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Buckminster Fuller was an amazing mathematician and philosopher who called our planet "spaceship earth" and believed that we need to work together to create a world that works for everyone. "Dare to be naïve," he said. He is most famous for his design of the geodesic dome, used widely now all over the world, and the Dymaxion map, which more accurately reflected the relative sizes of the continents. This site is dedicated to his principles. It's way cool.
Established by President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalyn, the Carter Center is committed to creating a world in which every man, woman, and child has the opportunity to enjoy good health and live in peace.
The Center for Promise and Opportunity (CPO) is dedicated to exploring new ways to expand opportunity and realize the promise of our country for all Americans. CPO's mission encompasses much more than just proposing ideas, it will lead efforts to build public support for change, and will serve as an incubator for solutions, conducting real-world trials.
This is an amazing project to challenge the Democratic Party in California to start dreaming again. They call for things like building the best public education system in the world.
Unbelievable, paper-thin electronic display systems. If you want to see where all video and computer monitors are going, check this out.
A friend of mine built this magnificent site. It is a place where you can literally keep a photo journal of your life, day-by-day. Click on any day and see all the pictures, and all the videos, you took on that day.
A friend of mine built this magnificent site. It is a place where you can literally keep a photo journal of your life, day-by-day. Click on any day and see all the pictures, and all the videos, you took on that day.
Robert Muller devoted the 40 years of his life behind the scenes at the United Nations focusing his energies on world peace. He rose through the ranks at the UN to the official position of Assistant-Secretary-General. He has been called the "Philosopher" and the "Prophet of Hope" of the United Nations. What I like most about this site is that it catalogues all of his ideas -- thousands of them -- for improving life on this earth. A real visionary.
Stay with me here -- Ecopod is a revolutionary design in coffins made from naturally hardened, 100% recycled paper. Made from 100% ecologically sound materials the Pod is the ideal product for a non toxic burial or cremation. Perfect for use in greenfield sites. It may sound morbid at first, but surf around the site and consider the ecological impact.
Water-related diseases are the leading cause of death among the world's children, taking a life every 14 seconds. Ethos water is a simple concept: water for water. Each purchase of Ethos Water contributes directly to this cause because Starbucks has agreed to contribute 5 cents for each sale towards their goal of donating $10 million over 5 years.
Expedition 360 is one of the world's Last Great Firsts: an attempt to be the first to circumnavigate the globe using just human powered means: bikes, pedal boat, rollerblades, kayaks and walking; no motors or sails.
Fundable.org is a new service that lets groups of people pool money to make purchases or raise funds. Similar to online auctions, Fundable's pages, called "group actions," are created by people who use this site. Each group action has a description of how much money needs to be collected and what it will do. Once everyone has paid, Fundable disburses the total to the group action's organizer. No one takes a risk when making a payment: if a group action expires before reaching its total, Fundable refunds everyone's money. This lets you participate in a group purchase or fundraiser without worrying about what other people will do. You will either get what you paid for or get your money back.
A best-in-class review and repository that measures a company's performance against 21 leading standards of corporate accountability, responsibility, quality, and sustainability. It's just one of the tools at this powerful corporate responsibility site, designed to forge links between corporations and stakeholders to advance global citizenship.
Amazing and unique lighting designs that bring light into your home in unexpected ways like furniture, wall hangings, etc.
One of the best technology websites out there, Gizmag is a multiple-medium magazine with a bi-monthly print edition, free downloadable back issues, a free weekly email newsletter and a web site covering invention, innovation and emerging technologies.
A massive game where groups of students can play "God" and run the world. By translating core elements of the global economic system into cards, chips, binders, badges, and other familiar objects, the Global Simulation Workshop allows players of all ages and backgrounds to act naturally, trust their instincts, and teach each other.
GreenBiz is the leading information resource on how to align environmental responsibility with business success. The site provides news and resources to large and small businesses through a combination of websites, workshops, daily news feeds, electronic newsletters, and briefing papers. Our resources are free to all users. Their mission is to provide clear, concise, accurate, and balanced information, resources, and learning opportunities to help companies of all sizes and sectors integrate environmental responsibility into their operations in a manner that supports profitable business practices.
A great interactive resource for hybrid car information, Green Hybrid was started by a 19-year-old entrepreneur after he received a Toyota Prius as a gift from his parents.
Green peace is an independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful direct action and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and to promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
If you think reading environmental journalism too often feels like eating your vegetables, check out Grist. They believe that news about green issues and sustainable living doesn't have to be predictable, demoralizing, or dull. Grist is a nonprofit organization funded by foundation grants, reader contributions, and just a touch of advertising. As they describe themselves, Grist is "gloom and doom with a sense of humor. So laugh now -- or the planet gets it."
OK, this site doesn't really belong here but it's just so much fun. It puts up a collage of pictures and you have to guess what the Google search word is that they all have in common within 20 seconds. It is totally addictive. It actually does speak to new things that are possible on the web. When you get to the site, just click on "Launch Project" and then "Start Game."
The Gurteen Knowledge Community is a global learning community of over 12,000 people in 138 countries across the world. The community is for people who are committed to making a difference: people who wish to share and learn from each other and who strive to see the world differently, think differently and act differently. The main themes of this site are knowledge management, learning, creativity, innovation and personal development.
Here's a cool concept. Drill a whole 5km deep into the earth. Pump cold water down through the molten hot rock and then back up to the power plant. The newly heated water is then passed through a heat exchange where electricity is made. The cold water is pumped back down to the heated rock and the process starts over again.
Get out your checkbook - this site is exactly what you'd imagine. Hundreds of cool and unusual items including design, technology, furniture, lifestyle, office, lighting, etc. Great place to find innovative gifts.
The IONS sponsors leading-edge research into the potentials and powers of consciousness -- including perceptions, beliefs, attention, intention, and intuition. The institute explores phenomena that do not necessarily fit conventional scientific models, while maintaining a commitment to scientific rigor. The institute is not a spiritual association, political-action group, or a single-cause institute. Rather, they honor open-minded approaches and multiple ways of knowing and support diversity of perspectives on social and scientific matters.
This is the official website established by the King family to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. Opens with a great audio of MLK's speech on service.
Home of the Forum, prodigy of est, the original transformation-and-enlightenment-in-two-weekends seminar. It's great stuff, but watch out, they're pretty high pressure.
The Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) believes that in the battle with cancer, unity is strength, knowledge is power and attitude is everything. Founded in 1997 by cancer survivor and champion cyclist, Lance Armstrong, the LAF provides the practical information and tools people living with cancer need to live strong.
"Living Box" is a competition in the design of a prefabricated living unit for housing. It must be transportable on a wheeled vehicle or by air. It must be used as permanent house, which complies with contemporary lifestyle in terms of living comfort and architectural language. Check out the "Suggestions" section for pictures and renderings of some of these very forward thinking homes.
They build beautiful, contemporary factory built prefab houses. They build all the houses in their own factory using renewable and environmentally friendly materials.
The micro compact home is a lightweight, modular and mobile minimal dwelling for one or two people. Its compact dimensions of 2.6m cube adapt it to a variety of sites and circumstances, and its functioning spaces of sleeping, working - dining, cooking, and hygiene make it suitable for everyday use.
Want to listen to real archived recordings of Presidential speeches? This is the place. Kennedy, Roosevelt, Nixon, even Truman. All kinds of Presidential transcripts.
The Million Solar Roofs Initiative is a unique public-private partnership, aimed at overcoming barriers to market entry for selected solar technologies. The goal of the Initiative is practical and market-driven: to facilitate the sale and installation of one million "solar roofs" by 2010.
Show off your vehicles "Miles Per Gallon" with these 3"x3" bumper stickers. Available as 30+, 40+, 50+, 60+ and 80+MPG.
In the late 1990s Tom Corbin of Corbin Motors sought to revolutionize the auto industry by creating an all-electric vehicle that would address the fact that most Americans travel to work alone an average of 12 miles each way every day. His solution, the Corbin Sparrow, was a one-seat all-electric car that could travel 50 miles on a single charge at speeds of up to 75 miles and hour. You could re-charge it in about 6 hours by plugging it into a regular wall outlet. It was designed to serve as an inexpensive second vehicle specifically for the solo work commute and other short trips. Myers Motors now apparently owns the technology for the Sparrow, and intends to re-introduce the vehicle. I own one and I love it.
Official site. With a primary focus on conflict resolution, the Foundation's official stated purpose is "to lead and direct the development of a living legacy that captures the vision and values of Nelson Mandela's life and work, and through this contribute to the development of a just, peaceful and democratic world."
Net Impact hopes to shape the future of business by fostering a network of new-generation leaders who are committed to using the power of business to improve the world.
NASC is a 2,500 mile race from Austin, Texas to Calgary, Alberta using only solar-powered vehicles.
Oxfam America is committed to creating lasting solutions to global poverty, hunger, and social injustice.
New York Cities first luxury car service that utilizes hybrid cars to combine luxury and responsibility into one.
Hundreds of amazing 3D panoramas including the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing, Ayers Rock, the Spanish Steps in Rome, the Christo art exhibit in Central Park, and an extensive overview of the best 3d sites on the net.
Participant Productions is a film production company that hopes its films will raise awareness about important social issues, educating audiences and inspiring them to take action. They have produced such films as North Country, Murderball, and Good Night, and Good Luck.
Peace Brigades International (PBI) is a non-governmental organization that protects human rights and promotes nonviolent transformation of conflicts. They've been protecting human rights and promoting non-violence since 1981. When invited, they send teams of volunteers into areas of repression and conflict.
PledgeBank is a site to help people get things done, especially things that require several people. We think that the world needs such a service: lots of good things don't happen because there aren't enough organised people to do them.
If you want to get in touch with our common humanity this is a great site. People post some heartbreaking inner secrets, like, "I wish I were white," or "I never became the success I thought I would be." Some of it is racy and some of it can be cynical and cruel, but I decided to list the site because it pushes the envelope, and because it raises consciousness about the secrets we keep from one another, the cessation of which could begin to transform our world. Don't go too far into any dark places it might take you. Come back here if it gets scary!
A collection of quotes that are "Against Excessive Skepticism." "All great truths begin as blasphemies." - George Bernard Shaw
Run by Jesuits in Ireland, does interpretations of the daily scripture readings for the Catholic Mass. Kind of a like a sanctuary on-line.
Sam's a good friend with a wholistic, transformational approach to fitness. Sign up for his newsletters and you'll get really useful quick tips on improving your diet and staying in shape -- tips that can make a difference and give you some leverage over your body conditioning.
Save the Children is the leading independent organization creating real and lasting change for children in need in the United States and around the world.
Scaled Composites is the creation of maverick aviation engineer Burt Rutan, designer and builder of the Global Flyer -- which circled the globe without refueling, and, most importantly, of Spaceship One -- the first privately built spaceship ever to breach the boundary of earth and space. He and his team won the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE in October of 2004.
Search for Common Ground hopes to transform the way the world deals with conflict. They emphasize cooperative solutions, pursued on a realistic scale and with practical means. Current problems - whether ethnic, environmental, or economic - are simply too complex and interconnected to be settled on an adversarial basis.
Makers of the cool two-wheeled gyroscopic people movers invented by Dean Kamen.
The most amazing cars in the world and they should be selling them in the United States. The Europeans are so much more advanced than we on almost every front except the ability to have nervous breakdowns.
SVN promotes new models and leadership for socially and environmentally sustainable business in the 21st century. They hope to champion this effort through initiatives, information services and forums that strengthen communities and empower their members to work together on behalf of the shared vision.
A very thorough web site that offers rich and compelling space, astronomy and technology content, including information, education, entertainment and business news.
A place to find great, obscure films that focus on the soul. Also offers a convenient spiritual movie club, where you automatically receive new spiritual movies every month on DVD.
Sublime is a bi-monthly international lifestyle magazine with ethical values and intelligent content. It explores community and celebrates diversity and individuality.
Sustainablog is dedicated to news, information and personal meanderings related to environmental and economic sustainability, green and sustainable business, and environmental politics.
A very cool, and huge on-line community of young leaders in over 200 countries creating positive change in their communities and around the world. Very inspiring and very effective.
TED (Technology Entertainment Design) is this amazing conference of outside-of-the-box thinkers from all over the world. It's by invitation only, and it's kinda hard to get in, but the site alone is a great inspiration.
Interesting article questioning the "good" that big companies are really doing with their social outreach and charity programs.
An historic citizen lobbying effort to create a U.S. Department of Peace. The primary function of a United States Department of Peace will be to research, articulate and facilitate nonviolent solutions to domestic and international conflict. The Department of Peace will facilitate the most cutting edge ways to wage peace. From nonviolent communication skills, to conflict resolution techniques and cultural relationship building, the Department of Peace will employ proven and effective strategies for diminishing violence in our country and in our world. As a member of the President's cabinet, the Secretary of Peace will provide the President; the State Department; the Departments of Defense, Education and Justice with greatly expanded problem solving options. The Department of Peace will also provide support for state and local government to address issues of domestic violence.
Jeffrey Sachs is the renowned Columbia economist whose book, "The End of Poverty," makes the case that the end of extreme poverty in the world is, for the first time, within humanity's reach, and it can be captured for an investment of about $50 billion annually.
Barry Goldwater was the architect of the modern Republican Party. A man of great integrity and wisdom, he came down on the side of gay rights when he learned that his grandson was gay, and in 1994 he signed on as honorary co-chairman of a drive to pass a federal law preventing job discrimination against homosexuals. On religion, he said "The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B, C, and D." Barry Goldwater was an original thinker with a tremendous sense of possibility.
The global energy economy is on the brink of a fundamental forced transformation, with enormous market opportunities for new solutions in energy and transportation. Transformation of these sprawling and critical markets requires the educated, cross-disciplinary participation of all stakeholders: engineers and technicians, businesses and professionals, consumers and enthusiasts. Green Car Congress is dedicated to bringing news and analysis of the energy choices, technologies, products, issues and policies related to sustainable mobility to that broad audience.
"The Source Document" was the most enlightened perspective on why hunger persists in the world ever written. The Hunger Project continues to work toward the goal of a world without hunger.
Slow Food, founded in 1986, is an international organization whose aim is to protect the pleasures of the table from the homogenization of modern fast food and life. Through a variety of initiatives, it promotes gastronomic culture, develops taste education, conserves agricultural biodiversity and protects traditional foods at risk of extinction.
Thomas Merton is probably my favorite spiritual writer. Tough as nails but oh so profound. He was a writer and Trappist monk at Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky. His books include classics like The Seven Storey Mountain, New Seeds of Contemplation, and Zen and the Birds of Appetite, but a good introduction to him is just called "Seeds," edited by Robert Inchausti (not to be confused with "New Seeds of Contemplation")
The Trickle Up Program's mission is to help the lowest income people worldwide take the first step up out of poverty, by providing conditional seed capital and business training essential to the launch of a small business.
Jay Shafer is architect who specializes in building tiny homes (100 square feet). His designs, which are a mix of the classic and mountain cabin style, are incredibly cute and functional.
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) -- which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 -- form a blueprint agreed to by all the world's countries and all the world's leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world's poorest..
The United States Institute of Peace is an independent, nonpartisan federal institution created by Congress to promote the prevention, management, and peaceful resolution of international conflicts.
A simple population count for the US and the World that is constantly updated by extrapolating data from the 2000 US Census.
A collection of quotes, facts, and fun things that are weird." Make sure you check out how Bill Gates and 666 are related, freaky.
Wisdom has a cable channel that features a show I love called "Conversations With Remarkable People." The show has featured interviews with Robert Bly, Tich Nhat Hahn, and other amazing people. Wisdom is committed to personal growth, balanced living, and a sustainable future.
A great site for great quotations.
X PRIZE inspires new thinking through competition. Their big claim to fame is that they single-handedly catalyzed the private race to space. The stunning result was the first privately built private spaceship traveling into space, piloted by a real live human being, in October, 2004.
Oh you will love this one. "Supporting you in creating a more just, sustainable and compassionate world." Full of really current news -- very hip, very transformational stuff.
Innovative car rental company. Become a member and you have access to the ZipCar fleet. You can rent a car for a few days or just a few minutes to pop around town. Kind of like borrowing your buddies car for the afternoon without the hassle of "owing" him.
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