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Green-Healthy Schools 18 y
Kids learn better and have fewer sick days when the school buildings they are in are "green", new study says. Can't wait for California to follow New York's lead of using "green" cleaning products in public buildings, including public schools!
THE NON-TOXIC TIMES, The Seventh Generation Newsletter
Vol. 7, No. 3 January 2006
Education Elation: Schools Graded “Green” Test Best
It’s an educational axiom that student performance is directly related to a school’s environment. The nicer and safer the surroundings, the greater the student achievement. Taking this idea to heart, more and more schools are extending the concept of “school environment” to, well… the environment. Maybe they’ve seen the new survey that finds green facilities enhance learning. Or perhaps they’re following the lead of New York State, which this fall ... read more ReducingToxins in Home 18 y
Liora's List/Reducing PBDE's: Flame retardant chemicals, known as polybrominated diphenyls(PBDE's) found in furniture, clothing, and carpet padding manufactured in the U.S and Europe have been found to accumulate in women's breast milk. They have also found their way to the Arctic, poisoning Indigenous peoples and endangering Arctic polar bears and other wildlife. What you can do to reduce PBDE's and other toxic chemicals in your home and environment:
1) Consider buying used furniture, mattresses, and clothing from thrift stores, antique shops, estate sales, or e-bay. This way, you are not adding any new PBDE’s or other flame retardants into the environment as you would with the purchase of new items, and you’ll be saving money, too! Check out Furniture Shopping Tips/Used Furniture: http://www.furnitureshoppingtips.com/usedfurniture.html
2) Join a recycling co-op on-line, where you can list used items you have for trade or give-away, and see if anyone else has posted items you may need. And, be sure to donate any unwant ... read more Poisoned Polar Bears 18 y
Flame retardants in furniture, clothing, and carpets manufactured in the U.S and Europe are finding their way to the Arctic, polluting polar bears and other wildlife.
Toxic waste creates hermaphrodite Arctic polar bears
Published: 10 January 2006 By David Usborne in New York
Independent News
Wildlife researchers have found new evidence that Arctic polar bears, already gravely threatened by the melting of their habitat because of global warming, are being poisoned by chemical compounds commonly used in Europe and North America to reduce the flammability of household furnishings like sofas, clothing and carpets.
A team of scientists from Canada, Alaska, Denmark and Norway is sound ... read more Buy Fair Trade Tea 18 y
Fair-trade certification and organic farming practices are revolutionizing the way tea is grown at an increasing number of estates in India -- and transforming the lives of the people who pick it.
The Oothu Tea Estate, nestled in a tiger sanctuary in the Cardamom Hills, is one of the most isolated in India. It is a self-contained world where little seems to have changed since the 19th century -- except that it became India’s first biodynamic tea producer in the 1970s, and is the country’s largest grower of organic tea today.
Tea Here Now
In India, fair trade is changing a centuries-old industry
By Nina Luttinger and Gregory Dicum
http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/01/05/luttinger-dicum/index.html?sour... #
05 Jan 2006
Th ... read more Buy Recycled Gold 18 y
If you must buy gold, buy Recycled Gold jewelry as an alternative to jewelry from gold obtained through destructive gold-mining practices
March 2005 | Co-op America’s Living Green
http://www.evergreenmonthly.com/2005/em2103/livinggreen2103.html
Before buying gold jewelry, ask yourself if you really need it. See if you can borrow gold items, or check secondhand shops and eBay. Jewelers can alter gold items you don’t wear, or melt them down and rework them into new pieces. Or, look for new jewelry made out of recycled gold. The website greenKarat offers jewelry made from recycled 14K and 18K gold.
greenKarat Gold Jewelry: http://www.greenkarat.com/about/about.asp
Fr ... read more No Dirty Gold! 18 y
Gold mining wreaks havoc on the health of the environment, workers, and local communities. Sign the No Dirty Gold pledge!
Help Native Americans protect their land!
Join the No Dirty Gold Campaign , sponsored by Oxfam America and Earthworks, and tell mining companies and jewelers to ensure that the gold in their products was not mined at the expense of local communities, workers, and the environment. Sign the No Dirty Gold pledge here : http://www.nodirtygold.org/take_action.cfm
Oxfam is proud to stand up with our eCommunity to support those affected by poverty, hunger and social injustice. Thank you for joining with us. Together we are making a difference!
Sincerely,
... read more Pesticide ACTION ALERT 18 y
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to radically cut back on the amount of information disclosed to the public about toxic chemicals used in their communities. TAKE ACTION! Tell the EPA not to weaken the public's right to know!
PESTICIDE ACTION NORTH AMERICA (PANNA)
Public Right to Know About Toxics is Under Attack
January 3, 2006
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to radically cut back on the amount of information disclosed to the public about toxic chemicals used in their communities. The federal Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) currently requires companies to publicly disclose information about certain toxic chemicals they are releasing into the air, land, and water. EPA’s proposed changes ... read more ProtectAncestralLands 18 y
Western Shoshone ancestral lands have been violated repeatedly by the U.S. government via gold mining & military testing without consent. SIGN PETITION sponsored by Oxfam America to help stop these violations against ancestral lands!
Help Protect Shoshone Lands
January 05, 2006
... read more Mountain Facelift 18 y
The transformation from an abused and dying ecosystem to a lush, thriving wilderness is a long road, but Glastonbury Mountain and the Green Mountain National Forest are proof that Vermont is racing along the right track.
A Vermont-Style Facelift: Glastonbury Mountain in the Green Mountain National Forest
http://www.wilderness.org/WhereWeWork/Vermont/glastonbury.cfm
Glastonbury Mountain
“There are less than a handful of places left in the East where you can stand and see nothing but the work of nature – where man has been removed from the equation and the land has reclaimed its own. Glastonbury Mountain is one of those rare places.” Peter Sterling, Wilderness Organizer for The Wilderness Society, speaks so passionately about thi ... read more Nature & Beauty 18 y
"Nature's landscapes speak to us in ways that are ineffable and mysterious, yet still palpable and heartfelt."
photo by Ben Franklin http://www.uppergreen.org/gallery/map_thumbs.php?rank=2
FIRST PERSON
Beauty’s value shines not on us, but in us
By Gretel Ehrlich, Special to The Times
An almost full moon sweeps light across shadowed and white-spiked peaks, bringing into view an unbroken 100-mile-long mountain wall that spills down on either side to green plateaus, river valleys and sage-grasslands.
It’s early evening, and I’ve been walking through this ice-carved valley laced with oxbows, ospreys, willow thickets, mergansers and moose. I’m wondering how to live between what Th ... read more Beauty & Heartbreak 19 y
I received this message from a friend on Christmas Day; on it she wrote "Beauty and Heartbreak to make you weep"
From: Ralph Metzner ralph@greenearthfound.org Sent: Saturday, December 24, 2005 Subject: A moment of sheer magic between some ancient oak trees, two wild horses and people with chain-saws Herewith a moment of sadness for the heart and inspiration for the soul: Check out this very moving 5 min film, shot spontaneously, at a tree-cutting protest in Britain: in a magical moment, two wild black horses appear and fearlessly move right around the felled oak trees, amoung several hundred police and tree cutters, as if grieving and communing with the trees.
Words can’t say i ... read more Recycle your Tree! 19 y
Now that Christmas is over, be sure to recycle your Christmas Tree!
RECYCLE YOUR TREE!
If you had a real cut tree for Christmas, please be sure to MULCH, COMPOST, or RECYCLE it after the Holidays, instead of putting it out in the garbage where it will end up in a land fill. Ideas and how to’s: http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/home/341 or http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/christmas_tree.html or http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1994/12-9-1994/xmas.html
National Wildlife Federation: Earth 911: Find a Nearby Location to Recycle your Christmas Tree-- http://www.earth911.org/master.asp?s=ls&cat=1&serviceid=100
Be good to Mother Earth, an ... read more FUNNY!Hanukkah Song! 19 y
December 25, Sunday, is the first night of Hanukkah!
'Twas the Night before Hanukkah...
Twas the night before Hanukkah
and all over the place
There was noise, there was kvetching
Soch ah disgrace!
The Kinderlach, sleeping,
uneasily felt
The chocolate rush
from the Hanukkah gelt
And me in the easyboy,
so stuffed with latkes,
I stretched the elastic
which held up my gatchkes
When up on the roof
(and it has a steep pitch)
A fat alte kakker
was making a kvitsch.
I jumped up real quick
and I ran to the door,
... read more Arctic Refuge Safe!--for Now! 19 y
Thanks to everyone who contacted their U.S. Senators! Today, Wednesday, Dec. 21, the Senate blocked opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling! When I first heard the news this morning at 9:45 am, I whooped and hollered, then I cried. This was a very close vote. ANWR has been granted a reprieve, as politicians already predict that in the coming year the issue of oil exploration and drilling will be brought up again...and again. For now, savor the victory!
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: http://arctic.fws.gov/
Senate Blocks Alaska Refuge Drilling
By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer
5:00 PM PST
WASHINGTON - The Senate blocked opening the nation’s largest untapped oil reserve in an Alaska wildlife refuge Wednesday, denying President Bush his top energy priority and delivering a victory to environmentalists who said drilling would threaten wildlife.
It was a stinging defeat for Sen. Ted Stevens (news, bio, voting record), R-Alaska, one of the Senate’s most powerful members, who ha ... read more Christmas Tree Story 19 y
Christmas story from the perspective of a Christmas tree, written by a 12 year old!
MY LIFE AS A CHRISTMAS TREE
12/19/05
Today is a wonderful day. The sun is out and shining on my forest home. I am surrounded by my friends and family. I watch as a blue bird lands in its nest upon my mother’s head. We are pine trees, green and tall, masters of the forest. We are at peace with the world and all its inhabitants.
I am talking to my mother when I hear a strange sound, the sound of trees falling down. I watch in horror as I see my mother being pulled to the ground by humans. Now it’s my turn; I feel my roots start to shake, my trunk tremblin ... read more Humpback Whale Freed! 19 y
A heartwarming article on the front page of the Friday
San Francisco Chronicle, headed "Daring rescue of whale off
Farallones."
National Wildlife Federation: http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/humpbackwhale/
December 16, 2005
EXCERPTS
”A humpback whale freed by divers from a tangle of crab trap lines
near the Farallon Islands nudged its rescuers and flapped around in
what marine experts said was a rare and remarkable encounter.”
”The 45- to 50-foot female humpback, estimated to weigh 50 tons, was
on the humpbacks’ usual migratory route between the Northern
California
coast and Baja California when she became entangled in the nylon ropes
that link crab pots.”
”Rescuers evaluated the situation and ”re ... read more Buy CITGO Gas! 19 y
Citgo, a Venezuelan company, is selling heating oil at discounted rates to low-income communities in the U.S. Support this company by buying Citgo gasoline! ...and, profits don't go to OPEC!
TRUEMAJORITY ACTION
A Different Type of Holiday Drive
Want an easy way to help America’s poor stay warm this winter? Buy Citgo gasoline.
... read more |