Nature

On June 26, 2010 join Hands Across the Sands to protest off-shore oil drilling, at a beach near you!

USCG- Deepwater Horizon oil platform 2010

The Gulf Coast  is just now heading into what will be months and years responding to the April BP drilling platform explosion and oil leak. At his point scientists are worried that the oil will spread at least as far as the Florida [...]

Interesting recent reports about climate change effects-

About an hour east of Washington, D.C., there's a forest where trees are suddenly growing much faster than ever before — some of them even twice as fast:  Curiosity Rises With Trees' Strange Growth Spurt- NPR, 3-28-10. Just the fact that this researcher has seen a 12% rise in carbon dioxide in the 23 years he's taken [...]

Moringa oleifera (Forest & Kim Starr -http://www.hear.org/starr/)

The Moringa oleifera tree is native to India, and is cultivated widely throughout many countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.  (It is not tolerant to frost- so would only grow in some climates.) Many parts of this tree are edible and highly nutritious.  (It's called the 'drumstick' tree for it's edible immature green pods.) Organizations like Trees [...]

Urban life can seem awfully sterile with little greenery and/or abandoned lots. Often residents have no opportunity to connect with plants by actually growing them.  (A must have experience for all children, in my opinion.) It looks like some city dwellers are tired of having just house plants or a few potted plants at windows; urban gardening, including edible foods farming, is becoming a movement. Here's a [...]

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust? Not in the 'modern' burial. Since the introduction of embalming (say since the US  Civil War)  bodies are no longer reunited with the earth. (Having heard the report from a family member present at the relocation of a decades deceased  relative- embalmed corpses do not naturally biodegrade. Sorry- it has to be said.)

Each year tons of resources are wasted in burials [...]