During an afternoon session by the campfire, one of the local students commented on how much of the environment news was negative, and how it was so difficult to maintain an aura of positivity in day to day life.

‘It gets depressing thinking of all this negativity and bad news,’ he said, with a sad look on his face.

The old man smiled under his beard, and said to the lad, “Don’t be depressed or sad”

“Look above you and tell us what you see”

The student raised his head towards the sky, and replied ‘I see trees, sky, and clouds’

“Every morning when the sun rises and the light hits the trees, the positive side of nature becomes apparent” said the old man still grinning.

“See those clouds? They contain rain for some place over the hills to be positive for,” “The farmer that receives that rain will have a really positive day.”

“Breathe the air filtered by those trees as they get on with their lives.”

“The oxygen they produce gives you life, which enables you to be an active participant in society”

“When you awake tomorrow, that oxygen will give you the ability to get on with your life, and allow you to put energy into repairing the damage you have done to the environment by just being alive”

“As you watch the seedlings grow, so too will you grow, and recognise your positive effect on all life”

“When you are warmed by the light of the sun, you bathe in positivity”

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Sir David Attenborough planted a Wollemi pine at Kew Gardens

A rare species of tree dating back millions of years has been planted at Kew's Royal Botanical Gardens by wildlife expert Sir David Attenborough.

The Wollemi pine, once thought to have been extinct for 200 million years, was recently discovered in Australia, sparking a major conservation project.

It is thought the pines populated the ancient supercontinent Gondwana when dinosaurs walked the Earth.

The tree will also be displayed at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London.

Secret location

Planting the rare tree Sir David said: "How marvellous and exciting that we should have discovered this rare survivor from such an ancient past.

"It is romantic, I think, that something has survived 200 million years unchanged.

It's important to show this tree to people outside of Australia - to highlight its importance

On the same day Actor Kenneth Branagh was to plant a Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis) at Wakehurst Place, Kew's country garden in Sussex, where seeds are already preserved in the Millennium Seed Bank.

A tall conifer, it is closely related to the monkey puzzle tree, and has an unusual pattern of branching, with the mature foliage having two ranks of leaves along the branches.

Fewer than 100 adult trees are known to exist in the wild and the exact location of Wollemi groves remain a secret.

Garden market

Tony Kirkham, head of the arboretum at Kew, is one of the few people who have been allowed to see the tree in their natural habitat.

Saplings will go on sale to the public next year

"We've got 30 trees planted out here at Kew and at Wakehurst Place, and we'll run them for 18 months to see how they adapt to our climate.

"They've experienced minus 12 Celsius in North America this winter and, certainly, minus five in Sydney. So, they should be OK here."

From next year Wollemi pine saplings will go on sale to the public, and some of the revenue will be sent to Australia to help fund future conservation efforts.

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this prehistoric tree was discovered over 10 years ago not far from where i live. It is a pine relative, but grows propagatively [from cuttings] which a pine will not do.

as a result of this peculiar trait, national parks and wildlife nurseries have propogated this plant by the thousand, and many schools are planting a wollomi pine for evironment day in australia june 5th.

do a google search on wollomi pine -- the story of its initial find is very interesting --

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The Cave of Awendragons

http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=2279&pst=131201

TREE JUSTICE!! =) Thursday, 6:23 PM

Brazil busts major Amazon logging gang, arrests 89

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050602/wl_nm/crime_brazil_amazon_dc

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazilian police said they had broken up the biggest illegal logging operation in the Amazon on Thursday in a move environmentalists saw as a sign the government was serious about beating the corruption that hampers the fight to save the rain forest.

A total of 89 people were arrested in the crackdown, nearly half of them from the government agency charged with protecting the forests from a gang that had illegally cut down an estimated $370 million of Amazon timber since 1990.

They included the head of the government agency, known as Ibama, in the state of Mato Grosso.

The sweep across six states suggested the government was finally reacting to environmentalists' criticism that it had failed to act to save the Amazon after data showed an area of jungle larger than the U.S. state of New Jersey was cut down last year.

That deforestation was the second-highest level on record for the world's largest tropical forest.

Environment Minister Marina Silva said the operation marked the beginning of constant monitoring by the police of Ibama's anti-deforestation efforts.

"This is the result of an effort that has never been carried out by the Brazilian environmental sector before," Silva told journalists.

Businessmen, loggers and 40 Ibama employees were among those arrested, federal police said.

"I am sure the decision to launch this plan now comes as a response to the deforestation figures," said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace's Amazon coordinator. "The initiative to carry out this operation is very important because it is part of cleaning up Ibama's image."

Four logging firms were also shut down in the sweep which concentrated on Mato Grosso, where just under half of last year's deforestation took place.

Nurith Bensusan, coordinator of public policies at the World Wildlife Fund, said that two-thirds of all destruction in Mato Grosso last year was illegal. "If it can be controlled there would be a phenomenal impact on deforestation."

The gang is one of the biggest criminal organizations in the country and is "made up of loggers and specialists in the illegal extraction and transport of timber who corrupted public officials at Ibama," federal police said in a statement.

The gang bribed officials at Ibama, Brazil's main government body charged with environmental inspections and fighting illegal logging, to falsify permits that allowed it to transport Amazon timber to markets in Brazil and abroad.

"Worse than corruption is corruption which is not punished," said Justice Minister Thomaz Bastos.

A government plan to sharply improve its ability to monitor the Amazon centers on expanding Ibama's presence.

Adario said any attempt to get rid of corruption in Ibama would help that plan because in many places in the Amazon it was the only government agency.

"We want a stronger presence by the government in the Amazon," he said.

Destruction of the Amazon rose to 10,088 square miles in 2003-2004 from 9,496 square miles a year earlier. Environmentalists blamed the destruction on an agricultural boom that has pushed farmers to seek more land to plant crops and graze cattle where forests once stood.

Often illegal loggers precede farmers into the forests, extracting wood for large profits and leaving the land bare. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050602/wl_nm/crime_brazil_amazon_dc

Please click on Magickal M. name below to send green star. Thanks.

Magickal M.

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I have experienced the same feelings as in my belief system of energies all things must be in balance ... the dark/light ; cold/hot; positive/negative ....

One of your posts above refers to the return to the older Earth based religions.  Yes, that is one way to look at it, I prefer to think that it is that the human race is starting to raise its collective awareness to a "higher vibration" to use a common symbol.

IMO, both the people's conciousness of our planet combined with the newest technologies of the internet and even satellite imagry are making us more aware of the impact of the proverbial butterfly wings beating .... <----- looks like a bee, but is labled "butterfly" in the emis  ...

Yesterday on NPR radio I heard a report that 10% of the lakes in the Russian Tundara and Artic have disappeared over the past 15 years. this was a study made by a scientist using satellite images collected over the years by NASA.

This is the opposite result of what most people thought would happen due to human induced global warming.

There is HOPE

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I teach and do Reiki - research has shown that when a person is working with healing energy - i.e. reiki - the vibration of the healer and receiver eventually come to vibrate at the same 'speed' as the Earth. When vibrating at this level, the human body is at it's most efficient for stimulating self-healing...including releasing it's own natural pain killers and the mind is at it's most efficient to deal with life and moods are positive.

I have seen all this in action...and working on myself.

In this Reiki flowing mode, I've found myself aligning my life to a space I thoroughly enjoy, and have found myself appreciating the Earth, trees and nature more and more. I must say I didn't particularly want to end up 'back to Earth' because I couldn't see what those people who were talking about 'the Mother' etc were on about!

Also, during teaching, I've found the need to give more of myself to the point that one day I thought ' how much more can I give' immediately I saw that Earth gives all...

Giving like this feels like letting your deepest being be seen - breaking down the layers of 'front' and attitude one builds around oneself to be an accepted member of the community - conforming in what one says as well as what one looks like. I feel my spiritual path has stripped away all these layers and guess what, it's ok to be uncool and positive.

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I do agree that the human race is raising it's vibration to a higher level but I think that vibration is closer to them than they realise.

I think the heaven/hell thing is all just in the moment, i.e. if someone can't let go of another person - they want to hold to them, and they are feeling pain because they can't let go, they are causing their own suffering, but they will think they person who left them is causing their problems.

The same goes for those who try to control others, and sadly that need by humans to commune with others, and the stronger ones to make the weaker ones follow the same path is the cause of much strife. The problem truly is that those currently who beleive their lives are directed by a higher force are actually feeling unable to control their life...this causes an inbuilt insecurity, this insecurity leads to the need to control others and the planet.

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 Yes, Yes, and YES... 

I also do Reiki as well as another form of healing.  I have taught others biofeedback and self hypnosis. The more grounded and in touch with nature and their own bodies, the easier it is for me to work with them. 

Yes, I have also occasionally felt tired, almost got 'burned up' by one very negative, energetic black hole of a person.  when I am doing the more intuitive healing, I do the usual grounding and clearing but do not "protect" myself with a shield as with other forms such as Reiki.  My teacher taught me to "walk in the Grey Worlds" and it takes practice, peace as well as willingness to be a warrior ... difficult to explain but I would imagine some of Boris' friends can describe it well as my healing teacher was taught in the Jungles of South America as well as Australia.

More later ... kitten care time..

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Hello,

Here are some general addresses that you may find useful and inspirational.

www.citizens4change.org/home

www.rowecentre.org

www.seventhgeneration.ca

(in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, with links)

www.responsibleshopper.org

www.mum.edu

www.davidsuzuki.org

If you want to try some of these out, there are lots of links that can send you into a whole world of inspiration ...

cath

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