Across the Change-i-verse

Highlights from the past week's blogging by my fellow Change.org editors and their guest bloggers:

Youth Taking Action: Toilets for a Cleaner Environment and Improved Health: "The toilet is a modern convenience that most of us take for granted, not making the connection between its function, the environment and our health," writes James Bach on the Social Entrepreneurship blog. He speaks with Moses OdhiamboWe about the Eco-San Toilet, and how it can improve the lives of people living in poverty in Kenya. Global warming impacts, water scarcity, environmental justice, etc.

Barack Obama Is the Anti-Frank Luntz: Republican messaging consultant Frank Luntz wrote a now-(in)famous memo in the 1990s on how the GOP could confuse the public on the urgency of climate change action. Apparently he did the same on health care reform. Universal Health Care editor Tim Foley picks up on how President Obama, speaking last week to the American Medical Association, busted some Luntzian myths using memes health care reform advocates might want to adopt.

The Symbolic Vacancy of Katrina Cottages: Internal environmental refugees in America? Read on: "The storm may be long gone, but the afternmath of Hurricane Katrina still affects thousands of people," writes Homlessness editor Shannon Moriarty. "Today, thousands of households remain precariously housed in emergency housing or through government vouchers that will soon expire (3,038 families are housed in emergency trailers and 14,901 households receive rental subsidies)." And yet, there are apparently 700 mobile cottages, owned by FEMA, sitting unused in Mississippi, designed and built post-Katrina for hurricane-prone regions. Is this a sign of things to come as the impacts of global warming displace thousands more?

Related: Katrina Cottage? Not in My Backyard! on the Poverty in America blog.

Pres. Clinton: Carbon Offsets Should be Monitored by EPA, not USDA: Finding some money for agriculture in [the Waxman-Markey clean energy and climate bill], I don't necessarily mind. But stripping the EPA of regulatory authority to determine the effectiveness of carbon offsets? Please, no," writes the inimitable Sustainable Food editor Natasha Chart. "Not when a technical abstract submitted to the USDA's Agricultural Research Service in 2007 describes USDA's soil carbon measurement methods (mandated by Congress, btw) as, 'invasive, costly, and ... time and labor intensive,' and when the research the USDA relies on may often be significantly corrupted by corporate sponsorship. I don't support all aspects of the current climate change bill, but I definitely don't support making its oversight provisions even suckier."

Health and Human Rights - Four Things to Consider: Global Health guest blogger Michael Keizer argue for establishing health as a fundamental human right in national and international law. Human health, global warming impacts, social justice, etc.

Cameron Diaz & Kerry Washington on Environmental Racism: "For those of you who are environmental activists," asks our Poverty in America editor Leigh Graham, "how do you address the disproportionate exposure to environmental toxins that low-income and communities of color face?"

Journalists in Prison: "The recent incarceration of American reporters Euna Lee and Laura Ling in North Korea has drawn the world's attention to their unjust 12-year sentences for illegal entry into the country," writes Criminal Justice editor Matt Kelly. "The pair joins a group of more than 125 reporters in prisons and jails around the world for simply reporting news." Complete with disturbing, well-populated map of where journalists have been incarcerated around the world.