If I had kids, they would so be getting this sweet Hydro-powered toy car for xmas!
It apparently runs on clean energy hydro technology, using "a next-generation reversible Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cell". I want to own that sentence, let alone a person-sized version of this sweet machine.
Sir Paul McCartney has recently highlighted a pretty big issue: that the livestock sector is worse for the environment than the transport sector. A recent united nations report found the sector generates a full 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Here are the scary bits:
»70% of the Amazon forest has been turned to grazing for beef
»Livestock use 30% of the planet's surface
»Livestock emit 65% of our nitrous oxide output
(nitrous oxide is 296 times worsethan CO2 for global warming)
Even just going one day a week without meat would help. Not to mention the benefits to health and to the incredible cruelty of the meat industry. I still eat a little bit of meat, but I feel a bit guilty every time I do. I have pledged with a friend to go back to full vegetarianism on January 1, but I might secretly start now.
The station that markets itself as the voice of hip youth has censored the burping pig. Their advertising standards representative, Elisa Billis, said that "the spot goes further than we are willing to accept on our channels". Too radical for MTV?
You can let the executives at MTV know how you feel about this kind of censorship by sending them an email from the Adbuster's website. To view the spot go to Adbusters Buy Nothing Day page.
Apparently, 70% of my carbon footprint comes from the things I buy. Lately I have been lucky enough to have discovered excellent local farmers' markets, and my parents bring back masses of delicious vegies when they visit their house on Lake Cootharaba, but I am still contributing to the single worst environmental & social habit in society: shopping.
Studies have shown that the average parent spends seven hours a week shopping, but only one hour with their kids. While I am not sure about organised religion, it still holds better morals than the new cultural base of materialism. Just take a look at all the massive shopping temples being constructed in our suburbs. Look at how much bottled water costs when you can just get it out of the tap!
To this end, I am so not buying anything on "No shopping day". And I am trying hard to cut down on my participation in this whole consumerist thing. The hardest to break will be my adidas sneaker addiction, but I must at least try. I did not buy any yesterday, and I reckon I can get through tomorrow...
Also, I love these guys almost as much as I love their soundtrack:
After a decade of design-slaving, I took a sabbatical to complete a Master of Design, focusing on sustainable graphic design. Subsequently, I converted a small freelance operation to a thriving full-time sustainable design studio, and am trying to be more aware in my business and in my everyday life. Part of the fight is to bring sustainability into the university curriculum where I also teach part-time.
What worries me most is how influential advertising has become: We have no visual voice outside of advertising on our streets. I want our streets to reflect what the citizens think, not what large corporations think, and believe that designers have a major part to play in this issue.
For the next three years, I will be pursuing a PhD in design and sociology to find better ways of communicating the great advances we are making, rather than the doom that awaits us by doing nothing.
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