By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet
Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk

Earth and her humanity need old forests to exist. And all enabling their destruction, including potential carbon markets paying for 'sustainable forest management' in primary forests, are legitimate targets for an Earth Revolution.

For too long those feeding upon the trough of "sustainable" forestry have been perpetuating the myth that primary and old growth forests can and should be harvested using "Sustainable Forest Management" (SFM) techniques. Old Forests are key to ecosystem, biodiversity, human and the Earth System's survival. Along with other intact natural terrestrial, aquatic and marine habitats; old forests are the internal organs of the Planet and regulate the Earth System to maintain conditions conducive to life. Primary forests logged for the first time are permanently ecologically damaged in terms of composition, structure, function and dynamics.

I am stunned, dumfounded and enraged at the wholesale selling out of the climate and forest, led by big environmental NGOs (BINGOs). The latest positive idea for an ecologically sustainable Earth -- Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Diminishment (REDD) -- to pay for ancient forest protection with carbon monies, is at this very moment being watered down to mean business as usual first time logging of primary forests that forever destroys ecosystems and habitats. Like "sustainable development" and "certified forestry", the REDD concept of paying for protection of old forests' carbon stores, biodiversity and ecosystem is being taken over by industry.

Continue reading "EARTH MEANDERS: Old Forests, REDD Rage and Earth Revolution" »

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The mighty Mekong River [search] in Southeast Asia faces a devastating threat from eleven new proposed dams. If even one of the dams are built in Cambodia, Laos or Thailand; they would block major fish migrations and otherwise ecologically disrupt this vitally important river, placing at risk millions of people who depend upon the Mekong for their food security and income. Help "Save the Mekong" and this affinity campaign in seeking to pressure regional governments to shelve the plans.

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The island of Madagascar is a veritable Noah's Ark of biodiversity [search], and this natural wealth is the country's primary treasure and opportunity for future ecologically sustainable development. The Korean company Daewoo Logistics intends to lease half the agricultural land in Madagascar for 99 years, industrially producing maize and palm oil on 1.3 million hectares that are now biodiversity rich rainforests and gardens. There already exists a severe food crisis nationally and local peoples, who are soon to be dispossessed from their land, are protesting, causing a major government crisis. Tell Daewoo the people of Madagascar have spoken -- and to shove off and leave Madagascar's rainforests, peoples and land alone.

TAKE ACTION!

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After being a lone voice in the wilderness for decades, Dr. Glen Barry and Ecological Internet's biocentric forest protection position has been adopted by most major forest protection organizations. It remains to be determined how those committing to keeping such logging out of UN carbon finance can reconcile with their support for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of first time old forest logging. Regardless, time to unite the forest and climate movements going into Copenhagen with strong message of protecting and restoring standing old forests for local development and biodiversity benefits, and regional and global climate and ecosystem sustainability.

Continue reading "VICTORY/RELEASE: Global Consensus Emerging Regarding Need to End Industrial Primary Forest Logging as Keystone Climate Change Response" »

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Peruvian police reportedly shot indigenous protesters from helicopters -- as peaceful protesters were protecting their ancestral land. Online affinity campaign demanding Peru respect indigenous rights continues.

TAKE ACTION! Peru's police have clashed with Amazon tribes opposed to foreign companies opening oil wells and mines in their rainforests without their consent. Police reportedly shot at protesters from helicopters, killing as many as twelve blockading a road to protect their land. Amazon Watch and Western media report indigenous protesters outside of Bagua, in a remote area of northern Peruvian Amazon, were forcibly dispersed by tear gas and real bullets. Reuters reports 12 protesters were killed, while Agence France-Presse puts it at 9. It may have been worse.

The threat of continued violence is real and imminent. Some 30,000 indigenous people have blockaded roads, rivers and railways for months to demand repeal of new laws that allow oil, mining and logging companies to enter indigenous territories without their consent or even any consultation. Reinhard Behrend, Rainforest Rescue's Director, notes "it is important to realize that our overconsumption in the rich and emerging nations is at the root cause of deadly conflict for rainforests and Indians. We ask people to eliminate their use of industrially harvested timbers, oil and minerals from the world's rainforests, and protest this senseless violence at Peru embassies all over the world."

Continue reading "RELEASE: Police Violently Attack Peaceful Indigenous Blockade in Peruvian Amazon, Killing Many" »

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By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet
Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk

Let me tell you about the birds and the bees, and the flowers and the trees. THEY ARE ALL DYING. Global grassroots protest action -- informed by ecological science, impassioned by green rage, and dedicated to sufficient policies to achieve global ecological sustainability -- our last best chance, together, to avoid ecocide.

FOREWARD: For the past two months Ecological Internet has been micro-blogging on Twitter http://twitter.com/ecointernet (as well as at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ecological-Internet/84943913664 on Facebook) regarding requirements for ecological sustainability [search]. Being forced to capture complex ideas in 140 characters has been good for our biocentric writing by enforcing brevity. Ends up the series of one-liners string together relatively well to present a compelling vision of what is necessary to protect Gaia and our beings.

From these terse pronouncements comes a sense of planetary urgency. As we ponder whether there are enough funds for Ecological Internet to continue to use the Internet to facilitate global ecological sustainability, and consider cutting back or even closing (and whether our "public radio" type funding appeals remain a viable funding method), this twitter compilation is one means to make a compelling case for you to support our unique brand of global grassroots eco-advocacy.

Your support broadcasts such biocentric thought and action 24/7 to an ecologically hungry world -- as our portals and writings are used and read by several million people a year. Please enjoy this essay and donate now. Together we will make it.

For Earth,
Dr. Glen Barry
****************************************

(EARTH) - Gaia. Earth is alive. Biosphere is self-regulating. Interactions between ecosystems make Earth habitable. Gaia once vibrant is in mid-death swoon. Humans. Are killing. Gaia. Earth is faced with global ecological collapse, this is an unprecedented emergency, and threatens major upheaval and death of all. Wake up you bloody fools. Earth is dying. We are losing our habitat. Humanity is in deep shit as Earth well past carrying capacity. We and all Gaia's creatures are heading for mass extinction. Radical idealism that profoundly transforms humanity's relationship to natural being is the cure to ecocide.

Things are not as they ought to be. Humans dismantle natural ecosystems that are their habitats because they like making money more than truth, justice, equity and continued shared being. We spew into our air, excrete into water, piss in our oceans and foul the land for a pocket full of mumbles and throw-away consumer junk. All but a few are able to overcome their childhood indoctrination and limited lifespan to see this is not how life was meant to be, that humanity has morphed into a disease upon Gaia. Yet as our atmosphere collapses, water grows dear, and extreme poverty epidemic; more are realizing that something has gone dramatically wrong with the human project.

Gaia, the Earth System, is alive and self-regulating. Gaia is a super-organism, and as such can die. There is no guarantee of continued evolution after ecosystem collapse. Being can end. Humans are one with Earth and as goes Gaia's health goes ours being. Being is fragile. The biosphere is a thin mantle of life upon otherwise lifeless rock. These ecosystems are more than resources, they give life. All Gaia's life including us is crashing. Humans appear hell-bent to destroy life's biological foundation. Earth going bad with industrial agricultural, dead oceans, strip malls, toxic cocktail, climate weirding and logging old forests. Pandemic disease stalks an overpopulated, poverty wracked and ecologically devastated Earth. Factory farms breed disease sold as food. All must change, be restored.

Global inequity in wealth and standard of living is evil. Malignant consumerism devours Earth's being and the only profits to be seen are false. About 2 billion live on under $2/day and 2 billion in relative opulent luxury. These disparities are unsustainable and must end. Our and all creatures' being imperiled as human disease overwhelms all naturalness. Ecological fabric of being unraveling, daily news full of ecosystems failing, yet few put it together. We and our planet are needlessly dying now. Over-consumption from ecosystem liquidation by some while others starve root cause of ecosystem collapse, war and injustice

Continued being depends upon escalating protest action. For humanity's shared survival we must broaden our sphere of love and emotional support to include Gaia, all her creatures and the human family. Time for action is now. There is nothing wrong with Earth System that a good healthy dose of radical idealism can't fix. It's simple: humanity cutting and burning Earth to death. These practices must end. We can and must stop coal, logging, tar sands, industrial agriculture, war and poverty. There exists a global ecological imperative to protect and restore whole Earth as our garden. Either you are committed to stopping ecocide or you are the problem.

Only road to ecological sustainability is immediate industrial powerdown, and ecological protection and restoration. Time to level with global citizens -- fighting climate change raises energy prices and requires substantial personal sacrifice. The option is apocalyptic planetary disintegration. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is an urgent planetary necessity whether or not it creates jobs as techno-optimists claim. Shame on people, and there are many, who put their opulent consumption and luxury ahead of needs of Earth and the poor. Fatal flaw in Western exceptionalism is its use as justification to overconsume. Climate change and sustainability require simpler lives. How much is enough?

Continue reading "EARTH MEANDERS: Radical Idealism: Come Home to Gaia" »

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By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal with Rainforest Rescue

TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!

Support tens of thousands of indigenous people bravely protesting Peru government's give-away of their rainforest homes [search] to oil, mining and logging industry without their approval; insist peaceful protests are not met with violence by President Alan Garcia's government, and that the focus for Amazonian development be upon benefiting from standing trees and intact rainforest ecosystems.

BRIEF BACKGROUND:

Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon are protesting investment laws passed under a free-trade pact with the United States and against concessions granted to foreign energy companies. Some 30,000 indigenous people have blockaded roads, rivers and railways to demand repeal of new laws that allow oil, mining and logging companies to enter indigenous territories without seeking consent or even any consultation. Indigenous communities complain that some 70% of Peruvian Amazon territory is now leased for oil and gas exploration, putting at risk their own lives and the biodiversity of the Amazon.

Please add your voice in solidarity with the tens of thousands of indigenous people and their international supporters mobilizing to protect the Peruvian Amazon. Send a letter today to the Garcia Administration demanding respect for the constitutionally guaranteed rights of indigenous peoples, and Amazon development based upon standing forests.

TAKE ACTION NOW:
http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=peru_amazon

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By Rainforest Rescue with Ecological Internet's Climate Ark

TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!

In a startling yet welcome announcement, Malaysian government's land agency now denies plans to produce oil palm in the Amazon. While the prospect of a Malaysian government agency funding Amazonian oil palm has been dealt a serious setback, it is likely this project will re-emerge. Let's get formal commitment from the Malaysian government that this project is canceled, and to stop all Malaysian government and private industry funding of oil palm expansion overseas. Maybe, just maybe, we are winning this one!

BRIEF UPDATE:

In a positive yet puzzling development, a spokesperson for the Malaysian government's federal land agency (FELDA) now denies plan for Malaysian government controlled oil palm development in the heart of the Amazon ever existed. Wan Zaleha Wan Embong, from FELDA's Public Relations Department, has been responding to our network's protest emails, disavowing the plans and stating "for your info the project never take (sic) place." The sudden change of plans is either an attempt to save face, the project has been cancelled due to our protests and/or economic difficulties, or deceitful politics as the project is reorganized with private rather than government capital.

In July of 2008, Malaysia's own Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak (then Deputy) announced the project. He is widely reported to have said Felda Global Ventures Brazil Sdn Bhd would invest some RM25mil (US$7.12mil) for a 70% stake in the project near the Amazon River in Brazil. He is quoted when announcing Felda's foray in South America as saying "Felda wants to emulate Petronas as a global player… As a start, 20,000ha in Tefe will be opened for oil palm planting. After that, between 3,000ha and 5,000ha will be opened yearly." As recently as March 25, 2009, Brazilian ambassador to Malaysia, Sergio Arruda, reportedly stated the oil palm cultivation project would commence this year.

Continue reading "UPDATED ALERT: Malaysian Govt. Denies Well Documented Oil Palm Development Plans in Brazilian Amazon" »

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Agence France-Presse reports that part of a national park on Borneo island, home to hundreds of endangered orangutans [search], has been turned into a development zone [ark] complete with an airport and brothel. Some 600 orangutan have disappeared from Kutai National Park, East Kalimantan province, over the past seven years due to unchecked construction. It really makes you wonder -- just how callous can humanity be towards sister species, and if this is going on with government complicity, just how willing is Indonesia's government to limit deforestation? Or is REDD carbon finance proposal just about the carbon money?

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Peru's army is poised to deploy in the Amazon rainforest [ark] to lift blockades across rivers and roads by indigenous people opposed to oil, gas, logging and mining projects. The Peruvian rainforest [search] is the largest swath of Amazon outside Brazil. Ecology and culture are at stake as government plans to exploit 70% of the rainforest for oil, gas and timber.

In the past two years the government has signed deals with multinationals to open swaths of rainforest, including a £1.3bn agreement last month with the Anglo-French oil company Perenco. About 65 tribes have mobilised 30,000 people to disrupt roads, waterways and pipelines, leading to skirmishes with police. Up to 41 vessels serving energy companies are stuck along jungle rivers, paralysed by the protests. These brave souls need and deserve our support.

By Rainforest Rescue with Ecological Internet

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By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet
Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk

If Gaia, the Earth System, is alive, then it stands to reason she can die. And the fact Gaia has not yet succumbed in past mass extinctions is no indication, and certainly no guarantee, that when hit simultaneously, in a geological flash of time -- with climate change, deforestation, toxics, soil loss, scarce freshwater, dead oceans and more; caused primarily by over-population and inequitable consumption -- that Gaia will not pass from being.

The degree to which humanity has changed Gaia's balance ecologically is clearly known by global change and ecological science, yet it is not well appreciated by most of the masses and ruling elite. Until it is, humanity and our sister species are careening towards global ecosystem collapse, where one day soon we will wake up on a toxic, largely lifeless planet and it will be too late.

If all entreaties to power to pursue necessary policies to avoid global ecosystem collapse continue to be rebuffed, there is a long tradition of protest culminating in revolution to draw upon as inspiration for a Stewardship Revolution. We need to steel ourselves to the possibility that environmentalism in the face of continued neglect by the ruling elite has become a battle for shared survival of our and all being.

Continue reading "EARTH MEANDERS: Only Cure for a Dying Earth May Be a Stewardship Revolution" »

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Government documents regarding planned Amazon oil palm project by Malaysian government agency removed from Internet, and all email messages into country regarding the project are being delete

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

Ecological Rather than respond substantively to criticism over the Malaysian government and industry's expansion of deadly oil palm plantations into Brazil and Liberia's rainforests [1], the Malaysian government is resorting to despotic censorship to stifle dissent. References to plans by Malaysia‘s federal land agency to establish up to 100,000 hectares of oil palm plantations in the heart of Brazil's Amazon rainforest are being systematically removed from the government's Internet servers. And all emails referring to Malaysia's global rainforest for oil palm land grab flowing through Streamyx, the monopoly Internet service provider in Malaysia, are not being delivered.

"It is clear that Malaysian citizens do not enjoy freedom of information, which is tragic, because their government is leading the destruction of Earth's rainforests with their tax money," asserts Dr. Barry, Ecological Internet's President. "For decades Malaysian timber companies have behaved like timber Mafia across the Asia-Pacific, bribing and waging violence to rip out millions of year old rainforest ecosystems for timber. This once off raping of the land is now being followed by planting of oil palm, in what can only be described as south-south neo-colonialism. We demand that the Malaysian government respond to our criticism, cancel the projects, and commit to freedom of expression regarding their rainforest policies."

Continue reading "RELEASE: Malaysia's Hollow Democracy: Government Censors Internet Criticism of Global Rainforest for Oil Palm Land Grab" »

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