Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

Find a CSA program near you. Get freshest local grown high quality food on the cheap while helping your local farmer!

http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

Findhorn

Located on the West coast of Scotland, The Findhorn Foundation is a spiritual community, ecovillage and an international centre for holistic education, helping to unfold a new human consciousness and create a positive and sustainable future.

http://www.findhorn.org/index.php?tz=240

The Findhorn Foundation community is an experiment in conscious living, an education centre and an ecovillage with year round events and workshops on permaculture design, transition town training and sustainable living. 


They are the community with the lowest recorded ecological footprint in the developed world.

Earth 911

Popular topics include

1. How Kids Are Saving the Planet
2. Why People Don’t Recycle
3. Cheat Sheet: Solar Power
4. Fake Products Receive Energy Star Certification
5. Pros & Cons of Solar Power/Panels

Excellent resource. Lots of original material.

http://earth911.com/

The Pickens Plan

T. Boone Pickens, the renowned oil billionaire and corporate raider lays out a comprehensive plan to break America's addiction to foreign oil. This plan includes a new wind power infrastructure, vehicles fueled by natural gas and a reduction in coal use.

http://www.pickensplan.com/theplan/

350

It's the most important number in the world. 

http://www.350.org/

350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide—measured in "Parts Per Million" in our atmosphere. 350 PPM—it's the number humanity needs to get back to as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change.

We are at about 370 now. Meaning we are all going to die if we don't change this. When I say "all going to die" I mean the human race will cease to exist.

The Story of Stuff

This is the video sensation that led to the book of the same name. One of the most motivating books I have read.

Watch the 20 min video.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Then buy the book at your local community bookstore.

Then do something.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

What is bigger than Texas and floating in the ocean but can't be seen from space? It's a message in a bottle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch

Who is doing something about it?

http://www.gyrecleanup.org/

http://junkraft.com/

http://www.projectkaisei.org/

Peak Oil

This is one of those inconvenient truths. 


http://www.postpeakliving.com/


What happens when world oil production peaks? Internatinal Energy Agency says NON OPEC oil will peak in two years then production will plateu and then go down. OPEC production is set to peak in 2020. 


The world has been binge shopping for energy with a credit card that is about to reach its limit. This is for real and happening if you want it to or not or if you are prepared or not. 


This is a little apocalyptic. Get your hand crank flashlight and radio etc. I know you heard about the total collapse of the world as we know it somewhere before, but take a look at the facts presented. He may be wrong in some of his analysis of what will happen or when, but there is no getting around the fact that oil prices are going to skyrocket soon. America with staggering national debt, decaying infrastructure and major oil dependency will be impacted and will no longer drive the world economy.  


This will happen if you expect it or if you don't.  

I live in a Transition Town

Chapel Hill is a Transition Town. So ... What's that?

http://www.transitionnetwork.org/

 The website says, "A Transition Initiative (which could be a town, village, university or island etc) is a community-led response to the pressures of climate change, fossil fuel depletion and increasingly, economic contraction."


The site explains the whole process of how you can start making the place YOU live a transition town. The founders of this movement are frank that they don't know if this idea will work and that it is a huge social experiment, but the government is not really fixing this problem and individuals can't do much either. Uniting with a community movement might not work either, but it's certainly worth trying. 


Chapel Hill has a population of 50,000 but mid size cities like Albany NY and Austin TX are also trying this as well as some large cities like London and Bangkok. 

Blown up any good mountains lately?

You probably did.

http://www.ilovemountains.org/

Just input your zipcode to see what mountains are being blown up for your electricity.

Also LOTS of news about coal industry and what you can do.

The Good Guide

http://www.goodguide.com/

This site is for you if you want non-toxic, environmentally friendly products from companies with good social and safety records. 


GoodGuide rates over 65,000 products based on these factors.


Much more than that, it will show you exactly what the bad stuff is in the products you buy. I will give you a couple of examples. Breakfast. 


Post Honey Bunches of Oats with Real Peaches sounds like a good idea for breakfast. Honey is good for you, oats are good for cholesterol control and real peaches sounds healthy. But ... http://www.goodguide.com/products/223531-post-honey-bunches-of-oats-with-real-peaches-cerea/see_all_data It turns out that there is no nutritional value, lots of high fructose corn syrup and it is big on air pollution. 


Alternatives include Honey Bunches Of Oats Honey Roasted Cereal which although it still has enriched or fortified ingredients has a MUCH higher nutrition rating with only medium sugars and other numbers much better than the similar product from the same manufacturer. 

JOHNSON'S Head-To-Toe Baby Wash turns out to have a known carcinogen linked to breast cancer. Maybe you don't want to wash your baby head to toe in that. 

You can try this out with personal care products, food, household chemicals, and toys.