The wild and free Xingu River is critical to maintaining intact the Amazon, its peoples and the Earth we share

TAKE ACTION! The Brazilian government is planning to build what would be the world´s third largest dam on the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon [search]. The Xingu River in northeast Brazil is a tributary of the Amazon River. The Belo Monte Dam, meant principally to fuel the expansion of aluminum foundries and other industrial plants in the Amazon, would require diverting nearly the entire flow of the Xingu, drying up the “Big Bend” of the Xingu and its tributary, the Bacajá, home to hundreds of indigenous people. Native people upstream would also be affected by the dam´s impacts on fish stocks, their principal food source.TAKE ACTION!

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Climate change is an urgent emergency. Leading climate scientist James Hansen [search] now warns of humanity's "last chance" [ark] to take the necessary dramatic actions to solve the climate crisis. The scientist who first brought global warming to the public's awareness 20 years ago this week has now concluded we are well past dangerous levels of greenhouse gas emissions [search] (with no end in sight), and this is going to cause ecosystem collapse and mass extinction. EI is in agreement that this can only be avoided with urgent actions such as ending coal emissions, and that fossil fuel executives are guilty of crimes against humanity and nature [ark].

Alone, and most assuredly in combination with related global environmental crises, global heating and the breakdown in climate patterns threatens civilization, the global ecosystem and the continuation of complex life. This is not conjecture. It is logical consequences of known science and observable trends. Some in the United States government have concluded similarly, that climate change threatens national security [search] and "could destabilize 'struggling and poor' countries around the world, prompting mass migrations and creating breeding grounds for terrorists [ark]." Meanwhile the White House refuses to open emails [ark] from its own EPA regarding the need to regulate carbon dioxide.

Continue reading "Climate Change Is an Urgent Emergency" »

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Nothing is more causative or indicative of America's ecological unsustainability [search] (and the rest of the rich world) than selfish splurging upon ridiculously large McMansions [search]. These resource hungry homes generally sprawl into natural habitats, fouling water, and require huge amounts of fossil fuel derived energy to power their pigishness. Conspicuous consumption [search] of this sort is killing the Earth.

The new chic is LEEDs certified ecologically sustainable building of right-sized homes [ark] using recycled materials and that generate their own energy. It is critical efforts to build ecologically sustainable homes [search] become more widely implemented and affordable. And let's not lose site of how much Earthly good can come from simple retrofitting of current habitations.

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Just back from a short blogging break, to find the climate crisis never rests. Scientists and policy-makers have finally caught up with ecology as the link between climate change and extreme weather [ark | more\ark | search] -- such as the recent flooding and tornadoes in the U.S. -- has been reaffirmed. The only surprise is the new report was released and endorsed by the Bush administration, whose climate obstruction over the past decade has bordered upon criminality. To issue such a serious report after a decade of inaction is unconscionable, and can only be forgiven if the administration swings into real climate change policy action now.

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TAKE ACTION! Leading global consumer products company poised to destroy Ivory Coast's rainforests as both investor and customer, just after its commitment to rainforest protection and certified oil palm was much heralded by some.

One of Côte d’Ivoire's most important primary rainforests [search] is to be cleared by global consumer product company Unilever and others, despite Unilever's recent promises to buy only "sustainable" palm oil [search] from lands not cleared of rainforests for their production. Tanoé Swamps Forest in Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is one of the last remaining old growth forests in the country and the last refuge for three highly endangered primates -- the Miss Waldron Colobus, the Geoffroy’s colobus and the Diana roloway -- as well as home to many endangered plant species. The palm oil company PALM-CI has just begun destroying this 6,000 hectare forest to convert it to oil palm plantations, despite local and international protests. Unilever is one of the main companies behind PALM-CI and the destruction of the Tanoé Swamps Forest. After sending the first protest email to Unilever, you will be forwared to a second protest email asking the government of Côte d’Ivoire to ensure that the forest and the communities that depend on it are fully protected. TAKE ACTION!

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PRESS RELEASE

Ecological Internet (EI) welcomes news that ANZ Bank of Australia will not fund the Gunns Tasmanian pulp mill [search]. In a statement ANZ announced it will not provide finance for the AU$ 2 billion project to pulp ancient forests for throw-away paper products, but did not provide a reason for withdrawing. International environmental protest spearheaded by Ecological Internet, in support of local protests, certainly played a major role.

ANZ Bank, and the Australian and Tasmanian governments, have been targets of environmental protest in country and from Ecological Internet and other overseas groups for years. Most recently, in early April, nearly 3,000 EI Earth Action Network participants from 87 countries sent a quarter of a million protest emails to ANZ and the Australian government asking that ANZ withdraw funding. The Australian national government was also called out for their hypocrisy in supporting protection of forests overseas to address climate change, but not in Tasmania.

Continue reading "VICTORY: Ecological Internet Welcomes ANZ Bank Withdrawal from Tasmanian Pulp Mill Disaster" »

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PRESS RELEASE

15% protection of last large intact forest ecosystems, and promotion of continued ancient forest diminishment, are insufficient to maintain Earth's ecosystems, climate, biosphere and human advancement.

This week the Democratic Republic of Congo announced new protections for 10% of their rainforest [ark] , moving towards Brazil's goal of 15% preservation of the Amazon. WWF and other environmental groups hailed 85% industrial destruction and diminishment of the rest of the world's remaining large forest ecosystems as good news. At the UN biodiversity talks in Bonn, WWF organized non-binding national pledges to end deforestation [ark], ignoring biological simplification caused by industrial forestry. WWF promotes first-time ancient primary forest logging [search] which is nearly as bad ecologically as total deforestation. These inadequate responses come as a new study shows ecosystem loss is already costing hundreds of billions [ark] of dollars a year.

Ecological Internet is committed -- as keystone responses to the climate, biodiversity, water and food crises -- to ending all industrial development of the world's remaining primary and natural ecosystems, and committing to strict protection for half of the world's land and sea as global ecological reserves. The remainder will need to be ecologically managed to sustainably meet human needs in perpetuity. This will require massive ecological restoration and protection of forest remnants in over-developed countries, and major new protected areas (increased by 3-5 times) in countries holding the Earth's remaining primary natural habitats.

Continue reading "WWF's Rainforest Protection Goals Prolong Ecological Decline" »

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Increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is dissolving into the the world's oceans [ark], making them more acidic at great expense to marine wildlife, and happening earlier than expected [ark]. Anyone following climate science, policy and advocacy closely knows ocean acidification [search] is just the most recent news in a litany of evident climate change impacts [search] arriving strong and early. Meanwhile the best G8 leading polluters can do is a paltry 0.6% decline in emissions [ark]. To speak of reducing emissions by 80% by 2050 without more short-term climate goals [ark] is stupid and dangerous. A habitable Earth [search] depends upon urgent climate policy now [search].

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There is a whole Earth full of reasons for you to make a gift to Ecological Internet now. In a couple hundred years human populations have increased nearly seven fold and their resource use has led to wealth for some, while destroying the Earth and her ecosystems, which provide habitat for all. Any one of the crises of scarce water, dead oceans, chaotic atmosphere, degraded forests, disappearing species and incipient toxics could lead to more mass extinction and even the fall of civilization. Together they almost certainly will.

The root cause of this global ecological crisis is societies extracting too much natural capital while destroying global ecosystems, in combination with over-population and inequitable consumption. The biosphere, the very foundation of being, is failing; leading to growing extreme economic and biological poverty. Nothing can be done for the Earth and humanity's future unless these massive catastrophes are fully recognized and adequately addressed.

Continue reading "Ecological Internet Committed to Biocentric Solutions" »

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A huge new global study illustrates the extent to which climate change is demonstrably impacting wildlife, plants and the environment [ark | more\ark]. 30,000 sets of global data about biological and physical changes were matched with a detailed database of global temperature change. Changes in plants, animals and the physical world -- from plants blooming early to polar bears becoming cannibals -- were found to be closely correlated to changes in temperature. It is preposterous to be debating the existence of something so evident, and criminal to further delay action to avoid the worst impacts of a human-caused chaotic climate system.

Two other studies illustrate the degree to which humanity has overwhelmed the biosphere [search], altering fundamental biogeochemical processess performed by global ecosystems, required for all life including humans. Human use of nitrogen is overwhelming natural cycling [ark] of the nutrient, dramatically altering oceans, soils and the atmosphere. This is a direct result of agricultural intensification [search] by excessive use of fertilizers to feed unsustainable human populations.

Continue reading "Climate Change Now" »

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