Conference Call with Environmentalist Bill McKibben

The League of Maternal Justice, along with several other "green minded" bloggers, are speaking with Bill Mckibben regarding his 350 Challenge.

We'll post a summary of the call and the answers to our questions later this week, but if you'd like to follow along in the conversation, you can follow us on Twitter via Mothergoosemouse's feed.

Comments

[Andrew Blechman]

Dear Boob Squad,

I just wanted to make sure you were aware of my new book, Leisureville, because I think your blog audience may find the topic of interest. Leisureville is about the proliferation of age-segregated ("active adult") retirement communities for people in their 50s and 60s. Children may visit, but their guest passes time out much like international visas, after which time they are basically reduced to the status of human contraband. In the book, I trace the history of this phenomenon to the Arizona desert of the 1950s, as well as profile the world's largest gated retirement community in Florida. It's called The Villages and it is nearly twice the size of Manhattan, will have a population of more than 110,000, and no children are allowed.

The growth of leisurevilles represents nothing less than a revolution in our societal living arrangements as well as the intersection of many themes that define us today: manufactured leisure and convenience, segregation, escapism, sprawl, fortressing, government by contract, and more. Twelve million Americans are expected to move to leisurevilles in the coming decade or so, and that's a very conservative estimate. This is not a sunbelt phenomenon -- the majority of leisurevilles are now being built in the North, outside major cities like San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia. I suspect many of your audience's aging parents either already live in a leisureville, are planning such a move, or are friends with someone who is. I also think moms will find this book interesting because the trend is so loudly anti-child/young family. Leisurevilles typically form large voting blocks that vote down school budgets.

Below are two reviews from the New York Times Sunday Book Review, and The Washington Post Book World. (You can read the full reviews by hyperlinking on the newspaper titles.) You can also learn more about Leisureville by visiting my website: www.andrewblechman.com

Best Wishes,
Andrew

Fascinating…. Secession movements are an American instinct, and Blechman sees one afoot in the migration of young, well-off retirees to the land of golf and sunshine…. If you are squeamish at the thought of people over 55 socializing, having sex, drinking, smoking pot, line dancing and saying they are happy with their lives, avert your eyes now…. Blechman disappears down the rabbit hole. —
The New York Times Sunday Book Review

After reading Leisureville, the first thing I have to say is: Listen up.
— The Washington Post
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PS: We have a 3-1/2 year old and she still loves to breast feed. We can't imagine doing it any other way. She's growing up to be a confident little girl.

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[Ted Wells]

I'm listening to you on the Brighter Planet McKibben conversation right now. I'm a 4th grade teacher near Boston who works on finding green projects to empower kids. It sounded like you're looking for eco projects for kids and I thought you might like ours: The Catalog Canceling Challenge. "Cause and effect" work where the little ones can hopefully feel the good they are doing. I know that was certainly the case for my students. Perhaps this is what you're looking for? Check out www.tedwells.org

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I read that 350.org, the organizing effort, aimed at the entire globe, drew its name from climate scientist James E. Hansen's contention earlier that winter that any atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide above 350 parts per million was unsafe. "If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm, but likely less than that."