Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, there are some pretty vocal people who are still working hard AGAINST even the very notion of climate change, mostly because it’s in their own best interests to do so.  The newest issue of Rolling Stone magazine, always a bit of a lightning rod, has a list of the “17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming”, within an even bigger piece about the industries working hard to block progress on climate change. What an eye-opener!   I’ve always kind of thought of Warren Buffett as a sort of “benevolent billionaire” who does the right thing with his billions … imagine my surprise to learn that he bought the BNSF railroad because it’s a large hauler of coal!

Anyway, you should read the list, it’s a good one.  And no offense against anglo-saxon caucasian types, but the list consists quite literally of a bunch of older white “gentlemen” and Senator Mary Landrieu (who, frankly, is taking a rather bizarre pro-drilling stance in her home state of Louisiana, which stands to lose possibly the most if the ice melts and the seas rise).  If it weren’t so sad, it would be comical … you can almost throw these guys in costume and put them in any period piece as “the villians” of every Hollywood epic ever made.  The sad part is, they have to know they’re wrong – but they don’t care, because A) they are all too rich to care, and B) their continued wealth depends on them being willfully and purposefully deceptive.  When you consider how much is at stake … well, it would be nice if these people experienced a “rehabilitation” from “climate killer” to “climate buddy”.

Image courtesy of the Washington Post

So what do we have to do to get Americans to care about climate change?  Sadly it took a giant hurricane and the near total destruction of a beloved American city during Hurricane Katrina to get the country to wake up; the following year, An Inconvenient Truth came out on the heels of the environmental disaster in New Orleans, and people did start to kick it into gear.  But here we are, three years later, essentially in the same spot.  Between the presidential election, the housing bubble bursting, and the economy collapsing, we are a country with a lot on our plate.  So it’s understandable that we may have lost focus, and are tempted to dilute things like the Energy Bill that’s currently making its way through Congress.  But, although the economy may bounce back without changes in environmental policy, the environment CAN’T bounce back if we don’t try harder to fix it.  And climate change may only get worse.  The scary part is that we really don’t know.  But not caring is not helpful.

Anyway, I’m currently visiting Seattle and I’ll be venturing back down to Portland next week, and I noticed that both of these Northwestern cities not only made the list, but also have thriving streetcar and public transportation systems.  Perhaps this is why Cincinnati’s Mayor Mark Mallory was visiting Portland last week to study their streetcar system?  Streetcars, light rail, subways, buses, and bikes are used quite successfully in the Pacific Northwest and are part of what makes these cities so livable.  Cincinnati is a gorgeous and affordable city but it IS growing, and like any city that is growing, it needs to look at more sustainable forms of moving people around.  As the population grows in this, or any other mid-size city for that matter, there will be a point at which the number of cars will reach critical mass and it will become extremely difficult to get where you need to go in a reasonable amount of time.  If you don’t believe me, ask the average Los Angeleno, who spends by far more time in their car than any other drivers in the nation. When life is so short, why spend your time stuck in traffic?  Grab a book or magazine, or even your knitting needles, take the streetcar, and pat yourself on the back for saving some carbon emissions as well.

In the meantime, thanks to Marjorie for letting people know about the hard times that recent grads are having.  Cheers!

Also, if you are looking at the live version of the blog you’ll notice a very distinct new look.  I liked this WordPress theme for its simplicity but I need to get that blue splotch off the top of the page.  Baby steps!

Technology is playing a big part in the way green design is promoted nowadays, and we’d be missing out if we didn’t pay attention to this phenomenon.  Blogs connect to Twitter, which connect to mobile phones, which connect to Facebook, etc.  We can harness this technology to not only promote green design, but to educate people about it as well.  We’ll be talking about some of this when we host a panel discussion at GreenBuild in November in Phoenix, AZ, so you can look forward to further discussion of this topic here in the months leading up to the conference.

Until then, have a Twitterific day… or something.

I am apparently just in time because a climate conference just concluded in Copenhagen where Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said that “if the buildup of greenhouse gases and its consequences pushed global temperatures 9 degrees Fahrenheit higher than today — well below the upper temperature range that scientists project could occur from global warming — Earth’s population would be devastated.”  Essentially he thinks that Earth’s population will shrink down to 1 billion people if global warming is allowed to continue. Well that’s pretty rough.  Of course we can do something about it and – even if you don’t believe the hype – saving energy in your own life is a good way to go.  Here are some things to help you along the way:

• GE is launching a smart appliance pilot program. The smart grid is coming and GE is going to be ready for it, with some smart appliances to match.  From Treehugger:

“Essentially what will happen is as utilities switch from fixed rates to variable rates, they’ll send out signals to your smart meter to let it know when the price is shifting. The appliances will also get the signals and react. So for instance, if you’re going to start up your dishwasher during a time when prices are high, it might give you a warning that you want to wait to begin the load. The customer won’t have to do anything to make the appliances adjust settings, but they will be able to override it if they’d like.”

• This doesn’t have anything to do with your home but it’s awfully cool so I’m including it anyway.  Behold the routeRANK:  it not only tells you how to get where you’re going, it tells you how much CO2 you’ll waste to get there!  Unfortunately, like many cool things that we can’t have, this is available only in Europe right now, but we can dream, right?
• Finally, this is just your friendly reminder that just because something is “green design” that doesn’t mean it has to be ugly.

Until next time!  Be good  )