I participated in this last year – it’s a great thing to do!
World Wildlife Fund is proud to announce Earth Hour 2010 will take place Saturday, March 27, at 8:30 pm. National Monuments including Mount Rushmore, the Empire State Building, the Las Vegas Strip, and the Golden Gate Bridge have already pledged to participate but what we really need is for you to participate again.
Standing nearly one billion people strong, we made last year’s Earth Hour the single largest mass action in human history. This year we need you to grow it.
We have worked tirelessly to bring the international community, governments around the world and corporate leaders to the brink of breakthrough action on climate change in 2010. That’s why it’s so important we make our voice heard again.
Please join millions of people around the world in turning off the lights for Earth Hour to raise awareness and demand action to fight climate change. Grow the movement by sharing this message with your friends and family. Working together, we can overcome one of the greatest challenges facing our planet.
Visit our new site at EarthHour.org to access to videos and toolkits to help grow the movement as well as fantastic ideas on how to make Earth Hour a special event in your home, community or business.
Climate change, of course, connects to many of the pressing green issues but our eco-system would be in peril even if the deniers are right. We’d still have 80 percent of the world’s forests gone. We’d still have 90 percent of the large fish in the ocean gone. In other words, we’d still have an urgent need to dismantle industrial civilization and work towards a greener future.
In light of the ongoing Humanitarian disaster in Haiti, Josie Maran Cosmetics will donate half of all the sales made at JosieMaranCosmetics.com from now to the end of January to the American Red Cross.
I recently posted about Palm Oil and how the rainforests are being cleared due to the high demand of this oil which we find in 1 in every 10 products (food, beauty products, etc). Thankfully many companies are beginning to realize the environmental impact and are figuring out ways to reformulate their products without it. In the mean time the orangutans are struggling to survive. Their natural habitats are being taken away which is leading to their extinction.
If you didn’t already know, circuses may have appeared sweet and fun on the outside when you were young but behind the scenes they’re cruel and painful. Animals are severely abused – how do you think they get wild animals to act so docile and do tricks?! I just read in TIME that Bolivia is the first country to ban circuses. I’m so happy to hear that and can’t wait for other countries to do the same – I wish the US would do the same now!
Is he serious??? The mayor of Moscow is planning to change mother nature and attempt to chemically keep the snow away from his city this winter. This really can NOT be good for the environment and the health of of the citizens of Moscow and however further outside of Moscow the chemicals travel. Check out the article in Time for all of these crazy details. Hey – I get sick of the snow too but I think it is WRONG to chemically stop the snow from falling – I can only imagine what the long term affects are to the environment and citizens and I also wonder how far these chemicals are likely to travel through the air – meaning – will people in other countries be affected by this? That may be a little extreme thinking but I’m sure the chemicals are likely to travel through the air to many surrounding cities.
This article is from LiveScience. Hopefully this idea starts to spread - it’s great to know making beer can be so light on the environment if done right. Cheers!
After beer is made, the waste from breweries could help generate power, researchers now suggest.
One problem brewers face is what to do with the thousands of tons of grain left over at the end of the brewing process. In the past, they just sold the waste to farmers who either fed it to their animals or spread it on their fields as fertilizer. However, in Europe, given reductions in cattle breeding and stricter regulations on what waste is allowed on land, neither option is as easy anymore.
“We reached a situation in 2000 where breweries even had to pay to dispose of their spent grain,” said researcher Wolfgang Bengel, the technical director of BMP Biomasse Projekt, a German biomass company.
Instead of a headache, Bengel saw a business opportunity. He had previously taken waste from rice and sugar cane and produced energy from it in China and Thailand, and thought a similar process could be developed for brewery leftovers. Such energy could help fuel the breweries themselves.
“Beermaking is energy intensive — you boil stuff, use hot water and steam and then use electric energy for cooling — so if you recover more than 50 percent of your own energy costs from the spent grain, that’s a big saving,” Bengel explained.
As you may have noticed from my posts, yesterday was World Refugee Day. If you were so moved to do something to make a difference, here is some advice…
(I thought donating via mobil phone is AWESOME!! I did it – you should too! It will be charged on your monthly cell phone bill – for more info on how it works go to hmgf.org/t)
Donate: Pakistan Emergency Appeal
A large-scale humanitarian crisis is gaining pace in Pakistan. As a result of fighting between government forces and militants in the north-west, about 2.3 million people have become displaced. The situation is worsening by the day.
Make a donation to the Gimme Shelter appeal and help UNHCR provide shelter, water and emergency supplies for people forced to flee their homes in Pakistan.
US$80 provides 20 wool blankets to protect refugees from the cold.
US$100 provides a survival kit to a refugee family, with essentials such as blankets, cooking and heating stove.
US$200 provides an all-season tent to shelter a family of 5.
US$500 sinks two wells to provide clean water for refugees.
US$1,000 provides a therapeutic feeding kit to feed 100 children.
Or, using your mobile telephone in the United States Text SWAT to 20222 to donate US$5 to UNHCR and provide tents, clothing, food, and medicine to displaced people in Pakistan.
You can also donate by mail at:
UNHCR Private Sector Fund-Raising
Case Postale 2500
CH-1211 Genève 2 Dépôt
Switzerland
“On this World Refugee Day, let us remember that refugees too are real people with real needs. Helping them to rebuild their lives and their communities benefits us all.”
– High Commissioner António Gutteres
