The Deadly Cost of Inaction

The Deadly Cost of Inaction

Mar 5th 2008
From Economist.com

CONCERN over man's harmful effect on the environment has gone from being the preserve of sandal-wearing beardies to the top of the political agenda. As countries squabble about how best to tackle pollution of various sorts, a new OECD report suggests that delaying concerted action would be costly. If current policies prevail, by 2030 ozone pollution alone is likely to cause four times more premature deaths, per head of population, than it did in 2000 (when there were 42,000 such deaths around the world). Asia and North America would be likely to see the biggest rises. Deaths from particulate-matter pollution would double.

AP

Best Spiritual Movies of 2008: "What Would Jesus Buy?"

What Would Jesus Buy?

The white suit, bottle blonde hair, and booming voice echo the worst of televangelist excess. Reverend Billy has a cadence we've come to expect. His congregation sways and moves with his every word. But instead of passing the plate, Reverend Billy implores his followers to "Stop Shopping Now." He wants to cast out the demon of rampant consumerism.

"What Would Jesus Buy?" is a smart and savage satire. It keeps viewers off balance. Are we watching performance art that mocks religion? Or are we following the struggles of a nascent church? The answer is, "Yes." "What Would Jesus Buy?" challenges, disturbs, and energizes. It gets into our wallets and our heads.

Director Rob Alkemade uses his camera as a social scalpel, taking on our most sacred holiday traditions. Where would America be without day-after-Thanksgiving sales? How would our economy survive without our annual Christmas splurge? And most of all, who pays for our excess? "What Would Jesus Buy?" longs for an economic system that is fair, equitable and local.

Cries to turn back the clock may seem Pollyanna given the complexities of globalization. Not every garment is borne out of sweatshop labor. American companies can bring much-needed jobs to emerging countries. Yet, "What Would Jesus Buy?" does a great job of questioning our assumptions. How has a religious occasion morphed into a rush for Playstations and Wiis?

"What Would Jesus Buy?" offers audiences a rare opportunity to join the Stop Shopping choir, to sing a song of warning. The Shopacalyse is coming. Reverend Billy wants to break the chains that bind us to Starbucks. He wants to free us from 18 percent interest. We can only celebrate Christmas by Stop Shopping long enough to remember the original gift. Jesus' crib didn't come from Babies 'R Us. His swaddling clothes carried no label. And he turned out just fine.

Rev. Billy takes his message into the marketplace, getting arrested for disturbing the peace in malls and coffee shops across America. In a world of look-alike stores with identical inventories, "What Would Jesus Buy?" is an American original.

Dine Out, Fight AIDS

You're Invited to the City's Largest Dinner Party on Thursday, March 6th!

This Year, Supporting the Men, Women and Children who are Most in Need in Your Community has Never Been Easier! On Thursday, March 6th, more than 150 restaurants, in the Washington region, will donate 25-100% of their proceeds to Food & Friends. Simply by dining out, you will ensure that thousands of individuals facing HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-challenging illnesses, will receive the daily, nutritious meals so vital to their care. Dining Out for Life is a true expression of how a community can join forces to save the lives of their neighbors. Choose a restaurant and invite your friends today!

I will be volunteer teaching yoga at VDAY!

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SUPERLOVE

April 11 - 12, 2008 Louisiana Superdome

{ Friday, April 11 }   { Saturday, April 12 }

Katrina exposed what was going on in New Orleans and the Gulf South: the lack of resources, the lack of care for its poor in general and its women in particular. There are so many reasons to have V to the 10th in New Orleans, from the vanishing wetlands to the man-made levee failures that flooded the city to the abandonment and complete neglect of human beings. Violence against women was committed physically, economically and environmentally. We need to celebrate New Orleans, cherish it, protect it, just as we do our vaginas, and make sure it goes on and on. We are showing up for the Katrina Warriors, the women of New Orleans and Gulf South who have kept their communities alive with devotion, hard work, sacrifice, humor and wit.

Join us for two days of revolutionary conversations, slam poets, singers, performers, storytelling, astounding art, and love (free massage, support groups, yoga, massage, meditation, makeovers and more!). We will reclaim the Superdome and transform it into SUPERLOVE!

Thoughts on politics by Deepak Chopra

I recently went to see Deepak Chopra at Politics & Prose. He was hot hot hot and gave an amazing talk about "waking up". I was recently introduced to him, his ideas, and books and am in love. Seeing him in person in DC at this time was particularly powerful because he made a lot of strong points about how "waking up" is essential for this presidential election - and how our entire paradigm in the American political process needs to radically change in order for us to make the changes this planet so desperately needs.

Anyway, he also blogged a bit about his ideas and I included some exerpts below:

The Audacity of Enlightenment 

Although Barack Obama's slogan is "the audacity of hope," the words have deeper connotations at this moment. One of the most powerful, I think, is the audacity to wake up. In order for the right wing to succeed in its reactionary agenda, the American public had to agree with it. On the surface it wouldn't seem that people could agree to freeze their incomes, give tax breaks to the least deserving, amass a huge national debt, ignore the rising cost of health care, and various other aspects of the right-wing agenda. To offer their agreement, the public had to vote against its own interest, and doing that required them to be asleep.

What keeps people asleep? Some ingredients are cultural. The dumbing down of America is a real phenomenon. One person out of five believes that the sun revolves around the Earth, and their ignorance is directly related to a failure of education. Half of high school graduates cannot tell you how many Supreme Court justices there are. Overall, pop culture has trumped political culture, so a glib, attractive candidate who makes a nice image on TV reassures more people than a thoughtful intellectual discussing real-life issues. Having drummed "compassionate conservatism" into the mass media, President Bush went on to pass the least compassionate, most right-wing agenda in history without negative consequences to himself for at least six years. He counted on the public remaining asleep.

Now that we are being asked to wake up again, the result could be revolutionary. Looming problems like the national debt, universal health care, and a troubled Social Security system do have real, workable solutions that can be implemented if we don't postpone them much longer. But the alternative has been ingrained for so long that the political machine hopes to return to runaway spending, social irresponsibility, and pro-war policies controlled by a white male elite. This, despite the fact, as Frank Rich pointed out in his NY Times column, that 40% of Americans born after 1982 come from a family with at least one non-white parent.

Waking up means seeing clearly who we are and what needs to be done. It means not blindly voting against your own interest. The audacity of enlightenment reaches much farther than the audacity of hope, and until we are willing to reassert our right to aspire, America will remain crippled spiritually, the very result the right-wing has sadly achieved.

Breathe in, breathe out. Then get crazy.

More than 2,100 practitioners came to the Fifth Annual San Francisco Yoga Journal San Francisco Conference to be inspired by yoga's top teachers - some rock stars in their own right - and bask in the glow of shared experience with like-minded souls. The sold-out event was the biggest yet, its popularity thanks, in no small part, to the participation of Michael Franti, front man for San Francisco band Spearhead as well as an activist and dedicated yogi.

In the spiritual activism workshop, which Franti co-taught with Jivamukti Yoga founders Sharon Gannon and David Life (Jivamukti is the largest yoga center in the nation), the musician walked his talk, bringing what he offers to people around the world to the gathered students. "The world needs yoga right now," he said.

Read the entire article HERE.

new syndrome in meatpacking?

A Medical Mystery Unfolds in Minnesota

By DENISE GRADY

Published: February 5, 2008

When some workers at the plant, which kills and butchers 19,000 hogs a day, developed neurological problems, health officials were called in.

"It is important to characterize this because it appears to be a new syndrome, and we don't truly know how many people may be affected throughout the U.S. or even the world," said Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, a veterinarian from the disease centers.

A survey of the workers confirmed what the plant's nurses had suspected: those who got sick were employed at or near the "head table," where workers cut the meat off severed hog heads.

Read entire article HERE.

Spreading Compassion 30 Seconds at a Time

COK on MTV 2008: Spreading Compassion 30 Seconds at a Time 

Starting tonight, COK's two most recently created pro-vegetarian commercials—"Exploring Your Food" and "A Side of Truth"—will hit the MTV airwaves in hundreds of cities from coast to coast with a message of compassion, just in time for Valentine's Day!

Support our MTV ad campaign today and your donation will be doubled! That's right—every dollar you donate from now until Feb. 14 will be matched, up to $10,000, by a generous COK supporter! You can even make your gift in honor of your sweetheart for Valentine's Day!

Watch our commercials & make a donation today!

Don't Buy It

A Message from The Simple Living Network:

The United States Government is planning to send out rebate
checks in the hope that American citizens will immediately
spend the money to stimulate the economy, thus avoiding a
recession.

At best, this is a band-aid solution for a broken
system that will not solve the larger economic problems
faced by our country. We believe a short-term fix will not
repair larger, long-term problems. In fact, the short-term
solution may only exacerbate the larger problems.

As such, we have started the "Don't Buy It!" campaign in an
effort to begin a far-reaching conversation that encourages
people everywhere to "Wake Up & Smell The Rebate."

Please visit our web site at www.simpleliving.net/rebate and
find out how you can participate by using your rebate in
ways that the government does not expect -- ways that might
actually make more impact than, as the government hopes,
spending the money to purchase more stuff and junk.

Video of workers abusing cows raises food safety questions

The Humane Society of the United States released a video Wednesday it says shows mistreatment of "downed" cows at a California slaughterhouse -- and one lawmaker said it raises questions about the safety of the nation's food supply.

"This must serve as a five-alarm call to action for Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture," said Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society president. "Our government simply must act quickly both to guarantee the most basic level of humane treatment for farm animals and to protect America's most vulnerable people -- our children, needy families and the elderly -- from the potentially dangerous food."

Read the article and watch the video here.