It is happening all across America and now in Europe and Africa as well – rural landowners wake up one day to find a lucrative offer from a multinational energy conglomerate wanting to lease their property. The Reason? In America, the company hopes to tap into a huge natural gas reservoir dubbed the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. Halliburton developed a way to get the gas out of the ground—a hydraulic drilling process called fracking—and suddenly America finds itself on the precipice of becoming an energy superpower.

But what comes out of the ground with that natural gas? How does it affect our air and drinking water? GASLAND is a powerful personal documentary that confronts these questions with spirit, strength, and a sense of humor. When filmmaker Josh Fox receives his cash offer in the mail, he travels across 32 states to meet other rural residents on the front lines of fracking. He discovers toxic streams, ruined aquifers, dying livestock, brutal illnesses, and kitchen sinks that burst into flame. He learns that all water is connected and perhaps some things are more valuable than money.

Private screening in Vancouver July 22. Message me for details.
Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZe1AeH0Qz8

Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 7pm

Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar (1095 Hamilton Street in Yaletown)

Purchase your ticket today for the Red Cross Red Carpet Soiree at www.rcsoiree.com or by calling 604-709-6624.

Want to know what cause your favorite celebrity is actively involved in? Check out the roster of Causecast leaders such as Russell Simmons or Jennifer Lopez to see what positive differences they are making and how you can get involved.

Here’s how we helped:

Amy Chan donated to: To Write Love on Her Arms

They are a non profit movement dedicated on helping those who are struggling with depression, addiction and suicide. This is a blurb on the organization’s profile:

You were created to love and be loved.
You were meant to live life in relationship with other people, to know and be known. You need to know that your story is important and that you’re part of a bigger story. You need to know that your life matters.

We live in a difficult world, a broken world… We believe that everyone can relate to pain, that all of us live with questions, and all of us get stuck in moments. You need to know that you’re not alone in the places you feel stuck.

Sunny Shum donated to: Friends of TOMS

Friends of TOMS provides the Shoe Drop volunteer program and helps the treatment of those affected with Podoconiosis, a debilitating foot and leg disease, in Ethiopia that is 100% preventable by wearing shoes from an early age. For every pair of TOMS purchased, one pair goes to the cause.

Make your mark for positive change now – www.Causecast.org

Amy Chan, PartlySunny Contributor

Hence the 15 Below Jacket was born. Design agency Taxi in collaboration with fashion designer Lida Baday created the wind, fire and rainproof coat. The coat is lined with 15 pockets that can be stuffed with newspapers to provide adjustable layers of insulation. When the jacket isn’t being worn, it can be folded into a pillow or a backpack. Taxi partnered with Salvation Army to get 3000 coats to shelters across Canada.

But, does the jacket really work? Well, just to make sure, Taxi’s Executive Creative Director, Steve Mykolyn nominated himself to make sure, spending eight hours in a freezer facility wearing the stuffed coat.

Check out the cool autographed 15 Below Jackets by artists such as Kid Rock, Kim Catrall and R.E.M. and find out how you can further the cause on 15belowproject.org

Yesterday I picked up the paper and saw an article on the earthquake in Indonesia that has killed thousands. There was a photo a father and in his arms was the body of his dead baby girl while in the background, the city was in absolute ruins. People around the world in less fortunate places are dying, starving and will never in their life know the feeling of a full stomache. While my belt will be tossed in my closet in 2 months once it’s out of style, my nail polish will chip and my dresses worn maybe once a year, there are others who with even 0.001% of the money I waste on the superficial, could get medication, food, education, shelter…basic human rights that we take for granted daily.

We comfortably live in North America where many choose ignorance…and choose not to think…so that we don’t have to actually care and do something about what is going on around us. We don’t think about what happens to all that stuff we buy and throw away, we don’t think about the environment – the landfills, the affects of global warming and why our weather is so strange lately, we don’t think because we choose to be ignorant. That way, we can continue consuming and destroying the earth without guilt. We hide behind the excuse that,  “One person can’t make a difference”.

By no means am I saying I am a holy saint saving the world. I eat meat, I buy nice things and I have leather shoes. I’m not saying that you have to be a vegan and wear only second hand clothing and give up your luxuries in life. I’m saying, that once in a while, think about how something so small that you can do, can  make a difference. How about not buying a Starbucks latte for 2 days and donating that $10? You think that $10 won’t do anything, but for those two lattes, you would have provide food and medication to a sick child in a third world.

I’m asking those of you out there who are so fortunate like myself, to stop and think once in a while about how you can help this world. Whether it be by recycling, or using the back of paper to write on, or donating some money…whatever degree you wish to make an effort…any effort is a step.

I donated some money to the Red Cross for aid for the Indonesia earthquake. Hopefully some of you out there will want to as well.And hey, if you can’t, this blog isn’t to make you feel guilty, do something else. Say a prayer, increase your awareness…whatever you do, whether its on a big or small scale, is  doing something.

www.redcross.ca