Kate Wing's Blog: The Media and the Environment

Is green the new red?

2008-05-31T00:03:47Z

Today, I found out I am a communist. I can't believe my parents never told me this, back when I was playing poker in the front yard and gleefully taking my friends' nickels. Apparently I was supposed to divvy up the pot according to everyone's needs. I didn't, I took the cash and liked it and I'd do it again if I could. But who am I to argue with George Will and Charles Krauthammer? If recycling makes me a communist, then let me learn from the hands of the new "would-be masters." I'm talking about the private firms of Ireland.

Yes, according to a report from Grant Thornton International on Corporate Social Responsibility, private businesses in Ireland are hard at work reducing waste and improving energy efficiency. The survey indicates they're doing so to build their brand, recruit staff, and protect their bottom line, but clearly it's really a move towards communism. According to Inc. magazine (which tipped me off to the study) U.S. private businesses were only half as likely as their global counterparts to report they took these responsible steps to "save the earth." Unlike businesses such as Caterpillar and Wal-Mart, which have clearly capitulated to the Gaia-Pinko manifesto, these private businesses appear to following a different type of green - cash. Which still, somehow, makes them communists.

Let's call this what it is: tired writing. The idea of Communism is an old boogeyman, thrown out by columnists of a certain age who need a story hook. Here's a response to the red flag by my colleague David Goldstein, from his recent book:

"Actually, the facts are almost completely opposite: where socialists have expropriated private industry, they have also operated it in a way that is much more irresponsible environmentally than is the case in market-based economies. Centrally planned economies have the world’s worst record on environmental protection, pollution, destruction of natural environments, and the most hostility for citizen-based environmental advocacy...In other words, a free-market economy subject to the rule of law is a much more fertile field to implement environmental policies than a Communist country."

If you want to pick a fight with the environmental movement, at least get a little more creative, like Nordhaus & Shallenberger do. Or take some time to do some digging into those devilish policies and lay it out for us. Like Andrew Leonard does in this great Salon piece breaking down the price of a gallon of gas in California, including a study showing refinery productivity in LA increased even with new environmental regulations. I know you guys have deadlines to meet, but really, "communists"? In 2008? That's just tired. And this country wasn't built on lazy thinking.

Recession Recession Recession

2008-01-14T20:19:28Z

Advertising folks will tell you that repetition is the key to getting an idea stuck in your head. Summer camp and Hollywood will tell you that saying something at least three times (preferably at midnight, while looking in a mirror) will make boogeymen real. Which made me think this morning, as I brushed my teeth, wasn't it only a few months ago that analysts were making fun of the few lone analysts who predicted we were heading into a recession?

According to the Google search trend analyzer, yes, yes it was. Way back in the summer of 2004, no one in the U.S. was even thinking about a recession. Now the panic is building, particularly in DC, California, and New York, none of whom have yet cast their primary ballots. According to yesterday's NYT:

“The question is not whether we will have a recession, but how deep and prolonged it will be,” said David Rosenberg, the chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch.

If belief makes it so, then the recession is upon us. Time to start squirrelling away funds for conservation, or perhaps using the recession to drive better environmental innovations.

So this is the new year

2008-01-02T23:49:36Z

and if I were Ben Gibbard, I might not feel any different. But I do, just a little. Maybe it's three days of hikes in the sunny cold air, rearranging my office, lots of Yorkshire pudding, or the disquieting news that State Senator Don Perata got jacked in our neighborhood over the weekend, but the world looks a little more curious and clear in 2008. A little more full of all kinds of possibility.

Andrew is after me to post some New Year's resolutions and I'm tempted to just take his: get outside more and read good books. Both very satisfying pursuits but things I tend to do already. I'm good at the accomplishable resolution, one that's discrete and doable so I can check it off list. If that's really change I smell in the air, then it's time to think big. Which means its time to visit The Edge and pore over big ideas for this year's question: "What have you changed your mind about?"

All jobs are about changing minds to some extent, mine perhaps more expressly so. Our goal cannot only be to change the minds of others, but also to keep our own minds nimble and flexible, open to new evidence. In the case of the Edge, that also means ideas that are pretty arcane or inscrutable to me, though I have to assume someone out there is nodding their head as they read it. There are the contrarians who say they've changed their minds about their ability to change their minds. Then there are posts about measuring happiness, economics, and the biology of online communities. I don't recommend reading all 163 entries in one sitting, though if you wait long enough you can buy them as a book. Poke your head in the next time you're on a particularly dull conference call.

So what will I be resolving to do this year? To paraphrase an old grad school mentor: make new mistakes, and learn from them. If those educational experiences happen to take place in, say, the Queen Charlotte Islands, well, all the better.

What kind of Green am I?

2007-09-27T00:16:17Z

You've got to be at least a little curious about people to work in policy. Otherwise, you could just be a field scientist and spend all your time with penguins or microscopes. But people, well, they're kind of fascinating. What do they want? What drives them to make the choices they do? And why don't they use their turn signals? Luckily, the world of market research has spent billions of dollars finding out what makes us tick. Normally, accessing that info might cost you a few grand but this month you can get a glimpse for free in Southwest Airlines Spirit magazine.

Spirit Magazine frames this as a story about neighborhoods: what kind of people live in which cities, and where should you move to be near like-minded folks. You can also look up your zipcode to see who they think lives near you now. They've summarized 66 categories of American households as determined by Claritas, a "target marketing " firm. Key descriptors for each group are their cars, reading material, and, in some cases, beer brands. Here are two examples from the "Town & Rural" group:

God’s Country
These urban refugees have fled to the country seeking a more laid-back lifestyle. Though they travel frequently for business, leisure is a top priority. They read Skiing magazine, drive Toyota Land Cruisers, and tune into the Outdoor Life Network.
Median household income: $83,827
Hangout: Teton County, Wyoming (Jackson)
Heartlanders
These middle-aged parents pay the bills with jobs in manufacturing and agriculture, spend their free time boating and hunting, and vacation by means of motor home. Popular eating spot: Cracker Barrel. On the tube: CBS’s Early Show.
Median household income: $43,087
Hangout: Sully County, South Dakota (Onida)

When I look through these categories, I try to think like a campaign director and figure out how to pitch an environmental issue to each person. As you may know from my posts, I agree with the folks who think the debate to define who is a 'real' environmentalist is a waste of energy. Real conservation involves so many different ideas and values, like innovation, efficiency, solitude, family, leisure, and adventure, among many others. You may choose a compact fluorescent bulb because it saves energy, while your sister does it because she hates changing light bulbs, and your friend from high school does it because it's the law in his state. I don't personally know people who fit each one of these 66 categories (or at least, I don't think I do) but I like thinking about how I could have a conversation with them. Maybe even a conversation about squid.

Greener than thou

2007-08-23T00:50:02Z

At the Mos Def show on Saturday, I stood near a guy with a shirt that read "Militant Vegan". He had a fairly serious demeanor despite the sunny day and tight rhymes coming from the stage, so I started speculating just how militant militant was. Would he be protesting in front of the nearby fried chicken stand? Or unplugging their fryer? Did he refuse to eat vegetables he hadn't grown himself, so he knew exactly how they were treated? Should I put down my taco and back away slowly?

If you work for an environmental group, the debate over how green is green enough is never too far from your mind, and now it's spreading into the larger cultural discussion via sources like the NYT, Grist, Worldchanging, and Ed Begley Jr., among others. There are folks who believe small individual changes will never be enough while others feel equally strongly that incremental personal change is what truly changes the world. Give me five minutes and a bottle of scotch at an NRDC retreat and I could sit you down with people in both of those camps (but don't let them talk you into a poker game).

Fact is, you probably need both: rules that make incentives for more efficient refrigerators and organic foods, and people to buy those fridges and stock them with local produce. Top down and bottom up. I don't think either approach is superior, and I applaud anyone who's working to make change, however small it may seem. It's the South Park approach: buy a hybrid if you can because it's a good car and it saves you gas, but you don't need to be smug about it. Smugness doesn't tend to win friends or influence people. At least it's never worked for me. Your results may vary.

Anyhow, the set ended and the Militant Vegan and I passed each other uneventfully in the crowd. Little did he know that back in my college days I ran with the Bad Seeds, a group of botany majors who rescued abandoned houseplants and put protected 'worm crossing' areas after it rained. Yeah, I could have told him a thing or two about vegetable activism. Even if I didn't have the t-shirt to prove it.

PhDs are the champions, my friend

2007-08-22T01:08:22Z

Sorry, NRDC webmasters, I just don't know how to categorize the news that Queen guitarist Brian May is now a doctor of astronomy. Candidate for best professor quote of 2007:

‘I have no doubt that Brian May would have had a brilliant career in science had he completed his PhD in 1971,’ said astrophysicist Dr Garik Israelian, who worked with May in La Palma. ‘Nevertheless, as a fan of Queen, I am glad that he left science temporarily,’ he added.

What's next? Billie Joe Armstrong becomes a phycologist? Chris Martin breaks new ground with spatially explicit ecosystem modeling? Did your guidance counselor ever offer up the option of "put on some spandex and rock for twenty years, then hit the physics books"? Such a lack of imagination!

We're lucky to have some great ex dot-commers, MBAs, bankers and others retiring from their own life to bring a fresh look to environmental issues. Second acts in life are a great thing, and why not use yours to get to know the world around you. Even the world very far away from you.