Comments Emily Gertz has made

Cute but ineffectual.

I enjoy me a good street art protest action, but this one fails to communicate to all but the already-informed, already converted.

Here's what this video says: people act funny and weird when they encounter something unexpected on the sidewalk.  And then the cleanup crew comes and carts it away.

Emily Gertz Journalist & Editor egertz AT oneatlantic DOT net http://www.apartmentecology.com/

Zipcar's great here in NYC...

...and I boggle that anyone can argue with $8 an hour for a car -- a late model, fuel-efficient, clean and ever-ready car -- when it includes gasoline, insurance, maintenance and repairs.

Journalist and Editor egertz AT oneatlantic DOT net emily AT worldchanging DOT com

Green on TV...

...is a long-growing trend.  Having done some research into green themes in pop media for an assignment, I can report that  overtly "environmentalist" stories have been showing up on network tv series for at least a few years now.  

Boston Legal in particular has been devoted to them; each season seems to feature one "green episode."  In season two it was "Finding Nimmo," which put Crane and Shore (Shatner and Spader) (heyyyy...CRANE and SHORE...hmmm) in British Columbia's Nimmo Bay, doing something legal involving a salmon ranch.  

The hands-down champs, though, are Futurama and the Simpsons, which have integrated eco-themes for years (with a "gloom and doom with a sense of humor" approach that any Grist reader can appreciate), long before they were embraced by Brad Pitt or Alicia Silverstone .

It's great that global warming's getting name-tagged in pop culture -- if that'll get more average Janes and Joes interested, who can argue?  But hard not to laugh a little all these egregious shout-outs.  Hurrah for Hollywood's "discovery" of a pressing environmental issue!

Journalist and Editor egertz AT oneatlantic DOT net emily AT worldchanging DOT com

Hear, hear, Dave

The overwhelming, experience-based evidence of over a century's American environmental thought and advocacy, from Thoreau's time to today, is that we are simply not going to embrace "voluntary simplicity" in numbers even remotely significant enough to have an impact on any ecological crisis we now face.

Continuing to consider it as central to environmental advocacy, therefore, seems like a lot of wasted energy, especially now that sciences like green chemistry and engineering will soon lead to true cradle-to-cradle design: goods that easily break apart to recombine into other goods, or organic and easy to handle waste.  

That will take care of the "too much stuff" side of the "voluntary simplicity" argument.  What's left once that's gone?  Moral opinion.  I guess everyone's entitled to at least one.

Journalist and Editor egertz AT oneatlantic DOT net emily AT worldchanging DOT com

CoM wuz robbed!

I'm with you, Dave -- Children of Men is so smart, and so amazingly well-directed.  I imagine the Academy voters didn't give it more recognition is because it's got the dread moniker of "serious science fiction."  And it doesn't hit you over the head with its tentative hopefulness.

Battlestar Galactica is similarly ignored every year at the Emmys.

OneAtlantic: Environmental News & Views for the Atlantic Coast http://www.oneatlantic.net emily [at] oneatlantic [dot] net

Leaden stereotypes

"It is unknown as of yet how their operations will be affected by cement-booted former snitches."

Tip of the hat for linking to more info about this exiciting initiative,  wag of the finger for unfortunate cliched characterization of New York City.

OneAtlantic: Environmental News & Views for the Atlantic Coast http://www.oneatlantic.net emily [at] oneatlantic [dot] net

Doesn't need to be factory farm to work

Spruce Hill has about 2000 cows, we were told.  Sounds major, but it's a tiny number compared to agri-industrial dairy operations.

The energy operation is generating about 1.2 million kilowatts a year, enough ( I was told) to power 400 homes; the equiv. of 18 railroad cars of coal.  The methane being kept out of the atmosphere is about 3500 CDEs (carbon dioxide equivalents) a year.

One thing to consider when looking at an operation like this -- 400 homes is not a lot when taking an entire state's population into consideration, certainly -- is that it is one piece in a much larger puzzle that includes multiple forms of renewable clean energy, as well as decentralizing energy generation.  

OneAtlantic: Environmental News & Views for the Atlantic Coast http://www.oneatlantic.net emily [at] oneatlantic [dot] net

Great idea!

"While we're talking about phtha -- uh, sex, did I mention that imandatory carbon caps are the ultimate aphrodisiac?"

OneAtlantic: Environmental News & Views for the Atlantic Coast http://www.oneatlantic.net emily [at] oneatlantic [dot] net

What We Were Eating

One detail that didn't make it into the dispatch was the menu at l'affaire Vanity Fair.  The all-vegan, raw-food nibbles might have made a red-blooded disciple of Ed Abbey weep, but they were colorful and very tasty.

Here are the deets from caterer Pure Food and Wine in all their obsessive natural foodie glory:

Vanity Fair Menu:

A fresh seasonal menu of plant-based organic foods free of dairy, soy, and processed sugars all prepared under 118 degrees to retain the essential nutrients, enzymes and vitamins.

-Marinated Shiitake and Avocado Sushi Rolls (with a rice made of jicima and pine nuts) with
pink pickled ginger, sesame, and dulse (sea vegetable)

-Baby Fennel and Red Shiso Tarts with Almond Crust and a Black Truffle Cream

-Spicy Thai Lettuce Wraps with Mango, Savoy Cabbage and Tamarind Chili Sauce

-Creamy Cauliflower Samosas with Banana Tamarind Sauce, Mango Chutney, Garam Masala, Mint

-Watermelon Radish Summer Rolls with Sesame Dipping Sauce

-Dark Chocolate Layer Cakes with a "Milk Chocolate" Mousse and Chocolate Sauce

Cocktail Menu:

-Cu-tini: fresh cucumber juice mixed with mint, agave nectar, and vodka topped off with fresh grapefruit juice and a cucumber garnish.

-Acai Tini:  Acai Berry (brazillian berry with notes of blueberry, pomegranate and chocolate) juice, agave nectar, lemon juice and vodka

------------------------------On A dispatch from the launch party for Vanity Fair's green issue posted 3 years, 7 months ago 10 Responses

Ah, nature in the city...

Marveling at the mold growing in your sour cream...or in your rGBH-free yogurt.  

Not that this ever happens to me. Nope.On Two new nature books for city slickers posted 3 years, 7 months ago 1 Response

She's Been To The Mountaintop

Norton's resignation letter to President Bush.  Discuss.On Gale Norton resigns posted 3 years, 8 months ago 8 Responses

Fans of tearing the whole thing down to be free...

...a la the S.11.2 issue of Adbusters ...might want to pay close attention to how ugly this is likely to get -- as if the Niger Delta's crises of oppression, poverty and environment weren't ugly enough already -- and reality check their ideas accordingly.On 'Total war' in Nigeria posted 3 years, 9 months ago 3 Responses

Not affected?

Nearly everyone I know -- including a few suburban relatives -- are talking about the increased costs of their heating bills.  

Here in NYC, like many other homeowners, I live in a co-op -- a housing corporation that owns the building in which I bought my  apartment.  My maintenance charge -- the monthly amount I pay to the co-op to cover my heat (the majority of city co-ops have either oil- or gas-powered boilers, I would guess), as well as many repairs, taxes, garbage service, etc. -- just went up 7 percent.  That's the second such raise in just over a year, and while it doesn't sound like much, folks elsewhere are invited to imagine their rent or mortgage payment going up about $50 to get an idea of what it means.

 My parent's maintenance just went up *35 percent ***.

If this is at all indicative of what's happening elsewhere, people are certainly being affected by our dependence on oil.  My question is why politically and media savvy enviros -- and politicians who espouse environmental causes -- can't connect this very real, in the pocket impact to larger national policy issues in the minds of American voters.On Who's fired up about energy? posted 3 years, 10 months ago 8 Responses

Unkind in-kind

I admire the good intentions behind such projects, but have to wonder if it's really benevolent to ship dated computer equipment off to anyone, no matter how "developing" (read: impoverished) they may be.  

Note for instance that GeekCorps does not mention accepting donations of used computer equipment for their work with people living in developing economies.On Umbra on computer recycling posted 4 years, 3 months ago 5 Responses

Staying in character

Thanks for that linkback, Chris.  Feel the interblog luv...

...addressing bhurley's comment that

When some tough cigar-smoking macho cowboy steps into a Prius instead of a Hummer onscreen, people's BS meters go off and they feel like they're being force-fed a message.

Agreed.  I think we all can recall some or other "very special episode" of a tv drama or comedy where we knew we were being fed a morally superior line to salve the writer's social conscience.  If a plot turn isn't character-driven, it's going to seem fakey and unconvincing.  Or worse, satirical and disempowering (big burley guy with a poodle, or a Prius..although Toyota will have hybrid pickups some time in the next several years, right?).

I think the key here is not to think in terms of strident activism, of "telling people what they ought to know," and allow for the eco ideas to populate the background details of a show.  Maybe a character drinks organic coffee.  Maybe she and her friend have a walk-and-talk on their way to the newspaper recycling bin.

There might also be green ideas that could be worked into shows in character-driven ways.  Like, say one of the Desperate Housewives starts a garden, and then starts collecting fruit scraps for compost, and gets some kind of satisfaction from her gorgeous organic tomatoes that offsets her ennui.  Or her child's hyperactivity disorder is addressed by getting the kid out into nature.On Could TV and film be the key to the renewable energy revolution? posted 4 years, 3 months ago 6 Responses

Tobacco suits? feh.

Heya dreads -- Yep, saw that CEI article; I think we link to it from mine.  Responding to what you posted on sustainablog: I hate to spare many pixels entertaining CEI-style hacks of legal reason, but here is the reason this bears little resemblance to the tobacco suits:  It involves international human rights law, and the right of an indigenous people to live according to its traditional culture and lifestyle.  Not that this is always respected by others, but it's an established facet of the international human rights system.

Casting the Inuit as graspers at potentially lucrative legal restitution is of a piece with demanding they resolve all the internal conflicts of their modern-day lifestyles before taking action on global warming (while we go on existing within ours): beside the point.  Sure, individuals have individual motivations, which I can't speak to based on this article.  But if you look at the history of the ICC, you'll see a group that has been active on the political stage on behalf of the Inuit as a people for some time.
On Inuit fight climate change with human-rights claim against U.S. posted 4 years, 4 months ago 13 Responses

How much more of a moral high ground do they need?

Thanks for the comment, James.  While I was researching the article, I did come across a mention here or there -- might have been in the Nunavut regional press -- about Inuit reconsidering the use of snowmobiles as part of their own growing awareness of how global warming threatens to wipe out their culture.

But, as Dave has ably argued, evil, not hypocrisy, is the problem.  Perfect heroes are awfully nice for setting one's moral compass by, but the Inuit are human beings, too, who are facing a lot more upheaval right now -- essentially for just being who they are, an indigenous people of the Arctic Circle -- than almost anyone in the countries that are leading the way in causing global warming.On Inuit fight climate change with human-rights claim against U.S. posted 4 years, 4 months ago 13 Responses

Organic straw man, indeed

Good catch, Andy.  

Reading this essay over, I think Powell should have stuck to her high moral dudgeon -- darn snooty organic food nuts! -- and not tried to justify her attitude with class analysis.  

I mean sure, I get a bit weary of the fetishistic food worship at Whole Foods, or the $14 baskets of heritage tomatoes at the Greenmarket in Union Square.  Do I have to select between 15 kinds of organic tomato sauce just to make my spaghetti dinner?  And pay $4.89 a bottle for the privilege?

But a big facet of her setup is all wrong, at least here in Brooklyn.  These days I shop mostly at a nearby Key Foods myself, and can attest that there is a very welcome influx of whole grain and organic foods -- produce, Amy's Burritos, Annie's Mac and Cheese, Horizon dairy, and more -- into this regular Joe supermarket.  

This is a good thing not just for me with my elitist tastes and fear of rGBH, but for every American.  Because it is a sign that my neighborhood is gentri-- um, that organic and whole grain foods are becoming mainstream products.

But it's also bad news, because supermarket pricing reveals the inconvenient truth that we whole-grain goodniks try to elide when we preach our gospel: organic usually does cost more than the other stuff.  Not always by a huge amount of change, but consistently.  Until we can get agribusiness and ag regulation changed to make farming organic less costly for the farmer (or reform agricultural subsidies in this country so that the costs of "regular" food production are less obscured), this is unlikely to change, never mind all those counter-intuitive arguments about how it really costs less 'cause it saves the soil and water.

Powell misses the point while obsessing with the lives of the wealthy (a Times perennial).  I get that this was supposed to be one of those curmudgeonly op-eds poking fun at the yuppies who think spending money equals having an experience.  But I really doubt the biggest problem for people in penury in NYC is the cost of tomatos at Whole Foods or at the greenmarket, or that folks who shop organic look down on them.  It's probably that there are a dearth of supermarkets and greengrocers of any sort in lower-income urban neighborhoods, and a lot of high-priced corner markets where prefab foods rule and fresh produce consists of a few apples or bananas.

That's the real class issue here, not that people drinking Diet Pepsi really do have a lot on common with people drinking Real Tea.On Organic snobbery posted 4 years, 4 months ago 15 Responses

commitment and critique

Corey channels me quite well, here. Thanks Corey.

I don't have fatigue for environmentalism, bart.  I have crisis fatigue.  

The near-constant air of emergency drives people away.  A dedicated hard core of activists alone is not enough to right the wrongs, make the future better, etc.  How does environmentalism get out of this reactive mode?  How does it gain a broad, broad base of support that would protect the nation's environmental laws regardless of who is on the Court?  That is what I am asking.
On O'Conner announces she'll be leaving posted 4 years, 4 months ago 7 Responses

Quite a lot of work...

...has already gone in to the designs for rebuilding on ground zero.  

First, a clarification: The LMDC has always been in charge of managing the process. The LMDC was created in late 2001 specifically to try and redevelop lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks.  Its board is comprised of politicos, businessmen, developers, and one person who is more or less a community activist.  

While the LMDC's site says that half the board was chosen by the Governor, George Pataki, and half by the Mayor (then Rudy Giuliani), Pataki is generally perceived to be the more powerful player in the fate of the site.  It's seen as important to him in establishing a "legacy" for any future political career plans.

If you go to this page on LowerManhattan.info, you'll see that planning for the site stretches back to 2002, when the LMDC put several possibilities for redevelopment of ground zero before the public for comment.  

If I'm remembering correctly, those options met with such near-universal dismay for their conventionality and lack of vision that the LMDC was forced to reopen the process.  This in turn led to Daniel Libeskind being selected as the master design architect for the WTC site in 2003.  But he and David Childs, the architect preferred by the primary leaseholder to the WTC, Larry Silverstein (not on the LMDC but a dominant stakeholder in the process), have not gotten along well, by many accounts.

In 2002, there was also an open call for land use redevelopment proposals at the WTC site.  And in 2003 the competition was opened to designs for a memorial at the site.On WTC as a case study in urban development posted 4 years, 5 months ago 9 Responses

Correction noted

Thanks for posting that text -- I did think S.J. Res 5 read awfully strong, even for a non-binding resolution.  I was going to be kind of impressed that it got into the Senate's bill.On Federal energy bill moves to final round: House v. Senate showdown posted 4 years, 5 months ago 4 Responses

Thanks for the eyewitness report.

Cory, while my own eco-snobbery also makes me wonder about experiencing the wilderness from the deck of a cruise ship (as if I will be jumping up from my Aeron chair here in Brooklyn to hike across the tundra any time soon).  But I cannot really judge their experience.  For me, looking out from my lounge chair on the foredeck would not be  "experiencing Alaska," but if it satisfies, who am I to judge?  Plus, keeps at least some sorts of impact off the land.

(Not that I'm saying that reasoning can be applied with impunity to all situations.)

I imagine the notion of limiting the number of people who come on to a particular ice field, or part of a park, to mitigate impacts, would be incredibly controversial in Alaska?  But it's not as if it isn't being done elsewhere in the States, as in limiting permits to raft the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.

Interesting you should mention the smokestack emissions -- that is a regulatory arena the Bush administration has undercut, at least in terms of international shipping (would need to look into whether the same set of regulations cover cruise ships).  Rules drafted by EPA in 2002 to rein in diesel emissions from ocean going ships were gutted by the Office of Management and Budget. Domestic ships are still regulated under a weak set of rules, and there will be no futher actions to regulate foreign flagged vessels until 2007 at the earliest.

I wrote a piece about it last year for BushGreenwatch -- click here -- citing an excellent article from the Seattle Times and an OMB Watch alert.On Emily Gertz posted 4 years, 5 months ago 4 Responses

30 words

I went over the limit.  So, pared down:

Environmentalism is waking up every day breathing clean air, drinking safe water, eating healthy food, and having a real vote, and knowing that your grandkids--and theirs--will, too.  On An elevator pitch for environmentalism posted 4 years, 10 months ago 154 Responses