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Values And Principles For a Sustainable Future
@earthcharter http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/
An extraordinarily diverse, global network of people, organizations, and institutions that participate in promoting and implementing the values and principles of the Earth Charter. In Preparation for United Nations Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, 4-6 June 2012 http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/ SEE @UN_Rioplus20
Get Involved !
Mission: The mission of the Earth Charter Initiative is to promote the transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework that includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace.
Read the Charter
We stand at a critical moment in Earth’s history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations. VIDEO: Money and Life – Ecologize Growth http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=2473
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In The Final Analysis, We Cannot Eat Money or Drink Oil
A Follow-Up To My “An Urgent Memo To The World”
HUMPTY DUMPTY SAT ON THE WALL
HUMPTY DUMPTY HAD A GREAT FALL
ALL THE KINGS’ HORSES AND ALL THE KINGS’ MEN
COULD NOT PUT HUMPTY BACK TOGETHER AGAIN
Christiana Figueres, Then UN Climate Chief, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
“This is probably the largest, the most deeply rooted, revolution that mankind has ever seen… it will revolutionize the way you and I interact with each another, the way we travel, the way we consume, the way we produce, everything. There is not one aspect of our human life that will not be touched by this… our lives will be very, very, very, different. We’re talking here about a very serious revolution.” VIDEO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qRT7Hl7rpY&feature=player_embedded
‘CHANGE IS UPON US AND CHANGE WE MUST”
by @pdjmoo February 21, 2012 (Revisited December 29, 2018)
(NOTE From @pdjmoo This was written sometime back and is well worth revisiting. It’s still True Today – even more so – as we have dug ourselves deeper into the mire. There is little to revise)
We Live in the 21st Century – New models for Life Are Demanded
A new paradigm is forming on planet earth requiring a fundamental awareness, consciousness and behavioral shift on the part of humanity. Many of the old structures, models and strategies of the past no longer work and are rapidly disintegrating and self-destructing. Our old “patriarchal” hierarchy power structures — of world political, financial, business, economic, education, social and relationship models and systems — have run their course. Neither science nor technology alone can fix this–neither can throwing money at the chaos we have created.
We must honestly address the very causes and have the courage to look afresh at everything — and change. The pairs of opposites are in full play and are giving us a good whip-lashing, creating both stagnation and fresh new sprouts of hope at the same time. While the entire global system is stagnating and polarizing, the old military industrial guard is battling it out, desperately trying everything to maintain the status quo, leading us into a potentially devastating end…The Perfect Storm…a combined Economic, Social and Environmental collapse. But life is not stagnant.
Shifting From a Patriarchal To An Earth Centrist Paradigm
Women, Youth and Indigenous Peoples are Rising
A Revolution is Upon Us. Not one stone will remain unturned as we examine the very fundamentals of life
Women, indigenous people and youth are rising all around the world, bringing a fresh and different perspective, and must be welcomed into the decision-making circle for 21st Century renewal. Emerging and developing nations are demanding an equal seat at the table and this we must do, regardless of our tribe, current societal delineations of race, color, religion or economic/education/political status. We will have to drop the sides of the old labeled box(es) we have been living out of so that new, more wholesome, interconnected life systems can arise.
We are engaging a new era where, for the first time in human history, we humans are consciously witnessing and participating in our own evolution and revolution. Those caught in the western mindset are, in fact, moving from a collective global adolescence of “I” – instant, short-term gratification and control/power over – into a maturation process of “We”, where one extends a sense of responsibility for, and support of, all living things. Both women and men will play new and differing roles, freeing up energies tied to past and often debilitating belief systems.
Restoring respect and dignity to both humanity and environment is now imperative if we are to survive as a species … and this cannot be accomplished by moving the same old pieces around the same old worn out chess board. Neither will plugging holes in the old system succeed. The old paradigm must give way to the new, releasing it’s grip and attachment to its model that is strangling us and the planet.
This new paradigm is about integrating the incoming “matriarchal” qualities demanding restoration, balance, nurturing, compassion, collaboration, community, self-responsibility and inclusiveness be included into the mix of life. Both the emerging and developing nations will come forth with fresh approaches, requiring the honing of our listening skills and attention. The West does not have all the answers. Indeed its hubris has played a major role in leading us to this brink. We need to honor and respect (and celebrate) differing cultures as we search for the new common denominators among us from which to relate beyond the thrust to “McDonalidize” our global society. We are all in the process of evolving in our various ways, at different paces, that cannot be confined to mathematical equations.
20th century business isn’t fit for 21st century economics. This shift will not be easy and many will fall by the wayside. There will be many missteps along the way, as new technologies, systems and models come and go, realigning our priorities and common values.
Tomorrow’s market leaders have new DNA. A new type of leadership will emerge beyond the existing patriarchal model. In the short-term we may regress out of fear of the unknown, closing ranks, grasping at myopic solutions driven by egos, profit and fear and perhaps even moving toward an authoritarian or totalitarian government, but ultimately we must surrender into the greater whole for the wisdom needed to move into the new paradigm of awareness for the greater collective good of ALL species.
There is no road map for where we are going and we will have to remain flexible, alert and responsible in our experimentation. Indeed, there are positive signs that this exploration is already underway within the business community We have the ability to turn fear into adventure, re-experiencing the wonder and awe of the magnificence of life on planet earth, as we explore the myriad of new horizons and possibilities, working together to find collective solutions for the re-nurturing of life, putting the restoration of the environment front and center for, Without Nature, We Do Not Exist.
Nature IS the common denominator among all living things
We have objectified ALL of life for profit and gain, reducing even you and me to a dollar figure on a balance sheet, and the same with our animals in the food chain. Contemporary agriculture is burning up our planet . It must change – it cannot sustain if we are to live healthy, thriving lives alongside our fellow symbiotic species honoring their myriad of roles to maintain planetary balance. All species are equal in their own right.
We have a herculean task ahead. Revising our sources of energy, food and housing into harmony with Nature, not “raping” “poisoning” and exhausting Her. Bringing the sense of “community” back into our lives by harmonizing with the needs of Nature and drawing from Her sustainable, renewable resources that benefit all species; renewable energies; local food production; restoring the health of our soils and forests; embracing the loss of balance in our natural world – species loss, deforestation, ocean depletion.
We have to stop escaping into new tantalizing, quick fix ideas to avoid dealing with the actual causes of our chaos that we have wrought upon ourselves. Fish Farms are no answer to ceasing over fishing. Dumping our waste into the womb of Mother Earth is no answer to reducing the waste in the first place. Mining, gouging and polluting Mother Earth for her finite resources, such as coal and oil and gas is no answer to working with Nature with her renewable, infinite energy of the sun.
The entire capitalistic system, with its’ addictive lust for profit and power, has to give way to a more all inclusive, equitable approach for all species, for WITHOUT NATURE WE DO NOT EXIST/
A new agreed upon baseline and set of Guiding Principles and Values for our actions and decisions will have to evolve to ensure we keep our eyes on the greater whole, such as: “Will this harm humanity or the environment”. If the answer is “Yes”, then back to the drawing board with our brilliant organic minds. Why Are Google and Sony Turning to Nature to Inspire Their Leaders?
Who Owns Nature? Wholesome food, clean drinking water and shelter are common survival denominators and all come from our natural world and all of which we need to nurture and share. Nature is not a proprietary item. “NATURE, INC?”
We can no longer treat our natural world and humanity simply as a statistical item, plundering and raping the very ecosystems we, and all species, depend upon for survival. “Beyond Homo Economicus“. This desecration of life has led to such a planetary societal and biosphere imbalance that we now face drastic changing climate; the emptying of our oceans combined with biodiversity and species disappearing at an alarming rate. and increasing economic/social tensions. The sum total of which is total disaster for life on planet earth. (See: The Earth Charter Initiative )
The Great Awakening has Arrived
SUMMARY
The present old centuries-past polarized system with its current misguided value systems (designed entirely by men it should be noted) has become the anti-thesis of life. The private club era of “It’s A Man’s World” and the military industrial complex mindset has reached its zenith and is imploding. It has become devoid of ethics and morals, without an organic component of compassion and caring for life. Corporations, for better or worse, now hold the purse strings and run the world, our politics, our governments, and you and me through consumerism. We have lost our way. We have commodified life to a point where big industry now writes our laws in their own self-interest.
The game today, with some exceptions, is to make as much money as you can, as fast as you can, anyway you can with little or no genuine concern for the devastation left in its’ wake. ‘Earth Grab’: What mega corporations who profit from climate change don’t want the public to know Fear, domination and manipulation will escalate in its lust for control, before it subsides. But, ultimately, it must soften and morph with the new energy and awareness rapidly emerging on the planet.
The longer we struggle to maintain old structures and old ways of relating that brought us to this brink, the harder and more painful it will be. We cannot put humpty-dumpty back together with old paradigm structures and models if we want a different result.
When the last fish is gone, the last tree felled, we cannot eat money or drink oil. If Nature and the environment collapses there will be no jobs, no economy, and societies will crumble. We must put Nature front and center in all our decisions, for we are an integral species within the greater biosphere whole, not separate from it.
In simple terms, we must restore our natural world to balance and health and, in so doing, restore health and balance to all species. If the entire world were to focus on this approach, a new economy would organically emerge with plenty of realigned life-supporting “jobs”, as we all reconnect and to the prime ultimum source of our daily sustenance and well being – the beauty and intelligence of our natural world.
THERE IS NOT A LOT OF TIME LEFT: WATCH: We Need a Revolution: We Are Running Out of Time – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon The time has come to put aside our musings and come together to find a new way of being in this 21st century that is for the well-being and nurturing of ALL living species. http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=2473
WATCH
“The Story of Solutions”
Why Making Real Change, Starts with Changing the Game
From “Story of Stuff” Annie Leonard
Published on Oct 1, 2013 Annie Leonard’s back with another animated video, six years after the Story of Stuff came out, and after eight other short films. This time, she’s talking about what we need to do to solve problems—and how we really need to reframe goals so we’re looking at the whole system. Continue to youtube.com
Watch Film
“HOME”
An Exquisite Dedication To the Stewards of Our Planet
AND
VIDEO: Money and Life – Ecologize Growth
- THE FUTURE MUST BE GREEN, RED, BLACK AND FEMALE – TruthOut, November 7, 2013 “The American Empire, and the global political economy it has spawned, is unraveling—not because of some far-flung external danger, but under the weight of its own internal contradictions. It is unsustainable—already in overshoot of the earth’s natural systems, exhausting its own resource base, alienating the vast majority of the human and planetary population. The solution in Tunisia, in Egypt, in the entire Middle East, and beyond, does not lay merely in aspirations for democracy. Hope can only spring from a fundamental re-evaluation of the entire structure of our civilization in its current form. If we do not use the opportunities presented by these crises to push for fundamental structural change, then the ‘contagion’ will engulf us all.” —Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed. …more: http://news.mongabay.com/2011/1115-king_opensource.html#ixzz1dwz7WAeN
- “If we don’t face the root causes of the economic, social and environmental crises we face, we will fail to create solutions at the scale of the challenge. The terms we use to describe economic problems and the symptoms of social and environmental distress that result will help us find creative solutions that increase value, prosperity and well-being for humanity and for the natural systems upon which all life depends. Humanity is inventive and resourceful. We can rise to the challenge of the times if we understand it clearly and can discover what we need to change to succeed.
- ” Marianna Grossman: “Truth in Labeling: Framing the Challenge to Get Results”
- A Woman’s POV: “The model of three pillars of environment, economy and equity (or people, profit, planet), is misleading. The environment is the service provider that enables human society to exist. Human society creates the conditions, rules and relationships that support economic activity.”...
- Redefining the Relationship between the Environment, Society and the Economy
Further Reading:
- Civilisation Faces ‘Perfect Storm of Ecological and Social Collapse” February 21, 2012: Guardian via @john_vidal
- A User’s Guide to 21st Century Economics – Umair Haque – Harvard Business Review
- Civilization Shifting: A New Leaderless Era Self-organizing networks and open-source ventures in the age of global disruption
- On Seeds: Controlling the first link in the food-chain
SEE MORE FROM MY ARCHIVES
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
CLIMATE CHANGE WILL IMPACT US ALL
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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
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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
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The Impact of Vanishing Biodiversity on Human Health (VIDEO LINK)
Your Health has it’s own ecosystem, dependent on the greater ecosystem
– by Claudia Rowe — YES! Magazine
Our Health is Ecosystem Health: Dr. Ted Schettler, a Harvard-educated physician, frustrated by the limitations of science in combating disease, believes that finding answers to the most persistent medical challenges of our time—conditions that now threaten to overwhelm our health care system—depends on understanding the human body as a system nested within a series of other, larger systems: one’s family and community, environment, culture, and socioeconomic class, all of which affect each other. He has researched connections between poverty, iron deficiency, and lead poisoning; insecticide use, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s disease; income disparities and asthma.
He calls this new approach to medicine “the ecological paradigm of health.”
Our Health and Ecosystem Health
“Can there be any doubt that human health is enormously dependent on ecological systems that we are having a major influence on?” Schettler says. “It’s all one world. Our tendency to describe the natural world as something without humans is part of the problem.”
“It’s accepting up front that humans do not stand apart from the environment. We’re a major species, along with the mosquitoes and fish and trees and bacteria. And there are all of these wonderful interrelationships.” … continued …
Returning to a Holistic Approach to Life: Breast Cancer and Chemicals, Fresh Fruits and Vegetables vs Industrial Processed Food, Epidemic of obesity, diabetes and cancer; public health system; income inequality are all factors discussed in this article.
via Why Your Health Is Bigger Than Your Body by Claudia Rowe — YES! Magazine.
-▶ A CULTURE SEPARATED FROM NATURE CANNOT SURVIVE: BANKRUPTING NATURE http://sco.lt/8EqAwD
– ▶ WHY CHOOSING NATURE WILL ONLY ADVANCE HUMAN SOCIETIES http://sco.lt/8BIJP7
-▶ KEEPING NATURE IN OUR FUTURE: HEALTHY ECOSYSTEMS ESSENTIAL FOR PLANETARY SURVIVAL http://sco.lt/99SfhJ
-▶ ECO-SPIRITUALITY: TOWARDS A VALUES-BASED ECONOMIC STRUCTURE http://sco.lt/7tcgQj
-▶ BEWARE THE AGE OF LONELINESS: MAN MUST DO MORE TO PRESERVE THE REST OF LIFE ON EARTH – EDWARD O. WILSON
http://www.economist.com/news/21589083-man-must-do-more-preserve-rest-life-earth-warns-edward-o-wilson-professor-emeritus
-▶ E.O.WILSON: PRESERVING BIODIVERSITY IS AN ETHICAL IMPERATIVE http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-chameides/eo-wilson-preserving-biod_b_4803125.html
-▶ HOW BIODIVERSITY COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE http://sco.lt/90Sr2n
-▶ THE SIXTH MASS EXTINCTION IS UPON US. CAN HUMANS SURVIVE? http://sco.lt/630INt
WATCH
“HOME”
Yann Arthus-Bertrand
An Exquisite Dedication To the Stewards of Our Planet
Solutions For A Sustainable Planet
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One World
One Humanity
One Environment
September, 2009, Rev. December 2010
The Common denominator among all living things
IS NATURE
Finding A Way For The Greater Good
An Urgent Task
OUR HOME: We Live on a Wondrously Diverse Planet and We are a vital, integral species within the Magnificent Web of Life not separate from it. Nature needs us. Let us Honor and Respect That
THE GREAT AWAKENING
In just over 250 years we have consumed or destroyed what took millions and millions of years to evolve…
We now understand that the majority of life on Earth has never been – and will never be – known to us. In a staggering forecast Edward O Wilson, eminent Harvard biologist, predicts that our present course will lead to the extinction of half of all plant and animal species by 2100…. – “Animal Extinction – The greatest threat to mankind”
Over the last 60 odd years we have become preoccupied with, and fixated on ourselves, our man-made lives of production, indiscriminate consumption and lust for profit. self-gratification and status. In this process we have increasingly excluded from our daily decisions and equations the well-being of others and Nature’s life supporting eco-systems. We can now see how this myopia has wreaked havoc upon both our environment and all species with in it –our societies, our communities and ourselves.
While we were flying high our natural world (and us) began to get sick, really sick . Greed took over from compassion, and wealth negotiated itself more wealth at the expense of the average man, woman and child setting the stage for a global uprising and reawakening.
We forgot our deep and profound responsibility to care for and nurture the greater whole. We forgot that we abide in Mother Nature’s womb, dependent on Her every second of every day. Just as we depended on our mother for nurturing and sustenance while in her womb, we depend on Mother Nature’s health, abundance and generosity for our daily nurturing and sustenance and FOR SURVIVAL as a species. This amnesia has resulted in us almost consuming ourselves out of existence and, in the process, we have lost our connection to community, to each other and to the essential natural processes of life.
EXTINCTION CRISIS – ECOLOGICAL ARMAGEDDON
In 40 Years HALF world’s wild animals have been wiped out:
http://sco.lt/7M1PCD
Without Nature We Do Not Exist. Period
It is an illusion to expect healthy, balanced lives without a healthy, balanced natural world. Her health is our health
While we were flying high our natural world (and us) began to get sick, really sick . Greed took over from compassion, and wealth negotiated itself more wealth at the expense of the average man, woman and child setting the stage for a global uprising and reawakening.
A Perfect Storm is approaching – a combined environmental, economic and social collapse UNLESS we change our attitudes and priorities in life NOW, and even then, we may well have passed the tipping point of what our biosphere can handle.
The major difference this time, than the Great Depression or any other time in human history, is the environment – its massive degradation and depletion by man – the degree of which has never before been seen on this planet – and the cumulative effect is the cause of Climate Change.
We depend upon a healthy, balanced natural world for our very existence – as does all life. Our eco-systems have been plundered, pillaged and polluted to a point, in some cases, of no return; species are disappearing at an alarming rate totally destroying the biological and crucial biodiversity balance of the planet. Our common life’s values and the dignity of cultures have been dismantled as we gave ourselves over to the Age of Consumerism. When Drilling for Oil has become a greater priority than clean water and healthy food, we have no choice but to revisit our values in life. What we do and choose now will set the destiny of humankind for centuries to come.
Read the rest of this entry »
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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
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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
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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?
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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?
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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.
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Is This Insanity Or What?
The Objectification of Life – and The Huge Price We Are Paying
By @pdjmoo March 10, 2012
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 »
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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 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 »
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Mangrove Restoration
Ecosystem services provide the link between nature and economic development. How can this approach guide more sustainable decisions?
Investing in Nature, for People’s Sake | World Resources Institute.
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BEST OF FESTIVAL
in the two most prestigious Wildlife Film festivals of the world
CLICK HERE to View this Must See THIS VERY IMPORTANT MOVIE “Green The Film“
Her name is Green, she is alone in a world that doesn’t belong to her. She is a female orang-utan, victim of deforestation and resource exploitation. This film is an emotional journey with Green’s final days. It is a visual ride presenting the treasures of rainforest biodiversity and the devastating impacts of logging and land clearing for palm oil plantations.
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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.
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Relationships among organisms, or mutualisms, might be more important to global ecosystem health than previously thought, argues a research team involving UA professor Judith Bronstein
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  IMAGE: By harassing bees and other flower visitors, invasive Argentine ants prevent insects from pollinating the flowers of this Californian cactus (Ferocactus viridescens), which is now endangered.
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The authors present evidence that human impacts may be forcing these mutualist systems down unprecedented evolutionary paths.
“With global climate change, evolutionary change can happen very rapidly, over a few years,” said Judith Bronstein, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the UA’s College of Science and senior author on the paper. “That can be a good thing or a bad thing, we don’t know, but people need to start looking at those effects.” … more
via From bees to coral reefs: How humans impact partnerships in the natural world.
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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.
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Today we have the simultaneous events of income deflation and food inflation; two high-speed express trains coming down that tracks at each other, a financial crisis colliding with staggering crop losses, which are cutting deeply into available planetary food reserves. Prices of food are again beginning to soar again just as millions are losing the ability to afford a reasonable diet, though little of this is being observed or reported. But soon even the blind will see. (read on….)
International Medical Veritas Association » Blog Archive » Agricultural Apocalypse 2010.
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Despite promising the world in 2009, biotech corporations have increasingly raised the hackles of scientists and citizens worldwide
2009 was a year in which the biotech industry, Gates and their US Administration allies did everything in their power to drive the world down the GM road, but it was also a year marked by remarkable global resistance.
It was a year too in which the truth emerged more clearly than ever about not just the severe limitations and risks of GM crops, but the viability of the many positive alternatives to GMOs alternatives from which the profit-driven GM-fixation diverts much needed attention and resources. (more…)
Was 2009 the year the world turned against GM? – The Ecologist.
