Mississippi Sustainable Future Network (SFN) News

Educating people in Mississippi to see the urgency of this shift begins with raising awareness in a variety of ways: media articles and letters, workshops, courses, newsletters, presentations to groups, and model projects. An Earth Literacy educational program that can successfully reach a majority of our citizens will require many network groups to provide local leadership, exceptional imagination, commitment and patience, with a resolve to continue the life-sustaining effort "for the duration".

Nothing else will create a sustainable community except an economic or ecological catastrophe. Our hope is that reading this Newsletter will motivate you to take an active role in this transforming process.

(1) Sustainable Future Network

(2) Sustainable Mississippi

(3) Sustainable U.S.

(4) Sustainable World

(5) Hopeful and Hopeless Quotes

(6) Meetings, resources, events and volunteer options

Mississippi’s first EARTH LITERACY LEARNING CENTER is off to a good start in Jackson following the Learning to Think Environmentally course, created and taught by Dr. Charles Rhyne, and the NW Earth Institute’s Voluntary Simplicity discussion course. By fall we hope to have located a part-time director for the Center and offer the following additional courses:

In August Kochtitzky will attend a NW Earth Institute conference in Portland and visit the YES Journal of Positive Future offices on Bainbridge Island, Washington.

Work continues on the FOOD SELF RELIANCE LEARNING CENTER at Pecan Park Elementary. In time the students will be able to harvest organic vegetables, herbs, muscadines, apricots, apples, pears, plums, blueberries and raspberries from the Center next to their playground.

2020 has gained the cooperation of WLBT-TV to challenge Jackson area adults to volunteer as tutors at Barr, Poindexter and Pecan Park Elementaries. Churches will be challenged to recruit five volunteers. The goal is validating the impact this can have on the students’ development over a year. In 2000 we would seek volunteers for every elementary school.

We are still searching for partners to build an ECO-HOUSE DEMONSTRATION CENTER.

Recently Dr. Michael Metcalf, director of the Croft Institute for International Studies at Ole Miss, invited 2020 to become a" Project Partner". The first project will draw together persons involved with public education for the purpose of creating a vision capable of transforming education in the state.

As part of our YEAR 2000 ENVIRONMENTAL WAKE-UP CHALLENGE twenty- four religious and educational groups, non-profits, state agencies and chambers of commerce have pledged to initiate earth-friendly actions during the year 2000. All that is required for new participants is sending in a short paragraph describing the earth-friendly actions they plan to make at the beginning of the new millenium. For example, the Secretary of State’s office has pledged to audit their building for air quality, conservation of water and energy, and waste reduction. During the early months of 2000 the 2020 office will send out media stories on the different projects across the state.

Member MARY KNIGHT has agreed to keep our accounting records on computer and member HELENE ROTWEIN has done yeoman duty managing our Learn and Serve grant reimbursements. LUKE LUNDEMO has faithfully kept our mailing list, printed labels and responded to our computer illiteracy. JUDY LYONS has agreed to write columns on the Earth Literacy Center for the Northside Sun and Clarion Ledger and to be interviewed by GOLDIA REVIES for her Morning Mississippi spot on WLBT. Goldia has also created a public service spot for us to use in recruiting adults for tutors in three schools. TOM LOWE sends off our Newsletter into cyberspace which saves us postage. MARION LEONARD, our new supporter in Vermont, has promoted the Our World program and promised to bring Kochtitzky there to convince educators. SUSAN CALLAN graciously organized my 2 day trip to visit the YES staff near Seattle. DICK ROY of NW Earth Institute went the extra mile in allowing us to have a book table at his conference to help cover 2020’s expenses. THEY ARE DEEPLY APPRECIATED.

An adult class at Northminster Baptist Church has agreed to partner with 2020 to bring Sr. Miriam MacGillis of Genesis Farm in New Jersey to Jackson next March. The three-day workshop will focus on RE-INVENTING THE HUMAN AT THE SPECIES LEVEL. Write us if you are interested in receiving a brochure on this event.

Director Kochtitzky recently was invited to spend a day consulting with teacher Rebecca Penney at the Rienzi Educational Center near Corinth.

The federal agency granted temporary use of the new toxic Pirate pesticide this summer on the beet armyworms in up to 750,000 acres of cotton fields. These same farmers also will be spraying tons of malathion pesticide to control boll weevils. Wildlife protection groups fear Pirate "may be the most problematic pesticide endangering the lives of birds since DDT." The Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture fears Pirate will damage the reproductive organs of birds, ducks and kill beneficial insects.

Chips mills ravaging our forests, destruction of habitats and wetlands for commercial development, National Forests turned into pine factories, 7000-animal hog farms, eating potato, soy and corn products without knowing if they have been genetically engineered or zapped with nuclear irradiation, air and water pollution, and failure to elect a governor who is committed to protect the connected health of the humans and the natural world.

The senator has asked the state’s U.S. Forest Service office to accept a land-management agreement that would protect the biological diversity, hunting rights and research opportunities on the former University of Mississippi tract in south Mississippi.

Becoming the conservancy’s largest preserve in the state, the action honors the leading conservationist, protects plants, animals and waters. Deaton, a former legislator, helped preserve 75,000 acres across the state.

The Bureau has sent representatives to a national conference on the dangers of pesticides in schools. For many years the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in Atlanta has sent Bob Safey at no cost to cities and schools to conduct a 2 hour workshop on how to control pests with minimum use of toxics. Call 404-562-1782.

A Consumer Reports study claims that children may suffer neurological and hormonal damage from pesticide residues especially in peaches, winter squash, apples. green beans, pears and spinach.

An endangered California condor and a newly released Mexican gray wolf have been killed by human predators in the western states.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which supposedly represents the creative interest of the public, has given industry’s Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) an exclusive opportunity to rewrite the commission’s policy governing Generic Communication. The staff attorney for the Critical Mass Energy Project stated: "Allowing NEI to exclusively comment on and alter NRC policy papers only supports the impression that the NRC has been captured by the industry."

One-third of the mice and voles from a California wildlife refuge, studied by scientists, had both male and female reproductive organs. This is a 30% increase over rodents trapped in 1995. Pesticides are suspected as the cause.

Who’s exposed? Millions of persons over the past 25 years, drinking tap water that is contaminated with low levels of insecticides, weed killers, and artificial fertilizer. They drink it, bathe in it, inhaling and absorbing small quantities of farm chemicals. Using male mice the study proved measurable negative effects on the nervous, immune, and hormone systems.

Genetically altered corn pollen, containing Bt bacteria that kills insects, killed 44% of the Monarch butterfly larvae that ate it.

The Project in Government Oversight stated that radioactive uranium is leaking into the Colorado River at 530 times the federal limits, threatening several endangered species and drinking water of 25 million people. If the Congress passes HR 45, it will bring nuclear waste within one half mile of 50 million persons in 43 states as it is moved across the nation to Nevada and dumped.

Rivers flowing through America’s major communities contain bacteria that resist many forms of antibiotics and may introduce their drug-resistant capacity to germs still counteracted with antibiotics. Included are the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and others.

The IG’s report said "immediate, corrective action is needed" to address "numerous serious deficiencies in the Forest Service’s environmental analyses." In addition, the Forest Service "failed to mention 364 of 436 threatened or endangered species" found in affected areas.

The Health and Environment Roundtable revealed that the pesticide-producing companies are huge contributors to Presidential and Congressional campaigns. EPA employees go to work for the chemical

industry and EPA hires chemical industry employees. Regulations allow pesticides to be registered by the EPA and offered for sale after the companies supply information on the toxicity of the active ingredient. "Some of this information has been wholly or partially fraudulent." EPA does not test these products nor do they have a system for proving the companies tests are accurate. These products are then used around children and the elderly whose lower detoxification systems make them higher risks. In 1991 the EPA announced a serious scientific reassessment of dioxin. Nine years later this promise has disappeared.

Petroleum Association of America decided on a more grassroots approach to tell their story in the nation’s public schools. Instead of cleaning up their environmental threats they were determined to " inoculate against opposition messages" by "assuaging the guilt of Americans concerned about global warming or the dangers of petrochemicals." This meant starting with the "impressionable minds" of school children and holding teacher workshops "in resorts or campuses."

First, Home Depot promised to conduct an audit to determine where its wood was coming from. Then they told the Rainforest Action Network "it does not intend to develop an old growth policy, and never will."

The National Parks and Conservation Association released the list backed by growing threats from development and insufficient funding. An estimated $6 billion is needed to remedy past funding shortfalls.

Public Citizen’s Global TradeWatch project has documented the loss of more than 200,000 U.S. jobs due to NAFTA. They give NAFTA a failing grade in "U.S. job creation and job quality, agriculture, the environment, public health, wage levels in United States and Mexico, economic development and living standards in Mexico, sovereignty, democratic governance and highway safety."

A 1997 Market and Opinion Research International/Greenpeace poll in Europe revealed that up to 70 percent of consumers do not want genetically engineered products in their food supply. A poll sponsored by Novartis, an industry giant in genetic engineering, found that 93 percent of consumers in the U.S. want genetically engineered foods labeled and 54 percent support organic farming.

On July 1 this Augusta, Maine hydroelectric dam was demolished, becoming the first U.S. government- ordered demolition of a dam in the name of conservation. Conservation experts predicted this will help the Atlantic salmon, striped bass, endangered shortnosed sturgeon and other fish. Edwards was forcibly removed "under a policy that weighs power needs against environmental protection."

Jim Metrock, a pro-business Alabaman, was horrified to discover that Channel One Network was assaulting eight million children across the country with ads for junk food and other items. In exchange for schools agreeing to give Channel One access to school children for 12 minutes every day, schools are loaned televisions for each classroom. Ten minutes of news is followed by 2 minutes of ads for Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Snickers, M&M’s, Twix, Bubble Yum, Fruit Loops and others. Companies pay $200,000 for a 30 second spot.

Metrock contacted his U.S. Senator Richard Shelby who issued a news release expressing concern and calling for Congressional hearing. Channel One immediately hired lobbyists to derail any hearings. They put a DC law firm on retainer and hired Ralph Reed, former Christian Coalition head now turned lobbyist. In the hearing, which survived, Ralph Nader and Phyllis Schlafly both spoke against Channel One.

This motivated Metrock to rid Alabama schools of Channel One in home rooms followed by eliminating Pepsi and Coke in the hallways.

Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt approved a plan to protect the Florida panther, the blue tail skink, and other endangered animals and plants in the Everglades. The plan covers 68 species living in diverse habitats.

Some scientists think Japan leads the world in dioxin pollution. Dioxin is generated from the manufacture of chlorine-bleached paper, the smelting of metals and the burning of municipal and medical waste. High temperatures and chlorine-containing chemicals create the deadly dioxin that is released into the environment. Dioxin has been linked to cancer, birth defects and other health problems. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health studied workers highly exposed to dioxin for many years and found a 60% increased chance of dying of cancer. The world was recently stunned when Belgium poultry, pork, beef, eggs and dairy products were contaminated with cancer-causing dioxin.

The World Commission on Forests reports a global forest decline of 15 million hectares (a hectare is about 2.5 acres) each year. This could cause the disappearance of ¼ of the world’s species by 2050. Researchers have found the rate of destruction of the Amazon rain forest is 17,000 square miles a year, more than three times the original estimate. In a December meeting in Seattle the World Trade Organization plans to find ways to increase the trade of forest products.

An Arizona State University study found overgrazing in Mexico raised desert temperatures and lowered plant productivity.

The Human Ecology group at University of California/Davis estimated the long-term sustainable world population at 100-300 million.

Harvard economist Juliet Schor says, "The reasons may not turn out to be so very complicated. Humans are social. We judge our own situations very much in comparison to others around us. It is not surprising that people experience less stress, more peace of mind, and feel happier in an environment with more social cohesion and more equality." Rachel’s Weekly stated, "Within the U.S., the growing gap between rich and poor has not occurred by accident. It is the result of public policies and private corporate practices intended to benefit those who own assets at the expense of those who earn wages."

An African chimpanzee subspecies, a source of HIV virus and a possible cure, is threatened by local hunters. A New York Times editorial said this is a clear demand for preserving biodiversity.

Rachel‘s Weekly #647 reported that half a dozen studies have implicated solvents in serious health problems, including birth defects, immune system disorders, and several kinds cancer, including breast cancer. These organic solvents include gasoline, lighter fluid, spot removers, many aerosol sprays, paints, paint thinners, fingernail polish and remover, glues, and floor and tile cleaners.

In meetings across the country the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy stimulated Ohio activists to research the history of corporations in their state. They discovered a speech by William Jennings Bryan in 1912: "The first thing to understand is the difference between the natural person and the fictitious person, called the corporation. They differ in the purpose in which they are created, in the strength which they possess, and in the restraints under which they act. Man is the handiwork of God and was placed upon earth to carry out a Divine purpose. The corporation is the handiwork of man and was created to carry out a money-making policy….Man acts under the restraints of conscience…A corporation has no soul…."

Groups looking after the interests of native people say free trade has damaged them and the environment. They want an independent study done on the impact of open markets on their communities at a time when the World Trade Organization is "forcing" more developing countries toward globalization.

Unilever, one of the United Kingdom’s largest food manufacturers, no longer will use genetically modified ingredients. "Our farmers and families should not be guinea pigs in this global experiment," said Charles Margulis, Greenpeace USA specialist on genetically engineered and modified foods. "The rest of the world has already rejected these contaminated foods. United States farmers should not be fooled by Monsanto, Novartis and Pioneer." According to Greenpeace more than one-third of all soy beans grown in the U.S. are genetically engineered. Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland, major U.S. exporters, said they won’t accept certain modified grains.

From the Rachel’s Environment and Health Weekly #586: A new principle for guiding human activities, to prevent harm to the environment and to human health, has been emerging during the past 10 years. It is called…the "precautionary principle"…An international group of scientists, government officials, lawyers, and grass-roots environmental activists met January 23-25 at Wingspread in Racine, Wisconsin, to define and discuss the precautionary principle. (Included in their statement was) "We believe existing environmental regulations and other decisions, particularly those based on risk assessment, have failed to protect adequately human health and the environment—the larger system of which humans are but a part.

We believe there is compelling evidence that damage to humans and the worldwide environment is of such magnitude and seriousness that new principles for conducting human activities are necessary. The Precautionary Principle has 4 parts:

1. People have a duty to take anticipatory action to prevent harm.
2. The burden of proof of harmlessness of a new technology, process, activity or chemical lies with the proponents, not with the general public.
3. Before using a new technology, process, or chemical, or starting a new activity, people have an obligation to examine "a full range of alternatives" including the alternative of doing nothing.
4. Decisions applying the precautionary principle must be "open, informed, and democratic" and "must include affected parties."

In Palermo, Sicily the citizens initiated a cultural revolt against the Mafia. After the brutal execution of two judges one citizen scrawled anti-mafia signs on a bedsheet and hung it out her window. When others joined, the Committee of the Sheets was formed. In time the majority of the city were hanging bedsheets. Marches, sit-ins and demonstrations followed and this broke the Mafia’s grip on the city. This simple action by citizens proves that no evil condition is ever hopeless and beyond transformation by the collective power of citizens.

New Zealand, Australia and Brazil pushed through a plan that created new whale sanctuaries in the South Pacific and South Atlantic, adding to existing banned zones in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Based on seven studies on the damage of dredging and trawling, the Campaign called for areas of permanent protection to regenerate the world’s fisheries.

The First Nations Environmental Network expressed opposition to the recent killing of a gray whale by the Makah tribe in Washington state. They stated that the Makah tribe’s claim to "cultural whaling" assists attempts of Japan and Norway to renew commercial whaling.

Kafus Environmental Industries, listed on the American Stock Exchange, hopes to be a global leader in the development and manufacturing of building materials made from recycled wood, tree-free paper and organic fertilizer from kenaf. Kenaf plants in Texas will manufacture newsprint and a product to replace fiberglass.

A professor of biosystems and agricultural engineering at the University of Minnesota has invented a starch-based plastic, as a reacted blend of starch and synthetic polymer, that will reduce the world’s dependence on oil. The new product can be used for lift tickets, shotgun shell cases, plastic cutlery and dog bones.

• "Genetically-engineered potatoes are flowing through the U.S. marketplace. They are in your supermarkets, in cans, boxes and tins of frozen, processed, dried, baked, chipped and every other form of potatoes imaginable. They are in the fast-food line-ups and in school lunches. They are undetectable. The buyers, processors, retailers are unaware of them….In the recent New York Times article about the genetically-altered ‘New Leaf Superior’ potato, a spokesperson from Monsanto, its developer and patent holder, was quoted as saying: ‘Our interest is selling as much of it as possible’ ". (from the Biotechnology edition of Genesis Farm Earth Literacy Center’s Newsletter).
• "If something is not ‘economic’, it needs no further justification. E. F. Schumacher wrote, ‘Call a thing immoral or ugly, soul-destroying or a degradation of man, a peril to the peace of the world or to the well-being of future generations; as long as you have not shown it to be ‘uneconomic’, you have not really questioned its right to exist, grow, and prosper".(The Global Citizen by Donella Meadows).
• "I have a concern that the man who shot and killed the wolf will get off too easily…It reminds me of the person who killed a condor in Arizona and said ‘I thought it was a raven’ ". (Jean Brave Heart of the Minnesota Wolf Alliance).

The following food products were reported to contain genetically modified ingredients: Coca Cola (corn syrup and aspartame); Fritos (corn); Green Giant Harvest Burgers (soy); McDonald’s french fries (potatoes); Nutra Sweet (aspartame); Kraft salad dressing (canola); Fleishman’s margarine (soy); Similac infant formula (soy); Land of Lake Butter (rBGH); Cabot creamery (rBGH).

The Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, by Drs. Michael Brower and Warren Leon. The authors used an economic model to analyze the impact of household spending on the most significant consumer-related environmental problems and discovered that most environmental degradation is linked to just seven categories: cars, meat, produce and grains, household appliances and lighting, home heating and cooling, home construction, and household water and sewage. $15. Order from 2020 Book Service.

Toxic Deception: How The Chemical Industry Manipulates Science, Bends the Law, and EndangerYour Health by Dan Fagin, Marianne Lavelle and the Center for Public Integrity. The guts of Toxic Deception shows that Al Gore is not exceptional in his tendency to kowtow to the industry. He’s just part of a system of lawmaking and policing that has been overwhelmed by a powerful industry that has no match in Washington. The authors look at four heavily regulated chemicals—alachlor, atrazine, formaldehyde, and perchloroethylene. They found that studies of these chemicals funded by the chemical industry tended to find the chemicals innocent, while studies financed by non-industry sources tended to find the four chemicals to be dangerous to human health. $17.95. Order from 2020 Book Service.

Citizen’s Guide to Clean Production by Beverly Thorpe. The Guide offers 5 strategies that activists can use to promote clean production: 1. ways of measuring excessive use of resources; providing consumers with information about the full life-cycle of products and services; 3. producer responsibility; 4. ecological tax reform; and 5. ending government subsidies for polluting industries. $13 paperback. Order from The Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, One University Ave, Lowell, MA 01854.

The Natural Step For Business: Wealth, Ecology, and the Evolutionary Corporation by Brian Nattrasss and Mary Altomare. This book is an essential resource for any individual or organization seeking to learn more about the Natural Step framework and how four leading companies have imbedded the framework into their strategic focus and operations. $16.95. Order from 2020 Book Service.

Books To Wake Up-

Natural Capital and Human Economic Survival by Prugh. $18.95; The Post Corporate World: Life After Capitalism by Korten $27.95 ; Learning To Think Environmentally While There is Still Time, Milbrath. $9.95; Natural Wealth of Nations: Harnessing The Market for the Environment, Roodman. $13.00; Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, Stauber and Rampton. $16.95.

Add 7% sales tax in Mississippi and $2 postage and handling up to $10 order; $3.50 for up to $30 order.

Discussion courses (7 week) on Voluntary Simplicity and Deep Ecology planned for August/September; A New Manner of Thinking earth spirituality (12 week course); Learning To Think Environmentally While There is Still Time (6 weeks); Living in Community and Health and Nutrition workshops planned for fall. Call 601-969-2902.

Discussion courses from NW Earth Institute, 921 SW Morrison Ste. 532, Portland OR 97205, Phone 503-227-2807: Deep Ecology, Voluntary Simplicity, Bioregional Perspective. Course materials cost each participant about $14 and the courses takes 7-9 weeks.

Sustainable Future Network—recruit 25 leaders of your community and invite 2020 to come and share a challenge to move your community toward sustainability.

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Bob Kochtitzky, temporary editor