iCaspar

All You Need to Know about Climate Change in 26 Seconds

Jan 232012

Last weekend, NASA reported that 2011 was the 9th warmest year on record. This despite a cooling “La Niña influence and low solar activity for the past several years.”

“The average temperature around the globe in 2011 was 0.92 degrees F (0.51 C) warmer than the mid-20th century baseline,” the report states, and NASA makes no bones about why:

The carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere was about 285 parts per million in 1880, when the GISS global temperature record begins. By 1960, the average concentration had risen to about 315 parts per million. Today it exceeds 390 parts per million and continues to rise at an accelerating pace.

This video was put together by rocket scientists, but you don’t need to be one to understand why its critical now to stop carbon dioxide and other emissions before it’s too late.

CNN Premiers Chocolate Slaves Documentary

Jan 202012

This comes as a bit last minute, but for those who have been following the forced child labor issue, it’ll be worth catching.

This weekend CNN’s Freedom Project is premiering a documentary on child slavery on the cocoa plantations of the Ivory Coast: Chocolate’s Child Slaves. It should be a huge eye-opener on the scale of The Dark Side of Chocolate (2009). As you’ll see, the problem hasn’t gone away over the past three years since Dark Side‘s release.

The first showing is tonight, Friday, January 20, 2012: 8.00pm GMT (that’s London time) on CNN International, and in the US on Saturday, Jan 21 at 9pm (Eastern). You can catch it again on Sunday, Jan 22 at 11pm (Eastern).

Here’s the trailer:

Here’s my Lenten Study Book

Jan 162012

It’s worth noting that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was first and foremost, The Reverend. His leadership in the civil rights movement came out of his deep conviction that his work was his calling from Jesus to do. His strategy for confronting racial and economic injustices, non-violent direct action, was rooted in his understanding that this is what Jesus did and called his disciples to do. He followed that conviction all the way to the cross on April 4, 1968.

One doesn’t have to be a Christian, let alone a Reverend Christian, to confront and challenge the entrenched prejudices and the military-industrial complex as Rev. Dr. King did. One doesn’t have to belong to a church to lay down one’s life as Jesus and King did, either. But for those, like Rev. Dr. King, whose faith and commitment to follow Jesus is the foundation of their ongoing struggle for justice, here is my attempt to provide a connection between the modern struggle and the Biblical witness.

The Scarlet Journey is a series of six studies taken from selected passages in Mark’s gospel leading up to and including Jesus’ crucifixion. The studies are designed for use during the traditional Christian season of Lent, but can be used in whatever way is most appropriate to your situation.

The six studies include:

Mark 14:3-9. Money and Sex
Mark 14:32-42. Praying for Your Life
Mark 14:66-72. Failure of Nerve
Mark 15:6-15. Non-Violent Action vs. Armed Rebellion
Mark 15:21-32. What Would You Die For?
Mark 15:40-47. What Remains When Dreams Die
An Epilog (with Reflection Questions) on Mark’s Resurrection

The first study in the series is available as a free download. The complete series is available for $7, which entitles you to make as many copies as you need for your personal use or with a study group.

January 11 Is Human Trafficking Awareness Day

Jan 092012

With so many products produced by child labor in so many countries, children are particularly vulnerable to being bought and sold as slaves.

Modern slavery, or human trafficking as it’s often referred to, is a huge and worldwide issue. Estimates of the number of slaves worldwide currently range between 12- and 27 million people, more than any other time in human history.

Photo by Jacob Freeze via AlterNet

The US State Department now has an entire division to monitor and combat it. (It’s latest report is here.) The US Congress first designated January 11 Human Trafficking Awareness Day in 2007. On December 30, President Obama declared January, “National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, culminating in the annual celebration of National Freedom Day on February 1.”

The increasing attention given to human trafficking by the US government reflects an increasing realization that this is not just a problem in underdeveloped lands far away. It’s happening, in many cases, right under our noses here in the US. The State Department’s 2011 report on the problem within the US confesses:

The United States is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor, debt bondage, document servitude, and sex trafficking. Trafficking occurs for commercial sexual exploitation in street prostitution, massage parlors, and brothels, and for labor in domestic service, agriculture, manufacturing, janitorial services, hotel services, hospitality industries, construction, health and elder care, and strip club dancing. Vulnerabilities are increasingly found in visa programs for legally documented students and temporary workers who typically fill labor needs in the hospitality, landscaping, construction, food service, and agricultural industries. There are allegations of domestic workers, foreign nationals on A-3 and G-5 visas, subjected to forced labor by foreign diplomatic or consular personnel posted to the United States. Combined federal and state human trafficking information indicates more sex trafficking than labor trafficking investigations and prosecutions, but law enforcement identified a comparatively higher number of labor trafficking victims as such cases uncovered recently have involved more victims. U.S. citizen victims, both adults and children, are predominantly found in sex trafficking; U.S. citizen child victims are often runaways, troubled, and homeless youth. Foreign victims are more often found in labor trafficking than sex trafficking. In 2010, the number of female foreign victims of labor trafficking served through victim services programs increased compared with 2009. The top countries of origin for foreign victims in FY 2010 were Thailand, India, Mexico, Philippines, Haiti, Honduras, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic.

In the spirit of human trafficking awareness, think about this the next time you stay in a hotel, drive past a truck stop, or apple orchard, or visit an amusement park or a nursing home. (I won’t assume that iCaspar readers are visiting prostitutes, massage parlors, brothels, or strip clubs. But somebody is.) The next time you have chicken for dinner pause to wonder who the people are who are working in the poultry houses behind barbed wire fences. Do you really think they need 15-foot tall barbed wire to keep the chickens from escaping?

Human trafficking is a problem so big it’s hard to know where to start to do something about it. Fortunately, there are a number of resources on the web. Here are just a few:

Find your slavery footprint, and see how many slaves are working for you. (You’ll be surprised.)
Check out the Not For Sale Campaign.
Download and use the Free2Work app for your iPhone or Android, to find out if the product you’re considering buying was made using slave labor.
If you’re a student, join the Student Abolitionist Movement
If you’re a health care worker, social service provider or law enforcement officer, learn to identify the signs and how to respond. Rescue and Restore Toolkits are available from the US Dept of Health and Human Services.
If you’re a teacher (or even if you’re not) check out the curriculum and other resources at Anti-Slavery.
Check out the awesome resources and get involved with the Abolish Slavery movement.
Check out all the ways to get involved with Project Futures.
The Polaris Project has state-by-state resources, information on current human trafficking legislation, and a hotline.
International Justice Mission has resources for international trafficking as well as domestic (US) legislative action.
The Dalit Freedom Network will give you a window (and a door) into one of the many specific groups affected by human trafficking in India.

And, stop back here at iCaspar.net later this month to check out a video interview with Kit Ripley, a Baptist missionary working on the front lines of the human trafficking issue in Thailand. Kit works at the New Life Center Foundation with young ethnic minority women throughout the Mekong sub-region who are at risk for, or victims of, human trafficking, forced labor, and sexual abuse.

What will you be doing for human trafficking awareness month? If you’ve been involved in human trafficking prevention or abolition, or helping those who have been rescued from modern slavery, what are your recommendations? I’ve named just a very few resources. What others do you know of and recommend? Please let us all know in the comments. Your links to online resources for human trafficking awareness and prevention are especially welcome on this post.