Even the homeless have large carbon footprints, says New Scientist, referring to an MIT study. Regardless of lifestyle choices, it is almost impossible for any North American to sufficiently reduce their carbon footprints, simply because they still take advantage of the tremendous amount of energy embodied in our infrastructure. While most of us have probably realized this by now, the study will come as a blow to those who are still convinced that we can consume our way out of the our environmental crisis, as long as we buy the right things.

Even if everyone on the continent became an urban high-rise condo-living, bike-riding, vegetarian hippie, we’d still be in trouble without sweeping changes to the macro-systems that support us. As much as people hate regulations, they must inevitably be a crucial part of any realistic solution.

Again on the business side of sustainability, I’ve been trying to do some research into socially responsible investing, and while I haven’t got far, I have made some interesting discoveries.

First of all, contrary to popular belief, ethical investments are actually profitable. In the US, both the Domini and Citizen’s families of social mutual funds regularly outperform the S&P 500 index. Likewise, in Canada, the Jantzi Social Index of screened investments tends to do better than the S&P/TSX 60 (albeit only by a few percentage points). Many of the factors that fund managers screen for when putting together SRIs overlap with those that help to predict long-term stability and profitability for normal funds. Good business practices, labour relations, transparency, and ethics help prevent Enron-style implosions for stockholders, so it only makes sense that funds would be doing the analyses anyway.

The second revelation I had was that SRIs can be pretty bullshit. I e-mailed a portfolio manager today about them, and she gave me a mutual fund recommendation. I assume that she offered her advice on the basis of the fund’s strong performance, but when I delved a little bit into its holdings, there were major investments in EnCana (an Albertan oil and gas giant), and fucking Suncor, the 2nd largest oil sands developer in the country behind Syncrude. Apparently the reason that they’re in the portfolio is because they represent “best-of-sector” environmental and social practices, allowing the managers to stay diversified. I suspect this problem is less prominent in other countries, but in Canada, oil and mining make up a huge part of the market, so it’s pretty difficult to get away from evil business.

So the research continues. I’d really prefer to stick with mutual funds since they’re so much easier to manage, but I’m not interested in putting up with shit like that. Now if only Nanosolar would get on with it and put out an IPO, I could make my first million with an easy conscience…

Completely unbeknownst to me, the Toronto Atmospheric Fund has been quietly operating as a slush fund for grants, pilot projects, and other initiatives relating to sustainability in the city for the past 15 years. Apparently we have TAF to thank for LED streetlights, downtown’s deepwater air conditioning system, hybrid taxis, and dozens of other projects relating to renewables and energy conservation.

I found out last week from my boss that today was their annual general meeting, so I made the trek down to Hart House to see what it was about. There were brief speeches by David Miller, Hugh MacLeod (Ontario’s newly appointed climate change czar), and a few of the members of TAF, but primarily the event was an opportunity to schmooze.

I am atrocious at schmoozing, but there was delicious beer available, and I did end up talking to a few interesting people. I was mostly struck by the huge diversity of people who had ideas of tackling climate change in ways that were of particular interest to them.

A woman from the Riverdale Immigrant Women’s Centre told me about the ways that they were integrating concepts of sustainability into language training courses (e.g. when doing a sorting exercise, to use garbage and recyclables instead of other arbitrary objects as a way of attaching the ideas early).

There were plenty of people who had their hands in various green technologies for new buildings, energy programs, and conservation retrofits, and still others concerned with sustainability education.

One idea that I thought was quite promising (that I’d actually heard elsewhere, and was planning on posting months ago) was from a company called SkyMeter that provides systems to facilitate pay-as-you-go parking and insurance. Big Brother aside, the idea is so brilliant because it forces drivers to really think about their automobile usage, since conservation actually allows them to save money on one of the most expensive aspects of a car’s operating costs (in addition to gas, of course). Sustainability and economy, hand-in-hand, as it should be.

Which is where the other big revelation struck me, as I looked around. The room was full of suits, ties, and white, middle-aged men - stereotypical business types in the extreme - and yet everyone was having impassioned discussions about sustainability. And they were networking like no tomorrow, a frenzy of hands shuffling business cards to and fro.

Green has officially hit the big times, and it’s not just marketing any more. These people are going to be making lots of money by doing the right thing. Who’d a thunk it?

Every year “4-20″ gets all of Guelph’s pot smoking community out to the university campus, where for some reason everyone cheers when 4:20 pm comes and goes. The vast majority of this crowd is made up of the usual hippie/activist types - the environmentalists, communists, and idealists who think they despise everything our society stands for. The hypocrites who think helping the earth is all about being lazy and smoking weed (we’re enjoying the outdoors, man), only to leave a fucking mound of trash when they’re done having their fun. The field where these guys gathered was covered in water and beer bottles, chip bags, and all the other prepackaged shit stoners love so much.

Come on guys. Get over yourselves and pay attention to what you’re doing. I don’t care if you’re eating organic chips - you’re still buying a plastic bag and dumping it in a field. This is the same garbage as that Earth Hour nonsense - a bunch of people who trick themselves into thinking that they’re “impacting positive change” while they have their bonfires and make their garbage. Stop fucking claiming you hate “capitalist society” when you clearly love it just so long as its branded properly. Maybe that’s too much to ask - it kinda would destroy your sense of worth. At least, then, please stop being such lazy burnouts for the 10 seconds it would take to pick up your shit.

Kevin showed this to me, and it was awesome, so I’m going to recommend that everyone here watches it.

Helping us to fuel the excavators digging our own grave, oil prospectors have begun seriously investigating Greenland’s oil reserves. We’ve known about them for the past 20 years or so, but there was always the tricky issue of 3 meter thick pack ice that makes access impossible for 11 months of the year.

Thankfully, however, that may no longer be an issue in about 15 years, as climate change eliminates the pesky glaciers that are keeping industry at bay. The 50 billion barrels of oil that are estimated to be under Greenland’s ice represent more oil than all the rest of the drilling in the North Sea combined, and will net someone a handy $5 trillion dollars (at current oil prices).

Article from The Age.