Earth... We Only Have One
Treat Her With Respect!
What can we do to help preserve our precious planet?
Have you made any changes?
Simple things can make a big difference.
• Changing out your light bulbs to CFC’s
• Using reusable shopping bags (not just for food
shopping)
• Planning your car errands and trips (save time and
gas)
• Switching to the many biodegradable nontoxic
household cleaners and personal care products (what
goes down the drain, goes in the ocean)
• Recycling
• Home water filters (bottle your own water)
• Paying your bills on-line (no paper)
• Read the newspaper on-line (some magazines are doing this too)
• Buy recycled paper for you printer and use both sides...
• Water less (your grass will survive)
• Find out ways to lower your carbon footprint (see link in “Other groovy
souls” section to the left)
These are some of the things I’ve done this past year and they were a no brainer... I have included a story about an environmental visionary Van Jones, he is the director of an amazing advocacy group Green for All, in Oakland, CA... This guy is inspiring... Please take the time to read this article “Green For All” and let it get your creative juices flowing! The articles in this April/TUS are from a cool publication called "Whole Life Times" you can go online at www.WholeLifeTimes.com to see how to receive monthly issues.
Earth Day is a great chance to rethink how we consume and many times we waste our precious resources and make a change in our lifestyles to do better.
Who knows... make a difference and... BE THE CHANGE!
enJOY!
peace n’ blessings,
Gail
What Counts?
Compiled by Jenny Rough
1/3 Amount of earth’s natural resources that have been mined, chopped, blown up, or otherwise extracted in the past three decades alone.
5 Percentage of earth’s population living in the U.S. (yet Americans use up to 30 percent of the world’s resources and create 30 percent of the world’s waste).
3 to 5 Number of extra planets we would need if everyone consumed at American rates.
75 Percent of global fisheries that are fished at, or beyond, capacity.
100,000 Number of synthetic chemicals used in commerce today, many of which wind up in our bodies (human breast milk is the food at the top of the food chain with the highest level of many toxic contaminates).
30 Percentage of kids in the Congo who have dropped out of school to mine metals, the majority of which end up in cheap and disposable electronic products bought by Americans.
99 Percentage of stuff we harvest, mine, transport or otherwise produce that is trashed within six months (many products are specifically “designed for the dump”).
3000 Number of advertisements targeted at American consumers each day.
4.5 Pounds of garbage each American makes each day (twice as much as we made 30 years ago).
SOURCE: www.StoryofStuff.com, an online film narrated by Annie Leonard that takes viewers on a journey through our consumer-driven culture from extraction to production, distribution, consumption and disposal. For more dirty details, check out our chat with Leonard in this month’s Conversations section.
Worth Repeating
“I really didn’t like TV-Turnoff week, except I did notice that my grades went up and I was in a good mood all week.”
—Second grader Drew Henderson on the annual program (4/25 to 5/1 this year) designed to counteract the more than 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence an average American child witnesses on TV by age 18. (www.tvturnoff.org)
“If we fight evil with inhumanity, what does that make us?”
—Mort Rosenblum on waterboarding, in which suspects’ faces are held underwater until their lungs nearly burst. The Bush administration has refused to classify waterboarding as torture.
(huffingtonpost.com, 2/15)
“When we stop working with our hands, we cease to understand how the world really works.”
—Clive Thompson on the importance of basic mechanics in solving our country’s nastiest problems, like oil dependence and climate change. (Wired, 2/25)
“The federal government works deliberately and forcefully to prevent the local food movement from expanding.”
—Minnesota farmer Jack Hedin on federal laws that make it financially disastrous for growers of federally subsidized commodity crops to help meet the demand for organic fruits and vegetables. (NY Times, 3/1)
“That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that.”
—President George W. Bush, upon hearing that numerous analysts are predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline. (White House news conference, 2/28)
www.wholelifetimes.com
Green For All
By Jessica Kraft
Since we reported on the idea in last year’s Earth Day issue, “green collar” jobs, have generated quite the buzz. After cycling through the mainstream media and the blogosphere, the term is now common parlance among business leaders and community organizers who want to bring about a New Green Deal. It even got some play during the presidential campaign, with contenders on both sides of the aisle citing it as a way to end dependency on foreign oil, protect natural resources and reduce carbon emissions.
Green for All, a new advocacy group out of Oakland, CA, is the organization driving the discussion. According to director and environmental visionary Van Jones (author of last Earth Day’s cover story), green collar workers are the labor force of the future — they’ll be the ones weatherizing buildings, installing solar panels, servicing electric vehicles and building green rooftops. They’ll be the local union members getting livable wages in positions that can’t be outsourced to India. And if Green for All succeeds, this first generation of workers will come from today’s impoverished inner cities. Their message is that the legacy of American inequality can be reversed through environmental innovation. “The green economy will simultaneously address our economic, ecological and moral crises,” said Jones at a recent conference of green builders.
While serving as director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Jones, along with a coalition of groups including the Apollo Alliance and the Center for American Progress, lobbied congress and the Oakland City Council to establish a green jobs corps. Their efforts paid off. Last summer’s massive federal energy bill included the Green Jobs Act providing $125 million to train veterans, formerly incarcerated workers, at-risk youth and the urban poor for clean-tech occupations. Now Jones and his new organization need to hold Washington to its promise. Field director Jeremy Hays said that the Green Jobs Act has yet to be cemented into the 2009 federal budget. “We’re going to keep on top of them until congress gives us a clear signal of an actual allocation.”
But federal procrastination hasn’t deterred the Green for All vision. Now that one act has passed, they’re pressing lawmakers to fund another $1 billion in national green jobs training by 2012 that will bring 250,000 workers out of poverty and boost green industries. In preparation, they’re building a national network of green entrepreneurs, educators, union workers and government officials who are sharing best practices and getting technical assistance for the job training programs.
Since opening in March, Green for All has been responding to a deluge of interest. “One minute we plugged in the fax machine,” said Hays, “and the next minute we’re standing in a pile of messages from community leaders and activists all wanting to work with us.”
Early this month, Green for All is putting on “ The Dream Reborn,” a conference in Memphis commemorating the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination. One of the conference’s goals is to facilitate partnerships between labor, activists and communities of color. “The green economy is a complicated puzzle,” remarked Hays. “Some people are banging away on job creation strategies and others are doing training programs, so we want to develop ways for people to talk to each other and create a community of practice that brings the green economy to the next level.”
When the federal funds become available next year, Green for All will help manage a competitive grant process to determine allocations to various training programs. To stay informed and find out how you can get involved, visit www.greenforall.org .
From Whole Life Times April © 2008
www.wholelifetimes.com
