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koyaanisqHOTsi ! [Aug. 24th, 2007|12:56 am]
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I get it! ...it's 'cause they're from iceland! Right??
poster

i went to see Leo Di's new movie (Leo Leila & Nadia's movie; The 11th Hour. Pretty impressive. Lots of Bioneers doing what they do best -explaining the situation (or most of it- he doesn't go that deep into climate change), and examining the multi-causal planetary breakdown that is now starting to happen. And by the last third of the flick, it's peppered with solution on top of solution. And with 52 interviews, while everyone only gets a few moments here & there to push the -well structured- parts of the essay, it does present a cohesive argument for action and optimism. And it's full of archival imagery, and a total buzzclip intro (i guess if you know me, you'd know i dig that).

And cool music. At one poignant moment --a peaceful lull after a particularly tense earth-in-crisis montage, there was even some Sigur Rós with whom to fly-over ice-fields
SigurRós
i was thinking 'Wow Ágætis byrjun, what an odd choice'... but now i get it! they're from Iceland! And at the time, the visuals were these relaxed pan-o-rama ice shots from greenland. which is a land full of (that melting) ice... cute

And just like i like it, they really looked at as wide an angle as they perhaps felt they could (Meat was shockingly absent in this movie). Which is really the best way to deal with climate change, omnilateraly, right? But they are not just looking at climate change -thought it's a big part of it, but almost everything. Almost to the point like what i was accused of back in the day (getting chewed out by a documentary legend); that you can't try to solve all of the worlds problems in one movie. And i am sure some critics will accuse these Directors/Writer/Producers of just that (if they stop harping on his flight patterns). But fuck 'em Leo, personally I agree that that is the way the story ought to be told. This is about our evolution or sticking to a lifestyle that east its young till theres nothing left... why pussyfoot around that? Why deal with CO2s and NOXs when it goes so much deeper and people really have to "get it" if they're going to commit to it. At one point someone quotes someone else (sorry for being vague but with 52 interviews in 90 minutes its hard to remember who said what, i just remember he said it was a quote: After asking what we are really looking for with all this hyperconsumption: "One can never really be full, if they're filling themselves with things that they don't really want" or something like that. And that and climate change are in as much of a dance, as emissions or cows or hurricanes...

Their view of stuff like the rainforests was obviously different than mine as there's room for hope and optimism even there, but all in all, it is a moving eye opener for anyone who is somewhat aware, and especially the ones who aren't but will be compelled to go for Leo Di (or soon to be converts) or from the soon-to-be Leo Di army (mark my words. Leo Di army). And even for the choir who wants to be preached at, by the third part you will be happy to see so many green techs you know everyone and every kid in America ought to know exists (like the Tesla, living machines...). And you may just learn a new one or two (while i dig the Fungi Perfecti guy Paul Stamets a lot, and heard him talk about those mushrooms that eat up heavy metal spills an such, i never heard the words "mycofiltration" and "mycorestoration" before. Awesome!

And again i particularly like is that it even take that extra bold step, asking the question that really lies even at the heart of the entire climate change thing. What is it that is really happening deep at the core of us that is out of whack. Because it's not just about CO2, but about what our species has become... and where we are (very able and) headed
LeilaNAdiaConnnorskenny
kudos to Leila Connors Peterson, Her Sister Nadia Connors and of course Mr. Leo DiCaprio (that's not him. That's Kenny Ausable founder of the Bioneers (and founder exCEO of Seeds of Change, and filmaker).

Oh heck. go see the movie when it hits your town! and in the meantime, the website they have is pretty good to see what it's all about, including everyone interviewed and much much more... go!
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who says you cant go back? [Jul. 8th, 2007|07:04 am]
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Local Boy (me) Does Good!
gaz1gaz2gaz3
...So I come back to my home town for a few days and look what happens, I end up on the cover of the newspaper (...with no handcuffs!) I mean I came back to help this writer, who was writing about the Montréal Jazz Festival (the biggest festival in the world according to the Guinness people-- world records, not stout). It seems that they were busy saying they are greening the fest, and "an industry leader in their greening ready to show other events how to do it" .... and If that's the industry leader, we're in trouble. Fortunately, they aren't. And the writer knew that, after all he was out on a particular farm in Tennessee last week, and you-know-who gave him a full-on green tour...

at the time he didn't even know i was from Montreal, but when he found out i was Montréalais he asked me to come to the Jazz fest and help him see if the greening was just greenwashing (turns out it was more like green-rinsing, here, read all about it). So I did, and I knew that he was going to reference Bonnaroo as an example of a green show... but I had no idea that it was going to be like this. And above the fold, wow! Thanks Gazette! Thanks Benjamin! Hopefully this will lead to really greening the Jazz Fest ...and the Just Pour Rire ...and any other Montreal green fests (already working on Osheaga)... I miss my city!
tams
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There's talk on the streets it sounds so familar... Great Expectations everybody's watching you! [Feb. 5th, 2007|05:10 pm]
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There's a new kid in town....
greenoptions
There's a new blog! Just went public today called GreenOptions and it would be really nice if y'all went over there and gave 'em a gander.... to be honest my friend Michael has been sending me snippets of this site-- and background for a few weeks now and it is something. It will grow into something extra special over the weeks, months and years to come... so get used to it!

It has some serious B & C-Listers from the green blogsphere writing and creatin it! Including Jeff Sustainablog, Shea MuseingsofanEcoEnterpreneur, GroovyGreen Michael, EcoGeek Philip, EcoRazzi/GreenerMiami Rebeca, and a host of others.. so perhaps they are aiming to break into Treehugger/WorldChanging/Grist Territory? Will have to wait and see.....
Read more... )
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Blame Hugg ...sorta [Dec. 25th, 2006|07:11 pm]
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huggies
Hey happy holidays y'all, and I do apologize that i have been such a lameass and not writing regularly since, well jeez, since the summer... I would like you to blame hugg, but it's really not all the hugg's fault. See, a while back, during the summer my buddy Graham asked me to help him with a new site he was developing called hugg. Graham is the brainchild behind the ever popular treehugger.com and a general sweetie-pie (as I have said here many times before) and the hugg idea, basically a green Digg-clone seemed worthwhile. And it has been-- see, now there's something like 15,000 visitors a day and countless people supplying green news (and with all those peeps supplying you can imagine that it's kinda a haven for someone like me...). There's a few regulars there; the bundle of energy called Linton and a very mysterious MayLoveHeal and they make my day, everyday, finding stories and videoclips that blow my mind... so its a nice kinda peerdom, you know? But i promise that in this new year I will import some of the goodies from hugg over to my LJ and no longer abandon it...

I will do the same with something else Ive been building more recently. See, I have been working for this group in Toronto Green Living Enterprises who run a consulting firm, a green investment branch, do events (like this nice green show we're doing in springtime) and FSC magazine, both custom jobs (like this series we're doing for Home Depot called Eco Options all about their 1,000 green products ...and their very own magazine called Green Living. I'm kinda like the guy every one in any department can go to and say "hey Lee, is this (potential advertiser) green?" or "hey Lee, do you know where I can find solar panels that make AC instead of DC??" stuff like that... I'm their answer guy. Though it takes a lot of my time, It's not 100% full time or anything-- I'm still doing other projects-- some waycool ones, and even redoing that Bonnaroo festival this coming summer in a way that will blow everyone's minds!! (big rumour coming up soon!!). But these Green Living peeps sure do take a lot of my time... and one thing that I've been busily doing for them that takes up my previous LJ time, is this daily (monday to friday) Headline News page on the magazine's site. OK I haven't done it since the holidays began (and am REALLY enjoying the downtime) but it is pretty heavy; the daily green news in 10 categories, all killer, no filler. It's just the headlines and links to articles (and some blogs, if really newsworthy) but there's 10 categories; Green Business, Green Buuilding, Transportation, Energy, BioBased. Health & Beauty.... and like i said Monday to Friday this is a great information source. It will recommence on January 4th and I do hope to sway some of you to checking it out... (and/or will be learning how to get the ordered list thing happening here and will post the daily top stories or something here... so you can get your fix...

I know that life goes on and everyone has been happy in their lives.. but I would like to apologize for leaving my baby Exuberant Pantaphobia ignored for so long.... here's to a healthy happy and rockin' 2007!!!

~lee
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WARNING: Balck is Black Life is part easy part not easy and journalists need to get more inspiration [Dec. 15th, 2006|10:36 am]
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I'm not a violent man, but everyone has their threshold.....
warning3warning
....notice how i didn't say "every man has his TIPPING POINT" and there's a reason ...because each time that a phrase gets used --especially in questionable contexts-- it gets a little more hackneyed. And so we see it with that TippingPoint, which went from Malcolm Gladwell's tehory of viruses to a generic term to describe any popular movement, watershed... any event even remotely related to change... and that doesn't help. But there is no warning there, if you choose to use 'tipping point go ahead' ..'till your heart is content. Personally I think there's a lot more back breaking straws, opened floodgates, and other phenoms to describe what is going on... but if you like TP, far be it from me.

But that is where I draw the line. If you go beyond that, watch out. And no more pussyfooting, here's what you are no longer allowed to say; "Green is the new black." NEVER! OK? Is that clear? If you are a journalist, Andrew Revkin aside, and you even think of saying something so milquetoast and overused, please think before you mash on that keyboard. Please. Its been done to death. It has been written over and over again, and it's boring. It took google .20 seconds to show me; Results 1 - 10 of about 149,000 for "Green is the new black" (in quotes!) and in the past 14 days there have been 16 newspaper "journalists" and 1,312 blog entries who have beat that dead old phrase.. I mean please.... do you not see what you are doing?? If its sooooooo hot, that means that next week/month/season you'll be a-searchin' for the next new black, the next new trend... leaving all the eco-fashionistas in the dust with rollerskates, satin pants, hairflips, capri pants and whatever else has fallen out of vogue...

And that is not what the world-changing designers are all about.... They aren't just being fashionable... it's not capriciousness that has made people realize that they dont feel good when making money at the expense of the planet... Thats a paradigm shift, not whimsy. So warning #1, you say Greenisnewblack anywhere near me, and expect to get bopped on the nose. Say it in print (and I will find out about it) and you loose all cred. Instantly. Warning #1.
nK
Now, warning #2 is even more serious. Because I'm not messing around, I am serious about this, and you better realize that if you are a journalist (Andy Revkin aside, cause he just has too much class) you just better not write what I am about to (reluctantly) write. The phrase "It's not easy being green" belongs to Walt Disney. They own the muppets now. They even pimped out Kermit the frog in LA a few weeks ago to sing the song at the car show for GM. And don't think because you do the derivative "It's Easy Being Green" you are any better, you are still riffing off intellectual property. And that is the achilles heel because here I can and will shut you up-- of course the irony here, if you have seen my old movies, esp. ECI is that i did a mashup of kermit in a climate change video myself... with Ray Charles ....even in the mashup had K the F sing that it's "Easy being green" (mashups rule) BUT THAT WAS TEN YEARS AGO! I would never think of doing that now--- not because it's illegal to use other people's intellectual property (please do that!), but because every journo and their grandmother is slapping that witticism up in their weekly column or OpEd piece. and you know what... say something 1,000 times people believe it... say it's not easy 10,000 times and it is easy 5,000 times and people get confused... and shut off-- and here too, once a day you get it's not easy.. once every three days you get it is easy --in the MSMs-- and blogwise, this month ther eare about 2,000 easy and 8,000 not easy... get it?? That's enough!

So beware Louisville Courier-Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Roanoak Times, downloadsquad.com ropadope.com and even you GreenWatch... I'm onto you... and here's where the warning gets stiff: Like i said before this is the property of Walt Disney. They have so many lawyers at Disney that the legal department has a legal department. And one thing they don't take kindly to at Disney is people using their stuff without their permission (you wanna really piss 'em off take without permission then use for your own personal political agenda.. that makes 'em really snappy...[don't believe me click here to hear an actual Disney Lawyer talking to an actual Intellectual Property thief]). So the warning is as follows: from now on, as soon as I see someone using that poor phrase, now fully flogged postmortem, i will capture a screen-shot and send it to the Disney Legal department. Is that clear?

Thank you for your co-operation!

The Management.
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The Green People's Choice Awards [Sep. 12th, 2006|04:34 pm]
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forget about voting with your dollar, here's to a real clean electronic election
green
Show your appreciation to the green business you just couldn’t live without by submitting a nomination for Co-op America's 2006 People’s Choice Award. COA are the folks who make that awesome Green Pages, and who also do the best conference in the world, the green festivals! Between now and October 5 votes will be tallies, then they’ll conduct a run-off vote among the top ten most popular nominations and announce the winner of this year’s award at our San Francisco Green Festival on November 10 (oh and if you look at COA's site there's a way for you Americans to get totally treated at the green festival like mad, so snoop away!)
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The North Pole Was Here! [Jul. 24th, 2006|07:37 am]
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AR1
This is Andrew Revkin. He shot this self portrait around the time he was shooting the cover for his latest book "The North Pole Was Here." Revkin has been writing about climate change for over 20 years, he rocks. He's also been writing for the New York Times on climate for these decades.. So one can imagine that anyone who shoots-up petroleum is not going to like him. In fact Senator James Inhofe was so incensed by Revkins latest book that he hit the podiums and microphones before he took the rubber tie off his arm. Veins a-poppin' Inhofe was foaming at the mouth about a book he obviously hand't read (Inhofe, who BTW, was a "fact" checker for Rush Limbaugh before becoming a senator). He really didn't like the title (probably the only thing he read in the whole book) as it's alarmist and making people think that climate change will affect them. So in this awesome Grist interview* Andrew Revkin explains that the title is actually from reality, they mapped the north pole, then the ice started sliding, and then the sign that said "North Pole is Here" was changed to 'was' it's not like it was a mad prediction of future climate changes... it was simply reporting a current event. But the interview is a classic, Revkin has many great climate one-liners... it made me laugh, i hope you enjoy it!

[Grist Interviews Andy Revkin]
PS: he also has a band, you can hear it on his Myspace (seriously how many other climate reporters have a myspace?? Revkin rocks, even on the mandolin!)
revkin
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shameless self-promotion [Jun. 2nd, 2006|05:36 am]
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mtv

((but you gotta admit; it isn't everyday that one's
little green company gets mentioned on MTV News))


:DDD
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Sony's Compostable Walkmans [Jun. 1st, 2006|06:22 am]
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CMIF
I've talked about Ian & Gad a bunch-- they're hopping around the planet looking at the good, bad, ugly & inspiring aspects of plastic (hey plastic might be bad, but ask someone who has a plastic artificial heart how he feels about the stuff). On the Inspiring side they have seen plastic-free cities, wedding dresses made of plstic bags and other goodies. but todays entry, on tehir shoot yesterday at Sony is inspiring to the power of 12!! They goy the skinny on all of Sony's polylactic acid (PLA) compostable plastic wlakmans, cameras and more....

..that walkman over there, even the packaging is PLA!
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...speaking of America's Colouring Book (USAToday) [Jun. 1st, 2006|06:20 am]
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peagame
wasn't i just talking about Arilngton Virginia's newspaper for the intellectually-handicapped (USAToday)? Well according to them, Florida is the Canary in the coalmine when it comes to these "So-Called Greenhouse Gasses" (would love it if they added So-Called to every scientific discovery since that time... 'so called gravity' "so called internal combustion" buah hah). Anyway, according to America's Coloring Book, don't worry it may suck for Florida, but it wont really suck until around 2099 or 2100 (so says teh crystal ball). Whiel they mention real actual people, even Kunstler and the Weatrhermakers, they stick to this 2100 thing, and besides, as they say: "But most, including Edmonds, think of climate change as an uncertainty-plagued risk-management problem. People didn't deal with acid rain, remove lead from gasoline or start protecting the ozone layer until the benefits of doing so were understood."

Where's the pea? Everybiodies a winner! Step right up!
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brucesSXSW: no more free beer at the Pope's house.... [May. 27th, 2006|04:42 pm]
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bruces
i just found this link. killer for podcast/mashups. Sir Bruce Sterling, Viridian pope emperor, Austin resident, and crystal-clear prognosticator of things atmospheric, politik and blobjectic, gave a commencement speech, of sorts, at this past south by southwest jamboree. So, without further ado, here's Bruce Stirling's State of the World 2006 SXSW Lecture! Good headfood...
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Attenborough Talks Tough on Climate Change [May. 22nd, 2006|09:51 am]
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TSLOP
David Attenborough made some amazing documentaries in his life. The Private Life of Plants is Mesmerizing and educational (and if you VJ-- it's great matrial for remixing). But he's always been cool calm and reflective. ....This week we'll see a different Attenborough. He goes critical, assuming the mantle of a wrathful prophet as he enters the battle for the planet against climate change. Attenborough had remained silent on the subject of global warming during the debate on its validity. “I was very sceptical,” he admits. His outlook changed when climatologists showed him graphs linking the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with rising temperatures. The result of his conversion is a two-part BBC1 documentary starting on Wednesday as part of the corporation’s Climate Chaos season, in which he looks at the future impact of global warming and discovers what steps can save the planet from dramatic change. It is another luminous production by the BBC’s natural history unit, but this time infused with a stark warning. Attenborough discovered a compelling reason for sounding the alarm. “How could I look my grandchildren in the eye and say I knew about this and I did nothing?”
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now wait just a cotton picking minute! non-organic cotton on the offensive. And its kinda our fault [May. 22nd, 2006|08:56 am]
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plantation
Well, looks like it's been a rough time on the plantation. What with WalMart loving their organic cotton yoga pants and nike going for the green, the 'good' folks at Cotton Incorporated decided they need some ammo. And so they did what any swift boater or Exxon sponsored manipulator would do, they launched an info campaign. See they didn't like how WalMart said that the pesticides saved from the field because of 200,000 pairs of organic cotton pants could fill two airplanes. Now, most likely the numbers that these ninnys are complaining about are wrong, which sadly gives them the ammo they need. Look, conventional cotton uses too much water and way too much pesticides no matter what the numbers are, but by fudging them to make us look better you give them the fuel for Swift Boating the issue. Here's what they have to conclude "Organic is not sustainable in the sense that you can ramp that production up to meet the total needs of the market. Sustainability is not just about organic cotton. It’s about good production practices that are good for the environment.” so lets get our numbers right so they can stop doublespeaking and get with the program!
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