U.S. Not Number One Any More....

Many know that US is not what it used to be, here are some surprising statistics compiled by the Whole Life Times.

The US Ranks worst, or next to worst in all of the following categories:

Overall Child Welfare (UNICEF)
Health Care System Ranking (WHO)
Poverty Rate (OECD)
Income inequality - rich/poor gap (OECD)
Carbon dioxide emissions per capita (UNHDI)
Ecological Footprint (Global Footprint Network)
Personal Savings Rate (OECD)
Income and pension security (OECD)
Balance of payments (OECD)
Municipal waste per capita (UNHDI)
Development Assistance to poor countries per capita
Longevity (OECD)
Infant Mortality (OECD)
Child Abuse (Every Child Matters)
Depression (WHO, AMA)
Anxiety (WHO, AMA)
Obesity (OECD)
Murder Rate (nationmaster.com)
Incarceration Rate (OECD)
Motor vehicle fatalities per capita (OECD)
Vacation Time (CEPR)
Paid Family Leave (GWF)
Paid sick leave (GWF)
The size of the middle class by percent (UNHDI)
Voting Rate (IDEA)
Press freedom (freedomhouse.org)
personal freedom (World Liberty Project)

Sources:
WHO - World Health Organization, OECD - Organization for Ecoconomic Cooperation and Development, UNHDI - United Nations Human Development Index, AMA - American Medical Association, CEPR - Center for Economic and Policy Research, GWF - Global Working Families Study, IDEA - International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance

Emerging Leadership - Movement Diplomats for a Sustainable World

"A specific type of leadership is emerging that is developing the authority and resources to convene and maintain the dialogues for developing shared visions and perspectives. Movement diplomats work to complement civil society's paid staff, charismatic visionaries, influential philanthropists, community organizers, and organizational heads. Trained and supported directly by organizations or communities, these diplomats are charged with the task of building systemic coalitions. They translate the rhetoric of different factions, foster communication and find common ground. They provoke learning in their own organizations in addition to reaching out to form alliances. This new evolution in leadership includes core competencies of facilitation, strategic dialogue, systems thinking, and familiarity with future scenarios and the requirements of a sustainable world."

From a paper from the Tellus Institute - www.tellus.org

Building Economies with Heart

The core problem: We have a business relationship with nature and the nurturing qualities in ourselves, rather than a reverence relationship with nature and the nurturing qualities in ourselves.

From business to reverence.

David Korten writes in the latest issue of Yes! Magazine:

"If there is to be a human future, we must bring ourselves into balance with one another and the Earth. This requires building economies with Heart."

His entire article is excellent. I recommend it highly!

Illustration by Don Baker for YES! Magazine.www.evidenceofhumanity.org

Amma's Project for Ending Farmer Suicide

Project for Ending Farmer Suicide
Quoted from Amma's website: www.amma.org

"Tens of thousands of beneficiaries have been recently added. Please read on for more details.

Due to economic pressures leading to irresolvable debt associated with continually failing crops, many farmers have been committing suicide by drinking the very pesticides that no longer work on their crops. Especially in South India, with the growing rise of climate changes and other factors, crop failure has become more and more common causing suicide to spread like an epidemic amongst the suffering farmers. For example, in 2006 in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra alone, there were 1,044 reported suicides - one every eight hours.

In the spring of this year, after discussions on the issue with Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Amma found herself pledging 43 million dollars to address this problem. She admitted later the large dollar amount she had pledged surprised her but in the moment she had felt drawn to offering at least that much to help the situation. As part of the pledge, Amma offered that the MA Math would launch a massive project to provide aid and hope for the future for these struggling farmers.

"The problem cannot be solved through economic packages alone," Amma told the Maharashtra CM. "What is needed is social and spiritual interventions so that the farmers realize that suicide is not the way out. In fact, it only further aggravates the problem for the families. Feeling immense compassion for their suffering due to their unfortunate circumstances, Amma felt counseling and education could really help them get through to the other side. .Yet another generation should not become slaves of emotional weakness like suicide," Amma said. "Rather than that, they should understand that they need to develop self confidence. The future generation should have the mental strength to face life's challenges."

On 27 September 2007, the Ashram inaugurated two programs responding to this dire situation: Vidyamritam and Amrita SREE. These projects focus aid on the places with highest farmer-suicide rates - Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. These two initial relief projects are aimed at lessening the financial strain placed upon such agricultural families.

Vidyamritam - Educational Scholarships

Through Vidyamritam, the Ashram is providing full scholarships for free education to 100,000 children (ages 10 to 15) of farmers living below the poverty line. Many of the beneficiaries are in fact children who have lost one or both parents to suicide. The children receive a monthly stipend until they finish their education, subject to their performance in their studies.

Since the announcement of the project, thousands of applications have been received and they continue to pour in daily. Because of the huge response, the number of beneficiaries continues to grow.

As an extension of this project, the MA Math is conducting awareness programs to inculcate life skills for personality development.

A newsletter containing articles, stories and discussion forums to further facilitate the intellectual and mental growth is also being received by all the children. Furthermore, special advanced-education camps and symposiums on environmental preservation are being conducted.

Amrita SREE (Self-Reliance Education & Employment)

Through Amrita SREE, the Ashram is providing free vocational training to 5,000 different groups of women from impoverished agricultural families. Though many of these women have now incurred their husband's debt due to suicide, the MA math has been supporting them in building their own businesses through vocational training in various fields, including tailoring, making snacks for small-scale industries, electrical repair, and making paper products. After completion of their training, the women are given the necessary start-up capital to begin small, home-based businesses.

The use of pesticides and its effect on the life of farmers:

Currently many non-organic, commercial foods are genetically modified. Genetically modified organisms (GMO) present a profound danger to humans as well as the ecosystem. Many species of animals, such as the monarch butterflies are becoming extinct due to the GMOs. For vegetarians, GMOs pose another problem, as they are frequently spliced from animal DNA. It is hypothesized by many experts that the GMO food will eventually even alter human DNA. As GMOs are a recent creation their long term effects are unknown.

In India and other developing nations, western based GMO / pesticide companies are aggressively promoting extremely heavy use of chemicals for farming. This is leading to serious depletion of soil and contamination of the water. Many insects are developing stronger resistance to pesticides and sometimes even huge amounts of chemical are ineffective. For this reason many farmers have little or no yield, year after year. Having gone deeply in debt to these chemical companies, the farmers begin to feel hopeless. Unfortunately, large numbers of Indian farmers are committing suicide by drinking their pesticides. Amma has expressed concern about this issue, and is working to help the farmers and their families. When we choose organic, non-GMO foods, we can also do our part to end this tragic situation."

Dealing with Rising Oceans...

There are significant costs associated with dealing with the simple EFFECTS of global warming.

This article in the Christian Science Monitor is the first one I have seen being written about how costs of the effects of global warming are being dealt with.

This is a necessary step in maintaining the integrity of our civilization.

Dordrecht, Netherlands - The Dutch enjoy a hard-earned reputation for building river dikes and sea barriers. Over centuries, they have transformed a flood-prone river delta into a wealthy nation roughly twice the size of New Jersey.

If scientific projections for global warming are right, however, that success will be sorely tested. Globally, sea levels may rise up to a foot during the early part of this century, and up to nearly three feet by century's end. This would bring higher tidal surges from the more-intense coastal storms that scientists also project, along with the risk of more frequent and more severe river floods from intense rainfall inland.

Nowhere does this aquatic vise squeeze more tightly than on the world's densely populated river deltas.

So why is one of the most famous deltas – the Netherlands – breaching some river dikes and digging up some of the rare land in this part of the country that rises (barely) above sea level?

In the Biesbosch, a small inland delta near the city of Dordrecht, ecologist Alphons van Winden looks out his car window at a lone excavator filling a dump truck with soil. He considers the question and laughs. "We do have a hard time explaining this to foreigners," he says.

The work here represent a keystone in the country's ­climate-adaptation plans, Mr. van Winden says. Indeed, nowhere are adaptation planning efforts to address rising sea levels and flooding more advanced than in the Netherlands.

To be sure, the country's economic wealth and long experience dealing with threats from seas and rivers give it an advantage over other low countries that face rising waters, such as Bangladesh, Vietnam, and the tiny tropical island nation of Tuvalu in the South Pacific. But many of the approaches the Netherlands is taking can and are being slowly adopted even in countries far poorer, specialists say.

The excavation work here is one example of what van Winden calls "soft approaches" to flooding in this small nation where competing interests jostle for every square foot of land. By buying out the few farmers remaining in this region, breaching the dikes they built to protect their land, and digging additional water channels, the Dutch government aims to reduce peak flood flows at Dordrecht and other cities downstream. No longer will tightly constricted river and canal channels hold high water captive. Big floods will overspread the Biesbosch, reducing the threat of water spilling over the top of levees that guard densely populated cities to the west.

The Biesbosch may also be critical to the future of farming on the productive southwest coast. There, most of the area's fresh water sources are close to the coast – and vulnerable to salt-water contamination from a rising North Sea. This could make farming difficult, if not impossible. The Biesbosch, however, hosts three large reservoirs, each surrounded by a 20-foot-high dike. Fresh water piped from these reservoirs, some 50 miles inland, could keep coastal areas supplied.

1.4 billion live near seacoast

Globally, some 21 percent of the world's 6.6 billion people live within 20 miles of a seacoast – and nearly 40 percent within 60 miles, says Robert Nich­­olls, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Southampton in England.

Seacoast populations who face the greatest risk from floods, storms, and sea-level rise live on river deltas, says the UN-sponsored Inter­governmental Panel on Climate Change.

In the IPCC's latest set of reports on the impact of global warming, released earlier this year, scientists looked at data from 40 of the globe's river deltas, home to 300 million people. If current trends continue through 2050, flooding in the Nile, Mekong, and Ganges-Brahmaputra river deltas could each displace more than 1 million people. Up to a million more may be forced to head for higher ground in each of another nine deltas, including the Mississippi River delta. Up to 50,000 could be forced to relocate in each of 12 other deltas, including the Rhine River delta – an area known more widely as the Netherlands.

Besides global warming, scientists say the challenges these regions face have other causes as well. Levees, sea walls, drainage canals, dams, and other land-use patterns have taken a toll. Deltas tend to subside (sink) naturally, accentuating the rise in sea level. Past engineering projects can actually limit the ability of natural processes to replenish the land mass of deltas.

Manifesting a rich life - a conference of new thinking!

There is an event this weekend in LA called "Manifesting a Rich Life," which I will not be able to attend...

What is wonderful about the conference is that it is really hitting the heart of materialism and consumerism, some of the greatest challenges of of our civilization.

The speakers and the titles are unlike any other wealth oriented conference I have heard of.

They are addressing the core of happiness and wealth, while recognizing that we need to transform our relationship with money and material abundance to find true contentment and happiness.

Some of the speakers and the titles of their presentations are great thoughts alone:

LYNNE TWIST - Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life
GAY HENDRICKS - The Ten Principles and
Practices That Create Love, Abundance and Vibrant Wellbeing
REV. WENDY CRAIG-PURCELL - After You Know That You Can “Have It All", "Now What?
RICK JAROW - The Tantric Alchemy of Abundance:
Coming into Radiant Relationship with Everything & Everyon


It looks like a great event.

New tranportation routes open due to shrinking ice...

The European Space Agency has released reports showing that shrinking ice in the north pole has opened transportation routes between Asia and Europe that have not been open for many thousands of years...

The phenomena has opened up international scrambling to claim trade route oversight and territorial rights. Canada and Russia have claimed authority to monitor the waterways, while Europe and USA call for making the waters international territory.



The BBC posted an article and other data on the matter. What is of great interest to me is that there is a very cool little graphic provided that shows how the Arctic Ice has shrunk over the last 27 years, and how it has accelerated in the last couple of years.... this tells me that warming is accelerating at an increasing rate and that there will be very much change ahead...article.

A caring culture and a caring economy?

The Real Wealth of Nations is the newest book by Riane Eisler - one of the icons of the sustainablity movement.

She writes:

"Our beliefs about what is or is not valuable are largely unconscious. They have been profoundly affected by assumptions we inherited from times when anything associated with the female half of humanity — such as caring and caregiving — was devalued. If we look at our current fiscal priorities, we see that policymakers always seem to find money for stereotypically “masculine” control and violence — for prisons, weapons, wars. But we’re told there’s no money for caring and caregiving — for “feminine” activities, such as caring for children and people’s health, for nonviolence and peace.

I want to say that when I speak of caring and caregiving as “women’s work” I’m only echoing conventional beliefs we inherited from times when gender roles were much more rigid. The goal is an economic and social system that supports caring and cargiving in ways that put food on the table and a roof over people’s heads — one that no longer bars women from areas traditionally reserved for men and no longer views caring and caregiving as fit only for women or effeminate men."

Who is responsible for the markets?

Joel Makower wrote an entry while back which is a reality check for us "greenies."

When all the world is going "green" he shows evidence and view that is not always the case:

He writes "First, the bottom line. 'Given consumer attitudes today, green is best characterized as a niche opportunity in the consumer marketplace,' says Walker Smith, president of Yankelovich. 'It is a strong niche opportunity, but it is not a mainstream interest that is passionately held or strongly felt by the majority of consumers.'

Or, perhaps more to the point: 'The majority of consumers really don't care all that much about the environment. Green simply doesn't has not captured the public imagination.' Ouch."

Read his entire article here.

What is it going to take?

Who really is leading the markets, anyway?

Corporations say "the consumers." Yet if all the corporations adopted environmentally responsible practices and began offering truly green products and services - the consumers would also follow.

If the major corporations really educated the public about the challenges in their industries and appealed to the customers, and fellow corporations to change the markets, I think we would be surprised as to the ease of the transition to a sustainable economy.

I attended the Social Venture Network conference last weekend and we heard from a NIKE executive.

She shared with us some amazing things that Nike is doing - good job. As to the speed and effectiveness of their efforts she said that Nike is subject to the markets and the financial constraints in the quarter to quarter profit system we have created on Wall Street.

Now, I got her point. Yet I stood up and asked a question - "Is Nike really a victim of the markets, and the stock market?"

Who are the players in the market? Aren't the consumers and the corporations?

Is Nike REALLY a victim of the markets? Isn't Nike one of the leaders in the apparel industry?

More fundamentally, who is market comprised of - corporations. Then corporations who make up the market have the power to create the constraints and therefore begin to remove the constraints of the markets....

Anyway - if the consumers are still blase, and the corporations are saying that they are victims of the markets....

Who's left to be responsible?

Sound Healing and Energy? Scientists use sound to burn water as fuel.

Hydrogen has been on my mind for about 4 years now, as I put together a venture capital forum for the National Hydrogen Association in 2003 to help support emerging technologies and companies in the Hydrogen energy space. The conclusion I came to is that Hydrogen is currently another form of fossil fuel, since a large percentage of the current feedstock of hydrogen made by major corporations is fossil fuel in the form of natural gas.

The core idea is to produce sustainable hydrogen. Simply, the process of making hydrogen out of natural gas or other fossil fuel has a carbon byproduct. It can be sequestered, but that is a cost that is sometimes not considered, until now with carbon credits... yet that is another story for another day.

Long story short, you want to produce sustainable hydrogen - ideally by electrolyzing water to produce hydrogen "H2" from water "H2O."

According to the following article, scientists cited below have found a way to send sound waves through salt water and produce energy by literally burning the Hydrogen that is released from the water.

Fascinating!

I'd love to learn the chemistry behind this one! More to follow....


Here's the article:

"Radio Frequencies Help Burn Salt Water

ERIE, Pa. - An Erie cancer researcher has found a way to burn salt water, a novel invention that is being touted by one chemist as the "most remarkable" water science discovery in a century.

John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn.

The discovery has scientists excited by the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel.

Rustum Roy, a Penn State University chemist, has held demonstrations at his State College lab to confirm his own observations.

The radio frequencies act to weaken the bonds between the elements that make up salt water, releasing the hydrogen, Roy said. Once ignited, the hydrogen will burn as long as it is exposed to the frequencies, he said.

The discovery is "the most remarkable in water science in 100 years," Roy said.

"This is the most abundant element in the world. It is everywhere," Roy said. "Seeing it burn gives me the chills."

Roy will meet this week with officials from the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense to try to obtain research funding.

The scientists want to find out whether the energy output from the burning hydrogen — which reached a heat of more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit — would be enough to power a car or other heavy machinery.

"We will get our ideas together and check this out and see where it leads," Roy said. "The potential is huge."

___
Information from: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

-- Found on Google News - 751 Headlines...

Photo by Birdfarm found on Flickr

An unthinkable future, or an unimaginable one?

Since we're adding the population equivalent to the population of Seattle Washington every day, are we going to create a future that is unthinkable or unimaginable?

Alex Steffan - founder of worldchanging.com raised those two terms in his 15 minute talk at the TED conference, suggested that now is the time to create an unimaginable experience to avoid the unthinkable in the future.

Ideas -
Denser cities
Growth Management - permanent green spaces
Transit systems that work
Zero energy buildings, natural lighting, recycled water, etc.
Close proximity - smart places sharing resources (car share clubs)
Biomimicry

More stuff on Worldchanging.com

Let's go everyone!

Billionaires gone Green?

I saw an article on American Prospect called "Environmentalism for Billionaires"

It speaks directly to the challenges that big money, big corporations and the people behind them are having in authentically "doing the right thing" for ecosystems and their residents. Frankly the money system we have created does not have the mechanisms to value nature properly. And therefore, when people with money are doing "what is right for money" they are often at odds with Nature, even if they don't intend it so.

The heart of the issue is this if we are not restoring and rejuvenating ecosystems - the very life support system of our civilization, then we're not getting very far in helping the planet.

Of course, we must reverse the damage = "the ecological u turn" but that is only the beginning.

We must devise mechanisms and systems that one, value nature in its pristine state, and two increase human well being while preserving nature's integrity.

Interview with my friend John Katovich and his colleague on Local Investing.

from the August 06, 2007 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0806/p99s01-usec.html
Forget globalization. Here's how to profit from 'localization.'
How ethical investors can get involved in this trend.

Many things aren't made in the US anymore, as any Wal-Mart shopper knows. But slowly, some consumers are rebelling against this globalization. Some look to buy foods produced within 150 miles of their homes. Others avoid big-box stores to patronize local retailers. Some investors are also eyeing ways to get involved in the go-local movement. Is it time for you to jump in? The Monitor's Laurent Belsie recently talked with two experts: John Katovich, chief legal officer of the Boston Stock Exchange, and Elyse Cherry, president of the Boston Community Venture Fund. Here's an edited transcript of their comments:

Elyse, why do so many people feel its ethical to go local?

Ms. Cherry: Many people who participate in the world today recognize that while globalization is with us and, in fact, may have many, many benefits, the benefits and burdens of globalization are not equally shared. And I think that there is a concern to be certain that local communities are not inappropriately burdened with the effects of globalization. And so, often in an attempt to create vibrant, diverse local communities, people attempt to invest locally.

Is this a movement that ethical investors should pay attention to?

Mr. Katovich: I think it is. There are a number of people that have been thinking quite a bit about how to get investors to invest locally. But it's really the investors that have to look at themselves and think about what it is that they want and expect – and whether they might be satisfied investing locally, even if it meant possibly having slightly less return.

If they accept lower returns, where would they invest?

Cherry: For an average investor, one great way to invest is to seek out your local community loan fund. That's a debt instrument rather than an equity instrument and it does tend to have a somewhat lower rate of return – although, frankly, these days not really less than a CD. And it's a great way to go out and invest in housing or charter schools or child-care facilities or inner-city real estate. And the risk on those investments is extremely low. We've done probably a quarter billion dollars of investing and our losses are less than a 20th of 1 percent.

Where can you find out about the loan funds?

Cherry: There's a national association called Opportunity Finance Network and you can find a loan fund in virtually any state – and often several in a state.

Suppose I want to invest in, say, a local hardware store.

Katovich: There was a day when you could do that. [But] the day came when federal laws changed that scenario and required you to become an accredited investor in order for you to invest in a private company.

An accredited investor means having how much money?

Katovich: A two hundred thousand-dollar income; $1 million dollars in net worth. It could be a $300,000 [net income] with a spouse.

You're working to change those rules.

Katovich: Yes, we have been working for a couple of years on attempts to find an approach that would allow small investors, nonaccredited investors, to be able to invest in local issues much like they invest in publicly traded issues today.

Cherry: We also have been looking at ways to achieve local investment. And we've really been thinking about it from the perspective of aggregating our venture fund investments with other investments across the country and creating an investment vehicle sufficiently large to be traded on a national exchange. So people in fact could invest just like they do today, but it would be ultimately into companies that are investment vehicles for community-based venture funds.

Like a mutual fund?

Cherry: It could be. [But] there are many issues associated with any of these vehicles…. Part of it is you need to have a sufficient number of shares trading…. The other thing I would say is that equity investments are complicated investments. And when you have small local entrepreneurs, they're often not so sure that they actually want an equity investor in bed with them. It often means sharing control.

Why does investing locally mean lower returns?

Katovich: What many [small companies] that we've talked to would prefer, if there were such a vehicle, is an easier approach to be able to go public in a way that provides safe, secure opportunity for local investors to invest in their company. [But] there is less liquidity when that occurs. And as a result of that, the expectations of the investor have to be quite different. Our thinking around this is that this is not an answer for retail private investors for all of their funds. But it could be a very interesting answer for a small portion of their funds.

How soon might average investors see such options?

Cherry: I think we're a distance [away] for a couple of reasons. Investing in small business is a pretty risky undertaking…. It's important for people not to underestimate the risk of that. In fact, the reason that loan funds and community venture funds got started in the first place was because individuals were out putting their money into companies and promptly losing it…. I also would say: Ethical investing is not necessarily local investing…. I'm reminded of a company that I visited several years ago in the southeast corner of our state that was running such a sweat shop that they couldn't get people to come work there because the folks down there thought McDonald's was a better deal -- gave them more money, better benefits, and better working conditions. So I think the critical issue with respect to ethical investing is to invest in companies that produce a good quality good or service, that have good employment policies and so forth, and are generally ethically run – whether global or local.

Don't feel rich? It's not about the money.... Silicon Valley "working millionaires" may feel the same...

Many multi-millionaires of Silicon Valley are still working long hours and striving to "keep up with the Jones'."

Executives cited in a recent NY Times article shared stories of their financial successes, yet they still don't feel like they have "made it."

The main theme of the article is that most of the people cited are comparing the money that they have accumulated even more than they have - people who have accumulated $30 Million or more.

“Here, the top 1 percent chases the top one-tenth of 1 percent, and the top one-tenth of 1 percent chases the top one-one-hundredth of 1 percent,” he said.
“You try not to get caught up in it,” he added, “but it’s hard not to.”

This story reminds me of the adage - "true wealth is living within your means"

After Growth - what is our wealth? Community.

The premise of Bill McKibben's new book "Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future" is that the economic axiom "growth is good" is no longer true.

In a recent article from Mother Jones he states:

"Growth no longer makes most people wealthier, but instead generates inequality and insecurity. Growth is bumping up against physical limits so profound -- like climate change and peak oil -- that trying to keep expanding the economy may be not just impossible but also dangerous. And perhaps most surprisingly, growth no longer makes us happier. Given our current dogma, that's as bizarre an idea as proposing that gravity pushes apples skyward. But then, even Newtonian physics eventually shifted to acknowledge Einstein's more complicated universe."

Well, then the question arises if growth is no longer desirable, nor even possible, then what is good? What is the measure of true wealth and well being for all of us?
It's in Bill's title - the wealth of our interconnectedness, our community.

I find the analogy of a forest very helpful. You can have a monoculture agri-forest with one type of tree, and very few other species. With the same amount of land, water and sunlight an old growth forest has many, many species of plants. A whole community of beings interacting. The same amount of input of resources generates a community of interaction.

In the same way, if you go to a local Megamarket there are typically one or two convesations and interactions - "paper or plastic?", "credit or debit". On the other hand, a farmer's market provides the same amount of groceries, yet you have interactions with many farmers, neighbors, children, and you're supporting a local food system.

Josh Mailman, a serial eco-entrepreneur and massive sustainable business instigator speaks on his views on the matter.

"I'm much more sanguine about the impact that we've been able to have, but I don't want to discount the small acts. We have a need for small acts, and I consider the things I have done small acts, hopefully compassionate acts. To the extent that I've been able to make a contribution, it's been out of a desire to build community, realizing that I'm no more important - and I think in many ways less so - than some local activist. The real leaders are the people that are in there day after day, slugging it out, who have chosen something other than monetary gain, who are there because they are fed by the experience of community that they have."

Barbara Marx Hubbard said "If you do a planetary scan, you'll see that communities are forming everywhere, and these communities are each holding the collective coding as well as the blueprint for a specific mission. I think these communities as separate yet interactive organs in the social body. And the potent interaction of these organic communities assure that the larger social body will be far greater than the sum of its parts."

Our community is our greatest wealth, I would add. And we are the leaders of this movement. Each and every one of us.

As I reflect on my life, I see that my life depends on a vast network of people 99% who I don't event know, literally. Just think of the number of people it took for you to have your daily cup of tea or coffee, or piece of toast, or oatmeal, or electricity... and that's just people. Add layers of animals, plants, earth, energy, air and water, and the community you live in expands exponentially!

Photo from Connectingdotz.com

The YES MEN strike again

If you don't know about the superlative ecopranksters The Yes Men, please visit their website www.yesmen.org.

They pulled a really good one recently.

Their press release just arrived in my inbox this week, I'll let it speak for itself...

Simple genius and sobering truth.

June 14, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EXXON PROPOSES BURNING HUMANITY FOR FUEL IF CLIMATE CALAMITY HITS
Conference organizer fails to have Yes Men arrested

Text of speech, photos, video: http://www.vivoleum.com/...
GO-EXPO statement: http://newswire.ca/...
Press conference before this event, Friday, Calgary: http://arusha.org/...
Contact: mailto:fuel@theyesmen.org
More links at end of release.

Imposters posing as ExxonMobil and National Petroleum Council (NPC)
representatives delivered an outrageous keynote speech to 300 oilmen
at GO-EXPO, Canada's largest oil conference, held at Stampede Park in
Calgary, Alberta, today.

The speech was billed beforehand by the GO-EXPO organizers as the
major highlight of this year's conference, which had 20,000
attendees. In it, the "NPC rep" was expected to deliver the long-awaited
conclusions of a study commissioned by US Energy Secretary
Samuel Bodman. The NPC is headed by former ExxonMobil CEO Lee
Raymond, who is also the chair of the study. (See link at end.)

In the actual speech, the "NPC rep" announced that current U.S. and
Canadian energy policies (notably the massive, carbon-intensive
exploitation of Alberta's oil sands, and the development of liquid
coal) are increasing the chances of huge global calamities. But he
reassured the audience that in the worst case scenario, the oil
industry could "keep fuel flowing" by transforming the billions of
people who die into oil.

"We need something like whales, but infinitely more abundant," said
"NPC rep" "Shepard Wolff" (actually Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men),
before describing the technology used to render human flesh into a
new Exxon oil product called Vivoleum. 3-D animations of the process
brought it to life.

"Vivoleum works in perfect synergy with the continued expansion of
fossil fuel production," noted "Exxon rep" "Florian Osenberg" (Yes
Man Mike Bonanno). "With more fossil fuels comes a greater chance of
disaster, but that means more feedstock for Vivoleum. Fuel will
continue to flow for those of us left."

The oilmen listened to the lecture with attention, and then lit
"commemorative candles" supposedly made of Vivoleum obtained from the
flesh of an "Exxon janitor" who died as a result of cleaning up a
toxic spill. The audience only reacted when the janitor, in a video
tribute, announced that he wished to be transformed into candles
after his death, and all became crystal-clear.

At that point, Simon Mellor, Commercial & Business Development
Director for the company putting on the event, strode up and
physically forced the Yes Men from the stage. As Mellor escorted
Bonanno out the door, a dozen journalists surrounded Bichlbaum, who,
still in character as "Shepard Wolff," explained to them the
rationale for Vivoleum.

"We've got to get ready. After all, fossil fuel development like that
of my company is increasing the chances of catastrophic climate
change, which could lead to massive calamities, causing migration and
conflicts that would likely disable the pipelines and oil wells.
Without oil we could no longer produce or transport food, and most of
humanity would starve. That would be a tragedy, but at least all
those bodies could be turned into fuel for the rest of us."

"We're not talking about killing anyone," added the "NPC rep." "We're
talking about using them after nature has done the hard work. After
all, 150,000 people already die from climate-change related effects
every year. That's only going to go up - maybe way, way up. Will it
all go to waste? That would be cruel."

Security guards then dragged Bichlbaum away from the reporters, and
he and Bonanno were detained until Calgary Police Service officers
could arrive. The policemen, determining that no major infractions
had been committed, permitted the Yes Men to leave.

Canada's oil sands, along with "liquid coal," are keystones of Bush's
Energy Security plan. Mining the oil sands is one of the dirtiest
forms of oil production and has turned Canada into one of the world's
worst carbon emitters. The production of "liquid coal" has twice the
carbon footprint as that of ordinary gasoline. Such technologies
increase the likelihood of massive climate catastrophes that will
condemn to death untold millions of people, mainly poor.

"If our idea of energy security is to increase the chances of climate
calamity, we have a very funny sense of what security really is,"
Bonanno said. "While ExxonMobil continues to post record profits,
they use their money to persuade governments to do nothing about
climate change. This is a crime against humanity."

"Putting the former Exxon CEO in charge of the NPC, and soliciting
his advice on our energy future, is like putting the wolf in charge
of the flock," said "Shepard Wolff" (Bichlbaum). "Exxon has done more
damage to the environment and to our chances of survival than any
other company on earth. Why should we let them determine our future?"

About the NPC and ExxonMobil: About the NPC and Exon Mobil
About the Alberta oil sands: About Alberta oil sands
About liquid coal: Sierra club on liquid coal

Are foundations REALLY helping deal with the environmental crisis? I think not!

I posted this item today on www.xigi.net - a group blog for socially responsible capital market formation.

Charles Conn wrote an article recently in Standford Social Innovation Review entitled "Robbing the Grandchildren: Foundations' shortsightedness is jeopardizing the planet's future."

He points out the fact that "...only 5 percent of U.S. foundation spending goes to the environment, and a paltry 2.9 percent goes to science and technology. Of the top 50 foundation grantees in 2004, only three were environmental organizations. Even those foundations that do work on ecosystems spend much of their resources on small-scale land conservation. Government priorities are also skewed to the here and now. As the Oct. 30, 2006, New York Times reports, U.S. federal spending on energy research has fallen to $3 billion – less than half of its level in 1980 – while spending on medical research has quadrupled to $28 billion over the same period."

Please read the entire article, as Conn covers the issue very well.

Bottom line: If foundations aren't stepping up with major dollars to help bring about the ecological u-turn, who is left to do it?

Naturally, I'd like to see responses from our fellow xigi readers who are in the foundation world to hear how they are channeling more dollars toward sustainability and environmental regeneration.

Slowing down in a world built for speed

We're so "marinated" in the "roadrunner" way of living that we have overlooked the toll that hyperspeed way of living takes on well being and simple life.

In his new book "In Praise of the Slow" author Carl Honore speaks to expressions of the dis-ease of our rush-a-holic society: speed dating, speed reading, fast food.

Carl spoke about slowness at a recent conference (Technology, Environment, Design) where some of the most innovative thinkers share their latest ideas with eachother. It is an important reminder, and you can watch it - (you can slow down for a minute to watch it, right?)

Click the following link to watch the short video of his thought provoking talk:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/73

This talk points to the grand opportunity we have to redefine our concept of time.

Thankfully, the popularity of books like The Power of Now and the growth of what is becoming known as the "international slow movement" reveals how slowness can transform the experience of living on the planet.

By slowing down at the right moments, we can vastly improve the quality of experience in our lives.

Think about these ideas: "slow food" and "slow sex." Aren't the the simple pleasures of food and lovemaking where we really want to slow down and "savour the moment?" Doesn't it sound wonderful?

Naturally, slowness is a way of life. And relaxation, too!

My spiritual teacher Amma emphasizes the importance of relaxation in all things.

The quote is framed on the wall of the travel office in her ashram temple in Kerala, India. Here's the quote:

"Children, learn to be relaxeed in all circumstances.

Whatever you do and wherever you are,
relax and you will see how powerful it is.

The art of relaxation brings out the power that exists within you;
through relaxation you can experience your infinite capacities.

It is the art of making your mind still , and focusing all your energy on the work you are doing, whatever it may be.

Thus you will be able to bring out all of your potential.

Once you learn this art, everything happens spontaneously and effortlessly."

All of us can benefit from slowing down.

Take a moment, slow down, relax.

And experience the benefit.

20 Year Anniversary of the Commision who developed the phrase "sustainable development"

"Sustainable"

It is certainly the buzzword of the day. Everyone wants to be "sustainable." Yet not many people know what it really means.

Simply put, it is like any other buzzword, it is overused and misunderstood. For example I was told that a woman's jewelry line is "sustainable" simply because the jewelry hangs down the front of the body and gemstones are placed at each of the different chakras. Give me a break.

So what does it mean?

The Native Americans embraced a philosophy called Gayaneshakgowa or "Law of Peace" of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy: "In our every deliberation we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations."

20 years ago the United Nations coined the term "sustainable development" in a report which is the source of much of the use today. The Chairperson of the effort called "World Commission on Environment and Development" was Gro Harlem Bruntland, former head of Norway - thus the name of the report was the "Brundtland Report"

The Commission defined the term sustainability to be "meeting the needs of the present without comprimising the needs of the future."

She wrote in the beginning of the report.

"A global agenda for change" - this was what the World Commission on Environment and Development was asked to formulate. It was an urgent call by the General Assembly of the United Nations:

- to propose long-term environmental strategies for achieving sustainable development by the year 2000 and beyond;

- to recommend ways concern for the environment may be translated into greater co-operation among countries of the global South and between countries at different stages of economical and social development and lead to the achievement of common and mutually supportive objectives that take account of the interrelationships between people, resources, environment, and development;

- to consider ways and means by which the international community can deal more effectively with environment concerns;"

- to help define shared perceptions of long-term environmental issues and the appropriate efforts needed to deal successfully with the problems of protecting and enhancing the environment, a long term agenda for action during the coming decades, and aspirational goals for the world community."

The entire report is available to read here.

Unfortunately, the last 20 years we have not shown much progress to achieve the goals with coutries like China and India going full steam ahead with not-so-sustainable development paths.

Every one of us would benefit by reflecting on the true meaning of the term "sustainable" as we steer our civilization toward sustainability.

Smart mobs shut down toxic plant in China with text messaging

This blog and photo from worldchanging.com discusses a real milestone event.

It simply speaks for itself

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/006896.html

Sky Farm - Growing Food in a Skyscraper

Treehugger.com just reported that a group in Toronto is proposing a sky farm.

Read the entire article here.

Here's another item from Gliving.tv

I think that this is particularly interesting, especially in light of my last post on peak oil.

Managing the Collapse - The End of Oil - weaning ourselves off of oil.

I attended the Global Green Millenium Awards last night and met Richard Heinberg who is a fellow at the Post Carbon Institute and author of the book "The Party's Over: Oil War and the Fate of Industrial Societies" and his most recent book "The Oil Depletion Protocol: A Plan to Avert Oil Wars, Terrorism and Economic Collapse".

As a resident of Los Angeles, I am overly aware of the addiction that we have to oil. Just look around us. Cars everywhere, no reasonable public transportation...

Our overly paved city populated by cars with human operators is perhaps the most ugly face of the fact that we in the US consume 25% of the world's energy and have only about 4.5% of the World's population.

So, what do we do?

In our brief conversation Richard shared with me that he estimates that we as a civilization need to prepare for 3% less oil every year.

This is certainly a manageable prospect, yet we have to get on it right away.Although it appears to be a small amount, that means roughly 10% in three years, etc.

We certainly have the technology, the money and power to downshift our use of Oil. And the goal of simply reducing by a measurable amount every gives us a pathway to deal with this situation.

Serendipitously my friend and long time environmentalist Paula Daniels, who is on the Board of LA's Department of Public Works, was close by and I introduced Richard to her. We discussed the urgency of the situation and how she is helping manage the city's massive infrastructure to use less oil, energy and water. She was happy to meet him, and they intend to get together for lunch. This made my day!

Well, in the meantime the rest of us have to begin visioning the pathway to how we as a civilization use less and less oil.

Another author by James Howard Kuntsler who wrote "The Long Emergency" outlined ten ways we must kick the oil habit in an article from
Alternet

I cut and pasted excerpts from the article to highlight the main points:

" 1. Expand your view beyond the question of how we will run all the cars by means other than gasoline. The bottom line of this is: start thinking beyond the car.

2. We have to produce food differently.

3. We have to inhabit the terrain differently. Virtually every place in our nation organized for car dependency is going to fail to some degree. Quite a few places (Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami ...) will support only a fraction of their current populations. We'll have to return to traditional human ecologies at a smaller scale: villages, towns, and cities (along with a productive rural landscape).

4. We have to move things and people differently. This is the sunset of Happy Motoring (including the entire US trucking system). Get used to it. Don't waste your society's remaining resources trying to prop up car-and-truck dependency.

5. We have to transform retail trade. The national chains that have used the high tide of fossil fuels to contrive predatory economies-of-scale (and kill local economies) -- they are going down.

6. We will have to make things again in America. However, we are going to make less stuff. We will have fewer things to buy, fewer choices of things.

7. The age of canned entertainment is coming to and end. It was fun for a while. We liked "Citizen Kane" and the Beatles. But we're going to have to make our own music and our own drama down the road. We're going to need playhouses and live performance halls. [ yeah, whatever, I will always have my canned music solar powered or not...]

8. We'll have to reorganize the education system. The centralized secondary school systems based on the yellow school bus fleets will not survive the coming decades.

9. We have to reorganize the medical system. The current skein of intertwined rackets based on endless Ponzi buck passing scams will not survive the discontinuities to come.

10. Life in the USA will have to become much more local, and virtually all the activities of everyday life will have to be re-scaled."

Heinberg's suggestion that we manage to live on 3% less per year, and Kuntslers' ten points provide a navigable roadmap to a post carbon future. They underscore that it is actually possible to manage ourselves off of oil.

First we must simply ALLOW THAT IT IS POSSIBLE to live in a different way. From there we can actually get down to work of visioning and creating the new way.

IS BIG BUSINESS BUYING OUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT?

A recent article from
Corporate Research E-Letter No. 65, May-June 2007. speaks of the current surge of Environmental Enthusiasm in corporate America.

The article reminds me of feelings I had in the the early 90's when we saw environmental fervor in every media publication and many corporate advertisements. I recall one highlight was the 1990 issue of TIME Magazine which made "Earth" the Person of the year.

At that time the world was all about ‘green’ with the 20th anniversary of Earthday raising awareness of the environmental issues and the Earth Summit in 1992. This flash media hyper-attention fizzled rapidly from a green hue to a light brown as the public channel-surfed to other "issues".

This time, I am a bit more optimistic that many of the current green efforts of corporate America will stick, mainly due to the fact that the environmental crisis is on full fire alarm status and it appears that people are afraid - to lose profits.

Yet there are many corporate giants are who simply capturing the wave of environmental concern to continue a trend of green-washing as a means to obscure the business-as-usual mentality.

I recently visited a friend's home where he had a poster created by DOW Chemical highlighting all the spots on the planet where there are areas of concern on a particular green topic. I frankly wasn't inspired enough to read more.

Furthermore, the more corporations are willing to spend to advertise hollow, or shallow efforts, the greater the danger to environmental groups who would align with these shenanigans in order to receive much needed funding.

"Moreover, there is a risk that the heightened level of collaboration will undermine the justification for an independent environmental movement. Why pay dues to a green group if its agenda is virtually identical to that of GE and DuPont? Already there are hints that business views itself, not activist groups, as the real green vanguard. Chevron, for instance, has been running a series of environmental ads with the tagline “Will you join us?”

Join them? Wasn’t it Chevron and the other oil giants that played a major role in creating global warming? Wasn’t it Chevron that used the repressive regime in Nigeria to protect its environmentally destructive operations in the Niger Delta? Wasn’t it Chevron’s Texaco unit that dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic waste in Ecuador? And wasn’t it Chevron that was accused of systematically underpaying royalties to the federal government for natural gas extracted from the Gulf of Mexico? That is not the kind of track record that confers the mantle of environmental leadership.

In fact, we shouldn’t be joining any company’s environmental initiative. Human activists should be leading the effort to clean up the planet, and corporations should be made to follow our lead."

Read the entire article here

I agree with the skepticism in the article since many companies like GE, Union Carbide, Texaco, Exxon and Oxy have not paid a dime to clean up the messes they have made in the past. In fact they continue to fight tooth and nail in legal battles in order to avoid paying anything!

The Ecology of Work - how do us 'worker bees' evolve our role?

Most of us do not recognize the impact of how the system of work, consumption and money itself is fundamentally challenging to ecosystems around us. In order to restore the balance between our business based civilization and the other inhabitants on planet earth, we would be best served to observe the mechanisms at work.

The first question is how do each of us play a role in the larger economy? Each of us work in this system, and assume that the mechanism of employment is not to be questioned... yet a large percentage of adults assume we will work at some point in our lives.

An Excerpt from a two part series article in Orion Magazine, Curtis White writes:

"We are not the creators of our own world; we merely perform functions in a system into which we were born. The most destructive aspect of our jobs is that in them we are mere “functionaries,” to borrow Josef Pieper’s term. Just as important, we have a function outside of work: consumption. Money in hand, we go into the market to buy the goods we no longer know how to make (we don’t even know how to grow and preserve our own food) and services we no longer know how to perform (frame a house? might as well ask us to design a spaceship)."

The mere prospect that each individual is somehow responsible transforming the entire system is often too much, even for the broadest thinkers in the progressive movement. Yet I think that every one of us would benefit from seeing the big picture, and our role in shaping it.

He continues:

"Challenging our place in this system as mere isolated functions (whether as workers or consumers) is a daunting task, especially for environmentalists, who tend to think that human problems are the concern of somebody else (labor unions, the ACLU, Amnesty International, Habitat for Humanity, etc.). We’re about the 'Earth first.' My argument is simply that the threats to humans and the threats to the environment are not even two parts of the same problem. They are the same problem."

Bioneers bumper sticker on my car says "It's all connected...."

Dharma Marketing sprouting in Portugal

Dharma Marketing

From the site:

"Developed by a Portuguese investigator, this new concept aims to reach the deepest level of the human psyche, finding in the oriental example of enterprising spirit – which has a strong resource to spiritual values – the path to a new internal proximity Marketing.

For Dharma Marketing, the commitment between organisations and everyone they’re connected to is an effect of their actual proximity. Through more spiritualised human resources, the objective of Dharma Marketing is to have a significant impact on business, or at least to give the organisation’s relational competencies wider meaning as regards to empathy with oneself and with others.

This change is the distinctive element in the construction of a new way of looking at the organisations of the third millennium.
Dharma Marketing

• Transparency: the art of being associated with Competence
• Confidence: coherent relations and natural calmness
• Spirit of Mission: to live institutional values intensely
• Holistic Dimension: relations’ spiritual management
• Proximity: self-knowledge and meditation"

I am encouraged by such efforts because it is evidence emerging trend of spirituality applied in the field of business.

Sea change SRI now beginning to drive corporate change!

A recent article stated: "Investors today have now become as concerned about corporate ethics as they are with how profits have been earned. Following this trend, industry surveys by organisations such as KPMG and Business in the Community (BITC) confirm that more than half of the world's 250 largest companies now issue separate Corporate Social Responsibility reports as standard."

This is consistent with my experience - last year at the SRI in the Rockie's conference a friend who runs Progressive Investment Management. He shared with me that he is getting calls from corporations who want to know the changes that are needed to be made in order for my friend's company to include them in his Portfolio 21 mutual fund.

This represents a sea change - that investment managers' concerns are driving corporations to make changes in the way that they behave.

LOHAS Conference, good news about Bees, and questions on the media.

I attended my fourth LOHAS Conference this week, and kudos to the organizers for improving the event over last year! Although the conference was full of all the "late and great" thinking in the sustainability space, it still didn't feel that it was the "latest and greatest" - like other conferences I have attended like Bioneers, and Green Business Conference.

Even so, it is people and ideas that inspire me to attend as many such conferences as I can. As I was quaffing some an Acai Martini I mentioned what has been known in green circles as "the bee situation" with a fellow green business enthusiast.

We were discussing the recent reports in the media that beekeepers in 24 states are experiencing record losses of honeybees. Some states have reported up to 70% disappearances of commercial bee populations. Researchers are struggling to find the causes of this mysterious collapse.

My fellow organic quaffer shared with me a story he heard citing good news - the catastrophic bee colony collapse is not affecting organic hives.

I read this same account morning on an email from the organic consumer association that a blog on Guerilla News Network revealed a crucial element of this story, missing from reports in the mainstream media. They found that organic beekeepers across North America are not experiencing colony collapses.

OCA writes: "The millions of dying bees are hyper-bred varieties whose hives are regularly fumigated with toxic pesticides by conventional beekeepers attempting to ward off mites. In contrast, organic beekeepers avoid pesticides and toxic chemicals and strive to use techniques that closely emulate the ecology of bees in the wild. Researchers are beginning to link the mass deaths of non-organic bees to pesticide exposure, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and the common practice of moving conventional bee hives over long distances."
Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/bees.cfm

On a separate, yet related note - why is this news about organic bees not being reported in the mainstream media?

That is the question which comes to mind for me!

We are best served not only by seeking the correct answers, but to ensure that we ask the correct questions. Anais Nin's comment "We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."

Meanwhile, as we collective cogitate on all things bees, I am heartened that Nature has revealed a pathway for us to continue feeding ourselves - with a strong message: "GO ORGANIC!"

For further reading on media, I recommend Thomas de Zengotita' book "Mediated" .

GOOD NEWS: 120 countries agree on Climate Action. Why does the US still sound ridiculous?

Today, I read in the International Herald Tribune that delegates from 120 countries came together.

Here's the first paragraph:
"BANGKOK, Thailand: Delegates from 120 countries endorsed a report outlining urgent steps needed to avert some of the most catastrophic results of climate change, but the United States warned that strict emission caps could cause a global recession."
read on here

Now, this is really good news! The absolute insanity that I hear, however is the last line: "the US warned that strict emmission caps could cause a global recession."

Please let me translate the entire paragraph:

"Delegates representing the leadership of the entire planet agreed that we need to take significant, life changing action now to stop climate change before we lose civilization as we know it, but the United States whined that they would not make as much money if we started doing something right away."

Hmmm... does this sound ridiculous to you too?

Also, I read in Forbes the following paragraph on the matter:

"But US officials defended nuclear energy as an important option for reducing dependence on fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases, saying scientists would develop technology to deal safely with radioactive waste." More here.

Yes, nuclear power has no emmissions... Yet Helen Caldicott just wrote her latest book "Nuclear Power is Not the Answer."

She just stated in a recent interview on Democracy Now:

"DR. HELEN CALDICOTT: Well, I have just discovered from the Department of Energy's data, that the enrichment of uranium produces 93% per year of the C.F.C. gas in this country, which is currently banned under the Montreal Protocol because it produces destruction of the ozone layer. In Australia, we've got an epidemic of skin cancer because the ozone is so thin. C.F.C. gas, which is the refrigerant gas banned, is up to 20 times more potent global warmer than carbon dioxide, which accounts for 15% of global warming. But also, to enrich uranium, they use 2 two 1,000 megawatt coal power plants to enrich the uranium itself for nuclear power. Massive quantities of carbon dioxide are produced in that very process but also in building the reactors, storing the radioactive waste for hundreds of thousands of years. The other thing is that nuclear power releases millions of Curies of unregulated radiation into the air every year of noble gases and of Tritium, which is very biologically dangerous and very carcinogenic. And it also creates massive quantities of radioactive waste, which lasts for up to half a million years, which inevitably will leak into the Ecosphere, bioconcentrate in each step of the food chain--the algae, the crustaceans, the little fish, the big fish. We can't taste the radiation, we can't smell it, we can't see it. Cancer takes years to evolve. If I sneeze on you, you're sneezing in two days because the incubation time for a cold is two days. But for cancer, when you've been exposed to radiation, its anytime from 5 to 60 years. Cancer doesn't wear a little flag saying what it was caused by years ago. What is predicted medically because of the nuclear wastes from nuclear power is epidemics of particularly childhood cancer, because they're very sensitive to radiation, leukemia, and genetic disease for the rest of time. And we're not the only species that have genes and get cancer. All other species do as well. So, a nuclear power is extraordinarily biologically dangerous. It produces filthy air with radioactive isotopes, carbon dioxide, and C.F.C. gas. The nuclear industry has been lying in its advertisements, being put out consistently on N.P.R. and P.B.S. and the like. You mustn't lie when you're talking about medical and environmental conditions. That's scientifically inappropriate and unethical to lie.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Scott Peterson, your response and also, given the fact that in the United States there hasn't been a new nuclear plant started to be built in decades, why would you expect the American public to suddenly want to change their perspective on the dangers of nuclear power?

SCOTT PETERSON: The American public's perspective on nuclear energy has actually been supportive for many years now, because they recognize the benefits that they get from nuclear energy, and they also recognize the safety of our plants, particularly over the last decade. 64% of the U.S. Public believes that we should build more nuclear plants, and we are now setting the stage in this country, working both with industry and government to begin building advanced reactors that have even better safety features. They're going to be more cost effective to build so the consumer electricity rates are going to be lower. They're also going to be built in a manner they're takes advantage of existing nuclear power plants so we're building them at the same sites, and actually, using less land, and taking advantage of the land and the transmission systems that we already have. So, we're taking a number of steps to make sure that we can meet consumer electricity demands as they continue to rise in the future. But meet them in a way that also protects the environment, and recognizes that we need to make changes in how we look at our air quality and how we combine the imperatives of having electricity and also protecting our environment. If you took the nuclear plants that we have today out of the electricity-

JUAN GONZALEZ: But if I can interrupt you for one second. What about the other part of my question, which is your response to Helen Caldicott's claims of the actual polluting nature of nuclear plants?

SCOTT PETERSON: I wouldn't know where to begin with some of the claims, because a lot of them are just not factually correct.

DR. HELEN CALDICOTT: But they are you see, because I have the data from the Department of Energy--They're correct. "

More here.

So, how does nuclear power address global warming?

U.S. Department of State to Host 2008 Washington International Renewable Energy Conference

U.S. Department of State to Host 2008 Washington International Renewable Energy Conference

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced today that the State Department will host the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC 2008) March 2008.

WIREC 2008 is the third global ministerial level event on renewable energy. It will be an important opportunity for world ministers to show their commitment to renewable energy. The ministers will discuss how renewable energy advances our shared goals for climate, sustainable development and energy security. The Secretary noted that, "Diversifying our energy supplies is a key foreign policy objective of this Administration," and that, "Renewable energy sources can go a long way toward breaking the 'addiction to oil' that President Bush cited in his 2006 State of the Union Address."

WIREC 2008 goals include:

* - Advancing energy security, climate change, air quality, and sustainable development goals, including agriculture and rural development;

* - Demonstrating global leadership in renewable energy research, policy development, technology innovation, commercialization and deployment; and

* - Fostering industry and government collaboration to help solve global energy challenges.

The U.S. Department of State will host this event, assisted by other relevant Departments and agencies including; the: U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of Interior, and the U.S. Department of Commerce. The intergovernmental team welcomes the strong support of the American Council On Renewable Energy and looks forward to cooperating with REN-21 and other relevant stakeholders.

For more information about the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference 2008, please contact William Armbruster at (202) 647-1247.

2007/360
Released on May 1, 2007

Heart of the Rainforest Speaks at OXY Shareholder Meeting in Santa Monica

This Friday morning, at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, leaders of the deeply affected Achuar people will speak at the Occidental Petroleum shareholder meeting. They will be joined by activists in a press conference and rally to demand that LA Based OXY clean up their home, the Peruvian Amazon - "the Heart of the World" as described by Atossa Soltani, Executive Director of Amazon Watch.

Despite the corporation's announcement in December 2006 to pull out of the Amazon, a report released by Amazon Watch today reveals that for over 30 years OXY ignored industry standards and employed out-of-date practices for over 30 years. Briefly, they conducted drilling practices which are illegal here in the US - dumping over 850,000 barrels per day of toxic oil by products directly into rivers and streams resulting in severe cadmium and lead poisoning among the communities of the Amazon.

Andres Sandi Mucushua, President of the Federation of Native Communities of the Corrientes River said "We have seen our rivers, farms and animals sicken and we have become ill and died from the contanimation. We have opposed oil drilling in our territory. It is important that Oxy shareholders are told what Oxy has done and continues to do in the Peruvian Amazon."

Meanwhile, as they backpedal on their agreements with the forest, the Executives of the company, living in our LA neighborhoods, are making extraordinary amounts of money. The CEO made over $400 Million last year - at the very direct expense of the people, plants and animals in a forest critical in the life-support of every one of us on the planet.

This reminds me of the "non-locality" of every issue. As I get in my car and drove home from the event last night, I wondered how much of the gas in my car came from the Amazon, and the wood in my home, the food in my fridge, etc. etc.

We as shareholders, and purchasers of goods, play a direct role, and have a direct responsibility, since we are truly connected to everything that is going on on the planet.

So, I decided to head down to the corner of Wilshire and Ocean this Friday morning and speak with the Heart of the Earth at Oxy's Shareholder meeting. Maybe you'll join me?

$8 Trillion Dollars moving the right direction!

Globalpensions.com just reported that the United-Nations-Developed standard for investments called "Principals for Responsible Investing" have been adopted by investment groups worldwide representing over $8 Trillion dollars in capital.

The PRI was assembled by the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative and the UN Global Compact last year.

That's a very good start!

The article quotes an executive involved with the effort: “We believe the PRI has an extremely important role to play in encouraging major asset owners and mainstream asset managers to fully integrate ESG issues into their investments. We are proud to announce the publication of our first annual report on responsible investment.”

Last year when the intiative was brought about the UN Press release stated the following:

"In joining with institutional investors to develop the Principles, the United Nations collaborated with some of the world’s most influential institutions -– many of them public pension funds -– involved in investment activities worldwide. It is estimated that pension funds alone -– public and private –- account for up to 35 per cent of total global investment.

More than 20 pension funds, foundations and special government funds, backed by a group of 70 experts from around the world, held meetings in Paris, New York, Toronto, London, and Boston over an eight-month period to craft the Principles.

“We are proud to endorse the Principles, which recognize that social and environmental issues can be material to the financial outlook of a company and therefore to the value of our shares in that company”, said Denise Nappier, Treasurer of the State of Connecticut, who is the principal fiduciary of $23 billion in pension fund assets. “Financial markets tend to focus too heavily on short-term results at the expense of long-term and non-traditional financial fitness factors that could affect a company’s bottom line. For many institutional investors it is the long-term that matters and in this context environmental, social and governance issues take on new meaning.”

The six overarching Principles, which are voluntary, are underpinned by a set of 35 possible actions that institutional investors can take to integrate environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) considerations into their investment activities. These actions relate to a variety of issues, including investment decision-making, active ownership, transparency, collaboration and gaining wider support for these practices from the whole financial services industry.

“We manage assets for future generations and acknowledge the link between long-term return and the governance of companies, markets and economies”, said Knut N. Kjaer, Executive Director of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, which holds assets of more than $250 billion. “We engaged in developing these Principles to help broaden the understanding of what drives long-term fund performance. Investors must collaborate to support well-regulated markets and sustainable development” Kjaer said."

Reality Check for the Environmental Movement - Make this Earthday YOUR LAST!

Okay Kids.

Let's get real for a moment.

According two recent articles published by respectable online publications, Orion Magazine and Worldchanging.com, it appears that the 'plan A' of the environmental movement's roughly four-decade effort to meaningfully engage the "mainstream" to drive an "ecological u-turn" isn't really succeeding. Consider how and why the combined membership of most major environmental groups comprises something like 1-3% of the US population.

Meanwhile, since we as a civilization are consuming far beyond the carrying capacity of the planet - then have we really done anything different than we did 50 years ago? Other than to be aware of how much more stuff we are consuming, and how much worse off Nature is?

I am reminded of what Bill McKibben recently said in a local talk at the regal Downtown Los Angeles public library. He shared with us a research study that although our GDP (gross domestic product), and our associated collective environmental footprint, has tripled in the last 50 years, it does not appear that we human beings are any happier as a result.

Although, there is good news - the "the mainstream" has begun to become aware of the environmental crisis on the planet,and the role that we humans have played in creating this crisis. Even so, we still need somewhat of a "reality check" about the consequences our consumer-focused culture. Consider, according the non-profit Redefining Progress "Ecological Foot Print Test" - if every person on the planet consumed as much stuff as we in America do right-now, our species' collective "gaping-mouth" would need 4-5 planets of stuff to keep the ponzi scheme going.

Meanwhile, there are environmental fire alarms every day in the news - what are you going to do?

First thing I suggest, is to breathe, and relax. And enjoy reading these interesting, articles:

Orion Magazine April/March 2007 "The Idols of Environmentalism --- Do environmentalists conspire against their own interests? First in a two-part series."

And...

This excellent WorldChanging.com article: "Make This Earth Day Your Last!" posted today at exactly at 11:11 AM by Worldchanging.com Founder Alex Steffen and Managing Editor Sarah Rich.

Very, very thought provoking, indeed!

( for some good news, see my previous entries!)

Elves are back in action creating youth wealth out of "waste youth"

Well, Elves?

Council of All Beings?

Supremely Intelligent Children?

This video is about how a group of social entrepreneurs in British Columbia's Sunshine Coast are creating a wealthy future of sustainable world for themselves. I'm moved.

I know two of the instigators of this effort Delvin Solkinson and Sobe Wing who are pioneering work in restoring a vibrant life with troubled youth.

You will also find the video on the Tribe.net profile of Delvin Solkinson - a lead instigator of this youth rennaissance we are in - "Sunshine Coast" style. (BTW - I understand that the Sunshine Coast portion of British Columbia is spectacular - its above Vancouver on the mainland coast behind Vancouver Island... less precipitation from the ocean thus more sunshine!

Anyway, I'm Inspired! Truly.

Another view of Tom Friedman's Green article in NY Times Magazine

I just read Tom Friedman's NY Times Cover article "The Power of Green" which was an excellent article reminding us of the grand opportunity to embrace the Green Revolution for a better world. I found the article hugely positive.

and I found this response to the article... The main point that I found is that there are alot of new buzzwords and ideas being thrown around as solutions - which sound better, and address part of the solution, but have SERIOUS downsides like "clean coal and ethanol." For example, is the fuel from GMO corn grown in monoculture factory farms laced with pesticides and herbicides really good for the environment? Since many countries consider GMO corn unfit for human, or animal consumption Ethanol is an excellent solution... or is it? Similarly similarly GMO soybeans grown with pesticides and herbicides that are replacing virgin rainforest is an equally challenging faustian bargain.


http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2007/1528

Is "Green" Tom Friedman the new eco-Orwell of Solartopia?
By Harvey Wasserman
April 19, 2007

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.

Normally, a social movement would welcome the embrace of a New York Times columnist. For a major establishment mouthpiece to start spouting ideas for which so many have marched should be a deeply gratifying accomplishment.

But Friedman's sales pitch also sanctifies nukes and coal. In a single horrifying phrase, he writes in the Times Magazine that "to reach the necessary scale of emissions-free energy will require big clean coal or nuclear power stations, wind farms and solar farms."

Thus, in Tom Friedman's new eco-Orwellian "greenspeak," atomic energy and "clean coal" have become the equivalents of solar and wind power.

This is a suicidal double deception.

"Clean coal" is the ultimate atmospheric oxymoron. Fossil fuel corporations justify it with "carbon sequestration," the idea of pumping CO2 emissions into caverns and other underground storage facilities.

In other words: Yucca Mountain for the coal business. The technology is unproven and the gas is certain, sooner or later, to leak out. Continued coal mining---even with a green veneer---will devastate landscapes, kill miners, cause acid rain and prolong the world's dependence on fossil fuel.

Worse is the proven 50-year failure of nuke power. Atomic reactors are pre-deployed weapons of radioactive mass destruction. Nothing can guarantee their safety from a terror attack.

Fifty years ago the Price-Anderson Act gave federal protection to save reactor owners from paying for a major disaster. No private insurer has stepped into the void, not for the past generation of reactors, nor for the future.

There is also no solution to the waste problem. Yucca Mountain, the multi-billion-dollar alleged storage dump, cannot open for at least two decades. It is capped with perched water, marbled with an earthquake fault and surrounded by (so far) dormant volcanoes like itself. If it opens at all, it will be a casino, in one form or another.

Nukes also spew huge quantities of radioactive radon from the billions of tons of tailings that that sit near uranium mines and mills. That uranium is in increasingly short supply, with prices bound to skyrocket.

The enrichment of reactor fuel creates huge global warming emissions. The nukes themselves pump out direct heat, harming air and water. Radioactive emissions kill billions of fish and other life forms, including humans. Near-misses, as at Ohio's Davis-Besse, which was a bare shred of thin metal away from a catastrophic melt-down, are all too frequent. Sooner or later, by terror or error, we must expect the worst.

Friedman mourns that the melt-down at Three Mile Island caused huge quantities of carbon-emitting coal to be burned for replacement power. But if the $900 million it took to build TMI had been invested in real green energy and efficiency, all those emissions could have been cheaply and safely avoided, then, now and into the future. Take the additional $2 billion required to deal with the seething radioactive mess and we could have had a countryside layered with safe, clean, cheap solar and wind farms.

Friedman never interviews the thousands of central Pennsylvanians who demanded the nuke not be built in the first place. Nor does he mention the 2400 locals who've tried for two decades to get a class action trial on the death and disease caused by the 1979 melt-down's radioactive emissions. To this day, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not know how much fallout escaped from TMI, where it went, who it affected or what harm it did.

Friedman instead talks to TMI's newly greenwashed corporate biggies. More nukes would be a great solution to global warming, they say. But they complain that a new reactor could not come on line for, perhaps, fifteen years. And private investment won't do the trick. Government loan guarantees will be required, they moan, because when it comes to energy, the market "doesn't work."

That's an amazing admission for a free market ideologue like Friedman. What he can't face is that the market DOES work for nuclear power, because nobody in their right mind will invest in it without gargantuan subsidies and insurance protection. Only a Bush-style intervention like the one for "democracy" in Iraq will finance new reactor construction.

The real numbers on both existing and new nukes are disastrous. The current generation only looks profitable because the wave of utility deregulation that swept the US a few years ago forced the public to eat the true capital costs.

Back then Friedman yelled that a free market in energy would yield competition and lower prices. But with fake shortages and market manipulations, Enron and its corporate cohorts gouged California and other states for more than $100 billion. Nowhere in the deregulated US is there meaningful competition in electricity. Nor is there an accurate accounting for the true costs of atomic power.

In the 1990s, California's REAL green power movement wanted to install some 600 megawatts of solar, wind and efficiency. That was killed by John Bryson, the "green" chair of Southern California Edison. Bryson then used deregulation to write off the multi-billion-dollar capital costs of four reactors. And then came Enron, to gouge and go bankrupt.

Now Friedman and his fossil/nuke cohorts ask that we repeat the experience in the name of global warming.

We can certainly say "thanks" to him for finally waking up to the climate crisis. But we must also say "no thanks" to fossil fuels and nuclear power.

The Solartopian solution embraces wind, solar, bio-fuels and other truly renewable sources, along with increased efficiency. Wall Street is lining up to invest in these technologies, which have high rates of real return, both financial and ecological.

We've seen the horrific results of Tom Friedman's advocacy of utility deregulation. We've tasted the bitter fruits of his cheerleading for the war in Iraq.

Why would we now buy his fossil/nukes, which are no more green than the climate crisis itself?

Between the lines of Friedman's columns there's a lethal brew of carbon emissions and radioactive crud. Every dime spent on "clean coal" or "safe nukes" will only make things worse.

We're glad so many corporate moguls finally feel compelled to line up at the media greenwash. But there's no need to buy in to their proven failures.

The real solution to climate chaos is the Solartopian Trinity of solar, wind and bio-fuels, with increased efficiency and the return of mass transit. Accept no substitutes.

--
Harvey Wasserman's SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH, A.D. 2030 is at www.solartopia.org. Long ago he pondered the true meaning of being green in jail cells near the Seabrook and Diablo Canyon nuclear plants.