Thomas H. Naylor: A Community of Small Nations for a Sustainable Planet

3 Aug

World-wide localization. To cure the cancer, shrink it.

I believe it is high time for the smaller nations of the world to begin withdrawing from the United Nations. The U.N. is morally, intellectually, and politically bankrupt. It is time for these smaller nations to confront the meganations of the world and say, “Enough is enough. We refuse to continue condoning your plundering the planet in pursuit of resources and markets to quench your insatiable appetite for consumer goods and services.” These small nations should call for the nonviolent breakup of the United States, China, Russia, India, Japan, and the other meganations of the world.

A small group of peaceful, sustainable, cooperative, democratic, egalitarian, ecofriendly nations might lead the way. Such a group might include Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Could it happen? Who knows. The Soviet Empire fell apart under its own weight, and Russia’s still struggling. Back in 1400 who’d have thought that the British Empire would span the globe. And look what happened to that.

via Thomas H. Naylor: A Community of Small Nations for a Sustainable Planet.

The bankers are eating us alive, Ralph. Run, for the frogs, the kids, and the flowers.

2 Aug

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Fatal Radiation Level Found at Fukushima Daiichi Plant – NYTimes.com

2 Aug

Let’s not forget, the Fukuskima reactors are still leaking radiation into the environment.

TOKYO — The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant said Monday that it measured the highest radiation levels within the plant since it was crippled by a devastating earthquake. …

The operator, Tokyo Electric Power, said that workers on Monday afternoon had found an area near Reactors No. 1 and 2, where radiation levels exceeded their measuring device’s maximum reading of 10 sieverts per hour — a fatal dose for humans.

Next year, maybe, they’ll be able to shut it down:

The plant has continued to spew radiation since the disaster, though levels have been dropping. The operator is working to install a new makeshift cooling system by early next year that will allow it to finally shut down the plant’s three damaged reactors.

That effort includes removing thousands of tons of highly contaminated water from the reactor buildings. On Monday, Tokyo Electric also said it will begin constructing a new wall that will extend some 60 feet underground to prevent radioactive groundwater from seeping into the nearby Pacific Ocean.

via Fatal Radiation Level Found at Fukushima Daiichi Plant – NYTimes.com.

Cruel Isolation of Prisoners – NYTimes.com

2 Aug

Who’s the Tomás de Torquemada of the California prison system? Has the US Prison system passed the Inquisition in cruelty? Has it reached the gulag level?

Once used occasionally as a short-term punishment for violating prison rules, solitary confinement’s prevalent use as a long-term prison management strategy is a fairly recent development, Colin Dayan, a professor at Vanderbilt University, said in a recent Op-Ed article in The Times. Nationally, more than 20,000 inmates are confined in “supermax” facilities in horrid conditions.

via Cruel Isolation of Prisoners – NYTimes.com.

Scientists map religious forests and sacred sites

1 Aug

The Oxford researchers estimate that religious groups own about eight per cent of land across round the globe, much of it being covered in forest, and about 15 per cent of the world’s surface is ‘sacred land’ – land that has ‘sacred’ connotations rather than being necessarily owned by faith communities….

The Oxford research team is engaged, firstly, in investigating what legal or official data exists on boundary lines and the rights to the land. Once the status of the land and its boundaries are known, the geographical co-ordinates can be entered onto their database at the Biodiversity Institute.

The researchers will work with groups of many different faiths: those who manage the sacred groves in India, the Shinto shrines in Japan, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which owns 300 fragments of forest including the last remnants of Afro-montane tropical forest containing rare and endangered insects. The religious sites appear to contain a high proportion of species that feature on the IUCN’s Red List (of threatened species).

via Scientists map religious forests and sacred sites.

Ambitions as Deep as Their Pockets – NYTimes.com

1 Aug

If anyone thinks of the new explorers as grown-up children playing with expensive toys, ocean veterans reply that there is ample scientific justification for creating new technologies that can regularly plumb the full depth of the ocean, which covers more than 70 percent of the planet yet remains poorly explored.

via Ambitions as Deep as Their Pockets – NYTimes.com.

The Root of the Problem | The Scientist

1 Aug

Love the microbes, they connect us all to the soil, water, and air.

In all the work being done to illuminate and quantify the importance of belowground dynamics in driving the carbon cycle, the central message is similar: to better understand ecosystem functioning and its response to global change, we must consider feedbacks among plants, microbes, and soil processes. It’s clear that root carbon transfer and resulting carbon cascades through the plant-microbial-soil system play a primary role in driving carbon-cycle feedbacks and in regulating ecosystem responses to climate change.

via The Root of the Problem | The Scientist.

The intersection of food, design and politics

1 Aug

Fascinating images from the Good Olde Days (But the Best Days are Yet to Come).

Above and below are some samples from The Diggers Archive, a group of radical thinkers from 1960s San Francisco that used food (free healthy food!) as part of their art and political message. These pieces are from their newspaper FREE CITY NEWS, that showcased some pretty cool hippie graphic design.

via The intersection of food, design and politics – Imprint – Salon.com.

Another Open Letter to Ralph Nader: Please, Please, Please!

1 Aug

Resilience in No-Man’s Land: Float Like a Butterfly

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Been thinkin’ about you, Ralph. You gotta’ run, you really do. For the frogs, yes, and for the kids.

Let me tell you about some kids. I’ve only met them once, only talked to one of them. But I know they’re resilient because I’ve seen what they’ve built. Though they’re probably not old enough to vote for anyone, and they know the world’s stacked against them, I figure they’d vote for someone like you because they know you’ve done something to change the country, to make it safer—though they can be a bit reckless, these kids.

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So, anyhow, they like to skateboard (they spell it sk8, fewer characters, you know?) and to ride BMX bikes. But there’s no place for them to do it. The city’s too busy handing out construction contracts to friends and friends of friends so they can build high-rise apartment complexes for wannabe bankers and gofers to bankers, because, YOU know Ralph, that those bankers are swimming in so much cash that even the gofers and wannabes can afford to live in luxury. Continue reading →

Gowanus – Big Development Can Wait

31 Jul

Resilience at the margins. Check it out.

Artists and small businesses priced out of other neighborhoods have been taking up residence in the old warehouses. Nightclubs have popped up on streets that taxi repair shops and truck depots once dominated. Restaurants, bars and bakeries have all moved in, creating a scene that longtime Brooklyn residents compare to Dumbo before the multimillion-dollar lofts and Williamsburg before Bedford Avenue became a destination.

Why is it the artists that pioneer these areas? There’s something both obvious and deep there.

via Gowanus – Big Development Can Wait – NYTimes.com.

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