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Monday Mailing

Year 20 • Issue 03 23 September 2013 1. 10 Percent of World’s Largest Companies Produce 73 Percent of Greenhouse Gases 2. AmeriCorps Alums September 2013 Professional Development WebinarTOMORROW 3. 10 Of The Weirdest Questions Scientists Asked (And Answered) This Year 4. Your Future in Farming & Homesteading: 3-day virtual conference 10/110/3 5. Property Rights Group Presents its Own Land-Use Plan to County 6. Weed Eating Goats Used to Reduce Risk of California Wildfires 7. Google Tax Deal Opens Door to $200 million Data Center in The Dalles 8. PDX Nixes Clearcutting Ads, ACLU Protests 9. Why Your Boss Cares if You’re Happy 10. Naked TSA Protester at PDX Found Not Guilty 11. Funding Opportunities 1.

10 Percent of World’s Largest Companies Produce 73 Percent of Greenhouse Gases Growing pollution at 50 of the world’s biggest-emitting companies threatens to undermine efforts to prevent catastrophic levels of global warming, according to a new report.

A number of key banks and pension funds have recently shifted their financial support away from carbon-intensive assets, particularly dirty fossil fuel projects.

However new research compiled by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and overseen by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) shows that the 50 global firms with the highest greenhouse gas emissions, operating mostly in the energy, utility and materials sectors, have increased their carbon pollution by 1.65 percent to 2.54 billion tonnes since 2009

Quote of the Week: "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others" ~Gandhi Oregon Fast Fact #71: Oregon grows 98 percent of the hazelnuts in the United States. There are more than 3,755,000 hazelnut trees in Oregon, worth $49.5 million, grown on 30,000 acres, mostly in western Oregon.

To access the full story, click here.

2.

AmeriCorps Alums September 2013 Professional Development Webinar-TOMMORROW Tomorrow, September 24, from 12PM to 1PM Eastern, AmeriCorps Alums will convene its monthly professional development webinar. We invite you to share this with your members as both a professional development and Life After AmeriCorps opportunity. This month’s webinar is entitled “Translating AmeriCorps Into An Intercultural and/or International Career.” Please consider using the blurb below when promoting to your members. Thanks for your time.

Considering how your AmeriCorps experience might translate in an intercultural and/or international setting? AmeriCorps Alums’ September professional development will take place on Tuesday, September 24th, from 12PM to 1PM Eastern, and will welcome back Dr. Erin Barnhart to discuss how your AmeriCorps experience can help you do just that. This month's webinar will help you 1) identify the skills needed to make a transition into Page 1 of 5

an intercultural or international setting 2) outline the options that are available and 3) review case studies of AmeriCorps alumni who have already made the transition To register for this webinar, click here.

3.

10 Of The Weirdest Questions Scientists Asked (And Answered) This Year Every year, scientists gather at Harvard University to celebrate the prestigious IgNobel Prizes.

Awarded by the science humor magazine the Annals of Improbable Research, the IgNobels are a silly spoof on science’s highest honor: the Nobel Prize. The awards are given to work that “first make people laugh, then make them think.”

The 23rd annual awards ceremony last night featured real Nobel Prize winners handing out awards to the slightly less honorees. Many gave absurd acceptance speeches complete with costumes and props to illustrate the importance of their work.

Here are the 10 honorees. They will definitely make you laugh, but most also were doing work that touches on serious scientific questions. In other words, there is method to the madness--it’s just usually that the methods are a little mad, too.

To access the full story, click here.

4.

Your Future in Farming & Homesteading: 3-day virtual conference 10/1-10/3 Do you want to make a BIG difference in the world growing food, working with nature, getting off the grid, heating your home…or even building your own home?

Check out this amazing, free online 3-day event where I am hosting 12 inspiring speakers any one of which could unleash your potential for new growth.

Click on over to sign up for your spot and you’ll receive all the event details.

Check out this exciting list of speakers!

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Stacey Murphy, HOST: Backyard Farming for Community Resilience Leda Meredith: Wild Food – Herbivores Can Hunt Too Janell Kapoor: Using Dirt to Build Community Rob Avis LIVE: Your How-to Manual for Passive Solar Greenhouses Megan Toben: Healing the Earth Human Relationship Andrew Faust: Designing Your Life with Permaculture Paul Wheaton: Bricks to Build a Better World Meg Paska LIVE: Natural Beekeeping Kevin Egolf: How to Structure a Land Agreement Bee Ayer: Finding an Apprenticeship that’s Right for You Molly Culver LIVE: Growing Soil: Soil Science Basics for Organic Growers Brian Rosa: Scaling Up Composting Operations

To register for this virtual conference, click here.

5.

Property Rights Group Presents its Own Land-Use Plan to County QUINCY, Calif. — A new organization devoted to preserving private property rights was slated to present its own version of an updated general plan to Plumas County supervisors on Sept. 10.

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Representatives from Rural Advocates called for a plan that protects private property and water rights and supports agriculture, noting that the county’s population has declined over the last 10 years because of lumber mill closures but that the land is still 94 percent open space.

The group was expected to present more than 300 signed petitions asking the Board of Supervisors to consider the plan.

The presentation comes as Plumas County has spent nearly a year working on its general plan update, which is required periodically under California law. The region is seen as ground zero in the ongoing battles over natural resources in the Sierra Nevada range, as the Feather River watershed is the range’s largest and contributes to the water supply of over 25 million Californians.

Some ranchers in the county asserted earlier this year that the county’s proposal closely mirrors Agenda 21, a United Nations land-use document that’s drawn fire from some landowners and activists in the West who fear it’s behind a planned depopulation of rural areas.

Environmental groups have argued the county’s plan doesn’t do enough to protect resources 6.

Weed Eating Goats Used to Reduce Risk of California Wildfires The utility for northern California, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), has enlisted the help of more than 900 goats to clear dried brush on 100 acres of its property. The goats will be used to clear poison oak and brush that is considered a fire hazard. Goats are being used across the country as an effective least-toxic solution for weed management.

The pilot project started this past August and will run through mid to late September. The project is overseen by Flying Mule Farm owner Dan Macon, who has been contracting goats for land clearance for close to 10 years. The goats for the project are coming from Macon’s farm as well as Star Creek Ranch, a goat and sheep operation in the Central Valley.

Goats graze the area in fenced in five to 10-acre sections and have already proven to be incredibly effective by reducing one area with two foot high grass to less than an inch high in just 24 hours. The goats were brought in specifically to reduce dry, flammable vegetation.

To access the full story, click here.

7.

Google Tax Deal Opens Door to $200 million Data Center in The Dalles A new package of tax breaks announced late Thursday offers Google savings that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in exchange for investing at least $200 million to build a new data center in The Dalles.

The deal with the city and Wasco County goes beyond an agreement that covers Google’s two existing data centers on its riverfront site there and offers property tax exemptions potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the company.

Though it guarantees just 10 new jobs and the $200 million investment, those totals could be somewhat higher given the size of Google's current operations in The Dalles. The deal also provides a $1.2 million up-front payment to the city and county, and $800,000 annually after that.

To access the full story, click here.

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8.

PDX Nixes Clearcutting Ads, ACLU Protests The American Civil Liberties Union demanded Thursday that Portland International Airport accept terminal advertising against legislation to increase logging on federal forests.

Oregon ACLU director Dave Fidanque said the Oregon Constitution prohibits government censorship of speech, including political speech.

"We think the law is very clear in Oregon," he said. "Public agencies cannot discriminate based on content of expression when they open up their places for advertising."

He added that activists have been winning a similar fight with Tri-Met over ads the Karuk tribe wants to place on Portland buses as part of a campaign to remove dams from the Klamath River to help salmon. The last ruling requiring the buses to carry the ads was appealed to the Oregon Supreme Court, where a ruling is pending To access the full story, click here.

9.

Why Your Boss Cares if You’re Happy A couple years ago, Matthew Stinchcomb was living in Berlin, running global marketing for Etsy.

Sounds like a cool gig, but Stinchcomb was miserable. He hated marketing, he hated that he wasn't doing anything creative, and he didn't much like working out of a satellite office detached from the Etsy mothership, either. So, he came back to Brooklyn and talked to his bosses about what he'd really like to be doing. As a result of that conversation, the company created a new team, called Values and Impact, with Stinchcomb at its head.

At the time, Etsy executives had also recently been blindsided by a less-than-stellar performance on the audit required to be certified as a B corporation--a sustainable business certification based on rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Their desire to improve Etsy's performance on non-financial measures coincided nicely with Stinchomb's desire for more meaningful work. The idea was that Stinchcomb would be responsible for ensuring that every action the company took adhered to its core values and had a positive impact on the communities it touched To access the full story, click here.

10. Naked TSA Protester at PDX Found Not Guilty

PORTLAND -- A man arrested after he stripped naked at the Portland International Airport was found not guilty of public indecency during his trial Wednesday.

John Brennan, a frequent-flying businessman from Portland, set off an explosives wand in April and stripped naked to show Transportation Security Administration screeners he was not carrying a bomb.

At Wednesday's trial, TSA officer Steven Vangordon testified that "he started taking clothes off quickly, I mean he whipped them off pretty fast."

Brennan took the stand early in the afternoon, saying he believed he had the right to be naked.

To access the full story, click here.

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11. Funding Opportunities

ARC and EPA Announce 2013 Livable Communities Partnership to Focus on Local Food Systems The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are teaming up to provide a second year of funding for technical assistance and first-step implementation efforts of Livable Communities Action Plans in four Appalachian communities.

Both agencies have committed funding of up to $100,000 each. This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s selected communities will have an interest in developing local food systems as a means of promoting economic competitiveness and economic diversification. To apply, communities in the ARC-defined Appalachian region should submit a letter of interest (no more than two pages in length) by Friday, October 4 describing the needs and goals of the community in developing a vibrant local food economy. For more information, please contact Wilson Paine at ARC (wpaine@arc.gov<mailto:wpaine@arc.gov>) or Ed Fendley at EPA (fendley.ed@epa.gov<mailto:fendley.ed@epa.gov>).

Filmmakers From Underrepresented Communities Invited to Apply for Tribeca All Access <http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBSM38RB8ixfdB81KY-AACSSkM3/rfpb18> - Five narrative filmmakers and five documentary filmmakers from the U.S. and Puerto Rico will each receive a grant of $15,000 to use toward the development, production, post-production, or marketing of their project.... Deadline: November 5, 2013 Tribeca Film Institute Opens Submissions for Documentary Fund <http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBSM38RB8ixfdB81KY-AACSSkM3/rfpb19> Grants of at least $10,000 will be awarded to exceptional filmmakers with character-driven nonfiction works in progress that sit outside the social issue landscape.... Deadline: November 5, 2013 YoungArts Foundation Invites Applications for 2014 Young Artists Prize <http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBSM38RB8ixfdB81KY-AACSSkM3/rfpb20> - Up to seven hundred young artists will receive grants of up to $10,000 each and will be provided access to workshops, interdisciplinary activities, performances, exhibitions, and master classes with internationally renowned artists....Deadline: October 18, 2013 Captain Planet Foundation Offers Grants for Hands-On Environmental Education Activities <http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBSM38RB8ixfdB81KY-AACSSkM3/rfpb24> Grants of up $2,500 will be awarded to support educational programs that enable children and youth to understand and appreciate our world through hands-on learning projects that improve the environment in their schools and communities.... Deadline: Various Mountaineers Foundation Offers Funding for Projects to Research and Conserve Pacific Northwest Wilderness <http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBSM38RB8ixfdB81KY-AACSSkM3/rfpb25> Grants of up to $5,000 will be awarded to organizations and agencies working to preserve the natural beauty and ecological integrity of the Pacific Northwest.... Deadline: February 1, 2014

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