Small Ones Surround Us

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Happy World Gratitude Day!

Today is world gratitude day. What a great excuse to take a moment to recognize how wonderful life is! I try to remind myself how lucky I am every single day. I have a job that I enjoy, a roof over my head in the best city in the world, and most importantly, the love and support of friends and family who are without a doubt some of the most amazing people on this planet. That's why I think it is so important to always be looking for ways to help others as often as I can. I hope to some day feel like I've given back enough that I come close to deserving all that I have been given in this life.

So today I encourage readers to take a moment to show gratitude to someone or something in your life that you are grateful for. And maybe to try to think of a way to have that kind of positive effect on the life of someone else.

Here's a little bonus for you. Showing gratitude to someone else will also make YOU happier in the process. Take a look at this touching video to see how.

Want to give back but don't know where to start? Take a look at this FREE course on How to Change the World. It's offered through Wesleyan University online via Coursera.org.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Best in Crowdfunding: August 2013 - Part 2

I've come across some really awesome projects and campaigns since my last crowdfunding post, and I thought these were worth sharing. These are all really incredible and I've had to find some wiggle room in this month's budget because I think each of them is absolutely worthy of my hard-earned funds!

CityHeart
This Buffalo-centric art project will be something really special once it's built. The heart-shaped piece will be constructed from bicycle wheels, complete with interconnected gears and chains. Viewers will be able to sit on either side of the sculpture and actually pedal it together. I love the concept of interactive art, and I especially love that this will be located in front of Buffalo's grain elevators. What a view! This is a really fun project and just another example of what makes Buffalo so great. I can't wait to see it all come together!
Campaign Goal: $5,000
Deadline: September 2
Platform: IndieGoGo

CO2ube
How this device doesn't already exist is a mystery to me. It seems so obvious. The CO2ube is a little filter that fits onto any car's exhaust pipe and filters out the carbon dioxide. Seriously, how is this not already a thing?
Campaign Goal: $18,000
Deadline: August 21
Platform: Kickstarter


The CO2ube can be installed on most automobiles.

Kite Patch
This is a patch that prevents insect bites for 48 hours. The technology in the patch actually blocks a mosquito's ability to detect carbon dioxide emitted by humans. It will be especially helpful in parts of the world where mosquitoes carry the deadly malaria disease. The funds raised will be used to test the patch by distributing them to malaria-affected regions of Uganda. Creators of the Kite Patch plan to eventually develop a global distribution program.
Campaign Goal: $75,000
Deadline: August 29
Platform: IndieGoGo


The Kite Patch will stop mosquitoes from spreading malaria.

Send a Child to School in Jamaica
One thing I noticed on a recent trip to Jamaica was the number of young children walking the beach, asking tourists to buy trinkets from them. I wondered why they weren't in school. Turns out they were trying to raise money to pay tuition fees. Apparently there is no public school system in Jamaica; Education is not free. Students must pay to attend school. I believe that education is the key to bettering a country, and even the world. This campaign is intended to raise money for the Caribbean Education Foundation, a certified not-for-profit organization based in Boston that funds education for students in Jamaica.
Campaign Goal: $20,000
Deadline: September 16
Platform: IndieGoGo

Monday, July 29, 2013

Educate Yourself About Palm Oil

Face Palm to Palm Oil

Palm oil is pretty nasty stuff. It doesn't offer much nutritional value, but is commonly used in over 50% of manufactured food products as well as health and beauty products. The problem with the stuff is how it's harvested. In order to harvest palm oil, referred to as "liquid ivory," you have to cut down a palm tree. In order to manufacture enough palm oil to meet the current global demand for it, you have to annihilate an entire rainforest. And that is exactly what palm oil manufacturers are doing. The affects on the rainforests of Indonesia have been absolutely catastrophic.

The deforestation has affected not only the animal and plant populations of the region, but also the native peoples who live in and depend on the rainforest for their way of life. The population most devastated by the palm oil industry though, has been the orangutans. In just the past 20 years, over 90% of the orangutans' natural habitat has been destroyed.

The palm oil industry may lead to the extinction of orangutans in the wild.
Image courtesy of saynotopalmoil.com.

Small Things We Can Do

There are lot of things we can all do to help the effort to stop deforestation by the palm oil industry. You can sign petitions, contact manufacturers, donate, or adopt an orangutan. The easiest thing to do is stop buying products with palm oil in them.

I see palm oil showing up in the ingredient lists of even some of my favorite organic and eco-friendly (even "cruelty-free") beauty, health, and food products. The stuff is everywhere and tricky to avoid. Here are a few lists that I'm using to help me eliminate palm oil from my home.

EthicalConsumer.org has compiled a list of products that are free of palm tree oil. They also provide an email address so that consumers can help add to the list. Check out their palm-oil-free list here.
Care2 has a list on their website of some of the many brands and products that do use palm oil. Here's the list of products to avoid.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) created a Palm Oil Buyers Score Card to help educate consumers about how certain brands are using palm oil. It was created in 2011 and focuses mostly on European companies.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has created a guide of products containing palm oil that was harvested sustainably. It contains brands that can be found around the globe.
Palm oil can be sneaky. It disguises itself on ingredient lists, hiding behind names like "vegetable oil" or "stearic acid." Here's a list of names palm oil can be labeled under.

There are also a lot of online petitions that you can sign; urging retailers, manufacturers, and politicians to stop using, selling, or harvesting palm oil. Here are just a few of them.

Rainforest Action Network's petition urges Cargill, the largest importer of palm oil to the U.S. to implement new safeguards for the protection of wildlife throughout the company's harvesting process. (RAN has a whole page of online actions worth signing.)
The Green Palm petition supports a sustainable method of palm oil harvesting.
This petition on Change.org urges the makers of Nutella to stop using palm oil in their product. This one is a total bummer because that stuff is so tasty! Luckily, there are a lot of versions of recipes online so you can make your own!

If you're interested in learning more about palm oil harvesting, or you want to get more involved, I urge you to visit the Say No To Palm Oil website. You can also check out the recommended reading, below.

Here's a video of a piece that was actually featured on NBC Nightly News all about how the palm oil industry is destroying the natural habitat of orangutans, and what we can do to help.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy