The Girl Who Silenced the U.N. for Five Minutes
July 1, 2008 | 3 Comments
This is an incredible video of a Canadian girl who spoke to the United Nations and left them completely silent and speechless for five minutes. Her name is Severn Suziki, and her speech was given at a U.N. assembly in Brazil when she was twelve years old. She had raised all the money to travel to the delegation, five thousand miles from her home, herself.Speaking about the hole in the ozone layer, pollution, the devastation of the forests and extinction of so many species, Severn charges that we adults have no idea how to fix these things, in fact can’t fix them, and that we must change our ways. “If you don’t know how to fix it, stop breaking it,” she pleads.
Severn continued to say:
“I am here to speak for all generations to come. I am here to speak on behalf of starving children around the world whose cries go unheard. I’m only a child and I don’t have the solutions…but neither do you. I am only a child, but I know we are all part of a family five billion strong; in fact, 30 million species strong, and borders and governments will never change that.
Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to share. We are afraid to let go of some of our wealth. Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent some time with children living in the streets. This is what one child told us:
‘I wish I was rich. And if I were, I would give all the street children food, clothes, medicine, shelter, love and affection.’
If child on the streets who has nothing is willing to share - why are we, who have everything, still so greedy?
I am only a child, but I know if all the money spent on war was spent on finding environmental answers, ending poverty, and finding treaties - what a wonderful place this world would be.”
And here’s the kicker - this speech was given in 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. How much is still relevant today? All of it. And the more important question is: How much has been changed, accomplished, since Severn spoke that day?
Years later, Severn wrote a piece for Time magazine in which she said: “I spoke for six minutes and received a standing ovation. Some of the delegates even cried. I thought that maybe I had reached some of them, that my speech might actually spur action. Now, a decade from Rio, after I’ve sat through many more conferences, I’m not sure what has been accomplished. My confidence in the people in power and in the power of an individual’s voice to reach them has been deeply shaken…In the 10 years since Rio, I have learned that addressing our leaders is not enough. As Gandhi said many years ago, ‘We must become the change we want to see.’ I know change is possible.”
At the age of nine, Severn founded the Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO), a group of children dedicated to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. Today, Severn is an environmental activist, speaker, television host and author. She has spoken around the world about environmental issues, urging listeners to define their values, act with the future in mind, and take individual responsibility.
She co-hosted Suzuki’s Nature Quest, a children’s television series that aired on the Discovery Channel in 2002. In early 2002, she helped launch an Internet-based think tank called The Skyfish Project. As a member of Kofi Annan’s Special Advisory Panel, she and members of the Skyfish Project brought their first project, a pledge called the “Recognition of Responsibility”, to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August 2002.
Click here to watch the video and hear her incredible speech.
Fighting Global Warming in California
June 26, 2008 | 1 Comment
An article in the LA Times this morning by Margot Roosevelt, “State acts to fight global warming”, outlines the steps that the California Air Regulators are planning to take to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the state. In the hopes that other states in our nation will be inspired to set such plans in motion themselves, the blueprint sets goals which will decrease carbon emissions by 30%. Scientists have argued that emissions will need to be cut by 80% in order to keep the planet from a dangerous level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which will ultimately lead to dangerously high temperature increases. The article states that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has already endorsed the 80% goal in an executive order.
The state blueprint calls to make cuts in the following areas:
- Clean car standards
- Energy efficiency, appliances and green bulidings
- Utilities switch to more renewable energy
- Low-carbon fuel standard
- Measures to control high-warming gases
- Sustainable forests
- Vehicle efficiency measures
- Goods movement, including port restrictions
- Heavy/medium duty vehicles
- California Solar program
- High-speed rail
- Landfill methane control
- Additional reductions from cap-and-trade transactions
Standing in the way of this blueprint are a few roadblocks: resistance from the Bush Administration, 
legislative problems and opposition within the industry. Another concern is the use of a cap-and-trade market system. This means that “governments set a limit on overall emissions but allow some industries, such as coal-dependent utilities, to purchase pollution credits. The credits can be traded on the market. Heavy polluters could offset their emissions by paying to clean up other industries where costs are less prohibitive, or invest in other projects that decrease carbon.” Also of concern is the cost of implementing such a program. Industries are concerned with individual costs, fearing the worst. It could be an even trade though. For example, the DWP, who relies on coal for electricity, would be faced with huge sums to clean up pollution. That money would be better spent on making the switch to cleaner resources. The state could suffer great monetary losses in terms of the effects from Global Warming: water shortages, pollution and wildfires, yet save money on healthcare from improved air quality.
Keep an eye on your state’s attitude toward Global Warming. It takes everyone at home doing their part, but in order to change our ways and stop creating harmful greenhouse gases, we will all have to work together.
Global Hunger: How YOU can make a difference!
June 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment
When the word global and hunger join together the mere idea seems overwhelming. How can we truly make a difference? Like any complex or dynamic challenge, the solution lies in baby steps; one step at a time.
How many gifts do you purchase for friends, family or celebrations every year? Imagine if for every one of those occasions you gave a gift that not only helps a struggling family but multiplies!
Through Heifer International, you can buy a cow, lamb, Llama, water buffalo, goat, pig, honey bees, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, and most importantly, HOPE for families around the world. Their online gift catalogue has numerous options to fit every budget but the impact on the recipients will be priceless.
“A good dairy cow can produce four gallons of milk a day - enough for a family to drink and share with neighbors…Better still, every gift multiplies, as the animal’s first offspring is passed on to another family.”
Next to cows, sheep are one of the most important animals a family can own as they provide wool and meat. Struggling families can use the wool for clothing or sell it for extra income. For $120 you can give an entire sheep but if that isn’t possible for only $10 you can give a share of sheep.
Besides their gift catalogue, there are other ways you can get involved in Heifer International
Or, how about helping to “pass it on”?
| Ten Things You Can Do TodayWaste Not, Want Not There are better alternatives than just throwing away those leftovers. Check out these simple tips to create less waste and help the environment too. Read more.Grow Your Own Regardless of your dwelling; large or small, urban or rural - find out why it’s worth your while to grow your own food. Read more.  Choose Coffee with a ConscienceRead our Coffee FAQs, and be an environmentally aware consumer the next time you order that Decaf Double Shot Skinny Latte. Read more. Think Globally; Eat Locally Help Small Farmers New Ideas Make a Difference |
We can make a difference…one step at a time!
Engineering Food
June 20, 2008 | 1 Comment
I was taking a minute this morning to read yet another article from my months old Green Issue of Vanity Fair. As I was reading a particular article about a giant chemical corporation engineering seeds and creating growth hormones, I couldn’t help but feel sick. There’s just something creepy about messing with life and nature. Why alter nature when it is already so perfect? Why fill your stomach with engineered food instead of the kind that has been here all along? We’ve all had those grainy tomatoes - yes they’re big, round and red, but they just taste horrible. A tomato left untainted, however, is small, may have scarring on the skin or a slight hole where a caterpillar also tried to enjoy the juicy, sweet insides - but it is absolutely wonderful.
Immediately, I knew that I wanted no part of chemically engineered food. But how could I control our exposure to those types of food? My mind raced to times when my children may have eaten food from these genetically engineered seeds or animals injected with growth hormones to increase milk or meat production. How would I even have known? Thinking back, I see labels on the milk saying something about rBST. But corn and soybeans aren’t labeled - how 
do I know if we’re purchasing engineered food - either raw or in the processed form (like cornflakes cereal or microwave popcorn)? How do I know if my favorite restaurants are using engineered food?
Seeds for soy, corn, canola, cotton are being engineered to resist pesticides - meaning that farmers can plant these new seeds, grow the plants and blanket spray fields with confidence that the crop will not die, but the weeds will. So not only are we eating food from a genetically engineered seed, we are also eating food coated with pesticides known to kill anything it touches. And I don’t even know which corn at which grocery store is genetically engineered or not.
Cows (is there a milk shortage in our country??) are being injected with various chemicals to increase milk production. I
know I’ve seen labels on milk in the last several years stating “this milk from cows not treated with rBST”, but I didn’t think to research what that engineered hormone was or it’s affect on cows or humans. According to the article, this hormone can cause lameness, liver problems, uterine problems, increased heartrate, and mastitis in cows. Any mom who’s breastfed a baby knows what mastitis is. It is an infection of the breast (or in a cow, the udder) in which bacteria and pus can come out with the milk. Feeling that cereal and milk in my stomach starting to churn, I swallowed back a gag, and the frantic in me got up, to check the label on the milk carton in the fridge…phew, we’re ok. We didn’t have sides of artificial hormones or pus this morning with our cereal. The market I shop at Ralphs (Kroger), doesn’t purchase their milk from dairies that use rBST.
It seems like more work, but I will be making the effort to purchase organic food. I already do as much as I can here at home: growing vegetables in the garden (this summer - herbs, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, watermelon and pumpkins), baking bread, trying to eat less processed food and more “whole” food. I make deals with friends or neighbors that have fruit trees, some of their fruit for some of our vegetables. I haven’t gone to our local farmer’s market for a few years. The market is during my children’s afternoon naptimes - and a busy mommy knows that she needs naptime to regroup and steady herself for the hectic dinner rush.
We are lucky though, we have a farmer’s market (find one in your town), we also have a Whole Foods market. For the sake of our health, I am going to make more of an effort to shop organically. Yes, it can be more expensive and more of a hassle, but it just feels right. Doing my research for this article was interesting, on both topics (Roundup Ready seeds & rBST), I found no government information that either was unsafe for public consumption. In fact, I found the opposite, statements that there is no difference between organic food and that conventionally grown, or that milk or meat from cows treated by growth hormones is no different than milk from untreated animals. These are relatively new technologies and I cringe when I think of possible future problems that come about when a product is rushed to market. I want to believe that my government is more concerned for the safety and health of it’s citizens, but I just can’t believe it to be true. Not when I read stories of tainted rivers, polluted groundwater, the horrible state of air quality, the rise of cancer and diabetes as well as endocrine diseases…and so much more that is currently affecting humans and our environment. Money speaks too loudly in our country. Let it speak loudly for you - refuse to purchase products that are from altered seeds or treated animals.
June 20, World Refugee Day
June 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
UNHCR celebrates World Refugee Day 2008:
“On June 20, we celebrate World Refugee Day. This year, events around the world will focus on the fundamental need for protection. For some, this means economic security; for others, protection is freedom from violence and persecution. On World Refugee Day, we will turn our attention to the millions of refugees who live without material, social and legal protection.”
To learn more about UNHCR and see what you can do, check out their DONATE page and see how your small change can make a difference.
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