Mad cows (and livid lambs) - Telegraph

"Marauding elephants, aggressive sea lions, snap-happy crocodiles... As animal attacks on humans reach frightening levels, scientists are beginning to understand exactly what the beasts are thinking. And it's not good."

But it's now widely accepted that the relationship between humans and animals is changing. One of the world's leading ethologists (specialists in animal behaviour) believes that a critical point has been crossed and animals are beginning to snap back. After centuries of being eaten, evicted, subjected to vivisection, killed for fun, worn as hats and made to ride bicycles in circuses, something is causing them to turn on us.

Mad cows (and livid lambs) - Telegraph:

The Era of Catastrophe? Geologists Name New Era After Human Influence on the Planet | Environment | AlterNet

The Era of Catastrophe? Geologists Name New Era After Human Influence on the Planet | Environment | AlterNet

The Problem Is Simple: Too Many People, Too Much Stuff | Environment | AlterNet

"Our species' negative impact on our own life-support systems can be approximated by the equation I=PAT. In that equation, the size of the population (P) is multiplied by the average affluence or consumption per individual (A), and that in turn is multiplied by some measure of the technology (T) that services and drives the consumption. Thus commuting in automobiles powered by subsidized fossil fuels on proliferating freeways creates a much greater T factor than commuting on bikes using simple paths or working at home on a computer network. The product of P, A, and T is Impact (I), a rough estimate of how much humanity is degrading the ecosystem services it depends upon."

There is no technological change we can make that will permit growth in either human numbers or material affluence to continue to expand. In the face of this, the neglect of the intertwined issues of population and consumption is stunning.

Read the article The Problem Is Simple: Too Many People, Too Much Stuff | Environment | AlterNet:

Climate change: Prepare for global temperature rise of 4C, warns top scientist | Environment | guardian.co.uk

"There is no doubt that we should aim to limit changes in the global mean surface temperature to 2C above pre-industrial," Watson, the chief scientific adviser to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, told the Guardian. "But given this is an ambitious target, and we don't know in detail how to limit greenhouse gas emissions to realise a 2 degree target, we should be prepared to adapt to 4C."

"I think that is a dangerous mindset to be in. Thinking through the implications of 4 degrees of warming shows that the impacts are so significant that the only real adaptation strategy is to avoid that at all cost because of the pain and suffering that is going to cost.

"There is no science on how we are going to adapt to 4 degrees warming. It is actually pretty alarming," he added.

Climate change: Prepare for global temperature rise of 4C, warns top scientist | Environment | guardian.co.uk

George Monbiot: The stakes could not be higher. Everything hinges on stopping coal | Comment is free | The Guardian

George Monbiot: The stakes could not be higher. Everything hinges on stopping coal | Comment is free | The Guardian

Electric Cars Are the Key to Energy Independence | Environment | AlterNet

Oil generates only 3 percent of our electricity. Therefore a 100 percent renewable electricity system does little to reduce our oil dependency -- unless that electricity is used to substitute for oil in our transportation system.

The prospect of a large battery capacity contained in tens of millions of electrified vehicles could be, in the words of one utility executive, "a game changer."

A large storage capacity could also ameliorate the intermittency problem of renewable energy, which in turn could allow a much higher proportion of renewable electricity on the grid.

Read the entire story. Electric Cars Are the Key to Energy Independence | Environment | AlterNet

Climate-change allies chart bold course

In 18 months, the WCI has gone from a handshake deal among five western U.S. governors to a partnership that is laying ambitious mandatory emission-reduction plans that will affect 73 per cent of the Canadian economy and 20 per cent of the U.S. economy.

Climate-change allies chart bold course

Cow power could generate electricity for millions, US study shows - Telegraph

Cow power could generate electricity for millions, US study shows - Telegraph

Sounds like a bunch of shit to me, and in their own words, They estimate that 3 per cent of America's total electricity demand could be created from animal waste,

It is.

Democracy Now! | Who's Paying for the Conventions? Corporate Sponsors Pour Millions into Party Coffers

Bought and paid for politicians who will not represent the people is guarranteed Their political label make no difference and the current congress is a perfect reason to forget about a change in the national agenda.

Democracy Now! | Who's Paying for the Conventions? Corporate Sponsors Pour Millions into Party Coffers

t r u t h o u t | Election Fraud and Tyranny: Part 2

Election Defense Alliance researchers Jonathan Simon and Bruce O'Dell studied the 2006 results and found that there was a net shift of at least three million votes away from the Democratic candidates in the 2006 elections for the House of Representatives. The Democratic victory margin was shaved by 4% according this highly persuasive analysis.

Simon and O'Dell conclude:
"there was gross vote count manipulation [that] had a great impact on the results of E2006, significantly decreasing the magnitude of what would have been, accurately tabulated, a [Democratic] landslide of epic proportions." (Emphasis added)

How do we know that a landslide was denied? Simon and O'Dell persuade us in two rather simple steps. First, they show that the 2006 Election Night national exit poll sample gave the Democrats a victory margin at least 3 million votes greater nationwide than that tabulated by the vote-counting computers. Then they examine the exit poll sample itself and very simply and persuasively refute the charge that it over-sampled Democrats. This is the excuse that corporate media used to dismiss the obvious signs of election fraud and justify their own silence. Their analysis is based not on a general assertion of the reliability of exit polls, but on the specific and publicly available evidence that this particular exit poll was highly reliable

t r u t h o u t | Election Fraud and Tyranny: Part 2

Send email replies to: hlbumpkin.anybody@blogspot.com

Corn, Incorporated: The Ethanol Scam

"researchers found that corn-based ethanol, 'instead of producing a 20 percent savings in greenhouse gases, nearly doubles greenhouse emissions over 30 years and increases greenhouse gases for 167 years.'"

from Corn, Incorporated: The Ethanol Scam | Environment | AlterNet:

As planet swelters, are algae unlikely saviour? - Yahoo! News UK

May all you (f)lakes turn green with envy. with a little help from our friends:

As planet swelters, are algae unlikely saviour? Yahoo! News UK

rawlermen cling on as oceans empty - and the ecosystem is gasping | Comment is free | The Guardian

"All over the world, protesters are engaged in a heroic battle with reality. They block roads, picket fuel depots, throw missiles and turn over cars in an effort to hold it at bay. The oil is running out and governments, they insist, must do something about it.

Just as the oil price now seems to be all that stands between us and runaway climate change,"

George Monbiot: Trawlermen cling on as oceans empty - and the ecosystem is gasping | Comment is free | The Guardian:

Danny Rich: the scientific and religious communities must work together to raise awareness of climate change | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

The poll concluded that many did not want to restrict their lifestyles and only a small minority thought they need to make "significant and radical changes".

Pray tell us more:
Danny Rich: the scientific and religious communities must work together to raise awareness of climate change | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

More evidence that the situation is desperate. Maybe it is God's plan to wipe out all but a "remnant."

Happy Independence from Oil Day: Will your weekend be gas-free?

Saw this on a bicycling site.

<<<< - Mav&Jen_Europade - >>>>: Happy Independence from Oil Day: Will your weekend be gas-free?

Extinction threatens more species than thought - Telegraph

"When we apply our new mathematical model to species extinction rates, it shows that things are worse than we thought," said Dr Melbourne.

"By accounting for random differences between individuals, extinction rates for endangered species can be orders of magnitude higher than conservation biologists have believed."

"Almost all previous studies don't include all of the factors we studied, so it is fair to say that most previous studies suffer from this inadequacy. One general message from our work is that population sizes might need to be much larger for species to be relatively safe from extinction."

Extinction threatens more species than thought - Telegraph

Pricing Carbon Emissions

Guest Opinion: Global Warming Twenty Years Later | Worldwatch Institute: "

Moving from fossil fuels to clean energy is challenging, yet it is also transformative in ways that will be welcomed. Cheap, subsidized fossil fuels engendered bad habits. We import food from halfway around the world, for example, even with healthier products available from nearby fields. Local produce would be competitive were it not for fossil fuel subsidies and the fact that climate change damages and costs, due to fossil fuels, are also borne by the public."

Send email replies to: hlbumpkin.anybody@blogspot.com

Solar and Wind Will Drive Natural Gas Up - Seeking Alpha

This article demonstrates how the pervasive carbon economy thinking prevents thinking about a future without it,i.e layered beneath this article is the idea that the only way to have a viable future is to rely on overconsumption as an economic driver.

Solar and Wind Will Drive Natural Gas Up - Seeking Alpha

Devil in the Details: Three Profoundly Disturbing Carbon Scenarios

• The general outlook of the scenarios has been termed “profoundly disturbing” by one participant, climate researcher and author Mark Lynas.

• All three of the report’s scenarios define “success” as a greater than 90% chance of less than 2ºC (3.6ºF) warming above pre-industrial levels, which is the most commonly accepted scientific threshold for successful mitigation of adverse effects of climate change,

• In the words of the authors, “the horse has bolted, but there is still scope to contain the greatest extent of damage [from climate change] through innovative and efficient policy.”

excerpts from Green Car Congress: Devil in the Details: Three Profoundly Disturbing Carbon Scenarios

The Real Story Behind the Midwest Floods? Climate Change | Environment | AlterNet

One of the candidates to replace Bush has a solution. When I asked Ralph Nader about global warming this week, he said: "We've got to have a national mission of converting our economy, and the example for the world is solar energy, 4 billion years of supply. It is environmentally benign, decentralized, makes us energy-independent and replaces the ExxonMobil/Peabody Coal/uranium complex. That is why we have got to go for economic, political, health and safety reasons."


The Real Story Behind the Midwest Floods? Climate Change | Environment | AlterNet

Decline and Fall of America's Energy Empire | OurFuture.org

he current debate over offshore oil leases has put America's gargantuan energy appetite back on the discussion table this week. I've tried to stay out of it so far for two reasons.

For the bigger context on what's happening, we need to think in centuries, not just decades. There's a lot to this view — this article admittedly oversimplifies a lot, and bypasses a few important issues entirely — but that just means there's plenty more to discuss in future posts. For now, some basics.


Read the rest of this thoughtful commentary at Decline and Fall of America's Energy Empire | OurFuture.org

Why Fair Trade May Be Our Only Hope | Environment | AlterNet

...the issue of whether or not the world will be fed is partly a function of ownership. This reflects an unexpected discovery. It was first made in 1962 by the Nobel economist Amartya Sen, and has since been confirmed by dozens of further studies. There is an inverse relationship between the size of farms and the amount of crops they produce per hectare. The smaller they are, the greater the yield.

Why Fair Trade May Be Our Only Hope | Environment | AlterNet

OPINION: China’s Wind Power Development Exceeds Expectations | Worldwatch Institute

A recent boom in Chinese wind power development has surpassed the government's original target and forced policymakers to set a new goal that might still be too modest.

In 2007, cumulative wind installations in China exceeded 5 gigawatts (GW), the goal originally set for 2010 by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner. The Commission had set the target in its 2006 mid- and long-term development plan for renewable energy. The plan's target for 2020 was 30 GW, a level that is now projected to be reached by 2012, eight years ahead of schedule.

OPINION: China’s Wind Power Development Exceeds Expectations | Worldwatch Institute

What is wrong with overconsumption?

Think Progress � Kmart promotes abstinence pants.

It looks like a good way to promote the purchase of another unneeded piece of clothing so that misguided parents can feel good about themselves when their teenagers beg for one more new pair of sweatpants.

This is just another example of how ludicrous the overconsumption economic model the contemporary world is hooked on really is. The use of young women's bodies to sell products is ever present, this example just happens to be a case where the pornographers are caught with their pants up. At least when mommy and daddy are looking.

If we are lucky, maybe it will inform some young people of the hypocrisy although any product with a product name or a slogan falls in the same category in my opinion, the difference only lies in what offends the beholder.

On the other hand, maybe the "outraged" should have been looking on the other side of the street to see this announcement Carbon neutral underpants | Cleantech.com if they really understood how stupid this whole thing is and wanted to make constructive comments on the whole fashion industry.

One more disturbing piece of evidence from AlterNet, Too Much Stuff! America's New Love Affair With Self-Storage: Overconsumption is overconsumption pure and simple and it is part of an economic model that spells doom for the planet. I don't know whether to laugh or cry wolf.

Well maybe it would be better to go here and watch the video from "Worker of world, RELAX" explaining the danger of a work ethic that fill garages with junk and why efficiency never works.

Siemens to open Colo. wind turbine R&D center | Planetary Gear: a CNET blog on mechanical engineering technology - CNET News.com

The energy sector of the German company made the announcement on Tuesday in Houston, Texas, at Windpower 2008, the American Wind Energy Association's annual conference.

Siemens to open Colo. wind turbine R&D center | Planetary Gear: a CNET blog on mechanical engineering technology - CNET News.com

As part of the plan, Siemens Energy will collaborate with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) to install a Siemens 2.3-megawatt (MW) wind turbine at the National Wind Technology Center located just outside of Boulder.

With the announcement timed for just before the last of the presidential primaries, this marks a significant development for wind energy in the US. Germany is the global leader in wind energy development, in my opinion, the location at NREL signals a new era of international cooperation in alternative technologies and a pull back in mindless dedication to industrial era energy production technologies that has been the norm for the current administration.

Under the "you never know" or is is "wishful thinking" department, because of the misguided policies that have lead to a deterioration of USD value against the Euro it will be more profitable to build the wind turbines in the US to meet the demand in Europe. The added market thus enhancing the pace of change in the US.

Get used to high food costs, water shortages

There are times when a cool head and calm talk are just what the doctor ordered. For example, when financial turmoil strikes financial markets the last thing those trying to fix things need is to panic the public and cause a run on banks. But this is different. This time panic is exactly what's needed to break through all the denial, wishful thinking, inertia, special interest spin and political cowardliness, Public panic is precisely what it's going to take to shake things loose and get those who need to get off the dime to do just that -- and fast -- and furiously -- and and with white knuckles on the controls -- as if their lives -- and yours -- depended on it.

News For Real: Forget oil, the new global crisis is food

Push for sustainable energy from householders - Telegraph

Small-scale energy units would include solar panels, wind turbines, combined heat and power boilers, and ground and air source pumps.

It says take-up could be boosted by so called feed-in tariffs - allowing householders to sell any electricity they do not need in their own home to the big energy companies at a fixed price.

These kinds of measures would work in any advanced nation. The Center for American Progress says fund it with Cap-and-Trade Auction Revenue



Read the full article from Telegraph here, Push for sustainable energy from householders

Bicycling & Walking :: Active Living Resource Center

ActiveLivingResources.org :: Active Living Resource Center


Streets for People download from Active Living Resource Center

Complete Streets for Active Communities download from Active Living Resource Center

Getting to COMPLETE STREETS:

South Dakota Safe Routes to School Program

Provocations as Pretexts for Imperial War: From Pearl Harbor to 9/11

AxisofLogic/ Featured: Provocations as Pretexts for Imperial War: From Pearl Harbor to 9/11

"Behind every imperial war there is a Great Lie’

One of the most important political implications of our discussion of the US government’s resort to provocations and deception to launch imperial wars is that the vast majority of the American people are opposed to overseas wars. Government lies at the service of military interventions are necessary to undermine the American public’s preference for a foreign policy based on respect for self-determination of nations."

Call for green haven cities - Yahoo! News UK

"A radical redesign of our towns and cities will be needed to tackle climate change, the Government's design watchdog has warned.

Cabe also wants to see the "dignity" put back into public transport, a national programme to encourage homeowners to make their houses more energy efficient and more neighbourhood-scale energy generation."

Call for green haven cities - Yahoo! News UK