Recent events have focused my attention again on the daily choices we make that have profound effects on our overall sustainability. It's the "little things" in life, the daily choices, that add up and can become a "movement" (like Green Interfaith).

    Tuesday evening, about twenty of us who are interested in diet choices enjoyed a very nice potluck dinner at Munsey Memorial, followed by a presentation by Jon Camp, from…

 While this invitation was sent to our Christian members and friends, we also extend this invitation to other faith groups who share an interest in protecting the mountains of Tennessee. We need to be persistent and continue to raise awareness of the threats to our beautiful landscape, and to the health and wellbeing of the people who live there. We must unite and actively support legislation to block/ban mountaintop removal mining in this state. I believe this must be our highest priority…

The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) co-sponsored a webinar on 9/27 about fracking (high-pressure hydraulic fracturing to get natural gas from deep rock layers). The Powerpoint is available as a download (3rd headline below the description of the organization). While the info presented by OEFFA is understandably focused on Ohio interests, it is also useful for those of us in TN who are interested in Earth stewardship,…

Received a request from LEAF:



Dear Friends of LEAF:



For the past five years, those of us who work with LEAF have been privileged to witness the astonishing growth in the number of Christians across Tennessee who've opened their hearts to the Biblical call to care for God's creation.  We have worshiped with them, provided free creation care materials for them, and been humbled by their hunger to hear the scriptural basis…

This poem was written by Glenn Thomas in 1996. I'd seen it before and was reminded about it over the weekend while I was looking through some conference proceedings. I just thought it was really appropriate to GINI's mission and decided to share it.

Tomorrow’s Child

Without a name; an unseen face

and knowing not your time nor place

Tomorrow’s Child,…

I have been looking for online information most of the day, and came across this website about conserving water, which I thought might be very useful to some people. It's from the Environment Canada website. Many of the tips that are given are just common sense. But it offers some good explanations and diagrams, and calculations of savings too.

FYI...I was at a workshop on 8/31 and 9/1, where I also heard estimates of actual savings (in dollars) from some "green" programs at…

Marie Pendzich is a caretaker for some pampered hens. They are truly free-range (not just having access to an open door, which is literally all that's required to earn that label). Note that sometimes the required "open door" only leads into a open area that doesn't even have sod...just bare soil. So while they've earned the "free range" label, those hens really don't have access to nature, which is what is implied.

Marie's hens lay eggs that have beautiful (and nutritious)…

An article entitled, "Can you Test-Drive a Religion for a Month?" reminded me of the meetings that were scheduled this spring through the United Religions Initiative (URI). On March 13th, Rev. Hal Hutchinson of St. John's Episcopal Church in Johnson City and Rev. John Shuck of First Presbyterian Church in Elizabethton offered the…

Here's a waste audit "kit" posted from GreenFaith's website. I've conducted waste audits with school children and it is an interesting experience that really helps to inform your group about their contributions to the waste stream. Perhaps a small group in your faith community can be encouraged to do one, and then repeat it at three-month intervals to monitor…

Marie Pendzich forwarded this link about a bill that would give another subsidy to the natural gas industry. The activism alert was produced by Food and Water Watch.

Here's the link in case the embedded one in the first sentence doesn't work for you:…

Maria Gunnoe's blog is worth sharing...

http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/05/31/231986/marie-gunnoe-mountaintop-removal-coal-mining-stops-here-at-the-last-mountain-2/

(Below is most of a blog of the same title posted on May 17th, 2011 by Earle Holland in Research News at Ohio State, but I've added a slightly different ending.)

Quoting Earle:

"Among those who do science (as well as those of us who cheer from the sidelines) the loss of public interest in recent years robs the…

 interesting info from Interfaith Power & Light, for Earth Month (well, how about the month after Earth Month)? 

How about "Be Another Person of Faith for Clean Air"?

...and some sample sermons on…

Gardening Tips from USA.gov

     The U.S. National Arboretum’s Gardening Page provides the public with resources related to home gardening, nurseries, horticulture, landscaping, and composting. Their gardening website identifies the most commonly asked…

Here's a link to a knowledgeable and trustworthy blog about climate change, which has links to Dr. Lonnie Thompson's recent article in The Behavior Analyst (a .pdf download), plus a short video of an interview with Lonnie and Ellen Mosley-Thompson at the…

Forwarding an important message:

The federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) has proposed a petition to protect public lands in Anderson, Campbell, Morgan and Scott counties. This petition, referred to as the North Cumberland Lands Unsuitable for Mining Petition (LUMP), would prohibit surface mining within the area designated. This would protect many of Tennessee’s mountaintops, and could help keep some of the…