Just thought I’d add something light and fun into the mix today to help balance out my last post (I tell ya - it’s ALL about balance).
You may recall our post about Franke James a little while ago.
Well, I just received an email from Franke, letting me know that her latest visual essay is online. Having thoroughly enjoyed her last piece, I certainly didn’t hesitate pop over to her blog for a look-see!
Her latest work is entitled “My SUV and Me Say Goodbye” and like her last essay, once again provides readers with some intriguing (and oftentimes hilarious), fun-filled Franke James (environ)mental meanderings to ponder. I absolutely love it, and highly recommend you check it out!
Technorati Tags: franke james, suv, david suzuki, environment, environmental, global warming, climate change
Written by Bentley on February 28th, 2007 with 1 comment.
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I came across a post at Hugg this morning that really intrigued me. It reminded me of an overall question that’s been rattling around in my head for quite some time. Essentially my query is this - if a person/organization inspires positive change on the environmental front, yet falls somewhat short in their own activities, should their ‘hypocrisy’ outweigh all the good things they have accomplished?
Judging by the number of articles I come across lashing out at those who don’t quite ‘practice what they preach’ (many of them interestingly written by green-minded people), it’s pretty clear that many would indeed say ‘YES!!!’.
Hmmmm…
I think what really got me thinking about this issue in the first place was a comment my brother-in-law made re: so-called ‘green celebrities’. Essentially he was pointing out that celebrity environmentalism is mostly hype - that is to say that most celebrities who have jumped on the enviro-bandwagon don’t actually live according to the doctrine that they preach, so why should we applaud their efforts?
There is no doubt about it - he does have a point…BUT, I can’t say I agree wholeheartedly with that line of thinking in general. Why completely discount a person’s efforts if they are producing a net positive result?
What this all reminds me of is the idea behind carbon offsetting. Let’s say Leonardo DiCaprio’s lifestyle produces 5 times more CO2 emissions than the average American citizen (this is completely hypothetical of course!), yet his words (inspiring others to take action) and financial contributions are responsible for an overall reduction in emissions 10,000X that achieved by those with less influence? Should we really be spending time digging up and pointing out his shortcomings? (again, this was a completely hypothetical example - I have no clue how much Leo contributes, whether good or bad)
Obviously it would be pretty well impossible to accurately calculate the amount of ‘good’ derived from a particular person’s efforts and I think that might be where the problem lies. While it’s relatively easy to calculate someone’s personal CO2 contributions (the ‘bad’), how could we ever fully quanitify the extent of their positive influence?
The story at Hugg today was reporting on allegations that Al Gore is an energy-guzzler (supposedly using 20X the national average), and links over to an article at Energy Refuge. The author of said article poses the question, “is [Al Gore] a true environmentalist or a phony?”.
Now before I continue with my rambling, please be assured that the point of this post is NOT to rush to Al Gore’s defence and slam the author of the article. The specifics of this particular example are of much less interest to me than this overall topic in general.
I guess I’ve just always found it funny how some people are so quick to point out people’s foibles and weaknesses, rather than considering things from a ‘big picture’ perspective and at least acknowledging the person’s overall positive contribution at the same time.
Of course this is not to say that people should not be held accountable for their words and actions. Believe it or not I actually do feel strongly about the idea of ‘practicing what you preach’. Obviously if a prominent animal rights activist also happened to club baby seals in his spare time it would be understandable to question this individual’s integrity.
Returning back to the Al Gore example, I guess I just find it amusing to see how quickly he falls from the status of ‘hero’ to ‘phony’ in some people’s minds, without any consideration for the overall positive influence he has had. Should all of us (who promote the green movement) therefore be considered phonies if we still do things that aren’t 100% earth-friendly while actively promoting ‘all things green’?
Interestingly enough, the actual owner (aka ‘EnergyDude’) of Energy Refuge wrote his own article on the topic (the other article was written by one of his contributors) offering a more forgiving perspective, and certainly one that falls more in line with my own views. Be sure to check it out as well: Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, and My Views.
Anyway, I’m definitely not trying to stir the pot too much here (hehe)! This is just a discussion topic I happen to find genuinely intriguing! I have little doubt that there are many people with much stronger views than mine (on both sides of the coin), and perhaps we’ll even hear from a few of them. 
Technorati Tags: al gore, inconvenient truth, carbon offsets, emissions, global warming, climate change, phony, hypocrisy
Written by Bentley on February 28th, 2007 with no comments.
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Last week I made mention of an interesting sustainability internship at the Windward Institute. Well we received a nice email from Walt (contact person for Windward), thanking us for our post and providing a few more details re: the type of people they are looking for.
All we need is to figure out better ways to get the word out
on the internships. We’re working through the usual college sites,
but the people we’re most interested in the ones who’ve been out of
college for a year or two and have come to realize that the corporate
system just isn’t for them.
We’re sure that there are lots of twenty-somethings that
would much rather take the road less traveled than go to work for
Kinkos or Subway…
…
The challenge is to find people who are take what we’re
doing seriously, and not just looking for a cool place to hang for
the summer. It’s a matter of drawing a large enough pool of
applicants to include some serious folk.
So the good news is that they are still looking for candidates - just be sure this is something you are really serious about before getting in touch with them.
Technorati Tags: sustainability, internships, windward, sustainable living, aquaponics, biofuel
Written by Bentley on February 28th, 2007 with no comments.
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By Tracey Smith
It’s bizarre, yet pleasantly reassuring that the telephone has been ringing a little more of late. It is coming up to my baby’s 3rd birthday…my virtual baby that is, an awareness campaign called National Downshifting Week.
I popped it out with gusto and a deep breath in 2005 - rather like shelling a pea really -from a chilly little cottage, on a pimple on the bottomend of nowhere in rural France and remember pondering at the time, would anything much become of her (she is quite definitely a ’she’ incidentally).
The idea of lacing an actual ‘week’ together came because I’d focused my writing attention on exploring the secrets of downshifting and sustainable living, following my own major downshift in 2002. There was such a lot to uncover and discover and my journey to a simpler, happier life left me brimming with a passion to spread the word about what one could achieve if you ’stepped out of the Rat Race’ and stopped to smell the roses.
International attention was drawn to the project after a few of my articles had been published on the Internet and I found myself in the epicentre of a worldwide craving for information on a bit of ‘back to basics’ living!
I would raise my head from the keyboard to tend to my chickens or pick or plant some fruit or veg, or maybe even just chew the cud with my husband and kids. My grip on the work/life balance was firming up with every passing day and I learned how to say ‘Actually, sorry, but no’; there is so much more to life than chasing the dosh.
The UK has been fuelled by various forms of the media paying lipservice to ‘downshifting’. They portray it as a cure for all ills (which indeed it can be) and that one of the best ways to achieve it is by moving house, counties, even countries! How ridiculous! And what to do for those with no capital allowing such a move? It’s preposterous.
Downshifting isn’t about chasing rainbows over the water. It’s about claiming back little pockets of time and money and investing them elsewhere.
In a nutshell, the more money you spend, the more time you have to be out there earning it and the less time you have to spend with the ones you love.
Embracing living with less is a challenge, but if you approach the concept with a positive mind, the possibilities are endless. Also, by taking the ‘dip your toes in’ method, you get to find your comfort level of downshift and have a far greater chance of long term success.
By making small changes in your own four walls, your whole world could change colour. Speaking of colour, when you do slow life down a pace, you automatically ‘lean towards the green’. A very interesting phenomenon, particularly if you have never been very green minded before.
But look, taking a trip to the local charity shop to drop in a bag of donations, because you are at last ditching the uber-consumer race to please the fashion police, is positive for your local community (it could be a hospice shop and you never know when you are going to need that!), you are recycling, reusing and you might even come away with a bag of second-hand goodies for a snip of a price.
Benefit to the purse and the planet.
So, there you have it. The conception, birth and nappy stage of National Downshifiting Week, in a (soap)nutshell.
The phone is ringing again, more interviews to give, more stuff to say, more people to help on their way, then I’m off downstairs, the kids have just gone to bed and there’s a warm glass of cheap red and the old man to cuddle up to.
The life/work balance….keep it real, make it slow, keep it green.
…
Columnist and broadcaster Tracey Smith has carved a niche with Downshifting and Sustainable Living. She is also the creator of awareness campaign, National Downshifting Week in the UK and USA and was recently confirmed a finalist in Britain’s Eco-Hero Awards, an initiative from ITV’s National News. Tracey specialised in this genre following her own extreme downshift in 2002 and has made it her mission to uncover all the layers and levels of simple living.
Combine this with her passion and genuine enthusiasm for getting people on the right, green track, promoting a true life and work balance and first-hand experience of surviving on limited funds and you have an energetic and realistic advocator for ‘back to basics living’.
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Thanks very much to Tracey for her article. If you are interested in writing a guest post on the EcoSherpa blog, feel free to drop us a line.
Technorati Tags: downshifting, sustainable living, green living, simplifying, stress reduction, healthy living
Written by Bentley on February 28th, 2007 with 1 comment.
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