Communicating the Message

I recently came across an article on BBC.com titled "Media attacked for: Climate Porn". I'll be honest here, I'm not sure if it was the climate or the porn that caught my attention. In any event I read the article on a released report: Warm Words: How are we telling the climate story and can we tell it better? by Gill Ereaut and Nat Segnit. I think I read it twice and still couldn't make make heads nor tails of what the author of the article was trying to communicate.

The gist of the article was that the report was looking at how the climate discourse was playing out in mainstream media in the UK. The article goes on to say that the report found that many media outlets, especially the tabloids in the UK were taking an alarmist approach to sell papers or raise awareness depending on which side you're on. What I was not able to work out was whether the report was trying to say that the state of communication on the environment (in particular global warming) was a mess, ineffective and that we should all just go home and forget about it. A bit baffled by this (both my apparent lack of reading comprehension and what the article was trying to say), I set out in search of the actual report to see if I could make a bit more sense of the whole situation. Well, when I found the website for the Institute for Public Policy Research yesterday, I discovered that I was actually one day early; the report was set to be published today.

I was able to take a first past on the full report tonight, and have to say I'm not exactly sure what the BBC reporter was driving at. The report is very accessible, not very lengthy, or technical and I recommend if you have a few minutes to take a read over it. I haven't had enough time to digest it to give my complete thoughts on it, but this I will say: It has been my observation, which is highlighted by this report, that the "green movement" has struggled with communicating the sustainable message. It seems that those in the movement go around wringing their hands saying "Why doesn't everybody get it?!". It's kind of like how in college that physics professor of 20 years experience, shouted back at the class "What do you mean you don't get it, it's right there on the board, it's so simple." A quote from the report's executive summary puts it perfectly:

More generally, the challenge is to make climate-friendly behaviours feel normal, natural, right and ours to large numbers of people who are currently unengaged, and on whose emotional radar the issue does not figure.

One of the major hurtles is just what the above quote describes: making sustainable living normal, a part of everyday life; making sustainability a way of thinking. I think this is one of the major points that can be drawn from this article, but I'm still stewing on this one and I'll have to let you know what I cook up.

It's the Environment, Stupid.: Carbon Trading 101

Linking in here with It's the Environment, Stupid: Carbon Trading 101 for a little intro on carbon trading.

Carbon, specifically carbon from coal is something we should be very concerned about and I not really talking about "here" I'm talking about "over there". In this particular case "over there" is China. A recent LA Times article indicated that a growing about of pollution from China is reaching North American borders. The EPA estimates that on certain days of the year, up to 25% of the particulate matter in the LA skies can be traced back to China, yes I (they) said China. As a sim in LA I can tell you that we're doing a very good job of polluting our atmosphere on our own and don't need any help from a forgein power (I can hear the conspiracy theorists talking now...). But seriously, this goes back to my introductory post on sustainability. Particularly the following section:

Sustainability affects every level of organization; this really only reinforces the first point but emphasizes the impact regional events can have on a nation or global scale and visa versa. The most important part of this point is the impact it has on the human psyche: what they are doing over there affects me sitting over here so I should care about what they are doing over there.

We should be very concerned and interested in China's activities, and I'm not talking about where they're putting their tanks, I'm talking about how they are treating our environment.

One concept that we (North Americans) seem to fail to grasp is that people elsewhere on the planet aspire to reach the same level of prosperity we enjoy (if by different means, or methods and even in different forms). The fact still remains that people on this planet want to prosper on their own cultural/social terms. In many ways I was taken back (and horrified) when I was in South Africa and discovered how much people look to the America as a yard stick to base one's standard of living.

So consider this, should resources be expended to influence developing nations to try and convince them to do as we say and not as we do, or should we rather look to ourselves to improve the role model that so many in the world emulate?

Global Cooling?!

While recently cruising the net I came across the latest for global cooling. Here's the pitch: To counter act all the CO2 we've been pumping to the atmosphere to heat up the planet, we're going to pump massive amounts of sulphate into the atmosphere to cool it down.

Does any one else miss the logic here?!

In yet another grand scheme to solve the symptom and not the problem, Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen has proposed a band aid solution to global warming: pump massive amounts of sulphate into the stratosphere. Simply put the sulphate particulates will act as tiny mirrors and reflect more of the sun's solar rays back into the space, increasing our planet's reflectance or albedo. By reflecting the sun's rays back into space we'll effectively reduce the amount of energy (heat) reaching the planet. The logic being: efforts to reduce the levels of CO2 production have been pitiful slow (no objection here) so we need a solution to stop the planets temperature rising. Any adverse affects of the sulphate can be dealt with since the sulphate will dissipate within a few years.

Let's review: We are currently pumping huge amounts of one substance into the atmosphere, so while we debate to what extent this substance is affecting our climate we'll pump another substance into the atmosphere with unknown consequences, but wait it's ok we can control the second substance.

Am I the only one that think this is insane?! Ok, I get the rational behind it, I can even see how someone could come up with this idea. But where does anyone on this planet, Nobel Laureate or not, get off with the arrogance to think we could pull this off.

The inconvenient reality here is that this idea will more than likely be implemented, or some variation there of. The inconvenient truth is that we're likely more capability of finding a solution to the symptom in a reasonable amount of time, than pulling together the political clout to clamp down on the problem.

Creative Industrial Design

I recently caught wind of two good pieces of news: one Ryan and Vanessa are engaged, and two Ryan has started a collaborative design studio with some like minded design professionals. I recently toured their website to check out what they have to offer, and my hat is off to the crew over at Castor Canadensis. They've been getting a lot of national press coverage lately and had several rave reviews at the Toronto Interior Design show last February. Ryan's always had an eye for design in my humble opinion as a hobbyist art/design critic, and the results from Castor Canadensis are not exception.

I serious encourage you to check out design work of Castor Canadensis at www.castordesign.ca, not only is it a very cool website but it's also displays and exhibits their work elegantly. I for one will be putting in an order for the recycled tube light when I undertake some interior design for my own apartment later this year.

Kudos to the crew at Castor Canadensis, make sure you check them out!

Good News Alert!

In the quest to seek out and identify any good news that comes through the main stream media, I'll be issuing Good News Alerts periodically. So here's the first:

Stranger saves father, 2 sons from drowning

Movie Review: Miami Vice

Director: Michael Mann
Producing Studio: Universal Studios
Trailer
KCRW Review with Joe Morgenstern
IGN.com review

With Michael Mann at the helm being entertained is nearly a sure thing. I enjoyed Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, Robbery Homicide Division, and Collateral. And in spite of my initial hesitation after screening the reviews on imdb.com, I was pleased with his latest movie.

Most of the film was shot in the similar style as Collateral with some even more free cam shots especially during the final shoot out, which helps add to the feeling of confusion. As with Heat, and Collateral all the gun shot sounds are not your typical bang bang, but ring more true to sound tracks provided by the embedded reporters in Iraq.

One of the major complaints of the critics on imdb was that the movie had no plot and seemed to jump all over the place. This is completely untrue. The difference is that Mann doesn't spoon feed the audience as most Hollywood movies do, but rather asks the audience to become engaged in the movie and connect some of the dots.

The action sequences were part of the plot and they weren't so blown out of proportion or all consuming that the bits in between feel like filler. The one weakness of the film is getting the audience to buy into the relationship between Det. James 'Sonny' Crockett (Colin Farrell) and Isabella (Li Gong). The relationship is more or less thrust onto the viewer with little to no explanation, and if you don't buy into it you're left behind for the rest of the movie since it becomes a pivotal part of the plot. Mann raises the question of how deep is too deep for undercover, but never really gets around to tackling it head on, which may have been his intent. He also doesn't take the time to provide any explanation of how a young Asian woman became the right hand of an international Columbian drug cartel. This is a fatal flaw, but since he did introduce a female mob boss (an unusually character in Hollywood) it would have been nice if he'd given the audience a little more an explanation.

All in all this was an entertaining film, and if the trailer draws you in won't be disappointed (however don't expect an action packed thriller). If you enjoyed Collateral or Heat you shouldn't be disappointed by Miami Vice either, but not much would be lost in waiting for the rental.