The Wall Street Journal recently ran this headline: “Beijing Mystery: What’s Happening to the Billboards?” (LINK).

The accompanying article details the efforts of Beijing city officials to rid the massive megalopolis of what I consider to be the worst urban eyesores in any city. Yet, rather than commend these officials for actions that I consider to be environmentally-friendly (we mustn’t ever forget the urban environment, after all), the WSJ seems to deride them. Consider this quote:

“In one of the most ambitious attempts ever to sanitize a city’s image, cranes were recently sent in to dismantle many of the 90-odd billboards lining the road. Some billboards still standing have tin sheets tacked onto them, to conceal the ads.”

Notice the key word “SANITIZE.” That’s a very dubious characterization. Is that what Beijing officials are trying to do? Is that what we would call it if, say, San Francisco decided to do the same? No, if S.F. Mayor Gavin Newsom (a man whose policies I largely admire) were to launch a parallel campaign, he would be lauded for his efforts to improve the city’s atmosphere, hailed as a champion of those fighting to crack down on hyper-consumerism.

“City officials want to prevent Beijing from becoming one very big Times Square. Because billboards have become an eyesore, Beijing wants to “reorder the urban landscape,” says a city official.”What, may I ask, is wrong with this? Who wouldn’t want to avoid having their entire city resemble Times Square? Notice again in the quote the writer chose to use a very “Communist-era” quote. Of course, officials born, raised and conditioned this way are going to use such jargon. Relayed this way, without a more in depth interview to get at the underlying motives, it smacks of stereotyping all Chinese officials as programmed “Commie robots.”

“Many use exaggerated terms that encourage luxury and self-indulgence which are beyond the reach of low-income groups and are therefore not conducive to harmony in the capital,” Mayor Wang said in remarks released to state media.”

Mayor Wang states rather clearly that it’s better for Beijing citizens to not be manipulated into pursuing the fruitless chase for ‘luxury’ that will only put them in a position of great debt. Clearly, Mayor Qishan looks at U.S. citizens, with their $10,000 in average credit card debt and the fragility of the U.S. economy that is leveraged to the breaking point and understands that to follow this path would mean ruin for his people.

Hats off to Beijing Mayor Wang Qishan, a man who should be commended around the world for this campaign.

Song o’ the Day is an easy choice, if one that dates me: Fugazi’s “Suggestion.” Frontman Ian MacKaye laments, “Why can’t I walk down a street free of suggestion?” Pretty apt, me thinks. [audio:suggestion.mp3]

[tags]beijing, billboards, china, gavin newsom, san francisco, urban landscape, wang qishan[/tags]

You must have heard of Pinkberry (LINK) by now. The ubiquitous yogurt shop that is popping up all over Los Angeles and Manhattan. They serve two flavors, the classic which is just Japanese yogurt/calpis/calpico/yakuruto-flavor and then green tea which, though I haven’t tried it is supposed to vaguely resemble green tea flavorings.
I held out, not wanting to endorse yet another new fast food chain, but finally knuckled under last week while walking around Venice, California. Technically, Andi knuckled under and I’ve still yet to support this ‘worst-of-all-things-generically-asian-pop-culture’-styled junk food shop.
What I noticed first and foremost is that EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING in Pinkberry is disposable. Every cup, spoon, napkin, fixture. Not exactly atypical for fast food, but also not exactly responsible. Especially when coupled with the fact that there are NO RECYCLE CONTAINERS AT PINKBERRY!
I asked the pyt behind the counter if I could recycle our container, as well as the heap of plastic and paper spilling out of the garbabe container.

No dice.

Okay, but what about your business recycle. You must have recycling out back in a recycle bin, right? Can I take my container and spoon out there.

We don’t recycle AT ALL.

Ouch. A brand new business, opening in the age of environmental hyper-awareness, and it makes ZERO effort to do the right thing.

If YOU give a damn about your world, find a dessert shop that at least shares your commitment. Handing Pinkberry your money is a bad, bad idea.

Oh, and I got an extra treat when I walked in with my vintage Polaroid land camera. It was pointed out to me that there is a big NO CAMERAS sticker on the door. As if someone is going to capture their secret formula.

To sum it up, Pinkberry is:
Paranoid.

Irresponsible.

Environmentally unconcerned.

Flavor-free.

Expensive.

NOT yogurt. (check out the lawsuit (LINK))

Overall, I’d have to say Pinkberry is incredibly overrated. If you’re a fan, do let me know just what excites you about this new junk food chain. Is it more their contribution to the waste stream or is Pinkberry’s willingness to help you put on a few more pounds?

Song O’ the Day is SHUGGIE OTIS’ “Sweet Thang”. You have to know Shuggie. [audio:shuggie]

los angeles, pinkberry, polaroid, recycle, shuggie otis, venice, yogurt

CONFESSION TIME: I screwed up. But first, the back story.

We’ve recently moved into a new home, one that has wonderful raised beds (outside!) for gardening, a living room the size of Rhode Island (because we live so large), a jacuzzi that looks to have last operated in the 1970s, and more spiders, ants, gnats, moths, roly-poly bugs and bees per meter than any home I’ve ever occupied. Honest to god, this house is an entomologist’s dream. Without exaggeration, we’ve seen at least two dozen black widows in the month we’ve been here.

Now understand that insects don’t bother me at all. In fact, I’m so at peace with the critters that I use a Bugzooka (LINK) to remove them to the great outdoors without doing them harm. Even the black widows are simply deposited over the neighbor’s fence (along with our cat droppings and food scraps).

Yet. . . yet. . . the ants are driving me crazy! I’m one of those guys who really appreciates a clean kitchen. I don’t like dishes in the sink, crumbs near the toaster, or fingerprints all over the chrome strip on the fridge handle. Call it my one and only anal obsession. Or don’t call it that as it isn’t really appropriate. So when I found that ants more or less consider our kitchen counter tops a natural extension of their digs, I knew I was in for another dose of “daily hypocrisy” (LINK) no matter what I did.

My first attempt at reclaiming the kitchen was to simply clean the hell out of the counters. Soap, water, bleach, more bleach. Not a perfectly environmentally responsible solution, considering the bleach, but fairly low impact. Worked for about nine minutes before the first of the scouts returned.

After this, I worked quite diligently to ensure that no scrap of food was left around. No dice. Mind you, all this time I’m wiping out hundreds of ants with a wet rag every day and feeling rather guilty about it in the process (blame Pixar and a brief conversion to Jainism (LINK) in the early 90s).
“Natural” remedies did little other than drain my pocketbook and dash my hopes. Finally, regretfully, full-of-misgivingsly, I purchased a can of RAID. Indeed. Can you believe it? Neither can I. I’ve read “Silent Spring” (LINK). I know how nasty and altogether wrong the stuff really is. And I did it anyway. FOR SHAME, MR. BRILLIANT!

Did it work? Nope. Within 24 hours, the ants were back at it. At what, I’ve no idea as I never found them getting any food, carrying any horde in their pincers. But I DID get to inhale poison, and I did get to violate a personal code of conduct. All in the name of frustration and convenience. And fear that of tiny critters who do me not a whit of harm. FOR SHAME!

Two weeks later, and they’ve left on their own. I’m sure we’ll meet again next year at the same time. I’ve pledged aloud, while standing in the corner near the sink where they used to congregate, a pledge to leave them alone when they return. I’ve apologized to the relatives of those who died in a toxic fog. I hope that this step backward will compel me to to finally understand that my pampered, sterile, altogether artificial life needs MORE of the natural world, not less.

FOR SHAME!

Song o’ the Day is something that I’m betting will be new to you. It’s the Insect Surfers’ “Insect Stomp”. Great early-90s surf band, the IS. Just hit play, darling. [audio:insect.mp3] (you really should make a playlist out of my Songs ‘o the Day - the selections I make are amazing.)
[tags]bugzooka, hypocrisy, insects, jainism, rachel carson, raid, silent spring[/tags]

June 14, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEEXXON PROPOSES BURNING HUMANITY FOR FUEL IF CLIMATE CALAMITY HITS

Conference organizer fails to have Yes Men arrestedText of speech, photos, video: http://www.vivoleum.com/event/

GO-EXPO statement: http://newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2007/14/c5086.html

Press conference before this event, Friday, Calgary: http://arusha.org/event/7214
Contact: mailto:fuel@theyesmen.org More links at end of release.Imposters posing as ExxonMobil and National Petroleum Council (NPC) representatives delivered an outrageous keynote speech to 300 oilmen at GO-EXPO, Canada’s largest oil conference, held at Stampede Park in Calgary, Alberta, today.

The speech was billed beforehand by the GO-EXPO organizers as the major highlight of this year’s conference, which had 20,000
attendees. In it, the “NPC rep” was expected to deliver the long-awaited conclusions of a study commissioned by US Energy Secretary
Samuel Bodman. The NPC is headed by former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond, who is also the chair of the study. (See link at end.)

In the actual speech, the “NPC rep” announced that current U.S. and Canadian energy policies (notably the massive, carbon-intensive exploitation of Alberta’s oil sands, and the development of liquid coal) are increasing the chances of huge global calamities. But he reassured the audience that in the worst case scenario, the oil industry could “keep fuel flowing” by transforming the billions of people who die into oil.

“We need something like whales, but infinitely more abundant,” said “NPC rep” “Shepard Wolff” (actually Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men), before describing the technology used to render human flesh into a new Exxon oil product called Vivoleum. 3-D animations of the process brought it to life.

“Vivoleum works in perfect synergy with the continued expansion of fossil fuel production,” noted “Exxon rep” “Florian Osenberg” (Yes Man Mike Bonanno). “With more fossil fuels comes a greater chance of disaster, but that means more feedstock for Vivoleum. Fuel will continue to flow for those of us left.”

The oilmen listened to the lecture with attention, and then lit “commemorative candles” supposedly made of Vivoleum obtained from the flesh of an “Exxon janitor” who died as a result of cleaning up a toxic spill. The audience only reacted when the janitor, in a video tribute, announced that he wished to be transformed into candles after his death, and all became crystal-clear. Read the rest of this entry »

!CALENTAMIENTO GLOBAL!

Most of you know that it’s 2007. A great portion of you know that we need to reduce global greenhouse emissions 90% by 2030 if we’ve any hope of stabilizing runaway global temperatures. Here in the United States, instead of working together to achieve these goals, we politicize the subject (thanks, Al! thanks, George!), meaning we make it a whole lot harder to achieve a national consensus on what steps we need to take. This is a problem that is close to insurmountable, but I’m a closet optimist, so I think that, with the help of a new political party and a series of crippling general strikes, we’ll get there! Is Eugene Debs running in ‘08? (Perhaps three of you got a chuckle out of this.)

But even this problem of politicization of a fundamentally nonpartisan issue is, I think, secondary to a massive and largely ignored language and cultural barrier. Specifically, while the U.S. “CAUTION: GLOBAL WARMING” chorus continues to swell in number and volume, it delivers its message almost exclusively in English. Given that, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (LINK), the Hispanic population is going to be responsible for nearly 50% of the U.S. population growth between now and 2030, this is something we need to fix immediately. Some forward thinkers, like the Earth Policy Institute (LINK), responsible for the publication of Lester Brown’s seminal “Plan B 2.0″ (think “Inconvenient Truth” but with ANSWERS: LINK) are publishing their output in dozens of languages, but a direct targeting of the U.S. hispanic population by everyone (including yours truly) is required.
As of 2007, the eco-community is overwhelmingly white-midde/upper class. By 2030, over half the Western United States will be non-white. We won’t achieve our reduction goals unless we expand our ranks to include a representative slice of the population and citizenry.

If the eco-community doesn’t start making websites (Grist, Treehugger, Worldchanging, etc), and if Hollywood doesn’t start making films that at least partially cater to the surging populace of Hispanics in the United States, their critical messages will not reach the population that is making itself, each day, more and more of a powerful consumer and voter force. As a result, we’ll all be poached (LINK).

Song o’ the Day = Baja La Luna Mexicana by Concrete Blonde. Do you remember it? I have a real soft spot for this one . . . [audio:luna.mp3]

[tags]earth policy institute, eugene debs, greenhouse emissions, hollywood, lester brown, treehugger[/tags]

See that washed out mugshot? That’s me. All in all, I’d say my life is pretty good. I live in a nice place with nice people and we all try to do nice things. I enjoy what I do - working to help people and companies increase the sustainability (oh the quagmire of the definition of this word!) of their activities. I have an amazing family. I am part of the small percentage of the global population who doesn’t have to daily fear war, famine, disease and myriad assorted brutalities. Believe me, I am every day grateful for each of these things.

Yet.

This business of every moment trying to do the right thing for the global community can be a bit of a ball and chain. I can be a bit of a buzzkill around family and friends with my “Is there chicken stock in the soup?” or “Sorry, I can’t come to that fabulous event because the sponsor company supports Arctic drilling.” My penchant for screening all consumer purchases with tools like Alonovo (LINK: ALONOVO.COM) and analyzing origin source and chemical properties of my foodstuffs certainly allays some of the instant gratification that would otherwise be associated with consumption. With family in Hawaii and Australia, I worry about how to visit them now that I’ve sworn off jet travel (LINK: JETS SUCK). While I endorse a move back to the 55-MPH speed limit as a way to cut oil consumption and reduce emissions, I know damned well that I will chafe at the bit. With a four-year-old son (LINK: Justice Brilliant) to whom I feel great pressure to act a perfect role model, the heat is on to lead by example.

If you’re slogging through this waiting for a nugget of profundity, I’m sorry to disappoint. The only thing I have to say is: It’s awfully hard to do the right thing even when doing so means only giving up luxuries that were inconceivable as little as fifty years ago. I’ve been conditioned to expect easy comforts: instant heat, year-round blueberries, hourly flights to New York. Educating myself that these comforts are not only trivial but harmful is one thing. I can accept this academically and even spout my newfound education with much passion. Practicing what I preach? Not impossible, but more difficult every day.

Do you wrestle with similar issues?

Song o’ the Day is my personal theme song. “Be Thankful for What You’ve Got” by William DeVaughn. It’s in my top ten, all time. [audio:theme.mp3]

alonovo, climate change, eco-buzzkill, jet travel, william devaughn

Don’t read my blog. Read James Howard Kunstler’s. He’s a lot smarter, a lot funnier, and has outpublished me by a count of something like fifty to zero.
Below, I’ve posted a snippet from yesterday’s Kunstler post, one which I hope you will read in it’s entirety HERE. He rips straight to the heart of the matter: the refusal of the eco-gentry to be truly inconvenienced.
“My position on this can be easily misunderstood. I don’t want civilization to collapse (I like Mozart and access to root canal). I don’t want Homo sapiens to go extinct, or the planet to parboil. I certainly don’t believe in doing nothing in the face of this emergency. But I also don’t believe we are going to make any hassle-free switch in the way we run things — or that we should want to. Would the USA be a better place if we could run Wal-Mart and Las Vegas on wind power? I don’t think so. Would the public benefit from another hundred years of suburban living — and an economy based largely on creating ever more of it? All the Prozac in the universe would not avail to offset the diminishing returns of that bullshit.

In my travels, I have noticed a disturbing theme among the educated minority of eco-advocates: they are every bit as dedicated to the status quo (in their own way) as the NASCAR morons and shopping mall developers. The eco-advocates want cars, too, and all the prerogatives (like free parking and country living) that go with them, just like the WalMart shoppers. If this were not so, then why do the eco-advocates cream in their jeans whenever somebody presents a snazzy new vehicle that runs on a fuel other than gasoline? Indeed, why are some of the eco-friendly pouring all their efforts into the invention of such things instead of into walkable communities and the reform of our stupid land-use laws?”

Again, read the entire post HERE. Then bookmark Kunstler’s page and check back with him. Oh, and it’s okay to bookmark mine as well as, in aping his form, I’m bound to say something somewhat entertaining at some point.

(Why the pic of Captain Kangaroo? Well, he had a sidekick named Mr. Green Jeans. . . reference is made by Kunstler. . . a bit obscure, but so is this website!)

[tags]climate change, james howard kunstler, kunstler, walmart[/tags]

I live in a rather tony wine country town. Not like Tony Bennett. He’s goofy. Or Tony Danza. I hear he’s real mean. More like “wanna-be Carmel-By-The-Sea”.
Therefore, it’s a given that we have a rather tony local alterna-market at which I can buy my organic pasta, fish, fruit, nuts and underwear (this last being the most significant, of course). In fact, we have two such markets. Not bad for a town of 10,000 denizens.

However.

However, despite the seeming concern over ‘organic’ and ‘local’ produce I find that both markets present rather inconsistent offerings. For instance, I went to add a bit o’ fruit to my lunch yesterday and found that nearly all of the apples on display were from Chile. The pears? From Argentina. Both fruits were marked ORGANIC and bore the price to match . . . but. . .

Here’s where things get confusing. And when things become confusing for me, they become automatically inconvenient.

An organic apple from Chile seems like an oxymoron to me. If an apple has to fly 5000 miles to my market shelf, how organic, how sustainable, can it be? Last time I checked, JET FUEL wasn’t organic! And doesn’t produce from South America have to be sprayed before it’s allowed in the United States? Am I not better off purchasing non-organic fruit that was harvested locally? These aren’t rhetorical questions, mind you. I’m really curious about the best way to buy sustainable sustenance, one that allows not only the upper class but everyone to make an informed and progressive decision. Don’t go attaching political inferences to the word ‘progressive’ mind you. Creating a healthy future is a nonpartisan issue!
My friend Phil, co-owner of one of the world’s most ethical coffee roasters, Flying Goat Coffee, has given me the best advice so far: Don’t go looking for apples and pears when they’re out of season. Seems like a no-brainer. Seems like good advice. Pretty inconvenient, but something I can get behind. What about you? Think you can stick to in season produce? We should think about getting used to it, as jet fuel prices are only going to continue to climb, rendering ’round the world produce a thing of the past in the not-so-distant future. Good news for local farmers!
For the Song ‘o the Day it’s too damned hard to resist ‘Bonita Applebum’. Come on, you know you want to hear it. Almost went with Jets to Brazil’s “Milk and Apples”. [audio:bonita.mp3]

[tags]apples, bonita-applebum, flying-goat, healdsburg, organic-produce[/tags]

You know what’s inconvenient?

MOVING.

Moving is a true and mighty pain in the arse. Especially trying to “eco-move.” What is “eco-moving,” you ask? Well, it’s moving without boxes (as we know how wasteful cardboard is) and without any vehicles. Fortunately, we moved only one mile across town, so our difficulties weren’t nearly what they could have been.

I wish I’d taken pictures of how things played out. My partner-in-crime, Andi, found a neat website called RentAPorter.com (since removed due to labor suits but I swear I didn’t know anything about this) and we hired two dozen porters from Cuba, Mexico, Utah and Senegal to move our goods. Back and forth they went, forming a line nearly a block long, all of our belongings either in their hands, strapped to their backs, or both. We even had them carry us to the new house after we tired from directing their efforts. Little Healdsburg hadn’t seen a procession like that in some time!

All in all, we made the move with almost zero carbon emissions (unless you count the emissions related to the food intake of the porters, whose appetites were rather sizeable) and in record time. I’m surprised more people don’t hire porters for their moves. It helps with the economy, employs those who need work, and reduces emissions.

After the move, in going through our various decorative effects, I came across the pictured stamp which we had framed in an old p.o. box door. At the time, I had selected it for it’s graphic design from among the stacks of random stamps left behind by my pop. Today, I realized the profundity of the message and timing.

Forty years ago, it would appear that someone got the memo. The memo that said, “These suburbs are going to be the end of us. No, seriously.” At least someone at the U.S. Postal Service got the message.

We’re still waiting for the rest of the inept gang of Dems and Repubs to read it. Don’t hold your breath folks. That’s why we have third parties. That’s why we have general strikes. Oh, wait. . different post.

Song o’ the Day is one that, if you’re producing a foxy new indie-hip movie, you should use as part of the soundtrack. It’s a track that puts most of the stuff on the Garden State soundtrack to shame. With that, here’s Rogue Wave’s ‘Postage Stamp World’. [audio:rogue.mp3]

[tags]andi, brad-pitt, carbon-emissions, garden-state, lester-brown, poor-old-pop, porter, post-office, random-stamps, rentaporter, rogue-wave[/tags]