Think Global And Act Local --------------------------------------------------- Join Earth's Common Sense --------------------------------------------------- Common Concerns & Causes --------------------------------------------------- Academia, Elitist Titles & Politics --------------------------------------------------- Subscribe To Earth's Common Sense --------------------------------------------------- The First Charter of Human Rights, By The Persian Emperor Kourosh The Great Over 2700 Years Ago "Power Corrupts, Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely" U.S. & Mullahs' Delusional Democracy A Silent Non-Violent Tranquil Evolution U.S. Declaration of Independence Bullshit Detection System - BDS - A New Grass Root Political Movement Our Actions Today Charts The Future U.S. System of Checks & Balance The Guardians of Democracy A Vibrant, Living & Moving Planet How The Electoral College Works How To Eradicate The Barbaric Mullahs Wisdom of Mother Nature: Wisdom of Life Globalization Versus Localization What Is Thinking? 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How To Eradicate Evil? - - Self-Realization Political Participation & Political Spirituality Building Temples Of Peace And Freedom Angels; Delightful Honorable People The Non-Toxic Times, October 2004 -------------------------------------------- Overthrow Of Mullah's Regime -------------------------------------------- * * * * The Future Iran * * * * -------------------------------------------- * A Chance For Referendum * -------------------------------------------- New Iranian Constitution - Intro -------------------------------------------- New Iranian Constitution - Chart -------------------------------------------- New Iranian Constitution - Articles -------------------------------------------- Setting Up Provisional Government -------------------------------------------- Download Complete Constitution -------------------------------------------- Open Letter To Exiled Iranians -------------------------------------------- Grass-Root Community Building -------------------------------------------- Massive Attacks Against Iran -------------------------------------------- U.S. Likly Military Strike On Iran -------------------------------------------- George Bush Is No Santa Claus -------------------------------------------- Going Back To The Future -------------------------------------------- The Threat Of Fundamentalism -------------------------------------------- International We Had Enough Day -------------------------------------------- Iranian Filmmaker Cyrus Kar -------------------------------------------- United States - Iran War Plans -------------------------------------------- * Iran in the Crosshairs * -------------------------------------------- The New Russian - Toys - For The Ruling Mullahs of Iran -------------------------------------------- Israel, Mossad, Iran And A Nuclear False Flag Attack -------------------------------------------- The Real AIPAC Spy Ring Story It Was All About Iran -------------------------------------------- Armageddon Gets No Press US Plan To Nuke Iran -------------------------------------------- Who's Behind The Coming War With Iran? -------------------------------------------- Top Ten War Profiteers of 2004 -------------------------------------------- U.S. Secret Plans For Iraq's Oil -------------------------------------------- * * Depleted Uranium: * * The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War -------------------------------------------- The Separatist - Al-Ahwaz -------------------------------------------- War On Iraq: Conceived in Israel -------------------------------------------- The EU, US, Israel And Iran -------------------------------------------- Aren't - THEY - Doing Something? -------------------------------------------- Foundation Of Iranian Democracy -------------------------------------------- Islamic Sharia Court In Canada -------------------------------------------- Islam’s Tolerance OR Hypocrisy -------------------------------------------- Political Islam VS. 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Hot Enough For Ya? Dispatches From A Warming World How To Help The Earth Chill Out Cool Ideas: The Technological Fix On Global Warming Is Already Here Best of the Web Required Reading: Burning Book How Hot Does It Have To Get Before We Turn Up The Heat On Global Warming? A Few Thoughts from Jeffrey Hollender, President It's been a deadly hurricane season. Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne, and who knows what's next. What these storms have in common is more than the same summer. In the opinions of some, they also share a single cause called climate change. In fact, if Ivan had left a calling card many think it would say but one thing: Welcome to a warmer world. The fierce intensity and rapid-fire assault of the current hurricane season's major storms may have caught the residents of Florida off guard. But it didn't surprise the climatologists. They had long since noted that surface waters in the Atlantic region where tropical storms spawn are now some 9°F warmer than recent historical averages, and they know that it's warm water that fuels a hurricane's fury. While this increased heat is unquestionably to blame for both the number and severity of named Atlantic storms this year, there's no small amount of controversy over just what exactly may be making ocean waters warmer. Some experts believe global warming is to blame. Others say it's part of a natural cycle in the Atlantic Ocean currents that transport seawater from equatorial regions to the poles. In a perverse way, this is a perfect microcosm of our global tale of climatological woe thus far. As scientists argue, politicos and captains of industry sit on the sidelines, all too eager to embrace controversy as an excuse to postpone action and change. Meanwhile, the rest of us keep cleaning up some really ugly messes amid the dawning realization that something's not quite right. The good news is that there are fewer and fewer climate experts coming down on the side of denial. With every passing day the number of scientists who believe global warming is real grows larger. Even the White House, once a bastion of doubt, recently released a report that declared (and I quote) "North American temperature changes from 1950 to 1999 were unlikely to be due only to natural climate variations." In the face of overwhelming evidence that global warming exists, the few scientists who say questions about the issue remain are looking increasingly ridiculous. In fact, it would appear that the only people left on that side of the subject are hired corporate flacks and public relations guns posing as professional doubters. The fact is that the signs of a warmer world are appearing in so many places and in such large numbers that they can no longer be denied by even the most vociferous nonbelievers. (More articles on global warming are featured in this newsletter.) Glaciers are melting. Sea levels are rising. Polar ice caps and permafrost are vanishing. Freak weather from heat waves to downpours is becoming the norm. Global warming has moved well past the point of theory. It's reality in the 21st Century. Our collective national response to this onrushing calamity has been, well, almost nothing. As a society, we've done more about monkey pox than we have about global warming. In the corridors of industry, we keep marketing SUVs, Hummers, and other absurdly dirty vehicles. We keep pushing incandescent light bulbs and other wasteful technologies. We successfully protest emissions caps and decry the need for change as unproven, the costs too burdensome. Of course, some large polluting companies are attempting to take some first steps. Energy suppliers British Petroleum and Sunoco, for example, have finally acknowledged that fossil fuels are largely responsible for the problem. The Ford Motor Company has privately set a goal of improving its fuel economy in its cars and trucks by 80% by 2030. These three companies are all attempting to forge some kind of positive engagement with the issue. In the halls of the federal government, however, there isn't even that kind of initial shift to report. We've abandoned the Kyoto Protocol (even as Russia at last signs on), ignored clean energy, failed to enact higher fuel efficiency standards, and slashed funding for global warming research. This last item is particularly ironic because whenever the subject of climate change comes up, the general mantra among the majority in Washington, D.C. is that more study is needed. But is it? How much proof do we really need? Given that civilization as we know it is pretty much on the line here, do we really need any irrefutable evidence at all? Shouldn't the barest suggestion of the slightest potential for the smallest possible amount of global warming be enough to whip humanity into a sustainable frenzy? After all, this isn't about needing more sunscreen or losing out on a few days of spring skiing. This is about catastrophic crop failures and killer heat waves. This is about drowned cities, uninhabitable countries, and apocalyptic hurricanes. This is about mass extinctions, massive environmental changes, and masses of refugees that could number in the millions and maybe even hundreds of millions. Those stakes are pretty high, and with once arcane theories now turning into the headlines scientists have been warning us about for a quarter century, it's time for us to do something. In the face of an unprecedented threat, it's time for unprecedented action. Those who hesitate are lost. So let us not pause another minute more for "further study" or "more scientific discussion." We've studied and argued enough. Quite frankly, at this late date, only the greedy and the willfully ignorant are still voicing doubts. The rest of us know the truth when we see it. On May 25, 1961, President John Kennedy presented a Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs. In this speech, he famously professed his belief that "this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth." In its time, it was a proposal whose sheer audacity was exceeded only by its seemingly utter impossibility. But President Kennedy would not be swayed by doubt. "Now it is time to take longer strides," he said, "time for a great new American enterprise--time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on Earth. I believe we possess all the resources and talents necessary. But the facts of the matter are that we have never made the national decisions or marshaled the national resources required for such leadership." Now is the time for that kind of leadership to return to the national stage. If our country can go from a single sub-orbital flight of just 116 miles to placing a human footprint on another world nearly a quarter of a million miles distant in just eight years, we can end global warming and perhaps even reverse the damage within our lifetimes. With enough money and enough minds, anything is possible. We simply need leaders who won't stick their heads in the proverbial sand whenever the subject comes up. We need leaders who recognize the urgent need for action and possess the will to create and fund a massive national program of research, development, and implementation that will reach into every facet of American life and do what needs to be done. Future generations will thank us for creating a new leading edge economy that supplies the world with sustainable technologies and provides Americans with real prosperity and true security. The time for that action is now. We need to stop dumping carbon dioxide and other global warming gases into the atmosphere like there's no tomorrow. There just might not be one if we don't. back to top Hot Enough For Ya? Dispatches From A Warming World Once upon a time, global warming was only a maybe. No one knew if it would actually happen and we knew even less about what it might look like if and when it actually arrived. In place of hard evidence, we had to make do with scientific conjecture and educated guesswork. These days, however, we can throw the theories away. Global warming is here and the reports now coming in from around the world are showing us in no uncertain terms exactly what it's going to look like. It's hard to believe that there are still people who believe that global warming isn't real. It'll be even harder once you read these dispatches from around the world. Far from anecdotal and neither historical nor theoretical in nature, we've gathered them over the course of just the last month or so. Together they offer a snapshot of where things stand today and a very real glimpse of just how climate change intends to manifest itself. In England, scientists have found that storm waves higher than 20 meters are getting bigger and appearing more frequently. The winter waves, which scientists say grew by 15% between 1985 and 1995 ripped protective boulders out of coastal cliffs and deposited them up to 50 meters inland, an action that's causing the coastline to rapidly erode. Extreme summer rainstorms in Britain are on the rise. In June, for example, it rained for 58 straight hours in London, the longest downpour in recorded history. Such storms have been predicted by supercomputers performing climate change modeling, and climatologists have said the highly unusual increases in their number and severity likely indicate that global warming is the cause. According to ice core samples tested in the Antarctic, levels of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are the highest in 440,000 years. China's highland glaciers, including those covering Mount Everest, are shrinking annually by an amount equal to all the water that flows in the Yellow River. Mt. Everest itself is sinking at the rate of almost 0.1 meters each year as a result of this effect. Scientists say glaciers in Alaska, melting rapidly due to global warming, are increasing that state's risk of severe earthquakes. The heavy weight of glacial ice stabilizes fault zones and acts as a counter pressure to the forces that produce earthquakes, an idea that has been verified by historical analysis of the correlation between receding glaciers and quake activity. The total surface area of the Arctic Ocean that's covered by perennial sea ice has fallen by around 9% each decade since 1978 and shrank to record low levels in the summer of 2002. The 3,000-year old Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, the largest single block of Arctic ice, started cracking in 2000, split from top to bottom in 2002, and is now breaking into pieces. The European Environment Agency has found evidence that Europe is warming faster than expected and that the number of natural disasters has more than doubled in the past decade. Last year's deadly drought in the European Union cost 20,000 lives and billions of euros, and some 600,000 people were affected by flooding. In the U.S., 19 of the 20 hottest years on record have occurred since 1980. This increased warmth is now allowing disease-carrying insects to increase their natural range and spread illnesses like West Nile virus to previously safe populations. According to satellite data, the global average sea level rose by 2.8 millimeters a year between 1993 and 2002. Over the past century, it's risen 10 to 20 centimeters. In May 2003, the U.S. was hit by 384 tornadoes in a single week—a record that the World Meteorological Organization attributes to global warming. Colonies of penguins on outlying Antarctic islands are declining as the icy food-rich waters they depend upon shift southward. A study by 19 researchers from seven countries published in the journal Nature has predicted that rising temperatures could doom more than one-third of the planet's species to extinction by 2050. Australia's agricultural heartland in New South Wales is in the second year of the worst drought in its history. Parched conditions researchers blame on global warming-induced changes in wind circulation patterns that have destroyed crops and halved farm income. The American lobster is dying off in the southern reaches of its range. Signs of the population drop off are now being noted as far north as the southern edge of the Gulf of Maine, the periphery of the nation's largest lobstering grounds. Scientists say warmed seawaters are to blame. Dust in the atmosphere from the Sahara Desert has risen tenfold since the 1940s, an increase experts blame on climate change. Some three billion tons of desert dust now becomes airborne each year. In an analysis of 25 years worth of weather and production data at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, scientists found an average nighttime temperature increase of about three-quarters of a degree Celsius had occurred during the period and determined that each one-degree increase in minimum nighttime temperature is causing rice yields to decline by 10%. back to top How To Help The Earth Chill Out With a thickness of 1,500 miles and a weight of 5.1 million billion tons spread over more than 5 trillion billion cubic yards of air, you could call the atmosphere the largest place on Earth. And while that may seem to be much too big a place for any of us to meaningfully impact, you'd be surprised by just how much we can do to affect it. Just as human behavior caused global warming, so can human activities stop it. While much of the fight against global warming must by necessity take place in legislative assemblies, diplomatic chambers, and corporate boardrooms, there remains plenty that each of us can do on a personal level. When it comes to these important individual actions, fighting global warming is largely a matter of using energy as wisely as possible in order to limit the emissions created when fuels are burned. Energy-related pollution is responsible for the lion's share of humankind's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and the carbon contained in CO2 is responsible for most of the greenhouse effect that creates climate change. Following these tips will help you cut down on your carbon emissions and dramatically lower your contribution to global warming. You can start by using products made with recycled materials. Though it may seem self-serving to say so, it's true. Using Seventh Generation's recycled products helps lower carbon dioxide emissions because things made out of recycled materials require far less energy to manufacture. For example, if every household in the U.S. replaced one 30-bag box of traditional 13-gallon trash bags with our recycled variety, 33,390 tons of greenhouse gases would be prevented from entering the atmosphere. Replacing traditional 30-gallon bags with our brand would save even more. 37,800 tons to be precise. In fact, if every U.S. household replaced the bags they use just once with the five different types we offer, the collective savings in greenhouse gases would be 137,340 tons. The savings realized by our paper products are even greater. Replacing just one three-pack of white 70-sheet, two-ply paper towels with ours in all U.S. households would prevent the release of almost 63,000 tons of greenhouse gases. Doing the same with a 12-pack of 400-sheet, two-ply bathroom tissue would save 170,317 tons. If every household chose just a single 500-pack of our one-ply napkins over their usual non-recycled brand, we'd save 120,930 tons. Altogether, from bathroom tissue to facial tissue, if everyone from coast to coast replaced their non-recycled paper products with our equivalent version, the Earth would achieve a savings of 666,369 tons of greenhouse gases. That's not all you can do! These other actions will lower your impact even more: Drive less. Take public transportation, carpool, bike, or walk whenever you can. For every gallon of gasoline you save, you'll prevent about 20 pounds of CO2 from being released. When you do drive, avoid high speeds. The faster you drive, the more gas your car is using and the more carbon dioxide it's emitting. Similarly, drive at a steady speed. Constantly speeding up and slowing down reduces your gas mileage. When you buy a car eschew gas-guzzling, CO2-spewing choices like SUVs and pick-up trucks and select a vehicle with high mileage ratings. A car getting 20 mpg emits roughly 50 tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. A car getting 40-mpg gallons emits only 25 tons. Avoid excessive idling. Your car uses less gas to start up than it does to idle for 60 seconds. Keep your car tuned up. A well-tuned car gets better gas mileage. Keep your tires properly inflated for the same reason. Try to avoid gasoline powered lawn and garden tools. Devices like weed whackers, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, etc. often lack pollution controls and emit many times more pollution per hour used than cars. Reduce, reuse, and recycle. Buy minimally packaged goods. Choose reusable products over disposable ones. Choose products made out of recycled materials instead of those made with virgin materials. Recycle those things you use. If you can cut the trash you produce by 25% you'll prevent the emission of approximately 1,000 pounds of CO2 a year. Recycle paper. Every pound recycled keeps about 4 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. Buy energy efficient appliances. Use EnergyStar guides to gauge an appliance's power needs and contribution to global warming. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs. Each one keeps about 1,500 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Contribute in some way to efforts to save the rainforests. Each hectare of rainforest (2.47 acres) absorbs a ton of carbon dioxide each year. Plant trees. They consume carbon dioxide and remove it from the atmosphere. Shade trees near buildings can reduce greenhouse gases further by lowering cooling needs. Ask your utility company for a home energy audit to find out where your home is poorly insulated and/or energy-inefficient. Fix those problems the audit identifies. Weatherize your house. Anything that helps save heating and cooling costs fights global warming. For example, simply applying caulk and weather-stripping around doors and windows to plug air leaks and drafts can reduce your home's annual CO2 emissions by up to 1,000 pounds. Paint your home a light color if you live in a warm climate or a dark color if you live in a colder region, and you'll save 5,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. Similarly, every two degrees you lower your thermostat in the winter and raise it in the summer will save about 500 pounds of CO2 a year. Wrap your water heater in an insulating blanket. This will save around 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide annually. Turn down its thermostat (120 degrees is usually hot enough), and for every ten degrees you drop the temperature you'll save about 500 pounds of CO2 a year. Run your dishwasher only with a full load. Use the energy-saving setting to dry the dishes or let them air dry. Avoid the water heating option if your dishwasher offers it. These steps can prevent upwards of 200 pounds of CO2 emissions a year. Wash your clothes in warm or cold water, not hot. Doing just two loads a week at these lower temperature settings can save up to 500 pounds of CO2 emissions a year. Whenever possible, use the free, non-polluting solar energy falling on a clothesline near you to dry your laundry. Clean or replace your air conditioners' air filters as recommended. A dirty air conditioner filter can use 5% more energy. Install low-flow showerheads that use less hot water. The CO2 reduction here can be up to 300 pounds a year. Conventional ovens direct only about 6% of their energy use toward actually cooking food and use the other 94% to heat up the 35 pounds of steel from which the average oven is made. For this reason, when eating a multi-dish meal, cook more than one dish in the oven at the same time. Roast or bake large portions of food all at once and then re-heat them later using a more efficient stove or microwave. Turn the oven off a few minutes before the food is finished and let the residual heat complete the job. When it comes time to get a new range, explore options that use natural gas. Natural gas stoves are much more efficient than electric stoves because of the conversion losses involved in generating electricity and transmitting it over power lines. Use a microwave oven instead of a conventional oven whenever possible. At the national average, cooking a typical casserole in an electric oven would use 2 kWh worth of electricity and cost 16 cents. The same dish cooked in a microwave oven would use 0.36 kWh and cost just 3 cents. Covering stovetop pots can help stop heat from escaping. This step can reduce the energy required for cooking by up to two-thirds. back to top Cool Ideas: The Technological Fix On Global Warming Is Already Here If there's one thing we can say with certainty about global warming, it's that it's no garden-variety environmental problem. It's taking place on an almost incomprehensible scale and producing consequences that even the experts find hard to fathom. Perhaps most problematic of all, halting it is going to require solutions we won't even be close to inventing for another 50 years. Or is it? What if we told you the technologies we need are already here? What if we said we could implement them all tomorrow? What if we told you global warming isn't nearly as intractable as it seems? According to a recent analysis conducted at Princeton University and published in the August 13 issue of Science magazine, technologies that exist today could prevent all increases in worldwide global warming emissions for the next 50 years. The finding turns on its head the popular misconception that new strategies must first be invented before global warming can be brought under control. Researchers identified 15 proven ideas including the use of solar, wind, and biofuel energy sources; driving less; capturing and storing emissions from factories and power plants; improving energy conservation and fuel efficiencies; and adopting different forestry and farming techniques. (We should also note that the study, somewhat controversially, also included nuclear power.) According to the project, each of the technologies studied is not only proven but also ready to be implemented on a large scale. Together the techniques would temporarily halt increases in atmospheric carbon emissions, in effect freezing the world's output of this key global warming component for about five decades. According to the study's authors, professors Stephen Pacala and Robert Socolow, (co-directors of Princeton's Carbon Mitigation Initiative), limiting carbon emissions at present levels would put the world on a course to stabilize the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at around 500 parts per million, roughly double pre-industrial revolution levels of 280 parts per million. (Today, concentrations hover around 375 parts per million.). Most experts believe that without fairly immediate actions like those suggested in the Princeton report, it will be difficult to stabilize the atmosphere at anything less than a tripling of historic carbon dioxide levels. Increased energy demand in a rapidly developing world, coupled with the current reliance on generally high-emissions energy sources, would simply create a situation that would spiral beyond the ability to control it. Since it's generally agreed that the serious effects of global warming will begin to manifest themselves at somewhere around the 500 parts per million mark, implementing the strategy recommended by the study's authors could have the effect of sparing the world the more unpleasant tripled level scenario and most of the trouble that's predicted to occur in a warmer world. Currently, the world is emitting about seven billion tons of carbon each year, largely in the form of carbon dioxide. Without any remediation, this amount is projected to double to 14 billion tons per year by about 2050. To keep this doubling from occurring, any technologies employed would have to be capable of preventing the release of about seven billion tons of carbon per year by that time. Used in various combinations, the 15 technologies identified by the Princeton study could do just that. Predictably, industry lobbyists and right-wing think tanks wasted no time in deriding the study, saying its authors had failed to take into account the economic, social, and political costs of implementing the report's recommendations. To which we respond: yes, but you've inexplicably failed to address the economic, social, and political costs of mass extinctions, flooded cities, vanished coastlines, deadly heat waves, catastrophic agricultural failures, widespread disease, refugee crises, stronger hurricanes and a general increase in storminess, dramatic changes in ocean currents, melting polar ice caps, desertification, and many other likely outcomes of a destabilized climate. For their part, the study's authors pointed out that the implementation of their plan would most likely lead not to economic ruin, but to economic growth as new industries are created. U.S. dependence on foreign oil would be reduced, and the need for pollution control devices and expenses would be lessened if not outright eliminated. Equally as important, stalling further increases in carbon emissions for 50 years gives the world much needed time to develop the additional technologies that will almost certainly be needed to carry us beyond our current predicament and into a new age of sustainability. All of which leave us with a single simple question: What the heck are we waiting for? Science magazine offers further information about the Princeton study to its members or at a per article cost. Visit: http://www.sciencemag.org/contents-by-date.0.shtml back to top Best of the Web Beating The Heat From The Cool Of Your Den The Internet is a veritable heat sink of global warming related web sites. There's something for everyone from skeptics to true believers in this virtual melting pot of climatological statistics, news, analysis, and debate. This month, we've gathered just a few of the sites we like. They're just the tip of a rapidly liquefying iceberg and excellent places to start your e-travels on the road to a cooler planet. A good place to begin (and possibly the only link you'll need!) is the ClimateArk Climate Change Portal and Search Engine. From links galore to scientific background, news, discussion boards, and even a blog, you'll find a hot spring of valuable information and a whole lot more on global warming waiting at http://www.climateark.org/ Greenhouse Gas Online is an online resource guide that features links to numerous news articles from respected media sources and hundreds of scientific abstracts from greenhouse gas-related papers published around the world, as well as numerous pages devoted to the background information on the various greenhouse gases, current scientific understanding and the potential for control of emissions. Visit at http://www.ghgonline.org/ The Union of Concerned Scientists maintains an excellent global warming resource site. Here, you'll find calm but convincing scientific analysis, a thorough debunking of the myths skeptics are fond of promoting, a look at personal and public solutions, lots of state-of-the-world statistics, special reports, and more. Head for http://www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/global_warming/index.cfm Corporate readers will want to take a look at SafeClimate for Business. A joint project of the World Resources Institute and the Center for Environmental Leadership in Business, it's dedicated to helping business of all sizes understand global warming and take action to prevent it. You'll find a wealth of important steps companies can take to affect positive change as well as additional information and resources to help businesses formulate a climate strategy. See http://www.safeclimate.net/business/index.php From the author of Boiling Point (see our related book review below) comes a web site filled with global warming news, commentary, further suggested reading, multi-media presentations, and, most importantly, a wide-ranging series of looks at the various disinformation campaigns being waged by industry and others. Point your browser to http://www.heatisonline.org/ For little people, we recommend Cool Kids for a Cool Climate, a junior-sized web site that does what the others do, but with its younger audience in mind. Here, budding citizens will find all the news and science they need along with tips for personal action, personal stories, links to other children-oriented sites, and more. Concerned kids will find it at http://www.coolkidsforacoolclimate.com/ Rating The Candidates Global warming notwithstanding, one of the more important tasks all good citizens have in their immediate future is the casting of their ballots on November 2nd. For that reason, we thought we'd pause our coverage of climate change and give you a chance to cool off with a couple of web sites dedicated to providing the information you need to make the best choices in the voting booth. Recognizing a void in American civic culture and the need to create a new organization to address it, 40 national leaders, including former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, formed Project Vote Smart in 1992. Dedicated to upholding the ideal of democracy and serving the American people with unbiased and accurate information, PVS has created a user-friendly website that The New York Times describes as "one of the most comprehensive campaign information sites on the web." Here you'll find gathered in one place all the objective information any intelligent voter needs to make wise choices. Organized by candidate and searchable by candidate name, zip code, or state, the site's five basic categories of data include biographical information, issue positions, voting records, campaign finances, and interest group ratings. There's that and more to help you vote with your head at http://www.vote-smart.org/ And don't forget the League of Conservation Voters. We've recommended their site before and it's worth mentioning again as the election draws near. Here you'll find complete environmentally oriented guides to the upcoming federal elections. Review the eco-positions and voting records of your Senators, Representative, and congressional and presidential candidates via the League's uniquely useful Environmental Scorecard. You can also find out who's who in key federal agencies, explore the leading environmental issues, and study the latest environmental proposals and bills on Capital Hill. A special election section examines the presidential contenders in detail and critiques the current administration's record. There's also a news section with links to current stories, a free e-newsletter, and a special action section that teaches visitors how the political process works and how each of us can get more involved. If you want to vote for a cleaner world, stop on the way to the ballot box at http://www.lcv.org/ back to top Required Reading: Burning Book Three things are abundantly clear about global warming: It's here, it's big, and it's bad. So, uh… how come nobody's doing much about it? That's a question with several answers. Some are quite expected. But others may surprise you. We've got a new book filled with them all as well as a plan for global cooling that could lead to a new era of sustainable health and wealth for all. Boiling Point, How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, And Activists Have Fueled a Climate Crisis And What We Can Do To Avert Disaster, by Ross Gelbspan, Basic Books, 2004 is really two books in one. The first is look at the various forces and self-serving institutions that together are both intentionally and unwittingly keeping Americans in the dark about the true dimensions of global warming and encouraging a public complacency that's preventing the sounding of widespread alarm over the problem. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ross Gelbspan argues that unchecked climate change will sweep aside every other issue facing us today. In his view, the deny-and-delay response of all too many in industry and government has now grown into nothing less than a crime against humanity. Where Gelbspan's previous book, The Heat is On, exposed the financing of climate-change skeptics by the oil and coal companies, Boiling Point reveals exactly how the fossil fuel industry is directing the current administration's energy and climate policies, a development that the author sees as payback for the support and assistance energy companies provided during the 2000 election. Such developments we've sadly come to expect, but more surprisingly, Gelbspan also points a finger at both the media and environmental activists for unintentionally worsening the crisis. It's enough to make one boiling mad, and fortunately the second half of this volume offers a place to channel those emotions and an antidote to them in the form of a concrete plan for averting a full-blown climate catastrophe. According to Gelbspan, a proper approach to climate change would solve a wide variety of other problems in our social, political, and economic spheres as well. In addition to dramatically reducing our reliance on oil and our exposure to instability in the Middle East (talk about homeland security), it would create millions of jobs and raise living standards in poor countries whose populations are affected by climate-driven disease epidemics and whose borders are overrun by environmental refugees. The global economy would expand and the world would become far wealthier and more peaceful. An insightful exposé, a passionate call-to-arms, and a thoughtful roadmap for change, Boiling Point reveals what's at stake for our fragile planet and what we can do about it. For these and other reasons, we've put it at the very top of our fall reading list and suggest that you do as well. back to top Non-Toxic Times Archive Anti-Spam   ® © Copyright 1995 - 2008 - Earth's Common Sense Think Tank - All Rights Reserved     P.O. Box 607 - New York - NY 10021-0013 - U.S.A.

Tree Huggers of America, An Alliance of Non-Religious, Sensible Concerned Citizens, Advocates of Reason, Rational And Common Sense. treehuggersofamerica.org "Love And Live" album exhibit a wide variety of musical styles and forms, incorporating the influences of many different techniques, genre and cultures, from pulsating, tropical grooves, jazz, rhythm & blues melodies, to thrilling dance pieces and soft romantic love songs. www.pbcrecords.com "Adore Me" album is written from an empowered female point of view, embodying the sweet influences of seductive, erotic and tantalizing musical styles, with which it entertains, heals and relieves. www.pbcrecords.com PBC Films, is a non-profit, publicly funded enlightening documentary film producing organization, currently working on a film, which will expose and shame those whom are benefiting from Human Trafficking, Female & Child Slavery.www.pbcfilms.com Venus Project Foundation, is a Charitable Non-Profit 501(c)(3) Organization, working to fund and facilitate; human rights, female rights and equality, environmental protection methods, arts and educational projects. www.venusproject.org