Every Picture Tells a Story - Oil and Water Don't Mix

… the USA imports 200,000 barrels of Ecuadorian petroleum every day—or about 1 percent of our total petroleum usage. So our hands aren't clean.

Our friends in the Amazon, people like Siona shaman Delio, are doing everything they can to stem the tide of destruction in this amazing corner of the earth. They can't do it alone; for one thing, the Siona have dwindled from 15,000 in 1960 (when the oil companies arrived in their part of the rainforest) to just 450 people today.

But it's shouldn't be all up to them. When I asked Johnny, a native Ecuadorian who works with our partners there, what we can do when we go home, he simply said, “Your people need to use less petroleum.”

Of course we should. If we did, imagine the impact on our foreign policy, the size of our military budget (the US spends around $90 billion per year to secure our oil supplies, not counting Iraq), the quality of our air and water, the level of noise we endure from petroleum-generated sources, and the enormous and immediate reductions in our greenhouse gases (currently at 25 tons per person in the USA), petrodollars spent to influence US politicians ($154 million last year), and the profits of Big Oil (BP raked in $25 billion in the past two years).

How do we get to that place of drastically reducing our petroleum dependency? Simply making us pay what a gallon of gas really costs our society and the environment—about $15 per gallon—would be a great place to start. Would that cut down on the size and number (251 million) of vehicles in the US and on our penchant for drilling anywhere at any risk? You bet'cha!

But that takes political leadership. So scratch that one.

NCP believes what it will really take is people like us—you and me and the people we know and influence—to begin making changes within ourselves and our communities. Yes, we need to drive less and walk/bike more, eat local food and lower on the food chain, down-size our living spaces and lawns, stop buying bottled drinks and just about anything that travelled around the world to get to us.

But we first need to supersize the space in our lives for things that matter—time with friends and with nature, eating slow food, cultivating our passions for justice and eco-sanity, and keeping mentally, spiritually and physically fit.

New Community Project - there's a place for you

We believe the challenges facing this earth and its people can best be met and addressed by people of courage, conscience and commitment  joining together within and between cultures to build a new community  of respect for all life. In the process, they support and challenge one another to live lives that appear strange only because they are a reflection of God's normalcy --living the way God intends in order to leave a planet worth passing on to our children and bring  justice for our marginalized neighbors. Here's a summary of our  main program areas -- lots to choose from! 

And we're a project -a work-in-process-trying to be open to new insight and opportunities as these arise, and working to provide new insight and opportunities to those in our circle. Join us.

NCP is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Elgin, IL and supported primarily by donations from individuals and groups.