7gen Bloc

On July 28, 2007, the Chicago Tribune reported a story that happens every day but rarely makes the headlines: "All communities are not created equal," said Robert Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, who has been documenting racial and environmental disparities for more than 20 years. "If a community is low-income and comprised mostly of people of color, it generally gets more than its fair share of those things that people don't want."

Several weeks ago, my wife was emptying out her family’s home in Providence, Rhode Island, and she found this picture among the things her father had saved. On August 10, 1989, it appeared on the cover of the second section of New York Newsday, a daily newspaper in New York City. I hadn’t looked at it for many years.

Courtesy of the comedic genuises at the Onion, here’s a mighty giggle on which to end the week. I’d be laughing a lot harder if I didn’t think we lived in a country where there’s a chance a story like this could actually come true…

In case anyone missed it, I recently recorded a segment for the NPR series “This I Believe” about my late brother Peter. For those of you who haven’t ever heard it on the air, “This I Believe” is an international audio project based on the popular 1950s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow. It asks people from all walks of life to write about the core values that guide them, and the resulting mini-essays are featured on public radio in the United States and Canada.

Thought I would start profiling people who work at 7th Gen. Good people, making things happen. Sarah A, our internal newsletter producer, is up first...WR

It is not my intention to nag or blame bottled water drinkers, but it is my intention to create a more eco-conscious and aware consumer. If we want to turn around the way things are going on this earth, we need to take responsibility for our own actions and be more thoughtful when making choices. I can understand bottled water. It’s convenient, it’s ready to go, it offers a healthier alternative to the pop and sugar loaded beverages beside it on the supermarket shelf, and it complements our fast paced way of life. But what I cannot fathom is why from Fiji?

Spent the last day in a half, working with a group of Vermont NGO's and companies to think about how Vermont companies can play an active role with the NGO and government community to help educate people to change their behavior and reduce their CO2 footprint.

Today the Change It program ran their "You're on the hot Seat" Global Warming campaign in Washington DC at the Capital - more will come on how the campaign went on the Change It blog. WR

Here's my latest cross-post from the Change It blog : "A truck hit the pole with the internet connection for the whole neighborhood. - kfj" This is the message I got earlier today from Katie Flynn-Jambeck (my Greenpeace counterpart at Change It, also known as “the whirlwind in the red skirt”).

Here’s a cross-post from the Change It blog from 2007 participant Alicia Kowsky, a junior at the State University of New York at Geneseo