Throughout the years Root Concepts has traveled to a number of green events to provide coverage and report on the latest developments, speakers and ideas in the sustainability space. Last year we covered SolFest 2007. We ventured an hour north again, to enjoy the 13th annual SolFest in Hopland, California.

SolFest really is like no other event going. An outgrowth of the Solar Living Institute, SolFest, now in its 13th year, is an opportunity to learn about the benefits, possibilities and innovations of living off the power grid, and to see technologies in action. Like most non-profits, the Solar Living Institutes relies on fund raising to make it go. SolFest has proved an excellent way to spread the word, provide practical solutions, and garner a huge outpouring of volunteerism and passion for solar energy and its potential as an alternative to our dependence on petroleum.

Speaking with executive director, Lindsay Dailey , one gets the sense that the time is now for the ideas that have spawned this event. The solar segment of the market has been growing at a rate of 30 to 50% year over year. The industry actually needs qualified professionals to staff the demand for its products and services. This is where it starts to get interesting with regards to the mandate the 501(c)(3) has set out for itself: to serve the greater community.

Dailey says that as they started to look around to the people The Solar Institute was serving, there was a definite lack of color and economic diversity within its community. In order to truly be sustainable, they had to serve a greater segment. They looked to Richmond, California, where the crime rate, unemployment rate, and need for an infusion of real problem solving is highest.

Solar Richmond is an ambitious idea whose time has come. The mandate is simple and straightforward:

Our mission is to promote and inspire the use of solar power and energy efficiency in order to bring the economic benefits of the green economy to Richmond. We serve the community through solar installation training, educating a new “green-collar” workforce and opening doors to employment.Our mission is to promote and inspire the use of solar power and energy efficiency in order to bring the economic benefits of the green economy to Richmond. We serve the community through solar installation training, educating a new “green-collar” workforce and opening doors to employment. Our goals -

100 new green-collar jobs,

50 solar installations for low-income homeowners by 2010

5 megawatts of solar electric power installed in Richmond by 2010

Solar Richmond  - up on the roof!

The results are promising and inspiring: an urban solution from nature, and the Solar Living Institute. More of these types are programs are needed to bring real diversity to the green economy, jobs to segments currently lacking employment, and a future to the spreading of these concepts and ideas to communities outside the “green bubble”.

Bravo, to Solar Living Institute, Solar Richmond and the SolFest for spreading it around.

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“Lake Michigan is like a giant bathtub with a really, really slow drain and a dripping faucet, so the toxics build up over time,” said Emily Green, director of the Great Lakes program for the Sierra Club.

Despite this knowledge, an Indiana refinery of the global petroleum giant, BP, has been given a permit to continue to dump mercury into Lake Michigan. The permit overrides an existing limit of 1.3 ounces per year on mercury discharges into the Great Lakes. BP will be allowed to continue their practice of dumping 3 pounds of mercury through surface water discharges as it has been since 2002, according to the Toxics Release Inventory, an EPA datebase on pollution emissions. The permit, which accompanies the plant’s $3.8 billion expansion, gives BP until at least 2012 to meet the federal standard.

“With one permit, this company and this state are undoing years of work to keep pollution out of our Great Lakes,” said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., co-sponsor of a resolution overwhelmingly approved by the House last week that condemned BP’s plans.

This lack of corporate responsibility brings to mind the mercury poisoning of the Japanese fishing village of Minamata in the 1950’s. The outcome was tragic as the town was poisoned by mercury from industrial pollution created by the town’s main employer, the Chisso Corporation. The plight became known as Minamata Disease for its devastating effects on the entire population., and was famously documented by Life photographer Eugene Smith who, with his wife, Aileen, lived in Minamata for many years.

It seems neither pervasive environmental awareness, nor the regulations designed to “protect” our resources are strong enough to deter the circumnavigation of this knowledge. It is disturbing to recall the images of a time only a few decades previous, but perhaps in the end, a picture is worth a thousand words.

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The film opens with an abstract shadow moving across the surface of an ocean. We quickly realize that it belongs to a cargo plane soaring like a steel raptor towards the country of Tanzania, its empty belly to soon be filled by it’s bounty

The narrative begins with focus on a giant fish, the Nile Perch that has taken over the central African great lakes, a result of a single deposit made by a lone individual some 25 years earlier. This phenomenon has created an international fishing industry, while also decimating the native fish population. One is initially led to believe that the Darwinian nightmare the filmmaker Hubert Sauper is alluding to, is regarding evolutionary biology. The genesis of this incident is never fully explained. Instead we are taken deeply into the social Darwinism embodied by the relationship between a struggling 3rd world African economy beholden to the world bank and the IMF.

Here we have a film that is part poetic essay, part cinema verite documentary on the brutal inequities of modern capitalism. The intimacy with which Saupert presents us his human subjects is the key to the film’s success in delivering this message. In fact Saupert is rarely heard from at all, there are no 3rd person voiceovers calling us to action amidst the sensational imagery of war and famine. But there are numerous heartrending portrayals of individuals, both European and African, caught in its web. The luminous, and at times, terrifiying eyes of Raphael, the night watchmen/fisherman/guide, the abandoned children of the Mwanza streets, the dreams of a prostitute who we later learn was killed by one of her pilot johns. We experience up close the humanity of a people, which begs us to question why members of our own species are condemned to live under conditions we would find intolerable through the economic systems we support.

The DVD edition features an in-depth interview with the director, and Sauper speaks eloquently about his view on the social Darwinism portrayed in his film. Darwin was absolutely correct in his observation of natural systems of selection. i.e. the survival of the fittest, but when this observation becomes a paradigm wielded by humans toward humans, the result is fascism.

If you want to be challenged, emotionally affected, educated on a personal level about the ongoing tragedy(ies) in Africa, or are a fan of the films of Chris Marker or the Maysles Brothers, then you must see Darwin’s Nightmare.

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As we become more aware of the opportunities to make greener choices, it is important to remember that the first step towards sustainability is not just consuming green products, but reducing our consumption altogether.

The 3 Rs - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - only go so far in creating sustainable thinking. Anticipating what this catch phrase actually means is a preliminary step in working daily towards sustainability. What we might consider is thinking about our usage in general, while creating strategies to accomplish the 3 Rs. Waste management experts refer to this as Re-Think.

An article at Inhabitat called our attention to the Dutch studio Volksware Meterware Shop that breathes new life into rejected goods, emphasizing the degree to which consumption of brands and products by consumers creates opportunities to recreate. Two of their many projects illustrate the point in a fascinating way.

Discarded tables are assembled to form a seemingly infinitely long table. When a customer requests a “new” table, a piece is cut to individual specs, and each section takes on a new image as an original table.

In another example of Volksware’s re-thinking, the effects of the oversupply and mass production of fashion and clothing products is brought into question, at the same time offering a new use for existing goods in a by-the-meter carpet (see image above).

Artists working with this thinking, show us that creating something new does not always mean creating a bigger footprint. By reusing source material, they actually reduce the need for new production, and recycle ideas to create new materials and products.

In essence, re-thinking green.

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Looking out at the golden hills of California reminds me of the long dry summer ahead. Water usage increases and conservation of this valuable resource becomes critical. According to the EPA the average American uses 140 to 160 gallons of water per day. The Sonoma County Water Agency is seeking mandatory water conservation of fifteen percent from its contractors, including cities and water districts in its service area, as well as from residents, businesses, and the agricultural community in Sonoma, Marin and Mendocino counties, according to a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Mandates such as these are important reminders, however it is essential that individuals are aware of their daily impact and follow conservation tips such as the ones found here. As you practice turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth and watering your lawn at dusk check out this green site offering more responsible conservation tips.

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In these days of green posturing and the political correctness that the word, sustainability conjures, comes this unabashed article on the usefulness of some of the new ecochic products proliferating. Evan and Freda Eisenberg bring an east coast sensibility to their review, and in the process remind us that true sustainability is about buying less, and thinking about what we really need.

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From Treehugger comes a post about an internal memo from Google entitled “Big Goals and Directions
” that was recently leaked to the public. Amongst promises to expand advertising revenue another billion dollars, and to control spam in 20 different languages, Google also expounded on plans to increase its green power consumption to ten megawatts in the short term, and sees that as a step toward complete carbon neutrality.

Google searches stored copies of the entire internet millions of times daily, the hardware required to perform that amazing feat is not trivial. Google operates some 50,000 servers, each one consuming a good deal of power. Google has recently warned that the power consumed by servers is soon going to cost more than the machines themselves.

Estimates of Google’s power consumption lie in the 20 to 30 megawatt range, so 10 megawatts of green energy is not an insignificant step toward carbon neutrality. Already, Google has 2 megawatts of solar online to help power its Mountain Valley complex, the Googleplex.

Where will the other eight megawatts come from? We’re still waiting to see.

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It is the goal of charity: water to not only provide safe water to those in need, but to do so through projects that involve the communities they serve in the process. Charity seeks out projects that include the installation of freshwater systems, as well as the formation and training of local water committees with the know- how to maintain the systems themselves.

Buy a virtual bottle of water for $20 and provide clean water to someone who needs it for 15 years. Buy a case for $480 and help provide the infrastructure to produce the equivalent of more than 13 million 16.9 oz. bottles of water in Africa. Thanks to Daily Candy for the heads up.

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The rate and magnitude of China’s emergence in the 21st century as a world power is unprecedented. Ted C. Fishman, author of China, Inc., will examine the global implications of China’s rapid growth, and will discuss how China is changing, and how China is changing the world on Monday, December 4, 2006 at 7:00 pm at Memorial Auditorium, Stanford University. Check out Zvents for directions and details.

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