Dominant Animal: Ehrlichs on our Future

... But what’s new and notable is the dual biological and cultural lens the Ehrlichs use to diagnose the underlying cause of our predicament. The very technological advances that enabled humans to thrive and grow into the planet’s domineering species, they argue, have, paradoxically, put our own future in jeopardy. In a nutshell, “despite our dominance, we may have evolved ourselves into quite a mess,” they write.

Read the rest of the review in Audubon Magazine .

Slow Foods Fast Into Mainstream

"I don't care if the tomato was heirloom or organic if it was harvested by slave labor. A commitment to social justice needs to be at the core of this movement," Eric Schlosser, author of "Fast Food Nation," said at one panel.

"We need to get small farmers into the distribution system," Rick Schnieders, chief executive of food distributor Sysco, told an audience of activists at another.

"This is our time," Larry Yee, founder of the Association of Family Farms, announced at the unveiling of the group's food bill declaration, which aims to set the agenda for future farm legislation.

...For two days, speakers debated such topics as how to address the world food crisis and how to bring fair wages to farm workers. Part of the answer, panelists agreed, was to clearly link food to the pressing issues already on the political agenda: rising oil prices, global warming and the skyrocketing cost of health care. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, for example, reports that livestock production generates nearly one-fifth of the world's greenhouse gases. And without cheap oil to produce fertilizers and transport food long distances, food prices will continue to rise.

"Politicians don't get it yet. But if they try to look at energy, health or security, they will stumble on food. It's all connected," Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma," told a packed house at the Herbst Theatre.

"For food to be good, it must be good, clean and fair," said Carlo Petrini, who founded Slow Food International in 1986 in response to the opening of a McDonald's near the Spanish Steps in Rome. "If any one of these conditions is missing, it isn't good food."

Excerpt from a mother's story from the RNC

... Sometime thereafter, I received the devastating phone call from my son. He called to let me know that he had been beaten badly by the police, was arrested and brought to the Juvenile Detention Center and with little explanation, was released.

My son has never been in trouble with the law, he is a practicing Buddhist who is dedicated to peaceful resolutions to any problems and I could not imagine what could have possibly caused a police officer, much less FIVE police officers to assault him. I listened intently. He explained to me that he had followed my instructions to leave the area if riot type behavior began to break out.

He explained that he could see the crowd winding up and people beginning to kick over trash cans and act out. He attempted to remove himself from the crowd when he was sprayed from behind with pepper spray. Determined, he continued to navigate his way out of the crowd. He found himself several blocks away walking alongside just a few other protesters, who also appeared to be exiting the area because they were only interested in peaceful protesting and some in the crowd were getting worked up.

As he walked along, someone asked him if he had a lighter. He said he didn’t think so but he would look and then set his backpack onto the ground and began to look through it. He explained that almost immediately five police officers surrounded him and demanded that he “put the bag down and put his hands in the air.” He was confused but immediately dropped the bag.

Being inexperienced with the police, he did not raise his hands over his head immediately, but rather held his hands out and said, “What? I’m not doing anything!” They immediately attacked him, throwing him to the ground, repeatedly kicking, beating, dragging and hitting him. He responded by protecting his body, only to be accused of resisting arrest.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

John McCain has pronounced himself your friend. He used the phrase pre-emptively a dozen times in his Saddleback forum appearance. To me, that felt more like the singular "my friend" that might go with a finger-poke to the chest and carry a kind of veiled aggression. I did not get warm fuzzies of fellow feeling.

But he is not the first to invoke friendship by fiat, my friends, according to this Salon article:

Tracking the use of "my friends" through inaugural, State of the Union, and convention acceptance addresses reveals a pattern. While there's occasional use of "my friends" among most 20th-century candidates and presidents—and even a few 19th-century ones, right back to Jefferson—its persistent use is a different matter:

Franklin Roosevelt's 1932 convention acceptance speech: 11
Adlai Stevenson's 1952 convention acceptance speech: six
Dwight Eisenhower's 1956 convention acceptance speech: six
Richard Nixon's 1968 convention acceptance speech: five
George H.W. Bush's 1988 convention acceptance speech: four
Michael Dukakis' 1988 convention acceptance speech: seven
George H.W. Bush's 1989 inaugural address: four
George H.W. Bush's 1989 State of the Union address: four

350: A CO2 Target says Bill McKibben

Way out in the middle of the Pacific ocean atop an 11,000 foot volcano, where researchers can get the most representative and clear atmospheric samples, the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii has been continuously recording atmospheric changes since the 1950s. Scientists at the observatory announced a few days ago that the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have now reached 387ppm, a level we’ve never seen within the past 650,000 years. The head of Greenpeace’s climate campaign, Robin Oakley puts is plainly - “We’re now witnessing a key moment in the climate change story, and it’s not good news. The last time the atmosphere was this choked with CO2 humans were yet to evolve as a species.” Studies suggest that the increasing growth rate of CO2 levels in the atmosphere can be attributed to a few things - a weakening in forests’, oceans’ and soils’ ability to function as carbon sinks, and the increased use of coal in China and other parts of the world.

Bill McKibben's site is called 350. The reason: that is the parts per million (ppm) of CO2 that we can live with for the long haul--the maximum for that greenhouse gas whose levels have already exceeded that number. McKibben wants everyone to know exactly where we are, and where we must be to stop the planet from run-away warming. Bookmark 350.org and check back often to see how people around the world are shrinking their CO2 footprint.

Courage for the Great Turning

It feels like a change in the tides, a turning if you will. Here's one way of imagining it:

The Great Turning is a name for the essential adventure of our time: the shift from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization.

The ecological and social crises we face are inflamed by an economic system dependent on accelerating growth. This self-destructing political economy sets its goals and measures its performance in terms of ever-increasing corporate profits--in other words by how fast materials can be extracted from Earth and turned into consumer products, weapons, and waste.

A revolution is underway because people are realizing that our needs can be met without destroying our world. We have the technical knowledge, the communication tools, and material resources to grow enough food, ensure clean air and water, and meet rational energy needs. Future generations, if there is a livable world for them, will look back at the epochal transition we are making to a life-sustaining society. And they may well call this the time of the Great Turning. It is happening now.

Whether or not it is recognized by corporate-controlled media, the Great Turning is a reality. Although we cannot know yet if it will take hold in time for humans and other complex life forms to survive, we can know that it is under way. And it is gaining momentum, through the actions of countless individuals and groups around the world. To see this as the larger context of our lives clears our vision and summons our courage.

JotSpot Out of the Bottle: 2008

...from our I AM SUCH A GEEK department:

I've been following JotSpot ever since it mysteriously went under the surface about the time I might have signed up for an account. It seemed immensely useful and ahead of the wiki competition even a year ago.

Since, it's been Googled (swallowed whole by you-know-who) and is set to re-emerge as a part of a significant G-app package this year. Read more...

This is more than an incremental improvement we're used to from the G-Universe.

Cooking the Coral

This was a large study of datasets by American, British and Canadian scientists using a greater precision than ever before possible. The consensus comes not from left-leaning political bias but from objective measures over time. We are having significant, measurable and negative impact on the entire ocean. In some cases, we've likely passed the tipping point.

The team of scientists analyzed factors that included warming ocean temperatures because of greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient runoff and fishing. They found that the areas under the most stress are "the North and Norwegian seas, South and East China seas, Eastern Caribbean, North American eastern seaboard, Mediterranean, Persian Gulf, Bering Sea, and the waters around Sri Lanka."

Some marine ecosystems are under acute pressure, the scientists concluded, including sea mounts, mangrove swamps, sea grass and coral reefs. Almost half of all coral reefs, they wrote, "experience medium high to very high impact" from humans.

Overall, rising ocean temperatures represent the biggest threat to marine ecosystems. WaPo