There is no doubt that green is “in,” and veteran environmentalists hope that this is one warming trend that continues. But first, what does “Green is the new black” mean? Most ladies and fashion hipsters know the phrase, “______ is the new black.” It means the object of the phrase is the new basic—the black dress, the go-with-everything shoes, jeans, etc.—the thing that is a foundation to fashionable living. The phrase has been co-opted for non-fashion arenas, and I use it here to talk about environmentalism in balance.

While every day is a green day, Earth Day is solemnity in the secular liturgy of environmentalism. There appeared both government and grassroots efforts and celebrations across the globe, with people of all ages from ordinary folks to politicians to A-list celebrities. It was all quiet on the family planning front, though.

While some environmentalists grow caustic over the hip-factor of caring for our planet because it’s something they’ve been at for a long time, I say let’s take advantage of the green fervor to bring to light something many greenies haven’t thought twice about: Natural Family Planning, or NFP.

Doesn’t it seem interesting that we’ll go to great lengths to ensure our meat, dairy and other grocery products are “all natural” and hormone free, but then we’ll turn around and ingest, poke or patch our bodies with all sorts of synthetic hormones, the ramifications of which we’re still discovering?

The National Catholic Register wrote last July about the serious effects we’re seeing in the environment because of the residual effects of drugs, or what biologists call “endocrine disruptors”–particularly chemical contraceptives. Now, if the human side effects of hormonal contraception don’t catch your attention, perhaps non-mating intersex fish will hook you. Colorado biologist John Woodling, speaking to the Denver Post in 2005 said, It’s “the first thing that I’ve seen as a scientist that really scared me.” We’re not talking one freak fish here; it’s a significant problem, a problem so significant that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the American Pharmacists Association have a major public-awareness campaign regarding this contamination called “Smar_xt Disposal.”

Years before the green trend train got going, Pope John Paul II said in 1990 that we have "a grave responsibility to preserve [the earth's] order for the well-being of future generations." Pope Benedict, dubbed as “The Green Pope,” further emphasizes the need to “focus on the needs of sustainable development.” However, he reminds us that there must be a balance between the environment and people reminding us that humans are "the only one of all creatures on this earth that can establish a free and conscious relationship with his creator."

With Pope Benedict, I urge my brothers and sisters in Christ and all people of good will to steward the earth’s treasures, but also to remember that we must value human life above all. “Population control” programs treat the humans as disposable carbon consumers, rather than unrepeatable and irreplaceable gifts from God, not to mention potential problem solvers to the world’s social and climate conundrums.

The contraceptive mentality of today’s culture sees fertility as disease and babies as burdens, but we forget that children are a blessing, and within each child is a God-given mission to be great and to do great things. Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim teamed up to make the 2006 Oscar award winning An Inconvenient Truth, their documentary on the global warming crisis. It was groundbreaking moment for filmmaking as well as the Green movement, but it would not have been possible without their conceptions and births.

NFP is of inestimable value for the world for more than just the environmental credibility. It also fosters fertility appreciation, love of children and has marital and psychological benefits. It is shared system of family planning that fosters communication, builds prudence and self-control and decreases sexual objectification. As I’ve said before, NFP doesn’t just have natural benefits; it has supernatural benefits. Gore and Guggenheim co-created a film that won an Oscar, but couples who cooperate with God’s plan for marriage and sex experience a personal & spiritual vitality that not only nourishes communication and mutual self respect, but it makes them icons of the Most Holy Trinity. That’s not a red carpet line, but a heavenly promise.

(C) 2008 The Catholic Herald, Madison, WI.

A big hello from Mariam and Fatima!
 
Teachers all around the world would agree that bulletin boards are a reflection of a teacher's work in class... of the effort she/he puts in experiences the learning taking place in students. They are also a means of acknowledging the work and achievements of children in school.
No doubt, bulletin boards reflect the teacher, teaching style, learners and the learning that takes place.
 
So, in this post we announce the inclusion of a new page on our blog, 'Bulletin Board Ideas' for teachers and parents to see. Of course, these are not the best bulletin boards and... there is great scope for creativity when it comes to showing off our kid's works.
 
Have a nice time as we dig into our photographs folders to find some more boards to add on to these ones.
 
Take Care,
Mariam and Fatima

Here is the article title: "Trash soils Bush pledge to protect islands" - AP - by Dina Cappiello
"To date, more than $12 million has been spent and 646 tons of marine debris have been removed."

Surprise. Surprise.  It hasn't kept pace on the pick-up or the money back it up.   I bet it stinks.  The science is already there showing how it is affecting everything! The oceans - the animals (water or land) and yet - it is not maintained.

"Debris removal, meanwhile, has fallen to 35 tons a year since the islands became a monument, about a third of the 102 tons that boats and divers collected on average before that, including junk that was already there."

That is a lot of trash.  What happened to recycle?  Pick up after yourselfs, dang namb it!  Look there are already toilets that flush for you because of the laziness of a person!  Down right out lazy! Heck - I can't wait for the machine to be developed to wipe off the seat once someone has peed all over it, but that is neither here nor there.

The oceans people - have dead spots.  Where and why do you think they are there?  If you huff and guff at this - I dare you to not listen to the warning and beach signs saying closed due to contamination.  If it is not safe for you - why is it safe for anything else??

Recycle - Don't throw your trash overboard!

What more can you ask for in a commercial? They manage to better the worlds environment with a naked business exec and security officer? The planet green channel delivers, all for the love of the planet!

Truly,
Mr. Echo

“Sacrilegious though this may sound, democracy is no longer
well suited for the tasks ahead. The complexity and the technical
nature of many of today’s problems do not always allow elected
representatives to make competent decisions at the right time.”
Club of Rome

When
I searched for links between these men, who keep appearing in nearly
every area of global environmental politics, I discovered that they
were all members of the Club of Rome. Now extraordinary claims, like
a global conspiracy, demand extraordinary proof. But this conspiracy
is hidden in plain
sight.
They make very little attempt to hide their real agenda. On this
website I try to use quotes and excerpts as much as possible and let
the reader reach their own conclusions.

So, what exactly is
the Club of Rome and who are its members? Founded in 1968, the CoR
describes itself as "a group of world
citizens, sharing a common concern for the future of humanity."
It consists of current and former Heads of State, high-level
politicians and government officials, diplomats, scientists,
economists, and business leaders from around the globe.

The Club of Rome subsequently founded
two sibling organizations, the
Club
of Budapest
and the Club
of Madrid.
The former is focused on social and cultural aspects of their
agenda, while the latter concentrates on the political aspects. All
three of these 'Clubs' share many common members and hold joint
meetings and
conferences.
As explained in other articles on this website it is abundantly clear
that these are three heads of the same beast. The CoR has also
established a network of 28 National
Associations.

Some
Current Members of the Club of Rome triad:

Al
Gore
– former VP of the USA, leading climate change campaigner,
Nobel Peace Prize winner, Academy Award winner, Emmy winner, lead the
US delegations to the Rio Earth Summit and Kyoto Climate Change
conference, largest shareholder in the Chicago Climate Exchange.

Javier
Solana
– Secretary General of the Council of the European Union, High
Representative for EU Foreign Policy.

Maurice
Strong
– former Head of the UN Environment
Programme, Chief Policy Advisor to Kofi Annan, Secretary General of
the Rio Earth Summit, co-author (with Gorbachev) of the Earth
Charter, co-author of the Kyoto Protocol, founder of the Earth
Council, devout Baha’i.

Mikhail
Gorbachev
– CoR
executive
member, former President of the Soviet
Union, founder of Green Cross International and the Gorbachev
Foundation, Nobel Peace Prize winner, co-founder
(with Hidalgo) of the Club of Madrid, co-author (with Strong)
of the Earth Charter.

Diego
Hidalgo
– CoR executive
member, co-founder (with Gorbachev) of the Club of
Madrid, founder and President of the European Council on Foreign
Relations.

Ervin
Laszlo
– founding member of the CoR, founder and President of the Club
of Budapest, founder
and Chairman of the World Wisdom Council.

Hassan
bin Talal
–
President of the CoR, President of the Arab
Thought Forum, founder of the World
Future Council,
recently named as the United Nations 'Champion
of the Earth'.

Sir
Crispin Tickell
– former British Permanent Representative to the United Nations
and Permanent Representative on the Security Council, Chairman of the
‘Gaia Society’, Chairman of the Board of the Climate
Institute, leading British climate change campaigner.

Kofi
Annan
– former Secretary General of the United Nations. Nobel
Peace Prize Laureate.

Javier
Perez de Cuellar
– former Secretary General of the
United Nations. .

Robert
Muller –
former Assistant Secretary General of the United
Nations, founder and Chancellor of the UN
University of Peace.

David
Rockefeller
– CoR
executive
member, former Chairman of Chase
Manhattan Bank, founder of the Trilateral Commission, executive
member of the World Economic Forum, donated land on which the United
Nations stands.

Stephen
Schneider
– Stanford Professor of Biology and Global Change.
Professor Schneider was among the earliest and most vocal proponents
of man-made global warming and a lead author of many IPCC
reports.

Bill
Clinton
– former President of the United States,
founder of the Clinton Global Iniative.

Jimmy
Carter
– former President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize
Laureate.

Bill
Gates
– founder of Microsoft, philanthropist

Other
current influential members:
(these
can be found on the Club
of Rome, Club
of Budapest,
Club
of Madrid
and/or
CoR
National Association
membership
pages)

Ted
Turner – American media mogul, philanthropist, founder of
CNN
George Soros – multibillionare, major
donor to the UN
Tony Blair – former Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom
Deepak Chopra – New
Age Guru
Desmond Tutu – South African Bishop and
activist, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
Timothy
Wirth – President of the United
Nations Foundation
Henry
Kissinger – former US Secretary of State
Barbara Marx
Hubbard – President of the Foundation
for Conscious Evolution
Betty
Williams – Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Marianne
Williamson – New Age 'Spiritual Activist'
Robert
Thurman – assistant to the Dalai Lama
Jane Goodall
– Primatologist and Evolutionary Biologist
Juan
Carlos I – King of Spain
Prince Philippe of
Belgium
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
Dona Sophia
– Queen of Spain
Karan Singh – Chairman of the
Temple
of Understanding
Daisaku
Ikeda – founder of the Soka
Gakkai cult
Eduard
Shevardnadze – former Soviet foreign minister and President
of Georgia
Richard von Weizsacker – former
President of Germany
Martin Lees – CoR
Secretary General, Rector of the UN University of Peace
Ernesto
Zedillo – Director of The
Yale Center for the Study of Globalization

Frithjof Finkbeiner – Coordinator of the Global
Marshall Plan
Vaclav
Havel – former President of the Czech Republic
Hans
Kung – Founder of the Global
Ethic Foundation
Ruud
Lubbers – United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees
Mary Robinson
– United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights
Jerome Binde – Director of
Foresight, UNESCO
Federico Mayor – Director
General of UNESCO
Tapio Kanninen – Director
of Policy and Planning, United Nations
Konrad
Osterwalder – Under-Secretary-General of the United
Nations
Peter Johnston – Director
General of European Commission
Thomas Homer-Dixon –
Director of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Toronto
Emeka
Anyaoku – former Commonwealth
Secretary General, current President of the WWF
Wangari
Maathai – Nobel Peace Prize Laureate,
founder of the Green
Belt Movement
and
many more….

Visit The Green Agenda

When first drafting this essay I went to great lengths to deconstruct both the far right views of literal creationism versus the far left views of Darwinism. I had reduced both of them to materialistic goals of trying to explain the world. Literal creationists assert claims that don't mesh well with the physical evidence presented by Geology. Darwinists assert that the world created itself and thus DNA codes in effect write themselves. A simple experiment where two inorganic particles are meshed together and result in an organic particle would prove evolution, however to my knowledge this has never been done. I assert that the human race was created by the grace of God and that the biblical creation story is about as literal as the book of Revelation, since snakes do not talk ect. Evolution can perhaps account for prehistory and the physical evidence present in the world at large, but there was a totally a divine hand involved at some point and thusly the missing link. It is a relevant topic about how easily humans can be divided over frivolous matters and does fit in with this discussion of the end of history. However I felt like I spent too long with tearing down both arguments and less time on the decline of civilization itself, I may deal with this issue in depth at a later date.

I had this idea for a novel once where the corporations fake an apocalypse. I had plenty of ideas for how they might go about it. Naturally a capitalist would profit more from a complete controlled society, so let's speculate on how to get there. First you need to crush differences of opinion, the best way to do this would be to make them fight to the death. The process of this, of course, would be a long one so the trick would be to make them worship the same thing a pure capitalist would - money itself. Once you have a society made purely materialistic, with all beliefs reduced to but a mere idolatry of money. The trick is to make the society in question openly acknowledge their materialism but never condemn it. There are a great many dangers in taking life too seriously. Once people truly take their consumer based lives too seriously and are willing to do whatever it takes to make the ends meet, a clash of civilizations can begin which the capitalists can then exploit. There are many conspiracy theories about how this is done or accomplished, and many of them point a finger at some conspiracy lurking in the shadows plotting to destroy civilization. The true conspiracy is very apparent, it only works with near full participation, to blame this on anything material is to not do the evil plan proper justice. I find there is no greater culprit than the pride of life itself - society's vast materialism and lack of a thorough introspection. Once a people believe what they are told, you can tell them whatever you want to, a capitalist with a sheer lack of proper business ethics would be much obliged an opportunity to exploit that. Let us contemplate absolute Atheism as the ends to the means of a society completely poisoned with its own materialism. Let us envision the regulation of the internet as the beginning of a domino effect, a rhetorical war on information with the end result being an internet as useless and uninformative as television itself.

For in my quest to unravel the tragedy of history I have found are no greater enemies to mankind than outright materialism and the darkness of ignorance. Mankind's true enemies are these such concepts, and not any member(s) or other such materialistic division of the human race. We are all one race in a struggle against such darkness. Regardless of what you believe in philosophically there is one thing you should know and understand about economics. Capitalism itself is based on materialism and it is necessary for our daily lives.There seems to be no way around this and this is an accepted fact of life in the Western World. However over time a society believing that is was evolved from monkeys shall become such monkeys entangled in a class struggle analogous to survival of the fittest. The corporate world is a macrocosm for this, as the empires expand buying out the little guys not indifferent from a Tyrannosaur in a world of sheep. All is good and well as long as the market is regulated. But see capitalism is based on being ever expansive, no different than the empires of the Old World. Alexander the Great didn't need to try to conquer the India, but there was more money in it. I was taught in World Civilization at the University of Tennessee that Wal-Mart was now the largest economy in the world (2004), which would in turn make them among the greatest of all empires. As the world changed, warfare changed. The Old World notions of rape and pillage were not forgotten but they were transformed into a legacy of underdevelopment. When one rapes and pillages everyone that participates in the raids gets a little bit of the profit, but when one underdevelopments only the investors that paid for the raid reap any reward.

As we press forward in the 21st century, capitalism continues unabated. The markets become closer together and the people themselves become close together through the internet. This could be a good thing, but the fact remains that the means do not justify the end. The people of the world cannot be conquered by hostile takeover but only through mutual understanding. The internet taught me that and that is why it will one day be shutdown. There is no money in mutual understanding and a rejection of materialistic means that have kept us blind from such for so long. Even hip-hop artists tried to warn us of this. Tupac Shukar said that we needed to make some Changes and he got shot. Biggie Smalls said 'Mo Money, 'Mo Problems and he got shot as well. Their messages left unheard as the next generation rapped on and on about Gold Chains and spinning rims all the while proclaiming that Tupac and Biggie inspired them. Our problems are still here and they are still bigger than hip-hop. This isn't a new concept or without precedent, the same thing happened in the 70's when music devolved from social philosophy into disco. This sad tale is but an analog with a thousand other dead heroes because there was just no profit to be had in pointing out that profit was ultimately pointless. In the modern world we believe we can buy happiness, but we feel like we are missing something in the end.

Regardless of what social, theological or philosophical school of thought that you subscribe to, material means all meet the same ending. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. The scales of justice themselves tipped in strong favor of the overwhelming mass of the bottom line as the governments corrupt in favor of the greater wealth of the commercial empires. One by one the nations fall into the same supermarket checkout line, the end result of the works of greed and deceit all the while the secular authorities teach the children that they are but the descendants of mere apes. As entire cultures are consumed in this vacuum, national sovereignty erodes to the point where this no longer any checks and balances, nor is their consumer advocacy, nor any form of oversight. At this point the safety net was long destroyed, crushed under the weight of the bottom line of a one world consumer society's misguided ambitions and desires and the entire social order is left to plummet into the abyss of absolute darkness. This such is the hypothetical blizzard of the world that will only result in the winter of our discontent when all of the great words of the heroes, the philosophers, the poets, the prophets and the honest historians are ultimately forgotten.

And inevitably there will be this day, when all of the resources of the world have been plundered to the point that the wealth of the nations all sit together in the same vault, the capitalists now content to become communists . At which point the new emperors shall fancy themselves as gods, just as the emperors of old once did, for their materialistic accomplishments of conquering the entire world. When this has come to pass, these emperors will then want slaves and become interested in human souls themselves. And they are going to come to you and attempt to brand you as their slaves. An entire generation truly believing itself to be the descendants of mere apes and completely ignorant of the glorious past that came before this point. That cursed day when everyone is asked to sellout, the finality of a cruel world built on betrayal in the name of fattening the bottom line. The circle now completed since the new emperor's of the world's constituents are no longer in demand of rights, history erased, the dissidents repressed eternally and the next generation shall only know what they are allowed to. The whole of society reduced to mere animals by their own designs and excuses, all beliefs degenerated into pure atheism where there is no longer any intelligent question since everyone truly believes that they are nothing more than the descendants of mere apes. The eerily humbled remnants of a once great world civilization reduced to but mere automatons oblivious to the true culprit of their real ancestor's vanity. The tragedy of history forgotten now complete and ironic of its own demise.

This is merely a hypothetical scenario which can be prevented from ever happening. The internet can be the light of a pure democracy, save the internet and damn the empire.

Readings: Acts 7:55-60; Ps 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Pet 2:2-10; Jn 14:1-14

“Like living stones let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.” – 1 Peter 2:5

“Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” With those words, St. Stephen is dragged out and stoned to death, earning for himself the distinction of being the first martyr for the gospel. Although everything we know about him is contained within seventy-five verses of the Acts of the Apostles, he shines through the pages and over the centuries as a remarkable personality. And, as is so often the fate of remarkable personalities, he is killed by the powerful whose advantages are maintained by the status quo.

As like all martyrs, the path taken by Stephen begins with an idea – a new and radical and powerful idea. He perceives that with the vindication of Jesus as Messiah, the religion of the Temple had outlived its usefulness and that Mosaic law needed to be seen in a new and different light. In this way, Stephen stands at the forefront of the “second wave” of the spread of the Gospel as it moved out from a small circle of Aramaic-speaking Jews in Jerusalem, to Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora, located mainly in what is now Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey.

Stephen is brought before the religious authorities accused of blasphemy, of trashing the teachings of Moses. Asked to respond to the charges, he replies with a lengthy defence of Moses, recounting the remarkable story of Israel’s salvation history. There is no doubt that everything he says would have been greeted with nods of acceptance. But suddenly, the tone changes. Stephen lights into his judges, descendents (as he sees it) of those who contended with Moses in the wilderness. “You stiff-necked people,” he cries, “uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit just as your ancestors did.” Then Stephen angers them further by accusing them of violating the law of God by denying that Jesus is the promised Messiah. His judges “grind their teeth,” and then Stephen seals his fate with a vision. This is where we pick up the story. He sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and his testimony to this messianic epiphany is enough to have him dragged out and killed.

There is no holding down a powerful idea. If its origin is in God, the idea will grow and even co-opt the most unlikely figures to achieve fruition. In this instance, the banner would be taken up by no more unlikely a figure than the man who stood by and held the cloaks of Stephen’s executioners. Paul, that most orthodox of Pharisees, would go on to be the apostle to the Gentiles; and rather than consignment to the dust-heap of memory, Stephen’s position as first among Christian martyrs would be enshrined.

To say that a martyr is one who dies in testimony to his or her faith is obvious, but why is someone martyred in the first place? Simply put, martyrs are made when someone or some group feels so threatened that the one testifying must be violently eliminated. Martyrdom evokes such strong emotions because questions of faith pierce us to the core of our being. Faith has the power to transform lives and overturn societies. It has the power to unseat the ungodly and ennoble the righteous. Faith exposes deception and untruth, and shouts from the rooftops truths that have been obscured and hidden. Faith causes institutions and beliefs to crumble, and shakes the foundations of history. And it is martyrs like St. Stephen who create faith – faith does not create martyrs.

Whether they threaten piety, authority, social customs, or all three, martyrs are victims in an ongoing spiritual warfare. Today is Earth Day, and the human creature, both individually and collectively, is engaged in an experiment of martyring creation – the life collective and wellspring of faith. This is an aspect of the spiritual struggle – a rather perplexing aspect, when you consider the suicidal nature of undermining that which is the sustenance of life itself. There is a tension between basic survival and the totally understandable desire to create the most comfortable conditions of survival possible, given our fundamentally brief existence which can be so often physically and emotionally painful.

The issue, in other words, is one of desire. The one who martyrs another has a profound and inescapable need to dominate truth with fantasy, acceptance with control, contentment with comfort. Earth Day provides an opportunity for us to focus anew on environmental degradation as a spiritual matter, as well as a practical one. It offers a chance to develop insight into the truth that the opposite of stewardship is faithlessness. The means to achieving such focus and such insight is honouring and celebrating that which we might otherwise destroy. It is, in other words, to undergo a conversion experience, like that of Paul. It is to journey on our own roads to Damascus, have the scales fall from our eyes, and go from destroyer to apostle and evangelist of the Good News of the light and life and love of God in Christ.

The organic unity that is Creation itself is, or should be, reflected in the spiritual unity of the church. This ideal is summed up evocatively in the reading from the First Letter of Peter, which characterises us as “living stones…built into a spiritual house.” The church is perhaps the only institution in our society in which people who might otherwise have nothing to do with one another, voluntarily come together with one voice, one will, one song of praise to uplift the Creator – and in so doing, to uplift Creation.

Our task as living stones is not to be a wall. The task is, as with the stones and rock of the Earth, to provide a foundation – a platform from which life can spring and flourish. We cannot allow ourselves, therefore, a Sunday-morning luxury of self-satisfaction. We cannot mock the Creator by praising the awesome splendour of what has been wrought, and then going out to despoil, pollute, or benignly neglect it. Scripture has much to teach in this regard. James speaks of the double-minded, who look at themselves in the mirror, and then wander off, forgetting who they are. Paul’s entire case for salvation rests on embracing the Spirit of life within and rejecting the soul-destroying desires of transitory things. And Jesus, likewise, tells us that we cannot serve two masters – one cannot pick figs from a thorn tree.

But, as I said on Good Friday, “guilt is an indulgence we can ill afford. Harder is repentance; and the restitution that flows from genuine contrition. Yet only when we repent of participating in an unspoken conspiracy of silence and obedience to injustice will we begin to taste the sweetness of freedom. And only when we take up tools to build the kingdom of God will we go beyond tasting freedom to fully living it.”

This is a day for honouring Creation and the Creator, and delighting in both – and, indeed, we shouldn’t need a special day for that. More vitally, today is a day to begin anew, recommitted to the notion of stewardship as the mortar which binds this spiritual house of living stones together. This is the outgrowth of the celebration of creation, of simply being, to which we are called. How will you be the change which rescues the Earth from martyrdom, and transforms it into the ground on which the kingdom of God may be built? Amen.

© Richard Neil Fernyhough, 2008.

2008 can finally mark the trendiness of being eco-friendly and environmentally conscious. Don't deny it, but every fashion company, corporation and person is jumping on the "green" bandwagon to promote a better lifestyle, make a bajillion dollars off of it while simultaneously polluting the Earth.

I hate to say this, but I will anyway even though I really hate people who say this, but I was totally eco-friendly before it became cool. No, really! Shut up. Don't roll your eyes at me! Jerk!

Seriously, though, I remember when my elementary school held a huge Earth Day celebration and I learned all about the importance of recycling, conserving energy and trying to patch up the hole in the ozone layer. This all lead to my obsessive compulsive desires to recycle and reuse everything. I won't even get into it.

Actually, now that I think back on this, my enthusiasm most probably stemmed from being Asian cause I am cheap and hate to waste things. Seriously, I HATE WASTING THINGS. Especially if it's food on your plate. Don't throw it away, cause I'll eat it. No, it's not about starving kids in North Korea cause that is NOT my problem, but it's about the fact that you have perfectly good food that some one/plant/animal made and I am not going to just throw it away in a landfill. I WILL EAT IT. This is why I am fat.

Right, so...Hollywood is going green as well, and it's been pretty funny to watch it unfold. For example, the gift bags my bosses received at a recent event were promoted as eco-friendly: they came in nice, reusable cloth bags but at the same time, contained so much paper waste (tissue paper, wrapping paper, a whole cardboard gift box that contained a single paper coupon) that I'm sure its carbon footprint was bigger than like a 40 dozen cows farting together.

Anyway, the most popular thing to do now is to include these tags on your email signatures:

I think these are great--especially when you sit right by the printer and realize that this tag pushes everyone's email print-outs (because people will print out emails REGARDLESS THAT WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF OUR NATURAL RESOURCES) past an extra page so you get all these almost blank pieces of paper tossed in the trash. Awesome, right?

So I thought it would be nice to have a little fun with these tags. Here's what I added to my signature yesterday and so far, no one has noticed it.

I guess people aren't really paying attention to everyone else's eco-friendly PSA. I pointed this out to B, which lead to a whole personality psychological Rorschach conversation because he insisted that it was a river moving past a tree, while I kept saying it was a path going up to it. I wonder what this means? Oh yeah, I know. I'M BETTER AT BRAIN AGE.

Anyway, I'm later going to try these:

I'll let you know how it goes.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="113" caption="credit: Little River Crossing"][/caption]

The tall oaks, maples and sycamores were still bare, but the grass had greened up--it's been a wet spring--and clumps of bright yellow daffodils populated the hillsides. The ornamental plum by the drive was covered in pale pink flowers and the forsythia had turned yellow, providing surreal bursts of color against the gray forest backdrop.

Margaret '71 spent what turned out to be a visually pleasing but ultimately "fractured" (pardon the pun) visit to Fire Island:

...[A]rrived on Fire Island. Went down to the glorious beach. Let the gentle waves roll over my feet. Neglected to realize that the sand beneath my bare feet would erode and cause me to lose my balance. Down I went, landing hard on my left wrist. Colles fracture...

M.J. '76 spent some time seeing the best (art!) and worst (weather!) of London:

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="109" caption="credit: urban75.org"][/caption]

My last full day in London served up quintessential English weather. It was dark and pouring when I headed out for the day with the intention of going from museum to museum, spending as little time as possible outdoors or above ground. By the time I reached the Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House, the rain had tapered to mist, and it had stopped by the time I had finished looking at the Impressionist paintings and the Renoir at the Theatre exhibition.

Molly '76 hit the water in Llano, Texas:

The first weekend in June means Kayak Trip! With good friends and some clear water, we have a great time! We start below the dam in Llano and head downriver [...] My kayak is the blue one, La Chalupa. She's getting a little banged up on the bottom, as she got dragged over lots of rocks this year.

And a '78 alum was in Mali celebrating the opening of the Hope Center Clinic (to fight HIV):

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="130" caption="credit: Gaiavaccine.org"][/caption]

It was a glorious occasion. There were speeches, there were certificates provided to the women and men who helped found the clinic, and Sophie and I received Chiwaras (antelope sculptures), a sign of the highest recognition in Mali.

That's right. I said it. There is no global warming. Sure, excessive carbon is not good for our environment, ozone layer or collective health - I certainly won't deny that - but the notion that the world's temperature is increasing in an unnatural way is absurd. In fact, not only have global temperatures been decreasing for a few years now, not only should the earth have warmed up substantially after the mini-ice-age of the 14th-20th centuries, and not only am I always a little cold and appreciative of an extra degree or so, but some NASA scientists have attributed the global rises that were being detected to the sun's own increase in temperatures (did humans cause that?). Basically, there is no concrete evidence that it is actually humans and their activities that are contributing to the temperature of the earth.

All that said, I am not anti-environment. I recycle. I don't litter. I drive 55 mph because it's the optimum speed to conserve gas. I just think that before we go believing every little word that scare-mongers scream at us we should probably ask to see some actual scientific evidence and not just believe it because they say it's scientific. Let's question these things a little more thoroughly.

And that brings us to South Park. South Park questions the nonsense spewed at us left and right about global warming and saving the environment. God bless it.

In "Terrance and Phillip Behind the Blow" it's Earth Day and the crazy Earth Day leaders are psychopaths, blaming everything on the Republicans and murdering people for the sake of their cause. As Stan says, "Environmental activists don't use logic or reason." This episode, along with "Manbearpig" in which Al Gore is a raving lunatic trying to prove the existence and danger of a make-believe creature that's half man, half bear, and half pig (and which we see in Imaginationland), as well as others that refuse to tolerate the nonsense of bullshit environmentalist' claims, is awesome for its willingness to stand up to the monolith that is the environmental movement. Few people will publicly stand up to the ridicule that is associated with not believing in what everyone tells them is true (like standing up to bunk religious claims when everyone around you is a believer), but Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Michael Crichton are among them.

So when you watch South Park tonight, remember that it's about more than Terrance and Phillip's problems with blow.

Do you believe in global warming? What's your reason why? Do you think I'm a raving lunatic? What do you think about this episode of South Park? Where else does South Park knock global warming?

In 2004 the United Nations University – World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), published a study into possible scenarios for implementing a global tax. It states: “How can we find an extra US$50 billion for development funding? Our focus is on flows of resources from high-income to developing countries… Any foreseeable global tax will be introduced, not by a unitary world government, but as the result of concerted action by nation states… The taxation of environmental externalities is an obvious potential source of revenue. ... Does this mean that the global tax should be levied at the same rate on all countries? To the extent that emissions impose environmental damage wherever they occur, the corrective tax should be the same. However, this needs to be moderated to take account of the unequal distribution of world income. Considerations of global justice point to poor countries bearing less of the cost burden, and may justify the tax being levied only on high-income or middle-income countries.” [Ref.26]

This really presents the UN’s view: Unsound science is used by the IPCC to foster “concerted action by nation states” in order to tax CO2 emissions (excluding low-income countries in consideration of “global justice”) and transfer that money to poor countries. They are not actually concerned about the CO2 – just the money: “We are presupposing that the tax is indeed levied on individuals and firms in the form of a carbon levy… Suppose, however, that we have subsidiarity, where the burden on national governments is determined by their carbon emissions, but the national governments are free to decide how to raise the revenue. As noted above, they may for political or other reasons choose another taxbase.”

Another UNU-WIDER publication states: “Support for an international ‘carbon tax’ has been growing since the 1992 UN Earth Summit focused international attention on the damage to the environment caused by excessive use of fossil fuels worldwide. … Over 20 per cent of the tax yields would originate in the US … Distributionally the tax will be regressive, since fuel bills typically form a disproportionately larger portion of the budget of low-income groups as compared to high-income groups.“ So although the only actual carbon-based “damage to the environment” so far is due to deforestation for charcoal and subsistence farming in poor countries, the US will be the major payer, and the American poor will be the worst off as a result.

The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) [Ref.27] bills itself as “the world’s first and North America’s only voluntary, legally binding integrated greenhouse gas emissions reduction, registry and trading system. … The founder, Chairman and CEO of CCX is economist and financial innovator Dr. Richard L. Sandor, who was named a Hero of the Planet by Time Magazine in 2002 for founding CCX, and in 2007 as the "father of carbon trading." CCX and the European Climate Exchange (ECX), now the leading exchange operating in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme are owned by Climate Exchange Plc, a publicly traded company listed on the AIM of the London Stock Exchange.

CCX directors include Maurice Strong (who is now capitalizing on his UN work to establish a carbon tax), as well as Stuart Eizenstat, who “has held a number of key positions at senior levels in the U.S. Government. During the Clinton Administration he served as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union (1993-1996), Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade (1996-97); Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs (1997-99), … [he] was also Chief Domestic Policy Adviser and Executive Director of the White House Domestic Policy Staff for President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981). Ambassador Eizenstat played a prominent role in the development of key international initiatives, including and the negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, where he led the US delegation.”

CCX external advisors include Strong’s cohort Elizabeth Dowdeswell, who is “a former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Before joining UNEP, Ms. Dowdeswell was the Assistant Deputy Minister of Environment Canada. In that capacity she played a leading role in global efforts to negotiate the treaty on climate change adopted at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. She was Canada's permanent representative to the World Meteorological Organization, principal delegate to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change”. The connection to the UN goes back to the 1992 UN Rio Earth Summit, when Climate Exchange delivered a paper on the “feasibility of a market-based solution to global warming”. [Ref.31]

For more information on CCX and other companies benefiting from the global warming scam, see www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/CarbonMonetization.htm.

Follow the money – the creators of the phony global warming scare stories have done so for a very lucrative purpose.

In 2007 the World Resources Institute received a $750,000 dollar two-year grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) to “demonstrate the need for a mandatory federal greenhouse gas registry that is consistent with global greenhouse gas accounting standards. Such a registry will provide the foundation for measuring and tracking major emission sources and will be the basis for a federal cap-and-trade program”. According to Joan Spero, president of DDCF “In the immediate term, one of the most important things we can do to combat the threat of climate change is to design and implement the best possible pricing policies for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases”. This is part of DDCF’s $100 million Climate Change Initiative [Ref.30].

In 1990, the United States Congress enacted the Global Change Research Act, which required the administration to report annually on funding for climate change science. According to a 2005 General Accounting Office report [Ref.28], “Federal climate change funding, as reported by OMB, increased from $2.35 billion in 1993 to $5.09 billion in 2004“. The following table is from that report (NOAA is within the Dept. of Commerce).

The federally run U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) coordinates the scientific activities of some 13 federal government agencies and departments [Ref.29]: “Over roughly the past 15 years, the United States has invested heavily in scientific research, monitoring, data management, and assessment for climate change analyses to build a foundation of knowledge for decision making. To date, more than $20 billion of research funding has been provided by U.S. agencies and departments.”

Also in 1990, the Clean Air Act amendments authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to put a cap on the quantity of pollutants the operator of a fossil-fueled plant was allowed to emit. In the early 1990s Enron helped establish the market for, and became the major trader in, EPA’s $20 billion-per-year sulfur dioxide cap-and-trade program. This cap and trade exchange of NOx and SO2 emission allowances caused Enron’s stock to rapidly rise. It was the forerunner of today’s CO2 trading, now taken up by CCX. Enron was a promoter of the Kyoto Protocol since it would increase their profits. Enron’s Ken Lay had meetings with Clinton and Gore to try to get Kyoto promoted: “Enron officials later expressed elation at the results of the Kyoto conference. An internal memo said the Kyoto agreement, if implemented, would "do more to promote Enron's business than almost any other regulatory initiative outside of restructuring the energy and natural gas industries in Europe and the United States."” [See Ref.34]

At the turn of the 21st century, “California experienced rolling power blackouts, moth-balled power plants that lacked nitrous oxide controls were brought back online, and their owners scrambled for nitrous emission permits for those plants and paid up to 10-fold increases for allowances. … Enron was gaming California's power market to drive power prices sky high and in turn prices for emissions permits.” [Ref.33]. Will this type of situation happen again with CO2 ?

Senator Dianne Feinstein of Califor­nia has introduced a measure for government oversight as part of the CO2 trading. She said: “This landmark legislation will not only signifi­cantly reduce our nation’s carbon footprint, it will also generate tremendous economic potential. In fact, new carbon markets – with annual values of approximately $300 billion – are expected to emerge once Congress establishes a cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions.” [Ref.32]

The Blood and Gore team (Generation Investment Management, with chairman Al Gore and managing partner David Blood – a former CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management) has purchased almost ten percent of Camco Group [Ref. 35], which, according to the Camco website: “works closely with major companies worldwide, establishing partnerships to turn our clients’ climate change liabilities into economic, social and environmental assets.” Camco Group states: “We generate carbon credits by partnering with companies to identify, develop and manage projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Camco then arranges the sale and delivery of carbon credits to international compliance buyers and into the voluntary market.” The Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) selected Camco as the Official Carbon Advisor for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, to be held August in Denver “As the Official Carbon Advisor, Camco will work with the DNCC to estimate the Convention's carbon footprint”.

So who will win in this battle to monetize the carbon? While science was killed as an innocent bystander, the UN with its desire for funding via international taxation vies with exchange corporations who want a piece of the new $300 billion market. (See also: www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/CarbonMonetization.htm)

Read the full report

We have seen discards like, gum wrappers, seatbelts, newspapers and even license plates find a new life.  However, I think what makes TerraCycle (known for fertilizer), different is that they are really making inroads and developing relationships with major corporations.

TerraCycle profits from its relationships with Kraft Foods Inc., Kellogg Co., Clif Bar & Co. and Coca-Cola by gathering unrecycleable packaging and then upcycling it into fashionable items such as shower curtains, umbrellas, pencil cases, totes, lunchboxes and backpacks.  I was really drawn to the Chips Ahoy! umbrella.

Then I started to think, is the general population really ready to trade in their new products for upcycled trash? 

What do you think?  Is upcycling just another clever advertising tactic or is this a genuine effort to make a difference?  Would you buy a shower curtain made from old cheese wrappers? 

Then to take this one step further, would you be willing to only wear second hand clothes in an effort to reduce the amount of waste associated in purchasing new?

Source: Wall Street Journal

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This is post is long overdue, it was supposed to be here in my blog last April in commemoration of the Earth day.  But as usual I got lazy to finish this up and before I knew it Earth day celebration was over.  (Btw, thanks to google for the picture)

I wasn’t really a big Earth Saver advocate and wasn’t even an active member in the school organization in high school.  Too bad I missed that opportunity, unlike my sister.  But later on that year, I was convinced and inspired by her so I just helped her do some Earth-friendly stuffs in our home. 

We studied how to recycle old newspaper and make it new.  It was really hard and it took us a long time to perfect the art.  I can even recall the first few papers we made almost looked like a cardboard because it was too thick and we won’t even use it because it was so dirty, and the color was uneven.  And as the process becomes familiar, we were able to succeed and were able to make different colored papers and even clean white paper.

It was early 90’s when everyone started to become really conscious.  There was a campaign against aerosol use.   Lectures about global warming and the depleting ozone layer were a usual topic in Science classes.  And television played a big part on information dissemination.  And Captain Planet was born. 

Captain Planet and the Planeteers became one of my favorite cartoons.  I have always dreamed to be a planeteer.  To be given a power to change the world, to make it a better place to live in and to fight and stop the pollutants.  Back then, I’d dreamed that I’d be Kwame, who has the power of Earth.  Sometimes, I’d want to be like Wheeler who has the power of Fire.  I’d wish to have the power of wind like Linka.  I have also imagined having the power to control the water like Gi.  And the ultimate dream was to be like Ma-ti who has the power of heart.

But not having a ring like them didn’t stop me from dreaming to become an Earth-saver.  Because there a lot of ways to become a Planeteer.  We can always do our part in saving Mother Earth; there is no small or big part.  Every little thing that we can do will be a great help on Mother Earth.  So next time you get an opportunity to become an advocate, be one.  Let’s start planting trees, begin to conserve water, save energy and recycle more.  The power to save Mother Earth is in our hands.  As Captain Planet always says, “the power is yours!” 

A little more history on plastic bag usage after the jump!

Santa Monica isn't the first to address the pollution and environmental destruction that plastic bags (which never decompose) create.

Just last Earth Day, April 22, Whole Foods stopped offering plastic bags at its stores. (Read the article about Whole Foods at Green Daily.)

But before that, in November of 2007, San Francisco banned plastic bags from large supermarkets. (Read the article about S.F. from the San Francisco Chronicle.)

And years before San Fran, in 2002, Ireland passed a tax on plastic bags everywhere. In just a few weeks after the law was passed, 94% of shoppers decided 33 cents for ONE plastic bag (not the 3 or 4 you need for all your groceries) wasn't worth it. There is an NY Times article that gives lots more interesting (¡and important!) information that I can summarize, or you can just read it.

Oh, and for a visual, here is an illustration of the two huge patches of plastic rubbish floating out in the Pacific. And that's just what's in our water.

There's lots more in our land.

So, it makes me very happy to find out about Santa Monica and the ID Project!

George Carlin May 12 1937 - June 22 2008

George Carlin on saving the planet

George Carlin on the "American dream"

George Carlin - Religion

Here are the top 10 actions you can do to reduce your contribution to global warming:

1)    Project Switch: Change your light bulbs!

2)    Drive your car differently – or drive a different car altogether!

3)    Your house – not too hot, not too cold!

4)    Tame the refrigerator monster!

5)    Twist the knobs on your other household appliances!

6)    Green plants with less water, more trees to provide shade.

7)    Buy Green Energy, and invest in green energy stocks.

8)    Go organic.

9)    Buy recycled.

10) Be a minimalist.

This booklet includes:

• Taking Care of the Earth Every Day
• Keep Your Neighborhood clean
• Recycle
• Help Keep the Air Clean
• Save PaperHelp Save Water
• Help Save Energy
• Wash Fruits & Vegetables