Around the globe, Lokenath Divine Life Mission founder Baba Shuddhaahahdaa Brahmachari, an economist-turned-monk, awakens and stimulates the feeling heart in those lives he touches as he describes his simple, yet profound philosophy of self help. LDLM Programs, located in West Bengal, India, are designed so that those served will discover the magnitude of their own strength, character and capacity to make a difference, not only in their own lives, but in the lives of others and that of their community. Baba does not believe in traditional charity. He prefers to support people in liberating themselves rather than do anything to reinforce their sense of powerlessness.
His Lokenath Divine Life Mission in India has served millions of people since its inception in 1985. Baba’s Missions programs range from street schools and mobile health clinics in the slums of Calcutta to Self Help Groups for women in rural areas of India. Read more...
I often get a sense that we undervalue the inherent wisdom we individually have in life. All too often we minimize this inner wisdom by deferring instead to outside sources for answers to our most important and meaningful questions about life and the world we live in.
In my experience when we begin to value our own innate wisdom by giving it our attention and trust, we end up not only cultivating the faith we have to our Self, but also in that practiced valuing, create the space for us to elevate the quality of our life experience itself. Read more...
A small start up solar array modeling service in California called RoofRay (www.roofray.com) is helping to shed some light on your solar potential. With the help of Google Maps aerial imaging, they have created an application that calculates your estimated monthly solar output in Watts per sqaure foot. Read more...
I just read an interesting article in the local paper about by a woman who spent a month eating locally only. Being part of an CSA farm, I dug what she had to say. Even more so having recently read "Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World
So I've been raising my voice not just for a PUD, but that our energy be completely fossil fuel free. I could really get into that! Eating local may cost a bit more, but it's better if it's natural, and it saves on the shipping and refrigeration costs. Read more...
KFC Canada tries to do chickens right, China's air control, and new alternative autos: Shelby Supercars, Prius, Chevy Volt, and more. Read more...
Just in time for back to school season, Earth Day Network has come out with a list of suggestions for students, teachers, and parents to green their schools. Even as the trees start to change colors, these activities are sure to keep many communities green.
- Teachers can have students patrol to check that lights are off in vacant rooms, and make signs or stickers such as “Flip the switch when leaving!” as a reminder to turn off lights.
- Use Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL’s) or LED bulbs and have students compute energy savings.
- Keep air vents clear and up to date and work with custodians to fix drafty rooms; ensure that furnace filters are cleaned often.
- In winter, close classroom doors to trap heat in.
- Make sure computers are programmed to enter “sleep” mode when inactive, and avoid screen savers. Turn off computers when the day ends.
- Urge students or faculty to start a recycling program for the school
The increase in global carbon dioxide emissions is not just damaging the Earth’s climate, but also threatening the very fabric of our oceans. Today, The Nature Conservancy, along with a dozen of the world’s top marine scientists, introduced key findings and recommendations to tackle ocean acidification as part of the “Honolulu Declaration on Ocean Acidification and Reef Management” revealed at the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force meeting in Kona, Hawai‘i.
Two major strategies emerged as the backbone of the Declaration resulting from the workshop:
- Limit fossil fuel emissions - stabilization of atmospheric CO2 is the most logical step to address ocean acidification impacts
- Build the resilience of tropical marine ecosystems and communities to maximize their ability to resist and recover from climate change impacts, including ocean acidification.
Green School, Bali: An international school rooted in holistic education & environmental stewardship
Green School opens on 1 September 2008 for children in Preschool and Kindergarten through Year 8 with students and faculty from Bali and 16 countries around the world. Here in Bali, Indonesia, we are building a new school where Western and Indonesian students can learn together to become more curious and more passionate about their education and our planet.
Green School's beautiful eight-hectare, environmentally sustainable campus in Sibang Kaja is bisected by the Ayung River, on whose western bank are the School's classrooms, libraries, laboratories, and kitchens. Aquaculture ponds, organic vegetable gardens, edible mazes, and permacultural gardens are interspersed throughout the vast campus, which is built entirely of low-impact and environmentally conscious materials such as bamboo, alang-alang grass, and traditional Balinese mud walls. Read more...
Greetings to Ode readers worldwide! I am one of 34 students studying at the KaosPilots International Education in Aarhus, Denmark. As part of our fourth semester (last spring), my team and I lived and worked in Shanghai, China. Our mission was to explore the term "Social Innovation".
We heard from the experts, we investigated on a street level, we discussed, shared and eventually...we wrote! Read more...
We all know the sense of belonging and safety that comes from being a part of a community-how it nurtures our identity and fosters our aspirations. Few of us have experienced anything beyond a brief and partial separation from our community of friends, relatives, home and chosen paths-the elements that give meaning, purpose and direction to our lives. Read more...
Are you a high school student active in or interested in environmental issues? The Weather Channel is sponsoring the Forecast Earth Summit in Washington D.C., to educate the next generation about climate and environmental literacy.
Twenty high school students will win free trips to attend the Summit where they will participate in several activities such as creating public service announcements for The Weather Channel, building and launching a boat made from recycled materials, and meeting with environmental leaders and scientists. Read more...
"When all else is lost, the future still remains" - Christian Bovee
What have you lost? A house? A car? A loved one? Innocence? Hope? Faith? Happiness ... or maybe you have just lost interest altogether - in everything.
However painful or disheartening it may have been to suffer a loss, the good news is that "lost" is a past tense word. It's done. It's finished. Outside of playing it over and over again in your mind with dead-end, "what if" scenarios, you cannot experience the loss again. What you DO have is what is important, ad what you DO have is that most-important, unwritten, unpainted, blank piece of canvas that is your future. It remains, and it will be what you choose to make of it: that includes the next hour, the next day, the next week, or the next fifty years. Read more...
Theo Jansen unleashes his Strandbeest, ice shelves are melting in both poles, and we bring to you new Truly Useless Crap! Read more...
In Nigeria many are building up camps at gas stations so that they can buy cooking fuel. The situation is so bad that women and children may end up spending their whole day just queuing up to get the now expensive fuel. Most fuel stations sell a liter of kerosene at fifty naira Nigerian money but at the black market (that’s the situation where you buy kerosene at unauthorized sites in the country), kerosene is sold at three times the pump station stipulated price.
Because of this exorbitance and most often the non availability of the petroleum derivative, people in most urban areas have now resulted to using fire wood, coal, and other fuel derivatives as an alternative cooking fuel, despite the tedious routine of using firewood, most women claim that firewood and coal is a far cheaper cooking gas than kerosene which can simply fill the can of a China made cooking stove. Read more...
Calling all college graduates: this fall Idealist.org will host 16 Graduate Degree Fairs for the Public Good across the United States, where potential applicants can meet with representatives from graduate programs. Each event will also offer a set of workshops that will describe the various degrees, illuminate the application and financial aid process, and guide attendees in how to transition back to school.
At each of the fairs, you will meet representatives from 60 to 120 of the leading nonprofit-related graduate programs in the country, representing degrees ranging from MPAs and MBAs through Law, Social Work, International Relations, Urban Planning, and many more. Read more...
Over the past year I have heard numerous contemporary spiritual teachers, such as Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, and Marianne Williamson, predict a profound shift in consciousness accompanied with an evolution to the next stage of humanity.
Where? When? How? I wanted to know. Could it be the fervor of an election year and promise of change? Could it be related to the intriguing prophecies of 2012 which predict a major transformation? Read more...
I'd like to suggest trying a one day "giving" experiment.
The idea simply would be for one 24 hour period to lay down all of our own desires, wants, selfish interests of any kind, and completely be unselfish, and do whatever would be helpful and beneficial to anyone we come in contact with during that 24 period. Read more...
The same day I began reading this month's Ode about energy generation and green energy I heard the most beautiful interview on National Public Radio on ethanol and other fuel alternatives.
The program was Science Friday and in it the host interviewed a biofuel advocate, David Blume (author of "Alchohol Can be a Gas"). I would highly recommend Ode put Mr. Blume on the short list of people to interview for future articles---if only to hear him paint beautiful pictures of a world where alternative fuels are promoted on a local grass-roots level and alternative fuel sources are plentiful and actually environmentally beneficial. Read more...
When I was a kid, which was conveniently during a time I lived in Hawaii, I became obsessed with starfish. What stunned me most was their ability to, rather quickly, shed and regenerate a limb. I wondered if it hurt to do this, or if it was some sort of everyday occurrence. I noticed the same thing about geckos and their tails and sea cucumbers that would vomit out their own internal organs. All of these biological feats are meant to be life-saving, so I imagine shedding a limb or spilling out one's guts isn't taken too lightly in the animal kingdom, but I cannot tell you how many quivering gecko tails wound up in my hands sans rightful owner. Read more...
BBC Journalist Christine Jeavans has challenged herself to give up plastic for a whole month. This is certainly a large feat when you think about all of the coffee cup tops, grocery bags, water bottles - not to mention babies diapers that people use everyday. Can it be done? Keep up with her challenge on her blog here.
Read full story:news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7535500.stm
Read more...
China's cheap gas leads to more SUV sales, find out where to take a walk in your neighborhood, and make your office sustainable with People Cube. Read more...
"The past is never completely lost, however extensive the devastation. Your sorrows are the bricks and mortar of a magnificent temple. What you are today, and what you will be tomorrow are because of what you have been." - Gordon Wright
All of us have experienced, (or likely know someone who has experienced - especially in today's volatile world), some type of devastation in the past. Perhaps it took the form of the violence of war, crime, or domestic abuse. Or maybe it was economic ruin, or the loss of a loved one or a failed relationship. Read more...
Did you know that all the world's faiths are filled with wisdom for work? That major media (e.g., Fortune and Industry Week) have reported favorably about the trend to integrating spirit and work? That when you bring spirit to work, work is more ethical and satisfying; and you typically have more time and energy for a rich life?
The Spirit and Work Resource Center (/www.spiritandworkresourcecenter.com) is filled with examples of how to fill any job, anywhere, with integrity, purpose and great joy. We've recently expanded our free online resources. Here you will a recommended books list; links to articles including an interview with Huston Smith on the wisdom of all the world's religions for work, and a FAQ sheet. New resources are being added weekly. Read more...
If one understands the basics of how the human body works, then most assuredly they paid attention during health or biology class. As we quickly take a deeper look inside the body both science and spirituality agree we are energy beings or energy centers as well as flesh, blood and bones. This is why defibrillators (devices which give an electrical charge) can either stop or start the heart. Read more...
Begone, evil spirit! Begone! OK, so that’s not how a typical acupuncture treatment begins (at least in my clinic). Even for possession. And when we talk about possession in Chinese Medical terms, we’re not usually referring to an evil spirit or the devil, like in the movie “The Exorcist”. Instead, we’re referring to an internal possession of the mind. This internal possession occurs when a person is unable to control their own thinking, resulting in a pattern of compulsive thought and behavior. Read more...
Community-based tourism generates lucrative revenues for poor or native communities in developing countries while enabling travelers usually accustomed to chain hotels and beachfront resorts to learn about traditional cultures. Pictured: A room at the Posada Amazonas lodge in Peru’s Esé-eja community of Infierno. Read more...
Dear EarthTalk: How does congestion toll pricing, used in some cities around the world, cut down on vehicle traffic and promote green-friendly public transit? -- Bill Higley, via e-mail
Despite increasing green awareness and steadily rising gasoline prices, Americans and other denizens of the developed world—not to mention millions of new Chinese and Indian drivers hitting the road every week—are loath to give up the freedom and privacy of their personal automobiles. But snarled traffic, longer commute times and rising pollution levels have given city transportation planners new ammunition in their efforts to encourage the use of clean, energy-efficient public transit. Read more...
We are a small group of filmmakers and digital media practitioners who have been concerned for some time about Tibet’s struggle for independence as well as China’s treatment and lack of recognition for the basic human rights of native Tibetans.
With the Olympics being held in China this year we, like many people around the world, hoped that such an event would help ‘shine the light’ on Tibet’s plight. Read more...
Mandakini and Prakash Amte have been conferred the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, for serving the medical, education and livelihood needs of remote tribal communities in Maharashtra for over 30 years
Prakash Amte and his wife Mandakini, both doctors, have been awarded the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership 2008. The Magsaysay Award, given annually by the government of the Philippines, is considered to be the Asian Nobel. Read more...
Two photographers are heading off on a trip around the US to photograph offbeat festivals. They are traveling in an old airstream hitched to a diesel truck, which they will run on vegetable oil. You can even help fund their project by purchasing a print from their website!
Some of the festivals on their list:
- Hairy Chest, Legs, and Beard Contest in Fairbanks, Alaska
- All-Night Gospel Singing in Bonifay, Florida
- Machine Gun Shoot in Westpoint, Kentucky
- Toboggan Championships in Camden, Maine
- Little People of America Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota
- The Quiet Festival in Ocean City, New Jersey
- The World Senior Games in St. George, Utah
Natalie Portman releases her vegan footware line. China get the greenlight to import African ivory, and Randy Olsen talks about his movie Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy.
Read more...
Creative alternative fuel sources lead the news these days for good reason. From Switch Grass to industrial scraps we are waking up to the possibilities all around us for closing the loop on waste and energizing our ventures in the process. Here is a great story about researchers at Clemson University using microbes to digest the 20 million rotting peaches that are wasted each year in South Carolina. The result: hydrogen fuel from peaches for tractors to harvest peaches. What's not to love about that loop?
For more information please click on this link: www.clemson.edu
Van 12 tot en met 14 september staat de Rotterdamse Witte de Withstraat geheel in het teken van groen. Op het jaarlijks terugkerende festival Wereld van de Witte de With laten gevestigde kunstcentra en jonge kunstenaars in diverse projecten hun visie op dit thema zien. Het initiatief UpperWareHouse sluit naadloos aan bij het thema. Onder het motto ‘sharing is caring’ kan er twee dagen lang duurzaam worden gewinkeld.
Supermarkten liggen vol met goedkope tonijn in blik. Ze heten dolfijnvriendelijk, maar vriendelijk voor kleine vissers zijn ze niet. Buitenlandse industrieschepen vissen, al dan niet legaal, de zeeën leeg en laten de plaatselijke vissers met lege handen achter. Fish4Ever doet het anders en werkt samen met traditionele vissersgemeenschappen die met hengels (of andere duurzame methoden) werken en daarom uitsluitend volwassen tonijn vangen, zonder bijvangst.
De Malediven zijn een geliefd vakantieparadijs in de Indische Oceaan. Visserij is na toerisme de belangrijkste inkomstenbron van de eilanden. Dagelijks varen de plaatselijke vissers uit met hun kleine felgekleurde bootjes. Ze vangen tonijn met hengels, zoals ze dat al eeuwen doen. Het is de enige toegestane vismethode in de wateren rond de Malediven. Zo vangen ze alleen gezonde, volwassen skipjack, een tonijnsoort die er nog in redelijke mate voorkomt. Read more...
14.000 adressen, producten en merken Je hebt een nieuwe spijkerbroek nodig, of nieuwe schoenen, of tuinmeubels, of je bent op zoek naar een restaurant, of… Maar waar vind je een duurzame variant? En liefst een beetje in de buurt. Allesduurzaam.nl helpt je op weg. Op www.allesduurzaam.nl vind je 14.000 verkoopadressen, producten en merken.
Mogelijkheden van duurzaam consumeren Als je meer wilt weten over de vele mogelijkheden van duurzaam consumeren, dan kun je je op de themapagina’s oriënteren via tips, nieuws en informatieteksten. De thema’s omvatten alle mogelijke producten van ‘Kleding en Verzorging’ tot en met ‘Sparen en Beleggen’. Read more...
The Pickens Plan is blowing in the wind and Green Gadgets: We tell you where you can recycle your gadgets Read more...
As we head steadfast to the year 2012, the age of Aquarius or age of awareness, I notice the blend of science and spirituality becoming more apparent in mainstream society. Media outlets geared towards the average Joe now host an increasing number of movies, books, TV shows and the like around the subject of the unseen power of the human thinking potential.
How much power do our thoughts really have? If one would agree that we are energy beings housed in physical, flesh bodies then one might also agree that each individual energy being is connected to a much larger universal energy that thinks (has intelligence). These deeply held thoughts become beliefs which in turn spurs creation. If this is true then our thoughts are as powerful as we believe them to be. In this light, our beliefs may very well be the most valuable thing that we own. Read more...
GreenEdge Kids (www.greenedgekids.com) is a brand new website devoted to eco-friendly and stylish fashions for kids, sizes 2-12. The site is filled with information about organic cotton, hemp, recycled fabric, organic wool, soy, made in USA, fair trade, etc. It allows you to Shop by Conscience, by Brand, by product category or by size.
The styles are adorable, and hard to believe they're eco-friendly...green style for kids has come a long way! By providing the very latest in kids' eco-fashions, GreenEdge Kids makes is possible to be green...look good...and play hard. Read more...
You must be a registered user to post to the Exchange. If you are already registered Click here to login or Click here for our fast, free registration.