The New Industrial Revolution

The New Industrial Revolution, you could say, began in the 1980’s. This video goes through a timeline of how different technologies became more readily available to the general public, therefore creating a new economic force. It started in the 1980’s when desktop publishing first became available to individuals so anyone with the “skill and drive” could become a publisher. Then, in the 1990’s “desktop video did the same for video production.” Now, people can “make TV at home.” Now, being in the 21st century we have the ability to create and establish just like conglomerate corporations do. Previously, it was only large corporations that were able to get their hands on patents for new products. In this video the example is Bob Kurns’ invention of the windshield wipers; because Kurns wasn’t involved in a large corporation he was not able to successfully manufacture them. Instead, Ford took his idea because he already owned a large business. Today, society supports micro-entrepreneurs so what happened to Kurns would not happen now. It took years for Kurns’ to be appropriately credited for his invention. Now, “business and work is spread around, everyone gets a piece.”

Creating a Sustainable US Economy

Jeffrey Hollender: Creating a Sustainable US Economy from Gregor Barnum on Vimeo.

Jeffrey Hollender is a visionary and authority on corporate responsibility, sustainability and social equity. He is working to drive systemic changes in the US economy and has written six books including The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win, How to Make the World a Better Place, a Beginner's guide and Planet Home: Conscious Choices for Cleaning & Greening the World You Care About Most.

Post by: Adrienne Ackerman and Rachel Miyata

Building A Whole Earth Economy

What is the relationship between Earth and the economy - and why is this relationship significant? Peter G. Brown presents his argument on this in his book Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy, in which he explores the current situation of the Earth and the economic system we reside in.

Brown presents to us five questions that we need to answer if we ever want to create that perfect mutual relationship between Earth and the economy. They are:

1) What's The Economy For?

2) How does it work?

3) How big should it be?

4) What's a fair distribution of it's burdens and benefits?

5) How should it be governed?

Meeting Oregon's Carbon Neutral Challenge

Willamette Valley Vineyard's sustainability manager Caitlyn Carey explains just how winemakers in Oregon have innovated to create a carbon-neutral industry.

What Would Sustainable Winemaking Look Like?

Find out how Oregon's winemakers are working to create sustainable vineyards, including wildlife areas in the midst of vineyards and sustainable practices that enable vintners to adopt climate- friendly practices. The Wine Spectator has put together an impressive series of videos emphasizing the ways in which Oregonians are changing their winemaking practices, from energy generation and field ecoculture to the processing and packaging of wines. If you were to draw a flow chart of their carbon neutral practices, what would it look like? What strategies do you see these farmers highlighting in their efforts to win the Carbon Neutral Challenge hosted each year by the Oregon Environmental Council?

Bill McKibben on Saving the Planet from the Bottom Up!

Bill McKibben is an author, environmentalist, and activist who wrote the first popular book about global warming. He is the co-founder of 350.org, an international organization which, on 10/10/10, organized a day of climate solutions projects-from solar panel installations to community garden plantings-and changed communities from the bottom up with over 7,000 events in 188 countries.

This video was recorded for Schumacher College.
Schumacher College is part of The Dartington Hall Trust, a registered charity, which focuses on the arts, social justice and sustainability.
For more information about Schumacher College and Dartington visit:
http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/ and
http://www.dartington.org/

AlJazeera's Earthrise-The Millennium Seed Bank

Efforts to achieve a sustainable world are in evidence in every corner of the world. Here, AlJazeera features Earthrise, a program that focuses on global progress toward sustainability. This particular show features an investigation into the Millennium Seed Bank in Sussex, England. AlJazeera tells us, "Kew's Millennium Seed Bank partnership in Sussex is the largest off-site plant conservation project in the world. Working with partners in more than 50 countries, they had by 2009 banked the seeds of 10 per cent of the planet's wild plant species." Seed banks like the ones featured here exist to save seeds in danger of extinction due to the overdevelopment of the planet.
I find it hopeful that there is such a thriving culture of support for sustainability spreading all over the globe. You'll find the entire series of episodes for Earthrise at the following URL:
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/earthrise/

Farmhearts Interview with Mark Ruffalo

 

An Interview with Mark Ruffalo: We Can Go Gracefully Into a Green Future, Or We Can Go Kicking and Screaming, But There Is No Choice

Sabrina Artel has traveled the country in her Trailer Talk BeeLine camper talking to people about fracking. She stopped in Yellow Springs, Ohio over Labor Day to share Trailer Talk's Shale Project and create a Bill of Rights for Water with community members fighting back against the industry landmen knocking on doors throughout the area. She writes, "I was reminded of the threat to our farms as I drove past acres of farmland with sunflower fields and beehives with No Fracking signs standing fiercely on the road. Heading west I traveled through tornado-flattened Joplin, drought-desperate Oklahoma and Texas, and a dismantled Route 66, recognizing the desperate economic situation this country is in and how enticing drilling can seem to those barely scraping by."

In this interview, she went to Callicoon, New York, to the Callicoon Youth Center, where she attended Haystock," a benefit for Farmhearts. Mark Ruffalo, actor, director, environmental advocate, and Catskill, New York, resident, joined her at the kitchen table of "Trailer Talk" to talk about Farmhearts, a nonprofit farm advocacy organization he helped found whose mission is to help local family farms by lending assistance in grants, helping to bring added value to a farm's existing products, offering grassroots and Internet support, and opening the door to the next generation of young farmers. They are committed to lending a hand to the hands that feed us, and their mission is to help local family farms survive and thrive.

Mark's story of the assault on our water supply in order to engage in hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as fracking, is a wake-up call to all of us. He tells of how farmers are being bought out with the money provided by oil companies to lease their land for the purposes of fracking, a process whereby toxic chemicals are blasted into the earth to recover oil shale. The toxins then enter the water table and poison the water that everyone relies on.

Mark Ruffalo ends his interview in this way: "There's a movement to try and attain [sustainable communities throughout the world]. There's energy to do it. And I see that happening here. I see it happening everywhere. You know, I see it happening throughout the world. When you topple a 7,000-year-old power structure like they have in Egypt, that's a leaderless movement; that's a movement that comes out of the collective consciousness of the people, of the community, and why they put themselves at risk -- why they exert that amount of energy -- is because they see something better. They believe in something better for themselves and for their children. And it's under that same belief, under those same principles, under that same vision, that I move forward in the world ... and that all of these people move forward in the world, you know? -- that all these people are here tonight. It's tangible. It's doable. We're fortunately at a place where we can realize these dreams."

You can listen to the podcast from that interview at the following link:

http://www.sabrinaartel.com/trailer-talk-shale-project/?powerpress_pinw=1034-podcast

Slow Food and Its Biggest Proponent Alice Waters

Here's a helpful introduction to the slow food movement--an interview with Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse in 1971, a restaurant that focuses on local food of every variety. Alice Waters has been preaching the virtues of cultivating fresh food for four decades. As Lesley Stahl reports in this 60 Minutes report, this world-renowned chef and restaurateur hopes a slower approach to the food we eat will keep us healthier and greener.

Chris Martin of Cold Play on Fair Trade

Oxfam America and Make Trade Fair teamed up to send Coldplay's Chris Martin to Africa to see firsthand the extreme poverty endured by so many and how fair trade in these areas can improve the lives of those who live and work there. For more information, visit http://www.oxfamamerica.org.

Trade Justice: Why World Trade Rules Need to Change

Here's a short animated clip on world trade and why things need to change. Animation from Trade Aid a New Zealand fair trade organization. 

Go FairTrade!

Evidently, FairTrade is huge in Great Britain. Here's a video made by a fellow student giving plenty of reasons to buy FairTrade products.

Why Fair Trade?

What is fairtrade? It's more expensive - why should we pay more? What's the point? Well, Fairtrade gives people the life that they deserve - that is theirs by right. In fact, every time you don't buy fairtrade, you are likely endorsing UNfair trade. I think all of us can see the moral injustice in this. Watch and see what you think...

Rant over, hope you enjoy! The song is 'Numa Numa' by O-Zone.

What Is Fair Trade?

Here, a UK student group has produced a show entitled "The Knowledge" and interviewed the founders of Fair Trade, to hear about their ongoing work to create a fairer system of trade, what exactly it is that they do and find out how each of us can get involved.

Fresh the Movie Preview

On October 18, we'll be discussing the film Fresh, for which you will have viewed and written a reaction paper. Here is a preview of that film. There will be a screening of the film and a copy of the film will be placed on reserve in the library. There are so many issues raised in the film that are great points of departure for discussion. You'll see many of them raised in this trailer. 

Michael Pollan, "Don't Eat Anything You See Advertised"

Michael Pollan is one of the nations leading writers and thinkers in this country on the issue of food. He is author of several books about food, including The Botany of Desire, The Omnivores Dilemma and his latest, In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto. In light of what he calls the processed food industrys co-option of sustainability and its vast spending on marketing, Pollan advises to be wary of any food thats advertised.

Michael Pollan on "Why Eat Local?"

Food journalist Michael Pollan encourages buying local food to conserve energy, support farmers, and preserve the natural landscape.

Michael Pollan on "Supermarket Secrets"

How do you make healthy choices at the supermarket? Food journalist Michael Pollan helps us navigate the grocery store to find fresh, whole foods.
Receive updates from Nourish at:
Website: http://nourishlife.org
Facebook: http://facebook.com/nourishlife
Twitter: http://twitter.com/nourish_life
YouTube: http://youtube.com/nourishlife

Michael Pollan on "No Free Lunch"

What's the link between cheap food and expensive health care? Food journalist Michael Pollan explains the relationship between what we spend on food and the rising cost of health care in America.

Wake Up! with Dr. Nadine Burke

How has our habit for junk food contributed to an epidemic of obesity and diabetes? Pediatrician Nadine Burke discusses the consequences of eating food high in sugar and fat.

An Introduction to Food, Inc.

What is Ecological Literacy?

For a fundamental understanding of ecological literacy, probably no one is more capable of explaining this than Fritjo Capra. Below you'll find further information on the need to spread ecological literacy through education from the Center for Ecoliteracy:

The Center for Ecoliteracy is dedicated to education for sustainable living.

We provide information, inspiration, and support to the vital movement of K-12 educators, parents, and other members of the school community who are helping young people gain the knowledge, skills, and values essential to sustainable living.

We base our work on these four guiding principles:
• Nature is our teacher
• Sustainability is a community practice
• The real world is the optimal learning environment
• Sustainable living is rooted in a deep knowledge of place

Through our initiative, Smart by Nature: Schooling for Sustainability, we offer both a strong theoretical framework and practical resources for combining hands-on learning in the natural world with curricular innovation in K-12 education.

We know that no single blueprint will work for all schools. Our seminars, consulting, books, teaching guides, and other publications support a diverse range of approaches to schooling for sustainability.

For more info please visit our site at:
http://www.ecoliteracy.org
______________________________

Center for Ecoliteracy--What Would Sustainability in the Schools Look Like?

The Center for Ecoliteracy has some very promising ideas regarding how to transform schools so that they begin to educate young people for sustainability. The following information has been provided by the Center for Ecoliteracy, based in Berkeley, CA.

Karen Brown , creative director of the Center for Ecoliteracy, is an award-winning designer who has lectured throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan on the human and environmental consequences of design. Her design has shaped the distinctive online and print publications of the Center for Ecoliteracy, including the Rethinking School Lunch Guide, Big Ideas, and educators' guides to the films Food, Inc., Nourish, and Connected. Her work has been featured in the Smithsonian Institution, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, The New York Times, Architectural Digest, Edutopia, and dozens of other publications as well as NBC's Today show

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.