Sunday, July 22, 2007

Moving Adventurista to a Permanent Home...

More than a month ago, my friend Charlie sent me an important email. I believe the subject of the email was "You should grab your domain!!!!!" Okay - there was just one "!", but there was definitely a sense of urgency.

In his email, one of his comments struck me - "I moved from thisisgoingtobebig.typepad.com to www.thisisgoingtobebig.com very early and while I never needed to move platforms, I know I have the flexibility to do that or change my site from a blog to maybe something else down the line... who knows in 50 years...."

What a good point... Spurred to action, I went to GoDaddy.com and picked up www.adventurista.com. As it happens, a couple of weeks later, I got another email in which someone offered me $200 for the domain. So while I consider a new career in scooping up domain names (clearly I have a talent!), please be aware of the new URL -- www.adventurista.com.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Carbon Indulgences (And Why I'm Removing My NativeEnergy Badge)

For some time now, small pockets of momentum (and hype) have accumulated around companies like TerraPass and NativeEnergy. But it’s time we question the premise behind these programs.

What companies like TerraPass and NativeEnergy do is enable a climate-concerned consumer to “offset” their carbon emissions by funding alternative energy projects. So if you use 4000KW / year of electricity, you can “offset” that by paying to add 4000KW of alternative energy derived electricity back to the grid.

But when you think about it, these programs sound incredibly like the church selling indulgences back in the 1500s. Sin all you want, “offset” your sins by donating to the Church, and you still get a one-way ticket to Heaven. Thomas Friedman of the NYTimes hits on a similar idea in his column, Live Bad, Go Green.

In a thought provoking post, my colleague Justin Label sheds more light on this moral loophole: By putting a price on carbon emissions, consumers who once felt an ethical obligation to cut emissions might feel less of that obligation when they can pay to undo their carbon footprint.

Consequently these programs shift the emphasis away from changing our behavior (e.g., buying a Prius) to instead paying to “make it all better” (e.g., offsetting my Hummer’s omissions). A Carbon Indulgence by any other name.

Although I like the original intention of these programs, I can’t in good conscience keep the NativeEnergy badge on my blog anymore. Dialogue around our Carbon Footprints should be more about making us (and the government) change our behavior (by making us feel damn guilty about our footprints), than about paying to offset them.

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Webkinz Officially Mainstream

Echoes of Argentine Politics in the US


Let's just say my parents are not Hillary Clinton fans. My Dad can't stand her because he can't stand Bill and thinks that Hillary will just be his mouthpiece. And my Mom can't stand her because her campaign brings back too many bad memories of Argentinean politics.

While I give Hillary more credit than just being a mouthpiece, there is something to both my parents' perspectives. The Scary Truth: American politics increasingly resembles Argentinean politics. (Not exactly a great role model!)

Just this past week, Argentina's current president, NĂ©stor Kirchner, announced that he will not be running for re-election, despite his popularity. Instead, his wife will be running for President.

The Mom: "It's the same corrupt Argentinean politics that we saw with Evita Peron." i.e., It doesn't matter who the actual President is. It's still the same politics and the same family just wanting to stay in power for as long as possible.

And potentially, the same corrupt American politics. It is scary to think that the highest office in American politics might stay in the hands of two families -- The Bush's and the Clinton's -- for so long.