Sunday, June 15, 2003

Making Perfect Sense Patrick Eytchison writes: A deep structure interweaving resource depletion, culture trends and the capitalist economy undergirds the Bush administration’s policy of international aggression and domestic repression. Seen in the context of this structure, the administration’s actions are neither inept nor irrational. Instead, they represent the carrying out of a cold logic to preserve the privilege of a ruling class faced with the most severe crisis of its two hundred plus year existence: i.e. the exhaustion of its energy resource base, and the parallel rise of an oppositional semiotic/social movement as strong as, if not stronger than, Marxist communism. The purpose of this essay is to outline that structure. This will be presented in two sections; one on resource depletion and then one on the rise of the Islamist movement. It is only with an understanding of the historical confluence of these two forces that the profound ecological-historical rootedness of present ruling class insanity can be grasped, and with hope an effective resistance built. (06/15/03) What is Green Marketing? New York Times -- The first time a colleague suggested that Pillowtex make a line of environmentally safe bedding under the Sierra Club brand, Gretchen Dale laughed out loud. "My first reaction was: `What? I just don't get this,' " recalled Ms. Dale, Pillowtex's senior vice president for design and new product development. Then came her second reaction: that many people might indeed pay more for bedding that is made of organically grown cotton rather than synthetic blends, that is colored with vegetable dyes instead of formaldehydes and heavy metals and that is filled with replenishable resources like wool. Pillowtex, which had sales of $934.9 million last year, signed on as a Sierra Club licensee. "People may well realize that what's not healthy for the environment is not healthy for them," she said. "A Sierra Club line could well appeal to those educated, upper-income people that our regular products don't always reach." Maybe so, but Sierra Club pillows and mattress pads? Wait, there's more, including Sierra Club coffee and tea, Sierra Club toys, Sierra Club hats, gloves, jackets. All start moving to stores in the next month or so and should be on the shelves by fall. "Our products will make it possible to create a total Sierra Club lifestyle," said Johanna O'Kelley, the director of licensing for the club. (06/15/03) Networking in Paleontology's "Dark Ages" Howard Bloom writes: In our previous episode, I laid out evidence indicating that the global brain foreseen by computer-futurists already existed 3.5 billion years ago. I attempted to demonstrate how the biology of the primitive cyanobacterium equipped it to act as a component in a parallel-distributed intelligence. The result: a social colony capable of networking data, solving problems, creatively retooling genomes, and of transmitting and receiving genetic upgrades via a worldwide web. But 3.5 billion years b.c. was long ago. What, if anything, has happened to the global brain since then? The story is a strange one. Evolution went on to produce life forms with radically new powers. Many of these retained the ability to operate as local networked intelligences. But in the course of their development, an ironic slippage took place. Bacteria and viruses, those stalwart veterans of the days shortly after the earth's crust first formed, held on to their global research and development system. But "higher" life forms, gifted with capacities whose full potential would ripen only with time, took what seems on the surface to be a large step backward. Yes, they preserved their ability to cluster in social groups and act as communal information processors. But high-speed global data pooling would remain a microbial specialty, one which the "advanced" species would take at least 2.1 billion years to reinvent. This is the next episode in the story of how and why. (06/15/03) Water Depletion Crisis BBC Environment -- World's water supply 'running low' The world's natural supply of underground water, on which two billion people depend, is being run down, according to the United Nations. Water tables are falling by about three metres a year across much of the developing world, according to a study by the UN Environment Programme (Unep). Launching its report on World Environment Day, the UN said governments must take immediate action to reverse the decline. "I hope this report will serve as a wake-up call concerning the human, social and economic consequences of squandering our vital underground water supplies," said Klaus Toepfer, Unep's executive director. Growing populations, industrialisation and more intensive farming are all contributing to a dramatic increase in the use of water. In Arizona, the amount of water being taken from the ground is twice what is replaced naturally, the report says. In parts of the Arabian Gulf, underground water sources are being contaminated by salty sea water pumped from the coast through leaky pipelines to boost city supplies. Developing countries in particular are using up groundwater at what the report calls "an alarming rate". (06/15/03) Fish Depletion Crisis -- North Sea Cod BBC Nature -- Cod stocks around the British coast are now so low that fishing should stop until they recover, scientists say. The number of young North Sea cod in early 2003 was the lowest for 20 years. In many areas the fish are even less numerous than the scientists had predicted. They believe it will take several years before there can be any hope of a real recovery. The warning comes from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (Ices), which co-ordinates marine research in the north Atlantic. It has reviewed cod stocks in the North Sea, Kattegat (between Denmark and Sweden), the Irish Sea, and the waters west of Scotland, in the light of survey results in 2002 and early this year, and fisheries data from 2002. It says the cod in these areas "are still below minimum recommended levels, and in many cases they are in even worse condition than previously predicted". (06/15/03) Norway's Excuse for Killing Earth's Whales BBC Nature -- Norway's insistence on continuing to kill whales contradicts the spirit of the international moratorium on commercial whaling, the UK says. Norway has set itself a catch quota of 711 minke whales for 2003, up from 634 killed last year. Its whaling is legal, because it objected to the moratorium, in force since 1986. But the British say the Norwegian hunt is really for export, and is unsustainable. The accusation came from the UK Fisheries Minister, Elliot Morley, in a briefing to journalists before the start on 16 June of the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Berlin. Mr Morley told BBC News Online: "We believe the Norwegian whaling is against the spirit of the moratorium. "They say it's legal, and it's true they registered an objection when the moratorium was agreed by the commission, so under IWC rules they're allowed to continue hunting. "But we think it goes against the spirit of the ban, and certainly their attempts to export the meat are illegal. "They're desperate to find an export market, and that shows the whaling isn't for domestic consumption - and it's not sustainable." (06/15/03) Roman Holiday Sky News -- Rome is smoldering with temperatures up to 94.6 degrees fahrenheit (34.8 degrees celsius) - the hottest the Italian capital has experienced at this time of year since 1782. "People feel the heat even more because it's lasted 40 days now," said weather specialist Franca Mangianti. The heatwave has been made worse because it has hardly rained since May 1, when a mere 2.6 mm  were recorded, according to Mangianti. (06/13/03) 7:32:02 AM

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