The
Alliance for Sustainability |
Homepage Events History Membership Manna Archive |
|
The
Alliance for Sustainability |
Homepage Events History Membership Manna Archive |
|
MANNA
|
|
We'd like to welcome you to the 14th edition of the Alliance for
Sustainability's monthly tree-free e-newsletter Manna, which features
provocative articles on the challenges of Eco-tourism, Environmentalists and
Meat, and the Path to Living Economies. The latter was our pick for
Conference of the Month, which was the Social Venture Network's look at how
we can create sustainable local economies. As always, we'd love to hear your
thoughts and hope this Manna will support you in making a difference. The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we used when we created them. -- Albert EinsteinIn this issue of MANNA... * Sustainability Book Club -- Next Meeting Feb 13 * Junk Mail Tree Project -- Tree Builders Sought; Meeting Feb 21 * Take Action! -- Kraft Campaign Launch: No GMOs!; Why America Never Found Out About Buy Nothing Day * Personal Sustainability -- Northwest Shade Coffee Campaign * Energy Efficiency -- Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs * Hot Conferences -- The Path to Living Economies * Personal Sustainability -- The Case Against Meat * Center for Judaism & Spirituality -- Eco-Sabbath Celebration Feb 1; Environmental Leadership Conference Mar 14-17 * Center for Spirituality & Sustainability -- TV Ads on US Energy Policy from Sierra Club and National Council of Churches * Ski to End Hunger -- Help End Hunger and Have Fun on Sunday, Feb 3 * Our Wish List! * Living Green Expo -- Benefit from a Healthy, Sustainable Life * Selected Upcoming Events What is estimated to be the largest industry in the world? Tourism. And what is the fastest growing segment in the tourism industry? Ecotourism. -- World Tourism Organization Happy United Nations International Year of Ecotourism!?By Wendy Brawer, Member When I first learned that 2002 was designated as "IYE", I thought, great! The potential benefits of ecotourism to the host community can be significant -- sustainable economic development and restoration-conservation-appreciation for ecosystems and cultural traditions while simultaneously encouraging global understanding and providing powerful first-hand, life changing experiences to visitors (like my own re-direction moment in Bali in 1989). Much of my work as a design activist since then has centered around ecotourism, specifically, hometown and urban ecotourism through the local-global collaborative Green Map System, which was inspired by the UN's 1992 Earth Summit. Green Mapping is underway in 150+ communities in 36 countries, as seen at http://www.greenmap.org), and helping to reinforce and popularize the work of groups as diverse as Toronto's Green Tourism Association (http://www.greentourism.on.ca), Singapore Environmental Council (http://www.sec.org.sg/), Rio De Janeiro's UniverCiudad (http://www.univercidade.br/greenmaprio/) and even the Multi-Cultural Sea Scouts of North Sydney Australia (http://www.greenmap.org/grmaps/gmkids.html#lave) (more are linked to http://www.greenmap.org/grmaps/linklist.html, including our own local Green Apple Maps of NYC). In the decade since the Earth Summit, Ecotourism has become a household word, so it seemed appropriate that the UN would promote it through IYE. However, the more I learned about IYE, the more chagrined I felt. The roads cutting through pristine forests for green-washed hotel development, indigenous rights pushed aside by snap-happy bio-pirates masquerading as awe-filled ecotourists, the tons of CO2 expended flying there -- the momentary pleasure-seeker inadvertently obliterating the eternal. Even those who prepare carefully can leave a oversized eco-footprint behind. The Third World Network, a major UN coalition of non-governmental organizations had called for a Year of REVIEWING Ecotourism. As you can see from their website <http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/iye.htm>, they have lost faith in the process sculpted by UN agencies and the World Tourism Organization. Now they say, scrap IYE altogether. The UN's response is at <http://www.uneptie.org/pc/tourism/ecotourism/activities.htm>. I'd like 2002 to be the Year of Hometown Ecotourism. Let's experience the nature and culture that's nearby, and get a fresh perspective on the abundant and refreshing resources in our own cities and towns, bioregions and neighborhoods. Figure out ways to weave the ecologies of home and the responsibilities of sustainable lifestyle choices into your recreation and daily habits simultaneously. Discover cultural gems, right in your own backyard. Go by bike or walk to explore the character and biodiversity of home, and get involved in assuring there's a healthier, greener tomorrow. It's an adventure we can't afford not to take. Wendy Brawer (web@greenmap.org) is from the Lower East Side, Manhattan Island, Hudson River Valley Bioregion, Atlantic Flyway, North American Basin, Earth The UN Environmental Program and the World Tourism Organization will hold a World Ecotourism Summit May 19-22 in Quebec City, Canada: www.ecotourism2002.org. The International Ecotourism Society has Ecotourism principles and offers trainings: www.ecotourism.org. See Co-op America (http://www.coopamerica.org/travel.htm) for its national Green Pages Online listing of more sustainable travel products and services, as well The Twin Cities Green Guide:http://thegreenguide.org/recreation/ecotourism.phpA vision without a task is but a dream, a task without a vision is drudgery, a vision with a task is the hope of the world. -- Inscription on a church, Sussex, England, circa: 1730 Next Meeting Wednesday, February 13The second meeting of our new Sustainability Book Club will conclude our discussion of John Robbins' new The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and the World and decide our next selection. All meetings are held 7-9pm on the first Wednesday of the month in the upstairs meeting room of Ecopolitan, 2409 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN (www.ecopolitan.net). Come early or stay late for a tasty vegan, organic, raw meal! Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you will join us and the world will be as one. -- John Lennon Tree Builders Sought!As our exciting Junk Mail Tree Project continues to roll along promising to educate thousands about junk mail and solid waste reduction and sustainability, we are searching for school groups, service clubs, individuals and others interested in "sponsoring" the construction of one or more trees. Make it a community project: collect junk mail, build a tree, display it at an area mall (hopefully, the Mall of America!), learn and teach others about waste reduction in the process. Additional venue ideas and anyone interested in helping to develop our Junk Mail Tree Builders Kit are also welcome. Get involved and pass it on! Contact Krista Leraas at iasa@mtn.org or 612-331-1099 x2. Let's Talk (and Walk?) Junk Mail What better way to walk all this talk than to have a Junk Mail Tree Building Party? We're looking for a group of handy, creative and/or engineering-minded folks to help us construct a prototype tree as an example for our tree building groups. We already have some great ideas including those of the Junk Mail Tree's creator, Arizona artist Wayne Sumstine. We hope to schedule the party for early February. Let Krista Leraas (iasa@mtn.org or 612-331-1099 x2) know if you're interested in participating or if you know of a space where we could work. Materials donations (scrap wood, sturdy cardboard tubing, etc.) also appreciated. The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live. -- Flora Whittemore Kraft Campaign Launch, National Day of Action February 6th at Supermarkets NationwideGenetically Engineered Food Alert, along with other environmental and food safety activists, are gearing up for a worldwide campaign targeting Kraft Foods to remove genetically modified organism (GMO) ingredients from their products. This Fall, Genetically Engineered Food Alert began contacting Kraft, and on November 8th held the first Kraft campaign national day of action, resulting in over 6,000 emails and phone calls into the Kraft Headquarters. Kraft has not responded to this action, nor have they agreed to meet to discuss these concerns. So on February 6th, the campaign to get Kraft to remove GMO ingredients from their products will be publicly launched by holding actions and press events nationwide. On the heels of the amazing grassroots victories at Trader Joe's and Starbucks, these actions/press events are planned to be held at supermarkets across the country, working to broaden the impact of the movement against GMO food by telling regional and national supermarkets that we don't want food containing GMO ingredients, while at the same time launching a campaign on the largest brand name food company in the country, Kraft. So far, actions in more than 25 cities are planned for February 6th. Actions include leafleting, GMO product returns, and press conferences with doctors or children's advocates. GE Food Alert will provide action kits with color flyers, posters, fact sheets, sample press materials, and ideas for taking action to any group that is interested in participating. For more information contact Lisa Archer at Friends of the Earth (GE Food Alert) at 1-877-843-8687 or larcher@foe.org or Kate Madigan at the State PIRGs at kmadigan@pirg.org or 213-251-3680 x 315.Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. -- Theodore Roosevelt Why America Never Found Out About Buy Nothing Day -- How a Not So Funny
Thing Happened on the Way to Your TV Set "...The average North American consumes five times more than a Mexican, ten times more than a Chinese person, and thirty times more than a person from India. We are the most voracious consumers in the world... a world which could die because of the way we North Americans live...Give it a rest. November 23rd is Buy Nothing Day." It's a pretty good bet, however, you haven't seen the ads. That's because ABC, CBS and NBC all refused to sell time to air Buy Nothing Day ads. A spokesperson for General Electric's NBC network brazenly told The Wall Street Journal that the ads were "inimical to our legitimate business interests." Their business interests include banking, weapons and nuclear power. The range of other potentially "inimical" messages is limitless. Westinghouse's CBS network explained that they censored the ads because they were "in opposition to the current economic policy in the United States." It wasn't that long ago that a free press was a defining characteristic of America. It looks like we can put that notion in the closet with the remnants of the New Deal and the Voter's Rights Acts. Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values yet uncaptured by language. -- Aldo Leopold Northwest Shade Coffee Campaign: A Week in the Life of Ashley Parkinson, Campaign CoordinatorEnvironmental news and humor from Grist Magazine, <www.gristmagazine.com> Monday, January 7, 2002 SEATTLE, Wash. -- Trust me, if you stand on any street corner in downtown Seattle and turn in a circle, you'll see no less than four coffee shops -- and two of them will probably be Starbucks. Although the notoriously bad Seattle weather could contribute to a culture of caffeine addicts, the phenomenon is hardly unique to the Northwest. From tall double decaf soy lattes to instant Sanka, Americans drink more than 400 million cups of joe per day, or one-third of global consumption. Our predilection makes coffee the second most widely traded commodity on the world market after oil. Yet despite our booming coffee culture, most Americans will never see a coffee tree, because production is concentrated in the warm climates of the developing world. We are familiar with the dark brown, already-roasted beans, not the unhusked green beans or the red berries clinging to waist-high bushes in Central and South America, Vietnam, and Africa. American consumers mark the end of a long chain of farmers, importers, roasters, and distributors -- 20 million worldwide -- that make a living from coffee. Advertising departments might bill it as "the best part of waking up," but the coffee you drink has serious social and environmental implications half a world away. My job as coordinator of the Northwest Shade Coffee Campaign [of the Seattle Audubon Society] is to get people to understand those implications by familiarizing them with the lengthy chain of events connecting people to coffee. To read this article in its entirety, go to: http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/week/parkinson010702.asp?source=daily. For more environmental news, subscribe to Grist Magazine's free e-mail service, http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/signup/subgrist.asp. We’d Like Stories of Your Steps to Sustainability Climate Change will cause enormous damage estimated at US$300 billion annually, not including adaptation costs. -- Findings from Swiss-Reinsurance Company for the Working Group on Climate Change of the World Council of Churches from November 20 to 23, 2001 Compact Fluorescent Light BulbsAmory Lovins of Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org) on the Benefits of CFLs Costs about $3-12; saves 4/5 of electricity; saves $30-80 over its lifetime more than it costs; avoids emitting 1 ton CO2, 8 kg SOx, 4 kg NOx; lasts 8-13 times longer; looks similar; fits same; and lets you see better. CFLs can cut by 1/5 evening peak load that crashes a Bombay grid, raise a North Carolina chicken grower's profit by 1/4, raise a Haitian family's disposable income by 1/3 while playing a key role in providing affordable solar power (and the ability to read) for poor homes. It also needs 10,000 times less capital than expanding electricity, so the power sector (which consumes 1/4 of development capital) can be a net exporter of capital. It's actually cheaper to give CFLs away than to run power plants. There are nearly 500 million being made with China the world leader. Alliance Member Gayle Olander Does a Bit of Her Own Research Gayle also sent us information about the Change a Light, Change the World campaign being led by Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, other businesses and the US EPA Energy Star Program. According to Scott McCall, vice president/divisional merchandise manager for hardware at Wal-Mart: "If every household in America changed just one standard light bulb to a compact fluorescent lamp, Americans would save $800 million in annual energy costs and 8.4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity - enough to power more than 800,000 U.S. homes for a whole year. Even more, the reduced air pollution would be equal to removing 1.2 million cars from the road for a year." This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor. -- John F. Kennedy The Path to Living Economies--Paper Presented at the Social Venture Network ConferenceBy Larry Brilliant, Edgar Cahn, Duane Elgin, Hazel Henderson, David Korten, Bernard Lietaer, Amory Lovins, Russell Means, Richard Perl, John Robbins, Elisabet Sahtouris, Michael Shuman and Judy Wicks The world has changed greatly in the weeks since the group of us began this collaborative writing. Our topic, the emergence of "living economies"--social and economic systems that are sustainable, equitable and cooperative--has become even more relevant and urgent. Our basic message is this: Humanity, in developing its world in ways which threaten its own survival, is repeating a process experienced many times in nature over billions of years. The only way out of its mess, as has been consistently demonstrated in nature, is for a species or life form to break through to unprecedented (and beforehand impossible to perceive) levels of cooperation. We are writing to offer our best thinking on how the socially responsible business community, along with its allies in the non-profit sector and vast aligned public, can undertake some promising cooperative initiatives which might serve as seeds and anchors of a new sustainable system. Each of us is either a member of Social Venture Network, or plenary speaker at the SVN conference in October 2001. We have each felt called to address some aspect of the theme of living economies in our work and efforts to promote ecological sustainability and social justice. Recognizing that our individual areas of focus and specialty are complementary, we have collaborated on this joint communication about the opportunities and necessities we see. Through this writing, we seek to model the very kinds of cooperation between individuals, communities and organizations--large and small across the world--that we see reflected almost universally in nature and which we believe are essential for survival and fulfillment among living beings. To read this document in its entirety go to >www.svn.org/initiatives/livingeconomies.pdf. I have decided to be happy because it's good for one's health. -- Voltaire The Case Against Meat: Evidence Shows that Our Meat-Based Diet is Bad for the Environment, Aggravates Global Hunger, Brutalizes Animals and Compromises Our Health. So Why Aren't More Environmentalists Switching to Vegetarianism?By Jim Motavalli, E/The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com) There has never been a better time for environmentalists to become vegetarians. Evidence of the environmental impacts of a meat-based diet is piling up at the same time its health effects are becoming better known. Meanwhile, full-scale industrialized factory farming - which allows diseases to spread quickly as animals are raised in close confinement - has given rise to recent, highly publicized epidemics of meat-borne illnesses. At press time, the first discovery of mad cow disease in a Tokyo suburb caused beef prices to plummet in Japan and many people to stop eating meat. All this comes at a time when meat consumption is reaching an all-time high around the world, quadrupling in the last 50 years. There are 20 billion head of livestock taking up space on the Earth, more than triple the number of people. According to the Worldwatch Institute, global livestock population has increased 60 percent since 1961, and the number of fowl being raised for human dinner tables has nearly quadrupled in the same time period, from 4.2 billion to 15.7 billion. U.S. beef and pork consumption has tripled since 1970, during which time it has more than doubled in Asia. One reason for the increase in meat consumption is the rise of fast-food restaurants as an American dietary staple. As Eric Schlosser noted in his best-selling book Fast Food Nation, "Americans now spend more money on fast food -- $110 billion a year -- than they do on higher education. They spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos and recorded music -- combined." Strong growth in meat production and consumption continues despite mounting evidence that meat-based diets are unhealthy, and that just about every aspect of meat production -- from grazing-related loss of cropland and open space, to the inefficiencies of feeding vast quantities of water and grain to cattle in a hungry world, to pollution from "factory farms" -- is an environmental disaster with wide and sometimes catastrophic consequences. Oregon State University agriculture professor Peter Cheeke calls factory farming "a frontal assault on the environment, with massive groundwater and air pollution problems." To read this article in its entirety, visit E's web site at http://www.emagazine.com/january-february_2002/0102feat1.html. Reprinted with Permission: E/The Environmental Magazine, Subscriptions ($20/year): P.O. Box 2047, Marion, OH 43306 USA (815) 734-1242 If I find myself entirely absorbed in the service of the community, the reason behind it was my desire for self-realization. I have made the religion of service my own as I felt God would only be realized through service. And service for me was India. -- Mahatma GandhiCenter for Judaism & Sustainability Eco-Sabbath Celebration Everyone is invited to a unique Eco-Sabbath Celebration and Eco-Kosher, Organic, Vegan Potluck from 6:00-9:15 pm Friday evening, February 1 sponsored by the Center for Judaism and Sustainability of the Alliance for Sustainability and the Jewish Renewal Minyan Shir HaNeshamah at the Minneapolis Park and Recreation's Kenwood Park Community Center, 2101 W. Franklin Ave (at Penn Ave. S) in Minneapolis. Candle lighting will be at 6:15 pm, followed by blessings and songs led by Ann Silver and Sharon Jaffe of Shir HaNeshamah. Following dinner, environmental leader and Center President Terry Gips will share about the Sabbath as a paradigm for sustainability incorporating personal and environmental renewal. He will be joined with a host of award-winning performers, including singer, songwriter and Smithsonian Folkways recording artist Larry Long (www.larrylong.org); songwriter, performer, and recording artist (www.cdbaby.com/judithkate) Judith-Kate Friedman, member of the Berkeley-based Jewish/World music/a cappella fusion ensemble Vocolot; and poet, community arts leader and Ancestor Energy founder Louis Alemayehu, who does chanting, singing and reciting to embody performance poetry drawing from his African and Indian heritage. An RSVP is requested. Please contact Terry Gips of the Center for Judaism and Sustainability of the Alliance for Sustainability at 612-331-1099 x2 or tgips@mtn.org.
For more information or to register, go to www.coejl.org, or contact COEJL at info@coejl.org or call 212-684-6950 x210 for a hard copy brochure. Register before Feb 1 for discount. All that we are is a result of what we have thought. -- BuddhaCenter for Spirituality and Sustainability For the first time ever, the Sierra Club and National Council of Churches have teamed up to protect America's beautiful landscapes, launching TV and newspaper ads calling on Americans to "keep our promise to care for creation." Evoking religious themes, the ads say Americans ought not ruin the land we've been entrusted to protect. Rather than destroying special landscapes for oil, we can find more energy through new technologies. The television and newspaper ads will ran for a week in Georgia, Arizona, North Dakota, Indiana, Missouri and Delaware. "People of faith take seriously the biblical mandate to be good stewards of creation, and that means finding smarter, cleaner, safer ways to satisfy our energy needs without damaging the irreplaceable gifts of nature with which our nation has been so blessed," said the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches. "Furthermore, conservation is more effective, providing much greater benefits that are more permanent, and in the long run are less costly, than a modest and short-lived increase in oil supply at the price of a ravaged environment." For more info, see www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/ They live most bounteously, who live most simply. -- Henry David Thoreau Help End Hunger and Have Fun[Please note: The correct date is Sunday, February 3 not February 1 as stated in last month's Manna] We hope that you and your family will join us from 1:30-3:30 pm Sunday, February 3 for our 24th Annual Ski (Sled, Tube, Snowshoe, or Hike if there’s no snow) to End Hunger, where we raise awareness and money for local food shelves and sustainable development projects worldwide. We’ve raised more than $500,000 since it was created by returned Peace Corps volunteer Paul Thompson 24 years ago. We invite people to raise tax-deductible contributions ("SEH/Alliance for Sustainability") and anyone raising $50 or more will receive a beautiful turtleneck or hat. A special prize will be given for whoever raises the most money. Pledge sheets are available from the Alliance office (612-331-1099 or iasa@mtn.org). And if you can't join us or live elsewhere, you can still Ski to End Hunger (we can send you the information) or make a tax-deductible pledge. For details, please visit our online calendar at www.mtn.org/iasa/events.htm. Such prosperity as we have known it up to the present is the consequence of rapidly spending the planet's irreplaceable capital. -- Aldous HuxleyWe'd Like Your Support The planting of a tree, especially one of the long-living hardwood trees, is a gift which you can make to posterity at almost no cost and with almost no trouble, and if the tree takes root it will far outlive the visible effect of any of your other actions, good or evil. -- George Orwell A great way to help us out is to donate new or used resources:
As with any contribution to the Alliance, your donation is tax deductible. Please contact Krista Leraas at iasa@mtn.org or 612-331-1099. The best things in life aren't things. -- Anonymous Help Celebrate Earth Day and Benefit from a Healthy, Sustainable LifeThe Alliance is excited to help present Minnesota’s first-ever Living Green Expo: Benefit from a Healthy, Sustainable Life on April 27 at the Armory and State Capitol grounds in St. Paul in collaboration with the MN Pollution Control Agency, MN Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance, MN Office of Environmental Assistance, Sierra Club and others. It will provide practical information, resources, products, actions and motivation for living more sustainably, from composting, voluntary simplicity and green building to solar power, hybrid cars, and connections with local organic farmers. We'd also love to have you involved as a volunteer, exhibitor, or workshop presenter. For more information, contact Krista Leraas by email iasa@mtn.org or call 612-331-1099x2. Our website will be launched soon and we now have volunteer information: www.mtn.org/iasa/volELF.html. It is possible to live wisely on the land and to live well, and in behaving respectfully toward all that the land contains, it is possible to imagine a stifling ignorance falling away from us. -- Barry LopezSelected Upcoming Events (See our Online Calendar, www.mtn.org/iasa/events.htm) Jan 29 11:15 am – 12:30 pm Introduction to the Natural Step with Terry Gips at University of MN, Minneapolis Jan 31-Feb 2 Sustainable Development in Urban Settings, Tucson, AZ Feb TBA Natural Step Intros & Seminars and Personal Sustainability Workshops in Minneapolis and NYC Feb 1 6-9:15 pm Eco-Sabbath Celebration and Eco-Kosher, Organic Potluck, Minneapolis Feb 2 9:30 – noon Sabbath Celebration and Discussion on the Sabbath with Terry Gips, Mayim Rabim Synagogue, Minneapolis Feb 3 1:30-3:30 pm Ski to End Hunger, Theodore Wirth Park, Minneapolis Feb 5 Bill Moyers Special on PBS on Trade and Globalization Feb 6 Take Action Day Against Kraft and Genetically Modified Organisms in Our Food Feb 8-10 An Introduction to Permaculture: A Design Workshop for Women on Self- Reliant Living, Dexter, OR Feb 13 7-9 pm Second Meeting of Sustainability Book Club, Ecopolitan, Minneapolis Feb 17 5:30-8 pm EarthSave Potluck and Presentation by Terry Gips, "Taking the Natural Step to Sustainability: Healing Ourselves, Our Communities and the Earth (while having more fun)", Minneapolis March 7-10 Natural Products Expo West, Anaheim Conference Center, CA March 12 7-9 pm Northland Sustainable Business Alliance Presentation on "Demystifying Sustainability" with Terry Gips, Duluth, MN March 12-13 Energy Design Conference and Expo with presentation on Natural Step by Terry Gips, Duluth, MN March 14-17 Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life Environmental Leadership Institute 2002, including Natural Step presentation with Terry Gips, Ojai, CA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MANNA is the newsletter of the Alliance for Sustainability and is published on a monthly basis with occasional additional editions. The Alliance is a tax-exempt [501(c)(3)] nonprofit organization dedicated to "supporting ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just and humane projects on a personal, organizational and planetary level." If you or others are interested in becoming members (free or contributing) and receiving MANNA, please see www.mtn.org/iasa/join.htm or contact Krista Leraas at iasa@mtn.org or 612-331-1099. |