Sarah’s story about this situation astounds me both in the extent of the awful acts perpetuated by the coal industry and in the power of the activists working to clean up the pollution and provide citizens with the clean water they need to live. There is so much to be fixed and rethought in the way we do things. I find the story of the activists in Prenter extremely inspiring in my own efforts to contribute in a concrete way, and hope you do, too. -ed. When residents of Prenter Road in West Virginia moved into their community, they were told their well water was so pure, they could bottle it and sell it. Today, that same water is making them sick. In response, the Prenter Water Fund was established this summer by activist Bobby Mitchell and local resident Patty Sebock. Since then, volunteers have been working urgently to get clean water to the community. “I don’t know how to be any more clear about this,” said fund manager, Mat Louis-Rosenberg, “People are dying now.” Louis-Rosenberg has been living in the Coal River Mountain Watch campaign house for the past two months, devoting most of his waking hours to the Prenter Water Fund. He is sustained by a stipend from his position as Coal River Mountain Sludge Safety Intern. Assisted by fellow activist and friend Glen Collins, he has his mission cut out for him. Collins and Louis-Rosenberg joked merrily about being the Water Planeteers for Captain Planet. “We need to get our rings!” they enthused. Humor helps scatter the shadow of King Coal, the force behind Prenter’s polluted waters.

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For the last several weeks, we have been discussing Aldous Huxley’s Island. Click here for all the book club posts.

Chapter 9 of Island begins with this quote from the Old Raja’s Notes on What’s What: “Patriotism is not enough. But neither is anything else. Science is not enough, religion is not enough, art is not enough, politics and economics are not enough, nor is love, nor is duty, nor is action however disinterested, nor, however sublime, is contemplation. Nothing short of everything will really do.”

Now that Will has been officially welcomed into Pala for a month, and now that he is healed well enough to get around a bit, his hosts offer take him on a proper tour of the island in order to show him what “nothing short of everything” looks like in action. He arrives before they do at the Experimental Station and runs into Murugan, the soon-to-be Raja, who has his nose in the Sears catalog. Murugan shares with Will his dreams of bringing progress (and motorscooters) to Pala. He also shares his contempt for hallucinocenic moksha-medicine: “All it gives you is a lot of illusions.”

Of course, Murugan’s ideas are formed by the European education he has received, rather than by his own direct experience. “You’re like that mynah,” says Dr. Robert after arriving at the Station and getting involved in the conversation. “Trained to repeat words you don’t understand or know the reason for, ‘It isn’t real. It isn’t real.’ But if you’d experienced [this for yourself] ... you’d know better. You’d know it was much more real than what you call reality.”

As they begin their tour, Dr. Robert tells Will that Murugan’s subjects have very different views on progress and reality than does their Raja-in-waiting. “They’ve been taught from infancy to be fully aware of the world, and to enjoy their awareness. And, on top of that, they have been shown the world and themselves and other people as these are illumined and transfigured by reality-revealers. Which helps them, of course, to have an intenser awareness and a more understanding enjoyment, so that the most ordinary things, the most trivial events, are seen as jewels and miracles. Jewels and miracles.”

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image by Noël Zia Lee

Started earlier this year in San Francisco, Carrotmob is a community event that brings consumers and stores together to help businesses go greener. The event operates as a reverse boycott, where shoppers spend money at a specific business which has committed to spend a percentage of the day’s proceeds on improving its energy efficiency in lighting, heating, cooling, refrigeration, etc.

What really drew me to the Carrotmob model is the way that it brings members of a community together to effect real, grass-roots-level change. Of course individual lifestyle choices are important—we all need to be more mindful and less wasteful—but changing our lifestyles can only get us so far. Deeper changes are required, and we must come together to make them. Carrotmob seems to me like a really fun and positive way to do this.

For the last few months our small, volunteer team has been working to bring Carrotmob to NYC and I’m very happy to announce that the first New York Carrotmob event will be taking place on Sunday, December 14th, from 12-3 pm at Tarzian Hardware in Park Slope, Brooklyn (193 7th Avenue, between 2nd and 3rd Street). Tarzian has committed to spending 22% of the day’s revenues on eco-improvements!

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image by RBerteig

Maybe we are involved in the start of a whole new kind of democracy.

Obama has won the election using digital tools in the most extensive and brilliant way ever and almost overnight there is a new spirit of possibility—maybe a new way for the people to rule.

Change.gov is one of the ways in which the incoming administration wants to harness the uplifting, inspiring and empowering momentum generated in this campaign, a momentum that actually gets things done. Obama, that much is clear, will need a lot of support on all levels. On Change.gov, you can apply for a job in the government, vent your ideas, or signal your interest to volunteer in a range of areas from supporting schools to environmental work.

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