Thermal Erma: Organic Intern and Dirt Licker

Getting down to Business | September 1, 2009

Who thought that caring for the Earth could get so…mathematical?  Well, that shows me.  My chemistry class did come in handy after all.  The big thing in Business and Climate Change right now is the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. Its a highly technical and jargon-filled process detailing how companies can track exactly what emissions are being produced as a result of the activities of their business.  And I have been assigned the very thrilling  job of reading this document and then writing a report that will apply its ideas to my new company.

Okay it’s not glamorous and, yes, sometimes I fall asleep at my desk, highlighter in hand, as I’m trying to drudge my way through the heavy business lingo that I did NOT go to school for.   But here’s the thing,  I’m still very motivated to understand it.  This practice is so new and so exciting that I can’t help but get eco-geeky over this stuff.  Because I’m excited about what the concept means.  What it means is that businesses are waking up.  They no longer can stand aside and point fingers or ignore certain truths about our planet.  And us consumers are doing pretty good too!  People are demanding organic or eco-friendly products because they have been better informed about what effects their consumption has in the world and in the world market.   And THAT is what’s worth getting up in the morning.  It’s like this great quote by Paul Hawken (one of my fav eco-smarties), in a commencement speech that he gave this year.  It nearly made me cry just to read it.

“When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, ‘So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.’ There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.” (2009)

Yes I know that I quoted quotes within a quote.  I don’t care.  This is a great example on how it’s important not to lose sight of the human element in everything.  We can not depend on science, or technology, or religion in and of themselves.  It’s when we apply ourselves into them that we see the real picture reveal itself.  The truth is that there have been some seriously impossible situations that we have survived as a species, as communities, as families.  It’s enough to make you get up and sing.  Well, maybe not, but you know what I mean.

Thought like that save me. They really do.  Because I could get so easily lost in all this jargon and market economics and bullshit, but then I read Paul Hawken or Michael Pollan and I realize that it’s worth a little tedium to get a chance to chisel away as the mountain of difficulties that face us as we undertake changing the way the world works. And that brings us back to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.  It’s catching on, this GHG accounting thing.  Companies now have a way to really look at what the TRUE cost of their business is, not only in the bank but as a tenant of the earth.  We don’t have to allow businesses to trash our environment anymore.  They are being held accountable.

That’s why I am also excited for the Copenhagen talks coming up too!  The UNFCCC  (or the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change)  will be meeting this year to talk the big talk about what’s happening now and what should be happening across the globe as far as our efforts go to help prevent global warming and improve our pollution habits.  Here is a fun little article about the city as well as the climate talks themselves : 100 Thing…

And it’s a little ways away (Dec 7-18) but still it’s coming.  Well I suppose that’s it for now.  I’m going to try and build a worm bin with my mom so she can start composting at her house. 

Breathe deep,

       Erma