Climate Injustice

In a nutshell, Climate Injustice is basically what Happened to our country during the last typhoon season.

Although we contribute very little in building up the total Human-made Carbon Footprint to the detriment of the global climate health, we are the first to experience the catastrophic effects this global pollution is bringing this planet. Therefore, the First world who makes the most carbon footprint dumping is actually doing us poor third world Climate Injustice.

If we have a strong willed - good hearted - creative genius - at the helm of our government... It would have been so easy to be demanding the world governments to pay damages to what our country has suffered. Unfortunately, there are more trivial matters that our leaders are more concerned about. This myopic interest to preserve power, position and economic stature is truly vain.

There is nothing wrong with amassing wealth and power and position, but doing so at the expense of a more important matter like the over-all welfare and safety of humanity as a whole... and your countrymen in particular is definitely a grave offense to God first and foremost... and Humanity.

Omission to the Crime is as bad as the Commission per se. Bad things happen always whenever people Do Nothing to stop other people from doing something bad.

If we see something bad happening... what do we do?

Unfortunately, we can't play police in flagging every vehicle or people throwing their litter or belching their smoke in the streets unless we are duly authorized to do so. In the same manner that we can't stop our Government leaders from declaring Martial Law or Killing their Political opponents collectively - simply because we have no power over it.

Which brings to mind Rizal's words... the pen is mightier than the sword. I do not possess goons, gold nor guns to do this battle. I am waging war against the crime - and not the people behind it.

I don't mean to make this article sounding like an open letter, but if thats where the thought is leading it... and so be it.

Ever noticed how short lived peoples memory is?... is it because they are too desensitized due to the fact that they are watching too much noon-time shows, tele novelas or gossip channels? Or is this just the nature or culture of people?

Typhhon Ketsana or Ondoys experience is a wake up call. I have seen it coming for more than a year before it happened, but I was branded a doomsday prophet once by my kin and I don't want to play that role anymore.

For some reason, I feel that our leaders are just turning green because they are mandated by the New - World Order. NWO don't care about the environment, they are merely riding on this train and slowly claimed it to be theirs. It doesn't matter for as long as it can benefit the whole majority.

At any rate, the Global Climate change issue was long undermined since this is solely existing between learned scientists 3 decades ago. This motley group was alarmed with the drastic uptrend curve of the mean temperature of the earth for the last 100 years. In my opinion, it was sparked by the industrial revolution.

Some people said that if Leonardo Da Vincis works or books had been published earlier, civilization would have have advanced or the industrial revolution would have taken place 600 years earlier.

I guess everything indeed happens for a reason.

I believe - Da Vinci knew that would happen and therefore, he never published his notes.

Going back to the main issue, if only, our leaders would be more in depth with what is really happening around them and if only if they are sensitive to what is really happening to the planet, they would have made perfect leaders.

A good analogy is a ships Captain... For what good is he to his crew if he doesn't know where to bring the whole ship for safety?

I hope this brings some enlightenment to whom it may concern. There is much to say in details, but we have enough scientists to report on this. I am merely advocating in my very limited ways.

Have a good weather everyone. May we have more enlightened souls in the Government, not just our country... but the rest of the world.

Climate Justice Campaign theme song

Reviving the song Beds are burning by the Midnight Oil... and making it sound similar to the World Aids Day Campaign... using it to promote Climate Justice for the Copenhagen conference which starts Dec. 7, 2009.

Be an ally...

The next question is...

How do we make a stand?... clicking download this song will just register a vote in a website. Perhaps it can help.

This song can be downloaded from this link.

More on this site...

http://www.timeforclimatejustice.org./home/whatisclimatejustice

Midnight Oil - beds are burning - by alegamix

The time has come...

to take a stand...

The Facts a fact...

How can we dance when the earth is turning?

How do we sleep while our beds are burning?

The time has come to take a stand...

The time has come to pay our share.

This is a song that has been calling everyones attention one decade ago. It is still calling.

Desiderata

Desiderata in spanish...

Un Poema...

"Desiderata" by Max Ehrmann

I have always lived by these words...

I felt the urge of sharing this to all who are reading my blogs... specially this one.

My reflection about this is... if we all live by these words... we will definitely have ... a beautiful world.

The author came from Indiana. He wrote "Desiderata" at the age of 55, which made him famous, but only after his death. It means a list of desirable items.

Science in Society

ISIS Report 02/12/09
Science in Society #44 Letters to the Editor
##################################

Note: comments to every article are now possible on ISIS’
website. The letters here were submitted separately, and
include only a tiny selection of the comments. Do read the
rest on www.i-sis.org.uk

Beware the one-sided biochar

Your Beware the Biochar Initiative (SiS 44) seems one-sided.
Biofuels took off as a way to remove dumped subsidised US
and EU crops from the global market, and would never have
happened without huge taxpayer subsidies. But biochar is
different. While biofuels are burned and returned to the
atmosphere, biochar is not burned. The only truly economic
biochar is produced by small farmers and doesn’t seek to
derive bio-oils or bio-gas for energy; that only pays with
huge subsidies.

The increased yields and reduced nitrate use from biochar-
enriched soils contributes to CO2 removal from the
atmosphere and reduced nitrous oxide emissions.

You have very selectively quoted the Biofuelswatch research
analysis which only focuses on the few cases where biochar
has not shown significant benefits – there is a book called
‘Biochar for Environmental Management’ that covers all the
science to date. Research is going on all over the world to
establish how biochar performs in different soils under
different climate conditions. There is no ‘one size fits
all’ with anything agricultural. For example, biochar from
coffee or cacao shading thinnings and prunings from vines,
olives, tea, apples, nuts, and other agricultural tree crops
extracts value from woody biomass that are now either burned
in the open or left to rot. Furthermore, 130 years is a long
time to get a small amount of oxidisation.

If biochar is subsidised in the way the biofuels have been,
in flagrant disregard of the carbon economics of biofuels
production, then your predictions of disaster will be
justified. But we believe that Nicholas Stern’s call for
‘equitable and universal’ carbon accounting at Copenhagen
will ensure that biochar is treated equally with other forms
of carbon sequestration and the horrendous distortions
caused by subsidising biofuels won’t happen again. Right now
if you burn biochar you get a subsidy equal to double its
energy value as electricity, if you use it as a soil
amendment you get nothing. A more supportive approach from
responsible scientists in favour of blocking subsidies for
biomass-derived fuels would do a lot more good.

Craig Sams, Chair of Soil Association, Bristol, UK

I am glad you pointed out the problems associated with the
big Biochar Initiative (Beware the Biochar Initiative, SiS
44). I am against all industrial scales - be it
agricultural, technical or science. Also, I am opposed to
every kind of colonialism and biofuels.

I am especially interested in making fertile soils out of
barren ones and keeping them fertile for a long time. I
thought about researching compost systems that include
manure and charcoal. The charcoal may then retain the
nutrients (from the manure) and give home to mycorrhiza,
apart from probably other things that it can do. By
composting organic material grown in my fields, I also
release a lot of oxidized carbon into the air. So I could as
well make charcoal out of some of it without doing too much
harm. Is that right?

Birgit Seyr, Innsbruck, Austria

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho replies

I don't disagree with much of what Craig Sam says. The
problem is the scale at which the International Biochar
Initative wants to do it, to capture huge Clean Development
subsidies while offering a false and dangerous solution. I
reviewed a lot of research done by the proponents, and very
little from Biofuelwatch, when it comes to science. I
haven't even quoted all the negative results, concentrating
on those done by the chief proponents themselves. Where I do
agree withBiofuelWatch is regarding the terrible social
consequences of land grab for bioenergy crops, whether for
biofuels or biochar; and the industrial processes are
designed to blur that distinction. Biochar as practiced by
small farmers, and indeed by the Amazonian Indians that
created terra preta, may be sustainable and beneficial,
depending on the local environmental and soil conditions. In
arid conditions, for example, biochar generated naturally
simply gets burnt up before they have a chance to decay.

You are right to criticise the system that rewards biofuels
with subsidies. That’s why those subsidies should be
removed; it is not a reason for subsidising biochar. In any
case, experience teaches us that it is only the big
producers that will capture the subsidies, not family
farmers. The carbon trading scheme simply transfers the
burden of reducing CO2 emissions from the developed to
developing countries, and is best abolished. Instead,
developed nations should offer genuine financial and
technological help to developing countries that are bearing
the brunt of climate change (see our Green Energies report,
ISIS publication).

Good, independent research on the subject is to be welcomed.
The experiment suggested by Bergit Seyr is excellent.
Neither biofuel nor biochar is harmful on a small local
sustainable scale for local communities. But we should never
allow big plantations on illusory ‘spare land’.

Read the rest of the letters to the editors from SIS44 here
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/SIS44lettersToTheEditor.php
========================================================
This article can be found on the I-SIS website at
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/SIS44lettersToTheEditor.php

Power to the People, 100% Renewables by 2050

Being 100 percent renewable and green is good, regardless of
whether you believe in climate change. It solves our energy
problem, puts people back in control, and gives us a
cleaner, safer, healthier environment. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

Launch of Green Energies - 100% Renewable by 2050 [1], 25
November 2009, Jubilee Room, House of Commons, Westminster,
London, UK.

The presentation can be downloaded here (PDF of the
powerpoint presentation)
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/onlinestore/lectures.php#291

Power to the people in all senses of the word

We are thrilled to have such strong recommendations for our
report. Alan Simpson MP, special advisor to UK Secretary of
State for Energy and Climate calls it [2] “a road map for
survival” and “the get out of jail” card for Britain and
many other countries for avoiding “climate chaos”. Chee
Yokeling, Director of Third World Network, says [3] “it is
just what world governments need to renew their commitment
to the UN Convention on Climate Change.” That alone tells us
there is nothing to divide the peoples of the developed and
developing world as far as renewable energies and saving the
climate is concerned.

What we need is to restore power to the people in all senses
of the word ‘power’, through a commitment to 100 percent
renewable energies by 2050. This is realistic, much more so
than the non-renewable options favoured by the UK and other
governments, and much more affordable.

Renewable energy is inexhaustible energy that does not run
out. Moreover, it is free; once you install your own
equipment to capture it, no one can meter it, if you don’t
want them to, or cut off your supply. It is in principle
available to all, so there is no need to fight over it. We,
the people, are in control.

Being renewable is not enough. It has to be green, which
means also being environmentally friendly, healthy, safe,
non-polluting, and sustainable. Sustainable needs more
comment as it has been hi-jacked too often to mean just the
opposite.

Being sustainable is to endure for hundreds or thousands of
years like natural ecosystems, thanks to a circular economy
of reciprocity and cooperation that renews and regenerates
the whole [4] (The Rainbow And The Worm, ISIS publication).
It is just the opposite of the dominant neo-liberal economy
driven by competition and exploitation that has brought the
planet and its inhabitants to the brink of irreversible
catastrophe, not to mention the actual financial collapse
[5] (see Financing Poverty, SiS 40).

Therefore it is important to modify Bruntland’s definition
of sustainability as follows: to use natural resources
responsibly and equitably, to meet the needs of all in the
present without compromising the needs of future generation.
This makes sense, as truly green and renewable energies are
freely available to all in any case.

Unfortunately, our political leaders are overwhelmingly
blind to these simple facts. They are committed to the neo-
liberal paradigm, and held to ransom by big business. Truly
green renewable energies that give power to the people do
not leave enough profit to satisfy greedy big business!

That‘s why the Copenhagen summit is collapsing before it
begins. Big business and big governments are fighting people
to prevent them taking power, and fighting one another to
get a larger slice of the power pie.

Read the rest of this article here
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/PTTP100PCR.php

The presentation can be downloaded here (PDF of the
powerpoint presentation)
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/onlinestore/lectures.php#291

Other lecture downloads are available here
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/onlinestore/lectures.php
========================================================
This article can be found on the I-SIS website at
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/PTTP100PCR.php