Earth 
Art
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 now, here and in time! Free EcoFiction HERE!
Earth Galley featuring So. Cal. artists and The Stone Muse Designs with Earth-Friendly EcoFiction, Real-time News, Views and Events to help heal Earth!
Photos by Marek Dzida
NOW in Ebook format on-line at Xlibris.com book sales - search by title for Mobile Tales, The Gospels According to Reverend Ike and Different Minds!
Download and read the first book in the series The Gods Played Here for FREE! on this website. Have fun, be kind - then watch it all come true!
Welcome To Earth Neighborhood
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. . They have 3/4 of a million dollars in funding but delayed restarting Public Access programming for over a year and makes no promises to air programming until May 2013, a deadline that has been postponed numerous times and still does not show relvant programming for our city.
Legislation was passed 6years ago, that will allow Cable networks to provide cable TV, Internet and telephone service but no longer requires them to produce public access programming. 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 use of PEG funds for FREE access to equipment and broadcast and facilities no longer exists for any but the wealthy who can pay for classess and can organize their own crews and production staff.
The Preston Papers - From Re:Source Editor
Preston Sommes, Jr.
The Face of Climate Change will not only personalize and make real the massive challenge that climate change presents, it will unite Earth Day activities around the world into one call to action at a critical time. Join the movement! - The Earth Day Network Team. Check the Earth Day Network website to see photos and other media from around the world that shows the face of Climate Change in 2013.
SOLAR POWER NOW!
The Earth Day Network has teamed up with solar provider Sungevity to incentivize supporters to transition their homes to clean energy. They've done this because they believe individual action can have a profound impact on our most pressing collective problem: climate change. Check their website or search Earth Day Network on line for more information. and read on for more information about their work. Here is the deal:
1.Custom solar panels get installed on your roof for FREE by a local contractor.
2.Sungevity gives you $750 because if saving the planet isn't reason
enough to make the switch, cold-hard-cash is!
3.Instead of paying lots of money to the power company, you pay
Sungevity to lease the solar panels. And it's usually CHEAPER than
what you pay for power now.
4.Maintenance of the panels is FREE.
5.Sungevity donates $750 to Earth Day Network on your behalf. This
money goes toward our campaigns to fight climate change.
That's it. It's good for the planet. It's good for Earth Day Network.
And you get peace of mind knowing your utility costs are going down
month by month even as rates rise. Oh, and you get $750!
A Billion Acts of Green 2.0
Now, after meeting the initial goal of inspiring one billion environmental actions around the world? A Billion Acts of Green® is setting its sights on the NEXT billion!
The campaign has been revamped to take aim at specific environmental problems. They will be introducing fresh sub-campaigns periodically to both educate people and inspire targeted action.
Think of it as A Billion Acts of Green 2.0. The first set of sub-campaigns focuses on inspiring individual pledges to vote for environmentally-friendly candidates, plant trees in high-poverty areas of the world, and recycle electronic waste.
Get more information and register all the other actions you're taking to protect the environment through an improved online registration tool. So check it out, at A blillion Acts of Green on the Earthday.org website and pledge to do your part today!
Earth Day Network made a major commitment through the Global Poverty Project: One Goal: to plant 10 million trees in impoverished areas around the world in five years. And we need your help to make it happen.
For every dollar you donate, Earth Day Network plants one tree. Why trees? Trees reverse the impacts of land degradation and provide food, energy and income, helping communities to achieve long-term economic and environmental sustainability. Trees also filter the air and help stave off the effects of climate change.
With the reality of increasingly unpredictable weather patterns and more frequent and violent storms and floods, tree cover to prevent devastating soil erosion has never been more important. Donate to Earth Day Network to plant trees where needed most.
The planet is losing nearly 15,000,000 hectares of forest each year. Through our Canopy Project, Earth Day Network has been working tirelessly to reverse this devastating deforestation by planting millions of trees in places like Uganda, Brazil, Haiti, Mexico and more.
These trees are not only healing the planet, they're mending local economies and improving the quality of life for those living in extreme poverty. But we have to do more. Please consider contributing to this critical effort today.
WASHINGTON WATCH - CLEAN ENERGY JOBS
GREEN JOBS - Get Ready for our Future
White House top economic adviser, made this point very clearly during his interview on Fareed Zakaria's GPS on CNN: "Some of the jobs that were lost aren't going to come back, but some of the jobs are going to come in new places," Summers said.
Globally, research from the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) has shown that a shift to a a low-carbon and sustainable economy can create millions of green jobs across many sectors of the economy. Similarly, the employment outlook from the US Department of Labor for job growth between 2008-2018 indicated a significant growth of green jobs this. Of course, this prediction is largely based on President Obama's pledge to invest $150 billion to create 5 million green jobs in the US over the next 10 years. The focus on green jobs is tremendously important not only to create jobs, but also to have a tremendous positive impact on our environment.
Want to Launch a new business effort? In need of the education and training to start a business? In need of access to the capital to make it happen?
Entrepreneurs4Change, VAMBOA.org (Veteran and Military Business Owners Association), VEDC and the Green Economy Think Tank would like to invite you to participate in one of the free Entrepreneurial Workshop Orientations ? Launch Your Business. By attending this FREE introductory orientation, you will learn how you can get the education and access to capital you need to launch your business idea. This orientation is an introduction to our Creating Good Work
Entrepreneurial Workshops which will start later in January. Intro events are FREE. For more information and to RSVP, email: info@E4C.net
High Speed Rail - Are You On Board?
The Obama administration has given passenger rail the strongest federal push since the days of Abraham Lincoln in hopes of spurring job growth and keeping pace with a rising China. In early 2010, Washington allotted $8 billion in stimulus cash to fund 13 high-speed rail systems spread across 31 states, including projects in Florida, the Midwest, California, and the Northeast. "Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail," said President Obama during the 2011 State of the Union address.
America's current "high-speed" train, Amtrak's Acela Express, averages a mere 80 mph along its 16-station route from the District of Columbia to Boston. By comparison, France's TGV has an average speed of more than 150 mph, and China just built a train that can exceed 300 mph. An Acela trip from New York to Boston costs about $100 and clocks in around 3.5 hours?or just a tad quicker than the $15 buses that leave from Chinatown. As anyone who has traveled on Amtrak will tell you, the system is not known for punctuality, thus putting Amtrak in close competition with the independent bus lines.
How To Build A Better Lightbulb
When changing out incandescent light bulbs for energy efficiency, there are usually two options, CFL and LED. However, the start up company Vu1 is adding another light bulb option (not to mention acronym) to the mix, the Electron Stimulated Luminescence (ESL) bulb. The Vu1 ESL innovation re-purposes technology from our tried and true friend, the cathode ray tube (CRT) television. ESL uses accelerated electrons to stimulate phosphor and create light, thus making the bulb surface glow. For the most part, the ESL bulbs are made of recyclable material, namely the plastic and the glass. But like many electronic devices today, the semi-conductors and electronic components are not as easily recyclable. The good news is that unlike CFL's, we do not have to worry about heavy metals such as mercury with the ESL.
The ESL technology has also been nominated for a 2011 Edison Best New Product Award. It will be judged along side other nominees on several criteria including societal impact, marketplace innovation, and technological innovation.
Thinking Global Yet?
Taking A Look At How Wind Works - That Works for Me and You!
Large wind farms are being built around the world as a cleaner way to generate electricity, but operators are still searching for the most efficient way to arrange the massive turbines that turn moving air into power. To help steer wind farm owners in the right direction, Charles Meneveau, a Johns Hopkins fluid mechanics and turbulence expert, working with a colleague in Belgium, has devised a new formula for the best spacing for a large array of turbines.
Turbines used in wind farms for commercial production of electric power are usually three-bladed and pointed into the wind by computer-controlled motors. These have high tip speeds of over 200 mph, high efficiency,tubular steel towers that range from 200 to 300 feet tall. The blades rotate at 10-22 revolutions per minute. The newest wind farms, which can be located on land or offshore.
Currently, turbines on these large wind farms are spaced about seven rotor diameters apart. The new spacing model suggests that placing the wind turbines 15 rotor diameters apart - more than twice as far apart as in the current layouts - results in more cost-efficient power generation. The research is important because large wind farms, with hundreds or even thousands of turbines are planned or already operating in the western United States, Europe and China. Earlier computational models for large wind farm layouts were based on simply adding up what happens in the wakes of single wind turbines and they are underperforming. The new spacing model takes into account interaction of arrays of turbines with the entire atmospheric wind flow.
HP INNOVATES CLOSED LOOP INKJET CARTRIDGE RECYCLING PROGRAM, GIVES PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES SECOND LIFEIn 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
URBAN FARMS MOVEMENT GROWS with WATER WISE and with
LOCAL, LONG BEACH GROWS PROJECTS and Oakland CA FARM
Recirculating Farms Coalition, is officially launching a national campaign to promote growing local, fresh food and create green jobs. Its focus is on eco-friendly farms that use clean, recycled water in place of soil to grow plants (hydroponics), fish (aquaculture), or a combination of both plants and fish (aquaponics). The new collaborative brings together educators, farmers, fishermen, chefs, non-profit organizations and many others who are working to create an accessible, sustainable and healthy food system in the United States.
Marianne Cufone, Executive Director of the Recirculating Farms Coalition, said, The current U.S. unemployment rate is 9.1 percent, and about one in six people are struggling to buy food. Building recirculating farms in diverse communities nationwide can provide fresh, local food and create stable jobs in a sustainable business, two things the U.S. very much needs right now.
Recirculating farms use innovative ways to be space, energy, and water efficient. They can be as small as a desktop for personal use, or large enough for commercial operation. Well-designed farms re-use up to 99% of their water, and recycle waste. They can run without antibiotics, or other drugs and chemicals, and use renewable energy. Recirculating farms can grow fish, vegetables, flowers, fruits, herbs and more. Contact: http://www.recirculatingfarms.org/
Celebrate Food Sovereignty! Land Based Earth Day Celebration and Pinole Creek Farm
Oakland, CA - Green hillsides and roaming cows are not the traditional backdrop you would associate with an urban food justice movement, but a new food sovereignty project is working to incorporate just that by connecting internationally and internally displaced farmers living in Oakland to peri-urban public land. The 2007 "Declaration of Nyéléni" declares food sovereignty as "the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations." The Pinole Creek Incubator Farm, located 20 minutes outside of Oakland nestled in the beautiful hills between the city of Pinole and Briones, will be celebrating its Grand Opening with a Land Based Earth Day Celebration Sunday April 21 st from 2-6PM.
Whether you plan to catch the provided shuttle from Orinda BART, or use your own transportation, the drive out to the farm is in itself worth celebrating. The multitude of rolling hills, and story-book painted green is mesmerizing, making you almost forget the urban landscape that lies just a few miles behind. It is here that the partnership between lu-Mien Village Farms, Eritrean Family Farms, PUEBLO, International Rescue Committee, Phat Beets Produce and EBMUD has culminated in a project aimed at improving food sovereignty for locally and internationally displaced communities through collective stewardship of public lands. As Lew Chien, a Mien farmer and organizer of Iu-Mien Village farms highlights: "Before, there were no local farms. I know a lot of people who have small gardens, but not space like this to grow their food. The food only came from outside the community and it is so valuable to produce local, to sell food the community supports and support the community with locally produced food."
Come out and meet the farmers, learn how to support the small farmer incubation program, sign up for the farm CSA (community supported agriculture box), and join us for a land based Earth Day Celebration on Sunday, April 21st. The event will feature a land blessing ceremony in honor of the farm and its history of supporting several generations of farmers, as well as music, planting activities and free food! For more information and to RSVP for the Orinda BART pick-up shuttle service contact pinolefarm@phatbeetsproduce.org or visit www.pinolefarmproject.wordpress.com
Who: Iu-Mien Village Farms, Eritrean Family Farms, PUEBLO, International Rescue Committee, Phat Beets Produce and EBMUD
LONG BEACH GROWS DOES JUST THAT!
Join Long Beach Grows ia the first local
organization advocating for urban agriculture, including backyard
urban agriculture, and for a just and equitable food system in Long
Beach. Help us build and operate our first community farm
co-op,
LBGROWS Unity
Farm, on the property of the
Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach. Food we grow will be
shared among the gardeners & with underprivileged Long Beach
residents. Plus other LBGROWS community farm co-op sites are in the
works.
We need your help to make this happen. We need plants, seed, soil,
lumber, hardware, masonry, hand tools, power tools, a mini-tractor,
a greenhouse, a tool shed, trellises, benches, drip irrigation,
animal housing, animal feed, etc. In addition, each co-op site will
require liability insurance, utilities/water service, & trash
collection service. Your support will also assist with our
community outreach and advocacy activities.
Long Beach Grows is a member of the
Fair Food Network
and the
Community Food Security
Coalition. The CFSC states that "at a
basic level, Community Food Security is about making healthy food
accessible to all, including low-income people. It's about making
nutritious & culturally appropriate food accessible, not just
any food. It is about promoting social justice & more equitable
access to resources, & building & revitalizing local
communities & economies. It's about supporting local, regional,
family-scale, & sustainable farmers & businesses. It's
about empowering diverse people to work together to create positive
changes in the food system & their communities... and much
more."
Let's build unity in our community around the
issue of urban agriculture and local food security. Your tax
deductible donation (tax ID # 20-4583660) will help us build and
operate our first community farm co-op,
LBGROWS Unity
Farm,
Donations made by the end of the year will ensure your place on our
mailing list.
We do hope you enjoy hearing about our efforts to promote green,
healthy, sustainable urban agriculture in Long Beach. Together we
can safeguard local food security in this way. So
Join
HYPERLINK
"http://longbeachgrows.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=582f37479ada73be02a805eae&id=95ea4c653f&e=835e27ce60"
Long Beach Grows
today with your donation
and let us know what
we can do for you and how you wish to be involved.
Contact :Donna Marykwas, Long Beach Grows
www.longbeachgrows.org
donna@longbeachgrows.org
1-562-912-3364
TOTE IT HOME From Long Beach Shops and Busineses
Plastic Bags in large retail stores were banned in Long beach in August 2011. Contrary to some fears, business has not collapsed and in fact, has prospered as shopping options are expanind along with tote bag choices!
BRING A BAG TIPS!
Keep a couple of reusable bags in your desk/locker at work, in your car and in your purse so you have one along with you when you are moving around the city and make that convenient stop at a store. Carry a fashion forward bag with you- put your purse in it! Help promote Long Beach buinesses when you pick up the "I Got It Here", cool blue tote bags being given out now by local businesses! Some shops have their own, custom totes you can collect. Support Long Beach as you buy locally and help globally by doing away with plastic bags. Tot-carrying shoulder bags help your back and hands, too. Bye-bye carpal tunnel!
Hold That Tiger- Then Let Him Go!
A wild tiger fitted with satellite-collar was successfully translocated from Nepal's Chitwan National Park to Bardia National Park for the first time, according to World Wildlife Fund. The translocation was led by the Government of Nepal with support from World Wildlife Fund Nepal (WWF-Nepal) and the National Trust for Nature Conservation during the last days of the Year of the Tiger. It will further Nepal's goal of doubling wild tiger numbers by 2022, the next time the Chinese calendar celebrates the endangered species.
"This translocation the first of its kind in Nepal is a concrete example of our commitment to saving wild tigers using the best science available, including the application of cutting-edge technologies," said Minister of Forest and Soil Conservation of Nepal, Deepak Bohara.
The collared tiger was an injured male rescued by park authorities from Chitwan National Park after it wandered into a hotel in the tourist town of Sauraha outside the park last September and was relocated to the Babai valley, an ideal location for the translocation because of its vast size and available prey species, improved anti-poaching efforts, lower human-tiger conflict and good connectivity with other protected areas through the Terai Arc Landscape all the way to India's Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary.
The satellite collar, which accurately reports the tiger's location every 30 minutes, will help scientists gain a better understanding of tiger behavior, improve conservation interventions like anti-poaching operations and monitor the tiger adapting to its new environment.
THE BEAUTY SPOT
Organizing For Action!
Get organized For Action- President Obamas Program to Mobilize US for Change. What Do You Want? What Will You Do? Who Will Get Inolved? Read On!
Every city or region will have its own OFA chapter, and you'll decide the issues your community cares about most, the work you want to do to make progress on them, and the kind of support you'll need to get it done.
At a neighborhood and regional level, OFA members will grow their local chapters, bringing in new leaders and helping train a new generation of volunteers and organizers to help fight for the issues at stake.
There'll be times when we pull together at the national level to get President Obama's back on passing major legislation, like reducing gun violence or immigration reform. And we'll all work to help transform Washington from the outside while strengthening our economy and creating jobs.
But for the most part, the direction our work takes will be completely in your hands -- with the support of this organization behind you every step of the way.
In the next few weeks and months, I'll be asking for your input on putting together an OFA plan for 2013, we'll be holding online briefings about the issues we want to tackle, and we'll start organizing on those issues as they're debated in D.C.
But for right now, I just want to say thanks and welcome. There's a lot to be done, without a doubt -- and I couldn't be more thrilled to be part of OFA with you.
Take a look at the video the First Lady recorded and go ahead -- say you're in:
http://my.barackobama.com/Organizing-for-Action
<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/