Soy plantation in deforested Amazon
The loss of the Amazon - which is occuring every day - is an incalulable loss "for which future generations will never forgive us" (E. O. Wilson)
Aboriginal protest to protect sacred land
This is happening all over the world in response to development
Monsanto is one of the most evil corporations on the planet: a legacy of death
Polar bears in the wild will be extinct in thirty years
Ted Taylor - anti-nuclear physician
Photo from the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
Ukrainian students
They're taking part in a drill in a school located near Chernobyl
Child obesity in the U.S. and China - an epidemic
This and asthma and depression are common symptoms for those living in industrialized nations. The myth of progress is that we will be happier and more prosperous due to greater wealth; psychologist and physicians and economists are now showing why industrialization is highly problematic.
Unborn children are highly susceptible to environmental toxins ingested by their mother
All of our bodies are full of hundreds of deadly toxins and cancer-causing agents, from the air we breath to the food we eat and the products we use. Fetuses suffer the most from these toxins, resulting in birth defects. Radioactive toxins are among the most destructive. Communities adjacent to industrial mines are particularly affected,
Geologian Thomas Berry
Berry's work focuses on effecting a transformation from anthropocentric to biocentric worldviews, and opposition to "biocide" - the killing of Earth's life systems. His grand vison for an Ecological Age could one day come true.
Uranium refinery at Blind River Ontario
Radioactive dust spreads for miles around, contaminating local flora and fauna (and human beings)
Vandana Shiva
Scientists, author, activist for ecology in India
China's air quality - due to coal emission
This would not happen if it were not for industrialization, due in large part to consumption by the west, and emulation of wester industrialization
Depleted uranium tipped machine gun shells to kill Iraqui civilians
Legacy of the European invasion
Contemporary image of genocide by Spanish conquistadors
All cars should be destroyed and the metal turned into windmills
CANDU - supplying the world with radioactive material for nuclear weapons
This Candu reactor from Canada is located in China. It also uses heavy water, which means leakage of tritium into adjacent watersheds. Tritium, if ingested, results in birth defects.
A harvest of jellyfish
Due to the increase in algue worldwide (due to global temperature increases) jellyfish have increased in vast numbers while many others speces (including coral reefs) are dying en mass.
China's production - burning coal to supply us with goods we don't need
Complaints against China's emission are unjustified if we continue to buy all the good produced with the coal that is used to manufacture these good and ship them to us.
Toxins the water due to man, and the manatee pays
Brevetoxin in water and sea plants eaten by Florida's endangered manatees results in beeding from the nose and premature death
The nuclear industry is making a killing from climate change
Literally a killing: they are producing radioactive waste that will contaminate water, earth and soil in adjacent areas for more than one million years, well beyond the life of our civilization.
The equivalent of 4 million cars per year
Australia's biggest coal plant: Hazelwood - will it be shut down?
"Is humanity suicidal?" - E. O. Wilson
We are inviting mass death and civilizational collapse through continued inaction on climate change, natural resource depletion, peak oil and the destruction of biodiversity.
The social and environmental impact of mountain top removal
Biodiversity matters
Without biodiversity humans will perish from the Earth. And it is also sacred, intrinsically valuable in its own right.
Agent provocateurs in Montebello
In Montebelle, Quebec (summer 2007) Cnd., U.S and Mexican governments met to hammer out a deal (Security and Prosperity Parternship), which results in the U.S. corproations being able to freely take all of Canada's natural resources. Critics (such as Council of Canadians) asked "prosperity for whom?" For the ultra-rich of course. Local police tried to agitate the non-violence crowd to violence by posting as activists and throwing rocks. Union activists uncovered the false front and the police later admitted to sending provocateurs. A really shameful performance by Bush and the police. The U.S. Army was also present, ready to keep law and order - on foreign (Canadian) soil! Of course their presence underscored the fact Canada is no longer the property of Canadians. In a deeper sense it never was: Oh Canada, our home on native land.
Stop Mountain Top Removal
In West Virginia local people protest the MTR, which is devestating ecosystems and displacing families that have lived in hills for generations
The Biophilia Hypothesis by E.O.Wilson
Suggests that human beings' love of nature is part our evolutionary heritage and that we are in age of alienation, divorced from our true nature
The cost of plastic
Millions of albatross chicks die from ingesting bits of plastic mistakenly fed to them by their parents
World uranium map
Areas where uranium mines are located. Canada and Khazestan are the highest production areas.
Howard Morland - showed that anyone can make a nuclear weapon
With the proliferation of nuclear energy it is inevitable that nuclear proflieration will occur as well and that an detonation will occur
Anti-nuke hero
Alice Stewart - showed that x-rays increase lukemia 50 per cent
Map of Canadian uranium mines and nuclear facilities
Supplied by Dr. Gordon Edward, Canadian Coaltion for Nuclear Responsibility
The Harper government has authorized the slaugher of 300,000 baby seals
They also passed a law that protesters cannot pass within 1/2 mile of the sealers without being charged
Biofuels: killing orang-utans in Indonesia
Seepage of waste water from uranium mining
Cigar Lake, Saskatechewan. Aboriginal peoples who live in the area will suffer from the toxicity of this spillage.
Less than 1 % of the world's water is available for human use
Most wate is sea water. By polluting fresh water and overconsuming it needlessly, we are putting the lives of every living on Earth in grave danger.
WATER WARS
Mining, heavy industry, climate change, deforestation, pollution and overconsumption threaten the Earth's fresh water sources
Scenes from the Earth Day street fest on Yonge st
This event was largely a corporate greenwash exercise with a few ENGOs and activists thrown in at the last minute
Resistence at Caledonia
Aboriginal resistance to development on contested land is a leading force for environmental preservation
The global water crisis
Chinook dying from lack of water. Future wars will be fought over water, according to the World Bank.
Clearcutting causes soil erosion
Photo of Knight Inlet, B.C. The soil will wash into the watershed, damaging them. It will also cause landslides endangering whomever is below them. By removing trees on steep mountains, the mountain's ecosystem is effectively destroyed.
Mass culture, consumption and alienation
David R. Loy calls this "the religion of the market"
The lifeless stare of consumerism
This boy, perusing replicas of soldiers, is suffering from alienation from the natural world. E. O. Wilson calls says we are living in a time of great lonliness.
Women who love life can change the world
This drumming / singing trio represent what is good in humanity
A sensible man
Thoreau's worldview is very much needed right now
Do something. Do Nothing. Your choice.
Lakehead university poster, Ontario. Most people are doing nothing. A few are doing something. This struggle is the greatest moral challenge facing humanity.
A picture of empire: no plants, barbed wire, weapons of war, and endless sorrow
Abu Graihb relatives line up to see tortured / missing relatives, under heavy U.S. guard.
Imagine if every one of them was a tree ...
Culture jam ...
Providing birds with water is just one of the many ways we care for the environment - Chevron
They way they think: "there's plenty of wood left"
Credit card culture - killing the world one purchase at a time
Government funds spent on security could be better spent
Message from OCAP, one of the few groups to stand up for justice in Toronto and Ontario
Two climate and war criminals playing golf
Clinton has become a big supporter of industrial mining since his retirement
Sliver on right = % water accessible for human use
Only 1 per cent is available to us, yet we are polluting it and using it up for industry and mining. Additionally, drought is reducing the available amount by half or more. Water will be the world's most valuable commodity in the late 21st and early 22nd centuries.
E-waste, India - where your computer ends up
Cooking e-waste to get the heavy metal components - very bad for earth, air and water and human beings
The government's sophisticated plan for nuclear waste
Dump it somewhere when no one is looking . . .
Tar sands - before and after
Before is an untouched boreal forest. After is a dead zone where no life will exist for thousands of years and poisons river systems.
Coal plants, industry and vehicles are making the world's cities unbreathable
Cancer and asthma rates increase steadily. As the world urbanizes it is choking on its waste and poisoning the air with lethal fumes. In Ontario, the Sarnia-Windsor-Hamilton area is worst, due to deisel trucks and heavy industry. In China, hundreds of thousands of people are dying from smog. Nanticoke, in Ontario, murder at least 1,700 people every year.
Everyday Greenland ice is falling into the sea
The most conservative estimates say that sea levels will rise 4 metres in this century - 1 meter for every degree of warming above pre-industrial temperatures. Of course, this will displace hundreds of millions of people and destroy all remaning coral reefs and ecosystems near coastlines. No international progress has been made on this due to the U.S., Canada, and Japan.
Representative image of the mass culture
A fat man selling meat sauce. "Eat. Vote. Win!" Become a mindless subservient drone.
The Stern Review: widely acknowledged but systematically ignored
It concludes that immediate action on climate change is requried. Academics, defending the satus quo, have spend years trying to undermine its inescapable conclusions.
Clear-cutting - 80% of the world's forests gone
The vast majority of paper used in photocopies is not recycled. Old growth forests are being cut down to make toilet paper. The result is soil erosion, habitat loss, loss of biodiversity, and loss of carbon sinks.
International shipping - a major source of fossil fuel burning
Constant shipments of unecessary goods and waste across the oceans burns vast amounts of dirty 'bunker oil.' As the oil end comes to an end, some ships are using tow-kites and sails. Oil spills and "ship-breaking" are additional sources of toxicity, killing ecosystems. International shipping, as it is now, is a crime against humanity.
Radioactive poison in our water supply
Until recently Canada allowed 40,000 Bq/L tritium levels in water. Then it went down to 7,000 Bq/L. By contrast, European Union standards are 100 Bq/L! No amount of radioactivity is safe, according to physicians.
Containers of depleted uranium to be used in weapons
Canada's uranium is used to tip bullets and missiles and coat bombs. This allows them to pierce steel but it also causes horrible birth defects and poisons local populations (in addition to murdering them initially). Victims of U.S. aggression the world over are victims of this deadly poison which Ontario and Saskatchewan allow to be mined.
Grow your own
WWII poster
Death and toxic mine tailings near Eliot Lake, Ontario
The wall in the background hold tonnes of radioactive mine tailings. If it is released it will poison a huge area. Aboringal peoples who live in the area have already died and become sick from this mine, and it has destroyed local ecosystems. The men who built it are gone.
Open pit uranium mine and radioactive waste
These places will be dead for tens of thousands of years, and pollute everything else around them - a permanent legacy of death from the culture of death. To call it "progress" is a cruel joke.
Surface of Greenland melting
CANDU reactor in China: the waste procuded by this plant will be used in weapons
By selling CANDU reactors overseas and exporting uranium Canada has blood on its hands: millions will be poisoned and die from radioactive materials from Canada.
Canadian complicity in China's emissions
Pundits excuse Canada's reckless behavior on global warming by blaming China. Let's look at why this is wrong: 1) China's manufacturing sector, fuel by coal, makes cheap disposable goods that we (American/Canadians) buy; 2) Canada endorses globalization, which allowed this to occur; 3) Canada exports its natural resources to China to be made into this garbage; 4) Canada (along with the U.S.) has the highest per capita consumption rates in the world; 5) we ship our e-maste and junk back to China, which pollutes their cities and poisons their people - and this shipping of resources, goods and waste - is all done on ships with 'bunker oil' - the most deadly type of emissions. Canada should not blame China when Canadians are in fact to blame for being so gluttonous in their consumption habits and negligent enough to let corrupt criminals like Harper et al run the country.
No justice: victim of Chernobyl
This boy sits in his wheelchair all day, seized by panick attacks. This is the real face of nuclear power. Dalton McGuinty the entire Liberal cabinet and the entire nuclear industry have blood on their hands.
Oppose the military-indusrial complex before it destroys life on Earth
“We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. ..." - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
Spent fuel pool at CANDU reactors
This radioactive waste is lethal for 25,000 years and there is no known way of safely disposing of it. The nuclear industry is essentially responsible for murder of future generations who are affected by this waste and by nuclear weapons created from it.
Christian Peacemakers' Team: free Bob Lovelace!
David Milne speaks in favour of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, facing off against the Ontario government and Ontario court system and mining profiteers to defend their homeland from toxic waste caused by uranium mining.
Uranium mining, north Saskatchewan
Problems with uranium mining: 1) destroys boreal forests and waterways; 2) creates toxic mine tailings which get into water table and harm living beings; 3) creates greenhouse gases; 4) uranium is used in nuclear industry, which creates indisposable toxic waste; 5) toxic waste is used in weapons of mass destruction; 6) endangers local populations and is globally opposed by indigenous peoples.
Noise pollution
Cities are killing us with noise pollution, air pollution, over-consumption and waste.
Three Gorges disaster
11 cities and millions of people were forced to move to make way for Three Gorges Dam in China. Dams destroy ecosystems upstream, reduce silt deposit and impovrish agricultural lands downstream, displace poor people, kill entire species of fish, and increase our dependance on electricity.
Created by ExilArt
Created by ElixArt
Created by ElixArt
Created by ExilArt
Created by ExilArt
Created by ExilArt
Created by ElixArt
Created by ExilArt
Created by ExilArt
Created by ExilArt
Created by ExilArt
Created by ExilArt
Postcard by ElixArt. See http://s224.photobucket.com/albums/dd40/exilart_photos/?start=all
Symbols of some of the nuclear facilities in the Toronto area
Part of a larger map of nuclear facilities in Canada by Dr. Gordon Edwards
Following a higher law
"I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law." - Dr. King
Direct action to stop climate change
More of these actions are needed worldwide by tens of thousands of citizens - a mass mobilization of non-violent resistance would shut down the whalers, coal boats, nuclear and coal plants, wasteful industries, major highways, and restore justice and peace and sanity to a dying world.
Coral Reefs: R.I.P.
All over the world, human beings have killed the coral reefs. The 8.10 increase in global temperatures is fatal to them. According to biologists it is too late to save them.
Digging through garbage: a vision of the future?
Children in Haiti live on the garbage of the rich - a vision of the future of utold billions in a post-carbon world; sorting through the debris of the industrial civilization and cursing us as they do so will be their fate - or perhaps they will avoid our trash heaps as cursed places of death?
"I'm afraid you have humans"
How ironic that we imagine ourselves as noble creatures and entitled to rule over other animals!
Blocking the world's biggest coal port, Newcastle England
Greepeace activists practice non-violent civil disobedience to block a major shipment of coal. With enough resistance such industries could be shut down all over the world.
The Ghost Dance - a ritual for the end of the Earth
19th century plains Indians, marking the end of their culture, formed an apocolyptic ritual of death and eventual renewal - the Ghost Dance. We now need to dance, as they did, and resist the evil of industrialization and madness that has contaminated this Earth. They provided an example of how to meet the end of life with dignity - by honouring that which is eternal and cannot be killed by evildoers. One day the human species will be gone and the Earth will renew itself. Their dance honours that moment of renewal.
Union Carbide factory protest by mothers and families
Union Carbide is emblematic of the horror that industrial corporations are willing to put the Earth through in order to serve their relgiion of insanity and greed and death
Population predictions
At current trends, the Earth will have about 9 billion human beings, which is many times more than what it can handle. As oil reserves are used up (for industry and vehicles and planes), food production will go into a major decline - since it dependant on cheap oil for petroleum and farm machines and transportation. A mass famine of tens of millions will, resulting in major wars over scarce resources - especially water and oil - will decimate humanity. The suffering of this century and the next will make the 20th century's bloodbaths look tame. This is the hell that Harper, et al, are condemning humanity to.
Wildfires advancing on suburban areas in California
Wildfires and drought are pest/disease infestations are among the biggest concerns facing the U.S. as climate change continues
A very small primate
Compared to the forces of Nature, we are not very different in stature
Food for generations to come
As crops dissapear due to drought and flooding, more and more people will be forced to eat whatever they can find, including rats, roaches, dogs, and even one another.
One of the worst coal plants in the world
Hazelwood in Australia - the site of many protests - in Ontario, Nanticoke is unprotested this year except by a European contingent of Greepeace - Canadian activist are very subdued by comparison with Australian and European counterparts
Algonquin Ardoch First Nation resistance to uranium mining
Located in Ontario, north of Kingston, this is the biggest community fight against unsustainable development in Eastern Ontairo and a major threat to the McGuinty government's nuclear plans - that is why the government appointed a judge to punish the protestor's severely, to intimidate them.
Sumatra's anti-deforestation activists
The worldwide movement to save the planet from industrialization has hundreds of millions of activist and is growing all the time - it is in effect the largest most decentralized political movement on Earth
Canada: home ON Native land
Native groups ceded land under duress or in some cases like the Algonquin did not cede it at all. Land claims by indigenous groups all over the world should be honoured. Native groups have a much better history of sustainable practices than do "settlers" (all non-Natives).
Videoconferencing instead of flying
Why hasn't this idea caught on? It is cheaper, it works, and most importanlty it is guilt-free.
Reclaim Earth Day! Toronto. April 20, 2008
Go to
Grandmothers against uranium
Part of the Sharbot Lake community protests
Bio-fuels and monocrops: two very bad ideas
Growing industrial inorganic monocrops is an environemental and health disaster, especially when they are grown for use as fuel for vehicles, and thus contribute to starvation, takeover of small farm holdings, and growing them, transporting them, producing ethanol from them and burning them all produce greenhouse gases as much or greater than fossil fuel use.
Bali: a disaster for the world
Nothing was accomplished at Bali, except the Climate Action Now! resolution. Climate talks only serve to burn CO2 from air travel and placate the public; in fact, nothing is accomplished at these talks since the major emitting nations refuse to take real action.
Save the frogs!
Sharbot Lake protest
Uranium mining is morally and practically wrong on many levels: it violates native land claims, violates the natural world (Creation / Mother Earth) by destroying boreal forsts and introducing lethal heavy metals into the ecosystem, creates toxic mine tailings and tritium in the water, nuclear weapons production from spent uranium (85% of Ontario's uranium is exported), creates greenhouse gas emissions in the mining and processing phases, massive water waste, enormous cost to the taxpayer (approx. $50 billion), and the fact that if we go down the nuclear path it excludes the possibility of a massive investment in renewables.
The next great climate criminal?
John McCain wants to continue the war against Iraq. This alone ensures failure to address the environmental crisis. Unfortunately, even if Barrick or Clinton are elected the Party they lead is already corrupt and committed to supporting environmental destruction. There is a lot of evidence to support the notion by Derrick Jensen that nothing short of the dissolution of industrial civilization is likely to save what remains of the natural world.
Canada's unusual weather - erratic weather worldwide
Erratic weather worldwide, as a result of the 0.8 degrees Celsius warming in the last 60 years - due to industrialization - is resulting in blizzards, floods, drought, torrential rain, hurricanes, and other erratic weather
Good links on climate change
SUV attacks on the rise
The gas-guzzlers are getting their comeuppance
Western industrial monoculture: a society of drones
Deep ecology represents the promise of liberaion from the spiritual death of conformity to a culture which suffers from the mass illusion that it is separate from and superior to the natural world. Ecopsychology informs us that we evolved in a natural setting; could our psychopathologies be a result of having insulated ourselves against a system that we need both psychologically and physically? "What we do to the forests is a pale reflection of what we do to ourselves" - Gandhi
Place this sign on a post in a parking lot
Eventually all parking lots will be torn up to make gardens, once cars are useless and people are starving
Compassion and hope
We need more of both!
All forms of social and environmental justice are related
The war against nature and the war against people living in the middle east is closely related on many levels: 1) the dehuamization of Muslims and the dehumanization of those living in the developing world who are victims of biofuel production and drought and extraction industries has the same root cause: a fundamental psychic division from the natural world and one another; 2) wars over scarce resources (such as oil and water) are waged by the U.S. government, at great cost to both human lives and to the natural environment (because it maintains dependence on fossil fuels); 3) public funds spent on war and militarization are NOT spent on energy conservation, renewables, public transportation, social programs, health care and habitat protection, to save biodiversity.
They sold their souls
Tim Ball and Bjorn Lomborg are two of several pseudo-intillectuals who accept funds from the fossil fuel industry to create doubt in the minds of the public as to the necessity of immediate action on climate change
This also is a crime against humanity (and against the non-human world)
Water pollution and the irresponsible use of water by industry is one of the foremost problem in the world. Water for industry should be taxed very heavily, similar to a carbon tax.
Toxic trespass
Our bodies are filled with hundreds of deadly toxins from contaminants dumped into the air, water and soil - which enter our bodies as we breathe, eat, through clothing, personal products, and water. Asthma and cancer rates in industrialized areas are many times higher than in non-industrialized areas. This health cost and the pyschological cost of industrialization and consumerism (which has been shown, statistically, not to make us happier), not to mention the moral cost, reveals why endless economic growth is not good for us on any level - in addition to the fact that it is killing the planet and cannot be sustained.
Harper has silenced the country's scientists
A recent decree from Ottawa takes us a step closer to totalitarianism: Harper has issued the order that scientists who work in the government, and who were previously able to answer questions by the media about climate change, are prohibited from doing at the risk of losing their jobs. The same decree was issued by Bush in the U.S. and ignored, as a matter of conscience, by such notable scientists as Jim Hansen.
The ethics of culling
5,000 elephants are to be "culled" (murdered) in South Africa because they are overopopulating the area and eating all the vegetation. This is because the area they are confined in is arbitrary, created by human beings. If human populations are too great, do we cull them because they use up too many resources. Why are elephants' lives considered less valuable than huamns'? Why should these elephants pay with their lives because we have imposed an arbitary boundary on them, which is the initial imbalance introduced into the system? Do we not have a responsibility to not overopopulate beyond one billion human beings, for the sake of current and future generations of human beings and for the sake of non-humans, and if so, why are we not complying with that moral imperative (called zero population growth)? Why should other species pay with their lives because we are morally irrepsonisble?
The result of pesticide use in industrial farming
Child of migrant worker sprayed with pesticides. Shopping at large grocery stores perpetuates injustice like this. We need to change the way we eat, and what we eat, and how food is produced. Bio-dynamic and local non-industrial farming appear to be the answers.
Amphibians of the world are endangered
In the 22nd century there may not be any amphibians except in captivity. Those responsible are guilty of an immense crime for which there is no adequate name. Jurisprudence needs to be transformed to reflect the nature of these crimes. This entails recognizing the rights of non-humans to exist.
Victim of illegal hunting of primates in Asia
There are only 300 of this species of primate, Rhinopithecus avunculus. This infant died in captivity. He is emblematic of the fate of most non-human species on Earth in the 20th and 21st centuries - the darkest hour of history, the time period when we (the human species) murdered life on Earth (including ourselves) in great numbers. The biggest mass murder is yet to come, due to climate change, causing drought and famine. Activism is the necessary response, but will it be enough? We measure success through small victories. An activist might not finish his or her work, but it is necessary to start it; others of good conscience will take up the struggle for justice. Love is the well-spring from which hope emerges. We must also experience grief, in response to the magnitude of the loss that occuring right now and transmute that grief into action.
Rape of the Arctic: polar bears and other Arctic species endangered by development, global warming
The Arctic is undergoing a major transformation, endangering hundreds of species. My own thought on this: the only place good enough for those responsible is Hell, as envisaged by Christian preachers of old.
We are animals and we experience a great range of emotions - so do non-humans
On what basis do we separate ourselves from the non-human world and exploit and destroy it (and ourselves)? Whatever the rationalization, it is insufficient to excuse the extraordinary torture and mutilation of non-human animals. Will humanity ever get to the point of embracing non-humans (and other humans and ourselves) as worthy of life and respect? Our society, as it is, is built on an insane hatred of life. As activists we have 1) love life, and 2) work politically to affirm life-affirmative policies and projects.
What is more frightening: the torture or animals or the indifference of good people?
Veal calves go through emotional hell when torn from their mothers. Psychology tests (and common sense) tells us that among higher mammals, separating mother and infant causes extreme stress and grief for both. The veal are kept in these stalls, unable to move or even turn around, until they are killed. If a human being were kept in this condition for even a week it would be considered an act of torture, contrary to international law.
Illegal and immoral Japanese whaling
For some years now there has been an international ban on whaling; despite this the Japanese continue to murder these great creatures - surely as great a crime as any that exists, except Biocide (murder of the entire planet). Everyone guilty of these crimes ought to be tried before an international tribunal, much like Nuremburg. Perhaps after the great catastrophes strike, they will be. The the end, however, the loss of their souls is the greatest punishment. If hell exists, they are going there. If not, they must face themselves on their death beds, knowing that they destroyed God's beautiful creation for profit, like Judas sold Jesus to the Romans for a few pieces of gold.
Suggested reading
It is very sad that a nation founded on principles of democracy and freedom should be so corrupted by greed, violence and propaganda.
Pickering nuclear plant
This monstrosity supplies electricity to Ontarians but at a very high cost ethically and financially. It is completely unecessary when there is potential for 100% wind power in Ontario, The money wasted on nuclear could and should be used for wind turbines and conservation education.
The mass die-off of bees
Due to human activities - probably pesticides - bees are dying en masse. Since they pollinate much of the world's vegetation, there is fear a great food shortage -- combine this possibility with drought, caused by climate change and deforestation and industrialization and use of agricultural lands for biofuels for vehicles - and the increasing diminishmen of existing oil reserves (which factory farming relies on) and it is propable that a mass famine may occur for North Americans in this century -- in Africa it is already occuring.
Saving victims of factory farming
These men are saving this pig from torture and slaughter in a factory farm. The best solution is for everyone to become vegetarians.
The murder of birds
Birds everywhere are dying off, thanks to industrialization, suburbs, deforestation, factory farming and pesticides
Water shortage
Due to climate change, mining and industry and overpopulation by humans, scenes like this in the Phillipines will become more common.
World population growth and peak oil
The world's population is predicted to go up to 9 or 10 billion then drop dramatically as the result of a massive die-off from drought and famine. This mass death of billions -- unprecedented in history -- is caused by the climate criminals, Bush, Harper, and the corporations they serve.
A law we should have in Canada!
Idling bylaws are not enforced in Toronto, which is disgusting. The UK has much better laws simply because there are more activists there.
Israeli bulldozer
There is an incredible parallel between bullodozing a Palestenian house and bulldozing forests and fields to make way for suburbs. In both cases the bravery of ordinary people is called on to stop the crime.
Sharbot Lake protest heats up
With the arrest of one of the elders this last week (mid-Feb.2008) the uranium mining dispute has heated up, as drilling begins. If uranium is found the government will allow a uranium mine on first nations' lands and against the will of local inhabitants. This uranium will be eventually be exported and used in nuclear and conventional weapons, and will be buried, contaminating 8,000 future generations.
Waiting for his mother to feed him
Derrick Jensen's Endgame
Jensen's thesis is controversial but it rings true and compels us to action.
The effects of depleted uranium, used in Iraq
This photo is of an Iraqi child. Depleted uranium is placed inside U.S. armaments, directed against civilian populations in George Bush's "war on terror" (to maintain hegemony over Middle Easter oil deposits). Those who have perpetrated this crime are guilty of crimes against humanity. Now the Liberal government of Dalton McGunity is promoting nuclear energy and uranium mining, which will eventually be used in weapons that result in birth defects (as in this photo), as well as nuclear weapons. There is no way that the government can guarantee that uranium mined in Ontario cannot be used in this way.
Consumerism is a symptom of the criminal insanity of western industrial society
It is an addiction which advertisers feed on. Most of the goods come from China and are made with coal power. The solution: Buy Nothing! Stop being a consumer ... buy local organic food and quit driving and flying. Consumption is murder.
Portrait of a future Earth
If we reach 10 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures much of life on Earth will die from drought. This is not an exaggerated claim; the world's scientific community is now predicting the possibility of civilizational collapse and vast desertification.
Industrialists and climate criminals deserve to go to hell
The idea of a literal hell is a good one that deserves a renassaince among theologians and church officials. For turning the Earth into an inferno and killing life on Earth they ought to burn forever in a sea of flames!
A sign of the times
Pollutants are in our bodies, in the water, in the soil, in the air. They cause asthmas, birth defects, mental and physical illness. All for the sake of consumerism and greed. Our society is criminally insane.
Man is an willfully arrogant creature
Economist Scott Barret endorses a technological solution to climate change, despite the fact that technology has caused this problem. The arrogance of man is his undoing. We hope that Barret is right - that technology can avert disaster - but fear that he is wrong and wonder to what extent that message delays the necessary action needed to effect behavioral change on a mass scale. It seems that industrial society is determined to exhaust every other option than behavioral change!
Murder of the coral reefs
The underwater forests of the world have been killed by the climate criminals. We have to mourn them and give our lives to resist further destruction. The future is very bleak right now. Only a great wave of catastrophic violence by Mother Nature or the miracle of a moral awakening by the masses can avert further tragedy.
Greenwash : preventing us from really changing society
Challenge greenwash wherever you see it!
Bruce nuclear station should be dismantled
This nuclear energy will supply radioactive waste to 8,000 generations - all of which is uncessary given that Ontario has enough wind power to supply all our energy needs!
Portrait of the future created by Bush-Harper
Thousands of future generations will suffer great privations due to the criminal negligence of current governments
Biodiversity - far more important than all the world's wealth
We have already killed the world's coral reefs and have started a mass extinction - these are crimes against humanity and the Earth
Matthew Fox and Creation Theology
Fox says that we ought to revere the sanctity of God's Creation. Like Thomas Berry or Rosemary Radford Reuther he is an eco-theologian who regards environmentalism as a Christian duty.
Climate criminals of Bali - the ultimate horror movie
Wave energy machine
Converst energy from waves to electricity
The Universal Declaration of Animal Rights
This declaration ought to be studies and adhered to by every human being on Earth.
The U.S. has become a nation of climate criminals
Given the crimes that the U.S. continues to perpetrate against the natural world, it is perhaps better that it be dismantled. If not, it is the moral duty of every American to stand up for what is right and just by getting rid of the climate criminals in Washington and doing away with the consumer way of life - which is fundamentally anti-life.
Oil is God to Ameri-Canadians
And they are willing to kill to protect their god. All oil refineries, mining operations, and other greenhouse gas emitting industrial operations ought to be destroyed before they destroy us. There is no way to make these operations sustainable; they are irredeemably unsustainable and lethal to all forms of life on Earth.
Climate injustice
The aftermath of Katrina foreshadows the great social upheavals likely to occur this century as a result of the criminality of the the United States, Canadian, and Japanese governments and the corporate interests they serve. This photo is from a demonstration against the destruction of social housing in New Orleans by the Federal government. 10,000 people are being evicted without replacement housing.
Frogs are dying en masse
See this article on species extinction which shows that while our species increases in numbers, animal species decrease. It also provides a short critique of the economists' skewed perspective, which fails to take into account the "externalities" which lead to habitat loss and climate change.
Good depiction of the human relationship with nature
Victim of nuclear energy
This girl is dying of radiation poisoning. Throughout this blog you will find many postings against the idea that nuclear energy represents a viable solution to climate change, for several reasons including the fact that 8,000 generations of human beings (over 25,000 years) will be negatively affected by nuclear energy for the sake of energy generated for the sake of 3 or 4 generations. The risks associated with nuclear energy are too great to allow its use, especially when safer forms of alternative energy (other than fossil fuels) are available. What this requires of our generation is committment to an ethically sound life-affirmative worldview. A solution to the climate crisis which is not ethically sound (i.e. nuclear, mass production of biofuels, geoengineering) should be abandoned for the same reasons that we are concerned about climate change: because of its adverse effects. Is the perpetuation of a culture based on endless consumption worth the destruction of the natural world and the murder of future generations?
University of Toronto students rally for Kyoto
Victim of Union Carbide, Bohpal disaster
The victims of Bhopal still not have justice. They are emblematic of the plight of future generations who have to suffer the ravages of climate change, nuclear waste, famine and disease due to the criminal negligence of this generation. Justice for Bhopal victims
Harper's new advisor on nuclear energy
Harper has rammed through a special law to over-ride a decision of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. The CNSC was upset to learn that AECL (Atomic Energy of Canada Limited) had failed to install an important safety feature two years ago -- a back-up pump to prevent a core meltdown under certain accident conditions -- which was an explicit requirement of AECL's licence to operate the NRU reactor. As a result the fifty-year old NRU reactor, which has been operating in violation of its licence, was facing a month-long shutdown while the necessary safety equipment would be installed. But Stephen Harper introduced an emergency piece of legislation to re-start the NRU isotope-production reactor at Chalk River, despite the objections of the CNSC. In fact Harper spoke derisively of the "Liberal- appointed" commission as being obstructionist in preventing the reactor from operating when its isotope production capacity is needed. Harper stated in the House of Commons that there was no legitimate safety concern, that there would be no accident, because he had consulted an independent nuclear expert. This independent expert turned out to be someone from Bruce Power, who is also an active member of the Conservative Party (Harper's party), and who only read some relevant documents about the NRU situation the morning before. Now Harper is trying bully the Ethics Commissioner:
Climate change skeptic Bjorn Lomborg: a no-show at University of Toronto
The "skeptical environmentalist" Bjørn Lomborg is not an environmentalist at all. He is a paid lobbyist funded by the oil industry to case doubt on the need to mitigate climate change. He does this by disputing the seriousness of climate change (he is famous for dismissing the idea that polar bears are in danger of extinction). Lomborg has been critisized for "scientific dishonesty" and for errors in science. He teaches business and has no science background; he distorts climate science in his book. In the photo he receives award from CEI, one of the biggest climate-change denial organizations, funded by Exxon Mobil. Lomborg has been critisized by distinquished biologist Edward O. Wilson for errors in science. Lomborg promotes the idea that economists should decided how public funds are allocated and beleives (as many economists do) that human beings will be more prosperous in the future than they are now -- which conveniently ignores the fact of peak oil, natural resource deplection, global inequity and the disasterous consequences of climate change. All of his arguments are aimed preventing concerted action to mitigate climate change. See Lomborg's errors
This fight can be won through non-violent resistance to the abuse of corporate power
MLK provides a good example of the moral courage required to stand up to corporate power and governments that support it. See King's essay on non-violence. The climate crisis is ultimately an ethical challenge to the way we live, and the degree to which we act responsibly to future generations.
Who killed the electric car?
Road rage: the psychic cost of the car culture
Photos of an actual confrontation between angry motorist and bicyclist in Kensington Market, Toronto. Road rage is considered a violent crime: it is defined as "The malicious intent to cause harm to a person or property using a motor vehicle. It is a criminal offence that includes violent acts, ranging from a physical confrontation to an assault with a motor vehicle or weapon." See this article
War is one of the most environmentally destructive of human activities
Ending Canadian presence in Afghanistan will reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by transports ships, planes and tanks. The approximately $120 billion of dollars spent of war would be better spent on energy-efficiency retrofits, conservation and renewables. See Homes Not Bombs; the environmental cost of war; article which blames inaction on climate change for the war in Iraq..
Birds are dying en masse due to pesticides
It is now well documented by biologists that North America's bird population is in rapid decline due to pesticides. See this article for more info. And go to Living in a toxic world to gain insight into the toxicity that human beings experience.
The Great Carbon Illusion
A great short documentary by CBC on the fact that political talk over climate change does not equal practical measures to mitigate it.
Flying is dying
Air travel is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases in the world, and it is expanding (as the Heathrow airport protest illustrates). See George Monbiot's book "Heat", ch. 8 on "love miles."
Galapagos tortoise: angry at geo-engineers
He's mad because geo-engineers are pouring iron filings into the sea in an experiment to mitigate climate change. This could create a dead zone. This use of technology could have unexpected negative consequences, and it is being used by politicans to avoid having to address the source of the problem: our profligate use of fossil fuels.
Activist Matthew Behrens
Matthew founded Homes Not Bombs and Toronto Action for Social Change, two groups that do non-violent direction action. In 2002 he and Angela Bischoff (Greenspiration) were arrested for trying to meet with OPG represenatives to discuss their sanction of smog through coal power, which kills 1,700 people a year. The charge was trespassing; it was dismissed. This type of activism, following in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, seeks to transform society through non-violence and peace. The Buddhist monks in Burma recently tried to do the same; non-violence is an ongoing project and way of life that never ends.
Geoengineering: fixing the symptom, not the problem; and what if the cure is worse?
Geoengineering could kill all life in the Galapagos Islands, burn the ozone layer away and other unforseen disasters. Yet policy advisors are taking us in this direction, using the climate crisis to justify "climate altering." This is really being done to avoid changing the way we live: the excess of consumption, and energy waste. Ultimately this is a spiritual problem: our seperation form nature leads us down the path of killing nature -- and ourselves in the process. Is it really worth it to leave a dead planet just so we can continue to drive SUVs?
We need to change the way we live
North Americans are the biggest consumers and produce the most waste of any people on Earth. It would take five planets to supply the resources needed for everyone on Earth to have the same lifestyle. Perhap's it's time for Americans and Canadians to start consuming less.
Geothermal energy
Buildings can have an independant source of energy sources through geothermal units.
Cigarettes and climate change: what's the connection?
George Monbiot uncovered the connection in Heat (2005) by showing that the same PR firm that denied that tobacco kills promotes climate change denial for a fee. They are funded by Phillip Morris and Exxon Mobil. Climate change denial still gets a lot of press, despite the global scientific consensus that it is anthropogenic (man-made).
U.S. Republicans : Climate Criminals
Senator James Inoff, recipient of oil money, is a consistent climate change denier. Another Republican politician says global warming is caused by "dinosaur flatulence." For hundreds of stories on Republican climate change denial and obstructions of progress on this issue, see Think Progress site.
Bicycles: the way to go
Cars are completely uncessary in cities except to deliver groceries. If everyone rode bicycles, people would be healthier, there would be less pollution, and we would have stronger communities.
This 1930s Depression-era film portrays a local solution to unemployment and hunger: collective farming. A brilliant movie.
Chomsky's critique: northerners need to become activists
Chomsky believes that we who are privelaged and educated have a moral duty to become activists against totalitarianism and injustice.
Glacier depletion accelerating
Ice and snow reflect the sun. As glaciers and pack ice melt, their surface area, which reflects the sun, diminishes, leading to further local temperature increase, which accelerates melting. This is called a "positive feedback" effect.
Who defines equality and sustainbility?
This cartoon illustrates a basic problem for the environmental movement: who defines what is green? Corporations are claiming they are green, but their claims are hardly credible in most cases. What are the basic criteria?
Local food vs. supermarkets
Farmers markets are cheaper, healthier, more sustainable and more participatory
Computer addiction is killing the planet
Computer games, email, Facebook, computer model used by economists and corporations and government -- all these are examples of human beings plugged into a virtual reality at the expense of a vital connection with the natural world. The virtual world is supplanting the natural world, both in terms of our thoughts and through the creation of "ubiquitous computing devices" (e.g. PDAs, cellphones, digital screens, embedded computing devices) used to control populations through surveillance and market goods to them.
Climate justice = equality for all persons, all nations, all species
The principle of equality and equal participation is paramount as we try to find solutions to the climate crisis. The 20th century is full of example of ideologies in support of a common good which imposed hierarchies and committed murder in the name of the common good.
Food not Bombs
A grassroots solution to the world's problems
Activist confronts Condi
Codepink feminist activist reminds Bush Admin. that they have blood on their hands. She was arrested after this photo was taken.
Community gardening: the solution to many problems
Gardens grow food and liberate urban dwellers from dependence on imported food and transportation emissions; they build a sense of community; they absord CO2 and release oxygen; they are healthy; they use space that would otherwise be used by grass or parking lots or gas stations; they are a radical solution to the world's problems.
Cars versus people
There is a contest right now, over land and fuel and energy: the appetite of cars is depriving humanity and the natural world of finite resources and causing global warming. Perhaps it's time to ban cars altogether.
Native blockade: the future of the climate movement?
The Caledonia blockade represents a non-violent direct action solution to unsustainable development
Bioregionalism
Neither capitalism nor Marxism have offered plausible solutions because both depend on centralized government and technology for the means of production; perhaps a decentralized model, focusing on local, sustainable solutions is better: it empowers people (is more participatory), is dependent on identification with place (which furthers sustainability) and emphasizes energy and food sovereignty.
Wars over scarce resources have already begun
The war in Iraq is over oil; the war in the Sudan over water and land. As resources are depleted, due to industrialization, war and dehumanization will follow. Peace and justice will not come through war but through conservation, diplomacy, and upholding the principle of equality at every level of governance.
Climate justice requires a recognition of equality and diversity
Large cars as symbols of power
The Cadillac Escalade is the preferred vehicle for the rich and powerful. Its official website has no mention of its emissions. These vehicles not only use up more gas; they also impose social inequality. Bicycles and public transporation is more democratic and more sustainable. In a perfect world, SUVs would not be built.
The cost of war versus the cost of renewable energy
Something close to two trillion dollars has been been spent on the war in Iraq, compared to $1.5 billion in spending on environmental technologies. The climate crisis could have been solved with 2 trillion dollars. As it is the war, makes climate change worse: See why the Iraq war means inaction on climate change; how far could 68 billion go toward securing energy independence? Pretty damn far; Beating swords into wind turbines by solar energy expert Paul Gipe, who asks, "What could we have accomplished toward building a renewable future here in North America instead of launching a war in the oil-rich heart of the Persian Gulf?"
D8 is coming! Global Climate Day of Action
U of T contingent meets at Sidney Smith hall (100 St. George) at 11 a.m., marches to Dundas Square for noon rally, then back to Queen's Park, then to eco-fair at Hart House.
"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a time of moral crisis, remain neutral." - Dante . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ."It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment" - Ansel Adams
Non-violent direct action - one of many tactics we can use to emphasize the need for change
Greenpeace boat blocks a whaling ship. Despite the fact that whaling is now illegal under international law, Greenpeace and the Sea Sheppard Society are alone in preventing it. The Canadian Navy focuses on military exercises, not upholding international law.
The Creation Story ...
Thomas Berry and others regard the Big Bang as a telling of the Creation Story from the perspective of modern science (figuratively potrayed in Genesis and other mythologies and narratives). This "creation theology," the miracle of life and our ability to appreciate it through consciousness reveal a spiritual dimension to the universe. Religion and science, long at odds, come together in the modern era, compelled by our collective need to move beyond the folly of seperating ourselves from the natural world.
It is time for us to learn the native wisdom that respect for the Earth is necessary for physical survival and spiritual fulfillment
The Stern report has two messages: 1) spend what it takes to prevent further increases in global temperature - the cost of not doing so later will be greater than the costs now; 2) there are opportunities for "green business" and technologies -- a good message, but should be tempered with caution to avoid greenwash and the need for greater conservation.
NYC under water, 22nd century. Blind faith in technology created this mess; it won't solve it.
Vehicle reclamation project, Kensington market
Streets Are For People made this sculpture. Every SUV in the world should be transformed in this way.
Bioregionalism
The bioregional movement argues for a move towards decentralization of energy and food and manufacturing. Nation states and corporations have done only harm. Municpalities and communities can manage their own affairs. Energy sovereignty and local food are two key components of this strategy for survival in the face of civilizational collapse as a result of peak oil, climate change, natural resource depletion, corporage greed, war and inflation.
Green rooves save money
So why aren't they being built?
The solution: green energy
Glacier loss: drinking water for millions in peril
The face of the other and the command of ethical responsibility
The eye of a greywhale. Looking into the eye of a whale as it was harpooned is what moved eco-warriro Paul Watson to give his life to saving theirs. Genetically we have much in common with them, and we share the same planet. Ethically, we are commanded by conscience to not do harm to them or other sentient beings. To harm them is to harm ourselves by seperating ourselves from them. Whales love one another and communicate - they have much to teach us.
Ghandi's answer: local solutions and non-violent resistance
Indifference allows evil to flourish
Elie Weisel's moral appeal to humanity to intervene against genocide can be extended to appeal to humanity to intervene against catastrophic climate change.
The banality of evil: murder as a result of thoughtlessness
Arendt's study of Eichmann and the origins of evil lends itself to a critique of the climate crisis: namely that evil is a result of careerism, thoughtlessness (the inability to consider the position of the other) and the all too common complicity of ordinary people with injustice through indifference and blind deference to authority figures.
Methane from factory farms. Simple solution: stop eating meat.
Climate protest
"Don't amBush our future! Stop nuclear and climate crisis! Greenpeace"
Climate model of El Nino
Tropical storms are increasing in number and intensity due to man-made climate change
Time for GM and other car companies to go
Cars are among the biggest causes of global warming. Massive investment in public transportation and local shopping is the answer. The structures of society need to change radically. The car companies and petroleum industry needs to be abolished.
Wanted: a magic button to make all cars on Earth vanish instantly
Other things the world would be better off without: pesticides (they are killing the soil), genetically modified seeds (serve only Monsanto's interests), superhighways and all internal combustion engines, the entire petroleum industry, television, iPods, cellphones, industrial waste, transnational corporations, guns, all weapons of war, air planes, coal plants, nuclear energy, industrialial machinery, computers, pharmaceutical companies (their overall effect is negative), pornography (exploits women), animal experimentation, factory farms, violent comptuer games, free market economics (promotes dehumanization and exploitation of nature) and business schools (trains people to dehumanize), both capitalism and communism and all other self-serving ideologies which are rapidly killing biodiversity and life on Earth. The answer: decentralized bioregionalism, which promotes small local sustainable businesses and community life, not requiring centralized industrial products.
Stop the seal hunt!
This man is a criminal, yet the Canadian government gives him the legal right to do this, which makes us all complicit in this crime if we do nothing to stop it. Write to your MP!
Future plight
Victim of greed and indifference
This is representative of the fate of the great mass of humanity in the future, thanks to the self-serving policies of the WTO and G8, the Bush Administration, Harper's minority government, the transnational corporations they all serve, and last but not least the self-absorption and indifference of good people who are called on to stop this criminal neglect but feel powerless and give up before they try. Everyone who is privelaged enough to read and write and have a roof over their head has a moral imperative to become an anti-poverty and environmental activist.
The greatest crime of all: mass extinction
Protecting biodiversity is among the highest of callings, and yet one little practised by humanity, the majority of whom are completely self-absorbed. The North American culture of excess, fast spreading in popularity across the world (notably in China and India) is a death sentence for millions of species. Man-made species extinction is criminal. Every sector of human society ought to work to prevent the further loss of natural habitats, invader species being introduced, and climate change.
17 million residents of Bangladesh will be homeless because of our excesses
The annual floods in Bangladesh have become worse in recent years. Many eco-refugees die from exposure and disease. For this reason, climate change denial which prevents mitigation ought to be considered a crime under international law.
Bottled water is tap water marked up 1000%
The bottled water market should end altogether. It uses up fresh water aquifers or simply uses tap water. Either way, plastic waste is produced (more petroleum products). Drinking tap water has become a matter of conscience.
Take the train instead
And if you are going overseas, you can take a non-luxury passenger ship. Being surrounded by the ocean and slowing one's schedule down are also good antidotes to the rush and artificiality of urban life.
Carbon offsets useless?
There is a huge controversey over offsets. Monbiot and others claim they are useless and compares them to papal indulgences; Al Gore uses them to justify his frequent flying; some advocates argue that it matters which offset scheme you buy into -- that reforestation is a problematic because it provides funds for projects which are already underway, not projects that would not otherwise happen. The best option is not to fly or drive in the first place, but this is practically useful only if enough people make this decision collectively, or the decision is mandated for them through legislation or restricted by carbon taxes. Currently air travel is becoming cheaper and more popular -- the very opposite of what needs to happen.
Church goes solar
Energy efficiency is "good stewardship" helping to safeguard the beauty of God's Creation
Heading towards 100% renewables
There's a small town in Germany called Dardesheim, that relies almost entirely on renewable sources for its energy needs. The town's goal is to use 100% renewable power, and become known as German's "Town of Renewable Energies". Dardesheim already has some huge wind turbines in place, and many solar roofs installed. Last year they installed an amazing 62 megawatts of wind power, including one 6 megawatt turbine, the E112.
Responding to the climate crisis: a moral choice
The cartoon represents good as a mini-car and an SUV as bad. Of course there is no such thing as an environmentally friendly car, but the point of the cartoon is to illustrate that we have a moral choice in how we respond to the climate crisis. That choice extends not only to what we consume, but also to who we vote for and whether or not we act responsibly by taking seriously our civic duty to "green" where we live and work, and to promote local and national policies to protect the environment.
Translation: the G8 nations have not acted quickly enough to stop climate change. The "voluntary" approach favoured by Bush and Harper at the recent APEC climate conference simply allows Exxon and other vested interests to continue with business-as-usual. Despite widespread consciousness of the issue and consensus that immediate action is needed, our political leaders are failing us badly.
Climate change denial: alive and well thanks to the mass media
It is remarkable that an argument, funded by the oil and coal industries, and lacking scientific credibility, could be so easily prolonged. And yet it has been, thanks to the mass media, who present the "debate" as though they were a neutral party.
Thomas Berry: The Dream of the Earth, The Great Work
"The universe is not a collection of objects; it is a communion of subjects."
Anti-nuclear activist Dr. Dorothy Goldin-Rosenberg
Solyent Green: a vision of the future
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Made in 1973, the film refers to global warming, water and food shortages, urbanization and humanity's tragic seperation from the natural world. Although the mysoginy of the film is a deterrant, the environmental message makes this a must-see.
Idling at drive thrus : killing the planet one donut at a time
We wrote to Tim Hortons urging them not to build more drive thrus. Their response was that they have a volunteer clean-up program in some cities, where community members are urged to pick up the unrecyclable cups that they generate by the millions. They also said they would "consider" switching to biodegradable eco-cups. We are still waiting.
"Flick off" campaign sticks it to residential energy users, gives free license to industrial sector
Industrial users account for a very small percentage of energy users (estimated 1.2%) yet they use an estimated 55% of all energy produced by coal and nuclear power plants. They also pay a reduced hydro rate (3.2 cents per kilowatt hour versus about 5 cents for residential users). Instead of equalizing hydro rates to reduce their consumption, the Ontario government (whose election campaign was funded by the auto sector and other industrialists) implement a disengenuous conservation campaing, to get residential users to turn of the lights. Meanwhile the industrialists lobbied for and got an allocation of $43 billion to build and refurbish nuclear power, to allow them to continue the production of goods (such as cars) that we don't need. Pictured is Environment Minister Laurel Brotten, who will be rememberd for her bid to cut down a tree on her property to make way for the expansion of her garage (all four of her family members owned a car).
Blood money
The Munk Centre, at University of Toronto, is financed by Peter Munk, whose wealth was made through Barrick Gold. Open-pit industrial mining violates human rights and devestates local ecosystems. Dr. Marketa Evans, Director of the Munk Centre, gives academic legitimacy to the notion of voluntary "corporate social responsbility," favoured by Barrick Gold. Barrick favours voluntary CSR because it provides them with an argument for avoiding the restrictions that could be imposed by Canadian legislators to ensure that Canadian companies do not violate international human rights and environmental standards abroad -- as proposed during the Halifax Initiative talks. Evans recently appeared with Barrick reps at a talk on Bay Street, sponsored by Barrick's law firm, and spoke of the problems faced by "our industry" (her words) -- referring to Canadian extraction industries and in particular open-pit mining.
Toronto's air show should be banned
An increasingly important issue as public utilities are privatized. Scarce water (due to excessive industrial use and drought caused by deforestation and climate change) are already erupting in wide-spread revolts in Latin America. Without clean water people die. The Sudan is said to be a war over water; the World Bank predicts that most future wars will be fought over water. It is therefore criminal to allow it to be used for such things as gold mining or electronics manufacturing.
Manufacturing consent
The Toronto Star endorses nuclear energy. The National Post denies the reality of man-made climate change and promotes "clean coal." The Globe & Mail failed to report on energy issues in the provincial election (as did all other mass media). CTV airs climate change denial. The SUN is the same. Even U of T's Varsity failed on all these fronts. The influence of advertising (from the auto industry in particular) and self-censorship on the part of editors and journalists is to blame. Ontario's mass media is biased in favour of the Liberals and PCs (whose allegience is purchased by corporations). Scientific truth is aired only when it appears to be sensational, but real solutions (including mandatory regulations to reduce emissions) are given almost no copy space.
Exxon Mobil and CSIS are watching
Some environmental activists are on the CSIS blacklist because they practice peaceful non-violent civil protest. CSIS is funded by the Canadian public but advances the interests of the military-industrial complex, including Exxon Mobil, Imperial Oil, and similar transnational corporations. Figuratively, the Eye of Mordar represents the evil that dwells in our souls which make such abuses of power possible. This is why the philosophy of non-violence, as advocated by King and Gandhi, urges spiritual purification as a prerequisite to political action.
The solutions exist
The great lakes could have wind turbines (as pictured below) if politicians were less influenced by nuclear and auto lobbyists. Ontario is building 700 turbines -- a pathetically small number compared to the thousands built in Germany (which has less wind potential).
Cyanide used in open-pit mining poisons our waterways
Commoner wrote about the environmental crisis three decades ago, and his words are as relevant now as then. Unfortunately, public policy decisions continue to be unduly influenced by mainstream economists whose arguments do not take into acount the simply and obvious fact that at the rate of current consumption, natural resources are finite, and the Earth's capacity to absorb our waste products is limited.
Climate change denial continues ...
The denial industry, funded largely by Exxon Mobil and other fossil fuel producers, continues to actively influence public opinion and public policy through the mass media, despite being refuted by all the world's leading climate scientists and established scientific organizations over the course of two three decades.
Children deserve a clean healthy environment.
Indian girl - an instance of child labour.
Manufactured landscape
Burtynsky's photos show intentional landscapes without a single living thing in them. Industrialization is rapidly destroying all liveable habitats. Unless there is strong legislation to protect natural areas, they will be turned into industrial wastelands.
Fewer cars, more bikes please
Toronto (and other cities) ought to have car-free zones downtown. This would reduce smog and GHGs, increase pedestrian and bicycle traffic and improve cities. The City of Toronto had a chance to implement this change with its Clean Air and Climate Change Act, but failed to implement the necessary changes.
In this book Gore argues (coherently) that television news enteraintment has successfully distracted us from the important issues that deserve our attention -- including the necessity of acting to mitigate catastrophic climate change. He also provides an historical arguement that the Bush government represents a fundamentalist reactionary position against Enlightenment and Deist ideals advanced by Jefferson and the American founding fathers. Seeking to bring together church and state and identifying one's political party with God's sanction goes expressly against the principles of Enlightenment reason that America was founded upon; for this reason, the Bush Administration's politics are anti-American. It is also a violation of reason to defy science as they have done, in the case of evolution and climate change debates.
The issue of tactics ...
Ann Hansen spent 7 years in prison for bombing a weapons manufacturer (Litton) and a pornography store selling videos of rape. Some environmental activists (e.g. Earth Liberation Front) favour her approach, while many others do not, and some advocate non-violent direction action (e.g. Greenpeace, Earth First) in order to persuade the masses, rather than destroy the "means of production" as Hansen did. Many NGOs will not even join a rally or a march, but at the same time they benefit from government and corporate funding generated as a result of the activism of volunteers whom they distance themselves from. The issue of tactics is worth greater discussion among activists, and was raised during the recent SPP protests in Montebello when agent provocateurs posing as anarchists unsuccessfully infiltrated the protest. Students Against Climate Change favours low-level non-violenct direct action and education, but does not disdain those who take it further. All activism for the environment, from letter writing to arrest scenarios is better than doing nothing!
African amputee - victim of crimes against humanity - receives help. One lesson we can draw from this photo: it is necessary to continue with life, whatever has happened in the past, and ultimately we need one another to do this. The most vulnerable members of our global society -- as well as the entire non-human community -- needs the help of those of us who are privelaged and capable of conscious action.
Greenpeace direct action
A good dose of poison for your food!
Social and environmental justice movements are rising across the world
Justice would be served if this endangered Siberian tiger ate Stephen Harper
"I don't feel very good. I've got a bad case of humans."
"I've broken out all over and running a high temperature. My doctor has ordered me to cleanse my system with a few extreme hurricanes. Hope that does the job!"
What is the solution?
One group, Bioneers, states that its goal "restoration." It is one many ecological movements sprining up in response to the environmental and climate crisis.
Eco-psychology: the idea that separation from the natural world is pathalogical
While the human mind is shaped by the modern social world, it can be readily inspired and comforted by the wider natural world, because that is the arena in which it originally evolved. Mental health or unhealth cannot be understood simply in the narrow context of only intrapsychic phenomena or social relations. One also has to include the relationship of humans to other species and ecosystems. These relations have a deep evolutionary history; reach a natural affinity within the structure of their brains and they have deep psychic significance in the present time, in spite of urbanization. Humans are dependent on healthy nature not only for their physical sustenance, but for mental health, too. The destruction of ecosystems means that something in humans also dies. The climate crisis represents an end for many species and human lives; it also points to the necessity for the transformation from an anthro-centric to a biocentric worldview -- because our technology affects the planet so profoundly, other species' lives are affected by our mental state.
Next meeting
Deep ecology or social ecology? Both are valuable if they help transform society
Without praxis (theory in action) green philosophies are useless. Human society is badly in need of a major transformation towards ecology; instead the majority are heading towards a consumer mono-culture. Globalization and the mass media are largely to blame. Diversity of culture, ecology and biodversity could as easily prevail, but these will not come without a struggle.
No one said that defending the Earth would be easy
True Americans support solar!
Planet good, Bush bad
Canadian voters
A vote for Stephen Harper or McGuinty or John Tory is a vote for coal and nuclear
All three of these politicians have been bought and paid for by the oil, nuclear and auto industries.
SUVs and airplanes and coal power cause drought
Everyone has a basic right to clean water. These kids are deprived of that right by the Stephen Harper government's position on Kyoto.
Harper true allegiance: U.S. oil companies
By rejecting Kyoto and allow the tar sands expansion, Harper helps only one party, his true overlords, the petroleum producers.
Dalton's mantra: "I love nuclear"
Ontario's premiere is using public funds to pay for energy for big industry use, and planning to dump the waste in holes in Ontario's native reservations. Lethal waste will be leaking into the water table for the next 25,000 years, long after the Liberals (and Canada) are long forgotten. McGuinty says that he is a Christian, but the Old Testament says "thou shalt not kill." Students Against Climate Change is sending him a copy of the Bible with that passage marked in hopes that he reads it and takes it to heart.
Greenpeace action: projecting solar message onto coal transport ship
The message reads "let's export solar panels instead."
Nuclear safe? One accident could result in Chernobyl
Fire at nuclear power plant in Germany, 2007
Liberal Enviroment Minister Dwight Duncan fails to see the light
The Liberals are spending $46 billion on nuclear -- the single largest purchase of nuclear in the world -- when it has been shown that 100% renewables and conservation could work in Ontario, princiapally through wind power (WWF report). There was a deliberate media blackout and distortion of the truth in this provincial election, so the vast majority of Ontarians were never informed of this.
Flying is dying
Flying to and from climate conferences emits just as much CO2 as air travel for other reasons ... climate conference attendees ought to make a better effort to live what they preach
Burning Bush in Brazil
Activists burn an effigy for U.S. crimes against humanity and the environment
Alberta oil sand: the destruction of boreal forests the size of Florida
The oil sands are also the single greatest source of Canda's GHGs. They are slated to expand three times in size in coming years. The Canadian public still subsidizes the U.S. oil companies in the region (who get 95% of the profit). The tar sands provide 16% of the U.S. oil consumption, ahead of Saudia Arabia. Stephane Dion has not indicated that he will stop the oil sands if elected.
Wind potential in Ontario - courtesy of Greenpeace, WWF
Politicians tell us there is not enough potential renewable energy to keep the lights on in Ontario without nuclear or coal power. They’re wrong. At the end of August, the McGuinty government released a 20-year electricity plan that overlooks a whole array of options for renewable and clean energy in favour of a $40 billion nuclear building spree. One untapped renewable resource is wind power on the Great Lakes. A government commissioned study in 2005 showed that there’s enough wind on the Great Lakes to generate up to 47,000 megawatts of electricity. That’s almost fives times the capacity of Ontario’s ageing nuclear stations. Despite this, the McGuinty government has rejected outright any development of offshore wind. Should we believe the Liberals when they tell us we don’t have the renewable energy potential to go without nuclear or coal? No.
Video Bar
Video Bar
"Future generations will never forgive us"
These important words, from E.O. Wilson, should serve as a wake-up call: ignoring the climate crisis is a crime against humanity and against the natural world -- which we are a part of.
D8: Climate Day of Action
Climate crisis and species extinction
Half the species in the world live the Amazon rain forest, which will become scrub-brush by 2100 AD if the climate crisis is not sufficently averted. The acidification of the oceans is also another major factor. In Canda, the pine beetle infestation and melting of the Arctic tundra are major concerns. Flying and driving are major causes, but what's really need is political action, which means political activism: we must all become politically active, to force the Canadian government to take decisive action. If they won't do it, they should not only lose their jobs; they should be tried for crimes against humanity and against the Earth! What will it take for the Canadian public to realize the gravity of this situation and act? Where is the moral indignation? Why are Canadians allowing the self-interest of an elite to dominate public policy, despite international criticism? Will it take another crisis of major proportions on North American soil (such as Katrina) for this society to wake up?
There's no such thing as a green car
Hybrid car technology is less damaging than conventional engines, but the energy cost involved in making a "green car" is enormous and the car will continue to use both gasoline and electricity (produced in large part by coal power). The greenest option is to use public transportation or bicycles. The problem with that is that the structures of society are built to accomodate these options. Which means that society has to be reshaped along different, more biocentric priorities. This requires a revolution in thinking at all levels. Now we can see what there is such deeply entrenched resistance to the "inconvenient truth" that we are killing the planet (and ourselves)! Yet in the end, a car-less culture is healthier and better off than one in which millions of cars compete for space, used up finite resources, and contribute to the destruction of life.
The basis of an ethical response: put yourself in their place
These penguins have a right to live and prosper. Yet what we (humanity) are doing is depriving them of their basic rights. The only consolation is that "the Earth has all the time in the world" (the 11th Hour). What this means is that humanity may drive itself to extinction, thereby giving the little remaining life an ecological niche to flourish, just as mammals flourished when the dinosaurs became extinct.
Boycott National Post for climate change denial
The National Post are Canada's worst unrepentant mass media climate change deniers. They are complicit in murder.
Greenwash king: Virgin mogul Bransen kills the planet with aviation emissions and talks green
Greenwash, even more than climate change denial, is the greatest obstacle to decisive action. As long as governments and corporations talk green and do nothing (or make token efforts for PR purposes) things will continue to get worse. It is our moral duty to expose greenwash and demand decisive action!
We're acting as though we have another planet to go
Leonardo DiCaprio - climate change activist
The 11th Hour is a brilliant analysis of the climate crisis, meant to focus on solutions.
Anti-environment minister John Baird: a man who enjoys destroying the planet
John Baird is passionate about what he does. Whose interests does Baird's rants promote? The Canadian Coalition for Responsible Environmental Solutions. Members include the Canadian Association of Oil Well Drilling Contractors, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Landmen, and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
Boycott Tim Hortons for using non-recyclabe / non-biodegradable cups, drive-thru idling
We wrote to Tim Hortons about this. Their answer was unsatisfactory. They do not intend to stop using non-recyclable / non-biodegradable cups or idling at drive-thrus. Tim Horton cups are so prevalant now that they account for 7 to 14 % of the street waste in most urban centre so Canada! In other words, the waste they should be responsible for is borne by municipalites. Additionally, trees are killed to make these cups (depriving the world of carbon sinks).
Ecuador's oil spill - a damning case against all oil extraction
This spill,one of the worst in history, was deliberate -- done to save Texaco the cost of proper disposal. They simply poured millions of tonnes of oil waste into the Amazon river system, killing thousands of human beings and millions of animals and poisoing Ecuador for centuries. This type of crime is typical of the oil industry. All oil extraction should cease immediately.
In response to the excuse of China and India: what happened to moral integrity and responsibility?
Bush, Harper and other invoke the China argument: they are building a new coal-fired power plant every week, so why should we hurt ourselves economically? Gore's answer (and one that rings true) is that the U.S. must take the lead on reducing emissions so as to have the moral authority to urge China and India to do the same. What about taking responsibility for your own errors rather than blaming others? Why can't we have public policy based moral integrity rather than blamecasting and criminality?
Real reason for the PR campaign against windmills
The nuclear and oil industries are both afraid of wind and solar power. As a result they've produced a major PR campaing for years against these technologies.
Jerry Falwell and Christian Right = climate change deniers
With a few exceptions, many in the Christian Right are deniers. Falwell says global warming is "Satan's attempt to redirect the church's primary focus from evangelism to environmentalism" and"the jury is still out "on whether humans are causing -- or could stop -- global warming." Some believe that GW is ordained as part of the end-times. Against these positions are those of eco-theologians, like Thomas Berry.
Maldives islands eco-refugees
150,000 + people are killed every year due to man-made climate change and many more become eco-refugees. Climate change deniers have blood on their hands!
Victims of the oil industry's greed
Exxon Valdez spill victims
See this movie!
This is the best movie ever made on global warming. Unfortunately, Warner Brother bought it and then killed it. It was not marketed properly and is no longer in the theatres.
There is no such thing as the safe storage of radioactive waste
Barrels of radioactive waste on the steep continental slope at a depth below sea level of about 2,000 feet (610 meters). Photo courtesy of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Note that the barrels will disentegrate before long in the sea water, leaking toxic waste into the sea, killing all life in that area.
Open-pit uranium mining
Can you look at this photo and still claim that nuclear is "clean" energy? As with many "manufactured landscapes" in the industrial transformation of this planet there is not a living thing in this picture.
The world would be better off without computers
Despite their uses for environmental activists, the overall legacy of computers is negative: they have allowed the extraction of natural resources and the wasteful consumer culture these resources fuel to grow to monstrous proportions in the last 30 years. They are used in every extraction industry, for businesses, in the stock market -- what they do in every case is devalue humanity and nature by quantifying and commodifying them -- reduced the sacred to quanta, to be manipulated. They are not merely tools in our service; they change the way we think and act fundamentally. Not to mention the argument against e-waste, the energy and water waste involved in producing them and the mindless consumer culture that they breed (along with television). Computers are killing the planet as surely as coal-fired power plants and cars. Their only redeeming value is that they are used by activists to spread information, but this could be done by other means. If you have a button in your hand that could make all computers dissapear instantly, would you push it? I would.
How U of T President Naylor thinks (and why he is in bed with Exxon Mobil)
Video Bar
Anti-Exxon protest
How Bush and Harper get away with it
It surely was a clever move on the part of Exxon Mobil and others of their kind that put Bush and Harper into power: find a leader who is stupid and likable and the public will feel conflicted about hating him, despite the policies of his government. They leaned this from using Ronald Reagan successfully: the American public liked him and did not want to belive that he was capable of evil.
Cars: an integral part of the culture of death
Look at the life-cycle of cars: minerals extracted from the ground produce toxic mine tailings, a massive amount of energy is used to produce a single car, arable land and forests are destroyed to make roads, oil extraction industries pollute the sea and earth to produce the fuel cars need, wars are fought to secure oil hegemony, CO2 is burned by cars causing global warming and lethal smog, millions of people are run over and injured in car accidents, road rage and traffic jams less the quality of lives of citizens, insidious advertising by car companies dominates public spaces (called 'mind pollution'), needed housing is displaced by roads (as in NYC), cars at the end of their life cycle become waste (as in the photo above).
Oil fuels war - Esso action
Harper: Bush's lapdog of war
Wars to secure oil hegemony contribute to climate change. Wars also produces massive GHGs, both in production of war machines and in running them. Both war and man-made GHG emissions are morally wrong.
Weather extremes
Greenwash for Toyota, Wal-Mart
Evergreen, an Ontario NGO, plants trees to green the city, but its funding is from Toyata and Wal-mart. This effectively "greenwashes" (gives environmental legitimacy to) those corporations, both of which cause enormous environmental damage. Evergreen is typical of many corporate NGOs these days that accept funding from questionable sources.
Oil spill
Oil spills, both accidential and intentional (to save waste disposal costs), are one of the by-products of the oil business, which from beginning to end causes environmental devestation. The only solution: end all oil production and consumption!
Dion will not save us from Harper's war on the environment
Sadly, the Liberal Party of Canada backed away from challenging Harper's despicable throne speech, based on weakness in the polls. With imputy Harper delcared that Kyoto was dead ... don't count on the government to save the Earth; become an activist! Protest on December 8th International Day of Action!
A vision of the future
This scene of flooding in India is representative of what tens of millions of people will experience as water levels rise worldwide. Already, south Pacific islanders have been forced to evacuate.
GW: good for mosquitoes, bad for your health!
A sick earth will affect your health!
Earth Liberation Front torches hummers in California
Trees: not only caron sinks
Trees are not only valuable for how they serve us. They have an inherent value and a right to exist and flourish. An international moratorium on clearcutting would go a long way to solving the climate crisis.
Water injustice ...
In Africa, lack of access to fresh water has already reached crisis proportions. Man-made climate change will only make this worse. Owning a SUV or flying in an airplane is the equivalent of committing murder.
Phillipines protest: Stop Funding Climate Change!
Manila, 2006. Greenpeace activists at the Asian Development Bank HQ.
James Hansen, world's most famous climate scientist
Hansen's work is largely responsible for bringing global warming to the attention of the world
Kyoto Now!
From Elizabeth May's blog - Canadian climate protest
Balloon representing the Earth filled with CO2, and inevitable results
Gas pump murder
Everytime you fill up the gas pump you contribute to the murder of future generations. Flying and driving is morally unjustifable unless you offset emissions in some way, and there are many critics of offsets who claim they don't work. The better thing is to not fly or drive or eat meat (in your personal life) and take political action by following the Live Earth 7 point pledge.
Elizabeth May - climate change activist
May's work has brought real climate activism to Ottawa. The Greens are enjoying a record year, matching NDP votes in some areas. But they have yet to become as major a force as they have been in Germany for some time.
Exxon Mobil chairman Lee Raymond and Jabba the Hut: which one is which?
Exxon Mobil: they win the prize for biggest and most evil corporation on Earth. Exxon is widely acknowledged as the biggest funder of climate change denial in the world. They have paid off every Republican politician (and many Democrats too). They, not the American public, run the White House (and Parliament Hill).
D8: International Day of Climate Action
Around the world activists will march - including University of Toronto!
Fight Global Warming Now!
New book by activist Bill McKibben and the Step It Up campaign.
Drought and the high cost of petroleum products (used in agri-business) = famine
Somalian woman seaches for seeds by sifting through dust on once-fertile farmland, now dead due to man-made drought
Methane produced by factory farming: a good argument for becoming a vegan
Farm animals produce vast amounts of GHGs. Molecule for molecule, methane is 20 times more potent than CO2 as a GHG. You make a bigger contribution to stopping global warming by becoming vegan than by switching to an eco-friendly car.
Bio-cide: the killing of an entire planet
Acid rain, flooding, industrial pollutants, melting icecaps, highways, airplains, drought and wild fires, famine, war, deforestation, hurricanes - this picture covers it all.
One solution: stop driving SUVs!
"The American people want big ass cars"
CLIMATE CRIME
Activists scale tower near coal plant in UK
Climate change - time for action!
Tasmanian Green party activists
Listen to the bear!
Harper = terrorist
By opposing Kyoto, supporting the Alberta tar sands and supporting Bush at climate talks, the Harper government has set us back years in terms of fighting climate change and destroyed Canada' international reputation
One of the women of the world fighting climate change
Taken from a website titled "women fighting climate change."
"A nice thing about global warming ...
. . . humanity may be completely and utterly wiped out, leaving the planet a much more peaceful place."
Dick Cheney: "I've been an frickin evil vice-president for frickin years!"
In praise of mothers
What do mothers have to do with climate change? We have to start thinking of the Earth as a our mother. Just as one would not hurt one's own mother, we ought not to hurt the Earth. A simple thought, but one that our national leaders need to take seriously. They have a lot to learn from the biocentric Native American religions.
Bush response to climate change
Greenpeace campaign against coal in UK
Activists project anti-coal messages on the sides of smokestacks
Nuclear marketing hype
Pictured above is a beaver sitting on nuclear fuel rods, the symbol of the Canadian Nuclear indusgtry. Investment in nuclear energy is marketed as a solution to global warming but it isn't. The public funds invested in nuclear are funds that could be better spent on clean, safe renewable energy such as wind, solar, cogeneration and conservation efforts (energy retrofits, for example). Uraniam mining produces GHGs; radioactive waste is an unresolved problem; nuclear power is unstable, requiring coal plants; the risk of nuclear disasters such as Chernobly are very real; and most importantly, it is now proven beyond a doubt that the "base load" energy needs of industrial socieites can operate on wind and solar, with sufficient investment in both. What cannot be produced ought not to be used; most energy use goes to unecessary production to feed uncessary consumption. Less consumption and waste will result in a better quality of life for all of us, and the plants and animals we share the planet with.
Clean safe energy?
Actual photo of leaking radioactive material in aging US nuclear power plant reveals the serious dangers of nuclear energy
African Youth Initiative on Climate Change
Young people around the world are getting together to change society for the better. The problem is that not enough of them are doing this! We applaud this group from Africa, who clearly want to save their continent from drought caused by GHGs.
John Baird, Harper's anti-environment minister
The Harper government in its throne speech (Oct, 2007) announced that "Kyoto is dead" and suggesting a "made in Canada" alternative that emphasizes voluntary compliance by corporations, no binding targets on emissions and is clearly not serious about curbing global warming. Their position is informed by a strong allegiance to "the economy," positioning economic prosperty against the natural world. They clearly either havn't read the Stern report! The economy-ecology debate is false, as pointed out by Gore in An Incovenient Truth and DiCaprio in 11th Hour.
I love clean energy
Eco-refugees in Africa
"Drunken forests" caused by melting permafrost
As the permafrost melts, tree lose their footing in the soil. This happening all over the Arctic and Siberia.
Deforestation
Loggers have increased clearcutting in B.C., using the pine beetle as an excuse. But not all trees are affected. Selective logging is still a much better option. The remaining live trees act as carbon sinks. Canada should end all clearcutting immediately.
Climate change costs lives
Wanted
Peak Oil book
Peak oil movie
Larsen-B Iceshelf breakup, 2002
Baby the dog, climate change activist
Baby has been to more protests than any other dog in Toronto. She wants the bad men causing climate change to stop doing what they're doing.
Many young people are concerned. Groups like Canadian Youth Climate Coalition are being created all over the world.
Sattelite photo of nighttime lights
The Ontario provincial government has launched the Flick Off campaign. Why not start by reducing nighttime illumination? This famous sattelite photo of the industrialized world, lit up at night is a portrait of massive energy waste. The lights also have a negative psychological effect, giving us the illusion of indepedance fron the natural world and obscuring the stars and nightsky from our vision. Human society is self-absorbed at its own peril.
Diarrhoea increases by 8% for each 1 degree C increase in temperature
The chart illustrates that diarrhoea admissions match temperature increases.
Agricultural failure from drought the greatest threat
This chart illustrates that relative to flooding and disease, the greatest projected number of deaths is from malnutrition, due to agricultural failure caused by drought. It is estimated that by 2020, some eight million people per day will die from famine caused by climate change.
Portrait of a future world
Canada's remaining forested areas
Clearcutting for export to the U.S. and abroad threatens one of the last great boreal forests in the world. The pine beetle and wildfires -- both the result of increased global temperatures -- are also endangering forested areas.
Protect remaining forests
Within the last few centuries, about half the world's forested lands have been destroyed by man. The remaining half needs to be protected. Ironically, the latest threat is deforestation in order to grow palm trees for use as biodeisel fuel. This fuel is sold as pollution-free but in fact produces more GHGs than fossil fuels.
Vision of a green Toronto
Loss of mystery
Our psychic discord may be caused by our separation from the natural world and attendant narrowing of consciousness. We evolved in an ulimited natural setting, condusive to mystery, but live in artificial environment which deadens any sense of mystery and makes us self-absorbed. The climate crisis represents an opportunity to find ourselves by preserving the remnants of the natural world not already destroyed by humanity.
Green roofs
The city landscape needs to be transformed: solar panels and greenery need to be placed on every rooftoop.
Not much time left ...
The "tipping point" is thought to be two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures; at that point global warming goes into a"positive feedback" loop. When that happens, it will be more difficult (and probably impossible) to stop global warming from going to 4 degrees or even more (some scientists predict 10 degrees by 2100 AD). A 10 degree increase would wipe out most life on Earth and destroy or greatly alter human civilization to such an extent that it would unrecognizable by today's standards. We have anywhere from 5 to 15 years left before the "tipping point" is reached. Every second of every day, global temperatures rise, taking us ever closer to the edge of an abyss. There is already massive ecosystem loss, but immediate action -- meaning a practical program to reduce global GHGs by 90% -- could still avert total disaster.
Exxon's war against life on Earth
Exxon Mobil, more than any other corporation or military force in human history, is responsbile for the destruction of life on Earth. They are the principal funders of the climate change denial industry, a group of paid lobbyists who spread misinformation by suggesting that global warming is not caused by human beings. Exxon's motive is to maximize profits, even if it kills half the species on Earth and tens of millions of human beings.
Loss of biodiversity
Some creatures that have lived for millions of years, and whose beauty and complexity we are just beginning to appreciate, will perish in a few decades due to the wanton acts of destruction by human beings. Climate change is the single greatest threat to life on Earth. Other threats include overfishing, clearcutting, hunting, habitat loss, industrial farming, urban sprawl, toxic waste, and invaders species.
Heat prostration
The last ten years have been the hottest on record in human history. Tens of thousands of elderly people are already dying from heat prostration; this number will only increase. Ironically, air conditioners put the greatest strain on the electrical grid, leading to "peak" use in August, and risking brownouts. As hydro rates go up, air conditioning will increasingly be unaffordable for the poor, resulting in increased heat-related mortality rates.
Malaria clinic
Hospitals in India and other tropical countries have long experienced malaria outbreaks. In the future, people in more northern climes will suffer as malaria-carrying mosquitoes move north.
Deaths due to climate change
The World Health Organization makes the conservative estimate that 150,000 deaths are caused annually by climate change (due to smog, heat prostration and drought). The actual numbers are probably far higher. This chart shows that, due to drought, Africa has the highest death rate from global warming.
Television distracts us from reality
In "The Assault on Reason" Al Gore makes the entirely plausible argument that "news-entertainment" on television distracts us from the foremost issues of our age: the impending threat of global warming and worldwide ecosystem collapse. Television also indoctrinates the masses to desire consumer goods they don't need and can't afford, resulting in wasteful production and consumption -- both of which are destroying the natural world at an unprecedented rate. There is also a psychological and physiological cost: the average American and Canadian watches 4 to 5 hours of television per day, which contributes to obesity and social isoloation.
Ocean Conveyer Belt
Scientists fear a disruption of the Atlantic gulfstream. The prediction was made that its collapse would send northern climates into an ice-age. That prediction has been disputed, and according to some, disproven.
Surface Air Warming
A scientific chart showing increasing global air temperatures. Drought is the inevitable result.
Protest against agro-chemical
The so-called "Green Revolution" of the 1970s introduced petrochemical-based pesticides into agriculture on massive scale. This initially led to increased food production (which allowed for a massive increase in the world's population) but eventually destroyed the soil, leading to massive crop failures. Genetically modified seeds are also a major problem, improvrishing farmers to pay Monsanto, a major seed producer, and destroying crop biodiversity. In India, thousands of farmers lost everything and many committed suicide. Around the world, local farmers are returning to organic farming. This protest against agro-chemicals is in the Phillipines. Local organic food production is necessary to build a post-carbon world and to mitigate the damage to the soil and atmosphere caused by petrochemicals.
Pinebeetle
Ocean acidification's adverse effect
Plankton is the base of marine ecosystems. Oceans are increasingly acidic due to absorption of anthropogenic CO2, preventing plankton shells from properly forming. Without plankton, most marine life will perish.
Bush national park plan
The U.S. government, under the Bush Administration, is currently selling off and developing national parks.
Tree - the real superheroes
Trees act as carbon sinks. Deforestation is already occuring due to climate change. Clearcutting should be banned. This would actually give more people jobs -- sustainable foresty employs more workers than industrial logging operations.
Stop idling!
Toronto's idling bylaw needs to be enforced.
SUVs should be banned
Nature's revenge
Scientists James Lovelock theorizes that the Earth is a living organism which he calls "Gaia." Some commentators says the Earth (Gaia) is trying to purge itself of us. Whether or not you attribute agency to the Earth, it is clear that extreme weather due to global warming poses a threat to existing lifeforms.
Wangari Matthai - African environmental activist
Pro environment = anti-war
Modern wars are a symptom of the fossil fuel age: wars are fought over oil and consume vast amounts of energy in weapons production and transportation, and they devastate local sustainable communities (e.g. Afghanistan), polarizing the world into enemy camps. Violence against nature and animals and violence against human beings has the same root, and the same cure: non-violence or what the Buddhists called "ahimsa." This photo shows a young Buddhist in Sri Lanka, protesting the civil war there.
Local organic foods - health for you and for the planet
Buying and eating local vegetables from farmers' markets may not seem like a revolutionary act, but by not subsidizing the industrialized farming (using toxin oil-based pesticides) and food transportation infrastructures, you do more to make the transition to a post-carbon world than waving a placard.
This is what's at stake
"The era of easy oil is over" - Chairman of Chevron, 2005
Projected increase in ocean acidity
Nanticoke, Ontario
Nanticoke is the largest coal-fired power plant in Canada, and one of the largest in the world. The CO2 it emits every year is equivalent to that produced by 6.9 million cars. Premier McGuinty has recently passed legislation to shut it down by 2014. It remains to be seen whether that will in fact happen.
Two worlds
Nickel tailings - Sudbury, ON
To green Ontario stop funding nuclear energy
The McGuinty government will spend $80 billion on energy. Half of it is for nuclear energy. Very little is for conservation or renewables (solar, wind). Yet 100% renewable energy is both possible and necessary in Ontario. See VoteForCleanEnergy.ca
Peak Oil = the end of suburbia
Everything in our society runs off of cheap energy supplied by oil. It is now running out. After it is gone, billions will die from famine unless the transition to sustainable energy sources is made now. Unfortunately we are on the path to a fossil-fuel induced mass suicide. The objective of this student group is to move in another, more sustainable direction.
Forestry solution: selective logging
Malaria epidemic
As global temperatures increase, tropical diseases such as malaria are increasing.
The 21st century: an era of climate racism
Why do many of our political "leaders" appear to regard Africans and Bangladeshis as expendable? How else can we explain the apparent disregard for the lives of those will perish from drought and flooding caused by climate change? The tactics and philosophy of Dr. M. L. King and M. K. Gandhi are needed to invoke the moral strength needed to fight climate racism and the grotesque imbalance of power between rich and poor in a world in the throes of environmental collapse. Greenwash and government policies which do not radically curb the wasteful GHG emissions of corporations and consumers will make little diference; only a grassroots people's movement has any chance of effecting real change.
Water Justice Now
There is a terrible water inequity in the world today. Global warming will amplify the problem, as glaciers melt. This is not a gradual process; new evidence suggests that even 2 degree Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures could result in the loss of crucial water supply. The water justice movement against the privatization of water resources needs to gain strength, to save lives. Water is a basic need, and should not be wasted in heavy industry (e.g. the tar sands) or sold for profit at the expense of the poor.
Jellyfish explosion
Around the world, as oceans acidify, jellyfish populations are soaring, resulting in a huge imbalance in marine ecoysystems. As plankton and coral reefs die off the marine food chain is increasingly in peril.
Suggested reading
David Suzuki
Edward O. Wilson
George Monbiot, author of "Heat"
Ross Gelbspan, author of "Boiling Point"
Author and activist Bill McKibbon
Bush to Earth
Deforestation
Drought (causing wildfires) and the pine beetle infestation are destroying tens of thousands of acres of forest across North America this summer. Global warming will destroy more forests this century than clearcutting.
Electronic waste
Millions of tonnes of e-waste is produced by North Americans every year; most of it is shipped illegally to China, to be broken apart for component parts. This poisons the land (ground water contamination), and the people who do the work. Computers are responsible for global warming throughout their entire life cycle: their production is very energy-intensive, they are used to increase production in polluting industries and as e-waste they are shipped overseas where mountains of old monitors displace trees and poison the water.
Buy local food - not food shipped thousands of miles
Food is brought into cities by trucks like this one. Some of them travel thousands of miles. In the future, people will have to grow food locally to survive.
Greed is NOT good!
Natural resource consumption
Canada is giving away all its natural resources, principally to the U.S. Oil, wood, and water are all being used up, improvrishing future generations and the Earth itself.
The Great Depression - all over again
Many writers have compared the great droughts we can expect this century with the drought and economic collapse that devestated Americans in the last century -- except that this depression will last several hundred years. Water will become the most valuable and fought-over commodity in the world.
Listen to the penguin!
Or purchase carbon offsets if you must fly.
Wars over scarce resources
The Sudan is one of the first wars over scarce resources of the 21st century. Supposedly fought over religious and ideological divisions, in fact it represents a war over oil, food and water. The fate of Darfur foreshadows the future of planet Earth, due to climate change.
C02 emissions per capita
The U.S, Canada, Australia, and Saudi Arabia are among the worst offenders. Africas and Latin Americans are least responsible, on a per capita basis.
Changing lighbulbs is a small step in the right direction
Robart's library at U of T recently changed its lightbulbs, saving $1.3 million annually. However, most consumers and businesses do not voluntarily make such changes. That's why we need government regulations to enforce greater enegy conservation.
The world does not need more oil refineries
The Harper government is allowing another oil refinery to be built, without an environmental assessment, despite the fact that many oil experts say the world has reached "peak oil" production. Governments and corporations are not advancing energy conservation and transition to renewable energy sources; as a result, the world is headed for a massive economic collapse.
Worldwide coastal flooding: a crime against humanity
Polar ice cap melting
A conservative estimate by the IPCC is that 150 million people will be displaced by flooding this centrury when the Greenland ice mass melts into the sea. The actual numbers could be much higher. A new report from climate scientists James Hansen of NASA suggests the melting could happen quickly, with disasterous consequences, not gradually over decades.
Canada's energy needs could be met through windpower
Germany has 22,000 windmills producing more about 27 MegaWatts of energy -- more than what Ontario needs on its hottest days. And Ontario has more land and greater wind potential, near James Bay. Using DC cables, that power could be transmitted to major cities in the south. Instead of investing $40 billion in nuclear energy (which is unsafe, toxic, and costly), those funds ought to go towards massive windfarms.
Bangladesh - Ganges river delta where 17 million live
This region will be underwater sometime within the next century, displacing millions and killing tens of thousands, unless the world chooses to act responsbily.
Canadians rally for Kyoto
Unfortunately the current federal government has violated Canada's international agreement to abide by the Kyoto Protocol; this has led Friends of the Earth to launch a legal case against them, and many thousands of Canadians to take to the streets in protest. Yet much more protest is needed because the government continues to subsidize U.S. oil companies and violate Kyoto.
Non-violent protest and community organizing works!
In the tradition of Gandhi, Indians protest in favour of a solution to the climate change crisis. Around the world, millions of people are building grassroots network to lobby governments for stronger regulations, to protest environmental destruction by corporations, and to effect more sustainable ways of living.
Darlington nuclear facility
Public funds spent on nuclear power takes away funding from clean, safe renewable power sources (wind, solar, geothermal). Nuclear power produces toxic waste that cannot be safely disposed, it results in cost overruns (Darlington is a prime example), represents a target for terrorists, is used in nuclear weapons production and produces CO2 through uranium mining and concrete production. The McGuinty government plans to spend $40 billion on nuclear power and dump the radioactive waste on native reservations.
News
- 2015 set as gases deadline
- Climate change fight 'can't wait'
- Climate change: 'One degree and we're done for'
- Climate deal stuck - with no firm targets
- Environmental News Service
- Friends of the Earth ask court to force Ottawa to live up to Kyoto
- UN report contradicts Baird on costs of Kyoto, opposition says
Eco-refugees
There are more eco-refugees than refugess from war in the world today. By 2050 AD it is estimated there will be more than one billion eco-refugees due to flooding, drought and war.
Victim of man-made climate change
This little guy is what scientists call an example of "charismatic mega-fauna." Roughly 50% of all animal species face extinction due to climate change.
Drought : the looming crisis
This well in India illustrates how drought is already a major problem in the world. Increases in global temperatures are already resulting in wars over scarce resources. Agricultural failure, disease, homelessness and war are the inevitable results of our profligate lifestyles. Driving an SUV or flying on an airplane is morally irresponsible in light of these facts.
The oil and coal industry consuming the lives of future generations
By subsidizing the oil industry's tar sands project, the Harper government is complicit in the mass murder of the 150,000 + persons who die annually from climate change (Word Health Org. stats) as well as the tens of millions expected to die from drought, disease, war over scarce resources, flooding, famine, and heat prostration in future years.
Greenwash Alert
Governments and corporations routinely claim to be "green" or sustainable. Few of these claims are valid, and many are purposely misleading. "Clean coal" and climate change plans that do not impose mandatory regulations to curb pollution (e.g. the McGuinty "Green" plan for Ontario) are two major examples. A major Canadian grocery chain promotes a "green" line of products but continues to ship in food from thousands of miles away and waste massive amounts of energy through open refridgerators in its stores. Can you name some examples of "greenwash"?
No-Car Zones!
Urban centres should be car-free or have road tolls imposed (as London UK does) or costly parking (NYC). Vehicle emissions are a major contributor to global warming.
Government greenwash
We could all save a lot of CO2 by not flying to climate change conferences. The technology for meeting through computers exists -- why not use it for public conferences?
Flying is Dying
CO2 and water vapour from airplanes are one of the leading causes of global warming. It
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