Play It Green

Even when I was in high school, I didn’t invest much time or effort into the high school football games. And that includes one sad season of cheering at said games (I was the unsmiling cheerleader, which was not all that rebellious in hindsight). It didn’t help that I attended a Catholic school, whose team got their butts kicked by opposing public school teams. And then, in the past couple years, I discovered Friday Night Lights (I’ve read the book, and seen the movie, but I’m talking about the TV series). Suddenly the idea of a town so invested in this weekly football contest seemed almost enviable (what a simple thing to care about after all). It was all so unifying and important, and the people involved were not nearly as dumbed-down as I would have expected high school football fanatics to be.  I realize it’s written by scriptwriters and played by (optimistically attractive) actors, but it captures something true nonetheless. There’s something pure about high school football. It’s easy to care about, even if you don’t.

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If you want an explanation of cap-and-trade, who better to ask then a former NBA cheerleader? Falling into the “Google discovery of the week” category is the Science Cheerleader, a former Philadelphia 76ers cheerleader named Darlene Cavalier who breaks down complicated science jargon and ideas into easily digestible explanations and attempts to get regular joes interested in contributing to science research and policy. Take cap-and-trade. The one-time cheerleader–beginning and ending in the early Charles Barkley-era ’90s–who also happens to be the former Global Manager for Senior Business Development for Walt Disney Publishing Worldwide, compares the idea of companies adhering to carbon emissions limits by buying or selling credits in a market-based system (in effect, rewarding the environmentally friendly and punishing the polluters until they get up to speed) to moms trading babysitting chips. More recently, she highlights the  efforts of EarthDive, an organization that aims to better document the effects of pollution, overfishing and trafficking in endangered species by engaging the millions of recreational scuba divers as “citizen scientists” to record their findings in the Global Dive Log.  Observations are mapped on the site, and provide real time data used to influence ocean policy worldwide. If it all sounds a little kooky, well, it’s always best to keep in mind the power of a pretty face–particularly with a brain attached.

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