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After the disquieting UN Report on climate change early this month, I happily note in quiet that the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (the one that awards the Oscars) has not gangrene but has gone green. The
difference is gross: In case of injury or disease, gangrene results from an insufficient blood supply to body tissue;
in the case of Hollywood, gone green results from a sufficient
blood supply to the brain tissue. With that observation, I shall
Let’s go Indian, choosing the
inconvenient fruit. Among those
I call the climate crops, sweet
sorghum is relatively unknown
among those species that catch
the CO 2
from the air and turn it
into food, feed, fuel, fertilizer for
the survival of the species. I
know that to advocate sweet
sorghum as the global source of
ethanol for biofuel is to
advocate a relatively unknown
and largely unappreciated crop
in Asia, Africa and America – to
write two major feature articles
on this poor man’s crop may be
on my part an inconvenient
froth over an inconvenient fruit.
This should not be
the case at all.
assume most managers will take a lesson from Mr Global Warner
himself. Observe how Al Gore is behaving intelligently in his
advocacy: Acting locally, acting globally. Thinking locally, thinking
globally. Advocating business unusual.
So now I can tell myself: ‘There is intelligent life on earth.’ I asked
myself some 40 years before this: ‘Is there intelligent life on earth?’
In those times I thought I was the only intelligent life on earth.
You call that conceit. Today, some managers’ conceit is that there
is no global warming. Insisting business as usual.
We need to go back to the basics of faith and reason. We are 30
years late in responding to Yankee Al Gore’s global warning but,
I hope, not too late. In an interview after the Oscars, he told Kim
Chipman (25 Feb, bloomberg.com) about how to behave globally
toward climate change and knowing many Yankees wanted him
to run again for President of the mightiest nation in the world:
It’s not a political issue; it’s a moral issue. We have everything
we need to get started, with the possible exception of the will to
act. That’s a renewable resource; let’s renew it.
The will to act? The 79 th Oscars acted on its will – in fact, it
went green like this (Mary Milliken, 26 Feb,
in.today.reuters.com): first, they made sure the Kodak Theatre
in Hollywood underwent an energy audit; then on The Day of
the Oscars, movie stars rode in plug-in hybrids and all-electric
cars; all around, print materials being distributed had been
printed on recycled paper; organic food was served at the
Governor’s Ball, with advocacy by the National Resources
Defense Council. How green was the Hollywood valley!
About the strange creatures called hybrid vehicles and Hollywood stars, FTM tells us (forthemen.com) that Cameron
Diaz (Shrek) has one, Leonardo di Caprio (The Departed) has two. The Toyota Prius, the first hybrid car released
to the public, is very popular with Hollywood stars. The Honda Insight was the first hybrid car sold in the US. Thank
God for Toyota and Honda and Hollywood.
How about those of us outside of Hollywood? We can do no less! CNN (06 Feb, cnn.com) quotes Al Gore as saying:
An Inconvenient Truth