Of the many activities one could do to celebrate Earth Day this year, The Master Shift, could possibly be one of the most immediately tangible. This non-profit initiative is campaigning to have everyone who participates in the movement to plant a single tree on April 22nd, 2015. Their Facebook page already has almost a million “likes”, so it’s encouraging to imagine all those people (and countless more) planting a tree.
We have much work to do to live within planetary boundaries, it is possible and indeed, critical for humanity.
While most of us know this on a gut level, some interesting research by Gilovich at Cornell University, confirms that even though we think that buying a physical object will make us happy because it will last longer, it is really experiences like going to art exhibits, doing outdoors activities, learning a new skill, or traveling.
This video describes one man's way to pay back to community. How many more small steps could be taken to build better communities, pay it forward.
As a very wintry weekend approaches in the East, and there is less sunlight in the West, it becomes important to find ways to fight off seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Without taking away from the recent tragedies in France, there is always another violent, negative, or sensationalist news story around the corner; they pop up on our news feeds, invade our television screens, and dominate our forums.
We recently led an e-Dialogue on waste management in Canada as part of our Solutions Agenda research project. Some interesting nuggets of gold, maybe we need to reframe the issue and reorient our values, is it waste or is it lost productive capacity. Are landfills really stranded assets?
If your soul is weary, watch this, there are so many different pathways to travel.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to dine beside a totally self-sustaining garden, in an urban environment? One where the outer walls are covered in plant life, in a building that has no permanent footprint? Such was the vision of Dutch-born florist, artist, builder and environmentalist Joost Bakker. He recruited Chef Matt Stone, and they founded the Greenhouse in Perth, Western Australia. It is an innovative restaurant design, described in their own words as "completely waste free from the ground up".
In spite of some of the dire reports in the press, there are many individuals, researchers, artists and business leaders working hard for change. Two examples are Gregory Kloehn, an artist from Oakland, California and researchers from Ryerson University. Kloen had a life changing interaction with a member of the homeless community, which led him to start turning unwanted building materials into micro-homes for those in need of shelter.
Last week, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, who made their fortune in the oil business, announced their intention to pull out of the traditional energy sector, and invest their capital in renewable energy initiatives. They are beginning by walking away from their investments in companies that rely on the most carbon intensive of fuels, such as coal and the oil sands. They are one of many individuals and institutions to make this substantial decision in recent the months, leading up to the climate change summit at the UN in New York City.