What to Give, inspired by latitude: 00-02N, longitude: 050-03W

Thomas Friedman wrote this week about deforestation in tropical forests around the world as he was headed down on a fact finding mission to the Brazilian Amazon, courtesy of Conservation International. "We are now losing a tropical forest the size of New York State every year, and the carbon that releases into the atmosphere now accounts for roughly 17 percent of all global emissions contributing to climate change..."
In 2006 I went with a small group from Sambazon to visit the new factory in Macapa, Amapa which is located right on the equator in the Brazilian Amazon. The picture above always makes me smile - and not just because we look like the crew from Gilligan's Island on a less than seaworthy vessel! The image reminds me of how it felt to be slowly cruising down the Amazon River, looking with wonder at the tropical animals, the light slanting through the trees, large multi-colored fish and creatures I've never seen before in the water below, everything in such an almost other-worldly pure state. Most of the areas in the U.S. look far different than they did a mere 100 years ago. In the Amazon, you have a sense that everything around you has an almost Eden-like quality, lush and bountiful, and untouched.

A friend Chris Kilham, who was also on the trip, was featured on NBC Evening News a few months ago on a powerful segment discussing "the world's biggest pharmacy may have a short shelf life". In the Amazon you do have a sense that all the plants and fruits from there are an essential part of our fragile eco-system, truly the 'lungs of the planet', and full of nutrients and healing aspects.

Though...hard to feel connected to something so far away. Far off wars, starving children, a forest you've never seen being burnt down. So often it's the here and now that grab most of our attention. Personally speaking, I have been on both sides of the country in 7 days - working in a hotel room in LA, driving to meetings, seeing friends at night, reconnecting to the environment there, then suddenly I'm back East, trying to find a cab in the rain after the Knicks game, and all that is Manhattan at night - all the lights and noise and energy, and people spilling out of Madison Square Garden in mid November.

In LA at the conference I was at, I listened to a presentation given by a VP at Clorox who discussed the research and initiatives they did as a company before introducing "Greenworks" brand. Ultimately the 'environment' that most consumers are connected to begins very personally -- Myself and family (what I put into my body and families' bodies), My home, my lawn, my car and so on until the far end of the spectrum is 'the outside world'. Though the Amazon Rainforest is home to nearly three-quarters of all living things on the planet, it's hard to wrap your head around a jungle in a far off land being burnt down, and what it means to me, personally, when you're stimulated by so much around you in day to day life.

Friends of mine were involved in something called EcoGift which I always thought was a very good idea, a collection of products that essentially give more. As we're headed into the holiday season, Thomas Friedman's column sparked some of Elf Laura's thoughts for some ideas around gifts that give, times 2.

• Sambazon - CD whose proceeds go to the Sustainable Amazon Partnership
• Feed bag - One bag feeds a child in school for a year
• To-Go Ware - Stocking stuffer, hostess present, $10 and under office grab bag
• Charity Water - Gifts that contribute to bring fresh water to one in six people in the world who don't have it
• Oxfam Unwrapped - my nieces always loved getting an 'animal' from me!
• TerraCycle - Speakers, bags, notebooks, all made of upcycled 'waste' (truly one man's trash is another's treasure)

Just beginnings of a list, by no means complete. What are some of your ideas for gifts that give more?