You asked for it...

Hello young adult friends. Welcome to the October edition of You asked for it., the monthly email from NCP to folks like you. Hope your fall is going well. Been busy here at NCP-high school gigs, college things, congregations and youth events. The usual.

Did you hear that China might be giving more space to labor unions to fight for fairer wages in Chinese sweatshops? Good news, huh. Unless you're the corporations making a killing by using low-wage laborers. They immediately threatened to pull out and take their business elsewhere. Check out our new piece called Spending Money for info on how to make your voice heard with the money you spend: http://www.newcommunityproject.org/pdfs/spending-money.pdf

In this email:

• For the 300 millionth time, stop using so much stuff America !
• Survivors, wolves, toucans, Mayan Ruins-2007 Learning Tours
• Win money!
• New gear from NCP!
• Faith Fact: Risky questions-Brazilian Archbishop Helder Camara
• Enviro Fact: L.A. -one big swimming pool
• Justice Fact: It don't add up.

Take care. Keep in touch. Keep the faith. Keep out of trouble-unless it's the good kind-like Jesus kept getting into by hanging with the outcast, challenging unjust systems, and breaking rules that needed to be broken. What a dude.

David

Item One: Today's the day when we pass the 300 million population mark in the United States . People often talk about population problems "over there" in other countries, but remember that in its lifetime a baby born in the USA will have about 100 times the environmental impact of one born in Bangladesh.

Here's what 300 million U.S. citizens consume or produce (trash or pollution) in ONE DAY:

-21 million barrels of oil
-$1.8 billion to buy gasoline
-90 billion miles driven in cars
-90 billion pounds of CO2 emissions (global warming gas) just from driving
-450 billion pounds of CO2 from other sources (factories, power plants, etc.)
-600 million pounds of paper, requiring 7.5 million trees
-1.5 billion pounds of trash, including 40 million tossed water bottles and 300,000 ell phones-and 1.2 billion pounds of hazardous waste
-80 million pounds of beef requiring 560 million pounds of grain and 70 billion gallons of water to produce
-it takes 23.7 acres of the earth to provide for one U.S. citizen-our fair share would be 4.5 acres

Item Two: NCP's 2007 Learning Tours are now open for registration! Come along and meet the ultimate Survivors in Sudan-these people have made it through a 35 year-long civil war (January); see toucans flying overhead in the Amazon (May); climb to the top of ancient Mayan temples in Honduras (July); hear wolves howling in Denali National Park-we did this year! (August) Most trips have special youth/young adult rates. Check 'em out! http://www.newcommunityproject.org/learningtours.shtml

Item Three: Bethany Seminary is sponsoring a peace essay contest with a $2500 first prize and $1000 second prize! The topic for the essays is: "What story will a peace church tell the world?" The contest is open to students who are part of the Historic Peace Church tradition (Brethren, Mennonite, Quaker). Deadline for submissions is June 1 st . Contact Scott Holland for more information or to submit an essay ( hollasc@bethanyseminary.edu ; 615 National Road West , Richmond , IN 47374 ).

Item Four: NCP has a t-shirt!! And as you'd expect, it's very cool and made of recycled materials with sweat-free labor. Check it out! http://www.newcommunityproject.org/tshirt.shtml

Faith Fact: "When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." - Brazilian Archbishop Helder Camara (1909-1999)

Justice Fact:

Number of US citizens killed by terrorists, 2005: 56
Amount spent on war on terrorism, 2005: $135 billion
Number of world citizens killed by poverty, 2005: 8,000,000
Amount spent by US on aid to world's poorest people, 2005: $5 billion

Enviro Fact: Thanks to global warming, Greenland is melting-and sending 200 times as much water into the ocean every year as is used by the city of Los Angeles . If it ever all goes, look for a 23-foot rise in global sea levels. Bye-bye L.A.