Global Citizen – Page 5 – Juliette Terzieff

Consensus emerges at World Water Week

Discussions at the Stockholm World Water Week continue to reveal broad consensus on many water-related issues and the immediate need to address them. This guest post from attendee Alex McIntosh, provides valuable insights in the the thinking of thought leaders on water ….

***********************

Reporting real time on Day 4 of World Water Week: Stockholm, Sweden (9/9/10)

(posted by Alex McIntosh, founder, Ecomundi Ventures)

By Day Four of the 2,500-attendee conference, a few overarching themes have begun to emerge. First, in the majority of the watersheds across the globe, we know too little about the amount of water available, the amount extracted in aggregate for human use, or the quality of the watershed. For this reason, in the seminar On the Road the Corporate Water Reporting, panelists from Nature Conservancy, CERES, Quantis, PepsiCo, CH2M HILL, Unilever, Borealis and other organizations all agreed that the trend towards greater water reporting transparency would continue, primarily driven by businesses’ need to obtain and manage their supply chain water resources, and in response to consumer/customer/investor stakeholder pressure.

Continue reading Consensus emerges at World Water Week

Work underway at World Water Week

The working sessions of the Stockholm World Water Week are underway … so what does this mean for you, me and everyone else around the globe? Read on to hear what our man on the scene has to say about new initiatives getting off the ground …

**********************

“Day 2 of World Water Week: Stockholm, Sweden (9/6/10)”

(guest post by Alex McIntosh, founder, Ecomundi Ventures)

The luminaries of the water field took the podium today. Dr. Rita Colwell of the US was recognized as the 2010 Stockholm Water Prize winner (equivalent to the Nobel Prize for water) for her groundbreaking work on cholera. And Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environmental Program shared his agency’s Green Economy Initiative program focus–responding to one of the most pressing social needs today–on integrating water into the larger policy and market-based decisions made by officials at local, regional, national and global levels.

Connecting the dots is important, as the science is often a few steps ahead of the social debate, and bad policy today will have profound implications for the 9 billion humans projected for earth in 2040–and for the corporations that depend on reliable water resources for their operations.

Continue reading Work underway at World Water Week

Turning on the Tap …

This week – for the first time since the United Nations adopted a resolution affirming the fundamental human right to water and sanitation in July – representatives of governments, the private sector, NGOs and academia are gathered at a major international water event, the Stockholm World Water Week.

Ensuring access to clean water for everyone is one of the most critical challenges facing our global community. It is a complex goal, but one that must remain a core focus if we are to avoid severe shortages, social unrest and needless deaths in the decades to come.

(I know … you know what’s coming don’t you?)

All week long I’ll be featuring water-related content from myself and guest bloggers looking at topics such as the right to water and pollution in China, as well as a running blog-commentary from Alex McIntosh who is in Stockholm attending the event! (For more on Mr. McIntosh’s experience, click here.)

Continue reading Turning on the Tap …

Will you Skip Your Starbucks?

My regular readers know I am a big (figuratively and literally) proponent of not only speaking out publicly on the issues that matter to you as an individual, but of going a step further to actually do something about them. Well, dear readers (*waves* at all three of them… *snort*), today is no different.

Why?

Because it’s Skip A Starbucks Day!!!

And those of you who read this blog regularly (see my assault on Elmo) or know me, know just how important my morning coffee is!!!

Sometimes the issues we are asked to act on are very obviously global – like the right to water or campaigning for an international climate treaty.

Sometimes the issues – like the flooding tragedy in Pakistan – force us to examine in ourselves and those around us what we really believe to be our common humanity.

And sometimes, when fortune is smiling, we get the opportunity to reach out a helping hand and profoundly change the lives of a few individuals – to really do something tangible that contributes to making this world just a little bit nicer for everyone.

@CJRedwine and her family are nearing the end of a five-year journey to adopt a baby girl from China. Delays in the process caused by broader geopolitical concerns of the Chinese government have cost the family time, heartache and additional expense. The waiting, refilling and increased costs have eroded the family’s financial cushion. Now with their long-awaited goal finally in sight, the family is in need of help to bring their little girl – Joanna Faith — home.

Thus, Skip A Starbucks Day (which actually runs August 23 – 26)!

Continue reading Will you Skip Your Starbucks?

Blog(h)er Smackdown – Take 2

What’s that old saying? People who live in glass houses really shouldn’t look in the mirror?!? … well, something like that …

No matter how realistically you think you view yourself, there are certain aspects of our individual nature or personality that we all like to ignore or hide away from the general public.

Trouble is, sometimes life forces you to look in the mirror and find an ugly truth. *sigh*

Sometimes the knowledge comes courtesy of a friend. Sometimes it comes courtesy of a life event.

And sometimes, just sometimes, it comes compliments of a 6-foot tall red furry monster that is supposed to be teaching babies and toddlers, not 30-something year olds, about the world.

Continue reading Blog(h)er Smackdown – Take 2

For the people of Pakistan

As per my own weird-little-norm-of-obsessive-news-following I have been tracking the floods in Pakistan for a couple of weeks. I quietly did my part, sending what I could to help affected families.

But it wasn’t until this morning that I decided to come out publicly and urge people to get involved.

Why?

Because according to numerous new reports, like this one from Canada’s Globe and Mail, two major reasons relief agencies are having such a hard time raising funds to help people in the affected areas are:

Not enough global media coverage.

Pakistan suffers from an image deficit.

Continue reading For the people of Pakistan

Bloody Shame

In a way it’s sort of galling to get a lesson in personal and civic responsibility from a nearly 3,000-year old vampire.

But when Russell Edgington — the heartbroken, blood-crazed vampire king of Mississippi — took to the airwaves on last night’s episode of True Blood to berate humans for thinking they are equal with vampires and deconstruct arguments that humans and vampires are alike, that’s exactly what happened.

And I quote:

I suppose, in a few small ways, we are. We’re narcissists. We care only about getting what we want no matter the cost … just like you.

Global warming, perpetual war, toxic waste, child labor, torture, genocide … that’s a small price to pay for your SUVs, and your flat screen TVs. Your designer jeans; Your absurd, garish McMansions! … futile symbols of permanence to quell your quivering spineless souls …

Ok, so let’s forget for a second this admonition was delivered by a being

that eats humans for dinner.

Let’s ignore the fact his diatribe was delivered while

holding a bloody portion of a human’s spine.

Let’s also skip over the really ewwww-y fact that the King spent much of last night’s episode crying over a ridiculously ornate punch bowl filled with the splattered remains of his dead mate.

The man (er … vampire) has a point …

Continue reading Bloody Shame

Blog(h)er Smackdown, Take 1

Before the post-BlogHer10 glow fades and I feel duty-bound to return to my usual offerings of political and human rights pop culture babble (which, incidentally, is very likely to keep me off the invite lists for the really cool soirees for years to come) I want to share some lessons I learned during my New York adventure.

For those not in the know (in other words, me 5 months ago) the BlogHer annual conference is a gathering of (predominantly) female bloggers from around the United States and Canada. There are mommy bloggers, fashion bloggers, coupon clipping bloggers, funny bloggers, special needs bloggers and pretty much every possible kind of “blogger” you can think of. The conference is a place to learn and schmooze and wear your feet down to bloody stumps.

And this is what I learned ….

1 – Reaffirmation!

Hands down, the BEST part of the BlogHer experience is discovering the people you meet online are as sweet, caring, beautiful and smart in real life as they are on the Internet. It’s a real relief if, like me, you find yourself often wondering if these beings you tweet, chat or otherwise “connect” with online are actually real, live people and not just some Terminator-esque machine playing a sick joke.

Continue reading Blog(h)er Smackdown, Take 1

Are you Blogivated?!?

“I have signed up to participate in the Clean Water Blogivation campaign. If my blog receives the most votes, I will win an opportunity to join Dr. Greg Allgood on a clean water expedition to Africa and a $15,000 donation to my favorite charity tackling water issues.”

Few days ago, Proctor & Gamble’s GIVE HEALTH program launched the Clean Water Blogivation campaign asking bloggers to post about water issues and their desire to foment change – and to then urge their friends and readers to vote for the entry. The post with the most votes wins $15,000 to donate to their water-related charity of choice.

EVERY TIME YOU VOTE, (and you can vote EVERY day) P&G will donate

a day’s worth of clean drinking water to an individual in a developing country.

You can vote now, here:

(NOTE: Remember to click through boxes OR the verification email they send! I didn’t … so my own vote didn’t count the first time!)

Per the campaign’s rules, I am supposed to say why I am, or want to be, a Change Agent to help provide clean drinking water to people in developing countries.

Continue reading Are you Blogivated?!?

Raising a glass for a good cause

Ok, truth time.

The run-up to the BlogHer conference later this week in New York City, and all the pre-conference #dayjob meetings I have after coming off a 6 a.m. flight into JFK airport have got my brain a bit scattered.

Full disclosure? I’m so frazzled I freaked myself out earlier today when talking to #TBFF @AspiringMama when I got it in my head that I am leaving tomorrow. It is actually @AspiringMama who is leaving tomorrow. With all the packing, the organizing, the regular day job tasks, house cleaning, vet visits, prescription filling and dead camera batteries, can you blame me?

What I find particularly amusing about my current state of mind is that while I am attending a major blogging conference where I have been named a Voices of the Year finalist no less, I am not really blogging this week! How’s that for irony? Or slacking? Or …. Well, you get the picture.

But I always post on Mondays so I didn’t want to leave you all with nothing to show for visiting my little blog. (… and, honestly, with 4 minutes left in the day on the U.S. East Coast I won’t make it … but Central and Pacific time zones can still read this on Monday so that counts. Right. Right?!? Yes, right.)

Continue reading Raising a glass for a good cause