This week goes to the environment

This Tuesday in its cover article, "The Greenest Big Companies in America," Newsweek determined the top 500 most environmentally friendly companies with the help of three research partners.  Chosen initially based on "revenue, market capitalization, and number of employees," the companies were then ranked by the statistically weighted average of environmental impact, green policies, and reputation.  The list starts off with Hewlett-Packard scoring 100.

On the same day in New York City, the Summit on Climate Change met with unprecedented representation (read: U.S.A., China) from around the world.  While there was consensus that action must be taken to stop climate change, Obama's speech, for one, lacked concrete steps for making this consensus a reality.  Further meetings will occur to discuss climate change and  one can only hope that the next speeches made on the subject will come with an actual plan.  Perhaps the two week summit starting on December 7th in Copenhagen will lead to a follow-up of the Kyoto Protocol that not only includes the world's most serious polluters but also illustrates in detail just what we're doing to make real change.

National Public Lands Day is this Saturday with events occurring everywhere, including Boston.  As the site says, this day is "the nation’s largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance the public lands Americans enjoy. In 2008, 120,000 volunteers built trails and bridges, removed trash and invasive plants, and planted over 1.6 million trees."  To join the 16th annual National Public Lands Day in Massachusetts, check this out.

And finally, on PBS this Sunday at 8pm (on the interwebs on Monday 28 September), American documentary filmmaker Ken Burns presents his newest creation, National Parks: America's Best Idea.  To see clips of the teleseries, visit PBS.

Bryce Canyon National Park, UT  August 2009