On June 20, 2015, people from over seventy communities across six continents will assemble to revere, renew, and inspire solutions for our precious resource of water. Global Water Dances will take place over a period of 24 hours, all broadcast live online. Dances begin in the Pacific Rim and roll westward through the time zones, encircling the globe.
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While many of us may take it for granted, the planet we live on is the very foundation of all life as we know it. Home to between 10-14 million species of life, we share this planet with billions of others that have an equal stake in maintaining the planet. It is for this reason that many have come to be cautious about the impact we have on many creatures’ natural habitats. Issues such as deforestation and water/food contamination have a significant impact on the quality of life for animals. In many cases, this can become an issue of life or death.
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They can’t read or write but a couple of brave Bedouin women from Jordan travelled far and wide to help their villages become solar powered. The biggest struggle yet may be with their husbands: We’ve covered this hopeful story of Solar Mamas, Bedouin women from Jordan who went to Barefoot College to learn how to solar power their villages. We’ve interviewed the women from solar mamas, and have reviewed the film Solar Mamas, a documentary movie about their journey.
Many conversations about sexuality focus on health. It’s safe and respectable. Builds the immune system? Yep. Good for the heart: check. Relieves menstrual cramps and depression: double check. Sex bonds us through the oxytocin-dopamine cascade: check again. We know healthy people have more sex, and having good clean fun may help you live longer too. Orgasms are great for body and mind, and caresses feed our skin hunger. Check, check, check.
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I recognize that I do not see a random sample of young people by teaching graduate students in environmental policy and sustainability management at Columbia University. I also confess that my visit last week to Portland, Oregon to meet with sustainability management students at Willamette University is influencing my mindset. Portland has been working on sustainability for a long time, and it shows. Caveats aside, I find that more and more people born since the mid 1980’s have internalized aspects of an environmental ethos, and that awareness will soon have a major impact on American politics. While Gallup continues to poll on what I consider the false tradeoff between economic growth and environmental protection, even their data reports growing environmental awareness, especially among young people.
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In today’s world of processed foods, pollution, and pink slime, you might be wondering how to ensure that what your family is eating is healthy.
Buying organic is a great start, but growing it yourself opens doors to tremendous possibilities. Here’s why:
1. Avoid Pesticides – Conventional agriculture uses petroleum based chemicals to combat pests in the field, which not only damages the environment, but destroys important soil microbes that help plants grow. In your own garden, you can plant a diverse range of produce, instead of growing acres of one thing. This cuts down on pest attacks and can even attract beneficial insects to the garden to handle your pest problem for you. You can choose organic means of pest control, like soap sprays, hand-picking (the best pest control tool is your hands, after all) or other methods that don’t leave harmful residues on your food.
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A team of doctors at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Sherbrooke Hospital Centre in Quebec, Canada looked at the prevalence of Bt toxins in female patients, finding that the chemicals — which are often implanted into GMO crops including corn — were found in the majority of those who were surveyed. Those who were pregnant at the time of the survey, 93 percent of them had traces of Bt toxin in their blood, and 80 percent of their umbilical cords contained the chemical.
Food waste is no new issue for the U.S. or other developed countries throughout the world. For many years, we as a society have taken our resources—water, coal, oil, food—for granted. The amount of food that is wasted in the United States alone is staggering. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more than 34 million tons of food waste was generated in 2010. This number is larger than any other category of material waste recorded by the agency’s municipal waste management division.
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Remember the first time you saw Inconvenient Truth? It was a game changer for me. So much so that right by the popcorn machine in the lobby of the theatre I decided to do my first podcast program called America the Green to wake us all up. I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing, right? No other film laid out the whole climate change horror like Al’s, until Chasing Ice.
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