That's how our new t-shirt puts it: one earth, one chance.

And we're fast running out of chances to get it right. With each tick of the clock, 2.4 million pounds of CO2

enters the atmosphere. Every minute, the world loses 150 acres of tropical rainforest. Every hour, US'ers

toss over 2 million water bottles into the trash. Fossil fuel air pollution take an average of 2.3 years off every

human lifespan; all forms of pollution take 9 million lives per year. And there are 3 billion fewer birds in

North America than 50 years ago - anybody notice?

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NCP's earth care work featured in this Brethren Voices video - give a look!

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Want to do something about it? Here's the list on the back of these same shirts:

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- Less stuff: all told, humans extract 100 billion tons of materials from the earth annually - with only

8.6% of it recycled. And getting the finished products made from these materials to us has its own

(carbon) cost: 15 container ships transporting goods from around the world create as much carbon

emissions as all the world's cars - and wreaks havoc with whales' emotional well-being!

 

- Lower on the food chain (more grains, fruits and veggies): food production is behind a quarter of our

greenhouse gases and requires half of the planet's habitable land - meat and dairy have an out-sized

role in land use and climate change impacts. Vegans live longer and slash emissions by 75 percent.

 

- Lighter carbon footprint (think cars, cows, consumption, convenience - and green energy): earth is

now losing 1.2 trillion tons of ice per year = sea level rise, loss of habitat (polar bears!), a slowing 

Gulf Stream (!), new pathogens released from their frozen slumber?! Air pollution - mostly due to

fossil fuel combustion - takes an average 2.3 years from our lifespan (and much more than this in

South Asia). Job losses in moving away from fossil fuels? A green energy economy will bring a net

gain of 18 million jobs. 

 

- Learn from nature's ways (we're the only creature that creates trash - and we're the "smart ones"):

we waste 40 percent of the food we produce, also "wasting" the land, fuel, greenhouse gases,

chemicals and eroded soil involved. Check out our interview with the trash guy on our Stuff page

to see what happens to our recyclables now that China isn't taking them anymore. Speaking of pollutants,

and especially "forever chemicals" that are contrary to nature's ways, read about the impact of war on

the people and environment in this report from the US war in Afghanistan. 

 

- Love this planet - our only home (get to know a stream or forest or desert near you): love a

mangrove swamp by restoring it through our new Mangroves to the Rescue initiative in Nigeria!

 

- Let your voice be heard! (it's not enough to change ourselves - we have to get the word out):

Our Sustainable Living Centers are actively engaging their communities around energy efficiency,

bike lanes, food production and more; Olivia took on the Girl Scouts with a petition campaign over

their cookies containing palm oil, as producing the stuff is destroying tropical forests and using child

workers. And a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter told her story!

 

Knowledge is power: Your Ecological Footprint - newly updated! We can't change what we don't know!

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Get yourself on one of our Learning Tours to the Amazon, Arctic, Asia and Africa to see what's at stake.

Get yourself one of our new t-shirts to share the good news of a better way!

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