-
The Global Environmental Impact of Clothes Production
By The Editors Sandblasting is not all. Textile factories use dyes that have a huge environmental and human health impact. In this video, you can see a dye-blue river in China. You can also see Indian children with grey hair – one of the effects of pesticides used in cotton fields. Follow a T-shirt journey around the globe: The T-shirt may travel through three continents to go from cotton balls to wearable fashion.
-
Climate Change Arguments? Use Flowchart Help!
By The Editors James West, the Climate Desk Producer at Mother Jones, has developed an entertaining and scientifically correct flowchart – actually a cheat sheet – to help everyone win every climate argument. Go to his page: You’ll find many more topics clearly explained with brilliant flow charts. In the mean time, we’ll wait for the answer to “So what do we do then?” in the future follow-up to his climate change cheat sheet.
-
Global Shortage of Baby Formula
By The Editors Chinese families — aware of the dangers posed by baby formula contaminated with melamine and other harmful substances — prefer to buy brands produced and sold in other countries. That is, if they can afford it. Many can. The increasing demand from Chinese families has resulted in the current global shortages and subsequent imposed limits on purchases. In January, the New Zealand Food Safety Authority started to investigate the online trade in China of Kiwi-made baby formula. At about the same time, Woolworths – a chain of Australian supermarkets – limited sales of all baby formula to four tins per transaction. And, in February, the Hong Kong’s government set limits…
-
The Blue Jean Distressed Look: Sandblasting Versus Eco-Aging
By The Editors Sandblasting is used to make new blue jeans look distressed. Unfortunately, sandblasting kills people. In 2011, a rigorous study published in the journal Chest showed that formerly healthy young people exposed to silica sand, used in the sandblasting of jeans, developed silicosis — a disabling and potentially fatal lung disease for which there is no cure. The young people either became disabled or died. According to the American Lung Association, “Silicosis is a lung disease caused by inhaling tiny bits of silica. Silica is a common mineral that is part of sand, rock and mineral ores like quartz. People who work in jobs where they could breathe in…
-
Global Urbanization Defined by The City of 7 Billion
By The Editors Viewing our entire planet as one urban environment is the idea at the basis of the project designed by Bimal Mendis and Joyce Hsiang of the Yale School of Architecture and Plan B Architecture & Urbanism, LLC. To carry out this project, the two architects have been awarded the 2013 Latrobe Prize of $100,000 by the The American Institute of Architects (AIA) College of Fellows. The title of the proposal is “Urban Sphere: The City of 7 Billion”. The research described in the proposal will study the impact of population growth and resource consumption on the city of 7 billion. One of the goals of the proposed research is to provide techniques and…
-
Global Decline of Insect Pollinators Threatens the Human Food Supply
By The Editors An international team of 40 scientists (from 27 institutions involved in the UK’s Insect Pollinators Initiative) reports that pollinating insects, essential to the food supply, are threatened at a global level by a “cocktail” of multiple pressures that puts their survival at risk. The findings were published April 22 in the journal “Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment” (Adam J Vanbergen, and the Insect Pollinators Initiative. 2013. Threats to an ecosystem service: pressures on pollinators). The multiple pressures within the “cocktail” combine and exacerbate the negative impacts on insect pollinators of crops and wild plants. What are these multiple pressures? Intensification of land-use, climate change, the spread of species that…
-
Globalization Collection and Chanel Globe
By The Editors The latest Chanel collection is called “Globalization” and, during the Paris Fashion Week in March, it came with benefits: a giant, rotating, wooden replica of our planet, visibly positioned in the middle of the Grand Palais. Does the Chanel globe provide a real global vision of our planet? The are zillions of pin lights and 300 little flags on the globe. The pin lights represent all our cities and the flags the 300 Chanel boutiques around the world. It’s a Chanel globe. The globe is now gone, but virtually visiting the Grand Palais is a very pleasant Paris adventure. Try it.
-
In Honor of Earth Day: Planet Ocean
-
Global Education: How Simple Can It Be?
By The Editors I like to think of global education as the education perspective expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Educating shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.” (Article 26, United Nations, General Conference, San Francisco, December 10, 1948)
-
Global Connectedness Index 2012: Confirming Globaloney
By The Editors The conclusion of the DHL Global Connectedness Index 2012 — the world today is less globally connected than it was in 2007 — does not come as a surprise. Pankaj Ghemawat (author of World 3.0: Global Prosperity and How to Achieve It, winner of the Thinkers 50 Book Award for the best business book published in 2010-2011) has repeatedly shown, with brilliance and with hard data, that the world is far less connected than it appears to be. According to Pankaj Ghemawat, the real world is roughly only 10 to 25 percent globalized. Most activities that could take place either across or within national borders are still domestic. In addition, the trend is…