John Stewart’s hilarious take on the Monsanto Protection Act, introduced as an amendment to the most recent continuing budget resolution (which keeps the federal government going until September). The amendment allows Monsanto to bypass judicial scrutiny, granting them virtual immunity to lawsuits based on adverse health or environmental consequences of their  GMO organisms.

For a more detailed analysis of the destructive consequences of this legislation, check out Is the Monsanto Protection Act the End of Food Democracy

photo credit: andres musta via photopin cc

Reposted from Daily Censored

In October 2012, Lady Gaga joined a coalition of 200 artists started by Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon called Artists Against Fracking. She simultaneously urged her 90 million Facebook and Twitter fans to support the organization and sign a petition asking New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to ban fracking. Seems pretty newsworthy to me. Wonder how the corporate media missed this explosive story.

A list of all the artists in the coalition can be found at http://artistsagainstfracking.com/, along with an inspiring rendition of “Don’t Frack My Mother.”

Readers unacquainted with the term fracking – aka hydraulic fracturing – can also use the website and the video below to get up to speed.

photo credit: PVBroadz via photopin cc

Crossposted at Daily Censored

In February New Zealand actress Lucy Lawless (aka Xena the Warrior Princess) and Greenpeace jubilantly celebrated Shell oil’s announcement that they wouldn’t drill the Arctic in 2013, as previously announced.

Coincidentally Lawless was sentenced the same month for her four day “occupation” of the rig of Shell’s oil exploration vessel, The Noble Discoverer, while it was docked here in New Plymouth. Lawless and six other Greenpeace activists were sentenced to 120 hours community work and ordered to pay Port Taranaki $651.44 each in reparations.

Clearly the highly publicized February 2012 protest, which persuaded two million people to sign onto the Greenpeace campaign to block Arctic drilling, had a major influence over Shell’s decision. However according to Greenpeace, it was also the first in a comedy of errors plaguing Shell’s billion-dollar Arctic drilling scheme.

In April Lloyd’s of London insurance company dismissed Shell’s oil spill response plan as  inadequate for the fragile Arctic ecosystem. In June Greenpeace teamed up with the Yes Men to spoof the Arctic drilling plan with “Arctic Ready”, a giant Internet hoax mocking polar bears for interfering with oil exploration. In July the US Coast Guard declared a key vessel in Shell’s oil spill response fleet unseaworthy and The Noble Discoverer itself ran aground in Alaska. In November the ship’s engine caught fire. In December Shell’s oil rig, The Kulluk, ran aground off the coast of Alaska while being towed to harbor in Seattle.

Lawless is extremely proud of her participation in the protest action. “For my part I feel I owe it to my children to be counted among those demanding immediate action on climate change. If we don’t stand up to companies like Shell and call them to account for their reckless pursuit of oil into the farthest unspoiled reaches of the world, who will?”

photo credit: artvixn via photopin cc

According to the Guardian, a newly released Greenpeace study reveals it’s not just Exxon and the Koch brothers who fund the climate denial industry. In a recent article, they describe how a secretive charity known as Donors Trust enabled anonymous billionaires to donate nearly $120m to more than 100 groups campaigning to cast doubt on the science behind climate change. This money helped to build a vast network of thinktanks and activist groups dedicated to redefining climate change as a highly polarizing “wedge issue” for hardcore conservatives – as opposed to a neutral scientific fact. During the same period the oil billionaire Koch brothers, who are usually credited with financing climate change denial, donated only a fraction of this amount.

It’s no mystery why the oil, gas and coal industry wants to stymie efforts by the US and other governments to cut carbon emissions by subsidizing renewable energy, public transportation and other initiatives to cut fossil fuel consumption.

The study sheds new light on the so-called “scientists” Donors Trust pays to produce “research” proving there is absolutely no link between carbon emissions, increasing CO2 concentrations, melting ice caps and the recent rash of catastrophic weather events.

Greenpeace writes in more detail about this research (with links to the original data) in their February 15^th blog

Photo credit Greenpeace

Crossposted at Daily Censored

If video fails to play, go to Resonance – Beings of Frequency

(This is Part II of a two part film review of the 2012 documentary by British filmmaker James Russell. The first described the link between cell phone technology and the growing cancer epidemic.)

Honey Bees and Migratory Birds

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is a phenomenon in which previously healthy worker bees from a beehive or bee colony simply vanish. First recognized in 2006, it represents a true agricultural emergency, as all food production depends, either directly or indirectly, on insect pollinators. There has been a lot of debate about the cause, with many environmentalists blaming the high levels of insecticide that have accumulated in the ecosystem. The film presents some fascinating research about the magnetite-containing cells honeybees use to navigate the earth’s magnetic fields in finding their way to and from the hive. Other research shows that direct exposure to microwave radiation disrupts their ability to detect these fields. In other words, bees abandon their hives because they can’t find their way back.

Shore birds and songbirds also use the earth’s magnetic fields to migrate vast distances, via a slightly different mechanism involving cryptochromes. These are magnetically sensitive cells found in all plants, animals and human beings. In humans, the cryptochromes in the pineal gland control melatonin production. Ornithologists are extremely alarmed at the sudden rate of decline of numerous populations of songbirds and shorebirds that migrate. The scientists in the film believe, that as with honeybees, excessive microwave smog interferes with their ability to use the earth’s magnetic fields to navigate.

A Public Health Problem of Mammoth Proportions

As Resonance – Beings of Frequency points out, there are currently four billion mobile phone users and five million cell phone masts globally. Because this technology is in wide use on all seven continents, there is really nowhere people can go to escape it. In Sweden, patients diagnosed with electrosensitivy syndrome can get government support in insulating their homes against EMR (with tinfoil no less). As yet they are the only country in the world to recognize the condition and subsidize its management.

The filmmakers acknowledge that the sheer magnitude of the problem, given numerous other sources of EMR pollution (such as high tension power lines), means there is no easy or immediate way to reduce or eliminate this major environmental carcinogen. Among other potential remedies, they make a strong case for establishing a truly independent international body to monitor microwave-related health risks, unlike the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection. At present the ICNIRP is totally dominated and controlled by the telecommunications industry. As they point out, a truly independent body would issue safe Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) levels appropriate for children, who generally begin using cell phones at age eight. ICNIRP was forced to adopt maximum SAR levels after the World Health Organization came out with research linking cell phones and brain tumors. Skull thickness is very important in establishing a safe SAR, as the skull protects the brain from microwaves produced by cell phones. Although children have much thinner skulls, for some bizarre reason has calculated SAR based on the average skull thickness of US military recruits.

The scientists in the film also urge telecommunication companies to be more forthcoming with their own research linking microwave exposure to cancer and other health problems. Although imminent reduction in the numbers of cell phones and cell phone masts is highly unlikely, there is a potential for slowing the growth of this technology. Moreover making the information publicly available allows individuals to make informed choices about limiting their exposure.

Washington's idyllic San Juan islands

While some anti-GMO legislation like Prop 37 was shot down via a deceptive “No” campaign that received massive corporate funding, San Juan County in Washington State thumbed their nose at Monsanto et al by passing Initiative Measure No. 2012-4. The initiative effectively bans the growing of all genetically modified organisms within the county.

If video won’t play go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amRrz2jog_U

Richard Heinberg of the Post Carbon Institute visited New Zealand, where he has a large following, at the beginning of October. Two hundred fifty people attended his presentation at the Tauranga (pop 121,500) Environment Centre on October 1^st.

The main focus of Heinberg’s talk was his recent book, The End of Growth. In it he challenges the mythology surrounding economic growth – specifically assertions that growth is a longstanding and essential cornerstone of human economic activity that needs to continue indefinitely into the future.

His talk starts with some really interesting graphs revealing that global GDP (gross domestic output) was virtually static prior to 1871, when the harnessing of fossil fuels made the industrial revolution possible. Even then, global GDP increased at a minuscule pace until 1980, when it suddenly rocketed upward. Heinberg shows other graphs linking this sudden uptick with a spike in both world population and energy consumption.

He goes on to praise the Club of Rome’s controversial 1972 Limits to Growth, which he describes as the best selling environmental book of all times. The book makes predictions, confirmed by more recent studies, that world industrial and economic output will begin to decline during the first half of the 21^st century. Heinberg himself sees major economic disruption occurring before the end of the decade for three main reasons: energy scarcity, debt and an epidemic of extreme weather events (like the Midwest drought and now Hurricane Sandy).

He follows a lucid and compelling explanation of why high oil prices always suppress economic activity with data linking the high price per barrel with stagnant production (since 2005) in the face of increasing global demand.

However his discussion of the origins of the debt crisis, which he separates into household and government debt, is the most interesting part of the talk. It’s Heinberg’s belief that consumer credit was almost as important as cheap fossil fuels in enabling the 20^th century economic boom.

I highly recommend that people watch the entire video. Heinberg has a gift for presenting complex technical concepts in ordinary language, and has some excellent suggestions for how communities can prepare for the bumpy economic road ahead. Be sure to watch the question period, where he describes humankind’s 24 civilizations. All but the current one have collapsed, owing to depletion of water and topsoil. He stresses that the current rapid depletion of these resources is far more ominous than fossil fuel depletion.

If you go to the Tauranga Environment Centre page, there’s a PDF of the slides he presented.

Charles Eisenstein

Someone recently sent me a thoughtful opinion piece by Charles Eisenstein (author of Sacred Economics – which I reviewed back in May) from the UK Guardian This is the first commentary I have seen in the mainstream questioning the myth that economic growth is going to solve the recession. Eisenstein calls on Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and other policy makers to abandon their fixation with growth and look at building a sustainable steady-state economy focusing on lower consumption, more leisure time and ecological health.

According to Eisenstein, both liberals arguing for more government spending and conservatives who argue for less are deluded by the same unproven assumption that the purpose of economic policy is to stimulate growth.

The Fallacies Surrounding Economic Growth

He reminds us what economic growth really means – more consumption of goods and services that are exchanged for money – and the flawed way (increases in GDP) economic growth is measured. This means the economy grows if people stop caring for their own children and pay for childcare or stop cooking for themselves and go to restaurants.

After pointing out that endless growth and endlessly increasing production and consumption are making people unhappier rather than happier – as well as the impossibility of infinite growth on a finite planet – he briefly explains why our current monetary system can only function in a growing economy. Because all money is created as interest-bearing debt (by bankers – not government), by necessity there is always more debt than money to pay it back.

The Need for Continuous Growth in Our Debt-Based Money System

In a growth economy, new money (and new debt) is continually lent into existence so that existing debt can be repaid. When growth slows, indebtedness rises faster than income, and companies lay off workers and/or go bankrupt. In past slow growth periods, government and central banks stimulated recovery by lowering interest rates. This started the cycle of lending and borrowing going again by making debts easier to repay. With existing interest rates close to zero, this type of intervention has ceased to be an option.

What Eisenstein calls for is a gradual transition to a steady-state, non-growth economy. He proposes a number of practical steps that could help bring this about. One is for the government to purchase student loan, mortgage and consumer debt to free up consumer purchasing power.

Read more here.

2011, Directed and produced by Dave Gardner

http://www.growthbusters.org/

Film Review

Growthbusters is the inspiring story of Dave Gardner’s efforts to challenge conservative Colorado Springs’ failed growth promotion policies. The film mainly focuses on the insanity of local councils cutting essential public services to “jump start” growth. However it also takes a broader theoretical look at the overall failure of economic growth to solve the global economic crisis.

While Gardner is clearly an environmental crusader concerned about the long term effects of unlimited growth on carbon emissions, resource scarcity and species extinction, he inserts a heavy dose of economic reality into the discussion. All of us who pay any attention to local government have heard the same insipid assertions about the urgent need to cut taxes and regulations to attract new industry and jobs, as well as the need to spend to spend billions of dollars on new infrastructure to accommodate the hoards of people planning to move to our area. The three billion dollar water project the Colorado Springs City Council recently approved to transport water 62 miles uphill is a case in point. Time after time, the companies jump ship and population predictions fall short, leaving existing residents with mountains of debt, higher taxes and reduced police and other services.

Even though the pattern occurs over and over again, no one ever challenges these unproven assertions – that growth equates with prosperity and that communities that don’t grow shrivel up and die. In fact as Gardner learned during his campaign for Colorado Springs City Council, people who oppose growth for growth’s sake are regarded as somewhat looney.

The reality, as Gardner and the experts he features in his film point out, is that people and institutions who promote growth most heavily are those who benefit from it – at the expense of everyone else. This includes real estate developers who derive profits from building more homes, office blocks and shopping center; the mining and fossil fuel companies that fuel this economic activity, as well as heating all the new homes and powering the new cars; and the banks who finance all this. In other words the super rich.

As our other national and local needs are sacrificed for these gung ho growth policies, this 1% gets richer. The other  99% get poorer, as they lose access to education, health care and other vital social services young people need to reach their full potential. Along with all this wealth comes power, as the 1% uses their vast propaganda network to put out messages to get people to consume more, to incur more debt and work longer hours to pay it off – and most importantly to have more babies.

The Population Bomb

In addition to tackling the pro-growth agenda head on, Gardner also makes the important link between exploding population growth and environmental degradation. Paul Ehrlich, who appears briefly in the film, warned in his 1970 book The Population Bomb that mankind was rapidly outstripping the Earth’s natural resources. Dennis Meadows, who directed the 1973 Club of Rome project resulting in the book Limits to Growth, also appears. Based on advanced computer modeling, this controversial report warned forty years ago that population growth and resource scarcity would cause the global economy to falter at the beginning of the 21^st century. This means, as Meadows reminds us, the 2008 global economic crisis was right on schedule.

As Gardner, Ehrlich, Meadows and other experts point out, humankind is living beyond our means, “liquidating” resources we should be should be saving for our children and grandchildren. If we were still growing all our food locally, as we were at the beginning of the 20^th century, it would be obvious there is no longer enough land in cultivation to feed 7 billion people. However because of globalization, most of the industrialized world has no idea where their food comes from. While the one billion people who die of starvation or gradual malnutrition are virtually invisible.

Family Planning: the Best Way to Reduce Carbon Emissions

Gardner doesn’t advocate for mandatory population control like they have in China. However he argues strongly for major environmental groups like the Sierra Club to use their public profile to begin educating governments and communities to start making informed decisions around family size. The other side – the bankers, mining and fossil fuel industry and real estate developers – clearly see the connection between a booming population and economic growth. This is why they constantly pump out messages pressuring women to have more kids.

The truth is that we can’t possibly change enough light bulbs or plant enough trees to compensate for all the babies born to our children and our children’s children. People can save more carbon emissions through responsible family planning than by giving up jet travel. Population control is a critical ecological issue. The “official” environmental movement is letting us all down by refusing to take it up.

New Paths Forward

Gardner himself does his part. When he’s not running for city council or making movies, he’s out in the street distributing free Endangered Species Condoms on the street. The condoms come in choice of packaging featuring endangered panthers, polar bears and cute critters.

He also encourages people to join the Transition movement to help in strengthening their communities, re-localizing economic life and rebuilding skills that don’t depend on corporations and fossil fuels.

Towards the end the film, there is a very inspiring interview with Australian electronics giant Dick Smith, in which he announces the $1 million Wilberforce* Award he has established for “the young person with the best ability to communicate an alternative to our population and consumption growth-obsessed economy.”

*William Wilberforce was an 18^th century British politician and leader of the movement that abolished the slave trade.

GMO Ticking Time Bomb is a fantastic fifteen minute video which helps explain why California polls show overwhelming support for Prop 37 on the November ballot. If passed by voters, the citizens initiative would require mandatory labeling for genetically modified foods.

The film starts by briefly explaining how genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are created. It goes on to talk about scandalous corporate interference that put a once and future Monsanto executive in charge of a 1992 FDA decision that GMO crops and foods are safe and don’t require testing for potential health hazards.

Filmmakers reveal a recent recommendation by the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (medical doctors who specialize in environmental medicine) that all doctors prescribe non-GMO foods for all their patients. This is based on a wealth of private – and government – studies showing that GMO foods interfere with reproductive and immune function; cause accelerating aging, GI distress and organ damage and interfere with cholesterol and insulin regulation.

The US is one of a handful of industrialized countries that don’t require labeling for GMO foods.

Monsanto’s main argument for opposing mandatory labeling: consumers are too dumb to know the difference.