EarthAction

Bush OKs 30 Million Acre Polar Bear Habitat Sale to Big Oil – TAKE ACTION!

Although the oil industry has not demonstrated a successful way to clean up an oil spill on ice, the Bush administration has approved the sale of 20 million acres of prime polar bear habitat, which will be opened up to oil drilling. Instead of encouraging renewable energy generation, the administration is taking a step in the wrong direction. Do not let them!

TAKE ACTION! Write to your representative to have them support legislation put forward to save this precious habitat. Click on this link to make a difference.

(Polar bear photo courtesy of Flickr user ironmanix, shared under a Creative Commons license.)

Save the Patagonian Forests and Rivers

The Patagonian forests and rivers are in jeopardy! Eliodoro Matte, the Chief Executive of the Matte group companies is promotong the HydroAysen Project in Chile. The HydroAysen project consists of clearing a path of the Patagonian forest between the Aysen dams and Santiago. To set up these power lines, protected areas like national parks would be distrupted and an estimated 35,000 acres of forest could be destroyed if this plan is set in motion.

Rivers are in trouble because there is a large group of national and international corporations that are planning to build 5 dams on the Baker and Pescua Rivers. The dams would create electricity that would be sent to Santaigo via the power lines. The distance between Santiago and the dams is 1,500 miles.

There are quite of few people in the local areas who are displeased with the suggested project.

Environmentalists, Fishermen's Unions, the Salmon-Industry, and a few local governments are protesting the project, but they need help. Global Response, an activist non profit organization is promoting an international letter writing campaign that is encouraging people around the world to write hand written letters to Chief Executive Eliodoro Matte their concerns about the proposed HydroAysen Project and the detrimental effects of such a project. A personal letter carries a more significant impact than a digital letter, so a writing template of what to include in the letter is on Global Responses website under their current campaign.

This is a perfect project for those who would like to do action against these industrialists, and also would be a great school project for students. Take action to fight for the world's Rainforests!

URL to Take Action:
GlobalResponse.org

(Photo of Windy Patagonia is courtesy of Flickr user zamario, shared under a Creative Commons license.)

The Best Way to Doze off to Sleep...

If you're a regular internet peruser, then you have most likely heard of the very popular website www.worldchanging.com.  They have an engaging daily blog with constantly interesting posts about the tools, models, and ideas for shaping our world for the future.   

The Worldchanging team recently published a book, called Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century that attempts to combine a number of resources and ideas about what a sustainable future can look like.  The book, like the site, is divided into seven main sections: Stuff, Shelter, Cities, Community, Business, Politics, and Planet.  The book is quite a read, (six hundred pages!) but the content is organized in such a way that is very easy to browse through the short chapters and read whatever tickles your fancy in the moment.  For instance, in one night I might read the chapter on "Educating Girls and Empowering Women" (from the Community section,) "The Hidden Vitality of Slums" (from Cities,) and "Craft it Yourself" (from the Stuff section.)  I have been finding this book to be pretty inspiring nightly reading.  I'm loving learning about the countless positive, innovative ideas and actions that people are thinking of and practicing.   I end up nodding off to sleep, dreaming of a better world.

What other books are people reading out there that offer inspiring solutions?  Feel free to leave book recommendations in the comments- I know I'm always looking for seriously good reading.

(Image from Worldchanging.)

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)

Website Lets YOU Predict the Economic Impacts of Reducing US Carbon Emissions

Check out this interactive new website developed by my friend Robert Repetto.

As Congress prepares to debate new legislation to address the threat of climate change, opponents again claim that the costs of adopting the leading proposals would be ruinous to the U.S. economy. The world's leading economists who have studied the issue say that's wrong. And you can find out for yourself.

Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies has recently posted a new website developed by economics professor Robert Repetto. In a way that anybody can easily understand, it synthesizes the results of thousands of policy simulations from 25 economic models being used to predict the economic impacts of reducing U.S. carbon emissions. To try this new website, just click on www.climate.yale.edu/seeforyourself.

     This website identifies the seven key assumptions accounting for most of the differences in the models' predictions. You can make your own assumptions about the key factors that will influence the costs of stopping climate change and see the results.

Focus Hampshire: Climate, Social Justice, and the Person

On Friday night, Hampshire College hosted a Focus the Nation teach-in with nine different faculty panelists.  As the juicy title (Climate, Social Justice, and the Person) suggests, the panelists spoke about climate change within the context of very different disciplines- we had an economist, a computer science professor, and a professor of Asian studies, just to name a few of those who spoke.  One of the main goals of Focus the Nation is to show how climate change is not just an "environmental" issue that concerns scientists and tree huggers (obviously!) 

Here are a few things that were brought up that really got me thinking:
-Gender issues in climate change.  (Women can be affected very differently then men.  For example, in Bangladesh when the 2007 cyclone hit, more women were killed because they weren't in public spaces to be warned about the natural disaster.)
-The idea of rationing.  Professor Stan Warner talked about rationing post WWI style.  Will we only be allowed two plane trips a year? etc.
-Holding drivers accountable through taxing-type systems.   (Live near a reliable bus system?  You'll be "taxed" much more to drive.  Live in a rural town and need to drive to the supermarket?  You'll be "taxed" much less.  Taxed is in quotations because it may not be an official "tax" but some sort of similar system.)
-Religion's potential role in the movement.  (How can religious leaders inspire people to evaluate their relationship with the earth and how to care for it, and inspire this compassion in all people, religious and non?)

It was a great night with well over seventy five students (that was the number we had food for, and we ran out pretty quick.)  Professor Stephanie Levin commented that when she was in school, this is exactly what students were doing to learn more about how to stop the Vietnam war- inviting faculty from all different areas, and engaging in community discussion. 

As students, we know and respect the power of community dialogue.  It's about raising awareness and motivating to action.  We're in it for the long haul.   

PS
You can also check out a neat Hampshire video bit about the event.

Mining Issue in El Salvador

Hi Everyone!  I'm Meghan (also known as Piña) and for my first post, I'd like to bring your attention to a gold mining issue in El Salvador.  Pacific Rim, a Canadian mining company, is trying to start a new mining project in San Isidro.  San Isidro is in the providence of Cabañas, where according to the UN 55% of the population live below the poverty line.

The campesinos (peasant farmers) of the region are concerned that Pacific Rim will take 30,000 Liters of water a day, from the same place they only get water once a week.  Rights Action, a NGO that works in Central America, has been working on the mining issue since the start and has experience with similar issues in all of Central America.  For more information and actions to take please visit their website at: this "Take Action" page.

This same post, in Spanish:

Hola a todas! Soy Meghan (también me conocen como Piña) y para mi primera post quiziera llamarles la atención a un problema de extraer oro en El Salvador.  Pacific-Rim, una companía canadience, está tratando de empezar una mina de oro en San Isidro. San Isidro está en la provencia de Las Cabañas, donde según las NU 55% de la población está bajo la  linea de pobreza.

Los campesinos de la región están preocupados que la mina de Pacific Rim tomará 30,000 litros de agua  diario de la misma lugar donde viene el agua de la comunidad solo una vez a la semana.  Rights Action, una ONG que trabaja en América Central, han trabjado en ese problema desde su comienzo y tienen experiencia en otros casos similares en América Central.  Para más información y acciones que puedan tomar por favor viste su citio: www.rightsaction.org (en inglés y español). Cualquier pregunta, información que tienen, o si quieran saber más de El Salvador por favor compartélo.