Category Archives: Act Now In Your Community

No Impact Man

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No Impact Man is a gold mine of information on how to make realistic adjustments toward sustainability in your lifestyle. Colin Beavan began his blog in February of 2007 to chronicle his family’s efforts to adjust their lifestyle so they would have no net impact on the environment. Since then, in addition to the blog, which continues with frequent practical articles that will help you to live more sustainably, Beavan has created a a soon-to-be-released book, a film, and an action-packed online community website.

Here’s how  Beavan described No Impact Man when he began the project:

No Impact Man is my experiment with researching, developing and adopting a way of life for me and my little family—one wife, one toddler, one dog—to live in the heart of New York City while causing no net environmental impact. To do this, we will decrease the things we do that hurt the earth—make trash, cause carbon dioxide emissions, for example—and increase the things we do that help the earth—clean up the banks of the Hudson River, give money to charity, rescue sea birds, say.

In mathematical terms, in case you are an engineer or just a geek who likes math, we are trying to achieve an equilibrium that looks something like this:

Negative Impact + Positive Impact = Zero.

No net impact. Get it?

Beavan and his family completed their one year experiment and decided to continue their no-impact lifestyle. His blog shares the whole process with a lively community of readers and includes articles like “42 Ways Not To Make Trash”, “The No Impact Sustainable Eating Plan” and “Doing Stuff Instead of Watching Stuff”. If you’re unsure about where or how to take further steps toward sustainability in your own lifestyle, No Impact Man will give you plenty of ideas to consider and lots of encouragement along the way.

Ready To Do Your Part?

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With so many problems in the world today, and so much crisis in the news, doing our parts to make things better can seem overwhelming. It’s hard to know what to do, where to begin, and what matters most. Sometimes, adding one more task, like recycling or packing our own lunch, to our overfilled lives seems like one task too many. And when it comes to making our communities better, with our busy schedules and the multitude of causes requesting our time and resources, it’s hard to imagine how and where we should contribute. The choices are confusing and change is hard. Often we begin with good intentions, but find ourselves giving up.

If this is how you feel, then a neat little website I just discovered might be just right for you. It’s called I’m Doing My Part and it’s simple, helpful, encouraging and full of doable ideas and a strategy for incorporating them into your life that just might work.

I’m Doing My Part allows you to take action in four different areas: water, energy, waste, and, interestingly, happiness. Each action area is introduced with some simple and inspirational “facts”, then opens into a list of actions you can take in that area. Actions are divided into “first steps” and “moderate” actions. Click on an action and you’ll see a brief explanation of that action’s impact, details about how to do it, further reading, videos and other resources to help you succeed.

The strategy of I’m Doing My Part is to add one or two simple tasks at a time and do them until they becomes part of your routine. Once you’re doing those tasks, add them to your profile and I’m Doing My Part gives you positive feedback and an opportunity to share your actions on Facebook or Twitter. So not only does it help and encourage you to do good but it helps you spread the goodness!

I’m Doing My Part also includes a cool real-time Social Actions map that tracks volunteer social action activities and opportunities around the world and a blog aggregator that will connect you with news from sources like Change.org, InvisiblePeople.tv, and Refugees International.

Ready to do your part? Click here, and I’m Doing My Part will help you get started.

10 Things You Can Do To Help Roxana Saberi

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Roxana Saberi

Roxana Saberi

By now you’ve surely heard about Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American reporter imprisoned in Tehran. Despite an outcry from governments, press organizations, human rights groups and individuals all around the world, Saberi remains in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, weakened in the seventh day of a hunger strike to protest her imprisonment.

If you don’t know the story, here’s the capsule version: Saberi is a U.S. citizen of Iranian and Japanese descent. She was born in New Jersey,  grew up in Fargo, is a former Miss North Dakota, and has a masters in journalism from Northwestern. She’s been living in Iran for six years, studying for a masters degree in Iranian studies, and reporting for NPR, the BBC, ABC News and other international news organizations. She planned to return to the U.S. this year, after finishing a book about Iranian culture.

Saberi was arrested at the end of January and has been held in Evin prison ever since. Ten days after she was arrested, she was allowed a brief phone call to her parents. She told her father she had been detained for purchasing a bottle of wine. Subsequently, Iranian officials accused her of illegal reporting activities, saying she continued her work as a reporter after her press credentials were revoked in 2006.

On March 9, after her parents had not heard from her for nearly a month, Saberi’s family attorney was finally allowed to visit her in Evin prison. In early March, the U.S. State Department took the unusual step, through Swiss intermediaries, of asking the Iranian government to clarify Saberi’s status. The U. S. has had no diplomatic relations with Iran since 1980 when Iranian students occupied the U.S. Embassy and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Despite U.S. government inquiries, the Iranian government continued to hold Saberi without any clarification of her status and without formal charges for another month. Because Saberi’s father is Iranian, Iran’s government, which doesn’t acknowledge dual citizenship, considers Saberi an Iranian citizen and has stated that the United States must not seek to interfere with it’s internal affairs.

Finally, on April 5, after being imprisoned for more than two months, Saberi was charged by Iran’s judiciary. The Iranian news agency ISNA reported that Saberi had been charged with espionage and quoted Iranian officials as saying that she had “accepted” the charges. “She had been carrying out espionage activities … under the cover of a journalist … and she has accepted the accusations,” ISNA quoted judge Haddad as saying.

On April 18, after a closed, one-day trial, Saberi was convicted of espionage and sentenced to eight years in prison.

By all accounts of people who have known and worked with her, Roxana Saberi is a journalist, not a spy. President Obama has stated that he is concerned for Saberi’s safety, urges the Iranian government to free her and is confident that Saberi is not a spy. The U.S. State Department has confirmed that the espionage charges against Saberi are baseless and continues its diplomatic efforts to gain her release through the intervention of the Swiss and Japanese governments. Meanwhile, American and international news agencies and organizations have joined to assert her innocence, protest her detention, and petition for her release. Among the organizations advocating for Saberi are Amnesty International, The International Press Institute,  the Overseas Press Club of America, the Society of Professional Journalists, the International Women’s Media Foundation, and Reporters Without Borders. Mirek Topolanek, the President of the European Union has also petitioned Iran to release Saberi.  And Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to receive the  Nobel Peace Prize, has joined Saberi’s defense for an appeal which will be presented before an Iranian appeals court.

On Sunday, Saberi turned 32. The previous Tuesday, she started a hunger strike which is now in it’s seventh day. And while even Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wrote a letter to Tehran’s top prosecutor urging him to ensure that Saberi’s right to defend herself is not violated, Saberi’s attorneys have continued to be denied access to see her. With Iran’s Foreign Ministry pressing the U.S. to release five Iranians arrested by U.S. forces in Kurdistan in 2007, and with Iranian elections coming up in June, it appears more and more that Saberi is a pawn in a very intense game of international political maneuvering.

So with all of these forces at work in her case, what can you do to help Roxana Saberi?

  1. You can let Saberi know that she is not alone and promise her that she won’t be forgotten. As Joel Simon, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, explained to the editors of the New York Times, political prisoners experience profound feelings of isolation and helplessness. “Roxana Saberi has now been in one of Iran’s most notorious prisons for nearly three months… In order to withstand her ordeal, she needs to know that there are thousands of people, journalists and average citizens, who are aware of her fate, who are concerned for her welfare and who will stand with her and her family.” You can help Roxana Saberi survive her prison ordeal by writing to her here or here.
  2. Now to make good on your promise that Saberi won’t be forgotten, make sure that people in important places don’t forget about her either. Start by sending a letter to Iran’s Ambassador to the U.N. asking the Iranian government to release Saberi.
  3. Next, send a letter or email to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei.
  4. Send an email expressing your concern about Saberi’s case to Iran’s judiciary at info@dadiran.ir .
  5. Sign this petition urging Iranian authorities to release Saberi.
  6. Sign this one, too.
  7. Join the Free Roxana Saberi Facebook group to stay up-to-date with new ways that take action to help Saberi. Invite your friends to join, too.
  8. Follow @freeroxana on Twitter to get the latest updates and re-tweet them to all of your friends.
  9. Visit the Committe to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and the International Press Institute to find out more about how you can join their work to safeguard press freedom. All three of these organizations are working to secure Roxana Saberi’s release.
  10. Finally, spend a little bit of time each day bringing attention to Saberi’s case. Send this post and other links to your friends and family and networks, Tweet about Saberi, blog about her, send letters to your local newspapers, and do whatever else you can to create noise about Saberi’s case. The more attention, the more pressure on Iran, the sooner Roxana Saberi will be released.
(Photo credit: Eustacio Humphrey / ZUMA Press)

Earth Day Goodies

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Here are a few goodies to help you celebrate Earth Day:

How about starting out with a little history of Earth Day?

Then, check out Top Ten Earth Day Campaigns You Can’t Miss at TakePart˚. It includes links for volunteer opportunities in your community, National Geographic’s history of Earth Day video, a powerful film exploring the connection between environmental protection and human rights, ideas for creating a locally sourced Earth Day meal, and other nice resources for making your Earth Day, and all of your days, more green.

Also at TakePart˚, 17 Prime Ways to TakePart on Earth Day is a listing of seventeen simple things you can do today (and everyday) that have serious green impact. Ideas include air drying your laundry, visiting a farmer’s market, taking shorter showers, changing your lightbulbs, planting trees and twelve other actions that require very little time or effort, but make a big difference to the planet.

Hulu has a special Earth Day portal with video clips on green related topics, including a clip of scenes from the first Earth Day and videos about ingenious new energy technologies, endangered animal restoration and other timely topics.

The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation‘s Call2Recyle program has successfully recycled 50 million pounds of cell phone and rechargeable batteries. Visit their website to find a drop-off location near you for all of of those old batteries cluttering up your junk drawers.

Read about the Meatless Monday movement, watch a video to get inspired, and then make a commitment to cut your carbon footprint and improve your health by forgoing meat once a week.

Visit the HuffPost Earth Day page to see what’s going on in Earth Day news. Some of the good news you’ll find: a list of proposed Earth Day resolutions (start composting, stop using paper plates, use public transit, and more), ways to green your sex life (no, really!), and the best Earth Day jokes of the decade.

Finally, for your viewing pleasure, and for your edification, at 9 pm tonight you can watch the cool young eco-capitalists from TerraCycle on National Geographic Channel’s new series, Garbage Moguls, while they up-cycle candy wrappers and old bill boards and other trash into cool new stuff. (Learn how to make a trendy, colorful wallet from a cookie wrapper right here.) Here’s a preview:

Happy Earth Day, and if you find other Earth Day goodies during your travels today, please share them with us here at ChangeAction by commenting below.

Earth Day? Earth Movie.

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On April 22nd, Earth Day, how better to celebrate than to see Earth, the movie? Disneynature‘s new film stars polar bears, elephants, and humpback whales, and with James Earl Jone’s voice for narration, how can you go wrong? Film-makers spent over five years and 2000 hours in the field to capture the story of three animal families in their struggles to survive a year on earth. From Alastair Fothergill  and Mark Linfield, producers of “Blue Planet“, “Deep Blue” and the “Planet Earth” series, the film has gotten some rave reviews. Jake Brewer, at The Huffington Post, says Earth is “breathtaking” and that Fothergill and Linfield “completely and utterly” deliver on their intent to inspire with the film. According to Brewer,

Earth is a stunning masterpiece that will leave even the most ardent coal lobbyist in awe of our planet and yearning to see more — and to preserve it.

You know what’s even better? Not only will going to see Earth inspire you to do something to care for our precious planet. If you buy a ticket to see Earth during the first week, Disneynature will plant a tree in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest in your honor. Cool, huh? See you there.

Have Printer. Will Fight Climate Change.

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Ready to put your printer to work to save the world? The U.S. Congress is currently considering two major pieces of climate legislation and 1Sky wants you to help your representatives make the best possible decisions for us and for the planet. It’s as easy as printing a 10-page lobbying package and dropping it off at your Senators’ and/or Representatives district office. Congress will be on its two-week recess until April 19, so you might get to shake your reps hand and thank them ahead of time for doing the right thing. Sign up and collect your materials and instructions right here. And if you’re all fired up to fight for the planet after that, 1Sky has lots of other actions you can take.

You can read more about the proposed legislation here and here.

Tonight, the Earth Goes Dark…

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Tonight the lights on the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Acropolis in Athens, the Empire State Building in New York and in millions of houses around the world will go dark. Why? Because all around the world at 8:30 p.m. local time, it’s Earth Hour, a World Wildlife Fund organized event urging communities and citizens across the globe to vote for the Earth and against climate change by turning off their lights for one hour. So far nearly four thousand cities spanning the globe as well as millions of individual participants are planning to participate. The results will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen later this year.

Earth hour began in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and grew to an event with over 50 million participants in 2008. This year’s goal is for 1 billion global citizens to participate. If you’d like to join in, visit the Earth Hour website. Make sure you sign-up so you can be counted. You’ll find tools for spreading the word, including a blogger tool kit, as well as ideas for what to do once you turn the lights out (!) on the Take Action page. And here’s the very inspirational Earth Hour 2009 video to help get you motivated.

Updates:

Here’s a nice piece from the Huffington Post highlighting Earth Hour events as they roll around the world, beginning in Australia and New Zealand and including Beijing’s plans to darken the famous Bird’s Nest stadium and Las Vegas’s plans to darken it’s famous strip.

3/29/09 Here’s the AP wrap of the event with some nice before and after photos as the lights were dimmed at some of the world’s most famous landmarks.

3/31/09 Update.

Water = Life : World Water Day 2009

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Today is World Water Day 2009, and according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, nearly 1 billion of the world’s people live without access to clean water, and about 4 million die each year because of waterborne illnesses. Women and children in Africa walk an average of 3.7 miles each day to collect water for their families. And every 15 seconds a child dies from disease caused by lack of fresh water and the inadequate sanitation that it causes. Diarrheal diseases, such as cholera, are on the rise, especially in Africa. And global warming is making the problem worse because of increased frequency and intensity of flooding and resulting contamination of water supplies.

Meanwhile, the U.N. warns that by 2030, nearly half of the world’s people will be living in areas of acute water shortage caused by increased population, rising living standards, dietary changes and biofuel production. Already, water issues are complicating factors in Darfur and the Arab-Israeli conflict. North Africa and the Middle East have already reached the limits of their water resources, and with world population expected to increase by 2 billion by 2050, the pressure on global water supplies is only going to intensify.

In the U.S., trouble is brewing over drought conditions and water rights in the West, while all over the country activists and communities are fighting the bottled water industry to prevent privatization of water supplies and depletion of local water resources.

But, it’s not all bad news in the world of water. The U.N. says Uganda and Turkey have had success with new water management programs, and that the goal of halving the population that doesn’t have access to clean drinking water by 2015 will be met, except in sub-Saharan Africa. And hardworking organizations around the world are successfully implementing programs and strategies for solving water problems in some of the hardest hit areas.

So, to honor World Water Day, what can you do? Quite a lot, it turns out.

  • Take action right now to protect local and global water resources, and save lives that are endangered from inadequate water supplies:
    • Donate
      • WaterPartners International is a U.S.-based nonprofit that provides safe drinking water and sanitation to people in developing countries. Working in partnership with donors and local communities, they develop community-level water supplies, offering traditional, grant-funded programs and micro-finance programs to address the world water crisis.
      • Charity: Water is a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. They give 100% of the money raised to direct project costs, funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need. Your $20 to charity:water can give one person in a developing nation clean water for 20 years.
      • Blood: Water Mission began by funding a late stage AIDS hospice and discovered the vital link between living with HIV/AIDS and the need for clean water. As a result, Blood:Water Mission has partnered with more than 600 communities in Africa, providing water and health needs for almost 500,000 people. Along the way the 1000 Wells Project has expanded  to include a variety of clean water solutions and sanitation and hygiene training, as well as funding health clinics, community health workers, and support groups, which help in the prevention, treatment, care and support of communities affected by AIDS.
      • WaterAidAmerica enables the world’s poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education. They work with local partners and provide them with the skills and support to help communities set up and manage sustainable projects that meet community needs. They also campaign locally and internationally to change policy and practice and ensure water and sanitation’s vital role in reducing poverty is recognized.
  • Connect with other individuals and organizations working for local and global water security:
  • Play, and the world wins!
    • H2Opia is a Facebook game application. Build and maintain a second home in a beautiful underwater utopia. Based on your participation in the H2Opian world, the developers of H2Opia will make monthly donations to support WaterAid’s mission of providing clean water and sanitation to people in need around the world.