RealitySandwich - Eco

Deforestation Threatens Indonesia

Reality Sandwich — Wed, 22 May 2013 06:01:57 -0700

[Action Alert] • A unique and pristine forest is being threatened in Indonesia. A local governor wants to give the go-ahead to palm oil and mining companies to move in on the land—a massive ecosystem with endangered species. Orangutans, elephants, and tigers are all threated by this deforestation.

Monstanto vs. Mother Earth

Reality Sandwich — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:25:10 -0700

[Action Alert] • It’s unbelievable, but Monsanto and Co. are at it again. These profit-hungry biotech companies have found a way to gain exclusive control over the seeds of life – the source of our food. They’re trying to patent away varieties of our everyday vegetables and fruits like cucumber, broccoli and melons, virtually forcing growers to pay them for seed and risk being sued if they don’t.

Victory for Bees: EU Passes Insecticide Ban

Arianna A Garofalo — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:25:22 -0700

Culture and Horticulture: An Historical Sketch

Wolf D. Storl — Tue, 07 May 2013 03:29:02 -0700

The following is excerpted from Culture and Horticulture by Wolf D. Storl, published by North Atlantic Books.

Save the Sumatran Rainforest

Reality Sandwich — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:14:14 -0700

[Action Alert] • The Sumatran rainforest is the last place on Earth where endangered orang utans, tigers, elephants and rhinos still roam free together. There is a government plan that would allow devastating logging of our forest for mining and palm oil plantations.

Eco Friendly Online Marketplace

David Wilder — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:40:26 -0700

Eco Market is a new and innovative online marketplace devoted to ethical shopping. The website features products that are made with environmental awareness and has been described as "Etsy for Eco."

Eco Market launched in October 2010 and features sellers across the world, with thousands of products ranging from Fairtrade coffee, to handmade natural soap, to up-cycled shirts.

The Circle of Life

Melinda Joy Miller — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:10:42 -0700

The following is excerpted from Shamanic Gardening: Timeless Techniques for the Modern Sustainable Garden, published by Process Media.

For fifteen years, I facilitated a Sacred Space study group. We met weekly and studied a specific plant, bird or animal. In a meadow near my home outside Philadelphia, we were studying the flower Indian paintbrush (Castilleja mutis). It is a striking, scarlet flower that helps open the mind to the special realms of nature.

Sing for Earth Day

Reality Sandwich — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 09:19:44 -0700

Celebrate Earth Day with the Rainforest Alliance by participating in the singalong!

Following the success of the You Don’t Own Me PSA with Lesley Gore and the Don’t Frack My Mother PSA with Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono, we are teaming up with the Rainforest Alliance to make a PSA for EARTH DAY! This time we are asking you to wear GREEN and lip-synch to The Village Green Preservation Society by the Kinks.

The Monsanto Act

Daniel Pinchbeck — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:58:02 -0700

Congress passed a bill last week that included a provision which "protects genetically modified seeds from litigation in the face of health risks." This provision is now called the "Monsanto Act." This provision was snuck into an "emergency" bill (it's always an emergency, isn't it?) which prevented the shutdown of the government, and many of those who voted for it may not have actually read it.

New York Hosts Green Scene

David Wilder — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 06:24:39 -0700

Evolver is proud to be a media sponsor of NYC's Green Festival this year.

7th Annual World Peace Earth Day Celebration

Arianna A Garofalo — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:41:16 -0700

Are you in New York City and looking for a great way to celebrate Earth Day? The 7th Annual World Peace Earth Day Celebration will be the perfect way to unite with fellow humans and Mother Earth to express love and gratitude. There will be a number of presenters to spread inspirational messages, give sound and vibrational healing, and provide heart-opening music.

Library Turns to Seeds

Andrew Cameron — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 10:28:58 -0800

The borrowing scheme allows members of the Basalt Regional Library in western Colorado to check out and take home a packet of heirloom seeds to plant. They then have six months to grow the crop, harvest and return some seeds from the strongest plants.

Sustainability is Mainly a Spiritual Crisis, Not a Material One

Caroline Savery — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 03:10:04 -0800

The following originally appeared on Sust Enable.

New York Times Closes Environment Desk

David Wilder — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:02:54 -0800

The End of Nature and the Birth of the Supra-organism

Daniel Pinchbeck — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 11:27:51 -0800

Criminalize Ecocide

Matt Toussaint — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 09:52:14 -0800

A European Citizens Initiative intends to put new laws in place that aim to end ecocide and hold violators of these laws criminally responsible.

According to the Initiative, the tentative legal definition of ecocide is:

Oil Showdown in the Amazon

Reality Sandwich — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 12:01:47 -0800

[Action Alert] • There is one area of the Ecuadorian Amazon that is so pristine that the whole ecosystem has been preserved and even jaguars roam free! But the government is now threatening to go in and drill for oil.

Ecuador’s Sani Isla Kichwa people have asked for our help to stop the government turning their forest home into an oil field. A massive scandal in the global media challenging President Correa to act on his environmental principles could persuade him to pull back and stop the Amazon oil rush.

Eliminating Waste and Creating Community

Arianna A Garofalo — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:32:21 -0800

Urban farming is on the rise across the country, and one of its most fascinating forms is aquaponics, which combines hydroponics, a growing method that uses water instead of soil, and aquaculture, seafood farming.

Bump in Genetic Mutations

Hildemar — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 08:37:39 -0800

This is the dawning of a new era in our genetic makeup. A recent report published in Nature magazine warns of the sudden rush of mutations amongst us, with the majority of the mutations occurring in the last 5,000 years.

Help the Xingu Tribe

Faye Sakellaridis — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 12:52:40 -0800

[Action Alert] • The Belo Monte Dam project aims to destroy a significant piece of the Amazon rain forest, and displace the Xingu tribal community. The dam is being constructed so that the river bed can be mined for gold using gigantic floating platforms that will drill and suck the riverbed of all gold, destroying the ecosystem in the process.

Corals and Gobies: A Symbiotic Love Story

Linda Maa — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:17:39 -0800

Coral reefs are threatened across the world's oceans by seaweed. Scientists and ecologists have found a natural protection mechanism within the biology of the corals themselves. A study posted in the journal of Science has shown that a certain species of coral, Acropora nasuta, releases a chemical signal to attract the gobies species Gobidon histrio and Paragobidon enchinocephalus to the site of attack when threatened by a harmful seaweed.

Celestial Brain

Osirian Dawn — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 09:07:23 -0800

"As above, so below." - Hermes Trismegistus

Nature rears her typically secretive multidimensional, holofractal infinite Self within plain sight as one the latest scientific discoveries revealed that the universe grows in the same way as a giant brain.

2012, Climate Change and Permaculture

Starhawk — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 04:08:06 -0800

2012, is it really the end of the world? Are the tectonic plates going to tilt, like in the movie, and dump us off? Will the earth crack open and the seas split?

Unlikely. You can breathe a qualified sigh of relief. Mayan shamans and scholars tell us that the close of this great cycle of the Mayan calendar is not the cue for apocalypse but rather a new beginning, another turn of the wheel.

Sacred Law

Polly Higgins — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 02:33:06 -0800

In April 2010, I proposed to the United Nations a law of Ecocide. My proposal has at its heart a fundamental intrinsic value the sacredness of all life.

Slime Molds: Brainless Intelligence

Linda Maa — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 08:11:50 -0800

Slime molds, the yellow, finger-like spongy masses on the sides of rocks and logs, are smarter than they appear. Nova and Scientific American have partnered to produce this video, an excerpt from their series ScienceNow, which premiered November 7th, 2012. It features the Physarum polycephalum, nicknamed "Spongebob Squarepants" for its yellow, spongy appearance.

Climate Change Influenced Maya Downfall

David Wilder — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 08:08:32 -0800

The Maya was one of the most advanced civilizations in history, and its seemingly sudden disappearance has remained unexplained until recently. A paper published in the November 9 issue of Science, written by a research team led by environmental anthropologist Douglas Kennett, presents its case for how climate change led to the downfall of the Maya civilization.

Antarctic Sanctuary

Faye Sakellaridis — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 08:50:31 -0800

[Action Alert] • Within days, government can begin turning wide stretches of the Antarctic ocean into the world's largest marine sanctuary, saving the habitat of whales, penguins, and thousands of other polar species from industrial fishing fleets. But they won't act unless we speak out now.

Most countries support this, but Russia, South Korea, and a few others are threatening to vote it down. This week, a small group of negotiators will meet to come to a decision.

Green Festival Returns to Los Angeles

Alison Lance — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 08:16:50 -0800

Reality Sandwich and Evolver are proud media sponsors of Green Festival, the nation’s largest and most trusted environmental consumer event. It makes its return to Los Angeles on November 17-18, 2012 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Food Myths Debunked!

Kelly Fragale — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 06:57:31 -0800

Foodmyths.org is a one-stop shop to answer ALL of our burning questions about food.

The first animated film in the series will debunk the myth that “we need industrial agriculture to feed the world."

Genetically Modified Food Labeling

David Wilder — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 06:58:15 -0800

Many crops grown in the United States are genetically engineered to kill pests or withstand being sprayed with weed killers. If California's Proposition 37 passes, foods that contain these crops will need to be labeled to wind up on a grocery store's planogram. This article in The Sacramento Bee covers both sides of the argument.