ecoliteracy.org
______________________________

Center for Ecoliteracy--What Would Sustainability in the Schools Look Like?

The Center for Ecoliteracy has some very promising ideas regarding how to transform schools so that they begin to educate young people for sustainability. The following information has been provided by the Center for Ecoliteracy, based in Berkeley, CA.

Karen Brown , creative director of the Center for Ecoliteracy, is an award-winning designer who has lectured throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan on the human and environmental consequences of design. Her design has shaped the distinctive online and print publications of the Center for Ecoliteracy, including the Rethinking School Lunch Guide, Big Ideas, and educators' guides to the films Food, Inc., Nourish, and Connected. Her work has been featured in the Smithsonian Institution, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, The New York Times, Architectural Digest, Edutopia, and dozens of other publications as well as NBC's Today show

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.

Wangari Maathai on Equity and Environmental Justice

Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel peace prize, died on Sunday night of cancer. She was 71. A feminist, social activist and an environmental crusader who showed no fear, her Green Belt Movement, founded in 1977, planted tens of millions of trees. She came into the GRITtv studios in September 2009, where she talked about the responsibility of all countries, industrialized and developing, to live within their means. Asked about resource wars, she spoke powerfully about equity and human rights, comparing the society to a forest, she said, "the canopy and the mushrooms both need light." It's powerful stuff. She'll be sorely missed. Maathai was in New York at the time for the UN summit on climate change.  There have been promises from the major industrialized nations, including China and the United States, to take action, she said, but they've mostly failed to follow through.  She looked ahead to the Copenhagen summit with caution. Caution that proved disastrously well placed. In the last two years, the industrialized nations have slowed, not sped, their progress towards change.  Maathai's death, as activists around the world marked "Moving Planet Day, a global mobilization "to move beyond fossil fuels" underscored what she taught, namely that action on climate change will be driven, not from the top, but from below. Plant a tree for Maathai?

Honoring Wangari Maathai

Sad news. Wangari Maathai passed away at a hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, as a result of cancer. Here is her obituary, as written by Jeffrey Gettleman for the New York Times.

September 26, 2011

Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Dies at 71

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

NAIROBI, Kenya — Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist who started out by paying poor women a few shillings to plant trees and went on to become the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, died late on Sunday after battling cancer. She was 71.
Mrs. Maathai, one of the most famous and widely respected women on the continent, wore many hats — environmentalist, feminist, politician, professor, rabble-rouser, human rights advocate and head of the Green Belt Movement she founded. She was as comfortable in the gritty streets of Nairobi’s slums or the muddy hillsides of central Kenya as she was hobnobbing with heads of state. In 2004, she won the Nobel Peace Prize, with the Nobel committee citing “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.” It was a moment of immense pride in Kenya and across Africa.
Mrs. Maathai toured the world, speaking out against environmental degradation and poverty — which she pointed out early on were intimately connected — but never lost focus on her native Kenya. She was a thorn in the side of Kenya’s previous president, Daniel Arap Moi, and when he finally stepped down after 24 years in power, she served as a member of parliament and as an assistant minister for a few years. But she soon fell out of favor with Kenya’s new leaders and lost her seat. In 2008, after being pushed out of government, she was tear-gassed by the police during a protest against the excesses of Kenya’s well-entrenched political class.
“Wangari Maathai was known to speak truth to power,” said John Githongo, an anticorruption campaigner in Kenya who was forced into exile for years for his own outspoken views. “She blazed a trail in whatever she did, whether it was in the environment, politics, whatever.”
Wangari Muta Maathai was born in 1940 in Nyeri, Kenya, in the foothills of Mount Kenya. She was a star student and won a scholarship to study biology at Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kan. She went on to obtain a doctorate in veterinary anatomy, becoming the first woman in East or Central Africa to hold such a degree, according to the Nobel Prize Web site. In 1977, she formed the Green Belt Movement, which planted trees across Kenya to fight erosion and to create fuel (i.e., firewood) and jobs for women.
During the 1980s, the Kenyan government labeled the Green Belt Movement “subversive,” and Mrs. Maathai seemed to provoke a special scorn from Mr. Moi by leading the charge against a government plan to build a huge skyscraper in one of central Nairobi’s only parks. The skyscraper proposal was eventually scrapped, though not long afterward, during another protest, Mrs. Maathai was beaten unconscious by the police.
Home life was not easy either. Her husband, Mwangi, divorced her, saying she was too strong-minded for a woman. When she lost her divorce case and criticized the judge, she was thrown in jail. Still, throughout the years she managed to rack up honorary degrees and innumerable awards, including France’s Légion d’Honneur and Japan’s Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.
Her Green Belt Movement has planted over 30 million trees in Africa and helped nearly 900,000 women, the United Nations said.
“Wangari Maathai was a force of nature,” said Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nation’s environmental program. He likened her to Africa’s ubiquitous acacia trees, “strong in character and able to survive sometimes the harshest of conditions.”
The Nobel committee hailed her for taking “a holistic approach to sustainable development that embraces democracy, human rights and women’s rights in particular” and serving “as inspiration for many in the fight for democratic rights.”
Her battle with ovarian cancer was a surprise to many here in Nairobi. Her organization did not provide details but Kenyan media reported that she had been in the hospital for at least a week and had been suffering during the past year.
She is survived by three children, Waweru, Wanjira and Muta, and a granddaughter, Ruth Wangari, according to a statement from the Green Belt Movement. The organization said, “Her departure is untimely and a very great loss to all of us who knew her, as a mother, relative, co-worker, colleague, role model and heroine or those who admired her determination to make the world a peaceful, healthy and better place for all of us.”
On Monday, condolences flooded in from around the world.
Fellow Nobel winner Al Gore said “Wangari overcame incredible obstacles to devote her life to service — service to her children, to her constituents, to the women, and indeed all the people of Kenya — and to the world as a whole.”
During her Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Mrs. Maathai said the inspiration for her work came from growing up in rural Kenya. She reminisced about a stream running next to her home – that same stream has since dried up – and drinking fresh, clear water.
“In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other,” she said.
“That time is now.”

Andrew Revkin wrote this in Dot.Earth today:

Maathai is best known for creating the Green Belt Movement, which has planted tens of millions of trees around Kenya, but she also personified a positive strain of environmentalism that stands out in a world where “woe is me” messages dominate. Click on the video clip above for a sample.

Radu Sigheti/Reuters Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai, center, in Nairobi in 2004.

Her work centered on improving the lives of women, building a sustainable relationship between people and the land and education. Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her efforts. I encourage you to read the defense of her prize, which was criticized by some, from Anna Lappé and Frances Moore Lappé of the Small Planet Institute. Here’s a snippet:

Maathai’s genius is in recognizing the interrelation of local and global problems, and the fact that they can only be addressed when citizens find the voice and courage to act. Maathai saw in the Green Belt Movement both a good in itself, and a way in which women could discover they were not powerless in the face of autocratic husbands, village chiefs and a ruthless president. Through creating their own tree nurseries – at least 6,000 throughout Kenya – and planting trees, women began to control the supply of their own firewood, an enormous power shift that also freed up time for other pursuits.
Then, through popular education, village women – who had watched public forests be used by the Moi regime to grant political favors – began to see forests differently, as something they, as citizens, had a claim to.

[The writer Terry Tempest Williams sent this note by e-mail:

I met her when I was 28 years old in Kenya, she changed my life. She showed me what a powerful woman's voice not only sounded like, but felt like. And she taught me as we traveled through villages what interdependency is all about -- environmental issues are social issues are issues of social justice.]

Maathai was not averse to speaking truth to power. John Vidal of The Guardian today recalls comments Maathai made on her first visit to England, in 1988:

Her fierce denunciation of the rich north, that day, was shocking: “The top of the pyramid is blinded by insatiable appetites backed by scientific knowledge, industrial advancement, the need to acquire, accumulate and over-consume. The rights of those at the bottom are violated every day by those at the top.”

The Web site of her organization encourages well wishers to post thoughts on her Facebook page. They are welcome here, as well, of course.

Making Stuff Cleaner

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA.

Who Killed Economic Growth?

Here's a provocative video from Richard Heinberg, who, in his most recent book, The End of Growth, argues that we have come to an historic transition.
The publisher of The End of Growth puts it like this:

"Economists insist that recovery is at hand, yet unemployment remains high, real estate values continue to sink, and governments stagger under record deficits. The End of Growth proposes a startling diagnosis: humanity has reached a fundamental turning point in its economic history. The expansionary trajectory of industrial civilization is colliding with non-negotiable natural limits.
Richard Heinberg’s latest[book] goes to the heart of the ongoing financial crisis, explaining how and why it occurred, and what we must do to avert the worst potential outcomes. Written in an engaging, highly readable style, it shows why growth is being blocked by three factors:

• Resource depletion
• Environmental impacts
• Crushing levels of debt

These converging limits will force us to re-evaluate cherished economic theories and to reinvent money and commerce.
The End of Growth describes what policy makers, communities, and families can do to build a new economy that operates within Earth’s budget of energy and resources. We can thrive during the transition if we set goals that promote human and environmental well-being, rather than continuing to pursue the now-unattainable prize of ever-expanding GDP."
Viewing the video alone will give you some food for thought.

A Robot that Flies Like a Bird

This TED Talk features new breakthroughs in dynamic propulsion and gliding, with a robot that simulates the motion of a bird. With new technology, will we overcome the limitations of the machines we build today and in the meantime make them more sustainable? Something to think about.

Jon Stewart Analyzes Fox News' "Fair & Balanced" Rhetorical Strategies

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The sheer genius of Fox News posturing as a victim of liberal bias in the mainstream media is highlighted here by Jon Stewart. Just another great example of the power of rhetoric!

Jared Diamond on Climate Change

Climate Progress has posted a new video by Jared Diamond, author of Collapse, on the need to plan strategically to deal with climate change. Here's what Nick Sundt of Climate Progress tells us:
DIAMOND: There are so many societies in which the elite made decisions that were good for themselves in the short run and ruined themselves and societies in the long run….

Similarly, in the United States at present, the policies being pursued by too many wealthy people and decision makers are ones that — as in the case of the Mayan kings — preserve their interests in the short run but are disastrous in the long run.
Jared Diamond, author of the bestseller “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed,” has a fascinating video discussion of climate change. Below is the video and a blog post on it by WWF’s Nick Sundt.
In a new video, Jared Diamond talks about climate change, drawing parallels between modern Americans and the Classic southern lowland Maya – who failed to take the actions that might have avoided the collapse of their civilization. However, unlike the Maya, we have the “unique opportunity” and capacity to “learn from remote places and to learn from places remote in time,” Diamond says. “And among all the things that might incline me towards pessimism, that is the biggest thing that in the end inclines me towards optimism.”
Diamond explains that energy and greenhouse gas emissions are among a dozen key groups of environmental problems that confront us and “we’ve got to solve them all.” In the case of climate change, he explains that we must not only slow its pace by reducing emissions, but we must prepare for its impacts and adapt. To some extent, we now are “stuck with it”:

“We have to do things to adapt to climate change such as – in California – planting olive trees rather than almond trees. Then there are things to do for wild plants and animals. What do we do about some chipmunk species living on top of a mountain in the Western United States that thrives on cold temperatures, and the mountain is getting warmer and warmer? So this cold habitat is gradually moving up towards the top of the mountain, and the cold habitat is gradually moving off into the sky where there aren’t any chipmunks. What do we do about all those plant and animal species that are threatened by climate change? …It’s going to require having some either new conservation areas; or species that are now being conserved in Yellowstone National Park will increasingly be getting conserved in Glacier National Park further to the North. In some cases it’s going to require actual transplanting that chipmunk on the top of a mountain rising out of the Great Basin. That chipmunk is going to have to be moved somewhere because that mountain is not going to be suitable for the chipmunk. “

In the interview, Diamond draws lessons from the Mayan experience:

“There are so many societies in which the elite made decisions that were good for themselves in the short run and ruined themselves and societies in the long run. For example, the most advanced society in the New World before Columbus was the Maya of the Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala and Honduras. They ended up collapsing …. because of a combination of climate change, drought, water management problems, soil erosion, deforestation….So the Mayan kings had strong power.

Why didn’t the Mayan kings just look out the windows of the Palaces and see the forests getting chopped down, soil being eroded down at the valley bottom. Why didn’t the kings say `stop it’? Well the kings had managed to insulate themselves from the consequences of their actions – in the short run. Even while the forests were being chopped down, they were still being fed well by the commoners, they were in their wonderful palaces. And the kings didn’t recognize that they were making a mess until it was too late, when the commoners rose in revolt.
Similarly, in the United States at present, the policies being pursued by too many wealthy people and decision makers are ones that — as in the case of the Mayan kings — preserve their interests in the short run but are disastrous in the long run.”
Will we go the way of the Maya? Diamond is hopeful that we will choose otherwise:
“Today, we have archeologists who tell us about the mistakes that the Maya and the Greenland Norse and the Anasazi made, and we also have archeologists who tell us about the good decisions that the Tokugawa Japanese and the Icelanders made. So we can learn from the past. And then we can turn on our television sets. We can see what it’s like in Somalia. We can also see what it’s like today in Norway or Bhutan. And we can decide: Do we like the lifestyle of Bhutan or do we like the lifestyle in Somalia? Which do we choose to emulate? We have this opportunity to learn from remote places and to learn from places remote in time. No other society in world history has had that advantage. And among all the things that might incline me towards pessimism, that is the biggest thing that in the end run inclines me towards optimism. We have this unique opportunity.”

In an earlier video (November 2009), Diamond framed the climate change threat in another compelling way, not by referring to earlier civilizations but by focusing on more immediate, personal concerns and priorities:
“We are working so hard for our children and grandchildren. All of us parents send our kids to school; we debate endlessly about whether our kids are in the right school. We draw up our wills, and maybe we draw up trusts. We buy life insurance. It’s all wasted if what we are propelling out kids into is a world not worth living in.”
– Nick Sundt
Online Resources:
Classic Maya Collapse. Wikipedia.

A link between climate change and Joplin tornadoes? Never.

By Bill McKibben, Published: May 23, 2011

Washington Post 

Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of rubble like this week’s shots from Joplin, Mo., you should not wonder: Is this somehow related to the tornado outbreak three weeks ago in Tuscaloosa, Ala., or the enormous outbreak a couple of weeks before that (which, together, comprised the most active April for tornadoes in U.S. history). No, that doesn’t mean a thing.
It is far better to think of these as isolated, unpredictable, discrete events. It is not advisable to try to connect them in your mind with, say, the fires burning across Texas — fires that have burned more of America at this point this year than any wildfires have in previous years. Texas, and adjoining parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico, are drier than they’ve ever been — the drought is worse than that of the Dust Bowl. But do not wonder if they’re somehow connected.
If you did wonder, you see, you would also have to wonder about whether this year’s record snowfalls and rainfalls across the Midwest — resulting in record flooding along the Mississippi — could somehow be related. And then you might find your thoughts wandering to, oh, global warming, and to the fact that climatologists have been predicting for years that as we flood the atmosphere with carbon we will also start both drying and flooding the planet, since warm air holds more water vapor than cold air.
It’s far smarter to repeat to yourself the comforting mantra that no single weather event can ever be directly tied to climate change. There have been tornadoes before, and floods — that’s the important thing. Just be careful to make sure you don’t let yourself wonder why all these record-breaking events are happening in such proximity — that is, why there have been unprecedented megafloods in Australia, New Zealand and Pakistan in the past year. Why it’s just now that the Arctic has melted for the first time in thousands of years. No, better to focus on the immediate casualties, watch the videotape from the store cameras as the shelves are blown over. Look at the news anchorman standing in his waders in the rising river as the water approaches his chest.
Because if you asked yourself what it meant that the Amazon has just come through its second hundred-year drought in the past five years, or that the pine forests across the western part of this continent have been obliterated by a beetle in the past decade — well, you might have to ask other questions. Such as: Should President Obama really just have opened a huge swath of Wyoming to new coal mining? Should Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sign a permit this summer allowing a huge new pipeline to carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta? You might also have to ask yourself: Do we have a bigger problem than $4-a-gallon gasoline?
Better to join with the U.S. House of Representatives, which voted 240 to 184 this spring to defeat a resolution saying simply that “climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for public health and welfare.” Propose your own physics; ignore physics altogether. Just don’t start asking yourself whether there might be some relation among last year’s failed grain harvest from the Russian heat wave, and Queensland’s failed grain harvest from its record flood, and France’s and Germany’s current drought-related crop failures, and the death of the winter wheat crop in Texas, and the inability of Midwestern farmers to get corn planted in their sodden fields. Surely the record food prices are just freak outliers, not signs of anything systemic.
It’s very important to stay calm. If you got upset about any of this, you might forget how important it is not to disrupt the record profits of our fossil fuel companies. If worst ever did come to worst, it’s reassuring to remember what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce told the Environmental Protection Agency in a recent filing: that there’s no need to worry because “populations can acclimatize to warmer climates via a range of behavioral, physiological, and technological adaptations.” I’m pretty sure that’s what residents are telling themselves in Joplin today.
Bill McKibben is founder of the global climate campaign 350.org and a distinguished scholar at Middlebury College in Vermont.

Living Routes--Study Abroad in Ecovillages

Here's an idea whose time has come--s study abroad experience in an ecovillage via the Study Abroad Program hosted by UMass Amherst. Choices include Australia, India, Brazil, Israel, Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Scotland. And of course, you can experience an ecovillage in the USA.

The University of Massachusetts at Amherst puts it this way:

Bring your education to life by studying in communities across the globe that are striving to live more equitable, just and sustainable lifestyles. These communities are ideal campuses to learn about and experience personal and community-based solutions to real world issues, which include:

Sustainable development
Environmental studies & research
Appropriate technologies
Consensus decision making
Peace and social justice
Worldviews and consciousness
Permaculture & ecological design
Organic agriculture
Fair trade
Local economies
Green building
Habitat restoration
Women's empowerment
Bioregional studies

Through rich, academic, interdisciplinary coursework, service learning, cultural studies and community immersions, Living Routes programs support you in developing the understanding, skills, and experience necessary to help restore your life, community and the planet to greater health and resiliency while preparing for a career that makes a difference."

For more information on ecovillages and the experiences others have had there, just go to Living Routes at http://livingroutes.org

Who's a Climate Scientist? I'm a Climate Scientist!

Australian climate scientists, tired of opinions on climate change generated by people who are clearly NOT climate scientists, decided to take their message to the people. Here's their rap on what climate scientists with an edge might say. Below are the words to the rap:
In the media landscape there are climate CHANGE deniers and BELIEVERS, but rarely those speaking about climate change are actual climate scientists.
yo....we're climate scientists.. and there's no denying this Climate Change Is REEEEALL..
Who's a climate scientist..
I'm a climate scientist..
Not a cleo finalist
No a climate scientist
Droppin facts all over this wax
While bidness be crying about a carbon tax
Climate change is caused by people
Earth Unlike Alien Has no sequel
We gotta move fast or we'll be forsaken,
Cause we were too busy suckin things Copenhagen: (Politician)
I said Burn! it's hot in here..
32% more carbon in the atmosphere.
Oh Eee Ohh Eee oh wee ice ice ice
Raisin' sea levels twice by twice
We're scientists, what we speak is True.
Unlike Andrew Bolt our work is Peer Reviewed... ooohhh
Who's a climate scientist..
I'm a climate scientist..
An Anglican revivalist
No a climate scientist
Feedback is like climate change on crack
The permafrosts subtracts: feedback
Methane release wack : feedback..
Write a letter then burn it: feedback
Denialists deny this in your dreams
Coz climate change means greater extremes,
Heat won't be the norm
Heatwaves bigger badder storms
The Green house effect is just a theory sucker (Alan Jones)
Yeah so is gravity float away muther floater
Who's a climate scientist..
I'm a climate scientist..
I'm not a climate Scientist
Who's Climate Scientists
A Penny Farthing Cyclist
No
A Fox News Journalist?
No
A Paleontologist?
No
A Clean Coal Lobbyist?
No
A Cashed up Alarmist?
No! a climate scientist! Yo! Preach!
Written and performed by Climate Scientists, Dan Ilic, Duncan Elms and production by Brendan Woithe at Colony NoFi.

Rex Tillerson at the Davos Annual Meeting, 2007, “The New Era of Petropolitics”,

Notable quotes:
" By undermining U.S. competitiveness, they would discourage future investments in energy projects in the United States and therefore undercut job creation and economic growth"--Rex Tillerson, CEO, Exxon Corporation