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Malala Day: Promoting Global Education
By The Editors Malala Day will be held on her 16th birthday, July 12. Malala, the youngest nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize in history, was shot in the head in October 2012 because of her fight for girls’ right to an education. Malala has been featured in Time magazine as one of “The 100 Most Influential People In The World”. Former British…
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Reducing the Foodprint by Eating Misfits
By The Editors In a previous post, The Foodprint: Eyes on Methane, we talked about the enormous amount of wasted food that ends up in the landfills, where it is decomposed by bacteria under anaerobic conditions (i.e., in the absence of oxygen) and becomes a significant source of methane – a potent greenhouse gas. We concluded the post by saying; “How…
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Lipstick and Heavy Metals
By The Editors Cosmetics are all around us. They have been used for thousands of years. Are they safe? Without discussing the general/global issue of cosmetics safety, we want to bring up something about one of the most used cosmetics worldwide: lipsticks. Although in the last century lipstick use was most prevalent in the Western world, its use is now a…
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Indigenous Knowledge? Yes, It’s Global Knowledge
By The Editors Sharing global knowledge? Yes, indispensable knowledge on the preservation of ecosystems and biodiversity, the sustainable use of protected natural areas, as well as development and food security — all related to the indigenous peoples of Africa, Asia, Latin America and other countries, such as Canada and Australia. Indispensable knowledge that is being shared these days (May 26 –…
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The Global Tide of Disease Mongering
By The Editors A recent editorial in the British Medical Journal (BMJ 2013;346:f2809) highlights a new social health movement for healthcare reform that may prove crucial to global health in the 21st century. This new social health movement aims to counter a global phenomenon, clearly defined in the editorial: “The results of medical research are often distorted or suppressed for commercial…
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Globesity
By The Editors What is “globesity”? It’s the escalating global epidemic of overweight and obesity – one additional aspect of the great acceleration. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity is “a complex condition, one with serious social and psychological dimensions, that affects virtually all age and socioeconomic groups and threatens to overwhelm both developed and developing countries.” The WHO…
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Electronic Waste and the Global Toxic Trade
By The Editors Here we go with another major source of pollution and serious negative health effects: e-waste, which-stands for electronic waste – also called e-scrap. Electronic waste may be defined as discarded computers (desktop, laptop, computer monitors, etc.), office electronic equipment (printers, scanners, fax machines, etc.), entertainment device electronics, mobile phones, television sets, refrigerators, and more. To make things easier…
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Globalization, Global Competence and Education
By The Editors One of the effects of globalization on higher education is (or will be) the gradual shift from the reductionist approach so in vogue now for many disciplines to a more holistic point of view. The limits of the current discipline-specific reductionist approach will be highlighted when attempting to become globally competent, as discipline-specific knowledge will need to integrate…
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The Foodprint: Eyes on Methane
By The Editors We all know something about the carbon footprint, a little less about the plastic footprint, and — may be we haven’t heard (yet) about the foodprint. What is the foodprint? It’s all related to methane. Methane is a colorless, odorless gas with a wide distribution in nature. It is the principal component of natural gas. National Geographic calls it the…
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Udacity, Georgia Tech and AT&T – Vision and Revolution Come Together
By The Editors In the last few days, a so-called “bold move” has generated lots of discussion in the higher education community – someone (or more than one) says that the “bold move” has actually generated shock. Others call the move “revolutionary”. Question: What is the “bold move” we’re referring to? Answer: A very special announcement. Georgia Tech and Udacity, in…
