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Saving The World's Seeds
Would you start by talking about some general issues surrounding globalization.
Dr. Vandana Shiva: Well those of use who are concerned about the globalization that has been contrived and yet made to look as if it is a natural evolutionary step, we are concerned about the injustice and undemocratic system on which it is based.
And everything we said, fifteen years ago, when these rules were being put in place, very artificially, under GAT and then became the WTO rules, or on the financial side as the instrumentalities and conditionalities of the World Bank and IMF, what we said fifteen years ago turns out not to have been an exaggeration but an underestimation of the devastation of both nature, society and economies.
I had talked about the WTO agreement on agriculture as the death knell for Indian farmers. Every year 16,000 farmers are being killed. They are taking their lives, but I don¹t think they are taking their lives. It is that they are being pushed to the edge of survival - through the indebtedness that is an inevitable result of turning them into a market for Monsanto seed, and, on the other hand disposable items, when Cargill and ConAgra have to dump subsidized grain through a liberalized agreement.
When I started to fight intellectual property rights in the WTO, I was concerned about patents on life. And seed patents now we can see what they are doing.
American farmers are being harassed, fined for three million dollars, and the crime is seed saving?
What could be a worse situation for humanity? To turn something as valuable as saving seeds for the future into a criminal activity.
Similar laws have just been passed in India, two weeks ago.
I think anyone who doesn't resist this kind of globalization is not being fully human, is not exercising their duties.
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More of this interview at the link. And what an opportune moment for the World Bank president to come out to say that food prices will he high until 2012 as if he really knows that. I have also read that pressure is being put on Europe to adopt GM foods. If I didn't know any better I would think this has all been planned to get a desired result for all of the world organizations working in tandem including The World Bank, the IMF, the WTO, and governments of this world intent on keeping poor people down by controlling their food and water. Strangely, the song "Everybody Wants To Rule The World " is in my head now.
Thankfully there are people like Dr. Vandana Shiva and others speaking truth on this. We have to do so as well. We cannot allow this to be the future for our children. So if you have an organization that deals in organic seeds or seeds free of chemicals post it here. Let's really give some information to people to show them they have options and that we do not have to be enslaved to corporate BS any longer.
It is a threat to our health, other species, our environment, and our planet. Those who control the seeds and the water control YOU. I say, no more, and I will be relentless about it here.
Would you start by talking about some general issues surrounding globalization. ... more -
Environmental Justice Coalition blasts cap-and trade, backs carbon tax
Condemning carbon trading as “fraught with uncertainties, lack[ing] transparency and creat[ing] large opportunities for emitting facilities to engage in fraud,” a national coalition of environmental justice organizations has called for a federal carbon tax to address “the most critical issue of our time” — the climate crisis.
The June 2 statement from the Climate Justice Leadership Forum is the latest sign of mounting disaffection with the top-down push for carbon cap-and-trade. It is particularly significant because the 28 signatory organizations, which span the country from Anchorage to New Orleans and from Oakland to New York City, have been the spearhead of a rising movement by communities of color to crack open the historically affluent and white U.S. environmental lobby, much of which has backed the cap-and-trade approach to pricing carbon emissions.
Moreover, CJLF’s endorsement of “an equitable carbon tax” serves notice that lower-income and “minority” constituencies are concluding that the disproportionate impacts of carbon taxes and other user fees can (and must) be reversed through progressive use of the tax revenues. Indeed, the group’s statement declares that:
An equitable carbon tax must be set high enough to encourage emissions sources to make financial investment in technological controls and energy efficiency, and to begin researching and developing clean, renewable energy options.
A carbon tax cannot remain static and should not merely track inflation but should rise over time so that resource conservation and development of clean renewable energy can continue to be an attractive alternative to fossil fuel use.
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I have always been wary of cap and trade, particularly since so many politicians are for it as well as the World Bank. I agree with a carbon tax and believe it can be more effective in providing funds for alternate energies and also be more effective in weaning us off fossil fuels. Al Gore is also a proponent of a carbon tax as he reiterated in his testimony on Capitol Hill last year. It would be revenue neutral, more transparent to track and enforce, and provide a sure means for funds to wean us off dirty energy sources while also sparking employment. Condemning carbon trading as “fraught with uncertainties, lack[ing] transparency and creat[ing] large opportunities for emitting facil... more -
Women face tougher impact from climate change
Climate change is harder on women in poor countries, where mothers stay in areas hit by drought, deforestation or crop failure as men move to literally greener pastures, a Nobel Peace laureate said on Tuesday.
"Many destructive activities against the environment disproportionately affect women, because most women in the world, and especially in the developing world, are very dependent on primary natural resources: land, forests, waters," said Wangari Maathai of Kenya.
"Women are very immediately affected, and usually women and children can't run away," said Maathai, who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her work on sustainable development.
"Men can trek and go looking for greener pastures in other areas in other countries ... but for women, they're usually left on site to face the consequences," she said. "So when there is deforestation, when there is drought, when there is crop failure, it is the women and children who are the most adversely affected."
Maathai was in Washington with 1997 Nobel Peace laureate Jody Williams, who got the award for her work in creating an international treaty to ban landmines, and both spoke to reporters at a briefing.
Williams said she saw climate change as a threat to security, and said desertification of former agricultural land fueled the conflict in Darfur.
Credit: Reuters AlertNet. Climate change is harder on women in poor countries, where mothers stay in areas hit by drought, deforestation or crop failure as men ... more -
Court Strikes Down EPA's Plan On Mercury
The EPA hoped to make it easier for plants to spew mercury emissions by organizing a
'cap and trade' system that would actually do little to address the problem. Now they will have to enforce the more stringent guidelines on mercury emissions outlined eight years ago that will save the lives of thousands of newborns in this country. This is surely a victory for environmentalists and the world. The EPA hoped to make it easier for plants to spew mercury emissions by organizing a ... more -
1Billion Dollar Deal Would Scrap Klamath Dams
And finally bring back respect for the Native American tribes of California and Oregon as well as ending the destruction of salmon stocks and the poisoning of the Klamath Basin. And finally bring back respect for the Native American tribes of California and Oregon as well as ending the destruction of salmon sto... more
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Fight Against Coal Draws Diverse Partners
Whether for philosophical or economic reasons, it is promising to see people of all political stripes coming together to fight coal companies that continue to pollute our environment and put profits over people and the planet. Whether for philosophical or economic reasons, it is promising to see people of all political stripes coming together to fight coal co... more
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The Nation: If Gore were Arrested...
Well, all I can say is that if Mr. Gore did decide to do this I would stand with him. And if he didn't I would stand with those who did do it. It is way past time to stand up for this planet and for ourselves! So my question is, would you stand at the barricades with Al Gore for this planet regardless of political opinions out of a moral desire to see justice for her and us? And that may not even mean surrounding a construction site if we can join together to influence state governments to stop these plants from being built. It hapened in Kansas this week, and it is happening in other states as well. And it is happening because of people applying pressure after seeing the moral imperative. That is why Mr.Gore's work and the work of all involved in doing this now is so important. So whatever you decide Mr. Gore, I am with you for my planet and for my child.
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article | posted October 24, 2007 (web only)
If Gore Were Arrested...
Mark Hertsgaard
Read more environmental news on Mark Hertsgaard's blog.
Fresh from winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his climate change evangelism, Al Gore is apparently considering an invitation from a prominent environmental group to engage in civil disobedience against the construction of new coal-fired power plants.
Rainforest Action Network issued the invitation to the former Vice President, according to RAN executive director Michael Brune. The San Francisco-based group has a twenty-year history of protesting against destructive logging practices and other causes of climate change; it specializes in targeting corporations as much as governments.
"We came across a quote from Gore in an interview with columnist Nicholas Kristof back in August, saying he didn't understand, quote, 'Why there aren't rings of young people blocking bulldozers and preventing them constructing new coal-fired power plants,'" said Brune. "We thought, 'Great idea!' That's the kind of activism we do at RAN. So we decided to invite Gore to join us."
Gore's office confirmed that the former Vice President had received RAN's invitation and was considering it, though no decision has been made.
"He has not accepted any of their offers to date," Kalee Kreider, a spokeswoman for Gore, said of the RAN offer. Kreider did not deny that this phrasing leaves open the possibility of Gore saying yes down the road.
RAN plans a national day of protest against coal on November 16, according to Brune.
If Gore did end up getting arrested during a protest against a coal-fired power plant, it would make front-page news throughout the world and put a spotlight on what some climate scientists and activists consider the single most important priority in the fight against climate change: halting the use of coal as the world's top source of electricity production. Coal is the most carbon-intensive of the three major fossil fuels (the others are oil and natural gas) whose combustion produces most of the carbon dioxide that is helping to raise temperatures and change climatic patterns on earth.
NASA scientist James Hansen, the man who first warned during testimony before the US Senate in 1988 that man-made greenhouse gas emissions were warming the planet, has called for a complete ban on new coal-fired power plants "until we have the technology to capture and sequester the CO2." That technology, Hansen estimates, is "probably five or ten years away." Any plants built without that technology "are going to have to be bulldozed," argues Hansen, if the earth is to avoid "dramatic climate changes that produce what I would call a different planet."
end of excerpt.
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Well, all I can say is that if Mr. Gore did decide to do this I would stand with him. And if he didn't I would stand with those who di... more -
Two reasons to LOVE Missoula
A federal judge from Missoula, MT has warned Bush's top forestry official that he may go to jail for contempt of court. The case was brought to court by Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. They are challenging the use of a fire retardant containing ammonium phosphate that was used by the U.S. Forest Service to fight wildfires. In 2002 the substance was used in a fire in Central Oregon. It polluted Fall Creek and killed 20,000 fish.
The other reason to love Missoula:
http://greatestshow.blogspot.com/2007/07/so-missoula.ht... A federal judge from Missoula, MT has warned Bush's top forestry official that he may go to jail for contempt of court. The case was b... more
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