Please vote daily through August 30, 2009 for story about Rev. Jon Magnuson's nonprofit environment projects in Michigan's Upper Peninsula: Vote for the story by Donna Kumpula about the EarthKeeper Initiative and the Zaagkii Project
It was weekly winner in April but now its competing against about 19 others for the big prize . Money that would help fund the projects for a year.
You'll need to register - or login if you have voted before.
Its entitled:
Creating numerous environment projects that bring together diverse groups, students, American Indians
Brief summary of projects your vote would support:
The interfaith Earth Keeper Initiative:
The interfaith EarthKeepers planted twelve thousand (12,000) trees across northern Michigan for Earth Day 2009 thanks to over 100 churches/temples from 12 religions.
During past Earth Day projects, the EarthKeepers have recycled or properly disposed over nearly 400 tons of waste including cellphones, computers (and related equipment), printers, car batteries, poisons, pesticides, oil-based paint, pharmaceuticals and much more.
The Zaagkii Project:
This summer Native American youth and at-risk teens are repairing the ecosystem along a Lake Superior beach, built dozens of Mason Bee houses including some to be placed at the U.S. National Gardens in D.C.; Native American teens this month are helping build a greenhouse for native species plants on the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community reservation.
Last summer the teens built dozens of butterfly houses for migrating Monarchs.See Links to vote below:
Please vote daily through August 30, 2009 for story about... more
Please vote daily through August 30, 2009 for story about Rev. Jon Magnuson's nonprofit environment projects in Michigan's Upper Peninsula: Vote for the story by Donna Kumpula about the EarthKeeper Initiative and the Zaagkii Project
It was weekly winner in April but now its competing against about 19 others for the big prize . Money that would help fund the projects for a year.
You'll need to register - or login if you have voted before.
Its entitled:
Creating numerous environment projects that bring together diverse groups, students, American Indians
Brief summary of projects your vote would support:
The interfaith Earth Keeper Initiative:
The interfaith EarthKeepers planted twelve thousand (12,000) trees across northern Michigan for Earth Day 2009 thanks to over 100 churches/temples from 12 religions.
During past Earth Day projects, the EarthKeepers have recycled or properly disposed over nearly 400 tons of waste including cellphones, computers (and related equipment), printers, car batteries, poisons, pesticides, oil-based paint, pharmaceuticals and much more.
The Zaagkii Project:
This summer Native American youth and at-risk teens are repairing the ecosystem along a Lake Superior beach, built dozens of Mason Bee houses including some to be placed at the U.S. National Gardens in D.C.; Native American teens this month are helping build a greenhouse for native species plants on the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community reservation.
Last summer the teens built dozens of butterfly houses for migrating Monarchs.Please vote daily through August 30, 2009 for story about Rev. Jon Magnuson's... more
Marquette, Michigan – During the first two weeks of May 2009, over 12,000 trees have been planted the interfaith Upper Peninsula EarthKeeper Team across a 400 miles area of northern Michigan and in Minocqua, Wisconsin thanks to volunteers at over 100 churches and temples.
The trees were planted near homes, camps, churchyards, schools, parks and many other places by thousands of volunteers from ten faith traditions.
Children of all ages helped make the project a success and underscored why its important to protect the environment - it's their future at stake.
The EarthKeepers handed out over 12,000 red pine and white spruce seedlings at over 100 churches and temples across northern Michigan.
This video details some of the planting, distribution and preparation for the 209 EarthKeeper Tree Project that started on Earth Day 2009 with the planting of a three-foot white spruce at Presque Isle Park along Lake Superior in Marquette, Michigan. Bishops and other EarthKeeper faith leaders blessed the tree as it was planted on a wooded hillside one day after a snowstorm.
In previous projects, the EarthKeeper Initiative has removed nearly 400 tons of hazardous waste from the environment - most of which was recycled - and involves the congregations of over 150 churches/temples from ten faith traditions in 50 communities, American Indian tribes, college students and other youth.
The EarthKeepers were founded in 1994 by Rev. Jon Magnuson, executive director of the non-profit Cedar Tree Institute in Marquette and Carl Lindquist, executive director of the Superior Watershed Partnership.
In 2004, the bishops and other faith leaders signed the original EarthKeeper Covenant - pledging to actively protect the environment and reach out to Native Americans. The religious communities include Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Baha'i, Jewish, Zen Buddhist and the Quakers.
The group teams with Native American tribes including the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC). Another major partner is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that sent representatives to the collections
From 2005-2007, the group of adults and youth held an annual EarthKeeper Clean Sweep each Earth Day during which over 20,000 northern Michigan residents turned in household hazardous waste at 20 free collections sites across a 400-mile area involving all corners of the pristine Upper Peninsula.
With a message of encouragement from their faith leaders, enthusiastic congregations turned out during three-hour collections:
In 2005, over 45 tons of pesticides, herbicides, lead-based paint, batteries and many other hazardous substances from northern Michigan homes was turned in by residents during the first clean sweep. Partners included landfills and local governments.
In 2006, over 320 tons of electronic waste was collected including computers, keyboards, hard drives, other computer related components, televisions and cell phones. Nine semi-trucks transported the vast majority of the electronics to a recycler in the Lower Peninsula.
In 2007, over one ton of pharmaceuticals was turned in including more than $500,000 in dangerous narcotics. Pharmacists and law enforcement agencies were among the clean sweep partners and staffed each of the collection sites as required by federal law. The drugs were properly disposed in high-tech EPA-approved incinerators.
In 2006, the faith leaders and the head of the KBIC tribe gathered for a news conference with college students to announce the creation of the Northern Michigan University EarthKeeper Student team. It was the first time these bishops and other faith leaders had been in the same room and many met for the first time.
Great Solar News from TouchArt's friend Bill Brown up in Taos, NM about MIT engineers brilliant technology for solar windows to harness energy.
Awesome.
MIT guys say they can be available in 3 years.
Let's use them for the One Earth bottle house design.
Hello, All -- Here is yet another reminder of the many rapid and spectacular advances in solar power technology -- in this case technology that could begin replacing and/or augmenting conventional rooftop solar panels within the next few years.
"Imagine windows that not only provide a clear view and illuminate rooms, but also use sunlight to efficiently help power the building they are part of. MIT engineers report a new approach to harnessing the sun's energy that could allow just that."
"Because the system is simple to manufacture, the [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] team believes that it could be implemented within three years — even added onto existing solar-panel systems to increase their efficiency by 50 percent for minimal additional cost. That, in turn, would substantially reduce the cost of solar electricity."
So, I offer this fair warning to all in the business to continue to be ready for -- and participate in -- a future of unlimited possibilities for clean energy solutions to our current dirty energy problems.
If you like oysters, better eat 'em now. In a few years they'll be scarcer than pearls.
Warming temperatures have created conditions for a fiercesome bacteria -- harmless to humans but deadly to baby oysters. It's infected most West Coast oyster hatcheries which cannot re-seed for future harvests.
Eat 'em while ya got 'em!
This article has all the sad, slurpy details.If you like oysters, better eat 'em now. In a few years they'll be scarcer than... more
If we do decide to go to a hydrogen based economy, where hydrogen becomes our sole source of energy, there is one tiny problem.
Hydrogen is the only gas that is able to escape our atmosphere and dissipate into space. When this happens, water that is used to produce hydrogen gas will disappear from our the planet and will never be able to be replaced. Given a system wide leakage factor of two or three percent, and the huge amount of water that will be required to create the hydrogen/oxygen mixture that will power fuel cells and hydrogen engines, it will only be a mater of time until all the earth's water is gone.If we do decide to go to a hydrogen based economy, where hydrogen becomes our sole... more
Our friend Bill Brown in Taos at NMGlobalWarming.org reports on the U.S. federal government's Climate Change Science Program Report.
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Greetings, All -- The USA federal government's Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) released a new report yesterday on the impacts of climate change on the United States. While providing information on trends and projections for the future, the report also states how climate has already changed throughout the USA because of the impacts of human activity on our planet.
The CCSP reiterates what has long been known to science: The primary reason for climate change is human-generated increases in greenhouse gas concentrations.
The CCSP was authorized by federal legislation known as the Global Change Research Act of 1990. This Act spawned collaborative federal research and later the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), through which the USA has made a total investment of almost $20 billion during the past thirteen years -- the world's largest investment in scientific research in the areas of climate change and global change. "The USGCRP, in collaboration with several other national and international science programs, has documented and characterized several important aspects of the sources, abundances and lifetimes of greenhouse gases; has mounted extensive space-based monitoring systems for global-wide monitoring of climate and ecosystem parameters; has begun to address the complex issues of various aerosol species that may significantly influence climate parameters; has advanced our understanding of the global water and carbon cycles (but with major remaining uncertainties); and has developed several approaches to computer modeling of the global climate."
The Summary of the 271-page document begins:
"Over the past several years, our understanding of global environmental change and our ability to estimate its future effects has improved significantly. In order to summarize the key conclusions of this research, the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) has undertaken a national scale “Scientific Assessment of the Effects of Global Change on the United States.” The conclusions in this assessment build on the vast body of observations, modeling, decision-support, and other types of activities conducted under the auspices of CCSP. It draws on findings from previous assessments of the science, including reports and products by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), CCSP, and others. Together with CCSP’s 21 Synthesis and Assessment Products, this is arguably the most comprehensive assessment to date of the effects of global change, and especially climate, on the United States. This fact sheet summarizes the key findings of the Assessment."
To download the Summary and/or the Full Report, or simply to learn about the history, quality and scope of the USA's Climate Change Research Program, see: http://www.climatescience.gov/
The CCSP considers this a landmark document, representing summary work of its almost two decades of research. Please take the time to read the Summary even if you do not wade through the full report.
Current environmental energy news from scientist Bill Brown, TouchArt's friend up in Taos at New Mexico Global Warming and The Climate Change Project.
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Greetings, All -- Below are a couple of briefs containing tightly summarized information and data on biomass power potential and a current vision of solar power potential.
Carnegie Institution of Science researchers make the reasonable case that sustainable biomass energy production on suitable land (primarily abandoned cropland and pastureland) could provide about five percent of human demands for primary energy. However, biomass development in excess of this amount -- particularly using land and water needed to grow food or converting existing ecosystems to biomass production -- could threaten food security and exacerbate climate change.
[Carnegie Institution of Science: http://www.ciw.edu/related_links]
In the second article, Ausra CEO Robert Fishman [http://ausra.com/] indicates one potential for solar power (solar thermal power as contrasted with solar photovoltaic power) contingent upon policy decisions on clean energy tax credits and carbon taxes. [This corresponds to what I try to tell people about economics: we can make policy decisions that move us toward the kind of energy economy we want.] Fishman's statement re the "crossover point" could be interpreted to say that clean energy will remain competitive with obsolescent fossil fuel energy, whereas it is more likely that new technology clean energy will grow rapidly while old technology energy from inefficient and polluting sources will continue to decline.
From TouchArt.net and One Earth Blog at www.OneEarthBlog.Blogspot.com Current environmental energy news from scientist Bill Brown, TouchArt's friend up in... more
More current news on sustainable energy science and policy from TouchArt's friend Bill Brown up in Taos at New Mexico Global Warming and The Climate Change Project.
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Greetings, All -- The article below describes poll results recognizing California's policy innovations and citizen's attitudes about fighting atmospheric pollution and climate change.
The poll "...shows broad public understanding that fixing climate change goes hand in hand with energy stability and economic prosperity."
"Californians understand that clean energy combined with energy efficiency measures, which the state has pioneered for decades, mean their total energy bill will go down..."
Note the reference to California Assembly Bill (AB) 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act.
According to Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ab-32], "The Bill (AB 32), authored by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) and Assembly Member Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), was agreed between Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislators on August 30, 2006. It requires that by 2020 the state's greenhouse gas emissions be reduced to 1990 levels, a roughly 25% reduction under business as usual estimates. The California Air Resources Board, under the California Environmental Protection Agency, is to prepare plans to achieve the objectives stated in the Act."
From TouchArt.net and One Earth Blog at www.OneEarthBlog.Blogspot.comMore current news on sustainable energy science and policy from TouchArt's friend Bill... more
Residents of the Kalamazoo and all of southwest Michigan can to their part to protect the Great Lakes during a free public pharmaceutical collection later this month.
Old and unwanted medicines and personal care products will be accepted on Saturday, June 21, from 9 a.m.-1:00 p.m. at the Loy Norrix High School in Kalamazoo.
The event is sponsored by Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that provided a grant for the project.
The collection is part of the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge involving over 100 projects in eight states across the Great Lakes Basin.
Southwest Michigan residents can rid their home of unwanted prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals plus personal care products.
Items that will be accepted include:
Prescription medication, such as antibiotics, birth control, and insulin
Medication samples and over-the-counter medication, such as ibuprofen, aspirin, cold medicine
Personal care products, such as medicated ointments, lotions, and shampoos
Veterinary medications
Items that will not be accepted include:
Medical waste like sharps and syringes and products containing mercury like thermometers.
The collection is free to southwest Michigan households.
Organizers say the collection is important to protect Lake Michigan and other lakes/streams like Arcadia Creek.
An investigation by the Associated Press found a wide variety of pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics, mood stabilizers and hormones, in the drinking water of 41 million Americans.
Most medications pass untreated through wastewater treatment plants because those facilities are not designed to remove the chemicals.
The pharmaceuticals are discharged into local rivers or groundwater.
For more info call 269-373-5211.
The goal of the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge was collecting/recycling of one million pounds of e-waste plus the collection/proper disposal of a million pills. The goals were exceeded by 500 percent..
The Earth Healing Initiative (EHI) offered interfaith liaisons to volunteer and encourage members of local churches/temples to participate in the Earth Day events in their area.
This video on EPA Challenge projects was made possible by a grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA Region 5 office in Chicago, the EPA Great Lakes National Program Office in Chicago with the non-profit Interfaith EHI in Marquette MI
The EHI involves American Indian tribes and a coalition of churches, synagogues and other faith traditions joining together to heal, protect and defend the environment.
I’m Greg Peterson Earth Healing TV
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Related Links
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Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services http://www.kalcounty.com/hcs
The founder of two interfaith environment groups is often asked by others to explain the best way to start effective interfaith groups in their own community.
Along the shores of Lake Superior, creating interfaith environmental groups was discussed by leaders of the Earth Healing Initiative and the Upper Peninsula Earth Keeper Initiative, both based in Marquette, Michigan.
The non-profit Earth Healing Initiative provided interfaith volunteers and participants top numerous cities during the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge.
The challenge recycled of millions of pounds of electronics and properly disposed millions of pills and other meds in April 2008 from over 100 projects across eight states that make up the Great Lakes Basin.
This warm day in May 2008 produced ripples in unusually calm Lake Superior as wildlife heralded spring in the background. A perfect serene setting to discuss interfaith environment work and how it can be created in other areas.
EHI founder Rev. Jon Magnuson co-founded the Earth Keeper Initiative that started when nine northern Michigan faith leaders signed the Earth Keeper Covenant in 2004.
The bishops and other faith leaders pledged to reach out to Native Americans and actively participate in interfaith environment projects.
This video includes thoughts of Rev. Jon Magnuson, director of Lutheran Campus Ministry (LCM) at Northern Michigan University (NMU) in Marquette, MI; and Rev. Tesshin Paul Lehmberg, head priest of Lake Superior Zendo, a Marquette Zen Buddhist temple; and Lutheran Bishop Thomas A. Skrenes of the Northern Great Lakes Synod (NGLS) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Rev. Lehmberg and Bishop Skrenes were among the nine original signers of the Earth Keeper Covenant.
The non-profit Cedar Tree Institute (CTI) co-founded the interfaith Earth Keeper Initiative in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that works closely with ten faith traditions on a wide range of environment projects that include college students, at-risk teens, American Indian tribes and others.
Rev. Magnuson is CTI executive director.
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The CTI Interfaith Earth Healing Initiative is developing relationshipS with the same faith communities across the Great lakes.
The faith communities include Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Baha'i, Jewish, The Religious Society of Friends (commonly known as the Quakers) and Zen Buddhist.
The EHI assisted challenge organizers by offering interfaith liaisons to volunteer and encourage members of local churches/temples to participate in the Earth Day events in their area.
This video on the projects connected to the Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge was made possible by a grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency in collaboration with the EPA's Region 5 office in Chicago the EPA Great Lakes national Program Office - also in Chicago - with the non-profit interfaith EHI in Marquette, Michigan.
The Earth Healing Initiative involves American Indian tribes and "a coalition of churches synagogues and other faith traditions joining together to heal protect and defend the environment" said Rev. Magnuson, Earth Healing founder.
The next project during the summer of 2008 involves encouraging bee and butterfly pollenization through means that include creating habitat thanks to help from at-risk teens and American Indian tribes. The pollen project is important because billions of bees have died prematurely across the country and the problem has become alarming in the Midwest. More on this project in the near future.
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Interfaith Earth Healing Initiative http://www.EarthHealingInitiative.org
EPA Region 5 Office in Chicago http://www.epa.gov/region5
Cedar Tree Institute http://www.CedarTreeInstitute.org
The Lake Superior Interfaith Communication Network http://www.lakesuperiorinterfaith.com
ELCA Northern Great Lakes Synod http://www.nglsynod.org
ELCA: http://www.elca.orgThe founder of two interfaith environment groups is often asked by others to explain... more
Western Shoshone leader, Corbin Harney talks about his prophetic conversation with the waterWestern Shoshone leader, Corbin Harney talks about his prophetic conversation with the... more
Bishop praises interfaith success of the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge
Marquette, Michigan - A Lutheran Bishop who has participated in interfaith Earth Day recycling projects for four years in a row said.
"Celebrate - what a great day Earth Day has been 2008," said Lutheran Bishop Thomas A. Skrenes of the Northern Great Lakes Synod (NGLS) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). "The Earth Healing Initiative has been a great success this year."
"Congratulations Earth Healers - you've done it, it has been a success," Bishop Skrenes said. "The EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge has been a great success."
"Computers have been recycled, pharmaceuticals have been brought together for proper disposal," Skrenes said. "Congratulations to those members of the faith communities and others who have been a part of this."
"We are all environmentalists," said Skrenes of Marquette, MI. "All of us want clean air to breathe, all of us want clean drinking water. We all enjoy the outdoors and nature."
"No matter our political understandings are, no matter where we are on the liberal and conservative line - no matter what we think of any of the big issues facing thee one of us - world today - all of us can agree that it is in all of our interests."
"We can all certainly conserve and save and bring back and then give to the next generation what has been given to us."
Bishop Skrenes said interfaith environment projects like the challenge ensure a better future for all humans.
"It is a sign of great significance that people can join hands and work together," Skrenes said.
Bishop Skrenes thanked the EPA, faith communities and "people of goodwill throughout the upper Midwest who have been a part of this work."
"Thanks to the Environmental Protection Agency for their help and assistance in all of this work," Bishop Skrenes said. The EPA challenge "has been a part of the lives and will be a part of the future of this whole area."
"It is a wonderful opportunity to begin to look at what it is that we hold in common," Skrenes said. "What we hold in common is this wonderful Great Lakes basin."
"This is a wonderful place with lakes and streams and forests everywhere in the Midwest, and the great plains and the great fields," Skrenes said. "We have been a part of saving some of this and making a difference."
"Sometimes we become so focused on what divides us, what disconnects us, what separates us - and there are important things that sometimes do that - but yet we can all have loyalty and allegiance to this world that has been our home and this of the world that we have been blessed with by God."
"God has given us the privilege of living here in the midst of these lakes and all of this beautiful nature," Skrenes said.
"When people of faith, whether they be of Christian traditions or of other traditions, gather together to work on what connects us. One of those things that connects us is respect and awe for the creation that surrounds us."
"We are part of a movement together in these early years of the Twenty-first Century to save what has been given to us by the generations before us and what God has provided to us," Skrenes said.
Bishop Skrenes is one of nine faith leaders who signed the Earth Keeper Covenant in northern Michigan in 2004 that lead to many interfaith projects.
The Cedar Tree Institute co-founded the interfaith Earth Keeper Initiative in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that works closely with ten faith traditions on a wide range of environment projects that include college students, at-risk teens, American Indian tribes and others.
The EHI is developing the same relationship with faith communities across the Great lakes.
The faith communities include Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Baha'i, Jewish, the Religious Society of Friends (commonly known as the Quakers) and Zen Buddhist.
"Everyday is Earth Day," Skrenes said.Bishop praises interfaith success of the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge... more
An Earth Healing message, thank you and congratulations from Lutheran Bishop Thomas A. Skrenes about the success of the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge
A Lutheran Bishop who has participated in interfaith Earth Day recycling projects for four years in a row said "the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge has been a success."
Celebrate - what a great day Earth Day has been 2008," said Lutheran Bishop Thomas A. Skrenes of the Northern Great Lakes Synod (NGLS) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). "The Earth Healing Initiative has been a great success this year."
"Computers have been recycled, pharmaceuticals have been brought together for proper disposal," Skrenes said.
"What a great opportunity it has been to be part of the ecumenical work and interfaith work of assisting others to see the environmental concerns set before us," said Bishop Skrenes of Marquette, Michigan.
With hundreds of thousands of people participating across eight states in the Midwest and Northeast, Bishop Skrenes said interfaith environment projects like the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge will help ensure a better future for all humans.
"It is a sign of great significance that people can join hands and work together," Skrenes said. "So celebrate - it is a good day for the environment and it is a good day for all of us together."
Bishop Skrenes thanked the EPA, faith communities and "people of goodwill throughout the upper Midwest who have been a part of this work."
"It has been a great day, a great week, a great Earth day 2008," Skrenes said.
"The EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge has been a part of the lives and will be a part of the future of this whole area."
Bishop Skrenes is one of the original nine faith leaders who signed the Earth Keeper Covenant in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in 2004 that lead to many interfaith projects
Background: Earth Healing Initiative and the Michigan Earth Keeper Initiative
The Cedar Tree Institute (CTI) co-founded the interfaith Earth Keeper Initiative in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that works closely with ten faith traditions on a wide range of environment projects that include college students, at-risk teens, American Indian tribes and others.
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The CTI Earth healing Initiative is developing the same relationship with the same faith communities in northern Michigan and others across the Great lakes.
The faith communities include Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Baha'i, Jewish, The Religious Society of Friends (commonly known as the Quakers) and Zen Buddhist.
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For more information:
EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge removed a huge amount of electronic waste and pharmaceuticals from eight states.
The goal of the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge was the collecting and recycling of one million pounds of electronics (e-Waste) plus the collection and proper disposal of one million pills.
These goals were exceeded many times over.
A few examples:
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In Milwaukee, WI: 32 tons of electronic waste and 3.5 tons of pharmaceuticals were turned in.
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At the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin near Green Bay: Approx. 4 tons of e-waste was collected plus thousands of pounds of other trash cleaned from reservation Tribal members turned in over 23 pounds of medicines including 100 bottles of pills, more than 25 computers and dozens of related components like hard drives, printers, keyboards and speakers; televisions, radios, DVD players, 12 cell phones and over 100 small batteries.
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In Traverse City, MI: Over 28,750 pounds (over 12.5 tons) of computers and other e-waste was collected.
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The electronic waste is recycled, and the pharmaceuticals are incinerated in state-of-the-art EPA -license facilities.
So why is this important?
The old and broken electronics - like computers, cell phones and TVs - contain heavy metals that can leach into the groundwater if dumped into landfills.
The unused pharmaceuticals can end up in your drinking water if they are flushed or poured down the drain.
That’s because most wastewater treatment facilities are not designed to remove chemicals from these pharmaceuticals including hormones, narcotics, seizure medication and many more - that end up back in your drinking water.
In an April 2008 press conference in Milwaukee, EPA and other officials explained why the Great Lakes Challenge and similar projects are important to protect the environment and your health.
Pharmaceutical chemicals are sent back out into the Great Lakes, rivers and other places were people recreate and are the intakes for drinking water.
Studies show that the chemicals are appearing in the nation’s drinking water in small amounts - the long term effects are not known - however they have been linked to mutations in fish and other wildlife.
Also - these medicines can be stolen, diverted or accidentally ingested by children - if they languish in your medicine cabinet.
Around the country many e-waste and pharmaceutical take back programs have been developed by governments and local businesses.
Please check with your local officials to find out details for your area.
Because every day should be Earth Day.
This video on the projects connected to the Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge was made possible by a grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency in collaboration with the EPA's Region 5 office in Chicago the EPA Great Lakes national Program Office also in Chicago in cooperation with the non-profit Interfaith Earth Healing Initiative in Marquette, Michigan.
The EHI involves American Indian tribes and "a coalition of churches synagogues and other faith traditions joining together to heal protect and defend the environment" said EHI founder Rev Jon Magnuson of Marquette.
I’m Greg Peterson and you’re watching Earth Healing TVEPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge removed a huge amount of electronic waste and... more
“She wanted to fly so high, she could see all the people on earth,” Dina Valencia says of her daughter. Six-year-old Crizel died eight years ago today from leukemia likely caused by the toxic wastes the US left behind when it formally closed Clark Air Base.
pict1860.JPG
Crizel leaves behind a portfolio of vibrant drawings of psychedelic butterflies, floating hearts, lush flowers and dancing vegetables. Her mother thumbs through a scrapbook of Crizel’s artwork, proudly showing off her daughter’s colorful spirit.
pict1839.JPG
She also leaves behind a year of painful memories for one frantic mother and a legacy of media interviews as the face of the impact of American military presence in the Philippines.
Clark was under US military control for 88 years until the Philippine Senate voted to close all 22 American bases on August 21, 1991. As we handed Clark over to the Philippine government that November, families from the surrounding communities who had been displaced by the recent eruption of Mount Pinatubo were relocated to the base’s old “motor pool,” where military vehicles had been brought for repair…and where toxic wastes had been dumped for years. Twenty-five million gallons of petroleum, oil, lubricants and other stuff were stored here, over time releasing PCBs, TCEs, mercury, pesticides, asbestos, far in excess of what our government’s environmental standard would allow in an American community. Toxics seeped into water, saturated the soil and scattered via dust particles.
During the next 14 years, 20,000 impoverished families, displaced from the volcano disaster, would live on this toxic land, would drink from the contaminated wells, and would breathe the poisoned air.
The entire base, the size of Singapore, is likely contaminated. Two rivers flow downhill, plaguing additional generations.....
Click link for more on this heartbreaking story of mothers and loss due to military activities.
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From TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com for Memorial Day in remembrance of little Crizill Valencia and all victims worldwide of toxic pollution, including American and other soldiers, from military actions who are an unacceptable collateral damage of waging war.By Kelly Hayes-Raitt | February 25th, 2008 |
“She wanted to fly so high, she... more
On the Listening Tour Through the Axis of Evil, Kelly Hayes-Raitt will travel to countries threatened by America's foreign policies as she puts a human face on "the enemy."
Writer Kelly Hayes-Raitt is traveling to Syria to work with the Iraqi women in the refugee camps for 3 months this summer.
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from your friends at TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com.On the Listening Tour Through the Axis of Evil, Kelly Hayes-Raitt will travel to... more
* EDUCATING FOR PEACE ON THE WEST BANK
Our work with the Palestinian Kindergarten Teachers in the West Bank has been most fruitful and gratifying. These dedicated women understand the potential impact this education can have on themselves, their students and their community. Plans are being made for these teachers to journey in May to C...
* JEWISH AND ARAB STUDENTS PERFORM GRIMMS FAIRY TALES IN ENGLAND
As you read these words our tenth grade Jewish and Arab students are busy working hard - far from their home in Israel. In the bucolic Cotswalds of Gloucestershire, England our students are rehearsing scenes and practicing the lines of Grimm’s Tales written by England’s esteemed poet Carol Ann D...
* A BREATHROUGH EXPERIMENT
The Goal of Salaam Shalom is to develop a generation of youth in the Middle East who can think outside the box, who are open to new ideas and experiences in order to generate new solutions to the old, entrenched problems troubling the Middle East. Ours is a cutting edge program whose purpose is to b...
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Brought to you by your friends at TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com * EDUCATING FOR PEACE ON THE WEST BANK
Our work with the Palestinian... more
Indigenous spiritual leaders have long taught that we are all related, not only to two-leggeds of all colors, human beings, but to all beings in the sacred universe including the four-leggeds, bird people, burrowing and swimming animals, insects, plant and fungi people, and the star people.
We are all related. Ho! Mitakuye Oayasin. All my relations say the Lakotah when they pray to Wakan Takan, the Great Mystery.
Lakotah teachers say we are Star People, who are also our relations, and that we originate from the Pleiades.
Now Western scientists have "discovered" that human beings very substance is related to other beings in the animal, plant, the fungi families and even the stardust from exploding stars is part of the miracle of the origin or human life on earth.
Scientists have also discovered that we are light beings and that the life energy that connects us is light energy, as indigenous and ancient healers have taught for centuries as long ago as the Ayuvedic healers in India 5,000 years ago, the Buddhist and Zen teachers of Asia, the Kabbalists and other Middle Eastern mystics, as well as European tribal healers, and witches, and Christian mystics and back to our indigenous ancestors on each continent who moved energy through the body and cleared blockages to its flow through their hands like Reiki and Western practioners of energy medicine do today.
*Check out the link to - WNYC - The Leonard Lopate Show: We’re All Just Star Dust
Thursday, September 27, 2007
A robotic spacecraft has been in Saturn’s orbit for three years, studying the planet and its moons. On today’s Underreported, two members of the mission explain how their discoveries provide insight into our own origins on Earth."
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from Charleen Touchette at TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com., who asks, if we are all related, can we start being kinder to one another and all the beings with whom we share the earth?
"If can forgive us, than why can't we forgive one another?" The Gladiators. Indigenous spiritual leaders have long taught that we are all related, not only to... more
(Keshena, Wisconsin) - The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin contributed over 4 tons of electronic and pharmaceutical waste to the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge.
This is the second of several videos explaining the numerous MITW projects including teaching youth about the legend of the sturgeon and its place in tribal culture, cleaning up the reservation, and replacing gang symbols with Native American art.
In part two, the non-profit interfaith Earth Healing Initiative looks at the sturgeon education classes.
The tribe was creative as it added other facets to the challenge like teaching the children about their culture and the close relationship to the earth and its many lakes and streams.
All classes at the tribal school taught the students about the sturgeon, that is a vital part of Menominee legend and heritage, said Joe Awanahopay, language arts instructor at the Menominee tribal school.
Earth Week tribal school classes applied subjects like math, history and others to different aspects of the life cycle, biology, habitat, legends, spawning grounds and the cultural and practical value of the sturgeon, an important fish to the Menominee people since the dawn of their tribe.
“The sturgeon are a historic importance to our people,” he said. “Since the beginning of time, our people have relied upon the sturgeons for various reasons including for food and scraping hides.”
“In our legends, the sturgeon are the protectors of our wild rice,” said Awanahopay of the slow-growing giant fish known for its thick hide and rubbery snout whose uses and related regulations have sometimes pitted white fishermen against American Indians. “We have been engaging the students in the culture, language, science and the social studies of what the sturgeon mean to our people.”
“They've been studying the anatomy and the physiology of the sturgeon and the students are looking at the sturgeon habitats and what the effects of pollution are.”
“They are looking at the different migrations, the geography, the path the sturgeon used to take to come to their home here - their traditional spawning grounds on the Menoninee Indian reservation,” he said. “Because of two dams that are here now south of our reservation, sturgeon are no longer able to come home here to their ancestral spawning grounds.”
“We are so fortunate to have so many elders that we still work with that are able to give us this knowledge and pass it from one generation to the next, despite all of the forced assimilation and the changes in our youth, who are trying to make their way in modern society yet integrate the traditions with the technology in today’s world," Awanahopay said.
Sponsors include the tribe's Community Resource Center, Menominee County Police, Menominee Tribal Police, Tribal Clinic Wellness Program (Maehnowesekiyah), Probation and Parole, Community Recycling Project, Recreation Department, EarthHealing.org and the U.S. Post Office in Keshena.
This video is possible by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in collaboration with the EPA's Region 5 office and the EPA Great Lakes national Program Office (both in Chicago); in cooperation with the non-profit Interfaith Earth Healing Initiative in Marquette, MI.
The EHI involves American Indian tribes and "a coalition of churches, synagogues and other faith traditions joining together to heal, protect and defend the environment," said EHI founder Rev. Jon Magnuson of Marquette, Michigan.
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Menominee Indian Tribe of WI: http://www.menominee-nsn.gov
MITW Tribal School: http://mts.bia.edu/
College of Menominee Nation http://www.menominee.edu
Earth Healing Initiative: http://www.earthhealinginitiative.org
Interfaith graphics by Justice St. Rain (Bah'i Community) of Interfaith Resources Special Ideas website: http://www.interfaithresources.com
1-800-326-1197(Keshena, Wisconsin) - The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin contributed over 4 tons... more
