2275 Questions to Political Candidates. 3 About Global Warming…

Please take a couple minutes to watch this video clip that was put together by the Sierra Club.

If you are looking at this then you probably care deeply about America’s energy future and the challenges posed by Global Warming. As we prepare to elect our next president, I think this is one of the most important issues.

So why have our candidates not been asked questions about climate change from the political reporters?

As found in a letter by the Sierra Club, the world’s scientific community has determined that global warming is a human-caused crisis that threatens our children’s future, our economic prosperity, basic security and the environmental stability of our planet.

As for urgency, the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated: “What we do in the next two or three years will determine our future.”

So how can it be that out of 2,679 questions asked of the candidates since January 2007 by the national press, only three questions have mentioned global warming? Instead, hosts like Tim Russert, George Stephanopoulos, and Wolf Blitzer have asked ridiculous questions about UFOs, baseball, and even Chuck Norris!

Is it just me, or is that nuts? Watch this video to see for yourself how the media have let us down and then urge these hosts to stop covering the horse race and get back to the human race.

Global warming needs to be a priority issue in this election. Act today to make that happen.

Environmental Careers

Looking for a job you can enjoy and help at the same time? Here are some websites to help you look for an environmental career. If you know of other useful sites, please comment on this article.

www.sustainablebusiness.com/jobs/

www.ejobs.org

www.ecojobs.com

idealist.org

www.orionsociety.org/pages/ogn/ics.cfm

www.greenenergyjobs.com

Eat Organic and be toxin-free

What is the most sought after new years resolution? Well, most people’s answer is probably to exercise and change their diet. But we all know that isn’t an easy thing to do without some help. That’s why this article is to highlight why organic food is more nutritious and it will justify the slightly higher cost.

Studies from Newcastle University show that organic foods have a far more nutritional value. Studies that they conducted found that levels of antioxidants in milk from organic cattle were between 50% and 80% higher than conventional mils. Organic milk also has higher levels of vitamin E, and 60% more antioxidants and desirable fatty acids. Antioxidants help with a healthy circulatroy system and help keep cancer and heart diease away.

Here are some other highlights:

1. Fruit and vegetables contain up to 40% more nutrients if they are grown without chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
2. Up to 40% more antioxidants could be found in organic fruit and vegetables than in those conventionally farmed.
3. Potatoes, kiwi fruit and carrots were among the organic produce found to be higher in vitamin C.
4. Higher levels of minerals and antioxidants were found in organically- farmed lettuce, spinach and cabbage. Organic spinach and cabbage have more minerals.
5. Organic produce also had higher levels of iron and zinc, vital nutrients lacking in many people’s diets.
6. Organic cheese can have up to twice as many nutrients than conventional varieties.
7. Organic tomatoes, wheat, potatoes, cabbage, onions and wheat have 20 to 40 per cent more antioxidants than conventional fruit and vegetables.

In case those facts aren’t enough to convince you to buy organic, here is an excerpt from the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA.

The Organic Premise: Many people are aware that food grown according to organic principles is free from exposure to harmful herbicides and pesticides, but that is only one small aspect of organic agriculture. A larger part of organic agriculture involves the health of the soil and the ecosystem in which crops and livestock are raised. Organic farmers recognize that healthy, vibrant, and live soils and ecosystems significantly benefit crops. Natural, undisturbed soil is alive with microbiotic organisms that exist in harmony with the native plant life and the inorganic minerals that provide the soil’s substrate.

Synthetic chemicals (such as herbicides, pesticides, and/or fast acting inorganic fertilizers) applied in or around crops interrupt or destroy the microbiotic activity in the soil. Once the microbiotic activity in the soil has stopped, the soil becomes merely an anchor for plant material. In this conventional method of agriculture (in use for only the past 75 of 10,000 years of recorded agriculture) plants can receive only air, water, and sunlight from their environment — everything else must be distributed to plants by farmers, often from inputs transported thousands of miles to reach the farm. Plants are commonly fed only the most basic elements of plant life and so are dependent on the farmer to fight nature’s challenges, e.g. pests, disease, and drought.

Five Green New Years Resolutions

So you set up a recycling container in your house last year, and you’re looking for a New Year’s resolution that will make a difference when it come to stopping climate change? Look no further! The Sierra Club has five super easy resolutions to choose from, and some of them are east as cracking a book (and, no, it doesn’t have to be Al Gore’s).

You Say You Want a Resolution?
1) Read one authoritative book on global warming. Al Gore’s book version of An Inconvenient Truth is excellent, but just in case you don’t trust his take on things, here are some other titles to consider:

• Field Notes from a Catastrophe by New Yorker staffer Elizabeth Kolbert
• The Weather Makers by Australian scientist and Man of the Year, Tim Flannery
• The Discovery of Global Warming by Spencer Weart
• What We Know About Climate Change by MIT climate scientist Kerry Emmanuel, (the shortest and most accessible of the bunch.)

2) Write a letter to the editor of your newspaper or send a missive to your Senator or Congressman. Tell them what you think. They work for you.

3) Conduct a home energy audit. Find out how much power you use domestically and where you can trim it down. Pick the lowest hanging fruit first — things like extra insulation and more efficient lighting can make a world of difference.

4) Experiment with alternates to driving. Maybe you can telecommute to work once or twice a week. Or carpool? How about riding your bike to the store for that half gallon of milk?

5) Measure your carbon footprint and consider what it would take to become carbon-neutral.

Welcome

First, I would like to thank you for visiting my blog and thank you for having an interest in helping the environment! I am still working on getting the layout all set up and easy to navigate, so feel free to add suggestions and comments. Please stop back often for new posts on things you can do to be green. For example, if Americans replaced just one bulb in their home, it would save enough energy to light 2.5 million homes in one year and prevent an amount of greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of 800,000 cars! -MSN

It is easy to be green, and if you pass on your knowledge to the people you know, together we can snow down the effects of global warming.

Happy reading and remember, all you need is green.

Anna