One of ioby's local green projects

Erin Barnes is a green gal next door.  What is a green gal, you might ask?  She is someone who is simply an ordinary woman who is creating much needed change in the world.  This green gal rolled up her sleeves and set out to change the world one block at a time.   How so?  Barnes is the co- founder and executive director of ioby, a local fundraising platform where local projects are funded by neighbors.  But it isn’t just about the project. It is about bringing neighbors together.

Ioby stands for “in our backyard ”  currently based in NYC.  However, if  Barnes has her way, the concept will go national.  If you listen to Barnes during her 6 minute video interview, you have no doubt that ioby projects will start sprouting up all over the country.  (Listen to the podcast by clicking here.)

Why ioby?

Barnes stated,

“[w]e know people care about the environment, but their most prominent option is to purchase something. Buying a table or a new light bulb leaves a lot of people thinking, ‘Now what?’ They are hungry to get their hands dirty,” says Barnes.

Erin Barnes, co-founder and Exec Director of ioby

Partners Cassie Flynn, Brandon Whitney, and Barnes who met in Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies  saw the need for local impact in changing the world.  Hence, ioby was born as a place where local funders and people who seek change in their neighborhood meet.

 ” ioby connects change with resources. It enables all of us to invest in change—then see (and live with) the return on our investment. These pages aren’t glamorous. There are no celebrities, no large-scale protests. There are everyday neighbors taking small steps—bringing sunlight, open space, fresh food and greenery into our backyards.”

Although there are matching funds donations, the majority of the projects are funded by local $10 and $20 donations.  Thus far, the Company has brought together funders and 86 projects  in which $132,000 was raised. The average donor lives two miles from the projects.

If you or your company wishes to donate, pick a project here.

How Does ioby work?

Compost Station. One of ioby's funded projects

Have a project?  First check out to see if you meet the Companies’ criteria. Then post your idea. ioby adds 8% to the budget for administrative costs such as credit card fees and postage.  Then the fun begins for project teams to solicit funds.  The beauty of the projects is that it brings neighbors together whether funding or getting their hands dirty.

Learn more about their 2011 heroes here.  Listed below are a few examples:

“In 2009, Stacey and Bee wanted to start a decentralized project where underutilized snippets of backyards, rooftops, community gardens, school grounds, and other open space could be converted into places for food production. With Molly and Martha they produce vegetables, eggs, flowers and new farmers and chicken apprentices!” (pictured above.)

And

“In the 1970’s the Bronx burned.  In the 1980’s the Bronx became the birthplace of break dance, rap and hip-hop.  In 1996 Troy Lancaster arrived to take out the trash.  If you know Troy you know that chatting for a while and getting trees are just some of his many special talents.  With a big empty lot cleaned and tree planted, the birds started to arrive.  Troy worked with neighborhood and planted more trees, plants and flowers.  More migrating birds flew by.  Each year the Dred Scott Bird Sanctuary uses approximately 900 lbs of bird seed to help and encourage the migrating flocks while educating neighborhood residents.  Troy is currently looking for donations for his ioby project.”

Take Aways:

I asked Barnes what advice could she give to others.  She said ask  for help when forming your organization.  The NY environmental community was extremely collaborative.  After I learned what Barnes did, I replied via email that it must feel amazing to get up in the morning.   And she replied that she has a good life.  Yes, she created it not only for her but others.

Join the Conversation:

• How do you feel about ioby?  Do you see a need in your neighborhood?
• What’s your take away about what Barnes accomplished
• Does she inspire you?
•  What characteristics inspire you?

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Inspiration

Over the years as I penned Green Talk, I have met the most inspiring  people who have used their life story to create a business or mission to help others. You know the ones that make your neck hair stand up when you talk about them?  They might be your neighbor, friend or relative.  We all have them in our lives.  And the Earth is a better place because of them.  Amen.

In the last year, a voice inside started to bug me.  It would whisper to me, “Anna, tell their stories.”

I would then push that voice aside since I had enough work on Green Talk to last me for two lifetimes.  Who has time?  By the way, whose stories?  Do I need meds?  Am I working too hard that I am hearing voices?  If they take me the sanitarium, will it be green?  That’s the last thing I need to do.  Green a sanitarium while being in an organic straight jacket. Voice, get a life.

http://youtu.be/sHTsQ9qePrQ

Again, the voice started getting louder.  ”If you build it, people will come.“

Wait a minute.  Voice, are you James Earl Jones?  Is this baseball movie? Isn’t the phrase, “if you build it, he will come?”   I hate baseball.  Sorry to all of you who love it.  It is simply boring. Voice, I don’t get your message.

Voice thinks.  Boy, she is dumber than a recycled content door knob.  Sometimes, she is such a squirrel.  Who cares if she hates baseball?

A few Months Pass and Then

A few months later, Voice keeps getting louder and louder.  Sometimes I can’t drown it out.  I am starting to think the meds idea is a really good one.

The voice:  ”Why did you start Green Talk?  To inspire?  Create Community?  To and be educated?”

Okay voice.  Yes. Yes, and HELL YES.  (For those of you who don’t know me, read my about page.)

Then the voice would say “tell their stories.”

Whose stories?  Crap.  I thought this is what I do on Green Talk.  Am I totally missing the boat here? I tell the stories of companies, products, and people.  I am a regular storyteller for crying out loud.  Please leave me alone, Voice.  I am too busy.

The Voice would just sign.  A heavy sign and think, she ain’t getting it.  Where is the 2 by 4 piece of lumber when you need it?

Voice, What Do You Want From Me?

Okay, Voice what do you want from me? You are driving me crazy. I don’t need you do this. I have four cavemen.  They drive me plenty crazy.   And let’s not forget the hubby.

Plus, I am working my fingers off at Green Talk.  The lone She wolf.  Sometimes, I think no one is listening. There is crickets around my comments despite my increase in internet traffic. I get defeated, hurt, and angry all at the same time.  I wonder why am I wasting my time probably once a month.  (Okay, maybe like twice a month…)

So what do you want from me, Voice.  Now I know how Brittany Spears feels. Voice wants a piece of me.

Do What You Do Best

Then the Voice says, “do what you do best.  Storytell and inspire.”

Then I got it. I don’t know how, but  I really did. The LED went off in my head. (Nice color too.)  What did I get?  I decided to create a series about women who inspire me.  Women who are our neighbors.  Not women who are television stars or are repeatedly in the paper.  Good old,  ”stop yapping about it and do something about it women.”  You know who they are.

The Green Gal Next Door.  She is ordinarily extraordinary.

She is so damn inspiring.  She decide to Go Big and NOT Go Home.

My Hope?

My hope with this series?

• To inspire you. Not just women.  Inspire you to live your dream. Heck, if they can do it, so can you. Being green means so much more than building a green house.  It means to live simpler, healthier, fulfilled and being kinder to Earth.
• Give you hope that we will be okay.  These women are forging ahead to make life better for all of us.
• Support their organization to help them build that field of dreams.  (Love that movie.  Okay, truth be told, I love Kevin Costner, but don’t tell hubby.)
• Make a difference.  It is the simple changes that count.  Start small.  One step at a time.
• We are all in this together.

Could I use Some Help?

I hate asking for help.  I am afraid of hearing the word, no.  Here’s where I need help:

Video work is hard work.  I see this series having a life of its own.  Please consider the following:

• Please give me feedback about the Green Jane Next Door videos.  I am keeping them to 5 minute which for a rambler like me is soooo hard.
• Consider sponsoring the series or asking your business sponsor the series so I can make the series more polished.
• If you feel inclined, please donate through the PayPal button on the side bar.
• Give me names of women who are healing the Earth in some way. I am trying to focus on not for profit companies or individual woman.
• As for businesses, I haven’t figured this part yet.  I walk a fine line at Green Talk about supporting it and not doing a pay for play option.  However, like your business, I need to support Green Talk.  Again, any of you who have a suggestion about how to deal with businesses, I am all ears.  There are some great women entrepreneurs I would like to feature.  Want to tell me privately, please contact me through my form.

Photo by SweetOnVeg

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Double Impact. Small Changes to Earn $ for Charities

What happens if I told you that your favorite charities could receive donations simply by you changing your habits to help the Earth.  Not one dime out of your pocket.

Anna, what do I have to do?  Just log onto Double Impact.  Choice one of the charities, and start taking their simple challenges to reduce your impact on the Earth.  Yep, that simple.

Really, Anna?  So simply turning off my lights?  Checking into a farmer’s market?  Lowering the thermostat?  That’s it?

In a nutshell.    In fact, you can even follow what your friends are doing.  And for those of you Green Earth Lovin’ Ninjas out there, make it a contest.  All in the name of Mother Earth and your fav charity.  Think as of it as a fun game. To learn more, watch my video below.

Wow, Anna.  That’s it?

Yep.  Easy, peezy.  Just sign up via Facebook.

Anna, what’s the catch?  Who’s paying for this change?  Another government handout?

Corporations.  According to the Double Impact team, corporations give money every year to charities but no one knows about it.  Jessica Alter, founder of the Company explained in 2010 brands, donated in the United States $15 billion dollars to charities.  However, at of the day, business aren’t able to show results from their donations.

So, the team created a healthy marriage between brands, consumers, and charities.  Everyone gets their needs met.  Dr. Phil would be proud.

Here is a chance for the corporations to don their super hero costumes and dole out the moolah.   Brand visibility.  You change, charities get the money, and Mother Earth gets to smile.  Sounds like a win win to me.

My Double Impact Page

Anna, what do I have to do?

Well, you can earn impact points by

• connecting your electric bill to your utility to help curb your electrical appetite,
•  taking quizzes and watching short fun videos,
• buying certain products (such as sustainable bottle through Amazon,)
•  checking in (such as a farmer’s market,)
•  or daily dos (like a aromatic dinner for two with candles.)

That’s it.  Watch my short video  as I walk you around the site and how my personal Double Impact page looks like.  I will have to warn you.  I have been kind of a slacker.

So you know, you will also get these cute reminders if you fall off the green wagon urging to come back and do some more.  Plus, the folks at Double Impact already know my friends and asks me to invite them to play along.  (Do they know someone important at Big Brother Google?)

Anna, are all the charties green? 

Good question.  The charities listed right now are Healthy Child, Healthy World (love this charity,) Breast Cancer Awareness, and Pesticide Action Network.  In fact, you can nominate your favorite charity.

Just to give you an example, over 500 people have signed up to support Healthy Child, Healthy World.  Collectively, they have earned over 100,000 impact points in just a few months.  (Note, Double Impact is a very young company.)

But what about the business aspect of Double Impact, Anna? 

So there lies the second half of the equation.  The business aspect.  Ah, a very interesting article into itself.  Hate to cut you short, but you have to read part 2 of my dissection of Double Impact.

Be sure to watch  the podcast and video interview of Jessica Alter, the founder, of Double Impact explains the Double Impact concept as well as the benefits to businesses.

Until then, go ahead and fund your charities by changing your footprint.  It’s as easy as turning off the lights.

Join the Conversation:

• Have you joined Double Impact?  If so, what are your thoughts?
• Would you join Double Impact?  If not, how come?
• How do you feel about taking simple challenge to help out your favorite charity?
• What kind of feedback can you give Double Impact?
• Don’t you just love Healthy Child, Healthy World?

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The Space Between Church and Not-Church

Welcome Guest poster, Caroline Fairless, an Episcopal priest, and co-founder of The Center for Children at Worship.  Her newest book is The Space Between Church and Not-Church.   Her book opens our minds to  healing our planet as a “spirit-centered process, requiring humans to reclaim our appropriate place among the earth community.”

It’s a wonderfully hopeful thing, to have access, direct from fingertip to keyboard, to environmentally sustainable resources that range from urban farming, to rooftop gardens, to household cleaning products, to the challenge to go plastic-free for a week. Web communities that serve as clearing houses for such resources are of immeasurable value.

The cynics among us speak of the warts in the concept of “sustainable living”, and yes, underneath the sarcasm lie concerns worth exploring. Yet this is not the time for the cynics among us. Prophets, yes, but not cynics. Our earth community is in too much trouble, and there is too much work to be done.

Our Need for Spiritual Connection with the Earth

From my perspective, what’s motivating us isn’t just “feel good environmentalism” or some kind of nagging moral thorn in our side that says we ought to be doing this.  From where I sit, all these efforts – to clean up, to recycle, to establish farmers’ markets, to replant indigenous seed – all of them – are the action/expressions of the deepest sort of longing, and it’s one that we may not even be aware of. These are the outward expressions of our innate longing for connectedness to this planet.

It’s a spiritual longing, and serves to remind us that our care of the earth, the waters and air, and wildlife habitat are spiritual endeavors. We are spiritual beings, and the spiritual dimension belongs not just to humans alone.

The words of Thomas Berry make me want to dance with joy.

“The earth is our origin,” he writes, “our nourishment, our support, our guide. Our spirituality itself is earth derived. If there is no spirituality in the earth, then there is no spirituality in ourselves.”

The only way humans can understand ourselves as spiritual beings, then, is to understand our own spirituality as linked to, and inseparable from, the spiritual dimension of all life forms.

To make the claim, as many do, that humans alone are possessed of and share a spiritual life apart from earth community, is utterly false. This eco-spiritual component doesn’t yet carry a lot of weight in legal arguments, nor in moral persuasion, and certainly not among the religious, yet it is this connection – and this alone – that serves as the ground of true planetary healing and restoration. It follows, then, that the human-to-earth connection is the very ground for human healing and wellness as well.

I’ve been blessed with mentors such as Thomas Berry, Alice Walker, John Muir, Margaret Wheatley – some living, some not – who have insinuated themselves deep into the core of my true knowing – a knowing which is all too often eclipsed by a surfeit of information and righteous opinion – mentors who have insisted that I open my eyes to the interconnectedness and interdependence of all life forms.

The astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson reminds us that all life consists of “chemical elements forged in the center of high mass stars, unstable at the ends of their lives, which then exploded to scatter their enriched contents across galaxies, forming into gas clouds which in turn collapsed, forming stars, and planets, and life.”

We Can Reverse Our Own Destruction

That life includes not only humans, but all else as well. I find it thrilling to consider that we are all of the same stardust! The poets write lyrics, and the musicians sing songs. In this world view, Berry’s words ring with startling clarity. In our lifetime, he says, “the glory of the human has become the desolation of the earth. And now the desolation of the earth is becoming the destiny of the human.” In other words, what we’re doing to the earth, we are doing to ourselves. We are charting the course of our own destruction.

We have lost our bearings, but it need not be a permanent description.
If we can remember that healing and wellness – of all life including human life – is a spiritual endeavor, and that one cannot be healed without the other, there is hope. We long for healing, and such longing is given expression by the very actions of green that – we can say in celebration – are becoming increasingly the norm.

We are of the same stardust!

Caroline Fairless was ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1989.  She has served several congregations, and founded – with her husband Jim Sims – The Center for Children at Worship, a non-profit whose focus is the full inclusion of children in the life of faith communities.

Caroline Fairless

In addition, she is the author of Hambone, a book for children; Children at Worship ~ Congregations in Bloom; Confessions of a Fake Priest; and most recently The Space Between Church & Not-Church. Caroline is a ceramic sculptor and puppet maker, and lives in the woods in Wilmot, NH.

Thank you, Caroline for your guest post and the revelation of how our own innate spirituality is so connected to all living creatures that inhabit the Earth.

Join the conversation:

• Have you felt more connected to the Earth through your religion?
• Thoughts about Caroline’s statements that healing mankind is grounded in our Earth-human connection?
• Have you seen a shift in your own religion to embracing our roles as protectors of the Earth?  If so, how?
• Has religion played a big part with your own connection with the Earth?
• Or do you feel that your religion is missing the boat in saving the Earth?
• Would you consider yourself a religious and/or spiritual person?
• Have you found as you have connected more and more with saving the Earth, your spirituality has increased?

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Shop Nothing. The Retail Cure.

Do you buy to buy? Think about it.  If you see something you like, do you stop and say, well I really don’t need it even though you can afford it?  Don’t feel bad. Lots of people feel the same way especially if you are spending it for others.  So, much that despite high unemployment and other economic concerns, online retail sales are predicted to reach  $32.4 billion this holiday season, which is an 11 percent gain from last year.

What happens if you are teetering between a Buy Nothing Black Friday Supporter to itching to press that “Buy Now” button?  Materialistic but realize your impact on the Planet? Shop Nothing offers you some retail therapy so that you can “buy nothing” but still get to press the buy button.  Confused?  So was I.

What is Shop Nothing?

Current MBA student Jonathan Mariano explains,

“[y]ou must think ShopNothing is a crazy idea. How can someone sell nothing for something?

Nothing for free cannot go head to head with the latest iWidget, eDoodad, or xFad. But nothing for a price may be able to compete. ShopNothing provides that alternative where nothing can truly compete with something.

If you need a little retail therapy, look no further than ShopNothing. We provide a retail experience where you can find fashionable great deals on nothing.

Sustainable goods and services attempt to lessen our impact on the planet. But there is still an impact. Sometimes, the most sustainable thing you can buy is nothing. ShopNothing gives you the choice to buy nothing, or buy nothing.”

According to Mariano’s blog, he contemplated entering into a business contest and pondered did the world really need a new doodad.  As he explains, the concept of buying nothing, which has no impact on the Planet, became so obvious to him that he created Shop Nothing.

Consider Shop Nothing's Nothing Delusion Item

Now you can shop for nothing basic priced at $.99 to nothing acidic priced at $999.999.00.  I personally like nothing delusional at $9999.00:

“Is nothing reality in a delusion? Or can nothing be a delusion in reality? “The belief that one’s own view of reality is the only reality is the most dangerous of all delusions.” -Paul Watzlawick, Psychologist. Find out with Nothing Delusion.”

So for the time being, Shop Nothing will be open for business until the end of the 2010 Holiday season.  However, it Shop Nothing become a one-shop-nothing success, Mariano will continue offering us greenies more buy-nothing-retail therapy.

But He is Charging to Pay Nothing?

Okay. This stumped me too.  I guess he wanted you to feel that you are buying something with your money.  But why not just offer to give money to charities?

But where is all the money going?  According to Mariano,

“If ShopNothing actually catches on, I plan on donating part of the proceeds to a non-profit organization, one that is fairly well known and many of us use almost daily (I know I use it daily!) Part will probably go to Uncle Sam. And the rest will be for my next “crazy” project or startup down the road.”

Got to Love His Parity on Cyber Monday:

“We have some Nothing specials for Cyber Monday!

“Nothing Basic was $4.99, now only $.99.
Nothing Essential was $9.95, now only $1.99.
Nothing Deluxe was $19.95, now only $9.95.
Nothing Premium was $99.95, now only $19.95.

Limited time! Get Nothing at bargain prices:)!”

Will He Succeed?

• What do you think?
• Would you buy from Shop Nothing?
• Will people just buy out of principle to denounce our ultra-materialistic world?
• Will people blindly shop for some of their money to go to unnamed charity?

Time will tell.  Mariano states he will disclose after the 2010 holiday season the traffic and revenues generated. Should be interesting especially since Shop Nothing was featured in Discovery’s Treehugger who has plenty of green readers.Similar Posts:

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There is nothing like a great video that tells it like it is on a Monday morning. UnF–kTheGulf.com says it all. Kind of like a cup of Joe to get the blood running through your body.  In this case, F’in mad blood since our gulf is running black not blue because BP can’t shut the F’in hole.

Watch the video below which features a cross section of people mad as hell using the F-bomb to take BP to task.

Oil Spill Charity “F-Bomb-A-Thon” from UnF–kTheGulf.com on Vimeo.

According to the press release from one of the co-producers, Luke Montgomery,

“The no-holds-barred clip shows people wearing a black T-shirt that reads “UNF–K THE GULF” and cutting loose on BP in a way that millions of Americans only wish that leaders, from the president to news anchors, had the guts to do. The T-shirts are sold on the group’s website for $13 each, with $5 going directly to four Gulf wildlife rescue and environmental charities. The site allows the public to vote on how the funds are spent.”

Montgomery and  Nate Guidas, producers of the video, hope to raise $25,000 for the sale of the shirts.

But why the F word, Montgomery?

“While some may find their approach offensive, Montgomery responds saying “What’s truly offensive is not a four-letter word but the lack of response from the federal government, dolphins blowing oil out of their f–king blowholes and BP blocking reporters from the beaches they f–ked up.” Guidas adds, “Our video shows people calling it like they see it and the T-shirt let’s people do good and look good doing it. Who knew that by putting on a T-shirt you could be helping take oil off of birds and sea turtles?”

So, what can you do?

Buy a T-shirt. They are $13, in which $5 is donated to the clean-up cause.

Share this article or UnF–kTheGulf.com site with all of your social media buddies.  (You can either share through my little “Share this” tab below or go to the UnF–kTheGulf.com website, and it is easy as pie to click on the social media buttons of your choice.) Let’s get this video go viral. We are social media mavens, hear us roar!

Vote on how you think the money should be spent. The following groups are listed:

“Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation:

Louisiana Wildlife Rehabilitators Association, lawraonline.com

Coordinating the rescue of wildlife & matching experts with animals.

Oil Spill Volunteer Mobilization:

LA Gulf Response, lagulfresponse.org

Organizing a volunteer army on the ground to assist Gulf recovery.

Lawsuit To Stop BP’s New Drilling:

Earthjustice, earthjustice.org

Suing in federal court to stop BP’s dangerous exploratory oil drilling.

Stopping Offshore Drilling:

Greenpeace, greenpeace.org/usa

Working to prevent eco disasters by promoting clean energy policy.

NOTE: We’re supporting the great work of these organizations but our F-word-filled website was not created or endorsed by any of these groups.”

Tell five friends. We all have them right?  If not, you always have family.

Follow @unF’The Gulf (not the correct spelling but altered to keep the site clean. The link is correct.)

Just get mad as hell, and do something F’in about it.

Readers, let me know if you shared the video, emailed to your friends, bought a t-shirt, and/or are following unF’TheGulf?  What has been the response from your friends?  Comment below…

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So, would you invite toxic chemicals to the dinner table?  Absolutely not, Anna.  You must be thinking, do I take you to be a fool?  Come on.  All those character are normal every day products.  Right?

Wrong.  All those cute creatures pictured in the above photo are wolves in sheep clothing. Harmful, harmful chemicals.  Would you bring them into your house if you knew what lurked inside them? Nor, would you wait at Disney world to meet the “Harmful Chemicals” group with names like formaldehyde. BPA. lead, just to name a few.  Chemicals that could cause cancer along with a host of other disorders. Don’t be fooled by appearances. And also don’t be fooled by their front people, the chemical industry’s the Coalition for Chemical Safety, who want you to believe they have your best interest at heart.

Say, it ain’t so, Anna.

Unfortunately it is so. Watch the below video furnished to me by Janelle of Healthy Child, Healthy World , which is part of the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition, which sheds light on how the Coalition for Chemical Safety wants you to think they support the Safe Chemical Act.  Gag me. (And not with a spoon…)

Remember the Wolfe in Little Red Riding Hood?  You know how that story went.

Richard Denison, Ph.D., a Senior Scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund states in his article about how deceptive the Coalition of Chemical Safety can be:

“My major complaint was, not that the chemical industry was organizing itself or even seeking support from others, but rather that it was doing so through deception:  Pretending to be something it was not.  Never revealing who is behind the coalition, who’s paying the bills.  Never revealing it was put together by one of the nation’s premier “astroturf” PR firms.  And most importantly, not coming clean about its real identity to the businesses and organizations it approaches to sign up.”

It Takes a Whole Village.

I am no stranger to preaching the mantra support the Safe Chemical Act. Nor, am I a stanger to kids with issues no doubtly caused by chemicals that I might have used or been exposed to when they were in my womb. Remember, I am the one with four children with dislexia among other learning issues.

In my article in which  I plead to President Obama to create an agenda to re-vamp the 1976 Toxic Substance Chemical Act (TSCA), I stated the following:

“The Environmental Working Group (“EWG”) did a study of 10 cord blood samples in 2004.  They were testing for 413 toxic chemicals.  What they found was that on average each sample contained over 200 toxic chemicals ranging from consumer products, pesticides, to products that were banned thirty years ago.  The babies whose cord blood samples were taken were being exposed while in utero.”

Not only are the chemicals lurking in our pans, baby bottles, cleaning products, but most importantly,  in our furniture, electronics and building products. That comfy chair could reek of formaldehyde.  Yes, the same thing that we use to embalm the dead.

How Does it Affect our Kids?

According to the Center for Health, Justice, and the Environment (CHJE),

“Increasingly, children are being found to be hyperactive, slow to learn, and disruptive in school. The number of children in special education programs classified with learning disabilities increased 191% from 1977 to 1994.ii Asthma is a leading reason for school absenteeism and the number one chronic childhood illness. iii One in a hundred American children has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).iv 8,000 American children are diagnosed each year with cancer,.v and dust, and in human urine, blood and breast milk.xi”[source]

I ask you, would you put a BPA ladden bottle in your baby’s mouth?  Especially, if you knew the potential health effects of BPA?  But, I ask, why do we have to worry about toxic chemicals in our products?  Don’t we have enough on our plates?

Take Action.  Tell the Chemical Companies, Enough.

So, Readers, please tell Congress to support this bill.  Our children depend on us.

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My friend, Beth of Fake Plastic Fish, sent me this inspiring video made by Four Year. Go, a campaign to change the world.  It begs the question, where will we be in four years with all the problems we have on our plate today.  With this Campaign, there is hope at the end of the tunnel?

According to the campaign, the next four years will determine Earth’s next 1000 years.

“The background context for the campaign is the belief that the extent of mounting crises for humanity is daunting—profound climate disruption, wide and deep poverty, global water shortages, loss of topsoil, depletion of fisheries, erosion of democracy, unsustainable population growth, mass extinction of plant and animal species, economic breakdown. And these crises are in fact completely inter-related.

More and more people are recognizing the urgency of the situation but seem unable to muster the vision and commitment needed to cause a change in course.  It is now clear that the human species already possesses all the technologies and practical solutions required to resolve the crises confronting us. What is missing is a collective sense of possibility and the political and popular will to act—urgently, globally, collaboratively.

There is a limited window of opportunity, maybe just four years, to execute a great turning; four years for people to get motivated and involved; four years to apply the solutions we already know; four years that can determine the quality of life on this planet for the next 1,000; four years to get it right. And we need to start now, on a worldwide scale. The goal of  FOUR YEARS. GO. is to cause a positive tipping point in unleashing humanity’s collective will, and to do it in the next four years.”

The Campaign ask each and everyone of us to join to make any small steps.  Click on their map to see what steps others are taking.  Check out what people are saying on the pulse. If you are an organization, join those who have become an ally.

But you wonder, how can you make a difference?

“Begin to map a journey for yourself—a personal journey toward a just and peaceful world. A personal journey that when combined with millions more will shift the ground on which we stand. You don’t need to clearly see your journey’s end or even the contours of your path. You just need the direction in which you’ll start. Each journey begins with each of us taking a first step… and then a next… and a next.”

Who is behind Four Year. Go?  It is an alliance of  ”The Pachamama Alliance, a nonprofit organization, committed to building a just and sustainable global society; Wieden + Kennedy, the largest independent advertising agency network in the world (creators of Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign and Lance Armstrong’s “Live Strong” campaign); P:5Y—Peace in Five Years, a non-profit organization, committed to world peace; and the 2020 Fund, a non-profit organization and philanthropic platform.”

To be honest, I was puzzled as to how this Campaign will inspire others.  I have seen a lot of campaigns over the last couple of years asking people to take small steps. Why is this campaign different?  Is it because they are targeting so many issues that it will resonate with everyone?

But I am still left with questions which perhaps could have been answered by the organization.  How are they going to inspire others?  How will they get governments and NGO as well as individuals to work together?  Is this campaign simply glossy without any backbone?

Will others be motivated by looking at the small steps taken by others?

Where is the action plan? Goals to obtain? Perhaps that will be rolled out in a couple of weeks?  Months? Self direction does not work.  It is kind of like some people are better off working at a job rather than being entrepreneurial. And government?  Don’t go there.

Instead of the gloss give me some substance if you can.

Am I missing something?

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