USGS study- US freshwater streams and their fish contain higher levels of mercury
March 5, 2010
According to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), fish from U.S. freshwater streams appear to be universally contaminated with the neurotoxin mercury.
The article linked below explains, “All fish were contaminated with mercury, more than 66 percent of them at levels higher than those set by the Environmental Protection agency as a ‘level of concern for fish-eating mammals,’ according to Reuters. More than 25 percent of the fish were contaminated at levels higher than those set as the threshold for human consumption.”
A full summary can be found at:
http://www.naturalnews.com/028284_fish_mercury.html
Hope for Creation: A Live Simulcast Event: April 21
March 4, 2010
Participate in the live international simulcast event on Wednesday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m. (EST). Watch online or organize a group screening at your church, college, or organization. Experience special music and guests, an exclusive look at the new Blessed Earth video series, and engage others across the globe in an interactive setting.
EEN is an official co-sponsor of this Blessed Earth event.
View an excellent short film and sign up today at http://www.blessedearth.org/
The Church united around a Biblical vision for care of the planet. The conversation begins with you.
Las Gaviotas: Reforestation in Colombia
February 25, 2010
A fascinating case study of a reforestation initiative featured by the Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI) network can be found here: http://www.zeri.org/case_studies_reforestation.htm
A brief excerpt :
Imagine miles and miles of desolate savannah in Eastern Colombia, without a tree or bird or child in sight, a veritable no-man’s land. Over the last almost two decades now 8,000 hectares of trees have been replanted with Carribean Pine.
The Las Gaviotas reforestation project is not only about planting trees for climate stabilization; it is, primarily, about catalyzing a development program that will pave the way for creating a sustainable future for our children where society is able to provide for the basic needs of all in terms of water, food, human health, shelter, energy, jobs and education with local resources.
An Open Letter to the President
December 16, 2009
President Obama
The White House
Washington, DC
Dear Mr. President,
We write to you on behalf of the businesses and millions of Americans we represent to urge you to lead at this historic moment and secure a fair and ambitious plan for global cooperation to combat climate change. In particular, we ask that you reprioritize American policy to phase out the sizable taxpayer subsidies we provide the fossil fuel industry and instead significantly increase the U.S. investment in global efforts to protect tropical forests, provide humanitarian assistance to protect vulnerable communities from climate impacts, and speed the deployment of clean energy technologies. With strong leadership and new proposals in the coming days, the United States can and should secure additional financing commitments from other nations as part of a broader agreement from major emitters to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
A Copenhagen agreement should include a landmark global plan to protect tropical forests from the destruction that causes approximately 15% of the emissions that contribute to global warming. Backed by a broad coalition of businesses and conservation groups, many in Congress have already supported measures to finance global efforts to protect tropical forests in climate legislation. The House-passed American Clean Energy and Security Act includes strong financing for efforts to reduce emissions from global deforestation by 720 million tons annually by 2020 – emission reductions that are above and beyond the emission standards in the bill. Similar provisions are included in the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act that has been approved by the Senate Environment Committee. You have an opportunity to offer this as a supplemental commitment here in Copenhagen and ask other nations to match it.
From Biloxi to Bangladesh, poor families get hit first and worst by the effects of climate change. We must help the poor in poor countries adapt to the impacts of climate change, including increased water scarcity, extreme weather events, increases in diseases, and declining agricultural productivity. Since climate impacts act as “threat multipliers,” such destabilization and the increase of refugees also will lead to security threats. Just as climate legislation in Congress must address impacts of climate on America’s poor, a global agreement should make sure that such impacts do not make it more difficult for the world’s poor to create better lives for themselves. The good news is that the solutions can help them climb out of poverty.
There are several opportunities to generate the necessary financing from innovative sources. At the G-20 and at the meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation nations, you helped lead an effort to phase out the subsidies of fossil fuels globally. These subsidies have been costing American taxpayers $10 billion annually. International transport emissions from aviation and shipping were left out of the Kyoto Protocol. The loophole for these fast growing sectors should be closed through a global sectoral cap, and revenue generated should be directed to these priorities.
A successful Copenhagen outcome will include global targets for both emissions and climate finance. The United States should encourage and support a strong global commitment through 2020 for public finance of forest, adaptation and technology initiatives, backed by specific options for securing this funding. This effort will help advance global cooperation toward a more ambitious and fairer global deal that involves all nations.
We stand ready to support your leadership.
Sincerely,
Maggie Fox
President & CEO, Alliance for Climate Protection
Michael Eckhart
President, American Council On Renewable Energy
Daniel Magraw
President, Center for International Environmental Law
Mindy Lubber,
President, Ceres/BICEP
(Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy)
Jeff Anderson
CEO, Clean Economy Network Inc.
Fred Krupp
President, Environmental Defense Fund
The Rev. Mitchell C. Hescox
President/CEO, Evangelical Environmental Network
Benjamin K. Homan
President and Chief Executive Officer, Food for the Hungry, Inc.
Gene Karpinski
President, League of Conservation Voters
Larry Schweiger
President and CEO, National Wildlife Federation
Frances Beinecke
President, Natural Resources Defense Council
Carl Pope
Executive Director, Sierra Club
Stephen Smith
Executive Director, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
Bill Meadows
President, The Wilderness Society
Kevin Knobloch
President, Union of Concerned Scientists
Jonathan Lash
President, World Resources Institute
Carter Roberts
President, World Wildlife Fund
Gillian Caldwell
Campaign Director, 1 Sky
Our evangelical voice in Copenhagen Post #2
December 15, 2009
One in a series of updates from Rev. Jim Ball of EEN from Copenhagen where he is attending the international climage change talks. This one was sent Tuesday, December 15, 2009.
Good afternoon from Copenhagen,
Yesterday (Monday) the talks were suspended due to disagreements between the developing and developed countries, losing valuable time. Thankfully the negotiations have resumed. But some are worried that precisely because we have over 120 heads of state coming by Friday — including President Obama — the talks are “doomed to succeed.” What is meant by this is that a weak deal with plenty of loopholes will be announced as a major success to avoid the appearance of failure.
No one wants to be seen as the country or group that led to the failure of the talks. But a weak deal certainly will not be supported by those outside of government whom others turn to to confirm whether the deal is a good one or not — including climate-friendly businesses, environmental groups, national security groups, and faith groups.
So it remains to be seen whether whatever the countries are able to put together will find the support it needs. Of course, whatever political agreement is affirmed here will have to lead to a legally-binding treaty to be negotiated in Mexico City in 2010.
On our special concern with international adaptation funding, we’ve been told by a senior State Department official that the US won’t agree to specific long-term number. My view is that they won’t because they feel they can’t — and they feel this way in part because they haven’t built the support necessary in Congress. We have been doing this for several years and have achieved some limited success. But we need the Administration to provide leadership on this with Congress. My hope is that it will be crystal clear to both the Administration and Congress that without funding that meets the criteria agreed to by all the countries — i.e., funding must be “adequate, predictable, and sustainable …” and “new and additional” — there won’t be an international deal. Only in concert with an international deal will our domestic actions lead to a situation where we have started down the road of overcoming global warming.
And in so doing will we give glory to our Creator by loving God and our neighbor.
Rev. Jim Ball
from Copenhagen
A Prayer for Creation
December 14, 2009
A stewards’ prayer from Tim Costello, CEO of World Vision Australia
“Most gracious God, creator of all good things, we thank you for the precious gift of life, for the intricate cycles and the beautiful balances that sustain it, and for the unfolding story of planet earth and all creatures that share it. We thank you for all earth’s people. You have inspired us to do much that is good and beautiful and true, but we have also chosen to act in ways that are destructive, selfish, ugly and false. Through ignorance and carelessness we have poisoned clean air and pure water. For monetary gain we have reduced verdant forests to barren wastes. In our craving for more we have plundered your beloved creation and driven many of our fellow creatures to extinction. Only recently have we begun to realize the dangerous future into which our current patterns of consumption and waste are driving us, especially in relation to earth’s climate. Only recently have we begun to see our need to find a wiser and better way of life in the future, before it is too late and our choices are limited by the consequences of inaction.
We who join in prayer today believe the time has come, Lord. Please guide us now, our God, at this critical moment in history, to better fulfill our role as stewards of this fragile planet. Inspire us and empower us to turn from thoughtless consumption and greedy destruction, to embrace and choose instead lives of caring protection and sacred regeneration. Help us discover again a wholesome and sustainable way of life that reflects your wisdom, your compassion, your justice, and your love. Help us reject the lie that there is no alternative to greed and careless exploitation, and help us believe your truth — that true prosperity, life in all its fullness, can only come from wise stewardship, mutual responsibility, and mutual care.
Guide the leaders of nations who (will) gather in Copenhagen (on December 6). Give them courage to set noble goals that reach beyond short-range political expediency, short-term economic profit, and short-sighted self-interest. Grant them foresight into a troubled future characterized by rising sea levels, spreading droughts and deserts, melting glaciers, suffering families and displaced populations, ravaging diseases, and catastrophic famines. Move them to choose a better future. Impress upon their conscience our sacred duty to bequeath to our children and grandchildren a healthy and thriving environment rather than a world in climate crisis.
If our leaders fail, Lord, if they fail to take the necessary action, they will violate both our trust and your calling to use their power for the common good. If they fail, every person will be affected, including generations not yet born. Please, God of justice and compassion, do not let the poorest and youngest among us, who have done the least to create this crisis, to suffer the unchecked consequences of the reckless greed and arrogant complacency of the wealthiest and most comfortable. Instead, move the prosperous nations to bear their fair share of the solution, in just proportion to their contribution to the problem. Rouse us all to action for we are all woven together in the fabric of creation.
This is the moment, God, when a great turning of hearts must begin. So through this prayer, we of many traditions who follow Christ — joined by friends and neighbors of many faiths – unite our hearts in a cry for change. At first a few of us, and then hundreds, and then many thousands, join together as one to pray to you on behalf of our leaders, in solidarity with the poor, in strong hope for the healing of this beautiful world, your creation and our home. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray in the name of Christ, through whom you have given yourself to the whole world in incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. Amen.”
Tim Costello, is CEO of World Vision Australia. You can follow his blog here.
