Weekly Meeting of Rotary E-Club of the Caribbean, 7020: April 8, 2016

WELCOME TO THE WEEKLY MEETING

FRIDAY, April 8, 2016

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In this meeting:

A personal Greeting
Rotary Minute
ABCs of Rotary
An Update on Polio
New Rotary video
Rotary Code of Conduct
Maternal Health
America's Water Crisis
A great idea for the school playground
Introducing our President-elect, Paul Amoury
What happened Wednesday?
Sanitation Challenges in India
What happened last Saturday, April 2
Zika notice
Announcement
Inspiration
Climate Change explained
Foundation Corner
Rotary Anthem
Four-Way Test to close

NOTE: Where links are provided in the meeting, click the link to view the video. To return to the meeting, click either your browser's BACK button or click the previous window or TAB.

OUR GREETER THIS WEEK IS DAWN JOHNSON

President's Message

Dear fellow Rotarians and Guests,

April is celebrated as Maternal and Child Health Month. The improvement in women’s health care is one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century. Yet too many women still die or suffer serious health complications from pregnancy every year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is at the forefront of the nation’s efforts to prevent and control chronic diseases so that all women can have a safe and healthy pregnancy.

Pregnancy-related mortality is defined as the death of a woman while pregnant or within 1 year of the end of pregnancy (no matter how long her pregnancy was) from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy.

However, the risk of death during and shortly after pregnancy has not been decreasing in recent years.

About 1 of 4 deaths is related to heart disease, and women still die from bleeding, high blood pressure, blood clots, and infections (including influenza). Many of these deaths can be prevented through improvements in preconception care, access to health care and social services, quality of care received, and behaviors and health care practices of women.

Although the overall risk of dying from pregnancy complications is low, some women are at higher risk than others. A woman’s race, ethnicity, country of birth, or age can be associated with a higher risk of death and pregnancy complications. These factors also may affect a woman’s ability to avoid an unintended pregnancy, get the right medical care, or practice healthy behaviors. For example,

The risk of death for African American women is 3 to 4 times higher than for white women.
The risk of death for women aged 35 to 39 is nearly 3 times higher than for women aged 20 to 24.
The risk is even higher for women aged 40 or older.

We will explore and discuss other aspects of health care that may affect and impact the lives of our children. Join us each week as we discuss a wide range of topics of interest.

April 9 – Weekly Meeting

April 16 – Weekly Meeting

April 23 - Weekly Meeting

April 30 – Club Assembly

May 2 – 7, 2016 – District Conference [Bahamas]

ROTARY MINUTE

QUOTATIONS REGARDING ROTARY

by Rotary International Presidents

1952-53 H.J. Brunnier (structural engineering), Rotary Club of San Francisco, California, USA. Rotary vision: Applying the principle of gradualness as a powerful force for good.

“The things that are worthwhile take time, and it is not the I’s of the world but the

We’s who achieve them.”

— Eventually…Gradually…, THE ROTARIAN, July 1952

1953-54 Joaquin Serratosa Cibils (tire distribution), Montevideo, Uruguay. Rotary vision: Continual creation of new clubs to turn Rotary’s dream of service into ever wider action.

“The more clubs we have, the more friends we have, and the more friends, the

greater our opportunity for service.”

— Meet Your President, THE ROTARIAN, September 1953

ABCs OF ROTARY

RI President (1992-93) Cliff Dochterman

The International Assembly

An International Assembly is held each year during February or March to prepare all of the district governors-nominee from around the world for the office they will assume on 1 July.

Accompanied by their spouses, the 525 incoming governors join a host of experienced Rotarian leaders for more than a week of training and motivational sessions. At the assembly they meet the special Rotarian who will serve as RI president during their year as governors and they learn the RI theme for the coming year around which they will build their district's conference.

The first International Assembly was held in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., in 1919. Later assemblies were held in Lake Placid, New York; Boca Raton, Florida; and Nashville, Tennessee. In recent years the assembly has been held in Anaheim, California. But regardless of the venue, the message on the sign above the plenary hall has remained unchanged for years: "Enter to learn. . . go forth to serve."

The District Assembly

In view of the annual turnover of Rotary leadership each year, special effort is required to provide the more than 29,000 club leaders with appropriate instruction for the tasks they will assume. The annual district assembly is the major leadership training event in each Rotary district of the world.

The district assembly offers motivation, inspiration, Rotary information and new ideas for club officers, directors and key committee chairpersons of each club. Some of the most experienced district leaders conduct informative discussions on all phases of Rotary administration and service projects. The assembly gives all participants valuable new ideas to make their club more effective and interesting. Usually eight to ten delegates from each club are invited to attend the training session.

Another important feature of a district assembly is a review by the incoming district governor of the program theme and emphasis of the new RI president for the coming year. District goals and objects are also described and plans are developed for their implementation.

The success of each Rotary club is frequently determined by the club's full representation and participation in the annual district assembly.

AN UPDATE ON POLIO

A NEW ROTARY VIDEO

Miracle at Bruce Rock from Kerotv on Vimeo.

MATERNAL HEALTH

Maternal and child health would also be very closely related to water and sanitation - so you will be interested in the information provided in the "What happened on Wednesday" section of our meeting below.

AMERICA'S WATER CRISIS

Goes beyond Flint, Michigan

...submitted by Rotarian John Fuller

What happens if US ignores water issues? The EPA claims 41 states in the U.S. have heightened lead levels in their water supply, impacting millions of lives and costing billions of dollars in damages.

America's water issues extend far beyond the current crisis in Flint, Michigan — and it's going to take a massive infrastructure investment to protect citizens from serious public health dangers, say experts.

In light of World Water Day, on March 22, the White House, along with about 150 other institutions, pledged more than $5 billion to improve water accessibility and quality across the nation, acknowledging that "water challenges are facing communities and regions across the United States, impacting millions of lives and costing billions of dollars in damages."

In fact, data CNBC obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency reveals that only nine U.S. states are reporting safe levels of lead in their water supply. These include Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota and Tennessee.

According to the EPA, 41 states had Action Level Exceedance (ALEs) in the last three fiscal years, meaning states have reported higher than acceptable levels of lead in drinking water.

On its website, the EPA published a regulation in 1991 — known as the Lead and Copper Rule — to control lead and copper in drinking water.

Demonstrators protest over the Flint, Michigan, contaminated water crisis, March 6, 2015.

Demonstrators protest over the Flint, Michigan contaminated water crisis, March 6, 2015.

"If the action level for lead is exceeded, the system must also inform the public about steps they should take to protect their health and may have to replace lead service lines under their control," the website states.

Furthermore, the EPA told CNBC that of the more than 7,000 schools subject to the EPA Lead and Copper Rule, 431 reported heightened levels of lead between 2012 and 2015.

Lynn Thorp, the national campaigns director at Clean Water Action, told CNBC that of particular concern in Lead and Copper Rule compliance data would be public water systems with repeated exceedances of the action level.

"If over 10 percent of samples are showing lead at the tap over 15 parts per billion, and this is occurring over and over again, this is a signal that controlling corrosion from lead in pipes and plumbing is not working," Thorp said.

The director did add, though, that because lead levels can vary in any one place and over time, "an exceedance should prompt system action, investigation and notification, but it should not be used to draw conclusions about statewide lead levels at the tap."

Experts say, however, that the focus should not necessarily be on water quality in the United States, which is fairly high, but rather with the infrastructure that is delivering the water to our homes, schools, daycares and cities.

Casey Dinges, the American Society of Civil Engineers senior managing director, told CNBC that the infrastructure conveying the water is in "serious need of investment right now."

"If we continue on the path that we are on now, and if we don't increase investment in these areas, we're putting at risk by the year 2020 over $400 billion in U.S. GDP, 700,000 jobs would be endangered, and over half a trillion dollars in personal income would be at risk," Dinges said.
Those investments include pouring money into pipes, water treatment plants and other water infrastructure.

Dinges says it would cost a little more than $80 billion over a nine-year period to protect businesses from losing about $150 billion and could protect homeowners from about $60 billion in costs associated with water-related issues.

"The cost-benefit ratio of about an $80 billion investment yielding over $200 billion in savings for the country … is a good investment for us to make," Dinges said.

The water situation in Newark, New Jersey, schools is now in the spotlight as well.

John Abeigon, president of the Newark Teachers Union, told CNBC that Newark public schools are a "mini-Flint," with tests revealing that at least 30 schools in the city show lead contaminated water samples.

Michigan governor's address to focus on Flint water crisis

"It could be in the upwards of $10 [million] to $20 million dollars to retrofit the plumbing in some of these buildings. Some of these buildings are over a century and a half old," Abeigon said.

The Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., based non-profit public policy organization, published a report saying that better regional measures should be in place in order to improve water infrastructure.

Among the steps Brookings suggests that local areas can take to improve these issues includes increasing transparency on any water data collected, producing more detailed metrics of the infrastructure itself and conducting more frequent testing.

"It is in part an infrastructure crisis, but it is also a case of gaps in government oversight at all levels, of ill-thought austerity and of not being aggressively proactive in taking the job of protecting, treating and distributing drinking water as a public health issue," Clean Water Action's Thorp said.

Erik Olson, senior strategic director with the Natural Resources Defense Council, agrees. "The Flint water crisis is extreme, but it's not the only case of lead-contaminated tap water in America. Lead problems exist across the nation, but deficient data reporting, often nonexistent state oversight and an utter lack of accountability by state and federal governments keeps the widespread problem of lead in drinking water largely out of sight," he said.

<source - http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/24/americas-water-crisis-goes-beyond-flint-michigan.html><Rebecca Cook | Reuters>

A GREAT IDEA!

When you don't have anyone to play with, you go to the buddy bench at Willowgrove School.

The rules surrounding the green bench, located next to the school's playground, are pretty simple. Within a few minutes, any student sitting on the bench will be approached by a fellow student and asked to play.

"If you can't find your best friends, and you don't know where to go play, you sit on the buddy bench, and somebody will come and find you," said seven-year-old student Matthew Henkelman.

Click the link below to view the short video and interview with children.

Source - http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/buddy-bench-willowgrove-school-1.3505066

INTRODUCING OUR PRESIDENT-ELECT

PAUL AMOURY

Hi everyone

I am Paul Amoury currently of Lorton, Virginia, in the United States. I have been in the U.S. for about 15 years.

I am an Honorary Member of the Rotary Club of East Nassau, in the Bahamas. President Geoff sent me the information and the link to the Rotary E-Club of the Caribbean, 7020.

My Father Buddy Amoury and my Uncle Si Amoury (both Deceased) were both Rotarians at East Nassau, and Paul Harris fellows. Naturally, in the fruition of time (when I took over my father's business as Vice President) I became a member of East Nassau. I have served on the board twice and enjoyed it thoroughly. When I left the Bahamas in 1995, they made me an Honorary member. I love being a Rotarian and lived my life using the 4 -Way test as my guide. I am also a Paul Harris Fellow.

I like reading, watching movies, gardening, cooking and and socializing. I love my Family (who are spread all over the world) and often spend time having Sunday Dinner with my family who are nearby. My travels almost always include going with or to my family. I have a condo in Lorton Virginia and am the President of the Condo Association, and I have been on the board for 8 years. I am also a member of the DOGS (Dads Of Great Students) at my nephew & niece's elementary school. So I am actually a UOGS.

I work for the Contracts & Procurement Department, at a company called ENSCO Inc. They are an Engineering/research & Design company based here in Virginia, USA. They manage several Commercial as well as Government contracts ranging from manpower of Engineers for the Air Force to testing train tracks throughout the USA and other regions of the world. They have several train as well as rail inspection programs including a virtual Track Inspection program.

I am the Sr. Administrator of the division, as well as the Data Analyst and a Contracts administrator for our parts sales contracts. My duties are varied, from ordering supplies to entering data into 2 databases. I maintain a shared drive for the division, where all electronic files are kept for future reference. I also maintain ENSCO specific information which Contracts & Procurement may require from time to time, such as who our Board of directors are or who are the contacts in several government agencies. I also audit proposals for the operating divisions (which are filtered through the other Contracts Administrators). I administer the contracts for sales by coordinating with the customer as well as the Operating division to ensure smooth sales and product delivery.

ENSCO has a subsidiary call ENSCO Rail, and I also administer the contracts there for the MicroSearch Division. MicroSearch is a Heartbeat Detector System which allows the detection of a human presence where there should not be one. We often sell these systems to the US prisons, for detection of people hiding in Laundry Vans or garbage trucks in an attempt to escape. However, they are also sold to several Boarder Patrols including Finland and several areas in Australia, and even Slovenia.

- See more at: http://portal.clubrunner.ca/9515/SitePage/paul-amoury-profile#sthash.UQNcfTqO.dpuf

I like reading, watching movies, gardening, cooking and and socializing. I love my Family (who are spread all over the world) and often spend time having Sunday Dinner with my family who are nearby.

My travels almost always include going with or to my family. I have a condo in Lorton, Virginia, and am the President of the Condo Association, and I have been on the board for 8 years. I am also a member of the DOGS (Dads Of Great Students) at my nephew & niece's elementary school. So I am actually a UOGS.

I work for the Contracts & Procurement Department, at a company called ENSCO Inc. They are an Engineering/research & Design company based here in Virginia, USA. They manage several Commercial as well as Government contracts ranging from manpower of Engineers for the Air Force to testing train tracks throughout the USA and other regions of the world. They have several train, as well as rail, inspection programs including a virtual Track Inspection program.

I maintain a shared drive for the division, where all electronic files are kept for future reference. I also maintain ENSCO specific information which Contracts & Procurement may require from time to time, such as who our Board of directors are or who are the contacts in several government agencies. I audit proposals for the operating divisions (which are filtered through the other Contracts Administrators). I administer the contracts for sales by coordinating with the customer as well as the Operating division to ensure smooth sales and product delivery.

I look forward to my term as President of the Rotary E-Club of the Caribbean, 7020 in 2016-17.

"To Rotary round the world!"

WHAT HAPPENED ON WEDNESDAY!

April 6, 2016

Toilet humour is serious business.

Published on May 7, 2015

Sometimes life leads you to far flung places and puts you in positions that you never dreamed. When you follow the rabbit hole and embrace it with both arms you might never realise it how it might change your life.

Mark's simple and personal story is beautifully expressed from a guy who just wanted to do the right thing. Mark discovered something that could at the very least change people's lives when he started an organisation called "We Can't Wait."

After several years working as a travel writer and then establishing his own business, Mark found himself as a board member for a company...in India. During one of the frequent trips that he made from his home in Melbourne he unravelled an issue too large to ignore.

Some years later Mark discovered that the best job he has ever had doesn't pay a cent but may just save lives.

A secondary video

Jack Sim – Mr. Toilet

Published on Jun 11, 2015

During the 2015 Skoll World Forum, Jack Sim of the World Toilet Organization spoke about using the power of humor to spotlight issues in a serious world. Here, he explains his campaign to address open defecation by positioning the restroom as the "happiest room" in India.

As an additional video - you may be interested - below is a longer interview (nearly 20 minutes) with Mr. Toilet.

Jack Sim, Founder of World Toilet Organization (WTO), has been a successful businessman since age 24. Having achieved financial success in his 40s, Jack felt the need to change his direction in life and give back to humanity – he wanted to live his life according to the motto “Live a useful life”. Jack soon left his business and embarked on a journey that saw him being the voice for those who cannot speak out and fighting for the dignity, rights and health for the vulnerable and poor worldwide.

Jack discovered that toilets were often neglected and grew concerned that the topic was often shrouded in embarrassment and apathy; talking toilets was taboo! Jack felt this led to the neglect of restrooms island wide. In 1998, he established the Restroom Association of Singapore (RAS) whose mission was to raise the standards of public toilets in Singapore and around the world.

Through RAS, Jack’s vision was to put Singapore on the “world map” by taking the initiative to provide clean public toilets. As Jack began his work in Singapore, he realized there were other existing toilet associations operating in other countries.

It soon became clear that there were no channels available to bring these organisations together to share information, resources and facilitate change. There was a lack of synergy. As a result, in 2001, Jack founded the World Toilet Organization (WTO) and four years later, the World Toilet College (WTC) in 2005.

In 2004, Jack was awarded the Singapore Green Plan Award 2012 by Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) for his contribution to Environment. In 2006, Jack was invited to launch The German Toilet Organisation in Berlin. He is also a founding member of American Restroom Association.

In 2007, Jack became one of the key members to convene the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) comprised of over 130 organisations active in the sanitation sector. Jack is also an Ashoka Global Fellow and in 2008 was named Hero of the Environment by Time Magazine. Jack also sits in the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils (GAC) for Water Security and also the GAC for Social Entrepreneurship.

He graduated with a Masters in Public Administration from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in 2013. He was shortlisted for the Sarphati Sanitation Award in November 2013.

Is there a problem with toilets and sanitation in India? Most definitely, and it would also have a huge impact upon Maternal and Child Health.

In attendance:

Plan to join us on a Wednesday to continue to learn and to have fun!

CHALLENGES OF SANITATION IN INDIA

MUKHRAI, India — Rameshwar Natholi received an unexpected gift from the government recently when workmen descended on his modest home in this rural village in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and built a brand-new toilet in his front yard.

Natholi, a farmworker, said he never wanted one. Most people in his village have been relieving themselves in the open fields for years.

But as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Clean India” campaign to provide new sanitary toilets to more than 60 million homes by 2019, Mukhrai has been in the midst of a toilet-building boom since April.

More than 53 percent of Indian homes — about 70 percent in the villages — lack toilets. Poor sanitation and contaminated water cause 80 percent of the diseases afflicting rural India, and diarrhea is a leading killer of children younger than 5, UNICEF says.

Modi says that this is a shame for a country that has global aspirations and that the lack of sanitary conveniences is demeaning to women.

But building toilets is the easy part. Getting people to use them is the real challenge, officials say.

“We never asked for a toilet. Now we are stuck with it,” said Natholi, 22, as he opened the squat toilet to show that it has not been used. His 62-year-old father peered in and shook his head. “Having a toilet so close to the house is not a good idea. The pit is too small; it will fill up quickly. I don’t want the bother of cleaning it up frequently. Going out to the open field is healthier. The open breeze outside is better than sitting inside this tiny room.”

Rameshwar Natholi complains about the size of the pit for the unused new toilet in his front yard in Mukhrai village in India’s Uttar Pradesh state. “The pit is too small; it will fill up quickly. I don’t want the bother of cleaning it up frequently,” he says. (Rama Lakshmi/The Washington Post)

Modi has made toilet-building and sanitation a rallying cry since October. He has enlisted large companies to help. In the past year, his government has built more than 5.8 million toilets — up from 4.9 million the previous year. But reports show that many of them have gone unused or that they are being used to store grain or clothes or to tether goats, thwarting Modi’s sanitation revolution.

“Even as we accelerate toilet construction now, much more needs to be done to persuade people to use them,” said Chaudhary Birender Singh, India’s minister for rural development, sanitation and drinking water. “For long, we assumed that if the toilets are built, people will automatically use it.

But we have to diligently monitor the use over a period of time and reward them with cash incentives to the village councils at every stage. Only then will it become a daily habit.”

The government budget for raising awareness largely remained unspent for years. Thousands of villages were declared to have ended open defecation since 2006, but many have since returned to the practice.

Critics also say that the government’s great toilet race has turned into a vortex of corruption in which villagers and middlemen siphon money by creating fake ledger entries about toilet construction.

After years of promoting toilet use by advocating the health benefits, many regions of India began using women as toilet ambassadors. Prospective brides were urged to shun potential grooms whose villages did not have toilets. Now, the campaign has begun to promote toilets as key to women’s security.

Numerous television ads and signs on village walls ask families to forbid their daughters and daughters-in-law to defecate in the open.

But an unintended consequence of this campaign has been the perception that toilets are just for women.

“Men can go out to the open fields, but for women who wear veils all day, a toilet in the home is a good idea,” said Sarvesh Sharma, 28, speaking with her face covered in Mukhrai, in front of her half-built toilet.

In the southern state of Karnataka, a film about responsible fathers of adolescent daughters was used to get men to build toilets in their villages.

“Whether you like it or not, it’s the men who make the decisions. And sanitation is just not a priority for the men. So we had to convey a message about toilets that enhances their manliness,” said Jayamala Subramaniam, chief executive of Arghyam, a group in Bangalore that works on sanitation and water projects.

In many villages, the new toilets are being used by women and the elderly. Researchers say that families use toilets sparingly because they do not want the pits to fill up quickly.

Natholi said he wants a toilet pit so large that he can forget about emptying it for 20 years.

India’s poor toilet habits have little to do with income or limited access to water. They are influenced more by India’s centuries-old caste system, in which members of the lowest group — formerly called “untouchables” — would clear away human waste.

“The act of emptying the pit latrine is associated with the socially degrading caste system,” said Sangita Vyas, managing director at Rice, a New Delhi-based research group that studies sanitation issues. “People fear a situation when their pit fills up and there is nobody willing to clean it because of the social stigma. That fear discourages sustained use of toilets. ”

A Rice survey in 300 villages last year showed that more than 40 percent of homes with working toilets still showed evidence of open defecation. The report said that toilets built by the government, typically smaller, are least likely to be used.

But conversations about caste are not part of the government’s toilet and sanitation campaign, activists say.

“How can you speak about toilets for everyone without first freeing certain caste groups from the degrading work of cleaning human waste?” said Bezwada Wilson, founder of the Sanitation Workers Movement. “For any sanitation program to be successful in India, the government has to first mechanize the entire cleaning activities of the pit latrines, sewer lines and septic tanks.”

Sanitation is not just a rural problem in India. Even in big cities, only 30 percent of sewage is treated and disposed of.

“If all of us begin to use toilets in India tomorrow, India will still not be in a position to solve the public health problem,” said Madhu Krishna, senior program officer for sanitation at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation based in Delhi.

Meanwhile in Mukhrai, Man Pal Chaudhury, the Mukhrai village chief, said the 114 new toilets will bring change, but slowly. “The goal is to free my village of open defecation. But for that, each and every person has to fall in line,” he said. “That is several years away.

<source -

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-is-building-millions-of-toilets-but-toilet-training-could-be-a-bigger-task/2015/06/03/09d1aa9e-095a-11e5-a7ad-b430fc1d3f5c_story.html>

EARTH DAY - APRIL 22

Earth Day is an annual event, celebrated on April 22, on which day events worldwide are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

It was first celebrated in 1970, and is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and celebrated in more than 193 countries each year.

************

Each year, Earth Day—April 22—marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.

The height of counterculture in the United States, 1970 brought the death of Jimi Hendrix, the last Beatles album, and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” War raged in Vietnam and students nationwide overwhelmingly opposed it.

At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. “Environment” was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news.

Although mainstream America largely remained oblivious to environmental concerns, the stage had been set for change by the publication of Rachel Carson’s New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented a watershed moment, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries, and beginning to raise public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and links between pollution and public health.

Earth Day 1970 gave voice to that emerging consciousness, channeling the energy of the anti-war protest movement and putting environmental concerns on the front page.

The Idea

The idea for a national day to focus on the environment came to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda.

Senator Nelson announced the idea for a “national teach-in on the environment” to the national media; persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair; and recruited Denis Hayes from Harvard as national coordinator. Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land. April 22, falling between Spring Break and Final Exams, was selected as the date.

On April 22,1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.

Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. By the end of that year, the first Earth Day had led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. “It was a gamble,” Gaylord recalled, “but it worked.”

As 1990 approached, a group of environmental leaders asked Denis Hayes to organize another big campaign. This time, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage. Earth Day 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

It also prompted President Bill Clinton to award Senator Nelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1995)—the highest honor given to civilians in the United States—for his role as Earth Day founder.

Earth Day Today

As the millennium approached, Hayes agreed to spearhead another campaign, this time focused on global warming and a push for clean energy. With 5,000 environmental groups in a record 184 countries reaching out to hundreds of millions of people, Earth Day 2000 combined the big-picture feistiness of the first Earth Day with the international grassroots activism of Earth Day 1990. Earth Day 2000 used the power of the Internet to organize activists, but also featured a drum chain that traveled from village to village in Gabon, Africa. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, DC for a First Amendment Rally. Earth Day 2000 sent world leaders the loud and clear message that citizens around the world wanted quick and decisive action on global warming and clean energy.

Much like 1970, Earth Day 2010 came at a time of great challenge for the environmental community. Climate change deniers, well-funded oil lobbyists, reticent politicians, a disinterested public, and a divided environmental community all contributed to the narrative—cynicism versus activism. Despite these challenges, Earth Day prevailed and Earth Day Network reestablished Earth Day as a relevant, powerful focal point.

Earth Day Network brought 250,000 people to the National Mall for a Climate Rally, launched the world’s largest environmental service project—A Billion Acts of Green®–introduced a global tree planting initiative that has since grown into The Canopy Project, and engaged 22,000 partners in 192 countries in observing Earth Day.

Earth Day had reached into its current status as the largest secular observance in the world, celebrated by more than a billion people every year, and a day of action that changes human behavior and provokes policy changes.

Today, the fight for a clean environment continues with increasing urgency, as the ravages of climate change become more manifest every day. We invite you to be a part of Earth Day and help write many more chapters—struggles and victories—into the Earth Day book.

Stay tuned! 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. In honor of this milestone, Earth Day Network is preparing to announce an ambitious set of goals to shape the future we need.

- See more at: http://www.earthday.org/about/the-history-of-earth-day/#sthash.1gqeKDR5.dpuf

WHAT HAPPENED APRIL 2

SATURDAY MORNING

The Brain Game - a Rotary project focusing on newborns - was mentioned by Rotarian John.
Here are some links to peruse.

To order "The Brain Game Book" or for more information, please contact info@rotarybraingame.org or call Jeanne Meyer at 608-304-2971.

- See more at: http://rotarycluboflacrosse.org/SitePage/the-brain-game/related-page#sthash.fhZiHwct.dpuf

"The Brain Game", a user-friendly educational guide, which explains to parents why and how their child is learning and developing. Additionally, the book includes specific activities, songs, and suggested behaviors that parents can engage in to help foster their child's intellectual and social development. This book is available to the public and can be found in public libraries.
To order "The Brain Game Book" or for more information, please contact info@rotarybraingame.org or call Jeanne Meyer at .
- See more at: http://rotarycluboflacrosse.org/SitePage/the-brain-game/related-page#sthash.fhZiHwct.dpuf

http://thebraingame.org/

http://rotarycluboflacrosse.org/SitePage/the-brain-game/related-page

Those in attendance last Saturday:

THE FOLLOWING WILL BE SHARED
with the district

CDC braces for Zika’s US invasion as scientists watch virus melt fetal brain

...shared by Rotarian Brent

Experts prepare for pockets of transmission on US mainland as mosquito season begins

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gathered more than 300 local, state, and federal authorities and experts at its Atlanta headquarters Friday to prepare for clusters of mosquito-transmitted Zika infections on the US mainland.

“The mosquitoes that carry Zika virus are already active in US territories, hundreds of travelers with Zika have already returned to the continental US, and we could well see clusters of Zika virus in the continental US in the coming months,” CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a statement prior to today’s meeting. “Urgent action is needed, especially to minimize the risk of exposure during pregnancy.”

Zika, a virus that has been tearing across Central and South America since last year, is mostly transmitted by mosquito, but it can also be spread through sexual contact. Generally the virus only causes mild illness, with symptoms including fever, rash, pink eye, and aches. But in the recent outbreaks, Zika has been linked to rare cases of paralyzing auto-immune disease, called Guillain-Barré syndrome. Of most concern, it's also linked to devastating birth defects, including microcephaly, in which babies are born with small, malformed heads and brains.

While researchers are still studying the link between Zika and microcephaly, health experts fear that microcephaly is just one of the potential problems for the unborn. “Perhaps one of the most important unknowns is what is the range of fetal abnormalities in addition to microcephaly,” Frieden said in a press conference during the summit. Microcephaly may just be the extreme, he and others noted. Babies exposed to the virus in utero may also suffer from less obvious developmental and cognitive problems, he speculated.

The fear is bolstered by recent data that has only strengthened the tie between the virus and the birth defect, with some studies finding the virus killing off developing brain cells. In a study released this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers report tracking the development of a fetus whose mother was infected with the virus during a trip to Central America while she was three months pregnant.

With blood tests and magnetic resonance images (MRI), researchers watched as the baby’s brain essentially turned to liquid in the course of nine weeks. The woman aborted the fetus at week 21.

Friday’s one-day summit covered such breaking scientific data on the virus and provided training to authorities on how to prevent, treat, and talk with the public (particularly pregnant women) about Zika and its health effects. Experts also focused on coordinating efforts to stamp down mosquito populations.

Estimated range of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in the United States, 2016

There’s a hodge-podge of practices in various communities for tackling mosquito control, and many of them are very effective, according to Amy Pope, a White House deputy homeland security advisor and deputy assistant to the president who spoke at the press conference. “The goal of today’s summit is to bring all of those practices together in one place, give folks sort of the menu of options, so that they can develop a comprehensive plan well in advance of when we see mosquitoes biting around the continental United States,” she said.

Though health experts don’t foresee extensive mosquito-borne outbreaks of Zika in the US, there’s reason to expect small clusters of transmission. Zika is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, particularly Aedes aegypti and to a lesser extent Aedes albopictus. These mosquitoes, which are present in some areas of the US, can also transmit yellow fever, dengue, and chikungunya viruses. Small outbreaks of chikungunya and dengue pop up in certain areas each year, particularly in Texas and Florida. Health experts suspect that Zika may behave similarly.

A representation of the surface of the Zika virus with protruding envelope glycoproteins (red) shown.

Courtesy of Kuhn and Rossmann research groups, Purdue University.

Frieden stressed the difficulty of knocking back Aedes populations, which are day-biters that can breed in very small amounts of standing water. Coordinated, sustained, and well-funded efforts are needed to control these populations, he said.

So far, there is no vaccine or specific treatment for Zika. However, in another scientific report in the journal Science this week, researchers report getting the first detailed, 3D image of the virus using cryo-electron microscopy. While the viral close-up looks unsurprisingly similar to that of dengue—a related virus—there are minor differences. Those findings could provide clues to how researchers might defeat the virus with a vaccine.

New England Journal of Medicine, 2015. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1601824 (About DOIs).

Science, 2015. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf5316

...submitted and shared by Rotarian Brent

CLUB ANNOUNCEMENTS

Best wishes to Denis as he recuperates from a few days in the hospital. Get well soon!

Congratulations to Lesli's daughter -- Congratulations on your exams!

Four applications were sent to the District for the Young Leaders' Summit associated with the RI Convention this year. Our Jerome was one of them, hoping to attend. We will share the results when we have more information. Jerome plans to become a full Rotarian by January!
All members please remember that club and district dues will become due on July 1, 2016. Please plan to submit your dues on time.
RLI in Kingston (Parts 1 and 3) on Saturday, April 9.

A MOST INSPIRATIONAL VIDEO

And it's from a beer commercial!

Climate change explained

FOUNDATION CORNER

WHAT IS THE ANNUAL FUND

ANNUAL FUND is the primary source of funding for all Foundation activities. Our annual contributions help Rotary Clubs take action to create positive change in communities at home and around the world. Our gift helps strengthen peace efforts, provide clean water and sanitation, support education, grow local economies, save mothers and children and fight disease.

The EVERY ROTARIAN every year (EREY) inigtative asks every Rotarian to support The Rotary Foundation every year.

Through our annual Sustaining Member contributions of $100 or more, the Rotary E-Club of the Caribbean, 7020 has been a 100% EREY contributor since we were chartered in 2013. Let us continue to support The Rotary Foundation (TRF) through our annual donations. We have been and continue to “Be a gift to the World."

THE ROTARY ANTHEM

Rotary Anthem from Rotary International on Vimeo.

THE ROTARY FOUR-WAY TEST

To close the meeting...

ROTARY FOUR-WAY TEST

of the things we think, say, or do...

Rotarian Diana White leads us.

And the final bell with our own John Fuller...

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Weekly Meeting of Rotary E-Club of the Caribbean, 7020

Thursday 7 April 2016

April 8, 2016 - Weekly Meeting