February 2007
If you have a spare minute tonight, March 20th.
Tonight, March 20th, is the last night to sign the petition before Al Gore hand delivers the petition while testifying at the Congressional hearings on Climate Crisis. I know from personal experience,” says Al Gore, “that the only thing that will make Washington really take notice and do something to solve the climate crisis is the prospect of millions of committed citizens taking action. It's time to join together and make that happen. It takes less than one minute to sign Al Gore’s climate change petition. [please sign here tonight]
Step It Up on the South Coast
The Marion Institute staff, members and friends from other organizations are organizing a series of morning events in New Bedford that will be part of Bill McKibben’s Step it Up 07 day of climate action, Saturday, April 14th.
On that day, we will be joining tens of thousands of Americans gathering all across the country at meaningful, iconic places to call for action on climate change. This is an invitation to help start a movement—to take one spring day and use it to reshape the future.
Local activists, environmentalists and concerned parents and children will be gathering at the New Bedford Whaling Museum at 10:00 - Noon to celebrate innovative climate action already taking place on the South Coast. The group will then divide into teams who will tour the city center, handing out climate action tip sheets to local businesses and citizens.
For more information about how you can help Step it Up, please contact the Marion Institute by phone at 508.748.0816 or by email.
A Buyout Deal That Has Many Shades of Green
February 26, 2007 | Andrew Ross Sorkin | New York Times
A few weeks ago, Fred Krupp, the president of Environmental Defense, received an unusual phone call. William K. Reilly, the former administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency under President George H. W. Bush, was on the other end. But before Mr. Reilly would explain the reason for his call, he said he needed an assurance from Mr. Krupp that he would keep the conversation confidential. [more.]
The power of intention
issue 40 | Lynne McTaggart | Ode Magazine
After poring over data from many people who use the power of intention successfully in their own lives, I believe the art of intention can enhance our performance in many activities, and even affect our health. [more.]
Life Force
Boston Globe | Stephen P. Kiernan | January 14, 2007
Dr. Ira Byock begins his morning rounds by delivering newspapers. With 15 copies of the Valley News tucked under his arm, his first stop is the chemotherapy clinic. For each patient he holds up the front page. "Would you like a paper?" Most people brighten at once and say yes. So do patients in the radiation unit, and people in the cancer center's main waiting room. Healthcare consumer advocates say that Dr. Byock is helping change how people die by changing how they live. Dr. Byock is transforming the way people with terminal illnesses are treated in Massachusetts. Can his style of work influence the rest of the nation as well? [more.]
Creating Green-Collar Jobs
January 23 2007 | Van Jones and Ben Wyskida | Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
It was 70 degrees in New York City last week, setting flowers into bloom and residents into T-shirts in the dead of winter. Here in Oakland, Calif., we scraped ice off of our windshields for the first time in years. Even the most well-funded Exxon research study couldn't convince us - or America - that global warming is a hoax. [more.]
[pictured above; Van Jones, Bioneers by the Bay 2006, photo by Kevin Trimmer]
Unhappy Meals
January 28, 2007| Michael Pollan | New York Times Magazine
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy. I hate to give away the game right here at the beginning of a long essay, and I confess that I’m tempted to complicate matters in the interest of keeping things going for a few thousand more words. [more.]
Slow Food USA
Slow Food USA envisions a future food system that is based on the principles of high quality and taste, environmental sustainability, and social justice – in essence, a food system that is good, clean and fair. We seek to catalyze a broad cultural shift away from the destructive effects of an industrial food system and fast life; toward the regenerative cultural, social and economic benefits of a sustainable food system, regional food traditions, the pleasures of the table, and a slower and more harmonious rhythm of life. [download the Slow Food companion guide.]
Check this out.
Once available only to our members who were able to visit the village of Marion, all 3,000 books in the Institute’s lending library are now available through our website. The collection is focused on the Marion Institute’s particular fields of interest: Health and Healing, Metahistory, Environment, Frontiers of Science, Indigenous Peoples and Tools for Personal Growth. [more.]
The World I Built from Darkness
January 2007 | Ross Robertson | What is Enlightenment
Meet the amazing Zoltan Torey, a blind man who goes sightseeing, watches tennis on television, does his own roofing repairs—and may even have cracked the riddle of consciousness. [more.]
If you only have 18 seconds…
It only takes 18 seconds to change a light. You can save energy and cash now by switching to Energy Star CFL light bulbs. And at 18seconds.org, find out just how ‘enlightened’ you community is.
Save a tree. Read a PDF.
Over 100 Marion Institute members have already signed on to receive our new PDF [or digital] version of our “Quarterly Mailer.” The PDF Quarterly Mailer reduces waste, oil and CO2 emissions not to mention staff time and postage costs. The digital version of the Mailer also offers flexibility: allowing people the option to read the articles online, print only the pieces that are of deep interest, or print the entire Mailer.
If you have not already requested the Quarterly Mailer as a PDF document, we invite you to do so by placing your full name [and the email address that you wish to receive the Mailer at] in the body of an email and send it to info@marioninstitute.org. We realize the printed Quarterly Mailer is a great tradition of the Institute. For those that are not yet online – or simply wish to continue receiving the hard- copy version of it in the mail – we will honor their desires and will continue to provide other ideas for our members to help heal the planet – and its inhabitants.
“The more we pour the big machines, the fuel, the pesticides, the herbicides, the fertilizer and chemicals into farming, the more we knock out the mechanism that made it all work in the first place.”
- David R. Brower
