a panorama view from the balcony of our new bungalow

Sometimes what you need to overcome a challenge is a state change. Tony Robbins talks about this when he discusses negative moods.

Change your external state, and you change your internal state.

If you’re feeling down, sad, or a bit upset, one of the simplest applications of this is to take a big deep breath, look up at the sky, and fake a big, goofy grin. Tony says that activating those muscles—and that part of your brain—is likely to manifest the real feelings of happiness and improved mood.

This state change is powerful, and it could be just the boost you need to shake a negative mood, or procrastination for example.

But sometimes you need something bigger and more lasting than a smile. To overcome a big hurdle, change a persistent negative behavior, or make some other kind of big leap in your personal development, maybe you need to change more than yourself… maybe you need to change your surroundings?

Sometimes it’s the people you surround yourself with (some say you become the average of the 5 people you hang out with the most), but very frequently it’s your environment.

If you’re in a slump, stuck in a rut, unproductive, unmotivated, or in a destructive cycle, you need to change your state somehow—that’s for sure.

Ask yourself: is your workspace uninspiring? Is your neighborhood dingy or depressing? Do you crave a change of scenery?

How I Gave Up City Life for Island Paradise

I’d been based in Bangkok for the last year and a half—and it’s an incredible city. The people I met there are what kept me wanting to stay—incredible, entrepreneurial, interesting folks from all corners of the globe. It was the first truly big city that I’d lived in for any good amount of time—the nightlife, the food, and the sights, are stimulating—there is something for everyone, and always new experiences to try.

But after that amount of time, I wasn’t excited by my surroundings anymore. I was distracted by the noises of the city, 24 hours a day. I found my simple studio apartment dull and solitary, and I realized that staring at the freeway out my window for a year and a half wasn’t an inspiring environment to turn out my best work. I wanted to get away from the heavy traffic, the trash in the streets, the pollution in the air…

I felt this way and didn’t realize it for a long time, and in retrospect, it sapped my productivity, decreased the quality of the work I’d been putting out over the last six months, and probably put me in a foul mood all to frequently.

All this, and throw in the bloody protests outside our doorstep, and finally my girlfriend and I decided it was time to change our scenery. Nikki had found an incredible bungalow in Koh Phangan, an island in the south of Thailand, on the hillside overlooking the beach and the ocean. After almost 21 months in Thailand, I’m finally living on the beach like I’d daydreamed of before I moved abroad!

Watch the video below for a walkthrough of our new home in this beautiful beach paradise. I’ve been a bit quiet the last couple weeks while we’ve been settling into our new home.

Beach Living in Koh Phangan, Thailand

It is an incredible find—we live on the island famous for the Full Moon Party (but on the quiet side of the island on a resort beach) and all of this for only about $480 per month! And even that’s split two ways between us!

Since moving here, we’ve been working diligently (and productively!) on her magazine and other work projects together. And I’ve even kicked my worst habit: it’s only a start, but I haven’t touched a cigarette in three weeks! Whereas the dirty, crowded, hustling streets of Bangkok made me want to smoke, here I’ve been able to let go of a lot of city stresses and live more healthily. (More on my goal to quit smoking in future months, but wish me the best for now!)

If you dream of living somewhere incredible like this—it is easily within your grasp. There are hundreds of thousands of little gems like this just waiting to be found all throughout Asia, South America, and even nestled where you least expect them in your home country.

If you do need a good kick in the ass, something to light a fire under your butt to start thinking outside the box, get out of the office, and get out of your hometown, then stay tuned for our videos here at Thrilling Heroics, and check out the new Backpacker Video Diaries videos Nikki and I are producing together. Four gals from my hometown (Sacramento, California) go traveling throughout Southeast Asia (and eventually South America) for over a year—having a hilarious, adventurous time.

Even if you only relocate for a short sabbatical or a mini-retirement, what’s holding you back from experimenting with traveling and living abroad?

In any case, remember the importance of changing your state when you’re struggling, and if you’re not happy with your life, take a critical look at your surroundings and ask yourself whether you need a change of scenery.

Maybe you just need to get out of the city. Or maybe you need to get out on the road less traveled for a while.

You don’t necessarily have to travel—especially not across the globe like I have. But one thing’s true: travel will push you to reexamine your preconceived ideas about the world—the very first step in freeing you to make the changes necessary to achieve the life that you desire.

At the very least be real with yourself. Are you boxing yourself in somewhere that doesn’t make you happy? Are you convincing yourself to stay in one place when you really don’t have to?

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Change your Life with a Change of Scenery

From March through May, Bangkok, Thailand was victim to intense political unrest, involving skirmishes between anti-government “Redshirt” protesters (UDD), Royal Thai Army soldiers, Bangkok riot police, and third-party elements scattered all around the city.

It had lasted two months but thankfully been fairly isolated in other parts of the city, but in the last few days, for the second year in a row, the clashes very suddenly focused right on Thanon Ratchewithi, the main road that I walk along every day to get to Bangkok’s public transit, the BTS Skytrain.

Friday, May 14th. Everything up until this point in our neighborhood had been fairly quiet. Early afternoon, my girlfriend and I parted ways—she had to do some business errands at the bank and the post office and head to her apartment 5 minutes up the boulevard from me.

Two hours later, I get a phone call. “Someone’s shooting right outside my condo. I can see people running up the street. We’re stuck inside the building, they say it’s not safe to go downstairs.”

Not long after, worried sick about Nikki and her roommate getting stuck in their tower for days (and the potential of losing power, water, etc.) I wandered out with Sean to see what there was to see right at the end of our soi. Demonstrators were subtly provoking the soldiers, who were slowly advancing up the street in our direction. They had blocked off the road to traffic, but there were a few locals trickling out of the sealed-off area, so I was sizing up the situation to see if I could get to them… I was wondering whether there was a back entrance to their property if I went down Soi 1 and climbed the fence…

As Sean and I were getting ready to head back home to safety though, in our last moments of stupid curiosity a few loud shots fired in our direction and we frantically ran for cover with the crowd of onlookers, dodging behind a small pickup truck as the adrenaline started pumping. Just another day in Bangkok, I started off dodging bullets with Sean Ogle, but our neighborhood then fell under siege for the next six+ days.

Looking up Ratchaprarop Road about 300 meters from Nikki’s condo before everything went to hell. (Photo by Sean Ogle)

A protester prepares to hurl a Molotov cocktail up the street from me. (Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images)

A burning tire rolls toward the line of Thai soldiers moving to disperse Red Shirt protesters on Friday, May 14, 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

Red Shirt protesters create a burning barricade on Rama IV road to stop army soldiers from advancing in Bangkok May 15, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

A Thai man believed to be a Red Shirt demonstrator lies dead in the street after being shot by an unidentified sniper Saturday, May 15, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo)

A Thai man removes a can from a burning barricade in a main avenue of Bangkok during clashes between demonstrators and security forces on May 16, 2010. (PEDRO UGARTE/AFP/Getty Images)

Anti-government protesters carry a man who was shot by live ammunition during clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Bangkok on May 16, 2010. (NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)

This is literally 200 meters away from my door, at the end of my soi in Victory Monument. Bangkok on May 16, 2010: a war zone. (Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images)

Thick black smoke billows through the air behind the main Chulalongkorn hospital near the Red Shirt encampment on Wednesday May 19, 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

An armored personnel carrier moves toward a burning anti-government barricade during a military crackdown Wednesday, May 19, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

An anti-government protester piles tires on a fire at a shopping center Wednesday, May 19, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)

A statue and a torn Thai national flag remain in front of Bangkok’s Central World shopping mall, which was gutted by fire after army soldiers advanced towards an encampment of thousands of Red Shirt protesters, May 19, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

Friday night, I watched right outside my window as rioters dragged heaps of sheet metal, scraps, and rods onto my soi to build a makeshift road blockade, watched them throwing Molotov cocktails over my neighbors’ roofs at the police and Army at 4 in the morning. Rubber bullets were flying, tear gas is in the air, and homemade explosives were going off all through the night, grenades being launched in the air, gunfire, and numerous reports (via Twitter) of unidentified snipers on rooftops throughout our neighborhood shooting at protesters, soldiers, and even uninvolved onlookers.

This is the scene that unfolded literally right outside Nikki’s front door on Saturday morning, May 15th—Thanon Ratchaprarop became one of the two main “Live Fire Zones” where soldiers were shooting on sight. Protesters created a tire barricade 15 meters up Nikki’s condo driveway, and at least two or three protesters and bystanders were shot and killed. Their bodies were dragged inside her lobby where a doctor (or a paramedic?) was trying to tend to them. There is also video taken from above by some other residents in her building, from one of the upper floors of The Complete Ratchaprarop condominium. That bursting loud gunfire sound echoed throughout our entire neighborhood all day and all night.

Nikki called me at 10:30 Saturday morning. Needless to say, it had been a rough night to try to sleep.… and I missed the call since I’d only finally passed out three hours earlier. Her third attempt woke me: finally, after she’d been trapped inside for about 24 hours, she had been evacuated from her building by soldiers, guided out the back of the condominium, through an adjoining garden park, and had to use a ladder to get over the back wall.

Without hesitation, I packed a bag in about 10 minutes, taking all my most important items I couldn’t stand not to ever see again. Several of the buildings on our road were torched, as you can see from some of the photos above. Rioters set about 35 major fires around the city, and Asia’s second-largest shopping mall, Central World, was completely destroyed.

Thankfully, we were finally able to meet and get out of the city safely. We took a bus headed to Kanchanaburi, a small countryside town about two hours northwest of Bangkok, to stay alongside the River Kwai for a few days. There were plenty of places in Bangkok that were left untouched, and on some streets life went on like normal and you almost wouldn’t have any idea anything was wrong, but we found ourselves right in the center of the worst of it, so we spent the next four weeks away from home.

But even for the first week well away from harm, I was concerned for the safety of many of my friends who live in my building, or up the street from me, including (you can read their accounts of the events too) Sean Ogle, Dwight Turner, Mark Weins, Jodi Ettenberg, my friends May, Joel, and others…

All around Bangkok, protesters and rioters sacked shops and malls, torched electricity companies, municipal services buildings, the Thai Stock Exchange, provincial halls in areas outside of Bangkok, they shot at firefighters trying to put out fires in Siam, attacked TV stations and newspaper headquarters. After days of rioting, torching, and clashes with Army troops, much of my neighborhood, Victory Monument, Rajavithi Road and Din Daeng intersection in Bangkok, were reduced to rubble.

Peaceful demonstrations and violent uprisings

Our universe revolves around a cycle of creation—life is created and fades, energy is formed and consumed…

In my mind, as human actors in this reality, we have three modes of interaction with this system: production, consumption, and destruction. We create offspring, we distill and consume energy, we produce and consume things of value. Sometimes, we destroy life, or we destroy things of value, so that they are of no use to us or to anyone else.

War is destruction. Don’t let politicians fool you into believing war is about freedom. You don’t need to wage war on another society to become free, or to protect your freedom. Sometimes it is about securing resources for one nation’s future consumption, to someone else’ detriment (like all the US’ wars in the Middle East), but usually it is nothing but destruction.

I don’t condone governments that wage illegal wars. I don’t like seeing soldiers in the streets shooting people. I find all the “collateral damage” of conflict that lasts for decades despicable—the adverse effects on families and societies, the mines that kill and maim children thirty years later in places like Vietnam and Cambodia, for example.

But anti-establishment, anti-government movements are destructive too. They rise out of an opposition to injustice, or opposed to something they see as unethical, which are valid and good motivations. But all too often these groups—even the most organized forms of counterculture movements like Marxism and communism—tend to become as corrupt as the regimes they originally opposed. They use violence and destruction as a means to overthrow the existing systems and institutions.

“What is the point of anyone feeling proud of being the winner, when standing on a pile of ruins and rubble?” –King Rama IX of Thailand

As an aside: I am a capitalist, and until I find a better solution, I think I always will be. The capitalist free market is about both production and consumption. Businesses and entrepreneurs must create value—things and ideas of value—for others to consume. Yes, there are thousands of unethical businesspeople and corporations out there, but ethical entrepreneurs and corporations capitalize on whatever situation they find themselves in in the most effective way they can without causing hardship to those around them—in order to create the best possible outcome from their situation—creating jobs, income, products, services, and new ideas and solutions for problems that society faces.

In the last few months, there has been an interesting discussion unfolding in the online personal development and lifestyle design communities (see here and here, including the comments) about the merits (or lack thereof) of consumerism, pitting capitalist thinkers against anti-capitalist thinkers. But I don’t believe that solutions to the world’s problems—hunger, disease, poverty, war—are mutually exclusive from capitalism. Yes, we need to strive for a more ethical lifestyle design movement for example, and yes, the world deserves more ethical business. Definitely. But a radical abandoning of capitalism in favor of a radical leftist movement isn’t the answer. Anti-consumerism and anti-corporate attitudes aren’t really the answer, and in fact, while I agree with much of what my colleagues who hold those beliefs say, I think going too far down that road is dangerous.

The only way to create true positive change in the world is to find unconventional ways to work within the system, and change it from the inside out. You don’t create long-lasting positive progress with uprisings, by forcefully casting down the existing system, violently overthrowing the ruling elite, or the incumbent institutions. Once you spill blood, you forfeit your credibility entirely.

We are all participating in our own constructed fantasies, and none of us realize it. We are all trapped in prisons we cannot see.

Like Eric Schiller said in his recent critique of the lifestyle design and personal development communities, “the problem is not that we are participating in a fantasy, but the fact that we do not realize it is one.” We are the stories we tell ourselves.

Yes, I have my fantasies, and you have yours. But we need to take off the Che Guevara t-shirts. We need to stop idolizing the mythical “freedom fighters” without fully understanding the details of their lives. (Seriously, read about El Che and all the violent acts he committed before you put on that t-shirt again.) Rejecting consumerism and saying “fuck the system” like you’re Tyler Durden seems cool and trendy, until it leads to running around in ski masks blowing up Starbucks shops and financial buildings.

The protests in Thailand were largely bankrolled by someone very rich and very powerful, and I watched as these people were fed a certain story by protest leaders shouting propaganda over the radio every night for two months. I’m all for peaceful demonstrations, but you either stick to your principles or you don’t, and there’s a big difference when you incite an angry mob to violence. This was more like brainwashing, to the point that it became normal and acceptable to these people to come to Bangkok and destroy people’s businesses and homes, put their own children in harm’s way, kill their own countrymen in the street, and go back home to sleep in their own beds. (Please note: I don’t really support any side here, not the Redshirts, the Yellowshirts, the Army, or anyone. Everyone has some responsibility to take and I just hate seeing people killing each other.)

There is definitely a place for real heroism in the world, but we need to stop painting ourselves in the role of David against Goliath. Governments and people in positions of power use these types of stories to breed nationalism, racism, and hate, and pit us against each other. But if we believe these stories, we end up fighting each other in the street. Instead we must see reality for what it is, and stop believing these myths that it is “us” against “them”, “good” versus “evil”, that we are in some epic battle against injustice which justifies any means to an end.

Society has steeped itself in myths and ideologies about heroism and the fight for what is “right” for millenia—you see it in our stories, in our comic books, in our movies, you see it on television. It’s the reason why the US has occupied Iraq and Afghanistan for nearly a decade. It’s the reason why Christians, Jews, and Muslims continue to murder each other every day.

But the only way to peace and prosperity for everyone is through nonviolence, through rationality, and through conversation.

After being there in the middle of a so-called “people’s uprising” for two consecutive years—a socially- and economically-fueled revolt against the “system”, against the elite, against the people who pull the strings—all I can say is I don’t want any part of it. These things happen all the time, all around the world (we’re pretty sheltered in America). There certainly are important disparities and inequalities that need to be examined and resolved, but we must not sink to the same level of corruption and violence to solve the injustices in the world.

We must embrace rationality. This needs to happen at every level of society, all the way down to you and me. For lifestyle designers, personal development bloggers, and online marketers like us, perhaps we need to reexamine the language we use. We need to stop calling ourselves “radicals” and “revolutionaries” when we’re really not. We need to stop reinforcing the myths of “revolt against the system”. Because I think if you step back and ask yourself if you would truly want to be a part of a real revolution in the streets, I think your answer would be “no”.

We must destroy our idols. We mustn’t make our lives about what we are against, but make them all about what we are for. Whether you’re for liberating people from the cubicle, saving the environment, helping the oppressed and disadvantaged, or otherwise making the world a better place, we need to band together and focus not on destroying what we don’t like but on producing. On creating alternate solutions.

Photo sources:

• Protests turn deadly in Thailand – The Big Picture – Boston.com
• Crackdown in Bangkok – The Big Picture – Boston.com
• Bangkok Street Fighting Intensifies – Photo Essays – TIME
• Terror in Thailand – Photo Gallery – LIFE

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Dodging Real Bullets: Revolutionary Behavior & Violence in the Real World

It’s been a long time since I wrote about sustainability, but it is one issue that will challenge Generation Y like no other generation yet. I’ve shied away from it because I got tired of reporting on news that always seemed to be negative. I got tired of feeling like a doomsayer, which—unfortunately—is what a lot of environmentalists come off sounding like. But Wired Magazine’s 15th anniversary issue has stirred up a lot of talk in the global warming circles that caught my attention yesterday.

Despite the fact that the discussion can be a depressing one, and the options can at times seen hopeless, it remains that climate change is a huge, looming threat for human society, and it will have a huge influence especially on those of us who will still be around in 30 to 50 years. A lot of my peers are passionate about green living and sustainability, and that’s encouraging, because the choices we make with our daily lives, and more importantly the advances we make in science and industry in our lifetimes will have a large influence on whether our planet will sustain human life for the next several hundred years.

I’m not here to argue how much human behavior has impacted global warming—that’s a moot point if you ask me. In my opinion, yes, climate change—to some extent—is inevitable, even without the impact of human society. But the fact still remains that we must either learn to deal with global warming one way or another, or our species may not be able to survive on this changing planet. Regardless of who’s fault it is, our generation has an opportunity to make some big changes. And the difference between failure and success could be several million human lifetimes. I’d rather see our generation preserve the Earth as a hospitable place for our children and grandchildren.

Wired’s latest cover story asks environmentalists, and all the rest of us, to rethink what the green movement means. The writers propose ten controversial “solutions” that run counterintuitive to traditional environmental agendas, citing that “winning the war on global warming requires slaughtering some of environmentalism’s sacred cows.” Here they are: Wired’s ten unconventional remedies for global warming. Click through to learn more.

Wired’s 10 Green Heresies

1. Urban Living Is Kinder to the Planet Than the Suburban Lifestyle
2. Air-Conditioning Actually Emits Less C02 Than Heating
3. Conventional Agriculture Can Be Easier on the Planet than Organics
4. Harvest Old-Growth Forests That Can Actually Contribute to Global Warming
5. Coal-Coughing Industrial Giant China Actually Leads the Way in Alternative-Energy Technology
6. Bio-Engineered Crops Could Put a Real Dent in Greenhouse Gas Emissions
7. Carbon Credits Were a Great Idea, But a Carbon Tax Would Work Better
8. Face It. Nuclear is the Most Sustainable Source of Industrial-Scale Energy
9. No-Brainer: Test-Drive a Used Car Instead of That New Hybrid
10. Climate Change Is Inevitable. Get Used to It

The Wired blog is attracting a lot of discussion—most of it negative. I can sympathize with those who place a great deal of value on conventional environmentalist tenets like conservation and energy efficiency, but I think it’s important to recognize that only a very small percentage of the population is ready to embrace the “less is more” mentality. As the article states, “We must accept that the world’s fastest-growing economies won’t forgo a higher standard of living in the name of climate science.” All across the world, as societies become more affluent, they become more materialistic and they consume more resources and energy. Changing that intrinsic human behavior will prove to be a much more difficult challenge than adapting to it. It’s time to find solutions that can work in our business-centric, materialistic world. That’s the real world.

What do you guys think? Am I off my rocker for embracing used cars and nukes? Do you think Generation Y stands a chance of turning the world sustainable? How do you hope to contribute? Or do you still think all this global warming stuff is bunk?

[source: Wired.com]

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: 10 Controversial Climate Change Fixes to Spark Discussion—From Wired.com

According to the Urban Monk, the blogosphere is coming to an end. If I had just one last post, what would it be? What would I say…to you guys…my audience…

I was thinking about what’s most important to me yesterday–what I’m most passionate about–”why do I spend so much time researching and writing about this stuff?” I thought to myself. I don’t get paid to write this blog. I’ve made about 54 cents, whereas it costs me about $90/year to keep ThrillingHeroics.com running.

Why do I do it, then? I spent my Earth Day describing to my dad how some of my generation feels like it’s inheriting this huge problem from those who came before us. Al Gore’s movie opened a lot of eyes to global warming this past year (including mine), and the damage it could potentially do to our world. And my personal life goal is to have a hand in changing the world for the better!

Now some people are still skeptical—my father for instance says that he has lived through far too many environmental panics that didn’t turn out the way scientists and environmentalists said they would. But I’m not interested in conjecturing or worrying about who’s to blame—that’s all a waste of time, and talk like that is designed to mislead you from the real challenges at hand. And yeah, we might avert the problem altogether…if we’re really lucky (in my opinion). My concerns don’t depend on the verity of global warming so much though—my issue is with the simple fact that our species is expanding very rapidly—exponentially—developing nations are fast becoming as industrialized and affluent as the United States, and we are burning through natural resources like there’s no tomorrow.

Well, there IS a tomorrow. At least, I want to ensure there is a tomorrow. These things only replenish so fast.

So my concern is more with the long-term sustainability of our society. I’m looking at consumption and growth trends. I want to have kids one day—but I don’t want them to be born into a post-apocalyptic industrial wasteland, and I don’t want them to starve because China takes all our resources, for instance. The problem is a simple problem of economics.

I’m an environmentalist at heart—because my dad used to take me camping and hiking and all that jazz every summer. I enjoy the “outdoors.” Now I approach my environmentalism from a business standpoint—because sustainability really poses a challenge to business and economic growth! Most companies look one year into the future to try to improve upon their past performance, but they need to look further into the future if they want to sustain over the long haul.

I’m not trying to scare you with doom and gloom. I’m trying to seek out individuals who are making a DIFFERENCE! Proactive people who are creating innovative solutions to these environmental and social problems—to hold them up as an example for future leaders…the best of my generation who will need to tackle things like poverty, hunger, the availability of clean water, natural resources, land to build our cities on, and so forth.

I think the best way to solve as many problems efficiently is to reduce the amount of work involved in the things we already know how to do well. That means using fewer resources and reusing what we can, increasing our energy efficiency, decreasing the distance we have to move food and raw materials, and so on.

There are a lot of people on this planet. And so far, it’s the only home we have. So I ask everybody to think critically about your use of energy and resources. Try to live more sustainably. Think about replenishable power sources. Buy local food, or grow your own. Do it for your kids, and your grandkids, and so on.

Also, if the blogosphere were coming to an end I’d have to ask you to look for me in print! Yup, that’s right–look for the THRILLING heroics book! One day…I’d like to publish the stories of dozens of cutting edge social entrepreneurs and “ecopreneurs” as I like to call them. People who are doing well for themselves AND doing good for the planet/for society at the same time. It’s not impossible…

Thanks to Nia for tagging me for this meme on her Leave America blog. Nia also has a neat blog where she looks at sustainable living in Portugal, among other things. If you want to participate in the Blog Apocalypse meme—Urban Monk will give $500 to charity!! Anyone who wants to participate is welcome—just link to my post here, and link to this page that tells you all about the Blog Apocalypse.

I’ll tag Adam, Ryan, James Van, James Britton, Steve, Patrick, Robyn, and Ron.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: The Last Thrill

For years under the Bush administration, the Environmental Protection Agency has argued that it has no authority to regulate carbon emissions. Imagine that, the one government office in charge of–what other than protecting the environment–hasn’t been doing its job? Well, five Supreme Court justices ruled yesterday that carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases DO count as “air pollutants,” and are thus within EPA regulatory jurisdiction under the authority of the 1990 Clean Air Act.

A Supreme Day for Clean Air in America [PR Newswire]

What will this mean? It means the EPA is getting a slap on the wrist and will have to reexamine and limit the greenhouse gas pollution from new motor vehicles. While all the rest of the developing world has been working together to cooperate under Kyoto and producing cars with twice the mileage as US automakers, the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world (with the most resources to concentrate on the problem) has not been held responsible for its contributions to global warming, and once and for all, we finally WILL be responsible for our vehicle emissions. The ruling should please California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as it will empower him to enforce a law in that state that will require car manufacturers to produce lower-emission vehicles by 2009.

Environmental Defense (ED) President Fred Krupp said after the Supreme Court verdict Tuesday, “Today, the highest court in the land decided that the Clean Air Act clearly empowers the EPA to address the pressing problem of global warming pollution. Unfortunately, the EPA has refused to act and swift congressional action will be critical to ensure real progress. The Court did all it can, but if we’re really going to fix climate change, Congress has to pass a cap on global warming pollution, and soon.”

The high court also wrapped up an old Clinton-era lawsuit on Monday, Environmental Defense et al v. Duke Energy Corporation, in favor of ED, and in unanimous support of a federal initiative to install pollution controls at older coal power plants.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Supreme Court Rules In Favor of Global Warming

Many believe that in order to conquer global warming, we need to see a full transformation in human living spaces and transportation. Which is a LOT of work!

Well, there are a few communities that are working hard to create drastically innovative living centers that change land use and transportation needs for the better. These “eco-cities” are something I’ve been meaning to share for some time—there’s one in development right here in California’s Bay Area! Califia is a proposed economically- and ecologically-sustainable community in the works for the next ten to fifteen years which will support a population of 10,000 in the San Francisco metro area. In conjunction with a worldwide network of similar development projects, the Green Century Institute is leading what it calls “network-facilitated community development”–through online wikis and forums, as well as offline salons and community design summits–with leading urban design advisors Paolo Soleri and Jon Jerde.

“…We envision Califia as a leading edge eco-development joining next generation green architectural design principles and information systems into integral human living environments for the 21st century. Key to the design will be the innovative social meshwork underlying it, which will be implemented in a flexible mixed-use project combining traditional and cohousing-style residential development–a full suite of community, commercial, and social spaces to maximize human potential and group interactions.”

For a look at some similar development projects, take a look at Arizona’s Arcosanti and Auroville in Southern India. For more on Califia, here’s the Green Century Institute’s proposed plan.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Drastic Evolutions in Sustainable Development

A recent article from Worldchanging makes the simple (and what should be obvious) point that what they call “climate foresight” is becoming a necessary skill to pick up. I like this article because it sums up the point that 1) the source of global warming is no longer worth arguing about because it is happening either way, 2) we need to realize how this “scientific possibility” will affect us as humans, 3) we can choose to either do nothing about it or do what we can to keep things at a level of “neutrality” (not BETTER, but rather, keep things right where they are–if we act now), 4) we already have the knowledge and the ability to save the planet, we just need to DO it!

From Worldchanging’s article “Preparing For Life in a Warming World”:

Economic, environmental, social systems—all will be strained. Left unaddressed, climate change may prove to be the worst economic disaster in history, says the British Government. Climate change has already begun to wreak havoc in the natural world, and most experts expect it to become a major driver of ecological collapses while limiting our ability to respond effectively to environmental decline caused by other factors. Meanwhile, scientists have begun to refer to the people living in particularly vulnerable places as Environmental Refugees-To-Be, and some people believe we can expect to see 200 million people driven from their homes by the middle of the century. Already, insurance companies are recognizing that buying beachfront property is a bad idea.

As their mission statement says, the solutions already exist, humankind just needs to collaborate to ENACT them. This is exactly what I believe, and it is why I continue writing online every day! (You thought I was making money for this! Hah.) If you think that changing the direction we are going is important, then please join me in forming a community of concerned citizens. That is why this site exists: to bring people with a common interest in doing GOOD together to collaborate in a GRASSROOTS movement to create solutions to global problems, and to facilitate change. Remember, I am just learning too. I am here to share my experience learning about climate change, genocide, poverty, hunger, disease, and more, and about creative solutions to those problems—in other words: ways that we can do WORK, and live LIVES that MATTER.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Let’s Prevent Life in a Post-Apocalyptic World

This is the third post in a series that I was inspired to write by what I learned from a recent National Geographic Traveler feature. In today’s post, I give some concrete examples of animal species that are suffering due to global warming.

Many people tend to think that “global warming = everything getting hotter,” so when there are unusually cold winters like the one here in Sacramento, they think that disproves global warming. Unfortunately that’s not the case. Global warming means more extreme weather patterns, both hot and cold, which puts stress on whole ecosystems. Ecosystems are made up of thousands of interdependent living things, and when one member of the food chain disappears, the rest of the system suffers, and it can create a domino effect.

These are just a few of the species that are endangered or already extinct because of human-generated carbon emissions:

Antarctic Peninsula – Emperor and Adélie penguins have long been an attraction for Arctic cruise ships. But they are quickly disappearing along with the floe ice.
Penguin Decline in Antarctica Linked With Climate Change [National Geographic News]

British Columbia – Cold winters used to kill off the beetles that eat the pine forests of Jasper and Banff parks, but now warmer winters allow the beetles to thrive, and the dead, dry pines are left susceptible to raging forest fires.
Forest Was Easy Prey For Raging Tripod Fire [Seattle Times]

Caribbean – Scientists believe dust fallout from unusually hot, dry Saharan wind storms in Africa is carrying a fungus that kills sea-fan coral in Florida and the Caribbean.
African Dust Killing Caribbean Coral [BBC]

Chesapeake – The Chesapeake and Delaware Bays attract the largest amount of migratory shorebirds on the Atlantic–but populations have declined by over 90% due to deepening water, which eats up the birds’ marsh habitat.
The Case of the Vanishing Islands [National Geographic]

Costa Rica – Extreme rain and cold have diminished the food supply for Corcovado howler monkeys, while about 20 frog species in Monteverde are already lost to climate change.
Rain Forest Gets Too Much Rain, and Animals Pay the Price [NYT]
Why The Frogs Are Dying [Newsweek]

Manitoba – Polar bears’ food source in the pack ice is disappearing, and so are the bears! Populations have shrunk by a quarter since 1987 in this bear-watching haven.
Global Warming Could Starve Polar Bears [BBC]

It is no longer debated whether global warming is real; the question is how long will we be idle before we change the ways we live and do business, so that our lifestyle no longer affects our environment so negatively? Take a look back next week for Part IV on how global warming is transforming the faces of iconic landmarks like Mount Kilimanjaro.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Slow Cooker Earth Part III: What You Should Know About Species Extinction

National Geographic Traveler magazine recently featured a full exposé on global warming, climate change, and how it will affect travel and tourism. This was a great series, but unfortunately it is not available online. So I will post a series of articles that covers the evidence they’ve gathered, plus some. Today, I present the emerging signs of climate change as they manifest themselves in weather patterns. Below are a few examples of how changing weather conditions are already causing problems around the world, and some possible weather-related threats on the horizon. If you don’t believe global warming is real–if you think it’s just a “trend”–here are some examples of how it is making real problems in our world. If you don’t think finding environmentally sustainable ways of living is an important thing to do, here is why it is:

Arizona – Global warming computer models project rainfall problems. An eight-year drought consistent with global warming has no immediate end in sight, and may cause water shortages for Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.
State Could Impose Water Restrictions [Associated Press]

Canada – Arctic winters have warmed by 4° Fahrenheit. In 2003, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf on Ellesmere Island–once 150 feet thick, and 3,000 years old–broke up.
Arctic Ice Shelf Splits [BBC]

Himalayas – Glacial melting in the Himalaya causes flooding downstream and disrupts agriculture and ecosystems throughout India, Tibet, Nepal, and China.
Himalayan Glaciers ‘Melting Fast’ [China Daily]

Holland – Dutch cities like Amsterdam sit on such a sophisticated network of dikes and water gates that increased rainfall on the Rhine River, and glacial runoff from the Alps, pose a serious flood threat.
Global Warming Poses Threat to Dutch [Reuters]

Mediterranean – Tourist-packed beaches are experiencing record numbers of 100°-plus heatwaves. Most recently, hundreds of thousands of jellyfish washed ashore, killed by high temperatures.
Spain’s Beaches, Flora Feel The Heat [CBS News]

Siberia – As arctic lakes dry up and icy tundra melts away, greenhouse gases are released that may intensify global warming even further.
Climate Warning as Siberia Melts [New Scientist]

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Slow Cooker Earth Part I: How Weather Patterns Are Changing Worldwide

Terrapass is a Menlo Park-based alternative energy company that sells carbon credits to consumers who want to balance out their “carbon footprint,” or the amount of carbon dioxide emissions they generate through travel and other energy consumption.

You can buy a credit (starting at $30 a year depending on what kind of vehicle you drive and how many miles a year you travel) for your car that funds clean energy projects enough to balance your global warming impact. The way they do this is through supporting things such as wind energy farms; biomass energy, which burns methane collected from dairy farms for energy; and other voluntary carbon dioxide emissions cap-and-trade systems. Click here for more information about the company and about the projects they support. They also sell credits to balance your airline travel and energy consumed in your home.

I thought this was a pretty neat solution for environmentally-conscious consumers! I think I might look into purchasing a credit for my car this year! Also, if you sign up for their email newsletter, they’ll send you a coupon for 10% off the cost of a credit. What other types of enviro-conscious solutions have you come across?

-Calculate the emissions impact of your vehicle on TerraPass.com

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Eliminate Your Vehicle’s Carbon Footprint

The graph above has become increasingly noteworthy recently. It is the product of a years-old study by climate scientist Michael E. Mann, which shows a sharp rise in greenhouse gases in the last century, known as the “hockey stick curve.” The discussion of global warming in the media is growing at an exponential rate. Viewers of the film An Inconvenient Truth saw a similar curve to Mann’s hockey stick. Several different studies–often measuring CO2 levels, heat trends, and other climate elements in tree rings, lakebottom sediment, choral layers, and glacial records–have shown similar trends. Some say the earth’s climate is its hottest since the middle ages, some say it is hotter than it ever has been in two millenia. There is one thing that the scientists agree on–that there is something to this study, and if anything is to blame, it is human activities. They even gave Al Gore’s film five stars for accuracy!

This has been a hot topic here in California (no pun intended). On September 27, we became the first state to enact a universal cap on greenhouse gas emissions. However, many business-minded professionals disagree with setting the nation’s first standards on emissions here in our state for fear that it will increase the cost of doing business and send more businesses out-of-state and overseas. While this is a valid concern, does economic prosperity really outweigh the health of our ecosystem? (Believe it or not, it’s not only animals that rely on the environment around them to survive! And what’s the advantage of thriving business and deep pockets if there’s no planet to live and do business on?) I often hear these individuals then try to rationalize their position by saying that the claims are unfounded. “This is a natural part of the earth’s cyclical climate,” they like to say. Thank you, experts.

Across the nation both businesses and politicians are questioning the validity of so-called “global warming.” The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has even gone so far as to put Michael Mann’s hockey stick curve on trial. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports, “Gerald North, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University at College Station, served as chairman of the National Research Council committee that has investigated the hockey-stick curve. Despite finding some problems in the seven-year-old study that was the basis of the curve, the panel determined that it is basically correct in its conclusions, which have been corroborated by more-recent work,” including research by the University of East Anglia-England, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and others, which have all reached similar conclusions. Henry Waxman (D-Ca), said of the investigation, “This committee is doing what the deniers of global warming would have us do: ignore all the important questions and divert ourselves to a ridiculous effort to discredit a climate scientist… It’s back to the tactics of the tobacco industry–manufacture doubt to delay action on an urgent problem.”

So while they still debate it at the Federal level, at least we are taking action here in California. And I think that the California bill, which aims to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020, is good legislation. I’ve tried to show with the above evidence that global warming is a fairly uncontested reality for most scientists nowadays. So not only does that soothe your concerns for accurate science, but here is how I think the bill also solves business’ economic concerns: it sets an emissions standard for California companies, but my understanding is that anyone who wants to supply to California companies must also meet our standards. This means that our legislation will begin to influence other states and other countries as well–hopefully transforming the ethical obligations government and industry worldwide feel they have toward the environment–and not just push business away (even if some companies do move elsewhere, it opens up space for new competition, and competent businesses will always move in where there is space in the market for them). Also, those companies who fail to meet the standard can opt to buy credits from those companies who outperform the standard (thus the trade in “caps-and-trades”). This will actually create a new market here in California (one which a close friend of mine is interested in setting up business in), and thus create more jobs. A writer for TIME magazine recently wrote what I thought was a great assessment of the new bill: “California’s Global-Warming Solution” (a MUST-READ!). If we want to continue to thrive on this planet, then green is the future. Economic, social, and ecological sustainability are in everyone’s interest. I think it’s time we all acknowledge that.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Cap-and-Trade Global Warming Solutions