Sometimes researchers are blamed of being alarmists stirring up fears of a fictional dystopia by the business-as-usual crowd. But it seems a forewarning of conflict over oil in Peru is proceeding according to exactly such a warning. The news first…
40+ dead at protest
In extension of free trade agreements the Peruvian government has plans for ‘developing’ the Amazon homelands of many indigenous communities – opening it for oil, mineral, logging, and agricultural exploitation. Locals have been protesting some of these initiatives claiming they are unconstitutional and in violation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. When police intervened fighting erupted. Body counts wary; one is as high as 81.
President Alan Garcia Perez is claimed to have been behind a massacre on suspects of being Maoist guerrillas in 1986. A former army colonel turned politician is siding with the protesters. An arrest warrant has been issued on protest leader Alberto Pizango who has gone into hiding.
Obama will abandon complex policies on emissions, clean coal and refocus on achievable goals like applying deodorant daily, learning what to say when you burp.
This past week the non-profit film HOME was released in every format, including in movie theaters, on television, DVD/Blu-ray Disc and the internet, on the same day in over 50 countries in an effort to spread its message to the widest audience possible.
“We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth’s climate”, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, director and photographer of the film, said.
“The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.”
“This is not what I voted for,” Bill Maher said on his HBO show Friday night, arguing that Barack Obama has maintained his personal popularity but failed to make real progress on climate change, the economy and health care in USA.
Well it seems Obama’s solution to man-made climate change is to stick with the Bush climate ruling and paint our cars and roofs white. Although painting our roofs white to reflect the sunlight is a cheap way to fight global warming (some claim white roofs is the equivalent to taking the world’s approximately 600 million cars off the road for 18 years) reversing his pro-coal stance somehow seems like a better and more direct solution to the climate crisis.
And just like Maher said, “this isn’t what I voted for”, or why we endorsed you.
Green political parties from across Europe made a successful European parliament election this past week. The European Greens gained 11 new seats in the parliament and will now have a total of 46 Green MEPs, an increase with 31%. The Greens/EFA Group is now likely to have 53 MEPS (46 Greens and 7 EFA MEPs).
“To have increased the number of Green MEPs from 35 to 46 is a great success. Our showing is even more remarkable when you consider that we have 11 more seats than before in a parliament with 49 fewer MEPS and that all other groups have shrunk”, said EGP Co-Spokesperson Philippe Lamberts, who has been elected a MEP for the Belgian French-speaking Green Party Ecolo.
In France the green political party Europe-Ecologie gained 16% of the votes and will thus send 13 green MEPs to the European parliament. Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Finland are other countries where the greens will receive more MEPs than from the last EU election. In Greece 3.48% of the people voted for Ecologoi-Prasinoi and as a result Greece will be able to send their first green MEP to the European Parliament.
The US-based organization 350 has planned for 24 October 2009 as an International Day of Climate Action – as a global day of action demanding a REDUCTION in atmospheric CO2 concentration from the present damaging 387 ppm to at most 350 ppm (in contrast the corrupt and inept world governments are all aiming to INCREASE atmospheric CO2).
Informed by the latest science, Australia-based, but hopefully International, 300 was formed to educate the public about the urgent need to reduce atmospheric CO2 from the present damaging level of about 390 ppm to a safe and sustainable level of 300 ppm.
300.org enthusiastically endorses the 350.org 24 October 2009 International Day of Climate Action but recommends the number from the latest climate science of “300” (see “Re 300.org & 350”.org) .
Here are comments from some major climate activists and climate action groups who have summed up the latest scientific evidence and conclude that there is an urgent need to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentration to 300 ppm.
Okay, so the economy is bad. And, yes, we have all had to make changes and/or sacrifices in the name of saving a buck. But can this whole mess be put to good use? Yes it can! While you are already watching your spending closely, try keeping an eye on what you buy and not just how much it costs.
We can blame the big corporations for getting us into this economic mess and much of it may be deserved, but we the people are out there buying stuff up, so let’s make it count. We are still a capitalist country and true to this is supply and demand. We buy it, they keep making it. If we buy cheaply made, toxic-laden products, that is what the big companies will make. If we purchase nontoxic, safe products made with pure ingredients, the makers of these products will keep making them. Not only that, but the producers of organic, wild-crafted and natural ingredients will have to make more of them which is not only good for us but for the planet as a whole. Read the rest of this entry »
The well-known Oscar and Emmy-winning director Michael Moore says goodbye to GM today as the failed auto company files for bankruptcy. Moore says the “big three” auto companies in the USA are responsible for their own demise and that they have created “some of the greatest weapons of mass destruction responsible for global warming”.
“We are now in a different kind of war — a war that we have conducted against the ecosystem and has been conducted by our very own corporate leaders. This current war has two fronts. One is headquartered in Detroit. The products built in the factories of GM, Ford and Chrysler are some of the greatest weapons of mass destruction responsible for global warming and the melting of our polar icecaps. The things we call “cars” may have been fun to drive, but they are like a million daggers into the heart of Mother Nature. To continue to build them would only lead to the ruin of our species and much of the planet.”
But Moore says he feel “joy” about the fact that the American people now owns 60% of GM and that he is confident “we can do a better job”. He is also calling for a swift transformation of GM into a modern and environmentally-friendly company that produces cars for the future, and that the old GM factories start to produce windmills and solar panels. In short Moore is suggesting the following:
Energy Bulletin has an interesting interview with Michael C. Ruppert, author of “A Presidential Energy Policy: Twenty-five Points Addressing the Siamese Twins of Energy and Money”, about peak oil and the end of cheap oil.
“Peak Oil is not just the end of globalization. I was saying clearly that globalization was dead five years ago. It was obvious. But Peak Oil is potentially the end of the human race and that outcome is perhaps just a few years away unless the human race essentially throws every ideological sacred cow out the window and starts with a fresh piece of paper.
[…]The collapse of industrial civilization within the next five to ten years (perhaps sooner) is inevitable. It is the degree of collapse, what is destroyed in the collapse, how many people will have to die in the collapse, and what will survive the collapse that I and many others are fighting for now. That is what every human being should be concerned about and nothing less. Pursuing options while not rapidly disengaging from the current economic paradigm of infinite growth is the only real issue confronting the entire species. To not do that will be literally to consign unborn generations and those under 40 to death or a living hell.”
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Energy Bulletin has an interesting interview with Michael C. Ruppert, author of “A Presidential Energy Policy: Twenty-five Points Addressing the Siamese Twins of Energy and Money”, about peak oil and the end of cheap oil.
Want a super cool summer treat for your lips? 
