It's unnerving the number of cattle products that find their way into nearly every daily necessity you can think of. While it may be true that being vegan is cheaper and better for the environment than being vegetarian or a meat-eater, cutting out meat (especially cattle) products out of your consumption may be much more difficult than it seems. If you are a vegan, did you know about most of these products? Have you tried actively avoiding any of them because of their cattle origins?
In light of all the recent suicides of gay teenagers that have been in the news, it would be a crime to not turn our focus to the "It Gets Better Project" that has taken Youtube by storm.
Started with a single posting by Dan Savage (probably the coolest and most prominent gay celebrity in Seattle and arguably the US), the project has mushroomed into an international phenomenon. Even President Obama, Google and Vinny from Jersey Shore have jumped onto the bandwagon. If you can capture the political establishment, top corporations, and popular culture, I think you just might have a movement on your hands!
What's interesting to me is that suicide among gay teenagers, and LGBT people in general is hardly news. Stats from the Human Rights Campaign have shown that suicide is as much as four times more common among gay-identified teenagers as other groups. It's not hard to imagine that kids who grow up gay in rural areas, especially where religious prejudices remain strong, may not have an ally in their struggle for their identities. Outside of parents, schools, sports teams, churches, and friend groups, the only outlet for them may very well be the media.
The It Gets Better Project is truly remarkable in that instead of merely suggesting gay-friendly themes or situations as a television show or music artist would, it projects its message of tolerance directly to your Facebook page and from a diverse host of characters as we have seen in any political cause since perhaps the civil rights movement.
Has our culture finally taken a turn for the better in terms of gay rights that we are no longer willing to accept such realities as gay suicide and bullying in the schools? Could this explain the sudden overwhelming attention the media and institutions are now paying to these issues?
Some activists will take umbrage at Obama's involvement with the It Gets Better Project, with his lakcluster commitment to gay rights over the course of his term. But in truth, I think that there is great reason for optimism. We may not have full equality yet in the United States, but with the recent federal ruling against Don't Ask Don't Tell and the sudden popular groundswell of activism against such a recently untouchable issue as gay suicide, we clearly have a lot to look forward to.
The paper I submitted for my Geography Research Methods course. A survey-based exploration of the federal HOPE VI public housing program in South Seattle.
My co-presenters were Associate Professor Dennis Ryan, Affiliate Professor Jill Sterrett, and Karen Wolf, Strategic Planning and Policy Division Manager for King County.
This presentation focused on the top trends that urban planners will face in the next 50 years. These top trends include food and water security, climate change, social equity, new urban design, demographics, collaborative education, transportation and health, regionalism, and social networking technology (Web 2.0).
I presented on the applications of social networking in urban planning (last 3 slides) to a panel of MUP alumni on January 31, 2010.
How exactly will Europe reduce its emissions 20% in ten years, as the EU Covenenant of Mayors wants to do? Renowned architect Rem Koolhaas has a few ideas up his sleeve.
While architects typically are not known for their grand policy proposals on climate change (sticking rather to the energy efficiency of single buildings), Koolhaas has proposed a series of sweeping, regionally-tailored alternative energy developments that will put the EU on the path towards sustainable energy and lower carbon emissions.
Koolhaas' plan aims to reduce overall European emissions 80% by 2050, an even more aggressive target than the Covenant of Mayors signed onto. The current political crisis of the EU, however, puts this plan that is contingent upon supranational cooperation into question.
While European countries have typically been perceived as more environmentally progressive and more in favor of climate change legislation, the recent breakdown of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen left much to be desired in political commitments to emissions reduction.
In a move that mirrors the earlier pledges of Seattle, Vancouver, Sweden and Denmark to become carbon neutral, the Covenant of Mayors (Europe's corollary to the American Mayors Climate Protection Center) has pledged to reduce overall carbon emissions 20% by 2020. Such a reduction in ten years is substantial, not least because the Covenant of Mayors represents over 500 European cities and over 120 million people in 36 countries, according to the Edie Legal Resource Center. One disticntion of the Covenant of Mayors is that rather than acting against official policy of the federal government, as the Mayors CPC was forced to do during the Bush Administration, the Covenenta of Mayors its itself an initiative of the European Commission and as such has the full range of EU expertise and funding at its disposal.
Like the United States, the EU has reconized the disproportionate role of cities in contributing to climate change. As over 80% of all energy is consumed in cities, this is where any efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions much start. Hopefully, this renewed committment by the EU to reduce carbon emissions will help spur greater investment in the green fleet technologies to create a large number of green jobs.
Capitalizing on the wild popularity of its Prius model in the US, Toyota has announced its latest model: the Prius minivan.
Using a lithium-ion battery and capable of seating up to 7 people, this model will likely solidify Toyota's dominance in the American green vehicle market. According to Autoblogand Inhabitat, Toyota has plans over the next several years to develop up to 8 new hybrid models, include a coupe, of which several will likely carry the Prius name.
