Our human environment: street people

Here in Vancouver we have a big sustainability problem: we don't sustain interest in some people.

My current gig has me sitting at a desk sits across from a subsidized housing high rise, that is full of skid row-ers. Sounds like a value judgement, and it is. It's also quantifiable: I count 54 windows, and not ONE has curtains on it. Pieces of plywood, towels, plants, flags and signs, sure. There are 2 sets of broken looking blinds, but no curtains.

People who live here have almost no foundation to stand on. Prematurely over the hill. Mentally ill, no job, addicted, in many cases, friendless. Crippled, with very little ability to muster restraint. At least they have a place to live. If they look out now, they can see this guy who's in front of a large flat screen and is getting well paid to tap on a computer - me.

There's a guy that I've been watching on the 5th floor who seems to never wear a shirt. When it's sunny he comes up to the window and presses his big white gut against it. There's a flip up window at eye height; and he sniffs at it like a hamster, and puffs on a cigarette. At first the sight of him repulsed me. But now, as I see him doing this more and more, thoughts change.

The fact is, the sun is out and he's pressing himself up against the glass. No one is different, our children are the same. Pressing themselves against the glass, moving towards God.


(cartoon by gapingvoid)

Tools for choice

Elections. In the US there are 2 parties, and the enviro choice is obvious.

In Canada, we are having an election too. Here, with multiple parties, there is only one republican-type party, and lots of greener parties where the vote gets split. So there is a potential for a very unrepresentative right wing majority.

This very handy tool is up, helping enviro types vote strategically - if they like.

Find your riding on the map, see the recent polls, and make a call. Great stuff. Got to love what some people do with the Internet.

Social Capital Value Add

Torontonian Michael Cayley wrote me a nice note of encouragement on my changethis proposal. In fact, quite a few nice people have contacted me about it. A hidden bonus to all this.

A few months ago, it was Michael who had a changethis proposal; now it is no. 5 on the current changethis manifesto list. Go Michael.

BTW I have a few words from Michael's piece attached to my desktop, as I type. All about the memetic brand Vs the symbolic brand. A very well researched, good read.

The end point of my changethis adventure will, hopefully, be an ebook like Michael's - which can be downloaded on changethis or by visiting his site. Click here to get there, or click on the big yellow brick road image.

Adventures in mind pollution

I am experiencing what, after all, my Changethis proposal is about: trying to signal a message without spamming people.
I want to show people this proposal; if people think it's worthwhile they will vote, and it will get made. That is the theory.
In practice, how the site measures 'people think it's worthwhile' is by counting votes. Which is to a large extent a function of one's networking position. So far The Advent of the Biodegradable Brand, which started at number 1 of 20, is number 3. The current vote leader, according to Fast Company, has an email newsletter that reaches 7,000 people each month. Wow. I admit this has me twitching a little, and I catch myself reaching for the "spam" button.

The advent of the biodegradable brand

ChangeThis.com has posted my proposal [link expired] that's tentatively titled: "Fifty years after Boorstin and Warhol: the Advent of the Biodegradable brand."

It looks at green economics and social media, and considers the sustainability of persistent brand footprints - the modern versions of Warhol's soup cans. The point? - my buy-in to these brand images results in enhanced and persistent rise in self esteem: that is the point the brand builders were trying to achieve. But this new identity actually displaces my relationship to the environment. Green branding then, causes a conflict, and may be the most fundamental type of greenwashing of all.

"I park my low impact branded vehicle and go for the best brand name Free Trade cappuccino but don't connect much. I walk up to the QSR rep and blithely give my order. As I pull out my macbook pro, my brand alignment is deeper than I think. In fact, I may be unwittingly living in a brand cocoon. I feel good about myself, and I dont notice that the 'bag lady' across the street is actually in tears."

Green Business Expo - wow

Got all enthused, on the day I put my gas car powered on the market, and went to the Green Business Expo put on by Frogfile.

Yup, gonna get a used electric moped. Not because I'm doing my part, or any of that hooey. But because whether the oil companies have ruined oil for me, or whether the science has hit home or what, Im sick of the car body and the gas engine and all the stuff that goes with it.SICK - of -it.




And yup those are our Ecobitz cartoons that Gil and Co. used. .