A worth watching documentary film with a social message. “The Economics of Happiness” makes us think how we suppose to act against modern social problems. Film director Helena Norberg-Hodge the author of Ancient Futures – Learning from Ladakh and co-author of Bringing the Food Economy Home. She describes economic globalization has a lot to do with unemployment, gap between rich and poor, ethnic conflict, and environment issues. She believes “Localization” is the key to answer theses problems and it leads us better way of living. The film is about 70 mins and it’s way too short to explain the depth and details of projects – there are many activists and projects introduced in the film – but it’s a good guidance for sure.

Visit http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/

“A year ago, a massive oil spill began in the Gulf. The entire country was glued to the news until the well was capped, and then we forgot about it.
As the year anniversary was fast approaching I became curious, just how much oil was that exactly? Where would it have gone? What I found was shocking.
So in an effort to further our discussion on oil dependency I created this short animation. I’ve spent all of my free time in the last month putting this together to help illustrate just how dependent we truly are on oil.”

Designed, animated and written by Chris Harmon
Voice Talent: Kim Estes
Music: Billy Perez & Todd Stambaugh
Special Thanks to Daye Rogers and Christy Kurtz

“The WWF format is a PDF that cannot be printed out. It’s a simple way to avoid unnecessary printing. So here’s your chance to save trees and help the environment. Decide for yourself which documents don’t need printing out – then simply save them as WWF.”

Visit: http://www.saveaswwf.com/en/

Green School in Bali, Indonesia is giving its students a relevant, holistic and green education in one of the most amazing environments on the planet.

Visit: http://www.greenschool.org/

While children have fun spinning on the PlayPump merry-go-round, clean water is pumped from underground into a 2,500-liter tank, standing seven meters above the ground.

A simple tap makes it easy for adults and children to draw water. Excess water is diverted from the storage tank back down into the borehole.

The water storage tank provides a rare opportunity to advertise in outlaying communities. All four sides of the tank are leased as billboards, with two sides for consumer advertising and the other two sides for health and educational messages. The revenue generated by this unique model pays for pump maintenance.

The design of the PlayPump water system makes it highly effective, easy to operate and very economical, keeping costs and maintenance to an absolute minimum.

Capable of producing up to 1,400 liters of water per hour at 16 rpm from a depth of 40 meters, it is effective up to a depth of 100 meters.

As part of Water For People’s integration of PlayPumps technology into its portfolio of community water options, we will modify the system and its operation to fit the needs of local communities and improve sustainability. This includes investing resources in catalyzing local entrepreneurs to service the systems, as well as reducing tank height, keeping potential advertising revenue in the community, etc.

Visit: Water For People

Kyoto, Japan

Arican Festa 2010

”北野武氏の付き人でタレントのゾマホンの公式サイトです。
彼が現在どのような活動をしているか、また、彼が設立し、母国ベナン共和国と
日本で活動するNPO法人IFE（イフェ：ベナンの言葉で「愛・分かち合い」という
意味です）の詳細をご紹介しています。”

投稿: Kenji Tani / Canary Graphics

Introducing Zomahoun-Dossou-Cyr-Rufin known as a TV personality in Japan, originally from Republic of Benin, wrote two Best Seller books, established Fondation IFE (IFE means Love and Share). Visit his new website to know his recent activities.

“The shortage of water and land has resulted in political unrest in Sudan for decades. However, the recent discovery of the world’s tenth largest underground lake in the region by scientists from Boston University can end the conflict if the lake is managed correctly. Designers at Polish firm H3AR Architect and Design have proposed a multipurpose Watertower skyscraper that can allow access to underground water through the application of water pumps.”

Via Ecofriend

“THE HAITI POSTER PROJECT seeks
limited edition sets of posters from artists, designers and design
firms from around the world. The donated posters will be sold online to
raise money for Doctors Without Borders. As designers, we have the
collective ability to do what we love, AND to create a difference. THE HAITI POSTER PROJECT
has been conceived as a collective effort by the design community to
unite and effect change through our work. In order for this project to
be successful, we are counting on designer participation. Our goal is
to raise at least.”

Visit The Haiti Poster Project

“The interactive story of the last great supply of fresh drinking water on Earth.”

Visit http://waterlife.nfb.ca/

the thomas mayer archive shows a tree-trunk garden house, a log house study in hilversum, netherlands for dutch musical performer hans liberg, designed by piet hein eek.

Via designboom