SUSTAINABILITY + HUMAN RIGHTS
It is time for action. Sustainable cities begin with education.
We hope to have you join us in our journey. Send us your thoughts at - Conversations@Ugeducation.org
Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care.
Leonardo Dalessandri via the UNEP - Living within planetary boundaries is the most promising strategy for ensuring a healthy future. Human prosperity need not cost the earth. Living sustainably is about doing more and better with less. It is about knowing that rising rates of natural resource use and the environmental impacts that occur are not a necessary by-product of economic growth.
What YOU can do about climate change
From PICSClimateInsights -
Reducing your carbon footprint just got easier. This video uses animations and humour to teach people how they can personally help prevent global warming. Created by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS)
The "Ecological Footprint" explained
From Moovly -
Our human activities consume resources and produce waste, and nature needs to have the capacity to meet these demands. The ‘Ecological Footprint’ is a way to measure our human demand on nature. This video explains what it is.
#NoLostGeneration - Open your mind. Open your heart.
From UNICEF - Estimates are that the Syria crisis has left 2.8 million Syrian children out of school in Syria and across the region. We can do better. Each of us can do something to end suffering in our world.
Go #vegan (or get close) and save the planet!
From PETA -
Raising animals for food requires massive amounts of land, food, energy, and water and causes immense animal suffering. It also increases climate change, water use, and deforestation. Choosing a vegan diet is your best option to help save our planet.
Imagine a world with all of the talented people working for Coke working instead for a project concerning social good...
Imagine if all of the talented, educated, passionate people working for Coke did not conspire to poison the children of our world - but instead worked for something good for our planet. Consider for a moment, the tremendous waste of money, resources and human capital... It is enough to make you cry...
The Story of Electronics
From The Story of Stuff Project -
This video explores the high-tech revolution's collateral damage—25 million tons of e-waste and counting, poisoned workers and a public left holding the bill. Host Annie Leonard takes viewers from the mines and factories where our gadgets begin to the horrific backyard recycling shops in China where many end up.
Exporting harm: The high-tech trashing of Asia
From the Basel Action Network -
A powerful documentary about the dumping of toxic computer wastes on developing nations, specifically Guiyu, China.
Palm Oil - An alternative and some hope
From AJ+
Harvesting palm oil is destructive to the environment, resulting in the destruction of thousands of miles of rainforest and destroying crucial orangutan habitat. But some engineers and scientists are coming up with an alternative and some hope.
Lured by a job, trapped in forced labor
From the International Labour Organization -
In search of a job to support his family, a man accepts an offer from a recruiter and signs a contract for what looks like a good job with decent wages. Once at destination, the reality is very different.
Take a sweatshop, add toxic chemicals, and you get this
From AJ+
Bangladesh has become synonymous with cheap, ready-made garments and the high human cost of fast fashion. In the underground leather tanneries of Dhaka, few safeguards exist for workers. Industrial chemicals are devastating public health and the environment, including the world’s largest river delta.
A roti bank in India to feed the poor
From AJ+
A bank in central India is serving up 500 people every day with fresh, home-cooked meals. Yusuf Mukati wanted to help the poor in his neighborhood, so he started Roti Bank, where people deposit food and the needy can withdraw meals.
Fast Fashion: Sweatshops
From SBS2 Australia -
April 24th marked the third anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh. It was an incident that sparked an international debate about where we source or clothes and our so-called addiction to 'fast fashion'. Fast fashion means more choice for the consumer and more revenue for the retailer. But, what does it mean for everything - and everyone - in between?
Why #FastFashion costs more than you think
From AJ+
Fast Fashion stores like H&M have made dressing fashionable easier and cheaper than ever. But what's the real cost of all these mass-produced, low-quality clothes?
Your Cell Phone Might Be Powered By Child Labor
From Amnesty International and AJ+
Fifty percent of the world's cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where children as young as seven mine the rare metal, which is used in lithium-ion batteries. Amnesty International wants tech companies to be more vigilant.
A new approach to water desalination
From the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
The availability of fresh water is dwindling in many parts of the world, a problem that is expected to grow with populations. One promising source of potable water is the world's virtually limitless supply of seawater, but so far desalination technology has been too expensive for widespread use. Now, MIT researchers have come up with a new approach using a different kind of filtration material: sheets of graphene, a one-atom-thick form of the element carbon, which they say can be far more efficient and possibly less expensive than existing desalination systems.
From Sweden - Smart sustainable cities
Swedish ICT is leading an initiative aiming to detail a generic information and communication infrastructure for Stockholm Royal Seaport, a much talked about new city district of Stockholm. The aim is at developing an open and generic ICT infrastructure, which is a decisive factor for future sustainable cities characterized by openness, cooperation, and innovation.
The story of a spoon
From GreenPeace -
The Story of a Spoon charts the story of a plastic spoon, from the Big Bang to the Bin Bag, and aims to raise awareness of the effects of over-consumption in our society. This video is an appeal for people to take a moment to think about how the stuff we buy came into existence, and what happens to that stuff when we no longer have use for it.
#overconsumption #storyofspoon