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When We Talk Zero, We Sound Crazy. When Bill Gates Does It, Bankers Pick Up the Phone.

On Friday, the world’s most successful businessperson and most powerful philanthropist did something outstandingly bold, that went almost unremarked: Bill Gates announced that his top priority is getting the world to zero climate emissions.

Gates predicted extraordinary climate action: zero. Not small steps, not incremental progress, not doing less bad: zero. In fact, he stood in front of a slide with nothing but the planet Earth and the number zero. That moment was the most important thing that has happened at TED.

Gates spoke about his commitment to using his massive philanthropic resources (the Gates Foundation is the world’s largest) to make life better for people through public health and poverty alleviation (”vaccines and seeds” as he put it). Then he said something he’s never said before: that is it because he’s committed to improving life for the world’s vulnerable people that he now believes that climate change is the most important challenge on the planet.

Even more importantly, he acknowledged the only sensible goal, when it comes to climate emissions, is to eliminate them: we should be aiming for a civilization that produces no net emissions, and we should be aiming to live in that civilization here in the developed world by 2050.

Why is this important? The news stories focused largely on the clean energy aspect of the speech, and certainly the world’s most successful businessman announcing that clean energy is the next frontier is a big headline. However, I think though that the real breakthrough was not Gates’ answer to the problem, but his definition of success: zero.
Bright green advocates understand that we need prosperity without planetary impact. In many of the circles I run in, this is an uncontroversial idea, and, indeed, the conversation has moved on, to discussing how we decouple better lives from ecological footprints (or even go beyond, and build a society that restores the ecosystems on which it depends).

When we talk zero, we sound crazy.

But when Bill Gates talks zero, he sounds visionary. Gates, whatever else he did Friday, just made the most important idea on the planet mainstream credible. That’s a big, big deal.

Please read the full article at WorldChanging.com

….with a splash!

International songstress Natalie Imbruglia has joined forces with ecological cleaning experts Ecover to create a compelling podcast video that explores the environmental importance of the global water cycle.

Shot in Natalie’s home, the short film explains how our actions in the UK can impact on the rest of the world and is packed with useful tips from Natalie on how to reduce water consumption.

“The protection of the environment is very important to me”, says Natalie “so I was delighted to work with Ecover to create this podcast. There’s often an abundance of water in the UK, so it’s easy to forget the very real issues of water shortage and pollution in other parts of the world. The podcast is a great way to learn more and offers some really simple tips on how we can all make a difference.”

The podcast supports Ecover’s unique partnership with conservation organisation WaterAid which provides sustainable and ongoing access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education to 11 villages and over 14,000 people in Ethiopia.

Ecover has always recognised water is a precious commodity but it was the desire to highlight the importance of protecting the water supply on a global scale that led to the unique partnership with WaterAid.

Would you like to make a difference?

To buy Ecover Products online visit the MoreEco who list the best Eco Shopping sites and be part of the 5% of families safeguarding 1/2 million Olympic swimming pools worth of water.

Also MoreEco, the Eco Shopping reward site, will donate £1 for each person who sign up using the offer code ‘wateraid’.

Other Ecover WaterAid Articles

To read more article on the Ecover Water Project <click here>

Louise Gray from the Telegraph writing that Ten Danson predicts that a new film about the overfishing of the oceans will turn ordinary consumers into activists against eating endangered species of fish.

Described as the “Inconvenient Truth of the Oceans”, the End of the Line warns that if overfishing continues, there will be no more seafood by 2048 – threatening many areas of the world with starvation. In the new film former Daily Telegraph journalist Charles Clover confronts the politicians who have failed to stop overfishing and the celebrity restaurateurs who continue to serve endangered species like bluefin tuna.

At one point it is revealed that restaurant chain Nobu, whose customers have included Brad Pitt and Kate Moss, has repeatedly refused to stop serving bluefin although it now advises diners the dish is “environmentally challenged”.

Ted Danson, the Cheers actor and founder of Oceana, the largest international group focused solely on ocean conservation, predicted the film will make ordinary people so angry they will be turned into activists against non sustainably-sourced fish.

The film, selected for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, features indigenous fishermen, top scientists and campaigners all around the world, from the coasts of Senegal to the Tokyo fish market and Senegal.

Mr Danson said more people need to be made aware of the threat of overfishing. “This is not the environmental alarmist. We, conceivably could fish out our oceans in the next 40 or 50 years,” he said. “This is science.”

The End of the Line will premiered at cinemas across the UK on World Ocean Day on the 8th June.

Rumour has it that Brad Pitt is going into the Amazon.

He will play out the story of an enigmatic explorer in search of his personal El Dorado. The explorer in question was Colonel Percy Fawcett, a highly resilient English surveyor who set off almost 85 years ago on his final expedition into the Amazon.  Fawcett, a celebrated veteran of many journeys into the unknown, secretly believed he had discovered scientific evidence of a lost civilisation within the vastness of what today is known as the Xingu, in north-eastern Brazil. 

Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, he remained resolute and journeyed repeatedly into the forest, determined to find it.  Newspapers published despatches detailing his quest for many months, but then all news ceased. Like Livingstone 50 years before him, Fawcett had vanished into a dark continent; only this time, no-one ever found him. 

Source; Andrew Mitchell of the BBC

1. Dirty Water by the Standells - Over 40 years ago, this band from Los Angeles sang a love/hate song for the water in a city 3,000 miles away. Boston’s dirty water became an issue in the 1988 presidential race, and the song became a theme for the city’s sports teams. The Standells are a lot older now. The water’s a bit cleaner now. And the Red Sox rule.
2. Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology) by Marvin Gaye - “Oil wasted on the oceans and upon our sea, fish full of mercury.”
3. Nothing but Flowers by the Talking Heads is a wistful view of development in reverse: “There was a shopping mall, now it’s all covered with flowers.”
4. Big Yellow Taxi, originally by Joni Mitchell and covered by many, including the Counting Crows. “You pave paradise and put up a parking lot.”
5. Tapestry by Don McLean - The guy who is often only remembered for “American Pie” also wrote this beautiful, foreboding message: “We’re poisoned by venom with each breath we take/from the brown sulfur chimney and the black highway snake.”
6. My City Was Gone by the Pretenders - A mournful tale about the destruction of a city (Akron, Ohio) and the creation of soulless suburbs. I’ll never figure out how this became Rush Limbaugh’s radio theme song.
7. Dead Heart by Midnight Oil - Peter Garrett, the lead singer for the band, has changed jobs. He’s now Australian’s Environment Minister. On an honorable mention note, John Hall, the lead singer of the 1970s band Orleans and a headliner in the No Nukes concert, is now a Congressman from upstate New York.
8. Where Do the Children Play? - by the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens. He stopped performing after his conversion to Islam, but the man now known as Yusuf Islam has begun to perform his old tunes again, mostly for charity.
9. Oh Lord Don’t Let Them Drop that Atomic Bomb on Me: Like Percy Mayfield, jazz legend Charles Mingus freaked out over the Cold War and originally recorded this in 1961.
10. Before the Deluge: Jackson Browne has worked long and hard for environmental causes; this is the best of many songs that touch on the topic.

The Age Of Stupid is fronted by Oscar-nominated British actor Pete Postlethwaite. It’s a drama documentary set in 2055 which foretells a world that has been decimated by a failure to act on climate change.  The film premiered in London last weekend and goes into UK wide cinemas on 20, 21 & 22 of March.  

It needs as much publicity as possible to make sure the film & it’s message gains momentum – how about joining ‘I’ve changed my profile pic to Pete Postlethwaite in Age of Stupid’ facebook group, change your profile pic or just go to www.ageofstupid.net and find out where you can see the film this weekend.

Trailer

Ed Miliband is challenged by director Franny Armstrong and the movie’s star, Pete Postlethwaite, pledges his support to the Not Stupid campaign by vowing to return his OBE if the UK government fails to secure urgent and drastic global decarbonisation at Copenhagen.

The Age of Stupid is the new movie from Director Franny Armstrong (McLibel) and producer John Battsek (One Day In September). Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance? It will be released in UK cinemas on 20 March 2009, followed by other countries.

In a surprise event, Brad Pitt paid a visit to the White House yesterday for meetings with bothPresident Barack Obama and Democratic congressional leaders. The actor was in town to discuss his charity and green rebuilding efforts in New Orleans through the organization Make It Right NOLA. “I just want to say thank you to the Speaker for opening up her doors for us to come in and discuss the rebuilding effort, the current rebuilding effort going on in New Orleans and how we can expand this idea of affordability and sustainability, because we think we have a model that works,” he said. On Wednesday, Pitt also met with Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

Apparently, Pitt’s meeting with Obama was kept secret — an interesting decision, since thePresident’s meeting with George Clooney last weekwas made public well in advance. Once word got out, however, the White House went star crazy.From the AP,

The Power of Pitt drained entire congressional offices of their female employees and quite a few male aides as well, all of whom could be picked out by the way they suddenly appeared in the Senate’s doorways and halls, nonchalantly cupping cell phones and cameras at their sides and hanging around waiting news crews.

Hopefully, Pitt was able to get a few people to pay attention to his effort in ‘Nawlins. Make It Right officially opened several of its planned 150 green, sustainable homes in the Lower 9th Ward last December. The project has been a great success — and the overarching goal of the organization has always been to expand its model of sustainability to other areas in need. Fingers crossed that this administration will back the org to make that vision possible.

Source; Ecorazzi

It’s hard to win over friends and family to some of the more sacrificial aspects of the eco-lifestyle, but perhaps their occasional reticence is related to decades of fictional green meanies on the big screen?

Below are the five film characters we think are in need of a green-tervention.

1. Batman from The Dark Knight

2. Royal Tenenbaum from The Royal Tenenbaums

3. Saruman from Lord of the Rings

4. Walter Sobchak from The Big Lebowski

5. Emperor Palpatine from Return of the Jedi

For the full low down on these not so green film characters got to Super Eco.

Source; Super Eco