New Civilization News - Category: Environment, Ecology    
 Human Energy Cap and Freeze 201021 comments
picture12 Jul 2010 @ 09:06, by Unknown. Environment, Ecology
HUMAN ENERGY USE CAP AND FREEZE
July 12, 2010, Earth, Monday, Dawn

In 2008, we, humanity were using about 474 Exajoules of energy per year.
If we humanity, will not and won't at some point cap or freeze our own global energy use and waste
and addiction, then who will and when?
I think thus and then, right now, limiting ourselves humanity, to 474 Exajoules of energy per year right now and here in 2010 and for such per year for the foreseeable future is more than sufficient to live satisfactory and successful lives.
When there is no more, then we just have to do without, that is how it was and how it has always been and perhaps how it always will be.

Ed Jonas

References
Various Internet and Media Sources 2010  More >

 Flood in Draguignan
27 Jun 2010 @ 09:37, by scotty. Environment, Ecology
Luckily we live on high ground so we got away with very little dammage !




Amateur images of deadly floods in southern France .. [link]

Some Pics .. [link]

 The New Norm8 comments
picture31 May 2010 @ 09:12, by Unknown. Environment, Ecology
2010/05/31/am/Mon/CA/MDT/3:05

Yo World...

Well what it boils down to is that
THE NORM IS NO LONGER SUSTAINABLE
so in order to mitigate such the following may be of value and meaning:

- a 10% carbon tax
- $3.00 per liter gas and a 25% royalty to Gov
- 10% of the seats in the House of Commons for the environment
- a global cap on population at 7 billion people + or - 250 million
- a global cap on automobiles at 800 million + or - 25 million
- posting of green bonds of $1 billion for potentiality environ
damage projects,
- climate instability insurance policies,
- ban of autos for those under age of 35,
- Subsidies and tax breaks to renewable energies and pubic
transportation
- Tax breaks to green companies
- LEED and ISO 9000 & 14000 Standards
- Fines and imprisonment and restorative justice consequences for
ecocrimes and torts
- Green Certification of Products and Services
- Bicycles and walking
- Green Buildings and houses
- Eco-villages and Eco-cites
- Urban Gardens
- Solar Greenhouses
- Freeze Corporate Taxes
- Have more Earth Hour Days
- Passage of Bill C- 311 on Climate Change, Canada
- Passage of Bill C- 469 on Environmental Rights, Canada
- Regular maintenance and testing of BOP on oil wells and sites
- Implementation of Green Jobs initiative
- Home and Business Eco retrofits
- Eco-education, upgrading and training
- Implementation of water reclamation and conservation measures
- Implementation of Environmental and Endangered species
measures
- DNA bar coding of 100 million + species
- Bank capitalization with the sale of "Global Peace Bonds"
- Greater usage of Trains and Buses, less use of Air Planes
- Green Infrastructure Retrofits and upgrades and maintenance

or something to that effect...
ed jonas  More >

 The Transition Movie
29 May 2010 @ 10:27, by scotty. Environment, Ecology
( Thanks Niwalen - because of you that I found this BRILLIANT film ! )

In Transition 1.0 from Transition Towns on Vimeo.





The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience (Transition Guides) (Paperback) ... [link]

 Survival of the Enlightened8 comments
picture28 May 2010 @ 01:03, by Unknown. Environment, Ecology
2010/05/27/pm/Thur/CA/MDT/7:00

Yo humans

I guess my reasoning for not wrecking the environment and climate in the first place, is that in so doing, we don't know how to fix it when broken, as we don't even understand it when not. The interdependence of the environment and humans and climate is such that for our own sake we must thread lightly upon it and hence ourselves less we desire not life and living itself and if such is the case all or many such humans should be aborted from the start.

Though I suppose we throughout the generations are slowly learning of this interdependence which we thus must pass on to the knowledge and understanding to those of the future. It is not thus merely a quaint ideological sentiment this love and regard for the environment but the sentiment of survival of the enlightened and aware.

this to might pass

ed jonas  More >

 The Cloud - or Last call / Final Calling wake-up call ?
picture 16 Apr 2010 @ 21:01, by feecor. Environment, Ecology
Yesterdays eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano called back lasting memories, a story from 1988, where in the press conference Prof. Degens was not ready to paint a icture a lasting nightmare of an overheated planet or ice-age planet.
The media pushed hard but he refused to paint a nighmare scenario, as this would not be science he said roughly, the media should look back in earth history and make out there own conclusion, he only mentioned later that new might be only the degree of possible rapid change.
For people in environmental research this is obvious if we think twice, but it was for the media something they angrily commented: Scientists not telling what to expect and what is going on !
Now 22 year later this looks funny, now we know, even created possible ceilings and guard rails, as politics were more demanding than media, to have scientist do the forecast or outlook requested. But what is this IPCC knows and can predict the Future, specially when there are obviously only futures in plural and can not be predicted Neither in natural nor in social and cultural human worlds !
This is not a contrarian view ! I was reading with Ernst Ulrich von Weiszsäcker about CONTRARIANS already in the late 80ies, when he was in Bonn and Brussels, about these denying "CONTRARIANS" who refused to consider man-made impacts - on this considered stable and endless system of Planet Earth !
What an ignorance ! please see this article soon hitting the streets: "ignorance or compassion" [link] or the work on GLOBAL CHANGE we introduced in late May 1990. Please wait for May 30th "Challenges to Science and Politics" touring exhibition.
At this point I can only link to the exhibition [link] and EARTH IN TROUBLE ! [link] and check Human Dimensions and Human Responsibility with time and space horizons (Hans Jonas)http://benking.de/jonas-1993.html , as this is the time, likt with Mount StHelen where we can experience natures ! non-point polution impacts!

Why I call this piece? Last call / Final Calling ? Because I think we should follow up on this question: Do we need "New Science, new Language, new Thinking ?
HOW ABOUT? OLD and proven, traditional and NEW Thinking and Doing and Sharing ? [link]

please come back later - we had challenging days these days and years and need to step back, consider deep and other questions and answers

Meanwhile follow the links and consider what the founder of this encyclopedia of systems and cybernetics said about complexity, surprise and predictability when we introduced the new edition:
[link] and maybe these concepts to consider being concrete and share common frames and schemas: [link]

In Santa Fe we learned that the more we study complexity, the more we are perplexed ! So let us step back, check the issues and context and not not consider we know whne we do not ! - or just need to meet at certain number to be safe and can continue to muddle trough as always, all heads deeep in the sands, fogs, dust, ashes....

Finally, what we experience today is not the last call ! Nature as icon in time has experienced much worse in times, but humanity is getting more fragile ever day, so we have to be on the watch on the proportions and consequences, the potential infliction of suffering. [link]

MORE about the CLOUD here: [link]

 One photo and the memory it contained. . .
12 Mar 2010 @ 13:04, by susannahbe. Environment, Ecology

I was just going through some old photo files stored on my hard disk when I came across this photo, as soon as I saw it a flood of memories came back and I was there again...

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." - John Muir

We had walked across the meadow behind the old cottage we used to live in and climbed over the five bar gate that led into the wood; As soon as I put my foot down I could feel the spongy ground thick with pine needles and I breathed in the wonderful damp cool smell.

We knew these woods well and loved to go off the beaten paths and make our way though the thick curling ferns. The slanted dappled light dancing through the canopy made the place seem magical.

In these quiet hidden inner places of the woodland we would often come face to face with its creatures, coming out of the dark green into a passage of sunlight to see a deer standing stately and silent, bathed in the almost luminous light.

It was strange that no matter how many times we explored, we always found new areas that we were sure we had never seen before.

On one of these forays we stumbled out of the damp green interior into a clearing and there lit by a ray of sunlight, radiant amongst the blankets of dark green pines was the tree in the picture.

It almost took my breath away!

I walked over and stood in front of it and made Joe laugh when I said that it looked like something special was happening and that maybe it was having a birthday. :-)

I stood for a moment just taking in the wonderful sight and enjoying the moment of sunshine, then remembering my camera, I retrieved it from my deep pockets and took the photo before we headed back into the shade of the canopy and made our way home.


.

 Sunday . . . at my computer
picture
7 Mar 2010 @ 18:16, by susannahbe. Environment, Ecology
. . . The view from my window when sitting at my desk.

"The little things? The little moments? They aren't little." - John Zabat-Zinn

The Doves have spent a few days now hanging out on the fence enjoying the sunshine, and then flying over to the bird table for some seed, then back to sunbathing and courting! I watch as they gently groom one another, then I tactfully avert my eyes as they mate!- regularly! ;-)

It is wonderful to have my computer right in front of this window, as it feels like I am part of what is going on out there. . . the changing light, the hundreds of birds that visit the bird table and hanging feeders throughout the day.

I know that as I watch, before long all the trees will have their leaves and the bush to the right in the bottom photo will be dripping with huge lilac blooms that I will be able to smell through the open window.

It is wonderful to watch the sun go down, it sets just behind the red heart in the window, and in the morning to watch the pink light of sunrise bathe those trees in a gentle golden light.

I think this is a great place to have my computer!

.

picture
 HAPPY SIXTH DAY - MAYAN CALENDAR CHANGE!3 comments
picture picture 12 Nov 2008 @ 22:37, by magical_melody. Environment, Ecology
13 November Thursday, Mayan Sign IMIX/Alligator-13

Fifth night began 19th of November 2007 and closes 12th of November. Sixth Day begins 13th, November 2008 - Background about: Fifth Night
Enjoy Mayan Articles, Interviews and Audio-Video Resources

Images - Hunab Ku and World Tree and Goddess of Birth - Read about World Tree and why the Mayan Calendar by Carl J Calleman  More >

 The Redemption Of Spring5 comments
picture20 Apr 2008 @ 17:08, by jazzolog. Environment, Ecology
Lose your mind and come to your senses.

---Fritz Perls

It gets late early out there.

---Yogi Berra

A mystical experience is not any more unique than a modern experiment in physics. On the other hand, it is not less sophisticated, either....The complexity and efficiency of the physicist's technical apparatus is matched, if not surpassed, by that of the mystic's consciousness....A page from a journal of modern experimental physics will be as mysterious to the uninitiated as a Tibetan mandala. Both are records of inquiries into the nature of the universe.

---Fritjof Capra

I stepped out my front door this early morning and started down the driveway. Head lowered in thought, time to fetch the Sunday paper in the box down by the road, when I heard the first spring song of a wood thrush in our woods. He must have come back yesterday. I notice the juncos are packing up and moving out to the North woods for the summer. I looked around and the world was transformed. There hadn't been much rain yesterday, but it was slow and steady...and enough to bring on the first real burst of new leaves. The daffodils are mostly done, tulips in full blast, and redbud coming on at its usual leisurely pace. I'm sure there's plenty more wild flower action in the forest and by the creeks. But that thrush's song lifted my spirits to a healing high.

I just had read an email from my sister, describing her early retirement from administration in local public health in our hometown. The job had become more than tedious, with constant and increasing mandates "to do more and more with less and less." It had become dangerous to one's health, life-threatening. Retirement at 59, with 32 years of service...and she listed 3 others in community and environmental health who did the same thing in a matter of months. No double-dipping for these people, they've had it. How many others who chose careers of public service, before Reagan declared government work a waste of money and Gingrich labeled its workers bureaucrats to be gotten rid of, have done the same thing over the last decade? How many thousands, tens of thousands, from the top ranks of the CIA through the military and into the social agencies? Every level of government affected by budget cuts and increased paperwork to prove accountability.  More >



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