CO: Corporate philanthropy can be commendable or condemnable or something in between: Where should the line be drawn? What is responsible corporation to do? What should a responsible consumer do?

• Is true altruism required or can a corporation get an advertising benefit from a charitable donation?
• Charitable branding that provides a share of revenues to a charity can be a win/win, but what share makes the corporation philanthropic rather than just opportunistic?

• Are there limits to what should be branded? What about locations of branding?

Student coalitions can promote human rights and draw attention to issues as seen in the efforts of STAND USA (A Student Coalition Against Gencide in Darfur formerly Students Taking Action Now for Darfur ) and STAND Canada (still Students Taking Action Now for Darfur).

These groups have formed coalitions and brought wide ranges of students together to pressure their respective governments and to push for divestment of university, pension and other funds. The coalition has reached beyond just university students to include highschool students, which bodes well for the future of the movement.

STAND Canada produces a series of excellent newsletters on the issue, which are accessible from their website.

STAND USA also has a newsletter accessible from their site and a news section.

CO: Reusable bags are not new but are making news as Loblaws makes a commitment to the environment and CSR. Eliminating plastic bags is a good first step, but will it lead to actual change?

• Reusing bags has the potential to remove large numbers of plastic bags from dumps (1 billion according to President's Choice).
• The question is whether consumer behaviour will actually change:are the incentives appropriate at this point?
• What about charging a penalty for not using reusable bags while giving a discount for people who have reuseable bags? This has been effective in the cases of coffee shops and reusable cups.
• What is the better approach voluntary or mandatory bans on plastic bags? A systematic approach seems key.
• Voluntary approach - Globe and Mail: Loblaws (video, article);
• Mandatory bans - BBC site: Town Dumps Plastic Bags; CBC: San Francisco bans traditional plastic grocery bags
• Maybe plastic is better than paper
  

CO: Good for bluesfest...now we don't have to feel so guilty about throwing out thousands of cups.

• biodiesel is provided by Maple Leaf Foods - we don't have to feel guilty about eating meat...not that we do.

“In response to the positive feedback from the public for last year’s greening efforts, we’ve decided to continue working
with sponsors—specifically Molson Canada and Rothsay Biodiesel—to maintain specific initiatives for 2007,” says Bluesfest’s executive director, Mark Monahan.
In conjunction with Molson Canada, Bluesfest will continue to utilize compostable beer cups made from corn. Of the more than 200,000 cups that will be used, all will be separately disposed of without harming the environment. Also, Bluesfest will partner once again with Canadian green fuel pioneer Rothsay Biodiesel to use biodiesel fuel to power the festival’s on-site generators.

Source - Bluesfest

Days of encounters, trade, treaties, betrayal, death, exploitation, celebration, abuse, robbery. Times of trust and of lies. Some hope and some faithless moments. Historical reference points very according to one's personal history and perspectives but the confluence of National Aboriginal Day on June 21, 2007 with the Aboriginal Day of Action on June 29, 2007 at the least deserves attention.

One of these days is to:  

Share in the Celebration!

On June 21st, 2007, Canadians from all walks of life are invited to participate in the many National Aboriginal Day events that will be taking place from coast to coast to coast.

June 21st kick starts the 11 days of Celebrate Canada! which includes National Aboriginal Day (June 21), Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day (June 24), Multiculturalism Day (June 27) and concluding with Canada Day (July 1)!

The other is to:

Climate Trend plots temperatures over three time scales to show historical trends. You can look up your location and see temperatures over the last century. The original data comes from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

For example, here is Ottawa: at Latitude 45° 22' N and Longitude 75° 43' W, and it is 114 metres (374 feet) above sea level.