I'm pausing my Fair Trade Month Friday posts because today is Blog Action Day, which means that thousands of blogs all over the world will be posting about the same thing: water.
Right now, almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. A billion people.
According to charity:water, "unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of diseases and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Children are especially vulnerable, as their bodies aren't strong enough to fight diarrhea, dysentery and other illnesses.
90% of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions are to children under five years old. Many of these diseases are preventable. The UN predicts that one tenth of the global disease burden can be prevented simply by improving water supply and sanitation."
So what can be done? There are great organizations out there trying to help.
This morning, I donated to charity:water. 100% of donations are used for direct project costs. In four years, charity: water has funded over 2000 clean water projects. As little as $20 can give one person clean water for 20 years.
Here are two other organizations doing excellent, innovative work on the clean water front: PlayPumps Water.org
Please take a moment today to appreciate the clean water you have, then give even a small donation to help bring safe water to others. Thank you!!
Today is Blog Action Day. Over 10,000 blogs across the world will be writing about the same topic. Last year's topic was the environment. This year's topic is poverty.
If you are wondering what you and your family can do on a local and global level to help alleviate and address poverty and hunger, WHY (World Hunger Year) is a great place to start. There's even a Kids Can Make a Difference offshoot of the organization that has some great ideas.
As for the song, those of you who are John Steinbeck fans will recognize the character of Tom Joad from The Grapes of Wrath. Those of you who are Woody Guthrie fans will know him from The Ballad of Tom Joad. Guthrie's Joad ends his ballad with these last words to his mother:
Ever'body might be just one big soul Well it looks that a way to me. Everywhere that you look in the day or night That's where I'm gonna be, Ma, That's where I'm gonna be.
Wherever little children are hungry and cry Wherever people ain't free. Wherever men are fightin' for their rights That's where I'm gonna be, Ma. That's where I'm a gonna be.
Men walkin' 'long the railroad tracks Goin' someplace there's no goin' back Highway patrol choppers comin' up over the ridge Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge Shelter line stretchin' round the corner Welcome to the new world order Families sleepin' in their cars in the southwest No home no job no peace no rest
The highway is alive tonight But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light Searchin' for the ghost of Tom Joad
He pulls prayer book out of his sleeping bag Preacher lights up a butt and takes a drag Waitin' for when the last shall be first and the first shall be last In a cardboard box 'neath the underpass Got a one-way ticket to the promised land You got a hole in your belly and gun in your hand Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock Bathin' in the city aqueduct
The highway is alive tonight But where it's headed everybody knows I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light Waitin' on the ghost of Tom Joad
Now Tom said "Mom, wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries Where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air Look for me Mom I'll be there Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand Or decent job or a helpin' hand Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me."
The highway is alive tonight But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes I'm sittin' downhere in the campfire light With the ghost of old Tom Joad
Today is Blog Action Day! Over 15,000 blogs all over the world are posting on topics that have something to do with the environment. So in honor of the day, I thought I'd draw your attention to one of my favorite nature books: Rachel Carson's The Edge of the Sea.
Scientist and ecologist Rachel Carson is famously the author of Silent Spring (a landmark book challenging the use of pesticides), and not-quite-so-famously the author of The Sense of Wonder (a short book about helping children develop a sense of wonder and appreciation for the natural world) which I have gushed about in the past.
The Edge of the Sea is a great read for anyone who likes to spend time mucking around in tide pools, or is curious about the strange creatures that live in them. The tidal area at the edge of the sea constantly shifting and moving...Ms. Carson tells us that the shoreline is not the exactly the same for any two consecutive days in a row!
Reading The Edge of the Sea, you will learn all kinds of interesting facts. Baby snails can be the size of a coffee grain. Starfish arms can break off and grow right back again. Limpets (cone-shaped snails) suction to the exact same "home" spot on a rock...every day during feeding time, they will be taken sometimes a mile or more away by the waves, but every day, each limpet returns to the exact same spot.
The interesting facts are one thing, and worth the read on their own. But the other thing that makes The Edge of the Sea so special is Rachel Carson's voice. She has a gift. She really did see the world with a very active "sense of wonder" and through her writing, she brings that world to us through her eyes. Eyes that can look at mucky, slimy seaweed a dozen times a day and still be amazed by the strange beauty of it:
It is a fantastic jungle, mad in a Lewis Carroll sort of way. For what proper jungle, twice every twenty-four hours, begins to sag lower and lower and finally lies prostrate for several hours only to rise again? Yet this is precisely what the rockweed jungles do. When the tide has retreated from the sloping rocks, when it has left the miniature seas of the tide pools, the rockweeds lie flat on the horizontal surfaces in layer above layer of sodden, rubbery fronds. From the sheer rock faces they hang down in a heavy curtain, holding the wetness of the sea, and nothing under their protective cover ever dries out.
If you've ever seen rockweed, during either high or low tide, you know the logistics of this to be true, but have you ever thought of it in quite that way? And if you haven't seen rockweed, didn't she just bring it alive in your imagination?
I just got my first issue of GOOD Magazine, and in it they had a small article about an organization called Boost Mobile Rock Corps. This has got to be about one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a while. Check out the video below to learn about what they do. And if you live in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, or another large city, definitely check out their calendar of events!
I'm pausing my Fair Trade Month Friday posts because today is Blog Action Day, which means that thousands of blogs all over the world will be posting about the same thing: water.
