4/24/09
Astounding… did you know that over 40% of the world’s almonds come from California, and that 50% of the nation’s bees are required to pollenate them? Did you know that migratory beekeepers are responsible for sustaining much of our agricultural system by transporting thousands of bee colonies all around the country to pollenate various crops throughout the growing seasons, but that it’s becoming harder and harder to maintain their profession as more and more bee colonies die off each year from mites, pesticides, transport and a variety of issues that most of us have never have to think about?
Did you know that buying “regular” coffee from one of the major manufacturers often means cheating hard working farmers and their families out of a livable wage, as corporations seek to buy in bulk from these farmers at the lowest possible price (sometimes as low as $.07 per pound!!)? BUT, by buying “fair trade certified” coffee, for a few cents more, ensures that farmers in Costa Rica, Peru, or some other country in which their beans are grown and harvested will receive a fair wage for their labor. Did you also know that, because everything is a cycle that affects everything and everyone else (yes, the old Bell telephone commercials were right; we really are all connected!), this kind of exploitation is a large part of the reason for the issue of so many immigrants coming over the border? If you knew that you couldn’t make a living or hope to support your family where you were because you were not being paid fairly for your work, wouldn’t you abandon it and seek a better life, too? Think about it.
Did you know that by buying a share or half-share of seasonal produce from a local farmer, you are greatly increasing your food’s freshness factor while reducing transport miles WHILE helping to sustain local agriculture! Such a deal! If that farmer grows his or her produce organically, you are also greatly increasing the nutritional value of your food due to healthier growing soil and elimination of toxic pesticides and petroleum-based fertilizers.
Did you know that if we all carried travel mugs with us whenever we purchased coffee and stopped using paper cups with plastic lids, we could save literally millions of trees from being cut down and keep tons of plastic out of yet another landfill? What about a sports water bottle? There’s another couple hundred thousand tons of non-biodegradeable plastic spared from the landfill. How about those reuseable cloth grocery bags? Mine are insulated and carry a ton of stuff (unless I forget to put them in my car, which I still do on occasion). Maybe we can stop adding acreage to those massive garbage swirls in our oceans that, like the dead zones, are growing by leaps and bounds each year and killing vast quantities of fish and other sea life.
There’s no end to the simple, non-sacrificing things each of us can do which, when taken together, add up to make a huge difference. Our choices are NOT irrelevant! Every action we take, every vote we make with our purchasing dollars reverberates somewhere in this connected universe, for better or worse. The more I learn, the more astounded I become at the truth of this – and the more committed I become to try harder, to not fall asleep at the wheel or wait for someone else to come and fix the mess we’ve made, and to do what I can, ALL I can, to ensure that mess is not passed on to the next generation.
I believe if we really wanted to, if we really LIVED the values we say we believe in and stop getting sucked into our small, fear-driven, greedy little egos, we really COULD heal the world, end hunger and poverty, and learn to live in peace with our neighbors. You might say I’m a dreamer… but I’m not the only one.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Fun for All at Centennial Park Celebration
4/20/09
Nashville’s Eighth Annual Earth Day Celebration at Centennial Park this past Saturday, 4/18, did not disappoint. Despite the imminent threat of rain for parts of the afternoon, and even a few drops here and there, the nice weather held out, and so did the crowds.
Exhibitors turned out to represent every area of environment and sustainability. Metro Water gave out information on water use, Tennessee Environmental council gave out free baby trees, local organic farmer’s gave out samples of their food, a Cool People care Guy dressed as a clown on stilts mesmerized the younger visitors while beaming parents looked on, Elephant Sanctuary and Lightning 100’s “Team Green” and recyclers and a wide range of other non-profits and “green” businesses peddled their informational wares, in the hopes of creating a more enlightened, earth-friendly and eco-conscious Nashville, per Mayor Karl Dean’s oft repeated pledge to make us “the greenest city in the south”.
I affirm for you the courage of that conviction, Mayor Dean – esp. in this challenging economic time, which just might present a unique opportunity for truly creative thinking in bringing about needed changes: job creation, reduced waste and increased efficiency, better public transport (love those big hybrid buses), etc.. You’ve already got a broad constituency that largely supports these ideas and many more. Now you just need the time, will, imagination, resources and STAFF to bring them to fruition.
And can I just say, for the record, that the music was excellent (what I saw of it), and that Susan Tedeschi ROCKS! And for Rhythmystic fans (including myself), the hypnotic drumbeat dancing interludes between acts were as much fun as the acts themselves – or even more!
The only lame duck in the shooting gallery was the food: long lines and limited selections that in no way reflected the theme – a definite area for future improvement!
Nashville’s Eighth Annual Earth Day Celebration at Centennial Park this past Saturday, 4/18, did not disappoint. Despite the imminent threat of rain for parts of the afternoon, and even a few drops here and there, the nice weather held out, and so did the crowds.
Exhibitors turned out to represent every area of environment and sustainability. Metro Water gave out information on water use, Tennessee Environmental council gave out free baby trees, local organic farmer’s gave out samples of their food, a Cool People care Guy dressed as a clown on stilts mesmerized the younger visitors while beaming parents looked on, Elephant Sanctuary and Lightning 100’s “Team Green” and recyclers and a wide range of other non-profits and “green” businesses peddled their informational wares, in the hopes of creating a more enlightened, earth-friendly and eco-conscious Nashville, per Mayor Karl Dean’s oft repeated pledge to make us “the greenest city in the south”.
I affirm for you the courage of that conviction, Mayor Dean – esp. in this challenging economic time, which just might present a unique opportunity for truly creative thinking in bringing about needed changes: job creation, reduced waste and increased efficiency, better public transport (love those big hybrid buses), etc.. You’ve already got a broad constituency that largely supports these ideas and many more. Now you just need the time, will, imagination, resources and STAFF to bring them to fruition.
And can I just say, for the record, that the music was excellent (what I saw of it), and that Susan Tedeschi ROCKS! And for Rhythmystic fans (including myself), the hypnotic drumbeat dancing interludes between acts were as much fun as the acts themselves – or even more!
The only lame duck in the shooting gallery was the food: long lines and limited selections that in no way reflected the theme – a definite area for future improvement!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
"This time we need everybody" - or do we?
4/16/09
“This time we need everybody”... this is a phrase I’ve heard used by my good friend Jim Deming; pastor, philosopher, environmental educator and activist, when he’s twice been a guest on the show. He says this in reference to the latest wave of “green” hitting the shores of our consciousness (too often in the form of frightening statistics and apocalyptic prophesies which, even if true, can paralyze rather galvanize behavioral change).
In a recent filming (airing all this week), my friend Nell Levin also used this phrase, although in a slightly different context. She (Coordinator of Tennessee Alliance for Progress) and Dr. Sekou Franklin (political science professor at MTSU) came on the show to talk about establishing a “Green Jobs Corp.” here in Nashville / Davidson County, which would fuse two very fundamental social and structural challenges, that of poverty elimination and the creation of an economy based on sustainable choices and clean energy, in a meaningful and effective way. While this is one of the most exciting initiatives (largely inspired by the work of Van Jones) to come down the pipeline recently, and while I agree that we need to build sustainability in this country in a way that cuts decisively across racial, economic and other barriers, I do not believe that “we need EVERYBODY” - in the literal sense - or that such an idea is even attainable. I just think we need enough people who see the truth and are willing to go to the mat for it. Change is an ongoing process, with few absolutes except that it will continue to occur, whether “everybody” likes it or not.
There was a time, not so long ago in the great scheme of things, when our country engaged in a civil war over the abolition of slavery, because enough people (including our president of the time, Abraham Lincoln) saw that the enslavement of another human being, of ANY race or culture, was absolutely and unequivocally wrong – a fact made clear by our own Declaration of Independence nearly 100 years earlier, which stated that “All men are created equal…”. Not everyone agreed – but the truth prevailed, nonetheless, because enough were willing to fight for it. Now we have one of the finest men I’ve seen in my lifetime occupying the White House as our President, who also happens to be a black man. While clear evidence of racism still exists in our society, and is still problematic for many, it is no longer the prevailing norm or standard by which society operates. There is obviously still much work to be done, but look how far we’ve come! Indeed, change continues…
About 60 years later, women in the United States won the right to vote when, after years of brave and heroic struggle by numerous leaders like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton, who formed the National Woman Suffrage Movement, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, guaranteeing that the right to vote could not be denied based on gender. Many (of both genders) did not agree, but once again enough people saw the truth and were willing to fight for it. Now it is the accepted norm here, which no right-thinking U.S. citizen would question. Other cultures’ ideologies run the full spectrum on this issue, and here again we still are very far from attaining the agreement of “everybody” concerning what is right. But, viewing change as a continuum, I believe we have come an enormously long way.
So it is with the “green” movement. To expect or insist upon full consensus is to be guaranteed disappointment, as evidenced by the complete lack of interest of about 90% of the students who passed by my table yesterday at an Earth Day mini-fest at Nashville State Community College, shattering to pieces my illusion that “most young people really understand and care deeply about this stuff”. They liked the magician, the belly dancer, and the free food the best. Me and my little show were fairly irrelevant to the majority. Oh well. A few took interest. My hope remains undiminished. I know there will be more next time. And I know that laws that support clean energy and sustainability by facilitating the kind of economic and infrastructural changes we desperately need will come into being, as enough of us become willing to fight for them. In this sense, “everybody” is merely a euphemistic, dreamy notion not required to fulfill the vision.
“This time we need everybody”... this is a phrase I’ve heard used by my good friend Jim Deming; pastor, philosopher, environmental educator and activist, when he’s twice been a guest on the show. He says this in reference to the latest wave of “green” hitting the shores of our consciousness (too often in the form of frightening statistics and apocalyptic prophesies which, even if true, can paralyze rather galvanize behavioral change).
In a recent filming (airing all this week), my friend Nell Levin also used this phrase, although in a slightly different context. She (Coordinator of Tennessee Alliance for Progress) and Dr. Sekou Franklin (political science professor at MTSU) came on the show to talk about establishing a “Green Jobs Corp.” here in Nashville / Davidson County, which would fuse two very fundamental social and structural challenges, that of poverty elimination and the creation of an economy based on sustainable choices and clean energy, in a meaningful and effective way. While this is one of the most exciting initiatives (largely inspired by the work of Van Jones) to come down the pipeline recently, and while I agree that we need to build sustainability in this country in a way that cuts decisively across racial, economic and other barriers, I do not believe that “we need EVERYBODY” - in the literal sense - or that such an idea is even attainable. I just think we need enough people who see the truth and are willing to go to the mat for it. Change is an ongoing process, with few absolutes except that it will continue to occur, whether “everybody” likes it or not.
There was a time, not so long ago in the great scheme of things, when our country engaged in a civil war over the abolition of slavery, because enough people (including our president of the time, Abraham Lincoln) saw that the enslavement of another human being, of ANY race or culture, was absolutely and unequivocally wrong – a fact made clear by our own Declaration of Independence nearly 100 years earlier, which stated that “All men are created equal…”. Not everyone agreed – but the truth prevailed, nonetheless, because enough were willing to fight for it. Now we have one of the finest men I’ve seen in my lifetime occupying the White House as our President, who also happens to be a black man. While clear evidence of racism still exists in our society, and is still problematic for many, it is no longer the prevailing norm or standard by which society operates. There is obviously still much work to be done, but look how far we’ve come! Indeed, change continues…
About 60 years later, women in the United States won the right to vote when, after years of brave and heroic struggle by numerous leaders like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton, who formed the National Woman Suffrage Movement, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, guaranteeing that the right to vote could not be denied based on gender. Many (of both genders) did not agree, but once again enough people saw the truth and were willing to fight for it. Now it is the accepted norm here, which no right-thinking U.S. citizen would question. Other cultures’ ideologies run the full spectrum on this issue, and here again we still are very far from attaining the agreement of “everybody” concerning what is right. But, viewing change as a continuum, I believe we have come an enormously long way.
So it is with the “green” movement. To expect or insist upon full consensus is to be guaranteed disappointment, as evidenced by the complete lack of interest of about 90% of the students who passed by my table yesterday at an Earth Day mini-fest at Nashville State Community College, shattering to pieces my illusion that “most young people really understand and care deeply about this stuff”. They liked the magician, the belly dancer, and the free food the best. Me and my little show were fairly irrelevant to the majority. Oh well. A few took interest. My hope remains undiminished. I know there will be more next time. And I know that laws that support clean energy and sustainability by facilitating the kind of economic and infrastructural changes we desperately need will come into being, as enough of us become willing to fight for them. In this sense, “everybody” is merely a euphemistic, dreamy notion not required to fulfill the vision.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
You Say You Want a Revolution...
4/14/09
Ah, yes, the smell of “green” revolution is in the air like Spring; so pungent and bittersweet as to be palpable. Evidence of its proliferation is all around me; in conversation, in newspapers and books and magazines, it’s heroes and proponents scattered across the web, and across the globe, like stars in a deep country night sky – too numerous and brilliant to even comprehend. Al Gore, Paul Hawken, Michael Pollan, Van Jones, Majora Carter, CEO’s like Ray Anderson of Interface and Gary Hirschberg of Stonyfield Farms – just to name a few proud trailblazers of the domestic brand, each representing a different aspect (or multiple aspects) of the way before us: clean energy, resource conservation, protection and valuation, healthy food systems, green jobs, innovative manufacturing and product design,rebuilding of our urban landscapes to reflect hope and balance rather than ugliness and despair, and so much more...
And behind each of these many luminous individuals march thousands, perhaps millions, of warriors and footsoldiers for sustainability whose names never arrive in the cultural mainstream, toiling tirelessly in the trenches of social apathy, conditioning, ignorance, skepticism and even blatant resistance to sow new seeds of consciousness, to create new laws and policies or protect those under siege by Titans of the old paradigm and corporate emissaries seeking to preserve their kingdoms of wealth and comfort, built at great cost to Mother Earth. Their voices all too often dominate the political dialogue that - as Prez Obama continues to deeply and gracefully remind us - is SUPPOSED to be about “we the people”.
Yet, even with millions of us (esp. here in the capital of the industrialized world) “getting it”, closing loops, changing habits and lifestyles, embracing a “new” (and very, very old) way of being that returns us to a saner sense of our place in the great natural scheme of things and reminds us that we MUST honor and respect this miraculous, mysterious, ever unfolding gift of life on planet Earth - or neglect to do so at our own peril… even with the messages of this shift in cultural consciousness being shouted from every proverbial hill and dale, THE CHALLENGE HAS JUST BEGUN!! Revolution is not an undertaking for the faint of heart, and once begun, quitting is never, ever an option. Let the games begin.
Ah, yes, the smell of “green” revolution is in the air like Spring; so pungent and bittersweet as to be palpable. Evidence of its proliferation is all around me; in conversation, in newspapers and books and magazines, it’s heroes and proponents scattered across the web, and across the globe, like stars in a deep country night sky – too numerous and brilliant to even comprehend. Al Gore, Paul Hawken, Michael Pollan, Van Jones, Majora Carter, CEO’s like Ray Anderson of Interface and Gary Hirschberg of Stonyfield Farms – just to name a few proud trailblazers of the domestic brand, each representing a different aspect (or multiple aspects) of the way before us: clean energy, resource conservation, protection and valuation, healthy food systems, green jobs, innovative manufacturing and product design,rebuilding of our urban landscapes to reflect hope and balance rather than ugliness and despair, and so much more...
And behind each of these many luminous individuals march thousands, perhaps millions, of warriors and footsoldiers for sustainability whose names never arrive in the cultural mainstream, toiling tirelessly in the trenches of social apathy, conditioning, ignorance, skepticism and even blatant resistance to sow new seeds of consciousness, to create new laws and policies or protect those under siege by Titans of the old paradigm and corporate emissaries seeking to preserve their kingdoms of wealth and comfort, built at great cost to Mother Earth. Their voices all too often dominate the political dialogue that - as Prez Obama continues to deeply and gracefully remind us - is SUPPOSED to be about “we the people”.
Yet, even with millions of us (esp. here in the capital of the industrialized world) “getting it”, closing loops, changing habits and lifestyles, embracing a “new” (and very, very old) way of being that returns us to a saner sense of our place in the great natural scheme of things and reminds us that we MUST honor and respect this miraculous, mysterious, ever unfolding gift of life on planet Earth - or neglect to do so at our own peril… even with the messages of this shift in cultural consciousness being shouted from every proverbial hill and dale, THE CHALLENGE HAS JUST BEGUN!! Revolution is not an undertaking for the faint of heart, and once begun, quitting is never, ever an option. Let the games begin.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
On UT's plan to open acreage for drilling; 4/11/09
Astonishing, but true – I’m blogging!! Yes, after months of “never having time” (which, even when the reasons are perfectly legitimate, makes one feel somehow remiss), and due to an excessive imbibing of that most regrettable of mixtures, wine and beer (definitely more fun in the consuming than in the inevitable payback), which has prevented me from going to my friend Monette’s Creek Clean-up (so much for my “dedicated environmentalist” image) - when the mere quest to be vertical for any significant length of time has caused hellish and previously unimagined upheaval from within (storms now beginning to recede gradually, taking with them every last ounce of unclaimed material once destined for cellular assignment by my digestive tract) – I have decided this to be the perfect time to reinstate myself as “one who blogs”. Perverse, perhaps – but there it is. Numerous of my remaining, alcohol addled brain cells may be shouting in shocked protest – but alas! Onward! To wit I aspire…
There was a recent article (4/7/09) in the Tennessean penned by Anne Paine, environmental journalist extraordinaire and recent guest on our show, talking about University of Tennessee’s intention to requisition a portion of their beautiful, pristine wooded acreage for shale drilling by CNX, a natural gas company based in Pittsburgh that is part of the coal company Consol Energy, in the hopes of some meager, fractional compensation for a $100 million cut in state funding, which also comes at a time of declining student enrollment revenue.
To read this account - especially in light of the relatively small monetary gain to be made (approximately $300K annually) in proportion to the hugely significant amount of land to be conscripted for this purpose (8,600 acres), sends shudders of horror down my spine!! I completely understand that the university needs funds right now in order to stay afloat, and that this appears to be a possible, temporary source for these funds. But surely there is another, saner answer to UT’s dilemma than the destruction of one more irreplaceable tract of Tennessee’s rapidly diminishing forestland, one more precious wildlife habitat, one more intact ecosystem for which the value to us all can never really be overestimated! Have we, as a society (represented here by the “Powers That Be” at ol’ UT) become so complacent in our alienation from the planetary ecology that is our life’s blood, so desperate in our need for immediate gratification of a perceived need as to readily seize it by conquest rather than find it through faith in a better solution, and so utterly devoid of creative problem solving ability that this can somehow be seen as a reasonable exchange? If that’s true, then the cynics are right - it really is too late for us.
The State Building Commission is reported to be considering this plan for approval on April 20th. School spokesman Hank Dye stated that the drilling would be done “with sensitivity to the environment” and that “every state regulation would be in play”, but it is truly a fool’s game to think that such an undertaking can be accomplished without irrevocable environmental damage and loss as well as serious potential contamination of natural aquifers and, ultimately, our water supply.
If you have somehow managed to stumble upon this humble blog (I’m into silly rhymes today), and find yourself in agreement at the cruel absurdity of this proposal, I strongly encourage you to a.) read the full article HERE, and b.) join me in diplomatically expressing your protest - whether by phone, email, or letter - to both Hank Dye and the State Building Commission. If not us, then who? If not now, then when?
There was a recent article (4/7/09) in the Tennessean penned by Anne Paine, environmental journalist extraordinaire and recent guest on our show, talking about University of Tennessee’s intention to requisition a portion of their beautiful, pristine wooded acreage for shale drilling by CNX, a natural gas company based in Pittsburgh that is part of the coal company Consol Energy, in the hopes of some meager, fractional compensation for a $100 million cut in state funding, which also comes at a time of declining student enrollment revenue.
To read this account - especially in light of the relatively small monetary gain to be made (approximately $300K annually) in proportion to the hugely significant amount of land to be conscripted for this purpose (8,600 acres), sends shudders of horror down my spine!! I completely understand that the university needs funds right now in order to stay afloat, and that this appears to be a possible, temporary source for these funds. But surely there is another, saner answer to UT’s dilemma than the destruction of one more irreplaceable tract of Tennessee’s rapidly diminishing forestland, one more precious wildlife habitat, one more intact ecosystem for which the value to us all can never really be overestimated! Have we, as a society (represented here by the “Powers That Be” at ol’ UT) become so complacent in our alienation from the planetary ecology that is our life’s blood, so desperate in our need for immediate gratification of a perceived need as to readily seize it by conquest rather than find it through faith in a better solution, and so utterly devoid of creative problem solving ability that this can somehow be seen as a reasonable exchange? If that’s true, then the cynics are right - it really is too late for us.
The State Building Commission is reported to be considering this plan for approval on April 20th. School spokesman Hank Dye stated that the drilling would be done “with sensitivity to the environment” and that “every state regulation would be in play”, but it is truly a fool’s game to think that such an undertaking can be accomplished without irrevocable environmental damage and loss as well as serious potential contamination of natural aquifers and, ultimately, our water supply.
If you have somehow managed to stumble upon this humble blog (I’m into silly rhymes today), and find yourself in agreement at the cruel absurdity of this proposal, I strongly encourage you to a.) read the full article HERE, and b.) join me in diplomatically expressing your protest - whether by phone, email, or letter - to both Hank Dye and the State Building Commission. If not us, then who? If not now, then when?
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