Interested in Living a More Sustainable Life? Consider becoming a member of The Growing Green Co-op! Member benefits include participation in a state-wide delivery of sustainable goods - biofuels, local produce, organic bulk foods, raw food to go boxes, toxic free house cleaning products, organic linens, eco-friendly body care lines and other "green" products/services will be delivered to co-op members state-wide starting this July that will grow our local economy.
Catalog retailers send out 20 billion catalogs a year, and almost none of the paper contains any recycled content. Instead, over 8 million tons of trees a year go into catalogs alone-which means 8 million tons of trees are going from forests to the landfill, with a short appearance as junk mail in between. By increasing recycled content and sourcing paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (the only credible standard for sustainable logging), catalogers could greatly decrease their negative environmental impact, cut air and water pollution, and decrease the amount of paper filling up landfills.
The catalog industry is causing the destruction of forests such as North America's Boreal Forest. Stretching from Alaska to Canada's Atlantic coast, the Boreal is the size of 13 Californias and provides one of our planet's first lines of defense against global warming. The Boreal also provides critical habitat for a wide range of species, including endangered caribou and half of North America's songbirds.
Take action to save one of the most iconic landscapes in America, the mountains of Appalachia.
Right now, the Bush administration is relentlessly pursuing anti-environmental policies to allow coal companies to continue to bury hundreds of miles of streams in Appalachia under enormous piles of rubble created by mountaintop removal coal mining. This large scale devastation has already buried over 1,000 miles of streams, flattened more than 400 mountains, and driven American citizens from their homes. We need to let the administration and the public know that we won't stand for this.
Click here to send a letter to the editor of your local paper.
This November 3rd, we hope to have thousands of rallies around the country calling for "No New Coal" as one of our four priorities to stop global warming. By gathering at places named after great leaders from our country's past, we will send a powerful message to our current politicians: real leaders would not allow a destructive practice like mountaintop removal to continue in America.
But it's important we act right now to build the movement for "No New Coal" in America. Step It Up is partnering with a number of incredible groups in Appalachia to take a stand against mountaintop removal and King Coal. You can take action today by signing up to host a rally and sending a letter to the editor of your local newspaper opposing mountaintop removal coal mining and inviting your community to your November 3rd event.
Click here to send a letter to the editor of your local paper.
By enshrining mountaintop removal coal mining, the Bush administration is also trying to condemn us to years of dirty energy. Coal is the single largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the United States. We can reduce our dependence on coal by pushing Congress to cut carbon 80% by 2050 and invest in a clean energy economy that will create millions of new jobs. And we can make sure those jobs go to those who need them most by creating a Green Jobs Corps to train thousands of workers and create green pathways out of poverty for young adults with barriers to employment, displaced workers, and veterans. But we need your help to make this vision a reality: help spread the word by organizing an event and sending a letter to the editor today.
