Blog Entries

Idea 16: Sustainable Building

will@oneplanetonelife.com — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0100

DAVID HEYMANN
Professor of architecture at the University of Texas at Austin

In the summer of 1999, I received a call from Laura Bush. She and then-governor George Bush wanted a design for a house that would blend into the landscape of an extraordinary piece of land they had just purchased in Crawford, Texas. We talked at length about environmental systems, and Laura was clear at the outset that they wanted to do everything possible to protect the land. It is exceptionally beautiful, with [...]

Idea 15: Efficiency

will@oneplanetonelife.com — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0100

ROCKY ANDERSON
Mayor of Salt Lake City

In Salt Lake City, we've been able to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in our municipal operations by 31 percent in four years. We've eliminated 143 cars from the city's light vehicle fleet, and replaced 41 SUVs with smaller, more efficient cars. By retrofitting all city and county buildings with compact fluorescent bulbs, we save the city $33,000 a year. We then invest one third of that in wind power, making Salt Lake City the state's largest purchas [...]

idea 14: Sustainable agriculture

will@oneplanetonelife.com — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

MARY T'KACH
Executive director, Environmental Sustainability for Aveda

Since our inception in 1978, our focus has been on producing plant-based personal-care products. Currently, 90 percent of the essential oils that go into our products are certified organic, and, as we continue to learn about the functionality of plants, we are able to use even more. That's been a lot of work for our suppliers. In terms of the industry, we're certainly a leader, as a lot of companies have come into orga [...]

Idea 13: Our earth is in critical condition and we are the life support

will@oneplanetonelife.com — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

JEROME RINGO
President, The Apollo Alliance

Today the environment is at the forefront of everyone's thoughts, not only in this country but also worldwide. I haven't seen an issue with such a magnetic capacity to bring people together since the Civil Rights movement.

Excessive temperatures have a greater impact on the poor who have less access to air conditioning and proper heating. Poor people have less access to health care to deal with climate-related medical problems. Water is a maj [...]

Idea 12: A chance to fix a neighborhood

will@oneplanetonelife.com — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

MAJORA CARTER
Executive Director And Founder, Sustainable South Bronx

A chance to fix a neighborhood
There is a huge hole in our economic fabric where clean tech should be. And residents of this community can be trained to fill these "green collar" jobs. Instead of all these economic-growth agencies pushing for stadiums or big-box stores where the average wage is $7 an hour, the city could invest in cleaner transportation systems such as barges and rail lines to connect us [...]

Consciousness - The Creator Creating the Creation.

will@oneplanetonelife.com — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Consciousness is the creator creating the creation and all of the above. It does not cease upon physical death because it underlies and creates the physical. A portion of the conscious spectrum is gone, i.e. your body & your life, but the mind, its personality and all it has experienced continues in more subtle realms.

You want proof of life after death? You go to school for years and years and years to get educated and secure the perfect job but won't spend a solid month confirming the exist [...]

Idea 11: The ocean's food chain is at risk

will@oneplanetonelife.com — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

THOMAS E. LOVEJOY, PH.D.
President of H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and The Environment

The ocean's food chain is at risk
We were one of the first to call attention to the acidification of the oceans. The oceans take up a huge amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. A portion of that carbon gets turned into carbonic acid, so that the more carbon dioxide there is in the atmosphere, the more acidic the oceans become. The oceans are now 30 percent mor [...]

Idea 10: New stores will use less energy

will@oneplanetonelife.com — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

ANDY RUBEN
Vice President for Sustainability, Wal-Mart

New stores will use less energy
Hurricane Katrina was a big turning point for us. It showed us that we've got a role we can play that might be greater than we realized. Two years later, we have prototype stores-the first is in Kansas City, Mo. It uses LED lighting in the freezers, and a heating and cooling system without a fan. That store uses 20 percent less energy than a store we'd have opened in 2005. One product we're promot [...]

Reflections on the State of the World — 6

tyslearning@sasktel.net — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Political Freedom and Spiritual Liberation

Essay by Georg Feuerstein (www.traditionalyogastudies.com)

Proposition 1: "Politics and spirituality don't mix."

Proposition 2: "Take care of your inner life and the rest will fall into place automatically."

Proposition 3: "An apolitical spirituality is short lived."

In my teens, when I first set foot on the self-transcending path, I wholeheartedly subscribed to Proposition 1, [...]

Idea 9: Small changes quickly add up

will@oneplanetonelife.com — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

DEIRDRE IMUS
President and Founder, Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology At Hackensack University Medical Center, N.J.

Small changes quickly add up
We are only as healthy as our planet. And, unfortunately, it's obvious that we're not doing a good job in keeping our planet healthy for our children. It's clear to me and to many experts in the field that environmental toxins play a role in some childhood cancers and other illnesses. But people get overwhelmed. They [...]

Idea 8: God told us to protect his earth

will@oneplanetonelife.com — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

RICHARD CIZIK
Vice President for Government Affairs, National Association of Evangelicals

God told us to protect his earth
The protection of the environment is a Biblically rooted epic task straight from God. The status quo [of how we are treating the earth] is simply unacceptable. The idea that we can continue as a nation without exhibiting leadership to the rest of the world in this crisis is simply anathema. We have to be at the forefront of providing energy-efficient green solut [...]

Idea 7: Look at the crisis as an opportunity

will@oneplanetonelife.com — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

K. R. SRIDHAR
Founder and CEO, Bloom Energy

Look at the crisis as an opportunity
I think the debate about the climate crisis in this country has been framed the wrong way. We've been talking about it from the perspective of the cost to society, rather than the point of view of the opportunity for profit. People are missing that this is a $4 trillion market for energy, and that's before we factor in the supply-demand imbalances that will occur as China and India ramp up their [...]

Reflections on the State of the World — 9

tyslearning@sasktel.net — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

In Feverish Quest for Leadership

Essay by Georg Feuerstein (www.traditionalyogastudies.com)

Every four years, Americans in large numbers contract a peculiar disease of the nervous system. After four years of political stupor, they suddenly become enormously excited, not to say flipped, over yet another presidential campaign, which determines who will be their next leader; who will convey them closer to the American Dream or take them farther down into collective misery.

Thi [...]

Reflections on the State of the World — 8

tyslearning@sasktel.net — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The New Inquisition

Essay by Georg Feuerstein (www.traditionalyogastudies.com)

On November 18, 1992, under the banner of the Union of Concerned Scientists (http://www.ucsusa.org/), 1700 senior scientists from around the world, including most Nobel laureates, issued a serious warning to humanity saying that human beings and the natural world are on a collision course.

They called for a new ethic that would convince reluctant governments and reluctant peoples to make a decisi [...]

Idea 6: Being green is just good business

will@oneplanetonelife.com — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

DAVID STANGIS
Director of Corporate Responsibility, Intel

Being green is just good business
As the largest chip manufacturer worldwide, Intel has been leading the area of environmental excellence for decades. For us, being green is just part of the way we do business. One thing that plays to our advantage is that our manufacturing process essentially gets refreshed every few years. We can anticipate that, so instead of having to retrofit facilities, we've applied a philosophy of des [...]

Reflections on the State of the World — 7

tyslearning@sasktel.net — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

"Its Most Unfortunate About the Environment"

Essay by Georg Feuerstein (www.traditionalyogastudies.com)

Over the past year or so, we've heard any number of times from good-hearted people that in order to make a living, they have no choice but to engage in environmentally highly unfriendly behavior, such as jet travel. Often this admission is followed by the incredible and by now platitudinous statement: "It's most unfortunate about the environment." In other w [...]

Idea 5: Everybody can do something

will@oneplanetonelife.com — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0100

LAURIE DAVID
Environmental Activist and Producer of 'An Inconvenient Truth'

Everybody can do something
One important lesson I've learned in advocating environmental progress is that the perfect is the enemy of the good. It's not about everyone doing everything. Those days are over. In fact, that's part of what held back the movement. We can't hold people up to a gold standard, because that's unattainable. We're all guilty of being part of this problem. I have a swimming pool that I [...]

Reflections on the State of the World — 5

tyslearning@sasktel.net — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Yoga Commercialism and the Environment

Essay by Georg Feuerstein (www.traditionalyogastudies.com)

Yoga started out as a purely spiritual, contemplative tradition aiming at personal transformation and liberation. It has its historical roots in the ancient Indian culture of 5,000 years ago. Even in its Hatha-Yoga branch, which emerged only a thousand or so years ago, it had no other purpose than to guide its practitioners to inner wholeness.

With the transplantation of Yoga t [...]

Reflections on the State of the World — 4

tyslearning@sasktel.net — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0100

American Imperialism and Canada

Essay by Georg Feuerstein (www.traditionalyogastudies.com)

I am always astonished when Americans pointblank reject, or even feel offended at, the suggestion that theirs is an aggressive nation, which for many decades has emphatically pursued imperialistic goals. The historical facts speak for themselves, but then, the American public's education is, to put it mildly, highly selective. People may indeed not know the facts or have been so strongly so [...]

Idea 4: Cutting down trees can lead to malaria

will@oneplanetonelife.com — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0100

MARY C. PEARL, PH.D.
President, Wildlife Trust

Cutting down trees can lead to malaria
One of the most important and overlooked ecosystems in the world is in areas of rapid land conversion, where agriculture is encroaching on wilderness and where wildlife, livestock and humans are in close proximity. When you talk about emerging diseases, that's where they're emerging from. Nipah virus, which was first identified in Malaysia in 1999, is an example. Pig farms were carved out of foreste [...]