My house is shrinking!

2010, International Biodiversity Year

Welcome to the International Year of Biodiversity

You are an integral part of nature; your fate is tightly linked with biodiversity, the huge variety of other animals and plants, the places they live and their surrounding environments, all over the world.
You rely on this diversity of life to provide you with the food, fuel, medicine and other essentials you simply cannot live without. Yet this rich diversity is being lost at a greatly accelerated rate because of human activities. This impoverishes us all and weakens the ability of the living systems, on which we depend, to resist growing threats such as climate change.
The United Nations proclaimed 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity, and people all over the world are working to safeguard this irreplaceable natural wealth and reduce biodiversity loss. This is vital for current and future human wellbeing. We need to do more. Now is the time to act.
The International Year of Biodiversity is a unique opportunity to increase understanding of the vital role that biodiversity plays in sustaining life on Earth.

Take Action in 2010 and beyond, becauseBiodiversity is life
Biodiversity is our life

UN Secretary General Welcome Message for the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity from CBD on Vimeo.

Buying With the Brain: Neurology and the New Wave of Online Advertising

You may think that you've taken preemptive measures, and are immune to the pop-up barrages and other advertising gimmicks typical of online retail sites. But according to a recent article in the New York Times, you're probably just as vulnerable as ever.That's because more and more retailers are employing advertising techniques based on something called neuromarketing -- the neurological study of how people make consumptive decisions. Like many things these days, it seems that advertising -- and online ads in particular -- have become a lot more science and a lot less art. Instead of marketing to demographics, Web retailers are basically marketing to neurons, thanks to a slew of studies. For example, one study showed that a picture of a couch with a blue background elicited neural reactions in viewers that gave them a sense of calm and allowed them to identify with the comfort of the product. Another study showed that text placed on the right side of an item exerted a greater influence on a customer's brain than did text running down the left side.
The underlying principle doesn't really seem that new. People have long known that certain colors elicit specific emotions and that particular proportions are intrinsically more pleasing to the eye than others. The only difference here is the environment. The Internet, for all its pop-up and banner pageantry, is a comparatively spartan marketplace: no window displays or seasonal music. Just images, text, and design. Working with this limited palette, then, it's no wonder that marketers and agencies have gone this far in penetrating the psyche of the consumer.

by Amar Toor — Dec 23rd 2009 (from New York Times))

Advertising

"Often advertising is not about keeping up with the Joneses, but about separating you from them. That's especially true of advertising directed at a particular group, such as adolescents or young-adults - it's called 'dog-whistle' adversiting because it goes out at frequencies only dogs can hear."

"Advertising sets us up to feel dissatisfied - even if we think we have everything we need, ads will still try to convince us that there is something else we need."

"Advertisers try to show us how much more satisfied, popular, happy, hip, attractive, sexy, fun and in control we would be if we had their product."

"Fashion and trends are always changing so that we must continually spend money to be current."

"Advertising stresses competition and status versus feeling good about being who you are and accepting others for who they are."

How big is your ecological footprint?

The use of natural resources and production of pollution degrade the life-support systems on Earth. This causes natural cycles and ecosystems to be less able to perform the vital functions that support all life on Earth.

Both high consumption or usage of resources, particularly in countries of the North, and population numbers contribute to our impact on the environment. The impact of all our activities can be likened to an imprint or 'footprint' on Earth. This imprint is referred to as our 'Ecological Footprint'.

How big is your ecological footprint?

It is possible to calculate a personal Ecological Footprint, using a 'Footprint Calculator'. A Footprint Calculator may ask questions about the way you live, the kinds of meals you eat, the modes of transport you regularly use, the amount of long-distance travel you do, the kind and size of house you live in, and so on.

Calculate your ecological footprint here:

http://www.myfootprint.org/

What is sustainable consumption?

What we decide to buy is influenced by many factors, including our age and health, place of residence, income and wealth, social beliefs and even our moods.

Sustainable consumption asks us to consider issues that go beyond the individual when we shop. These include not only the ecological impacts of what we buy but also the equity, human rights and political dimensions of sustainability in the production and consumption process. These aspects of sustainable consumption provide guidelines on how to reduce the social and ecological impacts of what we consume.

For example, the Internet Just Shoppers' Guide suggests criteria to consider when buying such everyday things as chocolate, sports shoes, tuna, laundry detergent, soft drinks, paper, timber, clothing, and so on.

Guidelines such as these are not designed to make us feel guilty, but to encourage us to ask questions such as:
Do I really need this item?
Can I produce it myself?

And then, when we have decided to buy something, to think critically about each stage in the 'life-cycle' of a product:
Production
Transport and Retailing
Use
Disposal

There are many definitions of sustainable consumption, but most share a number of common features, including an emphasis on:

Satisfying basic human needs (not the desire for 'wants' and luxuries);
Favouring quality of life over material standards of living;
Minimising resource use, waste and pollution;
Taking a life-cycle perspective in consumer decision-making; and
Acting with concern for future generations.

As a result, Nick Robins and Sarah Roberts of the International Institute for Environment and Development suggest that a comprehensive definition of sustainable consumption needs to be grounded in a wider range of environmental, social equity and moral concerns - such as those explored in this module. They summarised these as:

Environmental damage

The extraction, production, use and disposal of many goods and services cause serious environmental problems such as resource depletion, energy wastage, pollution of the air, water and land, and growth in the levels of solid, toxic and hazardous wastes.

Poverty

While many people around the world, especially in the North, live lives of abundance and affluence, over a billion people still lack access to supplies of safe water, adequate sanitation, energy and nutrition.

Health

The production of many consumer goods cause extensive damage to human health through air and water pollution. While pollution is a major cause of premature death in the South, many diseases in the North are now considered 'lifestyle' diseases with people dying from the over-indulgence brought on by affluence.

Economic efficiency

Conventional development models have sought to compensate for the above problems by attempting to incorporate more people into consumer economy through economic growth (the proverbial 'bigger cake'). This has often been at the expense of changes in the distribution and pattern of consumption, which can be more cost-effective and resource efficient.

Global environmental change

Industrial, commercial and domestic energy use, especially in the transport sector, is the major source of greenhouse gases while air-conditioning and refrigeration are significant causes of ozone depletion. These global environmental threats can be addressed by changes in the design and construction of buildings and transport systems.

Quality of life

Increasing material affluence does not necessarily lead to a better quality of life due to the degradation of the human environment and the erosion of social relationships that it can bring.

Taking such principles into account, sustainable consumption can be defined in the following way:

Sustainable consumption integrates a range of social, economic and political practices at the individual, household, community, business and government levels that support and encourage:
reducing the direct environmental burden of producing, using and disposing goods and services;
meeting basic needs for key consumption goods and services, such as food, water, health, education and shelter;
maximising opportunities for sustainable livelihoods in the South;
consuming goods and services that contribute positively to the health and well-being of women and children;
increasing the development and adoption of energy and water efficient appliances, public transport and other demand-side measures, such as the production and sale of new goods and services adapted to global environmental constraints and lifestyles that place greater value on social cohesion, local traditions and non-material values.

http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/TLSF/theme_b/mod09/uncom09t06.htm

Consumption and the Environment

The consumption of the average U.S. citizen requires eighteen tons of natural resources per person per year and generates an even higher volume of wastes (including household, industrial, mining, and agricultural wastes). Some of these wastes are released to the atmosphere, rivers, and oceans; others are landfilled or incinerated; a small proportion are recycled. The standard conception of economic development envisions the rest of the world’s population as moving steadily up the ladder of mass consumption, eventually achieving levels similar to those achieved by the United States and some European economies. Clearly, the environmental implications of the global spread of mass consumption for resource use and environmental waste absorption are staggering. Should not this promote some rethinking of economic theories of consumption, which for the most part have ignored resource and environmental implications?

http://www.cbe.wwu.edu/dunn/rprnts.2005.10.10Harris.pdf

Please Help the World - COP15 Opening Film

Please Help the World - COP15 Opening Film

"Please Help the World", film from the opening ceremony of the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 (COP15) in Copenhagen from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. Shown on December 7, 2009 at COP15.

YOMAG

Yomag.net is an internet magazine by and for young people from all over the world. It is targeted for those of you who are concerned about lifestyles, globalization of the world, sustainable development, economy, ecology, but also music, internet, advertisement and its psychology, traveling and many others. Everyone who has anything to say and has the ambition and courage to become a real journalist can write articles and send them for publishing.

Yomag is an enormous pot of critical opinions, ideas and views. Everyone who wants can express his/her opinion, either by publishing his own article, or by a comment to an article. You can write and discuss for instance about whether the poor nations should be forgiven debts, or whether it is ethical to ban using animal furs in fashion industry, or how Bill Gates is going on making yet another blasts and so on. You have the right to express your opinion, be it whatever, unless it does not insult or offend the rights of others.

Everyone who wants to publish anything has the possibility to get his/her free journalist electronic account.

You can send your articles and comments in English, Czech, and German. For each language, we have created its own domain www.yomag.net, http://www.yomag.cz/ and http://www.yomag.de/.

Advertising...

"Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it."

Stephen Leacock

(a Canadian writer and economist)

Advertising in schools

The targeted teen - why us?

Schools - It is a well known fact that the trend of advertising is becoming a larger one day by day. Ads are everywhere!

On TV, billboards, magazines, newspapers, internet, libraries, gyms...we can't escape them! However, the number of companies and brands that target teens are also increasing. We are unaware of the millions that are spent by companies every year to examine our likes, dislikes e.t.c. And just when we thought they'd had enough of trying to influence vulnerable teenage minds, they take advertising a step further - advertising in schools!

Advertising in schools is just an addition to all the ads teenagers are already made to face. Like enough pressure isn't applied on us in school already, advertisements just feel like an unnecessary burden. This is why many teenagers are likely to give in to ads. Many companies spend every second of the day figuring out how us teenagers feel, respond and consume. Is this fair on us? Being surrounded by ads, even though we may not think so, restricts us from making free choices when we buy. Seeing advertisements in school just makes things worse. As a group of teenagers, we are very persuadable, and are eager to respond to what's offered to us as the best, latest, trendiest and coolest must have.

Companies and what they promise

Companies use many different techniques to persuade us to buy their products. As for companies that advertise in schools, they try and take full advantage of the fact that our fellow pupils in school have a huge impact on our thinking. Many companies make us believe that using their product will give us a higher status and popularity - which is what every teenager desires. Some ads `make our dreams come true`, while others make us feel that if we don't own a particular label, design or style, we are not acceptable. You simply gotta have it, otherwise, you're made to think you're missing out.

Ads in schools

In schools, there are unlimited ways of advertising directly to students. Here in Britain, direct advertising to students can be found on:

- Coupons, with which we are rewarded for good work. We can be given coupons for McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Domino's Pizza, which then provide us with free drinks, French fries, burgers or pizza as a reward.

- School lunch menus, which often promote and serve foods with brand names.

- School buses. Most buses have sold ad space on the sides and even on the tops of school buses. - Student organizers and other products sold in school to students.

- Soft drink and vending machines. Schools can bargain for exclusive contracts with soft drink suppliers like Coke and Pepsi.

- Commercial search engines, web sites and student newspapers.

- Educational web sites for revision and studies.

Positive factors

Some adverts in schools do have a positive side to them, even though this rarely happens. Let's take a look at a few of them:

They can give us information about goods, services or facilities which we are not aware of.

They can be entertaining and fun, as well as beautiful and witty.

Some adverts help charities to get their message across and remind us of people in need of help, compassion and prayer.

Negative factors

However, despite the few thumbs up for advertising in schools, there are more negative factors which should be taken into account:

Students may find adds distractive during studies and lessons.

Some ads promote junk food and poor eating habits, causing obesity among young people - this may be why obesity in young people is very common in Britain.

Ads can be very persuasive and can lead us to make poor choices. Some ads use `skinny` and `perfect` role models to promote a particular body image. This can make us feel too big or fat, and therefore contribute to eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia.

Ads for particular gadgets, clothing e.t.c, can pressurize teens to take on a certain image and put pressure on parents to purchase these items.

Our say

I personally believe that, no matter how hard we try, advertising pressure does affect our choices. We prefer to buy products that are heavily marketed and goods that all our friends own, even if it is something we do not need. Amazingly, even though we know that all promises companies make to us are false, we are pressurized into buying more advertised yet expensive products. I believe that there are limits to advertising in schools. Once those limits are crossed, sponsoring and advertising in schools is unacceptable. I think the conditions under which commercial activities in schools can be accepted are:

- If they enhance student achievement.

- Enhance student nutrition.

- Don't come in the path of education in schools.

However, as you can see, these conditions are limited. I believe the following restrictions should be put in place when allowing a company to sponsor or advertise in a school:

- They shouldn't promote disorder or violence.

- Shouldn't attack ethnic, racial or religious groups.

- Shouldn't promote any religious or political organisation.

- Shouldn't promote the use of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, firearms, or any products that create community concerns.

- Shouldn't be obscene or pornographic.

- Shouldn't discriminate, demean, harass or ridicule any person or group on the basis of gender. Luckily, in my school, all these restrictions are put in place. I couldn't imagine my school allowing any of this to take place, and I am glad of this.

Fighting back - knowing how the ad industry works

In school, we are taught a lot about how the advertising industry works. Even though this has the slightest affect on our thinking, having the knowledge of how ad industries try to manipulate our minds, is quite interesting and helpful. It makes us aware of how the ad people see us - as just a bunch of vulnerable minds which they can scam into buying their products. We are taught that advertising industries cleverly try to mislead us into thinking that their product is unique and exceptional, when a similar product - that is unadvertised - may be on offer at a smaller price. We are also told that ads are never truthful - otherwise the products we see on T.V would not be as meaningful to us, as they are. We must evaluate product claims, but never trust the source of the claim. I am not fully satisfied with what school teaches us about advertisement and how it works. Obviously, they must be lacking somewhere if we can still be persuaded into buying marketed products.

Overall, I believe advertising and sponsoring in schools is not such a great idea. However, under certain circumstances, I don't see any harm in it. It will bring in extra money for the school, and this can contribute towards any expenses that the school management have to face. My high school generally does brilliantly in dealing with any companies that come in our direction, therefore, me and my fellow students consider ourselves extremely lucky to be a part of this school.

How does advertising affect us? How can we tackle the pressure? Shouldn't schools stay free of commercial activities?

http://www.yomag.net/657-the-targeted-teen-why-us/

Have you ever been the victim of an unfair commercial practice?

European Commission goes “out-of-the-box” to help consumers

The Health & Consumers Directorate-General of the European Commission is launching a campaign to help consumers become more aware of their rights. Recent EU legislation, the Unfair Commercial Practices (UCP) Directive, provides clear criteria for judging whether commercial practices are unfair and includes a “Black List” of certain unfair commercial practices that are banned outright. An unfair commercial practice is, for example, misleading or untruthful advertising. To check out the full list with examples, please visit the campaign website: www.isitfair.eu

Consumption

When World War II ended a new system was born based on capital, offer and demand and massive consumption: capitalism. Most of the people were happy and satisfied with this totally recent system at the beginning, but soon got to cope with capitalism’s worst problems. My belief is that this is a wrong way to organise either the society or the economy, as it can be seen with the huge destruction is has and will create.
As we all know consumption or more precisely the act of buying is very addicting and irresistible and has made people more selfish, close minded and covetous since all they want to do is to have more possessions and keep it for them (don’t borrow much). Another problem is that people are so much persuaded to buy (even if they don’t have money) that they get involved in many credits and this leads to personal bankruptcy. This can also result in bank bankruptcy as they don’t get the credits repaid which leads to the sinking of the financial system (and consequently the explosion of unemployment).
But on the other hand it creates economic expansion as it gets money into the economy. This way many charity institutions and green energy programs can be raised and help the poor and the environment. Another fact is that it can help making people happier and keeping up the level of global satisfaction. This is only viable if consumption is kept on moderate levels, because it maintains the economy stable.
In conclusion, although it can make people a bit happier and create charity and environmental institutions, I believe that we shouldn’t keep this system because it makes people arrogant and selfish and implies the destruction of the financial system. Would you prefer to have more possessions or maintain your job and the economy stable?

By Yashar Sabaz - 11º 10 (2009/2010)

Giving advice to a shopaholic

Dear Jennifer,

As you already know, I’m Anita Sousa, a psychologist here in women’s lifestyle magazine. My job is to give advice to people who ask for it, so I’m only helping those who really want to be helped, just like you.
After reading your letter I could understand exactly what your problem was. You may not know, but the fact that you consider yourself a shopaholic is a huge and very important step. In order to give you the right advice, I’m making a list of some vital tips for you to strictly follow, at least on this first phase:
· Hire/ask for someone to manage all your bills – this way you won’t be dealing with money, so you’ll control what you spend better.
· Think before buying, for instance… “Do I need all this stuff?” – probably the answer will be “no”, so you’ll stop buying useless things.
· After paying all your credit card debts cancel them, as well as your debit cards, because using these ways of payment makes you forget that you’re spending real money.
· Talk to your family about this – establishing dialogues with the ones you care about gives you the strength you need to get over all your problems.
If these tips find out to be useless, please write me again or consult a psychiatrist.

Faithfully,

Anita Sousa

(11º4 - 2009/2010)

TV Commercial: Vim

Clean advertising

Campaign for Real Beauty

Campaign for real Beauty

Beauty is averageness

She's pretty, isn't she?

Wish you looked like her?

Pity she doesn't exist.

Just like most of the people you see in this magazine.

This girl's face is the compilation of the faces of 64 individual girls.

BEAUTY IS AVERAGENESS!

The only reason you want to look like this...

is because WE TELL YOU THAT YOU DO!

It's an UNREALISTIC and UNACHIEVABLE goal.

Good news is: If you're average looking, you're beautiful already.

TV Commercial: Ariston

TV Commercial: Coca-Cola

Body Image & Self Esteem

Advertising and its appeal to society

Today we live in a society that is being dominated and confounded by commercials and ads. A new age, which could be referred to as the advertising age where commercials and ads tell us what is a necessity and what isn't.

Advertisements are located everywhere. No one can go anywhere without seeing at least one advertisement. These ads, as they are called, are an essential part of every type of media. They are placed in television, radio, magazines, and can even be seen on billboards by the roadside. Advertisers' main purpose is to influence the consumer to purchase their product. The people that typically fit into this category of consumers are people that buy items to fit in or to impress people. Sometimes ads can be misleading in ways that confuse the consumer to purchase the product for reasons other than the actual product was designed for. Advertisers influence consumers by alluding the consumer into buying this product over a generic product that could perform the same task, directing the advertisement towards a certain audience, and developing the ad where it is visually attractive.

Ads and commercials have flourished everywhere like a virus, once it strikes there is no way we can remove the marks it left behind. It creates this blurry, confusing picture, a "murky picture" as Gossage stated, which most people won't find the genuine truth behind what the product really mean and if its really useful or not. Advertising forces consumers into buying products by manipulation which make the customers buy products they think are good for them when in fact it isn't and they do this by appealing in their innermost desires. Advertisers are aware of the cultural need of acceptance and people's insecurities and takes advantage of these desires to persuade people into buying their products.

www.oppapers.com/essays (abridged and adapted)

Advertising: information or manipulation?

Advertising, a word that is synonym to the word marketing, has a rich back round. When we talk about marketing the first things that come to our mind are money, goods, services, and of course consumers. Advertising’s role should only exist in order to help society by real information about products and services, decide what to purchase according to people’s actual needs. One definition of advertising is: "Advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media."(Bovee, 1992, p. 7). We could separate advertising in two categories. Giving information through advertising about a product is the first category that is innocent when facing the costumers. The second category has a manipulative effect on people. People exposed to specific advertisements are led to buy goods and services or do things that don’t actually want to do.

Information is defined as knowledge, facts or news. However, we should bear in mind that one person's information is another person's trick, particularly when advertisers talk about their products. Information comes in many forms. It can be complete or incomplete. It can be biased or misleading. Complete information is telling someone everything there is to know about something: what it is, what it looks like, how it works, what its benefits and drawbacks are. On the other hand, to provide complete information about anything is time consuming and hard. All of this would require a documentary, not a commercial. Complete information is impossible to provide in an advertisement. Thus, for advertising, information must of necessity be incomplete.

http://www.oppapers.com/essays (abridged and adapted)

New Year's resolutions

New Year's Eve has always been a time for looking back to the past, and more importantly, forward to the coming year.

It's a time to reflect on the changes we want (or need) to make and resolve to follow through on those changes.

These are popular resolutions:

* Spend more time with family & friends

* Get organized

* Save more money

* Spend less

* Help others

* Quit smoking

* Get fit

* Recycle more

* Learn something new

* Enjoy life more

*...

What about you? Have you made your New Year's resolutions?