Few movies you’re better off watching from home. A new film created by Jeremy Mendes and Leanne Allison premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to deprive big screen viewers a unique opportunity to interact online with a captivating central character.

Bear 71 follows the tragic life of a female grizzly radio tagged and monitored electronically from 2001 to 2009 in the Canadian Rockies’ Banff National Park. Through motion activated still and live action cameras the filmmakers successfully documented her interactions with other animals and human visitors to tell the story of wildlife management from the sympathetic perspective of the bear.

A 20-minute documentary Bear 71 takes viewers on a guided journey through her home range. Narrated in her own words the mother grizzly details the challenges she must face as she tries to evade both contact and harassment among the millions of humans that cross her path every year.  Global positioning satellite telemetry creates a detailed map of her movements that allow park rangers to follow her wherever she goes. And viewers online can track the course of her existence right up to the moment of her sudden and most untimely death.

Unfortunately it’s the same technology used to create this film that ultimately derives its outcome. Human intervention made possible through machines and electronic gadgets drives Bear 71 and her cubs into an environment that runs contrary to a million years of evolution.

“It’s hard to say where the wired world ends and the wild one begins,” she mourns. “What’s the first rule of survival? Don’t do what comes naturally.”

Bear 71 is a graphic depiction of the glaring contrast between human civilization and the untamed wilderness.  With state of the art social media and web-based interactivity the film’s video game-like quality might even serve as a subtle reminder of what we stand to loose should we fail to protect the natural world, the great open prairies of Canada. A virtual experience may one day be all that remains.

Despite the new first rule of survival a grizzly bear will always do what comes naturally. “The thing is you can take the grizzly out of the prairie, but you can’t take the prairie out of the grizzly,” said Bear 71. “If you take us by surprise we don’t look around for a tree to climb. We take what’s coming, head on.”

And in a direct confrontation with humanity, that’s a fight she simply will not win.

Bear 71 from National Film Board of Canada on Vimeo.

Not far from Downtown Madison in the adjoining town of Fitchburg a new community of mindful movement has made its home. Perennial Yoga & Meditation opened to welcome practitioners this week to grow through the power of inner peace.

“Once you connect with your own inner peace I want people to take that out in the world with them, into their relationships, into their work lives and into their communities,” said founder Meg Schleis Groves. “When you’re in your own happy peaceful place you’re so much better at connecting with the world around you.”

Perennial is the latest of several new locations throughout the Madison area to offer yoga as the basis of personal growth and the creation of strong communities. The Studio created by Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau has been open for about a year and recently began offering free yoga classes for low-income individuals. And Angela Gargano’s Bliss Flow Yoga is celebrating its seventh year in business with discounted classes through Saturday of this week.

Long known as a community of progressive thinkers and social activists Madison is truly a destination for those looking for that mind/body connection. Home of the Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin headed by Dr. Richard Davidson the Mad City draws both scholars and seekers to discover the simple mysteries of life. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a frequent visitor and works with researchers at the UW Center For Investigating Healthy Minds.

With eyes turned inward to reflect upon the unity of thought and action the Madison community shares its vision with the world. The place where Gaylord Nelson first put forth the idea of Earth Day perpetuates the notion of a harmonious communion between humanity and nature. And here Perennial Yoga & Meditation will likely help to continue the tradition.

JTP12020101

JTP12020102

JTP12020103

JTP12020104

JTP12020105

JTP12020106

JTP12020107

JTP12020108

 « prev      1   2      next »  
(11 Photos)

Powered by AFG

For companies in the Outdoor Industry day-to-day operations that protect and preserve the environment naturally make good sense. So-called green business practices are meant to be sustainable, using a minimum amount energy and mostly renewable resources to create the products and services that drive our economy.

And for Andrew Winston it’s become abundantly clear that despite any political and social ideology that espouses the virtues of capitalism above all else green technology in commercial manufacturing and production is the best way to for businesses of every variety to assure their long-term profitability and prosperity. Having begun his career as a traditional business consultant Winston said he started taking a closer look into how business and the environment might work together.

Winston:

So I went back to school for an environmental management degree and decided that I wanted to marry business and the environment and figure out how to combine my business background and what was just an interest and passion about resource use, what the foundations of business really are, which is stuff and material and how we’re using too much of it. So it came from a place of practicality and profitability almost, even more than traditional quote tree hugging. That was just about business can’t survive like this. And that means our society can’t.

The author of two books Green to Gold and Green Recovery Andrew Winston was the keynote speaker at the biannual breakfast meeting of the Outdoor Industry Association at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market in Salt Lake City Utah. There he shared with an audience of true believers his view on the importance of sustainability in business and why in the long run really there is no alternative.

JTP:

One of the things I find fascinating about your conversation is that you talk about issues, especially issues that you describe as “TINA Issues” And that stands for “There Is No alternative”. What are a few examples of these TINA issues? And what do they mean when it comes to reducing sustainability costs?

Winston:

Tina I’m really using in the broadest since. In dealing with climate change, dealing with biodiversity loss, dealing with waste,  there is no alternative. We don’t have a choice any more for a lot of reasons and the forces driving that include just increased resource cost and reduced resource availability as the number of people on the planet who are getting richer grows. There’s just not enough stuff. That’s sort of the obvious one. But there’s also transparency, the technology driven demand for knowing what’s in everything. And so this just opens up companies and they have to start talking about what they’re doing. And that means they actually have to start changing what they’re doing. You can’t be transparent about a process that they you don’t want to be a transparent about. So it means that you start changing products, what’s in it? Who made it? Where was it made? Were they paid a living wage? These things start being open to the world. So there is no choice. You can’t compete in a world where your customers, especially big business customers won’t put your products on the shelf if they don’t have the data, if they don’t know how it was made.

JTP:

And you refer to certain technologies that allow consumers to very quickly and easily determine how much of an impact these particular products have. But you also said that we’re a point right now where green will always be small because people aren’t prepared to pay for something that is just green. If that’s the case, at what point do we shift our thinking to such a way that we will go to a sustainable product as opposed to something that’s just green.

Winston:

Well, let me clarify that. What I said was the number people who pay more just for green with remain small. And that’s partly out of just ability to. Not everybody can afford to buy organic food or a more expensive car that has the hybrid or electric engine. So there has to be a more complete value story told by products and that might mean that we develop products that don’t have trade-offs, that don’t cost more. That’s what you see companies starting to do. What is becoming a vast majority of people is those that do want it all, those who are conflicted about it, that care about where their products came from and who made them and want for the same price and quality the greener more sustainable option. And so that is growing to nearly everybody. So that is another one of those TINA things. You can’t not play in this arena if you’re a company putting out a product or a service, because everybody is going to be looking for those dimensions. And it’s a tiebreaker in so many ways. And so I think the difference between green and sustainable is a semantic one in a lot of ways. You know I think sustainable encompasses probably a little more social issues, labor, than what people usually mean by green. By people use them pretty much interchangeably a lot of the time.

JTP:

And I think that some people in the business community shy away from green because it sounds like its expensive. It sounds like it’s irrelevant to their bottom-line. But you make the point that green is actually good business. Exactly how do we as business people determine that green makes good sense from a production standpoint and also from a retail sales standpoint?

Winston:

At its core, the most simplistic view green is about doing more with less. As one CEO said to me, without getting into climate change or taking a stand on it he said, “Isn’t better to produce less carbon than more?” It just costs less. Anything that isn’t used in a product, any thing that’s pollution is waste. That’s expense. This is really basic stuff in a lot of ways. Getting lean to save money and save it quickly, in things like…We’re discovering the inefficiencies in our system, in our buildings in our distribution are vast and we’re finding massive savings and very quick paybacks. And that’s just straight business value. That’s even including all the softer intangible value that does matter to the value of business, employee loyalty, customer loyalty, walking the talk, doing the right thing, these things that attract, especially the next generation, of workers and consumers and enable you to tell stories about where your products come from. So it’s good business because it’s getting incredibly expensive to not do this. I think that’s become very clear to companies. And again, going back to just resource prices, just the inputs. As I mentioned in my talk, Coca-Cola had spent $800 million more last year on corn for their products because the cost of everything is basically going up, fundamentally going up. So if you don’t figure out how to do things with far less stuff you’re just going to get priced out. It’s going to be too expensive for you to operate.

JTP:

You describe the importance of companies becoming lean, smart, creative and engaged. And through the course of all that you’re also recommending exercising just good business practices. It sounds to me like you’re pretty optimistic with some degree of recovery. Is that accurate in my assumption?

Winston:

Optimism is a tough one. I made that my New Year’s resolution this, was to be optimistic. I think you need to be optimistic in the longer run. I think the short run is harder. I mean we’re heading in the wrong direction on most metrics. But you don’t hear a large company in the world any more completely dismissing sustainability because again, they’re seeing their input prices rise. They’re hearing the questions from their customers, from their employees. There is no alternative, right? There’s no choice. The number of companies that I think see how deep the change needs to be or how fast things are going to change I think that number is still very small. So I’m optimistic in the long run yes, that we’re going to get this and we’re going to get it, right? And the world’s moving to a green technology. I mean the electrical grid will be mostly renewable based at some point. It’s a matter of how fast. You know? The economics  on that will win out and it will be cheaper. Fundamentally it’s already getting cheaper in many areas to use solar or to use wind or do these kinds of things. So that’s going to be the cheaper option. It’s just a matter of is it fast enough to stave off some of the worst problems we may face.

JTP:

You started your conversation with the issues of politicizing the green economy and green issues. This is a question that just occurs to me but I’m curious to know if you can speak to this with regard to the production of fossil fuels and having fossil fuels be the core if not the basis of our entire economy. Is it possible to make a shift to a more green-based sustainable system and forgo our petroleum-based system in a quick and easy manner?

Winston:

Well like I said, we will get there. The economics are already starting to win out because again I’m fairly simplistic about economic on things like this. Renewable energy has zero variable cost. Meaning, once you’ve got it on your house, on your building, get the wind farm up, it doesn’t cost anything to get fuel. That’s not true of fossil fuels. You’ve got to dig it out, you have to mine it, you got to refine it. Over time, zero cost will win. There’s upfront costs. There’s technology. We have to bring down the cost as we get to scale. But that’s happening very, very quickly. The cost of solar is down two-thirds or so in the last four or five years. I mean it is coming down very quickly. The quick and easy part is where the political stuff comes in. The industries that are still fossil fuel-based, the industries that are producing those, they have a lot of power and they’re sitting on a lot of assets. There’s also two different questions here. There’s the electric grid and there’s mobile sources, you know cars. And those are two very different conversations. You know coal is the issue on the grid and oil is the issue on mobile sources. They have very different challenges and economic models and reasons for moving away from them at whatever pace. I think we’ll move away from coal fairly quickly. Natural gas is turning into a pretty viable and good solution as an interim fuel. And then we’ll get to mostly renewables on the grid. It’s going to take some time, but we’re going that way there are countries like Germany that have said, we’re going to be 100 percent renewable and they’re going there, fast.

JTP:

You said that the economics will win out. At the end of the day what can we most look forward to in this most successful paradigm?

Winston:

It’s an interesting question because what we often do or forget to do in sustainability discussions is paint the picture of a better world. It’s easy to get into the doom and gloom and say, “if we don’t do this” we’re going to have all these problems, quality of life is going to drop. But to remind people, every time we’ve cleaned the air, for example, that’s been kind of the clearest kind of set of regulations around the world for the last 40 years, people get healthier. There’re few dying of asthma and coughing. We sort of forget, we take for granted almost how much healthier we are when we clean the environment. When we produce things using methods that’s much cleaner, that there’s a healthier better life ahead of us that is longer lasting, that is easier to live, that is cheaper. This is the part that is harder to convince people of. It’s actually cheaper. I now have solar panels on my house. They will take a while to pay off, but they will pay off for many, many years and I will get energy for free. Every day that it’s sunny that’s cheaper. It’s a better an inexpensive way of living. We don’t often paint a picture of how much better our life will be in the future, in a cleaner more stable, not reliant upon fuel from a dangerous part of the world kind of way. That’s a better life

Andrew Winston is an international authority on sustainable business practices. You can learn more about his work and finding the gold in green online at AndrewWinston.com

Music this week by Jake Shimabukuro

The Joy Trip Project is made possible with the support of sponsor Patagonia. Check their latest conservation and new media initiatives on their blog the cleanestline.com. Additional support is also provided by the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market. Discover new technologies, products and services for your next great adventure all under one big tent. Visit Outdoor Retailer.com

Thanks for listening. But you know I want hear from you. So please drop me a note with your questions comments and criticism to info@joytripproject.com. Until next time take care.

Mr. Well’s 4th grade class doesn’t want the environmental message of the Dr. Seuss classic children’s book “The Lorax” to be lost when the feature film premieres in March. So the Brookline, Massachusetts 10-year-olds are circulating a petition through Change.org to prompt producers to include conservation education materials on the movie’s website and in the trailer.

“Adding environmental education to The Lorax movie website is important because this is the message of the book and it should be honored. Dr. Seuss wanted people to be inspired by The Lorax to help the environment,” Mr. Well wrote in the petition. “Currently, the movie website, trailer, and story summary have no mention of helping our planet! This is a missed opportunity. There are big problems in our natural world and we need more and more people helping out.”

I for one can’t wait to see this film. A sucker for cartoons there’s nothing I love better than to have my favorites brought to life on the big screen. First published in 1971 “The Lorax” is a cautionary tale that illustrates what will happen when the interests of commerce are elevated above the protection of the natural world. The 4th-graders’ observation makes me wonder if there may indeed be a dilution of the story’s clear and profound environmental message. We must speak for the trees.

I recall in 1988 “The Lorax” was banned by the school district of Laytonville, California because it “criminalized the forestry industry”. Apparently members of that community feared local children were being manipulated into believing that their parents’ livelihood was derived through evil means. This bit of ACLU history is perhaps a precursor to the recent declarations by Republican activists that the latest Muppet Movie is in fact a piece of communist propaganda to demonize capitalism and the right to earn a buck.

If nothing else all of this hullabaloo demonstrates the absurdity of anything taken to extremes. Though Dr. Seuss advocated the preservation of trees in his book, it’s likely he would have favored a sustainable practice of planting and extraction, thoughtfully cultivating supply to meet reasonable demand. That’s just good business.

And while corporate zealots and eco-fascists might accuse each other of cause-celeb fanaticism, when it comes to entertaining and educating children it’s better to let them have their cartoons like this one that teach the consequences of our actions. “The Lorax” isn’t about assigning blame or imposing job-killing regulations to protect the environment. In the end the book demonstrates how through personal responsibility we can each work to set things right even when they go horribly wrong. And that’s a good lesson to be learned for 4^th graders and adults alike. ~ JEM

The Joy Trip Project is made possible with the support of sponsor Patagonia

All I can say is wow! After 5 solid days of complete immersion into the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market I can finally come up for air and decompress my mind and body from the biggest most successful adventure snow sports tradeshow ever! With the alarm going off and 5:30 AM each morning and daily events keeping me up until after midnight I pretty much burned the candle at both ends. Unfortunately I’d neglected the Joy Trip Project blog in favor of Facebook and Twitter posts for the sake of speed and convenience. But with tons of posted photographs and quotes from attendees I hope you were able to follow along and join in the fun.

For those of you lucky or smart enough to have made your way home already I hope you have an opportunity as I do now to take some time to sit back and reflect on the events of the past week. After a good night’s sleep and a light workout I’m settled into a corner table for a hardy breakfast. Hagermann’s Bakehouse downtown on West Temple in Salt Lake City offers free Wi-Fi and a bottomless pot of coffee. So here I’ll make my office for the most of the day to process a three-inch stack of business cards and think about all the many things the Outdoor Industry shared with me.

During this process of decompression I hope you’ll share some of your thoughts and impressions of the show. I’m curious to know how the event might have directly impacted your business as an exhibitor or a sales rep. If you’re a retailer is there anything in particular you might have seen or learned that will make your shop more profitable or help you to better serve your customers? And if you’re an athlete or an activist how might have you strengthened your relationships with sponsors to support your cause or your next big adventure?

Post your responses to this blog or drop me a note via email to info@joytripproject.com. Your answers to these questions will allow me to better assess the overall strength and success of this year’s Outdoor Retailer Winter Market. I’ll be sure to follow up over the next few days with many of you. But in the meantime please share your experience!

And while you’re recovering be sure to take a few moments to reward yourself for all your hard work. I’m sure you’re eager to get right back to your shop or office and start applying what you’ve brought back from the show. But remember we’re in the play business. I believe we are each at our passionate best when we’re relaxed and happy in the flow of productivity. Personally, I’ve book a massage appointment for later this afternoon. I know I deserve it. I’ll be you do too!~ JEM

The Joy Trip Project is made possible with the support of sponsors Patagonia and the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market

It’s finally snowing like it should in Madison, Wisconsin. Waiting to board a Frontier flight to Denver I’m told we’re still cleared to take off. So I’m on my way to Salt Lake City bound for the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market
That’s saying a lot because 2012 marks 20 years for me attending this biannual gathering of all things adventure. I quite literally own items of technical clothing that’s older than some of the top athletes on the snow scene today. But I’m thrilled for the opportunity twice each year to engage this amazing community of professionals that derived their living from outdoor recreation and environmental conservation.

I’m especial eager to enjoy this year’s show in an official capacity. Working under contract with the Outdoor Retailer marketing staff I’ll be working out on the show floor as a social media specialist! Same as always I’ll be roving the aisles looking for the latest new products and the many people who create and promote them. But this year you can follow my updates on the Outdoor Retailer Facebook page and Twitter profile. I’ll post photographs and text messages that detail current events as they happen. Plus I’ll have a photo round-up of the daily happenings for you to enjoy and share.

And speaking sharing I hope everyone at the show and even those at home will offer up their own photographs, promotional updates and general observations on the things their excited about. Once we’re all done and everyone heads home I’ll be compiling a detailed report on both the state of the industry as well as the progress made by industry supported non-profits and environmental organizations.

There’s a lot of great information to share over the next 7 days. Social media is a wonderful way to communicate. Hag tag your posts #ORWM or send your content and comments directly to Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/OutdoorRetailer

Safe travels. See you in Salt Lake City!

“A little salt won’t kill the yeast,”  had said as we tasted this latest batch. “And as for flavor you’ll pull in some of the molds and spores from around the house.”

That got me thinking and suddenly I could taste the many subtle aromas of our life together. Home baked bread permeated with essence of sawdust, ground stained glass, ski wax shavings, dog hair and bike grease.

For the recipe check out my absolutely favorite “Tassajara Bread Book” by Edward Espe Brown http://www.powells.com/biblio/6-9780394741963-5

Ventura, CA (January 9, 2012)— The recipients of the 2012 Mugs Stump Award were announced today. The award, sponsored by Alpinist Magazine, Black Diamond Equipment, Ltd., Mountain Gear, Patagonia, Inc., and W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc., was created in 1992 in memory of Mugs Stump, one of North America’s most visionary climbers. In the 20 years since its inception, the Mugs Stump Award has provided $324,000 in grants to small teams pursuing climbing objectives that exemplify light, fast, and clean alpinism.

The applications received for 2012 included many strong teams with objectives in far-flung corners of the mountaineering world, from Alaska to the Himalaya. “This was the strongest group of applications we’ve seen in several years,” said Michael Kennedy, Alpinist editor-in-chief. “We would have been happy to support twice as many trips.” In the end, seven teams with outstanding talent and objectives will receive a total of $33,500 in grants.

2012 Mugs Stump Award recipients:

• Franz Josef Land, Russia. Mike Libecki continues his solo visits to the uncharted corners of the mountain world to attempt The Polar Shield. “This wall is at 81 degrees north latitude, only about 580 miles from the North Pole,” said Libecki. “This wall is way up there, and can be called the northern-most and most remote big wall on the planet.”

• Golgotha, Revelation Mountains, Alaska. Clint Helander, Scotty Vincik and Mark Westman will explore the East Face of this formidable unclimbed peak. “The Revelations have become my maniacal fascination,” said Helander, who has made four trips to the range. “They epitomize true wilderness. The terrain is tightly contoured and extremely rugged. There are no guidebooks and little beta.”

• Middle Peak, Saint Elias Range, Alaska. Dave Burdick, John Frieh and Zac West will attempt the 5000-foot West Face of this unclimbed peak, which “offers a unique opportunity in a very remote region, one of the less visited areas in the state.”

• Latok I (7145m), Karakoram, Pakistan. Mike Pennings, Nate Opp and Josh Wharton will attempt the Northwest Face. “I have now spent more than six months of my life camped below Latok I’s north side,” said Wharton, who tried various routes on this side of the mountain in 2007, 2008 and 2009. “I have begun to understand it’s various moods, and why it routinely defeats some of the world’s best alpinists.”

• Tahu Rutum (6651m), Karakoram, Pakistan. Scott Bennett, Blake Herrington and Grant Zimmerman will attempt the Northwest Ridge, which the trio calls “a perfect big mountain route… aesthetic, vast, remote, and consistently steep, presenting technical challenges from hard free and wall climbing to steep ice and mixed terrain.”

• K7 (6935m) and Ogre II (6960m), Karakoram, Pakistan. Kyle Dempster and Hayden Kennedy will return to the East Face of K7, which they tried in 2011, and then move over to the Choktoi Glacier for the Northeast Face of Ogre II. “The Choktoi has a rich climbing history, contains some of the most impressive mountains in the world, and has a zero percent success rate,” said the pair. “We view these components as the basis for a truly motivated expedition.”

• Sanlian Peak (6684m), Sichuan, China. Steve Su will join Chinese climbers Yan Dongdong and Zhou Peng for a traverse of the three summits of this unclimbed peak. “I met Yan and Zhou on the recovery mission of my close friend Jonny Copp, who (along with Wade Johnson and Micah Dash) died in an avalanche off of Mt. Edgar in 2009,” said Su. “Zhou and Yan were instrumental in that search. Ever since, I had been in touch with them, hoping to one day climb a peak together in China.”

These climbers—and all of this year’s Mugs Stump Award applicants—share Mugs’ vision of climbing as a celebration of boldness, purity and simplicity. Past recipients include both well-known and relatively unheard-of alpinists pursuing objectives in Alaska, Patagonia, the Himalaya, the Rocky Mountains, Greenland and more. For more information on the Mugs Stump Award, including reports from previous years, please visit www.mugsstumpaward.com.

Contact: Michael Kennedy, (970) 309-4651, mkclimb@comcast.net

A new yoga video posted on YouTube inspires tens of thousands to pursue the practice. But it seems that many others find it sexually provocative, disrespectful of the female form and an affront to the principles of mindful movement. Personally I was more than a little shocked to discover that the 3 minute 29 second film produced by Equinox health clubs featuring Briohny Smyth could be construed as anything short of amazing. It just goes to show that when it comes to any exploration of the human condition there will always be room for controversy. And where many see passion many others see perversion.

You can draw your own conclusions on the virtues of this video. Having only just discovered it myself I found it to be utterly captivating. Smyth’s graceful execution of both basic and more advanced poses motivated my own practice this morning to help me realize what is possible with dedication to the discipline. But writers in the yoga world report that many don’t feel that way.

“I began seeing some fellow yoga teachers and practitioners posting about how they were “disgusted” and “appalled” by this video,” wrote columnist Jeannie Page on Elephant Journal. “They felt it was over-sexualized and exploitative to women, and that it belittled the practice of yoga.”

I suppose you could make the case that a woman basically in bra and panties is, to say mildly, inappropriate. But in the context of this artful portrayal of thought expressed in movement that is the essence of yoga I believe that perversion is in the mind of the beholder. We tend to perceive the worst in others when what we truly see perhaps are the limitations of ourselves. Smyth deserves a lot of credit for sharing her practice of yoga as a sincere expression of herself most vulnerable.

“When Equinox asked me to do this video, they gave me total freedom to express my Art, Yoga. In no way did I expect ‘controversy’!” she wrote on Facebook. “However, after spending most of my childhood in the music industry and struggling with Bulimia, I guess I should know by now that ‘Controversy’ is part of being Human.

“I respect the opinions of those who are disgusted and thankful for those who feel inspired. In all honesty, it felt damn good to be confident in my own skin.”

The exquisite skill of her practice notwithstanding, Smyth’s yoga is as much an expression of her strength in mind and heart. I believe we can all learn from her that balance and stability derived from the mat goes far beyond the life-affirming benefits of the body. Namaste