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       The global environmental issue is a serious problem affecting the entire globe
and many future generations.
       What is required of humankind today is the religious mind of appreciating the
blessings of nature, worshipping the mountains, rivers, grass, trees, minerals, and
energy as manifestation of Life of God or Buddha, and being aware that we are given life
to be in harmony with them. We believe living a life that is based on this religious mind
is the key to solving the global environmental issue.
       Since its foundation in 1930, Seicho-No-Ie has been spreading to all humankind
the way of life of worshipping all creation as Life of God or Buddha based on the teaching
that taught us to "be grateful to everything in the universe."
       The Kawakami Family intends to widely disseminate this religious mind as well
as to address the environmental issues by practicing a religious life suited to the modern
day, contribute to conservation of the global environment through a variety of media and
activities, and hand down the "beautiful Earth" for posterity.
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Why Is World Environment Important?
       We, as human beings, who live in current modern society, are surrounded by
many different so-called "problems," which are not only world environment issue but also
economic depression, old-age society, budget crisis, and so on. However, this world
environmental problem is directly affecting our health and even the existence of our lives
as well as the earth herself.
       Some of those who are not interested in the environmental problem probably say,
"My job is much more important than global warming," or "In order to pursue our
economical activities, we should sometimes close our eyes for this problem." Sometimes
they realize that this problem is connected to the future problems or even directly
connected to the current problems such as that certain agriculture and industry cannot
exist because of the environment. But, they seem to ignore it because they are standing
at a certain position in some interested parties.
       Our family members are standing clearly at the position of the religious mind of
appreciating the blessings of nature. As the Environmental Policy of SNI stated, we
contribute to conservation of the global environment because of being based on practicing
religious mind in our life and handing down the "beautiful Earth" to posterity. Practicing
religious mind is the mind that you want to contribute to others and help them. It is, of
course, important for you to become happy; however, to help others first is the mind of
God.

The Big Global Threats:
       The world has lost nearly half its forested area in the past 8,000 years, and the
majority of that loss occurred in the 20th century, when the cultivated area expanded
rapidly and consumption of wood and paper jumped dramatically.
       We face many serious problems such as air pollution, damaging ozone layer,
deforestation, decline of biodiversity, and so on. The following are the two of them:

Acid Rain: When sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are emitted from cars and power
plants by consuming fossil fuels, they mix with water vapor and turn into acids. These
acids fall to the ground in the form of rain, snow, or fog. They corrode buildings, damage
trees, harm vegetation, and can harm or destroy aquatic life in rivers, oceans, and lakes.
Damage or influence: Acid rain is leading to the deaths of many maple trees in New
England and eastern Canada.

Global Warming: Certain gases, especially carbon dioxide, block heat from leaving the
earth's atmosphere. As the earth's temperature increases, parts of the polar ice caps have
melted several inches. A rise of 3-5 degrees in global temperatures would affect weather
patterns as well and it could lead to droughts in some places and torrential rain in
others.
Damage or influence: According to the science magazine, Nature, on January 8, 2004,
"New analyses suggest that 15-37% of a sample of 1,103 land plants and animals would
eventually become extinct as a result of climate changes expected by 2050."

What Is the Cause?
       There are many causes to destroy our environment. One of the biggest reasons is
over-consumption of limited resources. For example, while amount of water it would
take, per day, to support approximately 4.7 billion plus people daily in the world is 2.5
billion gallons, the same amount of water is spent daily to irrigate the world's golf
courses.
       The world realizes that we are losing our forest. However, why developing
counties cut their valuable forests?-because people who live in the developing countries
increase enormous consumptions. Some of the products are disposed after only one use.

What Can We Do?
       There are many things that we can do. The first and foremost important matter
to contribute to conservation of the global environment is to educate people as soon as
possible. We should increase members who consider the global environment.
       In concrete measure, we can do Four Rs: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle. For we,
who live in the United States, it is especially important to the first two Rs (refuse &
reduce). The United States, with just 4.5 percent of the world's population, consumes
about 33 percent of the world's materials today, according to the United States Geological
Survey. Source reduction also means fewer environmental repercussions, such as the
contamination of groundwater from leaking landfills and air pollution from garbage
incinerators.
       In order to change these habits, let us help ourselves to perform the following
simple Rs.

[Note: From here on, we have to gather many ideas among our family members what we
can do in an easy and simple way applying in our daily lives. Simple illustration by
photos or pictures will help in the attraction of this pamphlet.]

Refuse
       You can refuse many things such as over-wrapping a gift.
a. Refuse shopping bags and bring your own bag.
       I have several diaper bags for my baby because I received them as a gift at the
       hospitals where my daughters were born. I sometimes use one of them. (It is not all
       the time because I sometimes shop directly after my work.)

Reduce Your Use
       Reducing is the simplest but quickest way to cut back on our huge consumption of
natural resources.
a. Trying to not use dishwasher as much as possible.
b. Reducing copies.
       I often travel around the nation and to Japan, and my expenses are reimbursed
       some time after the travel. So, I send all my receipts to the person who will pay,
       with the certified mail and return receipt of the U.S. Postal Service. Then, I don't
       have to make any copy of all the pages of my receipts in case the mail doesn't
       deliver to its destination. There are sometimes more than 10 pages that I need to
       make copies. This seems to be a trivial thing, but this solution not only has merit
       for not making additional copies, but also has merit for not making my file thick.
c. Sending Christmas card by e-mail as much as possible.
d. Eating less meat.
       I once introduced this in the Newsletter. Reducing consumption of meat in your
       daily life relates to the appreciation to nature because it contributes to protect
       nature and to reduce starvation for children in the world. According to the web
       site of Youth for Environment Sanity, they provide the following information:
       "The Wall Street Journal reports that US livestock eat enough grain and
       soybeans to feed over 5 times the number of people in the US… It takes up to
       sixteen pounds of grain or soybeans to produce just one pound of feedlot beef.
       Eighty percent of the corn the US grows, and over 95% of the oats, are fed to
       livestock, not humans The University of California estimates that a healthy acre
       of prime land can grow 40,000 pounds of potatoes, or it can produce 250 pounds of
       beef. Other studies say that it can take 500 times more land to make a pound of
       beef than a pound of vegetables. In a world where a child dies of malnutrition
       every 3 seconds, this is a tragic way to use our land." I don't say that eating meat
       is not good. I suggest to eat less meat those who overly eat it.
e. Reducing to use dryer.
       This helps reducing energy. I bought my children their own bath and face towels.
       They use their towels for 2 or 3 days. This can help a lot to reduce our family
       laundry.

Reuse Things around You
       Reusing things for their lifespan is more effective than recycling.
a. Increase opportunities for a thing to be repaired instead of buying a new item.
b. Using scratch papers and reusing opposite side of them.
c. Re-arrange your refrigerator and food storage.
       You will be able to find a lot of non-perishable foods such as can and dry food buried
       among other many things when you rearrange your refrigerator and food storage.
       Do not buy the same thing that you have.

Recycle Things What You Have
a. Do not throw away recycle products. Watch the mark carefully and recycle them.
b. Do not dump things that you do not need anymore.
       You don't have to throw your things away. Your trash will be someone's treasure.
       One of the examples for recycling is Freecycling. It is to share one's unnecessary
       stuff with others. It's simple. We have a lot of stuff in our closets, offices, garages
       and backyards, don't we? We are a consumer nation. Update. Upgrade. Buy. Buy.
       Buy. Which leaves us with stuff. Stuff in the garage, under our beds, in the
       backyard. Stuff headed for the landfills, which themselves are stuffed with stuff.
       Freecycling is one of the organizations to help reducing your stuff in an
       environmental-friendly way.
c. Find the proper products by checking a recycling seal.
       For example, just saying "recycled paper" is not enough to decide to buy. "Recycled
       paper" could mean anything from 100% true recycled paper to 1% re-manufactured
       ends of large paper rolls. "Post-consumer" means the paper that you and I return to
       recycling centers. From a recycling point of view, the more "post-consumer" paper
       the better. Soybean-based inks are gaining favor as a renewable alternative to
       harsh and toxic petrochemical inks. (From the Consumer Recycling Guide through
       the Internet)
50% recycled paper,   
              35% post-consumer.
              Soy-based inc.       

Others
a. Buy green seal and fair trade products.
b. Green Power.
       There are many steps you can actually take to reduce energy consumption on a
       household level, no matter what your energy source. Turn off unused lights and
       appliances. Replace your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents,
       weatherproof your home to make heating and cooling more efficient, and look for
       the Energy Star label when you buy new appliances. You can also buy green power
       depending on where you live. But wherever you live, you can still support
       renewable energy generation by participating in this kind of program, such as
       NativeEnergy's WindBuilders green tag program.

[Note: Detailed descriptions in this pamphlet is based on the information taken from the
Environmental Pamphlet published by International Headquarters, Worldwatch
Institute Resource Center, US Environmental Protection Agency, and Youth for
Environmental Sanity (YES!), The Complete Idiot's Guide To Saving The Environment
by Greg Pahl, Co-op America, quarterly issue, Fall 2004]