Personal mobility - One Planet Business - WWF Microsites

Oh cool, do I have the solution for YOU... lol...

Personal mobility - One Planet Business - WWF Microsites: "This first project of One Planet Business aims to inspire and catalyse change towards mobility and access solutions within planetary limits.

Passenger transport is placing an ever-growing demand on global resources and the climate’s absorptive capacity. Currently, the final demand for personal mobility represents 26% of the word’s CO2 emissions. Current technological advancements in personal mobility are not keeping pace with the rate of growth or the scale of the challenge, not least the minimum 60% reductions required in CO2 emissions. It seems clear that further solutions have to be explored.

One Planet Business Personal Mobility will explore the fundamental drivers for change, such as:

* identifying the barriers impeding a complete technological revolution for low-carbon mobility;
* exploring the possibilities for switching to low-impact transport and how this could be encouraged;
* questioning the value of such high levels of mobility in promoting a better quality of life and identifying which areas of mobility consumers may actually like to reduce (e.g. commuting);
* understanding how shifts in lifestyles could reduce personal mobility;
* thinking through the economic consequences of changing mobility patterns; and
* exploring access to key services such as shop"

Mom's beef puts son's sperm count at stake - Los Angeles Times

I wonder about all the other crap they feed cattle, chickens and fish.. Like the GMO's modified to like more pesticides. . .

Mom's beef puts son's sperm count at stake - Los Angeles Times: "Men whose mothers ate a lot of beef during their pregnancy have a sperm count about 25% below normal and three times the normal risk of fertility problems, researchers reported Tuesday.

The problem may be due to anabolic steroids used in the United States to fatten the cattle, Dr. Shanna H. Swan of the University of Rochester Medical Center reported in the journal Human Reproduction. It could also be due to pesticides and other environmental contaminants, she added.

If the sperm deficit is related to the hormones in beef, Swan's findings may be 'just the tip of the iceberg,' wrote biologist Frederick vom Saal of the University of Missouri-Columbia in an editorial accompanying the paper.

In daughters of the beef-eaters, those same hormones could alter the incidence of polycystic ovarian syndrome, the age of puberty and the postnatal growth rate, he said.

'It's a small effect, but it is a significant effect,' said Dr. Ted Schettler, an environmental health specialist at the Institute for Global Communications in San Francisco. 'It's not surprising. The more you look at dietary factors, the more you turn up interesting information about how diet during pregnancy affects lots of aspects of human health.'"

Biz magazines spotlight the sustainability revolution | By John Elkington, Mark Lee | Grist | Full Disclosure | 27 Mar 2007

"If the business press is any indication, sustainability issues have risen up the corporate ladder and are now seen as a central challenge for companies in the coming decades.

Fortune

In its first-ever green issue, Fortune commends '10 Green Giants' -- corporations that are making impressive environmental gains. The editors decided to bypass GE and Wal-Mart, whose eco-endeavors have been heavily publicized, and instead highlight companies whose sustainability efforts have been less high-profile recently -- among them, Hewlett-Packard, Continental Airlines, S.C. Johnson, Suncor, and Alcan. While its list focused on big, mainline corporations, its cover went to an idealistic maverick who runs a 350-employee, uber-eco outdoor-gear company -- Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia.

Fortune's Marc Gunther writes in an intro to the green package that environmentalism in corporate America has gone beyond mere compliance and efficiency: 'Now we're at the threshold of a different era, one in which smart companies are trying to figure out how to profit by solving the world's big environmental problems.'

Fast Company would seem to agree. Its latest annual "Fast 50" edition -- which spotlights trendsetting companies and leaders -- features California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on the cover and lauds him for "focusing the power of the free market on major problems" like climate change and dependence on foreign oil. In fact, this year the "Fast 50" is wholly focused on companies aiming to be green or socially responsible, from NativeEnergy to EcoFish to Home Depot, which now boasts that 95 percent of its wood products come from sustainably managed forests. The issue's lead essay argues that we have to shift to Business 3.0 -- a new, socially and environmentally sustainable set of economic and business models that acknowledge "we can't continue indefinitely to cannibalize our life-support systems for spare parts.""

Paris Embraces Plan to Become City of Bikes - washingtonpost.com

Someone is getting smart out there... lol...

"On July 15, the day after Bastille Day, Parisians will wake up to discover thousands of low-cost rental bikes at hundreds of high-tech bicycle stations scattered throughout the city, an ambitious program to cut traffic, reduce pollution, improve parking and enhance the city's image as a greener, quieter, more relaxed place.

By the end of the year, organizers and city officials say, there should be 20,600 bikes at 1,450 stations -- or about one station every 250 yards across the entire city. Based on experience elsewhere -- particularly in Lyon, France's third-largest city, which launched a similar system two years ago -- regular users of the bikes will ride them almost for free.

"It has completely transformed the landscape of Lyon -- everywhere you see people on the bikes," said Jean-Louis Touraine, the city's deputy mayor. The program was meant "not just to modify the equilibrium between the modes of transportation and reduce air pollution, but also to modify the image of the city and to have a city where humans occupy a larger space."

The Socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delano?, has the same aim, said his aide, Jean-Luc Dumesnil: "We think it could change Paris's image -- make it quieter, less polluted, with a nicer atmosphere, a better way of life."

"

Dr. Sigmund Freud, Dr. Wilhelm Reich

Freud is the founder of the modern study of Psychology. His main theory is that sexual frustration leads to mental and emotional illness, which manifests primarily as Frustration- Aggression Syndrome, Transferral of Guilt onto innocent others, and simple hateful jealousy against those better than ourselves.

This all carried over into Reich's works, such as: "The Murder of Christ...The Emotional Plague", which is about how we destroy those superior than ourselves, thus ending their vital ministries to mankind. Also: "The Mass Psychology of Fascism", in which the ass-kissing cowardly populace knowingly conforms to an erroneous norm, sacrificing the brave and courageous, in order to save their cowardly, dishonorable selves.

Like I always said: "They will sacrifice any Truth, no matter how sacred, on the altar of selfish and cowardly conformity. To put it into perspective: They have rejected their own Salvation, in order to protect themselves from the "puta", which is really their own irrational fear and the government to which it gave rise. I always said: Get rid of the bitch and the horse it rode in on." Because of what all of you are, I fear for the life of the world and its multitude of living creatures

Ending Corruption: Honesty Instituted | Changemakers

What It Is: A Changemakers competition awarded to the best idea for a socially entrepreneurial project could help battle corruption.

Why it Matters: Because corruption is a major global problem, making more difficult solutions to all the other problems we face, and while some great proposed solutions exist -- from spreading tools for transparency to paying leaders to eschew corrupt practices -- we need new and better solutions for rooting it out.

Particularly worth a look is this mosiac of innovative solutions, which describes some of the barriers to ending corruption (cynicism and apathy, lack of accountability, few vehicles for participation) and a few of the existing projects which aim to overcome those barriers in various ways (empower citizens, shame and prosecute corrupt leaders, etc.).

Operative Quote: "However you define or experience it, corruption is a disease that infects and impoverishes society. From the "lubricating" corruption of everyday bribe seekers among traffic police, hospital caregivers, permit administrators, customs agents, or prison guards—little by little grinding down those who need their services and approvals—to the 'venal' corruption of self-interested political 'kleptocrats' emptying entire national coffers, corruption is a poison that eats away at communities and institutions to devastating effect. 'Business as usual' is all too often replete with access for some, dead ends for many, and tortuous alleys of shady dealing that affect us all. ... The World Bank estimates that the cost of corruption represents about seven percent of the annual world economy, roughly $2.3 trillion. This is a staggering amount ... a figure that is larger than the entire federal budget of the United States government ($2.2 trillion)."

"Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms"

Submitted by Roberto Wohlgemuth on March 16, 2007 - 12:57.

The United Nations Global Compact was created as a multilateral initiative supporting corporate social responsibility. It was launched by the Secretary-General of the United Nations at the 1999 World Economic Forum in Davos. It comprises ten principles derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the Rio Declaration of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.

On 24 June 2004, during the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit it was announced that the UN Global Compact includes a tenth principle against corruption: "Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery."

How is this principle implemented? What is the level of response from the business sector? What social innovations are promoting corporate social responsibility, including the work of businesses against corruption?

Roberto Wohlgemuth
Changemakers: an Ashoka Initiative

LiveScience.com - Healthier Tomatoes Grown in Seawater

"Healthier Tomatoes Grown in Seawater
By Charles Q. Choi
Special to LiveScience
posted: 22 March 2007
08:41 am ET


Tomatoes irrigated with diluted seawater grow with significantly higher levels of healthy antioxidant compounds, new research shows.



'It'd be interesting to see if this might be a more general phenomenon, where a little salt induces antioxidants in lots of crops,' said botanist Edward Glenn at the University of Arizona, who did not participate in the new study. 'There could be a consumer wave toward salt-tolerant crops based on their nutritional properties.'



The option to use salty water on crops might help farmers deal with growing irrigation woes. Irrigation water, as well as drinking water, is growing scarce and deteriorating in quality around the world.



Nearly 70 percent of all available freshwater is used for agriculture. Use of water for irrigation has increased globally by more than 60 percent since 1960, according to United Nation statistics. At the same time, poor irrigation and drainage practices have led to salt buildup in roughly one-eighth of all irrigated land.

The researchers investigated tomatoes, which are grown worldwide and are moderately salinity tolerant. They grew various types of tomatoes, including those commonly used for salads, under different levels of salinity and investigated the fruit for nutrients.

The researchers found that growing tomatoes in 10 percent seawater improved antioxidant levels significantly, findings they detailed in the April 4 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Glenn noted the water that percolates out from normally irrigated soil, technically known as irrigation return flow, is often as salty as 10 percent seawater. "About a third of irrigation water becomes irrigation return flow, so there's a huge amount of this brackish water, and this research now suggests this could get reused for crops," Glenn told LiveScience.

For decades, research has shown that seawater can irrigate crops, "but there's an impression (that) the crops seawater can irrigate are low value," Glenn said. "Farmers want a good return for their investment and time, and tomatoes are really high value. Also, crops like tomatoes are sold based on consumer appeal, and if you have an extra going for you like high antioxidant levels, this could be quite valuable."