Media
Finding Your Dream Green Job, 1 Tweet at a Time
The Bad News
Statistically, those of us seeking a truly green job that allows us to finish our job every day feeling like we did something worthwhile and beneficial, are probably justified in feeling we’re facing mountain-sized odds for finding said job. There’s just not that many of these green employers. And, with the ever expanding degrees in sustainability we, green-ies-searching-for-green-jobs, are multiplying. Now don’t get me wrong, that’s a good thing. A really good thing. But, it does up the competition for those all-too-few priceless green jobs.
The Good News!
However! We also happen to live in a very exciting time in which it’s possible to network and make connections and promote oneself (without even having to brag and boast obnoxiously) like never before. The advent of Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Yelp, FourSquare, you name it, all these social media platforms are just begging to be used to introduce you to your potential boss and to paint the most well-rounded, green fanatic portrait of yourself as possible. And, as I said, it’s much less obtrusive to go about looking a certain way to an employer when you don’t have to necessarily shove it in their faces in a resume and interview. › Continue reading
Laughing in the Face of Disaster
image via Flickr - alancleaver 2000
After all, it was only the court jester who could laugh at the king. That kind of insight is invaluable.
Humor provides perspective, an ability to seeing ourselves and our views outside of our normal, critical awareness. Humor can also be a way to work through resistance (internal or external) or barriers of opposing view points and to communicate with an emotional depth otherwise too risky for seriousness.
Magazine Recycled Paper Content
If you love magazines and catalogs, and haven’t transitioned over to a Kindle or e-reader, then you may be interested to hear about how paper manufacturers and magazines are staying eco-friendly. Or not. While some contain 10-15% recycled content and FSC certified paper, most still use 100% virgin paper.
One company stands out in this arena, and is the only paper company in the country capable of doing 85-100% recycled content Mechanical Coated Paper (aka the glossy paper in magazines and catalogs) domestically. Everything else is from overseas, its carbon footprint adding unneeded impact. Not only that, Futuremark has stepped up in other arenas including:
- Providing post recycling remnants to an agricultural supply company that sells 30,000 tons of it a year to farmers rather then dumping them into a landfill.
- Partnering with the City of Chicago and its schools to collect paper and textbooks, paying schools, faith and civic groups, etc, for what they collect.
Many of us have spoken up by signing up for junk mail reducing lists, but for those who still enjoy the occasional catalog or subscribe to print magazines, publishers need to know that this is a concern of their readers.
HopenSource by Grist
Now for a little environmental optimism. I’ve stumbled across Grist‘s clever side project, HopenSource a few times and would highly recommend swinging by next time you’ve got the chance. It’s a joint blog and twitter account (including its very own hashtag to allow everyone to join in the conversation) dedicated to the discussion of the good news in the environmental arena.
That’s right, you didn’t read that wrong. I said good news. In a field almost completely dedicated to approaching issues from an “Oh Lord, what have we done?” angle, I find the optimism to be refreshing. I’ve said it many times, one of the most basic obstacles to environmental progress is the ease with which everyday people get bogged down in the despair and general permeation of bad news, particularly in the media. This idea that because we’ve gone so far at this point, in terms of habitat destruction, climate change, toxic distribution, etc., there’s really nothing we can do on an individual level that would make a dent, and therefore no point in trying.
In fact, this perspective couldn’t be farther from the truth. › Continue reading
The Climate Change Argument
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nattu/ / CC BY 2.0
Last week I quite literally found myself in the middle of one of my favorite arguments, climate change.
Let me set the stage for you. We were at a public talk on astronomy; the lecture was going well, proving to be both informative and engaging, when the speaker threw out a passing comment questioning the legitimacy of climate change. At first the audience was a bit surprised at the seemingly off topic tangent, then one after another a number started questioning the logic behind the speaker’s claim. The conversation got pretty intense, and I have to admit, I was thrilled to listen to all the arguments defending the existence of climate change.
The speaker’s point seemed to be, at first, that while climate change was undeniably occurring it had yet to be fully proven that humanity was the cause. This assumption is something that is, frustratingly, encouraged by the media’s portrayal of climate change. In an attempt to create suspense and the dramatic conflict often needed to retain audience attention, journalists will present both sides of an argument as equally valid, even if – as in the case of climate change – one has far more scientific data supporting its claims. › Continue reading
Green Blogs and the Nature of Blogging
image: flickr user HeavenlyCabins
So I’ve been reading a lot of blogs lately, partly in research for these posts, and partly out of interest of what people have to say about the green movement and living sustainably. It got me thinking about some things. First being how overwhelming the amount of information that is at the tips of our fingers is. Second being the question of the worth of that overabundance of information.
In reference to my first thought, if you can- try to think back to a time before the internet. A time before everyone’s opinions, however valid they might be, were being shouted from forums and blogs. A time when the information people received was either from word of mouth and therefore obviously based in opinion, or the newspaper, TV, and radio, all very controlled and filtered mediums usually firmly rooted in the journalistic ideal of neutrality and objectivity. Now think about the wealth of information readily available to anyone with access to the internet. It really is overwhelming. The news media have scrambled to up their output in order to remain competitive, thus the 24 hour news cycle was born. And since anyone who has access to the internet has a platform from which to inform others, we have the blogosphere. Anyone with an opinion (including this particular blogger) has access to more or less an instant audience. As most people are opinionated about something or other, you can understand why so much information is thrown around. Also worth considering is how the anonymity of the internet provides protection for those who might not otherwise speak up. Opinion, rather than objectivity, has become the norm of today’s communication stream, particularly in the realm of environmental issues (think about the ridiculous, continued debate over climate change). › Continue reading
