Aug 11, 2012
Mitt Romney 'Son Of Boss' - Mitt "The Big Crook"
Published on Aug 10, 2012 by TheYoungTurks
Mitt Romney is facing increasing scrutiny, speculation, and criticism for not releasing his tax returns. How does Bain Capital and Marriott tie into the situation? Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz, and John Iadarola (host of TYT University and Common Room) break it down on The Young Turks.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/08/opinion/canellos-kleinbard-romney-taxes/index.html
http://www.examiner.com/article/a-new-tax-avoidance-question-surfaces-about-m...
Watch more of John (and others) here: http://www.youtube.com/tytuniversity
Aug 10, 2012
US Drought Monitor - August 7, 2012
 |
| The discussion in the Looking Ahead section is simply a description of what the official national guidance from the National Weather Service (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction is depicting for current areas of dryness and drought. The NWS forecast products utilized include the HPC 5-day QPF and 5-day Mean Temperature progs, the 6-10 Day Outlooks of Temperature and Precipitation Probability, and the 8-14 Day Outlooks of Temperature and Precipitation Probability, valid as of late Wednesday afternoon of the USDM release week. The NWS forecast web page used for this section is: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/forecasts/. The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic: Rainfall over the past week was scattered and temperatures were above normal for most locales. As such, most of this area stays status quo this week. Minor adjustments of note include some reduction of D0 and D1 in West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina, where some locales saw 3 to 5 inches this past week. Low streamflow and groundwater levels remain a concern heading into fall for parts of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and northern Maine. The Southeast: Parts of the Southeast received a good soaking last week while others missed out, leading to a mixed bag of changes on this week’s map. The heaviest precipitation fell over eastern Tennessee, the western Carolinas, northern Georgia, eastern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, leading to 1-category improvements along the drought’s perimeter in these regions. This hasn’t removed drought, but instead has only tightened the gradients between the haves and the have-nots, as conditions can vary wildly over very short distances. The underlying hydrologic drought in Georgia and Alabama remains well seated, with low streamflows being commonplace as they are well into a two-year drought. The Midwest: Conditions continue to improve in the eastern half of the region as another week of good rains came to parts of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Again, generally speaking, the drought continues to improve and is being pushed west, tightening the gradient along the way with 1-category improvements noted in eastern and southern Ohio, eastern and central Kentucky and north-central Indiana. Parts of the core region of drought in this region continue to see deterioration this week marked by a slight expansion of D2/D3 in southeastern Indiana. Continuing east, both Iowa and Illinois see expansion of D3 and D3. Missouri and Arkansas continue to worsen as the heat and dryness continues its grip, leading to an expansion of D4 in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri along with a new area of D4 in extreme west-central Missouri adjoining Kansas. Reports of water-related impacts are ticking upward with each passing week as mandatory restrictions continue to ramp upward around the region. As the drought continues, this will undoubtedly become a more prevalent issue as the agricultural season passes and attention turns to next year’s crops or herds. The Great Plains and South: Same song, tenth verse last week as much of the Plains saw the pattern of excessive heat and dryness persist, leading to more expansion across Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and parts of Texas. As a result, D3 has moved across east central Nebraska and into west central Iowa, D3 pushes more to the northeast in Kansas, and D4 expands in western Kansas and connects up with a growing area of D4 in western Oklahoma. In addition, water emergencies and shortage concerns in several communities result in a new D4 region in east central Kansas over into extreme west central Missouri. The only real area of improvement noted this week is in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, where generally cooler weather and recovering streamflows lead to a small improvement from D3 to D2, which extends into extreme northeastern Wyoming. After some improvement of late, the heat and dryness bring the return of a bit more D0-D3 into the Panhandle and western reaches of Texas. The other change of note this week lies in northern Louisiana after a recent dry spell led to a slight southward push of D0 and D1 there. The West: The West saw a mixed bag of results over the past week with the monsoon rains bringing relief to some and nothing much to many others. A slight expansion of D1 this week is noted in Montana on the heels of an expansion of D0 northward to the Canadian border last week. Most of Colorado remains unchanged this week but the heat and dryness does lead to a joining of the D4 between east central CO and western Kansas. The D3 also extends out of southeast Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle into more of northeastern New Mexico along with a slight push westward of the D2 in north central New Mexico this week. Northwestern New Mexico has benefitted from a good start to the monsoon, leading to a reduction of D2 and D3 in the northwestern part of the state into the eastern edge of the Navajo Nation lands. Longer-term conditions and impacts in the Navajo Nation have led to a state of emergency Executive Proclamation due to the extreme conditions on their lands in the Four Corner region. Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico: Conditions remain unchanged on this week’s map for Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico. Looking Ahead: The 5-day forecast (August 8-12) shows a shift in the heat from the country’s mid-section to the West as high pressure builds in there. This leaves prospects for precipitation high and dry for most locations west of the Rockies and increases the chances for the wet stuff over the Midwest, Northeast, Great Lakes, Gulf Coast and Atlantic coastal reaches of the Carolinas and Georgia. Above-normal temperatures will accompany the high pressure in the West and the cool down to the east of the Rockies will be a welcomed respite for most of the Great Plains and Midwest. For the period August 13-17, above-normal temperatures are more likely across Alaska, the Southwest, Great Basin, southern Rockies and southern Plains. Interestingly, no regions are forecasted to see below-normal temperatures during this period. The chances for below-normal precipitation are greatest in eastern and central Alaska, the southern Plains and lower Midwest while the odds of above-normal rains are best situated over the Southwest, northern Plains and eastern Montana as well as along the Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coast from Florida northward to Virginia. Author: Mark Svoboda, National Drought Mitigation Center Dryness Categories D0 ... Abnormally Dry ... used for areas showing dryness but not yet in drought, or for areas recovering from drought. Drought Intensity Categories D1 ... Moderate Drought D2 ... Severe Drought D3 ... Extreme Drought D4 ... Exceptional Drought Drought or Dryness Types S ... Short-Term, typically <6 months (e.g. agricultural, grasslands) L ... Long-Term, typically >6 months (e.g. hydrology, ecology) Updated August 8, 2012 |
Becoming a New Human Species -- What a Story! | Earth Wisdom Stories
Great piece, by Dale Olen, that focuses on environmental ethics and values. Maybe contribute your own visions to his website ...
Monte & Eileen Hines
FULL ARTICLE: http://earthwisdomstories.com/earth-stories-adults/node/85
Submitted on August 5, 2012
Narrative and Pictures by Dale Olen
“If we do not change directions, we are likely to end up exactly where we are headed.”
Chinese Proverb.
A new human species is emerging across the country and around the world. A number of people have spotted this creature and named it—Homouniversalis, Homocooperativus, Homo x.
Monte & Eileen Hines
FULL ARTICLE: http://earthwisdomstories.com/earth-stories-adults/node/85
Submitted on August 5, 2012
Narrative and Pictures by Dale Olen
“If we do not change directions, we are likely to end up exactly where we are headed.”
Chinese Proverb.
A new human species is emerging across the country and around the world. A number of people have spotted this creature and named it—Homouniversalis, Homocooperativus, Homo x.
In the spiral of evolution, new species pop up routinely. Natural selection keeps picking those critters that best adapt to their environments and choosing those that best fit with each other and their ecosystems. Hominids have been around for about 100,000 years and have continued to adapt and modify themselves into new "Homo" species. Until now the process of human evolution has been instinctive and followed preset dynamics of nature.
But this new human species, agitating on the edge of full emergence, is evolving through our conscious choices. We're not leaving this next iteration of humanity up to old-style natural selection. We are guiding our future brothers and sisters by the choices we make, the actions we take, the values we hold. In fact, we ourselves are now becoming the next human species.
But this new human species, agitating on the edge of full emergence, is evolving through our conscious choices. We're not leaving this next iteration of humanity up to old-style natural selection. We are guiding our future brothers and sisters by the choices we make, the actions we take, the values we hold. In fact, we ourselves are now becoming the next human species.
Homo x is emerging out of Homo sapiens because we are creating a vision of our future offspring. This new vision is arising in our consciousness as we arrive at a chaotic juncture in Earth’s journey. We stand at a tipping point in terms of our ecosystems, our financial failings, and our social lives.
The two paths in front of us are toward breakdown or breakthrough.
Over the past few decades we have stumbled through the breakdown path, experiencing the destruction and collapse of our Earth systems, of our democracy, our economic security, our culture and way of life. We have seen the poor get poorer, the hungry starve; we have watched African Americans locked into more prison space than occupying home space; we breath in terrorism, wars for oil, and violence in more streets, homes, and corporations.
But we don’t have a clear picture of what's down the breakthrough path. Before choosing that road, we need some idea of what we’ll find.
The landscape down that path is not unfamiliar to us, but it doesn’t light up our consciousness either. It doesn't make headlines like wars, crime, fires, financial woes, and dramatic weather events. No breakthrough ads penetrate the din of our attention and make us cry out, "I want that," like we do after a beer or Apple commercial. Stories about community, sharing, acts of love, care for the commons rarely register on our psychic maps.
Pummeled by the breakdowns in our society, we long to find the breakthroughs. Only when both visions appear before our eyes can we make the choice to evolve our species and breakthrough to a new universal life driven by relationships and love.
The vision toward breakthrough sparkles like fireworks of a new human species, in a new community, in a new ecosystem. In the months ahead I want to share with you this narrative of Homo x in community Y in ecosystem Z.
I'd like to invite you to add to this narrative, to open up your vision of Homo x in community Y in ecosystem Z. Write just a piece of your vision toward breakthrough in the comment section at the end of these future narratives. Or send me an email and I can incorporate your thoughts and awareness into the narrative as we proceed.
In sharing our visions of the breakthrough road less traveled, we are already becoming the new human species, connected, conscious, and communicating—Homoconscientious.
The two paths in front of us are toward breakdown or breakthrough.
Over the past few decades we have stumbled through the breakdown path, experiencing the destruction and collapse of our Earth systems, of our democracy, our economic security, our culture and way of life. We have seen the poor get poorer, the hungry starve; we have watched African Americans locked into more prison space than occupying home space; we breath in terrorism, wars for oil, and violence in more streets, homes, and corporations.
But we don’t have a clear picture of what's down the breakthrough path. Before choosing that road, we need some idea of what we’ll find.
The landscape down that path is not unfamiliar to us, but it doesn’t light up our consciousness either. It doesn't make headlines like wars, crime, fires, financial woes, and dramatic weather events. No breakthrough ads penetrate the din of our attention and make us cry out, "I want that," like we do after a beer or Apple commercial. Stories about community, sharing, acts of love, care for the commons rarely register on our psychic maps.
Pummeled by the breakdowns in our society, we long to find the breakthroughs. Only when both visions appear before our eyes can we make the choice to evolve our species and breakthrough to a new universal life driven by relationships and love.
The vision toward breakthrough sparkles like fireworks of a new human species, in a new community, in a new ecosystem. In the months ahead I want to share with you this narrative of Homo x in community Y in ecosystem Z.
I'd like to invite you to add to this narrative, to open up your vision of Homo x in community Y in ecosystem Z. Write just a piece of your vision toward breakthrough in the comment section at the end of these future narratives. Or send me an email and I can incorporate your thoughts and awareness into the narrative as we proceed.
In sharing our visions of the breakthrough road less traveled, we are already becoming the new human species, connected, conscious, and communicating—Homoconscientious.
Aug 9, 2012
Support GMO Labeling Laws- Defeat Old Man Santo!
Published on Aug 1, 2012 by organicconsumer
Monsanto, meet Old Man Santo.
A NO-GMO rewrite of Old MacDonald Had a Farm.
And it's just as much fun to sing.
Support Labeling: http://organicconsumersfund.org/oldmansanto/
Aug 8, 2012
Get Into Farming (video) Permaculture Research Institute
by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor August 9, 2012...
Warning: Don’t play if you don’t appreciate bad language!
...
It’s a system of extraction — it’s trickle up economics.
...
Today, large scale agriculture is undermining itself. It is undermining us. The key drivers towards this state of massive vulnerability were 1) fossil fuels, and 2) Norman Borlaug’s so-called ‘Green Revolution’ and the ‘get big or get out’ policies that started in the 1970s, under the then US Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz: [Butz's] mantra to farmers was "get big or get out," and he urged farmers to plant commodity crops like corn "from fencerow to fencerow." These policy shifts coincided with the rise of major agribusiness corporations, and the declining financial stability of the small family farm. — Wikipedia
This ‘fencerow to fencerow’ large acreage agriculture was only possible, albeit if temporarily, due to industrialisation and its life-blood: oil. The present and future era of expensive energy promises the undoing of centralised agriculture, and, potentially, centralized control — whether by the State or privatised monopolies. With energy supplies waning, we have one small window of opportunity to regain what the oil era stole from us. And, we have the opportunity to regain a sense of the ‘magic’ and wonder of the natural world we’ve all but forgotten we’re part of, and which by biological necessity we were born to partner with.
...
Warning: Don’t play if you don’t appreciate bad language!
...
It’s a system of extraction — it’s trickle up economics.
...
Today, large scale agriculture is undermining itself. It is undermining us. The key drivers towards this state of massive vulnerability were 1) fossil fuels, and 2) Norman Borlaug’s so-called ‘Green Revolution’ and the ‘get big or get out’ policies that started in the 1970s, under the then US Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz: [Butz's] mantra to farmers was "get big or get out," and he urged farmers to plant commodity crops like corn "from fencerow to fencerow." These policy shifts coincided with the rise of major agribusiness corporations, and the declining financial stability of the small family farm. — Wikipedia
This ‘fencerow to fencerow’ large acreage agriculture was only possible, albeit if temporarily, due to industrialisation and its life-blood: oil. The present and future era of expensive energy promises the undoing of centralised agriculture, and, potentially, centralized control — whether by the State or privatised monopolies. With energy supplies waning, we have one small window of opportunity to regain what the oil era stole from us. And, we have the opportunity to regain a sense of the ‘magic’ and wonder of the natural world we’ve all but forgotten we’re part of, and which by biological necessity we were born to partner with.
...
Great read...! Link to full article: Get Into Farming (video) Permaculture Research Institute Monte Hines
Willi Paul interviews Craig Mackintosh – Worldwide Permaculture Network (WPN) launches! | Energy Bulletin
Published Feb 6 2011 by PlanetShifter Magazine, Archived Feb 7 2011
Willi Paul interviews Craig Mackintosh – Worldwide Permaculture Network (WPN) launches!
by Willi Paul
Interview with Craig Mackintosh by Willi Paul about the new Worldwide Permaculture Network
Is there a global permaculture revolution rising now?
Well, there better be. The other kinds of revolution aren’t pretty. Revolution, I believe, is going to become an increasingly popular word. But often revolutions merely pull things down, without offering meaningful replacements.
Over the last few years the level of interest in permaculture has skyrocketed. People are increasingly realizing the world is running out of options, but many are also realizing that this is exactly what permaculture gives to the world – options.
What are the pros and cons of a world-wide data base?
We need people to see the breadth and scope of permaculture activity. If people facing resource depletion and economic meltdown believe that permaculturists are just a handful of scattered, idealistic dreamers, they’ll say to themselves, “nice idea, but too little, too late”, and they won’t get on board. If, instead, they realize that this is actually a worldwide movement of individuals operating at a grass roots level in almost every country on the planet, then they’ll instead think, “hell, I’d better get involved as I’m getting left behind!” Given where we’re at in history, getting left behind in essential re-skilling and future-proofing is not an attractive position to be in.
We’ve always known that permaculture was widespread – permaculturists are on the ground everywhere – but, due to its inherent, decentralized properties, its extent has, until now, been hard to quantify. The Worldwide Permaculture Network (WPN) system will solve this.
The pros are that people who are doing tangible things to change the world for the better right now have a chance to inspire others to do the same – and to demonstrate and educate them in the how of it – whilst simultaneously, and symbiotically, gaining increased knowledge themselves through interaction with other permaculturists in the system. More, they can network with each other and leverage each other’s efforts.
The cons? Well, perhaps just that I will now have even more work to do. But, it’s a small price to pay for saving humanity.
Can you chat live with folks on Worldwide Permaculture Network (WPN)? Can you upload videos?
Not yet, but we have quite a few things we’d yet like to build into the system. So far, with the exception of a few thousand dollars of much appreciated donations from our readers, we (the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia) have carried this on our own. It’s been quite a commitment in time and financing. We trust that the new WPN community will see the potential in what we have, and also in what we could have yet with further development, and will pitch in to tailor and improve even further.
Will you obtain advertisers or other financial support?
Advertisers? Selling products? You’re kidding, right? Given that we don’t live on an inflatable earth, permaculture is about developing steady-state, sustainable, community based economies. The self-interested, impossible, economy-must-grow mindset is the antithesis of what needs to happen over the next decade, and is thus the antithesis of a PERMAnent CULTURE.
I won’t allow advertising on the WPN.
Offers of financial support from people who understand the vision behind what we’re trying to achieve would be welcome. Indeed, they’d be welcome even if they don’t understand – so long as there are no strings attached. The key thing to know is that this system is not a profit-motivated venture.
What is sacred about the practice of permaculture?
What is sacred is our inherent right to live free and gloriously. Permaculture equips people to be more than mere drones for a system outside of their control. It frees people to live as skilled, self-reliant individuals who work interdependently with other self-reliant individuals, with the goal of obtaining a lifestyle that is centered in health, positivism, resilience, beneficial social interactions and sustainable productivity.
Are there new stories and songs based on permaculture? What are some symbols in your passion with the land and people? Who are your heroes? Talk about the spiritual and the interconnected as possible catalysts for new myths.
Perhaps I’m too pragmatic to really understand what you want here. I haven’t been following stories and songs, and really don’t know what you mean by symbols), I’m also not one for encouraging the hero mentality. We need to be everyday heroes. All of us. After taking on board the realities of our collective futures if we give in to despondency and inaction, we can become heroes by, instead of letting it get us down, realizing that the only way forward is to start to look at where we are now – our vulnerabilities and our opportunities, as slight as they may seem – and, comparing that objectively with where we need to go, beginning to make steps towards getting there. It will take a level of cooperation never seen before in human history.
I believe the WPN can become a platform for these everyday heroes to make themselves known, and to replicate themselves – sharing skills, seeds, designs, inspiration and enthusiasm.
Are you an alchemist?
I’ve never been described thus before, and don’t lay claim to the title now. Besides, you can’t eat gold.
In my work, however, I have met a few who can turn sand and rocks into fruit and forests, so perhaps some permaculturists could be described as alchemists of sorts.
So WPN is an open network? Is this a permaculture principle?
All who align themselves with the three ethics of permaculture – People Care, Earth Care, and Return of Surplus (back to the first two ethics) – are welcome to join and contribute to the community. The big thing to understand is the WPN is not, unlike Facebook or similar, merely a social club, nor is it a system designed for profit. The WPN is intended to help facilitate well-meaning, collaboratively-minded permaculturists to inspire and educate each other into the kind of world-changing activity we need to see if we’re to head of our multiple impending woes off at the pass. While the WPN is not going to be for absolutely everyone, the aim is that its purposes will ultimately come to be shared by all.
At this early stage, how would you describe the common shared vision?
‘Permaculture’ has been a word for more than thirty years, yet, over this period, many permaculturists treated the design science as merely ‘an alternative lifestyle’ – keeping one foot in their back yard and the other in the supermarket and their almost-always destructive places of employ. Over the last few years this has been changing. The internet has enabled writers like myself and others to join the dots online like never before, and now there’s a sense of urgency that no matter what little oasis of abundance you may have in your back yard, if all your neighbors around you and across town don’t have any degree of resilience themselves, then as the economic and social fabric of society continues to come apart, you’ll still not make it on your own.
In the same way as we’re learning that an apple tree has far more value than a plasma screen, we’re also recognizing that a neighbor with skills to share is worth infinitely more than a drinking buddy.
Love the passion.
“Permaculturists – this is our time! Let’s stop considering permaculture as an ‘alternative lifestyle’ and accept the fact that there really is *no alternative*. As far as our place in history is concerned, it’s permaculture or bust.”
What is the alternative, Craig?
Well, we could just pretend, as do the politicians and fantasists, that everything’s just peachy. We could pretend that the scientists will invent our way out of this (ignoring the fact that they invented our way into it). We could also all sit in a circle, holding hands, chanting, and thinking positive thoughts. For myself, though, I’d rather get busy.
* * * * * * *
Craig Mackintosh Bio -
Originally from New Zealand (see wildimages.eu), I’ve lived and worked in many occupations and in many countries on several continents. I think one of my strongest personality traits is having a reasonable measure of empathy, and after working and rubbing shoulders with people from a wide range of circumstances and backgrounds, I think this has only intensified. I do feel a burden that people are wholly unready for what’s about to hit them. I stay sane by not worrying about things I cannot change, but also by changing those things I can. Creating the WPN is one of those things that I believed I could contribute, with the potential for a snowball effect to result from it.
If you were to ask me what was the greatest turning point in my life, I’d say it was from the one-year intensive organic biological agriculture course I took many years ago, and, to be even more specific, the soil science component of those studies. With some understanding of the world beneath our feet, you cannot look at the world in the same way. You realize that all life that exists in the world only does so because of all the other life forms that exist. Everything in our biosphere retains its right to life through interdependency.
Humans are no different, except that, despite apparently being the most intelligent – the ‘higher species’ – we’ve somehow forgotten this basic, but crucial, fact. We’ve created human ‘systems’ based on linear, factory floor production lines. Our ultimate aim is to turn resources and labor into landfill as fast as possible, and it must get faster every year. We’ve painted ourselves into a corner in every way possible, not only in regards to resources, but also socially. We’re individualistic, and atomized. Nothing in nature is like that. At least, nothing that survives.
But, through studying soil science I also came to see that I could become a positive element in the world I live in – purely by cooperating with immutable, unchangeable natural laws I was studying. By understanding how the soil works, I could manage it for the benefit of myself and the soil. I could effectively become the catalyst to speeding a beneficial synergistic response from the elements around me. In the same way this applies to soil, it can apply to every area of human need.
Editorial Notes:
Hats off to Craig Mackintosh and the Permaculture Institute of Australia for launching this innovative and collaborative project. Go check it out.
There is now also a Permaculture Institute of the US here. -KS
Willi Paul interviews Craig Mackintosh – Worldwide Permaculture Network (WPN) launches!
by Willi Paul
Interview with Craig Mackintosh by Willi Paul about the new Worldwide Permaculture Network
Is there a global permaculture revolution rising now?
Well, there better be. The other kinds of revolution aren’t pretty. Revolution, I believe, is going to become an increasingly popular word. But often revolutions merely pull things down, without offering meaningful replacements.
Over the last few years the level of interest in permaculture has skyrocketed. People are increasingly realizing the world is running out of options, but many are also realizing that this is exactly what permaculture gives to the world – options.
What are the pros and cons of a world-wide data base?
We need people to see the breadth and scope of permaculture activity. If people facing resource depletion and economic meltdown believe that permaculturists are just a handful of scattered, idealistic dreamers, they’ll say to themselves, “nice idea, but too little, too late”, and they won’t get on board. If, instead, they realize that this is actually a worldwide movement of individuals operating at a grass roots level in almost every country on the planet, then they’ll instead think, “hell, I’d better get involved as I’m getting left behind!” Given where we’re at in history, getting left behind in essential re-skilling and future-proofing is not an attractive position to be in.
We’ve always known that permaculture was widespread – permaculturists are on the ground everywhere – but, due to its inherent, decentralized properties, its extent has, until now, been hard to quantify. The Worldwide Permaculture Network (WPN) system will solve this.
The pros are that people who are doing tangible things to change the world for the better right now have a chance to inspire others to do the same – and to demonstrate and educate them in the how of it – whilst simultaneously, and symbiotically, gaining increased knowledge themselves through interaction with other permaculturists in the system. More, they can network with each other and leverage each other’s efforts.
The cons? Well, perhaps just that I will now have even more work to do. But, it’s a small price to pay for saving humanity.
Can you chat live with folks on Worldwide Permaculture Network (WPN)? Can you upload videos?
Not yet, but we have quite a few things we’d yet like to build into the system. So far, with the exception of a few thousand dollars of much appreciated donations from our readers, we (the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia) have carried this on our own. It’s been quite a commitment in time and financing. We trust that the new WPN community will see the potential in what we have, and also in what we could have yet with further development, and will pitch in to tailor and improve even further.
Will you obtain advertisers or other financial support?
Advertisers? Selling products? You’re kidding, right? Given that we don’t live on an inflatable earth, permaculture is about developing steady-state, sustainable, community based economies. The self-interested, impossible, economy-must-grow mindset is the antithesis of what needs to happen over the next decade, and is thus the antithesis of a PERMAnent CULTURE.
I won’t allow advertising on the WPN.
Offers of financial support from people who understand the vision behind what we’re trying to achieve would be welcome. Indeed, they’d be welcome even if they don’t understand – so long as there are no strings attached. The key thing to know is that this system is not a profit-motivated venture.
What is sacred about the practice of permaculture?
What is sacred is our inherent right to live free and gloriously. Permaculture equips people to be more than mere drones for a system outside of their control. It frees people to live as skilled, self-reliant individuals who work interdependently with other self-reliant individuals, with the goal of obtaining a lifestyle that is centered in health, positivism, resilience, beneficial social interactions and sustainable productivity.
Are there new stories and songs based on permaculture? What are some symbols in your passion with the land and people? Who are your heroes? Talk about the spiritual and the interconnected as possible catalysts for new myths.
Perhaps I’m too pragmatic to really understand what you want here. I haven’t been following stories and songs, and really don’t know what you mean by symbols), I’m also not one for encouraging the hero mentality. We need to be everyday heroes. All of us. After taking on board the realities of our collective futures if we give in to despondency and inaction, we can become heroes by, instead of letting it get us down, realizing that the only way forward is to start to look at where we are now – our vulnerabilities and our opportunities, as slight as they may seem – and, comparing that objectively with where we need to go, beginning to make steps towards getting there. It will take a level of cooperation never seen before in human history.
I believe the WPN can become a platform for these everyday heroes to make themselves known, and to replicate themselves – sharing skills, seeds, designs, inspiration and enthusiasm.
Are you an alchemist?
I’ve never been described thus before, and don’t lay claim to the title now. Besides, you can’t eat gold.
In my work, however, I have met a few who can turn sand and rocks into fruit and forests, so perhaps some permaculturists could be described as alchemists of sorts.
So WPN is an open network? Is this a permaculture principle?
All who align themselves with the three ethics of permaculture – People Care, Earth Care, and Return of Surplus (back to the first two ethics) – are welcome to join and contribute to the community. The big thing to understand is the WPN is not, unlike Facebook or similar, merely a social club, nor is it a system designed for profit. The WPN is intended to help facilitate well-meaning, collaboratively-minded permaculturists to inspire and educate each other into the kind of world-changing activity we need to see if we’re to head of our multiple impending woes off at the pass. While the WPN is not going to be for absolutely everyone, the aim is that its purposes will ultimately come to be shared by all.
At this early stage, how would you describe the common shared vision?
‘Permaculture’ has been a word for more than thirty years, yet, over this period, many permaculturists treated the design science as merely ‘an alternative lifestyle’ – keeping one foot in their back yard and the other in the supermarket and their almost-always destructive places of employ. Over the last few years this has been changing. The internet has enabled writers like myself and others to join the dots online like never before, and now there’s a sense of urgency that no matter what little oasis of abundance you may have in your back yard, if all your neighbors around you and across town don’t have any degree of resilience themselves, then as the economic and social fabric of society continues to come apart, you’ll still not make it on your own.
In the same way as we’re learning that an apple tree has far more value than a plasma screen, we’re also recognizing that a neighbor with skills to share is worth infinitely more than a drinking buddy.
Love the passion.
“Permaculturists – this is our time! Let’s stop considering permaculture as an ‘alternative lifestyle’ and accept the fact that there really is *no alternative*. As far as our place in history is concerned, it’s permaculture or bust.”
What is the alternative, Craig?
Well, we could just pretend, as do the politicians and fantasists, that everything’s just peachy. We could pretend that the scientists will invent our way out of this (ignoring the fact that they invented our way into it). We could also all sit in a circle, holding hands, chanting, and thinking positive thoughts. For myself, though, I’d rather get busy.
* * * * * * *
Craig Mackintosh Bio -
Originally from New Zealand (see wildimages.eu), I’ve lived and worked in many occupations and in many countries on several continents. I think one of my strongest personality traits is having a reasonable measure of empathy, and after working and rubbing shoulders with people from a wide range of circumstances and backgrounds, I think this has only intensified. I do feel a burden that people are wholly unready for what’s about to hit them. I stay sane by not worrying about things I cannot change, but also by changing those things I can. Creating the WPN is one of those things that I believed I could contribute, with the potential for a snowball effect to result from it.
If you were to ask me what was the greatest turning point in my life, I’d say it was from the one-year intensive organic biological agriculture course I took many years ago, and, to be even more specific, the soil science component of those studies. With some understanding of the world beneath our feet, you cannot look at the world in the same way. You realize that all life that exists in the world only does so because of all the other life forms that exist. Everything in our biosphere retains its right to life through interdependency.
Humans are no different, except that, despite apparently being the most intelligent – the ‘higher species’ – we’ve somehow forgotten this basic, but crucial, fact. We’ve created human ‘systems’ based on linear, factory floor production lines. Our ultimate aim is to turn resources and labor into landfill as fast as possible, and it must get faster every year. We’ve painted ourselves into a corner in every way possible, not only in regards to resources, but also socially. We’re individualistic, and atomized. Nothing in nature is like that. At least, nothing that survives.
But, through studying soil science I also came to see that I could become a positive element in the world I live in – purely by cooperating with immutable, unchangeable natural laws I was studying. By understanding how the soil works, I could manage it for the benefit of myself and the soil. I could effectively become the catalyst to speeding a beneficial synergistic response from the elements around me. In the same way this applies to soil, it can apply to every area of human need.
Editorial Notes:
Hats off to Craig Mackintosh and the Permaculture Institute of Australia for launching this innovative and collaborative project. Go check it out.
There is now also a Permaculture Institute of the US here. -KS
Tips for Attracting Birds - Turn Up the Volume
Five Tips for Attracting Birds
Start with water. If you add only one songbird-attracting element, this should be it, says naturalist Cliff Fairweather, who recommends incorporating a drip or fountain if possible.
Offer a variety of natural foods. “Native plants are what native insects have evolved to eat,” says Fairweather. “Seed eaters depend on native grasses, thistles, and flower heads.” Many birds also eat fruits.
Create tempting nesting sites. Cavity nesters—bluebirds, wrens, and others—benefit from a variety of nesting boxes.
Design from ground to treetop. “Dense, layered vegetation is the best shelter and space for many birds,” says Fairweather.
Start with water. If you add only one songbird-attracting element, this should be it, says naturalist Cliff Fairweather, who recommends incorporating a drip or fountain if possible.
Offer a variety of natural foods. “Native plants are what native insects have evolved to eat,” says Fairweather. “Seed eaters depend on native grasses, thistles, and flower heads.” Many birds also eat fruits.
Create tempting nesting sites. Cavity nesters—bluebirds, wrens, and others—benefit from a variety of nesting boxes.
Design from ground to treetop. “Dense, layered vegetation is the best shelter and space for many birds,” says Fairweather.
Turn Up the Volume
Created 2012-05-07
Gardeners select plants for their visual beauty, aromatic splendor, or edible glory. We see our gardens, we smell our gardens, and we taste our gardens. But do we listen to our gardens? By focusing on plants that attract songbirds, we can create gardens that literally sing.
“Birdsong has two primary purposes,” explains Sergio Harding, a biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries: “To establish a territory and to attract a mate.” Thus, incorporating birdsong into a garden is as simple as creating an environment that encourages songbirds to settle down and raise a family. How to do that? “Think like a bird,” says Cliff Fairweather, a naturalist and the Northern Virginia organizer for Audubon at Home, the Audubon Society’s backyard wildlife habitat education program. “What does a bird need to survive? Food, water, shelter, and space are the key components of habitats that birds seek.”
To plan an audible garden, think about the birds you’d like to attract and the sorts of environments they prefer.
Musical Phenoms: Bluebirds, Robins, and Other Thrushes
Field guides use terms like ethereal, liquid, flutelike, and hauntingly beautiful to describe these birds’ voices. “The thrushes have, for my money, the most beautiful songs of North American songbirds,” says Fairweather. “The veery actually sings in harmony with itself.”
Live in a range of habitats. Robins and bluebirds prefer fields, yards, and open woods, while the remaining thrushes seek forests and shrubby habitats.
Eat insects and fruit.
Nest in trees and shrubs or on the ground. Bluebirds nest in cavities.
Attract with grasses, shrubs, and trees. Some species are true forest-dwellers. Nesting boxes entice bluebirds.
Big, Bubbling Songs: Wrens
For nonstop song, it’s hard to beat the various species of wrens. One captive male Carolina wren, for example, sang nearly 3,000 times in a single day. Most species readily adapt to backyard living and will fill the garden with song from dawn to dusk.
Live primarily in forests, open woodlands, and well-planted back yards.
Eat insects and spiders.
Nest primarily in cavities. Also shrubs.
Attract with a mix of trees, shrubs, and nesting boxes.
Whistles, Chirps, Buzzes, and Trills: Sparrows and Finches
This large group of songbirds includes towhees, grosbeaks, juncos, and a plethora of sparrows and finches. Some of the most common species—such as song sparrows, fox sparrows, white-throated sparrows, purple finches, and house finches—are real standout vocal artists.
Live in fields, yards, and open woodlands.
Eat seeds. Occasionally fruit and insects.
Nest in trees and shrubs or on the ground.
Attract with dense plantings of seed-bearing plants, such as purple coneflower, native grasses, and sunflowers.
Clear Notes and Cheerful Voices: Warblers
Bright colors and variable songs make the warblers some of the most beloved songbirds in North America. Tempt these insect-eaters with dense, multitiered plantings of shrubs and trees, which offer shelter and harbor insects. Warblers are also attracted to water.
Live in forests, open woodlands, and densely planted back yards.
Eat insects, usually harvested from trees or shrubs. Also fruit, in fall and winter.
Nest in trees or shrubs or on the ground. The prothonotary warbler nests in cavities.
Attract with dense, insect-harboring shrubs and moving water.
Mimics and Late-Night Performers: Mockingbirds, Catbirds, and Other Thrashers
They may not be the most melodious songbirds, but these renowned mimics are certainly among the most enthusiastic; both mockingbirds and catbirds will sing into the night, often performing until the early morning hours.
Live in shrubby habitats, yards, and woodland edges.
Eat insects and fruit.
Nest in shrubs.
Attract with fruiting shrubs, dense cover, and last year’s unraked leaves.
Garden Gossips and Winter Chatter: Chickadees, Titmice, and Other Talkers
Chickadees and titmice chatter while foraging, and are not shy about scolding gardeners who venture too close. Because these diminutive birds rarely migrate, they provide gardeners with a soundtrack throughout the year. “The Peter-Peter-Peter song of tufted titmice can be heard not long after the winter solstice,” says Fairweather. “It’s my sign that spring will come.”
Live in forests, open woodlands, and well-treed back yards.
Eat insects, usually harvested from trees or shrubs. Also fruits and seeds.
Nest in cavities.
Attract with trees, shrubs, and nesting boxes.
“When you get down to it, all bird vocalizations have something to offer for the attentive listener,” says Harding, who believes there are no wrong choices when selecting the soundtrack for your garden.
Attracting Songbirds to Your Backyard: Hundreds of Easy Ways to Bring the Music and Beauty of Songbirds to Your Yard, a new book by Sally Roth, explains which birds sing when and why, and how to provide food and create habitat to encourage songbirds to make a home in your garden. Rodale, $31.95; available in the Store atOrganicGardening.com.
Source URL: http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/songbirds-in-the-garden
Created 2012-05-07
Gardeners select plants for their visual beauty, aromatic splendor, or edible glory. We see our gardens, we smell our gardens, and we taste our gardens. But do we listen to our gardens? By focusing on plants that attract songbirds, we can create gardens that literally sing.
“Birdsong has two primary purposes,” explains Sergio Harding, a biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries: “To establish a territory and to attract a mate.” Thus, incorporating birdsong into a garden is as simple as creating an environment that encourages songbirds to settle down and raise a family. How to do that? “Think like a bird,” says Cliff Fairweather, a naturalist and the Northern Virginia organizer for Audubon at Home, the Audubon Society’s backyard wildlife habitat education program. “What does a bird need to survive? Food, water, shelter, and space are the key components of habitats that birds seek.”
To plan an audible garden, think about the birds you’d like to attract and the sorts of environments they prefer.
Musical Phenoms: Bluebirds, Robins, and Other Thrushes
Field guides use terms like ethereal, liquid, flutelike, and hauntingly beautiful to describe these birds’ voices. “The thrushes have, for my money, the most beautiful songs of North American songbirds,” says Fairweather. “The veery actually sings in harmony with itself.”
Live in a range of habitats. Robins and bluebirds prefer fields, yards, and open woods, while the remaining thrushes seek forests and shrubby habitats.
Eat insects and fruit.
Nest in trees and shrubs or on the ground. Bluebirds nest in cavities.
Attract with grasses, shrubs, and trees. Some species are true forest-dwellers. Nesting boxes entice bluebirds.
Big, Bubbling Songs: Wrens
For nonstop song, it’s hard to beat the various species of wrens. One captive male Carolina wren, for example, sang nearly 3,000 times in a single day. Most species readily adapt to backyard living and will fill the garden with song from dawn to dusk.
Live primarily in forests, open woodlands, and well-planted back yards.
Eat insects and spiders.
Nest primarily in cavities. Also shrubs.
Attract with a mix of trees, shrubs, and nesting boxes.
Whistles, Chirps, Buzzes, and Trills: Sparrows and Finches
This large group of songbirds includes towhees, grosbeaks, juncos, and a plethora of sparrows and finches. Some of the most common species—such as song sparrows, fox sparrows, white-throated sparrows, purple finches, and house finches—are real standout vocal artists.
Live in fields, yards, and open woodlands.
Eat seeds. Occasionally fruit and insects.
Nest in trees and shrubs or on the ground.
Attract with dense plantings of seed-bearing plants, such as purple coneflower, native grasses, and sunflowers.
Clear Notes and Cheerful Voices: Warblers
Bright colors and variable songs make the warblers some of the most beloved songbirds in North America. Tempt these insect-eaters with dense, multitiered plantings of shrubs and trees, which offer shelter and harbor insects. Warblers are also attracted to water.
Live in forests, open woodlands, and densely planted back yards.
Eat insects, usually harvested from trees or shrubs. Also fruit, in fall and winter.
Nest in trees or shrubs or on the ground. The prothonotary warbler nests in cavities.
Attract with dense, insect-harboring shrubs and moving water.
Mimics and Late-Night Performers: Mockingbirds, Catbirds, and Other Thrashers
They may not be the most melodious songbirds, but these renowned mimics are certainly among the most enthusiastic; both mockingbirds and catbirds will sing into the night, often performing until the early morning hours.
Live in shrubby habitats, yards, and woodland edges.
Eat insects and fruit.
Nest in shrubs.
Attract with fruiting shrubs, dense cover, and last year’s unraked leaves.
Garden Gossips and Winter Chatter: Chickadees, Titmice, and Other Talkers
Chickadees and titmice chatter while foraging, and are not shy about scolding gardeners who venture too close. Because these diminutive birds rarely migrate, they provide gardeners with a soundtrack throughout the year. “The Peter-Peter-Peter song of tufted titmice can be heard not long after the winter solstice,” says Fairweather. “It’s my sign that spring will come.”
Live in forests, open woodlands, and well-treed back yards.
Eat insects, usually harvested from trees or shrubs. Also fruits and seeds.
Nest in cavities.
Attract with trees, shrubs, and nesting boxes.
“When you get down to it, all bird vocalizations have something to offer for the attentive listener,” says Harding, who believes there are no wrong choices when selecting the soundtrack for your garden.
Attracting Songbirds to Your Backyard: Hundreds of Easy Ways to Bring the Music and Beauty of Songbirds to Your Yard, a new book by Sally Roth, explains which birds sing when and why, and how to provide food and create habitat to encourage songbirds to make a home in your garden. Rodale, $31.95; available in the Store atOrganicGardening.com.
Source URL: http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/songbirds-in-the-garden
Biochar Bob goes to Hawaii - YouTube
Published on Aug 2, 2012 by Biochar Bob
Join Biochar Bob as he travels to Hawaii and talks to a variety of biochar producers and users!
Aug 7, 2012
The Lexicon of Sustainability
http://www.lexiconofsustainability.com/
The Lexicon of Sustainability is based on a simple premise: people can’t be expected to live more sustainable lives if they don’t even know the most basic terms and principles that define sustainability.
For the past three years Douglas Gayeton and Laura Howard-Gayeton have crisscrossed the USA to learn this new language of sustainability from its foremost practitioners in food and farming. Alice Waters on edible schoolyards. Wes Jackson on reinventing wheat farming. Joel Salatin on embracing the value of saner farming practices. Vandana Shivaon the global imperative of protecting seeds. Paul Stamets on how mushrooms can save the world. Will Allen on Food Security. Temple Grandin on the humane slaughter of animals. Farmer John on the revolutionary idea of community-supported agriculture.
In all, nearly two hundred leaders in food and farming from across the country have contributed their valued experiences to this rapidly growing Lexicon of Sustainability. These insights have been translated into large format “information art” photo collages, a series of short films, and pop up shows across the USA. Study guides, a book, and lastly a social network of good ideas, a place where people can dig deeper into these terms (and even add to our ever-evolving lexicon), are also under development.
By illuminating the vocabulary of sustainable agriculture, and with it the conversation about America’s rapidly evolving food culture, the Lexicon of Sustainability educates, engages and activates people to pay closer attention to how they eat, what they buy, and where their responsibility begins for creating a healthier, safer food system in America.
And it all begins with learning a few words.
---------------
Great work is being done by The Lexicon of Sustainability... check out all the art, movies, etc. using better language to communicate the knowledge of sustainable agriculture...
Monte & Eileen Hines
A great example:
Large Image
Farm Progress Show Camera Selection Page - Farm Progress
Farm Progress Show Camera Selection Page - Farm Progress
Farm Progress Show Web Cam
Want to watch the Farm Progress Show come together? Now you can with the FPS web cameras sponsored by Raven. Four cameras cover the show grounds and field demonstration fields. Not only can you watch the Farm Progress Show being built over the next month, you'll be able to see what's happening during the show. It's a cool way to keep up with the Farm Progress Show! CLICK HERE
The White House Champions of Change Program - YouTube
Published on Aug 7, 2012 by whitehouse
The White House Champions of Change program honors everyday Americans doing extraordinary things in their communities
Great great program that makes a difference in peoples lives...
Monte & Eileen Hines
Portable Biochar Maker Project - YouTube
Published on Aug 7, 2012 by looseapples
What we have here is a completely new technology; it's a mobile batch pyrolysis plant. Pyrolysis is the low temperature thermal conversion of biomass to a product called biochar. So effectively we are cooking wood in a low oxygen environment at around 500 degrees in a very large slow combustion oven.
Restoration Agriculture Project. Check out the video!
Posted on July 30, 2012 by admin
Article and video by Heather Faivre
Full Article at: http://agroecologyandsustainableagriculture.org/restoration-agriculture-project-check-out-the-video/
This spring students at the University of Illinois initiated a study of permaculture design at the Sustainable Student Farm on the South Farms of the Urbana, Illinois Campus. The study is called Restoration Agriculture, and the goal of the project is to compare the production of traditional corn and soy bean agricultural plots with plots that consist of woody perennials.
The restoration agriculture system is designed following the layers and niches of the oak savanna, which is a native ecosystem of much of the Upper Midwest, which includes Champaign-Urbana and the University of Illinois.
While much of the state of Illinois’ landscape is defined by miles and miles of corn and soybeans, Ron Revord and Kevin Wolz—the University of Illinois students collaborating on this project—seek to develop a system of agriculture that would return the Illinois landscape to trees, shrubs and grasses, while still accomplishing the task of producing enough food to feed the world.
The perennial woody plants this project utilizes to produce food are selected to replace the typical species found in the different layers of a native oak savanna. The oak tree, which represents the tallest canopy layer, is replaced with chestnut trees. The next layer of understory trees is typically occupied by Service Berries, Crab Apples, and Wild Cherries and Plum. The agricultural canopy employs select varieties of domestic apple trees that are disease resistant and cold hardy. The high shrub layer is naturally the hazelnut plant. Restoration Agriculture maintains the Hazelnut layer with a variety that is more cold hardy and produces larger nuts. The low shrub layer is then planted with productive varieties of current and raspberries and a vine layer is planted with table or wine grapes.
The key commodity crops of the Restoration Agriculture system are the Chestnut and the Hazelnut. Which nutritionally can replace corn and soybeans in our current industrial food system. In our current food system corn produces much of our carbohydrates and soybeans produce oils and proteins. When we compare the nutritional profiles of Chestnuts and Hazelnuts with Corn and Soybeans they are directly interchangeable. Chestnut it is almost identical with corn, as the majority of calories in Chestnuts are carbohydrates or sugars. Likewise, the nutritional profile of the hazelnut is primarily protein and oil, which is directly interchangeable for soy in our industrial food system.
By developing an agricultural model that mimics a native ecosystem, Revord and Wolz hope to restore ecosystem services, increase biodiversity and end dependence on fertilizers and pesticides.
Their study includes plots on the Sustainable Student Farm at the University of Illinois, Prairie Fruits Farms in Urbana Illinois and New Forest Farms in Viola Wisconsin.
Great to see Universities (in this case University of Illinois) getting involved in permaculture.
Resulting research facts can help to build a shift from our current destructive agricultural practices to biennial / polyculture / permaculture practices.
With Regards and Respect To All,
Hines Farm
Monte & Eileen Hines
Related Link: http://www.permies.com/t/16590/permaculture/University-Illinois-Permaculture-Restoration-Agriculture#144782
Full Article at: http://agroecologyandsustainableagriculture.org/restoration-agriculture-project-check-out-the-video/
This spring students at the University of Illinois initiated a study of permaculture design at the Sustainable Student Farm on the South Farms of the Urbana, Illinois Campus. The study is called Restoration Agriculture, and the goal of the project is to compare the production of traditional corn and soy bean agricultural plots with plots that consist of woody perennials.
The restoration agriculture system is designed following the layers and niches of the oak savanna, which is a native ecosystem of much of the Upper Midwest, which includes Champaign-Urbana and the University of Illinois.
While much of the state of Illinois’ landscape is defined by miles and miles of corn and soybeans, Ron Revord and Kevin Wolz—the University of Illinois students collaborating on this project—seek to develop a system of agriculture that would return the Illinois landscape to trees, shrubs and grasses, while still accomplishing the task of producing enough food to feed the world.
The perennial woody plants this project utilizes to produce food are selected to replace the typical species found in the different layers of a native oak savanna. The oak tree, which represents the tallest canopy layer, is replaced with chestnut trees. The next layer of understory trees is typically occupied by Service Berries, Crab Apples, and Wild Cherries and Plum. The agricultural canopy employs select varieties of domestic apple trees that are disease resistant and cold hardy. The high shrub layer is naturally the hazelnut plant. Restoration Agriculture maintains the Hazelnut layer with a variety that is more cold hardy and produces larger nuts. The low shrub layer is then planted with productive varieties of current and raspberries and a vine layer is planted with table or wine grapes.
The key commodity crops of the Restoration Agriculture system are the Chestnut and the Hazelnut. Which nutritionally can replace corn and soybeans in our current industrial food system. In our current food system corn produces much of our carbohydrates and soybeans produce oils and proteins. When we compare the nutritional profiles of Chestnuts and Hazelnuts with Corn and Soybeans they are directly interchangeable. Chestnut it is almost identical with corn, as the majority of calories in Chestnuts are carbohydrates or sugars. Likewise, the nutritional profile of the hazelnut is primarily protein and oil, which is directly interchangeable for soy in our industrial food system.
By developing an agricultural model that mimics a native ecosystem, Revord and Wolz hope to restore ecosystem services, increase biodiversity and end dependence on fertilizers and pesticides.
Their study includes plots on the Sustainable Student Farm at the University of Illinois, Prairie Fruits Farms in Urbana Illinois and New Forest Farms in Viola Wisconsin.
Great to see Universities (in this case University of Illinois) getting involved in permaculture.
Resulting research facts can help to build a shift from our current destructive agricultural practices to biennial / polyculture / permaculture practices.
With Regards and Respect To All,
Hines Farm
Monte & Eileen Hines
Related Link: http://www.permies.com/t/16590/permaculture/University-Illinois-Permaculture-Restoration-Agriculture#144782
Climate Change is Here — and Worse Than We Thought | Common Dreams
NASA's James Hansen, the 'Godfather of Global Warming,' says earlier predictions "too optimistic"
by James Hansen
Larger Image
by James Hansen
Larger Image
When I testified before the Senate in the hot summer of 1988 , I warned of the kind of future that climate change would bring to us and our planet. I painted a grim picture of the consequences of steadily increasing temperatures, driven by mankind’s use of fossil fuels.
But I have a confession to make: I was too optimistic.
My projections about increasing global temperature have been proved true. But I failed to fully explore how quickly that average rise would drive an increase in extreme weather.
... our analysis shows that, for the extreme hot weather of the recent past, there is virtually no explanation other than climate change.
In a new analysis of the past six decades of global temperatures, which will be published Monday, my colleagues and I have revealed a stunning increase in the frequency of extremely hot summers, with deeply troubling ramifications for not only our future but also for our present.
This is not a climate model or a prediction but actual observations of weather events and temperatures that have happened. Our analysis shows that it is no longer enough to say that global warming will increase the likelihood of extreme weather and to repeat the caveat that no individual weather event can be directly linked to climate change. To the contrary, our analysis shows that, for the extreme hot weather of the recent past, there is virtually no explanation other than climate change.
The deadly European heat wave of 2003, the fiery Russian heat wave of 2010 and catastrophic droughts in Texas and Oklahoma last year can each be attributed to climate change. And once the data are gathered in a few weeks’ time, it’s likely that the same will be true for the extremely hot summer the United States is suffering through right now.
These weather events are not simply an example of what climate change could bring. They are caused by climate change. The odds that natural variability created these extremes are minuscule, vanishingly small. To count on those odds would be like quitting your job and playing the lottery every morning to pay the bills.
Twenty-four years ago, I introduced the concept of “climate dice” to help distinguish the long-term trend of climate change from the natural variability of day-to-day weather. Some summers are hot, some cool. Some winters brutal, some mild. That’s natural variability.
But as the climate warms, natural variability is altered, too. In a normal climate without global warming, two sides of the die would represent cooler-than-normal weather, two sides would be normal weather, and two sides would be warmer-than-normal weather. Rolling the die again and again, or season after season, you would get an equal variation of weather over time.
An clean energy economy ... is a simple, honest and effective solution.
But loading the die with a warming climate changes the odds. You end up with only one side cooler than normal, one side average, and four sides warmer than normal. Even with climate change, you will occasionally see cooler-than-normal summers or a typically cold winter. Don’t let that fool you.
Our new peer-reviewed study, published by the National Academy of Sciences, makes clear that while average global temperature has been steadily rising due to a warming climate (up about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the past century), the extremes are actually becoming much more frequent and more intense worldwide.
When we plotted the world’s changing temperatures on a bell curve, the extremes of unusually cool and, even more, the extremes of unusually hot are being altered so they are becoming both more common and more severe.
The change is so dramatic that one face of the die must now represent extreme weather to illustrate the greater frequency of extremely hot weather events.
Such events used to be exceedingly rare. Extremely hot temperatures covered about 0.1 percent to 0.2 percent of the globe in the base period of our study, from 1951 to 1980. In the last three decades, while the average temperature has slowly risen, the extremes have soared and now cover about 10 percent of the globe.
This is the world we have changed, and now we have to live in it — the world that caused the 2003 heat wave in Europe that killed more than 50,000 people and the 2011 drought in Texas that caused more than $5 billion in damage. Such events, our data show, will become even more frequent and more severe.
There is still time to act and avoid a worsening climate, but we are wasting precious time. We can solve the challenge of climate change with a gradually rising fee on carbon collected from fossil-fuel companies, with 100 percent of the money rebated to all legal residents on a per capita basis. This would stimulate innovations and create a robust clean-energy economy with millions of new jobs. It is a simple, honest and effective solution.
The future is now. And it is hot.
Dr. James Hansen is director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and adjunct professor in the department of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University. He was the first scientist to warn the US Congress of the dangers of climate change and writes here as a private citizen. Hansen is the author of "Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity."
Related Links:
http://www.permies.com/t/16535/meaningless-drivel/James-Hansen-Extreme-Heat-Events#144455
http://www.ted.com/talks/james_hansen_why_i_must_speak_out_about_climate_change.html
Hines Farm Blog: Grow More Food & Fight Climate Change: Black...
Mar 10, 2012
Bill McKibben "Biochar, produced in pyrolysis of residues from crops, forestry, and animal wastes, can be used to restore soil fertility while storing carbon for centuries to millennia."-- Dr. James Hansen (NASA climate scientist).
Hines Farm Blog: Top climate scientists warn Congress over ...
Feb 13, 2012
James Hansen, Research Scientist, The International Research Institute for Climate and Society, The Earth Institute, Columbia University John Abraham, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, University of St. Thomas ...
Hines Farm Blog: Nine of the top ten warmest years in the modern...
Jan 24, 2012
“We know the planet is absorbing more energy than it is emitting,” said GISS director James Hansen. “So we are continuing to see a trend toward higher temperatures. Even with the cooling effects of a strong La Niña influence ...
How to Solve the Climate Problem - by JAMES HANSEN
Feb 15, 2010
How to Solve the Climate Problem - by JAMES HANSEN ... In summary, the backbone of a solution to the climate problem is a flat carbon emissions price applied across all fossil fuels at the source. This carbon price (fee, tax) ...
The Sophie Prize 2010 Goes to Dr. James E. Hansen
Apr 07, 2010
Dr. James E. Hansen (born 1941) has played a key role in the development of our understanding of human impact on the climate for more than 30 years. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, an adjunct ...
Hines Farm Blog: Towards a Sustainable Economy - a knol by Sam ...
Aug 22, 2011
Dr. James Hansen once calculated that reforestation of degraded land and improved agricultural practices that retain soil carbon together could draw down atmospheric carbon dixode by as much as 50 ppm, adding that this ...
Hines Farm Blog: Disarming the Biochar Wars | re:char
Feb 17, 2010
We urge our readers to link to this article, as anti-biochar crusaders have resorted to unacceptable tactics such as spamming notable scientists like Dr. James Hansen and Prof. Johannes Lehmann. Read Whole Post ... Posted ...
Hines Farm Blog: Jason Aramburu on the Promise of Biochar ...
Feb 17, 2010
Dr. James Hansen on Biochar and Storage of Carbon in Soil .....How to Solve the Climate Problem - by JAMES HANSEN... Sun or Moon Rise/Set Table for One Year · Whizbang Row Cover Hoop System · Biochar Overview ...
Hines Farm Blog: Climate Change Contrarian Nonsense
Apr 15, 2010
Several books that cut through the confusion are Storms of My Grandchildren by James Hansen, The Long Thaw, by David Archer, and The Rising Sea, by Orrin Pilkey and Rob Young. Posted by Monte at Thursday, April 15, ...
Hines Farm Blog: Brave Thinkers - Magazine - Atlantic Monthly
Mar 11, 2010
The NASA climate expert James Hansen says that the carbon could be stored for “centuries to millennia.” Eprida hopes to use the biochar to soak up carbon dioxide at polluting factories and then bury it in areas with poor soil ...
Hines Farm Blog: BioChar Engineering :: Home
Feb 17, 2010
According to NASA climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, biochar is one of the key ways to remove net carbon from the atmosphere. Biochar increases soil fertility and decreases net carbon in the atmosphere. The company is ...
Hines Farm Blog: Arrested at the White House: Acting as a Living...
Aug 25, 2011
Now the question is: Will we do the same to the boreal forests of Canada. As NASA climatologist James Hansen has made all too clear, if we do so it's “essentially game over for the climate.” That message is getting through.
Hines Farm Blog: The lost civilization: Finding a reality-based frame ...
Jun 27, 2010
And don't discount the informed, scientific warnings of James Hansen and others that we may be in the process of climatically snuffing out the entire circus, clowns and all. (Not that even this warning-of-all-warnings would ...
But I have a confession to make: I was too optimistic.
My projections about increasing global temperature have been proved true. But I failed to fully explore how quickly that average rise would drive an increase in extreme weather.
... our analysis shows that, for the extreme hot weather of the recent past, there is virtually no explanation other than climate change.
In a new analysis of the past six decades of global temperatures, which will be published Monday, my colleagues and I have revealed a stunning increase in the frequency of extremely hot summers, with deeply troubling ramifications for not only our future but also for our present.
This is not a climate model or a prediction but actual observations of weather events and temperatures that have happened. Our analysis shows that it is no longer enough to say that global warming will increase the likelihood of extreme weather and to repeat the caveat that no individual weather event can be directly linked to climate change. To the contrary, our analysis shows that, for the extreme hot weather of the recent past, there is virtually no explanation other than climate change.
The deadly European heat wave of 2003, the fiery Russian heat wave of 2010 and catastrophic droughts in Texas and Oklahoma last year can each be attributed to climate change. And once the data are gathered in a few weeks’ time, it’s likely that the same will be true for the extremely hot summer the United States is suffering through right now.
These weather events are not simply an example of what climate change could bring. They are caused by climate change. The odds that natural variability created these extremes are minuscule, vanishingly small. To count on those odds would be like quitting your job and playing the lottery every morning to pay the bills.
Twenty-four years ago, I introduced the concept of “climate dice” to help distinguish the long-term trend of climate change from the natural variability of day-to-day weather. Some summers are hot, some cool. Some winters brutal, some mild. That’s natural variability.
But as the climate warms, natural variability is altered, too. In a normal climate without global warming, two sides of the die would represent cooler-than-normal weather, two sides would be normal weather, and two sides would be warmer-than-normal weather. Rolling the die again and again, or season after season, you would get an equal variation of weather over time.
An clean energy economy ... is a simple, honest and effective solution.
But loading the die with a warming climate changes the odds. You end up with only one side cooler than normal, one side average, and four sides warmer than normal. Even with climate change, you will occasionally see cooler-than-normal summers or a typically cold winter. Don’t let that fool you.
Our new peer-reviewed study, published by the National Academy of Sciences, makes clear that while average global temperature has been steadily rising due to a warming climate (up about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the past century), the extremes are actually becoming much more frequent and more intense worldwide.
When we plotted the world’s changing temperatures on a bell curve, the extremes of unusually cool and, even more, the extremes of unusually hot are being altered so they are becoming both more common and more severe.
The change is so dramatic that one face of the die must now represent extreme weather to illustrate the greater frequency of extremely hot weather events.
Such events used to be exceedingly rare. Extremely hot temperatures covered about 0.1 percent to 0.2 percent of the globe in the base period of our study, from 1951 to 1980. In the last three decades, while the average temperature has slowly risen, the extremes have soared and now cover about 10 percent of the globe.
This is the world we have changed, and now we have to live in it — the world that caused the 2003 heat wave in Europe that killed more than 50,000 people and the 2011 drought in Texas that caused more than $5 billion in damage. Such events, our data show, will become even more frequent and more severe.
There is still time to act and avoid a worsening climate, but we are wasting precious time. We can solve the challenge of climate change with a gradually rising fee on carbon collected from fossil-fuel companies, with 100 percent of the money rebated to all legal residents on a per capita basis. This would stimulate innovations and create a robust clean-energy economy with millions of new jobs. It is a simple, honest and effective solution.
The future is now. And it is hot.
Dr. James Hansen is director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and adjunct professor in the department of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University. He was the first scientist to warn the US Congress of the dangers of climate change and writes here as a private citizen. Hansen is the author of "Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity."
Related Links:
http://www.permies.com/t/16535/meaningless-drivel/James-Hansen-Extreme-Heat-Events#144455
http://www.ted.com/talks/james_hansen_why_i_must_speak_out_about_climate_change.html
Hines Farm Blog: Grow More Food & Fight Climate Change: Black...
Mar 10, 2012
Bill McKibben "Biochar, produced in pyrolysis of residues from crops, forestry, and animal wastes, can be used to restore soil fertility while storing carbon for centuries to millennia."-- Dr. James Hansen (NASA climate scientist).
Hines Farm Blog: Top climate scientists warn Congress over ...
Feb 13, 2012
James Hansen, Research Scientist, The International Research Institute for Climate and Society, The Earth Institute, Columbia University John Abraham, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, University of St. Thomas ...
Hines Farm Blog: Nine of the top ten warmest years in the modern...
Jan 24, 2012
“We know the planet is absorbing more energy than it is emitting,” said GISS director James Hansen. “So we are continuing to see a trend toward higher temperatures. Even with the cooling effects of a strong La Niña influence ...
How to Solve the Climate Problem - by JAMES HANSEN
Feb 15, 2010
How to Solve the Climate Problem - by JAMES HANSEN ... In summary, the backbone of a solution to the climate problem is a flat carbon emissions price applied across all fossil fuels at the source. This carbon price (fee, tax) ...
The Sophie Prize 2010 Goes to Dr. James E. Hansen
Apr 07, 2010
Dr. James E. Hansen (born 1941) has played a key role in the development of our understanding of human impact on the climate for more than 30 years. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, an adjunct ...
Hines Farm Blog: Towards a Sustainable Economy - a knol by Sam ...
Aug 22, 2011
Dr. James Hansen once calculated that reforestation of degraded land and improved agricultural practices that retain soil carbon together could draw down atmospheric carbon dixode by as much as 50 ppm, adding that this ...
Hines Farm Blog: Disarming the Biochar Wars | re:char
Feb 17, 2010
We urge our readers to link to this article, as anti-biochar crusaders have resorted to unacceptable tactics such as spamming notable scientists like Dr. James Hansen and Prof. Johannes Lehmann. Read Whole Post ... Posted ...
Hines Farm Blog: Jason Aramburu on the Promise of Biochar ...
Feb 17, 2010
Dr. James Hansen on Biochar and Storage of Carbon in Soil .....How to Solve the Climate Problem - by JAMES HANSEN... Sun or Moon Rise/Set Table for One Year · Whizbang Row Cover Hoop System · Biochar Overview ...
Hines Farm Blog: Climate Change Contrarian Nonsense
Apr 15, 2010
Several books that cut through the confusion are Storms of My Grandchildren by James Hansen, The Long Thaw, by David Archer, and The Rising Sea, by Orrin Pilkey and Rob Young. Posted by Monte at Thursday, April 15, ...
Hines Farm Blog: Brave Thinkers - Magazine - Atlantic Monthly
Mar 11, 2010
The NASA climate expert James Hansen says that the carbon could be stored for “centuries to millennia.” Eprida hopes to use the biochar to soak up carbon dioxide at polluting factories and then bury it in areas with poor soil ...
Hines Farm Blog: BioChar Engineering :: Home
Feb 17, 2010
According to NASA climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, biochar is one of the key ways to remove net carbon from the atmosphere. Biochar increases soil fertility and decreases net carbon in the atmosphere. The company is ...
Hines Farm Blog: Arrested at the White House: Acting as a Living...
Aug 25, 2011
Now the question is: Will we do the same to the boreal forests of Canada. As NASA climatologist James Hansen has made all too clear, if we do so it's “essentially game over for the climate.” That message is getting through.
Hines Farm Blog: The lost civilization: Finding a reality-based frame ...
Jun 27, 2010
And don't discount the informed, scientific warnings of James Hansen and others that we may be in the process of climatically snuffing out the entire circus, clowns and all. (Not that even this warning-of-all-warnings would ...
Aug 6, 2012
The Nation's Chris Hayes: Why Our Elites and Leaders Fail - YouTube
Published on Aug 6, 2012 by ForaTv
MSNBC Host and Editor-at-Large of The Nation Chris Hayes argues that the decline of meritocracy in U.S. leadership is resulting in elites that cannot help but fail. "We have a social model that is breaking down before our eyes," says Hayes, "a method of elite selection that is growing increasingly sclerotic, rigged, and corrupt."
Complete video available for purchase at http://fora.tv/2012/07/11/MSNBCs_Chris_Hayes_Meritocracy_and_Americas_Failing
Monsanto’s Quiet Coup: Will Congress Limit Scope and Time for GMO Reviews? | PR Watch
by Jill Richardson — August 1, 2012
Full Article: http://www.prwatch.org/node/11685
Full Article: http://www.prwatch.org/node/11685
After a series of court defeats over the past few years, Monsanto and friends are trying to use Congress to make an end-run around the courts and current law. Lawsuits brought by opponents of genetically engineered (GE) crops resulted in the temporary removal of two products -- Roundup Ready Alfalfa and Roundup Ready Sugarbeets -- from the market. If the biotechnology industry and the legislators they support have their way, future GE crops will not suffer the same fate.
Genetically engineered crops are plants that have had genes from other species inserted into their DNA. "Roundup Ready"crops like alfalfa and sugarbeets fall in a class of GE crops called "herbicide tolerant" crops, which are engineered to survive exposure to Monsanto's bestselling herbicide Roundup. Farmers spray their entire fields with Roundup, killing only the weeds. Monsanto profits by selling both the seeds and increased quantities of Roundup herbicide.
The "Big 6" pesticide and genetic engineering corporations -- BASF, Bayer, Dupont, Dow, Syngenta, andMonsanto -- have made millions while providing everyone else with questionable benefits and enormous risks. The riskiness of genetically engineered crops comes in part from their ability to cross-pollinate crops in other fields, spreading their genes far and wide. Once a new genetically engineered crop is introduced, the genie is out of the bottle, and those genes are in our food supply for good. Therefore, it's in everyone's interest (except for the biotech companies that stand to profit) to thoroughly examine any new crop before allowing it on the market.
GMOs Roll on Wheels Reagan Greased
The scene was initially set before the first genetically engineered crops existed, when the pro-industry Reagan administration crafted a lax regulatory framework (known as the "Coordinated Framework") requiring no new laws to regulate genetically engineered crops and animals, thus avoiding any public national debate on the issue. Instead, newly created GE plants would be treated as potential "pests" to other plants and reviewed by government agencies under stilted standards about whether the GE plants hurt other plants or protected animals like endangered species.
With the Coordinated Framework in place, the biotech industry had little to worry about. It had plenty of friends inside the USDA and the bar for "proving" its products were "not a pest" was not set terribly high. One after another, each genetically engineered crop was deregulated, allowing farmers to grow them commercially. Once they reached consumers, the products were not even labeled as "Genetically Modified Organisms" (GMOs), and many Americans had no idea their food had even changed.
Farmers and Consumer Groups Call a Halt in Court
Genetically engineered crops are plants that have had genes from other species inserted into their DNA. "Roundup Ready"crops like alfalfa and sugarbeets fall in a class of GE crops called "herbicide tolerant" crops, which are engineered to survive exposure to Monsanto's bestselling herbicide Roundup. Farmers spray their entire fields with Roundup, killing only the weeds. Monsanto profits by selling both the seeds and increased quantities of Roundup herbicide.
The "Big 6" pesticide and genetic engineering corporations -- BASF, Bayer, Dupont, Dow, Syngenta, andMonsanto -- have made millions while providing everyone else with questionable benefits and enormous risks. The riskiness of genetically engineered crops comes in part from their ability to cross-pollinate crops in other fields, spreading their genes far and wide. Once a new genetically engineered crop is introduced, the genie is out of the bottle, and those genes are in our food supply for good. Therefore, it's in everyone's interest (except for the biotech companies that stand to profit) to thoroughly examine any new crop before allowing it on the market.
GMOs Roll on Wheels Reagan Greased
The scene was initially set before the first genetically engineered crops existed, when the pro-industry Reagan administration crafted a lax regulatory framework (known as the "Coordinated Framework") requiring no new laws to regulate genetically engineered crops and animals, thus avoiding any public national debate on the issue. Instead, newly created GE plants would be treated as potential "pests" to other plants and reviewed by government agencies under stilted standards about whether the GE plants hurt other plants or protected animals like endangered species.
With the Coordinated Framework in place, the biotech industry had little to worry about. It had plenty of friends inside the USDA and the bar for "proving" its products were "not a pest" was not set terribly high. One after another, each genetically engineered crop was deregulated, allowing farmers to grow them commercially. Once they reached consumers, the products were not even labeled as "Genetically Modified Organisms" (GMOs), and many Americans had no idea their food had even changed.
Farmers and Consumer Groups Call a Halt in Court
Farmers vs Monsanto (Source: Food Democracy Now!)Everything was going along fine for industry, in fact, until the matter went to court. At issue was the deregulation of two crops, Roundup Ready alfalfa and Roundup Ready sugarbeets. Instead of completing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) prior to deregulating the crops, the USDA had only performed a more limited Environmental Assessment (EA). Performing an EA limits the level of public involvement in the assessment process as compared with an EIS, which can provide significant time for citizens to submit comments and concerns. For example, the USDA recently received 365,000 comments from citizens opposing the deregulation of Dow's GE "2,4-D corn" (2,4-D is an herbicide that was an ingredient in Agent Orange).
In both cases, Geertson Seed Farms v. Johanns and Center for Food Safety v. Vilsack, the courts ruled that the respective crops could not be deregulated until a full EIS was completed. Furthermore, the crops in question could not be planted until then -- even during the appeals process.
The USDA completed the required EIS's for both crops and, despite thousands of comments expressing concerns, approved the deregulation of Roundup Ready alfalfa in January 2011 and Roundup Ready sugarbeets in July 2012.
2012 "Ag Approps" Gives Props to the "Big 6"
This regulatory victory was not good enough for industry, however. Quietly, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) wrote a gift to biotech companies into the 2013 agriculture appropriations ("Ag Approps") bill. Opponents of GMOs refer to this as the "Monsanto Protection Act." Beneficiaries of Kingston's "rider" to the bill (Section 733) -- such as Monsanto, which lobbied for it in the second quarter of 2012 -- refer to it as the "farmer assurance provision."
If the Ag Approps bill passes as written, if a court removes a GMO from the market after the USDA has deregulated it, the USDA will be required to grant a permit to plant that crop to any farmer who requests one, even if that crop's safety is in question or under review.
Buried Biotech Treasure in the 2012 Farm Bill
In both cases, Geertson Seed Farms v. Johanns and Center for Food Safety v. Vilsack, the courts ruled that the respective crops could not be deregulated until a full EIS was completed. Furthermore, the crops in question could not be planted until then -- even during the appeals process.
The USDA completed the required EIS's for both crops and, despite thousands of comments expressing concerns, approved the deregulation of Roundup Ready alfalfa in January 2011 and Roundup Ready sugarbeets in July 2012.
2012 "Ag Approps" Gives Props to the "Big 6"
This regulatory victory was not good enough for industry, however. Quietly, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) wrote a gift to biotech companies into the 2013 agriculture appropriations ("Ag Approps") bill. Opponents of GMOs refer to this as the "Monsanto Protection Act." Beneficiaries of Kingston's "rider" to the bill (Section 733) -- such as Monsanto, which lobbied for it in the second quarter of 2012 -- refer to it as the "farmer assurance provision."
If the Ag Approps bill passes as written, if a court removes a GMO from the market after the USDA has deregulated it, the USDA will be required to grant a permit to plant that crop to any farmer who requests one, even if that crop's safety is in question or under review.
Buried Biotech Treasure in the 2012 Farm Bill
At the same time, another far-reaching provision favoring the biotech industry is in the works. Buried in the House version of the 2012 Farm Bill, sponsored by House Agriculture Committee chair Frank Lucas (R-OK), is an enormous gift to the biotech industry. The bill changes the Plant Protection Act (PPA) to limit the time and scope of future environmental assessments of GE crops.
The House farm bill as changed by Congressman Lucas alters the legal rules to cut corners on the environmental review by requiring only the more limited EA and by requiring the USDA to complete that review in a maximum period of a year and a half -- or else the GE crop is automatically approved. It also restricts the scope of that limited environmental review and forbids the spending of any money on any broader environmental analysis of the effect of the GMO.
The time limits set by Lucas make haste the official policy of the USDA. For details, see Biotech Riders in the 2012 Farm Bill on SourceWatch. As Dave Murphy, Executive Director of Food Democracy Now!, put it, the pro-biotech language hidden in the bill "will take the U.S. regulatory scheme on GMOs from farce to corporate fascism in one fell swoop."
How did this language find its way into the bill? Monsanto and others have been lobbying Congress on the "regulation of products of agricultural biotechnology under [the] Plant Protection Act and National Environmental Policy Act." Dow Chemical joined Monsanto, lobbying specifically on "deregulation of genetically modified organisms under the Plant Protection Act."
The public lobbying reports do not tell the full story of what Monsanto and Dow wanted specifically and how much money they have spent in the multitude of ways they seek to influence and pressure Congress, but -- as they say -- the proof is in the pudding. Which companies have submitted petitions to the USDA for deregulation of GMOs that would benefit most from the 90-day time limit written into the bill? Monsanto and Dow.
With the Future of Food on the Table, "Big 6" Play with "Weighty" Dice
With these measures buried in enormous bills that are considered "must pass" in order to fund government agencies and determine farm subsidies, the industry and its allies are continuing to avoid an open, honest, full national debate about the safety and risks of GMOs. Congress must pass bills to fund U.S. agriculture policy unless it decides to temporarily extend the terms of the Bush era farm bill.
Even though the USDA approved Monsanto's GMO beets and alfalfa over objections from organic farmers and other concerned citizens, the courts required a full EIS review that allowed the public to weigh in with an array of concerns that exist or are emerging about GE crops. But if the law is changed, as sought by Monsanto-friendly Congressmen like Kingston and Lucas and their buddies, the USDA -- already extremely favorable to biotech -- will lose the ability to do much more than rubberstamp GMO industry requests. More importantly, the courts will not be able to require more thorough environmental review, further opening the door to the haphazard introduction of new GE crops into our food supply, our farms, and our environment.
In response to this, the Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA), an organization which promotes alternatives to pesticides that are safe for workers and the environment, is asking concerned citizens to email their representatives and urge them to stand up to "Big 6" pressure and reject the biotech riders in the farm bill.
Jill Richardson is the founder of the blog "La Vida Locavore" and a member of the Organic Consumers Association policy advisory board. She is the author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It. She is a PRWatch guest contributor.
The House farm bill as changed by Congressman Lucas alters the legal rules to cut corners on the environmental review by requiring only the more limited EA and by requiring the USDA to complete that review in a maximum period of a year and a half -- or else the GE crop is automatically approved. It also restricts the scope of that limited environmental review and forbids the spending of any money on any broader environmental analysis of the effect of the GMO.
The time limits set by Lucas make haste the official policy of the USDA. For details, see Biotech Riders in the 2012 Farm Bill on SourceWatch. As Dave Murphy, Executive Director of Food Democracy Now!, put it, the pro-biotech language hidden in the bill "will take the U.S. regulatory scheme on GMOs from farce to corporate fascism in one fell swoop."
How did this language find its way into the bill? Monsanto and others have been lobbying Congress on the "regulation of products of agricultural biotechnology under [the] Plant Protection Act and National Environmental Policy Act." Dow Chemical joined Monsanto, lobbying specifically on "deregulation of genetically modified organisms under the Plant Protection Act."
The public lobbying reports do not tell the full story of what Monsanto and Dow wanted specifically and how much money they have spent in the multitude of ways they seek to influence and pressure Congress, but -- as they say -- the proof is in the pudding. Which companies have submitted petitions to the USDA for deregulation of GMOs that would benefit most from the 90-day time limit written into the bill? Monsanto and Dow.
With the Future of Food on the Table, "Big 6" Play with "Weighty" Dice
With these measures buried in enormous bills that are considered "must pass" in order to fund government agencies and determine farm subsidies, the industry and its allies are continuing to avoid an open, honest, full national debate about the safety and risks of GMOs. Congress must pass bills to fund U.S. agriculture policy unless it decides to temporarily extend the terms of the Bush era farm bill.
Even though the USDA approved Monsanto's GMO beets and alfalfa over objections from organic farmers and other concerned citizens, the courts required a full EIS review that allowed the public to weigh in with an array of concerns that exist or are emerging about GE crops. But if the law is changed, as sought by Monsanto-friendly Congressmen like Kingston and Lucas and their buddies, the USDA -- already extremely favorable to biotech -- will lose the ability to do much more than rubberstamp GMO industry requests. More importantly, the courts will not be able to require more thorough environmental review, further opening the door to the haphazard introduction of new GE crops into our food supply, our farms, and our environment.
In response to this, the Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA), an organization which promotes alternatives to pesticides that are safe for workers and the environment, is asking concerned citizens to email their representatives and urge them to stand up to "Big 6" pressure and reject the biotech riders in the farm bill.
Jill Richardson is the founder of the blog "La Vida Locavore" and a member of the Organic Consumers Association policy advisory board. She is the author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It. She is a PRWatch guest contributor.
The Wisdom of Wes Jackson - An Ecological Approach to a New Agriculture - YouTube
Published on Apr 18, 2012 by browercenter
On April 5, the David Brower Center welcomed environmental scholar Wes Jackson as he discussed his recent book, "Consulting the Genius of the Place: An Ecological Approach to a New Agriculture" with Executive Director Amy Tobin. Jackson is the president and founder of The Land Institute, an organization committed to developing the field of Natural Systems Agriculture, which focuses on the ecological stability of systems.
Wes Jackson wisdom and knowledge on this subject is outstanding... Much too be learned in the short time required to watch this playlist... A must watch... These ideas are key to the future of humans on this planet... Monte Hines
13 Foods That Fight Sunburn
Created 2012-06-27 09:47
No one sets out to get sunburned, but the pleasant distractions of summer—the long, sunny days, the beckoning beach, losing track of time in the garden—all make it easy to forget that extra coat of sunscreen, or the need to take a break in the shade. Of course, it’s best to avoid sunburn in the first place, given its ability to cause skin cancer and premature aging. Luckily, common foods in your kitchen possess sun-protection compounds to aid your current sun-protection routine. Others may not help prevent sunburn but offer surprising relief if you do accidentally catch too many rays.
Check out these natural food remedies to deal with—or prevent—summer sunburns:
No one sets out to get sunburned, but the pleasant distractions of summer—the long, sunny days, the beckoning beach, losing track of time in the garden—all make it easy to forget that extra coat of sunscreen, or the need to take a break in the shade. Of course, it’s best to avoid sunburn in the first place, given its ability to cause skin cancer and premature aging. Luckily, common foods in your kitchen possess sun-protection compounds to aid your current sun-protection routine. Others may not help prevent sunburn but offer surprising relief if you do accidentally catch too many rays.
Check out these natural food remedies to deal with—or prevent—summer sunburns:
1. Potatoes
Sunburn-fighting effect: Overindulging in potatoes may be a no-no if you’re trying to lose weight, but keep a few on hand in case a sunburn strikes. The potato’s starchy compounds will help take the sting out of sunburn.
Utilize it! Cut a raw potato into slices and rub a piece on your most painful sunburned spots. For a more intensive treatment, grate a cold raw potato and apply it as a poultice.
Read More: Like This? Sign up for free OrganicGardening.com newsletters to make smarter food choices!
Photo: Tom Gettings
Sunburn-fighting effect: Overindulging in potatoes may be a no-no if you’re trying to lose weight, but keep a few on hand in case a sunburn strikes. The potato’s starchy compounds will help take the sting out of sunburn.
Utilize it! Cut a raw potato into slices and rub a piece on your most painful sunburned spots. For a more intensive treatment, grate a cold raw potato and apply it as a poultice.
Read More: Like This? Sign up for free OrganicGardening.com newsletters to make smarter food choices!
Photo: Tom Gettings
2. Tea
Sunburn-fighting effect: Green tea’s catechin compounds help protect against the sun’s harmful radiation; its tannic acid helps soothe sunburn pain.
Utilize it! Studies suggest drinking just two cups a day could help provide a bit of added sun protection. (You should still use other sun-protection methods, like nontoxic sunscreen, sun-protective clothing, and time in the shade.) If you’re suffering from a scorched face, soak two tea bags in cool water and apply them to your aching eyelids. Tea’s tannic acid will ease sunburn pain.
Read More: 9 Illness-Fighting Foods
Photo: Thomas MacDonald
Sunburn-fighting effect: Green tea’s catechin compounds help protect against the sun’s harmful radiation; its tannic acid helps soothe sunburn pain.
Utilize it! Studies suggest drinking just two cups a day could help provide a bit of added sun protection. (You should still use other sun-protection methods, like nontoxic sunscreen, sun-protective clothing, and time in the shade.) If you’re suffering from a scorched face, soak two tea bags in cool water and apply them to your aching eyelids. Tea’s tannic acid will ease sunburn pain.
Read More: 9 Illness-Fighting Foods
Photo: Thomas MacDonald
3. Oatmeal
Sunburn-fighting effect: When your whole body is sunburned, oatmeal provides the best type of relief.
Utilize it! Grind up a cup of oatmeal in a food processor, add it to cool bathwater, and soak. You can also wrap dry oatmeal in cheesecloth or gauze, run cool water through it, and then toss the oatmeal and soak compresses in the liquid, applying every 2 to 4 hours.
Read More: The Best Foods for Bathtime
Photo: Mitch Mandel
Sunburn-fighting effect: When your whole body is sunburned, oatmeal provides the best type of relief.
Utilize it! Grind up a cup of oatmeal in a food processor, add it to cool bathwater, and soak. You can also wrap dry oatmeal in cheesecloth or gauze, run cool water through it, and then toss the oatmeal and soak compresses in the liquid, applying every 2 to 4 hours.
Read More: The Best Foods for Bathtime
Photo: Mitch Mandel
4. Pomegranate
Sunburn-fighting effect: Pomegranates are a rich source of ellagic acid, which can help protect your skin from UVA- and UVB-induced cell damage, according to research from the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at Texas A&M University.
Utilize it! Indulge in pomegranates during the summer months. The fruit’s anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties could help add another layer of sun protection to your routine.
Exclusive Recipe: Pomegranate Spritzer
Photo: Rodale Images
Sunburn-fighting effect: Pomegranates are a rich source of ellagic acid, which can help protect your skin from UVA- and UVB-induced cell damage, according to research from the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at Texas A&M University.
Utilize it! Indulge in pomegranates during the summer months. The fruit’s anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties could help add another layer of sun protection to your routine.
Exclusive Recipe: Pomegranate Spritzer
Photo: Rodale Images
5. Strawberries
Sunburn-fighting effect: The berries' tannin content helps reduce the sting of a sunburn.
Utilize it! Mash a few ripened strawberries and slather on sunburns for natural relief. Rinse off after a few minutes. If you'd rather not go the fruit route to avoid stickiness, you can make a paste out of cornstarch and water and slather it over sunburned skin for relief, too.
Read More: 10 Mood-Boosting Foods
Photo: Tom Gettings
Sunburn-fighting effect: The berries' tannin content helps reduce the sting of a sunburn.
Utilize it! Mash a few ripened strawberries and slather on sunburns for natural relief. Rinse off after a few minutes. If you'd rather not go the fruit route to avoid stickiness, you can make a paste out of cornstarch and water and slather it over sunburned skin for relief, too.
Read More: 10 Mood-Boosting Foods
Photo: Tom Gettings
6. Cucumbers
Sunburn-fighting effect: Cucumbers offer sunburn relief on par with store-bought sunburn-relief products, without added with chemical preservatives and harmful fragrances.
Utilize it! If you’re already burned, mash a cucumber and apply it to your skin. Dian Dincin Buchman, Ph.D., author of The Complete Herbal Guide to Natural Health and Beauty, suggests cucumber can provide sun protection in a pinch, too. Grab an organic cucumber from the garden or farmers' market, peel and chop, and then squeeze the juice. Mix it with glycerin and rosewater for protection from the sun.
Read More: How to Make Pickles
Photo: Rodale Images
Sunburn-fighting effect: Cucumbers offer sunburn relief on par with store-bought sunburn-relief products, without added with chemical preservatives and harmful fragrances.
Utilize it! If you’re already burned, mash a cucumber and apply it to your skin. Dian Dincin Buchman, Ph.D., author of The Complete Herbal Guide to Natural Health and Beauty, suggests cucumber can provide sun protection in a pinch, too. Grab an organic cucumber from the garden or farmers' market, peel and chop, and then squeeze the juice. Mix it with glycerin and rosewater for protection from the sun.
Read More: How to Make Pickles
Photo: Rodale Images
7. Lettuce
Sunburn-fighting effect: Lettuce’s natural pain-killing properties can help wipe away sunburn pain.
Utilize it! Boil lettuce leaves in water. Strain, then let the liquid cool for several hours in the refrigerator. Once chilled, dip cotton balls into the lettuce water and gently wipe over irritated skin.
Read More: The 6 Best Vegetables You’re Not Eating
Photo: Thomas MacDonald
Sunburn-fighting effect: Lettuce’s natural pain-killing properties can help wipe away sunburn pain.
Utilize it! Boil lettuce leaves in water. Strain, then let the liquid cool for several hours in the refrigerator. Once chilled, dip cotton balls into the lettuce water and gently wipe over irritated skin.
Read More: The 6 Best Vegetables You’re Not Eating
Photo: Thomas MacDonald
8. Guavas
Sunburn-fighting effect: An antioxidant-rich diet could help prep your skin for more potent sun protection before you even step foot outside. One guava contains about five times the amount of vitamin C, a skin-healing antioxidant, as a medium-sized orange.
Utilize it! Enjoy a guava here and there, but work more local vitamin-C-rich foods into your diet, too, including bell peppers, strawberries, and broccoli.
Read More: The 13 Healthiest Food Combos on the Planet
Photo: Photo Alto
Sunburn-fighting effect: An antioxidant-rich diet could help prep your skin for more potent sun protection before you even step foot outside. One guava contains about five times the amount of vitamin C, a skin-healing antioxidant, as a medium-sized orange.
Utilize it! Enjoy a guava here and there, but work more local vitamin-C-rich foods into your diet, too, including bell peppers, strawberries, and broccoli.
Read More: The 13 Healthiest Food Combos on the Planet
Photo: Photo Alto
9. White Vinegar
Sunburn-fighting effect: White vinegar's acetic acid acts like a topical nonsterioidal anti-inflammatory drug (think aspirin and ibuprofen).
Utilize it! If you’re red (just not blistered), dab a bit of distilled white vinegar onto your sunburn. It will kill the pain for about 20 minutes.
Read More: Like This? Sign up for free OrganicGardening.com newsletters to make smarter food choices!
Photo: Mitch Mandel
Sunburn-fighting effect: White vinegar's acetic acid acts like a topical nonsterioidal anti-inflammatory drug (think aspirin and ibuprofen).
Utilize it! If you’re red (just not blistered), dab a bit of distilled white vinegar onto your sunburn. It will kill the pain for about 20 minutes.
Read More: Like This? Sign up for free OrganicGardening.com newsletters to make smarter food choices!
Photo: Mitch Mandel
10. Tomatoes
Sunburn-fighting effect: As if you need another reason to indulge in organic tomatoes from your farmers' market or garden. Turns out the red gems help protect your skin from sun damage. In one study, volunteers who ate 5 tablespoons of lycopene-rich tomato paste daily for 3 months enjoyed 25 percent more natural protection against sunburn.
Utilize it! Indulge in fresh tomatoes and add organic ketchup to meals for a lycopene burst.
Read More: Eat This and You’ll Never Touch Ketchup Again
Photo: Rob Cardillo
Sunburn-fighting effect: As if you need another reason to indulge in organic tomatoes from your farmers' market or garden. Turns out the red gems help protect your skin from sun damage. In one study, volunteers who ate 5 tablespoons of lycopene-rich tomato paste daily for 3 months enjoyed 25 percent more natural protection against sunburn.
Utilize it! Indulge in fresh tomatoes and add organic ketchup to meals for a lycopene burst.
Read More: Eat This and You’ll Never Touch Ketchup Again
Photo: Rob Cardillo
11. Calendula
Sunburn-fighting effect: This easy-to-grow plant is packed with anti-inflammatory properties that ease burns, including sunburn.
Utilize it! Make a poultice of calendula blossoms and apply to sunburn to help accelerate healing.
Learn More: Unlock the Healing Power of Herbs!
Photo: Christa Neu
12. Aloe
Sunburn-fighting effect: This easy-to-grow plant is packed with anti-inflammatory properties that ease burns, including sunburn.
Utilize it! Make a poultice of calendula blossoms and apply to sunburn to help accelerate healing.
Learn More: Unlock the Healing Power of Herbs!
Photo: Christa Neu
12. Aloe
Sunburn-fighting effect: Aloe is popular in many health drinks, but the succulent plant shows promise in sunburn relief, too.
Utilize it! Break off a leaf and apply the juice to your sunburned skin. (Test a small spot first to make sure you’re not allergic.) If you don’t have an aloe plant in the house, buy a bottle of pure aloe vera gel at a pharmacy, chill it in the fridge, and apply.
Read More: 7 Food Swaps That Will Make You Skinny
Photo: Image Source
Utilize it! Break off a leaf and apply the juice to your sunburned skin. (Test a small spot first to make sure you’re not allergic.) If you don’t have an aloe plant in the house, buy a bottle of pure aloe vera gel at a pharmacy, chill it in the fridge, and apply.
Read More: 7 Food Swaps That Will Make You Skinny
Photo: Image Source
13. Fat-Free Milk
Sunburn-fighting effect: The milk creates a protein film on your skin that will help ease the discomfort of fresh sunburn.
Utilize it! Apply cool, not cold, milk to your skin using a clean cloth or gauze. Apply compresses for 15 to 20 minutes, and repeat every 2 to 4 hours.
Read More: Like This? Sign up for free OrganicGardening.com newsletters to make smarter food choices!
Photo: Mitch Mandel
Source URL: http://www.organicgardening.com/living/13-foods-that-fight-sunburn
Sunburn-fighting effect: The milk creates a protein film on your skin that will help ease the discomfort of fresh sunburn.
Utilize it! Apply cool, not cold, milk to your skin using a clean cloth or gauze. Apply compresses for 15 to 20 minutes, and repeat every 2 to 4 hours.
Read More: Like This? Sign up for free OrganicGardening.com newsletters to make smarter food choices!
Photo: Mitch Mandel
Source URL: http://www.organicgardening.com/living/13-foods-that-fight-sunburn
How to Make Red Beans and Rice
Published on Aug 6, 2012 by allrecipes
Get the recipe @ http://allrecipes.com/recipe/authentic-louisiana-red-beans-and-rice/detail.aspx
Watch how to make a 5-star recipe for red beans and rice. Submitted by a Louisiana native, this recipe combines andouille sausage with kidney beans, serious Cajun seasonings, and the "holy trinity" of Louisiana cooking: onions, bell peppers, and celery. It's the perfect one-dish dinner.
http://www.facebook.com/Allrecipes
Aug 5, 2012
James Hansen: Extreme Heat Events Connected to Climate Change - YouTube
Published on Aug 4, 2012 by PBSNewsHour
Dr. James Hansen of NASA, says there is now enough evidence to connect global warming to some of the extreme weather events of the recent past. Hansen tells the Newshour that there is now a 1 in 10 chance of extreme heat events like the 2010 Texas/ Oklahoma droughts, the 2010 heat wave in Russia and possibly even the heat wave scorching the Midwest in 2012.
We should believe our "farm raised - truth to power - life long awarded scientists" instead of "politicians on the take" and big industry "paid lobbyist scientists". Time to wake up America and help make changes, before it is too late (may be too late already)... Monte & Eileen Hines
James Hansen has made key insights into our global climate -- and inspired a generation of activists and scientists.
Why you should listen to him:James Hansen is Adjunct Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. He was trained in physics and astronomy in the space science program of James Van Allen at the University of Iowa. His early research on the clouds of Venus helped identify their composition as sulfuric acid. Since the late 1970s, he has focused his research on Earth's climate, especially human-made climate change. Hansen is known for his testimony on climate change to congressional committees in the 1980s that helped raise broad awareness of the global warming issue. Hansen is recognized for speaking truth to power, for identifying ineffectual policies as greenwash, and for outlining the actions that the public must take to protect the future of young people and the other species on the planet.
"The scientific excitement in comparing theory with data, and developing some understanding of global changes that are occurring, is what makes all the other stuff worth it."James Hansen
Quotes by James Hansen
“Imagine a giant asteroid on a direct collision course with Earth. That is the equivalent of what we face now [with climate change], yet we dither.”
Watch this talk »
“It would be immoral to leave young people with a climate system spiraling out of control.”
Related Links:
http://www.permies.com/t/16535/meaningless-drivel/James-Hansen-Extreme-Heat-Events#144455
http://www.ted.com/talks/james_hansen_why_i_must_speak_out_about_climate_change.html
Hines Farm Blog: Grow More Food & Fight Climate Change: Black...
Mar 10, 2012
Bill McKibben "Biochar, produced in pyrolysis of residues from crops, forestry, and animal wastes, can be used to restore soil fertility while storing carbon for centuries to millennia."-- Dr. James Hansen (NASA climate scientist).
Hines Farm Blog: Top climate scientists warn Congress over ...
Feb 13, 2012
James Hansen, Research Scientist, The International Research Institute for Climate and Society, The Earth Institute, Columbia University John Abraham, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, University of St. Thomas ...
Hines Farm Blog: Nine of the top ten warmest years in the modern...
Jan 24, 2012
“We know the planet is absorbing more energy than it is emitting,” said GISS director James Hansen. “So we are continuing to see a trend toward higher temperatures. Even with the cooling effects of a strong La Niña influence ...
How to Solve the Climate Problem - by JAMES HANSEN
Feb 15, 2010
How to Solve the Climate Problem - by JAMES HANSEN ... In summary, the backbone of a solution to the climate problem is a flat carbon emissions price applied across all fossil fuels at the source. This carbon price (fee, tax) ...
The Sophie Prize 2010 Goes to Dr. James E. Hansen
Apr 07, 2010
Dr. James E. Hansen (born 1941) has played a key role in the development of our understanding of human impact on the climate for more than 30 years. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, an adjunct ...
Hines Farm Blog: Towards a Sustainable Economy - a knol by Sam ...
Aug 22, 2011
Dr. James Hansen once calculated that reforestation of degraded land and improved agricultural practices that retain soil carbon together could draw down atmospheric carbon dixode by as much as 50 ppm, adding that this ...
Hines Farm Blog: Disarming the Biochar Wars | re:char
Feb 17, 2010
We urge our readers to link to this article, as anti-biochar crusaders have resorted to unacceptable tactics such as spamming notable scientists like Dr. James Hansen and Prof. Johannes Lehmann. Read Whole Post ... Posted ...
Hines Farm Blog: Jason Aramburu on the Promise of Biochar ...
Feb 17, 2010
Dr. James Hansen on Biochar and Storage of Carbon in Soil .....How to Solve the Climate Problem - by JAMES HANSEN... Sun or Moon Rise/Set Table for One Year · Whizbang Row Cover Hoop System · Biochar Overview ...
Hines Farm Blog: Climate Change Contrarian Nonsense
Apr 15, 2010
Several books that cut through the confusion are Storms of My Grandchildren by James Hansen, The Long Thaw, by David Archer, and The Rising Sea, by Orrin Pilkey and Rob Young. Posted by Monte at Thursday, April 15, ...
Hines Farm Blog: Brave Thinkers - Magazine - Atlantic Monthly
Mar 11, 2010
The NASA climate expert James Hansen says that the carbon could be stored for “centuries to millennia.” Eprida hopes to use the biochar to soak up carbon dioxide at polluting factories and then bury it in areas with poor soil ...
Hines Farm Blog: BioChar Engineering :: Home
Feb 17, 2010
According to NASA climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, biochar is one of the key ways to remove net carbon from the atmosphere. Biochar increases soil fertility and decreases net carbon in the atmosphere. The company is ...
Hines Farm Blog: Arrested at the White House: Acting as a Living...
Aug 25, 2011
Now the question is: Will we do the same to the boreal forests of Canada. As NASA climatologist James Hansen has made all too clear, if we do so it's “essentially game over for the climate.” That message is getting through.
Hines Farm Blog: The lost civilization: Finding a reality-based frame ...
Jun 27, 2010
And don't discount the informed, scientific warnings of James Hansen and others that we may be in the process of climatically snuffing out the entire circus, clowns and all. (Not that even this warning-of-all-warnings would ...