Reports from two different, respected institutions have been making waves in the automotive world for coming to the same conclusion; America, and the world, are past the point of automotive saturation, and rather than seeing sales expand, in a few short…
Category: Culture
Celebrating Sustainability Initiatives at Historically Black Colleges & Universities
I was an assistant professor at an historically Black university (or an HBCU) back when I started sustainablog in 2003. As such, I’ve always had an interest in sustainability initiatives [ … ]
“The Sun Rises, and the Sun Sets”: 14 Religious Communities Using Solar Power
If I asked you to provide a one or two word answer to the question “What do you call a group of people who live together, share work and living [ … ]
The Invisible People Who Take our Trash “Away”
Ever gotten stuck behind a garbage truck? Or heard one banging against a dumpster in the middle of the night? I’d guess that for most of us, these inconveniences/disturbances are among the few times we give any thought to the people who deal with our waste after we throw it “away.”
Is Population Killing Us? Alan Weisman’s Countdown: Our Last Best Hope for a Future on Earth [Book Review]
In Countdown, author Alan Weisman takes a step back from a “world without us” and looks at what is, albeit arguably for some, possibly the main thing that may make that world happen: the breakneck growth of human population.
Harvesting Justice 29: Because the Land Is Ours – The Rights of Mother Earth v. Carbon Trading
Inatoy Sidsagi and his cousin Esteban Herrera, from the indigenous Kuna Yala (also known as Guna Yala) nation in Panama, make up the indigenous rap group Kunarevolution. They rap about Mother Earth and the Kuna’s inalienable right to protect her lands and waters.
Rainforest Getaway: Argentina’s Yacutinga Lodge
Argentina’s Yacutinga Lodge provides a green getaway in the heart of the country’s shrinking rainforest.
Harvesting Justice 28: Defending Indigenous Land & Water in Honduras – the Case of Rio Blanco
On September 12, Berta Caceres, Tomás Gomez, and Aureliano Molina, leaders of the indigenous Lenca organization Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) must appear in court. Their charges? Usurpation of land, coercion, and causing more than $3 million in damages to DESA, a hydroelectric dam company. Berta, the general coordinator of COPINH and an internationally recognized social movement leader, is also facing separate charges of illegally carrying arms “to the danger of the internal security of Honduras.”
Harvesting Justice 27: The Ancestral Values We Inherited – Protecting Indigenous Water, Land, & Culture in Mexico
“Within our indigenous community of Xoxocotla, we continue to hold the ancestral values we inherited. It never crosses our mind to leave them behind. Because in daily life we are always in contact with nature, with our lands, with our water, with our air. We live in harmony with nature because we don’t like the way that modernity is advancing, destroying our territory and our environment. We believe technological modernity is better named a death threat.”- Saúl Atanasio Roque Morales
Harvesting Justice 26: “They Fear Us Because We’re Fearless” – Reclaiming Indigenous Lands & Strength in Honduras
Multinational corporations are moving into Central America to exploit gold and other minerals, rivers, forests, and agricultural lands. One area of high interest in the corporate feeding frenzy is the indigenous Lenca region in the southwest of Honduras. The government has given outside businesses concessions to dam, drill, and cut, in violation of national law and international treaties. More corporations have simply moved in on their own.
Harvesting Justice 25: Without Our Land, We Cease To Be a People – Defending Indigenous Territory & Resources in Honduras
“We live on the Atlantic coast of Honduras. We are a mix of African descendants and indigenous peoples who came about more than 200 years ago in the island of San Vicente. Without our land, we cease to be a people. Our lands and identities are critical to our lives, our waters, our forests, our culture, our global commons, our territories. For us, the struggle for our territories and our commons and our natural resources is of primary importance to preserve ourselves as a people.”
Harvesting Justice 24: We Don’t Have Life without Land – Holding Ground in Honduras
Consuelo Castillo, a community organizer in Lempira, a land reform settlement in Bajo Aguán, Honduras, said, “Our goal is for everyone who is part of the land occupations to have access to land. Land is our first mother. For us farmers, we don’t have life without land.”
‘Do the Math’ Warns Climate’s Doomed Unless We Act Now
Do the Math” is a 42-minute documentary that dives into the causes of rapid climate change and blames the rogue fossil fuel industry as a main culprit to our atmospheric downfall. The film chronicles climate crusader Bill McKibben, an environmentalist, author, journalist, and founder of 350.org (the organization behind “Do the Math”) as he cultivates a global movement to change the terrifying climate crisis.