The Green

Amanda Griscom Little, one of the advisory board members of Sundance Channel's environmental programming block THE GREEN, is a talented and convivial journalist who understands the importance of asking good questions and listening carefully to the answers given.

Recently, Amanda was invited to guest lecture for an environmental journalism class at Bowdoin College. On the topic of how to run an interview, she cautioned journalism students from going into an interview with their "[environmental] cudgel raised." Pressuring an interview subject with enormous open-ended questions like, "can Wal-Mart go green?" instantly puts the interviewee on the defensive and closes doors on potential subjects. This is important for a good journalist to keep in mind, because you should always be trying to find new ideas or statements from an interviewee, as this makes your story unique rather than another facsimile of countless other stories. Amanda suggests that students ask a question like, "Will it work to create a hybrid truck fleet at Wal-Mart?"

Amanda Griscom Little is really talking about a two-sided discourse, where the journalist rarely reveals their carefully hidden hand and instead attempts to get a look at all of the cards in an interviewee's hand. Her advice to the journalism class directly relates to any conversion on the environment. Being puritanical about something, especially when you are trying to get someone to open up to a new idea, is the easiest way to scare somebody away and to make them stop listening to you. It will even get the person to stop listening to him- or herself, as he or she will be reacting to your puritanical questions (or implicit judgments of them) in a defensive manner rather than really thinking about how to answer your question.

This type of journalism seems to be employing a fair amount of the Socratic Method [en.wikipedia.org], where one person leading a debate (the interviewer) asks many specific questions that surround and support a larger idea. These questions aim to expose the individual premises that collectively form the foundational support structure for a larger idea.

The point at which an interviewer should not employ Socratic method would naturally be the end point, where one is less interested in winning the debate than in getting the interviewee to expose the underpinnings of their larger position on the big issue of the environment.

Given the rampant judgmental tone of many journalists in today's mass media, it seems as if Amanda Grisom Little's advice to avoid a puritanical approach to journalism is extremely relevant to the needs of media consumers.

This post is inspired by a story on Bowdion University's Website [www.bowdoin.edu].

Recently there have been a number of deadly tornadoes that have popped up suddenly throughout the Midwest. There have been a number of fatalities and many survivors are forced to deal with insurance companies when they try to put their lives and broken homes back together. Our hearts go out to all the victims of severe weather events, hopefully by reading this post and following some of the linked websites, more people can take steps to protect themselves and their families from tornadoes.

If you live in an area where tornadoes are a danger, then you may wish to find some resources on how you can take some steps to weatherize your home. These tips might be able to give your home a better chance of surviving a tornado.

- Check out My Great Home [www.mygreathome.com].

- Also visit Institute for Business and Home Safety [www.ibhs.org].

- For more general information about tornadoes such as, what causes them? And how to stay informed on the possibility of a tornado occuring in your area, check National Severe Storms Laboratory [www.nssl.noaa.gov].

Recycling is an industrial process that closely mirrors the processes of nature that purify the air, water and soil on the planet. Nature cannot setup new ways of providing carbon dioxide for plants to fuel photosynthesis with, nature must always rely upon other organisms that breathe out carbon dioxide with every breath. The very concept of recycling is an admission that industrial manufacturing must also obey the laws of nature. At a certain point, there will be no more tin, iron, uranium or other precious materials to mine out of the earth. Instead, a civilization with manufacturing needs will have to turn to waste retrieval to power factories. The plastic bottle that you drink from today may be turned into insulation for a house ten years from now.

Sundance Channel's THE GREEN has tried hard to capture a few iconic examples of people who are invested in the recycling business. We hope you enjoy some of the clips below.


BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL PLANET: RECYCLE [www.sundancechannel.com]

Three fantastic businesses exemplify the heart of recycling in a profitable business that promotes a second life for products while reducing the amount of waste in the world. Ken Wells, of the Sonoma Landfill runs a sanitary landfill in Sonoma county that collects up virtually everything that is thrown out. This business actually makes a good amount of money by recycling organic waste and then selling the compost, or fertilizer to the local community.

Ecoist [www.ecoist.com] is the second business featured in this week's episode and they make designer quality products like handbags, wallets, fashion accessories and much more. They employ fair wage workers to make the raw materials for the final products, using recycled materials as their building blocks.

The third business featured is the Capitol Area Corporate Recycling Council (CACRC) [www.cacrc.com]. This business accepts all types of electronic waste, but mostly focuses on discarded computers. They refurbish these computers and sell them for less than one hundred dollars to schools and lower income people who would like to play with computers.

To learn more about the whole BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL PLANET series, check out THE GREEN [www.sundancechannel.com].

If you are interested in finding the physical locations for some of the BIG IDEAS businesses, check out the marker group [www.sundancechannel.com].



ECOISTS: Ron Livingston [www.sundancechannel.com]

Ron Livingston adores solar energy. He thinks that a solution that provides limitless energy for people is one people should support. Perhaps a political leader could propose such a big project and then all people need to do is vote for that leader. Seems simple enough.



ECO BIZ: Hanger Network [www.sundancechannel.com]

Bob Kantor, the founder of Hanger Network [www.hangernetwork.com], came up with a genius business idea that has revolutionized the hangers you get from your dry cleaner. He realized that hangers for clothing costs dry cleaner companies big bucks. He also realized that you could get advertisers to pay for advertisements on hangers. He combined these two facts into one business. Find out more in the video clip below.



BURNING THE FUTURE: COAL IN AMERICA [www.sundancechannel.com]

Take a tour of what it takes to turn coal into electricity. Featuring interviews and scientific analysis of coal mining and coal processing plants, this documentary shows you the final frontier of coal.



Thanks again for joining us on THE GREEN Blog. As usual, please make a comment about this post or if any ideas spring to mind, consider adding your thoughts by creating or commenting on an Eco-mmunity Map Marker.