Flowers help clean the sewage at Europe’s first organic waster water installation in Findhorn, a Scottish community with the lowest ecological footprint on record in the industrialized world.
The spiriually centered village even has its own environmentally-conscious currency, the Eko.
Watch the AFP video below, or at Clip Syndicate …
The White House proposed a massive effort to retrain workers on Tuesday by strengthening our nation’s community colleges and creating five million additional college graduates by 2020.
Speaking at Macomb Community College in Michigan, President Obama stressed the importance of education to America’s prosperity, and announced the American Graduation Initiative which seeks to help an additional 5 million Americans earn degrees and certificates in the next decade by increasing Pell Grant scholarships and funneling $12 billion into the aging 2-year college system.
Time magazine said graduates of 2-year programs earn 30% more compared to high school grads and give “a 16% return on every dollar state and local governments invest, making them one of the best tools we have to pull ourselves out of the recession”.
Has the recession cut heart-healthy seafood and leafy greens out of your budget?
There are healthy, cheap eats, and new research shows how to get the most nutrition out of every buck.
Indiana waste water treatment plants along the Blue River are choosing to use UV light instead of chlorine to treat their sewage, producing clean water while saving plants and animals from toxic chemical exposure. The Nature Conservancy spearheaded the use of the UV lights and is paying for the additional cost of this process.
Watch the Assignment Earth video on Yahoo News
South Africa’s anti-apartheid hero, Nelson Mandela, spent 67 years making the world a better place, starting with nothing more than a prison uniform and his own two hands. Now a day has been set aside for inspiring the rest of the world to “Make an Imprint”, creating a new humanity using their own two hands.
Mandela Day, Saturday, July 18, marks the former president’s 91st birthday, a day to bring together people around the world to fight poverty and promote peace and reconciliation. Mandela Day celebrates the idea that each individual has the power to transform the world and the ability to make an imprint. It asks everyone to take 67 minutes to serve someone else, representing the 67 years Mandela spent as an activist.
Celebrities and movie stars have contributed “their two hands” to an inspiring music video made by the Mandela Foundation. (Watch the video below.) The Mandela Day website even offers the ability to cut yourself and your friends into the film, choosing your favorite celebs to make your own unique version.
Mandela Day was launched by the 46664 campaign, named after the prison ID number Mandela wore for 27 years, to raise awareness about Mandela’s broader humanitarian work. All funds raised from Mandela Day activities, like the Gala Dinner and Auction hosted for dignitaries last night by Bill Clinton, will support the ongoing work of 46664 and the Nelson 
Mandela charitable organizations, raising funds for children and AIDS causes.
At the dinner auction Wednesday, Clinton was joined by actor Morgan Freeman, who portrays Mandela in an upcoming film directed by Clint Eastwood; US actors Forest Whitaker and Matt Damon; and singers Harry Belafonte, Beyonce and Jay-Z.
Auction items included handwritten messages by Mr Mandela and a framed print featuring a collection of photos showing celebrities holding up their hands honoring the logo of Mandela Day.
Mandela Day 2009 will conclude with a special evening concert in New York City’s Radio City Music Hall hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. Performers will include Stevie Wonder, Wyclef Jean, Aretha Franklin, Josh Groban, Will.I.Am and the Soweto Gospel Choir. Livestream will offer free or premium (for $4.99) online streaming that lets viewers anywhere in the world take part in the concert. Tickets are priced from 40 dollars and are still available.
“New York City was busy with other Mandela-related projects this week, including volunteer park clean-ups, used book drives, a free performance of a play about HIV/AIDS prevention, and a free exhibit dedicated to Mandela’s life and values inside Grand Central terminal,” reported the Earth Times.
(Read more in Earth Times)
School’s out and young job seekers across the country have less than a 30 percent chance of finding work. For disadvantaged youth and high school dropouts the odds are worse.
Since the recession many of the low-wage jobs have been snatched up, leaving even fewer summer opportunities for young people.
But thanks to a $1.2 billion federal stimulus fund, states are revitalizing summer youth programs that have languished over the past decade because of declining federal funding. Allocated to states over a two-year period and then distributed through local workforce agencies, the stimulus program allows states to subsidize jobs and create training programs for 14-to-24-year-olds who come from low-income families and have one or more risk factors, such as foster care, homelessness or teen pregnancy.
Starting this month, states are using the new money to hire young people for jobs as varied as cleaning state parks, scrubbing the decks of docked battleships, assisting in underwater environmental studies and working in offices and hospitals. In addition, most programs squeeze in time for academic assistance, particularly for kids struggling to finish high school.
A British teenager lost for 12 days while hiking in Australia’s Blue Mountains was found alive and well yesterday, just hours before his father – who had all but given up hope of seeing him again – planned to fly back to England.
An innovative new anti-pollution ship has hit the high seas off western France. The ‘Catamar’ can collect debris and more importantly help clean up oil slicks, straining several hundred cubic meters of oil per hour from the water.
More than 40 smaller boats have already been purchased to help clean up lakes. The company hopes larger boats will soon be mopping up the open seas.
Video may take a moment to load… or see it at Clip Syndicate.
China and the United States, the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, launched a joint research effort today to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles and energy efficient buildings.
“I know we can accomplish more by working together than we can by working alone,” U.S. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu said at a press briefing with Chinese officials.
“Making buildings more efficient represents one of the greatest, and most immediate opportunities we have to create jobs, save money, save energy and reduce carbon pollution,” said Secretary Chu. “Our goal should be buildings that are 80 percent more efficient. Doing so will save families money and create millions of jobs in both countries.”
Committing an initial $15 million to the project, they will also focus on new technology to reduce and sequester carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal.
The U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center will facilitate joint research and development on clean energy by teams of scientists and engineers from the U.S. and China, as well as serve as a clearinghouse to help researchers in each country. Priority topics to be addressed will initially include building energy efficiency, clean coal including carbon capture and storage, and clean vehicles. The U.S. and China together pledged $15 million to support initial activities.
The Center will have one headquarters in each country, at locations to be determined. U.S. and Chinese officials will discuss elements of the Center in the months ahead, with the objective of launching initial operations by year end.
Thanks to Tony Milch for submitting the link!
Zach Bonner, who walked to Washington D.C. for the homeless, is just a kid. At 11, he’s one of cadre of child philanthropists who seem to be growing in number and visibility as corporations and colleges reward their efforts to help others.
Children’s faces have long been used to promote fundraising campaigns for March of Dimes, muscular dystrophy and other causes.
But now they aren’t just poster children anymore; some have become high-profile CEOs of their own nonprofit groups.
(Continue reading at the Washington Post)
Photo courtesy of Sun Star
Fireworks lit up the night sky in Paris Tuesday to end Bastille Day celebrations and also mark the Eiffel Tower’s 120th year.
About 800,000 people gathered at the Champ de Mars beside the Seine River to enjoy the thirty minutes long show.
Video may take a moment to load…
America should attack global warming by … painting rooftops and road surfaces white. Seriously. No kidding.
Among those promoting the idea is Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a big-thinking physicist who has a bully pulpit and influence over billions in research and stimulus funds.
Whitening the world’s roofs and roads would have the same effect on global warming as removing all the world’s cars for 11 years, he said.
So for new buildings, highways and retrofits, choose white!
A 3-year-old boy was unhurt and apparently unfazed after he floated 12 kilometres down a powerful British Columbia river riding atop his plastic 4-wheeler truck. His family had taken him camping.
Read the CTV story or watch the video below.
Warning: Video has some sad news tacked on the end.
President Barack Obama nominated for U.S. Surgeon General a rural Alabama family physician, Dr. Regina Benjamin, who is known along the impoverished Gulf Coast as a country doctor who makes house calls and doesn’t turn away patients who can’t pay, reported the AP.
She received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights in 1998, and it was her work on behalf of the poor that President Obama praised in his nomination speech.
“Even though she could have left the state to make more money as a specialist or as a doctor in a wealthier community, Regina Benjamin returned to Alabama and opened a small clinic in Bayou La Batre.”
Friendship comes in many forms, and it is not necessary for everyone to have a large social circle to reap the benefits. In fact, it turns out that having just one close friend provides psychological and physical rewards, including a longer life and increased feelings of connectedness.
Friendship provides multiple health rewards, including a greater immunity to disease. It has also been shown to reduce the production of the stress hormone cortisol, leading to greater feelings of relaxation. Because of this, friendships are helpful when people are recovering from illness or depression.
Concern over access to clean water is no longer just an issue for the developing world, as California faces its worst drought in recorded history with water deficits that can’t keep up with population growth.
Researchers at UCLA may have found a way to help alleviate the problem with their new mini-mobile-modular (M3) “smart” water desalination and filtration system.
Though the system is compact enough to be transported anywhere in the back of a van, it can generate 6,000 gallons of drinking water per day from the sea, producing enough for 6,000 or more people.
In times of high unemployment, scary news from overseas, and embarrassing political press conference at home, it’s inspiring to know there’s some good news out there.
Sit back, let your guard down, and relish our list of the Best Good News of the Summer.
Toronto is celebrating an “unprecedented” nearly 30 percent drop in crime, but this downward trend in crime statistics is being documented in cities across Canada and the United States.
From the state of Washington to Oregon, to Vermont, and in big cities like Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago and New York, both property and violent crime rates have steadily declined despite the economic downturn. Even Detroit has seen steady decreases, along with huge double-digit improvements in Tampa, Memphis and Milwaukee.
A score of scholars have produced a wide variety of theories to explain the drop, but none of these explain why Canada also has seen such improvement.
National Guard troops from a half-dozen heartland states are taking their civilian farming know-how to Afghanistan in a little-noticed aspect of the Obama administration’s efforts to stabilize the war-torn country.
About 400 Guard troops from six states — Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Tennessee and Texas — are serving 11-month tours in Afghanistan as part of special “agricultural development teams” that are teaching Afghans how to improve their farming techniques. Six other states — California, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma and South Carolina — will send similar teams to Afghanistan by the end of the year, according to Guard officials. (Photo, right, shows Afghan potato farmer, by Julie Fossler, USAID)
Pioneered by the Missouri National Guard in 2007, the teams are intended to improve relations with the Afghan people and give a boost to Afghanistan’s agriculture-dependent economy.
The annual G8 meeting, which wrapped up last week, has yielded pledges of $20 billion over three years to feed the hungry and mobilize a comprehensive strategy focused on sustainable agriculture development that would ensure global food security.
By helping the world’s hungry, who now number one billion, the international community can also secure a more peaceful and stable future for all, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations Friday in L’Aquila, Italy.
Of the ten men on the court to play wheelchair basketball, none is older than 26, each has lost at least one limb in recent combat. And no activity has provided better physical or emotional therapy than their time on the hardwood every Thursday.
“Playing this, you forget about your injuries. You really do.”
On this particular week, members of the Edinboro (Pa.) University wheelchair basketball team came to Walter Reed hospital to put on a clinic for the ex-soldiers, sharing strategy and skills.
Jim Glatch, who will coach Team USA in the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation Junior World Championships, brought along two of his standout players: Tommie, who lost both limbs because of spinal meningitis when he was 4; and Trevon Jenifer, a 2006 graduate of Huntingtown High School, who was born without legs.
Read the full feature story in the Washington Post, or watch their video below…
