Women

Holiday embrace, holiday revolt

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The capitalist-saturated American culture gives way to holidays only begrudgingly. Under corporate dominance, Americans vacation and take time off from work very little compared to the rest of the industrialized world. When we do have a holiday, it’s equally steeped in the capitalist ethos, with garish sales loudly urging us to consume, gorge and grab ACT NOW deals. But it’s exactly this paradigm that’s pitched growth to an unsustainable end and set us adrift intellectually and culturally. This Memorial Day reject the buying and spending frenzy. Reject the go, go, go mentality. Embrace instead a process of renewal, relaxation, connection. Take that precious day off, that lovely three-day weekend as an invitation to your higher self, guilt not necessary.

Worlds collide in a luxury suite

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Who would ever write a fable as obvious, as heavy-handed as the story we’ve just been given? The extraordinarily powerful head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a global organization that has created mass poverty and economic injustice, allegedly assaulted a hotel maid, an immigrant from Africa, in a hotel’s luxury suite in New York City. Worlds have collided. In an earlier era, her word would have been worthless against his and she might not have filed charges, or the police might not have followed through and yanked Dominique Strauss-Kahn off the plane to Paris at the last moment. But she did, and they did, and now he’s in custody, and the economy of Europe has been dealt a blow, and French politics have been upended, and that nation is reeling and soul-searching.

Youth climate movement worthy, needs to include peak oil

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A new youth climate movement lead by Alec Loorz, who is suing the US government on behalf of his generation over lack of action on climate, seeks to raise awareness and move the climate conversation to an actionable tipping point. While his iMatter movement inspires, and shows the best in youth, iMatter hasn’t included climate’s twin issue —peak oil— and it faults their parents and grandparents for causing the problem, rather than recognizing that youth today are the inheritors of the work of energy and environmental giants that came before them.

Walking for Water

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“You have to decide what it is you are going to stand for,” Day explains. “Water is essential to life. We live in the water of the womb of our mother before we come into the world. We are birthed from water, our bodies are primarily water and we can’t survive without clean water. At some time in your life you have to take a stand.”

Innovation of the Week: Community seed banks to empower women and protect biodiversity

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To protect the local biodiversity and preserve traditional seeds, the GREEN Foundation, in partnership with other NGOs, including the Seed Saver’s Network and The Development Fund, has created community seeds banks throughout the state of Karnataka, India. All villagers can become a member of a community seed bank by paying an annual nominal fee. Members, who receive seeds free of cost, sow the seeds, harvest the crop and return double the amount of seeds to the bank. To maintain purity of the seeds, farmers must follow rules – such as no chemical fertilizers and pesticides – when growing their crops.

Lindsay’s List

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The peak oil (and related climate change and economic crisis) movements are not just about preaching to the converted. They’re about reaching out to all people, however uninitiated, to build awareness for a larger cultural buy in on what’s necessary to change the way we live and do business. I created Lindsay’s List to focus on what role women have to play in conservation and a values-based lifestyle shift, one small step at a time.

Lindsay’s List

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The peak oil (and related climate change and economic crisis) movements are not just about preaching to the converted. They’re about reaching out to all people, however uninitiated, to build awareness for a larger cultural buy in on what’s necessary to change the way we live and do business. I created Lindsay’s List to focus on what role women have to play in conservation and a values-based lifestyle shift, one small step at a time.

The age of activism

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In recent months, people have filled the streets in the Middle East, the Balkans, Africa, and many parts of the United States. Their targets are local: autocratic leaders, corrupt politicians, and dismal economies. They’re not performing acts of global solidarity. Nor has there been an outbreak of some protest virus. These demonstrations are responding to specific conditions. Tunisia isn’t Bahrain. Croatia isn’t Burkina Faso. Madison, Wisconsin isn’t Frankfort, Kentucky. Let me rashly and prematurely propose a name for our era: the Age of Activism.

International Women’s Day – sex and cheap energy

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At the same time that we speak about the public accomplishments of women in Science, Art, Education, Politics, Social Justice, Law and more, we need to speak of something else – the degree to which the accomplishments and shifting roles of women over the last century and more have tracked and been transformed by not only our own intention and activism, but by cheap energy.

Women managing farms and forests in South Asia

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For millions of rural women and their families in developing countries, rights to agricultural land and forest resources are critical determinants of their well-being and their security against destitution. Not only can such property rights enhance individual welfare, they can also strengthen livelihoods for the most vulnerable and help conserve forests that are of global importance as carbon sinks and sources of biodiversity.

Using traditional strategies to address water problems

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Global warming has likely already caused changes in the world’s climate by delaying monsoon seasons, causing less summer precipitation and creating longer breaks between rainy periods. One group of women in southern India is turning to traditional farming practices for immediate and sustainable answers to address these water problems.