lotusinthemud

amida france - courses, spring and summer 2011

Amida France website

Come and share our vision. Come and join us in creating a Pure Land.

Amida France is set in 30 acres of beautiful French countryside. It is in the heart of France in an area which you have probably never heard of because it is off the main tourist routes. Beautiful and undiscovered.

Amida France is a place to unwind, to encounter nature, to heal, to find your creativity, to deepen your practice, to discover the rich spirtuality of Pureland Buddhism. It is a friendly place where there is often lively discussion over meals or shared time working on building or arts projects. It is also a place for  discovering silence in the woods and fields.

water meters in all uk homes by 2030 to ease shortages

Many parts of the country face crippling water shortages in the near future unless immediate action is taken to protect precious supplies, according to an Environment Agency (EA) report to be published this week. Measures include compulsory water meters in every home.

The EA warns in the Water Resources Strategy document that many rivers, particularly those in south-east England, could be reduced to a trickle in summer by the middle of the century because of climate change. On average, flows are likely to be cut by 50 to 80%.

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bicycle film festival in london - oct 1st-4th

Re~Cycle, the charity that ships used bicycles to Africa (http://www.re-cycle.org), is again the chosen charity of the Bicycle Film Festival's London event (17 around the world).

- Volunteers needed to help Re~Cycle run the valet bicycle parking and sell raffle tickets

- Buy some raffle tickets for a great bike

- Come and see some great films (from £7.50)

WHEN: Wednesday 1st October to Saturday 4th

WHERE: The Barbican Cinema, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS.

More info: http://bicyclefilmfestival.com/2008_site/london

new greenland ice cracks worry scientists

In northern Greenland, a part of the Arctic that had seemed immune from global warming, new satellite images show a growing giant crack.....

And that's led the university professor who spotted the wounds in the massive Petermann glacier to predict disintegration of a major portion of the Northern Hemisphere's largest floating glacier within the year.

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climate change: prepare for global temperature rise of 4c

The UK should take active steps to prepare for dangerous climate change of perhaps 4C according to one of the government's chief scientific advisers.

Includes links to Graphic: Global warming and what it means (pdf) and Editorial: Planning for the worst

Here's a site to work out the effects of differing degrees of sea rise

constructive for the future

When we throw a banana peel into the garbage, if we are mindful we know that the peel will become compost and be reborn as a tomato or a lettuce salad in just a few months. But when we throw a plastic bag into the garbage, thanks to our awareness, we know that a plastic bag will not become a tomato or a salad very quickly. Some kinds of garbage need four or five hundred years to decompose. Nuclear waste needs a quarter of a million years before it stops being harmful and returns to the soil. Living in the present moment in an awakened way, looking after the present moment with all our heart, we will not do things which destroy the future. That is the most concrete way to do what is constructive for the future.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Our Appointment with Life

composting helps the planet

...and your garden. The bokashi composting system is fab - and this page has my review on it

the pope urges us to save the earth

Pope Benedict called on Thursday for the earth to be protected for future generations, saying the world had been "scarred" with erosion and deforestation and its oceans squandered to fuel an insatiable consumption.

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a buddhist response to global warming

There's a new website here with different sections including quotations, solutions and a blog

california dreamin'

A dream well worth actualising, California and the rest of the world:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California on Thursday took a major step forward on its global warming fight by unveiling an ambitious plan for clean cars, renewable energy and stringent caps on big polluting industries. The plan, which aims to reduce pollutants by 10 percent from current levels by 2020 while driving investment in new energy technologies that will benefit the state's economy, is the most comprehensive yet by any U.S. state.

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