Water Consciousness Raised in New Book with Seventy-Seven International Contributors

Human life cannot survive without freshwater. "Water Voices from Around the World" raises consciousness about international water situations, water's importance to life's existence, and helps to educate a broad range of readers.

Water is beautiful, enjoyable and the source of life. Over four hundred photographs of breathtaking water scenes are presented with one hundred articles by seventy-seven international contributors to help protect water, and by extension our planet, in William E. Marks's "Water Voices from Around the World" (ISBN 9780979304606, Water Voices, Inc., 2007).
Internationally respected authors, politicians, and activists have come together to create one of the most important books ever written about global resource--water. The numerous contributors include recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize and the Stockholm Water Prize. Religious and political leaders, scientists and researchers from around the world provide guidance about humanity's current relationship with water, and how their organizations and governments are protecting freshwater for future generations. Mikhail Gorbachev, Jane Goodall, Kofi Annan, and Leonardo DiCaprio are just a handful of the best-known voices telling their water stories.
All of reality--lives, bodies, brains, even thoughts are direct manifestations of water. Because freshwater is vital to every aspect of existence, "Water Voices from Around the World" is relevant to all.. Human history began in myths of water's role in the universe's creation and its contribution to evolution--"Water Voices" gives new answers and is written to help educate about water and how people can take action to help water create life.

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No More Fairy Tales

By Andrew Cohen
Two Western spiritual teachers came for a visit last week. One was American; one was English. They both claimed to be enlightened. They actually told me they were. And I think, to some degree, it was true. They both had undergone many powerful transformative spiritual episodes and were considered by some to be masters or gurus in their own right. They both had a light in their eyes, the unmistakable shine of consciousness that has been awakened beyond the veil of the separate self-sense. They both radiated and transmitted the personal kindness and inspired enthusiasm for life unique to spiritually awakened individuals. They also both spoke nonstop about their own lives, their own work, their own beliefs and their excitement about their own futures. We didn’t really have two-way conversations. Fortunately, I’m a good listener. I genuinely enjoyed their company, but I remember what struck me after the second meeting had ended was that they both shared a view common among spiritual adepts that I believe is out of date. (Even enlightened people have to keep up with the times, have to continue to evolve, have to keep moving forward.) They both kept referring to the popular refrain among nontraditional “mystical” believers that “something’s happening in consciousness.” And because something mysterious and powerful is happening at the mystic level — the deepest unseen internal level — for an individual, a group of individuals or many groups of individuals, then a big external “shift” is imminent.
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Hailstorm swamps one small town in 6ft drifts - and it's still only October

By Luke Salkeld, from Mail Online, England

These astonishing scenes are the aftermath of a deluge of hailstones that buried a town in a river of ice.
Ottery St Mary, in Devon, was plunged into chaos by the storm in the early hours yesterday.
First, the area was battered by an astonishing 12in of hail in just two hours.

More than 100 people had to be evacuated from their homes and 25 were airlifted to safety or rescued by firefighters.
After a day of heavy rain on Wednesday more than three inches of rain and hail fell between 6pm and 8am yesterday morning.
The Met Office said the 'hugely localised' weather system was less than 4 miles across and seemed ' to be centred on Ottery St Mary'.
The most severe weather hit just after midnight on Thursday but by 5am the entire town was cut off and coastguards scrambled helicopters to airlift residents.

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4 Minor Earthquakes Shake Parts Of Texas

DALLAS (CBS) ― Eight minor earthquakes shook the Dallas-Fort Worth area from late Thursday night into Saturday morning. There have been no reports of significant damage, reports CBS station KTVT-TV in Dallas..The U.S. Geological Survey says an earthquake with a 2.6 magnitude was reported at 11:25 p.m. Thursday, centered WSW of Irving, in the Grand Prairie area.The federal agency says a slightly stronger quake, at 3.0 magnitude, happened at 12:01 a.m. Friday, centered in Irving. The third and fourth earthquakes also happened in Irving, at 12:33 a.m. and 2:58 a.m. respectively.
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Wanted: A Climate Bailout

"The problem is, once climate change begins, it cannot simply be turned off. The inertia of the climate system ensures that even if every country in the world went green as quickly as possible, the earth would still be locked into fifty more years of rising temperatures and the impacts they unleash."

By Mark Hertsgaard from The Nation

What a difference an emergency makes. Scare people enough and $700 billion can materialize almost overnight. The White House can repudiate its core economic philosophy--government should leave markets alone--within hours. Congress, where spending bills sometimes wait years to reach the floor, can pass one of the costliest laws in its history within days. Even the endlessly fickle media can provide 24/7 news coverage, making the emergency the topic on everyone's mind.
When will we see this same sense of urgency devoted to the greatest emergency of our time? You wouldn't know it from our politicians or TV shows, but the climate crisis is even more serious than the financial crisis. The financial crisis, while painful and severe, can be resolved, given time and wise policies. The climate crisis, not so. The earth's climate system has tipping points beyond which no return is possible. Yet there is a very real danger right now that sliding oil prices will lull the public into an even deeper complacency.
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