The hottest book everybody is talking about, that no one has read and no can get their hands on, is a giant, data-packed tome on income inequality covering three hundred years of history by the French economist Thomas Piketty. Is there a reason he’s getting the rock star treatment? Is it the symptoms that resonate (our drift into oligarchy), or is it the cure (a progressive tax on wealth)?
Antibiotics everywhere are over-used. As a result, bacteria are growing ever more resistant. Our correspondents discuss the risks of this and what can be done
Bob Inglis and a group of young Republicans go knocking on doors to get signatures in Paul Ryan’s home district to get support for action on Climate Change.
Student activists with the Divest Harvard campaign blockaded one of the main entrances to Harvard University President Drew Faust’s office in Harvard Yard today, kicking off a day of non-violent action. Students are calling for an open debate about fossil fuel divestment with the Harvard Corporation after having been denied a public meeting with the administration since fall 2013, according to the groups press release.
Supported by 350.org and Better Future Project, the campaign is part of a global movement including more than 400 campuses calling for endowments to divest from publicly traded coal, oil and gas companies that own the majority of the world’s carbon reserves. The fossil fuel divestment movements aims to stigmatize and decrease the influence of fossil fuel companies responsible for the worsening climate crisis.
Divest Harvard is calling on the university to:
Immediately freeze any new investments in fossil fuel companies
Immediately divest direct holdings (currently $17.3 million) from the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies
Divest indirect holdings in the top 200 fossil fuel companies within five years and reinvest in socially responsible funds
Bridgewater, MA “Noam Chomsky will talk about social justice and a people-centered movements when he speaks on Thursday at the Unitarian Universalist Church.”
Organiser Michael Louis Ippolito of Bridgewater hopes Thursday’s talk also raises awareness of a movement to amend the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which would abolish the legal personhood of corporate entities.
Richard Seager is the Palisades Geophysical Institute/Lamont Research Professor at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. He studies climate variability on seasonal and millenial scales and is particularly interested in periods of extended drought through history. Most recently he has focused on the causes of North America drought and its connection to oceanic temperature variations.
The annual Henry L. Gates, Jr. Lectures, established in 2012 and administered by the Department of African American Studies at Yale, are endowed in the spirit of excellence that Professor Gates (Yale ’73) brought to the Yale community, particularly in African American Studies, during his years of undergraduate study and while on the faculty.
The Gates Lectureship is made possible through the generous support of Daniel and Joanna S. Rose. http://afamstudies.yale.edu/gates-lec…
When Arianna Huffington collapsed in 2007 from exhaustion, she recognized a powerful need to reevaluate her priorities. One of the results is her new book, THRIVE: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom and Wonder.
In this event by The Forum at Harvard School of Public Health, Ms. Huffington shared her journey of making room in her life for sleep, mindfulness, health and happiness and explained her vision of “the third metric” — a way to redefine success beyond money and power to live a life of purpose and meaning.
This event was presented in collaboration with The Huffington Post on April 9, 2014.
Watch the entire series from The Forum at Harvard School of Public Health at www.ForumHSPH.org.
Lois Gibbs, Executive Director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, spoke at the Harvard School of Public Health as part of the Decision-making: Voices from the Field series on April 10, 2014. Watch the entire “Voices from the Field” leadership series at http://hsph.me/voices.
The Decision-making: Voices from the Field webcast leadership discussion series at Harvard School of Public Health invites leaders to speak about their experiences making decisions that affect global health. Highly interactive and candid, the series is produced in The Leadership Studio for a student audience. The high-definition webcast is streamed live and posted for future viewing. Students learn from experienced leaders about decisions that were effective, decisions that failed, and which decisions, if any, could have been made differently. Watch the entire series at http://hsph.me/voices.
Lois Gibbs has been a leader in the grassroots environmental health movement for the last 35 years. Since organizing the Love Canal Homeowners Association in Niagara Falls, New York (where she lived) in the late 1970′s, Gibbs’ work has led to substantial policy changes at the local, state and national level, including driving President Carter’s decision to move families out of dangerous areas in Love Canal. In 1981 she created the Center for Health, Environment and Justice which has helped over 11,000 groups with organizing, technical and general information nationwide. In 2003 Lois was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Today, she serves as Executive Director and speaks with communities nationwide and internationally about toxic chemicals and children’s unique vulnerability to environmental exposures. She has been awarded the Heinz Award, the John Gardner Leadership Award from the Independent Sector, and she holds a several honorary PhDs.
Welcome to Transition Studies. To prosper for very much longer on the changing Earth humankind will need to move beyond its current fossil-fueled civilization toward one that is sustained on recycled materials and renewable energy. This is not a trivial shift. It will require a major transition in all aspects of our lives.
This weblog explores the transition to a sustainable future on our finite planet. It provides links to current news, key documents from government sources and non-governmental organizations, as well as video documentaries about climate change, environmental ethics and environmental justice concerns.
The links are listed here to be used in whatever manner they may be helpful in public information campaigns, course preparation, teaching, letter-writing, lectures, class presentations, policy discussions, article writing, civic or Congressional hearings and citizen action campaigns, etc. For further information on this blog see: About this weblog. and How to use this weblog.
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