Green Lent

Stop SOPA/PIPA

2012-01-18T13:56:00.001-07:00

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

A time to act

2011-11-30T11:25:00.001-07:00

An evangelical calls for action by Christians on behalf of the environment and the poor.Evangelism and Environmentalism: A time to actI face a question and a challenge as I grope my way into activism. The question: What do I do when the river that swept me into the life of Christ now empties into a toxic swamp? The very word, "evangelical," which once conjured images of joyful Jesus Freaks, conveys political intimidation. It's as if Ayn Rand's spirit descended and screeched on Pentecost: "Be selfish and shrill!" But then comes the challenge: Why am I so late? Why did I hide behind the term, "peacemaker," and avoid the loving confrontation so necessary for true shalom? Why did I wait until I was personally hurt?The challenge humbles me as I offer this confessional testimonial: I'm joining the growing movement to bring evangelicals back to their true heritage, which includes compassion for the poor and environmental care -- and I'm adding my personal caveat: "Don't be like me. Don't wait. Act now."

Tuvalu is drowning: a plea to the world

2011-11-02T08:38:00.004-06:00

Archbishop Winston Halapua has just returned from a visit to Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu according to the The Anglican Communion News Service. While there he witnessed the effects of climate change with rising sea levels inundating the nation, poisoning the drinking water and ruining crops.

Dr Halapua, who was born in Tonga, and who is a trained sociologist, says that because of the particular vulnerability of low-lying island states such as Kiribati, Tokelau, Tonga and Tuvalu – which, at its highest point, is less than 5m above sea level – he's been following the debate about climate change for 10 years.

"For me, to go to Tuvalu – that's all the information that I need.
...
"We need to pray," says Archbishop Winston.

"We need to say very, very clearly to the church that we need to pray because this is something way beyond us.

"We need to pray that we will be empowered to speak clearly to our elected agents in government who make decisions about climate change."
....
"Please do something about climate change."
Archbishop Winston says there are four ways people in the wider Anglican communion can help Tuvalu.
"Pray. Pray in your personal devotions, in your churches, and your home groups. Pray first for rain for Tuvalu. Then pray that the issues of climate change and rising sea levels are tackled.

"Donate. Donate to the Anglican Missions Board. Earmark your donation ‘Tuvalu Appeal' – and the AMB will forward any money it receives to our ecumenical partners, the Church of Tuvalu, so that people there may have enough water to drink and food to eat. "Any money given will bring relief not only to the people of the main island but also to pockets of people on other islands to the group."

"Respond to appeals by other agencies to help the people of Tuvalu.

"Become more aware of the causes of climate change, and of its impact on marginalised people."

Green Pilgrimage

2011-10-21T07:46:00.004-06:00

Alliance of Religions and Conservation announces a global network Green Pilgrimage:

The first global network aimed at greening pilgrimage – the largest movement of people worldwide – will be launched in the presence of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh KG, KT, at the Sacred Land celebration in Assisi, Italy, from October 31 to November 2, 2011. The event is organised by the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) in association with WWF.

The Green Pilgrimage Network will help the faiths make their holy cities and sacred sites as environmentally sustainable as possible according to their own theologies and understanding. Pilgrimage is the world’s biggest travel event, with millions of people becoming pilgrims every year, whether for a few hours, days or even weeks. The largest human gathering in recorded history was the Maha Kumbh Mela, a festival held every 144 years in Prayag, Allahabad, India, which in 2001 attracted more than 60 million Hindus.

Ten faith traditions have nominated pilgrim cities or sacred sites to become founding members of the Green Pilgrimage Network, ranging as far afield as Louguan in the People's Republic of China for Daoists to St Albans in the UK for Anglicans and Amritsar for the Sikhs (1). The city authorities of Jerusalem, a major pilgrimage destination for three faiths – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – will join the network to green the city for all pilgrims.

Also launched at Sacred Land will be the first Green Hajj Guide aimed at the two million Muslim pilgrims who visit Mecca (Makkah) in Saudi Arabia each year for the Hajj, the biggest annual pilgrimage in the world. Sacred Land will also celebrate 25 years of faith action on the environment since the first Assisi gathering in 1986 when, as International President of WWF, Prince Philip invited faith leaders to consider how their beliefs, practices and teachings could help protect the environment.

Year of the Forests

2011-10-12T12:17:00.003-06:00

Interfaith Power and Light is asking everyone to support the Year of the Forests.

Today, I want to share an update about our project with the Presbyterian Chuch in Ghana. The project team planted 2540 seedlings this year, establishing a brand new three-acre community forest. Now, funding is needed before the end of the year to maintain the farm and protect the land from fires. Also, the project teaches alternative livelihoods to locals — from bee keeping to snail farming — that prevent further land degradation. The project presents an opportunity to rebuild our relationship with both the natural world and communities on the front lines of climate change, honoring our sacred call of stewardship as well as loving our neighbors.

Protecting the climate will require international as well as interfaith cooperation and solidarity. One country, or one religion, can't do it alone. We in the U.S. must reduce our own oversized carbon footprint, as I know so many of our congregations have done, and we must also find ways to help vulnerable people around the world be part of the solution. That's why we call this project Carbon Covenant.

Forests are the lungs of the world, and play a crucial role in the climate by absorbing CO2 emissions. We all depend on the forests for survival. As people around the world focus on forests this year, it is fitting that the faith community is poised to play a leading role. I hope you will get your congregation, diocese, judicatory, province, or community involved, and sponsor a project. We also welcome your support as an individual.

On a personal note, I can't finish this letter about forests without saying how saddened I was by the passing last week of my friend and colleague Wangari Matthai, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for her extraordinary tree planting and women's empowerment efforts in Africa. But I take heart in knowing that her legacy lives on with her Greenbelt Movement, and with the enormous hope and inspiration she gave to people in Africa and all over the world.

Join the Carbon Covenant

Be a Hummingbird

2011-09-28T07:40:00.000-06:00

Rise in glory, Wangari Maathi!

Green Hijabi

2011-08-14T14:26:00.003-06:00

From The Eco-Muslim writes on Green Hijabi:

Green Hijabi shares quick tips on introducing green veggies into your palette. She's written a seriously satisfying and sweet pumpkin smoothie recipe for the autumn season (fall for my American readers). And my personal favourite - a photo essay on her environmentally alert Eid.

Green Hijabi has a literal life-guide we could all take a leaf from; she believes in:
"investing more on the inside than the outside
that the 5 pillars are the means to aligning our physical and spiritual selves
God answers all sincere prayers; to receive them, we must be open
His creation - everything and everyone - is ultimately interconnected
nature is the physical manifestation of God's omniscience
in bio-individuality: each one's path to optimal health is unique
the body is designed to thrive on foods found in nature; all else is questionable
food is not a religion, but is a relevant part of it"

What also makes Green Hijabi yum is the oozing wholesome personality. It's just fun to read and learn from her, and I'm thinking of contributing to her commonly used phrases:

Meat eater's carbon footprint and health risks

2011-07-19T07:55:00.002-06:00

From the AMA newsletter:

Susan Carpenter wrote in the "Greenspace" column of The Los Angeles Times (7/18) that the Environmental Working Group has released a Meat Eater's Guide, which "includes a chart that shows the carbon footprint of each food, equating the consumption of four ounces of each item with its equivalent in car miles driven." The report says that lamb, beef, and cheese have the biggest carbon footprints out of 20 protein sources surveyed. "While the report acknowledges that meat, when eaten in moderation, provides healthy and complete proteins and other nutrients, it cites a 2009 National Cancer Institute study that found people who ate the most red meat were 27% more likely to die of heart disease than those who ate the least."

In his blog in the New York Times (7/18), Mark Bittman observed that, according to the Meat Eater's Guide, "if everyone in the US ate no meat or cheese just one day a week, over a year, the effect on emissions would be the equivalent of taking 7.6 million cars off the road." The report also notes that "even if everyone in the US went 'vegetarian' -- that is, eliminated meat but continued to eat dairy at our current rate -- it would make only a small (though significant) dent in overall emissions. The subsequent recommendation is that to significantly reduce emissions we all have to lobby our elected officials to adopt a comprehensive energy and climate policy that puts the US on a path to green energy."

According to the Huffington Post (7/19, Pearson), the National Cancer Institute reported that "serious meat eaters were 20 percent more likely to die of cancer than those who consumed the least amount of meat."

Amazing hummingbird tongues

2011-06-01T08:08:00.001-06:00

If you don't get fed you don't get bred!

2011-04-24T16:33:00.002-06:00

Circle Connections shares this prayer by Akasa Wolfsong for Earth Day:

Earth Mother, Our Mother…

I thank You deeply for Your
sustenance each day so that
I might live.

Remind me daily of the beauty
I see in You, through wondrous
cloud, the ant busily working,
the dandelion blooming, the
bee busy gathering nectar,
the birds of the air soaring on
the thermals.

Remind of your Waters that
are home to the creatures that
share the planet with me.

Remind me to stand in amazement
for all good things which come
from You, Blessed Mother.

As I am reminded then Mother Earth,
let me say a silent prayer, one
which sprouts from a glad heart,
one which feels Your Love as You
continually support me, so that I
may feel Your grace within, so that I
may always stand in amazement.

Bless You Earth Mother…

A’HO!

Our Sister Mother Earth gets equal rights

2011-04-11T08:59:00.002-06:00

A Franciscan Spirituality blog, Dating God, about legally recognizing "Our Sister Mother Earth:"

Bolivia, the poorest nation in South America, is leading the way toward recognizing the inherent dignity of creation in a legal way, seeking to grant equal rights enjoyed by humans to nature. In an age when the United States Supreme Court can grant equal rights to corporations so they can spend unrestricted amounts of money on political campaigns, among other activities, it seems that granting creation equal rights with humans — recalling the creation is also living, whereas corporations are a human construct — The Mother Earth Law, as it is being called, makes much more sense.

Good Friday and Earth Day

2011-04-07T09:40:00.003-06:00

The Anglican Church of Canada has prepared additional liturgical materials for this year's Good Friday Earth Day:

April 22, 2011, is Good Friday as well as Earth Day. The Greening Anglican Spaces Task Group has assembled a Good Friday Earth Day Reflection , a Good Friday Liturgical Resource designed to be interpolated into the Book of Alternative Services Good Friday rite, and has assembled a short list of liturgical resources which may be helpful to worship planners.

The task group has also partnered with Faith and the Common Good who have designed a Carbon Calculator so people can discover the hidden cost of our carbon use.

A Solemn Intercession:
Let us pray for God's creation and for the whole web of life.
for those people and creatures who have been betrayed by human greed and
faithlessness;
for nations and communities suffering deluge or drought,
for species on the brink of extinction,
for families and those dispossessed of home and land,
for future generations inheriting the fruits of human neglect and exploitation.
that God, Source of all life,
will show us anew the miracle of creation,
proclaimed in our beginnings, and promised in our future.

A Collect
Oh God, you created the heavens and the earth
and saw that it was good.
Give us the eyes to see your goodness
in all that gives life,
and give us the will
to put to death our indifference to your creation,
that rising with you to new life
we may participate in the healing and restoration of the earth.

2010-01-12T14:03:00.003-07:00

From the Environmental Defense Action Fund:

Here are 10 startling facts we learned in 2009 that underscore the climate threat:

A study published in the journal Science reports that the current level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere – about 390 parts per million – is higher today than at any time in measurable history -- at least the last 2.1 million years. Previous peaks of CO2 were never more than 300 ppm over the past 800,000 years, and the concentration is rising by around 2 ppm each year.

The World Meterological Organization reported that 2000-2009 was the hottest decade on record with 8 of the hottest 10 years having occurred since 2000.
2009 will end up as one of the 5 hottest years since 1850 and the U.K.'s Met Office predicts that, with a moderate El Nino, 2010 will likely break the record.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that while a bit more summer Arctic sea ice appeared in 2009 than the record breaking lows of the last two years, it was still well below normal levels. Given that the Arctic ice cover remains perilously thin, it is vulnerable to further melting, posing an ever increasing threat to Arctic wildlife including polar bears.

The Arctic summer could be ice-free by mid-century, not at the end of the century as previously expected, according to a study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Recent observations published in the highly respected Nature Geosciences indicate that the East Antarctica ice sheet has been shrinking. This surprised researchers, who expected that only the West Antarctic ice sheet would shrink in the near future because the East Antarctic ice sheet is colder and more stable.
The U.S. Global Change Research Program completed an assessment of what is known about climate change impacts in the US and reported that, "Climate changes are already observed in the United States and… are projected to grow." These changes include "increases in heavy downpours, rising temperature and sea level, rapidly retreating glaciers, thawing permafrost, lengthening ice-free seasons in the ocean and on lakes and rivers, earlier snowmelt, and alterations in river flows."

According to a report by the US Geological Survey, slight changes in the climate may trigger abrupt threats to ecosystems that are not easily reversible or adaptable, such as insect outbreaks, wildfire, and forest dieback. "More vulnerable ecosystems, such as those that already face stressors other than climate change, will almost certainly reach their threshold for abrupt change sooner." An example of such an abrupt threat is the outbreak of spruce bark beetles throughout the western U.S. caused by increased winter temperatures that allow more beetles to survive.

The EPA, USGS and NOAA issued a joint report warning that most mid-Atlantic coastal wetlands from New York to North Carolina will be lost with a sea level rise of 1 meter or more.

If we do not reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the century, some of the main fruit and nut tree crops currently grown in California may no longer be economically viable, as there will be a lack of the winter chilling they require. And, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S. production of corn, soybeans and cotton could decrease as much as 82%.

2010: will you be greener?

2009-12-30T10:09:00.002-07:00

Going Green DC (Washington, DC) gives 10 tips for a greener 2010:

1. Grow your own fruits and vegetables. No yard? A yard-sharing program matches people who have land with people who have a green thumb but no place to use it.

2. Get involved in a community garden or volunteer at one like Common Good City Farm.

3. Walk more, use public transportation, and consider buying or renting a bike.

4. Buy local ingredients whenever possible from farmer’s markets and other small purveyors.

5. Remember to bring reusable bags to the grocery store. The 5 cent plastic bag fee goes into effect January 1. (in DC)

6. Plant a tree in your backyard.

7. Reduce organic waste by learning how to compost.

8. Replace regular lightbulbs with energy-saving compact florescent lightbulbs, turn off lights when not in use, reduce the thermostat.

9. Stop buying bottled water and get yourself a chic stainless steel bottle instead.

10. Support environmentally friendly local businesses as much as possible.

Recyle bins in Changi airport

2009-06-19T08:31:00.000-06:00

Right to dry movement gains steam

2009-06-04T10:51:00.001-06:00

The New York Times reports:

According to Alexander Lee of Project Laundry List, a group that supports hang-drying laundry over using an energy-intensive machines, a law went into effect last week in Vermont that prevents groups like homeowners associations from banning clotheslines.

Colorado also approved “right-to-dry” provisions last year, said Mr. Lee, and Maine is currently voting on similar legislation.

In Hawaii, a bill that would allow homeowners to hang their laundry on clotheslines — albeit with some limitations — is awaiting action by Gov. Linda Lingle — although she vetoed a similar bill last year. Florida has the oldest right-to-dry law in the country, according to Mr. Lee.

“A clothesline is not a solar panel or a Prius — it’s something that everyone can afford,” Mr. Lee — who hauls his own wet clothes back from the laundromat in order to dry them on a line — told my colleague Elisabeth Rosenthal last year, when she reported on Ontario’s right-to-dry debate.

Shortly thereafter, Ontario’s premier overruled local bans on hang-drying.

As Calvin Maeda, the manager of the Mililani Town Association in Hawaii told The Honolulu Star Bulletin, opposition to line-drying has often come from neighbors who don’t want “to be looking at somebody’s underwear out of the kitchen window.”

Spring green cleaning and growing green

2009-04-17T11:27:00.003-06:00

Ideal Bite sends daily tips on greener living. Or read the blog here

Some gardening tips:
* Planting onions and garlic to ward off certain pests.
* Using a small container of beer to trap slugs; apparently slugs like beer.
* Placing cucumber peels next to the place where ants are invading your home and garden.
* Using catnip to repel cockroaches.
* Planting marigolds and chrysanthemums; these flowers are natural bug repellents.
* While you are outside enjoying your garden, light a citronella candle; this will ward off mosquitoes.

Go Green Online offers the top 10 things you can do for the planet:

The top 10 things you can do as an individual to make changes for a more sustainable planet.
Home Energy:
Adjust Thermostat and Water Heater Settings: These are the biggest energy users in the home
When you're heating or cooling, make sure your doors and windows are sealed
Check the refrigerator: It's the number one appliance for energy use

Zero Waste
Comprehensively recycle your paper, glass, aluminum and plastics
Compost all food waste - don't let it into the trash
When you shop, go for zero waste packaging (cut plastics, non-recyclables)
Stop drinking bottled water! Carry your own.

Transportation
Set a target to reduce gasoline consumption (10%? 20%? 30%?) by driving less, combining trips, car pooling and driving and maintaining your car for efficiency

Water
Shorten your showers by 2 to 5 minutes
Stop running the water for cool drinking water, warm water, shaving, brushing teeth

Also making changes room by room, step by step here.

End of maple syrup?

2009-04-09T19:24:00.004-06:00

TreeHugger reports the possible end of Maple Syrup.

Having lived in the northeastern U.S. for some time before moving to Quebec, certainly some of the best things in these parts include colourful fall foliage and tons of locally-harvested maple syrup. Sadly, thanks to increasingly ‘weird’ and warming weather, the long-standing tradition and $65 million business of “maple sugaring” in the northeastern U.S. is in danger of becoming a historical footnote.

It’s because the cycles of what is called ‘cold recharge’ – where weeks of below-freezing temperatures, followed by warmer temperatures – are shortening to the point where sugar maples are not producing the sap which is later boiled down to make maple syrup.

It this recharge cycle which allows the sap in sugar maples’ limbs to turn to ice, creating an area of lower pressure which in turn pulls up more sap into the frozen areas from the roots up. In this state, the trees convert their stored starches into sucrose that will fuel spring budding. As the warming weather melts the sap ice, liquid sap is pushed in all directions. All one has to do is drill a hole for the sap to flow.

But for some places in the Northeast, the sugar-tapping season is either getting shorter and shorter, sometimes lasting only a week, as it did in Quebec last year.

"This is a weather-related industry," says Sam Cutting, owner of Dakin Farm in Vermont and who has been in the sugar business for 40 years. "There are always problems in the maple industry: gypsy moths, floods, droughts."

Like a prayer: sisters go green

2009-04-08T14:35:00.001-06:00

Ideal Bite reports on the Community of the Holy Spirit in NYC and their efforts to be a "green community" in the midst of the city:

If you see the devoutly green sisters from the Community of the Holy Spirit down on their knees prayin' to Madonna (not that one), give 'em a holy high five. These Episcopalian nuns have been buying local, organic food; composting; and hosting a Freecycle-type share program for years, but this month, they've got something else under their organic cotton habits - a new eco convent in Harlem. Sister Faith Margaret takes us there….

Can you tell us about your new eco convent?
SFM: Our building is bigger than we need. The possibilities for a smaller one have been in the works for 5 years. It'll have low-VOC paint and carpeting, water heated by solar power, a rainwater collection, and a green roof…it's my favorite part – like having a park on our roof.

How do you get around the city?
SFM: We walk everywhere, mostly. We got rid of our car years ago and we're a lot better off ecologically and financially without one. When we need to travel further, which isn’t very often, we use Zipcar.

Earth Hour 2009

2009-03-11T07:34:00.002-06:00

Switch off your lights for one hour - vote for earth!

Go here for more information.

Going green for Lent

2009-02-25T16:51:00.003-07:00

Interfaith Power and Light has suggestions for a greener Lent:

Buy more locally produced food. You can reduce emissions from transportation by buying from farmers markets and eating foods in season rather than foods shipped in from around the globe.

Use alternative transportation to work, school, or your place of worship. This is a good way to slow down and find a few extra minutes for contemplation during Lent.

Eat less meat. Reducing the amount of meat you consume, even just one day a week, will make a difference in your carbon footprint.

Turn down your thermostat. Grab a blanket and add an extra layer of clothing. Even one degree lower will add up to big energy savings.

Try a media fast. It can be very rewarding to turn off televisions, computers, and radios a few nights a week and sit down to a board game with your family.

More ideas here.

Bio-fuels contribute to hunger and climate change

2008-11-29T09:37:00.001-07:00

Anglican Journal reports:

...there are people around the world who are starving because more and more land is being dedicated to cash-rich fuel crops like corn instead of food.

These were some of the points raised at a recent forum, Connecting the dots on the food crisis, sponsored by Kairos, the Canadian ecumenical justice organization, of which the Anglican Church of Canada is a member. The forum explored the root causes of the food crisis in the Global South, including the push for agro-fuels in rich countries like Canada and the U.S., the decades-long liberalization policies of governments, and the growth of agri-business transnational corporations.

John Dillon, program co-ordinator of Kairos, talked about how large-scale agro-fuel production for export has not only given way to hunger but also to exploitation of farmers who work in “slave-like conditions” in plantations, most of which are owned by trans-national corporations that enter into joint ventures with local landlords. (For example, since the U.S. cannot supply all the demand for corn ethanol, agri-business corporations have been importing agro-fuels from Asia, Latin America, and Africa.)
.....
Ethanol was supposed to have been a better, cleaner fuel, but studies have shown that its production actually accelerates climate change. “While burning ethanol produces about 12 per cent to 13 per cent less greenhouse gases than petroleum, it is not a ‘clean’ fuel since it also emits carcinogens and increases atmospheric ozone,” said Mr. Dillon in a briefing paper published in 2007 where he cited a study conducted by the U.K.-based Institute of Science in Society. For instance, sugarcane is burned before harvest or forests are burned in order to clear it for palm oil plantations, causing a massive release of CO2 into the atmosphere.

With ethanol increasingly getting a bad reputation, many corporations are now looking for the next big fix, said Mr. Dillon, adding that cellulose is now being touted as an alternative. Mr. Dillon said groups like Kairos prefer to push governments to push in the direction of energy conservation and efficiency, and a re-examination of the pattern of consumption in the West.

“A study by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office found that reducing gasoline consumption by 10 per cent through an increase in fuel economy standards would cost consumers and industry about U.S. $3.6 billion a year,” said Mr. Dillon in his paper, Are agrofuels alternatives to oil? “To replace the same amount of gasoline by producing more ethanol would cost over US$10 billion in government subsidies.”

Low carbon Christmas

2008-11-28T08:18:00.003-07:00

I know it is only the beginning of Advent - but here are some suggestions for 12 Days of Low Carbon Christmas from the National Council of Churches. Some good ideas - not so sure the group who wrote these know what it is like to live at 5000+ feet in Wyoming in the winter!!

The Low Carbon 12 Days of Christmas

1. Send Electronic Christmas Cards: Sending your Christmas greetings electronically is good for Creation because it saves trees. If you want to send a personal Christmas greeting to close friends and family, use recycled paper to make your own Christmas Cards.

2. Make Your Own Decorations: This can become a wonderful family tradition. Use recycled materials or natural materials like pinecones, leaves, vines. Making your own Christmas wreath out of materials you collected is carbon neutral and positively fun!

3. Buy a Living, Local Christmas Tree: Start a tradition of planting your Christmas tree in your yard or on your church grounds after Christmas. You can even put a message in a bottle underneath the tree thanking God for the year’s blessings. Your planted tree becomes a Christmas gift for creation and a living family memory for years to come!

4. Use LED Christmas Lights: These lights use around 90% less energy than incandescent Christmas lights. Look for lights that are Energy Star approved. Remember to conserve energy and not to leave them on all day or overnight.

5. Do Your Christmas Shopping with Reusable Bags: Less plastic bags means less energy is used to produce them, and therefore less carbon is released into the atmosphere.
6. Give Responsibly: Buy gently used gifts like books and toys or non-material gifts like a national parks pass or event tickets rather than products. If you are good at making crafts, consider making gifts for your loved ones.
7. If you buy traditional gifts, minimize your carbon foot print by purchasing Local and energy efficient gifts that are minimally packaged. Click here for ideas.

8. Use Reusable or Recycled Gift Wrap: You will save energy by reducing the need to produce wrapping paper and help reduce global warming pollution.

9. Practice Alternative Giving: Donate to a charity in a friend or family member’s name. Ideas here

10. Limit Your Travel: If you need to travel to be with family ride with other friends and family to reduce the per person carbon emissions or take the train. In general, driving results in fewer carbon emissions than flying, especially when driving a moderately fuel efficient vehicle at or below the speed limit with properly inflated tires.

11. Serve Local Food for Christmas Dinner: Consider serving a locally raised main course, but if a local ham or turkey is too pricey, serve a few side dishes made with local vegetables. This is a tasty way to reduce the number of miles food has to travel to get to your plate, which in turn helps reduce carbon emissions.

12. Remember Why We Celebrate! Christmas is a time to celebrate God’s gift of Jesus Christ, a savior who will bring peace to Earth (Luke 2: 11-14), through whom all things came into being (John 1:3) and through whom God reconciled all things (Colossians 1:19).

Religious recycling

2008-11-19T20:11:00.002-07:00

Treehugger reports:

Fifty years ago the Heineken Beer company looked at reshaping its beer bottle to be useful as a building block. It never happened, so Buddhist monks from Thailand's Sisaket province took matters into their own hands and collected a million bottles to build the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple. It puts every other bottle building we have shown to shame.

Climate Change and the Blue Man group

2008-10-15T12:11:00.001-06:00

Is buying green really green?

2008-05-26T10:44:00.001-06:00

Mr. Brueghel reports a Wired Magazine article:

The new issue of Wired magazine has a great article about the many fallacious "solutions" to global warming that are really just guilt-sops. I don't want to get political here (I swore off it; I'm not even reading the news and the apocalypse is getting on just fine without my attending to it), but I still get CRAZY MAD when people talk about buying green stuff. BUYING THINGS IS NOT GREEN. Wired's case in point: manufacturing a Toyota Prius uses the BTU equivalent of 1,000 gallons of gasoline. A used car, on the other hand, has already paid its carbon debt, in terms of lifetime emissions per mile including emissions from the manufacturing process. BUY USED. SHOP GOODWILL.

Another item on this blog is a reflection taking the bus. Read it here.

And a sea level rise map:

2008-05-04T19:13:00.003-06:00

Arizona Nature and Spirtuality has a new Carbon Footprint Calculator at their site.

This particular calculator does a quick calculation of your carbon emitting activities, and provides you with an estimate of your overall personal carbon footprint. Toggle with the answers to see how small changes can make a big difference to your footprint, then make pledges or learns tips to reduce. Keep in mind this only tracks you personal actions, and that in terms of a national average, industry and public services actually pull individual averages up quite a bit higher.

Click here to do a quick calculation. For kids click here.

Living in gratitude

2008-04-30T10:22:00.002-06:00

No Impact Man has tagged gratitude as needed for living more thoughtfully on the earth. He writes:

This could be totally wrong, but I’m guessing that the decline of religious life in our culture has brought with it a decline in gratitude. Not that I am laying some sort of a religious trip on everyone—I am the first to cop to not maintaining an attitude of thankfulness.

But I do feel as though we (and I include me) have come to worship desire. Here in the United States, I sometimes despair that our state religion is consumption and our main prayer is for more.

I’m not even religious, but I sense from people I’ve known who take the spiritual aspects of their religions to heart an emphasis on being grateful for what God or the Universe or the Oneness has given them rather than on what they don’t have. I admire that. I’d like to have more of that in myself, because I, too, often find that my prayer, if I’m not careful, is for more.

Here is what I think: that being grateful for what I have makes me want less. Wanting less makes me consume less. Consuming less makes me treat the planet more kindly. The equation goes, therefore, gratitude equals kindness.

Running the Numbers

2008-04-21T10:51:00.003-06:00

Chris Jordan depicts statistics in graphic style. As he says at his site, Running the Numbers:

An American Self-Portrait

This series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 410,000 paper cups used every fifteen minutes. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. The underlying desire is to emphasize the role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.

My only caveat about this series is that the prints must be seen in person to be experienced the way they are intended. As with any large artwork, their scale carries a vital part of their substance which is lost in these little web images. Hopefully the JPEGs displayed here might be enough to arouse your curiosity to attend an exhibition, or to arrange one if you are in a position to do so. The series is a work in progress, and new images will be posted as they are completed, so please stay tuned.

~chris jordan, Seattle, 2007

See images here

More on Chris Jordan's work here

Schools eating green

2008-04-14T14:06:00.003-06:00

Episcopal Life Online reports on how Episcopal schools are linking their lunches with the garden and creating awareness about maintaining a healthy planet.

The link between the health of our planet and of ourselves comes into focus when we consider our food system. School lunches, school gardens and even school composting play an important part in that system for children at Episcopal schools.
When parent Rob Gaon approached the Rev. Jesse Vaughan, headmaster at St. Michael's Episcopal Day School in Carmichael, California, in the fall of 2005 with his dream of a school garden, he wasn't sure what the response would be. Gaon had started gardening when he moved to the Sacramento area a few years earlier and had fallen in love with the practice.

In the spring of 2006, Vaughan walked Gaon out to the space where he thought the garden should be, and the dream began to be realized.

"The amazing thing is how the whole school community has embraced the garden," says Gaon.

That summer, a group of parents put the garden together.

Now there is a garden parent for each classroom, and grandparents' club members support the garden with their labor and fund raisers.

"The teachers have received it with open arms," says Gaon. The lower grades have been most active, but even the seventh- and eighth-grade classes are involved, planting a Shakespeare garden to complement their English studies.

The children are excited to pick and eat snap peas or strawberries, and the harvest is included on the school cafeteria salad bar and vegetarian soups. "We have an amazing woman in our cafeteria," says Gaon. Signs are posted identifying produce from the school garden when it is a featured part of any menu.

Read about it here.

Spiritual Leaders

2008-04-09T07:47:00.003-06:00

Joel Connelly, columnist for the Seattle Post Intelligencer writes about the spiritual leadership of the Dalai Lama and the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori. He asks how their vision might stem the tide of consumerism, violence, and global warming in our day:

The Dalai Lama will find himself lionized, praised, honored and listened to with reverence during his upcoming visit to the Emerald City.

The man's message, however, is likely to be ignored.

"Cultural genocide" in Tibet, as the Dalai Lama aptly describes it, hasn't caused a moment's pause in the courtship of China by our business and political leaders. A lust for commerce trumps the evils of Communism.

The upcoming comings and goings of religious leaders -- Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori hits Seattle on Wednesday, and Pope Benedict XVI visits the East Coast next week -- underscores how hard it is to find a role for global ethics in this era of "globalism."

We start with a consumer society, fed by a ruthless new global economy that lays waste to land and people and fuels consumption and lavish temples to wealth.

He writes of the upcoming Healing our Planet Earth: Singing a New Song of Hope conference in the Seattle area:

Schori is, in a sense, returning home with her Seattle trip. She was raised in Lake City, converted from Catholicism to the Episcopal Church with her family and was an oceanographer before receiving a call to the priesthood. She has climbed 9,415-foot Mount Stuart.

She is here for the kind of event that represents renewal to many in her flock, while others see invasive secular issues capturing the church.

It's a national conference titled "Healing Our Planet Earth: Singing a New Song of Hope."

Schori is not hesitant to embrace science, even linking it to revelation.

"As an oceanographer, I practiced a discipline that understands that no life form can be studied in isolation from its surroundings: As a Christian, I continue to practice a discipline that understands that God created all beings to live in relationship with each other and the rest of creation," she said in a written statement.

"Science has revealed to us unequivocally that climate change and global warming are real, and caused in significant party by human activity.

"These changes are a threat not only to the goodness of God's creation but to all of humanity."

The conference will hear from the Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, a seminary dean and former Alaska bishop who heralds "The Genesis Covenant."

The covenant is an interfaith effort that calls on religious communities to make a "public commitment" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a minimum of 50 percent in the next 10 years.

Not even our solemn, secular greens -- the Sightline Institute and Cascade Chapter of the Sierra Club -- dare talk of such an ambitious goal.

Give it 4 Good

2008-04-05T10:32:00.003-06:00

Soon you will be receiving a check for you to spend to stimulate the economy - here is a suggestion for using it for the global good.

For more information click here.

Earth Day resources

2008-03-31T18:42:00.004-06:00

Since the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, Earth Day has been an annual event for people around the world to celebrate the earth and renew our commitment to building a safer, healthier and cleaner world for all of us. It is a wonderful opportunity to embrace all of God's creation, raise awareness and pray for "this fragile earth, our island home." (Eucharistic Prayer C)

There are many resources and websites to assist in the planning of your education offerings and worship celebrations on this day - click on resource for link:

Earth Day Network

Take the Ecological Footprint Quiz!

Green Stories from Episcopalians

Update on Greening Efforts around the Episcopal Church

Worship and Formation Resources

Sample Sermons

Congregational Greening Resources and Ideas

Millennium Development Goal #7 resources

Climate Change and the Church

Healing God's Creation

Lord of Creation: Celtic Spirituality

Lessons Plans from the NCCC Eco-Justice Network! The Poverty of Global Climate Change . .

Thanks to Living In-Formation - a newsletter from Church Publishing.

Beef and the environment

2008-03-30T08:37:00.003-06:00

Why going meatless saves the Earth. Michael Bluejay offers some reasons for becoming a vegan. Charts show how much fuel, water and land it takes to make one calorie of of protein from various foods.

This chart shows the calories of fossil fuel used to make 1 calorie of protein for various feeds:

Read more here.

Earth Hour

2008-03-28T10:48:00.003-06:00

World Wildlife Fund is sponsoring Earth Hour around the world. According to a press release:

With less than a week to go, participation in Earth Hour has grown dramatically as nearly 200 cities, including 35 in the U.S., join millions of individuals and businesses around the world in turning off their lights on Saturday, March 29th from 8 – 9 pm local time in a dramatic symbolic gesture in support for action on climate change.

Find out more here.

Christian Science Monitor reports plans in Chicago:

Guests at the Inn of Chicago on the city's Magnificent Mile will walk into a darkened, candle-lit lobby. And when they look out at the iconic skyline, it will look different: the Sears Tower, the Hancock Building, the Ferris wheel on Navy Pier, and some 200 downtown buildings plan to turn out the lights at 8 p.m.

It's all part of "Earth Hour," an international climate-change awareness campaign that started last year in Sydney, Australia and that the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is taking global this year. Starting in New Zealand, and rolling out through dozens of cities, including Bangkok, Thailand; Dublin, Ireland; and Tel Aviv; the campaign is urging individuals, businesses, and landmarks to go dark between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Healing Our Planet Earth

2008-03-04T10:29:00.003-07:00

Friday, April 11 and Saturday, April 12, a national Episcopal conference seeks to engage the Church in understanding and actively addressing the crisis of climate change. While this conference is hosted by Episcopalians, it welcomes participants from other denominations and faith traditions.

“The crisis of climate change presents an unprecedented challenge to the goodness,interconnectedness and sanctity of the world that God created and loved." Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori

“Ultimately, the control of climate change and the welfare of the environment is an issue of survival for everybody. It’s not a question that can be addressed by one society alone, by one religious tradition alone, by one state alone; it’s something that demands collaboration…. So the challenge that faith communities in particular face at the moment is the challenge of holding up before our governments and our societies, a clear moral vision.” Archbishop Rowan Williams

Now is the time to step forward as people of faith - all faiths - to address the crisis of global climate change. We invite you to join others from around the nation to learn how we can "get the word out" and join in a covenant to make a difference.

Watch Bp. Charleston's Sermon on the Genesis Covenant at Washington National Cathedral on February 24, 2008

Major Presenters
Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church USA. In addition to her theological expertise she has a Ph. D. in oceanography and worked for NOAA for twenty years.

Dr. Steven Charleston is President of the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, MA. Prior to this position he served as the Episcopal Bishop of Alaska. He is a Native American elder.

Dr. Sallie McFague is a Distinguished Theologian in Residence at Vancouver School of Theology, in Vancouver, B.C. Prior to that she was Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. She has written extensively on environmental theology.

More information on The Genesis Covenant here.

To register for the conference Click here.

How it all ends

2008-02-20T14:44:00.001-07:00

YouTube Video Series Leads Global Warming Discussion

By Holly Van Woerkom, BYU Newsnet, February 19, 2008.

Exploding balloons and test tubes? Check. Average-looking guy with a funny hat? Check. Low-tech filming techniques? Check. These elements included in the… video How It All Ends [10 min] may have contributed to its extreme popularity among YouTube viewers. But unlike other YouTube sensations, which are typically anything but thought provoking, this is a video with a cause - its creator hopes to change public opinion on global climate change. Oregon high school teacher Greg Craven's quest to spark discussion about global climate change began in August 2007, when he posted a video on YouTube.com called The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See [9 1/2 sec] which quickly gained more than 3 million hits in its first six months. After thousands of comments and criticisms from viewers, Craven created the equally successful How It All Ends, part of a 44-part, six hour expansion pack, which he says 'answers every single objection or question to my argument that I've come across to date.'

Listen to the Wombat

2008-02-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

Carbon Fast for Lent

2008-02-07T08:52:00.000-07:00

Episcopal Cafe has a proposal for a greener Lent.
By James Jones

Traditionally people have given up things for Lent. Last year in the Diocese of Liverpool many parishes took part in a Carbon Fast. Through it we were able to focus on God’s Earth and its poorest people in whom, Jesus said, we were to find him.

This year, in Lent 2008, we invite as many as can to join us in a Carbon Fast.

Suggestions for the first week:

Ash Wednesday: Remove one light bulb (without inviting danger).

Thursday: Check your house for draughts with a ribbon or feather. If it flutters, buy a draught excluder.

Friday: Whatever mode of transport you usually use, try to make at least one of your journeys more environmentally friendly.

Saturday: Consider whether or not you’re using all available avenues for recycling (don’t forget that charity shops play a valuable role).

Week 2

Sunday: Find the most environmentally friendly way you can to get to church today (e.g. walk, bike, car share).

Monday: Turn your central heating thermostat down by one degree. If you have separate thermostats on radiators, adjust them to suit the use of the room.

Tuesday: Check that all electrical equipment is switched off rather than on standby when not in use. Screen savers do not save electricity.

Wednesday: As chocolate is still on the menu this Lent, be sure to reward yourself with Fair trade chocolate.

Thursday: Ensure your mobile phone charger is unplugged when not in use.

Friday: Plan your menu for next week and buy only enough food to avoid waste.

Saturday: When shopping, employ the LOAF principle – that is buy Locally produced, Organic, Animal friendly, and Fairly traded goods.

All six weeks here.

More resources here.

No impact man

2008-02-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

A guilty liberal finally snaps, swears off plastic, goes organic, becomes a bicycle nut, turns off his power, composts his poop and, while living in New York City, generally turns into a tree-hugging lunatic who tries to save the polar bears and the rest of the planet from environmental catastrophe while dragging his baby daughter and Prada-wearing, Four Seasons-loving wife along for the ride.

So says No Impact Man at his blog. Lots of links and ideas for going green.

Conserving Water

2008-01-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

A calculator to measure your water usage at H2O Conserve. Click here to check yours. Also tips for water conservation.

God does not make waste

2008-01-02T10:06:00.000-07:00

The Archbishop of Canterbury's message for the planet.

God 'doesn't do waste'

2007-12-31T14:00:00.000-07:00

Archbishop of Canterbury's New Year message:
God 'doesn't do waste'

By this stage of the holiday season, I imagine you might be looking with dismay at your overflowing rubbish bin, or the mountain of debris piling up outside your back door. Food, drink, presents - they all come with more and more packaging. Even the most eco-conscious of us is likely to have a bit of a bad conscience after Christmas.

Despite constant talk about recycling and thinking "green" - we're still a society that produces fantastic quantities of waste. From the big issues around toxic industrial and nuclear waste to the domestic questions of managing day-to-day waste and the build-up of stuff around us that can't be recycled, it's not something we can ignore. Look at the number of plastic bags flapping around by the roadside, in town and country alike - and you see what I mean.

What I wonder is - how much this influences attitudes in other parts of our lives?

In a society where we think of so many things as disposable; where we expect to be constantly discarding last year's gadget and replacing it with this year's model - do we end up tempted to think of people and relationships as disposable? Are we so fixated on keeping up with change that we lose any sense of our need for stability?

One of the buzzwords of recent years has been 'sustainability' - and, like all buzzwords, it tends to be used annoyingly all over the place, often for things it doesn't really fit. But what the word points to is the sense of obligation that most of us share at some deep level - the obligation to hand on to our children and grandchildren a legacy that helps them live and flourish. Building to last is something we all understand.

And if we live in a context where we construct everything from computers to buildings to relationships on the assumption that they'll need to be replaced before long - what have we lost?

Christians, like Jews and many other religious people too, talk a lot about God as 'faithful'. God is involved in 'building to last', in creating a sustainable world and sustainable relationships with us human beings. He doesn't give up on the material of human lives. He doesn't throw it all away and start again. And he asks us to approach one another and our physical world with the same commitment. The life of Jesus, the life in which God identifies completely with our flesh and blood is the supreme sign of that commitment.

God doesn't do waste.

He doesn't regard anyone as a 'waste of space', as not worth his time - from the very beginnings of life to its end, whether they are successful, articulate, productive or not. And so a life that communicates a bit of what God is like, is a life that doesn't give up - that doesn't settle down with a culture of waste and disposability - whether with people, or with things.

Perhaps a good resolution for the New Year would be to keep asking what world we want to pass on to the next generation - indeed, to ask whether we have a real and vivid sense of that next generation.

A lot of the time, we just don't let ourselves think about the future with realism. A culture of vast material waste and emotional short-termism is a culture that is a lot more fragile than it knows. How much investment are we going to put in towards a safer and more balanced future?

A big question. But too big to avoid.

And if we feel a bit paralysed by just how big it is - well, we can at least start by a visit this week to the nearest recycling bins.

God bless you all in this New Year; may you have patience for the long view - confident that God takes the long view of you and isn't going to give up.

Happy New Year.

Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

How many earths would we need if everyone lived like me?

2007-12-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

What would the world look like if everyone lived like me?

Welcome to Consumer Consequences, our interactive game designed to illustrate the impact of our lifestyles on the Earth. It's part of American Public Media's™ special series, "Consumed," which explores whether the modern American lifestyle is sustainable in the long run. (Stay tuned to this site for more "Consumed" content).

Consumer Consequences will ask you a series of questions about your lifestyle, and as you play, it will show you how many "Earths" of natural resources it would take to sustain all 6.6 billion humans… if everyone lived like you.

Click here to play.

Archbishop of Canterbury "Green" Christmas Sermon

2007-12-25T08:03:00.001-07:00

Eleven days ago, the Church celebrated the memory of the sixteenth century Spanish saint, John of the Cross, Juan de Yepes – probably the greatest Christian mystical writer of the last thousand years, a man who worked not only for the reform and simplification of the monastic life of his time but also for the purification of the inner life of Christians from fantasy, self-indulgence and easy answers. Those who’ve heard of him will most likely associate him with the phrase that he introduced into Christian thinking about the hard times in discipleship – ‘the dark night of the soul’. He is a ruthless analyst of the ways in which we prevent ourselves from opening up to the true joy that God wants to give us by settling for something less than the real thing and confusing the truth and grace of God with whatever makes us feel good or comfortable. He is a disturbing and difficult writer; not, you’d imagine, a man to go to for Christmas good cheer.

But it was St John who left us, in some of his poems, one of the most breathtakingly imaginative visions ever of the nature of Christmas joy, and who, in doing this, put his own analyses of the struggles and doubts of the life of prayer and witness firmly into an eternal context. He is recognised as one of the greatest poets in the Spanish language; and part of his genius is to use the rhythms and conventions of popular romantic poetry and folksong to convey the biblical story of the love affair between God and creation.

One of his sequences of poetry is usually called simply the ‘Romances’. It’s a series of seventy five short, mostly four line, verses, written in the simplest possible style and telling the story of the world from the beginning to the first Christmas – but very daringly telling this story from God’s point of view. It begins like a romantic ballad. ‘Once upon a time’, God was living eternally in heaven, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, with perfect love flowing uninterrupted between them. And out of the sheer overflowing energy of his love, God the Father decides that he will create a ‘Bride’ for his Son. The imagery is powerful and direct: there will be someone created who will be able, says God the Father, to ‘sit down and eat bread with us at one table, the same bread that I eat.’

And so the world is made as a home for the Bride. Who is this Bride? It is the whole world of beings who are capable of love and understanding, the angels and the human race. In the rich diversity of the world, the heavens and the earth together, God makes an environment in which love and intelligence may grow, until they are capable of receiving the full impact of God’s presence. And so the world waits for the moment when God can at last descend and – in a beautiful turning upside-down of the earlier image – can sit at the same table and share the same bread as created beings.

As the ages pass on earth, the longing grows and intensifies for this moment to arrive; and at last God the Father tells the Son that it is time for him to meet his Bride face to face on earth, so that, as he looks at her directly, she may reflect his own likeness. When God has become human, then humanity will recognise in his face, in Jesus’ face, its own true nature and destiny. And the angels sing at the wedding in Bethlehem, the marriage of heaven and earth, where, in the haunting final stanza of the great poetic sequence, humanity senses the joy of God himself, and the only one in the scene who is weeping is the child, the child who is God in the flesh: ‘The tears of man in God, the gladness in man, the sorrow and the joy that used to be such strangers to each other.’

Well, that is how John of the Cross sets out the story of creation and redemption, the story told from God’s point of view. And there are two things in this that are worth our thoughts and our prayers today. The first is one of the strangest features of John’s poems. The coming of Christ is not first and foremost a response to human crisis; there is remarkably little about sin in these verses. We know from elsewhere that John believed what all Christians believe about sin and forgiveness; and even in these poems there is reference to God’s will to save us from destruction. But the vision takes us further back into God’s purpose. The whole point of creation is that there should be persons, made up of spirit and body, in God’s image and likeness, to use the language of Genesis and of the New Testament, who are capable of intimacy with God – not so that God can gain something but so that these created beings may live in joy. And God’s way of making sure that this joy is fully available is to join humanity on earth so that human beings may recognise what they are and what they are for. The sinfulness, the appalling tragedy of human history has set us at what from our point of view seems an unimaginable distance from God; yet God, we might say, takes it in his stride. It means that when he appears on earth he takes to himself all the terrible consequences of where we have gone wrong – ‘the tears of man in God’; yet it is only a shadow on the great picture, which is unchanged.

We are right to think about the seriousness of sin, in other words; but we see it properly and in perspective only when we have our eyes firmly on the greatness and unchanging purpose of God’s eternal plan for the marriage of heaven and earth. It is a perspective that is necessary when our own sins or those of a failing and suffering world fill the horizon for us, so that we can hardly believe the situation can be transformed. For if God’s purpose is what it is, and if God has the power and freedom to enter our world and meet us face to face, there is nothing that can destroy that initial divine vision of what the world is for and what we human beings are for. Nothing changes, however far we fall; if we decide to settle down with our failures and give way to cynicism and despair, that is indeed dreadful – but God remains the same God who has decided that the world should exist so that it may enter into his joy. At Christmas, when this mystery is celebrated, we should above all renew our sheer confidence in God. In today’s Bethlehem, still ravaged by fear and violence, we can still meet the God who has made human tears his own and still works ceaselessly for his purpose of peace and rejoicing, through the witness of brave and loving people on both sides of the dividing wall.

But the second point growing out of this is of immense practical importance. The world around us is created as a framework within which we may learn the first beginnings of growing up towards what God wants for us. It is the way it is so that we can be directed towards God. And so this is how we must see the world. Yes, it exists in one sense for humanity’s sake; but it exists in its own independence and beauty for humanity’s sake – not as a warehouse of resources to serve humanity’s selfishness. To grasp that God has made the material world, ‘composed’, says John of the Cross, ‘of infinite differences’, so that human beings can see his glory is to accept that the diversity and mysteriousness of the world around is something precious in itself. To reduce this diversity and to try and empty out the mysteriousness is to fail to allow God to speak through the things of creation as he means to. ‘My overwhelming reaction is one of amazement. Amazement not only at the extravaganza of details that we have seen; amazement, too, at the very fact that there are any such details to be had at all, on any planet. The universe could so easily have remained lifeless and simple…Not only is life on this planet amazing, and deeply satisfying, to all whose senses have not become dulled by familiarity: the very fact that we have evolved the brain power to understand our evolutionary genesis redoubles the amazement and compounds the satisfaction’. The temptation to quote Richard Dawkins from the pulpit is irresistible; in this amazement and awe, if not in much else, he echoes the sixteenth century mystic.

So to think of our world as a divine ‘prompt’ to our delight and reverence, so that its variety, the ‘extravaganza of details’, is a precious thing, is to begin to be committed to that reverent guardianship of this richness that is more and more clearly required of us as we grow in awareness of how fragile all this is, how fragile is the balance of species and environments in the world and how easily our greed distorts it. When we threaten the balance of things, we don’t just put our material survival at risk; more profoundly, we put our spiritual sensitivity at risk, the possibility of being opened up to endless wonder by the world around us.

And it hardly needs adding that this becomes still more significant when we apply John of the Cross’s vision to our human relations. Every person and every diverse sort of person exists for a unique joy, the joy of being who they are in relation to God, a joy which each person will experience differently. And when I encounter another, I encounter one who is called to such a unique joy; my relation with them is part of God’s purpose in bringing that joy to perfection – in me and in the other. This doesn’t rule out the tension and conflict that are unavoidable in human affairs – sometimes we challenge each other precisely so that we can break through what it is in each other that gets in the way of God’s joy, so that we can set each other free for this joy.

This, surely, is where peace on earth, the peace the angels promise to the shepherds, begins, here and nowhere else, here where we understand what human beings are for and what they can do for each other. The delighted reverence and amazement we should have towards the things of creation is intensified many times where human beings are concerned. And if peace is to be more than a pause in open conflict, it must be grounded in this passionate amazed reverence for others.

The birth of Jesus, in which that power which holds the universe together in coherence takes shape in history as a single human body and soul, is an event of cosmic importance. It announces that creation as a whole has found its purpose and meaning, and that the flowing together of all things for the joyful transfiguration of our humanity is at last made visible on earth.

‘So God henceforth will be human, and human beings caught up in God. He will walk around in their company, eat with them and drink with them. He will stay with them always, the same for ever alongside them, until this world is wrapped up and done with’.

Glory to God in the highest , and peace on earth to those who are God’s friends.

Rowan Williams - Archbishop of Canterbury

Global Warming and churches

2007-12-08T06:56:00.000-07:00

used by permission

Dave Walker at Cartoon Blog on Global Warming and the church's obsessions.

Exxon and Cordoba: failure of justice

2007-11-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

Riki Ott, PhD., a community activist, former fisherm'am, has a degree in marine toxicology with a specialty in oil pollution and the author of Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, writes about the continuing saga of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the effects on Cordova Alaska, and the failure of our justice system.

The Supreme Court's recent decision to hear ExxonMobil's reasons to void the $2.5 billion punitive award in the Exxon Valdez case hit the town of Cordova, Alaska, hard. This small coastal fishing community -- my hometown -- along with the Alaska Native villages in Prince William Sound have borne the brunt of the largest crude oil spill in America's waters; a spill that took place more than 18 years ago, but one that continues to hold the region hostage.

The second painful blow was the high court's decision to not even hear our reasons why the award should be restored to the full $5 billion that a jury of peers decided was necessary to punish the corporate giant back in 1994.

While media pundits, lawyers, and scholars play the Supreme Court's decisions back and forth like a ping-pong ball, people in Cordova share a completely different perspective of this story. It's not about whether the Supreme Court should hear the case. To us, it's about justice and reparation -- making us whole, a promise Exxon made to the community five days after the spill. A promise that Exxon broke before the trial even started five years after the spill.

To us, it's about more than an oil spill, the world's largest oil corporation, and a small fishing community in Alaska. It's about America's failed legal system that inherently cannot dispense justice in the face of corporate globalization.

Those affected by the spill offer some solutions for developing a just system that works for people.

First, post-disaster disputes could be minimized during preliminary planning and scoping of projects by negotiated, legally-binding agreements -- now that we are better informed of the ecological and human costs of disaster.

Second, financial incentives and rules could be created to encourage dispute resolution through non-adversarial negotiated settlements. Such techniques have proven successful even for disasters involving toxic exposure.

Third, incentives could be created to shorten litigation timelines by eliminating mechanisms that reward profits through stalling.

Fourth, if punitive damages are to be effectively applied, then they must be linked with corporate profits rather than compensatory damages and they should be shared not only among victims, but also among the injured communities to rebuild areas devastated by disaster.

In Cordova, we hope that it is just a matter of time before these suggestions or other similar ones are demanded by professionals, activists, and victims fed up with the American "injustice system."

We know that change will have to come from each of us, as there is little hope that the Supreme Court, or any other branch of the current judicial system, will take it upon itself to keep from doing more harm to those it was designed to protect.

Read it all here

Blessed Unrest

2007-11-02T21:41:00.000-06:00

A new book by Paul Hawken:

A leading environmentalist and social activist's examination of the worldwide movement for social and environmental change.

Paul Hawken has spent over a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice.
From billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person dot.causes, these groups collectively comprise the largest movement on earth, a movement that has no name, leader, or location, and that has gone largely ignored by politicians and the media. Like nature itself, it is organizing from the bottom up, in every city, town, and culture. and is emerging to be an extraordinary and creative expression of people's needs worldwide.

Blessed Unrest explores the diversity of the movement, its brilliant ideas, innovative strategies, and hidden history, which date back many centuries. A culmination of Hawken's many years of leadership in the environmental and social justice fields, it will inspire and delight any and all who despair of the world's fate, and its conclusions will surprise even those within the movement itself. Fundamentally, it is a description of humanity's collective genius, and the unstoppable movement to reimagine our relationship to the environment and one another.

Read about it here

100 Top Effects of Global Warming

2007-09-24T09:25:00.000-06:00

Center for American Progress reports on the effects of Global Warming.

Global Warming Wrecks All the Fun

Say Goodbye to French Wines
Wacky temperatures and rain cycles brought on by global warming are threatening something very important: Wine. Scientists believe global warming will “shift viticultural regions toward the poles, cooler coastal zones and higher elevations.” What that means in regular language: Get ready to say bye-bye to French Bordeaux and hello to British champagne. [LA Times]

Say Goodbye to Light and Dry Wines
Warmer temperatures mean grapes in California and France develop their sugars too quickly, well before their other flavors. As a result, growers are forced to either a) leave the grapes on the vines longer, which dramatically raises the alcoholic content of the fruit or b) pick the grapes too soon and make overly sweet wine that tastes like jam. [Washington Post]

Say Goodbye to Pinot Noir
The reason you adore pinot noir is that it comes from a notoriously temperamental thin-skinned grape that thrives in cool climates. Warmer temperatures are already damaging the pinots from Oregon, “baking away” the grape’s berry flavors. [Bloomberg]

Say Goodbye to Baseball
The future of the ash tree—from which all baseball bats are made—is in danger of disappearing, thanks to a combination of killer beetles and global warming. [NY Times]

Say Goodbye to Christmas Trees
The Pine Bark Beetle, which feeds on and kills pine trees, used to be held in control by cold winter temperatures. Now the species is thriving and killing off entire forests in British Columbia, unchecked. [Seattle Post Intelligencer]

Say Goodbye to the Beautiful Alaska Vacation
Warmer weather allowed Spruce Bark Beetles to live longer, hardier lives in the forests of Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, where they killed off a section of spruce forest the size of Connecticut. [Alaska Science Forum]

Say Goodbye to Fly Fishing
As water temperatures continue to rise, researchers say rainbow trout, "already at the southern limits” of their temperature ranges in the Appalachian mountains, could disappear there over the next century. [Softpedia]

Say Goodbye to Ski Competitions
Unusually warmer winters caused the International Ski Federation to cancel last year’s Alpine skiing World Cup and opening races in Sölden, Austria. Skiers are also hard-pressed now to find places for year-round training. Olympic gold medalist Anja Paerson: “Of course we’re all very worried about the future of our sport. Every year we have more trouble finding places to train.” [NY Times]

Say Goodbye to Ski Vacations
Slopes on the East Coast last year closed months ahead of time due to warmer weather, some losing as much as a third of their season. [Washington Post]

Say Hello to Really Tacky Fake Ski Vacations
Weiner Air Force and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey are building a year-round ski resort in Texas, with “wet, white Astroturf with bristles” standing in for snow to make up for all the closed resorts around the country. [WSJ]

Say Goodbye to That Snorkeling Vacation
The elkhorn coral which used to line the floor of the Caribbean are nearly gone, “victims of pollution, warmer water and acidification from the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide seeping into oceans.” [Denver Post]

Say Goodbye to That Tropical Island Vacation
Indonesia's environment minister announced this year that scientific studies estimate about 2,000 of the country's lush tropical islands could disappear by 2030 due to rising sea levels. [ABC News]

Say Goodbye to Cool Cultural Landmarks
The World Monuments Fund recently added “global warming” as a threat in their list of the top 100 threatened cultural landmarks. “On Herschel Island, Canada, melting permafrost threatens ancient Inuit sites and a historic whaling town. In Chinguetti, Mauritania, the desert is encroaching on an ancient mosque. In Antarctica, a hut once used by British explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott has survived almost a century of freezing conditions but is now in danger of being engulfed by increasingly heavy snows.” [AP]

Say Goodbye to Salmon Dinners
Get ready for a lot more chicken dinners: Wild pacific salmon have already vanished from 40 percent of their traditional habitats in the Northwest and the NRDC warns warmer temperatures are going to erase 41 percent of their habitat by 2090. [ENS]

Read it all here.

Sustainability is bad

2007-09-19T12:05:00.000-06:00

The blog Good things to Eat comments on the new trend of sustainable luxury.

There's a vile new trend of "sustainable luxury" blemishing our so-called civilization, perpetuating our fantasy of cake that is both had and eaten.

Most of what the first world does is "sustainable," meaning it can go on and on. We have enough money and weapons to ensure that we can continue having more than our share of everything for as long as we want it. It can and will be sustained--at a cost to everyone else.

But that aside...

The idea of sustainable luxury presumes, first of all, that luxury is something essential. Absurd--the very definition of luxury is excess, something beyond what is needed. Spa-sellers and foot-rubbers have taken advantage of the purposeless feeling that comes with having too much by birthright to convince us that we need a weekend in a soaking tub, a nice hot wrap in a banana leaf. We don't. We don't need grand hotels, beachfront condos, jumbo jets or foie gras. They're luxury--in fact, they are gluttony.

Read is all HERE

Thoughts on Eco-Religion

2007-09-02T19:27:00.000-06:00

The Environmentalist writes on the role of religion in the "green" movement.

...environmentalism is not a Hollywood intellectual property. While the environment may have become topic du jour for some and a near religious calling for others, it is a religious issue for this Grist list of 15 "green" religious leaders that includes: the Patriarch of Eastern Orthodoxy, the Dalai Lama, an Episcopal Reverend, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Vice President of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Pope, the leader of the Islamic Foundation for Ecology, an Australian theologian, the head of the American Rabbis' Committee on the Environment, a Dominican Nun, a member of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, a Unitarian reverend, a Methodist theologian, and Father Thomas Berry, a Catholic priest who refers to himself as a 'Geologian.'

The comments on the Grist article are worthy of review, as well. They include suggestions for the list from other countries/world religions that are making a significant contribution.

And there's the robust environmental movement of South Asia (India, Nepal...) and Harvard's FORE (Forum on Religion and Ecology) research into the environmental traditions of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Shinto, Indigenous American Indians, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Which all goes to say that those who label environmentalism as a religion in the hope that it will invalidate the movement are as out of touch with reality as those who cite religion as an obstacle to environmentalism. The truth is the environmental movement is as diverse as humanity itself. It includes those who are deeply religious, those for whom the environment has become a religion, those who keep their religion to themselves while they seek to validate the science and those whose need to deny climate change may have become a religion, as well.

It is a global epiphany.

Read it all here.

Confess your "green sins"

2007-08-30T09:53:00.000-06:00

The Guardian tells of a priest who offers an opportunity to find forgiveness for sins against the earth. Found in Ruth Gledhill's column:

Forgotten to recycle any newspapers or tin cans recently? Feeling guilty because you neglected to carbon offset your flight to somewhere, anywhere, outside England this summer?

The Roman Catholic Church is at hand with a new line in “green confessions” to help eco-sinners to find forgiveness.

Dom Anthony Sutch, the Benedictine monk who resigned as head of Downside School to become a parish priest in Suffolk, will be at the county’s Waveney Greenpeace festival this weekend to hear eco-confessions in what is thought to be the first dedicated confessional booth of its kind.

Vested in a green chasuble-style garment made from recycled curtains, and in a booth constructed of recycled doors, he will hear the sins of of those who have not recycled the things they ought to have done and who have consumed the things they ought not to have done.

Read it all here.

Wild Rice Harvest Cancelled

2007-08-15T09:18:00.000-06:00

Chippewa forced to cancel for 1st time ever

August 10, 2007
ASHLAND, Wis. -- The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has canceled its wild rice harvest for the first time in history.

The Bad River Tribal Council announced Wednesday that there would be no harvest within tribal boundaries this year because low water levels had dramatically reduced the rice crop.

Read it all here

Sermons on Saving the Planet

2007-08-06T07:07:00.000-06:00

A recommendation from Episcopal Life Online

Earth and Word: Classic Sermons on Saving the Planet from the Continuum International Publishing Group, edited by David Rhoads, 300 pages, paperback, c. 2007, $24.95

[Source: Continuum International Publishing Group] With temperatures warmer than they have been in decades and major hurricanes and storms occurring with increasing frequency, the fragility of the environment is on everyone's mind these days. For centuries, the Christian religion has preached a dominion of the earth, which has turned into one community's exploitation of the environment in the name of religion.

As the sermons in Earth and Word demonstrate, a vast portion of the Christian community does not endorse or condone the destruction of the environment in the name of God. This singular collection gathers the voices of many environmentalists, theologians, preachers, and activists who have spoken in support of saving the planet. Included in this collection are compelling and provocative sermons from such influential figures as Wendell Berry, Thomas Berry, John Cobb, William Slone Coffin, Bill McKibben, Sallie McFague, Joseph Sittler, and Barbara Brown Taylor. In each of these sermons, the authors explore the deep relationship between thinking religiously and thinking ecologically.

To order: Episcopal Books and Resources, online here or call 800-903-5544
or visit your local Episcopal bookseller, find one here

Measure your footprint

2007-08-05T09:22:00.000-06:00

From the Church of England Gazette.

Are you Shrinking your Footprint? - test Defra's new CO2 Calculator

A public trial version of Defra's new CO2calculator has been launched which you can find here. It enables everyone to understand and measure their carbon footprint and consider appropriate actions to reduce it.

Defra have also issued a methodology paper to go alongside the calculator which sets out the detail that lies behind the rationale for the assumptions and factors used. You can find this here

The trial aims to give the calculator exposure to a wide range of specialist and non-specialist users. Defra hope to use feedback to improve the calculator before launching a full version later in the year and encourage and value any feedback on how it can be improved. Any feedback can be sent to Defra via the calculator website.

My report card

2007-07-11T06:56:00.000-06:00

After posting all the articles on what others are doing and suggestions for what each of us and our churches can do to conserve resources, I thought it was time to do my own check in.

I continue to drive 55 on our 65 mph Wyoming highways - earning the wrath of some who want to drive the speed limit. Nothing quite like having someone riding my bumper so closely that I can read the label on their t-shirt!. The 4-6 mpg savings of gas keeps me poking along. When driving across South Pass - one of the main immigrant trails - I think of my great-grandmother at age 12 in a covered wagon or perhaps walking, as children usually did, at the 10 miles per day average.

Walking or biking to town has slacked off due to the heat (105F high) and West Nile disease bearing mosquitoes at dawn and dusk. Mostly I just don't go to town. Not sure how that is balancing out.

The biggest savings came unintentionally. Just before 2 of our 3 kids and family arrived our dryer went out. We could not get a new one due to the 4th of July holiday. We strung up clothesline and began to air dry. I have a new dryer but as long at it is warm enough - I will continue to hang things out. I had forgotten how great the clothes smell after drying outside - of course one has to contend with dive bombing birds. The energy saving payoff is great.

I finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I recommend it for the writing if nothing else. What other author can entertain wit a whole chapter on asparagus. I don't agree with all her premises - mainly we don't eat as much red meat and cheese as they do - but have been converted to seeking locally grown vegetables and fruits if at all possible and buying organic fair trade products. I am intrigued to make our own mozzarella cheese, though. The web site for the book with ideas and recipes is here

Cut the Carbon March

2007-07-06T12:53:00.000-06:00

This summer, Christian Aid is asking people to walk the walk on climate change by joining the longest ever protest march in UK history.

Starting in Northern Ireland on 14 July, our Cut the Carbon march will last 80 days, cover 1,000 miles, and see marchers from rich countries and poor spread our cut the carbon message to companies and politicians.

The Cut the Carbon march will raise awareness all over the UK and Ireland of the fact that climate change is not just a future problem – it is a current crisis for millions of poor people. The march will start in Belfast before reaching the London Stock Exchange on 2 October, with several major rallies and smaller local events along the way.

More information is HERE

Climate Change Bills Compared

2007-06-19T15:34:00.000-06:00

Climate Change Bills of the 110th Congress

See a chart comparing climate change proposals from the World Resources Institute.

Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act (CSIA) - S.280
Introduced 1/12/2007
Sponsors Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), John McCain (R-AZ), Barack Obama (D-IL), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Susan Collins (R-ME)
Main Provisions
How does it work? Emissions cap and trade system
First year of emissions cap 2012
How much GHG emissions would the bill cut by 2020? 15 percent
How much GHG emissions would the bill cut by 2050? 65 percent
What sources are covered? Electric power, industrial, commercial, transportation petroleum
Can farmers participate? Yes. Agricultural offsets are limited to 30 percent of allowances. (What does this mean?)
Other Provisions
Establishes the Climate Change Credit Corporation to reduce costs to consumers resulting from this act.

Provides R&D funding for advanced coal, renewable electricity, energy efficiency, advanced technology vehicles, transportation fuels, carbon sequestration and storage, and nuclear reactor technologies.

Requires periodic evaluations (by Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere) to determine whether emissions targets are adequate.

Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act - S.309
Introduced 1/15/2007
Sponsors Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
Main Provisions
How does it work? Performance standards with the option for an emissions cap and trade system
First year of emissions cap 2010
How much GHG emissions would the bill cut by 2020? 15 percent
How much GHG emissions would the bill cut by 2050? 83 percent
What sources are covered? Electric generation, motor vehicles, fuel
Can farmers participate? Not specified
Other Provisions
Provides funding for R&D on geologic sequestration, among other projects.

Includes emissions standards for new vehicles beginning in 2016 and renewable fuels requirement for gasoline beginning in 2016.

Includes energy efficiency and renewable portfolio standards (beginning in 2008) and low-carbon electric generation standards (beginning in 2016) for electric utilities.

Requires periodic evaluations (by the National Academy of Sciences) to determine whether emissions targets are adequate.

The Electric Utility Cap and trade Act - S.317
Introduced 1/17/2007
Sponsors Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Tom Carper (D-DE)
Main Provisions
How does it work? Emissions cap and trade system for electric utilities only
First year of emissions cap 2011
How much GHG emissions would the bill cut by 2020? 8 percent (electric utilities only)
How much GHG emissions would the bill cut by 2050? 41 percent (electric utilities only); Note: This bill is not structured like the others in that it pertains to electric utilities only. Total GHG emissions from all sources could increase by 62 percent by 2050 if other sectors are not phased in under the cap.
What sources are covered? Electric utilities
Can farmers participate? Yes
Other Provisions
Establishes the Climate Science Advisory Board to inform the administration and Congress of the state of climate science, and make recommendations to achieve climate stabilization.

Provides R&D funding for low- and zero-emitting carbon technologies, clean coal technologies, and energy efficient technologies relevant to the utilities industry.

Requires periodic evaluations (by Environmental Protection Agency) to determine whether emissions targets are adequate.

Bingaman Bill
Introduced January 2007 discussion draft
Sponsors Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
Main Provisions
How does it work? Emissions intensity cap and trade system (What is this?)
First year of emissions intensity cap 2010
What are its pollution-reduction targets? GHG intensity is reduced 2.6 percent per year from 2012 to 2021 and 3 percent per year in 2022 and after. Note: This bill is structured differently from the others. Total GHG emissions would increase 16 percent by 2020, and because of a contingency in the bill, total emissions could increase even more.
What sources are covered? Petroleum refineries, coal mines, natural gas processors, electricity generators, carbon-intensive manufacturing
Can farmers participate? Yes. Participation is limited to 5 percent of allowances.
Other Provisions
Includes a safety valve of $7. (What is this?)

Provides R&D funding for zero- or low-carbon energy technologies (e.g., high efficiency consumer products), advanced coal technologies, cellulosic biomass and advanced technology vehicles.

Global Warming Reduction Act - S.485
Introduced 2/1/2007
Sponsors Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
Main Provisions
How does it work? Emissions cap and trade system and performance standards
First year of emissions cap 2010
How much GHG emissions would the bill cut by 2020? 15 percent
How much GHG emissions would the bill cut by 2050? 67 percent
What sources are covered? Unspecified: "Sources and sectors with the greatest global warming pollutant emissions" to be determined by the administrator.
Can farmers participate? Yes
Other Provisions
Establishes passenger vehicle standards no less stringent than California's by 2014.

Gives consumer tax credits for advanced vehicle technologies (e.g., fuel cells, plug-in hybrids).

Mandates 60 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2030; requires the installation of E-85 pumps at certain gas stations. (In 2006, the United States consumed 141.5 billion gallons of gasoline.)

Requires periodic evaluations (by the National Academy of Sciences) to determine whether emissions targets are adequate.

Olver-Gilchrest - Climate Stewardship Act - H.R.620
Introduced 1/15/2007
Sponsors Reps. John Olver (D-MA), Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD)
Main Provisions
How does it work? Emissions cap and trade system
First year of emissions cap 2012
How much GHG emissions would the bill cut by 2020? 15 percent
How much GHG emissions would the bill cut by 2050? 75 percent
What sources are covered? Electric power, industrial, commercial, transportation petroleum
Can farmers participate? Yes. Participation is limited to 15 percent of allowances.
Other Provisions
Establishes the Climate Change Credit Corporation to reduce costs to consumers resulting from this act.

Includes energy efficiency and renewable portfolio standards (beginning in 2008) and low-carbon electric generation standards (beginning in 2016) for electric utilities.

Requires periodic evaluations (by the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere) to determine whether emissions targets are adequate.

Representative Waxman - Safe Climate Act - H.R.1590
Introduced 3/20/2007
Sponsors Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA)
Main Provisions
How does it work? Emissions cap and trade system
First year of emissions cap 2010
How much GHG emissions would the bill cut by 2020? 15 percent
How much GHG emissions would the bill cut by 2050? 83 percent
What sources are covered? Unspecified: "Sources and sectors with the largest emissions" to be determined by the administrator
Can farmers participate? Not specified
Other Provisions
Establishes passenger vehicle standards no less stringent than California's by 2014.

Establishes a national renewable energy standard in 2009; by 2020, 20 percent of electric energy generation must be from renewable sources.

Creates a national energy efficiency standard.

Requires periodic evaluations (by the National Academy of Sciences) to determine whether emissions targets are adequate.

Farmer participation: Farming and agricultural businesses can help solve global warming through innovative practices such as storing carbon in soils and managing manure. (Good manure practices can cut emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane.) Some bills tap this agricultural potential by giving farmers the option to participate. Such provisions work like this: companies can buy agricultural "offsets" to satisfy a portion of their required emissions reductions. (The bills spell out how much of an industry's emissions cuts can come from offsets.) Some bills include similar provisions for forestry offsets.

Emissions intensity: Intensity-based emissions targets link greenhouse gas emissions to economic growth (usually gross domestic product, or GDP). GHG intensity actually measures energy efficiency, so declining GHG intensity indicates improving efficiency, or less energy consumed per unit of production. However, intensity-based targets cannot guarantee that emissions will go down. In fact, under such proposals, GHG emissions can increase. For example, from 1990 to 2004, even in the absence of climate policy, GHG intensity in the United States fell by nearly 20 percent. At the same time, total GHG emissions increased by 20 percent. The reason this happened is that economic output grew more quickly than emissions, even though both were growing.

Safety valve: Some parties concerned with the cost of climate policy believe the way to manage costs is to establish a safety valve, also called an "escape hatch" or "price cap." Under such policies, when the price of carbon reaches a pre-determined dollar value, emitters no longer have to rely on the market's supply of allowances. Instead, the federal government simply sells additional allowances at the capped price - potentially in an unlimited quantity. This kind of escape hatch stifles innovation and can effectively allow more GHG into the atmosphere.

Thanks to Bruce MacDuffie (Diocese of North Dakota) of the Episcopal Environmental Network.

One Thing CAN Make a Difference

2007-06-16T19:53:00.000-06:00

If every household in the US changed over only five lightbulbs to compact fluorescents, it would have the same impact as removing 8 million cars from the highway. Source: Sierra Club Newsletter.

HyperMiling

2007-06-11T20:09:00.000-06:00

HyperMiling is a word that describes saving gas while driving. Easy changes can add up to lots of savings as well as helping the environment.

Some Web sites, click to view:

Hypermiling Tips

Fuel Economy ideas

Find your car to see what your average MPG:
Average MPG for your car.

Two things you can start today:

Drive 55 mph on the highway - will save 4-8 mpg.

Bunch your errands - make one trip instead of driving every time you need something.

And of course - walk or bike whenever - no miles per gallon!!

Katharine Jefferts Schori on Bill Moyers Journal

2007-06-09T10:44:00.000-06:00

Bill Moyers Journal features Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church on the June 8, 2007 edition. Bill Moyers and Katharine Jefferts Schori discuss science, the environment, and the challenges in the Anglican Communion concerning issues of human sexuality.

Presiding Bishop Testifies Before Senate

2007-06-07T16:56:00.000-06:00

Presiding Bishop's testimony to Senate on global warming

June 07, 2007[Episcopal News Service]
Written Testimony of The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church
Before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but power, and of love, and of a sound mind. – 2 Timothy 1:7

Good Morning. Madam Chair, Senator Inhofe, my fellow panelists, it is my great honor and privilege to join you here this morning. I appreciate your kind introduction. I am the Most Reverend Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, elected last summer to be Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Thank you for inviting me to participate in this very important hearing on global warming—which I believe to be one of the great human and spiritual challenges of our time.

Before my ordination to the priesthood, I was an oceanographer and I learned that no life form can be studied in isolation from its surroundings or from other organisms. All living things are deeply interconnected, and all life depends on the life of others. Study of the Bible, and of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition, made me equally aware that this interconnectedness is one of the central narratives of Scripture. God creates all people and all things to live in relationship with one another and the world around them. At the end of the biblical creation account, the writer of Genesis tells us that "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good."

I believe that each of us must recall ourselves to the vision that God has for us to realize in our own day. It is a vision in which all human beings live together as siblings, at peace with one another and with God, and in right relationship with all of the rest of creation. While many of the faith communities represented here today may disagree on a variety of issues, in the area of global warming we are increasingly of one mind. The crisis of climate change presents an unprecedented challenge to the goodness, interconnectedness, and sanctity of the world God created and loves. This challenge is what has called our faith communities to come here today and stand on the side of scientific truth. As a priest, trained as a scientist, I take as a sacred obligation the faith community's responsibility to stand on the side of truth, the truth of science as well as the truth of God's unquenchable love for the world and all its inhabitants.

The Church's history, of course, gives us examples of moments when Christians saw threat, rather than revelation and truth, in science. The trial and imprisonment of Galileo Galilei for challenging the theory of a geocentric universe is a famous example of the Church's moral failure. For his advocacy of this unfolding revelation through science, Galileo spent the remainder of his life under house arrest. The God whose revelation to us is continual and ongoing also entrusts us with continual and ongoing discovery of the universe he has made.

As one who has been formed both through a deep faith and as a scientist I believe science has revealed to us without equivocation that climate change and global warming are real, and caused in significant part by human activities. They are a threat not only to God's good creation but to all of humanity. This acknowledgment of global warming, and the Church's commitment to ameliorating it, is a part of the ongoing discovery of God's revelation to humanity and a call to a fuller understanding of the scriptural imperative of loving our neighbor.

Each one of us is also connected with our neighbor in many unexpected ways. The connectedness of creation is part of what Paul meant when he spoke of Christians being a part of the One Body of Christ. Indeed a later theologian, Sallie McFague, speaks of creation as the Body of God, out of the very same understanding that we are intimately and inevitably connected.

Each one of us is connected to those who are just now beginning to suffer from the consequences of climate change and to those living generations from now who will either benefit from our efforts to curb carbon emissions or suffer from our failure to address the challenge which climate change presents.

The scientific community has made clear that we must reduce carbon emissions globally by 15 to 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050 in order to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. On behalf of the Episcopal Church, as a Christian leader representing today not only the concerns of Episcopalians, but the concerns of the many denominations that are part of the National Council of Churches, I implore you to make these goals a national priority. To my colleagues in the faith community who doubt the urgency of addressing global warming, I urge you to re-consider for the sake of God's good earth.

I join many of my colleagues and many of you on this committee in sharing a profound concern that climate change will most severely affect those living in poverty and the most vulnerable in our communities here in the United States and around the world. I want to be absolutely clear; inaction on our part is the most costly of all courses of action for those living in poverty.

The General Convention, (the governing body of the Episcopal Church), the National Council of Churches, and many Christian denominations have called on Congress to address both climate change and the needs of those living in poverty in adapting to curbs in fossil fuel use. On their behalf, I would like to offer into the record their own statements.

Over the past five years, Americans have become increasingly aware of the phenomenon of global poverty – poverty that kills 30,000 people around the world each day – and have supported Congress and the President in making historic commitments to eradicating it. We cannot triumph over global poverty, however, unless we also address climate change, as the two phenomena are intimately related. Climate change exacerbates global poverty, and global poverty propels climate change.

Let me give you a few examples. As temperature changes increase the frequency and intensity of severe weather events around the world, poor countries -- which often lack infrastructure such as storm walls and water-storage facilities -- will divert resources away from fighting poverty in order to respond to disaster. A warmer climate will also increase the spread of diseases like malaria and tax the ability of poor countries to respond adequately. Perhaps most severely, changed rain patterns will increase the prevalence of drought in places like Africa, where only four percent of cropped land is irrigated, leaving populations without food and hamstrung in their ability to trade internationally to generate income. By 2020, between 75 and 250 million Africans are projected to be exposed to an increase of water stress due to climate change.

Conversely, just as climate change will exacerbate poverty, poverty also is hastening climate change. Most people living in poverty around the world lack access to a reliable energy source, an imbalance that must be addressed in any attempt to lift a community out of poverty. Unfortunately, financial necessity forces many to choose energy sources such as oil, coal or wood, which threaten to expand significantly the world's greenhouse emissions and thus accelerate the effects of climate change. This cycle—poverty that begets climate change, and vice versa—threatens the future of all people, rich and poor alike.

This relationship between deadly poverty and the health of creation was not lost on the world's leaders when, at the turn of the 21st century, they committed to cut global poverty in half by 2015. Their plan, which established the eight Millennium Development Goals, included a specific pledge of environmental sustainability. This year marks the halfway point in the world's effort to achieve these goals, and while progress has been impressive in some places, we are nowhere close to halfway there. Addressing climate change is a critical step toward putting the world back on track.

Climate change and poverty are linked at home as well. We know that those living in poverty, particularly minorities, in the United States will suffer a disproportionate share of the effects of climate change. In July of 2004, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation released a report entitled African Americans and Climate Change: An Unequal Burden that concluded "there is a stark disparity in the United States between those who benefit from the causes of climate change and those who bear the costs of climate change." The report finds that African Americans are disproportionately burdened by the health effects of climate change, including increased deaths from heat waves and extreme weather, as well as air pollution and the spread of infectious diseases. African American households spend more money on direct energy purchases as a percentage of their income than non African Americans across every income bracket and are more likely to be impacted by the economic instability caused by climate change, than other groups. That report makes a strong case for our congressional leaders to propose legislation to reduce carbon emissions that does not put a greater share of the cost on those living in poverty.

Climate change is also disproportionately affecting indigenous cultures. Nowhere is this more evident than in our Lutheran brothers' and sisters' northernmost congregation, Shishmaref Lutheran Church, located 20 miles south of the Arctic Circle on the Chukchi Sea, Alaska. The forces unleashed by global climate change are literally washing away the earth on which these 600 Inupiat Eskimos live. Due to increased storms, melting sea ice, thawing permafrost, and rising sea levels, their island home will soon be under water. They must uproot themselves and their 4000 year-old culture and find a new place to live.

In other parts of the Arctic, the exploitation of fossil fuels that contribute to global warming threaten both the subsistence rights of the Gwich'in people—more than 90 percent of whom are Episcopalian—and their culture as well. The calving grounds of the Porcupine Caribou in Alaska's North Slope are sacred to the Gwich'in people and the Episcopal Church supports the Gwich'in in calling for full protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Science, regardless of the field, is the pursuit of answers to questions that scientists raise in observing creation. While there may be great debate about how to deal with climate change, in fact the answer is known and the solution is clear. We must reduce carbon dioxide emissions. I find hope in this because it means the solution is simply good leadership and vision. And I am reminded by the Book of Proverbs that where there is no vision, the people perish.

In addressing climate change, Congress already has many of the necessary tools -- through existing programs and resources that could aggressively help those with limited means to adapt to climate change. Tax policy can be adjusted and targeted to encourage middle and low income taxpayers to take advantage of new technologies or to adjust to potentially higher energy costs. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program could be fully funded and expanded where necessary to protect the neediest among us. Other policy options include a cap and trade system with a directed revenue stream that could be used to help vulnerable communities to access new technologies, equipment, or appliances.

In the spirit of our nation's historic entrepreneurial and innovative prowess, we can also find opportunity to lead the world with new technologies, renewable sources of energy and innovations not yet dreamed of, that will allow for new markets, new jobs, new industries and the ability to provide job training and transition for American workers as we move away from the use of fossil fuels.

Those innovations can benefit all of humanity. As the National Academies report "Understanding and Responding to Climate Change" concluded: "Nations with wealth have a better chance of using science and technology to anticipate, mitigate, and adapt to sea-level rise, threats to agriculture, and other climate impacts. . .The developed world will need to assist the developing nations to build their capacity to meet the challenges of adapting to climate change."

Madam chair, I will close where I began, by recalling the Scriptural account of creation and God's proclamation that each piece of it was good, and that the whole of it – when viewed together and in relationship – was very good. Ultimately, scripture is an account of relationships: the bond of love between God and the world, and the interconnectivity of all people and all things in that world. It is only when we take seriously those relationships—when we realize that all people have a stake in the health and well-being of all others and of the Earth itself—that creation can truly begin to realize the abundant life that God intends for every one of us.

As I conclude I offer you this prayer from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer:

"O merciful Creator, your hand is open wide to satisfy the needs of every living creature; Make us always thankful for your loving providence; and grant that we, remembering the account that we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of your good gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen"—BCP page 239.

I will pray for each of you and for this Congress that you will be graced with vision and truth. May the Peace of God be upon this Senate and this Committee. Thank you.

Read more from the Presiding Bishop HERE

UK Newspaper Runs Ad From God

2007-06-05T17:35:00.000-06:00

Ekklesia reports that God has taken out an ad in the Independent newspaper.

In a move which may surprise media commentators and distinguished theologians alike, God – known primarily for moving in mysterious ways – has bought a full page advertisement in The Independent newspaper to persuade erstwhile admirer President George W. Bush to take climate change more seriously.

The advert appeared on page 39 of the UK daily’s print edition dated 4 June 2007 – under the banner “George, it took Me 7 days of hard work to create this planet, Please don’t ruin it for me.” The full text appears on a website entitled For God's Sake. It urges people to write to President Bush at the White House ahead of the G8 summit.

The ad urges readers to write to the President of the United States

You too can correspond directly with George.
Join me in asking him to lead the World in sorting out Climate Change.

Email him on: comments@whitehouse.gov

Or write to him at:

Mr George Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

See the ad online HERE

Read the whole story at Ekklesia

Earth Bishop Mourned:A Tribute to Jim Kelsey

2007-06-05T09:38:00.000-06:00

Jim Kelsey:
A video tribute by Earth Keepers.
Click HERE

The world has lost its Earth Bishop.

Episcopal Bishop James Kelsey of the Diocese of Northern Michigan was killed in a traffic accident on Sunday June the third 2007 while on one of his many journeys to spread the word of God.

Bishop Kelsey was returning from the far eastern Upper Peninsula when his life was cut short.

No person was dedicated to environment and interfaith causes like Bishop Kelsey.

This video was taken a day before his death as the Episcopal Bishop met with Lutheran and Presbyterian pastors to discuss a new interfaith environment endeavor called the Turtle Island Project.

Bishop Kelsey was always the first faith leader to volunteer to help with numerous interfaith environment projects sponsored by two Marquette, Michigan non-profits - the Superior Watershed Partnership and the Cedar Tree Institute.

For the past three years, Bishop Kelsey had been a strong supporter of the Earth Keeper Initiative that involves 9 faith traditions with 140 churches and temples across northern Michigan.

Bishop Kelsey was with the Earth Keepers from the beginning - and was one of the original nine faith leaders to sign the Earth Keeper Covenant in 2004 - pledging to protect the environment and reach out to American Indian Tribes.

On Earth Day 2005, Bishop Kelsey helped collect over 45 tons of household poisons like insecticides and drainer cleaner plus tons of car batteries.

Following that first clean sweep, Bishop Kelsey said "we are delighted with the results of the Clean Sweep project throughout the Upper Peninsula."

Bishop Kelsey said the first clean sweep was "a sign of the commitment shared across our faith traditions to be faithful stewards of the Creation into which we have been born, and which sustains our lives."

Bishop Kelsey said "I think it's a really remarkable thing that this particular initiative has crossed boundaries that usually don't get cross in terms of differentÂ faith traditions."

More about Jim Kelsey at HERE

God Goes Green

2007-06-04T14:15:00.000-06:00

Writing in USAToday, Oliver "Buzz" Thomas blogs:

Does the Bible actually advocate environmentalism? If so, might the movement become the next cause for religious Americans?

I used to marvel at how foolish an organism is cancer. It can't seem to pace itself. Left to its own devices, it will greedily consume its host until the host dies, thereby causing the cancer's own premature death.

Then, one day I had an epiphany. We're like cancer. Unable to pace ourselves, we are greedily consuming our host organism (i.e. planet Earth) and getting dangerously close to killing ourselves in the process.

The difference is that cancer has an excuse: No brain.

Consider that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued one of its most sobering reports to date. The hundreds of scientists and scores of nations participating in the project paint an apocalyptic future of flooding, drought, disease and food shortages. In the face of such a crisis, one might expect people of faith to flock to the cause of protecting the environment. After all, the theological issue appears a simple one. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and all that dwell in it!" proclaims Psalm 24:1. The earth is on loan. God owns it, and we are God's caretakers or "stewards," according to the Bible.

Read the rest HERE

Prairie Climate Stewardship Network

2007-06-02T09:41:00.000-06:00

A web site for the Northern Plains:

Prairie Stewardship Network recognizes that our response to climate change must be a cooperative one, involving all levels of society. We strongly urge individuals and families to take action in their personal lives, and our leaders in industry, agriculture and government to support scientific research, technological alternatives and policy initiatives to dramatically reduce global warming emissions.

We who live in North Dakota and the Northern Plains region are uniquely blessed with options that can both produce climate-friendly energy for the nation and sustain our rural livelihoods. North Dakota industry has helped pioneer the use of coal gasification technology both to produce energy while capturing and permanently storing the carbon dioxide emissions underground*. It has also initiated the planning and construction of new wind farms, and ethanol and biodiesel plants; these accomplishments demonstrate our economic and environmental potential in renewable energy. These developments hold great promise for reducing global warming and for reviving rural communities. Our Network promotes continuing concerted action at all levels in order that our region's potential is fully realized.

Prairie Climate Stewardship Network (PCSN) seeks to:

Increase public understanding of global climate change and climate stewardship;
Identify promising solutions and actions to reduce climate change and to revive the prairie's rural communities; and
Build public and private support for climate stewardship initiatives.

Opportunities, Resources, Challenges and Solutions, and other information on how people of the Northern Plains of North America are responding to the challenges of global warming. More HERE

Green Bishop speaks for the earth

2007-05-30T13:11:00.000-06:00

UGANDA:
South Africa's 'green bishop' takes Christians to task on earth usage
by Fredrick Nzwili

May 30, 2007[Ecumenical News International]

South African Anglican bishop Geoff Davies stirred debate among church leaders and theologians attending an Ecumenical Water Network conference in the Ugandan capital when he asserted that Christians were making a mistake if they believed God only cared about humanity, while the rest of creation existed for the benefit of people.
"Everything God created is good and has value. We make a mistake of thinking God is only concerned about us at our peril," the former bishop of Umzimvumbu (which means "the home of the hippopotamus" in Zulu) told the May 21-25 conference in Kampala that discussed Africa's water crisis.

Davies quoted Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist and first African woman Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, who says we cannot live without the rest of creation and that we are dependent on it.

Davies is currently executive director of the Southern Africa Faith Communities' Environment Institute and he said that human beings could not live separated from nature, nor see nature as an object to be exploited.

"If the natural environment does not survive, we won't," warned Davies, who shocked a congregation one Sunday, when he halted a service he was leading to tip a rubbish bag full of bottles, plastic and other junk onto the floor of Cape Town's St. George's Cathedral. "The reality is that we are now in the midst of the sixth extinction. There have been five previous ones, millions of years ago. The big difference is that this time, we humans are causing it," he said.

"We must remember water is an integral part of the natural environment and we must look after the totality of the natural environment, if we are to survive and if we are to have clean water," said Davies, who has been dubbed the "green bishop" by some of his peers.

His comments in Entebbe triggered strong reactions with some leaders agreeing with him while others stuck to the view that human beings were created to have dominion over nature and thereby had a right to use resources to live.

"The Church is being challenged to play her prophetic role in raising justice issues and viewing environment and water issues as part of faith," the Rev. Maritim Rirei, a Kenyan Anglican church leader, told Ecumenical News International during the meeting.

Rirei agreed with Davies that humanity is slowly destroying itself, by failing to take action to save the environment. "There's a need for a paradigm shift in the interfaith focus on environment, theological training and advocacy," he said.

The Rev. Canon Grace Kaiso, executive secretary of the Uganda Joint Christian Council said churches should lead the way in calling for responsible stewardship of the environment, because poor stewardship would undermine Jesus' mission of ensuring that people enjoy fullness of life.

Read it all HERE

NPR and Climate

2007-05-24T12:50:00.000-06:00

NPR has an ongoing series about the earth's climate. Currently they are asking for your questions and input. The story follows:

NPR and National Geographic are taking a yearlong journey around the globe, exploring how the Earth's climate shapes people, and how people are shaping the Earth's climate.

We'll see how, in the distant past, climate change sparked the evolution of humans in Africa and guided our migration to new lands. We'll also look to the future to see how we might be able to slow climate change -- and adapt to it.

Click HERE to add your thoughts and questions.

The Growing Connection

2007-05-23T07:48:00.000-06:00

Here is a site for a grassroots project developed by the UN and American Horticultural Society. A way to grow locally and support others around the world to improve nutrition.

The Growing Connection links people and cultures in a revolutionary campaign that introduces low-cost water efficient and sustainable food growing innovations hand in hand with wireless IT connectivity. It provides a sound educational foundation, and offers hundreds of families, both in America and abroad, a concrete opportunity to earn income and climb out of desperation. Perhaps most important, The Growing Connection engages people – a network of committed individuals - in an elegant solution to one of mankind’s fundamental challenges.

How does it work? School gardening programs and community gardens in the U.S., Ghana, Mexico and Nicaragua grow vegetables in an EarthBox system. that becomes a common growing platform for all participants. Students grow food, conduct horticultural experiments and share their lessons and experiences with each other using IT connectivity. Through modern IT installations, The Growing Connection participants in U.S.,, Ghana, Mexico and Nicaragua are directly linked. And importantly, they are also connected to sources of vital information and advice on growing food. Those once the most isolated can now grow, learn, and chose their own opportunities and destinies.

More HERE

The Theory of "Anyway"

2007-05-22T20:50:00.000-06:00

From Georgia Interfaith Power and Light:

The Theory of "Anyway"
by Sharon Astyk

My friend Pat Meadows, a very, very smart woman, has a wonderful idea she calls "The Theory of Anyway." What it entails is this - she argues that 95% of what is needed to resolve the coming crises in energy depletion, or climate change, or most other global crises are the same sort of efforts. When in doubt about how to change, we should change our lives to reflect what we should be doing "Anyway." Living more simply, more frugally, using less, leaving reserves for others, reconnecting with our food and our community, these are things we should be doing because they are the right thing to do on many levels. That they also have the potential to save our lives is merely a side benefit (a big one, though).

This is, I think, a deeply powerful way of thinking because it is a deeply moral way of thinking - we would like to think of ourselves as moral people, but we tend to think of moral questions as the obvious ones "should I steal or pay?" "Should I hit or talk?" But the real and most essential moral questions of our lives are the questions we rarely ask of the things we do every day, "Should I eat this?" "Where should I live and how?" "What should I wear?" "How should I keep warm/cool?" We think of these questions as foregone conclusions - I should keep warm X way because that's the kind of furnace I have, or I should eat this because that's what's in the grocery store. Pat's Theory of Anyway turns this around, and points out that what we do, the way we live, must pass ethical muster first - we must always ask the question "Is this contributing to the repair of the world, or its destruction."

So if you told me that tomorrow, peak oil had been resolved, I'd still keep gardening, hanging my laundry, cutting back and trying to find a way to make do with less. Because even if we found enough oil to power our society for a thousand years, there would still be climate change, and it would be *wrong* of me to choose my own convenience over the security and safety of my children and other people's children. And if you told me tomorrow that we'd fixed climate change, that we could power our lives forever with renewables, I would still keep gardening and living frugally. Because our agriculture is premised on depleted soil and aquifers, and we're facing a future in which many people don't have enough food and water if we keep eating this way, and to allow that to happen would be a betrayal of what I believe is right. And if you told me that we'd fixed that problem too, that we were no longer depleting our aquifers and expanding the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, I'd still keep gardening and telling others to do the same, because our reliance on food from other nations, and our economy impoverishes and starves millions, even billions of poor people and creates massive economic inequities that do tremendous harm. And if you told me that globalization was over, and that we were going to create a just economic system, and we'd fixed all the other problems, and that I didn't have to worry anymore, would I then stop gardening?

No. Because the nurture of my piece of land would still be the right thing to do. Doing things with no more waste than is absolutely necessary would still be the right thing to do. The creation of a fertile, sustainable, lasting place of beauty would still be my right work in the world. I would still be a Jew, obligated by G-d to Tikkun Olam, to "the repair of the world." I would still be obligated to live in way that prevented wildlife from being run to extinction and poisons contaminating the earth. I would still be obligated to make the most of what I have and reduce my needs so they represent a fair share of what the earth has to offer. I would still be obligated to treat poor people as my siblings, and you do not live comfortably when your siblings suffer or have less. I am obligated to live rightly, in part because of what living rightly gives me - integrity, honor, joy, a better relationship with my diety of choice, peace.

There are people out there who are prepared to step forward and give up their cars, start growing their own food, stop consuming so much and stop burning fossil fuels...just as soon as peak oil, or climate change, or government rationing, or some external force makes them. But that, I believe is the wrong way to think about this. We can't wait for others to tell us, or the disaster to befall us. We have to do now, do today, do with all our hearts, the things we should have been doing "Anyway" all along.

Green San Francisco

2007-05-21T17:13:00.000-06:00

Grace Cathedral and all sorts of institutions are going green in San Francisco. Click HERE to see more.

Poverty and Climate Change

2007-05-20T10:02:00.000-06:00

Reflections on poverty and climate change
Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
Sunday, May 20, 2007
San Francisco Chronicle

Before I became a priest, I was a professor of oceanography. One of the things I learned was that oceanographers couldn't just study squid or fish in isolation. We had to study interconnected systems. We had to understand not only the animals' environment, such as the water, but its chemistry and circulation, the atmosphere above the ocean and the geology below it. And that, I believe, is how we must understand our world: We must see everything, and everyone, as interconnected and intended by God to live in relationship.

Two of the most significant crises facing our world -- climate change and deadly poverty -- offer an example of such interconnectedness. By understanding how the two crises, and the people they affect, are connected, we can begin to understand how humanity can triumph over both. Extreme poverty -- that is, poverty that kills -- afflicts more than a billion of God's people around the world. Nearly 30,000 of these people will die today. That's 1 every 3 seconds. The factors that propel this kind of deadly poverty include hunger, diseases like AIDS and malaria, conflict, lack of access to education and basic inequality. Climate change threatens to make the picture even more deadly. As temperature changes increase the frequency and intensity of severe-weather events around the world, poor countries -- which often lack infrastructural needs like storm walls and water-storage facilities -- will divert previous resources away from fighting poverty in order to respond to disaster. Warmer climates will also increase the spread of diseases like malaria and tax the ability of poor countries to respond adequately. Perhaps most severely, changed rain patterns will increase the prevalence of drought in places like Africa, where only 4 percent of cropped land is irrigated, leaving populations without food and hamstrung in their ability to trade internationally to generate income.

Conversely, just as climate change will exacerbate poverty, poverty also is hastening climate change. Most poor people around the world lack access to a reliable-energy source, an imbalance that must be addressed in any attempt to lift a community out of poverty. Unfortunately, financial necessity often forces the choice of energy sources such as oil and coal that threaten to expand significantly the world's greenhouse emissions and thus accelerate the effects of climate change. This cycle -- poverty that begets climate change, and vice versa -- threatens the future of all people, rich and poor alike, and of all things in the world that God so loves.

This relationship between deadly poverty and the health of creation was not lost on the world's leaders when, at the turn of the 21st century, they committed to an ambitious yet attainable plan to cut global poverty in half by 2015. This plan, which established the eight Millennium Development Goals, included a specific pledge to create environmental sustainability. 2007 marks the halfway point in the world's effort to achieve these goals, and while progress has been impressive in some places, we're nowhere close to halfway there. President Bush and other world leaders have made bold commitments, but many of them have yet to be realized. How can the United States help put the world back on track?

First, our nation should make good on the promises it has made to expand foreign aid targeted at fighting poverty, cancel the debts of poor countries and seek fairer international-trade rules that allow people living in poverty to empower themselves in the fight against poverty.

Second, our nation's leaders should recognize the emerging consensus that we can no longer ignore our role in safeguarding the health and balance of God's creation. We must take seriously our share in the global responsibility for reducing carbon emissions, and work with other nations to provide the resources and technology transfers that will allow poor countries to address their energy needs through clean-energy sources that will not hasten the rate of climate change.

Of course, it is not the United States alone that needs to deliver. When the leaders of the G8 meet in early June in Germany, climate change will be at the top of their agenda. The health and well-being of Africa is also on the agenda, but much further down. Now is an ideal time for Americans to write, call, or e-mail President Bush and urge him to work with other leaders in the G8 to consider climate change and deadly poverty side-by-side as facets of the same problem. The good news is that Americans are getting involved like never before. Faith communities such as the Episcopal Church, from which I come, are organizing in communities all over the country, as are citizens from many other walks of life. Millions of Americans have joined the call for comprehensive solutions to poverty through efforts like ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History, and groups like the U.N. Millennium Campaign are working with citizens in all parts of the world. To be successful, though, the effort needs even more voices. It needs all of us.

At the very beginning of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, we hear of God's creation of the universe and his proclamation that the whole of it is very good. Ultimately, this story is an account of relationships: the bond of love between God and the world, and the interconnectivity of all people and all things in that world. It is only when we take seriously those relationships -- when we realize that all people have a stake in the health and well-being of all others and of the Earth itself -- that creation can truly begin to realize the abundant life that God intends for every one of us.

Katharine Jefferts Schori is presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Read it all HERE

Cathedrals going green

2007-05-09T09:58:00.000-06:00

UK. Climate change poses an unprecedented challenge to Englands Cathedrals
Wednesday, 09 May 2007
BYM Marine Environment News

Climate Change and Environment Minister Ian Pearson said England's historic churches and cathedrals face the same tough choices forced on us all by climate change.
Speaking at the Cathedrals and Climate Change Conference at Lambeth Palace, organised by the Association of English Cathedrals, Mr Pearson welcomed the commitment of churches and cathedrals to join the national effort to cut carbon emissions and start adapting to the inevitable impacts climate change will have on our historic environment.
Mr Pearson said: "Cathedrals are important spiritual, historic and cultural buildings. Many of our churches and cathedrals have stood for hundreds of years. They play a vital role as a focus for worship, as the hub of faith communities, as a cultural symbol for the region and as international icons that make an important contribution to the tourism economy.
"Be that as it may, they are not immune to the effects of climate change. We need to take care of our cathedrals now, as they need to be prepared for the more extreme weather of the future and must start adapting if they are still to be standing a century from now.

Read the whole article HERE

More information on the Church of England's National Environmental Campaign can be found at: http://www.shrinkingthefootprint.cofe.anglican.org/ The contact for the Church of England is Alexander Nicoll.

ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE

2007-05-05T08:45:00.000-06:00

ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE
A year of food life
By Barbara Kingsolver, with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver

I have just started reading this new book by Barbara Kingsolver et al. Already enchanted, as ever, by Kingsolver’s mesmerizing flow of words, I decided to do a running commentary on this blog. The first bit that jumped out at me is the idea that we may as well sit down and drink a quart of motor oil at every meal – it would save money and resources that go into our daily fare. According to A, V, & M, “each food item in a typical US meal has traveled 1500 miles. Besides transport, there is fertilizer, farm equipment, warehousing, processing, packaging, and refrigeration. Here is an option Kingsolver suggests that does not take much effort on our part:

“If every US citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week.”

That is BARRELS, not gallons. With that and driving 55 on the highways – we will end
the fuel crisis.

UN Global Warming Meeting

2007-05-04T06:40:00.000-06:00

Good news and bad news. Although a deal is in the making, many warn that it is not enough.

From Ekklesia

Experts and observers, including NGOs and faith groups, at the United Nations climate change conference in Bangkok say a deal has been done on ways to combat global warming, despite trenchant opposition by China to policies restricting economic growth.

The areas of dispute included language regarding the Kyoto protocol (about which the US remains skeptical), the true costs of cutting emissions and how they will be borne, and the role of nuclear power.

The third part of this year's assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) looking at ways to curb emissions and the economic factors involved is due to be released later today (4 May 2007).

But environmentalists remain tight-lipped about what is really being achieved in the midst of much political horse trading.

"One direction seems to be that there isn't the investment going into renewable technologies and energy efficiency that's sufficient for them to meet the potential they have to tackle this problem," Catherine Pearce, international climate campaigner with Friends of the Earth UK, told BBC News in Bangkok.

The draft report assesses the likely costs to the global economy of stabilizing greenhouse gases at various concentrations in the atmosphere.

Aiming for a total greenhouse gas concentration equivalent to 650 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide would reduce global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by about 0.2%, it says, whereas a more ambitious target of 550ppm would cost about 0.6% of global GDP.

The current atmospheric concentration is approximately 425ppm, and many climate scientists now argue that only agreeing to keep below about 450ppm can prevent major climatic consequences.

Gasoline Tankers and Black Swans

2007-05-02T08:24:00.000-06:00

Bishop Marc Andrus of the Diocese of California writes following the tanker truck accident in the Bay area.

Gasoline tankers and black swans
May 1, 2007 at 12:39 PM
“Huge leaping flames from an exploding gasoline tanker melted the steel underbelly of a highway overpass in the East Bay's MacArthur Maze early this morning, causing it to collapse onto the roadway below and virtually ensuring major traffic problems for weeks to come.”

This was the opening of the San Francisco Chronicle article on the MacArthur Maze crash on Sunday, April 29.

Monday night, April 30, we had the Taize’ service in Grace Cathedral. The diverse, devout crowd of 240 people who chanted and prayed for their communities’ deepest concerns had come from all over the Bay Area, many from areas affected by the crash. Students from CDSP took BART; people from Walnut Creek and other East Bay communities took BART. They were all smiling about the experience.

I think this crash, expensive, terrifying, inconvenient, is what we might call a “black swan” event. The great American poet, James Merrill, in his poem “The Black Swan,” has a very Anglo little boy, in a field of white and light, see a black swan on a pond. At the end of the poem, in ecstasy the boy exclaims, “I love the black swan.”

Unintended, unimagined events, wrecking our models and our plans, can lead us to where we need to be, can be occasions of love, and produce the happiness and mode of life for which we long at the deepest level of our being.

As many of you know, I didn’t have even our low emissions/high fuel efficiency hybrid car when I first came to the Diocese. Everything was walking, bus, or BART. I re-learned some things during those months: I was happier being with humanity while traveling, than in my wondrous car (even with its six-CD changer, and the GPS); the people on the bus and BART often spoke to me about their faith, their search for God, their desire to connect with a church, and moving on the earth while leaving a smaller carbon footprint was satisfying.

We need to make an effort to reduce our carbon emissions. Maybe this black swan event is an invitation to change our way of life, to consciously maintain the forced, unlooked for change and embrace it, to say, “I love the black swan.” Try to take public transportation twice during the workweek, or to walk or ride your bicycle to work twice a week. And, if you can afford it, look into your next car being a hybrid. Or, follow the example of my friend, Marion Grau, who teaches theology at CDSP, and do most of your smaller travel by foot and bicycle, and when you need to drive use a shared car. She says that the shared car organization of which she is a member works so well that even if she requests a car the day before she needs it, she usually gets it.

The spiritual truth here is that the ways of God, humility and simplicity, are not only good for our planet, our beautiful home that is in so much trouble, but also produce happiness in us, as we align ourselves with the image of God within and among us.

The Earth Charter Initiative

2007-04-13T19:33:00.000-06:00

Another resource in sustaining our earth and all who live here:

The Earth Charter
... is a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society for the 21st century. Created by the largest global consultation process ever associated with an international declaration, endorsed by thousands of organizations representing millions of individuals, the Earth Charter seeks to inspire in all peoples a sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the human family and the larger living world. The Earth Charter is an expression of hope and a call to help create a global partnership at a critical juncture in history.
Earth Charter Initiative recently launched an online global dialogue on ethics and climate change. Click here for more information and read the blog.

Don't drug the fish!

2007-04-12T07:59:00.000-06:00

Earth Keepers encourage pharmaceutical collection for environmental protection
By Phina Borgeson April 11, 2007[Episcopal News Service]

Earth Keeper team member Kelly Mathews of Big Bay, Michigan, and her husband Chris recently cleaned out their medicine cabinets and found one bottle of prescription sinus medication that was 18 years old.
"I wonder how many people would just pop open the pill container and flush the pills down the toilet," asked Mathews, a 36-year-old Roman Catholic mother of two.

The environmental impact of such actions has caused the Earth Keepers of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (U.P.) to focus this year’s Earth Day Clean Sweep on prescription medications, over-the-counter remedies, and other personal-care products.

About two dozen drop-off sites will be open from 9 a.m. to noon (CST) on April 21 for the free collection. Local churches from Houghton in the northwest to St. Ignace in the southeast are participating.

“As leftover and waste pharmaceuticals get flushed down drains, research is showing that they are increasingly being detected in our lakes and rivers at levels that could be causing harm to the environment and ecosystem," said Elizabeth LaPlante, senior manager for the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Great Lakes National Programs Office in Chicago, Illinois.

"Specifically, reproductive and development problems in aquatic species, hormonal disruption, and antibiotic resistance are some concerns associated with pharmaceuticals in our wastewater," she said.

This third annual Clean Sweep reflects a covenant among nine U.P. faith communities, representing about 40 percent of the peninsula’s residents. Responding to the initiative of the Superior Watershed Partnership and religious leaders, other groups have joined Earth Keepers, including the Cedar Tree Institute, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, the Nature Conservancy, and Northern Michigan University.

Carl Lindquist, of the Superior Watershed Partnership, noted recent national studies documenting that more than 80 percent of the rivers sampled "tested positive for a range of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, birth control hormones, antidepressants, veterinary drugs and other medications."

Lindquist added that some urban centers have even detected "traces of pharmaceuticals in their tap water." EPA studies have shown that most municipal systems are not equipped to filter out these chemicals.

Episcopal team member Nancy Auer, associate professor in the Michigan Tech University Department of Biological Sciences, said it is important to stop the growing problem of pharmaceuticals in America's water supply.

"Although pharmaceuticals may seem like small unimportant product, their disposal and dilution in our aquatic ecosystems is having grave impacts on aquatic organisms," noted Auer, who manages the Houghton collection site.

"The drugs we take, and their disposal, are another area of our lives we must vigilantly examine if we are to be careful stewards of the Earth as God calls us to be," said Auer.

Bishop James Kelsey of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan said that "it is common to hold onto unused or partially used medications for indefinite periods of time," adding that this year’s Clean Sweep helps protect the environment while helping to ensure that the U.P. senior population is not consuming out-of-date medicines.

"When their effective dates have expired, they can actually create a hazard, particularly for the young as well as the elderly who may have difficulty keeping track of various bottles and boxes which tend to accumulate in our medicine cabinets," said Kelsey.

Jennifer Simula, Northern Michigan University (NMU) Earth Keeper student team project director, said, "This year's Clean Sweep is going to be revolutionary. A collection like this is, as far as I know, unprecedented."

Lindquist agreed that the Earth Keeper Initiative and thus the Upper Peninsula is "ahead of the national curve" in addressing the pharmaceutical issue.

The NMU Earth Keeper team was created in April 2006 as the student wing of the initiative.

In addition to assisting in the annual clean sweeps, the student team focuses on adopt-a-watershed initiatives, involved in cleaning, testing, and developing a plan for six tributaries to three of the Great Lakes.

Simula and others are committed to spreading Earth Keeper culture, beginning by recruiting students for chapters at three other U.P. universities, and reaching out to youth and adults with practical, everyday ways people can reduce human impact on the environment.

"I'm really excited, not only about the energy I'm feeling from everyone involved so far, but about the education that's happening through all of the NMU Earth Keepers talking to everyone they know about the dangers of improperly discarded pharmaceuticals and what they're doing to our waterways," said Simula, an NMU graduate student and Lutheran from Michigamme, Michigan. "This is a topic that is rarely discussed -- no one really knows about it."

Lutheran Pastor Tari Stage-Harvey, of St. Ignace and Brevort in the eastern Upper Peninsula, noted that "hosting clean sweeps through the churches has been a powerful way to connect our faith with our lives."

"This has also been a great witness to the secular community which has dismissed religion as out-of-touch. Our communities of faith, when touched by the spirit, become a power that creates amazing change."

Pharmacists and law-enforcement officers are cooperating in the collection and will be present at all sites to ensure security and proper procedures, Lindquist said.

Previous Earth Keeper annual Clean Sweeps have collected household toxins and electronics, and the group has been recognized for its success.

This year’s pharmaceutical collection is funded in part by the EPA and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

More HERE

My Report

2007-04-11T14:06:00.000-06:00

We went on a trip to see the grandchildren. We drove the car which is somewhat more efficient than flying according to what I have read. Living in Wyoming there are not many public transportation options. We drove 55-60 mph although the speed limit ranged from 65-75 depending on the state. It improved our mpg average 2 miles per gallon over the 3000 mile trip. At the coast we walked most of the time even to the recycling center (LOL). Not so great "green" life when we were in the city over the weekend.
My latest contribution to the earth is to stop all catalogs. We currently fill our recycling crate with catalogs that we never even read. We use the web to order without reference to catalogs. Now when a catalog arrives, I use the 800 number to call the company and have them stop sending theirs. In 2 days I have called 7 companies. They all say I will receive a few more as the catalogs are set up for production and mailing long before the date.
I recruited some more people to use the local recycling collection service.
So my scorecard is sort of plus/minus this month.

Tear Fund climate change resources for home and church

2007-04-11T08:07:00.000-06:00

Click HERE to find lots of resources for making your home and church "greener."
From the web site:
Jesus said, ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’ John 10:10

Tearfund is a Christian relief and development charity, passionate about seeing God’s justice here on earth. Our vision is to transform the lives of millions of the world’s poorest people, in a positive and sustainable way.

That means we’re not just here to help meet basic physical needs, like providing fresh water, sanitation and healthcare. When people are living in extreme poverty, hope is every bit as essential as food and water. That’s why we are committed to the principle of integral mission. That means giving practical help alongside hope, through emotional and spiritual support. Helping those in need regardless of race, gender or religion.

Click HERE to find out more on the various campaigns of the fund, especially the work against global warming. Poverty and climate change are intertwined - we can help others by doing something at home.

Another Reason to Ride Your Bicycle

2007-04-10T20:36:00.000-06:00

Besides saving gas by riding your bicycle - the exercise will help you lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. Healthy for you and healthy for the planet.
Read "Weight gain of U.S. drivers has increased nation's fuel consumption by James E. Kloeppel HERE

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — As American waistlines have expanded since 1960, so has their consumption of gasoline, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Virginia Commonwealth University say.

Americans are now pumping 938 million gallons of fuel more annually than they were in 1960 as a result of extra weight in vehicles. And when gas prices average $3 a gallon, the tab for overweight people in a vehicle amounts to $7.7 million a day, or $2.8 billion a year.

The numbers are added costs linked directly to the extra drain of body weight on fuel economy. In a paper to appear in the October-December issue of the journal The Engineering Economist, the scientists conclude that each extra pound of body weight in all of today’s vehicles results in the need for more than 39 million gallons of extra gasoline usage each year.

Read the rest HERE

Global Warming's "Highway to Extinction"

2007-04-05T23:02:00.000-06:00

Global Warming's "Highway to Extinction"

Recycling Facts

2007-04-04T17:53:00.000-06:00

From Oberlin College facts about recycling:
WATER
*Washing machines use about 15% of your house's water. Each wash cycle uses 32 to 59 gallons- as much as two showers.
*A standard shower head uses about 5-7 gallons of water per minute (gpm)- so even a 5-minute shower can consume 35 gallons!
*"Low-flow" shower heads help reduce water use by 50% or more. They typically cut the flow rate to 2.5 gpm- or less.
*Water pumping is one of the largest uses of electricity in the arid Western states. So every drop of water we conserve also saves electricity.
*Turn off the water faucet when brushing your teeth. This simple act can save 9 gallons of water every time you brush.
* The normal faucet flow is 3-5 gallons of water per minute (gpm). By attaching a low flow faucet aerator, you can reduce the flow by 50%. Incredibly, although the flow is reduced, it will seem stringer because air is mixed into the water as it leaves the tap.
*40% of the pure water you use in your house is flushed down the toilet.
*If a family of four takes 5-minute showers each day, they will use more than 700 gallons of water every week--the equivalent of a three-year supply of drinking water for one person.

ENERGY
*Every winter, the energy equivalent of all the oil that flows through the Alaskan pipeline in a year leaks through American windows.
*The average U.S. home uses the energy equivalent of 1,253 gallons of oil every year.
*Microwaves use around 50% less energy than conventional ovens; they're most efficient for small portions or defrosting.
*Every time you open your oven door during cooking, you lose 25 to 50 degrees- or more.
*Washers and dryers can account for as much as 25% of the energy you use at home (including the hot water for the wash).
*As much as 90% of the energy consumed by washing machines and 80% of the energy used by dishwashers goes to heating the water.
*During the winter, you can save as much as 3% of the energy your furnace uses simply by lowering your thermostat one degree F (if it's set between 65 F and 72 F).
*Dust on a light bulb or dirt on a glass fixture can reduce the light it gives off by 10 percent and make it seem that you need a brighter, higher wattage bulb.
*Even the paint color you choose can affect your energy use. A white wall reflects 80 percent of the light that hits it; a black one reflects just 10 percent. The more light the walls reflect, the greater the chance that the light can be 'recycled' by striking the wall, bouncing off, and still illuminating the room.
*A heated waterbed can use as much energy as a large refrigerator. Leaving it unmade in the fall or winter can double that by letting the heat dissipate into the air.
*You can save 10% or more of your heating or cooling costs by insulating and tightening up ducts.
*About 15% of the energy you use for heating your home goes to warming up air that leaks in through the cracks.
*Efficiency counts. The most effective new appliances typically use 50% less energy than the most wasteful ones.
*Choose a refrigerator with a freezer on top, instead of a side-by-side unit. On average, the savings amount to 20%.
*Between 15 and 30 percent of the energy your water heater uses goes to keeping a tank of water hot, just in case you need it.
*Even during a mild winter, you can lose as much energy through one single-pane window as a 75-watt light bulb uses running seven hours a day, 365 days a year.
*A double-pane window retains twice as much heat as a single-pane window.
*40% of the energy you use in your home is for heat.

PAPER
*1 ton of 100% virgin (non-recycled) newsprint uses 12 trees
*A "pallet" of copier paper (20-lb. sheet weight, or 20#) contains 40 cartons and weighs 1 ton.Therefore,
*1 carton (10 reams) of 100% virgin copier paper uses .6 trees
*1 tree makes 16.67 reams of copy paper or 8,333.3 sheets
*1 ream (500 sheets) uses 6% of a tree (and those add up quickly!)
*1 ton of coated, higher-end virgin magazine paper (used for magazines like National Geographic and many others) uses a little more than 15 trees (15.36)
*1 ton of coated, lower-end virgin magazine paper (used for newsmagazines and most catalogs) uses nearly 8 trees (7.68)
*At least 38.9% of the U.S. waste stream is paper.
*Americans throw away 44 million newspapers everyday. That’s the same as dumping 500,000 trees into landfills each week.
*If every household reused a paper grocery bag for one shopping trip, about 60,000 trees would be saved.
*We save 17 trees for each ton of recycled newspaper.
*Recycling a 36-newspaper stack saves the equivalent of about 14% of the average household electric bill.
*Making one ton of recycled paper uses only about 60% of the energy needed to make a tone of virgin paper.
*One person uses two pine trees worth of paper products every year.
*Americans discard 4 million tons of office paper every year--enough to build a 12 foot-high wall of paper from New York to California.
*American’s throw out about 85% of the office paper we use.
*Americans use 50 million tons of paper annually--which means we consume more than 850 million trees. That means the average American uses about 580 pounds of paper each year.
*Every ton of recycled office paper saves 380 gallons of oil.
*Each year, 27 million acres of tropical rainforests are destroyed. That’s an area the size of Ohio, and translates to 74,000 acres per day...3,000 acres per hour...50 acres per minute.

METAL

*We save enough energy by recycling one aluminum can to run a TV set for three hours.
*Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch. That means you can make 20 cans out of recycled material with the same amount of energy it takes to make one can out of new material. Energy savings in 1993 alone were enough to light a city the size of Pittsburgh for six years. .
*Americans throw away enough aluminum every month to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.
*Recycling steel and tin cans saves 74% of the energy used to produce them.
* Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.
*Americans throw out enough iron and steel to supply all the nation’s automakers on a continuous basis.
*A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution and mining wastes by about 70%.
** When you toss out one aluminum can you waste as much energy as if you’d filled the same can half-full of gasoline and poured it into the ground.

ALUMINUM CANS
*More than 50% of a new aluminum can is made from recycled aluminum.
*The 36 billion aluminum cans landfilled last year had a scrap value of more than $600 million. (Some day we'll be mining our landfills for the resources we've buried.)

GLASS
*Americans throw away enough glass bottles and jars every two weeks to fill the 1.350-foot towers of the former World Trade Center.
*Most bottles and jars contain at least 25% recycled glass.
*Glass never wears out -- it can be recycled forever. We save over a ton of resources for every ton of glass recycled -- 1,330 pounds of sand, 433 pounds of soda ash, 433 pounds of limestone, and 151 pounds of feldspar.
*States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.
*If all the glass bottles and jars collected through recycling in the U.S. in 94 were laid end to end, they'd reach the moon and half way back to earth.

PLASTIC
*Every year we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap Texas.
*Americans go through 2.5 million plastic bottles every year.
*26 recycled PET bottles equals a polyester suit. 5 recycled PET bottles make enough fiberfill to stuff a ski jacket.
*In 1988 we used 2 billion pounds of HDPE just to make bottles for household products. That’s about the weight of 90,000 Honda Civics.
*If every American household recycled just one out of every ten HDPE bottles they used, we’d keep 200 million pounds of the plastic out of landfills every year.

STYROFOAM/POLYSTYRENE (# 6)
*It is un-recyclable- you can't make it into new Styrofoam. The industry wants you to assume it is- don't BUY it!
*Each year American throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups, enough every year to circle the earth 436 times.

JUNK MAIL
*If only 100,000 people stopped their junk, mail, we could save up to 150,000 trees annually. If a million people did this, we could save up to a million and a half trees.
*The junk mail Americans receive in one day could produce enough energy to heat 250,000 homes.
*The average American still spends 8 full months of his/her life opening junk mail.

NEWSPAPERS
*Every day America cuts down two million trees-but throws away about 42 million newspapers. That means the equivalent of about 500,000 trees is dumped into landfills every week.
*If everyone who subscribes to the New York Times recycled, we’d keep over 6,000 tons of pollution out of the air.
*It takes an entire forest--over 500,000 trees to supply Americans with their Sunday newspapers every week.

LIGHTBULBS
*Every year Americans buy over a billion incandescent lightbulbs. That’s three acres of bulbs every day.
*A 60-watt incandescent bulb lasts about 750 hours; a fluorescent bulb with 1/3 the wattage will generate the same light and burn for 7,500 to 10,000 hours in five to ten years of normal use.
*Substituting a compact fluorescent light for a traditional bulb will keep a half-ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere over the life of the bulb.

LOTS MORE FACTS AND LINKSHERE

Poor Nations to Bear Brunt as World Warms

2007-04-02T23:03:00.000-06:00

From The New York Times April 1, 2007

The world's richest countries, which have contributed by far the most to the atmospheric changes linked to global warming, are already spending billions of dollars to limit their own risks from its worst consequences, like drought and rising seas.

But despite longstanding treaty commitments to help poor countries deal with warming, these industrial powers are spending just tens of millions of dollars on ways to limit climate and coastal hazards in the world's most vulnerable regions - most of them close to the equator and overwhelmingly poor.
Next Friday, a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations body that since 1990 has been assessing global warming, will underline this growing climate divide, according to scientists involved in writing it - with wealthy nations far from the equator not only experiencing fewer effects but also better able to withstand them.

Two-thirds of the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas that can persist in the air for centuries, has come in nearly equal proportions from the United States and Western European countries. Those and other wealthy nations are investing in windmill-powered plants that turn seawater to drinking water, in flood barriers and floatable homes, and in grains and soybeans genetically altered to flourish even in a drought.

In contrast, Africa accounts for less than 3 percent of the global emissions of carbon dioxide from fuel burning since 1900, yet its 840 million people face some of the biggest risks from drought and disrupted water supplies, according to new scientific assessments. As the oceans swell with water from melting ice sheets, it is the crowded river deltas in southern Asia and Egypt, along with small island nations, that are most at risk.

"Like the sinking of the Titanic, catastrophes are not democratic," said Henry I. Miller, a fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. "A much higher fraction of passengers from the cheaper decks were lost. We'll see the same phenomenon with global warming."

Read the whole article here.

Supreme Court Rules on Carbon Dioxide suits

2007-04-02T22:52:00.000-06:00

Read it all at the New York Times
April 3, 2007
News Analysis
Ruling Undermines Lawsuits Opposing Emissions Controls

By FELICITY BARRINGER
Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling on carbon dioxide emissions largely shredded the underpinning of other lawsuits trying to block regulation of the emissions and gave new momentum to Congressional efforts to control heat-trapping gases linked to climate change.

Environmental groups and states that have adopted controls on carbon dioxide emissions from vehicle tailpipes responded with jubilation, while the auto industry and some of its backers, like Representative John D. Dingell, the Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, offered statements of resigned disappointment.

“This is fantastic news,” said Ian Bowles, the secretary of environmental affairs for Massachusetts, the state that had petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to control the emissions from cars and trucks, which represent slightly less than one-quarter of the country’s total heat-trapping gases.

The E.P.A. had argued that it had no authority to do so under the Clean Air Act, and that even if it did, such regulation would run afoul of other administration plans to combat climate change. The Supreme Court rejected those arguments.

“You’ve seen the Bush administration hiding behind this argument to avoid action, and this puts that to rest,” Mr. Bowles said.

Pennsylvania’s secretary of environmental protection, Kathleen McGinty, added, “We hope it means any further opposition and challenge to the legal standards will go away and we can get about the job of cleaning up the auto fleet and making a dent in greenhouse-gas pollution.”

The arguments rejected by the court have been invoked in other legal challenges, including a case pending in California in which auto industry trade groups argue against that state’s law controlling carbon-dioxide emissions from cars, and one in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where electric utilities are fighting the E.P.A.’s authority to regulate their emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide.

Both cases had been stayed awaiting yesterday’s ruling.

Some companies may now find new affection for proposals in Congress for a cap-and-trade system to aid emissions control. Under this type of system, companies that had reduced emissions beyond a set limit could sell credits earned by their excess reductions to companies that failed to meet emissions limits.

“This flips the debate from an environment in which Congress must act if there is to be federal action,” said Tim Profeta, the director of the Nicholas Institute for the Environment at Duke University, “to one in which the E.P.A. can act as soon as an administration friendly to the concept is in power.”

“If there is a President Clinton or President McCain,” Mr. Profeta added, “he or she doesn’t have to go to Congress to get action.”

The reaction from Capitol Hill underscored this point.

“While I still believe Congress did not intend for the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases, the Supreme Court has made its decision and the matter is now settled,” Mr. Dingell said in a prepared statement. “Today’s ruling provides another compelling reason why Congress must enact, and the president must sign, comprehensive climate change legislation.”

Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California and a sponsor of the most stringent of the global-warming proposals currently before Congress, said in a statement: “This decision puts the wind at our back. It takes away the excuse the administration has been using for not taking action to deal with global-warming pollution.”

Another prod for federal action is the likelihood that California will be able to use the new ruling to parry legal challenges to its new law calling for a cut of nearly 30 percent in carbon dioxide emissions on passenger vehicles sold in the state starting in 2016. A dozen other states, including Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, have enacted laws adopting the California standard. These states are home to more than a third of the vehicles sold in the United States.

But before those standards can take effect, the environmental agency must grant the states a waiver.

“I am very encouraged by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today that greenhouse gases are pollutants and should be regulated by the federal government,” said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, a Republican. “We expect the U.S. E.P.A. to move quickly now in granting our request for a waiver.”

The prospect of separate state and federal emissions standards is one of Detroit’s worst nightmares.

Walter McManus, director of automotive analysis for the Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan, argued that the environmental agency was best suited to regulate automotive emissions and fuel economy.

“They are the ones who really have the expertise about fuel economy and greenhouse gases,” Mr. McManus said.

Nick Bunkley contributed reporting from Detroit.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

EARTH DAY April 22,2007

2007-03-27T16:19:00.000-06:00

From: Episcopal News Service

Earth Day Sunday set for April 22; NCC resources available for congregations

March 26, 2007[Episcopal News Service]
"The Food that Sustains Us" is the theme of the National Council of Churches (NCC) Eco-Justice Program's observation of Earth Day Sunday, April 22. Each year, the NCC produces a resource to help congregations engage in the Earth Day Sunday theme. This year's edition, "Our Daily Bread: Harvesters of Hope and Gardeners of Eden," offers background on farm and food related issues, with worship resources and study ideas for youth and adults.

The packet also includes information and resources for the "Sow Justice" campaign, Christians working together to advocate for a more just farm and food policy.

"The Earth Day materials are timed to coincide with the consideration of the U.S. Farm Bill, up for reauthorization by September 2007," said John B. Johnson, domestic policy analyst in the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations.

"The Farm Bill is one of the most important pieces of conservation legislation our country enacts," said Cassandra Carmichael, Eco-Justice Program director for NCC. "It has the potential to deliver justice, not only to God's creatures, land, water, and air, but also to rural communities, small and mid-sized farmers, and people living in poverty. We, as people of faith, should strive for a farm bill that is just and sustainable."

The Sow Justice campaign features postcards to legislators calling for increased funding for farm-based conservation programs, for strengthening rural life and local food systems, and for equal access to programs for small-scale and minority farmers.

Karen Galles, associate director of the NCC Eco-Justice program, explains how the post card action works.

"I have been sending bundles of cards to congregations," she said. "They are signed and returned to us. Instead of a Congress member's office getting one or two a week for the next eight months, they get a whole bunch of them all on one day, delivered by a real person who can talk about the principles supported by the cards and their many signers."

Johnson acknowledged that Episcopalians of both the Republican and Democrat parties serve on agriculture committees in the house and senate, "and have been crucial in the past at preserving programs such as food stamps ... The post card campaign is an important way for Episcopalians and other Christians to show Congress that we are paying close attention to the Farm Bill this year."

Learn more, download materials, and list your congregation's Earth Sunday event here.

Download the Earth Sunday packet here.

To order free "Sow Justice" postcards, e-mail info@nccecojustice.org or call 202-544-2350.

Episcopal Public Policy Network on the Farm Bill. Click HERE

WORLD WATER DAY

2007-03-22T18:35:00.000-06:00

From the blog Happening Here, how World Water Day looks in Nicaragua.

The International Decade for Water for Life, 2005-2015, the UN-Water program sponsors World Water Day annually on March 22. The theme of this year's observance is "Coping with Water Scarcity." Some world water facts are found HERE

EARTH HOUR

2007-03-21T16:24:00.000-06:00

What is Earth Hour?

At 7.30pm on 31 March 2007, we are inviting Sydney to turn off its lights for just one hour - Earth Hour - to show that it's possible to take action on global warming.

WWF-Australia and The Sydney Morning Herald are asking all of Sydney - its companies, government departments, individuals and families - to turn off their lights for just one hour. It's a simple action if everyone takes part, sending a powerful message that we care about the future of the planet.

Earth Hour is the launch of a 12 month campaign to reduce Sydney's greenhouse gas emissions by 5%. This could be achieved if all businesses and households turned off unused lights and appliances on standby.

Something everyone can do:

GET OFF STANDBY
Unplug any appliances - mobile phone charger, TV, microwave, MP3 player - that are not being used and are on standby. Appliances left on standby account for up to 10% of the average household's electricity use.

Click HERE for more information.

National Day of Climate Action

2007-03-20T16:21:00.000-06:00

STEP IT UP 2007
April 24, 2007

Gather at your favorite place on earth to tell Congress to reduce carbon emissions by 80%. For more information Click HERE

From the organizers:

This is an invitation to help start a movement--to take one spring day and use it to reshape the future. Those of us who know that climate change is the greatest threat civilization now faces have science on our side; we have economists and policy specialists, courageous mayors and governors, engineers with cool new technology.

But we don't have a movement—the largest rally yet held in the U.S. about global warming drew a thousand people. If we're going to make the kind of change we need in the short time left us, we need something that looks like the civil rights movement, and we need it now. Changing light bulbs just isn't enough.

So pitch in. A few of us are trying to organize a nationwide day of hundreds and hundreds of rallies on April 14. We hope to have gatherings in every state, and in many of America's most iconic places: on the levees in New Orleans, on top of the melting glaciers on Mt. Rainier, even underwater on the endangered coral reefs off Key West.

We need rallies outside churches, along the tide lines in our coastal cities, in cornfields and forests and on statehouse steps.

Every group will be saying the same thing: Step it up, Congress! Enact immediate cuts in carbon emissions, and pledge an 80% reduction by 2050. No half measures, no easy compromises-the time has come to take the real actions that can stabilize our climate.

As people gather, we'll link pictures of the protests together electronically via the web-before the weekend is out, we'll have the largest protest the country has ever seen, not in numbers but in extent. From every corner of the nation we'll start to shake things up.

By its very nature, this action needs all kinds of people to help out. We can't make it happen-it has to assemble itself.

Sign up to host an action. We'll coordinate the responses, introducing you to others from your area, and give you everything you need to be a leader, from banners to press releases.

You don't have to have ever done anything like this-you're not organizing a March on Washington, just a gathering of scores or hundreds in your town or neighborhood.

We need creativity, good humor, commitment. If you are active in a campus group or a church or a local environmental group or a garden society or a bike club-or if you just saw Al Gore's movie and want to do something-then we need you now.

And by now, we mean now.

The best science tells us we have ten years to fundamentally transform our economy and lead the world in the same direction or else, in the words of NASA's Jim Hansen, we will face a "totally different planet," one infinitely sadder and less flourishing.

The recent elections have given us an opening, and polling shows most Americans know there's a problem. But the forces of inertia and business-as-usual are still in control, and only our voices, united and loud, joyful and determined, can change that reality.

Please join us.

Bill McKibben

US blocks environment progress

2007-03-19T08:56:00.000-06:00

Regrettable? More than regrettable IMO.

From the BBC News
US 'blocks environment progress'

Germany's environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, says the United States has blocked progress on two key issues to protect the global environment.
He was speaking after a two-day meeting of environment ministers in the German city of Potsdam.
The issues were carbon emissions trading and rewarding developing nations for protecting their natural assets, he said.
Mr Gabriel said the US opposition was "not a surprise".
The Potsdam conference brought together ministers from the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations - the United States, Canada, France, UK, Germany, Japan, Italy and Russia - and Brazil, India, China Mexico and South Africa from the developing world.

'Not subtle'
Ministers stressed that the meeting had shown that there was a good deal of consensus on the scale and nature of the problem of climate change - but a lack of agreement on the tools to tackle it.
The BBC's Matt McGrath in Potsdam says there was a widespread acceptance that sustainable economic development had to go hand in hand with efforts to cut emissions of carbon dioxide.
But disagreements surfaced over specifics such as extending the global system of carbon trading, one of the central planks of any proposed deal to curb emissions.
According to one delegate the United States was "not subtle" in its opposition to carbon trading, and to another proposal that would pay developing countries to preserve rainforests.
"We find this regrettable," Mr Gabriel told reporters.
But he said: "I would have been disappointed if I'd expected something different."

Undermining the Global Warming Message

2007-03-17T15:52:00.000-06:00

Never mind the facts, opponents use tactics to spread doubt about global warming. Joe Brewer shows how misuse of language can undermine the credibilty of scientific studies.

When Climate Message is Strong, Attack the Messenger
by Joe Brewer

An article published today in the New York Times clearly demonstrates the importance of framing when discussing important political issues. William J. Broad's article "From a Rapt Audience, a Call to Cool the Hype" in the science section already ranks as one of the most popular articles of the day. This widely read article is filled with misuses and abuses of language designed to undermine the credibility of Al Gore as a messenger for global warming.

As an individual trained in both the atmospheric sciences (I have a masters degree from the University of Illinois) and cognitive sciences my skills are well suited to the task of demonstrating Broad's misrepresentation of human-caused climate change through clever manipulations of language. Through the analysis that follows, we shall see that he has worked very hard to spread doubt and skepticism about one of the most important issues humanity must face in the days and years ahead.

Before jumping into the offensive assertions plaguing the article, it may be helpful to elucidate his agenda, which is to undermine Al Gore's message by attacking the credibility of the messenger. In chapter 3 of Thinking Points: Communicating Our American Values and Vision, George Lakoff discusses the message frame as an important way of structuring information. Common elements of all message frames are certain semantic roles: messengers, audience, issue, message, medium, and images. Crucial to the message is the messenger. The messenger must have both integrity and credibility. People will not give merit to messages that come from dubious sources, even when the message itself is trustworthy.

Plant Seeds of Doubt and Watch What Grows

As we shall see below, William J. Broad has worked long and hard to cast shadows over Gore's credibility. I suppose when the message is this firmly grounded in truth, albeit an inconvenient one, the only way to discourage people from taking action is to redirect attention away from the facts. He starts by stating that part of Gore's "scientific audience is uneasy." This is his central claim, which we shall see does not correspond very well with reality. He goes on to say that "Mr. Gore's central points are exaggerated and erroneous" (emphasis added) and that many scientists are "alarmed...at what they call his alarmism." He sets the whole thing off in this way to establish a basis for concern that Gore is not supported by scientists.

He then quotes Don J. Easterbrook, a geology professor at Western Washington University and critic of the human causes of global warming, as saying "there are a lot of inaccuracies in the statements we are seeing" (emphasis added). It is interesting to note two things here:

No actual inaccuracies are mentioned anywhere in the article
Even Professor Easterbrook doesn't directly confront Gore's message. We are left to ask ourselves whether "we are seeing" the message presented by Gore or the message presented in the media (which is often exaggerated and erroneous!)
A great way to strategically plant seeds of doubt is to suggest that a piece of work was revised after something was found to be wrong and then not tell anyone where the revision was made. Broad applies this technique when he tells us that Gore "perceived no general backlash among scientists against his work," but that he "received some comments about items that should be changed." Then Broad goes on to say "he gave no specifics on which points he revised" to leave the reader with the impression that all of Gore's points are suspect. Instead of increasing our confidence by realizing Gore was open to suggestions by experts, we are left with suspicion that any one of his points might be the fateful secret mistake.

Build a Strawman So You Can Burn it Down

The next thing Broad does is tell us that "although Mr. Gore is not a scientist, he does rely heavily on the authority of science." This is a pivotal strategic move because he can now transfer the role of messenger from Gore to an unnamed authority of science, which is a role that can readily be filled by people who hold radical views or by people whose comments are taken out of context. If the authority of science does not support Gore, his message loses its validity. (Contrast this with an alternative framing where the focus is on climate change standing its ground regardless of who talks about it)

Two examples of radical mis-representatives of science in the article are Professor Easterbrook (who stands at odds with the strong consensus of the scientific community by not believing in global warming) and Richard Lindzen who is a well known climate skeptic and, according to Harper's magazine, has ties to the oil industry. Lindzen is quoted as accusing Gore of "shrill alarmism."

Technical Scientific Points Easily Muddled

When attempting to introduce doubt where it has no rightful place to be, it is helpful to have subtle technical points at your disposal that are easy to misconstrue. Luckily for Broad, climate science is complicated and nuanced such that is easy to misunderstand. For example, when quoting Kevin Vranes, a climatologist at the University of Colorado, we are told that Gore is "overselling our uncertainty about knowing the future." If you pay close attention while watching An Inconvenient Truth you will find that Gore never once claimed to know the future. Climate scientists (and weather forecasters) never predict the future. The physical processes involved are incredibly complicated and defy prediction. Instead, scientists use their vast knowledge of these processes to explore scenarios to see how likely different outcomes are to occur.

Another instance of misquoting comes when we hear a climatologist from the University of Alabama, Roy Spencer, tell us that An Inconvenient Truth did "indeed do a pretty good job of presenting the most dire scenarios" but that "all we really know is that we are warmer now than we were during the last 400 years." This combination of quotes frames what we know as being much more limited than Gore suggests. Piecing information together in this way is very misleading because it excludes all forms of knowledge that are not observable data. This framing would exclude the bulk of scientific knowledge because most of what we learn from science comes from inferences drawn from the data. Theories, principles, and laws of science are left out entirely when the situation is framed in this way.

Divide and Conquer

While people all over the world are coming together to tackle global warming, tactics are still being used to try to divide us. Gore is described as being "a very polarizing figure in the science community" by Roger Pielk, who is presented as an environmental scientist (he is actually a policy analyst at the University of Colorado). Gore has polarized people, but not in the way we are being lead to believe here. He compels people to take the decisive stance of standing strongly in solidarity. This does create a stark contrast between those who are committed to addressing global warming and those who are committed to meddling with public perceptions of it. In other words, he polarizes us against many members of the conservative community! Though not all, since we now know that many evangelical fundamentalist Christians have come around.

Message Comes Away Unscathed

Despite all of these attempts (and many more that I left out of this analysis) Broad has not managed to make a single claim against the message. After bleeding my highlighter all over his article I came away with no reason to dispel the conclusion we are meant to draw from An Inconvenient Truth. The conclusion we are meant to draw (and we have the "authority of science" to back it up!) is that our planet's climate system has been altered in harmful ways that we as a community need to address. Greenhouse gases have polluted our atmosphere and major changes need to be made in the way we structure our societies to minimize the harm from this pollution.

Each day we fail to take responsibility for the mess we are in compromises our communities. Each day we fail to empathize with all creatures great and small we damage the health of our planet. Each day we fail to recognize our common good reduces the common wealth we have to share with each other. Why isn't this message printed in the New York Times today? That's what I want to know.

Isn't it finally time to transcend this kind of madness?

Joe Brewer is a Fellow at the Rockridge Institute.

Read it all HERE

2007-03-14T15:53:00.000-06:00

Fun, educational cartoonlets on global warming. Click here to see On Top of Our Planet

Picture used by permission.

Global Warming to Cause Drought, Famine Within Decades

2007-03-14T10:26:00.000-06:00

Report: Global Warming to Cause Drought, Famine Within Decades

Report to be released in April - sobering facts. Read it all HERE

Washington, DC -- The harmful effects of global warming on daily life are already showing up, and within a couple of decades hundreds of millions of people won't have enough water, top scientists will say next month at a meeting in Belgium.

At the same time, tens of millions of others will be flooded out of their homes each year as the Earth reels from rising temperatures and sea levels, according to portions of a draft of an international scientific report obtained by The Associated Press.

Tropical diseases like malaria will spread. By 2050, polar bears will mostly be found in zoos, their habitats gone. Pests like fire ants will thrive.

For a time, food will be plentiful because of the longer growing season in northern regions. But by 2080, hundreds of millions of people could face starvation, according to the report, which is still being revised.

The draft document by the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change focuses on global warming's effects and is the second in a series of four being issued this year. Written and reviewed by more than 1,000 scientists from dozens of countries, it still must be edited by government officials.

But some scientists said the overall message is not likely to change when it's issued in early April in Brussels, Belgium, the same city where European Union leaders agreed this past week to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Their plan will be presented to President Bush and other world leaders at a summit in June.

The report offers some hope if nations slow and then reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, but it notes that what's happening now isn't encouraging.

"Changes in climate are now affecting physical and biological systems on every continent," the report says, in marked contrast to a 2001 report by the same international group that said the effects of global warming were coming. But that report only mentioned scattered regional effects.

"Things are happening and happening faster than we expected," said Patricia Romero Lankao of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, one of the many co-authors of the new report.

The draft document says scientists are highly confident that many current problems -- change in species' habits and habitats, more acidified oceans, loss of wetlands, bleaching of coral reefs, and increases in allergy-inducing pollen -- can be blamed on global warming.

For example, the report says North America "has already experienced substantial ecosystem, social and cultural disruption from recent climate extremes," such as hurricanes and wildfires.

But the present is nothing compared to the future.

Global warming soon will "affect everyone's life ... it's the poor sectors that will be most affected," Romero Lankao said.

And co-author Terry Root of Stanford University said: "We truly are standing at the edge of mass extinction" of species.

Looking at different impacts on ecosystems, industry and regions, the report sees the most positive benefits in forestry and some improved agriculture and transportation in polar regions. The biggest damage is likely to come in ocean and coastal ecosystems, water resources and coastal settlements.

The hardest-hit continents are likely to be Africa and Asia, with major harm also coming to small islands and some aspects of ecosystems near the poles. North America, Europe and Australia are predicted to suffer the fewest of the harmful effects.

Lander Recycles

2007-03-13T13:44:00.000-06:00

Our local community has some recycling. Trash Matters is the umbrella web site for disposal of all recyclables. An easy to use drop down menu finds where to take things. Over 26 categories from Animal Waste to Vehicle-related items. Clothing, furniture, and all the regular items of paper, glass, plastic, cans, etc can be recycled. Somethings can go to agencies that also provide employment and training for those with disabilities, thus adding to the benefit to the community.

From the web site about how to get involved:

A little bit of action by all of the people can make a BIG difference! Currently, the national average is 4.62 pounds per person of trash generated per day. However, in Fremont County, the average is a whopping 9.3 pounds of garbage thrown away per person per day!

Interesting Fact:
The United States leads the industrialized world in municipal solid waste generation, with each person in the United States currently generating on average 4.62 pounds of waste per day. Canada and the Netherlands come in second and third, with 3.75 and 3 pounds per person per day, respectively. Germany and Sweden generate the least amount of waste per capita for industrialized nations, with just under 2 pounds per person per day. The United States, however, also leads the industrialized world in recycling. The United States recycled 24 percent of its waste in 1995, the most recent year for which comparative international data is available. Switzerland and Japan came in second and third, recycling 23 percent and 20 percent of their discard stream, respectively.

This web site is full of ideas for waste reduction, composting, and recycling. We invite you to browse the site, and implement some of the ideas in your home, school or office.

You can get involved with recycling directly by contacting any of these recycling groups of Fremont County:
Lander Recycles
Wind River Recycling
CWC Science Club in Riverton

You could help organize a clean-up or special waste round-up. In 2005, volunteers helped organize the Great Tire Round-Up to prevent West Nile virus. The six-week collection event yielded over 12,000 tires of all shapes and sizes. In addition, it provided an excellent fund-raiser for local non-profit groups. For details, call the District at (307) 332-7040.

National Blackout Day in UK

2007-03-13T13:40:00.000-06:00

Grassroots movement to stop climate change goes national.

Building on the success of last year’s Blackout London action, which was supported by amongst others London Mayor Ken Livingstone, people and organisations around the country including churches, are being asked to turn out their lights in a nationwide blackout.

The national blackout is scheduled to take place this Thursday March 15 at 8pm. Participants are being urged to switch off all non-essential electricity-using devices in a bid to tackle rising energy consumption and its fuelling of climate change.

The date and time will coincide with the launch of climate writer Mark Lynas’s terrifying new book on global warming, ‘Six Degrees: Our future on a hotter planet’, which shows that a mass extinction of most of life on earth is a real possibility if we don’t act soon to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions.

Sharon Turley from Blackout Britain will be flicking the switch and blacking out the launch at the same time as participants all over the UK will be switching off their lights, turning down their heating by at least one degree and turning on their imaginations for a relaxing carbon-free evening.

“An average household spews out 5 tonnes of carbon emissions a year. This figure needs to be reduced by at least 80% if we’re to see a real change in the level of CO2 emissions the UK is responsible for,” said Sharon Turley, Blackout Britain co-ordinator.

Mark Lynas added: “Scientists in the IPCC say that temperatures could rise by more than six degrees if carbon emissions continue to rise. When this happened 251 million years ago, over 90% of life on earth was wiped out.”

With a chapter per degree of warming, Mark Lynas’s book outlines – degree by degree – the impacts on our water, food supplies, wildlife and society that are likely to arise as the temperature climbs. The blackout switch will be flicked when Lynas, during a talk and slideshow at the book launch, reaches the ultimate nightmare scenario of six degrees.

From Ekklesia

Video Contest

2007-03-10T07:53:00.000-07:00

Convenient Truth Contest
From the web site:

A lot of these videos are full of green goodness but let this criterion guide your voting and rate below. Tell us, which entries best address solutions to reducing one's personal carbon emissions? Which are the most:

*Inspiring (Does it make me want to do something?)

*Pragmatic (Does it provide me answers, tools so I can take action?)

*Compelling (Does it make me laugh, make me sad, make me angry, make me shivery?)

Your vote counts! Videos are rated 1-5 with 5 being the highest rating!

"" means that you've already visited the video. Click Here to watch videos.

Planeless
Just Say No - Thanks
Sustainable Solutions: Hunter Lovins
Convenient Truths: Climate And Action
No More Plastic Bags
Don't Run Up The Bill
Redefining The Environmental Movement
Bear Necessities
Try The Patch
Don't Be Goob
Spend Wisely
O Goods
Plant A Seed
Man Of Convenience: Part III
Plastic Bag Pillow
Man Of Convenience: Part II
Guinea Pig M
Man Of Convenience: Part I
Enviremint
HMS Environmental Management
Hugurth
It's So Easy
He Gets Around
FREEZEFRAME
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
An Inconvenient Cubicle
Carless In L.A.
Little Guy (Make A Start) Music Video
Timeline
A Brighter Idea
YOU Can Stop Climate Change
Families Fight Back
Think Green
Animal Guide To Saving The Planet
I Am A Climate Activist
Good vs. Bad
Green Kids
Keep It Green, Keep It Clean
One Up
Food Production
Green
The Commute
Aurora City Of Lights' Struggle With The Environment
My World Is Melting
Better Late Than Never
Save Our Planet
Sid The Lid Meets Tumbleweed
Chickens Enlighten, Humans Change, World Improves
Eat Local
Making A Way
Change A Light Bulb
Chicken Little
Road Rage
Footprints
Even Small Actions Make A Difference
Calling All Earth Lovers!
Toothbrush Problem
Follow Me
Cool Notebooks For A Hot Planet
Solar Power Walking Chariot
Greenspotting
Friends Don't Let Friends...
Wasting Xmas
Stop, Drop, & Rock
Imagine
Enviroman Takes on Biodiesel
Reality in the Self-Checkout Lane
Remix
Reduce Reuse Recycle At Boulder Community Hopsital
Demand Reduction At Boulder Community Hospital
Changing A Lightbulb And Boulder Community Hospital
Carrying Power: Solar Energy On The Go
Rust Belt
Forage! An Exploration in Collaborative Art Making Through Re-Use
Light on the Pedal, Light on the Planet
Passive Solar Techniques For Year-Round Local Food - Even In Cold Climates
The Living Building Challenge
Going In Circles
DREAM Big
Scotty P's Convenient Truths
A Terrible Pickle
Peace Corps Experience in Guatemala
The Man Who Planted Trees
The Power of Straw
Work Harder
Worm Poop - The Other "Black Gold"
What Can Regular People Do About Global Warming?
What Can I Do?
Save Energy, Need Less
Recycle America, Close the Loop
A Kid, A Car, And An Idea
Gwoble Wawming Solooshons
Future Mechanics
Secondary Footprints: Reducing the Impact
Team Denim At The 2006 Tour de Sol

If you're looking for the EPIC International Prize nominees, please click here.

Not on the list but informative - one day, one person, carbon wasting.

Polar Bears Need Help

2007-03-08T12:12:00.000-07:00

Go to Polar Bear SOS for more information on what you can do.

European Union Green Summit

2007-03-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

From the Sacramento Bee
EU leaders to discuss green energy plan

By CONSTANT BRAND -- Associated Press Writer
Published 2:59 am PST Thursday, March 8, 2007

BRUSSELS, Belgium - German Chancellor Angela Merkel will push her European Union counterparts to go green on energy at summit talks Thursday, urging them to adopt tough measures needed to fight global warming and reduce Europe's dependence on oil imports. Merkel, who is leading the two-day meeting, is keen to get the 27-nation EU to adopt new rules to boost the use of less-polluting, renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and hydro power. She wants the EU to set a global standard, to pressure the United States, Russia and others to follow Europe's new pro-environment agenda. "Europe has set its own important step, and now others like the USA, China, India and the large developing countries must follow," Merkel said late Wednesday. "Europe has 15 percent of worldwide emissions, and the trend is to reduce it, so we also need other countries." The EU leaders are set to agree to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by the year 2020 from 1990 levels, a first step in Europe's ambitious strategy to fight global warming. They are also set to develop energy ties with central Asian countries to reduce their dependency on Russian oil and gas. However, many EU nations are loathe to live up to proposed commitments to switch from fossil fuels like cheap coal to more costly renewable sources, arguing that it will add costs and hurt economic growth. They are also at loggerheads over whether to replace 10 percent of transport fuel with biofuels by 2020. Germany, Britain and Italy are pushing hard for a binding 20 percent renewables target by 2020, but France and many eastern European nations are against it, fearing they could lose the right to draw from cheaper sources such as coal or nuclear power plants. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Merkel were holding talks with business and union leaders ahead of the start of the summit to go over the EU's new strategy to set up a low-carbon economy to counter climate change, specifics of which are now up for debate. Merkel said Thursday that measures against climate change should be "moved forward with determination and binding" targets, but that she expected "very difficult negotiations." "Europe wants to be in a leading role. People outside of Europe are looking at us," Merkel said. The summit talks also will focus on drafting a declaration to mark the EU's 50th birthday party planned for March 24-25 in Berlin, but reaching unity may be difficult as many nations have topics they do not want mentioned. Foreign ministers are to debate efforts to bring stability to Iraq as well as Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear program. Somalia and Lebanon also will be discussed. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday he will press EU counterparts to bolster their troop contributions to NATO's mission in Afghanistan. A summit deal on energy will help Merkel put pressure on other Group of Eight industrialized nations to take action on the environment at a G-8 gathering she will host in June. Germany wants the EU summit to set a global challenge to the U.S., Canada, Russia, Japan and other G-8 nations to agree on deep emissions cuts. The EU leaders are set to back a goal to cut carbon dioxide releases and keep the average global temperature increase under 2 degrees Celsius, saying they will agree on a 30 percent cut below 1990 levels if other major polluters join them. According to a draft agreement, they will aim to go even further in the future - with cuts of 60 percent to 80 percent by 2050. The EU also wants the United Sates to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol, which requires industrial nations to cut their global-warming gases by an average 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The major economies of the EU have committed to an 8 percent cut. Washington however, has argued that Kyoto would do serious harm to the American economy, adding such cuts should also apply to new Asian rivals China and India.

Weekly Update

2007-03-07T15:53:00.000-07:00

Lander now had someone picking up recycling at each home. The recylcer picks up Newspaper, Magazines, Catalogs, Plastics, Tin, Aluminum, Cardboard, Glass and Office Pack. This is a huge improvement in what I can recycle. It is exciting to see local businesses built on this sort of need. On the driving front, I was sick most of the week so did not go out much - but when I did could not walk without coughing - sort of a toss up. On Sunday I drove at 55 mph to Rock Springs. We don't have much traffic on Sunday on the highways that I drive but what was there were not happy with my speed. Oh well - my mpg has gone from 26 mpg to 30 mpg.

Green Fuel - new problems?

2007-03-07T15:47:00.000-07:00

The Independent in the UK raises questions about "green fuel" - ethanol made from plants. More links at The Independent

By Daniel Howden in Sao Paolo
Published: 05 March 2007
The ethanol boom is coming. The twin threats of climate change and energy security are creating an unprecedented thirst for alternative energy with ethanol leading the way.

That process is set to reach a landmark on Thursday when the US President, George Bush, arrives in Brazil to kick-start the creation of an international market for ethanol that could one day rival oil as a global commodity. The expected creation of an "Opec for ethanol" replicating the cartel of major oil producers has spurred frenzied investment in biofuels across the Americas.

But a growing number of economists, scientists and environmentalists are calling for a "time out" and warning that the headlong rush into massive ethanol production is creating more problems than it is solving.

To its advocates, ethanol, which can be made from corn, barley, wheat, sugar cane or beet is a green panacea - a clean-burning, renewable energy source that will see us switch from dwindling oil wells to boundless fields of crops to satisfy our energy needs.

Dr Plinio Mario Nastari, one of Brazil's leading economists and an expert in biofuels, sees a bright future for an energy sector in which his country is the acknowledged world leader: "We are on the brink of a new era, ethanol is changing a lot of things but in a positive sense."

In its first major acknowledgment of the dangers of climate change, the White House this year committed itself to substituting 20 per cent of the petroleum it uses for ethanol by 2017.

In Brazil, that switch is more advanced than anywhere in the world and it has already substituted 40 per cent of its gasoline usage.

Ethanol is nothing new in Brazil. It has been used as fuel since 1925. But the real boom came after the oil crisis of 1973 spurred the military dictatorship to lessen the country's reliance on foreign imports of fossil fuels. The generals poured public subsidies and incentives into the sugar industry to produce ethanol.

Today, the congested streets of Sao Paolo are packed with flex-fuel cars that run off a growing menu of bio and fossil fuel mixtures, and all filling stations offer "alcohol" and "gas" at the pump, with the latter at roughly twice the price by volume.

But there is a darker side to this green revolution, which argues for a cautious assessment of how big a role ethanol can play in filling the developed world's fuel tank. The prospect of a sudden surge in demand for ethanol is causing serious concerns even in Brazil.

The ethanol industry has been linked with air and water pollution on an epic scale, along with deforestation in both the Amazon and Atlantic rainforests, as well as the wholesale destruction of Brazil's unique savannah land.

Fabio Feldman, a leading Brazilian environmentalist and former member of Congress who helped to pass the law mandating a 23 per cent mix of ethanol to be added to all petroleum supplies in the country, believes that Brazil's trailblazing switch has had serious side effects.

"Some of the cane plantations are the size of European states, these vast monocultures have replaced important eco-systems," he said. "If you see the size of the plantations in the state of Sao Paolo they are oceans of sugar cane. In order to harvest you must burn the plantations which creates a serious air pollution problem in the city."

Despite its leading role in biofuels, Brazil remains the fourth largest producer of carbon emissions in the world due to deforestation. Dr Nastarti rejects any linkage between deforestation and ethanol and argues that cane production accounts for little more than 10 per cent of Brazil's farmland.

However, Dr Nastari is calling for new legislation in Brazil to ensure that mushrooming sugar plantations do not directly or indirectly contribute to the destruction of vital forest preserves.

Sceptics, however, point out that existing legislation is unenforceable and agri-business from banned GM cotton to soy beans has been able to ignore legislation.

"In large areas of Brazil there is a total absence of the state and no respect for environmental legislation," said Mr Feldman.

"Ethanol can be a good alternative in the fight against global warming but at the same time we must make sure we are not creating a worse problem than the one we are trying to solve."

The conditions for a true nightmare scenario are being created not in Brazil, despite its environment concerns, but in the US's own domestic ethanol industry.

While Brazil's tropical climate allows it to source alcohol from its sugar crop, the US has turned to its industrialised corn belt for the raw material to substitute oil. The American economist Lester R Brown, from the Earth Policy Institute, is leading the warning voices: "The competition for grain between the world's 800 million motorists who want to maintain their mobility and its two billion poorest people who are simply trying to stay alive is emerging as an epic issue."

Speaking in Sao Paolo, where the ethanol boom is expected to take off with a US-Brazil trade deal this Thursday, Fabio Feldman, said: "We must stop and take a breath and consider the consequences."

Biofuel costs

When Rudolph Diesel unveiled his new engine at the 1900 World's Fair, he made a point of demonstrating that it could be run on peanut oil. "Such oils may become, in the course of time, as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time," he said.

And so it has come to pass that US President George Bush has decreed that America must wean itself off oil with the help of biofuels made from corn, sugar cane and other suitable crops.

At its simplest, the argument for biofuels is this: By growing crops to produce organic compounds that can be burnt in an engine, you are not adding to the overall levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The amount of CO2 that the fuel produces when burnt should balance the amount absorbed during the growth of the plants.

However, many biofuel crops, such as corn, are grown with the help of fossil fuels in the form of fertilisers, pesticides and the petrol for farm equipment.

One estimate is that corn needs 30 per cent more energy than the finished fuel it produces.

Another problem is the land required to produce it. One estimate is that the grain needed to fill the petrol tank of a 4X4 with ethanol is sufficient to feed a person for a year.