Remember “Snowmageddon” last month? Although climate change deniers seized on the record snowfall as evidence refuting climate change, anyone who has actually read some of the science knows how ridiculous this type of reasoning is (long story short, it boils down to 4 main points: 1) short term local weather is different than long term global climate 2) Record temperatures for the year and decade just as easily prove climate change as record snowfall in one season “disproves” it 3) Scientists have long predicted increased storms as a result of warming, as climate change models show stronger extremes in all types of weather 4) Snowmageddon was partly due to increased precipitation, not just lower temperature).

Now, thanks to the Federal Reserve, we learn that this winter season is a great example of the negative impacts that increased extreme weather events can have on the economy. According to Barron’s and the Wall Street Journal, the Fed’s Beige Book (a report comprised of anecdotal evidence about economic conditions complied by the Fed’s 12 regional banks) references the adverse effects of weather, characterized by the storms, over 40 times in 50 pages — much, much higher than previous reports. Plenty of authors have written about the potential economic impacts of climate change, but rarely do events so clearly crystallize both sides of the debate and provide evidence for what future problems may look like.

I’m always excited by useful objects made with beautiful paper. I was enchanted by the completely sustainable paper lamp designed by the talented Mr. Gardener. Now, I’m a regular visitor to this incredible resource for  paper and product lovers.

Jenny Pinto is a hugely talented designer operating from her studio in Bangalore, India. She makes paper by hand the old-fashioned way using agricultural and waste fibers from the banana tree, sisal, river grasses, and more. The papers have a rich textural quality. Wow. Oh, please let me touch…. Check out her inspired paper designs.

Art by jennypinto.com

The papers get turned into yummy stationery…

Art by jennypinto.com

… And gorgeous, gorgeous, lighting for home and studio.

Art by jennypinto.com

Have mercy.

Then it gets better.

Jenny has a heart of gold. To source material, she contacted NGOs working with women in rural parts. She then taught key members of each group her paper-making techniques, and empowered them to be self-sustaining entrepreneurs who make and market paper products. Read about Jenny’s vision here.

If you’re ever in Bangalore, be sure to contact Jenny and visit her studio for more art and exquisiteness.

"Time Maps" Art by jennypinto.com

"Water Stories," hand stitched and sculpted book. Art by jennypinto.com

These numbers affirm facts that climate watchers were already well aware of, but another study highlights the continued need for public evidence. A recent report from Yale University and George Mason University found that fewer Americans believe that global warming is a fact or that it is caused by human activities, and that fewer people who may believe it find it a serious problem. Further, and almost more frightening, the report found that more people believe that scientists themselves do not believe in global warming, despite the overwhelming scientific consensus. Given the public backlash against leadership in all forms, it will take even more work to convince the world that actions must be taken now to further understand and prevent catastrophic climate change.

Last month’s Ebook Summit in NYC was informative and gave us many opportunities to show n tell. The audience was mainly publishing types (editors, authors, agents, publishers and distributors). Read reviews of the speakers and events here.

Graphics Gone Green had a table at the event, and we generated a lot of interest and buzz at our table. Here are some pictures.

The following week, mediabistro’s blogs, GalleyCat and eBookNewser sent me these questions to answer:

They asked for some some practical tips for how publishers can set up an environment-friendly policy; and what the eBook revolution will mean for the environmental footprint of publishers. My replies were posted on GalleyCat and eBookNewser. Good press.

Read more

NPR’s Renee Montaigne interviewed Peter Gleick, President of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, about these findings. According to Gleick, most of the water savings have come from the agricultural and industrial sectors. The move from flood or spray irrigation in farming to precision drip irrigation has lead to large savings. In heavy industry, a mix of technology and government regulations has also led to many drastic reductions in water use.

In 1930, it took 200 tons of water to produce 1 ton of steel. Today, it requires only 3 or 4 tons of water the same amount of steel. According to Gleick, scarcity and new regulations for cleaning up wastewater were the main reasons for the reduction of water use in steel production. When regulations were passed requiring companies to clean up wastewater that was being dumped, the companies realized that it was cheaper to never produce the wastewater in the first place! This is proof that with a little thought and effort (and maybe a push from the government), some of the negative effects of commerce on the environment can be drastically reduced.

The new numbers from the USGS are not all positive, however. Despite the overall reduction, water usage for cooling power plants and in domestic home use has increased. New regulations in the 1990′s that increased the use of low-flow toilets and showerheads, and new technologies like energy and water-efficient washing machines, have helped lessen water use in many homes. On a macro-scale, however, many people have been moving to more arid areas like the Southwest, where large lawns, gardens, and golf courses have taken their toll on scarce water availability. Areas in the Southeast have also dealt with severe water issues in recent years. As Gleick says,

“The days when we could assume that some places were free from water problems… those days are over… We cannot assume that water is a free, unlimited resource anymore.”

Listen to the interview here.

We discussed Carolyn’s efforts to promote green business, environmental goals for companies looking to go green, and broader issues in environmentalism:

Graphics Gone Green: How did your business begin?

Carolyn Allen: Small companies were not getting traditional media coverage. Most traditional media is focused on public companies… and most small companies are just not in that supply chain of information.  We were one of the first organizations to give small green companies and small companies with green products some visibility for their solutions.

GGG: What kinds of things do you cover?

CA: We look for solutions “on the street” that solve environmental problems. We don’t cover promotions or launches, but instead focus on companies that are coming up with green solutions without all the typical media hype.

GGG: What do you look for in a company or solution that you will cover?

CA: We focus on three main things – that a company or product is green, sustainable, and delivers high performance. Sometimes products are not seen as green because they are not a new innovation, since they have been around a long time. A lot of companies have actually been doing practical things for the environment for a long time, even though they have not gotten attention, or have not been certified. For example,  I lived on a small organic farm, long before organic was the thing to do. We didn’t see it as organic or trendy, it was just “practical farming”.

It is also important to look for a company that protects natural systems. Land, habitat, water animals, health, restoration – all of these combine to work together in a system that is interconnected and diverse. That means there are no simple solutions. Everything is interlinked.

Quality is also important. It has to be effective. We don’t want to pay extra for a product because of a marketing gimmick, but we do want quality. In the early stages of a product, including green products,  it costs more, but it gets less expensive every year. The research has to be paid for. But proven solutions are very cost effective and often less expensive than more razzle-dazzle types of products.

GGG: Why should companies go green?

CA: It’s just so much more efficient, effective, healthy, and provides cost savings… this is the new way we have to do things in a new world order of constrained resources and the fact that we are recognizing that everything we do has an impact. Children today are born with 30 chemicals in their bodies. How can you look at facts like that and not think about green chemistry? Every choice we make matters. It matters to you, your health, your food quality, your air, your water, etc. I think health is our number one motivator. If it affects our health, it gets our attention.

I try to help companies think about their actions as ripples in a pond. Throw a rock in and the first thing that happens is a big splash because it’s so different. But every little ripple after that makes connections with every other thing you do. The more people do to be green, the more they realize that they need to do more.

GGG: Where do you see the future of “green” going?

CA: Right now, energy is number one. If you look at aerial maps of the world at night, you can see all the lights flooding across the globe. Then think of all the energy required for transportation to ship our food 2,000 miles before we eat it. That takes energy. Energy has the most immediate concerns for people and gets the most attention.

Water will come right after that. Much of the globe is struggling with a fresh water supply. The oceans are terribly polluted and the habitats for aquatic animals are being destroyed, and those animals provide a protein source for much of the world. Fresh water is not so fresh anymore, and it has a lot of pollutants in it that will need to be cleaned up. Water is essential to life – even more so than food. Food is important, but we have a good system in place so it is not as critical as energy and water.

In addition to the main site, Solutions for Green also produces a number of other websites and publications, such as CaliforniaGreenSolutions.com, BackyardNature.com, SunshineByDesign.com, and Solutions for Small Biz Guides.

Mohawk recently made national news when it took on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its opposition to EPA regulations of greenhouse gasses and to a recent climate change bill in Congress. On October 21, Mohawk announced that it was resigning from the Chamber. Mohawk senior VP of energy, environmental, and government affairs, George F. Milner, wrote in a letter to the Chamber that,

We understand that the U.S. Chamber’s job is to promote policies that represent the consensus opinion of its membership; but the Chamber also has a responsibility to shape that consensus with vision, guidance and leadership that looks beyond ideological divisions. That is particularly important in the area of climate change policies.

With this announcement, Mohawk Fine Papers joins other newsmaking companies such as Apple, Nike, and multiple energy companies in their opposition to the Chamber’s anti-environmental stance.

Creative professionals in the design, advertising, and printing communities, in particular, face the challenge and opportunity of finding ways to become more efficient and environmentally friendly, and these issues are addressed, step-by-step in the book.

Read the article here.

You may remember that I dedicated Graphics Gone Green to Geir because his decades of scientific work in Ny-Alesund inspired our book. Geir and I met in California recently and he agreed to answer a few questions. He had just been awarded the prestigious 2009 Nansen Award, for his polar research, particularly in regards to contaminants in seabirds.

Geir Gabrielsen stands in front of his Ny-Alesund house.

Erica: Hello Geir. It’s nice to see you again and thank you for giving us your time. Please tell me about the evolution of your work and of the island since I last saw you.

G: That was two years ago. A lot of things have been happening. We have a team working on an international project called Copol. Our team includes five master students and two doctoral students who have been working with contaminants in the arctic. This project studies the food contaminants in water masses in the arctic. As temperature of the water and the air increases, contaminants travel easier to the North. Copol also finds new substances that industries tell us are not there. But we see them metabolized in the seals, polar bears, fish and birds. It’s no only old contaminants like PCB and DTT but new ones we’re looking at.

E: When I was there with you, you were putting small computers in birds to collect data. I wonder how that experiment went and whether it was successful.

G: Yes. We are getting a lot of the data from that project. It tells us where they are in the winter. The gulls migrate between Newfoundland and Greenland. We are not only getting data about where they are but what they are doing, and how they adapt to temperature changes. It’s interesting to see that, by moving South, they can be active for longer periods in the day. When can see when they eat and learned that they dive sometimes 200 meters deep. Our first research is already starting to be published as well as papers about the Copel project.

E: You had divided a set of young birds. Half were fed the food that they usually eat, the food with contaminants. The others were given a contaminant-free diet. How did that experiment go?

G: that was interesting. Two doctoral students are documenting this experiment. We saw the effect of clean foods compared to contaminated food on the immune and the hormonal systems of the chicks. We are also studying the effects of these different diets on the chicks as they grow and integrate their environment.

E: I had the dubious honor of being there the first year you found tics on a bird.

G: Yes, that was a surprise to us. We have looked into that and find that the bigger colonies are affected by tics but that is has spread to the smaller colonies yet. But, as the weather gets warmer, we expect the smaller colonies to have tics as well.
E: You showed me a piece of land protruding from the mainland and told me that, over the years, you had seen it change. You and your colleagues were wondering if it was an island or whether it was part of the mainland. Do you know yet?

G: We don’t know yet. You know, I bet a case of wine with my colleagues that it’s an island. That area is changing rapidly. It will take 5 to 10 years before we know if it’s an island.

E: Congratulations on your award. Tell us about it.

G: I received an award, the Nansen award for polar research, one of the highest honors given to polar scientists. I have worked many years in this field and the award validates our work. It’s a growing field and more and more students are joining us. We were rewarded because the work we do in toxicology has put our research and also Norway on the map. It means a lot to us.

E: When I was there, there was a Chinese delegation that, I understand, is very enthused and collaborates openly with you. Who was not there was a delegation of American scientist. Have they arrived yet?

G: Yes, I think we will see them here in the years to come. Exploratory American groups have been here to find out more and see if they would come. They need to be part of the international group of scientist in Ny-Alesund and I believe that they will participate eventually.

Thank you, Geir.