THE MAD SUGAR POP KULTCHUR RUSH

It’s a harrowing tale on numerous fronts: from the point of view of the region’s post-perestroika destitute manual laborers and loggers, of the various families trying to make ends meet at the unforgiving taiga’s edge, of the underfunded governmental organizations and individuals trying to help them while “managing” the tigers, and of the Amur tigers themselves, largely endangered and preyed upon by feckless poachers looking to cash in across the nearby Chinese border.

Vaillant, the Vancouver, BC, author who previously penned the heart-wrenching, deservedly much-admired Golden Spruce, imbues The Tiger with a fierce, fiery energy and dramatic narrative flow that reads novel-like at times, while at others like a top-drawer fact-driven piece from Smithsonian, Nat Geo or The New Yorker. The interweaved fates of the human characters and the shock-and-awe-inspiring tigers drive the book, delivering its timely message of “We’re all in this together.” Vaillant writes:

Panthera tigris and Homo sapiens are actually very much alike, and we are drawn to many of the same things, if for slightly different reasons. Both of us demand large territories; both of us have prodigious appetites for meat; both of us require control over our living space and are prepared to defend it, and both of us have an enormous sense of entitlement to the resources around us. If a tiger can poach on another’s territory, it probably will, and so, of course, will we. A key difference, however, is that tigers take only what they need.

Instead of beating us over the head with this message, Vaillant lets it slowly develop while allowing the story to unfold, its many larger-than-life characters sharing tales of the taiga and its inhabitants, the tigers, Russia both past and present, and much more that draws a portrait of a fragile enclave on the chill edge of a teetering world.

“If there is enough land, cover, water, and game to support a keystone species like [the tiger],” Vaillant writes, “it implies that all the creatures beneath it are present and accounted for, and that the ecosystem is intact. In this sense, the tiger represents an enormous canary in the biological coal mine.” Vaillant goes on to report that, as of December 2009, fewer than 400 tigers may remain in the Russian Far East (more than 75,000 were reported to having lived in Asia last century; this number has since dipped some 95 percent).

Yes, The Tiger is a real-life bloodcurdling thriller about an Amur tiger seemingly bent on revenge, relentlessly going after a poacher who’d crossed his path and foolishly invited his wrath (like a fearsome Udeghe tale featuring the mythical tiger-like monster/malevolent spirit Amba)—in that, it’s a pretty unputdownable read. It’s also a cautionary tale about the dangers of our Anthropocene age, as Vaillant has it, “characterized by increasingly dense concentrations of human beings living in permanent settlements on a landscape that has been progressively altered and degraded in order to support our steadily growing population”—in that, too, it’s a pretty unputdownable, and eminently compelling, read.

Tiger Protection Efforts in Primorye: Organizations to Support
Udeghe Legend National Park
Phoenix Fund
Tigris Foundation
21st Century Tiger
Wildlife Conservation Society

—Allen

*Yes, indeed, I’m talking vampires, werewolves, piranhas and zombies—sure, why not include our dear departed loved ones who, instead of silently nurturing the Earth six feet under, are reanimated, irascible and, of course, hungry for brains!

WITH THE WORLD YET AGAIN MIRED IN INESCAPABLE MISERY, CATASTROPHE AND DESPAIR*,

The World Cup’s “Green Goal” program began at the 2006 games in Germany with carbon-footprint-reducing offsets front and center, and has expanded with this year’s event, with commitments to doing more and doing it better, and showing last year’s lackluster climate talks in Copenhagen a thing or two when it comes to taking a united global stand against climate change. Time to make some noise with your vuvuzela—or considering its hornetlike buzz, perhaps not.

The Green Goal program includes offsetting teams’ emissions, more energy-efficient lighting and “green passports,” which I’ll explain in a moment. Over half the 32 teams participating are offsetting the carbon they generate from travel and hotel stays, Reuters reports. PUMA alone is paying for offsets of 18 teams, which wear the athletic company’s uniforms and gear. The Global Environmental Facility (GEF), meanwhile, is behind the smarter lighting initiative, providing energy-efficient lighting in the stadiums and solar street lighting of six host cities.

The green passport is a 32-page booklet encouraging tourism that respects the environment and helps boost the economic and social development of local communities, as well as discussing green goals, plans and accomplishments. The handy guide also includes a carbon footprint calculator and information about green accommodations, restaurants and activities.

But wait, there’s more. Nine teams, thanks to Nike, are wearing jerseys made from recycled plastic bottles. There’s also a new high-speed train, the Gautrain, now online in Johannesburg, providing fast and reliable mass transit—it opened just 3 days before matchplay began at the World Cup.

Okay, so we’re talking sport here, 90+ minutes per match of diversion that often encompasses a nationalistic bent, a rather simple game that’s played the world over (yes, in the good ol’ US of A, too, and on a professional level), but there are some very positive lessons to be learned concerning the efficacious greening of the World Cup, just as there are from the game’s healthy competition, camaraderie and level playing field—just watch a game, if you haven’t yet, and pick up on its effervescent spirit, shared passion, commitment and excellence, the striving for greatness that involves teamwork as much as individual ability, focus and performance. We’re all in this together! seems to be a rallying cry.

And with the games held for the first time in South Africa, and on the African continent, which has certainly had more than its fair share of misery, catastrophe and despair, it’s encouraging to see how smoothly this world-engaging spectacle has unfolded as it nears the end of its glorious first week. We may not have witnessed a simpatico vibe at the Bonn climate talks that ended as the World Cup commenced, but perhaps by the next major climate summit in Mexico at the end of the year there may be some inspired shouting of “GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!”

—Allen

*I know, when truly isn’t it to one degree or another?

LIKE AN AWE-INSPIRING EXPO OR WORLD’S FAIR DEPICTING A BRIGHTER, SMARTER FUTURE

What else can you expect? Well, try immersion in a world already gone green in innumerable ways, and all on constant display and readily available for easy interaction, badinage and play. Not bad for $15, which gets you in both days and provides access to all speaker presentations and festival events (see the complete schedule for details). Seattle’s Green Festival will feature a Music, Arts & Culture Room, Community Action Pavilion, Green Living Pavilion, Fair Trade & Social Justice Pavilion, Local Food & Farming Pavilion, DIY Zone (featuring hands-on workshops), Green Kids’ Zone, Blue Corner (all things aquatic) and Exhibitor Marketplace. It’s a lot to take in, even spread across an entire weekend.

The not-to-miss Exhibitor Marketplace can be a bit overwhelming (there are more than 350 businesses spread throughout the exhibit hall), and my recommendation is to hit it early before it gets too crowded and difficult to maneuver in a timely manner. It’s a great opportunity to wander serendipitously and see the latest developments in green products and services, and to chat with the people either behind them or representing them. Talk about rapidly emerging markets in the new green economy—this is positive ground zero, where you’ll find everything from wind-energy-powered web host providers and sustainably grown herbs to electric bikes and green burials/home funerals (yep, you read that right, the ultimate in cradle-to-grave-and-back self-realization).

In addition to Lovins, the many speakers well worth seeing in Seattle include Amy Goodman, John Perkins, Thom Hartmann, David Korten and festival-cofounder Kevin Danaher. But this event—which also takes place at various dates in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Chicago—is about much more than merely listening to an informed quorum of speakers: it’s about the strong vibe, getting sweaty-palmed, heartbeat-aflutter caught up in a momentum-gaining movement that transcends social, political, commercial and religious/ethical/philosophical boundaries, and becoming part of something that’s attempting to affect true positive change in an era sadly being defined by financial scandals and hardships, environmental degradation and disaster, political stalemate and savagery, across-the-board apathy and, well, let me stop there—the Green Festival is for, lest we forget, yeasayers not naysayers.

I hope you can make the Seattle event this weekend, but if not, Washington and San Francisco Green Festivals take place this fall. All aboard the brighter, smarter future that’s here and now.

—Allen

“THE ARCTIC IS CARRYING THE DEEP WOUNDS OF THE WORLD,”

Her timely, highly recommended book clashes great beauty (“The poet Joseph Brodsky said that the purpose of evolution was beauty,” she notes amid myriad descriptions of awe-inspiring Arctic allure) with dispassionate science (“The paradise called the Holocene is ending, and a new epoch, tentatively named the Anthropocene, is beginning—an era when climate will be forced against its cyclical ‘instinct’ to become cold again”). It’s this clash, really a jarring shift, like ice shelves themselves colliding, then violently crumbling as they part, that infuses Ehrlich’s text with its vigorous and heartrending power.

In her telling observations, she is as unrelenting as the melting ice: “Perhaps the term climate change should be changed to climate care, since it is carelessness that is bringing so many changes to life as we know it and most likely will bring much of the life of humans and megafauna on this planet to what may be the end”; or try: “When we lose an ecosystem we are losing our thumbprint uniqueness, our way of knowing the world and our strategies of survival.”

As tocsinlike and grim as this may sound, and is, Ehrlich also celebrates native ingenuity, creativity—primarily as witnessed through storytelling, myth and art—and toughened spirit—the will to survive, to balance a hierarchy of needs and to bask rather contentedly in the determinate beauty of a (still) ice-locked natural world—a little of the noble savage perhaps, but I’d never for a moment confuse Ehrlich with Rousseau.

I FIRST CAME ACROSS EHRLICH back in the mid-nineties when researching an Elliott Bay Booknotes story entitled “The Natural World & the Written Word.” I wrote, in part, about A Match to the Heart, her reminiscence of time spent recovering from a lightning strike she suffered while hiking near her Wyoming home: “[S]he approaches the natural world from an entirely different perspective, one that evokes awe at the ineffable, the edge of the infinite where lightning is born, delivered into our world then snatched back just as suddenly.”

Her evocation of awe at the ineffable certainly hasn’t been tamped down a decade and a half later in In the Empire of Ice; instead, it has simply been tempered, or annealed, by the observable—both quantifiable and qualifiable—onslaught of climate change, especially as she has first-hand witnessed it in her nearly 20 years traveling the Arctic Circle. (Her Arctic-themed books include Arctic Heart, This Cold Heaven and The Future of Ice.)

A 2007 National Geographic Expeditions Council grant to make a circumpolar journey and report on the environment and lives of indigenous Arctic people and how they were being impacted by climate change was the genesis of this book, which reads part-travel journal, part-scientific inquiry and part-requiem for a rapidly vanishing/never-to-return way of life. Ehrlich’s prose skitters, crackles and walrus-harrumphs its always-fascinating way from discussing diminishing albedos (surface reflectivity of the sun’s radiation, which can keep global warming in check) and the negative impact of more open waterways on native hunting, to the current value of jimajatuqangit (traditional Inuit knowledge) and the ultra-sensitivity of a narwhal’s eight-foot-long spiral tusk (actually a tooth with ten million nerve endings).

Ehrlich’s poetic predilection for anthropomorphizing the ice—it embraces, calms and cools, has legs that bend at the knees, it gets sick and dies; her glaciers have faces, toes and snouts—makes it a living, breathing character throughout the book, one whom we come to love and admire (or at least empathize with) as much as she does, and with increased fervency as we become more aware of how imperiled it is, losing more ground, literally, day by day, month by month, year by year. It’s an effective technique, handled in such a way as to not come across heavy-handed, and provides a solid narrative base as we move, across four chapters, from the Bering Straight to northwestern Russia to Arctic Canada and finally to Greenland.

Along the way we meet scientists and naturalists, but primarily natives, be they Inuits in Alaska and Canada, nomadic Komi in Russia or native Greenlanders; all struggling to adapt to the changes in their world and to continue to survive as best they know how. All the stories Ehrlich shares are compelling. “Arctic people are unique because of their environment,” she writes. “Isolated by ice and fierce weather, theirs represents a continuum of culture that spans tundra and ocean, ice sheets and glaciers, fjords and open-ocean ecosystems, steep coastal mountains, ice-flattened benchlands, and valleys that are verdant for the one-month-long Arctic summer.”

As much as this book is about, as Ehrlich punchily puts it, “genocide: the abuse of indigenous peoples at the top of the world [and] terricide: the abuse of the planet for progress and profit, paying no heed to the biological health of the world,” it is also about hope, about not wanting to see the vibrant people lovingly profiled and their ways of life destroyed or devastatingly compromised—humanity can change its ways, learn from past mistakes and oblivious misadventures—hope, then, even under current conditions, can exist, and persist.

“Surrender is not normally a word used to wage war against extinction,” Ehrlich writes. “But surrender we must—that is, surrender our sovereignty over the planet. The interglacial paradise in which we’ve been living so comfortably is shifting to a world that will not be compatible with human life.” She sums up, in elegant simplicity: “We can no longer hide from the truth.” In the Empire of Ice, then, amounts to full exposure, a heady mixture of terror and beauty, irrationality and reason, a mighty yawning abyss and a greater spirit to enlighten and ennoble in the face of adversity.

Let me close with one final Ehrlich observation, the first word she learned in Greenland:

The first word I learned in Greenland was Sila. It means, simultaneously, weather, the power of nature, and consciousness. For humans and animals that have co-evolved with ice and cold, there is no perceivable boundary between a “knowing” sentient being and the strong forces of weather.

—Allen

YOU KNOW YOU’RE GETTING SOMEWHERE WHEN EVEN LOVABLE OL’ SPONGEBOB’S FULLY ABOARD.

#1 Spend some time off the grid.
You know, unplug, unbuckle and set yourself free … for a bit. The rat race/almighty hamster wheel will still be there when you get back, but perhaps you’ll have heard an inspirational songbird, meditated on world peace or the price of wheat, thought about family or friends you’ve been neglecting of late, imagined a cumulous the mighty prow of an ancient vessel or majestic whale’s tale, or walked a silent path on your lunch hour sans cell, iPod or other mechanical distraction. Feels good, doesn’t it?

#2 Start a great green book.
Okay, perhaps not one of your own devising, but one that will motivate and inspire and spur a dialogue with others. Here’re a couple candidates: Bill McKibben’s got a new one, Eaarth (find out just what he’s got in mind with that extra “a”); James William Gibson’s eco-fabulous book, A Reenchanted World, is just out in paperback; or revisit/discover a classic from Muir, Thoreau, Snyder, Carson, Leopold, Abbey, Berry, Han Shan, et al.

#3 Engage a stranger in a face-to-face conversation.
Forget—at least for a while—texting, online social media, e-mail and that ubiquitous cell, and say, HELLO, my name is ________. What do you think about _______? Pick a topic, any topic, but it’s Earth Day and its fortieth anniversary, so why not make it about our planet, ecology, the lives of plants and animals, what Eyjafjallajökull’s eruption, and resultant disruption, says about the world of today?

#4 Join a new environmental or socially responsible group and volunteer some time and/or money.
With the rampant economic upheavals that continue unabated (kind of like Eyjafjallajökull Clash of the Titansed-up to mega-Kraken proportions), even a soupçon of support can help. And there are a myriad of exceptional organizations out there fighting the good fight, locally, nationally, globally. Initiate your own web search or feel free to hit our Tilth Creative Collaborative list.

#5 Engage in some “Negawatt revolutionary” activity.
We’re not advocating some sort of apostasic militant anarchy here, but really just a simple rethink of the way you go about some of your everyday business: turning off lights when not in use, replacing traditional lightbulbs with CFLs, driving less, eating more that’s grown locally, etc. See our “The Negawatt Revolution Is Here and Now!” and “Energy Savings in Action” posts for lots more actionable details on creating these units of energy saved.

#6 Start planning your next holiday/vacation with eco-friendly considerations.
Try visiting a place like Glacier National Park rather than faraway Paris this summer. And if you can get there as fuel efficiently as possible, please do so. Glacier too far away? Check a regional gazetteer and visit somewhere closer to home.

#7 Plan your garden or start a garden for the first time.
What better way to get involved with the Earth than literally to get involved with earth! It’s still early to start planting, but never too early to start planning your new garden. What kind of veggies will thrive and where best in your plot of land (or community garden, if you lack the space yourself)? Ever try raised beds? What about an energy-efficient greenhouse DIY kit? If you’re in that new-to-gardening camp and hungry for tips, check out Oregonian scribe Kym Pokorny’s “Grow your own veggies: How to start an edible garden” story.

#8 Think “precycle” when it comes to what goes on your shopping list.
The less packaging the better, so keep that in mind when you’re getting ready to shop. I’m not advocating you go entirely bulk or buy everything in concentrate, but do you need a plastic bag for those three avocados (to, what, stop a border skirmish?)? a noncompostable container for those sprouts or to-go bagel and lox? pre-washed, already-chopped stir-fry veggies in a plastic container (c’mon, it’s not an insurmountable obstacle to buy the ingredients individually and prep them yourself)?

#9 Get directly involved with the Earth Day 2010 Campaign.
The Earth Day 2010 Action Center’s the place to be. You can commit to Billion Acts of Green, RSVP to the Climate Rally at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., taking place April 25, learn about campus and environmental arts events and programs, plus plenty more. You can also connect via Facebook.

#10 Use at least one “alternative” mode of transportation—and make a habit of it.
Can you walk, jog or bike to work or where you need to get to at some point during the day or evening? Can you leave the car at home and take the bus, light rail or turn that client meeting into a teleconference with PDFs shared electronically rather than paper printouts? Can you imagine a world with less smog and less stressful congestion? See our Green Dynamind post on bike sharing, “Cycle to Work—It’s the Law!,” for more on progressive thinking when it comes to transportation.

#11 Make every day Earth Day!
Arguably the no-brainer edict of the century, I believe, and an obvious embodiment of the golden rule, but sometimes acknowledgement, leading to perspective, awareness and action, can be everything.

—Allen

FAR FROM JUST FLIGHTY PERSIFLAGE

One of the true joys of Bright Wings, that is, in addition to Sibley’s captivating opaque watercolor and gouache paintings, is its avoidance of the obvious and cliché-riddled when it comes to poems about birds. As Collins relates in the book’s intro, “Because this gathering did not want merely to echo the work of past anthologizers, many of the obvious choices were passed over. Classics such as Keat’s and Coleridge’s nightingales, Yeats’s swans at Coole, Bryan’s waterfowl, Jeffers’s hawks, Hopkins’s windhover, and Poe’s raven have been showcased in so many books of poetry—bird-oriented or otherwise—that no editorial regrets were felt at the decision to leave them out. Instead, air time is given to many lesser-known poems, particularly more contemporary ones, in order to give the reader a better chance of being taken by surprise.”

Taking flight, then, are evocative, plumed words by poets as far ranging as Jonathan Aaron (“Cedar Waxwings”) and David Bottoms (“An Owl”) to Lisa Williams (“The Kingfisher” and “Grackles”) and David Yezzi (“Mother Carey’s Hen”)—but that doesn’t mean you won’t find Thomas Hardy (“The Darkling Thrush” ), D.H. Lawrence (“Humming-Bird” ), Emily Dickinson (“I have a Bird in spring” and “I dreaded that first Robin so” ) or William Carlos Williams (“The Birds” ). Again, Collins from his intro: “[R]ecent poems about birds may fall into the loose category of ‘ecopoetry,’ or they may remain in a state of post-Emersonian idealism regarding nature.” Whatever path they take in Bright Wings, they capture our fancy while simultaneously setting our spirit free, whether read silently or aloud, which, as with all poetry, serves them best.

I’ll let poet Juliana Gray have the parting words here, from her Bright Wings-included poem “Rose-Breasted Grosbeak”: “Oh, pretty bird! Oh, fluff and feathers, beak / and bright eye, alliterative name / in my throat!”

—Allen

CYCLE TO WORK—IT’S THE LAW.

Bike-sharing programs, both public and private, have been around for quite a while (recall Amsterdam’s famous white bicycles in the 1960s) and currently have a lot more traction in Europe, but are starting to pick up momentum in North America. In the case of sprawling, congested Mexico City, notorious for its air pollution, the program is part of its 20+ year struggle to change its ways—eliminating leaded gasoline, establishing emission standards for cars, closing particularly bad coal-fired power plants, among other ventures. But is the city past the tipping point? Is this too little, too late? Time will tell, but at least it’s a move in the right direction, a sort of noblesse oblige, which at least goes beyond mere yeah, yeah, we’re working on that platitudinous blather.

A recent brandchannel piece commented on the marketing angle of such programs: “In an effort to modernize their brands and attract tourism dollars, many cities are adopting ‘green’ campaigns aimed at reducing pollution, promoting health, and demonstrating concern for the environment.” A reality check, sure, but it’s still a plus for the environment (refer back to our post on green marketing for a refresher).

NO SURPRISE, THEFT IS ONE OF THE MAJOR HURDLES bike-sharing programs run into. Using a reliable checkout system, along the lines of library books or Zip Cars, has been one way to eliminate this. Outright malicious destruction—ah, the humanity!—seems to be another fate (brandchannel reported how bicycles in Paris’ bike-sharing program, despite success, have turned up in the Seine, hanging from lampposts, abandoned with bent wheels, etc.). Accounting for attrition, then, needs to be built in to achieve success.

In the United States and Canada, bike-sharing programs include Washington, D.C.’s Smartbike DC, Montreal’s Bixi and UC Irvine’s ZotWheels. Numerous cities are actively looking into following suit, including super bike-friendly Portland, Oregon, where I reside (Portland tried bike sharing in the 1990s, but the program was scuttled after the usual culprits, theft and vandalism, drastically diminished the fleet).

The small Oregon coastal town of Waldport (population 2,050) has had a Green Bikes bike-sharing program in place for several years now, sponsored by the Seashore Family Literacy Center, which also hosts free volutneer-run bike repair workshops. We’re only talking about 30 bikes here, but hey, the program’s a success (albeit a bike or two has turned up in Portland, more than 100 miles away!) and continues to grow, and all in a sleepy little town perhaps best known for its nearby World War II conscientious objectors camp, Camp Angel, and the camp’s Fine Arts Group that “hosted” future San Francisco Renaissance luminaries William Everson, Glenn Coffield, Martin Ponch and Kermit Sheets (see this Oregon Encyclopedia entry to learn more).

We need more Plan Verdes in more cities, unquestionably. They represent another take on public transportation that gets people out of cars and into the outdoors (okay, okay, this may actually entail dodging stinky automobiles during rush hour, but I can dream!)—consider it a tenable form of socialized health “care.” But funding—that dreadful F word to so many’s ears—for such programs is a major hurdle, especially when times are tough and city budgets are already strapped or dipping dangerously into the red. I think this warrants a strong call for sizable corporate sponsorship—go ahead and slap those logos all over the bikes; don’t we already see and accept their ubiquity when it comes to professional sports and other public spectacles.

As Kristina Dell wrote in Time last summer, “Most people don’t want to use trains, buses or bikes unless they’re really convenient, but most cities aren’t willing to spend enough to make these services convenient until enough people start using them.” To break this crazy bind, then, the push has got to come from somewhere, be it grass- or netroots citizen organized or by politicians/city leaders with moxie and/or passion for biking. It’s at least reassuring that a number of cities are already in the feasibility/request for proposal/planning stage for bike-sharing programs—may they build consensus, catch fire and lead by example.

—Allen

CODA
(From “Look Ma, No Car! Pedaling Toward a Postcarbon Future” in the March/April 2010 issue of Sierra)
Of course, bicycle commuting isn’t for everyone. And most people—cyclists included—need buses and trains and, yes, cars to get around at least some of the time. But cyclists can be a catalyst in the green-transportation revolution; they fight passionately for safer infrastructure because their lives depend on it….

Here is a future we can choose to make: Towns and cities where the streets are full of cyclists pedaling to work and the sidewalks vibrant with pedestrians walking to cafes, movie theaters, and farmers’ markets. Healthier communities connected by rail lines and bus routes. A low-carbon transportation system that helps us avert a climate catastrophe.

I’VE GOT A “MARCH MADNESS” CONFESSION TO MAKE:

That said, and with scribble-scrabbled brackets flying madly about and determined bracketologists of all stripes filling out and updating their nope, nope, you’re wrong, this is the way it’s gonna be! brackets in sports bars, cafes, restaurants, waiting rooms, on public transportation, in the office, at home and abroad, what better time to consider ecologically sound printing, especially when it comes to such ephemeral, utilitarian uses.

Your best bet, of course, is to forego printing entirely and do it all electronically, on your computer or smart phone/handheld device—yep, there are numerous apps for that! (And I’m hoping Apple’s iPad, if and when widely adopted, can also help a great deal in this print-free, paper-saving realm—plus give journalism, and the quality writers who work in that realm, a boost. Go iPad, go!)

But if you opt for print, perhaps consider yourself strictly old school and want to have that physical piece—a bit tattered, torn and pilsner stained—one you can lord over friends and, well, hoopster frenemies, consider an environmentally friendly font that uses less ink. Case in point: the Ecofont. What the Ecofont lacks in creativity when it comes to its name it makes up for in its simple design: small holes in each letter, which don’t detract from readability; and it’s also sans serif, which means less whorls and curlicues that look nice but require more ink to adorn the page. The Ecofont typeface is open source and free to download and use. Free fonts, not all of them necessarily eco, are also available at ECO Fonts. It’s a little thing, unquestionably, but when applied in volume can make a big difference.

A couple of other tools to consider are PrintWhatYouLike, which helps you optimize a webpage for printing (so you don’t print all that extraneous junk, which can go on for pages!), and Greenprint, freeware which again helps optimize for printing but also works well with non-webpage sources. I also recommend you make smart paper choices; see our Green Dynamind post, “For (All) the Trees: The Forest Stewardship Council,” for more information.

And as for “ecological bracketology,” I’ve got Kansas winning it all this year, on the court and on my laptop + handheld device.

—Allen

I KIND OF LIKE TO THINK

eBay’s Earth Day-conscious Green Team, not one to miss such an opportunity, has launched a “Green Team Challenge” now through Earth Day, April 22—in case you missed it, this year is Earth Day’s fortieth anniversary. So yep, we’re talking consumerism, albeit “reduced,” the buying and selling of used, refurbished or vintage merchandise (as eBay puts it, “the greenest product is often the one that already exists”).

This is internet-enabled activity, certainly, to generate profit, but it also encompasses the idea of recycling, of consuming less of what’s new, making do with what’s already out there and that, in turn, gets us in a nice low-impact “spin cycle.” Thrift stores of all varieties do it, craigslist does it and the one I’m most behind, Freecycle, does it with its heart clearly in the right place. Corporate green teams have been growing in popularity the last few years (eBay’s started in 2007), and it’s certainly a huge green positive to see such (often) grassroots ventures continue to gain footholds, spark employee and community involvement, and expand company initiatives and enterprisewide practices.

eBay’s Green Team Challenge is to get their customers “to reuse what exists in the world, and we’ll do our part to make your impact come to life.” eBay has joined with Team Earth to protect three rainforests in the Congo, Brazil and Mexico, promising to protect an acre in each customer’s name who takes the challenge (plus, there’s an added pecuniary incentive and prize drawings). Information and slideshows for each of the rainforests are on the Green Team Challenge website to aid in voting. The challenge, in essence then, is an acknowledgement of self-agreendisement, of Yeah, I want to do the right thing and make use of what’s already out there, and I want others to know about it and get involved, too.

“Selling green makes sense,” the eBay Green Team site says—absolutely true!—and necessary now more than ever—in so many ways. It’s like going to the head of the class and shouting, “Let’s make every day Earth Day!”—and if only it were so simple to share this sentiment globally. But hitting eBay’s 90-million-plus active users, via the Green Team Challenge, certainly doesn’t hurt. Recycle that thought next time you’re in search of, say, vintage Hamm’s or Schlitz barware or a sturdy babystroller with low miles and a tiny footprint.

—Allen

WHILE FAR FROM A HOUSEHOLD NAME ON OUR SHORES

Sakamoto’s been involved with green pursuits since at least 1994, when he first moved away from plastic-jewel-case CD packaging to biodegradable paper sleeves. And he’s traversed some mighty terrain since then—as he puts it, “turning ego into eco”—which includes his latest release, Out of Noise, featuring two haunting tracks (“Ice” and “Glacier”) inspired by a Cape Farewell Project trip to Greenland viewing imperiled arctic glaciers.

Sakamoto—whose music encompasses classical, experimental, film scores, ambient, pop, jazz and electronica—is at the forefront of a larger movement that’s afoot. The vibrant relationship between the worlds of music and that of environmental concern has unquestionably gained momentum of late, and has seen genuine far-reaching and -ranging adoption (and not mere feel-good, get-on-the-bandwagon lip service to sell more tickets and product) by artists as diverse as Willie Nelson, Radiohead, Melissa Etheridge, the Roots, Pearl Jam, Moby, Bonnie Raitt, the Dave Matthews Band and Green Day. Good for the Earth? Absolutely! Good for your ears? Ditto that, and perhaps coming this summer, in a carbon-neutral manner, to a concert venue near you.
RETURNING TO SAKAMOTO’S ACHIEVEMENTS, before widening the gyre to include larger industry eco-trends and best practices, it’s easy to be inspired by his actions. Consider the following: In 2001 he used a small windmill and solar panel—both portable, of course—to generate energy during a tour; by 2005 he had completed two 100-percent carbon-free tours of Japan. He also used biodegradable cups, plates and garbage bags; set up flyer kiosks where patrons could choose the materials they wanted rather than be presented with a bundle that would end up in the trash; he also requested upcoming concert attendees to utilize as much public transportation as possible. What then remained of carbon emissions were offset with carbon-credit purchases from alternative energy companies. In 2006 his Japanese record label, commmons (the extra m is for music), became the nation’s first green label, operating its administrative activities using alternative, renewable energy, with all packaging completely carbon-free the following year.

And there’s more: Sakamoto established moreTrees in 2007 as a means to conserve and plant trees in Japan and abroad. Audi Japan sponsored his fall/winter 2009 European tour, in support of Out of Noise, to offset carbon emissions (the just-prior Japanese tour even included a carbon-offset cost in the ticket price). Out of Noise, as mentioned earlier, includes two mesmerizing compositions inspired by his Cape Farewell Project trip. Sakamoto includes ambient sounds recorded both above and below the sea—you discern the cry of seabirds and dripping of meltwater within a gently cascading soundscape of acoustic and electronic instrumentation: it’s both ominous and soothing/meditational in an Enoesque “music for …” kind of way, a musique concrete decrying cataclysmic climate change. (Read PopMatter’s insightful review of Out of Noise.)

But Sakamoto can’t do it alone. Other artists (those listed above and many more) and organizations are hoisting high the green banner when it comes to music. Reverb, a nonprofit formed in 2004 that works with green rock tours, regularly sets up eco-villages with environmental displays and activities at shows, provides carbon offsets for attendees, displays eco-slideshows on venue jumbotrons, assists with biodiesel fuelings and waste recycling/reducing, and lots, lots more. MusicMatters, a for-profit, is another leader, practicing “Effect Marketing.” It describes this as “[g]oing beyond just promoting awareness of a cause or product … incorporat[ing] initiatives that encourage consumers to take action and produce quantifiable results on important and environmental and social issues.” MusicMatters works with musicians as well as a wide variety of companies (e.g., Annie’s, Ben & Jerry’s, Clif Bar, Nature’s Path, New Leaf Paper, Utne, Working Assets).

In the greater scheme of things (and doesn’t it always come to that?), do these ventures make a real impact on the environment? According to Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at Carnegie Institution and as reported in The New York Times, “In general, these offsets do some good, in the sense they usually help fund projects that are beneficial.” He goes on to state that the direct benefits are hypothetical as carbon offsets defer future emissions, not what’s being produced by the tour at that time. But these tours, as pointed out, are also utilizing other creative means to curtail emissions (Radiohead’s use of low-power LED concert lighting a few years ago also comes readily to mind) and their green evangelical/educational component is highly significant, which, couched in a pop-culture setting and given a grand stage, certainly doesn’t fall on deaf ears.

From “out of noise” a powerful message can emerge, turning “ego to eco”—it’s as true coming from Ryuichi Sakamoto as it is from Willie Nelson or Green Day. And the audience, potential change agents all, is listening.

—Allen