The No Ecology, No Economic Recovery Ever -- $75K or Bust – Keeping Green Hope Alive, Funding Appeal.

Dear Fellow Earth-Lovers,

It is time for Ecological Internet's (EI) annual end-of-year fund-raiser, which provides well over half of our modest yearly budget. We absolutely must raise $75,000 before the end of the year, or our 15 year effort on behalf of the Earth using the Internet comes to an end. With the past year of innovation and success, and with your help, we expect to do so. As a key network participant, I would like to ask YOU to make a donation to support EI's vital non-profit work on behalf of the Earth. Please donate NOW.

Ecological Internet (EI) -- guided by ecological science and using advanced IT networking -- promotes ambitious, sufficient ecological policies necessary to achieve global ecological sustainability. Our email network of tens of thousands of people -- including you, and millions of web users -- from virtually every country, seeks to bring about a higher level of consciousness regarding humanity's dependence upon the Earth for our shared survival. No one else is taking this approach at near the scale or level of success anywhere in the world.

Continue reading "SHARED SURVIVAL 2008: Ecological Internet's Vital End-of-Year Fund-Raiser" »

Permalink | Comments (0) | More on Ecological Internet

PRESS/SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE

Ecological Internet's latest offering focuses upon truthfully knowing global ecological crises in order to effectively develop and implement ecologically sufficient solutions

By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

(Seattle, WA) -- Ecological Internet, the world's leading provider of on-line environmental portals and action opportunities, is pleased to announce New Earth Rising, a new fiercely biocentric online magazine (e-zine), committed to thought and action to achieve global ecological sustainability. The green publication launches today at http://www.newearthrising.org/ and free subscriptions can be made at http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/subscribe/ .

The inaugural issue, entitled Ecological Truth and Transformative Action, features original and diverse green essays that seek to more fully know Earth's crises -- including climate change, water scarcity and forest diminishment -- in order to achieve ecologically sufficient solutions. New Earth Rising links what is known regarding global ecological crises with specific personal and social transformations necessary for shared survival and to sustain being.

Continue reading "RELEASE: New Earth Rising -- a New Biocentric E-zine -- Launches as Time to Achieve Global Ecological Sustainability Grows Short" »

Permalink | Comments (3) | More on New Earth Rising

PRESS/SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE

Cursory review of FSC's controversial certifications completely fails to question false premise that primary and old-growth forest logging is ever "well-managed", instead calling for better training manuals for ancient forest destruction

By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

(Seattle, WA) -- Today Greenpeace International released a report entitled "Holding the Line with FSC"[1] which reaffirms Greenpeace's unflinching support for the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) [search] past and on-ongoing industrial first-time logging of hundreds of millions of hectares of primary and old-growth forests. Greenpeace and other "forest protection" groups like the Rainforest Action Network and WWF continue to provide crucial greenwash for the false premise that ancient forest logging [search] is desirable and can ever be considered "well-managed".

Greenpeace was the target of a series of protests in 2007 led by Ecological Internet, as Greenpeace held FSC's international chairmanship, regarding their continued support for ancient forest logging given widespread irregularities. At that time they agreed to review problematic FSC certifications, and to respond to criticism regarding FSC's dependence upon ancient forest logging. Their new report fails miserably on both counts.

Continue reading "Greenpeace Reaffirms Support for Ancient Forest Logging" »

Permalink | Comments (24) | More on ancient forest greenwash

New research in Royal Society journal Philosophical Transactions A "suggests that chopping down forests could accelerate global warming [ark] more than was thought, and that protecting existing trees could be one of the best ways to tackle the problem." The report quantifies how the release of the chemical terpene from forest canopies [search] leads to cloud formation that cools the climate. Given ancient forests' massive canopies, the findings further clarify intact forest wildernesses' critical role in maintaining an operable atmosphere.

Much remains to be learned regarding Gaia's workings, forests' interaction with climate, and the need for ecologically sufficient policy-making, yet it is gratifying to see formal science continue to catch up with Ecological Internet's biocentric campaigns. Given additional recent scientific findings that old-growth forests continue to remove atmospheric carbon indefinitely, and primary forests lose much of their carbon permanently when first logged, there is no longer any justification for destruction of ancient forests. And presenting "sustainable" logging of such sacred and life-giving primeval treasures as having environmental benefits is ecologically bereft and criminally negligent (you know who you are, and we are coming for you).

Through a combination of ecological science and intuition, Ecological Internet and predecessors have long known that loss of intact forest habitats is the key cause of climate change, as well as general biodiversity, ecosystem and biosphere collapse. We know that ending humanity's cutting and burning of itself to death is key to our shared survival. In particular, global ecological sustainability is going to require giving up timbers accessed from ancient forests, and restoring old-growth forests worldwide. Ecological Internet is going to keep on saying this, confronting those that say otherwise, whatever the costs, because it is the ecological truth necessary to sustain being.

Permalink | Comments (7) | More on forest climate science

Two wonderful commentaries today are worthy of merit for communicating well the urgency of climate and global ecological change, while proposing sufficient solutions (both to which Ecological Internet is committed). The Yale Environment360 site notes the "urgency of the current situation cannot be overemphasized" and thus urges the next President of the United States to immediately wield powers under the clean air act [ark] to regulate carbon dioxide [search].

And environment heavy-hitters including Thomas E. Lovejoy and Tim Flannery note that while atmospheric carbon levels at 387 are already past the dangerous level [ark] of 350, that tremendous potential exists to ecologically restore degraded lands [search], returning carbon to safe levels while staunching hemorrhaging of biodiversity. There is much more work to be done on the social incentives and policies necessary to make it equitable and just, but it is a global ecological necessity that we strongly and immediately commit to an era of ecological restoration.

Indeed, we did it -- destroyed the Earth's life giving ecosystems -- and we can (will and must) undo it or being ends. Finally leading scientists and institutions are thinking big and proposing ecologically based policy prescriptions that matter and provide some measure of hope when implemented. Now we need nations, leaders and global citizens to lead. It is up to all of us -- global citizens committed to global ecological sustainability, loosely coordinated through the Internet -- to make it happen no matter what. Global ecological restoration is the ultimate truth for all remaining time.

Permalink | Comments (1) | More on global ecological restoration

Deforestation, eviction, drought and murder are too high of price to pay for toxic soybeans

TAKE ACTION! In Paraguay, genetically modified (GM) soya plantations [search], planted in vast toxic monocultures, are the main cause of deforestation, destruction and pollution of other ecosystems, and violence and eviction of small farmers and indigenous peoples. Paraguay has nearly 2.6 million hectares of soy plantations for animal feed exports and, more recently, for agrofuel. The remnants of Paraguay's Atlantic Forest [search] and of the Alto Parana forest [search], as well as wetlands, grasslands and rivers are being destroyed and polluted by the expansion of immense soya fields. Deforestation is worsening global warming and also causing severe regional warming and droughts.

Local peoples are resisting ecocide bravely, and against long odds, and need our support. Please write to the authorities in Paraguay and urge them to fully support small farmers and their demands for protection from pesticide spraying, unlawful evictions, environmental destruction and pollution; while supporting their demands for food sovereignty and land reform. TAKE ACTION!

Permalink | Comments (2) | More on soya deforestation

WWF has released a new report entitled "Climate Change: faster, stronger, sooner", which concludes what many of us have known for some time, that "global warming is accelerating [ark] at a faster rate than climate change experts had previously predicted".

Ever since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [search] (IPCC) released their Fourth Assessment Report in 2007, the latest science shows the Arctic Ocean is losing sea ice 30 years earlier than expected, sea level rise is double the previous maximum estimates, and temperature increases are already leading to a reduction in global yields of wheat, maize and barley. WWF notes that "even with a 2°C target, the IPCC says that emission reductions between 25 and 40% compared to 1990 are needed by 2020 from developed countries." Abrupt climate change is happening now and the world is no where near these short and mid-term targets.

Incredibly, WWF sounds the alarm on abrupt, run-away climate change while actively supporting FSC's stamp of approval for ancient forest logging. First time logging of primary forests accounts for at least 20% of atmospheric carbon releases. New science finds old-growth forests are "carbon sinks" and when logged release 40 percent of their carbon. This discredits decades of thought strongly advocated by WWF that primary forests can or should be "sustainably" logged.

Given WWF's new found sense of urgency, it is astoundingly reckless for them to continue their support for Forest Stewardship Council's [search] logging of ancient forests. It is long past due for WWF to join Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network and Friends of the Earth in reviewing and/or ending their greenwashing of FSC's ancient forest logging. Meanwhile, we are left to ponder whether WWF's failure to work to stop carbon releases from ancient forest logging is because of corporate corruption or just ignorance?

Permalink | Comments (3) | More on WWF climate forests

Global ecological sustainability is threatened [action] by a massive ecological bubble [search] -- whereby there are not enough intact global terrestrial, aquatic and marine ecosystems to maintain life. Now this -- the destruction of our very being -- is a crisis worthy of some serious emergency funding. The Guardian shows what the $2-4 trillion financial bailout could achieve if invested for the environment [ark] . It notes funding on this "scale to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect nature would... be repaid up to 100 times over."

Bailing out the biosphere would support up to 8 years of needed greenhouse gas emission reductions [search], going a long way towards averting abrupt and deadly climate change. Alternatively it could pay for 80 years of forest and biodiversity protection [search], would be 2-3 times what is necessary to fully protect global ecosystems [search], or could entirely transition the U.S. away from coal and oil for electricity generation. For "only" a one time $50 billion investment, access to safe drinking water [search] could be given to the 2.5 billion living without, and for $30 billion a year all future threats of conflicts over food could be averted.

Continue reading "Bailing Out the Biosphere" »

Permalink | Comments (4) | More on ecological bubble economic crisis

PRESS/SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE

World's leading non-profit provider of environmental portals and "ecologically sufficient" action opportunities relocates

By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet

CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

(Seattle, WA) -- Ecological Internet (EI), a long-time pioneer in the use of the Internet to facilitate environmental conservation, has relocated to downtown Seattle, Washington. From there, EI will continue their highly effective brand of ecological science based Earth advocacy -- based upon ready access to comprehensive information, biocentric knowledge and analysis, and an "ecologically sufficient" advocacy agenda.

"After over a decade and a half in Wisconsin, it was time to relocate to an area with more networking, fund-raising and technology resources. Seattle offers us both proximity to North America's last great ancient forests, and access to larger environmental and technology communities," explains Ecological Internet's President, Dr. Glen Barry.

Continue reading "RELEASE: Ecological Internet Moves to Seattle" »

Permalink | Comments (13) | More on Ecological Internet

In a major victory for Ecological Internet and the world's ancient forests, RAN acknowledges concerns regarding FSC and commits to campaign to end all primary and old-growth logging

By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

(Earth) -- Bowing to a global pressure campaign spearheaded by Ecological Internet (EI), the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has publicly announced they are reviewing their support for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), over concerns regarding FSC's greenwashing of ancient forest logging. In a statement to Ecological Internet, and on their web site, RAN announced they find "certification of logging in such forests extremely problematic" and have "raised the matter with the FSC".

RAN has embraced EI's goal of working to end ancient forest logging [search], written to FSC with their concerns and to request more data, and indicated that FSC's continued certification of ancient forest logging is problematic and threatens their membership. Based upon this progress, Ecological Internet has temporarily suspended the protest campaign. If RAN fails in its commitment to work within FSC in coming months to end its certification of ancient forest logging, and refuses to resign from FSC at that time, EI's campaign will resume immediately.

Continue reading "RELEASE: Ancient Forest Victory, as Rainforest Action Network Yields, Commits to Review FSC Support" »

Permalink | Comments (29) | More on FSC ancient forest logging

Rainforest Action Network, and Cambodia and DRC, feel the heat of intensifying campaign to end all ancient forest destruction

By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet
http://www.ecoearth.info/newsdesk/
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

(Earth) -- Last week forest defenders from the New York Climate Action Group (NYCAG) rallied at New York's Bluestocking Bookstore to denounce the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) for their support of industrial logging of primary forests. RAN is the focus of a global campaign to end ancient forest logging, starting with getting the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), of which they are a founding and leading member, to stop falsely certifying first time industrial primary forest logging as being environmentally beneficial.

When questioned, Mike Brune, RAN's Executive Director, stated again that RAN does not support industrial logging of old growth forests, but does support FSC. This transparent doublespeak was met by laughter from the audience. Due to Ecological Internet's campaign, forest conservationists are increasingly aware FSC's existence depends upon ancient forest logging. Further protest actions are expected, and the email protest continues.

Continue reading "RELEASE: Ancient Forest Logging is deRANged" »

Permalink | Comments (4) | More on FSC ancient forest greenwash

Amongst scientists, James Hansen [search] has long been one of the clearest voices for strong action against climate change including ending the use of coal [ark | search]. Yet now he advocates replacing coal with wood from vast tree plantations [ark | more\ark], burning the wood and capturing and sequestering the carbon dioxide. It is saddening that such an ecologically short-sighted proposal comes from the man who rightly warns that we are already 'beyond safe levels' of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. It is understandable that he and other scientists are looking at ways of reducing the fast increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations. Unfortunately, most of the proposals put forward for 'cooling the planet' involve either using vast amounts of energy for still unproven technologies (air capture of CO2) or, even more worryingly, sacrificing biodiversity and ecosystems.

Scientists who have developed the idea of using biomass power plants with carbon capture and storage in order to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels have made it clear that at least 500 million hectares of plantations would be required, which is over one and a half times the size of India. Replacing all coal burnt today with wood would require far more land and would almost certainly be impossible, although that may go beyond Hansen's proposal.

Continue reading "GUEST: Hansen's Proposal to Replace Coal with Wood Is Ecologically Misguided" »

Permalink | Comments (9) | More on biofuel wood biomass