[Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: [SBM] Happy Earth Day, April 22nd, Happiness Is a Smaller Eco-Footprint]

Sun Apr 22 13:08:16 PDT 2007

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[SBM] Happy Earth Day, April 22nd, Happiness Is a Smaller 
Eco-Footprint
Date: 	Sun, 22 Apr 2007 13:22:30 EDT
From: 	Vidagol at aol.com
To: 	sbm at lists.riseup.net

*PEACE BE ON EARTH*

*IN THIS EMAIL: Earth Day* -- (1) History (2) Issues Of  Concern (3) 
What Can We Do (Our Enviromental Responsibility)
(4) Happiness Is a Smaller Eco-Footprint

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* HISTORY/ BACKGROUND*
**************************************

"on April 22, 1970, *Earth Day was held, one of the most remarkable 
happenings in the history of democracy "  -American Heritage Magazine, 
October 1993 *

*_How the First Earth Day Came About:_* By Senator Gaylord Nelson 
<http://www.wilderness.org/profiles/nelsonbio.htm>, Founder of Earth Day

Actually, the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years 
starting in 1962. For several years, it had been troubling me that the 
state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the 
country. Finally, in November 1962, an idea occurred to me that was, I 
thought, a virtual cinch to put the environment into the political 
"limelight" once and for all.  More 
http://earthday.envirolink.org/history.html

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* SOME ISSUES OF CONCERN *
*******************************************

**1* _Global Warming: Earth Under Fire_*

_Learn the Facts:_

** CLIMATE CHANGE IS HAPPENING NOW: Human beings have changed the ratio 
of gases in our Earth's atmosphere. Since Industrialization the level of 
CO2 (carbon-dioxide) has spiked up dramatically. The global weather 
system is immensely vast and complex, but life is being adversely 
impacted _now_. Within as little as 10 years we could trigger another 
ice age (beginning in Europe) and/or within 20-50 years sea levels could 
rise high enough to claim millions of lives. 
More: http://www.earthdayenergyfast.org/science.html

** UN Efforts: http://www.ipcc.ch/present/graphics.htm

** A beginner's guide to understanding the issue of global warming. 
http://www.whrc.org/resources/online_publications/warming_earth/index.htm

** 10 MYTHS about Global Warming. 
http://www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org/pages/actions.html

**2* _Water Crisis: World Water Supply Is Dramatically Decreasing_*

** While the world's population tripled in the 20th century, the use of 
renewable water resources has grown six-fold. Within the next fifty 
years, the world population will increase by another 40 to 50 %. This 
population growth - coupled with industrialization and urbanization - 
will result in an increasing demand for water and will have serious 
consequences on the environment.  More: 
http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/index.php?id=25

** Water is one of our most critical resources, but around the world it 
is under threat. http://www.worldwater.org/data.html

** *Water* policy topics and transboundary handled by International 
intergovernmental and NGO network. www.*worldwater*council.org/ 
<http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/>

**3* _Uncontrolled Urbanization & Industerialization:_* *_Species 
Die-Offs  & Loss Of Habitat_*

A large portion of the world is becoming more and more urbanized as time 
progresses. By 2025, east Asia is estimated to be 63% urbanized, Latin 
America 85%, and Africa 54%. Unless the right steps are taken to control 
suburban growth, many more populations and species are going to 
disappear under the concrete slabs of a city in the next half-century. 
More: http://library.thinkquest.org/25014/why/indirect.habitat.html

***********************************
* WHAT CAN BE DONE?** *
*************************************

**1* _Say No To Genetic Engineering_*

While scientific progress on molecular biology has a great potential to 
increase our understanding of nature and provide new medical tools, it 
should not be used as justification to turn the environment into a giant 
genetic experiment by commercial interests.  More: 
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/genetic-engineering

**2* _Explore Organic Food_*

Most people are aware that organically grown food is free from exposure 
to harmful chemicals, but that is only one small part of what organic is 
about.
A larger part of organic agriculture involves the health of the soil 
<http://www.uvm.edu/%7Enesare/slides/sld001.htm> and of the ecosystems 
in which crops and livestock are raised. More: 
http://www.localharvest.org/?lat=37.7747&lon=-122.421295&scale=1 
<http://www.localharvest.org/?lat=37.7747&lon=-122.421295&scale=1>

**3*  _Tips to save energy._*    
http://www.epa.gov/earthday/tips-saveenergy.htm

**4*  _Tips to use water efficiently._*    
http://www.epa.gov/earthday/tips-water.htm

**5*  _Tips to Reduce / Reuse / Recycle._*    
http://www.epa.gov/earthday/tips-reduce.htm

**6** _ *15 Very Important Things to Do about Global Warming.*_* ** * 
http://www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org/pages/actions.html

**7* _Be a Green Teacher: Education for Planet Earth_.** 
*http://www.greenteacher.com <http://www.greenteacher.com/>

*TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A GREEN DIFFERENCE*

Published on Sunday, April 22, 2007 by Inter Press Service 
<http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37439>
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/22/678/
*Earth Day 2007: Happiness Is a Smaller Eco-Footprint**

*by Stephen Leahy

BROOKLIN, Canada - Today’s children will live in a new world of climate 
change and greatly diminished natural resources, which may give way to a 
nightmarish reality, or it could give birth to a happier and lighter way 
of living on the Earth, say environmentalists.The scientific evidence 
for environmental troubles — from rising sea levels to species 
extinction to desertification — sends a clear signal that we are running 
into the limits of spaceship Earth to support us as it has for millennia.

“This world is ending; we need to lay the foundations for a new world,” 
says Alice Klein, a magazine editor and documentary filmmaker in 
Toronto. “We have a great opportunity to make a better world,” she told 
IPS.Klein’s film “Call of the Hummingbird”, to premiere on Earth Day — 
Apr. 22 — at Toronto’s Hot Docs film festival, tracks the 13 days when 
some 1,000 teachers, eco-activists, farmers, Mayans, Rastafarians, 
holistic health-workers, non-governmental organisation executives, 
student leaders from all over Latin America and a few from Europe and 
North America camped out together in central Brazil in 2005.Their 
purpose was to live on the land and co-create a temporary peace 
eco-village in harmony with nature and each other.It wasn’t easy or 
harmonious.

There were problems with garbage, sanitation and, not surprisingly given 
the diversity of their backgrounds, simply getting along with each 
other.“There is very little training or study in our formal education 
systems about conflict resolution and how to get along with each other,” 
says Klein, noting that, instead, we are constantly exposed to violent 
and conflict-ridden programming in our media.Another fundamental issue 
in modern culture is separation from nature,” she says. “We don’t see 
that we are connected to the natural world.”

With more people living in cities than in rural areas for the first time 
in human history, the delusion of separation is likely to worsen.A 
recent scientific study found that more children knew the characters of 
the video game Pokemon than could recognise an oak tree or an otter, 
according to the Ecological Society of America, a Washington DC-based 
organisation of 10,000 ecological scientists.Visits to national and 
state parks in the United States have declined by as much as 25 percent 
in the last decade, while kids remain indoors watching TV and playing 
computer games. And yet there is ample evidence that children who 
connect with nature perform better in school, have higher academic 
testing scores, exhibit fewer behavioural challenges, and experience 
fewer attention-deficit disorders, the ESA said in a recent statement.

The organisation is promoting the *“No Child Left Indoors”* campaign to 
challenge all citizens — young and old — to take a child into the 
natural world for a shared educational experience on or around Earth 
Day.There is also ample evidence that more material things — toys, 
games, computers, TVs, designer clothes — do not make children or adults 
happier, says Sam Thompson, researcher at the New Economics Foundation 
(NEF), an environmental think tank in London.“People in many Latin 
American countries report that they have a very good quality of life but 
use only a fraction of the resources that Europeans or Americans do,” 
Thompson said in an interview.The foundation has compiled data about the 
ecological footprint, life-satisfaction and life expectancy for people 
in countries around the world to develop what it calls the *“**Happy 
Planet Index”. *

This index reflects the average number of years of contented living 
produced by a nation or group of nations, per unit of planetary 
resources consumed.In other words, the Happy Planet Index reveals the 
efficiency with which countries convert the Earth’s finite resources 
into well-being experienced by their citizens.

The people of the United States and Germany are at the same level of 
happiness and life expectancy, but the U.S. population uses far more 
resources and is thus much less efficient at producing satisfaction.

*“The evidence is unequivocal that a focus on materialistic lifestyle 
makes people less happy,”* Thompson said.

The most efficient, according to the index, is the economically poor 
Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu.*“The index clearly shows that you can 
have a better quality of life with less use of resources,” *he said.

However, despite these facts and decades of talk about sustainability, 
all economies are still based on the concept of endless growth.

Advertising and media in most cultures continue to define personal 
success as having more and bigger stuff.Economies have to change 
radically, but we have yet to figure out how, said Thompson.In all of 
this, avoiding despair about the future is crucial, especially for young 
people, says Nic Marks, head of NEF’s centre for well-being.“The things 
that bring us joy or happiness and a good life don’t have to cost the 
Earth,” Marks told IPS.

Things that make us truly happy are our relationships, using our skills 
and strengths to meet challenges or participate in exciting activities 
and doing things in our own way. Meeting the challenge of 
de-materialising our economics and lifestyles can be done in a fun way, 
he says.The future life of today’s children will be different from their 
parents’ generation but it isn’t happiness or well-being or even comfort 
that is at stake. Life will just be different and possibly much better 
if the young and their parents become engaged with the exciting 
challenging changes, according to the NEF experts.“Use your skills and 
strengths to be part of the solution,” says Marks.

Copyright © 2007 IPS-Inter Press Service.

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