I rented a movie the other night, but it wasn't until later that evening when I went to watch it that I discovered it wasn't the Bourne Identity-type flick I had selected off the shelf in the store. It turned out that I had been given The Dilemma, a whimsical comedy starring Vince Vaughn, whose choice of roles, for the most part, has left me largely unimpressed since he made his big-time debut in Swingers back in '96. Tempted to stop the movie and return it in exchange for the action-drama I thought I was about to enjoy, I instead settled into the couch for the next hour and a half after spotting Queen Latifah in the opening credits.
The main storyline follows two best friends who are vying for a big contract with Chrysler to produce an electric car with bite. They have to develop a successful prototype on a tight deadline in order to get it. Drama ensues when one (Vaughn) discovers the other's wife kissing another man, but I'm not trying to deliver an impromptu Bryan Raiser-like movie review. My point is that I was pleasantly surprised by the movie, and somewhat exhilarated, not just by Vaughn's refreshing performance as a nice guy with stand-up values - contrary to most of his other characters who give me the creeps - but by the glib Hollywood mainstreaming of the electric car concept.
Before you know it, action heroes will be busting up grossly polluting factories with their carbon-neutral weapons, gangster movies will feature oil tycoons, and epic blockbusters will have swept audiences away with dramatic sagas depicting the historical end to world hunger or documented clean-up of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - the world's largest landfill located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Day by day, our global network seems to be inching toward a utopian future with a net-zero carbon footprint as a result of large and small companies around the world working to make a difference for the planet. A few examples I've come across recently include the new and rigorous Bluesign program, an internationally recognized waste management standard applied to the worldwide textile production industry led by heavy-hitting brand names such as The North Face; Masdar in the United Arab Emirates, the world's first planned net-zero energy and carbon-neutral city headed by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co. that will rely entirely on solar and other renewable energies, expected to be completed by 2025; and, closer to home, Live at Squamish's newly formed partnership with Bullfrog Power, a company that injects renewable electricity from low-impact facilities onto the grid to match the amount of grid power used.
Even the District of Squamish is committed to the lofty goal of carbon neutrality by 2012 after signing the B.C. Climate Action Charter which, by June 2010, saw 178 local governments signed on. Lofty, but attainable. It was just recently announced that the Village of Harrison Hot Springs is the first signatory to hit the target. British Columbia can now boast its first carbon-neutral community.
Sustainability initiatives are a growing trend, not just because of shared ideas for a sustainable planet but because they are translating into dollar signs for enterprising businesses capitalizing on a good thing. Trendy sells and even Hollywood is on board, popularizing eco-friendly ideas like the electric car through movies.
With a new shared vision taking the world by storm, our own community should take heed as competing developers continue to wrestle with district staff and council for the right to build in and around Squamish. With so much innovation taking place worldwide, is it viable for a town dominated by a young, educated and outdoorsy demographic that prides itself on being more hip than hippie to settle for anything less than net zero?
