Quote of the Day
"May all your expectations be frustrated, may all your plans be thwarted, may all your desires be withered into nothingness, that you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God who is Father, Son, and Spirit. And today on planet Earth, may you experience the wonder and beauty of yourself as Abba's child and temple of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ our Lord."
- Brennan Manning (Thanks to Gary Zeus)
The Greening of Evangelicals
From
The Washington Post, Sunday, February 6, 2005
Christian Right Turns, Sometimes Warily, to EnvironmentalismThanks to the Rev. Leroy Hedman, the parishioners at Georgetown Gospel Chapel take their baptismal waters cold. The preacher has unplugged the electricity-guzzling heater in the immersion baptism tank behind his pulpit. He has also installed energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs throughout the church and has placed water barrels beneath its gutter pipes -- using runoff to irrigate the congregation's all-organic gardens.
Such "creation care" should be at the heart of evangelical life, Hedman says, along with condemning abortion, protecting family and loving Jesus. He uses the term "creation care" because, he says, it does not annoy conservative Christians for whom the word "environmentalism" connotes liberals, secularists and Democrats.
Read More
Ray Anderson: Sustainable Carpet
I had a revelation about what industry is doing to our planet. I stood convicted as a plunderer of the earth. In the future, people like me will go to jail.
Ray Anderson has been called a “born-again environmentalist.” He is an industrial engineer by training and is the founder, chairman, and chief operating officer of Interface, Inc., the largest commercial carpet manufacturer in the world. Anderson relates that he had never really been concerned about the environment or sustainability until he read Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce in 1994 and had what he calls an "ecological epiphany," literally crying while reading the book.
Since then, Anderson has taken steps to make Interface a sustainable corporation. Currently, it practices in-house recycling, makes carpet from recycled soda bottles, and even recycles discarded carpet from other manufacturers. However, unlike some corporations with "green" programs, Anderson admits that these steps are not enough. He hopes to attain "closed-loop recycling," in which there will be no waste products or pollution produced.
Anderson has quickly become a world-renowned advocate for sustainable industry. In 1997, he was named co-chair of the President's Council on Sustainable Development. In 1999, he published a book, Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise -- The Interface Model, about his conversion to sustainability. He now travels the world, spreading the "gospel" of sustainability with an energy and dedication reminiscent of the Baptist preachers of his Georgia childhood.
Watch Ray Anderson Video
God's Earth is Sacred
In Open Letter, Theologians Warn of 'False Gospel' on the Environment, Call Christians to Repent of SinIn an effort to refute what they call a “false gospel” and to change destructive attitudes and actions concerning the environment, a group of theologians, convened by the National Council of Churches USA, released an open letter Feb. 14 calling on Christians to reject teachings that suggest humans are “called” to exploit the Earth without care for how our behavior impacts the rest of God’s creation. The statement, “God’s Earth is Sacred: An Open Letter to Church and Society in the United States,” points out that there is both an environmental and a theological crisis that must be addressed.
Read 'God's Earth is Sacred.'
Super Mileage Competition
Once a year colleges and universities compete in an national engineering contest called the “SuperMileage Competition.” The objective is to build car that get great gas mileage, and the car with the best fuel economy wins. The students who won built a car that got more 1,700 miles to the gallon. They were from Canada and have become the talk of the country. Some students from Cal Tech came close with a car that got about 1,600 miles to the gallon. It’s incredible, but also obviously very feasible. Yet American companies claim they can’t increase the mileage cars get. Maybe some of the automakers in Detroit need to take a page from the book of these students to improve their cars
Smog Contributors in The Valley
Valley Air: What Can You Do?
Excerps From
Valley Air Quality1) Carpool or ride a bus.
2) Maintain your car. You will cut back on pollution by keeping your car properly tuned and inflating your tires to the proper level. Also, don't top off the tank at the gas station because it releases more vapors.
3) Walk or ride your bicycle to the store.
4) Don't warm up the car for long periods of time.
5) Avoid idling the car at drive-up windows or at train crossings.
6) Avoid aggressive driving. Hard acceleration puts the car in a mode called "power enrichment" in which extra gas is forced into the cylinders, resulting in a spike of pollution emissions.
7) Minimize use of off-road motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles. The state Air Resources Board estimates such vehicles often produce many more pollutants than modern automobiles.
8) Consider trading in your 1980s or older vehicle for a newer, cleaner-running car. Your choices now include electric, hybrid electric-gasoline and natural gas vehicles. The electric vehicles emit zero pollution. The others put out 50% to 90% less pollution than a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle.
9) Buy energy-conserving refrigerators, washers, ovens and other appliances. The less energy you use, the less fossil-fuel plants need to run and send out pollution.
10) Consider installing solar power at your home. Each kilowatt-hour produced by "renewable" power producers means a pollution savings from fossil-fuel power plants.
11) Switch from your gasoline-powered mower to electric. In fact, go electric on as many yard tools as possible -- hedge trimmers, edgers, chainsaws.
12) Buy a gas grill. Or switch to a chimney starter for your charcoals and don't use starter fluid, which sends out pollution.
13) Stop burning your wood in a standard, masonry fireplace. Use a federally certified wood stove or similar device. Or don't burn at all.
14) Seal all paints and solvents in the garage. Escaping fumes contribute to air pollution.
Upcoming Rebate on Electric Mowers
Just got off the phone with the Valley Air District. On Sunday, May 15 (20005) they will be giving rebates for purchases of new electric mowers at the Home Depot store in Riverpark. A working mower, drained of all fluids, will be needed for turn-in. They are going to email me the details when they are finalized.
From
Valley Air...
"Gasoline-powered lawn mowers are not required to meet the same emission standards as automobiles. They are major contributors to summertime air pollution problems. There are 250,000 gasoline mowers in the Valley emitting high levels of carbon monoxide and smog-forming gasses. One standard gas mower running for one hour emits as much pollution as 40 late model cars operating for an hour. Overall, gardening equipment produces as much as 5 percent of the nation’s smog."
"Electric-powered mowers are 95 percent cleaner running than their gas-powered counterparts. In 2004, the Air District distributed 1,200 electric mowers valley wide. The program reduced 1.66 tons of emissions last summer and 11.62 tons over the mowers’ operating lives."
Lawn Mowers
Clean-running electric and reel mowers help reduce smog-forming emissions that add to the Valley’s summertime ozone-pollution problem. A typical lawn mower, which is an unregulated product, when used just 45 minutes a week spews the equivalent pollution of 43 new cars driven 12,000 miles a year. Electric and reel mowers work just as well and produce no emissions. Last June the local Air District gave a discount of $35 to $88 to Valley residents who purchase one of four new electric or reel (push) mowers at any of the 14 Orchard Supply Hardware stores in the San Joaquin Valley.
We'll be getting rid of our old mower this Spring, hope they offer this discount again.
I think I like this
mower.
Celebrity Hybrid Drivers
In general, hybrid drivers tend to be free-thinkers who resist the over-commercialized, celebrity-obsessed aspect of American society. But with so many celebrities jumping on the hybrid bandwagon, it's hard to ignore their potential positive influence in getting more people to think about ditching their gas-guzzler, and trying a hybrid car.
“We wallow in what happened on 9/11, instead of focusing on what we can do. And when someone presents an idea of what we can do, [people say] oh, I'm sorry, that's too much of a sacrifice.”
Bill Maher
“It gets 52 miles per gallon. In the city. Isn't that exciting?”
Cameron Diaz
"I own a Toyota Prius; it's a step in the right direction. It's a gasoline-electric midsize car that gets about 50 miles per gallon. We have the technology to make every car produced in America today just as clean, cheap and efficient."
Leonardo DiCaprio
"I absolutely love our Prius. In addition to being obviously economical and environmentally friendly, they drive great and are just plain sexy. There’s no reason all Americans shouldn’t be driving hybrid cars."
Will Ferrell
For a much larger list, see
hybridcars.com
Musician's Against Sweatshops Official Tee. A great new initiative to help wipe sweatshops out of the music merchandising business while raising awareness of the issue. $5 on every T goes to MASS. For more information on how else you can help, go to
No Sweat
Hemp Facts
HISTORY FACTS
*Hemp has been grown for at least the last 12,000 years for fiber (textiles and paper) and food. It has been effectively prohibited in the United States since the 1950s.
*George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp. Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper. Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper.
*When US sources of "Manila hemp" (not true hemp) was cut off by the Japanese in WWII, the US Army and US Department of Agriculture promoted the "Hemp for Victory" campaign to grow hemp in the US.
*Because of its importance for sails (the word "canvass" is rooted in "cannabis") and rope for ships, hemp was a required crop in the American colonies.
INDUSTRY FACTS
*Henry Ford experimented with hemp to build car bodies. He wanted to build and fuel cars from farm products.
*BMW is experimenting with hemp materials in automobiles as part of an effort to make cars more recyclable.
*Much of the bird seed sold in the US has hemp seed (it's sterilized before importation), the hulls of which contain about 25% protein.
*Hemp oil once greased machines. Most paints, resins, shellacs, and varnishes used to be made out of linseed (from flax) and hemp oils.
*Rudolph Diesel designed his engine to run on hemp oil.
*Kimberly Clark (on the Fortune 500) has a mill in France which produces hemp paper preferred for bibles because it lasts a very long time and doesn't yellow.
*Construction products such as medium density fiber board, oriented strand board, and even beams, studs and posts could be made out of hemp. Because of hemp's long fibers, the products will be stronger and/or lighter than those made from wood.
*The products that can be made from hemp number over 25,000.
SCIENTIFIC FACTS
*Industrial hemp and marijuana are both classified by taxonomists as Cannabis sativa, a species with hundreds of varieties. C. sativa is a member of the mulberry family. Industrial hemp is bred to maximize fiber, seed and/or oil, while marijuana varieties seek to maximize THC (delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana).
*While industrial hemp and marijuana may look somewhat alike to an untrained eye, an easily trained eye can easily distinguish the difference.
*Industrial hemp has a THC content of between 0.05 and 1%. Marijuana has a THC content of 3% to 20%. To receive a standard psychoactive dose would require a person to power-smoke 10-12 hemp cigarettes over an extremely short period of time. The large volume and high temperature of vapor, gas and smoke would be almost impossible for a person to withstand.
*If hemp does pollinate any nearby marijuana, genetically, the result will always be lower-THC marijuana, not higher-THC hemp. If hemp is grown outdoors, marijuana will not be grown close by to avoid producing lower-grade marijuana.
*Hemp fibers are longer, stronger, more absorbent and more mildew-resistant than cotton.
*Fabrics made of at least one-half hemp block the sun's UV rays more effectively than other fabrics.
*Many of the varieties of hemp that were grown in North America have been lost. Seed banks weren't maintained. New genetic breeding will be necessary using both foreign and domestic "ditchweed," strains of hemp that went feral after cultivation ended. Various state national guard units often spend their weekends trying to eradicate this hemp, in the mistaken belief they are helping stop drug use.
*A 1938 Popular Mechanics described hemp as a "New Billion Dollar Crop." That's back when a billion was real money.
*Hemp can be made in to a variety of fabrics, including linen quality.
LEGAL FACTS
*The US Drug Enforcement Agency classifies all C. sativa varieties as "marijuana." While it is theoretically possible to get permission from the government to grow hemp, DEA would require that the field be secured by fence, razor wire, dogs, guards, and lights, making it cost-prohibitive.
*The US State Department must certify each year that a foreign nation is cooperating in the war on drugs. The European Union subsidizes its farmers to grow industrial hemp. Those nations are not on this list, because the State Department can tell the difference between hemp and marijuana.
*Hemp was grown commercially (with increasing governmental interference) in the United States until the 1950s. It was doomed by the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which placed an extremely high tax on marijuana and made it effectively impossible to grow industrial hemp. While Congress expressly expected the continued production of industrial hemp, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics lumped industrial hemp with marijuana, as it's successor the US Drug Enforcement Administration, does to this day.
*Over 30 industrialized democracies do distinguish hemp from marijuana. International treaties regarding marijuana make an exception for industrial hemp.
*Canada now again allows the growing of hemp.
ECOLOGY FACTS
* Hemp growers can not hide marijuana plants in their fields. Marijuana is grown widely spaced to maximize leaves. Hemp is grown in tightly-spaced rows to maximize stalk and is usually harvested before it goes to seed.
*Hemp can be made into fine quality paper. The long fibers in hemp allow such paper to be recycled several times more than wood-based paper.
*Because of its low lignin content, hemp can be pulped using less chemicals than with wood. Its natural brightness can obviate the need to use chlorine bleach, which means no extremely toxic dioxin being dumped into streams. A kinder and gentler chemistry using hydrogen peroxide rather than chlorine dixoide is possible with hemp fibers.
*Hemp grows well in a variety of climates and soil types. It is naturally resistant to most pests, precluding the need for pesticides. It grows tightly spaced, out-competing any weeds, so herbicides are not necessary. It also leaves a weed-free field for a following crop.
*Hemp can displace cotton which is usually grown with massive amounts of chemicals harmful to people and the environment. 50% of all the world's pesticides are sprayed on cotton.
*Hemp can displace wood fiber and save forests for watershed, wildlife habitat, recreation and oxygen production, carbon sequestration (reduces global warming), and other values.
*Hemp can yield 3-8 dry tons of fiber per acre. This is four times what an average forest can yield.
HEALTH FACTS
*If one tried to ingest enough industrial hemp to get 'a buzz', it would be the equivalent of taking 2-3 doses of a high-fiber laxative.
*At a volume level of 81%, hemp oil is the richest known source of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids (the "good" fats). It's quite high in some essential amino acids, including gamma linoleic acid (GLA), a very rare nutrient also found in mother's milk.
*While the original "gruel" was made of hemp seed meal, hemp oil and seed can be made into tasty and nutritional products.
Prepared by the North American Industrial Hemp Council, October 1997
From
Hemp Facts
Green Shopping Tips
SAVE MONEY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
A family of four can save $3,000 a year simply by buying products in the largest size they can use and by buying long lasting reusable items. Think about the effect of your purchases on the environment when you shop. Items with excess packaging and products that need to be discarded after only a few uses cost more money, use up valuable resources and create more waste.
BUY PRODUCTS IN THE LARGEST SIZE YOU CAN USE; AVOID EXCESS PACKAGING
A family of four can save $2,000 a year in the supermarket by choosing large sizes instead of individual serving sizes. Remember, ten cents of every shopping dollar is used to pay for packaging. Small sizes use more packaging for each ounce of product than larger sizes. So, if you buy large sizes, you save money, reduce waste, and help the environment. That is a really good buy. Here are a few good examples, look for others the next time you shop.
Buy cereal in a large box instead of in individual serving sizes.
Buy juice in concentrates and use reuseable containers instead of single serving packages.
Save money by buying bottled water in a large plastic jug instead of six packs of 16 ounce bottles. Reuse plastic water bottles.
Buy large packages of sugar and flour.
Avoid the small boxes of raisins and buy the same amount in the 24 ounce box.
BUY PRODUCTS IN CONTAINERS THAT YOU KNOW YOU WILL BE ABLE TO RECYCLE
It is important to familiarize yourself with your what types of containers and items can be recycled in your local recycling program. Once you know what you can recycle, look for products that come in the containers that you know you will be able to recycle when the products are all used up. Examples are products in commonly recycled containers made from aluminum, steal, #1 and #2 plastic, and glass. Check the Earth 911
Reuse and Recycling Services listings to see what types of containers/packaging you should look for in your community.
BUY REUSABLE AND LONG LASTING ITEMS
Products that can be reused are cheaper in the long run than those you throw away and buy over and over again. Goods that are designed to last a long time are also cheaper in the long run than those that wear out quickly. A family can save $1,000 each year buy buying reusable and long lasting products.
Use rechargeable batteries in toys, flashlights, radios. You can save $200 a year by using rechargeable batteries instead of disposables in one cd player used two hours a day.
Use cloth diapers instead of disposable diapers. You'll save $600 per child by using a laundry diaper service instead of disposable diapers.
Use a real camera instead of disposable ones. If you take 24 pictures each month you will save $144 each year.
Many families spend over $260 each year on paper towels and napkins. Switch to cloth napkins, sponges, and cloth towels or wipes.
Use washable plates, cups, and silverware for parties and picnics instead of disposable products.
Use an electric razor or hand razor with replaceable blades instead of disposable razors.
Buy high quality/long life tires. They cost less per mile traveled and reduce the problem of disposing of used tires.
Use a washable commuter mug for your morning coffee and eliminate a Styrofoam or plastic cup every day.
Bring bags to the market, either cloth ones or your old paper and plastic ones. Many markets will credit your bill for using your own bags. When buying only a few items, don't take a bag.
Clean and service your appliances, computers, tools, and cars so that they will enjoy even longer lives. And, before you replace them, check to see if they are repairable. Consider sharing equipment that is used infrequently such as hedge clippers, pruners, fruit pickers, or chain saws. From
Earth 911 Green Shopping Tips
Wind Power for My House
Found this site today. It would cost about $10/month (in addition to regular PG&E) to buy pollution free electricity generated by wind. The sad thing is that I don't get to install a massive windmill in my backyard, dangit!
http://www.newwindenergy.com
I think we are going to sign up for this. I like the idea of not using any "dirty" electricity in my house.
