It's our world

The Environmental Defense Fund posted on "Vital Signs" about the latest political ploy which will endanger the environment as well as many people.

Endangerment Finding repeal ignores decades of evidence, 

would harm millions of people.

"...under the Trump administration, the EPA promised fossil fuel companies “concierge, white-glove service” and offered some of the nation’s worst polluters opportunities to evade clean air safeguards. 

Here are three key points from that newsletter.

Climate pollution worsens asthma and other health issues

Without the Endangerment Finding, the air we breathe is about to get a lot dirtier and more dangerous. That’s because it is foundational to a host of vital clean air protections that limit pollution from power plants, oil and gas operations and vehicles. 

(as an Asthma sufferer with Bronchiectasis (a COPD) I will not be able to go for walks safely.)

Climate pollution fuels hurricanes, heat waves and more dangerous weather    

A mountain of scientific evidence shows that climate pollution is warming the planet and driving more frequent and intense heat waves, storms, floods and wildfires.

As a survivor of the floods of Hurricane Helene, and having relatives in Florida who frequently have hurricanes, this is obvious to all of us!

Asheville NC Sept 29, 2024

Climate pollution makes gas, insurance more expensive  

Rising home insurance premiums, driven in part by climate-fueled extreme weather events, are placing severe financial burdens on Americans. 

Home insurance costs have doubled in parts of many states, including in California, Florida, Colorado and Louisiana over the last several years, making it impossible for some Americans to purchase insurance at all. In many of these disaster-prone regions home values have, at the same time, dropped by tens of thousands of dollars.

Driving a gas-powered car is about to get more expensive too. The Trump administration’s own analysis shows that getting rid of the Endangerment Finding will raise the price you pay at the pump, increasing gas prices by 25 cents per gallon by 2035. 

Without the Endangerment Finding, there will also be fewer jobs to help people pay for all these rising costs. Repealing the Endangerment Finding and vehicle standards is projected to cost 450,000 jobs across the country over the next decade. Those job losses have already begun: since the start of the year, the administration has cancelled $25 billion in clean energy manufacturing investments — a move that’s cost 34,000 American jobs.  

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Katharine Hayhoe also gives some environmental notes:

With the Winter Olympics in full swing, athletes are using their platforms to encourage action on the climate crisis. As the Associated Press reports, a coalition of Winter Olympians and other athletes delivered a petition with 21,000 signatures to the International Olympic Committee, urging the IOC to consider ending fossil fuel sponsorships.

and

 Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show drew attention to Puerto Rico’s ailing power grid, which has been battered by climate-fueled hurricanes.

and

Entertainment companies, sports franchises, media outlets and other cultural institutions won’t prioritize climate unless consumers demand it. So, demand it.

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Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. 

- Howard Zinn

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Sorry Canadian friends. I didn't watch the game. I was watching the US win gold in Women's Single Figure Skating.

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Well, the doctors found another bug in my lungs – so I’m on antibiotics again. There were two recommended to treat this rare bug, but one of them makes me so dizzy I cannot walk. The other was one which I thought I was allergic to for the last 60 years. But I am giving it a try. My sense is that it wasn’t the antibiotic, sulfa, which perhaps made me throw up, but that it was the disease process which I already had. Anyway, I’ve now had 3 doses and I’m hoping that my tummy can accept it.

Eco-feminism - Maybe the Peacemakers - 2

Photo by Ann Cahill

BLESSING FOR PEACE

As the fever of day calms towards twilight

May all that is strained in us come to ease.

We pray for all who suffered violence today,

May an unexpected serenity surprise them.

For those who risk their lives each day for peace,

May their hearts glimpse providence at the heart of history.

That those who make riches from violence and war

Might hear in their dreams the cries of the lost.

That we might see through our fear of each other

A new vision to heal our fatal attraction to aggression.

That those who enjoy the privilege of peace

Might not forget their tormented brothers and sisters.

That the wolf might lie down with the lamb,

That our swords be beaten into ploughshares

And no hurt or harm be done

Anywhere along the holy mountain.

JOHN O'DONOHUE

From the book, Benedictus

County Clare, Ireland

Have you missed my not including goddess information in my last couple of blogs?

A repost of parts of a blog in 2015.

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The other evening some of us gathered to watch a relatively old video in the series "Goddess Remembered" (1989) created by Donna Read of Canadian Broadcasting.

This documentary is a salute to 35,000 years of the goddess-worshipping religions of the ancient past. The film features Merlin Stone, Carol Christ, Starhawk, Luisah Teish and Jean Bolen; all of whom link the loss of goddess-centric societies with today's environmental crisis. This is the first part of a 3-part series that includes The Burning Times and Full Circle.

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Now there's a movement called Eco-feminism.  As well as lots of other environmental groups with very positive momentum.  It's needed more than ever.

So what's with studying goddess cultures that existed so long ago, before the ones of today where we find the goddess in second place in a hierarchy of deities?  Name one religion today where goddesses are venerated either as primary or even equal to male deities.

They were egalitarian societies where women and men were equals.  Societies that lasted thousands of years without warfare.

How can archaeologists tell this?  They examined the ruins of cities without any defensive fortifications.  There are no weapons besides those used to hunt and prepare foods.  See Marija Gimbutus work for more information on this.

Just think.  Life without warfare at all.

Nobody who greets a stranger had to worry about evil intentions.  A time when Rumi's poems would truly mean you welcome all guests to your home, even without knowing who they are.

Imagine when the deities of these civilizations were female, as evident through thousands of figurines, carefully made and even placed in areas of the homes and cities suggesting rituals of some kind. There are very very few male oriented sculptures which were found.  This led the early male archaeologists who found all these female forms to think only of "fertility goddesses" and that ancient men perhaps had made them with the same intentions modern men have in looking at feminine beauty.

But my thoughts also bring me to wonder if any of the craftsmen were indeed women.

I'm thrilled about the concept that a culture where men and women had equality would mean that women would be equal to men...and men would be equal to women.  Nobody would be Top Dog.  Nobody would be Bottom Dog.

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It is so hard to express the concept of true equality across to a culture (today) where there is such hierarchical competition to be the winner, to prove something is better than something else, to elect only the one candidate, and then the 49% who lost don't have any representation.  We are submersed in a culture of inequality, and don't see it, just like the fish who has no concept of water until she's out of it.

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Power "over" the earth is now the most important place where we need a new way of co-existing.  If we want to continue living on it, we need to recognize our symbiotic relationship with all life, the chemicals we create and discard, and how we can improve the earth rather than destroy it.

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Winter Shadows, 2026 by Jeff Bourgeau.

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Today's Quote:

O Great Spirit, I awake to another sun, grateful for gifts bestowed, granted one by one.

Twylah Nitsch
Seneca Medicine Woman

Maybe the peacemakers - 1

Lake Tomahawk by James Polling

Morning Blessing

This morning, may your soul feel nourished.

May you see the abundance of life,

the beauty in simple things, and

the love that surrounds you.

Notice the blessings hidden in ordinary moments,

the gentle gestures of love, the laughter and warmth.

May your heart expand with gratitude

and guide your day with joy and grace.

Rivers in the Ocean

art by Vanya Georgieva 

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Please note, I've decided to focus upon peacemakers (many women) and goddess energies on Sundays. I have not forgotten the need for "Maybe the Angry Women." It will now move to Mondays. And goddesses, and women's history - you know me - and environmentalism will be wherever I can share them.

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Today's Goddess:

Columbia

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The Walk for Peace

Ridgeway South Carolina gave a big welcome Jan. 13, 2026 to the Walk for Peace

crossing into SC 1.6.26

Some people may ask: “How can I stay peaceful when difficult situations arise?”. We must begin by understanding: we are where we are. Situations happen—often without warning, often beyond our control. We cannot always prevent or change them.

But here is what we can control: the way we respond.

When difficulty arrives, our minds rush forward—overthinking, catastrophizing, creating stories about how terrible things are. We make situations heavier by adding layers of worry and fear on top of what is already challenging.

But if we pause, if we become mindful of our breath in that moment, if we notice our thoughts without getting swept away—something shifts. The situation doesn’t disappear, but we stop making it worse. We create space for clarity, and in that clarity, we can see what we should actually do to help the situation, instead of just worrying and feeling defeated.

In that mindful pause, we might also remember something we’ve forgotten: right now, countless conditions are still nourishing our life. We are alive. We can breathe. We can eat. We can walk. These are profound gifts, genuine happiness—but we rarely see them because our minds are too busy racing toward worry, too consumed by what’s wrong to notice what remains right.

This is what mindfulness offers in difficult moments: not power to control what happens, but wisdom to see clearly what helpful action we can take, to breathe consciously, to remember that even in difficulty, we are still held by life, still capable of responding wisely instead of simply reacting.

The situation is what it is. But we can change how we meet it—with presence instead of panic, with clarity instead of confusion, with wise action instead of helpless worry.

Peace in difficult times doesn’t mean nothing bothers us. It means we stop making everything worse by losing ourselves in our thoughts. It means we stay grounded enough to see what we can actually do, then do it with a calm heart.

May you and all beings be well, happy, and at peace.

#WalkforPeace #BuddhistMonks #PeaceWalk

SOURCE: Qinghong Wei on Facebook

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"For mindful activists, the answer lies in ethical resistance—not passive detachment, but engagement rooted in truth, compassion, & clarity." - Elephant Journal

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Push back to authoritarians:

Hardy Merriman (go to minute 4 to hear his talk about authoritarians)

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“When I am among the trees,

especially the willows and the honey locust,

equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,

they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,

in which I have goodness, and discernment,

and never hurry through the world

but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves

and call out, “Stay awhile.”

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,

“and you too have come

into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled

with light, and to shine.

by Mary Oliver

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Don't miss a biographical tribute to Dr. Clair Patterson, who discovered the source of air pollution and the science behind it in the 70s. Open Yesterday's Pages.