Give Children A Voting Voice...Yours

“This is the most important election of your lifetime. There's so much at stake.”

I've been telling my voting-age children this for as long as I can remember. My voice plays over and over in their heads because for many years my children tagged along with me on Election Day. It was my hope that by joining me in the voting booth, they would become lifelong voters. Voting is their right and it would become their responsibility. Voting with my children was one of those "teachable" moments that empowered them to vote today.

Voting is the ultimate outcome of democracy: people taking action and becoming active citizens. Young adults (ages 18-29) make up at least 24% of the voting age population, and they have significant power in making a mark in history in 2012.

My children were jazzed to vote in the presidential election today. My son came home to vote in the same town hall he had accompanied me at as a young child. My daughter, a graphic designer, voted early this morning and then forwarded me the “Get Out the Vote” campaign created by the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts). AIGA asked their members to create nonpartisan posters to inspire the American public to participate in the electoral process and vote in the 2012 election.

How about your children? Did you take them with you to vote? Did they vote?

View more posters and read the full post on Moms Clean Air Force.

Poster: AIGA, Shelley A. Miller

Don't Block The Beautiful, Bountiful Wind

The whishing and shushing of spinning wind towers are just beginning to blot our landscape. Are wind towers ugly? I find wind towers both novel, and an optimistic reminder that we can find a solution to our carbon problem. And as you can see, harnessing the wind doesn't have to be an eyesore.

Along with being quite beautiful, there are many reasons why using wind turbines to create energy are a clean solution for powering communities:

Wind is free. Wind is clean. Wind is renewable. Wind is non-polluting. Wind doesn’t harm our health. But most importantly, wind energy works.

Unfortunately, we may soon see an end to exploring the wind energy option. The wind industry is facing the expiration of a Production Tax Credit (PTC) at the end of this year.

Do we have a cleaner homegrown energy solution? Funny, I didn’t hear much about wind and solar energy from the candidates during the political conventions, did you? Will those who vote to cut this credit be providing us with cleaner solutions?

The way I see it, we have two choices: one based on sound science that supports the public’s want and need for clean, renewable energy...and one that denies and blocks innovations that could end our dependence on fossil fuels.

I would love to know your thoughts about wind energy? Does your community have wind towers? Do you find them appealing or appalling?

Want to learn more? Please read my latest post HERE and find out what you can do to allow wind energy companies to continue to harness the beautiful and bountiful power of the wind.

Check out the nicely designed Hercules Wind Turbine...

A Winding Path

Maybe it’s the work. Maybe it’s the strange weather. Maybe it’s what happens when you fall out of habit. Whatever. I let Econesting slide.

Blogging is a velvety, winding path. For me, keeping up with the demands of blogging must be inline with passion, for sale or why bother? Compromising doesn’t work. Enthusiasms shift and swirl, and passions take turns. I’m not swayed in my mission to share stylish green design through the eyes of a DIY heart. These things mattered five years ago when I started blogging and they still matter.

green_carpet4

I’m also a mom, and what I’ve learned from that role is that balancing on the path is the main act. Sometimes the path gets thrown off. Not necessarily off-kilter, or veering off-course...but, wound around in one direction.

I threw myself into my Moms Clean Air Force work. It was not because it was the right thing to do (which it was), but because I wanted to. Because it mattered more…more than design, more than going greener, even more than knitting. I know, my knitting friends are scratching their fair isle heads in disbelief.

Pollution matters because it burrows deep into the core of global warming. Global warming matters because our children deserve a healthy, just and sustainable planet. Period.

Now I’m working on restoring balance and winding my way back.

Thank you for hanging in there. Your kind notes about missing Econesting nudged me closer to breaking the cycle of not posting. My knitting friends have been the most vocal in my absence, and I promise not to disappoint those who choose to click needles over computer keys.

Enough about me, how are you? How do you find balance between the work you love and the things you love?

Photos via Freshome from the beautiful town of Jaujac, France which recently became part of an art installation designed by Marseille-based artist Gaëlle Villedary.

Thank You, Julianne Moore

“Air pollution isn’t just dirty, it’s poison for our children!” ~ actress, Julianne Moore

It is beyond gratifying to me that an actress I admire so much has lent her celebrity and advocacy to the Moms Clean Air Force. Julianne Moore has joined the Force.

She gets it.

Julianne gets that we ALL need clean air to breathe. She gets that clean air isn't about politics or jobs, it's about our health...and she's not afraid to stand up for what she believes in.

Go Julianne!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY7OraM8FHo&feature=youtu.be

Read Julianne's post about why she joined Moms Clean Air Force HERE.

Photo: Dominique Browning

Old King Coal Is A Dirty Old Soul

Coal is filthy. It pollutes our air, generic water and land. If we shut down, abandon or upgrade the most destructive mercury-spewing coal plants, will Dirty Coal CEO’s and their Chicken Little political lobbyists come out in flocks screaming?

“The sky is falling!!“

Sure. They already have.

But as writer, David Roberts from Grist points out:

“It’s helpful to have some historical perspective. Dirty utilities have forecast economic doom and blackouts every time the EPA has ever issued an air or water regulation. Every time! And every single time, they’ve been wrong. As EPA chief Lisa Jackson is fond of pointing out, in its 40-year history, the Clean Air Act has never yet caused an electric reliability problem…The fact is, defenders of clean air have analysis and history on their side…We can stop poisoning people with ancient, filthy coal plants without shivering in the dark.”

Why is it so important at this very moment to talk rationally about coal in a non-partisan, pro-save our children from mercury poisoning kind of way?

Because the new Mercury and Air Toxic Standards are due to be posted at the end of this week. Mercury is a terrible neurotoxin. Fetuses, infants, toddlers and even our pets are especially vulnerable to mercury poisoning, which harms hearts, lungs, and brains. The rule to eliminate this poison has been in the making for 21 years.

You say, “OK, Mother Goose, if Moms are so smart how will I power my world?”

Invest in real clean and endless energy—renewable energy. It’s clean, it’s local and it’s inexhaustible. Think this an impossible task to do in our children’s lifetime? It’s not. This infographic from the Rocky Mountain Institute shows us how to light the way with solar, wind and other renewables. Meantime, let’s clean up the coal we are using–and make sure natural gas doesn’t turn into another big polluter.

So, will the sky fall with the new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards?

No. Now is the time to send Old King Coal and his no-soul political cronies packing.

Please join me in telling President Obama that you support the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.

Let’s put that merry but cynical Old King Coal where he belongs…up on the wall with Humpty Dumpty.

Illustration: Steve Morrison

This post was cross-posted on Moms Clean Air Force.