Reality check

Small-Scale Farmers and Development: Assume a Different Economic Model

One version of an old joke features a shipwrecked economist on a deserted island who, when asked by his fellow survivors what expertise he can offer on how they can be rescued, replies, "Assume we have a boat."
In Mexico earlier this month, I was thinking that the real-life version of the economist's solution is: "Assume we have employment." But it's no joke. A World Bank economist had just spoken during a seminar at Mexico's National Autonomous University on Mexican farm policies in the wake of NAFTA. Earlier, I had presented my recent paper, "Agricultural Dumping Under NAFTA," which came out in the new report "Subsidizing Inequality," released in Spanish by the Woodrow Wilson Center and its Mexican partners.
The World Bank economist on the afternoon panel delivered a barely modified version of the Bank's longstanding diagnostic on small-scale agriculture:
Small landholdings make inefficient use of land, he explained, and the food crops smallholders grow can be produced much more efficiently by industrialized farmers in Mexico and the United States. NAFTA gives Mexico tariff-free access to those goods, so Mexico's two million small-scale corn farmers should enjoy the cheaper tortillas and seek more productive activities, growing high-value crops or moving out of agriculture. Mexico's agricultural policies should be geared not toward increasing smallholder food productivity but toward providing the social safety net that can help them make that transition while improving infrastructure and public services in rural areas.
Moving out of agriculture? Into what? "Assume we have employment" can be the only answer. Because just as shipwrecked survivors can't sail home on an economist's theoretical boat, Mexico's small-scale farmers need real jobs, not assumed jobs, if they are to give up their lands and their homes.

Of course. Get them off the land, then take over all the farms and give it to a very large agri-business concern using GMO seeds, herbicides, pesticides but also using cash to line the pockets of politicos and World Bank execs.

Kale Pesto

Extra Kale?

Kale Pesto
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
4 cups Lacinato kale, stems removed, chopped coarsely
1 1/2 - 2 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
ground black pepper
1. Toast the chopped walnuts in a dry, heavy skillet over medium-high heat stirring constantly, until they start to brown and become fragrant. Keep an eye on the nuts - they burn quickly and will become bitter.
2. Bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Add 1 teaspoon of the salt, then add the kale. Cook, uncovered, until tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from the pot and drain.
3. In a blender or food processor, combine the garlic, walnuts, and drained kale and whiz until well mixed. Pour int he oil in a steady stream, and pulse until combined. Add 1/2 teaspoon of the slat, pulse, then taste. Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt if necessary.
4. Transfer the pesto to a medium-size bowl and stir in the cheese and pepper.

Replacing walnuts with pine nuts. Can't wait!

Wine in 2 days

Turning Welch's Into Wine In 48 Hours

But I had to test the claims of Spike Your Juice, a yeast-based kit that ferments any 100% fruit juice, so long as it has 20G of sugar or more per serving, into an alcoholic brew with anywhere from 4-14% ABV. That puts the resulting potency somewhere between beer and wine. With a healthy 30G of sugar per serving, Welch's is a prime candidate for home fermentation.
Just an hour ago, I decided to pour a bit on the rocks since it fermented at room temperature. I tentatively sipped, expecting something that I could barely swallow. Instead, I was brought back to my childhood. Grape freezepops, grape sodas, grape jelly...but with a kick at the end. I wouldn't call it a burn, but a microbrew-like presence of alcohol behind the flavor.
After 2 1/2 glasses, it makes for a quick, harsh buzz—akin to the helmet of weight you get around your brow from vodka. There's no way this is 4% ABV—I'd guess it's closer to 8 or 10%.

From Spike Your Juice:

...was developed by a group
of Europeans living in California.
Having grown up near wine producing regions, they particularly craved a seasonal drink called “Federweißer”. This drink is only available from early September to late October during harvest time.
The original Federweißer is known by many names, depending on what wine region of Germany, Austria or Italy you are in.
* no unfiltered juices
For best results use Grape, Cranberry, Pomegranate or any Blend thereof by
Welch’s or Ocean Spray
# Ingredients: Our proprietary yeast blend,
organic evaporated cane juice, emulsifier.
# No Artifical Flavors or Colors.

Potent wine in two days?   I think this is worth a try.

It's the money - stupid

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeBig Oil and Coal Spent $500 Million to Kill Climate Bill

The oil, gas, and coal industries have spent over $2 billion lobbying Congress since 1999. These three industries combined spent a whopping $543 million on lobbying in 2009 and the first two quarters of 2010 ...
The 20 biggest-spending oil, mining, and electric utility companies shelled out $242 million on lobbying from January 2009 to June 2010 [2]. Trade associations that generally oppose clean energy policies spent another $290 million during this time. This is over $1,800 in lobby expenditures a day for every single senator and representative.

Never realized it costs so much to keep that soot spewing. Wonder who ends up paying? That's right - we all do in so many different ways.

The New Paradigm

The Left Right Paradigm is Over: Its You vs. Corporations

Every generation or so, a major secular shift takes place that shakes up the existing paradigm. It happens in industry, finance, literature, sports, manufacturing, technology, entertainment, travel, communication, etc.
I would like to discuss the paradigm shift that is occurring in politics.
For a long time, American politics has been defined by a Left/Right dynamic. It was Liberals versus Conservatives on a variety of issues. Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice, Tax Cuts vs. More Spending, Pro-War vs Peaceniks, Environmental Protections vs. Economic Growth, Pro-Union vs. Union-Free, Gay Marriage vs. Family Values, School Choice vs. Public Schools, Regulation vs. Free Markets.
The new dynamic, however, has moved past the old Left Right paradigm. We now live in an era defined by increasing Corporate influence and authority over the individual. These two “interest groups” – I can barely suppress snorting derisively over that phrase – have been on a headlong collision course for decades, which came to a head with the financial collapse and bailouts. Where there is massive concentrations of wealth and influence, there will be abuse of power. The Individual has been supplanted in the political process nearly entirely by corporate money, legislative influence, campaign contributions, even free speech rights.

Truth! Corporations and fat wallets are impacting every single part of our life and just about every single morsel of food we put in our mouth.
Fight back - grow your own food, bake your own bread, brew your own beer, preserve your surplus produce...

More Money Tales

A Proposed Dirty Oil Pipeline Would Put Americans at Risk for Cancer and Asthma -- Why Are Senators Pushing For Its Hasty Approval?

The tar sands pits in Alberta, Canada that Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) and Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) visited last week are so bleak that one UN official, after seeing them for the first time, compared them to Mordor, the hellish wasteland from Lord of the Rings.
But Senator Graham, after meeting with oil industry representatives and tar sands proponents, hailed the toxic mines, the source of the world's dirtiest fuel, as "an industrial ballet," adding that the project "really blends with the natural habitat."

Such a bad thing?

We know the Keystone XL pipeline would put American health at risk. In addition to threatening drinking water, processing tar sands oil releases pollutants directly linked to asthma, emphysema and birth defects. Refining tar sands crude from the pipeline would create far more air pollution in American communities that are already burdened with cancer and poor air quality as a result of the oil industry.
We also know the pipeline would cross the most important source of agricultural water in the United States, the Ogallala aquifer.
And we know pipeline disasters happen.

So why are these politicos falling over themselves in praise? It's the money of course.

We know the oil industry's influence on our representatives in Washington is out of hand. And when companies like BP spend nearly as much money on public relations after a major environmental disaster like the oil spill in the Gulf as they do on clean up, it's clear that we've got our work cut out for us.

Forget Tea Parties. We need People parties!

Koch - a 4 letter word

Fiorina Is A Koch Head

There’s a name that’s becoming as ubiquitous in dirty oil politics as Coke cans are in greasy spoons. And it’s pronounced like the soft drink, but spelled Koch.
David and Charles Koch are the oil and gas tycoons sponsoring a fundraiser for US Senate candidate Carly Fiorina at the Republican Senatorial headquarters in Washington, DC on Thursday.
The oil bros influence over the development of the Tea Party and GOP politics for decades was exposed recently in The New Yorker. The Koch brothers’ story is a frightening tale about how a stealth power grab by right wingers can develop a populist face for a corporate establishment movement.
Is it any wonder that Fiorina, the California US Senate candidate challenging Barbara Boxer, endorsed Proposition 23, the repeal of the state’s landmark greenhouse gas emissions caps also financed by a cool million from the Koch brothers?
The Koch addiction is becoming a household brand in dirty politics in America. The family’s money is fueling the new threat of a return to Reagan-Bush deregulation at the heart of the Tea Party’s agenda.
It’s high time those with the Koch Addiction wore the brand on their forehead. This family’s got one thing in mind — turning the reins of government over to those who would turn back the clock on government regulation of polluters by decades.

Turn back the clock and destroy environmental regulation for the sake of their wallets. It is true - greed does kill!

It's mine. It's yours.

Join the revolution

Home Canners Wield Pickles Against Food Giants

Is food preservation a political act? Many of the people surveyed by two social scientists for their academic study “Saving Food: Food Preservation as Alternative Food Activism” think so, according to The Irresistible Fleet of Bicycles, the blog of the hard-hoeing young farmers known as the Greenhorns.
Our survey respondents reported behaviors that are consistent with the rhetoric of alternative food activism, indicating that they frequent farmers markets (80.5 percent), buy local food (79.9 percent), buy organic food (77.6 percent), and maintain their own vegetable gardens (72.7 percent). Respondents’ answers to an open-ended survey question, “describe how your views about food have influenced the way you spend money on food,” consistently demonstrated that our survey respondents believe that the way they spend their money is a political act. For instance, survey respondents offered the following: “As consumers we have a voice and our dollars speak volumes”; “The way I spend my money is the best representation of my morals in this society”; and “We vote with our dollars, so I am OK with spending more money on food that I know was produced within my community with love and sustainable methods.” …
Fewer survey respondents directly connected their views about food with behaviors considered more traditionally political, some arguing that they wanted government regulation out of food altogether … and some asserting that they did not see a connection between food and politics … . Other survey respondents saw a direct connection between food and environmental policy (e.g., “Food and the environment are inseparable, so I always vote for the candidate most likely to approve or make legislation to protect the environment”); between food safety and government regulation (“The federal government needs to provide adequate funding for regular and thorough inspections of food processing facilities in the USA and of imported food products to ensure public safety”); and between food and specific government policies (“I pay attention to the Farm Bill and to agricultural and food policy in general. I favor policy and candidates that support a diversified agriculture and more local and regional food systems”).

Raise your trowel. Pull the weeds. Blanch and freeze.

Green guide to lighting

Green Lighting (Tab Green Guru Guides)

This do-it-yourself guide makes it easy to upgrade residential and commercial lighting to reduce costs and environmental impact while maintaining or even improving the quality of the lighting. Filled with step-by-step instructions, Green Lighting shows you how to save money and energy with light-emitting diodes (LEDs), compact fluorescent lighting (CFL), solar lights, windows, skylights, fixtures, controls, and other bright ideas. Methods for calculating return on investment, plus recommended sources for energy-efficient products, are included in this practical resource. Green Lighting covers:

• Color temperature measurements
• In-depth details on the differences between LEDs and CFLs
• How utilities bill for electricity usage
• Comparing wattage and determining energy savings
• ENERGY STAR® ratings
• Purchasing appropriate bulbs, fixtures, and sensors
• Developing a comprehensive green lighting plan for your entire home, office, or commercial environment
• Incandescent, halogen, and gas-discharge lighting
• Solar and next-generation lighting

Choice of lighting in the home and office is a perfect and easy way to make an impact - both economically and environmentally.  A good guide and primer for everyone.

Acorn-mania

Big acorns crashing on your roof?  Sure crashing on mine.  A few sound like one of those cartoon anvils hitting above my head.
Should We Fear the Year of the Acorn? 

Acorns are piling up around the U.S., threatening to cover some cities in nuts. Not really, but there have been an "exceptionally large number of acorns" dropped by oak trees around the country this year, Chicago-area experts say.
This year has been one of the heaviest in memory for the nuts, also called "fruits" of oaks, says Kris Bachtell, a vice president with The Morton Arboretum in Illinois.
A heavy year like this, called a "mast year," is a natural, cyclical process that helps oak trees survive, and doesn't mean they're in bad shape, according to Dr. Gary Watson, the Arboretum's senior scientist and head of research.
Is the hot weather/changing climate to blame?
States were having the opposite problem in 2008 (see "The Mysterious Case of Disappearing Acorns").
Bachtell says warm, dry weather this April and May was "favorable for pollination." Data gathered at the Arboretum, a National Weather Service station, showed that April 2010 was, on average, 10 degrees warmer than April 2009. May was 3 degrees warmer, on average. Frequent summer rainfall was another factor.
What to do with a pile of acorns? Thumb through a recipe book? Bachtell says you can just leave them for the animals, or sweep them up.

Someone stake me?

Please join us for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Try your luck with two American originals and a host of their celebrity friends. Space is limited to 200 players and 50 spectators in this no-limit Texas Hold ’Em tournament with proceeds to benefit the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance.
In the United States, we consume over 868 million gallons of petroleum EVERY DAY. Community-based, sustainable biodiesel is one solution to reducing this staggering statistic. The Sustainable Biodiesel Allianceis a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public on the value of community-based biodiesel and quantifying the attributes of environmental and social sustainability.

At Hustler Casino in LA.

Where do the children play?

Still love this song!

Tilapia for dinner

From Little Homestead in the City:
BACKYARD FISH FARMING

I’ve written a few times about Justin’s new “pet” project – fish. Aquaponics is the latest happening here on the urban homestead. Tilapia make a great addition to homesteads because they can be raised in a small area and are extremely hardy.
The other day he got himself a glass fish tank and moved the fish from the galvanized watering trough to their new larger digs. I’m wrangling to make an outdoor bathtub with the galvanized tub Justin still wants to add more fish but that’s another story!
As I was passing the tank, walking from the animal compound to the back porch, I had to stop. Oh my, I can actually now see the fish! Curious, I went over, bent down to see 24 fish staring at me. “Oh dear,” I thought to myself, “we can actually see the fish now!” I stood there mesmerized, watching them with their glinty gold eyes and shimmering bodies and soft fins float softly back in forth in the water like a clock chime counting time. Oh my, now I can actually see er, um dinner, staring at me; and with that thought, I promptly stepped away from the tank before I started to name them.
Our fish are smaller tilapia because we allow female fish in the population. Commercial tilapia farmers raise only males, which grow faster without females around. Naturally raised, non hybrid tilapia take about a year or more, so we have about 6 more months to go.

Green with envy! Still thinking about this project. Anyone have tilapia for sale and bathtubs for free?

If it smells like a duck...

High Fructose Corn Syrup to be Rebranded as "Corn Sugar"

Would a Heavily Subsidized, Unhealthy Substance by Any Other Name..?
As the mounting pile of evidence that high fructose corn syrup is unhealthier than ordinary table sugar continues to grow, industry executives have buckled down and decided it's time for action. Honoring a longstanding American tradition, HFCS industry representatives have responded to that sprawling body of scientific research by doing what they do best -- launching a re-branding campaign. "High fructose corn syrup" may have (rightfully) acquired something of a stigma. But perhaps the public will forget all about the health ills associated with the stuff when it's called by its benign new name: "Corn Sugar".

A new name but it still is not for me. Why?
Well let's start with...Mercury

A pilot study reported that some high-fructose corn syrup manufactured in the U.S. in 2005 contained trace amounts of mercury. The mercury appeared to come from sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid, two chemicals used in the manufacture of high-fructose corn syrup.

The there's...

the high level of processing and the use of at least one genetically modified (GMO) enzyme required to produce it

And...

"High-fructose corn syrup starts out as cornstarch, which is chemically or enzymatically degraded to glucose and some short polymers of glucose. Another enzyme is then used to convert varying fractions of glucose into fructose...High-fructose corn syrup just doesn't exist in nature."

Doesn't sound too appetizing. Corn - at one time. Sugar -okay. Good for you - yeah right!

WTF?

County Sues Farmer, Cites Too Many Crops

DeKalb County is suing a local farmer for growing too many vegetables, but he said he will fight the charges in the ongoing battle neighbors call “Cabbagegate.”
Fig trees, broccoli and cabbages are among the many greens that line the soil on Steve Miller’s more than two acres in Clarkston, who said he has spent fifteen years growing crops to give away and sell at local farmers markets.
“It’s a way of life, like it’s something in my blood,” said Miller.
In January, Dekalb County code enforcement officers began ticketing him for growing too many crops for the zoning and having unpermitted employees on site.

Georgia, what are you guys drinking down there? Too many vegetables?

Peak oil...

Not just for conspiracy theorists anymore

I understand why people don't listen to wild-eyed conspiracy theorists about the coming calamity of peak oil. Instead, they go to recognized experts like Daniel Yergin (author of The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power), who tells them that everything is OK and the black gold will keep pumping for many decades to come.
But it ain't necessarily so. And would you believe Lloyd's of London? Lloyd's has joined with the well-respected Royal Institute of International Affairs, also known as Chatham House, to say that Britain (and presumably the rest of the world) needs to be ready for peak oil and erratic energy supplies.
"Companies which are able to take advantage of this new energy reality will increase both their resilience and their competitiveness," according to the report, Sustainable Energy Security: Strategic Risks and Opportunities for Business. The report, says Lloyd's chief executive officer, Dr. Richard Ward, "should cause all risk managers to pause." I guess so!

Peak oil - the reality - is finally being recognized as a major issue. Corporations and governments should prepare - and so should we!

Polar Bears and Leaf

Nissan Leaf's Strangely Moving Polar Bear Ad 

Nissan's new ad for the Leaf, its much-anticipated entrance into the electric car field, somehow combines melting ice caps, an electric car, a polar bear and a strangely moving man-and-animal embrace.
The ad has already earned some raves from eco-minded bloggers. Good says the ad's "irreverence is perfectly tuned." Ecorazzi notes that it ends in an "Awww."
BrandChannel notes that the ad was launched on Thursday's National Football League opener, and says the ad takes a tiny bit of political license:

It's interesting, too, that for the ad, Nissan positioned Leaf in a driveway, untethered - not in a garage where it's actually likely to be found each morning, connected by a cord to an electrical outlet, when an owner leaves the house to get into the vehicle for the commute.

Now if that bear will drive away after hugging the dude - that would be a great commercial!

Look who's teaching our children

BP Helped Write Environmental Curriculum for California's Public Schools

BP, the energy giant responsible for the largest offshore oil spill in history, helped develop the state's framework for teaching more than 6 million students about the environment.
Despite a mixed environmental record even before the Gulf of Mexico disaster, state officials included BP on the technical team for its soon-to-be-completed environmental education curriculum, which will be used in kindergarten through 12th-grade classes in more than 1,000 school districts statewide.

I could see it now:

1. Don't worry - there is an endless supply of fossil fuel
2. There is no such thing as global warming
3. Plastics are good
4. Chemicals are good
5. ...

What We Worry?

Image by Thomas Hawk via FlickrThe German Military is Freaked Out by Prospect of Peak Oil

A leaked study by the German military reveals that the Bundeswehr is taking the possibility of peak oil (the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, leading to a gradual decline) very seriously. The authors of the study, led by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Will, forecast a "shifts in the global balance of power, of the formation of new relationships based on interdependency, of a decline in importance of the western industrial nations, of the 'total collapse of the markets' and of serious political and economic crises."

Hope other nations follow suit and start worrying.

Formaldehyde in the morning

Koch Industries Backs Formaldehyde Council, Fighting Regulation of Carcinogen

Our research has uncovered very strong ties between Georgia-Pacific, a company co-owned by David Koch through Koch Industries, and a political lobby group called the Formaldehyde Council that is involved in efforts to downplay the dangers posed by formaldehyde to human health.
Formaldehyde is classified as a "Group 1 Carcinogen" which is defined as an agent that "is definitely carcinogenic to humans" by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and "a complete carcinogen" in the words of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The National Toxicology Program also recently revised its characterization of formaldehyde to that of "known human carcinogen."

Poor Koch back in the news.

This  reminds me of:

Smell that - smells like death!

Paper and gardens

Fending Off the Weeds With Newsprint

I also picked up some cottonseed meal, a good fertilizer if you’re starting a new garden the no-till way — which basically means using newspapers to smother the grass and weeds without resorting to herbicides, and then adding a few inches of compost and planting right through it.
The advantages of not tilling are many. Weed seeds are not brought to the surface of the soil, where they readily sprout and grow. You don’t churn up earthworms and countless other organisms that will aerate and enrich the soil just fine, thank you, if you feed them compost and leave them alone. And since gas-powered tillers not only pour hydrocarbons into the air, but also release CO2 when they churn up the soil, leaving them in the garage is a good way to cut down on your carbon footprint.

Newspapers and cardboard were used to start new garden plots last year - with great success. Used for my new berry patch and even for my potato patch.
The only problem is that we canceled our newspaper subscription. May have to visit my neighbor's recycle bin for a few weeks.

A solar White House?

A Symbolic Solar Road Trip To Reignite a U.S. Climate Movement

An activist caravan to bring one of Jimmy Carter’s solar panels back to the White House symbolizes not only the time the U.S. has lost in developing new energy technologies – but also the urgent need for taking action on climate.
The story is painful even to consider. This panel went up on the White House roof in 1979, with then-president Jimmy Carter (in a wide tie, and with a bushy haircut) promising that it would still be there in the year 2000, producing hot water from the sun for whoever was then president. In fact, it didn’t make it through the next decade—it came down in the Reagan years, a symbol of our decision to turn away from the idea of limits and veer sharply down the path we’ve trod ever since.

Taken down by Ronnie and not put up since. A disgrace!

Marketing mistake?

What is EVIAN Spelled Backward?

Americans spend more on gourmet water per year than we do on our water systems. The amount of fossil fuel we use to make the plastic bottles in a single year could power a million cars. And here's the craziest thing about bottled water: 25% to 40% comes from a public tap.

The title got me. Was the name a marketing mistake? Or was it a message?
Reminds me of all those messages in songs played backwards - "I buried Paul."

Vinegar's Fact & Fiction

Theory 4: Killing Weeds

Killing weeds comes up as another use of vinegar, so i decided to try it on some undesirables in my back yard.
RESULT: Adding a strong acid to a plant should kill it, but i won't know for a few days if it worked as well as i hoped.

Trust me, it works. Perfect to get rid of those pesky plants sprouting in the cracks of my driveway.

Following the money

Need a perfect example of who is behind the "nothing is wrong with our environment?"
Koch brothers jump into Prop 23 fight

A company controlled by the billionaire Koch brothers, who have bankrolled numerous right-wing causes, has donated $1 million to the campaign to pass Proposition 23, the California ballot initiative that would suspend the state's global-warming law.
The contribution was made Thursday and came from Flint Hills Resources, a Kansas petrochemical company that is a subsidiary of Koch Industries. The Koch brothers were the subject of a recent profile in The New Yorker.
The Koch donation came a day after Tesoro, a Texas oil company that has been bankrolling the pro-Prop 23 campaign, put $1 million into the campaign coffers.
According to the No campaign, 97 percent of the $8.2 million raised by the Yes forces has been given by oil-related interests and 89 percent of that money has come from out of state. Three companies, Koch Industries, Tesoro, and Valero -- another Texas-based oil company -- have provided 80 percent of those funds.
"There are three companies from out of state that have a very specific economic interest in rolling back our clean energy economy and jobs," Thomas Steyer, a San Francisco hedge-fund manger who is co-chair of the No on 23 campaign, said during a conference call Friday.

Why? They would have to change their practices and products - taking some of their profit away. Money is much more important than healthy lives and a healthy future.

Findhorn Magic

A Green Mobile Home In A Spiritual Trailer Park

While following the development of small green prefabs, It has become increasingly clear that you cannot separate the home from the context, and that what we really need is a sort of green trailer park, where people can own their unit but share common resources. It turns out that it exists, and has since 1962; Dr. Graham Meltzer just built his own home, the ecomobile, in the Park at Findhorn, a "growing eco-village and spiritual community." in North Scotland. Existing caravans (British for trailer) are being replaced with everything from yurts to eco-mobile homes.

Always wanted to visit this community after reading...

So many years after reading the book, the urge is even stronger now.

Kudos Banksy

Banksy Turns Kiddie Ride Into Anti-BP Statement
Love it!

Solution? Bikes and feet

David Suzuki: Our Obsession With Private Automobiles is Unsustainable

Technological developments [such as electric cars etc.] are welcome, but maybe it's time we started rethinking our car culture as whole. The average car in North America carries 1.5 people, which means that most cars on the road only have a driver in them. Is it really efficient to use more than 1,000 kilograms of metal to transport 100 kilograms of human?

The Die Off

The Compass Points | COLLAPSENET

NORTH – A NEW, SUSTAINABLE HUMAN PARADIGM MUST BE ROOTED IN LOCAL, CHEMICAL-FREE FOOD PRODUCTION, EXTENDED FAMILY AND COMMUNITY

The two primary and most visible points of contact between humans and the earth are where one sleeps and where one’s food originates. Our future relations with each other and the planet will be governed by distance and a return to ways of life that allowed our species to survive in a pre-industrial world, and preserving and adapting technology to a new set of priorities. Local food production will become the foundation of human experience, art and culture.

Chemical-free agriculture and Permaculture are the most effective, direct and unfiltered forms of exchange with the planet. They will enable the largest numbers of people to survive the transition between old and new paradigms. Since everything that we eat and wear was once alive and since all life originates from the earth, it follows that our relationship with our ecosystem is of primary importance.

There will be bigger risks, pain, suffering and loss throughout the transition. Yet there will also be a rediscovery of infinitely greater possibilities for joy and the fullest-possible expression of the human soul.
SOUTH – UNTIL THE WAY MONEY WORKS CHANGES, OUR SPECIES IS TRAPPED IN AN INFINITE-GROWTH PARADIGM WHICH THREATENS ALL LIFE

There is a 96% correlation between GDP growth and greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. – The current economic paradigm centered around the “personhood” of corporations and founded upon fractional reserve banking, compound interest and fiat currency is, by definition, a pyramid scheme and unsustainable. – It is more profitable to destroy life under this paradigm than it is to save it.

This dying monetary paradigm is for now the dominant factor governing relationships with the planet. There are but two options for those wishing to survive: Change that paradigm or disengage from it to the maximum extent possible and allow the old paradigm to wither and pass. It is not possible to change the monetary paradigm. Therefore, disengagement is essential as the old paradigm collapses. Disengagement to whatever degree possible will become a matter of life and death, and perhaps the survival of our species.

Money will be completely redefined. Establishment of local and regional currencies or mediums of exchange outside the control or influence of the current paradigm is an essential step in disengagement.
EAST – INFINITE GROWTH ON A FINITE PLANET IS NOT POSSIBLE

Everything humans eat, breathe, drink, wear and consume is taken from the earth. There is an inherently sustainable balance point for human population – influenced by its lifestyle – and the earth.

Cheap and easy-to-obtain fossil-fuel energies (coal, oil and natural gas) are depleting rapidly. Energy that has allowed for the extraction, manufacture and transportation of everything consumed by humans is disappearing. Oil and natural gas are not just energy sources. All plastics, fertilizers, pesticides and most pharmaceuticals, lotions, paints, resins, cosmetics and many other products depend on chemical input from oil and natural gas. These chemical inputs cannot be replaced by alternative energies. – There are ten calories of fossil-fuel energy in every calorie of food consumed in the industrialized world. Food production, with fossil-fuel input, has enabled the earth’s population to grow by more than five billion people in the last 150 years. If the fossil fuels go away, the food goes away, leaving depleted, chemically-dependent topsoil behind. – All other life-essential resources, especially fresh water, are under severe stress.

It is not possible to change the energy infrastructure to an unknown combination of alternatives because we have waited too long and there is no combination of alternative energies capable of supporting the edifice built by fossil fuels.

Population and ecological balance will be restored whether humans participate or not. Active, conscious participation can mitigate consequences. Destroying the ecosystem we live in and failing to adjust and reprioritize our use of resources is, therefore, suicidal behavior. Change must happen from the bottom up and individually from the inside out before it can happen from community and cultural levels with increased effectiveness.
WEST – HUMAN POPULATION WILL INEVITABLY REDUCE BY BILLIONS OF PEOPLE AMIDST GREAT SUFFERING AS THE SUN SETS ON INDUSTRIAL CIVILIZATION

The Die Off, as it is called, is an integral part of the irreversible collapse of human industrial civilization. It cannot be avoided. It can only be mitigated. It may be that from this Die Off and transition, a new consciousness will arise among humans or in fact, a new kind of human species: Post-Petroleum Man.

Great piece billed as core beliefs. This should be the core beliefs of everyone!

Am I ready for the Die Off? Will i survive? Trying to prepare - time will tell.