MY VERY OWN SPILL

Last night I was watching a news report about the oil spill in the Gulf, with film footage of divers in Hazmat suits that went right into the mess to see how shocking it really is from IN the water. The fish's perspective. The chemicals they are spraying on the oil have now blended with it to create an entirely new toxic entity and no-one knows what the environmental impact of this new creation will be. WOW.

I found myself reflecting on all the millions of people watching that news clip, who react with horror and compassion for all the creatures being poisoned. And then they get up and go take a shower or wash the dishes, and toxic chemicals flow down the drain from their very own spill. Every single person who watches that horror in the Gulf and then pours products into the waterways that are not biodegradable is creating a spill of their own. But do we ever think about that? There are millions of gallons of oil and chemical dispersant in the Gulf, but BILLIONS of people every day all over the world use detergent or shampoo or fabric softener or soap that contains chemicals that are toxic to creatures in the water. If people felt the same horror and compassion as they wash their clothes with something like Tide, as they have when they hear about the Gulf, this world would be a very different place.

I know people who have SO much love and compassion for Nature and all the blessings she bestows, and yet when I go into their bathroom to wash my hands, there is the soap with toxic chemicals on the sink. How many of you reading this still have "regular" soap in your bathrooms, kitchens and laundry rooms? But I bet every single one of you is horrified at the oil spill in the ocean. Where is the disconnect? Why do we care SO much about something that is poisoning the water down in the Gulf, and not a whit for what is poisoning the water from our very own home? Our very own toxic spills. Every day, many times a day. It is time to personalize this horror and compassion. To bring it right in front us as we reach for the detergent, and CONNECT to the creatures that are about to be dumped on. If you still have things in your home that go down the drain that are full of chemicals, please take all that reaction you have to the tragedy in the Gulf and USE it to transform your own spill. We don't need BILLIONS of personal toxic spills every single day. This is something we can change TODAY.

My mother, God bless her, is really trying to shift into all products that do no harm, and I get to hear her trials about how hard that is! Right now my parents are in the woods in Northern Wisconsin where they don't have many options for stores to search in, and sadly, many stores don't carry bio-degradable products at all. So if you are in a place with only one grocery store and a Wal-Mart that has NO environmentally safe products, what do you do? The fact that these stores have HUNDREDS of soaps and not ONE that is safe for our waterways is a sad testament to how many people are still unconscious about the importance of these daily choices. We have created a society where the option to do no harm is not even available in some places! Again, WOW. How did we get to this place? I still dream of a day when EVERY store you walk into has ONLY products that do no harm so you can't buy toxic chemicals even if you want to!!!!! Imagine THAT world. Then live that world in your choices.

May this horrific event in the Gulf that everyone is conscious of be a miraculous catalyst to make us conscious of our OWN contribution to the waters near our homes. And may the Waters forgive us for all the poisons we are continuing to wash down the drains in our very own spills.

Thanks for listening, and making new choices.

SMALL BUT MIGHTY

Can you say A D O R A B L E??? This is the latest addition to the Larsens family, and I was the one blessed with discovering the baby only a few hours after it was born! YAY! I almost stepped on the placenta in the sand. It was born right underneath a tree at the South end of my favorite beach, where the rancher has not yet cut the trees down. And this small creature might have the power to stop this man from destroying more wilderness to turn it into cattle pasture. He can't continue saying there are no Endangered Species on the property when there is a seal pup nursing right there! So finally the agencies that are supposed to be protecting this conservation area may be forced to rescind the permit because of this small but mighty warrior. YAY! There is at last a hearing this Thursday with the board of the DLNR, and this pup gets the final word.

We humans are small compared to many creatures on Earth, and we also are mighty, but what have we used that might for? We have the dubious distinction of being the only creatures on Earth that have poisoned all the things we ourselves need for survival: our air, our water, and our soil. What became of our wisdom while we were doing this? And will we now decide to use our might to RESTORE the air and water and soil? The oil pouring into the Gulf right now is a perfect example. We use our technology to poison the ocean, but where is the technology to STOP poisoning the ocean???? They still have not stopped the outflow and every day it brings more death to the creatures in the area. Then they spray the slick with toxic chemicals to try and disperse it. WOW. The rig itself was really small in the vastness of the Gulf, but the area it is polluting is HUGE. This is how we use our might. And when you pull up to the pump to fill your gas tank do you think about the consequences that are occurring right now? WE are the ones keeping that flow going. Since the spill occurred 27 new drilling projects have been approved! Why? Because we demand more and more oil for our lives. It is time to change our demands.

There is a small percentage of the world population that is now aware that we are doing harm. Sadly, among those that have become aware, an even smaller percentage is committed to STOP doing harm in every way possible. But I must believe that this small group is mighty. That the sheer power of LOVE for the Earth and her creatures by this small group will somehow be HEARD by the billions of people who are not yet looking at what they are doing, and by those who are aware and not acting. We need to turn around what is coming.

There is a campaign that has begun for a global shift in the next 4 years. The premise is that we have to shift our way of life in 4 years or we pass the point of being able to turn things around. It is at http://www.fouryearsgo.org/ The advertising firm behind the campaign is the same one that did the Nike "Just Do It" and Lance Armstrong "Live Strong" campaigns, both of which were wildly successful in motivating millions. So perhaps that mighty power will work for this as well. It is heartening to know that a firm whose business it is to engage millions of people worldwide, is now using that power to help the Earth. YAY! May this be even more successful than their other campaigns. And may they get people to really LOOK at the consequences of our habits. The change has to start now if we are going to be transformed in 4 years. We may not even have that long. Please, start now.

Thanks for listening.

HOME

This stunning jewel is one of the windows into the core of our home, this Earth. There is SO much we don't know about our spectacular planet, that is essential to all of life, including ours. "HOME" is an AMAZING film that has been created to show miracles of life on Earth and what we "wise humans" are doing to it. The link is below. PLEASE take the time to watch this film. It begins with this invitation: "Listen carefully to this extraordinary story, which is yours, and decide what you want to do with it." There is really important information that we all need to hear, magnificently told with breathtaking photography, covering MANY issues we need to know about. It is feature length, an hour and 1/2, so curl up in a comfy spot, get some popcorn (organic of course), and click the link below. Be prepared for some shock and awe. I have learned a lot about the state of our world recently, but this film taught me even more. Not only is the photography phenomenally beautiful, but whoever wrote the script is a poet. Listen to the beauty of these words:

"This is the new measure of time. Our world's clock now beats to the rhythm of indefatigable machines tapping into the pocket of sunlight. (oil) The whole planet is attentive to these metronomes of our hopes and illusions."

"Everywhere machines dig, bore and rip from the Earth the pieces of stars buried in its depths since its creation." (minerals)

"They are the only natural element in perpetual movement toward the sky." (trees)

Please, please make time to watch this film. We need to know what we are doing to our HOME.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU
Thanks for listening, and watching.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

How did you celebrate today? (you can tell me in the comments section below) Since I moved to Kauai 2 years ago my life has pretty much become Earth Day every day. Besides working in my garden, taking out the compost, swimming in the ocean, pup-sitting for the new seal pup (YAY), doing my trash pick-up, and going online to click to donate at http://www.care2.com/click-to-donate/ , I wanted to do something unusual. So I decided to plant some trees! It was not entirely altruistic though, as I planted papaya trees so I can EAT them! It felt really good to put a tree in the ground. Very different from all the veggie seeds I plant in my garden.

Forty years ago this day was officially declared as Earth Day to bring awareness to what was already happening in the severe altering of this beautiful planet we all live on. Since that first Earth Day, we have managed to continue altering the Earth more than in all the thousands of years of previously recorded history! Somehow the message of the first day fell on deaf ears for the majority of the world. The things we were doing then to harm the planet we are now doing even more of. How did this happen? Part of it is simply population. In the last 40 years the Earth's people have gone from 3.7 billion to 6.8 billion!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes you read that right. In just 40 years. It took thousands of years to get to 3 billion, but only 40 years to add another 3 billion. WOW. There is no way the planet can keep up with this kind of growth and demand on her resources.

So how do we turn this around? I don't know. But I do know that every single one of those 6.8 billion has choices to make and every single one of us either helps or harms every day. We don't have an option of stepping out of the picture. There is no other planet to move to when we use this one up. So my prayer is that a WILD majority will magically appear that is conscious of how we are altering our home, and that we can shift this avalanche we have set in motion. By the next Earth Day it needs to be an every day thing in people's lives to care for her, not just once a year.

I leave you with an Earth Day haiku:

Let's choose to restore.

Heal the Earth in ALL you do.

In EVERY day.

Let it be so.

Thanks for listening.

FOR THE BIRDS

A new wildlife experience always fills me with ecstasy, and I got one today! I was sitting on the cliffs eating my lunch and watching the whales (I know, I have a hard life...), and heard a quiet thunk behind me. Turned to find myself face to face with a HUGE Laysan Albatross just a few feet from me! These are GORGEOUS and enormous birds. It's like having a bald eagle land on your dinner table. Didn't seem interested in my lunch, but just sat there looking at me. Then another flew in and landed right by the first one, and they began the crazy fun dancing that they do. They bob in opposition, clack their bills at each other, stick their necks straight up and squeak, and shake their heads manically like we would do if we were really cold. HILARIOUS! I just stayed still, squealing quietly with delight, and they didn't seem to care that I was only a few feet away. They are spectacular up close, with the painting around their eyes like an Egyptian Goddess, and their enormous wing span of 6 FEET! They probably could have carried me off, except that they have webbed feet. Hard to grab things with.

These are remarkable birds. They spend half their life at sea, and come to land in the winter to have their chicks, and some nest on the cliffs around Larsens. So they are there every day right now, soaring magnificently, and sometimes buzzing really low over my head! During the summer they go to sea and can stay there floating around for 6 MONTHS! Apparently they have a joint in their wings they can lock in place which allows them to sleep while the air currents just carry them around. Imagine going to sleep near Hawaii and waking up by Japan! Hmmm, where am I this morning?

Flying back from a trip to Oahu just now, I went by a display in the Kauai airport about albatross including a picture of the contents of an albatross stomach from an autopsy. It showed a huge pile of human debris including cigarette lighters and glass and all forms of plastic. What looks like a beautiful mosaic at the top of this paragraph is a picture of the contents of ONE dead bird's stomach. These birds are dying because they ingest so much of our human trash and can't digest it so eventually their stomachs are full and they starve because there is no room for actual food. Wow. Our gift for the birds. And what are we doing about?

How many of you took my challenge to try and get through an entire day without throwing out any trash? And if you made it through one day did you try for more? I'd love to hear your experiences with that. One friend said when she tried it she was astounded at how many times during the day she had something in her hand about to be tossed and wondered what she could do with it besides put it in the landfill. She even started saving bottle caps that can't be recycled to be used as counters and craft items at her son's preschool. Sweet! Be creative in generating less trash! The less we throw out, the less that winds up in the stomach of a magnificent bird soaring over the ocean. We are connected more than we ever realize. We make a difference in the lives of creatures even if we never see them in person. Once you actually make the connection, it changes how you look at everything you do in your day. It ALL has consequences for some other part of Creation. The biggest challenge becomes "how can I stop harming completely?" I don't know if it is even possible in the world we have created in the last fifty years, but I'd like to see how close I can get. These creatures that are SO beautiful don't deserve what we are giving them. So please join me in seeing how close we can get to doing no harm.

Thanks for listening.

POWER IN NUMBERS

Today was a complete joy for me. I got to do my daily trash pick up WITH someone rather than people just watching me do it by myself and not helping. A friend from Oahu who is a HUGE Earth lover (YAY!), was over here with her husband for spring break and she had written and said they wanted to clean a beach with me! Do you have any idea how happy that made me? YES! So today I got to take them to my beloved Larsens. Even though the cutting has begun to make the land above into cattle pasture, it still is an AMAZING place, and I still am holding hope that the rancher will be stopped and the wilderness will grow back. Dreams are powerful. For hours we walked the sand and talked and picked up trash from this morning's high tide, and then we got GIFTS! Two of my "regular" seals were at the next beach up, the Albatross were dancing together, several turtles came by to say hello, and some gorgeous shells had washed up. Nature gives us love even as we dump on her. But you know what? Today there are 3 less bags of trash floating around in the ocean's magnificence. I wonder how much is dumped in her every day and how much is removed every day. I know that more is dumped than is removed, but I'd like to see that change.

Last week I was on Oahu visiting my parents and spent the afternoon with one of my best friends at a beach there. We began picking up trash and in a very short period of time filled a huge garbage liner bag with each of us hauling extra large items that wouldn't fit in the bag. One afternoon, at one beach, on one island. And of all the people there that day "using" the beach, no-one else was picking up trash. How can people look at it and NOT want to help the ocean? It seems so obvious to me that it does not belong to the Earth but to us humans, and we must be the ones to clean up our own mess because the ocean can't clean it up for us. But day after day that is not what I see. I see people just ignoring it. WHY?????? What has happened to people's hearts so that they are not moved to help?

I just read an article on how the number one pollutant on Earth is plastic. And Dave Chameides wrote a blog on Care2.com (go read his blogs!) about how many plastic bags are used EACH DAY. There is a ticker on the blog that is turning over new numbers as you watch, showing the bags being used every minute, and the numbers move so fast you can't even track with them. Plastic bags used and thrown just in the U.S.: 1 million per minute!!!! WOW. So how many of you used a plastic bag today? Were you part of that 1,440,000,000 in just one day? And the number 2 pollutant? Cigarette butts. For those of you who smoke, do you know what is in the butts you throw out? The part that is smoked is of course tobacco and paper, which also has chemicals and pesticides. But guess how many ingredients are in the butts. (this little guessing thing never works because I can't wait while you guess!) 596. Are you kidding? NO. How do they even pack that many in that little thing? Here are just a few of the more toxic ingredients that go into the soil or the water depending on where the butts land when people throw them: Arsenic, Acetone, Lead, Formaldehyde, Toluene, Butane, Cadmium, Ammonia, Benzene. YIKES! Why are these things even in there? Someone must have thought it was a good idea. If you want to read more about it google "ingredients in cigarette butts". And how many of these butts are in our water or soil? 10 MILLION are purchased EVERY DAY!!!!!!! 10 million. One day. Numbers that big just seem impossible to comprehend. But it starts with each person each day making a choice to help or to harm. Do you want to be part of the 10 million?

Here is a great quote by Rolf Halden: "good for a minute and contaminating for 10,000 years.” That one minute of convenience with a plastic bag, or pleasure with a cigarette is not worth poisoning the Earth for thousands of years. I don't know anyone who would say that those things are worth it. But what we say and what we do are different. Isn't it time to bring those into alignment? What about one million pieces of trash picked up per minute! I'd like to see a ticker running for that.

It's time to change these numbers. It's time to make our words match our actions. If we say we don't want to poison the Earth, then stop doing it. Years ago we didn't know how damaging plastic was or how poisonous cigarettes are. Now we do. So do we act accordingly? Or do we just keep doing what we did because change feels too hard? I vote for number one. There is power in numbers, and yes each person DOES matter because you are part of a larger number that is helping or harming. Right now the numbers are higher for those doing harm than for those helping. Which number will your name be added to? Thanks for listening.

RAZING PARADISE

My dear readers, I have been absent from these pages for a long time because I have been heartbroken and stunned. All of my writing lately has been to government officials and land owners, lawyers and fellow Earth lovers. My favorite wilderness in the world is being altered in a horrific way, and it seems none of the people who could be stopping this are going to. But I MUST believe that this is not how the story ends. There must be a light in here somewhere, not just for this place that is so sacred, but for all the sacred places around the world that are being razed. I am reading all the time about ancient forests being destroyed and the people who live in them are either displaced or killed. It seems so far away and hard to grasp, that humanity can treat the Earth and each other in this way. While I don't physically live in this forest that is being cut down, my spirit does. I feel this in my soul. I have read about aboriginal people being so connected to the land that they suffer as it does. Apparently I am a blond, blue-eyed Hawaiian, connected to this land.

Way back in the fall I wrote a blog called Saving Larsens, about how a cattle rancher wants to cut down the forest above the beach and make it cattle pasture all the way down the hill to the sand. Amazingly, he GOT the permit, issued by the government agency that oversees the "conservation land" it is on. CONSERVATION. What part of that word calls for cutting down native plants and smothering the reef in cattle dung? I just don't get it. There have been so many passionate appeals made, and not just by people like me who love the place. Actual authorities in the field. The government aquatic biologist for this island declared the reef to be the most pristine on the island, and stated his opposition to the cattle pasture in the conservation district. They even ignored him, and he works for the SAME AGENCY that issued the permit. How have we arrived in a place in the world where the agencies that are being paid to protect what is left of Nature are making decisions to destroy her instead? There are now 2 lawsuits filed to protect this place, against the agency whose job it is to protect it!!!!!! They need to be sued to do their job???? What a bizarre state we have created in our society.

So aside from laying my body across a tree that is about to be cut, writing letters and making phone calls to every one who might be able to do something, and getting involved with the lawsuit, what else can I do? Pray. I am. And raise awareness about what is happening all over the world to the last places that have not yet been destroyed by humanity. There are so few left. For people living in cities or even rural farmland, the plight of forests and reefs is not something they see with their own eyes, and I don't think they realize how it will affect them if they do nothing. It must somehow be felt in the heart, in order to care enough to do something to help save a place you have never seen. You must FEEL how important it is to retain what wilderness is left in the world, and REALIZE how you affect those places even if you live thousands of miles away. All of our lives are interconnected now with the last remaining forests and reefs on the Earth. If the last of them are cut down and the last reefs die, then we will feel it because we won't be able to BREATHE. Literally. No more oxygen. THEN we will all suddenly want to do something to save them, because we will finally realize we are in fact saving ourselves. And it is too late. We need to realize this NOW. We need to stop razing the forests NOW. We need to stop destroying reefs NOW. EVERY choice we make in our days is a vote to either save or destroy what is left. Treat it as sacred, or disposable. PLEASE don't wait. When you go to Starbucks, when you use shampoo, when you buy toilet paper, it ALL makes a difference. Make your decisions to help save the Earth every day as if YOUR life depends on it. It does. And if you hear about a forest being cut down or a reef being destroyed, DO something, no matter how far away you live.
Thanks for listening, and acting.