Those at the inauguration are hopeful for change with the Obama administration
(Photo courtesy of the Obama transition team)
People from across the nation and around the world are gathering in the U.S. capital for the inaguration of President Barack Obama. Among them are people who are hopeful an Obama presidency will be better for the environment. Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
People from across the nation and around the world are gathering in the U.S. capital for the inaguration of President Barack Obama. Among them are people who are hopeful an Obama presidency will be better for the environment. Lester Graham reports:
The inauguration of Barack Obama finds people who’ve traveled to Washington DC hopeful.
On the mall, between the capitol building and the Lincoln Memorial, people we interviewed mentioned they’re hopeful for the economy, they’re hopeful for peace.
Jeff Dickson of Finland, Minnesota was an environmental scientist for 25 years. He’s hopeful for the environment.
“I finally found a president who I think is capable of taking this country into a period of environmental responsibility instead of degradation.”
And many people are hoping President Obama finds a way to pursue environmentally friendly alternative energy and conservation in a way that will get us out of the recession and into, what many are calling, the green economy.
President Barack Obama wove refences about the environment throughout his inaugural address. Lester Graham reports that approach differs from the typical political view of the issue:
Transcript
President Barack Obama wove references about the environment throughout his inaugural address. Lester Graham reports that approach differs from the typical political view of the issue:
During the inaugural address, President Obama indicated the environment is not an issue, it’s part of all issues.
For example, when he addressed the world, he talked about wealthy nations’ consuming natural resources at a cost to poor nations. He seemed to make reversing global warming as urgent as preventing nuclear winter.
“We will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet.”
And talking about the economy, Mr. Obama talked about new energy.
“We will harness the sun and the wind and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.”
Wayne Fields is an expert on presidential speeches at Washington University. He says Obama doesn’t separate the issues.
“All these are bound together and we take them on all at once.”
He says Obama didn’t compartmentalize issues such as foreign oil and terrorism, or climate change and the economy.
Obama delivering the American Recovery and Reinvestment speech on Thursday, January 8, 2009 (Photo courtesy of the Obama Transition Team)
President-elect Barack Obama
is calling on Congress to get busy on
his American Recovery and Reinvestment
Plan. Lester Graham reports energy
and environment are top items in the
plan:
Transcript
President-elect Barack Obama
is calling on Congress to get busy on
his American Recovery and Reinvestment
Plan. Lester Graham reports energy
and environment are top items in the
plan:
Speaking at George Mason University, President-elect Obama called for dramatic
action to overcome the recession. The plan starts off with investments in new forms
of energy and energy efficiency.
“We will double the production of alternative energy in the next three years. We will
modernize more than 75% of federal buildings and improve the energy efficiency of
two-million American homes, saving consumers and taxpayers billions on our energy
bills.”
Obama says building solar panels and wind turbines and fuel-efficient cars will mean
more American jobs and improve the environment at the same time.
Obama warns those investments, and others he outlined, means spending a lot of
government money. But, he says doing too little or nothing at all will mean losing
even more jobs and watching the recession get worse.
For The Environment Report, this is Lester Graham.
Marco's Pizza changed the size of its boxes to fit more on distribution trucks.
It's also switching to recyclable plastics for chicken wings.
(Photo by Julie Grant)
Marco's purchasing manager Don Vlcek shows off new pizza boxes that no longer
have a glossy finish. It's cheaper and better for the environment. (Photo by Julie Grant)
Times are tough for the economy,
so lots of headlines tell us that the
end is near for the burgeoning green
market. But some analysts say the
economic downturn could encourage more
companies to be environmentally friendly.
Julie Grant reports:
Transcript
Times are tough for the economy,
so lots of headlines tell us that the
end is near for the burgeoning green
market. But some analysts say the
economic downturn could encourage more
companies to be environmentally friendly.
Julie Grant reports:
When stock prices plummeted this year for Whole Foods
Market, a lot of people saw that as a sign that green
companies were wilting during this dark time in the economy.
Whole Foods has one of the best known names for natural
and sustainably made products and caters to people who
are willing to pay more for them.
“You know, it’s really easy to look at stores like Whole
Foods, or companies selling green products, and see that
they’re not doing as well as last year and saying, ‘oh, the
green economy is tanking.’”
Author Joel Makower has chronicled the rise of the green
movement in corporate America through many articles, and
in his recently published book “Strategies for the Green
Economy.”
“The fact is that no retailer, except for Wal-Mart, is doing
better than last year. They’re all doing much, much worse.
So green products sink and swim along with the overall
economy. The economy is really bad right now, so a lot of
these products aren’t doing as well.”
But Makower says the green movement has a leg up on the
rest of the economy – because what consumers are buying
is only part of the story.
(sound of Marco’s Pizza Shop)
The smell of garlic and cheese and dough baking at Marco’s
Pizza is enough to make anyone hungry when they walk in.
While some of the biggest names in the pizza biz are closing
down stores, this relatively small Ohio-based chain is
growing like gang-busters, tripling the number of stores and
franchising in 14 states.
Purchasing manager Don Vlcek says, earlier this year,
prices of everything from the mozzarella to the plastic cups
were on the rise.
“When all of the costs going into restaurants started going
up, like I’ve never seen, and I’ve been in this industry since I
was 17 years old, we wanted to keep our prices the same to
our customers. So we looked at cost cutting – mainly at the
packaging end.”
Vlcek stresses: they’re not skimping on the pizza.
Marco’s has started doing things like using paper cups
instead of plastic. The new ones are cheaper and
biodegradable. Their pizza boxes used to be colorful,
glossy, and not very recyclable.
“Now our boxes, which the industry has said is the most
impressive and highest cost box in the industry, we’ve taken
that and we’ve put new messages on it, with a non-
varnished look.”
Marco’s also slightly reduced the size of its pizza boxes, so
more fit on its distribution trucks. That’s saved transportation
costs – and lots of polluting truck travel. None of this sounds
too sexy. But these efficiencies have saved Marco’s 2.5
million dollars this year.
The cuts they made have been good for the bottom line –
and for the environment.
Industry strategist Joel Makower says there are thousands of
stories like this.
“Once companies squeeze out the waste and inefficiency
and the water, carbon, and energy intensity and the toxicity
of their products, that’s not going to come back as soon as
oil prices drop, as we’ve seen them do, or when the
economy goes bad, as it has. This is a fundamental change
in how business is being done, and this is just the
beginning.”
Makower predicts that companies will continue to innovate
new ways to save money, and that is going to benefit the
environment.
The reporter's husband reading "I Can Save The Earth" to their daughter. (Photo by Charity Nebbe)
Book publishers have always had
a close relationship with trees, mostly
dead ones. Now many publishers are trying
to make nice with the planet by introducing
green books on environmental themes and
often on recycled paper. Charity Nebbe finds this trend has reached the
children’s section of your local bookstore:
Transcript
Book publishers have always had
a close relationship with trees, mostly
dead ones. Now many publishers are trying
to make nice with the planet by introducing
green books on environmental themes and
often on recycled paper. Charity Nebbe
finds this trend has reached the
children’s section of your local bookstore:
(sound of reading)
That’s my husband reading to our three year old daughter. They’re reading “I Can Save
the Earth: One Little Monster Learns to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.” It’s a new book
from a new division of Simon and Schuster called “Little Green Books.” Simon and
Schuster is not the only publisher trying to take advantage of the modern green
movement.
Melanie Rhodes is a children’s book buyer for Borders.
“I would say, for Fall 08 rolling into 09, I would say this is the one new trend. We’re
seeing Green product, recycled with soy based ink, or a lot of detail on the product saying
it’s planet friendly.”
Rhodes decides what will be on the shelves at Borders for babies and toddlers.
Ruta Drummond buys for the older kids – picture books for 3-7 year olds. The green
books she’s getting are on environmental themes, rather than on recycled paper.
“I’m starting to see titles: “That Litter Bug Doug”, “Michael Recycle”, “We Are
Extremely Very Good Recyclers”.
She’s also seen a few publishers try to claim the green mantle without really earning it.
“There was a publisher with a classic white book, and they said, ‘oh, well, we have a
green version. And they made the cover green. It was a green version.”
Literally green – the content was unchanged, the paper the same. Of course publishers are
in the business to sell books, so they’ll do what they have to do.
Parents who buy the books have another goal in mind. Presumably they want to raise
environmentally aware and responsible children. Can a book help them do that?
Elizabeth Goodenough teaches a course on Children’s literature for the Residential
College at the University of Michigan. She’s not a fan of books specifically designed to
teach kids a lesson.
“We all know that when someone is trying to teach us something, it’s a tough message.
We resist it and it usually backfires, and children don’t get the message that we’re trying
to convey.”
In spite of that, Goodenough does believe that books can influence children as they
develop their worldview – but the most important element of any book is its story. If
nature and the environment play an important role in a great story the kids will get the
message.
Which brings us back to bedtime at my house with “I Can Save the Earth”. The book
may be preachy, and it is, but it managed to capture my daughter’s imagination. This is
her favorite part.
(sound of reading)
The result? I’ve found toilet paper strewn all over the bathroom three times in the past
two days. The book has certainly had an environmental impact in my house and tonight
we’re gonna read something else.
Many Native American tribes say
they want to be part of the national debate
over climate change legislation. The
tribes at least have the attention of the
US EPA. Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
Many Native American tribes say
they want to be part of the national debate
over climate change legislation. The
tribes at least have the attention of the
US EPA. Chuck Quirmbach reports:
The tribes are worried about climate change. They think it might be affecting natural resources
like wild rice beds, fish habitat and animals they hunt to feed their people.
The tribes got some provisions into a major climate change bill that recently failed in Congress.
They’re now preparing their arguments for the next go-round on Capitol Hill.
Stephen Hartsfield is with the National Tribal Air Association. He says one thing the Native
communities want is more incentives to produce cleaner energy – such as solar power in the
Southwest US.
“ We have 300 days of sunshine a year – so it just makes logical sense for tribes and states and
communities in the Southwest to look at those opportunities.”
At a meeting with Great Lakes area tribes in Milwaukee, an EPA official said it’ll be up to
Congress and the Obama Administration to determine how much clout the tribes will have in the
debate.
Environmentally-themed movies are hitting the festival circuit hard
(Source: Sailko at Wikimedia Commons)
If you think Al Gore’s movie, ‘An
Inconvenient Truth,’ is one of the only
environmental films out there, think again.
There are so many movies about the environment
that entire festivals have been created to
showcase them. Jennifer Guerra has more:
Transcript
If you think Al Gore’s movie, ‘An
Inconvenient Truth,’ is one of the only
environmental films out there, think again.
There are so many movies about the environment
that entire festivals have been created to
showcase them. Jennifer Guerra
has more:
Science films have come a long way from this.
(sound of old science film)
Now, they’ve got flashy trailers, famous narrators and edgy music. There are hundreds of
these environmentally-themed movies and they’re hitting the festival circuit hard. Korea,
Italy, Israel, DC, Colorado, Michigan.
Susan Woods got to choose which movies to include in Michigan’s first ever Green on
the Big Screen film festival.
“It was quite daunting in the beginning, to tell you the truth, when I started looking
up all these films. I thought oh my goodness, how can I select them. There’s too
many to select.”
She eventually settled on about 30 films, including King Corn. Curt Ellis produced the
documentary, which is all about – yup, you guess it – corn and our dependence on it for
almost everything we eat.
(sound from movie)
“When you’re telling a story about the natural world, you really have to be able to
transport people to the place you’re talking about.”
And Ellis thinks the best way to do that – short of lecturing people in a cornfield in the
middle of Iowa – is to show them a film.
“The reason we make documentaries – Lord knows it’s not for the profit – the
reason we make film is because we believe film can make a difference.”
“My opinion of media effects in terms of film actually producing social action is
pretty limited.”
That’s Daniel Herbert. He teaches film at the University of Michigan. You could say he’s
got a healthy amount of skepticism when it comes to films’ impact on environmental
change.
“Unless you have policies in your city government without recycling, what does it
matter if you’ve watched An Inconvenient Truth? If Al Gore’s telling you to buy
$30 light bulbs and you make 9 bucks at Starbucks, what’s it matter?”
Plus he says you run the risk of having audiences think that just because they watched the
film they’ve somehow participated in solving the problem.
That said, if he had to choose between showing an environmental film at a festival, a
commercial movie theater or on TV? Herbert says he’d pick the festival. Sure, there’s
probably a greater audience to be had with television, and it’s a little more convenient to
just Netflix the film and watch it from home, but you lose something that way.
Susan Woods – she’s from the Michigan film festival – she says a festival can provide a
whole different experience.
“The difference is that these people are sitting home in a dark room as opposed to
being with a group of people who have the same mind set. And I think that’s the big
difference.”
And, she says, at a festival, if you feel inspired by one of the films, you can go up to a
director afterward and ask questions, or talk with a climate change expert about solutions
or sign up with a local environmental group.
Something you definitely wouldn’t be able to do sitting at home alone in the dark with
your TV.
Many environmental advocates say
they’re excited about the upcoming Obama
Administration. But the nation’s economic
woes could stall many federal programs.
Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
Many environmental advocates say
they’re excited about the upcoming Obama
Administration. But the nation’s economic
woes could stall many federal programs.
Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Environmental groups are touting the campaign promises of President Elect
Barack Obama. They predict he’ll be open to environmental clean-up and clean
energy programs.
Michael Kraft is a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay.
He’s adding a note of financial caution.
”It’s no surprise that the federal government is running a very large deficit this
year and that the national debt is very big and that the country is entering an
economic downturn. So, the challenge will be deciding how much we can afford
to spend and in what years we can afford to spend it. “
Kraft says that could affect funding for programs aimed at cleaning up pollution.
And it could also pinch environmental regulators from the US EPA.
Kraft also says new spending may have a better chance when backers can prove
it will help the environment and not hurt the economy.
Christie Todd Whitman, who was appointed to head the EPA under George W. Bush, says just because you're leading the EPA, that doesn't mean you get to
choose who staffs it. (Photo courtesy of the EPA)
The big environmental agencies of
the government will soon have new leadership.
Rebecca Williams reports those agency leaders
might not have as much control as you’d think:
Transcript
The big environmental agencies of
the government will soon have new leadership.
Rebecca Williams reports those agency leaders
might not have as much control as you’d think:
President-elect Barack Obama is putting together his Cabinet and appointing
agency leaders.
One former Cabinet-level official says it’s great working with the President,
but you don’t always have as much power as you’d like.
Christine Todd Whitman was appointed by George W. Bush to run the
Environmental Protection Agency.
She says just because you’re leading the EPA, that doesn’t mean you get to
choose who staffs it.
“You have recommendation ability. Obviously the Administration always
has those must-hires. People they want to put in, people they feel they owe
positions to, people they think have good backgrounds.”
She says when she was in charge there was tension between the EPA and the
White House.
Critics of the Bush White House say political appointees have interfered
with scientific findings. They’re hoping that changes with the Obama
Administration.
A Government
Accountability Office report finds the EPA doesn't actually collect a lot of their fines (Photo by Lester Graham)
A government report reveals that some
polluters do the crime, but don’t pay the fine.
Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
A government report reveals that some
polluters do the crime, but don’t pay the fine.
Lester Graham reports:
The Environmental Protection Agency issues a lot of press releases that announce
big fines against companies that have been caught polluting. But, a Government
Accountability Office report finds the EPA doesn’t actually collect a lot of those fines.
It still reports them as penalties against polluters.
Matt Madia is with the government watchdog group OMB Watch.
“First of all, EPA is not doing a good job collecting the fines that they do assess. And
across the board under the Bush administration there just simply hasn’t been a big
emphasis on enforcement. The second thing is that the public is really kept in the
dark about what EPA is doing.”
That’s because an EPA official says the public should not be told whether
the agency actually collects the fines, even though the agency is quick to announce
when it levies fines.
For The Environment Report, this is Lester Graham.
Those at the inauguration are hopeful for change with the Obama administration (Photo courtesy of the Obama transition team)
