K. Nicole Kindred – Sustainability Consultant

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to attend World Pulse LIVE at the Paley Center for Media in New York City.

World Pulse is an organization that strives to bring a voice to women around the globe using new technology and media. One example of this was in the My Camera and Me against a Regime video – a video that was uploaded from a mobile phone by a women who was arrested during a Sudanese protest. World Pulse allows for an online area where women can come together to find and share their success stories.

For World Pulse LIVE, Martha Llano from Colombia, Beatrice Achieng from Uganda, and Sarvina Kang from Cambodia were selected to come to the US to discuss how they are using new media and technology to facilitate them as grassroots leaders.

The women told powerful stories of how they found their voices. In Martha’s talk she spoke about the dangers of living in the Columbia cloud forest and how she had learned to overcome the dangers. When people told her she should carry a gun, she refused, saying “I will not take a gun to speak for me, because I have my own voice and words”. She emphasized the importance of thinking globally and acting locally.

Sarvina told her story of being the only literate individual in a family of 35. She was the only girl in her family and her village to go to college and now has her Master’s in NGO leadership. She emphasized the importance of education for women in creating change and preventing social problems like sex trafficking.

Beatrice told her story of growing up in Uganda and her emphasis on HIV prevention and education. She emphasized how if you give hope to one girl, a grassroots leader will emerge. She told the story of how when her last brother died of AIDS, her mother lost all hope because only men can own land in Uganda; however, after she told her story on the World Pulse platform, the World Pulse members emphasized that they were behind her and she stood up to her village for the land and was able to keep it.

When asked what the women thought would be most beneficial to their communities in spreading their voice, all three women emphasized that their was a lack of technology in their communities, and solar panels would be an easy remedy.

World Pulse LIVE is also available launching an online tour for individuals who are not able to attend the event in person.

On Thursday, December 4 Cascadia BC hosted a talk by artist Noel Harding entitled “Artist as Environmental Urban Innovator”.

One of Noel Harding’s more well know pieces of work was the “Elevated Wetlands” in Toronto (pictured above). This project was commissioned by the plastics industry to create a piece of public artwork for the city of Toronto. Noel discussed how he came up with the idea of the elevated wetlands and the process of the production.

Currently, Noel is working on a project in Windsor, ON, just across the USA border. This project is called the Green Corridor and sits on one of the only Mexico – Canada highway routes. The project is on a highly industrial area and Noel took it upon himself to find opportunities for the ‘crappy buildings’ in the area. This project is in collaboration with the University of Windsor and the broader Windsor community as well as stakeholder that use the land (ie, the large number of truck drivers that pass through every day.) The area that is being used for the project is a 2 km area of land just across the border in Canada. Projects include a green overpass walkway with wind turbines, floating rehabilitating gardens in the river, green residential homes and an educational wetland and urban park area. The project is a good example of a collaborative urban planning project that utilizes various disciplines to create a functional and aesthetic urban environment.

While Noel mostly gave examples of his projects his underlying message was that all his projects are small symbols of what can be possible on the broad scale. While the 2 km area of land is being transformed into a more ecologically and socially friendly area of town it is primarily a symbol of what can be possible on a larger scale.

I found many of his ideas to be very interesting and quite simple. For example, the idea of putting wind turbines on highway overpasses to generate power from cars passing underground is genius in it’s simplicity.

The technology and designs exist to create a more sustainable world, it is merely a matter of implementing what already exists.

A short animated film on the Green Corridor: