Save Oil and Wildlife by Using Cloth Bags

Global warming has always been my main concern, when I wrote a post of Cow Farts: Global Warmers Or A Load Of Hot Air?, most people that knew me thought I was crazy then, but think about it, we’ve lots of cows here in the US and elsewhere, and they do fart, then there must be lots of hot air, but is it enough to cause global warming? I guess living in the country is not all about fresh clean air after all, might have to put up with the cow farts as well.

Image from unknown creator

Then the recent news of cow poop caused fire burning in California, those that used to laugh at me actually thought of my cow farts post that I did, and of course they thought of me, still laughing about it though, and I kept thinking to myself,  farts from cows people, it’s methane gas and not laughing gas, I don’t think they get it. I do love cows and water buffaloes, as for now their business is fine with me, and if it does cause some hot air, hopefully someone that think like me would come up with a solution.

Global warming is not a laughing matter, we’ve to do our part to help protect mother earth.Today is Blog Action Day and the topic is Climate Change, also known as Global Warming.

As for me, I like to do my part as well, I try to carry my own cloth bags when I go grocery shopping.  I think it’s time to save oil and wildlife by curbing use of plastic bags, the statistic from the Buffalo News is very scary, no laughing at my news source please.

According to the article, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency says that more than 500 billion bags are used worldwide each year. Less than one percent of those bags are recycled. Why? The economics simply does not work: it costs $4,000 to process and recycle one ton of plastic bags, which is then worth $32.

Our National Academy of Sciences reported in 1975 that oceangoing vessels dumped 8 million pounds of plastic annually. The rest, of course, ended in landfills or, even worse, sewers. For many of those plastics neither is the end of the line. They have been found north of the Arctic Circle near Spitzbergen and as far south as the Falkland Islands. They account for more than one-tenth of the debris washed up on the U. S. coastline.

To know misfortune is to be a child born in Laos (correction, only in certain region of Laos)

• Hope by Jim Brickman

Today is Blog Action Day – A day where bloggers around the web focus upon a single important issue on everyone’s mind – Poverty.

Poverty is all around us, whether it’s the people that live down the street from us, those in big cities, or other countries. I read an article written by Joel Brinkley, and it read, “To know misfortune is to be a child born in Laos.”

This is so true, I was born in Laos, but I had a second chance, and maybe that’s why I’ve worked so hard to get to where I am today, but I often think of the children in Laos, I’ve helped some with the books box, and school project, but I feel it’s not enough, I wish I could do more.

As for some of us, there is so much that we want to do to help, but reaching out is the hardest thing to do. Today, I want to honor Karin Manente, she is Laos country director for the World Food Program. Karin Manente is like the mother to the children of Laos, from the article Woman’s effort to rescue the children of Laos, written by Joel Brinkley.

[The United Nations classifies Laos as one of the world's "least developed" countries. And no wonder. Half of all children here are chronically malnourished during their first five years of life. They suffer "stunting" as a result. That inelegant term means they do not grow, either physically or mentally. If these children make it to adulthood, they will be small and not very smart. And then there's the 10 percent classified as "wasting" - little children who are, essentially, starving to death. It's quite obvious that the callous, opaque communist government couldn't care less about its children. Over 10 years, the malnourishment statistics have changed little if at all. If not for people like Karin Manente, Lao children would have nothing to hope for.

"There is so much human capacity that is lost here," she laments. Severe malnourishment in early childhood "affects you for the rest of your life."

Manente is Laos country director for the World Food Program, the underappreciated U.N. enterprise that struggles to feed the poorest people in countries governed by obdurate, uncaring leaders.

Among its programs in Laos, the WFP delivers midday meals to 88,000 schoolchildren - a daunting task in a mountainous nation with almost no paved roads. Many villages can be reached only on foot, and the next settlement might be 20 miles away. The problem is, these are the places most in need. These are the children Manente tries to feed. For many, that is the only meal they will get each day.

The WFP weighed and measured thousands of children all over the country to produce a "food insecurity" study, published several months ago. The malnourished children, it concluded, "do badly at school and have low productivity in adulthood." That is, if they survive to adulthood. Just more than 8 percent of all children born here die before they reach age 5. The others "pass on poverty and deprivation to future generations." Read the rest of article here.]

This is just the children in Laos, there are some in your hometown, and other countries, if you want to help feed the hungry, please get in touch with a nonprofit organization of your choice, in a time such as this, so much help is needed.

Please Join Blog Action Day – October 15th, 2008

I participated in Blog Action Day last year on the issue of the environment, and this year, if you would like to participate, please register at blogactionday.org, and October 15th, 2008 bloggers around the web would unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind – Poverty. I hope you will join, much attention is needed, I’ll be writing a post on that day.

Door To Decision

I learned about Blog Action Day through A Dialogue With K, on October 15th, bloggers around the web would unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind – the environment. My contribution to this day, a poem by Robson Grant called Door To Decision.

Photo by Underwater-girl, called River Crossing (Mekong River, Laos)

We come from a turbulent past
To an info-age moving way to fast
The fate of these lands
Is now placed in our hands

Will we bring destruction to an end
Will we have the power to mend
Save this fragile dreamland
Wash away our footprints in the sand

Global warming is causing weather changes right before our eyes
But we still blacken our skies
Sunrays take less time to burn our faces
But we still destroy our rain forests and just leave empty spaces

The men spill out of the factories everywhere
Punching their time clocks basically unaware
Don’t realize what’s happening to the big picture
The massive devastation of the atmospheric mixture

Every day go through their daily motions
Waiting it out for measly promotions
Distant stares and silent prayers
Monday to Friday . . . say goodbye

Our oceans are slicked with oil spills
Our waterways full of toxic waste that kills
We build our cities on mountains of pollution
Without an environmental solution

We live our lives in search of wealth
In the process damage our good health
Crime stories are found on every newspaper page
People loosing control in an uncertain age

The victims of greed are getting younger
In a world that still allows their hunger
Our petty problems make us hang down our heads
While million’s go unfed

Desire unfolds the light of our day
But we cannot give in to the subtle decay
We must rise above the haze descending
Toward mass action mending

We must take control of our actions today
or the children of tomorrow will be the one’s to pay
The new innkeepers shall soon take charge
of the next generation’s voyage at large

Trends are patterned and patterns trended
But man’s damage must be ended!