Friday round-up: 4 December 2009

Here's some exciting and inspiring things I've discovered this week, and some upcoming events to add to your diaries.


Places to visit online:

I may be a bit slow off the mark, but I just discovered The Elders, a group of eminent global leaders with a formidable amount of life experience between them, who have joined forces with their grandchildren to spread awareness about the catastophic risk of climate change to future generations. With such powerful and respected members as Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter, let's hope they have what it takes to inspire our leaders!

Last week I raved about fab clothes-trading site iSwish. This week I have cause to rave about it again, because they're giving away some great prizes to people who join up and contribute to their Christmas Wish List forum.

Fellow Aucklanders, get yourself to:

• Tomorrow, Saturday December 5, is the Planet A March + Concert for the Climate. The march starts at 1pm in Albert Park and goes up Queen St to Myers Park, where the concert will go off. Organised by the Sign On folks, Rhys Darby will be the concert MC and Opshop, Don McGlashan, Midnight Youth and others will rock Myers Park. 
• If you're of the pedal-powered persuasion, the Auckland chapter of Ride Planet Earth have organised a mass bike ride as a warm-up to the March + Concert. It starts at 11 am from the Auckland Domain's Winter Gardens. More info here. 
• The Grey Lynn Twilight Farmers Market on Saturday 19 December from 6-9 pm at the Grey Lynn Community Centre, 510 Richmond Road. A great opportunity to stock up on produce for Christmas Day or edible gifts. 
  

Weekend round-up: 29 November 2009

Here's a selection of online goodies and real world events that excited and inspired me this week. Hope you enjoy them too.


Expand your thoughts
Behavioural Economics meets Climate Change: great blog post by Marc Gunther about how behavioural economics might be used to influence people's actions.

Take action

Sign Auckland Zoo's 'Don't Palm Us Off!' petition for mandatory labelling of palm oil in products. Palm oil production threatens the extinction of animals such as the orangutan. It's currently nearly impossible to boycott products containing palm oil, because it often goes incognito in the ingredients list under the ambiguous moniker "vegetable oil". So we're currently unable to make informed decisions about whether to buy products containing palm oil. Sign the petition to show those in charge of labelling requirements that knowing which products contain palm oil is important to us.

While you're at it, here are some other causes you might like to add your name to if you haven't already:

• the Hopenhagen petition to ask world leaders to commit to real change at Copenhagen in December. 
• tcktcktck - pledge that you are ready for the world's leaders to sign a global climate deal in Copenhagen that is ambitious, fair and binding.
• Sign On to ask the NZ climate delegation to commit to reduce NZ's carbon emissions 40% by 2020.

Nifty tools
Read it Later is a great tool for people with long bus or train commutes. You can save websites to your computer or iPhone to explore offline later.

iSwish.co.nz is another great way to deal with clothes that no longer fit or flatter but are still in good condition. It's like a continuous, NZ-wide online schwop.

New Zealand Fruit and Food Share Map on Google Maps. Find out where and when fruit trees and other edible plants near you are available for foraging.

Upcoming events

Next weekend, on Saturday December 5 in Auckland, is the Planet A March + Concert for the Climate. The march starts at 1pm in Albert Park and goes up Queen St to Myers Park, where the concert will go off. Organised by the Sign On folks, Rhys Darby will be the concert MC and Opshop, Don McGlashan, Midnight Youth and others will rock Myers Park. If you're of the pedal-powered persuasion, the Auckland chapter of Ride Planet Earth have organised a mass bike ride as a warm-up to the March + Concert. It starts at 11 am from the Auckland Domain's Winter Gardens. More info here.

Friday round-up 6/11/09

Here's a collection of mind-expanding, thought-provoking, action-inspiring links to get you through the rest of Friday: 


Expand your thoughts

• Is plastic making us fat? New research suggests that chemical compounds found in plastics all around us promote cells to turn into fat cells during the development process. They  may promote obesity in adults too.
• Climate change as a feminist issue - and it's NOT about population control.
• Bizzare Bicycle Hybrids: How Your Bike Can Be Turned Into Whatever You Want
• My favourite quote of the week (from David Roberts of Grist in this article):

“Lesson: the problems humanity faces are systemic and interrelated. The idea that sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere will save us is akin to the hope that a math equation can be solved by erasing one of the numbers.”

Take action

• For the Kiwis: ACC is considering imposing a levy on cyclists who ride on New Zealand's roads, with figures of $300 to $500 being suggested. Ouch! The reasoning is that cyclists suffer a lot of injuries from crashes on the road, and so make significant ACC claims. Currently motorists are "subsidising" cyclists under ACC. I know ACC is supposed to be a no-fault scheme, but surely the causes of cycle crashes causing injury (of which cars would be at the top of the list) need to be factored in here. You can make a submission on this issue - details here. 
• Want to be better at convincing others of the importance of sustainable living? Download this guide to The Psychology of Climate Change Communication from the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions.
  

Upcoming events
Got your diaries at the ready? OK.

28 November: Grey Lynn Festival

5 December: Planet A March and Concert for the Climate, organised by the Sign On crew.

Please let me know if you know of any other awesome upcoming events, or "wow"-worthy things to visit online. Have a great weekend!

Friday round-up 30/10/09

Here are some things that made me go "wow" as I meandered the web this week:

• The amount of food wasted by Europe and the US could feed the world's hungry three times over. This makes me feel a bit sick. A new book called Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal looks at what we could do to fix the way we deal with food. Add it to your reading lists, because this is an area where there is potential for relatively simple changes to make a huge difference.

• In the category of "I'd never thought about this, but now that I know I can't believe how stupid the way we do things is": an article about the inefficiency of waste water management.

• Photos from the Sydney Harbour Bridge Picnic, part of the Crave Sydney festival. Wouldn't it be nice if harbour bridges were accessible as public recreation spaces all the time, rather than devoted to cars?
  

• Toyota has received a lot of criticism because the manufacturing process of the Prius produces more emissions than the manufacturing processes of most other cars. So, according to Treehugger, Toyota decided to genetically engineer flowers to absorb emissions in the manufacturing plant. Interesting tactic. I'm intrigued about how the flowers work, and what happens to the stuff they've absorbed when they die.

• Excellent, Playback clothing has perfected the art of making clothing from old plastic bottles!

What inspiring, interesting, disturbing or shocking things have you discovered this week? Please share!

Friday round-up 23/10/09

Just a wee list of online gems this week:

• I didn't hear about No Impact Project until after it started, but what a great concept! Is anyone taking part? How is it going?

• Simplicity for the simple joy of it made me smile, and want to go for a bike ride.

• When Conservative Values Achieve Liberal Green Goals on Treehugger is an interesting take on how different attitudes to regulation can influence how effective states are at implementing environmental projects.

• Oh my! Save the planet: time to eat dog? looks at the carbon footprints of pets, and asks whether we need to rethink our attitude to cats and dogs.

• Dont forget the 350 International Day of Climate Action tomorrow! There'll be heaps of cool stuff going on.

Enjoy your long weekend NZers!

Friday round-up 2/10/09

Interesting news, views, upcoming events and online discoveries this week. Have you found anything else worth sharing this week? Let me know below.

• Devastating times in Samoa this week. You can help the relief effort via Oxfam and The Bodyshop is collecting in stores.

• The Vegpledge. A tongue-in-cheek, overhyped infomercial-style website encouraging people to try a vegetarian (or "more vegetarian") diet for 60 days. At least I think it's tongue-in-cheek - I'm never entirely sure with Americans! : P
  

• Regifting Robin. Unless you're a maths whiz, this nifty game will keep you mystfied for a while. And the Regiftable website has some entertaining stories about regifting that you can check out while you're there.

• Premiere of the movie Food Inc., hosted by Grey Lynn 2030 on 14 October. This movie has been hailed as "An Inconvenient Truth" for food. Details here (and you can click through to buy tickets online). Enjoy wine and canapes and an eye-opening film.

• For the girls: introduce yourself with a man's name at Soul Bar during October and get a free glass of Moet! (Thanks Solange for this one!)

• 1000AwesomeThings.com: this is gorgeous! I love #671: "Reuniting a sock from the Sock Orphanage Drawer with its freshly washed, once lost brother or sister".

• Want something, but can't or don't want to pay for it? Got something you no longer need, but don't want to put it in landfill? Freecycle it! If you have something you want to give, try DonateNZ first - then you can be sure your stuff is going to a great cause.

• 350.org releases an iPhone app! It helps you find actions happening close to you on the Day of Action, October 24, so you can join in. It's free at the iTunes store here.

• Awesome Big Day Out 2010 line-up announced this week! And that's just the first announcement. Count me in!
  

Friday round-up 25/09/09

Interesting news, views, upcoming events and online discoveries this week. Not necessarily all sustainability-related, but all inspiring and well worth checking out.

• Indian civil servant organises planting of nearly a billion trees in one day and provides employment for some of India’s poorest. Initiatives like this put a huge smile on my face and increase my optimism for the future. It shows anyone, anywhere, has the ability to make a real contribution to the health of the environment.

• The Big Schwop - trade your "not quite right for me" clothes for things you love from someone else's "not quite right for me" collection tomorrow at Auckland's Langham Hotel.

• Ian Sanders’ “Juggle tapes” – video interviews with successful people who follow their passions and work on multiple projects at once. Find out how they juggle all the balls in their lives.

• GreenGirlsGlobal organic cotton tee collection on Etsy. Want to buy me one?

• Blog Action Day - October 15 2009 – This year’s topic is climate change. I plan to take part, and hope it will generate an assault of interesting and inspiring thoughts on climate change from lots of different perspectives.

• It’s now less than a month until 350’s international day of action for climate change. Check out 350’s revamped website, where you can check out actions people are organising in your local area, or register your own.

• Learn to make great coffee from the experts online. Video tutorials from the folks at The Falls Restaurant.

• The Sneeky Rumble - two young guys trying to raise money for Curekids. I think it's awesome that these guys are pursuing such a noble cause with such enthusiasm. Can you donate or help them out somehow?

• Emma Watson (aka Hermione from the Harry Potter movies) announced she is launching an ethical fashion line. Great to see someone who is idolised by the next generation using her influence so positively!