PES Films

PES is an artist who makes incredibly clever, stop-motion video.  One called Fresh Guacamole was nominated for an Academy Award.  My favorite is called The Deep.

Way to go, PES. You're a creative force of nature.

Here is a link to PES Films... http://www.eatpes.com/

Top 10 Policies for a Steady-State Economy

Anybody who is paying attention knows that the economic engine that makes the global economy go has gone off the tracks.    It's too many people and too few resources, combined with the corrosive impact of the current predatory brand of market capitalism.  We live in a world where the super-rich and giant corporations use their money and influence to put their own interests first. The current market economic model serves the few at the expense of the many. We are squandering the planet's limited natural resources.  Our operating system needs a serious upgrade to one in which the needs of people - all people - are in balance with the planet's ability to provide.

Economist Herman Daly has long been a beacon for a steady-state economy, which is exactly what is required to balance a broadly realized quality of life for humanity with the enduring needs of our earth's natural systems. The article below by Herman Daly offers a clear prescription for reshaping our regulatory framework to foster a steady-state way of life.  It's not complicated. A number of European nations are already on this life affirming road. Norway, Denmark, and Sweden are prime examples.  

The impediments to achieving a steady-state paradigm  are entirely political.  Our current system is mired in corruption. The first step to a life-affirming, steady-state economy is a Constitutional Amendment that declares that corporations are not people, and that  'Personhood' is s status given only to 'flesh and blood' humans. Further, this amendment must declare that money is not the same as speech.  Blunting these two morally bankrupt legal constructs will go a long way toward restoring 'of, by, and for' the people to our democracy.

The good news is a group called Move to Amend is aggressively promoting just such a Constitutional change.

 I urge the visitor to read the article pasted in below. If you want to encourage a world that works for future generations, Herman Daly's 'Top Ten Policies' are a very good place to start.

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Top 10 Policies for a Steady-State Economy

Posted By Herman Daly On October 28, 2013 @ 9:00 pm In Economic Growth,Economic Policy,Environment,Herman Daly,Jobs and Employment,Money and Investments,Population,Poverty Alleviation,Steady State Economy,Sustainability | 2 Comments

by Herman Daly

Let’s get specific. Here are ten policies for ending uneconomic growth ^[1] and moving to a steady-state economy. A steady-state economy is one that develops qualitatively (by improvement in science, technology, and ethics) without growing quantitatively in physical dimensions; it lives on a diet — a constant metabolic flow of resources from depletion to pollution (the entropic throughput) maintained at a level that is both sufficient for a good life and within the assimilative and regenerative capacities of the containing ecosystem.

Ten is an arbitrary number — just a way to get specific and challenge others to suggest improvements. Although the whole package here discussed fits together in the sense that some policies supplement and balance others, most of them could be adopted singly and gradually.

1. Cap-auction-trade systems for basic resources. Caps limit biophysical scale by quotas on depletion or pollution, whichever is more limiting. Auctioning the quotas captures scarcity rents for equitable redistribution. Trade allows efficient allocation to highest uses. This policy has the advantage of transparency. There is a limit to the amount and rate of depletion and pollution that the economy can be allowed to impose on the ecosystem. Caps are physical quotas, limits to the throughput of basic resources, especially fossil fuels. The quota usually should be applied at the input end because depletion is more spatially concentrated than pollution and hence easier to monitor. Also the higher price of basic resources will induce their more economical use at each upstream stage of production, as well as at the final stages of consumption and recycling. Ownership of the quotas is initially public — the government periodically auctions them to individuals and firms. There should be no “grandfathering” of quota rights to previous users, nor “offshoring” of quotas for new fossil fuel power plants in one by place by credits from planting trees somewhere else. Reforestation is a good policy on its own.  It is too late for self-canceling half measures — increased carbon sequestration and decreased emissions are both needed. The auction revenues go to the treasury and are used to replace regressive taxes, such as the payroll tax, and to reduce income tax on the lowest incomes. Once purchased at auction the quotas can be freely bought and sold by third parties, just as can the resources whose rate of depletion they limit. The cap serves the goal of sustainable scale; the auction serves the goal of fair distribution; and trading allows efficient allocation — three goals, three policy instruments. Although mainly applied to nonrenewable resources, the same logic works for limiting the off-take from renewable resources, such as fisheries and forests, with the quota level set to approximate a sustainable yield.


2. Ecological tax reform. Shift the tax base from value added (labor and capital) to “that to which value is added,” namely the entropic throughput of resources extracted from nature (depletion), and returned to nature (pollution). Such a tax shift prices the scarce but previously un-priced contribution of nature. Value added to natural resources by labor and capital is something we want to encourage, so stop taxing it. Depletion and pollution are things we want to discourage, so tax them. Payment above necessary supply price is rent, unearned income, and most economists have long advocated taxing it, both for efficiency and equity reasons. Ecological tax reform can be an alternative or a supplement to cap-auction-trade systems.


3. Limit the range of inequality in income distribution with a minimum income and a maximum income. Without aggregate growth poverty reduction requires redistribution. Unlimited inequality is unfair; complete equality is also unfair. Seek fair limits to the range of inequality. The civil service, the military, and the university manage with a range of inequality of a factor of 15 or 20. Corporate America has a range of 500 or more. Many industrial nations are below 25. Could we not limit the range to, say, 100, and see how it works? This might mean a minimum of 20 thousand dollars and a maximum of two million. Is that not more than enough to give incentive for hard work and compensate real differences? People who have reached the limit could either work for nothing at the margin if they enjoy their work, or devote their extra time to hobbies or public service. The demand left unmet by those at the top will be filled by those who are below the maximum. A sense of community, necessary for democracy, is hard to maintain across the vast income differences current in the United States. Rich and poor separated by a factor of 500 have few experiences or interests in common, and are increasingly likely to engage in violent conflict.


4. Free up the length of the working day, week, and year — allow greater option for part-time or personal work. Full-time external employment for all is hard to provide without growth. Other industrial countries have much longer vacations and maternity leaves than the United States. For the classical economists the length of the working day was a key variable by which the worker (self-employed yeoman or artisan) balanced the marginal disutility of labor with the marginal utility of income and of leisure so as to maximize enjoyment of life. Under industrialism the length of the working day became a parameter rather than a variable (and for Karl Marx was the key determinant of the rate of exploitation). We need to make it more of a variable subject to choice by the worker. Milton Friedman wanted “freedom to choose” — OK, here is an important choice most of us are not allowed to make! And we should stop biasing the labor-leisure choice by advertising to stimulate more consumption and more labor to pay for it. At a minimum advertising should no longer be treated as a tax-deductible expense of production.

5. Re-regulate international commerce — move away from free trade, free capital mobility, and globalization. Cap-auction-trade, ecological tax reform, and other national measures that internalize environmental costs will raise prices and put us at a competitive disadvantage in international trade with countries that do not internalize costs. We should adopt compensating tariffs to protect, not inefficient firms, but efficient national policies of cost internalization from standards-lowering competition with foreign firms that are not required to pay the social and environmental costs they inflict. This “new protectionism” is very different from the “old protectionism” that was designed to protect a truly inefficient domestic firm from a more efficient foreign firm. The first rule of efficiency is “count all the costs” — not “free trade,” which coupled with free capital mobility leads to a standards-lowering competition to count as few costs as possible. Tariffs are also a good source of public revenue. This will run afoul of the World Trade Organization/World Bank/International Monetary Fund, so….

 

Ten pieces of the policy puzzle for an earth-centric economy

 

 

6. Downgrade the WTO/WB/IMF. Reform these organizations based on something like Keynes’s original plan for a multilateral payments clearing union, charging penalty rates on surplus as well as deficit balances with the union — seek balance on current account, and thereby avoid large foreign debts and capital account transfers. For example, under Keynes’s plan the U.S. would pay a penalty charge to the clearing union for its large deficit with the rest of the world, and China would also pay a similar penalty for its surplus. Both sides of the imbalance would be pressured to balance their current accounts by financial penalties, and if need be by exchange rate adjustments relative to the clearing account unit, called the “bancor” by Keynes. The bancor would also serve as the world reserve currency, a privilege that should not be enjoyed by any national currency, including the U.S. dollar. Reserve currency status for the dollar is a benefit to the U.S. — rather like a truckload of free heroin is a benefit to an addict. The bancor would be like gold under the gold standard, only you would not have to tear up the earth to dig it out. Alternatively a regime of freely fluctuating exchange rates is a viable possibility requiring less international cooperation.


7. Move away from fractional reserve banking toward a system of 100% reserve requirements. This would put control of the money supply and seigniorage (profit made by the issuer of fiat money) in the hands of the government rather than private banks, which would no longer be able to live the alchemist’s dream by creating money out of nothing and lending it at interest. All quasi-bank financial institutions should be brought under this rule, regulated as commercial banks subject to 100% reserve requirements. Banks would earn their profit by financial intermediation only, lending savers’ money for them (charging a loan rate higher than the rate paid to savings or “time-account” depositors) and charging for checking, safekeeping, and other services. With 100% reserves every dollar loaned to a borrower would be a dollar previously saved by a depositor (and not available to him during the period of the loan), thereby re-establishing the classical balance between abstinence and investment. With credit limited by prior saving (abstinence from consumption) there will be less lending and borrowing and it will be done more carefully — no more easy credit to finance the massive purchase of “assets” that are nothing but bets on dodgy debts. To make up for the decline in bank-created, interest-bearing money the government can pay some of its expenses by issuing more non-interest-bearing fiat money. However, it can only do this up to a strict limit imposed by inflation. If the government issues more money than the public voluntarily wants to hold, the public will trade it for goods, driving the price level up. As soon as the price index begins to rise the government must print less and tax more. Thus a policy of maintaining a constant price index would govern the internal value of the dollar. The Treasury would replace the Fed, and the target policy variables would be the money supply and the price index, not the interest rate. The external value of the dollar could be left to freely fluctuating exchange rates (or preferably to the rate against the bancor in Keynes’s clearing union).


8. Stop treating the scarce as if it were free, and the free as if it were scarce. Enclose the remaining open-access commons of rival natural capital (e.g., the atmosphere, the electromagnetic spectrum, and public lands) in public trusts, and price them by cap-auction-trade systems, or by taxes.  At the same time, free from private enclosure and prices the non-rival commonwealth of knowledge and information. Knowledge, unlike the resource throughput, is not divided in the sharing, but multiplied. Once knowledge exists, the opportunity cost of sharing it is zero, and its allocative price should be zero. International development aid should more and more take the form of freely and actively shared knowledge, along with small grants, and less and less the form of large interest-bearing loans. Sharing knowledge costs little, does not create un-repayable debts, and increases the productivity of the truly rival and scarce factors of production. Patent monopolies (aka “intellectual property rights”) should be given for fewer “inventions,” and for fewer years. Costs of production of new knowledge should, more and more, be publicly financed and then the knowledge freely shared. Knowledge is a cumulative social product, and we have the discovery of the laws of thermodynamics, the double helix, polio vaccine, etc. without patent monopolies and royalties.


9. Stabilize population. Work toward a balance in which births plus in-migrants equals deaths plus out-migrants. This is controversial and difficult, but as a start contraception should be made available for voluntary use everywhere. And while each nation can debate whether it should accept many or few immigrants, and who should get priority, such a debate is rendered moot if immigration laws are not enforced. We should support voluntary family planning and enforcement of reasonable immigration laws, democratically enacted.


10. Reform national accounts — separate GDP into a cost account and a benefits account. Natural capital consumption and “regrettably necessary defensive expenditures” belong in the cost account. Compare costs and benefits of a growing throughput at the margin, and stop throughput growth when marginal costs equal marginal benefits. In addition to this objective approach, recognize the importance of the subjective studies that show that, beyond a threshold, further GDP growth does not increase self-evaluated happiness. Beyond a level already reached in many countries, GDP growth delivers no more happiness, but continues to generate depletion and pollution. At a minimum we must not just assume that GDP growth is economic growth, but prove that it is not uneconomic growth.

Currently these policies are beyond the pale politically. To the reader who has persevered this far, I thank you for your willing suspension of political disbelief. Only after a significant crash, a painful empirical demonstration of the failure of the growth economy, would this ten-fold program, or anything like it, stand a chance of being enacted.

To be sure, the conceptual change in vision from the norm of a growth economy to that of a steady-state economy is radical. Some of these proposals are rather technical and require more explanation and study. There is no escape from studying economics, even if, as Joan Robinson said, the main reason for it is to avoid being deceived by economists. Nevertheless, the policies required are far from revolutionary, and are subject to gradual application. For example, 100% reserve banking was advocated in the 1930s by the conservative Chicago School and can be approached gradually, the range of distributive inequality can be restricted gradually, caps can be adjusted gradually, etc. More importantly, these measures are based on the impeccably conservative institutions of private property and decentralized market allocation. The policies here advocated simply reaffirm forgotten pillars of those institutions, namely that: (1) private property loses its legitimacy if too unequally distributed; (2) markets lose their legitimacy if prices do not tell the truth about opportunity costs; and as we have more recently learned (3) the macro-economy becomes an absurdity if its scale is required to grow beyond the biophysical limits of the Earth.

Herman Daly

 

 

Well before reaching that radical biophysical limit, we are encountering the classical economic limit in which extra costs of growth become greater than the extra benefits, ushering in the era of uneconomic growth, whose very possibility is denied by the growthists. The inequality of wealth distribution has canceled out the traditional virtues of private property by bestowing nearly all benefits of growth to the top 1%, while generously sharing the costs of growth with the poor. Gross inequality, plus monopolies, subsidies, tax loopholes, false accounting, cost-externalizing globalization, and financial fraud have made market prices nearly meaningless as measures of opportunity cost. For example, a policy of near zero interest rates (quantitative easing) to push growth and bail out big banks has eliminated the interest rate as a measure of the opportunity cost of capital, thereby crippling the efficiency of investment. Trying to maintain the present growth-based Ponzi system is far more unrealistic than moving to a steady-state economy by something like the policies here outlined. It is probably too late to avoid unrealism’s inevitable consequences. But while we are hunkered down and unemployed, enduring the crash, we might think about the principles that should guide reconstruction.

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Article printed from Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy: http://steadystate.org

Mao's Last Dancer

A few years ago, a theatrical feature titled Mao's Last Dancer was released. It's the best feature film about classic dance that I've ever seen. It didn't last long in theaters, but that has nothing to do with the quality of the film..

Mao's Last Dancer is based on a true story.  It was directed by Bruce Beresford, who may be best known for his film, Driving Miss Daisy.

 Here is a link to the trailer for Mao's Last Dancer... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkgqA_fxas8

Jackson Katz on Gender Bias and Violence

I never heard of this guy, but I like what he says.  I found a link to his TED talk on Facebook.  Turns out his work is focused on training men in the military, on sports teams, in business, and in other venues to become leaders in standing up to gender bias and violence. His paradigm is simple, but also formidable.  He wants men in positions of power and influence to take the lead in calling out instances where women, or any other ethnic or gender category persons, are subjected to verbal abuse or violent behavior. 

Acting like a clueless prick doesn't take balls. The courage lies with those who stand up to that brand of mindless misanthropy. Let's face it, some women are jerks, but most jerks are male, and those jerks need to be called out when the step over the line. That's how the line gets redrawn.

Jackson Katz

Here is Jackson Katz's TED talk on gender bias and violence... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTvSfeCRxe8

In 17 States, More than Half the School Kids Are Poor

Think that's astonishing? Check out the map below.  It's amazing. All but a handful of states have  more than 40% of students living in households with incomes below 185% of the poverty level.  That's the official definition of what is considered poor in this country.  It's shameful, and so much of it is due to political neglect.  In Europe, almost no kids in school are considered poor. 

I was shocked but not surprised when I saw the report below.

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In 17 U.S. states, the majority of public school students are low-income. But the poverty isn’t distributed evenly across the country, according to a new report from Southern Education Foundation. Thirteen of the states are in the South, and the other four are in the West.

The situation is dire. Researchers measure the landscape by the numbers of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch, a rough proxy for gauging poverty. Students are eligible for free or reduced meals if their family household income is 185 percent beneath the poverty threshold. In 2011, a student from a single-parent home with an annual income of $26,956 or less would qualify for free or reduced lunch. In Mississippi, 71 percent of public school students qualify for free and reduced lunch. In New Mexico it’s 68 percent; in California 54; in Texas it’s 50 percent.
The recession that began in 2008 certainly exacerbated trends, but childhood poverty is a problem much older than the recession. Between 2001 and 2011, the numbers of children in public schools who classified as low-income grew 32 percent, or by some 5.7 million kids. As a result, by 2011 low-income students made up nearly half of all public school students.
While 30 percent of white students attend schools where the majority of students are low-income, 68 percent of Latino students attend schools classified as such. And 72 percent of black public school students go to schools where the majority of students are low-income.

The situation has serious implications for the educational futures of the nation’s youth, especially as budget-crisis-stricken cities and states are cutting first and deepest from their public schools.

From colorlines.com
Reporter - Julie Anne Hing

Here is a link to the full report...   http://www.southerneducation.org/Programs/P-12-Program/Early-Ed/NewMajority.aspx

My Portrait Photography

I've been interested in photography since I was a teenager.   I began pursuing it seriously only about six years ago. Photography is an art form that can be practiced in so many ways. It offers endless opportunity for creativity.

One of the fiction media projects I have been developing the last few years is about a larger-than-life photographer, who spends half his time doing risky adventure photography, the other half in the high end world of fashion and glamour.   Much of my photography work in recent times has focused on portrait work.  I've been fortunate to have the opportunity to work with some very fine models.

Here are some of my portrait images...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dancers Among Us

Clumsiness comes easy to me. It also helps me to appreciate the grace and beauty of people who dance for a living. It's takes discipline, talent, and perseverance to be a dancer.  I just ran across a photographer - Jordan Matter - who has created a unique platform to capture dancer's being who they are in one interesting place after another.  It started as a book titled, Dancers Among Us.   This book has morphed into a media franchise.  There are now multiple Dancers Among Us books, calendars,  and videos featuring dancers doing what they do in many places around the world.

Here is a link to Jordan Matter's very appealing website... http://www.dancersamongus.com/index

Here is a link to a video that showcases Dancer's Among Us... http://vimeo.com/76484966

Hyundai's Hydrogen Fuel Cell Farm

Hyundai Motor Company is on the leading edge of fuel cell technology for automobiles.  They are the first to put FC cars into production on an assembly line.

Hyundai Fuel Cell SUV

This week, Hyundai is opening an exhibit in London, U.K. called the Hyundai Fuel Cell Farm.

The Europeans will be the first to put hydrogen powered vehicles on the road in large numbers, and Hyundai is one of the companies that is leading the way.

Here is a link to Hyundai's  Fuel Cell Farm website... http://www.hyundai.co.uk/about-us/environment/hydrogen-fuel-cell?goback=%2Egde_137901_member_5797067451594190851#fuel_cell_farm





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Legalize Democracy

Here is a new video produced by Move to Amend that explains why it is critical to our democracy that we have a Constitutional Amendment that ends the sham of 'corporate
personhood' and also ends the corrupt legal construct that claims money is equal to speech.

Here is a link to Move to Amend's  new video, 'Legalize Democracy'...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDaPMU8LbIY&feature=youtu.be

Deganawida -The Great Peacemaker

Who is the greatest American most people never heard of?  If you ask me, that person is Deganawida, the native American spiritual leader who inspired the creation of the great Iroquois Confederacy. The binding laws of the Iroquois Confederacy provided much inspiration for Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin,  and their co-creators of the U.S. Constitution. 




Etching of Deganaweda

Deganawida is thought to have been born sometime in the 13th or 14th century.  What is known about him is imprecise because it all comes via oral history.  He was born into the Onondaga, or also possibly the  Mohawk tribes, both of which are indigenous to New York state, and the surrounding region. At the time of Deganawida's birth, the native American tribes in that region had a long history of bloody, intertribal warfare.  

Deganawida was a prophet.  Along with his disciple Hiawatha, he provided the vision and leadership that replaced confrontation and war with cooperation and friendship among six tribal nations, which became known as The Great Iroquois Confederacy. This Indian confederacy was quite possibly the first true democracy in the history of humanity.  The tribes that made up the confederacy were the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, Tuscarora, and Cayuga.  Together, they came to be known in native language as Haudenosaunee, which in English is the Iroquois Confederacy.

Deganawida's vision provided a powerful place for women in the process of governance. In the structure of the confederacy, the clans that made up each of the tribes were led by male elders, who were elected by the clan's women.  Decisions were made with thoughtful consideration for future generations.

Were credit given where credit is due,  the Iroquois Confederacy would be recognized in history books as a prime inspiration for the Constitution of the United States.  Moreover,  we might be celebrating  Deganawida, the Great Peacemaker with a national holiday in October instead of a brutal thug named Columbus.

Christopher Columbus - Black-Hearted Thug

Every October in the U.S., we have a national holiday honoring Christopher Columbus,   allegedly for having 'discovered America'.  When I was about six years old, I remember doing a school class play that honored Columbus' exploits. 

The myth about Columbus has little resemblance to the truth.

Columbus didn't discover America.  There were millions indigenous people here when Columbus showed up in 1492.

In reality, Columbus was a brutal thug.  Tens of thousands of Native American people  were murdered, and enslaved by Columbus and those that followed him from Europe  A million or more natives died terrible deaths from small pox and other diseases Columbus and his followers brought with them, for which the local people had no physiological immunity. Columbus is directly guilty of torture, murder, and turning children into sex slaves.  The truth is found in his own journals.

For many years, I have known, more or less, the real story of Columbus.   He was a plundering scumbag.  The disgraceful reality behind the myth of America's founder has long resided below my personal radar.  

A few days ago,  I stumbled across a very compelling article exposing the truth about Columbus in a blog called The Oatmeal.  It turns out, Columbus Day wasn't even a national holiday until 1930, when the Knight's of Columbus, a Catholic men's organization pressured congress into declaring a national holiday honoring Columbus.  As The Oatmeal points out, giving Columbus a national holiday, in the same way Washington, Lincoln, and Martin Luther King are honored, is a monstrous travesty.

If it were up to me, I would remove Columbus' name from that holiday in October. In its place, I would declare a national holiday in honor of the indigenous people of North America. I might call it, Peacemaker Day after the greatest American, who most people don't know about. If yon't know who I'm talking about, check this blog tomorrow.

Here is a link to The Oatmeal's excellent reflection on the shame of naming a national holiday after one of history's most cruel and rapacious evil doers... http://theoatmeal.com/comics/columbus_day

The graphic below comes from Occupy Portland's Facebook page.

Time to Get Real About Hemp

Hemp is another word that refers to the Cannabis plant. Some people also call it 'weed'.  Marijuana is one kind of hemp that works as a natural mood stimulant. People can get high assimilating it into their bodies. 

It wasn't always a crime to be caught with hemp, marijuana, weed; whatever you want to call it. Up until the early 1930s, hemp was a commonly prescribed medicine and was used in many other ways. That changed when William Randolph Hearst of the Hearst Publishing empire decided to vilify hemp by planting false stories in his newspapers to whip up public hysteria against it.  As a consequence, Congress voted to define all varieties of the hemp plant as a dangerous narcotic and made it a felony crime to grow or to use hemp in any way. What was Hearst's motivation for using his influence to get hemp outlawed?  It appears Hearst's liquor and cigarette advertisers were likely behind the criminalization of cannabis. Their motivation was not complicated. They simply didn't want marijuana competing with cigarettes and alcohol for the public's recreational stimulant dollars.  Bottom line: for the last 80 years, all varieties of cannabis have been classified as illegal narcotics.

The psychoactive chemical group found in some varieties of hemp that make them a narcotic stimulant  is called THC or tetra-hydro-cannabinol.  THC is found in moderate to high concentration in varieties of hemp grown for use as mood stimulants. 

There are many varieties of hemp that have extremely low amounts of THC, making them totally useless for narcotic stimulation.  These are categorized by the term, industrial hemp. Despite that, the law makes no distinction.  Even the industrial varieties of hemp are illegal under the law. 

Industrial hemp grows quickly, and requires very little fertilizer. Hemp is also sometimes called 'grass',  possibly because, like a lawn, it's a perennial that can be harvested over and over.  As an agriculture crop, hemp has high value because the cost to grow it is low and the value of a harvest is relatively high.  When I say 'high', I'm not making a pun.  The value of industrial hemp is high because it can be converted for use in so many ways.  Hemp plant fibers are strong,  making them useful for making paper, textiles, and even building materials.  Hemp oil is useful for nutritional supplements, and for making many kinds of food products. The graphic below provides a sense of the many ways hemp can be useful to society.

 

 

In many countries, industrial hemp is grown legally. In the U.S.,  there is a Federal ban on growing industrial hemp. But it is legal for clothing, food supplements and other products made from hemp to be imported to the U.S. from other countries.  

 

Canada lifted its ban preventing farmers from growing industrial hemp a few years ago.  

 

Just this past week, legislation was passed in California lifting the ban on the state's farmers growing industrial hemp.  Other states appear ready to take the same legislative leap forward. 

 

Right now, most paper products are made from cellulose fiber harvested from trees.  It takes time to grow a tree.  The amount of paper fiber that could be produced using hemp, or other fast growing farm crops like kanef or switch grass, is much greater than can be obtained from slower growing tree crops.

 

 

If I was a farmer, I would seriously consider putting some of my cropland into the production of industrial hemp.  Low cost to produce, high potential crop demand.  What's not to like about that. 

 

 

 

Here is a link for a trade organization pressing to lift restrictions on industrial hemp production.... http://www.industrialhemp.net/

 

 

Last Hours

Here is a ten minute video narrated by Thom Hartmann.  It highlights the 6th great earth extinction event.  The one that hasn't happened yet, but has become a plausible, near term event, driven by our mindless addiction to coal, oil, and other fossil forms of energy. Unless you are completely numb to scientifically verified reality, this one will scare the crap out of you

Here is a link to Last Hours...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRGVTK-AAvw

Elizabeth Warren for President

I believe in Elizabeth Warren. When I look at all the personalities practicing politics in America,  I see no other that is her equal. She's smart. She's courageous.  She's  honorable and caring.

I admire Senator Warren.  In 2016,  I very much hope she runs for President. We desperately need her brand of compassionate, no nonsense leadership.

This video just popped up of Senator Warren standing tall against the morally bankrupt, bullshit slinging of the political right...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTxWMkW8s_c

This Says It All...

Wild Otter Wants to Play

I have a soft spot for otters. They always seem to have time for fun.  Being playful is in their DNA.

Here is a link to a You Tube video of an inquisitive young otter... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY3NJFfDB1M

U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Down 11% Since 2007

Most often, the news is gloomy where our stewardship of the Earth is concerned, but here's a bit of encouraging news.  Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a pollutant generated by the burning of fossil, hydrocarbon fuels like coal and oil in power plants and for transportation. In the last six years,  the annual dumping of CO2 into the atmosphere in the U.S. has gone down by eleven percent.   That is a noteworthy and encouraging change.

The piece below tells the story in more detail.

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October 02, 2013

 

U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Down 11 Percent Since 2007

 

Emily E. Adams

 

Carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels in the United States peaked at more than 1.6 billion tons of carbon in 2007. Since then they have fallen 11 percent, dropping to over 1.4 billion tons in 2013, according to estimates from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Emissions shrank rapidly during the recession, then bounced back slightly as the economy recovered. But shifting market conditions, pollution regulations, and changing behaviors are also behind the decline.

Oil is the largest source of carbon emissions in the United States. After a steep drop following the 1979 oil crisis, emissions from oil climbed steadily until 2005, when they peaked at 715 million tons of carbon. Since then, these emissions have fallen by 14 percent, or 101 million tons of carbon—the equivalent of taking 77 million cars off the road. (See data.)

Oil is mostly used for transportation, so vehicle fuel efficiency and the number of miles driven determine the amount of emissions. On both fronts things are improving. Average fuel efficiency, which had been deteriorating for years in the United States, started to increase in 2005 and keeps getting better. Americans are traveling farther on each gallon of gas than ever before.
Furthermore, people are driving less. For many years Americans as a group drove billions more miles each year than the previous one. But in 2007 this changed. Now more cars stay parked because more people live in urban areas, opt for public transit, work remotely, or retire and thus no longer commute to work.

Coal—the dirtiest fossil fuel—has dominated the U.S. power grid, but its grip has weakened in recent years. As the price of natural gas has fallen, utilities are dropping coal. They are also deciding to retire old, inefficient coal plants and invest elsewhere rather than pay for retrofits in order to meet increasingly stringent pollution regulations.
Strong grassroots work, too, is helping to close the curtain on coal even faster. The Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, which coordinates efforts across the country to retire old plants and prevent new ones from being built, tallies 149 coal plants that plan to retire or switch fuels out of more than 500. As falling natural gas prices, pollution regulations, and shrinking electricity demand reduce coal use, U.S. carbon emissions from coal have fallen 20 percent from their peak in 2005.

Meanwhile, natural gas consumption for electricity generation and heating has increased. Carbon dioxide emissions from burning natural gas hit an all-time high of 373 million tons of carbon in 2012, up 17 percent above 2006 levels. They are projected to remain at that level in 2013. Natural gas emits about half as much carbon dioxide per unit of energy as coal does. With domestic production on the rise, the share of carbon emissions from natural gas are likely to continue to increase.

But electricity does not have to come with a huge carbon hangover. Wind and solar power—carbon-free energy sources with no fuel costs—have been taking off. U.S. wind power capacity has more than tripled since 2007 and now produces enough energy to power over 15 million homes in the United States. Solar power capacity, starting from a smaller base, increased 14-fold in the same time period. Although wind and solar power currently account for only a small share of total energy production, their prices will continue to drop as deployment increases. In some areas wind is already cheaper than coal. This is just the beginning of reductions in carbon dioxide emissions as the explosive growth of wind and solar power cuts down the use of dirty fossil fuels.

The switch to renewables cannot come soon enough. Accumulating greenhouse gas emissions from the United States and other countries have led to a global temperature increase of 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius) since the Industrial Revolution. Higher emissions will lead to higher temperatures that will bring more heat waves, melting glaciers, and rising sea levels. In 2009, President Obama set a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. Putting a price on carbon would help accelerate the trends that are cutting the United States’ carbon contribution and allow the country to exceed this goal.   

For more information on the U.S. transition to wind power, see “Iowa and South Dakota Approach 25 Percent Electricity from Wind in 2012,” by J. Matthew Roney.

Copyright © 2013 Earth Policy Institute


 

IPSO State of Our Oceans 2013

This report on the perilous condition of the world's oceans just came out yesterday.  When I read something like this - which is based on unimpeachable science - I ask myself, what is it going to take to restore sanity and put humanity on a corrective course. Right now, many of our elected leaders are pathologically indifferent to the damage we are doing. 

The Earth is our nest. It is the only one we have. We need to start taking proper care of it.

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Published on Thursday, October 3, 2013 by Common Dreams

Human Assault Pushes Ocean to Limit Unseen in 300 Million Years

'We are entering an unknown territory of marine ecosystem change,' warns report. 'The next mass extinction may have already begun.'

- Jon Queally, staff writer

The news, the evidence that supports it, and the warning that accompanies it could hardly be more dire.

 

The latest audit by an international team of marine scientists at the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) found that the world's oceans and marine life are facing an unprecedented threat by combination of industrial pollution, human-driven global warming and climate change, and continued and rampant overfishing.

According to the report, The State of the Ocean 2013: Perils, Prognoses and Proposals, the degradation of the ocean ecosystem means that its role as Earth’s ‘buffer’ is being seriously compromised. As a result, the authors of the report call for "urgent remedies" because the "rate, speed, and impacts of change in the global ocean are greater, faster, and more imminent than previously thought."

"[Last week's] UN climate report confirmed that the ocean is bearing the brunt of human-induced changes to our planet. These findings give us more cause for alarm – but also a roadmap for action. We must use it." -Prof. Dan Laffoley, IUCN

Driven by accumulations of carbon, the scientists found, the rate of acidification in the oceans is the highest its been in over 300 million years. Additionally, de-oxygenation--caused by both warming and industrial runoff--is stripping the ocean of its ability to support the plants and animals that live in it.

The combined stressors, according to the report, are "unprecedented in the Earth's known history. We are entering an unknown territory of marine ecosystem change, and exposing organisms to intolerable evolutionary pressure. The next mass extinction may have already begun."

Professor Alex Rogers of Somerville College, Oxford, and Scientific Director of IPSO said: “The health of the ocean is spiraling downwards far more rapidly than we had thought. We are seeing greater change, happening faster, and the effects are more imminent than previously anticipated. The situation should be of the gravest concern to everyone since everyone will be affected by changes in the ability of the ocean to support life on Earth.”
Among the report's comprehensive findings, the panel identified the following areas as of greatest cause for concern:

• De-oxygenation: the evidence is accumulating that the oxygen inventory of the ocean is progressively declining. Predictions for ocean oxygen content suggest a decline of between 1% and 7% by 2100. This is occurring in two ways: the broad trend of decreasing oxygen levels in tropical oceans and areas of the North Pacific over the last 50 years; and the dramatic increase in coastal hypoxia (low oxygen) associated with eutrophication. The former is caused by global warming, the second by increased nutrient runoff from agriculture and sewage. 

• Acidification: If current levels of CO2 release continue we can expect extremely serious consequences for ocean life, and in turn food and coastal protection; at CO2 concentrations of 450-500 ppm (projected in 2030-2050) erosion will exceed calcification in the coral reef building process, resulting in the extinction of some species and decline in biodiversity overall. 

• Warming: As made clear by the IPCC, the ocean is taking the brunt of warming in the climate system, with direct and well-documented physical and biogeochemical consequences. The impacts which continued warming is projected to have in the decades to 2050 include: reduced seasonal ice zones, including the disappearance of Arctic summer sea ice by ca. 2037; increasing stratification of ocean layers, leading to oxygen depletion; increased venting of the GHG methane from the Arctic seabed (a factor not considered by the IPCC); and increased incidence of anoxic and hypoxic (low oxygen) events. 

• The ‘deadly trio’ of the above three stressors - acidification, warming and deoxygenation - is seriously effecting how productive and efficient the ocean is, as temperatures, chemistry, surface stratification, nutrient and oxygen supply are all implicated, meaning that many organisms will find themselves in unsuitable environments. These impacts will have cascading consequences for marine biology, including altered food web dynamics and the expansion of pathogens.

• Continued overfishing is serving to further undermine the resilience of ocean systems, and contrary to some claims, despite some improvements largely in developed regions, fisheries management is still failing to halt the decline of key species and damage to the ecosystems on which marine life depends. In 2012 the UN FAO determined that 70% of world fish populations are unsustainably exploited, of which 30% have biomass collapsed to less than 10% of unfished levels. A recent global assessment of compliance with Article 7 (fishery management) of the 1995 FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, awarded 60% of countries a “fail” grade, and saw no country identified as being overall “good”.

Regarding the urgency of the crisis, the marine scientists issued a stark warning to world governments, called on leaders to take immediate action, and offered the following steps they said "must" be taken:

• Reduce global C02 emissions to limit temperature rise to less than 2oC, or below 450 CO2e. Current targets for carbon emission reductions are insufficient in terms of ensuring coral reef survival and other biological effects of acidification, especially as there is a time lag of several decades between atmospheric CO2 and CO2 dissolved in the ocean. Potential knock-on effects of climate change in the ocean, such as methane release from melting permafrost, and coral dieback, mean the consequences for human and ocean life could be even worse than presently calculated. 

• Ensure effective implementation of community- and ecosystem-based management, favouring small-scale fisheries. Examples of broad-scale measures include introducing true co-management with resource adjacent communities, eliminating harmful subsidies that drive overcapacity, protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems, banning the most destructive fishing gear, and combating IUU fishing. 

• Build a global infrastructure for high seas governance that is fit-for-purpose. Most importantly, secure a new implementing agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction under the auspices of UNCLOS.

In response to the IPSO study that arrived just one week after the IPCC report on climate change which also highlighted the threat of global warming to the oceans, Professor Dan Laffoley, of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said: “What these latest reports make absolutely clear is that deferring action will increase costs in the future and lead to even greater, perhaps irreversible, losses. The UN climate report confirmed that the ocean is bearing the brunt of human-induced changes to our planet. These findings give us more cause for alarm – but also a roadmap for action. We must use it."


 

Portland, Oregon - Our Home

In 2005,  my wife Jenny and I decided it was time to get out of Southern California.  We were fortunate. We had reached a point in life that allowed us to choose where we wanted to live. We considered a number of possibilities, including a return to Seattle, and the Flathead River Valley in Montana.  After a lot of thought, we choose to relocate to Oregon.  Definitely, one of the best decisions we've ever made.

Portland,  Oregon

We now live on the west side of Portland, less than ten minutes by light rail transit from downtown.

Portland is a beautiful city, surrounded by farmland, mountains, and the amazing natural beauty of Columbia Gorge. Just over an hour away, we have the Oregon Pacific Ocean coastline. 

Beyond the beautiful vistas, Portland is a place that has its own quirky, cultural charm. How many cities have inspired a TV series?  We have Portlandia, a weekly dose of silly fun that showcases the city's unique character.



Here is a link to a new promotional video for the city of Portland,  Oregon...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fMJ_JwGc_g#t=32

Threshold: The Crisis of Western Culture

I have been a fan of Thom Hartmann for close to two decades. He writes about what is wrong with America and what needs to happen to make it right. He does it eloquently, persuasively, courageously.

I just finished Threshold, the fifth book I've read by Hartmann.  I admire the man tremendously. 

 

 

 

Many well-meaning  people are toiling in the trenches to make a difference on a broad range of global scale challenges. Though many of these issues are unprecedented, climate change being just one example, they are really symptoms of a broken human culture, largely disconnected from the  natural world. Thom Hartmann cuts to the core. He focuses on  the bloated brand of legalized bribery that has perverted our political system. He makes the case that our system of governance has been hijacked by multi-national corporations  and the super rich,  who use their wealth and undue influence to shape public policy for their own narrow interests.   Corporate conservatives employ two morally bankrupt legal constructs to get away with their pathological behavior...

1. Money is treated as a form of speech under U.S. law, which allows the rich and powerful to use their wealth to pervert our political process.  

2. Corporations are considered 'persons' under the law,  giving them 'rights' that should be reserved for human citizens.

In Threshold, Thom Hartmann offers a thoughtful curative prescription for restoring democracy to America; a genuine democracy built on a foundation of compassion, inclusiveness, reconnection with nature, and  governance that is accountable to all citizens rather than a privileged few.

Five stars for Threshold.  Another powerful, enlightening, life affirming book by an author whose work illuminates a pathway to a sustainable future worthy of our best human instincts.


Thom Hartmann is the progressive radio antidote to the bilge spouted daily by right-wing radio icon, Rush Limbaugh. 

Thom Hartmann's weekday radio talk show can be heard at his website...  http://www.thomhartmann.com/tv/watch

Grocery Stores Without Bees

Found this piece on the net. We depend on bees to pollinate the plants that provide much of our food. Bees and other beneficial insects are in big trouble. Very likely, our use of dangerously toxic pesticides and herbicides has a lot to do with it. Yet another example of how out of step we humans are with the rhythms of nature. It doesn't have to bee that way.

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PROVIDENCE, R.I., June 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- One of every three bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honeybees and other pollinators. Yet, major declines in bee populations threaten the availability of many fresh ingredients consumers rely on for their dinner tables.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130612/DA27199)

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121015/DA92273LOGO)

To raise awareness of just how crucial pollinators are to our food system, the University Heights Whole Foods Market store temporarily removed all produce that comes from plants dependent on pollinators. They pulled from shelves 237 of 453 products – 52 percent of the department's normal product mix.

Products removed included:

• Apples
• Onions
• Avocados
• Carrots
• Mangos
• Lemons
• Limes
• Honeydew
• Cantaloupe
• Zucchini
• Summer squash
• Eggplant
• Cucumbers
• Celery
• Green onions
• Cauliflower
• Leeks
• Bok choy
• Kale
• Broccoli
• Broccoli rabe
• Mustard greens

 

"Pollinators are a critical link in our food system. More than 85% of earth's plant species – many of which compose some of the most nutritional parts of our diet – require pollinators to exist. Yet we continue to see alarming declines in bee numbers," said Eric Mader, assistant pollinator conservation director at The Xerces Society. "Our organization works with farmers nationwide to help them create wildflower habitat and adopt less pesticide-intensive practices. These simple strategies can tip the balance back in favor of bees."

 

Whole Foods Market offers four more ways to "bee part of the solution." Details are online at www.wholefoodsmarket.com/sharethebuzz.

• Bee organic: Buying organic is an easy way to support pollinators.
• Bee savvy at home: Most pest problems can be solved without toxic and persistent pesticides.
• Bee a gardener: Plant bee-friendly flowers and fruits.
• Bee a smart shopper: Look for the "Share the Buzz" signs throughout stores to support vendors also donating to The Xerces Society.
  • "Queen Bee" partners ($25,000): Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day and Hain Celestial (MaraNatha, WestSoy, Terra Chips, Arrowhead Mills)
  • "Worker Bee" partners ($5,000): Attune Foods, Cuties, Kashi, Sweet Leaf Teas, Muir Glen Organic, Talenti Gelato, So Delicious, Udi's Gluten Free.

 

SOURCE Whole Foods Market