Tag Archives: clean energy

And We’ve Got to Get Ourselves Back to the Garden

Posted on June 26, 2013 | Leave a comment

This garden we are graced to live in, this magical spinning planet we call home, was designed for abundance, designed to provide us with food, clothing and shelter, and, beyond that, beauty and magic. This garden was not designed to withstand the amount of carbon dioxide and methane we are putting into the atmosphere from fossil fuels; the pesticides we are putting into our water, soil and food; the destruction of our trees and oceans meant to clean our air and create oxygen.

We have forgotten where we live. We have forgotten that being alive is not something we are guaranteed.

We are forgetting our moral obligation to our children and future generations.

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Posted in Big Oil, Children, Clean Energy, Clean Food, Air and Water, Fracking, GMOs

Tagged clean air, clean energy, clean water, dirty energy, fracking, future generations, garden of Eden, Gasland, GMO, GMOs, hydraulic fracturing, mountaintop removal, oxygen, strawberries, tar sands, the Keystone XL pipeline, trees

Video

Calling All Angels for Renewable Energy

As spring begins, I am keenly aware of the urgency the renewable energy movement is facing. Fracking is moving at lightening speed across the country and the world, poisoning water, air and, of course, people. Elected officials in Congress are doing their best to get the Keystone XL pipeline passed, even as tar sands spills continue to rear their ugly head.

The fossil fuel industry has the deepest pockets on the planet, and at times it feels as if we can’t beat them in this fight for a viable future. Yet, we continue to grow as a movement in numbers and strength. The coordination between people, towns, cities, states and organizations is impressive and essential to our capacity to impact the shift to renewable energy.

This video was made to inspire all those giving so much of their energy and time to this dire cause. After all, there is no Planet B. Just us and the choice to create a safe and viable future. I say, in the end, our passion will tip the scales away from dirty energy toward renewables. Let’s keep it up!

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Posted on April 11, 2013 in Clean Energy, Clean Food, Air and Water, Fracking

Tagged 350.org, Americans Against Fracking, Bill McKibben, Carol French, Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, clean energy, clean water, Clean Water Act, climate change, Delaware Riverkeeper, dirty energy, Do the Math, Doug Shields, Food and Water Watch, fracking, Gasland, global warming, hydraulic fracturing, Josh Fox, Keystone XL, Keystone XL pipeline, Living Downstream, Lock the Gate, Mark Ruffalo, mountaintop removal, New Yorkers Against Fracking, Protecting Our Waters, Safe Drinking Water act, Sandra Steingraber, Stephen Cleghorn, tar sands, United for Action

Calling All “Moms-In-Chief”: The Mothers Project and the Fight to End Fracking

Posted on October 9, 2012 | 1 comment

I wasn’t able to listen to the First Lady’s speech the night she delivered it at the Democratic National Convention. My 8-year-old daughter Claire is a night owl who loves to be read to sleep, so we lay in bed together reading Katie Kazoo Switcheroo as Michelle Obama spoke from her heart about the man she married and the country she so loves.

The next day I watched the speech on YouTube. Toward the end, Michelle spoke about who she was first and foremost amidst the many roles in her life. It was the only noticeable moment where tears filled her eyes.

“And I say all of this tonight not just as First Lady and not just as a wife. You see, at the end of the day, my most important title is still ‘mom-in-chief.’ My daughters are still the heart of my heart and the center of my world.”

As I listened to her, my eyes filled with tears, knowing that I, too, am first and foremost a mom-in-chief to a daughter I love more than words could ever convey. I was moved to tears by that extraordinary love and a future my daughter and all children will be inheriting – a future that I’m not feeling very good about.

Granted the future has always and will always carry with it burdens and responsibilities that the next generation must take on when they have grown. But when it comes to poisoning water and air, the adults in this world right now have a responsibility to stop that poisoning. And right now fracking is at the top of the culprit list.

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Posted in Children, Clean Energy, Clean Food, Air and Water, Fracking

Tagged Angela Monti Fox, Clean Air Act, clean energy, Clean Water Act, Deborah Rogers, Democratic National Convention, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Frack Check WV, fracking, fracking wastewater, gas drilling, Gasland, human stories, hydraulic fracturing, Jannette Barth, Josh Fox, Joyce Hale, Katie Kazoo Switcheroo, Michelle Obama, mom-in-chief, Moms Clean Air Force, Mothers for Sustainable Energy, precautionary principle, renewable energy, safe drinking water, Safe Drinking Water act, solar energy, Stacey Haney, The Mother's Project, wind energy

Josh Fox Explains How Fracking is Consuming Our America

Posted on August 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

At the Frack Attack rally, I caught Josh Fox talking on the sidelines. I am always in awe of his capacity to communicate. He is articulate, accessible, compelling, funny, genuine and spot on. The anti-fracking movement is so fortunate to have him as an international spokesperson, though his film Gasland is clearly one of the main reasons the movement exists.

In this clip, he explains how our country is literally getting eaten up by our addiction to fossil fuels. I’ve known this for a while now, but as he was explaining it, it hit me differently, perhaps because I was at the rally in the front of the Capitol with people from all over this country that have been personally affected by fracking in horrendous ways. Whatever the reason, I could literally see our country getting eaten up, and it fueled my fire to continue fighting to extinguish the madness.

Clean energy is our only chance for a viable future. Our only chance.

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Posted in Clean Energy, Clean Food, Air and Water, Ecological Devastation, Fracking

Tagged clean energy, Don't Frack New York, fossil fuel, fossil fuel industry, fossil fuels, FRAC Act, fracking, Gasland, Haliburton Loophole, hydraulic fracturing, Josh Fox, mountain top removal, MTR, our America, renewable energy

Is Cheap Natural Gas Worth Poisoning Children?

Posted on August 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

Is cheap natural gas worth poisoning children? It’s a question we all need to answer truthfully. Especially when it comes from the mouths of children themselves.

I met Devon Haas at the Stop the Frack Attack rally in Washington, DC. She is a beautiful eight-year-old-girl who was out in the blazing heat with her sign, fully present to do her part to stop the insanity of fracking. She lives in Pennsylvania, where fracking is taking over at lightening speed. Accidents and spills abound, contaminating water and air. The gas industry will not own the contamination they are causing, but they do own the governor and the Department of Environmental Protection.

Devon makes clear the obligation we have as a society to stop the destruction of the planet and get serious about renewable energy. How can we do otherwise? How can we not do our part to make sure the water she drinks and the air she breathes are safe? We are the caretakers of their future, and the future is now.

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Devon is currently involved in Kids of the Gulf, a documentary film in progress that features two kids – Devon and Devin – who are determined to have a positive impact in the Gulf coast region in the aftermath of the BP oil spill by telling the stories of the children affected by the spill. She is also the founder of Kids Army Worldwide , which connects tens of thousands of kids around the world together for environmental and social justice issues that matter most to kids today.

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Posted in Big Oil, Children, Clean Energy, Clean Food, Air and Water, Fracking, Gulf Oil Spill

Tagged clean energy, Devon Haas, FRAC Act, fracking, Gasland, Haliburton Loophole, hydraulic fracturing, IS Foundation, Kids Army, Kids Army Worldwide, renewable energy, safe drinking water, Safe Drinking Water act, Stop the Frack Attack

Tending to Things Small and Large

Posted on October 3, 2011 | 1 comment

Sam in his habitat.

The day after Hurricane Irene, my husband, daughter and I spent a few days vacationing at the beach. While there, our daughter Claire campaigned hard to bring home a new member of the family – a hermit crab. Apprehensive at first, my husband and I concluded it would be an easy enough pet to take of, so we said yes. Armed with bags of sand from the beach, a 2.5-gallon tank, various shells, a sponge, and a plastic palm tree, we headed home, already fond of the little hermit crab – now affectionately called Sam.

Once home, I looked more extensively at information on how to care for hermit crabs, as the pamphlet that came with Sam seemed inadequate. It turns out that, though “hermit” is in their name, they are anything but. Hermit crabs love to hang out with other hermit crabs, ideally in a pack of six to nine, though in their natural habitat they’ll hang out with a hundred of their kin. I wish they had told us about this at the Sea Shell Shop.

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Posted in Children, Clean Energy, Consumerism

Tagged clean energy, climate change, flood, global warming, hermit crabs, hurricane, renewable energy

What the Frack?

Posted on December 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

Up until a few months ago, I had never heard of fracking. If you had asked me what it is, I would have guessed it’s a substitute for a word that one should not use in the presence of children. As it turns out, that is not what it is, but it still has everything to do with something that should never be used in the presence of children.

Hydraulic fracturing, a.k.a. fracking, is an extraction process for natural gas that is currently being conducted in 27 states in the country. Josh Fox, director of the award-winning documentary Gasland, is convinced that fracking is one of the country’s biggest environmental and public health challenges in history. After learning about it myself, I could not agree more. Continue reading →

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Posted in Children, Clean Energy, Clean Food, Air and Water, Ecological Devastation, Fracking

Tagged clean energy, Dr. Theo Colborn, Encana Corporation, fracking, fracking fluid, gas drilling, Gas Land, Halliburton, hydrauic fracturing, Josh Fox, Laura Amos, Pennsylvania, renewable energy, Split Estate