Sustainable development blog : ecology and humanitarian aid

Ever wondered what tampons are made from and, more important, if they are that safe?

Tampons aren't made entirely from cotton. They are made of dyes, fragrances and chemicals like: asbestos, dioxin, chlorine and rayon. Do these ingredients pose health risks? Read more »

George Clooney and his Tango

Some of the wealthiest people on the planet are making the move towards green. This fact is demonstrable by the new trend of billionaire investors putting massive amounts of their money into electric cars, solar and wind power and geothermal energy initiatives. Read more »

As a consumer, you must be well informed about the chemicals and toxic ingredients that may be injurious to your skin and your body, and most important, avoid them. After all, our skin is the largest organ of our body!

You have 2 million sweat glands on your body. One square inch of skin has about 600 sweat glands, 65 hair follicles, more than one thousand nerve endings, 57 feet of capillaries, 19,000 sensory cells, 94 sebaceous (oil) glands, 1250 pain receptors, 13 cold and 78 heat receptors, plus Langerhans (immune) cells.

The skin has a very important role – that is to protect us. So we Read more »

More than 35 countries recently participated in a United Nations-sponsored effort to protect  traditional medicines from bio-piracy. At a three-day meeting in New Delhi they discussed a database that has been developed in India – the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) – that documents and protects centuries old knowledge about country’s traditional medicines and treatments. The idea is to try and help protect these traditional medicines, which should be the property of people and nations, from being patented by unscrupulous companies and individuals for profit.

Traditional medicine is, according to the World Health Organisation, "the sum total of knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures that are used to maintain health, as well as to prevent, diagnose, improve or treat physical and mental illnesses."

Every natural environment, regardless of where it is, produces plants which can be used both as food and medicine, and all First Nations peoples retained knowledge and uses for them.

The plants used in traditional healing will vary from place to place, as is explained by Katsitsarishons (Suzanne Brant) is a Health Programs Coordinator at the First Nations Technical Institute, Tyendinaga 

Mohawk Territory in Ontario, Canada:

“Whatever [plant] you need is right around you. It’s conditioned to its environment, so it grows in certain soils and certain areas. It’s the same with us as human beings. We grow in a certain place, so we utilize those plants that are around us. And [plant use] shifts depending on where you’re at.” Read more »

Translated from http://blog.humanityy.com/es/nuestra-especie-esta-completamente-loca by Pamela Paterson.

Founded in 1977 by Paul Watson, the Sea Shepherd conservation Society (SSCS) is an international ecological organisation, with no profit motive in mind, working for the conservation of sea fauna. Their mission is to stop the destruction of the habitat and the slaughter of the fauna in the world’s oceans, with the aim to

Translated by Pamela Paterson from 10 razones para no usar el coche.

Here we present ten good reasons why you should stop using a car:

You can subscribe to a whole bunch of free, snazzy series on iTunes to keep current on environmental news and innovative ways to green your world. Here are our 20 favorite podcasts :

1. Grist: Environmental News
2. Michigan Radio's The Environment Report
3. Planet Green
4. Smart Energy, Stanford Professor Margot Gerritsen's video and
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Ralph Waldo Emerson

American scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that man is related to all nature. Our thoughts, our actions, our goals and desires are as much a part of the Earth system as is the motion of the wind. Humans were born from the soil just as the trees, the bees, the moss and the rocks it grows on, and we  interact trough the same physical and chemical processes as do all others. Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle states that a measurement of position disturbs momentum, and the same can be said of our interactions with our environment. We are not

Translated from Earthlings: le documentaire choc by Elisabeth Antoine.

A disturbing truth

Directed by Shaun Monson and released in 2005, this documentary required 5 years of work and of investigations. Many sequences were shot in candid camera for it was the only way to get some pictures. This movie shows how the animals which are meant to be eaten, or used for clothing, entertainment, scientific research, and eventually how pets, are treated. The movie is featuring Joaquin Phoenix as the

Translated from Kiva, le microcrédit solidaire by Valerie Kwan.

Today, just under three billion women and men live on less than two dollars a day. More than a billion people go hungry every day, a deplorable record reached in 2009 according to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Nearly all of the world's