Okay, this one’s a biggie. The Story of Stuff is an award-winning video packed with so much good information that classrooms across the country are now showing it to teach about consumption and sustainability. You may think you know enough about these issues by now, but trust me, you won’t regret watching this entertaining 20-minute video.

Here’s a short clip:

Be sure to watch the full video at www.storyofstuff.com. If there’s only one thing on the entire internet that I would suggest sharing with others, this would be it.

There’s also a new Story of Stuff book available today. Author/narrator Annie Leonard will be on The Colbert Report tonight (3/9/10) to discuss it!

This is a really cool illustration by Justin Gabbard for The New York Times, relating to this great piece by Thomas Friedman:

The fact that it has snowed like crazy in Washington — while it has rained at the Winter Olympics in Canada, while Australia is having a record 13-year drought — is right in line with what every major study on climate change predicts: The weather will get weird; some areas will get more precipitation than ever; others will become drier than ever.

…

China is quietly laughing at us right now. And Iran, Russia, Venezuela and the whole OPEC gang are high-fiving each other. Nothing better serves their interests than to see Americans becoming confused about climate change, and, therefore, less inclined to move toward clean-tech and, therefore, more certain to remain addicted to oil.

What a Green Job Looks Like

A huge amount of our greenhouse gas emissions come from the energy used in buildings and homes. Weatherizing can reduce environmental impact and lower energy bills—while creating new jobs in the process. Everyone wins.

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Tim Brown urges designers to think big

Tim Brown, CEO of innovation and design firm IDEO, discusses using human-centered “design thinking” to explore new ways of addressing some of the world’s biggest challenges.

IDEO recently launched a program titled Living Climate Change where they invite people to imagine life in 20 or 30 years and how we can make things better instead of worse.

Each year in the United States, 46,000 people die from car collisions and another 30,000 people die from car emissions.

(image, stats)

I.O.U.S.A.

This well-made documentary came out a couple years back, but it becomes increasingly relevant as America’s national debt continues to rise. Using great visual design to illustrate our fiscal situation, the film makes it very clear that we need to act in a variety of ways to confront our nation’s enormous debt.

Watch a 30-minute version of the film here.

‘No Impact Man’ is the entertaining story of New York writer Colin Beavan, who decided to go an entire year with as little environmental impact as possible. Watching him and his family go through that is kind of like a reality TV show, except you actually learn a few things along the way.

The film is now on DVD. You should probably rent it, not buy it.

Intertidal

If I had $200 to spend on art right now, it would definitely go to this piece by Luke Ramsey & Zeesy Powers for Booooooom’s HELP HAITI Art Fundraiser.

Sustainability expert Alex Steffen of Worldchanging gave a two-night presentation in Seattle just before heading off to the Copenhagen climate summit. In the talks, he laid out exactly where we came from as a society and where we’re headed. According to Steffen, we’re pretty much toast unless we immediately begin rebuilding our cities. He calls out the lesser steps towards sustainability (electric cars, CFLs, etc) as insufficient distractions and instead focuses on urban living as a crucial element to maintaining a livable civilization. Denser, more walkable, and more fun!

In his talks, Steffen challenged Seattle to become North America’s first carbon-neutral city by 2030, saying nothing less is good enough. Putting things in those terms immediately raises a number of questions… What would a carbon neutral city look like? What role do designers have in making that happen? What might a campaign look like to achieve such a thing?

Listening to Steffen speak is truly enlightening. I highly recommend that you begin watching The Seattle Talks immediately. As if your future depends on it.

Moxie Sozo

This week I had the pleasure of stopping by Moxie Sozo, a Boulder, CO based ad agency. They were a very gracious group of hard-working and extremely talented people. They’re also the first certified Zero Waste, 100% carbon neutral, 100% renewable-energy powered design and advertising firm in the world. That’s not only responsible, but a great marketing move.

Moxie Sozo is helping organize The Haiti Poster Project benefiting victims of the recent earthquake. Entries are due March 15th.