Neil Young on How to Save the Auto Industry

Neil Young (yes, that Neil Young!) has penned a thought piece about the American auto industry's woes and how best to solve them. He writes, "We need visionary people now with business sense to create automobiles that do not contribute to global warming." And then he goes on to detail his plan.

Young, a long-time environmental advocate in addition to being one of the most enduring musicians from the 1960s, is the driving force behind Lincvolt, an effort "to turn a nearly 20-foot-long, 5,000-pound 1959 Lincoln Continental into a vehicle that will run on natural gas, electricity or some other form of clean energy. His aim is to win the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, a $10 million challenge to develop a vehicle that can get 100 miles per gallon or better by 2009." Lincvolt even has its own Youtube channel.

I wholeheartedly agree with Young that this moment cries out for bold, visionary solutions to the problems we confront:  on the economy, on the environment, on health care, on education, on foreign policy, etc.  This is the primary difference between the Clinton Democratic moment in 1992 and the Obama moment in 2008.  In 1992, embattled by a rising conservatism, the best the Dems could hope for was a Republican lite version of Democratic politics.  In 2008, though, there seems to be real opportunity to think big and throw long.  I suspect this will ultimately be the measure of Obama's administration:  the degree to which he seizes the historical moment, takes some risks, and goes the visionary route...  or the degree to which he misses the moment by being overly cautious and halting in his reform agenda.

What do you think?

Imagine What Comes After "Green"

The folks over at World Changing have posted a very interesting piece about what it will really take to make the environmental changes necessary to stem the destructiveness of our current way of living and get to a more balanced and sustainable model of existence. The essay is interactive and the authors want your ideas!

Here is how the article begins,

The greatest opportunity of our generation: that's what could be waiting for us, after we leave "green" behind. Saving the biosphere and spreading sustainable prosperity is going to take a lot more than doing things in a more environmentally-conscious manner; it's going to demand we remake much of our material civilization.

And that's good news. It frees us up to think in really new ways, to innovate, to create, to re-invent. Our day is almost defined by the exploding number of people who have access to tools and models and ways of thinking that were previously rare or expert or unimagined. If we live in an age of stark ecological limits, we also live in an age of widespread potential innovation.

We can see on the horizon the silhouette of something incredibly hopeful and exciting: a world of people whose boundless creativity within natural limits uplifts humanity and remakes civilization to be first sustainable, even restorative. This crisis could end up being the greatest opportunity of our generation.

In this work, though, we have two enemies: time and outdated thinking.

We must go fast now. We have possibilities today that we'll lose with every passing year, and the tipping points loom ahead: beyond those, only disaster awaits...

... we also think that this is a moment when we all need many more people iterating their ideas for real change. So, as a starter for that kind of conversation, we're holding a little collaborative challenge.

The idea is simple: share, in words, images or sounds, your idea for the end of some outdated aspect of contemporary society and its replacement with a better way of doing things. Start with the phrase, "Imagine no..."

Then put a link to your entry (or the text itself) in the comments below.

The best examples we know about in two weeks will get prominent coverage here on Worldchanging, and we have some swanky prizes for the folks who do the best job...

Here are a couple of the ideas they came up with as examples:

Imagine no garbage cans. Imagine recycling everything that comes through your door. It's not a pipe dream. With a new generation of zero-waste approaches, cities are building systems where everything you buy is designed to be recycled, composted, or disassembled and reused. Instead of being thrown away, materials flow again and again through closed loops. This process saves huge amounts of resources and energy, reduces toxics and creates jobs. So next time you're taking out the trash, imagine what the world would look like without it. Imagine no garbage cans.

Imagine no warning labels. Imagine bringing nothing into your home that isn't safe for you, your children or your pets. It's not a pipe dream. With ideas like non-toxic production and green chemistry we could eliminate the use of chemicals now feared to cause cancer, birth defects and reproductive problems, and remove them from our homes and ecosystems. Scientists have already developed safe non-toxic alternatives for hundreds of once questionable products, from kitchen cleaners to baby toys. So the next time you go to the market, imagine not needing to read the fine print. Imagine no warning labels.

Imagine no smokestacks. Imagine a world where all our energy comes from clean and renewable sources like wind, solar and hydro power; and where we produce no excess greenhouse gas emissions. It's not a pipe dream. Already, countries like New Zealand, Germany and Sweden are planning ways to make their economies carbon neutral within the next few decades--and we could do it here. We could run everything from our factories to our cars on climate-friendly clean energy. So the next time you go through an industrial area, imagine breathing fresh, clean air. Imagine no smokestacks.

Imagine no air conditioners. Imagine living in a home heated only by the sun and cooled only by the breeze. It's not a pipe dream. With green building techniques and innovative design we can build houses that are warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer, and that use almost no energy at all. Better still, these homes are healthier, more comfortable and less expensive. So the next time you reach for the thermostat, imagine living in a home that doesn't need one. Imagine no air conditioning.

Imagine no sidewalks. Imagine living in a compact community where people own the streets; where kids play, friends sit sipping coffee and cars move slowly when they move at all. It's not a pipe dream. In cities around the world, good design is producing vibrant, compact urban neighborhoods where streets are used as public living rooms and life without a car is made easy. So the next time you're waiting to cross a busy street, imagine a city where people, not cars, come first. Imagine no sidewalks.

Imagine no sprawl. Imagine, instead of a long drive past strip malls and subdivisions, stopping for coffee on your walk to work, or enjoying a magazine while riding light rail through neighborhoods brimming with character and activity. It's not a pipe dream. Cities around the world are creating public transit systems that are efficient, comfortable and simple to use. Smart growth policies preserve local farms and forests, while cutting both commute times and greenhouse gases. So the next time you find yourself lost in suburbia, imagine a different American Dream. Imagine no sprawl.

And there are lots more ideas at the site...

Intrigued?

Everyone should read this essay, discuss it, post some ideas. So, check it out and send the link on to five people you know...

What do you think? What comes after "green"?

Here are a few other good articles from World Changing on the environment:

• Alex Steffen and Julia Steinberger, "The Problem With Big Green"

• Alex Steffen, "Al Gore, Clean Energy and a Better Nation"

• Kathryn Cooper, "Human Ingenuity at the World Wind Energy Summit"

• Here is their archive of Earth-related stories...

The revolution is NOW.

David Gallo - Underwater Astonishments

More "inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers" over at TED:

A pioneer in ocean exploration, David Gallo is an enthusiastic ambassador between the sea and those of us on dry land. In this brief talk, Gallo shows jaw-dropping footage of amazing sea creatures, including a color-shifting cuttlefish, a perfectly camouflaged octopus, and a Times Square's worth of neon light displays from fish who live in the blackest depths of the ocean. Check it out:



Any thoughts?

Jeff Han: Unveiling the genius of multi-touch interface design

This is really cool! Jeff Han shows off a cheap, scalable multi-touch and pressure-sensitive computer screen interface that may spell the end of point-and-click:

Learning to Love You More

A few years back, I went to see "Me and You and Everyone We Know," the sweet and touching indy film written, directed and starring artist Miranda July. I really enjoyed the way the characters in the film were reaching for human connections and the overall strange etherealness that pervades July's narrative style.

... intrigued by the fact that she was an artist who became a filmmaker, I visited her website, which then led me to an ongoing web-based project that she and fellow-artist Harrell Fletcher are doing called, Learning to Love You More. Here's how they explain themselves:

Learning to Love You More is both a web site and series of non-web presentations comprised of work made by the general public in response to assignments given by artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. Yuri Ono designs and manages the web site.

Participants accept an assignment, complete it by following the simple but specific instructions, send in the required report (photograph, text, video, etc), and see their work posted on-line. Like a recipe, meditation practice, or familiar song, the prescriptive nature of these assignments is intended to guide people towards their own experience.

Since Learning To Love You More is also an ever-changing series of exhibitions, screenings and radio broadcasts presented all over the world, participant's documentation is also their submission for possible inclusion in one of these presentations. Past presentations have taken place at venues that include The Whitney Museum in NYC, Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, Aurora Picture Show in Houston, TX, The Seattle Art Museum in Seattle, WA, the Wattis Institute in San Francisco CA, among others.

Since LTLYM inception in 2002 over 5000 people have participated in the project.

Sounds cool, doesn't it?

Here are a few of the many "assignments":

• Make an educational public plaque.
• Draw the news.
• Give advice to yourself in the past.
• Make an exhibition of the art in your parent's house.
• Take a picture of your parents kissing.
• Recreate a poster you had as a teenager.
• Curate an artist's retrospective in a public place.
• Grow a garden in an unexpected spot.
• Recreate the moment after a crime.
• Take a picture of strangers holding hands.

The site has a way of simultaneously uplifting and unsettling... Check it out (and do an assignment or two while you're at it):
Learning to Love You More