An Inconvenient Truth Sequel
From the “now there’s a surprise” category, Al Gore has announced that he will be making a sequel to his Academy Award winning, Nobel prize winning, An Inconvenient Truth.
Archive for the ‘Planetsave’ Category
Ecocity World Summit
This Earth Day Week, San Francisco is hosting the 7th Annual Ecocity World Summit. This conference brings together an “international community of courageous individuals who are addressing problems of the world’s environment with thoughtful long-range solutions that are truly sustainable, ecologically healthy and socially just.”
I am attending the conference and I will post interesting information throughout the week about the sessions I attend. Last night (April 21st), Gary Braasch, photographer and author of Earth Under Fire, How Global Warming is Changing the World, presented “his past and present record of climate change around the world with emphasis on Read the rest of this entry »
10,000 Pot Smokers Have Marijuana Smoke-Out While DEA Says No To Industrial Hemp
Anyone See The Irony Here?
You’ve probably read the story about an estimated 10,000 people gathered on the University of Colorado’s Norlin Quadrangle Sunday, puffing joints till the air turned blue. University police stood by to maintain order, but no one was busted for smoking pot.
In the meantime, the DEA is staunchly defending its policy against American farmers legally growing industrial hemp, citing the law that says all hemp is marijuana.
How’s your war on drugs coming along, anyway, DEA? The sun is shining, and if you’d pull your heads out, you’d see it. Pot is here, lots of it available, if this number of people can show up and get loaded on just one day in one city and no one is arrested. Read the rest of this entry »
Navajos On Warpath Over Uranium Mining On Tribal Lands
For all the minorities in this country who have raised pluperfect hell about their past or current situations, the American Indian has been the quietist, and I wonder why.
Before you write me nasty emails, I’m not minimizing the concerns of minorities in this country: they have their issues and the right to use their voices, and that’s good.
But think for a moment about the original settlers of this land, the American Indian.
They did just fine for centuries, sustaining their cultures with the fruits of the land, picking fights and having wars, just like we all do.
Then, came the white man (no emails please, because that’s what happened), who invaded the natives’ birthright, confiscated their tribal lands, transferred them to reservations and literally forgot about them. Many of those Native Americans to this very day are without electricity and running water, in some cases, living in dirt poor conditions, and they languish without raising their voices.
How incredibly sad.
Japanese Whale Research Falls Short
Scientific research is a tough business, and it is always tough to find the right evidence for your research. Gaining access to archaeological sites, genetic testing in animals, evidentiary samples; it’s a tough gig. So when a scientific endeavor falls short, it’s always sad.
Usually.
Safe Hydrogen Fuel System Using Water Proven and Ready
The young man with his firetruck has apparently done it! He’s created a system that converts water to hydrogen gas that’ll run that fire engine, and your car.
His name is James Hunt, I wrote about him and his invention last year. Now, from his AKVO Energy headquarters in Monmouth, Illinois, James talks about his invention and says it’s ready for manufacture and marketing.
He refers to a series of videos he’s produced on YouTube, one of which you can see on my accompanying blog on Gas2.
You can see the series of videos on YouTube .
Alaskan Oil Fields Spill Risk
“We’re not antidevelopment. We’re not antigrowth. But this is just stupid.”
How many times has that been muttered over the past few years, in an attempt to bring a semblance of common sense to the world?
The answer is, obviously, far too many. But nevertheless it has once again been spoken by Margaret Williams of the World Wildlife Fund in Alaska in response to the leasing of millions of offshore acres for petroleum development in the Chukchi Sea, off Alaska.
A 3000-year-old Practice May Revolutionize the Future of Farming
Published on April 11th, 2008
The next revolution in agriculture and greenhouse gas reduction may be a 3000-year old farming practice of adding biomass charcoal to the soil. The practice was re-discovered by archeologists who were studying a site in the central-Amazon basin. Some 1500 years earlier the indigenous tribes had enriched the soil using charcoal from animal bone and tree bark. The soil remains today some of the richest and most fertile soil yet found.
Scientists from the American Chemical Society have begun a five-year study of the use of biomass charcoal for soil enrichment in order to understand its impact on fertilization, soil carbon changes, crop productivity and any impact on the microorganisms in the soil.
The practice holds promise for several reasons:
- Soil need only be fertilized once with this method and the effect lasts for hundreds to thousands of years.
- The resulting agricultural method is carbon-negative since the enriched soil traps and holds carbon in the soil, which may offer significant benefits to decreasing global warming from agriculture and reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Podcast Interview with Eco-Mom, Homebuilder and Blogger, Jennifer Lance on The Lindberg Report
How many people do you know who would leave the suburbs and settle on an unimproved 160 acres of land, build their home with materials from that land, and then set up their own power grid?
Jennifer Lance has done just that, and it was a pleasure talking with this school teacher-mother, who walks her talk. When she writes about family values in Eco Child’s Play, you can rest assured it comes from her own life experience.
So settle back, and have a listen:
Before going, I want to call your attention to an earlier podcast interview with the Sundance Channel’s Simran Sethi. She is documenting the rebuilding of Greensburg, Kansas, devastated by a massive tornado last May, and also promoting a fund raiser for the rebuilding project.
And while I’m on the subject, check out my podcast interview with Beth Bader, lead writer for Eat.Drink.Better, and contributor to Eco Child’s Play.
Alaska Under Attack Again
I haven’t always been the liberal nutjob that I am now. There was a time when I was right behind Bush for trundling in to Iraq, and found the idea of protecting animals very much the picture of “hippie” idiocy.
But, with age came wisdom, and with wisdom came a shift in my view of the world.
I say that, because in an MSNBC article entitled ‘Yukon Flats wildlife refuge eyed for its oil,’ this sentence appears; “A controversial land swap proposal could open portions of an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling, dividing Alaska natives and stoking opposition from environmentalists seeking to protect the bears, moose and birds that live there.”
The moment I read “moose,” I knew that my perspective on the world had changed. A part of my mind, long since dormant, by instinct reared up and said “It’s a moose! Who cares?!” But it was immediately overridden by the new me which realized the overall importance of sustaining various ecosystems and species.
The plan is a land trade, which would give 110,000 acres of hydrocarbon-prone uplands within the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, plus mineral rights to another 97,000 acres, to Fairbanks-based Doyon Ltd. The Refuge lies just south of the ‘always-in-the-news’ Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
In exchange, and definitely a plus to the deal, the Refuge would acquire 150,000 acres of bird-friendly wetlands, currently owned by Doyon, as well as 56,500 acres on which Doyon currently has pending land claims.
