love water

Thousands have lived without love,
not one without water.

~W.H. Auden


These are the words that opened the film Flow. See the trailer below.




The film is an eye-opening look at the commoditization and poisoning of our most precious and dwindling resource. And I recommend that everyone watch it. Hopefully, it will change the way you think about and consume water.

How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us.

If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man.

The white man's dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man -- all belong to the same family.

So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us. The Great Chief sends word he will reserve us a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves. He will be our father and we will be his children.

So, we will consider your offer to buy our land. But it will not be easy. For this land is sacred to us. This shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you the land, you must remember that it is sacred, and you must teach your children that it is sacred and that each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father.

The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes, and feed our children. If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would give any brother.

Continue reading this version of Chief Seattle's response to an offer to buy the land on which his people lived (1854).

Sign the petition to add article 31, the right to water, to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Related post
water, water everywhere...

happy MLK jr day!

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

zero waste, a girl can dream

If it can't be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned or removed from production.






Pete Seeger
from "If It Can't Be Reduced"
off his new album "At 89"
taken verbatim from a
Berkeley, CA city council resolution

a message

[My friend Anne took this last week when we were in the park.]

mother knows best...

We sometimes feel that what we do is just a
drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less
because of that missing drop.

~ Mother Theresa

the key to sustainable living, simply stated

It starts very simply. Just take a little time to learn more about the consequences of the small choices you make each day. Think about what you wear. Where did it come from? Could you walk or bicycle or take public transport instead of driving? Stop wasting water and don't take it for granted. Don't leave the lights on. Consider what you eat. Where did your food come from? Does it cause huge suffering to animals? Was it the result of child labor? Did it travel far to get to you? Start caring -- and start thinking.

-- Jane Goodall in an interview in Body + Soul Magazine

go arnie!

Who would have thought that the muscly star of film classics such as "Conan the Barbarian" and "Kindergarten Cop" would have said this about the state of energy in this country? Governator, I applaud you.

SCHWARZENEGGER: (I)t just really means basically this administration did not believe in global warming, or they did not believe that they should do anything about it since China is not doing anything about it and since India is not willing to do the same thing, so why should we do the same thing?

But that’s not how we put a man on the moon. We did not say let everyone else do the same thing, then we will do it. We said we want to be the pioneers, we want to be out there in front. [snip]

Anyone that tells you that drilling, nuclear power, alternative fuels, fuel cells, solar, all of those things will bring down the price right now, I think is pulling wool over your eyes, because we know that all of those would take at least 10 years.

But that should not mean that we should not do those things, because here is the important thing. What’s the biggest problem in America? It’s not that we don’t have any ideas. It’s just that we are not consistent, that we have Jimmy Carter in the late ’70s that came in with a great energy policy, talked about shale oil exploration, giving tax credits for people that were investing in windmills and in solar and all of those things.

Then President Reagan came in and scrapped the whole thing, because the oil price came down and says, “Well, this doesn’t make any sense financially.”

There were many countries all over the world that stayed with the program, that said, “We are going to continue,” even thought the oil price comes down. In Germany with solar, for 30 years they’ve been working on that, and they’re now number one in solar, number one.

I think that’s what we need to do. We need to stay the course.

[George Stephanopolous via Crooks and Liars]