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Will future climate change cause human civilization to collapse?

Question by Dana1981: Will future climate change cause human civilization to collapse?
The 2009 State of the Future report runs to 6,700 pages and draws on contributions from 2,700 experts around the globe, backed by a diverse range of leading organisations such as Unesco, the World Bank, the US Army, and the Rockefeller Foundation. The report concludes

“An effort on the scale of the Apollo mission that sent men to the Moon is needed if humanity is to have a fighting chance of surviving the ravages of climate change. The stakes are high, as, without sustainable growth, “billions of people will be condemned to poverty and much of civilisation will collapse”.

However, there’s some good news in the report. “The authors suggest the threats could also provide the potential for a positive future for all. “The good news is that the global financial crisis and climate change planning may be helping humanity to move from its often selfish, self-centred adolescence to a more globally responsible adulthood… Many perceive the current economic disaster as an opportunity to invest in the next generation of greener technologies, to rethink economic and development assumptions, and to put the world on course for a better future.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/the-planets-future-climate-change-will-cause-civilisation-to-collapse-1742759.html

What are your thoughts?
Starbuck – I didn’t write the report or even say anything about it. If you want to call the US Army, World Bank, etc. “left wing alarmist uneducated” feel free, because these are their conclusions.

Best answer:

Answer by f100_supersabre
WHAT CIVILIZATION??

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Posted on April 27, 2011 by , 20 comments

Latest Green Economics News

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Posted on April 26, 2011 by , Reply

High food prices to make 30 million Indians extremely poor: ADB

High food prices to make 30 million Indians extremely poor: ADB
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Posted on April 26, 2011 by , Reply

Environmentalists Just Like Hutaree Militia?

The recent arrest of members of the Hutaree Militia in Michigan brings to the forefront the radicalization of the survivalist lifestyle, in much the same way that Muslim extremists and radical Christian fundamentalists brand the more moderate, mainstream elements of those religious groups.

There is an abundance of militia groups in the USA, and survivalist groups throughout North America.   These tend to be groups established as a reaction to what is perceived to be excess government intervention in individual lives.  However, significant diversions in philosophy between militias and survivalist groups exist.

Survivalists, in general, see the need for minimal involvement in a variety of facets of our lives as desirable.  Government involvement is only one of these.   The need for reduced reliance on technology, the need for reduced involvement in structured society (cities, towns, etc.) to protect against undue infiltration, influence and infection, the need for decreased use of sophisticated foods (fast foods, etc.), the desire for less reliance on conventional tools & toys of life, and the preference to live simply without intervention are all aspects of various survivalist orientations.  Indeed, the hippy communes of the 1970s integrated many of these philosophical objects in their lifestyles.

By focusing on the extreme elements of any belief system or way of life, the media does a disservice to legitimate, well-intentioned approaches to unique living.  The militia radicals from Michigan no more represent the idealized objectives of more passive militias than they do of survivalists, minimalists and other seekers of a different way of life.  Yet, the media fails to differentiate the groups, as this may tend to dilute the impact of their stories of the day.

As different as radical militias are from “mainstream” survivalists, those survivalists have elements in common with, but are uniquely positioned away from the mechanisms of minimalist lifestyles.  Minimalists tend to believe, as do survivalists, in the philosophy of reduction in consumption and demand.  However, minimalists look to clean environment, reduced frivolous accessories, and simplified methods of living within society.

In turn, minimalists differ from, yet share elements of the beliefs of environmentalists.  While minimalists want to reduce consumption of everything, environmentalists look to alternatives for clean energy, replacing & repairing damage done by the human ecological footprint, and using consumables more responsibly.

The linear similarities between groups could easily lead the uninformed to believe that the radical militias equal the moderate, responsible militias, that the moderate militias equal the survivalists, the survivalists equal the minimalists and the minimalists equal the environmentalists.  So, by not-so-logical conclusion, environmentalists actually are extreme militias, bent on destroying our way of life!

A s ridiculous as this may sound, much of the rhetoric spouted by many media encourage this type of unreasoned, guilt-by-association terror-baiting.  Watch out, people.  Barack Obama is the Anti-Christ, and Big Business is out to destroy us!  Give me a break!


Article from articlesbase.com

Posted on April 26, 2011 by , Reply

CSIS Commission on Smart Global Health Policy: A Healthier, Safer and More Prosperous World

Get Involved: smartglobalhealth.org In early 2009, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, located in Washington DC, created the Commission on Smart Global Health Policy in the belief that global health policy is a key component of smart power. The commission traveled to Kenya to view first-hand the impact of US global health investments — and the challenges ahead. After the trip, the commission met to review its progress and re-engage with senior administration officials, including Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew. After nine months of work, the commission released its reports to a packed room of administration officials, global health experts, and journalists — with hundreds of interested participants following online. The commission’s work continues beyond the release of the report: from organizing events to build international support for long-term investments in global health; to engaging the public in conversation about the report’s recommendations; to returning to Africa and examining the effects of the Obama Administration’s Global Health Initiative on the ground; and finally reconvening the commission to assess the effects of the report a year later. This past decade the US has jump-started a global health movement that is saving and lifting human lives on a scale never known before. In poor villages, communities, and countries around the world, remarkable progress is being made in reducing disease, giving millions a chance to live longer …

Eric Holt-Gimenez, Executive Director of Food First, teaching a class titled International Rural Development in UC Berkeley’s Environmental Science Policy and Management Department. This clip is a short history of International Development. Eric describes the role of the UN, World Bank, and IMF in deciding the fate of developing countries. Part 1 of 2 www.foodfirst.org
Video Rating: 5 / 5

Posted on April 26, 2011 by , Reply

LOCAL MILITARY HERO BEGINS EXCITING NEW CHAPTER WITH DREAM HOME IN NEW BRAUNFELS

LOCAL MILITARY HERO BEGINS EXCITING NEW CHAPTER WITH DREAM HOME IN NEW BRAUNFELS
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Comment & Debate: Business and the environment
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Posted on April 26, 2011 by , Reply

EPA Publishes National U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory

EPA Publishes National U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released the 16th annual U.S. greenhouse gas inventory. The final report shows overall emissions during 2009 decreased by 6.1 percent from the previous year. This downward trend was attributed to a decrease in fuel and electricity consumption across all U.S. economic sectors
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Santa Clara County expected to join plastic bag ban
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Posted on April 26, 2011 by , Reply

The Way We Green – The Power of Prices & The Failure of Markets

On a particularly sunny (and busy… listen to the construction in the background) day we met up with David outside City hall and asked him for a summary of his paper, The Power of Prices & The Failure of Markets: Addressing Edmonton’s Environmental & Fiscal Challenges. David explained how Edmonton is addressing many environmental issues, but is failing to rein in sprawl and its significant health, environmental and economic costs. Like other environmental problems, sprawl results from rational economic decisions. Attempts to rein in sprawl will continue to fail as long as market prices encourage it. Fortunately, prices can be adjusted to provide an incentive to denser urban development. Environmental pricing reform policies, some of which are briefly outlined in this paper, can be employed by Edmonton to recruit the power of the market to rein in sprawl and address other environmental issues. About David Thompson David Thompson is Principal of PolicyLink Research and Consulting. He has worked in the private, public, and civil society sectors, and has postgraduate degrees in environmental economics and law. He lives in Edmonton, and is a committed citizen, volunteer and family man, as well as a homeowner, taxpayer, and small business owner. Read David’s paper on The Power of Prices & The Failure of Markets: Addressing Edmonton’s Environmental & Fiscal Challenges at www.thewaywegreen.ca and share your thoughts.
Video Rating: 5 / 5

Posted on April 25, 2011 by , 1 comment

Soil From Volcanoes: A New Marijuana Hybrid?

Soils from Volcanoes: A New Marijuana Hybrid?
Why do people live on dangerous volcanoes? The main reason is the rich volcanic soil. People are willing to take high-risk gambles for the most basic things of life — especially food.
However, the most basic things of life for some, equate to Cannabis. Medical Marijuana and the relief of symptoms from some ailments have pushed Cannabis to the forefront of social consciousness. As disastrous of an event that Volcanoes pose, there is a silver lining. Hawaii of course, came about from Volcano activity. Hawaii also has some of the most nutrient rich soil for growing. Add goo-gobs of sunlight, and you create my favorite Marijuana strain of all time, Kona Gold. So, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Or, when life gives you volcanic ash, create a new Cannabis strain. Before we start licking our chops at the ash potential, let’s examine what it’s all about.

Close to an erupting volcano the short-term destruction by pyroclastic flows, heavy falls of ash, and lava flows can be complete, the extent of the damage depending upon the eruption magnitude. Crops, forests, orchards, and animals grazing or browsing on the volcano’s slopes or surrounding lowland can be leveled or buried. But that is the short-term effect. In the long run, volcanic deposits can develop into some of the richest agricultural lands on earth.

One example of the effect of volcanoes on agricultural lands is in Italy. Except for the volcanic region around Naples, farming in southern Italy is exceedingly difficult because limestone forms the basement rock and the soil is generally quite poor. But the region around Naples, which includes Mount Vesuvius, is very rich mainly because of two large eruptions 35,000 and 12000 years ago that left the region blanketed with very thick deposits of tephra which has since weathered to rich soils. Part of this area includes Mount Vesuvius. The region has been intensively cultivated since before the birth of Christ. The land is planted with vines, vegetables, or flowers. Every square foot of this rich soil is used. For example, even a small vineyard will have, in addition to grapes and spring beans on the trellises, fava beans, cauliflower and onions between the trellis rows, and the vineyard margin rimmed with orange and lemon trees, herbs, and flowers. It also is a huge tomato growing region.

The verdant splendor and fertility of many farmlands of the North Island of New Zealand are on volcanic soils of different ages. Volcanic loams have developed on older (4,000 and 40,000 years old) volcanic ash deposits of the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions. Combined with ample rainfall, warm summers, and mild winters, these regions produce abundant crops, including the kiwifruit found around the world in modern recipes. The altered volcanic ashes are well-drained, yet hold water for plants, and are easily tilled. Deep volcanic loams are particularly good for pasture growth (there is a large New Zealand dairy industry), horticulture, and maize.

Life-forms on the Earth’s surface exist primarily by consent of nature’s partnership — heat from the sun, and nutrients from rocks that have been decomposed and recombined into soluble molecules by chemical reactions with moisture and gases such as carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The process is known as “chemical weathering.” Chemical interactions of the atmosphere with rock release key elements from rock-forming minerals which are then accessible to growing things. Volcanic rocks make some of the best soils on earth because they not only have a wide variety of common elements the rock and are readily chemically separated into elemental components.

After the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980, people who were living downwind from the eruption were concerned that the ash that fell would be detrimental to the agricultural farmlands of eastern Washington. This concern was countered by a group of knowledgeable earth scientists. Volcanic ash may be considered as a time-release capsule, rich in nutrients.

Further Reading

Fisher, R.V., Heiken, G., and Hulen, J.B., 1997, Volcanoes; Crucibles of Change. Princeton, Princeton University Press.

Molloy, L., 1993. Soils in the New Zealand Landscape-The Living Mantle. New Zealand Society of Soil Science, Canterbury.

Sheets, P. D. and Grayson, D. K. (editors), 1979. Volcanic Activity and Human Ecology. New York, Academic Press. Copyright (C) 1997, by Richard V. Fisher. All rights reserved.

Jouce embraces the “Cannabis Culture” at Cali9.com

email cali9crew@cali9.com


Article from articlesbase.com

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Posted on April 25, 2011 by , Reply

“The Good Death” Explored in Timely Issue of Utne Magazine’s Autumn Issue

“The Good Death” Explored in Timely Issue of Utne Magazine’s Autumn Issue










MINNEAPOLIS, MN (PRWEB) September 7, 2005

September-October, 2005 Â? The fall issue of Utne explores how to balance the fear of dying with deathÂ?s power to make us live our lives better. In several first-person stories and insightful sidebars, the magazine looks at death from the personal perspective to the poetic, and from the ethical and scientific to the comical.

·    Every day, more than 155,000 people die worldwide.

·    Over half of us are touched each year by the death of a close family member or friend.

·    Ten percent of us will die suddenly.

·    Most of us will face healthcare decisions about end-of-life care.

·    Many people struggle with grieving after a loved oneÂ?s death.

·    More of us are Â? or should be Â? planning for death psychologically, spiritually, financially and in other ways in an attempt to achieve The Good Death.

UtneÂ?s own Laine Bergeson recounts her recent death scare in Â?Good Life, Good DeathÂ? (linked above), written after a visit to her doctor. Forced to face Â?the unmapped landÂ? of dying, Bergeson looks at the array of behaviors that the very fact of death can create in people Â? and how, in this post- 9/11 world, Â?Instead of encouraging creativity and enlightenment, the fear of death, amplified by the modern media, creates panic as well as political leaders who garner power by promising the kind of psychic safety that only rigid ideology can provide.Â? Bergeson also recommends three new, must-have books on death and grieving.

In Â?Death, The Upside,Â? writer Bob Holmes looks at Â?the evolutionary strategy of deathÂ? Â? specifically, the self-destructive process of cell biology necessary to sustain life.

In Â?To Live with No RegretsÂ? (link above), a beautiful and moving piece about the passing of an elderly friend and the wife he leaves behind (a woman who, tragically, lost both her first husband and her daughter within a year of each other), Editor-in-Chief Nina Utne examines the transitional aspects of dying. And she explores the way in which Jack Heckelman and Linda Bergh heroically approached JackÂ?s death, hosting an Â?open houseÂ? for family and friends right up until, and following, his death.

Â?Some Parting AdviceÂ? surveys the ancient tradition of writing Â?ethical willsÂ? in light of the calamity over Terri SchiavoÂ?s death, while UtneÂ?s Anjula Razdan interviews the creator of the HBO hit Six Feet Under, Alan Ball, about AmericaÂ?s cultural obsessions with death and denial and our fixations on youth, plus BallÂ?s own inability to grieve his sisterÂ?s death for 20 years.

Plus, the wonderfully irreverent Mark Twain weighs in on how best to behave Â?At the Funeral,Â? including the sage advice: Â?At the moving passages, be moved Â? but only according to the degree of your intimacy with the parties giving the entertainment, or with the party in whose honor the entertainment is given.Â?

Also in this issue:

·    The Urban Green Revolution: Cities are the next environmental frontier, and the innovations of The Green Cities Movement Â? from New York and San Francisco to other Â?Islands of GreenÂ? around the world — that offer models and hope for a future that Â?is already here,Â? according to the magazineÂ?s Leif Utne. And a look at Â?The City After OilÂ? and the emergence of Â?ecovillagesÂ? that are waiting to happen ( link above).

·    A Gentler War on Drugs: Memorable photo essay from about the drug routes of northern Thailand.

·    Our Man in Baghdad: A timely interview with BritainÂ?s Robert Fisk, who writes for The Independent and tries to define the American reason for being in Iraq while challenging his colleaguesÂ? Â?reporting from the safety of their hotel rooms.Â?

·    The Organic Home: Household cleaners that are green and better for you and your home, plus the environmental perils of growing cotton.

About Utne

Utne is a national progressive lifestyle magazine with an audience of nearly 600,000, now celebrating more than 20 years of publication. Since 1984, Utne has been a leading voice for the alternative and independent press, bringing readers the Â?other side of the storyÂ? on issues ranging from the environment to the economy and from politics to pop culture. Utne provokes thought and inspires action by offering the best of the independent press as well as original writing. Read more at http://www.utne.com.

For more information, please contact Lisa Proctor at 612-338-5040, ext. 338 or contact Martin Keller at Media Savant Communications Co., 612-729-8585.

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Posted on April 25, 2011 by , Reply
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