Plenty Magazine Issue 24 Oct/Nov 2008 by Plenty Magazine

PLENTY

the whole earth catalog> How the cult became the culture

Bill McKibben On Global Warming And The Next President

The World In Green

October/ november 2008

The Dynamic Individuals, Companies, And Ideas That Are Changing The World Featuring Eco Ambassador Al Gore

Matthew McConaughey talks sheep | organic cocktails

Sustainable environments begin with sustainable communities. By helping people. And by helping the planet. Visit BeAGreenGiant.com and read about what GreenGiants like Cameron Sinclair are doing around the world. Share your own story. Or learn how you can become a GreenGiant. Sustainability for the earth and the people that live in it. That’s the difference between just being “green” and being a GreenGiant.

ÂŠ2008 Steelcase Inc.

Cameron Sinclair Architecture for Humanity It began with $700 and a laptop computer. Today, Architecture for Humanity is a worldwide network of pro bono architects and design professionals dedicated to helping communities in need. From India to Tanzania to the Gulf Coast, their sustainable design practices are touching lives and rebuilding communities in environmentally responsible ways.

BeAGreenGiant.com

PLENTY The World In Green

contents>october/november 2008

71The Plenty 20

From Al Gore to Nike to skyscraper farms, see who and what makes our annual list of people, businesses, and ideas revolutionizing how we live. By Anuj Desai, Dan FOst, Liz Galst, Tobin Hack, jessica a knoblauch, Alisa Opar, Sarah Parsons, Mindy PennyBacker, Victoria Schlesinger, and Jessica Tzerman

The Whole Earth Effect

How a grassroots publication with a four-year run influenced Craigslist and the blogosphere; saved six US rivers; and jump-started sustainable business as we know it today: An oral history of the Whole Earth Catalog, forty years later (above).

By steven kotler

2 | october-november 2008

Hot Pursuit

A compassionate carnivore makes his case for when, how, and why to hunt.

By Steven Rinella

COVER illustration: sean mccabe photograph: Mark Mainz/Getty Images plenty 20 logo: hinterland

Travel Wish # 25: Give the kids some memories that don’t involve a couch. Kids today spend more than 45 hours a week indoors on things like TV and video games. We’re here to help. With inspiring nature-trip ideas and an in-depth list of adventurous road trips, Travelocity can get your family outside, reconnecting with nature and each other. And that’s healthy for our kids and our environment.

For more information and inspiration, visit Travelocity.com/nature.

PLENTY The World In Green

contents> october/november 2008

The Hulk’s Eco-Credentials, Office Recycling, and Greening Your Halloween

104 Last Word

Jasmin Malik Chua ponders the ecodilemmas of pregnancy.

SPECTRUM

Office with a View Our Presidents by the Numbers Flying Wind Turbines Behind Slugging, aka Ride Sharing 7 Reasons Thanksgiving Turkeys Aren’t So Grateful + Eco–Video Games + NASCAR’s Green Racer + + + +

30 Life in the Green Zone

Comedian Lizz Winstead questions the limits of solar satisfaction.

CURRENT Science

+ Inside the World of Hurricane Hunters + Why Drinking Wine Saves Cork Oak Forests + How Bovine Beano Could Cut Methane Emissions

36 Business

+ The Compostable-Bag Market Surges + Purfresh Bets on Ozone to Keep Organic Food Fresh

38 Tech

+ The World’s First No-Carbon, Zero-Waste City + Turning Car Emissions Into Fuel + Plug-ins vs Hybrids: A Carbon Footprint Face-off + Catching Waves for Clean Energy

40 Activist in Residence

Bill McKibben envisions our Climate Change President’s first year in office.

LIVING People

61 The Green Fiend

Annemarie Conte goes plastics-free for a week.

62 Style

+ Striking Eco-Jackets for Fall’s Unpredictable Weather + Moroccan Argan Oil Beauty + Critical Mass: Sustainable Brand Label News + Converting Old Heels into Fabulous Flats

64 Green Media

44 Travel

GREEN GEAR® Industrial Evolution

Eco-Star Matthew McConaughey

+ India’s Island Paradise + Green City Guide: Mexico City

48 Food

+ The Skinny on Raw-Milk Cheese + Whiskey Smash and Other Locavore Libations + All-Natural Noir Treats for a Special Fright Night + Slow Food’s Carlo Petrini on How America’s Youth Can Save Sustainable Agriculture + Farm to Fork with Dan Barber

56 Home

+ Eco-Architect David Hertz Repurposes Airplane Wings for a Roof + The Flatpak Furniture Phenomenon

60 Trash to Treasure

Max McMurdo’s DIY Seatbelt Lounge Chair

New Books, Music, and Film for the Ecophile

We pick the best of today’s closed-loop products, including compostable dinner plates and Dell’s new bamboo-encased computer.

PLENTY LABS Tester’s Choice

+ The Nitty-Gritty on Nontoxic Shampoos + Top Natural Vitamins Revealed + Behind the Wheel of the Honda Civic Hybrid + Food Labels You Can Trust

100 Green, Greener, Greenest

Three-Tiered Solutions for Food Storage with Lori Bongiorno

anthony verde (cheese board, jackets, vitamins, cocktail)

6 10 Editor’s Letter 12 Letters 13 Land of Plenty 14 Contributors 16 Ask Plenty

Photographs by

IN EVERY ISSUE Plenty Online

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Your CarFun Footprint

*37 hwy/28 city MPG MINI Cooper Hardtop with manual transmission. EPA estimate. Actual mileage will vary with options, driving conditions, driving habits and vehicle operation. ©2008 MINI, a division of BMW of North America, LLC. The MINI name, model names and logo are registered trademarks.

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Check out plentymag.com to satisfy your daily craving for the latest news, blogs, and exclusive online series tackling the environmental policies of presidential candidates, the debate over biotechnology, and other pressing environmental problems. web series

This October we’ll explore the environmental agendas of Barack Obama and John McCain in an exclusive online series.

Plenty Poll results How are you cutting your use of $4 a gallon gas?

35% 28% 18% 9% 5%

More public transit, biking, and walking Bundling errands Same as I ever was Now working closer to home or at home Sold the car

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Energy and the environment are two of the top issues Americans are weighing as they consider who to vote for in the No vember 4 presidential election. Proclaimed greenies or not, constituents are more aware than ever that preserving the planet and cutting our energy use are essential to our future. The next president will have to masterfully balance those needs. We’ll take a look at the past priorities of both Democrats and Republi cans, their proposals for the future, and some of the situations that best reveal their stances on environmen tal and energy issues.

rachel leibman

Election Green

PLENTY The World In Green October/November 2008

Editor in Chief & Publisher Mark Spellun Creative Director Tracy Toscano Deputy Editor Anuj Desai Senior Editors Alisa Opar, Mindy Pennybacker Associate Editors victoria schlesinger, jessica Tzerman Assistant Editors Tobin Hack, Sarah Parsons Style Editor Starre Vartan Copy Editors Iya Perry, Dave Zuckerman Proofreader adam Stiles Fact Checkers Bryan Abrams, Christine Gordon Intern Jessica a Knoblauch Contributors Dan barber, annemarie conte, lisa selin davis, liz galst, bill mckibben, lizz winstead Art Associate Art Director Lindsay Kurz Associate Photo Editor Rachel Leibman Contributors josh cochran, camilla slattery, felix sockwell, anthony verde Advertising & MArketing Associate Publisher Lisa Haines | 415.887.9574 | lisa@plentymag.com Western Manager Nina Sventitsky | 949.276.5513 | nina@plentymag.com Midwest Manager Cheryl Kogut | 312.494.1919 | ckogut@newco.com Detroit Manager Joe McHugh | 586.360.3980 | joewmchugh@hotmail.com Marketing & Creative Services Manager Morgen Wolf 212.757.0048 | morgen@plentymag.com Published by Environ Press, Inc. Chairman: Arnold Spellun 250 West 49th Street, Suite 403 New York, New York 10019 Phone: 212.757.3447 Fax: 212.757.3799

Subcriptions: 800.316.9006 Unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, and other materials must be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Plenty will not be responsible for unsolicited submissions. Send letters to the editor to letters@plentymag.com or to Plenty, 250 West 49th Street, Suite 403, New York, NY 10019. Copyright ©2008 by Environ Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Views expressed herein are those of the author exclusively. Plenty (ISSN 1553-2321) is published bimonthly, six times a year. The annual subscription price is $12 per year. Plenty is a publication of Environ Press, Inc., 250 West 49th Street, Suite 403, New York, New York 10019. Periodical postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Plenty, P.O. Box 621, Mt. Morris, IL 61054-7568 or call 800.316.9006.

PLENTY is printed on body stock that’s free of elemental

chlorine and contains 85 to 100 percent recycled content (20 to 30 percent post-consumer). Our cover stock uses 10 percent recycled content, is Forest Stewardship Council–certified, and is made using green power. Plenty offsets its carbon footprint with eMission Solutions, a division of Green Mountain Energy (greenmountain.com).

Please recycle. 08-ETR-0585

plentyeditor’s letter

HEALTH BENEFITS OF WHOLE SOY Soybeans are rich in fiber, vitamins, minerals, omega 3 fatty acids, phytonutrients and protein. In fact, the complete protein source.

SOY PROVIDES BONE AND HEART HEALTH BENEFITS. Nutritious whole soy is rich in isoflavones, which are plant-based compounds with antioxidant properties. Soy isoflavones are thought to be responsible for some of soy’s health benefits, including bone health. In addition, according to the FDA, incorporating 25 grams of soy protein per day into a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol may improve heart health.

MAKE WHOLE SOY A PART OF YOUR DAILY DIET.

ver since Noah built his ark, there have been groups of people trying to save the planet. But as a magazine that focuses on the modern environmental movement, we tend to look back only about 40 years. Why? That’s when the ethos of today’s environmentalism started to take shape. In the fall of 1968, Stewart Brand found ed the Whole Earth Catalog, and it changed the environmental movement forever. The publication and its contributors helped inspire the creation of Google and the entire blogosphere; the saving of six rivers; and the development of sustainable business practices as we know them today. After compiling more than 30 hours of inter views for our oral history of the publication (page 84), we realized its sphere of influ ence was so complete it felt wholly nec essary to borrow a phrase and dub the legacy the Whole Earth Effect. The Whole Earth Catalog sought to give us the tools to be free and shape our world as we saw fit. For instance, if you were interested in learning more about solar energy in the late ’60s, the Catalog was where you turned. But many of the ideas first presented in the pages of this cult classic have now gone mainstream. Today, evidence of the popularity of those ideas can be found in the products, concepts, and leadership featured in this

issue’s cover story, The Plenty 20. We came out with our inaugural edition of this list of companies that we thought were go ing to change the world in our February/ March 2007 issue. The honored business es covered the gamut, from a nonprofit trying to make two-stroke engines more efficient in the developing world to some of the largest industrial companies in the process of completely reinventing themselves. This year’s list (page 71) rounds up a new set of companies just as remarkable as the first. But we’re adding a twist for 2008: We recognize 20 people who are impacting the planet—including our cover star Al Gore—and we highlight ten ideas that have only just begun to shape how we live. The tools we have at our disposal in the early 21st century have evolved a lot since 1968, but the spirit hasn’t changed; we are all still looking for ways to make a dif ference. If you want to be inspired, check out the 2008 edition of The Plenty 20. Let’s hope the winning people, businesses, and ideas have a long-lasting influence well be yond the next 40 years—just like the Whole Earth Catalog.

plenty 20 logo by HINTERLAND

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plentyletters My Big, Fat Green Wedding Cleaning Living I read Annemarie Conte’s article in the June/July 2008 issue (“The Green Fiend”) and noticed the request at the bottom of the page asking for wacky wedding ideas. Here’s mine: I was hell-bent on having tree-free paper for my invitations (sending a wedding invitation via e-mail is tacky), and I finally settled on elephant dung paper. But sending the invites posed problems. Problem #1: Elephant dung paper isn’t perfectly flat like regular varieties— bits of grass, hay, and other materials occur in the paper. The ink was printed on the smoother side, but not every invitation turned out perfectly. Problem #2: Elephant dung envelopes weren’t available, so we sent the invitations by folding them in half, like a flyer. I realized there might be a problem when at two weeks from the wedding, only 20 people (out of 120) had RSVPed. Apparently some received the invite and hadn’t bothered to RSVP, others received it torn, and some didn’t receive it at all. My husband noted, “Our invitations didn’t move through the bowels of the post office quite as well as one might have hoped.” In the end, everything turned out fine— about 100 people showed up for the wedding and it makes for a good story. Seekey Cacciatore San Diego, CA

Water-Wise Wines Your articles about climate change and wine, “In Vino Gravitas” and “Sustainability in a Bottle” (June/July 2008, pages 46– 48), were helpful, but you only mentioned one vineyard (Frog’s Leap Winery in Napa, California) that does not use irrigated water. In the future, vineyards that continue to suck water out of rivers via irrigation are going to be viewed by consumers as very fish-unfriendly. Please take this into consideration and inform your readers of fish-friendly and irrigation-free wines.

I was very interested in your response to the question about dry-cleaning in the April/May 2008 issue (“Green, Greener, Greenest,” page 93). The question was, “Is it true that dry-cleaning my clothes is a health hazard and can harm the environment? If so, are there any ecofriendly alternatives?” Because you didn’t mention the GreenEarth nontoxic dry-cleaning process used at Blossom Hill Cleaners in Los Gatos, California, I am wondering if there are concerns about the environmental advantages of this method. J Cummins via e-mail

The EPA only recommends wet-cleaning and carbon dioxide dry-cleaning as environmentally preferable to traditional solvents. The GreenEarth chain uses liquid silicone (Siloxane D5) as an alternative to perchloroethylene. One study found that there may be a cancer hazard associated with D5, but more research needs to be done to determine its impact on human health and the environment.

Catch of the Day Your advice was right on in your recent blog post about choosing safe, sustainable fish (“Sustainable fish that’s safe to eat: Top picks,” posted in the Daily Green Bit blog on July 28, 2008). When it comes to contaminants like mercury, it’s a safer bet to go for the small fry and stick to smaller species of fish. I like to tell people to “avoid the big fish with teeth.” Unfortunately, easy as that sounds, not everyone is getting the message. But there’s a simple solution: Hundreds of supermarkets already display mercury warning signs at their seafood counters. If your local grocer isn’t among them, tell them to hop on board and post a sign. Jacqueline Savitz Senior Director, Campaign to Stop Seafood Contamination, Oceana Washington, DC

David E Ortman Seattle, WA

Editor’s note: Salmon-Safe’s website (salmonsafe.org) lists fish-friendly wines you’ll want to try. 28 | august-september 2008

Write us at letters@plentymag.com

land of plenty Our readers across the country (and around the world) are making strides

toward living a green life and creating a modern Land of Plenty. We’ve selected a few of their eco-accomplishments—both big and small—to share. Send us stories about how you’re trying to make a difference; we’ll publish as many as we can in an upcoming issue of the magazine. E-mail us at landofplenty@plentymag.com After 30 years of thinking about green issues, we recently built a home and decided to do as much as we could to make it sustainable. In conservative Springfield, Illinois, there are no good examples to follow, and the contractors in the area don’t have much interest in green building yet, so we were on our own. After researching and planning the house for months, we spent a year and a half in construction. We designed the house, with professional help from LaVonne Kern, which utilizes sustainable techniques that are practical for both the environment and our lifestyle. Flooring, decking, and countertops are made of recycled or sustainable materials where affordable, and the blown (wet) cellulose insulation we used is made of recycled newspaper. Solar gain from large windows is stored in a thermal mass wall and super-insulation creates an extremely tight envelope around the house, preventing air leaks. The two-kilowatt photovoltaic panels on the roof supplement power from the conventional grid, and a roofmounted solar heater preheats water. Other sustainable items designed into the house include a rain water capture system that routes roof water through special filters into a cistern for use in the garden, an attic fan in the garage that allows cool air to be pulled throughout the house, and a recirculation pump that ensures hot water is available instantly. Although some sustainable items may cost more initially, we found that there are many things that can be done for little or no extra cost to help a home be more sustainable. We’ve been living in our new home for almost a year now and love it! Harv Koplo and Annette Chinuge Springfield, IL

This year we decided to build a zero-energy, healthy house in Brookeville, Maryland, that doesn’t give my wife headaches from chemical off-gassing, which happened in our last new home. To help us, we found John Spears, a local architect who builds sustainable dwellings using compressed earth bricks. He’s completed many such structures in the past in China and South Africa, but I believe ours will be the first built in Maryland. Currently, the 9,000 bricks for our home are complete, and we are ready to waterproof the basement walls and roof the house. The bricks are made from dirt excavated from the foundation. After mixing them with concrete, they’re thrown into the TerraBuilt Green Machine, which presses out bricks that are exceedingly energy efficient as well as fireproof, pest-proof, and soundproof. (The brick-making process can be viewed at hartnetthouse.blogspot.com.) When complete, the house will also have geothermal radiant floors, a cistern to capture rainwater for bathing and washing clothes, and a Bodart/Gonay fire stove that can heat the whole house if needed. The home is passive-solar designed, and we hope to add solar cells to the south-facing roof in the future. We will likely pay only about $100 a month in utilities for our 3,500 square foot home—far less than all our neighbors. In the future our goal is to achieve complete energy independence. Kevin and Maureen Hartnett Brookeville, MD

plentymag.com | 13

plentycontributors Steven Rinella His father taught him early on not to waste any part of an animal killed during a hunt, and as a result, Rinella has eaten “probably a hundred deer hearts, easily.” Author of The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine and the forthcoming American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon (December), he also contributes to Outside, Mens Journal, and Field & Stream. In this issue, he wrote an essay about how and why to hunt (“Hot Pursuit,” page 92). His dream hunting expedition would be for wild cow in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. “You hear a lot about free-range beef,” Rinella says, “but that would be the real deal.”

life-lesson to take away from the 30-plus hours he spent reporting our oral history of Stewart Brand’s revolutionary Whole Earth Catalog (“The Whole Earth Effect,” page 84), it would be that “you cannot ever underestimate the importance of having the right tool for the right job.” A frequent Plenty contributor, Kotler lives in Chimayo, New Mexico, and has reported for The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, and Wired.

Give the kids some memories that don’t involve a couch. Kids today spend more than 45 hours a week indoors on things like TV and video games. We’re here to help. With inspiring nature-trip ideas and an in-depth list of adventurous road trips, Travelocity can get your family outside, reconnecting with nature and each other. And that’s healthy for our kids and our environment. For more information and inspiration, visit Travelocity.com/nature.

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Dan Fost Truly taking care of business this issue, Fost helped us compile our annual list of planetchanging companies for The Plenty 20 (page 71). He also tracked down emerging players in the food storage (“Fresh Take,” page 36) and compostable bag (“Bag to the Grind,” page 37) industries. A Marin County resident, Fost sees green business as “the natural convergence of two California megatrends—a longstanding concern for the environment and a push for new technology.” He contributes to The New York Times, Popular Science, and The San Francisco Chronicle. Starre Vartan Plenty’s new style editor, Vartan is the founder of the blog Eco Chick, and author of The Eco Chick Guide to Life: How to Be Fabulously Green. Vartan helped write our roster of style stories, including a savvy recycling column that offers tips on transforming heels into flats (“Take Two,” page 63). “Converting shoes you already like to those that will help you get around town helps save carbon and resources,” she says. Sean McCabe As a child in the late ’70s, McCabe couldn’t stop poring over record covers, and it’s been all design all the time ever since. These days, his illustrations appear in Time, BusinessWeek, and Fortune. He lives in Brooklyn and can think of “nowhere more beautiful or perfect than New York City in the autumn.” McCabe’s inspiration for this issue’s cover for Plenty? Al Gore himself (duh) and graphic designer Tadanori Yokoo. Works for us.

askplenty by

Tobin Hack

My office building goes through reams of paper every day but doesn’t provide recycling bins. What can I do? —Marianne, NY

My housemates and I love having the neighborhood kids come to trick-or-treat, then going out on the town in costume, but we feel sort of bad about all the requisite party-sized candy wrappers and plastic face masks. Any alternatives? —Tim, MA

adly, individually wrapped candy does seem to be protocol these days. (What’s the world come to when you can’t even hand out home-baked cookies?) But you can help keep toxic pesticides off cropland by choosing organic goodies. Try Endangered Species Chocolate Halloween treats (chocolatebar.com) or five-a-day options like FruitaBü Organic Smooshed Fruit snacks (stretch-island.com). And you can cut your costume-related waste to zilch by getting creative with items you’ve got at home. After all, you don’t want to be one of twelve Lamesky McLamersons to show up as a costume-in-a-bag Catwoman. Here are some homemade options: The hungry caterpillar Wear all green and pin white socks in two rows down your frontside. (Great for kids, too.) A Freudian slip Write obscene words on one of your old slips or silk nighties. (Not so great for kids.) A whiteboard Wear an old white T-shirt and tie a Sharpie around your neck with a string. Let people sign you. Green roof Wear all black or gray and attach a shallow window box with grass or small native plants to a helmet or directly to your head with a wide string.

I heard that The Hulk won a new green media award. Who’s handing these out? —Belinda, TN

he organization giving these away is the Environmental Media Association (EMA)—a nonprofit that’s been recognizing actors, showbiz offices, movies, documentaries, and TV programs for work in the green sphere since 1991. EMA gives brownie points for everything from energy conservation during production to green thematic content (Homer getting into trouble for polluting a river in The Simpsons Movie, for example) to subliminal eco-messaging (a strategically placed recycling bin on a sitcom set). The Incredible Hulk recently earned EMA’s Green Seal Award (introduced in 2004) for efforts that included hiring a sustainability consultant, getting rid of nonreusable water bottles, using low-VOC paints, and deconstructing (rather than demolishing) all wood items on the set. No surprise that one of the film’s first pre-production meetings focused on sustainability; Ed Norton himself had called up EMA and asked them to make this “the greenest Hulk ever,” and producer Gale Anne Hurd has long been committed to greening Hollywood as well. The Hulk is the first major studio production to run the EMA Green Seal in its credits, which EMA’s Lisa Barnet says is an exciting step toward making the seal a “standard that all productions strive for.”

he first thing to do is become best buds with your office manager. He or she should know how your building’s waste is currently being routed, who (if anyone) is sorting it, and what you’re paying for various services. Make sure to bring a positive attitude—no one wants to be accused of a recycling misdemeanor. Simply ask what system is in place and how you can help the office do more. Offer to organize a meeting for tenant reps and cleaning staff (they’ll need to be on board with the new program, since they bag trash and deliver it to the curbside, loading dock, or compactor); or ask to call in an environmental consulting company to set up an on-site program. If your office manager can’t answer your questions, or if you don’t have an office manager, try your property management office. And don’t beat yourself up too much over those years your building hasn’t been recycling. It’s possible some of the paper you’ve been chucking with the banana peels and coffee cups has actually been diverted from landfills without your knowing it. Since waste management facilities get paid to turn in recyclables, many practice post-recycling, or pulling recyclables out of mixed trash after collection. But that’s no excuse to continue slacking; far less material can be recovered from mixed trash than from pre-sorted waste, since wet food tends to contaminate recyclables. Plus, many waste facilities charge extra for postcollection sorting labor, says Ken Richards, general manager for national sustainability consultancy Great Forest. So if you toss everything down the same chute and your facility has a post-sorting program, you may be tossing big bucks out the window. According to Richards, a mediumsize company can actually cut its waste hauling and management fees by up to a third or even half just by setting up an on-site sorting system and taking other measures to make sure all recyclables are routed as efficiently as possible.

Pressing eco-inquiries, conundrums, snafus? Write to askplenty@plentymag.com 14 | october-november june-july 2008 16 2008

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Office with a View The Bronx Zoo is known for housing exotic creatures, but now it’s boasting some wildlooking buildings as well. Designed by FXFowle Architects, the José E Serrano Center for Global Conservation features eco-friendly components both inside and out. The structure weaves around trees to ensure that none are harmed during construction and is specially designed to minimize bird collisions. The plans also include wetlands and a green roof planted with native vegetation to absorb storm water. Inside, staff members of the Wildlife Conservation Society, the nonprofit that runs the zoo, will work in an environment bathed in natural light and built with sustainable materials like FSC-certified wood. Planners are hoping for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold rating, and construction is set to be completed this fall.

plentymag.com | 19

All the Environment’s Men

As heads of state, US presidents can be friends or foes (ahem, George W Bush) when it comes to environmental policies. Here’s a look at the turbulent relationship between American presidents and Mother Nature. —Jessica A Knoblauch

illustration by

christian northeast

spectrum

> by the numbers

20 | october-november 2008

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The scoops on Magenn’s Power Rotor (left) work like sails, catching wind as it rushes by. Sky WindPower’s Flying Electric Generator (below) consists of four rotors that spin like tops when airborne.

He Said/She Said

“Goodbye, from the world’s

biggest polluter.” George W Bush, at his final G8 summit. He then punched the air and grinned.

burst of speed

if I get too many insults.” George Clooney, who still drives his one-seater electric car but is about to upgrade to a larger one.

“It’s just a hobby. I’m not feeding the troops. There’s a softness to the Tennessee landscape that I just love.” Nicole Kidman, talking about her organic vegetable garden in a Vogue interview.

“I knew you were going to try and catch me not being perfect.”

Adrian Grenier, teasing the paparazzi as he recycled some cardboard outside the set of Entourage.

“Humans must easily be the meanest species on Earth. Probably the only reason there are any tigers left is because they don’t taste good.”

/eco•speak/

The Late George Carlin, from his book Brain Droppings.

> tech

Sky Sprockets in Flight

very greenie loves wind turbines for their clean, renewable power, but some folks think the massive metal poles muddy pristine landscapes. Enter the latest tech being tested: flying turbines. Unlike their traditional counterparts, which are stuck in the soil, floating turbines are tethered to the ground by cables and hover up to 30,000 feet in the air. Sky WindPower Corporation in the US and Canada’s Magenn Power are just two companies looking to the heavens to capture wind and create energy. “We have all the power we need right over our heads to supply the US electrical demand,” says Len Shepard, Sky WindPower’s CEO. “Floating turbines will allow us to solve the world’s energy problems in a nonpolluting way.” Airborne turbines generate more electricity than traditional designs because jet-stream wind is stronger and more consistent than ground-level gusts. While grounded turbines reach their peak about 30 percent of the time, Sky and Magenn ex-

pect that flying ones will operate at full capacity 70 to 90 percent of the time, depending on their altitude and location. The devices can also be moved to new areas when wind dies down. Though the technology seems promising, skies are not clear just yet. During storms, the electricity-transferring cables would basically become lightning rods (think Ben Franklin’s experiment with kite and key), so they would need to be taken down during inclement weather. And due to its especially high altitude, Sky’s Flying Electric Generator could interfere with air and avian traffic, though Shepard says the devices would be flown in restricted air space. Despite the snags, tests for both products have seen encouraging results: Sky hopes to have a successful demonstration within two years, and Magenn expects to market its product, the Power Rotor System, by 2010. The technology may seem futuristic now, but when it comes to wind power, the sky’s the limit. —Jessica A Knoblauch

ecopolis [e·kah·puh·lis] n. An entire city focused on creating

as minimal an ecological footprint as possible. Common features include using renewable energy; minimizing waste; and using local, organic, and sustainable products and materials. Sample usage: “Nancy, I’m so excited about our trip to Chicago. We’re going to be visiting a real ecopolis!” “Actually, Paul, Chicago may be green, but most cities still create tons of waste and rely on fossil fuels for power. They pale in comparison to ecopolises of the future, like the United Arab Emirates’ Masdar City.” (See page 38 for more about Masdar.)

22 | october-november 2008

THE BIG PICTURE by Bob Eckstein

photo courtesy of Magenn power (top center); rendering by ben shepard (top right)

“It can be embarrassing. There’s nowhere to hide, because it’s just me behind the wheel and there isn’t enough space for anyone else. But it goes from zero to 60 mph in four seconds, which is faster than virtually every other car on the road, so I can take off with a

spectrum > transportation

Green-Thumb a Ride a radio station change or temperature adjustment. Drivers can’t ask for money, and a gentleman slug never leaves a lady alone in the pickup line. Eco as it seems, slugging has drawn some controversy. Naysayers complain that on the emissions scale, ridesharing isn’t as green as taking public transit, and slugging may put bus and train passengers back on the road. Among slugs, hybrids have a bad rep because many are exempt from HOV lane regulations. Despite the debate, slugging is an important step away from the American auto dream—every driver cruising alone in a huge,

> art

Let’s Talk About Sacks

or Nashville art professor Teresa Van HattenGranath, using cloth instead of plastic bags is more than an eco-deed—it’s an artistic expression. Americans use about 100 billion plastic bags annually, but fewer than 1

percent are recycled. To show her distaste for disposables, Van Hatten-Granath launched Green Bag Lady, an interactive art project that provides handmade totes to people who request them online (greenbaglady.org). Crafted

To learn how to make your own sack or to donate fabric, visit greenbaglady.org

24 | october-november 2008

impregnable car—toward greener driving based on sharing. “It used to be just about saving money and time,” says slug Lynne McCune. “But now more and more people are looking at it environmentally. I feel like I’m doing my part.” —Tobin Hack

For information on the DC slugging network, visit slug-lines.com

from donated fabric and repurposed materials like old shower curtains, the sacks are free—with a catch: Recipients must promise to use the bags instead of plastic ones and send in a photo of themselves with their totes. Van HattenGranath posts the photos on the project’s website. “Artists make limited editions of pieces, number them, and sell them,” says Van Hatten-Granath. “In this case, I am making editions, numbering them, and giving them away. [Photos] also get the audience completely involved with the art piece.” Van Hatten-Granath stopped taking orders in mid-June to clear a 1,500-bag backlog, but wannabe baggers can download a pattern from her Green Bag Lady, Teresa Van Hatten-Granath (left) creates ecofriendly sacks to suit all styles. A bag recipient, Carolin (right), shows off her Elvis-themed tote.

site to stitch their own sacks. She also holds events around Nashville, sewing for passersby and encouraging folks to kick the plastic-bag habit. “I’m hoping people will start making bags in their own communities and giving them away,” she says. “They can pretend it’s their own idea. I don’t care, just as long as people start using them.” —Jennifer Acosta Scott

colombo

orget what Mom said about refusing rides from strangers. With gas prices skyrocketing, hopping into a random car might be one of your cheaper and greener commuting options. It’s how thousands of people in cities like Washington, DC; Berkeley, California; and Houston, Texas, get to and from work every day. Drivers pull up to a pickup point, and ride-seekers hop in the first car heading near their destination. The system, called “slugging” in DC (after the name bus drivers give passengers who use fake, or slug, coins to steal rides), started in the ’70s when the government introduced high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. Drivers cruise the fast lane, “slugs” get a free ride, and everyone spends less time in traffic. There are unspoken rules, of course— slugs may not initiate conversation, or ask for

illustration by jorge

spectrum

Unable to fly due to excessive weight.

Can develop hypothyroidism— a condition where the thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough hormones—from fast growth rates and lack of exercise. The disease leads to ailments like joint pain, infertility, and heart disease.

Center of gravity has changed from over the middle of the feet to over the toes, making birds wobbly.

> miss eco etiquette

Give and Take

My college friends are getting hitched, but they registered at the most un-eco store. Is it rude to skip the list and force a greener gift on them? Like them or not, registries are the rage—Americans spend $19 billion on presents from them annually. If you don’t want to put the kibosh on your friends’ wedded bliss, you’ve got two options: Choose the greenest item on the registry. These days it’s hard to throw a stone without hitting something sustainable—bamboo sheets, for example, are greener than their cotton counterparts, and cork trivets are more eco (and less Grandma-ish) than rubber ones. Back away from the list—far away from the list. For most couples, registering is not so much an expression of desire as it is one of fear—a deep, visceral terror of receiving 150 panini presses. Therefore, it’s acceptable to stray from the registry, so long as you don’t buy a green version of something already on it (then they’ll have two). Get something no one else will have thought of—theater tickets, a massage for two, or even a community-supported agri culture (CSA) membership. These options produce only a small carbon footprint, and not a single panini press will be harmed in the process. —Kiera Butler

May develop osteoarthritis and other joint diseases that can cause lameness.

Breast muscle accounts for 25–30% of body weight, a 7% increase over the last four decades.

> food

Go Cold Turkey

Farmers remove the tips of young turkeys’ beaks to prevent cannibalism triggered by close living quarters in cages and warehouses.

s much as Thanksgiving is supposed to be about showing gratitude, let’s face it: Most folks are more concerned with bingeing on bird. The turkeys most fami lies feast on are the Broadbreasted variety—fowls that are bred to have unnaturally large chests and fast growth rates. While the white meat is undeniably tasty, breed ing to attain beefier birds has left turkeys with a slew of health problems. This holi day, try a heritage turkey instead. These gobblers mate naturally, live a long life out doors, and grow slowly. They may be smaller than Frankenbirds, but they’re still finger-lickin’ good. —Alisa Opar

26 | october-november 2008

To improve your green manners, read Miss Eco Etiquette’s blog at plentymag.com/blogs

MCKIBILLO

illustration by

Unable to mate because breasts are too large and legs are too short—birds are artificially inseminated to fertilize eggs.

We only have ONE. Treat it well.

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Green is feeling it more, not less. Green is living a lifestyle that supports innovation. Green is never compromising.

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spectrum

> wildlife

Mind Games Textbooks are great in an “invaluable source of information” kind of way, but they’re not exactly page-turners. Check out a new way of learning through online video games. We rounded up a few free environmental games that are as entertaining as they are educational. —Sarah Parsons

Ocean Survivor> Become one of the world’s threatened fish, and navigate the dangerous waters. Watch out for deadly encounters with fishing devices like trawlers, purse seiners, and longliner hooks. While you swim to pleasant music and earn points for staying alive, you’ll learn about how overfishing affects oceans. oceanlegacy.org /ocean_survivor.html

>cause celeb

GREEN RACER

<Green My Brain Test your ecoknowledge—and pick up some new tips—with this interactive trivia game. Fair warning: Even level one throws some real zingers like, “How much can you improve your fuel economy by removing your car’s roof rack?” You can even contribute your own question and answer to the game (officials make sure it’s legit, of course). greenmybrain.com

WolfQuest> Learn about wolf ecology by becoming one yourself and trying to survive in Yellowstone National Park. Design your wolf avatar, find a home, and raise a family. First task: Follow the scent to meet your mate (it’s harder than it sounds!), but don’t forget to keep up your strength by hunting elk and hares. wolfquest.org <Eco Quest Fly a helicopter to transport African elephants away from dangerous poachers; stop logging in northern Finland to preserve traditional reindeer herding; or man a submarine and fight off Irrawaddy dolphin captors in Asia. Each adventure provides information about the perils facing the animal you’re trying to save. activism .greenpeace.org/eco_quest 28 | october-november 2008

“I’ve always been fascinated by wildlife and the habitats that animals live in,” says NASCAR racer and conservationist Ward Burton.

ard Burton earned national fame as a championship NASCAR driver. But before he was cruising at 200 mph in front of thousands of fans, he was living off the land—and off the grid—in a cabin in the woods. “I stayed in that log cabin for two years and got my head on straight,” says Bur ton, 46, a lifelong nature lover. “I believe you should use the outdoors, while also protecting it.” Now, after big racing wins, including the 2002 Daytona 500 and the Southern 500 in 2001, Burton is replacing his need for speed with a need for nature. He’s left the sport (though he’s not ruling out a return) and is focusing on the Ward Bur ton Wildlife Foundation (WBWF), which he established in 1996. The foundation, which is the first of its kind to be created by a NASCAR driver, has been instrumen tal in preserving Virginia’s ecosystems. It manages a 2,000-acre wildlife refuge surrounding the Staunton River, where hundreds of school children visit each year to participate in hands-on science activi ties. Currently, the WBWF is spearhead ing a project with the US Fish and Wildlife Service that will remove southern Virginia’s Rocky Mount Power Dam to create a river park and restore the endangered Roanoke logperch population. Though the group’s preservation projects have been local, they’re designed to be used as national models, says the foundation’s executive director, Tom Inge. Next on the agenda: greening his own sport. Burton hopes to help NASCAR become more environmentally friendly by implementing better technologies, recycling, and carbon offsets. A tentative meeting between Burton and NASCAR officials has been scheduled this year to discuss the WBWF’s initiatives, says NA SCAR spokesman Andrew Giangola. “If I could be driving something that wasn’t burning oil,” says Burton, “I would damn sure be doing it.” —Gina Pace

Save Power. Save Space. Save Money. Save the Planet. See how Sun’s new Eco Innovation Initiative can help you cut your energy costs by 60%, increase your server efficiency by as much as 85% and consolidate your data centers by up to 75%, all with a simple 3-step approach: assess, optimize and virtualize. With open source Solaris™, virtualization is free, making it easier for you to get maximum utilization of your resources. See how faster can be cooler, better can be cleaner and cheaper can be greener. SM

Good for your business. Good for our planet.

Who needs expensive, proprietary virtualization software when, hey, you can get it free with open source Solaris. © 2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. All logos and trademarks are property of their respective owners.

spectrum

Lizz Winstead

“I don’t want to be that crazy person in the neighborhood who can’t pull the shades because she has to charge her lady toys.”

Life in the Green Zone

30 | october-november 2008

Lizz Winstead is the cocreator of The Daily Show and former cohost of Air America’s Unfiltered. She currently stars in Shoot the Messenger, a satirical review of the media world running in New York City (shootthemessengernyc.com).

beth perkins (top);

But let’s just say for a moment, I was okay with charging my Sunny Delight in the living room. What if it’s cloudy? What if I am transferred to Seattle for some reason? We are living in a climate crisis—if you can’t count on sunny days, you’ll never know when the device is charging, which is totally unaccept able. We can’t have a sexual environmental movement if the green gadgets have no movement. And here’s what really makes me doubt how great this thing is: Instead of asking if it was, um, gratifying, we all grilled her about how long it takes to charge, how long the charge lasts, and how hot it got in the sun. I realized we sounded like we were talking about a DustBuster or an iPod—how the charge works should be the last thing women discuss when figuring out where to spend their hard-earned cash on carnal pleasures. So, I think this is the first time I am saying no to the planet. There just seem to be too many inconvenient truths about the solar-powered vibrator. ✤

rachel leibman

y whole environmental world was rocked at a recent Sunday brunch. My girlfriend—let’s call her Brooke because I don’t know a Brooke, and this story is about to careen into huge privacy issues—sauntered into our favorite overpriced, under-authentic French bistro, ordered a Bloody Mary, and then announced she loves her new solar-powered vibrator. This is so annoying on so many levels. At first I was annoyed I hadn’t known about the solar-powered vibrator—I hate being environmentally one-upped. But then I realized I was more annoyed that, having heard about a solar-powered vibrator, I felt obligated to buy one. Sometimes I am happy not knowing things—especially environmental alternatives. Without being informed otherwise, I can go about my life blissfully ignorant. But once I find out about a greener option, I feel compelled to add it to my life. This so-called solar satisfier simply sounds inferior. I bet it’s one of those items like all-natural deodorant or one-ply toilet paper that just doesn’t work as well as its conventional counterpart, but you suck it up for the planet. I don’t want to suck this one up for the planet. Wouldn’t I need to charge a vibrator in my living room window? On the ledge? I live in the heart of New York City, in an apartment with four windows, none of which are under my bed or in my closet. And all of them face many other apartments. I don’t want to be that crazy person in the neighborhood who can’t pull the shades because she has to charge her lady toys.

photographs by

(bottom)

Lizz Winstead questions the limits of solar-powered satisfaction

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Hurricane Tamers

science

plentycurrent

New technology just might reduce the roar of these vicious storms

n the X-Men movies, superhero Storm conjures and quashes thunderheads and raging winds at will. It’s a superpower scientists might like to wield to annihilate hurricanes, but in the real world, they have a better chance of easing the fury of these vicious storms than stopping them. And while we’re not even there yet, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will take a significant step this fall toward taming hurricanes. In the wake of Katrina and Rita in 2005, the DHS began counting hurricanes as national security threats. Last fall the agency asked scientists if any new techniques could change a hurricane’s path or minimize its wind speed to reduce Category 5 storms to Category 4, and so on. “The answer is yes, and not just since Katrina. In the past five to ten years, distinguished scientists have introduced ideas for hurricane modification in the literature,” says hurricane scientist Joe Golden, of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. But those ideas haven’t made it into labs, in large part because of a nearly 30-year dry spell in federal funding for weather modification research. Now it appears that hiatus is over. William Laska, a program manager for Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency who is spearheading the hurricane inquiries, says he got approval in May for new research from DHS Under Secretary Jay Cohen. “We’re expecting funding in fiscal year ’09,” Laska says. This renewed interest comes amid the NOAA Climate Prediction Center’s discovery that Atlantic hurricane seasons

Courting Disaster The Core (2003)

In order to jumpstart the earth’s core, which has stopped rotating, a team travels to the center of the planet to detonate a nuclear device.

since 1995 have been the nastiest of any on record—a trend that’s likely to continue as global temperatures rise. By improving our hazy understanding of cloud physics, Golden and other scientists hope to mitigate storms rather than prevent, steer, or annihilate them. “Attempts to use nuclear weapons [to destroy hurricanes] will result in a cure worse than the disease,” Golden says. “Any brute force is doomed to fail. The idea is to nudge Mother Nature by attacking a weak point and incrementally modifying natural processes.” A hurricane, also called a typhoon or cyclone, requires three conditions to form:

warm ocean water, evaporation, and inward-spiraling winds. Weather modification scientists try to inhibit one or more of these conditions in order to lessen the severity of a storm. Among the more plausible ideas is exploiting the storm’s need for warm water, a concept that proposes pumping cold water from the depths of the sea to the surface, simulating a natural cold upwelling. A group of US scientists is using computer models to explore the scheme. Along the same lines, Atmocean, a private company in Santa Fe, New Mexico, envisions protecting the Gulf of Mexico by deploying 1.6 >

These movies make taking on Mother Nature look easy

Twelve Monkeys (1995)

Armageddon (1998)

Volcano (1997)

A volcano erupts A doomsday in downtown LA, asteroid is hurtling In this postthreatening the city toward Earth, and apocalyptic thriller, with boiling lava. only an oddball deepBruce Willis travels Tommy Lee Jones core drill team can back in time to pretries to divert the raging lava save the planet by setting off a vent the spread of a virus that wiped out most of humanity. river to the Pacific Ocean. nuclear warhead in the rock.

Twister (1996)

Scientists chase after tornadoes, trying to plant sensory devices inside the vicious twisters to learn how they form. —Jessica A Knoblauch plentymag.com | 33

science

current

million vertical tubes, each 2.5 meters in diameter and extending 200 to 300 meters below the surface. A buoy atop each tube and a valve at the bottom will pull cold water to the surface with the motion of every wave. Russian scientists in the ’80s and, later, a group from MIT experimented with impeding evaporation by dispensing a thin layer of emulsifying alcohol over the surface of the ocean. Both studies found that in high winds, the layer of oil broke up and evaporation continued. In the 1960s, American researchers began attempts to dissipate wind speeds in hurricanes through cloud seeding. They launched the first of three missions that released dry ice and silver iodide into clouds as ice nuclei. None produced conclusive results, and the government closed its coffers to the final scheme, called Stormfury, in 1983. Despite these failures, the idea still has devotees. (A 2003 study documented 66 programs in ten states using cloud-seeding techniques to induce rain over land, mainly in agricultural areas.) Another idea for lessening wind intensity, a method proposed in the 1970s using soot, still appeals to some. Black carbon particles produced by petroleum-burning ships surrounding the hurricane would absorb solar radiation, creating a heat source at the peripheries and thereby weakening optimal wind conditions in the eye of the storm. Laska is most encouraged by the soot and seeding approaches because, he says, they’re deployable and have a reasonable chance of working. As for the new research program’s budget, he says it would be “less than $5 million. Not terribly expensive. What’s expensive will be whatever we do [to modify a hurricane].” For Golden, the expense of modifying a hurricane is relative. “Think of the cost of a single Andrew at $30 billion and Katrina at $100 billion. Remember the devastation,” he says. “My fundamental premise is that we have to improve hurricane prediction and modeling if there’s any hope of modifying them.” —Victoria Schlesinger

Using high-quality, properly harvested cork can mitigate TCA, a mold that taints wine.

Put a Cork In It Winemakers look to sustainable stoppers to save cork oak forests

urning to the bottle to fix your troubles is hardly advisable. But uncorking your favorite Pinot Noir may help alleviate one problem—the destruction of the world’s cork oak forests. The wine industry currently purchases about 70 percent of harvested cork. But increasingly, winemakers are turning to alternatives like plastic plugs and aluminum screw caps because they’re cheaper to produce. If the trend continues, economic incentives for protecting these landscapes could disappear, causing the world’s 2.7 million hectares of cork forest to decrease by as much as two-thirds in the next ten to fifteen years, according to conservation nonprofit World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Considered biodiversity hotspots, cork oak forests are home to some of the world’s most endangered species, including the Iberian lynx and Barbary deer. The forests also absorb carbon dioxide and play a vital role in preventing soil erosion. Over the last half-century, lax management policies and overexploitation have hurt these ecosystems.

34 | october-november 2008

Such practices have reduced cork forests in Morocco from about 300,000 hectares two centuries ago to 60,000 hectares today. A massive switch to synthetic stoppers, which cost about half as much as cork, would further stress the forests. “[It] would result in exacerbating existing threats such as overgrazing, fires, conversion to other uses, and land abandonment,” says WWF spokesperson Chantal Menard. The decline would also affect the 100,000 people who rely on cork forests for their jobs and livelihoods. Environmental groups are looking for solutions. One new project encourages consumers to seek out certified-sustainable cork products— the same way people select products with organic labels. Since 2005, nonprofits like the WWF and Rainforest Alliance have been certifying cork forests in Portugal and Spain with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a nonprofit that ensures wood is harvested in an eco-friendly manner. And the three groups hope to expand to the other five cork-producing countries— Algeria, Morocco, Italy, Tunisia, and France. Last summer, Oregon’s Willamette Valley Vineyards became the first winery in the world to seal its bottles with FSC-approved corks. Others in the US and Europe are interested in following suit, says WWF forestry coordinator Mateo Carino Fraisse. Cork harvesting requires scraping off the outer layer of bark which then regenerates naturally, but the bark should only be harvested once every nine to twelve years. “FSC certification ensures forests are being managed in a way that is environmentally, socially, and economically responsible,” says Gretchen Ruethling, a spokesperson for Rainforest Alliance. Ultimately, cork forests’ survival really depends on consumers. “The use of natural cork stoppers will only be maintained if consumers show companies they value using cork over synthetics,” says Ruethling. That’s a notion worth raising a glass to. —Sarah Parsons

If alternative closures dominate the market, economic incentives for protecting the oaks could disappear.

FINDINGS

As temperatures rise due to climate change, more people will become dehydrated, which may cause the prevalence of kidney stones to jump as much as 30 percent in some regions.These painful deposits form when urine volume is low and minerals dissolved in the urine crystallize.

Never mind hurtling asteroids or super volcanoes—new research suggests that epic ebbs and flows of sea level and sediment drove mass extinctions during the past 500 million years. These events filled and drained inland seas, which are known as hotspots for biodiversity.

Bovine Beano

Reducing emissions from methane-spewing cows

ows may look harmless, but behind Daisy’s docile exterior lies a dangerous source of climate-changing greenhouse gases. A typical cow belches or farts hundreds of liters of methane every day. That adds up to a whopping 18 percent of global emissions coming from the world’s 1.5 billion cattle. Methane is 25 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide, though its overall climate impact is nearly half as significant because there’s less of it in the atmosphere. But with livestock emissions predicted to double by mid-century, researchers are racing to find a bovine version of Beano. Nobody’s hit the jackpot yet, but here are some of the more promising flatulence-busting technologies. —Ben Whitford Food additives Studies show that lacing

of grain, clover, and wild flowers could help

cows’ feed with expensive coconut and fish

on both fronts.

oils makes the animals markedly less gassy. Now researchers are working to achieve the same effect with cheaper alternatives like sunflower seeds, molasses, and garlic.

High-tech grass Irish researchers are

Gas traps Some farmers already collect lagoons of cow manure and harvest the methane given off as the dung decomposes. The gas can either be used as a fuel or burned to convert it into less harmful CO2.

trying to breed grass containing highly concentrated organic acids, which should

Universal vegetarianism If everyone gave

be easier for cows to digest. The downside:

up red meat, we wouldn’t need all those

For the plan to work, farmers across the

cows. But this solution is unlikely to catch

world would have to replant their pastures.

on. Meat-lovers scarf down more than 60

Slurping a daily drink containing beneficial bacteria might reduce the severity of hay fever, commonly triggered by pollen, a British study reports. Such treatments may prove useful in the future—increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations are expected to prompt some plants like ragweed to produce more pollen.

Banning commercial and recreational fishing can make way for speedy comebacks for overfished stocks: In two years or less, researchers in Australia saw the country’s coral trout (below) density increase by 31 to 68 percent in no-take reserves, while coral trout numbers in nearby fished areas did not change.

In the Atlantic Ocean, sea spray and emissions from phytoplankton produce bromine and iodine oxide. These chemicals break down the greenhouse gas ozone, whose destruction releases another chemical that destroys methane, the third most abundant greenhouse gas. The discovery could improve future climate predictions.

illustration by

josh cochran

million metric tons of beef every year, and

Taxes Politicians in New Zealand and Estonia have tried to tax farmers for their livestock’s methane emissions, but widespread protests have led the governments to shelve the plans.

global production is expected to more than double by 2050.

Kangaroo stomach flora Australia’s favorite marsupial has a plant-heavy diet but, remarkably, methane-free emissions.

Gourmet diets Up to three-quarters of global livestock emissions come from animals fed on low-quality meal, which causes increased gassiness and lowers meat production. Switching cattle to a diet

A stiff dose of kangaroo stomach bacteria might have the same effect in cows. By making cows’ stomach chemistry more efficient, these bugs may also boost milk and meat production.

plentymag.com | 35

business

Purfresh’s “sunscreen,” here being applied at a vineyard in Chile’s Rapel Valley, helps growers save water.

After a change in direction, Purfresh is embracing ozone to help address global food shortages, tackle salmonella outbreaks, and keep organics better longer

ach year, $7.5 trillion worth of food is moved around the planet, and 30 percent of it spoils before it ever gets to market. But more than edibles is wasted along the way—all the water and energy used to grow and transport the food also goes down the drain. If goods could be kept fresh and healthy for longer periods of time, famines and rice riots could become a thing of the past. The price of food might drop as more of it becomes available. And if a natural preservative were introduced that didn’t compromise organically produced food, Mother Nature would profit all the more.

One company—Purfresh, a firm based in Fremont, California—thinks it has found such a solution in ozone. Ozone is a key ingredient in urban smog and forms an atmospheric layer whose depletion is hastening climate change. It’s also a gas with many industrial uses, including as a potent antibacterial. Just a tiny spritz of ozone in water can kill E coli and salmonella bacteria more effectively than chlorine and without any significant residual effects. It can also keep produce fresher longer. “If you could use enough chlorine, you could guarantee no E coli on spinach,” says

David Cope, president and CEO of Purfresh, whose “clean chemistry,” he adds, doesn’t compromise organically grown produce. Today the company is working on food preservation with such titans as Dole, Chiquita, Pepsi, and Procter & Gamble, but Purfresh was founded in 1996 as Novazone, one of more than 200 companies in the ozonation industry. Its machines generate ozone, which many businesses use to clean water—for an aquarium, for instance, or in the manufacturing of a beauty product. Purfresh hired Cope, a former tech-firm executive, as its chief marketing officer

36 | october-november 2008

in 2004, and made him CEO in 2006. He helped steer the company in a new direction based on the realization that Purfresh’s products were already safe enough for human consumption, so why not use them on food and address even bigger problems? As scientists tackled that question, Purfresh branched out its product line. One set of ozone generators cleans up water already used to irrigate crops and helps purify water for bottling, while other generators are used for cold storage and water disinfection for fresh produce. A Purfresh “sunscreen” called Purshade protects fruits and vegetables in the field so they require less water. Another product helps keep food fresh during shipping by making ozone that is blended into water and sprayed on goods. Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, says he has seen promising data that ozone can kill bacteria in water. Nevertheless, he says, it’s still a work in progress, and chlorine remains the gold standard even though it can leave a residue on food, give it a bad taste, or spur reactions that create carcinogens. Ozone doesn’t carry any of that baggage, Doyle believes, but it can be dangerous for

photos courtesy of purfresh

current

Fresh Take

workers to handle. (Doyle’s center receives some funding from Purfresh, but he says the money comes without strings attached.) Diamond Fruit Growers of Oregon’s Hood River Valley, the largest pear supplier in the US, says Purfresh products have cut its chemical and water expenses by 30 percent, and prevented the spoilage of millions of dollars’ worth of fruit. Test results indicate that Purfresh helps store pears two months longer than previously thought possible, and vine-ripened tomatoes that had a five-day shelf life can now last 20 days. Purfresh completed a $25 million round of Series C funding earlier this year that should help the company expand beyond its current base of approximately 320 clients across 22 countries. Greater success in the future could allow residents of developed northern-hemisphere countries to savor equatorial fruits with less guilt. More important, it could help people dependent on international aid for their daily bread. “Look at the growing population around the globe,” says Paul Hall, president of AIV Microbiology and Food Safety Consultants of Illinois, and a member of Purfresh’s board of directors. “We’re losing 20 million acres of farmland a year due to urbanization. With less land to grow food on, the pressures will be greater. Technologies like those that Purfresh has will play a big role in the future." —Dan Fost Packing houses in Rancagua, Chile (below), and Irwindale, California (bottom), are installing ozone generators near their produce to prolong freshness by about 400%.

Bag to the Grind

Composting’s rising popularity nationwide spurs demand for another kind of environmentally friendly bag

apa’s got a brand new bag—and it’s helping him compost. Compostablebag manufacturers like Biobag, a Norwegian company founded sixteen years ago, are growing explosively as Americans reconsider what to do with their trash. “We were not prepared for such a huge boom,” Mark Williams, director of market development for Biobag USA, says about this year’s 200 percent increase in sales. (Corn-based Biobags retail at about three times the amount of Glad kitchen bags at Amazon.com.) The company experienced supply issues thanks to composting’s newfound popularity, but a new plant in San Leandro, California, started fabricating shopping and produce bags this year. Next up, food-waste and tall kitchen bags. Nearly one-third of the trash sent to landfills in the US—27 million tons of food waste alone—is compostable. But more and more Americans are learning about the benefits of composting. That growing awareness is driving an emerging segment of the biodegradable products market that presently includes as many as 20 manufacturers, most with nationwide distribution. Biobag in particular also gets a boost from composting programs in Boulder, Colorado; Portland; Seattle; and San Francisco. The latter’s Department of the Environment sent 100,000 rolls of Biobags to residents to jump-start its four-year-old curbside food-scraps collection program. (Today, San Francisco residents help divert nearly 80 percent of the city’s recyclable refuse from landfills.) Though they aren’t designed to, landfills cause organic matter like food waste to degrade anaerobically, which means they generate more methane than any other human-made source, according to Steve Mojo, executive director of the Biodegradable Products Institute. But if that organic waste is composted, it breaks down aerobically, and the carbon goes back into soil in the form of humus. The compost, when used on a farm, also helps save water, Mojo says. As an industry sector, compostable bags only started emerging in the early 2000s in the US. That’s when ASTM International, formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials, published its standards for the material. The industry is far from robust, Mojo says, barely registering a blip on the radar of companies selling traditional plastic bags. But the future looks bright. “It’s still going gangbusters,” says Biobag’s Williams. “It’s very encouraging that this market is sustaining all these new businesses.” —DF

Nearly one-third of the trash that Americans send to landfills—27 million tons of food waste alone—is compostable.

plentymag.com | 37

tech

current

Green Streets

Masdar’s 50,000 residents will inhabit the planet’s only car-free, zero-carbon, zero-waste city.

magine a city whose residents have kicked the fossil fuel habit and rely solely on sun and wind for electricity. Cars are banished; instead, people walk, bicycle, and zip across town in underground, electric-powered pods. If that sounds like science fiction, think again. In February, builders broke ground on Masdar City, a planned $22 billion zero-waste, zero-carbon community in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Located on the shores of the Persian Gulf, the project is set to be completed in 2016. Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE, is behind what is the world’s most ambitious “eco-city” project to date. Masdar’s 50,000 residents will push the boundaries of green living, starting with its first inhabitants, 100 alternative energy postgrads at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology who will arrive in September 2009. Powered by renewable energy, the city will recycle all of its garbage and much of its water, and grow organic produce. “We’re simply taking a very bold step,” says Masdar chief executive Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber. Masdar is one of several efforts to create sustainable communities in response to the threats posed by climate change. A low-carbon city is being built on Dongtan, an island off Shanghai, and Iceland, Norway, Costa Rica, and New Zealand have pledged to rid their economies of carbon. Masdar, however, is the most far-ranging development planned yet. It’s also the first undertaken by a major oil producer. Oil has made Abu Dhabi fabulously wealthy—it holds nine percent of the world’s proven reserves. But that resource will run out. So the emirate is looking to cleantech industries to help wean it off its fossil fuel Gray water will irrigate landscaping in the city (left, above); a wall surrounding Masdar will block hot winds blowing in from the desert (left).

38 | october-november 2008

dependency and create new jobs. “If it’s a business someone is developing for 2015, we don’t want to be in it,” says Homaid Al Shemmari, associate director at Mubadala, a government-owned development company that oversees the project. “We’re looking way, way into the future.” Planners are already integrating that kind of foresight into the fabric of the city. A canopy of thin-film solar panels will provide shade and half the city’s electricity. Wind turbines and waste-to-power plants, which use garbage as fuel, will dot the landscape. In the nearby desert, a 500-megawatt power plant will capture solar energy. Instead of photovoltaic panels, mirrors and lenses will concentrate the sun’s rays, utilizing heat to power steam generators. Hot water may come from “evacuated thermal tubes,” pipes filled with fluid and heated by sunlight; or from drilling thousands of feet underground to use the earth’s warmth to heat water. Most of that water will come from desalination, an energy-intensive process in which seawater is converted to fresh water. Desalination provides most of UAE’s water supply, which helps explain why the country has the highest per capita carbon footprint in the world. But in Masdar, solar energy will power desalination. Conservation efforts are also part of the program: Recycling 80 percent of water and employing technologies like a leak-detection system are important steps for meeting the goal of

photos courtesy of foster + Partners

A major oil-producing country is building the world’s first ecopolis

21 gallons of water per person daily (the national average is currently 143). Perhaps the biggest experiment of all is the plan to make Masdar car-free. Planners hope shaded alleyways will encourage city dwellers to travel on foot. Residents will also get around by electric-powered light rail, and “personal rapid transit systems”— six-passenger, electric-powered pods that will run underground and deliver riders to roughly 1,500 stations throughout the city. Experts say Masdar is a lofty endeavor, especially given the difficulty of attaining a carbon-free existence in a climate as harsh as the desert, where temperatures can reach 120°F with 97 percent humidity. “The

problem with Masdar is its extreme heat and barren landscape, presently artificially maintained by oil profits,” says Richard Register, author of Ecocities: Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature. To Register, the big challenge is “how to make the landscape productive as well as the city a net positive presence for people and nature.” Building a showcase of sustainability in an unsustainable environment was the chief challenge for Masdar’s designers, the renowned London-based firm Foster+Partners. To find a solution, the architects mixed traditional and modern concepts. They plan to make outdoor public areas pleasant yearround, cooling alleyways with sea breezes

and building a peripheral wall to block desert winds. Arabic wind towers—chimneys that draw in air to circulate through buildings— will also help keep temperatures down. If successful, the project could become a model for other eco-minded urban communities, says Register. “It’s very important to have on-the-ground projects to go walk around, look at, and learn from.” And although he laments that only the “superrich” will be able to build a city like Masdar in such an unforgiving climate, he says a project like this is long overdue. “Masdar is getting it right, at the very least, by finally getting around to investing in [an ecopolis focused on solar power].” —Ivan Gale

Plug-ins vs hybrids Adding renewable energy to the grid will make PHEVs cleaner Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are taking off as the next big thing in energyefficient automaking. Essentially hybrids with extension cords and larger batteries, PHEVs can go up to 40 miles on electricity alone. That might not sound like a lot, but more than 60 percent of American drivers travel fewer than 31 miles each day. Plugging in also shifts most emissions from the tailpipes of individual vehicles to smokestacks at centralized power plants, making pollutants easier to capture. But before ecophiles reach for their wallets, they should know that plug-ins may only be nominally better for the environment than hybrids, according to a study in Environmental Science and Technology that compared total life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of PHEVs, hybrids, and conventional vehicles. That’s because total emissions depend heavily on how the electricity a PHEV runs on is generated. If the electricity comes from a coal-burning power plant, then plugins can actually contribute more greenhouse gases than regular hybrids. But if the US incorporates more renewables like wind into its energy mix, plug-ins would have the lowest emissions, the study’s authors say. “There’s a real opportunity to have very large greenhouse gas–emission reductions,” says Constantine Samaras, a coauthor, “but that’s only if we can develop low-carbon electricity sources.” The graph below shows how PHEVs stack up against hybrids and conventional cars. —Jessica A Knoblauch

Life Cycle GHGs [g CO2-eq/km traveled]

illustration by

MCKIBILLO

300 250

ON THE

drawing board

Catching waves may soon be more than a favorite pastime for surfers. BioWAVE, an underwater machine that mimics the swaying motion of sea plants, captures power from waves and converts it to clean energy. The technology company BioPower Systems will launch pilot programs for both BioWAVE and BioSTREAM—a tidal power conversion system—off Australia within the next year. These projects are expected to generate enough power for up to 500 homes. If all goes according to plan, the first commercial systems could hit the water in 2010. —JAK

> patentwatch

200 150 100 50 0 Current US electricity mix Vehicle production conventional car

Cabon-intensive electricity

Low-carbon electricity Liquid fuel for travel

Electricity for travel

hybrid electric car

Battery production plug-in hybrid electric vehicle

A new technology captures carbon dioxide emissions from gas-powered vehicles and turns them into biofuel. Origo Industries’ cartridge attaches to any car and traps the exhaust. Once the container is full, drivers simply hook it up to the gas pump–sized home unit, and feed the contents to algae, which convert the greenhouse gas into bio-oil—up to 2,500 liters per year—that can power both cars and homes. Origo expects the device to be commercially available by the end of next year. —JAK

plentymag.com | 39

columnist

current

Bill McKibben

activist in residence

Bill McKibben

envisions the first year in office for our next Climate Change President

China and India to develop their economies while forgoing the use of coal. Luckily, he has some help. A year ago, David W Orr, the Oberlin professor and environmental leader, helped pull together a panel of scholars to write a hundred-day action plan on climate change that would get us moving in the right direction. The panel, headed by Clinton administration energy official Bill Becker, has come up with more than 300 recommendations (see climateactionproject.com) that cover everything from “better manure management” to moving federal offices closer to mass transit lines. The cornerstone, though, is a cap on carbon—which would steadily raise its price and just as steadily wean us off fossil fuel. Orr and his colleagues have done the kind of congressional heavy lifting that can use up a new administration’s political capital in short order. Now all the next president has to do is overcome some of the richest corporations in the country (those in the energy industry) during a perceived recession in which gasoline prices are higher

40 | october-november 2008

than ever before. There’s probably only one argument that can carry the day. In Becker’s words it goes like this: “This is the drive to build a new American economy for the 21st century. We need to base that new economy on a whole new set of resources.” That is to say: Fighting climate change is only partly about cooperating with Europe, China, India, and Japan to save the ice caps and the forests. It’s also about beating them in the next great economic shift. The sun, or so the argument will go, is about to set on the American empire—unless we can figure out how to capture its rays in a solar panel. It’s hard to be deeply optimistic. As Orr says, “Time is short; time is not our friend.” But at least George Bush will be gone, and the era of his administration’s denial with him. We’ll see if the old can-do American spirit can reassert itself in time. ✤ Bill McKibben is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College, the author of a dozen books about the environment, and the cofounder of the current 350.org campaign, a global grassroots effort to fight climate change.

illustration by

he election campaign has (unofficially) lasted almost two years. It’s featured endless discussions on health care, the housing crisis, and who should get blamed for something their minister said. But when we elect a new leader, among his very first jobs will be figuring out how to deal with global warming. He almost certainly won’t want it to rise to the top of his to-do list, but it will. He who comes next is the Climate Change President. Global warming is going to be the most important new foreign policy challenge of the Climate Change President’s tenure, because, unlike the Bush administration, the rest of the world hasn’t spent the last eight years ignoring the climate problem. In the other developed nations, it’s been diplomatic question number one. What these governments have realized is that when the Northwest Passage opens for the first time in human history, it’s clearly time to do something. For the last five years, ongoing gatherings on the issue have all been working toward the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December of 2009. This is when the world is supposed to conclude a follow-up treaty to the Kyoto Protocol and really put the planet on the path to dealing with climate change. The conference is just eleven months after Inauguration Day. This could be an agreement as key as those struck at Yalta or Versailles. It could determine the economic architecture of the 21st century. And the rest of the world’s leaders are not going to issue the new president a free pass. If America plans on getting back in the good graces of the international community, it’s going to have to start leading on the issue. So what’s a president to do? First, to have any credibility at all, he’s going to need to figure out how to cut American carbon emissions dramatically. Then he’s going to have to help write a carbon version of the Marshall Plan, something that will allow

barry bruner

Tom Szaky Founder/CEO, TerraCycle

Roxanne Quimby Founder, Burt’s Bees/President, Happy Green Bee, Inc.

Seth Goldman President/TeaEO, Honest Tea

Miranda Magagnini Co-CEO, IceStone, LLC

William B. Rosenzweig Managing Director, Physic Ventures

Tracey Pettengill Turner Founder/General Manager, MicroPlace

Alison Worthington Managing Director, Sustainability Practices, The Hartman Group, Inc.

Sharon Rowe Founder/CEO, Eco-Bags Products, Inc.

Rony Alcalay Founder, Vital Hemptations

Carolyn Parrs Cofounder, Mind Over Markets

Irv Weinberg Cofounder, Mind Over Markets

Melissa Bradley Senior Strategist, Green For All

MaryAnne Howland CEO, IBIS Communications, Inc.

Charisse McAuliffe Founder/COO, GenGreen™

Dennis Salazar President, Salazar Packaging, Inc.

Raphael Bemporad Founding Partner/Principal, BBMG

David Lubensky President, Bagatto, Inc.

Alisa Gravitz Executive Director, Co-op America

Denise Hamler Director, Co-op America Green Business Network/Green Festivals™

Amazing Grass Annie’s Homegrown Annie’s Naturals bgreen Big Tree Farms

Body+Soul Clif Bar Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps Earth Island Journal

Gen Green GreenScene Guayaki Herbal Companion

Herbs for Health Manitoba Harvest Mother Earth News Natural Health

Natural Home Organic Spa Organic Valley Sambazon

SF Station Spirituality & Health TS Designs Utne Reader

“It may be impossible to come to Bioneers and not be inspired.”

– Paul Anastas, director of Yale University’s Center for Green Chemistry

bioneers Revolution from the Heart of Nature

19th Annual Conference October 17-19, 2008 with Intensives on October 16th & 20th Marin Center San Rafael, CA Fifteen plenary addresses by visionary social and scientific innovators including:

P 150+ Speakers P 100+ Sessions P 100+ Exhibitors P Abundant Networking Opportunities P Intergenerational Youth Program P Dancing-Dining-Community

Celebrations P Local Satellite Conferences

Across the Country Pre- and Post-Conference Intensives Eco Schools: Educating for Sustainable Communities Creating and Implementing National Green Plans: How Countries Are Succeeding Biomimicry’s Climate Change Solutions: How Would Nature Do It? Mapping Solutions To a Positive Future

Naomi Klein, one of the most important political and economic thinkers of our time and a penetrating critic of global corporate capitalism’s excesses, is a Canadian activist, investigative journalist, filmmaker and author of bestselling books such as No Logo, and, most recently, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Dune Lankard, a native Athabaskan Eyak from the Copper River Delta of Alaska, was a commercial fisherman in Prince William Sound when the Exxon Valdez disaster made him an activist and social entrepreneur, dedicating his life to protecting human rights and the environment. Selected by Time magazine as one of its “Heroes of the Planet,” he is a co-founder of the RED OIL Network (Resisting Environmental Degradation of Indigenous Lands). Janine Benyus is a brilliant naturalist and the author of six books, including the groundbreaking Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. She is co-founder of the Biomimicry Institute, which helps designers, engineers and community leaders "consult life's genius for more graceful ways to live on earth."

Sponsors and Media Partners P Café Mam P Calvert/First Affirmative/Lincoln Pain, CFP P ChicoBag P ClifBar P CSRwire P E Magazine P Eclectic Institute P Free Speech TV P Green Lifestyles on Planet Paradise P GreenerPrinter P Ideal Bite P P Link TV P MicroPlace P Mother Jones P Natural Pages P New Leaf Paper P NRDC/OnEarth P Organic Valley P P Pacific Sun P Plenty P Portfolio 21 P RSF Social Finance P Saybrook Graduate School P Utne P Yes! Magazine P P

Visit www.bioneers.org for program and registration information, satellite conferences, exhibitors and more.

8 7 7 - B I O N E E R

i n f o @ b i o n e e r s . o rg

w w w . b i o n e e r s . o rg

Victoria De Silverio

people

plentyliving 3

If he were president

I’d go straight to the most basic necessities: clean water and clean air. I’d start with the run-off—what contaminants are bleeding into the rivers, lakes, streams, and ponds? I’d make sure the effects of global warming are high in our consciousness, because we can dirty up Mother Nature, but she’s gonna beat us up for it.

Must-have eco-product

My [Princeton Tec] headlamp. It saves so much electricity—you don’t have to turn on the lights in a room or even outside. They take two AAA batteries that last a long time.

Eco-Star

Matthew McConaughey

questions for the sometimes naked bongo player whose new movie pushes the limits of green lifestyle

poiler Alert: There’s a scene in Matthew McConaughey’s new comedy Surfer, Dude in which his character (a surfer dude) and Willie Nelson (playing a farmer) hatch the ultimate eco-friendly lawn-mowing service: They employ a flock of sheep to first cut and then fertilize the grass. The business model was perfect for the film. “It’s just carny enough for our band of misfits,” he says, “and it’s green.” McConaughey, now the father of a baby boy, Levi (yes, he’s got an eco-nursery), learned how to surf for his latest beach flick. Never one to shy away from outdoor adventures, the 38year-old has been known to grab his backpack for head-clearing solo journeys, listing aliases and fake occupations along the way. For two years, he toured America in an Airstream. “I can’t say I live the greenest life,” he says, “but I do my best to live a simple life.”

What being green means to him If I got something that breaks, I fix it. It’s an

oldie but a goodie. Whether it’s clothing, the plumbing system, your car, or your relationship; if you want to be green, don’t get a new one—repair the old one, or customize it and make it unique.

Is it easy being green? No. We live in a society that says more is better, and if

you don’t have the latest thing, you’re not up to speed. This is what kids learn, too. Green [living] won’t be something that takes off unless the youth start to think that it’s hip. That’s how a generation changes.

Favorite musician right now

A reggae singer named Mishka. He talks about replenishing what Mother Nature gives us, but never in a coercive or aggressive way. I was first introduced to his music in 1999 and spent the next four years trying to track him down. When I finally did, he invited me down to Nevis in the Caribbean to stay with his family. We spent two weeks hiking, climbing coconut trees, and listening to old cassettes. Three years later, he wanted to change his management, so I was like, ‘Give me a second,’ and I called up my lawyer and told him I wanted to start a record label, now. I signed him and helped produce his record, which comes out early next year.

Favorite animal I’ve always dug

the jaguar. They are the most beautiful and have the most mystique for me. We tracked one in Peru after spotting some paw prints. We got close but never saw it.

Noteworthy eco-sins Sometimes I’ll fly private. I also have a diesel truck that hauls my Airstream—a hybrid doesn’t pull that baby up those mountains in Aspen.

On romantic comedies I don’t care

for the ones where the guy is emasculated, tossed around by the woman, and lacking a point of view. It’s a disservice to both the male and the female. I like to give my guys some balls.

plentymag.com | 43

travel

current living

A lush tropical forest crowds the sand at Havelock Island’s Beach Number 3.

Havelock Island

Dave Zuckerman

Paradise Lost?

A chain of untrampled Indian islands prepares for eco-minded development in hopes of becoming the next Phuket

India Bay of Bengal

Port Blair

28 | october-november 44 august-september 2008

penal colony in the time of the British Raj, India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands were once known as kalapani: “the black waters.” The bitter irony of that misnomer becomes clear to anyone who ventures off the mainland for the two-hour, 740-mile flight to this remote archipelago in the Bay of Bengal. As your plane descends, the low green islands angle into view, each trimmed with white sand and surrounded by patches of aquamarine sea. It’s a scene of uncommon tropical beauty, a deserted-island dream made real.

At Radha Nagar Beach, Barefoot eco-resort arranges guest fishing trips (right), diving expeditions, guided tours, and bike rentals.

map by

MCKIBILLO; photographs by Dave Zuckerman

Except for five fragile populations of tribal aboriginals, the Andamans are culturally and politically Indian. But the treelined beaches and clear-water seascapes here are closer in distance and ecology to Thailand’s western islands. Resortsaturated Phuket is only 280 miles from the Andaman capital, Port Blair, and direct flights linking the destinations have been planned for years. Environmentalists fear those connections will explode tourist volume, spurring intense resort development that could threaten the biodiverse islands’ wealth of rare and endemic species and its astounding 86 percent forest cover. And without better infrastructure, extra traffic could strain a delicate ecology already plagued by water shortages and waste-disposal problems and still recovering from the 2004 tsunami. The disaster eroded beaches, severely damaged portions of the islands’ coral reefs, and left 3,513 dead and thousands more homeless. For now, though, you can only reach the Andamans from mainland India, and relatively few make the trip. Just 146,000 tourists visited the islands in 2007 (compared with more than 5 million who headed to Phuket), and most of those were domestic tourists taking advantage of a civil-service benefit program. The Andaman administration is trying to draw more foreigners, but with an eco-sensitive approach. Rules already in place mandate

As your plane descends, the low green islands angle into view, each trimmed with white sand and surrounded by patches of aquamarine sea. low-impact coastal construction and restrict plastic in sensitive areas. And recycling and better waste-disposal sites are being developed. Officials have also quietly discussed focusing development on highend green resorts, limiting tourist numbers by pricing out all but the wealthy. Whatever scenario unfolds, more tourists are definitely coming. The islands are just too deliriously beautiful to remain obscure forever. Even in and around Port Blair, a city that most visitors pass over for more beach time, there are singular experiences to be had. Ross Island, once the Andaman seat of the Raj, is now a surreal living museum where peacocks and a herd of spotted deer roam amid the overgrown ruins of churches and officers’ clubs. An hour away, the Mahatma Gandhi A flower garland vendor at Aberdeen Bazaar in Port Blair.

Marine National Park is a massive permitonly aquatic biosphere with excellent snorkeling; officials have banned plastic bags in the park and visitors pay a deposit on each plastic bottle they bring. From Port Blair it’s just a two-hour ferry ride to Havelock Island, where the promise of that first in-flight impression is realized. On the island’s undeveloped western side, Barefoot at Havelock is a perfectly secluded ecofriendly retreat with access to the island’s best beaches. Eighteen elegantly furnished huts and cottages are nestled between a verdant hill and a forest of hundred-foot mahua trees. The woodlands give way to Radha Nagar Beach, a stunning mile-long stretch of powder-soft white sand that slopes gently into roaring, glass-clear surf. Evenings at Radha Nagar are sublime— the sun sets behind the trees, firing the sky above the sea with colors that linger in the clouds even after dark. Barefoot is also the eco-resort tourism officials consider a model for future development. Founder Susheel Dixit refuses to light footpaths, instead providing flashlights in each room. There are no televisions, few air conditioners (soon to be >

plentymag.com | 45 28

travel

living

The islands are remarkably pristine—forests cover 86 percent of land area—and harbor a wealth of rare and endemic species and extensive coral reefs.

removed, Dixit says), and only low-flow toilets and low-pressure showerheads. Basins substitute for spigots for washing sandy feet. The resort arranges guided tours of Havelock’s beaches and hiking trails, but a better way is to rent a bike and explore. Up the road, Elephant Beach lives at the end of a rough trail that winds through a flowerdotted meadow and then past huge prehistoric-looking palms. Partially submerged by the tsunami, the sand now appears only at low tide, emerging before your eyes as the water recedes. The reef here, home to starfish, sea cucumber, and an assortment of other brightly colored sea life, offers some of the best snorkeling on the island.

A pleasant seven-mile ride past lush forests and rice paddies brings you to Havelock’s east side. Stop for lunch in tiny, oddly named Village Number 2; you can make your own with fresh produce from the market. You’ll also find sundries and souvenirs, and if you’re desperate, a sometimes-working Internet connection. A little further on are gorgeous beaches Number 3 and Number 5. Most of the island’s tourists stay here, in one of a string of low-key resorts that lines the shore. One of these, Emerald Gecko, is the island’s sole source of nightlife, hosting weekly parties with DJs and fire dancers. For a quieter evening, head back to Radha Nagar for dinner at Mahua. This

by air Air India (airindia.com), Deccan (airdeccan.net), and Jet Lite (jetlite.com) These three airlines fly several times a week between Chennai and Kolkata, and Port Blair. Go to cleartrip.com for schedules and booking.

Tickets at Port Blair Jetty This former seat of British administration is now an open-air museum; peacocks and spotted deer amble through ruins eerily overgrown with banyan trees.

by sea Two or three ferries run every day between Port Blair and Havelock Island; check Phoenix Bay Jetty in Port Blair for schedules. by land Port Blair and Vicinity Annapurna Cafeteria Aberdeen Bazaar, 091-0319-223-3319 Superb South Indian cuisine. Fortune Bay Resort Marine Hill, 091-0319-223-4101 fortunehotels.in It’s overpriced but still the nicest hotel in town; pleasant balcony bar over looking the sea. Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park ANI Tourism Office, Kamraj Road 091-0319-223-8473 Explore this massive marine biosphere where the government runs snorkeling trips. Plastic bags are banned, jute bags are lent for free, and you pay a deposit for plastic bottles. Get permits and tickets at the tourism office. Ross Island Four ferries a day, 8:30

am–2 pm

unexpected gem serves delicious organic Italian cuisine made with herbs and vegetables from the expat chef’s garden. For now, development hasn’t spoiled the Andamans’ natural charms, but how long that will remain true is unclear. Everyone here agrees change is coming; the questions are when and of what kind. An optimist, Barefoot’s Dixit believes his and his partners’ version of eco-tourism can take hold. They’ve bought up land around Radha Nagar to prevent further development, plan to expand elsewhere in the islands, and are working with American nonprofit Seacology to provide environmental education to locals. “If we do it right here,” Dixit says, “the rest of the Andamans can follow.” ✤

Havelock Island Barefoot at Havelock Radha Nagar (Beach No. 7) 091-0319-222-0191, barefootindia.com The Andamans’ premier eco-resort. Yoga classes, Ayurvedic massage, and bike and moped rental are available on-site. Hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, and diving trips can also be arranged. Elephant Beach Partially submerged and reachable only by a 20-minute walk through a tropical forest crowded with lizards and butterflies; features some of Havelock’s best snorkeling. Emerald Gecko (Beach No. 5) emerald-gecko.com This affordable resort is the island’s major offering in the way of nightlife, with live music and DJs. Run by the owners of Wild Orchid (see below). Mahua Radha Nagar (Beach No. 7) Sample delicious organic Italian—cooked by expats—in the forest next to Barefoot; 80 percent of the produce is grown in the restaurant’s garden. Radha Nagar Beach (Beach No. 7) Take in gorgeous sunsets on a massive white-sand beach.

28 | october-november 46 august-september 2008

Counterclockwise from top: interior and exterior views of a Nicobari cottage at Barefoot at Havelock; underwater on a Wild Orchid scuba-diving trip; Havelock Island’s ferry terminal.

Vijay Nagar Beach (Beach No. 5) The water here is so clear you can follow rays of sunlight beneath the surface; home to high-end resorts, including Wild Orchid. Wild Orchid Vijay Nagar (Beach No. 5), 091-0319-228-2472, wildorchidandaman.com Thatch and hardwood structures amid beautiful tropical gardens; the resort arranges excellent scuba, snorkeling, and fishing trips.

going places

Mexico City M

photo by Jaime Navarro (right)

exico City won’t make anyone’s list of top ecofriendly destinations anytime soon. But leftist mayor Marcelo Ebrard is combating the capital’s long-running reputation for smog and snarling traffic with his Plan Verde (Green Plan), a 15-year, $550 million effort that he introduced in 2007 to create a more sustainable city. Measures include adding a Metrobus public transport system, extending the Hoy no Circula traffic ban (permission to drive is rotated according to license plate numbers), and requiring city employees (including Ebrard) to bike to work once a month. Plan Verde still has room for improvement, but there’s plenty of evidence that enterprising locals (called chilangos) are offering up contributions to their own unofficial green plan. —Tara FitzGerald

STAY Even though ecoconscious hotels are a regular feature in many of Mexico’s beach resorts, similar projects have yet to reach the city in any notable way. As a step in the right direction, the boutique stop Hotel Condesa DF (above, condesadf.com) serves organic food in its restaurant and offers free bicycles for guests to explore the barrio.

Cathedral Metropolitana, located in the Zócalo, Mexico City’s central square, is one of the largest cathedrals in the Western Hemisphere.

SEE Mexico City can seem overwhelming to the first-time visitor, but there are many noteworthy neighborhoods that are easy to walk. Start with Roma’s tree-lined Alvaro Obregon boulevard to soak up the early–20th century architecture and the edgy, independent art galleries filling the side streets. If you don’t want to wear down your heels, stop by Plaza Luis Cabrera for a free bike rental. (Another two-wheeler tip: Every Sunday the city’s main avenue, Paseo de la Reforma, is closed to cars, forming a 26-mile cycling track.) Chapultepec Park provides opportunities for outdoor strolling and houses the noteworthy National Anthropology Museum (mna.inah.gob. mx) and the museo Tamayo, a museum of contemporary art (museotamayo.org). Finally, visit the college UNAM (www.ibiologia.unam.mx/jardin), where the gardens are divided into sections based on the country’s regions and their indigenous species.

TASTE The organic food movement is a relatively new development in Mexico City, so for now, the options tend to be pricey. For a splashy night out, book a table at Café Bistro MP (below, 052-555-281-0592 or opentable.com for reservations), which features Monica Patiño’s Asian-Mexican organic fusion cuisine. The reasonably priced Green Corner (thegreencorner. org)—with locations in the Condesa, Polanco, Coyoacan, and Cuajimalpa neighborhoods—serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and offers local organic products in adjoining shops.

BUY Tienda Pin (tiendapin.com), which sells furniture made with sustainable woods and biodegradable paints, is run by the designers of the Pirwi furniture line (above, pirwi.com) to showcase their own pieces and those of like-minded others. If you want a slightly smaller souvenir, browse the made-fromtrash accessories of Sweetiepurse (sweetiepurse.com), part of a sustainable-development project that, among other things, sells colorful handbags and belts handmade from recycled materials. If you’re after liquid souvenirs, go for a bottle of certified-organic Del Maguey mezcal (below, mezcal. com), a beverage that is coming into its own after lurking in the shadow of tequila for so long.

Origenes Organicos

(origenesorganicos.com) in Condesa is a smaller café and shop with an impressive salad bar and a selection of organic wines and beers on the menu.

plentymag.com | 47

Dodgeville, Wisconsin food

living

Uplands Dairy’s Pleasant Ridge Reserve Made exclusively during the brief Wisconsin summer, when Mike Gingrich’s recently calved cows eat only lush prairie grass, this cheese is made according to old European traditions that have mostly died out—even in Europe. You can taste wildflowers and herbs from the cows’ diet in the cheese’s nutty, sweet flavors. $22.50 per 1.25 lbs, uplandscheese.com

Meadow Creek’s Grayson

Redwood Hill’s Gravenstein Gold

Redwood Hill’s Goat Feta

Galax, Virginia

Also a seasonal cheese, Grayson is produced between April and December from the Feete family’s herd of grass-fed Jersey cows. Washed in brine that encourages the growth of the pinky-orange bacteria known as B linens, Grayson is styled after a Taleggio or Liverot but is beefier and more buttery in flavor.

Sebastopol, California

One of the first goat dairies in California to produce raw milk and cheese, 40-year-old Redwood Hill makes both a raw and a pasteurized feta. But the raw cheese, formed into blocks by hand and brined for about eighteen hours before aging, has a bouncy, tangy flavor that’s far less salty than commercial feta.

$14.35 per 1.25 lbs, meadowcreekdairy.com

Gravenstein Gold may be harder to find than Redwood Hill’s other cheeses but it’s well worth pursuing. Thanks to weekly rubdowns with local Gravenstein apple cider, this crumbly-centered chevre has the mushroomy flavor characteristic of washed-rind cheeses but with an overtone that tastes of (what else?) sweet apples. $5 per 4 oz piece, 707-823-8250, ext 102 to order

$44.50 per 3 lbs, redwoodhill.com

he laws governing American rawmilk cheese production, which stipulate that any cheese intended for eating before it is 60 days old must be pasteurized, were implemented in 1949 in the belief that only aged raw-milk cheeses were suitable for consumption. Since then, the FDA has repeatedly proposed banning all raw-milk

products, including aged cheeses, amid lingering fears that they’re inherently more dangerous than their pasteurized counterparts. Yet aged raw-milk cheese has historically enjoyed an excellent safety record: Pathogens are considered more likely to occur in soft, moist cheeses (even if they’re pasteurized) than in the dry, hard, or crumbly varieties typical of aged raw-milk cheese. So why all the fuss? Milk-related illnesses have plagued mankind for much of history and are still problematic in cases where raw milk from many sources is being pooled. But blaming raw milk misses the larger issue: Most of the problems are due to improper handling or pasteurization,

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or to contamination after pasteurization. In fact, raw milk, full of natural good bacteria (which pasteurization kills), is actually far more capable of combating pathogens than pasteurized milk. Besides, says cheesemaker Mateo Kehler of Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont, “aged raw-milk cheeses have salt, acidity, and age on their side.” Almost all raw-milk cheesemakers produce small, single-origin batches and take great pains to ensure their milk is clean—their livelihood depends on it. Like Kehler, many also work with the Raw Milk Cheesemakers’ Association, a self-regulatory committee whose goal is to raise industry standards and develop Hazard

photographs by Anthony

The debate raging over the legality of raw milk has dairy lovers worried about raw-milk cheeses. Will Parmigiano go under Prohibition? Not if the Raw Milk Cheesemakers’ Association can help it

Verde; eco-styling by camilla slattery

Say Raw-Milk Cheese

Jasper Hill Farm’s Constant Bliss Greensboro, VermonT

A rarity in America: a soft-ripened raw-milk cheese, sold just over the legal age. Cellarhands mature Constant Bliss in cold conditions to slow down its development. At 60 days it’s reached a delicious amalgam of three textures: a suede-like, mushroomy rind; a creamy under-rind; and a fluffy, yogurty center. $9.99 each, murrayscheese.com

seasonal sippers

Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier—the chef-duo behind Arrows, a mecca of sustainable dining—have opened another Boston-area eatery, aptly named Summer Winter. Featuring a 98-seat dining room, the restaurant boasts a strictly seasonal menu of from-the-earth dishes like Salt Cod Beignets and Dandelion Salad with currants and pine nuts. The on-site greenhouse supplies the majority of ingredients, including edible flowers and herbs for the restaurant’s signature “locavore libations.” Here, Gaier and Frasier share recipes for their favorite seasonal concoctions.

Rogue Creamery’s Rogue River Blue Central Point, Oregon (not shown)

Wrapped in grape leaves macerated in Oregon pear brandy, Rogue River Blue is made from autumn’s milk (from cows milked in August), which is high in solids and butterfat. Creamy and liquorous and sweet, the RRB varieties are released every September or October.

wooden cutting board courtesy of uncommongoods

$30–35 per lb, roguecreamery.com

Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plans like those used in Europe. The cheesemaker-specific checklist ensures every point of possible contamination is accounted for and sealed. The FDA is currently conducting a risk analysis of the pathogen Listeria monocytogenes in foods like dairy products, deli meats, and fresh pro duce, and has encouraged raw-milk cheesemakers to contribute data to the study. Their conclusions could vindicate or signal the end of raw-milk cheese production. In the meantime, here’s a cheeseboard to sample …while you still can. —Nathalie Jordi

Greenhouse Caipiroska

2 ounces vanilla- flavored vodka ½ ounce simple syrup 2 mint leaves 1 teaspoon thyme leaves ½ ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice ½ ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice Muddle mint, thyme, and simple syrup. Add ice, vodka, and lemon and lime juices. Shake and serve on the rocks. Garnish with sprig of thyme.

Rosemary Pear Bramble

2 sprigs of rosemary leaves (no stems) ¾ ounce simple syrup 2 lemon wedges ¼ pear, seeded and roughly chopped 3 ounces gin Muddle all ingredients except gin until pears are completely mashed. Add ice and gin. Shake vigorously and strain into martini glass. Garnish with pear slice.

Cranberry Nightshade

8 cranberries 2 ounces vodka ½ ounce simple syrup ½ ounce Cointreau 2 lemon wedges 2 ounces Champagne Add all ingredients, except Champagne. Squeeze lemon and discard the rind. Shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Serve up in a martini glass and top with Champagne. Garnish with extra cranberries and a lemon slice.

Whiskey Smash

2 lemon wedges 4 mint leaves ¾ ounce simple syrup 2 ounces bourbon Muddle mint, lemon, and syrup in mixing cup. Add bourbon and shake. Strain into rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with sprig of fresh mint.

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food

living

The Darkness Black is de rigueur for all things hip—cars, magic, the classic urban wardrobe. But what about food? Inspired by Halloween, we sought out the coolest ebony-tinged edibles for the perfect spooky feast —Jessica Tzerman

These toothsome (but not overly tacky) pinwheels are sure to win over even the most avowed licorice haters. The only 100 percent organic licorice available in the US, Zagarese is made from Italian licorice root. The original flavor tastes of subtle, sweet anise—none of that in-your-face mustiness.

The aptly-named and easy-to-identify Black Trumpet mushroom,

also known as a black chanterelle, usually appears from June to September. Because of the popularity of this seasonal spore, however, dried specimens are readily available year-round. Just soak in warm water until soft. Or for a bit more flavor use stock, wine, or cream.

Black lime, a traditional Middle Eastern

spice, is made by boiling the ripe fruit in salt water, then sun-drying it. The darker the lime, the more pungent the taste. Throw in a whole lime or two, piercing the skin first, to flavor a pot of legumes or a savory stew. For a bolder, more citrusy kick, use the pulp instead.

$16 (4 oz), gmushrooms.com

This nutrient-dense wholegrain rice, known as nobleman’s rice in Italy, where it’s grown, smells of baked bread and tastes wonderfully sweet. Though its husk is actually dark red (shh!), the cooked rice could easily stand in for inky black pasta; it’s also great as a base for grilled halibut or striped bass. Gli Aironi Venere Nero Rice $14.95 (500 g [roughly 17 oz] bag) formaggiokitchen.com

No, this isn’t caviar. It’s organic, raw black sesame tahini, a nourishing, calcium-rich

spread said to alleviate everything from blurred vision to, ahem, constipation. Perfect for darkening hummus or adding depth to sweet breads and cakes, it’s also great on crackers or bagels (just schmear and serve). Be sure to add olive oil if you like it; this contains none. $11.99 (8 oz),

photographs by Anthony

Oman Black Limes (whole), $4.95 (1.5 oz), nirmalaskitchen.com

Verde; eco-styling by camilla slattery

$15.60 for 40 wheels, store.organic-licorice.com

There’s nothing vanilla about Frontier Natural Products Co-op’s extracts, sourced from far-flung vanilla-producing regions. Each Fair Trade–certified, organic variety has its own flavor profile, ranging from floral (Papua New Guinea) to smoothly sweet (Uganda) to smoky (Indonesia), adding a touch of the exotic to desserts, sauces, or even drinks. $6.49 (2 oz), frontiercoop.com

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food

living

A Conversation with

Carlo Petrini

fter 22 years in action, Slow Food, a once-small community of farmers, producers, and anti-corporate-ag activists, has blossomed into a network of 86,000 members in more than 154 countries. Carlo Petrini is the man behind it all. From his office in Italy’s Piedmont region, where Slow Food was born, the movement’s founder talks with Plenty’s Jessica Tzerman about the upcoming Terra Madre conference, the predictability of the global food crisis, and how America’s youth could save sustainable agriculture—for everyone.

You’re holding the third biennial Terra Madre conference in late October. What are you most looking forward to about the event? Terra Madre was developed to bring together small-scale artisan farmers and food producers, chefs, and academics to share experiences and pursue more sustainable agriculture. This year, I look forward to having a greatly increased presence of young people. It will be the biggest and most important Slow Food meeting to date. How will the youth delegates strengthen Terra Madre project and Slow Food? A priority for Terra Madre 2008 is providing the right motivations and rewards to persuade young people to return to the land. They are vital to the fight for good, clean, and fair food; to supporting smallscale, sustainable, and local food production; and to reversing the impacts, both environmental and social, of industrial agriculture and mass food production. Young people in America are already showing great leadership through programs such as Slow Food on Campus. Their delegation

Petrini, the father of Slow Food (left). Chefs salute the success of the second edition of Terra Madre, held in 2006 (top right). Slow Food’s booth at the 2006 Salone del Gusto in Turin, Italy (bottom right).

“This isn’t a utopia but an idea of great merit.” gives us a sign of hope for our future. It’s also the first sign this century that perhaps the US won’t have to outsource food production to developing countries or rely on industrial agriculture, even though those have been the dominant trends. How will the conference seek to address the soaring cost of food and the growing global food crisis? The problem of rising food prices is that it hits countries the hardest where most of the population lives in rural areas and gets by on a very low income ($2 to $3 a day per capita). A possible solution to the current emergency is to use appropriate, efficient tools to make subsistence farming a priority, instead of cultivating primarily for export. By doing this, local economies will strengthen, grow, and ultimately favor small-scale artisan production and food security, which respect and are in tune with the environment and local traditions. This isn’t a utopia but an idea of great merit; it’s a modern response to the problems we face today, not a return to the past. What has been Slow Food’s biggest accomplishment to date? In addition to Terra Madre, the 2004 open-

52 | october-november 2008

ing of the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy, near Slow Food’s headquarters, was a momentous occasion for us. It represents a new approach to gastronomy, with a comprehensive and multidisciplinary knowledge of food culture and science, and first-hand experience of production processes and regions. How has Slow Food changed America’s food culture? What work is left to be done? Slow Food has taken root in the country that invented fast food, and it has shown that there is another way for people to eat and live and has given people the choice to reject fast-food life. More and more people are interested in eating good food and knowing where it comes from. Slow Food Nation, the first national US Slow Food event, was held from August 29 to September 1 in San Francisco. Tens of thousands of people came to celebrate the positive change that is happening and to raise awareness among Americans of the food alternatives available to them. However, the biggest challenge today is to increase this network. [And eventually] I would like to see the victory of good, clean, and fair food. ✤

7 whole grains on a mission

food

living

farm to fork

Dan Barber

The architect of a satisfyingly complex Thanksgiving dinner faces the ultimate turkey conundrum: heritage or conventional bird? One thing he is sure about: his delicious, down-home solution for leftovers a day. At Stone Barns, on the other hand, our Broadbreasted Whites tour the pastures in a large mobile shelter, roosting on low, wooden trellises. Their diet of organic grain mash and natural forage allows the birds to grow quickly and contentedly. While their rapid growth rate and large breasts make Broadbreasted Whites an attractive candidate for the farmer (and the white meat crowd), if you’re think-

ing of flavor alone, or the preservation of rare breeds, Bourbon Reds are the natural choice. Unchanged by the homogenizing forces of the mass market, this heirloom breed has managed to maintain its genetic legacy of rich, dark meat. It’s turkey that actually tastes like turkey, which is why I prefer the Reds in the end. As far as the Thanksgiving table goes, though, I’m still undecided. ✤

Recipe

Turkey Pot Pie 2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes 1½ cups milk 3 tablespoons butter 6 cups shredded roast turkey meat 1 cup turkey gravy 2 tablespoons sherry wine vinegar 5 tablespoons herbs (such as parsley, chives, and tarragon), chopped 1 tablespoon shallots, chopped ½ cup fine bread crumbs Salt and pepper, to taste ❶ Preheat oven to 375°F. ❷ Boil potatoes in well-salted water until fork tender. Drain and peel when cool enough to handle. ❸ Heat milk and butter until butter melts. ❹ Pass potatoes through a food mill or

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ricer; gently fold in hot milk mixture until well incorporated. Season well with salt and pepper. ❺ In a large bowl, mix together the turkey, sauce, vinegar, herbs, and shallots; season well with salt and pepper. ❻ Divide turkey among 12 ramekins; top with potato puree and smooth with a spatula. ❼ Heat for 20 minutes. ❽ Remove from oven and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Place under a broiler for about 1 minute, until the bread crumbs are golden brown. Serve with glazed carrots or other roasted vegetables for a hearty fall meal. Dan Barber is the executive chef and coowner of Blue Hill restaurant in New York City and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, located within Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, a pioneering farm and education facility in Pocantico Hills, New York (bluehillnyc.com).

jen munkvold (above, right)

’m ambivalent about heritage turkeys, which is to say I feel strongly and not so strongly about them all at once. Not so strongly because I’ve managed to convince my family to partake in the ridiculously complex (but enjoyable) ritual of brining-roasting-poaching-steaming the Thanksgiving turkey to get good flavor. That’s not necessary with the heritage breeds; in fact, brining them is exactly what you shouldn’t do because it masks the flavor. So now that I’m sourcing heritage breeds each year, I may be increasing the diversity of our farm (which I feel strongly about), but I’m also aiding in the disappearance of a family tradition—the ten-step turkey roast dinner. Fortunately the turkey operation at Stone Barns accommodates both camps. Livestock manager Craig Haney raises two breeds: Broadbreasted Whites and Bourbon Reds. The Broadbreasted Whites are the classically conceived Thanksgiving turkey, a breed commercially developed in the 1950s that makes up the majority (or entirety—99 percent) of turkeys raised in the United States. Despite their genetic resemblance, there’s an important distinction between our Whites and the Butterball turkey you’d meet in the supermarket: The latter is likely raised in a windowless feedlot brightly illuminated 24 hours

photo by

As page 33 reveals, the Big Apple actually became the Big Orange in 1673.

ith all they need to teach you in school, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to see how they might have missed a few important historical details. Like the fact that the Dutch took New York from the British for a year and renamed it for the royal familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s color: New Orange. America has a fascinating and colorful history. Packed with 365 daily readings, The Intellectual Devotional: American History raises your intellectual stock while shedding light on the history-making decisions of today. Also available, the original New York Times bestseller, The Intellectual Devotional, and coming in October 2008, The Intellectual Devotional: Modern Culture. Learn more at TheIntellectualDevotional.com.

Available wherever books are sold. 201021801

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Amber Bravo

Winging It For David Hertz, sustainably minded work starts with site-specific design and ends with nontoxic homes that are plug-in ready

Hertz also lost both his parents to what he thinks were environmentally induced cancers—his father, a surgeon and inventor, to asbestos exposure; and his mother, an artist, to printmaking chemicals. It’s easy to see the mark Hertz’s parents left on his work, both in its experimental, artful approach and its focus on sustainability. With his firm SEA, which stands for Studio for Environmental Architecture (and suggests a “sea change” in awareness, he adds), he has dedicated his work almost exclusively to sustainable design. “In early projects, we would really infiltrate and educate our clients on sustainability,” says Hertz, whose own home incorporates solar cells and has a chemical-free pool, while his office is aiming for a Platinum rating from the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. “Now we have clients that are predisposed to seek us out because they want it, so all our work has that focus.” The 47-year-old’s approach starts with sustainable, site-specific design. Smallscale structures like the Split House in Venice, completed in the spring of 2008, exploit lot constraints to maximize space and efficiency. The property is bounded by two narrow alleyways and a small street. It’s a solid block-like structure, split completely down the middle—hence the name—which creates a second detached building that houses a garage and secondfloor recreation room; a bridge connects the two structures. The main house is a cube that can be entered either through 56 | october-november 2008

the front or the side. A courtyard requested by the client extends between the second building and the main house. By developing a loose atrium between two separate buildings instead of a more traditional variety enclosed by four walls, Hertz ensured that natural ventilation and light can filter into both the outdoor space and deeper into the back side of the main house. Like all of Hertz’s projects, Split House is passive solar, plug-in-ready for solar panels, and made entirely of nontoxic materials. It also features Syndecrete, a precast, lightweight, nontoxic concrete that Hertz invented in 1983 for his own use and was then adopted by others who loved the material’s flexibility in integrating unusual materials like recycled vinyl record bits into its mix. “It was really a progenitor for a lot of innovative environmental building products,” Hertz says. The architect’s much-discussed 747 Wing House, which is still under construction, appropriates parts of a retired jet for a multi-structured residence in the Santa Monica Mountains. “I drew a section that was curved like the hull of a ship” for the 55-acre site, he recalls, “and when I completed that ellipse, I realized it looked like an airplane wing.” Knowing that he was looking at an expensive roof, Hertz opted instead to “repurpose a real one.” An airplane wing, he found, already offered the > Split House (both pages) in Venice, California, features a partially enclosed courtyard between its two buildings that allows natural ventilation and light to penetrate farther indoors.

photos courtesy of david hertz architects

enice, California–based architect David Hertz first discovered his passion for the outdoors through the ocean. Growing up in Malibu in the ’60s and ’70s, Hertz “basically watched the Santa Monica Bay become a giant septic tank,” he recalls. “I surf regularly, and that put me in contact with the natural world and the impact the built environment has on it.”

plentymag.com | 57

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Gas-guzzling 747s are not often viewed as harbingers of sustainability. But for Hertz, it’s all about “mining the creative potential of materials and repurposing them.” means “to achieve the highest strength and the lightest weight.” Even better? “This is a 100 percent post-consumer product, and it’s a $200 million airplane that we bought for $30,000—the price of its primary raw material, aluminum.” But 747 Wing House’s eco-credibility extends beyond clever reuse. In building the home, which is now underway, Hertz is adopting a “large/less” strategy that he says allows for a few massive pieces to be transported to the site in a somewhat heroic fashion: Five major freeway lanes in LA were closed to transport the wings. Ultimately, the approach saves on resources, time, and material, since construction typically involves “thousands of disparate pieces traveling long distances,” Hertz says, “none of which fit, and 30 percent of which end up in the trash.” Everything Hertz designs and builds embodies the spirit of his childhood, with influences including anything from surfing to backpacking to pouring molten metal into an empty pool to make sculptures. It’s all about “mining the creative potential of materials and repurposing them in disparate ways, and rethinking the way buildings are made,” he says. Indeed, gas-guzzling 747s are not often viewed as harbingers of sustainability. But in the hands of an innovator like Hertz, wings once again embody the spirit of ingenuity and progress they offered when they first streaked across the sky. ✤ For 747 Wing House (right), Hertz’s designs call for dismantling an out-of-service airplane and using its wings for a roof. The home is currently under construction in the Santa Monica Mountains.

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> ins & outs

Flatpak to the Future

Heather Wagner

When we talk about sustainability, we tend to focus on materials. But if an object’s design means enhanced portability, streamlined living, and reduced waste and shipping, doesn’t it score eco-friendly points, too? After looking at the spacesaving, über-modular flatpak phenomenon, we say yes. Mobile Living Furniture If you’ve ever helped a friend move, you know that “stuff” is the enemy. German design team Marcel Krings and Sebastian Mühlhäuser of Casula have devised the ultimate solution: a complete apartment’s worth of furniture—armoire, desk, chair, two stools, bookcase, and bed with mattress—in one 31-by-47-inch box. No cardboard or bubble wrap required. Though it’s still in prototype, a clip of the box being unpacked has become a hit on YouTube. mein-casulo.de

Coffee Table to Go At first glance, Tiny Living’s double-jointed California birch Case Coffee Table does not reveal its dual identity. But discreet, spring-loaded locking devices allow it to fold up into itself and serve as a carrying case that can handle loads of up to 100 pounds. $179, tinyliving.com

Real Good Chair As thin as an origami bird, yet with a heart of powder-coated steel, Blu Dot’s spindle-legged but sturdy chair with laser-cut “wings” ships completely flat—to be easily unfolded on receipt. It comes in aqua, red, ivory, and black. $129, bludot.com

Trunk Station In the late 1970s, Japanese architects introduced the capsule hotel, with tiny pod-like spaces for businessmen to sleep (or sober up) in. Applying a similar space-saving concept to the work station, the Japanese firm Caina replaces the oft-reviled cubicle with a natty, classic trunk, made of maple with a melamine laminate, that harbors a fold-down desk, shelving units, and storage. When your freelance day is done, just fold it up, roll it out of sight, and mix up a well-deserved cocktail. About $1,900, caina.jp

Kada FlatPack Stool and Table Is it a seat? A table? A tray? A sculpture? A container for all your cables and power cords? The answer is all of the above. This Yves Béhar multifunctional stool/table, made of wood with a neoprene and metal top, is rumored to be part of a larger system being conceived by West Coast design deity Béhar. $800, danesemilano.com

plentymag.com | 59

diy

living

Max McMurdo

> trash to treasure

Strap In Max McMurdo, the force behind British eco-design company Reestore, transforms a discarded deckchair frame into an edgy, upholstered lounger

tools Paintbrush Sanding block and sandpaper Lighter or matches Scissors Hammer MATERIALS 1 used wooden deckchair 15.5 yards of seat belt webbing (either from a scrap yard, eBay, or as a last resort, seatbeltpros.com—a site that sells super-cheap webbing by the yard) 1 can of white, water-based paint 1 can of eco-friendly wax/varnish to seal emulsion 70 upholstery tacks—we use white, but choose an appropriate color for your webbing DIRECTIONS

Mix the paint with water and stir well (we use about 50% of each, but mix to suit your own taste). Apply a couple thin layers of paint to the chair frame and let dry. Then, sand the chair lightly all over with sandpaper to achieve a vintage look. Follow with a coat of clear sealant (wax or varnish) to protect the paint and guard against moisture.

Now for the tricky bit: Measure the length of the webbing— either by using the original canvas or by holding the new webbing up to the chair until you’re happy with the length (be sure to consider all seating positions). Measure and mark the belt placements, leaving a small gap between each one. You can usually fit eight strips of seat belt onto one frame.

60 | october-november 2008

Trim seatbelt webbing to your desired length; leave extra at each end to double over the chair frame for added strength. The belt will fray slightly where cut, so carefully run a lighter or match along the cut edge to seal in loose fibers.

Fit the webbing to the chair frame: Simply hammer an upholstery tack into the center of the top and bottom of each belt strip.

Repeat on the underside, doubling over fabric ends and using two or more tacks to secure. Now you’re finished. Sit back and enjoy your hand-finished, reclaimed lounger.

MCKIBILLO

Remove old tacks and fabric from deckchair. Sand chair well using sanding block. (Don’t be tempted to use an electric sander; they are too powerful and waste energy that you can provide yourself.) When you finish sanding, wipe woodwork to remove dust.

The founder of UK design company Reestore (reestore.com), Max McMurdo takes everyday, landfill-bound objects and turns them into charming yet functional furniture and accessories.

illustrations by

Annemarie Conte

The Green Fiend

Annemarie Conte dares to go plastics-free for a week

photo collage by

rachel leibman

’m sitting at my desk, typing on my keyboard, listening to my stereo, and eating cereal out of a bowl. Almost everything I’m touching is plastic—I’m surrounded by the stuff. But with the news that hard plastic bottles with BPA can be toxic, and given that most forms are virtually nonbiodegradable, I’m determined to live one week plasticsfree. (There’s one little exception for safety’s sake: my glasses and contact lenses.) It’s been a difficult and complicated week, for sure—but the takeaway is that I’ve become more aware of what I buy in the first place. There are alternatives out there to paying for more plastics; you just have to take the time to look for them. Sad Doggy Everything is going smoothly—my leftovers are packed into glass dishes in the fridge; I awkwardly handcarry my purchases when I forget my canvas shopping bag; and I’ve set aside my ridiculous costume jewelry. But as I’m sitting in a chair reading a book (the TV has a you-know-what shell), my dog nudges me with one of her bouncy balls. I scoop up all her plastic toys, which leaves her with one, sad-looking rope. She is not pleased. After only one day, I relax my rules and drive my plastic-filled car to my local pet store and buy her a Bully stick (which is made of bull penis—yum!). She gobbles it up in two hours and then looks at me like, “What now, stupid?” give me some credit In lieu of using credit and ATM cards, for this one week, I have to go to the teller. I was excited about the free lollipops at the counter,

until I remembered they’re wrapped in plastic. Something I can bank on? Having to use actual bills, which makes me more aware of my spending habits in general. I cut down on the frivolous, spontaneous purchases I’ve been known to make— like, say, a flimsy plastic back scratcher at the dollar store. bottled water blues As I rush out the door one morning, late for a 5K charity event, I warily eye my Nalgene bottles, dinged up from years of abuse. They’ve been good soldiers, but I have to leave them behind. Terrible idea—and something I never want to repeat. Afterward, I get myself an alumi num bottle. Still, dumping my old Nalgenes is out of the question. I decide to order a SolLight, a solar-powered replacement cap that turns the suckers into lanterns. Of course, it’s still made of plastic, so you see what sort of vicious cycle I’m caught in. toy story I arrive at my godson’s birthday party empty-handed because the hour and a half I spent in a big-box store proved that practically everything

these days is made of plastic—even Tinkertoys. Next birthday, I’m looking to Melissa & Doug, a company that makes creative wooden toys, to save the day. I wish I’d found them earlier. the hygiene issue Have you ever seen a plastic-free toothbrush? That’s because they don’t exist. And while some of you out there can mix up a baking soda paste and slather it on, I can’t. So I break the rules again. When the bristles on my current toothbrush wear out, though, I’ll get one made by Preserve or Radius, which use recycled materials. What about the rest of the week? I’m not going to lie—I cheated a lot more. I would have to be put in a (glass) deprivation tank in order to completely avoid plastics. But even if the experiment was a failure in one sense, it succeeded in that it shaped my future shopping habits. I’m more conscious of nonplastic alternatives; plus, attempting to avoid plastics is a good way to exercise overall consumer restraint—and few things are as eco as buying fewer things. ✤

“Have you ever seen a plastic free toothbrush? That’s because they don’t exist.” Send Annemarie your wackiest DIY ideas at contact@annemarieconte.com

plentymag.com | 61

style

Elements of Style Global warming–induced hurricanes and random temperature fluctuations can wreak havoc on your outdoor plans, not to mention your wardrobe. But with a few choice pieces, you can enjoy your favorite fall activities—tailgating, hiking, a farmers’ market run—seven days a week. —Starre Vartan

Monday |

Emily Katz Famous blue raincoat and Rawganique corduroy jacket

Enjoy the outdoors all day in a repur posed and water-resistant girly coat for her and a soft flannel jacket for him. $348, sodafine.com; $219, rawganique.com Raincoat:

Jacket:

Tuesday | Composting Run

Sunday | Picnic Brunch

Soccer with the Boys

Pure Play sweater jacket

With a detachable, faux-fleece collar and elbow patches, this jacket of densely knit recycled cotton (colored by its source fabric instead of dyes) keeps you cozy after the game. $120, pureplayclothing.com

Wednesday |

Every girl needs an anorak, and this one’s made of recycled bottles and boasts a brilliant green hue that will brighten any gray day. $228, eileenfisher.com

Thursday |

Evening Hay Ride

Friday |

Trick ’R Treating with The Kids

Farmers’ Marketing

Battalion Hitchcock wrap jacket

Wrap yourself in this appropriate-for-work bamboo jacket that will keep you perfectly plaided while perusing fresh veggies. $200, shopemilygrace.com

Saturday |

photographs of apparel & beauty by anthony

Eileen Fisher Ecopoly anorak

Flea Market foraging

John Patrick Organic motorcycle jacket

Hemp Hoodlamb camouflage coat

Hess Natur trench

Buy it once, wear it forever: What could be more planet-friendly? This vintage, tanned deerskin classic is guaranteed to fit in anywhere (including atop a bale of hay). $1,170, johnpatrickorganic.com (by special order)

You don’t need a costume to go undercover in this pesticide- and herbicide-free hemp coat with a camo cannabis-leaf print and fuzzy neck liner and hood. $268, hempest.com

Waterproofed with beeswax and plantbased waxes and oils, this organic cotton trench will keep you dry and chic while you bargain over that stack of vintage comic books. $499, us.hess-natur.com

62 | october-november 2008

verde

current living

sunny rainy snowy chilly windy

Natural selection Anytime cosmetics makers use natural plant oil instead of petroleum distillates is a reason to rejoice. One intriguing ingredient that’s been cropping up lately is extract of Argania spinosa, or argan oil, from the leaves and bark of eponymous Moroccan trees. A traditional Berber skin-soother high in vitamin E, it’s harvested without damaging the trees in a desert biosphere preserve. Even without tickets to Morocco, there are many ways to experience this ancient remedy. Argan smoothes wrinkles in an eye cream from Aveda’s new Green Science line, packaged in post-consumer recycled (PCW) and Forest Stewardship Council–approved materials ($45, aveda.com). It nourishes pouts in Dr Hauschka’s BDIH-certified Stone Colours lip tints ($21, drhauschka .com). Pangea Organics features organic argan oil in its Egyptian calendula and blood orange facial cleanser ($24, beautorium.com); the PCW box, when planted, sprouts medicinal herbs. “Very few oils in the world compare to the restorative, anti-inflammatory properties that argan offers,” says Pangea founder Joshua Onysko. If you prefer your oil straight up, Cultural Connection sells a version endorsed by Eco-Cert ($40, edenallure.com); Dab liberally and dream of the Casbah. —Alexandra Zissu

Critical Mass

JCPenney has taken its time going green, but the upside is that the 106-year-old retailer seems to have learned from others’ mistakes. Among are strict its basic standards of renewability and recyclability requirements for all labeled products, and its organic cotton clothes (labeled Simply Green) must have at least 70 percent organic and denim for teens, shorts and button-downs materials. Look for for guys, and towels, blankets, and sheets by various companies. Style-wise it’s not such an improvement; maybe their eco-consultant Danny Seo can banish those Midwestern cuts ... Perfume bottles collecting dust? Unless they’re all glass (most aren’t), they can’t be recycled curbside. But now Saks Fifth Avenue will take any perfume bottle and promises to recycle it. (No word on if they’ll take bottles full to the brim with chemical-laden, nasally offensive toilet water your mother-inlaw gifted you) ... Armani and Versace are using Ingeo in their new collections, but that doesn’t mean that the clothes will go hippie, just that they’ll be sexy-revealing AND eventually biodegrade, saving future generations from the embarrassment of “butt cleavage” ... John Patrick Organic is one of ten 2008 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award finalists. The winner, who will receive up to $200,000 (ostensibly to be used for design development), will be announced in November ... Celine Cousteau (granddaughter of Jacques) is the new face of French luxury skin-care line La Prairie’s Advanced Marine Biology, which grows marine plants on land for its products in a system called mariponics. Cousteau says growing these plants sur la terre is a more “responsible use ... without endangering [the ocean’s] precious ecosystem.” —SV

environmental responsibility

printed tees

Take Two

Your feet will thank you: Morph those kitten heels you love but never wear into fabulous flats, and you’ll be able to walk instead of driving or hailing a (carbon-belching) taxi ❶ This won’t work on a pair of sky-high stilettos due to the curve of the arch, so pick a mid-height pair (2” heel or lower) to pare down. Don’t try this with platforms. ❷ You’ll need to take these to a cobbler; this is NOT a typical DIY project. ❸ Ask them to remove the heel and replace it with a flat sole. Depending on the style of the shoe, they may have to replace the higher heel with a lower one that’s virtually flat but not en tirely so. ❹ Since the cobbler will have to resole the bottom of the shoe, he will probably ask what kind you want. Request a nonslip, slightly thicker bot tom, especially if you walk a lot. ➎ This should cost from $30 to $50. —SV

“

Even the most classic designs, like a trench, can become modern, but what is most important in creating modernity are the materials and processes we use. Instead of waterproof coatings based on petroleum, I used beeswax and plant waxes without any undercoatings, which are typically made with fluorocarbon compounds and create toxic wastewater.

”

Miguel Adrover Designer for Hess Natur

plentymag.com | 63

reviews

living

> green media

New reading and film for the ecophile Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America By Thomas L Friedman Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, $27.95

You’ve probably already got an opinion or ten about New York Times op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman—most do. Maybe you’re a technology diehard and think the sun shines out of his Lexus. Maybe you bash him at cocktail parties for his support of biofuels, globalization, and carbon trading, and wish those Brown University students (who hurtled two pies at him during an energy speech on campus) had done more. Whatever sentiments his name evokes in you, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, his fifth book, is one green title you’ll want to have read—if only because of the buzz it’s sure to garner. Drawing heavily on reporting done for his column, extensive world travels, and conversations with an overwhelming number of today’s most fascinating leaders—from Bill Gates to the crown prince of Bahrain—Friedman calls America to a no-nonsense revolution. Revolution means sacrifice and hard work, he says, but time is running out for our hot, flat (as in economically level, due to rapidly expanding and resource-hungry middle classes worldwide), and crowded world. Meanwhile, post 9/11 fear is undoing the spirit of openness and exploration that made America great. Enter: Operation Code Green, Friedman’s blueprint for saving the planet and curing America of its malady at the same time. Friedman’s knack for asking the big questions at the intersection of politics, economics, sociology, and environment, and for drawing memorable quotes and anecdotes out of prominent figures, makes for an absorbing read. —Tobin Hack

Strategies for the Green Economy: Opportunities and Challenges in the New World of Business By Joel Makower McGraw-Hill, $27.95

In 2007, WalMart asked food giant General Mills to straighten out the noodles in its iconic product, Hamburger Helper, allowing them to fit into a considerably smaller box. The change resulted in an annual savings of 900,000 pounds of packaging and took 500 delivery trucks off the roads. And if corporate environmental strategist Makower had his way, General Mills wouldn’t stop at removing the squiggles from a few noodles. Is the wheat in the noodles organic? Is the packaging made from recycled paper? Are the Helper factories solar-powered? In order to cash in on America’s transformation to a green economy, Makower asserts, companies will need to engage in this kind of holistic thinking and seek out sustainable initiatives in every nook and cranny of their operations. Today’s average consumer still can’t identify a single green brand, and 70 percent of the population believes green claims are largely marketing tactics, but Makower is optimistic: Corporations will choose green to save money and reputation, and the rest will follow. —Randall Hack 64 | october-november 2008

Scarred Land and Wounded Lives: The Environmental Footprint of War Directed and produced by Alice and Lincoln Day VideoTakes Inc, $19.95 fundforsustainabletomorrows.org

If you can make it through this downer of a documentary without drowning your misery in a bottle of Agent Orange, you’ll come away knowing a whole lot more than you ever wanted to about war’s impact on the environment—and that’s just one of the reasons you should watch it. Sure, your middle school history class covered Hiroshima and the Kuwait oil spills. But did you know that Earth Policy Institute’s Lester Brown thinks we could restore the earth’s ecosystems and fight climate change for $161 billion—a mere third of the annual US military budget? Or that only a small patch of the lush pistachio tree forests that once blanketed Afghanistan remains today, in large part due to war-induced poverty and social unrest? Or that sixty-odd WWII ships sunk by the Japanese are lying like ticking ecological time bombs on the ocean floor, just beginning to leak the tons of cargo oil they’d been carrying when taken down in combat? Or that in one hour, a single F-16 fighter jet uses twice as much fuel as the average American uses in his or her car over the course of a year? It goes without saying that Scarred Land falls closer to the suicide-inducing end of the spectrum than would, say, Happy Feet, but it’s well-made, fresh, and compassionate. You’ll agree by the end that the environment is actually war’s silent casualty. What’s more, you might even want to get up and do something about it. —TH

Tea Leaf Green: Raise Up the Tent Surfdog Records, CD, $15.98

Green Inc.: An Environmental Insider Reveals How a Good Cause Has Gone Bad By Christine MacDonald Lyons Press, $24.95

When journalist Christine MacDonald left media for the world of nonprofit environmental conservation, she looked forward to spending her days saving endangered species. Instead, she ran smack into environmental leaders touting fat expense accounts and hob nobbing with celebs on extravagant, globe-trotting tours. Green Inc. is a critical examination of what MacDonald sees as the too-cozy relationships between major conservation groups—World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, Environmental Defense Fund, and others—and major players in the coal, oil, logging, and gas industries. Environmental groups defend their fast-lane lifestyles and suspect partnerships as necessary steps toward gaining influence, but MacDonald suggests that “the companies are getting more out of the current setup than the endangered species.” —Victoria Schlesinger

Tea Leaf Green lead singer-songwriter Trevor Garrod would rather be out hiking (field guide in hand) than doing almost anything else, so it’s no surprise that he often pays tribute to nature in his songs. Having grown up on a farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains and majored in botany at San Francisco State University, he draws inspiration from the pastoral scenes of his early days to pen lyrics about depleting natural resources and pesticide-spraying tractors. Recent release Raise Up the Tent is no exception—Garrod calls “Red Ribbons,” one of the album’s eleven tracks, his most urgent environmental warning to date. But Tea Leaf’s sound—rock flavored with folk and jazz—isn’t in the least bit morose; it’s funky, buoyant, and often calming. The band practices what it preaches too: Tea Leaf offsets almost all its tours, packages albums in 30 percent post-consumer-waste recycled materials, and plays major green festivals like NYC’s Green Apple Festival, Bonnaroo, and the Echo Project. — TH

Confessions of an Eco-Sinner: Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff By Fred Pearce Beacon Press, $24.95

Ever wonder where your favorite pair of slacks started? How about the aluminum can holding your chilled beer, or the cotton in your cosy, new socks? In his latest book, science writer Pearce traces items Western consumers use every day—from food to fabrics to metals— to their often-shocking roots. Confessions could easily have become an odious guilt trip of a book, but instead, it’s packed with jaw-dropping stats and introductions to heroes like Cheung Yan, China’s “Queen of Trash” (founder of Nine Dragons, probably the largest paper recycling biz on the planet). You’ll never again be able to hide behind the “I’m just one person” excuse. —Sarah Parsons

plentymag.com | 65

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Photo: Cesar Rubio

Jessica Tzerman

plentygreen gear

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gear

Compute This

Dellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s newly unveiled, bamboo-encased Studio Hybrid computer is 81 percent smaller than a standard desktop, uses 70 percent less power, and incorporates recycled bottles and detergent cases into its packaging. And when you decide to upgrade, Dell will either recycle the old machine or donate it to the National Cristina Foundation, an organization that benefits disabled and economically disadvantaged kids and adults. $649, including optional bamboo slipcover, dell.com/hybrid

Industrial Evolution

Cradle to cradle, closed loop, upcycle, recycleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;whatever you call it, the paradigm has shifted in the business of making stuff. Everyone from furniture makers to tech creators to textile artists is focusing on effective design, environmental impact, and material conservation. Companies are creating products that can be used again and again or that will simply expire without a trace at the end of their lifetime. And many have implemented take-back programs, recapturing used items from consumers and integrating them into new products. The following nine examples represent what many see as the brighter future of industrial production.

plentymag.com | 67

green GEAR

Back to the Earth

Verterra derives its name from the Latin phrase for true to the earth, and its products reflect that philosophy. This dinnerware collection is made from compostable plant matter (think fallen leaves) and water, pressed into single-use plates, bowls, cups, and platters by South Asian workers who receive a fair living wage. Starting at $8.99 for a set of 10, verterra.com

Kids’ Corner Diaper Changes

Everyday in the US, 50 million disposable diapers go into landfills, where they will languish for, oh, about 500 years. By contrast, these certified–Cradle to Cradle diapers, the only ones on the market, consist of a cool-looking reusable outer pant and a plastic-free refill that you can compost, flush, or trash. $26.99 for a starter kit, gdiapers.com

What a Croc!

Last year, footwear maker Crocs launched Soles United, a take-back program that gives back, too. Not only does the company recycle worn out Crocs along with the factory scraps, but it also turns the material into new shoes to donate to people in need in places like Zimbabwe and Malawi. The company has donated more than one million pairs so far and hopes to double that number this year. $30 for traditional beach model shown, crocs.com

Signed, Resealed—Delivers

With eco-envelopes, snail mail gets a second chance. Recipients just peel off their address patch from the front of the envelope, which is made from post-consumer recycled waste and paper from sustainably managed forests. Then write in the new outgoing address and use the adhesive strip on the back (it comes with two) to reseal. ecoenvelopes.com for information

68 | october-november 2008

Phone Home

With Nokia’s futuristic N93i phone, you can shoot up to 90 minutes of video, create slideshows, and burn DVDs— remarkable when you remember that it’s a phone. Thanks to the transparent eco-declarations the company prepares for its products, users can be sure the device is RoHS-compliant, PVC-free, and Energy Star–certified. Plus, Nokia recycles all of its phones, batteries, and chargers through its nationwide Nokia Cares program. $650, nokia.com

Pillow Talk

A staunch supporter of sustainable farming and manufacturing, Looolo Textiles proves that great home design and eco-consciousness can coexist. Every pillow and blanket is made from certified-organic materials free of chemicals and hazardous by-products, and will break down fully in a composter within one year (if you can ever bear to part with it). FYI: A new line of kids’ toys is coming soon. $190–230, Janthur pillow; $500, Honeycomb blanket; 2modern.com

Editor’s Pick

photographs by anthony

verde

Chair Apparent “While my conscience appreciates that Haworth’s Zody—the first task chair certified as Cradle to Cradle Gold—is made with 51 percent recycled materials and is 98 percent recyclable, the only thing my back cares about is the superior lumbar support. After spending ten hours a day for the last two weeks in the Zody, it’s easy to see why the American Physical Therapy Association endorsed it. This chair fits just right.” —Alisa Opar, Senior Editor about $699, haworth.com

plentymag.com | 69

The trips you take produce a lot more than jet lag. But they can BeGreen Now.

Learn more about offsets, find out how to balance out the emissions from your car or home, and check out our Gift of Green products at www.begreennow.com.

There are game-changers and then there are world-changers. From Internet giants working to make renewable energy cheaper than coal, to a sea captain monitoring the ocean’s plastic waste, to the growth of intentional communities (they’re not just for hippies anymore)—welcome to Plenty’s second annual list honoring (in no particular order) 20 dynamic individuals and 20 pioneering companies that are bettering the planet, plus 10 innovative ideas that will revolutionize how we live. ideas

• carbon labels • closing the loop • Economic energy Efficiency

• A123 Systems • Applied Materials • Arup • Bon AppÉtit

communities

• green affordable

• Living Catalogs • Nature Education • Skyscraper Farms

Housing

• • •

• Iberdrola • IBM • Innovest Strategic Value Advisors

• IPCC • Mitchell Gold +

Management Company Coskata Environmental Working Group Forest Stewardship Council Google Home Depot

Bob Williams

• Nike • Patagonia • Pizza Fusion • RecycleBank • Swiss Re • TransFair USA

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the plenty 20 logo designed by Hinterland

businesses

• Green-Collar Jobs • Green Media • intentional

people

plentymag.com | 71

business

A123 Systems

The dawn of the hybrid car—not to mention $4-per-gallon gasoline— shows the importance of fuel-saving batteries. At the head of the class is A123. This Watertown, Massachusetts, start-up has a $148 million venture capital war chest that fueled a nanotech breakthrough: a battery that charges faster, holds more power, and is safer than anything out now. A123 is already taking orders for lithium batteries that turn a Toyota Prius into a plug-in machine clocking 100 miles per gallon; and by 2010, they will power GM’s Chevy Volt.

Applied Materials

Old

PEOPLE

Maude Barlow

It’s been said we’ll launch 21st-century wars over water, not oil, but Canadian activist Barlow has been leading the battle for water justice for decades. She made international waves with her 2007 book, Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water; and her global initiative, Blue Planet Project, helped successfully lobby for groundwater protection in Vermont and is driving the push for a UN covenant declaring clean water a personal right.

New

IDEA 72 | october-november 2008

nature education Government officials and the media are (finally!) trying to transform today’s children from couch potatoes into naturalists. The movement started with Richard Louv’s 2005 book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from NatureDeficit Disorder. In 2007, Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and Representative John Sarbanes (D-MD) proposed the No Child Left Inside Act, legislation that would provide $500 million to implement environmental education programs in America’s schools. And now, some states are taking action, too: This year, environmental groups in New Mexico lobbied for a “sin tax” on new televisions and video games—if imposed, the tax could provide $4 million a year for outdoor education programs.

icon by Hinterland

Even as big-money entrants crowd the solar field, Applied stands out as a likely winner. Already a Fortune 500 company producing computer chip–making equipment, Applied has repurposed its nanomanufacturing technology to create the largest thin-film solar cells in the world. Thin-film, which involves layering sunlight-reactive material to mold around a variety of bases, has sky-high potential because of its low cost and flexibility. As Applied works on increasing solarfilm efficiency, this technology will likely play a starring role in the clean energy picture.

business

IBM

Big Blue has said it will spend $1 billion in its “Big Green” initiative to make its products more energy efficient (primarily in carbonchomping corporate data centers). But IBM is also one of the key players in a movement that includes Fortune 500 companies, nimble start-ups, and electric utilities exploring ways to make the entire energy grid smarter. This means putting computer processors into every node so that companies can more accurately meter and charge for energy usage— creating incentives for efficiency unimaginable in the past.

Arup

PEOPLE

Michael Pollan

An advocate for sustainability, heirloom species, and local food, Pollan turns a critical eye on both green (for example, industrial organic) and mainstream businesses. His charming humor and self-deprecation inspire readers to follow suit in planting gardens and asking farmers about their methods and produce managers about their sourcing. Pollan’s 2006 book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and his latest call for food-system reform, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manif esto, made bestseller lists.

Arup brings to life the cutting-edge eco-dreams of architecture’s stars. This inter national design and construction consultancy has worked on more than 1,000 green projects in the last ten years, with a portfolio spanning from the new Califor nia Academy of Sciences and its living roof, by Renzo Piano, to the eco-city planned for Dongtan, China. Arup also advises clients about marine ecology, human health impacts, and noise pollution, as it brings the latest ideas in sustainabil ity to the built environment.

New

IDEA

closing the loop Landfills are suffocating under the more than 200 million tons of garbage that Americans produce each year. To remedy the situation—and eliminate the concept of waste altogether—eco-minded companies are creating Cradle to Cradle–style products and take-back programs (see page 67). Patagonia customers can return used Common Threads apparel, and the company will turn it into new clothing. Nike takes back worn athletic shoes (of any brand), grinds them up, and makes sporting and playground surfaces. And pet-toy manufacturer West Paw Design asks customers to return chewed up toys from the Zogoflex line—the company will make a new toy from the remains, free of charge.

plentymag.com | 73

business

Bon Appétit Management Company

You don’t need a neighborhood vegan café to boost your low-carbon diet—if you’re lucky enough to eat at one of the 400 companies, universities, or arts institutions (eBay, MIT, and the Seattle Art Museum among them) where Bon Appétit runs the cafeteria. With services spread across 28 states, this eco-company buys food according to deep-green principles that include direct purchasing from farmers and artisans located within 150 miles of where each meal is served. Commitment like this makes Bon Appétit the first and largest food services group in the country to address issues surrounding origin and social responsibility.

Coskata

A biofuel that doesn’t use food? Fill ’er up, please. This Illinois company says it can convert tires and glass as well as municipal and agricultural waste into fuel. With more than $10 million in vested and a third round projected at $50 million more, Coskata plans to make one gallon of cellulosic ethanol for less than one dollar, using less than one gallon of water. The comp any’s demonstration plant is slated to open in 2009.

PEOPLE

If you combined Indiana Jones with Al Gore, you’d get 30-year-old David de Rothschild—a modern-day explorer hell-bent on saving the planet. He runs Adventure Ecology, an organization that spotlights global environmental crises through high-profile expeditions, like his fastest-ever crossing of the Greenland ice cap in 2005. De Rothschild also manages a self-sustaining organic farm and was named a Young Global Leader at the 2007 World Economic Forum. His list of feats is already legendary—including being the youngest Brit ever to reach both poles—but it’s his commitment to the planet that’s truly superlative. 74 | october-november 2008

photo by Adam Bromberg and Oliver Chanarin

David de Rothschild

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Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams

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Al Gore With a groundbreaking documentary, an Oscar, and a Nobel Peace Prize under his belt, Al Gore took a new approach to raising environmental awareness in 2007: advertising. His nonprofit Alliance for Climate Protection’s $300 million “We” campaign runs ads on American Idol, The Daily Show, and other programs, aiming to build support for fighting climate change. Already, more than 1.4 million people have joined the campaign, demonstrating that Gore is on the cutting edge of environmentalism.

Eco-friendly from the start, this design duo made understated upholstery fashionable and has topped $100 million in sales. The company uses regenerated fibers and soy-based biomaterials in its seat cushions, natural and recycled materials made from plastic bottles in its pillows, and responsibly sourced wood in its furniture. Their eco-designs are available at big retailers like Crate & Barrel, Restoration Hardware, and Pottery Barn, as well as at their own stores, where they also sell photography by Tipper Gore.

PEOPLE

Nicholas Negroponte

photo by Mark Mainz/Getty Images (top)

Author, entrepreneur, and MIT scholar Negroponte has helped spur innovation in technology and information science for the last four decades. The One Laptop Per Child Foundation is his latest triumph. Since mass production of the $188 computers began in November 2007, more than 600,000 children in schools from Uruguay to Rwanda have received OLPC’s solar- and human-powered XO laptops. The success of these super-cheap, super-efficient machines has inspired widespread innovation among computer makers.

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GReen AFFORDABLE housing Why should green housing be the exclusive domain of eco-conscious movie stars? Shouldn’t our nation’s low-income residents—about a third of American households—also benefit from lower energy costs and improved indoor air quality? A recent report by the affordable housing group Enterprise Community Partners found that greening the nation’s existing affordable housing stock could save “up to 50 million tons of CO2” over a ten-year period. Proof of the health benefits can be seen at the High Point Homes, a former housing project turned thriving, mixed-income community in Seattle, where the percentage of asthmatic chil dren needing “urgent clinical care” dropped from almost 62 percent to 21 percent. With green affordable homes, the poor and the planet benefit together.

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Environmental Working Group

Pizza Fusion

PEOPLE

Lester Brown

An agricultural economist, Brown founded the Worldwatch Institute—one of the first organizations to address global sustainability issues—in 1974, and the Earth Policy Institute in 2001. He focuses on the world population’s effect on resources and predicted the current food crisis. Among his more than 20 books is this year’s Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, a comprehensive strategy to reverse the effects of global warming by tackling four areas: climate, population, poverty, and ecosystems.

If we’re going to make fast food eco-friendly, let’s start with pizza. Pizza Fusion shows how easily it can be done, using organic, locally sourced ingredients to make a high-quality pie that’s then packaged responsibly and de livered in a fleet of hybrids. Customers get discounts for bringing pizza boxes back, the only utensils are “spudware” (made from potatoes), and the company’s energy use is offset with wind credit purchases. Are you listening, Pizza Hut?

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Mindy Lubber

As president of Ceres—a nonprofit assisting financial investors and corporations with environmental sustainability—Lubber works to expose the financial risks of global warming, making them an everyday part of investment decisions. Under Lubber, the group has advised 65 major institutional investors (including the state controller for California and CFO for Florida), representing a total of $5 trillion in investments. All have agreed to demand that their money managers disclose how they incorporate climate risk into their portfolios.

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SKyscraper farms During the next 50 years, the world’s population may reach 9 billion people, and the vast majority will live in urban areas. Feeding those hungry mouths could require clearing an additional 10 billion hectares for farming (an area the size of Brazil). But there is another, more innovative solution on the table: farming in skyscrapers. The Sky Farm, proposed for downtown Toronto, would stand 58-stories high and produce enough food to feed 35,000 people each year. Envisioned for New York City, the 30-story Vertical Farm would cultivate a variety of produce and grains, support aquaculture and perhaps poultry, and employ energy- and water-saving practices—all without pesticides or transportation costs.

photo by Ceres (left)

The FDA doesn’t require cosmetics companies to test their products for safety, so the $250 billion industry can use any number of toxic ingredients. In 2004, the Environmental Working Group developed a database called Skin Deep, available to the public online, that matches ingredients in nearly 30,000 products with 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases. Skin Deep makes EWG the de facto nonprofit looking out for consumers’ health. Their Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has also been a great success, getting more than 600 companies to pledge to replace hazardous chemicals in their products.

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Forest Stewardship Council

In Dr Seuss’ world, the Lorax spoke for the trees. In ours, we have the increasingly influential Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), created out of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro to establish standards for sustainable forestry around the world. Beyond forest management, the FSC reviews paper mills and building products with an evaluation that emphasizes eliminating water pollution, irresponsible logging, and chemical treatments—giving a green stamp of approval ecoconsumers can rely on. Select furniture, musical instruments, and packaging companies are getting the FSC once-over, too.

PEOPLE

Peter Diamandis As chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, Diamandis dreams up lucrative competitions to design objects that benefit humanity. Most recently, he launched the Progressive Automotive X Prize. The $10 million quest is for a road-tested, production line–ready car that gets at least 100 miles per gallon (or the energy equivalent) and produces about 90 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than conventional cars. Consider this the tech and auto worlds’ Nobel Prize.

photo by Andrew Brusso/Corbis

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INtentional communities Newsflash: Communes aren’t just for hippies anymore. You don’t have to pat on patchouli or live in a tent to join one of the 385 registered eco-villages or 500 cohousing projects around the globe. Eco-villages—communities or towns united by residents’ attention to sustainability, conservation, local living, and respect for nature—won’t save the world all on their own, but they are safe-havens for the ambitiously eco and inspiring models for the rest of us. Offshoot concepts such as farm shares (for example, Community-Supported Agriculture shares, or CSAs), student co-ops, urban housing cooperatives, and even green retirement homes are already sprouting up countrywide.

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Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

PEOPLE

Charles Moore

Since 1997, Moore’s nonprofit, the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, has documented the “great Pacific garbage patch.” Also known as the Pacific Gyre, the 3.5 million tons of plastic floating in the ocean threaten organisms of all sizes, from whales to plankton. In 2007, Moore found not just a patch but a super-highway of junk running between San Francisco and Japan. The discovery garnered international media attention, and now governments are adopting Moore’s protocols to monitor plastic waste in the ocean.

PEOPLE

Van Jones Last year, Jones was instrumental in getting the city of Oakland, California, to fund an initiative to train citizens in green-collar jobs. But that’s just one of his environmentaljustice achievements: As founder and president of Green For All, a nonprofit whose goal is to decrease poverty and inequality by creating a green economy full of opportunities for disadvantaged communities, he also helped pass the national Green Jobs Act of 2007. The law provides $125 million to prep tens of thousands of people annually for work in eco-industries.

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heidi cullen

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What to do when major news and weather channels refuse to acknowledge global warming? Bring in a peppy, brainy climatologist as the resident climate expert. The Weather Channel’s weekly Forecast Earth has soared in popularity since its expansion to an hour-long show in 2008, so while most weather anchors are stuck predicting “cloudy with a chance of showers,” Cullen gets to chill with the likes of Al Gore, Van Jones, and Sylvia Earle.

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Green media Gone are the days when writers, producers, and media corporations were content to sprinkle a token green-bite into their regular programming. Television, print, radio, film, and the Internet are experiencing a kind of revolution. It’s now protocol—even high-brow—to devote an entire issue, radio show, or news website to environmental coverage. But the most extreme ecomedia gamble to date? The Discovery Channel’s 2008 launch of Planet Green, the first-ever 24-hour TV channel devoted entirely to the environment.

photo by Joel Paschal for Algalita Marine Research Foundation (top)

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) created the IPCC in 1988 to provide objective information about human-induced climate change. Nineteen years later, the IPCC’s volunteer scientific experts—the group considers its contributors to number in the thousands—were finally recognized for their efforts when they were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for providing a scientific basis with which to frame the global warming crisis. The panel’s strong language, including chairman Rajendra Pachauri’s statement that “if there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late,” kick-started landmark legislation like America’s Climate Security Act of 2007 (though it was eventually killed) and has inspired initiatives worldwide to decrease carbon footprints.

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Home Depot

The world’s largest home improvement retailer started changing its ways with a 1999 woodpurchasing policy that has made the company one of the largest suppliers of certified wood on the planet. Less than 0.15 percent of its wood comes from the Brazilian Amazon basin, and the company promotes sustainable timber harvests in the region. In addition, Home Depot demands fair-labor and environmentally friendly practices of its suppliers, and runs one of the world’s largest greenlabeling programs: Its Eco Options brand certifies thousands of home products as ecofriendly.

Iberdrola

PEOPLE

Andrew Revkin

photo by Yoni Brook/The New York Times

In 2007, Revkin, The New York Times environment correspondent, launched his DotEarth blog. He uses this platform to examine, among other issues, humans’ impact on the environment and climate, and vice versa. In the first seven months, his 247 posts prompted 18,998 comments; monthly page views now average 400,000. Revkin is particularly concerned for the poor, who will be hardest hit by climate change and the expanding global population.

How can we meet our clean energy needs? The answer could be blowin’ in from Spain. Power company Iberdrola—the largest renewable-energy operator in the world, producing 2,739 million kilowatt-hours domestically—has announced plans to invest $8 billion in renewable energy (mainly wind power) in the US in the next two years. Iberdrola also signed a deal to buy its turbines from General Electric, helping the Spanish giant reach its stated goal of generating 21,991 megawatts of wind power in the US by 2010.

PEOPLE

Vinod Khosla

When Vinod Khosla so much as glances at an emerging tech company, venture capitalists follow. Lately, he’s turned his attention to green-tech, focusing on cellulosic fuels, distributed and utility-scale solar, and bioplastics. The 52-year-old, whose net worth is $1.5 billion, made his money cofounding computer and network giant Sun Microsystems and later betting on tech start-ups like Excite and Corvis.

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innovest Strategic Value Advisors

PEOPLE

Kevin Wall

When investing in a company, why just look at the financials? Innovest believes a firm’s performance on environmental, social, and governance issues also gives clues as to how it will fare in the long run. Managed by seasoned senior executives from giants like Citibank and Royal Dutch/Shell Group, this financial services firm calculates the carbon as well as the cash flow. Innovest directs more than $1.3 billion in investments, but just think of the good that could come if its client base—with more than $7 trillion in assets—put all of its money under this green innovator’s direction.

Wall’s an old hand at producing major concerts, but last year’s Live Earth was his biggest effort yet. Eight concerts across the globe featured more than 150 top musical acts, including Madonna and Metallica, playing for 24 hours to some 2 billion people—all to raise awareness about global warming. For this year’s Live Earth, Wall has planned regional events around the world to tackle specific cultural and political challenges related to climate change.

Patagonia

Already a darling of the eco-set for their all-weather gear and for giving back to the planet, Patagonia took a major step forward in accountability this year with the launch of the Footprint Chronicles. This website discloses the eco-impacts—good and bad—of many of Patagonia’s products. (The Eco Rain Shell Jacket, for example, uses 100 percent recycled polyester components, but it also has a waterrepellent finish made of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, “a synthetic chemical that is now persistent in the environment.”) Hopefully, other manufacturers will follow in Patagonia’s trail.

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Kathleen Sebelius

In May, Kansas Governor Sebelius vetoed a bill for the third time to allow two new 700-megawatt coal-fired power plants to be built, citing their CO2 emissions as detrimental in the face of climate change. While Kansas gets 76 percent of its electricity from coal, Sebelius espouses conversion to wind power and has signed on to the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord, which commits Midwestern governors to establish a regional cap-and-trade system to lower carbon emissions.

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Green-collar jobs As green business grows, so does skilled employment in sectors like energy retrofits, sustainable building, infrastructure, and food production. These green-collar jobs provide training and pay better than a living wage: They’ll also seed environmental awareness and economic well-being in low-income neighborhoods. A 2007 report by the City of Berkeley, California, recommends the nation remove barriers to entry such as lack of a high school diploma; form a Green Business Council; and provide more affordable space for green businesses. And early-action programs in inner-city communities—like the Green Jobs Corps in Oakland, California, and Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training in New York—are giving youth a grip on the green career ladder.

PEOPLE

William McDonough & Michael Braungart

Before a widespread concept of sustainability existed, McDonough and Braungart were working on a model for responsible living and intelligent design. The architect-chemist duo behind the Cradle to Cradle certification values eco-effectiveness (“good,” regenerative, closedloop processes) over eco-efficiency (“less bad” cost-cutting measures). And if last year’s client roster is any indication—the US Postal Service and Seventh Generation were among those who sought their help—the Next Industrial Revolution they advocate might finally be underway.

PEOPLE

Fred Krupp

photo by T. Charles Erickson (right)

The president of the renowned nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Krupp greatly influenced the public and legal realms this past year. His New York Times bestseller, Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming is a useful guide for tomorrow’s tycoons and is an optimistic take on how private-sector innovation can save our planet. EDF also spearheaded a legal and media campaign that stopped energy titan TXU Corporation from building eight coal-fired plants in Texas.

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CArbon labels Not to be confused with carbon offsets, carbon labels reveal the amount of greenhouse gases emitted during a product’s manufacture and shipping. Timberland’s “nutritional” label gives a shoe a carbon rating from zero (less than 2.5 kg of CO2) to ten (100 kg). Suit manufacturer Bagir gives its new recycled–wool/poly menswear a 15 kg carbon label. In the UK, each packet of PepsiCo’s Walkers potato chips accounts for 75 grams, and Tesco supermarkets have carbon-labeled 20 items. But that’s not all: Britain’s Carbon Trust (carbontrust.org), a government-funded nonprofit, is setting uniform national standards to avoid the pitfalls of company self-monitoring.

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Nike

The giant Oregon-based sneaker-maker, once skewered by Michael Moore and others, is now a member of the industry-funded Fair Labor Association and scores highest among apparel companies for reducing its carbon footprint, according to Climate Counts. Nike’s Considered program has launched some impressive products—including the Air Jordan XX3, made with eco-rubber and a water-based bond ing process—and has helped the company set some audacious goals for reducing toxics and waste and using more environmentally friendly materials. Expect big changes from Nike’s full footwear line by 2011 and its apparel line come 2015.

RecycleBank For all the talk about recycling, not many people actually do it—less than 10 percent of households. RecycleBank, started in Philadelphia but going nationwide in the next few years, offers incentives that go beyond green. Your recyclables are weighed upon pickup, and based on the weight, you get reward dollars for discounts at more than 250 US retailers, including Starbucks and Ikea, and save on earthfriendly choices like Stonyfield Farms and Sun & Earth. Thanks to RecycleBank, the trash bin is becoming the bargain bin.

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TransFair USA

Get a whiff of this: TransFair USA, already famous for certifying coffee as Fair Trade, added flowers and honey this year to a list that includes tea, herbs, vanilla, chocolate, rice, sugar, and bananas. More than 1.4 million producers racked up $2.21 billion in sales of TransFaircertified Fair Trade products in 2006 alone. That means farmers are paid a premium for making sure they grow their goods sustainably and pay their workers fairly. Diamonds could be next, compliments of a grant from the Tiffany & Co Foundation. Wouldn’t that jewel look lovely in TransFair’s crown?

PEOPLE

Joe Lovett

Lovett is a character straight out of a John Grisham novel: Ten years ago, he launched a successful legal career fighting environmental destruction in Big Coal country. Since cofounding the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment in 2001, Lovett has led efforts to nationalize mountaintop-removal mining (for easier monitoring) and has advanced precedent-setting litigation, taking the government and coal industry to task. This year, Lovett helped force a West Virginia mining company to stop exceeding discharge limits for a byproduct of mountaintop removal called selenium, a pollutant that causes fish deformities. The court order could have broad implications for the entire mining industry.

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James Hansen

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As head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, Hansen ranks as king of the climate scientists. For more than 20 years, he’s emphasized the disastrous consequences of continuing to spew greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Finally, officials and the general public are starting to listen. This year, Hansen and colleagues reported that the safe limit for atmospheric CO2 is no more than 350 parts per million—a level the world passed 20 years ago.

EConomic energy efficiency There’s a new approach to retrofitting residences for energy efficiency: Make it so affordable that renters and homeowners get onboard. Under new Pay As You Save projects in New Hampshire and Hawaii, an energy provider would supply the capital for renewable energy products like, say, solar water heaters. Tenants then pay an extra charge on their monthly utility bill to cover the provider’s investment, but because of the energy savings, the overall bill is lower. Through the REnU program, homeowners in all but nine states can rent solar panels for one, five, or twenty-five years, paying a per-kilowatt fee instead of a local utility bill. The fixed monthly rate means that as energy prices rise, participants will reduce their carbon footprints and save money. So far, more than 30,000 people have signed up.

photo by Arnie Adler (top)

The Internet giant is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to find a clean, lowcost form of energy, for reasons both selfserving—it uses a lot of power—and altruistic. With a joint corporate and philanthropic effort investing $30 million in cleantech start-ups this year alone, Google’s RE<C (renewable energy cheaper than coal) program wants to spur inexpensive, largescale production of clean energy. Google’s own facilities are home to one of the largest corporate solar installations in the country, and it’s hiring top engineers and energy experts in a massive research and development effort seeking lean, clean power.

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Swiss Re

After 145 years, this insurer to insurance companies (the largest of its kind) knows about taking—and surviving— risks. Because they often pay out after natural disasters and poor weather, Swiss Re is now playing a leading role in tackling climate change. The reinsurance giant is a pioneer in buying certified emission reductions (CERs) and high-quality verified emission reductions (VERs) to make itself “greenhouse neutral.” It’s also advocating for index insurance for climate risk management and pushing global leaders to adapt what it views as sensible environmental policies. Swiss Re makes money by staying ahead of risk trends, so it’s no surprise it’s on the cutting edge here, providing valuable leadership on climate change.

PEOPLE

Frederick Kirschenmann

Kirschenmann is a driving force in sustainable, mindful agriculture. A farmer, philosopher, and thirdparty organic certifier, he helped set the standards for the US Certified Organic label launched in 2002. His latest undertaking is a label identifying family-farm products grown with environmental and fair labor standards, with full transparency at every step—from farmers to retailers, chefs, and consumers. The slogan: Food you can trust, from people who trust each other.

photo by Connie Falk

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LIving catalogs Soaring extinction rates and declining biodiversity have spurred international projects that collect, store, and analyze life, and use those findings to aid in conservation. In February, the Encyclopedia of Life went live; currently the online database contains few entries, but the goal is to cover all 1.8 million known species. On the same day, the Global Seed Vault opened its doors, aiming to stockpile seeds to preserve crop diversity. The San Diego Zoo’s Frozen Zoo has lofty aspirations to cryogenically preserve genetic material from every animal on the earth to conserve genetic diversity. And one of the most ambitious projects yet, the Consortium for the Barcode of Life, is developing technology to quickly and accurately identify creatures by a genetic sequence, much as supermarket scanners distinguish products with Universal Product Codes.

By Anuj Desai, Dan Fost, Liz Galst, Tobin Hack, Jessica a Knoblauch, Alisa Opar, Sarah Parsons, Mindy Pennybacker, Victoria Schlesinger, and Jessica Tzerman

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Attendees pass around an Earth Ball at the August 28, 1978, Whole Earth Jamboree, an event organized by Stewart Brand.

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The Whole Earth Effect How did a publication with just a four-year run help shape a community so prolific that it went on to inspire Google, Craigslist, and the blogosphere; save six American rivers; and shape sustainable business practices as we know them today? Forty years after the first issue of the Whole Earth Catalog, this oral history of the publication, as told by those who made it and those who read it, tracks the long-lasting impact of a short-lived journal that altered the course of the world.

by Steven Kotler

photo by Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS (opposite)

n the opening pages of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe describes “a thin blond guy with a blazing disk on his forehead,” wearing “just an Indian bead necklace on bare skin and a white butcher’s coat with medals from the King of Sweden on it.” This guy is stewart brand, a Stanford-educated biologist and an ex–Army paratrooper turned Ken Kesey cohort and fellow merry prankster who, in 1966, at age 28, had launched a nationwide campaign to convince nasa to release for the first time a photo of the entire planet taken from space. (He made buttons reading “Why Haven’t We Seen a Photograph of the Whole Earth Yet?” and hitchhiked around the country selling them.) A few months after Wolfe’s book was published, in March 1968, Brand was flying back to California from his father’s funeral in Nebraska. He was reading a copy of Barbara Ward’s Spaceship Earth and trying to answer a pair of questions: How can I help all my friends who are currently moving back to the land? And, more important, how can I help save the planet? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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A staff photo of some key contributors to the Whole Earth Epilog, a follow-up to the original Catalog, started in 1973. From left to right: Stewart Brand, Diana Barich, Pam Cokeley, Andrea Sharp, Al Perrin, Peter Warshall, Richard Nilsen, Rosie Menninger, Jay Baldwin, Kathleen Whitacre, Diana Sloat, and Doris Herrick.

hile on that flight, Brand came up with a solution: to publish a magazine in the vein of the LL Bean catalog—which he’d always admired for its immense practicality—that would blend liberal social values with emerging ideas about “appropriate technology” and “whole-systems thinking.” He decided to run NASA’s photograph of the planet on the cover and to call the publication the Whole Earth Catalog (WEC). The first WEC, published in July 1968, was a six-page mimeograph that began with Brand’s now-legendary statement of purpose: “We are as gods and we might as well get good at it.” The WEC lasted four years (along with some special editions since). During that time, the magazine published a flood of articles about species preservation, organic farming, and alternative energy—but it was also a resource for “tools” as wide ranging as Buddhist economics, nanotechnology, and a manure-powered generator. Comprehensive in this way, the WEC was a catalyst,

helping transform a set of disparate individualists into a potent community. As Lloyd Kahn, the catalog’s shelter editor, says, “The beatniks had a negative, existential vibe. They weren’t into sharing. But the hippies came along and wanted to share everything. Whatever they discovered, they just wanted to broadcast. The WEC was the very best example of this.” It is now 40 years later and the WEC ’s avalanche of influence continues to flow. Cyberculture, the blogosphere, companies like Apple and Patagonia, websites like Craigslist and worldchanging .org, sustainable building, ethical business practices, and the gamut of alternative-energy industries were all shaped by its pages. Its ecological legacy spans everything from new cattlegrazing techniques to major environmental legislation. What follows is an oral history, compiled from 30 hours of interviews, that takes a look at the Whole Earth Effect—the long-lasting impact of this short-lived journal, as told by the people directly in its path.

On Defining the Catalog Stewart Brand The line from Kesey and the Pranksters to WEC is pretty clear: They were lower–middle class guys, and lower–middle class guys like tools. We were always messing around with gear or drug apparatus or whatever. So the whole DIY frame of reference molded into the WEC. Huey Johnson San Francisco in the ’60s was where all the square pegs wound up. All the super-bright people

from Milwaukee and Detroit and such brought all their bright ideas with them— on the environment, new technology, whole-systems thinking. And the WEC was the place where most of these new ideas ended up.

ing and important and, often, unnoticed. That was Brand’s gift: Whatever the topic, he was always the first person to get it.

John Markoff WEC was paperback hypertext. Everyone who was part of the culture back then used it as a reference point. It was a portable library about everything and anything that was interest-

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Steve Jobs The WEC ... was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along. It was idealistic and overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Jay Baldwin Stewart Brand came to me because he heard

that I read catalogs. He said, “I want to make this thing called Whole Earth Catalog so that anyone on the planet can pick up a telephone and find out the complete information on anything.” Peter Coyote For the entire back-to-the-land movement, the WEC was an encyclopedia of technology and skills. It was all the stuff you needed to know but didn’t know where to learn.

Huey Johnson, the

secretary of resources for the State of California from 1978 to 1982,received the President’s Award for Sustainable Development in 1996. He founded the Resource Renewal Institute and the Trust For Public Land (now America’s fifth-largest environmental organization).

Jay Baldwin, an industrial designer, worked in the California Office of Appropriate Technology under Governor Jerry Brown and in the ’90s at Amory Lovins’ Rocky Mountain Institute, where he helped develop the ultra-efficient Hypercar. He previously served as design editor for the WEC.

“The WEC also popularized a friendlier way to break horses and new ideas in cattle grazing based on systems ecology. These two things turned ranchers into hippies, and that’s a trend that’s still going strong.” Top to bottom: Stewart Brand in Sausalito, California, in 1995, with his home—the tugboat Mirene—in the background; Allen Ginsberg at the Whole Earth Jamboree; Stewart Brand at the LSD conference in San Francisco on June 23, 1966; Huey Johnson (third from left), the secretary of resources for California, with Governor Jerry Brown (left). For helping shape environmental policy at a critical juncture, Johnson is considered by many to be the most influential of Whole Earth alumni.

Actor Peter Coyote cofounded the anarchist group the Diggers in the ’60s and worked with the San Francisco Mime Troupe before going on to Hollywood. His films include Bitter Moon, Erin Brockovich, ET, Jagged Edge, and Kika.

Steve Jobs is the cofounder and CEO of Apple Inc. He also ran Lucasfilm Ltd and Pixar Animation Studios from 1986 to 2006. In 2007, Fortune listed him as its Most Powerful Businessman. John Markoff is a senior writer with The New York Times and the author of What the Dormouse Said: How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry. Andrew Kirk is the author of Counterculture Green: The Whole Earth Catalog and American Environmentalism.

John Perry Barlow grew up a Wyoming cattle rancher and later became a lyricist for the Grateful Dead. In 1990, he cofounded the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which promotes freedom of expression in digital media. He is a fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Stewart Brand works on a layout of the Whole Earth Catalog over a light table in Menlo Park, California, in 1969.

Larry Peterson is presently the special advisor for energy and sustainable planning at Kitson & Partners.

Alex Steffen cofounded the environmental weblog worldchanging.org and serves as the site’s executive editor and CEO. He also edited the last, unpublished WEC.

Kevin Kelly is

the founding executive editor of Wired magazine and a former publisher of the WEC. Alongside Brand, he helped launch the WELL (Whole Earth ’Lectronic Link), an early, hugely influential online community. Many people feel his website, Cool Tools, is the modern incarnation of the WEC.

On Ecology and the Environmental Movement Andrew Kirk Brand embraced technology. The satellite photo on the WEC cover was the best example. It was true genius, the fundamental insight for the environmental movement—seeing the earth from space, people instantly know how finite our resources are. And Brand realized that at a time when most of his peers hated the space program because it was “big science.” John Perry Barlow William Gibson said, “The street finds its own use for things,” and the WEC was the street. Brand wanted NASA to give the world a picture of itself, then he widely distributed that picture. It changed the street—that photo got the entire culture thinking about the ecology of human endeavor. Larry Peterson The fear was that we were having an energy crisis that could set us back to the 1940s, to a time when all we could afford was one bare lightbulb to hang in the kitchen. But Brand and others at the WEC were into stuff that seems cutting edge today:

solar power, recycling, and wind energy. They realized that reducing the amount of energy we were using didn’t mean going backward, and this was new thinking. Jay Baldwin We had to drive to work, and that always bothered me. Sure, I drove the world’s most minimal car, a Citroën 2CV, but I still had to drive it. This was problematic. Everyone at the WEC attempted to live as they wrote. When we decided to advocate for solar power and heating, we first tried to live by it at 8,000 feet, in New Mexico, where the winter temperatures dropped to -20°C. Andrew Kirk As governor, Jerry Brown was interested in cutting-edge ideas and the WEC was San Francisco’s intelligentsia. Pretty soon WEC staffers got very active in California politics. Because of this, California became the nation’s laboratory for reconciling environmental issues with a thriving economic culture. For example, when Peter Warshall used an environmental impact statement to help save the

town of Bolinas from encroaching suburban sprawl, it was the first time that had been done— but it wasn’t the last. Huey Johnson We saved 1,200 miles of California rivers with an environmental impact statement. We used it to pass the Wild Rivers Act. See, both the federal government and the state of California had passed the bill, but for it to become law someone had to marry the two. All of California’s water interests were doing everything they could to make sure it didn’t happen. Plus, Carter was leaving office in a few months and Reagan was coming in— and there was no way he would let it happen. But I had this black gal in my office named Vera Marcus. She was tough, always walking up to me saying, “Hey, white boy, why don’t you challenge me?” So I gave her the Wild Rivers project. She did the impossible: She got an environmental impact statement done in four months. That’s two years’ worth of work. Signing the Wild Rivers Act into law was the very last thing that the Carter Administration did in office.

photo by Lloyd Kahn

A staff member in former Oregon governor Tom McCall’s office in the late ’60s and early ’70s, Vera Marcus was the third AfricanAmerican student in America to attend an integrated high school (her older sister was the first). She went on to work extensively with Huey Johnson when he was secretary of resources for California. She now practices law in Northern California.

photos courtsey of John Perry Barlow (right); Ted Streshinsky/CORBIS (above, right).

Vera Marcus I don’t know if I was the first African-American in the environmental movement, but it’s a pretty good bet that I was the first African-American woman to hold a position of real power. After Johnson made me assistant secretary for resources, I started attending meetings and all the environmental folks got upset. They would say, “They had to send a black woman—don’t we have enough problems already?” I think they stopped saying that when I got the job done. Huey Johnson The WEC techies made that bill possible, too. For it to get finished, we needed all of these signatures from people all over the country. So the WEC guys showed up with this massive, magical box. You put paper in one end and it came out somewhere else. It was this amazing machine called a fax. It’s a good thing Brand and those guys were so into new technology. Without that fax, California would have lost six rivers. Alex Steffen Traditionally, energy was a field in which Exxon types molded the world to their benefit and delivered energy with mass systems. But the WEC championed personal energy—wind power, solar power, and water power. The result is today’s explosion in green energy. The best hope we have for solving climate change is exactly what was accelerated by the WEC. Stewart Brand We were part of a process that 30 years later means California uses half as much energy as any other state, with 30 percent growth.

On Ideas and Information Kevin Kelly The catalog’s voice was a breakthrough. There wasn’t a style sheet; they left in most of the spelling and grammar errors. The WEC also had a gossip section. It was about the people who wrote the catalog. Brand was the first person to make gossip a legitimate topic. Richard Wurman A West Coast catalog for hippies that won the National Book Award [in 1972, in the Contemporary Affairs category]? It was a paradigm shift in information distribution. In the early ’70s, the public didn’t know what a yurt was, or where to buy one. But if you were interested in moving back to the land and needed sturdy, cheap housing, this was invaluable information. I think you can draw a pretty straight line from the WEC to a lot of today’s culture. It created an aroma that’s so pervasive, most people don’t even know the source of the smell. Kevin Kelly For this new countercultural movement, information was a precious

commodity. In the ’60s, there was no Internet; no 500 cable channels. Bookstores were usually small and bad; libraries, worse. The WEC not only gave you permission to invent your life, it gave you the reasoning and the tools to do just that. And you believed you could do it, because on every page of the catalog were other people doing it. This was a great example of user-generated content, without advertising, before the Internet. Basically, Brand invented the blogosphere long before there was any such thing as a blog. Alex Steffen The WEC is the first expression of collaborative media in the age of mass media. But this idea isn’t new; it’s at least as old as the Enlightenment. In the 1700s, the French philosopher Denis Diderot did the same thing in his Encylopédie—his great, collectivist attempt to catalog all human knowledge. Kevin Kelly Brand is singlehandedly responsible for American culture’s acceptance of computers. The very first WEC, in between the ads for beekeeping equipment, had an article about a personal computer. It was $5,000, the most expensive thing in the book. In the ’60s, computers were Big Brother, the Man. They were used by the enemy: massive, grayflannel-suit corporations and the government. But Brand saw what was possible. He understood that if these tools became personal, it could flip

John Perry Barlow seated outside a barn at Bar Cross Ranch in Cora, Wyoming, in 1975.

The Merry Pranksters take a ride through the streets of San Francisco in October 1966. Stewart Brand is standing in the front on the far right.

the world around into a place where people were gods. John Markoff There was a very big Luddite component to counterculture back then, but Brand wanted nothing to do with it. He had a military background and a big conservative bent. He really believed you could take the tools of the establishment and use them for grassroots purposes. He was, after all, the guy who coined the term personal computer. Stewart Brand I was a scientist, so the idea of being afraid of science boggles my mind. But my military background also made me less paranoid about the government. I was at Stanford in 1963, and I saw a couple of guys in the back of the computer lab just out of their bodies playing Space Wars [the very first video game]. Because of my background, I had no built-in objections. Instead, I was treated to the sight of what was possible when these machines became personal.

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On Business as Usual John Perry Barlow Before the WEC came out, business was big and ugly. It was a kingdom of acronyms like IBM and GE. But Stewart saw sustainable small business as a virtue. Lloyd Kahn This wasn’t business as usual. Backyard tool inventors are a real subculture, usually very apart from the mainstream. For these tool guys, the WEC wasn’t just their Bible; it was

great advertising. I think we kept a lot of people in business over the years. Kevin Kelly The WEC helped rid us of our allergy to commerce. Brand believed in capitalism, just not by traditional methods. He was the first person to embrace true financial transparency. His decision to disclose WEC’s finances in the pages of the catalog had a profound ripple effect. A lot of those hippies

who dropped out and tried to live off the land decided to come back and start small companies because of it. And out of that came the Googles of the world. Fred Turner The WEC set the stage for all of today’s social networks. This kind of collaborative communication and the emphasis on smallscale technology really hit home in early Silicon Valley. You have to remember that

the first Xerox PARC [the Palo Alto Research Center, a division of Xerox credited with inventing laser printing and the Ethernet, among other things] library consisted of books selected from the WEC by computer guru Alan Kay. Stewart Brand Our impact on small business? Well, the Snugli baby carriers took off because we reviewed them early.

“The satellite photo … was true genius, the fundamental insight for the environmental movement. Seeing the earth from space, people instantly know how finite our resources are. And Brand realized this at a time when most of his peers hated the space program because it was ‘big science.’” 90 | october-november 2008

photos by Lloyd Kahn (above, left); Ilka Hartman (above, right)

Hal Hershey selling a Whole Earth Catalog to a customer at the publication’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, in 1969 (left). Peter Warshall, generally considered the most environmentallyfocused editor and contributor to the WEC and its subsequent iterations, in the early 1970s (above). Stewart Brand and author Ken Kesey in San Francisco in 1966 (below).

Fred Turner is cur-

On DIY and Beyond Howard Rheingold Brand united do-it-yourself (DIY) with new utopian society. He really believed that given the right tools, any change is possible. Peter Coyote For the fifteen years I lived in a cabin without electricity, the WEC was my invaluable resource of technology—low tech, low impact, and low cost. The whole DIY movement was a nonstarter without the right tools and skills and books. People are scared today, but myself and all my peers aren’t afraid of economic collapse. We learned, with the help of the WEC, to take care of ourselves. So if the world goes to shit, all that means is we’re going to have to go back to doing what we already know how to do.

John Perry Barlow The WEC had a number of notable spinoffs, the WELL foremost among them. Brand wanted a gathering place for people interested in new technology and he wanted to give those people a more interactive forum than they could get in the magazine. The WELL was it. Pre-Internet, this was the bulletin board for the digerati. It was at the core of the entire Silicon Valley revolution. But because it had such an impact on technology, people forget how far flung its reach was. The WEC also popularized a friendlier way to break horses and new ideas in cattle grazing based on systems ecology. These two things turned

ranchers into hippies, and that’s a trend that’s still going strong. Jay Baldwin I remember saying that all this DIY softtechnology was great, but until you could buy mass-produced solar hardware at Sears then we haven’t done a damn thing. Well, you can now buy it at Costco. I guess we have arrived. Stewart Brand The WEC is extinct. But right now on my belt I’ve got a really great Nikon monocular that can read a bug’s expression from 4 feet away; a sheaf knife, in case I need to lop off a weed in the garden; my favorite Swiss Army knife (the long kind); my Trio, a descendant of the personal computer; and a set of DIY bifocals. The catalog’s slogan was “Access to Tools,” and these are some pretty cool tools.

Spectators at the New Games Tournament of 1973 watch as Stewart Brand, seated with sticks, explains one of many noncompetitive alternative sports created for the event at Gerbode Preserve near San Francisco. New Games was founded by Brand. “As a professional environmentalist,” he wrote at the time, “I feel it is urgent that we reach the urban center.”

photos by Ted Streshinsky/CORBIS (this page and opposite, bottom)

Howard Rheingold For the environmental movement, the WEC was a lens amplifying many individual efforts, from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring to DIY energy to systems thinking. These were all individual ideas

before the catalog blended them together, turning them into a cluster that had a far more significant impact.

rently an assistant professor in the communications department, among other positions, at Stanford University. He is the author of From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism.

Lloyd Kahn’s

early work building sod-roofed homes, geodesic domes, and other alternative structures caught Brand’s attention. He went on to form Shelter Publications, one of the first West Coast publishing houses.

Richard Wurman,

an American architect and graphic designer, has written more than 80 books, founded the Technology Entertainment Design (TED) conference, and is credited with coining the term information architect.

Stewart Brand

went on to found or cofound a number of organizations, including the Global Business Network (a scenario consultancy service) and the Long Now Foundation (an institution that fosters responsible long-term thinking). He has also written four books and is presently at work on another, tentatively titled Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto. He lives with his wife, Ryan, on a 62-foot tugboat named Mirene in Sausalito, California.

HOTpursuit by

Steven Rinella

One wilderness-loving

hunter makes the case for

when, how, and why to hunt

ast fall I traveled to my annual caribou-hunting grounds in the central Alaskan Arctic. I took the trip in mid-October, though I usually like to go about six weeks earlier, when air temperatures climb into the fifties and sixties during the day and then drop toward freezing at night. That makes for perfect hunting weather: It’s warm enough for biting insects, which annoy the caribou and keep them moving and visible, but cold enough to prevent large quarters of meat from spoiling (so long as they’re kept dry beneath a tarp and propped up on a bed of willows for air flow). As I found out, though, mid-October is a whole other story.

A landscape that I generally think of as pleasant and mild had become hostile and ruthless. Rivers I’m accustomed to traveling by canoe were completely frozen over. Ice fogs hung in the air for days on end, making it impossible to see more than 40 or 50 yards. Firewood in the treeless tundra was hard to come by, and every night my two buddies and I lay shivering in our sleeping bags while we waited for sunlight that became more scant every day. A trip that might have lasted just a long weekend—enough time to kill and butcher five or six bulls, under good conditions—stretched into its tenth day. By then our food was about gone. We ate the couple of mouse-gnawed packages of ramen noodles we’d found near an abandoned winter camp, and we were down to a quarter block of cheese and a few ptarmigan—quail-size birds you can eat like popcorn without ever getting full—that we’d shot. When the sky finally cleared one morning and I saw a herd of caribou coming at us over the horizon, it was like that rush you get when your most intimate loved one steps out of the airport terminal after a long, faraway trip. The animals came off a snowy bluff and plunged toward the frozen river, steam rising off their bodies, and I felt with crystalline clarity the answer to a question I often ponder: Why hunt?

’ve been pursuing big game for 22 years and small game for four or five years longer than that, and hardly a month has gone by when I haven’t asked myself that elusive question. I’ve come up with a lot of different answers over the years, but at the core of each lies a deep reverence for nature and a simple appreciation for wild foods. Not only do I like knowing where my food comes from, I also like understanding the minute, practical details of how it’s transformed from animal life into human sustenance. I like the way my hunting lifestyle has guided me to the wildest places in America, where I have spent weeks and months living by ancient practices that have sustained mankind for tens of thousands of years. I like knowing how to render the fat of a black bear over a fire; how to extract the nourishing marrow from an elk’s femur; and how to predict where a pheasant will flush from a patch of wild rose. I like knowing how to call a squirrel out of its hiding place in the upper reaches of a beech tree; how to kill a spruce grouse with a rock; how to preserve meat with smoke; and how to keep a grizzly bear away from a fresh kill. I like the way hunting has guided my two brothers, Matt and Danny, into their

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professions—not surprisingly, their appreciation for wild game became an appreciation for wilderness, which in turn led to their work as ecologists. Now their job is to scientifically justify and defend the protection of our remaining wild places. I meditate on these things so often, I suppose, because I don’t find much commonality between myself and the folks who all too often represent hunters in the popular mind. In fact, there seems to be a pervasive disconnect. I think of a buddy of mine who recently worked for an outfitter, guiding trophy moose hunters in western Alaska. Explaining that his clients generally aren’t interested in eating the animals they kill, the outfitter told my friend to remove the meat from only the upward-facing side of the skinned carcasses to trick game wardens flying overhead into thinking the animal was properly butchered. And then there are other, more public instances of dubious hunting, such as the two famous Hogzilla cases—the first from Georgia, in 2004, and the second from Alabama, in 2006. These alleged thousandplus-pound, man-killing boars reportedly terrorized the American South until two bold hunters gunned them down in what was spun as self-defense. The hogs and the gunmen became Internet sensations—at least until it was revealed that both Hogzillas were actually cornfattened pets being masqueraded as wild animals for the sake of a joke and a little notoriety. Far from being funny, though, the spectacles only managed to highlight the brash hucksterism of a handful of wannabe hunters who have unwittingly succeeded in taking the rest of us down a peg or two in the nation’s eyes. I wish I could say that hunting’s controversial reputation is the result of just a few dimwitted trophy guides and bloggers who embarrass the majority of legitimate hunters. But in fact, the problem has much more calculated and malicious sources that run deep into American politics. That is, a number of high-profile individuals and organizations have intentionally and systematically hijacked hunting in order to use its ancient moral legitimacy as a shield to protect and justify less honorable practices. The two examples that most readily come to mind are canned hunting and assault rifles. Basically, canned hunting is the shooting of animals confined within fenced areas. These enclosures, often known as game farms, are sometimes no bigger than a hundred or so acres. There are more than 1,000 such establishments in 28 states; patrons pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to buy the animals from the game farms and then “hunt” them inside the fence. In some cases, the quarry of these hunters is delivered

by trailer just a day or two before the hunt, which means the animals go from handled livestock to hunting trophy in a matter of hours. Besides the obvious ethical concerns they present, canned hunting operations routinely cause pathogen outbreaks to spread from domesticated animals into the wild, free-ranging herds that many fair-chase hunters rely on for sport and food. Yet, in almost every instance where canned hunts are threatened by hostile state legislation, lobbyists portray the battle as an attack on “the heritage of hunting” rather than an attack on the dubious, irresponsible actions of people looking for a quick buck (pun intended). This ploy sometimes works, but fortunately, there’s a limit to its effectiveness. In 2000, the state of Montana, which has the highest per capita rate of hunters in the country, overwhelmingly passed a state referendum banning the licensing of any new canned-hunting operations. What kind of person participates in canned hunts? Vice President Dick Cheney is easily the nation’s most notorious and recognizable example. In 2003, he and some associates killed 417 out of 500 ring-necked pheasants, in addition to an unknown number of mallard ducks, that had been raised in pens and released from nets on a Pennsylvania game farm. The establishment’s gamekeeper estimated that Cheney personally killed 70 birds, or about 35 times as many as the average bag limit for your typical hunter of wild pheasants. Cheney’s ventures are usually billed in press releases as hunting trips, so it’s hardly surprising that during the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, many hunters posted Sportsmen for Bush bumper stickers on their trucks. Then, as the Bush Administration worked to dismantle the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, tried to strip away protections for roadless wilderness areas where wild birds live, and attempted to gut the Endangered Species Act, those same misguided Sportsmen for Bush folks took solace in the idea that Cheney would help them by putting a public face on hunting. Gun-control issues present another factor of hunter manipulation. Hard-line pro-gun organizations routinely target hunters during fundraising drives. These groups attempt to radicalize any and all gun owners with notions about how the government will turn against hunting guns just as soon as they ban assault weapons or automatic pistols. This type of rhetoric engenders a false impression that the most immediate threat to hunting isn’t habitat loss, declining biodiversity, or environmental degradation, but rather a loss of guns. So people who hunt to connect with the natural world or to procure a healthy, sustainable source

Hunting opens a direct line of communication between man and nature, it reconnects us with forgotten practices

distinctly local foods, and it offers perhaps our greatest direct incentive to promote the sustainable conservation of our remaining wild places and wild animals.

94 | october-november2008

Hunters are the originial locavores, no doubt about it.

of food, have been persuaded for decades into financing the legal defense of a type of weapon they’ll probably never own. What adds to the irony is that assault weapons are perfectly impractical for most hunting. In fact, they’ve been effectively banned from use in hunting even in states where their possession is still allowed. (Regulations for hunting weapons are distinct from general gun ownership laws and are set on a state-by-state basis by local wildlife agencies. It should be noted that reverberations from the recent Supreme Court decision that overruled an overarching handgun ban in Washington, DC, will have no impact on the guns allowed for legal hunting. ) I have nothing but respect for critics of hunting who are categorically opposed to the killing of animals. But for anyone who does eat meat, or who accepts the inevitability of animals dying at the hands of humans, it’s important to realize that the motivations and spiritual mindframe behind our actions are as important as our methods. Hunting with traditional weapons and pursuing wild, free-range animals does more than just enhance our skill. It also delivers the hunter into intimate communion with wilderness. It’s a relationship that requires quiet observation of and concentration on nature, plus an ability to endure moments of intense physical exertion between hours of utter exhaustion and boredom. For those of us who dare to venture in search of our own food, these experiences engender a deep love for the natural world.

n any debate among hunters, whether it hinges on guns or ethics, you’re bound to hear someone talk about the need to preserve hunting. Many believe that a wide-reaching coalition of all hunters and gun-owners would be the most effective way to do it. That the coalition would be corrupted and abused by unethical practices doesn’t seem to concern them that much. They’d simply rather accept hunting’s negative reputation as the inevitable cost of preserving the practice. In an op-ed I wrote for The New York Times, I suggested that it’s counterproductive for hunters to purposefully antagonize nonhunters by flaunting assault-style weapons, shooting exotic fenced animals, and publicly throwing around Ted Nugent-esque slogans such as “Whack ’em and stack ’em.” After it ran, I received a dozen or so e-mails from seriously pissed-off hunters. They informed me that I was aiding and abetting the enemy (antihunters) by suggesting that hunters should modify their behavior in some way to appease the public. There’s security in numbers, one guy explained to me, so we should offer carte blanche acceptance to anything that anyone does in the

name of guns or hunting. Furthermore, this guy said, he doesn’t care if a person hunts with a spear or a bow or a machine gun, he’ll stand behind him. He closed by saying that I was a couple orders of magnitude worse than an antihunter. I was so flummoxed by the irony of having my credentials and motivations attacked by a guy who admitted to hunting inside what he described as “high-fence ranches” that I couldn’t mount an effective rebuttal. It’s in moments like these that legitimate hunters need to have the necessary courage to reflect on ourselves and our lifestyles with a bit more self-consciousness and honesty. And we need to be vocal. This has the potential to be painful and divisive, for sure, because it demands that hunters be willing to turn their backs on some of those once thought to be allies. But there’s a lot to gain from drawing a clearer set of divisions, a set the public can evaluate and make educated decisions about. Just consider the case of farming, a subject that is perhaps even more complex and contentious than hunting. Rather than taking refuge beneath an umbrella that condones any and all agricultural practices, progressive food producers have awakened the food debate by promoting organic, locally produced, and sustainable farming practices over genetic modification, industrial slaughterhouses, and the consolidation of small farms into giant, faceless corporations. By doing so, the localism movement divided the agricultural community and created a clear division between what is right and wrong with our food. Has the push for local food suffered from this division? Of course not. Do the biggest, most egregious agribusiness conglomerates wish that it would go away? Sure they do. Will it? Nope. In the long run of human history, hunting predates agriculture by umpteen thousand years. Hunters are the original locavores, no doubt about it, so we needn’t feel bad about borrowing from the locavore playbook. By coming out more clearly against practices and stances that are bogus and ill-conceived, we can go far beyond simple negativism. We can destroy the public’s onedimensional image of hunters, which too often gets usurped by the wrong people. And we can replace that narrow view with a broader public understanding of what it means to be a true hunter: Hunting opens a direct line of communication between man and nature, it reconnects us with forgotten practices and distinctly local foods, and it offers perhaps our greatest direct incentive to promote the sustainable conservation of our remaining wild places and wild animals. If hunters learn to accentuate those issues and distance themselves from others, we can easily offset the influence of a few Hogzilla scams and some unscrupulous trophy guides. And we’ll still have energy to take on the special interests and unsavory practices that cloud our moral clarity in the name of a bogus solidarity. Let those people go find their own history and their own terminologies, and see if they’ve got legs to stand on. My feeling is that they don’t. ✤

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reviews Intelligent Nutrients Hair Cleanser This lemony, peppery shampoo is new from Horst Rechelbacher, the founder of Aveda. Our testers reported satisfaction all around. $39 (6.7 oz), intelligentnutrients.com

Avalon Organics Rosemary Volumizing Our thin-haired tester found the “very foamy” lather smelled so strong it was like “washing with resin,” but her hair was noticeably more voluminous. Plus and minus: It uses certifiedorganic rosemary oil, but it has moderately toxic sodium lauroyl sarcosinate and cocamidopropyl betaine.

plentylabs

Burt’s Bees Super Shiny Grapefruit & Sugar Beet This citrus-scented shampoo meets the toxin-free requirements of the strict new Natural Products Association seal and also comes in an 80% postconsumer recycled (PCW) bottle. No testers reported extra shine. $8 (12 oz), burtsbees.com

$8.95 (11 oz), avalonorganics.com

Aveda Smooth Infusion

Dr Hauschka with Macadamia and Orange for normal hair All three of Dr Hauschka’s plant-based shampoos are certified petrochemicalfree. Highly effective for a variety of hair types, it weighed curls down just enough and smells great.

In an 80% PCW bottle, this de-frizzing formula contains salicylic acid, a high hazard according to the Skin Deep database. The suds cleaned well, but no testers reported newfound smoothness. $20 (8.5 oz), aveda.com

$13 (8 oz), drhauschka.com

Mane Attraction

Testing which green shampoos shine or lose their luster Your hair may be greasy and grimy, but what about your shampoo? The lather we associate with cleansing can sometimes be quite unhealthy, even in so-called organic or natural products. “It’s tricky” to identify nontoxic products, says Stacy Malkan, author of Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry. To help you choose, we tested eight shampoos, all of which are free of the dirtiest chemicals (DEA, paraben preservatives, ethoxylated chemicals) and contain certified-organic plant oils instead of synthetic fragrances with hormone-disrupting phthalates. —Alexandra Zissu 28 | october-november 96 august-september 2008

Aubrey Organics JAY Desert Herb Revitalizing for dry, damaged hair Newly reformulated with a coconut-corn oil soap for sudsing, the cactus-citrus blend leaves a dry ’do feeling knotty and stripped post-shower but clean and soft the next day. Its odor is guy-friendly, too. $10.50 (11 oz), aubreyorganics.com

John Masters zinc & sage (oily scalps and dry hair)

Dr Alkaitis Organic for all hair types A multi-tressed team confirmed it performs well, leaving scalps clean and hair unstripped with very little lather, but it’s a bit mild for oily hair.

Eco-cert approved and tropical-scented, it helped all hair types, taming flyaways and soothing itchy, flaky scalps. And with conditioner built in, this is the ultimate boy shampoo. $20 (8 oz), johnmasters.com

ABOUT OUR CRITERIA The ingredients of these products were vetted with cosmetics expert Stacy Malkan, David Bronner, president of Dr Bronner’s Magic Soaps, and the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database (cosmeticsdatabase.com). Packaging: At minimum, bottles are readily recyclable plastics (#1 or #2).

Photograph by Anthony

Verde; eco-styling by camilla slattery

$35 (8 oz), alkaitis.com

plentymag.com | 28

plenty LABS

behind the wheel

Honda Civic Hybrid

Your Daily Green Dose

Country Life’s Realfood Organics Daily Nutrition These multis, made with freeze-dried USDA-certified organic whole fruits and vegetables, provide vitamins A, C, D, E, thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin, B6, B12, and 15% of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of folic acid. His and her versions have virtually identical ingredients, except for the cranberry-pomegranate “urinary tract blend” for the ladies. Hers: $35.99, his: $32.99 (both 120 tablets/30–60 servings), realfoodorganics.com

Amazing Grass Green Superfood This gluten-free, certified-organic vegan powder packs in vitamins A, B6, B12, C, K, and niacin along with the greenery. An exciting new version for chocoholics, contains organic Dutch cocoa. $27.99 (30 servings), amazinggrass.com

Dailyfoods One Daily Vitamin & Mineral Formula Also based on whole-foods extracts, these pills have similar vitamins to the others’, with higher percentages of some minerals, such as selenium. Comes either with iron or iron-free. $36.95 (60 tablets/60 servings), megafood.com

Green Foods’ Green Magma If you want to green your diet (literally) but aren’t up to juicing your own wheat- or barley-grass, this certifedorganic mix with chlorophyll is for you. Contains vitamins A, C, and K. $32.99 (25 servings), greenfoods.com

New Chapter Organics Only One Daily Multivitamin Made with 70% organic ingredients, these contain a full roster of vitamins and minerals, plus iron and 100% RDA of folate. Also comes in Every Man and Every Woman varieties. $39.95, (60 tablets/60 servings), newchapterorganics.com

New Chapter Organics Probiotic Berry Green Instead of grasses, this all-organic powder gets its green from extracts of leafy veggies and its probiotics from live bacteria cultures the way yogurt does. It’s got vitamins A, B2, B6, C, D, and K; and papaya and pomegranate make it taste pleasantly like a fruity V-8 juice. $49.95 (180 gram jar, about a month’s supply), newchapter.com ABOUT OUR CRITERIA While “natural” claims are unregulated, the FDA requires that all ingredients be listed on labels. We picked products containing mostly plant-derived rather than synthetic nutrients, and no artificial colors, animal bone meal, or gelatin. Note: If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or have a chronic illness, check with your doctor before taking dietary supplements.

98 | october-november 2008

he Honda Civic is America’s bestselling compact, and in May it overtook both Toyota’s Camry and Ford’s F-150 pick-up to become the bestselling vehicle in the country. It was the first time since the early ’80s that a car—not a truck—won that distinction, a significant milestone in a changing marketplace. Though an early sign, all this sales chatter signifies a consumer shift toward smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles. Fuel-efficient compacts and hybrids are likely beneficiaries of this emerging trend. Honda’s Civic Hybrid ($22,600 MSRP) boasts a fuel economy of 40/45 miles per gallon (mpg) city/highway that is bested in its category by the Prius (48/45 mpg) alone. Looking beyond fuel economy, the Honda is among the better hybrid choices you can make. For the most part, this Civic retains the handsome silhouette and quality interior of its gas-only sibling. However, new design features like a subtle rear spoiler, power side mirrors with integrated turn indicators, and 15-inch lightweight alloy wheels add a slightly futuristic feel. The interior is two-tone, and the main instrument cluster, which has a relaxing blue hue at night, allows you to monitor the effect of your driving on battery charge and fuel economy. My test model took a group of four on a 400-plus-mile trip (mixed city/highway driving) without a single stop for gas. The navigation system—one of the few optional buys on the car— was intuitive enough to use, but fewer buttons surrounding the LCD display would have helped. Fellow passengers appreciated that this car had almost as many cup holders as a movie theater, and there were also useful cubbies and bins up front for those with more gear than pockets. The Civic Hybrid’s ride quality is firm, its steering responsive. Honda says that the standard continuously variable transmission [CVT] improves fuel economy and performance, but since there is no actual shifting of gears, which have been replaced by a metal push-belt running between a pair of pulleys, the engine is noticeably noisy when the car accelerates. In addition, the brakes lack a progressive feel, which can make stops unnecessarily abrupt. But these are quibbles. Not only are compacts like the Civic Hybrid well equipped, safe, and claustrophobia-free, they also represent good value in the marketplace. Pros Wow gas mileage; attractive interior; Honda quality and reliability; great steering feel cons Noisy engine; abrupt braking; paltry power; too many buttons the verdict America’s best selling compact makes for one heck of a hybrid. honda.com —Stuart Schwartzapfel

Verde; eco-styling by camilla slattery (far left)

It looked so delightfully simple on The Jetsons: Push a button, pop a food pill, and that’s lunch. In real life, pills can’t replace real food. But a multivitamin supplement to a well-balanced diet can be “an inexpensive way to get all or most essential vitamins,” says David Schardt, senior nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Below, we’ve listed some products that truly deliver a green pill of goods, plus some vitamin insurance. —Brita Belli

Photographs by Anthony

Vitamins that separate the wheatgrass from the chaff

Seal Watch

Added Value Food manufacturers are nearly falling over themselves to apply eco-labels to their products. But how do you separate the meaningful from the marketing? A seal’s credibility depends on whether standards are clear, rigorous, and uniform, and an independent third party certifies the product meets those standards. Here’s a list of some established green labels and some promising newcomers. —Nathalie Jordi USDA Organic Animals get grass and organic, all-vegetarian feed, no growth hormones, and no antibiotics (sick animals are treated and removed from the program). Access to pasture is required, but pasturing isn’t guaranteed. Crops are grown without most conventional synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, or genetic modification (GM). ams.usda.gov/NOP

Demeter Biodynamic Certifies biodynamic farms that reject synthetics and are managed holistically, with practices such as making compost by burying a cow horn filled with manure. demeter-usa.org Food Alliance Label on produce, grain, and animal products specifies reduced pesticides, habitat protection, and worker welfare, and that livestock is pastured and eats vegetarian with no hormones. Sick animals are treated with antibiotics and stay in program. foodalliance.org Certified Humane Raised & Handled Certifies that animals eat grass and vegetarian feed with no hormones. Antiobiotics are given to sick livestock. Humane shelter, space, and handling is required, but pasturing is not. certifiedhumane.org American Grassfed Association Ruminants can eat only grass and hay and must spend most of their lives on pasture. No hormones or antibiotics are allowed. This seal and the next two are truly “free range,” unlike the vague label bearing that name. americangrassfed.org

Animal Welfare Approved Only independent farms qualify. Livestock eat all vegetarian and live mostly outdoors. Hormones aren’t allowed; antibiotics can be used for sick animals, who are kept in the program.animalwelfareapproved.org Rainforest Alliance Certified Tropical fruit, coffee, and chocolate are grown in ways that protect water, soil, habitat, and community health. rainforestalliance.org

Fair Trade Certified Ensures that small-scale farmers and farm workers receive fair prices, fair wages, and humane working conditions, with no forced child labor. transfairusa.org, fairtrade.net

Marine Stewardship Council Certifies that seafood comes from sustainable and well-managed wild fisheries. msc.org Carbonfund.org Helps businesses calculate and offset their greenhouse gas emissions; Monarch Beverages, Royal Hawaiian Honey, and Florida Crystals’ organic sugars are a few products that bear this label. Carbon Trust This British seal measures greenhouse gas emissions over a product’s lifecycle. Labeled foods include Walker’s potato chips, and orange juice and potatoes in Tesco supermarkets; these may be introduced in the company’s Fresh & Easy stores in the US. carbontrust.co.uk

plentymag.com | 85

plenty LABS

Green, Greener, Greenest with Lori Bongiorno

What are the issues with food and plastic, and do you have any suggestions for minimizing health risks and protecting the planet? —Naomi A, Hawaii Some plastic containers can leach chemicals into food and beverages. The main culprits are polycarbonate plastic, which contains bisphenol-A, and PVC, which has added phthalates to make it soft and flexible. Both can interfere with hormones. What’s more, plastic is made from petroleum, a nonrenewable resource, and many containers end up in the trash—eight out of ten plastic water bottles, for example, become landfill waste. Below is a three-tiered system of solutions ranging from the easiest and least expensive to those that require more effort and commitment.

Green Try to cut down on the use of plastics in your daily life and use them more safely. Plastic that is heated, old, and scratched, or holds oily or fatty foods, is most likely to leach. Never microwave in plastic; use lead-free, ovenproof glass or ceramic instead. Let foods cool down before storing leftovers. If you use them, take good care of plastic containers: Hand wash when possible to avoid high heat in the dishwasher, avoid harsh detergents, and recycle worn or cracked containers with codes #1, 2, 4, or 5.

Greener Avoid plastic as much you can. Seek out baby bottles made from tempered glass or plastic versions labeled BPA-free; both are made by Born Free, (newbornfree.com). Don’t buy containers or cling wraps made from PVC (recycling code #3) and polycarbonate (#7). Instead, choose products labeled #1, 2, 4 or 5. Some BPA-free plastics are also labeled #7, including newer non-leaching Tritan copolyester water bottles and polyactide (PLA) containers made from corn, soy, or sugarcane. Note: In order for plastics from renewable resources to biodegrade, you’ll need to send them to a municipal compost facility. If that’s not an option, it is still worthwhile to choose these containers rather than plastics made from petroleum.

Greenest Never buy new plastic. Continue using the safe containers you have and use those that are suspect for storing nonfood items like crayons, coins, or buttons. You can find recycled-paper lunch bags and unbleached waxed paper at greenfeet.com. Reuse glass jars and purchase glass food storage containers, such as Crate & Barrel’s round storage bowl set (crateandbarrel.com), and use lightweight stainless steel food containers, like the ones at lifewithoutplastic.com. Lori Bongiorno is the author of Green, Greener, Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-Smart Choices a Part of Your Life (Perigree Trade Paperback Original). Ask Lori a question about living green at greengreenergreenest@plentymag.com.

best of the rest

Lightweight

Buying watered-down cleaning products is downright wasteful: Every year, Americans trash more than 3 billion tons of plastic from empty trigger-spray bottles alone. Arm & Hammer’s new Essentials line offers a simple solution: an empty, reusable container and a tiny cartridge of concentrated, plant-based ingredients, free of harsh ammonia and chlorine. You just pour the concentrate into the dispenser and add water. A two-pack of refill cartridges uses 80 percent less packaging than conventional spray cleaners and costs less, too. The heavy-duty cleaner and degreaser wiped out old spaghetti splotches and smells citrusy. It’s a good old-fashioned, common sense idea that’s also the first of its kind. —Jessica A Knoblauch 100 | october-november 2008

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The ultimate ecoshopping guide

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Powerful, informative and thought provoking, Earthlings is by far the most comprehensive documentary ever produced on the correlation between nature, animals and human economic interests. Narrated by Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix and music by Moby. www.isawearthlings.com.

neat chef™

Put down that hose! You’ve cleared the toxins out of your house. Now what are you using to wash your car? Lucky Earth is a nontoxic, environmentally friendly alternative that cleans, polishes, and protects vehicles without the use of harmful chemicals. www.LuckyEarth.com

100% Organic, Fair Trade Executive Chef Jackets, now debuting at the MGM GRAND, Las Vegas. For more information on all Organic, Foodservice and Hospitality Products in the neat chef™ portfolio contact us at info@aneatworld.com

Paper Nor Plastic

Design our Limited Edition Paper Nor Plastic® “Helping Earth” reusable bags with your logo! Spaces are limited! When all the spaces are filled, we will give away the bags for FREE and donate $100,000 to one of three Environmental Agencies. www.PaperNorPlastic.com

greenmarket@plentymag.com 212.757.0048

plentygreenmarket Ecover Sustainably sourced ingredients, sustainably produced in the world’s FIRST ecological factory, effective cleaning and minimum impact on aquatic life – Ecover operates with sustainability at its very core. More than just cleaning products. Ecover does the dishes, not the fishes! www.ecover.com

GREEN SINGLES

Meet progressive singles in the environmental, vegetarian, and animal rights community and other greens who love the outdoors, holistic living, and spirituality. Free to browse. Free to join. Easy sign-up. www.GreenSingles.com support@greensingles.com 877-669-0633

TS DESIGNS We offer full package, socially responsible custom printing and dyeing. We try to make all our business decisions based on what’s good for our customers, good for the planet, and just plain good business practice. www.tsdesigns.com

WATERWISE FREE Waterwisdom Report Exposes H2O Scams … What every consumer should know! Shocking truths revealed about distilled, mineral, spring, filtered, bottled, reverse osmosis and purified H2O. Which one should you drink? Be Waterwise! Drink the purest. 800.874.9028 www.waterwise.com

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The only eco-engineered floor manufactured in the USA in a way that’s healthy for you, our employees, and the environment. Choose from the largest selection of species, grades, and widths in 100% reclaimed or FSC certified. 00.951.9663 pioneermill works.com/ plenty

Eco-Friendly Home Green furnishings and fair trade gifts. We give away 50% of all net profits to organizations involved in key global & environmental causes. Exclusive for PLENTY readers: 10% off your first order! Enter coupon code PLEN0908DLP at checkout. (Valid through 11/30/08) www.fourwindshome.com

last WORD

Jasmin Malik Chua

Knocked Up he first pregnancy test had to have been lying, so I took a second— and then a third. Believe me, I tried to stop. Not because it was obsessive (it was), but because it was wasteful: Each kit was hermetically sealed in a foil wrapper and then placed in a paper box, which was, in turn, shrink-wrapped in plastic, just in case there was any rogue human chorionic gonadotropin lurking around the pharmacy. Already I could feel my carbon footprint expanding along with my uterus. “Hello, Daddy,” I told my husband weakly, as I thrust the evidence under his nose. “Well how about that?” he responded with a smile, as if I’d told him I’d just bought new curtains. I’d seen the man get more pumped up watching USC face off with UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Briefly, I contemplated stuffing all three pregnancy tests, uncapped, up his nostrils, but ultimately decided that carrying a child to term in prison would probably be a huge drag. I was raised Catholic, so I’ve always been a guilt-wracked individual, but I’ve managed over the years to channel that guilt into a healthy dose of agony over the state of the planet—and my role on it. I don’t consider myself qualified for sainthood by any means, but I’ve tried to minimize my impact on Ma Earth the best way I know how: My husband and I don’t own a car (subway’s just fine, thanks), we’re members of a community-supported farm, we buy organic and fair trade, we tote

around our own reusable water bottles and grocery bags, and we’ve made the switch to compact fluorescent lightbulbs. And at least till now, we’ve managed to avoid the pitter patter of little feet. For years, I’d been torn between my husband’s hankering for a biological child and my own desire to adopt. Hollywood, with its baby-bump fixation (Is she pregnant or did she just cram in one too many Gordita Supremes? News at 10!), trumpets child-bearing as the pinnacle of womanhood. But alluring as the fecund forms of celebs like Heidi Klum and Angelina Jolie are, the truth is we’re adding 77 million resource-hungry people to the globe every year. World population has more than doubled from 3 billion to 6.5 billion in a span of 40 years, and by some accounts, it will only take another 50 years for that number to swell to a whopping 9.2 billion. Could I really bring myself to put more pressure on the world’s already strained supply of fresh water, land, and fossil fuels? But when I shared my apprehensions with a friend, I was immediately poohpoohed. “If no one but the polluters and the devil-may-care types had children, who would take care of the planet?” she asked. To which I replied that anyone who thinks they can impose their own eco-values on their kids has to be, well, kidding themselves. If the trouble I gave my own parents about their values and lifestyle choices is any indication, my own bam-

104 | october-november 2008

bino will grow up to be an SUV-driving, McMansion-buying, Big Oil flunky who votes Republican and thinks composting is for the worms. Yet there I was, even as the planet teetered on the edge of a global food crisis, about to add another human being to the fray. Obviously the stork and I got our signals mixed. A few weeks after my doctor confirmed what several lines of chemicals and pee had already told me, I went in for my first ultrasound. Most of that session remains a blur, but I remember craning my neck toward the monitor and seeing my baby for the first time, in all its grainy blackand-white glory. “There it is,” the sonographer cooed. She hit a switch, and a second heartbeat drummed loudly above the roar of my own, strong and insistent. Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones or the sudden realization that, oh my God, I’m growing a person, but at that moment I forgot all about the rainforests, the plight of the polar bears, and the Texassized swirling vortex of trash in the North Pacific. My baby’s heart was beating, and the world could wait. The kid better learn to love hand-medowns, though. ✤ Jasmin Malik Chua is a science and environmental writer living in Jersey City. She and her husband are expecting their first child in December.

illustration by

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Everyone can appreciate technologies that go from gas-friendly to gas-free. That’s why Chevy™ offers more models than Toyota or Honda with an EPA estimated �� MPG highway or better,1 plus more vehicle choices today than any brand that can run on cleaner-burning, mostly renewable �� ethanol.2 It’s also why we’ve introduced both Malibu® Hybrid3 and Tahoe® Hybrid4 — America’s ﬁrst full-size hybrid SUV.5 And why we’ve put tremendous design and engineering resources in place to make Concept Chevy Volt™6 — our extended-range electric vehicle — a reality. Now that’s technology everyone can appreciate. Find out more at chevy.com

FUEL EFFICIENCY

BIOFUELS

HYBRID

ELECTRIC

FUEL CELL

1 Based on EPA estimates. 2 E85 is 85% ethanol, 15% gasoline. For more info or to ﬁnd an E85 station near you, go to chevy.com/biofuels. 3 Malibu Hybrid very limited availability. 4 At participating dealers only. 5 Excludes other GM vehicles. 6 Concept Chevy Volt not available for sale. ©2008 GM Corp. Buckle up, America!