Direct Action

Clean Air for Cyclists

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

thanks Cory! We’ve looked at what cyclists can do to keep their lungs clean before and now there’s some futuristic looking bike helmets that can clean the air.

Smog is a concern for cyclists the world over, and indeed that maybe why they bike, I know it’s one of a zillion reasons that I bike. Recently, smog has started to eat away at my lungs or something according to my doctor so I went and bought a breathing mask. After buying my breathing mask I found out about the stormtrooper helmet & mask, which I’d love to wear. Then there’s this breathing apparatus that filters out 98.5% of pollutants in the air!

Both those helmets look like they’re from the future! I like how people are getting creative when combining a filter and a helmet. Seriously, I want that stromtrooper helmet.

Walk it Off

- Adam Clare

walkable
Walk Score is a site that helps you find walkable places and to figure out how walkable your area is.

Walk Score helps people find walkable places to live. Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc.

They have info on why walking matters and what exactly is walk score.

Use FaceBook to Strut Your Greenery

- Adam Clare

FaceBook, that ever-popular socail networking tool has a neat application that you can add to your profile that outlines how green you are! It’s called I am Green and symbolizes how green you are by creating a leaf for you.

From Inside Facebook:

“I Am Green” is a networking application for facebook members about caring for the future of our planet by changing little things we do everyday. Members change small things about their every day lives, and share these ideas together. Some of the popular actions are using cold water instead of hot, switching to the right green products, and not using paper or plastic in many specific cases where habit draws us but it’s not needed. Members call their green actions ‘Leaves’ which they pile up. Their lists are displayed on their profile for all their friends to see and endorse or even copy. Its a smart way to find out about little things that will make a better tomorrow.’

It’s still in development so it’s limited in what you can add as a green-realted thing you do. For example, you can be vegan and not vegetarian. Even being vegetarian helps the environment, just eating less meat and more veggies is still a step in the right direction for the planet and your health.

Via Digg

Plastic Bag Banning

- Adam Clare

Plastic bags are bad for the environment (video link) and people are taking notice. We already know that at least one town has banned plastic bags and at least one city is trying to replace plastic bags with organic ones.

Kenya is thinking of taxing bags while more places and cities want to get rid of them too.

Thanks to MeFi for some the links.

A Reader Comments About Women

- Adam Clare

A reader, Krissy, left a comment yesterday on a previous post Women Change the World. I think that the comment needs some special attention and have copied/pasted it here for your reading pleasure:

I have more good news about how women are working to change the world!

Women of Global Action against Human Trafficking

On Sunday, July 1st, approximately one hundred women gathered at Silverlake Community Church in Los Angeles for an evening conference hosted by Women of Global Action (see http://www.globalaction.nu/woga.php). The event was organized for women of faith to explore the subject of human trafficking and included a panel of experts who are working to stop sex trafficking at global and local levels.

The 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report issued by the U.S. State Department estimates that as many as 27 million people, mostly women and children, are being trafficked at any given time for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and bonded labor. In addition, according to a report from 2004, as many as 800,000 people are being trafficked across our national border each year.

The event was hosted by Women of Global Action (WOGA) and produced by LA LOVES (www.laloves.org) with the goal of educating their constituency about this epidemic and providing tangible actions for participants to take in order to take a stand against trafficking and the commercial sex industry.

Women of Global Action has active networks throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. Their networks in both Burma and Ethiopia are actively working to combat sex trafficking.

Organizations taking part in the evening were:

• Trade as One who sell products made by ex-trafficked women in order to provide an alternative income,
• NightLight who run a business in Bangkok that provides women from the commercial sex industry an alternative life of making jewelry,
• Tiny Stars who provide law enforcement with on-the-ground agents who collect evidence of US citizens engaging in child prostitution abroad,
• The Salvation Army’s Safe Refuge Project which partners with churches to raise awareness on these issues and which fights the commercial sex industry,
• After Hours who work among the pimps and prostitutes on the streets of LA,
• LA Loves who use the arts to educate and inspire action.

Practical steps of action taken as a result of what people learned that evening were:

• Buying products made by people released from trafficking – Over $1,500 was bought on the night,
• Donating to extend the work of NightLight in Bangkok where 75 women are employed and where a waiting list for employment exists – one person donated a month’s salary for a woman at NightLight,
• Signing up for more training on how to combat the commercial sex industry and reach those in it in LA,
• 11 new women joined the Women of Global Action: LA Chapter as a way to unite themselves with other women in their city who are concerned with justice issues impacting young women globally.

Nathan George, founder of Trade as One commented: “The subject of exploiting the poor and vulnerable for the purposes of rape for profit is one of the most emotive subjects today, made all the more important because of the sheer scale of the industry. More people are trafficked today than in all of the 400 years of the transatlantic slave trade. 80% of them are women and children, and the majority are for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Combating a trade as large and powerful as this requires much wider general awareness not just of the issues but more specifically of tangible actions that can be taken by ordinary people to stop it. What WOGA and LA Loves put on tonight was a beautiful snapshot of exactly the sort of awareness building and practical action that is needed all around the country. We were very privileged to be a part of it and hope that many more like it take place in the coming months.”

“The small role that Trade as One want to play is to create a route to market in America for the products made by those released from trafficking in order to allow businesses like NightLight in Bangkok to flourish. Our focus is on selling products that provide the poor with dignified jobs that keep them out of the clutches of the traffickers.”

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