Rainforest ECO blog

2011 Environmental Award Winner André Villas-Bôas

rainforesteco — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:28:10 +0000

Kayapó women use body paint to mimic animal markings,
believing it brings them closer to the spirit world.

In 30 years of helping the Amazon’s indigenous tribes peacefully defend their lands from outsiders, André Villas-Bôas has been in plenty of tight spots. But it wasn’t until 2008 that he saw the sharp end of a machete headed straight at him.

The weapon, wielded by an angry Kayapó warrior, was aimed at an engineer who had just given a presentation defending a massive dam project that the Indians feared would destroy their villages. Villas-Bôas had leapt from his chair in an attempt to shield the engineer from machete blows, but it was too late to prevent bloodshed. The other tribesmen were already upon them. Screams echoed through the cavernous gymnasium in the dusty frontier town of Altamira, as one of the bare-chested Indians ripped the engineer’s neatly ironed shirt off his back, and another pushed him to the floor. The angry mob struck him with their war clubs and machetes. “Don’t do this,” Villas-Bôas shouted, his palms outstretched as he pushed into the scrum. “This will be very bad for you!”

As one of the founders of the leading Brazilian environmental and indigenous rights organization Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), Villas-Bôas had played a key role in organizing that day’s protest against the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, an 11,000-megawatt dam that would be the world’s third largest. The demonstration had attracted several thousand people to protest a project many feared would have disastrous consequences for the Xingu River, the Amazon’s largest tributary and a vital source of food and water for the thousands of indigenous people who live along it. But now the situation was degenerating into just the kind of violent fiasco Villas Bôas had spent his career working to avoid.

Read full article:

2011 Environmental Award Winner André Villas-Bôas : News & Features : Conde Nast Traveler.

What Happens When Al Gore Gets In Your Purse…

rainforesteco — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 10:50:11 +0000

For the last week I’ve been carrying Al Gore’s book “Our Choice – A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis” in my purse, devouring the forest section as if it were food. It is food for my brain, as I awaken parts of it, that used to be numb, completely asleep under the drug of survival. I remember when that happened…

In 1990 I lived on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. My daughter was not quite three years old then, and we were experiencing our first months of being a family of two. They were clear cutting the Olympic National Rain Forest as fast as possible before legislation would kick in, to save the habitat of the Northern Spotted Owl. Now I can remember, driving behind logging trucks with old growth Douglas Fir, and crying so hard I could barely see the road, apologizing to the trees whose enormous severed ends were being buried in my memory. I remember driving by the cut forests that looked like a warzone, and felt like a bomb had hit. I remember doing an illustration of a spotted owl, printing it with a statement from Chief Seattle (chief of the Suquamish Indians of the Olympic Penninsula) “All things are connected…” and promising myself when my child didn’t need me at home as much, I’d do something to help the degraded earth to recover. Now I remember. The numbness of survival has finally evolved beyond adaptation, to transformation…

At the beginning of this blog in 2008, I took her to Brazil, and we discovered the rainforest where I was born had been cut down too. 93% of the most diverse rainforest on earth is gone. That’s when the action kicked in — 18 years later. So now, 4,183 trees later, I’m trying to understand how, why we did this to our earth. I can’t comprehend the ignor-ance of Nature.

Here are some of the information fragments I’m finding as I research “successful” reforestation projects. Al says,

China leads the world in tree planting … they have planted more trees in each of the last years than has the rest of the world combined.

So, I had to see what they’re doing. These facts come from a report by the World Bank:

China has the biggest tree plantation program in the world and the World Bank is its biggest financier.

Despite its ambitious program, China still has one of the smallest amounts of forest per capita (0.12 ha/person) and a fast-growing need for more timber. In the last decade, timber imports have more than tripled.

About 30% of imported wood is exported in processed form to places like Japan, the United States and Europe. Wood is also consumed to produce crates, labels and wrapping for other fast-growing Chinese exports.

Then I looked the World Bank up too:

World Bank – Although the World Bank represents 184 countries, it is run by a small group of the most powerful nations who in turn promote their own interests. The President of the World Bank, for example, is nominated by the President of the United States and has always been a citizen of the U.S. Like the IMF, the World Bank also issues Structural Adjustment Loans which place restrictions on how the money can be spent. For example, a World Bank loan may require privatization of the water supply which benefits transnational corporations and undermines the rights of the people. In this way the World Bank can manipulate and control growth in the developing world to benefit itself.

“All things are connected…”

Al continued…

In fact, China has been planting so many trees that it is now planting more by a third each year than the largest deforesting nation, Brazil, is cutting down.

Brazil is the largest deforesting nation — responsible for 48 percent of all deforestation in the world.

Recently, Brazil proposed a program to pay small farmers to plant new trees in areas of the Amazon that have been deforested, but thus far, the program has had little apparent impact.

“All things are connected…”

Enough sifting through the shadows of facts. It has been a time of Blessed Unrest and it is a New Year. We can do better.

Creator – All things are connected by You…such magnificent beauty, order and perfection. Help us to forgive ourselves and each other for making such a mess of Paradise. Use our minds, hearts and hands to make amends, now. May we surrender our human ignorance and greed to our Higher Mind and ways of being incarnate, with respect, compassion, gratitude and praise for all of Creation. Amen.

www.iGiveTrees.com

Yes! YES! That Feels Sooo Good!

rainforesteco — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 23:20:05 +0000

I LOVE it when you do that…

I LOVE it when you show me that you care about me with your actions and not just hope that I’ll guess…

I LOVE it that you made planting a tree for me, more important than another triple caramel brulee latte…

I LOVE it that there’s plenty to laugh about these days…

I LOVE it that in a year when the news on tv sounded like a doomsday movie script, that we occupied fear and anger and resentment against injustice, that we also increased our giving back to the earth by 300% — at least in one little corner of it…

I LOVE it that despite all odds, we’ve created a new system that’s going to benefit people and organizations from all walks of life, to be independent, organic, fair and do something that gives back to the earth…

And we are just beginning. We can expect great things for 2012 as long as we keep this up….

Here are some pictures I hadn’t had time to post yet, from some of the people who received trees, thanks to YOUR generosity, in 2011.

Those Sexy Brazilians

Check out www.iGiveTrees.com. If you have an organization or project that you’d like to raise some funds for yourself, become an affiliate (links right there on the top of the page) and earn a commmission for helping us to replant the most endangered rainforest on the planet.

How about we all decide to thrive instead of just survive? It’s the most revolutionary thing we can do at this point in our story!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Solstice Tree Greetings

rainforesteco — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:34:18 +0000

Let’s declare peace in the midst of turmoil, joy in the midst of stress, ease in the midst of struggle, as we enter this season of increasing Light. Rainforest ECO is so grateful to all of the people who’ve helped to fulfill a call to action to plant trees with our partners in Brazil. And especially, to Deborah Koff-Chapin, who has so generously given her touch drawing images for the benefit of our donors this month.

When you make a $5 or more donation on the iGiveTrees site, you’ll be taken to a download page to print out 6 different cards. Or, go to the Center for Touch Drawing site to find them as e-cards and art prints.

Shine some Light from the Darkness…

THE Green ECOupon for the Holidays and the New Year!

rainforesteco — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:55:45 +0000

Ever heard of Groupon? Well, now it’s time for them to move over and serve the planet! We have THE Green ECOupon of your dreams for the Holidays and the New Year! Save money and the planet at the same time.

Holiday shoppers can download a set of 6 cards by artist Deborah Koff-Chapin during the month December.

Those who opt to give trees monthly during 2012 will receive recordings from Michael Bernard Beckwith (The Secret, PBS Special: The Answer is You), Rickie Byars Beckwith and the Agape International Choir, Marie Diamond (The Secret), Brad Yates (The Tapping Solution), Katherine Woodward Thomas (Calling In The One), Marcia Weider (Dream University), Karen Russo (The Money Keys), and a host of luminaries, authors and performing artists still coming forward to offer their gifts to monthly tree subscribers.

The Holiday 2011 campaign’s goal is to meet the request of our Brazilian partner organization for 170,000 trees to replant 250 acres this rainy season. This creates sustainability for not only the rural people who harvest seeds, grow the trees, teach subsistence farm families permaculture planting methods, and care for the young trees in the field, but also for the US distributors who become affiliates of iGiveTrees.

Fun huh?

Holiday Tree Gifts Can Stretch $5 All The Way From Here To The Rainforests of Brazil

rainforesteco — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 05:26:02 +0000

Stretching five dollars in this economy while doing a good deed at the same time, can be a real holiday stress reliever. So isn’t it great to know we can make the world a little better with our presents?

Given all the challenges we see on the news these days, all of us (especially when we have children), want to enjoy the holidays without overspending or having to worry too much.

Just like some of you, I’ve wrestled with these challenges for years, trying to stretch limited resources without appearing as worn down as I actually felt. It was good though, it made me focus on priorities and allocate the money I did have toward things that really mattered, and that wouldn’t end up in the dump (or recycling) within days of giving. But I still succumbed to buying unnecessary stuff for gifts when the holiday advertising put pressure on.

A few years ago, I finally decided to make my money really count, to stand up for what I believe in, and to give myself – and people I care about – the gift of hope:..Read more on our holiday tree gifting site…

How Steve Jobs Answered My Email

rainforesteco — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 23:26:23 +0000

This is the how Steve Jobs answered my email.

At 9:35am on September 2, 2011, I forwarded an article entitled: Steve Jobs, World’s Greatest Philanthropist from the Harvard Business Review, to the WeForest founder, Bill Liao, with the question, “Do you know Steve Jobs? I’d LOVE to connect with him…”

By 9:42am, there was not only a reply to me, but an email introduction to Steve saying “Please meet Alana who is doing amazing stuff for the world environment.” After I stopped laughing hysterically and wiped the tears from my eyes, I composed a myself to write my note to him. It was 10:33, less than an hour later.

“The reason I told Bill I’d LOVE to connect with you, is that he and I share a Vision for the future. We are committed to initiate global cooling by planting trees. Trillions of trees.

I started my own little project in Brazil, where I was born, and now serve as the US Ambassador for WeForest, the organization Bill founded.

We’re getting ready to commmmorate our millionth tree milestone, by planting trees in prominent locations around the world. Would you like to join the movement by planting one on the Apple campus?”

On October 4 a note popped up on my calendar: FOLLOW UP WITH STEVE JOBS. I figured since we’d written to him over the Labor Day holiday, he was probably playing with his family, and I’d given enough breathing space now to send a second email. But it was a particularly busy week, so I didn’t write it yet – I wanted to be on top of my game for this. Then I got the news.

Thank you Steve. Thank you for your very life. As soon as I read the news of your passage, I had to find the commencement speech you gave at Stanford, and see what emerged as my message, as your part of the conversation I was imagining we’d have soon. Here it is:

Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Thank you for reminding me, that everything else is secondary to this unstoppable desire to renew degraded landscapes with beauty, with hope, with trees for the future. Thank you for reminding me that I don’t have to know HOW we can raise the funds to plant the trees fast enough to halt global warming by 2020. But that it’s worth feeding that vision for my children, and yours, and Bill’s. I am hungry for that, and I am foolish.

‘You’ve got to find what you love,’ Jobs says

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. You’ve got to find what you love. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. Everything else is secondary.
~ Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, in Stanford Report, 2/3/05

“I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.

So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life.

So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them.

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation – the Macintosh – a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired.

How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world’s first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.”

This is the text of the Commencement address at Stanford University by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

Marie Diamond Show to Feature Rainforest ECObank Founder Alana Lea

rainforesteco — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 04:59:10 +0000

Please join me live on Saturday, October 1, 2011 when I’ll co-host the Marie Diamond Show (online) at 10am Pacific. http://www.vokle.com/events/25069-the-marie-diamond-show If you miss the live interaction (Twitter streams live during show – and you can type in questions for us), it will be available though the same link for replay.

You may remember Marie from her role in “The Secret,” showing how feng-shui could affect even one’s romantic life. Here’s a recent video, highlighting her soft-spoken wisdom, as she revamps the homes of movie stars:

Marie Diamond is a globally renowned transformational leader—featured in the worldwide phenomenon “The Secret” and seven other motivational documentaries—who uses her extraordinary knowledge of quantum physics, the Law of Attraction, and Feng Shui energy to help people transform their environments and their lives.

Her clients include A-list celebrities in film and music, top selling writers, leaders from Fortune 500 companies, and governments. Diamond combines her intuitive gifts, the growing science of energy flow, ancient wisdom, and modern tools to enlighten homes, businesses, and people. She is known for her passion to help create enlightened leaders around the world.

The internationally acclaimed author, teacher, consultant, and motivational speaker brings her wisdom and counsel to a wide audience through her seminars, personal appearances on TV and radio, tele-classes, coaching, and products.

Born in Belgium, and now living between the United States and France, Marie was a successful lawyer before shifting her focus to the Laws of the Universe.

Marie Diamond is an author, lecturer, teacher, and a leader in the transformational movement. A native of Belgium, Marie trained there as a lawyer and criminologist. Fluent in five languages, she worked in government, publishing, and sales early in her career. Her safety management skills are sought by multinational corporations like BP-Amoco, Exxon-Mobil, and Total Fina, whose productivity and safety records improved dramatically after implementing her recommendations.

Featured in the phenomenon “The Secret”, Marie explains that we are all creators of our own individual universe.

The Law of Attraction and the Laws of the Universe operate the same for everyone. Thoughts have substance, and we manifest those things that occupy our thought lives. We have the power to change our circumstances.

A few years ago, Marie and I met when we were both involved in a humanitarian benefit organization.

She witnessed my resolve while giving birth to my Brazilian reforestation project, and is now lending her support by featuring our project on her website, www.mariediamond.com.

In preparation for the show, here’s my latest bio!

Born in the midst of the most diverse and endangered rainforest in Brazil, Alana Lea was given purpose. But it took a lifetime for her to discover how being a horticulturalist, a Smithsonian botanical artist, an entrepreneur, a world traveler and a public speaker could serve her purpose of rainforest renewal. Her project Rainforest ECObank, has replanted 3,833 trees in the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil, with the potential to reforest millions of acres of land in the years ahead.

Alana now serves as the US Ambassador for the global non-profit, WeForest.

Time to create a Universe with a renewed Planet Earth, full of fresh air, fresh water and lush forests – don’t you think?

WeForest Founder Bill Liao: A Long Journey to TED

rainforesteco — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:44:53 +0000

Introducing the founder of WeForest, Bill Liao, is a big deal. I especially want to do it well since I work with him now, as the organization’s US Ambassador. And, I can’t think of a better way for you to understand why it’s such an honor, than to share a bit of his story, as it first appeared in the Huffingtonpost Green.

This is a man who walks his talk. Literally.

Bill Liao: "Trees make clouds. Plant enough, and you can fix the planet." Bill Liao wants to plant 2 trillion by 2020. During Session 2 of TED2011. February 28 - March 4, Long Beach, CA. Credit: James Duncan Davidson / TED

When I became a diplomatic special envoy representing St. Kitts and Nevis, I was faced with a unique problem.

You see, my personal views on achieving any meaningful execution revolve around the use of story and narrative to be the catalyst that galvanizes people into action. In the realm of the environment though the issues are so huge and complex that generating a productive and readily understood narrative was all but impossible to begin with. I needed to start somewhere and I needed a plan, so I decided to give something up that would have an immediate impact that would allow me to at least have something to say while I searched for a deeper and more profound story to get behind.

So on 26th November, 2008, I gave up flying.

Now there are already plenty of people in the world who do not fly and so this may not appear to be much of an effort on my part. That said, at that time I had accumulated over 3 million frequent flyer miles across 5 different programs.

Giving up flying was a major change in my world and it has meant some very tough choices. I have committed that I will not fly again until the charity I founded, WeForest.org achieves its goals.

Read the whole story:Bill Liao: A Long Journey to TED.

Please, help us plant some trees so Bill can fly again. I’d really like to have him over for dinner…

The squeeze: Brazil cuts off credit to illegal loggers – AlertNet

rainforesteco — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:33:21 +0000

By Daniel Cooney

With fines for illegal deforestation rarely paid, Brazil is using a novel approach to save the Amazon: block those who clear land illegally from accessing credit. And, refreshingly, the system seems to be working.

“If you can link someone who has been charged with an infraction with their accessibility to credit, that can be an effective deterrent,” said Peter May, a scientist working in Brazil in association with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)…

Read the full article - The squeeze: Brazil cuts off credit to illegal loggers – AlertNet. Originally written for http://blog.cifor.org/