The January Issue.
09.01.12
3Culture
2012, a new year in many ways.
At Eco-Age.com we begin 2012 as we mean to go on. We’re determined to navigate an era of unprecedented change by engaging with big thinkers, practical action and smart living.
On the subject of big thinkers, we bring you the great linguist and philosopher, Noam Chomsky. I called in on him in Boston to talk about green language, whether it is fit for purpose and how we might redefine a very urgent movement. I certainly left with an abiding sense of urgency and his warning that ‘it is going to be necessary to shift policies radically and soon’ ringing in my ears. Read my interview with him here. I defy you not to feel a new sense of urgency about ecological and social justice! While I remain convinced that we need a new vocabulary, Chomsky thought the battle was lost. I would love to know where you stand on this. Email me info@eco-age.com.
Uncertainty seems to bring its own inertia and inaction. If we could start to imagine what comes next and what a more coherent future looks like then we’ll start doing something about getting there. That’s why we bring you economist and campaigner
Noreena Hertz and her blueprint for a new collaborative ethical financial system in which transparency is key. Hertz’s vision of Co-op Capitalism is a system where we are aware of and take responsibility for the consequences of our actions, not only on our immediate relatives and neighbours, but on the whole of society.
New year, new round of The Green Carpet Challenge (GCC), our spin off project that brings glamour and ethics to Hollywood and beyond. We have some breathtaking announcements coming up, beginning with the Golden Globes. The GCC is partly about raising the profile of sustainable style and an alternative fashion scene where nobody loses out, but also about redefining luxury. This brings me on to our third big thinker for this issue, the futurist Anne Skarre Nielsen. A while ago she defined new luxury as being ‘not about ostentatious status symbols. New Luxury is thoughtfulness, energy, reflection, innovation, renewal, originality. Making a contribution rather than simply consuming. Being part of a visionary future is the ultimate luxury”. Watch her exclusive video, The future of the consumer, here.
And there is much more besides. We have Rageh Omar discussing the modern implications of forced labour in On Modern Slavery, and the story of environmental activist Marina Rikhvanova's struggle against the Kremlin in the Lady of the Lake. Meanwhile, Colin Firth ponders over whether or not our politics are shaped by our brains, and Rena Effendi supplies us with some magnificent and poignant photographs of the effects of the oil industry in Azerbajan.
These are uncertain times of course, but there is also opportunity for massive change. We don’t claim to have all the answers but we hope you’ll find Eco-Age.com an empowering resource.
Livia Firth.
