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RESTORING THE EARTH – HOPE IN A CHANGING CLIMATE
Is it possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems, improve the lives of people trapped in poverty, and sequester carbon naturally? John D. Liu has proven that it is. His film, “Hope in a Changing Climate,” showcases approaches that have worked on the Loess Plateau in China, Ethiopia and Rwanda. Produced in collaboration with the Environmental Education Media Project (EEMP). http://sco.lt/7sy3CT
AND ANOTHER GREAT VIDEO TO WATCH;
“INTO THE HEART OF THE ECUADOR’S YASUNI PEOPLE” by Yale Environment 360
Few places on earth harbor as much biodiversity as the Yasuni Biosphere Reserve, a 6,500-square-mile territory in eastern Ecuador where the Amazon basin ascends into the Andes Mountains. But Yasuni also sits atop vast reserves of oil, and this rainforest wilderness, home to the indigenous Waorani people, faces intense development pressure.
In this Yale Environment 360 video, filmmaker Ryan Killackey travels into the heart of Yasuni with seven scientists and chronicles their work as they inventory the reserve’s remarkable birds, fish, animals, and plants. Through their work, the researchers hope to bolster international initiatives to preserve a large swath of this threatened land….
VIDEO: INTO THE HEART OF ECUADOR’S YASUNI: A PENDING CORPORATE OIL PLUNDER http://sco.lt/5c5Z2H
ONLY LOVE FOR MOTHER EARTH CAN SAVE US FROM CLIMATE CHANGE: SEN MASTER THICH NHAT HANH AND POPE FRANCIS SPEAK OUT http://sco.lt/57JX0L
Resource speculation driven by financial markets, climate change and biofuels threatens starvation for the world’s poor.
Submitted by: Hazel Henderson Posted: Nov 29, 2012 – 09:16 AM EST CSRWire
Tags: ethics, commodities, food prices, sustainability, economics, economy, fiscal cliff, european debt crisis, gri, necsi, esg, united nations
Recent spikes in prices of rice, soy, wheat and corn have driven many poor people in developing countries into hunger and malnutrition. In 2011, then World Bank president Robert Zoellick estimated that 44 million people fell into poverty in 2010 due to rising food prices, adding, “Food price inflation is the biggest threat today to the world’s poor…one weather event and you start to push people over the edge.”
The United Nations (UN) FAO Food Price Index jumped 25 percent in 2010.
The dots connecting world hunger, weather events and speculation on global financial markets are obvious. Yet, well-meaning officials at UN agencies, including the FAO, World Bank and IMF, are curiously blind. Instead, their many urgent meetings over the past three years have focused on raising more money to pay these rising prices for food staples, urging more productivity from agriculture and opposing nations curbing exports to protect their domestic foods …. MORE A VIP READ: The Economics of Curbing Speculation In Food, Water and Vital Resources
WATCH
“THE FOOD SPECULATOR”
Food Speculation and The Stockmarket
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/food-speculator/
-▶ THE WORLD IS SITTING ON A CONSUMPTION TIME BOMB http://sco.lt/7sR3eT
▶ FOOD AID FOR THE 21st CENTURY: MEETING THE OBJECTIVE OR FEEDING THE CORPORATE COFFERS? http://sco.lt/6jtrlJ
-▶ WHO OWNS NATURE? CORPORATE POWER AND THE FINAL FRONTIER IN THE COMMODIFICATION OF LIFE http://www.scoop.it/t/agriculture-gmos-pesticides/p/2299601530/who-owns-nature-corporate-power-and-the-final-frontier-in-the-commodification-of-life
-▶ ERADICATING ECOCIDE: WHY BUSINESS LEADERS MUST STEP UP TO THE CHALLENGE http://sco.lt/7uGWKv
▶ THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM — DESTRUCTION OF LIFE ALL IN THE NAME OF “GROWTH” http://sco.lt/6HLK77
Real News One, June 10, 2014
-▶ PUTTING THE ECONOMY BEFORE THE ENVIRONMENT IS ENVIRONMENTAL VANDALISM AND SUICIDAL http://realnewsone.com/2014/06/10/putting-the-economy-before-the-environment-is-environmental-vandalism/
FastCoExist:
-▶ SHAKING UP THE CORPORATE STRUCTURE TO GO BEYOND THE PROFIT MOTIVE http://www.fastcoexist.com/3024770/world-changing-ideas/a-public-company-will-become-a-benefit-corporation
▶ PROSPERITY WITH LESS: WHAT WOULD A RESPONSIBLE ECONOMY LOOK LIKE? Guardian Sustainable Business, October 4, 1013. The founder of Patagonia Inc discusses the value of the simple life, and growing an economy based on buying less, not more http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/patagonia-founder-responsible-economy-with-less
▶ PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC SERVICES LIMITING ACCESS TO PUBLIC INFORMATION http://sco.lt/8Aq0AL
Humans must change behaviour to save bees, vital for food production
– UN report March 2011 – The potentially disastrous decline in bees, a vital pollinating element in food production for the growing global population, is likely to continue unless humans profoundly change their ways, from the use of insecticides to air pollution, according to a United Nations report released today.
“The way humanity manages or mismanages its nature-based assets, including pollinators, will in part define our collective future in the 21st century,” UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner said. “The fact is that of the 100 crop species that provide 90 per cent of the world’s food, over 70 are pollinated by bees.”…ARTICLE CONTINUES….Humans must change behaviour to save bees, vital for food production – UN
-▶ BATTLE FOR THE BEES: TENS OF MILLIONS OF DYING BEES RAISE ALARM FOR HUMANS
▶ MONARCH BUTTERFLY MIGRATION PLUNGES 59%. NOW AT LOWEST LEVEL EVER
▶ GARDENERS BEWARE: DEADLY PESTICIDE ‘BEE FRIENDLY’ PRETREATED PLANTS AND SEEDS SOLD TO CONSUMERS
SEE: List of crop plants pollinated by bees – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://ow.ly/cbq2F
By Cory Vanderpool via Triple Pundit:
Will the children who inherit the Earth, and the potential issues that might still remain unresolved, feel the innate desire to preserve it? Or is our connection to nature being lost? This interesting and thought provoking concept was introduced to me by Kim Marshall McLean, a PhD classmate of mine at George Mason University and a NOAA Biologist. Kim is researching how exposure to the outdoors and the lessons learned in nature shape our understanding and even our intelligence. The sociological and environmental information gathered from this kind of research is far reaching and has implications for business as well. It is the hope that future leaders, especially those in business, will retain the close kinship with nature.
via Losing Our Connection to Nature: Is Sustainability at Risk?.
REWILD THE CHILD – OUR DISCONNECTION FROM NATURE IS KILLING US
Via Earth Policy Institute: Adapted from World on the Edge by Lester R. Brown. Full book available online at www.earth-policy.org/books/wote.
“The archeological record indicates that civilizational collapse does not come suddenly out of the blue. Archeologists analyzing earlier civilizations talk about a decline-and-collapse scenario. Economic and social collapse was almost always preceded by a period of environmental decline….
“No previous civilization has survived the ongoing destruction of its natural supports. Nor will ours. Yet economists look at the future through a different lens. Relying heavily on economic data to measure progress, they see the near 10-fold growth in the world economy since 1950 and the associated gains in living standards as the crowning achievement of our modern civilization….More….Two Views of Our Future: Science Versus Mainstream Economics : TreeHugger.
THE SIXTH MASS EXTINCTION IS UPON US – CAN HUMANS SURVIVE?
Get Ready for the Ride of Your Life
Given that it takes hundreds of thousands to millions of years for evolution to build diversity back up to pre-crash levels after major extinction episodes, increased rates of extinction are of particular concern, especially because global and regional diversity today is generally lower than it was 20,000 years ago as a result of the last planetary state shift. … Possible too are substantial losses of ecosystem services required to sustain the human population. … Although the ultimate effects of changing biodiversity and species compositions are still unknown, if critical thresholds of diminishing returns in ecosystem services were reached over large areas and at the same time global demands increased … widespread social unrest, economic instability and loss of human life could result
Whee!
How close are we to such a global state shift? One way to conceptualize it is to visualize the percentage of the Earth’s terrestrial ecosystems that have seen local state shifts:
…READ COMPLETE ARTICLE…
via We’re about to push the Earth over the brink, new study finds | Grist.
THE SIXTH MASS EXTINCTION IS UPON US – CAN HUMANS SURVIVE?
Films For Action Presents: The Top 100 Documentaries Inspiring the Shift to a Sustainable Paradigm.
“Our society needs a new story to belong to. The old story of empire and dominion over the earth has to be looked at in the full light of day – all of our ambient cultural stories and values that we take for granted and which remain invisible must become visible.”
Film offers us a powerful tool to shift awareness and inspire action. It offers a method to break our dependence on the mainstream media and become the media ourselves. We don’t need to wait for anyone or anything.
Just imagine what could become possible if an entire city had seen just one of the documentaries below. Just imagine what would be possible if everyone in the country was aware of how unhealthy the mainstream media was for our future and started turning to independent sources in droves.
Creating a better world really does start with an informed citizenry, and there’s lots of subject matter to cover. Our country has to come to terms with the true history of the United States. It has to learn about basic ecology. It needs to understand some basic truths about peak oil and the monetary system, the truth about capitalism and governments.
Films For Action Presents: The Top 100 Documentaries Inspiring the Shift to a Sustainable Paradigm.
Is This Insanity Or What?
The Objectification of Life – and The Huge Price We Are Paying
What is it about the human psyche that is willing to destroy the very foundations of life that humanity (and all species) depends upon for survival? Aren’t we supposed to be the most “intelligent” species on the planet? Sadly, facts are showing that we have far less understanding of the natural balances required for the planet than our arrogance and intellect would suppose.
It seems this disease is pervasive right across the globe. Like a swarm of locusts, we are ravaging and razing the earth to a point where life can no longer survive. We continue to over-fish our oceans until 90% of the big fish are gone, devastating the natural ocean systems and their biodiversity. Why? For profit and under the guise of “feeding the people” Overfishing leaves swaths of Mediterranean barren
We continue to ravage the forests that hold so much life that maintains the natural balance and biodiversity of our lands, often displacing indigenous peoples from their homes, creating dependency. For What? Profit and the hunger/demand for timber and clearing of forests for non-regional monocrops, destroying thousands of species and their habitat in the process. Our Disappearing Forests. (It takes 100 years to grow a 100 year-old tree)
We continue to “drill baby drill” even as we are faced with horrific oil disasters world-wide, destroying land and ocean life and ecosystems and costing billions in cleanups. Why? For profit and the hunger for cheap fossil-fuel energy, oil and gasoline. Effects of Oil & Drilling on the Environment AND A Tough-Oil World: Why 21st Century Oil Will Break the Bank — and the Planet Read the rest of this entry »
If We Do Nothing, We are Facing One of the Worst Disasters of Humankind
Sea the Truth is based on numerous scientific publications that examine the problems of seas and oceans.
CAN LIFE BE OWNED?
Rachael Carson was Right in her classic novel “Silent Spring”. This Canadian documentary is one of THE Best explanations of what is happening to the state of our planet with the biotech juggernaut racing across our environment, leaving an irreversible destruction in its wake. Our ecosystems, environment and human health and the future of our planet is at stake and I strongly urge you to take the time to listen and watch the entire Canadian expose. It is both educational and global in its reach.
Video: Silent Forest canada tv EN – Cineversity.TV.
And they come in more than 200,000 shapes and sizes.
FULL STORY: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/pollinators/holland-text?source=email_gg
TRAILER
See full film here:
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/696/Life-Running-Out-of-Control Running Time: 59:50
Director: Bertram Verhaag | Producer: Bertram Verhaag Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2004 | Country: Germany
THE FORERUNNER TO “FOOD INC.”
“Life Running Out of Control” by Bertram Verhaag is an absolute MUST WATCH documentary Movie. Produced in 2004 it explains in depth how, even back then, genetic engineering was quietly taking over our global food and animal supply and had been for decades, reducing the gene pools, to a point where it may be irreversible.
The human, animal and environmental health risks are addressed here as well as the dangers and ethics of altering the genes of our food and animals — and thus us. Everything is interconnected and altering the genes of nature has a ripple affect on all of nature, our environment and us as we are clearly witnessing and experiencing today. (See “Urgent Memo To The World” on this blog here)
If you want to know why the environmental and food activists are protesting…this will fill you in. Let’s hope it is not too late.


The Symbiotic Relationships of Life

The Symbiotic Relationships of Life
“Human beings have fabricated the illusion that in the 21st century they have the technological prowess to be independent of nature. Bees underline the reality that we are more, not less, dependent on nature’s services in a world of close to 7 billion people”
10 March 2011 – The potentially disastrous decline in bees, a vital pollinating element in food production for the growing global population, is likely to continue unless humans profoundly change their ways, from the use of insecticides to air pollution, according to a United Nations report released today.“The way humanity manages or mismanages its nature-based assets, including pollinators, will in part define our collective future in the 21st century,” UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner said. “The fact is that of the 100 crop species that provide 90 per cent of the world’s food, over 70 are pollinated by bees.” READ ON: Humans must change behaviour to save bees, vital for food production – UN report.

Tojo, Indonesia: A villager walks through a burnt forest after a slash and burn practice to open the land for agriculture. Photograph: Yusuf Ahmad/Reuters
Britain and other countries face a collapse of their economies and loss of culture if they do not protect the environment better, the world’s leading champion of nature has warned.
“What we are seeing today is a total disaster,” said Ahmed Djoghlaf, the secretary-general of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. “No country has met its targets to protect nature. We are losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate. If current levels [of destruction] go on we will reach a tipping point very soon. The future of the planet now depends on governments taking action in the next few years.” (read article)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/16/nature-economic-security
![]() disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only |
SEE ALSO
Africa: ‘Land Rush’ (Land Grab) as Threats to Food Security Intensify #allAfrica.com http://ht.ly/1Lkox
FOOD AND WATER DRIVE AFRICAN LAND GRAB
by Staff Writers, Seed Daily Nairobi, Kenya (UPI) Apr 29, 2010
Rich Arab states such as Saudi Arabia have bought huge tracts of land across Africa in recent years in a bid to combat global food shortages, water scarcity and desertification and feed their burgeoning populations.
But now the scramble for Africa is intensifying, with investment banks, hedge funds, commodity traders, sovereign wealth funds, corporations and business tycoons out to grab some of the world’s cheapest land — for profit.
China has leased 6.91 million acres in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the world’s largest oil palm plantation.
South Korea’s Daewoo conglomerate planned to buy 2.9 million acres of Madagascar until the deal collapsed when rioters toppled the Indian Ocean island’s government.
“Philippe Heilberg, CEO of the New York-based investment fund Jarch Capital … has leased between 998,000 and 2.47 million acres in southern Sudan from the warlord Paulino Matip,” Le Monde Diplomatique reported.
“Foreign direct investment in agriculture is the boardroom euphemism for the new land grab and those promoting the grab spin it as a win-win situation.”
It quoted Heilberg as saying, “When food becomes scarce, the investor needs a weak state that does not force him to abide by any rules.”
According to various assessments, up to 123.5 million acres of African land — double the size of Britain — has been snapped up or is being negotiated by governments or wealthy investors. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by David Manning/Athens Banner-Herald, via Associated Press - The role of the opossum in suppressing populations of ticks that carry Lyme disease is highlighted in a new study on the ways biodiversity discourages the spread of disease.
Biodiversity in ecosystems, the scientists report in the Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature, dampens a pathogen’s ability to spread among humans. A study by a group of biologists, ecologists and medical researchers casts new light on a phenomenon farmers have known for years: the less genetic variety in a crop or a herd, the greater the risk that disease will decimate it…(more) The Less Biodiversity, the More Disease – NYTimes.com.
Farmers and others who were opposing the introduction of GMO Bt brinjal get support from an unexpected quarter – Former managing Director (India) of Monsanto)
“Monsanto is looking for control and with the introduction of Bt brinjal the control enters the bio-diversity of India. Once the gene is released, it would for sure destroy the 2,400 different varieties of natural brinjal that the Indian farmers grow.”
Introducing Bt brinjal will be disastrous: Rediff.com Business.