Green Guitars

Music Industry’s "Certain Shade of Green"

The green music tour bus has been slow on the uptake, but it’s accelerating nicely these days. Artists like Willie Nelson, John Mayer, The Fray, Bon Jovi and Incubus are working with environmental organizations to revamp and green their concerts on and off stage.

Incubus, for example, is switching to organic food for the band, organic T-shirts for fans, and recycled paper and soy ink for posters and flyers. They encourage venues to recycle waste. And plan to fuel tour buses with clean-burning biodiesel.

Resurrected vintage instruments are being played by trendsetters. And new-instrument manufacturers like Gibson and First Act are incorporating Rainforest Alliance-certified and Forest Stewardship Council-certified hardwoods. Dave Maize Acoustic Guitars even uses reclaimed wood for its guitars.

Some major labels too are working to reduce waste, purchase carbon offsets, and use more eco-sound packaging for their share of the 1.8 billion CDs sold worldwide each year.

Concert fans can help by carpooling, riding a bike or taking public transportation to events. They can add a vital voice urging venues to use reusable utensils and operate recycling programs.

Source: TheGreenGuide.com

Doomsday Vaults
Noah’s Ark of Seed Banks

The 21st century has triggered a flurry of seed banks. Construction just began on an Arctic "doomsday vault" containing seeds of humanity’s 21 food crops to allow replanting in case of global disaster. One hundred countries have backed the plan, and the Norwegian government is overseeing construction. Seeds will be kept at -4º F on the Svalbard archipelago just south of the North Pole and 426 feet above water to account for rising sea levels.

Meanwhile the Millennium Seed Bank Project in Britain, the official repository for all the world’s wild plant seeds, has banked 18,000 species from 126 countries. Scientists typically tap 100 individual plants of the same species to preserve genetic diversity. Reliable storage can hold dried seeds in suspended animation for two centuries. "We don’t know what benefits [all] these plants will provide," says Kayn Havens of the Chicago Botanic Garden. But "if we lose them, we lose all of those options."

Source: YesMagazine.org and The Christian Science Monitor

Festivals of Green
Ecological-Minded Businesses to Hold Perfect Parties

Hundreds of businesses who hold themselves accountable for their sustainable, ecological and socially equitable practices plan to gather at Green Festivals in Washington, D.C. (Oct. 6-7), San Francisco, California (Nov. 9-11) and Seattle, Washington (Apr. 12-13). Each will host 200 visionary speakers in talks and workshops set to welcome an increasingly conscious public. Each expects to see attendance in the tens of thousands.

Thought leaders, business leaders, community activists and daily attendees will find kindred spirits eager for fresh news and views of what we all can do to green up our lifestyles. Organic cuisine, green films, eco-career advice, yoga and movement classes, and music sessions will round out a stellar weekend experience.

Sign up to participate at GreenFestivals.org.

Jungle Eyes
New Amazonian Rainforest Preserve

The Brazilian government has announced the creation of the world’s largest rainforest preserve, a 58,000-square-mile park in the northern Amazon that will be larger than Illinois. Over the past few years, the region has been a lawless frontier, with clashes over land rights and uncontrolled logging. Now environmentalists hope that the preserve will protect crucial territory for jaguars and monkeys.

Source: Sierra Club

Vegans Unite
Raw Spirit Food Fest

Beyond simple healthy living through a raw organic vegan diet, this year’s vision for the Raw Spirit Festival in Sedona, Arizona, October 12-14 has expanded to include world peace and sustainable solutions for the planet. "Together these comprise a comprehensive approach for addressing current global challenges," says festival founder Happy Oasis. Natural Awakenings will be among the 245 green-oriented businesses demonstrating the possibilities presented by ecologically pure, high vibrational products and conscious services.

For information visit RawSpirit.com or call 804-708-7324.

National Disgrace
SiCKO This Year’s Must-See Documentary

As a consumer watchdog and administrator of NewsTarget.com Mike Adams, rates Michael Moore’s latest film, SiCKO, "a courageous and outrageous documentary that exposes the arrogance of modern medicine and the utter failure of America’s corporate-controlled sick care system to provide decent health care to the people." The root of the problem, notes Adams, is that those profiting from America’s medical system see no money to be made in preventing disease.

In what this pundit remarks is a "surprisingly even-handed and well grounded" report, the filmmaker "never resorts to unsubstantiated claims" as he telescopes from the national health care crisis threatening economic collapse to stories of individuals beleaguered by costly medical conditions. The fact is that 50 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies are due to medical expenses while drug companies have become some of the world’s richest corporations. As a reporter himself, Adams has documented markups on prescription drugs as high as 500,000 percent.

Today Americans rank as the most diseased people in the world among advanced nations. Why is this? Moore raises a question worth thinking about.

Source: NewsTarget.com