The Global Community has had work on previous Earth Management aspects and issues ever since 1985. A short list of our previous work on the Earth Management aspects and issues.
For more recent work on Earth Management aspects and issues read the following table.
Month/year |
Theme and Author |
Read contents |
December 8, 2007 |
Peak Oil And The Vision In The Mirror
by Aaron Wissner, Countercurrents.org,
LiVEJOURNAL
Aaron Wissner, Organizer, Local Future Network
What happens when the energy supply stops growing, but the population continues to grow?
More importantly, what happens when the energy supply begins to decline, as population continues to grow?
Peak oil is not simply an issue of learning to conserve or finding ways to do more with less. It isn't simply about the possibility of economic
collapse, war, starvation or global pandemic. It isn't just about changing our behaviors or our beliefs. It is about turning ourselves inside-out, and not only
surviving the transformation, but also being and living equal and in harmony with all the rest. |
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December 7, 2007 |
Forests Could Cool or Cook The Planet
by Stephen Leahy , Countercurrents.org,
BROOKLIN, Canada, Dec 7 (IPS) - A two-degree Celsius rise in global temperatures could flip the Amazon forest
from being the Earth's vital air conditioner to a flamethrower that cooks the planet, warns a new report released at the climate talks in Bali, Indonesia Friday.
The trees of the Amazon contain at least 100 billion tonnes of carbon -- 15 years worth of global emissions from all sources, he said. "It's not
only essential for cooling the world's temperature but also such a large source of freshwater that it may be enough to influence some of the great ocean currents."
It is in everyone's interest to keep the Amazon intact, but deforestation continues apace, driven by expanding cattle ranching, soy farming, conversion into sugar cane for
biofuel and logging. This assault is drying out the forest, making it more vulnerable to burning. Rising global temperatures are also increasing evaporation rates,
drying the forest further. |
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December 10, 2007 |
Wars and Climate Change: National Interests Verses Global Emergency
Letter sent by Abdul Basit to the Global Community
This is an appeal to World Leaders and Scientific Community, who have gathered in Bali, Indonesia for the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
I remind the world leaders and researchers, who are attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, that they have a huge responsibility on their shoulders. The decisions of
this conference will not only decide the future of existence of humankind, but also for preserving all the past cultures and contributions humanity has offered throughout its thousands of years history of
existence on this beautiful planet.
So, on behalf of the human race, I appeal to the world leaders to set aside their narrow national interests and play the historical and highly moral responsibility in saving this planet and its inhabitants. The
very future for all of life, human and otherwise, depends on their meeting this obligation with nothing short of total resolve!
basit72@gmail.com |
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November 14, 2007 |
Palm oil: Cooking the Climate Once you pop, you can't stop
by Greenpeace Canada http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/
Indonesia — If, as you read this, you're tucking into a KitKat or dipping into a tube of Pringles, you might be interested
to know that these products contain palm oil that is linked to the destruction of forests and peatlands in Indonesia. As our new report "How the palm oil industry
is cooking the climate" shows, it's a recipe for disaster. The manufacturers of these products - Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever - are sourcing their palm oil from suppliers who aren't picky about where they site their
plantations. As the volunteers at the Forest Defenders Camp in Sumatra have seen, this includes tearing up areas of pristine forest then draining and burning the
peatlands. Indonesia's peatlands act as huge carbon stores so replacing them with plantations them not only threatens the amazing biodiversity, including the rare Sumatran tiger,
it also releases huge volumes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. They only cover 0.1 per cent of the land on Earth, but thanks in part to the activities of the palm
oil industry they contribute 4 per cent to global emissions. If expansion of the palm oil industry continues unabated, that figure can only rise.
What's to be done? The Indonesian government should urgently introduce a moratorium on forest and peatland destruction, which will provide a chance to develop long-term
solutions and prevent further emissions from deforestation. And our eyes are fixed firmly on the UN climate meeting in Bali next month, where the next phase of the Kyoto
Protocol will be discussed. With deforestation accounting for up to a fifth of global emissions, including financing for forest protection as a core part of the plan to
tackle climate change is essential. | Read |
November 27, 2007 |
UNDP wants climate justice through trade
by ASHOK B SHARMA
published by Indian Society For Sustainable Agriculture and by Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd.
The UN Development Programme (UNDP) for the first time in its human development report has analysed the impact of climate
change. The Human Development Report 2007-08 – Fighting climate change : Human solidarity in a divided world is released at a time when the climate change agenda is
slowly gaining its entry in the WTO negotiations and the discussions on the review of the work under Kyoto Protocol is slated to take place in Bali in Indonesia in
December, this year.
The report documented the impact of climate change across the world also projected the likely scenario for the future. Making out a case for alternative sources of
energy and fuels like bio-fuels, the UNDP report said that global trade has a major role to play. It said :International trade could play a much larger role in
the expanding Markets for alternative fuels. Brazil is more efficient than either the European Union or the United States in producing ethanol, Moreover, sugar-based
ethanol is more efficient in cutting carbon emissions. The problem is that imports of Brazilian ethanol are restricted by high import tariffs. Removing these tariffs
would generate gains not just for Brazil, but for climate change mitigation.
Negotiations on emissions limits for the post-2012 Kyoto Protocol commitment period can – and must – frame the global carbon budget.
Saying so it noted most developed countries like Canada fell short of the targets. Though the European Union and UK have both embraced their targets, they are likely to
fall far short of the goals set unless they move rapidly to put climate mitigation at the center of energy policy reform. Two major OECD countries like US and Australia
are not bound by Kyoto Protocol.
The report suggested two ways to mitigate climate change, one is to directly tax carbon dioxide emission and the other is cap-and-trade. Under cap-and-trade system,
the government sets an overall emissions cap and issues tradable allowances that grant business the right to emit a set amount. Those who can reduce emissions more cheaply
are able to sell allowances. One potential disadvantage of cap-and-trade is energy price instability while the potential advantage is environmental certainty, it noted.
While the transition to climate protecting energy and life styles will have short-term costs, there may be economic benefits beyond what what is to be achieved by
stabilizing temperatures. These benefits are likely to be realized through Keynesian and Schumpeterian mechanisms with new incentives for massive investment stimulating
overall demand and creative destruction leading to innovation and productivity jumps in a wide array of sectors, the foreward to the report said.
While government leadership is going to be essential in correcting the huge externality that is climate change, Markets and prices will have to be put to work so that
private sector decisions can lead more naturally to optimal investment and production decisions.
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November 11, 2007 |
Deal climate injustice at home: Greenpeace India
by ASHOK B SHARMA
published by Indian Society For Sustainable Agriculture and by Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd.
More than 800 million poor people in India are bearing the burnt of climate change. This is partly due to the emissions caused by
the few privileged rich people in the country, said a report released by Greenpeace India Society. The report on climate injustice entitled `Hiding Behind the Poor’
urged the government to apply the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” in the country to deal with the situation arising out of climate change.
The study authored by G Ananathpadmanabhan, K Srinivas and Vinuta Gopal, however advocated India’s right to seek common but differentiated responsibilities at the global level.
Referring to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, it said that India claims its right to development and thus its right to consume more energy from
fossil fuels, asking developed nations to create the carbon space. Implicit in this is the notion that the developed countries need to decrease their carbon dioxide emissions
drastically so that developing countries can still increase theirs without pushing the planet in the direction of climate change.”
However, the study pointed out that over the last few decades, emissions of rapidly developing countries like India and China have surged. In fact, rankings by the WRI of
top GHG emitters has US on top and developing countries such as China and India are ranked at No 2 and 5 respectively, making them amongst the world’s biggest emitters.
The Greepeace India made an urgent plea to the government to consider the situation especially when the next round of negotiations for the second phase of Kyoto Protocol
is scheduled to take place in Bali in Indonesia in December, this year.
The Greenpeace India report further said that India was faced with two sharply contradictory realities. On the one hand there was a rapidly growing rich consumer class
which has made the country the 12.
The largest luxury market in the world and on the other hand India has become the home to more than 800 million poor people on the planet who are extremely vulnerable to
the impacts of climate change. India’s per capita carbon dioxide emission has averaged to 1.67 tonne.
| Read
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November 11, 2007 |
Global warming speeds up: IPCC
by ASHOK B SHARMA
published by Indian Society For Sustainable Agriculture and by Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd.
The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon urged the national governments to do more to arrest the climate change. The report also offered blueprints to avert the worst
catastrophes, he said and added that climate change imperils the most precious treasures of our planet.
Ki-moon said that the report would be placed before the forthcoming UN framework on climate change meeting in Bali in Indonesia to review the progress made under the
Kyoto Protocol. The report noted that observational evidence from all continents and most oceans showed that many natural systems were being affected by regional climate changes,
particularly rise in temperatures. Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly as a result of the human
activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre-industrial value determined from ice cores spanning many thousands of years.
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November 22, 2007 |
Handy Hints For Post-Petroleum
by Peter Goodchild , Countercurrents.org, petergoodchild@interhop.net
The priority of these "hints" will vary as the years go by, but most of
them will remain relevant over the course of the century. The slight bias
toward northern North America is partly due to the fact that the area
meets most of the criteria.
Everything in the modern world is dependent on hydrocarbons. From
hydrocarbons we get fuel, fertilizer, pesticides, lubricants, plastic, paint,
synthetic fabrics, asphalt, pharmaceuticals, and many other things.
When oil goes, our entire industrial society will go with it. We must
therefore look to "primitive" technology. On a broader scale, one could can say that modern industrial society
is based on (1) hydrocarbons, (2) metals, and (3) electricity. The three
are intricately connected; each is only accessible — on the modern
scale — if the other two are present. Electricity, for example, has been
possible on a global scale only with hydrocarbons. The same is true of
metals: most metals are now becoming rare, and the forms that remain
can be processed only with modern machinery — which requires
hydrocarbons. There is no way of breaking that "triangle." What we are
then looking at is a society far more primitive than the one to which we
have been accustomed.
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November 19, 2007 |
A World Dying, But Can We Unite To Save It?
by Geoffrey Lean , Countercurrents.org, The Independent
Humanity is rapidly turning the seas acid through the same pollution that causes global warming, the world’s governments and top scientists agreed yesterday. The process — thought to be the most profound
change in the chemistry of the oceans for 20 million years — is expected both to disrupt the entire web of life of the oceans and to make climate change worse.
The warning is just one of a whole series of alarming conclusions in a new report published by the official Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Scientists add that, as the seas become more acidic, they will be less able to absorb carbon dioxide, causing more of it to stay in the atmosphere to speed up global warming. Research is already uncovering some signs that the oceans’ ability to mop up the gas is diminishing. Environmentalists point out that the increasing acidification of the oceans would in itself provide ample reason to curb
emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and felling forests even if the dwindling band of skeptics were right and the gas was not warming up the planet.
Getting agreement on a new treaty to tackle climate change hangs on resolving an “after you, Claude” impasse between the United States and China, the two biggest emitters of carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming.
China insists - with other key developing countries like India and South Africa — that the United States must move first to clean up. It points out that, because of the disparity in populations, every American is responsible for emitting much more of the gas than each Chinese. But the US refuses to join any new treaty unless China also accepts restrictions. |
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November 13, 2007 |
US, British And Australian Forces Build Oil-Protection Base In Iraq
by Patrick Martin, Countercurrents.org, WSWS.org
The US Navy, with the assistance of British and Australian commandos, is building a permanent base to guard two oil-export platforms in Iraqi waters
at the northern end of the Persian Gulf. The military mission goes far beyond the patrols which US warships
have conducted in the Persian Gulf for the past 30 years, in the name of
keeping oil shipping lanes open. The Navy finds
itself with an additional, much more specific role: playing security guard
to Iraq’s offshore oil infrastructure. US, British and Australian military officers will control Iraq’s oil export
shipping for the indefinite future.
Iraq is one of the least-explored countries among the major oil producers, and there are plans to
explore for oil in the western desert (Anbar province) as well as the
traditional oil-producing regions in the north and south. Iraq has 112
billion barrels in proven oil reserves, but UN estimates have placed its
probable but as yet unproven reserves at 214 billion barrels, perhaps
the world’s largest pool of untapped oil. The oil ministry reported last week that daily crude oil production in
October hit a three-year high of 2.7 million barrels a day, of which 1.8
million barrels were exported. Hussein al-Shahristani, the oil minister,
said that crude production should reach 3 million barrels daily by the
end of the year.
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November 2, 2007 |
Six Steps To “Getting” The Global Ecological Crisis
by John Feeney, Countercurrents.org, GrowthMadness.org
Some of us who examine and discuss environmental matters are constantly puzzled and frustrated by the seeming inability of elected officials, environmental organizations, and environmental and political writers to “get” the nature of
our ecological plight. Could it be they’re simply unaware of the ecological principles which enable one to understand it?
A finite earth can support only a limited number of humans. There is therefore a global “carrying capacity” for humans. A basic definition of carrying capacity is “The maximum number of people, or individuals of a particular species, that a given part of the environment can maintain indefinitely.”
It is an axiom of ecological science that a population which has grown larger than the carrying capacity of its environment (e.g., the global ecosystem) degrades its environment. It uses resources faster than they are regenerated by that environment, and produces waste faster than the environment can absorb it without being degraded.
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November 8, 2007 |
Welcome to the Age of Insuffiency: As oil prices hit new highs and supplies sink, our way of life will drastically change.
We are nearing the end of the Petroleum Age and have entered the Age of Insufficiency.
Major investors are not likely to cough up the trillions of dollars needed to substantially boost production in the years ahead, suggesting that the global output of
conventional petroleum will not reach the elevated levels predicted by the Energy Department but will soon begin an irreversible decline.
This conclusion leads to two obvious strategic impulses: first, the government will seek to ease the qualms of major energy investors by promising to protect their overseas
investments through the deployment of American military forces; and second, the industry will seek to hedge its bets by shifting an ever-increasing share of its investment
funds into the development of nonpetroleum liquids. In considering these past events, it is important to recognize that the use of military force to protect the flow
of imported petroleum has generally enjoyed broad bipartisan support in Washington. One might imagine that the current debacle in Iraq would shake this consensus, but
there is no evidence that this is so. In fact, the opposite appears to be the case: possibly fearful that the chaos in Iraq will spread to other countries in the Gulf
region, senior figures in both parties are calling for a reinvigorated US military role in the protection of foreign energy deliveries.
There is mounting perils to the safe flow of foreign oil. Concluding that the United States alone has the capacity to protect the global oil trade against the threat of
violent obstruction, it argues the need for a strong US military presence in key producing areas and in the sea lanes that carry foreign oil to American shores.
An awareness of this new "Washington consensus" on the need to protect overseas oil supplies with American troops helps explain many recent developments in Washington.
Most significant, it illuminates the strategic stance adopted by President Bush in justifying his determination to retain a potent US force in Iraq -- and why the Democrats
have found it so difficult to contest that stance. We should expect an increase in the use of military force to protect the overseas flow of oil, as the threat level rises
along with the need for new investment to avert even further reductions in global supplies.
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October 22, 2007 |
It’s The Oil
by Jim Holt, Countercurrents.org, London Review Of Books
Iraq has 115 billion barrels of known oil reserves. That is more than five
times the total in the United States. And, because of its long isolation, it
is the least explored of the world’s oil-rich nations. A mere two
thousand wells have been drilled across the entire country; in Texas
alone there are a million. It has been estimated, by the Council on
Foreign Relations, that Iraq may have a further 220 billion barrels of
undiscovered oil; another study puts the figure at 300 billion. If these
estimates are anywhere close to the mark, US forces are now sitting on
one quarter of the world’s oil resources. The value of Iraqi oil, largely
light crude with low production costs, would be of the order of $30
trillion at today’s prices. For purposes of comparison, the projected
total cost of the US invasion/occupation is around $1 trillion.
Who will get Iraq’s oil? One of the Bush administration’s ‘benchmarks’
for the Iraqi government is the passage of a law to distribute oil
revenues. The draft law that the US has written for the Iraqi congress
would cede nearly all the oil to Western companies. The Iraq National
Oil Company would retain control of 17 of Iraq’s 80 existing oilfields,
leaving the rest – including all yet to be discovered oil – under foreign
corporate control for 30 years.
The occupation may seem horribly botched on the face of it, but
the Bush administration’s cavalier attitude towards ‘nation-building’ has
all but ensured that Iraq will end up as an American protectorate for the
next few decades – a necessary condition for the extraction of its oil
wealth. If the US had managed to create a strong, democratic
government in an Iraq effectively secured by its own army and police
force, and had then departed, what would have stopped that
government from taking control of its own oil, like every other regime in
the Middle East? On the assumption that the Bush-Cheney strategy is
oil-centred, the tactics – dissolving the army, de-Baathification, a final
‘surge’ that has hastened internal migration – could scarcely have been
more effective. The costs – a few billion dollars a month plus a few
dozen American fatalities (a figure which will probably diminish, and
which is in any case comparable to the number of US motorcyclists
killed because of repealed helmet laws) – are negligible compared to
$30 trillion in oil wealth, assured American geopolitical supremacy and
cheap gas for voters. In terms of realpolitik, the invasion of Iraq is not a
fiasco; it is a resounding success. |
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October 12, 2007 |
Surviving The Century
by Chris Goodall, Countercurrents.org, Nature.com
Surviving the Century: Facing Climate Chaos and Other Global Challenges. climate change is not a technical or scientific problem. The main impediment to tackling global warming is that many of the powerful institutions of the world, whether it be the World Trade Organization, BP or the investment banks that control the world's allocation of capital are resistant to radically changing the way we operate the world economy. The poor, whose share of world income is certainly not growing, are unable to successfully demand that policies be developed to protect them from climate change or from other environmental or economic disasters.
The most productive and efficient economies, judged in the conventional sense, are often the most wasteful and destructive. |
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October 11, 2007 |
We are faced with thoughtless development that paves flood plains and destroys wetlands; dams that displace native people and scar watersheds; unchecked industrial growth that pollutes water sources; and rising rates of consumption that nature can't match. Increasingly, we are also threatened by the wave of privatization that is sweeping across the world, turning water from a precious public resource into a commodity for economic gain.
The problems extend from the global north to the south and are as pervasive as water itself. Equally encompassing are the politics of water. Discussions about our water crisis include issues like poverty, trade, community and privatization. In talking about water, we must also talk about indigenous rights, environmental justice, education, corporate accountability, and democracy. In this mix of terms are not only the causes of our crisis but also the solutions.
It ultimately comes down to an issue of democracy. "We came to see that the conflicts over water are really about fundamental questions of democracy itself: Who will make the decisions that affect our future, and who will be excluded? |
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October 7, 2007 |
Climate Change And Entire Landscapes On The Move
by Stephen Leahy, Countercurrents.org BROOKLIN, Canada, Inter Press Service
The hot breath of global warming has now touched some of the coldest northern regions of world, turning the frozen landscape into mush as temperatures soar 15 degrees C. above normal.
Entire hillsides, sometimes more than a kilometre long, simply let go and slid like a vast green carpet into valleys and rivers on Melville Island in Canada’s northwest Arctic region of Nunavut this summer, says Scott Lamoureux of Queens University in Canada and leader of one the of International Polar Year projects.
The entire landscape is on the move, it was very difficult to find any slopes that were unaltered, said Lamoureux, who led a scientific expedition to the remote and uninhabited island.
The topography and ecology of Melville Island is rapidly being rearranged by climate change.
Burning such fossil fuels is the major reason why the Arctic is losing ice. Scientists and native people note that it would be more than ironic should those emissions facilitate the extraction of even more fossil fuels with which to further warm our overheating global greenhouse. |
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October 5, 2007 |
Economic Sharing: A Shift In Global Values
by Rajesh Makwana, Countercurrents.org Rajesh Makwana is the Director of Share The World's Resources (STWR), an NGO campaigning for global economic and social justice.
He can be contacted at rajesh@stwr.net
A growing body of progressives within the global justice movement, including environmentalists, economists and policy makers, broadly agree that a significant overhaul of the world’s economic and political systems is long overdue, and that without significant restructuring our most pressing problems will never be tackled.
It is time for a significant re-evaluation of global economic and political values and the creation of an economy that serves the needs of the global community as a whole, within our environmental limitations.
In order to consider how the ownership and management of key resources could be organized, it is useful to group them according to type. There are three general categories:
-Naturally occurring resources – e.g. land, water, oil, gas and mineral ores
-Produced goods – e.g. agricultural produce, medicines, building materials and machinery
-Services – e.g. utilities, healthcare and education
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October 22, 2007 |
Investigative report concerning the Northwest Passage, Canadian territory of Nunavut , and Canada Sovereignty
by Germain Dufour, Spiritual Leader of the Global Community
The creation of Nunavut was the outcome of the largest aboriginal land claims agreement between the Canadian government and the
native Inuit people. The Inuit is one of the first indigenous peoples in the Americas to achieve self-government. They have the right to participate in decisions regarding the land and water resources, and
rights to harvest wildlife on their lands.
Conservation, restoration, and management of the Earth resources
is about asking ourselves the question of " Who owns the Earth?"
The Global Community has proposed a democracy for the people based on the fact that land, the air, water, oil, minerals, and all other natural resources
rightly belong to the Global Community along with the local communities where those resources are found. The Earth is the birthright of all life.
To gain control of the Northwest Passage, Canada would have to show strong Earth management initiatives and the protection of its environment.
Without the fulfillment of the Global Community criteria for sovereignty no one can claim ownership - sovereignty - of both Nunavut and the Northwest Passage.
In Nunavut there is also a vast array of different life-form communities such as the polar bears, caribou, Arctic foxes, seals, beluga whales, northern fulmars, and those communities of organisms that inhabit the sea
floor like brittle stars, worms, zooplankton, microalgae, bivalves and some of the lesser known sea spiders.
And there are many more. Everyone of those global communities have an Earth right of ownership
of the North and of all its natural resources. It is their birthright. They dont express themselves in English, but we understand them. Human beings have a moral
obligation to protect and conserve the biodiversity of life on Earth.
Fot the protection of those global communities we will need to create a biodiversity zone in the North by way of Earth rights and taxation of natural resources.
We are all members of the Global Community. We all have the duty to protect the rights and welfare of all species and all people.
This letter may be a starting place for a group global discussion and roundtable on the issues of Canada sovereignty in the Nunavut and the control of the Northwest Passage.
If you wish to send a reply I will post it on the Global Community website at
http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/EmailDiscussions/
and
http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/GPA/2008discussionroundtables.htm
For now I started the process by researching and writing a paper concerned with the issues, and you will find the paper at
http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/GIMProceedings/gimLetterNP.htm
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October 3, 2007 |
Scrap Special Export Zones (SEZs), Promote Agri Export Zones (AEZs)
by Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary, President
Bharatiya Krishak Samaj (Indian Farmers' Organisation), Indian Society For Sustainable Agriculture And Rural Development, New Delhi, INDIA
see also by same author " Indian Farmer Leader On India-US Pact On GMOs"
I have written an article on how big Corporate houses are grabbing farmlands from farmers in India at a platter. This is due to the government policy of Corporate pampering, ignoring the food security of the nation.
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September 16, 2007 |
SCALE OF CONFLICTS BETWEEN FIRMS, COMMUNITIES, NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT , by Jose G. Vargas-Hernández,
Global Environment Minister,
Global file,
jgvh0811@yahoo.com, jvargas08@berkeley.ed
Research Professor, Mexico
The role of the nation-state is to regulate conflicts between the essential elements, the nation-state, capitalists (firms), laborers and consumers, binding together disparate and conflicting interests.
This paper is aimed to review the different levels of scale of conflicts between firms, communities, New Social Movements and the role of government. |
Read or Download full WORD document of Research Paper by author |
September 12, 2007 |
The End Of The World? by William M. H. Kötke ,
Countercurrents.org
William H. Kötke author ofGarden Planet: The Present Phase Change of the Human Species. See at: www.gardenplanetbook.com and THE
FINAL EMPIRE an underground classic book available for free
download at: http://www.Rainbowbody.net/Finalempire .
We are all looking at the end of the world as we know it. Our
attention is focused on the holes in the ozone layer, planet warming,
peak oil, the spread of DU weapons, the collapse of the house of credit
cards, and the prospect of the planetary financial elite quickly
establishing fascist control of the planet. Below this threshold of
conscious awareness our biological survival systems are rapidly
eroding. At this point some twenty percent of the planet’s soils erode
each twenty-five year period. Each year at least two hundred thousand
acres of irrigated crop-lands go out of production because of
salinization or water-logging and experts say that sixty to eighty percent
of all irrigated acreage is due to follow the eight to ten million acres that
have historically gone into ruination from irrigation. The total drylands of
the planet are 7.9 billion acres of which 61% are desertified, that is,
driven by human abuse toward uselessness. Globally, 23% of all arable
crop lands have been lost since 1945 through human use and experts
say that all arable land on the planet will be ruined in 200 years.
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September 12, 2007 |
What Is Being Stolen From Us All by Jeff Berg
Countercurrents.org
Once again, this time in Iraq, we see the natural resource wealth of an
entire nation enriching none but a criminal class and megacorporations. I
will assume a distinction. Once again this is only able to take place as a
result of the planned aggression and full cooperation of a government &
military that acts as if it is a wholly owned subsidiary of a monied elite.
Much the same thing is being done here in Canada but "thanks" to the
connivance of significant elements of our corporate and government
elite it is being achieved without the need for military force.
It should be noted however that to some in the corporate class the
missing military element is a major mistake even in Canada as it
seriously erodes the huge profit margins possible in war zones and
markedly reduces the amount of money that can be transferred from
citizens to shareholders in times of military conflict. (The quintessential
double dip) Admittedly this is a minority opinion but as Iraq will not be
the last to prove not an uninfluential one. Evidence of this influence here
in Canada can be seen by the massive increase in expenditures for our
military and security industrial complexes over the last few years.
NB. Before the Harper government's commitment to a $13 billion
increase in military spending Canada’s military spending was the 7th
highest in absolute terms in the OECD and 12th overall in the world.
If you are skeptical of the claim that Canadians are being all but
completely shut out of the benefits of their resource wealth go to the
Parkland Institute site and discover for yourself the pitiful fraction the
Albertan people receive of their resource wealth compared to the
people of Norway.
http://www.ualberta.ca/PARKLAND/
For we the Canadian people the situation is an even crueler joke as we
receive even less benefit while at the same time bearing more of the
brunt of the economic problems associated with being a resource
dollar. Aka. Dutch Disease
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dutchdisease.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease
And it is all Canadians and especially Albertans and even the rest of the
world that are at the same time forced to pick up the massive
environmental tab even as the profits flee the province and the country.
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July 28, 2007 |
RAINFOREST/CLIMATE ALERT: FSC and Big Green Ancient Forest Logging Tragedy Worsens, by Dr. Glen Barry ,
Rainforest Portal and Ecological Internet (EI)
Insightful original Earth essays placing environmental sustainability within the context of other contemporary issues including peace and freedom.
Support for "certified" ancient rainforest logging crumbles further due to string of inappropriate and illegal certifications, most recently in Peru; and as Norway
rejects FSC and all primary rainforest logging certification schemes |
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