World’s First Green Bank – 3 Billion Sterling to Lend to Sustainable Projects

May 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

 

green-investment-bank-logo

 

 

 

A new banking consciousness has begun!

As Britain heads towards it’s goal to drastically cut its carbon emissions by 2020, thw world’s first green bank will
use at least 80 percent of its capital to fund the Government’s Green Deal.

According to their website — and fabulously snubbing Canada:

In order to meet this green challenge there are ambitious and legally binding targets which the UK must meet.  These are set out in the Kyoto Protocol, the 2008 Climate Change Act and the Energy Bill of 2012.  Building green infrastructure and financing the projects to support this will be fundamental in meeting the targets including:

  • a reduction in green-house gas emissions of 34% by 2020 and at least 80% by 2050;
  • 15% of all energy consumed generated from green sources by 2020; and
  • ‘reduction in waste’ to landfill.

 

Visit The Banks Website!

 

 

Filed Under: Climate Change, Conscious Shopping, Energy & Transportation, Featured, Good News, Green Businesses, Organizations Doing Good, Politics & Economics, World News

The Learners Are The Teachers: The Barefoot College

May 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Barefoot CollegeSanjit “Bunker” Roy’s Barefoot Architects are creating a better future for over 75,000 children in India. And by extension, the rest of the world.

This democracy movement originator Bunker Roy has offers us another way to learn and share with each other and the planet.

The solar powered Barefoot Colleges scattered through out India are lifting people up faster than you can sign-language “grandmother power”.

 

WATCH Barefoot College VIDEO HERE

Filed Under: Eco-Friendly Products, Energy & Transportation, Featured, Featured Video, Good News, Organizations Doing Good, World News

Avaaz – Monsanto vs. Mother Earth

April 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment

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Monsanto vs. Mother Earth

 

To the governments of Germany, France and the Netherlands and all contracting states of the European Patent Convention:

As concerned citizens, we urge you to take the lead to fix European patent law by calling on the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation to close the loopholes that allow corporations to patent plant varieties and conventional breeding methods. Clear and effective safeguards and prohibitions are needed to protect consumers, farmers and breeders from the corporate takeover of our food chain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.avaaz.org/en/monsanto_vs_mother_earth_twa/?rt

Filed Under: Agriculture & Food Sources, Conscious Shopping, Featured, Organizations Doing Good, Sign A Petition, World News

Science Matters: Uruguay’s “poor” president is a unique leader

March 8, 2013 By Leave a Comment

By David Suzuki

When bright young idealists share their environmental concerns with me, I encourage them to get involved in politics. That’s where decisions have to be made about the severe ecological problems we face.

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Have you noticed, though, how often idealism gives way to a sense of entitlement to all the perks that come with political office? It’s amazing how being elected to serve the people is often turned on its head: we’re expected to support elected leaders without protest or question. And what happens to many who leave government? Lucrative board memberships and business deals.

Some politicians take a different road, though. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter stepped down after one term, was roundly ridiculed by popular media, yet continued to dedicate his life to promoting justice and eliminating poverty around the world. Nelson Mandela is another incredible role model who sets a high bar.

But something particularly unique is happening in South America. I only recently learned of Jose Mujica, a remarkable man who became president of Uruguay in 2009.

He’s a radical activist who, in the 1960s, joined the left-wing guerrilla group known as Tupamaros, formed by sugar-cane workers and students. The organization was crushed after a military coup in 1973. Mujica was shot six times and imprisoned for 14 years; he claims incarceration solidified his thinking. In 1985, constitutional democracy was restored to Uruguay and Mujica was released. He ran for office and was elected president in 2009.

And what a politician! He’s a vegetarian who lives in his wife’s ramshackle farmhouse where they work together in the fields growing flowers. He turned down the opportunity to move into the presidential palace in Montevideo, preferring to stay on the farm, which is linked to the capital city by a dirt road. Under Uruguay’s law, elected officials must declare their personal wealth. In 2010, Mujica’s was $1,800, the value of the 1987 Volkswagen beetle he drives. When he added a share of his wife’s assets – her house, land and tractor – it brought his declared family wealth to $215,000.

Mujica receives $12,000 a month as president but donates 90 per cent of it to the poor and small businesses. “I can live well with what I have,” he says. “I’m called ‘the poorest president’, but I don’t feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more.”

He added, “This is a matter of freedom. If you don’t have many possessions then you don’t need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself. I may appear to be an eccentric old man… But this is a free choice.”

Mujica attended Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, in June 2012, where he stated: “We’ve been talking all afternoon about sustainable development – to get the masses out of poverty. But what are we thinking? Do we want the model of development and consumption of the rich countries? I ask you now: What would happen to this planet if Indians would have the same proportion of cars per household as Germans? How much oxygen would we have left? Does this planet have enough resources so seven or eight billion can have the same level of consumption and waste that today is seen in rich societies? It is this level of hyper-consumption that is harming our planet.”

Mujica says most world leaders have a “blind obsession to achieve growth with consumption, as if the contrary would mean the end of the world.”

He’s hit a bit of a bump in popularity, dropping below 50 per cent for refusing to veto a bill legalizing abortion before 12 weeks (as all his predecessors did) and supporting a debate on legalization of marijuana use that would give the state a monopoly over its trade. Mujica points out: “Consumption of cannabis is not the most worrying thing; drug-dealing is the real problem.”

Mujica isn’t worried about the drop in popularity. It’s part of politics, and besides, he’s 77 and can’t run again in 2014. He’s a good role model with wise, enduring values, and an inspiration for people around the world.

For more insights from David Suzuki, please read Everything Under the Sun (Greystone Books/David Suzuki Foundation), by David Suzuki and Ian Hanington, now available in bookstores and online

Filed Under: Featured, Green Businesses, Organizations Doing Good, Politics & Economics, World News

HSI Commends Taiwan for Historic Ban on Trade in Marine Mammal Products

February 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Courtes: Humane Society International/Canada

Canadian seal products are among those prohibited

  • It is time for the Canadian government to face facts and end its support of the fading sealing industry. Katie Carrus/The HSUS

MONTREAL—Humane Society International/Canada commends Taiwan for passing a landmark ban on trade in marine mammal products, including seal skins, but exempting products of traditional indigenous hunts. The Taiwanese Legislative Yuan passed the legislation with unanimous support following a multi-year campaign by Taiwanese animal protection group EAST in collaboration with HSI.

“The compassionate actions of the Taiwanese Legislative Yuan will save countless seals and other marine mammals from a horrible fate,” said Rebecca Aldworth, executive director of HSI Canada. “The momentum to end trade in marine mammal products is growing and the sealing industry’s days are numbered. Instead of providing more pointless subsidies to artificially prop up this shameful practice, Canada should prohibit the slaughter and invest in a transition program for sealers.”

“Citizens of Taiwan care deeply about animal welfare, and we do not want to trade in products of cruelty that the rest of the world has rejected,” said Wu Hung, executive director of EAST. “I am very proud of the leadership Taiwan has shown in banning trade in marine mammal products. I hope that many other nations will follow suit, and that the Canadian government will finally do as the majority of Canadians and people around the world want and end the seal hunt for good.”

“Between 2003 and 2009, Taiwan imported 430,000 kilograms of seal oil, which made us the 4th largest importer of seal oil in the world. Through our trade in seal products, consumers in Taiwan were unintentionally involved in the killing of thousands of innocent seals in Canada,” said Legislator Lin of the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan. “Taiwan’s decision is an important step forward for animal protection and conservation in Asia.” Canada’s commercial seal hunt is the largest slaughter of marine mammals on Earth. Because most Canadians oppose commercial sealing, the products of the seal slaughter are almost entirely exported. With the United States, European Union and Russia prohibiting trade in seal products, the Canadian sealing industry has sought to develop alternate markets in Asia, sparking protests in mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan.

EAST launched their campaign to secure a Taiwanese ban on seal product trade in 2010, achieving massive public support for the move and convincing many retailers in Taiwan to voluntarily discontinue sales of seal products. The prohibition on trade in marine mammal products cements Taiwan’s position and ensures that its trade in marine mammal products will never resume.

Facts:

  • The United States, European Union, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Mexico—and now Taiwan–have prohibited trade in some or all seal products.
  • In January 2012, sealing industry representatives admitted that there are 400,000 seal skins in inventory on the global market.
  • In April 2012, when it appeared the annual seal slaughter would not go ahead due to lack of markets, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador announced that it would provide $3.6 million in loans to Carino Processing Limited to stockpile skins to meet “future demand.”
  • At the industry’s height, sealing revenues amounted to about 3 percent of the landed value of Newfoundland’s fishing industry. In recent years, the landed value of the seal hunt has been in the region of $1 million annually, with only a few hundred fishermen participating in the slaughter.
  • 2010 polling revealed half of Newfoundland sealers with an opinion support a sealing industry buyout—a plan in which sealers would receive immediate compensation as the hunt is ended and funds would be invested in economic alternatives in the communities involved.

Media Contact: Dean Pogas, 514.395.2914, dpogas@humanesociety.org

Humane Society International/Canada is a leading force for animal protection, representing tens of thousands of members and constituents across the country. HSI/Canada has active programs in companion animals, wildlife and habitat protection, marine mammal preservation and farm animal welfare. HSI/Canada is proud to be a part of Humane Society International—one of the largest animal protection organizations in the world, with more than eleven million members and constituents globally—on the Web at hsicanada.ca.

EAST works to create a better quality of life by improving animal welfare and environmental protection through research, legislation and education campaigns along with social justice – on the Web at www.east.org.tw

Filed Under: Conscious Shopping, Eco-Friendly Products, Good News, Natural World, Organizations Doing Good, Politics & Economics, World News

An Eco-Fairy Tale: Beats of the Southern Wild

February 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Courtesy of Care2 Causes

If you care about how global warming is changing our world for the worst; if you mourn the ghosts of animals like the dodo who no longer roam the earth due to human folly; if you still feel outrage about how the poor, the elderly, the sick, the vulnerable were left behind to die after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, then you need to see Beasts of the Southern Wild, an indie film that has received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The very title of director Benh Zeitlin’s first film about a young girl, 6-year-old Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis, who received the nomination for Best Actress) and her hard-drinking father, Wink (Dwight Henry) suggests that Beasts of the Southern Wild isn’t going to be ye average Hollywood blockbuster.

 

A “Coming-of-Age” Movie

Words like “mythic,” ”surreal,” “dreamlike” and “metaphysical fairy-tale” have been used to describe Beasts of the Southern Wild and for good reason.

The movie is centered around Hushpuppy, who lives in the Bathtub, a fictional community in the Louisiana bayou. She and Wink occupy a shack and trawl the bayou’s waters for food in a vessel that seems to be made of debris. With a big storm on the way and her father succumbing to an illness that leaves him shaking on the ground, Hushpuppy finds her life thrown into chaos.

Hushpuppy tries to understand all this by making up a story about a girl (also named Hushpuppy), her father and a mother (Hushpuppy’s own has gone missing). Her fears are portrayed as aurochs, giant beasts who once existed and are now extinct.

A Fable About Climate Change

With its focus on its young protagonist, Beasts of the Southern Wild has been called a coming-of-age drama. However, it is just as much an “eco-threat movie” that shows how extreme weather events can alter the world as we know it, forever.

The movie set in southern Louisiana and more than a few statements about climate change are placed in Hushpuppy’s mouth. “Everything has to fit together just right. If it doesn’t, it all falls apart,” she says. These words can be applied to a discussion about how our burning of fossil fuels can be linked to the the lessening sea ice in the Arctic and other world-wide effects of global warming.

Hushpuppy and the Aurochs

As the movie draws to a close, Hushpuppy confronts her fears for her father and about the storm by standing up to a herd of aurochs, the “beasts of the southern wild.” As director Zeitlin says, Hushpuppy is

… recognizing the harmony that she’s always talked about in nature. Everything is its own being. There is a natural point at which organisms in nature show weakness and allow for each other to exist—the same way she learns from her friends in The Bathtub [the fictional Louisiana community where Hushpuppy and her father live] to take care of each other. The aurochs recognize her as a similarly ferocious beast. And so they give way.

Beasts of the Southern Wild leaves its viewers with a challenge. The movie urges us to acknowledge the inter-connectedness between the pieces of the universe — by showing how, for a young child, the terminal illness of a parent and an imminent natural disaster are experienced as one and the same – and also to confront and deal with them.

If a 6-year-old girl can stand up to a herd of giant beasts, can we not do the same with all that threatens our world, be it global corporations seeking to drill further and deeper into the earth and under the sea for oil, or climate change deniers who pounce on a cold winter as “evidence” that global warming is just a myth?

 

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/an-eco-fairy-tale-beasts-of-the-southern-wild.html#ixzz2KvT2D8u6

Filed Under: Art & Design, Featured, Organizations Doing Good, World News

China, Protect Internet Freedom! – The Petition Site

January 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The Chinese government has limited internet rights even more and has made “real name registration” required, threatening the right to privacy, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and the protection of individuals’ identities.

On December 28, 2012, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed the “Decision to Strengthen the Protection of Online Information”. It requires internet, landline, and mobile providers to collect information from users, and it also applies to those that allow users to publish content online. Shortly after the decision, many blogging accounts were removed, including some created by activists.

“Real name registration” makes it much easier for online users to be identified and for mobile use to be connected to specific people, making it almost impossible for anonymous individuals to release information or for individuals to criticize the government acting as “whistleblowers”.

 

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/864/867/110/china-protect-internet-freedom/

Filed Under: Organizations Doing Good, Politics & Economics, Sign A Petition, World News

Oil, Global Food and New Community Systems: Michael Lewis – YouTube

January 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Michael Lewis is executive director of the Canadian Centre for Community Renewal in Vancouver and the author of The Resilience Imperative, published this last summer.

Mr. Lewis will come to Salt Spring this March. He’ll share information that we can all use to move forward in this transitional times.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Filed Under: Agriculture & Food Sources, Canada News, Climate Change, Energy & Transportation, Featured Video, Organizations Doing Good, Politics & Economics

The Worlds Most Senseless War — exciting update

January 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment

From avaaz.com

Dear friends,

In days, a group of powerful world leaders will ask the UN to end the war on drugs and move towards regulation. But politicians say that the public will not support alternative drug policies. Let’s give this unique opportunity massive public support and get urgent action. Sign below, and tell everyone:

Sign the petition!

In days, we could finally see the beginning of the end of the ‘war on drugs’. This expensive war has completely failed to curb the plague of drug addiction, while costing countless lives, devastating communities, and funneling trillions of dollars into violent organized crime networks.

Experts all agree that the most sensible policy is to regulate, but politicians are afraid to touch the issue. In days, a global commission including former heads of state and foreign policy chiefs of the UN, EU, US, Brazil, Mexico and more will break the taboo and publicly call for new approaches including decriminalization and regulation of drugs.

This could be a once-in-a-generation tipping-point moment — if enough of us call for an end to this madness. Politicians say they understand that the war on drugs has failed, but claim the public isn’t ready for an alternative. Let’s show them we not only accept a sane and humane policy — we demand it. Click below to sign the petition and share with everyone –if we reach 1 million voices, it will be personally delivered to world leaders by the global commission:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/end_the_war_on_drugs/?bVnJEab&v=20928

For 50 years current drug policies have failed everyone, everywhere but public debate is stuck in the mud of fear and misinformation. Everyone, even the UN Office on Drugs and Crime which is responsible for enforcing this approach agrees — deploying militaries and police to burn drug farms, hunting down traffickers, and imprisoning dealers and addicts – is an expensive mistake. And with massive human cost — from Afghanistan, to Mexico, to the USA the illegal drug trade is destroying countries around the world, while addiction, overdose deaths, and HIV/AIDS infections continue to rise.

Meanwhile, countries with less-harsh enforcement — like Switzerland, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Australia — have not seen the explosion in drug use that proponents of the drug war have darkly predicted. Instead, they have seen significant reductions in drug-related crime, addiction and deaths, and are able to focus squarely on dismantling criminal empires.

Powerful lobbies still stand in the way of change, including military, law enforcement, and prison departments whose budgets are at stake. And politicians fear that voters will throw them out of office if they support alternative approaches, as they will appear weak on law and order. But many former drugs Ministers and Heads of State have come out in favour of reform since leaving office, and polls show that citizens across the world know the current approach is a catastrophe. Momentum is gathering towards new improved policies, particularly in regions that are ravaged by the drug trade.

If we can create a worldwide outcry in the next few days to support the bold calls of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, we can overpower the stale excuses for the status quo. Our voices hold the key to change — Sign the petition and spread the word:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/end_the_war_on_drugs/?bVnJEab&v=20928

We have a chance to enter the closing chapter of this brutal ‘war’ that has destroyed millions of lives. Global public opinion will determine if this catastrophic policy is stopped or if politicians shy away from reform. Let’s rally urgently to push our hesitating leaders from doubt and fear, over the edge, and into reason.

With hope and determination,

Alice, Laura, Ricken, Maria Paz, Shibayan and the whole Avaaz team

SOURCES:

Reports that show the war on drugs has failed:
http://idpc.net/publications/failure-regime-selected-publications

Reports that show alternative approaches of decriminalisation and regulation are working:
http://idpc.net/publications/alternative-strategies-selected-publications

General report on drug law reform in practice:
http://www.tni.org/report/legislative-innovation-drug-policy

The Global Comission on Drug Policy that will call on the UN to end the war on drugs
http://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/Documents.aspx

Drug War by the Numbers
http://www.drugpolicy.org/facts/drug-war-numbers

Final Report of the Latin American Comission on Drugs and Democracy
http://www.drogasedemocracia.org/English/Destaques.asp?IdRegistro=8

Filed Under: Agriculture & Food Sources, Conscious Shopping, Eco-Friendly Products, Good News, Organizations Doing Good, Politics & Economics, Sign A Petition

Organization doing good: wwoof

October 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

 

WWOOF

WWOOF is a world wide network of organisations.
We link volunteers with organic farmers, and help people share more sustainable ways of living.

WWOOF is an exchange - In return for volunteer help, WWOOF hosts offer food, accommodation and opportunities to learn about organic lifestyles.

WWOOF organisations link people who want to volunteer on organic farms or smallholdings with people who are looking for volunteer help.

Filed Under: BUSINESS & ORGANIZATIONS, Organizations Doing Good
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