definitions (what does that mean?)
carbon credits - credits you can purchase and redeem when you use electricity or fuel. A way to reduce one’s carbon footprint by funding projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gases globally.
carbon emissions - the release of carbon into the atmosphere, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. On a practical level, this can be brought down to every light on in the house, and every trip in the car to the store. . .
carbon footprint - this is a measure of the impact that someone’s activities will have on the environment, measured in units of carbon dioxide produced.
CSA - (Community Supported Agriculture) a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes the community's farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. CSA’s focus is usually on a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit, sometimes dairy products and meat.
fairly traded goods - a term used to describe a social-responsibility movement to promote standards for international labor, environmentalism, and social policy.
living wage - the minimum wage necessary for a person to achieve a basic standard of living (being able to afford decent housing, nourishing food, clean water, clothing, basic healthcare, and schooling for children).
micro-business - a term used to describe the kind of small business that can be started by a person who receives a micro-loan (see below).
micro-loan - a very small loan extended to a person who is not considered "bankable" (lacking collateral, steady employment, and a credit history); these loans enable impoverished people to be self-employed by starting micro-businesses, allowing them to generate income, begin to save money, and, in many cases, to exit poverty.
NGO - a "Non-Governmental Organization"; an organization that is not directly part of the structure of a government, and whose works emphasize humanitarian issues, developmental aid, and sustainable development.
organic - food grown or raised without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides or hormones.
trafficked children - children who have been sold, tricked, or exploited into slavery, forced labor, or servitude.
This can happen one of several ways: in the worst case scenario, a parent essentially "sells" her child; the parent is paid by a "trafficker" to allow her child to go work elsewhere. Sometimes the child will wind up in a brothel, being forced into sexual slavery. Sometimes parents know what will happen to their child, and are too desperate to see any other option, and other times parents are tricked, thinking it will provide money for the family and work skills for the child.
Another way children are "trafficked": a teenager is talked into running away with a trafficker in order to find work at a promised "great" wage. When he arrives, it turns out that he is forced to work for free in a factory until he "repays" his trafficker for the transportation costs (usually repayment takes years, if ever possible because of interest).
imagine if we all did . . .
. . . . . .
liNk
There is more to look at than just the price tag when we think about what we wear - let's check into this!
