+ This is the current Facebook status of Interfaith Power & Light:
Happy World Water Day! It's a good day to appreciate and conserve the safe clean drinking water most of us in the U.S. have from our taps. An estimated 768 million people worldwide do not have access to clean water. The focus of U.N. World Water Day this year is the intricate link between water and energy. Read more: http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday
Showing posts with label sustainability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sustainability. Show all posts
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
COFFEE BREAK 411
+ updated at 1:54pm EST on Wednesday, February 26, 2014
+ Earth Policy Institute offers "Can the World Feed China" by Lester R. Brown. Lester Brown continues to promote a plan to sustain civilization. We can be hopeful if we begin to implement this plan and we need to be quite alarmed if we don't. Here are 2 excerpts:
“It wasn’t until 20 years ago, after I wrote an article entitled “Who Will Feed China?”, that I began to fully appreciate what a sensitive political issue food security was to the Chinese. The country’s leaders were all survivors of the Great Famine of 1959–61, when some 36 million people starved to death. Yet while the Chinese government was publicly critical of my questioning the country’s ability to feed itself, it began quietly reforming its agriculture. Among other things, Beijing adopted a policy of grain self-sufficiency, an initiative that is now faltering.”
Concluding Paragraph: “The world is transitioning from an era of abundance to one dominated by scarcity. China’s turn to the outside world for massive quantities of grain is forcing us to recognize that we are in trouble on the food front. Can we reverse the trends that are tightening food supplies, or is the world moving toward a future of rising food prices and political unrest?” | Read the whole article | Consider buying the PLAN B video
+ Earth Policy Institute offers "Can the World Feed China" by Lester R. Brown. Lester Brown continues to promote a plan to sustain civilization. We can be hopeful if we begin to implement this plan and we need to be quite alarmed if we don't. Here are 2 excerpts:
“It wasn’t until 20 years ago, after I wrote an article entitled “Who Will Feed China?”, that I began to fully appreciate what a sensitive political issue food security was to the Chinese. The country’s leaders were all survivors of the Great Famine of 1959–61, when some 36 million people starved to death. Yet while the Chinese government was publicly critical of my questioning the country’s ability to feed itself, it began quietly reforming its agriculture. Among other things, Beijing adopted a policy of grain self-sufficiency, an initiative that is now faltering.”
Concluding Paragraph: “The world is transitioning from an era of abundance to one dominated by scarcity. China’s turn to the outside world for massive quantities of grain is forcing us to recognize that we are in trouble on the food front. Can we reverse the trends that are tightening food supplies, or is the world moving toward a future of rising food prices and political unrest?” | Read the whole article | Consider buying the PLAN B video
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
COFFEE BREAK 374
+ On The Abundancetrek Blog I offer a brilliant statement by Barrett Lee on the importance of building a just society. He offers it in response to a quote by Jimmy Carter and a Facebook conversation which I highlight.
+ The God's Politics blog offers "Ten More Cliches Christians Should Avoid" by Christian Piatt. Here's one:
Love the sinner, hate the sin.
This is a backhanded way to tell someone you love them, at best. It also ignores the command by Jesus not to focus on the splinter in our neighbors’ eyes while a plank remains in our own. Bottom line: we all screw up, and naming others’ sin as noteworthy while remaining silent about your own is arrogant.
+ Truthdig offers "We Are All Aboard the Pequod" by Chris Hedges. Excerpt: "The self-destructive fury of the quest, much like that of the one we are on, assures the Pequod’s destruction. And those on the ship, on some level, know they are doomed—just as many of us know that a consumer culture based on corporate profit, limitless exploitation and the continued extraction of fossil fuels is doomed." | Read it all |
+ The God's Politics blog offers "Ten More Cliches Christians Should Avoid" by Christian Piatt. Here's one:
Love the sinner, hate the sin.
This is a backhanded way to tell someone you love them, at best. It also ignores the command by Jesus not to focus on the splinter in our neighbors’ eyes while a plank remains in our own. Bottom line: we all screw up, and naming others’ sin as noteworthy while remaining silent about your own is arrogant.
+ Truthdig offers "We Are All Aboard the Pequod" by Chris Hedges. Excerpt: "The self-destructive fury of the quest, much like that of the one we are on, assures the Pequod’s destruction. And those on the ship, on some level, know they are doomed—just as many of us know that a consumer culture based on corporate profit, limitless exploitation and the continued extraction of fossil fuels is doomed." | Read it all |
Monday, January 21, 2013
COFFEE BREAK 351
+ A few lines from a great speech today:
For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.
We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.
...... we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war, who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends, and we must carry those lessons into this time as well.
Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
COFFEE BREAK 349
+ updated at 11:53am EST on Thursday, January 17, 2013
+
If you could get rid
of yourself just once,
The secret of secrets
Would open to you.
The face of the unknown,
Hidden beyond the universe
Would appear on the
Mirror of your perception.
-- Rumi
of yourself just once,
The secret of secrets
Would open to you.
The face of the unknown,
Hidden beyond the universe
Would appear on the
Mirror of your perception.
-- Rumi
I found that quote at http://www.allspirit.co.uk/sufism.html
Dear Friend,
As climate change wreaks havoc across the globe and scientists issue dire warnings of a 9-15 degree increase in temperatures this century, the coal industry wants to ship more than a hundred million tons of dirty coal to Asia each year and make the problem much worse.
Peabody Coal and SSA Marine are moving forward with plans to build the largest coal export terminal in the country in Washington -- the Gateway Pacific Terminal. This is one of the most important fights against coal in the country right now, because if we lose, it will seriously undermine much of the progress we've made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the amount of dirty coal burned in the United States.
The Army Corps of Engineers is accepting public comments on the outrageous Gateway Pacific Terminal proposal to determine which environmental impacts of the project it should study.
Whether or not the Gateway Pacific Terminal is allowed to move forward could be determined by which factors the Corps includes in its impact statement. A full accounting of Gateway Pacific's impact on global greenhouse gas emissions would be devastating for the project, so our public comments are crucial.
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/gpt_coal_exports/?r_by=53456-10635-Cesx_Mx&rc=paste2
Monday, January 14, 2013
COFFEE BREAK 346
+ updated at 5:19pm EST on Monday, January 14, 2013
+ Unbound: An Interactive Journal of Christian Social Justice offers "Earth Walk" by David Siegenthaler. The author says the Environmental Movement is not as effective as it could be because it is not paying enough attention to core spiritual values which demand rejection of our current way of life. Excerpt: "If the main values of the U.S. society may be discerned from the persistent structural features of our country, it is questionable whether the environmental movement presents a serious challenge to an economy based upon accumulation of wealth for some, a population of laborers (often foreign, migrant, or otherwise rendered powerless) willing to accept a lot less, and an increasingly technology and luxury infatuated population of consumers. Indeed, the environmentalists themselves (ourselves!) predominantly represent privilege and wealth"
+ Unbound: An Interactive Journal of Christian Social Justice A offers "Eco Justice and the Earth Court" by John Preston, a friend of mine and an environmental activist, colleague in ministry, Progressive Christian theologian, author. In this article, he challenges the church to be prophetic and daring and reformed especially as we face the real possibility of ecological and economic and social catastrophe.
Don't miss the whole article. It is so important. But I can't resist posting his final paragraph here: "Our Creator is a God of Eco-Justice. Within the covenant between God and Israel there was a deep concern for the widow and the impoverished that reflected God’s own concern for the welfare of the “least of these.” There was also a concern for the land, which was the foundation for sustainable living. Today, for those who have the eyes to see, the plight of all creatures is tied to the welfare of the planet earth. The eco-justice story is also the earth story. It is this story that must come from a dim background, kept in place by the illusion of old narratives that are no longer viable, to the foreground of our consciousness as American Christian people. Bringing that story into the foreground of our consciousness is the prophetic task. It is also the true pastoral task in a time that struggles for meaning." | Read the article
+ We saw 4 great movies in recent days, 2 at the theater and 2 at home. And, of course, Spirituality & Practice has great reviews of LINCOLN, LES MISERABLES, THE LADY and BABETTE'S FEAST (1987 Oscar for Best Foreign Film).
+ Moved from my December 19 post which was titled incorrectly > Lester Brown is one of the most compassionate and articulate voices promoting sustainable abundance on our planet. Lester Brown’s new book Full Planet, Empty Plates takes a close look at the variables contributing to the growing crisis of food scarcity. Utne Reader offers a section from the book. Here is an excerpt: "We are entering a new era of rising food prices and spreading hunger. On the demand side of the food equation, population growth, rising affluence, and the conversion of food into fuel for cars are combining to raise consumption by record amounts. On the supply side, extreme soil erosion, growing water shortages, and the earth’s rising temperature are making it more difficult to expand production. Unless we can reverse such trends, food prices will continue to rise and hunger will continue to spread, eventually bringing down our social system. Can we reverse these trends in time? Or is food the weak link in our early 21st-century civilization, much as it was in so many of the earlier civilizations whose archeological sites we now study?" Read more
+ Unbound: An Interactive Journal of Christian Social Justice offers "Earth Walk" by David Siegenthaler. The author says the Environmental Movement is not as effective as it could be because it is not paying enough attention to core spiritual values which demand rejection of our current way of life. Excerpt: "If the main values of the U.S. society may be discerned from the persistent structural features of our country, it is questionable whether the environmental movement presents a serious challenge to an economy based upon accumulation of wealth for some, a population of laborers (often foreign, migrant, or otherwise rendered powerless) willing to accept a lot less, and an increasingly technology and luxury infatuated population of consumers. Indeed, the environmentalists themselves (ourselves!) predominantly represent privilege and wealth"
+ Unbound: An Interactive Journal of Christian Social Justice A offers "Eco Justice and the Earth Court" by John Preston, a friend of mine and an environmental activist, colleague in ministry, Progressive Christian theologian, author. In this article, he challenges the church to be prophetic and daring and reformed especially as we face the real possibility of ecological and economic and social catastrophe.
Don't miss the whole article. It is so important. But I can't resist posting his final paragraph here: "Our Creator is a God of Eco-Justice. Within the covenant between God and Israel there was a deep concern for the widow and the impoverished that reflected God’s own concern for the welfare of the “least of these.” There was also a concern for the land, which was the foundation for sustainable living. Today, for those who have the eyes to see, the plight of all creatures is tied to the welfare of the planet earth. The eco-justice story is also the earth story. It is this story that must come from a dim background, kept in place by the illusion of old narratives that are no longer viable, to the foreground of our consciousness as American Christian people. Bringing that story into the foreground of our consciousness is the prophetic task. It is also the true pastoral task in a time that struggles for meaning." | Read the article
+ We saw 4 great movies in recent days, 2 at the theater and 2 at home. And, of course, Spirituality & Practice has great reviews of LINCOLN, LES MISERABLES, THE LADY and BABETTE'S FEAST (1987 Oscar for Best Foreign Film).
+ Moved from my December 19 post which was titled incorrectly > Lester Brown is one of the most compassionate and articulate voices promoting sustainable abundance on our planet. Lester Brown’s new book Full Planet, Empty Plates takes a close look at the variables contributing to the growing crisis of food scarcity. Utne Reader offers a section from the book. Here is an excerpt: "We are entering a new era of rising food prices and spreading hunger. On the demand side of the food equation, population growth, rising affluence, and the conversion of food into fuel for cars are combining to raise consumption by record amounts. On the supply side, extreme soil erosion, growing water shortages, and the earth’s rising temperature are making it more difficult to expand production. Unless we can reverse such trends, food prices will continue to rise and hunger will continue to spread, eventually bringing down our social system. Can we reverse these trends in time? Or is food the weak link in our early 21st-century civilization, much as it was in so many of the earlier civilizations whose archeological sites we now study?" Read more
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