Tag Archives: environment

George Lakoff Part I: The Message

GeorgeLakoff

4600583562_b030d51064_qThey say actions speak louder than words, but words are pretty important, too. This week and next on Sea Change Radio, we welcome George Lakoff, the prolific author and longtime professor of cognitive linguistics from UC Berkeley. He discusses the significant concept of linguistic framing and how it relates to both progressives and conservatives. He also applies framing principles to environmental concerns and explores what benefit might be felt by re-framing the movement’s current messaging.

Rating Sustainably: Allen White & Mark Tulay

AllenWhiteMarkTulayConsumers are becoming more eco-conscious and little by little, investors are too. A company that shows regular profits might look like a sound investment, but if that company engages in irresponsible practices that are likely to create an environmental catastrophe, investors should know about it. Not only would investing in that company promote irresponsible behavior, it might well yield poor returns when the company finds itself facing multiparty lawsuits.

This week on Sea Change Radio, host Alex Wise speaks to Allen White and Mark Tulay, two executives from the newly launched Global Initiative for Sustainability Ratings, or GISR. GISR is a rating system that supplements an investor’s understanding of a company by focusing on environmental and social factors. Partnering with reputable organizations such as the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, or SASB, as well as the Global Reporting Initiative, GISR has the bold ambition of transforming the very definition of corporate value in the 21st century.

Tim Faulkner: On The “Rhode” To Progress

Frequent Sea Change Radio listeners know that we’ve covered many California-related environmental issues over the years – and for good reason. As the country’s most populous state, it’s an important barometer of our progress in the fight to become more sustainable. But what about our nation’s smallest state, Rhode Island? It counts too. This week, as we mark another year, we learn about the environmental issues facing little Rhode Island with Tim Faulkner, the Executive Editor of ecoRI news. Faulkner and host Alex Wise explore the challenges facing the alternative energy industry there as well as some of the long term policy goals that Rhode Island’s state government has set forth.

Steve Almond Pt. 2: On The United States of Irrationality

Author Steve Almond is an astute observer of American topics as disparate as candy, rock & roll and politics. This week on Sea Change Radio, in the second half of his two-part discussion with host Alex Wise, Almond delves into the environmental movement and the moral quandary of a society that so desperately wants to have its cake and eat it too. Almond believes that behind the politics of war and deception lies a lack of empathy and willful ignorance – and that in order to have a serious discussion that advances issues as vital as the global climate crisis we must be willing to address our “imperial luxuries and abuses,” and honestly consider the “deprivations suffered in less fortunate precincts.”

Steve Almond Pt. 1: On Magical Thoughts

Magical thinking. According to the McGraw Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine, this is a condition, “similar to a normal stage of childhood development, in which thoughts, words or actions assume a magical power, and are able to prevent or cause events to happen without a physical action occurring.” If you think this sounds a little bit like our policy approach to the climate crisis, you’re not alone. Our guest this week on Sea Change Radio is Steve Almond, author, social commentator, and a highly opinionated gentleman. Today, in Part 1 of our two-part discussion, he rails against an infantile, narcissistic mindset that allows denial of science and inaction on the environment. Listen now as Almond and host Alex Wise jaw about the media response to 9/11, scolding our children, and our inalienable right to big sodas.

Click here for the second part of the discussion.