July 3, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/140912/
We are monks, & we offer these with love. If you enjoyed this,
Showing posts with label issue: resource depletion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label issue: resource depletion. Show all posts
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Thanks to Our Fossil Fuel Addiction, We May Be Setting Ourselves Up for a Catastrophic Natural Event
Thanks to Our Fossil Fuel Addiction, We May Be Setting Ourselves Up for a Catastrophic Natural Event By Scott Thill, AlterNet
July 3, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/140912/
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July 3, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/140912/
We are monks, & we offer these with love. If you enjoyed this,
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Why My Vasectomy Will Help Save the Earth's Resources
Why My Vasectomy Will Help Save the Earth's Resources
By Matt Leonard, Earth Island Journal
June 10, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/140543/
Last year, I became castrated impotent sterile. That is, I had a vasectomy. While it's actually a very common procedure (nearly 500,000 are performed every year in the US), it raises eyebrows -- and a lot of questions.
The first one is always simply: Why?
Although this was a very personal decision for me, it was also a choice I made out of larger societal, political, and environmental motivations. I consider the environmental ones paramount. In an economic system that demands infinite growth with finite resources, not doubling my own consumption is one small stone in a big river.
More importantly, I live in the US, and any child I had would have been raised here and would consume (despite my best efforts) far more resources than I am comfortable accepting. Living even a modest lifestyle in the US comes as a direct result of the oppression, domination, and deaths of many unseen people, not to mention the exploitation of natural resources at rates that threaten the ability of our planet to sustain life. These facts shouldn't be cause for guilt or shame; instead, they should spur us to organize to confront the systems and institutions that have created these problems. On a personal level, contributing another person to the system that I have spent my adult life fighting is just not something I'm willing to do.
To read the full article: http://www.alternet.org/story/140543/ " target=_blank">http://www.alternet.org/story/140543/
By Matt Leonard, Earth Island Journal
June 10, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/
Last year, I became castrated impotent sterile. That is, I had a vasectomy. While it's actually a very common procedure (nearly 500,000 are performed every year in the US), it raises eyebrows -- and a lot of questions.
The first one is always simply: Why?
Although this was a very personal decision for me, it was also a choice I made out of larger societal, political, and environmental motivations. I consider the environmental ones paramount. In an economic system that demands infinite growth with finite resources, not doubling my own consumption is one small stone in a big river.
More importantly, I live in the US, and any child I had would have been raised here and would consume (despite my best efforts) far more resources than I am comfortable accepting. Living even a modest lifestyle in the US comes as a direct result of the oppression, domination, and deaths of many unseen people, not to mention the exploitation of natural resources at rates that threaten the ability of our planet to sustain life. These facts shouldn't be cause for guilt or shame; instead, they should spur us to organize to confront the systems and institutions that have created these problems. On a personal level, contributing another person to the system that I have spent my adult life fighting is just not something I'm willing to do.
To read the full article: http://www.alternet.org/story/
Friday, January 9, 2009
WWF: Focus on the enemy we don't see
WWF: Focus on the enemy we don’t see
December 23, 2008
http://www.supermarketguru.com/index.cfm/go/sg.viewArticle/articleId/196
All the ways retailers, suppliers and consumers demonstrate their green-ness are painting America with a fresh layer of environmental protectiveness. Trouble is, neither our nation’s activity nor our vision goes far enough, suggests the World Wildlife Fund in a position paper it calls “Leading the World Toward a Safer and Sustainable Future: Greenprint for a New Administration.”
The 17-page document, along with its 48-page Living Planet Report, serves as an urgent calling card to the incoming Obama presidency. “U.S. foreign policy has paid too little attention to the social, economic and environmental causes underlying many current conflicts [which] unchecked may pose a greater threat to global security in the future than terrorism does today,” the paper compels.
WWF cites climate change, natural resource exhaustion and ecosystem collapse as being “among the most profound and long-term threats to peace and security in the 21st century. The conflict imperiling the planet in the coming millennium is less likely to be between nations than between man and nature.”
The environment, says WWF, is “already stressed by unsustainable development, climate change and pollution….Consumptive demands are rising….Riots erupting as a result of soaring food prices may only be a taste of things to come if we fail to address this growing imbalance between what humanity consumes and what nature, in its declining state, can provide.”
To head off this potential devastation, WWF proposes a four-step plan to President-elect Obama:
1. Confront the challenge of climate change. Secure a new treaty, curb deforestation, lower greenhouse gas emissions and create a low-carbon economy.
2. Ensure food for all. Reconsider ethanol, help develop performance standards, do more to assist poor countries agriculturally, reform fisheries management.
3. Secure water for life. Make freshwater availability a strategic priority, establish water security through science and policies.
4. Protect nature and manage resources sustainably. Include conservation and sustainability in our foreign assistance programs, invest in our natural assets, engage China on green issues.
The essence of the plan is for the United States to lead the world in confronting critical environmental challenges, and restore the integrity of science to our policy and decisionmaking. “We still have time to meet the challenge of climate change, time to manage our resources sustainably, time to preserve nature for both the wonders that inspire us and the services that sustain us…but not all that much of it,” states WWF.
To SupermarketGuru.com, it looks as if we’re in for a period of accountability for so many decades of humanity disrespecting the planet, living beyond sustainable means, and using resources to nationalistic advantage rather than managing conservatively on a global scale so all could benefit. Our world is out of sorts and needs to be given a chance to heal. These issues are tough, but timely, and sooner we address them, the better we and future generations will all be.
December 23, 2008
http://www.supermarketguru.
All the ways retailers, suppliers and consumers demonstrate their green-ness are painting America with a fresh layer of environmental protectiveness. Trouble is, neither our nation’s activity nor our vision goes far enough, suggests the World Wildlife Fund in a position paper it calls “Leading the World Toward a Safer and Sustainable Future: Greenprint for a New Administration.”
The 17-page document, along with its 48-page Living Planet Report, serves as an urgent calling card to the incoming Obama presidency. “U.S. foreign policy has paid too little attention to the social, economic and environmental causes underlying many current conflicts [which] unchecked may pose a greater threat to global security in the future than terrorism does today,” the paper compels.
WWF cites climate change, natural resource exhaustion and ecosystem collapse as being “among the most profound and long-term threats to peace and security in the 21st century. The conflict imperiling the planet in the coming millennium is less likely to be between nations than between man and nature.”
The environment, says WWF, is “already stressed by unsustainable development, climate change and pollution….Consumptive demands are rising….Riots erupting as a result of soaring food prices may only be a taste of things to come if we fail to address this growing imbalance between what humanity consumes and what nature, in its declining state, can provide.”
To head off this potential devastation, WWF proposes a four-step plan to President-elect Obama:
1. Confront the challenge of climate change. Secure a new treaty, curb deforestation, lower greenhouse gas emissions and create a low-carbon economy.
2. Ensure food for all. Reconsider ethanol, help develop performance standards, do more to assist poor countries agriculturally, reform fisheries management.
3. Secure water for life. Make freshwater availability a strategic priority, establish water security through science and policies.
4. Protect nature and manage resources sustainably. Include conservation and sustainability in our foreign assistance programs, invest in our natural assets, engage China on green issues.
The essence of the plan is for the United States to lead the world in confronting critical environmental challenges, and restore the integrity of science to our policy and decisionmaking. “We still have time to meet the challenge of climate change, time to manage our resources sustainably, time to preserve nature for both the wonders that inspire us and the services that sustain us…but not all that much of it,” states WWF.
To SupermarketGuru.com, it looks as if we’re in for a period of accountability for so many decades of humanity disrespecting the planet, living beyond sustainable means, and using resources to nationalistic advantage rather than managing conservatively on a global scale so all could benefit. Our world is out of sorts and needs to be given a chance to heal. These issues are tough, but timely, and sooner we address them, the better we and future generations will all be.
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