Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights (and anything else that isn't necessary, like mobile phone chargers & t.vs) for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.

On March 31 2007, for one hour, Sydney made a powerful statement about the greatest contributor to global warming – coal-fired electricity – by turning off its lights. Over 2.2 million Sydney residents and over 2,100 businesses switched off, leading to a 10.2% energy reduction across the city. What began as one city taking a stand against global warming caught the attention of the world.

In 2008, 24 global cities will participate in Earth Hour at 8pm on March 29. Earth Hour is the highlight of a major campaign to encourage businesses, communities and individuals to take the simple steps needed to cut their emissions on an ongoing basis. It is about simple changes that will collectively make a difference – from businesses turning off their lights when their offices are empty, to households turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby.

http://www.earthhour.org/

I'm game, though i haven't organized for anyone to come over, nor do i have candles yet, so it will just be me alone in the dark, eep. Guess i'll go outside & stargaze if it's not raining :).

Climate negotiations in Bali are in crisis. Things were looking good till now: near-consensus on a delicate deal, including 2020 targets for rich countries, in return for which China and the developing world would do their part over time. IPCC scientists say such targets are needed to prevent catastrophe. But Japan, the US and Canada are banding together to wreck the deal, and the rest of the world is starting to waver...

We can’t let three stubborn governments throw away the planet's future. We have until the end of Friday to do everything we can. Please sign our emergency global petition below -- we'll deliver it through stunts at the summit, a full-page ad in the Jakarta Post read by all the delegates (see below, right), and directly to negotiators to stiffen their nerve against any bad compromise. Add your name to the campaign below now!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/bali_emergency/98.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK

And;

Join Al Gore in Bali

GetUp is calling for a detailed and strengthened climate change response which will keep us below the 2 degree threshold - the temperature rise that experts agree we must stay beneath in order to avoid dangerous climate change.

The decisions that are made in Bali will to a large extent determine whether dangerous climate change can be prevented or not.

The conference, which brings together international leaders under a UN Framework, is designed to launch two years of negotiations for the post 2012 period agreement. An emissions trajectory post 2012 should be based on the Kyoto architecture, seeing developed countries reduce emissions by 25 to 40% below 1990 levels by 2020, with a common but differentiated approach for developing countries. Australia has significant role to play in making this a reality.

Sign Al Gore's petition below;
http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ClimateActionNow&id=267

If you're an Aussie and not a member of getup you should totally check it out. It's a really easy way to get your voice heard on issues of environmental and social justice within Australia (and sometimes the world).
http://www.getup.org.au/

And for my international friends the other site i mentioned in this entry, Avaaz is really excellent too.
Join here if you're interested in recieving e-mails about actions you can take. It's all free and if you don't want to act on a certain issue, just delete the e-mail - easy! http://www.avaaz.org/en/

And i have to mention my personal faveourite Greenpeace.org, so if you feel so inclined go to the site, follow the links to you countries site and join their cyberactions too :).

And don't worry it's free to help on all those sites (other than whatever you pay for computer access of course).

I tried to e-mail this to some of you, not sure if it got thru...?

So here it is, possibly again for some of you :P


Right now, in a skyscraper in Melbourne the fate of the Gunns pulp mill in Tasmania's Tamar Valley is being decided by ANZ executives - and with our help we can make sure they make the right decision, before next Tuesday's AGM.

The ANZ bank is considering financing Gunns' controversial pulp mill this week. Despite having the approval of the new Government, without a financial backer the project can't go ahead. Banks aren't answerable to the voters but they do listen when customers, shareholders and the public put their reputation at risk.

Our contacts inside the ANZ have told us that the ANZ decision-makers like the new head of the ANZ Mr Smith are listening and this is the time to add your voice. Can you send a message to Mr Smith, to encourage him to do the right thing and not finance the mill?

www.getup.org.au/campaign/TellMrSmith

Public pressure has been proven to make large corporations act more ethically, for fear of tarnishing the company's reputation and customer backlash - that's why ANZ is making sure they fully consider the implications before they approve the mill's finance. We can leave them with no doubt that bankrolling this environmentally disastrous development would be equally disastrous for them, by demonstrating the level of community concern over the mill.

Your email to Mr Smith at ANZ could save the equivalent of 2.3 million cars being taken off the road each year. 25,000 of you have already written submissions to the government inquiry, but whereas our politicians were too worried about losing votes, your email to ANZ will help make financing this project risky business:

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/NoPulpMill&id=269

The Government has failed us on the pulp mill, by refusing to listen to the tens of thousands of Australians outraged by this ill-conceived development - the ANZ can't afford to be as foolish. This is our urgent last chance to stop the pulp mill - the ANZ AGM is next Tuesday, and we want every executive to enter that meeting knowing Australia does not want them to become a climate villain.

Thanks for being a part of the solution

http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2007/10/environmentalis.html

People ask me if the reduced use of consumer conveniences that goes with the No Impact project doesn't mean a lot of deprivation. I say that I spend more time with my family, eat more healthily, get more exercise and am a better dad. Then I ask: "Was I more deprived before or am I more deprived now?"

The point is that the money we make, the things we buy and the planetary resources we use--or waste--aren't what make us happier. This is the finding of the forthcoming book The How of Happiness by University of California, Riverside researcher Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky.

Her findings show that contributions to our happiness come:

* 50% from a genetically-determined set point (which we can do nothing about)
* 10% from our life circumstances or situations (which means we could trash the entire planet to get ourselves the biggest house and fastest car and still barely feel better)
* 40% from--are you ready?--how we act and how we think.

This confirms my No Impact experience that environmentalism--preserving rather than using up planetary resources--means nothing like depriving ourselves of happiness. Instead, it suggests that using less and treating the planet kindly means we get to stop distracting ourselves from what really makes us happy.

Of our assumptions about happiness, Lyubomirsky writes:

"Perhaps the most common error is that we assume that positive events ... will provide much more happiness than they really do. Take materialism, the pursuit of money and possessions, as an example. Why is it so hard for us (even myself!) to believe that money really doesn't make us happy? Because the truth is that money does make us happy. But our misunderstanding, as one happiness researcher eloquently puts it, is that 'we think money will bring lots of happiness for a long time, and actually it brings a little happiness for a short time.' Meanwhile, in our effortful pursuit of such dead ends to pleasure, we end up ignoring other, more effective routes to well-being."

What are the more effective routes? Well, that gets you back to how you think and how you act, and for more on that, you'll have to read Lyubomirsky's book. But a few bullet points include:

* Nurturing and enjoying relationships with family and friends
* Being comfortable expressing gratitude
* Being the first to offer help to coworkers and passersby
* Practicing optimism about the future
* Savoring life's pleasures and living in the moment
* Exercising at least once a week
* Committing to lifelong goals and ambitions
* Coping with challenges with strength and poise

http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2007/09/the-power-of-on.html - Its a great blog & has a feed here on lj - i highly recommend adding it.

People ask me this a lot: what is the point of one person trying to reduce their consumption to help the environment? Isn’t that a meaningless drop in the bucket?

No.

It’s only meaningless if we think it’s meaningless, because if we think it’s meaningless, we’ll do nothing. Optimism, as I’ve said before, is the most radical political act there is.

Back in World War II, millions of Allied citizens changed their consumption patterns to help the war effort. They (largely) obeyed rationing rules, forwent metals and rubbers needed by the armed forces, taught their children not to waste valuable and scarce food, and even carpooled to save gas.

What made them believe their individual actions mattered? Why did they bother?

Because being told so by the powers that be—see the poster above—helped them see that one person trying to do the right thing makes a difference. If I remember my chaos theory correctly, one butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon can set off a chain of events that leads to a hurricane.

Recently, our Congress passed an energy bill that had no fuel efficiency standards for newly manufactured cars. I am personally appalled.

On the other hand, we the people are not helpless. We the people don’t need Government to tell us to do what is right. We the people can stop buying cars with poor fuel efficiency. We don’t need the government or the automobile manufacturers to do a thing. All it takes is for us to believe that how we purchase and how we act can really make a difference. And it can.

What I’d like to see are the big environmental organizations taking the place of the governments of World War II to remind us all that we can make a difference. I'd like to see Greenpeace and Sierra Club and Environmental Defense billboards all over our country saying: “Do your grandchildren a favor: drive a car that gets 40 miles per gallon.”

Because if a few big environmental organizations start shouting from the rooftops about the power of one, that each one of us can make a difference, more of us will come to believe it and will act as though it is so. And if more of us refused to drive cars that got less than 40 mpg, you better believe the auto manufacturers would not wait for the Government to tell them to improve their efficiency standards.

Watch the video below of the ping-pong ball and mousetrap chain reaction (You'll have to follow the link for this one obviously :)). We never know which of us will be the ping-pong ball that sets the others off. We never know which of us will start the chain reaction. But one of us will.

Another short piece from him about Getting traffic off our city streets
( Read more... )

From - http://www.davidsuzuki.org/NatureChallenge/newsletters/People_Mar2007/page4.asp

Make it count
Do online actions make a difference? Absolutely! Political leaders not only read letters from the public, they weight them. That means that each letter represents roughly 100 votes, so ten thousand letters equals a million votes.

In 5 seconds, you can: make your voice heard immediately by voting in our weekly online polls (you'll have to follow the link at the top to do-this, though it may only apply to Canadians as the David Suzuki foundation is based there...)

In 2 minutes, you can: visit our website and click on the “Take Action” button. Each month you’ll find a new action, so be sure to visit often and pass it on. We’ll let you know the results in next month’s e-newsletter.

In 12 minutes, you can: fill out a customer feedback form at your favourite supermarket and ask for more locally grown produce. Locally grown food helps support farmers in your community, and reduces the greenhouse gas emissions that come from transporting food long distances.

In 20 minutes, you can: write a letter to your MLA or MP about a local environmental project that you believe needs greater support, or a federal issue such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Pour yourself a glass of organic, local wine and relish in the satisfaction of making your voice heard.

Both Greenpeace and World Wide Fund for nature have on-line newsletters with simple actions you can take every month. Sign-up for them here for WWF - http://passport.panda.org/index.cfm?uNC=00892629 and here for Greenpeace - http://www.greenpeace.org/international/getinvolved/sign-up?MM_URL=RSSEzineSignUp (there are links to your national sites if you go to just www.greenpeace.org)

If you're in Australia go here to learn about and vote against Genetically Engineered corn -
http://sites.greenpeace.org.au/truefood/get_active2.html?activityid=27

Simple daily stuff you can do - Buy locally grown produce - we can't all afford organic, but we can afford to do this. Plus food grown locally, thats in-season is better for you :). Eat organic meat (or none at all :).) Buy green power (ring you electricity company and ask about this, it should be an option). Catch public transport to work. Vote.

When you have to replace a bulb, get a compact fluorescent bulb - If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR, we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars. They also use at least 2/3 less energy than standard incandescent bulbs to provide the same amount of light, and last up to 10 times longer. As well as saving $30 or more in energy costs over each bulb’s lifetime
From - http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls

So it all adds up :).

ARRRgg *I'm angry* I sound like Dave Hughes (any Glasshouse watchers here?) This article http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=94792 just shows again what a *%#^%@^%#*(&%(&%#^%*%$*&&%^%%#^% and a %#&$(%^%#)*&%%%$ our Prime Minister is. His head is so far up George Dubya's butt he hasn't seen daylight for years...
Here's some info about the situation in West Papua. http://www.freewestpapua.org/ Basically good 'ol Johnny Howard butt-head cares more about our relationship with Indonesia than basic human rights. Not that I didn't already know this but (!). I first read about the situation in West Papua in Paul Kingsnorth's book 'One no, Many Yeses' (blog,info,awesome links and humor here: http://www.paulkingsnorth.net/home.html ) and I cried about 5 times just getting through the dam chapter. I recommend the book and that you start promoting the cause, just like the baby seal hunt it's getting attention, which means more people know, there's more of a push and we can actually make a positive change. (Because of the democracies we supposedly live in. I mean those who read this lj who I think all live in 'democracies', not that everyone on the planet does...).

Here I provide some links :

Here are 5 easy things you can do to help stop the seal hunt (where they club baby seals to death - fun for all the family!)
http://www.stopthesealhunt.com/site/pp.asp?c=hmKYJeNVJtF&b=1469095

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/climate-change/take_action

http://www.care2.com/

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/genetic-engineering

http://www.greenpeace.org.au/truefood/index2.html

http://www.oxfam.com/

Using public transport or using your feet, buying organic and eating vegan when you can are all really helpful. Try buying some green power (here you can contribute $10 measly dollars a quarter, which is the equivalent of leaving a car in the garage for a month! Or better yet, use less power :). )If you're mad about something let the government know. Let businesses know if you like their product but don't like that they support whaling, or use genetically modified ingredients!
And please don't make any negative comments here, I say get informed, take positive action and make this world the kind of place you want to live in. If we don't use our democratic rights, then they will be taken from us. And yeah if you give up to your negative thoughts, *shrug* and don't try, of course you won't make a difference! So make a phone call, sign a petition, buy that fair trade coffee and walk to work.
*climbs off soapbox* ;)
*As a side note, I feel much better now. I followed a bunch of my own links and found new actions I hadn't taken, so I took them and feel all empowered. Yay for me (and boo for John Howard :o)