Church of Stop Shopping closes Chase account for MTR

Shot with a hidden-cam, this inspirational video shows a member of the Life After Shopping Gospel Choir closing her Chase account and educating employees about the bank's funding of Mountaintop Removal.

Beautifully executed!

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In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto

Michael Pollan is one of the nations leading writers and thinkers in this country on the issue of food. He is author of several books about food, including The Botany of Desire, The Omnivores Dilemma and his latest, In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto. In light of what he calls the processed food industry co-option of sustainability and its vast spending on marketing, Pollan advises to be wary of any food that's advertised. 94% of it is spent advertising processed foods.

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End Mountaintop Removal

End Mountaintop Removal

Pin this badge on your site. I've talked about this before but it bears (?) repeating. Mountaintop Removal is destroying the mountains in Appalachia. (That's App-a-latch-ah, not App-a-lay-cha) Anyway, I know it's obscene what they're doing to our mountains but it doesn't really effect me in Asheville, NC. WRONG. Put in your zip code above and see how the coal they're ripping out of those mountains where families have lived for generations DOES effect you. For instance, putting in my zip of 28804 tells me: "Your electricity provider, Progress Energy Carolinas, uses coal from mountaintop removal mines." It then gives me the particulars on a map. If you use electricity in Asheville as I do, you're connected to the grid that perpetuates the raping of the mountains for coal and cash. Visit the site and see what you can do to help stop it. link

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Freeze, Fools

Stop it already.

If I see one more fucking cutesie poo April Fool's prank on the internet I think I may be sick.

Put all that backed up energy to good use and make a stand against Fossil Fuel each year on April 1, Fossil Fools Day.

"They would have us believe that we can escape climate change with techno-fixes, market mechanisms and offset schemes - all technocratic acrobatics that distract us from the truth: the only real solution to climate change is to keep fossil fuels in the ground."

Related: 8 Asheville area residents were arrested during this Fossil Fools Day global effort.

link | link

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Close Call

Greenpeace's Esperanza sent out this inflatable boat and blocked the whaling ships which led to delaying of their fueling. Although they can't stop the killing of the whales yet, they sure won't be making it easy for them to continue their slaughters.

At least no whales have been killed in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary since the Esperanza came across the whaling fleet on January 12th - that's 11 days, counting this evening.

link | live webcam| forums

You can also follow the Great Whale Trail - migration of humpback whales from the warm tropical waters of the South Pacific, where they breed, to the icy Southern Ocean around Antarctica, where they feed.

The whales are heading to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, which should be a safe haven for them. Unfortunately, whaling still continues there.

UPDATED: Sea Shepherd Critical of Greenpeace Failure to Stop Re-fueling

"Greenpeace had the opportunity to prevent the refueling. They were there and they allowed the refueling to proceed," said Captain Paul Watson. "That is unforgivable."
link

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Urge Chevron to Demand Human Rights

As you already know, the pro-democracy protests in Burma that began in response to sharp increases in fuel prices were violently suppressed. But the oil and gas corporations themselves, who are partnered with the military government in gas export projects, have shown no sign of trying to prevent further bloodshed. Instead, Thai-owned PTTEP issued a statement assuring the public that their investment was not jeopardized by the unrest. Furthermore, India’s ONGC Videsh, along with India’s Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, traveled to Burma amidst the protests to sign three new deals to extract and export natural gas.

And Chevron Corporation, the largest remaining U.S. company in Burma is now a partner with the junta in the notorious Yadana natural gas pipeline project. This project alone funnels tens of millions of dollars to the regime, money the military desperately need to retain its stranglehold on power. Despite Chevron's material support for the regime, and direct complicity in extensive human rights abuses, Chevron claims that it can play a positive role in contributing to the protection of human rights. Empty rhetoric is not a substitute for action, however, and now is the time for action. EarthRights believes these companies are not socially or politically neutral; given Unocal/Chevron's shameful behavior thus far, Chevron owes the people of Burma a moral obligation to immediately use its influence with the regime to help prevent the mass slaughter of peaceful protestors.

TAKE ACTION NOW - Sign the petition urging Chevron to use its influence!

Spread this information to your friends and co-workers concerned about human rights and the environment.

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Ravaging Appalachia

Ravaging Appalachia

On Friday, the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining proposed new regulations that it hopes will permanently legalize mountaintop mining — a cheap, ruthlessly efficient, environmentally destructive means of mining coal from the mountains of Appalachia (Mountaintop mining is basically high-altitude strip mining).

By our count, this is the third attempt in the last six years to enshrine the practice by insulating it from legal challenge. But since the net result is likely to be more confusion and more courtroom wrestling, the situation cries out for Congressional intervention to define once and for all what mining companies can and cannot do.

Mountaintop mining is basically high-altitude strip mining. Enormous machines scrape away the ridges to get at the coal seams below. The residual rock and dirt are then dumped or carted down the mountainside into nearby valleys and streams. By one estimate, this serial decapitation of Appalachia’s coal-rich hills has already buried 1,200 miles of streams while damaging hundreds of square miles of forests.

[Read More »]

Related: Add your voices to I Love Mountains and the movement to stop mountaintop removal coal mining.

As Vernon Haltom, co-director of Coal River Mountain Watch, told Democracy Now radio, "what this rule change amounts to is a declaration of war against the Appalachian people."

See photo of ravaged mountaintop in West Virginia right here.

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W E B T R A I L

W E B T R A I L

Prada Rehab Rock - Damien Hirst and his ex-junkie friend Antony Genn team up to rock out Fashion Week (soberly). link

Stripes, Harlequin, Rubber, Vinyl are themes of Designer Gareth Pugh. His creations are more akin to fetishwear than fashion, but that's a bad thing, why? The old guard aren't sure whether to salute him or shoot him. Fall/Winter 2007 collection hereand Spring 2007 here.

Big City Orchestrae will be heading to Europe in September for their first tour overseas in six years! Great news, Ninah Pixie! link

Dave Nitsche - Conceptual Photography link

This graying hippie makes the nightly, winding climb 18 feet to her cozy bedroom. She wakes to roosters' crows and the scents of dewy soil. Over breakfast, her view is a jungle of towering trees, no hint of hustle and bustle.

Shawnee Chasser lives in a treehouse above a secret garden in the middle of Miami. For 15 years, she has lived atop the 1.5-acre nirvana of green trees and farm animals behind a row of houses 10 minutes from downtown. And she advertises on Craigslist and rents out rooms for $380 a month. Really. link

Fuck the DNA - The evolution continues with the return of Genesis P-Orridge and Psychic TV link

Revenge of the Weirdos? The decidedly nonconformist Animal Collective takes New York. link

The intelligent want self-control; children want candy. --Mevlana Rumi (1207 - 1273)

***UPDATE: Wow! I had the title (W E B TR A I L) set on font 150 instead of 150%; hope I didn't make anyone go blind.

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Saturday Morning Me

saturday morning me//
hot green tea/peach jam on toast/
large white tee/barefoot/bedhead/
listening: patty griffin cd/
and damn noisy crows outside my window/
i miss you, captain/who else would you have?/
...so what about you?/


Useless Fact Of The Day
A flea's penis is roughly 2/3rds the length of its body. So if someone tells you, "You're hung like a flea", it's not an insult. Show them the respect they're due.

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The Junky's Wife

The Junky's Wife

The junk merchant doesn't sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to the product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise. He degrades and simplifies the client. --William S. Burroughs

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The Art of Guerilla Gardening

Urban Ecological Subversion: The Art of Guerilla Gardening in Public Spaces

Garden guerillas are surreptitiously planting flowers where once there was decay. Covert landscaping replaces trash filled roadsides.

Some guerilla gardeners have been questioned by the authorities, suspected of vandalism or even accused of terrorist activity.

I'm always hopeful when I see someone giving of themselves to other people or to the planet. Especially those who do so without expecting any type of return and this is something that most everyone can do.

For more information on guerilla gardening, take a look at Guerilla Gardening: A Manifesto. Buy book on Amazon.

link

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