Carbon clock

Via George Monbiot, here is a counter that estimates the accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere. Monbiot writes (emphasis mine):
The carbon clock suggests that the cumulative total of long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere so far is 3.64tn metric tonnes, carbon dioxide equivalent. It is rising by 2bn tonnes a month. To have a good [...]

Online climate simulator

C-Learn is a simplified online climate simulator you can use to play with possible CO2 emission scenarios. It may take you a few minutes to figure out how to change the input variables, and what do they mean exactly, but once you get the hang of it its a very sobering exercise.
I just spent some [...]

Light bulb ad

I loved this ad by the World Wildlife Fund for its simplicity.
(via Jon Pipitone, who has also posted some related thoughts on why consumer choice is only a small part of the equation when it comes to addressing climate change.)

Economic measurement

I just finished reading Fritz Schumacher’s “Small is Beautiful”, and it reminded me of a speech by Robert F. Kennedy that I wanted to share:
Too much and for too long, we seem to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over eight [...]

The morality of a flat rate tax

Politics are a bit raw in the US these days, and while I spent the summer in Seattle I got into a few discussions about the current campaigns and public policy in general. 
One of the most unexpected positions I found was that of people being in favour of a flat rate tax. Twice I heard [...]

Torture in Guanajuato

The Human Rights Commission of Mexico recently declared that the police of my home state of Guanajuato, Mexico, systematically torture people to obtain information and confessions (link in Spanish). Of course I’m not surprised –I don’t think anyone is–, and I’m pretty sure the problem is fully widespread in Mexico, but it’s good that at [...]

SHAME!

If you go to the University of Toronto, you’ve probably heard about the ridiculous protest that took place in the President’s Office two weeks ago. Students, including some from the student unions (and some people external to the University) sat in the hallways of the office, refused to leave and to let anybody out until [...]

TransitCamp on the Harvard Business Review

The Harvard Business Review has just published a short article on the Toronto TransitCamp, written by some of the event organizers: Mark Kuznicki, Eli Singer, and Jay Goldman.
In TransitCamp, people from many walks of life got together to discuss how to fix Toronto’s public transportation system. There were activists, computer geeks, bloggers, artists, and people [...]

First Pride Parade in Leon, Mexico

Hundreds of people participated in the first Pride Parade in my hometown of Leon, Mexico, yesterday (link in Spanish). Congratulations to all the participants! I’m doubly happy because, considering Leon is a very conservative city, the march went largely without a hitch.

Tabasco under water

As you may already know, Tabasco, a state in south-east Mexico, is 70% under water. About one million people have been affected by the floods. 300,000 people are trapped in their homes.

The floods were caused by unusually strong rains, coming after an unseasonal drought.
If you can and wish to help out, you can try going [...]