Al Gore was published in the New York Times Sunday Opinion section on July 1st. Read what he has to say about global warming, post-Kyoto agreements, and the Live Earth concerts coming up this Saturday.

Op-Ed Contributor (read here or click on this link for the original format)

Pop Culture Goes Green!

This Saturday July 7th, 2007, Live Earth concerts will occur around the globe as various and multiple pop stars combine their powers of mass media to achieve global awareness. Live Earth is a 24-hour, 7-continent concert series that will bring together more than 100 music artists and 2 billion people to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.

Live Earth marks the beginning of a multi-year campaign led by the Alliance for Climate Protection (with former Vice President Gore as the Chair), The Climate Group and other international organizations to drive individuals, corporations and governments to take action to solve global warming.

Intro: **This summer I participated in an ambassadorial trip of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary students to our sister seminary in Lusaka, Zambia. We went to learn and to demonstrate our commitment to a reciprocal relationship between our seminaries. Included in our three-week African journey was a trip to Victoria Falls and a safari park in Botswana. It was then that I developed a deep connection to the physical landscape of Africa. **

Hello all!

Please, please, please take a few moments out of your day to check out this guide to little improvements you can make to render your home more energy efficient! This is a great, easy way to help the environment and this document even arranges the steps in order of Things You Can Do Today, This Week, This Month, and This Year - bite-sized bits.

There is a page on the British Broadcasting (BBC) website called "The Green Room" that keeps an updated running tab of environmental news.

I'm putting it as one of my home pages for the internet so when I open a new window I see the latest environmental headlines.

If anyone else would like to do the same or just check it out, click here.

I was shocked to read an article entitled "China building more power plants" this morning in a headline news link from the New York Times. One of the most alarming facts in the article was that China is now building about two power stations every week, largely as a result of the West moving its greenhouse-gas-emitting industries to developing nations with less pollution regulations and cheaper labor. Basically, we exported our carbon emissions. Unfortunately, these kinds of goods don't just stay in a foriegn country. Carbon emissions have a nasty little habit of not descriminating about which specific country they want to pollute. There's really only one barrier these emissions pay any attention to: the global barrier a.k.a. the ozone. And I say "the ozone" because there's only one for all of us.

Texas Impact is partnering with the Sierra Club to sponsor the Cool Cities campaign in cities throughout Central Texas. Cool Cites is a program inspired by the U.S. Mayor's Climate Protection Plan created to help local areas take the initiative to make our world a safer, more environmentally-conscious place. A website with more information should be up by mid-week next week. If you would like to participate, get more information, or just get excited about the Cool Cities campaign, go to the Cool Cities website.

Thank you!
Shelby