7/10/2009
7/09/2009
7/08/2009
The G8 and Climate Change
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/the-g8-and-climate-change-towards-copenhagen
Support Local Food, July 21, Sustainable Sandhills, 6:30
MEETING REMINDER! Sustainable Sandhills
Moore County Community Action Team meeting
Supporting Local Food
Sandhills CC, Dempsey Student Center, Clement Dining Room
Tuesday, July 21, 6:30-8:00pm (Potluck Dinner at 6:00pm)
Our topic for the next Moore county Community Action Team meeting is Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). In response to a desire from team members for a local CSA, we will be devoting the majority of this meeting to explore the benefits and challenges. Please support local food by joining us for a potluck dinner, presentation and workshop. Bring your favorite dish and a friend!
Our next meeting will include:
Projects Updates – Recycled Regatta and Recycled Art Show in Robbins &
Sustainable Sandhills Green Living and Design Tour
CSA Presentation- By Taylor Williams, Moore County CES
CSA Discussion- What are the benefits and challenges?
CSA workshop- Sustainable Sandhills will survey your interest in a CSA after Taylor's presentation - for use by local farmers considering a CSA. Our goal is to provide information to the community that can be used in a variety of ways to promote local food.
Please help us spread the word!
If you have questions, contact Amanda Blue (amandab@sustainablesandhills.org), 910-484-9098.
Moore County Community Action Team meeting
Supporting Local Food
Sandhills CC, Dempsey Student Center, Clement Dining Room
Tuesday, July 21, 6:30-8:00pm (Potluck Dinner at 6:00pm)
Our topic for the next Moore county Community Action Team meeting is Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). In response to a desire from team members for a local CSA, we will be devoting the majority of this meeting to explore the benefits and challenges. Please support local food by joining us for a potluck dinner, presentation and workshop. Bring your favorite dish and a friend!
Our next meeting will include:
Projects Updates – Recycled Regatta and Recycled Art Show in Robbins &
Sustainable Sandhills Green Living and Design Tour
CSA Presentation- By Taylor Williams, Moore County CES
CSA Discussion- What are the benefits and challenges?
CSA workshop- Sustainable Sandhills will survey your interest in a CSA after Taylor's presentation - for use by local farmers considering a CSA. Our goal is to provide information to the community that can be used in a variety of ways to promote local food.
Please help us spread the word!
If you have questions, contact Amanda Blue (amandab@sustainablesandhills.org), 910-484-9098.
7/07/2009
Pinecrest Students and SS Membership Drive
http://www.sustainablesandhills.org/docs/SS2009MembershipDrive.pdf
It's About Food
The Sustainable Sandhills film series will focus on food topics with several FREE screenings of King Corn this summer: Fayetteville on July 14; Harnett County on July 28; and Lee County on August 4 (see the Calendar of Events section below for specific times and locations).
The award-winning FOOD Inc. will be coming to the CAMEO Art House Theatre in Fayetteville on August 8-9, and to the Sunrise Theater in Southern Pines on August 13-14. We'll be featuring these FOOD Inc. events in our next eBlast. Thanks to both of these fine independent theaters for bringing FOOD Inc. to our region!
The award-winning FOOD Inc. will be coming to the CAMEO Art House Theatre in Fayetteville on August 8-9, and to the Sunrise Theater in Southern Pines on August 13-14. We'll be featuring these FOOD Inc. events in our next eBlast. Thanks to both of these fine independent theaters for bringing FOOD Inc. to our region!
7/06/2009
The Amazing Will Allen
http://allalongtheedge.blogspot.com/2009/07/will-allen-and-growing-power-farm.html
7/05/2009
7/04/2009
For Local Skatepark
Mister P's in Southern Pines, Thursday, July 9
McKenzie Brothers' Concert starts at 7:30. Also a silent auction and lots of great things available for a donation!
The former Mint Juleps has been totally renovated.
Thanks for spreading the word about the skatepark funding dilemma! Southern Pines' kids need a place to skate.
McKenzie Brothers' Concert starts at 7:30. Also a silent auction and lots of great things available for a donation!
The former Mint Juleps has been totally renovated.
Thanks for spreading the word about the skatepark funding dilemma! Southern Pines' kids need a place to skate.
IS IT Organic?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203365.html?hpid=topnews
Let's Dim the Lights for W.VA.
Published on Saturday, July 4, 2009 by The Charleston Gazette (West Viginia)
Mountaintop Removal: Fourth of July Festival Organizers Fear Violence
by Paul J. Nyden
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Larry Gibson, the well-known, 72-year-old activist against mountaintop-removal mining, will host his annual July 4 music festival at his Kayford Mountain home above Cabin Creek Saturday and Sunday.
"I've been having this event, which is open to the public, for 23 years. Everyone is welcome," Gibson said.
Maria Gunnoe, a Boone County native, who won this year's international Goldman Environmental Prize in April for her anti-mountaintop-removal activism, is among the many planning to attend.
"A lot of elders and a lot of children, show up," Gunnoe said. "Normally, it is very peaceful.
"People get together, socialize and listen to very diverse music," she said. "Some is traditional Appalachian music. Some is music for younger teenagers, including rock music. It is a good time with your family and friends."
But both Gibson and Gunnoe worry this year's festival could spark hostility and possibly violence, especially after last week's arrest of demonstrators protesting Massey Energy's mountaintop removal operations in Boone County.
Gibson, in particular, said he has received threats since the arrests.
No one could be reached at Massey Energy's offices in Boone County on Friday.
A spokesman for the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department said he had heard nothing about any rumors of violence at Gibson's planned July 4 celebration.
On June 23, 31 picketers were arrested, including: actress Daryl Hannah, National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientist James Hansen and former Democratic Congressman and West Virginia Secretary of State Ken Hechler.
Protesting near Sundial, the picketers were charged with obstructing police officers and impeding traffic after sitting in the middle of W.Va. 3 near a controversial Massey coal preparation plant next to Marsh Fork Elementary School.
A nearby Massey dam impounds about 3 billion gallons of coal sludge from company mining operations.
Gibson's festival started out as a family reunion, but quickly grew into an annual community event.
Last week, Gunnoe distanced herself from "out-of-state environmentalists," explaining, "We are connected to the environment around our home lands. We care about our culture. But that does not make us tree huggers."
Gibson hopes today's event is well attended.
"Everyone is welcome. Bring a covered dish. But this is not a place for any kind of violence. But bring a conversation to the table. I would be glad to talk to anyone," Gibson said.
Gibson, whose family has lived on or near Kayford Mountain since the late 1700s, travels around the country speaking about mountaintop removal at colleges, churches, public seminars and community groups
"The stand I am taking here is not so much for myself," Gibson said, "but for all of the people living in this part of the country."
Gunnoe said, "Some people have had windows broken out of their vehicles because they had 'We Love Mountains' stickers on their bumpers.
"For years, mountaintop removal blasting has covered our homes up with dust and polluted our water," she said. "People fight mountaintop removal because they have lost their water, their land and their quality of life."
Mountaintop Removal: Fourth of July Festival Organizers Fear Violence
by Paul J. Nyden
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Larry Gibson, the well-known, 72-year-old activist against mountaintop-removal mining, will host his annual July 4 music festival at his Kayford Mountain home above Cabin Creek Saturday and Sunday.
"I've been having this event, which is open to the public, for 23 years. Everyone is welcome," Gibson said.
Maria Gunnoe, a Boone County native, who won this year's international Goldman Environmental Prize in April for her anti-mountaintop-removal activism, is among the many planning to attend.
"A lot of elders and a lot of children, show up," Gunnoe said. "Normally, it is very peaceful.
"People get together, socialize and listen to very diverse music," she said. "Some is traditional Appalachian music. Some is music for younger teenagers, including rock music. It is a good time with your family and friends."
But both Gibson and Gunnoe worry this year's festival could spark hostility and possibly violence, especially after last week's arrest of demonstrators protesting Massey Energy's mountaintop removal operations in Boone County.
Gibson, in particular, said he has received threats since the arrests.
No one could be reached at Massey Energy's offices in Boone County on Friday.
A spokesman for the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department said he had heard nothing about any rumors of violence at Gibson's planned July 4 celebration.
On June 23, 31 picketers were arrested, including: actress Daryl Hannah, National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientist James Hansen and former Democratic Congressman and West Virginia Secretary of State Ken Hechler.
Protesting near Sundial, the picketers were charged with obstructing police officers and impeding traffic after sitting in the middle of W.Va. 3 near a controversial Massey coal preparation plant next to Marsh Fork Elementary School.
A nearby Massey dam impounds about 3 billion gallons of coal sludge from company mining operations.
Gibson's festival started out as a family reunion, but quickly grew into an annual community event.
Last week, Gunnoe distanced herself from "out-of-state environmentalists," explaining, "We are connected to the environment around our home lands. We care about our culture. But that does not make us tree huggers."
Gibson hopes today's event is well attended.
"Everyone is welcome. Bring a covered dish. But this is not a place for any kind of violence. But bring a conversation to the table. I would be glad to talk to anyone," Gibson said.
Gibson, whose family has lived on or near Kayford Mountain since the late 1700s, travels around the country speaking about mountaintop removal at colleges, churches, public seminars and community groups
"The stand I am taking here is not so much for myself," Gibson said, "but for all of the people living in this part of the country."
Gunnoe said, "Some people have had windows broken out of their vehicles because they had 'We Love Mountains' stickers on their bumpers.
"For years, mountaintop removal blasting has covered our homes up with dust and polluted our water," she said. "People fight mountaintop removal because they have lost their water, their land and their quality of life."
Each To Do His/Her Part
http://www.takepart.com/ [Food, Inc., the movie, coming to Sunrise Theater Aug. 13 and 14]
7/03/2009
Food, Inc. for BOTH Dates
Thursday AND Friday, August 13 AND 14.
The critical and entertaining new documentary "Food, Inc." coming to the Sunrise Theater. 7:30 both evenings. See you there!!
The critical and entertaining new documentary "Food, Inc." coming to the Sunrise Theater. 7:30 both evenings. See you there!!
7/02/2009
It's Good Business
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/business/energy-environment/01farm.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=Organic%20Farms%20as%20Subdivision%20Amenities&st=cse
Food, Inc. Coming to Sou. Pines, Aug. 13 or 14
HOLD THESE DATES! Thursday or Friday, August 13 or 14.
That is the dates the Sunrise Theater is making a special effort to bring the critical and entertaining new documentary "Food, Inc." to the Sandhills. This Summer SunFlix series offering begins at 7:30.
A lively group of local "foodies" and locavores pressed the case for it (the nearest showing is in Raleigh), and the Sunrise board listened. Hurray! Thank you Sunrise Theater!
Director Robert Kenner truly loves food. Said to be a stimulating to the national discussion of just what has happened to our food system in two or three short decades as the eye-opening Michal Pollan book "Omnivore's Dilemma," "Food, Inc." is a film everyone who eats needs to see. It just might affect your next buying trip to the store, or the next meal you eat.
Reviews for this movie are all over the web now, so check some out. One critic called it "The Inconvenient Truth of Food."
Here's one from PBS:
NOW | Behind the Food We Lovehttp://www.pbs.org/now/shows/523/index.html"Americans have a long-standing love affair with food - the modern supermarket has, on average, over 47,000 products. But do we really know what goes into making the products we so eagerly consume? David Brancaccio talks with filmmaker Robert Kenner, the director of 'Food, Inc.,' which takes a hard look at the secretive and surprising journey food takes on the way from processing plants to our dinner tables.
That is the dates the Sunrise Theater is making a special effort to bring the critical and entertaining new documentary "Food, Inc." to the Sandhills. This Summer SunFlix series offering begins at 7:30.
A lively group of local "foodies" and locavores pressed the case for it (the nearest showing is in Raleigh), and the Sunrise board listened. Hurray! Thank you Sunrise Theater!
Director Robert Kenner truly loves food. Said to be a stimulating to the national discussion of just what has happened to our food system in two or three short decades as the eye-opening Michal Pollan book "Omnivore's Dilemma," "Food, Inc." is a film everyone who eats needs to see. It just might affect your next buying trip to the store, or the next meal you eat.
Reviews for this movie are all over the web now, so check some out. One critic called it "The Inconvenient Truth of Food."
Here's one from PBS:
NOW | Behind the Food We Lovehttp://www.pbs.org/now/shows/523/index.html"Americans have a long-standing love affair with food - the modern supermarket has, on average, over 47,000 products. But do we really know what goes into making the products we so eagerly consume? David Brancaccio talks with filmmaker Robert Kenner, the director of 'Food, Inc.,' which takes a hard look at the secretive and surprising journey food takes on the way from processing plants to our dinner tables.
Dangers in Roundup
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=weed-whacking-herbicide-p&print=true.edu
6/29/2009
Betraying the Planet
Betraying the Planet
By PAUL KRUGMAN
So the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill. In political terms, it was a remarkable achievement.
But 212 representatives voted no. A handful of these no votes came from representatives who considered the bill too weak, but most rejected the bill because they rejected the whole notion that we have to do something about greenhouse gases.
And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn’t help thinking that I was watching a form of treason — treason against the planet.
To fully appreciate the irresponsibility and immorality of climate-change denial, you need to know about the grim turn taken by the latest climate research.
The fact is that the planet is changing faster than even pessimists expected: ice caps are shrinking, arid zones spreading, at a terrifying rate. And according to a number of recent studies, catastrophe — a rise in temperature so large as to be almost unthinkable — can no longer be considered a mere possibility. It is, instead, the most likely outcome if we continue along our present course.
Thus researchers at M.I.T., who were previously predicting a temperature rise of a little more than 4 degrees by the end of this century, are now predicting a rise of more than 9 degrees. Why? Global greenhouse gas emissions are rising faster than expected; some mitigating factors, like absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans, are turning out to be weaker than hoped; and there’s growing evidence that climate change is self-reinforcing — that, for example, rising temperatures will cause some arctic tundra to defrost, releasing even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Temperature increases on the scale predicted by the M.I.T. researchers and others would create huge disruptions in our lives and our economy. As a recent authoritative U.S. government report points out, by the end of this century New Hampshire may well have the climate of North Carolina today, Illinois may have the climate of East Texas, and across the country extreme, deadly heat waves — the kind that traditionally occur only once in a generation — may become annual or biannual events.
In other words, we’re facing a clear and present danger to our way of life, perhaps even to civilization itself. How can anyone justify failing to act?
Well, sometimes even the most authoritative analyses get things wrong. And if dissenting opinion-makers and politicians based their dissent on hard work and hard thinking — if they had carefully studied the issue, consulted with experts and concluded that the overwhelming scientific consensus was misguided — they could at least claim to be acting responsibly.
But if you watched the debate on Friday, you didn’t see people who’ve thought hard about a crucial issue, and are trying to do the right thing. What you saw, instead, were people who show no sign of being interested in the truth. They don’t like the political and policy implications of climate change, so they’ve decided not to believe in it — and they’ll grab any argument, no matter how disreputable, that feeds their denial.
Indeed, if there was a defining moment in Friday’s debate, it was the declaration by Representative Paul Broun of Georgia that climate change is nothing but a “hoax” that has been “perpetrated out of the scientific community.” I’d call this a crazy conspiracy theory, but doing so would actually be unfair to crazy conspiracy theorists. After all, to believe that global warming is a hoax you have to believe in a vast cabal consisting of thousands of scientists — a cabal so powerful that it has managed to create false records on everything from global temperatures to Arctic sea ice.
Yet Mr. Broun’s declaration was met with applause.
Given this contempt for hard science, I’m almost reluctant to mention the deniers’ dishonesty on matters economic. But in addition to rejecting climate science, the opponents of the climate bill made a point of misrepresenting the results of studies of the bill’s economic impact, which all suggest that the cost will be relatively low.
Still, is it fair to call climate denial a form of treason? Isn’t it politics as usual?
Yes, it is — and that’s why it’s unforgivable.
Do you remember the days when Bush administration officials claimed that terrorism posed an “existential threat” to America, a threat in whose face normal rules no longer applied? That was hyperbole — but the existential threat from climate change is all too real.
Yet the deniers are choosing, willfully, to ignore that threat, placing future generations of Americans in grave danger, simply because it’s in their political interest to pretend that there’s nothing to worry about. If that’s not betrayal, I don’t know what is.
By PAUL KRUGMAN
So the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill. In political terms, it was a remarkable achievement.
But 212 representatives voted no. A handful of these no votes came from representatives who considered the bill too weak, but most rejected the bill because they rejected the whole notion that we have to do something about greenhouse gases.
And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn’t help thinking that I was watching a form of treason — treason against the planet.
To fully appreciate the irresponsibility and immorality of climate-change denial, you need to know about the grim turn taken by the latest climate research.
The fact is that the planet is changing faster than even pessimists expected: ice caps are shrinking, arid zones spreading, at a terrifying rate. And according to a number of recent studies, catastrophe — a rise in temperature so large as to be almost unthinkable — can no longer be considered a mere possibility. It is, instead, the most likely outcome if we continue along our present course.
Thus researchers at M.I.T., who were previously predicting a temperature rise of a little more than 4 degrees by the end of this century, are now predicting a rise of more than 9 degrees. Why? Global greenhouse gas emissions are rising faster than expected; some mitigating factors, like absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans, are turning out to be weaker than hoped; and there’s growing evidence that climate change is self-reinforcing — that, for example, rising temperatures will cause some arctic tundra to defrost, releasing even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Temperature increases on the scale predicted by the M.I.T. researchers and others would create huge disruptions in our lives and our economy. As a recent authoritative U.S. government report points out, by the end of this century New Hampshire may well have the climate of North Carolina today, Illinois may have the climate of East Texas, and across the country extreme, deadly heat waves — the kind that traditionally occur only once in a generation — may become annual or biannual events.
In other words, we’re facing a clear and present danger to our way of life, perhaps even to civilization itself. How can anyone justify failing to act?
Well, sometimes even the most authoritative analyses get things wrong. And if dissenting opinion-makers and politicians based their dissent on hard work and hard thinking — if they had carefully studied the issue, consulted with experts and concluded that the overwhelming scientific consensus was misguided — they could at least claim to be acting responsibly.
But if you watched the debate on Friday, you didn’t see people who’ve thought hard about a crucial issue, and are trying to do the right thing. What you saw, instead, were people who show no sign of being interested in the truth. They don’t like the political and policy implications of climate change, so they’ve decided not to believe in it — and they’ll grab any argument, no matter how disreputable, that feeds their denial.
Indeed, if there was a defining moment in Friday’s debate, it was the declaration by Representative Paul Broun of Georgia that climate change is nothing but a “hoax” that has been “perpetrated out of the scientific community.” I’d call this a crazy conspiracy theory, but doing so would actually be unfair to crazy conspiracy theorists. After all, to believe that global warming is a hoax you have to believe in a vast cabal consisting of thousands of scientists — a cabal so powerful that it has managed to create false records on everything from global temperatures to Arctic sea ice.
Yet Mr. Broun’s declaration was met with applause.
Given this contempt for hard science, I’m almost reluctant to mention the deniers’ dishonesty on matters economic. But in addition to rejecting climate science, the opponents of the climate bill made a point of misrepresenting the results of studies of the bill’s economic impact, which all suggest that the cost will be relatively low.
Still, is it fair to call climate denial a form of treason? Isn’t it politics as usual?
Yes, it is — and that’s why it’s unforgivable.
Do you remember the days when Bush administration officials claimed that terrorism posed an “existential threat” to America, a threat in whose face normal rules no longer applied? That was hyperbole — but the existential threat from climate change is all too real.
Yet the deniers are choosing, willfully, to ignore that threat, placing future generations of Americans in grave danger, simply because it’s in their political interest to pretend that there’s nothing to worry about. If that’s not betrayal, I don’t know what is.
6/28/2009
NC Break-Down on Friday's ACES Vote
Final Passage:
Ayes - 219 (211 Dems, 8 Rep)
Noes – 212 (44 Dems, 168 Rep)
NC Dems:
Butterfield - Aye
Etheridge - Aye
Kissell - No
McIntyre - No
Miller - Aye
Price - Aye
Shuler - Aye
Watt – Aye
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll477.xml
Ayes - 219 (211 Dems, 8 Rep)
Noes – 212 (44 Dems, 168 Rep)
NC Dems:
Butterfield - Aye
Etheridge - Aye
Kissell - No
McIntyre - No
Miller - Aye
Price - Aye
Shuler - Aye
Watt – Aye
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll477.xml
6/25/2009
Learn About Solar Hot Water
http://greenhomesamerica.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/solar-hot-water-video/
Let's Get Up Close and Personal
The farther away we are from the source of our food, the less control we have over what is in that food.
p.s. Let's save our pessism for better times!
p.s. Let's save our pessism for better times!
We Knew It Was Bad, But. . .
CEO vs. Average Worker Pay - Major Economies
Japan 11 times more
Germany 12 times
France 15 times
Italy 20 times
Canada 20 times
South Africa 21 times
Britain 22 times
Hong Kong 41 times
Mexico 47 times
America 475 times
Japan 11 times more
Germany 12 times
France 15 times
Italy 20 times
Canada 20 times
South Africa 21 times
Britain 22 times
Hong Kong 41 times
Mexico 47 times
America 475 times
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