LiveGreenNOW

If you are planning a trip to Machu Picchu, please consider making time to volunteer, or at least have your guide include a stop to visit this refuge before taking you up to Machu Picchu. Your entrance is free; El Sanctuario exists on donations made by animal lovers around the world, and from the sale of their souvenirs.

If you are feeling a little more pragmatic, or put out by earth-based concerns, I recommend The Lazy Environmentalist, also a Sundance series. The host, Josh Dorfman, is a bit more nerdy but still cute and informative, plus I am amazed with his level of patience dealing with really resistant people. He is very good at finding what works for every level of lazy American by appealing to their rationale and needs for convenience. Where EcoTrip brings you on a journey from one item to the world effects, the Lazy Environmentalist brings world concepts to one person. He draws on experts who are as patient as he is and then, POOF! like magic, very stubborn people start to come around.

Chicago artist and poet Tony Fitzpatrick may live in Chicago, but his heart and soul belong in New Orleans. I had the good fortune to meet Tony just hours before his reception for the New Orleans Biennial, Prospect.1 (he needed an iPod player, and somebody called me on his behalf). Our city looms large in his life, and his heart; the revitalization of “this holy American place” is something he has chosen to become part of, inviting everyone to join, be part of, get involved in. It is with tremendous gratitude that I have the pleasure to present one of my favorite pieces from Tony Fitzpatrick The New Orleans Series: The Green Angel. Tony’s work is full of hope, desire, determination and the Old World essence that bubbles in our city. Thank you, T ~ for sharing her with us.

The survey includes 15 questions that will serve as a tool for Walmart’s 100,000+ global suppliers to then evaluate their own sustainability efforts. The questions will focus on four areas: energy and climate; material efficiency; natural resources, and; people and community. Their U.S. suppliers will be asked to complete the survey by October 1st; Walmart will develop timelines for the rest of the world on a country-by-country basis. While it’s good to have the largest corporate retailer leading the pack in such a global sustainable shift, could there be cracks in this plan?

Coming just a week after Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the city would end coal use by 2020, and announced the same day as a decision by Basin Electric Power in South Dakota to pull plans for a new coal-fired power plant, the Intermountain Power coal plant in Utah became the 100th prevented coal plant. The decision marks a significant milestone in the shift to clean energy.