greenswitch – climate change and cleantech solutions

Viridian design contest: Global Civil Society

I am sure you’ve already heard about/from Bruce Sterling’s ‘Viridian Movement‘ — if not, here’s a chance not just to lurk but also to participate. Check out their recent design contest. Check the link to read on..

Here’s the basic pitch. Let’s imagine you are Joe or Juanita Global-Civ. There you are, a selfless, activist policy-wonk, one civilized soul in a darkening world where ethnic throat-cutting is rising sharply and trust in the biz community has plummeted.

You’re at Rio, eloquently moaning over the dead coral reefs. You’re at the WTO and you brought a rational argument. You’re cataloging landmines in the Balkans or Kashmir, you’re logging-on in Alternet and Indymedia, you’re the daring token feminist at the Kabul loya jirga….

Then, in that classic wonk moment, you pull your Global Civil Society Designer Laptop from your ballistic- nylon shoulder bag and you boot it up. “Whoa!” is the instant response from a stunned and impressed public. “Where’d you get that?”

“Oh, this? We’ve all got these now! They’re everywhere!” (read on)

Survey: Germans environmentally aware — but enough is enough!

A new study, published by Environmental Minister Juergen Trittin, states that ‘environment’ is still in the top 10 of all political topics in Germany (in fact, it’s number 4; top 3 are what? I assume ‘unemployment’, ‘taxes’ and ’social security’?) but only 58 percent of all Germans would be willing to sacrifice their standard of living for a better environment. But wait, they already do! All that recycling is second nature by now, public transportation is heaviliy used — and not just by ‘poor and unhealthy people’ (that’s an argument I hear sometimes from people in the US, why they don’t use the bus; they get instantly sick; poor weenies!). Here we are talking about another tax, apart from the already quite successful ‘Eco-Tax’. Although 80 percent of all Germans endorse the Eco Tax, 70 percent believe the Eco Tax is socially unfair — but still, Germans seem to swallow that bitter pill without pulling their faces.

vista verde news – Studie: Umweltbewusstsein und Engagement klaffen auseinander Umweltbewusstsein und Engagement für die Umwelt klaffen bei den Deutschen heute weiter auseinander als vor zwei Jahren.

• English translation of the entire source using FreeTranslation.com