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

BP: OBLOQUY AT PRESENT FOR CERTAIN, BUT ALSO “BEYOND PETROLEUM”—WHERE WE NEED TO BE,

There’s also been a sizable wave made in the climate energy bill debate (see the New York Times story “Gulf Oil Spill Threatens to Rearrange Washington’s Climate Agenda”). Ah, our constant craving for energy to (em)power our lives, particularly in its crudest form, a liquid scream slithering from our distant past, hidden away far beneath the Earth’s surface, ornery oleaginous ghosts and amorphous liquified-fossil hobgoblins from yesteryear.

BP: Beyond petroleum is the brand tag and theme developed by Ogilvy & Mather for British Petroleum. “We want to build one of the world’s great brands by building an organization devoted to revolutionizing the world’s relationship with energy,” Lord John Browne, then-CEO of BP, was quoted as saying in Alina Wheeler’s Designing Brand Identity (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2003). How hollow those words now sound as the Gulf rupture threatens to surpass the Exxon Valdez Prince William Sound spill of two decades ago. Adding fuel, a senior BP executive informed members of Congress at a closed-door briefing yesterday that the well could conceivably spill as much as 60,000 barrels a day of oil—ten times the current estimate. Can this beast be stopped?

Getting beyond petroleum, honestly and realistically, is where we need to be. And safely harnessing new forms of energy in the amounts required to power our growing, demanding, let’s face it, insatiable world is no easy matter. That we already know. There is no silver bullet. It’s a challenge—perhaps the challenge of our age—that the greatest minds must apply themselves to and solve. Soon.

Humans have achieved so much, as have we squandered. As the great blob inexorably approaches the Gulf coastline, and authorities attempt to burn off yet another patch, and a giant steel trap is readied for containment like in some 1950s monster movie, we know we’re running out of time. Incentive enough?

—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

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.

THINGS GOTTA CHANGE

And I’m going to take Cleveland, and the “Cleveland Model,” as a new and enlightening nexus point, that is, its cooperative spirit, literal co-ops and bright green focus—and, hoop fans, I’m not talking LeBron James, Shaq, turn$tile revenues (green of another sort) and the concomitant full-glaze opiate common of professional sports. This is—drum roll, please—CHANGE TO BELIEVE IN! And I think we’re all ready for a true (a posse ad esse) annus mirabillis.

Opening of the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry.

WHAT CLEVELAND IS DOING, AND DOING QUITE WELL, is creating jobs, many of them green, generating wealth, spurring growth and enhancing community, through Evergreen Cooperatives, a Cleveland-area partnership between six city neighborhoods and “anchor institutions,” which include the city, the Cleveland Foundation, Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals. Businesses launched so far include Evergreen Cooperative Laundry, Ohio Cooperative Solar and (still in prelaunch) Green City Growers—all local, employee-owned and for-profit companies that utilize green best practices (such as LEED silver certification and a small carbon footprint at the laundry). And they’re doing this despite current economic conditions, and in a city not normally associated with growth (Cleveland’s population has halved since 1950 and the poverty rate stands at more than 30 percent).

This cooperative model has been inspired by the MONDRAGON Corporation in the Basque Country of northern Spain, which includes 256 independent companies (more than 100 of which are worker-owned cooperatives) and employs 100,000+ people. MONDRAGON’s governance (instituted by the principle of one worker, one vote) shares its overriding resources with the individual companies, assisting with planning, research, funding and more. While not impervious to the recent global economic downturn, the cooperative has seen a significant €1,324 million in investment—a clear, determined commitment to the future—with no market share or position lost in relation to its competition.

Evergreen Cooperatives, instead of “business as usual,” limits the spread between high and low salaries: no top-management employee earns more than five times any entry-level employee. The Evergreen Cooperative Development Fund, meanwhile, managed by ShoreBank Enterprise Cleveland, offers low-interest, long-term financing; it’s capitalized by $5 million in grants and expects to raise another $10-$12 million, which will ideally leverage up to $40 million in additional investment funds. The fund’s website adds:

In keeping with the wealth building goals of the Fund, the Fund also works to ensure the availability of “wrap around services” so that neighborhood residents may become effective employees and organizes the businesses to have an ownership structure that makes employees into employee-owners, who not only have the ability to earn a living wage, but also the chance to build wealth and assets as part-owners of the companies where they work.

Ohio Cooperative Solar—could the name be much greener?!—is currently installing solar panels on the roofs of the city’s largest nonprofit health, education and municipal buildings, working to meet Ohio’s mandate to generate 60 megawatts of solar energy by 2012 (2 megawatts are presently being generated). It’s also leading the way in Ohio’s weatherization program, ripping a noble page right from Van Jones‘ Green Collar Economy.

What about in-the-works Green City Growers (in a city that can certainly benefit from local, affordable produce)? This co-op will open a 230,000-square-foot hydroponic-food-production greenhouse, utilizing new-tech energy-efficient lighting, of course, and produce nearly a million pounds of basil and other herbs and 3 million heads of lettuce a year. In addition to job creation, this will certainly help supplant an over-reliance on fast food, common in urban “food deserts”—a very healthy benefit, indeed.

A newfangled, new-new-deal-wrangled commie plot to take down the greater system? Hardly. I’d rather subscribe to the theory as espoused in a recent story about the Cleveland model reported in The Nation (March 1, 2010):

The overall strategy is not only to go green but to design and position all the worker-owned co-ops as the greenest firms within their sectors. This is important in itself, but even more crucial is that the new green companies are aiming for a competitive advantage in getting the business of hospitals and other anchor institutions trying to shrink their carbon footprint. Far fewer green-collar jobs have been identified nationwide than had been hoped; and there is a danger that people are being trained and certified for work that doesn’t exist. The Evergreen strategy represents another approach—first build the green business and jobs and then recruit and train the workforce for these new positions (and give them an ownership stake to boot). (Emphasis added.)

Key here is seeing this model not only successful in Cleveland but rolled out across the country. Again, from The Nation:

What’s especially promising about the Cleveland model is that it could be applied in hard-hit industries and working-class communities around the nation. The model takes us beyond both traditional capitalism and traditional socialism. The key link is between national sectors of expanding public activity and procurement, on the one hand, and a new local economic entity, on the other, that “democratizes” ownership and is deeply anchored in the community. In the case of healthcare the link is also to a sector in which some implicit or explicit form of “national planning”—the movement toward universal healthcare—will all but certainly increase public influence and concern with how funds are used.

Change to believe in? Absolutely, albeit it’s certain to be filled with both trials and tribulations, which are part and parcel of any learning process and establishment of something new. This is a true grassroots movement, from the bottom up, influencing larger organizations and players and getting them aboard in supporting roles (those “anchor institutions,” as mentioned previously)—putting power in the hands of the individual and folding it into a galvanized collective, letting workers take legitimate pride in ownership, rather than shake in their boots fearing their jobs may soon vanish overseas to help actualize greater bottom-line profits.

People and the planet figure large in the Cleveland model’s bottom line, that is, the triple bottom line. So let’s get that remarkable year, that annus mirabillis, in gear. Consider this a different form of bipartisanship to believe in—a completely different animal—from Cleveland, with antecedents in the Basque region of Spain. And finally, that said, this doesn’t let state or federal government, not to mention banks, off the hook or free to escape culpability—funding channels, with actual cash flow, need to be encouraged, established and supported.*

—Allen

*See Robert Pollin’s excellent piece, “18 Million Jobs by 2012,” in the March 8, 2010, issue of The Nation for realizable ways to help generate additional funding for sustainable-job-building programs like Evergreen Cooperatives. Related calculation details can be found at UMass’s Political Economy Research Institute.

THE IN-AGAIN TERM “NEGAWATT” CONJURES ELECTRO-DYNAMIC VISIONS

Considered one way, as Planet Green relates, “the greenest power of all is the Negawatt—the power you don’t use. The first thing you should be doing is just doing less, investing in CFL and LED lighting, turning off switches, junking your fridge if it is older than 10 years, and hanging your laundry on a line.”

Another way has it, and this from Thomas Friedman’s “The Energy Internet: When IT Meets ET” chapter of Hot, Flat, and Crowded, is a future realization of the “E.C.E.” (Energy-Climate Era) through a vast, interconnected, back-and-forth smart grid—this is the grandiose view from space, where “an Energy Internet would enable you, me, and your next-door neighbor to do extraordinary things by way of saving energy [negawatt = a unit of energy saved] and using clean power efficiently, and do them around the clock, all the time, whether or not you’re thinking about it.” This is also where individuals, organizations both public and private, big business and government(s) will have to agree on an executable plan (or many), strategy and tactics that efficaciously move forward such a grid, not get tied up in endless red tape, petty squabbling and boardroom fisticuffs that lead to insurmountable impasse and failure.

HERE’S A NEGAWATT DEFINITION I LIKE A LOT: “A negawatt is in essence a negative megawatt, in that it is a megawatt of power that was not required to be produced or expended. In other words, it is a unit of energy saved that would have otherwise not only been made but also used. Perhaps the simplest way to define it is that a negawatt is a measure of energy efficiency. When less power is consumed, the demand for energy decreases.” (Definition from wiseGEEK.)

It seems so commonsensical (less consumed = decreased demand), and ultimately it is, but in a world of constant energy-conservation fission (inherent inefficiencies, laziness, systemic breakdowns, etc.) and ingrained habits of oblivious waste, slippage is commonplace and resultantly energy consumption continues its inexorable climb. The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts “moderate” 14 percent energy-consumption growth between 2008 and 2035, with CO2 continuing its annual climb at 0.3 percent—unacceptable if we want to return to anything like 350 ppm and curb greenhouse gases.

Amory Lovins of Rocky Mountain Institute, who is credited with coining the term negawatt (“The NegaWatt Revolution: Solving the CO2 Problem” keynote address at the Green Energy Conference, Montreal, 1989), pointed out how lighting represents a great arena to implement “negawatt savings.” “Think of such a compact [CFL] bulb,” Lovins wrote, “with 14 watts replacing 75, as a 61 negawatt power plant. By substituting 14 watts for 75 watts, you are sending 61 unused watts—or negawatts—back to Hydro, who can sell the electricity saved to someone else without having to make it all over again.”

Now simply extrapolate Lovins’ idea to the current-administration-supported smart energy grid (or Energy Internet, as Friedman would have it) or any number of other forward-thinking applications that connect efficiency and savings in one place by moving that saved or conserved energy to another place. Think of this high-tech smart grid as monitoring all electricity supply flowing into and through it while controlling consumer demand all the way to a granular level: household appliances, lighting, heating, air conditioning, electronic gadgets, etc. Storage (the use of reliable accumulators) is also critical here; think of being able to hold onto solar, geothermal, wind and other forms of energy for times of peak use.

“All actors of the sector,” Ludwig Karg, director of the Germany’s E-Energy, told TerraViva, “from the generators to the consumers, passing through the operators of the grid, must be linked to each other. Every device, every appliance at the consuming end shall be connected to all electricity providers’ regulating mechanism, as in a plug-and-play system, supported by smart meters, to monitor consumption and ponder supply and prices at any given moment, to constitute a smart grid.”

Devices and systems are being developed and built by companies like Comverge, EnerNoc and Echelon that let end users and consumers monitor and adjust electricity use in real time, Tom Raftery reported on the GreenMonk blog. Energy demand management, meanwhile, has opened up the scrutiny of thermostats (think HVAC), bringing diesel generators online and regulating consumption times (such as lighting, storage heaters and pre-cooling buildings in the morning prior to peak demand). ”This is a whole new market which is about to open up,” Raftery wrote. “There are massive opportunities … for people to write software to manage this, to build the hardware to do this, and to aggregate NegaWatts for sale to utility companies.”

Ah, the negawatt: far less elusive than antimatter (with the exception of PET scans) or perhaps a “quantum-plated” alternate universe, but not a gimme by any stretch. And creating a vast interconnected grid—Friedman’s and others’ Energy Internet—is even more of a far-reaching Frankensteinian challenge. Let me close with a Friedman observation (again from Hot, Flat, and Crowded):

While many of the raw materials necessary to make this system a reality already exist in some form, it will not be easy to implement—no revolution is. But this is definitely not science fiction. So keep an open eye and an open mind, and remember what the late, great science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke famously observed: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Bring on the magic, then, for we have the collective knowhow, and let’s start reverse generating, if you will, those mighty, mighty negawatts.

—Allen

Addendum: See Green America’s suggestions for “Investing in Green Energy.”

‘There is a crack in everything / that’s how the light gets in.’ —Leonard Cohen, ‘Anthem’

PROPHETIC WORDS OR AN AGE-OLD OBSERVATION of the way change, by necessity, is initiated, that is, breakdown serves as accelerant? In America at Risk: The Crisis of Hope, Trust, and Caring by Purdue sociologists Robert Perrucci and Carolyn Perrucci (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), systemic cracks are painfully dissected—with true and actionable enlightenment, hopefully, to follow. The Perruccis’ thesis:

“We believe that the decline of hope, trust, and caring is the unanticipated consequence of the major transformation over the last thirty years in the kind of goods and services produced in America, in the technology that is used in production, and in the people who are involved in the production process. We call the composite of these changes the new economy.”

Their take on our current collective cachexia, all part and parcel of the “new economy,” makes for compelling reading, and the slender book (including index and notes it’s a mere 160 pages) offers up an array of solutions that deserves further exploration, certainly before we move from Cohen’s “Anthem” to Gibbons’ Decline and Fall … (for instance, from Gibbons: “If all the barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West: and if Rome still survived, she survived the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honor”—just plug in “terrorists” in place of “barbarian conquerers” and “America” in place of “Rome,” and wait for the cookie to crumble).

SO WHAT EXACTLY CONSTITUTES THIS “MAJOR TRANSFORMATION” reported by the Perruccis? They see a troubling trifecta of globalized production, computerized production and flexible work organization as the primary perpetrators—with the greater populace thoroughly disempowered the distressing result. Globalized production—companies looking for higher profit margins shifted investment to countries with lower wages, less regulation and nonunionization—resulted in the loss of millions of U.S. jobs, that is, the deindustrialization of America. Computerized production—made possible by computer-assisted design and manufacturing, as well as “flattening” advanced telecommunications technology—eliminated many jobs and made it even easier to produce products abroad. Computerized production also created a demand for “knowledge workers” who competently handle the technology and “contribute to the growing income and wealth inequality generated by the new economy.”

Flexible work organization, finally, refers to the greater flexibility companies wield in the type of workers they hire and in their work arrangements. Old-school “social contracts” between employee and employer have been replaced by major restructuring, downsizing and outsourcing—resulting in greater job insecurity for blue-collar and white-collar workers. Privatization is another factor the Perruccis see at work here, the provisional shift of public services to private (including foreign) firms operating on a for-profit basis. The authors glumly report: “Thus, the expanded use of the private sector to deliver public services will continue to cut into the availability and quality of services to Americans and their communities, and it will undermine the unions that represent public employees and protect their wages, health, and pension benefits.”

With the stage set (or should that be wrecked?), America at Risk next tackles hope, trust and caring as they relate to our current state of affairs (and this book is post-Wall St. crisis, post-bailout and enamored with neither Democrats or Republicans). The Perruccis write:

“Recognizing that hope, trust, and caring are interrelated is especially important when we start to think about remedies to improve the lives of Americans. For example, it may be technically and politically feasible to develop strategies to improve hope by expanding public employment opportunities. But if the policy excludes Americans who believe that they also are deserving of help, then hope will have been extended at the expense of trust; that is, loss of trust in a political system that helps some but not all who are deserving. Thus, when we begin to think about remedies in chapter 8 [the book's concluding chapter, "Confronting the Crisis"], we will be mindful of the way that hope, trust, and caring can be part of an upward spiral of improvement, or a downward spiral of continued decline.”

The book sharply examines employment, educational, community and familial experiences as they vary across race, age, class, gender and geographic location. Illustrative, eye-opening facts and figures abound (always sourced), and are opportunely employed for maximum effect. For example:

• 750,000 Americans are homeless on any given night, with 20 percent of them considered chronically homeless
• $892 million—the average annual earnings of the top 25 hedge-fund managers in 2007; up $360 million from the previous year
• 2/3—the income level of Native Americans to that of white Americans; 23.2 percent of Native Americans were living below the poverty line in 2000—the highest percentage of any ethnic group
• 2,258,983—the number of prisoners in federal or state prison or in local jails on December 31, 2006—yep, we continue to incarcerate more people than other country in the world

Without belaboring the point (and this is not to contend that the book does!), America is very much at risk, so what’s to be done? Is there still time? Do we, collectively and individually, have the audacity? The Perruccis say yes. The book’s concluding chapter, “Confronting the Crisis,” offers up a number of suggestions, particularly around the plight of the displaced worker, going beyond merely “expanding the social safety net.” “The ideal solution to a societal problem,” the Perruccis write, “is one that can restore both hope and trust because the majority of Americans believe that it is good for the country and for them.”

Evoking JFK’s 1961 call for “a great new American enterprise” to put a man on the moon by decade’s end (not to mention FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society), the Perruccis call for the rebuilding of America’s deteriorating infrastructure, and share the D average of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2005 Infrastructure Report Card. How will this be paid for? Public money (taxes) and private money (individual and business contributions) will be required—a hard but necessary sell. Also, a “Jobs for America” program should be established, funded by private and public contributions, with additional funds shifted from the defense budget (read military-industrial complex) and potentially NASA. Workers in the program would focus first on rebuilding the country’s infrastructure (green-collar and green-tech jobs would fit nicely in here, I believe), and then on providing support personnel for schools, libraries, hospitals, nursing homes and prisons—all with enhanced pay and benefits.

The Perruccis also call for a national industrial policy that identifies critical sectors of the economy which require support in times of economic difficulty—”while it is too late now for some sectors, this would have meant helping the steel industry, auto industry, and textile industry in the 1970s and 1980s when they were facing competition from firms in other countries”—and an equal playing field when it comes to educational opportunities (instituting, for example, comparable per-pupil expenditures at all schools). The Perruccis contend that term limits and further accountability should be instituted in Washington and locally to restore trust in government. And finally, in-home and long-term care should get better support, as well as the rehabilitation of prisoners and push for less incarceration of nonviolent offenders. I kind of zoomed over these last points—sorry!—but wanted to show that a lot of ground is deftly covered in this imperative “Confronting the Crisis” chapter.

In the Perruccis’ closing analysis:

“Although America is the richest and most powerful nation in the world, nothing lasts forever, and for the last thirty years or so America has gone down a path that threatens its continued viability as the place where most people want to live and raise their children. We believe that the triple crises of hope, trust, and caring threaten to make America a very different country, one different in ways that only the privileged class of Americans will not recognize or understand. The privileged class will continue to enjoy high levels of income, wealth, and security, and their gated-community lives will protect them somewhat from seeing how the other 80 percent are living. But this kind of polarized society is not sustainable. Eventually those who are continuously excluded from the American Dream will submit a bill for payment of their real grievances.” [emphasis added]

It’s high time to heed the light and mend those cracks, and books like America at Risk, while certainly not pretending to have all the answers to society’s ills, can aid in starting a dialogue, if not actually getting things moving forward.

—Allen

THE BLUE GREEN ALLIANCE IS AN ORGANIZATION WHOSE TIME HAS COME.

Traditional methodologies and paradigms, and let’s throw in the $787 billion spending package, have thus far not done the trick—far, far from it (okay, the spending package has helped but it is not close to enough). Organizations like the Blue Green Alliance (BGA), on the other hand, are shuffling the deck and dealing new cards, even as they continue to establish credibility and put in place dependable means to get things done—”mission accomplished!” is not something they’ll probably shout anytime soon, but again they’re building that house with a canard-spouting chorus of naysayers over their shoulders, and these things take time—and there’s no time to lose.

Let’s take a closer look at this national partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations (not the odd bedfellows they at first seem) dedicated to expanding the number and quality of jobs in the green economy. Remember, in the words of Cicero, “Freedom is participation in power.” And freedom, as defined, should include the ability to find and maintain a livable wage in a healthy environment.

LET’S TURN THE CLOCK BACK THREE YEARS to imagine, if you will, that first fateful meeting (cue Twilight Zone theme) between the United Steelworkers and Sierra Club which would result in the Blue Green Alliance. What were they thinking? What did they share? Was there yelling, kicking and screaming? Were cute baby owls dipped in demonic smelting pots? I want to think it was more along the lines of, Hey, we all share this planet and its resources, and if there is no planet, there are no resources and there certainly won’t be any jobs—yep, it’s the classic David Browerism, “There is no business to be done on a dead planet.” The alliance also dovetails nicely into Van Jones‘ idea of a “Green Growth Alliance,” where he envisions (as he writes in The Green-Collar Economy) “a coalition that unites the best labor and business leaders, social justice activists, environmentalists, intellectuals, students, and more—all sharing the burdens and benefits, risks and rewards, of the the journey to a green-collar economy.”

So, unquestionably, there was common ground, and a powerful alliance was formed by these august organizations. After all, as Ethan Goffman underscores in the November/December issue of E Magazine, “Well before globalization, labor and environmentalists had reasons to work together. Concerns about environmental toxins harming workers and communities have been around for centuries, from miners suffering coal dust exposure, to communities and workers breathing lead- and arsenic-laced air from metal smelters, to children developing leukemia after drinking water that was contaminated by toxic tanneries.”

An organization like the Blue Green Alliance, then, has long been needed—and didn’t stop there; since 2006 they’ve grown to include the Communications Workers of America (CWA), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)—add them up and you’ve got around eight million people. Let me say that again: eight million people—trying to make a difference.

Issues the alliance tackles include passing comprehensive clean energy and climate change legislation; restoring the rights of U.S. workers to organize and bargain collectively; establishing a trade policy that promotes global growth and prosperity with embedded enforceable labor, environmental and human rights standards; and enacting a toxic chemicals policy that protects both workers and communities. How about measures? The alliance, no slouch here, either, has advocated its recent global warming legislative principles, partnered with other advocacy groups and businesses to promote passage of state and federal legislation mandating renewable electricity production, and pushed for the Employee Free Choice Act (for the expansion of workers’ rights) and reauthorization of the Transportation Act (to create green jobs in freight and high-speed rail and other infrastructure projects).

The Blue Green Alliance Foundation, meanwhile, has been focusing on educating the public about the job-spawning potential of environmental investments. This includes an annual Good Jobs, Green Jobs national conference (more than 2,600 people attended this year’s event in Washington, D.C.); a Labor Climate Project in partnership with Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection; Blue Green Alliance state chapters working on climate change, workers’ rights, clean energy jobs, fair trade and green chemistry; and economic development programs in various cities and states.

Recent activity—to give you examples of the Blue Green Alliance in action—includes Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown joining the Blue Green Alliance in releasing clean energy manufacturing recommendations, which, according to the alliance, can help create hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs through development of a U.S. clean energy economy. “Renewable energy, and the green jobs that come along with it, are key to our economic growth,” Michael Langford, National President of the Utility Workers Union of America, is quoted in an alliance press release. “It is essential that in order to lead the world in renewable energy technologies, and create good jobs that support our families and communities, we must look at ways to rebuild and revitalize American manufacturing.” The alliance is also running a television commercial in Pennsylvania to thank Senator Arlen Specter for his vote to move clean energy legislation forward in the U.S. Senate.

There’s definitely positive movement and momentum afoot with organizations like the Blue Green Alliance leading the charge (see also Apollo Alliance and Green for All). Collaboration and the holistic view it engenders are key to clear perspective and synchronized action—yes, blue and green can coexist peacefully, but the peaceful part is going to have to follow a fair amount of strife and conflict up against those who just aren’t going to see it the same way, no matter how compelling the argument, be it scientific proof or continued poor economic numbers.

Here’s how Teamsters President James P. Hoffa sees it: “We have been forced to make a false choice in the past—good jobs or a clean environment. The pundits said that if we wanted clean air, the economy would suffer and jobs would be sent overseas. Well, look what happened—we let the big corporations pollute and the jobs went overseas anyway. But today is a new day.”

And let’s be thankful for that.

—Allen