A look at 10 powerful men who have grown to become better people who in turn, better our lives.

We continue to seek leaders among movers and shakers capable of making a difference. Who is out there, we ask, in these bleak times to govern, protect and prosper? Here is a look at some men who have proven able to rise to challenging tasks, become better people with stances of substance, and capable of changing our world in a myriad number of positive ways.

1. Steve Jobs

We can’t help but think of Apple founder Steve Jobs, the single most important figure to date to spring from Silicon Valley, who leaves behind an enormous legacy after losing his battle with pancreatic cancer at 56. Likened to titans Ford and Edison by The Globe and Mail, he lives on in downloaded songs, finger swipes and sleek white headphones – “a man whose vision ended up disrupting almost every creative and commercial industry on Earth” thereby changing the earth as we know it. While cynics have said there is a special place in hell for technology peddlers who insure gadgets are readily replaced, Jobs gave us the convenience factor which made it easier to do what we do most: cyber speak.

It appeared everything he touched turned to gold, from the Macintosh and mouse to the iPad and Pixar. True, he changed the world with his visionary acumen but also the world changed him as he confronted his mortality, telling a graduating class of Stanford University grads that the notion of dying was the biggest catapult in following his heart. “It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

He also cited his firing from Apple at age 30 after taking the company from a fledgling computer brainstorm built in a garage to a $2 billion giant with over 4,000 employees as the best thing that ever happened to him. “The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. ”

2. Louis Rossetto

The co-founder of  Wired Magazine  has been called a Fair Trade Willie Wonka for his success of adapting Silicon Valley start up tools to the chocolate industry. Rossetto became the first investor and then CEO of TCHO, launched in 2005 on the premise that chocolate should be measured by flavor and not percentage of cacao content, using the Flavor Wheel approach established by NASA contractor Timothy Childs and chocolate industry veteran Karl Bittong.

Shifting the focus to taste and flavor labs and cutting out notorious slave labor practices on plantations in the Ivory Coast and elsewhere, TCHO collaborates with growers and co-ops in cacao-producing countries like Peru, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic, teaching growers how to improve methods and secure better prices. “It’s the lowest-cost, most-efficient technology to get the job done,” Rossetto says about the labs, adding it’s not unlike grape growing in Napa Valley where growers can either sell commodity table grapes or get top dollar for premium wine grapes for really good wineries.

The producers now sell from 75 cents up to $8 and margins, boasting big customers like Whole Foods and Starbucks. Across the globe, the chocolate is sold at famous restaurants like Mario Batali’s chain and at Paul Young in London and Fresh and Fresh in Japan. It’s also sold on its website. In 2010, sales were up eight percent across the spectrum and expected to reach double-digit millions and beyond by 2012. First revenues for TCHO started below $1 million in 2009 and tripled last year – demonstrating that fair trade and organic is viable if well supported by believers. Rossetto got friends and family to invest. Today, TCHO produces 10 to 20 tons of chocolate every few weeks from its factory in the heart of San Francisco.

3. Blake Mycoskie

Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes was a kid kicking around in Argentina when the light went off – footwear is a basic need like water and air, and many are without the coverage to protect their feet from harsh environs. He not only launched a fashion movement (the new must-have uniform of school girls) but a charitable movement – distributing over 600,000 pairs of new shoes in 2010 to kids in need through giving partners around the globe.

What changed in him in 2006? Prior to that he demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit starting five businesses before TOMS including a national campus laundry service. Most visionaries see a  hole needing filling, but with TOMS, he changed the way much of the industry sees its role – the ability not to just churn out profits but also to help children around the world. As a result, others are following suit with programs like the Good Shoe Project introduced by Payless ShoeSource and World Vision and the Shoes2Spare project.

The bottom line for the man behind the little shoe that could? Stuff doesn’t make you happy. “When I started distributing shoes in Ethiopia, South Africa, and South America, I saw that the people had so little, yet seemed to worry so much less than my friends and family back home,” he says. “Instead of stressing over gadgets, they were talking around the campfire.”

 4. Michael Moore

Clearly not everyone’s cup of tea -  Michael Moore can rub audiences and subjects the wrong way with his overwrought hubris, and that is entirely the point. But as he ages, he is learning to be a less obnoxious man of the people, something that has overshadowed supporters and detractors alike as his provocations drew attention away from the filmmaker with a focus on the film character. As one of his fellow filmmakers sees it: “Moore is a genius, who created an entire genre of documentary film making using the reflexive mode, and I view him as a pamphleteer, say a modern Thomas Paine, who says provocative things that aren’t always meant to be taken literally.”

Not the academic ilk of a Kevin Burns nor the inconspicuous diplomacy of Michael Apted, Moore has changed in the way he doesn’t so much get in your face and slap it silly but continues to rock the boat like no other documentary film maker, not exposing tainted meat and animal cruelty as much as exposing our inexcusable apathy in accepting corporate crime, insurance fraud, imperialism via drummed up invasions and tolerance of school bullies.

Is it any wonder he joined protesters staging Occupy Wall Street? Coming to their aid, he said “What you see here, and what you’re seeing across the country, are millions of people who’ve had it.” Moore promised to donate proceeds from his book, Here Comes Trouble, to their effort and to deliver wi-fi to the park and to other demonstrations being held across the nation. “I’ll do what I can do,” he offered, “because these bankers overplayed their hand. They were already rich, but filthy rich wasn’t enough. They are trying to turn our democracy from a democracy into a kleptocracy.”

The Flint native and so-called poster boy for the working class does boast nearly 900,000 Twitter followers who have been stirred and shaken by his bawdy cocktails like Stupid White Men and Fahrenheit 911. And while critics have tried to expose Moore as a hypocrite for owning a million-dollar apartment or sending his child to private school,  Moore remains a bigger than life figure who gets us to think.

 5. Dr. Mehmet Oz

“Who is the new great and powerful Oz?” asked the New York Post about the heart surgeon in scrubs who has taken over Oprah’s time slot and the health-bound viewing audience by storm. Described as a genuine medical folk hero in the making by turning genital warts and controversial diets like HCG into entertainment, the TV doc goes further than Dr. Phil by bypassing tabloid tactics in favor of a bare bones anatomy lecture. Like most successful physicians, he started out wanting a good career without fame, but has become the ear for a world obsessed with dieting, aging, longevity and stress, spending 40 minutes answering studio audience questions which many other arrogant doctors would dismiss out of hand or tell patients they don’t need to know the answers.

“Folks are desperate to have a relationship with their healer,” he says. “Marcus Welby is dead today, and they want a regular doctor who they can have a dialogue with and get truthful answers from. I reach a whole lot of people this way.”

As close to a regular guy as a rock star TV celeb can get, he lives in New Jersey with his wife and four kids and considers himself a hermit who shaves rarely, plays basketball with friends and meditates.  One of his assets is his listening skills – which shouldn’t be undermined as most of us are starved for listeners to our complaints and concerns. A big sign of his ability to change us – patients quoting his advice when visiting their own internists. If Dr. Oz thinks something is kosher, then it probably is kosher.

6. Douglas Holtz-Eakins

Who doesn’t love a conservative who changes his course when needed? Among the new directions in the sails of the conservative economist, praising the once debunked American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 as a stimulus that operated exactly as intended, growing the economy and spawning millions of jobs. The former Congressional Budget Office director and former chief economic advisor to Sen John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, pledged in August to throw support behind the bill.

Meantime, while the Tea Party elements insist global warming is a science fiction concept, Holtz-Eakin is now working with the New Hampshire-based Clean Air-Cool planet, addressing the economic benefits of addressing the very real issue. One proposal that entices him is tax-swapping, imposing a levy on carbon emissions while eliminating the payroll tax.

“We have watched with foreboding as powerful forces in the Republican Party want to close down this debate and reject the idea that this is a problem that needs to be solved,” says Brooks Yeager of the climate policy advocacy group. “Our interest in working with someone like Douglas, who has enormous credibility in conservative ranks and economists and agrees with our fundamental position that needs to be solved, is that he is exceptionally well positioned to reopen this debate.”

7. John Stewart

First, he changed his name from John Leibowitz, then he changed his game from his breakthrough comedy role on The Larry Sanders show to the serious business of changing mainstream media. The Daily Show with John Stewart is highly respected for its moxie in telling it like it is while everyone else tiptoes through the tulips and kisses the backsides of corporate sponsors. Or, as aptly put by Hub Brown of the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University: “The stock-in-trade of The Daily Show is hypocrisy exposing hypocrisy and nobody else has the guts to do it. They really know how to crystallize an issue on all sides, see the silliness everywhere.” A prime example was second guessing the war in Iraq while mainstream press was towing the line of national leaders. Stewart decided to take them to task, lampooning Bush policies.

The Comedy Central staple has scored nine consecutive Emmy awards  validating that yes, perhaps the industry has a liberal slant, but also that the truth hurts less than we think when it comes to bashing the Tea Party or even criticizing our leaders, including President Obama’s failure to make inroads with a ridiculously stubborn congress. “Conditions are what they are and Obama is president,” says the host. “You are judged by how well you negotiate those conditions, not by how excusable the shitty end result is based on that it’s difficult.”

 8. Brad Pitt

While some of our moms refuse to forgive him for what he did to Jen, Pitt has revamped his image from willing victim of a home wrecker to determined home repairer in New Orleans. There has been much banter of him there switching to politics, as he rubs shoulders with Nancy Pelosi and the Chief on the New Orleans Housing Project while his better half works for UNICEF.

It’s an accepted fact no one wields more clout than celebs like Pitt who have huge followings among all age groups and tremendous visibility. While Dave Eggers’ poignant prose draws attention to the flood aftermath in Zeitoun, Pitt is allegedly considered a great mayoral candidate of the city – but it is one of many causes he embraces which led Newsweek Magazine to list him as one of 15 People Who Make America Great. Among his contributions is shedding light on neglected causes in Africa as cameras follow him wherever he and his extended family travel. This was the thinking when he and Jolie say they sold the first picture of their daughter, Shiloh, to People magazine for a reported $4million saying all proceeds would go to charity.

“Knowing that someone was going to hound us for that first photo — and was going to profit immensely for doing it — I just couldn’t live with it,” Pitt told the magazine. “We were able to turn that around and collect millions for people who are really going to need it.” Now as he makes the round to plug his film Moneyball, interviews on NPR and elsewhere highlight the intellectual Pitt – whose sensitivity emerges in the film, just as it did in Benjamin Button illustrating old dogs can learn new tricks at any time.

9. Warren Buffett

Read his lips: Yes, new taxes!!! And please let my rich friends step up to the plate. Billionaire Buffett- who inspired Obama’s millionaires’ tax – challenged owner of Fox News Rupert Murdoch to make his own federal tax returns public, after admitting he pays a lower rate than his secretary and the government should stop coddling the super rich “as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species.” A recent CBS news poll showed most Americans agree with Buffett including many who have taken to those Wall Street protests. Militant conservatives are up in arms about it – no doubt viewing Buffett more of a trader than hero, but hero he is for more ways than one.

His stock went way up when joining forces with Bill Gates to urge the wealthy to join the campaign Giving Pledge and to give away at least half of their fortunes during their lifetimes or after their deaths. The 80-year-old Berkshire Hathaway CEO who wants to work past age 100 is famous for maintaining a frugal lifestyle – living in the same home he bought in Omaha in 1958. But his change has come in the way of being much more bold and out there, so to speak, despite how he might be viewed by fellow rich guys and their heirs. As a philanthropist he has set the bar and in seeking more revenues to fund programs, he shows not all billionaires are out for personal gain.

 10. Van Jones

There were such high hopes when Jones became the top green man in the White House – only succumbing to a malicious Tea Party campaign and resigning. ”It has been a tough couple of years,” Jones  confessed. “We went from hope to heartbreak in about a minute…We have the wrong theory of the presidency.”

So he is a changed man for the better in terms of seeing bureaucracy only muddles progress. He is now the leading evangelist of the American Dream Movement in partnership with his own organization, Rebuild the Dream – something he told Alternet was for real progressives in 2012 with the goal to train a million new leaders.

“We’re just glad that the volcano is starting to erupt,” he shares. ” We just want to fight. And there are some pre-existing grassroots assets that need to be re-aligned or redeployed; we’re trying to do that here.” The plan calls for house meetings (with real leadership) as well as protests, networking leaders online and locating dream candidates.  Jones sees his new mission as a social battle like no other in history.

“This is thrilling stuff! The dream-killers on Wall Street — who are so disgusting and so despicable; they are ingrates who are sitting up there laughing at us. I mean, every other bloc of capital that has this much weight, they try to do something to make you like them. Even the polluters, they say, ‘We’ll get clean coal.’ They try to do something. But these people on Wall Street – they just don’t care. So it’s just going to be an epic battle now between the worst people in America, the most selfish people in America, and the most selfless. And that’s going to be amazing.”

Images: Acaben; TCHO; Kwaku Alston; Shankbone; Nayrb7; Atlantic; The jointsstaff; Giving; Tedizen; Americanprogressaction, gadgetdude

Pop-ups fill more than just empty storefronts; they fill our need for discounts.

As far as winsome, widespread trends go, we just might pop till we drop. It started with those makeshift outlets for Halloween costumes and Christmas trinkets peddled in vacated storefronts that can’t possibly lease for what the landlord is asking. But these days, with more empty storefronts begging for a refill, we’re witnessing the rise of the highly respectable pop-up. It’s the hybrid vehicle of choice for inventive chefs, green fashionistas, artists and even compassionate educators, as seen from Brooklyn’s indie designer venues, L.A.’s vintage pop-ups all the way to Egypt’s Tahrir Square.

As reported in Good, the makeshift daycare for toddlers was set up by demonstrators to accommodate mothers wishing to join the historic protests amid the closing of schools in Cairo. Along with ordinary moms, some teachers were among the many professionals storming Tahrir, and the kids were kept at a safe distance and entertained with activities like painting or doing their own micro-marches around the square.

If necessity is the mother of invention, then the pop-up is the brainchild of a needy entrepreneurial spirit frustrated by banks, greedy landlords and bureaucracy – the father of convention. If a bunch of anti-war hippies could transform Yasgur’s Farm in rural New York into a weekend music festival venue, why can’t eager foodies in our cities strut their saute pans in makeshift cafes in empty storefronts or parked alongside a street fair? It’s all part of what EcoSalon has described as part of a foodie underground movement – which is stirring great excitement in L.A., NYC and San Francisco, where foodies feed.

Take the now-closed Mission Street Food pop-up feed house, housed until June in the unassuming Lung Shan Chinese take-out joint in San Francisco. Each week, a guest chef prepped top fair for diners in the Mission District, a veritable indie culinary ghetto known as the go-to place for innovative small plates and ethnic fusion. By infiltrating underused kitchens here and elsewhere in the Bay Area, young talented chefs can live out the fantasy without the risk of losing their coats.

It all sprung from the creative vision of chef Anthony Myint and his wife, Karen Leibowitz, who started out vending pork belly sandwiches from a taco truck before moving the operation into the Chinese restaurant. Myint also has opened Commonwealth, a progressive American high-end eatery which donates part of its tasting menu proceeds to charities. It serves as a charitable model in haute cuisine, perhaps the same way pop-ups serve as a business model in an economic downturn and beyond.

“I don’t think the pop up is specifically tied to the recession as much as it is to social media,” Myint explains, citing the advent of blogging as expedient advertisement. “Let’s say 20 years ago, if you had a pop up you couldn’t get any attention because you would basically be depending on word of mouth but now blogging has facilitated the trend with a lot of street food vendors using Twitter to get out their whereabouts to customers.”

Myint believes that people have segued into pop-ups as a culture, something that is perhaps here to stay for open-minded diners looking past what Myint terms the “white tablecloth experience.” In his case, the pop-up experiment has given way to a new eatery called Mission Chinese Foods, named in the top 100 Bay Area Restaurants by The San Francisco Chronicle.

“Business is overwhelming,” boasts Myint, whose other accolades include being named one of Chow.com’s 13 most influential people in the food world, Eater.com’s empire builder of the year for San Francisco, and Charitable Chef of the year by SF Weekly. It’s all a far way to travel since his days as line chef at Bar Tartine. His story demonstrates the brilliance and ingenuity lurking behind many pop-ups, which might first give off an impression of being transitory and unstable.

Such would seem the case with fashion reps hosting pop-up shops in various towns, such as A Current Affair, which hosted a pop-up marketplace in downtown Los Angeles delivering rare vintage garb from Halston, Lanvin, Comme des Garcons, YSL and Chanel for a $10 admission fee. Even EcoSalon got into the act last year, hosting EcoSalon Shops!, selling an array of sustainable garments produced by 20 emerging designers at a green venue  in Manhattan.

“Pop ups are a great way for small brands to have an audience with customers they might not have had,” explains EcoSalon Fashion Editor, Amy Dufault. “So far, I don’t know of any pop-ups enabling designers to have their own venues, but there are lots of designers within the community for events like these, where they can create solid relationships and continue in the vein of more pop-ups together.”

In this way, the temporary booths are not much different than the accessible parking lot flea market, where sellers can circumvent the red tape to market their wares – the same way East Village pop artists like Kenny Scharf and Keith Haring bypassed the exclusive agent and gallery system to take their graffiti art directly to the people in the streets. They put themselves on the map, earned recognition and ended up in the major leagues with high priced sales and clout.

In fact, the pop up concept is an age-old way of doing business by carpet and tea traders, milkmen and flower growers pushing carts long before we relied on small business loans, rent control and foreign fuel to put food on our tables. Pop up power to the people? It might just be the new modus operandi of generations tired of banking on the traditional route to visibility and viability. As with everything, it will be up to consumers to decide if the temporary movement gets a firm footing in the marketplace.

Images:  Charleston’s Thedigitel; Good; A Current Affair; KQED; Museyon

There is an unspeakable tragedy going on in Japan right now. It will continue to unfold before our eyes in the days, weeks, months, years, and even decades ahead. It will reach the coast of America. This may sound alarmist, but it isn’t. As the New York Times reported this morning:

“The fast-moving developments at the Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) plant, 150 miles north of Tokyo, catapulted the 4-day-old nuclear crisis to an entirely new level, threatening to overshadow even the massive damage and loss of life spawned by a devastating earthquake and tsunami.”

Now nor ever is the right time for panic. The multiple stricken reactors might not melt down. But that doesn’t mean that they won’t continue to emit health-threatening levels of radiation. If the wind shifts, and that radiation heads inland, people will be migrating from their homes, villages, maybe even cities. To where?

What are we to do? What can we do?

First, of course, we have to do whatever we can to help Japan. It’s the third richest economy in the world, but every dollar, every package, every plane or ship that lands with relief supplies will be welcome, not just for the physical support, but for the moral support. If they want to send over exchange students, we should take them. If Japanese businesses need help, their competitors here in the United States should help. If you’re a person of faith, pray.

And here in America? The current nuclear disaster is in Japan, but we have our own problems. Would you light a lump of coal and put it on your kitchen table while your family was in the house? Why is there more air pollution in the Powder River Basin of Idaho than there is in Los Angeles? What are we going to do if hydraulic fracking many hundreds of feet underground releases gas and toxic chemicals that contaminate one of our rivers?

Coal and natural gas are no healthier than nuclear power. At the end of the day, across the planet and across what will be the couple centuries of world history of burning massive amounts of fossil fuels for power, fossil fuels will end up impacting far more people than nuclear power.

America needs to do what it has always, until recently, done best – lead. We need to get out of the dirty, dangerous, unhealthy fuels of the past and lead the way into a clean, healthy and prosperous new energy future. We need to support the people, the politicians, the companies and the organizations that are trying to get us there.

Image: Hogeasdf

It has come to my attention that the current economic downturn has resulted in a reduction of global warming gases in the United States.  The recession has led to a smaller economy and less energy consumption, which, in turn, has led to cleaner air.

This is good news to be sure, but I don’t know how much enthusiasm I can work up for it. “Silver linings” are tricky things, and there is sometimes little comfort to be had when a benefit results from a massively gloomy situation.  If I found out that I had only weeks to live, my reaction would not be “Well, at least I don’t have to hear another word about those damn Kardashians,” although that is certainly the bright side of a tragic and untimely death. Similarly, clean air is nice, but can it really make us care less about worldwide financial ruin? I don’t know the answer to that, but in the spirit of glasses being half full, I offer this list of dubious advantages to a really bad economy.

• Pleading poverty is the new get-out-of-jail-free card. Don’t feel like wasting an entire afternoon antiquing with the ladies? Don’t want to go to a fancy restaurant with the most boring couple you’ve ever known? Claiming you can’t afford it is the new way to get out of everything. And no one will dare try to talk you out of it.
• Everything is on sale. Seriously. From cashmere sweaters to cocaine, from condos to Caribbean vacations, everything can be had at a discount.
• The general public has caught up with me and now people everywhere distrust the fashion industry. I am no longer alone in feeling that there isn’t a sheath dress on earth worth $1,700. As more and more women are forced to keep wearing the clothes they purchased in 2007, they are disinclined to slavishly follow style makers who decree that the new fashion “must haves” are bolero jackets, harem pants, and anything chartreuse.
• Comfort food has made a comeback. Belt-tightening has brought depression-era food back in style as consumers lose their taste for extravagantly whimsical restaurant dishes. Fewer and fewer eateries feature main courses that ascend 12-inches into the air, the main components of which are jicama, white truffles, and beef cheeks. Restaurants that want to stay in business have begun re-thinking the appeal of $22.00 appetizers, opting instead for meatloaf, fried chicken and artisanal ring dings.
• In related news: Maitre d’s and hostesses in fine restaurants have become noticeably more polite. Gone are the days when restaurants had unlisted telephone numbers and bad-tempered models worked the reservation desk. Eating out is still expensive, but it is now possible to dine in nice restaurants without sleeping with or giving birth to the chef.
• Due to the obscene expense of taxis, it is far easier to hail a cab in Manhattan. Conversely, it is next to impossible to find a seat on the cross-town bus.
• Plumbers, electricians and painters who would not return your phone calls five years ago now send out holiday greeting cards and call to solicit your business.
• The recession has put a significant and well-documented strain on relationships. On the bright side, it has also raised the value of gold. So your marriage may be breaking up, but you will probably get a really good price if you have to sell your wedding ring for scrap metal.
• In order to make themselves more marketable, and better able to find jobs in a down economy, young people are getting their tattoos removed – as mothers everywhere rejoice.

Editor’s Note: Susan Goldberg is a slightly lapsed treehugger. Although known to overuse paper products, she has the best of intentions – and a really small SUV. Catch her column, The Goldberg Variations, each week here at EcoSalon.

Image: marysecasol.com

Squeezing community after community, farmer after farmer, and attempting to camouflage and clean up its heavily packaged inventory with so-called green initiatives, the behemoth Walmart appears more tenacious than bed bugs as it keeps creeping in expected and unexpected places around the globe.

The discount retail giant, which operates in 14 countries, has now set its blights on Africa, namely the Johannesburg-based Massmart with an offer of $4.2 billion to buy out the business. Massmart is a combo of Walmart and Home Depot and the biggest peddler of basic foods in the region, selling in 14 sub-Saharan countries with sales of about $6.8 billion this year. No wonder Walmart is considered a global superpower. It is more than a force to reckon with; it is a planet with a life force of its own.

It’s hard to believe this is what Sam Walton had in mind in 1962 when he set up shop. Yet in the nearly five decades since the enterprising son of an Oklahoma farmer founded the discount chain, it has morphed into one of the 100 most powerful economies in the world, ranking #19. Meanwhile, it has emerged as the anti-green in putting mom and pop stores out of business, planting its own cheap farm sources and peddling affordable bulk to a growing base of consumers buying the concept that quantity over quality is the way to get ahead.

The post-war aspiration of a car in every garage has been reinvented as the goal of a flat screen in every den, as Walmart makes it possible for low-income families to afford the luxuries that define the viral American dream. In fact, the company operates like bankrupt attorneys, growing fatter during a recession, benefiting from hard times. And as the economy recovers, sales at Walmart suffer. That tells you something about perception.

In efforts to recover, the company is doing what it has trained serotonin seeking consumers to do: Go shopping. After using up its credit allowance in small towns and suburbs, it is trying to locate urban hoods that have rejected the retailer in years past, along with new international ventures like Africa. It figures it can disguise its box stores and still offer cheap goods that will appeal to cash-poor shoppers in cities like New York and Chicago.

But we wonder if Walmart’s journey will end when its influence peddling no longer charms decision makers or when consumers can no longer fill their trucks with gas to drive to the stores to load up their reusable bags.

According to Joel Makower, Executive Editor of GreenBiz. com, the company’s influence is huge but doesn’t guarantee a sustainability as a business.

“I don’t believe Walmart will ever be a sustainable business in the classic definition of being able to operate indefinitely in the way they current do,” he tells me. “Eventually, they’ll run out of resources of permission to operate or something else. But I also believe that they are extremely resourceful and clever and powerful, so like so many other companies, they may find a pathway through this. Time will tell.”

Meantime, Makower points out that box stores aren’t the enemy of the green good movement, arguing that they might work to introduce local and organic ideology to the masses.

“Farmers markets are flourishing in record numbers, and more big stores – including Walmart and Whole Foods – are learning how to source locally when possible and affordable,” he suggests. “And these big players have scale, which we need to make these products mainstream and affordable. If we relegate green products to a few small niche players, we simply won’t make the different we need to make.”

Still, its a mixed grocery bag, according to food writer Vanessa Barrington, who says Walmart’s touted Heritage Agriculture  Program is just another scam to undercut farmers, citing the profit margin in 2006 when farmers received a mere 19 cents for every $1 consumers spent on food. She says the company could end up displacing the very farmers it set out to support with this initiative. In other words, there’s no business like show business.

“The problem is that Walmart doesn’t do anything without a compelling business reason,” Barrington wrote in a recent EcoSalon article. And often when a whale as large as Walmart moves an inch, it displaces everything around it.

Is there cause for concern? Makower believes Walmart may look unbeatable on the outside but is a long way off from from truly transforming into the good, green, sustainable brand the marketing geniuses are spinning.

“What makes Walmart interesting is its influence, both upstream with its 60,000-plus suppliers, and downstream to its 300 million or so consumers,” he observes. “They can make a big different. If they can succeed as a business along the way, that’s terrific, but they’re a long way from that.”

Images: Koonisutra, Walmart

We’re standing on a very remote dock on Grand Bayou, a chain of wetlands interspersed with human made channels where natural gas lines run out to rigs in the open Gulf. These pipes lay on the mud, running some four miles out to sea to their source and inland to a storage facility where the fuel is collected and brought to market.

Once again, standing in the remnants of architecture destroyed by Katrina, we are overwhelmed by the true identity of this place. Hurricane Katrina is like the B.C. and A.D. of the Gulf Coast, a place and time that demarcates two distinct realities.

Some residents hate BP, some think they’re doing a good job (to varying degrees), but everyone I’ve spoken to has three things in common: they have an uncanny sense of place, they have no self-pity, and the aftermath of Katrina affects their lives everyday.

By the water, there is a basketball hoop with no backboard but a perfectly intact net. The court below isn’t visible – it’s buried by mud and vegetation overgrowth. We’d hoped to meet a fisherman from a local tribe, Jeremiah, with whom we’d made arrangements with to take us out into the affected areas in his boat. Crabbing is closed in the open bays but not in these fingered channels. But Jeremiah, we learn, is already out. No boat equals no story.

Serendipitously, another reporter I’m with finds Brian Gainey, a 20-year-old third generation crabber who moors his boat here. For a little gas money, we can get a ride. He’s with his high school friend Carol Hart, who serves as crew, and he’s going to check on his crab traps laid a few days ago. Brian operates about 500 traps when in full swing, and he drives nearly four hours each way to get here from his home in Mississippi. His workday begins at 4 a.m. and doesn’t end until 8 p.m.

His boat moors for free because his family’s name is respected by the residents of this small, tribal wetland community. But now, his work is severely limited because the outer bays are contaminated. As we tour the marshes with their egrets and herons, we see firsthand why people live here. It’s beautiful. Hot, and beautiful.

Crabs, Brian says, avoid polluted water and have moved into the channels where the oil hasn’t saturated. And though he’s catching, the market rate for his effort has dropped considerably. “Gulf Seafood,” is hardly a selling point with seafood buyers these days. Menus all over the world are being reprinted. Safety is a topic for another post pending, but the perception in the market is that it’s tainted.

But back on the bayou, Brian’s working. His father isn’t; he’s instead accepting the BP checks for out-of-work fisherman, some $5,000 a month. Brian explains that he can generate this amount – gross – in three days of crabbing at pre-spill market prices. Late summer is prime crabbing, and Brian can easily pull in 20 thousand a month. Though he’s thankful to BP for his dad’s payments, it’s unclear how long they’ll last. They are only promised through August and he doesn’t know if they’ll continue beyond that. No one knows. Unknowing is the sentiment that prevails everywhere.

Brian is angry about the situation and he blames BP for all of the problems affecting his way of life, but he also believes that BP is doing everything they can right now. That they’re taking care of business.

This is the crux of life here: The entire economics of this region, with the exception of tourism (which is utterly destroyed), hangs in the balance of a healthy seafood economy and a healthy oil economy. But depending on whom you ask, BP is either a savior for giving jobs, or the devil for destroying the sea. Brian is somewhere in between. He doesn’t fish because he doesn’t have other options, but like most fishermen I’ve talked to, he does this because he loves it.

It was supposed to be “a monument to unparalleled success”, but what this absurd 90,000-square-foot Florida mansion says to me is “ultimate penis extension.” Forgive me for emitting perhaps the most evil laugh of my life when I saw that the unfinished palace started by time-share tycoon David Siegel is on the market because time shares just aren’t selling like they used to.

Siegel was clearly pretty confident when he started building this totally bonkers “look how rich I am” abode, which features thirteen bedrooms, ten kitchens, a 20-car garage (with extra space for two limos, natch), three pools, a bowling alley, an indoor roller rink, a two-story movie theater, etc. etc.

And for $75 million, guess what you get: a concrete shell. That’s right, this place – located down the street from Tiger Wood’s comparatively primitive residence – sits empty, sadly bereft of ornate wood carvings or details like the planned rotating beds. A virtual tour on the Century 21 website takes you through a creepy naked foyer with a blood-red branching staircase that looks like something straight out of The Shining.

Since Siegel ran out of money, the hypothetical buyer would have to pony up an extra $25 million to have it finished. It’s unlikely to sell anytime soon, considering that property taxes alone will run almost two million a year and there just aren’t that many billionaires in the world.

I have to agree with real estate analyst Jack McCabe, who was quoted by the AP in a write-up on the newly listed property: “This mansion is a great anecdote of the overconsumption that led to the housing bust, and it might be the poster child of such overindulgence.”

36 times bigger than the already bloated average American home, this mansion is – to me – a prime example of the mindset that is damaging our planet beyond belief and causing climate change to loom over us like an apocalyptic storm cloud. Our culture idolizes this sort of sickening display of wealth, so that millions of people believe that they have to own 20 cars and two limos to be considered truly successful.

Really though – 23 bathrooms? What does one do with 23 bathrooms? Delicately wipe one’s aristocratic ass with 23 different species of disposable fur toilet paper rolls? I’m dying to know.

Image: Century 21

From the Hill…

Remember when you were a kid, and mom and dad would give you a few bucks each week for mowing the lawn, cleaning your room, doing the dishes and taking out the trash? And if you took on more responsibility, you’d ask the parentals for a raise, because baseball cards and toys are expensive. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has taken that concept a little too far.

She recently moved into a new district office located in the San Francisco Federal Building. It’s in a trendy neighborhood, has a great view and costs a little more than the old office space. How much more, you ask? Pelosi’s paying $18,736 each month to type, make calls and talk around the water cooler in the new digs. That’s right. I’m going to type that again because it bears repeating, and because – if you’re like me – upon hearing the price Speaker Pelosi is paying to go to work, you picked up a calculator and a pencil, and just shoved them in your eyes. $18,736. For renting an office.

All sorts of reasons were cited for the move: she’d been in the old place for twenty years; the new office’s location is more accessible for her constituents (public transportation and walking being so unruly and all); she needed more space (why? Because the monthly office pool is an actual pool?). Also the new office is in a “green” building. This is one of those moments when the word green means just so many things, isn’t it?

But rent is getting higher all the time, and San Francisco is one of the most expensive cities in the country. So maybe this is just a harsh realty reality. The thing is, Pelosi’s new office rent is four times what she was paying for the old one – which is also located in San Francisco. Also, her rent is almost double what anyone else in Congress is paying. Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., whose office is in Los Angeles, is getting it for a steal: only $9,055 a month! And Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, D-FLA., pays only $1,353 a month for an office owned by the University of Central Florida in Orlando and another $100 for a small office provided by the City of Port Orange.

So how’s Pelosi paying for her pad? Each member has a Representational Allowance at his or her disposal, to cover the cost of rent, transportation and supplies and materials associated with the position. Another good use for this allowance is the cost of communication with constituents, like town hall meetings. She’s paying for this space with an allowance. That’s a lot of dishes she must have washed! What’d she do, offer to mow the lawn at the National Mall?

Here’s a map of all the LEED-certified buildings in San Francisco. Something tells me Speaker Pelosi could have found an office that was just as green, for a little less green.

Image: Speaker Pelosi

Editor’s Note: This is the latest installment in Christopher Correa’s weekly column, Hill/Street Greens, examining the environmental deeds (and misdeeds) of Washington, D.C. and Wall Street.

Can you imagine swapping your cute shoe collection for a few pairs of work boots, giving up weekly nights out with the girls to shovel manure and mend fences, or foregoing frequent trips to your favorite take-out restaurant in favor of making all of your own meals? Trading Sex in the City for Little House on the Prairie might seem extreme and even frightening, but “˜ruralpolitans’ tend to think the benefits outweigh the sacrifices.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported the increasing ranks of city and town dwellers that are moving their families to the countryside. Sure, they’re giving up a long list of perks that come with city living – like public transportation, walkability, nightlife, shopping and diverse cultural experiences.

But with a shaky job market and no guarantees, the peace and security of living the simple life on your own piece of land can be awfully alluring – hence the new generation of surprisingly young urban refugees aiming for rural self-sufficiency.

“Most of these kids say they’ve just saved and want to put their money someplace that won’t go away,” Montana real estate agent Tom VanHoose told WSJ. “They see General Motors go down and AIG go down and they are asking, ‘Gee, can my company go down?’ There’s a lot of angst and anxiety.”

Considering that land in some areas of the country costs as little as $1,000 an acre and off-grid green homes can be built for a pittance, it’s possible to be debt-free and have extremely low living expenses when you own your own land. And you don’t necessarily have to become a farmer, depending on your crops for your income – access to high-speed internet makes it possible for people to keep their jobs and telecommute while hobby-farming or raising just enough food for themselves.

It’s not for everyone – nor should it be, considering that high demand for a rural farming lifestyle could encourage sprawl. But it also might be more possible than you think, even if you’re an unmarried city chick who’s never planted a seed in her life: many “˜ruralpolitans’ are single, and femivorism is an intriguing new trend as well. Or, perhaps you could have the best of both worlds with an urban homestead a la the Dervaes family’s “˜Path to Freedom’ house in Pasadena.

So, could you become a “˜ruralpolitan’? Do you think keeping your own chickens, growing your own food and raising your kids on a farm would be worth it? What would you miss most about urban life?

Image: hipiotix

Perhaps the luck of the Irish will help make green dreams come true when it comes to the country’s goal to shift away from fossil fuels. Situated at the end of the supply chain and currently 90 percent dependent on imported oil, Ireland hopes to get 40 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 – far exceeding the EU’s target of 16 percent.

But luck might not be necessary in a nation driven by an urgent need for employment. Ireland sees its financial difficulties and depressed economy not as a hurdle to going green, but a major motivator. Switching to wind power and other renewables would not only provide thousands of jobs, but stabilize dramatic swings in oil and gas prices. Additionally, Ireland’s prospects are looking far sunnier than its trademark misty gray skies.

“We have doubled our renewable energy. We can double it and double it again,” says Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s minister for communications, energy and natural resources. “It is the perfect answer to the recessionary blues.”

Of course, it’s not as simple as throwing up some wind turbines and calling it a day. Just as it is here in America, one of the biggest obstacles is an aging electrical grid – but a grid interconnector directly from Ireland to Britain is currently being built, and with an energy minister who’s devoted to renewables, more improvements are sure to come.

What’s the biggest thing this island nation has going for it? Shoreline, and lots of it. Ireland has enough land and ocean space to provide its own wind power and even have enough to export to other countries. Five offshore wind farm projects are in the pipeline and marine energy is a possibility in the future.

Ireland is looking beyond the estimated $1.33 billion price tag, seeing it as an investment in the future – for both its people and the environment. Perhaps we should sit back and take some notes.

Image: Wikimedia Commons