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Phil Brick, environmental politics professor, answers questions

Phil Brick. What work do you do? I am professor of politics and codirector of environmental studies at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. I am also the founder and director of an environmental-studies field program, Whitman College Semester in the West, a three-month field tour focusing on the political, ecological, and human dimensions of […]

Big ag is energy intensive and has no plans to change

Big Ag is nervous about energy costs. The hand-wringing reveals much about the energy-intensive nature of industrial agriculture -- and its lack of imagination regarding alternatives.

Even before the latest big runup in oil prices -- incidentally, oil had reached $60 per barrel before Hurricane Katrina trashed the Gulf of Mexico -- farmers were feeling the pinch. Here's an Associated Press article from May laying out the energy story in terms dictated by the American Farm Bureau Federation, which not inaccurately calls itself "the voice of agriculture." It has only forgotten to add a few compound modifiers: vast-scale, heavily subsidized, export-minded energy-intensive.

Coat of Harms

“We don’t conserve until we’re down to the last roll of toilet paper.”

Over at Current TV, which is the new cable network that I'm obsessed with even though I don't have cable, browsers of the online studio can find out if a video clip has made it on air. So this morning I was pleased to learn that part one of Earth Current "cody" did so.

Earth Current "cody" is a three part series of video shorts, produced by Dharma Dog Pictures, which introduces us to Cody Lundin, founder of Aboriginal Living Skills School and ACES Arizona Center for Environmental Sustainability. In part one, we get a tour of Cody's home, which looks to me like a Hobbit hole in the middle of the desert. In fact we discover it is a eco-designed house.

Part two is an interview with Cody, formerly known as ABO DUDE, where get gems like "we don't conserve until we're down to the last roll of toilet paper" during conversations on global warming, sustainability, and conservation. According to Cody, what is going to get people to "shift" their behavior so that they make less of a footprint is "pain." Not public-education campaigns, but pain. Ouch!

In part three, we learn how one would make fire in a world without matches, lighters, and Swedish Firesteel. The moral of the story: We've lost touch with the basics of nature. (Yeah, but the Swedish Firesteel is so cool!)

So head on over to Current TV, watch the clips, leave some comments, and greenlight parts two and three if you think they deserve to be on air.

And you can check out some other clips from Dharma Dog over at the Current TV studio, including one of my favorites, the Organic Rap.

Lastly, let us know in comments if Cody would make for an interesting InterActivist.

Mooney on TPMCafe

For the past week, on TPMCafe's Book Club, they've been discussing Chris Mooney's book The Republican War on Science. It's been a great back and forth among Chris and several guests, including Roger Pielke Jr. and Lawrence Krauss. The reader comments, as usual on that site, have been literate and insightful. Head on over and start scrolling down.

Carl Pope is speaking my language

Has Carl Pope been reading Gristmill? Cause he's speaking my language. (Leave me alone with my illusions, people.)

In a post today he makes this point:

Cradle to Cradle certification arrives

Ever since I first heard him mention it, I've been wondering when Bill McDonough's "Cradle to Cradle Certification" program was going to become a reality. I think it has huge potential to become for product design what LEED has become for green building (though probably, as Jamais cautions, more slowly and fitfully).

Well, via WC, here it is. The first six recipients have been announced.

Cradle to cradle is a biomimetic approach to design, wherein every material used can either be returned to the earth to biodegrade without harm (a biological nutrient) or can return to the manufacturing cycle with no loss of quality (a technical nutrient). In short: no waste. Or rather, in C2C terminology: waste is food. A great primer on biomimicry can also be found at WC.

The certification ...

... covers five categories (PDF): Materials (including assessment and emissions); Material Reutilization/Design for Environment (including product recovery plans); Energy (including an emphasis on solar energy use); Water (including plans for conservation and quality); and Social Responsibility (including corporate ethics statements and third-party social responsibility assessments). The overview linked above is a basic checklist; the Application Form (PDF) has the full details on what's required for each step of the certification process.

Look for C2C product on shelves near you! Uh, some day.

Featuring the faces of over 1,000 JibJab fans

For all you crusaders against Wal-Mart and overconsumption, check out the latest from JibJab.com. Happy Friday.

Rebuilding: do it right

Two good things on rebuilding:

Leo DiCaprio (heard of him?) and (ex-InterActivist) Matt Petersen give a brief but pungent rundown on what went wrong in New Orleans and how it could be made right. I wonder which part Leo wrote.

(Oh, and no offense, Leo, but the consensus in the office is that Jake Gyllenhaal is the eco-hottie du jour.)

Van Jones has a similar piece in Yes! Magazine, calling for social justice and environmental principles to govern the rebuilding process. Apparently a longer version will run in the Oct. print issue.

Green humor

As I believe I've mentioned, environmentalism is never funny.

Environmentalists, however, are the source of endless amusement. To wit: here's a set of jokes that's been making the eco-rounds: