Reprehensible Greenwash on CO2 Emissions!

I am on a holiday in Hawaii but all of my surfing has been on the Net.  I could not let this extreme example of greenwash go by without sharing.  http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2009/10/09/plants_need_co2/index.html?source=newsletter

And now out of Bangkok we hear Saudi Arabia complaining that they need economic support if climate change legislation passes?  Spare me!  Quit using oil profits to fund terrorists is a place to start revising your economy.

Albertans Want to be Proud of Their Oilsands Development

Here is the link to RebootAlberta where I posted the text of the Commentary I wrote and taped for CBC Radio earlier last week.  It will be broadcast on CBC Radio One Edmonton AM program at 8:15 a.m.  Give it a listen if you have your radio ears on at that time and place.

PM Harper Sings at the National Arts Centre Gala

OMG Prime Minister Harper singing and playing piano at the National Arts Centre Gala last night. He does a great job of the Beatle hit "I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends." He sounds at least as good as Ringo on the original version.

I thought the PM was opposed to these taxpayer subsidized limousine liberal artys-fartys galas. Now he cavorts with the socialites and the separatists and sings at galas. Good for him!

http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/media_gallery.asp?media_category_id=20&media_id=3796

There is an election coming and this is much better than the pastel sweater image makeover of Mr. Harper in the last election. This performance rings true even if it is somewhat surprising given his well known negative attitude towards arts and culture generally.

Bottom line - I really appreciate this glimpse at the humanity of Stephen Harper. This is much better than the past tactics of slagging his opponents in nasty and negative television advertising campaigns.

H/T to AllieW on Twitter for the link

A Sermon on Saving the Planet by Father George Carlin

This morning's repast with my newspaper (aka tangible media) was full of Greenpeace Photo-Op Protestations and Premier Stelmach calling them "tourists" and offering them guided tours of our world famous judicial system. Then we have new reports of old ice on polar caps melting at unprecedented rates to a comprehensive analysis by Graham Thomson of the big engineering Carbon Capture and Sequestration projects to save the planet projects. Then I had the most counter-intuitive piece of all, Lorne Gunther writing about and delights of "whole food" in an environmental context and segueing to health care.

Then a new twitter Follower had a link to an old George Carlin piece on saving the planet. I love George Carlin for so many reasons and at so many levels. This piece is a perfect example of his acerbic and nimble mind. His bottom line is the planet is fine and will do quite well without our species as part of its future. He says humans, like most species before us are on our way to extinction and we are self inducing our demise.



Carlin is always profane, funny, profound and perhaps prophetic. Gandhi had the prescription for the disease we humans are inflicting on our habitat and other creatures with whom we share the biosphere "You must be the change you want to see in the world." All else is detail and discipline.

Design Thinking+Integrated Thinking= New Politics for Alberta?

Here is a TED Talk by Tim Brown that is a helpful provocation to consider in reactivating citizenship in Alberta. He says "The human need is the place to start." We seem to be lead by a Modernist model that says getting rich and having a job is the human place to start. Not good enough any more.

http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_brown_urges_designers_to_think_big.html