Play It Green

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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Don’t worry that the rich are not doing their small part to improve this otherwise polluted world. Why on July 30, the Atlanta Motorsports Park, described as a “private motorsports country club that offers a memebership for motorsports enthusiasts looking for executive level priveleges and amenities” (I’m reading this as “snobs who like cars, martinis and hookers”) is unveiling a new  Tilke track, that they claim will make the park the “only eco/green/sustainable-friendly motorsports park in the world.” The press release goes into no details about what particular aspects will make this new track (God, I love this term) “sustainable-friendly,” but even if it were made out of native plants, it’s a race track! It is a big, circular track for inefficient, souped-up race cars to barrel around, and around, and around.

I may be a bit sensitive here, what with Derrick Jensen and Aric McBay’s What We Leave Behind, sitting on my bedside table. The authors make a similar point about the much-lauded William McDonough, the cradle-to-cradle designer behind the Ford Rouge Dearborn Truck Plant. The plant has a 10-acre “living roof,” the largest in the world. The site describes it as: “a glimpse of the transformative possibilities suggested by this new model for sustaining industry.” Jensen and McBay point out: it’s a massive truck factory. There is nothing even remotely “sustainable” about it. But don’t let these inconvenient truths dissuade you from joining the apparent hordes who are signing up for AMP’s exclusive offerings (they write that the club has sold $400,000 worth of memberships in the last 35 days)–including automatic faucets, a computer with internet access and “biometric fingerprint technology to access members only lounge.” Grey Goose models will be there, as will Atlanta Falcon’s wide receiver Michael Jenkins.

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