For anyone interested:
HAARP stands for High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program.
HAARP wil "temporarily modify 30-mile diameter patches of the upper atmosphere
by exciting, or `heating' their costituent electrons and ions with focused
beams of powerful, high-frequency radio energy."
This will create virtual antennas, thousands of miles long. It will create
virtual lenses and mirrors in the ionosphere as well. These have powerful
military implications.
The military says that HAARP isn't much different from other, smaller, projects
of a similar nature - isn't much different from radio transmitters. However,
the scale of this project is enormous. There is no way to predict the effects
of dumping huge amounts of energy into the upper atmosphere. HAARP will
`modify' parts of the atmosphere. This means it will change the physical
structure of the atmosphere.
HAARP was thought up by ARCO executives looking for a local high-volume market
for its natural gas reserves in Alaska. So far $58 million has been spent on
HAARP. This figure should rise to $200 million in the next four years, when
HAARP is scheduled to be completed. HAARP has strong Military and Conservative
support.
Personally, I think the project is short sighted and irresponsible. There is
potential for great damage in a short amount of time. We will be taking energy
that is stored within the planet, and transfering it to the outer edge of the
planet, with no way to know how this transformation will manifest itself. This
is beyond stupid.
The information here is taken from "Mystery in Alaska." by Mark Farmer Popular
Science September 1995.
I also reccomend "Project HAARP" by Clare Zickhr and Gar Smith in Earth Island
Journal, Fall 1994.
If anyone wants a copy of the article from Earth Island Journal, e-mail me and
I'll send it to you on e-mail.
Thanks, Joe Register
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Jul 3 11:25:51 1996
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Meat-eating = anti-ecofeminism
In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 03 Jul 1996 00:58:47 PDT."
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Wed, 03 Jul 1996 10:03:11 -0700
From: "Stephen R. Figgins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Jackie!
Sorry I wasn't here 6 months ago. Sounds like we have a real
religious issue here on purity within ecofeminism.
I agree that just because we evolved omnivourous doesn't mean we have
remain that way. But for every other meat eating species on this
earth, this is not a moral issue, why should we insist it should be
for humans? Isn't that separating us from nature, saying we are
different from all other animals and that, what is natural for us is
also immoral?
I share your concerns about the colonization of animals and nature,
and I agree that this is an ecofeminist issue. I think anyone who
*seriously* looks at the costs to our environment and our society of
our eating habits will have to, at the very least, switch to eating
organic meat, eggs from free ranging chickens etc.. Still that
doesn't answer the power-over feelings involved in the farming of
animals.
This may be idealizing a bit, but it seems to me that many of the
indigenous people to the Americas had a very healthy attitude towards
eating animals. I could see ways that an ecofeminist could be a meat
eater and still maintain their ecofeminist principles. I think that
such attitudes are extremely rare and difficult to maintain in our
current society, but they are possible.
I believe the biggest problems for an eco-feminist is the
environmental costs involved in providing meat to the masses and the
power-over attitudes that are commonly held by the people who raise
those animals and slaughter them. I don't think those factors should
be glossed over or dismissed. If you choose to eat meat that comes
from these factories, or are fed and raised in these environmentally
destructive ways, you are supporting this cruelty and destruction with
every dollar you spend. Actually, in eating conventional vegetables
you are also contributing to environmentally destructive and non
sustainable farming practices.
Jackie, I find myself on both sides in this. I feel I must defend the
eating of meat from being considered a moral issue. I believe eating
meat is natural for humans, and I believe there have been times and
places in the world where eating meat was what kept humanity alive.
Now most of the world has a choice, but that doesn't mean that eating
meat is now suddenly immoral. It may just be an environmentally and
societally destructive choice. Ecofeminists should make their food
choices knowing and accepting this information, and not dismissing it.
To do otherwise is hypocracy.
For instance, I think the person who said they loved to eat BBQ'd
steak all summer should remember that with every steak they throw on
the fire they are also polluting thousands of gallons of water,
burning down acres of rainforest, eroding precious topsoil that takes
hundreds of years to recreate, burning many gallons of fossil fuels,
contributing to global warming and the cruelty of millions of animals.
When that steak goes on the fire, they should be able to see all this
destruction in the burning coals of the BBQ. Can they still make that
choice? Can they do it and know what it means to have purchased that
steak, what went into bringing it to their plate and all the lives,
animals, plants that are sacrificed in the flames of their desires and
still make the choice? I don't know.
Is it immoral to eat meat, NO! Is it a bad idea to support an
industry that contributes this much damage and suffering, YES! This
is not a moral issue it is an environmental one, it is an eco-feminist
one. But lets not start throwing those stones until we have taken an
inventory of our own lives, and the damage caused by what we do as
well. Is your food grown in mono culture? Is it contributing to
erosion? The spread of pesticides? The destruction of animals that
could have used that land now devoted to feeding you? What about the
food you buy? Is it packaged in plastic? In cans? Do you recycle it
all? If you put that plastic and metal in the recycling bins, is it
really recycled at the recycling center, or are certain plastics and
metals sent instead to land fills? Is your toilet ULF? How about
composting? Do you live within walking distance to your place of
work? How well insulated is your home? Do you have domesticated
animals? Dogs or Cats? Wasn't it oppressive of humans to domestic
them so? Were they not exploited for human use? Why do you think
some dogs are called work dogs? What are you feeding those animals?
They are carnivores by nature, where does that meat come from that
feeds them? What happens to their litter when you throw it out? Do
you minimize your water usage, take fewer showers and baths? What
about your bath soaps, your laundry soaps? Do you share your tools
and resources with your neighbors? How many ladders on your block?
How many paint brushes, how many lawn mowers? Do you mow your lawn?
How many products are in your home that you personally know who made
them? How many are made by companies that are oppressive, are a part
of a system of oppression. Do you know the hiring policies of all the
companies that made products in your home? Am I boring you yet? Have
I touched any nerves? Are you feeling defensive?
Are all of these issues moral decisions? If I go to the store and
buy something in a plastic bottle that I am not sure I can recycle,
have I done something immoral? Have I done something destructive?
How about something stupid?
No, I am not willing to pass a moral judgement on people who eat meat.
I will, when asked why I have chosen to not eat meat, tell them my
reasons. If that doesn't move them to change, well that is okay.
Eventually raising meat will have caused so much destruction to the
earth that they, or their children, will no longer have that choice.
Maybe we will finally succeed in killing ourselves off. I will try
show by example how good a person can eat without using meat or dairy.
Maybe, in time, they will change their eating habits. Friends of
mine, who have been around me for many years are slowly giving up
meat. When they make that decision, they come to me for recipies. It
feels great. Jackie, tell them the facts, give them examples, and
they will come around. Pass moral judgement and they will dismiss you
as a zealot.
--Stephen
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Jul 3 12:55:10 1996
Date: Wed, 03 Jul 96 14:39:17 EDT
From: Sandra Russo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Meat-eating = anti-ecofeminism
To: STUDIES IN WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
In-Reply-To: Message of Wed, 03 Jul 1996 10:03:11 -0700 from <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
As someone who eats meat once in awhile but, more importantly, whose entire gra
duate education was on animal nutrition (cattle, sheep, goats, and pastures/for
age production) AND who has spent the last 15 or so years working with poor far
mers in Africa, I must enter the fray here on this discussion, even though this
is the second or third time its gone around in the last year. In most of the
world, including the U.S., beef animals are raised on pastures, either native o
r improved. Because we in the U.S. like our beef well-marbled, most of our bee
f is "finished" in feedlots where they are fed grains and other supplements. B
ut by and large, most ruminants eat grass. And its a good thing they do becaus
e most grass grows on soils which will not support grain and food crops that pe
ople eat. Enormous areas of land in the western U.S. are suitable only for
grazing livestock (including wild animals). Attempts to put this land under cu
ltivation resulted in the famous "Dust Bowl" and other environmental catastroph
es. In Africa, livestock must eat grass and crop residues as there is not enou
gh food surplus to be fed to them. For Africans, meat is the most preferred fo
od and they do not get it very often. If livestock did not graze on those nati
ve pastures, the land could still not be put into food production for a wide ar
ray of agronomic, hydrologic, and soil-related reasons. And economic ones as w
ell.
Yes, I have killed my own meat, butchered my own chickens, and no, I do not
like to do so. Hence, I limit my meat intake for several reasons. But we are
omnivores. As a menstruating woman who is chronically anemic, I can't not eat
meat at all. As a nutritionist, I do accept the so-called scientific arguments
of vegetarians. As an ecofeminist, I believe that some parts of the earth are
suited to livestock raising, some methods of livestock husbandry are kinder, a
nd I can continue to inform people of the differences between "grass-fed" and c
orn (or milk, in the case of veal) - fed animals.
Could we get onto some other topic of discussion? I'm teaching ecofeminism aga
in this fall. The last time I taught the course, I had my students learn about
environmental issues in our area (Florida), we went on field trips, and discuss
ed environmental activism. We also, of course, looked at spirituality, deep ec
ology, third world ecofeminists, etc., etc. I was totally surprised that many
of the students were adamantly opposed to learning anything about how ecosystem
s function and about the environment around them. Two of them, in fact, droppe
d the class because the "science" bothered them. Were they totally weird or am
I off-base in thinking that understanding and valueing how ecosystems function
is an integral part of ecofeminist philosophy? Your thoughts please. And hav
e a great 4th of July. Sandra
SANDRA L. RUSSO
Office of International Studies and Programs
P.O.BOX 113225, 123 TIGERT TELEPHONE: (904) 392-6783
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA FAX: (904) 392-8379
GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA 32611 INTERNET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
NOTE: ON 12/3/95 THE AREA CODE WILL CHANGE TO 352
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Jul 3 13:42:03 1996
Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 15:37:14 -0400 (EDT)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (laura)
Subject: HELP
I am about to leave town for a month and need to know how to turn the list
off (unsubscribe). I don't want to come home to lots of messages. I was
gone last week and came home to 586 messages. After a month, geesh.
Anyway, I just spent an hour on the web trying to find the page where I came
across this reference, I and could not relocate it. PLEASE help me. PLEASE
tell me how to unsubscribe.
Thank you,
Laura
