The Green Corner On this page, we present the Green Corner articles which have appeared in the Sunday Parish Bulletin. _______________________________________________________________________________ May 7 - Shopping Options - Local Does It! Would you like to eat healthier and reduce your carbon footprint? Support your local farmers' markets or join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program to receive a weekly supply of seasonal, locally grown veggies, fruits, and flowers. Bay Area options include: Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale, Hidden Villa Farm in Los Altos, and Live Earth Farm in Watsonville. To find CSAs and farmers' markets in the area, go to www.localharvest.org. The Downtown Palo Alto Farmers' Market opens tomorrow, May 8. ---------------------------------------------------------- Green Corner: Kid Power If you have children who might be interested in flexing a little political muscle, tell them about the Energy Action Coalition. The grassroots network, whose slogan is “Youth united for clean and just energy,” has a small staff and a larger council and steering committee that help young people organize rallies and publicity campaigns. The coalition can even coordinate work among youth action groups in different countries. One early success is the Campus Climate Challenge, which organizes university students to get their school’s administrators to commit to making the campus climate-neutral; to date, more than 550 schools have agreed to a plan. The current push is to register 18- and 19-year-olds to vote. The group’s Web site, www.energyactioncoalition.org, also offers standardized letters that children, tweens and teens can send to their elected representatives, asking them to pledge to improve conservation and energy efficiency in their districts. ---------------------------------------------------------- Bike* to Mass Weekend, April 24-25 To celebrate God's bounty and Earth Day, start your spiritual journey to Mass April 24/25 in an earth-friendly way. * Walk, bike, skate, ski, roller-blade, stroll, sashay or perambulate. Or take public transit. Or car pool (driving someone beside your family.). Just don't drive. As a one-time inducement and reward (while supplies last) participants will receive a fairly-traded chocolate bar. (One per household, while supplies last). Look for the person with the green armband at the main church entrance and say you didn't drive or you car pooled. (Scout's honor.) All 8 Masses! All 3 sites! Temporary bike parking (There will be a bike rack or special arrangement for locking up the bicycles.) And from that Sunday's readings: Acts 13:14, 43-52 Paul and Barnabas continued on from Perga and reached Antioch in Pisidia. On the sabbath, they parked and locked their bikes, removed their helmets, entered the synagogue and took their seats. ---------------------------------------------------------- Earth Day 2010, Thursday, April 22 As many communities and groups celebrate the 40th Earth Day this week, may we reflect deeply on our moral and religious responsibility to care for the environment. As we enjoy all the signs for the spring renewal of life around us, let us join all creation in praising God. Then let us live out our gratitude for the gifts of the earth by engaging in actions, habits and public policies that preserve the fruitfulness of the earth, to better protect both human beings and the whole community of life that God loves. For more Catholic teaching, resources, and ways to take action visit: www.catholicsocialjustice.org For local Palo Alto options for involvement, see the City web site at http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/environment/earthday/default.asp ---------------------------------------------------------- April 4, 2010 - What's A Waterfootprint? A recent editorial in a Palo Alto paper questioned the need for domestic water conservation if agriculture uses the lion’s share of water in the state. Agriculture does use around 80% (it varies year to year) of our water – but let’s remember, after all, who is eating the food? Farmers are under great pressure to increase irrigation efficiency and plant more water efficient crops. Non-agrarian Palo Altans can also make a difference in agricultural water use by what they choose to eat. Moving down the food chain reduces water use. Modest reductions in the amounts of meat, eggs and milk we eat can translate into big water savings. For example: Source: University of California Agricultural Extension. To learn more about the effect your personal choices have on water consumption visit www.waterfootprint.org. ---------------------------------------------------------- March 27 - EARTH HOUR 2010 (e-bulletin only) Saturday, March 27, starting 8:30 PM Local Time Earth hour is a global act of solidarity in which millions of people turn off all devices that use energy. It shows the power of the human community to take action in reducing emissions and caring for the Earth. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- EARTH DAY 2010 It will be on Thursday, April 22 - a special day for our nation to think of the earth - of its beauties and its scars - and to resolve to care for it as best we can. Our committee is planning a Bike to Mass event for a weekend soon after Earth Day. Watch for that announcement. CO2 Emissions in pounds per year per capita: ---------------------------------------------------- February 28, 2010 - ARE YOU GREEN TOO? The parish Green Committee wants to hear from you. We’ve offered suggestions about saving energy, polluting less and generally taking better care of our environment and planet. (See the link to the Green Committee website in www.paloaltocatholic.org). We bet a lot of you are already pretty green. Will you tell us practices you've found that use less, save more or mess less? We'd like to put them in our bulletin and on our website. Our committee will publish them on the website and choose one as Tip of the Week for the bulletin. Send your tips to Laura Chiu (lauraleechiu@gmail.com) or 650-283-6343. We may edit for length and similar tips may be lumped together. When you write, tell us if you want to be named or remain mysterious. ------------------------------------------------- February 21, 2010 - A New Twist on the Lenten Fast: Reduce Your Carbon Footprint As the Lenten season arrives, the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change has provided Catholics, schools and organizations with more tools and resources for its annual Catholic Climate Covenant. And our parish Green Committee has capitalized on that! The Coalition was formed three and a half years ago to help implement the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) 2001 initiative "Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good." Launched last year, the Covenant revolves around the St. Francis Pledge, which correlates five key actions - pray, learn, assess, act and advocate - to the issues of the environment and poverty. To help fulfill those obligations, the Archdiocese of Washington's Environmental Outreach Committee has created a particularly useful new tool: a calendar that lists 40 carbon-fasting measures individuals can take to reduce their carbon footprint. As Pope Benedict XVI has reminded us, it is more urgent than ever to "re-create a strong alliance between man and the earth," and the effects of climate change are disproportionately affecting the poor. The calendar is "another way to care for creation and aid the poor," said Catholic Climate Covenant Executive Director Daniel Misleh. [In addition,] it's challenging, asks for sacrifices and to be more mindful of patterns of consumption. "It's a new twist on Lent." View a copy of the customized St. Thomas Aquinas Carbon Fast Calendar. Read more about the fast and the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change here: http://www.catholicsandclimatechange.org/. Contact Steve Pehanich at spehanich@cacatholic.org for more information. -------------------------------------------------------------------- February 6, 2010 Clean the green way, and you’ll save time and money as well as the environment: The Forest Stewardship Council was established to coordinate the development of sustainable practices in forestry management. When buying wood furniture, look for the FSC seal. It certifies that the wood came from sustainable resources. — Rebecca Jepsen, for the Mercury News _______________________________________________________________________________ January 30, 2010 Common indoor plants can be used as pollution-absorbing devices for the home or workplace, concluded a twoyear study by NASA and the Associated Landscape Contractors of America. Great options include bamboo palm, Chinese evergreen, chrysanthemum, gerbera daisy, peace lily, English ivy, dracaena massangeana or marginata, corn plant or mother-in-law’s tongue. Reuse those old toothbrushes. First, throw them in the dishwasher to clean, and then use them for spot-cleaning upholstery, those tight spaces around the kitchen faucet, the track of sliding doors, jewelry, electric shavers, vents, blinds, and so on. — Rebecca Jepsen, for the Mercury News ---------------------------------------------------------- January 17, 2010 Pope Benedict XVI's 2010 Message for the World Day of Peace, "If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation," is the latest in a long tradition of Church teaching on our obligation to care for creation. Quoting Pope John Paul II and Pope Paul VI throughout his message, the Holy Father affirms that environmental degradation is "a wide-ranging social problem which concerns the entire human family" (#3). The full text of the message can be found at: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/peace/index_en.htm ---------------------------------------------------------- December 20, 2009 - An Invitation To Reflection and Action "At its core, the environmental crisis is a moral challenge. It calls us to examine how we use and share the goods of the earth, what we pass on to future generations, and how we live in harmony with God's creation. Environmental issues are also linked to other basic problems. As eminent scientist Dr. Thomas F. Malone reported, humanity faces problems in five interrelated fields: environment, energy, economics, equity, and ethics. To ensure the survival of a healthy planet, then, we must not only establish a sustainable economy but must also labor for justice both within and among nations. We must seek a society where economic life and environmental commitment work together to protect and to enhance life on this planet." Source: "An Invitation to Reflection and Action on Environment in Light of Catholic Social Teaching A Pastoral Statement of the United States Catholic Conference November 14, 1991." http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/ejp/bishopsstatement.shtml ---------------------------------------------------------- December 13, 2009 - What Our Catechism Tells Us From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2426:. |
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