12/23/06 - So sorry Lisa about not getting you some information sooner! Will get to it in the next few days. I hope your sign posting went well and I can't wait to return to them on Wednesday. Talk to you soon! - Jamie

 

Update about Signs... 12/19/06

 

Hey guys! I just want to let everyone know what I will be putting the signs up tomorrow, probably in the afternoon (tomorrow being Wednesday). I've had some things come up today that prohibit me from getting out to the Center this afternoon as I had originally planned. So... if you were going to go out and take a look at them, I suggest sometime late tomorrow afternoon. I'm sorry! But, I have them all attached to the stakes, so all I need to do it basically put them in the ground. Hope they look nice! Jamie, let me know if you have time to get me that info. For now, I'll just put the signs up without it. Thank you!

-Lisa

 

How to make sustainable signs... 12/16/06

 

1. Ask your neighbors/friends/landlords if they have any extra pieces of wood/lumber that you can have.

2. Borrow/obtain black all-weather paint, paintbrush (very small one... like an artist's paintbrush), nails, hammer, saw, laquer, staple gun, staples, sand paper

3. Using sand paper, sand lumber pieces to eliminate any potential slivers sticking up and to smooth rough spots

4. Paint signs

5. Laquer signs to make them more able to withstand extreme weather conditions

6. Nail signs to stakes (again... ask anyone you know if they have any stakes, or long pieces of wood, that you can have)

7. Dig holes and place signs in the ground

8. Write a few paragraphs further explaining what it is the signs are identifying

9. Laminate these sheets of information and staple them, using your staple gun, to the signs

10. Print off a few extra laminated info sheets so that when the old ones become worn, the new ones can simply be re-stapled to the signs

11. Stand back and enjoy the fruit of your labor

 

Just so everyone knows, I hope to have the signs up at the Center by next Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest! Thanks! Good luck on finals, and everyone, have a happy holiday season!

 

-Lisa Jackson :)

 

Signs Progress... 12/9/06

 

Well, I've painted ten signs. My landlady had some pre-cut scrap pieces of 2x4 wood that I think will work nicely. My design is to nail these painted signs to the scrap stakes at the Center, then stick 'em in the ground! I bought some nails and a staple gun so that I can nail the signs I have to the stakes, then the staple gun to staple laminated sheets of info to the signs themselves. I hope this works! I think they will be an improvement, since no signs exist yet. I wish I could do more, perhaps I will come across some more wood someplace else. If anyone has scrap wood (2x4ish shape), please let me know! Then I can make even more signs!!! Okay, see you all on Tuesday. And, thank you to Jamie for giving me the following information. Gracias!

 

The PodCast Link!

 

11-30-06 Hey ArizonaCitrus, this is UrthBound (i.e. Jamie!). As per your enthusiastic request, I am listing here some of the objects and processes that deserve signage, that deserve titles! Immediately!

 

There are a couple signs up - One for the toolshed, and one for the pavilion, but the sign under the pavilion actually talks about how all the fence posts are reclaimed black walnut wood. Nevertheless, the remaining titles-to-be (and feel free to edit as your aesthetic sense directs you):

Solar Kitchen

Organic Bio-Intensive Gardens

Herb Garden

Companion Planting (i.e. 3 Sisters Garden)

Pump House

Fire Pit/Cob Circle

Greywater Filtration/Constructed Wetlands

Aerating Windmill

Rainwater Catchment System

Solar Bathroom

Compost Central

Hoop House

Yurt (Renewable Energy Homestead)

Powerlion (PV Solar Panels)

Wind Generator (Whisper 500)

Medieval Windmill

Community & Student Organic Gardens

The Apiary

assorted signs about CfS biodiversity - plants, pollinators, birds, mammals, reptiles

 

The existing two signs are sort of little wooden trail-head-style flip-open things with laminated paper stapled in between the two pieces of wood. This would involve assembling hinges, and maybe burn-etching titles into the top layer of wood, but it's a long-lasting, attractive style. Talk to you soon!

 

Thoughts on Thanksgiving in ARIZONA!!!... 11/27/06

 

So, because I had some credit on Northwest Airlines I was able to get a cheap ticket (and by cheap I mean $25)... sweeet! So, I took my ticket and went home to AZ. Although it was a quick weekend, I had fun.

 

I even talked to my mom about how she needs to watch An Inconvenient Truth, and low and behold it's available to rent at Payson's own Blockbuster! I wonder how many people have actually checked it out though. All copies were available on Saturday when I stopped by.

 

I enjoyed driving around in blue, cloudless skies, and feeling the heat of the sun on my face... and breathing in diesel exhaust and almost being run off the road by lifted Ford F-350, dually, crew cab trucks. I've never really noticed them before. Arizona definitely has more trucks (and by trucks I do not mean Toyota Tacomas and Ford Rangers, I mean big, polluting, noisy trucks) than PA. And, for what really? I guess we haul more animals?? Probably not. But, it's a much bigger driving culture which for some reason means bigger cars. Anyway, I saw but ONE Subaru the whole time I was home, and I also saw ONE Toyota Prius Hybrid. And, my very own mother just bought a truck... a V8 = more pollution. I guess I'm a hypocrite though since I drive an SUV. However, I guess you can say I got mine this weekend!

 

To clarify, I got off the plane in Pittsburgh rather late last night so I crashed at my sister's house before driving back this morning. Apparently she didn't see my car when leaving for work this morning and she was in a bit of a rush when she backed her Jeep Cherokee right into my baby!! Now I've got a bashed-in back door, and I can't get it fixed for another two months. ARGH!!!! But, you can't be too mad since she's family, or maybe that means I can be even more mad!

 

Just another sign that it's time for me to trade my 4Runner in for a more gas-efficient vehicle. I've been seriously thinking about this. We'll see.

 

Sadness.

 

Electric Car Movie... 11/13/06

 

Dude, I liked the movie! Of course, throw anything interesting at me, and I'm bound to say that. However, it went a little long. I didn't need them spoon-feeding me who the suspects were and their guilty or not-guilty statuses. I already figured that out for myself. Anywho... I agree with Peace of My Mind. As I was driving back and forth to Pittsburgh, and then back and forth again this weekend, I thought about it: It's gonna cost someone a whole bunch of money to construct recharge stations in place of gas stations. And, like Peace of My Mind brought up (Jeff, is that you?), I also wondered how long it took to recharge a battery. It would really suck to get to, say, Monroeville and putter out and have to kill 3 hours recharging. Anywho... just things I thought about while driving through the rain and fog this weekend. I hate to say it, but until the next best thing comes along... I like gas (it's really a love/hate relationship). Petroleum, crude oil, gasoline... these are my homeboys (for now of course).

 

Getting back to electric cars though... I remember when they were introduced. I think it briefly mentioned it in the movie, but they were introduced in California and ARIZONA! But of course, there was a stink about it in AZ as well. However, I was in high school and busy worrying about other things, so I don't remember all the details for you. I thought it was funny (I mean tragic) that the cars got mashed in Mesa, Arizona, out in the lonely, old desert. Did you know that more cars get stolen in Mesa than anywhere else in the country? Perhaps Mesa is second highest by now; that statistic might be a few years old. There is also a huge Mormon temple in Mesa. The pious and the criminal all living together. Glorious. Anyway, maybe they mashed them so that they wouldn't get stolen!! Hhmm... perhaps not.

 

Okay, enough of my ramblings. The movie was interesting. Damn you, Big Business... damn you!!! I was also very entertained by the fact that they arrested the Baywatch lady. The stand off at the end was quite intense. Okay, so much for the electric car... but, I bet it will be back someday... you never know!

 

Another cool website... 11/7/06

 

Check it out! http://www.terrapass.com

 

From what I can tell, it's a fundraising website that calculates your car's CO2 emissions per year, and by giving some $$ ('cause, yes, in the end it's all about the $$) to this project you can help offset your emissions by funding CO2 emissions lowering? Anywho, I only spent like 3 minutes on it, but that's what I can tell thus far. Check it out for yourself. I saw the bumpersticker on someone's car and I was interested. Yay, stop global warming!

 

Link... 11/1/06

 

Check this out: http://www.ecoearth.info/

 

Thought it was interesting. Someone give me a promp to write about. I always forget the specific questions we mention in class that we are supposed to blog on. :)

 

What is work? - 10/26/06

 

I'm sorry I wasn't at class today, but I hope the podcast came together. I wish I could help more with that, but I'm just not very technical or technologically advanced. Anywho... I was reading on ApatheticAvatar's page about work. And, at what point in doing work would I consider myself actually working? I think that was the question, or something similar. I don't know quite how to answer that. People have this negative perception of "work" as being something that is bad or grueling. But, I think work is "work" because it's time-consuming, and people are frickin' lazy and can't stand actually using their brains. People who are at work can't wait to get home. But, what do they do at home? Sit on their butts for hours watching the tube. Wow... now that's being productive. The way to prevent work from feeling like "work" is to get a job that you like! Get a job that challenges you to use your best skills and makes you think. If you like what you are doing, you don't even realize you are really working. And, seriously, if that doesn't work... stop being a lazy ass and just deal with the fact that you don't always get what you want! Throw youself into your passion and only good things will result.

 

Sustainability Project... 10/20/06

 

As part of our projects, Cathy and I are going to be working on getting some signs made for the Center for Sustainability. Cathy will be working on getting a more visible sign that can be seen better from the road, while I'll be working on getting some information markers/signs to be placed around the Center. I think this will be helpful to visitors to the Center. While they're walking around they will be able to read about the processes at work in each area of the Center. Hopefully doing both these things will make the Center more tourist-friendly. Also, I talked with Jamie and he gave me the contact information for the administrative heads of the Center for Sustainability. I'm guessing that any major changes we wish to implement will have to have approval from them first. So, here is that information for you all:

 

Laura Piraino-Silver

104 Engineering Unit A

University Park

las361@engr.psu.edu

814-865-2224

 

Andrew S. Lau

213F Hammond Building

University Park

asl1@psu.edu

814-863-9075

 

David Riley

104 Engineering Unit A

University Park

driley@engr.psu.edu

814-863-2079

 

After I talk with them about my project, I hope I can then get some pricing information on the little information signs I would like to put up. I'll show you all my plans when I get that far. Cathy and I are also working on drawing up a map of the Center that will be placed at the entrance. That way people can get an overview of where stuff is located before they go in to walk around. Let us know if you have any suggestions or ideas! Have a great Homecoming weekend!

 

Lowes... 10/18/06

 

So, I was watching TV the other day and a Lowes commercial came on where I heard that you can go to their website for tips on how to make your home more energy-efficient. So, here's the link if anyone wants to check it out:

 

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=howTo&p=Improve/HomeEnergyEfficient.html&rn=RightNavFiles/rightNavDoorsWindows%20

 

Also... I took a class last year on environmental protection where we concentrated on learning ways to make our lives more "green" and our homes more energy-efficient. If anyone wants, I can bring in my textbook from that class. It was written by my PSU instructor and there's lots of neat hints. Also, teaming up with another instructor like that might be helpful. Perhaps we could extend an invitation to professors to bring their classes out for field trips before the weather gets too cold.

 

Have a day! :)

 

New York City Weekend Trip... 10/10/06

 

So I just came back from a weekend trip to New York City. It was so stressful! But, very cool too. My fiance actually surprised me! I had no idea he was coming to NYC from Arizona, and when I walked into a hotel room expecting to see my sister's friends, there he was. WHOA! Awesome. Totally amazing!!!!

 

Well, we did the tourist thing and saw the city sites. However, I've come to the conclusion that I would never want to live there. The streets were so dirty, and even in the nicer neighborhoods there were bars on every ground floor window. When I blew my nose at night my boogers were actually dirty looking. Okay, maybe that was a little graphic. Anyway, talk about a city where waste is everywhere. Visiting a place like that has me appreciating living in a rural location back in Arizona, and living here in State College in the meantime. I could never live without nature! I suppose it takes a certain type of person to enjoy living in New York. I definitely enjoyed the visit, but it's just not for me!

 

Going without the sounds, smells, and presence of trees and wildlife makes one appreciate those things even more when you get back to them again.

 

Comments about Al Gore video... 10/5/06

 

I actually really, really enjoyed the video!

 

I would like to see a works cited page; just out of wonderment I want to know who these "scientists" are exactly. I want to read some of their research myself to help me learn more about this issue. I am also interested in finding out the technology behind the calculations. How in the world can they track temperature changes over the past millions of years? That is amazing!

 

I was really astonished by the negative impact humans have had on the earth in just the last 50 years! It was scary! I also liked how Gore linked global warming to other world issues, for example: extreme weather, gas prices, political relations between countries, etc. It is like global warming is the stone dropped into a still pond. Gore did a really good job of showing us all the rings of disturbment created by this one change in the pond. Global warming effects so many aspects of our very existence.

 

I also thought adding in the personal stories about his family made him more appealing to listen to. It's easier to relate and want to listen to someone that seems very much like oneself. He never said that he was above any of this himself. He didn't seem to blame the audience, but rather he included himself in humanity's negative impact on the earth. He simply came across as a legitimately worried human-being.

 

I thought the overall message of the film was delivered in a passionate, direct, and honest way. I think this movie would inspire a lot of people to urge their political representatives to make a change by enacting new legislation.

 

I don't think I would change anything really. He attacked his opposition in a respectful way, and I thought the holes he punched into their arguments were accurate. Good job, WAY WAY WAY better and more enjoyable to watch compared to Peak Oil. Seriously, where can I get a copy of this video? I would like some of my friends and family to view this.

 

 

You Tube Video on Electric Cars 10/4/06

 

I just watched the video on You Tube about Who Killed the Electric Car. And, dude, now that they mentioned it... who the heck killed the electric car? I remember all the rage surrouding these vehicles a few years back, and I guess I forgot about it. It seemed like such a promising idea! I would be very interested to view this documentary as it looks more professionally done compared to Peak Oil. Hey, let's face facts, anything with Tom Hanks in it has to be good. It probably won't be too long before we have to go back to electric cars!

 

However, weren't there some problems with the cars? I heard they didn't hold their charge very long. Perhaps that was just another lie blown out of proportion by mainstream car manufacturers. It would be interesting to investigate. Go electric!

 

But, seriously, why are all hybrid/electric cars ugly? Can't they make a normal looking electric car? Why does it have to look like we're driving something out of the Jetsons? I'm sorry, but in America unfortunately looks are everything. If you made the car stylish (not different looking) and affordable, WAY more people would be buying. Including me.

 

Just some thoughts... 9/28/06

 

I don't really have anything to add right now, however, hopefully I will see visions and come up with something later. It's a rather dreary day here in good old central PA, but I bet this rain will be good for the plants out at the Center for Sustainability.

 

I was also thinking that maybe we (or "I") can contact PASA (the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture) sometime, and also the Ag School to get in contact with their sustainable ag department... to see if they are planning any upcoming activities that we could be apart of. Ways for us to get the "Center for Sustainability" name out there.

 

I still think having a farmers' market would be a really neat way to draw people out to the Center. However, if that is not possible, maybe in future the plants (flowers, veggies, fruits) that are grown at the Center can be sold on campus as a fundraiser, which will in turn let other people become more aware of the Center. Perhaps something similar is already done?

 

Anyway... I'll be trying to brainstorm more ideas this weekend. Getting a brochure and some small advertising stuff together to place around campus might be the first step we can take. I have experience doing brochures. I'll just have to gather up the information. Maybe we can get someone from the administration backing us and we can get it printed on nice, glossy, Penn State paper with official logos! OoOoOoOo! Alrighty then; see everyone next week!

 

Center for Sustainability Drawing 9/26/06

 

I have been messing around with this thing for like an hour, and I can't get it any smaller! Anywho... this was the crayon (with permanent marker) drawing I did out at the Center for Sustainability earlier this evening. It's from the viewpoint of sitting at the table (or lawn) and looking out past the garden, over the fence, and into the little valley bellow.

 

I enjoyed this exercise because I thought it was really relaxing. This was the first time that I actually got to sit alone and contemplate on nature while I drew. To me, being in nature and seeing man working with nature (as demonstrated by the Center for Sustainability) is exactly what we want visitors to the Center to experience. We want to allow them some quiet solitude to wander the grounds and take in the scenery, sounds, and views.

 

It's when people feel a closeness with nature that they tend to develop a bond with it. Hopefully this bond will urge them to take a second look at their industrialized lives and see what areas they can change in order to become more environmentally conscience themselves.

 

9/24/06 Which is more influential -- Book of Revelations or Constitution?

 

I think the Constitution is more influential on the American public as a whole. However, I think the Bible and its right-wing, ultra-conservative, Christian supporters have a huge impact on the way the Constitution is interpreted.

 

You often hear Christians argue that "This country was founded on Christian idealogies! Our forefathers were Christians and established this country as a Christian nation! Therefore we should keep it as such!" However, unfortunately they fail to see that since the 16 and 1700s, many people of diverse backgrounds, cultures, and religions have also made this land their home. So... to say we should only run our country according to one belief-system is not only biased, it's discriminatory. I can assure you that the forefathers established this land to escape persecution (including religious persecution). So, how unfortunate that so many Bible-supporters want to now persecute any religion that differs with their own.

 

So, many people support the Constitution, but sometimes their own clouded, biased, religious zeal gets in the way of interpreting it in a fair and just manner.

 

9/24/06 - My Impression of Peak Oil

 

After viewing the film Peak Oil the other day in class, I thought it was not very well done. While important information was being expressed, the overall feeling of the film was amateur. The old man that seemed to be behind this "documentary" came across as slightly senile. He reminded me of Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory (I believe that was the name of the film) in which Mel Gibson plays a character obsessed and paranoid with ideas that the government is conspiring against the public. Even though the information provided by the so-called credible sources was interesting, it was hard to stay focused on what they were saying because of the off-centered camera angles, and weird background music.

 

Also, I didn't see much variety in what the professional sources being interviewed had to say. All of them said sort of the same thing about "yadda yadda we're almost to the end of our oil supply yadda yadda," so by the end of the film I wasn't even paying much attention to all the market analysts and politicians. I think if the film-maker had sat down in their offices and done the whole film in a more professional way, then the viewer would be less inclined to label it as "propaganda."

 

Also, I wanted to see interviews with people that opposed the idea of "peak oil." What did their opposition have to say on the matter and how could they have incorporated that into the film and proven them wrong? All we saw was one side of an argument, and it left me wondering what the other side had to say and how the "peak oil" theory supporters would have defended themselves against their nay-sayers. When a documentary/interview/report is made without the representation of the opposing side's argument, you have to wonder (in this film's case) if it actually anything more than an old man's pissed off rampage against the British government.

 

Done in a more professional way, and including a variety of opinions on the matter, this film could have been more persuasive, less silly, and would have been taken more seriously. However, the old man playing his accordian was quite touching near the end! ;)

 

 

What is sustainability?

 

What is sustainability? I believe sustainability is an attempt to revert back to a simpler way of living.

 

When our pioneer and settler ancestors first came to this land, and then spread westward in it, they did not have electricity, plumbing, cars, etc. Those were times of hardship, but times in which environmental and situational circumstances forced them to learn from and live with nature, not against it.

 

Because of modern advancements, today we have come to rely upon machinery and other manmade appliances and mechanisms that our ancestors never dreamed possible. Unfortunately, we have forgotten how to live “without.” Recent generations cannot imagine a time when people had to make their own clothes, hunt for their own food, etc. Because of our modern marvels and recent technological advancements, society lives in comfort. However, these manmade inventions and gadgets are taking a toll on our world.

 

Smog, pollution, and other wastes are harming our environment. It seems that Mother Nature herself cannot keep up with cleaning up the messes that humans are creating for her. Wildlife and plant-life is suffering on this planet, and yet we make bigger SUVs, build more roads, and continue to impede on our last remaining wildlands. These things only help to contribute increased levels of negative contaminants on our planet. But, we are an addictive population, we humans. We are greedy as well. We simply cannot and will not give up some of our luxuries to better the world we live in.

 

Thus, sustainability is a movement started by eco-friendly, concerned members of the human race. Sustainability asks humans to consider their mute host, Earth, and asks us to give rather than to keep taking from her. Sustainability begs us to give up our ridiculous and wasteful reliance on machines whose end products are pollution and waste. Sustainability reminds us that to live with nature, rather than to try and rule over it will, in the end, create a healthier place for our future generations to grow up in.

 

We must not be afraid to attempt what our ancestors did: __learn to use nature’s resources in a responsible and productive way__.

 

 

 

ApatheticAvatar probably correct on issue of sustainability

 

However much I hate to admit it, I fear that ApatheticAvatar is probably correct in his/her opinion that it is and will be impossible for total worldwide reliance on sustainability to exist. It is indeed too bad (the words “too bad” don’t really begin to describe it), but America does not seem to be interested in sustainability.

 

We see a few nature-conscious people out there trying to convince their peers to recycle and to reuse, but a little doesn’t really go a long way when one is trying to save the planet from human destruction. If you decide to start using paper, not plastic at the grocery store, then great! But what good is that one, tiny decision making when you drove to the grocery store in your Chevy Suburban?

 

It’s great that more and more citizens are “going green,” but I’m just afraid that the reality of the situation is that being environmentally savvy is just a mere fad, soon to be forgotten or abandoned with the invention of the next waste-producing, energy-guzzling “modern marvel.” People aren’t really trying to become true “sustainableists” (the word I made up to describe those that live by the definition of sustainability); instead, they are merely trying to find a balance between sustainability and non-sustainability. This simply won’t cut it! In order to start making a positive impact on nature you must be more “sustainableist” than “non-sustainableist.” Basically, you’ve got to be the person who doesn’t ask for paper or plastic, but rather brings your own tote bag each time to the grocery store, and rides there in your hybrid or on your bicycle.

 

I think it will take a total breakdown of the ozone layer, annihilation of all the rain forests, and/or using up the last drop of crude oil before Americans (and the rest of the world) realize that they need to stop being so wasteful and need to start giving back to Mother Nature.

 

 

 

Center for Sustainability needs major P.R. work!

 

The first step in sustaining the Center for Sustainability is to do some major public relations work. I’m a senior, and the only way I finally found out about the Center for Sustainability is through taking this class. That shouldn’t have been the case! We need to spread the word!

 

I think having a rock concert at the Center for Sustainability would be a great way for students to find out more about the Center. We could even turn a rock show into an all-day festival showcasing local “green” organizations.

 

However, something even simpler would be to talk with the Lion Ambassadors about including the Center in their campus-wide tours they give to incoming students. Also, I bet we could also talk with the School of Agricultural Sciences about doing some joint events. I know that there is a big push lately for sustainable agriculture, so of course the Center for Sustainability is a great hands-on place for students/faculty/residents interested in sustainable ag to learn more about it at the Center.

 

One thing the Center needs desperately is a BIGGER SIGN! One, tiny University sign isn’t going to attract people. Without a bigger sign, people simply aren’t going to visit the Center. Dude… we need to talk to President Spanier about all of this. He’d be a great person to get on our side. Maybe we can ask for a small bit of his time and present to him some of the ideas we come up with in this class.

 

I think we could have a rock show at the Center easily though! That’s something we could definitely work on. It’s all about the advertising. We have to get out there and flyer the campus like crazy people, make t-shirts, get a booth on campus, start a Facebook group, get other groups to help sponsor and back our events (IFC? Panhell?), get drunken alumni to visit the Center, get on the campus map for godsake!, etc. This is a huge hippie, liberal-minded school. And, it’s very hip to be an environmentalist lately (there was a huge article about “going green” in Newsweek not too long ago). We need to play to people’s desire to save the planet.

 

With some work the Center for Sustainability CAN become a household name!

 

 

 

This article was taken from Newsweek, dated July 17, 2006

Go-Green

With windmills, low-energy homes, new forms of recycling and fuel-efficient cars, Americans are taking conservation into their own hands.

By Jerry Adler

 

With Jessica Ramirez, Karen Springen, Brad Stone, Karen Breslau, Keith Naughton, Jamie Reno, Ken Shulman, Matthew Philips, Staci Semrad, Margaret Nelson, A. Christian Jean, Andrew Murr and Jac Chebatoris

Newsweek

 

One morning last week ... 29 years after president Jimmy Carter declared energy conservation "the moral equivalent of war ... " 37 years after the first reference to the "greenhouse effect" in The New York Times ... one day after oil prices hit a record peak of more than $75 per barrel ... Kelley Howell, a 38-year-old architect, got on her bicycle a little after 5 a.m. and rode 7.9 miles past shopping centers, housing developments and a nature preserve to a bus stop to complete her 24-mile commute to work. Compared with driving in her 2004 Mini Cooper, the 15.8-mile round trip by bicycle conserved approximately three fifths of a gallon of gasoline, subtracting 15 pounds of potential carbon dioxide pollution from the atmosphere (minus the small additional amount she exhaled as a result of her exertion). That's 15 pounds out of 1.7 billion tons of carbon produced annually to fuel all the vehicles in the United States. She concedes that when you look at it that way, it doesn't seem like very much. "But if you're not doing something and the next family isn't doing anything, then who will?"

 

On that very question the course of civilization may rest. In the face of the coming onslaught of pollutants from a rapidly urbanizing China and India, the task of avoiding ecological disaster may seem hopeless, and some environmental scientists have, quietly, concluded that it is. But Americans are notoriously reluctant to surrender their fates to the impersonal outcomes of an equation. One by one--and together, in state and local governments and even giant corporations--they are attempting to wrest the future from the dotted lines on the graphs that point to catastrophe. The richest country in the world is also the one with the most to lose.

 

Environmentalism waxes and wanes in importance in American politics, but it appears to be on the upswing now. Membership in the Sierra Club is up by about a third, to 800,000, in four years, and Gallup polling data show that the number of Americans who say they worry about the environment "a great deal" or "a fair amount" increased from 62 to 77 percent between 2004 and 2006. (The 2006 poll was done in March, before the attention-getting release of Al Gore's global-warming film, "An Inconvenient Truth.") Americans have come to this view by many routes, sometimes reluctantly; Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, thinks unhappiness with the Bush administration's environmental record plays a part, but many of the people NEWSWEEK spoke to for this story are Republicans. "Al Gore can't convince me, but his data can convince me," venture capitalist Ray Lane remarks ruefully. Lane is a general partner in the prominent Silicon Valley firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which has pledged to invest $100 million in green technology. He arrived at his position as a "Republican environmentalist" while pondering three trends: global warming, American dependence on foreign oil and the hypermodernization of Asian societies.

 

Others got to the same place by way of religion, most prominently Richard Cizik, director of governmental relations for the National Association of Evangelicals--but also people like Sally Bingham, an Episcopal priest in San Francisco and a founder of the religious environmental group Interfaith Power and Light. A moderate Republican, she had to defend herself on a talk-radio show from a listener who accused her of buying into the liberal myth of global warming. "I am," she pronounced frostily, "a religious person called to care for creation from this platform." And many followed their own idiosyncratic paths, like Howell, who started researching the connections between food, health and the environment after her mother died of cancer. Soon she and her husband, JD, found themselves caught up in replacing all their light bulbs and toilets with more-efficient versions and weighing their garbage, which by obsessive recycling they have reduced to less than 10 pounds a week.

 

But probably the most common formative experience is one that Wendy Abrams of Highland Park, Ill., underwent six years ago, as she was reading an article about global climate change over the next century; she looked up from her magazine and saw her four children, who will be alive for most of it. That was the year the hybrid Prius went on sale in the United States, and she bought one as soon as she could. This reflects what Pope describes as a refocusing of environmental concern from issues like safe drinking water, which were local and concrete, to climate change, which is global and abstract. Or so it was, anyway, until it came crashing into New Orleans last summer with the force of a million tons of reprints from The Journal of Climate. Katrina, says Pope, "changed people's perceptions of what was at stake"--even though no one can prove that the hurricane was directly caused by global warming.

 

All over America, a post-Katrina future is taking shape under the banner of "sustainability." Architects vie to create the most sustainable skyscrapers. The current champion in Manhattan appears to be Norman Foster's futuristic headquarters for the Hearst Corp., lit to its innermost depths by God's own high-efficiency light source, the sun. The building's "destination dispatch" elevators require passengers to enter their floor at a kiosk, where a screen directs them to a cab, grouping them to wring the last watt of efficiency from their 30-second trips. But it is expected to be challenged soon in Manhattan by a new Bank of America tower, designed by Cook & Fox, which takes "sustainability" to a point just short of growing its own food. Every drop of rain that falls on its roof will be captured for use; scraps from the cafeteria will be fermented in the building to produce methane as a supplementary fuel for a generator intended to produce more than half the building's electricity; the waste heat from the generator will both warm the offices and power a refrigeration plant to cool them.

 

Far away in Traverse City, Mich., a resort town four hours north of Detroit, home builder Lawrence Kinney wrestles with a different problem, people who want 6,000-square-foot vacation houses they will use only a couple of weeks a year. Outraged by the waste, he refuses to build them. His preferred size is about 1,800 square feet, 25 percent smaller than the national average; he has rediscovered the virtues of plaster walls instead of resource-intensive drywall, uses lumber harvested locally by horse-drawn teams and treats his wood with stains made from plants, not petroleum. When Jeff Martin, a program manager for Microsoft, set out to build a sustainable house near Charlotte, N.C., he specified something that looked like a house, not "a yurt, or a spaceship, or something made out of recycled cans and tires in the middle of the desert." He turned to Steven Strong, a Massachusetts-based renewable-energy consultant who says he "fell in love" with solar energy when he realized that "you could put a thin sliver of silicon, with no moving parts and no waste, in the sun and generate electricity forever." Strong designed an unobtrusive solar-cell array on the roof of Martin's conventional stucco-and-stone house to provide free electricity, and a sun-powered heater that produces so much hot water Martin can use it to wash his driveway. "We never run out," Martin boasts, "even when my wife's family comes to visit over Christmas."

 

The sun: sustainable energy that not even in-laws can exhaust! The same sun that for years shone uselessly on the roof of FedEx's immense Oakland airport hub, through which passes most of the company's traffic with China. Since last year, solar panels covering 81,000 square feet have been providing 80 percent of the facility's needs. The sun that also creates the wind that powers the wind turbines that Chicago--which is seeking to be known as the environmental city as well as the windy one--is building atop the Daley Center, a high-rise courthouse. But among cities, few are as sustainable as Austin, Texas, which recycles its trash so assiduously that residents generated only 0.79 tons of garbage per household last year, down from 1.14 tons in 1992. Austin's city-owned electric company estimates that "renewable" power, mostly from west Texas wind farms, will account for 6 percent of its capacity this year, nearly doubling to 11 percent by 2008. Beginning in 2001, customers were allowed to purchase wind power at a price guaranteed for 10 years. But since it was more costly than conventional power, most people who signed up did so out of conviction--until last fall, when rising natural-gas prices meant that conventional customers were pay-ing more, and suddenly the company was overwhelmed with new converts to sustainable power.

 

Another thing the sun does, of course, is grow plants. Agriculture is being reshaped by the growing demand for corn to produce ethanol--which can be blended with gasoline to stretch supplies, or can power on its own the growing number of "flex-fuel" cars. Four billion gallons will be produced this year, a doubling just since 2003. Dave Nelson of Belmond, Iowa, now devotes as much land to growing corn for fuel as for food--the same variety--and after the starch is extracted for fermentation, the protein left behind gets fed to his pigs, which produce manure to fertilize the fields. "Not a thing is wasted," says Nelson, who is chairman of a farmer's cooperative that runs one ethanol distillery and is building another. The problem, though, is that people and livestock eat corn, too, and some experts see a time, not too far off, when the food and fuel industries will be competing for the same resources. Biotech companies are scrambling to come up with processes for getting ethanol from cellulose--the left-behind stalks and leaves of the corn plant, or other species such as switch grass that can grow on marginal land. One can envision vast farms devoted to growing fuel transforming the Midwest.

 

Even Wal-Mart wants to help shape a sustainable future, and few companies are in a better position to do so. Just by wrapping four kinds of produce in a polymer derived from corn instead of oil, the company claims it can save the equivalent of 800,000 gallons of gasoline. "Right-sizing" the boxes on just one line of toys--redesigning them to be just large enough for the contents--saves $3.5 million in trucking costs each year, and (by its estimate) 5,000 trees. Overnight, the giant retailer recently became the largest purchaser of organic cotton for clothing, and it will likely have a comparable impact on organic produce as well. This is in line with CEO H. Lee Scott's goal of reducing the company's "carbon footprint" by 20 percent in seven years. If the whole country could do that, it would essentially meet the goals set by the Kyoto treaty on global warming, which the United States, to the dismay of its European allies, refuses to sign.

 

Wal-Mart's efforts have two big implications. One is cultural; it helps disprove the canard that environmentalists are all Hollywood stars. Admittedly, some of them are, like "Entourage" star Adrian Grenier, whose renovated home in Brooklyn will have wall insulation of recycled denim, or Ed Begley Jr., who likes to arrive at show-business parties aboard his bicycle and markets his own line of nontoxic, noncaustic, biodegradable, vegan, child-safe household cleansers. (Begley concedes that "there are some insincere people in this community" who may have latched onto the environment because Africa was already taken, but, he says, "even if you're only into this cause for a week, at least you're doing something positive for that week.") But it wasn't movie stars who snapped up 190,000 organic-cotton yoga outfits at Sam's Club outlets in 10 weeks earlier this year.

 

And even as "green" products make inroads among Wal-Mart's budget-conscious masses, they are gathering cachet among an affluent new consumer category which marketers call "LOHAS": Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability. "The people who used to drive the VW bus to the co-op are now driving the Volvo to Whole Foods," exults David Brotherton, a Seattle consultant in corporate responsibility. Brotherton estimates the LOHAS market, for everything from organic cosmetics to eco-resort vacations, at up to $200 billion. This is the market targeted by AOL founder Steve Case, who has poured much of his fortune into a "wellness" company called Revolution (it will own eco-resorts and alternative health-care ventures), and by Cottages and Gardens, a publishing company that is launching an upscale sustainable-lifestyle magazine in September called Verdant (a chic synonym for "green"). Their younger counterparts get their green news from places like Grist.org, whose founder, Chip Giller, sees the site as participating in a "rebranding of the environmental movement" away from preachiness and toward creating jobs, enhancing national security and having fun.

 

The second effect of Wal-Mart's entry into environmental marketing is to give eco-awareness the imprimatur of the world's most tightfisted company. "If they meet their 20 percent goal," says Jon Coifman, media director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, "it's going to demonstrate irrefutably that reducing your carbon footprint is not only possible but financially efficient." Andy Ruben, Wal-Mart's vice president for "strategy and sustainability," said the company had assumed that certified organic cotton would cost 20 to 30 percent more than the ordinary kind, grown with pesticides and synthetic fertilizer. But when its representatives actually talked to farmers, they found the organic cost about the same. Within five years the company intends to sell fish only from certified sustainable fisheries in the United States. Wal-Mart, Ruben says, plans on being in busi-ness a long time, and it wants fish to sell.

 

Wal-Mart also has been on the defensive over the way it treats its employees, suppliers and competitors, which may play a role in its desire to be seen as a good corporate citizen. But to give it the benefit of the doubt, it's run by people, and they have children, too. It seems as if American business must be filled with midlevel executives like Ron Cuthbertson, senior vice president of supply chain and inventory management for Circuit City, who dutifully justifies each of the chain's environmental initiatives--substituting reusable bins for cardboard shipping boxes, establishing consumer battery-recycling centers and so on--in bottom-line terms, but then can't help adding: "I personally have a passion for this." It can almost be described as a struggle for the soul of American business, which might help explain why a top corporate executive once showed up in the office of Paul Anderson, chairman of Duke Energy Corp., to perform a mock exorcism. Anderson is an outspoken advocate for controlling greenhouse-gas emissions, and his fellow CEO suggested he must have been possessed by the spirit of an environmentalist. Some other CEOs, Anderson says, will agree with him in private but hide their feelings in public. "Part of it," he muses, "has to do with how close someone is to retirement: they think, if I can just get through the next few years without addressing this."

 

In assessing Anderson's soul, it should be noted that his company is particularly heavily invested in nuclear power, an alternative to fossil-fuel plants that produce no greenhouse gases, so his concern for the Earth happens to coincide with his company's interests. So much the better for him, compared, say, with Ford chairman Bill Ford Jr., a strong environmentalist who almost alone among auto executives concedes that cars contribute to global warming. Yet Ford has struggled to impose his views on the industry, or even the company that bears his name. He turned the historic River Rouge plant into one of the most environmentally sound factories in the world, at a cost of $2 billion. But Ford has had to back away from a promise to improve gas mileage on its SUVs by 25 percent and to increase hybrid production to 250,000 vehicles by the end of the decade. The company, which loses money on hybrids despite their higher sticker price, said it would join the other two U.S. carmakers in making more flex-fuel cars instead. DaimlerChrysler justannounced that it will begin importing its Smart microcar from France, a vehicle just nine feet long that gets up to 69 miles per gallon. "Putting a product like Smart in the marketplace," says Reg Modlin, director of environmental and regulatory planning, "shows that we're trying."

 

Looked at one way, these are thrilling times, the beginning of a technological and social revolution that could vault our society into a post-post-industrial future. "If you mention green tech or biotech in a presentation," says Lane, the venture capitalist, "you'll get your funding before you get to your third slide." On the other hand, we may just be kidding ourselves. Can bicycles and switch grass really offset the effects--in pollution, resource depletion and habitat destruction--of a billion Chinese lining up to buy cars for the first time? Domestic oil production has been declining for years, and the United States now imports 60 percent of the 20 million barrels it uses every day. It's nice that Jane Cremisi, a mortgage consultant in Newton, Mass., washes and reuses her aluminum foil and patronizes ecofriendly hotels like the Lenox, in Boston, which composts its food waste. Or that Melinda MacNaughton, a former dietitian from El Granada, Calif., cleans her house with vinegar and baking soda. But you cannot save the world with anecdotes. Is the relevant statistic that sales of hybrid cars doubled last year to 200,000--or that they were outsold by SUVs by a ratio of 23-1?

 

Still, when you look at all the United States has accomplished, can the challenge be so far beyond us? Marty Hoffert, emeritus professor of physics at New York University, doesn't think so. "If the United States became a world leader in developing green technology and made it available to other countries, it could make a big difference. For $100 billion a year, which is at least what we're spending on Iraq," it could be done, he says. "People understand the urgency," says Fred Krupp, executive director of Environmental Defense, "and they see the economic opportunities." It will take political will, though, and in that sense every mile Howell rides on her bicycle achieves more than it saves in petroleum; it raises consciousness and awareness. And it will have to enlist people like Steven F. Hayward, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "There's no problem environmentalists can't turn into an apocalyptic crisis," says Hayward (who agrees that the Earth is warming but thinks civilization is likely to survive it). Yet of all things, this hardheaded acolyte of the free market worries most about species extinction, among the most rarefied of ecological concerns. But, you see, Hayward has a young daughter. And she wants to be a zookeeper when she grows up.