Wal-Mart, the king of conspicuous consumption, has tried to open a group on Facebook only to find that people are well aware of the bad things Wal-Mart does. The good part of this story is that Wal-Mart is getting told by people what they actually think, and Wal-Mart’s being encouraged to take the battering.
I like seeing people use a social networking tool to argue against a corporation with a poor track record on nearly everything.
Now, you may think that ‘harsh truths’ doesn’t sound a lot like good news. But I beg to differ. I recently joined the Greenpeace e-mailing list, and by doing so I have been updated with some ‘harsh truths’ about our planet, but whats more this information is educating me on how to diminish my effect on the destruction of our planet and contribute to larger scale change. Which I feel is pretty good indeed.
My most recent e-mail was so very eye opening I felt the desire to share what detailed info I came across regarding Canada’s forests.
*Canada’s Boreal Forest is the largest ancient forest in North America and comprises 90% of the Countries remaining intact forest areas, providing habitat for endangered species like the woodland caribou, lynx, grizzly bear and wolverine. It also provides the largest storehouse of terrestrial carbon on the planet!
*The forest is home to nearly a million aboriginal peoples-many of these First Nations and Metis are currently in conflict with logging companies and governments over forestry in their traditional territories.
*Ancient forests are being detroyed at a rate of one football field every 2 seconds, and more than half of all forest destruction has taken place over the past 35 years.
*Consumers like us can make a difference by purchasing recycled paper products or FSC-certified products, refusing to buy from companies that use or sell products made from the destruction of the Boreal Rainforest and by taking action toward greener initiatives.
*In British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest many of these campaigns to stop deforestation, and the support of consumers and companies changing their ways, has led to the protection of great areas of the old growth forests totalling over 2 million hectares!!!!
This Magazine is an excellent Canadian publication that simply states that “everything is political” which is something that I entirely agree with. They recently added Things Are Good to their blogroll, so I thought it was perfect opportunity to draw attention to this great Canadian magazine (sorry all you non-canucks, you can skip this post).
The This Magazine Blog is a must read if you’re at all interested in Canada. They cover almost everything from “media navel-gazing” to human rights.
Keep up the good work all those working at This Magazine!
Bottled water is a good idea in times of disasters (when water systems are inoperable), but for the rest of the time is bottle water a good thing? No.
Green Options examines how you can lessen your impact on the environment by simply not drinking bottled water in the article Lighter Footstep: 5 Reasons Not to Drink Bottled Water.
What can you do?
There’s a simple alternative to bottled water: buy a stainless steel thermos, and use it. Don’t like the way your local tap water tastes? Inexpensive carbon filters will turn most tap water sparking fresh at a fraction of bottled water’s cost.
Consider taking Food and Water Watch’s No Bottled Water Pledge. Conserve water wherever possible, and stay on top of local water issues.
Bloggers have been gaining more respectability throughout the years as they become major players in shaping public opinion. If you don’t beliuveme that bloggers can change the world, just read this blog entry. October 15th will be the day of action for bloggers, you can get involved yourself.
Blog Action Day, is just one vehicle for that change, but it is a powerful concept: thousands of bloggers unite, for just one day, to talk about one issue. Will that change the world, just one day? Not immediately, but it in effect unites the blogging community. And once the community begins to unite, anything is possible.