The symptoms of environmental crisis are many - climate change, peak oil, water scarcity & poisoning, soil degradation to mention but a few. We are the root problem, and we need to change our ways, fast. The only answer is massive reform and restructuring to achieve sustainable living.

I'm beginning to look around to see what's happening in my own back-yard (Ireland) and I'm keeping my own personal notes in The Green Pages. Not much to see at the moment, but more as time goes by.

Pangea Day, 10 May 2008

Since June 2007, Pangea Day has been asking people around the world to create short, powerful films that deal with universal themes, such as food, home, water, laughter, sorrow, hope, landscape, despair and joy. (Deadline for submission was February 15, 2008, now passed)

I was sifting through my text documents tonight in an attempt to declutter my life when I came across a cryptic entry "Judges 15:19". Obviously, this meant something to me at some stage or I wouldn't have typed it, so I decided to investigate before deleting. Where to look? I search-typed "bible" and "judges 15:19" and the most attractive returning entry led me to:

"There's been a flurry of news articles and weblog posts over the past few days about the development of a new gender-neutral pronoun in Baltimore."

So begins an entry posted in the University of Pennsylvania Language Log  by Mark Liberman on January 7, 2008.

My daughter sent me a  link to an article in today's Independent  (25 February 2008) with the title:

The world's rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan

Her only comment was "OH my GOOD God!". The article starts off:

"With the water rising we are fortunate not to have hurricanes [...] There are only small local tornados, such as the two tornados that hit the Thua Thien districts, killing two infants and injuring 22 elementary school students."

The above is an extract from a letter I came across on the Plum Village website from a Sister Chan Khong (dated 14 November 2007) describing natural disasters sweeping across her homeland of Vietnam. She also writes:

You may be like myself, learning a bit of Japanese and/or Chinese (maybe initially at a superficial level, to take advantage of info posted on the internet in these languages). If so, you may find the following free web-resident or downloadable resources invaluable.

I am posting basic information on Aikido here, for my own benefit primarily. For information on Aikido training in Ireland, please contact the Irish Aikido Federation.

These are my personal notes - any inaccuracies are my own, etc.  Any suggestions, corrections or elaborations welcomed.