Get ready for YERT: The Film. We’re knee deep in the creation of a feature film based on our eco-adventures in every state of the USA, and this little trailer is the first real glimpse into what it’ll be like. We’re shooting for Sundance, so spread the word to all of your friends and family – we want this trailer to travel around the world.
More from Yert: www.yert.com
[pro-player]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb1ohS8buws[/pro-player]
Humans frequently assume that we are the architects of biological change, rather than mere participants. Genetic mapping and engineering do paint a compelling picture of us in the genetic driver’s seat. But what if we’re manipulated by the very agents we believe we’re manipulating? What if, for example, in our attempts to create a more cold-tolerant tomato, we’re unconsciously fulfilling the tomato’s desire to expand the environment in which it thrives? It’s discomforting – some would say, ridiculous – to think of ourselves as haplessly duped marionettes in an elaborate drama manipulated by the omniscient tomato – especially when things like consciousness and desire are not frequently listed among the tomato’s better-known traits.
And yet it cannot be denied that the tomato has achieved a depth of genetic diversity and breadth of distribution that it may never had known, had it not appealed to a specific set of human desires. In making itself so delicious (entire cuisines are built upon it), nutritious (rich in lycopene and Vitamins A & C), and easy to preserve (thanks to high acid content) it earned a free boat ride from the New World back to the European mainland, where it proceeded to re-write culinary history. Thus did a lowly, spindly member of the sometimes-poisonous nightshade family manage to effectively put human legs and boats and farmers to work for it, moving it from its original western Andean home to farms and backyard gardens around the world.
We have grown accustomed to the idea of measuring the environmental impacts of our consciously chosen actions. We’ve come to see that many of our choices have unintended environmental consequences, many of them harmful. But what about those unconscious choices that have sprung from pure desire, whether it be a desire for control, for taste, for intoxication, or even the simple desire . . .
. . . for beauty? And what about the unintended positive effects of those actions? Is ours the only set of desires acting to orchestrate the rhythms of our world?
[pro-player]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdXOeWMwX-4&feature=player_embedded[/pro-player]
There is a world of life that indeed responds to our desires; and in doing so, fulfills desires of its own. Such is the premise and on which Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World is built. One of his earlier books, The Botany of Desire uses four separate plants to make the case that humans have been exploited by these species to advance a decidedly non-anthropocentric genetic agenda. The four plants examined are tulips, potatoes, apples, and marijuana – crops that have, genetically speaking, become wildly successful based on their appeal to human desires for beauty, control, sweetness, and intoxication, respectively.
Pollan’s is an investigation whose premise is now (pardon the pun) ripe for exploration. And it’s the focus of a striking new PBS production that is set to air Wednesday, October 28th. In pursuing his inquiry from such an angle, Pollan highlights the unexpectedly intricate relationships humans have established with the natural world at a time when we can better appreciate the beauty of how little control we actually have over nature.
Source obtained from: www.thecleanestline.com.
Also check out Michael Pollan’s site: www.michaelpollan.com.
A few weeks ago, I asked readers, “If a friend decided they wanted to do something about the environment, how would you tell him or her to start?”
So just in case you or a friend wants to start, here are 50 of the answers, in no particular order and boiled down to their essence. You can read the full versions here and follow the included links for further explanation (and thanks so much to all who contributed):
Source obtained from No Impact Man
Even Al Gore had to fight to put solar panels on the roof of his house, taking extra time, money, and a lot of abuse from the right whiners. In fact there are all kinds of zoning bylaws, condo rules, homeowners associations and even building code rules that make it harder to go green. In Arizona, with 300 days of sun per year, they just passed legislation to prevent homeowners associations from stopping solar panel installation. Illinois state Democratic Rep. Karen May, a sponsor of a “solar rights bill” says “If you’re going to have local governments and condo associations saying, ‘Solar panels are ugly,’ that’s a real stumbling block.”
USA Today tells of one family that wanted to outfit their roof with solar panels. The local homeowners association, the Burke Centre Conservancy, was “flat-out against it” because of worries about how it would look, James Draheim says. His reaction: “You’ve got this energy just falling on your property and you’re not allowed to use it because of aesthetics?”
Now eight states have “solar rights” laws to prevent lower levels of government from restricting the installation of solar power. But even in California, the first state to have such a rule, people are still fighting with buildings departments. Although the law says that local officials can only look at “health and safety” issues, planners in Pismo Beach say that nothing in the rules prevents the City from imposing height limits on solar installations.
In much of the world, every house has a solar water heater; here they are hard to find. No doubt if you went to install one, the local zoning examiner would question its height, the structural examiner would want a load calculation, the plumbing examiner would demand endless calculations and a separate conventional heater just in case the sun went out.
Big Step in Building: Let’s have national regulations that remove all restrictions and covenants limiting the installation of solar hot water and photovoltaic systems from housing. ::USA Today
Source obtained from Treehugger
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