The grim reality of e-waste burden
rudkla - 30. Jan, 15:02
Environment Protection - Umweltschutz
Dienstag, 30. Januar 2007
Samstag, 27. Januar 2007
Report Warns of Obstacles to Sustainable Biofuels Sector
The benefits of biofuel made from beets, sugar cane and other crops may be weakened if the sector continues to expand without controls and trade agreements.
https://www.truthout.org/issues_06/012607EB.shtml
--------
Making Biofuels Without Wasting Food
https://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0307-06.htm
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=biofuel
https://www.truthout.org/issues_06/012607EB.shtml
--------
Making Biofuels Without Wasting Food
https://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0307-06.htm
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=biofuel
rudkla - 27. Jan, 12:02
Donnerstag, 11. Januar 2007
State of the world 2007: our urban future
rudkla - 11. Jan, 22:33
Mittwoch, 10. Januar 2007
WE'VE SEEN THE FUTURE, AND IT IS US
By Rob Dunn, Ph. D.
Seed Magazine
January 7, 2007
https://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2007/01/weve_seen_the_future_and_it_is.php
Human habitation has been, and is increasingly, playing a direct role not only in the extinction of species, but in their evolution. By our own actions, we may be accompanied into the future by ever more diverse pests and pathogens, and may leave behind what we value most -- elephants, tigers, and others of the earth's great megabeasts.
Evolution is often thought of as a slow process relative to our life spans, one that we have played no part in. We imagine it to have occurred in the far distant past. Until recently, the study of big evolutionary changes has rested on an examination of fossil remains and molecular evidence of the deep past. But, from a biological perspective, we can see that evolution is actually happening now and more quickly than we had previously assumed. Moreover, the new centers of evolution are neither tropical forests nor east African lakes but, instead, those habitats and resources most closely allied with us -- our human habitats and ourselves.
First, some context. A consideration of previous periods of speciation suggests that the evolution of new species occurs most rapidly in big habitats with lots of resources. Where are those habitats now? In the last five thousand years the earth has gone from a place dominated by forests and grasslands to one dominated by humans, agriculture, and cities. The Atlantic forest of Brazil, for example, fragmented and dwindling, is unlikely to be an important source of new species in the future. The Amazon and a few other large native habitats may still be important, but less so than they have been historically. Due to our destruction of habitat, we have already extinguished hundreds of birds and mammal species, not to mention the other multitudes. As it stands, up to 95 percent of all the terrestrial world is actively managed for human uses.
The world, as we have rendered it, is now chiefly comprised of our crops, the consumers of those crops (including we humans), our own pathogens at the top of the food chain, and, on the bottom, as it were, the decomposers of our waste. These groups now account for the vast majority of the living matter on earth.
More than half of the species on earth are parasites and, for a subset of those parasites, we represent a tremendous and growing resource. Humans are now six and a half billion strong and those billions represent pounds of resources for needy parasites. We are bodies full of unexploited niches (along with a number of exploited ones). As we expand our numbers, we are expanding evolutionary possibilities for microbes that can live on us and in us. At the same time, we are introducing new selection pressures which are working to speed the evolution of those microbes. We are covered in antibiotics, antimicrobials -- anti-everything -- which exert strong selection for the evolution of resistant and more virulent forms. We have seen, in the last 60 years, bacteria, protists, helminthes and other parasites all independently, and frequently, evolve resistance to our anti-parasite treatments. In addition, we are witnessing the origin of new human pathogens, such as HIV, either when pathogens switch hosts to take advantage of the resource humans represent, or through the divergence of human pathogens.
If the lesson that parasites offer is insufficiently clear, we can turn to our commensals, the rodents, fruit flies, lice, and doves of the world for an even clearer picture of our recent past and perhaps future. As we spread and our cultures change, we have affected not only our microbes but actually caused the speciation of our commensals. We know, for example, that house mice evolved a commensal relationship with humans early in our history and since then, as they spread with us around the globe and adapted to new habitats, have speciated into no fewer than seven species. Drosophila melanogaster (the common fruit fly) appears to have evolved from a forest species in Africa and also moved with us as we've migrated. It is no longer capable of breeding with the populations from which it apparently originated and this in relatively few human generations. The list goes on. Rats and mice that we have introduced to islands, via our ocean-going vessels, have evolved traits over just a few hundred years which ultimately allow them to take better advantage of island resources.
Where we have industrialized agriculture, weeds have evolved to chemically mimic our crops to avoid the herbicide. Insect pests have evolved resistance to DDT and to the pesticides that have followed. We have countered with genetically engineered crops. Already there are insect species resistant to the defenses of those crops. When we add new species of crops, insects in turn rapidly switch to those. Even our most degraded landscapes offer possibilities. Many independent plant lineages have evolved tolerance to heavy metal pollutants. Insects have, in response, evolved resistance to the heavy metals those plants sequester in their leaves.
The more we look at the world around us, the more it seems to be evolving at our hand, albeit without our meaning it to. As we inadvertently introduce thousands of species to new habitats, species evolve. In some of the most detailed studies to date, researchers in Australia have shown that the poisonous cane toad, which was introduced by humans from Central America, has exerted a selective pressure on the local snakes, killing those that eat cane toads. Now, apparently, since the cane toads' introduction, because snakes with bigger mouths ate cane toads, died, and passed on no genes, at least one species of snake has evolved a smaller mouth. Those are the ones that have survived.
What we must begin to come to terms with is that we may be seeing the beginning of a new adaptive radiation, a new burgeoning of life -- but it is not necessarily the one we might hope for. The big creatures we value so highly -- indeed treasure -- will not be able to regain a stronghold in the face of our encroachments. Indeed, they breed, and so evolve, more slowly than the species mentioned here. Instead, the small will inherit the earth, if it is not already theirs. The evolutionary future is pathogens, pests and guests, at least as we have currently written the story.
Wallace and Darwin met opposition when they revealed their theory of natural selection. Today, such opposition, has been "born again" as it were in the form of creation science or intelligent design. But whether one "believes" or does not believe in evolution, individuals go on mating and dying. Through time, some genes are favored and others are not. The new forms that have evolved in our anthropogenic landscapes don't care if we believe in them.
If you want a more bucolic version of the ecological future, consult a paleontologist. The paleontologists look further into the future to a time when the great evolutionary opportunities are not agricultural habitats, but are, instead, vast forests -- to a time when the seas are again filled with large species -- to a time when new large vertebrates roam new kinds of plains. They look forward in time to a world more interesting to us than our present evolutionary future. The paleontologists can do all this because they begin their discussions of future evolution with the statement, "once humans go extinct."
Rob R. Dunn is an assistant professor in the department of zoology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
Informant: NHNE
Seed Magazine
January 7, 2007
https://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2007/01/weve_seen_the_future_and_it_is.php
Human habitation has been, and is increasingly, playing a direct role not only in the extinction of species, but in their evolution. By our own actions, we may be accompanied into the future by ever more diverse pests and pathogens, and may leave behind what we value most -- elephants, tigers, and others of the earth's great megabeasts.
Evolution is often thought of as a slow process relative to our life spans, one that we have played no part in. We imagine it to have occurred in the far distant past. Until recently, the study of big evolutionary changes has rested on an examination of fossil remains and molecular evidence of the deep past. But, from a biological perspective, we can see that evolution is actually happening now and more quickly than we had previously assumed. Moreover, the new centers of evolution are neither tropical forests nor east African lakes but, instead, those habitats and resources most closely allied with us -- our human habitats and ourselves.
First, some context. A consideration of previous periods of speciation suggests that the evolution of new species occurs most rapidly in big habitats with lots of resources. Where are those habitats now? In the last five thousand years the earth has gone from a place dominated by forests and grasslands to one dominated by humans, agriculture, and cities. The Atlantic forest of Brazil, for example, fragmented and dwindling, is unlikely to be an important source of new species in the future. The Amazon and a few other large native habitats may still be important, but less so than they have been historically. Due to our destruction of habitat, we have already extinguished hundreds of birds and mammal species, not to mention the other multitudes. As it stands, up to 95 percent of all the terrestrial world is actively managed for human uses.
The world, as we have rendered it, is now chiefly comprised of our crops, the consumers of those crops (including we humans), our own pathogens at the top of the food chain, and, on the bottom, as it were, the decomposers of our waste. These groups now account for the vast majority of the living matter on earth.
More than half of the species on earth are parasites and, for a subset of those parasites, we represent a tremendous and growing resource. Humans are now six and a half billion strong and those billions represent pounds of resources for needy parasites. We are bodies full of unexploited niches (along with a number of exploited ones). As we expand our numbers, we are expanding evolutionary possibilities for microbes that can live on us and in us. At the same time, we are introducing new selection pressures which are working to speed the evolution of those microbes. We are covered in antibiotics, antimicrobials -- anti-everything -- which exert strong selection for the evolution of resistant and more virulent forms. We have seen, in the last 60 years, bacteria, protists, helminthes and other parasites all independently, and frequently, evolve resistance to our anti-parasite treatments. In addition, we are witnessing the origin of new human pathogens, such as HIV, either when pathogens switch hosts to take advantage of the resource humans represent, or through the divergence of human pathogens.
If the lesson that parasites offer is insufficiently clear, we can turn to our commensals, the rodents, fruit flies, lice, and doves of the world for an even clearer picture of our recent past and perhaps future. As we spread and our cultures change, we have affected not only our microbes but actually caused the speciation of our commensals. We know, for example, that house mice evolved a commensal relationship with humans early in our history and since then, as they spread with us around the globe and adapted to new habitats, have speciated into no fewer than seven species. Drosophila melanogaster (the common fruit fly) appears to have evolved from a forest species in Africa and also moved with us as we've migrated. It is no longer capable of breeding with the populations from which it apparently originated and this in relatively few human generations. The list goes on. Rats and mice that we have introduced to islands, via our ocean-going vessels, have evolved traits over just a few hundred years which ultimately allow them to take better advantage of island resources.
Where we have industrialized agriculture, weeds have evolved to chemically mimic our crops to avoid the herbicide. Insect pests have evolved resistance to DDT and to the pesticides that have followed. We have countered with genetically engineered crops. Already there are insect species resistant to the defenses of those crops. When we add new species of crops, insects in turn rapidly switch to those. Even our most degraded landscapes offer possibilities. Many independent plant lineages have evolved tolerance to heavy metal pollutants. Insects have, in response, evolved resistance to the heavy metals those plants sequester in their leaves.
The more we look at the world around us, the more it seems to be evolving at our hand, albeit without our meaning it to. As we inadvertently introduce thousands of species to new habitats, species evolve. In some of the most detailed studies to date, researchers in Australia have shown that the poisonous cane toad, which was introduced by humans from Central America, has exerted a selective pressure on the local snakes, killing those that eat cane toads. Now, apparently, since the cane toads' introduction, because snakes with bigger mouths ate cane toads, died, and passed on no genes, at least one species of snake has evolved a smaller mouth. Those are the ones that have survived.
What we must begin to come to terms with is that we may be seeing the beginning of a new adaptive radiation, a new burgeoning of life -- but it is not necessarily the one we might hope for. The big creatures we value so highly -- indeed treasure -- will not be able to regain a stronghold in the face of our encroachments. Indeed, they breed, and so evolve, more slowly than the species mentioned here. Instead, the small will inherit the earth, if it is not already theirs. The evolutionary future is pathogens, pests and guests, at least as we have currently written the story.
Wallace and Darwin met opposition when they revealed their theory of natural selection. Today, such opposition, has been "born again" as it were in the form of creation science or intelligent design. But whether one "believes" or does not believe in evolution, individuals go on mating and dying. Through time, some genes are favored and others are not. The new forms that have evolved in our anthropogenic landscapes don't care if we believe in them.
If you want a more bucolic version of the ecological future, consult a paleontologist. The paleontologists look further into the future to a time when the great evolutionary opportunities are not agricultural habitats, but are, instead, vast forests -- to a time when the seas are again filled with large species -- to a time when new large vertebrates roam new kinds of plains. They look forward in time to a world more interesting to us than our present evolutionary future. The paleontologists can do all this because they begin their discussions of future evolution with the statement, "once humans go extinct."
Rob R. Dunn is an assistant professor in the department of zoology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
Informant: NHNE
rudkla - 10. Jan, 18:17
Beneath the waves, a crisis is building
By DINAH VOYLES PULVER
Environment Writer
https://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Enviro/envHEAD01010707.htm
When marine scientist John Reed began exploring the ocean floor off Cape Canaveral in 1975, he found towers of coral thousands of years old, teeming with grouper and black sea bass.
Returning to the spot 25 years later, the treasures that once amazed Reed were gone. In their place? Fields of rubble.
Today, though parts of the Oculina coral reefs between Daytona Beach and Fort Pierce have been protected for 20 years, much has been obliterated. And the destructive bottom trawling for shrimp and fish that's blamed for the damage still may happen on some areas of the reef.
"There's basically no federal restriction, even in this day and age, prohibiting a bottom trawler from rolling over a healthy reef and it's just ludicrous," said Reed, a senior scientist at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce. "It's like saying, 'Oh, you can go clearcut a redwood forest.' "
In one pass, a heavy trawl may destroy delicate corals hundreds of years old, leaving thousands of tiny animals like shrimp and worms homeless and ruining the chance of successful fishing there anytime soon.
Such trawling may be trashing coral reefs worldwide, just one example of a host of ailments plaguing the world's oceans. Gleaming beauty and salty breezes still lure those who would swim, sail and fish, but the ocean's ancient image as an everlasting resource is an illusion.
"The oceans are not the pristine place people think they are," said Peter Anderson, director of Whitney Lab at Marineland. "It's staggering what we've done. For generations now we thought the oceans were a bottomless pit and they're not."
Both playground and economic backbone for coastal counties like Volusia and Flagler, healthy oceans mean safe swimming, fruitful fishing and tourist cash. The reefs, spawning grounds for countless fish species, are one measure of whether that backbone stays strong.
And with more than half the nation's population living on the coast, the strain shows.
Pressured by fishing, shipping traffic, cruise boats, a warming climate and pollution, the oceans have been overfished and polluted before being fully explored or understood.
Whales, birds and other sea life wash on to beaches, tangled in deadly debris or battered by ships. Scientists find human diseases such as herpes viruses and traces of human drugs and pollutants in their blood.
LIGHTER CATCHES
No longer do fishing boats heave under the weight of a day's catch of prize-worthy beauties. Up to 90 percent of the world's big fish, like marlin and tuna, have vanished. Fishing villages no longer thrive, their fishermen turning to other jobs as they have in Oak Hill.
Jellyfish, algae and seaweed, once held in check by balanced ecosystems, run rampant in what scientists call the "rise of slime."
Instead of flocking to the sea, tourists avoid bacteria-laden waves and toxic algae blooms, as they did in Southwest Florida last year. Such blooms cost the country an estimated $75 million a year.
Even miles from shore, the human footprint that lined the ocean with condominiums and highways leaves its heavy tread. Six-pack wrappers and bottles bob beside turtles and cavorting dolphins.
IS THE RESOLVE THERE?
Scientists and those who live off the sea are optimistic the tide can be turned. But they wonder if there will be enough resolve and money for things like mapping the entire Oculina Bank, which may go as far north as St. Augustine.
They're encouraged by improvements seen since large areas of the bank were closed to fishing.
Fish numbers dropped dramatically when areas of Oculina coral were "annihilated," said Christopher Koenig, a Florida State University professor. But black sea bass, grouper and other fish seem to be returning.
ON PATROL
Researchers are pleased state and federal officials now patrol the closed areas.
On a sunny morning in August, the Coast Guard cutter Shrike set out on a routine patrol of the Oculina. The crew spotted more than a dozen shrimp boats anchored just a couple of miles outside one area closed to shrimping and most kinds of fishing.
Boarding one boat, the Guardsmen checked the overnight track. The Oculina was marked on the global positioning system with a "big purple line" and the shrimpers hadn't crossed it. Other boats have and been heavily fined.
The National Marine Fisheries Service requires tracking beacons on big fishing vessels.
But delicate coral that took hundreds of years to grow won't be quickly restored.
TAKING A BEATING
Other reefs around the world face similar threats and are being overtaken by seaweed that thrives in water polluted with stormwater runoff and sewage. This year for the first time, two corals were listed as endangered species and the Oculina Bank's ivory tree coral was listed as a species of concern.
Brian Lapointe, a Harbor Branch scientist, found septic tanks seeping into coastal waters of the Florida Keys 25 years ago. At Looe Key, a popular snorkeling spot, he found levels of two fertilizer ingredients, ammonium nitrate and phosphate, rose more than 100 percent in 10 years in the 1990s. Such increases -- from fertilizers, pesticides and bacteria -- occur worldwide, he said, and the ocean can't dilute it all.
Scott Kraus sees the impacts of pollution on sea life in his work as vice president of research with the New England Aquarium. "People don't take the potential problems we're creating for (the ocean) seriously, because we've been dumping for years and thinking it was infinite," Kraus said.
WORLDWIDE ATTENTION
The clamoring of scientists worldwide has drawn attention to the ocean crisis, with state and national ocean commissions calling for sweeping changes.
The fisheries service, for example, expects to create a series of Marine Protected Areas off the Southeast coast in March. The areas, including one between Jacksonville and Ormond Beach, would close key locations to fishing to give fish somewhere to feed and breed unmolested.
Many fishermen question more restrictions. To Paul Nelson, Jr. a lifelong local fisherman, it seems unconstitutional to close the ocean to a family trying to make a living as his has done for generations.
But ocean advocates say state and federal agencies must do more to ensure the ocean maintains its status as playground and economic backbone.
"We're very fortunate to have them in our backyard," Reed said, "but we also need to take the responsibility to protect them for future generations of mankind forever."
dinah.pulver @news-jrnl.com
The ocean crisis: what's to blame?
The independent Pew Oceans Commission and the federal U.S. Ocean Commission studied the ocean crisis and in 2003 and 2004 blamed:
· Overexploited fisheries
· Lack of U.S. leadership on international ocean and coastal issues
· Dwindling U.S. investment in ocean and coastal research
· Inadequate funding for government oversight at every level
· No coherent ocean policy, fragmented laws, confusing jurisdictions
· A lack of federal support for emerging initiatives
What should be done?
In March, the U.S. Senate asked the group to come up with a top 10 list of actions, delivered to the Senate in June. They included:
· Adopt a national ocean policy.
· Reauthorize and improve Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which sets procedures and limits for U.S. and foreign fishing in U.S. waters.
· Follow the United Nations convention on the Law of the Sea, which governs and regulates activities on, over and under the world's oceans.
· Establish an ocean trust fund for improved management and understanding of ocean and coastal resources; the group estimates up to $5 billion a year is needed.
· Increase funding for ocean and coastal programs, including research.
· Establish the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in law and work with the administration to improve coordination among federal agencies.
· Manage ocean resources by regional ecosystems rather than state by state.
· Begin an improved nationwide system of buoys for ocean observations.
How can you help?
DON'T LITTER: Discard trash and fishing line in containers. About 80 percent of ocean trash comes from land, mostly fast-food wrappers and plastic bags, bottles and cups.
NEVER RELEASE BALLOONS: Thousands of animals die each year from swallowing balloons. Jellyfish-eating creatures -- leatherback turtles, ocean sun fish and others -- get confused by the balloons, eat them and die.
PICK UP A PEN: Write your lawmakers at the state or federal level to ask for stronger protections for the Oculina Bank and better fishing regulations.
CURB YOUR PETS: Bag dog and cat feces and dispose of them in the trash. Don't flush cat litter down the toilet. Sewage treatment doesn't remove parasites that can harm sea otters and dolphins.
DON'T FLUSH MEDICINES OR SOLVENTS: Throw away unused pharmaceuticals, perfumes, industrial chemicals or solvents. Don't dispose of them in the toilet or down the sink. Sewage treatment doesn't remove many chemicals and dissolved drugs that can poison sea life.
MINIMIZE FERTILIZER USE: Don't apply before rainstorms. Don't use a hose to remove spills or residue from sidewalks and driveways. Sweep it up and put it in the trash.
DISCARD CHEMICALS PROPERLY: Dispose of household toxins at hazardous-waste collection centers. Recycle used motor oil and transmission fluid. When possible, use nontoxic substitutes.
COLLECT CAR-WASH RUNOFF: Don't wash cars in streets or driveways. Instead, park on lawns or go to a carwash that collects the runoff.
AVOID OVER-WATERING: Use drip irrigation whenever possible and adjust sprinklers to minimize over-spraying. Plant native plants that need less water.
PLANT A TREE: Trees slow runoff and absorb carbon dioxide and other nutrients that, otherwise, end up in the ocean.
USE ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION: Consider walking, riding a bike or taking mass transit to shop or to work. Tailpipes pollute the ocean as well as the air.
SOURCES: Los Angeles Times; News-Journal researchGlossary
Terms to know to help navigate our oceans:
TRAWLING: dragging a large, baglike net by boat along the bottom of a fishing bank
OVERFISHING: to fish a body of water or geographic region to excess, depleting the stock of fish
ECOSYSTEM: a community of animals, plants and bacteria interrelated together with its physical and chemical environment
CUTTER: a small, armed, engine-powered ship used by the U.S. Coast Guard for patrol duty
AMMONIUM NITRATE: colorless, crystalline salt used in some explosives, as fertilizer, and in rocket fuel; can cause dangerous acidity in water
ENTEROCOCCUS: bacteria normally present in the intestinal tract; is used as an indicator of water quality
FECAL COLIFORM: consisting of feces, normally found in the colon; used as an indicator of disease bacteria in water
HIGH SEAS: waters beyond 200 miles of a nation's shore
DDT: powerful insecticide usually effective on contact; its use is restricted by law because of damaging environmental effects
SOURCES: Webster's New World College Dictionary; News-Journal research
Informant: binstock
Environment Writer
https://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Enviro/envHEAD01010707.htm
When marine scientist John Reed began exploring the ocean floor off Cape Canaveral in 1975, he found towers of coral thousands of years old, teeming with grouper and black sea bass.
Returning to the spot 25 years later, the treasures that once amazed Reed were gone. In their place? Fields of rubble.
Today, though parts of the Oculina coral reefs between Daytona Beach and Fort Pierce have been protected for 20 years, much has been obliterated. And the destructive bottom trawling for shrimp and fish that's blamed for the damage still may happen on some areas of the reef.
"There's basically no federal restriction, even in this day and age, prohibiting a bottom trawler from rolling over a healthy reef and it's just ludicrous," said Reed, a senior scientist at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce. "It's like saying, 'Oh, you can go clearcut a redwood forest.' "
In one pass, a heavy trawl may destroy delicate corals hundreds of years old, leaving thousands of tiny animals like shrimp and worms homeless and ruining the chance of successful fishing there anytime soon.
Such trawling may be trashing coral reefs worldwide, just one example of a host of ailments plaguing the world's oceans. Gleaming beauty and salty breezes still lure those who would swim, sail and fish, but the ocean's ancient image as an everlasting resource is an illusion.
"The oceans are not the pristine place people think they are," said Peter Anderson, director of Whitney Lab at Marineland. "It's staggering what we've done. For generations now we thought the oceans were a bottomless pit and they're not."
Both playground and economic backbone for coastal counties like Volusia and Flagler, healthy oceans mean safe swimming, fruitful fishing and tourist cash. The reefs, spawning grounds for countless fish species, are one measure of whether that backbone stays strong.
And with more than half the nation's population living on the coast, the strain shows.
Pressured by fishing, shipping traffic, cruise boats, a warming climate and pollution, the oceans have been overfished and polluted before being fully explored or understood.
Whales, birds and other sea life wash on to beaches, tangled in deadly debris or battered by ships. Scientists find human diseases such as herpes viruses and traces of human drugs and pollutants in their blood.
LIGHTER CATCHES
No longer do fishing boats heave under the weight of a day's catch of prize-worthy beauties. Up to 90 percent of the world's big fish, like marlin and tuna, have vanished. Fishing villages no longer thrive, their fishermen turning to other jobs as they have in Oak Hill.
Jellyfish, algae and seaweed, once held in check by balanced ecosystems, run rampant in what scientists call the "rise of slime."
Instead of flocking to the sea, tourists avoid bacteria-laden waves and toxic algae blooms, as they did in Southwest Florida last year. Such blooms cost the country an estimated $75 million a year.
Even miles from shore, the human footprint that lined the ocean with condominiums and highways leaves its heavy tread. Six-pack wrappers and bottles bob beside turtles and cavorting dolphins.
IS THE RESOLVE THERE?
Scientists and those who live off the sea are optimistic the tide can be turned. But they wonder if there will be enough resolve and money for things like mapping the entire Oculina Bank, which may go as far north as St. Augustine.
They're encouraged by improvements seen since large areas of the bank were closed to fishing.
Fish numbers dropped dramatically when areas of Oculina coral were "annihilated," said Christopher Koenig, a Florida State University professor. But black sea bass, grouper and other fish seem to be returning.
ON PATROL
Researchers are pleased state and federal officials now patrol the closed areas.
On a sunny morning in August, the Coast Guard cutter Shrike set out on a routine patrol of the Oculina. The crew spotted more than a dozen shrimp boats anchored just a couple of miles outside one area closed to shrimping and most kinds of fishing.
Boarding one boat, the Guardsmen checked the overnight track. The Oculina was marked on the global positioning system with a "big purple line" and the shrimpers hadn't crossed it. Other boats have and been heavily fined.
The National Marine Fisheries Service requires tracking beacons on big fishing vessels.
But delicate coral that took hundreds of years to grow won't be quickly restored.
TAKING A BEATING
Other reefs around the world face similar threats and are being overtaken by seaweed that thrives in water polluted with stormwater runoff and sewage. This year for the first time, two corals were listed as endangered species and the Oculina Bank's ivory tree coral was listed as a species of concern.
Brian Lapointe, a Harbor Branch scientist, found septic tanks seeping into coastal waters of the Florida Keys 25 years ago. At Looe Key, a popular snorkeling spot, he found levels of two fertilizer ingredients, ammonium nitrate and phosphate, rose more than 100 percent in 10 years in the 1990s. Such increases -- from fertilizers, pesticides and bacteria -- occur worldwide, he said, and the ocean can't dilute it all.
Scott Kraus sees the impacts of pollution on sea life in his work as vice president of research with the New England Aquarium. "People don't take the potential problems we're creating for (the ocean) seriously, because we've been dumping for years and thinking it was infinite," Kraus said.
WORLDWIDE ATTENTION
The clamoring of scientists worldwide has drawn attention to the ocean crisis, with state and national ocean commissions calling for sweeping changes.
The fisheries service, for example, expects to create a series of Marine Protected Areas off the Southeast coast in March. The areas, including one between Jacksonville and Ormond Beach, would close key locations to fishing to give fish somewhere to feed and breed unmolested.
Many fishermen question more restrictions. To Paul Nelson, Jr. a lifelong local fisherman, it seems unconstitutional to close the ocean to a family trying to make a living as his has done for generations.
But ocean advocates say state and federal agencies must do more to ensure the ocean maintains its status as playground and economic backbone.
"We're very fortunate to have them in our backyard," Reed said, "but we also need to take the responsibility to protect them for future generations of mankind forever."
dinah.pulver @news-jrnl.com
The ocean crisis: what's to blame?
The independent Pew Oceans Commission and the federal U.S. Ocean Commission studied the ocean crisis and in 2003 and 2004 blamed:
· Overexploited fisheries
· Lack of U.S. leadership on international ocean and coastal issues
· Dwindling U.S. investment in ocean and coastal research
· Inadequate funding for government oversight at every level
· No coherent ocean policy, fragmented laws, confusing jurisdictions
· A lack of federal support for emerging initiatives
What should be done?
In March, the U.S. Senate asked the group to come up with a top 10 list of actions, delivered to the Senate in June. They included:
· Adopt a national ocean policy.
· Reauthorize and improve Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which sets procedures and limits for U.S. and foreign fishing in U.S. waters.
· Follow the United Nations convention on the Law of the Sea, which governs and regulates activities on, over and under the world's oceans.
· Establish an ocean trust fund for improved management and understanding of ocean and coastal resources; the group estimates up to $5 billion a year is needed.
· Increase funding for ocean and coastal programs, including research.
· Establish the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in law and work with the administration to improve coordination among federal agencies.
· Manage ocean resources by regional ecosystems rather than state by state.
· Begin an improved nationwide system of buoys for ocean observations.
How can you help?
DON'T LITTER: Discard trash and fishing line in containers. About 80 percent of ocean trash comes from land, mostly fast-food wrappers and plastic bags, bottles and cups.
NEVER RELEASE BALLOONS: Thousands of animals die each year from swallowing balloons. Jellyfish-eating creatures -- leatherback turtles, ocean sun fish and others -- get confused by the balloons, eat them and die.
PICK UP A PEN: Write your lawmakers at the state or federal level to ask for stronger protections for the Oculina Bank and better fishing regulations.
CURB YOUR PETS: Bag dog and cat feces and dispose of them in the trash. Don't flush cat litter down the toilet. Sewage treatment doesn't remove parasites that can harm sea otters and dolphins.
DON'T FLUSH MEDICINES OR SOLVENTS: Throw away unused pharmaceuticals, perfumes, industrial chemicals or solvents. Don't dispose of them in the toilet or down the sink. Sewage treatment doesn't remove many chemicals and dissolved drugs that can poison sea life.
MINIMIZE FERTILIZER USE: Don't apply before rainstorms. Don't use a hose to remove spills or residue from sidewalks and driveways. Sweep it up and put it in the trash.
DISCARD CHEMICALS PROPERLY: Dispose of household toxins at hazardous-waste collection centers. Recycle used motor oil and transmission fluid. When possible, use nontoxic substitutes.
COLLECT CAR-WASH RUNOFF: Don't wash cars in streets or driveways. Instead, park on lawns or go to a carwash that collects the runoff.
AVOID OVER-WATERING: Use drip irrigation whenever possible and adjust sprinklers to minimize over-spraying. Plant native plants that need less water.
PLANT A TREE: Trees slow runoff and absorb carbon dioxide and other nutrients that, otherwise, end up in the ocean.
USE ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION: Consider walking, riding a bike or taking mass transit to shop or to work. Tailpipes pollute the ocean as well as the air.
SOURCES: Los Angeles Times; News-Journal researchGlossary
Terms to know to help navigate our oceans:
TRAWLING: dragging a large, baglike net by boat along the bottom of a fishing bank
OVERFISHING: to fish a body of water or geographic region to excess, depleting the stock of fish
ECOSYSTEM: a community of animals, plants and bacteria interrelated together with its physical and chemical environment
CUTTER: a small, armed, engine-powered ship used by the U.S. Coast Guard for patrol duty
AMMONIUM NITRATE: colorless, crystalline salt used in some explosives, as fertilizer, and in rocket fuel; can cause dangerous acidity in water
ENTEROCOCCUS: bacteria normally present in the intestinal tract; is used as an indicator of water quality
FECAL COLIFORM: consisting of feces, normally found in the colon; used as an indicator of disease bacteria in water
HIGH SEAS: waters beyond 200 miles of a nation's shore
DDT: powerful insecticide usually effective on contact; its use is restricted by law because of damaging environmental effects
SOURCES: Webster's New World College Dictionary; News-Journal research
Informant: binstock
rudkla - 10. Jan, 14:28
Montag, 8. Januar 2007
Conservationists Say Oil Hunt Damages Congo Park
rudkla - 8. Jan, 22:04
Mittwoch, 3. Januar 2007
India's Forgotten Tribes Gain Rights Over Forests
Over 40 million of India's most impoverished and marginalized people live in the country's forests. A new law will for the first time enshrine their right to live there, but conservationists are worried about endangered wildlife.
https://www.truthout.org/issues_06/010207EA.shtml
https://www.truthout.org/issues_06/010207EA.shtml
rudkla - 3. Jan, 11:38
Freitag, 29. Dezember 2006
A people's group actively working for environment in central India
A number of risks and practices are threatening forests, wildlife, wetlands and the environment. Crew (Crusade for Revival of Environment and Wildlife) works hard at preventing them. CREW has continued to campaign for the protection of environment, biodiversity, wildlife, forest cover, endangered species and wetlands. CREW has decided to use the visual media and would be releasing b-rolls in digital broadcast quality format on crucial environment related issues to different sections of the media for direct relay and wider dissemination of knowledge and information relating to natural environment and factors threatening environmental balance. The Crew website https://www.globalwarmingeurasia.com focuses attention on issues like:
--Disintegration of natural habitats and the remaining forest corridors due to rapid development and human pressure.
--Pollution due to the reckless dumping and disposal of waste and the destruction of the ecosystem and the threat to aquatic and avian species.
--Destruction of natural habitats because of unlawful mining, logging of timber, grazing, man-made forest fires, large-scale commercial exploitation of minor forest produce, use of chemical pesticides, and fishing practices.
Informant: lalitshastri
--Disintegration of natural habitats and the remaining forest corridors due to rapid development and human pressure.
--Pollution due to the reckless dumping and disposal of waste and the destruction of the ecosystem and the threat to aquatic and avian species.
--Destruction of natural habitats because of unlawful mining, logging of timber, grazing, man-made forest fires, large-scale commercial exploitation of minor forest produce, use of chemical pesticides, and fishing practices.
Informant: lalitshastri
rudkla - 29. Dez, 10:12
Freitag, 22. Dezember 2006
We are deeply concerned with the unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth and the destruction of indigenous ways of life
Click:
WE, THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF THIRTEEN INDIGENOUS GRANDMOTHERS, represent a global alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Mother Earth, all Her inhabitants, all the children, and for the next seven generations to come. We are deeply concerned with the unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth and the destruction of indigenous ways of life. We believe the teachings of our ancestors will light our way through an uncertain future. We look to further our vision through the realization of projects that protect our diverse cultures: lands, medicines, language and ceremonial ways of prayer and through projects that educate and nurture our children.
--------
Earth Prophecy
And the way out
Earth Meanders by Dr. Glen Barry
https://earthmeanders.blogspot.com/
December 23, 2006
Imagine the panic as Americans and others in the world that are ecologically ignorant and isolated realize food does not come from grocery stores but from healthy agro-ecosystems with dependable climatic patterns and rich soil. That water does not come from the tap, but from aquifers and rivers. That weather need not follow reliable cycles, that natural resources are finite, and that social order depends upon all the above. I prophesize that within my lifetime environmental destruction and unsustainable living will lead to widespread global ecological collapse and social disintegration; leading eventually to extinction for most life forms including humans and Gaia - the Earth system itself. This is the Earth Prophecy.
None of what follows need happen, and I close this essay by repeating the policies that offer the way out. We have all the tools and knowledge on hand to prevent global ecological and social collapse. Yet the hour is late, widespread political and personal will essentially absent, and the momentum behind Earth destroying trends so pernicious and constant that barring major social change unprecedented in scale and ambition, the Earth and her inhabitants are going to die a hard and brutal death. Globally as the climate becomes wildly unpredictable, droughts and floods prevalent, and the land and oceans lifeless; starvation and disease will become rampant, economies will fail, and social cohesion will break down leading to unprecedented violence and death as the truth of existence is revealed to a formerly air-conditioned, consumer society fighting to survive.
Firstly, what do I mean when I say the Earth is dying? The prevailing sentiment is whatever the fate of humanity; the Earth’s biota shall sufficiently persist to maintain other life forms. Evolution will be set back by a sixth major extinction event, but over geological time life will bounce back. I am not convinced this is the case. Given the magnitude and speed of the assault upon every aspect of Gaia’s biosphere and ecosystems - toxins interacting, oceans dead and empty, failed water ecosystems, a dysfunctional atmosphere, and the virtual annihilation of native terrestrial habitats - it is not inconceivable that the planet could essentially become lifeless. Maybe entirely, or possibly some bacteria, dandelions and rats hold on - in either case the Earth is dead.
It is prophesized that advanced, complex life including humans and the Earth as a living system are imminently threatened with extinction. Humanity’s manner of existing threatens advanced life for a very long time if not forever. The coming eco- collapse is going to be brutal and violent. And it could all be averted, or at least some semblance of humanity and ecosystems achieved post-collapse, given people power and political will now.
Eco-collapse
When will ecological collapse start? I would say it has already as polar bears drown, bears refuse to hibernate and penguins die off. What has become of winter? Falling water tables, eroded soils, desertification, extreme weather, melting ice caps, it is all happening now. Climate change is but one of many aspects of our alienation from the Earth; as soils, water, oceans, forests are all failing along with the atmosphere. Global ecological apocalypse is upon us and the day is late. Only pampered, isolated modern humans could refuse to acknowledge we have a problem. Malthus was right and we are as a species and planet fully feeling the ramifications of believing there are no limitations upon resources and that exponential growth of many types including population, economic growth and resource use can be sustained. Technology puts off limits to growth, it does not supersede them.
The ecological foundation of being is failing. And as a result here is just a sampling of what we can expect. The effects of human consumption and fossil fuel use are going to spawn tremendous climate feedbacks. The Amazon, Congo and Asia/Pacific rainforests (those that remain) will largely die releasing their carbon. Melting permafrost and ocean methane hydrates, along with heat absorbing open Arctic waters, will further consolidate and ensure run-away climate change of such magnitude that adaptation is futile.
China is going to implode under the weight of its own runaway economy, followed closely by India, the U.S. and Europe. The collapse of these over-developed regions will destabilize the entire world, leading to military adventurism to access resources including water, energy and fertile land. Rising seas, extreme weather, degraded soils, desertification, dead oceans, scarce water - and the resultant militarization to maintain over-consumption - are going to make billions of refugees. And as these human beings lack places to run too; they will die from disease and starvation, and from violence including murder, rape and slavery by those in technologically rich, well stocked compounds seeking to protect what they have.
As energy supplies are disrupted and run out the whole industrial, agricultural, transport and production system will grind to a halt. Those that have access to land and seeds - from small farms to suburban lawns - will be called upon to raise their own food, while fighting off marauders and with shortages of seeds and tools of self-sufficiency. Two approaches will emerge to combat the gravest threat ever to civilization. One will strive to return to, and restore the Earth. The other will try to engineer a way out of a crisis caused by over-engineering with such things as fertilizing the oceans with iron, installing space mirrors, and releasing sulphur pollution. The latter can only fail as the biosphere is too complex to be engineered, and unknown effects guaranteed.
The way out
Clearly there is much individuals can do to reduce consumption and lead an eco-conscious lifestyle. And by all means we should eat less or no meat, drive little, consume only quality items we need but disavow conspicuous needless consumption, and a hundred other things. But the uptake of such beliefs is spotty, human numbers too great by at least four times to sustain anything approximating our present lifestyles, and thus personal action alone is unlikely to in itself nullify the Earth Prophecy. In addition to taking personal action, we need to organize and work for a movement that envisions and implements societal changes truly adequate to avoid ecological and societal collapse.
On other occasions I have written in depth regarding what is necessary in terms of Earth policy if humanity is to have a future. There are two critical variables that influence the Earth Prophecies likelihood, and whether the coming ecosystem collapse kills the Earth system and its inhabitants, or whether it is weathered and after much death and suffering a new, simpler yet fuller ways of ecologically restorative living embraced. The first is how quickly humanity embraces reduction of industrial greenhouse gas emissions as a central organizing principle of global community and responsibility. We should have started in earnest in the booming 90s, but barring that we need to have started and made real progress in decarbonizing our economies within the decade, and continue until emissions are reduced to the extent that global heating can be managed. Further keys to address climate change include renewable energy subsidies, energy efficiency and conservation, and leaving our coal in the ground.
Ecological Internet's "Sustainability Solutions Initiative" runs through the whole gamut of the top ten governance policy initiatives necessary to avert the coming ecological apocalypse. A more full accounting of this new project meant to identify sufficient policies to save the Earth can be found at https://www.ecoearth.info/ssi/ . Let me paraphrase here. We need to go far beyond better light bulbs and hybrid cars and fundamentally reorganize human existence. In addition to the adequate climate policy above, major initiatives are needed in the realm of population control and reduction; terrestrial, aquatic and hydrological ecosystem protection and restoration including no more logging or other industrial development in ancient forests; the pursuit of sustainable economies requires a rethinking of both agriculture and economics, and the embrace of appropriate green technologies. And finally the world can not be saved and the prophecy averted without strengthened global governance, global demilitarization and a reallocation of these funds to the programs above and urgent efforts to tackle terrible inequitable poverty which plagues the world.
Maybe world environmental leaders like Al Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio and Laurie David will embrace this ambitious yet sufficient agenda. Or maybe they will continue talking, hawking light bulbs and virtually marching. But as all hell starts breaking loose, and society and individuals refuse to make the types of changes listed above, there is another option I have considered academically in depth - and that is an Earth Revolution to topple the whole rotten, polluting, inequitable and Earth killing economic system (see https://earthmeanders.blogspot.com/2006/06/earth-treatise-living-for-earth.html ) .
If all else fails, a band of Earth insurgents must rise to eliminate Earth destroyer’s property, principles and economic system. A vast, well financed network of Earth rebels will develop to make a last ditch effort to save salvation. Simultaneously such a movement would promote practitioners of truly sustainable agrarian, relocalized and democratic living to step in to provide the solutions to reconstitute humanity and the Planet post collapse and revolution. We must be prepared with seeds, workable permaculture methods, and ways to help people reconnect to the Earth to feed and house themselves while nurturing a sick global patient - Gaia, the Earth system.
Let us all recommit ourselves this year to organizing, advocating and protesting to stop and reverse Earth destruction; at the personal, campaign and global policy level. And let us prepare for the final battle to avert global ecological Armageddon, by living as sustainably as possible given social constraints and preparing the knowledge, seeds, tools and methods to fight for a future for Homo sapiens, the millions of species with which we share existence, and the Earth's being. I love the Earth so much and my heart is breaking, yet the above is a truthful examination based upon decades of learning and action. It is my gift to you this solstice season. Let us together find the way out from this horrific Earth Prophecy.
--------
DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE: A DECLARATION FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL
https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/313445720?z00m=8629642
WE, THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF THIRTEEN INDIGENOUS GRANDMOTHERS, represent a global alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Mother Earth, all Her inhabitants, all the children, and for the next seven generations to come. We are deeply concerned with the unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth and the destruction of indigenous ways of life. We believe the teachings of our ancestors will light our way through an uncertain future. We look to further our vision through the realization of projects that protect our diverse cultures: lands, medicines, language and ceremonial ways of prayer and through projects that educate and nurture our children.
--------
Earth Prophecy
And the way out
Earth Meanders by Dr. Glen Barry
https://earthmeanders.blogspot.com/
December 23, 2006
Imagine the panic as Americans and others in the world that are ecologically ignorant and isolated realize food does not come from grocery stores but from healthy agro-ecosystems with dependable climatic patterns and rich soil. That water does not come from the tap, but from aquifers and rivers. That weather need not follow reliable cycles, that natural resources are finite, and that social order depends upon all the above. I prophesize that within my lifetime environmental destruction and unsustainable living will lead to widespread global ecological collapse and social disintegration; leading eventually to extinction for most life forms including humans and Gaia - the Earth system itself. This is the Earth Prophecy.
None of what follows need happen, and I close this essay by repeating the policies that offer the way out. We have all the tools and knowledge on hand to prevent global ecological and social collapse. Yet the hour is late, widespread political and personal will essentially absent, and the momentum behind Earth destroying trends so pernicious and constant that barring major social change unprecedented in scale and ambition, the Earth and her inhabitants are going to die a hard and brutal death. Globally as the climate becomes wildly unpredictable, droughts and floods prevalent, and the land and oceans lifeless; starvation and disease will become rampant, economies will fail, and social cohesion will break down leading to unprecedented violence and death as the truth of existence is revealed to a formerly air-conditioned, consumer society fighting to survive.
Firstly, what do I mean when I say the Earth is dying? The prevailing sentiment is whatever the fate of humanity; the Earth’s biota shall sufficiently persist to maintain other life forms. Evolution will be set back by a sixth major extinction event, but over geological time life will bounce back. I am not convinced this is the case. Given the magnitude and speed of the assault upon every aspect of Gaia’s biosphere and ecosystems - toxins interacting, oceans dead and empty, failed water ecosystems, a dysfunctional atmosphere, and the virtual annihilation of native terrestrial habitats - it is not inconceivable that the planet could essentially become lifeless. Maybe entirely, or possibly some bacteria, dandelions and rats hold on - in either case the Earth is dead.
It is prophesized that advanced, complex life including humans and the Earth as a living system are imminently threatened with extinction. Humanity’s manner of existing threatens advanced life for a very long time if not forever. The coming eco- collapse is going to be brutal and violent. And it could all be averted, or at least some semblance of humanity and ecosystems achieved post-collapse, given people power and political will now.
Eco-collapse
When will ecological collapse start? I would say it has already as polar bears drown, bears refuse to hibernate and penguins die off. What has become of winter? Falling water tables, eroded soils, desertification, extreme weather, melting ice caps, it is all happening now. Climate change is but one of many aspects of our alienation from the Earth; as soils, water, oceans, forests are all failing along with the atmosphere. Global ecological apocalypse is upon us and the day is late. Only pampered, isolated modern humans could refuse to acknowledge we have a problem. Malthus was right and we are as a species and planet fully feeling the ramifications of believing there are no limitations upon resources and that exponential growth of many types including population, economic growth and resource use can be sustained. Technology puts off limits to growth, it does not supersede them.
The ecological foundation of being is failing. And as a result here is just a sampling of what we can expect. The effects of human consumption and fossil fuel use are going to spawn tremendous climate feedbacks. The Amazon, Congo and Asia/Pacific rainforests (those that remain) will largely die releasing their carbon. Melting permafrost and ocean methane hydrates, along with heat absorbing open Arctic waters, will further consolidate and ensure run-away climate change of such magnitude that adaptation is futile.
China is going to implode under the weight of its own runaway economy, followed closely by India, the U.S. and Europe. The collapse of these over-developed regions will destabilize the entire world, leading to military adventurism to access resources including water, energy and fertile land. Rising seas, extreme weather, degraded soils, desertification, dead oceans, scarce water - and the resultant militarization to maintain over-consumption - are going to make billions of refugees. And as these human beings lack places to run too; they will die from disease and starvation, and from violence including murder, rape and slavery by those in technologically rich, well stocked compounds seeking to protect what they have.
As energy supplies are disrupted and run out the whole industrial, agricultural, transport and production system will grind to a halt. Those that have access to land and seeds - from small farms to suburban lawns - will be called upon to raise their own food, while fighting off marauders and with shortages of seeds and tools of self-sufficiency. Two approaches will emerge to combat the gravest threat ever to civilization. One will strive to return to, and restore the Earth. The other will try to engineer a way out of a crisis caused by over-engineering with such things as fertilizing the oceans with iron, installing space mirrors, and releasing sulphur pollution. The latter can only fail as the biosphere is too complex to be engineered, and unknown effects guaranteed.
The way out
Clearly there is much individuals can do to reduce consumption and lead an eco-conscious lifestyle. And by all means we should eat less or no meat, drive little, consume only quality items we need but disavow conspicuous needless consumption, and a hundred other things. But the uptake of such beliefs is spotty, human numbers too great by at least four times to sustain anything approximating our present lifestyles, and thus personal action alone is unlikely to in itself nullify the Earth Prophecy. In addition to taking personal action, we need to organize and work for a movement that envisions and implements societal changes truly adequate to avoid ecological and societal collapse.
On other occasions I have written in depth regarding what is necessary in terms of Earth policy if humanity is to have a future. There are two critical variables that influence the Earth Prophecies likelihood, and whether the coming ecosystem collapse kills the Earth system and its inhabitants, or whether it is weathered and after much death and suffering a new, simpler yet fuller ways of ecologically restorative living embraced. The first is how quickly humanity embraces reduction of industrial greenhouse gas emissions as a central organizing principle of global community and responsibility. We should have started in earnest in the booming 90s, but barring that we need to have started and made real progress in decarbonizing our economies within the decade, and continue until emissions are reduced to the extent that global heating can be managed. Further keys to address climate change include renewable energy subsidies, energy efficiency and conservation, and leaving our coal in the ground.
Ecological Internet's "Sustainability Solutions Initiative" runs through the whole gamut of the top ten governance policy initiatives necessary to avert the coming ecological apocalypse. A more full accounting of this new project meant to identify sufficient policies to save the Earth can be found at https://www.ecoearth.info/ssi/ . Let me paraphrase here. We need to go far beyond better light bulbs and hybrid cars and fundamentally reorganize human existence. In addition to the adequate climate policy above, major initiatives are needed in the realm of population control and reduction; terrestrial, aquatic and hydrological ecosystem protection and restoration including no more logging or other industrial development in ancient forests; the pursuit of sustainable economies requires a rethinking of both agriculture and economics, and the embrace of appropriate green technologies. And finally the world can not be saved and the prophecy averted without strengthened global governance, global demilitarization and a reallocation of these funds to the programs above and urgent efforts to tackle terrible inequitable poverty which plagues the world.
Maybe world environmental leaders like Al Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio and Laurie David will embrace this ambitious yet sufficient agenda. Or maybe they will continue talking, hawking light bulbs and virtually marching. But as all hell starts breaking loose, and society and individuals refuse to make the types of changes listed above, there is another option I have considered academically in depth - and that is an Earth Revolution to topple the whole rotten, polluting, inequitable and Earth killing economic system (see https://earthmeanders.blogspot.com/2006/06/earth-treatise-living-for-earth.html ) .
If all else fails, a band of Earth insurgents must rise to eliminate Earth destroyer’s property, principles and economic system. A vast, well financed network of Earth rebels will develop to make a last ditch effort to save salvation. Simultaneously such a movement would promote practitioners of truly sustainable agrarian, relocalized and democratic living to step in to provide the solutions to reconstitute humanity and the Planet post collapse and revolution. We must be prepared with seeds, workable permaculture methods, and ways to help people reconnect to the Earth to feed and house themselves while nurturing a sick global patient - Gaia, the Earth system.
Let us all recommit ourselves this year to organizing, advocating and protesting to stop and reverse Earth destruction; at the personal, campaign and global policy level. And let us prepare for the final battle to avert global ecological Armageddon, by living as sustainably as possible given social constraints and preparing the knowledge, seeds, tools and methods to fight for a future for Homo sapiens, the millions of species with which we share existence, and the Earth's being. I love the Earth so much and my heart is breaking, yet the above is a truthful examination based upon decades of learning and action. It is my gift to you this solstice season. Let us together find the way out from this horrific Earth Prophecy.
--------
DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE: A DECLARATION FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL
https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/313445720?z00m=8629642
rudkla - 22. Dez, 22:48
Samstag, 16. Dezember 2006
Two-Thirds of Congo Basin Forests Could Disappear
Two-thirds of the forests in the Congo River Basin could disappear within 50 years if logging and mineral exploitation continue at current rates, the environmental group WWF said in a report.
https://www.truthout.org/issues_06/121506EC.shtml
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Congo
https://www.truthout.org/issues_06/121506EC.shtml
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Congo
rudkla - 16. Dez, 13:23
