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1884-2010

Addicted to risk

The addiction to risk of which Naomi Kline speaks is also linked to the clinging to the frontier economy mindset against all reason. Taking outrageous risks to make a mint when the world is full and the room for profit is shrinking inexorably is the mark of a madman.

Furthemore, Thor has never seen any geoengineering "solutions" that also deal with the acidification of the world's oceans. Guess food and oxygen and coral reefs and fish life is not so important...

Merchants of Doubt

Last year at about this time, Thor berated climate deniers as politically motivated charlatans who have taken a page from tobacco lobbyists´playbook to pollute the public discourse on global warming and ensure that no meaningful measures were taken to avoid disaster. Thor also blamed journalists for not having the knowledge required to withstand this cynical ploy. A somewhat heated debate ensued in Norwegian media.

Now, Naomi Oreske´s book "Merchants of Doubt" is out, and you can hear her lecture at University of New South Wales, explaining how a political campaign deliberately casting false doubts about the state of climate science managed to confuse an ignorant public and derail the historical opportunity to save the world: Merchants of Doubt

Naomi is Professor of the History of Science at UCSD.

Vanishing of the Bees

See it!

Vanishing of the Bees - Trailer from Bee The Change on Vimeo.

Debtris

Play it here: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/debtris/

Happy New Year, Planet Earth!
Points given for creative ideas on switching some of those expenses from the negative column to the positive column...

Slaying the Green Dragon...

Religion is an irrational passtime, so it should not surprise anyone that the religious wackos oppose science-based "environmentalism". But it is sad...
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/an-evangelical-backlash-against-environmentalism/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Actually, rather than "irrational" I should probably say "anti-rational"... Funny video though.

What chance for democracy to deal with global biodiversity meltdown or climate change?

From Harper's Index December 2010:
** Chances that an American believes that Jesus Christ will return to earth by 2050: 2 in 5
** Chance that a U.S. Protestant knows who Martin Luther was: 1 in 2
** Chance that an American believes Ramadan is the Jewish day of atonement: 1 in 10

From earlier Harper's Index:
** Percentage of Americans that cannot name a country that borders on the Pacific: 32

Never mind that 32 percent of Americans live in a state that borders on the Pacific... (Thor exaggerates sometimes)


Harper's Index December 2010

Let's build the New Economy

Joe Brewer at truthout: http://www.truth-out.org/lets-build-new-economy65322

Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE) has just issued a fresh report on developing a better economic blueprint, entitled Enough is Enough: Ideas for a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources. Click here to download a free copy of the report (130 pages), as well as a summary (10 pages). You will also find links to videos of keynote presentations from the conference.

In addition to reading the report, please share it with colleagues, friends and kindred spirits to start the much-needed and urgent discussion/debate about the transition to a steady state economy, and get a jump on the work ahead.

Thor has recently been appointed Country Director (Norway) for CASSE, so any of you Vikings out there, get in tough if you are interested in working for a steady state economy.

Subsidies suck

Daily Dose of Statistics: The 600 American rice farmers/firms, who received rice subsidies from the US government, received collectively 20 times the amount of money as that allocated for agricultural rehabilitation in Haiti after the earth quake. Subsidised American rice accounts for 95% of rice purchases in Haiti as the local farmers cannot compete with the subsidised imports. (BBC follow-up report on the situation in Haiti after the earth quake)

Your tax dollar at work. "Socialism" for the rich, capitalism for the poor. US loggers, ranchers, farmers and miners biggest welfare queens around.

If Facebook existed years ago..

Carbon fees: tax and dividend, not cap and trade

Read James E. Hansen's "Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity.

And check out http://www.carbonfees.org

Video:

One Day for Earth

Thor has taken the liberty of clipping from an e-mail from mere mortal Bill McKibben, since the events are so important to creation. Please attend or plan your own events for this "Earth Day":


Dear friends,

Wow. That was fast.

Apologies for sending multiple emails in one day, but I didn't want to keep the good news to myself.

About 15 minutes minutes ago, Biljana from Serbia registered an event for her local community in Belgrade. On 10/10/10, at 10:10 AM, they will take 2nd and 4th graders on an "eco field trip" to volunteer at an sustainable farm, participate in green workshops, and do a trash clean-up. Of course, they'll be finishing up their event by forming a big "350" for a group photo that they will send into 350.org after their event.

Biljana's event in Serbia was the 5249th event registered for 10/10/10, and it officially broke last year's record! To give you a sense of just how diverse this day promises to be, I've pasted a list of a few event highlights assembled by our grassroots media team just below this email.

The next 10 days will be a whirlwind of activity as friends from all over the world focus on making 10/10/10 as widespread, beautiful, and powerful as possible. If you don't yet know how you're plugging into 10/10/10, there's still lots of time to join or start an event in your community.

Me, I'll be giving everything I've got in this final push. I'm a bit tired, but am feeling completely recharged by today's milestone. It sure is nice to know that this movement is growing bigger all the time.

So many thanks,

Bill McKibben (@billmckibben on Twitter) for the 350.org Team

--
10/10/10 Event Highlights

Funniest: Sumo wrestlers cycling to practice in downtown Tokyo.

Most remote: An education center in the Namib Desert in Namibia installing six solar panels.

Smallest country taking part: Divers on the smallest island nation of the world, Nauru (8.1 square miles) will plunge into their coral reefs for an underwater clean-up. (Thor's comment: Nauro may be the smallest island nation, but Monaco and the Vatican State are smaller).

Most presidential: President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives is installing solar panels on his roof.

Most tipsy: Partiers in Edinburgh will be throwing a "Joycott" (a reverse boycott) at a local bar that agreed to put 20% of its extra revenues on 10/10/10 to making the bar more energy efficient. Attendees will try and drink as much as possible to raise money. Cheers!

Most poignant: In San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico, students will hand out solar-powered lights to families who are still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Alex this June, 2010.

Most cross-cultural: Over 100 cyclists from Jordan, Israel and Palestine taking part in a 3-day bicycle relay to carry water from the Yarmouk River and the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea to symbolize the need for cooperation to stop climate change and save precious water resources.

Most educational: 850 universities in China, India, and the United States are joining 10/10/10 as part of the Great Power Race campaign, a clean energy competition.

Most carbon cut: On 10/10/10 the Mayor of Mexico City will sign a commitment to reduce the city's emissions 10% in a single year. The city government will be directly responsible for 5% of the reductions and lead a public campaign to get citizens to cut the remaining 5%.

Most futuristic: Young people in Barbados will be demonstrating the viability of fuel cell technology in a hovercraft they have built themselves.

Most ?????: We want to know what's the most fascinating thing about your event. My more web-savvy colleagues tell me you can feature it as a comment on this popular Facebook post.

--

PS: Thanks to your help, there are only 14 countries currently missing from the wonderfully crowded map of 10/10/10 events!

Do you have any friends in: Cape Verde, Dominica, East Timor, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Micronesia, Monaco, Myanmar/Burma, Sao Tome and Principe, San Marino, or Suriname?

If you do know anyone in these countries, please try your best to recruit them to sign up an event at 350.org! There's a quick letter you can send at 350.org/missing.


You should join 350.org on Facebook by becoming a fan of our page at facebook.com/350org and follow us on twitter by visiting twitter.com/350

To join our list (maybe a friend forwarded you this e-mail) visit www.350.org/signup

350.org needs your help! To support our work, donate securely online at 350.org/donate


350.org is an international grassroots campaign that aims to mobilize a global climate movement united by a common call to action. By spreading an understanding of the science and a shared vision for a fair policy, we will ensure that the world creates bold and equitable solutions to the climate crisis. 350.org is an independent and not-for-profit project.

What is 350? 350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Scientists measure carbon dioxide in "parts per million" (ppm), so 350ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need a different kind of PPM-a "people powered movement" that is made of people like you in every corner of the planet.

Rocky Mountain High

VICTORY in federal court restores full protection under the Endangered Species Act to wolves in Montana and Idaho. A federal judge ruled Friday that that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acted illegally when it removed wolves from the endangered species list in Idaho and Montana but left them on the list in Wyoming, splitting the population along political, rather than biological, lines.



Conservation groups argued that the government’s determination that 300 wolves constitute a recovered wolf population in the northern Rockies ignored current science. Independent scientists have concluded that 2,000 to 5,000 wolves are necessary to secure the health of the species in the region.

Press Release from Center for Biological Diversity.

Meanwhile the barbarian Scandihooligans are slaughtering their miniscule wolf population at an unconscionable and unscientific rate. Sweden with approximately 200 wolves killed 27 in this years massacre, and the Norwegians have in recent years murdered a third of their part of the population (in 2001, out of 28), 25% in January 2005 (out of about 20 wolves), and have been picking them off one by one throughout this year... Despite the population suffering from severe inbreeding depression and founder effect... Ignorance springs eternal.

Project AWARE Foundation: Thank you for giving sharks a fighting chance

Project AWARE Foundation: Thank you for giving sharks a fighting chance

Steady-State Economics

Too lazy to read Herman Daly's "Steady-State Economics" (http://amzn.to/bZOd7z)?

Try this instead: "Nothing grows forever" (http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/05/peter-victor-deficit-growth?page=1#comment-756881).

Clearly, work is the root of all evil. This follows from the Second Law of Thermodynamics: increases entropy. Just look at the world: work leads to bad shit... Of course, in the logical extreme, when entropy has increased to the point where the world is all non-differentiated high-entropy heat, no work is possible and neither is evil.

Two things you can do to save the world: don't buy from the large corporations, and don't go to work for them.


"I shall argue that it is the capital stock from which we derive satisfaction, not from the additions to it (production) or the subtractions from it (consumption): that consumption, far from being a desideratum, is a deplorable property of the capital stock which necessitates the equally deplorable activity of production: and that the objective of economic policy should not be to maximize consumption or production, but rather to minimize it, i.e. to enable us to maintain our capital stock with as little consumption or production as possible."

--Kenneth Boulding, 1949