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Water Conservation ProjectFirst Parish as a congregation will be working in 2011 to lower our aggregate water usage by 10% from the average levels of 2009-2010. You may sign up to participate at church or by contacting Tom Arnold. More information is available from the FAQ document:Water Conservation FAQs You may directly enter your own readings with the link below. The Form to enter your water meter readings Green Sanctuary Committee DescriptionThe Green Sanctuary Committee is responsible for implementing a program that increases our practice of the Seventh Principle of the UUA in our church, our community and private lives: “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part." This permanent committee will be guided by the UU Ministry for Earth’s (MFE) Green Sanctuary Program. We will seek and maintain MFE Green Sanctuary Certification. We will strive for broad congregational and community participation in activities and lifestyle changes that result in our treading more lightly upon this planet, specifically in the areas of energy usage and conservation, use of raw materials, pollution, environmental injustices, the 3R’s of Reuse, Repair and Recycle, and in our spending and investing. In support of this we will assist in integrating an environmental focus into our religious education for all ages and into worship practices that honor our interconnectedness and Earth centered wisdom. The Green Sanctuary Program is administered by the UU Ministry for Earth (MFE), a UUA affiliate. Per the MFE, the Green Sanctuary Committee “Members will represent all aspects of the congregational life, including RE, worship, communications, buildings and grounds, finance, social justice, and any others that are relevant in our congregation. The Green Sanctuary committee will coordinate activities and document their completion. The role of this committee is not to "carry the water" of the environmental commitment, letting the rest of the congregation off the hook. Instead, the committee will facilitate planning and provide logistical support to the congregation so that the activities can be accomplished more effectively.” We will remain open to new ideas and members as we warmly welcome anyone who wants to participate in the Green Sanctuary Program. Membership terms for some committee members may be determined by how long they represent other committees, otherwise there is no term limit. Your Ecological FootprintThere are an plethora of carbon and ecological footprint calculators on the web. Unfortunately most are fairly incomplete. We're still looking for a really good one but until then here are some things to try: Estimate your annual carbon dioxide contribution to global warming and see the effect of various lifestyle changes graphically, including the effects of recycling and reducing your trash output -  http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculatorEstimate your annual carbon dioxide contribution to global warming and make a donation to offset it. The money goes to build Wind Farms, reforestation, etc. List UUMFE as your referrer and UUMFE get's 7% of your tax deductible donation. - http://carbonfund.org/This calculator lets you enter information for several cars per household. You need to know utility amounts, kwh, gallons, etc. - http://www.safeclimate.net/calculator/An Inconvenient Truth, the movie website, has a good, easy to use, fairly accurate individual CO2 contribution calculator. All you need to know is your household size, auto year, make, and model, miles driven per year, number of flights taken and approximate length, and the $ amounts of your utility bills. Unfortunately it takes no account of your purchasing and recycling habits. - http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/How many biologically productive acres do you require? This quiz is quite detailed but it does not give you an estimate of the CO2 that you contribute. Take the online quiz at http://www.myfootprint.org/Documents
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Mailing List:The committee communicates internally via a mailing list. To subscribe see TomYelton (moderator approval required).Meets:First Thursday of each month at 7:30pm in the First Parish library. Meetings are open — anyone can come.Members:
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Gary will lead a book discussion group starting January 8 from 7:00-8:30 pm in the Brackett Room using Huston Smith's classic The World's Religions, an eight week tour of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Primal Traditions. The class is free and open to the public, but you might want to add this book to your Christmas list if you want to participate. Please note: we will be using the non-illustrated version of Smith's book. The pictures are nice, but the text is much abbreviated in the illustrated edition.