media

It’s not always the usual suspects making headlines for good “green” behavior. In fact, according to a study released by New Scientist, oftentimes the companies consumers think of as environmentally responsible aren’t really, while companies that consumers might not think of as particularly eco-conscious are doing quite a bit.

On the other hand, a marketing campaign focused on a company’s sustainability initiatives can open it up to criticism for not doing enough, whereas a company that flies under the radar on the green front generally receives a big pat on the back when they do make some step toward sustainability.

The recent announcement from Whole Foods, Inc., that it would be working to eliminate Canadian tar sands oil from its supply chain, contrasted with the announcement last week from supermarket chain Safeway is a perfect example.

As the world gears up for the climate talks in Copenhagen next month, the mainstream media is overlooking one important climate change contributor, and it isn’t coal or cars.

Three years ago, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations released a lengthy report entitled “Livestock’s Long Shadow.” Among the plethora of environmental problems the livestock industry is accused of contributing to — water pollution, habit fragmentation and desertification of arable land among them — climate change figured prominently.

In particular, the report concluded that livestock production accounts for 18%, or one-fifth, of global emissions. This figure is higher than all transportation sources combined.

Things must be getting serious. At least for the planet and the environment.

What else would explain the plethora of eco documentaries hitting the film festival circuit or that will hit mainstream theaters in the near future?

Many of these green docu films cast a waving finger along with charts and graphs about what will happen to the planet in the future if we don’t act now. The Age of Stupid works a bit in reverse.

The Age of Stupid takes place in the year 2055 with a man called the Archivist (Pete Postlethwaite) sitting in a Noah’s Ark type storage tower with a collection of famous art, pairs of animals, and enough computer servers to make Google envious.

Here is an important rule of thumb when you see a television commercial sponsored by an oil company: Don’t believe a word it says.

Some time ago, I posted a piece about the oil industry’s shenanigans when California voted a couple of years ago on a ballot initiative to increase its gasoline tax. The measure was heavily supported by voters until the oil industry went on the air and warned that everyone’s gasoline prices would go up. The TV spots showed a distressed woman pumping gas as the price went ka-ching, ka-ching.

Hugh Hewitt, the worshipped conservative talk show host who regularly spits venom at anyone who dares suggest that the globe is warming, is showing hints of a conversion. Believe it:

Posting from the Amazon is a bit of a challenge, but this story was the subject of a presentation I attended by Jean-Michel Cousteau. Cousteau avoids the emotional alarmism of much of the climate change debate, and his short presentation on the glacier retreat in the Andes was the sort of presentation that climate change skeptics need to examine in detail.

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