FW: [globalnews] World Creating Food Bubble Economy Based onUnsustainable Use of Water
Title: FW: [globalnews] World Creating Food Bubble Economy Based on Unsustainable Use of Water Update 22: March 13, 2003-2 Copyright © 2003 Earth Policy Institute World Creating Food Bubble Economy Based on Unsustainable Use of Water Lester R. Brown On March 16, 2003, some 10,000 participants will meet in Japan for the third World Water Forum to discuss the world water prospect. Although they will be officially focusing on water scarcity, they will indirectly be focusing on food scarcity because 70 percent of the water we divert from rivers or pump from underground is used for irrigation. As world water demand has tripled over the last half-century, it has exceeded the sustainable yield of aquifers in scores of countries, leading to falling water tables. In effect, governments are satisfying the growing demand for food by overpumping groundwater, a measure that virtually assures a drop in food production when the aquifer is depleted. Knowingly or not, governments are creating a "food bubble" economy. As water use climbs, the world is incurring a vast water deficit, one that is largely invisible, historically recent, and growing fast. Because the impending water crunch typically takes the form of falling water tables, it is not visible. Falling water tables are often discovered only when wells go dry. Once the growing demand for water rises above the sustainable yield of an aquifer, the gap between the two widens each year. The first year after the line is crossed, the water table falls very little, with the drop often being scarcely perceptible. Each year thereafter, however, the annual drop is larger than the year before. The diesel-driven or electrically powered pumps that make overpumping possible have become available throughout the entire world at essentially the same time. The near-simultaneous depletion of aquifers means that cutbacks in grain harvests will be occurring in many countries at more or less the same time. And they will be occurring at a time when world population is growing by more than 70 million a year. Aquifers are being depleted in scores of countries, including China, India, and the United States, which collectively account for half of the world grain harvest. Under the North China Plain, which produces more than half of China's wheat and a third of its corn, the annual drop in the water table has increased from an average of 1.5 meters a decade ago to up to 3 meters today. Overpumping has largely depleted the shallow aquifer, so the amount of water that can be pumped from it each year is restricted to the annual recharge from precipitation. This is forcing well drillers to go down to the region's deep aquifer, which, unfortunately, is not replenishable. He Quincheng, head of the Geological Environmental Monitoring Institute in Beijing, notes that as the deep aquifer under the North China Plain is depleted, the region is losing its last water reserve—its only safety cushion. His concerns are mirrored in a World Bank report: "Anecdotal evidence suggest that deep wells [drilled] around Beijing now have to reach 1,000 meters [more than half a mile] to tap fresh water, adding dramatically to the cost of supply." In unusually strong language for the Bank, the report forecasts "catastrophic consequences for future generations" unless water use and supply can quickly be brought back into balance. India, which now has a billion people, is overdrawing aquifers in several states, including the Punjab (the country's breadbasket), Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. The latest data indicate that under the Punjab and Haryana, water tables are falling by up to 1 meter per year. David Seckler, former head of the International Water Management Institute, estimates that aquifer depletion could reduce India's grain harvest by one fifth. In the United States, the underground water table has dropped by more than 30 meters (100 feet) in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas—three key grain-producing states. As a result, wells have gone dry on thousands of farms in the southern Great Plains. Pakistan, a country with 140 million people and still growing by 4 million per year, is also overpumping its aquifers. In the Pakistani part of the fertile Punjab plain, the drop in the water table appears to be similar to that in India. In the province of Baluchistan, a more arid region, the water table around the provincial capital of Quetta is falling by 3.5 meters per year. Richard Garstang, a water expert with the World Wildlife Fund, says that "within 15 years Quetta will run out of water if the current consumption rate continues." In Yemen, the water table is falling by roughly 2 meters a year. In its search for relief, the Yemeni government has drilled test wells in the Sana'a basin, where the capital is located, that are 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) deep—depths normally associated with the oil industry—yet it has failed to find water. With a population of 19 m
Re: Vitality and fertility ofsoils
I forwarded some of your posts on this thread to JP who is not on the list, but this was his reply to me: <> JS
Re: It's a Beautiful Day, streaming along
Thanks for that Steve! Do you use your flowforms to mix preps? Is there an electric pump? Thanks, Jane
Re: NOW: I'm looking for Articles on CSA
Just Food
FW: [globalnews] Meditators: NOW is the time to combinemeditation with action 24/7
Dear Friends, I hesitated in sending this, because I promised myself, no more forwards from GN. However, I think the basic message of this piece, is totally germaine to Bd Farmers & gardeners and anyone connected to vibrational healing. The author posits, that now is the time to combine our acitivities of daily life with our spiritual ideals & practice. Farmers are lucky, in that along with all the hard physical labor they do, they are also connected with the land and hence, closer to spirit, IMHO. Of course, I am not talking about industrial farms here. JS --- Leigh Tremaine The World Healing Project http://www.worldhealing.co.uk/whp/usingwhs.html Like the current crisis befalling humanity, this bulletin is a wakeup call to all of us to say NO to war, not just in thought or meditation or passing conversation, but in real action. The imperialist war machine fronted by Bush and Blair only exists because the people - us - give it the power it needs to survive. That power might be the taxes we pay, the politicians we elect, the jobs we carry out for the Government and its agencies, or it may be our own silence and inactivity as we sink into apathy and unconsciousness. Thanks to the efforts of healers, lightworkers, meditators, and alternative thinkers, we now have a substantial shift of consciousness on the planet, which means that the days of withdrawal into meditation are becoming less important. What is important now is to become an active, walking meditator, for without action, nothing materialises. For those of us who are used to retreating into our quiet spaces to meditate, this may present a big challenge to us, but it can no longer be avoided if we are to turn the world around towards greater peace and healing. Being an active, walking meditator means ensuring that all our activities and choices are congruent with the ideals and truths we hold in our peace meditations. It means that our every activity and choice is an extension of our meditation. It means acting and choosing with greater, focused awareness, so that we express the truth of our inner light, rather than live a bi-polar life. We are all responsible for whether peace or war breaks out, because we all involved in the current situation befalling humanity. The choice to be silent and inactive when a murderous war is being plotted by a confused and disturbed minority is a choice to collude with that war and those plotting it. Therefore, let us see the current world crisis as a personal opportunity for peace, and let us not see Bush and Blair as our enemies - however much we disapprove of or hate their behaviour - but as our greatest teachers. War is planned for a week's time, on March 17, a few hours before the Virgo Full Moon. The Virgo Full Moon represents an opportunity to serve for the good of others, but it also represents the blind duty of service - like the soldiers who believe they serve their country by going to war. I suggest that one of the things to hold in the forefront of our minds at this time is an awareness of what and who we are serving through our daily thoughts and actions, and who benefits, and to look at how we can serve the highest good of all, the spiritual self-realisation of humanity. Mars rides through Capricorn teaching the lessons of responsible will. These lessons are not just for those who would abuse their authority by waging war, but for those who would support the war, or fail to act to stop war. I have heard it said by "lightworkers" that war can be a good thing because it brings things to the fore to be learnt from. While there is some cold truth in this, the problem with this reasoning is that wars have gone on for centuries and still we have yet to learn and heal the disease that perpetrates it. So I pray that this reasoning is not used to excuse inactivity amongst those who say they stand for peace. For me, March 15 Washington Convergence will be more important than the Harmonic Convergence of 1987, for waking up to spirituality counts for little if we remain spiritual prisoners in a materialistic world. We came to this Earth not simply to evolve our consciousness, but to inhabit a body that would provide us with the lesson of evolving our consciousness through physical action. Why else would we have a hand that could either caress another with love, or pull a trigger to destroy life? The good news is that the peace movement is growing. Leigh Tremaine
Re: Spring news
Title: Re: Spring news Chris & Christy, Thanks for the advice. Do you have the latin names for these clovers? Christy, you wrote: <> The reality of this is, (from the perspective of someone who is learning how to garden, grow plants for medicinal and culinary use, emphasis on Learning) is that it would take a huge sea change for this culture to grow into one of family subsistence farms & urban cooperative farms. First of all, the price of land alone would stop many from realizing this dream. However, I also think even if we were all landowners, there’d be a lot of education needed to help folks like me realize a dream of growing all their own food. So there really is a need more than ever, for small community based farms to feed most of the population, even as they learn to grow some of their own food. I think, ideally, we would expand on the csa concept and urban gardening concepts to guild out many of the needs of the community from dairy to clothing to medicine so that communities eventually could become more self sufficient, changing the very markets themselves. It’s a good thing there are already good folks out there like you and Chris, to offer the educational opportunities to see how these ideals can be realized. Or like Jean-Paul Courtens, who consistently turns out not only great food, but great farmers who go off and continue bd or organic farms of their own for over a dozen years. Must be a huge change for you and the farm. Keep us updated on your progress. Because we are still going to need the Hugh Lovels with market gardens, the large csa’s like Roxbury Farm and the small self sufficient homestead providing educational outreach (on whatever scale) for quite some time in the future, or forums like Bdnow, I find it hard to imagine that a surge in home gardens will put Hugh out of business. (or you guys!) Gardening is already America’s number one hobby, (I just read that somewhere last week!) so now if we can only change the food distribution system by getting more folks to grow their own! Blessings, Jane From: "The Korrows" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2003 16:44:21 -0600 To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Spring news For a ground cover Chris suggests Strawberry clover, or New Zealand white clover. Add some calcium or rock phosphate since the clovers will really thrive in this. Plus violets might indicate some soil acidity.
Re: "my" nettles
Nettles are easy to dry because they are so light. Just harvest on a dry day just after dew has dried. Lay on screens or hang in bunches. I wouldn't bother with the dehydrator unless you don't have anything but humidity. (which of course, is possible where you are). Another and favorite thing to do in spring when they first appear is make soup!! Make copious amounts of fresh leaf tea and dry the rest. JS > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2003 07:18:33 -0600 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: "my" nettles > > Funny how we get possessive over something we actually have a > use for. 2 years ago, I was griping about the nettles and now I > consider them "my" earliest crop yet nothing has changed with the > nettle itself, only my attitude toward it. > They're anywhere from a foot tall to 18 inches in places. When > would be a good time to dry some of them? I'd planned on laying > them on screens in the haybarn but we've had such a wet year so > far, they'd probably mold before they dried. I'm going to have to use > the dehydrator and just watch how far I let them dry (will shatter if > they're too brittle). >
Re: It's a beautiful day file
Steve, On both my mac and windows machines, I get a message which says "file not found" when I try and access your beautiful day! (Each one of the links you sent say this.) I'd love to see it. Jane S. > From: Steve Diver <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Fri, 07 Mar 2003 19:03:36 -0600 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Bob Cannard & Wes Jackson Audio + RealSlideShow > > Here is the RealSlideShow sampler I put together. > > It's a Beautiful Day > http://www.ipa.net/~steved/audio/ > > The music goes for 2.4 minutes, then the > images continue to 3.3 minutes or thereabouts. > > RealSlideShow offers this ability to weave > sound and images together. > > Well, sometimes life really is a beautiful day. > > Peace, > Steve Diver >
Re: Basalt
Allan & Steve, Are you concerned that basalt from a source near an airport might be contaminated with lead and other undesirables? What about town leaf litter for compost in terms of pesticides? Will that burn out in a pile? Jane > From: Allan Balliett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 09:23:55 -0500 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Basalt > > Ed - Got more info on that VA Basalt? There is also supposedly a > paramagnetic basalt dust source near Dulles Airport, but I've never > located it/ (Anyone?) -Allan > > Which reminds me: how paramagnetic is Suma? >
Re: Spring news
Title: Re: Spring news Thanks for posting this Christy! I went to your site to see what’s growing already and got a bit jealous, as I look out over our thick ice & snow cover. My winter frame weeks ago covered in ice & snow crushed a bit under the weight and I wonder whether anything still grows under there. I hope you’ll keep us updated at your site. The birds have been busy for weeks now, singing away, in spite of the continuous winter storms we keep getting here in the NE of the US. Our drought has certainly ended! I dream of eating wild spring greens soon and of digging and composting my expanded garden. Do you have any recommendations for good ground cover that would have several functions: low to the ground so it can be walked on, nutritious for land that had grass and violet cover, easy to turn under if I want to later, maybe even fragrant? I was thinking of using roman chamomile (chamaemelum nobile). Blessings, Jane From: "The Korrows" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Thank you to the many who have given generous financial support to assist our efforts. As always, grow a garden and support your local farmer! Christy Korrow Rural Center for Responsible Living Social renewal through sustainable agriculture 2000 Bullridge Road Burkesville, KY 42717 270-864-4167 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.theruralcenter.org
Re: [globalnews] The Nazis & The Bush family
Gee, Allan, I'll have to look over what it is that I forwarded last week, I don't recall trying to support the illusion of conspiracies. I think Bush & his cronies have a good stronghold on the media, contrary to the popular notion that the media is a left wing conspiracy of it's own. Clearly forces of light and darkness are amassing here on the planet and it is imperative that we all wake up and try and think things through for ourselves, and not just accept all this warmongering as the will of the people. Millions of people around the world are tired of the US pushing policy on everyone so that their precious corporate status quo can continue to usurp the majority of the world's resources to continue on it's path of consumption. Keep in mind, that to make a new beautiful cloth, you may first have to tear a bit of fabric! Blessings, Jane PS: I'm always curious to know WHO it is who unsubscribes because of my forwarding or posting information. Of course, you have noticed I hope, that it is during the lulls on bdnow, when I continue most of my posts. > From: Allan Balliett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 09:20:38 -0500 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: FW: [globalnews] The Nazis & The Bush family > > Thanks again, Jane. We lost several members of BD Now! last week due > to your persistent efforts to support the illusion of 'conspiracies.' > (They unsubscribed) > > Is it just me or is Bush and his cronies tearing a very large hole in > the fabric of the Matrix? It seems to me that EVERYONE is seeing the > sham of 'making the world safe for Democracy.' > > > Seeing a beautiful portraite of President Bush on the cover of > today's Washington Post makes me feel that perhpas it is I who is > deluded, though. -Allan >
FW: [globalnews] UN: World Water Crisis Due to Leadership Inertia
Title: FW: [globalnews] UN: World Water Crisis Due to Leadership Inertia UN: World Water Crisis Due to Leadership Inertia PARIS, France, March 5, 2003 (ENS) - A global water crisis of the future is taking shape today, due to "attitude and behavior problems," on the part of national leaders, says a report made public today written jointly by all United Nations agencies that deal with water. "This crisis is one of water governance, essentially caused by the ways in which we mismanage water," the agencies report. The 23 UN agencies that contributed to the World Water Development Report, "Water for People, Water for Life" together constitute the World Water Assessment Programme whose secretariat is hosted by UNESCO. "Water resources will steadily decline because of population growth, pollution and expected climate change," they predict. The world's supply of freshwater is shrinking while demand grows. (Photo courtesy Strathcona County ) Water consumption has nearly doubled since 1950, the report finds. "A child born in the developed world consumes 30 to 50 times the water resources of one in the developing world. Meanwhile water quality continues to worsen," it states. "Attitude and behavior problems lie at the heart of the crisis," says the report, "inertia at leadership level, and a world population not fully aware of the scale of the problem means we fail to take the needed timely corrective actions." The water crisis is getting worse and will continue to do so, the agencies say, unless countries and communities, working alone and together, take action to safeguard water supplies. "When all is said and done," the report says, "it is action at the local level, improving the lives of real people, which counts the most." Written as a major United Nations contribution to 2003: The International Year of Freshwater, the report will be formally presented to the international community on World Water Day, March 22, during the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan. A series of high level panel discussions will be organized to discuss the results. "Of all the social and natural crises we humans face, the water crisis is the one that lies at the heart of our survival and that of our planet Earth," says UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura. Kuwait, situated between Iraq and The Gulf's northwest shore, has less water available for each resident than any other country. (Photo courtesy Vollmer-Reisen ) The poorest five countries in terms of available water per person are: Kuwait, followed by Gaza Strip, United Arab Emirates, Bahamas, and Qatar. The top five water rich countries, with the exception of Greenland and Alaska, are: French Guiana, Iceland, Guyana, Suriname, and Congo. The United States, including Hawaii, ranks 52nd of the 180 countries listed in terms of water availability. "No region will be spared from the impact of this crisis which touches every facet of life, from the health of children to the ability of nations to secure food for their citizens," said Matsuura. "Water supplies are falling while the demand is dramatically growing at an unsustainable rate. Over the next 20 years, the average supply of water worldwide per person is expected to drop by a third." The UN agencies predict that by the year 2025, water withdrawal will increase by 50 percent in developing countries and 18 percent in developed countries. "Effects on the world's ecosystems have the potential to dramatically worsen the present situation," they state. Waterfall at Lake Vyrnwy, Wales (Photo courtesy FreeFoto ) Growing water demand cannot be met if water sources are degraded, the report warns. "By depleting and polluting rivers, lakes and wetlands, we are destroying ecosystems which play an essential role in filtering and assuring freshwater resources." As demand for water grows, "there is much talk of looming water wars," the agencies acknowledge. But their report presents evidence that while water scarcity will intensify conflicts between states, these situations will be unlikely to "explode into full fledged water wars." The report highlights the findings of a study of every single water related interaction between two countries or more over the past 50 years. Of the total of 1,831 interactions, the majority, 1,228, were cooperative. They involved the signing of about 200 water sharing treaties or the construction of new dams. A total of 507 conflictive events were documented. Only 37 involved violence, of which 21 consisted of military acts - 18 between Israel and its neighbors. "Some of the most vociferous enemies around the world have negotiated water agreements or are in the process of doing so concerning international rivers," says the report. "The Mekong Committee, for example, continued to exchange data throughout the Viet Nam War. The Indus River Commission survived through two wars between India and Pakistan. And all ten Nile riparian states are currently involved in negotiations o
FW: [globalnews] The Nazis & The Bush family
Title: FW: [globalnews] The Nazis & The Bush family Friends, Since 911 I've written several pieces comparing the WTC to the Reichstag fire, and comparing the Homeland Security measures to Hitler's fascism-enabling legislation. We might also add that Hitler was preparing to launch major military offensives, and that his favorite form of warfare was Blitzkrieg - again the parallels are striking. But I stopped short of suggesting that Bush is in fact a Fascist with a capital F, or that 911 and its aftermath was EXPLICITLY a recreation of the events of 1933. I don't stop short any more. Not after reading the reports below. We learn the extent to which Prescott Bush (the Grandad) collaborated with the Nazis, and how Auswitz was set up partly to provide slave labor for his operations in Poland. These revelations are more shocking than I suspected they might be. But what we learn below is not limited to history half a century old. Fascism is alive and well in Washington and has been for some time. Eugenics and population control are part of the picture. The reports do not talk about things like the effects of depleted uranium, of IMF-imposed genocide, or of the sanctions in Iraq -- but keep them in mind as you read. Auswitz was 1940s technology; today they have more subtle methods of mass killing. And of course they have more gross methods as well, with their cruise missiles and super-high explosives. It's time to wake up. rkm __ Standing on the Dead By Marc Ash t r u t h o u t | Essay Wednesday 22 January 2003 "What luck for the rulers that men do not think." --Adolf Hitler In October of 1942, under the Trading With the Enemy Act, the U.S. government halted operations at New York's Union Banking Corporation. A bank official was charged with "Running Nazi front groups in the United States." His name: Prescott Bush. Prescott Bush, father of future U.S President George Herbert Walker Bush and grandfather of George W. Bush, had been hard at work on behalf of his Nazi partners. In flagrant violation of U.S. law, Prescott Bush had worked tirelessly to launder money, procure raw materials, arrange transportation and provide guidance for the Nazi war effort and the German army he had helped to build. In April of 2002, George W. Bush -- standing literally on the bones of the men who fell at Normandy beachhead in mortal combat with that very same Nazi army -- delivered his Memorial Day address. He said, in part, "This is a day our country has set apart to remember what was gained in our wars, and all that was lost." Let us remember. As the German army came crashing into Poland, spreading death and destruction in its path, Prescott Bush continued aiding the Nazis. As German tanks rolled through the Ardennes Forest and into Paris, Prescott Bush continued aiding the Nazis. As Allied forces fighting to defend France were forced literally into the sea at Dunkirk by the German Army, Prescott Bush continued aiding the Nazis. As German war planes rained bombs down on London, killing 50 thousand English men, women and children, Prescott Bush continued aiding the Nazis. As millions died at the hands of the most ruthless and violent organization the world has ever known, Prescott Bush continued aiding them. And of course, as Hitler and the Nazis planned and carried out the extermination of Europe's Jews, Prescott Bush was an eager and active partner. When did Bush stop? When we made him stop. In this case, George W. Bush won't have to worry about the US Government shutting him down. That's been taken care of -- he is the US Government. As debate rages back and forth across the Atlantic over the morality and acceptability of this assault against Iraq, it is interesting to note the German position. It was Germany who bought most completely into the war lie during the past century. It was the German people who, with their faith in country and leadership, and even their loyalty to the Fatherland, made possible the greatest nightmare the world has ever known. It is those same German people who stand today before Europe and the world in unflinching opposition to this latest world conquering force. How well do the German people know George W. Bush? Better than they want to. --- Sources: [texts supplied underneath] Heir to the Holocaust : http://www.clamormagazine.org/features/issue14.3_feature.3.html The Bush Nazi Connection : http://www.lpdallas.org/features/draheim/dr991216.htm Gold Fillings, Auschwitz & George Bush : http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/bushies.htm http://www.clamormagazine.org/features/issue14.3_feature.3.html 1940s: Business As Usual Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation was located near the Polish town of Oswiecim, one of Poland's richest mineral regions. That was where Hitler set up the Auschwitz
FW: [globalnews] Carrot shaman Bob Cannard grows the mostcelebrated designer vegetables in the Golden State
Title: FW: [globalnews] Carrot shaman Bob Cannard grows the most celebrated designer vegetables in the Golden State Remineralize-the-earth.org Mr. Natural Carrot shaman Bob Cannard grows the most celebrated designer vegetables in the Golden State By Christina Waters With its unruly hedgerows of peach trees and musical creek meandering down the mountain, Cannard Farms in Sonoma, California, is, by any standard a rustic Eden. It was an exuberant endorsement by Greg Steltenpohl, founder of Odwalla juices, that brought me here: "Bob's carrots are amazingúúhe's a carrot shaman!" Steltenpohl had put his money where his mouth was, retaining Bob Cannard to develop Odwalla's new 65-acre carrot patch, whence flowed the very roots of the company's ubiquitous carrot juice. After putting two and two together and realizing that this was the same Bob Cannard who grew some of the most famous designer vegetables in Californiaúúthose adorning the menu of Alice Waters' Chez Panisse and Wolfgang Puck's PostrioúúI had to see for myself. House wide open, encircled by barns, out buildings, odd bits of weathered tools, a pickup truck and a small, bouncing puppyúúCannard appears on the rough-hewn front porch like a Wild West apparition. Dressed in mountain man standard issuesúúflannel shirt, blue jeans, muddied work boots and knit capúúhe ushers me in and puts on the kettle, leaving me to examine the display of beautifully colored rocks lined up in four neat rows on the kitchen counter. "Most people think that rocks are dead," he says, without turning from the sink. "They're alive." Chunks of amber honeycomb lay oozing in a wooden bowl and outside the window the fields exploded with early spring mustard. We sat downúúso help meúúat a log table. He is Jeff Bridges by way of Elmer Gantry. Tanned and weathered, Cannard's face is illuminated by sky-blue eyes, his long hair shot through with silver, his body lanky and lean. Shaman or not, he is one heavy dude and the air in his kitchen was soon thick with charisma. Cannard likes to pontificate about the stupidity and greed of the conventional high-yield farming. He'd also like to wander off in the direction of planetary doom and the destruction of the earth's fecundity. The hippie in him is obliged to inform me that he keeps his phone in the barn. And that he wouldn't even have one if his kids hadn't insisted. So booming are his pronouncements, so maverick his colorful homilies, that I begin to think he's strictly from Central Casting. But later, when we walk the land, smell the soil, sample the results, I realize that he's the real thing. Maybe somewhere in his mid-40s, Cannard has roamed, worked, loved and improved these 172 acres (30 of which he cultivates) for the past 20 years, during which he also taught classes in garden crop production at Santa Rosa Junior College. In 1960, the Pennsylvania native arrived in the Santa Rosa area, where his family ran a nursery raising ornamental plants. "That was growing as an industry," he grumps. But at least he was around plantsúúalways loved being around plants. "I went to school at Fresno State and I thought I wanted to study horticulture. But what I was really interested in was plants." He beams paternally. "The ease with which they grew in the wild, their fullness and softness." Loving that essential plantness of plants, Cannard was disappointed to find "that the educational system was only training you for a job in some industry." Of his formal training, he is willing to recall only that he had "a lot of inquiry, and they suppressed inquiry." So after a brief stay, Cannard ditched academia and in 1972 started Sonoma Mission Gardens. "I'd been around plants all my life. It didn't make much sense for me to take those basic courses," he observes, careful to sound modest. "I got kicked out because I was too much of a shit disturber," he growls happily. Besides, "plants weren't getting what they wanted from those additives, all those systemic fungicides the petrochemical people used." So Cannard has spent the past 20 years finding out what plants want and helping them get it. Dowsing the Right Fantastic Like the reincarnation of Rudolph Steiner, founder of the biodynamic farming movement currently enjoying recycled vogue, the shit-disturbing grower describes plant cultivation in terms more suited to psychology than chemistry. Dashing up from the table, Cannard bounds out the front door, grabs two handfuls of Italian parsley from different sections of a nearby plot and throws them down on the table when he reappears. One, I'm invited to realize, is weaker, less vigorous in color and flavor. "It was too easy to pull out, the roots weren't very deep," he instructs. The other, we both agree, has more "integrity". It's bigger, bolder, hard to uproot. What that means to Cannard is that the more luxuriant parsley was well suited to its growing area. "It was happy where it was--it had bonded with that spot." A firm believer in
Re: UPDATE ON HUGH IN OZ?
Messing with the weather anywhere directly affects ALL of us. > From: "Lloyd Charles" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 17:36:26 +1100 > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: UPDATE ON HUGH IN OZ? > > I'm quite sure these fellows dont know what they are doing and they are west > of me so are messing around with the weather that directly affects us.
FW: [globalnews] Man's "Give Peace A Chance" T-Shirt Lands Him inCustody
Title: FW: [globalnews] Man's "Give Peace A Chance" T-Shirt Lands Him in Custody I guess freedom is a relative concept now (JS) Man's Antiwar T-Shirt Lands Him in Custody Reuters March 5, 2003 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tshirt5mar05,1,7373760.story NEW YORK -- A lawyer was arrested and charged with trespassing at a public mall after refusing to take off a T-shirt advocating peace that he had just purchased at the mall. According to the criminal complaint filed Monday night, Stephen Downs was wearing a T-shirt bearing the words "Give Peace A Chance" that he had just purchased from a vendor inside the Crossgates Mall in Guilderland, N.Y., near Albany. "I was in the food court with my son when I was confronted by two security guards and ordered to either take off the T-shirt or leave the mall," Downs said. When Downs refused the security officers' orders, police from the town of Guilderland were called and he was arrested and taken away in handcuffs, accused of trespassing "in that he knowingly enter(ed) or remain(ed) unlawfully upon premises," the complaint read. Downs said police tried to convince him he was wrong in his actions by refusing to remove the T-shirt because the mall "was like a private house and that I was acting poorly." Downs, who pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, is the director of the Albany Office of the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, which investigates complaints of misconduct against judges. Police, a local prosecutor and mall officials were not available for comment. Downs could face up to a year in prison if convicted. Copyright 2003 Los Angeles Times -- I am submerged in eternal light. It permeates every particle of my being. I am living in that light. The Divine Spirit fills me within and without." -- Paramahansa Yogananda
FW: [globalnews] WALK ALONE
Title: FW: [globalnews] WALK ALONE WALK ALONE (Favourite chant of Mahatma Gandhi) Walk alone. If they answer not to thy call, walk alone; If they are afraid and cower mutely facing the wall, Open thy mind and speak out alone. If they turn away and desert you when crossing the wilderness, Trample the thorns under thy tread, And along the blood-lined track travel alone. If they do not hold up the light when the night is troubled with storm, With the thunder-flame of pain ignite thine own heart, And let it burn alone. RABINDRANATH TAGORE -- "To change the outside world, we must first change ourselves." "To change our outer lives, we must first change our inner world."
FW: "Emergency Appeal to the U.N." statement confirmation
Thank you for supporting the "Emergency Appeal to the U.N." campaign. If you've received this email in error, please correct your campaign subscription information at http://www.moveon.org/s?i=-1966811-kPsrco3RHyqZJdrgiS00IA This campaign is based solely on word of mouth. It is CRUCIAL that you tell others. We've attached below a brief letter you can send to your email circle. Just copy and paste the text into your own email, then personalize the message. Your own words are always best. Please only contact people who know you personally. Spam hurts our campaign. _ Subject: Sign the emergency petition to the U.N. Dear friend, I'm hoping you can join me on an emergency petition from citizens around the world to the U.N. Security Council. The petition's going to be delivered to the 15 member states of the Security Council on THURSDAY, MARCH 6. If hundreds of thousands of us sign, it could be an enormously important and powerful message -- people from all over the world joining in a single call for a peaceful solution. But we really need everyone who agrees to sign up today. You can do so easily and quickly at: http://www.moveon.org/emergency/ The stakes couldn't really be much higher. A war with Iraq could kill tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and inflame the Middle East. According to current plans, it would require an American occupation of the country for years to come. And it could escalate in ways that are horrifying to imagine. We can stop this tragedy from unfolding. But we need to speak together, and we need to do so now. Let's show the Security Council what world citizens think. Thank you. -- End of Forwarded Message
FW: [globalnews] Knapweed may hold key to creating effective,natural herbicide
Title: FW: [globalnews] Knapweed may hold key to creating effective, natural herbicide (More reductionist research...JS) Knapweed may hold key to creating effective, natural herbicide By Katherine Vogt, Associated Press DENVER — An invasive weed that has taken over vast swaths of grazing land in the West may hold the key to creating an effective, natural herbicide. A Colorado State University study found that a chemical compound secreted from the roots of spotted knapweed is toxic to surrounding plants and has potential to wipe out other unwanted weeds. "This is a herbicide that is as potent as a commercial chemical but it comes from a natural plant," said study author Jorge Vivanco, an assistant professor of horticulture biotechnology at CSU. "It's considered an environmentally friendly herbicide." Vivanco's research — and a separate study at the University of Colorado in which bugs stopped the spread of diffuse knapweed — are among the latest efforts to find natural ways of controlling invasive plants that have bedeviled farmers and ranchers for centuries. Eric Lane, who carries the unlikely title of "state weed coordinator," says there is a growing emphasis on nonchemical ways to fend off weeds. He called the knapweed study exciting because it would encourage others to try similar efforts. At least three knapweed species are found in Colorado, and forms of the invasive weed have taken over millions of acres in the West. The plant is capable of wiping out all other surrounding plants, effectively ruining grazing lands. Because they are not native to Colorado, they have few predators. Originally from eastern Europe and western Asia, the most common knapweed species in the West are believed to have arrived in the late 1800s in contaminated crop seed or possibly discarded soil from ships. Common forms feature tiny white or purple flowers on spindly, leafed green stalks. Two years ago, Vivanco read about a knapweed species that invades and colonizes by secreting a toxic compound into the soil through its roots. His team tried to become the first to isolate the chemical from spotted knapweed — a feat complicated by the complex jumble of contaminants, microbes, and chemicals found in soil. The team grew spotted knapweed plants in flasks in the lab. The roots were submerged in a water-based solution while the plant floated on top. The plants secreted the toxic chemical compound into the liquid, making it easier for the researchers to isolate each compound in it. They found nearly 30 compounds, including two forms of catechin. One type had antibacterial properties, and the other had a toxic effect on other plants. The researchers found that spraying toxic catechin on plants or adding it to soil was as effective against some weeds as common synthetic herbicides, typically killing the plants within a week. Vivanco said no one previously knew about catechin's toxic effect on plants. His findings were published last year in the journal Plant Physiology . Because there is no evidence that catechin is toxic to humans or animals, Vivanco hopes it will eventually be fast-tracked for approval by the Environmental Protection Agency. CSU has licensed the catechin technology patent to a company, and Vivanco hopes to see it on the market in two or three years. Ragan Callaway, an associate professor of biology at the University of Montana and a plant ecologist who specializes in invasive weeds, said Vivanco's research is exciting but should be carefully studied. "Just because it's produced organically doesn't mean it won't kill you. On the other hand, I think that because Jorge is trying to use natural processes to control how plants interact with each other is fantastic," Callaway said. Vivanco said the discovery has several potential applications as a herbicide. In reduced concentrations the chemical only kills select plants while sparing others. That could allow farmers to protect a crop while killing a weed. Or it could be used as a preventive agent by mixing it with soil before weeds emerge. Source: Associated Press -- Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive. - HH Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama
FW: Lysistrata Readings Spreading Wildly
Make Love, Not War--Or Else Tai Moses, AlterNet February 26, 2003 Viewed on March 3, 2003 Try this fantasy on for size: Laura Bush comes to her senses, realizes that war is hell and refuses to sleep with her husband until he gives up his warmongering ways. His libido running rampant (yuck -- bear with me), Bush agrees to make peace with Iraq and the wheels of war are brought to a grinding halt. Nice fantasy. If only Laura Bush could be more like the eponymous heroine of Aristophanes' antiwar comedy "Lysistrata," who uses the sex-for-peace strategy with great success. Lysistrata encourages women from opposing sides of a civil war to withhold sex from their husbands until the men, conquered by unrequited lust, agree to ratify a peace treaty. The play captured the imagination of two New York actors, Kathryn Blume and Sharron Bower, who in early January kicked off the Lysistrata Project, a series of readings of the play that will take place throughout the world (in all 50 states, and 59 countries so far) on Monday, March 3. "We would love for no one to live their life on March 3rd without running into Lysistrata," Bower told the Village Voice. The way the readings are proliferating, it will be hard to walk five feet without tripping over Lysistrata. The number of performances and cities involved are increasing hourly; there are now 1,004 scheduled readings, a joyous Greek chorus of dissent that would have astonished and gratified Aristophanes, who spent most of his life writing political satire that challenged the imperialism of the Athenian state. The Lysistrata events range from regional theater companies to experimental street theater to readings in private homes, libraries, hospitals and college campuses. Anyone is welcome to stage a reading using one of the dozens of translations of the play available; this theatrical protest aims to be as inclusive as possible. All-star evening performances are scheduled on the east and west coasts. In New York, Mercedes Ruehl, F. Murray Abraham, Peter Boyle and Kyra Sedgwick and husband Kevin Bacon perform; and in Los Angeles, Julie Christie reads the part of Lysistrata in a production that includes Alfre Woodard, Christine Lahti, Ed Begley Jr. and Eric Stolz. "At least for the record of history, we have to let it be known that millions and millions opposed this war," Julie Christie said. Throwing a Lyssy Fit Those who equate classical Greek theater with watching paint dry should know that "Lysistrata," like most of Aristophanes' work, is outrageously bawdy and rife with sexual innuendo (the actors are usually outfitted with leather phalluses to give them the appearance of enormous erections). Lysistrata herself is a literary heroine who translates remarkably well to the modern era, considering she was created during the Peloponnesian War. Courageous, creative and sassy, she's equal parts Xena the Warrior Princess, Gloria Steinem and Erin Brockovich. Not only do Lysistrata and the Greek women in the play withhold sex -- effectively spearheading a 2,500-year-old tradition of peaceful resistance to war -- they take over the Acropolis (the city treasury), barring the men access to those other precious chests -- their war chests. Not that the women make their sacrifice willingly. "Who'd have thought we'd come to this, kicking our men out of our beds, just when we want to drag them back in!" wails Lysistrata's Spartan homegirl Lampito (in a translation by Carolyn Balducci). Purrs Lysistrata (in a different translation): "We need only sit indoors with painted cheeks, and meet our mates lightly clad in transparent gowns of Amorgos silk, and perfectly depilated; they will get their tools up and be wild to lie with us. That will be the time to refuse, and they will hasten to make peace, I am convinced of that!" That the Lysistrata Project so quickly grew into an international event suggests a collective hunger for more imaginative and diverse forms of antiwar expression. "Both women and artists need more ways to feel like they can take action against the largely masculine war project," says Prof. Valerie Ross, a lecturer in the humanities at Stanford University. "This play and its message remind us that women are complicit unless they use any means of resistance they can. It has always been the duty of artists to find creative and visceral means to resist the destructive forces of our culture." Far from being a women-only enterprise, the Lysistrata Project is equally a vehicle for men who prefer to march to a different beat than Bush's war drum. "Aristophanes represents millennia of men trying to speak out against war too," Prof. Ross points out. "Just as there is an age-old heroic tradition of men fighting battles, there is an ancient tradition of men speaking out against war and its absurdities." An Alternative Bully Pulpit Does it matter that George W. Bush probably doesn't know the dif
Re: [globalnews] Drug-producing crops facing legal lockdown
You forgot, Rex, that people already eat a lot of food that tastes like sawdust: just add more sugar & fat or vitamins and they'll eat! Jane > From: RH <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 08:30:15 -0500 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: FW: [globalnews] Drug-producing crops facing legal lockdown > > make all of Monsanto's Frankenfoods taste like sawdust.
FW: [globalnews] Drug-producing crops facing legal lockdown
Title: FW: [globalnews] Drug-producing crops facing legal lockdown New Scientist Drug-producing crops facing legal lockdown 19:00 26 February 03 Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition As the US prepares to tighten its rules governing the production of pharmaceuticals and chemicals in genetically modified plants,. But there are suspicions that ensuring food safety is not the only motive for big companies such as Monsanto. Fears that drug-laced plants could end up in food have led to growing criticism of the US Department of Agriculture's regulations governing pharming. The issue came to a head in 2002, when maize modified to produce a pharmaceutical protein was found growing in fields of normal soybeans in Iowa and Nebraska. This happened after the Texas-based company ProdiGene left seeds in the field after harvesting a crop of modified maize. In December, ProdiGene was ordered to pay around $3 million in clean-up costs and fines for violating its permit. The incident provoked calls for tougher rules, and the USDA is carrying out public consultations as a prelude to revising its regulations. "We have to restore public confidence," John Howard, a founder and now a consultant for ProdiGene, told New Scientist at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting in Denver. "We need to stop treating these plants as value-added agriculture and treat them like pharmaceuticals." Zero tolerance For example, Howard says ProdiGene did not do enough to make sure growers were obeying the rules. As in drug manufacturing, he says, companies need to monitor the whole process from beginning to end and get it checked by an outside agency. At the moment they are not required to do this. "There's too much latitude in the system," Howard says. More controversially, Howard thinks the current policy of zero tolerance for any contamination of food crops helps neither the companies nor consumers. He says the risks posed by each pharm plant should be evaluated and used to set a reasonable limit for contamination, in the same way that limits are set for the contamination with pesticides, dirt and microorganisms. "Then, if the system breaks down and a plant escapes we'll know the level of risk," he says. Howard cites two ProdiGene products that went on sale in 2002: the enzyme trypsin and enzyme inhibitor aprotinin. These proteins are normally obtained from cows, but fear of BSE has created a market for non-animal sources. Howard argues that since the proteins are found in foods such as beef offal, there is little risk if contamination does occur. He admits that work is still needed to prove that they really are harmless. "But I've always argued it would be worth it," he says. Satellite surveillance Jon McIntyre of the agribusiness giant Monsanto says his company, too, is willing to go well beyond existing regulations. Monsanto is setting up production systems for growing antibody-producing maize plants for other companies. The USDA's proposed guidelines require pharmed maize to be separated from other corn by a distance of 400 metres, and not be planted within two weeks of any corn crop nearby, to prevent any possibility of cross-pollination. McIntyre says his team is already growing crops with four times that physical buffer and double the time lag. If necessary, the team would be prepared to increase the distance to more than eight kilometres, he says. Indeed, according to McIntyre, Monsanto has put in place a surprising array of safeguards that include the use of male-sterile plants that do not produce pollen, daily satellite monitoring of adjacent fields to verify the absence of maize, and dedicated harvesting and processing equipment to prevent any mixing with food. And as extra assurance against mistakes like ProdiGene's, the Monsanto team ensures that no food crops are planted for two years in fields where pharmed maize has been grown. Instead it plants a variety of cotton resistant to a herbicide that kills any leftover maize plants. "This is a closed-loop system completely outside of the commercial grain system," says McIntyre. Chewing sawdust Academic institutions are also being extra cautious. Charles Arntzen's team at Arizona State University in Tempe is inserting genes from Norwalk virus, which can cause severe diarrhoea, into plants such as tomatoes to create oral vaccines against the virus. To create the 80,000 or so doses needed for a clinical trial, the university has built a sealed greenhouse with fine-mesh screens, double doors, controlled airflow and many other features that exceed current federal guidelines. "No insects or seeds can get in or out unless we let them," Arntzen says. The group intends to make its plants sterile, and as a further safeguard it will use a white tomato that could never be mistaken for a food crop. "Eating it is like chewing sawdust," he says. But Arntzen worries that regulation could go too far. His oral vaccines would be most valuable to poor c
FW: [globalnews] Nuke Regulators Threaten to ContaminateAmerica's Recycling Stream
Title: FW: [globalnews] Nuke Regulators Threaten to Contaminate America's Recycling Stream Well, it sounds like those smoke detectors will be having a lot of company in the market place. Soon, you better bring your geiger counter with you when you go shopping! (JS) -- From Public Citizen and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) For Immediate Release: Feb. 28, 2003 Contact: Joseph Malherek (202) 454-5109 Erica Hartman (202) 454-5174 Michael Mariotte (202) 328-0002 x 12 Nuclear Regulators Threaten to Contaminate America's Recycling Stream Federal Agency Must Consider Opposition of More Than 100 Organizations WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) today made clear its determination to permit forced radiation exposures upon the public. In today's Federal Register, the NRC published a notice of a workshop and a request for comments on the scope of its proposed rulemaking on "controlling the disposition of solid materials." In so doing, the NRC appears to be forging ahead to allow massive quantities of nuclear wastes to be "released," thus allowing them to go into unlicensed landfills, incinerators and even consumer products. More than 100 organizations in the United States and internationally have stated their opposition to such practices, however, and have signed on to a "Statement Opposing Radioactive 'Recycling' and Deregulation of Nuclear Wastes." Nuclear waste materials are already being released without any restrictions, on a "case-by-case" basis. A National Academies report from last year, entitled "The Disposition Dilemma: Controlling the Release of Solid Materials from Nuclear Regulatory Commission-Licensed Facilities," stated that wastes from nuclear reactors "are being released on a daily basis." But, disturbingly, the report verified that "[t]he amount of these materials is not known because there is no requirement to document the materials released." "The NRC's proposed rulemaking is being conducted merely to accommodate the nuclear industry, which would like to make the 'release' of nuclear trash easier, cheaper and more clearly legal than it is currently," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "These materials, which are not labeled or tracked in any way, could end up in any variety of products, from bicycles and toys to cookware and bedsprings. The NRC needs to make the protection of public health and safety its top priority, not saving money for the nuclear industry at the public's expense." The nuclear industry and government regulators have been pushing for a way to fully deregulate radioactive waste for decades. A previous method, by which certain wastes were designated as "below regulatory concern" was banned by Congress in 1992 in response to pressure from state and local governments and citizen, consumer, and industry groups. According to a National Academies report issued last year, the total cost to dispose of all slightly radioactive solid material metal and concrete from U.S. power reactors under the no-release option is estimated at between $4.5 billion and $11.7 billion. The report went on to add that "clearance of all this material could allow the option of recycle or reuse and would avoid essentially all disposal costs." The NRC seems to be ignoring recommendations from this report, originally commissioned by the NRC itself. The report stated that a "legacy of distrust" had developed between the NRC and the public, and that "[b]road stakeholder involvement and participation in the USNRC's decision-making process is critical as the USNRC moves forward." Today's announcement includes no schedule for any public hearings, except one two-day workshop (May 21 and 22), scheduled in the daytime, during the work week in the Washington, D.C., area. "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is back again trying to legalize putting nuclear power and weapons waste into our belt buckles, baby toys and frying pans. The public response is still 'NO! We won't take it!' and NRC knows it, so they are avoiding public hearings so the public won't find out," said Diane D'Arrigo, radioactive waste project director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). Among the supplementary information accompanying today's announcement, the NRC claims that one of the alternatives being considered for the wastes is that of "no release"wherein radioactive wastes could only be placed in licensed facilities, not "released" into standard landfills, incinerated, or "recycled." The NRC Commission Voting Record of Oct. 25, 2002, however, indicates that this option is not likely to be selected or fully evaluated. NRC Chairman Richard Meserve advised that in dealing with this issue "it would not be appropriate to mask the Commission's continuing support for the release of solid material ." "The NRC is fully empowered to complete
FW: [globalnews] Starhawk's Upcoming Events/Women's Day/EarthActivist Training
Title: FW: [globalnews] Starhawk's Upcoming Events/Women's Day/Earth Activist Training Hi there, Below is a short list of some of my upcoming work for the spring. I've been limiting this list to my writings only, but enough people have complained about not hearing what I'm doing that I've decided to send out a rough schedule every few months or so. Remember you can always get off this mailing list by emailing [EMAIL PROTECTED] and putting 'unsubscribe' in the subject heading. Like so many, I've been madly working and organizing against Bush's pre-emptive war in Iraq. I'll be in Washington DC for International Women's Day, doing a nonviolent direct action training on Friday March 7 as part of the teach-in, speaking at the rally on March 8 and helping to organize a magical/pageant as part of the march, and closing the spirituality gathering on Sunday March 9 with a Spiral Dance. The official details are at the end of this post, or at www.codepink4peace.org. Then I'm heading back to Israel and Palestine, to work with the International Solidarity Movement again. You can expect to hear more from me about that! I'll return in late April to do another Earth Activist Training with Penny Livingston. We still have room for more students--and we're in serious needs of more scholarship funding, if any of you have some extra cash these days. If you appreciate getting my writings, and have been wondering "Hmmn, what could I do to show my appreciation?" donating to EAT would have maximum ripple effect, as it spreads more than even the tools of magic and political activism but also the hands-on skills of building the world we believe is possible. There are other, short-term speaking engagements sprinkled in there. For a full and updated schedule, you can always check my website at www.starhawk.org. Let's keep praying and working for peace! Love Starhawk Earth Activist Training: April 26 to May 10, 2003 Learn how to create the world you want to live in! Learn permaculture, political activism, and magic with Starhawk and Penny Livingston-Stark in a two-week intensive course. Earth Activist Training is a design course for visionary activists. Learn the skills to transform a piece of land, a community, political and economic systems, and ourselves. Spend two weeks in the wilds of western Sonoma County, California, learning: * Nature and wilderness awareness * The elemental building blocks of nature: air, fire, water, earth ... and soul * Diversity in ecosystems and in our movement * Pattern thinking in design, strategy, and movement building * Solutions that exist: alternative energy, organic farming, natural building, bioremediation, and restoration * Soil and forest ecology and ecological economics * How to think like a watershed; and collect, conserve, and clean water * Movement building, strategy, and direct action principles and practices * Consensus process, community building, facilitation, and conflict resolution * Transformation of fear, rage, grief, and frustration into creative action * How to stay grounded and centered in tough and challenging situations * Ways to create ritual and weave magic into action * How to renew personal energy and avoid burnout Participants receive a Permaculture Design Certificate upon completion of the course. Cost: Sliding scale for the two-week residential training is: $1500, if you have abundance in the form of money; $1200, if you are working and solvent; $1000, if you are scraping by. We work hard to make this training available to those who want it, regardless of income. The middle of the scale, $1200, is "our cost." Those who can pay at the high end of the scale help provide scholarships and work-trades for others. If even the low-end of the scale is too much for you, please see the options for work-trade, scholarship, personal fundraising, and tuition/travel loans, detailed on the EAT web site. Deadline for EAT work-trade and scholarship applications is February 28, 2003! The closing date for regular EAT registration is April 5, 2003. Space is limited, so apply now. To learn more... First please carefully read our web site, which has many details AND a downloadable application form: www.permacultureinstitute.com/eat . Important: if you've visited this site before, be sure to use "Refresh" or "Reload" buttons on your browser to get the current information For questions that remain, contact Mer at [EMAIL PROTECTED], 707-583-2300, extension 119 Or send a SASE to: EAT 21 Ft. Ross Way Cazadero, CA 95421 We welcome your help in providing scholarships. Tax deductible contributions can be made to: Daughters/Sisters Foundation (Make check out to Daughters/Sisters, earmark it EAT) PO Box 4492 Rolling Bay, WA 98061. Urgent: Stop the War...This May be Our Last Chance... March 8, International Women’s Day: Come to Washington DC to Encircle the White House or Organize a Similar Event Locally March 8 marks a critically important date in the an
FW: [globalnews] Iran Suing U.S. For Support of Saddam Husseinin 80's
Title: FW: [globalnews] Iran Suing U.S. For Support of Saddam Hussein in 80's February 18, 2003 Right Now, Iran is Suing the U.S. For Its Support of Saddam Hussein in the 80's Translated from Der Spiegel BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,236508,00.html A strange spectacle in court: As the USA prepares for a war against Iraq, it is being sued by Iran for its previous close relationship to Saddam Hussein. At the International Court of Justice, Teheran is accusing the United States of delivering dangerous chemicals and deadly viruses to Baghdad during the eighties. The Hague - The oral deposition in Iran's suit against the United States in the matter of the destruction of Iranian oil platforms in 1987/88 began on Monday. The suit was presented to the highest court of the United Nations in 1992 and has been handled in writing ever since. Teheran accuses Washington of the destruction of three oil platforms in the Persial Gulf. The US argues that the attack was in retaliation of Iranian attacks of ships sailing under the American flag. The court has scheduled three weeks to hear arguments from both sides. The Iranian representatives accuse the USA of having provided Iraq with raw materials for chemical and biological weapons at the end of the 80's. The US government had delivered dangerous chemicals and deadly viruses to the Iraqi government for its war. Washington had provided aid to Iraq in this, and other ways, in its war against Iran, said Iran's representative at the start of the oral depositions. Mohamat Zahedin-Labbaf, as the spokesman of the Iranian delegation, emphasized that the US could not dispute the destruction of the platforms. The US version, that it had been a matter of defense against Iranian missile attacks of ships under the US flag doesn't hold water, he said. In any case, the USA had violated the Friendship Treaty which both countries had signed in 1955. It is this Treaty which constitutes the legal basis for these proceedings, according to a 1996 decision by the highest court of the United Nations. Both delegations will be able to argue their positions in detail during the next three weeks. Professor Bruno Summa, a German expert on international law, was sworn in as the new judge at the beginning of the proceedings on Monday. The longtime University Professor at the University of Munich was elected as one of the 15 regular judges of the Supreme Court in the Hague Peace Palace. BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT -- "The liberty of a republic is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. What, in its essence, is Fascism, but ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any controlling private power ?" - Franklin D. Roosevelt
FW: [globalnews] Robert Fisk: How the news will be censored inthis war
Title: FW: [globalnews] Robert Fisk: How the news will be censored in this war Here’s what’s going on in US media! Tighter controls over what is permissable, so the American people can remain in the dark. (JS) http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=381438 A new CNN system of 'script approval' suggests the Pentagon will have nothing to worry about INDEPENDENT (London) 25 February 2003 Already, the American press is expressing its approval of the coverage of American forces which the US military intends to allow its reporters in the next Gulf war. The boys from CNN, CBS, ABC and The New York Times will be "embedded" among the US marines and infantry. The degree of censorship hasn't quite been worked out. But it doesn't matter how much the Pentagon cuts from the reporters' dispatches. A new CNN system of "script approval" P the iniquitous instruction to reporters that they have to send all their copy to anonymous officials in Atlanta to ensure it is suitably sanitised P suggests that the Pentagon and the Department of State have nothing to worry about. Nor do the Israelis. Indeed, reading a new CNN document, "Reminder of Script Approval Policy", fairly takes the breath away. "All reporters preparing package scripts must submit the scripts for approval," it says. "Packages may not be edited until the scripts are approved... All packages originating outside Washington, LA (Los Angeles) or NY (New York), including all international bureaus, must come to the ROW in Atlanta for approval." The date of this extraordinary message is 27 January. The "ROW" is the row of script editors in Atlanta who can insist on changes or "balances" in the reporter's dispatch. "A script is not approved for air unless it is properly marked approved by an authorised manager and duped (duplicated) to burcopy (bureau copy)... When a script is updated it must be re-approved, preferably by the originating approving authority." Note the key words here: "approved" and "authorised". CNN's man or woman in Kuwait or Baghdad P or Jerusalem or Ramallah P may know the background to his or her story; indeed, they will know far more about it than the "authorities" in Atlanta. But CNN's chiefs will decide the spin of the story. CNN, of course, is not alone in this paranoid form of reporting. Other US networks operate equally anti-journalistic systems. And it's not the fault of the reporters. CNN's teams may use clichs and don military costumes P you will see them do this in the next war P but they try to get something of the truth out. Next time, though, they're going to have even less chance. Just where this awful system leads is evident from an intriguing exchange last year between CNN's reporter in the occupied West Bank town of Ramallah, and Eason Jordan, one of CNN's top honchos in Atlanta. The journalist's first complaint was about a story by the reporter Michael Holmes on the Red Crescent ambulance drivers who are repeatedly shot at by Israeli troops. "We risked our lives and went out with ambulance drivers... for a whole day. We have also witnessed ambulances from our window being shot at by Israeli soldiers... The story received approval from Mike Shoulder. The story ran twice and then Rick Davis (a CNN executive) killed it. The reason was we did not have an Israeli army response, even though we stated in our story that Israel believes that Palestinians are smuggling weapons and wanted people in the ambulances." The Israelis refused to give CNN an interview, only a written statement. This statement was then written into the CNN script. But again it was rejected by Davis in Atlanta. Only when, after three days, the Israeli army gave CNN an interview did Holmes's story run P but then with the dishonest inclusion of a line that said the ambulances were shot in "crossfire" (ie that Palestinians also shot at their own ambulances). The reporter's complaint was all too obvious. "Since when do we hold a story hostage to the whims of governments and armies?We were told by Rick that if we do not get an Israeli on-camera we would not air the package. This means that governments and armies are indirectly censoring us and we are playing directly into their own hands." The relevance of this is all too obvious in the next Gulf War. We are going to have to see a US army officer denying everything the Iraqis say if any report from Iraq is to get on air. Take another of the Ramallah correspondent's complaints last year. In a package on the damage to Ramallah after Israel's massive incursion last April, "we had already mentioned right at the top of our piece that Israel says it is doing all these incursions because it wants to crack down on the infrastructure of terror. However, obviously that was not enough. We were made by the ROW (in Atlanta) to repeat this same idea three times in one piece, just to make sure that we keep justifying the Israeli actions..." But the system of "script approval" that has so
FW: [globalnews] A Triumphant Virtual March
Title: FW: [globalnews] A Triumphant Virtual March A Triumphant Virtual March Posted by Lakshmi on February 26, 2003 @ 1:30PM AlterNet Over one million people from around the nation jammed the White House and Senate switchboards today to register their loud and unequivocal opposition to the war. Former Congressman Tom Andrews, National Director of Win Without War , said "Well over one million phone calls were made in just eight hours by people from every state in the country. Every Senator’s office and the White House switchboard received at least two and often more calls per minute. Many callers had to settle for busy signals." The Virtual March on Washington was organized by Win Without War, a coalition of 32 organizations including the National Council of Churches, MoveOn.org, the NAACP, NOW, and the Sierra Club. According to Andrews, the protest was designed to give the many who don't usually take place in marches a chance to let "their fingers do their marching." As part of the protest, folks emailed, faxed and phoned their Senators and the White House to express their support for U.N. inspections. Estimates for fax and email messages are not available as yet. But it is clear, in Andrews' words, the antiwar message "got through loud and clear today." -- "The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances. If there is any reaction, both are transformed." ~Jung
FW: [globalnews] nyc event: humanitarian consequences of war onIraq
Title: FW: [globalnews] nyc event: humanitarian consequences of war on Iraq Check out this event for some alternative news if you’re in the area! Elisabeth Benjamin, a returning member of CESR's research mission to Iraq, will be speaking about the humanitarian impact of war on the people of Iraq this Friday in New York City. Dear Friends, For all the 24/7 coverage of the chances of war with Iraq, mainstream media say virtually nothing about the most basic fact of war--innocent people will be killed and civilian infrastructure will be destroyed, with devastating consequences for public health long after the bombing stops. Elisabeth Benjamin, founder and supervising attorney of the New York Legal Aid Society's Health Law Unit, will be speaking about the humanitarian impact of war on the people of Iraq this Friday at Housing Works Used Book Cafe in New York City. Benjamin, who serves on the Board of Directors of the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), recently returned from a 12-day CESR research mission to Iraq which examined the likely humanitarian consequences of a new war. The reseach team, whose findings are set out in a new report, "The Human Costs of War in Iraq" (see http://www.cesr.org/iraq), concluded that a US-led military intervention in Iraq will trigger the collapse of Iraq's fragile public health and food distribution system, leading to a humanitarian crisis that far exceeds the capacity of the United Nations and relief agencies. "The Big Picture on Iraq: What are media missing about the legality of war and the humanitarian impact?" is being presented by FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting). Speakers: - Elisabeth Benjamin, New York Legal Aid Society's Health Law Unit and the Center for Economic and Social Rights - Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights - Dr. Victor W. Sidel, past president, Physicians for Social Responsibility and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Time/Venue: Friday, February 28, 6:30 PM Housing Works Used Book Cafe 126 Crosby St (between Prince and Houston), New York Free and Open to the Public We encourage you to attend this important discussion. In solidarity, Jacob Park _ Jacob Park Center for Economic and Social Rights Emergency Campaign on Iraq http://www.cesr.org/iraq tel: 718-237-9145 x. 21 fax: 718-237-9147 [EMAIL PROTECTED] _ Copyright 2003 Center for Economic and Social Rights 162 Montague Street, 2nd Floor Brooklyn, NY 11201 | Tel: 718-237-9145 | Fax: 718-237-9147
Vanilla Question for Henry
Hello Henry Karczynski, I was wondering what you do with your vanilla beans on your plantation in Costa Rica? Regards, Jane Sherry PS: Have you had any help with your ant problem? Is there a way to 'not' prune the host trees at all & leave them more wild? (Kinda along the lines Martha was going with this).
Re: [globalnews] Der Spiegel: Fundamentalist Bush Regime Wants Crusade Against Islam; Bush Believes God Put Him in Oval Office (Long)
What was important in that article, Allan, was that the Germans perceive our leaders to be waging their own fundamentalist holy war, chosen by God, based upon their prayer certified aggression. For how many years now have we waged war on Iraq? (You must not be reading the stuff coming through GN even though you're on the list. Curtis has been posting stories about this for months. Check out the archives.) Sanctions, uranium poison, planes dropping bombs in the sidelines? Targeting water treatment plants, electrical facilities? The reality of this nightmare, is that if just a small percentage of the war machine's budget, were used to clean up the leftover landmines, DU and poisoned wells THAT ALREADY remain behind from the last Gulf War, we could end many varieties of death by malnutrition because of water borne illnesses, we could set up sustainable agricultural projects, we could help people help themselves (teach-a-man-to-fish-story folks on this list are so fond of), set up rural medical centers, etc. If we used the whole budget now being spent to send our own young people off to be canon fodder and the cost of arms and deplorable new weapons of mass destruction (that our country produces and sells wholesale to places like, you guessed it (!) Iraq) then we could probably clean up all the dirty wells in third world countries providing a great foundation to end world hunger, rampant water borne illness, etc etc etc. I cast my vote for worldwide disarmament NOW! We are the largest producers and sellers of weapons of mass destruction. I vote for dumping all those thanatos devices now everywhere in the world. Why people, excuse me, so called leaders, think it is possible to use these nuclear weapons is beyond my comprehension. We are way past the point where such nightmares should exist. For weeks, now I have been asking myself, what would Ghandi do if he were an Iraqi? And the answer I keep receiving is the same one. It is not up to individual charismatic leaders to find a solution, but rather that we, the people, individually and together should resist injustice in every way that we can. Here in the US, a lot of that would look like how you vote with your dollars. That's just one solution. Blessings, Jane > From: Allan Balliett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 07:17:39 -0500 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: FW: [globalnews] Der Spiegel: Fundamentalist Bush Regime Wants > Crusade Against Islam; Bush Believes God Put Him in Oval Office (Long) > > I found this post to be rather blowsy, opinionated and unimportant, Jane
FW: [globalnews] Der Spiegel: Fundamentalist Bush Regime WantsCrusade Against Islam; Bush Believes God Put Him in Oval Office (Long)
Title: FW: [globalnews] Der Spiegel: Fundamentalist Bush Regime Wants Crusade Against Islam; Bush Believes God Put Him in Oval Office (Long)
Der Spiegel
COVER STORY
War out of compassion
By attacking Baghdad, US president George W. Bush wants to fulfill a divine order. In the highly religious United States, there has rarely been such a deep connection between national power interests and fundamentalist false piety. Christian fanatics are calling for a crusade against Islam.
Washington is a god-fearing city. One of the rituals at the White House is that cabinet meetings begin with a prayer. The president asks one of his cabinet secretaries to say a few words of reflection, and those in the room bow their heads, close their eyes, and fold their hands together. Old soldier Donald Rumsfeld beseeches God to curb the "lust for action."
A bible study group also meets regularly to discuss and interpret selected passages from the New and Old Testament. Although White House employees are not required to participate, someone is certainly taking notes on who attends and who doesn't.
Devout, moral and good people populate the official headquarters of the president. Swearing is forbidden, and no one smokes or drinks. No one can work there who is unable to fulfill the unwritten criterion of "no joint since college." David Frum, the president's former speechwriter, enthusiastically reports that a "modern Evangelism" pervades this beautiful building on Pennsylvania Avenue.
George W. Bush claims that he reads the bible every day. Recently, he has been heard mentioning the strength that comes from within with conspicuously increasing frequency. "I pray," he says, "I pray for strength, for direction, for forgiveness. And I ask the good and generous almighty God to accept my gratitude."
The more imminent the war with Iraq becomes, the more often does the president talk about his faith and his values. He believes that his actions are greatly affected by his faith. In the United States, it almost goes without saying that in times of national crisis, the president becomes a preacher, one who dispenses comfort and strength.
However, this pastoral tone is gradually being used to justify policy. George W. Bush is convinced that it is God alone who has allowed him to occupy this office at this historic moment. In his prayers, says Bush, he especially prays for strength to accomplish his mission: "God has called upon us to protect our country and to lead the world to peace."
The White House is not just the heart and brain of today's vastly superior superpower, but has also frequently been a place of piety. Many presidents before Bush have tried to harmonize their personal faith with the United States' claim to exercise its imperial prerogative. Jimmy Carter took his Christianity so seriously that he temporarily gave preference to the gentle dissemination of human rights over a more hard-nosed policy of interests. In contrast, the less pious Ronald Reagan cloaked his efforts to disarm the competing superpower in allusions to the Bible ("Evil Empire"). However, George W. Bush appears to be serious about both issues: his faith in Jesus Christ and the projection of imperial power.
Whenever an American president tries to link his Christianity with a desire for a new order and harmonization of spheres of interests, the Europeans respond with deep skepticism. The quintessentially American reference to a "manifest destiny" - the destiny of the United States to bring peace to the world through war - is not compatible with the Europeans' worldly understanding of power and politics. But anyone who fails to take seriously the role of religion in "God's own country" (the US' view of itself), a country whose currency bears the motto "In God we trust," fails to understand America.
>From the very beginning, the United States aspired to be the "city on the mountain" mentioned in the Bible, but so have many US presidents. America wanted to offer itself to all of humanity: as a real-life utopia and a precursor of the future heavenly Jerusalem, all at the same time.
This boundless claim also dominates foreign policy. The Bush administration has found alternating justifications for war against Iraq. At first, the decisive issue was that there was a direct connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, a claim, however, for which there was no evidence. Then regime change became an alternative end in itself, as grounds for destroying Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, as a means of securing the oil reserves of the Middle East against an anti-American dictator, or as a means of democratizing the entire region. Then the president argued that the Iraqis have the right to be liberated from tyranny, before finally returning to the unproven initial argument alleging collaboration between Saddam and bin Laden.
>From the very beginning, the White House showed little patience to tolerate objections and acknowledge opposing views
Re: powerful statement
Folks, I always forward inspirational stuff. I found that young girl's story to be uplifting actually, because she is not hiding from the truth. It is not Saddam Hussein's aggression that concerns me nearly as much as our own. By that I mean each and every one of us, and please don't forget that the media tells you that the war has not begun yet, but this is just not true. I would suggest to you that it is incumbent upon each and every one of us to find peace first within our own hearts, then extend that peace outward to our own families, neighborhoods, towns, cities & countries and then extend that to the world. The uplifting article I had to report this week, was about a Viet Nam Vet who faced fear and what he thought was certain extinction with the real catalysts for change: Love. He loved a whole ecosystem back to health, and in so doing regained his own health. This was forwarded this week from Yes Magazine. That was three days ago! Blessings, Jane > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 20:19:39 -0600 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: powerful statement > > JANE: Besides all the doomstuff, can you find ANY uplifting > articles to report?
FW: [globalnews] Secret WTO Agreement to Privatize US water/sewersystems
Title: FW: [globalnews] Secret WTO Agreement to Privatize US water/sewer systems News from Public Citizen's Water For All Campaign ** Dear Water Activists: A courageous public official has leaked the European Union's (EU) latest requests to the U.S. and other countries to adopt favorable trade rules to open municipal water/sewer systems to competition by European corporations. Below is a news release on the topic which your organization can release jointly with the Alliance for Democracy. Just add your own local quote and local press contact information. Note there is a suggested quote which you can use if you want. Be sure to delete this if you are adding your own. If you use it, you have to add a spokesperson. So don't just copy this release and send it out without making the changes! Again, we ask that you do not change any other part of the press release. You might want to call your local press and suggest that they ask municipal officials if they have ever even heard anything about this. The best chance we have of stopping the U.S. from going along with the requests is if local officials make a stink. Also it's important for local officials to join in the call for the U.S. documents to be made public. Please let me know if you have contacted your press and whether they ran a story. Also I can be available for radio interviews if this would be helpful to you. --Ruth FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE LEAKED EU TRADE DOCUMENTS CONFIRM MUNICIPAL WATER/SEWER SYSTEMS UNDER ATTACK Despite frequent denials by European trade officials, they are targeting public services in the current round of services negotiations. The Alliance for Democracy has received leaked official European Commission documents confirming that municipal water/sewer systems in the United States are on the negotiating table. The documents, being made public today by the Polaris Institute of Canada, are available at http://www.polarisinstitute.org They reveal that the European Commission (EC) has requested that the United States, along with many developing countries, adopt favorable trade rules to help open its municipal water/sewer systems to competition by European corporations. The negotiations are taking place to expand the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), one of the agreements under the authority of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO deadline for initial offers in response to the requests is March 31, 2003. Each restricted document states: "Member States are requested to ensure that this text is not made publicly available and is treated as a restricted document." The public was never supposed to know what public services were being traded away in secret bilateral negotiations among the 145 WTO member countries until all the deals had been cut. But thanks to an unknown courageous public servant in Europe these critical documents have been leaked. "Municipal water/sewer systems are under a GATS attack and local officials have not even been told. Secret negotiations about the public's right to water is not how democracy should work," observed Ruth Caplan, coordinator of the Alliance for Democracy's trade campaign. "It is time for United States to make its requests and offers public," Caplan stated. "The public needs to know whether the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) headed by Robert Zoellick will protect essential public services or trade them away in response to the European requests. The Alliance calls on USTR to make public all its requests to other countries immediately and to make its offers public as soon as they are made." To date only unsatisfactory general summaries of the requests have been released. "Today the cat is out of the bag. We're not talking bananas here. The EU is going after our basic public water/sewer services so their mega-corporations can make big bucks in the U.S. market," said... [possible local quote--feel free to make up your own] The EC is specifically requesting that its corporations be given market access for "Water collection, purification and distribution services through mains" within United States' boundaries. This classification under "Water for Human Use & Wastewater Management" has been created by the EC. The EU also wants their water corporations to be treated at least as well as U.S. companies in all measures affecting municipal services, even measures which might be construed to modify the conditions of competition. Almost all local regulations could be under threat. Where the U.S.had previously agreed to opening up waste water services for private industry, the EC wants public services opened up as well. "The EC pats itself on the back for fully defending its own public services by not making any commitments on education and health services, but goes ahead with asking that the United States and developing countries open up their publicly-owned municipal water/
FW: [globalnews] Australia: Water Privatization Creates Huge Stink
Title: FW: [globalnews] Australia: Water Privatization Creates Huge Stink International Consortium of Investigative Journalists The Big Pong Down Under ADELAIDE, Australia, Feb. 14 — Fifteen months after Adelaide signed a contract turning over its waterworks to a private consortium controlled by Thames Water and Vivendi, the city was engulfed in a powerful sewage smell, which became known as “the big pong.’’ The smell plagued Adelaide for much of a three-month period in 1997. While water company and government officials attributed the intense rotten egg stench to weather patterns that prevented normal urban sewage odors from dissipating, citizens complained of mood swings, nausea, sinus problems, asthma, headaches and sleeping disorders. Early in June, the third month of the pong, an independent investigator tracked it to the largest of Adelaide’s four wastewater treatment plants, at Bolivar, 11 miles north of the city. Once identified, the problem was resolved by chemical dosing of the plant’s extensive lagoon system, which soon eliminated the smell. The investigation, funded by the government and led by University of Queensland water treatment expert Ken Hartley, found that weather conditions at the time of the pong were no different from previous years. The pong — a stench, in colloquial English — resulted from equipment failures and inadequate monitoring, which allowed raw sewage to be flushed directly into settling lagoons, according to the investigative report. The consortium’s drive to minimize costs was what brought on the failures, Hartley believes — a familiar story in the water privatization game. “It was dollars driving everything,” Hartley said. “The big emphasis was on minimizing costs. The Bolivar incident is an illustration of what can happen when things like monitoring and maintenance are cut to the bone.’’ Thames Water denied staffing levels had anything to do with the incident, claiming that the employment level at United Water, the Australian consortium, is quite high compared to United Kingdom standards. “It was human error really,” Peter Spillett, head of the company’s environment, quality and sustainability division, told ICIJ. United Water has concurred that it “should have done more’’ to deal with the events leading to the smells at Bolivar. Hartley’s specific findings were that a meter inadvertently left out of a control panel that measured sewage flows through the plant had resulted in incorrect information for 14 months before the error was detected. Then in April, at the time the pong was first noticed, untreated effluent went straight into the lagoons for six days while a gate was being overhauled. The danger presented by the increasing loading on the lagoons “was not appreciated by the operators’’ whose “monitoring program was inadequate,’’ according to Hartley’s report. The state government later paid $72 million (US$43.8 million) to upgrade the plant, effectively giving United Water a new plant to manage. For outside critics, the pong is evidence of “what can happen when you sell your water to private companies intent on cutting corners to maximize profits,” as John Spoehr, director of Adelaide university’s Centre for Labour Research, put it. The pong is not the only bad taste that water privatization left in the mouths of South Australians. Mirage in the Outback In the early 1990s, Australia began restructuring its water industry, farming out contracts to international companies such as Vivendi, Thames and Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux. The companies viewed Australia as a launching pad to Asia and the Pacific region, where the World Bank was forging a policy of privatization. Australian officials, in turn, saw privatization as a way for their country to gain partnerships and know-how that would enable Australians to get in on the expanding regional business. By 2000, about 50 significant water contracts had been awarded to the private sector. By mid-2001, an estimated 25 per cent of Australia’s drinking water was provided by foreign multinationals. Adelaide was the only Australian city, however, to hand the entire management and operation of its drinking and waste water systems to a private company. An alliance of Vivendi and Thames, joined with one of South Australia’s most powerful businessmen, captured the $1.5 billion (US $876 milion) water contract in a bidding process mired in irregularities that sparked two government investigations and an inquiry by a parliamentary committee. Once in control of water, the consortium, called United Water International, failed to provide many of the benefits that were extolled as centerpieces of the contract. “The public was not told the truth about the nature of the contract [by the government],” South Australian state Premier Mike Rann, who was in the opposition when the water deal was signed, said in June 2002. But Rann and future South Australian governments are stuck with the contract until
FW: [globalnews] Iraq: a 12-year old's powerful statement
Title: FW: [globalnews] Iraq: a 12-year old's powerful statement 12 Year Old speaker Presque Isle, Maine Peace Rally Speech Before 150 Aroostook county residents from around the County February 15, 2003 - St. Mary's Church by Charlotte Aldebron When people think about bombing Iraq, they see a picture in their heads of Saddam Hussein in a military uniform, or maybe soldiers with big black mustaches carrying guns, or the mosaic of George Bush Sr. on the lobby floor of the Al-Rashid Hotel with the word criminal. But guess what? More than half of Iraq's 24 million people are children under the age of 15. That's 12 million kids. Kids like me. Well, I'm almost 13, so some are a little older, and some a lot younger, some boys instead of girls, some with brown hair, not red. But kids who are pretty much like me just the same. So take a look at me, a good long look. Because I am what you should see in your head when you think about bombing Iraq. I am what you are going to destroy. If I am lucky, I will be killed instantly, like the three hundred children murdered by your smart bombs in a Baghdad bomb shelter on February 16, 1991. The blast caused a fire so intense that it flash-burned outlines of those children and their mothers on the walls; you can still peel strips of blackened skin souvenirs of your victory from the stones. But maybe I won't be lucky and I'll die slowly, like 14-year-old Ali Faisal, who right now is on the death ward of the Baghdad children's hospital. He has malignant lymphoma cancer caused by the depleted uranium in your Gulf War missiles. Or maybe I will die painfully and needlessly like 18-month-old Mustafa, whose vital organs are being devoured by sand fly parasites. I know it's hard to believe, but Mustafa could be totally cured with just $25 worth of medicine, but there is none of this medicine because of your sanctions. Or maybe I won't die at all but will live for years with the psychological damage that you can't see from the outside, like Salman Mohammed, who even now can't forget the terror he lived through with his little sisters when you bombed Iraq in 1991. Salman's father made the whole family sleep in the same room so that they would all survive together, or die together. He still has nightmares about the air raid sirens. Or maybe I will be orphaned like Ali, who was three when you killed his father in the Gulf War. Ali scraped at the dirt covering his fathers grave every day for three years calling out to him, It's all right Daddy, you can come out now, the men who put you here have gone away. Well, Ali, you're wrong. It looks like those men are coming back. Or I maybe I will make it in one piece, like Luay Majed, who remembers that the Gulf War meant he didn't have to go to school and could stay up as late as he wanted. But today, with no education, he tries to live by selling newspapers on the street. Imagine that these are your children or nieces or nephews or neighbors. Imagine your son screaming from the agony of a severed limb, but you can't do anything to ease the pain or comfort him. Imagine your daughter crying out from under the rubble of a collapsed building, but you can't get to her. Imagine your children wandering the streets, hungry and alone, after having watched you die before their eyes. This is not an adventure movie or a fantasy or a video game. This is reality for children in Iraq. Recently, an international group of researchers went to Iraq to find out how children there are being affected by the possibility of war. Half the children they talked to said they saw no point in living any more. Even really young kids knew about war and worried about it. One 5-year-old, Assem, described it as guns and bombs and the air will be cold and hot and we will burn very much. Ten-year-old Aesar had a message for President Bush: he wanted him to know that a lot of Iraqi children will die. You will see it on TV and then you will regret. Back in elementary school I was taught to solve problems with other kids not by hitting or name-calling, but by talking and using I messages. The idea of an I message was to make the other person understand how bad his or her actions made you feel, so that the person would sympathize with you and stop it. Now I am going to give you an "I message." Only it's going to be a We message. We as in all the children in Iraq who are waiting helplessly for something bad to happen. We as in the children of the world who don't make any of the decisions but have to suffer all the consequences. We as in those whose voices are too small and too far away to be heard. We feel scared when we don't know if we'll live another day. We feel angry when people want to kill us or injure us or steal our future. We feel sad because all we want is
FW: [globalnews] Greenpeace shuts U.K. Esso stations,headquarters protesting oil company's role in Iraq crisis
Title: FW: [globalnews] Greenpeace shuts U.K. Esso stations, headquarters protesting oil company's role in Iraq crisis Environmental News Network Greenpeace shuts U.K. Esso stations, headquarters Tuesday, February 25, 2003 By Sinead O'Hanlon, Reuters LONDON — British environmentalists, some dressed as tigers, forced the closure of Esso's United Kingdom headquarters and more than 100 petrol stations on Monday to protest at what they called the oil firm's "fueling of the Iraq crisis." About 300 volunteers from the U.K.-based lobby group Greenpeace began raiding stations from dawn, removing power switches that controlled pumps and chaining themselves to pumps, said a spokesman for the lobby group. "We've now shut down 115 stations and shut down their headquarters. We've had about 40 to 50 arrests but are planning on carrying on throughout the day or until everyone is arrested," the spokesman said. "This is in response to their fueling of the Iraq crisis and their funding of groups in Washington that are aggressively advocating an attack on Iraq as well as their stance on global warming." Esso spokesman David Eglinton confirmed the station closures and said nonessential staff were told to stay away from the firm's headquarters in Leatherhead, southern England, because activists were on the glass roof and posing a safety problem. DENIES GREENPEACE CHARGES But he denied the lobby group's allegations that the company was pushing for military action in Iraq. Esso, whose tiger mascot was mimicked by some of the protesters, is a unit of U.S. giant ExxonMobil. "People have every right to express their views, but it is ludicrous to suggest that ExxonMobil is in any way encouraging a potential war on Iraq," the company spokesman said. "The Iraq situation is entirely a matter for governments, not companies to resolves." He said the firm had not made inquiries or had any talks with U.S. President George W. Bush's administration or any other government over military action to gain access to Iraqi oil. Eglinton said many Esso stations had reopened by early afternoon and that only a fraction of the company's 1,300 British stations were affected. Greenpeace said they had planned the operation for a long time, naming it "The Italian Job" because the complicated planning resembled that of the 1960s heist movie. "This is the first time Greenpeace has attempted something like this across all the regions, and it has been a huge success," the spokesman said. Greenpeace has accused Esso of running a decade-long "dirty tricks" campaign to subvert efforts to reduce the United States' dependence on oil and of spending millions bank-rolling pro-war lobby groups and fighting global action on climate change. It said Esso had been invited by White House staff to discuss the Iraq crisis at an "informational" meeting. Activist Robin Oakley, who chained himself to a pump at a Bristol station, said that police were on the site but were not making any arrests there. "They are happy with the safety situation so are just surveying we are getting a lot of honks of support from people driving by." Another campaigner, Anita Goldsmith, said the looming war against Iraq was an attempt by Bush to get control of Iraqi oil and that Esso was supporting this push. "No company has done more to fuel the crisis than his paymasters at Esso," she said. Greenpeace said members would be packaging up the power switches they had removed from stations around the country and posting them to ExxonMobil executives in Texas. Source: Reuters --- "If I seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics encircles us today like the coil of a snake from which one cannot get out, no matter how much one tries. I wish therefore to wrestle with the snake. - Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948 Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service . -- End of Forwarded Message
Re: Worried About Anthrax? By Susun Weed
Hi Pat, Lloyd, Gil & all, In a perfect world, none of us would need supplements, including the soil. In a perfect world, all biodynamic food would be full of life forces. I think of supplements in the same way as western medicines, sometimes they are very helpful and needed in order to clear one thing up or jump start the immune system toward healing itself. Herbs are wonderful too, and nature has provided us with many herbs with similar functions, so that if one doesn't work or resonate than another one will. Similarly, in the spiritual realm, prayer make work for some, meditation for others, sacred song for another. I rejoice in a world where there are so many choices for healing, right at hand. And that as we help heal others, communities, loved ones, the plot of land outside our door, then we in turn help ourselves. If a pill puts you on the path to healing, or fish oil capsules, or rock 'n roll, I say happy day! Use the energy to then find healing within yourself, until you are strong enough to find health through wholeness, in whatever way suits you. Blessings on the many paths, Jane > From: "Lloyd Charles" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 13:08:41 +1100 > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Worried About Anthrax? By Susun Weed > > You may need the supplement too - unless the whole food is grown on soil > that has a full spectrum of minerals available to the plants - most soils > dont have this unless they (the soil) are supplemented
Re: Worried About Anthrax? By Susun Weed
Sorry, Pat, you'll have a hard time convincing me that a supplement is better for me than whole food. Jane > From: "PAT MCGAULEY" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 09:46:55 -0800 > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Worried About Anthrax? By Susun Weed > > Transfer factor is > more effective than herbals, which are in turn far more effective than > synthetic prescription drugs in achieving homeostasis.
OT: Worried About Anthrax? By Susun Weed
Found at Botanical.com or at www.susunweed.com There is some great immune info btw Jane --- Worried About Anthrax? Herbs Can Help Anthrax. Smallpox. Plague. Diseases that can kill. Diseases that are now in the hands of terrorists. What if these diseases were released in your hometown, or the place where you work? What could you do if vaccines and treatments were in short supply or unavailable? Is there anything you can do now to prepare yourself and improve your chances of survival? Herbalist Susun Weed recognizes the possibility of biological warfare and she is ready to cope with it. With her help, you too can be prepared with herbs and home remedies that you can use now to help avoid infection and to build a strong immune system. You can feel safer in these troubling times by learning about herbs that are effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and that can be used in conjunction with, or in place of (should there be a lack), modern antibiotics. Anthrax bacteria (Bacillus anthracis) enter the body through breaks in the skin or through the nose and lungs. Early symptoms (which may take up to a week to occur) include reddish-black sores on the skin or in the lymph nodes around the lungs. Hemorrhagic fever and death follows. Treated early, anthrax succumbs to antibiotics and most people (75-80 percent) recover completely. Even without treatment, according to some sources, more than half of those infected survive. (Genetically-engineered varieties may kill up to 90 percent of untreated victims.) The inhaled variety is more lethal because the early symptoms of infection are easily ignored, delaying treatment past the point of most effect, and because pneumonia infections frequently complicate the recovery. Anthrax is not contagious; that is, it is not passed from person to person. The antibiotic Cipro is the treatment of choice for those definitely exposed to anthrax, but neither it nor any other antibiotic can prevent infection. It is dangerous to take antibiotics "just in case" for then they may not work when actually needed. Instead, try these home remedies. Salt is lethal to bacteria. The simplest home remedy for those worried about exposure to anthrax is to rinse your nose with salt (any kind will do) mixed into water. Taste your mixture to be certain it is very salty. Getting this up your nose can be accomplished by putting your nose into the salt solution and snorting it in, or you may wish to buy a "neti pot," a device from India used to rinse the nasal passages. Afterwards, blow your nose and spit out any residue that runs into the mouth. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) has been scientifically shown to kill all gram positive and gram negative bacteria. A small spray bottle of the tincture of the flowering tops can be used to spray the inside of the nose, killing any bacteria lurking there. Spraying tincture >in your nose does sting a little and makes the eyes water, but don't dilute it, the alcohol is antibacterial too. Garlic has been used to prevent infection for thousands of years; and it still works! No need to upset your stomach (and loved ones) by eating it raw; cooked garlic retains its antibacterial powers, so long as you eat enough of it. During plague times, healers in some areas wore a "bird's beak:" a stiff cone was made of paper or bark, stuffed with garlic and spices (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg), and tied on over the nose to help prevent contagion. That's a little cumbersome for modern times, but inhaling the aroma of a cup of spicy tea (there are many blends available, or make your own) could help forestall anthrax. Medicinal mushrooms are not only immune system tonics, they possess antibacterial properties which make them ideal for preventing anthrax infection, according to expert Paul Stametes. A tincture or strong infusion of any shelf fungus with pores can be used, he says. If you prefer to buy your mushrooms, rather than hunt for them, look for reishii (Ganoderma lucidum) or shiitake (Lentinus edodes). Both are adaptogenic, revitalizing, regenerative, and able to directly suppress infection. Side effects, even from large doses, are rare. Essential oils are antibacterial, and some sources suggest rubbing them inside the nose or spraying the air with these extremely concentrated oils to counter anthrax infections. I don't. Essential oils are likely to cause a variety of side effects (such as damage to the mucus surfaces of the nose and lungs, and stress to the lymphatic system) that could, paradoxically, make infection more likely and more virulent. Cayenne and golden seal are antibacterial, but too strong to be used as preventatives. Snuffing hot pepper up your nose would kill anthrax, but at the risk of irritating your nose and respiratory passages, damaging their protective mucus surfaces, and stressing your immune system. I rarely use golden seal, not only because it can cause severe side effects, but
Re: thanks, Jane!
What a great idea! The sound of water moving is so soothing. Let me know how this progresses. > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 12:41:01 -0600 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: thanks, Jane! > > > Bryan / college Station has two hospitals, St Joseph and > The Med Center, both have or are currently undergoing > some major revamping projects. I've been wondering > how a fountain type flowform would work in some area > where healing is most needed.
FW: [globalnews] Dying Vietnam Vet Restores Health by RestoringLocal Creek, Watershed
Title: FW: [globalnews] Dying Vietnam Vet Restores Health by Restoring Local Creek, Watershed YES! Magazine restoring nature, restoring yourself by Francesca Lyman photo by Joel Sackett For a man broken by war, John Beal found himself an unlikely place of refuge. Hamm Creek was an open sewer, plugged up with garbage. The disabled Vietnam veteran hadn’t known where to turn. Told that he had less than four months to live and advised by his doctor to find a hobby to take his mind off his pain and suffering, he wandered down to the stream behind his house to contemplate his future. He stood on the shores of a backwater tributary of the Duwamish River, a dredged shipping channel on the outskirts of Seattle, edged by concrete factories and laced with toxic waste. He was still recovering from bullet wounds and haunted by flashbacks. Besides suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, he had gone through three heart attacks, followed by a serious motorcycle accident. “I went down to the stream behind my house and just cried, wondering how I’d care for my wife and four kids,” says Beal. “Then the idea came to me: If you’re going to check out, so to speak, try to leave this place better than it was when you found it. I looked at this wreck of a stream, filled with refrigerators, computers, old tires, torn garbage bags, broken swing sets, and stinking carpets, and all I wanted to do was clean it up.” Maybe it was a way of processing his memories of the wreckage of war, he admits. Maybe it was survivor’s guilt. Or maybe his doctor’s advice propelled him. Instead of despairing, he started simply pulling out the garbage. “When I yanked out this huge refrigerator, I thought it would surely kill me. Instead I felt better.” Since that day 23 years ago, Beal has directed all of his energies to cleaning up and restoring this polluted stream flowing out of Seattle’s industrial south end. During the last ten years he has moved on to restoring the entire watershed of which it is a part. “John really deserves credit for realizing that the Duwamish River and its estuaries could be restored to health, at a time when many people had written off the urbanized Duwamish as a lost cause,” says Kathy Fletcher, executive director of The People for Puget Sound, a citizen’s organization that involves local citizens in protecting and restoring local streams. Beal has recruited hundreds of crews to clean up and replant around the streams and has now established a network of volunteer groups living in the area, as well as drawing the support and interest of the local Duwamish tribe. Through sheer persistence, and with the help of groups like People for Puget Sound, Beal eventually raised enough public awareness and pressure to persuade the local utility to allow Hamm Creek, which had been channelized and paved into a culvert, to be daylighted and rerouted over its property. “The most dramatic thing is how quickly the creek began reviving,” Fletcher says, adding that within days of a huge effort to daylight and replant the area little salmonids began appearing. What was once a culvert dripping with waste is now a beautifully recontoured and replanted stream brimming with beaver, salmon, and other fish. For Beal, the impulse to do environmental restoration is itself restorative: “It has empowered me and kept me alive.” That same impulse has spurred the energies of thousands of volunteers. “I’ve seen remarkable things happen to people who connect with Mother Earth,” he concludes, describing dozens of cases of people disabled physically or psychologically who benefit from the exercise and feeling of accomplishment. “They see a light go on when they get here.” “I remember watching a young man who had been in a wheelchair for eight years come out to help us weed and plant,” he says. “After two years, he’s almost able to walk.” At first, the disabled man would fall out of his wheelchair, Beal recalls. But now, he says, the man is able to clamber down the slope of the shore, willing himself through. “He was out there every single day. And lately he’s saying, ‘Now I’ve got a mission in life.’” No matter how stressed, angry, depressed or troubled they are, whether it’s a jail crew sent to clean up litter for the day or a class of disabled students, they seem to derive pleasure from the activity, says the riverkeeper. The redemptive feelings Beal describes are echoed by thousands of visitors and volunteers who have come to his restored creeksite. They are also confirmed by an emerging movement loosely called “ecopsychology,” the study of nature’s therapeutic benefits. Look around, says Michael Cohen, founder of a hands-on wilderness therapy course called Project Nature Connect. People long to be put back into nature, crave having their lives fit into some ancient order. For evidence, one need look no further than the widespread reaction of Americans in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks, he notes. Compelled to go to a
FW: [globalnews] CREDO [Poetry]
Title: FW: [globalnews] CREDO [Poetry] (From Yes Magazine) CREDO We believe in the one message like a fever chill in each mushroom, inside the chanterelle, the morel, the rose coral and the shaggy mane. We believe plankton travel the sea’s veins. We believe the movement of a lake trout takes on the sanctity of number as the osprey dives. We believe the towhee. We believe alpine snow water, when it teases the crags and outcrops like clear giggling crystal, is memorizing sunlight to help the oysters grow. We believe in synchronicity. We believe when a poem is conceived the beloved knows. We believe Jupiter touches us with luck as we live and live again, and that Jesus knew. We believe sod holds. We believe there are in each of us particles that once were stars, that matter is thought, and that this belief is the way of breathing in. James Bertolino >From Greatest Hits: 1965-2000. Pudding House
Re: OT: DU munitions
Title: Re: OT: DU munitions This is a very sad and appalling tale by one of our nation’s “warriors” who says that war now is obsolete. I recommend this to everyone to read. As usual, it is right on topic in my opinion. Agriculture as we know it around the world is going to have to change to remediate the incredible environmental damage and toll on our earth done in the name of peace. JS From: Dave Robison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 09:04:48 -0800 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED],Allan Balliett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: OT: DU munitions Is the server down? I haven't received any emails from you lately. Off topic: here is a link on depleted uranium from Yes! magazine http://www.futurenet.org/25environmentandhealth/rokke.htm David Robison
FW: [globalnews] Lester Brown: Restructuring the Energy Economy
Title: FW: [globalnews] Lester Brown: Restructuring the Energy Economy Environmental news service Opinion: Restructuring the Energy Economy By Lester Brown WASHINGTON, DC, February 20, 2003 (ENS) - The key to restoring climate stability is shifting from a fossil fuel based energy economy to one based on renewable sources of energy and hydrogen. Advancing technologies in the design of wind turbines that have dramatically lowered the cost of wind generated electricity to the point where it can be used to produce hydrogen from water, along with the evolution of fuel cell engines, have set the stage for a dramatic restructuring of the world energy economy. The good news is that this shift is under way. The bad news is that it is not happening nearly fast enough to avoid a climate disrupting buildup in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/indicator5.htm The burning of each of the three fossil fuels is now either growing slowly or declining. From 1995 to 2001, the use of oil, the world's leading source of energy, expanded by just over one percent a year. Natural gas, the cleanest and least climate disruptive of the three fossil fuels, grew by less than three percent a year. The burning of coal, the dirtiest and most carbon intensive fossil fuel, peaked in 1996 and has dropped by six percent since then. This historical peaking, marking the first decline in the use of a fossil fuel, may be followed by a similar peaking in oil use within the next five to 15 years. In contrast, renewables, starting from a small base, are growing at an extraordinary pace. Worldwide, wind electric generation grew by 32 percent a year from 1995 to 2001. In 2001 alone it grew by a robust 36 percent. And in the United States, wind electric generating capacity jumped by a phenomenal 66 percent in 2001. http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/indicator10.htm Solar cell sales, growing by 21 percent a year from 1995 to 2001, are likely to grow even faster in the years ahead. Once economically competitive only when used in satellites and pocket calculators, solar cells are now becoming competitive for residential lighting in Third World villages not yet connected to the grid. In many countries, if getting electricity to villages means building both a centralized power plant and a grid to deliver the power, it is now often cheaper for families simply to install solar cells. In Andean villages, for example, the monthly installment cost - with a 30 month payment period - on an array of solar cells to provide lighting is comparable to the cost of candles. A similar price relationship exists for the more remote villages in India that depend on kerosene lamps for light. http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/indicator12.htm Another renewable source, one with a largely overlooked potential, is geothermal energy, which is growing at four percent a year. This is a vast resource and one that is likely to figure prominently in the energy economies of the Pacific Rim, particularly where widespread volcanic activity indicates that geothermal energy is close to the earth's surface. The western coasts of South America, Central America, and North America have an abundance of geothermal energy. Perhaps the geothermally richest region is the western Pacific, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, and the eastern and southern coasts of China. Another rich region is the Great Rift Valley, which stretches through East Africa up into the Middle East. In fact, the entire eastern Mediterranean is geothermally well endowed. Some countries have enough geothermal energy to meet all their electricity needs. Hydroelectricity, which supplies over one fifth of the world's electricity, has expanded by two percent a year since 1990. In contrast to the other renewable sources of energy, the growth in hydropower is losing momentum as suitable sites for new dams are scarce and as public opposition mounts to large scale inundation of land, the associated displacement of people, and the disruption of ecosystems. One of the difficulties in restructuring the energy economy is that doing so typically depends on small, fledgling industries challenging large, well established, often heavily subsidized industries. One way to accelerate the restructuring needed to stabilize climate is to adopt full cost pricing, requiring that those using energy pay the full cost of doing so. Fortuitously, the fastest growing fossil fuel is natural gas, which is the obvious transition fuel from a carbon based energy economy to a hydrogen based one. The natural gas infrastructure, including distribution networks and storage facilities, can easily be adapted for hydrogen as gas reserves are depleted. As the effects of climate change become clearer, the public's desire to avoid extreme climate events will intensify. As this happens, pressure to raise carbon taxes and reduce income taxes may well rise, providing a strong economic incentive for energy restructu
OT:FW: VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE
Title: OT:FW: VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE Era of Peace LATEST UPDATE A Shift of Consciousness by Patricia Diane Cota-Robles The New Age Study of Humanity's Purpose PO Box 41883, Tucson AZ 85717 520-885-7909 -- FAX 520-749-6643 January/February 2003 All of the maladies occurring on Earth can be solved with a shift of consciousness. As simplistic as that statement sounds, it is absolutely true. In order to eliminate war, hatred, violence, abuse of power, crime, corruption, greed, selfishness, poverty, gross imbalances in the distribution of wealth, homelessness, hunger, famine, prejudice, pollution, rampant disease, poor medical care, lack of education, fear-based religious beliefs and every other distorted reflection of the human psyche, all Humanity has to do is lift up in consciousness and remember the Oneness of ALL life. Once a person remembers that all life is interconnected, interrelated and interdependent, it becomes glaringly clear that it is pure insanity to harm another part of life. When people truly grasp the Divine Truth that they cannot have a single hateful thought or feeling or speak a single negative word or physically hurt any other part of life without harming themselves, then they realize to do so is self-destructive and downright stupid. When Humanity remembers the Oneness of all life, it is obvious that if any part of life is loved, healthy, comfortable, happy, peaceful, prosperous and successful, it adds to the collective harmony of Humanity and everyone benefits. With that understanding, it is also obvious that if any part of life is unloved, sick, desperate, sad, unhappy, poor or failing, the collective misery of Humanity increases and everyone suffers. For the past 50 years, the Spiritual Hierarchy has been revealing the fact that Humanity is on the brink of the greatest shift of consciousness ever manifested in the history of time. These Beings of Light have been tenaciously working with embodied Lightworkers to prepare for that mass awakening. During most of that time, it was believed that in spite of our most valiant efforts, there would be many souls who would not be able to withstand the shift and would be left behind. There were actually two Earths created by the mighty Elohim, the Builders of Form, to accommodate both those who would make the shift of consciousness and those who would be left behind. The new Earth and the old Earth coexisted in the same time and space continuum but vibrated at different frequencies. The plan was that when it came time for the shift of consciousness, the new Earth would Ascend into the 5th Dimension, and the old Earth would be left behind in the 3rd Dimension. Due to an unprecedented act of Divine Intervention and the Lightwork of millions of people all over the world, a miracle took place in August 2002 that surprised even the Company of Heaven. The recalcitrant souls who were in danger of not making the shift into the 5th Dimension were taken in their finer bodies into the heart of the Solar Logos of our Central Sun, Beloved Alpha and Omega. These Beings of Light are the representatives of our Father-Mother God in this Solar System. Embraced in the Divine Love of Alpha and Omega, the wayward souls were given one last opportunity to choose to move into the Light. The Divine Intelligence within the Flame of Transfiguring Divine Love had been blazing in their Heart Flames for a year and had softened their resolve to resist the Light. In a stunning moment of Divine Grace, every single soul volunteered to do what is necessary to move into the Light. With that new covenant, Alpha and Omega sounded their Cosmic Keynote, and the Builders of Form breathed the old Earth over the Bridge to Freedom into the frequencies of the new Earth. The two Earths merged and became one, and a new Divine Plan was set into motion to prepare every evolving soul for the impending global shift of consciousness. Now our greatest work ever has begun. 2003 will be a defining year. All life is moving into the Light, and it is up to each one of us to decide how easy or difficult our Ascension will be. Are we going to surrender to the Oneness of all life and move forward on the wings of bliss, or are we going to be dragged into the Light kicking and screaming? The choice is up to us. Since the decision of the recalcitrant souls was made in the Realms of Cause, it takes time for that understanding to filter into the dense consciousness of their outer minds. Obviously many people are still acting out their resistance to the Light and attempting to wreak havoc in the physical plane. The fact that the two Earths have become one, thus enabling all Humanity to move forward into the Light, is a miracle beyond our comprehension. The important thing to understand, however, is that the miracle greatly increased the work the Lightworkers must now accomplish. The Lightworkers must now assist in transmuting the darkest energies that have ever been created on Earth. These
FW: [globalnews] Wasting disease found in deer in Utah, New Mexico
Title: FW: [globalnews] Wasting disease found in deer in Utah, New Mexico ENN News Story Wasting disease found in deer in Utah, New Mexico Thursday, February 20, 2003 By Reuters SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Chronic wasting disease, a wildlife illness related to mad cow disease, has emerged for the first time in Utah's deer herd, state officials said in a statement. The disease was confirmed this week in brain tissue from a male mule deer shot by a hunter last fall near Vernal, in northeastern Utah, the state Division of Wildlife Resources said. Separately, two new cases were recently reported in New Mexico, where the disease was found last year. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) causes symptoms in deer and elk that are similar to mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Both disorders involve prions, misshapen proteins that destroy the brain. Unlike mad cow, CWD has never been shown to spread to cattle or humans. However, health exports have advised against eating venison or other parts of infected animals. CWD has been endemic in deer and elk in parts of eastern Colorado and Wyoming for decades, but it was not until last spring that cases were found west of the Continental Divide, near the Utah state line. "We've been watching as Colorado's samples have come in for the past few months, and its gotten closer and closer to our border. So we're not terribly surprised to find it," said Jim Karpowitz, the Utah agency's big-game coordinator. Utah has been testing for CWD since 1998. The state collected tissue samples in 2002 from nearly 1,500 deer and elk, mostly from hunters, Karpowitz said. Tests have been completed on nearly 1,400 of those samples. Karpowitz said the state planned to test additional deer soon in the area where the initial CWD case was found. NEW CASES IN NEW MEXICO CWD spread to several new areas in 2002, infecting U.S. deer herds as far east as Wisconsin and as far south as New Mexico, and new cases continue to emerge as affected states test more animals for the disease. Two new CWD cases were confirmed last week in New Mexico, bringing that state's total number of CWD-positive deer to six. All of the New Mexico cases have involved mule deer killed on or around the southern edge of White Sands Missile Range, a sprawling U.S. Army installation, said Kerry Mower, a wildlife health specialist with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. How the disease got there remains a mystery, Mower said. No cases of CWD have been found in northern New Mexico, which is home to the state's largest deer populations. "We still have no idea how CWD came to exist at the range. It is 600 miles from the epicenter of the disease in Colorado," Mower said in a statement last week. New Mexico has tested roughly 600 deer statewide for CWD since hunting season began in September 2002, and the state will test roughly 100 more by the end of June 2003, Mower said.
OT: FW: [globalnews] US plans for mini-nuke arsenal revealed; USwill break all global arms treaties
Title: OT: FW: [globalnews] US plans for mini-nuke arsenal revealed; US will break all global arms treaties US plans for mini-nuke arsenal revealed 13:37 19 February 03 NewScientist.com news service A leaked Pentagon document has confirmed that the US is considering the introduction of a new breed of smaller nuclear weapons designed for use in conventional warfare. Such a move would mean abandoning global arms treaties. The document, obtained by the Los Alamos Study Group, a nuclear weapons watchdog based in the US, describes plans for a gathering of senior military officials and nuclear scientists at the US Strategic Command in Omaha, Nebraska, during the week of 4 August. The meeting would discuss further development, testing and introduction of a new generation of low-yield nuclear weapons. These weapons, with a destructive power of less than five kilotons, could be designed to penetrate an underground bunker before detonating. The Hiroshima bomb dropped by the US in 1945 had a yield of about 15 kilotons. The US military believes mini-nukes may provide a stronger deterrent to rogue states. This is because the US would be more willing to use them than standard nuclear weapons, which have yields of hundreds of kilotons. US government officials have confirmed the authenticity of the document, but say that it covers "very long range planning" and "what-if scenarios". Enhanced radiation Also on the agenda for the August meeting would be enhanced radiation weapons, also known as neutron weapons. These produce a large amount of radiation without a devastating blast and can be used to decimate weapons stockpiles and troops without destroying much infrastructure. Patrick Garrett, an analyst with the military think-tank GlobalSecurity.org, says the document is alarming. "It's like looking at the cold war all over again," he told New Scientist . "The fact that they're actually going to sit down and to talk about reliability issues and what would need to happen for production, testing and guidance, means these people are particularly serious about deploying these things sometime very soon," he says. Garrett adds that the long-term implications of contaminating a target with radiation may not be well understood. "I don't think these people understand that any use of a nuclear weapon is a bad use," he says. Treaty threat The Los Alamos Study Group also condemns the plans for threatening international non-proliferation agreements. Greg Mello, head of LASG, says: "It is impossible to overstate the challenge these plans pose to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the existing nuclear test moratorium, and US compliance with Article VI of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which is binding law in the US." Recent US interest in the development of smaller, more targeted nuclear weapons is well documented. New Scientist reported in October 2000 that the US Defense Appropriations Bill ordered a study of the feasibility of low-yield nuclear weapons. This overturned a ban on research into the development of battlefield nuclear weapons imposed in 1993. In November 2002, New Scientist also reported a further $15m in US government funding for research into a nuclear "bunker buster", called the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator. Will Knight - An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too." The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?" The old Cherokee simply replies, "The one you feed."
OT: FW: [globalnews] Terror Risk at Chemical Plants; French plantexplosion just after 911 was terrorism, say new investigations
Title: OT: FW: [globalnews] Terror Risk at Chemical Plants; French plant explosion just after 911 was terrorism, say new investigations The Village Voice Mondo Washington by James Ridgeway February 19 - 25, 2003 Without Chemicals, Life Might Be Possible Without Chemicals, Life Might Be Possible Deadly Plants Among the most hellish scenarios for terrorist catastrophes in New York would involve saboteurs blowing up one of the nearby chemical plants across the river in New Jersey. Prevailing westerly winds would waft the toxins across the Hudson over a helpless Manhattan. Next to bioterrorism, reported the U.S. Surgeon General, chemical emissions would be the worst possible eventuality in a terrorist attack. There are 120 major chemical plants in the U.S., each one potentially threatening the lives of a million people. A government investigation reports that their safety precautions run from "fair to poor." "Worst case scenarios" filed with the Environmental Protection Agency reveal just how devastating this could be—one plant in New Jersey could emit enough toxic chemicals to poison 12 million people. Even without a terrorist strike, toxic releases pose a horrendous problem in the U.S., with 600,000 accidents reported over the past decade. New York state, with over 25,000 accidents, is fourth highest. The passage of the Homeland Security Act actually has made it harder to protect ourselves against such potentially deadly accidents. That's because the new laws prevent citizens from investigating the chemical industry's operations under the Freedom of Information Act or through government whistle-blowers who discover and report a danger. Under the new set of laws, they will lose their jobs if they blow the whistle. Terrorists are well aware of the possibilities. Just 10 days after the planes hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, a huge explosion rocked the area near Toulouse in southern France, killing 30 people and injuring many others. At first, authorities laid the blame on faulty equipment in the plant. More recently, French publications have unearthed a classified memo from France's super-secret spook bureau, the Renseignements Généraux, an equivalent to our National Security Agency, that instead points to a network of Islamic terrorists. The plot supposedly stretches its tentacles to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the east, a hidden base in London, and a pot of money in New York, according to investigations by Le Figaro and L'Express . Whether any of this goes anywhere is hard to know, but it has created something of a sensation in Paris. So far, neither hypothesis—of an accident or of a terror attack—has been completely discounted. -- "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.
FW: [globalnews] Texas Bill Would Outlaw Animal Rights Activists,Journalists, Whistleblowers, Donors -- All Terrorists
Title: FW: [globalnews] Texas Bill Would Outlaw Animal Rights Activists, Journalists, Whistleblowers, Donors -- All Terrorists Here we go... Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 12:34:58 -0800 Subject: HSUS Asks Texas House To Reject Legislation Criminalizing Animal Advocacy Efforts To: "HSUS Media List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] List-Unsubscribe: Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES ASKS TEXAS HOUSE TO REJECT LEGISLATION CRIMINALIZING ANIMAL ADVOCACY EFFORTS DALLAS (February 19, 2003) - The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the nationís largest animal protection organization with more than 320,000 members and constituents in Texas, is asking the Texas House to reject H.B. 433, the so-called ìAnimal Rights and Ecological Terrorism Act,î which exploits the climate of concern about terrorism in order to stifle and criminalize legitimate debate, investigation and discussion about animal welfare and environment issues. The American Civil Liberties Union, the Texas Sierra Club, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the Texas Humane Legislative Network also oppose the legislation. If passed in its current form H.B. 433 would add a new class of crimes to the Texas Criminal Code. Some of the provisions would: ï Criminalize legitimate political and social protests, demonstrations, civil disobedience and debate by animal or environmental advocates. ï Subject any Texan to criminal liability if he or she donates money to an organization that has engaged in non-violent civil disobedience; this criminal liability would apply only to donors of animal or environmental groups, not groups working on peace, pro-life or other causes. ï Create a state run website at which certain people advocating for animal welfare and environmental protection would be identified, photographed and stigmatized as ìterroristsî -- much like they now do with sex offenders and child molesters. ï Bar a journalist from legally entering an animal facility ìto take photographs or make a video recording with the intent to defame the facility or the facility's owner.î ìH.B. 433 is an embarrassment to every Texan who values the fundamental freedoms of speech and assembly,î stated Lou Guyton, director of The HSUSí Southwest Regional Office located in Dallas. ìH.B. 433 is so wide-sweeping in its application it would make terrorists out of whistle blowers, investigative reporters, and other individuals seeking to bring animal and environmental exploitation to the publicís attention,î said Wayne Pacelle, a senior vice president at The HSUSí national headquarters in Washington. ìThe Humane Society of the United States has always condemned violence, the destruction of property, and other types of illegal conduct, and all of these activities constitute criminal conduct under current law, and rightly so.î The U.S. Sportsmenís Alliance, a Columbus, Ohio-based organization backed by the Archery Manufacturers Association, Cabelaís, and other hunting industry corporations, drafted the model bill in an effort to launch nationwide legislative campaigns in an attempt to attack legitimate animal protection organizations. ìH.B. 433 masquerades as an anti-terrorist bill, but what it seeks to do is to limit the right of individuals and organizations to take photographs and engage in other legitimate conduct if it is critical of animal-use industries,î concluded Pacelle. The HSUS has seven million members and constituents. With active programs in companion animals, wildlife, animals in research and farm animals and sustainable agriculture, The HSUS works to protect all animals through legislation, litigation, investigation, education, advocacy and field work. For more information, visit The HSUSí Web site ñ www.hsus.org. -30- For More Information Contact: Lou Guyton (972) 488-2964 or Rachel Querry (301) 258-8255
Re: Violets as Soil Indicators
Title: Re: Violets as Soil Indicators Hmm, as usual, you give much food for thought, Frank. The main reason I am asking, is because one of my main advisors, has recommended letting it lay fallow with a cover crop this coming summer. But impatient person that I can be, I am tempted to follow that advice for only half the area (the whole plot is 1000 sq. ft) and amend the whole thing with bd compost, town compost and more preps. The area has received preps now for four springs, summers & falls & the Erbe Three Kings for two winters, plus one of the trees is set up to act as a broadcaster, a la Steve Storch, with many meditations furthering things along. I was wanting to put new medicinal herbs in the ground this season, but was concerned that the violets indicate poor soil. From what you wrote, it sounds like just the opposite. This neighborhood is also a heavily wooded area in general, the garden site is also downhill so it does receive plenty of moisture even in drought years, which certainly won’t be a problem after this winter. Good to eat your violets, Frank, and to hear from you. Soon it will be spring and one can never eat too many of those early spring greens & purples! (well, actually, you could eat too many violets, but it would probably only be a deep purge). Jane PS: Did I ever mention those great landlords of ours in the catskills, who made wine from lots of different flowers? We had a glorious wine tasting with them one winter eve, sipping on elder wine & elder port, dandelion wine and the treasures --rose petal wine & violet wine...but just a thimble full! From: "Frank L Teuton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 09:47:33 -0500 To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Violets as Soil Indicators Hi Jane, I've seen violets mostly in heavy clay soils (DC suburbs, Baltimore, and now here in Montreal. Typically rich in organic matter. Likes shade but will take sun if the soil is moist. pH generally neutral to alkaline. Lots of fun and always a pleasure for me to see a violet, although some folks agree that they are weeds in lawns, I don't see it that way...strawberries don't necessarily mean acidity either, but lots of organic matter (which buffers pH 'de tout facon', or as the Quebecois say, 'anyway';-)and that means some balance between fungi and bacteria, driven the way the plant likes it It's a 'woodland plant' My two cents, Frank Teuton--who has eaten violets more than a few times
FW: [globalnews] Irradiated Food Update: New Studies Show DangersGreater than Critics Thought
Title: FW: [globalnews] Irradiated Food Update: New Studies Show Dangers Greater than Critics Thought
RADIATION NATION
Health Sciences Institute e-Alert
February 10, 2003
Dear Reader,
After sending you the e-Alert last week about irradiated beef ("Don't Beam
Me Up" 2/4/03), I came across a news item announcing that a popular
supermarket chain began selling irradiated ground beef on February 2nd in
six mid-Atlantic states, including Maryland, where I live. These stores are
among some 4,000 nationwide that currently sell irradiated beef.
This alone would be unsettling enough. But in response to that e-Alert, I
received a reply from HSI Panelist Jon Barron with additional information
about the irradiation process that I guarantee will make you think twice
the next time you stop off at your grocery to buy meat products.
Who let the nutrients out?
To briefly recap: Irradiation is a process by which a food product is
exposed to extremely high doses of radiation to kill bacteria, parasites
and funguses that may cause spoilage or disease. And if that were all
irradiation did, that would be fine. But as we'll see, there's much more to
it than that.
Jon begins by describing the process in more detail: "Food is exposed to
'hard' irradiation, usually gamma rays from a source like cobalt-80, in
doses of 100,000 to 3,000,000 rads. To give you a sense of how high a dose
this is, understand that a dose of just 10,000 rads will totally destroy
any living tissue."
As HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., made clear last week, an abundance of
nutrients are also eliminated by this process. Jon agrees, and says, "as
much as 70% of the Vitamin A, B1 and B2 in irradiated milk is destroyed,
and about 30% of Vitamin C." Unfortunately, irradiation also accelerates
the growth of aspergillus mold, "which produces the most potent natural
carcinogens known to man, called aflatoxins."
I wish I could say that's the worst of it - but we're just getting started.
A radiotoxin by any other name...
Processing food with the extremely high levels of gamma rays described
above results in the creation of some very dangerous molecules, about which
Jon gives this interesting but frightening background: "They were
originally called 'radiotoxins' by Russian researchers. Since that word
would be frightening to American consumers, the FDA came up with a couple
of 'softer' terms. They call them 'known radiolytic products' to describe
the molecules that are created such as formaldehyde and benzene (known
carcinogens), and as for those chemical molecules created by irradiation
and that have never before been seen by man, the FDA came up with the
equally soft 'unique radiolytic products.'"
Long before the FDA started assigning more palatable terms for these very
unappetizing results, it had already reviewed more than 400 studies about
the irradiation process. But Jon tells us where that review process fell
woefully short: "They accepted 226 studies for further review. They then
narrowed their criteria and selected only 69 for in-depth review. Of these,
the FDA itself reported that 32 of the 69 showed adverse effects, and 37
showed safety problems. Then without explanation, they eliminated all but 5
of the 69 (including every negative study) and said they would base their
decision on those 5 alone.
"In the FDA's final report approving food radiation, they wrote that when
up to 35% of the lab-animal diet was radiated, feeding studies had to be
terminated because of premature mortality or morbidity." And in one test at
the Medical College of Virginia, rats fed irradiated beef "died of
hemorrhagic syndrome in 34 days."
Running from the radura
According to Jon, "Foods already approved for irradiation include: fruits,
vegetables, wheat, flour, herbs, spices, nuts, seeds, peas, pork, and
chicken." And to that we can add ground beef - now in a supermarket in my
neighborhood, and very likely in yours as well.
If you don't like the idea of irradiated food (and at this point I can't
imagine how anyone possibly could), you can look for a symbol called the
"radura" which is required on the packaging of irradiated foods. The radura
is a green circle (broken into four segments at the top of the circle),
enclosing a flower image represented by a large green dot with two petals
below the dot.
But even if you avoid products marked with the radura, you're still not in
the clear. As Jon explains, "The FDA requires a label stating a food has
been radiated if, and only if, it was radiated as a 'whole food' and then
is sold unchanged. But, if you process it in any way, if you add any other
ingredients to it, it no longer requires a label stating that it (or any of
its ingredients) were irradiated. To put it simply, an irradiated orange
would require a label; irradiated orange juice would not."
An uncomfortable level of comfort
But even if people see the radura on a package of ground beef, a bag of
Brazil nuts, or a sticker on an apple -
FW: [globalnews] Starhawk: The Crisis of Government Legitimacyand What Happened in New York
Title: FW: [globalnews] Starhawk: The Crisis of Government Legitimacy and What Happened in New York What Happened in New York By Starhawk The weekend of February 15 and 16 marks an historic, global uprising for peace. The number of marches is uncounted: the number of marchers estimated in the range of ten million. There were marches and vigils and protests in national capitals and small towns, in the heartlands of middle America and in small Pacific islands, in the freezing cold of Alberta and in the heat of an Australian summer. Palestinians and Israelis marched together in Tel Aviv: in the U.S. everyone from Republicans to socialists to anarcho-punks shared the streets. And most of these hundreds of events took place with, apparently, fairly minimal governmental repression. New York was an exception. New York, the largest city in the country that presumably shines as a beacon of global democracy, refused to grant the organizers of the protest a permit for a march. Only a stationary rally was allowed. The denial of the march was only one feature in a campaign of harrassment, that included the circulation of a rumor on the day before the rally that the event had been cancelled, a Code Orange terrorist alert that stationed military guards in the subways armed with automatic rifles, the denial of permission to rent portable toilets for the masses expected at the rally, the mysterious rerouting of subways and busses on the morning of the rally, the cut-off of the phones in the United for Peace and Justice office during the rally, and a repressive, heavy-handed and sometimes brutal police presence that penned the official rally behind barricades and prevented thousands from even getting there. New York has the largest police force in the world: forty thousand strong. When they decide to control public space, they have enormous resources with which to do so, and generally succeed. But not last Saturday. On Saturday something like sixty different feeder marches started from various points in the city to march to the rally. Many of them intended to stay within the law by marching on the sidewalk—an activity that does not require a permit. Some took the streets. Taking the streets was, technically, an act of civil disobedience, a conscious breaking of a law that is unjust or unfairly applied. In this case, many of us felt that the law preventing us from marching as a unified whole was violating our constitutional rights to freedom of speech and assembly. And that if we did not defend our public and political space at this crucial moment, that space would rapidly be taken away. The Performing Arts March and the Labor March were able to take the streets and march to the rally without incident. The police simply stood back and let them go. The students were not so favored. I was with the students’ contingent that gathered at Union Square around ten in the morning. A march from New York University joined up with us, and together we headed out on Fourteenth Street, on the sidewalk until Sixth Avenue, when we swarmed out into the street. We marched triumphantly up the avenue, in a fast-paced, exuberant mass that was impossible to slow down, though some of us were trying in order to keep the whole crowd of several thousand together. Around Twenty-first street, the police met us with a line of cops that stretched across the road. We were ordered to get back on the sidewalk or face arrest. The police were being provocative, pushing and shoving us with their nightsticks, and the students were doing an admirable job of restraining themselves from fighting back. Instead, they turned a corner, swarmed onto a side street, ducked through a parking lot at a dead run and came out onto another street. Some of the march was left behind, but it formed another column to go snake-marching through the side streets. We met up again on Fifth Avenue, but then got pushed onto Twenty-third Street and trapped by a line of cops in front and back. I saw one young man pushed to the ground with five cops kneeling on him, twisting his arms behind his back to cuff him. The street was crowded with masses of students, and the police decided to run a line of horses through in order to split the crowd and push people back onto the sidewalks. The horses, some of which seemed under only very shaky control, trotted through the crowd, and then the cops announced that they were only going to let people out in small groups, about fifty at a time. Our group got split—half of us were squeezed out and the other half prevented from leaving. The cops forced the groups that left to move on, in order to prevent us massing together again. Our small contingent marched up to the Main Library, on Forty-second Street, where we met up with some of the lost members of our group, and continued up toward the Rally Zone. The police had barricades on all the streets leading east through the Fifti
Re: Violets as Soil Indicators
Title: Re: Violets as Soil Indicators Oops, sorry I wasn’t more clear. When I moved here, we inherited a lawn and what was long ago an Italian familie’s large flower and vegetable garden which I reclaimed from the weeds and onion grass. That was four summers ago. Now, I have decided to actually try gardening in the sun! The plot I assumed has long been mostly in shade, with some small amount of morning and afternoon sun. Of my several bd farmer & gardener friends who have visited, the consensus is usually, why don’t you move it into the sun? So this year, with some extra help, (I am getting Curtis out there!) we are doubling the size of the garden. I love my violets and was secretly happy they were taking over the lawn, which they seemed to do each season! I seriously dislike lawns! I wish the size of lawns were very restricted, especially here in the ‘burbs to reduce sound, air and water pollution among other things. If it were up to me, I would be encouraging fruit trees & shrubs, wild grasses and flowers for the fairies and the fair among us, sprawling vegetable gardens, with huge areas devoted to perennials and wild things. Alas, I am a renter with a very fair minded landlord. Thanks for your answers, Jane From: "Peter Michael Bacchus" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 21:46:21 +1300 To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Violets as Soil Indicators Dear Jane, As it seems that you get enjoyment and good use from your violets why change anything. You are different to your neighbours so why would you want to have the same lawn as them? You must have special elemental beings in your garden. We had one little violet in our lawn too and we all took good care to mow round it until one day my mother decided to rescue it and put it back in the garden. I'm not sure if it survived the rescue. Peter.
Violets as Soil Indicators
Title: Violets as Soil Indicators Hello All, I was wondering if anyone could tell me what a preponderance of violets within what was once presumably lawn in my back yard? They have taken over. I didn’t see mention of them in the Pfeiffer “Weeds & What they Tell”. I did see a bit of wild strawberries mixed in so I was wondering if the violets indicate an overly acidic soil? Please don’t advise me to get the soil tested, as I will do that as soon as the two feet of snow melts & I can get it to my Ag extension agents. Also, I eat the flowers & leaves, make tincture from them including the roots, dry the flowers & admire them! Anything y’all do with your violet odorata? Thanks for any insights. Jane Sherry
FW: Beautiful flash film - Visions of protest from around theworld...
Title: FW: Beautiful flash film - Visions of protest from around the world... GREETINGS FOLKS - This is a beautiful flash film . . . I highly recommend people check it out: http://www.usgreens.org Visions of protest from around the world on Saturday - designed by an activist in Baltimore, Maryland. Ben Manski Green Party of the United States Co-Chair, Steering Committee www.GP.org .
FW: [globalnews] Largest Oil Spill in the World
Title: FW: [globalnews] Largest Oil Spill in the World From: "Alice Friedemann [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sat Feb 15, 2003 2:47 pm Subject: Largest Oil Spill in the World I had a disturbing experience at Cape Canaveral National Sea Shore last month. I drove to the north end of the park, and walked south along the beach towards the enormous towers of the Kennedy Space Center, 11 miles away. On the left, the sparkling blue water was punctuated with the tall white plumes of pelicans dive-bombing the waves. On the right was Mosquito lagoon, one of the most beautiful places in Florida. I'd come to find Sea Beans. These are beautiful exotic seeds of tropical plants from all over the world, with names like Hog-plum, Hamburger Bean, and Moonflower (http://www.seabean.com/guide/index.htm). But what I found was plastic trash. Miles and miles of soda bottles, plastic bags, milk jugs, plastic spoons, and the like. At the Ponce Inlet Marine Science Center, the docent was sure most of it came from party boats and cruises offshore. Case solved - cruise ships have been caught dumping their shit, literally, into the pristine waters of Alaska. Not surprising to find out they're throwing trash overboard as well. My career as trash detective would have ended then if I hadn't seen an ad in the paper for a lecture on "How plastic trash finds its way into the ocean". The problem turns out to be huge -- the plastic in the ocean could be considered the largest oil spill in the world. Between California and Asia there's ten million square miles of plastic swirling in the slow rotation of the north pacific gyre, an area larger than Africa. A huge mountain of air, heated over the equator, creates the currents as it moves north. The garbage on this marine merry-go-round spends 12 years completing one circle. About half of the plastic made is close to the specific gravity of water, and the half that sinks easily rises again when storms mix the water up. There's so much plastic in the Pacific gyre, that six times as much plastic as zooplankton by weight was found there (Marine Pollution Bulletin). Outside the gyres, the concentration is almost half that amount still awfully high. Like diamonds, plastics are forever. Plastic doesn't biodegrade. It takes even longer for the sun to break apart a piece of plastic in the ocean than on land, because the water cools the plastic down. Although it gets broken into smaller and smaller pieces, it reaches a point where the molecular weight and tight chemical bonds prevent any organism from breaking it down further. Plastic facts - One hundred billion pounds of pre-production plastic resin pellets are produced every year in the US to create consumer plastics. - These pellets, also known as nurdles, look just like fish eggs, and are the most common plastic object found in the ocean. Clearly many of them are escaping the production process. - Only 3.3% of plastic is recycled, because reheating plastic reduces its flexibility. Sixty-three pounds of plastic per person ends up in landfills in the United States. - Because plastic is lighter than sand, it may be eroding beaches - Plastic concentrates chemicals and pollutants up to one million times their concentration in the surrounding sea water. Many of these chemicals are endocrine disruptors. So how are plastics getting into the ocean? About 20% comes from activities at sea, especially when some of the 100 million containers shipped every year get knocked off in storms. The remaining 80% comes from the land. Alice Friedemann, Oakland CA Sources: Lecture and material from the lecture given by Charles Moore, Berkeley Public Library 11 Feb 2003 http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Marine-Debris-Panel30oct02.htm http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Synthetic-Sea-Moore.htm\ http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Algalita-Ocean-Plastic22oct02.htm And many of the links at: http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/ocean.htm U.S. News & World Report 4 NOV 2002 Trashing the Oceans by Thomas An armada of plastic rides the waves, and sea creatures are suffering http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Trashing-Oceans- Plastic4nov02.htm At Taco Bell on Main Street in Ventura, Calif., you can take out the chalupa of your choice--Baja, Nacho Cheese, or Supreme, with ground beef, chicken, or steak. But it will always come in a small plastic shopping bag. The bags arrive preprinted from a factory in Asia-- usually. One brilliant summer morning in 2000, the small private research vessel Alguita discovered a 10-mile-wide flotilla of the disposable sacks, an estimated 6 million of them destined for Taco Bells around the country, bobbing more than 1,000 miles west of the Ventura store. "We were out in the middle of the Pacific, where you would think the ocean would be pristine," recalls the Alguita's captain, Charles Moore. "And instead, we get the Exxon Valdez of plastic-bag spills." Most plastic bags
FW: [globalnews] Ganges, Bengal Delta arsenic crisis: 36 milliondrinking contaminated water, 150 million at risk
Title: FW: [globalnews] Ganges, Bengal Delta arsenic crisis: 36 million drinking contaminated water, 150 million at risk Asia's arsenic crisis deepens Another Indian state succumbs to well water poisoning. 15 February 2003 TOM CLARKE http://www.nature.com/nsu/030210/030210-14.html New cases of arsenic poisoning in India's Ganges Basin suggest that a crisis in the sub-continent could extend much farther than previously thought1. Untold numbers of the region's 449 million residents could be exposed to dangerous levels of the element in their drinking water. In the mid-1990s it emerged that arsenic has contaminated well water in parts of the Bengal Delta. This is the coastal floodplain of numerous rivers, including the Ganges and is shared by Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. The latest surveys estimate that around 36 million people in the Bengal Delta are drinking contaminated water, and 150 million are at risk. The new finding suggests that the Bengal Delta "may be only the tip of the iceberg", says epidemiologist Dipankar Chakraborti of Jadavpur University in Kolkata. He is calling for urgent region-wide water-well analysis. "The arsenic problem intensified during a period of long neglect. Our earlier mistakes must not be repeated," he says Calling cards Tipped-off to a spate of cancer deaths and skin lesions in the village of Semria Ojha Patti in the Indian state of Bihar, Chakraborti's team sampled wells in the village. Half contain five times the accepted safe limit of arsenic; 1 in 5 wells have 30 times the safe level. Many villagers are suffering from the classic skin lesions and neurological problems of arsenic poisoning. Preliminary evidence also suggests that mothers who have drunk from contaminated wells have unusually high rates of miscarriage and premature delivery - another of arsenic's calling cards. The situation in Semria Ojha Patti is alarmingly similar to that of the villages in West Bengal and Bangladesh where, as in Bihar, hand-pump wells have been dug to provide drinking water that is free of waterborne diseases. Unfortunately the wells tap into natural accumulations of arsenic swept down from the Himalayas and deposited in the silty aquifers of the Ganges Basin. Bihar is 500 kilometres west of the Bengal Delta and is geologically akin to much of the Ganges Basin. Arsenic-rich deposits could cover much of the Basin, stretching across the foot of the Himalayas from New Delhi to the Bay of Bengal. Countless rural villages with hand-pump wells could be affected, warns Chakraborti. Last year, arsenic-contaminated groundwater was reported in Nepal, some 200 kilometres to the north of Semria Ojha Patti, and there are unconfirmed reports of arsenic in the water in Chandigarh, north of New Delhi. Only comprehensive surveys will reveal the extent of the problem. Unfortunately there is a general lack of awareness of the symptoms of arsenic poisoning - residents of Semria Ojha Patti were being treated for skin disorders. The best treatment for chronic arsenic poisoning is removing the source. Arsenic-laden sediments are patchy, so relocating wells around a village can ameliorate the problem. Delta watch "What seems to be emerging is that the correct geological conditions for arsenic release into groundwater occur widely in delta areas," says geochemist Andrew Meharg of the University of Aberdeen, UK. The new finding suggests that similar arsenic contamination in Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan could also be more widespread, suggests Meharg. "Wherever people look, they seem to find arsenic elevation in these deltaic aquifers," he says. References Chakraborti, D. et al. Arsenic groundwater contamination in middle Ganga Plain, Bihar, India: A future danger?. Environmental Health Perspectives, published online, doi:10.1289/ehp.5966 (2003). |Article|
FW: [globalnews] Monsanto Meltdown
Title: FW: [globalnews] Monsanto Meltdown RENSE.COM Monsanto Meltdown Excerpted from the BioDemocracy News #42 of the Organic Consumers Association 2-11-3 Despite heavy advertising and PR greenwash, despite a cozy relationship with the White House, Monsanto's image, profits, and credibility have plunged. Its aggressive bullying on Frankenfoods, its patents on the Terminator gene, its attempt to buy out seed companies and monopolize seed stocks, and its persecution of hundreds of North American farmers for the "crime" of seed-saving, has made Monsanto one of the most hated corporations on Earth. Monsanto will likely soon be broken up, with its parts sold off to the highest bidder. The New York Times reported 1/14/03, that "With its stock price low, Monsanto is considered a takeover target. by investment banks. and could be bought and sold off in pieces." On December 19, Monsanto shocked the biotech industry by forcing the resignation of its CEO, Hendrik Verfaillie, a 26-year veteran with the company. The sudden move came as Monsanto reported losses of $1.75 billion for the first three quarters of 2002, despite cutbacks, including layoffs for 700 employees. Monsanto's stock has fallen nearly 50% since January 2001. But Monsanto is not the only Gene Giant downsizing. Last year, biotech giant Syngenta closed down its plant genome lab in San Diego, terminated its controversial research partnership with the University of California in Berkeley, pulled out of its planned collaboration with the Indira Gandhi rice research institute in India, and canceled its contract with the John Innes Center in the UK. Major transnational corporations in the food and life sciences sector are unlikely to shed any tears over Monsanto's demise. It's no secret on Wall Street that Monsanto, in its present form, has become a major liability for transnational food corporations and the biotech/pharmaceutical giants, who are much more concerned with the potential for hundreds of billions of dollars in sales from biotech drugs, nutraceutical foods, and nanotechnology, than the declining fortunes of agbiotech crops, whose total sales in 2002 were $4.25 billion. One of the major reasons for Monsanto's decline, besides the growing worldwide opposition to its GE crops, is the growing resistance of weeds to Monsanto's flagship product, Roundup herbicide. Roundup, up until now the top-selling weed killer in the world, making up 50% of Monsanto's sales and 70% of their profits, has recently begun to lose its effectiveness against major crop weeds such as mare's-tail, waterhemp, and ryegrass. GE Roundup-resistant soybeans presently account for more than 75% of all the soybeans planted in the United States and Argentina, as well as the majority of rapeseed or canola in Canada. According to a recent report by Syngenta, herbicide-resistant superweeds will soon reduce the economic value of farmland on which Roundup Ready soybeans are grown by 17%. Forty-six percent of farmers surveyed in Syngenta's study said that weed resistance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's herbicide Roundup, is now their top concern. www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/roundup011403.cfm According to industry experts, Monsanto has no alternative in the pipeline once glyphosate starts to fail. Syngenta, which also sells herbicides containing glyphosate, has criticized Monsanto for encouraging its customers to overuse the relatively cheap herbicide, as well as for not warning farmers to avoid mono-cropping, growing the same Roundup Ready crops, year after year, on the same plots of land. Leading scientific critics such as Dr. Michael Hansen and Dr. Charles Benbrook have warned for years that weeds would inevitably develop resistance to GMOs. The reason for this is that GE herbicide-resistant plant varieties are designed to be able to survive heavy doses of the companies' broad-spectrum weed killers, which in turn cause resistant strains of these weeds to survive and eventually predominate. Similar warnings have been leveled at the use of Bt-spliced crops, which are engineered to express high doses of a soil bacteria called Bt. Now that Bt crops such as cotton and corn have been commercialized on millions of acres, major insect pests such as bollworms, bud worms, beetles, and corn borers are also expected to become resistant to Bt over the next 5-10 years. The shaky bottom line for agbiotech is that almost 100% of all Frankencrops today, the so-called "first generation" GE crops, are either herbicide-resistant or Bt-spliced. Once these genetically engineered traits lose their effectiveness, which is now happening, the first generation of biotech crops will be dead, period. Here's a toast
FW: [globalnews] How catastrophe threatens the 12 millionchildren of Iraq
Title: FW: [globalnews] How catastrophe threatens the 12 million children of Iraq http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=377622 Vulnerable but ignored: how catastrophe threatens the 12 million children of Iraq By Leonard Doyle Foreign Editor 12 February 2003 "They come from above, from the air, and will kill us and destroy us. I can explain to you that we fear this every day and every night." - Shelma (Five years old) It is not Saddam Hussein and his henchmen, but Iraq's 12 million children who will be most vulnerable to the massive use of force that the US plans to unleash against their country in the coming months. With or without UN Security Council backing, the looming war on Iraq will have immediate and devastating consequences for the country's children, more vulnerable now than before the 1991 Gulf War. A team of international investigators - including two of the world's foremost psychologists - have conducted the first pre-conflict field research with children and concluded that Iraqi children are already suffering "significant psychological harm" from the threat of war. The team was welcomed into the homes of more than 100 Iraqi families where they found the overwhelming message to be one of fear and the thought of being killed. Many live in a news void, with little information concerning the heightened threat of war. "I think every hour that something bad will happen to me" said Hadeel, aged 13. Assem, five, and one of the youngest interviewed, said: "They have guns and bombs and the air will be cold and hot and we will burn very much." But it is the fear expressed by the majority of the children that most shocked the team. In a breaking voice 13-year old Hind told them: "I feel fear every day that we might all die, but where shall I go if I am left alone?" When and if a massive bombardment and invasion comes, the investigators predict the consequences will be so dire that the plight of Iraqi children must be given more priority when Britain and the US consider the alternatives to war. Because there is only one month's supply of food in the country and the overwhelming majority depend on rations distributed by the Baghdad regime, the chaos of war could tip a population of malnourished children into starvation. And once American and British bombs start falling on President Saddam's power stations, the country's main water treatment plants will fail causing the rivers to become contaminated with sewage. Millions of Iraqis rely on river water to irrigate crops and prepare food. Drinking or even washing dishes in such contaminated water will make an already vulnerable population liable to deadly diseases ranging from E-coli to typhoid. Before 1990, Iraq's health care system was the pride of the Middle East and was described by the World Health Organisation as "first class". The ensuing Gulf War and sanctions have crippled the healthcare system causing death rates of children under five to double over the past decade with 70 per cent of deaths caused by easily avoidable bowel diseases and respiratory infections. Despite grave concerns at the highest levels, UN agencies are unable to prepare for an emergency that has yet to happen without being accused of clearing the way for war. The World Food Programme is preparing to feed up to one million Iraqis for at least three months, but once the shooting starts it will have to pull out its expatriate staff. Iraq's civilian population of 22 million is particularly vulnerable. Some 16 million - half of them children - are totally dependent on monthly government-distributed food rations. The last 12 years of sanctions and corruption within the regime mean that few if any families have stockpiles of food to get them through a war of any length. The World Food Programme supplies basic foodstuffs, but deliveries are left to the Iraqi government and a bombing campaign that destroys bridges over the Euphrates and Tigris rivers will stop distribution in its tracks. The report of the international study team, published by the charity Warchild, warns that there will be a "humanitarian disaster" if war breaks out. Children, already weakened and vulnerable because of sanctions are "at grave risk of starvation, disease, death and psychological trauma". The experts expect casualties among children to be in the thousands, probably in the tens of thousands, "and possibly in the hundreds of thousands". The team concludes a new war would be "catastrophic" for Iraq's children. 12 February 2003 21:10 --- "If I seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics encircles us today like the coil of a snake from which one cannot get out, no matter how much one tries. I wish therefore to wrestle with the snake. - Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948
FW: [globalnews] Jimmy Breslin: Walking Along Streets of Peace
Title: FW: [globalnews] Jimmy Breslin: Walking Along Streets of Peace Published on Sunday, February 16, 2003 by the Long Island, NY Newsday Walking Along Streets of Peace by Jimmy Breslin On streets of beauty, the warm people inched along or stood and chanted and laughed against a war and for peace and their warmth made the winter temperature irrelevant. They were summer people in winter clothes. They were the largest and happiest crowd seen in this city maybe ever, outside of a war's end in 1945. There were fathers with children on their shoulders. There were mothers holding their young. There were kids walking alongside their parents. There were religious people everywhere. And so many were young. Young students, young married, young in a city that belonged to the dreams and love and laughter of youth. Do you want a life with thrills, years of exhilaration? Come to New York. Where yesterday they said they did not want war. They said it with their presence and with the most signs of my time in my city. The signs were against war, and against George W. Bush, who, for the first time, was being heralded as a man who lost the popular vote in this country by 500,000. Looking down Third Avenue and Second Avenue, as the crowds came up to try to get to the rear of the great crowd on First Avenue, and then peering as far down First Avenue as you could see, the size of throngs caused you to tell yourself, "maybe a million. Whatever it was, out on the street it felt like a million, and it was glorious. A news photographer I know came along. "I've been everyplace. I have to say a million. Because of the Police Department's reprehensible pens, the crowd was separated so that there was not one clear picture of an enormous group that would cause politicians here to faint. The crowd so frightening was made of people who mostly never had protested before, who were too young for the Vietnam protests and who cannot be classified under any of the old words, "demonstrators or "anti-war, because they are new and they are real. War may be a great favorite with a Texas Theocracy, with a president who speaks in the first person more than anybody we have had in decades -- "I'm sick and tired of waiting -- and who calls on God to bless the country as if no other people made in the image and likeness of God are alive on earth. Only the sour people could permit innocent people to be scared as close to death as you could do it. "Get duct tape! her government told Kristin, a friend of mine who lives in Washington. So she went out and got duct tape, which usually is mentioned in stories about bank robbers using it to bound and gag clerks. Kristin taped the windows and door of her children's room. She then said she was ready for a gas attack. She failed to realize that the attack would leave her kids as orphans. The crowd yesterday was herded into a mile of pens, like the Omaha stockyards. This was for security. The reason for security was security. On our streets of beauty yesterday, gladness was in the place of arrogance and meanness. The sole conflict I found, when I arrived at 66th Street and First Avenue, the closest I could get to the stage at 51th Street, a young woman named Leslie Meenan was holding the hand of a girl who said her name was, as I spelled it, Camilla. She was 8. "You're spelling it wrong, she said. "Only one l.' "You don't know how to spell your own name, I said. "Yes, I do. You don't. "She's right, a woman said. Her name was Cara McCarthy and she was from Bushwick, in Brooklyn. She teaches at PS 145. Just ahead was Bob Stratton, who held his daughter, Fia, age 3. He said he was from Park Slope and he was in computer development. And now as you walked along the edge of one of these pens, here was a line of Catholic protests and then a group of schoolteachers and then everything seemed to be Jane Burcaw, in a good, warm and fashionable hat holding a sign that said, "No War. "I made it last night, she said. "Where do you live? "Bethlehem. I work at the Moravian Theological Seminary. I got here at 10:30. I would've been much earlier if I had to. The number of police and vehicles was unconscionable in this area, blocks away from the stage. The people were beautiful and the overload of police was irritating and deprived people of their rights. Somewhere far downtown from where I was standing, they had police horses on Second Avenue and people there to protest were behind the endless metal pens and somewhere the cattle turned human and people were arrested. The mayor of this city and the police commissioner had been spreading fear in this city for many days. Their claims were infuriating. "We know there is something coming but we can't tell you. If they knew it was coming and the people who were doing it knew it was coming, then what are you keeping a secret for? Bet me that they had the same kind of rumor that Colin Powell
FW: [globalnews] Sunday Denver Post, From panic to denial on water
Title: FW: [globalnews] Sunday Denver Post, From panic to denial on water From panic to denial on water: Reactions to crisis disparate in Four Corners states' plans By Michael Booth Denver Post Staff Writer Sunday, February 16, 2003 - The multiyear drought in the Four Corners states has brought sacrifice to some cities and recreation areas, and a mere shrug of the shoulders from others. Post / Shaun Stanley This buoy's warning goes for naught near Hite Marina, in the parched northern section of Lake Powell in southern Utah. Cities' disjointed responses to the region's drought have drawn criticism from some environmentalists. From Salt Lake City to Aurora, and Albuquerque to Phoenix, water managers and their constituencies react to the absence of snow with the full range from panic to denial. Some scramble to prop up reservoir levels at all costs; others argue the definition of "reservoir" is a bank of water that gets drawn to zero in dry times. Phoenix will exhaust its local reserves this summer. Yet Rocky Mountain snowmelt coming down the Colorado River means the largest city in the Southwest has no lawn-watering curbs. Well-soaked residents even plant a winter variety of seed over their dormant summer bluegrass to ensure green color all year. At half-full Lake Powell, the water playground for millions of Westerners, boaters this summer might want a taxi to get from the marina to the fast-receding Colorado River water. But the lucrative tourist season looms, and National Park Service officials contemplate blowing up a rock formation uncovered by the drought at the Arizona end so this summer's demanding boat traffic can avoid a 7-mile detour. The Southwestern approach to drought is "definitely head-in-the-sand," said Owen Lammers of Utah-based environmental group Living Rivers, which is sharply critical of how federal dams and what it calls greedy cities rearrange Western water flows. "We're characterizing this as the Enron of water management. The government keeps saying lake levels will get better, and the reality is that things are going down, down, down." The wide variance in public water restrictions can deflate conservation efforts by prompting complaints of unfair treatment and downstream waste, water experts said. And even if downstream draws from the Colorado River are legal, they may injure streams or lakes in a way that everybody has to pay for in the future. "The river that many of these states depend on is being overtaxed, so despite what your rights are, there are reasons here to be concerned," said Bart Miller, water projects director for Land and Water Fund of the Rockies. "It strikes the average citizen as unfair or strange when others are using much, much more water." Cities with looser water policies defend the lack of rules as a benefit of well-secured supplies. "All these decades of planning for water resources and storage have paid off," said Ken Kroski, spokesman for the Phoenix water supply, where the main reservoir for the perpetual boom city is down to 14 percent of capacity. As Aurora tells people they can't plant a single flower this spring, and Denver ponders a year-round shut-off of lawn sprinkling, Phoenix is still in Stage 1 of its drought plan, asking for voluntary 5 percent cutbacks in home water use with no rules for what days to water. Knowing there will be no water available from Arizona snowmelt or rain this summer, Phoenix is confident its share of Colorado River water coming down the cement channels of the Central Arizona Project will be more than enough for city lawns in 2003. Checking in with other cities shows just how disjointed Western water policy can be - while Denver, Phoenix and Salt Lake City watch their reservoirs drain, Albuquerque will switch from more predictable well water to a new reservoir system over the next three years. Santa Fe drivers can't drive through a car wash more than once a month. Tourists to the high- desert jewel won't get their hotel sheets changed until their fourth day. Currently in Albuquerque, "when it's dry, we just pump more from the aquifer," Mayor Marty Chavez said. "But we're depleting the aquifer. We can get away with it for a summer or two, but not in the long term." Realizing the underground supply may be used far faster than it is recharged by runoff, Albuquerque sought voluntary water savings last summer - of only 3 percent to 5 percent, a far cry from Denver's goal of cutting use from a normal year by 30 percent. Around the Four Corners, these cities and recreation areas hope for snow with varying degrees of fervency: Phoenix: Open taps in the desert Phoenix has some of the lowest water rates in the West, and the only mandatory cut in effect right now is a 5 percent slice from government use. "A lot of people automatically and incorrectly associate the desert with no water," Kroski said. But the free-flow philosophy permeating Arizona does
Re: Peace Seeds & cannibals
Kinda like people from different cultures? (Couldn't resist.) I am going to have to put those dreams of chickens and bees further out in the future, when I have my own land! Here we are hunkering down to a big blizzard! Ten days ago, or so, we had a foot of snow over a three day period, some freezing, some thawing. Now we are expecting a couple of FEET more snow mixed with high winds. A perfect elemental finale after the wonderful human outpouring down in the city to demonstrate for peace last weekend. Very inspiring to hear Desmond Tutu, several congresspeople from NY & Texas, Labor leaders, Al Sharpton, and an Israeli soldier (representing a group several hundred strong who don't believe in war & military might as a solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict). All the while freezing along with hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers & folks from all over who came into the city with their children, in wheelchairs, of every color, religion, age group and political bent. Hey, and even organic farmers showed up!! So, peace for seeds, for hot heads, hot houses, peaceful solutions for alternative energy, peace among the animals & all of us! Blessings & Pax, Jane > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 06:50:49 -0600 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Peace Seeds & cannibals > > Chickens are generally fun to have around until they start > murdering each other.
FW: [globalnews] Arundhati Roy at Porto Alegre World Social Forum
Title: FW: [globalnews] Arundhati Roy at Porto Alegre World Social Forum [from a talk at the World Social Forum in Brazil recently - for the whole talk go to http://www.zmag.org] (...) Many of us have dark moments of hopelessness and despair. We know that under the spreading canopy of the War Against Terrorism, the men in suits are hard at work. While bombs rain down on us, and cruise missiles skid across the skies, we know that contracts are being signed, patents are being registered, oil pipelines are being laid, natural resources are being plundered, water is being privatized, and George Bush is planning to go to war against Iraq. If we look at this conflict as a straightforward eye-ball to eye-ball confrontation between "Empire" and those of us who are resisting it, it might seem that we are losing. But there is another way of looking at it. We, all of us gathered here, have, each in our own way, laid siege to "Empire." We may not have stopped it in its tracks - yet - but we have stripped it down. We have made it drop its mask. We have forced it into the open. It now stands before us on the world's stage in all it's brutish, iniquitous nakedness. Empire may well go to war, but it's out in the open now - too ugly to behold its own reflection. Too ugly even to rally its own people. It won't be long before the majority of American people become our allies. Only a few days ago in Washington, a quarter of a million people marched against the war on Iraq. Each month, the protest is gathering momentum. Before September 11th 2001 America had a secret history. Secret especially from its own people. But now America's secrets are history, and its history is public knowledge. It's street talk. Today, we know that every argument that is being used to escalate the war against Iraq is a lie. The most ludicrous of them being the U.S. Government's deep commitment to bring democracy to Iraq. Killing people to save them from dictatorship or ideological corruption is, of course, an old U.S. government sport. Here in Latin America, you know that better than most. Nobody doubts that Saddam Hussein is a ruthless dictator, a murderer (whose worst excesses were supported by the governments of the United States and Great Britain). There's no doubt that Iraqis would be better off without him. But, then, the whole world would be better off without a certain Mr. Bush. In fact, he is far more dangerous than Saddam Hussein. So, should we bomb Bush out of the White House? It's more than clear that Bush is determined to go to war against Iraq, regardless of the facts - and regardless of international public opinion. In its recruitment drive for allies, The United States is prepared to invent facts. The charade with weapons inspectors is the U.S. government's offensive, insulting concession to some twisted form of international etiquette. It's like leaving the "doggie door" open for last minute "allies" or maybe the United Nations to crawl through. But for all intents and purposes, the New War against Iraq has begun. What can we do? We can hone our memory, we can learn from our history. We can continue to build public opinion until it becomes a deafening roar. We can turn the war on Iraq into a fishbowl of the U.S. government's excesses. We can expose George Bush and Tony Blair - and their allies - for the cowardly baby killers, water poisoners, and pusillanimous long-distance bombers that they are. We can re-invent civil disobedience in a million different ways. In other words, we can come up with a million ways of becoming a collective pain in the ass. When George Bush says "you're either with us, or you are with the terrorists" we can say "No thank you." We can let him know that the people of the world do not need to choose between a Malevolent Mickey Mouse and the Mad Mullahs. Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness - and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we're being brainwashed to believe. The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling - their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing. - Arundhati Roy Porto Alegre, Brazil January 27, 2003 -- End of Forwarded Message
FW: WAGE PEACE
WAGE PEACE by Mary Oliver Wage peace with your breath. Breathe in firemen and rubble, breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds. Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields. Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees. Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact. Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud. Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers. Make soup. Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages. Learn to knit, and make a hat. Think of chaos as dancing raspberries, imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty or the gesture of fish. Swim for the other side. Wage peace. Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious. Have a cup of tea and rejoice. Act as if armistice has already arrived. Don't wait another minute.
FW: [globalnews] Feb. 15th Rally is On: Be There
Title: FW: [globalnews] Feb. 15th Rally is On: Be There Dear MoveOn member in the Northeast, We know -- there are a lot of emails coming from us these days. There's just a heck of a lot going on. We'll do our best to respect your inbox while getting you the most important messages. The rally on February 15th is on, it's legal, and it's going to be huge. I hope you can come. Here's what you need to know: TIME: 12 Noon DATE: February 15th (THIS Saturday) WHERE: First Avenue, stretching north from 49th St. Are you coming? If you are, please let us know at: http://moveon.org/feb15.html?id=1039-1238908-pS_XzgUUeYTe1rFoL6Yblw For more details about buses, flyers to print out and distribute, and other goodies, check out: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?list=sub&sub=30 The New York Police Department is still refusing to issue a permit for a march, citing "security concerns." But the rally at 49th St. and First Avenue is fully permitted, and we're confident it will be a fun and safe atmosphere. (At the end of this email, we provide numbers for you to voice your concern about the city's refusal to permit a march.) Speakers and performers will include: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Harry Belafonte Danny Glover Susan Sarandon Pete Seeger Rosie Perez Tony Kushner Julian Bond Martin Luther King, III Betty poets from Def Poetry Jam Angela Y. Davis Dennis Rivera, SEIU 1199 Kim Gandy, National Organization for Women Ruth Messinger, American Jewish World Service I'll even be delivering a brief message from our members -- picked from the ActionForum at: http://www.actionforum.com/forum/?forum_id=252 This rally will happen in conjunction with events in over 300 other cities around the world. From London to Seoul, people are raising their voices against a war with Iraq. You can join the call by coming to New York City this Saturday. I hope to see you there. Sincerely, --Eli Pariser International Campaigns Director MoveOn.org February 12th, 2003 P.S. Our friends at AlterNet have put together a neat campaign -- an open letter from Americans to Europeans asking them to continue to hold strong against a war in Iraq. You can sign on at: http://www.moveon.org/openletter/ P.P.S. You can voice your concern about refusal of the City of New York and the Police Department to grant a permit at the numbers below. Just ask that the City allow a march on February 15th. Mayor Bloomberg's office: 212-788-9600 or 212-788-3010 or 212-788-3040 NYC Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly: 646-610-8526 NYPD Chief of Department Joseph Esposito: 646-610-6710 This is a message from MoveOn.org. To remove yourself from this list, please visit our subscription management page at: http://moveon.org/s?i=1039-1238908-pS_XzgUUeYTe1rFoL6Yblw
FW: [globalnews] As for modified foods, Europeans just say 'no'
Title: FW: [globalnews] As for modified foods, Europeans just say 'no' International Herald Tribune As for modified foods, Europeans just say 'no' Lizette Alvarez/NYT The New York Times Tuesday, February 11, 2003 'It's not the natural order of things' TOTNES, England At the Happy Apple green grocer in this Elizabethan town in England's west country, the Roasted Vegetable Pasty is labeled, clearly and proudly, as G.M.-free. So is the Hommity Pie and a scattering of other products crammed onto shelves. . In fact, all across Britain and most of the rest of Europe, shoppers would be hard-pressed to find any genetically modified, or "G.M.," products on grocery store shelves, and that is precisely how most people want it. . Tinkering with the genetic makeup of crops to make them grow faster and more resilient, something done routinely in the United States with seldom a pang of consumer concern, is seen here as heretical, or at the very least unhealthy. In some countries, there is an unofficial moratorium on the sale of genetically modified foods. . "It's not the natural order of things, that's all," said Heather Baddeley, who was picking up lettuce and avocados at the Happy Apple, about genetically modified foods. "It's a kind of corruption, not the right thing to do, you know?" . Robert B. Zoellick, the United States trade representative, does not agree. He recently called Europe's stance on genetically modified food "Luddite" and "immoral," mainly because he said Europeans' fears about genetically modified foods have convinced some famine-ridden countries in Africa to reject genetically altered grains. Some Europeans believed Mr. Zoellick was, in effect, blaming Europe for starvation in Africa. . "The U.S. government, including Republican leaders in Congress, accuse Europe of using the issue of genetically modified food as a way of keeping out American exports," said David Byrne, who heads the European Union commission on consumer protection and health. "What Bob Zoellick said over the last few weeks has been unhelpful, clearly. It was unfair. It was wrong." . The European Union finances nongovernmental organizations but it is those groups themselves, and not the European trading bloc, that have moved in some cases to steer Africans clear of genetically altered grains, Mr. Byrne insisted. . "The E.U.'s position on genetically modified food," he added, "is that it is as safe as conventional food." . That is the official line at European Union headquarters in Brussels. But public sentiment in much of Europe, successfully stoked by environmental groups, is now so fiercely opposed to genetically altered food that in Austria, for example, politicians have won elections by vowing to keep "Frankenfood" at bay. . Many supermarket chains across France, Britain, Italy and Austria, among others, yanked all genetically modified products from their shelves three years ago and are in no hurry to restock. Most recently, hundreds of Europe's most respected chefs banded together to form a group called Euro-Toques to battle the biotechnology lobby. . American companies like Monsanto stand to make enormous profits if Europe allows the import of more genetically modified foods. A decision by the European Parliament on stricter labeling for genetically modified foods could be made as early as summer, and European officials hope that this may make the food more acceptable by clarifying exactly how it is made. But there is concern in the United States that the labeling will only alarm European consumers more. . The stricter labeling requirements would trace genetically altered substances in maize, tomatoes, feed and oils and make it clear to consumers which products contain at least 0.9 percent of a genetically modified substance. . In France and Italy, Europe's two food meccas, public revulsion with genetically modified food runs especially deep. "U.S. culture is different from European culture," said Lorenzo Consoli, a Greenpeace expert on genetic engineering. "Here, there is a very strong feeling that links culture and food. And here, there is much more the idea that science is not church or a religion. It is not enough anymore for European consumers to have somebody with a white coat, a professional, say it's O.K." . A string of food scandals, including the outbreak of mad cow disease in 1996, severely undermined people's faith in the safety of their food and their confidence in scientists and public officials, many of whom claimed consumers faced no health risk at the time. Other scandals - HIV tainted blood in France, the spread of mad cow disease to other European nations, dioxin infested chickens in Belgium - only added to this mistrust. . Although there is no compelling evidence that genetically altered food is harmful, the food's opponents say that it is unknown whether the food is harmful in the long term. The uncertainty is precisely what worries Europeans. . Europeans also tend to be more env
OT: FW: [globalnews] NYC Rally Update - Judge denies March permit- fax, email, call authorities,sign petition
Title: OT: FW: [globalnews] NYC Rally Update - Judge denies March permit - fax, email, call authorities,sign petition This is truly a shocking abrogation of our right to free speech in probably the most representative and best known city in the country - New York. What happens there bodes ill for the rest of us. Dear Friend of United for Peace and Justice: To our great shock and outrage, Federal Judge Barbara Jones ruled this morning that the City of New York can deny United for Peace and Justice a permit to march on February 15. Citing "heightened security concerns," she ruled that we may only hold a stationary rally, for which we have been granted a permit for First Avenue stretching north from 49th Street. We are accepting the rally permit, and our massive demonstration to stop the Iraq war will go forward no matter what. But we are appalled by this attack on our basic First Amendment rights, and we will continue to fight for the right to march. Our attorneys, the New York Civil Liberties Union, have already filed an appeal, and we are asking all of our supporters to protest passionately against this attempt to stifle the growing opposition to Bush's war. We will provide you with more information soon on this rapidly evolving situation. For now, we encourage you to keep organizing and mobilizing for February 15 -- we have a legal permit to rally, and we cannot and will not let the NYPD and the Bush Administration silence our cry for peace. More than 300 cities around the globe will be holding protests this weekend against the Iraq war: Let's make New York City's protest the biggest, most passionate anti-war gathering of them all. WHAT YOU CAN DO: 1) KEEP MOBILIZING FOR FEB. 15: The NYPD wants to discourage people from coming to this protest -- we need to redouble our efforts to make February15 an enormous gathering for peace. Please contact Fran Geteles asap ([EMAIL PROTECTED] or 212-663-8048) if you are organizing buses or trains. Check out our website at http://www.unitedforpeace.org/feb15 -- we've added lots of new information. 2) SPREAD THE WORD: Forward this message widely, post the assembly location on your website, tell everyone you know that the February 15 protest is indeed happening and that we have a permit to rally at 49th Street and First Avenue. 3) SPEAK OUT: The denial of our right to march sets a very dangerous precedent for free speech in this country -- we ask you to raise the biggest ruckus you can about this attack on our rights. Some suggestions: >>Fax a statement from your organization to NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg insisting on our right to march on February 15. Fax#: (212) 788-2460 >>Ask sympathetic elected officials, community leaders, and/or celebrities to contact Mayor Bloomberg and demand that the City issue a march permit. >>Contact your local media, write letters to the editor, call in to radio talk shows, get the word out about this outrageous denial of our Constitutional rights. >>Make phone calls of protest to these officials: *NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg: 212-788-9600, 212-788-3010, 212-788-3040 *NYC Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly: 646-610-8526 *NYPD Chief of Department Joseph Esposito: 646-610-6710 >>Send emails protesting the denial of our march permit Mayor Bloomberg: http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html Commissioner Kelly: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chief Esposito: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>Sign this online petition supporting our right to march: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?FEB15 If you're not already on our email list, you can receive future updates like this one about the February 15 mobilization by visiting http://unitedforpeace.org/email.php Thanks for your support -- we can still prevent this war, and together we will win the right to march. Sincerely, The February 15 organizing staff of United for Peace and Justice http://www.unitedforpeace.org/feb15 ___ Poclad mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.efn.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/poclad
Re: [wendell-berry] Horowitz on Wendell Berry-Secessionistsagainst the war
Just another example of people having regrets about their youth and changing sides. Another so called right wing reactionary pretending to be a liberal. Sorry, but Berry's ad was a bright point in my morning paper. Where was this guy, Horowitz last election anyway? Guess having red parents & growing up in NYC doesn't predict anything. You're so ecumenical, Allan! JS > From: Allan Balliett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 19:12:42 -0500 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Fwd: [wendell-berry] Horowitz on Wendell Berry-Secessionists against > the war >
FW: [globalnews] Utilities Push for Huge Fee Increases On SolarEnergy Users in California
Title: FW: [globalnews] Utilities Push for Huge Fee Increases On Solar Energy Users in California http://www.solarexpert.com/grid-tie/Action-Alert.html Action Alert: Utilities Push for Huge Fee Increases On Solar Energy Users in California What's at stake: In the next 30 days, the California Public Utilities Commission will rule on a proposal that would severely undermine the growth of solar energy in California. California's powerful private utilities - Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric - are lobbying the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to approve a new solar tax equivalent, known as "exit fees", which would dramatically increase the costs of using solar energy for utility customers. The proposal would give utilities the right to install meters that measure solar production on privately owned solar energy systems and increase the cost of this solar energy for customers by up to 40 percent. Help stop this bad idea from becoming public policy before it's too late. Background: If the utilities get their way, exit fee charges - ranging from 2 to 5 cents per kilowatt-hour - will be charged to electricity generated by privately owned solar energy systems. The utilities want to use these fees to reduce the debt California incurred from buying lots of expensive (and dirty) power during the energy crisis. But, creating a disincentive for the public to install solar energy systems goes in the wrong direction. It is bad for our state's energy independence and bad for the environment. Solar energy is helping to generate new jobs and tax revenues in California and diminishing the state's vulnerability to energy price hikes. Utility-imposed "exit fees" would create a huge roadblock to these goals. The CPUC is expected to vote on this issue in late February. It is not too late to change the outcome. Why this is unfair Individuals, businesses and government agencies that install solar systems still buy most of their power from utilities. Thus, solar owners are already paying the same overall higher-cost electricity rates to pay off the state investment in power supplies as other utility customer. In addition, customer-owned solar power provides important public benefits by delivering non-polluting electricity during peak demand periods, when the dirtiest electric generators often come on line to meet utility power needs. This contribution should be rewarded, not penalized. The Alternative: The California Public Utilities Commission has the authority to protect California's solar customers from utility proposed "exit fees". As a result of tremendous efforts by California lawmakers and the public to support solar energy, California enjoyed a 1000% growth in the number of large solar energy systems installed in the last two years. Let's keep it going. Don't let the utilities stop this progress. Please write today. What you can do Send a copy of the attached letter to protest the proposed solar exit fees and urge the California Public Utilities Commission and Governor Gray Davis to do everything to continue promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency in California. Who and Where: President Michael Peevey California Public Utilities Commission 505 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA 94102 Cc: Commissioner Brown Commissioner Kennedy Commissioner Lynch Commissioner Wood Governor Gray Davis State Capitol Building Sacramento, CA 95814 When: Today. Each Commissioner and the Governor must hear from constituents who support the continued use of solar power in California as soon as possible. Let us not roll back the last two years of tremendous legislative and public support for and use of solar power as the result of one agency decision. Sample Exit Fee Letter CPUC Website - Exit Fee Information Page 12439 Magnolia Blvd. #132 North Hollywood, CA 91607 Phone: 818.566.6870 Fax: 818.566.6879 State of California - Contractor License Number - C46 Solar 685319
OT:FW: [globalnews] Astrologer Predicts Fear Factor to Skyrocket;Principled Spiritualized NonViolent Civil Disobedience Needed
Title: OT:FW: [globalnews] Astrologer Predicts Fear Factor to Skyrocket; Principled Spiritualized NonViolent Civil Disobedience Needed Stariq.com Aquarium Age By Ralfee Finn For the Week of February 7, 2003 The Aquarium Age is a report on the general astrological patterns of the coming week for all signs, not just Aquariums. A queasy uncertainty about the future ratchets up the intensity this week as apprehension about war tightens its grip. And while it's impossible to imagine life on Eearth growing more intense with each passing day, as this week and the next weeks unfold, planetary interactions exacerbate an already extreme environment. Anticipate physical reactions as bodies struggle to tolerate the stress. Also expect emotional meltdowns to continue, as hearts try to comply. Handling this energetic escalation challenges even the strongest souls, so don't be surprised if you're wobblin' through the days. Just be aware that these breakdowns can be positive, especially if they break through the armor of denial and open us to the resilience of truth. The tension has several sources. First, Mars is moving into a conjunction with Pluto . This conjunction begins on the 8th, is exact on February 16th, and ends on the 25th. Conjunctions concentrate energy. A Mars-Pluto conjunction translates that concentration into the compulsive use of force in order to achieve one's goals. From a personal and collective perspective, it fuels ruthless ambition and the tendency toward violence. Bullies thrive under its influence, which means negotiating super-inflated egos of despots, petty or powerful, won't be easy. If you're willing to drop self-righteousness of any kind, you'll maintain enough flexibility to handle just about any autocrat. When possible, help those of lesser strength and let the salve of kindness soothe ruffled fur. Unfortunately, the second contributor to the stress is a wide opposition between Pluto and Saturn .Oppositions are created by the polarized positions of two or more planets. As many may recall, we were under the influence of this Pluto-Saturn opposition from August of 2001 until June of 2002, and during those months, it was exact three times. The signature of negative Pluto-Saturn contacts is contraction and restriction; fear is its dominant chord. Certainly, we're still living in the overtones of its effect, and anxiety, real or imagined, specific or free-floating, continues to trigger intense emotional responses. As Mars moves toward its conjunction with Pluto, Mars reactivates the power of this Pluto-Saturn opposition, heightening fears, personal and collective. If you find yourself tilting toward trouble, don't hesitate to ask for help. There is no need to journey through these shadows alone. Of course, it's possible to use the tension of the next several weeks as a catalyst for change. But to access its transformative power, you have to throw off the yoke of victimhood and be brave enough to take a stand for a world where all beings prosper. Gandhi was born with a Pluto-Mars opposition. Martin Luther King, Jr., had a Saturn-Mars opposition. Both exemplify the power of personal conviction and the authority of non-violence as an intelligent, conscious, spiritual response to oppression and brutality. -- "Peace between countries must rest on the solid foundation of love between individuals." -- Mahatma Gandhi
OT:FW: [globalnews] Hyde Park demonstration is expected to drawthe biggest crowds since VE Day
Title: OT:FW: [globalnews] Hyde Park demonstration is expected to draw the biggest crowds since VE Day Independent.co.uk Hyde Park demonstration is expected to draw the biggest crowds since VE Day By Andrew Buncombe in Washington and Andy McSmith 09 February 2003 The Rev Jesse Jackson, who will headline next week's anti-war demonstration in Hyde Park, London, said yesterday that the eyes of the world would be on the people of Britain in the hope that they could help to avert a military assault on Iraq. Organisers expect Saturday's march to be the biggest demonstration in British history, drawing the largest assembled crowd on to the streets of London since VE Day. Mr Jackson, a veteran civil and human rights campaigner, said he had decided to speak in London, rather than at similar rallies in New York or San Francisco, because he believed public opinion in Britain could prove to be more crucial. Speaking exclusively to The Independent on Sunday, he said: "I think the people of Britain must pressure [Tony Blair]. He has dug his heels in, but in a democracy while leaders speak, people speak louder and people over the world are impressed by the demonstrations of the people of London. It was the same with the demonstrations in London over the freeing of Nelson Mandela. They have left a very powerful impression on people around the world. There is no future in war. The [London] marchers help the chance of people. The [world] will be looking at them." Mr Jackson, 63, also made a direct challenge to Mr Blair, urging him to visit Iraq and confront Saddam Hussein in person. He said that the Prime Minister's role in finding a peaceful solution was "critical" and he asked him to "use his talents" to do so. "It would be daring if he went to Iraq, for example," said Mr Jackson, who himself visited Saddam in 1991 to secure the release of hostages held by Iraqi forces in Kuwait prior to the start of the Gulf war. "He has nothing to lose but lives, and nothing to gain but peace and economic growth if he is bold. He would be a strong factor [in preventing a war]. President Bush is leaning upon him heavily." Mr Jackson, president of the Rainbow/Push Coalition, which campaigns on behalf of the "disadvantaged and people of colour", has also urged Saddam to act. In an open letter to the Iraqi leader, Mr Jackson asks him to hand over any weapons of mass destruction he has immediately. He says Iraq's "arsenal offers you no protection; instead it is a clear and present threat to you and your country". He adds: "Once more, I call on you with our countries on the verge of war, just as I did 12 years ago. Once more, we face a war of terrible consequence. Once more, I appeal to you to act now to avoid the impending catastrophe." His letter ends with the words: "Once more the fate of your country lies in your hands. I beseech you to act now, boldly, destroy your weapons to avoid a catastrophic war." Because of the expected size of Saturday's demonstration, two separate route marches have been drawn up, converging in Piccadilly and ending in Hyde Park. One will begin on the Embankment, near Blackfriars station. Marchers travelling from the north are being urged to assemble in Gower Street, near Euston Square station. To encourage protesters to arrive in London early, the Stop the War Coalition has organised a series of events on Friday, beginning with a meeting of Poets against the War at the South Bank at 6pm. Calls for peace are coming from all sections of society Rob Glanz, 45, Psychotherapist from London "The Government needs to be impressed about the groundswell of opinion against going to war. The case hasn't been proven. It's a breakdown of international law to go to war without a UN mandate." Matt McGuire, 14, Schoolboy from Bournemouth, first protest march "It's unfair that the big controlling countries are going to kill innocent people. If Saddam Hussein is a tyrant then we should find another way of getting rid of him." Bianca Jagger, 57, Humanitarian campaigner living in London "I do not believe Bush and Blair have made the case that Iraq presents an imminent threat to the US or Britain. It will not be a just war. Many Iraqis will be killed, but also Britons and Americans." Sam Beste, 16, Sixth-former "I hope there will be 100 people from my school on the march. The vast majority don't believe there's sufficient evidence to go to war. The idea you can attack a country because of something it might do sets a crazy precedent." Sally Borchardt, 55, Lives near Evesham, Worcestershire "I don't believe the case has been made. This just shows how much the Government runs by spin. America is not a country whose foreign policy judgements I hold in high esteem." Jeremy Troxler, 25, Methodist minister from Jersey "It comes down to the convictions of my Christian faith. This focus is so much on our own security. The greatest weapon of mass destruction is Aids in Africa. I wonder
FW: [globalnews] Porter Township, Pennsylvania, passesAnti-Corporation Ordinance
Title: FW: [globalnews] Porter Township, Pennsylvania, passes Anti-Corporation Ordinance Porter Township ordinance attracts national attention By Tom DiStefano, CLARION NEWS Writer LIMESTONE - The supervisors of Porter Township, Clarion County, made history in December, and their actions are attracting nationwide attention, according to Tom Linzey, head of an organization that assists local governments in environmental issues. On Dec. 6, the township adopted what Linzey said is the first ordinance in the nation declaring that corporations are not people. The ordinance was drafted by Linzey's organization, the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), based in Chambersburg, in partnership with the Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy (POCLAD). Linzey spoke to a crowd of about 100 in the Limestone Fire Hall at a meeting sponsored by local groups battling proposals to spread sewage sludge as fertilizer on farms in southern Clarion County. Porter Township adopted an ordinance in September that required each truckload of sludge brought into the township be tested for compliance with state regulations. The sludge spreader must pay the cost of the testing. Several other local townships followed suit by adopting similar ordinance last year. Porter took an extra step and adopted what is known as the "Corporate Personhood Elimination and Democracy Protection Ordinance," as part of a defensive strategy in case the township was sued over the sludge testing ordinance, Linzey said. Linzey said suits against townships have been brought over attempts to regulate sewage sludge and factory farms. These suits include, as part of their justification, the claim that corporations have the same Constitutional rights as human beings. The Porter Township ordinance counters that by declaring that, within the township, "Corporations shall not be considered to be 'persons' protected by the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania" Linzey said CELDF drafted the ordinance when it realized "we can't have democracy when large corporations wield their legal rights against communities to deny the rights of citizens to build sustainable communities." "If corporations can veto local decisions, we can't get to democracy," Linzey said. The concept is important when dealing with sludge and factory farm issues, which often pit small, rural municipalities against large corporations. Linzey outlined some of the background and history that led to the "personhood" ordinance. In the 1990's a teenage boy died of a massive infection after riding an ATV on a field that has been spread with sewage sludge. The incident happened in Rush Township, Clearfield County, and the township supervisors there responded by adopting the state's first sewage sludge testing ordinance, a forerunner to Porter Township's sludge ordinance. Synagro Corporation, the contractor that spread the sludge, promptly sued Rush Township for violating Synagro's constitutional rights. Synagro also sued the township's supervisors personally for $1 million each. When the Rush Township supervisors were told of the suit, "one township supervisor said, 'what the hell are the constitutional rights of corporations?'" Linzey recalled. Linzey traced the idea back several hundred years. In colonial America, there were few corporations, but they were large and powerful. Many of the original colonies were founded by the large British exploratory corporations, such as the Hudson's Bay Company. It was these large corporations which pressured England to levy a tax on tea; a decision which led to the Boston Tea Party and a general revolt by American colonists. After the American Revolution, Linzey said, "corporations were kept on a tight leash. One corporation could not own another corporation. Now that practice is so widespread we can't tell who owns what." In the early days of the US, corporations could only be formed to undertake public projects, and could only exist for a given period of time. To be re-chartered after the time was up, they had to show they existed for the general public good. At one time, the directors and officers of a corporation could be held personally responsible for the actions of the corporation. Now, Linzey said, the directors and officers are shielded from personal responsibility, and the corporations themselves are shielded by setting up other corporations. Corporations gradually regained favor and power in the US, and in 1886, the US Supreme Court, with no explanation, declared that corporations had the same rights as people. Known as the Santa Clara Decision, the ruling involved a legal dispute between the Union Pacific Railroad, then one of the most powerful corporations in the nation, and the government of Santa Clara County, California, over property tax assessments. Linzey said he expects that, eventually, the issue will find its way back to the Supreme Court, perhaps eigh
Re: full of crap
Oops, long week. Guess you can tell where I get my fish? (From a store where there are the choices between farm raised, wild, imported from far & wide via NYC's Fulton Fish Market.) Don't think my landlords would go for a pond, yet. Humbly, Jane > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 11:20:15 -0600 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: full of crap > > thank you Jane, for that enlightened statement. > crap>
Re: Producer of Tainted Beef Can Continue
Farmed fish are usually full of antibiotics and other crap > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 10:15:42 -0600 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Producer of Tainted Beef Can Continue > > Great. Does anyone farm fish? >
FW: [globalnews] Lead may cause mystery male infertility
Title: FW: [globalnews] Lead may cause mystery male infertility (For Hugh...) Lead may cause mystery male infertility 12:56 06 February 03 NewScientist.com news service Environmental lead may be to blame for some cases of unexplained male infertility, say US researchers. Their findings have prompted them to warn that environmental exposure limits for lead need re-evaluation The study, involving 140 couples participating in IVF treatment, showed that higher lead levels in the men's semen was associated with low fertilisation rates, the first conclusive evidence of such a link. Importantly, none of the men were in occupations likely to result in high lead exposure. "I'm very excited about our findings. We were not expecting a big role for lead - none of the men showed outward lead toxicity," says Susan Benoff, at the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Research Institute in Manhasset, New York. The work, and results still to be published, are not just applicable to couples undergoing IVF, she says. "It's true in the general public." Sperm function tests showed that high lead levels in the semen samples correlated with a reduced ability of the sperm to bind to the egg, and also to then penetrate and fertilise the egg. A causal link between lead levels and reduced fertility was supported by additional experiments, in which researchers exposed sperm from nine fertile men to increasing doses of lead. The study is "an interesting new development", says Richard Sharpe, of the MRC Reproductive Sciences Unit at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He said it would move infertility concerns about lead and other heavy metals "into the spotlight". Binding to the egg Benoff and colleagues from other US institutions examined the effects of metal ions, including lead, zinc and cadmium, on the sperm function. The semen samples were taken from the partners of women undergoing their first IVF cycle. The men completed lifestyle questionnaires, including details about their occupation, to try to rule out confounding factors. The researchers found wide variation in lead levels in the men's seminal plasma, with high levels correlating with low fertilisation rates. Statistically, the lead level variation could account for a fifth of the variation in fertility. When levels were high, there were fewer receptors on the head of the sperm that recognise and bind to sugars on the egg. High levels also hampered the ability of the sperm to penetrate the egg in a reaction called the acrosome reaction. Self-destructive "spontaneous" acrosome reactions, which occur before the sperm even reaches the egg, were also more common in lead rich samples. Competing metals Benoff told New Scientist this could be because lead displaces calcium, which is essential for the processes of sperm function and spermatogenesis. She says the fact that none of the men were at risk of excessive occupational exposure shows environmental exposure limits for lead need re-evaluation. In the US, recommended maximum exposure limits are between 100 to 150 milligrams per cubic metre of air. Lead stays in the body for much longer than most metals, adds Benoff, with a half-life of 11 years in bone. She said one possible treatment for men with high lead levels might be to take supplements of zinc - popular in the 1970s - which competes with lead. Journal reference: Human Reproduction (vol 18, p 374) Shaoni Bhattacharya
FW: [globalnews] Colorado River System Headed for "CompleteCatastrophe" -- Lake Powell Drained 50%--four years to go!
Title: FW: [globalnews] Colorado River System Headed for "Complete Catastrophe" -- Lake Powell Drained 50%--four years to go! N E W S R E L E A S E ___ L I V I N G R I V E R S POB 466 - Moab, UT 84532 - 435-259-1063/fax 259-7612 POB 1589 - Scottsdale, AZ 85252 - 480-990-7839/fax 990-2662 www.livingrivers.org ___ February 04, 2003 Contact: John Weisheit (435-259-1063 or 435-259-8077) LAKE POWELL DRAINED 50%--FOUR YEARS TO GO! MARINAS LEFT HIGH AND DRY, CONCESSIONAIRES CONTEMPLATE PULLING OUT Lake Powell reservoir is down 86 feet from normal, equating to a reservoir that is half full. The National Park Service, which manages marina facilities at Lake Powell, is busy trying to make adjustments with the hope that they can still accommodate visitors at some locations. Meanwhile, the recently approved $70 million Antelope Point Marina project is in jeopardy of never being used. Now in the fourth year of an anticipated sustained drought, Lake Powell reservoir will soon be empty. Forecasters have informed the Park Service that the reservoir levels will only be getting lower. The reservoir is dropping faster than it can be replenished. Even when the snow begins to melt this spring, the reservoir is not expected to rise any higher than where it is right now. By July, the reservoir will again start dropping. The United States Geological Survey 2002 report on Southwest climate change predicted that the Colorado Plateau would be heading into a 30-year period of below average river flows. Previous estimates by forecasters, on the impacts of such a sustained drought, calculated that Lake Powell would be drained within eight years. It's right on schedule. In July 1999, Lake Powell was at 90 percent. As of February 1, 2003, it was at 50 percent. If the present drought does not relent, Lake Powell will eventually drain to the level of the penstock tubes that spin the generators at Glen Canyon Dam. According to a model that was published in October of 1995 in the Water Resources Bulletin, if a severe and sustained drought similar to the drought of the late 16th century appears, Lake Powell could stay drained for eight years. "We're witnessing the end of Lake Powell right now," says Living Rivers' Conservation Director John Weisheit. "This was predicted, and nothing the National Park Service or the marina operators can do will change this." o At present three of the concrete boat ramps have been closed: Antelope Point, Stateline and Hite Marina. For Stateline, the concrete ends where the wet sand and mud begins; it was officially closed on February 3. For Hite Marina, river sediment closed the concrete ramp and an alternative ramp on gravel began in the autumn of 2002. This alternative ramp too is now closed due to sediment fill from the Colorado River. Antelope Point's ramp was the first ramp to close last year, just three years after construction in 1999. o A $3 million emergency appropriation was made in January to extend boat ramps at Bullfrog, Hall's Crossing and Wahweap marinas. It is unclear, however, how far these ramps will be extended, or if additional funding will be sought to extend them all the way to the bottom as levels continue to drop. o Potable water is becoming a problem at Hite Marina. The site draws its drinking water directly from the reservoir, treats it and then stores it in tanks for consumption. But the intake buoy is about to go aground and needs to be extended into deeper water. Besides being expensive to modify the intake, there is no assurance that deep water can be maintained as Lake Powell's delta continues to advance beyond the bay at Hite. o The planned marina at Antelope Point will find a 500-foot cliff being exposed where the second launch ramp is proposed. Calls to Antelope Point Holdings and their engineers, revealed no comment to the feasibility of the project. According to the National Park Service, construction was supposed to begin in March, but it has now been delayed to at least May. o The problems at Hite Marina are causing the concessionaire, Aramark, to question whether they should shut their Hite operation down altogether. To preserve the marina may require moving it, a cost Aramark may not wish to incur. No decision has yet been taken. With visitation through Glen Canyon National Recreation Area dropping by 10 percent per year, Aramark may be looking to pull out of the other marinas as well. o The fate of the white-water rafting industry, which concludes trips at the top of Lake Powell, is also a major question. With sediment and mud clogging the marina and boat ramp at Hite, rafters will have a very difficult time getting off the water. "As the drought persists, it is going to be very difficult, if not i
Re: Los Alamos Laboratories pollution.
I'm trying to get in touch with him right now. He's in Europe in some shows. Will get back about his work & the satellite stuff when I get hold of him. Jane > From: "Lance Howard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2003 23:18:40 -0800 > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Los Alamos Laboratories pollution. > > .. One of whom has been >> sounding an alarm and doing map pieces about the upcoming wars, based not >> only on oil reserves, but on water and geographical meanderings of rivers. >> Many of his shows and much of his work has been censored here in the US > and >> he more often has receptions in Europe. >> > Jane can you post a website or other contact information for this artist? >
FW: [globalnews] A Prayer for World Peace
Title: FW: [globalnews] A Prayer for World Peace A Prayer for World Peace Precious Lord of the Universe: Today I am laying down all weapons of anger and attack in my thoughts, my words and my actions. Today I am laying down the grievances and upsets that have led me to attack others and brutally assault myself. Today, I am laying down all thoughts of criticism and judgement, all words of destructive defensiveness and all acts of vicious vengeance and violence against myself and others. Today I ask that you cleanse me of all thoughts and words of aggression, so that I may take the necessary steps toward being peaceful in my own heart and offering that peace to the world. Today, I ask that you remind me how important I am in ensuring the active presence of peace. Today, I am opening my heart and sending forth the light of love to all world leaders. Today, I am opening my mind to the creation and experience of a world where aggression and violence sleep forever. Today, I am opening my eyes to be aware of everything I can do or say that will promote the presence of peace. Today, I realize that peace begins with me. Today, I humbly surrender myself, every thought I think, every word I speak, everything I do, to the creation, maintenance and advancement of peace. Today, I ask for peace, I invite peace in and I dedicate myself to promoting peace in my every experience. Let the light of peace reign in me! May the power of peace shine forth through me! May peace pervade the world! Let it be so! And so it is! - Iyanla Vanzant -- "More valuable than standing armies is a vision that has found its time." - Victor Hugo
FW: [globalnews] [starhawk] The choice Before Us
Title: FW: [globalnews] [starhawk] The choice Before Us The Choice Before Us Starhawk Somewhere tonight in Iraq, a small girl lies sleeping who in a few weeks may be a lump of scorched flesh buried under concrete. On a basketball court somewhere in the United States a young man lands a jump shot, who in a few weeks may have no legs, or eyes, or have tumors already brooding in his brain from exposure to the depleted uranium of our own weapons. A young boy who is healthy and vibrant today will be racked with cancer. A mother will hear her children crying for food and have nothing to give them but tainted water to quench their thirst. Land that is today rich and fertile will, a short time from now, be contaminated with radioactivity that lasts longer than all the years between ancient Sumer and Babylon and now. And young men and women who in the innocence of their hearts volunteered to serve their country will be led to perpetrate unspeakable crimes that will haunt their nights and blight the rest of their lives. When they complain of strange ailments, the Veteran’s Administration will admit no connection. And for years afterwards, as has happened since the first Gulf War, they will take their own lives in a steady stream of suicides. They will not be the sons and daughters of the men and women who sit in Congress or the White House. A disparate number of them will come from communities in our own land who suffer poverty, dispossession, discrimination. And all of this will be done at the command of men who have never themselves faced combat or fought a war, who rob our schools and hospitals to pay for their own weapons of mass destruction, who promote an empire-building agenda of their own that will not provide the security they claim. For the sheer injustice of our attack on a country that has not attacked us will provoke such fear and hatred against us that all our bombs and missiles and cops and spies will not be able to keep us safe. The media and the politicians tell us this war is inevitable, that we can’t stop it, that our protests and petitions and pleas make no difference. They murmur a constant incantation of our powerlessness, lulling us into a nightmare sleep. But we can still wake up. We can choose to walk out of the nightmare, and dream a different dream. All it takes is for each one of us who cherishes the lives of children to refuse to be silent, to say no to war, to say yes to peace. And to ask ourselves, how have we abandoned our country, our fate, into the hands of callous men who have no compunction about wasting lives? What spell has been cast that fogs our eyes and binds our hands? What lies have we believed? What power have we let slip away? Replace the nightmare with this dream: that in the moment when one world power has amassed the unchallenged military might to make its bid for global empire, its own people rise up and say, "No. That is not what we want to be. We don’t want to rule the world over the broken bodies of children. We don’t want blood on our hands. We want children who are sick to have the best possible care, in Iraq and in our own country. We want schools and jobs and parks and hospitals and food for the hungry. We want to join hands with the people of the world, and strengthen the institutions that are slowly and painfully learning to solve conflicts without bloodshed, and teaching us to respect our differences. We know that peace must be built on justice, and we want peace." Dream that we wake up, stand up, speak out, not in the thousands but the millions, joining with millions around the world. Dream that soldiers refuse their orders, dockworkers refuse to load ships, secretaries shut off their computers, workers close their factories, and even politicians find the courage to stand for what is right. And make the dream real. If you have spoken out before, now is the time to speak again, to make another phone call, write another letter, stand in another vigil. If you have marched before, march again and this time bring more of your friends and neighbors. If you haven’t marched, if you have been immersed in the demands of your own life, if you feel that your small voice makes no difference, now is the time to speak anyway, to interrupt your ordinary pursuits, to become the one small drop that just might turn the tide. If you can get to New York or San Francisco on the weekend of February 15-16 for the big marches and rallies, come—because the numbers are vitally important. If you can’t, there will be marches and rallies and vigils to join all across the country. Find one, or call one of your own. Be public. Be visible. Be the loud, uncomfortable conscience that has disappeared from the halls of power. And believe that truth is stronger than lies, love trumps fear, and no cabal of power can contain the multitudes when we awaken and choose life. Starhawk The New York March and Rally is on February 15
Re: Names in the news
Allan, this happened again recently? I thought this happened last year as well? Who's after these folks? Why aren't they going after the real poisoners, the chemical dairy folks? JS > From: Allan Balliett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 23:27:02 -0500 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Names in the news > > On the trail of an anonymous complaint, two investigators from the > Maryland Division of Milk Control entered a garage attached to the > School of Life, a yoga ashram on East West Highway in Bethes da. They > purchased a one-gallon container of milk for $4.80. > > According to Ted Elkin, chief of the division, the label on the milk > container identified the contents as: "raw milk" from "Camphill > Village Farm in Kimberton, Pa." Subsequently, a State of Maryland > laboratory performed tests that confirmed the product had not been > pasteurized.
GlobalNews Sub info
GlobalNews is a private mailing list devoted to discussion of the issues, news and events that are creating tomorrow's news today. Geo-politics, global financial markets, electronic commerce, the Internet, environmental concerns and spiritual transformation at the Millennium. Members only, with messages distributed directly to the group. This means the host Curtis Lang is not pre-screening messages, although that may change as the needs of the group change over time. For now, let's treat this as a chat in Curtis' living room and maintain decorum suitable for that milieu. Curtis will send interesting and thought provoking material from various sources for discussion. It is hoped that other members of the group will also send information they feel is of importance and generally ignored by the mainstream news media. To subscribe, send an empty message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Group Moderator: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: GlobalNews Posts/etc
Thank you James, for an unemotional presentation of what I think is really at stake. This is what has been incomprehensible to me about all this anger. If we, a diverse community who share at least one common pulse, of the desire to produce and consume enlightened food in a sustainable way, and to teach others to do so, cannot get along without acrimony and rage, how can we expect our governments and citizens of the world to wake up to loving community and compassion for all beings? I have never set out rules on this list, I simply made assumptions about what was acceptable, which I have done as many of you know for over 5 years. Martha was trying to help, but it does seem to be easier once again, to post the sub info for GlobalNews & keep in mind that once you subscribe you can choose the web option which means you can select which messages you want to read and do not have any coming in your email box. Many of the spiritual posts are from GlobalNews as well. The New York Times is also online. Please everyone, I am over seeing my name as subject headers. Can we move on? Pax, Jane > From: "James Hedley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 20:46:31 +1100 > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Los Alamos Laboratories pollution. > > The list and it's effectiveness is in the sense of building community > amongst the list members. If a few hundred members of the list cannot show > tolerance to each other, and allow that the opinions of other members have > merit, we may as well all go home to the weapons of mass distraction and > forget about trying to make the world a better place.
Re: Los Alamos Laboratories pollution.
It is something we will probably hear much more about in the years to come unless some brilliant minds put an end to this death lust for radioactive energy sources. As for radionics, if it is true, as mentioned on the list, that electrical wires can interfere with radionic broadcast, how can one even use them here in most areas of the US, where there is a congestion and confluence of wires, power stations and the like? I will forward your post to Curtis who will be quicker at locating satellite photos for you. We have some friends who are artists who twenty years ago started working with satellite photos in their work. One of whom has been sounding an alarm and doing map pieces about the upcoming wars, based not only on oil reserves, but on water and geographical meanderings of rivers. Many of his shows and much of his work has been censored here in the US and he more often has receptions in Europe. Blessings, Jane PS: Is anyone on this list or a Permaculture list that you know of who is from New Mexico? If you're/we're going to do such an experiment, it would be good to work with someone from the area as well, no? > From: "James Hedley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 20:46:31 +1100 > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Los Alamos Laboratories pollution. > > It is very bad news to hear of such a degree of radioactive pollution levels > as those from Los Alamos Laboratories. it would be interesting to try a > radionic broadcast over long period of time based on a satellite photograph. > There are several radionic rates to try. If you send a satellite photograph > of the area I will set up the necessary protocols and then we shall see what > happens. No guarantees but an interesting experiment.
Re: Jane & Allan - PLEASE START ANOTHER LIST FOR...
I'll be happy to forward relevant posts to you Martha if you are volunteering. Let me know Martha. Thanks for the idea. Jane > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 13:22:07 -0600 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Jane & Allan - PLEASE START ANOTHER LIST FOR... > > It wouldn't be hard at all for someone (Jane or Allan) to create a > distribution list and only send those OT messages to people who > actually request to be on the distribution list. It would remove it > from BDNOW, and no one would have to actually start a new group > with all the headaches that entails. >
Re: radioactives
Title: Re: radioactives Thanks Dave, now I feel better! From: Dave Robison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2003 11:03:22 -0800 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: radioactives But, hey, that's somebody else's problem.
Re: Jane & Allan - PLEASE START ANOTHER LIST FOR...
Ok, here I go. I have basically stopped forwarding GN posts to the list. Today is the first time I posted since Jan. 30 and I included an OT in the subject header which I noticed our moderator or someone else removed. Apparently they thought there might be a connection between bd & radiation. The only post forwarded from GN today was about contamination in runoff water in NM. How is it that such an important piece of environmental news is not connected to biodynamics? Would it be more helpful if suggested that perhaps we, as bd practitioners, gardeners & farmers could address for instance: plutonium levels in runoff in NM? How could we address their problems 'over there' which of course is my problem as well? Do you only want to hear about farmers' anecdotal experience and scientific studies? Today's post was 5 short paragraphs. How would you remediate this runoff with bd solutions, Glen, doug? Jane > From: "Garuda" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 08:49:47 +1300 > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Jane & Allan - PLEASE START ANOTHER LIST FOR... > > Jane > How about one post with links rather than lots of individual posts. > GA
FW: [globalnews] Los Alamos Runoff Has Higher Plutonium Levels
Title: FW: [globalnews] Los Alamos Runoff Has Higher Plutonium Levels SF New Mexican: State Says Los Alamos Runoff Has Highest Plutonium Levels* * Associated Press 01/31/2003 * LOS ALAMOS, N.M. ? Elevated levels of plutonium have been detected in storm water runoff leaving Los Alamos National Laboratory property since the May 2000 Cerro Grande Fire, the state Environment Department said. * Samples collected from Pueblo Canyon after six storms in 2001 and 2002 had plutonium-239 levels of 94 picocuries per liter, about 100 times the level the lab reported between 1995 and 1999, according to a news release from the Environment Department. The Cerro Grande Fire burned in the upper Pueblo Canyon watershed and created a dramatic increase in the water runoff. That runoff accelerated erosion of contaminated areas, the department said. Plutonium-239 is a radioactive manmade element produced since the 1940s for use in nuclear weapons. If ingested or inhaled, its radioactive particles are "damaging to lung tissue and internal organs," according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The state Environment Department said it has informed the Department of Energy of its concern and recommended that the agency Santa Fe New Mexican 2003
Re: Smoke Alarm alarming
Thanks all for your responses. What's appalling is that my government, engineers, and other politicians think it's ok to simply pollute, murder, poison and dump their crap on the whole world, not to mention legislating the use of these toxic devices in all of our homes (landlords, renters etc). What's amazing is here outside of NYC, one of the excuses to keep Indian Point Nukem plant open is that it would take umpty years to get rid of the nuclear waste anyway. What's amazing is that these smoke alarm manufacturers recommend putting these devices in every room of your house. More amazing, there have been real life tests of these devices at Texas A & M proving they don't even work!!! What's more amazing, is that you can barely read the warnings printed on the box and the devices about proper disposal. What's more amazing is that the powers that be around here, keep churning this crap out onto an unsuspecting public...sorry, that little nukem sign really flashed me back to "duck and cover" days of my childhood. Jane S. PS: to Lloyd: when I lived in Texas, I cut out a great photo of some researchers standing under a grouping of power lines, holding two fluorescent light bulbs just in their hands, and yes they were lit up. I think I saved it in my picture files. > From: Allan Balliett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 22:57:12 -0500 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Smoke Alarm alarming > > to use up radioactive waste
OT: Smoke Alarm alarming
Hello All, I just found out tonight when our smoke alarm kept beeping after changing the battery & then taking it down from the ceiling, that it contains a small part with the old radioactive symbol on it and warnings about it containing radioactive material, which if needing repair should be sent to the company. Turns out after Curtis did a bit of research on the web, that their are two types of smoke detectors, one with the radioactive material & one kind with a photo electric part. You can guess what might happen if such a device were to burn up in a fire. How is it possible that such things can be manufactured for use in the home? Does anyone know anything about these things? Are our landfills, incinerators & backyards full of these things decaying and leaking radioactivity along with all the other pollutants? Thanks for any insight into this amazing secret in so many of our homes. Jane Sherry
A brief p.s.
Hi Allan, I also need to ask you if you don't think the drop outs & lurker problem might be connected to the rude way in which people who speak their mind are attacked on this list? You started a thread about lurkers and folks who don't speak up, creating a climate of fear and people are so quick to attack on this list, as I know from many years experience. Perhaps that is the real reason people don't speak up, for fear of being blasted. Just a thought, one which I've had for weeks, now. Blessings, Jane
OT:FW: [globalnews] COORDINATED PROTESTS SET in 100+ CITIES--JAN.29 Emergency Response to February 5 declaration of war
Title: OT:FW: [globalnews] COORDINATED PROTESTS SET in 100+ CITIES--JAN. 29 Emergency Response to February 5 declaration of war A.N.S.W.E.R.'s response to Bush's State of the Union address: COORDINATED PROTESTS SET in 100+ CITIES--JAN. 29 Emergency Response to February 5 declaration of war - Message from the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition on the State of the Union - It is clear from George Bush's "war speech" (a.k.a. the State of the Union address) that February 5 has been selected as the "go date" for a declaration of war against Iraq. Thousands of people have expressed their intentions to descend on the White House in Washington DC the Saturday after the U.S government begins laying siege to Iraq. The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition is preparing for an emergency response mobilization. On January 29, thousands of people in more than 100 cities will answer the call issued by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition to demonstrate their opposition to Bush's plans for war. On February 15, millions of people in Europe will take to the streets with the same message and they have asked the people of the U.S. to join in a display of international solidarity. There will be mass actions in New York City and Chicago on February 15, in San Francisco on February 16, and in hundreds of other cities that weekend. A listing of January 29 protests can be found at the website of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition at http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/j29/j29events.html CITIES HOLDING PROTESTS INCLUDE: Altamonte Springs, FL Ann Arbor, MI Arcata, CA Baltimore, MD Bernalillo, NM Binghamton, NY Boone, NC Boston, MA Boulder, CO Bridgeport, CT Burlington, VT Cadillac, MI Charleston, SC Charlotte, NC Chicago, IL Coos Bay, OR Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY Crossville, TN Dallas, TX Detroit, MI Durango, CO Durham, NC Fort Bragg, CA Glendora, CA Goleta, CA Grand Rapids, MI Greenville, SC Gulfport, MS Haverford, PA Holland, MI Honesdale, PA Hyannis, MA Indianapolis, IN Iowa City, IA Irvine, CA Jackson, MS La Crosse, WI Las Cruces, NM Lawrence, KS Los Angeles, CA Louisville, KY Machias, ME Madisonville, KY Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN Naples, FL New Richmond, WI New York City, NY Orlando, FL Ormond Beach, FL Owensboro, KY Park City, UT Philadelphia, PA Poughkeepsie, NY Providence, RI Richmond, VA Santa Fe, NM Santa Rosa, CA Seattle, WA St. Louis, MO St. Petersburg, FL Tampa, FL Terre Haute, IN Tiffin, OH Trenton, NJ Tulsa, OK University, MS Urbana, IL West Palm Beach, FL Williamsport, PA York, PA & many more! FOR DETAILS ABOUT PROTESTS IN THESE AND OTHER CITIES, GO TO THE A.N.S.W.E.R. COALITION WEBSITE: http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/j29/j29events.html At your local January 29 event, hand out information about the February 13-21 Week of Resistance, including the February 15 mass mobilization for New York City. A double-sided half sheet is available at: http://www.internationalanswer.org/pdf/feb15.pdf Other downloadable resources for distribution, including a "myth and fact" sheet, can be found at http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/resources/index.html FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT UPCOMING ACTIONS: http://www.InternationalANSWER.org http://www.VoteNoWar.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] New York 212-633-6646 Washington 202-544-3389 Los Angeles 213-487-2368 San Francisco 415-821-6545 To make a tax-deductible donation, go to http://www.internationalanswer.org/donate.html Sign up to receive updates (low volume): http://www.internationalanswer.org/subscribelist.html
OT:FW: [globalnews] Wishful Thinking
Title: OT:FW: [globalnews] Wishful Thinking >From my ‘uncle-in-law’ the Franciscan priest. -- I asked God to take away my habit. God said, No. It is not for me to take away, but for you to give it up. I asked God to make my handicapped child whole. God said, No. His spirit is whole, his body is only temporary I asked God to grant me patience. God said, No. Patience is a byproduct of tribulations; it isn't granted, it is learned. I asked God to give me happiness. God said, No. I give you blessings; Happiness is up to you. I asked God to spare me pain. God said, No. Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to me. I asked God to make my spirit grow. God said, No. You must grow on your own! , but I will prune you to make you fruitful. I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life. God said, No. I will give you life, so that you may enjoy all things. I ask God to help me LOVE others, as much as He loves me. God said...A, finally you have the idea.
OT:FW: [globalnews] The Emerging Butterfly
Title: OT:FW: [globalnews] The Emerging Butterfly The Butterfly A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly! I asked for Strength.And God gave me Difficulties to make me strong. I asked for Wisdom.And God gave me Problems to solve. I asked for Prosperity.And God gave me Brain and Brawn to work. I asked for Courage.And God gave me Danger to overcome. I asked for Love.And God gave me Troubled people to help. I asked for Favors.And God gave me Opportunities. I received nothing I wanted. I received everything I needed! * Courtesy of Robert B via Machiel Moore >> (\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/) << . To obtain the knowledge of Self is a greater achievement than to command the elements or to know the future.
Re: Garuda BD Sprays results
Glen, I don't see "Plant trials" after going to case studies... JS > From: "Garuda" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 15:27:44 +1300 > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Garuda BD Sprays results > > http://get.to/garuda go to 'Case Studies' (on left), then 'Plant trials'
FW: [globalnews] Top Democrat Harkin Champions Irradiated Beef
Title: FW: [globalnews] Top Democrat Harkin Champions Irradiated Beef I try not to send much from the NYTimes because it’s so readily available, however I want to make a point here. Another example of the total bankruptcy of the Democratic party. Senator Tom Harkin has a reputation as a very liberal food safety proponent. He’s from Iowa. He’s so concerned about the public outcry against irradiated beef that he wants to give the Bushies everything they want — irradiated beef in the classroom. Oh, yeah, he also wants to pass a law to CHANGE THE NAME so the public won’t be alarmed at the words “irradiated beef.” That’s so special. Curtis ... The New York Times January 29, 2003 The Question of Irradiated Beef in Lunchrooms By MARIAN BURROS IRRADIATED beef may be coming soon to your local school cafeteria. The farm bill that was passed last May directs the Agriculture Department to buy irradiated beef for the federal school lunch program. It will be up to local school districts to decide if they want it. Americans have been reluctant to buy food that is irradiated, a process that uses electrons or gamma rays to kill harmful bacteria like salmonella and E. coli 0157:H7, which cause food poisoning. Some people fear, wrongly, that the food is radioactive. Others are concerned that the process hasn't been tested well. They may be correct. Based on European studies showing the formation of cancer-causing properties in irradiated fat, the European Union, which allows irradiation only for certain spices and dried herbs, has voted not to permit any further food irradiation until more studies have been done. Carol Tucker Foreman, director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America, said: "There is nowhere in the world where a large population has eaten large amounts of irradiated food over a long period of time. It makes me queasy that we are going to feed it to schoolchildren." Advocates of meat irradiation have been struggling for public acceptance; some irradiated meat is being sold. But some within the food industry criticize the tactics being used to gain acceptance for food irradiation. Diane Toops, the news and trend editor of Food Processing, a trade magazine, said in this column in 2001: "The irradiation business is making all of the same mistakes biotechnology has made, trying to force their new technology down the throats of consumers who have a lot of questions." Because the word irradiation conjures up radioactivity and, more recently, the method by which anthrax spores have been killed, the industry has tried to keep it off food packaging. It is lobbying to use a word with which people are more comfortable: pasteurized. A farm bill provision, added by Senator Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat, directs the Food and Drug Administration to look for a less fear-inducing word. Senator Harkin, a longtime proponent of food safety, is also responsible for the language in the bill that directs the Agriculture Department to buy irradiated meat. The same month the farm bill passed, according to the Federal Election Commission in 2002, Senator Harkin received a $5,000 campaign contribution from the Titan Corporation , which until last August owned the SureBeam Corporation of Sioux City, Iowa, the country's largest food irradiator. Tricia Enright, Mr. Harkin's spokeswoman, said: "Tom Harkin's record as a leader of food safety is unparalleled. His commitment to this technology goes back decades." The Harkin provision has given the Bush administration what it asked for in 2001: irradiated beef in the school lunch program, in place of testing for bacterial contamination. School lunches fall under the jurisdiction of Dr. Peter S. Murano, deputy administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service. He and his wife, Dr. Elsa Murano, the Agriculture Department's under secretary for food safety, are known for their writings on the use of irradiation to improve food safety. Previously, she ran the food irradiation program at Iowa State University. To convince the public that irradiation is necessary because food poisoning has been increasing in schools, the meat industry cites a General Accounting Office study issued on April 30, 2002, that maintains that such outbreaks are rising at the rate of 10 percent a year. But Dr. Robert Tauxe, chief of the foodborne and diarrheal diseases branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, "The percent of outbreaks in schools hasn't changed in the last 10 years." The statistical change, he said, is due to better reporting. Although the Agriculture Department is authorized to offer irradiated meat to schools, the secretary of agriculture, Ann M. Veneman, is moving slowly. So far, it is served only in schools in a pilot program in Minneapolis. According to the Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit Washington advocacy group, which opposes irradiation of food, of more than 1,500 comments t
FW: [globalnews] Link Found Between Nitrates Well Water andFactory Farms
Title: FW: [globalnews] Link Found Between Nitrates Well Water and Factory Farms
Environmental News Network - ENN Direct
Tuesday, January 28, 2003 12:00:00 AM
Studies From An Independent Scientific Organization Show Link Between Higher
Contamination Of Well Water Near Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations
Water from wells used by low income residents in the Lower Yakima Valley in
the state of Washington have been tested this past year by the Valley
Institute for Research and Education (VIRE). The study reveals a direct
correlation between the location of large confined dairy operations and the
pollution of private wells with E. Coli and high nitrate concentrations.
The studies show that wells in the area between Parker and Zillah, where
there are a low number of factory dairies, have levels of nitrates below the
federal standards for nitrates (10 mg/l) and are absent for E. Coli
contamination. The water falls within federal safe water guidelines. In
sharp contrast, the areas between Granger and Grandview, where large numbers
of cows are confined year round, high levels of nitrates and the presence of
E.Coli have been found.
"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know what's causing the well
water pollution", said Mary Lynne Bos, Vice President of CARE and a 70-year
resident of the valley. "Contaminated well water was not a problem when cows
were allowed to graze on pasture."
The report states that "Concentrations of nitrates in excess of the MCL
{Maximum Contaminant Level} of 10 mg/l can pose a health risk to infants
under one year of age, pregnant women, individuals with impaired immune
systems and individuals with hereditary lack of methemogloblin reductase.
High nitrate exposure has also been associated with intrauterine growth
restriction and prematurity."
"It is a sad commentary that we are allowing an industry to exist in our
valley that is a danger to the infirm, the young and the elderly. The
factory dairy pollution is not only endangering our health, it is also
destroying our quality of life," said Helen Reddout, consultant for Global
Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE), a national environmental
organization, and President of CARE.
Charlie Tebbutt, of the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC), legal
counsel for CARE said, "This study once again confirms our fears that the
factory dairies are causing industrial scale pollution in the Valley. The
state agencies responsible for protecting the public's health have failed
miserably. It is time that they, along with responsible federal agencies,
take real steps to clean up this dirty industry." Tebbutt added, "The recent
Bush administration rule changes for CAFOs and the proposed state cutbacks
on dairy inspectors are going in exactly the wrong direction from what is
needed."
Reddout commented, "CARE's concerns about nitrate and E. Coli polluted wells
have been confirmed not only by this study but through similar studies
across the United States where animal factories operate. We need to return
to sustainable farming practices before the danger to our water is beyond
repair."
Funding for the study came from settlements of Clean Water Act enforcement
actions brought by the Community Association for Restoration of the
Environment (CARE), a Sunnyside, WA, area member organization working to
clean up pollution caused by the dairy factories. All of CARE's board
members are members of farming families who have lived in the community for
many decades.
The Western Environmental Law Center, which represented CARE, is a
not-for-profit public interest law firm with offices in Eugene, OR, Taos,
NM, and Ketchum, ID. WELC provides litigation services to grassroots groups,
Native American Tribes, and local governments seeking to enforce our
nation's environmental laws.
For more information on concentrated animal feeding operations, please visit
www.factoryfarm.org. For a copy of the report, phone Helen Reddout or Mary
Lynne Bos from CARE at (509) 854-2990.
OT:FW: [globalnews] Enviros Cut Deal With Bush's Master ofChainsaw Politics, Unions Support Him
Title: OT:FW: [globalnews] Enviros Cut Deal With Bush's Master of Chainsaw Politics, Unions Support Him Note from Jane: I put the OT in the header for those of you who complain. But in reality, if you can get past my husband’s intro, you will see this is about our forests, ultimately for all of us. (JS) - I was struck last night by a TV moment about two minutes after Bush’s State of the Union Speech. A rightwing pollster was interviewing a focus group and drilling into the Democrats in the group. “You saw your Democratic leaders give the President a standing ovation, rising to applaud again and again, Hillary Clinton on her feet, why do you still oppose the President on war in Iraq?” The confused Democrats said, essentially, “I don’t understand why Hillary was on her feet applauding Bush’s war plans. I don’t have confidence in the Democratic Party leadership. They are no longer an opposition party.” So true so true. Here’s more evidence, as if more was needed, that Bush’s plans depend in large part on the support of the Democrats in Congress. They are behaving like Democrats in Texas, who supported Bush’s agenda when he was Governor. The difference is that in Texas, Republicans are a dominant majority party and Bush got more than 60% of the vote his last election. So for the Texans it was about survival. But nationally, the Republicans are NOT the majority party and Bush was not even elected with a majority of the votes. Read on, and see how gutless Democrats, self-serving hardhats and squabbling enviros gave Bush’s team the opportunity to destroy our national forests. The Democratic party is irrelevant. The only way to oppose Bush is outside the Democratic party leadership structure. The Sixties are returning. The only power in America capable of reversing our course toward Total Imperial Warfare and environmental disaster is people power. Think about that and then DO something. Curtis Lang Moderator GlobalNews . Seattle Weekly Published December 11 - 17, 2002 Chainsaw Politics Some environmentalists think the way to deal with Bush forest policy is to cut a deal that involves cutting a lot of trees. BY ANDY RYAN One thing you gotta say for the Great Satan: He really loves his work. In his cluttered command post at the Department of Agriculture, overlooking the Capitol Mall in Washington, D.C., Mark Rey--Old Scratch himself, in the minds of many tree huggers--is reviewing his first 13 months as steward of America's forests. He's been incredibly busy. "Every time there's a change in administrations, you're going to see a change in policy," says Rey, explaining a slew of regulatory actions that have the greens breaking out bells, books, and candles--and fighting among themselves. "That's what elections, after all, are about." At 50, this bespectacled former Eagle Scout and Cub Scout den leader is as reviled as any man in the enviros' pantheon of demons since the troubled reign of James Gaius Watt, Ronald Reagan's secretary of the interior. Not surprisingly, Rey, a consummate inside-the-Beltway player, is among the most respected officials in Republican-dominated Washington. "Mark is one of the most intelligent, articulate, and experienced people I have ever had a chance to work with," Rey's former boss, Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, has said. "He is without question . . . the most knowledgeable person I have ever met on the U.S. Forest Service," concurs Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. "Mark is the high priest of stump worship. He never met a tree he wouldn't cut," counters Bill Arthur, director of the Sierra Club's Northwest office in Seattle. "The timber executives ponied up a million dollars for Bush's election campaign, and Mark Rey intends to make sure their investment is richly rewarded." The nation's pre-eminent timber lobbyist in the 1980s and early 1990s, Rey received the grudging admiration of his opponents--the kind of deference accorded a worthy, if wily, adversary. As a Senate Republican staffer and putative author of the infamous Salvage Logging Rider of 1995, which rekindled the Northwest's bitter timber wars, he became despised. Now, as U.S. undersecretary of agriculture for natural resources and environment, responsible for 45,000 government employees and 191 million acres of public forests and grasslands, Rey is truly feared. So feared, in fact, that some Northwest environmentalists, as we'll see later, have been cutting their losses by trying to cut a deal with the devil. By agreeing to support thinning of younger trees, they hope to preserve the little remaining old growth--the ancient forests the Northwest is famous for. Not everyone in the green community thinks the swap is a good idea, and the debate has become acrimonious. ARMISTICE OVER From a green perspective, the terror over the rule of Rey is not without foundation. On Inauguration Day 2001, the administration of Presiden
FW: [globalnews] Nearly 19,000 gallons of crude oil spills intotributary of Lake Superior
Title: FW: [globalnews] Nearly 19,000 gallons of crude oil spills into tributary of Lake Superior Nearly 19,000 gallons of crude oil spills into tributary of Lake Superior Tuesday, January 28, 2003 By Associated Press SUPERIOR, Wis. -- A pipeline carrying crude oil ruptured, dumping nearly 19,000 gallons (71,900 liters) onto the frozen Nemadji River, a tributary of Lake Superior. At least 100,000 gallons (378,500 liters) spilled at Enbridge Energy Terminal, about two miles (three kilometers) from the lake, but most of it was contained within the terminal's ditches and retention ponds, company officials said. The pipeline is about half a mile (0.6 meters) from the terminal. The leak happened Friday night, apparently during delivery from the pipeline to a storage tank, said Mark Sitek, regional general manager for Houston-based Enbridge Energy. Cleanup of the ice-covered river is expected to take a few days, Sitek said. Cleanup of the terminal could take as long as several weeks. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is monitoring the effort. The company resumed transporting oil Saturday after bypassing the ruptured line, said Denise Hamsher, Enbridge spokeswoman. Enbridge had a smaller oil spill in 2000, but that leak was contained within the terminal. Source: Associated Press -- “Relaxing loosely, letting go --- original wisdom holds it’s ground. In the river of awareness the mud settles down and the brightness shines!” - Looking Nakedly, Resting Still by Milarepa
FW: [globalnews] Silicon Valley's tech waste problem
Title: FW: [globalnews] Silicon Valley's tech waste problem Silicon Valley's tech waste problem By Jane Meredith Adams Special to the Chicago Tribune January 28, 2003 SAN FRANCISCO -- In Silicon Valley, the land of technological whiz kids, astronomically expensive bungalows and glorious palm trees, the underside of the computer revolution keeps seeping up--literally. The valley, located about 25 miles south of San Francisco, has been struggling for more than a decade to deal with semiconductor manufacturing solvents that have seeped into the groundwater, a problem that has made pricey Silicon Valley the home of the largest concentration of Superfund toxic waste sites in the nation. Now the news is worse: The Environmental Protection Agency said last week that the suspected carcinogen trichloroethene, known as TCE, may be many times more harmful than originally thought, and that vapors from the substance have been found inside homes and office buildings. In addition to the Silicon Valley sites, the EPA said that this new assessment of the risk of TCE also may affect between 500 and 750 Superfund sites across the nation. `Round-the-clock exposure' "The sampling data I've seen thus far suggests that a large number of people in Silicon Valley might be breathing TCE at levels higher than what the EPA provisionally considers acceptable," said Lenny Siegel, executive director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight and a resident of Mountain View, Calif., which has one of the largest concentrations of TCE-contaminated groundwater. "It's round-the-clock exposure for those of us who live in this area," Siegel said. In the 1960s and 1970s, businesses including Fairchild Semiconductor Corp., Intel Corp., Raytheon Co., NEC Electronics and Mitsubishi used TCE to clean silicon wafers and disposed of thousands of gallons of TCE in underground metal and fiberglass tanks, according to the EPA. The tanks corroded and leaked, although it was years before the damage was discovered. The corporations involved are cleaning up the sites, although they no longer own or operate the former facilities. The EPA said the solvents have not affected the drinking water in Mountain View because most of the community's water comes from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in the Sierra Nevada. Other sources are deep wells and treated surface water not located near Superfund sites. Residents getting alarmed When managers from the EPA traveled to Mountain View last week to give citizens an update, many residents expressed concern that their health and property values were in jeopardy. "The news is always presented as `Be not alarmed,'" said Barbara Goodwin, who lives 1 1/2 miles from toxins buried under what is considered to be the birthplace of Silicon Valley: the former Fairchild Semiconductor plant where engineers made the first computer chips in the world. "But I'm alarmed." Goodwin, 66, has lived in the valley for 10 years and has suffered breast cancer and chronic bronchitis. "I don't think it's smart to be here," said Goodwin, a former nurse. According to the draft of an EPA toxicity report, TCE is 5 to 65 times more hazardous to human health than previously understood. The agency said that vulnerable populations--which include children and some people with chronic health problems--may face higher risks of kidney, liver, cervical, prostate and lymphatic-hematopoietic cancer. "There are no immediate health risks," said Alana Lee, EPA project manager for two of Silicon Valley's 29 Superfund sites. "We're really making sure there would be no long-term health effects at the site by taking air samples." The indoor and outdoor sampling is set to begin this spring, she said. Soil removed, walls erected Cleanup has consisted of removing contaminated soil, building walls to contain the contamination, and pumping TCE-contaminated groundwater into "air-strippers"--structures that allow TCE to evaporate into the air. Using previous toxicity standards for TCE, the EPA said in 1999 that the emissions from the air-strippers do not pose a significant health risk to occupants of the buildings that have been erected on Superfund sites, including Netscape Communications Corp. and Nokia. Air in those locations will now be retested. Ted Smith, executive director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, said many workers have no idea that toxic waste is underneath and around their companies. "Rising from the ashes of the semiconductor industry have been new industries," Smith said. "They've located here without informing their workers that they were coming to work on top of a Superfund site." Most U.S. semiconductor manufacturing is now done in other parts of the country, including Albuquerque and Austin, Texas, using safer standards for underground storage tanks. Vapors rising into buildings In addition to the TCE that is sent into the air through the air-strippers, vapors are rising from the groundwater
Rice For Peace No War On Iraq
>From http://rmpjc.org/RiceForPeace/ (Sent to me by a bdnow list member--thanks!) Quote: This amazing idea from the Boulder Mennonite Church: There is a grassroots campaign underway to protest war in Iraq in a simple, but potentially powerful way. Place 1/2 cup uncooked rice in a small plastic bag (a snack-size bag or sandwich bag work fine). Squeeze out excess air and seal the bag. Wrap it in a piece of paper on which you have written, "If your enemies are hungry, feed them. Romans 12:20. Please send this rice to the people of Iraq; do not attack them." Place the paper and bag of rice in an envelope (either a letter-sized or padded mailing envelope--both are the same cost to mail) and address them to: President George Bush White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, DC 20500 Attach $1.06 in postage. (Three 37-cent stamps equal $1.11.) Drop this in the mail. It is important to act NOW so that President Bush gets the letters ASAP, preferably before the report from the inspectors comes out on the 27th. In order for this protest to be effective, there must be hundreds of thousands of such rice deliveries to the White House. We can do this if you each forward this message to your friends and family. There is a positive history of this protest! In the 1950s, Fellowship of Reconciliation began a similar protest, which is credited with influencing President Eisenhower against attacking China. Read on: "In the mid-1950s, the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation, learning of famine in the Chinese mainland, launched a 'Feed Thine Enemy' campaign. Members and friends mailed thousands of little bags of rice to the White House with a tag quoting the Bible, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him." As far as anyone knew for more than ten years, the campaign was an abject failure. The President did not acknowledge receipt of the bags publicly; certainly, no rice was ever sent to China. "What nonviolent activists only learned a decade later was that the campaign played a significant, perhaps even determining role in preventing nuclear war. Twice while the campaign was on, President Eisenhower met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to consider U.S. options in the conflict with China over two islands, Quemoy and Matsu. The generals twice recommended the use of nuclear weapons. President Eisenhower each time turned to his aide and asked how many little bags of rice had come in. When told they numbered in the tens of thousands, Eisenhower told the generals that as long as so many Americans were expressing active interest in having the U.S. feed the Chinese, he certainly wasn't going to consider using nuclear weapons against them."
