Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, known as the “banker to the poor” for making small loans in impoverished countries, is now doing business in the center of capitalism — New York City.
In the past year the first U.S. branch of his Grameen Bank has lent $1.5 million, ranging from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, to nearly 600 women with small business plans in the city’s borough of Queens.
With thousands of acts of kindness under their belts and plans for many more, Biddeford Middle School students are showing they’re serious when they say they want to be the “kindest school in Maine.”
(Read the story in the Biddeford-Saco-Old Orchard Beach Courier)
Photo courtesy of Sun Star
It’s ‘Bell Week’ in Russia which means that churches throughout the land will put on bell-ringing concerts. Trained bell-ringers use their hands to coordinate a series of bells of different sizes from high in the church towers. There is even a campanology school in Moscow.
In a working class Southern California neighborhood where one out every nine homes is facing foreclosure, Father John Lasseigne is bringing together families and mortgage bankers. His goal is to help the local residents keep their homes and better understand the terms of the loans they receive.
Read the story transcript at CNN or watch the video below:
Turkey and Armenia have agreed on a road map to normalize ties after nearly a century of hostility. The deal came weeks after President Barack Obama urged Turkey to resolve the issue, and on the eve of the commemoration of mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915.
(Read full article in Reuters)
I asked one question to leading environmentalists who are usually keen to point out what is wrong with the environment: What is the good news in the last dozen years for planet Earth?
Historically there is good news. Within two years of the first Earth Day in 1970 a slew of major legislation was passed — the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, establishment of the EPA, the ban on DDT, and the reduction of lead from paint — all of which delivered monumental benefit to the environment.
But what have we done for the planet lately? Here are the top seven favors we’ve done for Mother Earth in the last 12 years …
Lisa Jackson, the new Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, joins the majority of those I spoke to in giving the nod to the new worldwide public consensus that has developed around Global Warming.
Perhaps one of the best examples of how mankind can screw up a good thing—and then work to correct it—can be found in the story of the striped bass that once roamed the Savannah River in huge numbers.
The Georgia river is exponentially cleaner than it once was and virtually all major pollution sources are permitted, monitored and regulated. Ironically, the same factories and sewage plants that once were the major polluters have done the most to make those improvements.
Wal-Mart offered sunny news yesterday for the California renewable energy market.
The store chain announced for Earth Day that it will double the size of its solar-power initiative in the next 18 months by putting rooftop solar arrays on 10 to 20 stores and distribution centers in California. Earlier this month solar setups neared completion atop 18 Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores and two warehouses in California and Hawaii to provide 20 to 30 percent of each location’s total electric energy needs.
Gov. Arnold took a tour of one rooftop solar installation at the Glendora Sam’s Club. Corporate projects like this are key to helping California attain its goal of getting 33% of its power from renewable resources by 2020.
Turning pond scum into biofuels is fast becoming a new revenue stream for weary catfish farmers whose catch has dried up. PetroSun BioFuels is offering royalties for the algae that once used to be a nuisance for Mississippi pond owners.
“Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought that I would be doing this,” said one man who for decades has operated the Mississippi Delta fish farm in Belzoni, the Catfish Capital of the World.
“Algae-to-biofuels has a real chance to be successful and generate significant income for these farms,” says Andy Whittington.
Martin Fine lost an eye – but not his passion for golf – after a shot he hit ricocheted off a tree with devastating effect. . . Doctors told him that if the ball would have hit an inch to the left it could have severed both optical nerves and fully blinded him. An inch to the right and it could have hit his frontal lobe and killed him.
“When they tell you that, there’s no other way to think about it,” he said. “I’m still here. I can still see my kids. I can still play golf.”
(The story from the Sacramento Bee is no longer online)
Thanks to the YarnLady for the story tip!
To kick off National Service Week, president Barack Obama signed a $5.7 billion national service bill Tuesday that triples the size of the AmeriCorps service program over the next eight years and expands ways for students to participate in community service while earning money for college.
Joining Senator Ted Kennedy, former President Bill Clinton, and bipartisan Congressional leader for the bill signing, the president commended the entire Kennedy family as an icon of service and self-sacrifice in America. He thanked Republican Senator Orrin Hatch for his role in creating the bill and acknowledged those in Chicago who taught him the virtues of service as a community organizer.
The bipartisan bill, which passed in the House 275-149 and swept through the Senate 79-19, ignites America’s local, regional and national service programs and nonprofit organizations to expand to further meet the nation’s most pressing challenges.
Take a picture of the Earth today and upload it to join the Earth Mosaic Project.
Mark your place in the world by taking part in a free, international photo project on Earth Day, which aims to make a mosaic of images forming a world map.
Two Cape Town friends came up with the idea for this ambitious project – the aim of which is to show gratitude and hope for the planet we inhabit, through photography.
Read the full story of how these two friends decided while on a beach at the tip of Africa to start a global photographic project in support of Earth Day 2009
Upload your Earth Day image to http://earthmosaic.org/
UK Singing sensation Susan Boyle has become an Internet hit and she doesn’t even own a computer. She said she is “absolutely gob-smacked” by all the attention. She only wants to make a few CDs…
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The Vatican recently announced that it intends to spend 660 million dollars to create what will effectively be Europe’s largest solar power plant. This massive 100 megawatt photovoltaic installation will provide enough energy to power all of its 40,000 households.
To reduce its greenhouse emissions even more, the Vatican is contemplating using an electric popemobile and the Pope’s summer residence is being fitted to run on power from the methane generated by the horse stables.
Can a data center heat your home or office? It can in London, where excess heat from servers at the new Telehouse West data center in the Docklands will soon be used in nearby houses and businesses. The Greater London Authority has approved a plan in which waste heat from the $180 million Telehouse colocation facility will be used in a district heat network for the local Docklands community.
It will join the list of data centers in recent months that are utilizing excess heat for good, like the Swiss center built by IBM that heats the community swimming pool and a Notre Dame researcher who helped heat the plants in a greenhouse and Botanical Garden in South Bend, Ind. by placing a server rack in the building. (Humidity issues and airborn particulates so far do not seem to be a problem.)
In a win-win-win, everyone saves money and while less greenhouse gases are released thanks to the reduced power requirements all the way around.
Hat tip to Nic B. for the link!
20 years ago, children in American classrooms only drew pictures of the planet and animals to commemorate Earth Day. Today, ecologically-friendly activities are visceral and students fan out selling recycled paper products to help rescue wild animals and raise money for new solar panels that will power their school.
Pilgrim School in Los Angeles really knows how to celebrate Earth Day. Truckloads of recycled bathroom tissue and paper towels, compostable trash bags and non-toxic household cleaners will be delivered to their South Commonwealth Avenue school, where children will distribute the products, with bragging rights about the number of trees they saved through the sale of recycled paper.
No more selling cookie dough or pushing wrapping paper to raise money for another swing set. These kids are educating their friends and neighbors about the environmental damage and health problems that could be averted if they only started buying “green”.
Oregon’s largest dairy will test a new generation of technology that captures methane from cow manure — tapping an underused energy source and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
The $1 million methane digester is being constructed to show that even small farms could save the expense of trucking heavy manure to a central facility. Instead, they could have their own digesters and pipe excess gas to a collection spot.
(Illinois dairy farm, photo by David Nolan)
A 100-year-old woman from New Jersey still loves to bowl. Emma Hendrickson said she would return to the National Bowling Stadium in Reno if she turned 100 years old. Now she has become the oldest competitor in the history of the United States Bowling Congress Women’s Championships.
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Tuesday, April 21st is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s!
As a way to thank customers for their support and to celebrate 31 years of scooping the chunkiest, funkiest ice cream, frozen yogurt and sorbet, Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops are happily giving it away.
Maybe it’s time for you to try a new flavor without commiting your hard earned dollars or it’s time for you to savor an old favorite and take in the joy that is free ice cream.
Around the world, from noon to 8:00 pm, Ben & Jerry’s will serve up a free scoop of any flavor. Locate a participating shop here.
Grab a pal and come on down to have some good, ’scream fun on us!
President Obama made clear in his first cabinet meeting today, that cutting out waste was essential to the government’s mission of recovery and long-term stability. Speaking to the press afterwards, he gave examples of the government waste that had been already targeted:
“Veterans Affairs has begun using videoconferencing for meetings so they can cancel or delay 26 conferences, saving $17.8 million. The USDA, under Secretary Vilsack, is working to combine 1,500 employees from seven office locations into a single facility in 2011, which we estimate will save $62 million over a 15-year lease term. Janet Napolitano at the Department of Homeland Security estimates that they can save up to $52 million over five years just by purchasing office supplies in bulk.”
