What Would Rachel Say?

http://www.garbagerevolution.com/

Please join us on November 17th so that we can form a chorus throughout the country that is calling on Lowe's, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart to stop selling cypress mulch. Cypress forests provide important habitat for wildlife, promote healthy water quality, and provide critical storm and flood protection for the Gulf region. To join in the Save Our Cypress Day of Action, visit our sign-up page. There are ways for everyone to get involved, from the most seasoned activist to someone with no experience whatsoever. Make sure to fill out all your information so we can follow up with more information.

The Save Our Cypress Coalition is demanding that Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowe's end the sale of this destructive and unnecessary product. Sustainable alternatives like pine straw and melaleuca mulch exist. Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Lowe's agree that this is a serious problem, but that's about where the agreement stops. They say their suppliers promise that nothing is coming from endangered forests, but they've got no proof to back that up. The Save Our Cypress Coalition has a ton of evidence showing that the mulch is indeed coming from where they claim it isn't. Lowe's, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot are not taking this threat seriously. They need to abandon this destructive product.

A tool for education and activism  http://www.informinc.org/

Do you know what happens to your cell phone when you throw it away? Or paper? Or your old pair of jeans for that matter?

INFORM's research has shown that many consumers know little about the lifecycle environmental impacts of common products that we take for granted in everyday life. From production to consumption, resource extraction to disposal, the products we manufacture, consume and dispose of have real impacts on our environment and human health.

Our research also shows that there is a missing link, a gap between the public's good intentions and desire to act responsibly to protect the environment and their capacity to do so.

This missing link is knowledge, and this is where The Secret Life Series comes in - a video series about the lifecycle impacts of some of the most ubiquitous products in our lives: cell phones, paper, jeans and T-shirts. The stories of where these items come from, what happens to them when we recycle them, re-use them or throw them away are truly fascinating and will undoubtedly make you see things in a whole new light.

By: Living Oceans Foundation
It is distance learning taken to the extreme as marine science classes are taught live from beneath the ocean for the first time. Project SeaCAMEL aquanauts will broadcast from Aquarius, the world's only undersea research station, November 12-14th.

The Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School is thrilled to announce that Kofi Annan and Alice Waters will be our 2008 Global Environmental Citizen Award recipients. We are proud to honor their outstanding environmental achievements.

 

During his tenure as Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan provided leadership in a number of initiatives that recognized that protecting the environment was fundamental to international development, including the ground-breaking Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. He is the co-recipient of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. Mr. Annan is now Chair of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, a partnership working across the African continent that aims to help millions of small subsistence farmers lift themselves out of poverty and hunger while safeguarding the environment.

 

Alice Waters, Owner and Founder of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, and a pioneering advocate for sustainable agriculture and local, seasonal foods, is one of America's most influential chefs. She started the Chez Panisse Foundation in 1996, which supports educational initiatives, such as the Edible Schoolyard, an organic garden and kitchen classroom at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley. These programs help people understand how local, sustainable food benefits food quality, their health, and the environment.

 

The recipients will be presented with the Global Environmental Citizen Awards during a gala celebration and fundraiser on Sunday, February 3rd, 2008 in New York City. The 2008 Corporate Council Award Recipient (to be announced) will also be honored during this event. Please contact Natalie Wicklund at 617-384-8530 or Natalie_Wicklund@hms.harvard .edu if you would like more information or are interested in receiving an invitation to this historic event.

Day One: Lead: Kids face lead threats at home

Day Two: Mercury: Power Plants Are Focus Of Drive To Cut Mercury

Day Three: Plastics: 'Everywhere chemicals' in plastics alarm parents

More on lead: Where does lead go? Into bones | Exposure, crime linked | Toddler with sky-high levels

More on mercury: Emitters rush to meet new U.S. rules | Opposition takes on coal plants

More on plastics: 'Endocrine disruptor' won't be on the label

On the Web: More information from the National Center for Healthy Housing