Looking for something you can DO? Try an online monthly action below (most are still valid), read Green Tips by Dee Simmons, and/or visit some of the Green Links we have provided (see sidebar, Green Action & Education Links).
Updated 2/2/2012
Meetings -- Fourth Wednesday, 6:30pm, usually in the Oak Room
Topics Under Discussion Recently:
- Distributing a video of Bill McKibben's September talk
- An Earth Day Faire in April
- Green Kids
- Planting oak trees on the hill across from the parking lot
- Promoting Gleaning
- Ethical Eating
- Maintaining MDUUC's status as a Wildlife Habitat
- Expanding the environmental/green lending library (located in the Fireside Room)
Building a Movement to Solve the Climate Crisis
The most important thing you can do for the enviroment this year is watch the above video, which was recorded on September 10, 2011 when Bill McKibbon spoke at MDUUC. This video is also now available on DVD. $3 for church members/friends and $5 for others. Visit the Green Table at coffee hour.
The talk was co-sponsered by the Mt. Diablo Peace Center, Sierra Club, and the Green Group. Bill is the founder of 350.org, and author of numberous books, including: 2006's "The End of Nature," and 2010's "Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet." He could easily be called a "rock star" of the environmental movement. His 2006 book was one of the first to warn of climate change, and in 2009 350.org coordinated what CNN called "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history." Several members from this church took part in that event, see sidebar ("Tell It On A Mountain").
Climate change is going faster than was originally predicted and WILL happen in your and your children's lifetimes. It also may lead to an unsustainable century.
Online Green Action of the Month:
2012 February - March -- Explore Union of Concerned Scientist's Climate Hot Map and the Natural Resources Defense Council Climate Change Impact Map.
2011 December/2012 January -- Give the gift of trees or plant a tree. Donate to the Interfaith Power and Light's Carbon Covenant to plant trees to stop deforestation and desertification on the front lines of climate change in: Cambodia, Cameroon, Ghana, and the slopes of Kilimanjaro. Plant one tree for $1 with The Nature Conservancy's Plant a Billion Trees project. They are shooting for planting a billion trees in the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, in the Amazon rainforest region.
2011 September - December -- WATCH (YouTube) or LISTEN (Audio) to Bill McKibben's talk, "Global and Local: Building a Movement to solve the Climate Crisis" (you can also watch it above). Then sign-up for the Green Group Action E-Mail List (look for it at church). And attend the Moving Planet demonstration in SF on September 24th. Update: Moving Planet was a success with 1,000 attending in SF (your editor included) and 2,000+ events in 180+ countries. View the pictures here.
2011 September - September 10 -- Attend a talk at MDUUC by Bill McKibben about climate change (see above).
September 14 -- The Climate Reality Project (Al Gore). Now that the event day is past for The Climate Reality Probject, videos that were shown that day are still on line for you to view.
2011 June - August -- Ethical Eating - Delegates at the 2008 General Assembly in Fort Lauderdale, FL, selected "Ethical Eating" to be the 2008-2012 Congregational Study/Action Issue (CSAI) of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. Read more about it at UUA - Ethical Eating.
Eat Locally -- The average fresh food item on our dinner table travels 1,500 miles to get there. Buying locally-produced food eliminates the need for all that fuel-guzzling and greenhouse gas-spewing transportation. Try Local Farmer's Markets, Community Supported Argiculture (CSA), and/or food labeled "Locally Grown" in your supermarket. How you eat you can significantly reduce your carbon footprint. Also, because food is fresher it doesn't spoil as quickly and tastes better.
2010 Sept/Oct/Nov -- The most important thing you can do for the environment this year is to Vote NO on Proposition 23 (and Proposition 26). Proposition 23 would have overturned AB 32, California's landmark clean energy bill, signed by Arnold Schwarzenegger and the legislature. Set to start in 2012, it aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. Proposition 23, the opposition, was funded by two Texas oil companies. Update: Proposition 23 was defeated.
2010 April/May -- Visit the web page for Communties for a Better Environment and read two articles. They are a group that has been fighting for environmental justice in Richmond (part of Contra Costa County) for a long time, mainly coping with pollution from the Richmond (and sometimes Martinez) oil refineries. Those in the lower economic strata often are forced to near industries/pollution centers simply because it is cheaper.
2009 September/October/November -- View the inspiring photographs from the International Day of Climate Action, which occurred on October 24th, 2009, on flickr. People from 181 countries partook in this momentous event (including some from MDUUC). Find out the significance of 350 by visiting http://www.350.org.
AND/OR help lower our current 390 to 350 by calculating your carbon footprint then starting to make the appropriate changes.
2009 June/July/August -- The Green Group has certified the MDUUC campus as a Wildlife Habitat through the National Wildlife Federation's (NWF) Certified Habitat program http://www.nwf.org/. You can also certify your backyard or patio. This is a non-governmental way to be more Green and provide shelter and food for pollinators and wildlife. Considering the world-wide decrease in bee populations, this is a very-good-thing to do. The requirements are fairly easy to meet and it is also an easy-to-understand way to involve your children/grand-children with environmental issues.
AND/OR if you don't want to go as far as creating a habitat, you can still help pollinators by Building a Bee House, also at NWF. Or get instructions about how to plant a bee-friendly garden at Help the Honey Bees by Haagen-Daz (the ice-cream company's web page has a cute animated graphics, fun for kids.)
2009 April/May -- Download and print our PDF fact sheets on Water Conservation (includes information on various ways to save water during the drought) and our Get Rid of Your Lawn Campaign (includes information about drought resistant plants and Californian native plants).
2009 March/April -- Save trees and buy recycled paper products. Go to National Resource's Defense Council and download their Shop Smart, Save Forests PDF. (You may also visit their site and read Green Living, Buying Tissue Paper). If you have access to a printer, print it out and take it with you next time you shop. It is an outstanding example of some of the handy, free Green PDFs on the Net. It is a small, very portable score card for: facial tissues, toilet paper, paper towels, and paper napkins. It shows what percentage of each recycled product is actually made from recycled material, and how the product was bleached to be white. Look for products labeled totally chlorine-free (TCF) or processed chlorine-free (PCF).
AND/OR go to We Can Solve the Climate Crisis and sign the petition to Repower America. By signing the petition you wil receive email updates from the We Campaign, but they send out emails only occasionally.
(For instructions on printing PDFs double-sided (and smaller), see How to Print PDF Files and also see A Little About PDFs.)
The Internet is an incredible resource for being Green. There are even more actions available under Social Justice and Green Resources, Green Actions. Green Education has links for self and child education (the child education links are great!). And there are newspaper articles about environmental issues under Green News.
Photograph -- Chapel Redwood Grove on MDUUC grounds
