brainflurry. like a brainstorm, but more so.

In celebration of this Buy Nothing Day, and as a result of some recent though-provoking movies and readings I have consumed, I decided to put together a new blog. Ever since watching "An Inconvenient Truth" and the (to me) even more powerful "Manufactured Landscapes", I have been trying to brainstorm ideas about how we might go about making people wake up and do something about saving life on Earth from either obliteration or radical change... It has been a matter of concern for some time, of course, but I am really starting to feel like I need to do something bigger than just minimizing my own footprint.

The big question is.. what?

The problem is.. I don't know. But maybe, just maybe, if I think about it enough, I will get an idea.

Maybe if I put my beginnings of ideas here and other people comment about their beginnings of ideas, we can come up with something big.

I will also just use this as a place to mention any interesting related information that I happen to come across.

Like for instance... today I was reading a chapter from Alison M. Johnston's "Is the Sacred For Sale?" that brought up the idea of protected areas such as parks as being used by governments and consumers as a payoff for their environmentally-devastating economies and habits. While I don't agree with her seeming opposition to creating protected areas, I think that she makes a good point. Setting aside X hectares of protected areas should not be used to offset destructive habits - the destructive habits themselves should be addressed directly.

The prominence of this 'battle of the game consoles' in the news is alarming after watching "Manufactured Landscapes"... where are all of those consoles made? Where do the materials come from? What happens to all of last year's consoles? How much does this whole industry contribute to the eWaste problem? How many gamers consider these questions?

Along the lines of Blackspot's ideas... Is there some way to harness this excessive consumerism to fight consumerism itself? Is it possible to create some 'must-have' product that would actually encourage consumers to question their consumerism? If the consumers are the biggest part of the problem, then why not target them through their very consumption?

Another thing I was looking at today was podcasts. I came across Daryl Hannah's podcast, and thought it was rather interesting, and probably a good way to appeal to some of the people who might not otherwise consider environmental issues.

Ok, so I have a lot of questions and thoughts in my head at the moment, probably largely since this is my first post. I'll stop for now and try to save some for later..