Category: Environment

The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

transcript

Severn Suzuki representing ECO, the Environmental Children’s Organization

addresses the UN regard the environmental issues of great concern, to her generation.

The people who will inherit the global decisions made at Copenhagen, this week …

We’re diving deep into “geek world” today with a story that combines economic hardball, the periodic table of the elements, and a barely noticed provision of the Defense Authorization Act that seeks to break a monopoly which today gives China near-absolute control over the materials that make cell phones, electric cars, wind turbines, and pretty much every other tool of modern life possible.

If we successfully break the monopoly, we’ll be able to create millions of new manufacturing jobs in this country-and if we don’t, somebody else owns the 21st Century.

Ironically, the global warming we’re trying to fight with new green technologies might be an ally in our efforts to make those very same green technologies happen.

There’s a revolution in industrial processing going on, rare earths are at the center of it all…and in today’s story, the revolution will be televised.

200 Mayan Peasants Arrested for Blocking Road in Mexico

Latin American Herald Tribune

November 25, 2009

CANCUN – More than 200 Mayan peasants were arrested during a clash with police who tried to prevent them from blocking the highway between the southeastern Mexican cities of Chetumal and Cancun, officials said.

About 20 peasants sustained minor injuries and a police officer underwent surgery for a head injury suffered in Tuesday’s clash, Quintana Roo state Deputy Public Safety Secretary Didier Vazquez said.

&&&

The peasants blocked the highway to demand payment of insurance and subsidies for crops lost in the drought affecting the region.

The insurance company has refused to pay claims for lost crops and Quintana Roo’s government has offered to cover only 50 percent of losses, or some 450 pesos (about $34) per hectare affected by the drought.

Last night I watched the documentary on msnbc: “100 Heartbeats,” part of MSNBC’s Future Earth series on the race to save our planet.

In “100 Heartbeats,” the second premiere in MSNBC’s landmark Future Earth series, famed naturalist Jeff Corwin tells the story of the “Sixth Extinction” – caused by people and which can only be stopped by people. Keep checking futureearth.msnbc.com for information about the next premiere, “Future Earth: 2025,” which will air on Dec. 20. You can catch “100 Heartbeats” on MSNBC again on Thanksgiving at 11 a.m. ET.

I was glad to see this show in a Sunday evening slot on msnbc and I really wish to god they’d do more like this … just blanket their whole weekend programming with this instead of the prison porn they usually do. Why not? Perhaps we should think about a write-in campaign to convince them of that!

I’m suffering a ripple-over, a hangover, of thoughts and I’m attempting to share some of these thoughts here.

There is a lot of bloggage currently over the increasing volume on the xtian’s idiocy, see  this essay from gottlieb. I was struck this morning by the juxtaposition.  I am just… so … aghast at the hypocrisy and the indignity of their whining … when this is going on.

This is desecration. This is an unholy war. This is …

Every year tens of millions of sharks die a slow death because of finning. Finning is the inhumane practice of hacking off the shark’s fins and throwing its still living body back into the sea. The sharks either starve to death, are eaten alive by other fish, or drown (if they are not in constant movement their gills cannot extract oxygen from the water). Shark fins are being “harvested” in ever greater numbers to feed the growing demand for shark fin soup, an Asian “delicacy”.

Not only is the finning of sharks barbaric, but their indiscriminate slaughter at an unsustainable rate is pushing many species to the brink of extinction. Since the 1970s the populations of several species have been decimated by over 95%. source

About a dozen days ago, we presented at our Women’s Studies lunch gathering a film about the California Indian basket weavers, as part of our ongoing effort at educating about and promoting eco-feminism.  Our theme for the year is Women Saving the Planet.  We’ve had speakers about saving old-growth forest and “green halloween” and the 350 movement.  And we’ve shown some films in series, including Taking Root:  The Vision of Wangari Matthai, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Blue Vinyl, and Jane Goodall: Reason to Hope.

And this other short film available here, entitled From the Roots:  California Indian Basketweavers.

As is sometimes my reaction, after learning more about the subject, I made some graphical art.

A Lionfish

Some bad news from underwater in the Caribbean.  Indo-Pacific Lionfish have apparently been spotted on the Mayan Riviera, the stretch of coast from Cancun in the north to Tulum in the south, of Quintana Roo, Mexico, and throughout much of the rest of the Caribbean.  These fish don’t belong there.  It’s not their natural habitat, and they’re predators to most other reef species.  They are voracious.  And to top it off, their spines are also toxic to humans.

Let’s go for a swim.

We often gauge a war by who conquers whom, and look to which army stands at the gates when the fighting ends. We talk about insurgents and militias and which warlords control what parts of the globe. So often, we fail to see the distinction between winning the war and creating the peace.

When we look at the outcome of war, we talk about property damage, refugee camps, monetary cost, number wounded, and how many people died. We rarely mention life. If our goal is to overcome anti-American extremism, we have to talk about how people live. How do people survive in the midst of war? How do they rebuild their communities?

An army can win a war on the frontlines, but creating a peace takes a backline effort — work that our government cannot do as a unilateral occupying force. This is work that must be done in the non-profit sector by active people like us. Winning the peace is a matter of empowering the survivors of war in their everyday lives.

Winning the peace is a matter of ecojustice.  

…a Zombie nightmare rides again.

Photo: Jonathan Lee. Me, Bob Del Tredici, Steve Wing and my hubby casing the FedEx Global Education Center lecture hall at UNC-CH, where all buildings and all departments are now owned by Big Business and Corporate sponsors, much to the dismay of the research faculty.

There are a great many important issues on our plates these days. Health Care (or merely insurance) Reform, two wars of invasion and occupation that show no signs of ending any time soon, an overstretched and vastly underappreciated military, a serious economic collapse and ever-lengthening Great Recession, home foreclosures, unemployment, torture as government policy, war crimes of the last administration stubbornly ignored, and the never-ending assault on the Constitution our erstwhile leaders swore to protect and defend. We who like to think of ourselves as Progressives and are keeping up with issues and actions via the ‘net and blogosphere do what we can on all of the issues, even if not all of them are The Most Important Issue we are personally engaging in our real life spheres. I am adding one more, which probably won’t be at the top of the list for most, but which has been around long enough that it does deserve a place in the lineup of things progressives should keep track of.

This week my husband and I were invited to attend and participate in a lunchtime seminar and evening lecture presentation by Robert Del Tredici of Vanier College in Quebec, Canada. “Looking Into the Nuclear Age: On Life, Art and the Bomb” was stunning. We’d been invited by epidemiologist (and friend) Steve Wing of UNC Chapel Hill, who hosted the event along with artist Elin O’Hara Slavick. Steve had conducted an independent epidemiological study of cancers in the area of Three Mile Island back in the early 1990s, and came to conclusions that directly contradicted those of previous studies and the U.S. government, which has insisted to this very day that no one was harmed by the meltdown.

Steve’s study was to have been evidence in a class action lawsuit in the 1990s with more than 2,000 plaintiffs who had developed cancer after the accident at TMI in 1979. My husband and I were to have been the backup evidence to support his study in that lawsuit, having been the designated “reporting agents” under provisions of 10CFR.21 for the health physics contractor at Three Mile Island immediately following the accident. Neither we nor Steve ever made it to court, as the lawsuit was finally dismissed for “lack of evidence” when the defendants convinced Judge Rambo that the only evidence admissible must be the coverup the guilty parties themselves provided. Duh.

350 is more than a catchy slogan —

350 is a target Ceiling for a very good reason:

that reason:

+6 C

325 or 300 ppm, of worldwide CO2 levels,

would be more like what the world really needs!

Alas, what is an Oil and Coal addicted Planet to do?!?

1) Get educated

2) Don’t lose hope

3) Do YOUR part — No one else, can do that …

This is a book review of the new edition of Helen Caldicott‘s “If You Love This Planet,” released this year.  It will examine the extent to which Caldicott can synthesize the great quantity of factual information presented in her book to help readers attain a wholistic view of “the metabolism between man and nature.”

(Crossposted at Big Orange)

Since I live in the DC metro area, I attended the rally last Wednesday at which the Clean Energy, Jobs and American Power Act (CEJAPA) was unveiled. Those of you who haven’t read summaries or analysis of this legislation yet should check out both RLMiller’s diary and Senator Kerry’s diary about CEJAPA.  I’ll say straight out that it’s not a perfect bill, but it’s a bill I’m happy to support. Its emissions reduction targets are better than those in the House bill, it includes more funding for clean transportation, and, very importantly, it states that the EPA has the authority to regulate carbon pollution. But analysis of the bill has already been diaried, and, to quote “Alice’s Restaurant,” it’s not what I’m here to tell you about.  I’m here to talk about the first indications of a political sea-change.

At the rally, I was struck by something remarkable.  Democratic senators were speaking to us, their progressive base, and asking us to help provide the grassroots pressure needed to get a climate bill through the rocky terrain of the Senate.  Now, politicians from the Democratic wing of the Democratic party have asked for our support before, but this was different.  It wasn’t just one or two left-wing senators addressing us, but a coalition which included some folks who usually don’t talk to us much-and they were asking us, essentially, to do the same thing we’ve done for the public option for this climate change legislation.  Imagine how different the debate on health care would have been over the past few months if Democratic politicians had come to us in April and asked us to mount a grassroots campaign in support of clear policy goals.  They didn’t, which is a shame.  But now, on the issue of climate change, they are.

Folks, we have finally gotten their attention.  The remarkable job that slinkerwink, Jane, nyceve, and others have done to keep the public option alive has finally made it occur to more than a few Dems that we’re good in a fight-and, perhaps, that we’re bad to ignore.  Rather than attempting to placate us by throwing us a few bones, then treating us like Typhoid Mary, which has been the MO of most elected Democrats since the late 80s, these Democrats are treating us as useful allies.  There is a door opening here between Washington and the grassroots, and we need to wedge it open with a brick and march right through.  

So, on behalf of The Carrots and Sticks Project, I am announcing the launch of our campaign to support the Kerry-Boxer bill.  We are calling it the Swing States to Green States Campaign, and we are beginning with a petition, which the members of Carrots and Sticks will hand-deliver to senators, calling on them to support CEJAPA.  Please click through and sign this petition, and spread the word to your friends to do the same.

Support CEJAPA!

We need to do this for the sake of CEJAPA’s goal:  to reduce carbon emissions and birth the new green economy.  But we also need to do this for the sake of another goal, one that brings to fruition the vision of our guiding light Howard Dean:  to take back our party and our country.

Our power is growing, the need is great, and we must act now.

Crossposted from Daily Kos

THE WEEK IN EDITORIAL CARTOONS

This weekly diary takes a look at the past week’s important news stories from the perspective of our leading editorial cartoonists (including a few foreign ones) with analysis and commentary added in by me.

When evaluating a cartoon, ask yourself these questions:

1. Does a cartoon add to my existing knowledge base and help crystallize my thinking about the issue depicted?

2. Does the cartoonist have any obvious biases that distort reality?

3. Is the cartoonist reflecting prevailing public opinion or trying to shape it?

The answers will help determine the effectiveness of the cartoonist’s message.

:: ::

Hobson’s Choice

Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution