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Bright green environmental analysis by Dr. Glen Barry highlighting severity of global ecological crises and rigorous biocentric responses


June 11, 2009

An Appeal to Support EI's Established Grassroots Global Earth Advocacy

Ecological Internet: Nothing Like It On Earth, For EarthDONATE NOW!

Dear Earth Loving colleagues,

Please, don't forget about Ecological Internet -- the web's original and still best Earth Action Network -- during our annual mid-year fund-raiser. Half way into the funding campaign, Ecological Internet is nearly half way to our goal, yet we really need the help of as many network members and web site users as possible to finish. Our unique grassroots global ecological advocacy is entirely funded by the 250,000 people interacting with our efforts a month, including YOU! Please donate now what you can at:

http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/donate/

Raising almost all our funds from users makes us the most independent voice in the international climate, forest and environmental communities. We are indebted to no outside interest, even tangentially by working to reform what is irredeemable. We speak for Earth in a clear, passionate and truthful manner, even if our voice trembles at times as we together with you challenge powerful interests. We have faith that green truth will prevail and are immune to ridicule and ignorance.

Continue reading "An Appeal to Support EI's Established Grassroots Global Earth Advocacy" »

Permalink | Comments (0) | More on ecological internet

June 9, 2009

VICTORY/RELEASE: Global Consensus Emerging Regarding Need to End Industrial Primary Forest Logging as Keystone Climate Change Response

Old standing forests required for local livelihoods and ecological sustainabilityAfter being a lone voice in the wilderness for decades, Dr. Glen Barry and Ecological Internet's biocentric forest protection position has been adopted by most major forest protection organizations. It remains to be determined how those committing to keeping such logging out of UN carbon finance can reconcile with their support for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of first time old forest logging. Regardless, time to unite the forest and climate movements going into Copenhagen with strong message of protecting and restoring standing old forests for local development and biodiversity benefits, and regional and global climate and ecosystem sustainability.

Continue reading "VICTORY/RELEASE: Global Consensus Emerging Regarding Need to End Industrial Primary Forest Logging as Keystone Climate Change Response" »

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June 5, 2009

RELEASE: Police Violently Attack Peaceful Indigenous Blockade in Peruvian Amazon, Killing Many

Peruvian police reportedly shot indigenous protesters from helicopters -- as peaceful protesters were protecting their ancestral land. Online affinity campaign demanding Peru respect indigenous rights continues.

Resource Boom in Peru's Amazon Threatens Indigenous Peoples' Lives, Livelihoods and Their Rainforest HomesTAKE ACTION! Peru's police have clashed with Amazon tribes opposed to foreign companies opening oil wells and mines in their rainforests without their consent. Police reportedly shot at protesters from helicopters, killing as many as twelve blockading a road to protect their land. Amazon Watch and Western media report indigenous protesters outside of Bagua, in a remote area of northern Peruvian Amazon, were forcibly dispersed by tear gas and real bullets. Reuters reports 12 protesters were killed, while Agence France-Presse puts it at 9. It may have been worse.

The threat of continued violence is real and imminent. Some 30,000 indigenous people have blockaded roads, rivers and railways for months to demand repeal of new laws that allow oil, mining and logging companies to enter indigenous territories without their consent or even any consultation. Reinhard Behrend, Rainforest Rescue's Director, notes "it is important to realize that our overconsumption in the rich and emerging nations is at the root cause of deadly conflict for rainforests and Indians. We ask people to eliminate their use of industrially harvested timbers, oil and minerals from the world's rainforests, and protest this senseless violence at Peru embassies all over the world."

Continue reading "RELEASE: Police Violently Attack Peaceful Indigenous Blockade in Peruvian Amazon, Killing Many" »

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June 4, 2009

EARTH MEANDERS: Radical Idealism: Come Home to Gaia

By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet
Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk


Gaia dying, time for green rage, spread the wordLet me tell you about the birds and the bees, and the flowers and the trees. THEY ARE ALL DYING. Global grassroots protest action -- informed by ecological science, impassioned by green rage, and dedicated to sufficient policies to achieve global ecological sustainability -- our last best chance, together, to avoid ecocide.


FOREWARD: For the past two months Ecological Internet has been micro-blogging on Twitter http://twitter.com/ecointernet (as well as at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ecological-Internet/84943913664 on Facebook) regarding requirements for ecological sustainability [search]. Being forced to capture complex ideas in 140 characters has been good for our biocentric writing by enforcing brevity. Ends up the series of one-liners string together relatively well to present a compelling vision of what is necessary to protect Gaia and our beings.

From these terse pronouncements comes a sense of planetary urgency. As we ponder whether there are enough funds for Ecological Internet to continue to use the Internet to facilitate global ecological sustainability, and consider cutting back or even closing (and whether our "public radio" type funding appeals remain a viable funding method), this twitter compilation is one means to make a compelling case for you to support our unique brand of global grassroots eco-advocacy.

Your support broadcasts such biocentric thought and action 24/7 to an ecologically hungry world -- as our portals and writings are used and read by several million people a year. Please enjoy this essay and donate now. Together we will make it.

For Earth,
Dr. Glen Barry
****************************************

(EARTH) - Gaia. Earth is alive. Biosphere is self-regulating. Interactions between ecosystems make Earth habitable. Gaia once vibrant is in mid-death swoon. Humans. Are killing. Gaia. Earth is faced with global ecological collapse, this is an unprecedented emergency, and threatens major upheaval and death of all. Wake up you bloody fools. Earth is dying. We are losing our habitat. Humanity is in deep shit as Earth well past carrying capacity. We and all Gaia's creatures are heading for mass extinction. Radical idealism that profoundly transforms humanity's relationship to natural being is the cure to ecocide.

Things are not as they ought to be. Humans dismantle natural ecosystems that are their habitats because they like making money more than truth, justice, equity and continued shared being. We spew into our air, excrete into water, piss in our oceans and foul the land for a pocket full of mumbles and throw-away consumer junk. All but a few are able to overcome their childhood indoctrination and limited lifespan to see this is not how life was meant to be, that humanity has morphed into a disease upon Gaia. Yet as our atmosphere collapses, water grows dear, and extreme poverty epidemic; more are realizing that something has gone dramatically wrong with the human project.

Gaia, the Earth System, is alive and self-regulating. Gaia is a super-organism, and as such can die. There is no guarantee of continued evolution after ecosystem collapse. Being can end. Humans are one with Earth and as goes Gaia's health goes ours being. Being is fragile. The biosphere is a thin mantle of life upon otherwise lifeless rock. These ecosystems are more than resources, they give life. All Gaia's life including us is crashing. Humans appear hell-bent to destroy life's biological foundation. Earth going bad with industrial agricultural, dead oceans, strip malls, toxic cocktail, climate weirding and logging old forests. Pandemic disease stalks an overpopulated, poverty wracked and ecologically devastated Earth. Factory farms breed disease sold as food. All must change, be restored.

Global inequity in wealth and standard of living is evil. Malignant consumerism devours Earth's being and the only profits to be seen are false. About 2 billion live on under $2/day and 2 billion in relative opulent luxury. These disparities are unsustainable and must end. Our and all creatures' being imperiled as human disease overwhelms all naturalness. Ecological fabric of being unraveling, daily news full of ecosystems failing, yet few put it together. We and our planet are needlessly dying now. Over-consumption from ecosystem liquidation by some while others starve root cause of ecosystem collapse, war and injustice

Continued being depends upon escalating protest action. For humanity's shared survival we must broaden our sphere of love and emotional support to include Gaia, all her creatures and the human family. Time for action is now. There is nothing wrong with Earth System that a good healthy dose of radical idealism can't fix. It's simple: humanity cutting and burning Earth to death. These practices must end. We can and must stop coal, logging, tar sands, industrial agriculture, war and poverty. There exists a global ecological imperative to protect and restore whole Earth as our garden. Either you are committed to stopping ecocide or you are the problem.

Only road to ecological sustainability is immediate industrial powerdown, and ecological protection and restoration. Time to level with global citizens -- fighting climate change raises energy prices and requires substantial personal sacrifice. The option is apocalyptic planetary disintegration. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is an urgent planetary necessity whether or not it creates jobs as techno-optimists claim. Shame on people, and there are many, who put their opulent consumption and luxury ahead of needs of Earth and the poor. Fatal flaw in Western exceptionalism is its use as justification to overconsume. Climate change and sustainability require simpler lives. How much is enough?

Continue reading "EARTH MEANDERS: Radical Idealism: Come Home to Gaia" »

Permalink | Comments (11) | More on Gaia dying revolution

June 2, 2009

ALERT! NO BIOMASS/NO BURNING CAMPAIGN: Uproar as Massachusetts Poised to Destroy Forests for "Renewable" Electricity

By Ecological Internet's Climate Ark Portal with Rainforest Rescue

No Biomass/No BurningTAKE ACTION HERE NOW!

Burning forests to produce electricity threatens to destroy and further diminish many of America and the world's forests. Protection and regeneration of forests, soils, freshwater, climate and biodiversity are urgent global imperatives, and creating massive new demands for any natural plant material is misguided and will further degrade ecosystems. Achieving global ecological sustainability [search] requires that renewable energy be defined as "no biomass/no burning".

BRIEF BACKGROUND:

A campaign is growing in Massachusetts, and across the United States and world, against burning wood and other biomass in giant incinerators to produce electricity. This northeast U.S. state claims to be a leader in renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions yet is fast-tracking three large biomass plants to generate 135 megawatts of power in Western Massachusetts, with other plants under discussion. There is no scientific evidence that incinerating wood or trash is clean and green. Biomass burning is exempt from greenhouse gas accounting regulations, yet the plants generate 50% more CO2 per megawatt than burning coal. Shockingly, MA's plants are being billed as an antidote to global warming as part of the state's "renewable portfolio standards" under its "Global Warming Solutions Act". In fact, the proposed biomass would establish incinerators that would immediately increase carbon emissions, making global warming much worse, and also set the stage to eventually deforest much of the region.

Anything that furthers the cutting of dwindling ecosystems, and pollution associated with burning, in the production of electricity should not be considered clean, green or renewable. Protecting and regenerating forests, ecosystems and soils is the most important step we must take if we are to stabilize the global climate. As policy makers seek to expand mandates for renewable energy, it is essential that the focus remain upon true renewables such as wind, solar and ocean derived technologies; and excludes burning or refining plant biomass, garbage or landfill gases. Support the growing U.S. coalition in demanding �no biomass/no burning� in definitions of renewable energy.

TAKE ACTION NOW:
http://www.climateark.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=biomass_wood

Permalink | Comments (8) | More on forest biomass renewable

RELEASE: Geo-Engineering and Biochar: White Roofs, Black Dust and Slippery Slopes

PRESS/SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE

- Climate Engineers Seek Techno-fix As Global Negotiations Get Underway

June 2, 2009
By ETC Group, Biofuelwatch and Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet (EI)
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, [email protected]

A biosphere cannot be engineeredU.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu's speech last week advocating painting rooftops and roadways white to reflect sunlight may be yet another attempt to test the international waters on the controversial subject of geoengineering [search].[1] "We need an unequivocal statement from the White House that the U.S. Government is not green-lighting geoengineering in the run-up to Copenhagen," said Pat Mooney, Executive Director of ETC Group, an Ottawa-based civil society organization monitoring new technologies. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meets in Denmark this December; UNFCCC subsidiary bodies are meeting this week and next in Bonn, Germany. "Benign as a new planetary paint job may appear, white rooftops may be the thin edge of the wedge - a technology that seems harmless but that opens the door to riskier geoengineering schemes," suggests Mooney.[2] Geoengineering refers to the intentional, large-scale manipulation of the earth's environment, primarily to counteract the effects of climate change.

Continue reading "RELEASE: Geo-Engineering and Biochar: White Roofs, Black Dust and Slippery Slopes" »

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May 31, 2009

Why We Like to Think EI is Special and Worthy of Your Support

ECOLOGICAL INTERNET: NOTHING LIKE IT ON EARTH, FOR EARTH
2009 50K Mid-Year Fund-Raiser - 16% to goal w/ 62 donors, $42,100 to be raised if ground-breaking efforts are to continue

Ecological Internet: Nothing Like It On Earth, For EarthDONATE NOW!

Dear colleagues,

No global Earth advocacy network even vaguely resembles or is as biologically effective as Ecological Internet. We lay it all on the line every day to develop and implement sufficient biocentric policies to achieve global ecological sustainability. We must meet our funding goal to continue operation. Do not let Ecological Internet � a small, highly effective, and truly authentic and honest voice for ecology, truth and justice � be silenced. Please donate as much as you can afford to now at:

http://www.climateark.org/shared/donate/

Ecological Internet facilitates a truly global network of several hundred thousand people working together for a vision of global ecological sustainability. We blend Ph.D. caliber ecological knowledge with cutting edge computer networking in ways never done before. After having invented blogging and the world's first environmental search portals, we have a few tricks left, as we intend to revolutionize the way social networks are used to bring about ecological change.

Ecological Internet is needed for Copenhagen and beyond, to push for sufficient ecological policies while resisting rampant greenwash. There is a small window of opportunity to end coal, ancient forest logging and achieve a powering down of industrial society, but it has to start immediately. Now is not the best time to lose the Earth's oldest, most established and successful ecological search engines, news tracking and archiving, and biocentric writings and protest actions. Our needs for band-width, computers and staffing are modest.

If we close due to lack of funds, who will uniquely use the Internet, wielding the latest ecological science, to facilitate the speaking of truth to power necessary to avert collapsing atmosphere, oceans, land and water? Who will consistently campaign against geo-engineering, old forest logging, clean coal and the entire suite of necessary policies to save Earth and humanity? We take this work deadly seriously, and want to continue, but cannot do so without adequate funds. We seek hundreds of small donations, and one or two new large donors.

Please continue having faith in the power of concerned global citizens, who are mad as hell and aren't going to take Gaia's unnecessary demise any longer, to work together on the Internet, and in their communities, to do what is necessary to maintain a habitable Earth. Please gift the Earth through Ecological Internet, and start working for personal transformation and protesting for social change necessary to save being. Please donate now at: http://www.climateark.org/shared/donate/

Warmest regards,
Dr. Glen Barry

P.S. We are entirely dependent upon our network and web site participants for our funding, having raised all funds over the past 10 years with twice yearly appeals. These appeals are a necessary evil to support truly independent, free thought and action for Earth. Making a donation is not a requirement to be part of our Earth campaign team. You may want to consider volunteering 5-10 hours a week helping with writing, programming and/or database input (but please, serious inquiries only).

Permalink | Comments (0) | More on ecological internet

May 27, 2009

ALERT! Resource Boom in Peru's Amazon Threatens Indigenous Peoples' Livelihoods and Their Rainforest Homes

By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal with Rainforest Rescue

Resource Boom in Peru's Amazon Threatens Indigenous Peoples' Livelihoods and Their Rainforest HomesTAKE ACTION HERE NOW!

Support tens of thousands of indigenous people bravely protesting Peru government's give-away of their rainforest homes [search] to oil, mining and logging industry without their approval; insist peaceful protests are not met with violence by President Alan Garcia's government, and that the focus for Amazonian development be upon benefiting from standing trees and intact rainforest ecosystems.

BRIEF BACKGROUND:

Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon are protesting investment laws passed under a free-trade pact with the United States and against concessions granted to foreign energy companies. Some 30,000 indigenous people have blockaded roads, rivers and railways to demand repeal of new laws that allow oil, mining and logging companies to enter indigenous territories without seeking consent or even any consultation. Indigenous communities complain that some 70% of Peruvian Amazon territory is now leased for oil and gas exploration, putting at risk their own lives and the biodiversity of the Amazon.

Please add your voice in solidarity with the tens of thousands of indigenous people and their international supporters mobilizing to protect the Peruvian Amazon. Send a letter today to the Garcia Administration demanding respect for the constitutionally guaranteed rights of indigenous peoples, and Amazon development based upon standing forests.

TAKE ACTION NOW:
http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=peru_amazon

Permalink | Comments (5) | More on Peru Amazon indigenous protest

May 23, 2009

EARTH MEANDERS: This Memorial Day: Should We Arrest Cheney and Bush, Impeach Obama?

Democratic consumption is an irredeemable political/economic system that has proven itself unable to justly and equitably allow all global citizens to live in peace, abundance and sustainability.

By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet
Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk

War and climate criminals will be brought to justiceIt has been awhile since I have written how U.S. militarism to prop up an unsustainable way of life is destroying both Earth and freedom. As Obama induced "hopenosis" starts wearing off, it is clear that on several key issues -- war, civil liberties and climate change -- we are getting "Bush Lite" policies from President Obama that differ little from his criminal predecessor. Military commissions to try those illegally held for years will occur after all, and some may be held forever without charges. We continue to be spied upon. Obama is escalating the unwinnable war in Afghanistan, and drawing out the criminal occupation of Iraq. Meanwhile the real Earth and society crushing crises of climate change and global ecosystem collapse remain woefully unaddressed. Heil Bush! Heil Obama!

After nearly a decade of criminal rule, America continues under new management to careen forward, wounded and flailing in vain attempts to return to a state of excessive democratic consumption. On the economy, the President has borrowed (stolen?) trillions from our children to rescue a dying industrial and speculative capitalistic shell game built upon usury, greed and unsustainability. And we are getting an inadequate climate change policy that cherry picks token measures to be seen as acting while coddling coal and tar sands which we know must end to survive. America's might makes right, damn the truth and consequences, mind set is destroying civilized society and our one shared Earth.

Continue reading "EARTH MEANDERS: This Memorial Day: Should We Arrest Cheney and Bush, Impeach Obama?" »

Permalink | Comments (16) | More on war clmate crimes

May 21, 2009

UPDATED ALERT: Malaysian Govt. Denies Well Documented Oil Palm Development Plans in Brazilian Amazon

By Rainforest Rescue with Ecological Internet's Climate Ark

Oil palm destroying rainforest ecosystems for cheap cooking oil and biodieselTAKE ACTION HERE NOW!

In a startling yet welcome announcement, Malaysian government's land agency now denies plans to produce oil palm in the Amazon. While the prospect of a Malaysian government agency funding Amazonian oil palm has been dealt a serious setback, it is likely this project will re-emerge. Let's get formal commitment from the Malaysian government that this project is canceled, and to stop all Malaysian government and private industry funding of oil palm expansion overseas. Maybe, just maybe, we are winning this one!

BRIEF UPDATE:

In a positive yet puzzling development, a spokesperson for the Malaysian government's federal land agency (FELDA) now denies plan for Malaysian government controlled oil palm development in the heart of the Amazon ever existed. Wan Zaleha Wan Embong, from FELDA's Public Relations Department, has been responding to our network's protest emails, disavowing the plans and stating "for your info the project never take (sic) place." The sudden change of plans is either an attempt to save face, the project has been cancelled due to our protests and/or economic difficulties, or deceitful politics as the project is reorganized with private rather than government capital.

In July of 2008, Malaysia's own Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak (then Deputy) announced the project. He is widely reported to have said Felda Global Ventures Brazil Sdn Bhd would invest some RM25mil (US$7.12mil) for a 70% stake in the project near the Amazon River in Brazil. He is quoted when announcing Felda's foray in South America as saying "Felda wants to emulate Petronas as a global player� As a start, 20,000ha in Tefe will be opened for oil palm planting. After that, between 3,000ha and 5,000ha will be opened yearly." As recently as March 25, 2009, Brazilian ambassador to Malaysia, Sergio Arruda, reportedly stated the oil palm cultivation project would commence this year.

Continue reading "UPDATED ALERT: Malaysian Govt. Denies Well Documented Oil Palm Development Plans in Brazilian Amazon" »

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May 19, 2009

Indonesian Orangutan Habitat Wiped Out for Airport and Brothels

OrangutanAgence France-Presse reports that part of a national park on Borneo island, home to hundreds of endangered orangutans [search], has been turned into a development zone [ark] complete with an airport and brothel. Some 600 orangutan have disappeared from Kutai National Park, East Kalimantan province, over the past seven years due to unchecked construction. It really makes you wonder -- just how callous can humanity be towards sister species, and if this is going on with government complicity, just how willing is Indonesia's government to limit deforestation? Or is REDD carbon finance proposal just about the carbon money?

Permalink | Comments (0) | More on Indonesia rainforest corruption

Global Warming Twice As Bad as Forecast

Global Warming Twice As Bad as ForecastScientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology forecast that global warming's effects [search] this century could be twice as extreme as estimated [ark] just six years ago. They found that Earth's median surface temperature could rise 9.3 degrees F (5.2 degrees C) by 2100 compared to a 2003 study that projected a median temperature increase of 4.3 degrees F (2.4 degrees C). The new study, published in the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate, said the difference was due to improved economic modeling and data. The paper calls for "rapid and massive action".

What fascinates me about these predictions is rarely do they project out further than the end of the century. If this much global heating occurs in under 100 years, what do the next 200-500 years hold? And what if increased average temperatures is combined with increasing "global weirding", or climate variability, as is almost certainly the case. It is not inconceivable, particularly with feedbacks, that Earth will become uninhabitable. Are we to sit passively by and allow this to happen? Says something about the lack of moral fiber of modern, comfortable humans.

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