the unraveling

Go Veg!

I’ve been a Vegetarian for almost 2 years now… I eat great and feel great. There are a number of reasons I made this decision (mostly I believe it is one of the great ethical arguments of our age), but certainly the impact of livestock animals (and specifically the impact of factory farming) on the environment is a good reason to “lose the meat”. I encourage everyone to give it a try… even if you aren’t ready to drop it altogether, cutting back helps too… (and it’s good for your health!)

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/go-veggie-to-fight-global-warming-says-expert-1810134.html

And…. we’re back

I don’t know if Obama’s numerous cabinet appointees are making anyone else nervous but so far the lustre of “change” is starting to look a little less shiny than it did on November 5th. I’m willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt - after all he is extremely intelligent, more than qualified, and he hasn’t even taken office yet, but let’s just say I don’t plan on being a cheerleader without cause. So where to begin? There are so many interlocking issues that need addressing. While the term “holistic” tends to conjure images of trendy new age quackery, the idea of a whole approach to our situation seems to be a good one. The economy, the environment, energy, and healthcare are major issues that are all connected, and approaching these problems from a “quality and sustainability of life” perspective would be bold.  I’ve been picking up bits of ideas from various sources on the web and what I find is that no one is really connecting all of the dots here (except for Jim Kunstler, and his prognostications are grim indeed).

So what do we do? Here are a few articles I’ve read recently that may help point the way…

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/557976http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=588

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/22/climate-change-renewable-energy

http://thebreakthrough.org/blog/2008/12/will_energy_efficiency_stimulu.shtml 

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/26-3

The long view…

George Monbiot is usually right on… and this is no exception. I’ve always wondered if this development of institutional short term thinking in the populace, while nurtured by corporate powers intent on increasing profit with little regard for the future impact, grew teeth during the cold war era, as a result if the always impending doom of nuclear holocaust. When one expects annihilation at any moment the future is a distant unlikely place. Combined with the decreasing attention spans afforded by TV, the rapid technological change which seems to render visions of future life incomprehensible in a few short years,  and you have a population incapable of long term planning. Good article… it would make a great late night debate… 

a good idea

Wow… a well-reasoned, detailed plan for how we might (just maybe), if we work together, save the world from (and for) ourselves. These are not new ideas necessarily but the time is right. I just hope someone is paying attention. A Green New Deal

350

Is it just me or does it seem that we’re just sleep-walking towards a catastrophe? On one hand there is the major corporate push to own the word “green”… on the other, very little serious change is being proposed. What will it take? The ice sheets in Antarctica are thinning, Siberia is thawing, and all signs point to positive global warming feedback… Call me a pessimist but I just don’t see anything changing. The american public won’t change until we’ve had 2, maybe 3 disasters that strike close to home (I though Katrina would be a wake up call). And by then, who knows… will we be too late?

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/11/8875/

The Shock Doctrine

This is an important book and worth a read… 

I can’t help but see parallels in everything… the bailout of huge Fortune 500 banks while people are getting thrown out of their homes. The world food crisis resulting from the hedged bets of commodities traders and the snake oil biofuel industry…

Believe me, the coming US depression has the vultures drooling.

 The Shock Doctrine @ http://www.naomiklein.org/ 

melting

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/26/6643/ 

beyond the point of no return

great article… it seems to summarize my mood right at the moment…

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/12/10/165845/92

thirsty?

A few years ago I read an article about the privatization of water utilities that used Atlanta as one of the foremost examples of privatization gone wrong. I thought it was interesting and have been wondering if it is an unmentioned component of the current crisis in that area. Could better planning by officials in charge of the city’s water have mitigated some of the effects of the recent drought?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/water/atlanta.html

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3730145&page=1

Water resources are in danger. Drought, pollution… these are a few of the gifts of Industrial short-sightedness. We are sleepwalking towards a violent upheaval and we can’t seem to wake up.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3160632.ece

red sun rising

no, not San Diego… this is the brave new world at the eastern edge of your map.

The massive engine of industrial production that is birthing the world’s fastest growing economy is a dirty machine.

It would be easy to pen a tirade about the evils of capitalism and to write China off as another casualty of Western Market Imperialism, but to be honest I didn’t see it like that at all. They have discovered a way to turn the American Dream inside out… a loophole that allows them to sell you everything you think you need, in turn creating the wealth they need to turn their historically impoverished millions into a 21st century superpower. Whether they succeed or not remains to be seen - the sheer number of people makes environmental collapse a real possibility, and one thing I did not find in the Chinese was any awareness of the environment. However you could go back 30 years and you’d find the same thing in America.

The world is an interesting place… where do we go from here?