Wish the Earth a Happy Day--and Happy Ever After, Especially for Her Poor & People of Color

Please join the billion-plus humans celebrating Earth Today. The theme for this year's Earth Day is "Break the Addiction to Carbon."

This theme is principally targeted at the wealthiest, predominantly white Earth citizens--especially my fellow Americans, who amount to only 7% of the human population but singlehandedly produce 25% of total greenhouse gas emissions.

And as with most destructive things the wealthiest people do, it's poor people and people of color worldwide who suffer the brunt of the environmental damage--whether it's:

• The African American kids in my neighboorhood afflicted with lead poisoning.
• Subsistence farmers in India whose land and water are stolen out from under them by large corporations.
• Those starving and malnourished in the Sahel region of Africa because of desertification and global warming.
• Native Americans consigned to barren reservations with minimal to nonexistent economies that are sometimes threatened with chemical or nuclear waste dumps.
• Among, sadly, others.......
  
  Environmentalism isn't all about the whitefolks. It does call for major-league individual and collective responsibility from whitefolks..At the same time, although it gets little attention, people of color and the global poor are taking tremendous action too, and no wonder, because it's in their dearest interests.
  
  I won't say "kill two birds with one stone" because that's not a nonviolent, eco-friendly metaphor--but there are a couple of simple steps you can take to stand up for the environment, the global poor and people of color all in the same action step.
  
  
• Go to the Nonviolent Choice Directory's resources on Eco-Friendly Living and click on Carbon Offsets from Native Energy . Calculate your CO2 emissions and purchase offsets--a little $USD goes a long way here. The proceeds go to develop wind energy projects for Native Americans and Alaska Natives. These projects create truly life-affirming economic prospects.

• Please, once again, endorse Pro Every Life, Pro Woman, Pro Reproductive Justice for All: A Manifesto. The full text (click on "letter") addresses the links among various injustices, including racism, economic imbalances of power, and environmental destruction, that threaten life and reproductive justice for all, born and unborn.

Thank you.