Down With the Sickness

Like a liver badly transplanted, the planet is rapidly rejecting the human species. While the global economy seems to be geared towards infinite growth, spewing toxins into the environment with gay abandon and finding ever more harmful means of despoiling ecosystems, it is becoming more and more clear that we, as a complex society, are reaching a point of decision, and not any old decision: stop now, or collapse. Mend your ways, or descend into a somewhat more primal state of affairs. The smart money, is on the latter."

read more Down With the Sickness: "A Review of Stan Cox's Sick Planet: Corporate Food and Medicine

Peak Oil Is a Problem We Can Solve Now | Environment | AlterNet

"Many people are expecting unconventional oil -- such as the tar sands and liquid coal -- to make up the supply shortage. That would be a climate catastrophe, and I (optimistically) believe humanity is wise enough not to let that happen. More supply is not the answer to either our oil or climate problem."

Read more at Peak Oil Is a Problem We Can Solve Now | Environment | AlterNet:

Those Who Control Oil and Water Will Control the World | Environment | AlterNet

The scramble for energy is shaping many of the conflicts we can expect in the present century. The danger is not just another oil shock that impacts on industrial production, but a threat of famine. Without a drip feed of petroleum to highly mechanised farms, many of the food shelves in the supermarkets would be empty.

read more in Those Who Control Oil and Water Will Control the World | Environment | AlterNet

Take note of a very pertinent comment:

TS Eliot where are you?

Posted by: talkville on Apr 7, 2008 2:47 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"There is no alternative to continuing growth..." What can this mean??

The assaults on Latin America, once again beginning; the assault on Africa, never really ended. The US led IMF WTO assault on just about every majority-world country in raiding state assets and resources and privatizing them all (which include land, water, air-space, and mineral holdings) in this rapidly progressing Wasteland called Earth simply cannot either ecologically, economically or humanly continue under this thoroughly ideologized blob-word called 'growth'. Alternatives exist, just as several different meanings and senses are available when referring to 'growth'; and lest we forget: sometimes allowing the atrophy of certain things and ways of thinking can do marvels for saner 'games' as well as for sanity. [my emphasis added]

Let's not forget: The Club for Growth is a VERY exclusive one.

Climate target is not radical enough - study | Environment | The Guardian

One of the world's leading climate scientists warns today that the EU and its international partners must urgently rethink targets for cutting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because of fears they have grossly underestimated the scale of the problem.

In a startling reappraisal of the threat, James Hansen, head of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, calls for a sharp reduction in C02 limits.

Hansen says the EU target of 550 parts per million of C02 - the most stringent in the world - should be slashed to 350ppm. He argues the cut is needed if "humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilisation developed".

Climate target is not radical enough - study | Environment | The Guardian

CLIMATE CHANGE: A Game With Too Many Free Riders

By Stephen Leahy*

BROOKLIN, Canada, Apr 4 (IPS) - The evidence is piling up that climate change threatens to bring a chaotic future unlike anything ever known. Taking collective action in time to avert the worst means rewarding climate-safe behaviour, punishing climate transgressors and publicly praising those who are trying to protect the environment, a new study suggests.

The nations of the world will come together to set a target and timeframe for reducing emissions from burning fossil fuels at the end of 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Scientists have repeatedly stated the 2020 target must be 25 to 40 percent emission reductions from the 1990 emission baseline. Can the global community reach this collective target through individual efforts when everyone suffers individually if the target is missed?

The short answer: No.

CLIMATE CHANGE: A Game With Too Many Free Riders

This is the last in a four part series:

Part One - CLIMATE CHANGE: The Future Is Now
Part Two - CLIMATE CHANGE: The Fault Lies Not in Our Cars but in Ourselves
Part Three - CLIMATE CHANGE: A Vision Worth Fighting For

climate catastrophe has already begun to reshape human civilisation.

Annual emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) are three times higher today than in the 1990s. Even if the impossible could be done -- cease all CO2 emissions today -- the average global temperature will continue to increase from the present 0.8 degrees C above normal to 1.6 - 1.8C, data shows. And that new global average temperature would remain higher than normal for the next 500 years because of the time it will take for the warming oceans to cool.

CLIMATE CHANGE: The Future Is Now