Canadian Youth Learn Smoking is Bad

Anti-smoking laws and advertising campaigns are working in Canada, which is most obviously a good thing since smoking destroys your health. The study notes that smoking has dropped across all age groups, but most significantly with teenagers.

“Fewer young Canadians are smoking, but they are still the group most at risk of being exposed to second-hand smoke, according to new data released Tuesday.

The results of the Canadian Community Health Survey, released by Statistics Canada, found that in 2005 about 40 per cent of non-smokers aged 12 to 17 reported being regularly exposed to second-hand smoke, far higher than the 11 per cent of those aged 65 and over and 19 per cent of 35 to 64 year olds.”

Less Sweat in Shops

Sweatshops are wretched things, and that is why many organizations don’t like them. Some groups like United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), UNITE!, and as previously mentioned, UNICEF. Alternet has a great article on the state of the anti-sweatshop movement in universities and colleges in the United States. In the past decade, over 200 universities have adopted antisweatshop codes of conduct in response to student protest.

“In collaboration with human rights groups, unions and faculty experts on the apparel industry, campus activists developed the DSP to give universities a mechanism to enforce their antisweatshop codes. With the help of the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent monitoring organization with 152 member colleges and universities, USAS has identified a number of factories around the world — particularly in Asia, Mexico, Central America and the United States — that could qualify under these more stringent worker-friendly standards. Alternatively, major brands like Nike could identify one of their major suppliers to specialize in producing clothing for the university market under the terms of the DSP.”

Willow Shrubs for Ethanol

Energy effeciency from Biofuels such as corn-ethanol is hotly debated in the US as critics point out the massive fuel, fertilizer and water inputs required by modern agriculture. Some claim the added strain on the agricultural system will result in a net energy loss once erosion and soil fertility costs are internalized and will requiring massive chunks of productive land. Current estimates peg corn-ethanol effeciency as 1.67 units of energy output for every unit input.

Wood based Biofuels can potentially revolutionize the industry and silence the critics. The process uses water instead of chemicals as a means of extracting sugar and Willow shrubs as stock material. Wood based Biofuels have many advantages. The entire material can be utilized, (instead of just the corn kernals) trees are a low maintenance crop and harvested 6-7 times before replanting and the leftovers from the Biofuels process are still paper quality grade. Estimates claim ratios of 11-15:1 energy effeciency. For the full article log onto the GLRC: Environment Report podcast.

Buy Your Thoughts

The Flow Market is a store where you buy what you believe in. Some highlights from the 2006 collection include:

-identity finders $5
-exploitation free produce $12
-100% GMO $8

So what is the Flow, well it’s “a brand and template that meets the rising demand for sustainable innovation.
Throughout the 20th century the pursuit for technological and economic progress has given the industrialized world great new possibilities but has also resulted in a wide range of imbalances and challenges.”

There are currently three locations of this consumption art in Copenhagen, Zurich, and New York.

The Cycling Cog

The Cycling Cog is a website for cyclists, obviously, but the neat thing about this site is that it is web 2.0! It’s a social networking site for cyclists where they can find cycling tips and ride buddies. Features of the site include the ability for cyclists can create their own cycling groups, they can post their own events and blogs, plus post information that is important for the places they live in.

One thing I find particularly interesting is that people can post their stolen and recovered bikes.