GlobalShift

Creativity is something we’d all like to have. The ability to see not just “what is”, but “what could be”. Enviable is the ability of finding innovative solutions to both personal and global problems, and all the successes that may accompany such breakthroughs. While it’s true that some aspect of creativity is genetic (in the [...]

It is no secret that the women of Saudi Arabia live under a great deal of oppression. It’s not much of a stretch to claim that they are treated like property under, what has so far been, a rather strict fundamentalist Islamic law. They are subservient to men in every way. Women must be fully [...]

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the pressure for Washington to take drastic action in protecting Americans was immense. With emotions flying high the Patriot Act, also called Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism, was passed nearly unanimously, with only Russ Feingold voting against the [...]

Brave New Films has recently released its 5th Anniversary Activist Collection, a DVD box set spanning 2004 – 2009. Containing a whopping 40 hours of material (something that shocked me – I was expecting closer to 8 or 10), the box set offers a compilation of short and long films, conversations with distinguished guests like [...]

Sixty villages in Kachin, the northernmost state in Burma, are being forced to relocate to make room for a Chinese dam. The Myit Sone dam, will produce between 3600 and 6000 MW of power for export to China and will be the first and largest in a series of 6 other Chinese dams eventually to be built. [...]

It’s been more than 25 years since the federal government and several states pledged to restore the Chesapeake Bay. Despite those pledges, devastation remains. The nation’s largest estuary is still so polluted that every summer, a stretch dozens of miles long is so starved of oxygen that conditions are not suitable for fish and many [...]

The Obama administration announced that it is proposing to form a new agency to study and report on climate change. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Jane Lubchenco, said that NOAA will set up the new Climate Service to operate in tandem with NOAA’s National Weather [...]

Right now, U.S. debt stands at just over 11 trillion dollars and it’s growing everyday. Many are coming to understand that the ballooning debt is going to cause adverse reactions in the domestic economy, despite claims to the otherwise by folks like Ben Bernanke and Paul Krugman. However, it’s not only domestic affairs that will [...]

Hedy Epstein is what some might see as a contradiction in terms: a survivor of the Holocaust and also a staunch advocate for the Palestinian people. Born in 1924 in Freiburg, Germany, Epstein was 14 when she escaped from Nazi persecution via the Kinderstransport to England. Since her 1948 arrival in the U.S., Epstein has [...]

Inspired by JFK’s ambition to send Americans to the moon in 1969, famed Ford executive Lee Iacocca gave an exalted mandate to his team of engineers. Facing low-cost, high-mileage foreign competition for the first time, Ford set a specific target: design a new automobile that weighs less than 2,000 pounds and sold for under $2,000. [...]