climatechange

Good News

Jerry Brown writes us with the encouraging news "Republican Governor Charlie Crist is hosting a Global Climate Change Summit on July 12-13, with CA Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger as a keynote speaker.  This is encouraging since CA has passed the most aggressive controls on CO2 in the nation, calling for a 25% reduction by 2020, and Crist is looking to CA as a model."

Here's more news on Global Warming from today's Science section of The New York Times... including a link to archives on Global Warming articles from the last year.

Cold Water Clothes Washing

You can save energy by making a few changes
in the way you wash clothes:

Cold water keeps your clothes looking newer longer than hot water washing. No special detergents are needed for cold water washing. Use any eco-friendly detergent like Seventh Generation, or make your own.

Learn Dialogue, World Café, Open Space: July 9-11

Wise Action That Lasts on July 9-11, 2007

"Engaging Communities & Organizations for Wise Actions That Lasts: How to Host, Convene, Design and Facilitate Meaningful Conversations Around Complex Issues", will take place at Rivendell Retreat Centre on Bowen Island, British Columbia (20 minute ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay;
30-minute bus ride from Vancouver). 

Locator for plastic recycling drop off

This site will give you a list of every location in your zip code (or by city if you prefer) where you can bring plastic bags for recycling.

Nevada City Global Cooling Café

Connie Parsons of Nevada City sent this report on their successful Café

Report from Nevada City, CA

Graphic Recorder Sherrin Bennett recorded the event
Our Global Cooling Café was overflowing with people, animated conversation, and numerous innovative ideas. It was very clear that many of us are concerned about the climate crisis and feel an urgency to act now. As a result, nineteen action groups have been formed and are currently beginning to focus on specific tasks that support carbon reduction in our community!

Global Dialogue Center

Debbe Kennedy, Founder of the Global Dialogue Center writes:

At the Global Dialogue Center our contribution is working to  provide opportunities to think, question and explore new ideas, so we all can be informed citizens and catalysts for positive change.

I would like to invite others to visit Global Dialogue Center to listen to our new MOMENTS OF INSIGHT SERIES, which includes a powerful six-episode series with NY Times Bestselling Author John Perkins, called OUR GEO-POLITICAL CRISIS and YOU.

Ten Easy Steps

1) Use compact fluorescent bulbs. Replace three frequently used light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs and save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide and about $60 a year. The Council on the Environment and Jewish Life is organizing a campaign called "How Many Jews Does It Take To Change A Light Bulb?" to encourage synagogues and other Jewish groups to replace conventional bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, which last four times longer but use 25 percent of the energy.

Video Resource

Take a look at this powerful video to hear a young girl address world leaders in a way that puts environmental issues in perspective.

Nancy Margulies, our Global Climate Change blog host suggests this clip as a possible opening for a Global Climate Change Café or as a link in an invitation to a Global Climate Change Café.

Global Climate Change Video

This from Dr. Emmett Miller, on his Nevada City Global Climate Change Cafés...

Running the Numbers

Seattle artist Chris Jordan eloquently depicts the statistics of American life in an unusual series of paintings.

If you live in NYC, go see his show being exhibited at the Von Lintel Gallery in New York from June 14th to the end of July, and encourage your friends to do the same. If you don't, view it here and imagine the impact of the images full size.

This one, "Toothpicks, 2007" is 60x99" and illustrates 8 million toothpicks, equal to the number of trees harvested in the US every month to make the paper for mail order catalogs:

Composting Simplified

Compost is garden soil made out of things that used to be alive. Plants love it. What is the easiest way to start a compost pile? Designate a space in your yard to be the compost pile, about three feet wide. Then add weeds, straw, leaves, dirt, water, and kitchen scraps. That is all you have to do. If animals get into your compost, enclose it in a cylinder of stiff wire mesh fence. (Editor's note: I have posted a link to an article that goes into greater detail that follows this "basics" one).

What Goes Into a Compost Pile?

Welcome!

Welcome to the Global Climate Change blog, hosted by Nancy Margulies and Amy Lenzo of the World Café.

At this time in human history we need each other more than ever to address the challenges and make the changes that can reverse the present environmental trends. Global climate change can refer to the political, social and cultural “climate” as well, all of which need to be addressed if we are to shift the way we live on this planet.

Share your thoughts with us; we'll post them and together we can make a difference!  You can click on the word "comments" below any post to respond to the ideas shared within it.