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LiveEarth Pledges
Live Earth
Join the global movement and take action against the climate crisis – click one or all of the boxes below and enter your email. Enter your name and look for it on screen during Live Earth!
- I will change four light bulbs to CFLs at my home.
- I will shop for the most energy efficient electronics and appliances.
- I will shut off my equipment and lights whenever I’m not using them.
- I will ride public transit or carpool one or more times per week.
- I will forward a Live Earth email message to 5 friends.
- Add my name to the Live Earth pledge.
[EB: So far, nice but not very exciting. But if you click to see the Live Earth Pledge, the pop-up has something much more interesting:]
I pledge:
- To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth;
- To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by reducing my own CO2 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become “carbon neutral;”
- To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2;
- To work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation;
- To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal;
- To plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests; and,
- To buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crisis and building a sustainable, just, and prosperous world for the 21st century.
(7 July 2007 – dated “7.7.07”)
Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology
Rev. Sam Norton, Elizaphanian
Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology By Eric. Brende
Published 2004 by HarperCollins
This is a very intriguing, interesting and challenging book. Eric was a high-flying MIT post-grad who was becoming more and more disillusioned with the way in which human society had shifted to serving machines, rather than being served by them. So immediately after his honeymoon, he and his wife take the plunge and join an Amish community to see if they can survive without ‘labour-saving devices’. They don’t just survive, they thrive. A remarkably optimistic fable for anyone who is concerned about Peak Oil, and what the lack of available energy will mean. Human society can flourish with much less energy – indeed it will have many, many untellable blessings – but the problems will come from those who try to hang on to what God is taking away. They will experience the wrath.
Highly, highly recommended.
More on the book and author
Informational review (Powells Books)
Author interview
Essay by author Bende
Critical review
Video interview of author
Several long excerpts from the book (Google Book Search)
(3 July 2007)
Steady State Economy (Brian Czech interview) (Podcast)
KMO, C-Realm Podcast
In this Independence Day edition of the C-Realm Podcast, KMO talks with Brian Czech of the Center for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy (C.A.S.S.E.) about the tension between our finite material resources and the expectation of never-ending growth. Later KMO reads from an essay by Stanley Krippner, “Consciousness and the Mythologies of Society,” in which he holds the central driving myth of the First World up to the light of consciousness. How long can we afford to plot our course by the Grand Narrative of Progress?
Extended show notes: kmo.livejournal.com/299734.html
KMO writes: “I think it will prove very relevant to the concerns of people interested in the concept of peak oil. “
(4 July 2007)
Web site helps you find energy-use profile
Jesse Noyes, Boston Herald
..Yesterday, the trio launched MakeMeSustainable.com, a free Web site that gives users tools to help them reduce their energy use.
The Cambridge-based business takes a lead from popular sites like MySpace and Facebook, and adds an eco-friendly twist. Users can calculate their individual carbon footprint and then choose options to reduce it.
As with other social networking sites, users create profiles. The key difference with MakeMeSustainable is that, rather than listing their favorite movies or bands, users say how often they travel by plane, how they get to work and what kind of heating they use.
The site currently will make money by partnering with organizations that sell energy-efficient products and then selling them to users. MakeMeSustainable would then get a portion of the revenues generated by its advertisers.
Delcourt said the company, which was entirely internally funded, decided on a for-profit status so that it could scale up its size in the future. “We didn’t really want to become another charity case,” he said. Currently, MakeMeSustainable has two advertising affiliates, Energy Federation Inc. and Native Energy.
(3 July 2007)
