Image via Wikipediahttp://www.physorg.com/news/2011-05-whole-system-redesign-agriculture.html
The approach would incorporate innovative agricultural systems such as organic farming, grass-fed and other alternative livestock production systems, mixed crop and livestock systems, and perennial grains. And it would require significant changes in market structures, policy incentives and public funding for agricultural science
The Biochar Debate: From the Introduction
http://permaculture-media-download.blogspot.com/2011/04/biochar-debate-from-introduction.html
The following is an excerpt from The Biochar Debate: Charcoal’s Potential to Reverse Climate Change and Build Soil Fertility by James Bruges.
some scientists are saying that we might be saved from the worst effects of global warming if we bury large quantities of it. Not only that: we can restore degraded land and get better harvests by mixing fine-grained charcoal—biochar—with soil. Others say that charcoal’s use could be just one of several technologies to mitigate climate change. Yet some maintain that it is an extremely dangerous technology. The jury is out on which is closest to reality. This Briefing aims to provide an overall view of the subject and describes the best way to encourage the appropriate use of biochar.
Charcoal burning suicides in Hong Kong and urban Taiwan: an illustration of the impact of a novel suicide method on overall regional rates
http://jech.bmj.com/content/61/3/248.abstract
CHARCOAL BURNING IN THE KINTAMPO DISTRICTS:
POLICIES, ENVIRONMENT AND LIVELIHOOD ISSUES
The DEAR
Project is concerned with the lack of information and consultation used in
planning processes. All too frequently environmental policy consists of
directives that tell people what to do or ban certain activities, without a
process of consultation and dialogue between policy makers and the users
of resources, and without establishing a consensus. These policy directives
are often implemented without any credible evidence, and an assumption
that rural people do not know how to manage the environment and need
to be told what to do.
In contrast with this position, the DEAR approach attempts to build a
democratic framework for environmental policy that involves consultations
between users of resource and policy makers (including both elected
representatives and technical and administrative staff). Through
consultation policymakers are able to learn about the perspectives, needs
and interests of producers and users of resources, and the users are
better able to understand policies and the policy options. Consultations
result in better information and more realistic assessments of the situation
in hand and the conditions on the ground.
Research we began to conduct through interviewing charcoal burners in a
number of settlements revealed a different situation. Charcoal was being
produced by a large proportion of farmers, including women, youth but
also well-established farmers with families. Charcoal provided an
important supplementary income for many of these groups, which found
agricultural production increasingly risky, and prices for crops declining in
real terms as markets were increasingly controlled by a monopoly of
powerful market traders. Capital realised from charcoal was often
reinvested in farming and used for family support and social welfare,
including the education of children and health provisions. Banning
charcoal thus affects family welfare and hits the rural poor and the most
vulnerable groups within society. It also undermines investment in
agricultural production.
,,,,farming activities often result in the preservation of many tree species
that make good charcoal species.
Farming practices
often encourage regeneration and result in numerous coppices with fields.
We also find that many farmers had developed good tree management
practices that encouraged regeneration and often had conventions which
assured that certain trees considered to have economic or other
importance were not cut. In many settlements there were areas of
community forests that were protected. Thus, there is a basis for
establishing community management of charcoal production.
Green Roof Proves a Cost-Effective Way to Keep Water out of Sewers
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110506171903.htm
If New York City's 1 billion square feet of roofs were transformed into green roofs, it would be possible to keep more than 10 billion gallons of water a year out of the city sewer system.
....New York City, like other older urban centers, has a combined sewer system that carries storm water and wastewater. The system often reaches capacity during rains and must discharge a mix of storm water and sewage into New York Harbor, the Hudson River, the East River and other waterways.
Con Edison built the green roof and formed its research partnership with Columbia in 2008. The partners saw the green roof and an adjoining white roof as an outdoor laboratory for environmental research.
Gaffin's team found last year that the green roof and white roof save energy and reduce urban air temperatures. Under its "cool roofs" program, Con Edison has turned many roofs on company facilities white to save energy and protect the environment.
'A society whose citizens refuse to see and investigate the facts,
who refuse to believe that their government and their media will routinely lie to them and fabricate a reality contrary to verifiable facts,
is a society that chooses and deserves the Police State Dictatorship it's going to get.'
-- Ian Williams Goddard
-- Ian Williams Goddard
http://abz2000.com/FalseflagTerror.aspx
"The greatest jihad (struggle) is to speak the word of truth to a tyrant."
http://abz2000.com/news.aspx
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Huxley vs Orwell
http://www.highexistence.com/amusing-ourselves-to-death-huxley-vs-orwell
The School of Phenomenal Memory:
http://www.highexistence.com/the-school-of-phenomenal-memory-introduction
Climate Change Activist Suing the Government, Organizing a March -- And He's Only 16!
On May 4, Loorz announced that he's taking the iMatter cause one step further by filing a lawsuit against the United States Government. Loorz and his fellow activists charge the government with violation of public trust law by favoring corporate interests over future generations' right to a low-carbon atmosphere.
The iMatter lawsuit outlines a rigid yet vital plan to stop and ultimately reverse the effects of global warming:
[T]o get our atmosphere balanced again at 350 ppm within a century [we must implement]:In a contributing article for GOOD.is, Loorz writes passionately of the dangers facing his generation if climate change is allowed to continue at its current rate. It isn't enough to recycle and drive hybrid cars, he says. We must revolutionize the way we use energy, which starts with government responsibility.
• peak emissions in 2011
• [at] least a 6% reduction in global CO2 emissions every year
• 100 gigaton reforestation (especially in the tropics)
The government has a legal responsibility to protect the future for our children. So we are demanding that they recognize the atmosphere as a commons that needs to be preserved, and commit to a plan to reduce emissions to a safe level.
The plaintiffs and petitioners on all the cases are young people. We are standing up for our future. But we will not only stand up in the courts. We will stand up in the streets as well.
We will let the world know that climate change is not about money, it's not about power, it's not about convenience. It's about our future. It's about the survival of this and every generation to come.
Take Action
Sign a petition to pledge your support for the iMatter youth movement.
Click here to find an iMatter March near you or start your own.
- John Farnham says
- May 6, 2011 6:21 PM
http://api.ning.com/files/X-APctmkiwvgEI5fT6iiGjWFvKNX*cWuzeO4qmDVbgA_/Greenhouses.CarbonDioxideInGreenhouses.pdf
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5576670191369613647&ei=6KhjS9PZMJvu2ALEj6CjCA&q=the+great+global+warming+swindle#
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Coal_Ash_Association
http://www.youtube.com/homeproject
http://washresearch.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/estimating-the-impact-on-health-of-poor-reliability-of-drinking-water-interventions-in-developing-countries/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/03/09/edmonton-oilsands-water-panel.html
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/1/11/824046/-Mountaintop-Removal-Threatens-Our-Water
http://www.journeyoftheforsaken.com/fracpage.htm
( Next up...to play the Grinch ? )
Contaminated Zam Zam holy water from Mecca sold in UK
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-13267205
The BBC asked a pilgrim to take samples from taps which were linked to the Zam Zam well and to buy bottles on sale in Mecca, to compare the water on sale illegally with the genuine source.
These showed high levels of nitrate and potentially harmful bacteria, and traces of arsenic at three times the permitted maximum level, just like the illegal water which was purchased in the UK.
The rights of Israel
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/20115684218533873.html
Israel's "lawfare" against the Palestinian people is rooted in a ficticious narrative of having a "right" to exist.
The Latest from Iran (7 May): Message to Mahmoud --- "Say Uncle!"
http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/2011/5/7/the-latest-from-iran-7-may-message-to-mahmoud-say-uncle.html#disqus_thread
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
A look at what's new The latest messages from the Google Reader team via Official Google Reader Blog by Brian Shih on 2/16/11 Today we’re excited to announce some updates to the official Google Reader app for Android. Over the last couple of months, we’ve added some of your most-requested features: - Unread count widget - choose any feed, label, person, or “all items” ... See more » |
Contrary Brin
Going back to paranoia on a larger scale! From the Washington Times: How the U.S. Treasury Department froze Libyan assets. They expected $100 million, but found over $30 billion -- mostly all in one bank. To put it in perspective: In 2009, Libya had a gross domestic product of $62 billion. Anybody remember the “Helvetian War” from my novel EARTH?
=== AND FINALLY, BACK TO UNDERLYING REASONS FOR PARANOIA ===
"Anything that is in the world when you're born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things." -- Douglas Adams
Calm down. Remember, the thing that you are trying to defend... against those who are conspiring to bring it down... is a calm, enlightened, pragmatic civilization filled with smart problem-solvers, who appreciate knowledge, wisdom and skill... and who negotiate with one another.
. . ...a collaborative contrarian product of David Brin, Enlightenment Civilization, obstinate human nature... and http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ (site feed URL: http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/atom.xml)
I said we'll be sorry someday for investing too much in so-called Just In Time production and inventory methods. Now the entire world economy is suffering because events in Japan have rocked delicate "efficient" supply chains. See: “Disasters show flaws in just-in-time production, 'Earliest impact will be felt with high-cost, low-weight products'.
And don't get me started about the need to re-start Yucca Mountain.
(Come see a wiki that has been set up by some meticulous fans, attempting to track my own near-future forecasts, ranking a success-failure rate, especially when it comes to my near-future novel EARTH (1989): new helpers are welcome to join in updating the site and keeping me honest!)
Why Obstinate Humans Find It Hard To Believe Science
Not even those of us who are scientifically trained actually do objective science consistently well. Like all other humans, we are predisposed, with biased, emotionally prejudiced human minds, to first see what we want or expect to see - a dilemma first illustrated by Plato as the "Allegory of the Cave." In one of the few things that Plato got right, he showed how each of us allows our subjective will to overlay and mask anything inconvenient about the objective world.*Now Chris Mooney (author of the Republican War on Science) explains how this age-old human flaw is being analyzed in scientific detail, by researchers who reveal it to be dismayingly intractable. It seems that obstinacy is as deeply rooted as love or sex! See: The Science of Why We don't Believe Science. -
Of course, there's hope, or we would never have climbed so far. In the last few centuries w discovered a general way around this dilemma. It is through the enlightenment process that underlies almost everything successful about our civilization - not only science but also free markets, justice and democracy. The one tool that has ever allowed humans to penetrate the veil of their own talented delusions.
t is called Reciprocal Accountability. Or criticism, the only known antidote to error.
We may not be able to spot our own mistakes and delusions, but others will gladly point them out for us! Moreover, this favor is one that your FOES will happily do for you! (How nice of them.) And, in return, you will eagerly return the favor. In our enlightenment - and especially in science - this process is tuned to maximize truth-output and minimize blood-on-the-floor. But it requires some maturity. Some willingness to let the process play out. Willingness to negotiate. Calmness and even humor.
It doesn't work amid rage or "culture war." Which is precisely why culture war is being pushed on us. By those who want the enlightenment to fail.
.....a near future in which people shift their attention only to those sources that confirm and reinforce their pre-existing beliefs. (A forecast I would rather not have seen come true.)
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