Homes for Our Troops Building 32 Houses for Disabled Veterans

Mary Susan Littlepage, Truthout: “Since Homes for Our Troops was founded in 2004, the organization has built 54 homes for disabled veterans, and 32 homes currently are in various stages of construction around the country.”

Brother, can you spare a dime?  Donate here!

Tell Congress to Permanently Protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

To ensure that the Refuge remains forever wild, we need your help.  Please ask your member of Congress to co-sponsor H.R. 39, legislation currently pending that will guarantee the future protection of the Refuge - for the wildlife and for future generations of Americans.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the designation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a world-renowned area with some of America’s most spectacular wildlife.

Grizzlies, caribou, wolves and muskoxen are just a few of the more than 200 wildlife species that rely on the Refuge for their habitat. The Coastal Plain of the Refuge is also the most significant on-shore polar bear denning habitat in the U.S., all the more important as global warming melts the sea ice that polar bears depend on.

Today is the 14-month anniversary of Gaiatribe: Ideas for a Thinking Planet.  This blog was launched on January 14, 2009.  So far, it has established favored subject areas and attracted a following of regular readers.  I would enjoy further input from you regarding this blog’s progress and possibilities.

Where We’ve Been

Gaiatribe displays a dynamic tag cloud, and the list of categories also includes the number of posts per category. This makes it easy to identify the most prominent topics.  These include Community, Environment, Activism,  News, Homestead, Politics, Networking, Discussion, Blogging, Civics, Holiday, and Food.

We use the basic Wordpress Stats function, plus the StatPress and Popularity Contest plugins, to gauge traffic.  Most days, the traffic is in the 100-110s range, gradually tending upwards. According to Wordpress Stats, the top posts are “Saving the World One Day at a Time” (2,258 views), “Imbolc Food and Decorations” (978 views), and “Red, White, and Blue Foods for July 4″ (637 views).  The most active posts currently are Saving the World One Day at a Time (38 views), Red, White, and Blue Foods for July 4 (21 views), and Avatar’s Legacy (9 views).  The top searches are “blue foods,” “logical fallacies and how to refute,” and “how we can help the honey bees.”

Gaiatribe is now listed on various blog directories and other social networks. The Gaiatribe community over on MyBlogLog currently has 72 members, and the blog’s profile page on Blog Catalog has seventeen reviews with a present score of 4.88 out of 5 possible stars.  Bloggers Unite provides an excellent source for blog topics and current issues; you can view my events on my profile page.  For activist news, check out what I’m doing over on Change.org.

Which Gaiatribe post(s) have you enjoyed the most so far?  Which post(s) have you enjoyed the least or skipped over?  Have you found the writing style to be clear and engaging?  What else has caught your attention about this blog?

Where We’re Going

Although an established blog, Gaiatribe continues to evolve; and so does the Geek Universalis Network to which it belongs.  Those of you comprising the regular audience have the opportunity to help shape what this blog becomes.

The Weekend Meet’n’Greet continues to attract modest attention as it helps audience members get to know each other.  If you want to ask me about something or make a topic request, that’s a good place to do so.

What would you like to see more of?  What topics would you like me to cover that I haven’t approached yet?  What else do you think would improve Gaiatribe?

How You Can Help

If you want to see Gaiatribe thrive, there are many things you can do to help.  Here are a few ideas:

• Join the Gaiatribe community on MyBlogLog. If you’re on that service but haven’t added me to your Contacts, here’s my profile page.
• Leave comments! Feedback is candy. I’m hoping to build up a lively audience on Gaiatribe, people who will join conversations and share exciting ideas.
• Mention Gaiatribe on your blog, or anywhere else you think would be appropriate. Word of mouth helps spread beyond the audience within immediate reach.
• Recommend Gaiatribe posts on StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter, or any other social network of your choice.
• Links: If you want to put a link to Gaiatribe on your page, go right ahead. Do you have a blog or other website that deals with the environment, community, activism, Paganism, or other related topics? If so, perhaps we can exchange links. (Check the link list first. I’ve already linked to several folks I know.)
• Interviews & Guest Blogging: If you think our subject areas overlap, get in touch with me and we can discuss the possibility of mutual promotion through interviews or writing a post for each other’s blogs.
• Reviews: Books, music, product samples, and other goodies are welcome if they fit Gaiatribe’s field and would appeal to this audience.
• If you can think of anything else that might be helpful, go for it, or ask me if you’re not sure how to make it work.

Thank you for all your support of my various projects. You folks are a terrific audience and I really appreciate you!

Green Foods

Artichoke is a medium to dull green, actually a flower head rather than a true vegetable.  It is usually steamed and eaten one petal at a time, with sauce or (my personal favorite) pickled ginger.

Asparagus spears are light to medium green.  They may be boiled, steamed, or roasted whole.  Sometimes they are chopped and tossed with other vegetables.

Avocado has dark green rind over bright creamy green flesh.  It can be eaten in chunks or slices.  It also makes a terrific base for sauces, dips, or soup. Guacamole is made primarily from avocado.

Broccoli has light green stems with dark green florets.  It is good steamed or stir-fried, although it can be boiled.  Some recipes cover it in cheese.

Brussel sprouts look like tiny dark green cabbage heads.  They are usually steamed or boiled.

Celery grows as a clump of pale green stalks.  Chopped, it makes a great addition to salads or stews.  Longer pieces of stalk are good with peanut butter or cream cheese, as a snack.  The leaves can be chopped and used similar to fresh parsley or cilantro.

Chard is a leafy dark green vegetable.  Baby chard may be served in fresh salads.  Older leaves are steamed or boiled and served as a mass of greens.

Collards have dark green leaves, exceptionally rich in vitamins and minerals. They are good when cooked with bacon bits.

Cucumber is a long green vegetable, ranging from medium green to almost black.  It is often sliced or cubed for use in salads.  It is quite good sliced and served in sweetened vinegar.  It can even be made into a sorbet with mint and served as a palate cleanser.

Green apples include Granny Smith, Paul’s Big Green, Newtown Pippin, Calville Blanc, Mutsu, and Rhode Island Greening.  To show off the color, slice and serve fresh with peanut butter, chocolate sauce, or sharp white cheddar cheese.  They also make excellent apple salads, and you might want to include some diced celery.

Green beans are long fleshy bean pods, medium green in color.  They may be steamed, boiled, or baked into casseroles.  They are good with bacon bits.

Green bell peppers are bright green with crisp zesty flesh.  Stuff them with meat, vegetable, or bread stuffing and bake.  Chop them for use in salads or stir-fries.

Green grapes range from yellowish green to bright lime.  They are usually sweet, but some varieties have seeds.  Serve in bunches on a fruit plate or pick them off the stems and add to fruit salads.

Green tea comes in tea bags (which make a pale yellow-green tea) and powder (which makes a much darker, stronger tea).   It is also used to make ice cream, which is a wonderful finish to Asian feasts.

Herbs are usually green.  Popular ones include basil, chives, cilantro, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon, and thyme.  Use for flavoring dishes and for decoration.  Mint makes excellent tea.  Basil can be pureed to make pesto sauce.

Kiwi fruit has fuzzy brown skin and brilliant green flesh.  Peel and slice the fruit, or chop it for fruit salads.

Lettuce includes many varieties in different leaf shapes, from pale to deep green.  Use it as a base for salads, or put it in sandwiches.  You can also use lettuce leaves as a background for layering other foods on top.  Wilted lettuce is made with vinegar.

Limes are light to bright green outside and pale green inside.  They have a sprightly citrus flavor.  Lime juice goes well with fish and fruit, and can be used to make limeade.  Lime zest is also used in some recipes.  Many lime-flavored beverages are green, as is lime jello.

Okra consists of medium to dark green seed pods.  They may be steamed whole if small.  Larger pods are typically sliced and fried with cornmeal, or cooked in gumbo.

Peas include snow peas, sugar-snap peas, and shelled peas.  Peas in pods are usually steamed or boiled; snow peas are a favorite in stir-fries.  Shelled peas are boiled or microwaved.  Peas may also be dried, then reconstituted for split-pea soup or pease porridge.

Pistachios are small nuts with pale shells and a greenish papery husk inside.  They are most often eaten whole, salted.  They may be candied or peppered.  Sometimes they are cooked in recipes, or turned into green soup or ice cream.

Spinach is a classic green vegetable with very deep green leaves loaded with vitamins and minerals.  Baby spinach may be served raw in salads.  Older leaves are usually steamed or boiled and served as a mass.  However, sometimes spinach is chopped or pureed, then mixed with other ingredients to form dark or bright green recipes.  Quiche or egg pie with a lot of spinach can be quite eye-catching.

Turnip greens are similar to other leafy green vegetables that can be cooked and served as a mass.

Zucchini is a long summer vegetable, ranging from pale gray-green through bright green to almost black.  Baby zucchini may be sliced and fried.  Larger zucchini are sometimes cubed for use in casseroles or other dishes. Zucchini may also be cubed and pureed with a little water to make zucchini milk, useful as a base for pancakes or other baked goods.  If you don’t peel it first (remember, most of the vitamins are in the peel) then the zucchini milk will be greenish, lending a little color to the finished product.

Green Recipes

There are many recipes for green foods.  Here are a few to get you started:

• “The 8 Greatest Green Desserts“
• “Cooking with the Color Green“
• “Green Desserts“
• “Green Drink Recipes“
• “Green Foods“
• “Green Salads“
• “St. Patrick’s Day Green Food Recipes“
• “St. Patrick’s Day Recipes“

Zygmunt Bauman | On Languages of Power and Powerlessness

Zygmunt Bauman, Truthout: “The disciplining force of society is at its most effective when its human origins are denied or covered up. The admission that society - with all its prescriptions and proscriptions, rewards for obedience and punishments for veering off the line - rests ultimately on man-made choices and decisions invites critical scrutiny, dissent and resistance: What has been done by humans can be undone by humans. No wonder that throughout the modern era, attempts were made and continue to be made to represent the grounds for the demands of power-holders as beyond human capacity.”

Growing Low-Oxygen Zones in Oceans Worry Scientists

Les Blumenthal, McClatchy Newspapers: “Lower levels of oxygen in the Earth’s oceans, particularly off the United States’ Pacific Northwest coast, could be another sign of fundamental changes linked to global climate change, scientists say. They warn that the oceans’ complex undersea ecosystems and fragile food chains could be disrupted.”

Three Questions

1) If large areas of the ocean become lifeless, how will that affect humans?

2) What are some other ways humans are harming the oceans?

3) How can we reduce our impact on the oceans?

Jacques Attali | Happiness, As in Bhutan

Jacques Attali, L’Express: “Is this minuscule nation, among the least populated in the world (roughly 700,000 habitants), stuck between two of the most densely populated countries in the world (India and China), totally isolated for millennia, whose penultimate monarch was the first, at the end of the nineteen seventies, to define and implement the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH), happier than other countries?”

Hidden Messages … and Your Cue

1) The plot has played out hundreds or thousands of times right here on Earth, minus the happy ending. It is playing out right now, with giant corporations and governments obliterating indigenous peoples and strip-mining their land.

You love the movie?  You think the Na’vi are right to oppose the invasion? Terrific.  Pick a threatened tribe on your own planet and give them your support.  Protect their rights.

You wish for a sense of community, like the Na’vi have?  Check out the intentional community movement.  Visit one. Learn some communal skills.

You adore the gorgeous rainforest scenery of Pandora?  Great.  Gaia made some too, and you can help her keep ours alive. (Gaia may not be as chatty as Eywa, but she’s the one we depend on our our lives, so treat her with respect.)  Agitate for the protection of rainforests in South America, Asia, or Africa. Heck, we even have one here in America!  The Hoh Rainforest is stupendous.

2) Inspiration for the Na’vi came from many indigenous peoples around the world. The awesome Na’vi language?  It draws many of its features from endangered tribal languages.  The idea of using the world’s resources without using them all up?  That’s a popular tribal rule.  The sense of community?  Also tribal.  So if you enjoyed the movie, you owe those folks. Cultural misappropriation is a problem because it’s a one-way theft of material; it doesn’t give anything back.  Give something back:

• Indigenous Environmental Network
• Indian Law Resource Center
• Native Languages of the Americas
• Foundation for Endangered Languages

And while you’re at it, help out Jake’s buddies too.  Benefits for disabled soldiers are often  or backlogged, diverted, or otherwise insufficient.

3) Bear in mind that pursuing tribal rights, environmental responsibility, communal culture, and language preservation will not make you popular. There’s a reason the corporation was willing to wipe out the Na’vi: they were in the way.  Some folks have complained about Jake being the “great white hero” and moving into the Na’vi tribe.  But that, too, is historic: skin privilege really is something you can lose, and you lose it by supporting people who don’t have it.  Then you get called “nigger-lover” or “injun-lover” or something like that, and most or all of your privileges evaporate.

You’re unlikely to get treated as well as Jake and Grace did.  To a tribe, if you’re not born to their tribe, you’re an outsider and usually you stay that way.  To your own race or species, if you’re privileged, you’re expected to support your own group at everyone else’s expense, and if you don’t do that then people get pissed at you.  If you’re lucky, nobody will try to kill you, but a lot of activists have died in the line of duty.  Fortunately activism has a range of low-risk and high-risk options, so you have choices.

4) Next, consider all the Avatar merchandise. Fans are expressing their delight with a fundamentally environmental movie by … buying a lot of plastic gizmos.  That’s not exactly helping.

As an alternative, I suggest something new: “The Avatar Uncollection.”  When you see a cool Avatar toy you’d love to have, take a picture or a screencap of it, and save that for your collection.  Instead of buying the toy, note its price and donate that amount to your favorite environmental, linguistic, or tribal organization.  Write the amount and recipient on your picture.  Keep your Avatar Uncollection in a scrapbook or on your website.

If you can’t resist the cool toys, well, there’s another option:

With Avatar Poised to Win Big at the Oscars, James Cameron Should Help Some Na’vi Right Here on Earth

Francesca Fiorentini, The Indypendent: “With the Oscars upon us, many eyes will be on James Cameron and his sci-fi digital adventure, Avatar, which has already grossed $2.5 billion worldwide. It will win best special effects and may win for best director, best film, and six other awards for which it is nominated. But amid the clever jokes from lovable entertainers, the behind the scenes look at its making, the armfuls of awards and lists of people to thank, the actual message of the film may well be lost in the fray. How to preserve it? Put the money made from the blockbuster where it’s needed most: into indigenous communities struggling for the conservation of their land and livelihood.”

So, there you have a bunch of ideas for manifesting the ideals from your beloved movie, and protecting the world we live on.  That’s your cue.

… aaaaand ACTION!

International Women

Equal Rights

This year’s themes include “equal rights, equal opportunities” and “progress for all.”  Here are some resources you might find useful:

Women’s Rights (Change.org)

Women’s Rights (Global Issues)

Women’s Rights Movement

Equal Rights

Equal Rights Advocates

“Progress for All”

The Progressive

Green Party