Gaian Tarot Artist's Journal

Random Thoughts on Earth Day

(Earth Day morning!  This is the same view as the photo I took two days ago. Welcome Spring!)

I have a few thoughts and links for you today, on Earth Day 2008.

Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, makes a good case in this NY Times editorial for why we should bother to “go green” these days, in the face of discouragement and despair that whatever we do won’t be enough to turn the tide of global climate change. 

It’s about a change in consciousness. 

“Sometimes you have to act as if acting will make a difference, even when you can’t prove that it will,”  Pollan writes.   “That, after all, was precisely what happened in Communist Czechoslovakia and Poland, when a handful of individuals like Vaclav Havel and Adam Michnik resolved that they would simply conduct their lives ‘as if’ they lived in a free society. That improbable bet created a tiny space of liberty that, in time, expanded to take in, and then help take down, the whole of the Eastern bloc.”

Do you know about Earth Hour, 8 PM your time tonight?

I read about this yesterday on Beth OwlsDaughter's blog, then received an email from Gaian Tarot reader Danielle Salerno.  I'm going to quote part of Danielle's email to me:

Earth Hour is an initiative run by the World Wildlife Federation to get the notice of the public on reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.  On Saturday March 29th, 2008 communities, individuals, and businesses across the globe will be turning off their lights for one hour, from 8pm to 9pm (local time).  Last year this was done in Sydney, Australia with very encouraging results (i.e. a 10.2% reduction in annual greenhouse gas emissions for the whole city), and this year it is being opened up to the rest of the world.

If each of us turns off our lights for one hour on Saturday night, it would make a big difference globally, both in reducing emissions and in increasing awareness about the seriousness of global warming.  More information about Earth Hour, including an online sign-up and free media can be found at www.earthhour.org.

And just now I stumbled across this report from CNN, "First cities go dark for Earth Hour" . . . Sydney has done it again!

I'm in!  I'll be turning the lights out tonight at 8:00.   How about you?

I'm supporting Al in Bali, please add your voice too

In two days Al Gore is going to address the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia. At his urging, I've signed an important petition showing I support his important call for a visionary treaty to address the climate crisis. I hope you will too.

www.climateprotect.org/standwithal

The world's elected leaders must take the steps necessary to solve global warming.  It's not too late.  We have the opportunity now to improve the Earth's future for our children, and their children.  If we don't act, we will only have ourselves to blame.

(Thanks, Chavala!)

And even more about Corn . . .

Eddie just sent me the link to this video about the new film "King Corn," which is coming to the Pickford in Bellingham this weekend.  He says he found it five minutes after reading the discussion about corn and the Guardian of Earth.  Dontcha love synchronicity?  Can't wait to see this film. Thanks Eddie!

Rain - Woods - Action

Today is Blog Action Day for the Environment  . . .  others have spoken about it far more eloquently than I can, like Angela and Julie.

As for me, I wandered into the woods in the rain, for a breath of fresh Wild.  I saw this

and this

and this.

You will have to imagine the sound of raindrops, and the hushed flutter of wings.

Feelin' Good

I've been feeling uncommonly good the last week or so.  I think it's a combination of many things.  The arrival of Spring is a big part of it. Then there's the self-care routines I've developed for myself. Daily walks outdoors, meditating with Holosync, saying my affirmations, and drinking my Green Smoothies.  (Yes, folks, I may become a Green Smoothie Evangelist, so I'm just giving you fair warning now.)

It's not like "bad things" haven't happened this week.  The UN report that just came out about climate change is devastating.  And yet — we are making progress, are we not? Laurie David of StopGlobalWarming.org writes:

It's up to the humans to make it right

I suspected it all along.  Humans really are part of the web of life.

(This short video, a parody of the DaVinci Code, is pretty amusing and makes a good point too.)

Check out the DaVersity Code.

A Pledge for the Planet

As a time of initiation and new beginnings, one activity we do at Candlemas / Imbolc is the making of pledges.  One for ourselves, one for our community (however we define it) and one for the planet.  This year, more than ever, it's important to make a pledge for the planet. A couple of years ago I heard Bobby Kennedy Jr speak in Seattle about environmental issues and one thing he said has become part of my personal truth:  it's not enough to just make changes on a personal, local level.  Lasting change won't come until the laws change at the federal level.  And that means supporting organizations like NRDC who are on the front lines of that work. 

Now along comes Bill McKibben with a plan for the biggest demonstration against global warming our planet has ever seen, Step It Up 2007. ("Step It Up, Congress!  Cut carbon 80% by 2050!")  On April 14, there will demonstrations all over the country.  There's one planned for here in Bellingham, but we'll be in Portland, Maine visiting my son and daughter-in-law.  When they ask me what I want to do that day, guess what I'll say? 

Vote for Change!

I've been down for the count the last couple of days with a terrible head cold and flu symptoms, while keeping an eye on the floods going on in our area.  Looks like we missed the worst of it here but I'm concerned about friends to the south that live right on the rivers that are flooding. 

But I'm poking my head above (metaphorical) water to ask those of you in the states to please go vote today!  (For once I'm glad our county switched to voting by mail, as we mailed ours in last week.)  A lot of people in western Washington (a very blue area) will not be able to wade through the floods to get to the polling booths today.  So your votes will count even more.  As Michael Moore says in an email delivered this morning, "IT'S A NATIONAL REFERENDUM. Although candidates' names will be on the ballot today, this election is NOT about this candidate or that candidate. Make no mistake about it: This election is nothing less than a National Referendum on George W. Bush and his War."

And MoveOn.org has organized a "Call for Change" campaign:

Do what you can today. And, to our friends outside the states — any energy you want to send our way is most appreciated.

End-of-Life Issues for the Eco-Spiritual Community

My mermaid sister Nora is staying on-island right now. We recently launched her website, Ceremonies for Life's Thresholds, which highlights her work with pagan / eco-spiritual end-of-life practices.  She'll be starting her own blog soon, but asks me to alert you to a couple of things:

Nora helped Dr. Marilyn Stoner to write an Eco-Spiritual / Wiccan / Pagan Practitioners End-of-Life Study Survey.  The results of the survey will be used to describe the care expectations, concerns and preferences for those of us who identify with earth spirituality as we deal with end-of-life issues. It will then be used to help educate hospice workers and medical professionals nationwide. Won't you please take a few minutes to complete the survey and add your (anonymous) voice to this study?  The mermaids thank you!

Also — Nora tells us that running on CNN today and seen on this CNN video is a very positive report on the struggle to place a pentacle on a Wiccan combat veteran's headstone.  As I watched these very mainstream reporters commenting on the story, I couldn't help but think that it took Tom Hanks declaiming in That Movie that "the pentacle isn't a satanic symbol at all, it's a symbol of the sacred feminine . . ." to finally move the concept into mainstream acceptance.   Sigh.