Here’s a movie you never thought they’d make.

Coming to the big, or maybe small,  screen near you, a film…about…laundry!

With a short opening feature on watching paint dry.

My laundry

OK, so that’s mean and I’m kidding, but not about the movie.  Drying for Freedom is really in the works, but it’s not  just about your laundry — though it is about your laundry. The movie delves into an issue that’s been popping up all over this green planet, and that is: What will we be allowed to do in the name of conservation or “going green.”

Will we be able to, perish the thought, dry our laundry on the line like our forebears?  (The ones that wore clothes anyway.) This would involve saving electricity and putting it all “out there” for the world to see, which is a valid response to the climate crisis, according to the film’s makers, who have posted a statement about why they feel strongly about this issue.

One might also ask: Will we be able to go pesticide free and let dandelions bloom in our lawn, along with the native wild flowers? Could we go turf free? Can we plant a giant, shimmering solar panel on our roof and not expect a posse at our door? Can we violate our home owners’ association’s mandates to roof with brown or gray asphalt shingles — or could we put up a reflective metal roof to cool our house? Would the glare so tick off the neighbors that we’d be green pariahs?

Drying the laundry, and its ilk, was never so filled with portent.

So I’m planning on seeing this film about our green freedoms, Drying for Freedom, as soon as it’s ready. The film is being made on a shoestring (or should that be laundry line?).

For now you can see a preview at their website.

(For more see our last laundry posting.)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

I woke up at 5 a.m. on Sunday. Not sure why. The house was quiet and a soundless rain fell outside. I intended to snuggle back into bed for two more hours after checking on the old dog — assuming it was she-who-needs-to-go-out-at-exceedingly-early-hours who woke me.

I decided to check on the teenagers too. And there in the in the “media room” or Texas basement or whatever you call that room over the garage, was a nightmare of electricity consumption. The room was ablaze in light. The TV was blaring (could it be another Law & Order rerun?). The DVR glowed. The 14-year-old asleep on the couch as only someone his age could be. He was sent to his room — where a light also had been conveniently left on.

He couldn’t understand why I was upset, just as I never fully understood the vehemence with which my parents, children of the Depression, saved leftover bits of food in plastic baggies.

Putting on my child psychology hat, I know that it is not the 14-year-old electronic-wonder’s job to sweat these things. He is partaking of the world and building self-identity. He is not mentally oriented to turning things off. He’s more about turning them on. To him, leaving a computer in sleep mode is a good idea, because it’s ready when he returns. When he listens to music on the iPhone, it doesn’t occur to him that there’s a coal plant required for the recharge process.

Unfortunately, a lot of Americans are operating at this level. We really don’t want to think  too hard about rolling back our energy consumption. It’s difficult to figure out (how do I ride my bike to work when I work 25 miles away?)  and it’s sobering — I need to spend my savings on a new energy efficient furnace?

We’re a nation that feels entitled to many treats, spas, vacations, computers, TVs, big cars and the biggest houses. These aren’t bad things, intrinsically, but we’re being asked to rethink them, make our lives more sustainable, cultivate and tend our local gardens, so to speak. There’s work involved here, and yes, self-sacrifice.

Our parents or grandparents who lived through the 1930s learned about conservation when they got a new pair of socks or shoes, or some other supremely practical gift, for their birthday; when they wore a sibling’s hand-me-down dress to the school dance or ate a turkey dinner with all the dressings just once a year, because times were tough.

We need to learn a similar lesson. We know that oil is finite and we must find ways to move away from the polluting gasoline engine. We know that burning coal to make electricity is destroying our atmosphere. We know that fresh water is finite and we can deduce that there will be hard times ahead if we don’t address these issues.

Fortunately, we have many resources at our disposal. Technology is on the brink of creating affordable fuels from sustainable algae. We can still afford to loft giant solar panels in the desert. We can afford the 1-3 percent up-charge in our electricity bill to incorporate green energy over the next decade.

But can we act; can we learn to conserve; can we make bold forward-thinking decisions without feeling the deprivation?

That will require using the executive thinking that we adults are fully endowed with once we graduate from adolescence. Our incentive is to make a better place for those 14-year-olds who will inherit the world. What do we want to leave them?

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Midway into Ken Burns’ new ode to American history, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea (starting on PBS Sept. 27), the filmmaker tells how the nation’s early park caretakers realize that wildlife is integral to preserving the parks.

You’d think this would have been obvious. But it came as an epiphany in the 1930s, decades into the development of the park system.

Oddly, until then, the public had been so busy ogling mountains and gaping at the exotic canyons of America’s national parks, that the animals seemed secondary, even incidental. Wildlife appearances were welcomed, of course. Bison wandering through a Rocky Mountain meadow enhanced the mountain vista beyond. Mountain sheep verified that one was high in the Rockies and the faithful appearance of the Yellowstone bears at the “bear dumps” or roadside feeding stops made an excursion to see Old Faithful complete.

Meanwhile, though, the wolves, bear, foxes, deer, elk and moose were still vigorously hunted, even on public lands. Government logging continued, degrading some of the very areas being preserved. And those Yellowstone bears were becoming a public menace, through no fault of their own, living on public handouts.

It took some new people in Washington to see what was wrong with this picture. One was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a champion of conservation who added national parks to the system nearly as fast as he added government programs to shore up the ailing 1930s economy.

Another key figure was George Melendez Wright, the first chief of the Wildlife Division at the National Park Service.

Wright saw what most others, at least those in the federal government, had failed to see: That leaving the wildlife alone to thrive in the parks without human interference would strengthen the ecosystems and assure the park’s sustainability.

He saw the nearly extinguished Trumpet Swans, for instance, not as potential hunting trophies, but as a species to cherish and be preserved in the wild. He understood the need for predators in the parks, and to balance the rampant recreational use of the parks to keep it in harmony with nature.

Tragically, this forward-thinking man, died in his early 30s in a car accident near Big Bend. But before he did, he pushed his philosophy forward enough that the parks were never viewed quite the same way again.

This is just one vignette in Burns’ monumental six-part, 12-hour series, which begins on PBS channels nationwide on Sept. 27 and will make Sunday evenings learning about National Parks the next best thing to going there. The film, five years in the making, is directed by Burns (who previously gave us the definitive epics, The Civil War, Jazz and Baseball) and written and co-produced by Dayton Duncan. Needless to say, the cinematography rocks (and not just the footage of the Rockies), and the collection of historic photos and clips presented is awesome. (Thank Burns and his chief cinematographer Buddy Squires.)

Burns excels at homing in on the poignant moments and historic pivots, and there are plenty here, as he and and Duncan tell the sweeping history of the parks through a series of smaller stories about the people who started them, shaped them, revered them and dwelt in them.

We hear about the odd, but visionary, John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, whose love of Yosemite Valley (”the grandest of all the temples of nature”) created the concept of national parks. Later, there’s Teddy Roosevelt, who vigorously promoted the idea of parks preserves but also hankered to nab a cougar whilst visiting Yellowstone.

“Roosevelt will always baffle people who don’t hunt, because he loved the animals and he loved to hunt,” notes one of the many historians and park rangers who narrate this documentary. (Park rangers who are eerily eloquent like Gerard Baker, a Native American ranger, Detroit-native Shelton Johnson, who missed his calling as a writer, and former Ranger Nevada Barr, who did become a writer.)

We learn how George Bird Grinnell, founder of the Audubon Society (and yes, that’s his real middle name), helped save the bison from extinction. And how onetime Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, described as “ruthless, unethical and highly effective” public leader abolished segregation in the National Parks and fended off special interests to create more protected spaces.

This hall of fascinating figures includes both the virtuous champions of the cause and those who undermined it. We meet defenders of rare birds and the nefarious absconder of ancient artifacts from Mesa Verde. The fun folks elevate the story so far above the “travelogue” that critics were worried would emerge, it doesn’t even bear fretting for one minute more about that.

Burns, master of his craft that he is, does not forget the common man/woman. Somehow, he has unearthed precious home memoirs of park aficionados dating back to the turn of the century. We follow one brave couple from Nebraska, Edward and Margaret Gerkie, as they tent alongside their car in various developing parks . We meet another man, a Japanese-born artist Chiura Obata whose spiritual connection to the “Holy Mountain,” Mount Rainier, leads to his life’s work painting scenes from the national parks. And naturally we meet Ansel Adams, photographer extraordinaire of the American West.

Just as the U.S. bureaucrats finally remembered to include wildlife in their plans for the nascent national parks, Burns remembers to put the people into his chronicle, turning what could have been a grand, but monotonous travelogue into a spirited exploration of our social and natural history, our culture and values.

But we would expect no less from our de facto national documentary filmmaker as he expounds on our nation’s presumed “best idea”.

About that claim, some will argue that America’s best idea was something else; something like, say, modern democracy (if you leave the ancient Greeks out of it) or representative government (skipping over the Iroquois here), or great TV sitcoms (a possible contender).

But Burns and team make a good case that the parks, set aside for all to enjoy, are uniquely American and embody our democratic spirit and more.

“The country (and therefore the parks) belong to the people. They are not for the rich alone,” says FDR, in a segment about how this nature-loving president, unable to hike or even walk far, greatly expanded the number of parks including some remote places.

Burns’ mega documentary, all 12 hours of it, is carefully organized, following the chronology of the parks from their inception in the 1800s, spurred by naturalist and Sierra Club founder John Muir, to about 1980 (a little disappointment there, given there are so many parallels with current park issues).

But his execution is multi-layered, creating a nuanced version of history with a panoply of interesting byways, detours and surprises.

He presents the parks as they were first viewed – as amazing spectacles that any American would be lucky to see and follows them though their various incarnations as vacation spots, points of education, and finally as core of our identity.

Our string of magnificent National Parks, concludes Sierra Club executive president Carl Pope, seems to suit a nation of immigrants, giving us places of peace and land that endures:

“They are the meaning of home for many of us.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

There’s a nice symmetry to this green trend that’s taken root among financial institutions. Aware that their paper-spewing tendencies carry a high carbon price (not to mention their actual price), many banks and credit companies are planting trees for customers who agree to forgo paper statements.

The latest to announce such a tree-planting project is the Kinecta Federal Credit Union in Manhattan Beach, Calif. Kinecta will make a donation to plant a tree in the Brazilian Rain Forest for every customer who converts to electronic statements between now and Sept. 30.

“Our intention is not only to show our commitment to being a green organization, but also to motivate our members to consider the positive global impact even the smallest decision can have,” said Shannon Doiron, Director of Marketing & eCommerce in a news release. “Collectively, credit union members can make a tremendous difference simply by opting out of paper statements.”

The LA-area credit union hopes to plant 1,000 trees through the Nature Conservancy, which will put the plan into action.

Electronic statements save banks money — an estimated $12 to $17 annually per customer, according to the Arbor Day Foundation, which partners with institutions to handle the tree plantings.

And that savings can benefit customers, especially when credit unions or member-owned investment groups are involved. (Kinecta has 225,000 members to whom the savings can accrue.)

As important to environmentalists, and increasingly so to businesses, reeling in the paper trail can significantly reduce the company’s carbon footprint. Trees help clean the air and save habitat for wildlife, stacking up positive points for a company inventorying its environmental impact; by contrast, paper statements are resource intensive.

Other financial and retail organizations that have planted trees to encourage paperless statements include:

• Bank of America, Sovereign Bank, AT&T, T Mobile, Mary Kay and Allstate have all partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation at various times in the past two years during paperless promotions that reward customers with tree plantings.
• HSBC in the United Kingdom created an online virtual forest to depict the real tree planting going on as customers moved online, though their initial proposition was not one-for-one — the going gold standard today.
• Bank of New York Mellon, Bank of America and Allstate have partnered with the Nature Conservancy to plant trees in exchange for customers going paperless.

A chat with Danny Seo, author of Simply Green Parties: Simple and Resourceful Ideas for Throwing the Perfect Celebration, Event or Get-Together, creator of the Simply Green line of eco-friendly houseware items sold in JCPenney stores, newspaper columnist and green contributor to Better Homes and Gardens magazine:

1. Which of your 50 ideas in the book is your favorite to offer people who are interested in throwing a green party?

That’s such a hard question to answer, but I think I use the summer entertaining tips the most because, frankly, that’s when I entertain.   I like the ideas that reuse or repurpose something we all already have and easily incorporate into a party.  For example, filling a birdbath (scrub it clean first!) or a wheelbarrow as a wine/beer/soda chilling station is one easy idea.  Just fill with ice, insert the beverages and let them chill.  The melted ice can be a cool drink for birds or just used to water plants when the party is over.

I also like to take solar lights — the kind we all have staked in the ground around the driveway or sidewalk — and hang them on hooks in one large tree.  They look like glowing lanterns and you don’t need any special electrical wiring.  When the party is over, just unhook and put them back where you got ‘em.

2. What inspired you to write this particular book?

I’ve been throwing events and parties for a very long time and nothing makes you feel more awful than seeing giant bags of trash filling up at the end of the party.  Nothing festive about that.  So, I thought it would be fun to show some clever, resourceful and inexpensive ideas someone at home could do.  I threw six real parties for my friends and shared all the tips and ideas from those actual parties.

3. What simple advice do you often give to convince people being green is not a struggle?

I tell people it’s easier than ever before.  I’m planning a beach party right now and I have to do it on a budget. So, I just came back from JCPenney (which features Seo’s designs) where they had these great quick-drying cotton towels — it’s a special weave that makes them dry faster — but the faster drying quality means they’ll stay dryer at the beach and won’t get mildew-y.  And, the best part? They were just $7.  You can also get green cleaning supplies dirt cheap and that work effectively, too.  For every party, I have a little bucket with a stack of microfiber towels and Method (for whom he’s a spokesman) all-purpose cleaning spray.  It works on all surfaces and the microfibers are machine washable.

The point is this: green is everywhere now and you can find quality, great products in price-sensitive, value-driven stores. No need to spend a lot; just be wise how you spend.

4. What should people keep in mind when they are throwing a green party?

LESS IS MORE! Food waste is a huge problem. When you throw away uneaten potato salad, burgers and pies, it doesn’t just end up in a landfill to quickly biodegrade. Instead, since landfills are so airtight to prevent leakage of chemicals into the ground, the leftover food degrades into methane gas. That methane gas then contributes to the depletion of the ozone layer, causing the planet to heat up.

Basically, you don’t have to create an all-you-eat buffet for your friends and family. One or two good sides, a good entrée and a light dessert is really all people want. And here’s another tip: try to do it all vegetarian or keep veggie options on hand for your meat-free guests.

And I’ll give a very fun and easy tip: skip the paper napkins for reusable ones. Don’t mess up your fancy antique linens, but use cotton bandannas as napkins.  They’re fun, colorful and machine washable.

5. And where do you find the motivation to live such a completely green lifestyle?

It’s a bit inherent now and I can just tell if something I’m doing is not so kind to the planet. It’s a bit of an obsession of mine to come up with ideas and solutions for people and share them in my magazine columns, books, TV shows, etc.  I really want to make it as accessible and simple for people as possible, and I think we’re achieving that.

I never look at green living like medicine: it’s good for you. Nobody wants to take their medicine. I look at it as a way of life that’s healthier, more gorgeous and just a better way of living. I love it.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The National Audubon Society has honored six women with the 2009 Rachel Carson Award for their outstanding conservation efforts.

• Dr. Sylvia Earle, an oceanographer, author, lecturer and National Geographic Explorer in Residence whose work has expanded awareness and conservation of the fragile marine environment. Former chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Dr. Earle is president and founder of Deep Search International. She has led more than 60 expeditions, including the first team of women aquanauts during the Tektite Project in 1970. She also set a record for solo diving to a depth of 3,300 feet. Her research focuses on marine ecosystems in the deep sea and other remote environments.

• Sally Jewell, president and CEO of Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), a national outdoor gear and apparel retailer dedicated to inspiring, educating and outfitting for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship. Additionally, Jewell sits on the boards of the National Parks Conservation Association, Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, Initiative for Global Development and the University of Washington. She also serves on The National Forum on Children and Nature Advisory Board and the National Parks Second Century Commission.

• Elizabeth C. Titus Putnam, the president and founder of the Student Conservation Association, the nation’s largest youth conservation leadership organization. While studying at Vassar College in the mid-1950’s, she envisioned a contemporary conservation core that would utilize her strength and the energy of students to respond to the threats facing America’s national parks. Through her hard work, vision and determination, she established and nurtured the SCA which enlists nearly 4,000 students, who contribute over two million hours of service each year to protecting and restoring America’s parks, forests, refuges, seashores and communities.

• Elizabeth Colleton, Jane Evans and Susan Haspel – NBC Universal’s “Green is Universal” Initiative: Launched in May 2007, Green is Universal is NBC Universal’s ongoing effort to promote environmental awareness and action, and to green the company’s own operations. Spanning numerous business units, Green is Universal provides hundreds of hours of green-themed content and activities, especially during dedicated “Green Weeks.”

The women received their awards at the sixth annual Women in Conservation Luncheon held at the Plaza Hotel in New York City earlier this month.

Carol Browner, head of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change and past Chair of the Audubon Society; Alison Rockefeller, Founding Chair of the Rachel Carson Awards Council and Gloria Reuben, Golden Globe nominee and star of “Raising the Bar” and “ER,” also attended the ceremony on May 19.

The award commemorates the late Rachel Carson, whose landmark book Silent Spring made the world aware of the damage caused by pesticides in the early 1960s. Audubon established the award in 2004 to honor similar visionary women. Past honorees include Bette Midler, founder of the New York Restoration Project; Teresa Heinz Kerry, chair of the Heinz Endowments and the Heinz Family Philanthropies; Majora Carter, founder and executive director of Susainable South Bronx and Laurie David, producer of An Inconvenient Truth.

Opening this week at New York City’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the exhibition “Design for a Living World” explores possibilities for ecological sensitivity in a realm of top-tier design work — from fashion star Isaac Mizrahi to artist/architect Maya Lin — in which conspicuous over-consumption is often the rule.

The show was developed by The Nature Conservancy, whose Project Director Sara Elliott says they “were looking for designers who demonstrated an innovative and open-minded approach to materials or who were thinking about the relationship between products and place or source,” instead of only recruiting those known for green-friendly work. Designers were pointed toward areas where the Conservancy works — from Bolivia to Australia to Idaho — and asked to draw their inspiration from whatever they found there.

The show, which is expected to travel to cities like Miami, Chicago, and San Francisco after leaving New York in January, wound up with a broad array of creations, from sculptural pieces to prototypes for what could be mass-produced, everyday objects. More important than marketability, Elliott says, is “that the objects say something about the place, the people who depend on that place for their livelihood, and/or the inherent qualities of the material.”

In a way, the show’s impact on viewers seems like a secondary concern: The challenge here was to designers, who make so many decisions on the consumer’s behalf long before a product is available for sale. Non-designers come away from the show, hopefully, ready to pay more attention to questions about where their goods come from and how their production affects a community. As for the creative professionals who participated, Elliott says, “I think in almost every instance, the designers have been inspired to pay closer attention to the materials they specify in their work and the impacts that those material choices have on real people and real places across the globe.”

Aahhhh. Another beautiful fall day. Another leaf blower. BBZZZZZZZZ!!!!

Solution? Rake.

Suggested New Thought Bubble: Wait a minute, what am I doing with this silly, ineffectual, dirty-emissions gadget? I’m an American, I should be conserving gasoline*, not squandering it. We’re at war in the Middle East! What was I thinking? My parents would have known better during WWII.

(* or electricity for plug-in leaf blower owners.)

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

More and more corporate emails these days end with text blurbs urging the recipient not to print messages out unless absolutely necessary. Hard copies of documents are a must in some instances, of course, but they’re becoming less and less necessary thanks to some efforts to finally make good on the computer era’s promise of a “paperless” world.

Count Fidelity Investments among those companies trying to cut down on paper use — and save themselves a bit of money in the process. The firm has just announced that it will partner with DocuSign to use the latter’s “e-signature” technology, allowing staff and clients “to electronically sign all documents, including Fidelity and advisor-specific forms, required to establish and fund a brokerage account.”

While the amount of paper saved with this move may be trivial compared to that wasted in printing the average financial report, the change does of course cut down on the time, expense and fossil fuels required to send hand-signed documents back and forth via courier and for customers to make trips to their new financial advisor’s office.

Not incidentally, all this automation will shift funds to Fidelity more quickly and save its independent advisors money. Whether these efficiencies and savings get passed on to consumers remains to be seen.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Photo: © Holger Gurski | Dreamstime.com

The well was dry beside the door,
And so we went with pail and can
Across the fields behind the house
To seek the brook, if still it ran; . . .

- Robert Frost’s “Going for Water”

Every year, more about the world’s worsening water crisis is revealed: Who has potable water, sanitation and fresh drinking water – and who doesn’t.

The statistics are foreboding: The United Nations, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the Global Water Trust, World Water Council, the Pacific Institute and other international organizations warn us that by 2025, two-thirds of the Earth’s population will live in water-strapped countries. By mid-century, they say, two out of three people around the globe may not have potable water, and by the end of this century, the number of people without access to fresh drinking water – just under a billion today – could double.

Water, water, they tell us, is not everywhere.

Water that humans can use, that is. The world’s population uses about 1 percent of all the water on Earth, according to U.S. Geological Survey charts. The remaining 99 percent of the planet’s water is salty or brackish, or it is trapped in glaciers and ice.

But if scientists have the technology to desalinate water, or to super clean storm-drainage water or contaminated groundwater, isn’t that reason for optimism? And if, according to these same global entities, the number of people who have fresh drinking water has actually increased in the past couple of years, isn’t that good news?

Yes, says Pasquale Steduto. He is an expert in water-use efficiency and productivity, and has spent the past 20 years working in agriculture-water related issues. Because of his skills, Steduto is the chief of Water Service for the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. The Rome-based water scientist spoke at length to Greenrightnow.com last week, offering a big-picture perspective on the state of the world’s water.

Careful not to paint too rosy a scenario, Steduto (pictured) expresses optimism: there is more access to fresh drinking water, and more cities and countries use new guidelines on water-system efficiency. Plus, more countries are acknowledging that all humans have a basic right to clean water (such as South Africa in a recent, unprecedented high court ruling).

Multinational corporations are at least attempting, Steduto says, to look at the water crisis from a humanitarian standpoint – such as in last year’s CEO Water Mandate.

The world’s perception of water – how we use it, how we take it for granted – is changing rapidly, experts say. Whether it is due to necessity or market forces, governments and individuals are changing how they use water and decide their water needs.

“There is a shift in a way, in lifestyle choices and behaviors, ” Steduto says. “The shift of the paradigm is, ‘O.K., we cannot really go too much toward increasing the supply. Are we in a position to reduce the demand, or no?’