Debunking Millenial Fears; the Green Perspective

Sorry for the absence (likely to continue due to needs of post-production on a short film) but I couldn't resist putting up the opening to an article which manages to combine two of this particular blog's likes in one: green topics + debunking the end of the world.

Entitled "The Apocalypse Makes Us Dumb" by WorldChanging's Alex Steffen, here are the first few 'graphs:

"In thinking seriously about the negative trends in our future, we're severely hampered by the Hollywood idea of the Apocalypse. That idea, in turn, has deep roots in the millenarianism of monotheistic religions (in which there is an End of Days and it's coming soon) and of 19th Century social movements (there is a Dictatorship of the Proletariat and it's coming soon). Millenarianism has its own problems, not least of which is that people do horrible things to others in the name of clearing the way for their chosen perfect future. But for our discussion here, let's just confine our understanding of the credo to what it has done to our conception of the future.

"Believing in a millennial future, or even frequently telling stories of such futures, blinds us both to what history teaches us about collapses and to what we know about our present moment. It makes us bad at thinking intelligently about the future.

"This is a topic that could use careful consideration from a number of angles, but I have about 30 minutes to write today, so instead let's just list some of the futurist fallacies we tend to embrace because (whether we're consciously aware of it or not), we're applying a millennial lens to the events unfolding around us.

"1) The Apocalypse is coming. There is a tendency to believe that big, catastrophic and singular events are going to come and destroy everything: that the Bird Flu or whatever is going to suddenly happen and immediately life will be hell. (The funniest example of this is climate change in The Day After Tomorrow, where sea level rise is so sudden that water rushes down the streets of New York in great rolling waves.)

"2) The Apocalypse is forever. In disaster movies and such, people seem to lack the ability to regroup and rebuild. Sometimes a hero will -- usually by killing a monster/ warlord/ robot/Tina Turner -- win the chance for one small group to start over, but the implication is usually that the rest of the planet's a write off for the imaginable future.

But naturally, you want to read the rest. Be my guest... click here.

Doom-mongering, Eco-optimism and Green Cities

A very interesting debate is shaping up on green and eco-blogs in that warnings of woe and disaster are actually a huge disincentive when it comes to mobilising people to embracing sustainable and environmentally-conscious living.

What is it in the human pyche that is so drawn to the thought of its own doom, yet somehow thrives far better on the hope it so easily dismisses in favour of fear?

I know that I, personally, am functioning a lot better now that I am getting better acquainted with the burdgeoning clean technologies out there, and the willingness of so many different kinds of people to voluntarily re-structure their lives, their hopes for the future and their day-to-day needs to acknowledge the vital interdependence of everything and live more lightly on the earth.

Indeed, optimism and a willingness to see oneself connected to everything - in contrast to surrendering our privileges as part of confronting the exigencies of global warming and climate change - makes for a much more palatable combination, and is, thus, ultimately more of a motivation toward eco-positive living.

Speaking of interdependence, many of the posts at the WorldChanging site are dedicated to green cities and how living in community is better for us and for the environment.

You can't get much better than the unrelentingly thorough analysis entitled, "My Other Car is a Bright Green City," by Alex Steffen, which posits the following, amid weighing up the impact of suburban individualism, mobility and inefficient land use:

"I think whether or not green cars arrive, building bright green cities is a winning strategy: if the cars don't arrive, land-use change is clearly needed to save our bacon; if they do arrive, they might well fit quite nicely into the new fabric of sustainable urban life, and we're all better off for it -- the air's that much cleaner, the grid that much smarter, our economic advantage in clean technology that much greater.

"Most arguments against land-use change presume that building compact communities is a trade-off; that investing in getting walkable, denser neighborhoods, we lose some or a lot of our affluence or quality of life. What if that's not true, though? What if the gains actually far outweigh the costs not only in ecological and fiscal terms, but in lifestyle and prosperity terms as well? I think that's the case.

"I believe that green compact communities, smaller well-built homes, walkable streets and smart infrastructure can actually offer a far better quality of life than living in McMansion hintersprawl in purely material terms: more comfort, more security, more true prosperity. But even more to the point, I believe they offer all sorts of non-materialistic but extremely real benefits that suburbs cannot. Opponents of smart growth talk about sacrificing our way of life -- but it's not a sacrifice if what you get in exchange is superior."

I happen to agree, but then, I would, since I am definitely a city person, despite my love of nature - and I dream of a future in which urban communities are not merely better integrated with their surrounding environment and ecosystems, but which also change our collective way of thinking about life. Towns and cities, in other words, in which the natural world isn't kept at bay, in which people walk, cycle or take public transport from place to place and where neighbours know and look out for each other.

In addition, I dream of an urban simplicity that does not sacrifice technological advances - something Steffen mentions when he says:

Wired urban living might very well soon evolve into a series of systems for letting us live affluent, convenient lives without actually owning a lot of things. If cities are engines for creating social connections, walkshed technologies might be said to make those connections into tools for trumping the hassle of owning stuff with the pleasure of using stuff to get the vivid experiences and deep relationships we crave. If that happens, we'll have a major leverage point to work with.

You can read the rest of Steffen's intriguing analysis here.

The Not-So-Small Voice of Silence (Or How One Actor Got Green in L.A.)

Hope y'all have pardoned me the flights of whimsy over the last few days. There are times when doom and gloom must take a momentary backseat to creativity and my metaphysical pursuits. But today, I'm back in my eco-saddle and want to introduce American actor/eco-activist Ed Begley Jr., who has been an enthusiastic proponent of a green lifestyle since the '70s - which is some feat considering he was, and is still living in, not-always-environmentally-conscious Los Angeles (a shout out here to Baskingshark since the City of Angels is his favourite place to be).

DIGRESSION: As an aspiring film director myself, Hollywood film production - of which L.A. is the heart - is incredibly, incredibly environmentally unfriendly a process, given the need to make expensive projects made in as little time as possible. When I was studying at Columbia's graduate film programme in NYC, one of the things said early on in a producing class that has always stayed with me is that the three key factors in filmmaking are speed of production, keeping costs low, and scope of production (production value). You can have any two, but not all three. Usually, Hollywood features are willing to boost speed of shooting (to capture those key Box Office niches and release slots) and production value, at the (literal) expense of budget. Alas, the money funnelled into such productions goes into making the picture pretty not environmentally friendly. I shudder to think at the sheer VOLUME of bottled water feature film crews go through (and then toss away) with every project.

But to get back to my original topic, one of my fave faith-based sites, beliefnet.com has an interview with Begley Jr. and his green ways, which also, interestingly enough, allows insight into his more spiritual views of living lightly on the planet, too.

Here are the first few paragraphs:

"Maybe you remember him from the 80's TV show St. Elsewhere, but chances are Ed Begley Jr.'s floppy California charm has infiltrated your consciousness as "that environmentalist actor guy." He's no greeny-come-lately. Begley started driving an electric car in the 1970s and was using solar power long before it was vaguely chic, much less tax deductible.

"Now he's espousing the green way through a reality show on HGTV, "Living with Ed." In its second season, it follows his struggles with his less stringently eco wife Rachelle over things like a gigantic red rain barrel. He puts up solar Christmas lights, "audits" his celebrity friends' homes for their green factor, and rides a bike to power his toaster. And now he's spreading the message further with a book out in February 2008, "Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life."

"Begley recently chatted with Beliefnet from his Los Angeles home about the importance of silence, not rushing into tranquility, and how we can all be gentler on the earth without roughing up our wallets."

You can read the rest of the fascinating interview: here.

While we're on the subject of green living, I have been looking around at new green sites to add my (ever-growing) list of worthy links, and I came upon this one

To whit, a site focusing on the environment of Cyprus and beyond - very exciting to stumble on for an oft-frustrated inhabitant of this beautiful island, whose natural resources are taken for granted by most of us who live here.

The link above takes you to, "The 10 Environmental Commandments", which site author Brian Ellis introduces in the following way:

"These 10 Commandments are tips to save you money, as well as to help protect the environment. Each Cypriot, man woman and child, produces on an average over 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels each year. This is the main greenhouse gas, responsible for climate change or global warming. This is about 40 to 50 per cent more than many western European countries and is a blot on our nation’s escutcheon. By following these ten simple commandments, we can make a significant dent in this hefty amount of pollution. At the same time, our air would be healthier to breathe and, above all, we can save a lot of money, both individually and collectively."

Needless to say, I'll be returning to the "Cyprus: The Environment" site frequently to check for updates on eco-happenings round the island.