How did Betty make that bulldozer drive away from digging up the sunflower patch? With her super sunflower staff, Betty called on the healing powers of the earth by sending her staff into the earth causing a vibration to make the funky ol bulldozer take a right turn.

How can Acupuncture help heal ourselves, improve our environment and change our negative patterns?

Acupuncture is an ancient form of healing that comes from Asia, where the use of tiny hair like needles are inserted in different parts of the body to heal a variety of ailments. By using needles as well as Chinese Herbs, people receiving acupuncture can heal their aches and pains and create more balance in their entire body.

Imagine if we could have acupuncture superheroes that would go around and help our planet heal from environmental damage…well we do and they exist as activists, organizers, non-profits, doing work to heal people, animals, and the planet from greed, consumption and denial.

To find out more about where you can get acupuncture in your area go to:

www.acupuncture.com

www.medicalacupuncture.org

Things to be aware of when choosing an acupuncturist

www.mayoclinic.com/health/acupuncture/SA00086

Which mode of transportation Betty is using is the best for the earth and us?
a) Rollerblading
b) Vine flying
c) Driving
d) Riding a bike
Answer at the bottom

When we make choices about how to get from point A to point B it affects all of us by the air we breathe. If we choose to use our bikes, skateboards, or rollerblades, then we get to enjoy exercising our bodies AND getting to where we need to go.

Resources for change…

Rollerblade/Skateboard- there are millions of people rollerblading and skateboarding around the world. Check out your local skate shops, parks and downtowns to find these people.

Bike - Connect with your local bike coalition to learn more about your local bike community, land use planning, safe routes to schools and much more.
Go to Google and type in [your city or state] + bike coalition

Carpool - If you can’t use the first two options and have to drive then check out these sites to share the ride and the road
www.erideshare.com
www.carpoolconnect.com
www.craigslist.com (rideshare)

Answer: vine flying – because it uses the least amount of materials. If you can’t find a vine then rollerblading, riding a bike and driving a car is last.
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Back to Betty’s blog

www.kevinwoodson.com

I encourage you to ask the EPA to reconsider its denial to the states. It’s in the best interest of our health and our environment.

Write to the EPA at http://www.breastcancerfund.org/emissions.

Here is what I added. A bit of a diatribe but has some truth aspects to it.

The EPA is our governmental body that is set up by the people for the people and the people want more efficiency, if not for the environment and the people that live within it but for the US to be able to compete in the global car market. The rest of the world is increasing efficiency and making us look like idiots with our cheap gas and low MPG and by the way they are selling these cars like crazy, just take one look at the Prius…it’s everywhere. This is a sign that people want it and the more the EPA (our protective agency) says no the more you look connected or “in bed” with the large corporations.

I am frustrated that my tax money goes to the salaries of the people that work for the EPA making these kind of bad decisions. Besides the way it is set up it’s like the state of CA (the kid in this story) is having to ask the EPA (the authority) for a hall pass. This is bad parenting and needs to be redirected to YES WE WILL ALLOW YOU CA (the Kid) TO DO WHAT YOU WANT WITH YOUR STATE.

I’m curious, how does the oilagarchy feel about CA, the 5th largest economy in the world, wanting to make a move that would help the people and the environment and cut into their profits…but then again isn’t that what the “no” is about. Keep digging deep for the reality of things and make your move for the people and planet leaving profit last for a change.

The good news…

Did you know that the largest transportation fleet in the nation is the school bus fleet? 24 million students ride the bus everyday.

The school bus is the safest mode of transportation compared to individually driving our kids to school.

The bad news…

Students who ride on buses that aren’t equipped with particulate filters or alternative fuels, are being exposed to dirty indoor air emissions far exceeding acceptable levels set by the EPA. These emissions are known to cause asthma and cancer.

Furthermore, the Reagan Administration put a cap on the fuel budget in the 80’s. For every fuel price increase since then the transportation budget competes with books and other resources the school needs to spend money on. Meanwhile, most schools still offer free transportation to and from school.

Basically it boils down to this… We are putting our most precious cargo (our future) into buses that affect their health and not giving schools the resources to do anything about it.

Now for the super Good news…

Betty Biodiesel is a new ecosuperhero on the scene looking out for our kids.

She is teaming up with other organizations to bring forth some sanity to this crisis. Here is the plan for what school districts across the US can do to remedy this problem.

1) Initiate an anti-idling policy in the school district to turn off the buses when not in use or waiting for students.

2) Install particulate filters on the bus to stop the crank case and exhaust emissions from going inside the cab

3) Start using a blend of Biodiesel to reduce Particulate Matter (cause of asthma, Carbon Dioxide (one cause of global warming), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (cause of cancer)

RESOURCES for change

To learn more about the five scientific studies done on the air emissions inside school buses go to:

http://www.biofuels4schools.org/content/blogsection/6/12/

To learn more about Anti Idling policies, Filtration systems and ordering a free copy of “The magic school bus gets cleaned up” go to…

http://www.epa.gov/cleanschoolbus/

To learn more about schools using Biodiesel go to…

http://www.biofuels4schools.org/content/blogcategory/8/9/

Organizations taking on the “clean up the school bus challenge”

http://www.greenaction.org http://www.momsforthefuture.org/

To help get Biodiesel into your school district buses contact Betty Biodiesel at 707-849-5234 or go to http://bettybiodiesel.org/contact.html

And you can help fund Biodiesel in school buses by offsetting your emissions that you put out from driving….go to www.biofuels4school.org and click on OFFSET NOW

Betty does! Betty loves to go to the thrift store to find great items to buy for much less than you would when buying brand new. But Betty doesn’t stop there, she wants to use her creativity to design a new dress from the clothes she bought at the thrift store or what she has in her closet. Do you have clothes you don’t use anymore and would like to use your creativity?

Spending lots of money and buying more than we can afford is getting people into money trouble, not to mention that buying clothes from large department stores is connected to a larger problem of people in other countries making very little money to make the clothing. This is called sweatshop labor and it is no fun for those who work there.

Resources for change

Want to learn how to take old clothes and turn them into new ones
Check out the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) online connect for current fashion trends
www.threadbanger.com

Serious about reconstructed clothing? Purchase the RC handbook
Reconstructive Clothing for Dummies

Learn more about where the “Stuff” we buy comes from and where it goes
www.storyofstuff.com

Support the end to children laboring in sweatshops…
www.coopamerica.org/programs/sweatshops/

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Back to Betty’s Blog

What is Betty Biodiesel doing to that sad car?
She is converting it to run on Straight Vegetable oil.

Did you know that Dr. Diesel made the engine to run on all forms of liquids that were the least expensive at that time. If you were a farmer you could grow your own fuel.

Running your diesel engine on SVO increases the diversity of
liquids we use, rather than solely rely on one source (petroleum) currently controlled by a small number of record profit making oil companies. Vegetable oil based fuels also reduce toxic emissions that lead to asthma and cancer.

Here’s the recipe for converting your car to run on SVO
1) start with a diesel car/engine
2) add a 2nd tank, fuel lines, solenoids, filters, switches and passion
3) pour in highly filtered straight vegetable oil
4) start you car on biodiesel/diesel to heat it to 190 degrees
5) after the engine is hot flip the switch and now you are cruising on homegrown recycled fuel…aka SVO!

And some resources for you to follow up with…
www.greasecar.com
www.goodvibesautos.com
www.greaseworks.org
www.goodgrease.com
www.frybrid.com
http://www.goldenfuelsystems.com
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_svo.html
http://www.noendpress.com/caleb/biodiesel/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable_oil_used_as_fuel

Be sure to check out the National VegOil Board providing education and support about using VegOil fuels.
www.vegoil.us

AND Betty Biodiesel’s Blog for live links to this information.
bettybiodiesel.org/blog

So now this industry is gaining momentum but it is still going through growing pains including:
- education of what a carbon offset is
- every offset company offers a different fee for the credits
- 3rd party certification is crucial for the integrity of these credits and is unfortunately getting overlooked by some people buying credits.
- Terminology needs to be clearly defined for the lay person
Etc.
No industry before has come close to directly linking our economic system to our ecological life support system, aka Earth. I was reminded by Lynn Twist (guru of fundraiser from the heart), that humans were the life forms that created this money in the first place to help a very complex system of trading goods and services, however the intent of making our lives more simple got off track somewhere along that path thus we have an imbalance of priorities and the way money works for us.

I am passionate about our environment getting a price tag on it. I feel it is both necessary and nauseating at the same time. As a long time capitalist, I can see our human need to maintain the status quo by not attacking the very system that drove us to this place of utter earth abuse. As a human it is ludicrous to place a price tag on our life support system…money shouldn’t be involved. But where to go from here?

I say reduce your driving, by carpooling, taking transit, riding a bike, walking, etc. and when you can’t or won’t, buy offsets to invest in a different future. The more voluntary offsets are purchased the more carbon and methane recovery projects occur, the less greenhouse gas emissions enter our atmosphere and louder the message of people investing in change reaches our leaders of this nation and the world.

Amazing to me how a woman who gestates for 9 months can fathom her child taken from her by a bullet from a supposed anti-terrorist group. She can’t fathom it, all she sees and feels every waking day after the death of her child is exactly that terror that we are trying to stop, or are we.
Are we simply packing this so called war on terrorism like we package everything else in America? Do you want that Small. Medium, Large, Extra large, or Supersized.

We the people of this country are getting dumbed down, overplayed, patronized and belittled by our own people. Being in the advertising industry myself, I was nauseated to see how much we have reduced our individual uniqueness down to buying patterns, ratings, polls, stats, and colorful ads that dig deep into our abused psyche. The more we are dumbed down, the more the slick advertisers have us by our minds and pocketbooks. And in my little world of Go Green, shop local, buy organic, go vegetarian, go raw, cleanse, reduce, reuse, recycle, I meet others that are doing some if not all of these things and think “wow we really have a chance”, then I board public transit, get a whiff of “Chemie” cologne from a guy going down the aisle carrying two plastic bags filled with personal items from Rite Aid and think, “wow we have a far far way to go”.

Back to the kids…they deserve more, they deserve better than allowing their sweet innocent bodies to get killed by our insane quest for control over resources that is an end game. This quest is simply the visual ugliness in addiction. The addict in total denial about to have a serious wake up call, oh wait that’s what New Orleans was and yet we still forge ahead in clearing Iraq of its terrorists…has anyone ever thought of us in fact being the ones that provoke terror. I know that “Secure the area” = blow it all up, riddle it with bullets while our 18 year old soldiers play Black Sabbath on their ipods as if they were in a video game totally unconnected to reality.  Yet they too pay a price. We see it in the stories of the guys that get home. Finally here maybe missing a limb here or there, troubled with PTSD, finding “home” to be a joke compared to where they were just at. Meanwhile we talk of Iraq like it is this other place, this shithole for our boys to experience the world get totally f____d in the head and never imagine it for its beauty. The crafting, the food, the people, the kids. The second we summarize Iraq into one category we summarize all of humanity into that category. It’s like categorizing all Californians as blonde surfers who have beautiful bodies and hang out on the beach everyday. Or take this radical perspective and imagine humans from a lab rats perspective…who are we to them? put aside for a moment the blah blah story of how their testing helps us and really get into their reality or an Iraqi child for that matter. We are not leading, we are killing, maiming and continuing in our denial.

Somewhere in all of this dismay, disbelief and what I call unfathomable, I think to myself what am I doing about it? First, I think alot and then I think not enough. Writing this blog is a start because if it reaches one person who feels the same way and chooses to do something about it then it is worth it. If it reaches no one and helps me through the immediate pain of hearing about people especially children dying from bullet wounds then it is worth it. I have pain in my jaw and heartache in my heart for the way humanity treats one another and all other forms of life and I have to include myself in this harm for if I drive my car even if on biodiesel, I contribute to the use of roads, oil, metal, energy use, etc. All the things that create resource wars. So what do I do. I sell my car and challenge myself to get around by public transportation, which is not everywhere I want to go. Or I keep my car and pay money into offsetting the carbon I emit as well as offset the carbon I emitted since birth. But let’s not stop at the carbon offset, how about a social costs for kids that get maimed and are still alive, wouldn’t they need help? I could pay money into a orphanage that helps kids that are maimed by the war, or help returning vets with getting healing treatments. I could put my time and energy into so many things that are restorative rather than harmful. This is the shift we have been waiting for and I’ve been waiting to write this piece to get a reminder of that.