Fresh the Movie: Read the Synopsis from the creators, watch the trailer, and then host a screening in your neighborhood.
“FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.”
There is a day for everything! May 1st is International Sunflower Guerilla Day. Grab some seeds, water, and a digging tool. Find a patch of public land that could use some sunflowers. Then start planting. That’s all there is to it. You should return to the planting site once in awhile to weed. The Guerilla Gardener in this video will show you how.
This video on an Ecosan toilet system in Bangalore India is quite detailed. For some people, this may be more information than you want to know. The video covers everything from feces collection to reading material. Keep in mind that:
“The system has been designed for the Indian condition, squatters (not sitters) and washers (not wipers).”
From the Water Channel:
“The film advocates the need for a holistic approach to urban sanitation, instead of focusing on fragmented approaches to the sanitation problem in urban areas. An approach which looks at creating open defecation free cities is advocated.”
Dirt: The Movie will give you the down and dirty on soil. Dirt is as important as water for life on earth. Watch this trailer to find out more. Then go and see the entire movie.
Michelle Kaufmann, Green Architect, shows how to make a mud mat from corks.
A few days ago I mentioned that the Earth Day Action Center is offering $1,000 for the best idea on how to reuse stuff instead of throwing it away. So far, only one person applied. The contest is extended until May 6, so start coming up with ideas!
The Ecotransformer contest site is trying to “prime the pump” by posting a few ideas. The latest is a video that shows how to make a mudroom mat from 200 corks. That’s a lot wine to drink. They suggest having a big party. Sounds like an expensive mudroom mat, doesn’t it? But it is recycling.
SciDev.net —Science and Development Network—is a non-commercial e-zine that publishes news, views, and information about science, technology, and the developing world. That’s correct—no advertisements whatsoever. AND high-quality content. I read it regularly and use it to research many of my blog topics.
SciDev.net is funded by charitable organizations whose purpose is to help the developing world. But now, SciDev is looking for contributions from individuals. Take a look at this story and the rest of this issue. If you like what you read, consider becoming a subscriber. Then, consider donating to them
From SciDev.net . . .
Open source TB megaproject yields first fruits
[NEW DELHI] A unique effort by scientists to pull together scattered genetic information about the tuberculosis (TB) bug, with the goal of developing new remedies, has identified its first candidate molecule.
The Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) programme aroused huge interest when it was mooted by Samir Brahmachari, director-general of India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), in 2007, because it offered a new route to finding drugs for diseases in the developing world traditionally neglected by drug companies (see ‘Open source’ urged for TB drug design effort).
SIck Water: The Central Role of Wastewater Management in Sustainable Development is a report from the United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation. It’s an alarming report that starts like this:
The statistics are stark: Globally, two million tons of sewage, industrial and agricultural waste is discharged into the world’s waterways and at least 1.8 million children under five years-old die every year from water related disease, or one every 20 seconds.
Over half of the world’s hospitals beds are occupied with people suffering from illnesses linked with contaminated water and more people die as a result of polluted water than are killed by all forms of violence including wars.
The impact on the wider environment is no less striking. An estimated 90 per cent of all wastewater in developing countries is discharged untreated directly into rivers, lakes or the oceans. Such discharges are part of the reason why de-oxygenated dead zones are growing rapidly in the seas and oceans. Currently an estimated 245 000 km2 of marine ecosystems are affected with impacts on fisheries, livelihoods and the food chain.
It’s been 40 years since the first Earth Day. It was a fringe movement back then, fueled by citizens concerned with saving the environment. Considering that 40 years have past, it seems not much has been done. It’s true that many polluting operations were cleaned up in the USA, but as a whole, is the Earth better off?
The USA pushed a lot of its manufacturing off shore to countries where pollution is tolerated. Corporations now see “green” as the latest buzz word; it’s a way to make more money. Take the bottled water industry, for example. Where was it 40 years ago? Practically non-existent. Now think of all the pollution and water imbalances that it causes.
Drive around California, and you can get the impression that cars don’t pollute. Take a trip to Ecuador or Peru. Watch the thick, black smoke billow out of the tail pipes in these countries. They often get discarded polluter cars from first world countries or, to save money, use inferior fuel.
The Earth needs a lot more than to have US citizens signing a petition. Although I urge you to sign the petition, I recommend that you do something more for our only planet. Do something that affects not just the USA, but the entire Earth. Don’t depend on someone else — like Congress — to do it for you.
I’ve been blogging about water for almost a year, saying how important it is for people to have clean, disease-free water. Why?
Water makes up most of the human body. The brain alone is about 70% water, so we need water to think. Water is responsible for cushioning our joints, removing waster, and regulating our body temperature through sweating.
Without water, we dehydrate. The core body temperature rises. Your muscles lose their ability to contract. The blood volume decreases. Blood gets thicker. Heart rate increases, as does blood pressure.
If you want to get an idea of what it is like to be without water—to be dying of thirst—read Death Valley in ’49. These pioneers got lost in Death Valley and suffered greatly. Their quest for food and water is no different from millions of people in developing countries today.
Death Valley in ’49, by William Lewis Manley is available through Project Gutenberg. This is an excerpt.
” …our mouths became so dry we had to put a bullet or a small smooth stone in and chew it and turn it around with the tongue to induce a flow of saliva. If we saw a spear of green grass on the north side of a rock, it was quickly pulled and eaten to obtain the little moisture it contained.
Thus we traveled along for hours, never speaking, for we found it much better for our thirst to keep our mouths closed as much as possible, and prevent the evaporation. The dry air of that region took up water as a sponge does. ”
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