In the wake of the Dow’s 1,000 point plunge and recent hundred point aftershocks, it’s worth reflecting once again on the legacy of the financial crisis and what—if anything—we’ve learned. Our Partners For Change at Ecotrust believe that the lesson of the financial crisis is the same one we must learn if we are to deal effectively with the environmental crisis: live within our means. Check it:

Last Call! Only 24 hours left until the submission deadline for GOOD Magazine’s Everyday Solution to an Extraordinary Problem design project, sponsored by Nau. There’s still time to post your idea as a comment to GOOD’s contest page, tweet @GOOD, or e-mail projects[at]goodinc[dot]com with a pressing global problem and your creative, DIY solution. If yours is the best, you’ll win a $500 Nau gift certificate. So think quick, and don’t forget to post your ideas here, too, in the comments section below.

That’s right! Only one week remains until the submission deadline in GOOD Magazine’s Everyday Solution to an Extraordinary Problem design project, sponsored by Nau. And while the ideas have been pouring in to GOOD’s contest page and twitter feed, there’s still one entry we’re waiting on: yours.

From Tax incentives for low-emission vehicles to scheduled blackouts to the simple act of thinking of others before we spend, the current entries include some interesting ideas. Can the creative folks here in the Thought Kitchen can top the current contenders? We think you can. Prove us right, and you could be the lucky winner of eternal Thought Kitchen glory. Well, that and a $500 Nau gift certificate. Glory’s got to look good, after all.

To enter, post your comment to GOOD’s contest page, tweet @GOOD, or e-mail projects[at]goodinc[dot]com with a pressing global problem and your creative, DIY solution. Don’t forget to post it here too, in the comments section below.

P.S. And while you’re over there at GOOD, check out the winners of their recent “Design a Neighborhood Infographic” contest. This ex-granite stater loves the idea that we could all be neighbors in New Hampshire, though I’m not sure Profile Lake or my favorite corners of the Pemi would be the same with the neighborhood density of Brooklyn…

Today, our friends at GOOD have offered up just one more reason to give a damn—$500 in Nau gear. Always on the lookout for new and inventive ways to create positive environmental and social change, they’ve partnered with Nau on a contest to “Design an Everyday Solution to an Extraordinary Problem.”

Some would say the pressure is on the scientists, politicians, and business leaders of the world to develop those solutions. But why not you? With this project, we’re hoping you will think about what’s preventing you from acting on your positive impulses, and what inventions might remove those roadblocks. Do you not bike because you live somewhere rainy? Maybe you could invent a handlebar umbrella attachment. Do you hate the way tofu tastes? Maybe you could create a recipe for deep-fried delight. The possibilities are endless.

GOOD is accepting entries through March 31st, so put on your thinking helmet, charge up the idea machine, and fire off your flashes of brilliance by tweeting @GOOD, or by e-mailing projects[at]goodinc[dot]com. The top three solutions will win a $500 Nau gift card. So come on, Thought Kitcheners—what’ve you got? Hit us up in the comments with any ideas you’re thinking of submitting.

(via, or really just with, GOOD.is)

Washington snowpacks are among the most sensitive to warming in the West because of their relatively low elevation.

Editor’s note: This post marks the first in a series of updates from our 2009 Grant for Change grantees, Benjamin Drummond and Sara Joy Steele. The Seattle-based documentary team will be sending us monthly updates from the field, as they work to build eight new stories for their long-term project, Facing Climate Change.

My partner Benj and I are a documentary team that specializes in multimedia stories about people, nature and climate change. A few months ago Nau awarded us their first annual Grant for Change to support our long-term documentary project, Facing Climate Change. Throughout this year, we’ll post periodic updates about our work in The Thought Kitchen, and we wanted to start off by introducing ourselves and explaining a little bit more about what exactly we’re doing.

Facing Climate Change uses photography and multimedia to personalize the story of global change through local people. We began this work back in 2006 with a series of stories about Sámi reindeer herders in Norway, volunteer glacier monitors from Iceland and fishermen of the North Atlantic. The G4C is going to help us create a new series of stories that explore the impacts of climate change through people who live and work in the Pacific Northwest. From wildfire fighters and apple growers, to coastal tribes, paramedics and snowmakers, people throughout this region must confront and adapt to the consequences of warming. Their unique stories about who they are and what they do, their everyday challenges and long-term ambitions will help to make an abstract issue more accessible to local audiences, while also contributing to a global conversation.

In the Pacific Northwest region, the area burned by fire is projected to double by the 2040’s and triple by the 2080’s.

We think that our own backyard is an ideal region for a case study, not only because of its diverse ecological, cultural and economic landscapes, but also because of an unprecedented new assessment that downscales global trends into local projections. At more than 400 pages, the Washington Climate Change Impacts Assessment documents the latest research on how climate change will likely affect eight sectors of our environment and economy by the end of this century: agriculture, coasts, energy, forests, human health, salmon, urban stormwater infrastructure and water resources.  Read More »

This Sunday, April 13th marks the 106th running of one of cycling’s most famed one-day classics: the Paris-Roubaix. Covering 260km (that’s 161.5 miles) of pavement, country roads, and mud (usually), Paris-Roubaix is perhaps best known for winding over more than 50k of wheel-grabbing, historic cobblestones. And while it’s always a fun race to watch, this year we’re particularly excited to follow the riders of the emerging American team, Slipstream/Chipotle.

Directed by former US Postal Serive (among other teams) rider and US Time-Trial Champion Jonathan Vaughters, and boasting A-list cyclists like David Zabriskie, David Millar, Tyler Farrar and Christian Vande Velde, Slipstream/Chipotle is more than just a stacked team, however. With doping scandals grabbing headlines and threatening the future of pro cycling everywhere, they’ve gone to the pavement to design a team that will bring clean sport back to the peleton.

Given their commitment to making change, we’re proud that they’ve chosen Nau as the team’s off-bike clothing provider. So while you won’t see a Nau spandex TT suit anytime soon, you will catch the riders and the support staff sporting the gear. And with the announcement last week that the team has received a bid to the Tour de France, we’re looking forward to seeing it in Paris as well!

You can read more about the team’s commitment to untainted sports performance, and follow their progress over the cobbles to Roubaix, at www.slipstreamsports.com.

826CHI dwells behind the Boring Store, a store advertising approximately nothing, boasting a complete lack of customers, and stating that it might carry apertures, openings, perforations, pits, cavities and punctures, holes and hollows. Within, one can find (if one looks hard), all the supplies a secret agent could possibly need in the big city: underwater voice amplifiers, glasses with cameras installed, and of course, the signature 826CHI mustache on a stick, an essential insta-disguise for anyone hoping to remain undetected. The Boring Store and its important merchandise provide much-needed funds for a non-profit offering free services to any school aged children in Chicago, but the real magic happens in the back room.

On this particular Thursday I watch a hoard of fidgety 4th graders peering through the window that divides the Boring Store from the “publishing house.” Straight ahead they glimpse a closet, chained shut and plastered with signs proclaiming “KEEP OUT By Order Of ADMIRAL MOODY.” “NO TRESPASSING ALLOWED!” “PELIGRO! NO TRASPASAR!” The students look nervous.

The other volunteers and I look nervous too. We explain to the students coming in the door that we work for a publishing house with the meanest boss alive. This could be our last day; we may, in fact, be fired if things don’t work out. Admiral Moody insists that we publish at least one good story a day, and refuses to accept anything with violence or unhappy endings. We desperately need the help of a 4th grade class to achieve this goal, and so we quickly herd them in front of the photographer (who snaps their “author photo”, complete with the requisite serious face and serious looking mustache on a stick that all authors of course wear) and then seat them on a rug to await orders. Read More »

As The Thought Kitchen nears its one-year anniversary (8/24, for those of you interested), we’re pretty thrilled about the ideas, discoveries, people and topics that have found their way into our company. We’ve grown in our awareness of the blog world, and awareness of us has grown as well. To that end, we wanted to acknowledge that we’ve updated our list of Like Minds links (at left) with a bunch more interesting, compelling and often inspiring sites. Check ‘em out. They’re where we go for insight, info and laughs. You should too. Thanks for reading, and keep the comments coming!

It is fitting that Nicholas Kristof, probably one of the most influential and spot-on on-line journalists working today, would stumble across our Partner for Change, Kiva.org.

His March 27 column and video recounts a visit he made recently with two entrepreneurs in Afghanistan”a baker and a t.v. repairman”that he loaned money to using his laptop and Kiva.org, a Web site that provides information in MySpace-like profiles about entrepreneurs in poor countries ” their photos, loan proposals and credit history ” and allows people to make direct loans to them for as little as $25. When loans are repaid, the lender can keep her original investment or relend it to others.

As we researched and got to know Kiva last fall, we began to see many parallels with Nau. It was founded a little more than two years ago by entrepreneurs seeking social change and wanting to do business in a different way. Matt and Jessica Flannery came away from time in Africa seeing that even small amounts of working capital could transform lives. Their challenge: how to make that opportunity available and easy for people seeking to make a difference? Working with a keen group of colleagues recruited from Silicon Valley successes PayPal and TiVo, Kiva.org was born. Today anyone with an internet connection and credit card or PayPal account can lend money to those with no or little access to credit, allowing the lender to start or grow an existing business.

Kristof, who also credits another Partner for Change, Mercy Corps, which itself is also a major player in the microfinance world, reminds us that microfinance is an important tool against poverty. Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his pioneering work with microfinance in Bangladesh. Read More »

A few months ago, we announced our sponsorship of the Photo of the Year Contest and now we have a winner! Congratulations are in order for Kristen Muskat, whose dramatic image of a Zanzibar mangrove tree received the most votes from both judges and attendees of the award ceremony. The gala event generated $13000 for the MESD Outdoor School.

To further support The Outdoor School, purchase a POTY calendar from Ink Promotions: 503-715-3404.