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Concerned communitry members are invited to meet in the reservoir's parking lot with work gloves at 10 a.m. This event has been organized as part of the Step It Up 2007 campaign, a national effort to promote aggressive reduction of greenhouse gases which are known to cause global warming. For more information, visit: http://stepitup2007
Tuesday October 30th 7:00 PM at FUSF, 262 Chestnut St. Franklin, MA
A public information session on the proposed Community Preservation Act (CPA) will be held in the FUSF sanctuary. This is question #1, and it is the only question on the November 6th Franklin ballot. Please join us for information on this important voter issue.
The CPA gives municipalities the option to create a dedicated fund to preserve open space and recreation land, historic buildings, and resources such as public libraries, and provide affordable housing. This is a statewide initiative that provides matching funds to Franklin. As proposed by the Franklin Town Council, for a CPA contribution of 3%, about $90 for the average home, the town would gain $1 million a year from the state, for eligible projects. The CPA provides exemptions for families on limited incomes.
For more information:
email: PreserveFranklin@verizon.net
phone: Susan Speers at 774-571-0878
go to: www.CommunityPreservation.org
For Franklin’s open space plan go to: http://Franklin.ma.us
Exercise your right to vote on November 6th.
My Heart Is Moved
a concert with Carolyn McDade and the Atlantic New England Singers
This Sunday, Carolyn McDade and friends performed at the FUSF sanctuary in Franklin. A chorus of more than thirty women filled the sanctuary’s main hall with ethereal music that reverberated from the rafters. The large number of perfectly tuned voices interacting with the very good acoustic space of the FUSF sanctuary room created a wonderful three-dimensional surround-sound effect that sometimes seemed to suspend the listeners in mid air. My favorite piece was McDade’s Lament, which reminded me of Debussy’s Sirens. The message of the music combined with the professional quality chorus and the inventiveness of the composer made for an unusually good concert. My heart was moved.
The songs and the concert were based on the Earth Charter, whose text can be read here: http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/2000/10/the_earth_charter.html
Continue reading ""World Peace Diet" Author Coming to FUSF " »
The best time of year to plant new grass is between August 15 and September 15. However, many people wait until late autumn to plant for next season as the grass will remain dormant through the winter and begin sprouting in early spring. If you have an opportunity to plant new grass in a large area regardless of the time of year, you might want to consider Eco-lawn.
You might be asking yourself what makes one variety of grass more environmentally friendly than an other. You might want to start out by thinking about what makes grass environmentally harmful and then the benefits of Eco-lawn will be quite obvious:
This year, members of the Green Committee are becoming interested in vegetarian diets, and we’ll be making vegetarianism a theme in our green activities. You’ll be hearing more about it. Does that mean that the committee has decided to extend its mandate beyond green issues? No! It turns out that eating your greens is very green.
Leo BaBauta of ZenHabits took the time to compile of list of 50 quick and painless things we can do as individuals to save the environment in an effort to draw attention to his Blog Action Day coming on this Monday October 15, 2007. This year's action is 'the environment'. Be sure to check our blog on Monday to read our contributions to Blog Action Day to to find links to other participant blogs!
Links:
Unfortunately, hybrid car options are much too few. Most of us are aware of the Toyota Prius (I drive one myself) and the recently popular Honda Civic hybrid. However most of the other hybrid offerings are just not hybrid enough (Saturn's Aura), or hybrid for the wrong reasons (Honda's 6 cylinder Accord). If Volkswagen follows through on a recent announcement to offer hybrid versions of every model in their line, then we may have a few more options to consider. As a latecomer to the hybrid scene it is hard to estimate the overall impact the yet to be unveiled VW hybrid drivetrain will have on fuel efficiency. However, since VW has a history of producing some of the most fuel efficient cars on the market, we can only assume the hybrid numbers will be remarkable.
That said, fuel efficiency is only one of many factors to consider when shopping for a green vehicle. One must also consider the impact the construction and eventual disposal of these cars will have on the environment. When carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other emissions as well as construction, energy and end-of-life costs are taken into account, some non-hybrid cars already have less of an overall environmental impact then the industry leading hybrid Toyota Prius (Fiat's Panda, BMW's Mini Cooper Diesel hatchback, and the Toyota Yaris for example).
I'm excited to see what Volkswagen's engineers will contribute to the hybrid vehicle market. I also hope VW, along with all the other automakers, consider the overall "footprint" their vehicles - hybrid or not - leave behind.
