July 2010
3 posts
3 tags
“I now believe that the only way in which Americans can rise above their...”
– Kurt Vonnegut wrote that. In the preface to Wampeters, Foma & Granfallooons.
It makes me think of the world’s cognitive surplus. I bet Vonnegut would have loved Clay Shirky.
3 tags
6 tags
“Is communication a waste of time? That is an unfalsifiable hypothesis. I...”
– Randy Olson emailed that to Andy Revkin. Revkin included it in one of a fascinating series of posts on science and communication.
June 2010
2 posts
4 tags
May 2010
3 posts
BP Global PR →
Best Twitter account ever.
Well, maybe second best.
“We claim to have an advanced industrial economy, and yet it is run on primeval...”
– Amory Lovins said that, in Rocky Mountain Institute’s new video about their Reinventing Fire project.
He had me at dinosaur poop.
3 tags
“The old chestnut that ‘coal is West Virginia’s greatest natural...”
– Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) wrote that.
I hate to quote a politician kissing his constituents’ asses. But you gotta love a West Virginia politician distancing himself from the coal industry. And you gotta love an old man dropping a nonsensical metaphor.
Thank you Switchboard.
April 2010
9 posts
4 tags
“One heck of a conspiracy would be needed to get all of these completely...”
– NRDC’s Dan Lashof wrote that, in a blog post about a report that the EPA just released. The report tracks 24 trends, all independent of one another, all indicators that climate change is happening.
Laundry
One of my favorite recurring, everyday moments is walking away from a full clothesline.
I’ve done my little bit of work, and I’ve passed the job to the sun and the wind. The Sun and The Wind. Working for me. And working, it seems to me, happily.
Now if only we could figure out a similarly free and clean and harmonious system for washing the clothes.
“European airspace, shrouded in a toxic cloud, has actually become remarkably...”
– According to NRDC’s Peter Malik, the erupting Mt. Eyjafjallajökull has emitted less carbon dioxide than a normally functioning European aviation sector would emit in sixty normal minutes.
Update: Looks like the numbers I used above were wrong. Sorry. The quote still works, however.
4 tags
“I was prowling the stone hallways of Christ Church College one rainy day when I...”
– That’s John O’Hurley, as J. Peterman, the character he once played on Seinfeld, describing, in Peterman Catalog style, a biomass-burning energy technology that is a big part of his business.
The man’s now a poop and garbage entrepreneur. For that, I salute him.
I also salute him for...
2 tags
5 tags
On Collapse And Complexity →
That’s a link to a PSFK post about a Clay Shirky article.
Here’s how Shirky ends it:
When ecosystems change and inflexible institutions collapse, their members disperse, abandoning old beliefs, trying new things, making their living in different ways than they used to. It’s easy to see the ways in which collapse to simplicity wrecks the glories of old. But there is one...
March 2010
5 posts
“What I try to remember is that the whole country’s going through a...”
– Van Jones said that, in an interview with Grist’s David Roberts, after Roberts asked him if he’s angry about what went down last September.
Solid response, in my opinion.
Forgiveness is a hugely powerful thing.
“To be honest, I’m not sure I’d characterize myself as an environmentalist now....”
– Aussie science-sorter John Cook said that in an interview with Andy Revkin.
Cook is a physicist, not a climate scientist, but he has spent a lot of time over the past few years examining the specifics of climate change skepticism. He’s not impressed.
So he blogs, “getting skeptical...
“Everyone around here knows about it. The water nearby turns red during the hunt....”
– Hisato Ryono said that. He’s a town councilman in Taiji, Japan. And he doesn’t think it’s fair that the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove calls Taiji “a little town with a really big secret.”
While I’m sure he’s downplaying the secrecy, he’s right to...
5 tags
On Farmers, Environmentalists, and Communication →
NRDC President Frances Beinecke and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack agree that farmers and members of the environmental movement should be friends. Their long-term interests are EXACTLY the same. They just need to figure out how to communicate.
Simple. But far from easy.
February 2010
10 posts
“I’ve farmed for 37 years and worked with the government and everything—and what...”
– Tim Burrack, Chairman of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, said that, “expressing concern about the USDA’s shift in emphasis toward locally grown and organic foods.”
The quotes come from an article in Brownfield Agricultural News.
I heard about that article from grist.org.
Fear of change...
5 tags
Not that the world needs more cars, of course.
...
“A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum...”
– Jimmy Carter said that when he had some solar panels installed on the White House roof.
One of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken.
We should keep using those words.
“Use the ‘organics’ recycling container in your hotel room. This is...”
– Found that on a list of ways to engage in Canadian Olympic excitement by ESPN.com columnist Rick Reilly.
5 tags
“Consumers toss out vastly more pounds of food than we do packaging—about six...”
– I read that on the Freakonomics Blog, in a post by James McWilliams arguing that we should embrace a small amount of plastic food waste.
It’s an article about priorities, which, in my opinion, makes it both important and frustrating, because, yes, food waste is a big problem, and, no, plastic...
4 tags
(A NEGATIVE SPACE)
Might be good to throw a song...
“This bath tissue is packaged in environmentally responsible plastic wrap. It...”
– Expire?
Don’t be sad?
Environmentally responsible?
Well, Trader Joe’s, I’m confused.
January 2010
6 posts
3 tags
Coke Invests in Small Fruit Farmers →
Not sure if I should celebrate this or fear the delicious, destructive product it might help create.
Thank you PSFK.
“They built giant, globe-spanning organizations, that employed tens of thousands...”
– The 23rd century historian that lives in Umair Haque’s head wrote that.
Haven’t quoted Umair in a while. He’s a character. Excited to have him back on MPM.
“If we could only live on good food like that, he said to her somewhat loudly, we...”
– Buck Mulligan said that. In the ninteen teens. Just a few pages into Ulysses. By James Joyce.
I guess the good food vs cheap food debate has been going on for a while.
2 tags
“There’s nothing like Roundup. I mean, a monkey could farm with it, you...”
– Luke Ulrich, a farmer in eastern Kansas, said that. He plants seeds that are genetically modified to be Roundup Ready. Buys them from Monsanto. Buys them, plants them, douses his fields with Roundup, and doesn’t worry about damaging his corn or soybeans.
The NPR story that quotes Luke focuses...
December 2009
8 posts
“The science of the issue can get pretty incomprehensible pretty quickly. And the...”
– IMF economist Carlo Cotarelli wrote that a couple of weeks ago. The IT, of course, is the damage done by greenhouse gases.
And Carlos follows that thought up with this one:
Admittedly, climate change is a particularly complicated externality. Since the damage will fall largely on future...
“This conference is critical. It’s ultimately a measure of the human capacity to...”
– Wade Davis wrote that yesterday, on Friday Dec 11 2009. About the excitement in Copenhagen. On a brand new Posterous blog. As part of the Journey to Zero project.
Making Fun →
Part of me wants to love this, to see it as some kind of different in practice. But another part wonders if lampooning the big things - like our cultural addiction to consumption - doesn’t turn them into lovable flaws, traits by which we could come to define ourselves. Think beauty marks, mild stutters, and New-York-style unfriendliness.
3 tags
Doing More
From No Impact Man:
I was speaking at a college in Virginia. A young woman told me she lived in a house with no electricity. She ate only local food (much of which she grew herself). She worked in environmental education. “What more should I do?” she asked me earnestly.
I was confused. “It sounds like you’re doing so much, maybe too much. Why do you need to do...
November 2009
6 posts
Taming Our Inner Experts →
Or, more accurately, taming the delusional lunatics that hijack our brains and blind us to uncertainty, complexity, change, etc.
The title above is a link to another thought about irrational behavior. This one from Seth Godin.
“When a meat-based entrée is being served, and people are offered a vegetarian...”
– From a Nov 16 blog post by Marc Gunther.
People behave irrationally. We understand behavior better and better. Gunther suggests that we use it to the planet’s advantage.
Here’s a link to BECC 2009. Good to know that people are talking about the right things.
6 tags
If This Were A Football Game
A few weeks ago, I heard KPCC’s Patt Morisson interview author, thinker, and merry prankster Stewart Brand about a book he wrote: Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto. I appreciated SB’s impromptu metaphoring, so here’s a link to the interview, and here’s my transcription of its metaphorical core… PM: If this were…dealing with global warming and...