This is an invitation to help build a movement--to take one day day and use it to stop the climate crisis

On October 24, we will stand together as one planet and call for a fair global climate treaty. United by a common call to action, we'll make it clear: the world needs an international plan that meets the latest science and gets us back to safety.

This movement has just begun, and it needs your help.

Here's the plan: we're asking you, and people in every country on earth, to organize an action in your community on October 24.

http://www.350.org/oct24

There are no limits here--imagine bike rides, rallies, concerts, hikes, festivals, tree-plantings, protests, and more. Imagine your action linking up with thousands of others around the globe. Imagine the world waking up.

If we can pull it off, we'll send a powerful message on October 24: the world needs the climate solutions that science and justice demand.

It's often said that the only thing preventing us from tackling the climate crisis quickly and equitably is a lack of political will. Well, the only thing that can create that political will is a unified global movement--and no one is going to build that movement for us. It's up to regular people all over the world. That's you.

So register an event in your community for October 24, and then enlist the help of your friends. Get together with your co-workers or your local environmental group or human rights campaign, your church or synagogue or mosque or temple; enlist bike riders and local farmers and young people. All over the planet we'll start to organize ourselves.

With your help, there will be an event at every iconic place on the planet on October 24-from America's Great Lakes to Australia's Great Barrier Reef--and also in all the places that matter to you in your daily lives: a beach or park or village green or town hall.

If there was ever a time for you to get involved, it's right now.

There are two reasons this year is so crucial.

The first reason is that the science of climate change is getting darker by the day. The Arctic is melting away with astonishing speed, decades ahead of schedule. Everything on the planet seems to be melting or burning, rising or parched.

And we now now have a number to express our peril: 350.

NASA's James Hansen and a team of other scientists recently published a series of papers showing that we need to cut the amount of carbon in the atmosphere from its current 387 parts per million to below 350 if we wish to "maintain a planet similar to that on which civilization developed."

No one knew that number a year ago-but now it's clear that 350 might well be the most important number for the future of the planet, a north star to guide our efforts as we remake the world. If we can swiftly get the planet on track to get back below 350, we can still avert the worst effects of climate change.

The second reason 2009 is so important is that the political opportunity to influence our governments has never been greater. The world's leaders will meet in Copenhagen this December to craft a new global treaty on cutting carbon emissions.

If that meeting were held now, it would produce a treaty would be woefully inadequate. In fact, it would lock us into a future where we'd never get back to 350 parts per million-where the rise of the sea would accelerate, where rainfall patterns would start to shift and deserts to grow. A future where first the poorest people, and then all of us, and then all the people that come after us, would find the only planet we have damaged and degraded.

October 24 comes six weeks before those crucial UN meetings in Copenhagen. If we all do our job, every nation will know the question they'll be asked when they put forth a plan: will this get the planet back on the path below 350?

This will only work with the help of a global movement-and it's starting to bubble up everywhere. Farmers in Cameroon, students in China, even World Cup skiers have already helped spread the word about 350. Churches have rung their bells 350 times; Buddhist monks have formed a huge 350 with their bodies against the backdrop of Himalayas. 350 translates across every boundary of language and culture. It's clear and direct, cutting through the static and it lays down a firm scientific line.

On October 24, we'll all stand behind 350--a universal symbol of climate safety and of the world we need to create. And at the end of the day, we'll all upload photos from our events to the 350.org website and send these pictures around the world. This cascade of images will drive climate change into the public debate--and hold our leaders accountable to a unified global citizenry.

We need your help-the world is a big place and our team is small. Our crew at 350.org will do everything we can to support you, providing templates for banners and press releases, resources to spread the word, and tools to help you build a strong local climate action group. And our core team is always just a phone call or e-mail away if you need some support.

This is like a final exam for human beings. Can we muster the courage, the commitment, and the creativity to set this earth on a steady course before it's too late? October 24 will be the joyful, powerful day when we prove it's possible.

Please join us and register your local event today.

Onwards,

Bill McKibben - Author and Activist- USA
Vandana Shiva - Physicist, Activist, Author - India
David Suzuki - Scientist, Author, Activist - Canada
Bianca Jagger - Chair of the World Future Council - UK
Tim Flannery - Scientist, Author, Explorer -Australia
Bittu Sahgal - Co-convener, Climate Challenge India - India
Andrew Simmons - Environmental Advocate, St. Vincent & The Grenadines
Christine Loh - Environmental Advocate and Legislator - Hong Kong

P.S.-We need you to do something else, right away, that's pretty easy. Please forward this message to anyone you know who is even remotely appropriate.

Help consumers purchase good drying racks and clotheslines by reviewing them at Huddler.com

Have you ever tried to purchase a drying rack or laundry line online, but were totally overwhelmed by the number of options and lack of credible information on product quality? Those days have come to an end! A start-up based in California called Huddler has created a fabulous website/online community for exchanging information about green products. Better yet, they have a whole section devoted to drying racks (click this or any image to see a larger view):



Anyone can add new products to their site, modify the profiles of existing products, and rate and write reviews of products already listed.

The main page of a product listing looks like this:



Product listings also contain Products Specs, a list of relevant links, and other features:




This website has tremendous potential to help get out the word about line-drying and make the experience of purchasing an expensive, high-quality drying rack less nerve-wracking for those new to the activity. Here are a few ways you can help out:

1) Review any laundry product you already have on the Huddler Green Home website. The more reviews, the better the site!

2) Add to existing laundry product profiles. Many products lack complete profiles.

3) Add a link to the Project Laundry List store for products that we carry. Let's send some more customers our way!

4) Add new drying rack and laundry line models to the site. Currently, there are only 25 listed. However, there are hundreds of racks out there! This wiki page that I made last summer lists many drying products that are currently listed on Huddler.

5) Tell your friends and blog-readers about the site. Let's make the Huddler Green Home site the clearing house for quality information about purchasing drying racks!

Slightly overwhelmed by the site? Huddler has made a site tour to get you oriented.

A lemon for New Hampshire

A lemon for New Hampshire
By Bill McKibben
March 26, 2009

IN AN EFFORT to meet clean-air laws, the Public Service Company of New Hampshire is busy trying to install an expensive scrubber on the smokestack of its Merrimack Station coal-fired power plant in Bow. A group of angry ratepayers is trying to slow it down. And here's the man-bites-dog thing, which makes this one of the more interesting ecological battles underway in the nation: The angry ratepayers are almost certainly the real defenders of the green.

Green as in the environment. But also green as in the stuff the ratepayers of the Granite State are likely to be taking out of their wallets in ever-larger amounts should the utility succeed in stifling any further review, and sticking the scrubbers up on top of the plant.

Under the Clean Air Act, power plants aren't supposed to spew mercury into the environment. That makes sense: Mercury from power plants is why New Hampshire anglers are only supposed to feed their kids 4 ounces a month of the fish they catch. For a long time, PSNH, like many utilities around the country, fended off the mandate to install scrubbers, but finally decided to go ahead and put on $250 million worth of technology, a figure that as construction is about to begin has now almost doubled. It's a couple of decades late, but, hey, better late than never.

In the meantime, though, scientists - and environmentalists - have figured out a more important reason to worry about coal-fired power plants, and that's the carbon dioxide they spew into the atmosphere. This is what causes global warming, and the scrubbers PSNH is talking about will do nothing to remove it from the exhaust. Which is too bad, because if the scientists are right about climate change, soon New Hampshire anglers will be able to catch salt-water species in their own living rooms. That is, mercury is a problem, but carbon is a crisis.

In light of all the new data, it would make real sense to start talking about alternative sources of energy - to begin investigating how to dramatically reduce electric use, and find smaller, more localized sources of power. It makes environmental sense, but also economic sense, because almost everyone now realizes that pretty soon carbon will carry a price. President Obama has called for a bill to cap carbon, and once something like it passes, the cost of coal-fired power will begin an inexorable climb. And by the way, these approaches would eliminate all the mercury - not just the 80 percent the scrubbers will scrub.

So why spend $450 million on new scrubbers if there's a reasonable chance you won't be able to keep the power plant running? Isn't it a little like buying pricey chrome rims for your car the week before inspection, when you're pretty sure the lack of brakes means you aren't going to pass? That's the question a group of big commercial ratepayers in the state are asking. They're led by Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farms, Dean Kamen of Segway, the folks at Timberland - that is, the kind of businesses that have a real future in New Hampshire.

They haven't asked for much - just a 90-day pause while a series of analyses are undertaken to see if the scrubber plan really makes sense. But PSNH has responded with a series of roundhouse punches, claiming the delay will lead to job losses and great expense.

As to the prospect of Obama's carbon regulation, which would make their plant leak money, they have these reassuring words: "Speculation on future federal environmental costs for CO2 is just that - speculation."

Yeah, but even New Hampshire's GOP Senator Judd Gregg has backed carbon-cap regulation. It's not hard to see the writing on the wall. Heck, a few weeks ago congressional leaders began the process of converting their own coal-fired power plant, two blocks from Capitol Hill, over to natural gas - a tack that would be cheaper for Granite State residents as well.

After 40 years of service, the Bow plant represents the best of yesterday's technology. It's as outdated as a hulking old SUV. But the used-car salesmen at PSNH are determined to get it off the lot, so they're hard-selling the nifty new rustproofing. New Hampshire ratepayers better kick the tires a little harder, or they're going to get stuck with a lemon. A lemon with brand-new scrubbers, but still a lemon.

Bill McKibben is scholar in residence at Middlebury College and co-founder of www.350.org

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

Clotheslines Hidden by Fences Make Good Neighbors

What if we solve the clothesline ordinance dilemma with a "piggy-back compromise"?

Let's append the saying, "fences make good neighbors" to "clotheslines hidden by fences make good neighbors".

Since fences are accepted and encouraged between homes, clotheslines can take advantage of that existing standard.

The strategy is to have one or two additional lines in parallel to the clothesline. Each additional line will be a screen printing of a fence. A homeowner can choose whatever fence best fits the property. If the back side of the clothesline is facing woods, only one faux-fence is needed . If the back side of the clothesline is facing another neighbor's house, then two faux-fences would be needed to create a corridor.

We live in a country that is allowing laws on aesthetics and looks. Regardless, of whether that is wrong or right, the screen printed fences can certainly side-step the aesthetics issue with a compromise.

Some people just can't handle the colorful, random, chaotic, look of a clothesline. A fake fence would provide an orderly look with straight lines and predictable patterns.

Screen printed fences might only solve 20% of the problem at homes with flat topography and ideal conditions. Questions certainly remain on downtown locations and properties on hills.

Naturally, a screen printing is subject to ultra-violet deterioration. The fence would have to retract or roll-up when the clothes are removed from the line.

While this idea is not as practical as simply repealing anti-clothesline laws, with any luck it might stimulate some other ideas.

Art on the Line Judging to Begin Soon

Project Laundry List's first Art on the Line Competition is closed! We have over 100 beautiful submissions in our http://www.flickr.com/groups/projectlaundrylist/pool/. You can help us pick a people's choice award by going and commenting on items you like with the word vote. One vote per flickr user please. All votes must be in by April 10. Winner of the juried contest to be announced March 30. Please check back.

The Electric Clothesline Ready for Spring Display

Exhibit will connect energy use with energy supply


Concord, NH – The Electric Clothesline exhibit is now on display at Gallery One in Nashua, NH from March 14th to April 30th.

The Electric Clothesline, created by artist Matt St.Onge, is a scaled down version of standard power lines. It shows the correlation between drying clothes and where the energy comes from. The power transformer is made from a stainless steel, foot-pedal trash can. Its partially open lid alludes to, and warns of, our partially damaged environment.

The three power lines represent a family. A mother, father, and daughter each have their own powerline/clothesline.

The exhibit is designed to simply reinforce awareness of the effect that power production with gas, oil, and coal has on our environment. It is yet another reminder to seek renewable energy sources, and hopefully, it is interpreted in a subtle and respectful way.

By simply looking up in the air, The Electric Clothesline was inspired while driving through Penacook, NH. The power lines looked like giant clotheslines in the sky. A connection was made that to operate a clothes dryer; the power must first be transmitted through these lines. This led to questions that we are all facing today about our energy production.

“I'm going to miss having The Electric Clothesline in my living room.” Said Matt. “The best part is inviting people over to see my art. They look over, around, and through the piece trying to find my art... only to realize, Oh my God! I thought you were drying your clothes! This IS the art!"

About Matt St.Onge

For two seasons, Matt has searched for an art medium to work with. As a member of the Manchester Artists Association, as well as attending countless museums and galleries, he found a calling.

With a background in mechanical design, it’s natural for Matt to design and build artwork of a 3D nature. Dubbed “Home Depot Art”, Matt loves to merge basic building materials into items that convey a message.

The next project is titled The Invisible Trees exhibit. It is a multi-item showing that portrays a vivid contrast between “invisible” trees and the colorful man-made objects that we attach to trees. A mild funding source is needed.

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Makesa Creations, 37 Alice Drive, Suite 31, Concord, NH 03303, (603) 769-7491 MatthewStonge@Yahoo.com