Want to give funky holiday gifts to your family and friends, but minimize the impact on the environment?

Andrea Fisher

http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=9477605

Barack Obama’s plan to pull the country out of recession has a strong green hue. Conventional wisdom says Washington won’t have the stomach or the dollars to tackle long-term issues like climate change or dependence on foreign oil when the economy is in the tank and oil prices have plunged. Wrong conclusion, Obama says. These problems, “left unaddressed, will continue to weaken the economy and threaten national security,” he said on Nov. 18 in a video message to a climate summit meeting in California.

His fix? Obama plans to set ambitious targets for reducing emissions that cause global warming—and to invest $15 billion or more per year in energy efficiency, renewables like wind and solar, biofuels, nuclear power, and “clean” coal. Beyond the environmental benefits, says the President-elect, the investment “will also help us transform our industries and steer our economy out of this economic crisis by generating 5 million new green jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced.”

Whether or not a “green” stimulus will create millions of American jobs is hotly debated by economists. On the one hand, the seeds of the transformation have already been planted thanks to market forces, such as overall higher energy prices, and government policies like tax credits for renewable energy. But there are also major questions. Many executives and experts say the most effective policy to push America toward a clean, efficient energy future is putting a price on emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, thus raising the price of energy. That’s a tough sell now to Americans struggling to pay their bills. There’s also a danger that the government could steer investments to the wrong technologies. Remember synfuels, President Jimmy Carter’s experiment to reduce dependence on foreign oil? Most important, a green stimulus plan from Uncle Sam may end up sending billions of dollars to foreign companies instead of to Main Street, since the U.S. lags in such crucial industries as solar panels and wind turbines. Will green technologies become today’s VCRs and flat-panel TVs, invented in the U.S. and commercialized elsewhere?

But the fear of enriching overseas companies simply makes a green stimulus more necessary and urgent, proponents argue. Without a plan like Obama’s, which would expand U.S. markets for new technologies, American companies may fall even further behind. Michael R. Splinter, CEO of Applied Materials (AMAT) in Santa Clara, Calif., is a believer in the need for government support. Splinter has seen his business of supplying equipment for factories to make solar panels soar beyond his wildest projections. But 97% of the company’s equipment goes to foreign manufacturers, who then sell panels in the U.S. It seems like the U.S. has “given up on manufacturing,” Splinter laments. “Right now we are on a path to being a second-tier player in clean energy technology.”

A plan like Obama’s could turbocharge American industries, Splinter and other executives say. Why have European companies become world leaders in wind and solar power? Because a number of governments guarantee that anyone who supplies renewable power to the electric grid will get a premium price for that power. That cost is then passed along to customers.

POLITICAL LAND MINES

Similar incentives could work magic in the U.S., says Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute. America already has a vibrant green-energy sector, so the transformation could be rapid. There are upward of 3 million Americans employed in green jobs, ranging from renewable-power startups to businesses with products that reduce waste and pollution or boost energy efficiency.

And even when goods come from foreign companies, some of the jobs will be in the U.S. One growing trend is for European and Asian manufacturers to build factories in America so they can be closer to what promises to be the world’s largest market.

Spanish wind company Gamesa is bringing 1,000 jobs to several factories in Pennsylvania and its North American headquarters in Philadelphia. In Memphis, Sharp opened its first plant outside of Japan for making solar panels.

Some green industries are homegrown by nature. Biofuel refineries need to be built near the crops that provide the feedstock. Even more jobs would be created by making U.S. houses and buildings more energy efficient, argues economist Robert Pollin of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “There is about $26 billion in retrofitting on public buildings that could be done the day after legislation is signed,” Pollin says. “The job impacts are very high. Each $1 million in spending would bring about 18 jobs.”

What could Washington do to grow the green economy? Limit emissions of greenhouse gases, thus raising the price of using fossil fuel and steering the industry toward more environmentally friendly alternatives. Continue or boost tax credits for biofuels, wind, and solar. Make infrastructure investments, such as building transmission lines needed to bring power from large solar power plants in the desert or from North Dakota’s windswept prairies. And increase federal dollars for energy research and development, aiding programs that have withered during years of declining funding. All of this, proponents say, would foster enough innovation to help American companies leapfrog their overseas rivals. “America’s future depends on our ability to spark an energy revolution,” argues Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Susan Hockfield.

Skeptics wonder, however, if such a sweeping transformation is possible. “The optimist in me wants to believe it,” says Matthew E. Kahn, an economist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “The cynic in me asks, is this like FDR jobs creation in the guise of green jobs?” Kahn believes that rather than spending federal dollars, the best approach is simply increasing the price of carbon—which is politically difficult.

Passing Obama’s green stimulus package will be an uphill battle, and its success if implemented is far from certain. But the nation’s financial mess is so bad that the President-elect has a freer hand. He also needs to show action on climate change to help restore America’s reputation around the world—and to bring China and India on board. The surge earlier this year in oil prices (expected to rise again after the recession ends) even has brought traditional opponents of renewable energy and climate action to the bipartisan table, as long as they get expanded drilling rights. Says Thomas J. Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: “Energy policy can create jobs, give an economic lift, and get us out of this ditch.”

By John Carey

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_49/b4111030857315.htm

President-Elect Barack Obama stands a better chance of advancing a green agenda in his first 100 days in office if he can continue mobilizing the country on a grassroots level around environmental issues and tie green initiatives to the economic stimulus package and recovery.That’s the consensus of a group of journalists and a business advisor that explored the future of the green economy in an Obama presidency during a panel discussion at the GreenBiz-Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) Leadership Dinner held Thursday in New York.

The panel, which included Fortune’s Marc Gunther, Business Week’s Adam Aston, The New York Times’ Kate Galbraith and BSR’s vice president of advisory services, Eric Olson, was moderated by GreenBiz.com’s Executive Editor Joel Makower in what he described as his version of “Meet the Press.”

“I think we’ve all heard the superlatives about this week in terms of just how extraordinary it was whether your team won or not, but now the question is: What’s next?” Makower said.

The economy is clearly at the top of the heap, as President-Elect Obama made clear in his first press conference. The news is grim: Job losses are escalating and he warned that if Congress fails to pass another stimulus package, he’ll make the move as one of his first actions in office. Marrying the environmental agenda to the economic stimulus package presents one possibility of advancement, according to Gunther of Fortune.

“You have to come up with a way to say the purpose of this is do two things: do something about climate change but also to stimulate the new green economy,” Gunther said. “If it can be packaged that way, as opposed to something that will raise gasoline prices or raise electricity prices — which it absolutely will do — then it has a much better chance.”

It comes down to politics and tapping into the excitement and energy he generated during his campaign, Gunther said

“One of the really interesting questions to me about Obama is what does he do with to whatever degree it is a movement - - he sent out his thank you email at 12:30 or 1 a.m. Tuesday night — what does he do to keep that group of people engaged and alive?” Gunther said. “If he says I need your support now because energy is my priority and here are things you have to do, if he can do that, I think he can get his agenda done.”

Galbraith, of The New York Times, pointed out that the appeal of green jobs, for example, extends beyond Obama’s Democratic platform.

“It’s not just Obama that’s been talking about green jobs,” she said. “It’s virtually every Congressman or Senator running for office so in a sense, green jobs is the ultimate centrist issue.”

The outreach must extend to the business community, which is ideally positioned to help move the agenda forward, according to BSR’s Olson, who noted its strengths in technology, infrastructure, intellectual property and equipment. He suggested giving the business community an “assignment” to help find the solutions to solve the big problems facing the country.

“One of the amazing things about business and why I think it is about an assignment is if you think about what we’re up against, businesses, in terms of resource allocation … an important part of our job, more important than usual, is going to be figuring out how to do more with less,” Olson said.

People in the business community need to be at the negotiating table in greater numbers to build off the efforts already started, Olson said.

Companies are hungry for the dialogue that will offer clarity in various aspects of green business, such as labels, greenwashing and carbon, said Aston, of Business Week.

“All of these things are areas where I have business people come to me and say, ‘We need standards. We can’t continue to create 50-state code books for all of our operations.” Aston said.

Gunther reminded the audience of the dreariness facing the business community at the moment but doesn’t believe that businesses will simply abandon sustainability because of the economic downturn.

“Once these companies go down the sustainability path and start asking questions and start looking at the science and start engaging their employees, I think it’s really hard for them to turn back, even if there are some short-term losses, and even as grim as some of the other things are,” Gunther said. “I don’t know of any company that’s said, ‘you know, we tried the sustainability thing and it just didn’t pay off for us so we’re not going to do it anymore.’”

He noted a grassroots push toward sustainability coming from the bottom of companies: employees. Tying green corporate initiatives to energy security or patriotism resonates more powerfully that the general green agenda, Olson said.

“If the assignment is we have the opportunity to harness some of the activates that our companies desperately need anyway in the direction particularly in efficiency, and put that in the context of service to country, the broader economic agenda and community agenda, I don’t think that’s something we need to wait that long for,” Olson said.

http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/11/10/obama-must-tie-green-agenda-economy-panel

In the last month, Carsten Henningsen has concluded that even environmentally friendly stocks can fall to earth.

“Green stocks go down like the rest of the market,” said Henningsen, chairman of Portfolio 21 Investments, a Portland firm that invests in green companies. His company’s mutual fund, also named Portfolio 21, is down 32 percent this year.

But in tough economic times, as stock markets gyrate wildly and major Wall Street investment firms go under or are bought out, Henningsen has maintained his position that investing in green companies is wise because they are in an ideal position to prosper in the long term.

Speaking at an Oregon Natural Step Network meeting Tuesday titled “Beyond the Bailout,” Henningsen made a case that investing in companies such as Vestas Wind Systems is a logical long-term strategy. Oregon Natural Step Network works with businesses and governments to promote sustainable practices.

“The Earth does not have the bio-capacity to sustain unlimited growth,” said Henningsen. “Growth of real wealth is restrained by natural resources and the capacity of the planet to absorb Co2. We can’t have unlimited growth, unless we can borrow from another planet.”

In addition to investing in publicly-traded green companies from around the world, Henningsen is on the board of Upstream 21, a company that buys small, locally-owned private companies with products that  are designed to benefit and sustain their employees, their communities and the environment.

Mary C. King, a professor of economics at Portland State University, said at the meeting that states like Oregon should reclaim locally produced goods.

“In Italy, they have very old craftspeople who make purses sold in Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan,” she said. “Why is IKEA in Portland when we could do that level of craft and design?”

King said the recent failure of large banks and investment companies was created by a speculative bubble that federal regulatory agencies should have seen coming years ago. “I want to counter the impression that this was unforeseen and unprecedented and the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve are in uncharted territory,” she said. “The common factor in booms and busts is the creation of debt that becomes out of scale with the underlying means of payment.”

A speculative housing bubble fueled by over-leveraged and under-regulated banks created a form of “casino capitalism,” King said.

On the bright side, she said “this moment provides us with an opportunity to change, to be environmentally and socially healthy.”

She called for more money to be poured into education and health care, and more taxes on companies that pollute.

Henningsen said his company’s investment approach is to find businesses that are important to their communities and then help them thrive. “We are an alternative to an investment banker or venture capitalists that want to flip a company,” he said, referring to buying a company and quickly selling it off.

His company’s approach is to invest long-term in companies, while staying diversified.

Over-investing in companies that deplete natural resources, he said, is a “dinosaur” approach.

“This is about adapting,” he said, referring to investing. “Waste and pollution cannot systematically increase and natural resources cannot systematically decrease.”

BY SAM BENNETT

http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDetail.htm/2008/10/22/A-greener-method-of-investing-Local-firm-finds-that-social-investing-is-a-more-sustainable-approach

MHI announces they now are producing thermoformed packaging made 100% from collected and recycled water, juice and sports drink plastic bottles. Trays, clamshells, blisters and more produced with Good Earth(tm) 100% recycled PET are also Biodegradable, Compostable and Recyclable. FDA approved, this proprietary material can be used for food and non food applications.

Good Earth(tm) 100% post consumer recycled content PET is the newest addition to MHI’s proprietary family of eco friendly packaging. This material expands MHI’s existing selection of material options marketed as “Todays’s Most Practical Alternatives” for environmentally responsible packaging.

Developed and manufactured by MHI, a vertically intergrated division of CEI Incorporated, this new proprietary material offers many environmental, performance and cost benefits for those looking to use more eco friendly packaging. This carbon footprint reducing option is not only made 100% from recycled plastic bottles, it is also biodegradable and compostable in a landfill or compost environment. It can also be recycled through existing programs.
Currently, the average person discards 166 plastic bottles annually with 8 out of 10 ending up in landfills.

FDA approval, high clarity, range of colors, temperature range and good strength make it an attractive and practical alternative for a wide range of food and consumer goods packaging. Performance and physical characteristics are the same as or close to the traditional materials (PET & PVC) it can easily replace and does not have any shelf life, storage or heat sensitivity limitations.

Cost of packaging manufactured from this newest Good Earth ™ material is usually less than the traditional material it replaces and is readily available.

Also available (depending on certain factors) is a “closed loop” program where plastic bottles can be picked up and then remanufactured into 100% post consumer recycled content thermoformed packaging for the company or institution returning the bottles.

For more information call 978-745-8876 or visit www.goodearthpkg.com

http://www.pr.com/press-release/106801

The hippies are coming! The hippies are coming!

That may have been what the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival initially attracted in its first few years of existence. The four-day festival at Clinton Lake State Park in Lawrence, Kan., prides itself in bringing in plenty of big names from the jam band scene along with premiere acts in alt-country, Southern rock, reggae and bluegrass while raising awareness for environmental issues.

For its fifth year, Wakarusa is trying something different.

The festival, which takes place Thursday, June 5 through Sunday, June 8, is expanding its musical horizons even further. They are bringing in indie rock mainstays like Built to Spill, piano-playing singer/songwriter Ben Folds, country legend Emmylou Harris, goofy alt-rockers Cake, underground hip-hop acts like Blackalicious and Del the Funky Homosapien and Uncle Monk, a bluegrass duo featuring none other than Tommy Ramone, the last surviving member of the seminal punk rock quartet The Ramones.

These are just a few groups on a jam-packed lineup including headliners like The Flaming Lips, Sound Tribe Sector Nine, Keller Williams, Zappa Plays Zappa, Mickey Hart Band featuring Steve Kimock and George Porter Jr., Galactic, The Avett Brothers and a ton of others.

Brett Mosiman, co-director of Wakarusa, realized that this year instead of having similar genres competing for the festival’s crowd over the four-day period, it would be beneficial to the festival to do a little bit of counter-programming with the more than 120 bands on the festival’s lineup.

“I think of part of it was just getting a handle on the fact that we have 300 or 400 hours or music,” Mosiman says. “If we wanted to keep five or six stages, we had to broaden the booking.”

The festival’s five stages will have music playing nearly 24 hours a day, which will be perfect for attendees who pay between $129 to $169 for a four-day pass.

But this year, Wakarusa is hoping that their diverse lineup featuring several big-name acts will get more of a local audience from Kansas City and other areas close by to get the Wakarusa experience, even if it’s only for a night.

“We kind want to offer a little something more for the people here in the regional community,” says David Barrett, director of marketing for Wakarusa. “We want people just to come out to Wakarusa for a day and see what it’s like.”

Or a weekend. Wakarusa is offering its usual single-day tickets for $49 while also offering a weekender pass for $99 in case people couldn’t take off four days because of something silly like jobs or kids or things like that.

While you are at Wakarusa, you may notice how friendly the festival is to the environment it occupies. The generators run on biodiesel. Recycling also is a huge emphasis. Last year’s festival recycled 8,000 pounds of waste that would normally end up gracing local landfills. They are also instituting their first-ever composting program, so whatever food you don’t want (or think tastes like crap) can go towards growing a happy little plant. Bob Ross would be proud.

They will also have a sustainability meeting featuring the editor of Mother Earth News, Brian Welch, a campus tour of human rights awareness and a no-sweat fashion show to display clothes not manufactured in sweat shops.

If you ask Mosiman, these activities are an essential element of Wakarusa’s identity.

“(They’re) all the normal things for us, but I don’t think they are normal for most festivals,” Mosiman says. “We just consider that part of the brand now.”

And another characteristic of the Wakarusa brand is the vendors. The 75 food, arts and crafts vendors will be selling a little bit of everything. On the arts and crafts side, you could pick up clothing, glass marbles, art, glow-in-the-dark light covers, bottle holders and goods made of bee wax. As far as food goes, Madina Salaty, Wakarusa’s vendor coordinator, says they have everything from “healthy options to junk food.” You’ve got your pizza, hamburgers, fries, but you’ve also got organic and vegetarian options, Cajun, Indian, Middle Eastern, Mexican and Chinese food to choose from.

Salaty says that while the number of vendors has slightly increased this year, high gas prices have kept vendors who consistently travel many miles to sell their products at Wakarusa from making the trip.

“We have lost several vendors,” she says. “They have specifically told me that that’s the reason.”

The location of Wakarusa should be enough for people to ignore the prices at the pump. The festival will once again place at Clinton Lake State Park, southwest of Lawrence, Kan. The 1,500 acre facility has plenty to offer those who aren’t just there for the music, with beaches, an 11,000 acre lake, horseshoe pits and hiking trails.

“The amenities are really like no other festival that’s held in a field or a polo ground,” Mosiman says. “It’s really like a family vacation.”

Mosiman knows the traveling aspect of Wakarusa may be less tempting with gas prices so high, but he thinks that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying a unique musical experience, no matter how long you decide to stay.

“I think it’s impacting everybody, and our big message is that you still got to have fun. You have to cut loose,” Mosiman says. “Don’t let those greedy oil bastards take away your fun and your Wakarusa weekend.”

For more information, go to www.wakarusa.com.

by Blake Hannon

http://www.stjoenews.net/news/2008/may/30/loud-outdoors/?diem

Of all the things to obsess about, toilet paper has never been at the top of my list. Or the bottom.

Then I met Jeff Wells, a pleasant, earnest ornithologist who lives in Maine and was visiting Philly. Wells and a few environmental groups say I should buy paper products made from recycled paper - not trees.

Now, Wells obsesses about birds, billions of which breed in Canada’s boreal forest, which he also obsesses about because he’s a scientist with the International Boreal Conservation Campaign.

The boreal stretches nearly from Alaska to the Atlantic; it absorbs tons of carbon dioxide and it’s a major summer nesting ground for birds that winter in backyards like mine.

But the boreal forest is being logged at the rate of 2.5 million acres a year, Wells says. Some is for lumber, sure. But also for paper. Toilet paper.

Paper giant Kimberly-Clark says all the leading consumer tissue brands in North America contain primarily virgin fiber.

In a longstanding dispute, the company says it mainly uses leftover tree pulp, but environmentalists insist that entire trees are being given over to toilet tissue.

The company said about 11 percent of its virgin pulp comes from the boreal - which is then reforested.

Still, environmentalists wonder why we are, in effect, flushing virgin wood pulp of any sort down the toilet when at the same time we’re sending nearly half of all the perfectly good paper left over from home and office use to landfills.

“It’s one of those things that just doesn’t make sense in today’s world,” Wells said.

At least half a dozen companies now make TP from recycled paper. I took a field trip to area grocery stores to investigate.

OK, then, talk about obsessed. In one paper goods aisle, there were 18 kinds of toilet paper - including one aimed specifically at children.

Every store also had at least one eco brand. I bought seven. Back home, I piled my loot onto the dining room table and took stock.

The eco-packages had pictures of trees and cute slogans: “Soft on Nature, Soft on You.”

And in case anyone should miss the “100 percent recycled” label, they had names such as Nature’s Balance, Earth First, Sunrise, Earth Friendly and Seventh Generation.

All were white, so I guess that matters to most people. (The eco brands touted a chlorine-free bleaching process.)

Many were embossed with flowers or butterflies, which seemed silly until I learned the designs hold the paper together after it has been air-fluffed to make it softer.

Traditional toilet tissue ranges from half a cent to 4.5 cents per square foot. The eco-brands were actually less: half a cent to 2.3 cents per square foot.

Seventh Generation contends on its packaging that if every household in the United States replaced just one four-pack of virgin fiber TP with recycled, it would save the equivalent of nearly a million trees.

The toilet paper awaited me. I tried them all.

I’m happy to report I have not had to seek medical attention for abrasions from scratchy paper - because it was fine.

Allen Hershkowitz is a proponent of recycled toilet tissue and a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Now, he is obsessed. He has timed himself in the bathroom and says it takes less than five seconds to use up a piece of tissue.

And for that, he asks, we’re using trees?

Recently, he went to a swank French spa to give a speech. The TP was brownish, stiff. But, “the president of France goes there,” he said, “and everybody survives.”

Still, I recently had a bad cold, my nose raw from all the tissues, and I wasn’t even using recycled.

I told the spokeswoman at Seventh Generation, and she laughed. In cold and flu season, even they “concede to softer brands,” she wryly noted.

So maybe I’ll just go with the virgin pulp for my delicate nose. And I’ll take eco-paper for, uh, the other end.

No more trees for me.

GreenSpace:

For more about recycled paper and trees, go to: http://go.philly.com/greenspace

GreenSpace: Pointers for Paper Products

What’s in recycled: Environmental groups advocate paper products made from 100 percent recycled materials. Look for a high percentage of “post-consumer” material, made of paper recycled from homes and offices. Regular “recycled” can contain leftover paper from industrial processes.

Paper recycling update: Last week, the American Forest and Paper Association announced that in 2007, an all-time high of 56 percent of the paper used in the country was recovered for recycling. It totaled 54.3 million tons - more than 360 pounds for every person in the country. The group set a goal of 60 percent by 2012, which still leaves 40 percent more to go.

Historical note: Yo! Philadelphia is a cradle of paper progress. In 1690, William Rittenhouse and William Bradford founded the first North American paper mill along the Wissahickon Creek, making paper from old cloth rags. (Wood wasn’t used in the United States until the early 1900s.) Scott Paper Co., founded by two brothers in 1879 in Philadelphia, marketed the first rolls of toilet paper, and today Kimberly-Clark employees still make Scott products at the plant in Chester.

What’s ahead: Major manufacturers are making changes. Kimberly-Clark is test-marketing Scott Naturals. The line includes facial tissues from 20 percent post-consumer recycled fiber, TP from 40 percent, and paper towels from 80 percent.

By Sandy Bauers

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/sandy_bauers/20080407_GreenSpace__On_a_roll__Dead_trees_go_down_the_toilet.html

I’m happy to see that ‘environmentalism’ has become trendy, and that there is a growing movement in our society to reduce the impacts of our civilized lifestyle. Yet, those of us who have long considered ourselves ‘environmentalists’ fear that it may be too little too late, and that the movement is becoming co-opted by the very forces that we have been struggling to defeat.
http://treesit.blogspot.com

The crisis we face now can be traced back to decisions our culture made over 10,000 years ago, and compounded since then by millions of subsequent decisions. This process, whereby we went from a species in equilibrium with it’s environment to one that is currently destroying all life around it, has been greatly accelerated in the last 100 years or so. While this acceleration roughly corresponds with the rise of fossil fuel use, it is not these particular resources, or use thereof, that bear the entire responsibility for our current crisis.

The use and impacts of these energy resources, being such a prominent and immediate threat to life, have been focused upon by the new environmental (green consumer) movement as not only key targets, but in some cases, the only targets.
Many old-school environmentalists define their ideology and activism not just by a desire to reduce our ‘carbon footprint’, but also by a desire to have an abundance of intact eco-systems and a broad diversity of life on the planet. Hybrid cars and compact fluorescent light bulbs may reduce the amount of carbon we emit into the atmosphere as we go about our busy civilized lives, but unless we begin to take a brutally honest approach to a wide variety of elements of society, the toxic sprawl will continue to drive thousands of critical species (including our own) into extinction.

The problem lies in the centralized, industrial way that we choose to support ourselves as a culture. The most sustainable and ‘eco-friendly’ products of the mass consumer culture still require appalling amounts of water, energy, resources and labour to produce. All of these things need to be transported, and as these industries have been globalized, the distances that these things need to be transported have increased to the absurd and convoluted. The fuel used by the production and transportation is but one impact of the process. An army of heavy equipment, fabricated from steel, copper, zinc, iron and other resources (as well as petroleum products such as lubricants and plastic) are used in the production and transportation of ALL industrialized mass consumer products. In the case of the automobile, the vast majority of the energy and materials used and the waste and pollution created occurs in the production process.

Where do these materials come from? Whose land? Where does the massive waste our consumer society generates go? Whose land? Who builds the earth moving equipment and mining machinery? Who operates them? Who works in the factory that processes the raw materials and assembles the products? Who loads them onto trucks, ships, planes and trains? Who drives these vehicles? What are the working conditions for all these people? What kind of quality of life do they have? A great deal of exploitation is occurring around the world to bring us our ‘sustainable’ products. The cost of retrofitting the world with green technology and fuelling it with energy that costs more to produce than fossil fuel (as all other energy does) certainly doesn’t leave us much with which to pay a living wage to those who toil for our comfort.
These issues, though often referred to as ‘social justice’ issues, factor into the ideology of many environmentalists. Nowhere is an environmental issue not a social justice issue. Every step in the process of bringing mass consumer goods to the homes of the civilized world, impacts the lives of people who work in these industries and whose homes are downriver, downwind or have been destroyed by these industries.

A globalized mass consumer world is not compatible with the ideal of social justice for all. The industrial system requires slavery and exploitation. It requires increasing access to resources, which means displacing people, mainly poor and indigenous people, from their land base.

Mining and blasting processes, which are critical to the production of material for ‘green energy’ infrastructure, are apocalyptic to any ecosystem. The waste generated by these processes poisons rivers, lakes and oceans and in turn poisons the people who rely on these waterways for sustenance and survival.

These and other effects are also to be seen in the production, transportation and retailing of the ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ products and infrastructure that is being created and proposed. (A good local example is the development on Spaet [Bear] Mountain, in which the future of the local indigenous cultures, which are in jeopardy in part from diabetes and other health effects of the western diet, relies on access to traditional wild foods. By reducing the land base of these peoples, you reduce their access to healthy food and sabotage their efforts to survive into the future. This can reasonably be called genocide.)

In short, any movement of ideology that does not advocate eliminating our dependence on a globalized industrial way of life can not with any real conscience call itself ‘environmental’, at least not in the sense that the word is used to mean respect and active protection of biodiversity and ecological equilibrium.

Any eco-philosophy that fails to take into account the impact of actions on all life from the smallest micro-organism up to entire human cultures is but a means to feel good about one’s excessive consumption and material addictions.

Those of us in the privileged world have become addicted to the comfort of abundant material wealth. Yet in the majority of the world, thoroughout the majority of history, people thrive, on far less, produced closer to home with less resources, used more efficiently for longer periods of time before being discarded, and discarded in a way that can even contribute to new products.

The true sustainable energy sources in this world are direct solar (to heat food, water, grow food, etc), methane digesting of food waste to produce electricity, heating and cooking fuel, and other technologies that can be built and maintained on a personal or community level.

Further energy reduction is achieved by localizing resource use and reducing the need for most transportation, as well as eliminating many of the products that those of us in the privileged world take for granted.

It’s true that we live in a world where many communities lack the resources for even basic survival, and must rely on imports from other communities, but from this need has arisen a system that is wasteful, inefficient and in most cases unnecessary. If we cannot return to a localized economy than we should be focusing on a future where these impacts occur only where they truly need to, and resources and energy used in the most efficient ways.

Those of us who live in areas with abundant resources could do a much better job of utilizing these resources. Cities could be growing food on rooftops, or in yards that are now only used for ornamental grass and shrubs. Rainwater can be utilized and grey water collected to reduce impact on watersheds and oceans. Food and other waste can be used to produce methane to eliminate the need for hydro-electricity, natural gas and home heating fuel. (And to save land from landfill and avoid flushing it into the ocean where it harms marine life.)

Other waste materials can be used to make new products, and this reduces the impact of extracting, producing and transporting materials and products.

We need to start perceiving the true impacts of using new products. As necessary as each new product may be in our lives, each time we purchase and consume them it is like throwing a live grenade into the communities affected by the production of these products. As necessary as each product may be, it can never be forgotten that we must TAKE LIFE to create it, and in the case of the land and ecosystems from which the raw materials and energy originate, that life may take thousands of years to return, if it returns at all.

Some purchases are unavoidable, but in the case of our culture, most ARE avoidable, thus we have no excuse for such casual taking of life.

‘Sustainable’ products and energy are that which can be harvested and produced close to where we live, with the least possible impact on the natural environment, with attention to quality (so they last), that fill a needed role in our lives, and can be re-used, recycled or discarded in a way that creates the least impact. All other products are destructive and counter-productive to our struggle to survive on a healthy planet.

The green consumer movement is not ‘environmentally friendly’, and the measures being proposed by the new mainstream environmental movement are nowhere near a solution for the crisis we face. If the power to ‘save the environment’ is in the hands of the people, than we need to use those hands to create the world we want, not to hand power over to the corporations and governments to pervert and waste. A centralized industrial world can only create ecological damage, genocide and exploitation. It’s time we began taking the radical alternatives seriously and begin to examine the impacts of every aspect of our lives.

- in solidarity with all life,
Kalanu
http://treesit.blogspot.com
http://bullsheet.wordpress.com
http://pedaltopetal.blogspot.com

PHOENIX— Goodwill of Central Arizona celebrates its newest store opening with a “green spring cleaning” theme. So clean out your closets and clean up on bargains!  Donating and shopping at Goodwill keeps hundreds of millions of pounds of used clothing and household items out of landfills and puts them into the hands of those who can reuse them. Revenue generated from the resale of donated items is put directly into the community to fund work skills development and employment services for the disadvantaged in central Arizona.

Goodwill will open its 39th store near Ahwatukee, 15633 S. 32nd Street, at 9 a.m., Friday, March 28, 2008.  Stop by, shop and enter to win prizes, as well as find great bargains and unique treasures.  Prizes include an Oreck vacuum, EarthMaids cleaning services certificates and earth-friendly cleaning products and the grand prize of two open-ended roundtrip domestic air tickets, donated by US Airways. Individuals donating items during the grand opening will receive a $5 off coupon good toward their next purchase.  Refreshments will be served.

Regular store hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Tax-deductible donations will be accepted during regular store hours.

Grand Opening events are stocked with over 100,000 quality items including electronics, furniture, clothing, jewelry and household goods.

Goodwill of Central Arizona, an organization dedicated to helping individuals in central Arizona with disadvantaging conditions overcome their barriers to employment and find self-sufficiency through the power of work.

Celebrating 60 years of serving the community, Goodwill of Central Arizona is one of the oldest and largest non-profit agencies in Arizona. Our mission is to “Put People to Work” throughout Arizona by providing job training and career services to those with vocational disadvantages that can include physical and emotional barriers, welfare dependency, illiteracy and age. In 2007, we served almost 11,000 youth and adults on their quest toward self-sufficiency and secured over 4,400 employment opportunities. For more information on Goodwill of Central Arizona visit www.goodwillaz.org.

http://www.evliving.com/cities_news.php?action=fullnews&id=9153