New Artistic Director at TLT

I learn from the Spew that TLT has a new Artistic Director, David Duvall. He has an impressive resume and I wish him well in the new job.

Interesting, the Spew also writes:

In addition to the new top dog at TLT, the theatre also announced it has strategically restructured its leadership hierarchy so that Duvall will partner with existing Business Director Corinna Chapo to jointly manage the 88-year-old institution.

Oy. That's a hard way to go.

The TerraPass

I've discovered a good way to feel better about driving.

I drive a 2004 Hyundai Elantra, manual transmission, and put about 8,000 miles per year on it. Most of that is in and around Tacoma, but it includes a few trips to Oregon, Seattle, and the east side of the Cascades. Although clearly it's not as many miles as many drivers, especially commuters.

Even so, I checked up on my car and mileage on TerraPass.com. According to them, with my driving habits and that make of car I am putting out 5,224 lbs of CO2 into the atmosphere. That's probably close to the weight of my car or slightly more.

Here's what makes the website so cool, though. I purchased a TerraPass for $29.95 that will offset 6,000 lbs of CO2 for the next year of driving by investing that money in wind energy or industrial efficiency.

As a model for a non-profit and environment change it's pretty great. I can pay to level out my car emissions so that my car has a zero sum effect. Sure I'm not exactly helping the environment, but I'm not exactly hurting it anymore either.

Soon I will get a decal in the mail that I can put on my car to advertise how I am assuaging my guilt over polluting. I hope I will see more around Tacoma. Relieve your guilty conscience and buy a TerraPass!

For Profit Foundation?

Since I posted about Warren Buffett's big gift to the B&M Gates Foundation, I figured it's worth mentioning that Google is trying a different take with their new project www.google.org.

Google.org will be a for-profit foundation that will have much greater latitude to give where it wants. So if they want to invest in clear cars, or give money to an individual, etc, they can do that without having to have non-profit organizations involved. Not that non-profits are ruled out, but their goal is innovative giving. It's pretty cool. If you're interested, check out the NYT piece.