Six total hours in Farragut Square in two trips. Six hours in one of the places in America where you can be almost sure that the people you encounter are going to be smarter than average and far more informed about important, politicized issues. Climate change, for example.

We think we know more than we do. (Credit: Yale Climate Change Study)

The polling I’ve seen seems to indicate that, if they were average Americans, about 3/5 the people in that park should have been able to explain climate change to me (the stats if you’re feeling wonky).

Six hours of above average Americans. 1/5 had a clue (barely). Not so great.

So where’s the disconnect? People think they know, people say they care (specifically, they say it to weathermen), but it looks like they don’t know. Somewhere along the chain, something isn’t right.

From what’s out there on the internet, it looks like the problem is two pronged: the information that’s out there isn’t always great, and even when it is, sometimes we just don’t care enough.

Not caring enough is the one we can take care of. Yes, climate change can seem very far away sometimes, like it’s not our problem. It’s a very real phenomenon called the free rider problem – the concept has always been around and it factors into most discussions of shared resources, but it really starts to matter to us when climate is involved. Thing is, it’s not such a faraway problem. If, like me, you’re around 26, your kids are going to be dealing with this. Not in the abstract either – the rising wall of water is going to be barreling down at them. I don’t want that for my kids – my family is not a group of strong swimmers.

It’s not just the free rider problem, either – it goes deeper. We weren’t, as a generation, raised to think about the environment properly.There’s a huge gap that we fail to bridge at our own peril.

Polling aside, there’s a consensus, I assure you. (Credit: Yale Climate Change Study)

So shame on you, shame on me – but it’s not all us. Two prongs, remember? Prong two: the information out there isn’t the greatest. Consider that one presidential candidate and an entire major political party keeps trivializing the entire concept. Consider that there’s an entire group of people out there who, when presented with new, conclusive evidence retreat further into tinfoil-hat territory. (Thepsychology of climate denial is fascinating, by the way.) Most importantly, consider that the science, the actual, solid data, is just hard for most people to understand.

So it’s hard sometimes to figure this out, but we have to. This is the defining issue of our time – we need to know, and we need to know now. All of us, from wonks to bros, need to get literate on climate fast. And it’s not impossible – real information on climate change is out there, if you know where to look.

#thinkfwd - it’s the only way to a future we’ll enjoy.

- Mike DeVito

(Source: planetforward.org)

Planet Forward first learned about Ecovative Design when they uploaded a video about their packaging materials made out of mushrooms to the site a few years ago.  Now, Ecovative is venturing into the world of footwear.  Ecovative is partnering with Puma, a clothing and shoe company, to produce a completely compostable shoe.

Ecovative cooks and cleans crop waste, adds mushroom tissue, and then molds the material into shapes, whether it’s packaging material or the sole of a shoe.  The material is then heated to sterilize and kill any remaining biological matter, leaving behind a sturdy, yet light, alternative to plastic.

The shoes are not expected to be available for another year.  However, Ecovative’s work is viewed as a step in the right direction toward their goal of replacing plastic once and for all.

(Source: planetforward.org)

http://inhabitat.com/prefab-sustainable-housing-made-from-recycled-shipping-containers/

Shipping containers are known for their inherent strength, wide availability and

(Source: facebook.com)

(Source: earthtechling.com)

The following was published on Bloomberg View on November 1, 2012.

The devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to New York City and much of the Northeast – in lost lives, lost homes and lost business – brought the stakes of Tuesday’s presidential election into sharp relief.

The floods and fires that swept through our city left a path of destruction that will require years of recovery and rebuilding work. And in the short term, our subway system remains partially shut down, and many city residents and businesses still have no power. In just 14 months, two hurricanes have forced us to evacuate neighborhoods – something our city government had never done before. If this is a trend, it is simply not sustainable.

Our climate is changing. And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it might be – given this week’s devastation – should compel all elected leaders to take immediate action.

Here in New York, our comprehensive sustainability plan – PlaNYC – has helped allow us to cut our carbon footprint by 16 percent in just five years, which is the equivalent of eliminating the carbon footprint of a city twice the size of Seattle. Through the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group – a partnership among many of the world’s largest cities – local governments are taking action where national governments are not.

Leadership Needed

But we can’t do it alone. We need leadership from the White House – and over the past four years, President Barack Obama has taken major steps to reduce our carbon consumption, including setting higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks. His administration also has adopted tighter controls on mercury emissions, which will help to close the dirtiest coal power plants (an effort I have supported through my philanthropy), which are estimated to kill 13,000 Americans a year.

Mitt Romney, too, has a history of tackling climate change. As governor of Massachusetts, he signed on to a regional cap-and-trade plan designed to reduce carbon emissions 10 percent below 1990 levels. “The benefits (of that plan) will be long-lasting and enormous – benefits to our health, our economy, our quality of life, our very landscape. These are actions we can and must take now, if we are to have `no regrets’ when we transfer our temporary stewardship of this Earth to the next generation,” he wrote at the time.

He couldn’t have been more right. But since then, he has reversed course, abandoning the very cap-and-trade program he once supported. This issue is too important. We need determined leadership at the national level to move the nation and the world forward.

I believe Mitt Romney is a good and decent man, and he would bring valuable business experience to the Oval Office. He understands that America was built on the promise of equal opportunity, not equal results. In the past he has also taken sensible positions on immigration, illegal guns, abortion rights and health care. But he has reversed course on all of them, and is even running against the health-care model he signed into law in Massachusetts.

If the 1994 or 2003 version of Mitt Romney were running for president, I may well have voted for him because, like so many other independents, I have found the past four years to be, in a word, disappointing.

In 2008, Obama ran as a pragmatic problem-solver and consensus-builder. But as president, he devoted little time and effort to developing and sustaining a coalition of centrists, which doomed hope for any real progress on illegal guns, immigration, tax reform, job creation and deficit reduction. And rather than uniting the country around a message of shared sacrifice, he engaged in partisan attacks and has embraced a divisive populist agenda focused more on redistributing income than creating it.

Important Victories

Nevertheless, the president has achieved some important victories on issues that will help define our future. His Race to the Top education program – much of which was opposed by the teachers’ unions, a traditional Democratic Party constituency – has helped drive badly needed reform across the country, giving local districts leverage to strengthen accountability in the classroom and expand charter schools. His health-care law – for all its flaws - will provide insurance coverage to people who need it most and save lives.

When I step into the voting booth, I think about the world I want to leave my two daughters, and the values that are required to guide us there. The two parties’ nominees for president offer different visions of where they want to lead America.

One believes a woman’s right to choose should be protected for future generations; one does not. That difference, given the likelihood of Supreme Court vacancies, weighs heavily on my decision.

One recognizes marriage equality as consistent with America’s march of freedom; one does not. I want our president to be on the right side of history.

One sees climate change as an urgent problem that threatens our planet; one does not. I want our president to place scientific evidence and risk management above electoral politics.

Of course, neither candidate has specified what hard decisions he will make to get our economy back on track while also balancing the budget. But in the end, what matters most isn’t the shape of any particular proposal; it’s the work that must be done to bring members of Congress together to achieve bipartisan solutions.

Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan both found success while their parties were out of power in Congress – and President Obama can, too. If he listens to people on both sides of the aisle, and builds the trust of moderates, he can fulfill the hope he inspired four years ago and lead our country toward a better future for my children and yours. And that’s why I will be voting for him.

When disaster strikes, people look for explanations – why did this happen? How can we prevent it from happening again? Hurricane Sandy is no exception. In the aftermath of the storm news outlets have been examining these big questions, concluding that Sandy wasdirectly related to climate change and that we should indeed beworried about the future implications.

One question that keeps appearing throughout news stories and social media alike is particularly worth reflecting on: were we warned, and did we ignore these warnings? The New York Times says that, at least in the case of New York City, the answer is an absolute yes – we were warned, for nearly a decade.

So how can we heed the warnings now, and prevent another disaster? Planet Forward has a few ideas, starting with today’s new webisode. #THINKFWD team members Ethan Oser and Shivan Sarna take a look at the rising number of disasters, the costs associated with them and how we can change the way we think to prevent further damage.

Digging in to the Planet Forward archives we can look at how places like Thailand cope with floods, and how people in San Francisco andVietnam are working to deal with rising sea levels. There’s also the ways people are innovating new solutions, like the architects whodesigned a floating house. Finally, take a look back at our host Frank Sesno’s interview with renowned filmmaker Harry Shearer on the documentary “The Big Uneasy,” which he put together in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

With disasters on the rise and a mess on the East Coast to clean up, it’s time for solutions. Submit your ideas on how to move the planet forward, and how to deal with the very real, very human impacts of climate change.

Sandy reignites the discussion around climate change. What do you think of the new Bloomberg Businessweek cover story?

Hurricane Floods: Are our monuments safe from floods?

See how these walls of the futre could protect the national mall’s treasures.

(Source: planetforward.org)

This week, tackling one of the great challenges of our time – water. The engineers at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) say they have the answer that could make it cheaper and less energy-intensive to clean water. It has no moving parts and no filter. Instead, it uses a vortex to separate the contaminants from the water.