Another Limited Rebellion: November 2006

Mother Jones on Corporate Social Responsibility

The November/December issue of Mother Jones has an excellent overview of the current state of corporate power and their potential for doing good...

In Hype vs. Hope Bill McKibben asks "Is Corporate Do-Goodery for Real?"

The Carpet Cleaner is the story of the environmental epiphany of a carpeting company CEO.

The toxic commonality of Herculaneum, Missouri and La Oroya, Peru are revealed in Lead Astray.

When Is a Coporation Like a Freed Slave? answers its own question.

The issue posses another question in Is Google Evil?

It's Not Easy Being Green questions BP's virtue.

A brief overview of greenwashing can be found in Great Moments in Corporate Spin.

The misdeeds of Union Carbide are recounted in The Bhopal Evasion.

Is Dell or Mac the greener computer? The Muscles from Brussels has the scoop.

Plus learn about EcoMBAs and what to do with your ill gotten gains.

Whew!

Oaxaca

Powerful images from the ongoing Oaxaca protests by Jeff Rae on Flickr. (Thanks Mica).

For more on the situation go here.

For more on Indymedia journalist Brad Will who was recently murdered in Oaxaca go here and here.

No Bull

Ads my company designed for Vegan Action's Explore Vegetarianism campaign are now on buses in Richmond, Virginia.

ALR in Renourish

Thanks to the folks at renourish for including ALR Design and the Another Limited Rebellion blog in their highly informative site! Link to article.

Missing Accomplished

The White House appears to have learned a bit about running things from Mr. Orwell...

via Pistol Wimp, thanks Brad!

Breast-feeding = Terrorism?

A woman was recently kicked off a Delta flight for breast-feeding. From an AP article:

Gillette said she was discreetly breast-feeding her 22-month-old daughter on Oct. 13 as their flight prepared to leave Burlington International Airport. She said she was seated by the window in the next-to-last row, her husband was seated between her and the aisle and no part of her breast was showing.

A flight attendant tried to hand her a blanket and told her to cover up, Gillette said. She declined, telling the flight attendant she had a legal right to breast-feed her baby.

Moments later, a Delta ticket agent approached and said the flight attendant had asked that the family be removed from the flight, Gillette said.

Read the entire article here.

And if you feel spurred to action MomsRising.org has set up a pro-breast-feeding petition here.

Stick Magnetic Ribbons...

The Asylum Street Spankers tell you where you can stick your magnetic ribbons...

Thanks Richard!

Pollution May Be Good For You

A new paper proposes using pollution to combat future global overheating. From an AP article:

If the sun warms the Earth too dangerously, the time may come to draw the shade. The "shade" would be a layer of pollution deliberately spewed into the atmosphere to help cool the planet. This over-the-top idea comes from prominent scientists, among them a Nobel laureate. The reaction here at the U.N. conference on climate change is a mix of caution, curiosity and some resignation to such "massive and drastic" operations, as the chief U.N. climatologist describes them.
"It was meant to startle the policy makers," said Paul J. Crutzen, of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. "If they don't take action much more strongly than they have in the past, then in the end we have to do experiments like this."
Serious people are taking Crutzen's idea seriously. This weekend, NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., hosts a closed-door, high-level workshop on the global haze proposal and other "geoengineering" ideas for fending off climate change.

Read the entire article here.

Color me not very surprised that Walmart's foray into the world of Organics is already tainted. The Cornucopia Institute has filed a formal legal complaint with the USDA regarding the mislabeling of non-organic food in the stores.

via The Organic Consumers Association

Buy Local Day: Saturday, November 18th

Mark your calendars for Buy Local Day, this Saturday.

To find more about why buying local is important check out the Organic Consumers Association's Breaking The Chains campaign.

And while you're at it don't forget that the day after Thanksgiving is Buy Nothing Day.

Fundamentalist Environmentalists?

The new film The Great Warming, covers the same territory as the recent An Inconvenient Truth, but what makes this movie different is that its target audience is Evangelical Christians. From a recent Christian Science Monitor article:

The movie has been previewed in more than 220 churches in recent weeks, and last Friday opened in Regal Cinema theaters in 34 cities. Ads are being run on Christian radio and in church bulletins, and Evangelical leaders have provided the film's website with Bible study and discussion guides.

"We pray everyone will see 'The Great Warming,' " says the Rev. Paul de Vries, president of New York Divinity School, who prepared the materials. "Science has given us an extraordinary wake-up call, but scriptural teaching gives us direction to be responsible for God's world."

Read the entire article here.

"Body Rituals Among the Nacirema"

In 1956 The American Amthropological Association published an article by Horace Miner called "Body Rituals Among the Nacirema." The details of this oddly familiar culture are still relevant today...

Nacirema culture is characterized by a highly developed market economy which has evolved in a rich natural habitat. While much of the people's time is devoted to economic pursuits, a large part of the fruits of these labors and a considerable portion of the day are spent in ritual activity. The focus of this activity is the human body, the appearance and health of which loom as a dominant concern in the ethos of the people. While such a concern is certainly not unusual, its ceremonial aspects and associated philosophy are unique.

The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease. Incarcerated in such a body, man's only hope is to avert these characteristics through the use of ritual and ceremony...

Read the entire article here.

Thanks Michael!

Design Inspiration

An interview with my former student Tim Rodgers is currently featured on the Design Inspiration blog. He very kindly mentions me as one of his inspirations. Thanks Tim!

Looking for some incentive for that renewable system?

If you were planning on installing that solar system you always wanted you might want to check out the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency a nice way of seeing how to save a bit of cash while helping the environment.

via consumerist.com/, Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency

green roof

Toronto, Ontario is the first municipality in North America to take on a comprehensive green roof plan. After discovering that blanketing just 8 per cent of our rooftops with greenery would save the city a cool $300M in energy costs and storm water overflows as well as a 2 degree drop in the steamy urban "heat island" effect. City council signed onto the plan and now subsidizes private roof greening.
You can learn more about the program here.

Seeds of Tolerance Competition

The Seeds of Tolerance Competition began in June when Current TV, in partnership with the Third Millennium Foundation, offered a $100,000 prize for making a short film on what tolerance means to you. There are now 6 finalists competing for the prize (along with an additional $15,000 for the charity of their choice). The hard part is whom to vote for when all the choices are all so powerful. Watch them and choose for yourself here.

Thanks Bridgit (who hopes you'll vote for "The Making of a Girl" which will benefit Gem Girls)