Category: Direct Action

Collection of Talks for Inspirational Self-Improvement

Nobody is perfect and everybody can improve their life, the hard part is doing it. Lucky for us Select Courses has a list of 100 talks for self-improvement on topics like how to better respect the environment to relationships and society.

These days, it’s hard to get motivated enough for anything. The economy is down, your savings–if you had any to start with–have probably dwindled, and it’s still easy to get depressed about the housing market, the environment, foreign policy, and even the possibility of sending your kids to college. But that’s exactly why we need inspiration and mood boosters at any cost. Luckily for you, these are free.

Urbanites Pollute Less

A Canadian study has looked at how much carbon per capita a person living in Canada produces and the conclusion is that if you live in a city you produce less carbon. Once more it’s proven that living in an urban centre with high density is better for the environment than urban sprawl.

When it comes to climate change pollutants, Toronto residents are among the greenest in Canada, says a new study.

The report, published in the April issue of the journal Environment and Urbanization, says metropolises, commonly denigrated as big, dirty places, are in fact spewing fewer greenhouse gases per capita than the rest of their countries.

“Blaming cities for climate change is far too simplistic,” said author David Dodman, a researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London, England. “There are a lot of economies of scale associated with energy use in cities. If you’re an urban dweller, particularly in an affluent country like Canada or the U.K., you’re likely to be more efficient in your use of heating fuel and in your use of energy for transportation.”

Dodman found that the average Canadian is responsible for 24 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year, while Torontonians just 8.2 tonnes.

Workers Who Bike to Work Get Sick Less

Of course biking and other physical activity is a healthy thing, and that’s obviously good. What’s really good now is that there are now economic reasons for employers to encourage their employees to commute on a bicycle. The Dutch (no surprise there) love their bikes so much they did an economic study on how much money can be saved by companies that have employees bike to work: 27 million Euros (PDF link).

Main conclusions
• Employees who cycle regularly to work have less sickness-related
absenteeism than non-cyclists.
• The higher the frequency and longer the distance cycled, the lower the
rate of absenteeism.
• The potential benefit of cycling to work is considerable. It could mean
annual savings of around 27 million euros.

Recommendations
• More government measures to promote cycling and cooperation with
organizations that currently promote cycling can help convince employers
to begin or increase investments in a cycling policy.
• To develop successful programmes that promote cycling to work, more
understanding is needed of what actually convinces employees to use a
bicycle in their daily travel to work.

How To Reuse Plastic Bags

Plastic bags aren’t good news, after all they are very wasteful. Well, if you do have to use plastic bags make sure you use them more than once. eHow has a list of creative ways to reuse plastic bags.

Here’s a humorous one — use your plastic shopping bags to make an instant tie-down rope for your car. Now, do not use it with extra heavy items, but it is durable enough to keep things in place. How?

Take 2 bags and take one handle of the first bag and put it through a handle of the second bag. Loop the first bag over the handle of the second bag and pull it through it’s own handle. This makes a strong tie.

Next, gather the rest of one bag and loop it into a knot just below the other, unused handle.

Continue to loop bags and tie them up until you have the length that you need. Do this to make two ropes, and then twist the two “ropes” together. If it needs to be stronger, then make it three ropes.

Tie a knot at each end of your doubled or tripled rope. Use it to secure your items on the go!