Now, the term “yarn porn” is often thrown around in the craft world. In fact, you are reading a blog post by the proud owner of knittingwhorehouse.com (I collect domain names with the loftiest of intentions). But… “Soap Porn”? Smelly Chicks, you asked for it, and I’m going to goat’s milk this for all it’s worth. Ahem…

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Last week’s Newsweek/American Petroleum Institute panel at Stanford that I was invited to helped shed light on the very technology v. behavior problem I addressed above.** The panel moderator, Newsweek Senior Editor of Business and Technology, David Jefferson kicked off the event by admitting that, while he is certainly cognizant of the pressing environmental issues we are currently facing, he could be doing be more. He candidly admitted that he drives a Mustang convertible, that he has installed compact fluorescent lightbulbs in his outside lights, but not his indoor ones, and that he does not shy away from using his home’s thermostat, although he is also not afraid of throwing on a sweater if it is a little chilly.

Kennedy set the event off on an interesting note by taking an editorial position that struck me. Kennedy said something like, “it is not about changing consumer behavior,” and this is where Kennedy and I have a theoretical and philosophical divergence.

[Note: I included the photo above as evidence of the rapidly changing world of media. Five to ten years ago, who would have guessed that oil executives would ever sit down with green bloggers to talk about energy policy? Certainly, not me. Pictured left to right are Maria Surma Manka of Maria Energia, me (Tim Hurst) of Green Options & EcoPolitology, Paul Siegele of Chevron, and Brian Westenhous of New Energy and Fuel].

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Tim Hurst: What is the Better World Foundation and how did you get involved with the organization?

Mark Leon Goldberg: I should say at the outset that I am not a spokesperson for the Better World Campaign (BWC). I am a consultant to the BWC, which is a sister organization to the United Nations Foundation. But a good description of UNF can be found here. And BWC here.

I am well qualified to speak about how I got involved with them. From 2004 to 2006 I was a writer for the American Prospect magazine, a political monthly here in DC. At the prospect, I wrote about international affairs, specifically the United Nations and other institutions like the International Criminal Court. I’ve been fascinated with these subjects and have followed these issues closely for a long time. As my stint at the prospect was coming to a close, the United Nations Foundation contacted me and asked if I would help them write UN Dispatch, their new blog about the United Nations and international affairs. I readily accepted.

TH: Perhaps you could explain more about what your mission is at On Day One and the UN Dispatch blog. Who is your target audience?

The target audiences of UN Dispatch and On Day One are slightly different, though there is probably much overlap. UN Dispatch was started to fill what was a void in commentary about the United Nations. In general, when blogs mentioned the UN, the commentary tended to be fairly misinformed. UN Dispatch was founded to try and correct some of the misinformation out there about the UN. Our audience tends to be drawn from the advocacy, think tank, international organization and philanthropic communities.

We are very much part of the on-going foreign policy debate that is forever raging in the political blogosphere. We tend to be slightly wonky, but strive to be accessible to a wider audience. We also aggregate global news in a daily round-up we call “Morning Coffee.”

On Day One is slightly different. For a good description of On Day One’s history, goals and audience I will turn this over to On Day One’s leader, Travis Moore of the Better World Campaign.

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RedOrbit.com provides mountains of wide-ranging content contained covering the vast ideological spectrums of space, science, health, and technology. Launched in in 2003, RedOrbit averages over 5 million unique visitors per month, “with subject matter a bit more intellectually oriented than most” (I love that last part).

Over the years of organic gardening with children, I have learned to relinquish some control to perfect rows, perfect spacing, etc. Now, I have added seed and plant selection to the list of gardening enjoyments I now share with my children. It all started when the seed catalogs started arriving at the end of winter. Both of my children took an active interest in the pictures, so I suggested they start circling varieties they wanted to grow. Now that we are planting, they have a vested interest in our efforts, and I believe this will carry over to trying new foods and healthy eating from our organic garden.

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When greenwashing is aimed at adults, environmentalists generally find it annoying and sometimes — if it is sufficiently transparent — amusing. But when children are the targets, the environmentalists find it infuriating. So when Mattel recently issued a news release promoting its new line of Barbie BCause accessories for the doll — hats, handbags and the like — it was too much for the blogger on Eco Child’s Play, Jennifer Lance.

The piece that caught the NY Times’ attention is
The Ultimate Greenwashing: Barbie Goes Green.

As much as anyone in the green blogosphere, Hank’s done an amazing job of bringing a green message to an audience that many might think would be tough to crack: techies. He’s consistently shown, though, that some of the most exciting technological developments rolling out these days have a green tint to them. With the roll-out of new network blogs, he’s also shown that he’s got a clear sense of other issues in the green space that matter to people: politics, fashion, personal transportation, and food (and a keen eye for writing talent!).

So, make sure to check out the EcoGeek network… great things going on over there. We wish them well, and hope we’ll have future opportunities to collaborate.

Obviously, breastfed babies are happiest and healthiest; however, sometimes families have to use infant formulas to nourish their young ones. A new report issued by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) makes recommendations for feeding babies safely and avoiding Bisphenol-A (BPA). BPA is a hormone disruptor that can harm brain development and may affect behavior. Many families have switched to BPA-free bottles and sippy cups; however, infant formula containers pose a higher risk to children than baby bottles when it comes to BPA leaching.

Back in October, I wrote about the risk of BPA leaching into food and infant formula stored in tin/steel cans. Steel cans are lined with plastic containing BPA to prevent contamination from the can to the food/formula. EWG found that,

1 out of every 16 infants fed ready-to-eat liquid formula are exposed to BPA at doses exceeding those that caused increased aggression and significant changes in testosterone levels in laboratory animals.

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Editor’s note: This is the third of a weekly guest spot by children’s media consultant Ashley. Ashley is a television and online producer and Executive Editor of Children’s Media Consultant.com. She holds a B.A. from Columbia University and a M.A. concentrating in children’s educational media and preschool ecology from New York University. She resides with her family in downtown New York City. You can visit her blog at

Little did I realize that when I wrote “Why Isn’t Kid’s TV More Eco-Friendly?” (which I have been researching for the better part the last three years) that it would circulate around the web with such positive feedback. Although I’ve served as a children’s television consultant for multiple programs to determine how to effectively incorporate ecology content into their preschool curricula, this is the first time I’ve been able to initiate a dialog online about the content that’s already out there (or lack thereof).

How do the media professionals and parents weigh in?

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Bloggers Jeremiah and Jennifer McNichols have completed the most thorough and comprehensive directory of BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups. Consisting of 25 individual posts, the Z Report recommends “Top Picks”, “Promising Entrants”, “Proceed with Caution”, and “Brands to Avoid.” There are individual posts for each company, as well. As Jeremiah explains, “The chart assesses the companies overall - for example, we are recommending avoiding companies that DO have a few BPA-free items, because their policies are inconsistent, they are strongly pro-polycarbonate, or they do not offer a non-polycarbonate bottle (even though they may have non-BPA sippys). We tried to give a broad picture of which companies are worth doing business with based on their BPA stance, and then have the company-specific pages to provide per-product information. All Top Pick companies make only BPA-free products.” Z Recs’ goal is to have all companies disclose on their labels exactly what kinds of plastics are used on products that come into contact with children’s mouths. This sure would help consumers make wise decisions in the store, but for now, visiting The Z Report: A Directory of Bisphenol-A In Baby Bottles and Sippy Cups will help parents make sense of BPA in children’s products.

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What do we know today, if anything? As my father is fond of saying, ‘I know nothing, I can prove it, ask me anything.’ Recently it has been reported that at CO2 atmospheric concentration levels of 500 ppm, the oceans will stop calcification. It has been well documented that the planet’s southern ocean is no longer acting as a carbon sink. And of course, one million acres of ice disappeared from the Arctic and we discovered that Greenland melted at a rate of 25 percent over estimations during this past season.

For the Cro-Magnon in our mist, be they from the trailer parks or the intelligent design pews of humanistic debauchery, to the ten-thousand dollar suited board and CEO members who still can grunt out the response: “huh, I don’t care.” People fail to comprehend the baseline conceptions of what this foretells. People lament my forecast of an impending ecological disaster. They scream, I kid you not, ‘you can’t tell the future.’ I don’t have to tell the future, all I have to do is deduce the information presented yearly. ‘But, but the scientists say we have at least 100 years.’

In the first place, taking that attitude without committing to changing anything is dooming future generations. The deduction here is simply enough, you are not humane, you are narcissist, more animal than man, striving only to serve self. Do you know what humanity calls a completely self-indulged individual? One who justifies every action they do, a psychopath. Have you as an individual questioned your humane meter lately? If you still possess the ability to glance within the looking glass, you may be very surprised at what you find.

Enough of the free psychoanalysis, what does the above information tell a mind that is capable of independent thought? By now most people in the civilized world should know that the Arctic ice cap reflects the sunlight from the earth, helping to stabilize our optimum temperature. Further we know that the ice melting from Greenland affects the oceans circulatory system. This in effect, when slowed or stopped adds to the problem of the oceans acting as a carbon sink, under the currently defined harmonic balance for our species.

Ever year scientists make predications, at first things dropped by ten fold, than by fifty, than by 25 percent. One thing that is obvious is that the time to severe ramifications is knocking at the planet’s door. You know that little thing called Rapid Climate Change, that so many fail to acknowledge. Let us say that the annual growth rate of CO2 is 2 parts per million instead of the current 1.93. We are now at 381 ppm in the atmosphere. This means we have 119 parts per million to go before the now forecasted point of doom. At current growth rates we are looking at 60 years tops, to get everything under control.

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By: Anthony J. Gerst. In the timeless words spoken by men everywhere and throughout time, I say to the reading audience “oops.” The Grand Opening for the new Obama office in Iowa was at Keokuk, not Fort Madison. A little background information on this, Iowa has 99 counties, currently there are 45 offices in the state operating for Senator Obama. The odd thing about this is that there are now two offices in Lee County.

Keokuk Iowa is a very old river town. Situated on the rapids that once divided the upper and lower Mississippi River, it was there this great waterway became one in 1913, with the construction of the first lock and dam system on the mighty Mississippi. Named for Chief Sauk Keokuk, the town has many remnants of an age gone by. Like the Grand Theater, built on the site where the old Keokuk Opera House sat, this theater dates back to circa 1920’s. It was designed in the glory days of theatrical halls of yesteryear. It is believed that this is the first time in Keokuk’s long history that a presidential office has been opened there.

As I have found throughout the Obama campaign in Iowa there is an air of optimistic hope for the future from this candidate. This office already has 23 high school students who have volunteered to help the campaign win this nomination. Another supporter Dave Ireland is a retired sheriff from Lee County. Speaking at the event he had this to say, “Obama walks a path of truth, which is sometimes a lonely road.” He also made the comment that he is, “tired of the bully pulpit, that it is time to give it to someone with some common sense.”

Fred Seay is a drug rehabilitation officer in Keokuk, a proud union member of local 2983 . He said, “Obama can finally move forward with Martin Luther King’s dream.” Listening to the people gathered, young, old and a cultural mix, it is plain to see that Senator Obama restores to the people something we have not had in years. A sense of trust. What has really amazed me about Senator Barrack Obama’s campaign is the amount of literature that is available. The good senator from Illinois is not afraid to make a stand. It has been years since I have seen a campaign with this much devotion to a plan. Usually a politician’s position papers are nowhere to be found, as the positions change upon geographical location and audience.

Bethanie Smith was the first student volunteer to show up at the gathering. When asked why she had joined the campaign she said, “I believe Obama wants to help the people, so do I.” Over the years I have witnessed many campaigns that have been well-oiled political machines. It has been a long time however, since I have seen the devotion and belief represented by the volunteers across our nation, who have come to the cornfields of Iowa, because they too, have a dream. That once again America can be a nation that stands for the ideals and rhetoric, matching our countries historic design.

What, or better yet, who do you believe in America?

By: Anthony J. Gerst.

Honor thy father and mother; respect your elders young man. Honor and respect are very interesting words, are they not? Let’s admit to ourselves that honor and respect are things to be earned, not obligations based upon genetics and geriatrics. I try to respect my elders, but sometimes people in their second childhood say the ‘darnist’ things.

Take for example Walter E. Williams, it is easy to show respect for this 71-year-old man, who has throughout the course of his life overcome the hardships of poverty and racism. A recent column of his, ‘Global warming hysteria,’ is ludicrous. One has to wonder from his writings if this syndicated columnist/cartoonist professor of economics is stating his own opinions or is a spokesman for the oil industry.

Mr. Williams offers quotes from the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) to support his positions. This privately funded right wing think-tank is nothing more than a masquerade party of supposed intellectual design. Their objectives are propaganda that promotes the conservative philosophy of all that matters: wealth, preservation and expansion. Two of the NCPA’s board members are Pete du Pont and James Cleo Thompson. Mr. Thompson is the chairman of the board for Thompson Petroleum, need I say more. Mr. Williams quoting from a booklet recently released by NCPA: “Over long periods of time, there is no close relationship between CO2 levels and temperature.”

A couple of examples of what comes out of the great NCPA think-tank are as follows. ‘Court Ruling In Whale Case Good News For National Security,’ assumed environmental threats should not trump real military ones. Another example, ‘Climate Figures Need Scrutiny,’ NASA’s James Hansen’s press conferences make great headlines but are a poor substitute for the truth. Then we have their latest release from September, ‘Endangered Species Act Does More Harm than Good.’ It is amazing that a professor of economics can be so gullible as too back an organization of such oppressive designs.

What cracks me up more than anything else in Mr. Williams article, ‘Global warming hysteria’ is this argument, “There was an explosion of life forms 550 million years ago (Cambrian Period) when CO2 levels were 18 times higher than today. During the Jurassic Period, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, CO2 levels were as much as nine times higher than today.”

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On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

Thus far, 6,545 blogs have signed up, including Eco Child’s Play, and I hope if you have a blog, you will participate. You can:

• Post about the environment

The best way to participate is to post on your blog something that relates to the environment. Your post can be about anything to do with the environment. So you could write a post which is offtopic for your blog OR relate the environment back to your topic in some way.

• Donate your day’s earning’s to charity

A single day’s earnings often don’t amount to much, but pooled together will make a difference. Why not donate your day’s earnings to a charity to show your support. You can find a list of “official” Blog Action Day charities on the site, or choose your own. Blog Action Day itself does not accept money, so you will need to deal directly with the charities.

• Publicize Blog Action Day

You can register your blog here.

I hope our readers will continue to leave excellent comments, and if you didn’t win, you can purchase your own hemp shopping bag. ReusableBags.com features high-quality, reusable shopping bags that will help you eliminate hundreds, if not thousands, of those plastic and paper shopping bags choking our planet. It’s an easy way to do your part! In the future, I will post about how my children and I silk screened the bags, in order that you can create your own designs on canvas shopping bags to personalize them.

First, credit where credit’s due: GM is one of the few major public corporations (and the first I’ve seen in the auto industry) to realize that social media, and the blogosphere in particular, doesn’t take kindly to being treated like any old marketing mechanism. On-message spin doesn’t work online because bloggers are people who take pride in peering through the fog, and distilling information for their readers. Conversations on the web are not one-way, and information can’t be controlled in the ways executives are used to. They are learning that the blogosphere is never afraid to call “bullshit” when it sees it, and the possibility of instant feedback ensures that all viewpoints can be heard, immediately.

Okay, I’m being too kind. I’d guess that the vast majority of the company’s top executives still don’t understand exactly why they approved the creation of their social media unit, but at least they know they needed one. They managed to hire people who realize that success in the blogosphere is about having an honest conversation, good or bad, and that admitting mistakes builds trust with consumers. But a disconnect remains. Bob Lutz, GM’s main internal blogger, has advocated for a gas tax to help create consumer demand to force the industry to invest aggressively in breakthrough transportation technologies. That’s great, but if he can’t speak for the company, is it doing any good?

GM’s social media people hope that it will. I honestly got the sense that they really do want to help change the company’s culture from the inside. Obviously, that’s a long road. In this environment, only an honest, respectful dialogue is ever going to overcome the decades of inertia of a behemoth like GM.

Finally, with the advent of our medium, that dialogue is becoming possible in ways it never has been. One thing’s for sure: the louder and more aggressive the environmental community is in calling GM a bunch of fascists who pushed the Hummer on unsuspecting Americans, the less they’re helping their (and our) cause. They only provoke a more defensive reaction from the people at the top of the company. Despite my distaste for Hummer owners, no sane person can fault a company that answers to shareholders for responding to demand in a high-margin niche. A part of me can’t help but think that activists who try to pressure corporations into putting the planet above profit are missing the forest for the trees.

Obviously, something is seriously wrong with a system in which well-meaning people continue to create products that ignore the environmental, resource, and economic crises that lie ahead. But it’s not as if they’re acting irrationally, given the information available to them. We all work in a system that is fundamentally flawed, and if activists want things to get better, they might be better off banding together to address root causes rather than the symptoms. If every person with a “downstream” (i.e. GM- or DuPont-specific) complaint joined a national movement to advocate for public financing of elections, or changing the way corporate rights are considered under the law, we might finally be able to start addressing the fundamental tensions between activists and the business world.

As an activist who runs a business, I can say with confidence that both sides are well-meaning. No one wants a world in which our grandkids look back and scream “What were you thinking?!” So let’s start working together to create a future we can be proud of. None of us can succeed without the rest of us.

Note: GM paid for my airfare and accommodations in connection with my coverage of the event. Finally, in the spirit of honest, open dialogue, I’d like to issue a formal invitation for someone from GM to discuss with an electric vehicle activist the issue of the EV1 electric car, including the “hows” and “whys” of its history. The movie Who Killed the Electric Car? was a great way to start the conversation, but film remains a one-way medium, and I am personally interested to see a real conversation about the issue develop. Email me, and I’ll make sure it gets set up.

By: Anthony J. Gerst.

My writings have the tendency to rant, rag, B-slap on Congress quite often. There are still good people on the hill, ladies and gentlemen. Of course almost everyone thinks their own representative is a decent, moral person, trying their best to represent the people. I personally believe Senator Harkin, my representative, is all of this and much more. But Michigan, I am envious of you. John Conyers Jr. is a representative of the people. You should be very proud to have him as your elected official in the House of Representatives.

Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) unlike Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), has diligently worked toward impeachment of George W. Bush. Currently he is waiting on the contempt of Congress resolution to come up for a vote on the floor. Before the August recess, the Judiciary Committee passed a resolution that held Harriet Myers and the White House in contempt of Congress.

The contempt charge pertains to the investigation of the firing of nine federal prosecutors, and a tie into the White House playing a key role. To add a little insult to injury, the replacement prosecutors seem to have been hired based upon political contributions and affiliations. Further roadblocks in pursuing this contempt charge have arisen, as officials from the Justice Department and our former Attorney General have apparently given false testimony.

The honorable statesman from Michigan is not afraid to tackle the issues that are crucial to the people of our nation. He has one of the best congressional sites on the net, in my humble opinion. Here is a link should you wish to follow up this, or other crucial issues of the day, like the Jena Six.

Congress will soon be putting the final negotiations on this session’s energy bill. It is crucial that the Renewable Energy Standard (RES), which was passed in the house, be included in this law (H.R.3221). In the House resolution almost all utilities would be required to meet 15% of their service from renewable energy by 2020.

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By: Anthony J. Gerst.

Remember these words, “The wheat fields waving, and the dust clouds rolling. . . This land was made for you and me.” The wheat harvest around the globe this year was a bust. It was either scorched or drowned. Global reserves of wheat are at their lowest in 26 years. During the last week of August wheat prices in Europe rose to L200 per tonne, which is double the price of last season. On the Chicago Board and Trade, wheat hit $7.44 a bushel. I heard today, unofficially, that it is now more than $8.00. On my blog site, Watchdog 316 dated July 24, you can find an article called, ‘Bread Four Dollars a Loaf,’ this will give you a fair look at the global collapse of the wheat harvest.

Across the planet this season, Mother Nature has wreaked havoc. From devastating heat waves to torrential downpours, the resulting effects of these climatic shivers are barley shortages everywhere. The consequences are rising prices for pasta and bread. In Italy, boycotts have already been experienced because of the exorbitant cost of linguine. This sadly will go beyond the price of linguine, macaroni, bread and my personal favorite lasagna. The ramifications of this rush to supply ethanol, with the less than perfect crop of corn, will result in increases of dairy and meat prices as well. Increased feed expenses for the livestock industry will wash over the freezers in grocery stores, like a green wave of exodus, as your hard earned capital flows to the checkered aisle.

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We’re pleased to see that a number of members have already started using their blogs, and we hope you’ll give it a shot, also. We’ve made sure that GO user blogs are fully functional, so you can:

Add images: It’s easy to add photographs and graphics to your blog posts — we’ve created a video (originally for our writing team) that walks you through the process. Keep in mind that many images may be under copyright, so be careful about using other people’s images — at minimum, you should give credit and a link.

Add links: Linking is also easy to do… see our "Blogging at GO" overview for instructions.

Add tags: Tags allow you to categorize your posts beyond the standard options available through the normal category structure. Your tags are also submitted to blogging megasite Technorati.

Use HTML: If you’re an advanced web author, you can add HTML tags through the by clicking on "disable rich text" below the "Body" text field.

Promote your blog: We’ve added widgets that allow you (or your readers) to easily submit your posts to social bookmarking sites StumbleUpon, Digg and Reddit.

Got questions? Check out our "How To" doc… and then blog away!

Vladimir Putin, Russia today has more money than sense. Your nation is besieged with problems. For example, the average life expectancy for men in your nation is 59, compared to the women at 72. Apparently this is caused by a discrepancy in personal habits, as Russian men suffer extensively from the hair of the dog, Vodka.

Just last week you came out with the ‘father of all bombs.’ Really, can’t you be more creative than that, and stop the juvenile, bullying activity of international one upmanship. Russia is not a world power, deal with it. Sorry, I can’t help but wonder about all the money spent on developing this toy, and the good applications it could’ve been applied too. You have the largest nation on the face of the planet. Yet, you only have a population of 143 million and that is rapidly declining. I heard today where you are going to have a national “GET BUSY,” holiday. Any couple who has a baby nine months later will receive a car as a prize. Your birthrate is 10 per 1000. You have a fertility rate of 1.3 births per woman and in order to maintain a stable population you would need 2.1, somewhere along the way you lost .8 of a child. Your death rate is outrageous at 15 per 1000, due primarily to the alcoholism that runs rampant throughout the men in your society. Your nation’s death rate is expedited by an inadequate health care system, which suffers because of misplaced spending on a military engine. Wow, does that sound familiar.

So here, let me help you out. We need to create a company, ‘Sperm Donors R U.S.’ Send over a fancy Lear jet and pick up ten highly screened men and fly them back to Russia for two weeks. Volunteers, I repeat, Russian women who volunteer and would like to have a child without the annoyance of a husband to raise, will participate in this program. Set it up so two women a day spend twelve hours with each man, of course you had better have a supply of enhancements on hand. Make a competition out of it, better yet a reality T.V. show, you could run several episodes a year. At the end of two weeks the team with the most confirmed pregnancy’s wins, give the lucky ladies three years of tax exemption, providing your citizens pay taxes. When the babies are born, provide two years of baby food and diapers, or a new car. In case of a tie you can have a pay-per-view showdown. In one day, twenty-fours, one woman per hour and the men will ‘get busy.’ You can run a nationally sanctioned gambling event on who will impregnate the most women. Who will last and how long, etc. etc.? At the conclusion send the boys home on a cruise ship, as they will need plenty of rest.

Considering however that you average 13 abortions for every 10 live births, you could simply make it more difficult to obtain an abortion. Not to mention you could offer better benefits for having a second child. Really, a national day for an orgy, the men will be falling down drunk, the women frustrated and the next day, nothing is going to get done accept lying about the great lays of the day before. The inept actions of governments the world over never fails to amaze me.

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