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Ecology
Tu B'Shevat
"New Year for Trees"
 - February 7 and 8 - 
adds new meaning in 2012
50 Jewish Leaders Commit
To Reduce Energy Use,
Advocate for Energy Security
           The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) announced on February 6 that a diverse group of community leaders has joined its Jewish
Energy Covenant Campaign by signing the "Jewish Environment and Energy Imperative" declaration. 

           Rabbis from the Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Reform and Renewal movements and other communal leaders set the goal of significantly lowering greenhouse-gas emissions, advocating for energy independence and security, and reducing the Jewish community's energy consumption 14% by 2014.

More . . . 

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Eco-Mind: 
Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want

          "I'm neither an optimist nor a pessimist," says Frances Moore Lappe.  "I am a dyed-in-the-wool possibilist!
          "By this, I mean with an eco-mind, we see that everything's connected and change is the only constant.  From there, something shifts for me.  I can see that we're all actually co-creating our future moment to moment - which feels like endless possibility. . . .

"With an eco-mind we get ready for surprises, for we realize it's just not possible to know what's possible.  How freeing.  That's the hope I hope Eco-Mind helps to unleash in the world."
(Interview with Mark Karlin for Truthout) 
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Do you know the polar bear's snout is long so that it can help warm the cold Arctic air that's inhaled?

Do you know the polar bear has a better sense of smell than
other bears and can smell food
20 miles away or 6 feet under snow and ice?


        What's So Amazing About Polar Bears: Teaching Kids to Care
for Creation (by Hammer, Evans, and Blokland) is an interactive, Christian-based program for elementary school-aged children. 

        Each lesson has an ecology theme with a scriptural background for study, reflection, and discussion - fun facts relevant to the topic - experiential activities to engage the children and reinforce the lesson.  Children will learn while having fun, exploring ways to care for God's precious creation: earth and its inhabitants.

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DROUGHT:
A Creeping Disaster
          Climatologists call drought "a creeping disaster" because its effects are not felt at once.  Others compare drought to a python, which slowly and inexorably squeezes its prey to death. . . .
          Richard Seagar, climatologist at Columbia University, says of the world's remarkable dry-out, "You can't really call it a drought because that implies a temporary change.  The models show a progressive aridification.  You don't say, "The Sahara is in drought."  It's a desert.  If the models are right, then the Southwest will face a permanent drying out." . . .
          In 2008, for the first time, more people lived in cities than in rural communities worldwide, and water is becoming urbanized. . . .
          Meanwhile, global demand for water is expected to increase by two-thirds by 2025, and the United Nations fears a "looming water crisis." [W]e must redefine how we think of water, value it, and use it. . .
          The python of drought is already wrapped tightly around us, and in weeks - and years - to come it will squeeze us dangerously dry.
Alex Prud'homme
New York Times
July 17, 2011

Consider The Ripple Effect,
a new book by Alex Prud'homme:
Alex Prud'homme makes a vast and desperately serious topic flow beautifully through the rocks and hard places that our planet is caught between.

Both drought and flood are on the rise, and Alex-Prud'homme . . . helps you understand why. 
We've taken the planet's hydrology for granted
for the 10,000 years of human civilization;
that's a luxury we can no longer afford. 
                                                                     --Bill McKibben, Environmentalist

Does the world have enough water?

Try thinking outside the bottle
 with this video



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IF
we could turn the population of the earth

into a small community of just 100 people,

keeping the same proportions we have today,

it would be something like this:

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What about climate change?

Global warming
One major organization

 TCKTCKTCK

brings together many environmental groups,

addresses many crucial issues