Last night at Cafe Revolution in San Francisco I learned about a fantastic collaboration between artists and activists who oppose the increased militarization of the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

On the walls were photos of the "No Borders Camp" that was set up in 2007 on both sides of the wall between Calexico and Mexicali. Participants camped there for five days "to create an autonomous and unified encampment of peoples from two countries despite the physical, political, and mental barriers that divided them."   Read more...

If so, we need pay attention to Paul Polak, who really knows what he’s talking about. In 1987, Polak founded International Development Enterprises, an organization that since has helped 17 million get out of poverty. Now he has written a book entitled "Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail." In it, Polack convincingly shows that we can’t donate people out of poverty (often donations make matters worse), we can’t help the poor by attempting to raise the economic growth of their respective countries, and we can’t expect big business because they, too, don’t know how to effectively help.   Read more...

Tunefoolery Concert Ensembles (www.tunefoolery.org) from Cambridge, MA, a group of 50 musicians living with mental illness, has a simple yet powerful message: Emphasize people’s strengths and focus on abilities, not disabilities.

While most psychiatric treatment programs are focused on minimizing the effects of depression, hearing voices, etc., Tunefoolery helps its musicians to move away from the mental health patient role and embrace new identities as professional musicians and performers. This transformation is essential for women and men with long-term illnesses who often get the message that they are not “well” enough to be creative contributors to our communities. As one member puts it: “Tunefoolery is a great example of how non-traditional mental health treatment truly can change people’s lives. Music is powerful medicine! I have a tremendous feeling of belonging with Tunefoolery. I have found great friends here. It’s a job and a creative outlet at the same time.”   Read more...

How can there be so much suffering in the world when we know that there is also so much goodness? It seems that there is a fundamental disconnect. The purpose of People in Need - www.peopleinneed.info - is to re-connect people who suffer because of their isolation. We help form relationships between people in desperate, life-and-death situations and people in prosperous parts of the world. These relationships include a yearlong sponsorship that provides aid. But our focus is on the relationship itself, on understanding each other and what it will take to improve our lives.   Read more...

When I moved into a transitional neighborhood in 1996 in Atlanta, GA USA, I turned my home into a Peace Center so the youth could come over to create beauty with recycling and art. I supplied a free colored adhesive vinyl which Sign Shops discard, and taught the kids how to apply it to objects like trash cans, former paint buckets, filing cabinets, tables, doors, discarded plastic chairs, an automobile, boxes, pots, and more. One day a company donated cardboard cylinders which we turned into totem poles for our community gardens in bright colors and designs. In the last twelves years, we have created enough art that now we have published an Art Book to show what creative energy can achieve to improve a formerly trashy neighborhood. Check out www.PartnershipsInPeace.org, click on “Photos”, then click on “Art” to see some of our many creations.   Read more...

On April 24th I posted an entry about a new forum for discussing world problems. I would like to let you know that this forum has merged with an already existing one, to concentrate the efforts on finding solutions. The new forum is called Think Tank Wiki and you can find it at: thinktank.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page, everybody is welcome to participate in the discussions.   Read more...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmatjMCydRM   Read more...

I wish to share with you all the most amazing, ethical, committed, green, visionary company on the planet.

Organic and Natural Enterprise Group (or ONE Group) is an Australian based company who creates and manufactures the world's first Certified Organic skincare, haircare, personal care, health care and cosmetic products. ONE Group's range of products stand in a class of their own by being independently certified to international food grade standards by some of the world's most respected organic certifying organisations, namely, Australian Certified Organic (ACO), the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and IFOAM (Europe).   Read more...

It's a stretch, maybe even blasphemy, to compare anyone to Mother Teresa (I was raised Catholic, I know). Still, she and Vanessa Stone have been on my mind lately as I have come to learn about the Amala Foundation. Stone is the gentle force behind this non-profit organization that has, at it's heart, the devotion and privilege to serve children around the world.

Sure, we've all heard about such philanthropy before, but allow me to explain just how this group is changing the world child by indigo child.   Read more...

Recently a new forum, regarding worldwide problems and possible solutions, has started. It's a so-called "wiki", which means that it is made in the same way that the internet-encyclopedia Wikipedia is; anyone can edit in it, not only to post comments or start new topics, but also to build the forum itself or participating in discussions about how the forum should be run. The idea is to interest people worldwide and in this way let the forum grow, have contact with each other around the world and discuss on possible solutions for all the problems that threaten our world.

There are no limits to the kind of topics that can be discussed. It is possible, but not required, to become registered (which is free). The language on the forum is English.   Read more...

RecycleBank (www.recyclebank.com) is a new and apparently profitable venture in recycling typical consumer waste. A barcode on the recycling bin is read by the waste truck at curbside. Based on weight, the recycled material earns homeowners shopping credits for up to $35 a month. The program is based in Pennsylvania and is looking to expand.

Source: www.worldbusiness.org   Read more...

As we like to say, Earth Day is everyday. However, today is a good reminder for everyone to put the planet first in our daily actions as well as our wallets. Next time you are on the lookout for environmentally friendly products such as an LED light bulb or a compost bin, click over to the TheFindGreen.com, the web’s leading shopping search engine for the discovery of ecologically responsible lifestyle goods. Their site allows you to finds organic brands, green stores and environmentally friendly products, all in one place.

This week they will be rounding up the web's best tips for living green in honor of Earth Day 2008.

Abu Dhabi, a nation with a huge oil reserve is planning now for a future without oil. They have teamed up with MIT to draft blueprints of a carbon neutral city. Designed to house 50,000 people, this new community will be "completely car-free, with walkways and personal transportation systems instead of roads and parking garages. Some of the walkways will be topped with solar panels, which will offer shade from the blistering tropical sun while also providing electricity for the city."

Click here for the full story: web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/itw-abudhabi-tt0416.html   Read more...

On April 22, HeartMath is asking everyone around the world to stop to take 2 minutes and genuinely focus on the feeling of appreciation and gratitude for our beautiful planet.

Ode featured HeartMath in an article a couple years back titled "A change in heart changes everything" (www.odemagazine.com/doc/24/a_change_of_heart_changes_everything).   Read more...

On April 15, 2008 The Kindness Center founder, Michael Chase ventured out on a non-stop day of performing spontaneous acts of kindness. Joined by his kindness crew, Michael Hallahan and Tracy Chaplin, they spent a full 24 hours on the streets of Southern Maine looking for anyone that could use a helping hand or a dose of kindness. See some of the heartwarming results at www.thekindnesscenter.com.   Read more...

Things you can do on Earth Day, Dutch scientists prove they're dumb, China plans to modify the weather with rocket launchers, and celebrity news, including Miley Cyrus, Madonna, and the new James Bond movie.   Read more...

The western Ghats in India are home to "a sequence of green hills and valleys, balmy sunshine, friendly smiles, ample houses -- and countless rivers." These rivers often swell during rainy season to the point that it cuts off the villagers access to mainland life.

This is a story of how one man and a community gathered to build over 48 footbridges. These bridges are now connecting communities, increasing the local economy and helping children get to school.   Read more...

Dear EarthTalk: Are there any efforts underway to green the air travel industry? It seems to me that it must be one dirty business from a pollution standpoint. -- Elias Corey, Seattle, WA

Environmental battles over the siting and expansion of airports are as old as the air travel industry itself, but only in recent years have the airlines themselves been under pressure to go green.

And there’s no time like the present for the industry to take some action: Air pollution from commercial jets is a growing concern among scientists, as is air travel’s role in climate change because of the more acute warming effect of emissions when they are disbursed so much closer to the upper atmosphere.   Read more...

The Take Care of Your Share™ Program www.takecareofyourshare.com was started as a means to provide solutions for every citizen that is ready to help "take care of their share" of the environment ... their own homes and yards. Our aim is to provide information to all residents, old and new alike, about what they can do as individuals to help protect the wildlife habitat and natural ecosystems that make our land so special and unique. By focusing on their own homes and property, we believe that each citizen can make a tremendous difference to the environmental health of the entire planet.

By changing a few actions around their homes and yards, each citizen can do their part to take care of the environment. The result is lower electric bills, lower water bills, cleaner natural water supplies and yards that are safe havens for local wildlife.   Read more...

In 2006, two friends in Nashville decided to make organic cotton t-shirts with the logo, Cool People Care. Sam Davidson and Stephen Moseley wanted to inspire conversations in public spaces. The t-shirts created a buzz and the two friends decided to launch www.coolpeoplecare.org, a website that promotes meaningful change by offering a daily action that takes five minutes or less to complete and makes a positive impact on the planet.

I recently interviewed Sam Davidson. He told me that he felt, “the two big hang-ups people have when asked to make a difference are that they don’t know how, and they don’t have enough time. We wanted to eliminate these two excuses by offering things people could do in five minutes a day or less, and also by providing an events calendar for things they could do and get involved with in their local communities.” The website currently hosts free events calendars for 43 communities, so people can get involved locally.   Read more...

I would love to share my new album of conscious alt-folk music with you.

While writing these songs, I felt so in the flow, that they seemed to come through me. To continue the flow, I want to share this music with other hearts in the most fluid way, which I think is the internet as opposed to non-biodegradable CDs.   Read more...

I think butterflies can save the world. Butterflies and birds and insects and hummingbirds. See, I'm a real nature nerd. And I believe that the preservation of the future depends on people getting close enough to nature to allow it to restore their sense of wonder. If they see the really cool things, maybe then they'll want to protect them.

So I spend my time running into my yard and recording the little miracles that others find mundane. I write and every now and then I'll give a seminar.   Read more...

Johnny Bunko trailer from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

Ever since I read "A Whole New Mind" (see an article about it here: www.odemagazine.com/doc/23/revenge_of_the_right_brain), Daniel Pink has been one of my favorite writers. The good news is he has a new book out, titled "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko." I can't wait to get my hands on a copy, especially after seeing its trailer. (A trailer? For a book?! You bet.)   Read more...

While I feel that the safe (no harmful chemicals) organic skin care and cosmetic movement is rolling along a bit more quickly, it is still frustrating to see so many articles on natural and organic lines that contain toxins, many of which are designed by celebrities. When I first began my search for organic product lines who don't use harmful chemical/synthetic ingredients it was an arduous task, which is why I started OrganicBeautySource.com, an online directory. Those who visit "get it" but there are many who still need to learn the difference between organic or natural and safe organic products. Please visit and I would love to know what you think. www.organicbeautysource.com

Thanks!   Read more...

Dear EarthTalk: What makes those so-called "new urbanism" housing developments popping up around the U.S. more environmentally friendly than regular old suburban neighborhoods? -- Rusty Spinoza, Galveston, TX

The husband-and-wife team of town planners Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk are typically credited as the founders of new urbanism, a style of community design that embraces mixed use (commercial and residential) development in pedestrian-friendly and green space-rich neighborhoods—much like the old neighborhoods many baby-boomers remember before suburban sprawl made us all slaves to our cars.   Read more...

Last month I spent three weeks in the company of a handful former child soldiers in Liberia who call themselves "Future Guardians of Peace."

When the Liberian civil war ended in 2003, these kids were gaunt, hardened, physically and mentally wounded children. Now in their late teens and early twenties, they are radiant, generous, responsible young people. They have resumed their schooling, extricated themselves from the drug-and-alcohol culture of their war buddies, and are working hard to earn the respect of a suspicious community.   Read more...

Jack Barton of Local Projects is dedicated to designing innovative ways of collecting and telling people's stories. The following video tells the story of his design firm and some of its recent projects.

  Read more...

Democrats & Republicans go head to head over who’s convention is greener, rumors of the Hummer’s demise have been exaggerated, Schwarzenegger gives rides to kids on his tank, and how to keep the Treeless Squirrel from becoming your crappy roommate.   Read more...

There's a tendency to think that, as a free entry-level texting solution, FrontlineSMS is only relevant for smaller, grassroots non-profits who are most likely to lack the funds or in-house expertise to develop their own solutions. Over the past couple of years I've begun to see otherwise. As a case in point, this coffee project is being run by the UN. Not the suited, New York-based UN you see on TV, but a field-based team of UN staff and volunteers who simply wanted to try something. All they needed was a simple, low-cost tool which allowed them to rapidly prototype their idea.   Read more...

One of my New Year resolutions was to be committed to total recycling, which took me a little more effort than the average person, as I use a walker to be mobile. The plastic bins for recyclables at the curb do not work for me, as I can't get them back and forth to the curb.

So my papers and recycling are put in grocery paper bags with handles. Once a month I don't use my go green cloth grocery bags for my grocery shopping, I get the paper bags for my recycling. Otherwise, I always use my go green cloth grocery bags and any plastic bags I acquire from other shopping I take to the store to place in their plastic bag recycle bin.   Read more...

The Hyves group "This is not a game" was created to share a T-shirt design for anybody interested in protesting in favour of human rights in China. Just click on the hyve logo (notagame.hyves.nl) and save the image to use in printing your own protest T-shirt. Make many of these for your friends and family.

This graphical design should stimulate but not demand that people boycott China olympics based on human rights violations by the Chinese government: Darfur, Tibet, working conditions, child labour, press repression/censorship, screening of news and internet and so on.   Read more...

Bob Randall, a Yankunytjatjara elder and traditional owner of Uluru (Ayer's Rock), explains how the connectedness of every living thing to every other living thing is not just an idea but a way of living. This way includes all beings as part of a vast family and calls us to be responsible for this family and care for the land with unconditional love and responsibility.   Read more...

Selling a pair of athletic shoes for as much as $1,723 when it has been made with a few dollars of Chinese labor long has been a dicey proposition in the CSR world. The least Nike can do is make it out of non-toxic materials. Branded as “the "rst performance shoe designed with the environment in mind,” the newly released Jordan XX3 also contains “less waste.”

Source: World Business Academy (www.worldbusiness.org)   Read more...

At 5 a.m. on any given day, Anne Mahlum could be found running the dark streets of Philadelphia -- with homeless men cheering her on as she passed their shelter. But one morning last spring, she stopped in her tracks.

"Why am I running past these guys?" recalls Mahlum, 27. "I'm moving my life forward every day -- and these guys are standing in the same spot."   Read more...

Socially responsible investment assets grew more than 18% between 2005 and 2007, compared to a 3% growth rate for all investment assets during the same period, according to the Report on Socially Responsible Investing Trends in the United States, produced by Social Investment Forum.

One of every nine dollars under professional management in the U.S. is tied to socially responsible investing.   Read more...

Wal-Mart last week decided not to sell milk under its own label from cows treated with Prosilac (or “rBGH”), the Monsanto synthetic bovine growth hormone.

In doing so, Wal-Mart follows the lead of Kroger, Safeway, and Starbucks, as well as the European Union and Canada. The effect is not so clear-cut, though, because the powerful dairy industry has long threatened lawsuits against "rms that use labels that proclaim the product to be hormone-free. Wal-Mart is not exempt.   Read more...

September 13th, 2007 I embraced motherhood with a beaming face. October 7th, 2007 I bore the anguish of my mother's sudden death. Now seven months later I am still capable of telling my story.

I have grown more than most people at 21 can comprehend. When I first told my mother I was pregnant it was a wonderful horrible surprise. I was not yet married to this person whom I had been with since high school and things had not been easy between the two of us by any means. Although underneath all her frustration, excitement began to settle in. Soon I began getting cards in the mail quite frequently with words of joy and wisdom. You see, mom had just moved to Baltimore one year prior to be with my stepdad. It was the first time in over 30 years that she had move out of Oklahoma, let alone this neighborhood! Anyway the days grew closer to baby Parker's birth she visited more and more. Until finally the day came and mom was right by my side coaching me through labor.   Read more...

Patagonia has a great new tool on their website that sets a standard for transparency. Track the impact of any of its product from the beginning through delivery. It also calculates distance traveled, total carbon emissions, waste generated and energy consumed.

Footprint Chronicles(TM): www.patagonia.com/usa/footprint/index.jsp   Read more...

One man's dross is another man's gold.

A new “mail back” program launched this month by the US Postal Service will distribute free mailers in the lobbies of 1,500 post offices, enabling consumers to send their obsolete cell phones, empty inkjet cartridges, and other small electronics free of charge to Clover Technologies Group for recycling. Clover is footing the bill for the postage.   Read more...

This was the final public message recorded by the late Sir Arthur C Clarke, which closed the global launch of the International Year of Planet Earth, at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 13 February 2008. In his unique style, Sir Arthur connects the local with global, and traces the influence of space exploration on the global environmental movement. He ends calling for humanity to listen to the planet's distress call, and respond with knowledge, understanding and imagination.   Read more...

Due to an increase in oil prices, the Bahamas are now proposing a shift to renewable energy. Some alternatives include solar panels (especially concentrating trough collectors), hydrokinetics (including ocean wave and tidal systems), thermal conversion (such as OTEC and biomass systems), gasification (including the capture of biogas from landfills) and wind turbines.

Read full story here: www.bahamapundit.com/2008/04/bahamas-pursuin.html   Read more...

The Egazini Outreach Project in South Africa is is turning a community that was once filled with terror and injustice into one of possibilities through art and dance. The director of this new outreach program hopes to use this project as an outlet for adults and children to express their creativity. Since the project started, many youths have been kept from using drugs and being involved in crime.   Read more...

You can develop a regular meditation practice by converting waiting time into meditating time!

The average American waits 42-60 minutes a day!   Read more...

Dear EarthTalk: There are so many energy drinks on the market, but they all seem very high in sugar, coloring and preservatives. Are there any natural versions that offer a healthier kick-start? -- John Hwang, Cambridge, MA

Energy drinks constitute one of the fastest growing sectors of the soft drink market across the U.S. and around the world, with some 500 new varieties introduced in recent years. But it