Our highest priority is keeping our bodies healthy, and our environment clean and Life promoting. In caring for this earth by moving through this Life in an environmentally responsible manner, we ensure a future with very little disease, and a planet that can sustain Life without depleting our natural resources. Everything is already in place, as intended by the original creators, and we just need to slow down and really take a look around at how we care for our surroundings on this planet. Each of us have a profound impact on the natural world, and we must remember to walk softly and respectfully. I love this planet, and will do all in my power that I can to protect her and encourage awareness.

I ran across this very interesting article over at Organic Consumers Association, written by Ronnie Cummins and Will Allen. Please take a few moments to read, and follow the link provided at the bottom of this message to read more, and visit Organic Consumers Association to learn about ways to promote a beautiful and healthy planet Earth. We are each of us equally responsible as stewards on this planet. We do not deserve such beauty and wonders if we take no heed of the preventable damage being done to Mother Earth on a large scale.

“Climate Catastrophe: Surviving the 21st Century” written by Ronnie Cummins and Will Allen

Climate Stabilization Requires a Cultural and Political Revolution

The climate, energy, and political catastrophe we are facing is mind-boggling and frightening. Yet there is still time to save ourselves, to move beyond psychological denial, despair, or false optimism. There is still hope if we are willing to confront the hydra-headed monsters that block our path, and move ahead with a decisive plan of action. The inspirational message we need to deliver is that we’re not just talking about drastically reducing fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution, but rebuilding society, creating in effect a New Woman and a New Man for the 21st Century. What we are witnessing are the early stages of a mass grassroots consciousness-raising and taking back of power from out-of-control corporations, banks, corporate-controlled media, and politicians. This cultural and political revolution will empower us to to carry out a deep and profound retrofitting of industry, government, education, health care, housing, neighborhoods, transportation, food and farming systems, as well as our diets and lifestyles.

The scale of human and physical resources needed to turn our current suicide economy into a green economy is daunting, but absolutely necessary and achievable. The only viable roadmap for survival-an 80-90% reduction in fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050-means we must force a drastic reduction in military spending (current wars and military spending are costing us almost one trillion dollars a year). We must tax the rich and the greenhouse gas polluters, and bring our out-of-control politicians, banks, Federal Reserve System, and corporations to heel.

The good news, as Van Jones and others have pointed out, is that this 21st Century green economy will not only stabilize the climate, but enable us to retrain and reemploy the U.S. workforce, including low-income youth and 16-25 million unemployed workers, as building retrofitters, solar and wind installers, recyclers, organic gardeners, farmers, nutritionists, holistic health care providers, and other green economy workers.

Please visit –> Organic Consumers Association <-- to read more on this very important subject of our Climate and the Environment, and what we face on a Global level today.

I am proud to live in the beautiful State of Oregon. My family and I enjoy our natural surroundings and lovely forests. To walk amongst the great trees brings my heart so much joy! It would be a terrible tragedy to destroy the delicate ecosystem in which we Oregonians have fought so hard to protect. Please read the letter below from Oregon Wild to see the danger our Oregon forests face today…

Dear Teri,

Last fall, we told you about Oregon’s 10 Most Endangered Places. Coming in at #8 on the list were the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests, threatened by a proposal to ramp up clear-cut logging.

Now, the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) is set to approve this logging increase, and they need to hear from you! Tell them our state forests are vital for the salmon, wildlife, clean water, and recreational opportunities they provide!

Write a letter to ODF today and tell them to protect clean water, salmon, and recreation opportunities in our state forests.

Oregon prides itself on protecting its natural heritage, but what is being done to our state forests should be an embarrassment to every Oregonian. Instead of a legacy of abundant wildlife and clean water, we are leaving our children a heritage of clear cuts, mud slides, and wrecked rivers.

For decades, all forests in Oregon (including the Tillamook, Clatsop, Elliot, and Santiam state forests) were managed primarily for industrial timber production. As a result, most of our old-growth is gone and the species that rely on complex native forests are still vanishing.

Finally, in the 1990s, forest managers began using science to determine how their logging activities would impact things like salmon populations and water quality. Not surprisingly, clear-cutting doesn’t do wildlife and favors and doesn’t keep streams more pristine. Recognizing this, ODF refocused some of their management plans towards restoring more old-growth forest habitat, calling for an even 50/50 split between timber emphasis and forest protection.

Now, they plan to do away with any sense of balance and ramp up clear-cutting on up to 70 percent of State Forest land.

We need to tell them that protecting only 30 percent of our state forests isn’t enough. Write a letter before the January 29th comment deadline here.

With approximately 50% of Oregon’s forests in private hands (and subject to a constant rotation of industrial logging), it is imperative that we protect the small portion of forest land that we all own as Oregonians.

Thanks for standing up for the Tillamook and other state forests.

For wild forests,
Sean Stevens
Communications Associate
Oregon Wild

Salmon survival is at stake in the ODF decision to ramp up clear-cutting. (photo courtesy Wild Salmon Center)

Considering we have the technology to gather energy from natural sources without drilling into Mother Earth, it is important to stop the Bureau of Land Management from taking this next devastating step to draw resources from the earth itself. The unimaginable beauty and Life which abounds throughout Yellowstone, and the Greater Rockies, is worthy of our direct attention to protect and preserve. How anyone can even consider drilling in these areas is beyond my own comprehension. This is obviously an area of great Beauty full of an abundance of Wildlife.

The damage to the environment and precious wildlife is a travesty which has been visited too many times upon this planet. In the heart of Wyoming’s heavily developed Powder River Basin lies the area’s last pristine haven for wildlife: the 120,000-acre Fortification Creek region, home to sage grouse, pronghorn, bobcats, songbirds and elk.

With more than 25,000 natural gas wells already surrounding Fortification Creek, agency officials are now targeting this rare wildlife oasis for industrialization. The Bureau of Land Management is drawing up a plan for coalbed methane gas development in the region, but it has begun issuing drilling permits before a full environmental analysis is completed. Without a thorough scientific review, the agency has no way of knowing the full impact of roads, power lines, pipelines and other infrastructure on this sensitive wildlife habitat.

We need to Take Action Today to prevent this from occuring. Wildlife habitats are in danger whenever we choose to gather resources in such a reckless manner, and develop in places where such actions will devestate the natural order of Life. Mother Earth is a living being, and will not tolerate this destruction much longer.

Please take a few moments to send a message to the Obama Administration with your objections to this latest move to gather resources from our pristine wildlife habits in Yellowstone and the Greater Rockies!

Please consider making a donation to help save Utah’s Redrock wilderness before it is too late! Time is running out, and the Bush-Cheney Administration is pushing through the auction of our precious wildlands to the highest oil bidder. This is serious business, and we need to stand up and let them know we won’t allow them to spoil our land.

Here is the latest news from Robert Redford, who is taking this to the courtroom to fight to keep our lands free and beautiful…

Life on this Earth cannot exist without our Rainforests. This not new news, and yet still our Rainforests are being thoughtlessly destroyed. Every moment brings us closer to a world devoid of life, yet those ignorant to the consequences still persist. Why? What motivations, besides greed, can bring about that which will serve to devastate this planet? Is man truly so bent on self-destruction?

My daughter and are at present studying the Biomes of this planet, and the Rainforest. In our home studies we must learn those integral parts that make up this Earth. The biosystems, ecosystems and all that lives in the natural world and keeps this planet in balance. It is quite disturbing to try to answer her many questions, and she is becoming quite alarmed with the current events happening around our planet, and with good cause. It is sad to think of what the world will be when she is grown, and the daunting task we are setting forth for our children. She asks me “What will I tell my children, Mama?”.

I try so hard to paint a picture of all the wonders in nature, yet it is quite difficult to do when nature is disappearing so rapidly. The virgin Rainforests are home to 61.8% of all the biological diversity on Earth. In this, the richest environment for life, we are destroying a land area which is equivalent to the size of the city of Tokyo Japan ( 240 square miles ) every day. This equals 6417 acres per hour, 107 acres per minute or 1.78 acres per second. This issue of Rainforests destruction and mass species extinctions is the #1 issue facing humanity. If we do not stop this NOW, it will be too late.

It is believed, based on the Fibonacci series of numbers which are found throughout nature, that there are approximately 560 Rainforests species extinctions per day. This equals one Rainforests species extinction every 2 minutes and 33 seconds. We are but a strand in the fabric of life, all intricately interdependent on one another. And yet here we are, in the mere geological blink of an eye, eroding the very foundation of our own existence with mass species extinctions. This 6th great mass extinction period on Earth that we are insanely causing by the suicidal annihilation of the Web of Life, will very soon bring about our own extinction.

The Omega Point is the point in time, when all of the devastation we have inflicted over the years to our life support ecosystems finally becomes too much and they irreversibly fail, no longer able to sustain Homo Sapiens. What this translates into for our future generations is an ever increasingly nightmarish slippery slope to extinction.

Rainforests are some of the world’s most ancient and complex ecosystems. They cover a mere 2% of the Earth, yet more than half of all plant and animal species live there. The rainforest is home to creatures as famous as the jaguar and poison dart frog, as well as lesser-known and even unidentified species.

I will be following up soon with more about the life that still exists within the rainforest.

“This we know: The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”
Chief Seattle

Please take a few moments to read this very important message…

The Bush administration wants to sacrifice some of the wildest regions of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming to produce fuel from two of the most polluting sources: oil shale and tar sands.

This proposed development — spanning an area of more than two million acres of wildlife habitat and outstanding recreation areas across three states — could pollute air and water, jeopardize human health and dramatically worsen global warming.

Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction and tell the Bush administration to protect these sensitive wildlands for future generations and promote cleaner sources of energy instead.

Oil shale is rock that produces oil when heated to extreme temperatures. Tar sands contain extremely heavy oil mixed with sand and clay. Tar sands development in Canada has displaced wildlife, created toxic waste sites that go on for miles and generated three times the amount of global warming pollution per barrel produced as conventional fuel.

We must act now to shield our own western wildlands from thisnightmare scenario. Oil shale and tar sands development could release dangerous toxic elements such as arsenic, selenium, and boron into the Colorado River watershed — a vital source of drinking water for local communities.

This area is also home to mule deer, elk, mountain lions, black bears, bald eagles and great horned owls and offers exceptional outdoor recreation opportunities.

Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction and tell the Bush administration to put the brakes on dirty oil shale and tar sands development in America’s West.

Thank you for helping to save our last western wildlife habitats from destructive development.

As a woman, I am proud and honored to do what I may to present what it is to be a female in the World we live in today. We must remember to embrace that which makes up the essence of a woman, and bring about our full potential. As stewards of this planet we play many roles.

Every day, all over the world, women make countless choices that affect the environment. In their hands lie many decisions about the use of community resources – water for the household, land for agriculture, wood for heating and cooking, plants and animals for food and sale.

Yet women often lack the education to make responsible conservation decisions and are denied the resources and opportunities to control their own economic destinies. Without intervention, the cycle of poverty and inequality is repeated from mother to daughter.

Recognizing the different roles of women and men in natural resource management, WWF works with both groups to enhance their stewardship of the environment and improve livelihoods. Successful women’s programs include small business development, access to health services like family planning and maternal and child health, efficient and sustainable agriculture techniques and literacy programs.

WWF empowers women and girls – building a future where human needs are met in harmony with nature. Here are their stories…

~Today’s Girls – Tomorrow’s Leaders

~Biogas is Better – Jari Leads the Way

~Meet Shushma and Zahra 

Enjoy!

Today I am featuring a fellow blogger dedicated to educating the public of the dangers of toxic substances in our environment. Mark Sadaka of PharmaWatchDog has a Bachelor of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University, as well as a Master of Science in Public Health degree from Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine with specialization in environmental toxicology and risk assessment. I believe Mr. Sadaka is very well educated in his chosen field, and after a tragic personal loss he is truly serious about getting the word out to the people.

Mr. Sadaka earned his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis where he served as an Editor of the Journal of Law and Policy Law Review. He has a solid commitment to defending those who cannot defend themselves against companies with nearly unlimited resources. Please take the time to visit PharmaWatchDog.com and find out about the truth concerning toxic substances and the dangers to public health. We are poisoning ourselves and we owe it to our loved ones, and ourselves, to discover how we can prevent further tragedies in our lives and live toxin free.

I am adding PharmaWatchDog.com to my blogroll, and hope my blogging friends will do so as well, and help spread the word.