As a green and healthy advocate for wholly sustainable living, I am thrilled with the confluence of advances and attention being given to what I see as two of the most important issues we face today: cancer detection, prevention and care and climate change.

Cancer care is advancing by leaps and bounds due to generous funding from individuals supporting organizations such as our own Susan G. Komen foundation and Harold Simmons Foundation. The global impact of program efforts and research discoveries exemplify what can happen when just one heart is ignited by unyielding passion for a cause. That’s why we can look forward to more effective prevention measures and even a cure in our lifetime. It is why every year when I have a checkup, I am increasingly fearless about the possibility of a recurrence of breast cancer.

Even more heartening is the still evolving, but clearly evident mainstreaming of integrative and complementary modalities and treatments—as evidenced by the award-winning Integrative Medicine Program at the Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center. You’ll find more details on this month’s back cover, plus news about their Art in Medicine program. You may also have seen recent Cancer Treatment Centers of America commercials supporting their naturopathic practitioners and partnership with the Parker University College of Chiropractic. Having more doctors and hospitals begin to apply what they’ve seen to be successful integrative approaches to cancer care sets it up to flow more quickly into the overall healthcare system.

I often like to say green living is healthy and healthy living is green, and that God created the Earth to be self-sustaining; it is this deeply held belief that ignites my passion for acting to offset climate change. Thank goodness that world awareness is finally beginning to join enlightened thinkers in recognizing that the state of our environment is inextricably connected with our health.

President Obama’s Clean Power Plan and Pope Francis’ U.S. visit to urge Congress to awake to the “moral imperative” of doing something about climate change now are good signs. The upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Paris, is also helping to moving climate change issues to priority status.

It’s exciting to hear daily announcements by major corporations about the substantive steps they are taking in manufacturing, product development, operations and maintenance to lessen environmental impacts and conserve resources. North Texas is a corporate relocation magnet, and we want others to follow the example of Facebook in building-in their own dedicated renewable energy generation, or like FedEx covering their roofs with solar panels. It all begins with individuals that care enough to generate change for the greater good.

Linda Sechrist’s feature article “Awakening the Global Heart,” shares examples of passionate individuals taking action, energizing their communities of influence and making a global difference. We hope you will be inspired by people like these and realize how we each have the capacity and moral imperative to do something to make the world better, healthier and safer for ourselves and future generations. It’s definitely up to us.

Blessings,

Bernice Butler, Publisher