Because of time zones, the New Year’s Eve may have passed or it’s not there yet. We’d like to wish you to have the best year ever, to stay healthy and be better stewards to Mother Earth. Meanwhile, what’s your New Year’s Resolution? Is there any green “inside”?

Happy New Year 2009!

Alex & Bill

Image by M Kuhn

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Just 9 months old GreenPacks, is celebrating Christmas (X-Mas, or whatever you call it) for the first time. We’re pretty darn excited and would like to wish you to stay healthy, happy and as green as possible.

“Feliz Navidad, Prospero Ano y Felicidad”

You most likely know what that means even though you don’t speak Spanish, but we’ll make sure you’re getting a good one. We want to wish you a Merry Christmas, so how can we do it better than Jose Feliciano ?

Merry Christmas!

Alex (and Bill)

Merry Christmas…Merry Christmas…Merry Christmas

None of that Happy Holidays stuff from me, though I have no evil intentions of being insensitive to others’ feelings.

Christmas is about Christ. Call me a Bible thumper if you like. I’ll take it as a compliment.

I believe the Earth we live on is a gift from the Creator and it is for *that* reason we ought to treasure it and be good stewards.

Find a ball on the side of the road and a child will play with it, then likely toss it aside. However, if the child is given the ball by someone who loves him/her very much, s/he is likely to treasure it forever. The ball we live on is a gift. Let us care for it, love it. Let’s recycle, make good use of reusable energy sources. Let’s not abuse the Earth. Because it’s a gift.

Christmas is a time of giving. There is only one gift greater than the Earth we live on. Let’s remember the reason for the season.

Merry Christmas….Merry Christmas….Merry Christmas

The International Earth Rotation Service is calling for a leap second - the 24th of its kind since the first in 1971. I wonder what they did before that?

At midnight GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) on December 31st, the world will stop while a second is added to clocks everywhere.

The Earth rotates at different speeds in different years. The moon’s gravity supposedly has something to do with this. IERS uses calculations from more than 200 atomic clocks which base their time measurements on atomic resonance frequency.

Timekeepers warn that refusing to coordinate clocks might lead to lapse or collapse in communication, aerospace, finance and transportation. Remember Y2K!

Atomic time was introduced in 1958. Since then the Earth’s rotation has gained 33 seconds. I wonder, how did we and the animals get along before we had atomic time to tell us we were all off?

When I was in the Navy, we learned that the most reliable, predicatable and accurate measurements for navigation and time were the stars. Seems like we can’t be the Creator’s doing no matter how hard we try.

What are you going to do with your extra second?

In October, Alex shared an initiative brought to you by Audubon in alliance with Toyota called TogetherGreen. If you remember, TogetherGreen’s main focus is to secure a bright and healthy future for generations to come … but it takes the inspiration and wisdom from dedicated leaders to accomplish such a goal.

TogetherGreen has been fortunate enough to have some of the most brilliant, community leaders on their side, with creative ideas and visions that will steer us even further in the right direction.

Today, you’re being introduced to the Fellows who are going to shape our tomorrow with their creative visions that will ensure a positive environmental change. Awarded by the new conservation alliance of the National Audubon Society and Toyota, Fellows were selected from scores of applicants across the country by an advisory board of environmental leaders.

Forty of the nation’s most promising conservationists will advance their environmental vision and conservation leadership skills as recipients of the first TogetherGreen Fellowships, receiving a $10,000 stipend and assistance in launching local projects to educate a wide range of communities about the environment. Fellows will engage communities in efforts to conserve land, water and energy.

One of the goals of TogetherGreen is to foster diverse leaders and serve communities who have not previously been engaged in conservation activities.

The first year of TogetherGreen Fellowship projects include mentoring youth in Los Angeles Latino neighborhoods; an urban forestry program for African Americans in Gainesville, Florida; and a conflict management workshop in conservation networks in Appalachia.

Other projects range from helping urban students save energy by installing solar panels in their school to mobilizing rural ranchers to protect water quality. Along the way, the TogetherGreen Fellows will develop new and expanded abilities to forge conservation progress in the future.

The efforts of the Fellows will aid people and wildlife around 39 cities in 24 different states. A list and short bio of each Fellow, including their projects, can be found by visiting: http://www.togethergreen.org/fellows.

It really is up to us to secure our environmental future, and we are so lucky to have these Fellows as our role models. I wholeheartedly encourage each and everyone one of you, learn more about these individuals and find out ways in which you can get involved in your state.

Has anyone already attended a TogetherGreen volunteer day? Let us know how it went.

- Julie Hurvitz