Went to see an amazing live music performance last night by Balkan Beat Box (BBB).
WOW. Beautiful music.
BBB in many ways embodies the idea of 'local to global'. Their music fuses sounds from so many different places, cultures and times. They perform all over the world. And their music deals with issues and themes faced in many places in the world - police brutality, constant war and how it can be ended, political violence and lack of freedom, interconnectedness of humans everywhere.
I am pasting some of their music below. Please check them out! Enjoy!
Part of the Glory:
Kabulectro:
War Again:
Political F***:
Showing posts with label billions of dollars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label billions of dollars. Show all posts
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Want to make a difference? Drive your car less and sign a petition.
Petitions are an easy way to let your voice be heard on an issue by lending support to a cause through your signature. Receiving a petition on an issue signed by large numbers of people sends a BIG message to elected officials, by showing them that people care enough about an issue to spend a few moments of their time looking into it and officially stating that they support or oppose it.
As actions speak louder than words, you shouldn't just sign a petition because you feel guilted into it. Instead, think about whether or not you agree with the cause. If you do, sign the petition and think additionally about what you can do in your life to stop perpetuating whatever the root issue is relating to the particular petition.
In this blog post, please find links to three separate petitions fighting against the same issue: American dependance on dirty energy.
The other two petitions each take a stance against H.R. 7, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012. If you can't sign both of these, at least sign one. This bill would open up the Arctic Refuge for oil drilling (one of our LAST remaining wild spaces - it is being saved for a reason!!!) and would allow for deepwater drilling to not only continue in the Gulf, but to drill in even deeper parts of the Gulf than where the Deepwater Horizon spill occurred.
Take a stance against drilling in the Arctic - sign here.
Take a stance against deepwater drilling - sign here.
Finally, probably THE most important thing you can do to prevent some of these horrible things to happen to the plants, animals and ecosystems of this fragile Earth with regard to the petitions above is to drive your car WAY less, use WAY less energy generally (turn off the lights/tv/computer/etc if you aren't using it!), and try to avoid using plastic anything (which is made of oil) as much as possible. Every time you use one of these things, imagine a big chimney shooting black smoke out into the clean sky. Find a way to make changes in your life, even if they start off rather small.
Take this blog post as a challenge to yourself, or at least as an opportunity to combat boredom, if this is something you experience at times.
On jobs - the Keystone Pipeline and H.R. 7 both draw on the concept of 'job creation' to get boosts from voters. Please realize that while jobs are crucially needed in many parts of the country, if we destroy the last of our wild spaces, pollute our air and water, and destroy the last of increasingly fragile natural ecosystems, we will put the future health of our planet in limbo, meaning possible major natural disasters and far fewer jobs for everyone.
'Security' does not lie in more of the same that has gotten us in this mess. 'Security' lies in creating a healthy future for all. Let's invest in education instead of oil. Our future generations should be innovating healthier ways to live.
As actions speak louder than words, you shouldn't just sign a petition because you feel guilted into it. Instead, think about whether or not you agree with the cause. If you do, sign the petition and think additionally about what you can do in your life to stop perpetuating whatever the root issue is relating to the particular petition.
In this blog post, please find links to three separate petitions fighting against the same issue: American dependance on dirty energy.
 |
| Tar sands, via savebiogems.org |
One petition is working to gather signatures to stop the building of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would threaten our country's last remaining nature spaces, would shlep tar sands 1700 miles from Canada down to Texas to be refined. This would pollute vital sources of fresh water, and destroy wildlife habitats and ecosystems. Check the following video for more information:
The other two petitions each take a stance against H.R. 7, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012. If you can't sign both of these, at least sign one. This bill would open up the Arctic Refuge for oil drilling (one of our LAST remaining wild spaces - it is being saved for a reason!!!) and would allow for deepwater drilling to not only continue in the Gulf, but to drill in even deeper parts of the Gulf than where the Deepwater Horizon spill occurred.
 |
| Photo via Oceana |
Take a stance against deepwater drilling - sign here.
Finally, probably THE most important thing you can do to prevent some of these horrible things to happen to the plants, animals and ecosystems of this fragile Earth with regard to the petitions above is to drive your car WAY less, use WAY less energy generally (turn off the lights/tv/computer/etc if you aren't using it!), and try to avoid using plastic anything (which is made of oil) as much as possible. Every time you use one of these things, imagine a big chimney shooting black smoke out into the clean sky. Find a way to make changes in your life, even if they start off rather small.
Take this blog post as a challenge to yourself, or at least as an opportunity to combat boredom, if this is something you experience at times.
 |
| Massive smog cloud over China including Beijing. From NASA Earth Observatory. |
On jobs - the Keystone Pipeline and H.R. 7 both draw on the concept of 'job creation' to get boosts from voters. Please realize that while jobs are crucially needed in many parts of the country, if we destroy the last of our wild spaces, pollute our air and water, and destroy the last of increasingly fragile natural ecosystems, we will put the future health of our planet in limbo, meaning possible major natural disasters and far fewer jobs for everyone.
'Security' does not lie in more of the same that has gotten us in this mess. 'Security' lies in creating a healthy future for all. Let's invest in education instead of oil. Our future generations should be innovating healthier ways to live.
"We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
*
Thanks and peace!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
What do you do with your money?
This is one of the most important questions any person interested in living better with other humans and our planet can consider.
Image via dpr-barcelona
Firstly, you may think 'a dollar is just a dollar' so therefore it doesn't matter what you spend it on. But think of this - the population of the United States is roughly 307 million people. Target Corporation last year earned $67 billion. In the first 3 quarters of last year, BP earned $288.57 billion (this is less than its revenue for the year since 4th quarter was unavailable; also, BP is a global company but consider its revenue vs. a global population of 7 billion). A television star like Kim Kardashian earns $12 million per year. These individuals and companies don't earn this money out of thin air. They earn it because consumers (aka, YOU) spend money on their goods and services.
Image via Treehugger
Regardless of how much a company gives to charity, corporate business managers (and reality TV stars) take home a LOT of money. This is at time a complex issue in terms of 'justness', given some of these companies' and individuals' impact on the Earth and the destruction their choices cause to others.
It is also valuable to know where your money goes so that you don't end up funding a destructive production cycle for a product. For example, many people see bananas as healthy and so buy them. However, many companies that farm bananas slash rainforests to grow these fruits. Its the same situation with leather - Brazil is a top exporter of leather and cow meat, which is often grown on cattle farms in the Amazon that require those rainforests to be chopped down. Many times these farmers enslave laborers in debt bondage situations, where the laborer often cannot do much about their position since they are deep in the forest. These are just a couple of examples about how products you may buy fund a host of negative things in the world.
Image via Localblu.com
If you want more control over your money, your life, and the future of this planet, AND if you want to invest in your local community, consider shopping local or using things you can easily get for free from the world around you. An obvious example is shopping at your local farmer's market for groceries and soaps. You can get lemons from your neighbor's overburdened tree and use them to clean most of your home - kitchen counters, sinks, toilets, and diluted in water to clean the floor. You can move your money into a local credit union, many of which list the organizations and local businesses in which they invest on their website. You can support local vintage shops to buy your clothes. Take a walk through your neighborhood on a daily basis (if possible) for exercise and to check out what businesses are around that you can frequent.
Peace!
Nisha Namorando Vida
LTG Director/Founder
Postscript: If you take issue with this post or have a take on this in any way that you would like to publicly share, please post a comment! Dialogue = crucial.
Photo by Nisha Vida at: August Local to Global Event
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