Heart of Green

Do Not Mail

I just got word about the groundbreaking Do Not Mail initiative and wanted to share.

What do Adrian Grenier, Leonardo DiCaprio, Darryl Hannah, Lawrence Bender, Anna Getty, Ed Begley, Jr. and Paul Hawken have in common? 

Besides being eco-conscious celebrities, they have all signed the petition to create a national Do Not Mail registry. It would be similar to the historic Do Not Call registry which just celebrated its 5-year anniversary. Imagine being able to opt-out of junk mail. It is within our grasp thanks to a bold initiative launched today by ForestEthics.

A national Do Not Mail registry would give us control over our mailboxes. It would protect our privacy and lessen identity theft. It would save forests that absorb carbon dioxide and provide clean water to the world. And it would end one of the most annoying things around - junk mail.

Do Not Mail Campaign by ForestEthics

Launched: March 11, 2008

Signed By:
Adrian Grenier, Darryl Hannah, Alicia Silverstone, Jackson Browne, Anna Getty, Aaron Douglas, Paul Hawken, Ed Begley, Jr.

Join over 18,000 others and sign the Do Not Mail petition.

Junk mail is called junk for a reason. Americans receive 100 billion pieces of junk mail per year. 44% goes straight to a landfill unopened. These piles of credit card offers, coupons, ads, and catalogs consume more than 100 million trees and produce global warming emissions equivalent to 3.7 million cars.

I have tried everything to get rid of junk mail. Signed up for OptOutPrescreen, called catalog companies to unsubscribe, switched to electronic bill pay, wrote Return To Sender, and more. And the junk mail still keeps coming. Sometimes I feel like Will Ferrell in his Junk Mail PSA made for Live Earth.

Where does the paper come from? The irreplaceable Canadian Boreal Forest which stores more carbon than any other ecosystem on earth. Stored carbon dioxide equals less global warming. Yet, the Boreal Forest is still logged at a rate of 2 acres a minute 24 hours a day to produce junk mail, catalogs, and other paper products. This gives a whole new meaning to the term, junk in the trunk. It is more like junk from the trunk.

In an exciting newsflash, it was just discovered that old growth forests store even more carbon than originally thought. Read the pioneering Giving Trees article.

"Junk mail is more than an annoying waste of time. It's a waste of our environment," said Entourage star Adrian Grenier and Peter Glatzer, co-founders of The Green Life. "Joining ForestEthics Do Not Mail campaign is a great, easy way to stop the waste."

Let’s stop the junk mail madness, stop the waste, stop the deforestation, and stop climate change. Let’s sing the Elvis Presley song Return To Sender and take back our mailboxes. www.donotmail.org

About ForestEthics:
The nonprofit ForestEthics recognizes that individual people can create positive environmental change, and so can corporations. Armed with this unique philosophy, the organization has transformed the environmental practices of Fortune 500 companies including Staples, Home Depot, Dell, Williams-Sonoma, and Victoria Secret and has protected more than 12 million acres of endangered forests.  www.forestethics.org

The Whole World in China's Hands

If the future of the planet depends upon China, then the environmental organizations working with China hold all of us in their hands. And please don't drop us. I've been meeting with many of them recently and have some uplifting news to report. Yes, there are lots of shocking statistics that strike fear in our green hearts. There are also wonderful people working long hours, and they have only just begun.

Why care about China?  Let's review the numbers.

China is now the largest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution per year, surpassing the U.S. for the first time in 2006. And this only counts fossil fuel burning and cement production - not agriculture, deforestation, aviation or shipping.

America’s carbon-dioxide emissions would have been 30% higher in 2004 if we included the emissions of goods consumed here but produced in China. Extrapolating that statistic to 2007 imports yields the conclusion that US CO2 emissions would have been 49% higher in 2007 if Chinese goods were counted.

China has over 1.3 billion people, compared to 300 million in the U.S. That means that 1 in every 5 people on the planet currently resides in China. China is striving to move 500 million people from the country to cities for a total of 1 billion people in cities by 2030. This is a mass exodus with an expectation of an American-style lifestyle with electric gadgets, a car, the works. 

China is building 1-2 new coal-fired power plants per week.

One third of the smog we breathe in California is thought to come from China.

One quarter of China's people drink toxic water according to SEPA, and stories of cancer villages and polluted rivers are leaking out.

The U.S. trade deficit with China in 2007 (what we import/buy vs. what we export/sell) clocked in at $256 billion. It is startling to realize that this deficit was only $6 billion in 1989 and rose to $124 billion in 2003. Note that China joined the WTO in 2001 and created 50 so-called global corporate champions with a strategy to try to dominate world markets. And clearly it has worked.

The Chinese currency, the Yuan, is artificially kept 20% to 50% lower than its true market value, which makes its exports cheaper to buy. See point above.

China is now the world’s largest builder of dams in other countries such as the Sudan and Zambia in Africa. The China Exim Bank was willing to finance projects that no other bank would touch due to environmental and human rights issues. Last year, the China Exim Bank made $36 billion in loans, more than the World Bank. China is rapidly investing in oil, mining, and logging in environmentally-sensitive areas to gain access to resources for its global economic expansion.

Health issues have recently made headlines with the tainted pet food scare and the lead paint discovered in toys. Trader Joe's plans to phase out any single-ingredient food items sourced from mainland China by April 1, 2008 including garlic, ginger, and spinach.

The Beijing Olympics in 2008 are expected to be an opportunity for change.  Mia Farrow is calling for a boycott with her Save Darfur, Genocide Olympics campaign. Steven Spielberg just ceased all involvement in the Beijing Olympics because China has sold the Sudanese government weapons that are being used to commit crimes against humanity in Darfur. WildAid is raising awareness of tiger poaching in Asia and has produced excellent PSAs with celebrities and Olympians.

China has become the world's factory and consequently, the smokestack for the world. Made in China stickers are ubiquitous. Are we outsourcing our pollution to China?  China’s environmental problems can be partially linked to the consumption of cheap disposable goods made in China. American and multinational corporations outsourced manufacturing to China (where environmental controls were nonexistent), and now we have become appalled at the rising carbon dioxide from China’s smokestacks. We can’t have our Chinese cake and eat it CO2-free.

I have high hopes for Wal-Mart, which forced its vendors to manufacture in China because it was cheap, or else. With its new green agenda, Wal-Mart can hopefully encourage its vendors to produce products in a cleaner and greener way, or else.

Red Rays of Green Hope

JUCCCE: The Joint US-China Cooperation on Clean Energy nonprofit is a network of US and Chinese leaders working to further renewable energy, energy efficiency, and environmental education in China. According to JUCCCE, the Chinese are recognizing the environmental problems and want and need our help. Look out for their promising Chinese Mayoral eco-training seminars and the JUCCCE China Clean Energy Forum in November 2008. Visit www.juccce.com  or www.give2asia.org

International Rivers: They work around the globe to safeguard clean rivers and human rights, and their Policy Director Peter Bosshard has been doing some groundbreaking work with China. See his recent editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled We are all Chinese here. Visit www.internationalrivers.org

NRDC: The NRDC’s Partnership for the Earth has made China one of its cornerstone priorities for saving the planet. They have been helping Chinese officials craft clean energy policy in the areas of green buildings, clean power, and sustainable transportation. Visit NRDC China

Let's support these excellent organizations working to make a difference in China and thus, to combat climate change and pollution around the world.

It is comforting to know that the famous green architect Bill McDonough is working to help design seven new sustainable cities in China including solar power and farmland on roofs.

In the meantime, we can buy local. Buy vintage. Buy essential. Best of all, buy from companies that are socially and environmentally responsible regardless of their country of origin. Vote for the planet and for human rights with your dollars. If China holds the planet's future in its hands, then we hold the future of China - and therefore the planet – partially in our wallets.

Ferris Bueller's Green Day Off

While my memories from Silicon Valley start-up land are fading, I do remember one thing. If you have limited time and resources (which most people do) and you want to succeed, focus on one important thing and knock it out of the park.

Hence, I was excited to learn about the upcoming event Focus the Nation: Global Warming Solutions for America. The magic day is January 31, 2008. On this day, millions of students, teachers, and leaders will help to Focus the Nation on solving global warming. And focus is a good thing! It will lead to hockey stick results, and keep the venture capitalists at bay.

The core of the program is a Teach-In, not to be confused with a be-in. Entire schools and universities will turn their attention to global warming with an ambitious and inspiring suggested Model Teach-In Schedule on January 31. Clearly someone who drinks a lot of coffee made this. Even a few sessions would be tremendous. Hopefully somebody will film and assemble bits and pieces from this day across the country, as I’d like to be a (clean) fly on the wall in these classrooms. Over 1450 teams have already signed up, and you can click on this cool interactive map to find like minds in your area.

There will also be a free, live, interactive webcast called The 2% Solution Webcast the evening of January 30 featuring celebrity Edward Norton, Stanford University climate scientist Stephen Schneider, sustainability expert Hunter Lovins, green jobs pioneer Van Jones, youth climate leaders, and audience participation. Help them achieve their goal of 10,000 screenings. That should be a slam dunk. Sign up to host a webcast - a great excuse to throw a party and serve organic vodka.

Why 2%?  To hold global warming temperature rises at the low end of 3-4 degrees F, it will require global warming pollution cuts by more than 80% below current levels by 2050. Put another way, we need to cut roughly 2% of current emission levels a year for the next forty years. Let's all help by turning off unneeded lights, driving high fuel-economy cars, and putting electronics on a power strip and switching to off at night!  Regarding the latter, you will be amazed at the decrease in your monthly electric bill.

Back to focus. We are all shareholders in the Fight Global Warming Start-up. Let's join together to launch this start-up into the carbon-free stratosphere. The returns will be huge. We will gain the benefits of a more secure planet for ourselves and our children, financial savings from energy efficiency, more vibrant forests, new cleantech industries, less pollution, a less violent world, and the peace of mind of knowing that we are doing all we can to save this beautiful blue planet of ours.

Let the Teach-In begin. Consider it Ferris Bueller's Green Day Off. Bueller, Bueller...  Focus the Nation

Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize

And the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize goes to...Al Gore!  And to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and its 2,000 climate scientists. Watch the stunning live Nobel Prize Announcement here in a Norwegian accent.

Why Gore?  In their words, "Al Gore has for a long time been one of the world’s leading environmentalist politicians. He became aware at an early stage of the climatic challenges the world is facing.  His strong commitment, reflecting in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change.  He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted." 

This global honor bestowed on these noble crusaders signifies the importance of global warming to world peace. Slowing down global warming will lessen the resource wars and environmental refugees that could result from a warming planet. In short, going green will lead to a more peaceful and stable world. This gives a whole new meaning to the words Green Peace.

Take water for example. If a region's water source (like melting snow) dries up or a region becomes flooded, the residents have to migrate elsewhere. In the developing world, there are hundreds of millions of people who face such a potential reality. Fighting wars over oil is another example. As easy oil supplies peak, we can generate our energy renewably, locally and more peacefully from wind, solar, geothermal, and tidal power.

The Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee is also emphasizing action on man-made climate change.  Its announcement forcefully concluded with "action is necessary now before climate change moves beyond man's control." 

Al Gore is an inspiration to me personally. He recovered from the devastating blow of not being named President and went on to rediscover his passion for an Earth in balance. He became a man on a green mission, sounding the warning bell about global warming via 1,000+ presentations. No audience was too small or too big. But to reach the largest audience of all in the age of image, Hollywood turned the Vice President into a movie star. Consider that the climatic movie premiere of An Inconvenient Truth occurred in May 2006. Since then, Al Gore has received some of the highest honors in the land - an Oscar, an Emmy, and now the Nobel Peace Prize.

Thank you Al Gore for performing an invaluable service to humanity and for being an inspiration to all. 

For more Al, please see the Alliance for Climate Protection and Current TV.

Side Notes:

The last American to win the Nobel Peace Prize was former President Jimmy Carter in 2002. There is a movie coming out from Participant and Sony called Jimmy Carter Man From Plains. It has already won three awards from the Venice Film Festival and is apparently anything but plain.

Last weekend was the Feast of St. Francis, the day when the animals supposedly talk. Wink. St. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of animals and the environment. He also authored the famous Peace Prayer which begins with "Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace." Regardless of one's spiritual orientation, we can appreciate the universal call to be a source of peace and a steward of the planet.

In San Francisco, Angela Alioto is remarkably building an exact replica of St. Francis' famous Assisi chapel, the Porziuncola, right in the heart of North Beach. It will be an Italian architectural gem and green to boot. Che bello. Visit Renaissance Project. 

On October 7, Jane Goodall was in town, honoring the animals and speaking on living in harmony with the planet. The dogs and their owners came out to meet her in droves. She seemed happy to see them, even though they weren't chimps. Visit the Jane Goodall Institute and Roots and Shoots. 

Beep Beep Beep

On this one week anniversary of Live Earth, let's get nostalgic and review some of the best moments:

My favorite Live Earth performance had to be Melissa Etheridge's rendition of I Need To Wake Up. Note that NBC cut out her performance from its prime time show. Was it too political?  It was one of the most powerful moments of the show. Melissa improvised a spoken word section: "Are you awake? The whole world is awake. One man had a dream..." That man being the most awake man of course, Mr. Al Gore.

Here is Melissa Etheridge's solo on YouTube. Try to ignore those Russian subtitles. For me, her solo connected last summer's An Inconvenient Truth premiere with this summer's Live Earth. Think about how much has happened in just one year!

Kanye West rocked "Golddigger". Alicia Keys sang a jamming "Gimme Shelter" duet with Keith Urban. Fall Out Boy, John Mayer, Black Eyed Peas, the Police, and Lenny Kravitz (in balmy Rio) all entertained the eco-curious crowds. 

Madonna's new song "Hey You" was a little bit "Bor Ing" but got better as it went along. Why was Madonna wearing such a somber black dress btw?  This isn't a funeral for the Earth; it is a renaissance. What happened to wearing green people?

Many celebrities gave glamorous interviews during the 24 hours like Rosario Dawson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Cameron Diaz. Al Gore getting irritated at being asked for the thousandth time if he were running for President was a classic. I would have liked to hear more diverse advice than "change a light bulb" but this is a good place to start. Cameron Diaz's suggestion to "shower with other people" wasn’t bad either.

Many of the eco Short Films rocked, like the Dfuse film on deforestation. The black-and-white celebrity PSAs were pointed and hilarious.

Live Earth was officially the largest global entertainment event in history. A record 30 million Live Earth videos streamed on MSN, the largest audience ever for an online concert. You can make video stream number 30,000,001 happen right here on liveearth.msn.com.

The stars' biodiesel tour buses may have moved on, but the message is still ringing true. The global movement to save the Earth is in full swing. If you haven't yet, respond to the beep, beep, beep. Sign the 7-point pledge. Answer The Call. Make the planet's day!  ...---...

Live Earth is Today

The luckiest day ever for the planet has arrived 7.7.07. And what a day it has been so far, and it is only 7:00 am. The Live Earth concerts are in full swing, starting in Sydney and now beaming live from Tokyo, Antarctica, Hamburg, and London. New York is coming soon.

Rocking In The Key of Green

Live Earth is the 24-hour, 7-continent concert series taking place today that is bringing together more than 100 pop stars and over 2 billion sold-out crowds to raise awareness about climate change.  

7 continents, one message, one global moment to fight global warming.

You can tune in right now to Robert Redford’s Sundance Channel Live Earth marathon and start watching. The Black Eyes Peas just blew the lid off the stadium in London, and Snoop Dogg is rapping in Hamburg.  The short films are super cool too. Tonight NBC and CNBC will be airing prime time shows of all the green star-studded action.

If you're in San Francisco, here are two fun options to join the Party for the Planet:

Live Earth Viewing Party at Jillian's at the Metreon 

Friends of Live Earth Party at Shine from the Do More Than Vote crew

Don't want to emit nearly any CO2?  Watch the Live Earth Concerts streaming live at MSN at www.liveearth.msn.com but beware, traffic is high and the airways are periodically jammed with aspiring global eco-hipsters. Crash!

Join millions in taking the pledge to help solve the climate crisis. Answer The Call - sign the pledge, and watch your name pop up on the screen. Or send the text message "SOS" to 82004. Make your voice heard.

A special shout out to the extraordinary man Al Gore who started it all. Live Earth marks the start of a multi-year campaign by the Alliance for Climate Protection.

We have a moment to change the future and begin to heal the planet. This is our moment. It begins today 7.7.07. It's time to celebrate the green movement reaching the global stage!  www.liveearth.org

Pacific, Green & Electric

Tried everything to get those pesky CO2 emissions down and still carbon positive? 

Fear not, the new PG&E ClimateSmart program is here to help you get down to the magical number of zero. It is both green and genius. For just a few dollars a month on your existing utility bill, you can become carbon neutral at home, after installing all of those cool compact fluorescent light bulbs and Energy Star appliances of course.

PG&E will then invest the funds in local greenhouse gas reduction projects in California. Underscore local. Examples are sustainable mature forests and livestock methane capture (read: cows). All projects are certified by the California Climate Action Registry.

I applaud PG&E for highlighting forest sequestration projects. On their web site, they say, "Trees naturally remove CO2 from the atmosphere and can help fight climate change by storing carbon in their trunks, roots, and branches. These projects will also benefit wildlife and water quality by permanently protecting and restoring California's native forests." Bravo!

So let's all get climate smart and climate neutral - and get down to the business of fighting global warming one kWh at a time. Every customer and every cow counts. See the full scoop at PG&E ClimateSmart

Green Giant(s)

Kudos also to PG&E and the San Francisco Giants for launching their new solar panels at AT&T Park just in time for the All-Star Game. 590 panels in all generating up to 122 kilowatts of clean solar energy. This makes AT&T the first ballpark in Major League Baseball with a solar system. A proverbial homerun for green sports fans and the planet. www.letsgreenthiscity.com

Global Warming Survival Handbook

Worried about global warming?  Have no fear, the Global Warming Survival Handbook is here!

The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook: 77 Essential Skills To Stop Climate Change by David De Rothschild from the green gurus at Rodale Books will go on sale on June 26, 2007.  Don’t leave home for the Live Earth concert on 7.7.07 without it. Can anyone guess why there are 77 skills?

This is the right book at the right time. We all are concerned about global warming. So what can we do about it?  Turning the pages, we see 77 essential skills for stopping climate change - and living through it. Each of the suggestions is presented on a spread featuring bright full-color illustrations, scientific facts, and practical fun how-to advice. Instead of DIY, this is DGY. Do Green Yourself.

One happy fact is that the book is printed on environmentally-responsible paper.

This Live Earth concert companion book is rumored to be pre-selling at a rapid rate, and you can reserve your copy online. Survive global warming 77 ways in style.

p.s. For those of you who don’t have your Live Earth tickets yet, enter this Contest on Amazon to win a pair of tickets to the U.S. Live Earth concert at the Giants Stadium in NJ plus $2,000 in travel expenses - and hear the global-warming-busting music up close. The contest ends June 20th!

First In First Out

Just when we think we know every issue, here comes another eye-opening one. First Suburbs. Huh? That's what I said, but then I watched the rough cut of the upcoming documentary film called The New Metropolis by Andrea Torrice.

Imagine a circle with the big city in the middle. Then an initial ring of suburbs. Then a second ring. Then another ring and another...farther and farther out from the center.

In the mid 20th century, people starting moving out of the cities to suburbia. The American Dream. A house with a big yard. Now it turns out that people are moving again, out of the First Suburbs to the Second and Third Suburbs or Exurbs as they are called. These are mostly bedroom communities where residents have to commute for hours to their jobs and back.

We've all heard of love 'em and leave 'em. Well, this is develop 'em and leave 'em. We are abandoning our first suburban love and building rows of shiny new mansions in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by others in the middle of nowhere of course.

The result?  This leaves behind a trash heap of semi-abandoned cities. The towns lose their tax base and can't pay for infrastructure repairs, which worsens the cycle. It is happening all over the United States.

I remember visiting my grandmother in a beautiful town outside of Philadelphia when I was a little girl. When I went back recently, the once-charmed neighborhood had become a near-slum. It was shocking and sad. What had happened?

Apparently, federal and state government policies favor developing the new (farther out) rather than renovating the old. These policies still exist today. More first suburbs are declining, and more prime farmland is being consumed to build monster houses in the exurbs.

According to the NRDC Smart Growth section, between 1960 and 1990, U.S. population grew less than 50%, while the amount of open land that fell under developer bulldozers more than doubled. Each year, 3.2 million acres of open space are developed. This translates into 356 acres per hour. Thus, developers are buildling new homes in greenfields faster than population is growing. This leads to excess housing in the first suburbs that is eventually abandoned. For Sale signs are everywhere in many of these towns.

This is all very Anti-Green of course. Residents must clock hours in their cars guzzling gas. The new construction consumes precious land, water, forest, oil, and energy resources. The resources in the first suburbs are left to rot. And how many of these new houses are built green and LEED-certified? If they were, the brutal eco-impact would be lessened but still nonzero. Net net, urban sprawl and first-ring-suburb abandonment are hidden causes of global warming and get a big thumbs down.

On the flip side, think of the opportunity for America that exists in renovating and rebuilding the first suburbs. All we need are some enlightened new government policies for starters. Smart growth. Then it can be develop-them-and-love-them and love-them-some-more.

Incidentally, the filmmaker Andrea Torrice made one of the first films on global warming back in the day called Rising Waters. Talk about being ahead of your time. So with any luck, her latest topic of first suburbs should explode onto the scene in about five years. Ideally sooner so that we can get track house development on a new eco track.

If you want to go deeper on this issue, the Brookings Institution has some excellent research. Check out this insightful article too.

Live Earth 7.7.07

If seven is a lucky number, then the date 7.7.07 should be the luckiest day ever. And given how the Live Earth Concerts on Saturday July 7, 2007 are shaping up, it will indeed be a very lucky day for the entire planet.

The goal of Live Earth is to raise awareness about global warming worldwide and to spur people to take action. It's Live Aid for the planet. There will be 9 concert locations, 100 musical acts, and 24 hours of music across all 7 continents broadcast to over 2 billion people.

The central venues are New York, London, Sydney, Hamburg, Istanbul, Tokyo, Shanghai, Johannesburg, and Rio de Janeiro. Plus thousands of local parties. Concert proceeds will benefit the Alliance for Climate Protection.

The headliners to date include The Police, Fall Out Boy, John Mayer, Kanye West, and Madonna. 

The Global Warming Survival Handbook is the official book of Live Earth and will be released soon by Rodale. The book will use vegetable-based inks printed on Revive 100 Offset, a 100% post-consumer waste paper stock with Forest Stewardship Council certification.

Live Earth is producing a 250-page guide on Green Event Production. They are also making a behind-the-scenes film about greening the concert sites. Facilities managers will become the new green heroes, especially after they see themselves talking up green on camera. Bands will also learn how to green their tours.

Short films about key eco topics will play directly behind the live musicians on stage. There will be 60 short films made in all. I've seen two of them so far:  one on deforestation and another with children ad-libbing about the planet. One film ended with "Earth: This is our permanent address."

Smart Car is finally coming to America in 2008. As a partner of Live Earth they will run billboards that say Sub-Size It. Fuel economy of 61 mpg in the cutest package ever, sign me up.

The Live Earth organizers are smartly asking themselves the question "are our sponsors green enough?" Correspondingly, Live Earth is encouraging sponsors to push the green envelope. For example, new Smart car owners will be able to register VIN numbers and receive a free year of carbon offsets. "Green corporate partners" are the new sponsors.

10 PSAs chosen from Current TV will be played during the concert. Did I mention that these PSAs must be made with a cell phone?

Live Earth will encourage people to make a Mass Global Commitment online to reducing both their fossil fuel use and water use by 20% by 2010. This is outstanding. Instead of just building awareness, the concert will serve as a catalyst for global citizens to take action in the two critical areas of global warming and water. The goal will be tied together with MySpace pages, t-shirts, and more.

The UK energy grid will flash up on the screen and viewers will be invited to turn off lights at home. Now that is cool and energy-saving. The wisdom of eco crowds. What about the U.S. btw?

7.7.07 should be an extraordinary day. If An Inconvenient Truth was a tipping point in 2006, then Live Earth should help us reach a new level in 2007. And that will bring good luck for all of us on planet Earth. Let's party while we Save Our Selves, SOS.  www.liveearth.org

Note: This post is coming to you live from the LOHAS Lifestyles of Health & Sustainability conference in Los Angeles.

The Green American Dream

Thanks to the San Francisco International Film Festival, I had the opportunity to see two films about the American Dream in the last two days.

One, a brilliant Italian film called The Golden Door starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and the dashing Vincenzo Amato about an Italian family immigrating to America. They dream of money growing on trees, giant-sized carrots, and a river of milk and honey - literally; postcards of these images were sent to the peasant Sicilian family beforehand to lure them to our shores. The promise of America. The soul of our country.

Second, a stirring film executive-produced by Robert Redford called The Unforeseen about the sexiest of all topics, urban sprawl. The American Dream of everyone owning a large house with a white picket fence and a lawn…ultimately leads to developers carving up our country into ever-expanding, concrete-jungle subdivisions. The Santa Clara Valley orchards, gone. The natural Barton Springs swimming hole in Austin, polluted. All for short-term profit and perceived progress. All for the deliverance of the American Dream.

(Side note: The Italian name of the first film is Nuovomondo, which translates to New World, not Golden Door. In an incredible coincidence, there is already a film called The New World directed by Terrence Malick, who was an executive producer of The Unforeseen. Are you confused yet?)

Urban sprawl is a sight we see from the airplane when we fly over Los Angeles and growing cities like Austin. What is the result? Families move into their large track row houses and then face miles of traffic jams, water rationing, and disconnection from the natural world. What have we gained, and what have we lost? We have gained a house, but have we lost our soul?

Urban sprawl is a major contributor to global warming because it forces people to live far away from where they work and drive long distances, not to mention the strain it puts on water sources and open spaces. Let's consider more intelligent land use development as a promising solution.   

This all caused me to wonder...maybe it is time to trade in the old white picket fence for a modern Green Picket Fence made out of bamboo. What if the American Dream were to own a green home with solar panels, plant an organic garden, and take a high-speed eco-train to work. And to restore natural places for adults and children to play in.

As so eloquently said in The Unforeseen, perhaps it is time for "a more mature and evolved view of the future that doesn't leave a wreck behind us." We see this wreck from the airplane. Is this really the best we can do? Why should we be stuck in the past with an outdated dream that no longer serves us?

I believe in the human mind and spirit. Growth can be bad, as in cancer or housing projects that pollute our local water and air. Or growth can be regenerative, as in the green building renaissance. What matters now is the intention and quality of growth. Does it leave us and our world better off in the long run?

As we re-imagine the American Dream, it will help others around the globe to re-envision it as well, and perhaps save the whole planet in the process. Let's create a new Green American Dream and do our ancestors and our children proud. And now onto the party...

The Party Report: The local film and eco-glitterati were in effect at the San Francisco movie premiere of The Unforeseen last night. Stars included Peter Coyote and Julia Butterfly Hill, who has her own hush-hush movie in the making. We were treated to a celebration at the new Sundance Kitchen at the Kabuki, which has replaced the Pasta Pomodoro, grazie a dio (thank goodness). Look out for the cinematically beautiful film The Unforeseen coming soon via the Sundance Channel to the small screen in your living room!

An Inconvenient Truth wins the Oscar!

And the winner is...An Inconvenient Truth! And the whole planet. Congratulations Al Gore, Davis Guggenheim, Lawrence Bender, Scott Burns, and Laurie David for winning the Oscar for Best Documentary.

An Inconvenient Truth is the movie that changed everything. A turning point for the planet. A little over 1 year ago on January 25, 2006 at 8:30 am to be exact, I saw the premiere of An Inconvenient Truth at the Sundance Film Festival. And a radiant Al Gore in the snow.

In just one year, incredible things have happened. Let's review: California passed the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32), the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declared global warming to be unequivocal and 90% likely to be man-made (essentially a consensus for scientists), the Speaker of the House is targeting July 7 for national global warming legislation, Wal-Mart and Safeway are moving in a green direction, venture capitalists invested $2.9 billion in cleantech in North America (a 78% increase over 2005), and the film An Inconvenient Truth won an Oscar. And now Al Gore is up for a Nobel Peace Prize.

So to anyone who is depressed about the looming global warming catastrophe, I say, "Look at what a difference a year can make." It took the entire Industrial Revolution to create this crisis, and just one year to make great strides in awareness and initial action. Granted, we have a lot of work to do, but it can happen. And it will. No one can stop green now. The habitability of the planet depends on it. There is hope. Let's rally for a national carbon-trading system, incentives for energy efficiency and renewable energy, and fuel economy standards worthy of future generations.

A shout out to TerraPass who stepped in to save the Oscar day when the infamous, bloated celebrity gift bags were scrapped at the last minute. TerraPass provided each celebrity presenter with one year of carbon-neutral living via 100,000 pounds of carbon offsets. The ultimate eco goodie.

On a personal note, Al Gore and the movie continue to be a significant source of inspiration for me. I can't believe I'm admitting this...but I listen to the Inconvenient Truth soundtrack by Michael Brook and the now Oscar-winning Melissa Etheridge song "I Need To Wake Up" frequently on my iPod. Does this make me a green geek?

I first witnessed Al Gore's passion at a small dinner party in 2003. A guest, who had been reading the Skeptical Environmentalist, was challenging the existence of global warming. This prompted Al Gore to go out to his car and get his laptop (the new 17-inch iBook) and give us an intimate look at his slides of CO2 and glaciers melting. What dinner? I then saw AG’s full riveting presentation at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. He brought down the house. I was so moved, I couldn't sleep the entire night. 

The AIT movie winning an Oscar is the culmination of a 30-year journey by Al Gore. When I hosted the opening night after party for An Inconvenient Truth in San Francisco and subsequent private screenings, hate mail and threats came my way. This is a very small taste of what AG must have experienced over the last three decades trying to expose the global warming threat. Thank you Al for not giving up.

Let's seize this historic moment and work together to implement green solutions. As Al Gore said on Oscar night, the climate crisis "is the overriding world challenge of our time. It's not a political issue; it's a moral issue. We have everything we need to get started." A standing ovation for Al Gore and the An Inconvenient Truth team!

Prius of the Skies

Who will become the Prius of the Skies?  The market is wide open for a visionary company to become the leading green airline. Who will fill the cool skies gap?

Flying (jet fuel) is a significant cause of global warming. Based on FAA and EPA numbers, the average domestic US round-trip flight emits 1,700 pounds per person of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It is possible to blow your entire carbon budget for the year with just a few flights.

Candidates for the Green Halo Airline include JetBlue and Virgin Atlantic. Imagine, JetBlue already has the blue part worked out and could naturally morph into JetGreen.

The founder and chairman of the Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson has already pledged to invest $3 billion in clean aviation fuels not derived from oil or coal and has created the Virgin Fuels company. Richard Branson also teamed up with Al Gore to announce the Virgin Earth Challenge which will award a $25 million prize for technology that can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

What would the Prius of the Skies look like?  Here are some ideas:

• Organic snacks, recycled paper napkins, and compostable cups of course
• Travelers could have the option to make their flight carbon neutral when they book a ticket. It could be integrated directly into the flight purchase as an option for eco-conscious flyers. Ideally it would give you rewards or recognition for being green. A Green Class ticket.  A small percentage would opt-in at first, but the numbers would hopefully grow.
• Alternatively, the airline could carbon-offset all of its flights and bundle the greening into each ticket price.
• The airline could run its planes on alternative fuels such as biofuels made from the most net energy positive technologies.

Here are some options if you wish to fly green now:

• You can purchase a Flight TerraPass to offset your CO2
  
  
• The new luxurious SilverJet in the UK is aiming to be the first Carbon Neutral airline. They only fly First Class, but all flights are certified carbon neutral. New York to London and back. This is green flying with a silver lining.
  

Who will capture this window of opportunity and become the mainstream Prius of the Skies?  If only a Toyota hybrid could fly...

Update:  In February 2008, Virgin Atlantic became the first airline to complete a biofuel flight. Virgin's breakthrough Boeing 747 flight from London to Amsterdam ran on a 20% mix of biofuel derived from coconut and babassu oil in one of its four tanks. Perhaps a future test flight will be powered by algae?

The Magic Bulb

The Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb or CFL for short. Truly a magic bulb and a magic bullet in the fight against unclean energy and global warming.

Compact fluorescents only use 25%-33% of the energy of the dinosaur incandescent light bulb. And they last 10 times as long! That’s around 10,000 hours. And no flickering. No buzzing. Just pure, clean, energy-saving light.

Change just one light bulb to a compact fluorescent and change the world, seriously. For each 100W bulb you replace, you’ll be saving 1,300 pounds of CO2 per year. If every American household switched just 1 old incandescent bulb to a compact fluorescent, it would:

• Reduce electricity by 5 gigawatts, the output of 5 nuclear power plants
• Whack the equivalent of CO2 emissions from 1 Million cars

Take Action: Join thousands in taking the pledge to change just one light bulb in 2007. Visit the Energy Star Change a Light, Change the World campaign site. In 5 seconds, you’ll make a difference in your energy bill and the planet’s future.

Which compact fluorescents to buy? Look for the ENERGY STAR seal of approval. Some of my favorite CFL brands are:

• Home Depot n:vision
• Philips Marathon

Find the stores near you that sell CFLs. See special offers for CFLs here. PG&E offers instant rebates in stores on many CFLs too, just look for the stickers!

A great rule of thumb: CFLs use about a quarter of the wattage to produce the same light. So to replace a traditional 60-watt bulb, look for a CFL that's about 15 watts.

Thomas Edison, we will always love you for giving us light. Now let’s move forward into the future one bright spiral at a time. Take the Change A Light pledge today

An Inconvenient Truth on DVD

The highly-anticipated DVD of An Inconvenient Truth is almost here! Expected launch date is November 21, 2006. Demand is expected to be huge. If you’d like to reserve one, you can pre-order the An Inconvenient Truth DVD.

An Inconvenient Truth is the pivotal movie of our generation. A turning point in the way we see the world. A national calling to acknowledge, tackle and solve global warming. A mission not unlike putting a man on the moon. This time, we need to put man back on planet Earth. A scientific reality and a moral imperative to secure future generations. The truth may be inconvenient, but there are convenient solutions. And we must act quickly. Vice-President Al Gore is my personal hero and a constant source of inspiration. Please see www.climatecrisis.net.

On June 2, 2006, I had the opportunity to co-host the An Inconvenient Truth Opening Night and After Party in San Francisco at Landmark Embarcadero Theater. The eco-glitterati came out in droves. Producer Lawrence Bender came up from LA to greet the crowd. There were even a few hard-core party crashers including a polar bear. Here are a few Movie Premiere party photos courtesy of Valerie Britt.

On a special note, Paramount is launching an incredible program to make the An Inconvenient Truth DVD available to every teacher, student, educator and non-profit organization who cannot afford to purchase a copy. By popular demand, a new Educational Curriculum about global warming and environmental science will accompany the DVD. You can sponsor any number of DVDs to be sent to schools, from one to 100+. The donation amount is $21 per DVD which includes sales tax and shipping. Charitable contributions are being made through the nonprofit Environmental Media Association. For more information, please contact Jackie Papier at Paramount Classics at 1-866-397-6339.

I've probably seen the film over 10 times now, and I still love it every time. Does this make me an IT groupie?  The book version of An Inconvenient Truth is amazing too. Lots of big color pictures of the glaciers and the charts, or rather, the off the charts.

Al Gore was a surprise guest on the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) this year. Here is the video of Al Gore on MTV. And who says AG isn't hip?

It's fun, really!

Quizzes, quizzes. Everywhere you look these days, there seems to be another “what is your footprint?” questionnaire.  Or perhaps you fancy the Carbon Calculator variety.

Look no further. My favorite is the simple, speedy, graphically appealing, and dare I say almost fun Ecological Footprint Quiz by the Earth Day Network.

I’ll tell you my number of planets if you tell me yours. Don’t cheat. Go to www.myfootprint.org