Rarely do I plug music on my site…it’s just not my thing. But when it comes to friends, I make exceptions. Correction, I’m making ONE exception. Kelly Bauman’s new release “Gomorrah” is going to blow the doors off a whole lot people and make Kelly, well, a big deal. We all have talented friends, we all say, “Oh, she’s going to be huge! Blah, blah…” I try not to make such predictions unless I’m very confident that my jaded perspective isn’t talking. With Kelly, I’ve no compunctions about heralding his arrival.

Go HERE to listen to some tracks (his site is down today, so won’t link there).

Or try out one song right here. Wedding Day

Study after study (you’ve been reading them right, because I’ve little inclination to provide links to the stockpile o’ studies) have shown that fish stocks all over the world are in serious, serious decline. As in, 90% of the big fish have plumb disappeared. That is, disappeared into our bellies. A number of predictions have these same species going extinct altogether no later than the middle of the century. Yet, we remain in denial. THERE ARE SO MANY TUNA, after all, right? How can we possibly eat every last salmon?

Remember the passenger pigeon? The American bison? (check the pile of bison skulls above…just a few days of hunting…can you even fathom this?) Will we ever learn?

The answer is a resounding maybe. The U.S. government, long known the world over for its progressive attitude toward our fellow species (okay, compared to some), is now considering a total ban on salmon fishing off the U.S. Pacific coast. Pretty staggering, if you ask me. Yes, it’s an economic decision, one based on keeping fisheries afloat in the long haul (we daren’t kill them all today, when we want to kill them tomorrow!), but no matter which way you slice the sushi (dear god, did I just type that?), it’s a sound notion. READ MORE HERE. Then pick up the telephone and call your representatives. Urge them to vocally support this plan.

READ ON: The Big Break

Not that there are any global warming denialists (is that a word? is now, as a word is merely an utterance than conveys a meaning), but, my oh my, are we no paying attention or not?

It’s often said that humans need to see the speeding train bearing down upon them before they take action. See this picture? There’s an engine and caboose in there, as well as a whole load o’ freight cars in there if you take a close look.

I admit I’m a fan of Jeffrey Sachs. He runs around with Bono (whose cultivated persona always makes me laugh), does his best as an economist to solve the world’s problems, and writes in a compelling manner. But could it be that he’s a touch too hopeful? That however much poverty has contracted in the past decades, this contraction, like the U.S. (and global) economy is a soon-to-be-burst bubble blown up large by an overheated and quick-burning oil economy? Am I delusional in thinking the coming decade is going to find a large surge in the number of starving humans? Do I dare call Sach’s hopefulness naive? I don’t want to. I want to believe. I want to think Nike-like slogans, espoused by our political poppets, can save us all. Even though I know the kids in this photo can’t quite afford shoes. No, they can’t.
From the Asia Times Online:

Soaring global rice prices are hitting the stomachs of Asia’s poorest citizens. The people of East Timor, where nearly 40% live on less than 0.55 US cents a day, have just been told they may not receive their annual quota of food aid.

“We have been forced to provide less food to East Timor; provide less rice than we intended to,” Paul Risely, Asia spokesperson for the United Nations food agency, told Inter Press Service (IPS). “We have requested the people of East Timor to look for local substitutes.”

“Any chance to reduce high malnutrition rate is severely curtailed,” added Risley of a country that suffers from chronic malnutrition, where some 46% of the children are stunted and 42% of children below five years are underweight. Currently, the WFP has pledged to feed one in five people in East Timor which has a population of 1.1 million people…

…last year Vietnam placed limits on rice exports in order to meet domestic demand, triggering a spike in the price of its grain in the world market. The ban stemmed from national food security concerns in the communist-ruled country. Hanoi wanted to avoid a local food shortage due to flooding in the rice-growing central regions.

Yet, such a weather-related feature, which some are attributing to climate change, was only one reason to push global rice prices to new heights. Another trigger includes the steady rise in oil prices, making fertilizer more expensive, pushing the cost of harvesting up, and increasing the cost of transporting the grain.

Read the entire article here.

This just in! While Obama and Clinton favor NUCLEAR power, wind is looking more and more the smart person’s play. FYI - Ralph Nader is a big wind (now don’t say “bag”!) supporter. But, hey, the great news is that no matter who you vote for (Clinton, Obama or the Republican guy), you’ll be picking a President without a developed environmental agenda! John Edwards for VP? Then you’ll get my vote, Obama.
Eco-Economy Indicator — WIND ENERGY
March 4, 2008

Eco-Economy Indicators are the twelve trends the Earth Policy Institute tracks to measure progress in building an environmentally sustainable economy — an eco-economy. Wind power capacity is an indicator because wind is poised to become the foundation of the new energy economy.

GLOBAL WIND POWER CAPACITY REACHES 100,000 MEGAWATTS
Jonathan G. Dorn

At its current growth rate, global installed wind power capacity will top 100,000 megawatts in March 2008. In 2007, wind power capacity increased by a record-breaking 20,000 megawatts, bringing the world total to 94,100 megawatts — enough to satisfy the residential electricity needs of 150 million people. Driven by concerns regarding climate change and energy security, one in every three countries now generates a portion of its electricity from wind, with 13 countries each exceeding 1,000 megawatts of installed wind electricity-generating capacity…

For entire text see www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/Wind/2008.htm
For data see www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/Wind/2008_data.htm

For an index of Earth Policy Institute resources related to Wind Energy see www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/Wind/index.htm

And for a plan to move rapidly to renewable energy, see Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, by Lester R. Brown, posted on-line for free downloading at http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/PB3/index.htm.

My favorite political blogger (and good friend), Gail Jonas’ blog can be found at THINKING OUT LOUD. Click the link, bookmark the page. You’ll be happy you did. Unlike Salon and the big poli-blogs, Gail’s voice is reasoned, passionate and individual…you won’t find her spewing the same old party lines.

Today, Gail posted on two of my favorite people, Howard Zinn and Ralph Nader. If you’re a Nader hater (I know you are and also know you don’t have a reasoned reason for being one.), do read on.

ZINN, NADER TEAM UP TO HOLD DEMOCRATS’ FEET TO THE FIRE by Gail Jonas

Full disclosure: Zinn and Nader are only teamed up in this post because I think joining together their ideas on how to get the frontrunning Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, to address crucial issues makes sense.

On February 23rd, Howard Zinn’s article, “Election Madness” was posted at Information Clearing House. Zinn describes “election madness” that seizes the country every four years: “I’m talking about a sense of proportion that gets lost in the election madness. Would I support one candidate against another? Yes, for two minutes-the amount of time it takes to pull the lever down in the voting booth. ”But before and after those two minutes, our time, our energy, should be spent in educating, agitating, organizing our fellow citizens in the workplace, in the neighborhood, in the schools. Our objective should be to build, painstakingly, patiently but energetically, a movement that, when it reaches a certain critical mass, would shake whoever is in the White House, in Congress, into changing national policy on matters of war and social justice….

“Today, we can be sure that the Democratic Party, unless it faces a popular upsurge, will not move off center. The two leading Presidential candidates have made it clear that if elected, they will not bring an immediate end to the Iraq War, or institute a system of free health care for all….”They do not propose what the present desperation of people cries out for: a government guarantee of jobs to everyone who needs one, a minimum income for every household, housing relief to everyone who faces eviction or foreclosure.

”They do not suggest the deep cuts in the military budget or the radical changes in the tax system that would free billions, even trillions, for social programs to transform the way we live….

“We should not expect that a victory at the ballot box in November will even begin to budge the nation from its twin fundamental illnesses: capitalist greed and militarism.”

Enter Ralph Nader: His advice: Email or write Obama and Clinton and challenge them to address what Nader describes as “Candidate Taboos,” which he lists in an article published in Counterpunch on January 15th. He describes 12 taboos including the following:

You won’t hear a call for a national crackdown on the corporate crime, fraud, and abuse that have robbed trillions of dollars from workers, investors, pension holders, taxpayers and consumers. Among the reforms that won’t be suggested are providing resources to prosecute executive crooks and laws to democratize corporate governance so shareholders have real power. Candidates will not shout for a payback of ill-gotten gains, to rein in executive pay, or to demand corporate sunshine laws.

You won’t hear a call for our income tax system to be substantially revamped so that workers can keep more of their wages while we tax the things we like least, such as pollution, stock speculation, addictive industries, and energy guzzling technologies. Nor will you hear that corporations should be required to pay their fair share; corporate tax contributions as a percent of the overall federal revenue stream have been declining for 50 years.

You won’t hear a call for a single payer health system. Almost sixty years after President Truman first proposed it, we still need health insurance for everyone, a program with quality and cost controls and an emphasis on prevention. Full Medicare for everyone will save thousands of lives a year while maintaining patient choice of doctors and hospitals within a competitive private health care delivery system.

You won’t hear a consistent clarion call for electoral reform. Both parties have shamelessly engaged in gerrymandering, a process that guarantees reelection of their candidates at the expense of frustrated voters. Nor will there be serious proposals that millions of law-abiding ex-felons be allowed to vote.

Other electoral reforms should include reducing barriers to candidates, same day registration, a voter verified paper record for electronic voting, run-off voting to insure winners receive a majority vote, binding none-of-the-above choices and most important, full public financing to guarantee clean elections.

Nader concludes, “ Voters should visit the webpages of the major party candidates. See what they say, and see what they do not say. Then email or send a letter to any or all the candidates and ask them why they are avoiding these issues. Breaking the taboos won’t start with the candidates. Maybe it can start with the voters.”Regardless of who wins in November, let’s take Howard Zinn’s advice and devote our time and energy in “…[E]ducating, agitating, organizing our fellow citizens in the workplace, in the neighborhood, in the schools. Our objective should be to build, painstakingly, patiently but energetically, a movement that, when it reaches a certain critical mass, would shake whoever is in the White House, in Congress, into changing national policy on matters of war and social justice.”

Just when you thought that democracy was absolutely DEAD in the United States (Clinton and Obama paying off superdelegates with millions of dollars in cash money = bye bye democracy, hello pay to play!), Ralph Nader comes along to remind people that ANYONE can actually run for President. Even someone with lofty ideals and concern for the wellbeing of the global citizenry.

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the consumer advocate said great changes in U.S. history have come “through little parties that never won any national election.”

“Dissent is the mother of ascent,” he said. “And in that context I’ve decided to run for president.”

Of course, if you haven’t heard of Eugene Debs or how his candidacies brought us social security, child labor laws, some small level of corporate oversight, minimum wage and much more, you’re not that tapped into the history of U.S. politics and Nader’s words fall on deaf ears (fancy that, a U.S. citizenry that isn’t well-versed in U.S. history or the actions of their own parties!)
On how his candidacy impacts the Democrats: “If the Democrats can’t landslide the Republicans this year, they ought to just wrap up, close down, emerge in a different form.”

Of course, we all know the Dems are really, really good at handing elections to the Republicans (Remember that sad sap, Al Gore, who handed Bush victory? Why aren’t more people upset at him for the last 8 years?) so nobody should be surprised if Hillary somehow steals the nomination from Obama, then gets her ass handed to her by McCain.

Technorati Tags: obama, clinton, nader, president, election

It has been a sad, sad month for me and thousands of others. Petters Group, the discount corporate raiders who scooped up a bankrupt Polaroid Corp a few years back, announced cessation of production of Polaroid film. Instead, the company will focus on licensing the logo to electronic gadget manufacturers. The genius of founder Dr. Edwin Land has now passed.

The world of photography will soon be left to computer-bound digital shooters. The uniquely beautiful world of in-camera photography has now come to an almost-total end. Early next year, I’ll no longer be able to procure so much as a pack of the beautifully fecund integral film that I’ve come to love so dearly. Truly, I’m quite upset.

What? You didn’t know of my Polaroid obsession?

Look here, at my other site, JUNETEN.COM.

Or this one: SPLITSECONDCOLLECTIVE.COM

Or here, at my Polaroid camera collection:

What can YOU do to help? I’m so glad you asked.

PLEASE VISIT WWW.SAVEPOLAROID.COM.

Sign the petitions, spread the word. The creative community can’t afford to lose yet another tactile, real-world means of artistic output.

A very informative article from the Harvard Business Review. Full text is here.

The article itself details Herman Miller’s efforts to become truly sustainable by 2020, a goal which needs to be championed by ALL OF US or we’re in for serious hurt. While HM’s plans are to be applauded, it’s the exchange in the comments below that is the most informative. I won’t excerpt this time. Just take a moment to do some reading; it’s worth the effort.

Thanks to Jib Ellison at Blu Skye Sustainability Consulting (involved in the HM project) for sending the article along. Jib’s company is a global leader in bringing truly sustainable practices to clients small and large.

Every morning, over 90 million Americans wake up and drink a glass of milk.

Over 70 million Americans have a cup of coffee.

And over 200 million Americans drink a glass of water.

Right there, we have 360 million containers of liquid filled every day. Or, over 100 BILLION per year.

Now, what if instead of using paper/glass/ceramic for our drinks, we simply drank straight from the bottle/tap?

I’ll tell you what: As a nation, we’d save enough energy to POWER CALIFORNIA FOR SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS!!
That’s right, just cutting out the water and energy wasted in washing dishes and manufacturing paper/plastic cups will go a long way to reducing our emissions.
So there you go. Just when you were running out of ideas on how to reduce your footprint, I’ve stepped in with a big one. You can thank me once the ice caps refreeze.

<—(I’m not suggesting we take it this far, but the reductions would be amazing.)