Environment
In a couple of hundred years historians will be comparing the frenzies over our supposed human contribution to global warming to the tumults at the latter end of the Tenth Century as the Christian millennium approached. Then as now, the doomsters identified human sinfulness as the propulsive factor in the planet's rapid downward slide.
Then, as now, a buoyant market throve on fear. The Roman Catholic Church sold indulgences like checks. The sinners established a line of credit against bad behavior and could go on sinning. Today a world market in "carbon credits" is in formation. Those whose "carbon footprint" is small can sell their surplus carbon credits to others less virtuous than themselves.
Then, as now, a buoyant market throve on fear. The Roman Catholic Church sold indulgences like checks. The sinners established a line of credit against bad behavior and could go on sinning. Today a world market in "carbon credits" is in formation. Those whose "carbon footprint" is small can sell their surplus carbon credits to others less virtuous than themselves.
Our planet's prospects for environmental stability were bleaker than
ever with the passing of this year’s Earth Day, April 22. Global
warming is widely accepted as a reality by scientists and even by
previously doubtful government and industrial leaders. And according
to a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC), there is a 90 percent likelihood that humans are contributing
to the change.
The international panel of scientists predicts the global average temperature could increase by 2 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 and that sea levels could rise by up to 2 feet.
Scientists have even speculated that a slight increase in Earth's rotation rate could result, along with other changes. Glaciers, already receding, will disappear. Epic floods will hit some areas while intense drought will strike others. Humans will face widespread water shortages. Famine and disease will increase. Earth’s landscape will transform radically, with a quarter of plants and animals at risk of extinction.
The international panel of scientists predicts the global average temperature could increase by 2 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 and that sea levels could rise by up to 2 feet.
Scientists have even speculated that a slight increase in Earth's rotation rate could result, along with other changes. Glaciers, already receding, will disappear. Epic floods will hit some areas while intense drought will strike others. Humans will face widespread water shortages. Famine and disease will increase. Earth’s landscape will transform radically, with a quarter of plants and animals at risk of extinction.
Dear Patricia,
We were shocked to learn that your organization today wants to honor the Chemical and Pharmaceutical company Bayer at the "Rachel Carson Reception" in Pittsburgh. Rachel will turn in her grave.
Bayer is the worldmarket leader for pesticides which account for pollution of the soil, the groundwater and the environment all over the world. Bayer sells a whole range of highly toxic organophosphates classified as „extremely hazardous“. Pesticides like Endosulfan, Parathion or Methamidophos are responsible for a large part of poisonings, of which the World Health Organisation annually counts more than 2 million. And Bayer produces large quantities of dangerous chemicals, for example Bisphenol A, an endocrine disruptor used in baby bottles, food cans, dental sealants, etc.
Bayer has a long tradition in trying to "greenwash" their image. The company started dozens of partnerships and sponsorships with medical, environmental or educational organizations and even the United Nations. In particular Bayer chooses cooperations in fields where the company is criticized - like the production of pesticides.
We were shocked to learn that your organization today wants to honor the Chemical and Pharmaceutical company Bayer at the "Rachel Carson Reception" in Pittsburgh. Rachel will turn in her grave.
Bayer is the worldmarket leader for pesticides which account for pollution of the soil, the groundwater and the environment all over the world. Bayer sells a whole range of highly toxic organophosphates classified as „extremely hazardous“. Pesticides like Endosulfan, Parathion or Methamidophos are responsible for a large part of poisonings, of which the World Health Organisation annually counts more than 2 million. And Bayer produces large quantities of dangerous chemicals, for example Bisphenol A, an endocrine disruptor used in baby bottles, food cans, dental sealants, etc.
Bayer has a long tradition in trying to "greenwash" their image. The company started dozens of partnerships and sponsorships with medical, environmental or educational organizations and even the United Nations. In particular Bayer chooses cooperations in fields where the company is criticized - like the production of pesticides.
April 14th was without doubt a turning point in the movement to prevent catastrophic climate change. Many tens of thousands of people in all 50 states took action on Step It Up day. We demanded that Congress move now to cap and begin reducing the carbon emissions that are dangerously heating up the earth, toward the goal of 80% reductions by 2050.
I actively supported these actions. I was a leader of the N.J. Climate March April 13-16 which supported them. Bill McKibben and the young people from Middlebury College who called for and coordinated this campaign deserve tremendous praise.
I actively supported these actions. I was a leader of the N.J. Climate March April 13-16 which supported them. Bill McKibben and the young people from Middlebury College who called for and coordinated this campaign deserve tremendous praise.
Not long ago, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman was America's top op ed cheerleader for George W. Bush's attack on Iraq, portraying it as a "war for democracy."
Now, in a landmark Times Magazine article, he claims naming rights to a "green" movement for nuke power and "clean coal," portraying them as part of the answer to global warming.
This is VERY dangerous stuff.
But before we proceed, this Earth Day we can welcome the fact that major media types like Friedman finally do concede that we have a global climate crisis. The din of Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" has corporate big-wigs lining up to be washed green. For that much, we can all be grateful.
There is much that's positive in Friedman's writings about the need for emission-free energy. Most of it derives from countless concerned citizens seeking a Solartopian system based on solar, wind, bio-fuels, efficiency and a truly Earth-based culture.
Friedman never acknowledges them. But tens of thousands of grassroots activists have contributed decades of loving labor, often including jail time (mostly at reactor sites), to give birth to that vision.
Now, in a landmark Times Magazine article, he claims naming rights to a "green" movement for nuke power and "clean coal," portraying them as part of the answer to global warming.
This is VERY dangerous stuff.
But before we proceed, this Earth Day we can welcome the fact that major media types like Friedman finally do concede that we have a global climate crisis. The din of Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" has corporate big-wigs lining up to be washed green. For that much, we can all be grateful.
There is much that's positive in Friedman's writings about the need for emission-free energy. Most of it derives from countless concerned citizens seeking a Solartopian system based on solar, wind, bio-fuels, efficiency and a truly Earth-based culture.
Friedman never acknowledges them. But tens of thousands of grassroots activists have contributed decades of loving labor, often including jail time (mostly at reactor sites), to give birth to that vision.
"Solartopia has made me what I previously thought impossible, optimistic." -Kurt Vonnegut
"Isms are wasms." -Abbie Hoffman
It's baaaaaack. The fifty-year multi-trillion dollar failure of atomic energy has resumed its lemming-like march to madness.
Why?
Isn't the definition of insanity the belief that if you do the same thing again and again you'll somehow get a different result?
The first commercial reactor opened in Shippingport, Pennsylvania in 1957. America was promised electricity "too cheap to meter."
That was a lie.
America was promised there'd soon be consensus on a safe way to dispose of high-level radioactive waste.
That was a lie.
America was promised private insurance companies would soon indemnify reactor owners---and the public---against the consequences of a catastrophic meltdown.
That was a lie.
America was promised these reactors were "inherently safe."
Then America was told no fuel had melted at Three Mile Island.
Lie and lie.
Then they said nobody was killed at Three Mile Island
Another lie.
Why?
Isn't the definition of insanity the belief that if you do the same thing again and again you'll somehow get a different result?
The first commercial reactor opened in Shippingport, Pennsylvania in 1957. America was promised electricity "too cheap to meter."
That was a lie.
America was promised there'd soon be consensus on a safe way to dispose of high-level radioactive waste.
That was a lie.
America was promised private insurance companies would soon indemnify reactor owners---and the public---against the consequences of a catastrophic meltdown.
That was a lie.
America was promised these reactors were "inherently safe."
Then America was told no fuel had melted at Three Mile Island.
Lie and lie.
Then they said nobody was killed at Three Mile Island
Another lie.
Well, unless you are someone that totally ignores the impartial findings of science or a true believer in "rape and plunder" who believes that humans have no responsibility to take care of this planet, you might be a little concerned about the state of the Earth. Al Gore has scared people all over the world with his new documentary on the perils of global warming, worldwide, populations of ocean game fish are dropping rapidly (or are full of mercury in their tissues), hundreds of millions of people or more around the world suffer from foul air and water, and that is saying nothing about the frightening number of armed conflicts that seem to be raging around the globe. In short, this planet is a total mess.
Harvey Wasserman is an activist sage, a social change visionary and prolific author. A journalist and historian, he has for over three decades fought for a renewable green future and an America that lives up to its professed ideals. His new book SOLARTOPIA! Our Green Powered Earth, A.D. 2030 is a report from the future, from a world that has successfully made the transition from the age of coal, oil, and nuclear energy to a fully sustainable civilization built on renewable energy.
What is most striking about Wasserman's vision, as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. notes in his foreword to SOLARTOPIA! is that all of the technology needed to midwife this transition already exists. All that is needed is the will to make the change.
In 1968, Wasserman helped found the Liberation News Service and Massachusetts' communal/organic Montague Farm, now home to the Zen Peacemaker Community, International. In 1973 he helped pioneer the global grassroots movement against atomic reactors, and coined the phrase "No Nukes" in 1974. He was a media spokesperson for the Clamshell Alliance and helped organize mass demonstrations at Seabrook, New Hampshire against reactors being built there.
What is most striking about Wasserman's vision, as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. notes in his foreword to SOLARTOPIA! is that all of the technology needed to midwife this transition already exists. All that is needed is the will to make the change.
In 1968, Wasserman helped found the Liberation News Service and Massachusetts' communal/organic Montague Farm, now home to the Zen Peacemaker Community, International. In 1973 he helped pioneer the global grassroots movement against atomic reactors, and coined the phrase "No Nukes" in 1974. He was a media spokesperson for the Clamshell Alliance and helped organize mass demonstrations at Seabrook, New Hampshire against reactors being built there.
"Raw" Almonds Must Soon be Steam-Heated or Treated with Toxic Chemical
CORNUCOPIA, WI: Small-scale farmers, retailers, and consumers are outraged over a new federal regulation that will require all almonds grown in California to be sterilized with various “pasteurization” techniques. The rule, which the USDA quietly developed in response to outbreaks of Salmonella in 2001 and 2004, traced to raw almonds, mandates that all almonds undergo a sterilization process that includes chemical and/or high-temperature treatments. Although the final rule was just published in the Federal Register, The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm policy research group, is asking the USDA to reopen the proceeding for public comment. Cornucopia contends that the rule was never effectively announced to the public, and that the reasoning behind both the necessity and safety of the sterilization processes should be questioned before the rule goes into effect this September.
CORNUCOPIA, WI: Small-scale farmers, retailers, and consumers are outraged over a new federal regulation that will require all almonds grown in California to be sterilized with various “pasteurization” techniques. The rule, which the USDA quietly developed in response to outbreaks of Salmonella in 2001 and 2004, traced to raw almonds, mandates that all almonds undergo a sterilization process that includes chemical and/or high-temperature treatments. Although the final rule was just published in the Federal Register, The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm policy research group, is asking the USDA to reopen the proceeding for public comment. Cornucopia contends that the rule was never effectively announced to the public, and that the reasoning behind both the necessity and safety of the sterilization processes should be questioned before the rule goes into effect this September.