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Action – Deepen Your Commitment
- Living in Harmony with Creation
Practical Action Steps for Getting Started
Here are some suggestions to help you take personal action. If you don't know where to start, consider these practiccal action steps. These suggestions are designed to help individuals or families gain a deeper understanding of caring for creation., and to help you move from understanding to action.
Many of us are out of step with the Earth, living on the edge, and consuming too much. We crave renewal of our spirits, but it is not easy in a commercial world. Living in harmony with creation may mean moving away from the edge, and not worrying about what others do. By living more deliberately, we can think about the excess in our lives that harms the Earth. Each of us can take steps to reduce our impact on the planet and create a life that is more satisfying and honest. Listed on this brochure are some ways to put us in greater harmony with the Earth.
Download brochure: Living in Harmony with Creation
http://www.scorecard.org
By inserting your zip code, you will get an in-depth pollution report for your county, covering air, water, chemicals, and more.
- Environmental Ideas and Experts
http://11thhouraction.com/ideasandexperts
This website dedicated to promoting issues relevant to Leonardo diCaprio’s film “The 11th Hour” has an excellent list of the world’s most prominent environmental thinkers and activists.
http://www.davidsuzuki.org
The David Suzuki Foundation is a science-based Canadian environmental organization, working to protect the balance of nature and our quality of life. This website has a wide range of resources for solving global environmental problems, protecting human health, conserving the oceans, and building a sustainable economy.
- Alternatives for Simple Living
http://www.simpleliving.org
Alternatives for Simple Living produces an excellent catalog of resources. It is a non-profit organization that equips people of faith to challenge consumerism, live justly and celebrate responsibly. Started in 1973 as a protest against the commercialization of Christmas, their focus is on encouraging celebrations that reflect conscientious ways of living.
- Center for a New American Dream
http://www.newdream.org.
The Center for a New American Dream has an excellent website and strong programs, with information on “kids and commercialism,” “simplifying the holidays” and much more. The Center's website includes a web-based calculator (see their Turn the Tide program) to help individuals and groups quantify the impacts of daily lifestyle changes (such as eating less beef, or driving fewer miles.
http://www.earthcareonline.org
EarthCare is a non-profit Christian organization that seeks to educate people about taking care of God's creation.
- Ecological Footprint Quiz
http://www.earthday.net/Footprint/index.asp
The Ecological Footprint is a complex sustainability indicator that answers a simple question: How much of the Earth’s resources does your lifestyle require? Using existing, official statistics that quantify the resources people consume and the waste they generate, Redefining Progress translates this consumption and waste flow data into a measurement of the biologically productive area required to sustain that flow.
http://www.enviroliteracy.org
The Environmental Literacy Council is dedicated to helping citizens, especially young people participate wisely in this arena. An independent non-profit organization. The Council gives teachers the tools to help students develop environmental literacy: a fundamental understanding of the systems of the world, both living and non-living, along with the analytical skills needed to weigh scientific evidence and policy changes.
- National Resource Defense Council
http://www.nrdc.org
NRDC is an environmental action organization using law, science and the support members and to protect the planet’s wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things.
http://www.naturalstep.org
The Natural Step is a framework grounded in natural science that serves as a guide for businesses, communities, educators, government entities, and individuals on the path toward sustainable development.
http://www.redefiningprogress.org.
Redefining Progress has developed an alternative measure of economic well-being – the Genuine Progress Indicator. Unlike the Gross Domestic Product, the GPI subtracts for social and ecological costs. Since the early 1970s, GPI has decreased, while GDP continues to grow.
- Schoolyard Ecology for Elementary School Teachers
http://www.ecostudies.org/syefest
A resource for teachers.
- The Simple Living Network
http://www.simpleliving.net.
The Simple Living Network provides tools, examples and contacts for conscious, simple, healthy and restorative living.
http://www.webofcreation.org
Web of Creation is a website filled with good information, including a page entitled “Sustainable Diet,” with helpful book and internet resources.
http://www.emagazine.com
The online home of an environmental magazine which includes a helpful “Green Living” handbook for living lightly on the Earth.
- Grist Magazine: Environmental News and Commentary
http://www.grist.org
With a rich mix of hard-hitting eco-political coverage, practical tips, hopeful tales, and rib-tickling whimsy, Grist fulfills its tongue-in-cheek mission statement: “gloom and doom with a sense of humor.”
http://www.orionsociety.org
Orion, one of finest environmental magazines, is an influential forum for re-imagining humanity's relationship to nature, culture, and place, featuring America’s foremost writers and artists.
http://www.resurgence.org/
Resurgence is the leading international forum for ecological and spiritual thinking. It is a life-line to the heart of the environmental movement, connecting readers to a world of ideas, tools and resources that are needed to create positive change.
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http://www.earthsave.org
EarthSave has chapters throughout the country (and some overseas). Many chapters hold regular vegetarian potlucks. They have some excellent food specific publications: Our Food, Our World: Transition to Healthy Food Choices, as well as John Robbins’ books Diet For a New America and May All Be Fed.
- Fair Trade Coffee and Tea
http://www.equalexchange.org
Coffee is the world’s second most heavily traded commodity (next to oil). National programs, such as Equal Exchange, The Songbird Foundation, TransFair USA, and the Organic Coffee Association (see below), help to bridge individuals, and entire congregations, with coffee farmers who are guaranteed a fair price for their beans, and who grow coffee in ecologically-beneficial ways. A number of these organizations have programs that link congregations with Fair Trade coffee, enabling congregations to buy and serve shade-grown, organic, and fair-trade coffee as an example of their commitment to protecting communities and ecosystems world-wide. Individuals can purchase such coffees at many retailers; if not, ask yours to stock it!
- Find a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Opportunity Near You:
http://www.biodynamics.com
Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association provides an up-dated list of CSAs, by state. Their web site also has very helpful information about the CSA movement and a wealth of resources on sustainable farming and gardening.
- Find a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Opportunity Near You:
http://www.sare.org/csa/index.htm
The USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program can help you search for a CSA by your specific state and zip code.
- Find a Farmers Market Near You:
http://www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets
The USDA National Directory of Farmers Markets can help you find farmers markets in your state.
- Food First – Institute for Food and Development Policy
http://www.foodfirst.org
A high-quality, member-supported, nonprofit peoples’ think tank and education-for-action center.
http://www.slowfood.com
Slow Food USA is a gastronomic movement ideologically and sensually engaged with regional, traditional foods.
- Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE)
http://www.sare.org
This site includes educational items, news and events, and links to organizations and individuals that support sustainable agriculture across the country.
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Energy and Transportation
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Waste Reduction and Recycling
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Kentucky Environmental Issues
- Kentucky Resources Council
http://www.kyrc.org
The Kentucky Resources Council (KRC) is Kentucky’s only environmental advocacy organization offering legal and strategic assistance without charge to individuals, community groups and local governments statewide as well as providing information about environmental issues facing Kentucky.
http://louisvillegreenguide.org/
This site provides a forum for people to share news and events on environmental issues in Louisville, KY.
http://www.mountainjusticesummer.org
The purpose of this website is to raise world-wide awareness of Mountain Top Removal mining and its effects. Among other focuses, it offers updates on this issue as it impact Kentucky.
- Kentucky Waterways Alliance
http://www.kwalliance.org/
An organization to promote networking, communication and mutual support among groups, government agencies, and businesses working on waterway issues.
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