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Some people here in Boulder are trying to get the city to take its money out of JP Morgan Stanley, claiming that immoral or unethical acts by that bank harm people and society. Good banks and credit unions invest and loan locally. They avoid laundering money, screwing customers, and investing in polluting and damaging companies. There are similar socially responsible mutual funds and companies. Learn more:

• Ethical banking - Wikipedia
• Green America's Guide to Socially Responsible Investing: Choosing a Bank that Makes a Difference
• Global Alliance – For Banking on Values ~ Socially Responsible and Green Banks as a Vehicle for Socio-economic Development and Change

Help elephants! Please write to newspapers, your representative, senators, and president, asking the sale of elephant ivory products to be banned in the US, Japan, and China. Poachers kill 30,000 elephants per year for their ivory tusks. Ivory products are sold in China, Japan, and the US. Ask that countries burn their ivory stockpiles. Ask countries to decrease the demand, disrupt the trafficking, "follow the money", and set an example. Learn more: http://eia-global.org/blog/crush-the-ivory-trade-not-just-the-ivory

Breaking update: Governor Hickenlooper cut a secret deal with the oil and gas industry to take away your right to protect your family and future from fracking. After months of closed door negotiations, Governor Hickenlooper, Congressman Polis and the oil and gas industry announced last Friday that they had made a deal to address fracking. But one key piece of the legislation would take away the ability for a Colorado community to ban or place a moratorium on fracking. They want to pass this measure in a special session of the Colorado Legislature in the next few days. Tell your legislators to oppose this backroom deal! Find the names and contact info of your state senator and state representative here. Please tell them that you do not want this "backroom deal", where Gov. Fracken blooper and the oil and gas companies are trying to preempt the votes of the citizens. Also, please tell Rep. Polis that you want him to stop this deal of a special session of the legislature. Call (202) 225-2161 or send him a message. Tell him to allow the past votes to stand and sign the petition to get initiative 75 for local control onto the ballot. Please oppose the Hickenlooper fracking deal. It will take away the hard won victories - the moratoriums and bans on fracking in Fort Collins, Boulder, Lafayette, and Broomfield. These bans and moratoriums allow us time to find out the results of health and scientific studies. Then we can make an informed choice, instead of letting the powerful and greedy oil and gas industry to grab profits before we know for sure whether they are harming our health, the water, and our future. For more info go to fractivist.org, frackfreecolorado.com, deargovernorHickenlooper.com, and 350colorado.org.

To make your home more energy efficient:

• Stop the air infiltration by sealing the holes and cracks (except for the amount needed to get air to burn gas in the furnace and hot water heater).
• Insulate the ceilings, walls, and maybe the foundation or basement.
• Orientation: have south facing windows with eaves that shade them in the summer. And with the main roof beam going east-west, you can have photovoltaic panels and hot air or water on the roof, plus a trombe wall or greenhouse on the south side.
• Have fresh air from a heat exchanger, heat recovery ventilator, or a moisture and heat recovery ventilator.

Here are some more interesting things to try:

• Use local heat such as a hot water bottle, hot tea, hot chocolate, coffee, an electric blanket, a space heater, a sweater, hat, or walk, bike, and exercise to stay warm.
• Put clear plastic over the windows. 3M has plastic that you tape over a window.
• In hot times, you can drink a lot of fluids, wear clothes that provide shade, increase air flow at night through the house via opening windows, fans, exhaust fans, etc.
• Plant deciduous tress and install shades, eaves, or awnings for shade.

Mother Earth News has more ideas on how to heat and cool your home: insulation, energy efficiency, thermal shades, swamp coolers, etc. Also check out Finehomebuilding.com, Greenbuildingadvisor.com, and Amory Lovins' Rocky Mountain Institute. An energy audit can show what is most effective in reducing energy use. Local governments and utilities often subsidize them. What do you find effective for conserving energy? Pete Seeger got warm twice, by splitting his own wood. If you have any other tips for making homes more energy efficient, please share them in the comments below!

Pressure states to close coal power plants and do renewables! Go to utilities for dummies for Dave Roberts' introduction to the weird world where utilities make their money by building large polluting coal plants and getting a 10% profit on the construction of new plants; the more they spend, the more they make. They can then take over politicians and regulatory agencies. The utilities own the territory, so they don't want any competition (such as rooftop solar) with generating electricity and power. Obama has fortunately tightened regulations on new coal power plants and is proposing to tighten regulations on existing plants. In addition, a coalition of groups (Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Clean Energy Action, 350.org, etc.) have prevented over 50 new coal power plants from being built by means of protests, lawsuits, news reports/events, etc. Go to cleanenergyaction.org for more info on how to decrease the burning of fossil fuels. Have you heard of or been to any good clean energy events?

Now we need thousands marching to pressure politicians to stop being bought off by oil, coal, gas, and utility companies. Sustainable power is possible: Texas and Germany get much of their power from wind turbines and solar panels now. We just need to stop oil, gas, coal, and utility companies from corrupting, intimidating, and bribing politicians to allow these companies to dump their CO2 in to the air, causing more extreme floods, fires, hurricanes, droughts, higher temperatures, a projected sea level rise of 10 feet, a 30% increase in ocean acidity, and extinctions. We need:

• carbon taxes
• increases in solar power, efficiency, and conservation
• organizing to get universities, cities, churches and synagogues to sell their stocks
• more support for green politicians
• municipalization of electric utilities
• tidal power
• zoning laws that favor wind and solar power
• campaign finance reform
• jobs in increasing insulation and efficiency
• in general, actions that make it immoral and illegal for oil gas, and coal companies to destroy the earth

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/a-call-to-arms-an-invitation-to-demand-action-on-climate-change-20140521 Support: 350.org, sierraclub.org, and greenpeace.org. Recent climate change successes, from "A Big Win for Divestment" by Tim Dickinson in the June 5th, 2014 issue of Rolling Stone:

• Stanford students organized votes of their senate, a referendum, and organized alumni to pressure Stanford to divest its endowment from stocks in coal companies.
• Seattle and San Francisco are purging their portfolios from climate killing stocks.