most baby boomers grew up in the suburbs, where there lives revolved around cars. cars were a symbol of wealth, and they tended to live by “see the usa in a chevrolet” type model. now, my generation is moving further and further from that model, towards a “walkable urban” model. chris leinberger, a visiting fellow at the brookings institution and real estate developer described “walkable urbanism” as metropolitan areas of high concentration where people work, live, and shop, which as a result, significantly reduces their carbon footprint. one of the problems with this model was discussed by jair lynch, a washington dc real estate developer who stressed the cultural divide that occurs in these areas. his solution to this was intertwining affordable green housing within more affluent communities, while still maintaining the integrity of the neighborhood.

the take away message from this session was that green building and green jobs are imperative to achieving a new healthy, financially sustainable, and environmentally sound economy. but most importantly, we as generation x/y/millenials, whomever we may be, we have to vocalize and continue to be responsible for our environments.

lynas turns to jake gyllenhaal as a possible solution. he’s good looking, brings in the big bucks, and most recently was able to convince the movie-going public that he and dennis quaid could save the world from a sudden global warming that threatens earth in “the day after tomorrow”. jake gyllenhaal can save me any day, but how can he help save earth? instead of wasting millions of dollars on movies that simply entertain and not educate the public, hollywood needs to step it up and bring countries like tuvalu into the foreground. if hollywood learned how to make a blockbuster that showed what the real effects of global warming had on its audiences, maybe we’d have a better chance at making sure the people of tuvalu stay afloat. if 1 degree can drown a country, one movie should be able to change someone’s idea of what global warming really is.