Happy Valentine’s Day, you guys!
Here are 10 Businesses Going Green for Romance.
Bow chicka bow wow.
The illegality of agricultural hemp is one of those issues that is almost too frustrating to even write about. When we’re facing existential crises as large as climate change and ecosystem collapse, it is infuriating there’s still so much work to be done to reform our ridiculous drug laws. Just think about this: according to the United States government, the fabric of Rand Paul’s shirt and the paper that drafts of our own Declaration of Independence were written upon is just as illegal as heroin and LSD. Insanity.
Thankfully, Kentucky takes step towards hemp legalization. Will the US government follow along?
"We are working’ 5 days in 4’ week because how we live as individuals has consequences for everyone else. The way we live now has created many problems: scarcity of resources, scarcity of jobs, climate change, wealth discrepancies and many wasted lives. These are all escalating problems which are not being addressed by the institutions of power: Governments, Banks, the Multinationals have too many vested interests in the current system to be the agents of change."
credit: Sarah Fretwell
The use of conflict minerals in the technology industry is a serious issue, but one that manufacturers are doing little to correct. In areas where the sale of minerals is used to fund war, the abuses of human rights are abhorrent — with slavery and rape treated as a fact of life.
After traveling to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and interviewing victims of rape used as a weapon of war, photographer Sarah Fretwell put together a powerful photography project documented the people and their stories, photographs that are not just art but are tools for bringing awareness to the larger impact the technology industry has by using conflict minerals, and to the role consumers play by purchasing the products without asking questions about the materials used in manufacturing.
In this interview, partnered with her images, Fretwell describes the problem and outlines solutions.
(via Rape and Conflict Minerals: Photographer Takes on the Technology Industry Through Art : TreeHugger)
It used to be, if you wanted to start a business, that you needed an address so that you could get a land line and a Yellow Pages listing. You slowly built your business in your neighborhood, slowly building word-of-mouth.
The internet, and more importantly the smart phone, are changing everything. Just as people are no longer tied to the office or home phone and computer to be in touch, the mobile business can follow its customers and the customers can follow it. Word-of-mouth can be generated in minutes, not years.
(via Keep on Trucking: How the Food Truck Concept is Spreading To Other Uses)
Annie Leonard and The Story of Stuff project are back with another great video. The Story of Change looks at the what really causes change and why shopping can’t save us.
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In its most basic form, it goes something like this: Start our days earlier, in the cool of the morning and work until the middle of the day; in the hottest part of the day we stop working, shut down, and avoid the sun, with businesses closing up; then in the late afternoon we start back up again. We work with the natural cycle of the day, rather than simply, machine-like, continue on oblivious to the rhythm of it all.
It’s not complicated nor an original idea. This already happens all of the world. Taking a siesta isn’t just about taking a nap an resting up and seeing friends and family, it’s about adjusting to the natural flow of the day in hot climates. Just try to get any business done between 2-4pm in South India in May and you’ll find many if not all stores and businesses closed up, with people simply relaxing in the shade. Come the evening everything comes alive again.
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How do you beat the heat? Mat McDermott thinks it’s time we adopt the siesta.
Read the rest: Beat the Heat: Summer Hours, Summer Routines & Siesta
