Herbicides are great for killing weeds, but they also contaminate soils and groundwater, and are toxic to pets and children (not to mention the rest of us). Check out some alternative options for…
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In 1988, in an effort to expand the distribution of fair trade products to mainstream retailers, a Dutch Alternative Trade Organization, Solidaridad, established a creative solution to increase sales…
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In Garissa, Kenya, camels carry goods between villages that can’t be accessed with trucks. In most of those villages, 80% of people are illiterate. In order to address illiteracy while working within the limitations of the region, a small group of Kenyans started a mobile book-lending service that delivers books to 3,500 villagers and nomads around Garissa. On each visit they bring 200 books, lending each for a period of two weeks and then retrieving them to share with the next community. Camel Library targets children rather than catering to the few literate adults, says head librarian, Rashid Farah, “We believe that maybe in the next ten years, we will have a society which is educated, and the community which is now illiterate will [become] literate.”
Check out Rocketboom’s short video documenting the mission and activities of Camel Library.
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(Posted by Sarah Rich in Education at 5:14 PM)
Herbicides are great for killing weeds, but they also contaminate soils and groundwater, and are toxic to pets and children (not to mention the rest of us). Check out some alternative options for controlling your weeds before going to chemical route.
The best way to get rid of weeds is a little manual labor: Pull 'em. When pulling by hand remove when soil is damp (it's easier than taking them out of dry soil) and try to get ALL of the roots. After pulling weeds toss them in your compost bin. Don't put off weeding. Get to weeds when they're little, before the root systems have a chance to take over your garden.
In 1988, in an effort to expand the distribution of fair trade products to mainstream retailers, a Dutch Alternative Trade Organization, Solidaridad, established a creative solution to increase sales while maintaining consumer trust. The organization created a label, called Max Havelaar, which guaranteed that the goods met certain labor and environmental standards. The label, first only applied to coffee, was named after a best-selling 19th century book about the exploitation of Javanese coffee plantation workers by Dutch colonial merchants.
As the Fair Trade movement continued to grow the idea of a certified label spread to other countries participating in the movement until most countries in Eurpope, the U.S. and Canada had established third-party labelling organizations. In 1997 these labelers created an umbrella organization, the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, with the mission to "set the Fairtrade Standards, support, inspect and certify disadvantaged producers and harmonize the Fairtrade message across the movement."
Today 20 independent labelling organizations are members of FLO, in the U.S. TransFair USA is the FLO certifying organization. These organizations certify an ever growing list of commodities including coffee, tea, sugar, fresh fruits, cocoa, rice and vanilla. These products are certified before they are imported into participating markets and are then given the right to use the Fair Trade label on packaging.
Southern Baptists approved a resolution on global warming that questions the prevailing scientific belief that humans are largely to blame for the phenomenon and also warns that increased regulation of greenhouse gases will hurt the poor.
Most of us have a fairly narrow view of what it means to recycle: we gather materials (aluminum, paper, glass, plastic) in blue bins and either leave them on the curb for a pick-up service, or take them to a drop-off point. British site How Do I Recycle This? takes a much broader view of the concept — essentially merging reuse and recycling — and provides a forum where users can submit there own ideas for getting more use out of items that most of us would throw away without a second thought.
If you don't live in Great Britan, don't let the UK URL, or location of publishers Louisa Parrry and John Leach, put you off: there's very little in this blog's many posts that applies only to Brits or Europeans. Furthermore, don't expect the tried and true reuse projects that many of us did when we were kids (i.e., making bird feeders out of milk cartons) — the range of materials and recycling/reuse ideas at How Do I Recycle This? is quite eclectic. Some of the more unusual items:
Parry and Leach post new items on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and users are welcome to submit suggestions (whether they've successfully reused or recycled them item themselves or not).
We've been thrilled by the recent pick up in blog comments and discussions going on at Green Options: we're glad many of you feel comfortable participating in discussions here. Ninety-nine percent of those comment have been constructive, thoughtful and informed. The other one percent… well, we're making some changes to address spam (which has picked up also) and uncivil behavior.
After deleting a ton of spam yesterday, I asked our developers to turn on moderation for comments submitted by users not registered at GO. This does not mean that you won't be able to add your voice to the discussion without becoming a member; rather, it means that those comments will have to be approved before appearing on the site. The content team will be checking the moderation queue frequently, so it shouldn't be too long before your comment appears.
Are there really people out there who still needs convincing that we need to act on climate change?
Join the 7 step climate campaign. Itâs a start.
(An extra + to this man for not making it a bloody boring power point presentation. Am I tired of those things…)
Cleveland, Ohio doesn't get a lot of respect. It's been the butt of countless jokes, an environmental scapegoat, the "City whose river caught on fire," and a symbol for the declining cities of the "Rust Belt" of the American midwest.
But that doesn't mean that there isn't a green heart in the Cleveland area. Even a city in the middle of the rust belt can be a center for "Think Globally – Act Locally." In fact, I've recently found that the Cleveland area has a vibrant local/regional blog at Green City Blue Lake, covering the local and regional scene from a green perspective. GCBL arose out of an earlier site called EcoCity Cleveland, which remains online as an archive with a wealth of information still available in its pages, but is no longer actively supported.