The Green Life

Vocal Environmentalists

Billboard’s annual list of top green singers always catches headlines. Topping their recent charts of performers who offset their carbon footprint, donate to environmental charities, and drive around in biofueled vehicles are, not shockingly, Jack Johnson, John Legend, Willie Nelson, Cake, Feist, and Radiohead. To that list, we’d like to add a few artists you may not have heard of – yet.

Singer-songwriter Alyssa released a soulful new album, Within, in 2008, whose folksy tracks express reverence and worry for the natural world. Her CD’s jacket is recycled and plastic-free.

Feliciano dos Santos, the front man of Mozambique’s Massukos, sings lively Afro-pop in a language called Nyanja. He won the 2008 Goldman Environmental Prize in recognition of his advocacy for clean water.

Jenny Morgan’s album of children’s music, Nature Needs Kids and Kids Need Nature, includes songs with lyrics extolling the joys of being outdoors; one upbeat tune is called “Leave No Child Inside.”

Pete Seeger on Our Radio

For this week's Sierra Club Radio show, we were thrilled to interview folk-music icon Pete Seeger, in honor of his recent 90th (!) birthday. While Seeger's music is loved by many, his audiences might not be aware of his long history as an environmental activist. 

During the interview, which you can listen to by clicking here (go here to subscribe to our podcast), Seeger talks about:

-the connection between music and social change
-his early beginnings as an environmentalist
-his 40-plus-year fight to clean up the Hudson River
-performing with Bruce Springsteen at President Obama's inauguation
-why he believes that we're living in the best of times
-his reasons for hope, and more...

For more Sierra Club Radio interviews, check out www.sierraclubradio.org.

--Orli Cotel

Green Your Screenplay

Every year, American screenwriters print more than 180 million sheets of paper. Assuming that's not recycled paper, that equates to as many as 20,000 downed trees. 

With the slogan, "Let's save 90 million pages. In 6 months," Greenwriter.org aims to cut screenplay-related paper consumption in half by providing an outlet where screenwriters can publish their work online. 

 

It addition to preserving trees, the website has an additional goal: to provide a forum through which aspiring, undiscovered writers can connect with producers and agents. The service, free to screenwriters, launches in late summer.

 

--Jamie Hansen

Earth Day Reflections: Act Locally, Globally, or Both?

It's like the day after your birthday for environmentalists.

Yesterday, we celebrated the 39th annual Earth Day, and the blogosphere was abuzz with reflections on the day’s symbolic significance for the environmental movement. Now that the world better understands environmental issues, the tenor of Earth Day seems to be shifting. After the jump (click below), we provide a summary of what journalists and bloggers wrote -- but what do you think? What did this Earth Day mean to you?  With landmark Earth Day number 40 just around the corner, what will Earth Day mean in the future?

Google Earth's Most Interesting Environmental Maps

Last week, Scientific American and others reported a nifty new Google Earth map developed with help from the Audubon Society and NRDC to outline areas where developing renewable-energy resources might come into conflict with conservationists' efforts. According to the NRDC, “the project will support renewable-energy planning and development by facilitating consensus in siting decisions.”

We browsed Google Earth and found some other environmentally themed maps worth checking out. Note that you’ll have to download Google Earth to check these out. Do so at your own risk and make sure your computer supports it.

Threatened Species 

This map allows you to select from a list of threatened species to show their habitat. It includes information about the species and the causes of the threats to their survival.

Greening What You Watch

Call it the medium and the message. Environmental filmmakers and viewers can now share eco-savvy content and comments on a new online community: Sustainability Television, or STV. An environmental website based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Sustainability Television strives to make green, online TV more accessible, inviting members (it’s free to join) to upload and share eco-friendly digital videos.

The portal, which recently partnered with the Sierra Club BC, creates, broadcasts, and distributes its own downloadable content through the web, television, and mobile devices. The result? A lively interactive network that promotes health, community, and a sense of responsibility for the planet. 

--Heather Conn

Rolling Stone's Environmental Rock Stars

It may not be the cover of Rolling Stone, but the Sierra Club’s own Bruce Nilles is nonetheless a rock star for being No. 74 on the iconic rock magazine’s “RS 100: Agents of Change” list. Nilles, an environmental lawyer and the director of the Move Beyond Coal campaign, has stopped at least 24 coal plants from being built.

Other environmentalists who made the list (which was noticeably lacking in females) include agriculture advocate Wes Jackson (No. 93), Green Collar Economy author Van Jones (No. 89), editor and physicist Joseph Romm (No. 88), mod designer Philippe Starck (No. 87), billionaire and electric-car advocate Elon Musk (No. 86), urban planner Mitchell Joachim (No. 83), eco-singer Neil Young (No. 79), electric-car entrepreneur Shai Agassi (No. 77), biofuel pioneer Craig Venter (No. 71), food-ag journalist Michael Pollan (No. 69), governator Arnold Schwarzenegger (No. 61), Walmart green adviser Amory Lovins (No. 56), Bonnarroo planners Rick Farman and Jonathan Mayers (No. 54), climate-change activist Jessy Tolkan (No. 45), bioengineer Jay Keasling (No. 40), geoengineer Ken Caldeira (No. 36), coal fighter Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (No. 34), energy secretary Steven Chu (No. 24), Al Gore (No. 18), solar-energy guru Nate Lewis (No. 17), “climate czarina” Carol Browner (No. 16), and Rep. Henry Waxman (No. 6).

Oh, and this guy named Barack Obama. He came in first.

--Avital Binshtock

Our Green Hero Featured in Today's San Francisco Chronicle

The San Francisco Chronicle has given the Sierra Club's own hero his due: a feature-length article. The author, Fiona Ng, wrote: 

"In the tradition of Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker, Berkeley's own Bob Schildgen has an alter ego he regularly assumes to make the world a safer place. His moniker is Mr. Green, brainchild of Schildgen and his colleagues at Sierra magazine -- the million-plus circulation monthly magazine published by the Sierra Club -- who was created in 2003 to answer readers' questions about sustainable living in a Q&A feature dubbed Hey Mr. Green."

You can read Mr. Green's blog here (you can submit your green-living questions for him there too). His book, Hey Mr. Green: Sierra Magazine's Answer Guy Tackles Your Toughest Green Living Questions, is available here.

--Avital Binshtock

We're On Twitter!

If you're a fan of the Green Life, follow us on Twitter! From our account, @sierra_magazine, we Tweet our daily emails and blog posts, plus some bonus content that our loyal readers are sure to appreciate.

We're always looking for great, relevant Twitterers to follow, so if you have recommendations, please let us know.

Not sure what Twitter is? Here's a good intro, some background info, and how environmental groups are using it.

--Avital Binshtock

Book Roundup Wednesday: Books About Green Economics

New for 2009 on the Green Life is a weekly roundup of books addressing a particular aspect of environmentalism. This week, given that almost everyone is anxiously following the state of the economy, we’re recommending new and soon-to-be-published books about green economics and environmental money issues. Check back here every Wednesday to discover new and worthwhile books.

Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy (by Peter G Brown and Geoffrey Garver, $17, Berrett-Koehler, Feb. 2009): Invoking the Quaker principle of “right relationship” – acknowledging that all of life is interconnected and treating that fact with respect – the authors suggest reforming and downscaling the economy to a level that’s sustainable for maintaining the integrity of life on earth.

Inquiries Into The Nature Of Slow Money: Investing As If Food, Farms, And Fertility Mattered (by Woody Tasch, $22, Chelsea Green, Jan. 2009): Suggesting a new financial system that brings money “back down to earth,” this book, written by a VC expert, propones that investors place their funds into sustainable, responsible agriculture.