Michael Merc Martinelli's blog

What can I or anyone else say? The events unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico are sad not only for the presumed loss of life of 11 workers on the deepwater drilling rig that exploded in a ball of flames on April 20th and subsequently sunk to the ocean floor a mile below, but also for the environmental disaster that is slowly unfolding before our collective eyes.

I recently attended an exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco (located adjacent to the California Academy of Sciences mentioned in an earlier post) entitled Boquet to Art, the 26th annual edition of the exhibit featuring some 150 floral displays interpreting the Museum's permanent collection and also this year the upcoming Impressionism exhibition from the Musée d'Orsay that will be on view throughout the summer.

In a special issue of the National Geographic magazine published this month entitled Water: Our Thirsty World is a beautiful map featuring every river system in the world and detailing the challenges we all face managing our precious fresh water resources in the 21st century. I have heard it said more than once that “water is the new gold” and this fascinating journalistic study more than brings that cliché to life.

Over the years I have had the pleasure of hosting my parents, other relatives, and friends from the East Coast as my guests here in northern California. It is always fun for me to share the wonderful cultural and recreational attractions we have here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and this most recent visit from my parents was no exception.

At the end of 2008, I took a trip to Montana and became aware of an unexpected byproduct of the economic downturn as I saw a line of rail cars literally parked on the tracks near Great Falls that stretched to the horizon and beyond. Besides the visual blight, the cars had the potential to interrupt animal migration patterns and were a stark reminder of the challenges of managing supply chains during a recession.

In his opinion column in the New York Times this past Sunday, noted author Thomas Friedman describe an exchange he had with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina regarding the opportunities we are presented with in the United States in the emerging low carbon economy.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend the EcoTuesday monthly meeting in San Francisco. EcoTuesday is celebrating its third anniversary and has expanded to several cites across the United States in that time.

Perhaps taking a cue from Oprah’s Book Club, the folks at Triple Pundit are running a contest to create a “must read” list for sustainability professionals of all stripes. Looking over the nominations, I noted several titles on my bookshelf I’ve read, including: Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins,

Yesterday I was lucky enough to tour the San Jose Environmental Business Cluster (EBC) at their monthly open house. The EBC is a “non-profit clean energy and environmental technology commercialization center in San Jose, California (that) assists emerging clean energy and environmental technology companies in reaching the market.”

Sustainability professionals know the very definition of the word “sustainability” can be interpreted in many ways, and the most often cited reference is the work of the UN Brundtland Commission who defined it as business development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” That being said, we know there is another step beyond sustainability, and that is environmental restoration.