w h o a r . c o . n z

“…Healthful cooking doesn’t have to be expensive cooking.

In this week’s Recipes for Health series, Martha Rose Shulman provides five nutritious meals that won’t break the bank.

To create these inexpensive meals, Ms. Shulman relies on pantry staples like pasta and rice … adding beans and peas for extra nutritional value.

Vegetables like onions, cabbage and carrots are also great for those on a budget, are easy to find and can stay fresh in the refrigerator for an extended period, she explains.

Here are five cost-conscious ways to eat healthfully…”

go to source/story>>>Healthful eating on a dime (all-vegan recipes from the NY Times) - Vegsource.com

“…Got milk?

Plenty of people think its perfectly healthy to drink … and advertisements would have you eating dairy all the time.

But it may not be as healthy as you think.

In this weeks UltraWellness blog Dr. Mark Hyman gives six reasons you should avoid milk and explains why it may be at the very root of your health problems.

Dr. Hyman is a smart guy, though we don’t agree 100% with his recommendations …

…(e.g., we don’t recommend any seafoods or other animal products as a source of calcium…

… or anything else)…”

go to source/story>>>Six Reasons You Should Avoid Dairy at all Costs (VIDEO) - Vegsource.com

“…factoids, how to win an argument with a meat-eater,…”

* The Hunger Argument

* The Environmental Argument

* The Cancer Argument

* The Cholesterol Argument

* The Natural Resources Argument

* The Antibiotic Argument

* The Pesticide Argument

* The Ethical Argument

* The Survival Argument…”

(recommended-read..)

go to source/story>>>How to Win An Argument With a Meat-Eater - Vegsource.com

“…The hot question in green circles these days is, “what next?”

For the last decade, strategy has been built around getting a federal climate bill that would place a cap on carbon emissions.

That attempt was supposed to culminate in success this year, but it didn’t, so … what next?

There will be much to say along those lines in coming months.

I hope to share words of inspiration and uplift, to stir minds with insight and hearts with passion.

To tell great tales of green pastures to come … and the heroes who will sail the fleet of righteousness to the golden shores of, uh, the pastures.

Just real quick, though …

… I need to be depressed as hell for a minute…”

go to source/story>>>How bad are the next few years going to suck? | Grist

“…I’m a vegetable lover.

I eat vegetables at least three times a day: …

… a big garden-fresh salad for lunch and grilled corn and steamed potatoes as side dishes with dinners in the summer.

I don’t have much trouble eating enough vegetables, but I know I’m the exception, not the rule.

One in 4 Americans don’t eat the 5 to 13 servings of vegetables and fruit (the number of servings depends on your calorie intake) that you’re supposed to eat every day for optimal health.

Are you one of those that need a nudge to eat more vegetables?

Here are 3 reasons to fit more in:

* Lose weight: Fruits and vegetables are rich in fiber and recent research shows that consuming more fiber can help you lose weight.

* Reduce your risk of heart disease: You could cut your risk for heart disease by almost 25 percent, suggests one study, simply by adding 3 servings of vegetables (or fruit) to your daily diet.

* Fight cancer and Alzheimer’s disease: Eating vegetables (and fruit) in a variety of colors provides you with a variety of phytochemicals, some of which act as antioxidants that may help prevent heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

Probably the excuse I most often hear people give when they say they don’t like vegetables is that they don’t like how vegetables taste.

I think it’s partially because those vegetables were overcooked (and mushy—ew) … or not prepared in the tastiest of ways.

So here are foolproof ways to cook 20 favorite vegetables that bring out their best flavor.

And since it’s summer, and many of these vegetables are at their ripe and delicious best, bursting with nutrients, it’s the perfect time to enjoy them!

For all of these recipes … start with one pound of untrimmed vegetables…”

go to source/story>>>EatingWell: What’s Fresh: How to Cook 20 Vegetables

“…Take sunlight, add water, and there you have it: free energy.

Plants have been doing this for quite some time, splitting water’s hydrogen apart from its oxygen …

… but our efforts to turn water into a source of free hydrogen fuel by mimicking them have borne no fruit.

The problem is that splitting water takes more energy than conventional solar-cell technology can realistically deliver.

But now we may be tantalisingly close to having economically viable sun-powered water splitters …

…and with it all the clean-burning fuel we want.

In 2008, Daniel Nocera at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his team unveiled a revolutionary approach to splitting water.

They used a cheap cobalt-phosphate catalyst and titanium oxide electrodes that need far less electricity than conventional electrolysis to split water.

That raised the possibility of stealing plants’ trick and using sunlight to power the reaction.

However, the number of photovoltaic cells needed for such devices mean it cannot compete on price with fossil fuels, says Daniel Gamelin, a chemist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

But Gamelin and his team thought they could bring down the costs by incorporating some of that photovoltaic technology in Nocera’s water-splitting device …

… creating a so-called photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitter…”

go to source/story>>>Green machine: Perfecting the plant way to power - tech - 01 September 2010 - New Scientist

“…(Is touchy-feely environmentalism a new opiate of the people?

Why are we paying rent to Bill Gates?

Is reality incomplete?

Marxist cultural commentator Slavoj Žižek, the man they call the most dangerous philosopher in the west, unravels it all for Liz Else)..

Your new book, Living in the End Times, is about the demise of global capitalism. What is science’s place in all this?

Science is completely entangled with capital and capitalism. It is simultaneously the source of some threats (such as the ecological consequences of our industries or the uncontrolled use of genetic engineering), and our best hope of understanding those threats and finding a way to cope with them.

Given the book’s title, it’s no surprise that it also features the four horsemen of the apocalypse, which you identify with four major threats you say we face.

For me, remember, apocalypse means revelation, not catastrophe.

Take the threat to our ecology.

Until recently, the main reaction to ominous news such as Arctic sea ice melting faster than predicted was, “We are approaching an unthinkable catastrophe, the time to act is running out.”

Lately, we’re hearing more voices telling us to be positive about global warming.

True, they say, climate change increases competition for resources, flooding, the stresses on animals and indigenous cultures, ethnic violence and civil disorder.

But we must bear in mind that thanks to climate change the Arctic’s treasures could be uncovered, resources become more accessible, land fit for habitation and so on.

So it’s business as usual?

Yes…” (cont..)

go to source/story>>>Slavoj Žižek: Wake up and smell the apocalypse - opinion - 30 August 2010 - New Scientist

“…Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has reportedly signed a formal deal with the Greens as Labor tries to secure a majority.

According to ABC News, the Green Party has struck a deal with Labor in which they would support a Gillard government.

Green leader Bob Brown will announce details of the deal shortly, ABC reported…”

go to source/story>>>Gillard signs deal with Greens - report - World - NZ Herald News

a kiwi-bach is entered into a green-buildings competition…

and it is so simple….and so cool…

go to source/story>>>http://blog.greens.org.nz/2010/09/01/kiwi-bach-goes-to-washington/#comment-148608Kiwi bach goes to Washington | frogblog

“…Bjørn Lomborg, the self-styled “sceptical environmentalist” once compared to Adolf Hitler by the UN’s climate chief …

… is famous for attacking climate scientists, campaigners, the media and others for exaggerating the rate of global warming …

… and its effects on humans …

… and the costly waste of policies to stop the problem.

But in a new book to be published next month, Lomborg will call for tens of billions of dollars a year to be invested in tackling climate change.

“Investing $100bn annually would mean that we could essentially resolve the climate change problem by the end of this century,” the book concludes.

Examining eight methods to reduce or stop global warming, Lomborg and his fellow economists recommend pouring money into researching and developing clean energy sources such as wind, wave, solar and nuclear power …

… and more work on climate engineering ideas such as “cloud whitening” … to reflect the sun’s heat back into the outer atmosphere.

In a Guardian interview, he said he would finance investment through a tax on carbon emissions that would also raise $50bn to mitigate the effect of climate change …

… for example by building better sea defences … and $100bn for global healthcare.

His declaration about the importance of action on climate change comes at a crucial point in the debate …

… with international efforts to agree a global deal on emissions …

… stalled amid a resurgence in scepticism caused by rows over the reliability of the scientific evidence for global warming…”

go to source/story>>>Bjørn Lomborg: $100bn a year needed to fight climate change | Environment | The Guardian

“…From the highways of Los Angeles to the Citarum River of Bandung, Indonesia, earth’s most polluted city of Linfen, China to the streets of London, the world is laden with man-made pollution.

Chemical, air, water and oil pollution ruin the environment, cause premature deaths, spoil the world’s resources and worsen climate change.

As the world’s population soars to nearly 7 billion, we here at HuffPost Green thought that it time to investigate some of the world’s most polluted places.

Check out our slideshow of nine of the most polluted places in the world.

Find out which city’s death rate surpasses its birth rate by 260 percent.

Or which city has 50,000 people die prematurely each year due to man-made air pollution…”

go to source/story>>>9 Of The Most Polluted Places In The World (PHOTOS)

“…John McDougall MD discusses what dairy products have going for them.

They are a great source of nutrition — for getting fat and growing tumors!

This is Dr. McDougall’s presentation from the 2005 Healthy Lifestyle Expo.

More info and talks available here on DVD: https://secure2.vegsource.com/catalog…”

go to source/story>>>YouTube - The Perils of Dairy

“…Bill Clinton is still keeping an eye on his waistline, Page Six reports.

The former president stopped by Babette’s in East Hampton last week and ordered, essentially, the diet plate.

A source said, “[Bill] was sitting in a corner banquette, eating a veggie burger and a mountain of vegetables.

He was with Hillary, who had a falafel plate, and her mother, Dorothy Rodham, who ate French toast.”

In April, Chelsea asked her dad to lose 15 pounds by the time her wedding rolled around.

At the time, Bill explained to the New York Post, Chelsea “told me the other day, she said, ‘Dad the only thing you gotta do is walk me down the aisle and you need to look good.’

So I said ‘Well, what’s your definition?’ And she said: ‘Oh, about 15 pounds.’ So I’m halfway home.”

It seems that Chelsea’s vegan eating habits rubbed off on dad–

– Bill lost not 15, but 23 pounds, thanks to a vegetarian diet.

And judging from what was on his plate at Babette’s … perhaps Clinton has decided to stick with the no-meat plan for a while…”

go to source/story>>>Bill Clinton Still Watching His Waistline: Report

“…”Will you join me in lowering our impact?”

That was the subject line on a recent e-mail I sent out to family, friends, column readers and radio listeners …

… asking them to join me for a week in trying to reduce our individual environmental footprint.

Inspired by Colin Beavan’s prophetic book “No Impact Man,” I proposed four pollution- and waste-reducing steps many people could try for a few days:…

… Stop consuming meat, devote one meal a day to eating only locally grown products, avoid producing non-recyclable garbage …

… and refrain from riding in a fossil-fuel-burning vehicle with fewer than three people.

Having now completed this low-impact week, I can report that it was not easy and that I did not achieve perfection — not even close.

However, I can also say I learned a few things beyond how to manage bicycle-seat discomfort.

For one, I discovered that you can find affordable food that isn’t flown in at great energy expense — but it takes initiative.

You have to check food labels at the grocery … or hunt down a farmers’ market.

I was also reminded that we waste an obscene amount of paper and plastic.

Coffee cups, disposable utensils, food wrappers — this offal is everywhere and most of it is used for less than 15 minutes and then discarded.

Avoiding this trash for a week makes you think about the monstrous amount of energy used in producing, distributing and tossing it.

When it came to transportation, I discovered that the inconvenience of eco-friendly choices can come with unforeseen benefits.

Sure, it took effort to get my bike working.

Sure, my “not a morning person” gene didn’t love sweating my way to the office at dawn.

But my “I hate traffic” and “I like saving money” genes enjoyed avoiding congestion and gasoline bills.

These embarrassingly self-evident realizations led to my two biggest “low-impact week” epiphanies of all…”

go to source/story>>>Lessons from a low-impact week - Environment - Salon.com

“…In a separate study, The National Cancer Institute found that soy consumption early in life conferred protection against breast cancer later.

The women interviewed were of Chinese, Japanese and Filipino ancestry … and lived in California or Hawaii.

The findings revealed that those who had consumed the largest amounts of soy foods as children … (between ages five and 11) …

… lowered their risk for breast cancer by 60 percent as adults.

The amount of soy recommended for women to help protect against breast cancer is 25 to 35 grams per day.

The soybean is the only vegetable that contains more protein than carbohydrates.

Protein is made from building blocks called amino acids.

They are linked together in a chain.

Of the 20 amino acids found in the body … eight are considered essential because the body can’t make them … so they must be consumed.

Soy protein contains all of them.

Therefore, it’s a perfect source of protein for humans…”

go to source/story>>>Katherine Nichols: The Soy Controversy

“… Despite recent green investments, an array of government subsidies pay big dirty industries like oil, coal and factory farms …

… to destroy the environment in every way possible.

Urban sprawl, pollution, over-consumption, deforestation…like it or not, U.S. taxpayers are still paying for all of these things to occur in America and beyond.

Despite recent investments in green jobs and technology …

… an array of government subsidies pay big dirty industries like oil, coal and factory farms to destroy the environment in every way possible …

… while greener, healthier industries like solar power and vegetable farms get a pittance…”

(8 of the 10 apply here in new zealand…

..including this one…)

“…5. Factory Farming

American factory farms are literally filthy cesspools of their own making …

… and who else is cleaning up all that shit but American taxpayers?

Giant factory farms make up just 2% of the livestock farms in the U.S. … yet raise 40% of all animals in the U.S.,…

… and they do it using practices that are not only harmful to workers and the animals themselves … but to the environment.

The government heavily subsidizes factory farms so they can provide über-cheap meat and dairy …

… raising as many animals as possible … in the shortest amount of time … with the least amount of care.

And why should they care about finding better ways to manage manure …

… when the government hands them $125 million annually to “deal” with the consequences …

… and then doesn’t bother to check up on them?

Despite the backwards funding given to clean them up …

… gaping lagoons of livestock waste packed with pollutants continue to be one of the biggest environmental problems in America …

… fouling our water …

… and causing those depressing dead zones in our oceans…” (cont..)

go to source/story>>>10 Ways Your Taxes Pay For Environmental Devastation | | AlterNet

“…In a scientific tour-de-force that has been hailed as the most significant breakthrough in wheat production since the cereal crop was cultivated by the first farmers more than 10,000 years ago …

… scientists have decoded the genome of the wheat plant.

As a result, new breeds of disease-resistant crops could be producing higher wheat yields in as little as five years’ time …

… raising the prospect of lower bread prices and greater food security in a more populated world.

And rather than guard their knowledge … the British scientists responsible for the research will today place a draft version of the genome online …

… making it available for free to wheat breeders around the world …

… who will be able to use it to speed up the creation of the new disease-resistant varieties that are urgently needed.

Most wheat breeders currently rely on traditional methods of mixing new crop varieties –

- techniques that have not changed substantially for hundreds of years…”

go to source/story>>>Genome breakthrough heralds new dawn for agriculture - Science, News - The Independent

“…Everything the climate scientists said would happen - with their pesky graphs and studies and computers - is coming to pass.

This is proving the hottest year ever.

Thank God man-made global warming was proven to be a hoax.

Just imagine what the world might have looked like now if those conspiring scientists had been telling the truth.

No doubt Nasa would be telling us that this year is now the hottest since humans began keeping records.

The weather satellites would show that even when heat from the sun significantly dipped earlier this year … the world still got hotter.

Russia’s vast forests would be burning to the ground in the fiercest drought they have ever seen …

… turning the air black in Moscow, killing 15,000 people, and forcing foreign embassies to evacuate.

Because warm air holds more water vapour, the world’s storms would be hugely increasing in intensity and violence –

- drowning one fifth of Pakistan … and causing giant mudslides in China.

The world’s ice sheets would be sloughing off massive melting chunks four times the size of Manhattan.

The cost of bread would be soaring across the world as heat shrivelled the wheat crops.

The increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would be fizzing into the oceans …

… making them more acidic …

… and so killing 40 per cent of the phytoplankton that make up the irreplaceable base of the oceanic food chain.

The denialists would be conceding at last that everything the climate scientists said would happen –

- with their pesky graphs and studies and computers – came to pass.

This is all happening today, except for that final stubborn step.

It’s hard to pin any one event on man-made global warming:..

… there were occasional freak weather events before we started altering the atmosphere …

… and on their own, any of these events could be just another example.

But they are, cumulatively, part of a plain pattern where extreme weather is occurring “with greater frequency and in many cases with greater intensity” as the temperature soars, as the US National Climatic Data Centre puts it.

This is exactly what climate scientists have been warning us man-made global warming will look like, to the letter.

Ashen-faced, they add that all this is coming after less than one degree of global warming since the Industrial Revolution.

We are revving up for as much as five degrees more this century.

Yet as the evidence of global warming becomes ever clearer … the momentum to stop it has died.

The Copenhagen climate summit evaporated …

… Barack Obama has given up on passing any climate change legislation …

… Hu Jintao is heaving even more coal … David Cameron has shot his huskies …

… and even sweet liberal Canada now has a government determined to pioneer a fuel – tar sands –

- that causes three times more warming than oil.

True, the victims are starting to see the connections.

The Russian President, Dmitri Medvedev, had been opposed to meaningful action on global warming …

… until he found the smoke-choked air in the Kremlin hard to breathe.

But if we wait until every leader can taste the effects of warming in their mouths … the damage will be irreparable.

Given the stakes, the reasons why so many people still refuse to accept the evidence can seem oddly trivial.

A common one is: “It snowed a lot in the US and Britain last year. Where was your warming then, eh?”

But scientific theories are based on patterns, not individual events.

You might know a 90-year-old woman who has smoked a pack of cigarettes every day of her life, and is totally healthy. (I do.)

It doesn’t disprove the theory that smoking causes lung cancer…”

go to source/story>>>Johann Hari: How much proof do the global warming deniers need? - Johann Hari, Commentators - The Independent

“… From hideous cruelty and noxious gases to health risks and environmental blight …

… here are eight reasons to remove eggs from your diet.

It was enough to make the nation put down their Egg McMuffins.

Almost a billion “government-inspected” eggs were recalled because they might harbor salmonella …

… a bacterium that causes bloody and mucoid diarrhea, fever and vomiting.

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg warned people that if they ate their eggs runny and over-easy, something else could become runny and over-easy — not to mention sunny-side-up.

It’s hard to believe a nation so concerned with cardiovascular disease — 33.5 million take statins —

– would eat the “strokes in a shell” known as eggs … the highest cholesterol food known to man.

And there are even more reasons to remove eggs from your diet.

Here are eight of them…”

go to source/story>>>8 Reasons You Should Stay the Hell Away From Eggs | | AlterNet

“… Triclosan and triclocarban are widely used in antibacterial soaps, body washes, deodorants, lip glosses, dog shampoos, shave gels and even toothpastes.

Over the past several months, your bathroom has become the site of a major controversy.

In fact, the controversy has been heating up for a while (Environmental Working Group’s Cosmetic Safety Database dates back to 2004) …

… but recently, stories of dangerous ingredients in common personal care products like soap, toothpaste and lipstick have become even more common in the media.

They’re even the subject of a bill in Congress, The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010.

The inadequate regulation and dubious safety of cosmetics spurred Annie Leonard … famous for making The Story of Stuff …

… to come out with a new video last month … The Story of Cosmetics.

Numerous chemicals that are legally used in personal care products are untested, inadequately tested, or even proven harmful …

… but few are as widely used and as unnecessary as the endocrine disrupting chemicals triclosan (an ingredient in 75 percent of liquid hand soaps) …

… and triclocarban (most commonly found in deodorant bar soaps).

Scientists have recently found a number of new reasons why these chemicals should not be used in consumer products…” (cont..)

go to source/story>>>How Your Toothpaste, Soap and Make-Up Can Harm Your Health | | AlterNet

“…A review of the IPCC chairman’s financial relationships reveals a scrupulously honest man has been much maligned.

Has anyone been as badly maligned as Rajendra Pachauri … chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)?

In December, the Sunday Telegraph carried a long and prominent feature written by Christopher Booker and Richard North, titled: Questions over business deals of UN climate change guru Dr Rajendra Pachauri.

The subtitle alleged that Pachauri has been “making a fortune from his links with ‘carbon trading’ companies”.

The article maintained that the money made by Pachauri while working for other organisations “must run into millions of dollars”.

It described his outside interests as “highly lucrative commercial jobs”.

It proposed that these payments caused a “conflict of interest” with his IPCC role.

It also complained that we don’t know “how much we all pay him” as chairman of the IPCC.

The story (which has subsequently been removed from the Sunday Telegraph’s website)… immediately travelled around the world.

It was reproduced on hundreds of blogs.

The allegations it contained were widely aired in the media … and generally believed.

For a while, no discussion of climate change or the IPCC appeared complete without reference to Pachauri’s “dodgy” business dealings …

… and alleged conflicts of interest.

There was just one problem: the story was untrue.

It’s not just that Pachauri hadn’t been profiting from the help he has given to charities, businesses and institutions …

… his accounts show that he is scrupulous to the point of self-denial.

After the Sunday Telegraph published its story, the organisation for which Pachauri works - a charity called The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) - asked the auditors KPMG to review his financial relationships.

Today, for the first time, the Guardian is publishing KPMG’s report…” (cont..)

go to source/story>>>Rajendra Pachauri innocent of financial misdealings but smears will continue | George Monbiot | Environment | guardian.co.uk

“…Concerted action to tackle climate change will happen only if the public demands it for the sake of future generations.

“How did you become an activist?”

I was surprised by the question.

I never considered myself an activist.

I am a slow-paced taciturn scientist from the Midwest US.

Most of my relatives are pretty conservative.

I can imagine attitudes at home toward “activists”.

I was about to protest the characterisation – but I had been arrested, more than once.

And I had testified in defence of others who had broken the law.

Sure, we only meant to draw attention to problems of continued fossil fuel addiction.

But weren’t there other ways to do that in a democracy?

How had I been sucked into being an “activist?”

My grandchildren had a lot to do with it.

It happened step by step.

First, in 2004, I broke a 15-year self-imposed effort to stay out of the media.

I gave a public lecture, backed by scientific papers, showing the need to slow greenhouse gas emissions –

- and I criticised the Bush administration for its lack of appropriate policies.

My grandchildren came into the talk only as props – holding 1-watt Christmas tree bulbs to help explain climate forcings.

Fourteen months later I gave another public talk –

- connecting the dots from global warming to policy implications to criticisms of the fossil fuel industry for promoting misinformation.

This time my grandchildren provided rationalisation for a talk likely to draw ire from the administration.

I explained that I did not want my children to look back and say: “Opa understood what was happening, but he never made it clear.”

What had become clear was that our planet is close to climate tipping points.

Ice is melting in the Arctic, Greenland and Antarctica, and on mountain glaciers worldwide.

Many species are stressed by environmental destruction and climate change.

Continuing fossil fuel emissions, if unabated, will cause sea levels to rise and species to become extinct beyond our control.

Increasing atmospheric water vapour is already magnifying climate extremes, increasing overall precipitation, causing greater floods and stronger storms.

Stabilising climate requires restoring our planet’s energy balance.

The physics is straightforward.

The effect of increasing carbon dioxide on Earth’s energy imbalance is confirmed by precise measurements of ocean heat gain.

The principal implication is defined by the geophysics … by the size of fossil fuel reservoirs.

Simply put, there is a limit on how much carbon dioxide we can pour into the atmosphere.

We cannot burn all fossil fuels.

Specifically, we must (1) phase out coal use rapidly, (2) leave tar sands in the ground, and (3) not go after the last drops of oil.

Actions needed for the world to move on to clean energies of the future are feasible.

The actions could restore clean air and water globally.

But the actions are not happening.

At first I thought it was poor communication.

Scientists must not have made the story clear enough to world leaders…” (cont..)

go to source/story>>>Am I an activist for caring about my grandchildren’s future? I guess I am | James Hansen | Environment | guardian.co.uk

“…It is not exactly a traditional Sunday stroll in the English countryside as 84-year-old Vietnamese zen master Thich Nhat Hanh leads nearly a thousand people through the rolling Nottinghamshire hills in walking meditation.

The silent procession takes on the shape of a snake as it wends its way extremely slowly through a forest glade and an apple orchard.

The assembled throng are asked to deeply experience each step they take on the earth … in order to be mindful in the present moment.

Thay, as he is known, steps off the path into a field of tall grass and sits quietly in meditation.

He exudes a sense of serenity … born of his 68 years practice as a monk.

Despite having hundreds of thousands of followers around the world … and being viewed with the same reverence as the Dalai Lama …

… Thay is little known to the general public.

He has chosen to shun the limelight and avoid the shimmer of celebrity endorsement in order to focus on building communities around the world that can demonstrate his ethical approach to life.

There are monasteries currently in Germany, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia and Hong Kong.

He is seeking to create a spiritual revival that replaces our consumption-based lives …

… with a return to a simpler, kinder world based on deep respect for each other and the environment.

He rarely gives interviews but recognises that the enormous challenges facing the world, combined with his own increasing age and frailty …

… means it is important to use what time and energy he has left to contribute what he can to re-energising society and protecting the planet.

For a man of his age, Thay keeps to a punishing schedule.

After having lectured to thousands at London’s Hammersmith Apollo, Thay has come to Nottingham for a five day retreat ..

…. then goes on to a three month tour of Asia, before returning for a winter retreat at his Plum Village community in France …

… where he has lived in exile for more than 40 years.

Thay, a prolific author with more than 85 titles under his belt, has taken a particular interest in climate change …

… and recently published the best-selling book ‘The World We Have – A Buddhist approach to peace and ecology.’

Tranquilising ourselves with over-consumption

In it, he writes: “The situation the Earth is in today has been created by unmindful production and unmindful consumption.

We consume to forget our worries and our anxieties.

Tranquilising ourselves with over-consumption is not the way.”

In his only interview in the UK, Thay calls on journalists to play their part in preventing the destruction of our civilisation …

… and calls on corporations to move away from their focus on profits to the wellbeing of society.

He says that it is an ill-conceived idea that the solution to global warming lies in technological advances.

While science is important, even more so is dealing with the root cause of our destructive behaviour:

“The spiritual crisis of the West is the cause for the many sufferings we encounter.

Because of our dualistic thinking that god and the kingdom of god is outside of us and in the future -

- we don’t know that god’s true nature is in every one of us.

So we need to put god back into the right place … within ourselves.

It is like when the wave knows that water is not outside of her.

“Everything we touch in our daily lives, including our body, is a miracle.

By putting the kingdom of god in the right place, it shows us it is possible to live happily right here, right now.

If we wake up to this, we do not have to run after the things we believe are crucial to our happiness like fame, power and sex.

If we stop creating despair and anger … we make the atmosphere healthy again.

“Maybe we have enough technology to save the planet … but it is not enough because the people are not ready.

This is why we need to focus on the other side of the problem …

… the pollution of the environment not in terms of carbon dioxide but the toxic atmosphere in which we live;…

… so many people getting sick, many children facing violence and despair and committing suicide.

Spiritual pollution

“We should speak more of spiritual pollution.

When we sit together and listen to the sound of the [meditation] bell at this retreat … we calm our body and mind.

We produce a very powerful and peaceful energy that can penetrate in every one of us.

So, conversely, the same thing is true with the collective energy of fear, anger and despair.

We create an atmosphere and environment that is destructive to all of us.

We don’t think enough about that … we only think about the physical environment.

“Our way of life, our style of living, is the cause of it.

We are looking for happiness and running after it in such a way that creates anger, fear and discrimination.

So when you attend a retreat you have a chance to look at the deep roots of this pollution of the collective energy that is unwholesome.

“How can we change the atmosphere to get the energy of healing and transformation for us and our children?

When the children come to the retreat … they can relax because the adults are relaxed.

Here together we create a good environment … and that is a collective energy.”

Capitalism as a disease

Thay talks about capitalism as a disease that has now spread throughout the world … carried on the winds of globalisation:…

.. “We have constructed a system we cannot control.

It imposes itself on us … and we become its slaves and victims.”…”

go to source/story>>>Zen and the art of protecting the planet | Sustainability | guardian.co.uk

“… Jack Norris and Matt Ball started Vegan Outreach in 1993 to fill a void they saw in animal activism at that time.

With the help of volunteers, they now distribute over 1 million pamphlets about the practices of modern animal agribusiness to college students every year.

Devoting a good chunk of his life to animal activism put Norris in touch with former vegans and vegetarians who had gone back to animal products for health reasons.

To figure out why this was and what he could do about it, Norris became a registered dietitian … and founded VeganHealth.org.

And through his blog JackNorrisRD.com, Norris dispels vegan nutritional myths (like that vegans don’t need to worry much about B12 or calcium) …

… and comments on new studies that are relevant to vegans and vegetarians.

I hadn’t heard of Norris when I quit veganism at the end of 2007.

If I had, maybe I would have hit him up for some brain fog dissipating tips before self-medicating with salmon, flounder and Thanksgiving turkey …

… enjoying the results and abandoning veganism forever.

Might I still be vegan if Norris had intervened in time?

If his reputation is to be believed, it’s not impossible.

I’ve heard from multiple vegans who say that following Norris’ Daily Recommendations for Vegan Adults is the surest way to avoid failure to thrive on a vegan diet.

There are plenty of ex-vegans who couldn’t hack it on raw, macrobiotic or low-fat vegan diets …

… but I have yet to interview an ex-vegan who said “I followed all of Jack Norris’ recommendations … and still couldn’t get it to work.”

That — along with Vegan Outreach’s willingness to critique counterproductive aspects of the vegan movement …

… rethink and improve its own strategy … and treat meat eaters as potential allies —

– makes Jack Norris one of the most formidable individuals promoting veganism today…”

(and..this is a p.s at the end of an excellent/informative interview..)

“…Is there anything you want to add?

The reason I decided to do this interview is that I suspect that you are saying publicly what a lot of people are thinking about veganism.

It would be easy for us in the vegan movement to pretend that people with your view should be dismissed as unreachable …

… but I think it’s a conversation our culture is going to have to have.

I just read your post about vegan weddings and it got me thinking about the difference between how you see the world …

… and how most ethical vegans see it.

While some animal liberation advocates approach the subject from a purely rational point of view …

… my sense is that most vegans come to view animals the way they do because they have had a meaningful relationship with one or more.

These relationships led to viewing animals as very similar to humans … with many of the same emotions and having an inner life.

To us, animals are “persons.”

In your post on weddings, you say the following about comparing killing animals to human slavery …

…. “Of course it’s an outrageous comparison, but that’s how many ethical vegans see it (your eyes can open to some truly offensive comparisons once you accept anti-speciesist logic).”

I have never seen someone explain how these comparisons are so offensive; …

… they simply state that they are … and then rely on other humans -who have a clear self-interest in seeing the world that way - to agree.

History has been riddled with one group exploiting another group … and justifying it by convincing themselves that the exploited group is inferior.

The exploiters have failed to recognize these claims of inferiority for what they were at the time – self-interested rationalizations.

So how likely is it that we have finally reached the pinnacle of moral evolution …

… and are now able to set aside our own self-interests to accurately recognize which other groups are inferior?

Even if human slavery is much worse than animal slavery …

… there is still room to believe that animals are more than just pieces of meat to be enjoyed at a wedding.

I hope most people would not consider their dog to be only a piece of meat to be eaten at a wedding reception.

Another difference is that you think veganism is only about symbolism … and doesn’t actually do any good.

If you believe that, then I can see why your attitude is critical towards vegans who are causing such a fuss over something you think is merely symbolic.

The idea behind ethical veganism is not only to remove one’s self from support of animal cruelty …

… but to be part of a growing movement that will one day become the norm.

If someone doesn’t actually become vegan themselves (or close to it) … they cannot be part of such a movement.

You have said that you believe it’s inevitable that any given vegan will one day reject veganism.

While some people try veganism for a while and then stop …

… I know many people who have been vegan for decades … and show no indication of changing.

Our numbers and impact are growing…”

(recommended-read..)

go to source/story>>>Let Them Eat Meat : Interview With a Vegan: Jack Norris RD

“… The “debate” over global warming has never been about productive dialogue.

Rather, it’s an indication of our eagerness to doubt issues that threaten our very existence.

Imagine a gigantic banquet.

Hundreds of millions of people come to eat.

They eat and drink to their hearts’ content— eating food that is better and more abundant than at the finest tables in ancient Athens or Rome …

… or even in the palaces of medieval Eu rope.

Then, one day, a man arrives, wearing a white dinner jacket.

He says he is holding the bill.

Not surprisingly, the diners are in shock.

Some begin to deny that this is their bill.

Others deny that there even is a bill.

Still others deny that they partook of the meal.

One diner suggests that the man is not really a waiter … but is only trying to get attention for himself or to raise money for his own projects.

Finally, the group concludes that if they simply ignore the waiter, he will go away.

This is where we stand today on the subject of global warming.

For the past 150 years, industrial civilization has been dining on the energy stored in fossil fuels … and the bill has come due.

Yet, we have sat around the dinner table denying that it is our bill …

… and doubting the credibility of the man who delivered it…” (cont..)

go to source/story>>>Global Warming Deniers Aren’t “Experts” At All: It’s Time for a New View of Science | | AlterNet

“…It is time to start asking the hard questions.

Countless people in flood-stricken Pakistan have lost families and livelihoods.

Who can they hold responsible … and turn to for reparations?

Less than a decade ago, these questions would have been dismissed outright.

“Many scientists at the time said that you can never blame an individual weather event on climate change,” says Myles Allen of the University of Oxford.

But a small meeting of scientists in Colorado last week - organised by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the UK Met Office’s Hadley Centre, among others -

- suggests the tide is turning.

The aim of the Attribution of Climate-Related Events workshop was to discuss what information is needed to determine the extent to which human-induced climate change can be blamed for extreme weather events -

- possibly even straight after they have happened.

Assigning blame in this way is not without precedent.

In 2004, Allen and his colleagues showed to a high level of confidence that human greenhouse gas emissions had at least doubled the risk of the European heatwave of 2003 occurring.

The basic idea in producing such a figure is straightforward…” (cont..)

go to source/story>>>Time to blame climate change for extreme weather? - environment - 25 August 2010 - New Scientist

“…I first spoke to Rick Steiner more than three months ago — about two weeks into the Deepwater Horizon disaster —

– after a source recommended I talk to him for a story I was writing about the spill as a teachable moment.

Steiner is a marine conservationist and activist in Alaska who started studying oil spills when the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989, and never stopped.

What Steiner said to me during that first interview was blunt, depressing — and struck me as having the ring of truth.

Little did I know how true.

“Government and industry will habitually understate the volume of the spill and the impact, and they will overstate the effectiveness of the cleanup and their response,” he told me at the time.

“There’s no such thing as an effective response.

There’s never been an effective response — ever — where more than 10 or 20 percent of the oil is ever recovered from the water.

“Most of the oil that goes into the water in a major spill stays there,” he said.

“And once the oil is in the water, the damage is done.”

Steiner was also one of the first scientists to warn that much if not most of BP’s oil was remaining underwater …

… forming giant and potentially deadly toxic plumes…”

go to source/story>>>Gulf Oil Spill: Rick Steiner Got BP Disaster Right From The Beginning, Warns Crisis Is Far From Over

“… The author had a big house and a big mortgage.

Then the financial crisis hit, and he wondered just how small, and how cheap, a house could be.

In 2008, as the value of my big house was evaporating and layoffs seemed to loom in the distance, I came to my senses.

I began to question the true value of a home—and the real risk of a mortgaged home.

I was making a huge financial commitment but not buying the things that really matter, like security and more time with the people I love.

A mortgage can buy a lot of instant luxury … but at a significant cost in time, money, and financial risk.

In short, I woke up to the reality that I had taken on too much risk during good times and was totally unprepared for tough times.

Armed with this better understanding of the financial risks I’d already committed to …

… I started looking for answers and found the tiny house movement … which offers a different way of thinking about housing.

The core values of the tiny house movement are that living simply in small spaces empowers us.

Committing to a tiny house removes many of the burdens we accepted when we bought into the idea of a “normal” American lifestyle.

Instead of focusing on how much we can afford … the tiny space forces us to consider how little we really need.

I wouldn’t have believed this scale of housing was possible until I was introduced to Jay Shafer’s Tumbleweed Tiny Houses.

Jay has spent years living in tiny houses smaller than 100 square feet.

As I learned more about the tiny house movement and began blogging about tiny house design …

… I met many more people who are carving out fulfilling and happy lives … through extreme downsizing.

I decided to take this minimalist approach even further: to build a tiny house without it costing me anything but time and energy.

I use mostly recycled materials I can get for free;…

… any money I spend on building supplies will be recaptured by selling the free stuff I find.

The house is built on a small trailer that measures about seven feet wide by 12 feet long … making the total interior space about 80 square feet.

It will sleep three people, two in a loft and one on a handmade flip-out bench/bed.

A small kitchen and bathroom with a composting toilet will also be included…” (cont…)

go to source/story>>>How You Can Have a Free House | | AlterNet

“…As fossil fuel prices rise, as oil insecurity deepens, and as concerns about climate change cast a shadow over the future of coal …

… a new energy economy is emerging.

The old energy economy, fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, is being replaced by one powered by wind, solar, and geothermal energy.

Despite the global economic crisis, this energy transition is moving at a pace and on a scale that we could not have imagined even two years ago.

And it is a worldwide phenomenon.

Consider Texas.

Long the leading U.S. oil-producing state … it is now also the leading generator of electricity from wind …

… having overtaken California in 2006…”

go to source/story>>>A global shift to renewable energy: But will it be fast enough? | Grist

“…And so what of the conditions that increase child risk, like poverty?

Poverty clearly increases the conditions of risk to child welfare.

A 2002 report on the impacts of work testing of DPBers in the 1990s raised child welfare issues.

Sole parents were concerned about leaving their older children unsupervised.

They reported extreme concern at having to leave their younger children with their older children …

… or leaving under 14 year old children on their own at home.

They reported huge stress from inadequate or expensive childcare …

… and the fragility of complicated family arrangements required for appropriate care for their kids.

And the authors of the report said that more research was needed to understand the full extent of these risks.

Yet Paula just two days before her speech to Iwi Leaders … put through legislation that requires work testing of sole parents on threat of losing their benefit.

No assessment of the risks to child welfare was done.

No follow up to the 2002 report was done.

In the last few years, there have been 2 child deaths and 2 serious abuse cases reported in the papers …

… where the child was left in the care of unsafe adults … while the mother went to work.

And that’s only the high profile cases that get in the news.

So where is Paula’s responsibility for NOT creating the conditions that increase the risk to children?

She knows that her policy will increase risk … yet who holds her to account for that?..”

(um..!..hopefully you..?..)

go to source/story>>>Paula Bennett asks Iwi for a handout: Govt is broke | frogblog

“… Unless you own a sheep, you’re actually doing harm to the environment every time you water and cut the green patches in the front and backyard.

“Mowing itself requires fuel, just like our cars, with a similar impact on the environment.

And all these woes are before you even get to the issue of water.

According to Kress, maintaining non-native plants requires 10,000 gallons of water per year per lawn … over and above rainwater.

That water doesn’t just show up by itself; it requires energy to get to your hose.

In California, for example, the energy required to treat and move water amounts to 19 percent of total electricity use in the state.”

Vanderkam got me thinking.

In her article, she states that maintaining a lawn is one of the most difficult – and therefore potentially environmentally unfriendly –

– activities one can associate with home ownership…”

go to source/story>>>Great Reasons to Get Rid of Your Lawn | Water | AlterNet

“…The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.

In Washington, Koch is best known as part of a family that has repeatedly funded stealth attacks on the federal government …

… and on the Obama Administration in particular.

With his brother Charles, who is seventy-four, David Koch owns virtually all of Koch Industries …

… a conglomerate, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, whose annual revenues are estimated to be a hundred billion dollars.

The company has grown spectacularly since their father, Fred, died, in 1967, and the brothers took charge.

The Kochs operate oil refineries in Alaska, Texas, and Minnesota, and control some four thousand miles of pipeline.

Koch Industries owns Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific lumber, Stainmaster carpet, and Lycra, among other products.

Forbes ranks it as the second-largest private company in the country, after Cargill …

… and its consistent profitability has made David and Charles Koch—who, years ago, bought out two other brothers—among the richest men in America.

Their combined fortune of thirty-five billion dollars is exceeded only by those of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes …

… minimal social services for the needy … and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation.

These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests.

In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States.

And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial.”

The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change …

… underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups.

Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—

- from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—

- that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus…”

go to source/story>>>The billionaire Koch brothers’ war against Obama : The New Yorker

“…An obscure U.N. board that oversees a $2.7 billion market intended to cut heat-trapping gases has agreed to take steps that could lead to it eventually reining in what European and U.S. environmentalists are calling a huge scam.

At a meeting this week that ended Friday, the executive board of the U.N.’s Clean Development Mechanism said that five chemical plants in China would no longer qualify for funding as so-called carbon offset credits … until the environmentalists’ claims can be further investigated.

The “CDM” credits have been widely used in the carbon trading markets of the European Union, Japan and other nations that signed onto the 1997 Kyoto Protocol requiring mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases.

Rather than cut their own carbon emissions, industrialized nations can buy the credits which then pay developing countries to cut their greenhouse gases instead.

But environmentalists say rich nations could be wasting billions of dollars on what some are calling “perverse financial incentives,”…

… because some of the largest projects funded by the U.N.-managed CDM are a golden goose for chemical makers without making meaningful cuts in emissions.

The CDM executive board, based in Bonn, Germany, has asked for a decades’ worth of data on the gases from those five plants in China to study whether the system was manipulated.

The controversy revolves around the apparent conflict between the Kyoto climate treaty and another U.N. treaty, the 1987 Montreal Protocol for repairing the Earth’s fragile ozone layer.

The money from the CDM-authorized fund goes to pay the carbon offset credits claimed by more than 20 chemical makers mostly in China and India, but also in nations such as South Korea, Argentina and Mexico.

The chemical makers are paid as much as $100,000 or more for every ton they destroy of a potent greenhouse gas, HFC-23.

The price for destroying it is based on its being 11,700 times more powerful as a climate-warming gas than carbon dioxide.

But that gas is a byproduct of an ozone-friendly refrigerant, HCFC-22, which those chemical makers also are paid to produce under the U.N.’s ozone treaty.

Environmentalists say there is so much money in getting rid of HFC-23 that the chemical makers are overproducing HCFC-22 to have more of the byproduct to destroy.

“The evidence is overwhelming that manufacturers are creating excess HFC-23 simply to destroy it and earn carbon credits,” said Mark Roberts of the Environmental Investigation Agency, a research and advocacy group.

“This is the biggest environmental scandal in history … and makes an absolute mockery of international efforts to combat climate change.

HCFC-22 is widely used in hair sprays, air conditioners and some refrigerators …

… because it less damaging to the seasonal ozone hole over Antarctica … than previous coolants…”

go to source/story>>>UN Carbon Trading Scheme: $2.7 Billion Market Could Be ‘Biggest Environmental Scandal In History’

“…When it comes to extreme feats of physical endurance, it’s debatable whether they should be shown on TV.

There is an inevitable blurring of the boundaries between reality and fantasy, and copycats may put themselves in grave danger.

But few are likely to follow in the wake of Martin Strel, an overweight 53-year-old, in Big River Man …

… who swam the whole of the Amazon … while drinking two bottles of wine a day.

Here is a man who probably could have drunk the Amazon, let alone swum it.

According to his son Borut, Strel is “the ambassador of Slovenia” and a national hero, which is hardly surprising since, as Borut said:…

… “We are top in Europe for drunk-drivers”.

But there is more to Strel than boozing.

He eats horses, gambles heavily, stars in films, meets heads of state, judges beauty contests …

… and, when he is not swimming the Mississippi or the Yangtze, he teaches flamenco guitar.

The Yangtze is the filthiest river in the world … and Strel also acts as a rather slurred spokesman for cleaning up the world’s most polluted waterways.

In the 59 days it took to tame the Yangtze …

… he had to have his blood washed every day because he kept having to swim past dead bodies…” (cont..)

go to source/story>>>Sport on TV: Barrel-bellied man floats down in a stream of unconsciousness - Reviews, TV & Radio - The Independent

“…Whether you call it co-housing, eco-villages, intentional community living or modern day communes …

… shared living with an eco-focus is experiencing a boom that rivals the 1960s and 1970s.

These utopia-inspired dwellings boast organic farms .. shared communal spaces .. and one even relies on geothermal energy as a main power source.

From Ithaca to Japan and Oregon to Sweden … green utopias are sprouting around the world.

Check out our slideshow of seven modern day eco-friendly communes…”

go to source/story>>>PHOTOS: 7 Modern Day Green Communes From Around the World

“…Australians vote tomorrow in the country’s closest election for 50 years … with some polls predicting a hung parliament.

On the final day of campaigning one poll put the parties at 50-50 … and another said it was 51-49 in favour of Labor.

Across the country, commentators say the result is too close to call.

The Greens are almost certain to hold the balance of power in the country’s powerful upper house, the Senate, for the first time in their history …

… and may win their first seat in the lower house…

The closeness of the contest is a huge turnaround from a year ago … when the then prime minister, Kevin Rudd … had a 70% approval rating.

His decision in April to shelve the centrepiece of his climate change policy … the emissions trading scheme … dealt his popularity a heavy blow …

… and a fight with the country’s big mining companies over tax finished him off.

When Julia Gillard took over on 24 June, Labor party officials breathed a sigh of relief.

She was a fresh face … while Rudd was left as the scapegoat for the party’s woes.

But the respite didn’t last long ….

… and Gillard’s campaign was dogged by leaks against her … party infighting … and the presence of Rudd himself.

Now she is fighting for her political life.

No first-term government has been thrown out in Australia for 80 years.”

go to source/story>>>Australian election set to be closest in 50 years | World news | The Guardian

“…On The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert tackles the reports of a 22-mile oil plume still lingering under the surface of the Gulf …

… and the kick off of shrimping season …

… despite conflicting viewpoints about the current safety of Gulf seafood.

Mocking the FDA’s report that seafood is safe for being “tested below the level of concern for health risks from petroleum compounds,” …

…Colbert enthusiastically says, “Below the level of concern for health risks…mmm!

..My mouth is watering already!”…”

go to source/story>>>Colbert On Gulf Seafood Safety And Oil Plumes: ‘My Mouth Is Watering Already’ (VIDEO)

“…we’ve rounded up seven great ways to recycle your old jeans …

… leading to a beautiful–and surprising–denim afterlife…”

go to source/story>>>7 Unexpected Ways To Recycle Old Denim Jeans

being somewhat opinionated on a regular basis…i have succumbed to the lure of twitter…

my twitter-name is vegandogs50

“…Australia will hold national elections this week … and there is no question that climate change is a front-and-center issue.

Why?

First off, it’s a serious issue.

Second, the fight over how to address it has forced leadership changes in both major parties here.

Third, and most important, tens of thousands of Australians—including Bob Brown, the leader of the Green Party that could hold the balance of power in the Australian Senate after the voting is done—

– took to the streets for mass demonstrations demanding action.

Most American media did not note the demonstrations.

But former Vice President Al Gore caught a mention of them …

… and was inspired to suggest that activists in the United States should follow the lead of the Australians …

… and take it to the streets.

In a blog post published Tuesday, titled “The Movement We Need,” Gore writes:…”

go to source/story>>>To Address Climate Change: ‘We Need a Movement’ | The Nation