Environment Forum
Global environmental challenges
Is Michelle Obama strumming along with Gibson Guitar?
It’s not often that a U.S. first lady’s gift makes news — years after the fact — but Michelle Obama’s 2009 present to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has sparked some comment among free trade boosters and guitar pickers. The gift in question: a Gibson Hummingbird guitar.
Gibson Guitar Corp. has been making some news of its own this week, which is why those in Washington with long memories recalled the gift to the music-loving French first lady. Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz was in town to raise awareness about a problem he has with a long-standing U.S. law aimed at curbing illegal trafficking in tropical hardwoods, among other materials. Federal agents raided two of his Tennessee factories and confiscated more than $1 million worth of rosewood, ebony and finished guitars. No charges have been filed but Gibson’s chief says he is being investigated for possible violation of the Lacey Act of 1900. Read more about that here.
At a lunch with reporters and others, Juszkiewicz said he favors using sustainably harvested wood for Gibson instruments, and because guitars need such a small amount of tropical hardwoods for their fingerboards — the wooden top of the guitar’s neck — that’s well within the realm of possibility. But he says a 2008 amendment to the act is more protectionist than environmentally friendly. And he says the seizure of the materials his company needs to make the instruments makes it harder for Gibson’s hundreds of U.S. employees. The Justice Department has refused to comment on the ongoing litigation.
The 2008 amendment to the Lacey Act passed during the Bush administration with bipartisan support, but still hackles were raised soon after the latest raids at the end of August.
About Michelle Obama’s gift to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy: the Hummingbird model features a rosewood fingerboard “with rolled edges for an extremely comfortable in-the-hand feel,” according to the company’s website. And as the site says, “It all starts with the wood.”
But it may not end there. Juszkiewicz hopes to gather some momentum to modify the Lacey Act, and has been talking with members of Congress, whom he says have been largely supportive.
Photo credits: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid (Carla Bruni-Sarkozy performs at The Mandela Day concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York July 18, 2009)
Smithsonian gets solar panel that once graced White House roof
U.S. President Barack Obama has made climate change legislation one of his top goals and has pushed for more clean, renewable energy like solar and wind power.
But back in 1979, when another Democrat was in the White House, 32 solar panels graced the roof above the Oval Office.
Part of an initiative called “Solar America,” the panels turned sunlight into electricity that heated water in the staff kitchen — which President Jimmy Carter often used. They were removed during Ronald Reagan’s administration in 1986.
Now, one of those presidential solar panels has joined the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.
“The White House solar panel is evidence of an American president leading by example to promote his administration’s agenda,” Harry Rubenstein, chair of the museum’s division of politics and reform, said in a statement. “It displays how President Carter reinforced his policies through a personal gesture taking place in his own home.”
Unity College donated the panel to the museum this summer. The college in rural Maine got the panels in 1991. It refurbished some of them and installed them on top of the college cafeteria, and the panels heated water there until they maxed out their life span in 2005.
We were wondering if readers would like to see Obama install solar panels on top of the White House again? It would certainly send a message — similar to the example set by First Lady Michelle Obama when she planted a vegetable garden on the White House lawn to promote healthy eating.
Of this whole issue, the most important fact is that the Solar Panel is once again coming into use at the White House. That is important than anything else. This should be an example for the whole country how power needs to be conserved by solar energy usage.
This reminds me of another probably exaggerated reaction by the U.S. administration, on the basis of fair principles. Container in New York harbor were stopped by the customs because they contained dolls that were sexually identified. You could see it was a newborn girl or a boy. It took the proportions of a state matter. We must keep the sense of proportions and not feel guilty to listen to such or such guitar, if the music is good.