Not Global Warming... Global Weirding!

So, as areas of our planet reach new record cold temperatures this concept of Global Warming needs to shift to Global Weirding! 

Many areas of the world will get colder, like San Francisco, as other areas of the world grow much warmer in summer months.  There is no real way to predict or know how this planet will shift in temperatures as it warms, cools, melts and locks in more sun's energy into our atmosphere.

The planetary shifts are upon us now... not in the future, reminding us to get aligned, reduce all our GHG emissions and realize the way we have been treating the planet for too long.  It is a bold reminder that our way of using the planet as an endless resource has come to an end period.  It is time to shift and evolve as the planet attempts to deal with the human impact on its system.

WAKE UP WORLD... TIMES ARE A CHANGING!

This holiday season Bag the Bag folks... NOT paper nor plastic!

The archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, Brazil is considered a wildlife sanctuary, but today, even in this isolated archipelago dolphins are victims of the bad habits of consumption. (Photo and caption by João Vianna)

Bag the Bag Video with Edward Norton

Check out my favorite shopping bags that are small enough to take with you everywhere!

Chico Bags

http://www.chicobag.com/

Ecowarrior2012's yipi! Moments from SF Green Festival

Yo EcoWarriors,


Well the folks at yipi! (Rock your life and the Planet) caught me on camera at the recent SF Greenfestival this last weekend.  So what is a yipi moment you ask?

A breakthrough moment in your life, when everything changes... when you knew you would never be the same again for the rest of your life?

Mine was spending 3 whole days on a National Park island of Cairns, Great Barrier Reef... solo!  I lived in and hitchhiked in Australia at only 21,  and I had no idea I would have my own island until the NP boat service dropped me off.  I was already equipped with my own food, water and shelter for three days on the tiny Russell island... it was all mine!

WOW!!!  I experienced so many different emotions ranging from joy to fear, from loneliness to serenity, from excitement to deep contemplation... but most of all ultimate FREEDOM!  Have you ever stood on a hill and sang out loud for an hour... with no one else around to hear you, judge you, mock you or experience you?  For the first time in my life, I was truly alone and there was no one there to reflect my experience off of... and that was amazing for me.   It proved to me that humans are free beings and that we also need social relationships to make sharing it all worth it.  Chris McCandless aka Alexander Supertramp, went all the way to Alaska to experience the same feelings, as told in the great book, "Into the Wild."

So, what is your breakthrough moment in life?  How has it changed you forever?

Russell Island, Cairns, Australia

Chris McCandless, Alexander Supertramp in AK!

Build me a new Green city... done, okay meet Masdar City!!!

Ever dreamed what it would be like to build an entire new city with the most  highly technological, modernly efficient and environmentally sustainable principles... and IRENA and the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology.
Amazing right?  What a cool time we live in to try, do and achieve these kind of breakthroughs and leap into the future we need to create together using our genius, passion, skill and forward thinking around natural systems!

http://www.masdarcity.ae/en/index.aspx
http://www.irena.org/
http://www.masdar.ac.ae/home/index.aspx

Cool... Freshman get Free bikes to share at UNE!

UNE's alternative transportation bike program!

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Harmony Bell '12, Briana Chu '12, Gavin Kuns '13 & Jessica Nadeau '12

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Zachary Schmesser, Coordinator of Outdoor Recreation and Peter Sullivan, Intern, Sports Management Major, Aug '10

Biddeford, Maine — The University of New England's alternative transportation bike program continues to garner national news coverage, most recently in USA Today on Sept. 22, 2010.

The University of New England this past summer expanded its successful on-campus bicycle program to prospective students and their families by offering Admission tours of campus by bicycle, and new programs for existing students, as well.

In fall 2008, UNE launched its alternative transportation program by offering free bicycles or Zipcar usage to first-year resident students who promised not to bring cars to campus.
Considered one of the most comprehensive programs of its kind in the country, the program, featured in the New York Times, was a resounding success and will be offered again this fall to the first one hundred and twenty five first year resident students who opt into the program.
Since the program was initiated, the University has been able to close and convert a parking lot into recreation space without the need for additional parking. Program expansions in 2010 include free bicycle rentals, a "Blue Bike" program, and student bicycle tours throughout the surrounding area.

Visitors can participate in Admissions-led bicycle tours that travel through UNE's campus – classrooms, residence halls, and other spots of interest, including the scenic Hills Beach Road area just off-campus. The two-hour tour, conducted via brand-new L.L. Bean bikes, ends with lunch and an informative presentation at UNE's Windward Café. In the fall, the bicycles will be returned to UNE's Students Affairs department for use in its active on-campus bike programs.
UNE's alternative bicycle transportation program is a collaboration between the Admissions Office, Conference Services, Residential Housing and Education, Safety and Security, Orientation, Outdoor Recreation, and Sustainability departments.
Zachary Schmesser, UNE's coordinator of outdoor recreation, was hired last summer to create recreational activities for students. At that time, some first-year students who were not using their bikes donated them back to UNE. Some of the bikes were in disrepair, so Schmesser decided to create a new program modeled after the "Yellow Bike" program, a successful bike-sharing initiative in Portland, Oregon and other communities around the world.
In UNE's Blue Bike program, bikes will be repaired, painted blue, and spread out around campus so that students, faculty or staff who have registered for the program can borrow them on the go and leave them at another on-campus location. Some work-study students will be trained to work in the Blue Bike program, from repairing bikes and leading tours, to helping to manage the program.

Bicycle programs have existed at UNE for years as part of the first-year Orientation program. The Trailblazer Bike program allows students to come to campus a day early, get to know other students, and take a short ride exploring the surrounding area, including the East Point Bird Sanctuary in Biddeford Pool.  With the expansion of the bicycle program, students can now continue riding well after Orientation. It has re-energized UNE's existing bicycle club.
(News release posted July 12, 2010)

http://www.une.edu/news/2010/unebicycleprogram.cfm

You're not a "Real" Leader!

A very challenging question we all face and come up against in these times.. what will it take for us to step us, rise up and lead us into a better world?  This below quote has been serving me well lately and reminding me to let go of the illusions of leadership... it is exactly us!

Enjoy and please share with others you care about.


Leadership and Liberation- by Sean Ruth page 38-39
"We are presented with models of leadership who are apparently, supremely self-confident and competent, passionately dedicated, convinced of their own correctness, single-minded and fearless.  For many in leadership roles who want to make a difference, however, this is not how it feels to lead.  They struggle with doubts about their intelligence or their competence, they feel scared, hopeless, or powerless at times, they get confused about what makes most sense or they are trying to juggle a number of competing demands on their time and energy while they pursue what they want to achieve.  In the midst of all this, it is easy to lose sight of their significance as leaders.  The messages that comes across is that real leaders do not struggle, that real leaders lead effortlessly.  The presence of doubts, fears confusion, exhaustion or discouragement can be taken to mean someone is not a real leader.

The reality is different.  Leadership is not about having no struggles.  It is not about finding it easy.  Umberto Eco said that the real hero dreams of being an honest coward like everyone else, that they are always a hero by mistake. Leadership is about not letting the struggles stop us.  It is not about never making mistakes or having to know it all. It is about giving ourselves permission to get it wrong and learning from what happens.  It is not about looking as if we have no difficulties.  It is about being able to show our struggle and not pretending to be what we are not.  Because we may find it difficult does not mean we are not real leaders.  Overcoming the difficulties, the feelings, or the blocks in the way is what leadership is about.  Everyone has this potential and one of the first steps towards realizing we do not ahve to be perfect before we start (to lead)!"