In the Fall 2007 issue of Creation Care magazine, Larry Schweiger of the National Wildlife Federation writes about the importance of outdoor play time for children. The article was entitled “Leave No Child Indoors: Time Spent Outdoors Shapes Character, Health and Environmental Attitudes.”
My mother would often say that I lived outdoors and I suspect that many of you spent a great deal of your time outdoors too. My brothers and I roamed for hours across the hills of Northern Allegheny County, climbing trees, building forts, and constructing dams in the creeks…
Researchers in such places as Chicago and Boston are studying how the nationwide childhood obesity epidemic may cause shorter life-spans for the next generation. They conclude that, while we have enjoyed increases in expected lifespan for several decades, the new lack of childhood activity and its extra pounds can lead to adult-onset diabetes and can actually shorten average lifespan from three to five years.
Parents have become unnecessarily more fearful, though outdoor “stranger danger” is nothing compared to indoor threats. The risk of kidnapping by a stranger is one to two chances in a million. Most sexual assaults on children are from adults they already know. And yet, the risk of a child communicating with a sexual predator online is one in five…
The reality of the world we live in today is that children are more at risk for predation by strangers they meet in a chat room than by strangers at the park. Spending so much time in the screen space rather than the green space isn’t something we should encourage.
01-14-2008 |
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As University of Oregon professor Mark Gillem’s newly released first book, America Town: Building the Outposts of Empire and his upcoming address at a NATO conference suggests, the use of space/land is very different in the US than in most other nations. It seems these cultural norms are not really considered when the US establishes a base in another country.
Two interesting facts: 1) the units of measure most often used to describe land in the US as compared to South Korea and Japan and what that says about each cultures perceptions about land use 2) his survey indicating that the biggest complaint about US bases in other countries was not that the base was there but that they were huge and didn’t use the land efficiently - and that the military didn’t know about that concern. Read the rest of this entry »
12-11-2007 |
2 Comments »Inspired by the Summer 2007 issue of Creation Care magazine, our family has set a goal of significantly lowering our electric bill. We started with a family meeting, where we agreed that we need to reduce our use of electricity to be better stewards of our financial resources and of God’s creation. We came up with the following ideas:
1. Use the heater less - this one will be toughest for me as I am constantly cold and I find it very easy to just turn on the heater every time I go into a room, I’m working on wearing a sweater and using lap blankets more
2. Add more compact fluorescent light bulbs - about half the light bulbs in our house are still incandescent so we will purchase several more “twisties” and work toward 100% fluorescent
3. Turn off the heated dry on the dishwasher - this will require some towel drying but it will save a lot of electricity
4. Taking shorter showers - or using less water for a bath
Read the rest of this entry »
11-14-2007 |
7 Comments »“As part of this insane and suicidal economy, we act as though the resources we consume are infinite and the wastes we deposit are invisible. Just as our bodies consume food and produce excrement, in this economy we consume trees and produce smoke, consume clean air and produce smog, consume clean water and produce sewage and toxic waste, consume rock and produce radiation, consume oil and coal and produce gases that turn our planet into an overheating oven in which storms boil and oceans rise and deserts spread and forests wither. Our prosperity system thus becomes an excrement factory.”– Brian McLaren, from a preview of Everything Must Change
07-23-2007 |
12 Comments »“Great scientists are people of imagination. So are people of great faith. We dare to imagine a world in which science and religion cooperate, minimizing our differences about how Creation got started, to work together to reverse its degradation. We will not allow it to be progressively destroyed by human folly.”
- Rev. Richard Cizik, Urgent Call To Action
06-25-2007 |
No Comments »“O Lord, what a variety of things you have made!
In wisdom you have made them all.
The earth is full of your creatures.”- Psalm 104:24
Yesterday morning as I was reading the beautiful creation hymn Psalm 104, I was reminded of an organization I recently learned about that might be of interest to our readers. The Noah Alliance is a coalition of Jewish and Christians activists who have come together in support of the Endangered Species Act. They focus on their shared faith traditions and on protecting biodiversity and preserving threatened habitats.
It was especially encouraging to see that evangelicals are active in this alliance. For so long, the evangelical community has seemed indifferent, or even hostile to, environmental concerns. But the tide seems to be shifting as more and more evangelicals recognize that creation care is a biblical mandate. As Rich Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals often says, “God is not going to ask us how he created the earth. He will ask us what we did with the earth he created.”
05-25-2007 |
2 Comments »You know how you can start searching for something on the internet and then wind up someplace else? Recently, I discovered this video of Bill Clinton annoucing his “wish” at the TED awards. It was on someone’s blog (http://www.matchmine.com/blog/2007/05/03/the-ted-prize).
From the blog,
Bill Clinton won the prize this year, and elected to speak about his attempts to right the non-deeds of his administration in Rwanda.
I was so moved by that statement and Bill’s speech, I had to share it wth others. I ask as you listen and watch the video that you set aside any of your preconceived notions of who Bill Clinton is. Read the rest of this entry »
05-08-2007 |
5 Comments »Over this last week I’ve had a couple smallish opportunities to do something smallish and been encouraged in both of them. First of all I finally followed up on a suggestion from Julie Clawson, and bought fair trade sugar from Amazon. We had run out of sugar (probably not a bad thing) and so I though it an ideal time. However, I was feeling a little guilty, because this sugar costs 4 times “normal” sugar, and we are not exactly in brilliant financial straits at this time. My friend Karl (a Mennonite, interestingly), encouraged me in this. He said that I am simply assuming the full fair price of the sugar, instead of outsourcing that full cost to someone else who is actually a lot worse off than me financially. This made me feel good. I also felt stoked when I actually received the box full of 10 one pound boxes of sugar via Amazon. I read the little blurb on the back about the Alter Trade Foundation and their Alter Eco Products, and I felt rather proud of myself.
The other thing I did this last week was inspired by Anna and by something Brian Mclaren said at an event I recently went to. He said that one of the evil results of nationalism is that nobody cares about any place. That is, we think of ourselves as Americans, and thus not as a member of this little neighborhood above Nathan Hale High School. Brian said “Learn your address–not your street address–your environmental address. You live in a watershed. Something is happening in terms of water geographically and environmentally where you live. Check it out on google earth.” This got me to thinking about my particular watershed, and little old Thornton Creek down there and how stuff moves at various rates down into that, and gradually out into Lake Washington, Puget Sound, and the Pacific. And it made me notice litter. So I grabbed a plastic bag when my girls and I walked down to the park next to Thornton Creek, and we picked up litter along the way. My two preschool girls really got into. It became “It’s *my* turn to hold the bag” and “Look, there’s some more garbage–I’ll get it!”. Made me feel really good in lots of ways.
Read the rest of this entry »
05-02-2007 |
3 Comments »“We hope this provides a place for refuge from the polarization of society for people of all faiths, and all spectrums of their faiths. The earth is in crisis. Those who will suffer the most will be the most vulnerable. Our heartstrings are pulled at and our spirit crushed or lifted with every soul. We are all part of creation.”
- Dan Borroff of Faith Forward
The Interfaith Creation Festival will be held in Seattle on May 31-June 3 and is being hosted by a coalition of Muslim, Jewish and Christian groups who are all committed to the practice of creation care. This gathering will feature keynote speakers from a variety of faith traditions and celebrate creation through poetry, music and storytelling. Participants will learn about theological foundations, sustainability and innovations and be equipped to make a difference through environmental advocacy and activism.
Recently I spoke with Dan Borroff, one of the organizers, about the vision for this new event…
Dan explained that the idea began a few years ago with some people from St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle. They envisioned an ecumenical gathering to address issues of environmental concern, including the threat of climate change. They wanted to help promote a faith-based environmental movement based on an awareness of the theology of creation within the Christian tradition.
After observing some of the fruitful interfaith alliances that had taken place in Seattle in the past, they recognized the need to broaden the coalition to include Jewish and Muslim faith communities, building on the shared belief in the responsibility of humankind to steward and care for the earth. The festival is also open to anyone with a spiritual connection to and concern for the earth, regardless of whether they belong to a religious tradition.
Read the rest of this entry »
04-22-2007 |
1 Comment »10. Don’t use coffee filters or colored paper towels- they have been bleached!!
9. Shorten your showers!!
8. Travel in your car less- use a bike or walk or take a bus or even carpool (you don’t need 5 cars for 5 people going to the same place, do you?)
7. Reduce junk mail- write to places to get your name off big junk mail lists
6. Install low-flow faucet airaetors- they can be found in your local hardware store
5. Don’t use items with dangerous chemicals- these include air fresheners, permenent markers and many other items
4. Pick up trash- six pack rings and other garbage can be very harmfull to wildlife
3. Compost
2. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!!
1. Plant a tree- we need cleaner air!
03-27-2007 |
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