Tag Archives: BP

In this week’s address, the President spoke about his upcoming trip to Alaska, during which he will view the effects of climate change firsthand. Alaskans are already living with the impact of climate change, with glaciers melting faster, and temperatures projected to rise between 6 and 12 degrees by the end of the century.

In his address, the President spoke to ways in which we can address these challenges, including the transition away from fossil fuels to more renewable energy sources like wind and solar, an effort in which America is already leading. And he stressed that while our economy still has to rely on oil and gas during that transition, we should rely more on domestic production than importing from foreign countries who do not have the same environmental or safety standards as the United States.

The President looked forward to his upcoming trip, and promised that while he is in office, America will lead the world to meet the threat of climate change before it’s too late.

Watch the President’s Weekly Address here.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services ~ Public Health Emergency Weekly Report

09/07/2015 Nativegrl77

National Preparedness Month 2015

National Preparedness Month serves as a reminder that we must take action to prepare for disasters now and throughout the year. Learn what we are doing and what you can do to help keep yourself, your family, and even your community safe and healthy in a disaster. Learn More >>

Series of icons: people, health, city, computer

Don’t Wait! Communicate! Make your Emergency Plan Today!

When disaster strikes, your family might not be together. Make a plan so that your family can get in touch with each other. Learn about your area’s emergency alerts, have a plan for finding your loved ones in a disaster, share information, and practice your plan. Get started today! Learn More >>

Staying Healthy with a Hurricane and a Baby on the Way

Shelly Lopez Gray, MSN, RNC-MNN, IBCLC; Labor and Delivery Nurse at Houston Methodist San Jacinto, recalls how she relied on her mom, her neighbors, and some emergency supplies to help her make it out of Houston, TX safely during a 17 hour evacuation in advance of Hurricane Rita. Learn More >>

Overpacker or Prepared? A Plan & a Go-bag Helped this Dad’s Family When Seconds Counted.

Ron Piedrahita has an unusual talent: he can get a lot of stuff into a very small space. He is also meticulous about keeping his family’s go-bags up to date. When a derecho blew through his neighborhood, Ron was able to get his family out of the house in minutes with everything from clothes that fit his growing toddler to her favorite stuffed animal, “piggy”, thanks in part to his well-stocked and frequently updated go-bags. Learn More >>

Public Health Emergency. Resilient People. Healthy Communities. A Nation Prepared.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Floating coffins

08/23/2015 Nativegrl77

Dear friends,The most persecuted peoples on our earth are right now taking to ‘floating coffins’ to flee violence and seek sanctuary for their families. But instead of responding with humanity, our governments are closing their doors, letting them starve and drown at sea.

The Mediterranean and Andaman Seas are becoming graveyards.

Burma is driving the Rohingya out, and thousands of families are drifting helplessly at sea, forced to drink their own urine because Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia had turned them away. Syrians and Africans risk drowning every week off the coast of Southern Europe, braving the terrifying crossing as their last hope to escape torture, hunger, and traffickers.

We are facing the biggest refugees crisis since World War II, but so far governments have let them die in a climate of rising xenophobia. Now it has reached a crisis, and our community has a unique chance to jam the culture of fear with a wave of compassion.

If we each chip in a small amount now, we’ll help fund rescue operations at sea; build an Avaaz refugee team to assist those missions and resettlement, and create effective lobby cells to get leaders to open up borders; and launch ads to counter the racism.

Together we can help rescue refugees, and rescue our shared humanity.

Unless we act fast, 2015 could become the year of the boat people!

Pledge to urgently launch the Avaaz refugee campaign — Avaaz will only process your donations if we raise enough to start saving lives:

To pledge another amount, click here.
Avaazers have already kick-started this campaign in the UK. The government has only allowed in 143 Syrians out of the 4 million refugees! In response, over 1,000 Avaazers have joined forces to challenge this disgraceful policy by offering to help refugees resettle, and calling on their local councils to give homes to 50 Syrian refugees each. Already 4 councils have agreed and with our pressure, we hope many more will too.

But this isn’t just a UK and Syria problem. It is a crisis of humanity when our planet’s most vulnerable are treated as criminals and left to die. Here’s a five point plan of the most critical actions Avaaz could take if we raise enough together:

Support organisations that are bravely rescuing the refugees at sea.
Launch Flotillas for Humanity with more private boats to assist rescue operations.
Build an Avaaz refugee team to lobby governments, the EU and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to push for effective search and rescue operations, and increased numbers of refugee places.
Support local groups in Europe and South East Asia to provide assistance to refugees arriving in reception centres, and into communities.
Run hard hitting billboards and newspaper ads to counter the culture of xenophobia.

30 thousand refugees could drown in the Mediterranean this year. These families are fleeing terror and misery, and their choice to board a boat may be the only choice they have. Let’s join forces to stop these tragedies at sea. Pledge now:
Our community is one of the only in the world with millions of citizens in both the countries from which these families are fleeing and the countries they are seeking help. We have already funded extraordinary work to tackle Ebola and humanitarian work in Nepal. Now let’s take on this emergency and catalyse change with acts of inspired love and inspired bravery.

With hope and determination,

Alice, Ben, Oli, Diego, Mais, Emily, Dalia, Ricken and the Avaaz team

SOURCES:

Myanmar Muslim migrants abandoned at sea have been ‘drinking their own urine’ to survive (The Independent UK)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/myanmar-muslim-migrants-abandoned-at-sea-drinking-their-own-urine-to-survive-after-thailand-refuses-boat-entry-10249854.html

Syria Refugee Regional Response (UNHCR)
http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php

Mediterranean migrants: Details emerge of deadly capsize (BBC)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32399433

Lost at sea, unwanted: The plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya ‘boat people’ (CNN)
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/19/asia/rohingya-refugee-ships-explainer/

Stranded Rohingya migrants say: ‘We’re dying on board’ (Al Jazeera)
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/05/stranded-rohingya-migrants-dying-board-150517130244345.html

~ FDA/USDA ~~ Alerts & Safety, ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

EdNet: The National Food Safety Educator’s Network

08/23/2015 Nativegrl77

EdNet, the National Food Safety Educator’s Network, is a monthly, multi-agency electronic news journal from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). EdNet provides educators, consumer advocates, government officials, and industry representatives with a quick monthly summary of news about food safety programs and activities.

In this issue:

Advisories, Alerts, and Warnings

FSIS Issues Public Health Alert for Frozen Raw Stuffed Chicken Products Due To Possible Salmonella Contamination

Resources for Educators

Industry

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

compare contrast check … 2nd hand & consignments

08/21/2015 Nativegrl77

I will be keeping all names confidential …

I went on a thrift buy and to be quite honest – to scope out what other small business owners of “thrift” are selling etc. I set out to compare, contrast and what I found was surprising, a bit disappointing. I live in an area that could cross the line of middle toward upper middle class.

I was not sure what price point I would be facing. I was looking forward to going to my favorite 2nd hands, but I only went to four shops as one of the most popular went out of business right around the 2008 economic crisis and the other; the biggest and the oldest in my area decided they were done with the whole 2nd hand business

I parked my car ready to be amazed but was overcome by the smell and ok, yes some 2nd hand/consignments stores may mean accepting some cleaning odors and this shop has great vintage items like women’s hats dated back to the 1920’s. They had some great looking vintage luggage, but then they decided to dedicate a whole section maybe half of the store to very new trendy items that were very ethnic and expensive. I found most of my own comparable 2nd Act/consignment items that were competitive or in slightly better shape and of course as a vintage/consignment shop, they offered a wide range from a house dress look some of our moms probably wore to some very beautiful vintage jewelry. I spotted some sheet music but that was not on the list. I walked a few blocks down to what used to be a favourite 2nd hand/consignment shop for designer clothes because of the abundance of smaller sized clothing. It was packed though unlike the first shop, it was in transition with a tag sale making room for recent donations. Good golly the smell!

looked at my phone and had to get going, the walk down to a very small store was wonderful as the weather was just as fabulous as the metro parking space … free. I admit I drive past this store all the time but the hours are not usually conducive as they have limited weekday hours. It was open, thank goodness though somewhat dark as most of the clothes are designers in black, gray and white. I used to love this store and since most people wear black white and gray etc. the biggest issue for me was size not that the clothes weren’t great but the sizing just did not seem correct and all sales were final which makes sense, sometimes the risk works out, but … I took a pass.

It was a great morning to go hunting for deals and great surprises and while I came home without a 2nd hand/consignment item. I did find out that one of my favourite farmers market moved across the street.

It was not a failed trip by any means.

So, after a couple of hours of what turned out to be an eye opening experience … safe to say everything at http://www.beaseedforchange.org offers is clean, fresh fab finds, not tried on by hundreds of people and we are not against negotiating our prices.

Sometimes bigger is not always better and more inventory isn’t either unless of course it‘s about viable repeats, furniture, tiles and kitchen stuff …

Stay tuned

Be a Seed for Change

Buying from Be a Seed for Change makes you a part of our movement to Recycle Reuse Reclaim Reduce – The amount of materials going into Landfill and your Eco-Footprint