potential to change.

Favourite DJs: Justin and Vernon from 987

Causes

Interests

Shereen Lala

Create Your Badge

Twitter Updates

follow me on Twitter

archives

credits

Design: doughnutcrazy
Icon: morphine_kissed

Story of Stuffs

"Our enormously productive economy... demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption... we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate"

"99% of the things we buy is thrashed within 6 months of purchase... Today, we consume twice as much as a decade ago."

"1/3 of our natural resources are gone... 40% of our water ways are undrinkable... 80% of our natural forest have collapsed... At Amazon, 2000 trees are cut down in a minute..."

Deluded and selfish.

"100000 synthetic chemicals are used and 1/2 are not tested."

"Toxic chemicals such as Brominated Flame Retardants (BFR) are used in appliances, pillows et cetera as it prevent fire."

Wastage and exploitation of Earth serves as a double-edged sword. As we harm our environment with our , passionate consumption patterns, we are feeding the system that ultimately harms our health, physically and mentally, and erodes the ecosystem specifically designed for us to live in.

Yet we go ahead with the consumption, neglect investment into better transportation, better education and more. Why? Because of perceived obsolences and planned obsolences. Producers design and plan to have products made in such a way that things can get chucked and made useless in as short a time as possible. Then the media consistently pounds on us the recurring message that what we have now is not good, not enough and it's going to be disgusting to be caught not following up with the trend. At the end of it all, the solution to this perceived problem is shopping. So we continue to shop, work, shop, consume and allow this unworkable system to grow.

For more details on what you can do and research on this topic, visit: Story of Stuffs Project

Check out peace.facebook.com

There includes a longer list of companies or individuals working under the same project for the same cause- to advocate and take actions to work towards peace in the world.

WALMART (listed as an innovative company)

GOAL
October 2005: Then-CEO Lee Scott announces ambitious goals: create zero waste, use only renewable energy, and sell products that sustain the environment.

Reusable Bags
September 2008: Commits to reduce its global plastic shopping-bag waste by 33% over five years (that's 9 billion bags). The next month, it introduces a 50-cent reusable shopping bag in U.S. stores. By the end of the first year, it had used 2.5 billion fewer bags.

Greener Lightbulbs
August 2006: Aims to sell 100 million compact fluorescent lightbulbs in 12 months. Despite the higher price tag, it sells 137 million CFLs, which use 75% less energy than incandescents.

Read more at: Fast Company: Walmart #9

The coolest part about all these is that these are actions WE as ordinary humans can take. We may not have enough money to install solar panels but we certainly can spare 50cents to invest in a reusable bag.

So we should follow the lead of big companies such as these in cultivating greener habits.

Autistic Kids

Hello!

Firstly, sorry for the terrible and inexcusable lack of updates! School's been so taxing these days that (although it's really just an excuse) I haven't been able to scamper through the webpages of the infinitely expansive pool of information the internet has to offer to find volunteering opportunities and anything else related to the community and servicing.

Secondly, today I attended Raffles Girl's Secondary School's (RGS) concert, which is a Service Learning (SL) project by Team Awesome. It's to raise awareness on Autistic patients. A section of the concert consisted of a short lecture by Serene, a spokesperson from St. Andrew's Autism Centre. She mentioned a few facts that hit me hard and left an impression.

1. Autism cannot be cured and there are no known causes of it.

2. 1 in 190 Singaporeans are hit with Autism and males outnumber females by 4:1.

3. Autism patients with mental retardation and IQ of less than 50 will need instituitional care for the rest of their lives.

4. Autism patients have sensitive sensory skills. For example, the whirring of the fan or the simple tapping of our fingers on the keyboard will result in a amplified sound ringing at their ear, which then impairs their learning capabilities.

5. Autism patients go after a routined life as they lead an unpredictable life. As a result, they seem to be exceptionally neat as they close windows or push in chairs after use.

After the concert, I am compelled to extend my services to them. A primary motivation is that stuffs that are mandatory or simple to us could be an impossible feat to them. We're too satisfied with our current lifestyle and take many things for granted.

Quoting a member of Team Awesome, "I enjoy the little things the most. Enjoy everything, including homework."

If you'd like to help them, you can start with St Andrew's Autism Centre.

http://www.sach.org.sg/

They welcome volunteers.

TRAVEL GREEN

Woodland attractions make it onto the Green Travel List

The world's only energy-saving roller-coaster at GreenWoods

Two Gwynedd attractions have been named among the 'greenest' places to visit in the world.

GreenWood Forest Park, Felinheli, and Coed-y-Brenin visitor centre, Dolgellau, made it on to the Green Travel List alongside enterprises in Ibiza, Ethiopia and New Zealand which all have one thing in common, their enthusiasm for environmentally-sustainable tourism.

"The aim is to help travellers find a greener holiday," said Richard Hammond of greentraveller.co.uk.

He explained that the recently published list does not single out individual winners: "Instead the idea is to provide a comprehensive list of a wide range of travel and tourism companies who have convinced us that sustainability is at the heart of their business."

Stephen Bristow, owner of the GreenWood Forest Park, has had his business's carbon footprint in mind since the 1990s when constructing their main building out of locally-sourced green oak.

He's also a firm believer in the visitors using their own energy to power the park, as they do on the people-powered roller-coaster.

"It's the only one in the world that generates more power than it uses," said Stephen of the ride, which uses a combination of funicular-railway technology and gravity to get up some speed.

Creating such a masterpiece in the middle of a forest was no mean achievement

John Taylor, Coed y Brenin Visitor Centre

"The visitors walk up a hill, get in a cabin on rails where their weight drives them down and in turn, pulls the coaster cars up the hill.

"So they walk back up the hill to get in the coaster cars and we give them a push. It may sound complicated, but it only takes four minutes and works really well."

The park also uses recycled slate on the paths and rainwater to flush the toilets. But Stephen always thinks they could do better.

"There are always things we should be doing," he admitted.

"The kitchen waste goes to landfill because of the rules and regulations. You can only get past them by buying a very expensive machine.

"And we often have one-off environmental costs when we install things. The new play barn has a lot of plastic in it, but the equipment has a long lifespan, so the environmental cost is spread over ten years.

Locally-sourced food is used in the centre's cafe

"But we would be interested in generating our own electricity."

Locally-sourced wood was also used to build Coed y Brenin's visitor centre in a bid to blend into the environment, have low visual impact and be based on a footprint that would be as small as possible.

Heated by a woodchip boiler, the centre gets all its water from its very own borehole and recycles all waste by way of a peat bio-filter system.

Forestry Commission Wales recreation manager John Taylor, who looks after the centre, said: "The sustainability of the centre and its low carbon footprint was uppermost in our minds when we designed the building.

"Creating such a masterpiece in the middle of a forest was no mean achievement and we are absolutely thrilled that our efforts have been recognised by inclusion in the Green Travel List."

BBC: North West Walls

Page last updated at 14:28 GMT, Thursday, 1 April 2010 15:28 UK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/northwestwales/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8599000/8599118.stm