(Source: pwnageprincess)
Tracks
As more and more of the US natural gas supply comes from fracking, more and more of the nitrogen fertilizer farmers use will come from fracked natural gas. If Big Ag becomes hooked on cheap fracked gas to meet its fertilizer needs, then the fossil fuel industry will have gained a powerful ally in its effort to steamroll regulation and fight back opposition to fracking projects.
Tom Philpott, “The Surprising Connection Between Food and Fracking,” Mother Jones. (via utnereader)
Fracking must be stopped.
(via deniseaday)
nice appearance by the always-amazing naomi klein on bill moyers. 30 min worth watching. i love her analysis of most climate activist messages that target the individual (‘you can do something about it by changing your behavior’) and often neglect the necessity for collective action. this point is the reason i finally became a fan of annie leonard’s story of stuff series when she presented the story of change, and what i love about occupy movement: the realization that we need to break out of the individualistic thinking that keeps us competing against each other rather than working together. we’re all in the same boat and should start acting more like it.
i’m mostly contemplating her point that part of the reason why public opinion on the subject of climate change has been so shaky is the discrepancy between saying ‘this is a huge, armageddon-style problem’ but suggesting that the solutions only have a very minor impact on our lives (‘changing light bulbs’) and do not demand big sacrifices from anyone. maybe it’s because ‘being radical’ has been put in such a bad public light, and the public debate tends to frame climate activists as radical - while it’s actually the other way round, as mckibben so rightly points out: the true radicals are those who are fundamentally changing the composition of the atmosphere.
i’m no historian, but i do tend to agree with her (as i usually do..) that this is the greatest problem we’ve ever faced as humanity. it’s what makes this the most interesting issue to work on and be a part of.
by the way, also just in: 350.org is calling climate activists around the world to join the global power shift kick-off in istanbul from 10-17 june 2013. i’m hoping i can join, and look forward to meet climate activists from around the world!
(Source: saveplanetearth)
At the same time the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center has released a report noting that this spring in the United States has been the warmest since record-keeping began in 1895, a group of scientists has published a paper in the journal Nature warning that the planet is approaching a critical tipping point because of climate and other factors.
Rampant population growth and changes to the environment caused by humans, including the burning of fossil fuels and the conversion of nearly 43% of the planet’s land to farms or cities, threaten to cause an abrupt and unpredictable shift in the global ecosystem, 22 scientists from five countries said in their paper.
— excerpted from “More Record Warmth as Scientists Warn of Global Tipping Point”, by Michael Pearson and Phil Gast in CNN.com (June 8, 2012)
Author and activist Michael Pollan is a passionate advocate for sustainable food. Interested in knowing more? In his compelling 2009 PopTech talk, he explores how our industrial food system keeps us overly dependent on fossil fuels, destroys our environment, and makes us sick. Breaking this cycle requires changing our relationship to food – and eating more meals together.
Notable: “In the same way we’re going to have to learn how to drive an industrial economy without a lot of fossil fuel, we’re going to have to learn how to create a lot of food without a lot of fossil fuel.”
There’s No Tomorrow (by incubatepictures)
- “It took nature about 5 million years to create the fossil fuels that the world consumes in one year.”
- “In America, food travels approximately 1,500 miles from farm to customer.”
- “Growth of use will consume any energy or resource saved through conservation.”
- “The issues of energy shortages, resource depletion, topsoil loss, and pollution are all symptoms of a single, larger problem— GROWTH.”
