Africa · Eco-Chick

Browsing all posts tagged with Africa

Stars Come Down to Earth

Not surprisingly, now that environmentalism is ‘hot’, the stars are coming out in support of various green causes. Of course some notable celebrities have long shined light on various aspects of the environmental movement (Leo, Darryl, and Woody, I’m talkin’ about you!)

So I was really excited when I found out that two smart folks had joined my US Magazine reading self (only online! I swear!), and green obsessive self on a new site. Ecorazzi gossips about stars do-greening all over the place, and offers plenty of funny and snarky commentary. Those celebs that do the green thing deserve recognition, and Ecorazzi gives it to them. Via: Treehugger

Speaking of going green, America’s Royalty has been busy:

Hollywood stars Orlando Bloom and Kate Bosworth joined 60,000 festival-goers at Japan’s Fuji Rock festival to bless the launch of Global Cool.

According to Morrell, Fuji Rock’s spotless credentials as a carbon neutral festival singled the three-day event out as the ideal launch pad for Global Cool and it’s ten year plan to cut global CO2 emissions by 10 billion tons. Via: Hugg

Brad Pitt, a lover of architecture with green roots, is helping to judge the Global Green competition Green Building Designs for New Orleans.

All of the submissions feature green building principles for affordable housing complexes that would save residents money by reducing energy costs. The designs improve the health of the community and reduce the impact on the environment. They will also serve as model projects for the healthy green rebuilding of New Orleans.
Via: RemyC

Charlize Theron is into Hip and Zen, which has launched a new South African-based line.

“Online retailer HIP & ZEN specializing in sophisticated, sustainable and organic products, has announced the launch of its new South African Chic Collection. This unique offering of handcrafted fashion accessories and artifacts designed by South African artisans brings awareness to the rich creative culture of the region and benefits women and children with AIDS via the Topsy Foundation . Via: Ecorazzi

accessories, Africa, architecture, brad pitt, car, carbon, celebrities, children, community, design, emissions, Energy, Fashion, health, Hollywood, magazine, model, New Orleans, Organic, reduce, sustainable, treehugger, Vote, women, wood

Excuse Me, There’s Blood on Your Diamond

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by Starre Vartan · 07/06/06

“I don’t understand about diamonds, and why men buy them. What’s so impressive about a diamonds except the mining?”

—Fiona Apple

Many of the prisoner-laborers who work Sierra Leone’s open-pit mines end up in shallow graves, executed for suspected theft, for lack of production, or simply for sport. (© Jean-Claude Coutausse/ CONTACT Press Images)

A few years ago, I asked for jewelry for Christmas; I wanted my boyfriend to give me something that I could wear and be reminded of him. When he gave me a pretty sapphire and diamond necklace, I tried not to be horribly disappointed. After I explained why I wasn’t into the gift, he gallantly returned the expensive necklace and exchanged it for a gorgeous green amber amulet for half the price. Amber I can love: Composed from the preserved living blood of a tree, it often contains pockets of ancient air, or even an unlucky insect, and catches the light in ways that a diamond never could.

Maybe its because I studied Geology in college that I see diamonds differently than most women. To me they are just cold carbon chains, unique from common coal and graphite only in the way the atoms line up. Diamonds have a crystalline lattice structure as opposed to coal’s earthy conglomerate one.

But I’ve determined that its neither geology nor taste that is the real reason that I don’t want a diamond ring (or teardrop earrings, or a honking diamond necklace when I strike it rich) one day. It’s the fact that the majority of diamonds are made from the backbreaking labor of the African people who mine them (who make about $30 a week officially, but usually make half that) and the Indian people who cut and polish them (the average price to cut a stone is about .25) Diamonds are also used to fund wars: Rebel leaders in Sierra Leone have used diamonds to pay for weapons that have thus far killed 75,000 and left 12 million homeless. Since Americans buy 65% of the world’s diamonds, you can bet our lust for the gems has financed murders.

Most poor countries have few laws to protect the environment and even less to enforce them. Diamond mining opens gaping holes in the Earth and pollutes the water as topsoil and mine ‘tailings’ (toxic chemicals) wash into surrounding waterways. I’ve seen this first-hand in the US, where there are regulations, and lets just say ‘destroyed landscape’ pretty much sums it up.

On top of all of this, diamonds are a racket. It costs less than $10.00 to dig a .8 carat diamond out of the ground, polish it, and ship it to the US, where it will be sold for $1000 or more. Diamonds are only valuable because companies set artificial price controls. Diamond marketers spend billions yearly on advertising to convince us that diamonds mean love, power and exclusivity, when really they are plentiful and cheap.

From Wikipedia:

The production and distribution of diamonds is largely consolidated in the hands of a few key players, and concentrated in traditional diamond trading centers (the most important being Antwerp). The De Beers company holds a clearly dominant position in the industry, and has done so since soon after its founding in 1888. De Beers owns or controls a significant portion of the world’s rough diamond production facilities (mines) and distribution channels for gem-quality diamonds. The company and its subsidiaries own mines that produce some 40 percent of annual world diamond production. At one time it was thought over 80 percent of the world’s rough diamonds passed through the Diamond Trading Company (DTC, a subsidiary of De Beers) in London, but presently the figure is estimated at less than 50 percent. De Beers used its monopoly position to establish strict price controls, and market diamonds directly to consumers in world markets.

You can read more about Amenesty International’s experience with diamond mines here. And don’t let me get into gold mining…(that will have to be a future post).

If you or your loved one insists on a diamond, there are thousands of vintage stones out there; you can use one to create a new ring or necklace, or enjoy a more old-fashioned style. There are also many great sustainable jewelry companies out there, and there IS the option of ‘conflict-free’ diamonds from Canada, but for me, the environmental consequences of any kind of mining are too extreme to justify it, even if the miners are paid a fair wage.

Africa, cape, car, carbon, Christmas, coal, conflict, Fashion, Home, India, Jewelry, labor, London, oil, produce, Shopping, spa, sport, style, sustainable, Tea, trike, vintage, water, women

Shea Yummy

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by Starre Vartan · 06/22/06

This is my new summer moisturizer. I’ve always loved shea butter, but I had never found one that fit all my criteria (fair trade, organic, and unrefined).

Made from the nut of the shea tree that grows in West Africa (above), shea butter is naturally high in antioxidants, super-moisturizing, and makes skin really, really soft. The shea tree is not cultivated (so nuts are wild harvested) and takes about 40 years to mature. The tree is considered sacred and so are the nuts, which can be eaten.

I usually use olive or other veggie oils doused with aromatherapy after I shower because my skin is so dry, which works pretty well. But plain shea butter makes my skin silky (like they say in the commercials…but this is for real.)

Robyn Tisdale Scott, R.PH., Pharm.D. makes the Purely Natural shea butter (top picture) and she explains:

“Most commercially available shea butter products use refined shea butter and therefore lack the vital healing factors needed to provide true therapeutic benefits. This is because they are chemically extracted using dangerous petroleum by-products (hexane), and dangerously refined by bleaching, neutralized with toxic lye, and extremely over-heated.

Africa, Fair Trade, Moisturizer, oil, oils, Organic, rape, silk, skin, summer

UnCommon Scents

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by Kimberly Jordan Allen · 01/10/06

There is nothing more odious (pardon the impending pun) than that heavy, pungent perfume you can smell from a mile away. And many of us have spent time perusing the shelves of that ubiquitous modern shrine to plasticity called Sephora only to leave with a pounding headache that has that “fake vanilla” scent stamped all over it.

Ugh.

I have been a true scent-junky for at least fifteen years and recently, upon applying a commercial fragrance, noticed I started sneezing almost instantly. I started to wonder just what exactly is in these products we apply on a daily basis. Being one who tries to always buy organic, it dawned on me that my personal doctrine to “stay natural” had not penetrated my hankering for smells.

Many companies, even those claiming to be “natural”, use synthetic fragrance and chemical additives such as preservatives and artificial coloring, and contain dangerous chemicals such as phtalates that are proven endocrine disruptors whose activity has been found to mimic hormonal signals in the body.

There are what I have always considered to be more natural alternatives to smelling like “Calvin Clone,” but often you end up smelling like a head shop or your grandma’s lavender garden when using organically derived essential oils. Some of us like smelling like a head shop, but for those who want something more unique, there are some interesting alternatives.

Rich Hippie is a line of completely organic, wild-crafted perfume, founded in LA. Through the use of carefully selected plant extracts and the implementation of traditional perfumery practices, Rich Hippie has created an environmentally conscious fragrance line that is original and hip.

The line boasts scents such as “Psychedelic – a sensual, lush, mysterious and romantic scent with extracts of organic Madagascan vanilla bean, organic ginger root and organic sweet orange peel,” “Nirvana” – a “unisex scent with extracts of organic sandalwood, West Indian bay leaf and organic Italian bergamot peel,” and “Wild Thing – an intoxicating, romantic, and sensual floral with rare Indian jasmine, Albanian Orris root and Egyptian rose.” There is also the signature scent, “Rich Hippie” – a “hip, bohemian, seductive floral with extracts of exotic African flowers, Madagascan Vanilla bean and Guatemalan Cardamom.”

These perfumes ain’t cheap, at an average of $85.00 per 1/2oz, but to support a small company that is investing in organic farming practices is worthwhile compared to the minimum $35 to $40 that is typically spent on factory-made fragrances that are known health hazards. According to the FDA, perfume companies don’t have to publish their ingredients anywhere, because they are considered “trade secrets”. Through growing consumer pressure to monitor cosmetics companies and clearly substantiate the safety of perfumes and other products, the FDA has clearly delineated its authority over this domain on its website This means there is no way for us to know what is in common colognes until independent labs do their own analysis and there aren’t a lot of scientists lining up to joust with big name cosmetics.

California is actually the first state in the union to implement the “Safe Cosmetics Act,” signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2005, which states that manufacturers must disclose (to the state) any ingredient that is on state or federal lists of chemicals linked to cancer or birth defects.

For more information on what is actually in your beauty products see NOT TOO PRETTY, SAFE COSMETICS and how they are affecting the environment see MARINE LIFE