Al Gore Talks at TED

A Worsening Climate Crisis

Mysterious Space Blob Discovered at Cosmic Dawn

Using information from a suite of telescopes, astronomers have discovered a mysterious, giant object that existed at a time when the universe was only about 800 million years old. Objects such as this one are dubbed extended Lyman-Alpha blobs; they are huge bodies of gas that may be precursors to galaxies. This blob was named Himiko for a legendary, mysterious Japanese queen. It stretches for 55 thousand light years, a record for that early point in time. That length is comparable to the radius of the Milky Way’s disk.

The researchers are puzzled by the object. Even with superb data from the world’s best telescopes, they are not sure what it is. Because it is one of the most distant objects ever found, its faintness does not allow the researchers to understand its physical origins. It could be ionized gas powered by a super-massive black hole; a primordial galaxy with large gas accretion; a collision of two large young galaxies; super wind from intensive star formation; or a single giant galaxy with a large mass of about 40 billion Suns. Because this mysterious and remarkable object was discovered early in the history of the universe in a Japanese Subaru field, the researchers named the object after the legendary mysterious queen in ancient Japan.

“The farther out we look into space, the farther we go back in time, “ explained lead author Masami Ouchi, a fellow at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution who led an international team of astronomers from the U.S., Japan, and the United Kingdom. “I am very surprised by this discovery. I have never imagined that such a large object could exist at this early stage of the universe’s history. According to the concordance model of Big Bang cosmology, small objects form first and then merge to produce larger systems. This blob had a size of typical present-day galaxies when the age of the universe was about 800 million years old, only 6% of the age of today’s universe!”

Rep. Jason Chaffetz On H.R. 875

the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R, UT)

[In response to an email sent to Rep. Chaffetz urging him to oppose HR 875, I received the following email as reply]

Thank you for taking the time to write me regarding HR 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009.

As is often the case in Washington, the bill’s noble sounding title disguises its true purposes. HR 875 would effectively transfer all state control over food regulation to the new Food Safety Administration (FSA). The stated reach of this new federal agency’s jurisdiction is “any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation.” The FSA would undoubtedly become yet another over-invasive federal bureaucracy that would eventually dominate state and local food safety agencies already in place.

The bill also requires extensive recordkeeping and inspections. Such provisions favor big business over small business and limit competition by effectively regulating smaller competitors out of existence. While large factory farms might comply with these new requirements relatively easily, small family farms and businesses would incur costs they cannot afford. Government should not be in the business of using regulation to pick winners and losers in private industry.

I recognize that there is some role for government to play in regulation and ensuring that the food we are eating and feeding to our children is safe. However, to the extent this can be done at the state and county level, I see no reason to involve the federal government. As the Tenth Amendment makes clear, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” I have promised to follow this principle of federalism and seek to restrict the role of the federal government, and thus will not be supporting HR 875.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. I appreciate your viewpoint and concern for our nation. If you have any other concerns or ideas please feel free to contact me again through my website: http://chaffetz.house.gov.

Related Links

• The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 [Comment and Video]
• Towards An Integral Economy
• The Tao of Fire and the Logic of Monetary Policy
• A Vital Light: Paul Newman
• Widespread Increase of Tree Mortality Rates in the Western United States

More Related Links

• Text of H.R.875 as Introduced in House
• Public Comments on H.R. 875
• Cast Your Vote on H.R. 875 Here
• Contact Your Representative
• OpenCongress.org

The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009

The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (House Resolution 875) is a classic example of everything that is wrong with the Federal government. The legislation appears well-intentioned but the principles informing H.R. 875 will contribute to inefficiency with respect to the desired outcome (a safe food supply). H.R. 875 will foster an environment that adversely affects and undermines genuine food security.

H. R. 875 is Bad Legislation

• H. R. 875 unnecessarily usurps power and resources properly vested with state authorities and local governments and transfers them to federal jurisdiction;
• H. R. 875 increases the size of Federal government and the burden of federal taxes on taxpayers, thereby diminishing the efficiencies with which those resources might be administered at the local level;
• H. R. 875 creates yet another bureaucratic structure that will be easily manipulated by lobbyist in the favor of behemoth multinational corporations and large-scale producers whose primary concern is profit and not health or food quality.
• H.R. 875 grants authority to a federal bureaucrat that extends all the way to the garden in your backyard.

This bill creates and expands a federal bureaucracy that can be easily manipulated to stifle competition and innovation through the imposition of a burdensome and unnecessary regulatory regime on innovators in the food manufacturing and processing industries (e.g. small farmers).

Genuine Food Security

We do not need the Federal government to ensure the safety of our food supply. We need to accept responsibility for the choices we make when it comes to the foods we eat. Genuine food security is the product of strong communities producing for themselves and trading the surplus. This bill undermines genuine food security by ensuring that the interests and concerns of multinational corporations become the focal point of the agency and administrator charged with ‘oversight’ of our nation’s food supply.

The question here is not how are we going to pay for H.R. 875. The question is why would we pay for it?

Related Links

• Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009
• Text of H.R.875 as Introduced in House
• Public Comments on H.R. 875
• Cast Your Vote on H.R. 875 Here
• Contact Your Representative
• OpenCongress.org

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“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government — lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” — Patrick Henry

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Towards An Integral Economy

The Need For Radical Change

In his recent New York Times article, op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman asks the critical question: is it time for radical change?

The Critical Question

Let’s today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: “No more”?

We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese …

We can’t do this anymore.—Thomas Friedman, The Inflection is Near

Natural Stocks

The recent precipitous decline in stock market value is alarming, but what is the alarm signaling? Ought we not to be equally alarmed about our rapidly diminishing stocks of natural resource? Especially when considered in respect of the global population explosion? As long as our dominant paradigm values economic concerns above ecological principles, and continues the rapacious conversion of the planet’s natural stocks into financial resources, we persist at our peril.

“We created a way of raising standards of living that we can’t possibly pass on to our children,” said Joe Romm, a physicist and climate expert who writes the indispensable blog climateprogress.org. We have been getting rich by depleting all our natural stocks — water, hydrocarbons, forests, rivers, fish and arable land — and not by generating renewable flows.

“You can get this burst of wealth that we have created from this rapacious behavior,” added Romm. “But it has to collapse, unless adults stand up and say, ‘This is a Ponzi scheme. We have not generated real wealth, and we are destroying a livable climate …’ Real wealth is something you can pass on in a way that others can enjoy.”—Thomas Friedman, The Inflection is Near

The Great Disruption

One of those who has been warning me of this for a long time is Paul Gilding, the Australian environmental business expert. He has a name for this moment — when both Mother Nature and Father Greed have hit the wall at once — “The Great Disruption.”

We are taking a system operating past its capacity and driving it faster and harder,” he wrote me. “No matter how wonderful the system is, the laws of physics and biology still apply.” We must have growth, but we must grow in a different way. For starters, economies need to transition to the concept of net-zero, whereby buildings, cars, factories and homes are designed not only to generate as much energy as they use but to be infinitely recyclable in as many parts as possible. Let’s grow by creating flows rather than plundering more stocks.

Gilding says he’s actually an optimist. So am I. People are already using this economic slowdown to retool and reorient economies. Germany, Britain, China and the U.S. have all used stimulus bills to make huge new investments in clean power. South Korea’s new national paradigm for development is called: “Low carbon, green growth.” Who knew? People are realizing we need more than incremental changes — and we’re seeing the first stirrings of growth in smarter, more efficient, more responsible ways.—Thomas Friedman, The Inflection is Near

Integral Economy

Isn’t it time to rethink our socioeconomic models? And reconsider the values at the core of our socioeconomic system? Isn’t it time for an economy that is firmly rooted in integral ecological principles? One that values the physical-emotional-psychological well-being of the planet’s inhabitants above financial growth? Our present economic and ecological crisis are truly alarming, but failure to recognize and properly respond to the message the alarm is signaling will have grave consequences indeed.

A Call to Action! Bill Mckibben on Civil Disobedience

Dear Friends,

There are moments in a nation’s–and a planet’s–history when it may be necessary for some to break the law in order to bear witness to an evil, bring it to wider attention, and push for its correction.

Today is one of those days.

Spread the Word, Bill Mckibben and the 350 Movement

Related Links:

• Listen to Peter Matthiessen reading from Shadow Country — Winner of the 2008 National Book Award for fiction.
• Listen to Bill Mckibben discussing literature, climate change and the 350 Movement.
• Listen to Amy Irvine Reading From Trespass: Living at the Edge of the Promised Land.
• Hope and Virtue
• The Beautiful Truth
• The Real Revolution – Part 1 of 2
• 350.org
• Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

Carbon Emissions Killing the Clownfish

by Luke Keioskie
See original article at Coffs Coast Advocate

Clownfish

NEMO may never find his way home, with new research revealing that human carbon emissions are having devastating effects on the ecology of clownfish.

Dr Phillip Munday, from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, said rising levels of acidity in the ocean was causing clownfish to lose the sense of smell that guides them home.

“Like many coastal fish, clownfish are swept off their home reef into the open ocean as tiny babies and use their acute sense of smell to find their way back again,” Dr Munday said.

“Fish lose their sense of smell when sea water becomes more acidic, with potentially devastating consequences for sea life.”

Ocean Acidification

Ocean acidification caused by the absorption of human-released carbon dioxide at the ocean surface is now recognised as a serious threat to marine ecosystems.

“But every time we start a car or turn on the lights, a third or more of the carbon dioxide we emit ends up in the ocean, turning its waters imperceptibly but inevitably more acidic,” he said.

“We found that baby fish no longer responded to scent cues at all when the acidity rose to the sorts of levels likely by the second half of 2100.”

Dr Munday said ocean acidification would have significant consequences for the replenishment of adult populations and could lead to declines of many coastal species.

Related Reading:

• Hello, Fish!: Visiting The Coral Reef by Sylvia Earle
• Explore the Wildlife Kingdom: Dolphins – Tribes of the Sea (DVD) starring Grant Goodeve
• Ocean (American Museum of Natural History) by Fabien Cousteau (Foreword)
• The Living Sea (IMAX – DVD) Starring Steven K. Katona and Meryl Streep
• Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas (National Geographic Atlas) by Sylvia A. Earle and Linda K. Glover
• Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans by Sylvia Earle
• Meet My Grandmother: She’s a Deep-Sea Explorer by Lisa Tucker McElroy

Related Links:

• Listen to Oceanographer Sylvia Earle’s Interview with Doug Fabrizio
• A Polar Whale’s Appeal
• Arctic Ice Melt and The Tipping Point
• Increasing Acidity Threatens Ocean’s Web-of-Life
• More about ocean acidification
• A Vital Light: Paul Newman

The Tao of Fire and the Logic of Monetary Policy

For the past 100 years the US Forest Service has maintained a policy of “fire suppression” to “protect human life, property, and at risk land and resources.”

The unintended consequence of this interdiction policy has been to deprive forests and wild-lands of the beneficial role that fire provides in maintaining the long-term health and integrity of ecological systems. This beneficial role, simply put, is the elimination of weak, superfluous and undesirable elements accumulated within the system as a natural product of growth and competition.

The suppression of fire, eventually, not only compromises the vitality of the forest’s natural immune system, it also produces the conditions most amiable to absolute catastrophe.

Increasing Acidity Threatens Ocean’s Web-of-Life

Leading scientists from all over the world call for immediate action to stop ocean acidification. The oceans have long buffered the effects of climate change by absorbing a substantial portion of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. But this benefit has a catch: as the gas dissolves, it makes seawater more acidic. Now an international panel of marine scientists says this acidity is accelerating so fast it threatens the survival of coral reefs, shellfish and the marine food web generally.

More than 150 leading marine scientists from 26 countries are calling for immediate action by policymakers to reduce CO2 emissions sharply so as to avoid widespread and severe damage to marine ecosystems from ocean acidification.

A Polar Whale’s Appeal

Question. What can you do to help prevent the extinction of another species? Answer. Watch the video. Help spread the word. Take action. Learn more. View the Youtube channel. Visit the Oceania Project. Make a donation.

 

Green Peace activists photograph whale harvesting operation.

A Whale’s Appeal—Short Video

Related Links

• Listen to Oceanographer Sylvia Earle’s KUER Interview with Doug Fabrizio
• iWhales. Caring for Whales and Dolphins
• Site Map

A Vital Light: Paul Newman

Paul Newman in Carnation, Washington. June 2007.

A short note of gratitude celebrating the inspiring life and brilliant career of actor, director, producer, entrepreneur, auto racing enthusiast, humanitarian, and philanthropist Paul Newman. January 26th would have marked his 84th birthday. He passed away September 26, 2008.

Dear Paul,

thank you for all the entertainment!