With all the buzz about sustainable lifestyles and green living in the last few years, there have been a few packaging trends out there that are so blatantly wasteful it is a disgrace.
1. The practice of packaging all variety of different items in shiny, molded, clear plastic, one use only containers. This is so terrible. I don't know for sure why the manufacturers are going to this type of packaging. One would assume that sales are increased because the products are readily visible in a display, instead of inside a box. It seems that there may be one or more rather sinister reasons also. Number one among these, if there is no box, the item or parts of it might be easier to lose, so that customers would have to buy a replacement. The item is also more difficult to store when not in use, so often people have to go out and buy a special box for the item.
2. The practice of packaging say 12 cookies in 6 separately packaged two-packs within one box of cookies. This is just fricking unbelievable!
There should be booby prizes and plenty of recognition for the worst packaging offenders.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Eco Artware - already 10 years of "deja vu"
There is a sense that recycling, conservation and sustainable lifestyles is a "new" trend. It is true perhaps that most North Americans have only become highly energized about green awareness since An Inconvenient Truth debuted in 2006. But recycling, of course has been around much longer. Eco Artware is one example.
This online business was founded, and featured in the Washington Post Home Section in 1999, and has not wavered from its mission of providing gifts made from reused, recycled and natural materials.
Eco Artware was founded by director Reena Kazmann and offers an interesting range of gifts produced by artists specialized in their respective areas. Resource Revival, for example, uses tons of discarded bicycle parts each year. Another supplier, Vinylux Vintage Vinyl Design, turns approximately 100,000 unplayable old vinyl record per year into bowls, snack trays, picture frames clocks and ornaments.
Now that environmental awareness has moved on to the next level, watch for a new explosion in popularity of these and similar items.
This online business was founded, and featured in the Washington Post Home Section in 1999, and has not wavered from its mission of providing gifts made from reused, recycled and natural materials.
Eco Artware was founded by director Reena Kazmann and offers an interesting range of gifts produced by artists specialized in their respective areas. Resource Revival, for example, uses tons of discarded bicycle parts each year. Another supplier, Vinylux Vintage Vinyl Design, turns approximately 100,000 unplayable old vinyl record per year into bowls, snack trays, picture frames clocks and ornaments.
Now that environmental awareness has moved on to the next level, watch for a new explosion in popularity of these and similar items.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Alternative Energy: Harnessing the power of imagination
I can't be 100% sure, but I do believe I am the first to propose this concept as an alternative energy source: Harness the power of imagination.
Although many would have you believe that you could get rich and successful, or get healed, by harnessing the power of imagination, I have yet to see anyone saying that this could be a source of alternate power that could be tapped in to in order to ultimately reduce carbon emissions across the planet.
I could, and am sure I will, give you lists of things that show what I mean. Some of these concepts you might even guess, if you had the inclination. But, there is a principle that for me was a little more nuanced, so I would like to put it down here now to kick off this discussion.
Any typical power generating process begins with an investment of capital. Whether to build a coal burning plant, nuclear reactor, wind turbines, solar reactor or any other project, the first step in actual construction is the investment of capital.
This is obviously a necessary step. What is not obvious, however, is that the act of investment effectively negates imagination from the equation. Once you have a monetary commitment to a certain operation -i.e. construction of a physical plant that will perform a task for a given purpose- it becomes directly counter-productive to continue to apply imagination to the problem of supplying power for the given purpose.
After all, the given purpose should be covered by the equipment to be acquired or constructed with the investment already made, therefore, it is assumed with good reason that any further imaginative effort in that specific direction is a waste.
But, what if we look at this another way? What if we propose that, if spending capital blocks imagination... then the reverse should hold true: if you apply imagination to the equation, energy will be created directly, rather than capital spent!
I believe this equation can be proven through art. Stay tuned for another Co2-Art project!
Although many would have you believe that you could get rich and successful, or get healed, by harnessing the power of imagination, I have yet to see anyone saying that this could be a source of alternate power that could be tapped in to in order to ultimately reduce carbon emissions across the planet.
I could, and am sure I will, give you lists of things that show what I mean. Some of these concepts you might even guess, if you had the inclination. But, there is a principle that for me was a little more nuanced, so I would like to put it down here now to kick off this discussion.
Any typical power generating process begins with an investment of capital. Whether to build a coal burning plant, nuclear reactor, wind turbines, solar reactor or any other project, the first step in actual construction is the investment of capital.
This is obviously a necessary step. What is not obvious, however, is that the act of investment effectively negates imagination from the equation. Once you have a monetary commitment to a certain operation -i.e. construction of a physical plant that will perform a task for a given purpose- it becomes directly counter-productive to continue to apply imagination to the problem of supplying power for the given purpose.
After all, the given purpose should be covered by the equipment to be acquired or constructed with the investment already made, therefore, it is assumed with good reason that any further imaginative effort in that specific direction is a waste.
But, what if we look at this another way? What if we propose that, if spending capital blocks imagination... then the reverse should hold true: if you apply imagination to the equation, energy will be created directly, rather than capital spent!
I believe this equation can be proven through art. Stay tuned for another Co2-Art project!
Monday, January 5, 2009
New Eco Art by Tatiana Iliina
Richmond Fossil - a tribute to 1 billion gallons of toxic coal sludge spewn into the environment on Dec. 22 08.
Co2 Art presents a new abstract work by Tatiana Iliina. This is a new installment in Tatiana's "Smoke & Steel" series of Eco Art. This abstract painting measures 30" x 36, is painted with a palette knife, and can be viewed for a limited time at the link on the right marked "marketplace".
Tatiana Iliina has several series of Eco Art that are enjoyed by collectors and art lovers throughout the world. These series include: Glaciers Gone, Rain Forest, Grand Canyon, Rising Waters and "Wet Brush - Wet Paint - Wetlands," acknowledging various ecological crises including global warming across the planet.
The unique quality of these paintings is that they may address a sombre topic, however they are visually compelling and possess a vitality that indeed celebrates the natural wonders of our planet.
Co2 Art presents a new abstract work by Tatiana Iliina. This is a new installment in Tatiana's "Smoke & Steel" series of Eco Art. This abstract painting measures 30" x 36, is painted with a palette knife, and can be viewed for a limited time at the link on the right marked "marketplace".
Tatiana Iliina has several series of Eco Art that are enjoyed by collectors and art lovers throughout the world. These series include: Glaciers Gone, Rain Forest, Grand Canyon, Rising Waters and "Wet Brush - Wet Paint - Wetlands," acknowledging various ecological crises including global warming across the planet.
The unique quality of these paintings is that they may address a sombre topic, however they are visually compelling and possess a vitality that indeed celebrates the natural wonders of our planet.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
After the Deluge - Post Rising Seas Surrealism
Co2-Art presents an new work by Tatiana Iliina and a new series of eco art.
Tatiana's collectors already know that her eco series never fail to be popular. Over the past couple of years her abstract and surrealistic eco series have generated interest worldwide. Her Glaciers Gone series has sold 17 original works worldwide, from South Africa to Indiana... From British Columbia to Boston.
Her new surreal cities series, exploring the concept that perhaps now only artists have the power to conceive and create sustainable habitats for humanity, have sold to galleries and collectors in Europe, Norway, the U.S. and Canada.
And now the daring and tantalizingly beautiful "After the Deluge" series addresses the ominous idea of flooded cities resulting from melting ice caps.
This painting is entitled "Crash of Breakers", a Tatiana Iliina original presented by Co2 Art. Eco Art for the Ages.
Tatiana's collectors already know that her eco series never fail to be popular. Over the past couple of years her abstract and surrealistic eco series have generated interest worldwide. Her Glaciers Gone series has sold 17 original works worldwide, from South Africa to Indiana... From British Columbia to Boston.
Her new surreal cities series, exploring the concept that perhaps now only artists have the power to conceive and create sustainable habitats for humanity, have sold to galleries and collectors in Europe, Norway, the U.S. and Canada.
And now the daring and tantalizingly beautiful "After the Deluge" series addresses the ominous idea of flooded cities resulting from melting ice caps.
This painting is entitled "Crash of Breakers", a Tatiana Iliina original presented by Co2 Art. Eco Art for the Ages.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Massive coal sludge spill threatens water and health in Tennessee
Since Dec. 22, over a Billion gallons of toxic coal sludge containing arsenic, mercury, copper and other dangerous metals has swamped 300 acres of Tennessee countryside.
The spill, originating at a coal-burning power plant where a retaining wall collapsed, is 100 times larger than the Exxon Valdez disaster, and has contaminated at least one tributary of the Tennessee River with high levels of toxins.
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/12/30/133946/67
Clean coal? Sure.
The photo above shows the toxic sludge from a previous spill, in Martin Co. Kentucky, where a 300-million gallon sludge spill was termed the "greatest environmental disaster ever" in the southeast.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Canada needs to spend $ on green transportation
News of Canada chipping in $4B to the automakers... has Canada's former UAW honcho Buzz Hargrove worrying that Canada didn't get enough assurances in the deal.
I would think we would want a guarantee of at least an equivalent proportion of the N. American (or world) production as we have been getting up until now...
Left to their own devices the automakers will screw Canada.
Like they discontinued the Camaro just long enough to close the Ste-Therese plant only to revive Camaro a few years later now that Ste. Therese is a shopping centre. So you can't blame Buzz in a way for pushing the envelope - you know full well that there will be forces on the other extreme - saying that they should shut down Canada altogether in order to keep US workers on the job.
Now why can't the government act as quickly to help get some smarter car manufacturing up and running.
Announce one $ billion - half federal half provincial - to be split up among outstanding applicants.
Ensure that a substantial portion of the cash is NOT available to the old line established oil and automotive industry.
Encourage a wide range of related applications - including infrastructure, urban planning, innovative rail, electric and other forms of transport, support for associations, services points, batteries etc...
Bailing out the big 3 is a problem to be pondered. It is the classic lose-lose situation. It is throwing good money after bad in the worst possible way. But, maybe it has to be done in the short term
On the other hand, nurturing new, green, smart, high-tech industry is a no brainer.
Just do it!
I would think we would want a guarantee of at least an equivalent proportion of the N. American (or world) production as we have been getting up until now...
Left to their own devices the automakers will screw Canada.
Like they discontinued the Camaro just long enough to close the Ste-Therese plant only to revive Camaro a few years later now that Ste. Therese is a shopping centre. So you can't blame Buzz in a way for pushing the envelope - you know full well that there will be forces on the other extreme - saying that they should shut down Canada altogether in order to keep US workers on the job.
Now why can't the government act as quickly to help get some smarter car manufacturing up and running.
Announce one $ billion - half federal half provincial - to be split up among outstanding applicants.
Ensure that a substantial portion of the cash is NOT available to the old line established oil and automotive industry.
Encourage a wide range of related applications - including infrastructure, urban planning, innovative rail, electric and other forms of transport, support for associations, services points, batteries etc...
Bailing out the big 3 is a problem to be pondered. It is the classic lose-lose situation. It is throwing good money after bad in the worst possible way. But, maybe it has to be done in the short term
On the other hand, nurturing new, green, smart, high-tech industry is a no brainer.
Just do it!
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