Good versus Greed

From Carl Safina's essay, The Moral Climate:

Nearly every just cause is a struggle between the good of the many and the greed of a few. But because greed has the advertising dollars to make selfishness fashionable, it sustains itself by turning enough people against our own self-interest.

Or against a movement there for 99% of us.

Say Amen Reverend

Gotta love Reverend Billy and his Church of Not Shopping.

Occupy Wall Street and the Environment

Mark Ruffalo (yeah the actor) says it best:
We Are the 99 Per Cent

Family farms must be saved. The oil and gas industry must be divested of its political power and cheap, reliable alternative energy must be made available.

If just for these reasons (but so many more), please support Occupy wall Street.

Koch Bros Breaking the Law

Okay NYPD.  Instead of leading us up the Brooklyn Bridge and then arresting 700 plus, why not go after the real issues:
Koch Brothers’ Iran Ties

First, a Bloomberg report on Koch Industries. That company is run by Charles and David Koch, two longtime Republican donors who have helped fund and shape the Tea Party. They’re also shameful capitalists, more interested in the bottom line than the American people, American lives or American laws.
In addition to revealing that officials at Koch Industries’ French subsidiary offered bribes to secure business deals, the report shows that the States-based company paid over $400 million in fines from 1999 to 2003 for environmental and price-fixing, including $296 million for negligence on a Texas pipeline that exploded and killed two teenagers. The most politically revealing detail of the analysis, however, comes in the form of Koch Industries’ dealings with one of our nation’s — and the Republican Party’s — greatest enemies: Iran.
A Bloomberg Markets investigation has found that Koch Industries — in addition to being involved in improper payments to win business in Africa, India and the Middle East — has sold millions of dollars of petrochemical equipment to Iran, a country the U.S. identifies as a sponsor of global terrorism.

700 non-violent protesters arrested (after entrapment) and the corporate criminals are never even questioned.

On the bridge with #OccupyWallSt

It started out so well. Liberty Square was vibrant. It felt alive. All ages, all races, all sizes together. We started marching to Brooklyn Bridge. It was a great feeling of being one - cohesive - united. Even those tourists on the double decker buses were flashing signs of support. But then came the bridge...

There are two paths to go on the bridge - one pedestrian way and then one way for vehicles. The vehicle path in front was blocked off - I assumed for construction. There was a large crowd in front of the police phalanx. So I took the pedestrian path. After a few feet a large roar came up from behind. We looked down the car lane and here were the marchers coming up being led by a row of cops. They let us on the car lanes?
People starting jumping over the railing to join the "car path" walkers. There was a feeling that the cops were going to lead us and manage the traffic for our safety. I jumped over - helped to make sure I got over safely. Again, the unity in the air made us all help each other. I can still see the guy who I helped over - holding his sign and backpack.
Marching along, feeling great and Brooklyn in sight. But all of a sudden I saw a few heading back to Manhattan. Then we all came to a dead stop right in the middle of the bridge. Someone next to me climbed on the rail and said that our progress was being stopped by that (I assume) same phalanx of cops who led us up the bridge. Folks on the pedestrian walk were telling us that they were not letting anyone past them. I saw a few young girls calling out to their mother. I saw a few folks telling us to turn around and head back to Manhattan. I saw many just sit down. And I saw a few brave ones climb the girders to get on to the pedestrian walk.
Well that climb was not looking to safe so I looked down to Manhattan and there were the cops with orange fencing behind us and some folks being arrested. So what to do but just take a deep breathe and think about what to do if I was arrested. I then realized that I knew not a soul around me. I never heeded the suggested at Liberty Square to find a buddy. But I kept looking around trying to remember everyone's face. But then a few folks were saying that the cops were letting us go in single file past the orange fences. Relief! I ended up going through and started walking to Manhattan. Okay it was going to end peacefully save for those few arrests I saw. But then I looked back and saw more orange fences and cops starting to walk towards Brooklyn. I also saw that there were very few behind me. Was I somehow one of the last few to be "let go?"
I ended up climbing back over the railing and walking to see the arrests. But we were told to just keep walking - can't have any witnesses to travesties of justice.
I waited at the bottom of the bridge.

Watching the buses and vans waiting to be filled with peaceful folks arrested after a huge setup. I waited there hoping to see the faces of those young girls, or that young man I helped over the railing. Were they arrested? I do not know.
One thing I do know, the cops knew what they were doing. They led us on the car path and then simply turned around and waited for their backup and then penned us in. It was an honor to march for democracy. but it is disgusting to think that the cops setup up - is that a free society?
Shame! But it will bite you in the ass. Mistreatment and entrapment will only increase the voices of the 99%.

The Beatle Gardener

Looking forward to Scorsese's new film about George. Loved the article in Newsweek:

Equal to his passion for music, and his diverse and close friendships was George’s overwhelming desire to get back to earth—literally so, to dig, to plant trees, to surround himself with flowers that he himself had grown.

A gardener is inevitably someone with humility, who sees that these trees will eventually outlive him; the gardener is generous, optimistic, nurturing, taking pleasure in the planting but also making something beautiful for others. In George’s case, the gardens he made gave him the sense that he was living in isolation, on an island of his own making. “It’s great when I’m in my garden,” he is quoted as saying in the book of the film, a family album of extraordinary intimacy, edited by Olivia, “but the minute I go out the gate I think, what the hell am I doing here?”

Of George’s passion for gardening, well documented in Scorsese’s film, Olivia has said that his interest began with his father in his vegetable lot in Liverpool. But he went so much further. The most obvious characteristic of the houses that he built, or bought and fixed up in the course of his life, are the gardens he planned and planted.

“It’s fascinating to me that it manifested itself as hope, and nurturing,” Scorsese said. “Whatever problems he had, he was still out there, doing the gardening himself. Maybe it’s meditation. It helped to cut away the madness of the world around him. It fascinates me to think that he creates music like this and … he gardens! And he does everything in between. It gives him a different way of looking at life. The reality of it is that it’s a way of finding some peace with yourself.”

Another reason to protest

Why the Food Market Will Be the Next Bubble to Burst

Residential real estate may be slumping, but ag land is booming. In Iowa, farmland prices have never been higher, having increased a whopping 34 percent in the past year, according to The Des Moines Register. The boom is driven in part by agribusiness expansion, but also by a new player in the agriculture game: private investment firms. Both are bidding up land values for the same reason: the price of food.
They're betting on hunger, and their reasoning, unfortunately, is sound. This is bad news for would-be small farmers who can't afford land, and much worse news for the world's hungriest people, who already spend 80 percent of their income on food.
Agricultural commodities markets were created so that traders of food could hedge their positions against big swings in prices. If you're sitting on a warehouse full of corn, it's worth making a significant bet that the price will go down, just in case it does, and makes your corn worthless. That way at least you make money on the bet. Derivatives can add leverage to your bet, so you don't need to bet the entire value of your corn in order to protect it.
Derivatives, it turns out, are also really cool if you want to make a ton of money by betting just a little. And if you can bet a lot, even better, as long as you keep winning. The golden years of commodities trading lasted from 2002 to 2008, when prices moved steadily, but not manically, upward. Then they crashed. And then they rose even higher than before. This is the kind of volatility, except worse, that commodities trading was created to prevent.

Money over lives - the mantra of the past few decades!

Scum!!!!

Alternative Heat from Pond Scum

This year our pond has produced an overabundance of algae, and instead of simply trying to do something about the pond scum, I'm trying to figure out how to do something with the pond scum. In addition to using it in the compost bin, I'm making bricks for our wood stove. To do this, I made a brick mold and filled it with muck that I scooped up out of the pond, slopped it into the wooden mold, then let the algae dry into lightweight bricks. Watch the video of "the burning of the algae." Not the most flammable substance, but I think I'm on the right track. I'm hoping someone here knows how I can tweak the recipe for these alternative heating bricks so all this pond scum doesn't go to waste. Thanks

Love this idea.  Now if my pond would only have an overabundance of algae.  On second thought - I'll just keep burning wood.  Too much work to pull out the algae from the pond.

Malinowy Sok

At least that is how my father (who was polish) wrote it on his bottles.  It was simply a red raspberry juice with a flavor  like Chambord.  The recipe is simple and I have been making (and enjoying) for years.  It simply is berries topped with white sugar.  Those berries will release their juice and start bubbling away.  I assume it is some wild yeasts entering into the mix.  Then simply strain and squeeze out the great juice - bottle and then enjoy after a few weeks (even better a few years later).

So this year it is a new adventure.  Using the same process I am using some wild grapes (too sour to eat) and some crabapples picked off my tree.  The birds and deer are clearly upset but...  Have to see how these turn out.

After making and surviving the experiments in malinowy sok, dandelion wine, ginger beer and even some "jailhouse wine" concoction I figure what is the worst that can happen to me.  

Well if my posts stop in a few weeks - I guess the worst will have happened.  But if  it works - juice "wine" all winter long!

Passing of a Green Hero

A Passing: Wangari Maathai

Maathai is best known for creating the Green Belt Movement, which has planted tens of millions of trees around Kenya, but she also personified a positive strain of environmentalism that stands out in a world where “woe is me” messages dominate.
Maathai’s genius is in recognizing the interrelation of local and global problems, and the fact that they can only be addressed when citizens find the voice and courage to act. Maathai saw in the Green Belt Movement both a good in itself, and a way in which women could discover they were not powerless in the face of autocratic husbands, village chiefs and a ruthless president. Through creating their own tree nurseries – at least 6,000 throughout Kenya – and planting trees, women began to control the supply of their own firewood, an enormous power shift that also freed up time for other pursuits.

Let's find our voices and courage to act to honor her.

The Pirate Party

Are the Pirates Walking Green Planks?

As the rest of the world was celebrating talk like a pirate day, the Pirate Party won its first seats in the Berlin state elections. In Germany, any party winning more than 5% of the votes is entitled to a share in government. With 8.9%, the Pirate party lands 15 seats in the state government, among them 19 year old Susanne Graf (pictured above), who will be the youngest representative when session opens in October. Is this the beginning of a new kind of politics? And will it be green?
First and foremost, the Pirate Party campaign program (pdf, German) promises transparency and to give citizens more voice in government. As a young, technologically oriented party, this could auger a change (which some believe is inevitable) in the way we govern ourselves, a move away from representative government to net-based referendums. While not itself green, many believe this strategy could help take big money out of government, bringing balance back to the human aspect of decision making.
Although the word "pirate" has come to be associated with, well let us just say, the uncompensated use of certain digital properties, the official program of the Pirate Party focuses on equal access to information that is in the public domain, and equal opportunity use of internet technology as well as improved educational opportunity for the youth. The greenest angle on this approach to equal access in public domains is the call to keep natural areas available for everyone, such as maintaining open access to river banks.
The Pirate program offers much more than "open access." It turns the clock back on post-9/11 state controls, fighting against surveillance of citizens and demanding improvements in accountability for police forces. The platform contains planks designed to open borders, fighting on several fronts against anti-immigrant feelings. Perhaps most controversially, the Pirate platform also demands a change from drug abuse penalization to educational and social supports designed to reduce dependence on harmful drugs. Walking this plank includes the legalization of marijuana, on the grounds that illegal cannabis handlers pose a health risk by selling contaminated products.
Nations around the globe are finding politics as usual unsatisfying in the face of global economic crisis. Sustainability fans know that things cannot go on as they are. The question that now arises in Berlin is: will this youth movement earn respect for a new path forward, a post-capitalist, post-industrial, social-network based politics? Can politics survive transparency? And can it work for a party named "Pirates"?

This nation needs a viable alternative to the corporate financed Repub/Dems. But can a third party thrive? With so little MSM attention to Occupy Wall Street, their fascination with Hollywood and tabloid stories - I doubt that they can have a meaningful and truthful coverage of any party/group/individual rocking their boat filled with corporate cash.

It is all connected!

Why Environmentalists Should Care About the Occupy Wall Street Protest

The pages of TreeHugger are filled with examples of lobbyists for the corporate polluting class subverting the democratic process in the United States. From the activities of the Koch brothers lobbying octopus in opposing any environmental constraints on business, to the vast subsidies the oil industry maintains even as profits are at record levels, to dirty tricks lobbying against meaningful climate action.
The government of the United States in 2011 is fully in the hands of corporations, at times bordering on the unification of corporate and government interests embodied in fascism--at least in spirit if not every single platform point as outlined three quarters of a century ago.
Besides the destructive environmental consequences of war, the United States outspends the entire world in its militarism. And it is bankrupting this nation. If this nation's military spending was just cut back to doubling its nearest rival, China, it would free up funding for domestic environmental programs, job creation programs, and programs to directly help people at home.
From another angle, if the US wasn't so utterly dependent on fossil fuels it would not have to spend so much money supporting the national and corporate goals of ensuring that the oil keeps flowing, in the process supporting despotic regimes, even supporting friendly governments trying to peddle their environmentally destructive oil as a better alternative to those regimes, and de facto supporting rampant environment destruction in some of the world's poorest regions.
Clean energy may not bring an end to war, or an end to international economic conflict, but it will end the need to protect oil and natural gas fields around the world.

Everything is connected. Environmental justice, social justice - it is all the same fight.
If we do not fight now, we can face the same as is happening in China...

LA Times has a report about how organic produce is sold in China, providing a glimpse into what life might eventually be like, here in the USA, if House Republicans fully codify their Libertarian beliefs (which assumes they would put an end to funding USDA Organic registration).
As things stand, US citizens have a choice: if they want to eat factory farm produce and dairy they can do that; or, they can spend a little more for USDA-certified organic food. In China, on the other hand, the good stuff is saved "...for officials only. They produce organic vegetables, peppers, onions, beans, cauliflowers, but they don't sell to the public," said Li Xiuqin, 68, a lifelong Shunyi village resident who lives directly across the street from the farm but has never been inside. "Ordinary people can't go in there."

Come to think of it, with some prices, especially with restaurants, we are already there.   Cheaper to eat the crap in McD's rather than fresh veggies from a farmer's market.

Where's the media?

Where are the "major" news companies and their coverage of Occupy Wall Street?
Where is their reporting when it comes to Internet and Cell Phone shutdowns?

Several activists are reporting that internet signals and access are being blocked at the “Occupy Wall Street” protest in New York. This same tactic has recently been employed at Bay Area Rapid Transit protests on the opposite side of the continent in San Francisco to shut down cell phone service. See a trend?

Well what should i expect. We see how the media deals with climate change.

Arrghhh!

The Critical Relationship Between Pirates and Climate Change

Every year we be trottin' out Wellington Grey's seminal research on the in'erse statistical relationship between the number of pirates in the world and the climbin' temperatures.

We need more pirates. I am doing my part - what about you?