michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Mar 24, 2006 16:44:35 GMT 4
Happy 70th Birthday David Suzuki!Canada is so lucky to have scientist, David Suzuki. Not heard of him? Here is his website: DavidSuzuki.org
To introduce him to you, posted below is a PBS interview with Bill Moyers:MOYERS: We get so many reports of what we're doing to our air, our soil and our water. But I ask you as a scientist, is the diagnosis lethal? SUZUKI: I don't think anyone can say at what point it will be lethal to us as a species. I like to say that in Canada not long ago, Cape Breton coalminers took canaries in the coal mine. When the canary keeled over, they didn't say, "Hey, Jack, come on over here. This bird just fell over. What do you think? Do you think it's…" They hauled their backsides outta there as fast as they could go. Birds are, especially canaries are super sensitive to hydrogen sulfide, and sour gas. So, they give you an early warning. Well, canaries have been falling all around the planet for decades now. Plants and animals that no longer are able to survive in the plan… in the conditions that we've created. And what have we done? We've ignored this. We've always said, "Oh, well, there's plenty more where that came from." There aren't plenty more where that came from. And now our own children have become the canaries. One out of five children in Canada will now have asthma. When you and I were boys, asthma was a rare disease. MOYERS: And that's as recent as the 1930's, right? SUZUKI: Exactly. Exactly. So, our own children are now telling us we're doing something fundamentally wrong. And all you have to do is every time you have a smog alert, go down to the emergency room in the hospital, and sit there for a day. You will see that room, those emergency rooms jammed with people in deep respiratory distress. Well, you don't have to be a genius to say, "Maybe it's got something to do with what we're taking into our lungs." And the point of the sacred balance that I did was to say, "Look, people, we can't continue to act as if air is something out there. And we are here. And we manage our interaction with the air." "We are the air." At our ages, I reckon we've taken about 350 million breathes. We've taken one to four liters of air, breathed it deep into our bodies, and fused to the air, and filtered whatever was in that air into our bodies. The idea that we use air as a toxic dump, and somehow it goes away and doesn't affect us is absurd. MOYERS: Or water. SUZUKI: Or water. We are over 60 percent water by weight. We're just a big ball of… blob of water, with enough organic thickener added so we don't dribble away on the floor. MOYERS: That is interesting. You're changing the metaphor. You're saying that air, water, soil, are not outside of us. They are us. SUZUKI: We are made of those things. And this isn't rocket science. This is ancient, ancient understanding. I apologize to my aboriginal friends when I talk about this. Because I am a Johnny-come-lately. They all look at me, and go, "Where the heck have you been? It's taken you a long time to figure this out." MOYERS: I can hear people in the audience saying, "Oh, no, here we go again. Back to that kind of romantic idea of human beings living in the Garden of Eden, in an innocence that." You know, it just doesn't apply… SUZUKI: Uh-huh. MOYERS: …in this 21st century world. SUZUKI: The whole problem with modernity today is we think anything new is good. Anything that's old is bad. You know? So, even old timers like us gotta get those old guys out of the way, so the young, hot-shots can come in there. MOYERS: The fact of the matter is you and I are living longer because of modern technology. I had heart trouble nine years ago. And I've had a productive nine years, whereas 100 years ago, I would probably have died… SUZUKI: Absolutely. MOYERS: …at 60. SUZUKI: Absolutely. MOYERS: So, there's a tradeoff… SUZUKI: Oh, of course. There have been huge, huge advances. I mean, what are we doing right now? We're sitting in a studio. And this miracle of modern television, global telecommunications, computers, we can't imagine existing without it. I would hope that with all of this so-called technological progress, there would be enormous benefits. And there have been. But I think it's important to put it all into perspective. We have to put it into a perspective of are human beings now so intelligent that we've now escaped the physical, biological constraints of the planet? I think most people today believe that, that we're somehow special, and different. What again, to refer back to aboriginal people tell us is the Earth is our mother. Now people immediately think a Mother Earth, you know, that's a metaphor. That's poetic way of speaking. They mean it literally. And I, as a scientist have come to understand, they are absolutely right in the most profound scientific way… MOYERS: How so? SUZUKI: …way. We are created out of the most important elements of the planet. People don't even understand that every bit of our food was once alive. We take another creature, plant, animal, microorganism, tear it apart in our mouths. And incorporate those molecules into our own bodies. We are the Earth in the most profound way. And we are fire. Because every bit of the energy in our bodies that we need to move, and grow and reproduce is sunlight. Sunlight captured by plants, converted into chemical energy that we consume and store in our bodies. So, when they speak about the Earth as our mother, and the four sacred elements: Earth, air, fire and water, they mean it literally. And they are right. MOYERS: Uh-huh. I was touched in watching the Sacred Balance. The first program in the series begins with you and your grandson in an arcade.
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DT1
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You know, it's not like I wanted to be right about all of this...
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Post by DT1 on Mar 29, 2006 22:14:24 GMT 4
Published on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 by CommonDreams.org Gelded Donkeys: Why the Democrats Are Worse Than Useless by Robert Freeman In the Sherlock Holmes mystery, Silver Blade, it was the dog that didn't bark that fingered the killer. As Holmes explained to Watson, the reason for the silence, even as the victim was being murdered, was that the dog must have known the killer - its own master. Viola! Mystery solved. In a similar fashion, amidst the most catastrophic presidency in the history of the country, it is the donkey that doesn't bray that identifies the culprit. And the culprit, of course, is the donkey's master. It is a who-dunnit of Olympian proportions, for the fate of the country hangs on its solution. The extent of the disaster of the Bush presidency is almost beyond cataloguing. But it is worth trying in order to comprehend the stunning impotence of the Democrats in offering any meaningful opposition. Through a torrent of naked lies, psychotic delusion, and calamitous incompetence, George Bush has mired the U.S. into what General William Odom (hardly a pacifist or leftist) has called, "the greatest strategic disaster in the history of the country." The Iraq war has grievously, perhaps irreparably, damaged America's moral standing in the world. It was illegal in inception and has been savagely brutal in execution. It has caused thousands of American and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths. It has consumed almost half a trillion dollars with the end nowhere in sight. It has undermined the reputation, if not, indeed, the capability of the U.S. military. It has done more to hasten the decline of American power in the world than anything in the past 100 years. Besides the damage inflicted on America alone, Bush's war has dangerously destabilized the most incendiary region in the world, the Middle East, and has created the world's most fertile breeding ground for terror. His three "Axis of Evil" countries-Iraq, Iran, and North Korea-are immeasurably more threatening today than when Bush took office. North Korea, in particular, has acquired nuclear weapons in direct response to Bush's invasion of Iraq. The wreckage on the economic front is almost as vast. Bush inherited massive budget surpluses but turned those immediately into massive deficits. While it took the nation 204 years to rack up its first $1 trillion of debt, Bush has added $3 trillion in only five years. The spiral of debt, driven by tax cuts for the rich, is out of control, even as the nation stands on the threshold of its 77 million Baby Boomers retiring, needing fiscal solvency more than ever. Poverty is up 43% since Bush took office. More than five million people have lost their health insurance under Bush. Real median income has declined five years in a row, the first time since the Great Depression. Income inequality is the highest since the 1920s. More than a quarter of all manufacturing jobs have been lost since 2000. Oil costs more than twice what it did when Bush took office. These are the symptoms, not of economic might, but of decay, even collapse. The trade deficit has exploded to over $800 billion per year requiring the sale each year of an equal amount of American assets to settle it. The U.S. must borrow more than $2 billion every day to pay for this breathtaking profligacy. It is China - our greatest strategic adversary - that loans us much of those sums. If China stops lending, the U.S. economy will utterly collapse. Never in our worst nightmares would we give our most threatening competitor such direct control over the nation's economic destiny. And, yet, that is where Bush's runaway debts have left us today. On the environmental front, the world faces a potential catastrophe in global warming that is literally without precedent. Yet, far from taking even the most modest of precautionary steps, Bush denies even the existence of the problem and blunders on in his self- righteous arrogance, engorging his polluting friends and benefactors with the planet's environmental commons and making the problem perhaps irretrievably worse. On the terror front, Bush was at best asleep at the switch on 9/11, an utter failure in defending the country against its greatest attack since the War of 1812. And this, despite being warned more than a dozen times of the approaching danger. He followed it up with the Patriot Act, the most dramatic rescission of civil liberties in the history of the nation. Corruption is rampant, a de facto synonym for Bush governance. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is under indictment for lying to federal prosecutors. Tom DeLay is under indictment for laundering campaign contributions. Bill Frist is under investigation for insider trading. Randy Cunningham has been convicted in the biggest Congressional bribery case in the history of the country. Tens of billions of dollars have "disappeared" in Iraq, doubtless to find their way into future political black bag jobs. The windfalls to Bush's cronies in the weapons, logistics, and oil industries run to the tens of billions of dollars. Bush's brazen and continuing campaign of illegal wiretapping poses a profound threat to the constitutional principle of checks and balances, the essence of the American form of government. It poses an equally grave threat to the right of the people to be free from harassment and unwarranted searches by the government, another fundament of the nation's founding ethos. Bush refers contemptuously to the Constitution as "a scrap of paper." It shows. His other assaults on the America system of government began with the Republican theft of the election in 2000. Bush's brother had some 50,000 blacks removed from the voting rolls in the months before the election. While Florida blacks voted 90% for Al Gore, Bush "won" Florida by 534 votes. Only after the Republican-packed Supreme Court ordered a stop to the ballot counting was Bush declared the "winner." Still, had the full count continued, even with the removal of all the black voters, Al Gore would have won. The Florida theft was followed up in Ohio in 2004, this time abetted by voting machines without audit trails, machines that were easily hacked by the private corporations that sold them and then used them to privately count the votes. Prior to the election, officials of the company operating the machines publicly declared they would "deliver Ohio" for Bush. And did they ever. A professional statistician from the University of Pennsylvania calculated the odds of an honest vote count at 250,000,000 to 1. No, we're not talking Zimbabwe or Uzbekistan. We're talking American presidential elections. For this horrific - and still only partial - record of full-spectrum destruction, and despite the unremitting slavish adulation by the corporate media, the American people have decided Bush is callow, shallow, arrogant, bullying, dull, selfish, incompetent, and untrustworthy. By a margin of 2-to-1 they believe that the Iraq war was ill-advised and that it has failed. While Bush talks of tossing the turd to "future presidents" (note the plural), more than 60% of Americans want a plan for withdrawal. Significant majorities believe Bush is not a competent steward in the war on terror, that his economic management has done more harm than good, that his illegal wiretapping must be held to account, that he is not a trustworthy person, and again, by almost 2-to-1, that he has taken the country down the "wrong track." It is impossible to find a president, Nixon included, who has inflicted more damage on his country and who is more deeply, viscerally despised by his own people. Yet, despite all of these egregious failings of policy, this dripping smell-of-blood vulnerability in the polls, for all of this incomparable - indeed, unimaginable - legacy of devastation, there is not a single voice from the Democratic party that plausibly challenges Bush, his policy record, or Republican doctrine. How can that be? The silence is beyond eerie. It is far beyond strange. It is almost surreal, as if we were living in a black and white movie without sound, trains of state plunging silently off of bridges of law into bottomless abysses of war, helpless damsels of the people tied writhing on the rails of justice awaiting ritualistic dismemberment by runaway locomotives of greed while the anxiously awaited hero-on-horseback somehow, inexplicably, fatally, never arrives. Yes, yes, there are sporadic bleats of protest on one issue here, another there. They have to say something when the mikes are thrust into their faces, don't they? But the Democratic "leadership" are masters of media artifice, photogenic gurus of phony gravitas. There is the mock confrontation and the Kabuki theater play at challenging Bush - witness the staged challenge to Samuel Alito, humiliatingly transparent for being mounted only after it was numerically assured it could not actually succeed. But where is the thundering anger at the destruction of the nation? Where is the outrage as our financial solvency is being destroyed, our moral standing defiled, our military broken, our sacramental precepts of governance strangled to death before our very eyes? Where is the righteous fury that must surely -surely!- attend such brazen plunder, such naked arrogation of power, such shameless, mocking deceit? Where is the leadership that will stand against such palpable treason? Where, in other words, are the Democrats? They are nowhere to be found. It is almost a parlor game to name a single national-stature Democrat to which the average American can attach ANY coherent stand on ANY major national issue. Hillary Clinton? A caricature of climbing, cautious calculation who would be wholly unknown and even more unknowable were it not for the serendipitous fact of her husband's celebrity. Hillary's line on Iraq is not that it was illegal, not that it shames everything America supposedly stands for, surely not that it must be ended, but literally, that it hasn't been done well enough. And now she's proving her national security bonafides once again by out hawking the manifestly failed, lunatic neo-con hawks on the invasion of Iran. Joe Lieberman? A career consigliore for the pharmaceutical, insurance, and weapons industries, a Republican in drag, pathetically carrying water for Dick Cheney in the hope he might catch a few crumbs of power that fall from the Republican banquet table. Lieberman's take on Bill Clinton being serviced in the White House by a stalking intern? "The president's transgressions are too consequential for us to walk away and leave the impression that his behavior is acceptable for our nation's leader. On the contrary, they should be followed by some measure of public rebuke." His response to Russ Feingold's call for censuring Bush for his blatantly illegal, wholesale wiretapping of the American people? "I don't want to scold the president." While there are a few courageous individuals willing to speak truth to power, they are exceptions that prove the larger rule. For every John Murtha calling for an end to the War in Iraq, there are a dozen Joe Bidens declaring, "I'm rooting for [Bush's] success." For every Russ Feingold calling for censure, there are hoards of fellow Democrats such as his own state's Mark Dayton claiming such calls are "overreaching, grandstanding." For every Paul Hackett, true heroes of the War willing to challenge its morality at its core, there are phalanxes of Rahm Emanuels ready to stab him in the back and bring in "team players" who will robotically recite vapid, self-emasculating party catechisms. In truth, Democratic party leaders will not, because they cannot, lead. Not a single one of them has the character, the courage, or the conviction to state simply what so many of the American people already know so well in their hearts: We are being ruthlessly lied to. We are less safe, not more so, as a result of our ill-conceived and botched military adventurism. Our economy is being stripped of its assets, given away piecemeal to wealthy insiders. In the place of past wealth, we are being shackled with unbearable debts for the purpose of binding us into servitude for generations to come. Our democracy and its hallowed Constitutional system of checks and balances are being dismantled before our eyes. The nation is dying. The sad, apocalyptic truth is that the Democratic leadership has given up on America. Rather than reject the idea of empire, they embrace it. They might disdain inept execution by arrogant neo-cons but they do not begin to renounce the essential enterprise itself. They prattle on - Hillary-like - about how to do it better, more efficiently. They have resigned themselves and the country that we cannot compete in the world on the basis of hard work, discipline, industry, and ingenuity - the traditional paths to respect in the world, whether by persons or by nations. Instead, we are left to make our way in the world by raping, by plunder, by stealing the wealth of nations and people that are weaker than we are, not because it is right, not because there is any dignity or justice in it, but because we can. The Democratic leadership has sold itself to the highest corporate and military bidders, offering its furtive political support to facilitate the looting of any assets, American or otherwise, that can be had for the taking. It is Democrats who make possible the retailing of "globalization" which is nothing so much as a blank check for corporate capital to arbitrage one country against another in its relentless pursuit of the cheapest labor and the weakest environmental laws. It was the Democrats who championed and pushed through NAFTA and the WTO. It is the Democrats who similarly caved on Medicare, Roberts, Alito, bankruptcy, torture gulags, wiretapping, the immigration wall, tax cuts, and so much more. It is the Democratic leadership that speaks exultantly, rapturously, of "the magic of the market," and of "liberating the competitive spirit," all the while knowing that it means abandoning the American worker to the ravages of a bottomless spiral of downward mobility and inevitable immiserization. But rather than cast their traitorous acts as the regrettable betrayal they are, they spin their perfidy into yarns of opportunity, bolts of inspiration. Far from a broken nation, a bankrupt people, a lurking Stalinist regime, theirs is the more effective empire, the more efficient global economy, the kinder, gentler police state. They are Potempkin "leaders", hired and sired from the same bank accounts as their Republican "adversaries," empty suits propped up by their corporate masters for the sole purpose of sustaining the illusion of opposition, but without any real intent to actually exercise it. In the waning years of the Roman Republic, as the nation was wracked by civil war within and by attack from without, Cicero wrote, "Anything more corrupt than the men and times of today cannot be conceived." Perhaps he was too peremptory. He then wrote to Julius Caesar, "The fate of the Republic hangs on the honor and steadfastness of a single man." There is no such man of honor, no such party of steadfastness in America today. Certainly not among the Democrats. The dogs are not barking. The donkeys are not braying. They know their masters. They know their place. We must look elsewhere for saviors.
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Mar 30, 2006 13:37:24 GMT 4
WHAT'S IN YOUR FOOD?THIS IS ONE OF THE COOLEST SITES I'VE FOUND. THEY'VE COME OUT WITH A SECOND FILM, "THE MEATRIX 2: REVOLTING." NOT ONLY DO THESE FILMS SHOW THE FILTH AND MISTREATMENT THE ANIMALS SUFFER FROM, BUT THERE IS MUCH ON WHAT THEY ARE INJECTED WITH; WHICH MEANS YOU THROUGH CONSUMPTION.
EVER WONDER WHERE/WHO MAD COW DISEASE IS COMING FROM? EVER WONDER WHY THE DAIRY LOBBYISTS ARE SO POWERFUL IN WASHINGTON? CITIZENS OF THE U.S. NEED TO SERIOUSLY LOOK AT THE FOOD PRODUCTS BEING MARKETED IN THE MOST DELUSIVE WAYS. DON'T THINK YOU OR THE ENVIRONMENT IS SAFE BUYING SOME PRODUCTS LABELED AS ORGANIC. FOR EXAMPLE, HORIZON ORGANIC FARMS ARE CORPORATE FACTORY FARMS AND GROSS POLLUTERS.
IF YOU CAN'T FIND LOCAL FARMERS CLOSE TO YOU, ORGANIC VALLEY PRODUCTS ARE A CO-OP OF FAMILY RUN FARMS AND ARE AVAILABLE IN YOUR SUPERMARKET....Michelle The Meatrix II: Revolting Goes Live, Brings Message: Think Twice About the Dairy You Buy3/30/2006 12:01:00 AM NEW YORK, March 30 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Meatrix II: Revolting went live today at www.themeatrix2.com bringing an important message to food buyers nationwide - manure and deceit might just lurk beneath the packaging of dairy products in your shopping cart. The cliffhanger sequel to the award-winning Meatrix movie takes on another facet of the factory farm industry, exposing the ugly truth behind factory dairy farms. The film's companion site includes The Meatrix 360 degree Interactive, an animated educational tool with more than 20 hot buttons linking to resource pages that offer in-depth information about factory farm issues. "The Meatrix II: Revolting takes the Meatrix campaign to the next level," stated Diane Hatz, executive producer of the film. "We're not only educating consumers about factory farming and offering them a solution through our Eat Well Guide, we're also building a sustainable community through the online discussion forum and 'get involved' section found on our new Meatrix Web site." The Meatrix II: Revolting takes the original Meatrix, a spoof on the Matrix films that has reached over 10 million viewers, and introduces more action, adventure and excitement. It stars farm heroes - Leo, the young pig who wonders if he is "the one;" Chickity, the feathered family farm defender; and Moopheus, the trench-coat clad cow with a passion for green pastures. The three embark on a new adventure when Leo is taken to a factory dairy farm. On his trip, he learns firsthand the ugly truth about how the animals are raised, what they eat, the hormones and antibiotics they are injected with and their unsanitary living conditions. The trio finds that these dairy factories create enormous amounts of waste that pollute the surrounding land, water and air. "Large-scale, unsustainable dairy operations are increasing in number, pushing out the smaller, sustainable farms," said Hatz. "Consumers have a right to know how their food is produced, and they have a right to make the healthiest choice for themselves and their families." Watch and uncover the illusion at www.themeatrix2.com. The Meatrix II: Revolting was produced by Sustainable Table www.sustainabletable.org and Free Range Studios www.freerangestudios.com. Sustainable Table works to promote sustainable food and includes the Eat Well Guide www.eatwellguide.org, an online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy and eggs from the U.S. and Canada. Free Range Studios www.freerangestudios.com offers top-quality design and animation services to organizations whose vision goes beyond turning the world into a strip mall.
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DT1
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You know, it's not like I wanted to be right about all of this...
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Post by DT1 on Mar 31, 2006 9:44:58 GMT 4
Thanx for the link...very good stuff. Everyone should see this site. Do you"watch what you eat"? Better have a strong stomach... Veggies,vitamins,and beer is my personal advice- although I can't pass up salmon and wild rice.
If you are still eating red meat(I.E cow in any form),do yourself a favour and STOP I quit eating beef a couple years ago,and it makes a HUGE difference... More bounce,more aware,more alive.Try it for a month,you'll see what I mean.
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Apr 6, 2006 17:26:43 GMT 4
Mass Extinction UnderwayBelow is a recent article posted at CNN. Following this is a 1998 report from The American Museum of Natural History. You don't see much about this in the news and it certainly isn't being taught with any importantance in our schools. Now why is that so? Could it be that this information is being suppressed; I mean since certain people have come into power much of our scientist's warnings have been censored or "adjusted" to suit the agenda of various developers, corporations, and government activities. Funding for bio-diversity projects has been cut dramatically over the past few years.
It also should be noted by those who read here that your individual acts against nature are significantly contributing to this mass extinction. It is time that we Earthlings realize that our current ways of living cannot continue. When will the "Naked Ape" realize that he must wake up to the fact that he is part of the web of life and that we are not here to dominate, plunder, and poison our Mother Earth, her beautiful landscapes, and our brothers and sisters of the 5 Kingdoms of life?
As I find the time, I hope to be able to post more here on Bio-diversity and what you can do to encourage it in your surroundings.....Michelle When you think about how man has visually scarred and continually altered the earth — what is the conclusion you've come to from that? I'm so conscious now that concern for the plight or the fate of the Earth is something that any grade-school child can tell you about. They really are concerned. They sense at some deep level that something is happening, and that it can't go on this way forever. So, I don't feel like I'm preaching to those who don't know. I think we're all conscious of this. What moves me so is to come face to face with the evidence itself and to find out that the world is much more subtle, much more complicated than I ever dreamed. I think we need the mythology of a collective responsibility for the collective inheritance, a shared inheritance of the Earth. I think every once in awhile you get the hint that we're ready for such an idea, and that it's just about to happen. I can only think about the moment I'm living in right now. This is surely a time for grace and beauty, and it's as if the world doesn't accept that.[/i] Response Emmet Gowin, Professor of Photography in the Council of the Humanities, Princeton University. Report: Species loss worst since the dinosaursMonday, March 20, 2006; Posted: 2:11 p.m. EST (19:11 GMT) OSLO, Norway (Reuters) -- Humans are responsible for the worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs and must make unprecedented extra efforts to reach a goal of slowing losses by 2010, a U.N. report said on Monday.www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/03/20/species.extinction.reut/American Museum of Natural HistoryPress Release April 20, 1998 NATIONAL SURVEY REVEALS BIODIVERSITY CRISIS - SCIENTIFIC EXPERTS BELIEVE WE ARE IN MIDST OF FASTEST MASS EXTINCTION IN EARTH'S HISTORYCrisis Poses Major Threat to Human Survival; Public Unaware of DangerApril 20, 1998. The American Museum of Natural History announced today results of a nationwide survey titled Biodiversity in the Next Millennium, developed by the Museum in conjunction with Louis Harris and Associates, Inc. The survey reveals that seven out of ten biologists believe that we are in the midst of a mass extinction of living things, and that this loss of species will pose a major threat to human existence in the next century. According to these scientists' estimates, this mass extinction is the fastest in Earth's 4.5-billion-year history. Unlike prior extinctions, this so-called "sixth extinction" is mainly the result of human activity and not natural phenomena. Among the findings revealed by the survey, scientists identified the maintenance of biodiversity - the variety of plant and animal species and their habitats - as critical to human well-being; they rate biodiversity loss as a more serious environmental problem than the depletion of the ozone layer, global warming, or pollution and contamination. The majority (70%) polled think that during the next thirty years as many as one-fifth of all species alive today will become extinct, and one third think that as many as half of all species on the Earth will die out in that time. Museum President Ellen V. Futter stated, "This survey is a dramatic wake-up call to individuals, governments, and institutions that we are facing a truly formidable threat not only to the health of the planet but also to humanity's own well-being and survival - a threat that is virtually unrecognized by the public at large. When people think about extinction, they tend to think about dinosaurs - about times long past and species long gone. This poll makes clear that they should be thinking about the present and the future - about our children and our grandchildren. A massive educational effort is needed to alert the public to the biodiversity crisis and its implications, and to provide a clear idea of what individuals can do in their daily lives to meet this challenge. It is imperative that we act now to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and public understanding, not only to ensure our own existence, but from an inescapable moral responsibility to future generations and the planet itself." Scientists surveyed in Biodiversity and the Next Millenium ranked the critical effects on humanity of this dramatic loss of species as: Seriously impairing the ability of the environment to recover from natural and human-induced disasters. Destroying the natural systems that purify the world's air and water. Reducing the potential for the discovery of new medicines. Increasing flooding, drought, and other environmental disasters. Contributing substantially to the degradation of the world's economies, thereby weakening the social and political stability of nations across the globe. Damaging agriculture, fisheries, and food production. Decreasing the ability to control infectious diseases. Further, the survey revealed that, in strong contrast to the fears expressed by scientists, the general public is relatively unaware of the loss of species and the threats that it poses. The public is less likely than scientists to understand that a mass extinction is now occurring, less likely to appreciate that the current loss of species is mainly due to human activity, less likely to identify loss of plant and animal species as one of the most important environmental and societal threats we face today, and less likely to recognize that the loss of biodiversity will pose a major threat to humanity in the next century. Reflective of this, the public is also much less likely than scientists to think that society should increase its efforts to prevent further loss of biodiversity: While three out of four scientists take this view, less than half of the public feels this need. Notwithstanding the public's lack of recognition of the significance of biodiversity loss, scientists feel that it is critical to act now to stem the tide of extinction. While a large majority of scientific experts (89%) think that there are gaps in our current understanding of plant and animal species and their habitats, they feel strongly that we know enough already to justify a major international effort to prevent further loss. Overwhelmingly, scientists think that the threat of the biodiversity crisis is underestimated by most segments of society: Ninety-five percent of scientific experts think the general public underestimates the threat; 87% think the government underestimates it; 80% think the media does; and 58% feel that educators do not accurately recognize it. While science teachers get the best rating in this regard, 90% of scientists think that students in American schools are not learning enough about biology and life sciences. The Third International Mathematics and Science Study, the results of which were announced in February, confirm this view. In this international study, the general science test scores of 12th-graders in the United States ranked close to last, trailing those of students from fifteen of the twenty-one countries surveyed.The Biodiversity in the Next Millennium survey reveals that while science teachers have a much clearer sense of the dimensions and urgency of the biodiversity crisis than the general public, more than 50% of science teachers do not believe that we are in the midst of a mass extinction; and only 38% describe themselves as being very familiar with the concept of biodiversity. Science teachers also underestimate the threats the current mass extinction poses, rating loss of plant and animal species and their habitats as a less serious problem than pollution and contamination.[/color] Both scientific experts and science teachers are willing to admit that they themselves are part of the communication problem: Seventy percent of scientists and two-thirds of science teachers say that they have not done an adequate job of disseminating information about the consequences of the biodiversity crisis. Museum Provost of Science Michael J. Novacek commented, "I can think of no generation of scientists that has faced a greater challenge than we confront today, for no other generation has stood at the crossroads between the continued existence of the Earth's biological diversity and an irrevocable catastrophe to the biota. Our responsibility as researchers is nothing short of organizing a scientific initiative as complex and daunting as putting a human on the moon, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that life as we know it continues to exist." Scientists identify both the growing size of human populations and the rate at which humans consume resources as the key causes of the crisis. Human population growth and human consumption of resources cause loss of biodiversity in a number of ways. While all of these are important, scientists rank them in the following order: habitat destruction and degradation; overexploitation of plant and animal species; introduction of non-native species into habitats; pollution and contamination, and global warming. On May 30, 1998, as part of its own commitment to communicating information about this critical issue, the American Museum of Natural History opens a new permanent exhibition hall, the Hall of Biodiversity. The new hall showcases and dramatizes the wonder, beauty, and diversity of life, as well as the severe threats to the living world. Perhaps even more importantly, it also presents examples of solutions to the crisis and the steps necessary to mitigate destruction of diverse species and habitats. The Biodiversity in the Next Millennium survey was administered to 400 experts in the biological sciences who are members of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. The scientists surveyed included researchers in biochemistry, botany, conservation biology, entomology, genetics, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, neuroscience, physiology, and other fields. The interviews were conducted in January and February 1998. In addition, 100 middle- and high-school science teachers, drawn from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), and 1,000 members of the general public were surveyed in the same period to gauge the difference in their views on biodiversity issues. www.well.com/user/davidu/amnh.html
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Apr 22, 2006 13:33:44 GMT 4
HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!! Earth Day history, a news story from Liberty Township, Pennsylvania, and how the people of Liberty Township have fought back against corporations by enacting their own local laws. The rise of Green Power, 1970
"We haven't forgotten Vietnam or the problems of the blacks," stated Berkeley student Ruthann Corwin. "Vietnam is a big environmental problem in itself. We're concerned with better living for all people. What we're talking about is total survival." Berkeley students formed Ecology Action and membership soared on campuses nationwide. Youth began damning the "throw-away culture" of America with its creed of growth and consumption. "Growth is God," declared a student, and another added, "I'm tired of scientists talking to scientists seeking a solution. It's political and we'll take to the streets." They did just that. On April 22, 1970, millions of people poured into the streets, campuses, and communities.
During the spring of 1970 polls showed that Americans were more concerned about the environment than any other domestic issue, and that became apparent as they participated IN THE LARGEST DEMONSTRATION OF THE SIXTIES ERA --- EARTH DAY.
Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and Representative Pete McCloskey of California had proposed that citizens conduct a moratorium to discuss the environment, and Dennis Allen Hayes became the national coordinator, a young man who had hitchhiked around the world. Thousands of students heeded the call, working on their campuses to devise programs aimed at ecological awareness. On April 22, students and hippies, workers and professionals, urbanites and suburbanites, mingled at hundreds of parks, 2000 colleges, and 10,000 high schools.
It was Earth Day, and like Mother's Day, no man in public office could be against it. Indeed, during the months before and after Earth Day, Congress passed more clean air and water acts and mandated environmental impact statements. States followed, as many governors signed legislation creating state environmental protection agencies. Companies pledged buying pollution control equipment for plants establishing environmental departments, and Henry Ford II called for a "virtually emission-free car." At the Washington Monument on April 22, 5,000 sang along with Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs and about half marched on the Interior Department chanting, "Off Oil," or singing, "All we're saying is give Earth a chance." Many activists wore a new button: a green peace symbol.
By the end of the week about 20 MILLION people had participated, and it appeared that this celebration might indicate the blooming of the "Woodstock Nation." Earth Day created a mellow, gentle glow, and rekindled hope for mankind.
In celebration of today's Earth Day, I salute the people of Liberty Township, Westmoreland, County, Pennsylvania. These people recognize that self-governance by the people who, all state constitutions acknowledge, are the source of governing authority.
Michelle"Our purpose is to abolish the system [call it the Greed Machine, capitalism, the Great Hamburger Grinder, Babylon, Do-Your-Job-ism] and learn to live cooperatively, intelligently, gracefully [call it the New Awareness, anarchism, The Aquarian Age, communism, whatever you wish]"Marvin Garson, 1970 Rachel's Democracy & Health News #851, April 20, 2006 LIBERTY TOWNSHIP CHEMICAL TRESPASS ORDINANCE[Rachel's introduction: In Pennsylvania, local governments have begun to confront corporate power directly, enacting ordinances intended to define corporations instead of merely "regulating" their behavior. The ideas embodied within these ordinances have been hammered out by Pennsylvania citizens in open debate, but the legal language has been crafted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). Here we present a new model ordinance from CELDF, not yet enacted anywhere, which defines "chemical trespass" (toxicants entering our bodies without our consent), prohibits it, and punishes corporations (and their directors) if they do it. To understand the goals of this innovative approach to corporate power, you really should attend Democracy School, which we recommend highly. -- Editors] By Thomas Linzey IntroductionThis "Corporate Chemical Trespass" ordinance was developed by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), a Pennsylvania non-profit law firm. CELDF is making this model ordinance available to anyone interested in mobilizing their communities to confront chemical trespass by chemical corporations and the directors of those corporations. CELDF ordinances are designed to be discussed, perfected, and used as linchpins of organizing campaigns conducted in coordination with the Daniel Pennock Democracy Schools. These ordinances and Democracy Schools reject a regulatory mode of organizing, and instead seek to assert local control directly over corporations and the few who run them. Anyone interested in exploring this ordinance and Democracy Schools for use in their municipality, may contact CELDF at (717) 709-0457, info@celdf.org, www.celdf.org, or Richard Grossman at rgrossman@riseup.net. Liberty Township, Westmoreland County, PennsylvaniaOrdinance No. 2006-An Ordinance of Liberty Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Prohibiting Chemical Bodily Trespass within the Township; Establishing Strict Liability and Burden of Proof Standards for Corporate Chemical Trespass; and Subordinating Chemical Corporations to the People of Liberty Township Section 1. Name. The name of this Ordinance shall be the "Liberty Township Chemical Trespass Ordinance." Section 2. Authority. This Ordinance is adopted and enacted pursuant to the authority granted to the Township by all relevant state and federal laws including, but not limited, to the following: § The Declaration of Independence, which declares that governments are instituted to secure people's rights, and that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed; § The Pennsylvania Constitution, Article 1, §2, which declares that "all power is inherent in the people and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their peace, safety, and happiness"; § The Pennsylvania Constitution, Article 1, §27, which declares that "the people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment"; § Common law, which recognizes well-settled rules governing the tort of trespass, and which requires injunctive, compensatory, and punitive relief to be assessed for unauthorized intrusions; § The provisions of the Second Class Township Code Article XV, as codified in 53 P.S. § 66501 et seq. that provide for the protection and preservation of the natural resources and human resources, and for the promotion, protection, and facilitation of public health, safety, and welfare; § The provisions of the Second Class Township Code, Article XVI, as codified in 53 P.S. § 66601 et seq. that authorizes the Township to enact ordinances dealing with the protection of the township residents' health, nuisances, and promotion of public safety. Section 3. Purpose. The Board of Supervisors of Liberty Township recognizes that over eighty thousand (80,000) corporate-produced chemicals are currently used in the United States, and that scientists estimate that over seven hundred (700) of those corporate-produced chemicals are now found within the body of every human. Only a small percentage of those chemicals have ever been screened for even one potential health effect, such as cancer, reproductive toxicity, developmental toxicity, or injury to the immune system. Among the approximately fifteen thousand (15,000) chemicals tested, few have been studied enough to conclude that there are no potential risks from exposure. Even when testing is done, each chemical is tested individually rather than in synergistic combinations that reflect actual human exposure in the real world. The Board recognizes that one thousand eight hundred (1,800) new chemicals enter the stream of commerce annually -- thus entering into the bodies of people, and into the air, water, soil, and food -- with few of those chemicals tested for adverse impacts on human health or ecosystems. The Board recognizes that sufficient data and experience exists for a reasonable person to conclude that a significant percentage of both currently used and newly manufactured chemicals are harmful to humans, animals, and ecosystems. Section 4. Purpose. The purpose of this Ordinance is to recognize that it is an inviolate, fundamental, and inalienable right of each person residing within the Township of Liberty to be free from involuntary invasions of their bodies by corporate chemicals. The Board of Supervisors of Liberty Township declares that persons owning and managing corporations that manufacture chemicals and chemical compounds trespassing on the bodies of residents of the Township must be held liable for those trespasses. The Board of Supervisors also declares that the failure and refusal of the United States' government and the government of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to ensure that corporate chemicals do not trespass on the residents of Liberty Township makes them jointly and severally liable for those trespasses. Section 5. Definitions. As used throughout this Ordinance, the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings: "Corporation" -- any corporation organized under the laws of any state of the United States or any country. "Deposition" -- the placement of a toxic chemical or potentially toxic chemical within the body of a person. The act of deposition shall be assumed if a toxic chemical or potentially toxic chemical is detected within the body of a person. "Municipality" -- the Township of Liberty. "Person" -- a natural person. "Syndicate" -- includes any limited partnership, limited liability partnership, business trust, or limited liability company organized under the laws of any state of the United States or any country. "Toxic chemicals and potentially toxic chemicals" -- includes, but is not limited to, polychlorinated biphenyls, organophosphate pesticides, organochlorine pesticides, carbamate insecticides, PBDE, polychlorinated dibenzofurans, phytoestrogens, and pyrethroid pesticides. The phrase shall include other chemicals or chemical compounds that have been found to cause adverse effects to animals, humans, or ecosystems, including those chemicals or chemical compounds deemed to be mutagenic, neurotoxic, carcinogenic, or reproductive and developmental toxicants. "Township resident" -- a natural person who maintains a primary residence within the Township of Liberty. "Trespass" -- as used within this Ordinance, the involuntary deposition of toxic or potentially toxic chemicals within a human body. Section 6. Statement of Law -- Chemical Trespass. All residents of the Township of Liberty possess a fundamental and inalienable right to the integrity of their bodies, and thus, have a right to be free from unwanted chemical invasions of their bodies. Section 7. Statement of Law -- Prohibition. The deposition of toxic chemicals or potentially toxic chemicals within the body of any resident of Liberty Township is declared a form of trespass, and is hereby prohibited. No corporation or syndicate shall engage in the production, distribution, use, and/or sale of toxic chemicals and potentially toxic chemicals within the Township of Liberty. Section 8. Statement of Law -- Culpable Parties. Persons owning or managing corporations which manufacture or generate toxic or potentially toxic chemicals detected within the body of any resident of Liberty Township shall be deemed culpable parties, along with the corporation itself, for the recovery of trespass damages, compensatory damages, punitive damages, and the instatement of permanent injunctive relief. If more than one corporation manufactured or generated the detected chemical or chemical compound, persons owning and managing those corporations, along with the corporations themselves, shall be held jointly and severally liable for those damages, in addition to being subject to injunctive relief. Section 9. Statement of Law -- Requirement to Produce. Corporations manufacturing or generating toxic or potentially toxic chemicals detected within the body of a Township resident shall provide information about the manufacture or generation of those chemicals to the municipality sufficient for a determination by the municipality of the culpability of that particular corporation for the manufacturing or generation of a particular toxic or potentially toxic chemical. Section 10. Statement of Law -- Duty of Municipality. It shall be the duty of the municipality to protect the right of residents of the Township to be free from chemical trespass under the provisions of this Ordinance, and to obtain damages for any violation of that right. If the presence of toxic and/or potentially toxic chemicals is detected within the body of any Township resident, the municipality shall initiate litigation to recover trespass, compensatory, and punitive damages -- and permanent injunctive relief -- from all culpable parties. If a significant number of Township residents have been similarly trespassed against, the municipality shall select representative plaintiffs and file a class action on behalf of all Township residents to recover trespass, compensatory, and punitive damages -- and permanent injunctive relief -- from all culpable parties. Section 11. Statement of Law -- Strict Liability. Culpable parties shall be deemed strictly liable if one of their toxic or potentially toxic chemical or chemical compounds is discovered within the body of a Township resident. The municipality's showing of the existence of that chemical or chemical compound within the body of a resident living in the Township, and the municipality's showing that the Defendant(s) are responsible for the manufacture or generation of that chemical, shall constitute a prime facie showing of causation under a strict liability standard. Current and future damages resulting from the culpable parties' trespass shall be assumed, and the burden of proof shall shift to the culpable parties for a showing that the chemical or chemical compound could not cause harm or contribute to causing harm, either alone or in combination with other factors, or that the culpable parties are not responsible for the trespass of that particular chemical into the body of residents of the Township. Section 12. Statement of Law -- Corporate Constitutional Protections. No corporation or syndicate engaged in, or planning to engage in, the manufacture, distribution, and/or sale of toxic chemicals or potentially toxic chemicals within the Township of Liberty shall be protected, or empowered by, the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution, or by rights claimed within the text of the United States or Pennsylvania Constitutions, within the Township of Liberty. No corporation or syndicate engaged in, or planning to engage in, the manufacture, distribution, and/or sale of toxic chemicals or potentially toxic chemicals within the Township shall be deemed a "person" for purposes of the Pennsylvania or United States Constitutions, nor shall such corporations or syndicates have the legal standing to assert State or federal preemptive law against the municipality or the people of Liberty Township. Section 13. Statement of Law -- Corporate Constitutional Protections. A corporation or syndicate deemed a culpable party under this Ordinance shall not be protected, or empowered by, the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution, or by rights claimed within the text of the United States or Pennsylvania Constitution. Such corporation or syndicate shall not have legal standing to assert State or federal preemptive law against the municipality or the people of Liberty Township. Section 14. Statement of Law -- Municipal Testing. Liberty Township shall select a laboratory with expertise in the testing for toxic chemicals and potentially toxic chemicals and chemical compounds, including, but not limited to, those chemical compounds listed in §5 of this Ordinance. The Township shall provide financial resources for the first ten residents who request to be tested for the presence of toxic chemicals and potentially toxic chemicals and chemical compounds within their bodies, and make all reasonable efforts to provide financial resources for the testing of additional residents. Section 15. Enforcement. The Township Board of Supervisors shall notify the Code Enforcement Officer of any possible violations, and any resident of the Township may also notify the Township of any possible violations. In addition to civil litigation brought against culpable parties by the municipality, all violations of this Ordinance shall be considered criminal summary offenses. The Board of Supervisors authorizes a fine of up to $1,000.00 per violation. Each day of non-compliance shall be considered a separate violation of this Ordinance. The Township may also file an action in equity in the Court of Common Pleas of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, or any other Court of competent jurisdiction to abate any violation of this Ordinance. If the Township fails to bring an action to enforce this Ordinance, or fails to diligently prosecute an action to enforce this Ordinance, any resident of the Township shall have legal standing to enforce the provisions of this Ordinance. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this Ordinance are severable, and if any section, clause, sentence, part, or provision thereof shall be held illegal, invalid or unconstitutional by any court of relevant jurisdiction, such decision of the court shall not affect, impair, or invalidate any of the remaining sections, clauses, sentences, parts or provisions of this Ordinance. It is hereby declared to be the intent of the Supervisors that this Ordinance would have been adopted if a provision deemed by the Court to be illegal, invalid, or constitutional would not have been included herein. Section 17. Effect. This Ordinance shall be effective immediately upon its enactment. Source: www.precaution.org/lib/06/prn_celdf_bb_ordinance.060420.htmWho Decides?The idea that communities by right may govern themselves is central to the notion of democracy. Layers of bureaucracy, regulatory agencies, state and federal statutes and judicial decisions have created a sediment of law that smothers and snuffs out self-governance by the people who, all state constitutions acknowledge, are the source of governing authority. For over one hundred years, a simmering home rule movement has haltingly created the framework for communities to take charge of their future, by drafting into law local constitutions, or home rule charters. It is time for this movement to take center stage in American politics and governance, in order to fulfill the barren promises of real democracy. Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund:www.celdf.org/Democracy School: www.celdf.org/Home/tabid/36/DemocracySchool/tabid/60/Default.aspx
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Apr 26, 2006 20:01:56 GMT 4
FYI:Responsible Shopper Reports On Global Research And Campaign Information Regarding The Impact Of Major Corporations On Human Rights, Social Justice, Environmental Sustainability And MoreResponsibleShopper.org
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on May 4, 2006 15:41:23 GMT 4
Welcome To Vapor Systems Technology!We proudly present you with an astounding collection of 920 fuel vapor system patents designed to increase gas mileage and performance of an automobile. Over 400 hours of research at the US Patent Office website has produced this absolutely mind-boggling collection of secret and suppressed patents. Is there such a thing as a 200 mile per gallon fuel vaporizer?The good news is YES, there are hundreds of vapor systems that have been built and patented (see Successful Inventors link below)! Virtually every high-mileage system, from Tom Ogle's 100+ mpg V8 to Pogue's 200 mpg vaporizer is here. PLUS 5 secret U.S. Government, 15 oil company and 92 car-maker patents! Over 650 of these patents are expired, and can be built and sold by anyone www.fuelvapors.com
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on May 8, 2006 15:29:33 GMT 4
ANOTHER REASON TO SHUT DOWN CORPORATE FACTORY FARMS. OF COURSE THE CORPORATIONS WANT TO END BACKYARD FARMING SO WE ARE DEPENDENT ON THEIR DISEASE INDUCING LIVESTOCKISIS Press Release 05/05/06 Fowl Play in Bird Flu There is no evidence that wild migrating birds mixing with backyard flocks spreads bird flu Transnational factory farms and the globalised trade in poultry products are to blame Dr. Mae-Wan Ho Sources for this report are available in the ISIS members site. Full details hereBird flu scare hurts the poultry industry The European Union is set to approve special funding for poultry farmers suffering from falling prices and demand as the spread of the deadly H5N1 bird flu scares consumers away from chicken, turkey and other fowl [1]. Some 320 000 tonnes of unmarketable poultry meat are in cold storage across the 25 nation EU. Prices have fallen by 13 percent on average, but some countries are harder hit than others. Consumption of poultry products is down 5 percent in Denmark and Finland, but as much as 40 percent in Cyprus, 50 percent in Italy and 70 percent in Greece. Germany has 70 000 tonnes of poultry products in storage, and estimates its sector has suffered damage of around 150 million euros from falling demand and the cost of culling birds. France with 40 000 tonnes in surplus stocks estimates it loses 31.9 million euros a month. Wild birds to blame? Bird flu is said to have spread from Asia to Europe in migrating wild birds. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) stated in November 2005 [2]: “The movement of migratory birds has caused outbreaks to emerge in several countries and regions simultaneously.” The first infection of commercial stocks was found on a French turkey farm in March 2006. The EU has ordered commercial stocks to stay inside or be inoculated, and some 45 countries have issued full or partial bans on poultry imports from France [1]. Meanwhile a fourth Afghan province, Kapisa, has been hit [3]. The virus had been found already in samples from birds in Kabul, Logar and Nangarhar provinces. There are strong suspicions that two other provinces, Laghman and Parwan, are also affected. Afghanistan is on the migration route for several species of wild birds. Poultry have been culled and quarantine measures introduced in affected areas. Nineteen African nations held a five-day conference towards the end of April 2006 to discuss how they should prepare for a possible deadly outbreak of bird flu [4]. Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Egypt and Burkina Faso are the five African countries with confirmed H5N1 bird flu. H5N1 has forced the slaughter of 200 million birds so far, as the disease spread from Asia to Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Late last year, thousands of migratory birds mysteriously dropped dead in central Malawi, though tests proved negative for H5N1. But the alarm has already hurt the poultry industry in Malawi, with most importers cancelling orders. While scientists also say that wild birds are spreading the deadly bird flu, there are strong dissenting voices. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), for example, told the BBC that the trade in birds and the movement of poultry products is a more likely cause [5]. Significantly, there are no migration routes that would take birds from China to Turkey at this time of the year. There is also little direct evidence that migratory birds carry and transmit H5N1. FAO in collaboration with World Health Organisation (WHO) had admitted in May 2005 [6], “To date, extensive testing of clinically normal migratory birds in the infected countries has not produced any positive results for H5N1 so far.” After testing hundreds of thousands of wild birds for the disease, scientists have only rarely identified live birds carrying the highly pathogenic H5N1. In a test of 13 000 wild birds in marshes within the bird flu infested provinces of China, the H5N1 virus was found in only 6 ducks [7]. But the scientists could not bring themselves to conclude that wild migrating birds are probably not to blame: “Our data show that H5N1 influenza virus, has continued to spread from its established source in southern China to other regions through transport of poultry and bird migration.” The reality is that nearly all the wild birds that have tested positive for the disease were dead, and in most cases, found near to outbreaks in domestic poultry [8]. The WHO recently said that viruses from Turkey's first two human cases were virtually identical to those that killed 6 000 migratory birds in a nature reserve, Qinghai, in central China last year. But RSPB's conservation director Dr. Mark Avery insists that the trade in wild birds and the movement of poultry and poultry products, such as chicken manure used to fertilize fish farms, has led directly to the transfer of H5N1 across national boundaries [5]. “No species migrates from Qinghai, China, west to Eastern Europe,” BirdLife's Dr. Richard Thomas said. “When plotted, the pattern of outbreaks follows major road and rail routes, not flyways [8]. Wild birds are the reservoir for influenza viruses Wild fowl and shore birds are believed to form the reservoir of influenza viruses of type A, (see Box) which cause diseases in many other species, including humans, pigs, horses, mink, cats, marine animals and a range of domestic birds [9]. Influenza virusesThere are 3 types of influenza viruses, A, B and C. The influenza A virus genome consists of 8 segments of RNA coding for 11 proteins, and they are further classified by subtype on the basis of the two main surface glycoproteins (proteins with complex carbohydrate side chains): haemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Only influenza A viruses infect birds. Humans can be inflected with influenza types, A, B and C viruses. Subtypes of influenza A currently circulating among people worldwide include H1N1, H1N2, and H3N2 [10]. Avian influenza A viruses of the subtypes H5 and H7, including H5N1, H7N7 and H7N3 viruses have been associated with high pathogenicity, and human infection with these viruses has r anged from mild (H7N3, H7N7) to severe and fatal disease (H7N7, H5N1). Wild birds are the natural host for all known subtypes of influenza A viruses. In wild birds and poultry throughout the world, influenza A viruses representing 16 HA and 9 NA subtypes have been detected in numerous combinations, such as H1N1, H3N3, H16N3 and so on [9]. Typically wild birds do not become sick when infected. Domestic poultry such as turkeys and chickens can become very sick and die from avian influenza, and some avian influenza A viruses also can cause serious disease and death in wild birds. Avian influenza viruses are designated as low pathenogenic (LPAI) when they do no cause disease or only mild disease, and highly pathogenic (HPAI) when they do. The switch from low to high pathogenicity is not fully understood. The HA protein is synthesized as a single polypeptide precursor, which is cleaved into HA 1 and HA 2 subunits by proteases. The switch from low to highly pathogenic avian virus appears to be associated with basic amino acid residues introduced into the HA cleavage site, which makes the protein easier to cleave and facilitates virus replication. In general, human infection with avian influenza viruses occurs very infrequently, and has been associated with direct contact with infected sick or dead domestic poultry. At least part of the barrier preventing person-to-person transmission is that the HA protein on the virus' coat must bind to cell surface receptors in order to gain entry into cells. This binding is specific for certain carbohydrate side chains attached to the cell surface receptor proteins. The HA of the avian virus recognizes carbohydrate side chains that end in sialic acid linked to galactose in an a -2,3 chemical bond, i.e., SA- a -2,3-gal, whereas the human influenza virus HA recognizes an a -2,6 chemical bond: SA- a -2,6-gal. The HA protein of H5N1 is typical of avian viruses, which is why the virus cannot replicate sufficiently in a human host for person-to-person transmission to take place. However, many scientists believe that once the H5N1 has mutated its HA to recognize SA- a -2,6-gal, then human transmission would occur, and a global pandemic would result Influenza viruses evolve by small point mutations (antigenic drift) or large changes due to reassortment (antigenic shift), the mixing of genome segments from different viruses. Certain birds, particularly water birds, are thought to act as hosts by carrying the virus in their intestines and shedding it in saliva, nasal secretions and faeces. However, the viruses circulating in wild birds are generally not the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) strains that cause deadly bird flu. They do not cause illness in the birds, and are referred to as low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) viruses. LPAI have been isolated from at least 105 wild bird species of 26 different families. All subtypes have been detected in the bird reservoir and in poultry, whereas relatively few have been detected in other species. Ducks, geese, swans, gulls, terns and waders are the major LPAI virus reservoir, where the virus preferentially infects cells lining the intestinal tract and is excreted in high concentrations in their faeces. Influenza viruses remain infectious in lake water for up to 4 days at 22C, and for more than 30 days at 0C. Faecal to oral transmission is the most frequent route for transmitting viruses, both of high and low pathogenicity. The species in which influenza viruses are endemic, such as ducks, gulls and waders share the same habitat at least part of the year with other species in which influenza viruses are frequently detected, including geese, swans, rails, petrels and cormorants. Wild migrating birds mostly follow routes (flyways) that go North-South, but some birds have breeding ranges that cross the Atlantic, and the birds over-winter in the same geographic area in the south. Migrating birds make frequent stops en route where different species congregate, increasing the chances of exchanging viruses among themselves and distributing LPAI viruses between countries and continents. Since 1997, more than 16 outbreaks of H5 and H7 influenza have occurred among poultry in the United States. Highly pathogenic strains can cause 90 to 100 percent deaths in poultry. So how do low pathogenic viruses become highly pathogenic? How highly pathogenic bird flu viruses are created The influenza A virus genome is in eight separate segments. The segmented genome allows the viruses from different species to mix and exchange segments to create new influenza viruses. A pig infected with a human virus and a bird virus at the same time would allow the two viruses to exchange segments to create a new virus that retained most of the genes of the human virus but had the avian haemagglutinin and/or neuraminidase gene(s). The resulting new virus might be able to infect humans and spread from person to person (see Box). If this new virus causes serious illness in humans, then a pandemic would result. This g ene exchange could even take place in a human infected at the same time with human and avian flu viruses. In 1997, an HPAI outbreak caused by H5N1 occurred in chicken farms and live bird markets in Hong Kong. This resulted in the first reported case of human influenza and death attributable directly to avian influenza virus. The H5N1 HPAI virus reappeared in 2002 in waterfowl at two parks in Hong Kong and was also detected in other captive and wild birds. It resurfaced again in 2003 and devastated the poultry industry in large parts of Southeast Asia since 2004. In 2005, the virus was isolated during an outbreak among migratory birds in Qinghai Lake, China, affecting large numbers of wild birds. This wiped out an estimated 10 percent of the global population of Bar-headed Geese. Subsequently, the virus reappeared across Asia, Europe and the Middle East, and in several African countries. Wild bird deaths have been reported in several of these countries in Europe, particularly affecting Mute Swans and Whooping Swans, but also other waterfowl species, and occasionally in raptors, gulls and herons. So far it has caused mortality in more than 60 wild bird species [9]. But do wild migratory bird carry and spread HPAI as has been claimed, or are they just the victims of the deadly bird flu viruses that emerge in domestic fowl? Genetic analysis provide no evidence that wild birds are to blame Genetic analysis of avian influenza viruses in the public databases, based on the matrix protein gene M, reveals that the viruses can be divided into two distinct lineages [9], Eurasian and American, reflecting the long-term ecological and geographical separations of the hosts. Both lineages are also quite separate from human influenza viruses. The H5N1 highly pathogenic influenza viruses form a lineage derived from the Eurasian lineage. The genetic separation between Eurasian and North American avian flu viruses is a bit surprising, as the bird fauna of North America and Eurasia are not absolutely isolated from each other. Some ducks and shore birds cross the Bering Strait during migration or have breeding ranges that include both the Russian Far East and Northwestern North America. There are also other aspects of the virus that would appear to encourage genetic exchange between the two groups of avian flu viruses when the host birds meet up, such as the reassortment of viral genome segments (see above). Apart from that, the usual process of recombination (exchange of parts of genome segments) could also occur. Not only do the avian flu viruses of Eurasia and North America form distinct lineages, the gulls in Eurasia and North America also each have their own distinct lineage of viruses. The evidence suggests that there are strong interspecific barriers to gene exchange, and it is not easy for viruses to jump species, and that complex adaptations are needed to achieve sustained transmission of the virus in a new species [11] (see “What can you believe about the bird flu pandemic?” this series). The fact remains that HPAI viruses such as H5N1 are not endemic in wild birds as they are in domestic poultry, and when wild birds do contract the HPAI viruses, they succumb in large numbers, and are in no state to further transmit the disease along their usual migration routes . As the researchers conclude [9]: “For the H5N1 virus, it is without doubt that domestic waterfowl, specific farming practices, and agroecological environments played a key role in the occurrence, maintenance, and spread of HPAI for many affected countries… Although numerous wild birds have also become infected, it has been much debated whether they play an active role in the geographic spread of the disease…” Fowl play in deadly bird flu Wild birds are not the only victims of bird flu; the other victims are small farmers and ordinary people who keep domestic fowl in their backyard to supplement their income or diet. In response to the spread of bird flu, governments around the world are destroying backyard flocks and making indoor confinement of poultry mandatory [8, 12]. So far, 16 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa have imposed bans or restrictions on outdoors poultry farming. Forced confinement of poultry threatens the livelihood and food security of small- scale farmers and poor families in countries affected by bird flu. In Southeast Asia, governments, supported by the FAO, are encouraging framers to set up mesh screens or bamboo enclosures for their poultry. The costs, estimated at US$50-70, are simply beyond the means of Asia's small farmers, and are forcing them to abandon poultry altogether [8]. Forced confinement also threatens certified organic poultry operations, grass-fed pastured poultry and free-range egg production [12]. Quebec in Canada has imposed strict rules that require all farmers to keep poultry indoors and to keep wild birds out; despite the fact that the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre survey of wild birds has found no incidence of HPAI in Canada [13]. Factory farms and globalised poultry trade are to blame There is growing evidence that HPAI originates in factory farms and is spread not by migrating wild birds so much as by the globalised poultry trade. In low-density backyard flocks, a high pathogenic bird flu virus will simply kill all the birds quickly without infecting other birds. In a factory farm with a high density of birds, however, the virus can spread and multiply rapidly throughout the huge confined flock, and beyond that, via the global trade in live birds, eggs, virus-contaminated feed and manure, across country borders and across continents. There is indeed strong correlation between exposure to factory farms and incidence of HPAI. Thailand, China and Vietnam, all have a highly developed poultry industry that has expanded dramatically. Production of chicken meat in Southeast Asia - Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam – jumped from around 300 000 tonnes in 1971 to 2 440 000 tonnes in 2001 [8]. China's production of chicken tripled during the 1990s to over 9 million tonnes a year. Practically all the new poultry production has happened on factory farms outside major cities and is integrated into the transnational production system. Live birds and eggs are exported to countries such as Nigeria (where the first HAI outbreak in Africa occurred), as well as ‘feed' which often includes litter (i.e., manure) in the ingredients. Nigeria has a large and poorly regulated factory poultry sector that is supplied with chicks from factory farms in China [14] Manure that may contain live virus is spread on surrounding farmland, or exported as fertilizer and through run-off, may end up in surface waters where wild birds feed and rest. Chicken manure is even found in fish farm feed formulations where it is introduced directly into the aquatic environment. Wild birds and poultry that have fallen victim to HPAI in Asia, Turkey and Nigeria appear to have been directly exposed to HPAI virus originating in the factory farm system. In Asia, a flock of wild ducks died from HPAI after having come into contact with the disease at a remote lake where a fish farm used feed pellets made from poultry litter from a factory farm [8]. In Turkey, a massive cull of backyard flocks – and the deaths of three children – took place after a nearby factory farm sold sick and dying birds to local peasants at cut-rate prices. Recent genetic evidence suggests that domestic ducks may act as a reservoir of H5N1 influenza viruses after the virus has emerged [15]. H5N1 viruses were isolated from apparently healthy domestic ducks in Mainland China from 1999 to 2002, and researchers found that the isolates were becoming progressively more pathogenic for mammals . Twenty-one viruses isolated were confirmed to be H5N1 subtype and antigenically similar to the virus that was the source of the 1997 Hong Kong bird flu haemagglutinin gene. All are highly pathogenic in chickens, most causing 100 percent mortality, although the earliest isolates were less lethal. When tested on mice, however, there was a marked increase in pathogenicity with time. The earliest seven isolates were non-pathogenic or of low pathogenicity, the next seven were more pathogenic and the last four, highly pathogenic. The results suggest that while circulating in domestic ducks, H5N1 viruses gradually acquired the characteristics that make them lethal in mice. One possible explanation is the transmission of duck H5N1 viruses to humans, the selective evolution of the viruses in humans, and their subsequent transmission back to ducks. The presence of H5N1 viruses lethal to chickens from apparently healthy farmed ducks is another important route for the virus to spread through trade. Blaming and devastating the victims Numerous papers, statements and documents issued by the United Nations FAO, WHO, and government agencies have been silent on the role of industrial poultry farming in the bird flu crisis, and indeed, have proposed to compensate them generously for loss profits (see above). Instead, the finger is pointed at backyard farms, calling for tighter controls of their operations and greater “restructuring” of the poultry sector. The big poultry corporations are even trying to use the bird flu outbreaks to shut down small-scale poultry farming altogether. “We cannot control migratory birds but we can surely work hard to close down as many backyard farms as possible,” declared Margaret Say, Southeast Asian director for the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council. A team of scientists who analysed the H5N1 epidemic in Thailand 2004 found that the risks for HPAI infection were 5.3, 5.1 1.5, 32.4 and 2.3 times higher, respectively in commercial layers, broilers, ducks, quails and geese than in back yard chickens [16]. This is clear evidence corroborating other findings that corporate factory farms are to blame, and not backyard farms. On that basis, we should be calling for closure of factory farms, not family farms. Genetic engineering scientists too, are taking this opportunity to promote their wares: transgenic ‘flu-resistant' chickens [8]. “Once we have regulatory approval, we believe it will take between four and five years to breed enough [transgenic] chickens to replace the entire world population,” said Laurence Tiley, Professor of Molecular Virology at Cambridge University in the UK. Genetic engineering is the best way to breach species barriers and to allow viruses to jump species to create pandemics (see “What can you believe about bird flu?” this series). Source: www.i-sis.org.uk/Fowl-Play-in-Bird-Flu.php
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michelle
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Post by michelle on May 10, 2006 13:40:06 GMT 4
ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO CAUSE PANIC AT A MASS LEVELABC 'Bird Flu' Movie Is an Irresponsible Distortion; Viewers Should Wash Their Hands of 'Fatal Contact,' Says National Consumer Group5/9/2006 5:24:00 PM Contact: Andrew Porter of the Center for Consumer Freedom, 202-463-7112 WASHINGTON, May 9 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Tonight's made-for-TV movie about Avian Influenza (AI), described by ABC as "one step ahead of the headlines," is an irresponsible ratings ploy that's light years from reality, the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom said today. The ABC movie, "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America," depicts a pandemic of Asian bird flu that kills 20 million U.S. residents. In the real world, the AI virus has only infected 206 people worldwide, none of them Americans. David Martosko, the Center for Consumer Freedom's director of research, said: "This reckless fake-u-mentary ratings grab is a crass exploitation of current events, apparently designed to panic the public. This film is no more factual about bird flu than The Wizard of Oz is about tornadoes. Our only comfort is that most Americans will be watching the other AI-American Idol- instead of this one." Martosko continued: "Few Americans handle live chickens, and that's the most common way to acquire bird flu. Even so, one British company is marketing a $5.50 hand spray that effectively kills the virus. This detail ended up on ABC's cutting room floor. Washing your hands may actually be the smartest way to fight the flu, but common sense can seldom compete with surgical marks and hazmat suits during TV sweeps week." --- The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit coalition supported by restaurants, food companies, and consumers, working together to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices. NOTE: Here we have an example of how orchestrated the government [or those who control our government] is in bringing about their desired control of the American people. By reading the previous post, one can see that the Asian bird flu is in reality being mutated and made more lethal through corporate factory farming, of course we hear none of this in the news. Last night ABC [media] airs a TV film designed to scare the pants off of Americans. Next, if I may make a predicition here, we will start to hear of outbreaks in the United States, and this most likely won't be true, or, God forbid, it will be sprayed over some unsuspecting population. The people will be in a great panic, ripe for the next step in the 'plan,' Martial Law.
Think I'm overreactive? Let's go back to last year:
After Katrina “posse comitatus” worked its way into our consciousness. It's the law that keeps active duty military on a leash in the US, and does not allow the military to be used domestically for law enforcement. In the wake of Katrina, there was talk about the need for congress to revisit the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 to address the law and order “concerns” raised in New Orleans
The Posse Comitatus Act was pulled out again by the Bush Adminstration.This time, in terms of a response to the avian flu and enforcing planned quarrentines:“If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country? And how do you, then, enforce a quarantine?” Bush asked at a news conference. "It's one thing to shut down airplanes. It's another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu. And who best to be able to effect a quarantine?” Bush added. “One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move. So that's why I put it on the table. I think it's an important debate for Congress to have.” Bush was talking about enforcing Military Law here and you can bet that reactive Americans will gladly give up their freedoms in order to be protected, to be saved.
Now the pharmaceutical industry will step in 'cause they have to get their piece of the action [after all, they've put up big money to get officials elected] and offer up their 'so called cure' which comes with many undesirable side effects.
And, Martial Law will now become permanent, because once it is put into action, they'll never give up control. WAKE UP PEOPLE! Michelle SNIP: The Restless ConsumerDon't need no TV ad Tellin' me how sick I am Don't want to leave Don't want to know how people are like me Don't need no dizziness Don't need no nausea Don't need no side effects like diarhea or sexual death Don't need no more lies Don't need no more lies Don't need no more lies Don't need no more liesFROM: Neil Young's new album LIVING WITH WAR www.neilyoung.com Listen to the 10-track collection in its entirety, free of charge [THANK YOU NEIL!!!! FOLKS, PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS, SUPPORT straight up, in-your-face dissent on the mass music level; BUY THIS ALBUM
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michelle
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Post by michelle on May 13, 2006 15:31:23 GMT 4
WHY BOYCOTT EXXON-MOBILE?A week or two ago I received an e-mail asking me to boycott Exxon-Mobile because of rising gas prices. Well, you know what America? We are the biggest oil addicts in the world. And the biggest whiners. Did you ever consider what other parts of the world are paying for gasoline? Have we as individuals done anything to curb our use of oil? Honestly, when I hear people complain that it costs $100 dollars to fill their SUV, do you think I care? WHAT THE HECK DID YOU BUY SUCH A GAS GUZZLER FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE?!
Why is it that we drive everywhere? Why is it that we don't use public transportation? Why is it that we have allowed school districts to merge, sending our children great distances from their homes? Why have we permitted our communities to abandon local commerce in favor of building malls, which we have to drive to? Heck you have to drive around these malls to get from one store to another. Why have so many abandoned their towns to buy homes in communities which have no Downtown, but are merely a group of homes [huge ones at that, what's your heating bill cost?] which are strategically placed around huge shopping centers, which do not offer businesses run or owned by local families. These "shopping" communities encourage more and more urban sprawl, leave existing communities in decay, poverty, and ever increasing crime. And if you do live in one of our smaller towns, do you shop locally? Do you support small businesses which are locally owned? I know many of these types of small owners and they are dying due to mall traffic. Pretty soon all that will be left are the "Wallmarts." We are the ones who have destroyed any sense of community in this country through our individual choices.
HERE are reasons to boycott Exxon-Mobile from an older e-mail I sent. Did you receive this from someone last year or earlier and did you boycott for these reasons?From TrueMajority, note their campaign for letter writing has expired but that's no reason for us to quit. MichelleCampaign Launched: July 27, 2005 ExxonMobil Announced Record Profits of $7.64 Billion in last 3 MonthsWhile Their Policies are Enough to Make You (and The Planet) Sick We all think about the bad things "big oil" does to our planet. But lumping all of "them" together is a mistake. One big oil company is far worse than the rest: Exxon. TrueMajority is joining the nation's biggest environmental groups (including Sierra Club, U.S. PIRG, Greenpeace, and Natural Resources Defense Council) in the Exxpose Exxon campaign to mobilize thousands of Americans to urge ExxonMobil to clean up its act. To tell ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond what you think of the company's harmful environmental policies and let him know you won't buy their gas or products, just use this form. Our country remains overly dependent on oil, which has serious consequences ranging from rising gasoline prices that burden every American to global warming that threatens current and future generations. This addiction to oil represents a failed energy strategy, one that your company not only supports but has helped to develop. I am most disturbed by: * ExxonMobil's active support of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge * ExxonMobil's efforts to block meaningful action to cut global warming pollution and its funding of junk science to hide the real facts about global warming * ExxonMobil's conscious decision to forgo investment in clean energy solutions, despite your record profits at a time of rising gasoline prices * ExxonMobil's failure to pay all the punitive damages awarded to fishermen and others injured by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill ExxonMobil represents yesterday's energy policy; I would rather spend my money and time moving forward, not backward. Therefore, I will not purchase ExxonMobil's gas or products, invest in ExxonMobil stock, or work for the company. Background Information Consider this: * Despite making a record profit of $25 billion last year, ExxonMobil is still shirking payment of the full amount it owes fishermen and natives hurt by the Exxon Valdez oil spill sixteen years ago. * ExxonMobil is the only oil company that's still part of Arctic Power, the group lobbying Congress to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. The rest bowed out due to public pressure. * ExxonMobil has spent more than $15 million since 1998 to deny the existence of global warming by funding junk science groups to cloud the debate. BP, for example, not only admits we have a problem but is investing in solar energy research and selling real solar panels today to help deal with the problem. Please read the following from the Earth Policy Institute and their suggestion. Also note what other countries are paying in attempt to get the population off oil. Our government uses this addiction of ours to support their aggressive global agenda and this is why nothing has been done in the US to curb our usage. It has been up to conscientious citizens [CC] to lead the way. Are you a CC?......Michelle May 11, 2006-4 Copyright © 2006 Earth Policy Institute LET’S RAISE GAS TAXES AND LOWER INCOME TAXES Lester R. Brown Now that the $100 tax rebate proposed by the Senate Republican leadership as a response to rising gasoline prices has been discarded, it is time to get serious. Any effective response to climbing gas prices must recognize a geological reality, namely that the earth’s oil reserves are shrinking. The amount of oil pumped has exceeded new discoveries since 1980. And the gap is widening. In 2004, for example, the world pumped nearly 31 billion barrels of oil while discovering fewer than 8 billion barrels of new oil. Instead of encouraging gasoline use with tax rebates or gas tax holidays, we need a way to reduce gasoline use, one that is practical and politically acceptable. We need a higher gas tax, but the only way to get a gas tax rise large enough to wean us from imported oil is to offset the rise with a reduction in the tax on income. The gas tax boost should be substantial—a rise that will send a strong, clear signal to consumers—and it should be gradually phased in. A gasoline tax hike of 30¢ a gallon per year for the next 10 years would send the right signal. This eventual increase of $3 per gallon would be offset at every step of the way with a reduction in income taxes. A $3 per gallon tax on gasoline in addition to the existing federal tax of 18¢ sounds like a lot. And it is, but our economic future is at stake. Such taxes are not unheard of. Motorists in Germany pay a tax of $3.76 per gallon, French drivers pay $3.46, and in the United Kingdom the figure is $4 per gallon. Prices at the pump in these countries typically range between $5 and $6 a gallon.A number of countries in Europe have been shifting taxes in recent years—lowering the tax on income and raising those on energy. Sweden, now the leader, is in the middle of a 10-year shift of $1,100 per household from income taxes to energy taxes. This is an integral part of Sweden’s plan to be oil-free by 2020. A planned long-term rise in the price of gasoline would enable automobile owners and manufacturers to plan intelligently for an oil-short future. It would encourage motorists trading in older cars to look for more fuel-efficient vehicles, including the highly efficient gas-electric hybrids. And it sends the right signals to manufacturers, enabling them to shift to more fuel-efficient vehicles over time. The shift to gas-electric hybrid cars offers another option. If we add a second storage battery and a plug-in capacity to hybrids it will enable us to do our short-distance driving, such as the daily commute or grocery shopping, almost entirely with electricity. Cars could be recharged at night when the demand for electricity is low. If we build not merely hundreds of wind farms but thousands of them to feed cheap electricity into the grid, then we can do our short-distance driving with wind energy. The wind electricity equivalent of a gallon of gasoline costs roughly 50¢. Wind energy is inexpensive, inexhaustible, and it is ours. Rising gas prices will also encourage investment in public transportation, enabling us to reach the levels of convenience and reliability of systems in Western Europe and Japan. They will also facilitate creation of the increasingly popular bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly transport networks. And higher gas prices are already mobilizing billions of dollars of investment in the production of alternative fuels, such as corn-based ethanol. There is also the pressing question of who gets the revenue from oil price increases. It is in the interest of oil-exporting countries to raise the price of oil as high as possible without causing a global economic recession or depression. If we let the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) keep raising the price of oil, and hence of gasoline, the increases will end up in OPEC treasuries. If, however, we shift taxes, more of the additional money spent on gasoline will end up in our treasury, and individuals will benefit from lower income taxes. Higher U.S. gas taxes will also reduce the global demand for oil, making it more difficult to raise the price. A world where oil use is climbing is totally unprepared for the peaking and subsequent decline of world oil production. Whether peak oil comes this year, next year, or ten years from now, we need to be ready for it. The adoption of a 10-year tax shift as outlined above would accelerate the shift to alternative energy sources, and help reestablish U.S. leadership in building a sustainable energy future. SOURCE: www.earthpolicy.org/Updates/2006/Update54.htm
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on May 26, 2006 13:08:19 GMT 4
Recipes for Change Some foods could change the world, but to find them, look beyond the label—By Bennett Gordon, Utne.com May 25, 2006 Issue But Ronnie Cummins, founder of the Organic Consumers Association, warns that conscientious consumers may have to start looking beyond labels. In an interview with Satya, Cummins explains that corporations are "degrading organic standards [and] bending the rules" to turn a profit. Read it all: www.utne.com/webwatch/2006_251/news/12129-1.htmlRelated Story:Wal-Mart Will Be The Largest Seller Of Organic Food, Driving Prices Down: Is This A Good Thing?SNIP:Wal-Mart, America's largest grocery retailer, has decided to offer more organic food in an attempt to appeal to urban and upscale consumers. Because of Wal-Mart's marketing clout, this move is expected to change the very nature of organic food production. Some argue that the end result will be more organically farmed land and more available quantities of organic food. But others contend that the move will lower standards and reduce the environmental benefits of organic farming. Many also predict that Wal-Mart's demand for low prices will lead them to outsource their organic food sources overseas to countries such as China, where the standards for organic farming are dubious at best. READ THE REST: tinyurl.com/rlumz
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michelle
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Post by michelle on Jun 7, 2006 15:25:25 GMT 4
Green Fuel's Dirty Secretby Sasha Lilley, Special to CorpWatch June 1st, 2006 The town of Columbus, Nebraska, bills itself as a "City of Power and Progress." If Archer Daniels Midland gets its way, that power will be partially generated by coal, one of the dirtiest forms of energy. When burned, it emits carcinogenic pollutants and high levels of the greenhouse gases linked to global warming.Ironically this coal will be used to generate ethanol, a plant-based petroleum substitute that has been hyped by both environmentalists and President George Bush as the green fuel of the future. The agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is the largest U.S. producer of ethanol, which it makes by distilling corn. ADM also operates coal-fired plants at its company base in Decatur, Illinois, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is currently adding another coal-powered facility at its Clinton, Iowa ethanol plant. That's not all. "[Ethanol] plants themselves not even the part producing the energy produce a lot of air pollution," says Mike Ewall, director of the Energy Justice Network. "The EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) has cracked down in recent years on a lot of Midwestern ethanol plants for excessive levels of carbon monoxide, methanol, toluene, and volatile organic compounds, some of which are known to cause cancer." A single ADM corn processing plant in Clinton, Iowa generated nearly 20,000 tons of pollutants including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds in 2004, according to federal records. The EPA considers an ethanol plant as a "major source" of pollution if it produces more than 100 tons of any one pollutant per year, although it has recently proposed increasing that cap to 250 tons.Sulfur dioxide is classified by the EPA as a contributor to respiratory and heart disease and the generation of acid rain. Nitrogen oxides produce ozone and a wide variety of toxic chemicals as well as contributing to global warming, according to the EPA, while many volatile organic compounds are cancer-causing. Last year, Environmental Defense, a national environmental group, ranked the Clinton plant as the 26th largest emitter of carcinogenic compounds in the U.S.For years, ADM promoted itself as the "supermarket to the world" on major U.S. radio and television networks like NPR, CBS, NBC, and PBS where it underwrites influential programs such as the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Now, as it actively promotes its ethanol business, ADM has rolled out its new eco-friendly slogan, "Resourceful by Nature" which "reinforces our role as an essential link between farmers and consumers." Despite the company's attempts at green packaging, ADM is ranked as the tenth worst corporate air polluter, on the "Toxic 100" list of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts. The Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency has charged the company with violations of the Clean Air Act in hundreds of processing units, covering 52 plants in 16 states. In 2003 the two agencies reached a $351 million settlement with the company. Three years earlier, ADM was fined $1.5 million by the Department of Justice and $1.1 million by the State of Illinois for pollution related to ethanol production and distribution. Currently, the corporation is involved in approximately 25 administrative and judicial proceedings connected to federal and state Superfund laws regarding the environmental clean-up of sites contaminated by ADM operations.Friends in High PlacesEnvironmentalists have cried foul, but they are up against the 56th largest company in the United States, as ranked by revenue in Fortune Magazine. ADM has more than 25,000 employees, net sales last year of $35.9 billion, with $1 billion in profits, as well as a recent 29 percent profit increase in the last quarter. The comany is a global force: ADM is one of the world's biggest processors of soybeans, corn, wheat, and cocoa, which it buys from growers in the U.S. and around the world. The company recently hired Patricia A. Woertz, an executive vice president of Chevron Corporation, as its chief executive officer. ADM has another resource at its disposal, the considerable clout it has built up over decades of courting and lobbying Washington's power brokers. Days after the company's February expansion announcement of the coal-fired Nebraska plant, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman visited ADM's Decatur headquarters to tout its part in President Bush's Biofuels Initiative. The secretary posed for photos with then ADM Chair G. Allen Andreas and announced that the Department of Energy would offer up to $160 million for the construction of three biorefineries to expand U.S. ethanol production. "Partnerships with industry like these will lead to new innovation and discovery that will usher in an era of reduced dependence on foreign sources of oil, while strengthening our economy at home," Secretary Bodman said from ADM's trade floor. Like the ADM ethanol plant in Columbus, the three biorefineries could well be partially coal-powered, given the absence of conditions imposed by the Department of Energy. "It's been some 30 years since we got a call from the White House asking for the agricultural industry, ADM in particular, to take a serious look at the possibilities of building facilities to produce alternative sources of energy for our fuel supply in the United States," said Allen Andreas, who was chair, chief executive and president of ADM at the time of Secretary Bodman's visit. "We are delighted to participate in any way that we can in the president's programs."ADM and its signature project have never lacked friends in high places, despite a history of price fixing scandals and monopolistic misdeeds. The Andreas family, which has headed up the publicly-traded company for decades, has cultivated bipartisan support through generous donations to both Republicans and Democrats. Since the 2000 election cycle, ADM has given more than $3 million in political contributions, according to the Center for Responsive Politics: $1.2 million to Democrats and $1.85 million to Republicans. These donations may have helped sustain a multitude of government subsidies to ADM, including ethanol tax credits, tariffs against foreign ethanol competitors, and federally mandated ethanol additive standards.Politicians from the Midwestern Corn Belt are some of the company's staunchest allies. Senators Richard Durbin, Charles Grassley, and Tom Harkin, and Representative Dick Gephardt have consistently supported lavish federal tax subsidies to ethanol producers, for which ADM is the prime beneficiary. All are recipients of political action committee donations from the agribusiness behemoth. The Wall Street Journal has referred to the former South Dakota senator and Senate minority leader as "Archer Daschle Midland," because of his unswerving support for the interests of the company. ADM's political heft was behind the 54 cent per gallon tariff that the US government has imposed on imports of sugar-cane based ethanol from Brazil, which is cheaper than ADM's corn-based fuel. The tariff dates back to 1980 when the CEO of ADM convinced President Carter to adopt it, according to former ADM lobbyist Joseph Karth. Iowa's Senator Grassley recently stated his intention to block any attempt to remove the tariff on lower-cost Brazilian fuel in the face of rising gas prices, stating that "lifting this tariff would be counter-productive to the widely supported goal of promoting home-grown renewable sources of energy." Over many decades, the company has been the recipient of government largesse in the form of federal and state corn and ethanol subsidies that have totaled billions of dollars, prompting the libertarian Cato Institute to declare ADM the biggest recipient of corporate welfare in the U.S. in 1995. ADM has been a prime beneficiary of the federal tax credit on ethanol, which the refiner can apply to the tax it pays on corporate income. First implemented in 1978, the tax credit currently stands at 51 cents per gallon of ethanol sold. The Government Accounting Office estimates the subsidies to the ethanol industry from 1980-2000 at $11 billion. As the biggest ethanol producer in the US, ADM has received the largest portion of the government's generosity. Recent legislation has further greased the tracks of the ethanol gravy train. The Energy Policy Act of 2005's Renewable Fuel Standard stipulates that gasoline sold in the US must include a certain percentage of ethanol or biodiesel, starting at 4 billion gallons this year and rising to 7.5 billion gallons by 2012. ADM got another boost when the federal government mandated that oil companies replace MTBE, a cancer-causing gasoline additive, with ethanol. 45 states have adopted policies to encourage the production and use of the fuel. ADM has responded with plans to increase its output of ethanol by 42 percent over the next three years. When Corn is KingSubsidies and tax incentives might make public policy sense even when they flow into the coffers of a Fortune 500 company with mega-profits but only if corn ethanol delivers on the promise that its boosters claim: to significantly cut greenhouse emissions, protect the environment, and slow global warming. Debate has raged for years over whether ethanol made from corn generates more energy than the amount of fossil fuel that is used to produce it. UC Berkeley's Alexander Farrell recently co-authored a comprehensive study, published in Science, on the energy and greenhouse gas output of various sources of ethanol. His group found that corn ethanol reduces greenhouse gases by only 13 percent, which compares unfavorably with ethanol made from vegetable cellulose such as switchgrass. "Our best guess," says Farrell, "is that using corn ethanol today results in a modest decline of greenhouse gas emissions." Yet the enormous amounts of corn that ADM and other ethanol processors buy from Midwestern farmers wreak damage on the environment in a multiplicity of ways. Modern corn hybrids require more nitrogen fertilizer, herbicides, and insecticides than any other crop, while causing the most extensive erosion of top soil. Pesticide and fertilizer runoff from the vast expanses of corn in the U.S. prairies bleed into groundwater and rivers as far as the Gulf of Mexico. The nitrogen runoff flowing into the Mississippi River has fostered a vast bloom of dead algae in the Gulf that starves fish and other aquatic life of oxygen.To understand the hidden costs of corn-based ethanol requires factoring in "the huge, monstrous costs of cleaning up polluted water in the Mississippi River drainage basin and also trying to remedy the negative effects of poisoning the Gulf of Mexico," says Tad Patzek of the University of California's Civil and Environmental Engineering department. "These are not abstract environmental effects," Patzek asserts, "these are effects that impact the drinking water all over the Corn Belt, that impact also the poison that people ingest when they eat their food, from the various pesticides and herbicides." Corn farming substantially tops all crops in total application of pesticides, according to the US Department of Agriculture, and is the crop most likely to leach pesticides into drinking water.While banned by the European Union, atrazine is the most heavily used herbicide in the United States primarily applied to cornfields and the EPA rates it as the second most common pesticide in drinking wells. The EPA has set maximum safe levels of atrazine in drinking water at 3 parts per billion, but scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey have found up to 224 parts per billion in Midwestern streams and 2,300 parts per billion in Corn Belt irrigation reservoirs. Then there is the question of how practical it is to replace petroleum with corn-based ethanol. "There are conflicting figures on how much land would be needed to meet all of our petroleum demand from ethanol," says Energy Justice Network's Ewall, "and those range from some portion of what we currently have as available crop land to as much as five times as the amount of crop land in the US." The Department of Agriculture estimates that the Corn Belt has lost 90 percent of its original wetlands, two thirds of which has taken place since draining for agriculture began mid-century."No one who's looked at this issue [from an environmental perspective] talks about using corn kernels as the only, or even major component, of the long term solution," counters Nathanael Greene, senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Everyone assumes we'll evolve the industry from its current technology to the advanced technologies." If that happens, it will be a marked reversal of many decades of government policy in support of Archer Daniels Midland and the company may well wonder what it's getting for its unceasingly ample gifts to both political parties. But with the "full-throated support of the Bush Administration", in the words of the Renewable Fuels Association, a corn ethanol-dominated, ADM-led trade group, that day doesn't seem to be approaching any time soon. Sasha Lilley is a writer for CorpWatch and producer of the program Against the Grain on Pacifica Radio.Source: www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13646
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Jun 19, 2006 15:43:39 GMT 4
EPA and Pesticide Industry Pressuring Scientists to Allow Continued Use of Toxic Pesticides Government scientists are blowing the whistle on the Environmental Protection Agency's attempt to allow the continued use of 20 highly controversial organophosphate pesticides without conducting adequate safety testing. Previous research indicates that these pesticides pose serious health hazards, especially to babies in the womb, infants and children. EPA scientists report that they are being pressured to skip key risk assessment tests. This controversy comes on the heels of the EPA's new rule which would allow the intentional dosing of pregnant women and children with pesticides. Here's How Organic Consumers Can Help Put a Stop to This The EPA has till August 3rd to issue final tolerance approval 20 organiphosaphate and carbamate pesticies.Send a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency's Administrator Johnson to either adopt maximum exposure protections for these agents or take them off the market. Read more, take action and send a letter to the EPA here: organicconsumers.org/epa7.htm
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Jun 30, 2006 14:50:01 GMT 4
Are You Poisoning Yourself? Here Is The Smoking Gun That Exposes How Food And Medicine Are Destroying Your Health -- And What You Can Do About It by Randall Fitzgerald “If you care about your own life and the lives of those you love, you must read this book! The Hundred Year Lie is a detailed roadmap to protect your health and insure the survival of our entire species.” —Donald Altman, author of The Art of the Inner Meal, 12 Steps To Mindful Eating, and others FACE THE FACTS — BUY THE BOOK! You Have Been Lied To. Misled. Deceived For Nearly 100 Years. Like millions of others you probably believe that the food you eat is safe and nutritious. You probably believe that the medicines you take have been sufficiently tested. Not so. Shockingly, the opposite is true. Consider these facts that the chemical, pharmaceutical and food processing industries desperately want to keep from you—but revealed exclusively in The Hundred Year Lie:1,000 new chemicals are added to our “diet” yearly There are more than 700 synthetic chemicals in our bodies 100,000 man-made chemicals exist in our environment The food industry purposely strips out essential nutrients from our food The known side affects of drugs are often worse than the disease they are meant to treat Our immune and reproductive systems are so compromised that disease, birth anomalies, and species mutations are rampant! So, How Healthy Do You Feel? Many of us are overwhelmed by mystery illnesses, obesity and fatigue. Human beings—and the earth, herself—aren’t able to absorb the toxic soup we’re being served.“Before you eat another bite of food … before you take another pill … you owe it to yourself (and those you love) to read this book!” —David Rippe, Author of The Flip Ignore This Information At Your Own Peril— and the expense of your health. The Hundred Year Lie, by Randall Fitzgerald, is an explosive new work that gives you the information you need to protect yourself—and your family. This shocking book tells you step-by-step how we got here—and what you can do to save yourself. It gives you a powerful tool kit that… Explodes dozens of Cherished Myths we all believe Details the Vicious Cycle that has destroyed our health and vitality Presents an astounding, irrefutable body of scientific evidence Exposes how pharmaceuticals mask symptoms rather than address the cause Reveals the natural remedies that are readily available Recommends 5 Societal Changes worth your support Provides a Toxicity Test to gauge your body burden Shows how you can detoxify your body Gives you numerous ways to recover your health Offers the information you need to help your family and friends Helps you kick the synthetic habit The Question Is When Will You Take Charge Of Your Life and Your Health? Tomorrow, next week, next year?…or RIGHT NOW! This is your moment. This is your life. You deserve to know the truth. So do your children, your parents, your friends and co-workers. For less than the cost of your prescription co-pay you can own a book that can save your life. To read excerpts from the book and to order:www.hundredyearlie.com
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