give a damn

The people of low-lying islands around the world are being displaced by rising sea levels. Here’s a brief article about it from the Christian Science Monitor. No action alert is connected to it—let’s just keep the faith, keep working to reverse global climate change.

Photo is from the Maldives, whose first democratically elected president is considering using national funds to buy land in a neighboring country in case his people are flooded out.

There’s an exciting new campaign to help fight the climate crisis.

Here’s the deal: The United States has historically contributed the most to global warming, and over the past eight years it’s done the least to stop it. In fact, the U.S. has actively tried to block progress on a global climate deal.

Whoever takes office as U.S. president next year has a lot of work to get the U.S. back in the game—and his very first test on climate change will come even before either Obama or McCain takes office. That test will be the next UN Climate meeting coming up in December.

IF the next president goes and makes a strong statement about the U.S. rising to the challenge of the climate crisis, it could dramatically alter the course of the negotiations. But McCain and Obama will go only if they’re invited.

That’s where we come in. It’s crucial that citizens from around the globe (you don’t need to be from the U.S.!) put pressure on Obama and McCain to ensure they attend the meeting and play their part in getting the U.S. to be a leader on global warming.

Please visit www.350.org/invite to send your personal invitation to McCain and Obama today.

Yesterday one of my teachers gave all of her students this article and asked that we pass it along to as many people as we possibly could, and encourage them to do the same. It talks about the environmental crisis and the Bystander Effect, a psychological quirk we humans have wherein we won’t react to impending danger if we see other people around us not reacting.

Please read. And pass on.

I just signed a petition urging world leaders to tackle the food crisis now gripping the world. This is important and I thought you might like to sign it too:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/world_food_crisis/tf.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK

Have you noticed food costing more when you shop? It’s happening all over the world, and it’s devastating poorer countries. Rocketing prices are squeezing billions and triggering food riots. In Sierra Leone alone the price of a bag of rice has doubled, now unaffordable for 90% of citizens.

I appreciate Avaaz’s perspective on this. It’s not just a matter of shipping loads of grain from the United States to other parts of the world. The biofuels craze & “free trade” policies are at the root of this & need to be addressed: “The prices of staple foods like wheat, corn and rice have almost doubled, and the crisis is slipping out of control—so we’re calling for immediate action on emergency food aid, speculation and biofuels policy, while asking forthcoming summits to tackle deeper problems of investment and trade.”

Let’s press our leaders to address the real issues.

There’s a goal that’s been started for Earth Hour 2008 here

If you can, please join in and spread the word. =)

I just sent a message to GWB urging the creation of international biofuels standards to ensure that the current expansion of the biofuels industry does not damage the environment or drive up food prices.

As developed countries push for biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels, increased demand for the crops that make biofuels is causing the destruction of rainforests (cleared to make way for plantations) and a rise in food prices, as farmers grow crops for fuel instead of food. Just last week, the UN World Food Program announced a massive budget deficit as a result of rising food prices, caused by a combination of biofuels growth, bad weather, and high oil prices.

Note from me: In Colombia, lots of land taken forcibly from Afro-Colombian communities in recent years has been planted in oil palm, which absolutely devastates the rainforest. And now other Afro communities are being told that if they want a share of new US-AID funds, they have to get on the oil palm bandwagon! It’s horrifying.

This Friday through Saturday, the G20 group of countries (the twenty biggest economies, responsible for more than 75% of the world’s carbon emissions) will meet in Chiba, Japan, to begin climate change discussions leading up to the G8 summit this summer. Before the summit, Avaaz.org is launching a global cry for sustainable biofuels. By sending a message to your leader urging biofuels standards, you can make a difference on this critical issue. Take action now:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/98.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK

Thanks!

Once styrene gets into your food or drink—and then into you—what does it do? Studies suggest that styrene mimics estrogen in the body and can therefore disrupt normal hormone functions, possibly contributing to thyroid problems, menstrual irregularities, and other hormone-related problems, as well as breast cancer and prostate cancer. The estrogenicity of styrene is thought to be comparable to that of Bisphenol A, another potent estrogen mimic from the world of plastics.

Long-term exposure to small quantities of styrene is also suspected of causing:

low platelet counts or hemoglobin values;
chromosomal and lymphatic abnormalities;
neurotoxic effects due to accumulation of styrene in the tissues of the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves, resulting in fatigue, nervousness, difficulty sleeping, and other acute or chronic health problems associated with the nervous system.

Read the whole article here : http://www.grinningplanet.com/2005/11-01/styrofoam-cups-article.htm

And plastic is just as bad.

http://pattycake.ca/submissions/plasticwaterbottles

1. In food production, penalizing farmers who grow fruits & vegetables for local consumption outside the states with huge agribusiness (California, Texas, Florida)
2. In subsidies to Big Oil rather than to innovators in sustainable energy

Sigh. Let’s keep pressing our senators & reps, U.S. folks.

is coming up in March. I’ll add a goal closer to the time to see how many other I can get to do this with me, but in the meantime I’ve signed up. Will you turn off your lights for an hour with me on Saturday, March 29, 2008? I think it’ll help send a powerful message.

PS. This is a global event, so it doesn’t matter where in the world you’ll be on that date.

http://www.earthhour.org/

I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but there’s a recent book available for free download that explores the possibility and feasibility of the United States’ becoming carbon & nuclear free in the foreseeable future. Here is the book’s central finding:

The overarching finding of this study is that a zero-CO2 U.S. economy can be achieved within the next thirty to fifty years without the use of nuclear power and without acquiring carbon credits from other countries. In other words, actual physical emissions of CO2 from the energy sector can be eliminated with technologies that are now available or freseeable. This can be done at reasonable cost while creating a much more secure energy supply than at present. Net U.S. oil imports can be eliminated in about 25 years. All three insecurities (severe climate disruption, oil supply and price insecurity, and nuclear proliferation via commercial nuclear energy) will thereby be addressed. In addition, there will be large ancillary health benefits from the elimination of most regional and local air pollution, such as high ozone and particulate levels in cities, which is due to fossil fuel combustion.

It’s focused on what would be possible for the U.S., but obviously the implications are similar for other countries & regions. The book is by Arjun Makhijani: Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy. Helen Caldicott raised money for its writing & publication. You can download it here.