The one time single use of plastic bags is detrimental to our environment, wildlife, ocean and, therefore, ourselves. According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. If we can encourage shoppers to buy reusable bags, we can protect the environment, reduce waste, as well as protect the animals of the ocean.

This issue is crucial and affects every person in our country! The 2012 Farm Bill is currently being considered for passage by our elected officials in Washington. Among other things, this bill will define what foods can be commercially sold at your local grocery stores. If you don't raise your own food, purchase from local farms or strictly buy organic then you owe it to yourself to read on and act now!!! Please look at the articles above (wikipedia and anh-usa.org) for more information .

Stop the use of high-frequency underwater sound for testing that will hurt whales and dolphins and kill 1,800 more

Organic food has become a wildly lucrative business for Big Food companies that use their appointed members of National Organic Standards Board to push for more and more non-organic ingredients to be accepted for "Certified Organic" label. The facts have been reported in the recent article found in The New York Times (URL below). http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/business/organic-food-purists-worry-about-big-companies-influence.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

The Whales and dolphins are citizens of our shared water planet..imagine how you would feel if some one wanted to test ear/brain damaging sonic waves in the Pentigon!!!we are in the age of computer modeling..do your testing there not on our oceanic brothers and sisters!!!

Bill 11 CD1 1. Prohibits commercial activities, including recreational stops by tour companies, but excluding commercial filming activities, at Kailua Beach Park and Kalama Beach Park. 2. Provides that no permit shall be issued for commercial activities at Kailua Beach Park and Kalama Beach Park, including permits for recreational stops by commercial tour companies, but excluding permits for commercial filming activities.

Keeping Daylight savings time all year long

The FY2013 Agricultural Appropriations bill includes a rider which would require the Secretary of Agriculture to grant a temporary permit for Monsanto and other biotech companies to plant or cultivate genetically engineered crops without an Environmental Impact Statement being completed. This ceding of authority to a private corporation puts our farmers and food supply at risk.

At LeCroy Career Technical Center where I work in Clanton, AL, I collect all the plastic, aluminum, paper, glass and cardboard that I can. My husband and I recycle all of it at a recycling center near us. Still, plastic is the largest problem. This is not just a local problem or a national problem; this is a GLOBAL problem. As I write this, the number of water bottles used in the U.S. each year encircle the Earth 150 times if laid end-to-end. Less than 25% of them are recycled. There are patches of plastic the size of Texas floating around in our oceans AND each bottle takes 500 million years to decompose.

It's about the fact that this Committee denounces science and environmentalists, denies the fact that the ocean is rising, wants only to support developers who will build everywhere on our coast without consideration of the damage this will do everywhere. I have seen the ocean in NJ take houses, throw refrigerators around, and destroy what developers have done. Not here, not in North Carolina, please!

Fracking was forced into NC through a crack in a fractured House vote. Fracking is too important an issue to be rammed through the legislative process in this way. Stanford professor Mark Jacobson says we can be fossil-fuel free by 2030, with all energy needs met by wind, water and solar. Furthermore NC has strong wind and solar resources. http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/sad1109Jaco5p.indd.pdf http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/winds/global_winds.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_sLt5gNAQs After the "fracking bill" (S820) passed, Gov Perdue vetoed it, and the House lacked support to override it. But by the time House Speaker Tillis opened the vote to override the veto near midnight July 2, at least one Rep had been "bought off," and then Rep. Carney pushed the wrong button. Within two minutes, S820 was set in stone, clinched by motion meant to drown out Carney‘s protests. NC alone gives members only 10 seconds to vote and almost no chance (if any) to correct a mistaken deciding vote. When such errors occur, whether the no-change rule is suspended or the vote is clinched depends largely on whom the Speaker recognizes. What happened in NC’s House on July 2 is flagrantly unfair and warrants a correction on S820 and a change in NC’s voting rules. Members should have an opportunity to check and confirm their votes before the machine is locked. A verification vote on close or contested results should be mandatory - no room for bias. Most important, the House should take time to gather and study updated and unbiased information about fracking and the potential of wind, water and solar before rushing through a bill like this one. FYI: NOES-- Holloway (Rockingham, Stokes Counties) and McGrady (Henderson County) are the two Republicans who voted with the Democrat minority to Sustain Perdue's VETO on July 2 (the day of Carney's mistaken vote) - In other words, They voted AGAINST FRACKING AYES ---K Alexander (Mecklenburg); Brisson (Bladen, Cumberland); Carney (Mecklenburg); S Hamilton (New Hanover); Hill (Brunswick, Columbus); R Moore (Mecklenburg) are the six Democrats who voted with a majority of Republicans to Override Perdue's VETO on July 2 (Carney saying hers was a mistake). In other words, They voted IN FAVOR of FRACKING. View to get a brief tutorial on the hazards of fracking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2Ozcl7lV_g&feature=related For more details, please read & sign this petition as well - both will go to Tillis: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/707/578/933/dont-clinch-fracking-in-nc-with-fractured-house-voting-rules-allow-carneys-real-vote/

I attend Front Range Community College in Longmont, CO and have noticed that the trash is absolutely full of paper towels. It is time to wean ourselves off paper. We live in a very dry state. Our hands dry in moments after washing hands. We should be using automatic hand dryers or have signs to discourage folks from using more than one paper towel to dry their hands.