Bruce Sterling jokingly takes credit for being the first to put forward the idea that being green is no longer an alternative lifestyle- it is the reality of the world.
The fact is that he can claim to have set a standard with his book, Shaping Things which I’ve written about here. I reiterate: Read it.
Bruce blogs here.

I’m sitting in a Lenscrafter store this weekend while my companion buys glasses. The selection of reading material is limited to Field and Stream and GQ, two magazines I’d probably never pick up. Not being a Bambi killer, I go for the GQ. After working my way through the obligatory 75 pages of clothing ads I get to the editorial. To my surprise there are two hard hitting, investigative journalism-style pieces against the Bush administration including this call for impeachment of the Vice-Maniac Cheney. It’s very well done and given his insane warmongering of late, calling for confrontations with China. Iran and Pakistan, something we should take seriously.
By the way, Field and Stream had a great illustrated piece (sorry, no link- there’s a large picture of a dead animal prominently featured on the site and an article about booth babes at a trade show but I couldn’t find an online version of the survival piece- if you want to go there you’re on your own) of how to not get lost in the woods. Really well done. So maybe I should try reading a little further afield (couldn’t resist!).

James is an artist/writer and this post on the weirdly warm winter we experienced up until a few weeks ago is perfect: a beautiful photo comic strip that captures the poignancy of the changes we are witnesses to.
Very highly recommended.

Thanks to WorldChanging for this.

I am a writer by profession so I have some clue about the power of words. Today, in Paris, climate scientists from all over the planet have gathered, under the auspices of the UN, to finalize their comprehensive report on global warming and climate change. The 1500 page report is by all accounts extremely alarming in its nearly unanimous agreement that things are literally heating up much faster than previously predicted. One hopes that this will put the final nail in the coffin of the deniers. But it won’t.

The Executive Summary: Watering Down the Message
Today the scientists are dealing with the politicians as they prepare the executive summary of the report. The summary, a 30-50 page document, is critical because 99% of all the coverage the report gets worldwide will come from the summary. As a result the political hacks are converging on this process and doing everthing they can to change its language to support their country’s political stance on global warming. As one scientist said today, they have completed 30% of the summary but used 60% of their available time to do so, all because of wrangling over words.

‘Global Climate Change’
This is the phrase Bush used in the State of the Union address last week. It is notable because the word ‘warming’ is conspicuously absent. This is intentional. If we know one thing about this White House it is that they are very conscious of the power of a phrase: Mission Accomplished, Stay the Course, etc. They can’t use ‘warming’ because that word points a finger directly at the energy industry and also offends some fundamentalists who regard any implication that we caused this mess as a slap in the face of mankind’s inalienable right to do whatever we want. This is the mindset that is driving the process of watering down the message in Paris.

Whether you are a journalist, a blogger or an active reader, it is your duty to tell these politicians that they need to call a spade a spade. No more spinning of language to divert attention away from the most important challenge in mankind’s brief history on this planet. The truth needs to be told as clearly and directly as possible.