|
|
Person/planet awareness means understanding the distributed network we call home, and being an appropriate part of the whole. Eco-awareness and intelligent travel add up to a new view of our world. |
CLEAN AIR
According to the Sierra Club, high smog levels cause 159,000 trips to the emergency room, 53,000 hospital admissions, and 6 million asthma attacks each summer. CITIGROUP FUNDS DEFORESTATION
Citi is currently one of the world's top funders of the fossil fuel and logging industries.CLIMATE SUMMIT
Environment ministers from around the world meet in Marrakesh, Morocco, for two weeks of negotiations to finalise the rules on the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.SPRAYING POISONS COLOMBIAN VILLAGERS
Corporate Watch reports from Colombia that the chemical spraying of coca is poisoning the villages of Indigenous people. All in the name of the War on Drugs.COUNT YOUR KILOWATTS
Americans rate highest in the world in overall electricity consumption, and once you see the numbers, rolling blackouts seem entirely justified. Once you discover how much we take electricity for granted you just might want to go solar. THE LANES IN SPAIN RUN MAINLY ON THE PLAIN
Biking touring through Spain is a fantastic, low-impact way to see some of the country's best scenery. Find details about routes and rules of the road on the Spanish greenways.
AMERICA'S MOST ENDANGERED
Ten parks, facing some of the worst problems in the National Park system, have landed on the second annual National Parks Conservation Association Ten Most Endangered Parks List. Find out which ones are on the verge of disaster.
CLIMATE CONFERENCE FAILURE
The Sixth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP6) has ended without a deal. Greenpeace Final Update: Rich countries to watch rest of world suffer from climate change.
OZONE HOLE BREAKING RECORDS
Scientists warn ozone depletion is occurring at an unprecedented rate.
Environmental Activism
Today the human race is facing unprecedented environmental devastation directly linked to human activity. We are witnessing the effects of global warming on the climate and physical landscape, faster than ever before and more severe than at any time since the last ice-age. We are participating in the largest mass extinction since the dinosaurs. We are consuming more resources, engaging in more widespread deforestation, and leaving more pollution than the world had ever seen. And it's getting worse. But many people are resisting the destruction of nature, and are teaching others how to life with respect for our environment... and ourselves.
You can find out more about environmental issues from:
THIN GREEN LINE
The Thin Green Line is a provocative and proactive environmental magazine series that explores the day's most incendary, important, inspirational, and overlooked environmental issues by examining the personal lives of the individuals who are fighting the frontline battles to save the planet from destruction. At a time when the earth is at a crossroads, these individuals are the thin green line. Hosted by Adam Werbach (former president of the Sierra Club) and Julia Butterfly Hill (treesitter activist), the series is packed with video and audio clips.
RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK
Excellent source for environmental information. Long lists of links, events, actions, and news. Rainforest Action Network works to protect the world's rainforests and supports the rights of their inhabitants.
EARTH ISLAND INSTITUTE
Education and activism resource for the preservation and restoration of the earth.
EARTHFIRST! JOURNAL
The radical environmental journal whose motto is "No compromise in defense of Mother Earth." The ultimate source for direct action information.
Other News
INDIAN SUNSET DISPATCH
Radio-V’s own Carla King is on an adventure in India! The following is an excerpt from one of her discoveries on the road. Visit www.indiansunset.org for the full scoop.
A hi-tech campus and a Delhi slum share adjoining walls. A hole is poked through for a computer screen to show through on the side with the tents, the open fires, and the stench of sewage. Controls are a joy stick and a red and a green button. It all just appears one day without explanation. The community is curious. Adults look but don't touch. Kids touch. They figure out, within a few days, how to access the Internet, how to use a painting program, how to cut, copy, paste. It becomes a fixture in the community. The adults send the kids to check their daily horoscope on a newspaper site. "How do you like using the computer?" one might ask these children. "Computer?" they say. "What is a computer?"
They wait patiently when the hourglass symbol appears. They have never seen an hourglass, it is not a part of Indian culture, but it looks like Shiva's drum. "What is it? Why do you stop when that thing appears?" asks an adult. "Because that's when it's thinking," they reply.
View the photogallery from Carla’s experience!
Can Coffee Drinkers Save the Rainforest?
It may not be Pamplona, but when the bulls run in Goa it's wise to get out of the way. Rahul Goswami reports for The Atlantic Unbound from the west coast of India.
Scientists warn of mass plant/animal extinctions
Among the chief causes of species extinction is forest loss, particularly tropical forests in South America and Africa. At present rates of distruction, the world will only have 5 percent of tropical forests in protected areas within 50 years, leading to the loss of one-third to two-thirds of all species of plants, animals, and other organisms during the second half of the next century.
In addition, close to 50 percent of the land surface of the planet has been transformed by humans, such as filling in wetlands, converting tall grass prairies into cornfields, or converting forests into urban areas. Excess fertilizer use and burning of fossil fuel more than doubled the available nitrogen in the environment. Not to mention that new data indicates a dramatic alteration of Earth's oceans. There are now some 50 "dead zones" in the world's coastal areas, which human activities add damage to, such as landfill along the coasts, in marshes, and damming up rivers.
Massive changes in the Earth's environment also result in human conflicts across political boundaries. Depleted resources and environmental degradation resulting in food shortages lead to civil unrest and migration into neighboring countries. Population increase also factors into the equation, with the number of people on Earth doubling from 3 to 6 billion in less than 40 years.
CONNECTING SACRED LAND
The Sacred Grove shrines honor all the local deities, including Obatala, the god of creation, Ogun, the god of iron, and Oshun, the goddess of water, whose aqueous essence is made manifest by the river running through the trees. The place is unique in the Yoruba religion of West Africa. Jeffrey Taylor reports for Atlantic Unbound.
|
SUBMISSIONS
Send ecology- oriented events and news, and spirited travel notes - please!
KEY LINKS
GaiaWatch 1.2
Third World Traveller
Travel information for developing countries
Trufax' Toxics
Check in on levels of toxicity in your area of the globe.
The Economist
Not just the economy, but a source for travel information, political news, the ecology, books and multimedia, science, spirituality, personalities, and more.
Escape Magazine
The online version of this popular print magazine now features journeys to Tonga, Baja, Uganda, and India's Kumbh Mela festival.
The CIA
Official stats, maps, weather, roads, railways, holidays, economy and international border disputes of every country in the world, in alphabetical order. The CIA has a purpose, after all!
Earth Island Institute
Education and activisim resource for the preservation and restoration of the Earth.
EnviroLink
Uniting hundreds of grassroots organizations and volunteers worldwide.
Lonely Planet Travel
Up-to-date, down-to-earth travel information and knowledge.
Ecosource Magazine
|
