Smoking hot climate change video

Through the organization 350.org, on October 24, people in every corner of the planet coordinated the most widespread day of environmental action in the planet's history. At over 5,200 events, people gathered to call for strong action and bold leadership on the climate crisis. By the day's end, it was clear: people of all kinds are calling for a fair, ambitious, and binding global climate treaty.

During the week of Dec 7-18, world leaders, including President Obama, will meet in Copenhagen to craft a new global treaty on climate change. It is up to us to make sure the treaty is strong and that world leaders hear the urgency of our message.

Watch the video.

Swine Flu, Climate Change and a Middle of the Night Tantrum

By Joellen Raderstorf, Director of MAU, on The Huffington Post

My tweetdeck is pinging like crazy since I began searching entries on swine flu, more than Oprah and three times more than climate change. In face-to-face conversations, I’ve heard dozens say “I think I had the swine flu.” I haven’t once heard someone say, “I sent my Senators a letter today, requesting immediate action on climate change” or “Today is my no drive day, I’m hoping to recover from climate change.”

So I consult the experts: I’m carpooling (chauffeuring) my teenagers, with the beautiful Colorado sky heavy with smoke from California fires, and NPR broadcasting another story of H1N1. I ask this captive crowd “Why aren’t people as concerned about global warming?” Their analysis is spot on: “People can imagine getting deathly sick from the flu; everyone has experienced this to some degree. However, most people don’t know what it feels like to suffer from climate change.” Interesting observation coming from children who literally ran from the Asian tsunami in 2004.

Three tweets cross my screen all reading “India's swine flu toll crosses 400.” A quick Google search yields perspective: 3,000 children die every day in India due to hunger and malnutrition, and 3,900 children die every day around the globe from water borne diseases (WHO 2004). According to UNICEF, climate change is expected to intensify these threats and also likely to accelerate certain large-scale environmental changes, including desertification, diminishing freshwater resources and biodiversity loss, which has far-reaching effects on child health and wellbeing.

Herein lies the kernel of my middle-of-the-night tantrum: where is our collective panic about climate change? Our energy consumptive lifestyles do not blink in the quake of devastating floods, receding glaciers and starving children. Instead we are arming ourselves with anti-bacterial gel and flu shots. "Swine flu and climate change are inextricably related," says Angela Mawle, CEO of the UK Public Health Association. "Both are the end results of unbridled economic growth, environmental degradation and industrial agricultural practices. When will we ever learn that prevention is better than cure?"

Consider this post an invitation to a full scale mother tantrum until we collectively get serious about addressing the grave threat climate change poses to our children and grandchildren, and start talking and tweeting about it.

Raise a ruckus on Oct. 24th, the International Day of Climate Action, find out how at 1sky.org and 350.org. And that’s a tweet.

Download UNICEF’s report, CLIMATE CHANGE AND CHILDREN: A human security challenge, to read more about the threats of climate change as well as adaptation and mitigation strategies.

By Joellen Raderstorf, Director of Mothers Acting Up. Follow her on Twitter: www.twitter.com/earnest_mama

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joellen-raderstorf/swine-flu-climate-change_b_323276.html

Will you call your Senator today?

Call your Senator and ask her/him to pass the Clean Energy Jobs bill.

The American public overwhelmingly wants a strong clean energy bill, but fossil fuel interests are using tricks to try and maintain the status quo. They're already generating hundreds of opposition calls to our Senators, so we need to raise our voices NOW to cut through the noise and urge support for a strong bill! Our partners at the 1Sky Campaign have made it easy for you to call your Senator -- just visit http://www.1sky.org/call to get some talking points and to get connected to your Senator toll-free. With your help we can stand 10,000 calls strong for clean energy!

June 19th National Day of Action on Climate Change

On Friday, June 19th, 1Sky and groups like MoveOn, Green for All, Oxfam and others are calling for a national day of action to make the climate bill stronger. It's a day for you to "get visible" in your community. Please invite your family, friends and neighbors to rally at your representative's district office and make your voice heard loud and clear.

Sign up now for this national day of action: http://www.1sky.org/getlouder

Your voice lets your representative know that there are concerned citizens -- like you -- who want a stronger bill to create millions of clean energy jobs and begin to tackle climate change. So now it's time to get louder!

They are trying to improve this bill in three key ways:

• Ensure More Clean Energy for America: By increasing the renewable energy and energy efficiency standards.

• Hold Polluters Accountable: By restoring authority to the EPA to mandate cleaner technology for power plants.

• Create More Clean Energy Jobs for America: Limit giveaways to polluting industries, like Big Oil and Dirty Coal, and instead bolster green job development and protection of vulnerable communities.

Why June 19th? Right now, several committees are working on this bill, and we expect a House floor vote by the end of June. This is the critical moment we've been working for in the House, so it's time to make ourselves visible!

Join with communities and voices all across America this Friday and push for a stronger climate bill. As we get closer to a House vote, tell your friends and neighbors to get louder -- sign up to plan your event this Friday, June 19th -- http://www.1sky.org/getlouder

After you sign up, be sure to download our event resource guide at www.1sky.org/resources.

Join the National Day of Action for Climate Change on June 19!

Weekly Action

Annie Leonard, the host of The Story of Stuff, is featured this week in the 2009 MAU Calendar. She discusses the problem with stuff in the US. Watch her online film that illustrates the hidden environmental and social costs of the current systems of production and consumption. And then....deliberately buy nothing one day this week.

Welcome the 111th Congress with a card....

On November 18th, mothers and others across the country will be delivering "welcome" cards to their local Congressional offices, reminding their elected officials that they voted on November 4th to make climate change a priority. Tackling climate change is not only a priority for us, but has more significant implications in terms of the world that our children will inherit.

Gather up your kids, friends and family and join 1Sky and others or organize your own visit to your Members' offices. While you're there, leave behind information about the Mother Agenda and a plate of cookies (always welcomed by the staff!). Click here to sign-up and get all the necessary information.

Principles In Practice.

Go green by making your own household cleaners.

Raiding the Pantry to Add Sparkle and Shine

Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

NO MORE MYSTERY Danielle Hughes, center, holds a party at her brokerage firm to make cleaning products because she thinks store-bought ones triggered her asthma and eczema.

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Published: May 22, 2008

“MICHELLE, would you like to head up the creamy soft-scrub team?”

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Related

Whipping Up a Batch of Furniture Polish (May 22, 2008)

Lars Klove for The New York Times

With that call to arms, the women in Laura Gosa’s kitchen in Jersey City fell to, blending the ingredients spread out on her counters like so many blasts from Grandma’s preindustrial past: baking soda, borax, Castile soap, lemon oil, vinegar, glycerin and other staples of the all-natural armamentarium.

These women weren’t interested in buying green products....(more)

MAU Central's Anjali guest blogs at 1Sky....

Only 4 days left until Mother's Day weekend! Today's guest blog is from Anjali Kochar of Mothers Acting Up, a mother of two with some inspiring thoughts on our responsibility to our children this Mother's Day. Click here to start or join a 1Sky's Mother's Day gathering near you if you haven't yet!

I was in the backyard with the girls this weekend when my one and a half year old saw a butterfly flutter by. Her eyes grew big and round, her little mouth formed the word "Oh" and she darted after it. The wonder in her eyes, the excitement in her voice were priceless. The littlest things that Mother Earth has put before us can create such joy in the smallest among us!

As I sat watching her trying to catch the butterfly, I thought about my older daughter, who's 6 and a half and how we've been teaching her about preserving and respecting the environment(... more here)

Breathing Earth.

We are all connected.

This remarkable simulation does an exemplary job of SHOWING us all linked, one to the other.