Even those of you with good, green intentions are being pretty much ineffective as you grope toward a hazy green mirage. Why? Your ecological intelligence—your knowledge of the real impacts of the things you buy and do—is pitifully low.
Daniel Goleman is the author of the mega best-selling Emotional Intelligence, a psychologist, and a New York Times science contributor. His newest book,
Ecological Intelligence, is a look behind the veil at the true cost of what we buy.
More of Goleman's in-depth conversations with his experts can he found
here.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
(Music from Casey Driessen)...
The
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is at work all over the world, but you’ll know
Paul Watson best for patrolling Arctic waters intercepting whaling convoys.
Whale Wars, now in its second season on Animal Planet, follows Watson and his feisty crew aboard the Steve Irwin as they ram boats, hurl stink bombs, and try to otherwise spoil the whale hunt. In the process, Watson claims he has been shot and his crew pummeled with fire hoses, golf balls, and high-tech sound cannons. All the while
the debate rages over whether this is
terrorism, piracy, or heroism.
In our interview, Watson gives details of these daring encounters and drops some details of the coming season when his fleet will add the
Earthrace, a record-breaking eco-speedboat, to directly intercept Japanese harpoon boats. Love him or hate him, Watson claims to be closing in on victory: “Our objective is to sink the Japanese whaling fleet economically, and I think we're achieving that. One more season, maybe two, and we'll put them out of business.”
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
Music from K'naan (Full text after the jump)...
After hosting This Old House for more than a decade, Steve Thomas is now your green building guide on Planet Green TV's
Renovation Nation. Steve shares with us some of the crazier things he's done on the show, talks about greenwashing in the industry, and elucidates his "five rings" of green building wisdom. He also lets us in on his plans for two exciting personal projects he's got in the works (don't tell his wife!).
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
Full text after the jump....
Norman Ollestad was eleven when the plane carrying him and three others, his father among them, collided with a blizzard-enshrouded mountain. After a nine hour descent, inching his way down frozen cliffs, he was the only survivor.
In Ollestad`s best-selling
Crazy for the Storm, he tells the story of the crash, cutting away each chaper to the many interactions with nature, like surfing and backcountry skiing, that he and his dare-devil father shared. In our interview, Ollestad tells us how the crash that shaped his life only brought him closer to the natural world.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
Full text after the jump. Music from Chris Scruggs....
Image via Saatchi and Saatchi S
Greenwashing, says Adam Werbach, has run its course and is on the verge of finally dying off. This message comes from the citadel of green marketing, Saatchi & Saatchi S, of which Werbach is now chief. The death of greenwashing comes with the rise of radical transparency: "either your become transparent or transparency will be done to you," says Werbach in our interview. This is the theme of his new book,
Strategy for Sustainability, Building Sustainable Businesses in Turbulent Times. He dissects this and more in the second part of our conversation.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
You can find part one of our interview with Adam
here....
Image via Saatchi and Saatchi S
Though “an organizer at heart,” Adam Werbach has become an iconoclast in environmental circles. Werbach got started young,
presiding over the Sierra Club when most people his age were unpaid interns. His “death of environmentalism” speech in ’06 emitted shockwaves (which he
spoke to us about in detail). But when he started
working for Wal-Mart, there were accusations of desertion. He is now leading the charge at
Saatchi and Saatchi S, the mega-marketing firm’s sustainability arm. According to Adam, the green bubble has popped and it’s time to meet people where they’re at. It’s time to get real.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download....
Zipcar has been a game changer, but Robin Chase is already on to other things. The next frontier in transportation is a smart network that has your car, iPhone, GPS, and other gizmos sharing chatter with streetlights, power utilities, your insurance company, and other cars. The result, hopes Chase, will be cities that are greener, smarter, and more efficient.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
Check out part one of our interview
here.
Music comes from
Nightmares on Wax.
...
To Robin Chase, parked cars and solo drivers just look like a great big mess of wasted capacity. It’s this kind of thinking that inspired her to start
Zipcar (now the world’s largest carsharing company), and
GoLoco, the
Facebook of ridesharing. It’s also the kind of thinking that got her invited to speak at
TED and put her on
TIME’s 100 list for 2009.
Chase took some time from her frenetic life to tell us about the birth of Zipcar, the progress of GoLoco, and where she’s headed next (hint: cars that talk to each other).
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
Music comes from
Nightmares on Wax.
Listen to part two of our interview
here.
Full text after the jump.
...
Image credit: Jeff Kravitz
With 80,000 people, America's biggest music fest is a colossus. But Bonnaroo keeps making good on its commitment to get greener each year. TreeHugger Radio chatted at length with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. who is calling people to civil disobedience in Appalachia to fight mountaintop mining. We also heard from director Robert Stone about his forthcoming
Earth Days documentary, and get a ukalele-accompanied song from Norweigan band Katzenjammer.
Also, check out our
on-the-ground coverage of the green and not so green, and see why
Andrew Bird no longer tops off with biodiesel.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
...
Nancy Gioia is a big wheel at Ford where she oversees sustainable transportation projects. In the second part of our chat, Gioia illuminates the future of diesels, Obama's new MPG standards, and the lackluster promise of the hydrogen highway. She also looks into the future at mobility in the mega city.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
Check out part one of our interview
here....
In the smoking ashes of Detroit, Ford Motor Company looks a lot like the last man standing, which could have great big implications for the green car race. Nancy Gioia heads up Ford’s Sustainable Mobility programs—she shares with TreeHugger how her company is charging into the world of
EVs, plug-ins,
hybrids,
clean diesels, and even some nice
company-sponsored hypermiling.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
Full text after the jump.
...
In the second part of our interview with the author of Eco Barons we learn about the redneck hippy-chick millionaire who started Burt's Bees, and explore the inner workings of Ted Turner (the largest individual landowner in the U.S.). We also hear Edward Humes' appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the Obama administration.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
Check out
part one here....
In the latest book from Pulitzer Prize-winning author
Edward Humes we meet an eccentric cast of “eco barons,” the moniker Humes has given to the new breed of maverick pro-planet crusaders. The troupe includes unsung and under-the-radar eco barons such as the founder of Esprit, a California pool cleaner turned climate czar, the father of the plug-in hybrid car, and even Ted Turner.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
...
Last week we heard about Saul Griffith's exhaustive personal energy cataloging and the resulting
WattzOn.com. In part two, Griffith talks about
Makani Power, his company that builds giant kites for capturing elusive, high-altitude gusts. He also shares his thoughts on the need for nuclear power and answers the question: "how scary is the world going to get?"
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
Check out part one
here....
After becoming a renewable energy entrepreneur (think massive kites), Saul Griffith started wondering about the greenness of his own life—so he started counting. The exercise became an exploration, which resulted in the website
WattzOn.com,
a powerful opensource tool for personal impact calculation. Using the
Embodied Energy Database, you can finally determine “the impact of wearing underwear versus taking holiday in Europe.” Griffith explains how WattzOn works (and how you can help perfect it), and why we miss the point when we obsess over carbon.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download....
Method cleaning products are the fitting accoutrement for the style and hygiene-minded ecophile. But Method is more than
boutique toilet bowl cleaners; it is booming into one of the great success stories of the new economy. Adam Lowry, with his business partner Eric Ryan, has reinvented his field (and made huge returns). Method is a certified B Corporation, its products bear the Cradle to Cradle seal, and renewable energy and upcycling are daily fare. Adam Lowry explains to TreeHugger what’s new in the lab, and divulges Method’s problem-solving motto:
“What would MacGyver do?”
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
Also check out our interview with
Jay Coen Gilbert, co-founder of B Lab.
Full text after the jump.
...
With his planes, helicopters, and other fuel-hungry pets, Dean Kamen admits that he takes a lot out of the world. This just means that, in keeping with his immigrant grandfather’s advice, he has to put more back in. In the second part of our conversation, Kamen shares his obsession with the Sterling engine, telling about the one rigged into his electric car, the ones stationed in Bangladeshi villages, and the 80,000-pound Sterling sitting in his living room. The maverick inventor also lets us in on his vision of the future, which will see many of our problems evaporate, and new ones born.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
Catch
Part One here.
Full text after the jump....
Dean Kamen is the kind of inventor we don’t imagine exists anymore—a fervent polymath like Thomas Edison. Best known as the creator of the Segway, Kamen is also responsible for major breakthroughs in
clean energy,
water purification, prosthetics, and other
urban transport devices. He is the owner of a small island off the coast of New York where he tests his creations. He recently
took the island zero-net energy with solar cells and LED lighting.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
Full text after the jump....
Jay Coen Gilbert must be doing something right; after all, you don’t get invited to the White House to advise on economic policy just because you smell good. Along with two of his brainy Stanford buddies, Gilbert has built a certifying system for business. A certified
B Corporation is a new breed of company (the B stands for beneficial) that does right by its shareholders, community, and ecosystem. In the second part of our conversation, Jay shares what happened in Washington, what he’s doing on the back of
GOOD magazine, and shares advise for the aspiring (beneficial) entrepreneur.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
Music comes from
Amadou & Miriam.
Listen (or read)
part one here.
Full text after the jump
...
Good business or just good marketing? Green business or greenwashing? Even the most hawk-eyed, label-scouring consumer can’t always know.
B Corporation's mission is to replace the guessing game with rigorous standards to judge what makes a truly “beneficial” company. To date, 179 companies representing almost a billion dollars have become certified B Corps. Jay Coen Gilbert, one of three veteran entrepreneurs behind B Corporation, tells TreeHugger how it all works.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
Music comes from
Amadou & Miriam.
Full text after the jump...
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on 10.29.09
Photo: George Whiteside
