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Rethinking Drivers' Ed
In the United States, getting your drivers' license a rite of passage for many teens, marking your first taste of independence. We're a car-obsessed culture, and the fact that many teens spend hours and hours in drivers' education courses preparing to get behind the wheel reflects that. But what if instead of learning to drive a car, American students learned how to use the full-scope of transportation options? If mobility education advocate David Levinger has his way, that's exactly what teens would be learning rather than placing all the emphasis on automobiles.
"The drivers license has become the American coming of age ritual," says Levinger, a Seattle native and the director of the Mobility Education Foundation. "This is very important transition point. You're increasing the demand for and reliance upon driving at the same time you're teaching kids to drive."
Levinger founded the Mobility Education Foundation in May 2007 to promote the idea that high school students should be taught how to get around safely and efficiently using a variety of transportation options. Under the model he has proposed, students would learn about walking, biking, and using public transportation in these courses as well, and the financial and health benefits of alternative modes of transport.
"By being able to use the full transportation system, you can save a lot of money, and also extend your ability to travel and really increase your mobility," says Levinger.
Americans spend an average $8,000 a year to own and operate a car, a huge financial burden that many young people aren't prepared to take on. Reliance upon the automobile also sets young people up for a lifetime behind the wheel, an unhealthy habit. The average adult spends an hour and a half in the car each day , and according a study conducted by the University of British Columbia, every 30 minutes spent in a car per day is linked with a 3 percent increase in the risk of obesity. Biking or walking also makes you healthier, which means you'll spend less money on medical costs.
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Holidays, Minus the Junk
As the holidays draw neigh, you're once again forced to wrack your mind for yet another gift to give Uncle Bob and little Suzie in honor of your winter holiday of choice. But if the thought of exchanging more unnecessary crap while huddled around a dead conifer gives you the willies, here are some ideas that are easy, practical, and better for the world.
Get political. What beats an iPhone in your stocking? Why, electing politicians who don't want to bomb Iran, of course. Help make 2008 something really special with a donation in your loved one's name to a presidential or Congressional campaign.
Not really into electoral politics? You can make a donation to any number of great organizations, like Planned Parenthood, NARAL, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, NAACP, or Red Cross, to name a few. Just like to hear about what's going on in politics? Give to your favorite non-corporate news outlet like PBS, NPR, or a non-profit publication.
Share an experience. Chances are Grandma has already forgotten about that foot massager you bought her last year. But she might actually remember hanging out with you this holiday season, whether that's spent rocking out at a death metal show, whale-watching, or taking a road trip to see the world's largest bottle of ketchup. Depending on what your grandmother's into, of course.
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Sexify your mug
This post originally appeared on Gristmill.
It's about cups. Sexy, sexy cups. Well, actually it's about getting college students thinking about the planet and about changing their personal habits. But the "sexy" sure doesn't hurt.
The University of Washington's Young Democrats club launched a Sustainability is Sexy campaign this month to encourage students to bring their own cups to the campus's coffee shops. And their sexy slogan is popping up all over campus on shirts, buttons, stickers, and posters -- where organizers hope it will remind students that thinking about your environmental impact is totally hott.
The posters feature a red-lipsticked mouth preparing to gulp some steamy coffee. The shirts are the well-tailored, hip American-Apparel type, with those luscious lips marking a coffee cup.
"You think of sustainability and you don't think of sexy right away," said Elliot Helmbrecht, UW Young Dems executive for legislative and political affairs. "So this catches your eye."
Sex (well, at least the idea of it) has never really hurt a campaign. And that double consonant sound helps, too.
"They're bright; they're green and yellow; it says 'sexy' on them. People look at them," said Nicholas Fusso, UW student and chief financial officer for the Young Dems. "And we're talking about a bunch of college kids here. We're talking about a very specific demographic, and something with the word 'sexy' on it catches attention."
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Rufina Amaya, presente!
Twenty-five years ago, hundreds of civilians were slaughtered in one of the most atrocious massacres in modern Latin American history. The story of the Massacre at El Mozote, in El Salvador's Morazon region, came to light mostly because of the testimony and strength of one remarkable woman, Rufina Amaya.
On Dec. 11, 1981, soldiers from the government's Atlacatl Battalion interrogated, tortured and executed everyone in the village -- men, women, children. None were spared but Amaya, who managed to sneak away. Her story was immortalized in several press accounts, and without it, the world would never have known of the massacre. She was known throughout the country as simply "Rufina," and her story spoke volumes of the experiences of the Salvadoran population in the 1980s as death squads terrorized peasants who would dare stand up to government oppression.
Rufina died this week of heart failure.
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You down with IPCC?
When I saw it on the front of USA Today the other morning, it was clear that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was going to get a lot of press -- even it if didn't say much that we didn't already know. Here's a handy 21-page summary if you can't find time to read the whole thousand-odd page report.
So now that we're all in agreement, can we start doing something about this?
All that is except for James Inhofe, who is quite happy slowing boiling away in his pot.
My Grist colleague Sarah Kraybill Burkhalter has a great breakdown of who and what the IPCC is here, and in my other bloggy incantation, I offer you 10 Small Things and One Huge One You Can Do About Global Warming, so this whole IPCC report can be a little less depressing.
Too much to Bear
The Coney Island Polar Bear Club staged a silent protest on Saturday, huddled (but not shivering) on the beach in Brooklyn as record temperatures were recorded in New York City and the surrounding region.
The high temperatures may lead to the cancellation of this year's round of nearly-naked nuts running into bodies of water.
It would be the first canceled season in the winter bathing club's 104 years.
Yesterday's high of 72 degrees in NYC tops the previous record of 63 degrees, set in the 1950s, according to the National Weather Service.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration, in stark contrast to years of climate change skepticism, has proposed adding the actual big, fuzzy, white polar bear to the Endangered Species List. Now, what are they going to do to actually protect the bear? Well, it’s easier to list than to achieve, friends.
And in other polar news, scientists have declared 2007 as the International Polar Year, in which researchers from 60 countries will attempt to better understand the effects of climate change on the Earth’s poles. It is the first time since the 1950s that this sort of in-depth study of the poles has taken place – and the first study of this sort in light of global climate change. “Close to 60 percent of what is known about the polar regions, particularly the Arctic, comes from research carried out in 1958," Louis Fortier, scientific director of ArcticNet, a Canadian research network on the Arctic, told Agence France-Presse. And this time, they’re actually collaborating with the folks who live in the Arctic!
Maybe you can get a free lunch.
Lots more I could write here, but any WireTap readers who also happen to be high school seniors interested in studying journalism, cinema, or television/radio in college should think about applying for the Park Scholarship to Ithaca College. It's a wonderful opportunity for young people tapped into community service, social justice, and media as a tool for change, to go to college for free. As in absolutely free -- tuition, room, board, books and a living stipend. You'll even get to study abroad! And it's made for people like you who care about important issues and want to use media for good rather than evil. The first part of the application is due by this Friday, so get on it! Questions? Drop a line.
Inconvenient indeed
Think public schools are funded only by public funds? Not quite. Check out Laurie David's article from Sunday's Washington Post, which details the National Science Teachers Association's (NSTA) rejection of 50,000 free copies of An Inconvenient Truth for use in science classes across the country. It's a little insight into other forces at work in education budgets, and therefore classrooms.
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My gift to you
Last weekend I was riding the King County Metro bus when a nice man who had recently moved to Seattle from Taiwan asked me to tell him about Thanksgiving. I started in about how we get together with people we love, engage in gluttony, etc., etc. And he said, "Uh, but I mean, what about the day after Thanksgiving? Tell me about the sales." At which point I realized I'd never been anywhere near a place of commerce on Black Friday. I grew up on a farm, and, well, we just don't like people or commerce enough to risk leaving the house.
But until this year, I'd never heard of any sort of organized ritual against the wanton post-T-day, pre-Christmas consumption holiday-related paraphernalia. Until someone told me about 'Buy Nothing Day.'"
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Waking second life
A few weeks back, I made reference to Google attempting to tap into the powers of YouTube in order to reach a fuller potential of online social networking. This week, while trawling around, I found this somewhat creepy yet also utterly captivating piece in the New York Times about some of the potential directions the web might go. And though I find online programs like Second Life and Teen Second Life to be evidence of the privileged portion of society growing ever more myopic, this Times article alludes to some real, exciting possibilities in evolutions of the internet. An example:
But in the future, more powerful systems could act as personal advisers in areas as diverse as financial planning, with an intelligent system mapping out a retirement plan for a couple, for instance, or educational consulting, with the Web helping a high school student identify the right college.
Simply put, one day the web could actually let us share human knowledge with the depth and intuition of actual humans. What right now is a somewhat loosely arranged bunch of information, or a series of tubes, if you prefer, might one day be smart -- smart enough to plan a vacation or answer direct questions even. Right now I'm all ooohy and ahhhy over this, but my next post will delve into some of the potential ramifications of these developments.
Election Results: Good News for Environment
Green hearts are all a-flutter over last night's elections. Not all good news on the environment front, but plenty of it at least.
Dems took the House, the Senate is in the very least in a deadlock, and voters decided in favor of the environment on several ballot initiatives. Though voters in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon and South Carolina voted in favor of takings and eminent domain initiatives, and Californians voted against taxing oil to raise funds for renewable energy, yesterday's elections were overwhelmingly eco-friendly.
In Washington State, the odious "takings initiative" ballot measure 933 failed by a comfortable 15 percent margin. The initiative to require the state's utilities to increase the amount of renewable resources in their supply systems passed, and voters soundly re-elected environment-crusading Senator Maria Cantwell.
In California, voters rejected Proposition 90, the eminent domain legislation that would have wounded land-use regulation. Fifty-four percent of voters there also approved Proposition 84: The Clean Water, Parks, and Coastal Protection Bond, which will put $5.4. billion toward water projects, land conservation and habitat preservation. But they rejected the oil tax ballot initiative that would have raised up to $4 billion for research and development of renewable fuels. Prop. 87 aimed to reduce petroleum consumption in the state by 25 percent by 2017, but thanks in no small part to the $100 million the oil industry pumped into the anti-87 campaign.
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Pre-election Watch: Environment
As we all await the results of Tuesday's elections with anxious anticipation, it's hard not to concentrate solely on the House and Senate races, the Big Deal this Nov. 7. For me it could be the first time America strikes any sort of partisan parity in our representative bodies since I've been of voting age, and it could be the first time my post-election hangover is anything but morose.
But beyond the Big Deal elections, there are some smaller decisions posed to voters around the country this year, decisions that will have much larger effects for how we live our lives. A slew of environmental ballot initiatives, as well as some state and local campaigns, are asking voters to weigh in on global climate change, alternative energy, and land use this year. This election could mark the first time that environmental issues are pivotal in the nation's polling places, with any luck signaling the beginning of an era where local politics and politicians can no longer afford to ignore the realities of climate change.
The most-talked about ballot initiatives are where else but California. Say what you will about their still-humorous-three-years-later governor, but California is leading the country in cleaning up the environment. This year, voters are asked to make three major decisions that will guide the state's environmental policies. If approved, Proposition 84: The Clean Water, Parks, and Coastal Protection Bond, will put $5.4 billion to protecting water quality and natural resources in the state. Currently, funding for programs like these has fallen to less than 1 percent of the state's budget. The funding would support infrastructure to protect water sources, maintain parks and bodies of water -- including the coastline. The proposition is supported by a number of big green groups -- including the National Resource Defense Council.
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YouTube pulls down Daily Show, Colbert Report, South Park
I can't resist returning this week with a little more on developments over at YouTube. This week's big news is what appears to be the beginning stages of a purge of copyrighted material, in this case at the request of Comedy Central.
YouTube was asked, and agreed, to begin taking down clips of Comedy Central material widely available on the site. This means farewell to all the Daily Show, Colbert Report and South Park bits that were part of the whole reason the site gained popularity in the first place.
According to the Washington Post, "YouTube said it plans to launch technology that will help it automatically identify copyrighted content."
In the same article, one YouTube user made this apt point:
"All the people who posted videos are volunteer marketers for Comedy Central," he said. "The network benefits from people talking about their programming, becoming the water-cooler chatter at the office. They've shot themselves in the foot."
The San Francisco Chronicle's culture blog bemoaned the move as a sign of YouTube's beginning slog toward irrelevance.
But is it? Many smart markets - Comedy Central not appearing to be among them - realize the value of this free marketing. Nike marketers have admitted to posting the companies ads on the site under more than one username, to increase the number of users they reach. And Pepsi is also tuned in to how to profit off this, launching their own branded channel via the site.
"By engaging with our consumers in these environments, we are strengthening the relevance of Pepsi Max to them," a Pepsi marketing exec in the U.K. told the press.
Also with an eye to the merits of YouTube are a number of campaign organizers for this year's mid-term elections. In many states, folks with usernames like "whitehouseforsenate" and "Cantwell2006" are posting their candidate's television advertisements on the site, as well as web-only advertisements - and giving expensive television spots new life in a free medium. A spin around the site makes distinguishing the hip campaigns from the not so hip ones a whole lot easier, and is good insight into who's tapped into youth culture and their consumption of media. I especially appreciate the ads of Nevada candidate Jack Carter - Jimmy's son - who doesn't look all that hip, but whose minimalist, straightforward ads are way more appealing the slampaigns we're all used to. Check out his web-only energy ad here or his wonderful "Thanks for the Add" MySpace video here.
Craigslist is not for sale, thank you.
In all the noise about YouTube selling to Google a few weeks back, you might have missed something that, to me, seems like almost bigger news. Granted, $1.65 billion to a few guys who look like the rest of us is a big stinking deal. And what will happen to YouTube in Google's hands may change the way we interact with this still-fledgling site.
But bigger news to me is that just days before Craigslist founder Craig Newmark pledged publicly that he would not sell to the shareholding suitors knocking on the doors of Web 2.0 - and it's really not ready to be dating anyway, thank you.
Craigslist will keep its minimalist, largely user-run flair, says Newmark. For a guy whose site is making newspaper classified editors cower in fear, he seems distinctly uninterested in any of the profit potential now cropping up in unlikely places.
"Who needs the money? We don't really care," Craig Newmark told Reuters. "If you're living comfortably, what's the point of having more?"
As for the folks at YouTube, their video about the purchase -- placed where else but on YouTube -- kinda made me hate them a little, whereas previously I'd applauded their pluck and foresight. And for what this means to the online networking sites and our own interactions with them as the web becomes more social, well, I guess we'll have to see.
More projections on the future of the social networking online and its (potential) profitability to come in the next weeks. For now, I have to go pick up a spice rack I just got off the Craigslist "Free" section. I love you, Craig.
The end of the world?
I’ve been reading the Left Behind books since a friend became obsessed with them earlier this year. He’d passed them onto another friend, and the two quickly became intoxicated with discussing the plot twists and horribly blatant religious proselytizing. More out of a desire to be in the loop than an actual interest in the subject matter, I began reading the series a little while back, following the lives of Buck and Rayford and all the other unsaved souls as they toil in the post-Rapture world.
Left Behind claims 60,000,000 sold on the cover of my copy of the first in the series. It’s been out for 10 years now, so it’s not like this is, well, news. But there’s something deeper here – perhaps.
Around the same time I started reading Left Behind, I began working at Grist, an online environmental magazine, where the prime focus is evading the end of the world not by religious salvation, but through making our political, social, and cultural realities more, well, environmental. After disclosing my Left Behind reading habit to my editor, she handed me Kim Stanley Robinson’s Forty Signs of Rain and Fifty Degrees Below.
The cover flap description starts with this:
"When the Arctic ice pack was first measured in the 1950s, it averaged thirty feet thick in midwinter. By the end of the century it was down to fifteen. One August the ice broke. The next year the break up started in July. The third year it began in May. That was last year."
Foreboding. Mysterious. The left’s Left Behind, it seems.
The books share little other than poor writing style and want of a good editor, but the more I got to thinking about the end of the world, the more it started coming up. I saw Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. Then you’ve got The Great Warming, narrated by Keanu Reeves and Alanis Morrisette (“Dude, it’s totally getting hot in here.” “You, you, you oughta know!”).
Over in TV land you’ve got Jericho on CBS with this premise:
"Things are quiet and peaceful in small-town Jericho, Kansas, but when a baffling explosion occurs in the distance, Jericho’s residents are plunged into social, psychological and physical chaos. No one knows what to think, and fear of the unknown takes over the town."
And on ABC Family Channel, there’s Three Moons Over Milford:
"All Milfordians can do is live for the moment. Seize the day. Make the most of every minute ... Earth’s days could be numbered, but if eveybody’s a little braver to do what’s in their hearts, then having three moons over Milford might just be the best thing that’s ever happened to them. (Unless, over course, the Earth explodes.)"
Seems like the apocalypse is the new black.
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