EarthAction

Where have all the honey bees gone?

What is it:

Colony Collapse Disorder is the name given to a phenomenon first noticed by large-scale bee keepers in 2006 and 2007 that is estimated to have impacted one third of all honey bee colonies in the United States. 

Hives that suffer from CCD incur a loss of the majority of their adult worker-bee population and are characterized by a hive empty of bees yet full of honey, bee young and even the queen bee.The bees from these colonies appear healthy until, one day, bee keepers find a hive with no adult worker bees. No dead bees are found near the hive nor are there any signs as to where the bees disappear to, all that is known is that they leave behind what looks to be an otherwise healthy hive.

What Causes it?

 The causes of Colony Collapse disorder are debated, with no entirely conclusive study yet to be conducted. Some proposed causes include:

• poisoning from pollinating pesticide treated crops
• poor nutrition from altered foraging patterns/lack of diversified food sources
• increased presence of the honey bee pest varroa mites
• new viruses targeting bee immune systems

Most scientists and bee keepers argue that CCD may be the result of increased stress due to many of the above listed factors. However, all agree that threats to the honey bee population are threats to our global food system as we know it.

Why is it important:
Bees aren’t just busy pollinating flowers, they are the unsung heroes in food systems across the globe, pollinating many crops for human consumption. In the United States our industrial food system is supported by a network of bee keepers who truck bees up and down highways pollinating everything from Maine blueberries to Florida oranges and California almonds. Without them, food supplies world wide are in danger of collapsing.
And CCD isn’t just happening to bees in the United States, honey bees in The UK have been reportedly suffering from CCD and in 2011 the United Nations issued a statement declaring CCD a global concern reaching from US beekeepers to Chinese beekeepers.

What can we do:

• Urge secretary Tom Vilsack of the US Department of Agriculture to continue to fund research to combat CCD using this online messaging system from the National Resources Defense Council. (Tip- customize the message, tell Tom Vilsack why this issue is important to you, for maximum impact!)
• Read these tips from the NRDC on how to make a bee-friendly garden and which pesticides are commonly known to impact bee health. Inform other gardeners and farmers in your community of the pesticides on the list!
• Learn to keep bees (even in the city) to add to a growing number of small scale bee keepers invested in healthy honey bees across the globe!
• Read about what the EPA is doing to protect honey bees in the United States.

Written by EarthAction Intern Walker Dunn
Sources and Further Information:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572
http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/animals/bees.asp
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in720

Image Source through Creative Commons Liscensing

Middle Photo by: Dan Solely (c) turtlephoto.org 

Pay-as-you-go Business Innovation Makes Renewable Energy Accessible

Written and Researched by EarthAction Intern Larry O'Connor

The Economist magazine recently published an article about a company that has developed an interesting way to profit from providing electricity to poor, sunny regions around the world. The company is based out of London and called Eight19, which refers how long it takes sunlight to reach the earth - 8 minutes and 19 seconds.

The Economist article focuses on Eight19’s “Pay as you go” solar program, where a family will be able to pay an upfront deposit of $10 US to purchase a solar cell and battery that have the ability to light two small rooms for 7 hours per day while charging one cell phone. The users then must purchase "scratch cards" using their cell phones to receive a reference number that will activate the devices. The "scratch cards" and reference numbers are sent via text message. Users can purchase any amount that they can pay for: a day, a week, or a month. These small purchases work toward paying off the cost of the device. After purchasing approximately eighty dollars’ worth of scratch cards, the customer will have paid off the entire cost of the battery and will have complete ownership of the unit.

Customers can then use their $80 US investment on a down payment to move up the "Indigo Energy Escalator" to obtain a larger solar battery unit, or they can just keep their solar unit and not spend any money on electricity. This energy escalator has four different levels, ranging from 3 to 80 watt capacity. The 80 watt solar cell generates light for a phone, four rooms, a radio, a TV, and a sewing machine.

 

This process was recently tested on a few hundred Kenyan families. Over the next two months Eight19 plans to release 4,000 solar kits in Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia. Many people in this region already have light and some electricity fueled by paraffin - a harmful waxy substance that comes from hydrocarbons used for lighting candles (pictured aboved). The most important aspect in this process is that these incremental payments are similar to what potential customers currently pay for paraffin to light lamps and the cost of charging a cell phone at a store.

Potential Implications of “Pay as you go solar”

Join us in Northampton, MA to End Holyoke Coal

Special Local Action: Retire the Coal Plant in Holyoke, MA

We at EarthAction don't typically send out emails about local campaigns. However, we thought this one was so important to the Pioneer Valley that we decided to send it to our Western Mass partners. Please see the email below from our friends at the Northampton Sierra Club. Tonight is the kickoff for their Beyond Coal campaign to finally retire the dirty, aging coal plant in Holyoke, MA and replace it with clean, renewable energy. We hope that you'll join us for tonight's meeting!

                                                 - With Peace and Love, Lois Barber

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Do you care about clean, healthy air? How about creating local green jobs?

Then join us for…  

Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign Kickoff Meeting!

Tuesday, September 27th
7:00 – 8:00 PM

@ the Media Education Foundation

60 Masonic Street #A
(next to Woodstar Cafe)
**Refreshments provided**

Coal is dirty, dangerous and outdated. The Mt. Tom coal plant in Holyoke, MA is over 50 years old and releases toxins like mercury and sulfur dioxide. These toxins are a threat to our health and environment. In Holyoke alone, where the plant resides, asthma rates are more than double the state average and everyone that lives within 30 miles of the plant is at risk. Northampton, Amherst, Easthampton, Hadley and South Hadley are all high risk communities. The Pioneer Valley has the right to clean air and water, and deserves renewable energy and clean jobs. Right now, the Pioneer Valley has the chance to transition from coal to further investments in energy efficiency, wind and solar—and the Governor is a key actor.

Pioneer Valley supporters of clean air are working to replace coal with renewables in Western Massachusetts, and are hoping to convince Governor Deval Patrick to join them. Join us on Tuesday to learn more about the local Beyond Coal campaign to move the Pioneer Valley beyond coal and how to get involved!

The event is free and open to the public. Speakers include Jane Andresen of the Alliance for a Healthy Holyoke, Drew Grande of Massachusetts Beyond Coal, and more.

What You Can Do

Please RSVP for the Kick-Off Meeting by clicking here.

Send the Governor an email right now! Check it out here: 
http://action.sierraclub.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=7053

To learn more about how you can get involved, please contact:
Savannah Sullivan
p) 513-317-1456
e) Savannah[at] greencorps.org

 

Featured Issue: Human Trafficking

“A 15-year-old Vietnamese boy found during a police raid on a house in Doncaster [United Kingdom], along with £85,000-worth of cannabis, had been working since he was 12, trafficked via France with the promise of a factory job. Having been beaten, he was too scared to leave.”

(Emily Dugan, “Think slavery is a thing of the past? Think again,” The Independent UK 17 October 2010).

This is just one of the millions of stories about human trafficking victims. Despite international attention and awareness to the problem of human trafficking over the last decade, this modern day slave trade has grown to be the second largest criminal industry in the world (after the drug trade). The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates conservatively that approximately 2.5 million people are victims of trafficking at any given time.

Human trafficking is the illegal trade of persons through force, fraud, coercion, or violence for purposes of sexual exploitation, forced labor, and other slavery-like practices. Most victims are women and children that are kidnapped or seduced through fraud to seek financial opportunities outside of their hometowns or countries; however, any person of any age and gender can be a victim. Upon arrival at their destination, they are forced into labor and/or prostitution. “Bonded labor” or “debt bondage”, when a worker is exploited to pay off a debt, like their travel costs, is one prevalent type of slavery into which people are trafficked. The trafficking and enslavement of children is often linked to war where children are used as combatants, porters, cooks, guards, servants, messengers or spies. In these situations, boys and girls are also forced to marry or have sex with male combatants. Children are subjected to prostitution in the global commercial trade although it is prohibited by legislation in countries around the world. 

Continue Reading Here...

Nuclear Weapon States to meet June 29-30. Time to end the threat from nuclear weapons!

The foreign ministers of the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China (the P5 Permanent members of the UN Security Council) are scheduled to meet in Paris from 29 to 30 June 2011 to discuss nuclear security. Together they possess more than 20,000 nuclear weapons, capable of destroying all life on Earth many times over.
 
In May last year at a meeting of the States Parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, they agreed that stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons to additional countries would be impossible if they continued to hold onto nuclear weapons themselves forever. They thus committed to a number of initial steps to reduce their nuclear stockpiles, lower the role of nuclear weapons in their security doctrines and to work with non-nuclear weapon States to build the framework for a nuclear-weapons-free world.
 
This will be their first meeting to start implementing these commitments. However, like smokers addicted to cigarettes, they will not give up their nuclear weapons easily. We must be assertive in helping them stick to their commitments.  
 
Join us in sending a loud and clear message to them—It’s time to stop threatening the world with these weapons of terror, and start negotiating a treaty to outlaw and eliminate all nuclear weapons globally.

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Take Action

Send an email to the leaders of the P5 countries:

• President Barack Obama (United States)
• President Dmitry Medvedev (Russia)
• Prime Minister David Cameron (United Kingdom)
• President Nicolas Sarkozy (France)
• President Hu Jintao (China)

Join an action on Nuclear Abolition Day – June 25

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Sample letter—Please change this letter a bit so that all the letters they receive don’t look exactly alike. Personal letters have more influence. Add why you think it is important to abolish nuclear weapons.
 

Dear President/Prime Minister,
 
I welcome the fact that for the first time ever the five Nuclear Weapons States parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) are meeting at ministerial level to discuss nuclear disarmament - and in particular to fulfill the promise made at the 2010 NPT Review Conference “to achieve the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.”
 
I encourage you to use this opportunity to commit to further reductions in numbers of nuclear weapons in your stockpiles, reinforce the practice and norm against any use of nuclear weapons, and announce a start to multilateral negotiations on a global treaty banning nuclear weapons worldwide under international verification and control.
 
The abolition of nuclear weapons will provide security for your nation and for all nations. It is a duty you owe to present generations, and to future generations. It is a step that will enhance peace, cooperation, stability and prosperity. I urge you to do everything in your power to take this fundamental step to protect our nations, our environment and our future.
 
Yours sincerely,
[Your first & last name, and at least your country]

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For more information see:
Abolition 2000 Global Network for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons www.abolition2000.org
Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament www.pnnd.org
Nuclear Abolition Day www.nuclearabolition.org

 

2010 Campaign Report

This report summarizes the campaigns and projects that EarthAction supported and carried out in 2010. Read about our work to protect a forest in Moscow, indigenous peoples' rights in Colombia, elephants in Africa, endangered languages in Siberia, and much, much, more. It's all part of our goal to create a more just, peaceful and sustainable world.

THIS IS GOING TO BE HUGE!

The 10/10/10 Global Work Party, is shaping up to be the largest single day of carbon-cutting action in the planet's history. With just over two weeks left before 10/10/10, there are over 3500 events in 165 countries--and hundreds of new events being registered for 10/10/10 every single day.

This is clearly going to be huge. Don't miss it: get involved today. Click here for the 350.org website where you can see what's going on and register an event.

US Institute for Peace—Call for Proposals

The Grant Program of the US Institute for Peace increases the breadth and depth of the Institute's work by supporting peacebuilding projects managed by non-profit organizations throughout the world including educational institutions, research institutions, and civil society organizations.

From their website: "In over twenty years of grantmaking, the Grant Program's Annual Grant Competition and Priority Grant Competition have received nearly 10,000 applications and awarded more than 2,000 grants. The Institute has provided funding to grantees located in more than 46 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, and in 81 foreign countries." 

Deadline for Annual Grant Competition: October 1, 2010

Read More

Introduction to Blogging

Becca, one of my fellow interns, has put together an awesome, extremely useful guide to blogging,specifically aimed at organizations. She originally wrote the guide for EarthAction, but we thought it was so valuable that we wanted to share it with you! I'll let her introduce it:

"EarthAction is currently in the process of redesigning and redefining our presence online, so that we can better connect with our partner organizations and individuals, forge new relationships, and take advantage of the incredible information dissemination capabilities of the internet.  This has been and is a serious learning process for us.  We want to share the information and resources we are using with others (non-profits especially) who are considering establishing or readjusting their online presence.  We are definitely still learning ourselves, and it's never too late to try something new.  Especially for non-profits, it is essential to utilize the internet to its full potential."

Read the guide in its entirety - click here!

What useful advice did we not include? Please share your comments with us!

(Photo courtesy of Flickr user fd, shared under a Creative Commons license.)

60th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).   The declaration consists of 30 articles that specify the rights the General Assembly agreed are Human Rights guaranteed to all people.   If, like me, you have only heard repeated references to the Declaration of Human Rights but haven't read it for yourself, now is a great time to click on over to the UN page where they have it translated in many different languages.  (The Guinness Book of Records places the UDHR as the most translated document in the world!)

In honor of the document's 60th Anniversary, UBUNTU (World Forum of Civil Society Networks) has written a statement emphasizing that all Human Rights are "universal, indivisible, and interdependent."  They further call for:

1. The Human Right to Peace.

2. The Human Right to Development (including food, water, the satisfaction of basic needs) 

3. The Human Right to the Environment.  (acknowledging that "current production and consumption models are unsustainable")

EarthAction was one of the first 50 signatories on the UBUNTU document, alongside other supporters such as Noam Chomsky and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate).  You can click here to read the statement in full and to sign your name.  It's a great opportunity to evaluate how we are protecting those rights that are expressed in the original Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and what steps need to be taken for a sustainable future.

(Image is of Eleanoor Roosevelt reading a Spanish translation of the UDHR, author unknown)