RELEASE: Urgent Environmental Action Must Be Maintained in Bad Economic Times
PRESS/SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE
Ecological Internet warns converging economic, climate, food and fuel crises are symptoms of a massive global ecological bubble, and that without ecosystems there can be no economy
By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet
(Earth) -- Current economic difficulties are largely caused by failing global ecosystems and resource scarcity, and are not an excuse to reduce environmental commitments, warns Ecological Internet. The bursting of the mortgage and financial bubbles, and food and energy price increases, are the logical and inevitable economic consequences of over-population, inequitable and unreasonable consumption, and unsustainable economic growth. Environmentalism is the solution to economic hardship, not the cause.
"The global growth machine is seizing up because it is hitting ecological limits and because of its own greed. Current global economic difficulties must not stop urgent ecological measures -- like dramatic emission reductions and natural habitat protection and restoration -- necessary to maintain a habitable Earth. Without ecosystems there can be no economic recovery," warns Dr. Glen Barry.
Continue reading "RELEASE: Urgent Environmental Action Must Be Maintained in Bad Economic Times" »
Reasonable Eco-Homes the Newest Status Symbol
Nothing is more causative or indicative of America's ecological unsustainability [search] (and the rest of the rich world) than selfish splurging upon ridiculously large McMansions [search]. These resource hungry homes generally sprawl into natural habitats, fouling water, and require huge amounts of fossil fuel derived energy to power their pigishness. Conspicuous consumption [search] of this sort is killing the Earth.
The new chic is LEEDs certified ecologically sustainable building of right-sized homes [ark] using recycled materials and that generate their own energy. It is critical efforts to build ecologically sustainable homes [search] become more widely implemented and affordable. And let's not lose site of how much Earthly good can come from simple retrofitting of current habitations.
Are You Ready for Ecosystem Failure and Resource Scarcity?
It use to be that stockpiling food and supplies, owning land and canning garden produce, and otherwise preparing for likely societal upheaval caused by ecosystem failure [search], resource scarcity [search], economic turmoil [search], pandemics [search] and other unknowns was seen as a bit kooky. But no longer as a "New Survivalism" emerges [ark] in response to widening recognition that the civilization we take for granted is but a thin veneer on existence.
What is increasingly evident is that stores of foods, tools and other supplies conducive to self-sufficiency [search] is just prudent -- a type of insurance. People are relearning what it means to prepare for self-sufficiency and investing in energy frugal homes [ark], seeds and other self-evidently worthwhile protections for them and their family. There is no need to withdraw from society and arm yourself, though you may choose to do so. It just makes sense to be prepared even as we work to prevent global ecological and other crises.
ALERT: South Korea's Proposed "Grand Canal", to Link Major Rivers, a Grand Ecological Disaster
TAKE ACTION!
South Korea must be convinced not to sacrifice its natural river ecosystems for a cross-country concrete canal that will severely damage the hydrology of whole river systems and have enormous negative impacts upon South Korea's water resources, wetland ecosystems, and riparian biodiversity.
South Korea's new President Lee Myung-bak has proposed a project to connect with canals South Korea's four major rivers (the Yeongsan, Geum, Nakdong and Han). The "Grand Canal" is intended to accommodate 5,000 ton cargo ships and would require dredging, deepening, widening and laying concrete along approximately two thousand kilometers of shallow river courses in South Korea, and perhaps more in North Korea. Such massive canalization of rivers will severely damage the hydrology of whole river systems and have enormous negative impacts upon South Korea's water resources, wetland ecosystems, and riparian biodiversity. Join Korean environmentalists in highlighting the importance of natural ecosystems for national well-being. TAKE ACTION
China's "American Style" Development Means Ecosystem Collapse
Lester Brown eloquently provides the rationale for all of Ecological Internet's work in his comprehensive environmental sustainability essay entitled "China forcing world to rethink its economic future". In it he states "global civilization today is on an economic path that is environmentally unsustainable, a path that is leading us toward economic decline and eventual collapse." There are simply not enough resources or ecosystems in the World for China, India and other developing countries to follow the Western economic model without utter ecological collapse and social mayhem. There can be no economy without ecological systems as an underpinning.
Continue reading "China's "American Style" Development Means Ecosystem Collapse" »
Bottled Water Taxes World's Ecosystems
Bottled water consumption, which has more than doubled globally in the last six years, is a natural resource that is heavily taxing the world's ecosystem, according to a new US study. Even in areas where tap water is safe to drink, demand for bottled water is increasing, producing unnecessary garbage and consuming vast quantities of energy.
Factory Farms and Bird Flu
Many if not most emergent diseases over recent history have been the result of increased density of animals and people. Factory farms in particular are a cesspool, ideal for the recombination of genetic material and its dissemination. Human population is several times the long-term carrying capacity of the Earth. My bet on how this state of planetary ecological overshoot will right itself is that disease will do the job. Increased sanitation and medicines are only useful for so long. Our lack of understanding of planetary ecological processes is evident as wild birds are blamed for bird flu's spread, even as they do what their species have done for millenia, and most of humanity is unaware of the unnaturalness and dangerousness of cramming livestock together to feed the masses.
Factory farms blamed for spread of bird flu
Factory farming and the international poultry trade are largely responsible for the spread of bird flu, and wild birds are being unfairly blamed for the disease, a new report says.
Urban Gardens Provide More Than Food
There is tremendous potential for people of all types to grow their own organic foods. Particularly unemployed people in urban areas. Doing so is healthful for individuals and the Earth. In particular it promotes relocalization of agriculture which is more sustainable in the long term.
Urban Gardens Provide More than Just Food
The community gardens initially created to help confront the effects of the late 2001 economic collapse in Argentina have now "grown" into a government-run urban agriculture programme, which provides unemployed workers with much more than just food for their families' tables. Some 7,000 people who were out of work before entering the programme have joined forces to clear the land, plant and harvest vegetables, and sell their produce in street market stalls.
Earth's Future Nightmare
Mainstream scientific thinking is increasingly expressing grave concerns regarding the likelihood of global ecological sustainability being maintained. Sir Crispin Tickelly - a leading British environmentalist - speaks of impending doomsday marked by a human population crash. Humanity is in a state of denial regarding the implications of destroying the Earth's biosphere, and the consequences are deadly. Gaia shall have her revenge.
Dearth of National Environmental Sustainability Measures
The degree to which there is a mismatch between the widely scientifically accepted requirements for environmental sustainability and the policy responses by national governments is shocking and dooms the Earth and humanity to coming treachery and destruction.
Study Shows Only Six Nations Achieved Environmental Goals
A pilot, nation-by-nation study of environmental performance shows that just six nations - led by New Zealand, followed by five from northern Europe - have achieved 85 percent success in meeting a set of critical environmental goals ranging from clean drinking water and low ozone levels to sustainable fisheries and low greenhouse-gas emissions.
Sustainability Policy Needed if Earth to Have a Future
The state of scientific knowledge in regard to global ecological sustainablity, as represented in the UN commissioned Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, is that if current population growth and resource consumption patterns continue there will be widespread global ecological collapse and human death. When will the warnings and prescriptions of the world's leading ecological scientists, 1,300 from 95 countries, be acted upon? By then will the Earth's biosphere still be functional?
'Green' Measures Key to Earth's Future, Report Says
"By 2050, the planet's population will increase to 9 billion, with most people migrating to massive cities... if major changes are not made in the way humans consume natural resources, there will be widespread famine, severe shortages of clean water and huge impacts from natural disasters such as hurricanes. Cities will be beset by vast amounts of wastewater and sewage. Sea levels will rise, fisheries will collapse, emerging disease epidemics will sweep across the globe and coral reefs will die off..."
China and India's Ecological Wake Up Call
The Earth lacks the energy, arable land and water to enable populous and fast-growing China and India to attain Western levels of resource consumption, an environmental think tank said in a report on Wednesday.
Over Population Drives Ecological Collapse
There is exactly zero chance of achieving equitable and just global ecological sustainability if global over-population is not immediately and aggressively addressed. While the harsh reality imposed by the Earth's carrying capacity and soaring population now rarely gets the attention it deserves, occasionally the press jots a once off article. It has been known for decades that exponentially rising human populations are clearly unsustainable and will lead in the mid-term to global ecological collapse. We are already seeing population causing ecological collapse in Haiti, Indonesia, the American southwest and elsewhere. Surely this will percolate through the global biosphere soon.
Any right-minded free thinker concerned about their place in the world and the state of the Earth would have one or two children at most, and would work to eliminate unnecessary consumption while carefully choosing Earth friendly products for the necessities. The next most important steps of righteous green living are to choose to become a citizen advocate on the requirements of maintaining large terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and working to dramatically reduce industrial emissions while restoring natural capital. These issues are the most important matters ever faced by humanity. Engage. Advocate. Agitate. Or we all die.
China's Voracious Growth Threatens Earth
America, Europe and the Western lifestyle in general are deeply ecologically unsustainable. No one can question that those living in deep poverty, such as China's population historically, want and deserve to better their lives. But clearly by aspiring to the wasteful decadent consumption patterns of the West, the Earth will be exhausted, and ultimately poverty and despair will be increased. The globally sustainable lifestyle to which we all can aspire can be found somewhere between that of an American and Chinese citizen - I have heard it stated that we could all live at the economic standards of the average European. The point is that there are likely to always be some relatively more rich and some morepoor, but equity and the rich living more simply so the poor can simply live is not only a matter of social justice but also of global ecological sustainability. Their Earth will not survive in the face of either widepread poverty or overconsumption.
China's voracious growth threatens environment: Greenpeace
China's economic growth is happening at a price - it is fast turning into one of the greatest environmental threats the earth has ever faced... nearly five out of every 10 tropical hardwood logs shipped from the world's threatened rainforests are now heading for China - more than to any other destination... had already overtaken the US as the world's leading consumer of four out of the five basic food, energy and industrial commodities - grain, meat, oil, coal and steel... China's scarcely imaginable growth in the coming years means that the world's population will simply run up against the limits of the planet's natural resources sooner than anyone imagines.
The Fall of Greenpeace
The following article captures well the disintegration of Greenpeace, as it is no longer a leading people's voice for ecology, but rather has emerged as just another bloated, compromised environmental corporation. I canvassed for GP in the late 1980s, and it was a magical organization offering hope for radical change. Now its campaigns are tepid and compromising, for example supporting industrial logging in ancient rainforests if it is "certified". It's Greenpeace's current corporate leadership which has become certifiably insane. In our own small way Ecological Internet tries to capture some of Greenpeace of old's magic, campaigning for solutions to ecological issues that are sufficient to solve the problems, rather than just tinkering around the edges of environmental and social injustices like Greenpeace and other big mainstream groups.
Greenpeace has fallen. Others must emerge if the Earth and her humanity are to be saved.
Independent Online Edition >Greenpeace at war
Where did it all go wrong with Greenpeace? For, make no mistake, the effectiveness of what was once the world's leading environmental organisation - with the power to bend governments and force corporations to bend to its will - has been in freefall over many years, in direct relation to an inner moral decline. Today, while Greenpeace is an environmental organisation, it is not an ecological one... As the world's ecological situation gets increasingly desperate and in need of the hope, possibilities and radical suggestions Greenpeace might once have given, the group is now utterly moribund.
Green Chic
According to the LA Times Greens are chic. Or at least the green building movement is. There are many, many things that can be done to construct durable and efficient buildings which minimally impact the environment. Frankly, they should have been done long ago; but regardless, sustainable buildings is a huge and unstoppable movement in the age of resource scarcity.
"The green building movement 'has moved way beyond the hippie era... It's become a very savvy, bottom-line response to current economic conditions. Builders are going green because it's finally starting to make sense economically. And if we can save the planet at the same time, so much the better.'"
Taking Care of Your Planet
Here is a marvelous article from the Independent in the U.K. providing very important yet relatively simple suggestions on how to lead a more ecologically sustainable lifestyle. I have seen many such lists, but this seems to be the most well thought out. It shows that a simpler, less consumptive lifestyle need not mean less satisfaction or reduced well-being. The Independent has been running a marvelous series of articles on the environment this week. Rarely have I seen such comprehensive and approachable covering of ecological sustainability issues. The are making clear that we each need to take care of our Planet.
State of the Planet, Alarm Bells Ring
The Independent (UK) does a good job of highlighting the series of environmental crises including abrupt climate change, forest and species loss, dead oceans and scarce water which together ultimately herald global ecological collapse. How blind can humanity be to not see that their cumulative impact is destroying the Earth's life providing processes? When will the urgent and passionate response to save ourselves and the Earth be launched?
Environmental Protections to Be Loosened in Response to Hurricane
Just what we need in response to an environmentally intensified hurricane - wavering of environmental laws. I have written at length how Hurricane Katrina was exacerbated by over-population, climate change and habitat destruction. Now Republican's knee jerk reaction is to loosen environmental regulations in response to the disaster. Why is it that every crisis has a military or anti-environmental response? Are there any other ways to make us secure?
Environmental Spending Yields Big Returns
Yet another report has made clear what any ecologically literate person could tell you: spending to protect the environment provides big economic returns, numerous environmental benefits, and helps to alleviate poverty. Too often saving forests or reducing carbon emissions are decried as being too economically costly. This is simply untrue. Environmental conservation is a necessity for life - and makes both a healthy environment and economy possible. While simply plundering natural ecosystems to harvest their capital is no longer an option, there are plenty of opportunities for clever and hardworking people to sustainably harvest resources and renew natural capital.
India's and the World's Illusory Economic Boom
The economic boom occuring in India is deeply unsustainable (for that matter, as are the economies of America, Europe and China). Each is liquidating natural capital - particulary water and land - for a one time infusion of wealth following which basic ecological services, and subsistence and long-term steady state economic opportunities, will have been lost. Ever expanding populations pursuing unbridled economic growth based upon drawing down natural capital can only end in disaster - namely ecological collapse, permanent long-term poverty, misery and famine.
India "Boom" an Environmental Disaster, Author Says
NEW DELHI - India's economic boom is causing unsustainable environmental damage and is blinding people to the misery of hundreds of millions of poor...
White House Wants More Data, Less Action
Who could be against a massive environmental monitoring system to gather more data on the Earth proposed by the White House? But what good is data if policy-makers continue to ignore the reams of scientific and other data regarding climate change, forest loss, water scarcity and ocean decline? Yes, we need more data. But much more importantly we need to start formulating policy based upon what we know.
Officials Want to Wire Earth for Continuous Readout of Vital Signs
The new "Strategic Plan for the U.S. Integrated Earth Observation System" envisions linking nearly 60 nations within a decade to gather and share information from satellites, ocean buoys, weather stations and other surface and airborne instruments.
Biofuels a Humanitarian and Environmental Disaster
Finally, some critical thought regarding the environmental and ethical dimensions of promoting biofuels. George Monbiot is right on the mark when he states "the adoption of biofuels would be a humanitarian and environmental disaster". Agriculture has been a primary destroyer of the Earth's ecosystems. We simply can not grow enough biomass to meet current and continued energy demands, without destroying more natural habitat and diverting food from the poor.
"Those who have been promoting these fuels are well-intentioned, but wrong. They are wrong because the world is finite. If biofuels take off, they will cause a global humanitarian disaster."
GM Grass Pollen has Long Reach
Next avoidable human induced environmental disaster, coming soon to a field near you, genetic pollution! Is there no oversight on mad scientists? Because we can do something, must we?
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | GM grass pollen has long reach
Hydrogen Economy Focus Is Backwards
A future "hydrogen economy" will only be as clean and sustainable as the source of energy to produce the hydrogen. Hydrogen can be produced with coal and other fossil fuels, nuclear, or renewable energy sources. Hydrogen is more a battery than an energy source in itself. The focus must be upon renewable energy or society has realized little gain by switching from carbon to hydrogen fuel sources.
ENN News Story - Focus on hydrogen economy has things backwards
As much as "gee whiz" stories abound about new hydrogen fuel-cell technologies, one can't help but wonder if we aren't getting a tad ahead of ourselves. While it's great to have these vehicles to show off, it would be much better if we had a way to produce hydrogen in sufficient quantities cleanly. Or had a way to store the stuff. Or an infrastructure to move it around. Or any number of a host of other major hurdles we need to jump before we are able to reach the vaunted goal of a "hydrogen economy."
Bird Flu Spreads to Pigs, Outbreak Likely
Emergent diseases are symtomatic of global ecological collapse. Eventually it is highly likely there will be an pandemic that wipes the human disease from the Earth, unless we reform our relationship towards the Earth's ecosystems.
The discovery of a deadly bird flu strain in Malaysia after cases elsewhere in Southeast Asia signaled a major winter outbreak was likely, international health experts said.
Global Warming Causes Earthquakes?
We have no idea how the Earth may respond to the massive change humanity is forcing upon it.
Global warming's surprising fallout | csmonitor.com
The Oil Era
The following article makes some good points regarding societal dependence upon petroleum - namely, that if we wish to maintain affluent societies, the environmental impacts and eventual scarcity of oil must be acknowledged and dealt with now.
We cannot afford to be complacent about the future energy supplies needed to maintain our current standards of living and economic growth. Nor can we be complacent about the environmental impact of current consumption levels of carbon fuels.
Era of Throw-Away Consumer Goods Is Over
The idea that manufacturers must take responsibiity for the disposal of their products when they become waste is long overdue. Ecological and economic sustainability requires building upon a new Japanese car recycling law and a temporary recycling program by U.S. computer makers. It is time to dispose of the insane notion that a throw away society can sustain itself.
Signs of Energy
It is simply unbelievable that America's leaders are failing the test of leadership in terms of developing an energy policy which weans the country from fossil fuels. American leadership has their head up their posterior end.
The New York Times | Opinion | Signs of Energy
The last three years have given the country more than enough reasons to re-examine its energy policies: a power crisis in California, a blackout in the East, global warming, sharply higher prices for gasoline, tighter markets for natural gas and now a stubborn war in the heart of the biggest oil patch in the world. Clearly, we need a disciplined program to use more efficiently the fossil fuels we now have, coupled with aggressive efforts to develop renewable sources of energy.
Asia's Undeclared Oil War
Societal dependency upon oil threatens global sustainability and security...
The Undeclared Oil War (washingtonpost.com)
While some debate whether the war in Iraq was or was not "about oil," another war, this one involving little but oil, has broken out between two of the world's most powerful nations. For months China and Japan have been locked in a diplomatic battle over access to the big oil fields in Siberia.
Twisted Population Priority
Right wing fanatics are pushing their extremist ideology on the world, dooming efforts to address over-population. Billions of humans each trying to endlessly increase their consumption are eating the Earth. It simply cannot continue. Either we will learn to limit our numbers or the Earth will harshly do so.
It's hard to overstate the threat posed by global overpopulation. Many of the most serious problems facing the world and region can be traced to it, from global warming to famine to traffic jams on the 405. Yet one of the most effective programs for combating it is under siege by the Bush administration.
French Tax Big Cars
Again the French are way ahead of America in terms of social sensibilities. Large cars are killing us and the Earth. This is a great example of using taxation policy for environmental social goods.
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | France launches radical green tax on bigger cars
French drivers who favour large, gas-guzzling cars will have to pay up to %u20AC3,500 (£2,300) more for a new model from next January under a radical green road tax scheme unveiled by the environment ministry.
World's Oil Running Out Fast
There are two certainties that the the world is not facing up to, and by so doing, threaten the Earth and humanity's future. Oil will run out relatively soon - and endless economic growth is an impossibility. The world's bubble economy based upon these illusions will burst. Our best hope is to address this now in order to have the most room to maneuver in implementing solutions, which do exist, with lack of political will being the biggest impediment.
BBC NEWS | Business | Is the world's oil running out fast?
If you think oil prices are high at $40 a barrel then wait till they are four times that much.
While We're Off Fighting Terror, the Planet's Crumbling
The commentary piece I wish I had written - really tying it all together re: the state of perma-war and inaction on environmental sustainability.
P-I Focus: While we're off fighting terror, the planet's crumbling
It's time to broaden our understanding of security beyond just that of terrorism to securing a sustainable future for spaceship Earth.
Time to Raise Gas Tax and Lower Income Tax
There exist a plethora of reasons why oil and gasoline taxes should be increased. Foremost, the cost of gasoline does not reflect its true price to society and the environment. Nor are alternatives likely to emerge in the presence of an under-priced, polluting and scare resource. I will be writing more on this shortly...
... the country would indeed be better off if gasoline taxes had been raised by 50 cents a gallon when Mr. Kerry favored the idea. And the United States would still be wise today, if it increased gasoline taxes by the same amount now.
Bank of America Maps New Climate Change, Forest Policies
Another victory for climate and forests courtesy of Rainforest Action Network et al. The significance of the news depends critically upon defining "intact forests" however. It is heartening that RAN appears to have taken critiques from Forests.org onboard, and is making clear that forest certification is inappropriate in intact (alternatively primary, old-growth, endangered, big honking large and old) forests. And there remain concerns regarding plantations. For this and other reasons it must be clear that these agreements are the beginning, not the end of the pursuit of financial industry policies regarding ecological sustainability. However, in sum, RAN's finance campaign continues to rack up major victories.
Bank of America Maps New Climate Change, Forest Policies
Bank of America and Rainforest Action Network have collaborated to introduce environmental ethics to the bank's corporate bottom line, and on Monday they jointly announced the fruit of that collaboration. The second largest U.S. bank has decided to take new steps in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, protection of intact forest ecosystems and transparent public reporting to all stakeholders.
Efficiency Addresses Smog, Saves Money
Why would anyone - particulary business - possibly be against efficiency measures that save money while reducing polllution? Unless of course you are an antiquated fossil fuel energy business with a political agenda to extend the life of your dangerous and expensive product, and have just bought the White House...
ENN News Story - Efficiency can help meet EPA smog rules while saving companies money, says report
Energy-efficient manufacturing practices that protect the bottom line can take the sting out of complying with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new smog rules.
Utilities Buy Bush
Industry has bought the United States government and in return is benefiting from the dismantling of environmental protections.
Utilities Have Helped Bush, GOP
The 30 companies that own most of the dirtiest power plants in the country, and their trade association, have raised $6.6 million for President Bush and the Republican National Committee since 1999, and were given relief from pollution regulations that would have cost them billions of dollars, according to a new analysis.
Global Grain Harvest May Fall Short
The global environment is being pushed to its limits in terms of producing enough food. Though limits to food production such as water availability have been pushed back, they are still in place. It is likely that shortly the global system will not be able to produce enough food for its population. What then? There exists a tremendous bubble economy based upon unsustainable use of the Earth which will one day have a day of reckoning.
ENN News Story - Grain harvest predicted to fall short of world demand
This year's world grain harvest will increase to a record level but will still fall nearly 60 million tons short of what 6.4 billion people and more than 1 billion livestock will consume, an environmental group predicted Tuesday.
Bush Attacks Environment 'Scare Stories'
The "leader" of the free world is outrageously lying to the public about the state of the environment.
The Observer | International | Bush attacks environment 'scare stories'
George W. Bush's campaign workers have hit on an age-old political tactic to deal with the tricky subject of global warming - deny, and deny aggressively. The Observer has obtained a remarkable email sent to the press secretaries of all Republican congressmen advising them what to say when questioned on the environment in the run-up to November's election. The advice: tell them everything's rosy.
Gas Prices Still Too Low
Gas prices are still too low relative to the scarcity of this non-renewable resource and the environmental costs associated with its burning. Marginally prices have risen because of this scarcity and because American's undervalue petroleum. Burning oil causes climate change, lung damage, foreign wars, rainforest destruction, forest fragmentation, oil spills and corruption of governance. Clearly oil is going to be more expensive no matter what is done - and this signals the urgency of pursuing alternatives now rather than after the world has been razed to get the last drop of oil possible. And to foster this shift, oil should be taxed more and income and property taxed less. Duh.
Environment News Service (ENS) - Bush, Kerry Spar Over Rising Gasoline Prices
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry blasted the Bush administration Tuesday for the nation's rising gasoline prices and said the administration has done "nothing" to help consumers at the pumps. The White House in turn blamed Congress for the rising prices and said Kerry favors raising gasoline taxes, as both sides battled for advantage on an increasingly contentious issue.
Rich Nations Gobbling Resources at Unsustainable Rate
The rich world is guilty of criminal behavior against the Earth and the poor. Nearly one billion people are chronically hungry as obese American's continue to gobble food and resources. This crime will not go unpunished in oh so many ways.
Rich Nations Gobbling Resources at an Unsustainable Rate
Excessive consumption by the world's richest nations is making life even more difficult for the world's least fortunate, according to a new report by Redefining Progress. The U.S. based research group says the wealthiest nations are depleting global resources at an unprecedented rate - with the United States leading the way - and are mortgaging the future at the expense of today's children, the poor and the long term health of the planet.
Attack Threat if World Starves
Rich and overdeveloped countries could address the threat of climate change by reforming their gluttonous energy consumption, investing in renewable and conservation - or alternatively they could pursue a fortress strategy, investing in military solutions. Which they choose says alot about the society, their leaders and their values.
Herald Sun: Attack threat if world starves [14mar04]
AUSTRALIA would need to fortify its defences to protect itself from hungry invaders in the event of abrupt climate change, a Pentagon-commissioned report predicts.
Traditional U.S. Crops Genetically Polluted
The extent to which genetically modified crops have replaced and polluted traditional agricultural varieties is shocking and criminally negligent. Because a new scientific discovery allows something to be done, and it makes money, should it be widely applied without the benefit of knowing its ecological, social and economic consequences? Traditional crops are a foundation upon which human society rests. Perhaps we should be certain that GM foods are free of deadly effects before we make a choice to change. Not lose our traditional agriculture because it is in the interest of big business to do so.
Genetically Engineered DNA Found in Traditional U.S. Crops
Scientists have found DNA from genetically engineered crops in traditional varieties of three major U.S. food crops that have no history of genetic engineering.
Poverty World's Worst Threat
Poverty threatens the Earth, its peoples and all its animals. It is difficult if not impossible to envision a World culture that is environmentally sustainable, equitable, just and secure - that does not address the horrible disparities in wealth found today.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Poverty 'is world's worst threat'
The leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, says the biggest challenge confronting the world is not terrorism but poverty.
He told a conference called by the UK Treasury that poverty was humanity's "greatest scandal and scourge" today.
World Bank's Oil and Mining Funding Under Pressure
What a world it would be if our international organizations lead, rather thank clinging desperately to the ecocidal status quo. The World Bank is a criminal organization by virtue of its funding for deforestation, oil and mining.
Friends of the Earth: Press Releases: : World Bank Under Pressure from Tutu
World Bank President James Wolfensohn, in London today to give a keynote speech on the challenges of globalisation [1], is facing pressure from Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu to clean up the World Bank's policy and practice on funding oil and mining industries.
Environmental Refugees
Yet another sign of the Earth's ecosystem collapsing and immiment death can be found in rising instances of environmental refugees.
IHT: Environmental refugees: When the soil dies and the well dries
Although the modern world has extensive experience with people migrating for political and economic reasons, we are now seeing a swelling flow of refugees driven from their homes by environmental pressures.
Georgia Considers Banning 'Evolution'
The state of Georgia remains in the stone age, refusing to accept basic scientific understandings. Such superstition and lack of respect for science bodes ill for America's future.
CNN.com - Georgia considers banning 'evolution' - Jan. 30, 2004
The state's school superintendent has proposed striking the word evolution from Georgia's science curriculum and replacing it with the phrase "biological changes over time."
Bush Ignores Environment Again
This is simply outrageous, and reflects a failure in governance. Ignore the environment and it will go away, taking us with it.
Bush State of the Union Ignores Environment
President George W. Bush did not once mention the environment during his State of the Union address to a Joint Session of Congress last night. Nor was the environment mentioned in the Democratic response to the President's address given by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota.
Clean Energy Creates Jobs
How could anyone be against cleaner energy (address climate change, reduce pollution and thus illnesses such as childhood asthma, less dependence on terrorists for oil, etc.) that leads to new opportunities for good paying jobs? Unless of course one is bought and controlled by the fossil fuel energy oligarchy, such as our own Toxic Texan.
ENN News Story - Clean energy and efficiency investments would create 3.3 million jobs, says study
An alliance of labor, environmental, civil rights, business, and political leaders in the United States have laid out a vision for a "New Apollo Project" to create 3.3 million new jobs and achieve energy independence in 10 years.
No Sustainability Without Population Reductions
Without reductions in human population numbers, the Earth and human civilization have little chance of being sustained. The death grip of the Catholic church must be shattered, and contraceptives made readily available to any individual that wants them. Education for women and various incentives for small family sizes are a global ecological imperative.
Planet Ark : Brazilian City to Mail the Pill to Needy Women
The Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, notorious for its teeming slums, will mail contraceptive pills free of charge to women, including teenagers, in poor neighborhoods.
Don't Shortchange Earth
Visiting Mars would be nice. But it would be good to have a home to come back to.
Planet Ark : Gephardt to Bush: Don't Shortchange Earth
Democratic presidential hopeful Richard Gephardt urged President Bush last week not to forget the realities back home on planet Earth in pursuit of lofty aspirations in outer space.
Honda to Sell Accord Hybrids
The quest for environmental sustainabilty offers an abundance of business opportunities. Nations that seize upon the economics of ecology will be the leaders of the future.
Planet Ark : AUTOSHOW - Honda to sell Accord hybrids in US this year
Honda, Japan's second-biggest auto maker, said yesterday it would launch a gasoline-electric hybrid version of its flagship Accord sedan in the key U.S. market this autumn.
Sustainability Requires More than Recycling
Global ecological sustainability - survival of the Planet and its creatures including humankind - requires far more effort by the rich than recycling. Consumption must be reduced through less waste, more efficiency and living simpler lives. The Earth is finite and there is no escaping its ecological limits. Live well, not gluttonously.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Recycling efforts 'being wasted'
Efforts to recycle could be making less difference to the environment than previously thought
Solar/Hydrogen Car First
Hydrogen fuel cell technology alone is not going to prove a sustainable response to climate change and fossil fuel over-reliance. Fuel cells store energy that must still come from some other source, and if this is a coal burning power plant, the pollution and carbon emissions have been deferred and/or moved, but not eliminated. Below is a report on linking of solar energy with fuel cell technology - much more promising technologies in terms of energy dependence and ecological sustainabiity. It is interesting though perhaps not surprising that University students and not major car companies have made this breakthrough.
BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Epic trip for 'alternative' car
A car that runs on just hydrogen and solar power has completed a journey through Australia - the first crossing of a continent for a car of this type.
Life Expectancy Down for World's Poor
While the developed countries continue their ever more extravagent and excessive consumption, much of World has no hope. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, suffering in the land...
Planet Ark : Life expectancy in retreat for world's poor
"Today's global health situation raises urgent questions about justice"
Americans Gluttonous Pigs
I come from a tribe of gluttonous pigs. Try as I might to live frugally, I find myself getting fatter just being here. Try living without a car - nearly impossible. help
Planet Ark : US Energy Demand to Grow 1.5 Pct Annually
U.S. energy consumption is expected to grow 1.5 percent a year over the next two decades...
SARS Virus Part Bird, Part Mammal
Millenia of ecological changes on a global scale - including agriculture, domestication of animals, massive habitat transformation and exploding population - threaten humanity with entirely unknown disease vectors and even new diseases.
Planet Ark : SARS Virus Part Bird, Part Mammal, Study Finds
The SARS virus looks like a combination of viruses from birds and mammals
Sydney Lifestyle Unsustainable
You could say the same for virtually any Westernized city...
Planet Ark : Sydney Lifestyle Unsustainable, Report Says
"Sydney, Australia is regularly voted one of the world's best cities to live in, but a new environment report has warned its affluent lifestyle is ecologically unsustainable..."
China Considers 'Green GDP Index'
Gross Domestic Product is an absurdly antiquated concept, as it equates complete resource liquidation with economic advancement. The concept of a "Green GDP Index" is long overdue. Recall there can be no economy without ecological systems.
Yahoo! News - China considers 'green GDP index'
Chinese researchers are drawing up a "green GDP index"
New Grazing Rules to Help Ranchers
Economic growth through environmental despoilment. Good god man, who will stop this administration from trashing the Planet for a quarter of economic growth?
New grazing rules to help ranchers
The Bush administration, departing from Clinton-era restrictions on managing rangeland, on Friday proposed new rules aimed at helping livestock owners whose cattle range on public lands.
Poor World Shames U.S.
The United States is destroying the Earth and should be shamed by the fact that the world's poor are more concerned with global ecological sustainability than the rich...
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Poor world 'cuts climate gases'
Many poor countries are working to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases...
Fraction of Iraq Costs Could Feed World Poor
There are many paths to global security (or alternatively, to
insecurity). We can seek to be secure through the force of
arms, or we can seek to meet more of the basic needs of the
World's peoples. It is hard to envision true security which
does not include the latter. Bush's war is straight out imperial
hegemony.
Planet Ark : Fraction of Iraq costs could feed world poor - WFP
China Set to Act on Fuel Economy with Tougher Standards Than U.S.
China's industralization and embrace of the consumer society
holds obvious grave consequences for the country's and
global environment. However, if China embraces new
technologies aimed at reducing environmental impact, there
is more of a chance that sustainable patterns of global production
and consumption can be achieved. It is a start.
China Set to Act on Fuel Economy; Tougher Standards Than in U.S.
The Chinese government is preparing to impose minimum fuel
economy standards on new cars for the first time, and the
rules will be significantly more stringent than those in the
United States, according to Chinese experts involved in
drafting them.
Corporate Welfare Program Announced for Energy Sector
The Republicons are to announce a huge corporate
welfare program masquerading as an energy bill...
Planet Ark : Written in Private, Energy Bill to Go Public
After weeks of mostly secret work, Republicans on Monday
will take the wraps off an energy bill loaded with some $16
billion in tax incentives to boost energy production...
Toxic Texan Undoing Environmental Protections
The United States is going through an unprecedented
period of environmental rollbacks, orchestrated by
the Toxic Texan.
Bush takes quiet aim at 'green' laws | csmonitor.com
Slowly but surely, the Bush administration is using courts
and spending legislation to reverse Clinton-era trends in environmental protection.
Renewable Energy Future Possible
Renewable energy is already changing lives - with a real
investment it could lead to a more sustainable, equitable and
just future for the Planet.
Planet Ark : Clean Energy Brings Windfall to Village
Food
Planet Ark : Canadian Growers Warn UK Farmers of GMO Crop Risks
Is anyone really thinking about what a huge step it is to change our
whole way of growing food?
Energy Hot Issue
Climate change is dangerously real, alternative energy is a
global imperative, and major investments are required in
a massive renewable energy program.
As Earth Warms, the Hottest Issue Is Energy - "the country
needed to embark on an energy research program on the
scale of the Manhattan Project..."
Deforestation + Climate Change = Water Crisis (& Lots More)
The consequences of massive deforestation and looming climate
change may most significantly exhibit themselves (in the medium
term) through water shortages. WWF highlights in "Running Pure:
The importance of forest protected areas to drinking water" at
http://www.panda.org/downloads/freshwater/runningpurereport.pdf
the importance ecologically and economically of forested
watersheds as a means to provide high quality drinking water.
Consequences of climate change on water resources are being felt
strongly as the World's glaciers are melting causing subsequent
water scarcity. Certainly there will be many other synergistic
impacts of terrestrial and atmospheric diminishment - including
forest die-back as fragmented forests are unable to migrate due
to warming that is unprecedented in its rapidity.
The impacts of deforestation and climate change - happening now
as a result of our choices and inaction - are going to
reverberate through the global ecological systems indefinitely.
This is why Forests.org focuses upon all three - water
(http://www.waterconserve.info/), climate change
(http://www.climateark.org/) and of course forests
(http://forests.org/). Each environmental crisis impacts and
is impacted upon by the others - together threatening global
ecological sustainability (http://www.eco-portal.com/) .
My ecological intuition leads me to conjecture that severe
shortages of water exacerbated by deforestation and climate
change - through the sheer magnitude of human suffering it will
cause - may be the first instance of ecological collapse that
will catch global humanity's attention. Only when the Earth is
torn asunder, impacting the comforts of the rich (while killing
more of the poor) is there likely to be ecological protection,
conservation and restoration projects adequate to the ecological
crisis humanity now faces. By then let us all hope it is not
too late to avert global ecocide.
Protected Areas and WWF
Here is a recent feature article written by the Director General
of WWF International, presenting their organization's vision of
protected areas. As you may be aware, Forests.org has been
highly critical of WWF for: 1) lack of ambitious protected area
goals – particularly in the World's remaining large, wildlands
and 2) over-emphasis upon commercial certified forestry in
primary forests rather than community based protection and eco-
forestry. The article below is a chance for WWF to present their
views on protected areas.
I will make only a few comments. 12% protected areas are not
adequate to maintain global ecosystems. The best scientific
evidence is that various combinations of preserved and benignly
managed areas need to comprise some 50-70% of the landscape to
maintain sustainability of ecological patterns and processes.
Perhaps there is hope that WWF may be seeing the necessity of
spatially extensive forest protection and restoration, as the
article states "[m]ore work needs to be done for large-scale
conservation strategies."
WWF shows it can talk the talk re: large-scale conservation, now
it is a question of whether they will walk the walk. WWF can
begin by enunciating restrictive principles regarding when first
time commercial logging of large, primary forests is an
appropriate and desirable conservation outcome – and make clear
that protection of large areas with embedded community eco-
forestry management is always the preferred alternative.
Bushwhacked Again: Playing Politics with America's Forest Heritage
The American public has been Bushwhacked again. On Wednesday June 5th
the Bush administration announces that roadless area protections offered under
the Roadless Area Conservation Rule will stand – withdrawing an interim
directive blocking its full implementation. Four days later, on June 9th,
planned "small revisions" to the roadless plan are announced: including
exempting Alaska's large and important roadless areas from full protection (we
fought hard for their original inclusion) and state governors are given power to
withdraw areas from wilderness protection.
I am just sickened by the extent to which President Bush plays politics with the
environment. This was yet another carefully choreographed environmental
rollback. "The administration is undermining a regulation it never had any
intention of supporting, despite overtones to the contrary." The first
announcement demonstrating roadless protections are too popular to simply
eliminate outright, the second indicating roadless forests will face destruction
through numerous revisions instead. I continue to think that failure to end
protections outright is indicative of the forest conservation movement's
strength. But I acknowledge I fell for the Toxic Texans ploy of appearing to
support environmental protections while systematically dismantling them.
Arghh!!! Despite desperately wanting to believe that President Bush can learn
about and acknowledge the importance of ecological sustainability, I will not be
duped again.
Over-Developed & Self-Absorbed
The over-developed countries of the World are so self-absorbed that they fail
to see the suffering experienced by most peoples of the World. Belief me -
having one hell of an ego myself, I know about self-absorption (but I'm working
on it ;-). Most Americans, Brits and Aussies are more concerned about
having more than making sure all members of the human family have enough.
Over the past days the Environment News Service has run some outstanding
articles on the issue of poverty and the environment, which I highly encourage
you read and contemplate, including this one:
Wealthy Nations Fail to Fund Clean Water, Health
Poverty is violence and harmful to the environment.
War for Oil
I find it incomprehensible that anyone could deny that the Iraqi invasion is
largely motivated by the country's oil reserves. This war, nor the first gulf
war, would not have been fought if the country did not have what the United
States is dramatically addicted to - vast reserves of polluting, non-renewable
fossil fuels. I recently highlighted the connection between Consumption,
Militarism and Environmental Destruction. The U.S. empire has descended to
the point of militarily taking resources required for its reckless economic growth
machine. The are other more long-term, equitable and just policies for
maintaining energy security.
America must reduce the amount of energy it consumes. Carl Pope in an
editorial piece recently noted that "Energy Independence = Ounce of efficiency,
pound of freedom". He notes that more energy efficient cars are an
imperative, stating "[b]y raising our fuel-economy standards to 40 mpg, we can
improve our national security, cut global-warming pollution and start building a
safer, more sustainable world for our children". America simply must come to
terms with its profligate energy usage. It is premature to celebrate declining
oil prices following U.S. military adventurism; for we will surely be paying the
price of cheap oil for centuries to come.
Bush's Secrets
What does the imperial Bush Presidency have to hide? It is unconscionable
that Bush's oil oligarchy cabal - including Cheney - have been allowed to
make energy policy with little public and congressional oversight. The Boston
Globe points out that Bush's Secrets are far from safe. This is but one of many
Bush, Ashcroft, Cheney, Rumsfeld rollbacks of civil liberties and open
government that represent a not so subtle movement towards the right - in
fact, not that far from facism.
Aussies on Resource Binge, Environmental Hangover Looms
The Aussies are wonderful people - but perhaps a bit ecologically challenged.
Have they noticed that most of their continent is arid and devoid of luxuriant
ecosystems? Forests, water, soil and reefs are being decimated. As Aussies
grow richer, their environment is approaching collapse. Might want to brush
up on the concept of environmental sustainability - and then share what you
find with the U.S., Russia and others.
War Is Not the Answer
Noted ecologist and commentary David Suzuki provides a wonderful essay on
why "War Is Not the Answer". He concludes "I believe that poverty and the
unacceptable inequities in distribution of wealth, both between and within
countries, lie at the heart of violence and terror. If we value our country and
ideals, we should be far less concerned with increasing already obscene levels
of wealth and seek instead a world of greater equity that offers justice and
security." He is right. Further preemptive war is a horrendous new doctrine
that will deeply impact the future if this precedent is set. War kills people and
devastates natural systems. War is the ultimate environmental catastrophe.
Time to Sell Your Car
It is time to sell your car. Oil is the root cause of much conflict in the World,
and its production and consumption threatens virtually every vital global
life support system. Living without a car myself for some time now, I have
never had such satisfaction and freedom. Walking, biking, public transport
and an occasional car rental can provide a high standard of living while not
destroying the Earth's ecoystems.
Ecological Disintegration Now
The Earth as an ecologically viable whole is falling apart. Australia is ablaze
and undergoing extreme climate change. Yet another tanker has sunk off
Spain. Marine Fisheries are collapsing. Reefs are dying. President Bush is
actively engaged in pushing ecocidal environmental policies. And all this in the
past 24 hours. An Earth Revolution is required if we are to survive.
Bush Administration an Abysmal Environmental Mess
Bush has made more than 50 policy changes on environment
Carbon dioxide won the elections
Bush Record on Environment Called Dismal
The Bush administration is deviously dismantling decades of environmental
protections. The above articles point out his dismal record on the environment
that is truly unexcusable. As the World's ecosystems begin collapsing and
society falls back into barbarity, as is likely around mid-century, the Bush
administration will be remembered as the Hitleresque regime that carried out,
irreversibly completing, the final ecocide on the human race...
How can a man that purports to love the outdoors and has
his own ranch to wander through be so completely uneducated regarding
ecology? Our existence is primarily biological and ecological in nature. No
ecology, no economy or any other aspects of human society. It is a damn
shame really - there is every indication that the World could embrace
increased efficiency, more equitable and less consumptive lifestyles, and
develop renewable energy while embarking on the age of ecological
restoration. A relatively high standard of living could be provided for most
if not all of the Earth's citizens. It requires leadership that is more concerned
with the welfare of future generations, and less concerned with subsidizing
oil industry cronies. Bush's ecological vandalism is serious stuff, and threatens
the World as never before.