Doc Review: Carbon Nation (2010)

I internalize my anguish over global warming more so than the average American…who am I kidding, if the average American was in anguish about global warming, we would have a lot more regulations in place… It’s hard to stay positive when there are just so many ecological failures lately. Frankly, some days all you want to do is curl up with a White Russian and watch episodes of “Always Sunny in Philadelphia”. So, It took me a full 3 weeks to finally watch the documentary Carbon Nation. I couldn’t psych myself up for yet another documentary that rehashes the same old doomsday prophesies and statistics that make you want to throw yourself off the non-solar-panel covered roof.

Fortunately, Carbon Nation paints a much more positive look at how we can combat the climate crisis. Yes, we’re still in dire straits, but even if you don’t believe in climate change, it presents solutions that just make good economical sense. (“So if you don’t give a damn about the environment, do it because you’re a greedy bastard and you just want cheap power.”—THE BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEER)

So if you’re still thinking there’s no hope and why bother, this documentary offers positive stories from dozens of positive voices who truly believe we can fix this problem. (My favorite of all the “characters” interviewed has to be Michael Dunham, the ex-rock n roll concert promoter who after a near death experience began a company that recycles old and inefficient refrigerators (JACO Environmental)…ironically, his father helped create the technology that helps keeps modern refrigerators cold! It also presents my 2 new favorite eco-enterprises: creating biodiesel from algae and using mycorrhizal fungi for carbon sequestration.

Reading List: In-N-Out Burger (A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules)

It’s no secret how much I love In-N-Out burgers… and after reading the In-N-Out Burger: (A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules
by Stacy Perman) I’m now head over heels. All super-fans have their quirks—I liked learning that like me, Julia Child used to keep a map of locations with her and that I’m not the only one who plans my travel according to how early I can get a Double Double (10:30A) and route myself around to hit up a location I haven’t been to yet.

The definition of corporate simplicity and amazing business model:
• “Do one thing and do it well”: A basic menu that includes no more than 10 choices (with a secret menu that makes variations limitless), choices that have changed minimally in their 60 years in business—a direct contrast to most fast food restaurants which trot out a new menu item several times a year (For a limited time only!) in hopes of bringing in more traffic.
• In-N-Out’s motto “Quality you can taste” should be followed with “Do what you love and have fun doing it”, as shown by the smiles and courteousness of their employees. Not once in 15 years have I noticed a bored or sullen employee.
• Their original expansions were done only when they had enough cash to buy new store locations. The In-N-Out dining experience remains special occasion because in 60 years, they’re only hitting 265 locations (in contrast, McDonalds now has over 32,000 locations.)
• Harry and Esther Snyder, the founders have always paid their employees a fair wage, often several dollars higher than the minimum wage.
• The company routinely makes the top of fast food customer satisfaction lists and was about the only chain that emerged from Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation unscathed.
• Their online customer service is a dream…I sent a ‘hey thanks for all you do and could you open a new location’ email on a Sunday morning, I had a personalized response within 10 minutes.

Simpler or Too Fast?

So I got this new little toy for my computer… A wireless USB connection card that allows me to be online wherever I want (provided there’s a cell phone signal in the area). After spending the last 10 years dialing up whenever I wanted to be online at home or having to stop at public libraries while driving cross country to check my email, this is a radical change for me. I’ve resisted upgrading for years in order to save money ($20 for a phone line sure beats whatever the going rate for DSL and wireless networks are—over that 10 year period, I’ve easily saved thousands of dollars) but now it’s time to enter the 21st century. I’m a little saddened that I will lose that time that I would spend waiting for websites to load that I would usually get up and move around the apartment, multi-tasking as I waited. Will I fill that time that I don’t need to wait anymore with something productive? Or will I just waste more time online looking for things I don’t really need or want? Will the fact that I got impatient that it took 5 minutes for a page to load before be supplanted by getting upset if a page doesn’t now load in 30 seconds? Will this new technology really make my life simpler or make it go too fast?

Reading List: "Confessions of An Eco-Sinner" & "Where Am I Wearing"

While being waylaid with a chest infection, I’ve had plenty of time to sack out on the couch and catch up on some light reading. Well, and with the absence of any fluffy tomes on my reading list, instead I picked a couple of “where my stuff is from” books. Both “Where Am I Wearing: A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories and People That Make Our Clothes” (Kelsey Timmerman, 2008) and “Confessions of an Eco-Sinner: Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff” (Fred Pearce, 2008) give the reader an insight into where and how everyday items are created. Both books covered “sweatshop” conditions but both challenged the notion that “sweatshop” is always a bad concept. Timmerman traveled to China, Bangladesh, and Honduras to uncover how his favorite items of clothing were made. What I liked most about his book was the photographs and stories he included about the real workers. And while the conditions that these workers are exposed to are what we consider low pay, long hours and toxic working conditions, he debates that if there was a boycott on the items that they make, these people would have even less than they have now.

Pearce’s book expands the search from clothes to other consumer goods such as coffee, computers, where his trash goes and even where his wedding ring came from. His book also opened my eyes to things I never knew existed (did you know there is a gold mine in South Africa that has supplied more gold to the planet than anywhere else on earth and that at any time there are 60,000 men working underground?) but also changed my mind on conventional thinking: (they have noted that it takes less energy to make virgin paper from trees than it takes to recycle old paper into new, that if everyone on the planet emitted as much carbon as the average Chinese person, there would be no climate crisis, that around polluted sewage drains there seem to be a higher abundance of thriving wildlife as compared to clean areas, and that if current population rates continue, the only population crisis will be that there are not ENOUGH people to support the human race.)

Both books are good examples on why we should never stop learning about where our “stuff” comes from and where it goes to once we’re done with it.

Reading List: "Stirring It Up"

Just finished reading Gary Hirshberg’s new book “Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World”… Hirshberg is the founder and CE-Yo of the Stonyfield Farms Yogurt empire and long time fighter of the good fight in terms of organic farming, recycling and all-around ecological goodness.
Hirshberg is positive about our ability as a society (and specifically business owners) to turn things around and I think that’s an important trait for this type of book. Too much of the ecological reading of late is all doom and gloom without positive solutions to back it up. He presents other companies that are also making headway into making a difference (many of the usual suspects are recapped here) Clif Bars, Patagonia, Newman’s Own, and Timberland but a few others that one might not expect like WalMart, who have come a long way in their struggle to no longer be deemed the root of all evil. Overall, a pretty good quick read with positive themes and important details on why we should all take a little more interest in how companies do business in the age of climate change.

Dreamhost: Green Host!

Was happy to learn that my web hosting site Dreamhost has purchased carbon neutral offsets to compensate for amount of carbon emissions the company creates (as much as 545 average sized homes!) It's not going to single-handedly reverse global warming, but if only every company was this eco-conscious. To learn more about Dreamhost's carbon neutral project click here.

The Ink-Free Office of the Future

Trolling around on mental_floss yesterday and came across this interesting idea: Apparantly Xerox is developing a printer (and subsequently a paper) that requires no ink or toner. Wha!? Kind of a crazy concept to wrap one's head around, but it goes a little something like this: the "printer" uses a "coating" several microns thick to put your printed information on to the paper. Within 24 hours, the image has magically erased itself and the paper can be reused again for up to 50 times. Granted the test images they're showing look a lot like the old mimeograph copies of my childhood math tests, but I'm a sucker for any creative new technology that changes the way we think about using so much paper. Click here for an interview direct from a Xerox innovator (by way of The Future of Things) Stay tuned...

Monopoly? I love that game.

Out on a walk today I noticed a billboard… “Every 11 seconds another person switches back to the new AT&T.” A blatantly misleading billboard to say the least, as no one has a choice in this matter. (my own local phone carrier has changed 3 times in 10 years: PacBell to SBC and now AT&T).
It seems the country has forgotten all about the mandatory breaking up of AT&T for monopolistic practices starting January 1st, 1984 into 7 separate “Baby Bells”.

I read this quote on DIYMEDIA.NET today: “Right before the new year, without the benefit of a public meeting or vote, the FCC approved the corporate marriage of AT&T and BellSouth. With this $85 billion deal, Ma Bell is basically just two mergers away from being fully-reconstructed.” Why is Bill Gates being prosecuted for monopoly practices but AT&T isn’t? No one else is noticing this giant whale eating all the fish in the sea??