Globalis

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Globalis

Description: 

Globalis is an interactive world atlas where you decide what is to be displayed on the map. Globalis aims to create an understanding for similarities and differences in human societies, as well as how we influence life on the planet. The data that's displayed is collected by the UN and other international organisations who collect large amounts of statistics each year from all over the world. These statistics cover a wide range of different issues, which are often presented in large reports and tables that are not easily adapted for use in schools. With Globalis, we have made these statistics available in a simpler and more visual format.

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI)

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The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI)

Description: 

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting environmentally sustainable societies. EESI believes meeting this goal requires transitions to social and economic patterns that sustain people, the environment and the natural resources upon which present and future generations depend. EESI produces credible, timely information and innovative public policy initiatives that lead to these transitions. These products take the form of publications, briefings, work shops and task forces.

EESI carries out policymaker education and analysis projects in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy, global climate change, agriculture, biofuels, smart-growth, and clean bus technologies. Cross-cutting efforts are focused on alternative environmental strategies.

Earth Policy Institute

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Earth Policy Institute

Description: 

Earth Policy Institute, dedicated to providing a vision of an environmentally sustainable economy—an eco-economy—as well as a roadmap of how to get from here to there.

During the 40 years since the publication of Silent Spring and the birth of the modern environmental movement, the environmental community has worked hard to arrest the deterioration of the Earth’s health. Many battles have been won, but we are losing the war. The Earth’s capacity to support the economy continues to deteriorate. The gap between what we need to do to arrest the deterioration of the Earth and what we are doing continues to widen.

Somehow we have to turn the tide. There is a need for a new initiative, a new organization, and a new organizational model, one engaged in a research program and research products that are designed for use by the media and that are directed at policymakers. The goal of the Earth Policy Institute is to raise public awareness to the point where it will support an effective public response to the threats posed by continuing population growth, rising CO2 emissions, the loss of plant and animal species, and the many other trends that are adversely affecting the Earth. The dissemination of information from the Institute is designed to help set the public agenda.

While the environmental community has gained a well-deserved reputation for successfully opposing certain policies or initiatives that it is against, it is less clear what the community is for. Without a vision, without a sense of where we want to go, it will be very difficult to get there. The purpose of the Earth Policy Institute is to provide a vision of what an environmentally sustainable economy will look like, a roadmap of how to get from here to there, and an ongoing assessment of this effort, of where progress is being made and where it is not.

The Community Clean Water Institute

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The Community Clean Water Institute

Description: 

Community Clean Water Institute (CCWI) protects water resources and public health, identifies pollution sources through research, education and water quality testing, and prevents water pollution throughout Northern California. CCWI collects and analyzes existing water and air test data, engages in education and community outreach activities, and shares information with government regulatory agencies and the public.

Community Clean Water Institute has developed a water quality testing program and laboratory to test ground, surface, and drinking water sources for a variety of pollutants and to make all of the findings available to the public. Community Clean Water Institute works with grassroots watershed groups and other non-profit organizations to address issues of clean water and public health. CCWI responds to reports from the public concerning suspected pollution and upon research and analysis decides whether or not the area needs to be tested.

Blue Water Network

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Blue Water Network

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Bluewater Network works to stop environmental damage from vehicles and vessels, and to protect human health and the planet by reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Bluewater is a division of Friends of the Earth - the U.S. voice of the world's largest network of environmental groups with one million supporters in 70 countries across five continents.

Re: Why the chicken crossed the ocean -- twice

This is one of those deals which makes you scratch your head ... Why the chicken crossed the ocean -- twice ... the idea is that uncooked chickens will be shipped to China, from the U.S., cooked, packaged, and then shipped back to the U.S.

The article describes this as a politically motivated deal with China.

But I see it as an abysmal move in terms of sustainability. It's bad enough we get food shipped all over the world as it is, because that drives more use of oil and contributes to the baddening of our food. In order for food to remain safe as it's shipped across the world, it has to be buried in various preservative chemicals, or harvested when it's still unripe, etc.

A study on the real cost of food

The real cost of a bag of salad: You pay 99p. Africa pays 50 litres of fresh water goes into the real cost of cheap groceries shipped from halfway around the world. More and more every product, from groceries on upward, is shipped around a global free market. The high lord muckety mucks who make all the decisions seem to think free trade is the solution to all economic problems. But what of other problems it creates?

In this specific case the article discusses the issue of groceries. For example, a bag of lettuce, grown halfway across the world, and shipped to your grocery store, and hopefully you'll remember to eat it before it rots. Maybe that lettuce is grown, as the article suggests, in a farming region where water is a scarce commodity, like Kenya. It may cost you a dollar to buy that bag of lettuce, but it costs the farmer 50 liters of water, and then there's the transportation and preparation costs and resources expenditures.

The article focusses primarily on water resources. One of the growing worldwide problems is maintaining water supplies for everything people are doing. But one should remember as you look at the article, hand in hand with water supply issues is oil and energy supply problems.

For example ... In Egypt, vegetables have become such an important export that the government has threatened military action against any country upstream that dams the Nile or its tributaries. Maintaining water supply threatens world peace.

For example ... Almost everybody in Europe who has eaten Kenyan beans or Kenyan strawberries or gazed at Kenyan roses has bought Naivasha water. It is sucking the lake dry. Naivasha is a lake in Kenya that's beeing overutilized to provide water for a range of uses. Water abuse is causing environmental degradation.