Is that a skull and crossbones label on your cosmetics?

What are all those chemicals in your lipstick? your aftershave? your child’s shampoo? Some of them are linked to cancer, birth defects, infertility and other health problems. To learn more, watch this new video by Annie Leonard, founder of The Story of Stuff Project.

What you can do:

• Ask Congress to get behind the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 — Your Voice Counts!
• Join the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics
• Share this with everyone you care about. Even those you don’t care so much about. And urge them to do the same!
• Read the labels and switch to something safe. I happen to love Shaklee for skin care, shampoo… even household cleaning products*! [disclosure: I am an an independent Shaklee distributor, but not truly active). But there are many great options out there!

* Household cleaning products are not recommended for skin care.

Ocean Voices. (AUDIO)

Ocean Voices. An amazing recording by California Academy of Sciences about the Oceans.

…being in the ocean feels like being hugged… free… letting the waves roll off my body

Listen here.

What does the ocean mean to you?

Please share far and wide!

Coal PR Auditions. LOL.

Joe Mohr | joemohrcartoons.com

Related post: Clean Coal. Sort of like healthy cigarettes.

Hands That Feed: Non-profit film needs your support

Haiti’s food crisis and post-quake opportunities for sustainability.

Hands That Feed is a non-profit documentary film that I hope you’ll help support. It explores the agricultural collapse in Haiti, its role in the post-earthquake food crisis, and the emerging grassroots development models that seek to restore Haiti’s food supply and environment.

Bill Clinton told the Senate Foreign

Clean Coal. Sort of Like Healthy Cigarettes.

Photo: dirtybusinessthefilm.com

50 percent of the electricity that heats our houses, lights our schools and powers our industries comes from coal.

Yay for coal, you say. Clean coal. End of story.

Not. Jeff Goodall, author of Big Coal, the Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future, says:

…clean coal is sort of like healthy cigarettes or limited nuclear war or fat free donuts. It’s one of the great oxymorons of our time.

On Thinner Ice – Melting Glaciers on the Roof of the World

Whoa.

Check out this short video, by David Breashears–mountaineer, photographer and filmmaker–which recounts his research and photography of retreating glaciers.

Study the striking loss of glacier mass between 1921 and 2007 at AsiaSociety.org.

“If current melt rates continue, these glaciers will be unable to maintain mass balance, ultimately disrupting the water supply to hundreds of millions of people downstream.”

~Asia Society

If you find melting ice as fascinating as I do, you’ll want to check out the award-winning documentary film, The Antarctica Challenge: A Global Warning.

Will Water Be Declared a Human Right?

The United Nations General Assembly is considering an historic draft resolution recognizing the human right to “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation” initiated by the Bolivian government. Other member states have been consulted on the resolution and the final text is expected to be presented to the President of the General Assembly, for tabling by the end of July.

In a letter sent last week to all UN Ambassadors and permanent missions, global water advocate and Blue Planet Project founder Maude Barlow urges a decisive and swift passage of the resolution. The letter is available online at: www.blueplanetproject.net.

“This would be one of the most important things the UN has done since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” says Barlow, who chairs the boards of the Council of Canadians and Washington-based Food and Water Watch. In 2008/2009, Barlow served as Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd President of the UN General Assembly.

“It’s time politics caught up with reality,” says Barlow, noting that nearly two billion people live in water-stressed areas of the world and three billion have no running water within a kilometre of their homes. “It’s time states finally recognize water as essential to life and a fundamental human right.”

Read more on Africa Water News…

Your Voice Counts: Vote for Your Fave Sustainable City

The Do Something Awards: Cast your vote today!

DoSomething.org and VH1 have partnered to present The Do Something Awards–the premiere national award for social action, honoring the nation’s best world-changers, ages 25 and under. Jane Lynch, a.k.a. cheerleading hardball Sue Sylvester from GLEE, will host.

Three U.S. cities have been nominated for their green efforts. Please vote for your favorite:

Chat live with sea explorer Fabien Cousteau

Chat LIVE with Fabien, founder of the ocean conservation, Plant A Fish. Monday, July 12th 8PM CST.

Fabien Cousteau, third generation ocean explorer of the legendary Cousteau family, will join the live, video-based web show EcoChat Monday night to chat about his latest

Your Voice Counts! Take Action for Clean Energy!

No humor here. As far back as Richard Nixon, every president has called for energy reform and action to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. And for 40 years, not a single one followed through forcibly enough to make change happen.

You can help make a difference. First, watch this video…

Now, let President Obama know we stand with him for real energy reform…

… by adding your name to the Environmental Defense Fund’s letter. It will only take a minute or two.

Thank you. I’m sure future generations will thank you, too.