Over the past few months I've been steadily increasing my weekly intake of sustainable lifestyle and design knowledge. To those who are interested, here are some of the highlights...
Cradle to Cradle [link]
Of all of the books I've read this year, this may be the best. The authors argue that any system that requires regulation to do less harm, is a system in distress and in need of redesign. Simply put, they are pioneering the next industrial revolution, one where the very concept of waste is eliminated. Here's the copy & paste from mcdonough.com:William McDonough's book, written with his colleague, the German chemist Michael Braungart, is a manifesto calling for the transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent design. Through historical sketches on the roots of the industrial revolution; commentary on science, nature and society; descriptions of key design principles; and compelling examples of innovative products and business strategies already reshaping the marketplace, McDonough and Braungart make the case that an industrial system that "takes, makes and wastes" can become a creator of goods and services that generate ecological, social and economic value.
The Story of Stuff [www.storyofstuff.com]
When we throw something "away", where exactly is "away"? How is it possible to buy a cute little green radio for $4.99 at Radio Shack, when the materials and labor to create and sell that radio should cost way more than $5? This short video provides some perspective on the lifespan of products. Again, here's the C&P:From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.
I read this article in Time magazine published a year ago, and hope that views on ethanol and biodeisel as "green" fuels have started to change since then. The big picture is much dirtier than the emissions would indicate.
"People don't want to believe renewable fuels could be bad," says the lead author, Tim Searchinger, a Princeton scholar and former Environmental Defense attorney. "But when you realize we're tearing down rain forests that store loads of carbon to grow crops that store much less carbon, it becomes obvious."
Promising news
Here are a few links to things that will make you feel better about the future of sustainable industry.
- Car-Free Suburb Planned for Melbourne, Australia
- Greenest Eco Resort in the World Coming to California? ...this looks like it could be incredible! Check out the overview pdf.
- TED Talk: Willie Smits: A 20-year tale of hope: How we re-grew a rainforest
Places to start
Try this:
- Create a bookmark folder in your web-browser called "Save the Planet"
- Check out "21 links to save the planet" on PlanetGreen, and put all those links in your new bookmark folder.
- Once a day, maybe when you get to work, right-click on the your "Save the Planet" bookmark folder, and select "open all bookmarks in tabs."
Bam! You just planted trees, funded education, protected oceans, saved baby seals, saved several square feet of rainforest, removed some CO2 from the air, gave children free books, gave free food to the hungry, helped to provide free child healthcare, and helped fight breast cancer... all by opening and closing a few tabs in your browser, and maybe clicking a few buttons! And if you're feeling especially kind, you might even take a look at some of the sponsors on those sites. I've been doing this for almost 2 months now, and even added some links of my own. Suppose each each site only planted a single tree for every visit I made, I still would have helped to plant about 1500 trees over the past 2 months!
Of course, clicking links only goes so far, so here are some other resources to broaden your view and give you ideas for how to me more resourceful and less wasteful:
- http://www.treehugger.com/
- http://planetgreen.discovery.com/
- http://www.ecofabulous.com/
- http://www.ecogeek.org/
- http://www.inferknow.com/green (firefox extension that offsets CO2 output)
You might try using Google Reader to organize all these for you as well as other blogs that you like reading (like mine!) Check out the quick tour here.
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