September 2008 Archives

Al Gore this week called for young people to engage in civil disobedience to stop new coal plants [ark | more\ark]. As is typical with the Goracle, you never really get the full truth and ecologically sufficient solutions, even when he tries to be radical. To achieve shared survival we ALL need to physically protest coal, ancient forest logging AND elite rule -- the young and old, poor and middle class, educated and not -- to end both, and ensure a livable world.

We agree that increasingly the economic and ecological crises are converging [ark]. It is the elite that have liquidated habitats for their leveraged financial thievery, leaving barren ecosystems and feeble markets in their wake. Given the failure of the ruling elites to play fair, share and maintain an operable biosphere and economy; it just may be time for a global citizens' revolution to pull the whole stinking system down. Just an idea to equitably and justly solve both the ecological and economic crises plaguing us all and threatening our shared survival.

A new study in the journal Bioscience finds permafrost holds twice as much greenhouse gas [ark | more\ark] as previously thought, and that "release of even a fraction would accelerate climate change dramatically". Covering some one fifth of the Earth's land surface, permafrost [search] is permanently frozen land, defined as soil that has remained below zero degrees C for at least two years. Permafrost was found to hold some 1,500 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide and methane, double what is currently held in the atmosphere.

Of all potential climate change positive feedback loops [search], skyrocketing atmospheric greenhouse gas levels leading to warming and melting of permafrost shows the most immediate potential to quicken global warming. The phenomenon of melting permafrost is so self evident, the mechanism so clear, that little doubt remains -- continued warming trends, leads to widespread permafrost melting, and we start dying. These are very dangerous times and failure to implement emergency measures including ending cutting of natural vegetation and burning of coal will assuredly destroy being.

Leading climate science Dr. James Hansen [search], who heads NASA's noted Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has called for an immediate halt in the construction of coal-fired power stations [ark | more\ark]. This is something Ecological Internet has strongly supported for years, and this political ecology represents climate science that matters. When being is threatened, it is time for expert academics to come down from their ivory towers and engage in sufficient ecological policy responses.

Dr Hansen is in England as a defense witness in the trial of six Greenpeace activists charged with damaging the Kingsnorth coal power plant in October last year. Energy giant E.on wants to build UK's first coal-fired plant for more than 30 years, and there have been major protest and direct action against Kingsnorth this summer. The trial's defense strategy seeks to establish the important and worthy precedent that direct action climate protests are justified [ark] to prevent 'much larger crimes' being committed against the Earth. Shall we all sit by peacefully as creation is destroyed, or will we do what we know is necessary to maintain being?