Saving the world is hard enough without it also being boring. So here’s a smattering of ways to have fun while being more eco-friendly.

1. The Fun Theory - a great competition that came up with a bunch of creative ways to get people to do more eco-things by making them the more fun option. Their site features a bunch of videos of the entries. Shown here was a great recycling bin design that got people to run around gathering recyclables to use it.
2. Japan’s Fun Train – Want to make more people use trains? What if they were great places to be in? These two trains from Japan are great examples of using this idea to make trains more kid-friendly. But really the idea could be taken in many different directions with amazing results.
3. Seed bomb vending machine – Treehugger pointed this nice one out, and I don’t know if it really makes anything more fun, but it tickled me pink, so here it is.
4. Designers’ eco- coloring book – Now, I know that many alterna-folks aren’t crazy about coloring books, because of the notion that it’s spoonfed “coloring-in-the-lines” instructions. But that wasn’t my experience at all as a kid. Rather, it was a great way to get comfy with using color, discovering color combinations and playing with different techniques and materials. In any case, this book is even more fun. Professional illustrators were asked to contribute pages on an environmental theme, making for a fun, arty coloring book that you can also use to indoctrinate your child into the eco-hegemony! Shown here, an illustration from the book by Delphine Vaufrey.
5. Rep. Markey’s statement on Climate Change Deniers – This just stands as a great example of how activism is far more fun when we bring in humor instead of just polemics. It’s only a little over a minute and really worth a listen.  See vid clip below.

Music is a powerful force in the universe: it can inform, inspire, move and enlighten us. Except when it sucks.

And sure enough, it’s easier to write a sucky song about politics than a good one. In fact, Grist provided a whole list of songs about climate change that suck [Link corrected - sorry 'bout that]. So I went on a quest to find songs about this topic that don’t suck. And it wasn’t easy. I couldn’t even get 10. But it’s a start, and I’m hoping you can let me know of any others.

My criteria were pretty simple and completely subjective: it had to be intelligent and sophisticated in it’s handling of the subject, or fun and clever, but anything insipid or trite was not allowed.

So, in no particular order, here’s the list:

Climate Songs That Don’t Suck

 
This Monkey’s Gone to Heaven – Pixies – lyrics

Idioteque – Radiohead – lyrics

Watershed – Vienna Teng – lyrics

Tables and chairs – andrew bird – lyrics

The Clock – Thom Yorke (and ALBUM: The Eraser) – lyrics

And note that this entire album (!!) is apparently about climate change, but this one stands alone in a way that I don’t think the others do.

Sleeping in – postal service – lyrics

White Light – Vienna Teng – lyrics

While I’ve been told this may not be strictly about climate change, I think it works well for it – and the sounds like a tea-pot heating up and whistling puts it in place for me.

Yes, that’s it. 7 songs. Despite a list of over 350 climate related songs that others have put together. Now, maybe some of those don’t suck. I didn’t listen to or know them all.

But here are 2 Special Mentions to at least boost the list a little:
Thanks – Erin McKeown, Amy Martin and Missoula Coyote Choir – lyrics
A sweet song off the great biomimicry kids album by Amy Martin.

Long Line of Cars – Cake – lyrics

Enjoy – and let me know if you know of any others.

As I’ve said before, I got all excited this winter about Jane McGonigal’s TEDtalk and the notion of making the task of changing the world FUN.  So imagine my thrill, when my first draft of an idea was listed as Game of the Week (for several weeks) last month at McGonigal’s Gameful website (home of games of the social good).

Some details still need fleshing out, and it needs some real-time play testing. If you’re interested, write to boltofninjas [at] gmail.com. Meanwhile, here are the basics:

Bolt of Ninjas!

Your friend’s house has a Ninja infestation… started by YOU!

One of the problems with saving energy or water, is that to most people they’re invisible. No one can see the difference. Home improvements are more fun when you can see them right? Invisible is bad, right? Wrong! Invisible is good… when you’re a Ninja!

Bolt of Ninjas! is a real-life game that is a designed to be a bunch of fun, while also helping out your friends and making the world a better place. What’s not to love?

The goal: Help make a friend’s home more energy efficient.

The challenge: You have limited time in which to get the work done — without being caught!

The rules for Bolt of Ninjas! are really pretty basic and explained in detail below:

They may show that he’s been part of two very different “cities”, but we know it’s one love-able, worldchanging Cecil. This new article from Stanford about our very own lagomorph/skytalk author is really nicely written. But it still doesn’t give the magic resume skills that he must have to make that switch from rural ecovillage to NYC superstar.  Maybe his next career will be resume writing coach. But of course, as his own history shows, a combination of a dedicated life and fine-honed smarts will accomplish more than anything else.

Go Cecil!

Instead of writing a more typical article this week, I thought I’d try an eco-splatter of different tidbits that I’ve been collecting – some are older, some newer, but all on a theme. For this starter eco-splatter the topic is  sharing (aww…).  Enjoy:

• A nice overview of the interest in shared resources here from the Economist with the nice subtitle: The Business of Sharing, what to do when you’re green, broke and connected.
• Of course, there’s all the standard cool eco things to share, such as cars, bikes, gardens and housing (for individual sharing, or in coop style, but below are some sharing options that were new to me and really cool.
• Locally, I’ve been seeing a nice roll-out of sharing around the local food scene with great projects such as Real Good Food, which coordinates people sharing the delicious food they make.
• On a related note (in that it’s about food), here’s a great resource for helping people share food in the time-honored potluck style. It’s a great, free online potluck organizer called Lucky Potluck. I’ve used it for Thanksgiving the last few years and everyone loved it.
• The Sobi bikeshare concept helps overcome some of the problems we’re seeing emerge with the usual bikeshare concept, and uses GPS and smartphones to lock the bikes up anywhere instead of in designated areas.
• The Landshare project goes beyond the usual community garden idea and links up people who want to grow with people who have land they’d like to see something grown on.

Dear President Obama,

I am writing to urge you to not show any strong support for the democratic uprisings occurring in the Middle East right now.  This appears to be your approach so far anyway, and I’m here to bolster it.

These uprisings are significant.  People across Arab lands are making important history right now.  The depth of this importance still remains to be seen, but it could possibly change the face of the globe for the coming century.  Better yet, they may usher in a new era of democratic achievement, possibly even new models for the great democratic experiment that our own country helped start in the new era and still struggles with today.

Given your values and your position as President of the United States, you’d be a fool to not support these efforts. Yet many people have criticized your action on this topic because you have offered words of encouragement but little else. And while I can only guess at your reasons for this, I personally think it’s the right move.

I’ve intentionally been ambiguous about whether I’m being sarcastic up to this point. But I’m not. Here’s why:

If America came on strong right now as a huge ally and supporter of these efforts it could be the single biggest threat to their success.  People are striving for democracy and a voice in their governments, and they are doing it right next to strong regimes, cultural movements and people who would like to stop them. If America came swooping in and appeared to be a major backing force in these efforts, it could easily be a death knell for the pro-democracy movement.

Furthermore, America likes to swagger a bit with our claim to Defenders of Democracy. But the victories in the middle east are not ours to claim. It belongs to the people who’ve been working in the streets, in meetings and over the years. It is their victory and must belong to them.

We will find ways to support their efforts over time, but for now let us mostly watch with curiosity and wonder at the power and beauty of this movement.  First, let us learn. Then, we can help.

Conceptual frameworks that help us understand the full picture are really useful when tackling such complex topics a social change. And of course, conceptual frameworks are just that: a useful framework that still needs lots of details filled in from a lot experience, detailed study, specific approaches, etc.  But without those frameworks, it’s easy to miss seeing the forest for the trees.

Of course, when those conceptual frameworks are also combined with simple, but effective graphics, the results are much easier to remember.

So, I was pleased to be introduced recently to a nice re-framing of the Quadrants of Reality concept from Ken Wilber’s integral theory through the fabulous Lisa Chacon’s The ABC’s of Social Change. In this introductory article, she outlines the concept and then shows how three popular books on motivation fit within this larger framework – and also how a reader runs the risk of missing important tools if they read one without being aware of the larger framework.

Her article also references the behavior change model from Stanford’s BJ Fogg. Again, useful information distilled into a pretty accessible format. It’s not actually pretty, but (at least with the  b=mat chart) still makes it easier to remember the model.

Lisa tells me that she’s got more in-depth work coming on this in the future. I’ll watch with anticipation.

Most people have heard the idea that the Inuit (Eskimos) have a great more variety of words for snow than can be found in English. It turns out that this largely an urban legend. Nonetheless, there are certainly a wide variety of snow types. And as many of us in the Midwest are currently getting a big ol’ snowstorm, it seemed like a good time to look into some words to refine the conversation.

Here’s a list from Dictionary.com of different words for snow.

And of course, wikipedia gives us some insights on different types of snow.

For a scientific look (and amazing photos like the one shown here) at the different varieties and structures of snow flakes, check out this great collection of info from Caltech. Though I remain curious about how these different flake structures affect what the overall snowfall effect is. For example, does one type of flake correspond with a soft clumpy snowfall while another corresponds with a light powder?

As for here in Detroit? I’d guess that last night we just had some flurries of needles, while today, we’ve got a snow storm of graupel. Ta da!

Who said that saving the world had to be a chore? I was blown away when I stumbled upon this TED talk by Jane McGonigal, who’s already tapping game design concepts and gamer geek enthusiasm to create awareness about peak oil and another to create solutions for major crises in Africa.

Watch this TED talk and see if you’re as inspired as I was.  Meanwhile, I’ve started talking with folks about possible games to help Detroit’s sustainability efforts. AND i just invented a game concept to help advance energy efficiency (though I have a few bugs to work out — I’ll announce it here once it’s completed).

So,  forget the Doom and Gloom! Try something more like Doom and Pictionary.

If you’re geeked enough to want to participate in the games-can-save-the-world revolution, be sure to check out Gameful.

2010 was a tipping point for Detroit’s sustainability movement. And tip it did. It will still be a long time coming for the effects to be apparent, but I think the shift has now begun. If you talk to many people in the area, they’ll be lost the miasma of bad news which still plagues our city. Economic woes, population loss, various crises of poverty — it’s all still happening. But two things of note changed, and I believe that they will set the wheels in motion for the renaissance that has eluded Detroit for decades.

The first is the media attention. Media attention alone won’t do much for our city. We’ve had media attention before, but that’s not always helpful! What’s different this time is that the media attention is positive. It’s questing. It’s curious and pondering possibilities. This is a sea-change from the constant string of devastation affirmations that we’ve usually seen. They show that across the world people are beginning to realize that Detroit is a land of great potential. For people anywhere to realize this potential is the first key step to enacting a better future. And it’s directly connected to sign number two….

Young people are moving here.  The 2000′s saw a leap in our brain drain as college graduates fled the whole state in higher numbers. And of course, Detroit’s population continues still to hemorrhage. But the popuation of young educated folks is increasing in Detroit for the first time in quite a while. And I hear the stories frequently now of empassioned young folks from around the country who were inspired to move here after hearing about the meanginful work that’s possible here.

In years past if I went to a national conference and mentioned that I was from Detroit I got a response that ranged from “I’m so sorry” to “So what are you doing here?”  Now, when I mention coming from Detroit I’ll usually get a response like “Really? Tell me more about it? I’ve been hearing about some really intriguing possibilities there.”

The UN declared 2008 as the year that a majority of the world’s population began living in cities.   I think many of us will remember 2010 as the year that Detroit started its return to health.  Which year will be remembered as the year that Detroit showed the world what a 21st century city should look like?