10/10/10
Put Omaha on the map with 350.org!
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In Voluntary Simplicity (in)Voluntary Simplicity involuntary simplicity
Living simply, with purpose and harmony, has been an ethos for modern life in the peace community for some time. Social scientist and author Duane Elgin notes that the movement grew largely out of Gandhi’s teachings. Elgin quotes Richard Gregg, a Gandhi student, in defining voluntary simplicity as a “singleness of purpose, sincerity and honesty within, as well as avoidance of exterior clutter, of many possessions irrelevant to the chief purpose of life… It involves a deliberate organization of life for a purpose.”
Elgin distinguishes between voluntary simplicity and poverty. Simplicity is sought by choice; large numbers of very poor people globally have no choice but to live simply because they are poor. He notes that “poverty is involuntary and debilitating, whereas simplicity is voluntary and enabling. Poverty is mean and degrading to the human spirit, whereas a life of conscious simplicity can have a beauty and a functional integrity that elevates the human spirit.”
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Keystone XL Comment Period Extended to September 15
With the recent oil spills (BP’s disaster in the Gulf and Enbridge’s Kalamazoo pipeline rupture in Michigan), it is clear that current federal regulations are not strict enough to safeguard drinking and agricultural water from the Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline would cross 71 rivers and streams as well as the Ogallala Aquifer, which provides life-giving water to eight states and supports one-fifth of the wheat, corn, cotton, and cattle produced in the United States. Unless stopped, the Keystone XL pipeline will travel 1700 miles from Canada to refineries near Houston putting water supplies and the environment at risk.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has extended the Keystone XL comment period until September 15, 2010. Because the Keystone XL pipeline crosses the US-Canadian border, a Presidential Permit is required from the U.S. Department of State.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently gave the State Department’s draft analysis of the proposed pipeline’s environmental impacts a failing grade, in part because it failed to address the dangers the pipeline would pose to communities along its path. Fifty members of Congress submitted a letter to Secretary of State Clinton to press her and the Obama administration not to rush to approve a new tar sands oil pipeline.
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Midlands Voices: Clean coal more hype than reality
The following editorial on Nebraska's central role in coal rail transportation appeared in the Monday July 12 Omaha World-Herald. Signed by UNO Professor and Nebraska Report columnist Bruce Johansen, the op-ed was the creation of the newly formed "350.org -- Nebraska" coalition, of which Nebraskans for Peace is a charter member. The article is republished with permission by the Omaha World-Herald.
The writer is a professor in the School of Communication at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is author of “The Encyclopedia of Global Warming Science and Technology.”
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NO to Pipeline Across Nebraska!
TransCanada is one of North America’s largest providers of gas storage and pipeline services. It also owns, controls or is developing approximately 11,700 megawatts of power generation. TransCanada’s 30-inch Keystone Pipeline is presently under construction and will extend 2,151 miles to transport crude oil from the tar sand mines near Hardisty, Alberta to Cushing, OK and southern Illinois. It is shown as the solid line in the map below and crosses Nebraska from the crossing of the Missouri River near Crofton south to the Kansas border near Fairbury.
Posted In: Environment
