emzingogroup:

Emzingo has had the great pleasure to work with Enke, a NGO in Johannesburg, over the last year. Recently, two Emzingo Fellows worked with the founder, Pip Wheaton, and a McKinsey Consultant volunteering at Enke, Rebecca Sweetman, to explore revenue generating models that would serve to support…

minatour-no-maze:

Global Poverty Project asked Erin Heatherton, supermodel: What is sexy?

She answered: “The real sexy is standing for something significant. A sense of purpose and place. Women make up half the population; however, 70% of the world’s poor are women. Women work 2/3 of working hours but only earn 10% of the world’s income. This isn’t about charity, it’s about justice. And it is just us for all. Realizing that inside, we are 99% the same, and 1.4 billion of us are stuck in broken systems living under $1.50 a day. Smart is knowing that there is an end in sight, and sexy is doing something about it. 1.4 Billion Reasons: a roadmap to the end. See how we get there.”

Smart is the new sexy.

lauramon:

Today’s thought: “Who’s piloting the plane?”

Our generations stand on the brink of eradicating the second human disease in history.

Polio – a disease which has disabled millions and pulled people further into poverty – has been reduced by 99% over the past 30 years.

Global efforts have delivered incredible progress: immunising more…

mohandasgandhi:

Respondents said climate change was the second most serious issue facing the world, after poverty

The Eurobarometer poll (pdf) suggests that the majority of the public in the European Union consider global warming to be one of the world’s most serious problems, with one-fifth saying it is the single most serious problem. Overall, respondents said climate change was the second most serious issue facing the world, after poverty.

Connie Hedegaard, European climate commissioner, said: “This is encouraging news. The survey shows that the citizens of Europe can see that economic challenges are not the only ones we face. A clear majority of Europeans expect their politicians and business leaders to address the serious climate challenge now.”

She said it was striking that the public were even more concerned about climate change than in the runup to the landmark Copenhagen summit on climate change in late 2009.

The number of people rating climate change as a very serious problem has risen slightly, from 64% when the poll was last conducted in 2009, to 68% this year. When asked to rank the seriousness of the problem, people put it at 7.4 out of 10, compared with a score of 7.1 out of 10 two years ago.

People also said there were economic benefits to tackling climate change, with eight out of 10 people saying that dealing with the problem would provide an economic boost and create jobs. Two years ago the number was just under two-thirds.

There was also wide support for moving taxation to penalise greenhouse gas emissions and encourage energy efficiency, with an average of 68% of people across the EU in favour of such a move.

However, there was less enthusiasm for people taking personal responsibility for tackling climate change. Only one in five said they took personal responsibility, with more people saying it was the responsibility of national governments, EU authorities and businesses.

Despite this, most respondents said they had taken action to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the previous six months. But for the greatest number that action was recycling household waste, which ranks fairly low on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

(Continue reading…)

Just look at this. Europe is finally beginning to understand the severity of the problem climate change poses to life on Earth. In the United States, climate change, let alone any environmental concerns really, isn’t even on the political agenda. How often do you hear about climate change in the mainstream media? Not that often. When you do hear about it, how often is it tied in with climate science denial? Quite a bit. We have this disconnect between the American population and the scientific community primarily due to 1.) a terrible media, 2.) massive widespread scientific illiteracy, and 3.) scientists who do not publish studies in laymen-friendly terms or make publications readily available. We’re still sitting around debating whether or not it’s a viable man-made threat.

Nonetheless, this is encouraging news.