Taking a break to clear my head. The lack of action/progress aside from the increase in hyper-consumption due to the ‘great green goods’ explosion has me, well, a bit down in the mouth. Therefore, I’m taking a reprieve from all media for a time. Society gets what it deserves?

Much love.

CONSERVING AND REBUILDING SOILS

http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/Seg/PB2ch08_ss3.htm

Earth Policy Institute
Plan B 2.0 Book Byte
For Immediate Release
July 10, 2007

Lester R. Brown

In reviewing the literature on soil erosion, references to the “loss of protective vegetation” occur again and again. Over the last half-century, we have removed so much of that protective cover by clearcutting, overgrazing, and overplowing that we are fast losing soil accumulated over long stretches of geological time. Eliminating these excesses and the resultant decline in the earth’s biological productivity depends on a worldwide effort to restore the earth’s vegetative cover, an effort that is now under way in some countries.

The 1930s Dust Bowl that threatened to turn the U.S. Great Plains into a vast desert was a traumatic experience that led to revolutionary changes in American agricultural practices, including the planting of tree shelterbelts–rows of trees planted beside fields to slow wind and thus reduce wind erosion–and strip-cropping, the planting of wheat on alternate strips with fallowed land each year. Strip-cropping permits soil moisture to accumulate on the fallowed strips, while the alternating planted strips reduce wind speed and hence erosion on the idled land.

In 1985, the U.S. Congress, with strong support from the environmental community, created the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to reduce soil erosion and control overproduction of basic commodities. By 1990 there were some 14 million hectares (35 million acres) of highly erodible land in permanent vegetative cover under 10-year contracts. Under this program, farmers were paid to plant fragile cropland to grass or trees.

The retirement of 14 million hectares under the CRP, together with the use of conservation practices on 37 percent of all cropland, reduced U.S. soil erosion from 3.1 billion tons to 1.9 billion tons during the 15 years from 1982 to 1997. The U.S. approach to controlling soil erosion by both converting highly erodible cropland back to grassland or trees and adopting soil conservation practices offers a model for the rest of the world.

The conversion of cropland to nonfarm uses is often beyond the control of farmers, but the losses of soil and eroded land from severe erosion are not. Lowering soil losses caused by wind and water erosion below the gains in new soil formed by natural processes will take an enormous worldwide effort. Preserving the biological productivity of highly erodible cropland depends on planting it in grass or trees before it becomes wasteland. The first step in halting the decline in inherent land fertility is to pull back from this fast-deteriorating margin.

Terracing, a time-tested Read the rest of this entry »

I’m sure the LIVE EARTH concert is forcing policy makers the world over to enact significant legislation.

That’s all I will say about Gore’s latest attention-grabbing spectacle.

(How does it feel to live in a world without leaders?)

Finally, a ray of hope:
SOMEONE is  going to force Nancy Pelosi to act like an elected representative.

ARTICLE IS HERE. 

I haven’t been posting much lately. Why? Because the more I look around, the more I realize that very few people are really and truly dedicated to making significant changes, to really moving the ball on climate change and emissions reductions. Here in the United States, we have elected officials who care little about passing effective legislation. In fact, it’s the corporate world that is making the greatest effort as it seeks competitive advantage and cost savings.

In 2008, we’ll be lucky to choose from a whopping field of TWO candidates, neither of who will have a developed, effective climate-protection plan. And you know what? Those who profess concern for the ruinous effects of global heating will vote for one of these people irrespective, placing their lifelong conditioned voting reflex above their avowed concerns.

Read THIS SHORT ARTICLE, WHICH  DISCOURAGES ME MORE THAN A LITTLE

Song ‘o the Day? YOU are probably guilty of knee-jerk voting, am I right? You don’t deserve a song today, because you’re the problem, not the cure.

Ever heard of “Colony Collapse Disorder”? Neither had I. At least not until I read this article in The Independent. The disorder affects bee populations and it refers to the unexplained phenomenon (cue X-Files theme) that occurs when the denizens of a bee hive suddenly disappear. Remember the mysterious dissapearance of the Anasazi? Of entire Mayan cities? Huge populations simply vanished, leaving their homes to never return. Now, it could be that space aliens are responsible, zapping both ancient humans and modern bees, but there now exists a new theory to help explain why bee populations have declined by as much as 80% - one which posits that mobile phone use is responsible, at least in part, for the huge drop in honeybee populations. While a portion of the decline can be attributed to pesticides and mites (namely the Varroa Vampire mite), it seems that cell phone signals are screwing with the wee bees’ built-in navigation systems. From the article:

They (scientists) are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees’ navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

Now, y’all understand that bees are, like, totally responsible for, like, our FOOD, right? In fact, bees pollinate 30% of the U.S. food supply - a huge percentage. You can see why it’s important to figure out what’s happening to our bees. While we test our devices to ensure they don’t harm humans (jury is still out on mobile phones and people, however, especially children), we aren’t as concerned with what our technology does to our co-inhabitants. Case in point: All the whale beaching caused by U.S. military high-powered sonar — another example of our wireless tech interfering with non-human navigation/communication. Such myopia could very well be harmful to humans after all. Messing with the food supply is a very grave mistake. We humans are rather dependent on the mighty bumblebee.

So, what to do? What if we can prove without a doubt that our cellular tech is destroying bee populations? Do you think we’ll stop using cell phones? Or will we allow the bees to die off? Ah, I can hear some of you saying, “We’ll simply adjust the frequencies of our transmissions.” Easier said than done, mate. Seriously, which action will we, as a civilization, take? How you answer this sheds a whole lot of light on whether or not we’re going to extricate ourselves from the looming environmental disasters.

Song of the day time! Death by Chocolate gives us “The Is Bumble Bee”. You know it, right? [audio:bee.mp3]

[tags]bees, mobile-phones, death-by-chocolate, colony-collapse-disorder, honeybees[/tags]

Hot off the presses! A taste of the world’s most important book (no, not the ‘Good Book’), ‘Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress & a Civilization in Trouble’.

+++

PLAN B BUDGET FOR SAVING CIVILIZATION

http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/Seg/PB2ch13_ss4.htm

Lester R. Brown

Mobilizing to save civilization means restructuring the economy, restoring the economy’s natural support systems, eradicating poverty, and stabilizing population. We have the technologies, economic instruments, and financial resources to do this. The United States has the resources to lead this effort. Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University’s Earth Institute sums it up well: “The tragic irony of this moment is that the rich countries are so rich and the poor so poor that a few added tenths of one percent of GNP from the rich ones ramped up over the coming decades could do what was never before possible in human history: ensure that the basic needs of health and education are met for all impoverished children in this world. How many more tragedies will we suffer in this country before we wake up to our capacity to help make the world a safer and more prosperous place not only through military might, but through the gift of life itself?”

It is not possible to put a precise price tag on the changes needed to move our twenty-first century civilization off the overshoot-and-collapse path and onto a path that will sustain economic progress. What we can do, however, is provide some rough estimates of the scale of effort needed.

To fund the needed restructuring of the energy economy, we rely on shifting subsidies from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy. For meeting our social goals, the additional external funding needed to achieve universal primary education in the more than 80 developing countries that require help is conservatively estimated by the World Bank at $12 billion per year. Funding for an adult literacy program based largely on volunteers will take an estimated additional $4 billion annually. Providing for the most basic health care in developing countries is estimated at $33 billion by the World Health Organization. The additional funding needed to provide reproductive health care and family planning services to all women in developing countries is less than $7 billion a year.

Read the rest of this entry »

I Love Guys Like This: Wave Power DIY

I’m not sure what’s better, the actual invention or the video footage of this guy and his son’s MacGyver-style bike wheel and apple peel wave power generator. Regardless, one big pat on the back from me to them.

Business as usual for the oil monsters.

Read the article here: Chevron Execs are a Bunch of Evil Mother#$%rs

From the article:

Nine Nigerian plaintiffs sued Chevron in federal court in San Francisco in 1999 for deaths and other abuses in two incidents in 1998 and 1999, in which Nigerian military and police using Chevron helicopters and boats shot and tortured protestors and destroyed two villages associated with opposition to Chevron’s oil activities in the desperately poor Niger delta. The judge found that there was evidence that Chevron had assisted its Nigerian subsidiary, known as “CNL,” in these operations, including that Chevron “approved payments from CNL” to the Nigerian security forces and that, “after the attacks, [Chevron] engaged in a media campaign to cover up CNL’s involvement in the attacks.”

Guerilla News Network adds: Chevron is also responsible for the violent repression of peaceful opposition to oil extraction. In Nigeria, Chevron hired private military personnel to open fire on peaceful protestors who oppose oil extraction in the Niger Delta. . . Chevron subsidiary Unocal, in December 2004 settled a lawsuit filed by 15 Burmese villagers, in which the villagers alleged Unocal’s complicity in a range of human rights violations in Burma, including rape, summary execution, torture, forced labor and forced migration.

Of course, this is OLD NEWS AND JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG.

Next time you pull up at the Chevron pump, think about who died for your oil - maybe at least take the time to learn their names. Odds are, most eco-blogs have ‘tired’ of talking about the truly evil nature of Big Oil. Instead, they focus only on the economic and environmental impact of Big Oil, completely forgetting the rest of the story, the part of the story that tells exactly how they get away with their destructive actions - through brutal, state-sponsored opression.

Song of the Day = Outkast’s “Gasoline Dreams”. Not the most original pick, I know, but there’s enough anger to the song that it fits a bit. Could have picked “Greed” by Fugazi, I suppose. You can go ahead and hum that one in your head. [audio:oukastgas.mp3]

This has nothing to do with anything and I’m going to remove this post before long, but . . .

the new arcade fire cd is the biggest piece of overblown crap I’ve heard in years. and, yes, I really do like ‘funeral’.

i hate it when bands go ‘portland’ on me and turn into pretentious drama queens.

arcade fire has flamed out. so damned sad!