Our family just watched the documentary Flow. Wired magazine declared it ‘the scariest film at the sundance film festival). The growing water crisis has been on my mind for a number of years and it will be an issue that I plan on rallying more resources behind.
We dedicated all the proceeds of one of our solar crash events to living water international, and my faith community takes part in the advent conspiracy (channeling our christmas gift money towards providing clean water), but I still feel like there’s so much more we can do.
Are we too late? Can or will the church make a difference here?
My wife and I just finished the book “No Impact Man“, about a family that attempts to live a year creating zero environmental impact.
Rarely do we read a book concurrently, but this one’s proven to be awesome for discussion. I kept the fact that there’s a documentary film being released on it soon from her so she’d journey through the details of the book with me.
I’m currently on the board of directors for the Nidus Festival.
Nidus is a movement uniting the many streams of Christ-followers to celebrate faith, the arts, and justice culminating in a three-day festival. It first launched in 2006, and we will be bringing it back for August 14-16th 2009. Mark your calendars, immediately.
Our last festival had over a hundred bands, visual artists, and performers. Speakers and workshops were ecumenical in spirit and included Shane Claiborne, Brian Walsh, Frederica Mathewes -Green, and Bruxy Cavey amongst many others.
Right now, we’re looking for contributors of all sorts. Everything from fundraising, promotions, project management, artistic talent, to expertise on social issues.
Let me know if you can help, or know of others that might be interested.
Go to this site to check out this viral video on “The Story of Stuff“. It’s about 20 minutes long but communicates the key messages of extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal with brilliant simplicity.
Below is one of my favorite segments of the video,
I’d love to hear what you are or or plan on doing about it all…
Check out this six-minute speech delivered to the United Nations by twelve-year old Severn Cullis-Suzuki (Canadian environmental activist David Suzuki’s daughter). This was taped 15 years ago and it is still a riveting message.
No, I’m not quite a vegetarian yet, but my wife and I have definitely been trying to consume in a more sustainable way.
We went to a farmer’s market that turned out to not be too far from our home and bought a whole bunch of local grown food, and we’ve had four vegetarian dinners in a row. Not as tough as I thought it’d be. I’d still be salivating for a steak if I saw one though.
Here’s a vegetarian / zucchini lasagna that I had made.
I also recently bought my first coffee maker through a friend who works at starbucks. I bought it so that I could offer free coffee from time to time for those who share our floor at our apartment. We handed out little promos with our daughter to every door.
Only a few people made it out, but got to talk to some people that I had no idea lived in such proximity to me. I even handed out coffee to our custodian and entrance guard. They were quite surprised. Next time around I think we’ll host an evening mixer floor party.
With the coffee maker I’ve also started making Frappuccino’s when we’ve had guests. Check it out.
Overall the last while has been a beautiful time just living simpler, better, and sharing the beauty of it all with others.
I bought a Moby CD over ten years ago, that included the facts below in the liner notes. For some reason they actually mean something to me now.
FACTS THAT I’VE COLLECTED: In the past 20 years approximately 1 million species have disappeared from the world’s tropical forests. From 1960-1985 over 40% of the central american rainforests were destroyed to create grazing land for cattle. The united states imports over 100,000 tons of beef from central america each year. It takes 23 gallons of water to produce a pound of tomatoes. It takes 5,214 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef. One acre of land can produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes. One acre of land can produce 165 pounds of beef. The u.s. cattle industry produces 158 million tons of waste per year. Livestock production is the #1 cause of water pollution in the u.s. 22 million acres of land have become unusable due to desertification. 85% of the topsoil loss in t he u.s. is the result of livestock production. In the u.s. 33% of ALL raw material consumption is used solely in the production of meat, egg, and dairy products. It takes 1 pound of grain to make 1 pound of bread. It takes 20 pounds of grain to make 1 pound of beef. 75% of the grain sent to third world nations goes to livestock production. The countries with the diets highest in animal products are also the countries with the highest rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, etc. 50 percent of men who eat meat regularly die of heart disease. 80% of usda chicken inspectors no longer eat chicken. If the average commuter passenger load in the u.s. were increased by just 1 person per day we would save 33 million gallons of gas each day. Americans spend over 1 billion hours stuck in traffic each year. 30% of u.s. greenhouse gas emissions come from cars. Air is sold in mexico city for $1.15 a minute by sidewalk vendors. What greenpeace spends in a year general motors spends in 4 hours. million children under the age of 6 suffer from lead poisoning. in europe 50% of the cars still use leaded gas. 2 million gallons of motor oil are dumped in american waterways each year. over 8 million tons of oil are spilled in the world’s oceans every year. 5 billion gallons of water are flushed each day in the united states. Sewage treatment facilities in the u.s. discharge 5.9 trillion gallons of sewage wastewater into coastal waters every year. u.s. tuna fisherman are permitted to kill over 20,000 dolphins every year. 2 million sharks die in driftnets in the north pacific every year. Only 1 in 10 baby chimpanzees survive the trip form the jungle to the zoo. 1 billion animals are killed each year in experiments. 17 million animals are trapped in the u.s. each year for fur. Many traps are so painful that animals check through their own limbs to escape. For every fur animal trapped two other animals (dogs, cats, deer, etc.) are trapped and killed. In 1997 450,000 minks died on fur farms from heat exhaustion. 1 ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, and enough energy to heat the average home for 6 months. Enough wood and paper is thrown away each year in america to heat 1 billion houses for a year. Six times more jobs are created by recycling as opposed to landfill operations. The amount of money spent on trash disposal in american schools is equal to that spent on new textbooks. Out of every $10 that americans spend on food, $1 pays for packaging. 65% of garbage in the u.s. is packaging. 50% of all trash thrown away could be recycled into new products. 500 new dumps are built each year in the united states. Over 1 billion trees are used to make disposable diapers every year. Americans throw away 20 billion disposable diapers each year. Americans dump the equivalent of 21 million shopping bags full of food into landfills every year. billion batteries are thrown away each year by americans. over 700,000 tons of hazardous waste is produced in the u.s. every day. americans throw away 10 million cigarette lighters every week. 500,000 people die of cigarette related diseases in the u.s. each year. pesticides that are banned in the u.s. (such as ddt) are regularly sold to third world countries. 90% of all food borne pesticides are found in meat and dairy products. 10% of nursing mothers who were vegetarians had ddt in their breast milk. 90% of nursing mothers who were meat eaters had ddt in their breast milk. In 1945, before widespread pesticide use, u.s. corn growers lost 3% of their crops to insects. Last year they lost over 12%. 74 different kinds of pesticides have been found in drinking water. Over 100 chemical contaminants have been found in the breast milk of nursing mothers in the u.s. of the 34 chemicals most widely used on lawns, 25% are widely believed to cause birth defects, genetic mutation, and cancer. Americans spend 6 billion dollars on their lawns each year. 25% of u.s. nuclear reactors would not be able to contain a core breach meltdown. A 1985 study predicted a 45% chance of core breach meltdown in the u.s. before 2005. In 1992, 430,000 people in the world died from cancers resulting from nuclear testing radiation. More money is spent in the u.s. on nuclear weaponry in one year than was spent on housing from 1980-1992. To date cleaning up storage facilities for nuclear debris has cost taxpayers 200 billion dollars. In 1989 the u.s. military used 200 billion barrels of oil, enough to keep all american public transit systems running for 22 years. 1 ton of toxic waste is produced by the u.s. every minute. (Source)
I just saw the film Earthlings. Actually I think I turned away for about 90% of the movie, and of what I did see and hear, I seriously doubt I’ll ever be the same.
I got it from my local library, I’m not sure if there was a really wide release of it, but I did manage to find it on youtube (part1, part2, and part3), though I encourage you to find the DVD and watch it with a group of people.
You really do need to see this one. I’d love to hear your thoughts after you’ve seen it.
