All the episodes are great, but I was particularly interested in episode seven, which explores the innovative work of the organization Bush Proof, a company that uses bottom of the pyramid marketing to provide sustainable, eco-friendly products to the world’s poor. Watch the video below, then head on over to Beyond Good Intentions to view the rest.

October 5th was UN World Habitat Day. The theme: planning our urban future.  In honor of this auspicious day, I wanted to highlight  two cool web projects that combine urban-ness with habitat-ness.

The Manhatta Project

The Manhatta Project “un-covers the original ecology of Manhattan. That’s right, the center of one of the world’s largest and most built-up cities was once a natural landscape of hills, valleys, forests, fields, freshwater wetlands, salt marshes, beaches, springs, ponds and streams, supporting a rich and abundant community of wildlife and sustaining people for perhaps 5000 years before Europeans arrived on the scene in 1609. It turns out that the concrete jungle of New York City was once a vast deciduous forest, home to bears, wolves, songbirds, and salamanders, with clear, clean waters jumping with fish. In fact, with over 55 different ecological communities, Mannahatta’s biodiversity per acre rivaled that of national parks like Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Great Smoky Mountains!”  

Habitat of yester- year!  The project allows you to zoom in and learn about this different neighbourhoods of NYC and what they once looked like.  Kinda like Google Earth, but better!

The Places we Live

For a more modern take on habitat, why not check out The Places we Live, by Magnum photographer Jonas Bendiksen (whose work is so brilliant it pretty much makes you want to throw in the towel and never take another photo again.)  For the first time in human history, more people live in cities than in rural areas.  This flash-based website lets you look at images of our urban existence in Mumbai, Nairobi, Caracas and Jakarta.  The images are moving.  Check it out.

*** Post Script: Special thanks to my dear friend Aaron Leaf, knower of all things, and no doubt the original source of the links you find above.  Fo realz.