Carbon Discredits

This is my second pub on Technorati:
http://pingerati.net/lifestyle/green/article/carbon-discredits/



The whole idea of cap and trade (or carbon credits or carbon offsets) is a dumb and moreover indirect way of tackling environmentalism. Futures speculating is fun for sports betting where - save for degenerates - quality of life or critical things like the environment aren't on the line, but it's a weird and indirect way of dealing with problems. Imagine monetizing something like speed limits into futures - absurd, right?

The answer is to deal with driving and speeding directly - pay to register and drive, pay for your license, pay to pollute (smog check), pay for your insurance, pay for your citations... etc. Direct seems to work. If you're a business that pollutes, why should it be any different? I'll tell ya why - with cap and trade/carbon credits, HUGE pools of money will be gambled that some think will dwarf the energy futures market. And therein lies the rub of this model - it's gambling. By creating a futures market out of pollution, the game makers have created a casino, and everyone knows that casinos make their billions off of the fish.

And the ones who will reap from Uncle Scam and Wall Street's newest casino are, once again, huge institutional pools of money. Matt Taibbi knows who they are, and guess what? They have an enormous edge. [This allusion's for Mitchy; ~~cue Jim Healy impression~~ I won't mention any names, but their initials are "GS", that's "GS." ~~cue Healy funny laugh sound effect~~]

Yeah, Yeah. Big surprise, I know.

Watch Your Waste

As usual, Frisco is ahead of LA.

NPR, at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113969321

October 21, 2009

Tossing food scraps in your garbage can is a crime — at least in San Francisco.

A brand-new city law requires residents to discard food waste in a separate bin.

It's the first program of its kind in the nation, and so far, it's a mandate San Franciscans seem to relish. In fact, many residents and landlords began implementing the law before it took effect, using their city-provided food recycling bins to separate waste.

Cutting Down On (Stinky) Refuse

After enforcing a food waste rule, the garbage room in the basement of the Cathedral Hill Plaza apartments in San Francisco is longer a malodorous sty.

"It doesn't smell so bad," says Linda Corso, the apartment manager. "Our trash room doesn't stink like it used to."

That's because none of the wet garbage, the food waste, goes down there anymore, Corso says. Instead, food scraps go into sealed compost bins that get picked up by the city. Corso says the program has significantly trimmed the building's garbage costs.

"We used to have two bins picked up every day," she says. "Now we're down to one bin every day. So we've cut that in half."

Garbage officials in the city have been stunned and heartened by the tons and tons of food waste that is already streaming in.

After picking up curbside food scraps, garbage trucks head to the south of the city to the Organics Annex, the heart of the citywide food waste operation.

Jared Blumenfeld, the city's environmental officer, says the Organic Annex is already processing about half of the city's food waste, which is more than 500 tons per day.

"You can see a lot of lettuce, tomatoes, old apples, rotten cabbages," Blumenfeld says. "You get a kind of vivid picture here of what's being thrown away."

San Francisco turns all of that food refuse into compost, which is then sold to Bay Area farms and vineyards. The program is the latest effort in one of the most aggressive recycling campaigns in the nation. San Francisco currently keeps 72 percent of its garbage stream out of the landfill by recycling cans, bottles, construction material and cooking oil. Blumenfeld says that even though the program officially launches Wednesday, he's not surprised by how many people are already fully participating.

'Not Rocket Science'

"We hear a lot about climate change, and what we can do and should do, and what's happening in Congress," Blumenfeld says. "But people want to know what they can, practically, do every single day, and composting your food scraps is probably the single most effective thing you can do as a citizen in the United States today."

Blumenfeld says composting is simpler than it may seem.

"This is not rocket science," he says. "This is putting some food scraps into a different pile and then turning it into compost. If we can't do that, then I really worry about our ability to do some of those more complex things."

The city can fine people for noncompliance, but officials say they are unlikely to use that power except in extreme cases. San Francisco's ultimate and fairly lofty goal — according to Blumenfeld — is to get to zero waste, meaning no garbage at all going into landfills, by the year 2020.

Tristram Stewart, Waste

Sundance Channel's, "The Green"

Only a few months ago I wrote about the new trinity which is inclusive of sustainable practices and green technology feeding into and supporting healthy communities. As loose as that sounds, it isn't, but I don't have the time now to go into it. Suffice to say that at this moment I understand how that is vague because of its over-arching reach. (For elucidation, go here: I wrote last year on sustainability in my take on EDENS LOST AND FOUND)

At any rate, I just caught my first viewing of Sundance's "The Green," (corny name) in all of its starbucksy feel. Actually, the program was "Big Ideas for a Small Planet," which I guess flies under the over-arching moniker. I dunno. But it was good. So, I give 'em props here.

The one company that stood out was Bart Bettencourt's and Carlos Salgado's Scrapile. While they make cool furniture from wood scraps, at one point it was suggested that the company change its name to something more "elegant." But they declined.

Good call.

Some Scrapile stuff...

The New Trinity: On Community Building, Sustainability and Green Tech

A lot of talk is going 'round about "sustainability" these days along with "green tech." Already I can see the potential for some confusion, but in their simplest forms, sustainability is a moniker that denotes whether a particular method is able to be readily replenished and ideally environmentally friendly. I say it has a deeper, wider meaning, but that'll be fleshed out below. Green tech is the noun, the thing, whether a hybrid engine, waterless urinals or low wattage light bulbs.

I'm going to go on record here and say that I think we're in the dawn of something. If you noodle enough on the Net you'll see what I mean. There're a couple of caveats...

Sustainability is more than a technology's abilities to replenish - it has to be human as well. It encompasses the revolutionary microlending of Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus and Vinod Khosla who are empowering the lowest of the low economically. Think about it like this; any system as brutal as capitalism in its present incarnation that spurns certain people for whatever reasons (race, gender, socially constructed/specific notions of ugliness, etc etc) and rewards certain others is simply not sustainable. At least theoretically, there has to be an end, because what happens when there are no longer any poor mud peeps to exploit? Then what?

Big question, eh?

The other point that must be made is that this new dawn is not fully fleshed out - again, it must incorporate humans beyond market economics. This time, it means community-building. Enough of this myth of the individual and praying to the mold of "individualism" and all of that myth crap which just serves to benefit the status quo. I mean, so much of that doo-doo on a stick I demystify in my own work with filmmakers but it's perfectly analogous because, whether it's the race to become a millionaire or to be a studio filmmaker, unless you've the connects, it ain't happening. And it's sad that I have to spell it out here, but what I mean is the rule, not the exceptions. If you still want to get all anecdotal and pull the exceptionalism card outta the deck, go ahead. See if I care.

So basically, I have this to say to the exceptionalists: Ayn Rand can go to hell.

No, my way of seeing it is a trinity: community building, sustainability and green tech. It's a pyramid with people and community-building at the top.

I'll no doubt expound on this in future posts, but I have to get to something else. Suffice this for now: I'm working on a project that has to do with this triumvirate and it's pretty exciting - I can see it, but making vision into reality is a lot like filmmaking - there's a lot of green in between, as pool players say when a ball's a long way from it's mark.

I'll leave you with this for now; I believe that the following interview of Tom Friedman by John Doerr is a seminal piece in this new dawn. I won't say why for now, but one of the biggest clues, and keys, is there. You just gotta listen.

Press "play" (the arrow in the bottom left-hand corner of the "TV frame" below).

Dig.

Pee Pee Be Gone Sustainably

Damn! Falcon Urinals rock da Palladium!

Some of you know about my interest in sustainability/green/community etc topics. They kind of mesh at some point with the bigger picture as everything does, but sweet virgin mother, I never thought it'd be pee pee I'd be writing about!

Truth of the matter is that I've been wanting to write about this for a while as "my" building where I do time on the plantation of the evil empire is fitted with Falcon Waterfree Technologies urinals. Suh-weeet!

The first time I wizzed in one of these babies I was like, "duh," cuz there's no flush handle. And I remember reading the Falcon label; "Falcon Waterfree Technologies," and thinking, "...?" What threw me off even more is that there's a snake inlet for plumbers nearby, so I even tried pushing that to no avail of course.



(Notice the snake inlets nearby?)

These things don't flush. Cause they don't use water. At all. Period.

No, instead Falcon does a filter and different kind of trap thing technology as opposed to the standard "s trap." Yeah, I know a thing or two about plumbing that's utterly useless when trying to impress broads - except when ya gotta fix something and be macho man with tools and they turn into the helpless damsel. In a French maid outfit. With stiletto heels. But I digress.

I'll post pics of our state of the art in pee pee stalls soon - those aren't exactly the kind of pics you obtain easily, if ya know what I mean. But then again, if ya don't ya betta axe sumbuddy. Note: Falcon's world hqs are here in LA. Yippee.


(Falcon orgy)

Falcon. Conjures up majestic images of a razor sharp predator, on the prowl for...

PEE PEE!!!

What does a falcon have to do with pee pee...? I dunno. I mean, look at their logo; is poor Mr. Falcon's head just peeking out above an ocean of pee pee?


Damn.

Communities Should Fight Back

my latest email list rant...

folks-

this is long. caveat emptor.

one of my pet peeves - no, major soapbox rants - is the way (in particular but not always limited to) corporations spam and price bully their piggish selves into our lives.

i mention this because everyone i know is fed up with the direction our country is headed. what's needed? among the necessities, here are a few i think are required:

1. motivation: a knowledge base of real-world, concrete examples of individuals and communities doing real things to sustain and empower local communities. i am particularly interested in entrepreneurship that energizes communities through letting ideas from the grassroots flower.

2. networking - a consistent platform, not only virtual but real-world, for people to come together and experience the unique dynamic of synergy. i believe synergy is the one thing that local communities and those individuals possess that is our greatest resource - but also the most under-developed. during the dot-com boom, there was a now legendary tech group that met in santa monica quite regularly - VIC, or the Venice Interactive Community (later, the Virtual Interactive Community, i believe, when it grew). their gatherings were thick with the buzz of "something's in the air." some entrepreneur MUST be out there who can figure out how to cater to a comparable audience around sustainability issues and community empowerment.

3. capital - this may be too obvious but i think the approach to capital is soft-peddled and not met with force in the non-profit or community-based realm. financially struggling is no one's idea of a good time, and i've seen it time and again with non-profits and entrepreneurs. one of the problems is that there is no community-based approach to capital - it's always tied in one form or another to corporations. if an idea is funded, say, by relatives and friends, their concentration is so small as to make it a fairly sizable risk. this is what a lot of filmmakers run into - i hear it all the time.

there is a tribal community in africa i heard of years ago that had a novel - and synergistic - approach to capital. when one of the community members had an idea for a business, the rest of the community would pitch in and fund it. then later, when another had an idea, it would make the same rounds. i'm assuming the ideas had to of course pass muster, but the point is they practiced sound investment fundamentals: minimizing risk by spreading it around in small amounts and diversifying their portfolios. simply: by playing the odds via diversification, their bets (investments are bets) are hedged toward probability.

and the more good bets one places, the greater expectation one has. that is what "odds" are about. this is what professional gamblers do. and make no mistake, investors are no different - they are gamblers. (there are of course contextual distinctions...)

one exciting, community-based approach to capital is MICROLENDING. if you're unfamiliar with the subject, there is perhaps no better example of its power than Vinod Khosla.

what this asian brotha has done is nothing short of miraculous; empowering the poorest of the most oppressed and disenfranchised (ie: third world women of color) - and local communities here need to pry open their minds and begin looking for entrepreneurial examples outside of their narrow confines. khosla's story is nobel prize worthy, and one that i'm confident e.f. shumacher would smile at.


for those of you in LA or who know folks here, there is an event this saturday - local, community-based...

eso won books is an institution in LA's black community, and they are having their opening this saturday - tomorrow - in their new location. what's significant is that their new home is in la's black capital - leimert park.

i mention this not just because i support eso won, but i heard a piece this morning where a local leimert park entrepreneur was talking about the changes in the community - developers gentrifying, raising leases and pricing out locals (residential and commercial) and bemoaning the general decline in the community, mostly due to these changes brought on by the pursuit of profit over communities.

so, support this event (take an umbrella tho, there's a small chance of rain) - who knows, you'll get out and see LA, have a good time in one of the jewels that is our city, and hopefully connect with folks who see it the way we do.

gamblers want action, they seek it out and approach it strategically: i think community-minded folks could learn something from that.

thanks for reading.

-jp

jp's recommendation: EDEN'S LOST AND FOUND

How Ordinary Citizens are Restoring
Our Great American Cities

following is my most recent email blast...

folks-

it's rare that i email nearly everyone on my list but after watching the first part of EDENS LOST AND FOUND, i'm compelled. the first of fours parts - tonight's was on chi-town: CITY OF THE BIG SHOULDERS - was so well thought-out and produced i have to say that it's one of the best films i've seen in a while.

like just about everyone i know, we all share a sense of gloom about what's currently going on; i don't think i have to belabor that point. but this film was so inspirational and touched on not just the environment, but education, race, the generation gap, business, politics... a large menu indeed - but it accomplished it so deftly i was blown away.

it's very moving, but beyond that, it told the story of normal, every day folk - chicagoans - who're not just talking but making real impact, finding their niche in life and in the process, real joy amidst conflict, strife and history - real accomplishment in this day and age. one of the profiles of a teacher who teaches environmental science in high school was so good, it made me question why every young person couldn't have an education like that, experiences like the ones she was generating for her students, let alone teachers who dug what they did as much as she obviously does. in one of her lines she said something about how what they were doing was powerful. true that.

one more point; i as much as anyone bemoan the corporate presence on pbs, but i have to say that some of the greatest films i've seen in the past few years have come through them. along with THIRST, which i wrote about last year, EDENS LOST AND FOUND has me cheering them on. and i make a damn ugly cheerleader.

next week is part 2 on philly. then a hiatus until the fall, where i and my fellow angelenos are profiled (LA, capital of pollution and the environment!), followed by seattle.

great people, great subject, great filmmaking. small is beautiful. here're the links:


http://www.pbs.org/opb/edenslostandfound

http://edenslostandfound.org

-jp