juddfranklin’s Posts

• Asking and listening 0

  Posted 3 years, 8 months agoI started talking on NYC subway cars, thanking people for using public transportation. It was kind of a lame move, but I wanted people to remember that public transport helps keep the city moving without putting a whole lot more cars on the street. It was definitely an act of desperation and has gotten pretty much no support.

  In rethinking this, I came to a better idea. I am now interviewing people about the environment. I don't ask loaded questions if I can help it, just open-ended things like what images do you associate with the environment, and what sort… Read More

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juddfranklin’s Recent Comments

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  Los Angeles is #9?

  This whole walkability thing is all fine and dandy, except it seems to neglect the whole idea that people in sprawling cities frequently work a long way from where they live.  What good is walkability if there is no way to make a living without a car?

  That being said, this matrix helps explain how, when I was growing up in L.A., I did plenty of walking and didn't explore the greater part of the city as much as I could have (I grew up in Westwood).  That's not to say I didn't do my part to clog up the 405 and the 10.On Major U.S. cities ranked by relative walkability posted 1 year, 3 months ago 3 Responses

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  Great argument!

  This argument has yielded a wonderful amount of information and an interesting clash of idealism and realism.  When it comes down to it, I see no arguments above that actually say that corn ethanol is good.  Instead, it is portrayed by rbcoleman as the lesser of existing evils.  Still, that contention remains in debate.

  There also remains to be discussed the claims made by Brazil that should be taken into consideration.  If corn is a gateway to cellulose, then it seems that subsidizing domestic corn would  make it harder to transition to a cost-effective  market for cane sugar fuel in America, since Brazil's cheap and vast fuel supply would hurt the domestic value.

  It seems eminently reasonable to invest in up-to-date trains, stronger communications infrastructure, limited-tillage farming systems, high-milage cars and renewable energy sources.  All of these things would reduce our reliance upon carbon and polution-intensive fuels.

  The key is to demand that the government be eminently reasonable, and to combat car industry and corn industry noise by showing that the economy can grow under such conditions and that American workers can build windmills instead of tilting at them.

  A group like us can do that, right?

  --Judd FranklinOn The corn industry hopes Congress will pull its fat out of the fire posted 1 year, 11 months ago 44 Responses

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  This is just what I needed!

  Thanks for helping me get my comments out there, feminist!On A report from W. Va. posted 2 years, 1 month ago 15 Responses

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  A thought towards a solution

  I think that the tenor of the above postings is laudable.  Each and every poster has shown genuine consideration for the plight of those people who currently consider environmental problems a moderate to significant priority.

  Indeed, The key to moving this up the list of priorities is rightly to cut away at the sense of hopelessness felt by these consumer-culture worriers, while at the same time highlighting the long-term necessity of behavior change.

  To do this, we need only take a page from the marketers' books: control the message.  We must remain vigilant in demanding that companies, government bodies, and yes, even celebrities be public about the impacts of their activities.

  We can do this by working with corporate oversight groups like Co-op America, Boston College's Center for Corporate Citizenship and CERES.  The key will be to use sources like Grist and other social information sources to share and interpret the information companies present and then share it with our less keyed-in friends.

  We can ensure that people have a way to make sense of what's going down in those big smokestacks on the edge of town, and what of that smoke winds up in that cheeseburger they're spreading ketchup and tabasco sauce on.On All the PR is starting to sound the same posted 2 years, 2 months ago 6 Responses

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  A fascinating discussion

  This conversation is remarkable for the fact that it has gotten deeper as time has gone on.  I intended to comment yesterday, but now that conversation has really broadened, I can see what is at issue here: the role of the environmentalist in American society.

  Using Grist's own material as a jumping-off point, I refer you to Daryl Hannah's video journal.  When she wanted to protect gorillas in Uganda, she had to provide cisterns for the people who lived near there.  My point is not that Daryl will save the world, but that in order to deal with non-human problems, we have to confront human problems.

  In order to deal with the runaway human impact upon the world, for instance, we must deal with the corporate need for rapid and sustained growth above all.  And this, if the business pages are to be believed, is the domain of "Wall Street".  That is to say, the value and direction of business is decided by a consortium of people who influence their sphere of human activity.  The way that we are often side-tracked is by being told that the consortium is too vast to influence: it includes analysts, brokers, workers, executives, investors, consumers, etc.  In short, more and more, it includes everybody.

  If we want to stop a dump truck, we have to deal with the driver.  If we want to stop the obsessive pursuit of rapid, sustained profit growth, we have to focus our energy on the parts of the consortuim that make changes happen.  If consumers feel helpless, then we should try to affect executives and analysts to manage their resources more wisely.  If these people seem desperate, then we have to help consumers to make better purchasing decisions.

  There is always work to be done.On Corporations going green: The fifth horseman or the winning horse? posted 3 years, 5 months ago 12 Responses