Yes, I most certainly can see the logic in this. Our greatest power source is at the center of our Universe. Earth’s Sun has the power to light up this planet many, many times over! We have enough desert lands to allow fossil fuels to stay in the Earth, where they belong, and simply let the solar giant in our sky bring us all the power we need.

We have the technology, and solar energy can eliminate so much of the pollution which occurs through the harvesting of fossil fuels, which in turn is creating havoc with the Earth’s natural environment. Humans have clearly failed in their attempts to harness a planet that already has a built in system which was designed to allow the planet to grow without humankinds clumsy interference. Our integrity is surely lacking if we do not allow ourselves to become responsible stewards of such a wonderfully beautiful living planet, as our Mother Earth.

I am actually quite suprised that Solar power has not yet been implemented around the world, as our main power source, long before now. I believe this option has been on the table long enough, and we need to move forward into the 21st Century with some positive improvements in our lifestyles. Green is the color of living growing things, and the Earth’s Sun is what places the power of green all around us. It is about time we stop talking about it, and take positive action to reverse the damage, and promote new growth.

Alternative energy is what makes us cool in the modern age. Let’s create a good image for those looking at us from other parts of the Universe, and set some good examples, for the young ones so they will actually WANT to follow in our footsteps where some things are concerned.

Here is an interesting article called “What’s stopping us getting solar power from deserts?” written by Mark Jansen, that I would like to pass along.

If we can get past our self imposed price barrier, and allow technology to help us build some mega power grids, and share the vast amount of solar energy available to us, well then we will be well on our way. Check out the article, and then ask yourself what you can do to help this ideal solution move from dream to reality.

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)

On January 20th the Senate is scheduled to vote on an amendment that would dismantle the Clean Air Act as a tool for tackling global warming. Urge your senators to oppose the Murkowski amendment, and remind your senators that we depend on the Clean Air Act to protect our health and environment.

The Clean Air Act has effectively regulated some of the most dangerous pollutants for the past 40 years. This amendment would put public health at risk and jeopardize long-overdue action to hold the biggest polluters accountable, reduce America’s oil dependence and jump-start a vibrant clean energy economy.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the Clean Air Act is a tool for tackling the pollution that causes global warming, and President Obama has begun acting — with clean car standards and clean-up requirements for power plants and factories — to protect our health and our climate.

A vote for the Murkowski amendment is a step backward for public health, for protecting our planet, and for our children’s future. It would put our communities at risk, undermine the new clean energy economy and overrule sound scientific decisions.

Instead of standing in the way of progress, Congress should move this year to enact the energy and climate legislation the country needs to build a clean energy economy, create jobs and protect the environment.

Please visit NRDC’s Action Fund today, for more information on how you can do your part to prevent this disasterous attempt to weaken the Clean Air Act. Time is running out, and we need to act Now!

Tell your senators to vote NO on Murkowski’s Dirty Air Act!

Note – This Action is for US Residents only! Do not act if you do not have a US Address.

How is this possible? Most educated humans are well aware of the changing climates around the planet, as things warm up. Yet are we equiped to address this problem? There must be actions we can take, as good stewards of this planet which is our Life Giver. Perhaps this is something which is now completely out of our control. Perhaps not.

If we do not at least give it our best shot, those of us with the compassion and foresight to care, then we will never know until it is too late. Please consider joining myself, along with Jeff Corwin, in taking action to defend and protect the creatures on this planet during these transitions into a new global climate.

Please visit Jeff Corwin and Defenders of Wildlife and help us with this struggle to help wildlife threatened by global warming. We all carry the responibilities for good stewardship on this planet, whether we believe so or not. This is our home, and there is a reason for every season, and every creature on this planet.

I worry deeply about what kind of world awaits my two young daughters if we fail to address this threat.

– Jeff Corwin

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!

Sign up for this year’s International Coastal Cleanup in September at a waterway near you — and then ask your friends to join you! Last year, nearly 400,000 volunteers collected more than 6.8 million pounds of trash in 104 countries and 42 U.S. states during the 2008 International Coastal Cleanup — the world’s largest volunteer effort of its kind.

LINKS -

About The Cleanup

Marine Debris Overview

SOURCE

I am always a bit wary when I hear of new moves to create a supposed act of safety in regards to food regulations. Usually this is an action designed to lull people into believing a real solution to a problem is being implemented, when in reality those in power have no true wish to solve the probem in the first place. Controlling powers know exactly what they are doing through the current lack of consumer safety, yet most people simply are not aware of the true agenda therein.

I will, however, pass along an article written by Alexis Baden-Mayer Organic Consumers Association, June 23, 2009 relating to OCA’s position on the New House Food Safety Bill, for those interested in their take on the matter…

Straight to the Source

There’s been a lot of buzz on the web about the new Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (HR 2749). Many of our supporters have called or emailed us to find our stance on the issue.

Although the Organic Consumers Association is fairly satisfied that the bill is intended to protect organic farmers from being negatively impacted by new food safety regulations (Sec. 419A directs the USDA to “take into consideration, consistent with ensuring enforceable public health protection, the impact on small-scale and diversified farms, and on wildlife habitat, conservation practices, watershed-protection efforts, and organic production methods”), unfortunately the bill does not address the underlying causes of America’s persistent and evermore serious food safety crisis: factory farms and chemical-intensive agriculture. When addressing the concerns of E.coli or salmonella, the bill focuses on fresh vegetables and fruits rather than CAFOs or intensive confinement factory farms, in effect treating the symptom and not the disease.

A close look at the nation’s food poisoning epidemics over the past decade reveal that the overwhelming majority of fruit and vegetable contamination incidents are a direct result of water and soil pollution from large factory farms. The OCA believes that HR 2749 should be amended to address factory farming:

1. Animals should never be fed blood, manure or slaughterhouse waste.

2. Cows need to eat grass.

3. Animals need to be spread out on enough land to absorb their waste.

4. CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) pose unacceptable risks to human health, such as antibiotic resistance, incubate dangerous viruses and pathogens, such as the Swine Flu and Bird Flu, contaminate the environment, institutionalize animal cruelty, and need to be phased out and shut down.

In addition, we share the concerns of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund and support the amendments suggested by the Maine Organic Farmers And Gardeners Association. We also agree with the Wild Farm Alliance, especially their position paper, Food Safety Requires a Healthy Environment: Policy Recommendations for E. coli O157.

The dangers to food safety of factory farms, also known as Confined Animal Feeding Operations, are well documented by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the National Resources Defense Council and Food & Water Watch.

In addition to factory farm runoff, vegetables can also become contaminated is through the use of untreated animal manure or biosolids (the fertilizer industry’s name for sewage sludge/human waste). Organic regulations ban sewage sludge and have rules for the use of manure that prevent contamination.

Certified organic farmers must maintain a farm plan detailing the methods used to build soil fertility, including the application of manure. Organic rules require raw animal manure to be composted if it is to be applied to land used for a crop intended for human consumption. Well-composted manure reduces the incidence of E. coli. Manure must be applied to the land at least 120 days prior to harvest if the edible part crops come in contact with soil, and at least 90 days prior to harvest of edible parts that do not come into contact with soil. Longer periods can be required by certifiers if soil or other conditions warrant. No other agricultural regulation in the United States imposes such strict control on the use of manure.

For more information on this and other important Organic News you may wish to visit Organic Consumer’s Association.