Archive for September, 2008
Are Americans myopic when it comes to charitable giving?
The American Express Members Project allows American Express Cardholders to vote for a $2.5 million donation to one of 25 “inspiring projects.” Last year, the money went to providing safe drinking water to children in Africa. This year’s project list is equally inspiring:
- Feeding one million children a day
- Help women and children survivors of war rebuild
- 6,000 girls scholarships in the developing world
- End human trafficking: Sustainable livelihood
Of the twenty-five projects, only one does not target the disenfranchised (I’m including the environmental causes here, because plants and animals have no voice.) This project is Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease, with the goal of allowing those who had previously been undiagnosed the time to make financial arrangements and to “cherish special moments.” Read the rest of this entry »
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If you like this then please subscribe to the Don’t buy green
Want to be green? Really green? Then don’t buy green products. In fact, don’t buy anything. Be like the early New Englanders, whose maxim was: Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.
Do you really need another organic cotton T-shirt? I don’t. Most of my apparel is at least 25 years old. It’s well-made, high-quality clothing. I don’t need to replace it. I did, however, come upon a great way to refresh my wardrobe without adding to my carbon footprint. I went to the Garment District and found some cool vintage clothing. When I returned home, I picked out some items I didn’t enjoy wearing and brought them back to the store, where they accept free donations. (They also buy used clothing, by appointment only.) Read the rest of this entry »
Later is Over
“Later” was a luxury for previous generations, eras, civilizations, and epochs. It meant that you could paint the same landscape, see the same animals, eat the same fruit, climb the same trees, fish the same rivers, or rescue the same endangered species that you did when you were a kid–but just do it later, whenever you got around to it. Nature’s bounty seemed infinite and all the threats to it either limited or reversible. In the Energy-Climate Era, given the accelerating rates of extinction and development, “later” is going to be removed from the dictionary. Later is no longer when you get to do all those things in nature you did as a kid–on your own time schedule. Later is when they’re gone–when you won’t get to do any of them ever gain. Later is too late, so whatever we are going to save, we’d better start saving now.
Thomas Friedman, Hot, Flat & Crowded, pp. 153
Like a lot of people, I had this plan for my life. I was going to become rich and powerful and then I was going to save the planet. I thought I had time. When I was younger, I wondered about what we would do with nuclear waste. I worried about how, over time, radioactivity and toxicity would build up in our environment. I was afraid of nuclear proliferation. But I saw these problems developing over a period of decades or centuries. As a tail-end baby boomer, I thought that my generation could be part of the solution. Read the rest of this entry »
My first vacation in the 21st century
Yes. It’s true. I finally went on vacation after eight years. The last time I was absent from Tech Networks for an entire week was when all eight digits changed on the Gregorian calendar. (In 1999, I spent New Year’s Eve on a barge floating on the Seine.) Despite all my subsequent vacation fantasies over the next eight years, the vacation I chose was fairly prosaic. I didn’t join a Worldwatch expedition to count seals in the Arctic, or voyage to Costa Rica to build efficient wood-burning stoves for cocoa farmers. Instead, Dave and I kept our carbon footprint low by spending our vacation at a B&B with our two pugs in Newport, Rhode Island. In sum total, we used one tank of gas.
The B&B is called the Chestnut Inn, but it’s really just the first floor of a standard, turn-of-the-century two-family house. One of the two most important attractions of this establishment is that it allows dogs. But the other is the 90-year-old proprietress of the Inn, Eileen Nimmo. Eileen is funny, loves people, reads books, and is a terrific businesswoman. She bought her first house right after World War II, and went on to acquire 15 others. She will readily confide in you that she doesn’t even need the money from the B&B but she likes the company.
Dave and I spent the vacation touring historic Newport, picnicking in state parks, and chatting with Eileen on her front porch. Although I brought some of my usual global warming books, I eschewed them in favor of Brideshead Revisited.
I was guilty of spending a couple of hours each day catching up on my email, which is how I know that things went well in my absence. Every team seemed to be working well, lines of communication were open, and much was accomplished. I am sure that it won’t be very long before I take my next vacation. After all, the company still owes me about 180 days paid time off!