The Connectedness

“Friendship – my definition – is built on two things,” he said. “Respect and trust. Both elements have to be there. And it has to be mutual. You can have respect for someone, but if you don’t have the trust, the friendship will crumble.”

Mikael Blomkvist from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. June 2009.

95% of Consumer Products Mislead Buyers with ‘Green’ Claims · Environmental Management & Energy News · Environmental Leader.

More than 95 percent of consumer products claiming to be “green” commit at least one greenwashing offense, according to a report released by TerraChoice, a North American environmental marketing company and part of Underwriters Laboratories’ global network. The worst offenders are toys and baby care products, with 100 percent and 99.2 percent, respectively, guilty of some form of greenwashing.

Environmental Enforcement Roundup: Recycling Fraud, Toledo Sewer Agreement, Fertilizer Waste Violations, Lead Abatement Workshop · Environmental Management & Energy News · Environmental Leader.

A Riverside County Superior Court Judge on Thursday set bail of $300,000 for a local recycling center owner arrested along with two employees last week by special agents with the California Attorney General’s office for bilking the state’s beverage container recycling program out of $7 million. Bail was set at $30,000 each for the two employees.

“These people pretended to be recycling California aluminum cans when they were really importing tons of cans from Arizona, which are not eligible for California’s recycling refunds,” Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. said. “They brazenly defrauded the state’s successful recycling program.”

Howard Leveson, 68, owner of Perris Valley Recycling in Perris, Riverside County; Jose Barragan, 35, the center’s general manager, and Susie Ambriz-Molina, 25, an office worker, were arrested October 12. Leveson was also charged with illegal possession of an assault weapon.

There is always someone trying to take advantage of a good thing. Shameful.

There is no denying that consideration of others is worthwhile and that our happiness is inextricably bound up with the happiness of others. There is no denying that if society suffers, we ourselves suffer, and the more our hearts and minds are afflicted with ill-will, the more miserable we become. We can reject religion, ideology, received wisdom, but we cannot escape the need for love and compassion.

Dalai Lama, 2010

Libra is ruled by Venus, and Venus is the goddess of love and beauty. Venus bestows the power of attraction, and this includes physical attractiveness as well as personal magnetism. With Saturn in Libra, our ideas of beauty and our ability to relate to others are tested, and those of us with Saturn in Libra are tested in our individual lives.

I was disturbed by the Mad Men finale the other night in which Don Draper threw aside his carefully crafted veneer of intelligent pragmatism and fell hook line and sinker for what Jungians call a projection, an experience of “limerence” in which one meets a person in whom they see their idealized fantasy rather than a real person. Megan, Draper’s secretary, is not only a stunningly beautiful woman – she’s smart, loving, great with his children, and most of all, seems to have no needs of her own. The perfect fantasy woman.

Peggy Olsen, on the other hand, is smart, perky and cute. She has had a crush on Draper since the beginning, but he is completely out of his league. And when Draper tells Peggy of his engagement to his fantasy woman, he has the nerve to say to her: “She reminds me ofyou.” But even though Draper admires Peggy, she lacks the fantasy component that inspires his projection of illusion and anima.

The concept of beauty carries a huge emotional charge. My latest issue of More Magazine carried an article about Beauty Anger. Women in particular are susceptible to resentment of other women that they perceive as having more beauty because superficial beauty is prized in our culture over other more substantial attributes.

Now there’s an Iphone app that can reinforce our anxieties about the way we look. The “Ugly Meter” will rate your photograph and photographs of your friends and tell you how ugly you are. This product seems to fit right into Saturn in Libra’s criticism and anxiety over beauty.

One of the things I love about getting older is the blurring of the distinctions between the smart women and the pretty women. We are all seen for the people that we are, rather than the way we look and that is really liberating.

Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/astrologicalmusings/2010/10/saturn-in-libra-and-musings-on.html#ixzz131hgz0dR

I love this description and it is so very true. As an older woman with Saturn in Libra, I can really relate to feeling liberated that my beauty is a combination of age, wisdom, experience and confidence.

Coke, Del Monte, Kraft, Wal-Mart Get Failing Grades for Using BPA · Environmental & Energy Management News · Environmental Leader.

Major brands including Hain Celestial, H.J. Heinz, ConAgra, and General Mills received an “A” grade for working to eliminate the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in food can linings, while others including Coca-Cola, Del Monte, Kraft and Wal-Mart, failed to keep pace with the industry leaders and received “F” scores, according to a new study from Green Century Capital Management and As you Sow.

Studies have linked BPA to developmental problems, heart disease and diabetes.

Time for the big boys to step up here.

Kohl’s, Motorola, TD Bank, Whole Foods Named as EPA Green Power Partners of the Year · Environmental & Energy Management News · Environmental Leader.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the winners of the agency’s 10th annual Green Power Leadership awards that honor 18 Green Power Partners in four categories: Green Power Partners, Green Power Purchasing, On-Site Generation, and new this year, Green Power Community of the Year.

Together, these award winners are using more than 5 billion kilowatt-hours of green power annually, equivalent to the annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of more than 700,000 vehicles, according to the EPA.

This is nice to hear, but we want more!

Ammunition and wildlife deaths: It’s time to get the lead out – latimes.com.

For decades a silent epidemic has killed or sickened millions of birds in the wild, from bald eagles and trumpeter swans to mourning doves and endangered California condors.

The cause is lead poisoning. Fragments of toxic lead are left behind in the environment in game and non-game animals shot by hunters, and in gut piles left in the field. Birds that scavenge the carcasses sometimes eat the ammunition fragments. Some die a painful death from lead poisoning; others suffer for years from its debilitating effects. Water birds such as cranes, ducks and loons also suffer from the toxic effects after ingesting discarded or lost lead fishing weights that are mistaken for food or grit.

I work with Children’s Lead Prevention daily, but this is just as important a point.

Wal-Mart, Target Remove Lead-Tainted Toys from Shelves · Environmental & Energy Management News · Environmental Leader.

Wal-Mart and Target stores have removed lead-tainted children’s products from store shelves after the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) reported that the products contained high levels of lead in violation of federal standards, reports The Sacramento Bee.

Christine Gasparac, a spokeswoman for the California attorney general’s office, told The Sacramento Bee that the state contacted the retailers Friday when it received notification from the center.

The advocacy group found high levels of lead in five children’s products from Wal-Mart and Target. The products were purchased between September 11 and September 18 from Bay Area outlets of the two retailers and online from the companies’ Websites.

This is great news and a serious problem not always known by new parents.

Most Americans Get a Failing Grade in Climate Change Facts · Environmental Leader · Green Business, Sustainable Business, and Green Strategy News for Corporate Sustainability Executives.

While 63 percent of Americans believe that global warming is happening, many do not understand why, according to a Yale project study on climate change communication. The study finds that eight percent of Americans have knowledge equivalent to an A or B grade, while 40 percent would receive a C or D, and 52 percent would get an F.

The study, “Americans’ Knowledge of Climate Change” (PDF), also finds gaps in knowledge and common misconceptions about climate change and the earth system, which has led some people to doubt global warming or that human activities are a major contributor, say researchers.