I'm honored to be joining the New Jersey Audubon Society in a part-time capacity as Conservation Advocate, so I won't be resuming full-time blogging on www.GreenPoliticsNJ.com in 2009. Instead, I'll work ardently for New Jersey Audubon's crucial goals to conserve land and wildlife for the health and well-being of everyone in our state. On top of nearly everyone's to-do list: renew state funding for open space.

In addition to scanning http://www.njaudubon.org/AboutNJAS/ if you haven't done so recently, click on http://www.njkeepitgreen.org/. The Governor has urged the Legislature to place an interim bonding question on the November '09 ballot -- and we need to work hard to get such a measure passed. We all must urge residents who value clean water, a balanced environment, a healthy democracy, and long-term land values to support open-space funding all year long, and in November particularly.

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Allow me to give a special shout-out to the Sierra Club New Jersey's Grace Sica, who helped connect me with the impressive folks at New Jersey Audubon. The help she offered me is a microcosm of what can make the NJ's Green Prosperity Movement successful -- going out of our way to help each other, being creative, and working with each other more urgently than ever before. These times of epochal change demand it.

One last personal note before I sign off. So few people I meet realize the earth could be entering a wholly new and unpleasant age caused by humanity's devastation of the environment. In confronting society's inertia and neglect, a more united Green Prosperity Movement stands a far better chance of making a difference.

After a several-week project offline, I'm beginning to update some of GreenPoliticsNJ's functions, including the extensive NJ Green Calendar.

If I haven't already highlighted your event, please let me know: joe [at] greenpoliticsnj [dot] com.