The Thought Kitchen is our effort at collective inquiry and its power to affect change. Have you ever noticed how the party is always in the kitchen? There are more walls to lean on and people are energized by the proximity to food and drink. Well, welcome to our kitchen, where we hope to tap into everything we love about that feeling—community, vivacious exchange, food for thought.
A few months ago, our good friend Ian Momsen told us that he was planning a six-month bicycle tour across the US. After a fleeting moment of envy, we knew that exciting adventures and challenges were ahead for this fellow Portlander. Ian’s objective for this trip is to connect people with places across the country through his photography and writing while leaving the smallest carbon footprint he can. Hitting the road with only a few key items—his bicycle, trailer, tent, computer, camera and solar panels (to charge his electronics)—the trip began.
Now, a month and half in and covering over 2,000 miles, Ian’s journey is taking him much further than he had ever imagined. Keeping a daily blog filled with rich descriptions and colorful images of the road, he’s able to bring us along on his amazing ride.
Wend, one of our favorite outdoor magazines, went digital this month, meaning that you can flip through a virtual copy of the previous month’s issue online. Check out a free version here.
Based out of Portland, Wend is expanding its reach by allowing anybody with an internet connection a chance to dig their first-person adventure stories, environmental reporting and amazing photography. Not only will this allow for richer content in the future (think video journalism and podcasts), but it also has the potential to lower the amount of paper and energy used in circulation. Aside from experiencing “Wend 2.0″ and doing less recycling, subscribers to the digital version also save around ten bucks a year.
For the next year, Wend will offer the previous month’s issue online for free. After that, it will only be available by subscription.
If You Knew Everything About Tomorrow, What Would You Do Differently Today?
So asks Faith Popcorn, who has created quite a reputation for what she calls “applied futurism.” By that she means weaving the future into the everyday texture of companies and brands. Faith and her gang have come up with a list of predictions for 2008. One in particular caught my attention. It’s titled “Reactions to Cashing Out”:
Lagom: From the Swedish, most commonly translated as “just enough.” It’s an approach to both design and consumption that explains the essence of brands like Ikea and Volvo. We see notions of “minimalism” and “sustainability” taking on significant currency, as even Americans reject hyper-consumption as not just excessive, but actually damaging to themselves, others and to the planet.
KarmaCapitalism: As “Cashing Out” rises to this level of prominence, we’ll see a basic shift in the identity/mentality of people, as they make the transition from “consumer” to “citizen” – recognizing that every act of consumption has cost and consequence beyond the transaction, and that every transaction is a “vote” in favor of the offering entity, and against the options not chosen. To compete, companies are going to have to weave “goodness” as a fundamental intent into their corporate culture. Bringing on a dash of “corporate responsibility”; whether the mere monetary commitment to a cause, or some more symbolic gesture, will not suffice to curry favor with the citizen. In a world of transparency, where every corporate practice is knowable, they will be watching and exercising that all-important vote of the purse.
Hmmm. As we like to say: that was then, this is Nau.
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.
Oh Canada – My Home and Native Land – Announces the Largest Land Withdrawal for Protection Ever in Canada
A few years ago I had the good fortune of paddling the Mountain River located in the Mackenzie River Valley in the Northwest Territories. That adventure inspired a trip that is currently in planning. I depart on June 27th for a two-week paddling trip on the Snake River in the Yukon. Those trips and others like them, combined with the fact that I’m Canadian, have engendered a life-long interest in wilderness preservation.
That’s why I read with interest the Canadian government’s announcement about the creation of a new national park. It’s called Naats’ihch’oh, which in the Dene language refers to Mount Wilson, a major landmark in the area and means “pointed like a porcupine quill.” The plan is to convert 25.5 million acres of northern boreal forest into a new national park and wildlife protection areas. For those who are counting, that’s about 11.5 times the size of Yellowstone Park.
The boreal forest comprises a band of trees about 1600 miles wide that spans across much of Canada – just below the arctic tundra – and continues in northern Scotland, Scandinavia and Russia. Large numbers of migratory birds and waterfowl make their summer home in the boreal. It’s also an important habitat for grizzly bears, dall sheep and woodland caribou and its trees are believed to play an important role in offsetting the rise of greenhouse gas emissions. It’s also excellent news, given the accelerating industrial activities such as the Mackenzie Gas project (including a proposed pipeline down the Mackenzie Valley) and unprecedented uranium exploration east of Great Slave Lake.
I’m at that stupid age where all your friends decide to get married at once. You know how it is: where you get to pretend that you LOOOVE pink silk bridesmaid dresses (I do love it, Rebekah!) and that you are excited to celebrate unity and togetherness ad nauseum by flying around the country for frantic three-day visits. Being the nerd I am, I’m not actually concerned about retaining my mental sanity in the midst of the summer of love. Honestly, I’m concerned about my carbon emissions.
Seriously. I bought this plane ticket a few days ago and was offered the option of, for $5.99, purchasing a one trip “TerraPass.” Apparently, with my four trips this year, I am using 129 gallons of fuel, and producing 2,527 lbs of CO2! TerraPass offered me the option of paying to offset these appalling numbers and using that money to fund wind farms, landfill gas capture, and the like. These seemed like worthy causes so I paid my carbon dues for the flight, but I still felt sheepish and slightly evil about flying in the first place. Read on »
Based out of the UK, Drift Magazine strives to recapture the lost soul of surfing, similar to the way the esteemed Surfer’s Journal and Surfer’s Path highlight non-commercialized, environmentally-minded content in their publications. One look at the magazine’s design and photography clues you into the fact that something different is going on at Drift. Artful, thoughtful imagery and insightful stories grace the pages of their first three online issues, which are available for download HERE. Now the magazine is venturing into the printed realm, and I wish them the best of luck. Being a surf-blogger in my other life, I’ve always appreciated the respect they show for everyday surfers by highlighting blogs in their newsletters and soliciting content from “non-professionals” who have stories to tell about their experiences in the ocean.
Walking through my neighborhood, I came across a wooden post near the sidewalk with a small case at its top. Inside the box frame, there was a poem called “Bird Watching,” available to anyone who might be walking by. I was impressed with the work, especially a part that asked what the point is of bird watching:
What is the point
of spending precious time
and hard-earned dollars
to wander the globe, only to learn
that someone has gobbled up
the nesting ground,
or filled the marsh,
or paved the meadow,
or poisoned the pond,
or clear-cut the forest,
or built a boundary wall
at the river’s edge?
Take a bit of entrepreneurial flare, mix in a bit of eco consciousness along with a dash of digitally enabled community participation in the form of “crowdsourcing” and “crowdfunding” and what do you get? How about Nvohk (pronounced “invoke”) – an eco-friendly, surf inspired clothing manufacturer that appears to be decidedly democratic in its management approach. The concept: You sign up for free and when membership hits 20,000 everyone invests $50 a year. In return, you get a say in the management of the company, including — according to its founders — major business decisions like logo design, product design, athlete selection and advertising direction. You’ll also have a voice in choosing what charities receive 10% of net profits and 35% of net profits will be directed back to members via award points. As of March 21st, over 2106 future members had signed up. This experiment is one to watch, if not participate in. It will certainly test the power of crowds and our capacity for collective decision-making.
In this video a high school science teacher takes a Pascal’s Wager approach to climate change. The protagonist artfully applies 17th century French Philosophy and rational thinking to an otherwise mixed scientific/emotional decision analysis. It’s a fun, philosophical, “monologue-debate” on the world’s hottest topic. Check it out.
The 
Based out of the UK, 
