Tip #1 on saving the world:

Stop buying bottled water.

When the first Emperor of China wanted to keep out the people to the North, he built a wall. It's estimated that the construction of the Great Wall of China took over one million lives and a vast amount of national resources. Ultimately the only thing the wall accomplished was to become a tourist attraction.

Coming fresh off the Ecumenical Advocacy Days conference, where I participated in the eco-justice track and was surrounded by Christians working for environmental justice, I am further heartened by the following two news items, both announced today.

As sometimes happens I double-booked myself. This morning, I was supposed to be attending the second full day of Ecumenical Advocacy Days. But I had to skip out of that because I had also committed myself to giving a sermon at the congregation of Cedarhurst Unitarian Universalists.

Today was the first full day of Ecumenical Advocacy Days, a conference for mainly Christian progressives to meet and advocate on pressing social issues. Even though I'm not Christian, I attended because of the eco-justice track.

Three cheers for the Governator! The governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has returned to his action hero roots fighting on behalf of Californians and the environment.

The U.S. govt has been saying that we will not agree to binding restrictions on green house gas emissions to address global climate change until China does so too. Even tho we in the U.S. still generate five times more carbon emissions per capita than people in China, our govt had been arguing that it wasn't fair that China should get an "out" in the Kyoto Protocols.

Looking at the news these days, it feels like we are in the Apocalypse. And I'm not talking about Iraq and Darfur, I'm talking about California and Atlanta.

Color me shocked and also tickled. As all of you probably know by now, the winner of the this years Nobel Prize for Peace was announced today and Al Gore won, along with the United Nations Panel on Climate Change. Ol' Al had been nominated for "putting climate change on the agenda."

When I logged on to the interweb Thursday morning and skimmed the news, I admit to being a bit stunned by the headline: "BUSH CALLS FOR GLOBAL EMISSIONS GOALS." Had the Universe shifted in my sleep?