The notion of ’sustainable consumption and production’ continues to be one of the more persistent and vexing challenges on the sustainability front. The challenge, of course: how to balance global consumers’ seemingly infinite needs, desires, and aspirations with the planet’s decidedly finite resources. Aligning production and consumption at http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gifa sustainable level will require some combination of fixes on both the supply side (technological innovation that produces radical levels of efficiency, for example) and the demand side (promoting and incentivizing responsible and appropriate consumption).

While there seems to be steady progress on the supply side, the demand side of the equation seems unchanged — and stubbornly unchangeable. Consumption levels in both the developed and developing world keep rising, with no end in sight. And consumers seem to continually say one thing and do another, a phenomenon known as the ‘4/40 Gap’: roughly 40% of consumers say they’re willing to buy greener products, but only 4% actually does, at least according to some surveys.

A new publication from the United Nations Environment Programme, Talk the Walk: Advancing Sustainable Lifestyles through Marketing and Communications, attempts to close the 4/40 Gap by promoting the use of mainstream communications and marketing strategies to change consumer attitudes. Say the authors: ‘The key to overcoming barriers to sustainable consumption while making a profit definitely constitutes the Holy Grail for marketers, with potential for delivering double-digit growth for years to come.’

Such bottom-line-enticing come-ons, the authors’ earnestness, and the publication’s slick graphics notwithstanding, it’s a tough sell.

Talk the walk

Stephen Wiltshire has been called the “Human Camera.” In this short excerpt from the film Beautiful Minds: A Voyage into the Brain, Wiltshire takes a helicopter journey over Rome and then draws a panoramic view of what he saw, entirely from memory. Incredibly, however, Wiltshire does not have a photographic memory (according to this article, no one does). While his drawings possess uncanny accuracy — he gets the number of arches in the Colliseum exactly right — they are not like a Xerox. As Oliver Sacks writes in his book An Anthropologist On Mars, “His pictures in no sense resembled copies or photographs, something mechanical and impersonal — there were always additions, subtractions, revisions, and of course, Stephen’s unmistakable style. … Stephen’s drawings were individual constructions, but could they been seen, in a deeper sense, as creations?”

More on photographic memory

found at The Athanasius Kircher Society

Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.
In 2003 there were 15 million refugees and internally displaced persons in the world. This map shows the origins of both combined. The origins are the territories these people came from. The difference between refugees and internally displaced persons is that the former are outside their territory of origin, whilst the latter have stayed within national borders. The movement of these people is based on their ‘fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion’ (UNHCR, 1951).

more maps by worldmapper

An expedition to one of Asia’s most isolated jungles – in the mist-shrouded Foja Mountains of western New Guinea – discovered a virtual ‘Lost World’ of new species, giant flowers, and rare wildlife that was unafraid of humans.

The December 2005 trip by a team of U.S., Indonesian, and Australian scientists led by Conservation International (CI) found dozens of new species including frogs, butterflies, plants, and an orange-faced honeyeater, the first new bird from the island of New Guinea in more than 60 years.

Conservation International and the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) sponsored the expedition, with financial support from the Swift Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the National Geographic Society and the Global Environment Project Institute.

The team captured the first photos ever seen of exotic birds such as a male Berlepsch’s Six-Wired Bird of Paradise (Parotia berlepschi). It also found a new large mammal for Indonesia – the Golden-mantled Tree Kangaroo (Dendrolagus pulcherrimus), formerly known from only a single mountain in neighboring Papua New Guinea.

continue article lost paradise

Mass products meet luxury

In their latest collection, Big-game questions the meaning of accessories and offers new alternatives to jewellery. This series of objects entitled “NEW RICH” results from the confrontation between mass products and luxury.

When gold replaces plastic, democratic and functional objects become exclusive in a subtle way.

“We’ve picked standard, universal products, and replaced a part of each object by an equivalent in gold”, explains Elric Petit. “We love the shrewd blend between the down-to-earth functionalism of mass-products and the ultimate precious material: gold”

The scenography of Big-game’s exhibition in Köln reflects this ambiguity as it is inspired by black-market peddlers. The black suitcase that serves as a display stand for the objects is regularly carried around the fair grounds to meet visitors.

“Why buy a luxury lighter when you can have a deluxe BIC lighter?” asks Adrien Rovero.

Pimp your Bic pen, Apple headphones, Bic lighter, Swatch watch, brummagem jewellery and drawing pins with the “New Rich” collection!