A new study by the World Bank, Transport For Health: The global burden of disease from motorized road transport (PDF Here) looks at the human cost of our love for the car and it is beyond shocking. 1.5 million killed every year, more than die from HIV, tuberculosis or malaria.
It’s time for a bigger recall of a seriously defective product: The Car.
The book Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace questions the either or approach we tend to have towards cyber-technology and nature. Do we have to live without technology to live a healthy and wholesome life? Do we have to cut out nature if our gadgets determine a large part of our lives?
So screw the little things. Here are 10 big, difficult, world-changing concepts we can get behind:
These hard things have to do with: Nuclear weapons, diet, women, poverty, transparency, green cities among others.
via Worldchanging: Bright Green: Earth Day: 10 Big, Really Hard Things We Can Do to Save the Planet.
Heard about the Fairphone? Nice piece of technology that helps users “repair and upgrade” instead “chuck and buy new”.
Se what iFixit has to say about the ethical phone: Guest Blog: iFixit and Fairphone Repair Guides.
A simple life has a different meaning and a different value for every person. For me, it means eliminating all but the essential, eschewing chaos for peace, and spending your time doing what’s important to you.
From: Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life
The post How much energy does living in a walkable neighborhood actually save? summarizes a TED Talk by Jeff Speck.
This is why I do what I do!
Genetics research suggests we have much more influence over our fate than we thought:
The new model, however, portrays a more fluid, dynamic genome that responds quickly, even instantly, to all that we experience, including how you think, feel, speak, and act. Every day brings new evidence that the mind-body connection reaches right down to the activities of our genes. How this activity changes in response to our life experiences is referred to as “epigenetics”. Regardless of the nature of the genes we inherit from our parents, dynamic change at this level allows us almost unlimited influence on our fate.
Found on LinkedIn: Big Idea 2014: You Will Transform Your Own Biology (co-authored by Deepak Chopra and Rudolph E. Tanzi, Ph.D.)
How trees talk to each other… See for yourself:
Found on Treehugger Trees Communicate With One Another, Connected by Fungi (Video)
Slowly but surely, it seems, a cultural shift is taking place in Germany. For decades, a family photo on the office desk was the full extent of a man’s expression of family friendliness in the work place. Men who made a point of taking care of their children may not have been denigrated as wimps, exactly, but they were certainly seen as strange creatures, acting in opposition to the traditional male role of the hard-working, career-oriented breadwinner.
But those days seem to be over. According to one study, 91 percent of fathers say they want to spend time with their families during the workweek as well.
Corporate Wake-Up Call: German Dads Demand Family Time (Spiegel Online)
Sustainable Teams 