Catamount Earth Institute January 2012 E-newsletter

Catamount Earth Institute January E-Newsletter

Healthy People, Healthy Planet Discussion Groups

Catamount’s winter project is offering Healthy People, Healthy Planet discussion groups. Winter in the Upper Valley is long, dark, and cold; one way to cope is to gather with friends and neighbors for good conversation, on a lively topic …  such as shedding light on the connections between our health and the health of the planet.

Healthy People, Healthy Planet conversations are being hosted at 15 venues around the Upper Valley this winter. The 6-session series topics include preventive medicine, food issues, our chemical legacy, simplicity and consumption, and healthy natural systems.

 This free discussion series is based on a discussion guide/anthology, A World of Health, by the Northwest Earth Institute of Portland, Oregon. Guides are available at the Hanover Co-op service desk for $15. (Participating libraries have discussion guides available on loan to their Healthy People, Healthy Planet group participants.) This series of community conversations began with a group at the Grantham Town Hall. Upcoming groups are hosted by the Baldwin Library, Wells River on Sunday, January 8; Shiretown Books, Woodstock, January 11; and Quechee Library on January 12. Program information and contacts for the 15 conversation venues are available at www.catamountearthinstitute.org, and are listed below. Contact catamount@valley.net if you are interested in organizing a group in your town, faith community, workplace, or with your book group.

Sponsoring organizations for the 2012 discussion groups are the Catamount Earth Institute, Co-op Food Stores, the League of Women Voters of the Upper Valley, Sierra Club, Sustainable Hanover, the Upper Valley Land Trust, Upper Valley Localvores, and the Upper Valley Household Hazardous Waste Committee. 

We’re grateful to the Jack and Dorothy Bryne Foundation, the Mascoma Saving Bank Foundation, the Upper Valley Sierra Club, the Stettenheim Foundation, the Frank and Brinna Sands Foundation, and King Arthur Flour for subsidizing the discussion guides and providing set of books for loan by participating libraries. Thanks also to the Co-op Food Stores, the Upper Valley Food Co-op and Health Connections of the Upper Valley for purchasing sets of books to share with discussion groups.

Catamount will soon be on Facebook so that discussion group members can share their thoughts, concerns and information. See you there!

Current schedule of discussion groups. 
(You can register with these sponsors or click here to register.)

Baldwin Memorial Library, Wells River
Sundays, January 8 – February 2
 2:00-4:00 pm
Register and borrow a book from the library
802-727-2693 or wells_river@vals.state.vt.us

Shiretown Books, Woodstock
Wednesdays, January 11 – February 15
7-8:30 pm
Register and purchase books from the bookstore
802-457-2996 or shiretownbooks@gmail.com 

Quechee Library & VINS Nature Center
Thursdays, January 12 – February 16^th
6:30-8 pm
Register and borrow a book from the library or VINS
quelibra@sover.net or hputnam@vinsweb.org 

Dr. Robyn Jacobs Office, 24 Hanover St. Lebanon
Tuesdays, January 17 –February 21^st
5:00-6:30pm, Register at 603-448-7344
Purchase book at the Hanover Co-op Service Desk

Sunday, January 8, 7 pm, Thetford Congregational Church, Rt. 113 across from the Green
“Carbon Nation“. This climate change documentary “celebrates solutions, inspiration and action.” The film shows “how solutions to climate change also address other social, economic and national security issues.” 

Sponsored by the Thetford Energy Committee. Free, refreshments providedThursday, January 12th, at 5 p.m. upstairs at the Upper Valley Food Co-op, White River Junction
Seedsavers monthly meeting
Please bring a potluck dish to share—remembering that there are essentially no kitchen facilities where we meet—and your own plate and cutlery.  More info: sdav@valley.net

Tuesday, January 17th at 6:00 pm,  Montshire Museum of Science, Norwich, VT
VT YANKEE DECOMISSIONING FORUM and PANEL about the federal court case of Entergy vs State of Vermont, VY transition, clean-up, long-term waste storage and the role citizens can play in the process.
Panel: Deb Katz, Executive Director of the Citizens Awareness Network; Chris Williams, Organizer,Vermont Citizens Action Network; Robert Stannard, Citizen Lobbyist for the Vermont Citizens Action Network

Sunday, January 22 7 pm, Thetford Congregational Church, Rt. 113 across from the Green
“Gasland”. This film by Josh Fox was nominated for a Best Documentary Oscar in 2011 and won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance. Learn more about the spreading technology to drill for natural gas: hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Sunday, February 5, 2pm, Black Center, Park St., Hanover
Green Fire, a documentary about the Aldo Leopold’s extraordinary career, tracing how he shaped and influenced the modern environmental movement
Sponsored by Hanover Conservancy, Donations requested.

Monday, February 6, 6:30, Colatina Exit, Main St. Bradford
Growth Busters, Documentary on getting unhooked from growth,Sponsored by the Bradford Conservation Commission
To receive the UV Localvores e-newsletter, contact mcgovern.patricia@gmail.com.
For Upper Valley Farm to School Network info. see http://www.uvfts.org
For Sustainable Energy Resource Group (SERG) info. see www.SERG-info.org  (also on Facebook)
This Upper Valley Sustainable Living Network update was written by Barbara Duncan.

Catamount Earth Institute, POB 470 Hanover, NH 03755
603-643-0328 (Nov. 1-April 30)  catamount@valley.net     www.catamountearthinstitute.org
Contact catamount@valley.net  if you do NOT want to receive these occasional updates.