Green Options

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How far can one go for charity, especially the artistic types like those who design tees? Even if it is a worthy fund raising project for genocide victims in Darfur, Sudan or, say, a children’s global cancer awareness campaign?

Well, this question can better be answered when you consider that charity knows no copyright, especially when it involves a fashion icon like Louis Vuitton and one of the French fashion house’s creations.

For 26 year old Danish art student, Nadia Plesner, being slapped with a copyright infringement lawsuit demanding “$7,500 for each day she keeps selling the product, $7,500 for each day she displays Louis Vuitton’s cease-and-desist letter and $ 7,500 for each day she mentions the name ‘Louis Vuitton’ on her website” has never overridden a good cause and she is as defiant as ever.

Those sums and more - legal costs for the suit and another $15,000 for related “other expenses”. But what would Louis Vuitton do with the money if their lawsuit succeeds? Of two guesses, only one can suffice; either to fund further research for a hyped luxury product or give away to victims of the war in Darfur.

Imagine getting up in the morning, collecting the garbage in your home, and taking it outside. After opening your door, you see a person watching you intently from the corner of your street. You walk a few steps, and place your trash bags where they will eventually be picked up. No sooner than you turn your back, that eager person from the corner is making their way over to your refuse. Within moments they are rummaging through the waste. Searching for bottles and other items of value, you might occasionally see them kicking toward hungry street dogs to protect their bounty and themselves from a painful bite. While this scenario might seem ridiculous to you, it happens every day in Peru. The circumstances for why people in Peru collect re-usable and recyclable items in the trash is complex, intriguing, troublesome, and potentially wonderful.

We wouldn’t be talking about it if it were not for the fact that a senior member of the Green Party of the United States once equated the agitation for same-sex marriage in the United States to an hollow supremacist (pardon) Supreme Court ruling in 1857 that upheld that the black man was mere property and had not rights as the white man.

Those were the days when morals as they were then known were riding high and there was not much of the politically-correct language pretense we see in the world today. The H-word is gone, now there is same-sex relationships; the N-word is gone too, now there are proud African-Americans forever patriotic to the beloved country - which is a good thing for all humanity.

In 2004, David Cobb, the Green Party presidential candidate for that year’s election said this in reaction to an earlier decision by the California Supreme Court to void same-sex marriage licenses issued by Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco:

Knoxville, Tennessee, will play host next month to a conference exploring the ethical implications of energy policy, resource consumption and the environment.

Set for April 10 - 12, “Energy and Responsibility” will feature presentations by, among others, Robert Socolow, the Princeton professor who helped develop the concept of “stabilization wedges” to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and curb climate change.

There are layers upon layers of complex issues to be faced when one deals with a question of grave importance such as, "What coffee should I buy this morning?" Ethics are hard to keep straight when so much of the information about a product is a mix of marketing, spin, and carefully crafted image. The truth is often well concealed (and usually deliberately so). To be a conscientious consumer is not easy,

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Get Naked! This is the first in a series of posts that will explore the stated principles of Fair Trade and the requirements for certification.

The first of the major components of fair trade we will look at is transparency. In order to obtain Fair Trade certification, the producer must, among other requirements, be “organized into cooperatives or associations that are transparent, accountable and democratic.” IFAT defines transparency and

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