Since my September entry looking at unleashing our passion in a big way for wild and natural lands, people came out of the woodwork to support a change in the United States. President Barack Obama and family have moved into the White House. The global economy has continued to crash and burn. Policymakers worldwide are trying to figure out what to do about it. Now it is time not only to rage for the wild, but also to rage for economic justice for the masses. I call your attention to a well-researched article by James Lieber describing What Cooked the World Economy. We need to assure that taxpayer dollars are not thrown at the institutions and powerbrokers who are responsible (like AIG) nor used to pay off derivatives and other wildly inventive and destructive and unsustainable investment schemes. In fact, we need to prosecute those dangerous men whose greed took our collective wealth for their own. As Lieber found, even collecting 5 percent of the amount of money that these men stole will fill national coffers and go a long way towards offsetting the amounts of money governments will need to spend to help restore economic systems. Actually, let’s change that language from restore to reinvent our economic systems. Please join me in pushing our policymakers to invest in people (through education) and in a sustainable and regenerating future for us all. See as an example Read the rest of this entry »
That is what is proposed by more than one leading scientist: grow trees to capture carbon, then burn them for fuel and sequester the carbon. Hmmmm….do you trust corporations and governments to do this without deforesting the planet? I certainly don’t!
The life cycle of most trees is way beyond the human life cycle. We do not have a sustainable population on this planet, by most counts: the number of humans vastly outnumbers the regenerative capacity of nature to support them (unless most of the world turns to permaculture and similar solutions). There are areas of the world that are barren today that were once lushly forested–our ancestors of thousands of years past cut the trees and then the soil blew away and then . . .
Even now, the corporations and speculators are buying up South American biofuel capacity–that translates to people cutting rain forests to plant corn and other biofuel crops. Something greatly wrong with that picture. Why would anyone feel that if the planet largely turns to wood burning for fuel that our children will know what a mature tree and mature forests will look like? We’ll end up with mono-cultured tree farms that are called woods.
Will that support life?
By the way, have you noticed more trees down in your area? I have. More and more people are planning to heat their homes with wood this year and I see more and more lots either clear-cut or thinned of large trees. That doesn’t make me happy.
The Earth had a twin that collided with us billions of years ago and created remnants from which the Moon created itself. The Moon is essential for temperature regulation on Earth. Jupiter protects us by pulling meteors that might otherwise collide with our planet. Under the Mediterranean are massive salt caves from the number of times the Mediterranean dried up. Who knew? Read the rest of this entry »
Breaking news! Too bad he didn’t stand up and say this in his presidential race. Still, Al Gore speaks the truth here and he continues to challenge the powers that be to join him. It will take the policymakers to step up, but they will only do so if we unrelentlessly press for this immediate and drastic change. Please watch and let us know what you think:
So . . . is this speech all the buzz in the media? Should it be? Any reaction from Obama?
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“Think green.” “What will you do to counter climate change?” “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle” “Read the groundbreaking work Plan B 3.0 by Lester Brown.” “The average American uses 580 lbs. of paper each year–that’s over 1 1/2 lbs per day!”
These and similar signature tags are appearing more and more in business emails that cross my desk. While heartening, I hope people don’t stop there. Slogans can get you thinking–though they are most valuable when they inspire to action. What words would inspire you to action?
My favorite that I have copied to my signature footer is:
“Please consider the environment before printing this email!”
When I first saw this tag line used I thought, duh! What a wonderful and simple statement that could really save paper and trees. Read the rest of this entry »
What do corn fields have in common with rainforests? Not much. That’s the problem. There are so many reasons why producing ethanol biofuel from corn and other crops is a very bad idea. How much land, diesel and water resources will be needed to produce this “renewable” fuel? How much forest will be replaced by monoculture farms that deplete top soil and add chemicals to the groundwater?
Seeing dollar signs and spurred by trade agreement incentives, Brazil and other nations are Read the rest of this entry »
I was one of hundreds of people in Washington Square Park in NYC yesterday demanding that Congress Step It Up and create legislation that leads to an 80 percent reduction in carbon by 2050. Step It Up.org created the 1 Sky priorities: Green Jobs Now, Cut Carbon 80% by 2050 and No New Coal. I love the term 1 Sky. It says it all, no?
If you are in the U.S., won’t you join us to lobby your congresspersons to commit to the 1 Sky priorities? We need leaders in Congress who will create and vote for aligned legislation. Step It Up asks not only that legislators say they support environmental policy, but asks what they will do about it. Read the rest of this entry »
