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The Joy Trip Project

Podcast / 25.10.2009

bill-mckibben2 If you’ve been watching television or checking your favorite web sites lately, you’ve noticed one number keeps popping up. On October 24rd in particular people around the world have been plastering the number 350 on billboards, marching with it on signs and performing physical stunts to share this number with as many people as possible. Groups numbering in the thousands have gathered across the U.S. and in many countries to spell out 350 on surfaces from grassy fields, to mountain summits, to the open ocean. Writer and environmental activist Bill McKibben says 350 is a number we all need to be aware of. "It’s the most important number in the world. It’s the amount of carbon, that’s measured in parts per million, that the scientists now say is the most we can have in the atmosphere and maintain the civilization that we now enjoy," McKibben said. "We’re past that number already. We need to get back to it. That’s why the stakes are so urgent."350_2
Commentary / 23.10.2009

Wolf

(London)

The National History Museum announced the winners of the 2009 Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the year awards. In this international competition of 43,135 entries Jose Luis Rodriguez of Spain took the top prize with his image The Storybook Wolf. Much maligned and feared throughout the western world as the villain of fairytales,   the wolf is an endangered species Rodriguez believes will be hunted into extinction if not better understood and appreciated.

Quote of the day / 23.10.2009

"Good and bad are too arbitrary. The value of philanthropy and other investments we make in our society need to be measured in terms of smart and dumb." Robert Egger ~ Philanthropist and founder of the DC Central Kitchen, author of Begging for Change: The Dollars and Sense of Making Nonprofits Responsive, Efficient, and Rewarding for All Profound statement Egger made following his address to donors and borrowers of Forward Community Investments, a Madison-based Community Development Financial Institution that lends money to nonprofits for strategic fiscal improvements...

Commentary, Mountain Film, Video / 20.10.2009

[youtube]vYGcIhNGSIY[/youtube]

This video appears on the Huffington Post accompanied by a story written by Sam Stein. In it monkey wrench prankster Andy Bichlbaum poses as an official of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at a meeting of the National Press Club. Claiming the Chamber had reconsidered its views on climate change Bichlbaum compelled a room full of reporters to ask tough questions about why the corporate interests of the country continue to resist legislation that might reverse negative human impact on the environment.

It was all an elaborate hoax. The idea was  to embarrass the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to do what many believe is the right thing: stop lobbying against The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. This bill proposed by Senators John Kerry and Barbara Boxer aims to curb industrial pollution while creating green collar jobs in the production of renewable energy. Apparently Bichlbaum wanted to point out that the Chamber of Commerce is one of the bill's leading opponents.

[caption id="attachment_1480" align="alignright" width="354" caption="Andy Bichlbaum at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival"]Andy Bichlbaum at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival[/caption]

Cycling, Outdoor Recreation, Quote of the day / 19.10.2009

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” Calvin Coolidge ~ (30th President of the United States, 1872-1933) Photo by James Edward Mills...