Articles by Maywa Montenegro

A new natural capitalism

I'm going to sit the fence on Kit's poll by saying that reigning in climate change will require both a re-envisioning of capitalism and a revision of our core values.

An excellent professor of mine at MIT introduced our class to the concept of "natural capitalism," pioneered by Paul Hawkins and Amory and L. Hunter Lovins. Their 1999 book on the subject, probably familiar to many of you, was an eye-opener for me at the time. Here is a short synopsis of the book from Publisher's Weekly:

Deliver an Inconvenient Truth

In this great Rolling Stone interview last month, Al Gore said that he plans to train 1,000 volunteers to deliver the Inconvenient Truth slide show across the country. I immediately began scouring the web looking for information on how to apply, but found nothing. Finally, I called Al and Tipper's office in Tennessee and they gave me an email address to which I summarily sent a resume and cover letter. Yesterday I received a reply.

Rag report

It's de rigeur for Mother Earth News and Plenty to feature sustainable living on their covers, but the past few months have seen major glossies such as Vanity Fair, Newsweek, and Forbes doing the green thing.

Now in a September issue devoted to low impact living, Dwell (for those of you unfamiliar, it's a popular home & design magazine) is joining in. And they've done VF one better, actually printing the issue on post-consumer content recycled (PCR) paper -- a practice they pledge to continue in the future. Very few magazines have yet adopted PCR, even though -- as the Dwell issue demonstrates -- the result is stylish and indistinguishable from a virgin pulp product.

Ahead of the Times

Long have I suspected that New York Times staffers sit around trolling Grist. At last, here's the evidence. Earlier this week, Daily Grist covered Schwarzenneger's meeting with Blair; later, I added a few details about upcoming global warming legislation in California. Now, after digesting all this good stuff, NYT editors summed it up nicely in Saturday's paper for the rest of America. The only quibble I have with their commentary:

A bill like this would not only help California meet its targets but could also help jump-start clean-coal technologies that will be essential to reducing carbon dioxide emissions in countries like China and India.

Hmmm. "Clean coal" technologies like carbon sequestration are certainly better than dirty coal, but they might have unintended effects, mainly leakage of toxic trace metals and possible CO2 escape. Surely these NYT folk have not missed Grist's coverage of wind and solar power?