Good Stuff

The Death of Environmentalism - A personal breakthrough?

Being a bit of a pessimist and doomsday merchant at times, I sometimes struggle to remain buoyant about our collective future. It seems like the more aware of the problems we face I become, the more helpless I feel. So reading about this book really cheered me up.

Tom Schueneman of Triple Pundit writes on the subject:

“Complaint-based environmentalism focuses on the fatalism of an overpopulated world constantly in the throes of the next ongoing environmental catastrophe; that ultimately, in terms of our energy-intensive modern society, things are as good a they’re going to get and will naturally get worse...

By shifting focus, and thus our actions, through innovative and creative thinking and holding to a firm belief in progress, that is the key to a sustainable and prosperous future – for everyone. It is, then, the death of environmentalism."

Focusing on the solution and not the problem has always worked for me. The nagging voice in the back of my head that telling me to run to the hills is but a distant echo tonight. I'm off to Amazon to get my copy.

Green Marketing Manifesto

He's promising free copies to bloggers who link to this post but I'm plugging John Grant's new book regardless.

I was lucky enough to read through an early draft and I can tell you it's packed full of useful stuff if you're interested in how green issues can be used as a platform for communication and innovation. (everyone should be) I'd love to have gone along to the launch party tonight but I don't think it would hae been that environmentally responsible. Instead, I'll have a glass of wine tonight and read through a few pages.

Reading can be dangerous

At least reading the wrong books can be as Adbusters point out.

Hey, look what I'm reading!

This interesting section of interview comes via Johnny Moore..

Watts Wacker:

"Perhaps the biggest trend that I would pay attention to in the short run is that while consuming is never going to go away, consuming as the defining criteria for individuals is. We are now using our media consumption as opposed to our physical consumption to explain who we are.
So you don't go to a party anymore and say, you know, "Where'd you go to college? What kind of car do you drive? Where do you live?" Now you say "What do you blog? What websites do you surf? Have you read the article in Vanity Fair on terrorism in South America? Are you an Imus or a Stern person? Have you seen The Departed?"

Not sure whether I agree with this entirely, after all, we have always been able to define ourselves by the things we read and watch, but it's an interesting observation. I was just chatting earlier to some friends who run a commercial production company here in Copenhagen about how the stuff you send to others says so much about how you would like to be perceived by them.

Here's the full interview.

Inspiration: One way to pursue win/win in personal or organizational needs.

Last year I met the author of “Nonviolent communication” (Girafsprog), Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, in Copenhagen. When you experience the guy live and interactive, he is extremely inspiring.

Have a look at one of his interviews if you’re interested. Warning: 28 minutes, and this is only part I!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvFeY5GXtQo