Blogs & Ecology

With Notre Dame set to play Syracuse this upcoming Saturday on NBC in a carbon-free football game students, alumni and fans of the two schools are upping the rivalry by going head-to-head all month long in the name of sustainable living on Carbonrally.com. As each school works to create the largest green team with the largest reduction in their carbon footprint, and NBC throwing down some serious cash to help fund sustainable initiatives across the winning campus.

But which school is currently winning?
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Pablo Flores provides a summary of the recent National Gathering of Volunteers in Montevideo, Uruguay. These volunteers have been working with the Ceibal Plan, which has been distributing and working with the XO computers throughout the country.

Interested to learn exactly what happens to your recyclables once you toss them in the blue bin? RecycleBank offers a whole series of videos on YouTube that shows you just how recyclables are processed.

Read on for more from the series....

If you’re a high school student with an idea to make your community a more sustainable place to live then there’s a new contest that just may be a great way to get the seed money you need to get your project off the ground. Put together by The Weather Channel and the National Environmental Education Foundation as a part of Classroom Earth, they’re looking for smart, innovative, and workable solutions to pressing environmental issues.

And get this; they’ll even pay you a cash stipend for being a local environmental intern to go along with the seed money you'll receive to help make it happen!
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A group of Iranian professors in cooperation with colleagues at other universities, have launched a blog called [fa] Professors against Plagiarism. They are asking university colleagues everywhere to join and help them in their efforts. Read more here.

In China, to publish an academic essay is extremely difficult for simply one reason: Too many people are compelled to publish essays in a miserably limited number of journals. Reluctantly, contributors have to pay certain sum of money to get their essays published. But demand still overwhelmingly exceeds supply. Therefore, a new type of brokers came into existence: they help polish, rewrite and publish essays for blind profits. Academics
debate heatedly [zh], but a high-rank official openly supports charging the contributors [zh].

Shredded paper photo via Venturist

Going green tends to save green. That’s a notion quicky learned by big businesses in this economic crunch. Non-profits have always been on the prowl for ways to reduce expenses. Now, TechSoup, a tech info and education resource for non-profits, is helping out by giving green resources through their newly launched GreenTech Initiative. ...

Egypt has launched a fierce campaign against sexual harassment in the aftermath of the recent events here, here, here, here, and here. But people working in the media industry do not seem to get the idea.

Bent Masreya wrote:

I found out the way most Egyptians find things out that there is a lawsuit against Al Azhar calling for devalidating 25,000 Muslim Hadiths. The idea reminded me of the saying that wonders why words should be taken to court?

علمتُ كيفما يعلم المصريون، أن دعوى قضائية على الأزهر قد رفعت لمطالبته بإلغاء 25 ألف حديث نبوي. فتذكرت لتوي قول القائل “لم يؤخذ الكلام إلى المحكمة؟”..

The Egyptian blogger goes on to question the idea

Anguillian Don Mitchell takes a trip to his Alma Mater at Mount St. Benedict in Trinidad.

“Leadership has to be about prioritizing and making the unpopular decisions that may not help in getting you re-elected but will set the country on the right course for future growth and development”: Trevor Dawes at Abeng News Magazine wonders “why is it that the Jamaican government, regardless of which party forms it, has had such a difficult time doing right by the Jamaican people.”

It may have slipped by your news reader during the dog days of summer, but don’t think for a second that the AFT’s recent adoption of a green schools and colleges resolution is anything less than a landmark event; because with 1,400,000 members the AFT has the membership muscle to back up their call for greener schools in America....

Id:sawabonroma, a Japanese writer living in Rome, describes her everyday life in the Italian capital at Roma no Heijitsu (ローマの平日). In a post on October 30th, she writes about a students demo against the education reform proposed by Minister of Education Gelmini. Millions of high school and university students, professors, researchers and school employees protested in the streets of Rome against the demolition of the public educational system, paralyzing the city center. Blaming the Japanese media, Sawabonroma points out how they gave more importance to the resulting traffic problems than to reasons for the demo.

Bangladesh Blogger reports: “Female students of BCIC College, Dhaka have accused their male teachers of sexual harassment, which has led to the arrest of several students and teachers.”

Several Filipino lawmakers want to enact a law that will provide for population and reproductive health programs at national and local levels. The Philippines, whose population is almost 90 million, is one of the most populous nations in the world. Many scholars believe that the country’s high population exacerbates its social and economic problems.

The Reproductive Health (RH) bill mandates health and local agencies to inform Filipino couples about birth control methods, maternal health care and other reproductive health concerns. Sex education will be introduced in schools as well.