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Photos:Sunset 16 y
Sunset over my hometown, taken tonight, March 16, 2008
Bhopal Justice March Continues 16 y
Bhopal, India, 1984: A deadly gas leak from a pesticide manufacturing plant (Union Carbide, now part of Dow Chemical) killed 15,000 people and poisoned scores more. Survivors of the disaster are still seeking health care, justice, and cleanup after 24 years! Help the survivors by signing an online petition asking that Indian Prime Minister meet with survivors who are marching 500 miles to New Delhi.
TAKE ACTION!
http://action.panna.org/t/5185/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=931
A Weekly News Update on Pesticides, Health and Alternatives
See PANUPS updates service , for complete information. Faxes for Bhopal
March 13, 2008 Thousands support Bhopal demands: Marchers trekking from Bhopal have reached the half-way point in their 500-mile padyatra (foot pilgrimage), and expect to reach New Delhi on March 28. They are seeking safe water, clean-up, accountability and full restitution from Dow Chemical for the 1984 Union Carbide plant explosion and ongoing suff ... read more Photo:Kalanchoe Blooms 16 y
More Winter Blooms! Kalanchoe are succulents used primarily by florists as "background" plants in flower arrangements.
These two differently colored kalanchoe started out as small sprigs in flower arrangements Dad gave to Mom years ago--the kind you buy in the grocery store in small pots. Years later, the kalanchoe are flourishing in large pots on the backyard patio, having long outlasted the flowers that they originally grew next to!
”Hot Lips” Kalanchoe in bloom--these flowers are a brilliant rose color Photo by Liora Leah 3/6/2008
These flowers really ARE a brilliant red in color! I had fun playing with the color/hue/saturation/brightness/contrast edits on the computer! ... read more Ubuntu:Being Human 16 y
By 2010, there will be 25 million orphaned children in the world, many of them residing in Africa, and many orphaned due to AIDS. WE CAN HELP
DO UBUNTU
’Ubuntu’ comes from the Xhosa word meaning a deeper understanding of what being human is all about, in other words,
’DO unto others as you would have them DO unto you’
I recently purchased a bracelet from the Do Ubuntu Bracelet campaign and received this email:
Dear Liora,
Thank you for your recent purchase of the handcrafted, DO Ubuntu bracelet. Profits from your purchase are being donated to, Children of the World, an orphanage in Ethiopia. As we continue to grow, profits will be donated to orphanages that slip thro ... read more Heartache and Hope in South Africa 16 y
I was moved beyond words watching the DVD "Angels in the Dust" last night, a documentary about South African children orphaned by AIDS, some of whom are HIV positive themselves, and how the Cloete family is loving, helping, and healing them through Boikarabelo, a rural school, orphanage, medical clinic, organic farm, and growing village.
"They are our children; they are mine, they are yours; they belong to all of us; we are all going to have to come together as men and women, and say we are the parents." -- Marion Cloete
More pictures from Boikarabelo: http://www.dolfilms.org/angels/childrenscharter.htm
About Boikarabelo:
"Boikarabelo" means “social responsibility and accountability” and “jointly, communally” in the Tswana language.
"Boi ... read more Toxic Nat'l Parks 16 y
Study: Contaminent Levels for pesticides and heavy metals such as mercury are found to be high in National Parks
By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press Writer
7:08 PM PST, February 26, 2008
BILLINGS, Mont. -- Pesticides, heavy metals and other airborne contaminants are raining down on national parks across the West and Alaska, turning up at sometimes dangerously high levels in lakes, plants and fish.
A sweeping, six-year federal study released Tuesday found evidence of 70 contaminants in 20 national parks and monuments -- from Denali in Alaska and Glacier in Montana, to Big Bend in Texas and Yosemite in California.
The findings revealed that some of the Earth’s most pristine wilderness is sti ... read more Poems:Winter Blahs 16 y
...for an out-of-sync day.
Winter blahs have hit and I feel sort of numb and disoriented. Driving down the freeway today, I felt like I was still in bed, dreaming...”This isn’t real,” I mumbled to myself. Strange I should feel that way, today of all days, with the sun shining and a nice warm 72 degrees outside, after days of rain, drizzle, mist, damp, and cold. Took a nice slow walk outside in the sun, that only served to tire me out more and add to my funk. Sigh. Just an out-of-sync day.
Disconnected
Spirit nurtures me with berries
but my mouth is closed
... read more My Photo in LATimes! 16 y
Submitted a photo to the Los Angeles Times online, and I'm "published"!
From the Los Angeles Times online, Feb 24, 2008:
"Dear Your Scene Friend,
Your submission to Your Scene has been approved and has been posted at http://yourscene.latimes.com/mycapture/photos/JXImage.aspx?ImageID=211239&EventID=145067&CategoryID=18208 .
Thanks so much for being part of Your Scene!"
Actually, anyone can submit a photo to the Los Angeles Times online, there are lots of gorgeous shots of plants/flowers in their ... read more HELP Endangered Wolves! 16 y
Bush Administration to strip wolves of federal protection, leaving them vulnerable to mass killings. Sign online petition today, asking your Representative to oppose wolf-killing plans!
For the second time in a month, the Bush Administration has taken aim at endangered wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies. Yesterday the administration announced plans to strip the region’s 1,500 wolves of protection under the Endangered Species Act. Just last month, the administration handed down a new License to Kill rule that would allow Wyoming and Idaho to slaughter hundreds of wolves by hunting, trapping and aerial gunning. Our partner organization, the Natural Resources Defense Council, has already filed suit in federal court to block the License to Kill ru ... read more HELP Bhopal Survivors! 16 y
Survivors of the 1984 Bhopal disaster in India are still seeking health care, justice, and cleanup after over 20 years! Help the survivors by signing an online petition asking that Indian Prime Minister meet with surivivors who are marching 500 miles to New Delhi.
PAN ALERT: Tell India’s Prime Minister "Walk your talk"!
On Feb. 20, survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal began a 500-mile march to New Delhi to assert their rights to justice and a life of dignity and health. In April 2006, after marchers had fasted for seven days, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised to do everything in his power to help the Bhopal victims and punish the responsible corporations.
But it was mostly talk: the site of the plant still hasn’t been cleaned up, 20,000 people still drink contaminated water, and 10-1 ... read more Organic Reduces CO2 16 y
Report from Great Britain states organic farming can reduce 30% of the world's CO2 emissions!!
Organic Farms Reduce Greenhouse Gas:
Britain’s Institute of Science in Society (ISIS) reports that organic agriculture ”has the potential to mitigate nearly 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions and save one-sixth of global energy use.”
In addition, organic agriculture is more resistant to climate extremes like droughts and floods and, unlike industrial agriculture -- which moves carbon out of the soil and into the atmosphere -- organic farming captures carbon from the air and locks it back in the soil. Conventional agriculture produces an estimated 11% to 13% of greenhouse gasses a ... read more "Greening" California 16 y
"Experts are unveiling ideas for a (California) state effort to develop and use 'green' substitutes for toxic compounds."
State to probe development of ’green’ chemicals
By Marla Cone, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 31, 2008
In an effort to reduce industry’s reliance on toxic compounds, state environmental officials today will lay out a framework for transforming California into a leader in the development and use of ”green” chemicals.
The proposals are an attempt to change the approach to environmental health from a chemical-by-chemical squabble to a wholesale shift in the way industry manufactures compounds used in products as varied as prescription drugs, plastic food packaging, pestici ... read more Toxic Baby Lotion 16 y
"Babies exposed to lotion, shampoo and powder had more than four times the level of phthalates in their urine as those whose parents had not used the products. Previous research found that the substances altered the children’s hormones."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-babies4feb04,1,6328220.story?ctrack=4&cset=true
Study finds high levels of chemicals in infants using baby cosmetics
By Marla Cone, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 4, 2008
Infants and toddlers exposed to baby lotions, shampoos and powders carry high concentrations of hormone-altering chemicals in their bodies that might have reproductive effects, according to a new scientific study of babies born in Los Angeles and two other U.S. cities.
The research, to be published today in the medical journal Pediatrics, found that as ... read more Crop Biofuel Sham 16 y
"The conversion of forests and grasslands into fields for the plants offsets the benefit of using the fuel, researchers find. Greenhouse-gas output overall would rise instead of fall."
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-biofuel8feb08,1,7603480.story?ctrack=3&cset=true
Biofuel crops increase carbon emissions
By Alan Zarembo, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 8, 2008
The rush to grow biofuel crops -- widely embraced as part of the solution to global warming -- is actually increasing greenhouse gas emissions rather than reducing them, according to two studies published Thursday in the journal Science.
One analysis found that clearing forests and grasslands to grow the crops releases vast amounts of carbon ... read more Pelican Comeback! 16 y
Decades after the Brown Pelican became nearly extinct because of DDT, they have made a comeback and may be taken off of the Endangered Species list.
U.S. calls pelicans an environmental success story
Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times
A California Brown Pelican takes a graceful flight over Newport Harbor. The Interior Secretary is expected to announce Friday that they plan to take the bird off the endangered species list.
Thriving seabirds, once devastated by DDT, no longer belong on the national endangered species list, officials say.
By Marla Cone, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Pelicans have roosted on the nation’s list of endangered species longer than nearly all other creatures. Now the winged icon of ... read more UTube:Yes We Can! 16 y
Go Barack!
http://www.youtube.com/v/1yq0tMYPDJQ&rel=1
Had a hard time in the voting booth yesterday, standing there sighing and groaning to myself, trying to decide who to vote for: Hillary or Obama. Well, Spirit, I asked myself, please help me decide. I found my pen drifting over to the little rectangle next to Obama’s name, and filling it in (I asked for a paper ballot; don’t trust that electronic stuff), and voila! Vote complete, I stepped with pride out of the voting booth and claimed my ”I Voted Today” sticker.
Did you?
Related Blog:
Powerful Obama Speech
http://curezone. ... read more UTube:Greenpeace! 16 y
Go Green!
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