Ecological Intelligence

Daniel Gole­man has fol­lowed up his pre­vi­ous best­sellers, Emo­tion­al Intel­li­gence and Social Intel­li­gence, with a new one — Eco­log­i­cal Intel­li­gence: How Know­ing the Hid­den Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Every­thing. Eco­log­i­cal intel­li­gence is a way for us to avert envi­ron­men­tal cat­a­stro­phe, and it depends on our know­ing whether prod­ucts are tru­ly envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly or not. These days many prod­ucts look “green” — or they’re mar­ket­ed that way — but when you scratch the sur­face, you real­ize that these new prod­ucts are often more dam­ag­ing than the “non-green” prod­ucts they’re meant to replace. This week, Gole­man was inter­viewed by Bill Moy­ers. With this 17 minute video, you’ll get a quick intro­duc­tion to what “eco­log­i­cal intel­li­gence” means, and how you can become a smarter con­sumer. Along the way, Gole­man rec­om­mends two handy web sites that will let you assess the envi­ron­men­tal friend­li­ness of prod­ucts. One is called GoodGuide (which is also avail­able as a free iPhone app). The oth­er is SkinDeep.

Relat­ed Video:

The Sto­ry of Stuff in 20 Ani­mat­ed Min­utes