Take A Look In The Mirror

This morning's readings revealed on the Rubber Side Down blog that his company is screening the movie, An Inconvenient Truth. After the showing there is discussion planned and details provided by a segment of the company around how they're going to corporately curb their emissions. I think this is an incredible exercise for a company to do, and I am very interested that he promises to report back how the day goes.

From his lack of desire to be confronted by a movie (by Al Gore?) with global warming facts he already knows and believes, to the prospect of being involved in an open discussion about an issue as charged as global warming. I identified a lot with his post. (I hope I'm not mischaracterizing his words too badly.)

Where I work a “Please turn out the lights” sign has appeared in the bathroom. I was happy to see that. I've become pretty aware of unnecessary lighting myself and I wonder who else has.

Now, the light gets turned off once in a while. :)

The idea of a corporate discussion around the movie overlaps slightly with this excellent post on the Sans Auto blog. He laments:

"We don't have people over for dinner and we don't recreate with friends and neighbors. The result of this isolation has been greater distrust in society as a whole. We have a tight knit group that we interact with (primarily family) and we don't venture out much. This limits our ability to influence people and get ideas out and give diverse groups opportunity to think about new ideas. So there is value (capital) in socializing and being involved in different groups."

This is a pretty thick post that I recommend. It's a thoughtful reflection of his time spent listening to Robert Putnam, author of "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community." I wonder what the author gives for evidence of or ideas for revival.

To tie this all together: an afternoon of movie going and potentially divisive discussion (as truly laudable as I think it is) doesn't serve to change minds very well. Companies of course get to dictate their direction, "like it or not this is what we're doing." People would probably be better served by, figuratively or literally, going bowling. From what I've read, the global warming movie is also about Al Gore going bowling.

Interestingly or ironically, A League of Ordinary Gentlemen is on its way to my home from NetFlix. Excellent, more time at home sitting alone in front of my television. Then I can blog extensively about it.