Deb Whalen wearing a Healing Earth Blanket as a cape during protest of "Dirty Coal" in July

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What is the significance of 350?

350 parts per million is what many scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments are now saying is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. Accelerating arctic warming and other early climate impacts have led scientists to conclude that we are already above the safe zone at our current 390ppm, and that unless we are able to rapidly return to 350 ppm this century, we risk reaching tipping points and irreversible impacts such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and major methane releases from increased permafrost melt which would create an environmental catastrophe of “biblical” proportions. To watch a short animation that explains how much we have to lose if we don’t turn our carbon emissions go to  /http://www.wakeupfreakout.org/.  Join the “Stewards of Earth and Spirit” , Green Artists League, and the New Eden Gardeners and show your commitment to saving our planet and our children’s future.

Planting 350 Bulbs!
We invite everyone to join us in planting one package of bulbs each along the
Old Burying Ground stone wall across from the church. The ground will be prepared.
Our hope for a greener future will manifest abundantly next Spring!

Community Healing Blanket- This free and open workshop is for children ages 2-102.
Artist/activist and Green Artist League Co-director, Deb Cinamon Whalen will lead a Healing Blanket Workshop in Holton
Hall (church basement). A Healing Blanket is made of all natural elements (nuts, seeds,
wheat, etc.). When finished, it will go to a town in Appalachia that has been devastated
by mountaintop removal coal mining. The blanket will be displayed publicly to raise consciousness and hope and then will be placed on the ground to heal and replenish it.

3:50 Come ring the First Parish Bell 350 times as a call to action to combat climate change. At the same time, Transition Newburyport and others will be sounding a drum 350 times in Newburyport.  We will create a symbolic and (hopefully auditory) resonance of solidarity.

3:30 Group Photo – Bring your creative garb and partake in our 350 group photo to be sent to be sent to the United Nations with thousands of other -photos from around the word to show the groundswell of demand  for stricter climate treaties.

4 PM Eco Service
Join us outdoors in our Chapel Under the Trees around a bonfire to share prayers
from around the world for the earth and for success at the upcoming UN meeting.

The Green Artists League (GAL)  have embedded “articulturists” in the New Eden Community Gardens dedicated to offering

GAL intern Cathy Stevens painting on the New Eden Collaborative Mural at First Parish Chuch

challenge, support and reinforcement of the creative process of  members of the New Eden Collaborative. In the summer of 2008, GAL began working on a 9′ x 60′ mural on “Visions of a Sustainable Future” based on input from New Eden Collaborative members. GAL artists frequently work on the mural during the Friday distribution hours of the Greater Newburyport CSA ( Community Supported Agriculture) to create an opportunity for dialogue on our challenges, solutions, and hopes for a sustainable future.

GAL is pleased to introduce our 2009 summer intern from Montserrat College of Art, Cathy Stevens. An illustration major, who wanted to learn about collaborative/ activist art, she will be dedicating a large part of her internship to working on the mural and other Green Artists League projects at the New Eden Collaborative.

the Green Artists League is beginning the design of the second phase of the mural that will focus on a sustainable Newburyport cityscape. GAL encourages “co-creation of the mural” and is soliciting your dreams and your hopes for a sustainable future. Please submit your vision for our sustainable future via comments  to this post.  These suggestions will be incorporated into the design of the mural.

Detail of mural in progess