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Earth Neighborhood
On-line home of The Message Books, the on-going stories of miraculous folks, just like you and me, working together to heal our Planet, one Neighborhood at a time.
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Want to WATCH EARTH NEIGHBORHOOD TV?
YOU CAN'T!!!
Community Televison stopped broadcasting on 1/1/09 due to inaction by the Long Beach City Communications office and our City Council. Meetings with local TV producers and City Staff have identified a plan to resume programming, but must be approved by Long Beach City Council Members In June 2009.
The Legislation, passed 2 years ago, that will allow Cable networks to provide cable TV, Internet and telephone service was passed by the California Legislature. Now it is up to cities to make provisions for community program production and broadcasts. Funding for these broadcasts is provided by the Cable Networks but is now being used for Government broadcasts, only.
The Preston Papers - From Re:Source Editor
Preston Sommes, Jr.
The budget crisis in California has been artificially created by cutting taxes on the wealthiest people and corporations. The current ?crisis? is a shock and awe process designed to undermine wages and unions in the state and force labor concessions to protect corporate
profits. According to the California Budget Project, tax cuts enacted in California since 1993 cost the state $11.3 billion dollars annually.
Had the state continued taxing corporations and the wealthy at rates equal to those fifteen years ago we would not have a budget crisis today.
In particular, we need leaders in Congress to stand up for three key changes to the latest version of the energy bill: Ensure more clean energy for America: Require power companies to produce more clean energy. Wind and solar create more than twice as many jobs as coal and oil. * Hold polluters accountable: Restore President Obama's current authority through the EPA to crack down on global warming pollution from power plants. Create more clean energy jobs for America and build resiliency to climate change: Reduce giveaways to polluting industries in order to bolster green job development and protect vulnerable communities. The full list of groups that are calling on congressional leaders to strengthen the clean energy jobs bill is impressive: 1Sky, ACORN, Democracia Ahora, Environment America, Green For All, Health Care Without Harm, Oxfam, Rock the Vote, the Sierra Club, and USAction, along with MoveOn. It's a real show of strength. We need to urge Congress to strengthen and improve this bill. Please urge clean energy supporters like Rep. Richardson to fight for a stronger energy bill. Clicking here will add your name to MoveOn's petition:
http://pol.moveon.org/cleanenergy/o.pl?id=16301-2510054-jJ6Rifx&t=12
CLEAN ENERGY DEVELOPMENT OVERTAKES FOSSIL FUEL INVESTMENT in 2009
Green energy overtook fossil fuels in attracting investment for power generation for the first time last year, according to figures released today by the United Nations. Wind, solar and other clean technologies attracted $140bn (Ã'£85bn) compared with $110bn for gas and coal for electrical power generation, with more than a third of the green cash destined for Britain and the rest of Europe. The biggest growth for renewable investment came from China, India and other developing countries, which are fast catching up on the West in switching out of fossil fuels to improve energy security and tackle climate change.
GREEN CHANGE MAKES DOLLARS AND SENSE
WORLD FIRST - SHORE POWER RUNS DOCKED OIL TANKER
A major source of air pollution in port areas comes from the giant vessels that tie up at their docks to load and unload cargo. That?is because the powerful diesel engines have to run continuously to keep the ships? equipment and support systems operating. That also means continuous spewing of GHG and diesel particulate emissions into the local air. A solution to this massive emissions problem has long existed but is not widely implemented because it involves expensive modifications both on-ship and to offshore facilities. It?s called shore power, which allows ships to shut down their diesel engines at berth and literally plug into the landside electricity grid, thus improving air quality.
But slow change is better than no change: BP America and the Port of Long Beach Wednesday opened the world?s first oil tanker terminal equipped with shore power plugs. The BP terminal on Pier T is actually Long Beach's second dock equipped with shore power, but it is the first such facility in the world for ?liquid bulk?? ships -- vessels that transport large amounts of petroleum and related fuels. Reducing air pollution is a major component of the port?s Green Port Policy, adopted in 2005. Also this week Long Beach issued a call for ideas to implement a zero-emission container movement system.
The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, along with the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority are seeking new technology to move cargo containers between docks and the Intermodal Container Transfer Facility near West Long Beach, potentially eliminating thousands of short-haul diesel truck trips each day and reducing air pollution. Proposed technologies might include electric guideways, zero-emission trucks, or electrified rail, all of which use electricity to power the movement of cargo, rather than diesel-fueled trucks. BP's shore power installation delivers enough electricity to power about 5,500 homes, up to 8 megawatts at 6,660 volts. The Alaska Tanker Company has equipped two vessels that regularly visit the port to be able to plug into the BP Terminal on Pier T, which supplies local refineries with crude oil. The joint project was completed at a cost of $23.7 million: $17.5 million from the port and $6.2 million from BP.
Major US electric vehicle manufacturing plant announced Californian firm hopes to kickstart electric car era Renault to develop electric cars for Israel project Nissan Planning New Fuel-Cell Vehicle for Early 2010s. The new venture was announced at the 2008 FORTUNE Brainstorm Green Conference held in Pasadena, California, that brought chief executives from all over North America together to talk about the business opportunities.
Think Cars Are Almost Here!
TH!NK city is an environmental vehicle, emission free and 95 percent recyclable. It reaches a top speed of 100 km (65 miles) per hour and can drive up to 180 km (110 miles) on a single charge. ?Ã'Ã'¨TH!NK city meets all European and US federal motor vehicle safety requirements. At the Geneva Motorshow earlier this year, TH!NK announced a strategic
partnership with energy giant General Electric, also an investor in TH!NK. At the Show, TH!NK unveiled its future car, the Ã'Ã'¨TH!NK Ox, the first 4/5-seater fully electric vehicle which is slated to begin production in 2010. The TH!NK city is currently produced in Norway and international sales are slated to begin in Scandinavia, with Switzerland and France also being the initial focus areas. Sales other than initial trial and demonstration projects will begin in The North American market in 2009. Vicki Northrup, an electric car veteran, has been retained by TH!NK
North America as Operations Manager and will initially be based out of
TH!NK North America's Menlo Park Office.
Thinking Global Yet?
TH!NK designs, develops, manufactures and markets
environmentally friendly vehicles and technologies. The company has
more than 17 years of experience in developing and producing
electric vehicles and there are about 1,200 vehicles driving on
Norwegian roads today. The latest TH!NK city is the
fifth-generation electric vehicle that has been produced in Norway.
Series production of the newly designed TH!NK city car started late
last year and the first cars will be delivered to Norwegian
customers. The capacity of its first assembly plant in Aurskog,
outside Oslo, is presently being increased to 10,000 cars per year.
TH!NK expects to be producing at full capacity sometime
during
2009. Enthusiastic owners with the vision and resources want to
make TH!NK the car company of the 21st century.
In an industry first, HP today announced it has developed an engineering breakthrough that enables the use of post-consumer recycled plastics in the production of new Original HP inkjet print cartridges. More than 200 million cartridges have been manufactured using the process thus far. HP used more than 5 million pounds of recycled plastic in its inkjet cartridges last year, and the company is committed to using twice as much in 2008. The company's innovative recycling process facilitates the combination of multiple sources and grades of recycled plastics from everyday water bottles to highly technical HP inkjet cartridges. In addition to closing the design loop, using recycled content saves energy and keeps plastic out of landfills . Since piloting the process, HP has used enough recycled plastic to fill more than 200 tractor trailers.
GOOGLE HELPS BOOST GREEN TECHNOLOGIES
Google Inc is prepared to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in big commercial alternative-energy projects that traditionally have had trouble getting financing, the executive in charge of its green-energy push said on Wednesday. The Internet search giant, which has said it will invest in researching green technologies and renewable-energy companies, is eager to help promising technologies amass scale to help drive the cost of alternative energy below the cost of coal.
HOME NEWS
Agriculture, so often cited as a factor in global decline - for claiming natural grasslands that store carbon, soil erosion and pesticide runoff - could become a big part of the solution to global warming, according to a hopeful report by Worldwatch Institute released today. Innovations in food production and land use that are ready to be put to work could reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to roughly 25 percent of global fossil fuel emissions and be managed to reduce carbon already in the atmosphere as well, according to WWI and Ecoagriculture Partners. Carbon capture technology remains unproven and will take a decade at least to put into operation. By contrast, agricultural and land use management practices that are ready today could be employed to sequester carbon through photosynthesis by growing and sustaining more plants.
To understand how and why the agricultural approach to climate change must be a part of the solution, the public first needs to recognize that the world must "go negative" with carbon emissions - producing fewer than it churns out to reach the necessary reductions by 2050, said Sara Scherr, co-author with Sajal Sthapit of the report, Mitigating Climate Change Through Food and Land Use. Policymakers must go beyond improving energy efficiency and scaling up renewables and add ways to pull down emissions from forestry and agriculture operations. The report outlines five ways to reduce and sequester carbon using farming strategies:
Enriching soil carbon, Farming with perennials, Climate-friendly livestock production, Protecting natural habitat, Restoring degraded watersheds and range lands. If you want to know the part our cities play in this picture, read the EcoFiction on this website for a picture of neighborhood agriculture system and how they can work to green our cities and save the wilds for everything else!
For more detail on the report on the science of sustainable agricutlure you can go to:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18158.cfm
NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE HOME - KEEP CURRENT!Every so often it is good to acquaint oneself with the new technological developments of the current era. Jeff McIntire-Strasburg gives a green technology update nearly every week. Discover the latest advancements of Sony Ericsson and learn whether or not solar energy can grow on trees? Also make sure you discover the scoop on the electric vehicle from Coda Automotive that is pictured to the left.Read More In Sunfiltered Blog
http://www.elabs7.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=au65,gmea,4iw,h4h3,9r7q,c2i0,1vqb
CREDOS FIVE STEPS TO HELP SOLVE THE CALIFORNIA BUDGET CRISIS
Sign Credo's
petition asking Senate President Steinberg to make
legislators take a stand and bring CREDO's five steps to a
vote.
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=3913&id=4507-721993-VzlKD_x&t=12
Here are five steps we believe the
Legislature should enact immediately in order to lessen the pain.
Gov. Schwarzenegger will not like them. The Republicans in the
Legislature will hate them but should be forced to go
on the record voting yes or no.
First, the Legislature should simply
reverse three expensive tax concessions to businesses that were
offered up as bribes to Republicans in September 2008 and February
2009. They were distasteful then -- they are
immoral now. The three breaks are allowing corporations to share
credits with affiliated companies; allowing companies to use this
year's losses to obtain rebates (!) on prior-year taxes; and
allowing multi-state and
multinational corporations to choose among different formulas that
will reduce the taxes they owe California.
Second, California should join every other oil-producing state and tax the extraction of oil. With oil prices rising rapidly, we are leaving billions on the table that every other state is using for the public benefit.
Third, the Legislature should update the
administrative rules governing the assessment of commercial
property. Today, these rules are terribly out of date and written
for the circumstances that existed before Prop. 13
passed. They allow companies that own commercial real estate to
avoid having their property values updated, except under unusual
circumstances. Over time, this has radically shifted the burden of
property taxes from businesses to homeowners -- definitely not what
the public thought it would get in enacting Prop. 13.
Fourth, it is time to impose a sales tax on medical marijuana. This is quite different than legalizing all marijuana sales -- Californians are purchasing hundreds of millions of dollars of marijuana, with a doctor's prescription, for medical purposes. This should be taxed.
Finally, the Legislature should assert
that the current crisis is the rainy day emergency that our $4.5
billion emergency reserve fund exists to solve. We should not use
100% of it -- there will be unexpected fires --
but it is time to tap the reserve to save lives and preserve
services until the economy begins to recover.
TIGER PRESERVATION PROJECT
Watch the new GreenPace Video on line!
Check out our new video, "Every Step Counts to Save the Amazon," and see for yourself the destruction the cattle industry is causing in the Amazon rainforest.
<http://gpeace.convio.net/site/R?i=8Vjz2OJ0ztWL6oXJS6K5Yg
The Amazon rainforest is one of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth.But destroying the rainforest for cattle products does more than destroy the ecosystem -- it's also a major source of global warming pollution. Deforestation causes 20% of the world's global warming emissions. That's more climate pollution than all of the world's cars, trucks, trains, planes, and ships combined. The Brazilian cattle industry is responsible for 80% of deforestation in the Amazon, making it the largest single driver of deforestation in the world -- and therefore the largest single driver of greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation in the world.
The good news: You can make a difference. Working Assets has joined with the nonprofit Carbonfund.org to help you take immediate and effective action to slow global warming. The answer is simple and affordable. Support Carbonfund.org with a tax-deductible donation today and reduce your climate footprint by supporting wind energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects.
<http://nodraftnoway.org/organizer.shtml>. Or contact
<http://nodraftnoway.org/ndnwcomments.shtml > for information and help to organize a local campaign.
national movement against military recruiting and the draft.
Way chapter.
Millions of East Africans Need Food and Water - Donate Now
http://ga0.org/ct/c7qqd3s1UzpB/
desperately needed by the affected regions in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania, where the lives and livelihoods of millions of people are threatened. Help Oxfam step up its relief efforts in East Africa - click here to make a secure online donation now. http://ga0.org/ct/c7qqd3s1UzpB/