Unless you haven’t watched TV or picked up a newspaper, you’ve seen the atrocities going on in Burma, or what the US Government recognizes as Myanmar. The short of it is that the people of Burma have long struggled against the single party police rule of the country. Human rights abuses are known to be widespread in the country and over the last couple of weeks there has been a peaceful uprising lead by the Buddhist monks of the country who want democratic rule. Protests have been marred by violence and the deaths of many Buddhist monks. We stand along with many others to support a peaceful resolution to the conflict and urge you to do the same. Sign the petition on Avaaz.org, attend a rally this weekend (listed below the petition), join the Facebook group and by all means let your support be known. We, as human beings, cannot allow this violence to continue!

UPDATE: Wired is now running an article about the massive mobilization on Facebook.

New York-basd artist Jennifer Daniel is an incredible artist/illustrator. Using her incredible talent, she’s able to express herself in politically-charged, and sometimes humorous way that immediately appealed to me. Just wanted to let you know.

The City of New York has a great campaign to educate the public about the small things they can do to reach Mayor Bloomberg’s goal of reducing the city’s emissions by 30% by 2030. It’s an aggressive campaign to make NYC the greenest city in America.

For all of the LA readers, Global Inheritance will be putting on a free concert featuring Ladytron, Great Northern and DJ Taina at Hollywood & Highland. The catch is, you have to take public transit to the show and show proof. Grabbing a ticket at the Hollywood & Highland station won’t cut it either.

One of the things that I’ve always found odd is that while pre-packaged, grocery store food that we eat is labeled with nutritional information, restaurant food is not. There are a few places here and there that list nutritional info, but nothing is mandated. Given the rise in obesity and the overall impact that has on everything from our healthcare costs to personal productivity, it seems like a no-brainer to mandate that restaurants provide nutritional and ingredient information.

The California Center for Public Health Advocacy has a petition online urging Governor Schwarzenegger to sign SB 120 and require nutritional labeling on menus. I think it’s not only important to consumers to know what their eating and the nutritional value thereof, but it’s also a logical first step to help fight obesity in this country.

For all of you keeping a close eye on the sustainability efforts of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club, Retailing Today posted a special report. It gives interesting insight into the new Fayetteville store that opened today. What kind of impact this will actually have on consumers is up for debate, but if large companies such as Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club continue to improve the overall sustainability of their operations, the overall impact will be huge. Taking a stand, influencing consumers’ buying habits and putting an importance on sustainability will seep into the consumer consciousness.

Our good friend Kelley is aiming to donate 100 pair of glasses by the end of the month to Unite For Sight and we want to help her out. Some staggering statistics to consider:

Over 1 billion people in developing countries need eyeglasses but cannot afford them. Over 4 million pairs of eyeglasses are thrown away each year in North America. 25% of the global population needs eyeglasses. 50% of children in institutions for the blind in Africa would be able to read normal or large print if they had eyeglasses. The price for glasses in Benin and other African countries can exceed three months’ average salary.

If you have old eyeglasses (prescription or not) or sunglasses, please leave a comment and we will send you Kelley’s address so you can get them to her. Be sure to fill in your email address, which won’t be published on the site, to make sure we can contact you.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention something about helping people out in our own country as well. There are many people living in the US, many of them in our fine state of California, that are in need of eyeglasses as well.

Goodwill, LensCrafters and Lions Club all have drop boxes, which is probably the easiest way to donate. You can also send your glasses in a padded envelope to:

New Eyes for the Needy
549 Millburn Avenue
P.O. Box 332
Short Hills, NJ 07078

There’s a good article I ran across in the Washington Post. It’s from February 17th of this year and talks about how Facebook is being used to rally people around Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. It’s not news that social networks are being used for this purpose, but it’s worth noting the success that the Obama campaign has had with Facebook. One of the greatest things about Facebook is that you can’t help but feel like you’re a part of something important, be it a shift in the way people gather together around a cause or communicate with their peers and strangers, Facebook feels like a shift in the right direction… at least for now.

In the last several months I’ve stopped using MySpace for various reasons, not the least of which was the layout and almost daily periods of unresponsiveness. Then there’s the ads, spam and a bunch of other things. But the bottom line is that I don’t feel like I can get involved and do anything on MySpace. It’s just not fun anymore and I don’t care enough. Facebook has its faults, but for the most part it’s pleasure to use and I find myself on it at least a couple of times per day. There’s an undeniable buzz of activity happening on Facebook. It feels like a community of activists, or at least a community of people who want to do something besides hook up and pimp their band.

As we get closer to the elections it will be interesting to see how the campaigns use social networks, but more interesting will be how the users respond to what the campaigns are doing and the conversation that will undoubtedly take place online, in the open.

As an aside, the Action For Everyone cause has 257 members and has raised $25 for the Pew Charitable Trusts. Join us, won’t you?

Watch videos and learn how you, as an individual, can reduce your footprint on the planet. Real World Green is produced by Eric Rochow, who puts together videos that are a little dorky, kinda funny, but definitely informative.

I’ve been seeing more and more individuals starting site like Real World Green. There’s definitely a lot more attention being paid to the environment and how what we do (and don’t do) can make a difference. I think the new approach and evolution of the environmental movement is a good thing. 5 or 10 years ago caring about the environment was left to the tree huggers. The movement was in desperate need of an overhaul, which I think is still happening. Guys like Adam Werbach have the right idea and are working hard to change the movement and how people think about sustainability.

It’s back-to-school time here in the US and that means the RIAA will undoubtedly be stepping up their efforts to curb music piracy by suing music fans and bringing charges against universities. Increasingly, universities are implementing harsh punishments for students who are merely suspected of sharing music on university networks.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released a comprehensive white paper this week entitled “RIAA v. The People: Four Years Later,” which examines the impact that the RIAA has had on the music business. I’ll give you a hint: It hasn’t helped. While you’re sitting by the pool over the holiday weekend, take a moment to read the paper and consider supporting the EFF.

We’ll be back on Tuesday with regular updates.