Stephan: Rex Weyler in my opinion, in this piece, is making a statement about our only civilized future. I very much encourage you to click through and read what he has written. Weyler by showing with data what is destroying the civilization we have is showing us where we must change. We must awaken from the coma of the dominionist view of the earth and recognize that we live in a matrix of consciousness, and must cooperate with the matrix with compassionate life-affirming purpose. That we have not done so is why we now face climate change. The very definition of insanity is to continue doing something that causes you harm.
Used bulb lamps collected by Greenpeace volunteers during the clean up at Bokor Island conservation area on Thousand Islands. Credit: Dhemas Reviyanto / Greenpeace
A popular bumper sticker in the United States – typically seen on large vehicles, with giant wheels and vibrating chrome muffler pipes – reads: “My carbon footprint is bigger than yours.” This appears as a banner for the culture of extravagant indulgence. And wherever consumption is encouraged and admired, waste follows.
The world’s rich cultures are all wasteful, and not just because of excessive fossil fuel use. Even our modern electronic devices represent a massive waste stream. Last year, electronic waste reached an all-time record of 65 million tonnes.
Even modern LED light bulbs, for example, do not last as long as incandescent bulbs made a century ago. One carbon filament light bulb, at a fire station in Livermore, […]
Roger Harrabin, Environment Analyst - BBC News (U.K.)
Stephan: We must stop using plastic or, at least, the kinds of plastic we are now using. This report is a continuation of the cycle Weyler described the previous article. I don't know how one could make the case for this conclusion any clearer.
Researchers collected samples of snow in flasks Credit: ALFRED-WEGENER-INSTITUT / MINE TEKMAN
The researchers collected samples of snow in flasksEven in the Arctic, microscopic particles of plastic are falling out of the sky with snow, a study has found.
The scientists said they were shocked by the sheer number of particles they found: more than 10,000 of them per litre in the Arctic.
It means that even there, people are likely to be breathing in microplastics from the air – though the health implications remain unclear.
The region is often seen as one of the world’s last pristine environments.
Stephan: I spent yesterday afternoon at a small gathering listening to Hilary Franz, the Commissioner of Public Lands for the state of Washington. She is the best most competent senior government official I have met in many years, and a fervent data-based conservationist. Her department plays a much larger role in the state than is the case in most other states, and I was surprised and impressed to see how much Washington from climate change savvy governor Jay Inslee, down to Franz and the operational level are proactively responding.
This report is more good news about bad news, and another example of the Western states recognizing what is happening and creating wellbeing-oriented policies to address what the data and their own eyes show them. States must cooperate in addressing climate change, and the Colorado agreement is a model. This is all so very different than what is happening at the federal level, and in most other states.
Those states which enter into cooperative agreements like this one, and carry out state programs like those of Washington, Oregon, and California are going to get through what is happening with much less disruption, misery, death, and violence than those that do not.
Along the Colorado River Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty
For the first time in history, low water levels on the Colorado River have forced Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico to cut back the amount of water they use. It’s the latest example of climate change affecting daily life, but also an encouraging sign that people can handle a world with less: These orderly cutbacks are only happening because seven U.S. states and Mexico had agreed to abide by conservation rules when flows subside, rather than fight for the last drops.
“It is a new era of limits,” said Kevin Moran, who directs the Environmental Defense Fund’s Colorado River efforts.
The Colorado River is a vital source of water for the American West, sustaining some 40 million people and 5.5 million acres of farmland. And it’s been under enormous stress. Since 2000, the watershed has been, to put it mildly, dry. The region is suffering the worst 20-year drought in modern times.
Stephan: And now Trump, and what do we find? Why just another example of corporate corruption, government agency corruption, and a system which places profit above wellbeing.
Farmer spraying Roundup Credit: Nation of Change
The Environmental Protection Agency is protecting Monsanto by refusing to approve warning labels for products that contain glyphosate.
Although the Internation Agency for Research on Cancer has labeled glyphosate – the active ingredient in Monsanto’s weed killer Roundup – as a “probable carcinogen”, the EPA is adamant the research has failed to prove a significant public risk to human health.
The EPA’s decision is in response to a court order obtained by Monsanto against the state of California. California made the bold move to require warning labels on any products containing glyphosate but was unable to enforce the decision due to the pending lawsuit.
“It is irresponsible to require labels on products that are inaccurate when EPA knows the product does not pose a cancer risk,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “We will not allow California’s flawed program to dictate federal policy.”
According to the EPA, warning labels for products containing glyphosate “constitute a false and misleading statement.”
The EPA’s announcement “is fully consistent with the science-based conclusions reached by the […]
Stephan: My regular readers know I have been talking about designer babies and Homo Superior for almost a decade now, because I see this as potentially a civilization changing trend. With the rise of CRISPR Homo Superior is becoming a reality. Humans of a new species more intelligent, more physically powerful, free from genetic diseases. It will be expensive, so it will be an option only available to the rich and, since the changes wrought will be passed on from that generation forward within a couple of generations Homo Sapien and Homo Superior will exist side by side. Here is the latest on the trend.
Many surprises come with having a baby, including learning your child’s sex and discovering all the traits they inherited as they grow up. But what if parents could pick and choose their children’s genetic makeup instead of leaving those traits up to nature? Such arrangements are increasingly possible, posing ethical and social dilemmas that more and more people are now facing.
In November, Dr. He Jiankui announced that twin girls had been born in China from embryos whose genes he had altered using CRISPR gene-editing technology. According to the magazine Science, he hoped to build a baby-designing business.
In March, a World Health Organization committee argued for a moratorium on clinical human genome editing “until its implications have been properly considered.” But no system of global guidance exists to implement or enforce such a ban on the practice. In June, a Russian scientist declared that he plans to proceed anyway.
You can imagine what bad actors with eugenic fantasies could do with this technology. But today, many patients, with the best interest of […]
Many surprises come with having a baby, including learning your child’s sex and discovering all the traits they inherited as they grow up. But what if parents could pick and choose their children’s genetic makeup instead of leaving those traits up to nature? Such arrangements are increasingly possible, posing ethical and social dilemmas that more and more people are now facing.
