We often hear what is wrong with the environment, and the truth is that we do need to clean up our act so that we don't find cities like Venice - which has experiences recent record flooding - under water completely in the next few years. But there are small victories for the environment every day, and there were at least 10 big ones in 2008. Check out Plantetsave's top ten list here for more info.

1. EPA Required to Regulate CO2 Emissions
2. California’s Proposition 2
3. Sumatran Elephant Sanctuary Expansion
4. 320,000 Acres of Montana Forest Protected
5. Greenpeace Activists Acquitted in the UK
6. Sea Shepherd’s Migaloo Campaign
7. Incandescent Light Bulb Bans
8. Stronger EPA Regulations on Diesel Ships
9. Removal of Two Maine Dams
10. The election of Barack Obama   Read more...

preemptivelove.org is an organization created in 2007 to help save Iraqi children from dying of heart disease after chemical attacks and other affects of war.

The organization works by selling hand-made shoes from Kurdish craftsmen we raise money for kids’ surgeries.   Read more...

The new initiative Fresh2o says that one child dies from dirty water every fifteen seconds. To reduce this statistic, they have designed a campaign to raise awareness of this problem. And since a picture is worth 1,000 words, the UK not-for-profit is using images to inspire others to become educated about water cleanliness.

A photographer named Candice has created a powerful series of underwater portraits designed to, "...connect, engage and motivate consumers worldwide, altering the globe to the fresh water crisis." Many celebrities have joined the cause and have had their underwater portrait taken for the charity. This includes actors, singers and other personalities such as Will Smith, Keira Knightley and Natalie Imbruglia.   Read more...

Playing for Change: Peace through Music is a global collaborative musical project with the goal of uniting people of different cultures, ethnicities and regions. The film and music will be available in 2009.   Read more...

Encore Careers was created for people who want personal fulfillment combined with social impact combined with continued impact. It was created for passionate people who are looking to make a career switch or come out of retirement and do something really meaningful with the rest of their lives.

Their website says, "The Encore Careers campaign is a project of Civic Ventures, a think tank on boomers, work and social purpose. Other initiatives that are part of the Encore Careers campaign include The Purpose Prize, which invests in social innovators over 60; a community college initiative to develop pathways to encore careers; an awards program for employers of people in encore careers; and a pilot fellowship program for boomers in the Silicon Valley."   Read more...

The premise of this idea is that money is one of the fundamental elements of today's society, so changing how money is created and used will change society at a fundamental level! The following are the main propositions of this new currency model:

1. Direct the flow of money towards socially, ecologically and environmentally intelligent producers of goods and services.   Read more...

Egyptian blogger Tarek Amr said he was extremely distraught over the negative news he was finding online. “I was on a verge of a nervous breakdown because whenever I read any of the Egyptian blogs, I find nothing but torture, harassment, demonstrations, etc," he wrote. "Later on, when I started writing for Global Voices, I was required to select and translate blog posts into English for the world to read. At this point I fell in the clutches of a breakdown, it was almost impossible to find that little light at the end of the tunnel, the light that would make the Egyptians feel that Egypt is a beautiful country not a swamp.”

Instead of complaining and continuing the negativity, Amr decided to discuss an initiative with his fellow bloggers and friends. They now dedicate one day of every month to showcase a positive image about their country.   Read more...

Michael Brune is the executive director of Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and a founding board member of Oil Change International, an organization dedicated to dissolving the political barriers to a clean energy transition. Here he cites evidence from a 2001 report which supports that the clean car technology available in 2001 would have saved more oil than is now imported from the Persian Gulf.   Read more...

When Lebanese singer Rima Khcheich was asked to join the Yuri Honing Trio from the Netherlands for a cross-cultural collaboration called "Orient Express" in 2002, a very special and unique musical friendship was forged between her and double bass player Tony Overwater. Since that first project Khcheich and Overwater have frequently performed as a duo, mainly in the Arab world. When I met the two recently in Holland, Khcheich told me that before meeting Honing and his colleagues, she had rarely listened to jazz.

"Having been trained as a classical Arabic vocalist, I was used to singing with an orchestra playing exactly the same melody. So all those strange chords and counter melodies were really very confusing at first."   Read more...

Iqbal Mashih was a Pakistani child-laborer in a carpet factory. Hadijatou Mani was a Nigerian slave. Simon Deng was a child soldier in Sudan's Arab militia. Somaly Mam was a Cambodian brothel-worker and Given Kachepa was sold into slavery in the United States after moving from Zambia with a child choir.

Each one of these former slaves has their own grave story. However, instead of being released and seeking a life of quiet-comfort after so many years of abuse, these people have become activists, hoping to rid the world of such evils and improve the quality of life for others.   Read more...