Inspirational and good news.
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“CitizenSpeak is a free email advocacy service for grassroots organizations. Inspired by MoveOn email campaigns, CitizenSpeak provides the same e-advocacy capability at the community level in English and Spanish.”
The growth of China’s economy has been staggering, and now they aim to have the similar great growth, but green. It’s wonderful to see such an economic powerhouse direct it’s energy towards environmentally friendly developments, even if the environment was ignored earlier.
“China is about to change “from emphasizing economic growth but ignoring environmental protection to emphasizing both environmental protection and economic growth,” the government said today in a policy paper covering the next five years.
Released by the Information Office of the State Council, China’s central government, the paper says that government is “fully aware” that the situation of environmental protection in the country is “grave.””
The Supreme Court of Canada is now facing a constitutional challenge regarding the federal government’s controversial security certificate process. The certificates have been issued by the Canadian Government since 2001 as means of detaining immigrants considered ‘security risks’ to Canada. However, the process offers no justice to detainees as many face imprisonment for years without charges and no access to a fair trial or evidence against them. In some cases there is risk of the person being deported back to their home country, where they face possible torture or even death. The issue has been followed closely by human rights groups such as Amnesty International, but has only recently made breaking news.
The hearings before the Supreme Court began on Tuesday and are expected to last three days. Along with much media attention ,Jim Loney ,an activist recently held hostage in Iraq, has joined a campaign called ‘Freedom Caravan’ which recently made a trek across eastern Ontario to protest the detention of 4 men currently held in Canada.
CNet has a fun article looking at which big tech company is greener – Microsoft or Google. I actually had no idea that Microsoft has so many environmentally friendly policies.
“In 2005, Microsoft was recognised as one of the top five best workplaces for commuters by the US Environmental Protection Agency, said Joan Krajewski, chief environmental counsel for the company. More than 11,000 workers at the Redmond, Washington, main campus commute, she said.
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Microsoft has a silver certification level for the US Green Building Council’s LEED program for environmental design. Microsoft also works with the Carbon Disclosure Project to track kilowatts of usage.
Microsoft also had taken steps to reduce waste from the packaging of its software products and eliminated from its packaging PVC (polyvinyl chloride), which releases dioxins that can cause cancer and harm the immune and reproductive systems.”
I find this report to be a bit of shock, TV viewers acknowledge that they have a negative view of the developing world. Of course, it’s not their fault, but TV’s and viewers want that to change.
Hopefully this will serve as a wake-up call to journalists that we want critical analysis about the world and not just sports, boobs, and celebrity gossip.
“Reflecting the real world? How British TV portrayed developing countries in 2005 compliled by volunteer agency VSO, with DFID support, reveals that television viewers have an overwhelmingly negative view of the developing world and that they hold TV responsible. The report shows that viewers have a real appetite for richer representations of the world outside the UK and calls on broadcasters to invest more funds, creativity and talent in bringing the world to UK audiences. “