The Brighter Planet Blog

As the world warms, those of us who love the snow worry about what will happen to the ski season. I recently saw one of the films touring around the US as part of Patagonia’s Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival called Weather We Change. It’s a documentary featuring skiers who are committed to learning and teaching about climate change. The athletes and the scenery are top-notch; I was squirming in my seat, wanting to get to the mountains!

The message in this film is just one example of the increased focus on sustainable slopes. Weather and climate is crucial to the ski industry, so it is an obvious place to focus on positive change. We wanted to plug the top eco ski areas in the US because ‘voting with your dollars’ is not just about eco-minded shopping, but supporting industry leaders. Choosing environmentally-oriented ski areas can help encourage all ski areas to go green.

Auden Schendler is the Executive Director of Community and Environmental Responsibility for The Aspen Skiing Company (ASC), and a valued member of our advisory board. In an article for the Elephant Journal on the top eco ski hills in North America, he said, “Climate change should drive everything we do. We make our living off the environment. The least we can do is take care of it.” This outlook has led the ASC to become widely known as the industry leader through their strict environmental policies and reporting. The ASC was ranked first on this year’s Ski Area Environmental Scorecard for the Western US.  Here’s the top ten list:

Top Ten:
1. Aspen Mountain Ski Resort, Colorado
2. Buttermilk Mountain Ski Resort, Colorado
3. Sundance Resort, Utah
4. Park City Mountain Resort, Utah
5. Squaw Valley USA, California
6. Alpine Meadows Ski Area, California
7. Aspen Highlands Ski Resort, Colorado
8. Bogus Basin Mountain Resort, Idaho
9. Mt. Bachelor Ski Area, Oregon
10. Telluride Ski Resort, Colorado

Time to think green and help keep winter white…

–Carolyn

The Climate Project will be offsetting all US-based presenters for a day with Brighter Planet’s One Day campaign. TCP was started in 2006 by Al Gore to mobilize people in the fight against climate change. Two years later, 2,500 dedicated TCP volunteers, personally trained by Mr. Gore, have reached over 4 million people worldwide with presentations that raise awareness about climate change and offer potential solutions.

TCP’s gift is the equivalent of taking 10 cars of the road for a year or having every home in America turn off their lights for 20 seconds. If recipients pass this gift on, Brighter Planet will donate carbon neutrality for a day to five friends and family, too. When every US-based presenter passes the gift on, TCP’s carbon reduction equivalent would be taking 60 cars off the road for a year or having every home in the US turn off their lights for 2 minutes. Thanks to TCP presenters for spreading climate-friendly holiday cheer!

–The Brighter Planet team

I think it’s safe to say everyone loves Google Earth. But Google Earth is not just cool and useful, it can provide visuals to illuminate problems we hear about but rarely see. The other day, Rich told me how shocked he was to look at aerial images of the Amazon rainforest so I decided to take a look for myself:

The Amazon lost an area about 10 times the size of New York City in the 2008 up to July (Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research), and unfortunately deforestation from logging and slash-and-burn agriculture increased this year for the first time since 2004.

There was some recent good news on this front, however– Brazil says it will cut the annual loss of Amazon rainforest by more than half, double reforestation efforts, and clamp down on illegal logging by adding 3,000 officers. Maintaining healthy rainforests and forests is crucial if we are going to reach safe levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and combat climate change. So, this is great news from the home of the world’s largest rainforest.
–Carolyn

The International Youth Delegation, a group of nearly five hundred young activists from all over the world, attended the UN Climate Conference in Poznan, Poland this week. Members report that the proposed measures are insufficient to guarantee universal national survival in the face of climate change.

The youth delegates have been asking delegates from all countries attending the talks to sign a pledge promising to “safeguard the future of all countries and peoples”—and our friends at 350.org and SustainUS have been doing their part to get the word out.

Survival means doing more, faster, to curb C02 emissions. As our advisory board member Bill McKibben suggests, a target of 350 parts per million is the safe line for our global climate.

Breaking news from Bill:
“Giving the climactic speech at the Poznan global warming conference, Al Gore set the new bottom line for action on global warming, right where we’ve been suggesting: 350 parts per million. The old goal of 450 parts per million is “inadequate,” he said. We “need to toughen that goal to 350 parts per million.”

The line, which drew the longest applause of the day, was a remarkable repudiation of established targets that have driven the climate debate for more than a decade. Now the world’s leading scientific authority on global warming and the world’s leading political authority on global warming have said the same thing: 350 is the target we have to hit. Let’s get to it.”

Dispatches from the international youth climate movement have been nothing short of inspirational:over 80 countries have endorsed the “Survival Pledge.” We’re looking forward to the next year leading up to the Copenhagen climate talks.

Patti, our CEO, wrote articles for two of our favorite online sustainability publications, Environmental Leader and Climate Biz.

Patti explains that even in a recession, green businesses leaders can still make their goals happen: do well for the environment, provide valuable services, and make a profit for their shareholders.
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/11/17/an-eco-stimulus-package-for-our-economy/

This article offers tips for businesses to trim their CO2 emissions, including info about flights, document shipping, and greening events.
http://www.climatebiz.com/blog/2008/12/01/three-tips-trimming-co2

Good stuff!