The Sundance Channel; Big Ideas For A Small Planet: Power (Airs Tuesday, April 01, 9pm E/P)

The Sundance Channel; Big Ideas For A Small Planet: Power (Airs Tuesday, April 01, 9pm E/P)

Runtime approximately 30 minutes.

Featuring comments by environmental activists David Suzuki, this episode of the Sundance Channel's spring series for The Green, "Big Ideas For A Small Planet," Power covers the three major players in renewable energy.

Beginning with solar energy, the documentary uses the Washington DC annual "Solar Decathlon" as its example of what is going on in the world of solar energy. While focused on solar housing, the event coverage gets into enough of the underlying technologies to grant the viewer a good basic understanding of what can be done, and graphically displays how beautiful and unique solar housing can be. The event itself features many solar homes designed and built by teams from universities all over the world that compete on several levels.

Continuing on with wind power, Power focuses mainly on one wind farm development in a former coal town as its example, and covers the basics of the titan of renewable energy technologies that wind power has become. The documentary gives a good overall view of the issues and challenges facing the wind industry, as well as the benefits of successful wind development. The graceful cinematography in this segment for the most part was appealing. Wind power is the fastest-growing and most cost-competitive renewable energy technology to date, and thus rightly deserves our attention.

Finishing with biomass power generation, specifically methane digester-produced electricity on a dairy farm, Power rounds out the big three of renewable energy quite well. I was especially pleased with the coverage in this segment, as details of methane digester electricity production are not as readily available as those for wind and solar power. As with the other two segments, Power used a specific example of one farm's installation to illustrate its case. One gets a good sense of the daily operation of this system and how it fits into the farmers' lives and routine.

In all, the film is solid, and gives a good general knowledge of the three most-viable renewable energy sources currently in use. Power also manages to touch on some of the future potential of these technologies. Given the limitations of a thirty-minute time frame, the film packed as much as was possible in so short a time, leaving this viewer interested enough to seek out more details. If you are at all interested in caring for the planet without sacrificing comfort and modern technology, I STRONGLY recommend catching Power on the Sundance Channel on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 9pm Eastern and 9pm Pacific.

Best of all, this film is solutions-oriented, rather than just presenting a problem. That is something we always need more of.

Regards,

Dan Stafford
Publisher - The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal
http://www.whizzyrds.com/Windblog.html

Organic Bytes: Farm Slaves, Organic Lawsuit, Sustainability Tips, and more

Hello Daniel, ORGANIC BYTES #131 Health, Justice and Sustainability News Tidbits with an Edge! 3/28/2008 Written and edited by Craig Minowa and Ronnie Cummins IN THIS ISSUE: ALERT OF THE WEEK: END MODERN-DAY SLAVERY IN U.S. FIELDS ALERT UPDATE: OCA THREATENS TO SUE BODY CARE COMPANIES FALSELY LABELING THEIR PRODUCTS AS ORGANIC GOOD NEWS OF THE WEEK: WAL-MART GOES rBGH-FREE U.S. GOVERNMENT PLUNDER OF THE WEEK: FEDS SLAUGHTER OF WILD BISON BEATS 20th CENTURY RECORDS QUOTE OF THE WEEK TAKE ACTION ON PESTICIDES AND FARM BILL WEB PROGRAM OF THE WEEK: INTERVIEW WITH CANADIAN FAMILY FARMER WHO DEFEATED GOLIATH MONSANTO QUICK FACTS OF THE WEEK: A NATION BUILT ON UNSUSTAINABILITY - FUEL, FOOD, AND DEBT SUSTAINABILITY TIPS OF THE WEEK: ON THE EVE OF PEAK OIL- HOW TO CUT FUEL COSTS BOOK OF THE WEEK: FAREWELL, MY SUBARU ALERT OF THE WEEK: END MODERN-DAY SLAVERY IN U.S. FIELDS The Organic Consumers Association (OCA)-- representing over 850,000 consumers across the U.S. -- has joined a growing alliance in support of the Florida-based Coalition for Immokalee Workers' campaign to “End Slavery and Sweatshops in the Fields.”  While the organic and sustainable agricultural movement has traditionally focused primarily on health and environmental issues, the time is long overdue to integrate Fair Trade and worker justice issues into our alternative food and farming system. Consumers need to understand that much of the so-called “natural” food and produce, such as tomatoes, sold in natural food stores like Whole Foods are actually coming from chemical-intensive farms where low wages and labor exploitation are the norm. Please join this growing campaign. Click here to sign the petition. http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11123.cfm ______________________________ Look for the USDA Organic Seal when shopping for organic personal care products ALERT UPDATE: OCA THREATENS TO SUE BODY CARE COMPANIES FALSELY LABELING THEIR PRODUCTS AS ORGANIC As reported in the last issue of Organic Bytes, OCA's new expose on carcinogens found in various products misleadingly labeled as "organic" and "natural" is sending shockwaves through the personal care industry. The OCA and Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap Company have now filed Cease and Desist letters with the various companies who are labeling their products as “organic,” despite the fact that a number of their products tested positive for the cancer-causing synthetic ingredient 1,4-Dioxane, including Jason’s, Nature's Gate, and Kiss My Face, among others. The OCA is demanding that these companies reformulate their products to remove petrochemicals and 1,4-Dioxane or else remove "organic" label claims from their packaging. Offending companies who do not contractually agree by Earth Day 2008 to clean up their act will be sued by the OCA. To avoid tainted products, OCA recommends that consumers look for the “USDA Organic” seal on body care products and cosmetics. If you don't see the seal, it may not be truly organic. To see a list of body care and home cleaning products tainted with with 1,4-Dioxane, as well as a consumer guide for finding safe personal care products, go here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/ _______________________________ GOOD NEWS OF THE WEEK: WAL-MART GOES rBGH-FREE Last week, Wal-Mart announced its so-called “Great Value” store brand of milk will no longer come from cows injected with Monsanto’s controversial genetically engineered hormone, rBGH/rBST. As OCA's Director, Ronnie Cummins, stated in an interview with the Toronto Globe and Mail, Wal-Mart’s announcement will likely serve as a tipping point for driving Monsanto's controversial bovine drug off the market. Since its inception, the OCA has campaigned aggressively against rBGH , which is banned in Europe, Canada, and most of the industrialized world. Wal-Mart’s move, according to industry experts, will likely dramatically expand market demand for rBGH-free and organic dairy products. According to Cummins, “After 14 years of of bullying consumers and buying off FDA and USDA bureaucrats, this is the beginning of the end for this cruel and dangerous drug.” Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11050.cfm __________________________________ We need your support today to continue our work fighting for health, justice and sustainability! http://www.organicconsumers.org/donations.htm ________________________________   U.S. GOVERNMENT PLUNDER OF THE WEEK: FEDS SLAUGHTER OF WILD BISON BEATS 20th CENTURY RECORDS Over 1,000 wild buffalo have been slaughtered in the Yellowstone National Park area since November of 2007, representing the largest kill since the 1800s. "It would seem as though history was not learned the first time, for here we are today, watching these same government entities enacting the same policy," said Nez Perce tribal member James Holt. According to those monitoring the situation, namely the Buffalo Field Campaign, the total kill-off number will likely exceed 2,000 for the year. While the government's official reason for the slaughter is to prevent the spread of brucellosis from wild bison to cattle, no such transmission has ever been documented, and the bison being sent to slaughter are not being tested for the disease. Learn more and get involved: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11120.cfm _________________________________ QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “We've never seen anything like this before with our bats, much less any other mammals, with a very large regional die-off...It’s very scary and a little overwhelming from a biologist’s perspective. If we can’t contain it, we’re going to see extinctions of listed species, and some of species that are not even listed.” Susi von Oettingen of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service speaking to the New York Times this week about as many as a half million bats mysteriously dying in the U.S. Northeast. Experts have no idea what the cause is. Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11135.cfm _________________________________ TAKE ACTION ON PESTICIDES AND FARM BILL Farm Bill conferees will be considering an amendment that would prohibit the USDA from exercising its authority to restrict specific pesticides in its conservation programs. For example, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program could not be used for organic transition, and USDA would not be allowed to prohibit the use of a specific pesticide, like methyl bromide, in a conservation program. Click the following link to send a letter to your members of Congress to ask them to convince the Farm Bill conference committee to reject the pesticide amendment and allow USDA to advance conservation practices as needed: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11197.cfm _________________________________ WEB PROGRAM OF THE WEEK: INTERVIEW WITH CANADIAN FAMILY FARMER WHO DEFEATED GOLIATH MONSANTO Saskatchewan Farmer, Percy Schmeiser, has spent the last decade bogged down in court battles with the Monsanto Corporation. Monsanto originally sued Schmeiser for unintentionally growing the company's patented canola seeds, even though the biotech plants that were growing in Schmeiser's field were there due to drift and contamination. The courts originally ruled in favor of Monsanto, saying that regardless of contamination, a farmer cannot grow patented seeds. But Schmeiser recently counter-sued Monsanto, claiming the company should be liable for the damages that their property causes others. Last week, Monsanto settled out of court and paid Schmeiser what it cost to have the invading biotech plants removed. Listen to this radio interview with Percy Schmeiser shortly after the landmark settlement: http://www.cjly.net/deconstructingdinner/032008.htm _________________________________ QUICK FACTS OF THE WEEK: A NATION BUILT ON UNSUSTAINABILITY - FUEL, FOOD, AND DEBT With trucking diesel fuel prices now over $4 per gallon in many locations, food prices are reaching an all time high, since the average grocery store item has traveled 1500-3500 miles. Over the past year, alone, consumers have been forced to pay significantly more for staples like eggs (25 percent), milk (17 percent), cheese (15 percent), bread (12 percent), and rice (13 percent). This is partially due to increased costs of transportation and partially due to massive amounts of cropland being converted to biofuel production. As a result, consumers are paying more for their food and paying $15 billion in increased taxes per year for biofuel subsidies. Fuel prices have nearly doubled the expenses of commuters over the last year. Recent polls show a strong majority of U.S. citizens are in favor of allocating a larger portion of the federal budget for mass transportation. In contrast, the amount of federal money earmarked for mass transit projects (example: rail and bus) has been reduced by nearly 70% since the Bush Administration took over in 2001. A record number of consumers are using credit cards to pay for increased fuel costs. Although the recession has negatively impacted employment, the New York Times reports one of the few booming occupations in the current job market is as a Debt Collector. Since 2001, the top five oil companies have increased their annual profits by an average of 500%. Source: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11013.cfm __________________________________ SUSTAINABILITY TIPS OF THE WEEK: ON THE EVE OF PEAK OIL- HOW TO CUT FUEL COSTS Obviously driving less, using mass transit, biking, walking or purchasing a fuel efficient vehicle are the best ways to cut your fuel consumption. But for those times where driving a car is a necessity, here are some tips: Don't be a jerky driver: Jumpy starts and fast getaways can burn over 50 percent more gasoline than normal acceleration. Use cruise control once accelerated. Drive slower: According to the U.S. Department of Energy, most automobiles get about 20 percent more miles per gallon on the highway at 55 miles per hour than they do at 70 miles per hour. A well maintained car (oil change, fuel filters, tire pressure, alignment) gets an average of 10 percent better fuel efficiency. Turn off your engine if you stop for more than one minute. (This does not apply if you are in traffic.) Restarting the automobile will use less gasoline than idling for more than one minute. Decrease the number of short trips you make. Short trips drastically reduce gas mileage. If an automobile gets 20 miles per gallon in general, it may get only 4 miles per gallon on a short trip of 5 miles or less. ___________________________________ BOOK OF THE WEEK: FAREWELL, MY SUBARU What happens when a Domino’s pizza loving suburbanite from New Jersey decides it's time to leave behind the urban world to start his own off-the-grid sustainable farm in New Mexico? Find out in "Farewell, My Subaru", a new nonfiction book chronicling the carbon-neutral misadventures of Doug Fine. Whether its nearly getting electrocuted setting up his own solar panels, buying goats and hens for the first time, or getting the munchies from the smell of his newly converted veggie-oil truck, Doug comically shows that even through the struggles and lack of know-how, with the right mindset an everyday American can take massive successful steps towards sustainability. Watch this short video about Doug's journey and order the book here: http://www.dougfine.com/ _________________________________ ******** support our supporters********* National Geographic GREEN GUIDE - The Resource for Consuming Wisely Go green with National Geographic's ALL NEW Green Guide. Make small changes that add up to big benefits for your wallet, your health & the planet. The Green Guide gives you simple, useful ideas that make going green a gradual & affordable process rather than an all-or-nothing plunge. Get & share what you love! - Reviews of eco-friendly products - Money-saving shopping tips - Green home improvement how-to's - 100 pages delivered four times a year Order National Geographic's Green Guide magazine today!   ________________________ EDEN FOODS OFFERS OCA CUSTOMERS 15% DISCOUNT Eden Foods is one of the few national organic food producers who goes beyond the USDA Organic Standards. Although Eden Foods is USDA certified, their products do not bear the USDA seal, because they say the USDA standard really represents a "minimum standard" that Eden Foods goes far beyond. As a subscriber to Organic Bytes, you can enjoy a discount rate on any Eden Foods products by clicking here   Please forward this publication to family and friends, place it on web sites, print it, duplicate it and post it freely. Knowledge is power! __________________________________ NOTE TO CO-OP AND NATURAL FOOD STORE SUBSCRIBERS: Organic Bytes is a great tool for keeping your staff and customers up to date on the latest issues. Feel free to forward this email to your staff and print for posting on bulletin boards and staff break tables. You are also welcome to use this material for your newsletters. There's an attractive print-friendly PDF version of this available for free download at http://www.organicconsumers.org/organicbytes.cfm _________________________________ ORGANIC BYTES is a publication of: ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION 6771 South Silver Hill Drive Finland, Minnesota 55603 Phone: (218)- 226-4164 Fax: (218) 353-7652 __________________________________ Subscribe: http://www.organicconsumers.org/organicbytes.htm __________________________________   xaxa93168

2008 Sundance Channel Film Review List

As some of you regular readers may be aware of, I did film reviews of three environmental documentaries for The Sundance Channel last Spring. ( The Refugees of the Blue Planet, Dead In The Water, & Five Disasters Waiting To Happen, 2007)

For the Spring, 2008 series, I will be reviewing the following films for The Sundance Channel's "The Green."

(Please note, these are NOT paid reviews, unless you count the free copy of the film on DVD I get so I can review each one.)


Tuesday, April 1

9:00pm e/p

“Big Ideas for a Small Planet: Power”

This episode explores the booming field of alternative energy as it introduces several individuals who are working to develop clean, renewable energy from resources like the sun, wind and even cow manure.

Alternative energy is a field I have a strong interest in. I've read a good bit about many different solutions, including wind, solar, various biofuels, and efficiency efforts. I definitely will take this film on.

This one looks to be of interest:

Tuesday, April 15

9:00pm e/p

“Big Ideas for a Small Planet: Water” 

Water is likely to be a flash point in the 21^st Century, as population growth collides with droughts and dwindling reserves.  This episode introduces three people who are embracing creative solutions to the looming shortage of drinking water – be it desalinating the ocean, catching rainwater or cleaning up our rivers.

I know water is huge and looming larger every year.

Both of these:

Tuesday, April 29^th

9:00pm e/p

“Big Ideas for a Small Planet: Food” 

Loss of biodiversity, water depletion, topsoil erosion, carbon emissions: when it comes to conventional farming and industrial food production, the cost goes beyond the supermarket bill.  This episode explores the different ways professionals and ordinary people are trying to nourish us with environmentally friendly food and wine.   

9:35pm e/p

All in This Tea – Directed by Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht.  This documentary immerses viewers in the rich world of Chinese tea while profiling the affable Californian importer who has made it his mission to introduce Americans to the brew’s many pleasures.  David Lee Hoffman founded Silk Road Teas tea after spending much of 1970s living among the nomadic tribes and Buddhist monks of Asia, for whom tea is a way of life.  All In This Tea looks at the history, traditions and intricacies of tea and joins Hoffman on a buying trip to China, where he seeks out small, artisanal growers and tries to persuade Chinese officials to turn away from industrial production in favor of handcrafted, environmentally sustainable tea farming.  This is the most recent film from the award-winning documentarian Blank (Burden of Dreams).


I commute over 80 miles per day for work, so these:

Tuesday, May 27^th

9:00pm e/p

“Big Ideas for a Small Planet: Transport”

The automobile is still king in America, and it’s the single greatest polluter in most cities.  This episode will show us how city governments, private organizations and university scientists are working to get commuters to leave their cars behind for cleaner, more efficient modes of transportation. 

9:30pm e/p

Contested Streets: Breaking New York City Gridlock – Directed by Stefan Schaefer.  Historians, urban planners and archival footage combine to tell the story of New York City’s chronic gridlock and its concurrent quest for safer, less crowded streets.  Beginning its tale at the turn of the 20^th Century, the film traces the dangers and developments, perspectives and personalities that have shaped the flow and flaws of Manhattan street traffic to the present day.  As New York City citizens and government alike seek to reduce congestion, filmmaker Schaefer travels to Europe to survey new approaches to transportation in three dynamic world capitals: Copenhagen, Paris and London.

And finally,

9:35pm e/p

The Great Warming – Directed by Michael Taylor.  Narrated by Alanis Morissette and Keanu Reeves, “The Great Warming” explores how a changing climate is affecting the lives of people around the world. The film taps into the growing groundswell of public interest in climate change to present both an emotional and an accurate picture of the future of our planet. It includes comments from scientists, opinion-makers, and the emerging voice of the American Evangelical community about America’s lack of leadership in one of the most critical environmental issue of the 21^st century.


I believe that totals seven films over the next three months.

Is there a way I can view the April 1st movie online in addition to getting the screening DVD? I'm not certain there's time for you to mail it.

Regards,

Dan Stafford
Publisher,
The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal
http://www.whizzyrds.com/Windblog.html

Publisher, The First Church of Healing The Earth
http://firstchurchhealingearth.blogspot.com/

Co-Chair,
Progressive Democrats of Illinois
http://www.illinoisprogressives.org

Learning "The Empty Hand."

Just a quick note, I've started a journal about learning the art of Karate called "The Empty Hand." (Karate literally translates to "Empty Hand" in Japanese.) You can find a bit of humor and also insiders' notes on what it's like to be learning a martial art. Stop on by The Empty Hand at http://karateemptyhand.blogspot.com/ any time.

Regards,

Dan

It's Time To Develop Community Volunteer Pools

It's Time To Develop Community Volunteer Pools -

"Foreclosures Prompt Cities to Make Plea for Aid :

The United States Conference of Mayors (usmayors.org)As more than 250 mayors , agreed that the collapse of the subprime market had left a growing problem of vacant houses, depressed property values, tighter credit, and a need to cut services to close municipal budget gaps.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/us/24mayors.html?_r=1&oref=slogin "

With news like this, and many other stories threatening the possibility of a global Depression, (Based on a repeat of the land speculation mistakes of the 1920's and other factors) it is time to organize volunteer labor pools. Absent any real leadership from the government, the unemployed and bankrupt will increase in numbers dramatically over the next few years. This represents a lot of economically desperate people and a huge pool of idle talent.

Food security is going to become difficult under these circumstances. It will become vital to begin massive vegetable gardening efforts in urban and suburban areas. It is also going to become necessary to build large scale shelters as housing foreclosures continue to skyrocket, driving up the ranks of the homeless.

Why not begin forming the structures of a "citizens' W.P.A." now, before all this happens? Strapped municipalities could use these pools of labor to avoid much of the cost of infrastructure improvements, focusing their dwindling property tax intake on purchasing materials for volunteer workers to use. In return, such municipalities could provide materials and space for shelters and gardening projects to feed the volunteers and their families.

Additionally, judicious use of eminent domain laws could foreclose on the Foreclosers - seizing bank-owned vacant properties and using them to house homeless laborers in return for their labor hours on community projects. They do not need the federal government to solve the problem. This could be a way for rural communities and suburbs to turn the situation around - since such efforts would in effect fall outside the purview of the failing capitalist economy.

Obviously, recycling and local sourcing of materials would be driven higher by such measures. Energy efficiency could also be built into such plans.

Just as the States are taking action on renewable energy and climate change through local initiatives, the States and local communities could begin a national turn-around absent help from the federal government, in a legal and moral manner.

Idle union workers could initiate apprenticeship programs within the volunteer pools, creating a vast pool of skilled workers for when the economy does rebound. Municipal energy projects such as wind, solar, and biomass (not using food grains, but rather agricultural and yard waste) systems could be built also, driving up local renewable power generation.

Local sustainable forestry programs could also be developed and maintained, providing a source of lumber for furniture and interior building structures. Earthen housing using lumber only for floors, windows and roofing could provide highly durable and energy-efficient housing in place of the current lumber-intensive methods of buildings. Existing vacant structures could be tapped for materials and space to build with.

Municipalities that embark on such paths could begin to draw people back out into the small towns and suburbs without the need for long-distance commuting.

Small family-owned farms might even work with such communities, providing much-needed food in return for volunteer labor to help with growing and harvesting. Composting and sustainable farming methods are age-old ways of working farms without the need for petroleum-based fertilization. Natural methods of controlling pests would leave enough production in place, when combined with urban/suburban gardening efforts, to feed local populations.

Grass lawns are a waste of precious crop-growing space. If you add up the aggregate land area of lawns in the USA, that is a large area of "farmable" land.

I also wonder if milkweed pod fiber and cattail fiber couldn't be used to produce small quantities of local textiles in a manner similar to the way cotton is used today. Does anyone out there know if there are small-scale textile mills that could be used or built to operate with such materials? Milkweed and cattails are ubiquitous in the Midwestern US in my experience.

It's time to think outside the traditional box, and recover some of the skill sets that were our heritage from times when communities had to be much more self-reliant in the past, combined with modern technologies in ways that are harmonious to the natural environment and the natural rhythms of the human body.

There are things we can do to head the worst effects of a severe economic downturn off, while making the lives we lead more sustainable and healthy. More walking, biking, and horsepower in the flesh, more local foods, more local work, shared computers at libraries, community fire brigades, and many other means are available.

Open private schools where laid-off teachers could educate children and recover from the closures of public schools resulting from No Child Left Behind and lack of federal funding.

There are ways to do these things, using non-profit entities and local initiatives that would bypass the failures of national-scale systems. A mixture of the best from the past and present could lead to a more sustainable, stable, and bright future.

It's not necessary to go down in flaming despair at all - if we work together, and start now.

JMHO,

Dan Stafford

Habitat For Humanity

	January 2008 News Going back to the Gulf Habitat for Humanity’s 25th annual Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project is set for May 11-16 in the Mississippi Gulf Coast, an area still struggling to recover after bearing the full fury of Hurricane Katrina more than two years ago. The Carters will lead nearly 2,000 volunteers as they build 20 new houses with families in Pascagoula and 10 in Biloxi. Learn how you can be a part of this milestone project. The power of partners Thanks to new or renewed partnerships with Tropicana, Coldwell Banker and Schneider Electric/Square D, many more families in need will be celebrating the life-changing joys and responsibilities of owning a home. Gifts worth giving Looking for unique gift ideas? How about a translucent fold-up ruler or a foam puzzle in the shape of a house? Items from Habitat’s online store make any gift-giving occasion even more special, while also contributing to an exceptional cause: eliminating substandard housing worldwide. Get Involved with Habitat A WISH come true Great news! Thanks to the support of thousands of Habitat supporters like you, the WISH Act of 2007 has been passed by Congress and signed by President Bush. This groundbreaking legislation creates a national commission to focus on the safety and well-being of children in the aftermath of any natural disaster, such as the severe problems with housing that resulted from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. Thanks for all your efforts! Habitat Success Story Impacting the Next Generation Asunta Vilches and her family have found “space and comfort” in their two-bedroom Habitat house.	Q&A: David Minich Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes when thousands of volunteers travel around the world to build? Submit your questions for David Minich, director of Habitat’s Global Village program, to QAndA@habitat.org. Housing Statistic 12,865,806: Number of children in poverty in the United States (2003 estimate).1 Subscribe Was this e-mail forwarded to you by a friend? Sign up for Habitat Extra via our Web site. Learn about Habitat - Local affiliates - Read our site index Partner with Habitat - Donate online - Job opportunities - Volunteer programs - Be an advocate
1Housing Assistance Council To contact us: Habitat for Humanity International 121 Habitat Street Americus, GA 31709-3498 ©2008 Habitat for Humanity® International. All rights reserved.

Republican Albert Howard & Democrat Dennis Kucinich need donations for NH hand count TODAY!!

Donations to the Howard's count can be made here ^[9]. Donations to Kucinich's count can be made here ^[10]

- The BRAD BLOG - http://www.bradblog.com -

'Send Lawyers, Peace and Money': New Hampshire Election Contests Get Technical, Testy Before They Even Begin

Election Integrity Experts Converge and Join Both Republican and Democratic Candidates in Quest for Transparency

New Hampshire Secretary of State Questioned About Documentation, Poll Records and Diebold Memory Cards...

Posted By Brad Friedman On 15th January 2008 @ 04:27 In Diebold/Premier, Election Irregularities, Election 2008, BlackBoxVoting.org, New Hampshire, Dennis Kucinich, Harri Hursti, Albert Howard | 13 Comments

By Brad Friedman from Sacramento...

Election Integrity experts from around the country have been converging on the Granite State over the last several days, in preparation for "historic" state-wide hand counts of New Hampshire's Primary Election ballots, The BRAD BLOG ^[1] has learned. Counts of votes in both the Democratic and Republican side will begin in earnest this Wednesday, as long as the two contesting candidates deliver certified checks by 3pm on Tuesday, in an amount determined on Monday by Secretary of State William M. Gardner.

The battle for transparency and accountability on the ground, where some 80% of the state's ballots were tallied only by error-prone, hackable Diebold optical-scan voting machines, without human audit or spot-check of any kind, in last week's first-in-the-nation Primary, is already growing heated on both sides of the aisle, and even inside the statehouse as of Monday.

While representatives from each of the contestants have reportedly been working together on several aspects of the two separate counts --- each claiming to have requested the hand-counts in order to help answer questions about anomalous reported results --- what has become immediately clear, during our interviews with several members involved in the challgenges, as well as Election Integrity advocates now in New Hampshire and elsewhere, is that these election challenges may not likely mirror the partial recount in 2004, held at the request of then-Presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

As a two-page request for a detailed list of ballot and voting machine-related public documents and records, obtained by The BRAD BLOG ^[1], as submitted on Monday to Gardner by the previously obscure Republican candidate Albert Howard made clear, the battle for integrity and transparency in post-election challenges, may have finally caught up with the technical sea-changes in voting equipment that have overtaken the American election system over the last several years.

Due to extraordinary complexities in the ever more complicated computer systems, scanners, tabulators, record sets, databases and proprietary programming that have now been employed by election administrators across the country, the once simple task of examining and recounting paper ballots --- where they still exist, as they do in New Hampshire --- has grown exponentially more technical and confusing.

Early word on the ground in New Hampshire's capitol city of Concord, along with concerns from candidates, surrogates and election experts alike, suggests that these "recounts" could be like no other, in the history of the country...

Who Will Fill This World?

Who Will Fill This World?

I sit in the grey rainlight wondering,
Amidst clouds of pillowed steel,
Reading my peers and feeling,
I breathe in the angst like burned steel in this air,
Feeling a tentative green ghost waiting to be born,
A future we might yet bear to fruition,
A whiff of hope drifting up from my cup,
Of ginger-peach iced tea.

When you remember everything good in life,
Isn't it the moment someone you cherished cradled you,
Stroked your hair or hummed gently holding your hand?

What I know is that using anger like a tool burns you,
From the inside out it eats you alive,
It doesn't matter if you're an entire culture or a lonely heart,
It will make you its breakfast lunch and dinner,
As surely as this world spins 'round the sun -
I've seen it happen with my own two eyes.

We were great as a nation and as a people,
At those moments we were most filled with these things -
Dreams, hope, inspiration, compassion, vision.

What I know is that love fills you,
Feeds you and nourishes you and gently guides you,
And if you want to revere the past and those who went before,
Let their angers subside and yours as well,
Get closer to your ghosts in the memory of those moments that glow,
When they dreamed and loved and accomplished,
Give your ghosts a real future -
By dreaming and loving and accomplishing.

Tearing down takes moments,
Building up is always the real work.
What is it you birth?
Who will fill this world?

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 08/18/2007

Words are the mind's bridge - it's connection to all the universe.
Love is the heart's bridge - it's connection to all other souls.
Loving words can work miracles.

---

UW-Madison News Release--Organic field day

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
07/30/07

CONTACT: Erin Silva, (608) 890-1503, emsilva@wisc.edu; Bill Stangel, (608) 846-3761, wstangel@wisc.edu

UW ORGANIC FIELD DAY SLATED FOR AUG. 30 AT ARLINGTON STATION

MADISON - The University of Wisconsin-Madison's Arlington Agricultural Research Station will hold its first field day devoted to organic agricultural production on Aug. 30 from 3 - 7 p.m.

Field crops, processing vegetables and market vegetables will all get some attention at the event, which will include information on organic weed management, cover and companion crops, soil quality, variety selection, vegetable crop trials, and no-till organic production.

The event will begin with field tours featuring ongoing research on fertility management strategies, organic soybean variety trials, organic corn seed treatments, cover crop options, and no-till organic production using crimped rye.  Following the tours, there will be additional presentations on research projects involving organic processing vegetables, organic vegetable variety selection, cover crops for organic vegetable production, and weed management strategies.

A highlight of the tour will be a discussion of research using a roller-crimper for no-till production of soybeans with a rye cover crop.

"The idea is to lodge the rye severely enough so it doesn't stand back up," explains Bill Stangel, assistant superintendent of the Arlington station, who has been working with UW-Madison agronomists Josh Posner and Dave Stoltenberg to evaluate the effectiveness of various crimping strategies.

"We use it as a weed control tool," explains Stangel. "The rye serves as a mulch. It also has an alleopathic affect - the cover crop releases a compound that reduces the vigor of germinating weeds. Rye works especially well on small seeded weeds like foxtail, pigweed and lambsquarter. It also provides crop residue to protect the soil."

The presentations won't be limited to research being conducted at Arlington. Organic production specialist Erin Silva will talk about organic vegetable variety trials that she is conducting in conjunction with cooperating farmers at several locations around the state. Those trials include varieties of organic green beans, carrots, beets, edamame, cucumbers and cantaloupes.

The Arlington Research Station is located on Hwy. 51, about 5 miles south of Arlington and 15 miles north of Madison. Dinner will be available for a moderate charge at 6 p.m. Watch for Field Day signs.  For more information, contact Erin Silva at (608) 890-1503 or emsilva@wisc.edu.  In the event of rain, presentations will be held inside.
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Live Earth Replay...

Concert Replay!
http://liveearth.msn.com/artists
If you missed the Live Earth Concert, or would like to relive your favorite moment, pick the artist you want to watch.

Premiering on the Sundance Channel TONIGHT (07/10/2007) at 9:30pm local - Five Disasters Waiting To Happen:

Have you ever wondered what the face of Global Warming-induced sea level rise will look like? What the human costs could be, or who would be affected?

Well tune in to Five Disasters Waiting To Happen on the Sundance Channel tonight at 9:30pm your time and you'll get a very good look at where it's likely to start.

Who will be swimming, and who will cook? Who will be the largest group of nation-less people in Earth's recent history? Maybe ever? Could YOU be on the list?

Find out where Paradise will soon be lost in Five Disasters Waiting To Happen TONIGHT.

Dan Stafford

Electric Bill Pain Reliever

Two Simple, Easy Ways To Save On Your Electric Bill And Help Save The Planet

Learn about and use Compact florescent lighting. This is good sense and a relatively easy conservation method.

There are even a new type of such bulbs mentioned in the current issue of Popular Science magazine that have a softer yellow glow more like incandescent bulbs instead of the harsh blue light of common CF bulbs, for about $4.00 - one of the main objections of most people to using CF bulbs.

There is another very simple means of conservation of electricity that is also relatively painless. Install surge strips on all TV, stereo, and computer equipment and turn the surge strip off after shutting down these devices.

All such devices nowadays go into a "stand by" mode so that they come back up quickly when a person pushes the "on" button. They never truly shut off when people think they've been turned off - and so still draw power whether in use or not. This is why modern TV's no longer need to "warm up" before displaying a picture when you turn them on - they never really turn off.

The same is true of any device using those small black transformers to convert wall outlet AC power into low voltage DC power. As long as they are plugged into the wall they use the same amount of power regardless of whether or not the device they operate is in use.

Putting a surge strip between such devices and the wall outlet allows you to truly disconnect them from the electrical supply.

Regards,

Rev. Dan Stafford
Publisher
The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal
http://www.whizzyrds.com/Windblog.html

"Dead In The Water" on the Sundance Channel

Dead In The Water - airs June 19th at 9:30pm local time on The Sundance Channel:

This documentary shows the long and clearly devastating history of the privatization of public waters systems around the world at the urgings of large corporations and the IMF.

Obviously and clearly a gross failure to the people of the affected regions, many countries following down this dead end trail have suffered from massive disease outbreaks as those too poor to pay for water are able to find it only in questionable sources or die of thirst. In many cases, riots and massive public uprisings result after many deaths, and the water companies are booted out in abject failure, leaving the water supplies again under municipal control.

What's not discussed here is the stealth privatization of municipal water supplies happening in various areas of the US, which has not had first hand experience with this disaster-in-waiting with some notable exceptions in California. Needless to say, those exceptions are quite enlightening, but not of the burden people will bear, literally, having to carry water home in plastic jugs right here in the USA regardless of income level.

Dead In The Water features many common-sense arguments, and direct interviews with people "served" by first public, then private water systems. You'd love to think this can't happen in first world countries, but guess what...it STARTED with a first world country of major proportions. Beyond that, there are decades of historic examples clearly exposed here.

In what I think is the most eloquently simple paraphrase of the best line in this movie, "Markets are driven to serve those with money, not those without. It's a failure of reason and logic to expect market driven systems to honestly and effectively serve the disenfranchised and destitute at the expense of their bottom line, which the obvious reason why services that peoples very lives depend on are best left in the public sector." ( In my mind, this also speaks volumes as to what is the missing chapter in classic Libertarian theory, which utterly fails to account for people in this position. Heads up, you Libertarian think-tankers, get on it if you want to get relevant. This issue gives a glaring example of what market forces will do to life-essential services. )

Watch Dead In The Water June 19th at 9:30pm local time on The Sundance Channel to learn the birthplace of the Water Barons - and what water privatization could do to, uhhhm, I mean FOR you and your family!

This film is an essential education for anyone who requires daily water to survive or thrive.





Look for my review of "Five Disasters Waiting To Happen" next week to appear at The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy and Hydrogen Journal, and at The First Church of Healing The Earth.

Meanwhile, take a good solid look at this must-see presentation of what we all need to work together on at 9:30pm June 19th on The Sundance Channel.

All the best,

Dan Stafford
Co-Chair, Progressive Democrats of Illinois
http://www.illinoisprogressives.org

Owner and Publisher
The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy and Hydrogen Journal

Founder
The First Church of Healing The Earth

Trouble In Paradise - Hawaii

Trouble in Hawaiian Islands Marine Monument on World Ocean Day
By Sunny Lewis

HONOLULU, Hawaii, June 8, 2007 (ENS) -

Out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, environmentalists say all is not well in America's first national marine monument on World Ocean Day, observed each year on June 8.
They are outraged at the recent decision of the Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources, BLNR, to allow bio-prospecting in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument.

Conservationists and native Hawaiians are attending the BLNR meeting today in Honolulu to demand a moratorium on all research permits in this far-flung island chain that stretches for 1,400 square miles north and west of the main Hawaiian islands.

"The BLNR's decision is unacceptable," said Vicky Holt-Takamine, president of the 'Ilio'ulaokalani Coalition and a member of the Congressional commission developing a bio-prospecting policy for the state.

Bio-prospecting is the theft of natural resources from native peoples. It should not happen in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands or anywhere in Hawaii," she said.

The conservationists argue that the BLNR should not grant rights to bio-prospectors when a law on the issue is being drafted.

On the BLNR agenda today are several permits for a University of Hawaii research mission through the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology. These researchers are seeking to collect thousands of samples of living organisms with the possibility of patenting the biological material they find.

The Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology received $2.3 million in federal funding for this research project last summer, but the permit applications were made public only last week.

The ship for this research mission, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Hi'ialakai, is requesting permission to dump human waste in the monument waters. According to the permit application, the ship's waste system is broken and unable to separate grey water from black water, so the institute says it must dump both types of waste into the ocean on a daily basis.

But dumping waste is prohibited in both the state and federal waters of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. "This is not the way to treat a fragile and unique marine environment," said Marti Townsend of KAHEA: The awaiian-Environmental Alliance. "Dumping waste water onto ancient, pristine coral reefs is inexcusable, especially when it is the federal government doing...

Full Story: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2007/2007-06-08-04.asp

The Refugees Of The Blue Planet

The Refugees Of The Blue Planet - airs June 12th @ 9:30pm on The Sundance Channel:

The Refugees Of The Blue Planet is a beautifully shot environmental documentary that lays bare the fate that has already befallen tens of millions of people around the globe, and stands poised to overwhelm hundreds of millions of people as global warming and environmental degradation takes off with a vengeance.

This film does a wonderful job of laying bare the results of sacrificing environment and community for the sake of convenience and profit, without the usual requests for funding and projection of the producers' favored solutions that accompany so many documentary films focused on specific issues. In the end, the reader is left with a clear understanding of the nature of the beast, yet left to draw their own conclusions as to what actions to take - or not take, as they might believe best.

Shot on location around the globe, The Refugees Of The Blue Planet shows the direct human results of environmental catastrophes and exploitation in no uncertain terms. Whether the tragedies are engendered by run-amok weather or rampant environmental degradation as a result of industrial activities, the point is clearly driven home.

In some cases, the victims or refugees are who you would expect, but in many cases they are not. The viewer is left without the artificial sense of insulation from potential disaster that our disconnected-from-nature industrialized society is so good at fostering. There is a clear impression that anyone could be the next Refugees Of The Blue Planet.

The Refugees Of The Blue Planet is the lead of a series of environmental documentaries scheduled to air on The Sundance Channel this June and July. The next feature will be titled "Dead In The Water" and will air on June 19th at 9:30pm. This will be followed by "Five Disasters Waiting To Happen" at 9:30pm on July 10th.

Look for my review of "Dead In The Water" to be published early next week, followed by a review of "Five Disasters Waiting To Happen" the following week to appear at The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy and Hydrogen Journal, and at The First Church of Healing The Earth.

Meanwhile, take a good solid look at this must-see presentation of what we all need to work together on at 9:30pm June 12th on The Sundance Channel.

All the best,

Dan Stafford
Co-Chair, Progressive Democrats of Illinois
http://www.illinoisprogressives.org

Owner and Publisher
The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy and Hydrogen Journal

Founder
The First Church of Healing The Earth

Urban Farming - Turning Our Cities Into Organic Farms?

I recently ran across the idea of Urban Farming - see http://www.urbanfarming.org - and here is what I wrote for their newsletter:

I am mainly concerned with Gary, Indiana here. Chicago is already doing many rooftop gardens and urban farming would be a natural there. Mayor daley is pushing to make Chicago the greenest city anywhere if he can.

Gary, however, has been devastated with the loss of the steel mills and heavy industry and still hasn't recovered at all. Property prices are depressed in the area and have remained so even through the recent real estate pressure cooker in the rest of the nation. Gary's youth are facing extreme difficulty finding decent jobs close to home, and so are working age adults in Gary.

Urban farming could actually transform Gary's whole economy if it really caught on there. It would be operating in a near-vacuum with a lot of out of work people with nothing better to do having time on their hands and probably a lot of unused urban/suburban space to work with.
I think if your organization could make a successful visionary pitch to the city government in Gary, it could be a real win-win-win situation for the local politicos, the urban farming movement as a whole, and most of all, for the residents of Gary.

I was reading about urban farming in E - The Environmental Magazine, and reading about Gary in the Chicago Tribune. Suddenly a picture of a revitalized post-industrial city with a flourishing URBAN & SUBURBAN agrarian economy struck me as quite possible. Especially considering that Gary is in close proximity to Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Madison, WI. (Madison is extremely progressive with lots of farmers' markets and community garden plots, this would hit there very well also.)

This has real possibilities - I am going to post it on my blog. the Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal at http://www.whizzyrds.com/Windblog.html -

I really hope your organization can take this idea and give it a little bit of push some how.

Rev. Dan Stafford

"Know your garden"

"Know your garden" - -- one of ten statements from the traditional Hopi Elders as told to Cho Qosh Auh Ho Oh, a Chumash/Yaqui/Maya Indian

When the whole Earth is your garden, there is a lot to learn and know - but when your garden is in your back yard, all those back yards add up.

Many, many indigenous people's prophesies speak of needing to care for the Earth in order to avoid disaster in the End Times. They also speak of needing to find peace in the world and end divisions between races and cultures, saying that we must all work together in order to avoid terrible consequences before the next world begins.

These instructions in prophesy are similar to the end times prophesies in the Bible in many respects as well - all come back to how Mankind is behaving, how we treat each other and the world we live in.

Know your garden indeed. Know every plant that you can eat when the time comes that things do not work as you'd think they do now. As the boyscout motto says, "be prepared."

Compost. Give everything back to the Earth that we do not need. Leave vile substances buried where they belong. Keep the world we were set here to care for clean and pure and filled with life and love.

These are the simple things in our hearts we all KNOW we should really be doing.

Somehow, we must break the insane cycles created by rampant capitalism and find a way to temper the capitalist system and it's technologies so that they are in perfect harmony with nature rather than trying to defeat nature.

It is time for us to join hands and become the Rainbow Warriors - the men and women of all races who work together to heal this world, whose weapons are peace and love, who finally bring technology, nature, and spirituality together into a unified existence that creates a free, loving, just world for all mankind.

We, the "ordinary people" must come together in order to achieve the extraordinary and bring this world into the Creator's plan in a fashion that shows we have accepted our responsibilities as the Creator's children and are finally growing up.

It is the only way to end the viscious cycles of greed imposed by the so-called "elite class" - who have proven themselves to be nothing but the ultimate in selfishness and soulless non-compassionates. In the end, if we do, perhaps even these people may regain their souls.

If we fail and let things go down the path of destruction, there may be very few of us left to pick up any pieces that might remain.

Time is short - time is now - now needs to be love.

Rev. Daniel

World Science Panel Report on Global Warming

Global warming: the final verdict

A study by the world's leading experts says global warming will happen faster and be more devastating than previously thought

Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday January 21, 2007
The Observer

Global warming is destined to have a far more destructive and earlier impact than previously estimated, the most authoritative report yet produced on climate change will warn next week.

A draft copy of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, obtained by The Observer, shows the frequency of devastating storms - like the ones that battered Britain last week - will increase dramatically. Sea levels will rise over the century by around half a metre; snow will disappear from all but the highest mountains; deserts will spread; oceans become acidic, leading to the destruction of coral reefs and atolls; and deadly heatwaves will become more prevalent.

The impact will be catastrophic, forcing hundreds of millions of people to flee their devastated homelands, particularly in tropical, low-lying areas, while creating waves of immigrants whose movements will strain the economies of even the most affluent countries.

'The really chilling thing about the IPCC report is that it is the work of several thousand climate experts who have widely differing views about how greenhouse gases will have their effect. Some think they will have a major impact, others a lesser role. Each paragraph of this report was therefore argued over and scrutinised intensely. Only points that were considered indisputable survived this process. This is a very conservative document - that's what makes it so scary,' said one senior UK climate expert.

Climate concerns are likely to dominate international politics next month. President Bush is to make the issue a part of his state of the union address on Wednesday while the IPCC report's final version is set for release on 2 February in a set of global news conferences.

Although the final wording of the report is still being worked on, the draft indicates that scientists now have their clearest idea so far about future climate changes, as well as about recent events. It points out that:

· 12 of the past 13 years were the warmest since records began;

· ocean temperatures have risen at least three kilometres beneath the surface;

· glaciers, snow cover and permafrost have decreased in both hemispheres;

· sea levels are rising at the rate of almost 2mm a year;

· cold days, nights and frost have become rarer while hot days, hot nights and heatwaves have become more frequent.

And the cause is clear, say the authors: 'It is very likely that [man-made] greenhouse gas increases caused most of the average temperature increases since the mid-20th century,' says the report.

To date, these changes have caused global temperatures to rise by 0.6C. The most likely outcome of continuing rises in greenhouses gases will be to make the planet a further 3C hotter by 2100, although the report acknowledges that rises of 4.5C to 5C could be experienced. Ice-cap melting, rises in sea levels, flooding, cyclones and storms will be an inevitable consequence.

Past assessments by the IPCC have suggested such scenarios are 'likely' to occur this century. Its latest report, based on sophisticated computer models and more detailed observations of snow cover loss, sea level rises and the spread of deserts, is far more robust and confident. Now the panel writes of changes as 'extremely likely' and 'almost certain'.

And in a specific rebuff to sceptics who still argue natural variation in the Sun's output is the real cause of climate change, the panel says mankind's industrial emissions have had five times more effect on the climate than any fluctuations in solar radiation. We are the masters of our own destruction, in short.

There is some comfort, however. The panel believes the Gulf Stream will go on bathing Britain with its warm waters for the next 100 years. Some researchers have said it could be disrupted by cold waters pouring off Greenland's melting ice sheets, plunging western Europe into a mini Ice Age, as depicted in the disaster film The Day After Tomorrow.

The report reflects climate scientists' growing fears that Earth is nearing the stage when carbon dioxide rises will bring irreversible change to the planet. 'We are seeing vast sections of Antarctic ice disappearing at an alarming rate,' said climate expert Chris Rapley, in a phone call to The Observer from the Antarctic Peninsula last week. 'That means we can expect to see sea levels rise at about a metre a century from now on - and that will have devastating consequences.'

However, there is still hope, said Peter Cox of Exeter University. 'We are like alcoholics who have got as far as admitting there is a problem. It is a start. Now we have got to start drying out - which means reducing our carbon output.'

Useful links
IPCC
UN framework convention on climate change

New Warnings on Climate Change

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/world/20climate.html?em&ex=1169614800&en=8d1b5ef00f2da641&ei=5087%0A

"The language is far from final," said Kevin E. Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., who is a lead author of one section. "You can't say what the I.P.C.C. says until it actually says it."

"Jerry Mahlman, an emeritus researcher at the same center who was a reviewer of the report's single-spaced, 1,644-page summary of climate science, said that most of the leaks were from people eager to find elements that were the scariest or most reassuring."

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Notes rom Rev. Dan:

• Is it really wise for any of us to wish to rush the hand of God toward Armaggeddon? Does He not work in his own time, as He sees fit? Who are we to try to rush Him along?
• Is it right and proper of us to chance damaging the gift God gave us, our home the Earth?