Popcult
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Film Review: "The Yes Men Fix the World"
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Bicycle Inspirations From Copenhagen to Portland
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Videos to Watch: Climate week highlights, what's next in int'l talks
Kofi Annan Rocks! 'Beds Are Burning' re-mixed as climate change anthem
Published October 01, 2009 @ 09:53AM PT
Above: Stirring climate anthem, or earnest do-good dirge?
Long Live Rock Dept: The Tck Tck Tck "countdown to Copenhagen" campaign has re-recorded the Midnight Oil guitar rock anthem "Beds Are Burning" into a call for action on climate change. The song is available for free download on the web and on iTunes, too.
"Every download will count as a unique digital petition with people adding their names to demand world leaders reach an ambitious, fair and global deal at the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen," says the campaign in a statement.
The star-studded video features Duran Duran, Mark Ronson, Jamie Cullum, Melanie Laurent, Marion Cotillard, Milla Jovovich, Fergie, Lily Allen, Manu Katche, Bob Geldof, Youssou N'Dour, Yannick Noah, Jet Li, Suketu Metha, Amadou et Mariam, and more -- all framed by voiceovers from Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations and now a big league anti-poverty advocate, and Bishop Desmond Tutu.
Mental Health Break: Eco fashion takes New York's runways
Published September 28, 2009 @ 04:14PM PT
Eco-conscious design had a bigger presence than ever at this year's New York fall fashion shows, held earlier in September. The Ecouterre blog -- a spinoff of the environment-and-design blog Inhabitat that is "devoted to the future of clothing and textile design" -- offers up a photo-rich look at "The Green Shows," featuring designers who are taking sustainable fabrics and dyes way beyond the realm of the organic cotton T-shirt:
We were pleasantly surprised at how innovative, fearless, and in many cases, startlingly beautiful the garments turned out to be. Breaking into fashion is difficult enough as it is—placing another hurdle in front of yourself by using only earth-friendly processes and eco-conscious materials is probably tantamount to career suicide.
Still, these seven intrepid designers somehow overcame that obstacle, making not only clothing, but a difference. It only took one look at the immaculately tailored shapes and sumptuous fabrics—which could have held their ground on any catwalk anywhere—to see that the naysayers who insisted that fashion couldn’t be sustainable and keep its edge were clearly, painfully wrong.
After last week's climate policy intensity, take a break by checking out these up-and-coming designers and their riffs on fashion with a conscience. It may be a little startling for activists to see their beliefs about saving the environment taken into the realm of Vogue and Elle -- and that's the point. For "sustainable" to have major impact, it needs to become so normal that it's as unremarkable to a fashionista as it is to a climate policy wonk.
Top 10 Moments of Climate Week
Published September 25, 2009 @ 01:47PM PT
Things were snoozy at the United Nations Climate Summit, but the popcult climate scene was alive and kicking in all its star-studded glory during Climate Week NYC . From Hugh Jackman, Sexiest Man Alive, to Yes Men pranks, Grist's Umbra Fisk lists the top 10 best moments from Gotham's global warming fest.
One in Three "Obama Czars" Has Congressional Approval
Published September 13, 2009 @ 10:43AM PT
In the wake of Van Jones' departure from his White House green jobs role, some critics of the Obama administration are conflating their objections to Jones with other avowed worries -- such at the supposedly excessive number of appointees in the Obama administration who are not subject to Congressional oversight.
But a little digging into the facts reveals that there's much less to this "czar crisis" than these reports would have us believe.
There are three dozen or so advisors and appointees being singled out by commentators on Fox News (as documented here by Media Matters), as well as CNN's Lou Dobbs and punditocracy figures like conservative blogger Ilya Somin, as evidence of Obama administration intent to grab extra-Constitutional powers for the executive branch, and evade Congressional oversight.
[[Data point: Dobbs has proven himself susceptible to being spun by misinformation on global warming in the recent past.]]
Lately on the SGW comment boards these "czars" are inflaming a lot of debate. Let's unpack the two essential falsehoods in this supposed controversy -- one overt and one more subtle.
First, the fears:
Change.org member Kevin M. started an action calling for overthrow of "Obama's czars," and posted in the comments:
I don't care what color of skin you have or what party you are from but when [you break] the United States Constitution you should be punished. i don't think he is going take over the world as you people may think that i think ... I'm talk[ing] about the Czar's because they didn't go through congress....
Next: the subtle lie debunked, after the jump.
Five Eco-themed Movies for a Rainy Summer Weekend
Published August 22, 2009 @ 08:45AM PT
Contemplating a summer weekend weather report featuring clouds and thunderstorms, like I am?
Here's the upside: It's the perfect excuse to forego all that virtuous outdoor exercise we're supposed to be getting this time of year, and hang out at home watching movies instead.
If you'd like to program some global warming-tinged or otherwise eco-themed flicks (some more broadly than others, admittedly), here are some of my favorites:
In yet another post-eco-apocalypse scenario, it's "Year of the City" 2274. Lawman Logan tracks down "runners" trying to escape the rule that prevents overpopulation: Euthenasia at age 30. Until he suddenly finds himself on the wrong side of the hunt...
Okay, dark. But "Logan's Run" is more fun than it has any right to be, thanks to being a near-perfect gem of 1970s dystopic sci-fi: big environmental and ethical themes, a few goofy set pieces, and zappy guns -- all wrapped up in scenes of braless, minidressed female and male beauties cavorting with a youthful Michael York. It's set to a great minimalist score by Jerry Goldsmith (years before Philip Glass became Hollywood's go-to minimalist composer).
2. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
In this gorgeous, suspenseful, and child-friendly animated film, a bright, brave girl uses all her wits, intelligence, and athletic skills to face down dual crises. One is the invasion of her peaceful homeland valley by a rampaging army that's determined to suck the kingdom dry of natural resources. The other is the mystery of how the grotesque giant insect creatures in the world beyond, which has long been contaminated and ruined by toxic pollution, are none-the-less crucial to her people's survival.
The most outright environmentalist of Japanese anime master Hayao Miyazaki's eco-manga oeuvre.
3. Atanarjuat | The Fast Runner (2001)
This is a myth-meets-thriller art house film; if you like that sort of thing, then this is the sort of thing you're going to like.
The first feature film written, producted, directed and performed by Canadian Inuit, Atanarjuat is eco-related mainly because the gorgeously photographed Arctic landscape, and the traditional Inuit culture featured in the story, are both are under threat global warming's destructive impacts.
The lives of CIA agents, sheiks from oil-rich nations, their impoverished guest workers, DC politicians and ambitious oil industry insiders cross and weave in one of the decade's most powerful political thrillers. Features George Clooney, Matt Damon, Amanda Peet, Chris Cooper, Christopher Plummer, and even a glance of William Hurt.
WALL-E is a very funny, modestly hopeful vision of one logical endpoint to our use-it-and-forget-it (and in the case of our bodies, use-it-or-lose-it) consumer culture.
This kid-friendly choice seamlessly mixes Buster Keaton-inspired physical comedy, social satire, an eco-preservation parable, space opera of a sort, and a love story into one and a half very enjoyable hours.
Cut Music's Impact on Climate: Download your tunes
Published August 20, 2009 @ 08:11AM PT
Digital downloads have been blamed for eviscerating the music industry's profit model -- but compared to commerce in compact discs, they're great for the climate.
Get your latest Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce or Lady Gaga via the internet, and you'll cut the energy and carbon dioxide overhead by 40 to 80 percent over distribution of a physical CD, according to a new report commissioned by Microsoft and Intel. The savings come in getting rid of physical packaging, delivery, and the compact disc itself; the range of impact depends upon whether the customer burns the music to a CD.
If you walk to the music store instead of driving, however, the CO2 emissions are about equal with downloading and burning, say the researchers.
So take heart, old-school consumers: If you prefer browsing for new tunes in the aisles instead of online, forestall green guilt by putting on your sneakers and going to the store under your own power. (Consider it a new form of sneakernet.)
Also, downloads of around 260 MB or greater use enough internet energy to make them comparable in carbon pollution with the download and burn scenario, say the report's authors.
"However, as file sizes and Internet energy use are increasing, Internet energy efficiency is also increasing," they write, "thus it is unlikely even in the case of large file transfers for digital downloads to use more energy or produce more CO2 emissions than delivering music via CDs."
Climate Activist to Stephen Colbert: "We're past the point where you can make the math work one bulb
Published August 18, 2009 @ 12:54PM PT
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Bill McKibben | ||||
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Related post: Bill McKibben: 'There finally is climate change activism' and anyone can join
350.org founder and co-director Bill McKibben wisely opted to play it straight last night on The Colbert Report.
Colbert's quips and numbnuts neo-con questions were gentler than usual -- but no matter what, it's a rare guest that can out-funny Stephen.
Under Colbert's purposefully obtuse barrage of questions, McKibben described how during the summer of 2007, the Arctic ice cap shrank so dramatically (to a new known low), that to many researchers, it signaled a dramatic shift in the climate.
The situation moved some scientists from abstractions to alarm. In early 2008, NASA senior climatologist James Hansen and colleagues released a draft paper stating that given the climactic instability already being observed, the world needs to get back to 350 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere. (We're now at around 390 ppm, and at the anemic levels of current action, we'll be lucky to level out at 490 ppm.)
[[The final version of this paper is available at arXiv.org, an open access repository of scientific research sponsored by Cornell University and the National Science Foundation.]]
350 ppm is a concentration at which the oceans and forests of the globe could probably continue to pull and store enough carbon out of the atmosphere, explained McKibben, to avert the worst impacts of global warming.
Colbert: Can I steal your thunder and start 349.org? Mine's one better.
McKibben: Science isn't like politics, you know. Chemistry and physics don't bargain that way. We know know now what the bottom line for the planet is.
Colbert: Chemistry and physics doesn't bargain?
McKibben: They don't haggle.
Colbert: Well then I refuse to talk to them, until they reconsider their position!
McKibben: And they to you! They're just gonna do what they're gonna do.
And that's why, around the world now, there are people coming together in this 350.org movement, to try to get our leaders to take the steps that we need.
Colbert: Now you're calling for action on October 24. On October 24 you want people to what, screw in florescent bulbs? What do you want people to do?
McKibben: That would be nice. But we're past the point where you can make the math work one bulb at a time.
Colbert: Good, 'cause I hate those things.
