Hailing from sewing rooms to social media venues, people are ready to go against the tide to have their voices heard.

Sometimes we just have to stand up and let our voices be heard. Inspired by these exposés on genetically modified foods and the ongoing cost of foreign conflicts, we take a look back at past stories about bucking convention and taking a stand. Are you with us?

Our children will inherit a world profoundly changed by the combination of technology and humanity that is social media. They’ll take for granted that their voices can be heard and that a social movement can be launched from their laptop. They’ll take for granted that they are connected and interconnected with hundreds of millions of people at any given moment. And they’ll take for granted that a black man is or was President of the United States.

What’s most profound is that these represent parts of a greater whole. They represent a shift in power from centralized institutions and organizations to the People they represent. It is the evolution of democracy by way of technology, and we are all better for it.

Guest Post: Max Gladwell on 10 Ways To Change The World Through Social Media

Josie Jeffery is the author of Seedbombs: Going Wild with Flowers and widely considered the go-to authority on seed bombing in Brighton & Hove. She says seed bombs originated in ancient Japan and were revived halfway through the 20th century by philosopher and microbiologist Masanobu Fukuoka as a way of introducing revitalizing plants to tired soil that had been exhausted through over use. The little muddy grenades were then adopted by the New York Green Guerrillas who used them to begin transforming run down areas with bright flowers and greenery.

Flowers Of War: Seed Bombing Gets Political

I suppose you can’t blame the corporations for trying to muscle in on the action. They wouldn’t be very successful companies if they didn’t. But a look at some of the latest marketing campaigns leaves me scratching my head. Corporate efforts at co-opting this movement are often clumsy at best. I wonder if they’re as off-putting to others as they are to me.

Marketing Authenticity: 7 Corporations Riding On The Coattails Of A Movement

The Ditty Bops are on a mission to prove that the music industry doesn’t have to ride roughshod over the environment, and since they believe none of the major labels fit that bill they’re doing it independently. Setting up an award-winning sustainable nonprofit, cycling across America to promote their work, producing album sleeves from personally sourced eco-friendly materials – they’re grounded, principled and apparently unstoppable…

Radical Sustainability, Ordinary People and the Pedal-A-Watt Powered Blogathon

The reality is that we haven’t been paying the real price of goods for decades. Whether it’s our own government that has been manipulating the price of our products through trade agreements and tariffs, or the Chinese government subsidizing their labor costs to dominate the world’s production market, it’s all coming back to us. We’re starting to pay for it: prices are going up, jobs have been lost, the environment is at risk, and fashion is once again on the center stage of politics simply by what we choose or don’t choose to wear and how we acquire goods.

From Flash Sales to Philanthropy, it’s the Politics of Fashion

Post recession, one has only to look at the number of DIY sites that have become popular and the micro trend of sewing and knitting groups to know that a cultural shift is happening. Within the confines of craft, there now lies an inherent rebelliousness that you usually only see in punk, indie music or street culture. Women working with their hands to teach others (or even alone in their own homes) are leading a movement against being branded, and taking how they dress themselves as a form of protest.

The Post Recession Fashion Industry: Sewing Circle Rebellion

I put two more coats of stark-white paint on the door to brighten things up. As I looked around the complex afterwards, I realized that most other doors seem to be painted off-white. I smiled to myself, and gave thanks to the universe for small victories and minor insurrections.

Seeing Red (when the Homeowners Association wants to see White)

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For any urbanite, ample green space is a necessity. No matter how good your city is about making sure that parks, trees and community gardens abound, there’s always another corner plot or alleyway that could use some greenery. Sometimes you’ve got to take matters into your own hands. Enter seed bombs.

Seed bombs have been a part of the guerilla gardening movement for quite some time now, enabling seeds to grow in hard to reach places. In fact Cool Hunting has even called them the “Molotov cocktails of gardening.” The idea is simple: ball up a mixture of clay, dirt and seeds and toss it into a space greatly in need of being a bit greener.

But not everyone has time to concoct seed bombs at home, which is why Los Angeles-based Commonstudio has the answer: seed bomb vending machines. Under an initiative called Greenaid, around 20 vintage gumball machines have been places around the country, all full of seed bombs and ready to turn any regular passerby into a guerilla gardening ninja.

The machines can be purchased, or even rented, to get Greenaid into your community, and Commonstudio supplies the seed bombs, making it easier than ever to green your local urban space and make your city just a little better.

The post Greening Abandoned Urban Spaces: Seed Bombs From Greenaid appeared first on EcoSalon.

Some people like to push the legal edge when it comes to going green. And some people – for example, those who spin articles into the green web-o-sphere and want to keep doing it – would never advocate that our fellow citizens break the law in any which way or form. (This is us, adjusting our green halos.) But that doesn’t mean we can’t report on the ways in which everyday eco-minded folks are skirting, pushing and downright flouting the laws of the land for Mother Earth.

How do these daring greenies skate the blue line of justice? Public perception of green lawbreakers may be the people who trash Hummers or set fire to housing developments – these are the stories that make headlines and generate name-calling. Then there are the people who take a serving of Mother Earth without a side of eco-terrorism. They are just Joes and Janes who may or may not pick a piece of fallen fruit off a public tree.

Guerilla gardening

Guerilla gardening is the illicit cultivation of public space. It’s a worldwide movement – here’s the web page of guerilla gardeners in London. And yes, it is illegal, since you are tilling the soil of land you do not own. Guerilla gardening guides suggest following these three rules: Use only land that is unused or unwanted, leave the land in better condition than when you found it, and don’t get caught.

We spoke with guerilla gardener Mike Lieberman, who uses his New York City fire escape as a garden. His take on the movement is concise: “I’m not sure why planting something could be considered illegal or be considered harmful. I think that knocking down trees and building up on the land is more dangerous and harmful than guerilla gardening.”

Recycling someone else’s trash

I live next door to an elderly woman. I often do it for her. Most of her trash goes out in plastic grocery bags that reveal its contents. So I can see that they are often filled with bits of paper, tin cans, glass bottles, banana peels, coffee grinds, and regular rubbish. So most of the time, I’m picking through her trash to get the glass into the blue bins, the banana peels in the green bins, and the rest of it in the black bins. Usually I end up covered in coffee grounds and residual apple juice. (And yes, it might be time to move.)

I am not the only greenie who has been known to pick a plastic bottle out of a trash can and place it in the recycling. But am I breaking any laws? Not so, according to my local police. I was advised that once someone discards their trash, it no longer belonged to them. Does this mean that greenies should start raiding neighbor’s trash cans on private property? Not if you want to be arrested for trespassing”¦

Taking fruit

Ever wonder why you can’t just can’t reach up and pluck the apple from the communal tree? Have at it, because you can! At least in California, where the law stating that any fruit that grows on or over public land is community property, even if the trunk is rooted in a private yard. This has given birth to the Fallen Fruit movement. In Los Angeles, people plot the public lands to access the free fruit, complete with joint jam-making sessions and more. Just don’t go picking from your neighbor’s tree, unless you’re trying to pick a fight. (See Neighborhood Fruit for information about legal fruit harvesting.)

Nudism

Would the earth do better without synthetic fibers containing polyester, elastane or Lycra? I’m going to go with yes on this one, despite my love of the Spanx after certain carb-filled meal. Nylon, for instance, takes 30 to 40 years to decompose. So wouldn’t it be better if we could just all run free in the breeze?

Maybe so, but the law is ambiguous. There are no federal laws that ban or allow nudism. However, nudism has never been guaranteed by the Constitution as a “freedom of expression.” With no federal precedent, it’s up to the states and local municipalities to decide if it is legal to let loose your clothes on the street. And, well, most of the time, you’re going to find yourself in handcuffs for indecent exposure if you shed your synthetic skin. So – maybe not, Adam and Eve.

Public urination

Really, guys? Yes, we are talking to the men out there who like to save more water than the next. (Though kudos to the women who attempt it.) Michael Edwards of Green Lifestyle Magazine points out that you can pee in the shower to save water. According to Edwards, “We bet there are plenty of guys who won’t admit it, but do it every morning. If you’re one of those guys, urinate with a clean eco conscience!” And others point out that you can pee in a cup or bottle and dispose of it outside. Some people even use urine as a fertilizer.

But is it legal? According to the experts, public urination laws are primarily governed by state and local laws, and these vary by jurisdiction.  You could get charged with indecent exposure or indecency.

So do we suggest guerilla gardening in the nude? No (let’s leave the nudity to PETA). But do we suggest you pluck a piece of stray fruit in a communal space? It’s up to your green conscious to decide.

Image: Katie Tegtmeyer

The post The Unusual Suspects: How Everyday Citizens are Breaking the Law for Mother Earth appeared first on EcoSalon.