Don’t Even Think of Messing With Me

What would it be like if everyone could see the world as “their home” in the same way we see our cars as “ours”, our homes as “ours” and our children as “ours”. Often we feel they belong to us, yet when we raise our children, we don’t really “own” them, but, rather, we take stewardship of them. We become responsible for their well-being, growth and evolution. What if we felt that the whole world belonged to us, and we took the same stewardship and responsibility for the planet’s well-being? That’s a very big question, worthy of your thought.

The world is our home. It does belong to each of us. Planet earth is uniquely destined to house us, shelter us and clothe us. Much like a parent, Mother Nature takes care of our every need, from the air we breathe to the ground we walk on. And what do we do in return? We pollute her.

Creating a clean planet is an act of personal and corporate consciousness, and all actions begin with thought. Thoughts become actions, and actions become results: 1-2-3, in that order. Therefore, the future of the success of our planet BEGINS with the WAY WE THINK! When we change our view of things and see the world in a different “context” like, ”the world is my home”, then everything we do and see will change.

We wouldn’t throw garbage out the door and into our own backyards so why would we do so on the street? In context, then, “the world is my home” means we might not waste our electricity so easily and we wouldn’t think it’s ok to have cars, trucks and factories spewing pollution into our living rooms because it belongs to “us”. We wouldn’t chop down all the plants in our beautiful gardens, and we certainly wouldn’t dump truck loads of non-perishable garbage on the front lawn. Indeed, understanding that the world is our home is a shift in the paradigm of people’s thinking.

What we own has been bound in the parameters of our tiny life views that include a home on a street, a car, a few kids and our direct family. Expanding that view as Mother Nature had intended automatically creates a whole new realm of possibilities. Mother Nature truly is our mother, and she’s provided for us in every way. It’s about time we stopped acting like rebellious self-centered teenagers and grew up. Finally, we need to realize that what hurts one, hurts us all. What benefits only the one is a level of self-centered thinking that is our current demise. Without change in attitude, this one could literally “poison” us all.

Just one dropped plastic chocolate bar wrapper may take 20 – 40 years to decompose. If everyone in the world dropped one chocolate bar wrapper, that could be over 6 billion wrappers dropped on the earth’s surface. Do we drop chocolate bar wrappers in the street? Yes! Do we do it more than once? Yes. Are we contributing to polluting our homes and our own backyards by not being conscious of our actions and its cause and effect? You bet we are!

Yesterday, as I was walking into the grocery store, I saw that a guy had just gotten his cash out of the cash stop and then threw the receipt on the ground. It landed right in front of me. I stooped down and picked it up. He turned back and looked at me, just in time to get a glimpse of me putting it in the garbage bin. I looked at him, and I just smiled as I concluded, “he must think I am a bank account snooper or a waste paper stalker”; laughingly, I didn’t care. He muttered back to me as he walked on, “Leave it, someone will clean that up”. All the while I was thinking, “Who’s someone?”.

Did you know…

how long it takes for some commonly used products to bio-degrade, when they are scattered about as litter:

• Cotton rags — 1 to 5 months
• Paper — 2 to 5 months
• Rope — 3-14 months
• Orange peels — 6 months
• Wool socks — 1 to 5 years
• Cigarette butts — 1 to 12 years
• Plastic coated paper milk cartons — 5 years
• Leather shoes — 25 to 40 years
• Nylon fabric — 30 to 40 years
• Tin cans — 50 to 100 years
• Aluminum cans — 80 to 100 years
• Plastic 6-pack holder rings — 450 years
• Glass bottles — 1 million years
• Plastic bottles — Forever

Source: http://www.worldwise.com

Mother Nature is talking to us in every way – from the floods, to the volcanoes, to the earthquakes, to the tsunamis and melting ice caps. Why do we see it but do not believe it? We deny what we so clearly see.

Is there another way? Of course there is. We need to understand who we really are as powerful and creative people. We invented air planes, telephones, TV, the internet and we have the vision and entrepreneurial minds to create a global nation of harmonious living conditions that serve us all.

The Sustainable Mindset

Fortunately we have great leaders who understand the importance of a sustainable mindset. We are celebrating some of the top sustainable minds of our time, that really make a difference in our world. We are highlighting new energy institutes and green world enthusiasts. We hope you are inspired to learn about our A list of Green Teams who show exemplary leadership, global consciousness and most importantly a sustainable mindset that honors the stewardship of the world as our home!

Masdar City

Masdar means “the source” in Arabic, and at the source of all matters is energy. Positioned to pioneer human sustainability and energy futures is Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Masdar City will be the first carbon-free city in the world. There will be no cars and no pollution as we currently know it. To say they are making strides toward the application of wind, solar and other alternative energy solutions – is an understatement.

The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology

The Masdar Institute is the centerpiece of the Masdar Initiative, a landmark program announced in April 2006 by the government of Abu Dhabi to establish an entirely new economic sector dedicated to alternative and sustainable energy.

The Masdar Institute is a private, not-for-profit, research-driven institute developed with the support and cooperation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Prof. Ernie Moniz, Director of the Energy Initiative, and Director of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has praised Abu Dhabi’s unique vision for developing a knowledge based economy alongside it’s wealth of natural resources.

Speaking at a public lecture hosted by Masdar Institute of Science and Technology – entitled ‘Clean Energy Technology and Policy: A Post-Copenhagen View’, Prof. Moniz, an advisor to President Obama of the United States of America, advised the large gathering that innovative technology will drive the shift towards a low-carbon world, with research universities such as Masdar Institute holding the key.

Prof. Moniz explained that Abu Dhabi was focusing in on the exact priorities that would make a difference to mitigating climate change;

Moniz said, “We must accelerate the transformation of the energy marketplace significantly if we are to meet prudent climate change risk mitigation goals, energy demand and enhance energy security”.