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tagged w/ Greed
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Deadly cost of iPads
Apple the leader in innovation, technology, and the creation of Chinese sweat shops..
“We’ve known about labor abuses in some factories for four years, and they’re still going on,” said one former Apple executive who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality agreements. “Why? Because the system works for us. Suppliers would change everything tomorrow if Apple told them they didn’t have another choice.”Apple the leader in innovation, technology, and the creation of Chinese sweat shops..... more-
- BakedFresh
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- 14 days ago
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Monsanto shareholders reject GMO financial risk proxy
Monsanto shareholders rejected a concerned shareholder’s proposal and upheld management viewpoint, as expected–after all, they did own shares in Monsanto–at the 2012 annual shareholders meeting held today at Monsanto Headquarters in St. Louis, MO. A shareholder representing Harrington Investments had submitted a proposal to create a study of “‘material financial risks or operational impacts’ associated with its chemical products and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).” Monsanto management issued a statement recommending that its shareholders vote against the proposal, which they did, of course.
Although Monsanto’s statement claimed to support the freedom of farmers to choose whatever farming system they wanted, John Harrington, CEO of Harrington Investments, said he doubted that Monsanto was truly supportive of farmers’ freedom because “genetic drift from GMO crops is contaminating their conventional and organic crops.” The GMO contamination takes away the farmers ability to market crops to Europe, China, and Japan where GMO crops are not accepted.
Although the meeting was only open to shareholders, there were protesters demonstrating outside the meeting. The protest was organized by Organic Consumers Association (OCA), Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA), and Harrington Investments. Shareholders should be concerned that eventually Monsanto will be held responsible for the “human health and environmental damages” from its toxic pesticides, herbicides (Roundup-glyphosate), and genetically engineered seeds, which would cause Monsanto stocks to drop in value.
More at the linkMonsanto shareholders rejected a concerned shareholder’s proposal and upheld... more-
- JanforGore
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- 15 days ago
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Nigerian Revolt 2012 Censored
ACCORDING TO REUTERS ANARCHADIA HAS THE ABILITY TO SEE INTO THE FUTURE:
Nigerians protest over fuel price for second day
By Akintunde Akinleye and Mike Oboh | Reuters – 1 hr 10 mins ago "
# AnarchadiaCENSORED
Nigeria has twice the Population of France… yet only 1% of Nigeria has access to Internet… compared to 67,4 % in France… Both Countries have Corrupt Governments… Both Silenced Revolutions… Both controlled by the Corporatized Empire…
Nigeria – Population: 126,635,626 – Number of Television Stations: 2
Number of Television Stations: 2 Number of Television Sets: 6,900,000
Number of Individuals with Internet Access: 200,000
” The Niger Delta holds some of the world’s richest oil deposits, yet Nigerians living there are poorer than ever ” - National Geographic
http://anarchadia.com/2012/01/07/nigerian-revolt-2012-censored/ACCORDING TO REUTERS ANARCHADIA HAS THE ABILITY TO SEE INTO THE FUTURE: Nigerians... more-
- Anarchadiator
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It's all about the Money-Mitt Romney Iowa Victory Speech
Fake Politicians's channel has never been so accurate///-
- BRAVATRAVELS
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- 1 month ago
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Who Does War Help?
http://youtu.be/C2uAmQfyxtI
Reading the headlines today, particularly about Iran's firing a cruise missile and threatening the U.S., I thought about how conflict arises and what happens after that.
Every work day I am expected to behave as an adult. If someone offends me or hurts my feelings, I am not free to react without reflection. It is my responsibility as an adult to consider the other person's motivations, along with the context of our interaction, and then act with maturity to ensure that we might continue to work together without conflict.
If conflict seems to be inevitable, it is my responsibility to talk with the other person to find the source of our differences and then make sincere efforts to reconcile those differences. If conflict continues, I must report the situation to my supervisor, who is charged with settling such matters so that our organization might go forward without disruption.
On the world's political stage, however, a different standard seems to apply. When one nation is offended or feels its interests have been violated by another, that nation often threatens war. This is why the United Nations was organized in the 1940s- to serve as a supervisor in matters where nations may be in conflict. Many people felt that the U.N. was a way to bring adult behavior into the geopolitical arena, and for a while there was hope that war could be abolished.
Since the 1940s, millions have died in conflicts that the U.N. was unable or unwilling to resolve, and many believe that the U.N. is a toothless organization which is a waste of time and money.
It is clear, then, that if we wish to stop war, we must individually resolve to turn away from the ideas and behaviors that lead to war: greed, fear, fanaticism, intolerance, and nationalism. If we do not resolve to so so, we will end our lives in a world where threats, fear, and destruction rule. Our world will slowly but inevitably be consumed in the fires we have ignited, and the opportunity for a life which includes learning, propsperity, and love will vanish. Inside the fireball of war, our souls and bodies will transform into heat and light which consumes our world and then vanishes into the silence which stretches into infinity around our planet. How will that serve anyone's interests?
Photo Attribution (All photos obtained via Creative Commons with attribution license):
Cruise Missile:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattie_shoes/4471192090/
U.N. Headquarters:
http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-3782297615
Gun Training:
http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-5497066531
Nuclear Fireball:
http://www.arteyfotografia.com.ar/2287/fotos/20810/
Earth:
http://www.soil-net.com/album/Places_Objects/slides/Globe%20Planet%20Earth%20NASA.htmlhttp://youtu.be/C2uAmQfyxtI Reading the headlines today, particularly about... more-
- Progresshiv
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- 1 month ago
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Romney's Bain past continues to haunt him. ~msnbc.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45810812#45810812
For Mitt Romney, his association with The Bain Capital Investment Group has become the bane of his candidacy. His recent claims of having a history of job creation in the private sector are under a deluge of attacks by the people whose jobs he ended. He and his cohorts did in fact save some jobs. However, they did so by gutting the companies they took over and out sourcing the labor over seas.
The link above shows a great interview aired on MSNBC's The Ed Show. In the clip the host ( Ed Schultz ) provides a former employee, of one of the companies Romney took over, an opportunity to explain how effective candidate Romney was at keeping and creating jobs. It is disturbing how politicians will try to Spin stories like this to claim how the things they did out of corporatist greed are examples of their leadership proficiency.
The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what
will sell.~Confucius
I feel that far too often it is the focus of the "Upwardly Mobie" to look to find the "loopholes" or "back-doors" through which they may slither as they attempt to get over on "the system". In their efforts to amass wealth, they seek only the "Ends", free from concern over the "Means".
Those who strive only to get over, that are never content to get by, are amounst the most abhorrent of greed consumed people.
It saddens me to think, that we have regressed to a society so compelled by the bottom line, that integrity is construde as a weakness rather than a virtue.
Please don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that being driven to succeed or having aspirations of greatness are not admirable qualities. I just find them to be despicable obsessions.
As a child, I was taught, that the meter by which Greatness is truly meassured, is not by what you've done for the betterment of yourself, rather, by what have you done for the betterment of society.
Furthermore, while I'm not so naive as to think greed and corruption are exclusive only to conservatives, I do feel that Republican ideals are far more sympathetic to the plight of the Greediest and most corrupt business practices. I guess I just find it ironic how the so called "religious right" are so adamantly opposed to all the teachings of their God... Jesus Christ.. If I'm not mistaken he was all about "help thy Brother".
Anyhow, on that note, I'll leave you with this:
He who earnestly seeks good finds favor,
But trouble will come to him who seeks evil.
He who trusts in his riches will fall,
But the righteous will flourish like foliage.~Proverbs 11:27,28http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45810812#45810812 For Mitt Romney, his... more-
- bourneverde
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- 1 month ago
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Animal Rescue Group in Crisis Mode After Coldheartedly Euthanizing a Cat
CBS News...
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December 28, 2011 11:31 PM
Rescue group in crisis mode after cat euthanized
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In a Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 photo, Daniel Dockery is pictured at his job in Phoenix, Ariz. Dockery's 9-month-old cat Scruffy, was euthanized recently by the Arizona Humane Society not because of her wounds but because Dockery couldn't immediately pay for her treatment. He had been searching for Scruffy for three weeks ago and learned of her fate Tuesday, Dec. 27.
(Charlie Leight,AP Photo/The Arizona Republic)
(AP)
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PHOENIX - Animal lovers threatened to pull donations to an animal rescue group and the public flooded the agency with scathing comments and calls after a man's cat was euthanized when he couldn't afford its medical care, prompting the Arizona Humane Society to go into damage-control mode Wednesday.
The group has hired a publicist, removed dozens of comments on its Facebook page and directed a team of five volunteers to respond to the overwhelming calls and emails it has received since The Arizona Republic published a weekend story about Daniel Dockery and his 9-month-old cat, Scruffy.
Dockery, a 49-year-old recovering heroin addict, told the Phoenix newspaper that he took Scruffy to a Humane Society center on Dec. 8 because she had a cut from a barbed-wire fence, an injury that he described as non-life-threatening. The agency said it would cost $400 to treat Scruffy, money he didn't have.
The Humane Society cited policy when it declined to accept a credit card over the phone from Dockery's mother in Michigan or to wait for her to wire the money. The staff said if he signed papers surrendering the cat, Scruffy would be treated and put in foster care, he said.
Instead, Scruffy was euthanized several hours later.
Dockery told the Republic that he was devastated.
"Now I've got to think about how I failed that beautiful animal," Dockery said. "I failed her. ... That's so wrong. There was no reason for her not to be treated."
He described the cat as helping him stay off drugs for more than a year, the longest he had ever been clean. He hand-fed the feline before she opened her eyes at 4 days old, giving her fresh tuna and letting her sleep on his pillow.
Stacy Pearson, who was hired by the agency specifically to deal with media questions about the cat, said Dockery's case has led to two changes. The Arizona Humane Society has set up an account, funded through donations, that would cover the costs of emergency treatment of animals whose owners need a day or two to come up with money for payments. And the group is now accepting credit card payments by phone, Pearson said.
Dozens of scathing comments have since inundated the group's Facebook page, with animal lovers demanding to know why the cat was put down. Pearson said angry comments were removed because of their content: One called for the staff to be euthanized, while another said what happened to Scruffy was murder.
Pearson said Scruffy was put down over a number of reasons, including Dockery's lack of immediate funds, a lack of veterinarians to treat her and what Pearson described as a very serious cut on Scruffy from her abdomen to her knee that went to the muscle.
She said the Arizona Humane Society at the time didn't accept credit card payments over the phone because of possible fraud and can't treat pets with only a promise from owners that they can pay the next day. She said staff had every intention of getting Scruffy the help she needed but the number of animals requiring help at the group's second-chance clinic was too much for the resources available.
If Dockery had been able to pay, Scruffy would have been treated at the facility where he brought her, Pearson said.
"There was no malicious intent to take Scruffy away from her father," Pearson said. "Pulling funding is only going to make a problem like this worse."
On Facebook, where only the agency's executive director is allowed to post comments now, Guy Collison wrote that "Scruffy's story is heartbreaking, and underscores the worst-case-scenario of need eclipsing resources available." He said that his agency has always done what's best for animals.
In less than an hour after his statement was posted, more than 100 people responded, with most slamming the agency and some defending it as doing the best it can with available resources.
Pearson said the group told Dockery on Tuesday that when he's ready for another pet, he could come in and pick one out, but he declined, telling them: "No thanks."
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http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2011/12/28/111221-euthanized_cat-AP111221077774_620x350.jpg
.CBS News... . December 28, 2011 11:31 PM Rescue group in crisis mode... more-
- EthicalVegan
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Studies document Nigerian children died due to families' gold mining
Large numbers of infants and toddlers have died from lead poisoning in Nigerian villages where their parents process gold ore inside their family compounds, according to a report published Tuesday by an international team of researchers.
In two Nigerian communities, 118 children under the age of 5 died in a single year – 25 percent of the children in that age group. For the first time, the researchers uncovered strong evidence that points to lead as the likely cause for nearly all of those deaths. In addition, all of the surviving children who were tested suffered from lead poisoning, too.
“To our knowledge, this is the first documentation of an outbreak of childhood lead poisoning associated with artisanal gold mining,” the team, directed by lead experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote in the online edition of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. “Extensive environmental contamination was found in both of the villages and inside individual family compounds.”
Artisanal gold mining is small-scale, subsistence mining that occurs mostly in poor, rural communities. In the Nigerian villages, people use crude, rudimentary processes to extract gold from ore, including grinding and heating the rock. In some cases, flour-grinding machines are used. These activities contaminate the air and soil with large amounts of lead and mercury, both of which cause neurological problems in children.
Scientists found extensive environmental contamination in both of the villages and inside individual family compounds. About 85 percent of soil samples from inside the compounds exceeded safe levels of lead. Sparked by a gold rush, artisanal mining occurs throughout northern Nigeria, as well as elsewhere in Africa and in South America, including Peru. From 13 to 20 million men, women and children from over 50 developing countries are involved in artisanal mining, according to an estimate by a World Bank group.
Word first spread of hundreds of children dying in Nigeria’s Zamfara state in early 2010, when the deaths were discovered during meningitis surveillance by the international humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières and Nigerian public health officials. The United Nations has estimated that 400 children died there last year due to lead poisoning.
Calling the outbreak unprecedented, the scientists warned that “characterizing the full extent of the outbreak remains an urgent and ongoing matter.”
Lead poisoning is common worldwide, leading to diseases and IQ reductions, but until now, deaths have rarely been reported.
At the emergency request of Nigerian officials, researchers from the CDC and the World Health Organization visited two villages in Zamfara state where higher-than-expected numbers of children died between May, 2009 and May, 2010. They tested the blood of surviving children, took soil samples from family compounds and questioned parents about their dead children’s symptoms.
Sparked by a gold rush, artisanal gold mining has attracted from 13 to 20 million men, women and children from over 50 developing countries.
All the results were extreme. Eighty-one percent of the children who died had suffered seizures, a sign of acute lead poisoning. Of the surviving children who were tested, “all blood samples indicated lead poisoning,” while 97 percent needed immediate chelation therapy to lower those levels, according to the report. Mercury levels were lower in the children, but still excessive – four to eight times higher than the average U.S. child. And 85 percent of the soil samples taken from the family compounds exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s health standard for lead. One water well had 90 times more lead than the EPA’s action level for drinking water.
More at the linkLarge numbers of infants and toddlers have died from lead poisoning in Nigerian... more-
- JanforGore
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- 1 month ago
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This bastardised libertarianism makes 'freedom' an instrument of oppression
Illustration by Daniel Pudles
It's the disguise used by those who wish to exploit without restraint, denying the need for the state to protect the 99%
Freedom: who could object? Yet this word is now used to justify a thousand forms of exploitation. Throughout the rightwing press and blogosphere, among thinktanks and governments, the word excuses every assault on the lives of the poor, every form of inequality and intrusion to which the 1% subject us. How did libertarianism, once a noble impulse, become synonymous with injustice?
In the name of freedom – freedom from regulation – the banks were permitted to wreck the economy. In the name of freedom, taxes for the super-rich are cut. In the name of freedom, companies lobby to drop the minimum wage and raise working hours. In the same cause, US insurers lobby Congress to thwart effective public healthcare; the government rips up our planning laws; big business trashes the biosphere. This is the freedom of the powerful to exploit the weak, the rich to exploit the poor.
Rightwing libertarianism recognises few legitimate constraints on the power to act, regardless of the impact on the lives of others. In the UK it is forcefully promoted by groups like the TaxPayers' Alliance, the Adam Smith Institute, the Institute of Economic Affairs, and Policy Exchange. Their concept of freedom looks to me like nothing but a justification for greed.
So why have we been been so slow to challenge this concept of liberty? I believe that one of the reasons is as follows. The great political conflict of our age – between neocons and the millionaires and corporations they support on one side, and social justice campaigners and environmentalists on the other – has been mischaracterised as a clash between negative and positive freedoms. These freedoms were most clearly defined by Isaiah Berlin in his essay of 1958, Two Concepts of Liberty. It is a work of beauty: reading it is like listening to a gloriously crafted piece of music. I will try not to mangle it too badly.
Put briefly and crudely, negative freedom is the freedom to be or to act without interference from other people. Positive freedom is freedom from inhibition: it's the power gained by transcending social or psychological constraints. Berlin explained how positive freedom had been abused by tyrannies, particularly by the Soviet Union. It portrayed its brutal governance as the empowerment of the people, who could achieve a higher freedom by subordinating themselves to a collective single will.
Rightwing libertarians claim that greens and social justice campaigners are closet communists trying to resurrect Soviet conceptions of positive freedom. In reality, the battle mostly consists of a clash between negative freedoms.
As Berlin noted: "No man's activity is so completely private as never to obstruct the lives of others in any way. 'Freedom for the pike is death for the minnows'." So, he argued, some people's freedom must sometimes be curtailed "to secure the freedom of others". In other words, your freedom to swing your fist ends where my nose begins. The negative freedom not to have our noses punched is the freedom that green and social justice campaigns, exemplified by the Occupy movement, exist to defend.
Berlin also shows that freedom can intrude on other values, such as justice, equality or human happiness. "If the liberty of myself or my class or nation depends on the misery of a number of other human beings, the system which promotes this is unjust and immoral." It follows that the state should impose legal restraints on freedoms that interfere with other people's freedoms – or on freedoms which conflict with justice and humanity.
These conflicts of negative freedom were summarised in one of the greatest poems of the 19th century, which could be seen as the founding document of British environmentalism. In The Fallen Elm, John Clare describes the felling of the tree he loved, presumably by his landlord, that grew beside his home. "Self-interest saw thee stand in freedom's ways / So thy old shadow must a tyrant be. / Thou'st heard the knave, abusing those in power, / Bawl freedom loud and then oppress the free."
The landlord was exercising his freedom to cut the tree down. In doing so, he was intruding on Clare's freedom to delight in the tree, whose existence enhanced his life. The landlord justifies this destruction by characterising the tree as an impediment to freedom – his freedom, which he conflates with the general liberty of humankind. Without the involvement of the state (which today might take the form of a tree preservation order) the powerful man could trample the pleasures of the powerless man. Clare then compares the felling of the tree with further intrusions on his liberty. "Such was thy ruin, music-making elm; / The right of freedom was to injure thine: / As thou wert served, so would they overwhelm / In freedom's name the little that is mine."
But rightwing libertarians do not recognise this conflict. They speak, like Clare's landlord, as if the same freedom affects everybody in the same way. They assert their freedom to pollute, exploit, even – among the gun nuts – to kill, as if these were fundamental human rights. They characterise any attempt to restrain them as tyranny. They refuse to see that there is a clash between the freedom of the pike and the freedom of the minnow.
Last week, on an internet radio channel called The Fifth Column, I debated climate change with Claire Fox of the Institute of Ideas, one of the rightwing libertarian groups that rose from the ashes of the Revolutionary Communist party. Fox is a feared interrogator on the BBC show The Moral Maze. Yet when I asked her a simple question – "do you accept that some people's freedoms intrude upon other people's freedoms?" – I saw an ideology shatter like a windscreen. I used the example of a Romanian lead-smelting plant I had visited in 2000, whose freedom to pollute is shortening the lives of its neighbours. Surely the plant should be regulated in order to enhance the negative freedoms – freedom from pollution, freedom from poisoning – of its neighbours? She tried several times to answer it, but nothing coherent emerged which would not send her crashing through the mirror of her philosophy.
Modern libertarianism is the disguise adopted by those who wish to exploit without restraint. It pretends that only the state intrudes on our liberties. It ignores the role of banks, corporations and the rich in making us less free. It denies the need for the state to curb them in order to protect the freedoms of weaker people. This bastardised, one-eyed philosophy is a con trick, whose promoters attempt to wrongfoot justice by pitching it against liberty. By this means they have turned "freedom" into an instrument of oppression.
A fully referenced version of this article can be found at http://www.monbiot.comIllustration by Daniel Pudles It's the disguise used by those who wish to... more-
- Vierotchka
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The Girl Who Silenced The World for Five Minutes///WOW/// Is her Speech still Relevant Today?
This is an incredible video of a Canadian girl who spoke to the United Nations and left them completely silent and speechless for five minutes.
Her name is Severn Cullis-Suzuki, and her speech was given at a U.N. assembly in Brazil when she was twelve years old. She had raised all the money to travel to the delegation, five thousand miles from her home, herself.
Speaking about the hole in the ozone layer, pollution, the devastation of the forests and extinction of so many species, Severn charges that we adults have no idea how to fix these things, in fact can’t fix them, and that we must change our ways.
“If you don’t know how to fix it, stop breaking it,” she pleads.
Severn continued to say:
“I am here to speak for all generations to come. I am here to speak on behalf of starving children around the world whose cries go unheard. I’m only a child and I don’t have the solutions…but neither do you. I am only a child, but I know we are all part of a family five billion strong; in fact, 30 million species strong, and borders and governments will never change that.
Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to share. We are afraid to let go of some of our wealth. Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent some time with children living in the streets. This is what one child told us:
‘I wish I was rich. And if I were, I would give all the street children food, clothes, medicine, shelter, love and affection.’
If child on the streets who has nothing is willing to share – why are we, who have everything, still so greedy?
I am only a child, but I know if all the money spent on war was spent on finding environmental answers, ending poverty, and finding treaties – what a wonderful place this world would be.”
And here’s the kicker – this speech was given in 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. How much is still relevant today? All of it. And the more important question is: How much has been changed, accomplished, since Severn spoke that day?
Years later, Severn wrote a piece for Time magazine in which she said: “I spoke for six minutes and received a standing ovation. Some of the delegates even cried. I thought that maybe I had reached some of them, that my speech might actually spur action. Now, a decade from Rio, after I’ve sat through many more conferences, I’m not sure what has been accomplished.
My confidence in the people in power and in the power of an individual’s voice to reach them has been deeply shaken…In the 10 years since Rio, I have learned that addressing our leaders is not enough. As Gandhi said many years ago, ‘We must become the change we want to see.’ I know change is possible.”
Severn comes from an environmental legacy – her father is the renowned David Suzuki. At the age of nine, Severn founded the Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO), a group of children dedicated to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. Today, Severn is an environmental activist, speaker, television host and author. She has spoken around the world about environmental issues, urging listeners to define their values, act with the future in mind, and take individual responsibility.
She co-hosted Suzuki’s Nature Quest, a children’s television series that aired on the Discovery Channel in 2002. In early 2002, she helped launch an Internet-based think tank called The Skyfish Project.
As a member of Kofi Annan’s Special Advisory Panel, she and members of the Skyfish Project brought their first project, a pledge called the “Recognition of Responsibility”, to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August 2002.This is an incredible video of a Canadian girl who spoke to the United Nations and... more-
- BRAVATRAVELS
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Chris Hedges Talks Capitalism With Michael Moore
This, pretty much, tells it like it is with regard to what capitalism is all about and why we need to end it.This, pretty much, tells it like it is with regard to what capitalism is all about and... more-
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Interactive Gasland site
Interactive fracking information.-
- treewolf39
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Anonymous to Wall Street: 'We Have Changed the Rules' (VIDEO)
Anonymous message to Wall Street: "We have changed the rules of the game. Growth of the magnitude required to maintain your capital in its present form is no longer possible for you. Your ability to seduce the public has been destroyed. Your survival has long depended on your capacity to suppress the truth of your abuses, and that ability is now gone. We have removed it."
http://veracitystew.com/2011/12/15/anonymous-to-wall-street-we-have-changed-the-rules-video/Anonymous message to Wall Street: "We have changed the rules of the game. Growth... more -
Charlie Chaplin's #Occupy Message (VIDEO)
It is no surprise that with the rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the growing anger of the 99% over the rampant greed and disinformation that exists in our society, that someone would put Charlie's poignant words from The Great Dictator to images from those things that plague mankind today. The words and theme of Chaplin's speech ring as true today as they did then.
http://veracitystew.com/2011/12/13/charlie-chaplins-occupy-message-video/It is no surprise that with the rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the... more-
- StewSteve
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COP 17 to climate negotiators: DON'T KILL AFRICA
In this extract from his book, To Cook A Continent, Nnimmo Bassey argues that climate negotiations, from Durban in late 2011 onwards, will increasingly confront the issue of climate justice.
The atmosphere is a common space, a global commons. Industrialised nations pumped a disproportionate amount of emissions into the atmosphere and they have cornered a disproportionate amount of global resources, largely by exploiting nations that are on the other side of the coin. Climate impacts are already being felt in a severe way in Africa as well as in other regions of the global South. Centuries of exploitation have weakened the resilience of these regions and in tackling climate change these historical facts must be addressed. One way of addressing this is by the payment of climate debt to make the needed financial and technological resources available to these vulnerable regions.
The Conference of Parties at Copenhagen and the following one at Cancun did not generate outcomes consistent with scientific warnings that the world faces a severe climate crisis. Copenhagen ended with an accord spearheaded by President Barack Obama of the United States with the backing of the BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) concocted in a 'Green Room' dreamed up by Denmark's conservative ruling party. In that room, Patrick Bond recalled, were 26 countries 'cherry-picked to represent the world. When even that small group deadlocked, allegedly due to Chinese intransigence and the overall weak parameters set by the US, the five leaders (Obama, Lula da Silva, Jacob Zuma, Manmohan Singh, and Wen Jiabao) attempted a face-saving last gasp at planetary hygiene.'12
The demand of climate justice is that those who created the climate problem must be the ones to mitigate it, and in the process must transform their economies and societies.13 There are two ways to go about making this happen. First, rich nations must reduce rapacious consumption patterns and address the climate crisis with real solutions and not ones that have been seen to be false. Second, the rich nations have to support the poor nations who are being forced to adapt to a situation they did not create. One practical way of making that happen is through support for sustainable, green development paths.
Among governments, the Bolivians have made the clearest call for climate justice while India and China have used related arguments to defend their growth paths. At a time when the world has been calling for a curtailment of polluting industrial establishments, China has been building new coal-fired power plants at a prodigious rate.14 It is interesting to note that while China is massively expanding its coal-powered plants, it is also quickly assuming leadership in the utilisation of wind power. The discourse on how much both China and India must do in tackling global warming must not overlook the fact that vast numbers of people in both India and China still require electricity supply and that meeting that gap requires huge financial outlays.
Following the catastrophic outcome of the United Nations climate negotiations held in Copenhagen in December 2009, President Evo Morales of Bolivia announced that the world would meet in Bolivia for a thorough and inclusive discussion on this vital issue.
The summit, held in Cochabamba in April 2010, attracted 35,000 participants from 140 countries. The summit stood in sharp contrast to the Copenhagen event in many ways. First, this was an assembly of governments and peoples. In Copenhagen no effort was spared in keeping civil society out of the conference: the conference was marked by lockouts of civil society, detentions of climate activists and outright brutality towards non-violent protesters on the streets. In Cochabamba the police were offering assistance and were also participants. Whereas Copenhagen showed a disdain for the voices of the people, Cochabamba was about raising the voices of the people. The only similarity between the events is that they were both held in cities whose names start with letter 'C' followed by nine letters.
The key outcome of the Cochabamba conference was the People's Agreement. This agreement demanded that countries cut their emissions by at least 50 per cent at source in the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (2013–17), without recourse to offsets and other carbon trading schemes. In terms of finance, the People's Agreement demands that developed countries commit 6 per cent of their GDP to finance adaptation and mitigation needs. The financial suggestions of the Copenhagen Accord are a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed to secure vulnerable peoples and nations. The peoples of the world also affirmed that there is a climate debt that must be recognised and paid. The payment is not all about finance but principally about decolonising the atmospheric space and redistributing the meagre space left. Developed countries already occupy 80 per cent of the space.
The climate debt is also about taking actions needed to restore the natural cycles of Mother Earth and one clear way of achieving this will be through the proclamation of a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth, with clear obligations for humans. Bolivia is in the forefront of promoting the adoption of this declaration at the United Nations. The People's Agreement recognises that the causes of climate change are systemic and that systemic changes are needed to tackle them. On this note, the model of civilisation that is hinged on uncontrolled development can only compound the crisis. The world needs to move towards living well and not continue on the path of domination of others and of conspicuous and wasteful consumption.
An area glossed over in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations is the role of industrial agriculture in climate change. The People's Conference debated this key sector and reached the agreement that the way to a sustainable future is through the enthronement of food sovereignty based on agro-ecological agricultural systems. The issue of access to water being a human right was also affirmed by the people and later on in the year by the United Nations.
In all, the People's Agreement recognises that real strategies to tackle climate change must be based on the principles of equity and justice in dealing with the structural causes. Without climate justice it will also clearly be impossible to achieve the much talked about Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Cochabamba resonated with calls for urgently securing the rights of Mother Earth as a means of reconfiguring our relationship with the earth and with each other – in a way that respects the past, today and the future. All these will be a pipe dream unless peoples' sovereignty is supported, restored or built across the world. Cochabamba was a turning point in the march to transform our world from the path of conflict, competition, exploitation and domination to a path of solidarity and dignity. It held a ray of hope for Africa.
More at the link
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I posted this excerpt from this article because it hits the nail on the head about the mechanisms involved in the schemes being put forth by industrialized nations, the World Bank and corporations (industrial agriculture especially) looking to use this planetary emergency as a way to profit from it without really doing anything to address it. And that includes our seeds and water. Our voices now can make a dfference and they must be heard.In this extract from his book, To Cook A Continent, Nnimmo Bassey argues that climate... more-
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Transcript: President Obama's Kansas Speech on the Economy
This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make or break moment for the middle class, and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class. At stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home, and secure their retirement.
http://veracitystew.com/2011/12/06/transcript-president-obamas-kansas-speech-on-the-economy/This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make or break moment for the middle... more-
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BuzzFeed: "20 Asshole Celebrities Who Wear Fur"
BuzzFeed...
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20 Asshole Celebrities Who Wear Fur
Celebrity Buzz
Many celebrities choose to wear fur as a symbol of their success and luxurious lifestyle. You would think that they would know better, especially with all the press about animal cruelty! Plus, they just look silly.
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1. 50 Cent (above)
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[NOTE FROM ETHICAL VEGAN: The headline is not mine.]BuzzFeed... . 20 Asshole Celebrities Who Wear Fur Celebrity Buzz Many... more-
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COP#17 Indigenous activists from North America join African activists to target Shell
In Canada and the United Kingdom, Indigenous activists and their supporters targeted Shell today for violating agreements made with Indigenous communities in Canada. In Durban, site of the ongoing UN climate talks, activists from Canada joined activists from Africa to denounce Shell and their repeated violations of human rights and environmental regulations. Appearing outside a Shell refinery, a number of Indigenous activists joined with youth from Canada and Africa to support the community of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), who recently announced their lawsuit against Shell.
“Shell has left a trail of broken promises and ravaged eco-systems. They have been pushing their dirty fossil fuels plans on every country they can bully. It’s time to stand up and say get the Shell out of there, we don’t want your broken promises anymore,” declared Eriel Deranger, a community member of ACFN and director of Sierra Club Prairies.
“We’re drawing the line, and taking a strong stand against Shell. ACFN wants no further developments until Shell is brought to justice and our broader concerns about the cumulative impacts in the region are addressed,” stated Allan Adam, Chief of ACFN.
“The destructive tar sands operations by Shell and other big oil companies are destroying the land and violating our people’s rights to hunt, trap and fish. Canada is a willing partner in these crimes and other human rights abuses caused by fossil fuels and climate change,” noted Daniel T’seleie, an Indigenous youth from northern Canada, and a member of the Canadian Youth Delegation.
“Shell has a history of devastation across the African continent that we are well aware of. Our peoples and our environments have been turned into a colony for companies like Shell, who profit from our suffering. Knowing full well the extent of brutality that Shell has delivered to my fellow Nigerians, we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Canada standing up to say ‘get the Shell out of here’,” emphasized Nnimmo Bassey, director of Environmental Rights Action (Nigeria) and winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize.
“Ironically, Durban, the site of this year’s international climate talks, has struggled against the aging Shell refinery that is the symbol of climate change and environmental injustice. Shell has been responsible for crimes against local citizens, where refinery accidents are common and where rusting pipelines have leaked more than 1 million litres of petrol. We strictly oppose plans to bring Tar Sands oil to South Africa, and agree that Shell must be held accountable for its violations against communities,” claimed Bobby Peek, director of Groundwork in Durban.
More at the linkIn Canada and the United Kingdom, Indigenous activists and their supporters targeted... more-
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Coal study names top 20 "climate killer" banks
Financing coal is controversial, because it is the dirtiest fossil fuel and responsible for billions of tonnes of emissions of carbon dioxide. Photograph: Jason Lee/Reuters
Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC are among the top banks that have lent billions of euros to the coal sector – despite their much-vaunted environmental credentials, a new investigation has found.
Financing coal is controversial, because it is the dirtiest fossil fuel and responsible for billions of tonnes of emissions of carbon dioxide globally, as well as other pollutants such as soot particles and mercury.
The list of top 20 institutions that have financed coal-mining and coal-fired energy generation reads like a roll-call of the world's biggest banks, with three American banks – JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America – topping the list. Between them, these three have provided at least €42bn to the coal sector since 2005.
Barclays took fifth place, having lent more than €11.5bn to big coal companies in the last seven years, while RBS came in seventh having lent or raised finance amounting to nearly €11bn over the period. HSBC just scraped into the top 20, with €4.4bn of finance.
The research was compiled by a group of NGOs, including German environmental group Urgewald, the international network BankTrack and Earthlife Africa Johannesburg. It took experts more than seven months to uncover the data, because banks do not declare it publicly – many banks do not know how much they lend or raise finance to the coal sector, or how many shares or other assets they own in coal. The figures were found by examining the public reports of the biggest coal mining and coal-fired power generation companies, and the true finance figures are likely to be much higher.
The NGOs have labelled the banks "climate killers" because their financing efforts have helped to expand coal in the past decade. Many of the banks on the list subscribe to environmental principles, such as cutting their own greenhouse gas emissions and conducting environmental impact assessments on projects they finance.
Heffa Schücking of Urgewald said: "We chose to look into coal financing as coal-fired power plants are the biggest source of man-made carbon dioxide emissions and the major culprit in climate change. In spite of the fact that climate change is already having impacts on the most vulnerable societies, there is an abundance of plans to build new coal-fired power plants."
Shücking said shareholders in the listed banks should be concerned, because financing dirty fuels was increasingly risky in the face of the growing threat of climate change, and increasing moves to limit greenhouse gas emissions under national regulations.
She added: "If banks provide money for these projects, they will wreck all attempts to limit global warming to 2C [which scientists regard as the limit of safety]."
The figures include bank lending to coal companies, equity financing raising for the companies, and other sources of financing such as bond issues, as well as coal assets owned by the banks – including physical assets such as coal mines or power plants, and shares in coal companies. The researchers examined the annual reports of coal companies making up 44% of global coal production, and 51% of global coal-fired energy generation, between 2005 and September 2011.
Several banks told the Guardian they did not track how much they lent to the coal sector, and that such lending did not affect their environmental commitments.
RBS said: "Since 2006, RBS has lent more money to wind power projects than to any other type of energy project. Just as society as a whole has to make a transition to renewable energy sources, so will the banks that fund energy production. RBS has been one of the most active banks in the world in funding renewable energy so we are at the forefront of helping finance that transition."
Mary Church, campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "Since the bailout in 2008, it's taxpayers' money that RBS has been investing in this devastating industry."
The top 20 'climate killer' banks
1 JPMorgan Chase
2 Citi
3 Bank of America
4 Morgan Stanley
5 Barclays
6 Deutsche Bank
7 Royal Bank of Scotland
8 BNP Paribas
9 Credit Suisse
10 UBS
11 Goldman Sachs
12 Bank of China
13 Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
14 Crédit Agricole / Calyon
15 UniCredit / HVB
16 China Construction Bank
17 Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group
18 Société Générale
19 Wells Fargo
20 HSBC
• Data provided by Profundo
More at the linkFinancing coal is controversial, because it is the dirtiest fossil fuel and... more-
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Article: World Bank partners with Nestlé to ‘transform water sector’
... the creeps at the World Bank are out to take over the world water, how's that for corporate support by a 'world bank' read it and really get made. It's time to Occupy World Bank. Here's part of the story...
"The World Bank has launched a new partnership with global corporations including Nestlé, Coca-Cola and Veolia. Housed at the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), the new venture aspires to “transform the water sector” by inserting the corporate sector into what has historically been a public service. The new partnership is part of a broader trend of industry collusion to influence global water policy.
The venture — called the 2030 Water Resources Group Phase 2 Entity — aligns global corporations that have major financial stakes in water governance with the World Bank, one of the world’s leading development institutions. Nestlé Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe has been appointed to chair the Water Resources Group, which has already received $1.5 million in IFC funding. Nestlé is the world’s largest water bottling corporation."... the creeps at the World Bank are out to take over the world water, how's that... more-
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