Welcome to the ezine produced by SGI Buddhists that prompts the positive, kindles the constructive, highlights the hopeful and leaves you feeling - well, up!
Published on Saturday, 14 March 2009 18:00 | | 
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Few people who heard Greenland politician Aqqaluk Lynge’s impassioned plea for us to fly less to protect his homeland from environmental disaster, can fail to have been moved, writes Julia Stephenson
'You may say the expansion of London Stansted Airport will play only a small part in increasing climate change but everyone can say that about almost everything they do. It is an excuse for doing nothing. The result of that attitude would be catastrophic.'
Published on Saturday, 07 March 2009 18:00 | | |
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So says recently elected Maldives president, Mohamed Nasheed, as he takes active steps to rehome his people before rising seas threaten to engulf the islands.
With scientists estimating that sea levels will rise worldwide by up to 60 centimeters by the end of this century as a result of climate instability caused by rising carbon dioxide levels and melting ice sheets in Greenland, the forward thinking President is considering buying land in Australia, India and Sri Lanka to create a new homeland for his people before it’s too late.
Published on Saturday, 28 February 2009 19:00 | | |
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With the banking system in disarray and many savers fighting for their financial lives, now is the time to look at different ways of doing business.
Tom Hodgkinson argues that we must look back to the Guilds of the Middle Ages, when trade was carried out under the principles of co-operation rather than competition. To this end he has stopped dealing with shareholder-owned companies and switched to co-ops. Co-operatives share their profits with their members (the dividend) and are he claims, staffed by more intelligent, courteous and humane people than the `brutal capitalist monsters’ that run our PLCs.
Pic: Worker owned and managed Rainbow Grocery, San Francisco, CA
Published on Saturday, 21 February 2009 19:00 | | |
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Growing our own food will soon become a necessity, argues Julia Stephenson
Rosie Boycott and the National Trust are my heroes this week. In her capacity as Chairman of London Food, Rosie is successfully encouraging large organisations such as British Waterways to turn over their unused land for food production, while the National Trust is creating up to 1000 allotments to encourage us to grow our own vegetables.
Published on Saturday, 14 February 2009 19:00 | | |
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The chattering classes recently went into collective meltdown when Jonathon Porritt, the government’s Green adviser, suggested that couples who have more than two children are being 'irresponsible' by creating an unbearable burden on the planet, writes Julia Stephenson
Porritt, who chairs the government's Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming. He says political leaders and green campaigners should stop dodging the issue of environmental harm caused by an expanding population.'
Published on Saturday, 07 February 2009 19:00 | | |
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I am ruthless about ridding my flat of clutter and clothes I no longer wear, writes Julia Stephenson. Now I'm encouraged to dig out more unwanted clothes to help out charity shops which are being cleaned out by hard-up Brits, who aren't replacing stock fast enough to keep up with demand.
Published on Saturday, 31 January 2009 19:00 | | |
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Three cheers for porcine champions, Jamie Oliver, Joanna Lumley, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Tracy Ward (aka the Marchioness of Worcester) who have admirably used their high profiles to raise awareness of the pig industry in a number of television programmes aired this month.
Pigs generally suffer from a bad press and arguably are the most mistreated of all farm animals, something that was confirmed late one night when I slipped into an industrial pig factory in Berkshire along with the animal welfare charity VIVA, who were filming undercover footage.