Readings: Acts 7:55-60; Ps 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Pet 2:2-10; Jn 14:1-14

“Like living stones let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.” – 1 Peter 2:5

“Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” With those words, St. Stephen is dragged out and stoned to death, earning for himself the distinction of being the first martyr for the gospel. Although everything we know about him is contained within seventy-five verses of the Acts of the Apostles, he shines through the pages and over the centuries as a remarkable personality. And, as is so often the fate of remarkable personalities, he is killed by the powerful whose advantages are maintained by the status quo.

As like all martyrs, the path taken by Stephen begins with an idea – a new and radical and powerful idea. He perceives that with the vindication of Jesus as Messiah, the religion of the Temple had outlived its usefulness and that Mosaic law needed to be seen in a new and different light. In this way, Stephen stands at the forefront of the “second wave” of the spread of the Gospel as it moved out from a small circle of Aramaic-speaking Jews in Jerusalem, to Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora, located mainly in what is now Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey.

Stephen is brought before the religious authorities accused of blasphemy, of trashing the teachings of Moses. Asked to respond to the charges, he replies with a lengthy defence of Moses, recounting the remarkable story of Israel’s salvation history. There is no doubt that everything he says would have been greeted with nods of acceptance. But suddenly, the tone changes. Stephen lights into his judges, descendents (as he sees it) of those who contended with Moses in the wilderness. “You stiff-necked people,” he cries, “uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit just as your ancestors did.” Then Stephen angers them further by accusing them of violating the law of God by denying that Jesus is the promised Messiah. His judges “grind their teeth,” and then Stephen seals his fate with a vision. This is where we pick up the story. He sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and his testimony to this messianic epiphany is enough to have him dragged out and killed.

There is no holding down a powerful idea. If its origin is in God, the idea will grow and even co-opt the most unlikely figures to achieve fruition. In this instance, the banner would be taken up by no more unlikely a figure than the man who stood by and held the cloaks of Stephen’s executioners. Paul, that most orthodox of Pharisees, would go on to be the apostle to the Gentiles; and rather than consignment to the dust-heap of memory, Stephen’s position as first among Christian martyrs would be enshrined.

To say that a martyr is one who dies in testimony to his or her faith is obvious, but why is someone martyred in the first place? Simply put, martyrs are made when someone or some group feels so threatened that the one testifying must be violently eliminated. Martyrdom evokes such strong emotions because questions of faith pierce us to the core of our being. Faith has the power to transform lives and overturn societies. It has the power to unseat the ungodly and ennoble the righteous. Faith exposes deception and untruth, and shouts from the rooftops truths that have been obscured and hidden. Faith causes institutions and beliefs to crumble, and shakes the foundations of history. And it is martyrs like St. Stephen who create faith – faith does not create martyrs.

Whether they threaten piety, authority, social customs, or all three, martyrs are victims in an ongoing spiritual warfare. Today is Earth Day, and the human creature, both individually and collectively, is engaged in an experiment of martyring creation – the life collective and wellspring of faith. This is an aspect of the spiritual struggle – a rather perplexing aspect, when you consider the suicidal nature of undermining that which is the sustenance of life itself. There is a tension between basic survival and the totally understandable desire to create the most comfortable conditions of survival possible, given our fundamentally brief existence which can be so often physically and emotionally painful.

The issue, in other words, is one of desire. The one who martyrs another has a profound and inescapable need to dominate truth with fantasy, acceptance with control, contentment with comfort. Earth Day provides an opportunity for us to focus anew on environmental degradation as a spiritual matter, as well as a practical one. It offers a chance to develop insight into the truth that the opposite of stewardship is faithlessness. The means to achieving such focus and such insight is honouring and celebrating that which we might otherwise destroy. It is, in other words, to undergo a conversion experience, like that of Paul. It is to journey on our own roads to Damascus, have the scales fall from our eyes, and go from destroyer to apostle and evangelist of the Good News of the light and life and love of God in Christ.

The organic unity that is Creation itself is, or should be, reflected in the spiritual unity of the church. This ideal is summed up evocatively in the reading from the First Letter of Peter, which characterises us as “living stones…built into a spiritual house.” The church is perhaps the only institution in our society in which people who might otherwise have nothing to do with one another, voluntarily come together with one voice, one will, one song of praise to uplift the Creator – and in so doing, to uplift Creation.

Our task as living stones is not to be a wall. The task is, as with the stones and rock of the Earth, to provide a foundation – a platform from which life can spring and flourish. We cannot allow ourselves, therefore, a Sunday-morning luxury of self-satisfaction. We cannot mock the Creator by praising the awesome splendour of what has been wrought, and then going out to despoil, pollute, or benignly neglect it. Scripture has much to teach in this regard. James speaks of the double-minded, who look at themselves in the mirror, and then wander off, forgetting who they are. Paul’s entire case for salvation rests on embracing the Spirit of life within and rejecting the soul-destroying desires of transitory things. And Jesus, likewise, tells us that we cannot serve two masters – one cannot pick figs from a thorn tree.

But, as I said on Good Friday, “guilt is an indulgence we can ill afford. Harder is repentance; and the restitution that flows from genuine contrition. Yet only when we repent of participating in an unspoken conspiracy of silence and obedience to injustice will we begin to taste the sweetness of freedom. And only when we take up tools to build the kingdom of God will we go beyond tasting freedom to fully living it.”

This is a day for honouring Creation and the Creator, and delighting in both – and, indeed, we shouldn’t need a special day for that. More vitally, today is a day to begin anew, recommitted to the notion of stewardship as the mortar which binds this spiritual house of living stones together. This is the outgrowth of the celebration of creation, of simply being, to which we are called. How will you be the change which rescues the Earth from martyrdom, and transforms it into the ground on which the kingdom of God may be built? Amen.

© Richard Neil Fernyhough, 2008.

2008 can finally mark the trendiness of being eco-friendly and environmentally conscious. Don't deny it, but every fashion company, corporation and person is jumping on the "green" bandwagon to promote a better lifestyle, make a bajillion dollars off of it while simultaneously polluting the Earth.

I hate to say this, but I will anyway even though I really hate people who say this, but I was totally eco-friendly before it became cool. No, really! Shut up. Don't roll your eyes at me! Jerk!

Seriously, though, I remember when my elementary school held a huge Earth Day celebration and I learned all about the importance of recycling, conserving energy and trying to patch up the hole in the ozone layer. This all lead to my obsessive compulsive desires to recycle and reuse everything. I won't even get into it.

Actually, now that I think back on this, my enthusiasm most probably stemmed from being Asian cause I am cheap and hate to waste things. Seriously, I HATE WASTING THINGS. Especially if it's food on your plate. Don't throw it away, cause I'll eat it. No, it's not about starving kids in North Korea cause that is NOT my problem, but it's about the fact that you have perfectly good food that some one/plant/animal made and I am not going to just throw it away in a landfill. I WILL EAT IT. This is why I am fat.

Right, so...Hollywood is going green as well, and it's been pretty funny to watch it unfold. For example, the gift bags my bosses received at a recent event were promoted as eco-friendly: they came in nice, reusable cloth bags but at the same time, contained so much paper waste (tissue paper, wrapping paper, a whole cardboard gift box that contained a single paper coupon) that I'm sure its carbon footprint was bigger than like a 40 dozen cows farting together.

Anyway, the most popular thing to do now is to include these tags on your email signatures:

I think these are great--especially when you sit right by the printer and realize that this tag pushes everyone's email print-outs (because people will print out emails REGARDLESS THAT WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF OUR NATURAL RESOURCES) past an extra page so you get all these almost blank pieces of paper tossed in the trash. Awesome, right?

So I thought it would be nice to have a little fun with these tags. Here's what I added to my signature yesterday and so far, no one has noticed it.

I guess people aren't really paying attention to everyone else's eco-friendly PSA. I pointed this out to B, which lead to a whole personality psychological Rorschach conversation because he insisted that it was a river moving past a tree, while I kept saying it was a path going up to it. I wonder what this means? Oh yeah, I know. I'M BETTER AT BRAIN AGE.

Anyway, I'm later going to try these:

I'll let you know how it goes.

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The tall oaks, maples and sycamores were still bare, but the grass had greened up--it's been a wet spring--and clumps of bright yellow daffodils populated the hillsides. The ornamental plum by the drive was covered in pale pink flowers and the forsythia had turned yellow, providing surreal bursts of color against the gray forest backdrop.

Margaret '71 spent what turned out to be a visually pleasing but ultimately "fractured" (pardon the pun) visit to Fire Island:

...[A]rrived on Fire Island. Went down to the glorious beach. Let the gentle waves roll over my feet. Neglected to realize that the sand beneath my bare feet would erode and cause me to lose my balance. Down I went, landing hard on my left wrist. Colles fracture...

M.J. '76 spent some time seeing the best (art!) and worst (weather!) of London:

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="109" caption="credit: urban75.org"][/caption]

My last full day in London served up quintessential English weather. It was dark and pouring when I headed out for the day with the intention of going from museum to museum, spending as little time as possible outdoors or above ground. By the time I reached the Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House, the rain had tapered to mist, and it had stopped by the time I had finished looking at the Impressionist paintings and the Renoir at the Theatre exhibition.

Molly '76 hit the water in Llano, Texas:

The first weekend in June means Kayak Trip! With good friends and some clear water, we have a great time! We start below the dam in Llano and head downriver [...] My kayak is the blue one, La Chalupa. She's getting a little banged up on the bottom, as she got dragged over lots of rocks this year.

And a '78 alum was in Mali celebrating the opening of the Hope Center Clinic (to fight HIV):

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="130" caption="credit: Gaiavaccine.org"][/caption]

It was a glorious occasion. There were speeches, there were certificates provided to the women and men who helped found the clinic, and Sophie and I received Chiwaras (antelope sculptures), a sign of the highest recognition in Mali.

That's right. I said it. There is no global warming. Sure, excessive carbon is not good for our environment, ozone layer or collective health - I certainly won't deny that - but the notion that the world's temperature is increasing in an unnatural way is absurd. In fact, not only have global temperatures been decreasing for a few years now, not only should the earth have warmed up substantially after the mini-ice-age of the 14th-20th centuries, and not only am I always a little cold and appreciative of an extra degree or so, but some NASA scientists have attributed the global rises that were being detected to the sun's own increase in temperatures (did humans cause that?). Basically, there is no concrete evidence that it is actually humans and their activities that are contributing to the temperature of the earth.

All that said, I am not anti-environment. I recycle. I don't litter. I drive 55 mph because it's the optimum speed to conserve gas. I just think that before we go believing every little word that scare-mongers scream at us we should probably ask to see some actual scientific evidence and not just believe it because they say it's scientific. Let's question these things a little more thoroughly.

And that brings us to South Park. South Park questions the nonsense spewed at us left and right about global warming and saving the environment. God bless it.

In "Terrance and Phillip Behind the Blow" it's Earth Day and the crazy Earth Day leaders are psychopaths, blaming everything on the Republicans and murdering people for the sake of their cause. As Stan says, "Environmental activists don't use logic or reason." This episode, along with "Manbearpig" in which Al Gore is a raving lunatic trying to prove the existence and danger of a make-believe creature that's half man, half bear, and half pig (and which we see in Imaginationland), as well as others that refuse to tolerate the nonsense of bullshit environmentalist' claims, is awesome for its willingness to stand up to the monolith that is the environmental movement. Few people will publicly stand up to the ridicule that is associated with not believing in what everyone tells them is true (like standing up to bunk religious claims when everyone around you is a believer), but Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Michael Crichton are among them.

So when you watch South Park tonight, remember that it's about more than Terrance and Phillip's problems with blow.

Do you believe in global warming? What's your reason why? Do you think I'm a raving lunatic? What do you think about this episode of South Park? Where else does South Park knock global warming?

In 2004 the United Nations University – World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), published a study into possible scenarios for implementing a global tax. It states: “How can we find an extra US$50 billion for development funding? Our focus is on flows of resources from high-income to developing countries… Any foreseeable global tax will be introduced, not by a unitary world government, but as the result of concerted action by nation states… The taxation of environmental externalities is an obvious potential source of revenue. ... Does this mean that the global tax should be levied at the same rate on all countries? To the extent that emissions impose environmental damage wherever they occur, the corrective tax should be the same. However, this needs to be moderated to take account of the unequal distribution of world income. Considerations of global justice point to poor countries bearing less of the cost burden, and may justify the tax being levied only on high-income or middle-income countries.” [Ref.26]

This really presents the UN’s view: Unsound science is used by the IPCC to foster “concerted action by nation states” in order to tax CO2 emissions (excluding low-income countries in consideration of “global justice”) and transfer that money to poor countries. They are not actually concerned about the CO2 – just the money: “We are presupposing that the tax is indeed levied on individuals and firms in the form of a carbon levy… Suppose, however, that we have subsidiarity, where the burden on national governments is determined by their carbon emissions, but the national governments are free to decide how to raise the revenue. As noted above, they may for political or other reasons choose another taxbase.”

Another UNU-WIDER publication states: “Support for an international ‘carbon tax’ has been growing since the 1992 UN Earth Summit focused international attention on the damage to the environment caused by excessive use of fossil fuels worldwide. … Over 20 per cent of the tax yields would originate in the US … Distributionally the tax will be regressive, since fuel bills typically form a disproportionately larger portion of the budget of low-income groups as compared to high-income groups.“ So although the only actual carbon-based “damage to the environment” so far is due to deforestation for charcoal and subsistence farming in poor countries, the US will be the major payer, and the American poor will be the worst off as a result.

The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) [Ref.27] bills itself as “the world’s first and North America’s only voluntary, legally binding integrated greenhouse gas emissions reduction, registry and trading system. … The founder, Chairman and CEO of CCX is economist and financial innovator Dr. Richard L. Sandor, who was named a Hero of the Planet by Time Magazine in 2002 for founding CCX, and in 2007 as the "father of carbon trading." CCX and the European Climate Exchange (ECX), now the leading exchange operating in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme are owned by Climate Exchange Plc, a publicly traded company listed on the AIM of the London Stock Exchange.

CCX directors include Maurice Strong (who is now capitalizing on his UN work to establish a carbon tax), as well as Stuart Eizenstat, who “has held a number of key positions at senior levels in the U.S. Government. During the Clinton Administration he served as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union (1993-1996), Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade (1996-97); Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs (1997-99), … [he] was also Chief Domestic Policy Adviser and Executive Director of the White House Domestic Policy Staff for President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981). Ambassador Eizenstat played a prominent role in the development of key international initiatives, including and the negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, where he led the US delegation.”

CCX external advisors include Strong’s cohort Elizabeth Dowdeswell, who is “a former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Before joining UNEP, Ms. Dowdeswell was the Assistant Deputy Minister of Environment Canada. In that capacity she played a leading role in global efforts to negotiate the treaty on climate change adopted at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. She was Canada's permanent representative to the World Meteorological Organization, principal delegate to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change”. The connection to the UN goes back to the 1992 UN Rio Earth Summit, when Climate Exchange delivered a paper on the “feasibility of a market-based solution to global warming”. [Ref.31]

For more information on CCX and other companies benefiting from the global warming scam, see www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/CarbonMonetization.htm.

Follow the money – the creators of the phony global warming scare stories have done so for a very lucrative purpose.

In 2007 the World Resources Institute received a $750,000 dollar two-year grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) to “demonstrate the need for a mandatory federal greenhouse gas registry that is consistent with global greenhouse gas accounting standards. Such a registry will provide the foundation for measuring and tracking major emission sources and will be the basis for a federal cap-and-trade program”. According to Joan Spero, president of DDCF “In the immediate term, one of the most important things we can do to combat the threat of climate change is to design and implement the best possible pricing policies for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases”. This is part of DDCF’s $100 million Climate Change Initiative [Ref.30].

In 1990, the United States Congress enacted the Global Change Research Act, which required the administration to report annually on funding for climate change science. According to a 2005 General Accounting Office report [Ref.28], “Federal climate change funding, as reported by OMB, increased from $2.35 billion in 1993 to $5.09 billion in 2004“. The following table is from that report (NOAA is within the Dept. of Commerce).

The federally run U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) coordinates the scientific activities of some 13 federal government agencies and departments [Ref.29]: “Over roughly the past 15 years, the United States has invested heavily in scientific research, monitoring, data management, and assessment for climate change analyses to build a foundation of knowledge for decision making. To date, more than $20 billion of research funding has been provided by U.S. agencies and departments.”

Also in 1990, the Clean Air Act amendments authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to put a cap on the quantity of pollutants the operator of a fossil-fueled plant was allowed to emit. In the early 1990s Enron helped establish the market for, and became the major trader in, EPA’s $20 billion-per-year sulfur dioxide cap-and-trade program. This cap and trade exchange of NOx and SO2 emission allowances caused Enron’s stock to rapidly rise. It was the forerunner of today’s CO2 trading, now taken up by CCX. Enron was a promoter of the Kyoto Protocol since it would increase their profits. Enron’s Ken Lay had meetings with Clinton and Gore to try to get Kyoto promoted: “Enron officials later expressed elation at the results of the Kyoto conference. An internal memo said the Kyoto agreement, if implemented, would "do more to promote Enron's business than almost any other regulatory initiative outside of restructuring the energy and natural gas industries in Europe and the United States."” [See Ref.34]

At the turn of the 21st century, “California experienced rolling power blackouts, moth-balled power plants that lacked nitrous oxide controls were brought back online, and their owners scrambled for nitrous emission permits for those plants and paid up to 10-fold increases for allowances. … Enron was gaming California's power market to drive power prices sky high and in turn prices for emissions permits.” [Ref.33]. Will this type of situation happen again with CO2 ?

Senator Dianne Feinstein of Califor­nia has introduced a measure for government oversight as part of the CO2 trading. She said: “This landmark legislation will not only signifi­cantly reduce our nation’s carbon footprint, it will also generate tremendous economic potential. In fact, new carbon markets – with annual values of approximately $300 billion – are expected to emerge once Congress establishes a cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions.” [Ref.32]

The Blood and Gore team (Generation Investment Management, with chairman Al Gore and managing partner David Blood – a former CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management) has purchased almost ten percent of Camco Group [Ref. 35], which, according to the Camco website: “works closely with major companies worldwide, establishing partnerships to turn our clients’ climate change liabilities into economic, social and environmental assets.” Camco Group states: “We generate carbon credits by partnering with companies to identify, develop and manage projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Camco then arranges the sale and delivery of carbon credits to international compliance buyers and into the voluntary market.” The Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) selected Camco as the Official Carbon Advisor for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, to be held August in Denver “As the Official Carbon Advisor, Camco will work with the DNCC to estimate the Convention's carbon footprint”.

So who will win in this battle to monetize the carbon? While science was killed as an innocent bystander, the UN with its desire for funding via international taxation vies with exchange corporations who want a piece of the new $300 billion market. (See also: www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/CarbonMonetization.htm)

Read the full report

We have seen discards like, gum wrappers, seatbelts, newspapers and even license plates find a new life.  However, I think what makes TerraCycle (known for fertilizer), different is that they are really making inroads and developing relationships with major corporations.

TerraCycle profits from its relationships with Kraft Foods Inc., Kellogg Co., Clif Bar & Co. and Coca-Cola by gathering unrecycleable packaging and then upcycling it into fashionable items such as shower curtains, umbrellas, pencil cases, totes, lunchboxes and backpacks.  I was really drawn to the Chips Ahoy! umbrella.

Then I started to think, is the general population really ready to trade in their new products for upcycled trash? 

What do you think?  Is upcycling just another clever advertising tactic or is this a genuine effort to make a difference?  Would you buy a shower curtain made from old cheese wrappers? 

Then to take this one step further, would you be willing to only wear second hand clothes in an effort to reduce the amount of waste associated in purchasing new?

Source: Wall Street Journal

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This is post is long overdue, it was supposed to be here in my blog last April in commemoration of the Earth day.  But as usual I got lazy to finish this up and before I knew it Earth day celebration was over.  (Btw, thanks to google for the picture)

I wasn’t really a big Earth Saver advocate and wasn’t even an active member in the school organization in high school.  Too bad I missed that opportunity, unlike my sister.  But later on that year, I was convinced and inspired by her so I just helped her do some Earth-friendly stuffs in our home. 

We studied how to recycle old newspaper and make it new.  It was really hard and it took us a long time to perfect the art.  I can even recall the first few papers we made almost looked like a cardboard because it was too thick and we won’t even use it because it was so dirty, and the color was uneven.  And as the process becomes familiar, we were able to succeed and were able to make different colored papers and even clean white paper.

It was early 90’s when everyone started to become really conscious.  There was a campaign against aerosol use.   Lectures about global warming and the depleting ozone layer were a usual topic in Science classes.  And television played a big part on information dissemination.  And Captain Planet was born. 

Captain Planet and the Planeteers became one of my favorite cartoons.  I have always dreamed to be a planeteer.  To be given a power to change the world, to make it a better place to live in and to fight and stop the pollutants.  Back then, I’d dreamed that I’d be Kwame, who has the power of Earth.  Sometimes, I’d want to be like Wheeler who has the power of Fire.  I’d wish to have the power of wind like Linka.  I have also imagined having the power to control the water like Gi.  And the ultimate dream was to be like Ma-ti who has the power of heart.

But not having a ring like them didn’t stop me from dreaming to become an Earth-saver.  Because there a lot of ways to become a Planeteer.  We can always do our part in saving Mother Earth; there is no small or big part.  Every little thing that we can do will be a great help on Mother Earth.  So next time you got an opportunity to become an advocate, be one.  Let’s start planting trees, begin to conserve water, save energy and recycle more.  The power to save Mother Earth is in our hands.  As Captain Planet always says, “the power is yours!” 

A little more history on plastic bag usage after the jump!

Santa Monica isn't the first to address the pollution and environmental destruction that plastic bags (which never decompose) create.

Just last Earth Day, April 22, Whole Foods stopped offering plastic bags at its stores. (Read the article about Whole Foods at Green Daily.)

But before that, in November of 2007, San Francisco banned plastic bags from large supermarkets. (Read the article about S.F. from the San Francisco Chronicle.)

And years before San Fran, in 2002, Ireland passed a tax on plastic bags everywhere. In just a few weeks after the law was passed, 94% of shoppers decided 33 cents for ONE plastic bag (not the 3 or 4 you need for all your groceries) wasn't worth it. There is an NY Times article that gives lots more interesting (¡and important!) information that I can summarize, or you can just read it.

Oh, and for a visual, here is an illustration of the two huge patches of plastic rubbish floating out in the Pacific. And that's just what's in our water.

There's lots more in our land.

So, it makes me very happy to find out about Santa Monica and the ID Project!

George Carlin May 12 1937 - June 22 2008

George Carlin on saving the planet

George Carlin on the "American dream"

George Carlin - Religion

Here are the top 10 actions you can do to reduce your contribution to global warming:

1)    Project Switch: Change your light bulbs!

2)    Drive your car differently – or drive a different car altogether!

3)    Your house – not too hot, not too cold!

4)    Tame the refrigerator monster!

5)    Twist the knobs on your other household appliances!

6)    Green plants with less water, more trees to provide shade.

7)    Buy Green Energy, and invest in green energy stocks.

8)    Go organic.

9)    Buy recycled.

10) Be a minimalist.

This booklet includes:

• Taking Care of the Earth Every Day
• Keep Your Neighborhood clean
• Recycle
• Help Keep the Air Clean
• Save PaperHelp Save Water
• Help Save Energy
• Wash Fruits & Vegetables