Archive | January, 2012

New Texas Rule to Unlock Secrets of Hydraulic Fracturing – NYTimes.com

15 Jan

Starting Feb. 1, drilling operators in Texas will have to report many of the chemicals used in the process known as hydraulic fracturing. Environmentalists and landowners are looking forward to learning what acids, hydroxides and other materials have gone into a given well.

But a less-publicized part of the new regulation is what some experts are most interested in: the mandatory disclosure of the amount of water needed to “frack” each well. Experts call this an invaluable tool as they evaluate how fracking affects water supplies in the drought-prone state.

via New Texas Rule to Unlock Secrets of Hydraulic Fracturing – NYTimes.com.

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Towards a 21-hour working week? — Crooked Timber

15 Jan

An interesting discussion or the idea that a shorter workweek is an important component of a more sustainable world. We need more time for play, in the deepest sense of that word.

Last Wednesday I attended an event at LSE (under the auspices of the New Economics Foundation) exploring the idea of working-time reduction with an eventual goal of moving to a normal working week of 21 hours. …

The three speakers were Juliet Schor (author of Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth), Robert Skidelsky (former Tory spokesman in the Lords, but goodness knows what his party affiliation is today) and Tim Jackson (author of Prosperity Without Growth).

Schor explained that labour-time reduction had been an issue twenty years ago (I guess she was thinking of people like André Gorz) but has slipped out of the policy debate during the boom years. Now, in the post-2008 world, governments are pushing the line that we all need to work harder, for more hours and for more of our lives. But that, argued Schor is exactly wrong. Working-time reduction offers the threefold benefit of few people being unemployed, of less ecological damage and of people having more time to spend on social activities (cue mention of The Big Society). Even if we could grow our way to full employment, we shouldn’t. Rather we should reorient away from overconsumption towards leading better quality lives. More time-stressed households are have more carbon-intensive lifestyles. She held up the Netherlands as a model of how to start moving in this direction. Apparently, the Dutch are the slackers of Europe generally and, some years ago, made new civil service contracts 80%. You have the freedom there to choose to be a five, four, three, two or one-day-a week employee.

via Towards a 21-hour working week? — Crooked Timber.

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America’s dangerously removed elite – Salon.com

13 Jan

Taken together, we see that there really are “Two Americas,” as the saying goes — and that’s no accident. It’s the result of a permanent elite that is removing itself from the rest of the nation. Nowhere is this more obvious than in education — a realm in which this elite physically separates itself from us mere serfs. As the head of one of the country’s largest urban school districts, Boasberg is a perfect example of this — but he is only one example….

Outside of Washington, it’s often the same story; as just two recent examples, both Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel have championed massive cuts to public education while sending their kids to private school.

via America’s dangerously removed elite – Salon.com.

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The Tea Party’s Not-So-Civil War – NYTimes.com

12 Jan

When you talk to activists around the state, as I did recently during a weeklong visit, you hear a lot about Romney’s record on health care, specifically, and about his ideological squishiness in general. But you also come to understand that the antipathy in Tea Party circles is more visceral. It’s a reaction to what they perceive as Romney’s synthetic and calculating persona, the sense that he somehow embodies everything that’s false and impenetrable about the parties in Washington. And so South Carolina, which will hold its presidential primary Jan. 21, is the place where two powerful political vehicles — Mitt Romney’s establishment-backed campaign and the three-year-old Tea Party insurgency — will collide full force. It’s here where Tea Party activists have expected to assert their influence over the party’s nominating process. For most of them, that means, above all, stopping Mitt.

The problem is that they’ve had a hard time settling on any obvious alternative to Romney, in a way that might transform the primary into a clear, binary choice.

via The Tea Party’s Not-So-Civil War – NYTimes.com.

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Occupii Membership Steadily Growing and Decentralized | Irregular Times

12 Jan

It’s been about two weeks since Occupii.org, the new social network site for the Occupy movement, got kick started. A look at membership trends suggests that overall membership is steadily growing, and that it’s decentralized. Most people are not joining the two biggest groups at Occupii, Occupy USA and Occupy UK, but are rather headed to a large number of smaller groups focused on particular interests, like running a newspaper.

via Occupii Membership Steadily Growing and Decentralized | Irregular Times.

CENSORED NEWS: Wikileaks revealed US espionage of Indigenous Peoples in 2011

11 Jan

In the Censored News pick for the Best of the Best in 2011, Wikileaks claims first prize. Wikileaks exposed the US corporate schemes, espionage, promotion of mining and efforts globally to halt passage of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Wikileaks revealed extensive espionage of Indigenous Peoples, including the Mapuche and Mohawks, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales, who ushered in a new Indigenous global rights campaign.

The release of the US diplomatic cables of the US State Department confirmed that the US feared the power of Indigenous Peoples, specifically their claims to their traditional territories, a right stated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Further, the Declaration states the right of free, prior and informed consent before development proceeds and protects intellectual and cultural property rights.

via CENSORED NEWS: Wikileaks revealed US espionage of Indigenous Peoples in 2011.

Paul Levinson’s Infinite Regress: The Day After New Hampshire

11 Jan

I take Ron Paul’s strong second-place in the Republican New Hampshire primary last night as a very good thing for people like me who want more government respect for the First Amendment and an end to unconstitutional wars.

Yes, there are positions that Ron Paul holds which I strongly oppose – notably his call for a Constitutional Amendment to ban abortion, which is inconsistent with libertarian philosophy and its view that the government should stay out of our lives. And I’m not at all happy about the racist observations that appeared under his name in his newsletter two decades ago.

But there’s a lot to commend in Ron Paul. He not only opposes undeclared wars but the NDAA signed into law by Obama and SOPA now under consideration in Congress. He wants an end to the massive Federal anti-drug enforcement, which he correctly sees as an invasion of privacy.

And his Republican rivals, who share none of his virtues, share all of his serious political defects.

via Paul Levinson’s Infinite Regress: The Day After New Hampshire.

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Transition Videos – YouTube

11 Jan

About The Transition is Now!

Inspiring videos about a wide variety of topics including Transition Town Movement, consciousness, culture, Permaculture, Evolver Social Movement, spirituality, philosophy, and much more. We focus on solutions and strategies to create a more beautiful, sustainable world. We love to engage with other like minds through conversations in person and through this world wide web.

via CosmicRevolutionKS’s Channel – YouTube.

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The EPA’s Weak Stance on Nasty, Immune System-Wrecking Dioxins – Barry Estabrook – Health – The Atlantic

11 Jan

It’s difficult to see how anyone can consider issues surrounding potentially fatal poisons as irrelevant to human health. The European Union and World Health Organization have already established safe limits for dioxins in food. They are weaker than those proposed by the EPA, but in the case of dioxins, any limitations are better than none — which is what we might end up with if the food companies succeed in silencing the EPA scientists.

via The EPA’s Weak Stance on Nasty, Immune System-Wrecking Dioxins – Barry Estabrook – Health – The Atlantic.

What about Ron Paul’s strong New Hampshire showing? – War Room – Salon.com

11 Jan

… the marked improvement in his performance from 2008 (when he finished with eight percent in New Hampshire and 10 percent in Iowa) is a testament to the growing appeal of his message, both inside and outside the Republican Party. Particularly notable is the starling support Paul received in the first two contests from voters under 30 — 48 percent in Iowa and 47 percent in New Hampshire.

Clearly, Paul speaks to a significant and growing number of Americans, and it’s worth trying to understand what specific aspects of his platform are energizing each component of his coalition. How big a factor, for instance, is his support for relaxed drug laws in the enthusiasm of young voters? Does the surprising level of evangelical support he won in Iowa (18 percent — or second place) suggest there may be more room for dissent on Israel and the Middle East on the Christian right than is commonly assumed — or are Paul’s religious conservative backers simply ignoring his foreign policy views and supporting him for other reasons? And so on. Paul’s coalition is as funky as his platform, and Paul-ism is a political force that isn’t going away anytime soon.

via What about Ron Paul’s strong New Hampshire showing? – War Room – Salon.com.

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