Renewable Energy Expert Mark Z. Jacobson, Stanford University at Siena Heights University, This Wednesday, April 15, 7:00 pm Francoeur Theather

Take Action Ban Fracking on Public Lands

I just found out that fracking is happening in our national forests and public lands. Not only is this happening, but it means that the oil and gas industry is making even more money off beautiful places that are supposed to be protected for us.

Fracking destroys the beautiful views, disrupts animal habitats and pollutes our drinking water resources.

Fortunately, a bill to ban fracking on public lands will get re-introduced in Congress soon.

Will you join me in asking your lawmakers to step up and co-sponsor this bill?
https://secure3.convio.net/fww/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=1808&autologin=true&s_src=taf_sp&sp_ref=109999561.63.12162.e.48689.2


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Time to divest this $43.5 billion foundation from fossil fuels

The Guardian, one of the world’s most respected and influential newspapers, is joining the fight to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Earlier today, they launched a bold new partnership with 350.org and have signed on to the fossil fuel divestment campaign in a big way:

Click here to read more about The Guardian's campaign & call on the world's two largest foundations to divest from fossil fuels.

In a watershed moment for the growing divestment movement, The Guardian is setting its sights on the contradictory fossil fuel investments of two of the largest philanthropic health and development organizations: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation here in North America and the U.K.'s Welcome Trust. Both are heavily invested in the industry wreaking havoc on our climate, a fact that’s at odds with their missions to create a better world.

Call on the Gates Foundation & the Wellcome Trust to divest from fossil fuels immediately.

The Gates Foundation alone has an endowment of $43.5 billion. If a foundation of their profile -- and explicitly committed to global health -- were to take a stand against fossil fuels, it would send a strong message to world leaders (and world markets).

Tackling climate change and promoting global health are two sides of the same coin. That's what we need the Gates Foundation & the Welcome Trust to understand. Together, we can convince these leading philanthropic organizations to stop profiting from the industry wrecking our chances for a safe, healthy future.

Gates Foundation & Welcome Trust, it's time to divest from fossil fuels.

We know this can work -- it already is! The fossil fuel divestment movement is winning new victories every week, from the City of Oslo to the Rockefeller Foundation. Each act of divestment helps build an even stronger case for keeping fossil fuels in the ground.

With enough of us on board -- and working hand-in-hand with The Guardian newspaper -- we know we can convince huge health and development charities like Gates and Welcome to divest.

To move the needle at the world's biggest foundations, we need a big show of support:

Click here to add your voice to the petition.

It’s counter-productive (and hypocritical) to help those affected by climate change using money made from the fossil fuel industry. And it’s increasingly clear that fossil fuels are a bad long-term investment. (1)

To avoid the worst effects of climate change, we’re going to have to leave 80% of fossil fuels in the ground -- which means current fossil fuel shares are massively overvalued, and investors could lose billions. It also means we have a huge fight ahead of us -- a fight that we can only win with a broad coalition of allies.

Over the coming months, we’ll be working with The Guardian, Avaaz and other partners to help us secure some major divestment wins around the world. Join us.

Thank you,

Phil

P.S. Support our work and think others should too? Here's a chance to help 350 get some funds for free: We're one of CREDO's beneficiary organizations this month -- and the more people vote for us, the bigger their contribution. If you support groundbreaking climate work like fossil fuel divestment, click here to vote for 350.org as a CREDO beneficiary.

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1. Unhealthy Investments (Medact, Healthy Planet UK, the Climate and Health Council, Medsin, the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare)

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350.org is building a global climate movement. Become a sustaining donor to keep this movement strong and growing.

Massive amounts of manure spills from farm field into rural community -WWMT - News, Sports, Weather, Traffic

Massive amounts of manure spills from farm field into rural community - WWMT - News, Sports, Weather, Traffic



 My question is: Who will pay for the cleanup? I hope not the tax payer but the profiteers from an inhumane and environmentally risky industry - hitchhiking on the legitimate right to farm...

More oil pipelines will come to area

From the Daily Telegram

Letter to the Editor: Friday, March 13, 2015

More oil pipelines will come to area

To the editor,

On Feb. 23, Ohio Farm Bureau Director of Energy Dale Arnold hosted a pipeline issues discussion at the Wood County fairgrounds in Ohio. Dale revealed shocking facts of our future in this region of northwest Ohio and southeastern Michigan. Wood, Fulton and Lenawee counties are ground zero for the fossil fuel industry.

Our easily Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) has led to an explosion of fracking in the Marcellus Shale region of the Eastern United States. This in turn has led to a export mania of our natural reserves to foreign markets that command prices three to four times than here in America. Increase demand will eventually raise prices for American consumers of their own natural reserves! This fact recently led 16 U.S. senators on Feb. 11 to write to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz expressing their collective concerns over the long term affects of this short term rush to exploit our finite reserves.

Exploitation is of no public good throwing into question over sized pipelines like Nexus that export over 80 percent of its natural gas to Canada. This also calls into question the misuse of eminate domain where a for-profit corporation abuses our property rights for personal gain over no public good.

Dale Arnold sees five pipeline co-corridors running 7 to 10 miles apart in our region though what I’ve coined “Pipeline Alley.” Dale knows of seven pipelines in the works with many more over the coming decades. These future pipelines will run in the new co-corridors promising unending year over year disruptions to the unlucky few that land the the first pipeline on their property. As the pipelines appear, the right-a-ways increase in size making true private property ownership a thing of the past.

One last thing for all to chew on. In 1910 Wood and Hancock Counties in Ohio were the largest oil producers in the world. Some 20,000 derricks dotted the landscape. Estimates of half the oil is still in the ground because of old technology. Now we have new technology that can extract this oil and this is coming to our region! A oil boom will increase pipelines across the region. Landowners had better check to see if they own the mineral rights to their property. If you don’t you may enjoy a oil derrick next to your house without compensation.

Five years ago it was the non-polluting windfarms now we have the toxic oil and gas profiteers. At least the wind farms would of paid the landowners a share of the profits yearly and the renewable clean energy would be used domestically.

Paul Wohlfarth

Ottawa Lake

Invitation to the First Environmental Presentation of the William Issa Endowment Series

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It is with great joy and gratitude to the William Issa Endowment that I am able to invite you to our first William Issa Environmental Talk at Siena Heights University. The speaker is Mark Z. Jacobson, Director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. Mark is one of the leading experts on renewable energy and his work shows that the world could fully depend on renewable energy sources in as little as 30 years from now. The attached program provides you with more details about Mark and his talk.

I am looking forward to seeing you at the event on April 15, at 7:00 pm in Francoeur Theater at Siena Heights University, Adrian Campus. Please forward the invitation and attachment to everybody you see fit.

Sincerely, Tom

The Inexcusable Abuse of Animals in Factory Farms (CAFOs)

In 1975, a young writer published a book arguing that no justifications exist for considering humans more important than members of other species. It slowly began to gain attention. Today, a quickly growing number of prominent individuals and political activists are adopting its conclusions. They have termed the assumption of human superiority speciesism. And, as a result, they rank these animal factories among the greatest evils in our history. Speciesism: TheMovie brings viewers face-to-face with the leaders of this developing movement, and, for the first time ever on film, fully examines the purpose of what they are setting out to do.

Speciesism: The Movie - Trailer from Speciesism: The Movie on Vimeo.