Team Gaia Visits Give Kids the World

On Saturday October 20 Team Gaia paid a visit to Give Kids the World, a non-profit organization located in the heart of Florida that allows kids with life-threatening illnesses and their families to visit all of the attractions of central Florida, including Disney and Universal completely free to them. However, it went above and beyond just that. The actual location where the children and their families stay is an amazing attraction in itself. From the building Shaped like a Giant Cupcake, to the Castle, to the unique Villas the families stay in, and of course, the Ice Cream Palace, the Give Kids the World Village creates an amazing experience for children and their families and has 102 Villas to house families in and the ability to accommodate any need the child may have. Give Kids the World works in coordination with wish granting organizations to help children with the dream to visit the attractions that Florida has to offer as soon as possible, bringing some kids in at as short of notice as Twenty-Four hours. Henri Landwirth’s dream of giving every child the chance to enjoy the same things as everyone else was realized in 1986 when Give Kids the World was Founded. Many Major corporations ensure that Give Kids the World can continue to answer the wishes of children with life-threatening diseases and even expand their capacity to service more families. Even though major corporations play a very large role in the continued success of Give Kids the World, it couldn’t all happen without the help of the amazing volunteers. Give Kids the World fills over 1000 volunteer positions a week, naming these helpers “Angels” for the wonderful work that they are doing. These “Angels” include young children to senior citizens, from high school teenagers to the parents of children who had their wishes fulfilled at Give Kids the World and now Team Gaia has been lucky enough to spend time helping to put smiles on the faces of children who have faced such hardships at so young of an age.
Just going and volunteering at Give Kids the World was an amazing experience for me and the rest of Team Gaia, seeing kids happily running around and playing within the village with other kids who share many of the same worries and hardships as they have. Many parents described how nice it was to just get away from all of the worries and just be in a place where everyone knows what they are going through and their children can fit in and just be a normal kid. Give Kids the World arranges for all needs of the families and insures that the trip doesn’t cost them a thing so that any family with a child in need can come and have a magical week. All children who come to have their wishes filled are given a star to write their names on and give to the “Star Fairy” who places them on the ceiling of the castle. Over 70,000 shining stars cover the ceiling of the magical Castle of Miracles, organized by month and year the stars allow the children to leave a piece of themselves in the amazing village of Give Kids the World.
After many of the kids had left the village for the day to go to various amusement parks, Team Gaia was given a tour of the Park by Norma Miller, a parent whose first time visiting the park was to fill the wish of her daughter and now volunteers up to 7 days a week at the park with whatever they need. She was more than happy to give us a walking tour of the Village, despite the light rain that had fallen on the village, everything was still in full swing in doors. Norma was more than happy to share her stories of the village and hear about our stories with helping children, including our trip to Waveland, Mississippi. Norma, having been a foster parent and adopting her last foster child was very appreciative of Team Gaia’s work with the foster kids in Waveland, explaining to us that as simple of a gesture as bringing toys for their children for Christmas can mean the world when the Parents are faced with such troubling hardships.
I believe that Team Gaia as a group and us as individuals have grown stronger through this experience and I am glad that I have what I have but I still get a chance to see how the other half lives so that one day I can offer my help like Henri Landwirth and the thousands of volunteers at Give Kids the World have done.

 

Team Gaia’s Global Warming Piece Nominated for an Emmy Award!

When we, Team Gaia, produced our first episode of our “show”, we did not expect anything more than some emails and maybe a few thoughts from people we met. We have been astounded.

Our global warming piece, “Global Warming: Fact or Friction?” has been nominated for an Emmy award! The award is in the “Community Service Campaign/Broadband” sect, and is competing with pieces created by MTV/Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation/NASTD, and LifeMed Media. LifeMed media is powered by DLife.com, which is a legitimate diabetes information corporation. Both of these corporations are powered by adults, and it is astounding (to me) that we had the ability with our first episode to be thought of as somewhat of an equal.

I am simply astounded by our ability to achieve such an honor! I can’t believe someone liked our video that much– especially since it was our absolute first one ever produced.
This really excites me that people have looked at our videos, and I just can’t get over the fact that an organization that recognizes TV shows that people see everyday looked at our piece and even considered us! I am just so excited.

 

No Sleep for Team Gaia this Weekend!

Team Gaia is entering Apple Corporation’s Insomnia Film festival!

What is it? It’s a film festival where different teams of teen and college film students have 24 hours to produce a 3-minute piece. How do they monitor how much time you really use, you ask? Well basically, on October 13th at 9:00 AM Apple will release a top-secret list of special props, elements and dialogue. Once the information is posted each team can choose 3 out of the list and have the rest of the time to create a piece from it. You can prepare for it all you want, but you must use those elements.

This, we thought, sounded like a perfect task for Team Gaia’s members, considering we have a good amount of film students that attend Douglas Anderson, and we have experience with deadlines. Our core film-oriented members will be there producing this piece with others who will be Personal Assistants and Actors. While I won’t be there (being a graphics artist and all), I think it sounds like a ton of fun– I think it is almost an honor for us to be involved with this.

When the pieces are done, Apple will post them all on the internet for people to vote on, and the voting will end on November 9th. The top 25 get to have their pieces looked at by industry professionals. And if your film is a big hit with the public or the professionals, your team receives tons of great apple software and equipment worth thousands of dollars! That sounds like something our team really needs. It’s pretty much awesome.

To find out more about the Insomnia Film festival, click here.

 

Team Gaia Hosts Youth Dialogue Meeting

On September 15th we (Team Gaia) got teens from many organizations in Jacksonville, FL to get together in our studio for a Youth Dialogue Meeting. Among the groups that came there were Metro-Town, LOUD, and The Bridge. All of the groups and their leaders talked about issues that affected their daily lives in a forum. Topics touched on included duval county education and sexual education, drugs, the environment, the internet, school and teachers, and many others.

We had a large ‘meet-and-greet’ where we all talked the newcomers and learned about each other. And after the forum we all broke off into groups and talked about the issue of our choice, plus a “main issue” all of the groups decided on. The issue we all chose was education. At the end of these group discussions, each group got up and presented their views and solutions for each subject.

All in all, it was a great starter for some partnerships between active teens. It was really fun to meet all of these new people from different parts of the city. I hope that we can see all of those great people again soon!

 

Someone Does Care?

Several countries have recently lowered their voting age to 16, including Brazil and Austria. On the other-hand Iran has recently raised theirs up to 18, bringing them to bar with America. Why, in a country where kids receive free education, do we feel that kids aren’t informed enough to vote? Children in america are now expected to do more and more, with college level classes available at young ages, kids as a majority are more and more educated at younger and younger ages, so why can’t they vote at a younger age? A large argument is that most of the 16-17 year olds won’t vote anyways, but few young people vote to begin with, so why not give the power to more kids and then more kids will be showing up to vote, just because all of the kids won’t come out to vote doesn’t mean that the few who would should be denied the privilege. In addition isn’t the whole point of democracy that the people decide? So does someone become a person when they turn 18? Is it not true that laws affect today’s youth as well as the today’s adults?
Does the government really care about kids? Or only “people” that can vote? Maybe today’s youth would be better off if they were voting for what they wanted, instead of waiting until they are too old to remember what they wanted and they only know what the government wants.

Inspired by: Sixteen Candles, but Few Blazing a Trail to the Ballot Box

 

The REAL Act is Truly What Teens Need.

Students all across the world are suffering with misinformation from terrible abstinence-only sexual education programs. These programs sometimes bring in conservative religious beliefs that prevent students from learning about what they can do to prevent different sexually transmitted diseases besides abstain or even about some forms of contraception.

The REAL (Responsible Education About Life) act is about educating teens with age-appropriate and medically accurate information that they will benefit from. The act will allow teen’s questions to be answered in the classroom without shame or fear. The act is entirely important because teens in America get about 4 million STDs altogether on average a year, 2 teens in the US are infected with HIV every hour of every day, and the racial differences regarding HIV are frighteningly disproportionate.

I think that people, in general, are inquisitive by nature and want to know about lots of things. Our schools need to stop making talking about sex so taboo. Comprehensive sex education is by far the best way for people to stay away from sexual harm.

And personally, I think that the idea of trying to teach kids that “sex is bad and unsafe” is truly just scare tactics enforced by people afraid and too uptight themselves to talk about it. Chase, a fellow member of Team Gaia, said that in his health class the teacher refused to speak about it, and that they just skipped the chapter altogether. What kind of “health” class was that teacher teaching? Because I think any “health instructor” that would ignore such a huge part of mental and physical health is an absolute travesty.

I think institutions everywhere need to step up and start really teaching sexual education, and the REAL act would be a great way to go– instead of the government pouring it’s money into ineffective abstinence-only education.

Information on the REAL act
Article on the REAL act

 

New Research from Oxford May Prove More Concrete

Scientists have found a way that might soon show the real possibility of extreme weather like the floods and heat waves being due to global warming. Huge heat waves have spread across Europe. Greece has hit 113 degrees fahrenheit, following closely behind a record-setting heat-wave in June of almost 114.8. The heat has killed 500 in Hungary, left 350,000 in Britain without running water. I think it is astounding that simply the heat is killing people. It has been frustrating for me to see people squandering around wondering “Is it Global Warming?” But hopefully these scientists, particularly Myles Allen, who hails from Oxford, (one of the most highly respected universities in the world), with all of these computer simulations, will be able to finally end the questions for skeptics around the globe.

Of course there will always be the howling from “scientists” placed in high places by oil companies, but hopefully the truth will ring out from these complex experiments. Allen claims that is simply a matter of calculating the probability. He, in particular, is running a team conducting thousands of simulations on one particular British flood. Each individual computer runs one climate simulation. Allen says that the results will be published later this year. Hundreds of scientists in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted more and more drastic changes in the weather like floods and heat waves. The heat wave overtaking Europe that I mentioned earlier is a huge example of what the IPCC predicted. With this new technology of pointing the finger at a particular variable in one situation… I think we will be able to revolutionize the way people look at global warming research. I think that soon we will have the most concrete evidence ever presented to the public.

 

Free Speech and Espionage

On July 17 of 2007, George W. Bush issued an executive order “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq”. Under this order any persons who threaten the peace and stability of Iraq or the Iraqi Government. All of this seems fine and dandy, people who try to mess up Iraq get their Assets frozen, but thats not all that it does, it also applies to people who are “undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people”.

So now, anti war protest can result in the blocking of your property, but is Bush just falling in line with other presidents during times of war? The Sedition Act of 1918 made it illegal to speak any protest about a war at all, lest you be thrown in jail for up to 20 years. Eugene V. Debs was thrown in jail for 10 years for making a speech that undermined military recruitment.

How far with this Executive order carry? Will T-Shirts, bumper-stickers, and Anti-War keychains become punishable by the blocking of your property?

Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq

 

Team Gaia’s Live Earth Party!

On July 7th, 2007 people all over the globe celebrated at Live Earth ‘Parties for the Planet’, a reaching-out to all kinds of people around the world to raise awareness and actually do something to stop global warming. People everywhere were encouraged to throw parties of their own, not just to watch the ones on TV, because you don’t need a concert hall to tell people how to save the earth. We, Team Gaia, an Atlantic Beach based teen environmental organization, decided to do just that. We decided to throw a big Live Earth party in our very own studio office in Mayport. We posted our party on MoveOn.org, an environmental and political website that acted as a HQ for people who wanted to go to a Live Earth party. People all over typed in their zip code, and if they were near us, our party showed up on their screens. We also got together and invited a bunch of our friends to join in! We got around 70 people, and their ages were very diverse. We had about 50 adults, some of them seniors, some middle age, and some of them even in their twenties. But at the same time we had about 20 teenagers from different schools in the area. Aside from the mere diversity, a lot of the people who came were very progressive. Members of local organizations like the Sierra Club and JaxTaxpayers.com came, along with lots of other concerned members of the community like UNF professors and school board members. All of us at Team Gaia were really excited to meet all these amazing people!

At the party we had a huge potluck where everyone brought in vegetarian and organic dishes, and we even organized getting some biodegradable silverware. The food that was there was absolutely delicious! People ate, mingled, and we showed the concerts from all over the globe on a projection screen in our studio. We kicked things off with an introductory piece from the Live Earth campaign by Al Gore, and then showed a 30-minute town meeting with different people running for government talking about the environment. We (Team Gaia) also showed our own pieces we ourselves produced about Global Warming. At Team Gaia we produce all kinds of videos spanning from global warming, to getting teens to vote, to organic food and healthy eating. We got some awesome feedback from all kinds of people, and it was really rewarding. The whole experience was simply exhilarating, and it was great to say that we took action, that we will continue to take action, and that we’ve encouraged others to take action.

Most importantly, you can take action against the climate crisis even as a simple reader of this blog! You don’t need to be a member of Team Gaia or Sierra Club or anything like that to make a change. You can change the light bulbs in your home to compound florescent, you can turn the AC up a couple degrees when it’s hot and down a couple when it’s cold, you can do what you can to use less hot water like take shorter showers, and on top of all that, you can drive less! Together, all of us can do our best to prevent global warming– that’s what ‘Party for the Planet’ and Live Earth was all about!

 

Party for the Planet: A Question…

All throughout the world, an enormous party is being held with the planet in mind.

A party with 7 continents participating!

7/7/07: Al Gore’s Live Earth Concerts are being held all over. They are being held to raise awareness of the rising climate. The concerts sold out within the first two days .. so what are the rest of us supposed to do? Party anyway! Party for the Planet is an event anyone can celebrate anywhere. People are holding block parties.

Team Gaia asks you: What are you doing to spread the word about global warming?

Team Gaia’s doing it’s part. We’ve made a whole segment made about global warming– we truly want to make change. We’re holding a Live Earth house party, and you should too!

Party for the planet .. before it’s too late!
http://www.liveearth.org/

 

Rooftop Horticulture a Possibility for New York?

An environmental group called New York Sun Works thinks the rooftops of New York could be used as gardens to provide food for the whole city. To prove their point, they created a garden on a barge on the Hudson River. The barge is a greenhouse that uses solely rain, solar panels, wind turbines and biofuel to subsist. New York Sun Works says that if these ‘hydroponic systems’ with no water or soil were installed on the rooftops of New York, the provided food could feed 20 million people.

Cities like New York growing their own produce would encourage becoming organically inclined and aid the fight against global warming! Having the gardens on the tops of schools could feed the school, and teach lessons in science and horticulture. It would solve the terrible nutrition problems that American cafeterias face! And because space on land is often sought after in cities, what better place to choose for these gardens than the often unused rooftops?

I think this is an extremely exciting and inspiring idea! Think of the changes that this could create in American society– it would be like a tidal wave of health, beauty and tasty organic food! The greenhouses apparently produce seven times more food and they use four times less water than the traditional farm. So many benefits would be in store for New York if they chose to enforce this plan. This is truly one of the best ideas I’ve ever heard– there has to be a city who will do this. Please, someone listen to these wonderful people!

S O U R C E S:
Reuter`s Article
The NY Sun Works homepage

 

Alternative Currency Promotes Going Green

Berkshares, a currency accepted in Great Barrington (Massachusetts) and some neighboring communities, keeps the profit being circulated inside the community. Great Barrington is a unique community that features many organic farms, yoga studios and other such cafes and new age shops. Berkshares have been a hit with the community’s economy, and locals use the bills as almost a form of local pride. The bills allow small businesses to stay alive and compete with large chains that are sprouting up everywhere.

I am delighted to hear that this bill experiment was brought about in such a green-inclined community, and I hope that this currency will encourage other communities to do the same and create their own currencies. I would love to see the organic farms grow because of a change in economy. This seems like a great tool to combat fast food and other restaurant chains with great alternatives to their terrible food.

S O U R C E S:
Reuters’ Article.

 

Flash Floods? No Wonder.

Many parts of Northern Texas were hit with around 2 to 3 inches of rain in a single hour sunday evening, June 17th 2007. Several families were forced up on rooftops as nearby bodies of water filled with the rain simply pouring out of the sky. Several areas in Texas have received up to 8 inches of rain over that night. The rainfall bombarded the town of Gainesville, which has appeared to have received the brunt of the storm. Recent footage shows families lost on the rooftops of their homes. Power was lost to approximately 300,000 homes in the area. Luckily, there have only been two casualties, although all of us wish there wouldn’t have been any…

As people continue to ignore global warming, what do they expect to come from mother nature? I think that in this day and age we truly shouldn’t be losing children to random weather accidents. But as the terrible weather becomes more intense, perhaps people will wake up to the world around them. I do not blame global warming for every rainy day, but I do think there is a very real connection between the earth’s increasing climate and the magnitude of different natural happenings. If anyone can think back to Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, they will truly understand what I’m talking about. As the line between global warming and the weather isn’t being drawn in popular media as they’re covering these horrifying tragedies, people aren’t seeing that we can aid the problem.

S O U R C E S:
•Disaster News’ article on the Texas flash flooding.
•Reuters’ article on the flooding.
•Reuters’ video of the flood.
•The United Press’ Article

 

A Little Here, A Little There

Obesity, America’s “Epidemic”, brought on by our own choice of life style. The world is moving a mile a minute and if you aren’t moving with it, your going to be left behind, you’ve got to have everything right now, and you definitely can’t wait to get something healthy, you’ll take what you can get now, even if it means that your eating a tub of fat with a little bit of pesticide soaked lettuce on top that you’ll probably just throw away anyways. Where did this idea come from? From ourselves of course. The whole Nation has become brainwashed without even realizing it, but how can we blame the masses, being hit by an estimated 3000 advertisements a day how can they avoid being convinced that they need to eat under the Golden Arches and buy all they need at the Super Center.

But, how can you live up to what you see in the advertisements, how can you maintain that healthy body, that perfect skin while your biting into a big chunk of Hormone-grown meat between two pieces of preservative-filled bread, all topped off with a dash of sesame seeds. The media constantly tells people what they should look like, but then shoves things in their faces that it cannot handle, but now we have an answer! Plastic Surgery. You weren’t born the way you wanted to be? Not your problem anymore, just a little snip snip and your however you want to be.

11.5 million cosmetic surgical and not surgical procedures were performed in 2005. People can not longer accept themselves because of the advertisements that have been thrown at them their whole lives, they think they need to change and be different. There is a growing increase in the number of cosmetic surgeries in all areas a large one being Teen boys getting surgery done to reduce the size of their chests. Because of the attitude that if you don’t look perfect you shouldn’t be seen, many boys are now getting surgery done to achieve the more perfect body.

In short, I find it disgusting that people are so ridiculed for the way they look, especially when it is something that they are not able to change.

Plastic Surgery Statistics

 

School Systems Shelter Their Students From the Truth.

We’ve all been there, we’ve all sat in that wooden desk and listened to our health instructors lecture about that forbidden subject. Sexual intercourse. I personally remember leaving that course with one thought in my mind, “Don’t have sex.” In today’s society, 85% of schools must teach that abstinence is the only true way to prevent pregnancy and STDs, and 35% of the schools are not allowed to talk about any kind of contraceptives unless it is addressing their flaw rates. This is because our government believes that the most sufficient and effective way to prevent pregnancies and STDs in teenagers is to teach students that abstinence is the only way. However these methods of “Abstinence Only” have been proved less affective then sex ed programs that have a well round education that promotes abstinence, but also teaches students about contraceptives and how to use them properly.
Despite all of the federal support, these “Abstinence Only” programs have been deemed very ineffective and more risky then plans that discuss contraceptives. Regardless to the statistics, president Bush proposed in 2004 that congress should increase the funding for “Abstinence only” programs by $33 million. That would put the funding for “Abstinence only” programs at $135 million.
In todays society it is very important for teens to know about contraceptives and how they work. These educational programs that deny students important information about alternative ways that they can prevent pregnancies and STDs is nothing but a recipe for disaster. They deserve to know the truth about their bodies and how they can protect them. It is ridiculous to believe that teens will remain abstinent just because they are told to do so. Statistics show that teens that come from an “Abstinence Only” program are less likely to use contraceptives when they become sexually active because they were deprived of information about them.

It is time that our society wakes up and realizes that teens may still be sexually active whether we tell them it is bad or not. We need to help them understand the different ways they can protect themselves from pregnancy and STDs. Of course sex shouldn’t be promoted, the sex ed programs should touch on all areas including contraceptives for the most affective results.

Links
http://www.aegis.com/news/upi/2003/UP030902.html
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/

 

Update: China’s “Energy Police” Task Force Combat Global Warming!

A small update on my last little bit on China’s battle against global warming. Chinese government’s latest weapon against the cruel climate change? A sort of “Energy Saving Police” out to make sure all buildings in Beijing are obeying energy saving rules, like making sure their air conditioning is set to no cooler than 79 degrees. The Chinese government also has a phone line set up just so people can call in and report people disobeying these Energy Laws.

The effort to save energy has even become somewhat of a political campaign, considering the 2008 Beijing olympics are approaching and they truly want to get rid of all the pollution by then. The People Daily, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece in China, says: “All regions and sectors must thoroughly grasp the importance and urgency of saving energy and reducing emissions,” showing the government’s desperation to urge things forward. According to the China Youth Daily, 84.6 percent of almost 5,000 Chinese citizens found global warming and energy conservation to be considered an urgent issue. It seems to me that China is certainly keeping its’ promise so far!

S O U R C E S:
Article about China’s efforts.
Article mainly about the energy police.

 

Skinny is the New Fat

In many third world countries the poor cannot afford to eat and therefore are very underweight, but in The United States it is different. This is because the government is subsidizing foods that are used in making high-calorie foods rather than in foods that help people keep the fat off, like fruits and vegetables. This is because the government subsidizes foods like corn, soybeans, and wheat, which are used to get oils and fats to make high-calorie foods.
Recently, several Congressional representatives undertook a “Food Stamp Challenge” in which they spent only 21 dollars a week on food, 3 dollars a day, which is equivalent to what the average person on food stamps lives off of. The Congressmen found that it was very hard to live off so little money and that it was much easier to buy high-calorie foods.
It is expected that there will be a new Food Bill soon and if so a change in the subsidized foods to include more Fruits and Vegetables could do well to further the overall health of the population and take a great step in preventing obesity.

For more information on the food subsidies visit:
The New York Times
For more information about the Senator food challenge please visit:
The Food Stamp Challenge
The Colbert Report

 

China Fights Global Warming without U.S. Help

Following in suit of Europe, China has recently launched its’ very first “climate change” plan. However, Chinese officials are very upset towards the responses the country is receiving from others regarding the matter. Ma Kai, head of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, says, “Overlooking historical facts and obligations, ignoring different development levels of different countries… it’s not fair or reasonable to use climate change as an excuse to limit the progress of developing nations and hinder their efforts towards modernization.”, “China will not commit to any quantified emissions reduction targets, but that does not mean we will not assume responsibilities in responding to climate change,”.

China’s new plan makes bold plans to fight global warming through ways that won’t exactly mess with their economy. Supporting recycling in industry, cleaner transport, alternative fuels, saving energy & forest planting is their ideal. However, while these things all sound nice, the Chinese government stresses very greatly that they will not give up any part of their growing economy to meet other international demands.

While it is indeed wonderful that China has decided to employ a plan, rather than just talking about employing one, it seems like the plan is more of a shield against any criticism coming at them in the upcoming G8 summit. China wants to make sure they are not the ones with fingers pointed at them when it comes to global warming, so they employ a “climate change” plan just before the summit where they will have to face the other nations.

At the same time, though, just think about how many things you look at and see the “made in china” label on. We cannot blame China for not being able to keep up with a global warming plan they manufacture so many other, more well-developed countries’ goods. Ma Kai also made sure to talk about this. He said that rich countries could not blame poor countries for pollution when the poor countries are being outsourced by the rich countries, saying that the rich nations did this while “dragging their feet with promises to share clean technology” (an obvious reference to the US).

In summation, I think that China’s plan is a good step forward that has been needed for a long time. While it is somewhat of a shield against criticism at G8, it is more than the US has done. The United States shouldn’t use China for manufacturing and blame them for pollution, but China has turned the other cheek, and made a new plan to help the environment.

(This piece was written June 6th, 2007)

EDIT- today.

As G-8 has most definitely drawn to a close, President Bush has agreed to keep his climate plans within UN lines. However, coming up with anything beyond Kyoto is pretty much out of the question because he’ll be out of office by then. Bush has also made it completely certain that US cooperation with the climate change ideas provided by the UN will rely entirely on China and India’s cooperation as well.

My question is– why does he need China and India to be there? He is acting like a little kid who needs his siblings to be punished as well. Why can’t Bush and his administration clean up their own act before pointing fingers at others? China actually has a plan.

S O U R C E S:
• Video of Ma Kai speaking about the plan.
• Article about China’s plan having to incorporate growth.
• List of G8`s conclusions.

 

Bush Pretends to Care About Global Warming

“By the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases.” President Bush states his proposal in front of a large crowd today. Bush says that to make this goal happen, there will be a series of meetings with the top 15 carbon emitting countries, including ones like China and India. After the goal would be chosen, the nations could go about cutting down emissions any way they wanted to.

Next week there will be a summit in Germany of most of the industrialized nations where Bush will definitely be in the hot seat. As you already know, he refused to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that would make the US reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2012. China and India were both exempt from Kyoto, and in 2001 when he was making more statements about why he rejected Kyoto, he definitely made sure to bring that up a couple times. Bush also made sure that he would reject Germany’s newest idea for what would happen after 2012.

Another thing Bush made sure to point out in his speech was that in 2006, the US’ carbon emissions decreased by 1.3 percent while the economy grew 3.3 percent. He says, “this experience shows that a strong and growing economy can deliver both a better life for its people and a cleaner environment at the same time.” 1.3 percent? Man, that really makes a difference. It’s good we didn’t output more emissions than the year before, but compared to what we could be doing if we had ratified the Kyoto treaty, that is nothing. And the President wants to prolong the wait for real climate change even more? 6 years ago, if you look at his speech on climate change, he was singing the same tune.

He wants to put off the decision of the goal for the end of next year, 2008. If the number 2008 means anything to you, you’ll realize that Bush will be out of office after that. Way to put off the problem so you won’t really have to deal with it, Mr. President. While our environment chokes to death, how about we have some more nice talks about what we can do while we call any other plan from another country “fatally flawed” (what he said about Kyoto) and point fingers at China and India.

What he said in at the end of a speech on climate change on June 11, 2001:
“I look forward to continued discussions with our friends and allies on this important issue.”

That’s right, Mr. Bush. And discussions have certainly happened! Now is time to take action. Not make a “target goal” to be decided on by the end of next year.

This is what Philip Clapp at the National Environmental Trust (where George Cavros, Team Gaia’s friend who was interviewed in our 1st episode, is from) said:
“This is a transparent effort to divert attention from the president’s refusal to accept any emissions reductions proposals at next week’s G-8 summit”

I wholeheartedly agree.

S O U R C E S:
• Article from CNN.com
• The full documented speech he gave today.
• The full speech on global warming he gave in 2001.

 

Kentucky Fried Chicken, Better For You, Still Bad For The Chickens

KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken, in the days of care free eating, before mass food marketing caused an increase in obesity, “Kentucky Fried” would have meant that you were getting a good old down-home cooked meal, but now a-days it means that your getting a one way ticket to an artery clogged heart attack.

But, the ever-adapting mass food industry has come up with a new ploy, following in Suit of the recent New York Ban, KFC has changed frying oils in order to bring home a 0 grams Trans-fat chicken menu. This new reduction of Trans-fat can hopefully not only lead other restaurants to not only change their stores in New York, but their stores Nation wide, like KFC has done.

But, does this eradication of Trans-fat make up for KFC’s undesirable treatment of their chickens? Or is it just a Red Herring to throw everyone away from the issue? As we should praise KFC for getting rid of the Trans-fat we should not lighten up on their need to reform their way of handling Chickens, if we are going to breed them only to die to keep us fat and happy, they might as well enjoy what short life we have given them.

For more information of KFC’s change in Trans-fat visit their website at Kentucky Fried Chicken
For more information on KFC’s harmful treatment of animals please visit Kentucky Fried Cruelty