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Al Gore: Rock ’n’ Roll ImpresarioPosted on Jul 6, 2007Why run for president when you can jet-set around the world mingling with rock stars? Al Gore seems to have found a third way for his career prospects by spicing up his global warming outreach with a series of concerts called “Live Earth.” The tour launches from Sydney and will feature appearances by Madonna, the Police, Garth Brooks and a group of Antarctic scientists performing via satellite in front of icebergs.
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By Mariam Russell, July 10, 2007 at 12:27 pm # There is no quick techno-fix to climate change or peak oil. We cannot accept a new wave of colonialism that offsets the problems created by our exorbitant First World lifestyles onto the Global South. The only answer to these problems is a dramatic reduction in our energy and resource consumption. I outlined this in hopes it would be read....guess you missed it, Great, because it says what I have been saying all along..... IF WE DO NOT ATTACK ROOT CAUSES AND USE MORE THAN COSMETIC SOLUTIONS, WE MIGHT AS WELL GO ALONG AS WE ARE FOR AS LONG AS IT LASTS. THAT AT LEAST FACES THE REALITY OF OUR SPIRAL DOWN INTO DECADENCE AND WILLFUL IGNORANCE AND ALLOWS US TO HONESTLY ENJOY OUR LAST HURRAH WITHOUT THE CROCODILE TEARS ABOUT THE VICTIMS OF OUR SELF AGRANDIZEMENT. If you are going to be the embodiment of evil, at least do a good and honest job.
By Mariam Russell, July 10, 2007 at 8:32 am # “The sun shines for everyone and cannot be blocked or controlled or destroyed,” said Luis Bérriz, director of CUBASOLAR (the Cuban Society for the Promotion of Renewable Energy Sources and Environmental Respect) to Granma International in 1999. Enrico Turrini, founding partner of EUROSOLAR and honorary member of CUBASOLAR, is convinced that within a few decades, Cuba could receive 100% of its electricity from solar energy. In 1959 Cuba had 14% of it’s area covered by forests. Today it has forests on a bit more than 24% of it’s land area. They are also putting in wind power installation. They had to learn to live within their means, were forced to. They seem to have made quite a success of it and we can learn from them.
By Mariam Russell, July 10, 2007 at 8:19 am # One such fear is that corporations might actually have to make investments in the health of our planet, thus endangering that precious bottom line. We certainly cannot have that now can we? Could you give me some examples.....with numbers. If that actually happened, Ardee, the CEO could, and probably would be charged with malfeasance. He is bound to increase profits by whatever means.
By Mariam Russell, July 9, 2007 at 11:01 pm # I have lived in L.A., Houston, and Quito, Ecuador 40 years ago before the choked highways, when the air was crystal clear, and 2 years ago for a couple of months. The air is so bad you will have trouble breathing and it is not the altitude. The air quality is as bad as Mexico City. I say that to say that we know we need to make some drastic changes in the way we live if we are to have decent living conditions to finish out our lives, saying nothing about what we pass on to our children.The world is too small and connected for us to be able to be the Roman Empire or even the British Empire...that is looting the rest of the world to satisfy our wants and whims while never having to know about the collateral damage in the other countries of the world...the lootees. That is saying that we must either give up the notion of empire and looting or the idea of our country and ourselves as decent people who mean to do good, and face who we have allowed ourselves to become.....a people who can watch a war where our children are killing and destroying a whole country and its people...millions of dead, wounded, destroyed humanity....and shrug our shoulders and go have dinner, as long as it does not interfere with our “American Way Of Life” which is “not negotiable”. If the earth is warming up, for what ever reason, and the seas are rising as we know they are, the crisis is real. It may not be in your backyard today, but it will affect your life. This is not the time for flim flam and schemes, which are certainly everyday occurances in the crazy world we inhabit, but for real problems, real solutions are necessary even if they are uncomfortable. If we lack the will to even question enough to find real answers, then we get to live in the mess we fail to clean up. You are correct, Ardee, this is not the time to do nothing, but wasting time and energy doing the wrong things will have the same result, or maybe worse. For my money, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, there is a good chance it is a duck. The algae sounds hopeful, GS, and we need a bit of hopeful. But, in any investigation, follow the money. We seem to be a silly, greedy species for whom enough is never enough, so our every move is suspect.
By Mariam Russell, July 9, 2007 at 8:27 pm # The environmental impacts of ethanol production are also troubling. Growing the corn is incredibly energy intensive, in terms of fuel consumption by farm equipment and the large amounts of fossil-fuel-based fertilizers used. In addition, large quantities of toxic pesticides must be used. Ethanol distillation also burns large amounts of fossil fuels. Most distilleries burn natural gas, though more and more are relying on coal. One plant in Goldfield, Iowa, burns 300 tons of coal every day! Overall, ethanol is incredibly inefficient, taking three units of energy to make four. Some argue that it actually takes more energy to produce ethanol than you get from burning it. Many proponents of ethanol claim that it is “carbon neutral”; since the carbon in the ethanol was originally sucked out of the atmosphere by the plant, they say it is a closed cycle. This ludicrous claim completely ignores the massive amounts of fossil fuels used in the growth, transportation and refinement of corn ethanol. In fact, when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, the production and burning of ethanol is only slightly better than burning gasoline! The ethanol boom is one of many last-ditch attempts by industrial capitalism to continue its existence in a rapidly approaching post-oil world. The pursuit of ethanol is simply the continuation of an exploitative, colonial system that steals resources from the world’s poor communities to maintain the consumer lifestyles of the First World Large-scale ethanol production can only lead to greater devastation of the Earth, as diverse ecosystems are converted to monoculture farms. Dispossession will increase as subsistence farmers and hunter-gatherers are forced off their land to make way for the US’s new energy colonies. A turn to ethanol as a fuel source also means shifting a considerable portion of farmable land from food production to energy production. As demand for ethanol grows, we will see increasing tension between First World people choosing to fuel their “green” cars and the rest of the world simply struggling to eat. The events in Mexico have no doubt foreshadowed what is to come. THE POINT OF THIS, ARDEE, IS THAT IT IS A ZERO SUM GAME......IT DOES NOTHING, NOTHING EXCEPT MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR A FEW PEOPLE TO GET RICHER. FOR A WHILE, WHICH SAYS TO ME THEY DO NOT REALLY BELIEVE THIS WILL KILL US. THEY THINK IT IS POSSIBLE TO IMMUNE THEMSELVES. SO OUR ACCEPTANCE OF IT AS SOLUTION WHEN THE PROBABILITIES ARE OUT THERE MAKES US THE IDIOTS...DEAD IDIOTS, BUT IDIOTS NONETHELESS.
By Mariam Russell, July 9, 2007 at 6:06 pm # The first answer seemed to address only ethanol, so here’s some more. Biodiesel is made from the oils badly needed all over the world as food. There being only so many acres of farmable land, if they are used for fuel, then there is that much food off the table of the world’s people. 320 million tons of corn would be required to produce 35 billion gallons of ethanol. According to FAO figures, the U.S. corn harvest rose to 280.2 million tons in the year 2005. Although the president is talking of producing fuel derived from grass or wood shavings, anyone can understand that these are phrases totally lacking in realism. Let’s be clear: 35 billion gallons translates into 35 followed by nine zeros! Other countries in the rich world are planning to use not only corn but also wheat, sunflower seeds, rapeseed and other foods for fuel production. For the Europeans, for example, it would become a business to import all of the world’s soybeans with the aim of reducing the fuel costs for their automobiles and feeding their animals with the chaff from that legume, particularly rich in all types of essential amino acids.................... WATER IS NECESSARY TO GROW THESE CROPS..... In just 18 years, close to 2 billion people will be living in countries and regions where water will be a distant memory. Two-thirds of the world’s population could be living in places where that scarcity produces social and economic tensions of such a magnitude that it could lead nations to wars for the precious ‘blue gold.’ “Over the last 100 years, the use of water has increased at a rate twice as fast as that of population growth. “According to statistics from the World Water Council, it is estimated that by 2015, the number of inhabitants affected by this grave situation will rise by 3.5 billion people. Put all these facts together and the picture is not pretty. Do we really want to live in a world where hundreds of millions starve so we in the rich countries can continue our wasteful lifestyles?
By Mariam Russell, July 9, 2007 at 5:38 pm # GreatS.....Do I want to drive any car knowing that I am using fuel made from food and that there are people hungry because of it? No, I’m agin it. IF BIOFUELS CAN BE MADE FROM THE WASTE FROM CROPS...GREAT. INTRESTING BIT GLEANED FROM “REFLECTIONS” BY FIDEL CASTRO RUIZ IN GRANMA NEWSPAPER..... “Governments got very enthusiastic; but they should take a good look as to whether there should be such robust support for ethanol. “Ethanol production is only viable in the United States; not in any other country, except when subsidies are applied. “This is not manna from heaven and we don’t have to blindly commit ourselves,” the cable continues. “These days, developed countries are pushing for fossil fuels to be mixed with bio-fuels at close to 5% and that is already putting pressure on agricultural prices. If that mixture is raised to 10%, it would need 30% of the sown surface of the United States and 50% of Europe’s. That is why I am asking if this is sustainable. An increase in the demand for crops for ethanol would produce higher and more unstable prices.” Read President Castro. Aside from the novelty of a politician who can read and writeand indulge in deductive thinking, he has a lot to say about the climate crisis and the solutions proposed. Go to the Granma website and bring up “Reflections” and scroll down to March of last year.
By Mariam Russell, July 9, 2007 at 2:59 pm # Am I happy to see Al Gore making the world’s people think about the future of their habitat? Absolutely. Would I vote for Al Gore for president, given the field in play right now? Probably. Especially if he had Dennis K. as a running mate. Do I accept the solutions being offered...carbon emissions trading, planting “maybe” forests, biofuels? NOT ON YOUR LIFE OR MINE! Do I question the absolute sincerity of these messages coming from someone who needs to live in a 20 room mansion? You betcha! That is like the queen telling her subjects they need to economize. That is saying I deserve to live a million times better than the people who will be hurt by the solutions I am proposing. Am I troubled by the fact that this man stands to become much wealthier thru carbon trading and perhaps biofuels and even the “maybe” forests? Yes. In the entire message I have seen, I am not hearing that the mega-consumer lifestyle needs to be one of the first changes made if we are really intrested in changes that will not only make a dent in the environmental problems we face, but will move toward creating a world society where the wars over resources are un-necessary. Though you do not read a lot about it, one of the major pollutors is the military, also the military is a dead end user of resources. Mr Gore is correct to put this problem before the world, and he has every right, under our present system, to flim-flam us into buying all his ideas and making him very much richer and more powerful. He did go to Harvard and must have learned and internalized the message that all solutions must be found within the capitilist system and if you propose one that does not make you rich then you are a failure. WHAT WE, THE “them” OF THE WORLD OF THE SUPER RICH, DO WITH THIS INFORMATION IS UP TO US AND WE WILL SURELY REAP WHAT WE ALLOW TO BE SOWN IN OUR NAMES. Add Your Comment |
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