We offer healing prayers to all nations upon our beloved earth.
E'tokmit e'k, rangimarie, hedd, pace, tutquin, shanti, vrede, paquilisli, MNP, Onai rahu, amani, kev sib haum xeeb, salam, shaantiM, hedd, gutpela taim, lalyi, pesca, damai, raha, fred, eirni, pax, mir, peace, heiwa, amn, nabad, rauha,paz, frid, paco, shAnti, paqe, danh tu, ittimokla, rahu, paix, beke, shalom, mnonestotse, kapayapaan

Green Dove Note: May you hold your own as we live through and with uncertainties from many different paths. May you seek and have some measure of peace in your life; and may you be well in mind body and spirit. Thank you for every thought, action, word and deed that you offer into creation with the intention of increasing peace and enhancing the collective wellbeing of this planet. I am grateful that you are present, and I look forward to a world where we choose to pour resources into what we want to support and nurture.

Sincerly, Patricia

Green Dove

Please Donate to Support Green Dove!

Thank You!

Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are...Texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid. - President Dwight D. Eisenhower, November 8, 1954
August 1-7 National Farmers Market Week
If you haven't been purchasing fruits and veggies at a local farmers market, this is a great time to begin! Your farmers market is the perfect place to go if you want to establish relationships with the people who grow the foods you eat, and a way to connect with other people.
Click here for Farmers Markets on Local Food Bloomington.
Click here for Farmers Markets in Indiana
INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - NEW REPORT

Drums of War: Israel and the
"Axis of Resistance" Beirut/Jerusalem/Damascus/Washington/Brussels,
2 August 2010: The Israeli-Lebanese border is exceptionally calm and uniquely dangerous, both for the same reason: fear that a new round of hostilities would be far more violent and could
spill over regionally.

Drums of War: Israel and the "Axis of Resistance",* the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines developments since the indecisive 2006 confrontation. It focuses on the de facto deterrence regime that has helped keep the peace: all parties now know that a next conflict would not spare civilians and could escalate into broader regional warfare. However, the process this regime perpetuates - mutually reinforcing military preparations; enhanced military cooperation among Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hizbollah; escalating Israeli threats - pulls in the opposite direction and could trigger the very outcome it has averted so far.

"Today, no party can soberly contemplate the prospect of a war that would be uncontrolled, unprecedented and unscripted", says Peter Harling, Crisis Group's Project Director for Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. "But underlying dynamics of the logic of deterrence carry the seeds of a possible breakdown".

Should hostilities break out, Israel will want to hit hard and fast to avoid duplicating the 2006 scenario. It will be less likely to distinguish between Hizbollah and the Lebanese government and more likely to take aim at Syria - because it is both a more vulnerable target and Hizbollah's principal supplier of military and logistical support. Meanwhile, the Shiite movement is bolstering its military might and, as tensions have risen, the so-called "axis of resistance" that it and its allies form has intensified security ties. Involvement by one in the event of attack against another no longer can be dismissed as idle speculation.

Beneath the surface, in short, tensions are mounting. The key to unlocking this situation is to restart meaningful negotiations between Israel on the one hand and Syria and Lebanon on the other. Short of that, it is hard to see why any of the actors would alter its calculations or how the underlying roots of the conflict (Syrian and Lebanese fears regarding Israel; Israeli anxiety at Hizbollah's ever-growing arsenal) might be addressed.

Prospects for such a development remain at best uncertain, so shorter-term steps are needed to minimise risks of renewed hostilities. UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which was adopted in the wake of the 2006 fighting, has played an important part in maintaining quiet but has lost momentum. Reviving it requires pushing for an agreement leading to Israel's withdrawal from the northern (Lebanese) part of Ghajar village and bolstering the size and capacity of Lebanon's armed forces in the South. More effective consultative mechanisms between the parties in conflict also would help defuse tensions, clarify red lines and minimise threats of an accidental confrontation.

"Lebanon's problems for the most part are derivative of and tied to broader regional tensions", says Robert Malley, Crisis Group's Middle East and North Africa Program Director. "Until serious efforts are mounted to tackle these wider issues, the risk of conflict will persist. In the meantime, the world should cross its fingers that fear of a catastrophic confrontation will continue to be reason enough for the parties not to provoke one".

To support our work in the Middle East and around the world, please click here.
*Read the full Crisis Group report on our website:
http://www.crisisgroup.org/
Gabriela Keseberg Dávalos (Brussels) +<32 (0) 2 536 0071
Kimberly Abbott (Washington) +1 202 785 1602
To contact Crisis Group media please click here
The International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation covering some 60 crisis-affected countries and territories across four continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.

Google to compensate gay and lesbian employees for unequal tax treatment!
Google announced on Thursday that it will begin compensating gay and lesbian employees for an extra tax they must pay when their partners receive domestic partner health benefits -- a tax that married straight couples are not required to pay.
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2010/07/google-to-compensate-gay-and-lesbian-employees-for-unequal-tax-treatment/
BPP to Give $2,000 in Grants to Local Artists and Arts Organizations

BPP’s AwareFest Re-Granting Fund

Sponsored by Bloomington Entertainment & Arts District (BEAD)

Bloomington, IN -- The Bloomington Playwrights Project, through the support of BEAD, is now offering grants to individuals and non-profit organizations interested in artistically collaborating on their upcoming AwareFest: A Green World. A total of $2,000 will be granted to artists with projects taking place between Oct. 1, 2010 – Oct. 16, 2010 that fit with the theme of Environmental Awareness. Applications will be accepted and selected on a rolling basis starting August 3, with the final date of acceptance being August 20.

Projects are encouraged to be creative and innovative and applications will have no artistic boundaries. They can range from green-themed sculptures to musical performances to paintings to dances to puppet shows to films and anywhere outside or in-between. The BPP will select grantees based on the following criteria:

1. Originality

2. Ability to Execute Proposal

3. Educational Value to Audience

4. Connection to the Theme

5. Uniqueness to AwareFest

6. Number of People the Project Can Reach

7. Cost of Project

Selected projects will be advertised on the AwareFest website and to the BPP’s mailing list. Grantees will be required to add the AwareFest logo to any of their own marketing materials and announce the collaboration with AwareFest at each performance (or through signage if not applicable). Grant requests can be for up to $750. If requesting more than $400, please identify if the project could continue with partial funding.

Applications should be 1-2 pages in length and have the following information:

1. Organization or Individual’s Contact Information

2. Art Project Title and Description

3. Artist Information – Artist bios/organization information

4. Total Cost of Project

5. Amount Requested from BPP

6. Expected Revenues

7. How Funds Will Be Used

8. The Size and Demographic of Expected Audience (include details of how they will be reached)

9. Venue

10. Planned Marketing – Aside from BPP’s marketing, how will you get the word out?

11. Relationship to Theme – How and why does your project fit into AwareFest?

Completed applications should be emailed to bppwrite@newplays.org in either Word or PDF format no later than 5pm on August 20th, 2010.

Contact BPP Managing Director, Gabe Gloden, with any questions at 812.334.1188 or bppwrite@newplays.org.

What is AwareFest?

AwareFest is an annual, citywide event, anchored at the Bloomington Playwrights Project (BPP) in partnership with local groups and businesses and focused on a new significant topic each year. Designed to raise public awareness of important issues through theatre, other art forms, and the collaboration between art and business, AwareFest will take place during the first three weeks of October, beginning on the 1st. The cornerstone event of AwareFest will be a festival of ten minute plays by nationally renowned playwrights on the year’s theme. These plays will be commissioned specifically for AwareFest by Bloomington Playwrights Project, who will present them together as part of its 2010/2011 Mainstage Series. During the same three week period, auxiliary events from various arts organizations will take place across Bloomington and will be financially supported by BPP through grant funding. In addition, AwareFest will reach into every single school in Monroe County through a large scale education project.

AwareFest continues to wholly support the unique mission of the Playwrights Project by producing new plays, by reaching out to local playwrights and artists, and by educating Bloomington-area youth about the importance of the arts. AwareFest will achieve this mission on a greater scale than ever before by reaching more artists, students, patrons, community businesses and organizations than the BPP has through any other single event over its thirty years of supporting the arts.

Contact: Gabe Gloden, Managing Director, Bloomington Playwrights Project. 812.334.1188 or bppwrite@newplays.org
Nuclear Non-Proliferation - 40 Years Since Treaty
It is 40 years since the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty entered into force, but there are still more than 23,000 nuclear weapons in global arsenals, and nuclear proliferation remains a serious threat to the planet. This May governments have an important opportunity to take real action towards nuclear abolition, but they will only act if there is pressure from civil society and the public.

That is why we are writing to you today. We would like you to join us in calling on the 189 governments meeting in New York from 3 to 28 May for a major review of the NPT to agree to negotiate a legally binding Nuclear Weapons Convention. This is a proposed treaty to ban all nuclear weapons, and establish the system needed to achieve their prompt and verified elimination.

The last such review of the NPT took place in 2005, and nothing was achieved. If we mobilize now, we can ensure that this year's gathering is different. What would that involve? We have two months left to lobby our governments to back the growing worldwide push for a Nuclear Weapons Convention. It isn't long, but it's enough time to make a real difference if we all join forces.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) -- an umbrella campaign representing more than 200 organizations in 60 countries -- has produced a Global Action Agenda outlining what you can do to promote nuclear abolition over the next three months. We have also prepared a briefing paper -- available in English and Spanish -- on why a Nuclear Weapons Convention is the best path to zero. Please forward it to your government.

We also encourage you to support our letter-writing campaign. The ICAN website allows people to send letters to their country's ambassador to the United Nations in New York, calling on them the play a leading role in advancing a nuclear abolition treaty. We will print these letters and hand-deliver them to the ambassadors. In May, we will present the conference chair with thousands of signatures from our Global Petition for abolition.

Regardless of whether governments agree on a Nuclear Weapons Convention at the NPT review conference, we need to continue pushing for this objective. Anything short of a clear commitment to abolish nuclear weapons should not satisfy any of us. That is why groups around the globe are holding actions or events the weekend after the conference -- Saturday 5 June -- calling for negotiations to begin. You can register an action here.

In short, here is what we would like you to do over the next three months:
" Forward our briefing paper to government officials, diplomats and parliamentarians
" Encourage your members to take part in our letter-writing campaign
" Collect as many signatures as possible for the Global Petition for Nuclear Abolition
" Hold an action on 5 June, Nuclear Abolition Day, calling for an abolition treaty
Together we can build a powerful grassroots movement for nuclear abolition. Now is a critical juncture. Let's seize the opportunity.

Best wishes,

Tim Wright
NWC Project Coordinator
---
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
777 UN Plaza, 6th Floor, New York NY 10017

 

Unilever Stalks its Customers with GPS Trackers Secretly Placed in Laundry Detergent Boxes

* By Mike Adams
Natural News, August 2, 2010
Straight to the Source

The household cleaning product giant Unilever has secretly placed GPS tracker transmitters in laundry detergent boxes to track consumers to their homes. With an array of electronic sensors, team of Unilever agents can now pinpoint the exact location of the GPS trackers and walk right up to your front door. They can even remotely set off a beeper inside the box using radio electronics. Read article.

 
Farmers Markets in USA Increase 16% in Last Year

* By Keith Good, ed.
FarmPolicy.com, Aug 4, 2010
Straight to the Source

Jane Black reported yesterday at the All We Can Eat section of The Washington Post Online that, “The number of farmers markets jumped 16 percent in 2010, according to figures to be released [today] by Department of Agriculture. There are 6,132 farmers markets in operation, up from 5,247 in 2009 [related graph].

Continue Reading

 
Words inscribed on our Statue of Liberty proclaim what we say makes this a special nation:
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
Thoughts, Quotes & Contemplations
on Peacemaking

Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure. (RUMI)

"All healing begins in this moment. All transformation occurs within this step. Be present, be mindful, be filled with love."If we want to be compassionate we must be conscious of the words we use. We must both speak and listen from the heart.-- Marshall B. Rosenberg

"It's surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you're not comfortable within yourself, you can't be comfortable with others."-- Sydney J. Harris

I firmly believe the world will sort itself out in the end. Believe it with me. At least none of us will be around to be proven wrong. -Stuart Wilde
"The Secrets of Life" Support what you believe in, your life depends on it!I wish I could make a happier world-harmonious, friendly and peaceful.His Holiness the Dali Lama - from the book "Tying Rocks to Clouds"

"We collect things and memories and store them lovingly in the recesses of our souls...only to be brought out into the sunlight by telling about them over and over again." Particia Polacco

What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves: "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? " Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.....
We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in every one.....
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others the permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others. "

Marianne Williamson - 'A Return To Love' 1992

"Another world is possible. Where the choice is between war or peace, between memory or oblivion, between hope or despair, between the grey on one side and the whole rainbow on the other side. One world where many worlds can exist. It is possible for a "YES!" an incomplete unfinished
"YES!" to be born out of a "NO!". A "YES!" that gives humanity hope back, so that we day by day can
rebuild the complex bridge that connects thinking and feeling" ....
Marcos, from the mountains in Southeast Mexico, 1999

"You can look at war as a massing of arms and matérial and troops, but you can also see it as something else--as a delicate web of interwoven choices made by human beings, made out of a certain consciousness. The decision to order an attack, the choice to obey or disobey an order, to fire or not to fire a weapon. Armies and, indeed, any culture that supports them must convince the people that all the decisions are made already, and they have no choice. But that is never true."

The Fifth Sacred Thing" by Starhawk

"A Free Concert for Peace" with live performances by Quick Said the Bird (acoustic music ensemble), Michael Kwame Itoka (jazz guitarist), and Jeff Matheus (poet) and speeches in support of Conscientious Objectors by Carl Rising-Moore and Michelle Gussow, will take place on Sat. Aug. 7 at 7 pm at First Friends Meeting, 3030 Kessler Blvd. East Dr. For more info, email Jeff Matheus at jeffmatheus@hotmail.com
"There's peace in working a garden"

Market Image from Bloominton, IN

May we never hunger. ¡Que nunca tengamos hambre!" "May we never thirst! ¡Que nunca tengamos sed!" - Starhawk, The Fifth Sacred Thing
Blacklash Grows Against BP Efforts to 'Buy Up' Gulf - Scientists from HuffingtonPost.com
BP's efforts to "buy up" scientists in Gulf states was first revealed by Ben Raines of the Mobile Press-Register, who found that "BP has been offering signing bonuses and lucrative pay to prominent scientists" at coastal public universities, mostly to help the company fend off a slew of post-spill lawsuits. In one shocking example, BP attempted to hire the entire Marine Science Department at the University of Alabama - an offer they declined due to a host of restrictions the oil company wanted to place on the school's research. Continue Reading.

Aug. 6 Anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit Hiroshima. A calendar of events is on the Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki website.

-Hiroshima Day Observance - Hiroshima Day will be observed on Fri. Aug. 6 at Earth House, 247 N. East, with a craft project for children at 7 pm (making paper cranes and Japanese lanterns) and an audio-visual presentation at 8 pm by Kyoko Amano, a University of Indianapolis professor who took students to visit the museum in Hiroshima this spring, followed at dusk by a walk around the neighborhood with Japanese lanterns, sponsored by Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center. For more info, email me at jwolfe@uindy.edu or 432-4873.

 

When I heard Reverend McCarty present this sermon, I knew immediately, I wanted to publish it here. I am grateful that he agreed. I am also grateful to all those who stood on the side of our collective wholeness in saying, "NO", to this divisive legislation. With our nations communities enduring so much economic turmoil and irreplacable losses compounded by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; with increased awareness of our living in a time of global warming and peak oil; we are very aware that we all exist with great uncertainty; and that this unsettling time is seen by some (who act not in love and not with our collective hightest good) as an easy time to manipulate and twist people by placing fear between them. Cultivating fear of one another through the presention of false images and stories. I ask that we feel beyond the sensationlism to the heart of what is presented and ask, "What is the intention of this story, what is the motivation, and do I believe this to be true". Even as we work thorough the mazes before us, I am hopeful that we have within us the ability to create the beloved community through our collective awaking. May we stand together so as to have the necessary energy and resources to meet the work before us. P.CC.

"ICH BIN EIN ILLEGAL"
A Sermon Delivered July 25, 2010, by the Reverend Dennis McCarty
At the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington Indiana, July 2010

READING: from "Gone but not Forgotten," by Jane Bosveld

The great Sonoran Desert stretches from deep in Mexico to the middle of Arizona, a dun landscape dotted with 20-foot-tall saguaro cacti and scraggly sagebrush. With its mind-blurring heat, this is not a place where you want to be left behind--but people are all the time. Ranchers, county sheriffs, and the government patrols that guard the United States-Mexico border find them with grim regularity, the bodies of illegal immigrants who slipped across the border but did not survive the journey on the other side. Remains not found for weeks or months may amount to a few decaying bones. Sometimes an animal drags the body off, or a person strips down under the onslaught of the heat, leaving behind nothing more than a pair of worn shoes and a faded shirt.

More than 200 bodies a year turn up in the Sonoran [Desert], a number that has increased over the past decade as immigrants avoid urban areas and attempt to reach the United States by more remote routes, often through Arizona. After crossing the border, they sometimes walk 70 miles or more to reach a safe point of entry, often traveling without water and in temperatures that can reach 110 degrees Farenheit.

Authorities suspect that the bodies turning up inside our borders are migrants from Mexico or Central America. Their guides, popularly known as coyotes, may have abandoned them in the desert if they fell behind or got sick. "It's hard to know what happened," says Lori Baker, a molecular anthropologist at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and one of the leading experts in identifying the remains. "Some coyotes just take their fees, which can be $1,500 [dollars] or more, and then leave the people in the desert. Sometimes they're dead before they even get to the border."

For Baker, the granddaughter of a migrant worker, the issue is not whether America's immigration laws should be tighter or looser; the issue is how to respond to the tragedy and loss. "I can't imagine anyone's begrudging a family the explanation of what happened to their loved one," she says. "How do you say, 'Sorry, I don't want you to find out what happened to your 15-year-old son." . . .
[Baker sadly told about] the case of Rosa Cano in June 2003. A single mother, she had set out to find work in the States. When weeks went by without a word, her mother (also named Rosa) contacted authorities, who put her in touch with Baker. It turned out that DNA from. . . bones. . . sent to Baker matched a DNA sample from the family. "I had just found out I was pregnant with my first child," Baker remembers, "And trying to imagine this mother finding out that her own child had died? It broke my heart." Click to Continue Reading

EarthTalk®
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

"The Organic Trade Association (OTA) considers cotton "the world's dirtiest crop" due to its heavy use of chemical insecticides and fertilizers. Fortunately, there are now thousands of organic cotton retailers, including some of the big box stores. The OTA's Organic Pages Online lists vendors (and links to their websites) by product type. Pictured: An organic cotton T-shirt by Tiny Revolutionary." "Image credit to Tiny Revolutionary."

Dear EarthTalk: I always thought cotton was eco-friendly, but I recently heard otherwise. What's so bad about cotton? And where can I find organic cotton clothing? -- Jamie Hunter, Twin Falls, ID

There's a lot "bad" about conventionally grown cotton-cotton grown with the aid of synthetic chemicals, that is. The Organic Trade Association (OTA), a nonprofit trade group representing America's burgeoning organic cotton industry, considers cotton "the world's dirtiest crop" due to its heavy use of insecticides. The nonprofit Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) reports that cotton uses 2.5 percent of the world's cultivated land yet uses 16 percent of the world's insecticides-more than any other single major crop.

Three of the most acutely hazardous insecticides, as determined by the World Health Organization, are well represented among the top 10 most commonly used in producing cotton. One of them, Aldicarb, "can kill a man with just one drop absorbed through the skin," says OTA, "yet it is still used in 25 countries and the U.S., where 16 states have reported it in their groundwater."

Conventionally grown cotton also uses large amounts of nitrogen-based synthetic fertilizer-almost a third of a pound, says the OTA, to grow one pound of raw cotton. To put that in perspective, it takes just under one pound of raw cotton to make one t-shirt. Researchers have found that the fertilizers used on cotton are the most detrimental to the environment, running off into freshwater habitats and groundwater and causing oxygen-free dead zones in water bodies. The nitrogen oxides formed during the production and use of these fertilizers are also a major part of the agricultural sector's greenhouse gas emissions.

This is all true despite that the use of sprayed insecticides is quickly decreasing with the advent of genetically engineered cotton seeds that have insecticides bred right into them. A third of global cotton cropland and 45 percent of world cotton production now uses genetically engineered seeds. This poses a whole other set of issues, as some scientists fear that the proliferation of such "Frankenseeds" can lead to pest immunities and even the unleashing of so-called "super pests" that can resist virtually any pesticide.

Organic cotton farming eschews synthetic chemicals (as well as genetically engineered seed) in favor of time-tested natural alternatives that ward off pests, replenish and maintain soil fertility and generally optimize growing conditions without compromising the environment or our health. "Composted manures and cover crops replace synthetic fertilizers; innovative weeding strategies are used instead of herbicides; beneficial insects and trap crops control insect pests; and alternatives to toxic defoliants prepare plants for harvest," says the Sustainable Cotton Project (SCP), a nonprofit that helps cotton farmers in California's Central Valley discover the economic, environmental and health benefits of avoiding synthetic chemicals.

For consumers able to pay a little more, there are now thousands of organic cotton retailers. The OTA reports that American farmers increased plantings of organic cotton by 26 percent in 2009 over 2008, while sales of organic cotton fiber grew 10.4 percent (to $521 million) during the same time. The OTA's Organic Pages Online lists vendors (and links to their websites) by product type; many sell online as well as through retail chains. Even some big box stores now offer organic cotton items. So keep your eyes peeled and be a part of the solution by opting for organic cotton next time you stock up your drawers.

CONTACTS: OTA, www.ota.com; EJF, www.ejfoundation.org; SCP, www.sustainablecotton.org.

"The average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper a year. One no-brainer way to green up one's office is to refrain from printing when you can, use both sides of a sheet, and recycle so that the recycling industry will have raw material." "Image credit to Thinkstock."

Dear EarthTalk: What are some simple things I could do to green the office I work in?
-- James Raskin, Framingham, MA

No matter how green your office may be already, there is surely room for improvement somewhere. Here are 10 suggestions to help get you and your co-workers further along on the path to office sustainability:

(1) Take your Office's Green Footprint: The website TheGreenOffice.com, an online retailer specializing in green office products, makes available a free Office Footprint Calculator to gauge what kind of effect you and your co-workers are having on the environment and identify how to make improvements.

(2) Save Trees: The average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper a year. Refrain from printing when you can, use both sides of a sheet, and recycle so that the recycling industry will have raw material.

(3) Power Down: Artificial lighting accounts for almost half of all office electricity use. Turn off lights that are not being used. Better yet, install motion sensors that do it automatically when no one is in the room. Also, shut down computers overnight, and set them to go into sleep mode when sitting idle.

(4) Minimize E-Waste: Upgrade or repair the office computers instead of junking them. So-called "e-waste"-toxin-leaching computers and electronics-is a huge problem all over the world now.

(5) Telecommute: Encourage workers to work at home when possible to save car trips. For those who must come to the office, encourage bicycling if it is safe. Also some firms now subsidize employee public transit costs to discourage driving. And online video tools like Skype can help cut down on business trips.

(6) Green Screen Your Suppliers: Ask your vendors how they are greening their operations. Just posing the question can start them thinking, the precursor to action. Demand recycled paper and soy-based inks from your printers, and buy only green office supplies-which are now widely available.

(7) Clean Greener: Make sure your cleaning service uses non-toxic, green friendly products-if they don't, offer to supply them-so that you can breathe easy when you're trying to get your own work done.

(8) Eco-Renovate: If you need to renovate or upgrade anything, greenest options abound, including non-toxic paints, natural fiber carpeting, energy efficient windows and Energy Star-rated office equipment.

(9) Drink Tap Water: Having big jugs of water lugged in and out every week by the bottle water company is not only unnecessary but a big waste of energy. Most tap water is safe to drink; if yours isn't or you're not sure, put filters on the kitchen spouts or buy filtered water pitchers and keep them in the office fridge.

(10) Put Your Heads Together: Form a committee to organize and monitor your office's green practices, to ensure that your office's green goals don't fall away if one or two committed employees move on, and to reinforce the importance of doing the right thing across the organization.

CONTACTS: TheGreenOffice.com, www.thegreenoffice.com.

SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk®, c/o E - The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; earthtalk@emagazine.com. E is a nonprofit publication. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe; Request a Free Trial Issue

 
Paper Recycler Coming to Northeast Indiana
InsideINdianaBusiness.com Report
An Illinois recycling company plans to locate a facility in Allen County. Quincy Recycle Paper says it will invest more than $630,000 and create 12 jobs. The company is requesting a tax phase in package that could save it more than $22,000 over a five year period.

SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk®, c/o E - The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; earthtalk@emagazine.com. E is a nonprofit publication. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe; Request a Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.

 

CLAYTON, Mo. -- As the first crowd of customers filed into Panera Co.'s nonprofit restaurant here, only the honor system kept them from taking all the food they wanted for free.

Ronald Shaich, Panera's chairman, admitted as he watched them line up that he had no idea if his experiment would work. The idea for Panera's first nonprofit restaurant was to open an eatery where people paid what they could. The richer could pay full price -- or extra. The poorer could get a cheap or even free meal.

A month later, the verdict is in: It turns out people are basically good. Click to Read

Leaking to Avert Disaster
by Joe Conason / Truthdig.com

The outpouring of tens of thousands of classified military documents by WikiLeaks is not precisely comparable to the publication of the Pentagon Papers — but in at least one crucial respect, it may be more valuable. While the Pentagon Papers revealed the duplicity of American policymakers in the senseless Vietnam War, their release came too late to save many lives or change the course of that conflict. The WikiLeaks disclosures may have arrived in time to influence policy and prevent disaster. Read article.

 

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Take GM Corn off the Shelves! Sponsored by: Care2.com
As Monsanto prepares to unleash its latest Genetically-Modified (GM) corn supercrop, the International Journal of Biological Sciences has revealed the true cost of these crops.

The study focused on three GM corn crops -- Mon 863, Mon 801 and NK 603 -- and found that they caused statistically significant rates of kidney and liver malfunction, as well as some heart, adrenal, spleen and blood damage in rats. These crops have been approved for consumption in the U.S. and many countries in Europe without proper research into their affect on human health.

GM technology inserts non-food genes into the DNA of food, sometimes making the crop more resilient to herbicides and other times causing them to produce toxic proteins that act as pesticides themselves. This process changes the structure of the food drasticcally and presents humans with substances that have never been a part of the human or animal diet.

Several countries in Europe, such as Germany and France, have already banned GM crops, including Mon 801. But the U.S. FDA has done us a potentially dangerous disservice by simply taking Monsanto's word that these genetically modified crops are safe and not doing any testing! This 90-day study was just the beginning, and these GM crops must be studied further instead of being immediately available for human consumption.

Tell the FDA to take these genetically modified corn varieties off the shelves until a peer-reviewed, two-year study can determine if they are safe for human consumption!

Click Here to Stop GM Corn


Quilters Comfort

Aug. 9 Conference on Disarmament, third and last session for 2010 begins. Through Sept. 24. Geneva.
 
Aug. 16 - South Central Community Action Program invites you to an informational Dessert Night at 6:30 p.m. to learn about becoming an Ally with the Monroe County Circles Initiative. Circles is a strategy to help low-income families build resources and transition out of poverty, to change systems and policies that perpetuate poverty, and to build community across race and class lines. Allies are urgently needed; three to four Allies are matched with each family. Thorough training and ongoing staff support are provided. An 18-month commitment of four plus hours monthly are required. Allies must be available one to two Thurs. evenings monthly.
Contact information.
Aug. 17 5:30-8:00 p.m., National Nuclear Security Administration, scoping meeting on a supplemental environmental impact statement on surplus plutonium disposition. North Augusta Municipal Center, 100 Georgia Ave., North Augusta, SC.

Aug. 25-27 U.N. Regional Center for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific and the Japanese Foreign Ministry, "U.N. Conference on Disarmament Issues: A Nuclear-Weapon-Free

World: Making Steady Progress from Vision to Action." Saitama, Japan.

Aug. 29 International Day Against Nuclear Tests (U.N. General Assembly Resolution A/C.1/64/L.14/Rev.1).
 
Hoosier Raging Grannies reherse or meet the 2nd Mondays monthly, 5:00 pm at Rachael's Cafe on 3rd Street, Bloomington, IN. Women singing for peace and justice. Available for events. Contact Cynthia Roberts at cynrober(at)indiana.edu for more information
 
Take a chance on peacemaking; we have a lot to gain from it!
Question and Answer

You are invited to attend the Bloomington Spiritual Life Center’s first Open House on Saturday, August 7, 2010, 2:00 to 5:00 pm. The recently opened center is located at 412 S. Walnut in Bloomington, Indiana.

The BSLC will have tours, mini-sessions, information, discussions, and refreshments. All are invited to drop by for a brief or lengthy stay! If any are interested in helping, as a volunteer you will can helpprepare for the event, or would like to drop by before the open house, please feel free to contact me by email or cell phone (812-219-6734). The BSLC phone lines should be installed within the next week, giving us a land line, fax line, and wireless for the BSLC (so you can bring your laptop and hang out!)

Simply Living Fair and Midwest Permaculture Convergence - Bloomington, IN

The Center for Sustainable Living and the Bloomington Permaculture Guild are excited to offer the 2010 Simply Living Fair and Midwest Permaculture Gathering in Bloomington September 23-26! The fair will include speakers, workshops, children's activities, tours, hands-on demonstrations, and vendor booths offering information about a variety of sustainable living topics.

Some example topics:

* Renovating an old home for energy efficiency
* Conserving water with rain barrels, cisterns, and low- flow faucets
* Cooking with solar ovens
* How to live without a car
* Growing food in your backyard (or front yard)

For more information, please visit our website or contact vendor coordinator Maggie Sullivan at 812-345-1592.
 
Green - Energy, the Environment and the Bottom Line
July 29, 2010, 10:02 am
Fight Gears Up on Biomass

By MATTHEW L. WALD

There is evidently no form of energy, including renewable energy, that lacks opposition. A big spat right now centers on biomass power plants.

Biomass is a broad category that encompasses everything from burning whole trees to burning leftover wood chips, agricultural residues or household garbage. The focus of the argument is currently in Massachusetts, where state regulators are considering raising the bar for biomass plants.

Supporters say that cutting down trees to make electricity is carbon-neutral, because the trees will regrow and absorb carbon dioxide from the air. But a recent study suggests that the trees will take years to do that, offering little short-term help. (The same argument can be made about solar cells; manufacturing them involves releasing carbon dioxide, then takes some time to break even before yielding a net benefit in decreased carbon dioxide emissions.)

Biomass is a favored form of renewable energy because its generation can be reliably scheduled; the wind and sun can merely be predicted, and not always very well, leading to a need for extensive storage.

Now a group in Cambridge, Mass., is mounting a more direct assault on harnessing biomass: the Biomass Accountability Project is trotting out experts in medicine and forestry to argue against such power generators.

Margaret Sheehan, a lawyer with the group, says that even if new biomass plants meet all Environmental Protection Agency regulations on air emissions, generation could still endanger human health because the standards are inadequate. For emissions of very small soot particles, she said, “there is no safe known limit.”

That position has some support, particularly in New England. “We cannot afford to trade our health to meet our energy needs,’’ the American Lung Association of New England said in a position statement issued in December. Biomass plants can emit several pollutants harmful to the young, the old and people with respiratory problems, the group said.

But on the other side, the Biomass Power Association is gearing up to fight the notion that burning trees adds to carbon in the atmosphere. The group’s member companies use wood scraps from trees that were cut down for other purposes, said Bob Cleaves, the group’s chief executive. The association also argues that the study Massachusetts is using is misleading.

“The carbon cycle is beneficial,’’ Mr. Cleaves said. “Biomass energy should be supported.”

The arguments on both sides lost a bit of vigor when the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, scaled back plans for an energy bill. While many states have standards for embracing renewable energy, a national standard seems elusive to many or even off the table. Some Democrats are still pushing for it, though.

 

[VolunteerMatch - Get out. Do good.]

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