Kamchatka Project :: Explore to Conserve

Below is the email my friends and I spammed to all our contacts, launching our latest project:

Dear Friend,

As you know, kayaking has played a huge role in my life. This summer I
have the opportunity to realize a life long dream of using kayaking to make
a difference in the world. Our team of 6 kayakers will travel to Eastern
Siberia to explore and document 3 rivers on the Kamchatka Peninsula. We are
working with the Wild Salmon Center to survey these rivers for protection
by the Russian government. In 2009, the Russian government will make
sweeping designations and we have a unique opportunity to play a role in
this critical process.

The cost of this trip exceedes my personal budget and I am asking for your
support with this project. Your tax deductible donation of $25 or more will
make this trip possible.

To learn more please visit our website: www.kamchatkaproject.org
To donate please visit: www.active.com/donate/kamchatka

Thank you for your support,

Tomorrow

It has been a long and terrible time since tomorrow mattered as much as it does today.

* * *

Tomorrow is a place of definitions, where change may come and be welcome even in the smallest degree. Tomorrow will see millions upon millions from every national nook and cranny pour forth in celebration of their own lone and lonesome voices.

* * *

What they call change is nothing more than choice. Tomorrow is another choosing, perhaps the greatest of our lives. Something will happen, and afterward, we will know.
Tomorrow has come at last.

It's the Environment Stupid

The obvious environmental impacts of plastic have long motivated me to reduce my plastic consumption. Jen's studies in Naturopathic Medicine, especially Environmental Medicine, have caused a great reduction in the plastics around our house. And this excellent article gives me even more motivation to NOT buy that next whatever that has more plastic in it. After all,

Aren’t disposable razors and foam packing peanuts a poor consolation prize for the destruction of the world’s oceans, not to mention our own bodies and the health of future generations? “If ‘more is better’ and that’s the only mantra we have, we’re doomed,” Moore says, summing it up.

So as,

awareness of just how hard we’ve bitch-slapped the planet is skyrocketing.

Remember to do something this Fall!

I want change!

Having fun in college

Biking onto campus this morning I was stopped by an elder lady who needed directions. After sorting out where she needed to go, she thanked me and offered this:

You know I went to college once. I took my time; it was eight years before I received my degree. But I only took one class per quarter ... it sure was fun!

She then wished me a fun experience through college.

Don't Drive

Eat Food. Not too Much. Mostly Plants

The title of this post is MICHAEL POLLEN'S boiled down and simplified advice to the ever-complex and often confusing answers to the proverbial question: What should I eat. He explains this and elaborates in the excellent article that recently appeared in the NY Times:

CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY.

I strongly recommend reading this article. For a sneak peak:

Of course it’s also a lot easier to slap a health claim on a box of sugary cereal than on a potato or carrot, with the perverse result that the most healthful foods in the supermarket sit there quietly in the produce section, silent as stroke victims, while a few aisles over, the Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms are screaming about their newfound whole-grain goodness.

“The problem with nutrient-by-nutrient nutrition science,” points out Marion Nestle, the New York University nutritionist, “is that it takes the nutrient out of the context of food, the food out of the context of diet and the diet out of the context of lifestyle.”

Not everyone can afford to eat well in America, which is shameful, but most of us can: Americans spend, on average, less than 10 percent of their income on food, down from 24 percent in 1947, and less than the citizens of any other nation. And those of us who can afford to eat well should. Paying more for food well grown in good soils — whether certified organic or not — will contribute not only to your health (by reducing exposure to pesticides) but also to the health of others who might not themselves be able to afford that sort of food: the people who grow it and the people who live downstream, and downwind, of the farms where it is grown.

If this kind of reading is of interest to you, (and I think it should at least concern everybody, if not fascinate) be sure to check out Pollen's book: OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA

cheers ...