Tereneh Mosley, Pittsburgh native, moved to Los Angeles a few years ago after studying culture and fashion at the University of Kenya. Working with a scholarship from the Rotary Club designed for study abroad, Mosley had five countries to consider: England, France, Australia, New Zealand and Kenya. The African nation was admittedly not her first choice. Nor did Kenya seem happy to have the Westerner when she arrived. After bungled housing plans left her temporarily adrift on the dirt streets of Nairobi, Mosley was met with hostility at the university by America-hating staff. But once the dean intervened, granting Mosley grace and a certain diplomatic immunity, the not-quite-native daughter began her voyage to Idia’Dega.

Idia’Dega is Mosley’s eco-conscious fashion line — “elegant ethical apparrel for men and women.” Inspired by Kenyan organic cotton farmers, Mosley opted to use exclusively organic fabrics and materials: cotton, bamboo, soy, hemp, recycled sari and kimono silks. She’s part of a growing movement that understands that resources are becoming more scarce, and the processes to create our wardrobes have become to taxing with emissions. The tragedy is that while Africa is least responsible for overconsumption of resources, and greenhouse gas emissions, they are and will continue to be the hardest hit by the consequences through famines, droughts and increased warming.

I caught up with Mosley in L.A. over Cinco de Mayo to talk about how her eco-vision came to fruition:
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So, this cap-and-trade thing that folks around government keep talking about — anyone know what it is? No? You’re far from alone. Thirty percent of those polled by Ramussen have no idea what cap and trade is; 17% think it has to do with healthcare; 29% believe it has to do with regulating Wall Street, while only less than a quarter (24%) correctly think it’s an environmental issue. 5% believe the Black man is God, and therefore the Supreme Soul Cap-and-Controller … I digress.

Given cap-and-trade will probably end up one of the most important pieces of legislation to come in our generation, I’ll quickly attempt to explain cap-and-trade first in government terms, and next in “The Wire” terms:

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Mark 2009 as the year that Black and Hip Hop magazines, I mean “Urban” magazines finally decided to catch up with the rest of the world and start devoting some considerable ink to the environment.  The vast majority of special “Green” April issues have been, we’ll say, sub-optimal, but no need to poke at easy targets. After all, all these mags are struggling right now, so in that they spent ink on anything environment-related warrants at least an “E” for effort. That said, if mags are concerned about bottom-lines right now, understandably, then for many it would have been better to not have gone “green” at all, rather than cobble together a few pages of eco-confusion and enviro-fuckery.
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Take The Source , a magazine that, like roaches, refuses to die despite wearing out its welcome long ago. They couldn’t have picked better people for their cover: Busta, Bun and ‘Kiss (who obviously wasn’t briefed on the color theme for this issue).  But looking at the Busta cover, one wouldn’t know if by their “Green Issue” they mean the “Weed Issue” (headline over the masthead is about legazling marijuana), or the “Money Issue” (Busta burns Benjamins; really smart image to run during a recession) or the “Ugly Green Leather Coat and Scarf Worn in the Spring Issue.”

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Global warming. Climate change. Hurricane Katrina. Hybrid cars. Retro-fitted houses. Solar panels. Wind turbines. Cap-and-trade. Smart grid. Energy Efficiency. Greenhouse gases. Environmental justice. Clean Air Act. Green jobs. Be Mock’D. Clean coal. Carbon capture and sequestration.
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Get familiar with these terms. Google ‘em. Wikipedia ‘em. Yahoo ‘em. YouTube ‘em. Spankwire ‘em … ahem. No, really, learn these catchphrases, and not just because they’ll make you sound semi-smart in conversation. Know them because they are about to be the new vernacular of the coming decade. This week, the opening hearings for the The American Clean Energy and Security Act are taking place to discuss legislation that, if passed, will determine the nation’s new direction toward a “green” future.

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We could all probably live a lot better without email spam. Those notes from the Hon. Nigerian ex-finance subprime minister Chike Olu Ogeshi Chinweizu that you have $8.4 trillion waiting for you in a bank in Zimbabwe (which means it’s actually 84 cents), if only first, you send his Highness your bank account info; or, the ones about making your breasts fuller, or your penis larger, or magic pills that will help you lose weight — yeah it’s all criminally annoying. But now Mother Nature is saying she could live a lot better without the spam too.

A research study from McAfee, the “Carbon Footprint of Spam,” claims that globally over 33 billion kilowatt-hours of energy is used in a year in the transmission, processing and filtering of spam emails — equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions of over 3 million cars. It’s enough energy to power 2.4 million homes, says the report, and most of that energy is consumed just through us deleting or clicking through emails looking for real messages.

You gotta admit, it’s a clever PR move by McAfee, makers of computer antivirus and security software. (more…)

Unlike many of the tourist-ocracy these days, I’m not on Dubai’s nuts. It seems like just another Disney-fied pleasure island, yet another place where one may obscenely over-indulge and grossly over-excess-ivize (yeah, I made that word up; deal with it) to one’s over-extended credit’s desire. That said, I never been there, so I could be dead wrong.

But, if I did go, I’d have to stay at the Klimpon Helix Hotel in Zayed Bay, envisioned by Leeser Architects, when it finally arises. As you see, this is no ordinary hotel, with no conventional floor or room layout. It looks like a slinky and is designed to kinda inhale the sea breeze off the Persian Gulf for true, natural air conditioning … But that ain’t even the coolest part.

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