UMW Green Team in Copenhagen

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Caption: Left to right - Esmeralda Brown, Tupou Kelemeni, Pamela Sparr and Pat Watkins

Hi UMW members and friends. This past few days have been historic and UMW has played a role. Four representatives of United Methodist Women are now ( Dec. 6 through 18) in Copenhagen. They are: Tupou Kelemeni, Pat Watkins, Esmeralda Brown, Pamela Sparr.

Tupou Kelemeni, Women's Divison Director from Hawaii said, " I am here in Copenhagen because I care about people, especially women, children and youth. I must learn all that I can, go home and share all that I have learned here, and advocate in every possible way that I can". You can read her whole statement here, Reflections from Copenhagen on the UMWmission.org site.

Pamela Sparr, UMW Consultant said, "I am listening especially for examples of how climate change is affecting women and girls and stories of what women and girls are doing to address this challenge. I heard my first “good news” story in line about a biofuel cooking stove than could run on sugarcane pulp. This new technology has many advantages: it reduces indoor air pollution which kills nearly two million people each year – primarily women and children." You can read her whole statement here, Reflections from Copenhagen on the UMWmission.org site.

Pat Watkin's UMW Green Team member said, "From the beginning of my first day, I have been so impressed by the diversity of folks here, especially young women from all over the world. They will make a very positive difference in the world and it gives me such great hope!" He goes on to say, "Lots of people are talking about lots of different things around here, but I’m here to talk about God’s creation and God’s kingdom. My contribution, I pray, will be to enable God’s kingdom to become just a little more of a reality. Please pray that prayer with me." You can read his whole statement here, Reflections from Copenhagen on the UMWmission.org site.

Esmeradla Brown, Women's Division staff, said, " We began our busy schedule on Saturday, December 5th, where Tupou and I attended an all day Orientation and Strategy Meeting by the Ecumenical Climate Secretariat held at the Danish Church Aid premises. The meeting was very helpful since it provided important information as to the history of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change and the Kyoto Protocol and its implication, particularly for the Global South and the issue of Climate Justice for poor nations been affected by climate change and climate migration. The issue of mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology and capacity building and the long term goal for emission reductions. You can read her whole statement here, Reflections from Copenhagen on the UMWmission.org site.

What do your neighbors think of a clothesline?

U.S. residents fight for the right to hang laundry

Thanksgiving, how we eat affects the Earth

Thanksgiving is in one week. Have you thought about what you will eat or serve? What's that got to do with the environment? Plenty.

While you are planning your Thanksgiving dinner think about each and every aspect of it. Will you use Styrofoam for plates or cups? How about take-out or take-home? What about your turkey or ham? How was it raised? What was the impact on the Earth during the raising of your holiday turkey or ham? What was the animal's daily life like?

I have become a flexitarian, meaning most of the time I am a vegetarian. I am not against eating meat. I will eat sustainably raised animal products.

So, as you prepare your Thanksgiving meal, decide ahead of time if you want to eat locally grown vegetables and animals, and what is more important to you locally produced or organic.

Here is a passage I took from Sustainable Table's blog The Daily Table

When people think about Thanksgiving, the first thing that should pop into mind is gratitude for all of the blessings received throughout the year. The real first thought, however, may be food. Thanksgiving, the most delicious of holidays, is a great time to experiment with sustainable and heritage foods. Read more at Sustainable Table blog post: You can have your turkey and eat it too.

Food, Inc. - live streaming video powered by Livestream

Have you seen "Food, Inc."?

I had embedded the video into this post, but it played, with sound, as soon as you visited the blog. I thought that might irritate some people. Therefore just click the green link above to see the promo for "Food, Inc."

Local television station has regular environmental feature

Caption: Logo of Northland Newscenter's environmental feature.

Many of the mainstream media now have regular environmental features. In the Duluth area the Northland's Newscenter (CBS 6, CBS 3, My 9 and Northland CB) features "Your Green Life." Often in many areas it is the meteorologist or weatherperson who reports the environmental features.

This morning as I watched my morning news, Meteorologist Jeff Edmondson asked, "Which is better, paper or plastic?"

During my environmental presentations I ask this as a trivia question. The winner receives a piece of organic, fair trade chocolate.

So what does the United Methodist Women answer to "Paper or plastic?"

"Neither, I brought my own."

See the the reasons why on this video Paper verses plastic and resusuable bags.

Prof. Cricket and I would love to hear from you. Does your local television station carry an environmental feature? How about your local newspaper?

Choosing a toothpaste and the a company's commitment to water

I try to use natural health care products. Yesterday I needed more toothpaste. I purchased Nature's Gate Cool Mint Gel. I had been using Tom's of Maine. I liked it fine, but I thought I would try something else. I don't know enough about toothpastes to make a recommendation. Do you know about toothpastes and what ingredients are safe and preferred?

As for Professor Cricket, we do have toothpaste for her, but we haven't brushed her teeth in months, maybe even years.

P.S. I just visited the Nature's Gate website and I see they are involved in Water Aid America. Today is November 19: World Toilet Day ››

World Toilet Day is a key date to champion the human right of people everywhere to sanitation.




P.S.S. And now I have just visited the Tom's of Maine website and they are involved in Charity Water. See their community involvement here.

Superior Grown Food Summit discusses our role in what we eat

Caption: Rick Dale spoke about his experience as a blueberry farmer near Bayfield Wisconsin. He owns Highland Valley Farm, Bayfield, WI. Website: http://www.bayfieldblues.com/

Today I attended the Superior Grown Food Summit. The topic was food security and how we might do that with locally grown foods. I truly believe in consuming locally grown foods. I try to do that and also try to eat organic foods. Last summer we had a community garden. It was interesting for me to listen to the people who wanted to get into farming, as what I would say is a small-time farmer, not a huge mega farm, because many of my relatives left the farm. Farming is very hard work.

I stayed until 2 p.m. I took lots of notes, but I am getting tired now. I hope to post something more about this event.

You may also visit the site www.superiorgrown.com

Caption: The keynote speaker was Darrin Nordahl. He talked about growing food in public spaces like boulevards and landscaping around parking lots. This photo shows graphs of the obesity epidemic in the United States since 1990. Some states have a good size of their population at over 40 pounds overweight. He is the author of Public Produce: Building a New Urban Agriculture. He currently works at the Design Center Davenport, IA

Website: http://www.darrinnordahl.com/

Here is a list of the guest speakers along with weblinks.

The Lure of the Local: What's Happening in the Local Foods Movement and Why?" (30 min.)

Maggie Adamek, Executive Vice President, Fourth Sector Consulting

Website: http://www.fourthsectorconsulting.com/

A Locally Adapted Food System Assessment (30 min.)

David Abazs, David Syring, and Stacey Stark, University of Minnesota, Duluth

Website: http://www.round-river.com/ AND http://www.d.umn.edu/cscd/projects.html

11:00am-12:15pm: Panel II: Building Blocks for Locally Adapted Food Systems

Family Farms and Locally Adapted Food Systems (30 min.)

Rick Dale, Highland Valley Farm, Bayfield, WI

Website: http://www.bayfieldblues.com/

Integrated Farming Systems for Adding Value: The Case of Free Range Poultry (30 min.)

Reginaldo (Regi) Haslett-Marroquin, Rural Enterprise Institute, SE MN

Website: http://www.mainstreetproject.org/programs/rural_enterprise_center.html

12:30-2:00pm: Keynote Speaker during Lunch

Public Produce: Building a New Urban Agriculture

Darrin Nordahl, Design Center, Davenport, IA

Website: http://www.darrinnordahl.com/

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Women's Division's deputy general secretary says Repower America

Repower America asked people to add their voices on the Repower America Wall visit that here.

Here is a YouTube message from the Women's Division's chief executive officer, Harriet Jane Olson. The Women’s Division is the national administrative and policy-making arm of United Methodist Women. Olson's formal title is deputy general secretary of the Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Women. Read more about Harriet here

Real dishes instead of throwaway

Yesterday evening I attended a spaghetti dinner for Neighborhood Housing Services. As I was leaving, I double-checked to make sure I did have my extra plate, cup and silverware in my car. I now keep a plate under my passenger seat so I can use it at public functions where Styrofoam or other throwaway products are used. It is wrapped in plastic to protect it.

Turns out I didn't need it because there is a young man, Brendan, an employee with NHS, who is really fighting the use of Styrofoam and paper throw-away products. The group held their spaghetti dinner at a church and used the real dishes and the dishwasher.

Yeah!!!!

One curious thing I have noticed about these dinners is that even though people use the real plates, they put the dessert on paper or Styrofoam plates. I am not sure why. They already have the dishwasher going so why do they do this?

Postcards delivered: Green Team to go to Copenhagen

Green Team members received an email from Sung-ok Lee on Thursday. Sung-ok is Assistant General Secretary Section of Women's Division, GBGM. She informed us that some of our Green Team members will be going to Copenhagen.

Some of her key points:

• UMW collected 4,000 plus Countdown to Copenhagen postcards and hundreds of online sign-ons and more individual cards sent directly to the Church World Service office in Washington, DC.
• The total so far counted from the entire ecumenical community is 14,200 postcards.
• On Thursday Nov. 5, postcards were delivered deliver to the White House and UMW and other faith groups made senate visits. Green Team was represented by Betty Henderson and Grace Pyen, along with Esmeralda Brown, Pam Sparr and Sung-ok working together with our ecumenical partners, Church World Service, National Council of Churches and other faith-based partners.
• Our UMW leadership, Harriett Olson and Inelda Gonzalez, attended the entire day's events and spoke to the importance of climate justice and U.S. role in setting strong domestic and international policy on climate change.
• Four persons will participate in the international conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark. Our president, Inelda Gonzalez, has selected one director and recommended a Green Team member and staff persons to organize this delegation. Sung-ok recommended Pat Watkins, as he has been a strong advocate around the US legislative process around climate change in the past couple of years and has steadily guided us in framing a theological perspective on this issue.
• The two persons attending and assisting with organizing the delegation will be Esmeralda Brown and Pamela Sparr. Inelda has recommended Tupou Kelemeni of Honolulu, HI as the director attending this conference. As a Tongan-American living in Hawaii she has been following what has been happening to small islands in the Pacific with deep concern.

No Bottled water at the county courthouse

On Friday I was in the St. Louis County Court House in Duluth and noticed this water fountain. With sign "filtered water" above it. I like to take photos of public water fountains because bottled water is very hard on our environment. While I was taking a photo of this a woman came out of her office and filled up a plastic water bottle. I told her that I was happy the county was not encouraging bottle water.

Read Spin the Bottle and Five Reasons Not to Drink Bottled Water on the Lighter Footstep.

What is in NILoder?

The other day I went into our church bathroom and noticed what seemed to be an artificial smell used to disguise bad odors. I tried to find out what is in this air-freshener, but I did not have any luck. I never noticed it until last week, so I don't know if this is something our building engineer or janitor has always used to keep the restroom smelling fresh, or if it was a recent addition.

I am very sensitive to scents, and it was too strong for me. I also wondered what the ingredients were inside this product. The website says their products are environmentally-friendly, but I am not sure. Have you ever seen these or heard about them? Are they environmentally friendly?

It says NILoder on it and the website is here, but I can't find anything about it.

I don't really care for these things that put smells into the air.