By Juleyka Lantigua

As you may know, taxpayers are about to own 60% of General Motors. So here’s our chance to get exactly what we want in our favorite mode of transportation. Personally, I am looking forward to annual meetings in which I can discuss my wish list at length with fellow stockholders.

A driver for over fifteen years, I have accumulated a list of improvements that I believe will make all our driving experiences more pleasurable. Feel free to add your own thoughts, fellow shareholder.

1.    How about 100 miles per gallon. We’ve been to the Moon and sent rovers Mars, but still can’t figure this one out?
2.    Standard built-in navigation systems for all models. Why should the rich be the only ones who don’t get lost anymore?
3.    Volume and tuning buttons standard on all steering wheels. The number of accidents avoided will stagger you.
4.    Remote control key for every car. There’s no reason a 2-cent battery in a plastic case should be turned into a luxury item.
5.    Different sounds for different warnings. Door open = three bells. Key in ignition = 4 pings. Headlights still on = 2 knocks. Those are just suggestions, but you get the point.
6.    Power-controlled seats on the driver and passenger seats; sometimes the driver is the passenger, and that’s an unpleasant surprise.
7.    Value retention, for real.
8.    Built-in technology that melds our techie lifestyles (iPods, cell phones, etc.)
9.    Roadside assistance service modeled after On-Star, connecting the car directly to the manufacturer and sharing performance data automatically, to keep you safe and the car running smoothly.
10.    Lastly: car designed so sleekly they make you want to get in and go fast.

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Juleyka Lantigua is a writer whose work has appeared in books, magazines and newspapers around the world.

Talk about environmentally friendly art!  iri5 showcases a number of portraits of musicians made out of recycled cassette tape with original cassette. Also included are portraits made from old film and reels. This is what we call creativity!!!

For more visit: iri5

[ via: TrendHunter ]

By Juleyka Lantigua
An environmental spark has been ignited in the South Bronx, a place usually associated with crime, poverty and all types of social ills. The point source for the flame is a statuesque and brilliant Black woman named Majora Carter, who is gaining national and international acclaim for her work in a forgotten corner of the world's most celebrated city.Majora Carter, 41, grew up watching buildings burn because of what she calls "the financial disinvestment" in her Hunts Point neighborhood in The Bronx. After graduating from Wesleyan, she returned home and became involved with local youth and arts groups, which led to community development and public arts projects.

She soon learned that New York City and New York State were planning to build a large waste facility on the area's waterfront to process 40 percent of the City's garbage. She started to make connections between the actions of the city and state governments and the ailing state of her community. "They were absolutely complicit in bringing on not just the economic disinvestment but also what it brought in: the environmental degradation of our community. They put it on poor communities of color, thinking they're not going complain too much."

Sustainable South Bronx (SSBX.org), the organization she helmed for seven years, started with the idea of building a South Bronx Greenway to include bicycle and pedestrian paths, open spaces, and waterfront access. When the restoration process began, the contractors would bring people in the work, even though the community had a 25 percent unemployment rate. So Carter started asking why they were not training locals to do the work.

Soon they were training people to work on reclaiming and rehabilitating the waterfront, wetland restoration, cleaning up contaminated land, and green-roof installation. "We effectively coupled poverty alleviation with environmental remediation so that we could work to make sure that people felt that they had the capacity to change the world and change their own lives at the same time," she explains proudly.

A tenet of the work SSBX does is the idea that environmental rights are civil rights. "It is the core of everything we do. Environmental justice means [certain] communities shouldn't have to have lots of environmental burdens and not enjoy environmental benefits," Carter says. She is unequivocal on this point. "Race and class are the ultimate indicators of where you're going to find the good stuff—like parks and trees—and where you're going to find the bad stuff—like waste facilities and power plants. And of course [there are] health effects associated with it."

In 2005, Carter was honored with a MacArthur "genius award" Fellowship in recognition of her work as "a relentless and charismatic urban strategist" as the foundation described her. But Carter, who has served on the Clinton Global Initiative Poverty Alleviation Panel, has always been very clear that the advocacy she practices is not about receiving charity.

"For us, it's about resource generation; it's about recognizing that there are assets here to produce even more resources. And that people are your ultimate resource…We're not expecting people to do this out of the kindness of their hearts…There will be many opportunities for people to participate in this," Carter says.

After years of focusing on improving the environment in her own backyard, Carter re-aligned the work of SSBX to parallel the growing economic needs of the area as well as the expanding demands of the burgeoning green economy. The aim is to develop an eco-industrial sector, a collection of businesses that use recycled materials as raw materials and has the potential to generate hundreds of local jobs. "I want to help make the South Bronx the center for green manufacturing in New York City," she asserts.

The Bronx is just the beginning. Carter is now transitioning out of her role as the head of SSBX to start her own organization, the Majora Carter Group. "My job will be to go around the country, and internationally, to help support other municipalities, business leaders, universities and community members so they can work together to unlock their green-collar potential." So far, she has received interest from Baltimore, Kansas City, Missouri, Miami, Milwaukee, and Detroit.

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Juleyka Lantigua is a writer whose work has appeared in books, magazines and newspapers around the country.

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The Fresh Air Fund is now accepting applications for counselors for this coming summer of '09. They hire staff members with a wide range of interests and experience in some pretty diverse fields including but not limited to environmental science, culinary arts, fashiondesign, orienteering, leadership, video editing, digital and dark room photography, ropes course, nutrition and agriculture.
You have to be 18 or over by June 20th to apply, and  have completed at least one year of college by the summer. Any previous work with children should always be included on your application.

Click Here to Apply  |  For more information visit: www.freshairfundcounselors.smnr.us

By Juleyka Lantigua

As thousands of jobs are lost every day in this economic crisis, it’s time for the government and corporate America to start transforming traditional manufacturing jobs into green-collar jobs.

Simply put, a green-collar job contributes to the use and conservation of natural and existing resources and to reducing our reliance on fossil fuels like coal and oil, usually without a significant impact on the environment.

The most easily identifiable green jobs include manufacturing, installing and maintaining photovoltaic units (solar panels), harnessing the power of wind with windmills, and recycling and repurposing industrial materials. But there are many more jobs that fit this emerging labor category. Green roof installation and maintenance and HVAC retrofitting enable commercial and residential buildings to reduce their energy consumption while generating some of their own power.

The green-collar sector is a huge growth industry. Worldwide, businesses invested $117.2 billion in alternative energy in 2007, according New Energy Finance, a U.K. research company. Over 3,400 U.S. companies are in the solar energy business, including manufacturers, installers, distributors, developers and suppliers.

By Juleyka Lantigua

It’s time for the U.S. to build a national bullet train network.

High-speed railway systems have enormous economic, social and environmental benefits that have contributed to the economic growth and quality of life of many countries for decades. The networks are commonplace in Japan, France, Germany, Italy, England and many other countries.

The oldest and most famous bullet trains are part of Japan’s Shinkansen system, which created the innovative transportation technology. The most glamorized bullet train is the Chunnel train, which takes passengers from London to Paris in two hours and fifteen minutes.

I have travelled on both the Shinkansen and the Chunnel, and have seen first-hand how valuable, convenient and efficient those systems are. Here at home, Florida and California are leading the way with fully conceived proposals for statewide bullet train networks.

The California system would stretch from San Francisco, Oakland and Sacramento in the north through the Central Valley to Los Angeles and San Diego in the south. The 380-mile journey between San Francisco to Los Angeles would take just 2.5 hours (compare to 6 hours by car).

Economically, a coast-to-coast high-speed rail network would mean hundreds of thousands of construction and new permanent full-time jobs. In California alone, planners estimate creating nearly 160,000 construction-related jobs to plan, design and build the system, with an additional 450,000 permanent jobs by 2035. Overall, the state anticipates more than $1 billion in annual revenue from the rail system.

With the system in place, the ability to travel between major cities at reduced costs while avoiding the hassles of getting to and waiting at airports, will enable professionals and businesses to expand their reach regionally and nationally. Families will also once again afford to travel for vacations and holidays without enduring countless hours in crammed vehicles or the expense and inconvenience of group air travel.

Bullet trains significantly improve the environmental impact transportation has on the planet. These trains, some of which can carry more than 1,300 passengers, will remove hundreds of thousands of cars per year from highways, thereby reducing the toxins cars release into the air.

A single lane of rail has the equivalent capacity of six lanes of highway. California officials project that building a network in their state will save 12.7 million barrels of oil per year, reducing the CO2 emissions by 12 billion pounds per year by 2030.

“A first-rate rail system would protect our environment, save families time and money, reduce our dependency on foreign oil, and help get our economy moving again,” Senator John Kerry said recently while announcing the High-Speed Rail for America Act of 2008, a bill he has co-sponsored that funds a national network of connected high speed train systems.

The Federal Rail Administration has already designated ten rail corridors, including plans to connect cities in the Midwest, the Northwest, major cities within Texas and Florida, and cities along the East Coast.

President-Elect Barack Obama recently said that “the choices that we make will help determine the type of country and world we leave to our children and grandchildren.” Establishing a national high-speed passenger train service will go a long way to enriching that legacy.

"Juleyka Lantigua is a journalist and editor whose work appears in national newspapers and magazines. For more info visit: www.juleykalantigua.com."

As the stream of companies going green continues, Nike yesterday unveiled its version of sustainable products under the banner of "Considered Design." As we watched their very well put together product presentation, we were very impressed with their efforts to minimize the environmental impact of producing their products via reducing waste, using environmentally preferred materials and eliminating toxins.

Nike’s long-term vision for Considered is to design products that are fully closed loop: produced using the fewest possible materials, designed for easy disassembly while allowing them to be recycled into new product or safely returned to nature at the end of their life. This is where we give props...

And here is where we don't...the initial Considered Design product line is straight-up dull. The Design end of it was purely functional with minimal "design" aesthetic. Coming from Nike, we were pretty surprised. We're almost positve that this will change by the time the official product line launches.

Nike is not the only company guilty of this. See the Toyota Prius and the Chevy Volt. The question we pose to corporations world wide is " Why do evironmentally sustainable products have to be dull? In order to gain mass acceptance, it's sad to say, the product has to have that "wow" factor and design appeal.

Imagine if you will sustainable products with the design sensibility of Apple's line of products.

It amazes us how revenue driven corporations still don't get that design is an important and integral part of what a product communicates and the relationship it develops once it has been purchased by a consumer.

Back to Nike, we know you have the design appeal in you as we see it all over the place here in NYC. It's time to inject that into your Considered Design product line thereby creating environmentally friendly apparel and kicks that are hip and chic!

We look forward to CD 2.0.

For more info visit: www.nikeresponsibility.com

Even bicycles are going green. Peep the award winning, built to order Bamboo Bike by Calfee Design. The bike is made from Bamboo that has been smoked/heat treated to prevent splitting and is finished with a coat of Tung oil to seal it up.

These custom Chuck Taylor kicks are officially bananas! As this year marks the 100th anniversary of Converse, they commissioned 100 of the world's most creative minds to each design a special sneaker. Each shoe expresses the respective artist's unique commentary on HIV/AIDS and how it affects everyone. Created as part of the 1HUND(RED) humanitarian campaign, what makes these so appropo is the use of the band-aid as a metaphor for healing. Props to multimedia artist Darren Romanelli a.k.a. DRx for this great design! (195.00 €)
Cop them at: www.wesoldout.com
 

Smart, a member of the Mercedes Car Group has officially announced the introduction of its smart fortwo car which will make its debut in January of 2008 here in the U.S. Reaching a top speed of 90 mph, this fuel efficient (40 mpg), 3 Cylinder/1 Liter, 4-star crash rated whip has already sold over 750,000 vehicles in 36 countries since its introduction.

The smart fortwo has already made it's debut in the DaVinci Code, Pink Panther, Garfield 2, Scoop, A Good Year, Legally Blonde 2, Just Married, Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London and is the only car in production currently displayed at Museum Of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City.

For more info, or to reserve yours for $99 bones visit: www.smartusa.com