The Miraculous Web of Life Sustains ALL Species on Planet Earth – Healthy Ecosystems, Healthy Humans. WITHOUT NATURE WE DO NOT EXIST. PERIOD. To the degree Nature is sick, so are we. We humans must reintegrate into the greater web of life as a species within it and not separate from it, by returning to respect and restoring balance and harmony to that which supports all life on this planet ... Nature ... #GDP should be replaced by #EcoEconomics ... Putting front and center the concerns for how we are destroying and objectifying the natural world for profit #Conservation #Ecosystems #Wildlife #Forests #Environment #Biodiversity #Ecoeconomics #CSR #GDP #Anthropocene
Ecologist Chris Morgan travels to the jungles of Northern Sumatra to document the work being done to save its population of wild orangutans. Asia’s most intelligent ape once roamed across the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java, but today, fewer than 7,000 Sumatran orangutans remain in the wild. The film cites rapid deforestation — clearing the land for vast palm oil plantations — as the chief reason for the species’ declining population. But as Morgan shows, conservationists are trying to reverse that trend by teaching orphaned orangutans the survival skills they’ll need for release back into the jungle. He also accompanies researchers deep into a remote and protected peat swamp forest to study wild orangutans up close to learn about their culture and behavior.
Multi award winning. Set in Indonesia. Meet Green, an orangutan and victim of human impact. Follow the devastating journey as her home is destroyed by logging, clearing for palm oil plantations, and the choking haze of rainforest fires. Hauntingly poetic and without narration, the film creatively depicts the effects of consumerism on tropical rainforests as we are faced with our personal accountability in the loss of the world's rainforests http://sco.lt/6IIb0T
All Things Considered, March 11, 2015 ▶ AS PALM OIL FARMS EXPANDS, IT'S A RACE TO SAVE INDONESIA'S ORANGUTANS http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/03/11/392292008/as-palm-oil-farms-expand-its-a-race-to-save-indonesias-orangutans
An eight-part program with our Special Correspondent Philippe Cousteau who explores the Sumatran rainforest and its animal sanctuaries. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/environment/
---- WATCH ----
INDIGENOUS AND THEIR FORESTS DESTROYED IN SARAWAK,
IN 40 YEARS WE HAVE DISAPPEARED HALF OF THE WORLD'S WILD ANIMALS: DEFORESTATION, OCEANS, AGRICULTUREhttp://sco.lt/8fK5
AND ANOTHER GREAT WATCH
"EARTH - A NEW WILD"
Four-Part Series - PBS Nature Take a new look at humankind’s relationship with the wildest places on Earth. Dr. M. Sanjayan, takes viewers on a stunning visual journey to explore how humans are woven into every aspect of Earth’s natural systems. The series features footage from the most striking places on Earth and encounters between wild animals and the people who live and work with them. http://www.pbs.org/earth-a-new-wild/home/
pdjmoo's insight:
YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW MY NEWS AGGREGATES @pdjmoo
-▶ WHY WILD ANIMALS NEED WILDLIFE CORRIDORS Species are disappearing at thousands of times the historical extinction rate, mainly due to habitat loss. But as the recent success of wildlife corridors suggests, a little connectivity can go a long way. http://www.mnn.com/leaderboard/blogs/why-wild-animals-need-wildlife-corridors
▶ HALF THE WORLD'S WILDLIFE HAS GONE EXTINCT IN 40 YEARS.Human activity has been blamed for the drop, as the US reports dwindling populations of bumblebees and polar bears, and one of the world's biggest decreases in sealife.
Mankind's need for land and resources, combined with hunting and poaching, are causing our wild animals to die out
Wildlife populations around the globe have declined by 52 per cent on average since 1970, a new report has found
The likes of forest elephants, African lions and tigers are under threat, as well as American sharks
Lion numbers dropped 90% in 40 years, tigers by 97% in 100 years and elephants 60% since 2002, WWF reported
"Over the past 40 years, human activity has exacted a devastating toll on the planet’s wildlife population. According to a shocking new report from the World Wildlife Fund , 52 percent of the world’s mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have vanished between 1970 and 2010.
Exploitation and habitat degradation/loss are the primary culprits, accounting for 82 percent of the primary threats to wildlife populations across the globe. Human activity including damming, shipping and pollution has proven particularly disastrous for the planet’s waterways with freshwater species plunging 76 percent.
The biggest wildlife declines have been recorded in low-income and developing nations with various conservation efforts making small gains here and there. Still, the sheer scale of this report makes for very grim reading indeed – humans are cutting down trees faster than they can regrow while fish are being caught before the ocean can restock. It’s time for a wake up call." Forbes, September 30, 2014
- ▶ LAST TIME, IT TOOK 60,000 YEARS TO KILL NEARLY EVERYTHING ON EARTH: WE'RE DOING IT IN 250 YEARS
IUCN Red List, November 17, 2014 ▶ GLOBAL APPETITE FOR RESOURCES PUSHING NEW SPECIES TO THE BRINK. “Each update of the IUCN Red List makes us realize that our planet is constantly losing its incredible diversity of life, largely due to our destructive actions to satisfy our growing appetite for resources,” says IUCN Director General Julia Marton-Lefèvre.http://www.iucnredlist.org/news/global-appetite-for-resources-pushing-new-species-to-the-brink
Guardian Environment, George Monbiot October 01, 2014 ▶ IT'S TIME TO SHOUT "STOP" ON THIS WAR ON THE LIVING WORLD.
This is a moment at which anyone with the capacity for reflection should stop and wonder what we are doing. If the news that in the past 40 years the world has lost over 50% of its vertebrate wildlife (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish) fails to tell us that there is something wrong with the way we live, it’s hard to imagine what could. Who believes that a social and economic system which has this effect is a healthy one? Who, contemplating this loss, could call it progress?
The Mind Unleashed, May 15, 2014 - ▶ THE EARTH IS A SENTIENT LIVING ORGANISM. Contrary to the common belief that the Earth is simply a dense planet whose only function is a resource for its inhabitants, our planet is in fact a breathing, living organism. When we think of the Earth holistically, as one living entity of its own, instead of the sum of its parts, it takes on a new meaning. Our planet functions as a single organism that maintains conditions necessary for its survival.http://themindunleashed.org/2014/05/earth-sentient-living-organism.html
Summit Voice, October 05, 2014 ▶ REPORT: GLOBAL WILDLIFE POPULATIONS DROP 50 PERCENT. ‘We’re gradually destroying our planet’s ability to support our way of life’. —Neocolonialism under multinational corporations is devastating biodiversity in developing low-income countries, as the wealthy part of the world continues to increase consumption of resources at an unsustainable rate. As a result, populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish around the globe dropped 52 percent, according to the annual 2014 Living Planet report released last week by the World Wildlife Fund. http://summitcountyvoice.com/2014/10/05/report-global-wildlife-populations-drop-50-percent/
Just Brilliant: WATCH "RACING EXTINCTION" For Climate Summit 2014 - Entire UN building illuminated with a spectacular light display. The next mass extinction and its causes
PHOTO ARK by Award-Winning Photographer Joel Sartore For many of Earth’s creatures, time is running out. Half of the world’s plant and animal species will soon be threatened with extinction. The goal of the Photo Ark is to document biodiversity, show what’s at stake and to get people to care while there’s still time. More than 3,700 species have been photographed to date, with more to come. http://www.joelsartore.com/galleries/the-photo-ark/1/
▶ BOLIVIA: FIRST COUNTRY TO GIVE LEGAL RIGHTS TO THE EARTH. Bolivia pilots new social and economic model based on protection of and respect for nature. Bolivia is to become the first country in the world to give nature comprehensive legal rights in an effort to halt climate change and the exploitation of the natural world, and to improve quality of life for the Bolivian people. http://sco.lt/83jybZ
-▶ THE END OF CORAL REEFS? AROUND FOR 10 MILLION YEARS, WIPED OUT IN 100 http://sco.lt/7y1XHt
▶ HEALTH OF OCEANS 'DECLINING FAST' - MASS EXTINCTION MAY BE INEVITABLE http://sco.lt/8ZyX6v
▶ CHANGING OUR WORLD FOREVER. THE WAY TO A NEW, UNKNOWN ARCTIC ECOSYSTEMhttp://sco.lt/8eWiUz
▶ SUMATRAN RAINFORESTS RAVAGED WITH ALL LIFE WITHIN IT - FOR INVASIVE PALM OILhttp://sco.lt/6Sdg13
▶ ECOCIDE: A PLAGUE OF DEFORESTATION SWEEPS ACROSS SOUTHEAST ASIA WITH TERRIBLE LOSS OF WILDLIFE AND BIODIVERSITYhttp://sco.lt/8aPgp7
WE WERE WARNED
UN Environment Programme
August 15, 2010
-▶ 200 SPECIES EXTINCT EVERY DAY, UNLIKE ANYTHING SINCE DINOSAURS DISAPPEARED 65 MILLION YEARS AGO
According to the UN Environment Programme, the Earth is in the midst of a mass extinction of life. Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours. This is nearly 1,000 times the "natural" or "background" rate and, say many biologists, is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65m years ago...http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/aug/16/nature-economic-security
▶ HEALTHY ECOSYSTEMS, HEALTHY PLANET: HOW BIODIVERSITY COULD SAVE YOUR LIFEhttp://sco.lt/7Uk10D
ONE SHORT VIDEO
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PALM OIL DEFORESTATION
DR. VANDANA SHIVA: "RIGHTS OF NATURE" TRIBUNAL PRESIDENT presents closing statement at the first Ethics Tribunal in Quito January 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Tl02_bcbw
IC Magazine, December 11, 2014 -▶ PANEL FINDS CORPORATIONS, UNITED NATIONS AND GOVERNMENTS GUILTY OF VIOLATING NATURE'S RIGHTS
Earth, October 10, 2014 -▶ BOLIVIA GIVES LEGAL RIGHT TO THE EARTH. Law of Mother Earth sees Bolivia pilot new social and economic model based on protection of and respect for nature. Bolivia is to become the first country in the world to give nature comprehensive legal rights in an effort to halt climate change and the exploitation of the natural world, and to improve quality of life for the Bolivian people. http://sco.lt/5DoTRp
ANOTHER VIDEO Global Alliance RIGHTS OF NATURE & INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (22:14)
Ensia, August 12, 2014 -▶ ECOSYSTEMS ARE NOT MACHINES. If we want to save the world, we need to treat nature more as an organism and less as disposable and replaceable technology.http://ensia.com/voices/ecosystems-are-not-machines/
-▶ SHOULD COMPANIES COMPENSATE SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION FROM WHICH THEY PROFIT?http://sco.lt/72Hsf3
Guardian August 02, 2014 ▶ AUSTRALIAN PM, TONY ABBOTT, LAUNCHES GREEN ARMY RECRUITING 15,000 YOUNG AUSTRALIANS. About 15,000 young Australians will be mobilised for the government’s Green Army and get their hands dirty on environmental projects for a weekly wage of up to $500. The Abbott government’s Green Army initiative will involve 1500 projects implemented over the next three years.http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/02/tony-abbott-green-army-recruiting-drive
Earthblog, August 04, 2014 NEW SCIENCE SUGGESTS MORE LAND-BASED ECOSYSTEMS LOST THAN BIOSPHERE CAN BEARAn important scientific journal article published today finds that 66% of Earth’s land area must be maintained as natural and agro-ecological ecosystems to sustain a livable environment. Yet about 50% have already been lost, threatening global biosphere collapse http://www.ecointernet.org/2014/08/04/biosphere_collapse/
▶ PALM OIL BONANZA FOR CORPORATIONS WHILE DESTROYING FORESTS AND ALL LIFE WITHIN THEMhttp://sco.lt/5VN27l
=======================
- ▶ NO TO BIODIVERSITY OFFSETTING: CONSERVING OUR BIODIVERSITY IS BECOMING DEPENDENT ON IT DESTRUCTIONhttp://sco.lt/6ZjXGr
-▶ SHOULD COMPANIES COMPENSATE SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION FROM WHICH THEY PROFIT?http://sco.lt/72Hsf3
▶ THE COMING CLIMATE CRASH: LESSONS FROM THE 2008 RECESSION http://sco.lt/6tNs8H
-▶ THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM. DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY LIFE, INDIGENOUS LAND AND LIVELIHOODS IN THE NAME OF "GROWTH" http://sco.lt/5nT3OT
Pambazuka, July 24. 2014 -▶ GMOs AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: WHICH WAY AFRICA? African governments are under intense pressure from within but also from big agribusiness and Western governments to embrace GMOs. Governments must resist all forms of arm-twisting and food colonialism and make their biotechnology choices based on the factshttp://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/92594
PHOTO: Father of five Joseph Kilimo Chebet stands next to the burned remains of his homestead, destroyed only hours prior by Kenya Forest Service officers.
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The Guardian environment, July 03, 2014
WORLD BANK, UN REDD COMPLICIT IN GENOCIDAL LAND GRABS
UN's REDD scheme promises carbon offsetting will empower local communities in the developing world while conserving forests - but critics say the scheme is fuelling genocidal evictions of indigenous people from their lands. Between 2000 and 2010, a total of 500 million acres of land in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean was acquired or negotiated under deals brokered on behalf of foreign governments or transnational corporations.
Many such deals are geared toward growing crops or biofuels for export to richer, developed countries – with the consequence that small-holder farmers are displaced from their land and lose their livelihood while local communities go hungry. The concentration of ownership of the world's farmland in the hands of powerful investors and corporations is rapidly accelerating, driven by resource scarcity and, thus, rising prices. According to a new report by the US land rights organisation Grain: "The powerful demands of food and energy industries are shifting farmland and water away from direct local food production to the production of commodities for industrial processing." Less known factors, however, include 'conservation' and 'carbon offsetting.' http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jul/03/world-bank-un-redd-genocide-land-carbon-grab-sengwer-kenya
INVESTIGATION Center for Public Integrity, April 16 2015 HOW THE WORLD BANK BREAKS ITS PROMISE TO PROTECT THE POOR Since 2004 an estimated 3,350,449 people were forced from their homes, deprived of their land or had their livelihoods damaged because they lived in the path of a World Bank project http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/04/16/17147/how-world-bank-breaks-its-promise-protect-poor
The Ecologist, December 07, 2014 ▶ KENYA: A FOREST PEOPLE ILLEGALLY EVICTED, BEATEN IMPRISONED: PAID FOR BY THE WORLD BANK. Financed by the World Bank, the Kenya Forest Service has intensified its illegal campaign of evictions, arson, beatings and arrests of the Sengwer forest people of the Embobut forest. And behind the violence lies the lure of hard cash - from the prospect of selling the forest's carbon to international financiershttp://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2664793/kenya_a_forest_people_illegally_evicted_beaten_imprisoned_paid_for_by_the_world_bank.html
Oakland Institute, July 28, 2014 -▶ THE WORLD BANK, THE IMF, US AID OPEN UP UKRAINE TO WESTERN INTERESTS. A new report from the Oakland Institute, Walking on the West Side: the World Bank and the IMF in the Ukraine Conflict, exposes how the international financial institutions swooped in on the heels of the political upheaval and are vying to deregulate and throw open Ukraine’s vast agricultural sector to foreign investors, in return for aid
Inter Press Service, March 21, 2014 -▶ WORLD BANK CLEAR $73 BILLION DOLLAR GRANT FOR CONTROVERSIAL MEGA-DAM IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC)As currently envisioned, the Inga III dam would be the first in a series of hydroelectric installations along the Congo River, collectively referred to as the Grand Inga project. This would include a single 145-metre dam, which would flood an area known as the BundiValley, home to around 30,000 people... “The project is being presented as if it will help the population...but these big mega-dam projects end up serving mines and related industry at the expense of local communities bein displaced once Inga 3 is fully developed.”http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/03/world-bank-clears-congos-controversial-dam-project/
IUCN RED LIST OF ENDANGERED ECOSYSTEMS Everyone knows that coral reefs are in danger, and that the rainforests are disappearing – or do we? What do we actually know in scientific terms? How much of these ecosystems are left, and how likely are they to disappear? IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature is developing a new tool to provide answers to these questions – the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems.http://www.iucnredlistofecosystems.org/about-us/red-list-ecosystems/
"Guardianship is a word that rings out in my head. We are meant to be guardians and trustees of this planet. For me, and for many others, the collective goal of humanity is towards the stewardship of our people, the planet and our ecosystems. We have a duty to protect and enhance our communities and ecosystems for the betterment of future generations"...Nicole Tilde
Common Dreams, October 14, 2012 ▶ CORPORATE FINANCIALIZATION OF NATURE IS A RECIPE FOR DISASTER: The "financialization of nature" is a flawed approach to saving biodiversity, "Biodiversity and forests are critical for the survival of people and the planet, and are thus priceless. Our biodiversity needs to be protected, not speculated on by reckless and unaccountable financial markets,” says Isaac Rojas, Friends of the Earth International Coordinator of the Forests and Biodiversity Program. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2012/10/13/recipe-disaster-group-says-no-financialization-nature
It is not easy to put a value on a forest, a clean river, or unpolluted air, but that is what a group of the world's biggest banks is attempting to do.
43 financial institutions have agreed that the way the present economic system uses and often destroys the environment without paying to do so is not sustainable.
The banks are also concerned that some companies are using up natural resources so fast, with no thought for their own future, let alone that of the planet, that they will collapse. They want a way of warning them and ultimately withdrawing their credit unless the companies mend their ways...http://www.eco-business.com/news/banks-put-price-earths-life-support/
Ensia, August 12, 2014 -▶ ECOSYSTEMS ARE NOT MACHINES. If we want to save the world, we need to treat nature more as an organism and less as disposable and replaceable technology. http://ensia.com/voices/ecosystems-are-not-machines/
▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/9KW9wn
BOLIVIA
FIRST NATION IN THE WORLD TO GIVE LEGAL RIGHTS TO THE EARTH http://sco.lt/83jybZ
VIDEO Global Alliance RIGHTS OF NATURE & INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (22:14)
Environmental News Network, September 11, 2014 ▶ ILLEGAL LAND CLEARING FOR COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE RESPONSIBLE FOR HALF OF TROPICAL DEFORESTATION. A comprehensive new analysis says that nearly half (49%) of all recent tropical deforestation is the result of illegal clearing for commercial agriculture. The study also finds that the majority of this illegal destruction was driven by overseas demand for agricultural commodities including palm oil, beef, soy, and wood products. In addition to devastating impacts on forest-dependent people and biodiversity, the illegal conversion of tropical forests for commercial agriculture is estimated to produce 1.47 gigatonnes of carbon each year—equivalent to 25% of the EU's annual fossil fuel-based emissions.http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/47822
Sustainable Brands, September 11, 2014 ▶ INVESTORS PRESS PALM OIL PRODUCERS TO HALT DEFORESTATION. Institutional investors representing over half a trillion dollars in assets under management are calling on four major palm oil producers to adopt an immediate moratorium on deforestation and join the growing effort within the industry to establish traceable, deforestation-free palm oil supply chains. http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/supply_chain/mike_hower/investors_press_palm_oil_producers_halt_deforestation
- ▶ MORE THAN HALF OF U.S. RIVERS ARE TOO POLLUTED TO SUPPORT LIFE SHOCKING REPORT REVEALShttp://sco.lt/5JvEi9
-▶ THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM. DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY LIFE IN THE NAME OF "GROWTH" http://sco.lt/5nT3OT
▶ SHOULD COMPANIES COMPENSATE SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION FROM WHICH THEY PROFIT? http://sco.lt/5I5UeX
-▶ THE GREAT AMERICAN CORPORATE GIVEAWAY, OUR PUBLIC LANDS: : COAL, OIL, FRACKING DESTROYING FOREST, WATER, ENVIRONMENThttp://sco.lt/9JCs8f
▶ HOLDING CORPORATIONS RESPONSIBLE: MINING COMPANIES DEVASTATE PRISTINE WISCONSIN FOR FRAC-SAND LEAVING CHEMICAL CESSPOOLhttp://sco.lt/6gL1ov
Mongabay, May 14, 2014 ▶ NEW REPORT REVEALS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES BY CORPORATIONS, GOVERNMENTS IN THE AMAZON.
The report took over six months to complete and gives an in-depth account of the conflicts activists and indigenous peoples (IPs) are having with corporations and governmental agencies. It relays a situation that does not look good. http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0514-dulaney-regnskogfondet.html
The bankers went on to acknowledge this was partly their fault because they had no way of valuing this natural capital, nor did they currently recognize the danger to the stability of some companies because of its destruction. They want governments to force companies to disclose their dependence on natural capital and the impact they have on it by disclosures in annual financial reports.
-▶ BIODIVERSITY AND SUSTAINABILITY ARE CLOSELY LINKED TO SURVIVAL OF LANGUAGE AND CULTURE.
An unprecedented study published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Loss of global biological and cultural diversity paints a dire picture of the state and future of our species. The world’s animal and plant species are disappearing 1,000 times faster than ever in recorded history. Some areas of the world have lost 60 percent of their languages since the mid-1970’s, and 90 percent of the world’s languages are expected to vanish by the year 2099. Life, in general, has suffered horribly from the runaway spread of European values and the notions of progress that began with the Industrial Revolution. A sharp bit of mathematics finally brings forth the maps that expose the poverty of the world’s major carbon emitters and the wealth that remains in those parts of the world where the indigenous are making their final stand....
A DISASTER -▶ BRAZIL: NEWLY ELECTED PRESIDENT Jair Bolsonaro THREATENS INDIGENOUS GENOCIDE - OPENLY
"Minorities have to adapt to the majority, or simply disappear," he said on the campaign trail, adding that under his administration, "not one square centimeter" of Brazil will be reserved for the country's indigenous peoples"
-▶ BRAZIL: BOLSONARO'S ELECTION IS CATASTROPHIC NEWS FOR BRAZIL'S INDIGENOUS TRIBES
Bolsonaro thinks “Indians smell, are uneducated and don’t speak our language”, and that “the recognition of indigenous land is an obstacle to agribusiness”. He declares that he will reduce or abolish Amazonian indigenous reserves and has vowed on several occasions: “If I become president, there will not be one centimetre more of indigenous land.” He recently corrected himself, declaring that he meant not one millimetre.
-▶ INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY: WHAT CAN BE DONE TO SAVE DYING LANGUAGES? The massacre of tribal peoples and colonial thinki9ng lead to loss of identity, says Survival International researcher via @AJEnglish
What do we lose when a language dies? What does it take to save a language?
Winner of the Grand Festival Award for Documentary
at the 23rd Annual Berkeley Video and Film Festival 2014
"Language Matters" asks what we lose when languages die and how we can save them. It was filmed around the world: on a remote island off the coast of Australia, where 400 Aboriginal people speak 10 different languages, all at risk; in Wales, where Welsh, once in danger, is today making a comeback; and in Hawaii, where a group of Hawaiian activists is fighting to save the native tongue.
There are over 6000 languages in the whole world. We lose one every two weeks. Hundreds will be lost within the next generation. By the end of this century, half of the world’s languages will have vanished.
Intercontinental Cry Magazine, April 19, 2014 RESISTING 'THE FOREIGN TENTACLE' The story of the last of the Kuna people, and their struggle to maintain its culture in a quickly developing country.http://intercontinentalcry.org/resisting-foreign-tentacle/
-▶ WEST PAPUA : 226 THOUSAND HECTARES OF VIRGIN FORESTS TO BE RAZED FOR CORPORATE PALM OIL, DESTROYING ALL LIFE AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIEShttp://sco.lt/67I9ZJ
Guardian, December 30, 2014, John Vidal ▶ 'PEOPLE IN THE WEST LIVE SQUEEZED TOGETHER, FRENZIED AS WASPS IN THE NEST'An indigenous Yanomami leader and shaman from Brazil shares his views on wealth, the environment and politics
HuffPost Arts and Culture, February 18, 2015 ▶PHOTOS OF MONGOLIA'S DESERTIFICATION REVEAL SHOCKING EFFECTS OF CHANGING CLIMATE. To this day, at least 25% of Mongolia's population lives a nomadic life, and in doing so, they remain fiercely dependent on open land for survival. However, due to the fluctuation in climate in recent years, changes to the landscape have rendered this lifestyle difficult, if not impossible, to maintain. Over the course of the past 30 years, approximately a quarter of the country has turned to desert, with around 850 lakes and 2,000 rivers having dried out. If this pattern persists, the Mongolian tradition that's existed for thousands of years will become extinct.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/10/daesung-lee_n_6648868.html
▶ NICARAGUA'S MAYAGNA PEOPLE AND THEIR RAINFOREST COULD VANISH – More than 30,000 members of the Mayagna indigenous community are in danger of disappearing, along with the rainforest which is their home in Nicaragua, if the state fails to take immediate action to curb the destruction of the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve, the largest forest reserve in Central America and the third-largest in the world. http://intercontinentalcry.org/nicaraguas-mayagna-people-rainforest-vanish-24439/
Earthblog, August 04, 2014 -▶ NEW SCIENCE SUGGESTS MORE LAND-BASED ECOSYSTEMS LOST THAN BIOSPHERE CAN BEARAn important scientific journal article published today finds that 66% of Earth’s land area must be maintained as natural and agro-ecological ecosystems to sustain a livable environment. Yet about 50% have already been lost, threatening global biosphere collapse http://www.ecointernet.org/2014/08/04/biosphere_collapse/
THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM.
DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY LIFE, INDIGENOUS LAND AND LIVELIHOODS IN THE NAME OF "GROWTH"
▶ BOLIVIA GIVES LEGAL RIGHT TO THE EARTH. Law of Mother Earth sees Bolivia pilot new social and economic model based on protection of and respect for nature. Bolivia is to become the first country in the world to give nature comprehensive legal rights in an effort to halt climate change and the exploitation of the natural world, and to improve quality of life for the Bolivian people. http://sco.lt/9EV0jZ
farmlandgrab.org, May 07, 2014 -▶ WHEN OUR LAND IS FREE, WE'RE ALL FREE.Communities are resisting this corporate takeover of their land and they are winning. All over Africa people are sending a clear message to their governments; stop selling Africa to corporations. The Jogbahn Clan in Liberia is one such community and here is their story.http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/23469
LOCAL TRIBES UNDER THREAT FROM FOREIGN LAND GRAB "INVESTMENTS"http://sco.lt/7anisL
▶ AMAZON RAINFORESTS: DEFORESTATION, MINING RISES AGAIN IN BRAZIL'S AMAZON IMPACTING ECOSYSTEMS, CLIMATE, DEVASTATING INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIEShttp://sco.lt/9FG1Lt
-▶ MEGA MINING, FOREIGN LAND GRABS DESTROYING LOCAL COMMUNITIES, ENVIRONMENT AND ECOSYSTEMShttp://sco.lt/8nJQf3
VIDEO
FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEMS, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/4l725B
- ▶ NO TO BIODIVERSITY OFFSETTING: CONSERVING OUR BIODIVERSITY IS BECOMING DEPENDENT ON IT'S DESTRUCTIONhttp://sco.lt/6ZjXGr
-▶ OUR INDUSTRIAL, WESTERN AGRICULTURAL FOOD SYSTEM IS DESTROYING THE EARTH, OUR CULTURES AND OUR HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/686Qi1
▶ KEEPING NATURE IN OUR FUTURE: HEALTHY ECOSYSTEMS ESSENTIAL FOR PLANETARY SURVIVALhttp://sco.lt/99SfhJ
-▶ ECO-SPIRITUALITY: TOWARDS A VALUES-BASED ECONOMIC STRUCTUREhttp://sco.lt/7tcgQj
WATCH "INSIDE THE GARBAGE OF THE WORLD" (80 min) We're living on a beautiful planet and as a human race we've been here for thousands of years. Our planet didn't need to be protected; life was flourishing on its own, with its own agenda. However for the past 100 years we've made a tremendous impact with our footprint due to the growth of world population and the industrialization of our everyday life. Economy, profit and capitalization became more important than respecting our planet and an ancient knowledge to advance a new way of life. http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inside-garbage-world/
In this scoop i noticed many key points including, acculturation, placelessness, loss of language, and groups of indigenous people. We can see the acculturation since through the years languages, animal species and traditions have started disappearing 1000 times faster.Soon 90% of all languages will be gone. This will lead to loss of uniqueness and inevitably placelessness among the world. The reason why languages are being lost is because these indigenous people want to take the opportunity to get a higher level education and end up leaving their homes. Also they could be out on reserves and are confined to a certain area with many restrictions. If we continue this pattern we will lose the diverse groups in the world.
This scoop explains the rate at which the worlds languages are disappearing and how many languages have been lost. It compares the languages of the world to endangered species, being found in less and less areas.
▶ OBAMA'S SECRETIVE TRADE PACTS MOVING US TOWARDS CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AS CSR AND SOVERIGN RIGHTS NEGOTIATED AWAY http://sco.lt/5G9V0T
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▶ ARE YOU EATING CLONED PIG? CLONING FOOD ANIMALS ON AN INDUSTRIAL SCALE: CHINA ENTERS USA FOOD MARKET - UNLABELLED, UNREGULATED, NO OVERSIGHT http://sco.lt/5mHzqz
VIDEO:
-▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEM, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHT, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALE http://sco.lt/4l725B
SHARK FIN SOUP
▶ 100 MILLION SLAUGHTERED EACH YEAR, JUST FOR THEIR FINS: SHARK POPULATIONS PLUMMET BY 90%...COULD BE EXTINCT IN A FEW YEARS http://sco.lt/6lqeED
POLLUTION - LAND AND WATER
▶ RESTORING RIVERS: THE LIFEBLOOD OF BOTH HUMAN AND ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES http://sco.lt/5tVYLB
POLLUTION - CLIMATE CHANGE
▶ WORLD CAN'T WAIT UNTIL 2020 ON CLIMATE CHANGE, SAYS NEW, HIGHLY DISTURBING INTERNATONAL ENERGY AGENCY REPORT http://sco.lt/58qhhh
-▶ NEW THREAT IS LOOMING FOR MOUNTAIN GORILLAS -- OIL EXPLORATIONExploitation of the land for agriculture and the timber trade has devastated the habitat, while new roads built for timber trucks have made it easier for poachers to reach the gorillas. But another threat is looming. Virunga national park in the DRC is a target for oil exploitation. The park is a Unesco world heritage site, but, if the Congolese government goes ahead with oil plans, the park could lose its status. There will be an impact on gorillas because more than 70% of the park will be affected,
VIDEO REPORT Newshour PBS, November 12, 2014 IN 'VIRUNGA', RANGERS RISK DEATH TO SAVE AFRICA'S OLDEST NATIONAL PARK. Virunga National Park in Eastern Congo is the spectacular home to the only mountain gorillas left on the planet, and many other types of wildlife. A new documentary tells the story of a group of rangers working to protect the park from threats of civil war, poachers and oil exploration. Jeffrey Brown interviews filmmaker Orlando von Eisiedel.http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/virunga-rangers-risk-death-save-africas-oldest-national-park/
VIDEO REPORT Al Jazeera English, January 04, 2015 POACHERS NOW TARGETING ENDANGERED GORILLAS AND CHIMPANZEES FOR THEIR SKULLS, NOT MEAT Yaounde, Cameroon - For years, traffickers fuelled the slaughter of gorillas and chimpanzees in Cameroon's rainforests to meet demand for bush meat - an activity conservationists feared could wipe out the great apes in the wild in a few decades. But now they fear a far worse scenario is taking place. A previously unknown trade in ape heads, bones and limbs - rather than full bodies for meat - is encouraging poachers to kill more animals than previously done, and wildlife law enforcement officials say it is speeding up population declinehttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/01/trafficking-great-ape-body-parts-cameroon-2015148945815121.html
Cross River gorillas and eastern gorillas lost more than half their habitat since the early 1990s due to deforestation, logging, and other human activities, finds a comprehensive new assessment across great apes' range in West and Central Africa..http://news.mongabay.com/2012/1001-great-apes-habitat.html
Mongabay, July 09, 2014 -▶ SOLD INTO EXTINCTION: GREAT APES BETRAYED BY PROTECTORS.Corruption in high places, CITES, the international body charged with protecting endangered species has turned a blind eye to massive illegal trade of endangered Great Apeshttp://news.mongabay.com/2014/0709-sri-stiles-cites-commentary.html
Mongabay, October 14, 2014 ▶ INDIA PLANS HUGE PALM OIL EXPANSION, PUTS FORESTS AT RISK Palm oil, a ubiquitous ingredient in supermarket products ranging from shampoos and cosmetics to processed foods, comes at a huge environmental cost. Between 1990 and 2010, palm oil monocultures replaced over 3.5 million hectares of forest in Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. This large scale deforestation has resulted in a massive loss of biodiversity and wildlife habitat, best illustrated perhaps by the annihilation of orangutan populations. Moreover, conversion of large peatlands to oil palm plantations releases millions of metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Mongabay, September 23, 2014 ▶ DISSOLVING PULP: THE THREAT TO INDONESIA'S FORESTS YOU'VE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF.Pull out some of your favorite items of clothing, check the label, and if you see Rayon, viscose, modal, or tencel among the fabrics it’s made of, you’re wearing a textile made from chemically dissolving pulp. And that could mean you’re wearing forest destruction. http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0923-gfrn-gaworecki-dissolving-pulp.html
Mongabay, August 11, 2014 ▶ INDONESIA'S CHILDREN SEE RAVAGED ENVIRONMENT IN THEIR FUTURE. A generation ago, Borneo was one of the wildest places on the planet, a stronghold for species like orangutan, pygmy elephants, Sumatran rhinos, and clouded leopards among tens-of-thousands of other. But decades of logging and oil palm plantations has changed the landscape of Borneo forever: in fact a recent study found that the island has lost 73 percent of its intact lowland forest and 30 percent of its total forest cover since 1973. In the face of this large-scale environmental destruction, a new study in PLOS ONE finds that Indonesian Borneo's children have a pessimistic view of their future, predicting rising temperatures, wildlife declines, and continued destruction of the island's great rainforests. http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0811-hance-kalimantan-children.html
▶ OIL PALM PLANTATIONS REPLACING FORESTS IN KALIMANTAN, INDONESIA. A paper published this week in Nature Climate Change confirms that the expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia has come largely at the expense of the country’s forests. Between 1990 and 2010, 90% of oil palm plantations in Kalimantan were established on forested land (47% intact, 22% logged, 21% agroforests)....http://www.redd-monitor.org/2012/10/10/oil-palm-plantations-replacing-forests-in-kalimantan/
Mongabay, August 11, 2014 ▶ INDONESIA: ACEH'S LARGEST PEAT SWAMP AT RISK FROM PALM OIL. Oil palm plantations and other developments are threatening Rawa Singkil Wildlife Preserve—Aceh's largest peat swamp, and home to the densest population of Sumatran orangutan in the Leuser Ecosystemhttp://news.mongabay.com/2014/0810-lbell-singkil-peat-swamp.html
-▶ PALM OIL COMPANIES IGNORING COMMUNITY RIGHTS, NEW STUDY SHOWS,Members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) are violating the rights of local communities in tropical forests and failing to live up to social and environmental commitmentshttp://news.mongabay.com/2013/1107-dparker-palm-oil-rights.html?n3ws1ttr
▶ SUMATRAN RAINFORESTS RAVAGED ALONG WITH ALL LIFE WITHIN IT - FOR INVASIVE PALM OILhttp://sco.lt/6Sdg13
▶ HOW PALM OIL IS DRIVING THE SUMATRAN TIGER TO BRINK OF EXTINCTION = It’s in your mascara, your laundry detergent and even your Oreo cookies — the world is addicted to palm oil. Indonesia is the largest exporter, but production there comes at a huge cost. Oil-palm plantations have savagely encroached on the nation’s diverse rainforests, and slash-and-burn clearance for new plantations recently engulfed much of Southeast Asia in acrid smog... http://world.time.com/2013/10/31/palm-oil-is-killing-the-sumatran-tiger/
SPECIAL REPORT
June 30, 2013 The Ecologist PALM OIL'S FORGOTTEN VICTIMS
▶ INDONESIA LOST 8.8M HA OF FOREST IN THE 2000s, GENERATING 7 BILLION TON OF CO2. Indonesia's greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation could have been reduced by hundreds of millions of tons had a moratorium on new concessions in high carbon forest areas and peatlands been implemented earlier, reported a researcher presenting... http://news.mongabay.com/2012/1202-indonesia-ghg-emissions.html#0hG6kD3B6XQl5wRf.02
West Papua Daily, May 02, 2014 ▶ PAPUA NEW GUINEA: 226 THOUSAND HECTARES OF VIRGIN FOREST IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA WILL BE “CLEARED” FOR CORPORATE PALM OILhttp://sco.lt/4nrVYn
"It is better to die from bullets than from hunger"
September 15, 2013 The Real News - ▶ PHILLIPINES: CORPORATE AND MILITARY FORCES DESTROYING LAND, FORESTS AND LIVELIHOODS IN LAND GRABS - Corporate agri-businesses like U.S.-based Dole, Del Monte, Monsanto, along with international and Philippine mines, are polluting waterways and destroying the surrounding farms. Chinese, European, Canadian, and Filipino mines are stripping away the mountains to get at what some estimate to be the largest iron deposit in the world. There also some of the most significant gold, nickel, and copper reserves in Asia. http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10725
▶ SHOULD COMPANIES COMPENSATE SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENT DESTRUCTION FROM WHICH THEY PROFIT?http://sco.lt/5I5UeX
UNPRECEDENTED STUDY:
LANGUAGE AND CULTUE DISAPPEAR WITH ECOSYSTEM AND BIODIVERSITY LOSShttp://sco.lt/8PcKsD
The Guardian, December 13, 2013 ▶ INTERACTIVE: THE WORLD'S REMAINING GREAT FORESTS - The Earth was once covered in ancient forests, 80% of which have been either destroyed or degraded, according to conservationists. Half of that has been in the last 30 years http://www.theguardian.com/environment/interactive/2007/dec/13/forests
▶ ERADICATING ECOCIDE AND GENOCIDE: WHY BUSINESS LEADERS MUST STEP UP TO THE CHALLENGEhttp://sco.lt/56vkOH
▶ ECOCIDE: A PLAGUE OF DEFORESTATION SWEEPS ACROSS SOUTHEAST ASIA WITH TERRIBLE LOSS OF WILDLIFE AND BIODIVERSITYhttp://sco.lt/4lJ5ZR
VIDEO:
-▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEM, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHT, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/4l725B
June 17, 2013 Guardian Global Development - John Vidal ▶ LA VIA CAMPESINA, WORLD'S LARGEST POLITICAL MOVEMENT, TO CHALLENGE MULTI-NATIONALS ON POVERTY AND INEQUALITY, LAND GRABS AND DEFORESTATION
A possible hacking incident in India has some concerned that wildlife poachers could use the Internet as another resource for criminal activity... Hackers have broken into the websites of banks, news outlets, social media, and the government, but could key information on the whereabouts of endangered species be targeted as well?
▶APPROXIMATELY 229,729 ELEPHANTS KILLED AND TRAFFICKED IN FEWER THAN SIX YEARS - INVESTIGATION REVEALS A HIGHLY ORGANISED IVORY TRADE ACROSS ASIA AND AFRICA -
▶WEB OF LIFE UNRAVELING. Canadian Wildlife biologist Neil Dawe says he wouldn't be surprised if the generation after him witnesses the extinction of humanity. All around him, even in a place as beautiful as the Little Qualicum River estuary...http://www.oceansidest
WATCH BBC documentary (58:55) THE MAGICAL FOREST Secrets of Our Living Planet showcases the incredible ecosystems that make life on Earth possible. Using beautifully shot scenes in the wild, Chris Packham reveals the hidden wonder of the creatures that we share the planet with, and the intricate, clever and bizarre connections between the species, without which life just could not survive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7ssc8JLPfE
Ensia, August 12, 2014 -▶ ECOSYSTEMS ARE NOT MACHINES. If we want to save the world, we need to treat nature more as an organism and less as disposable and replaceable technology.http://ensia.com/voices/ecosystems-are-not-machines/
▶ TREE HEALTH LINKED WITH HUMAN HEALTH - OUR INTERCONNECTED LIVEShttp://sco.lt/85WZ2v
▶ HOW BIODIVERSITY COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE : HEALTHY ECOSYSTEMS: http://sco.lt/7rCeWH
▶ WETLANDS VITAL IN SUPPORTING HUMAN LIFE AND OUR SURVIVAL ECOSYSTEMShttp://sco.lt/6Nfjcn
ECOLOGICAL ARMAGEDDON
EXTINCTION CRISIS
IN 40 YEARS WE HAVE DISAPPEARED HALF OF THE WORLD'S WILD ANIMALS: DEFORESTATION, OCEANS, AGRICULTURE http://sco.lt/8fK5eT
BBC News, June 13, 2014 -▶ STUDY: DEFORESTATION LEAVING FISH UNDERSIZED AND UNDERFED.Deforestation is reducing the amount of leaf litter falling into rivers and lakes, resulting in less food being available to fish, a study suggests. "While plankton raised on algal carbon is more nutritious, organic carbon from trees washed into lakes is a hugely important food source for freshwater fish, bolstering their diet to ensure good size and strength," he added. "Where you have more dissolved forest matter you have more bacteria, more bacteria equals more zooplankton.http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27834440
National Geographic May 08, 2014 -▶ AFRICA'S SILENT SPRING IS UPON US. POISONING OUR WILDLIFE WITH PESTICIDES - AN EPIDEMICThe use of highly toxic pesticides to poison wildlife can be best described as silent, cheap, easy, and effective. It is so effective that a number of species of African wildlife are in decline due to poisoning. These include lions, hyenas, eagles, and especially vultures.http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2014/05/08/africas-silent-spring-is-upon-us/
Azcentral.com, January 22, 2014 -▶ WHO NEEDS A REFUGE? LITTLE OWLS. Around Phoenix and other flat Western expanses where the 10-inch-tall creatures were once ubiquitous, bulldozers churn and pavement covers their native turf. Newly planted trees, cactuses and fences hide potential predators such as coyotes or hawks.http://www.azcentral.com/travel/articles/20140119phoenix-owls-refuge-growth.html?nclick_check=1
Syracuse.com, May 18, 2014 ▶ IN DEPTH STUDY: HIGH LEVELS OF TOXIC MERCURY FOUND IN ONONDAGA LAKE BIRDS, BATS; STUDIES SHOW CONTAMINATION MOVING UP WEB OF LIFE CHAIN (TO HUMANS)The studies are the first to reveal what researchers and activists have long suspected: That more than a century of industrial waste has left a toxic legacy that goes beyond the devastation of fish life. And it shows that such widespread damage can't be contained in an interconnected web of nature -- researchers suggest that the mercury might be moving higher up the food chain into eagles, snakes and other animals that eat the contaminated birds... http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/05/high_levels_of_toxic_mercury_found_in_onondaga_lake_birds_bats_new_studies_revea.html
-▶ GREENLAND'S MELTING: CREATING A DIFFERENT CLIMATE THAN EARTH HAS EVER SEENhttp://sco.lt/8bjv73
Guardian Environment, January 23, 2013 ▶ EUROPE 'HAS FAILED TO LEARN FROM ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS'Europe has failed to learn the lessons from many environmental and health disasters like Chernobyl, leaded petrol and DDT insecticides, and is now ignoring warnings about bee deaths, GM food and nanotechnology, according to an 800-page report by the European Environment Agency. Thousands of lives could have been saved and extensive damage to ecosystems avoided if the "precautionary principle" had been applied. They accuse industry of working to corrupt or undermine regulation by spinning and manipulating research and applying pressure on governments for financial benefit. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jan/23/europe-failed-learn-environmental-lessons
▶ DAMS, ECOCIDE AND WATER RIGHTS: INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES, ECOSYSTEM, FORESTS DEVASTATED - BIG MONEY DRIVES EXTINCTIONhttp://sco.lt/79BRmT
An Award Winning Documentary by Patrick Rouxel on the Indonesian rainforest, deforestation and orangutan extinction.
This important documentary was filmed in the fast disappearing Indonesian rainforest and is not narrated, however, its message is clear and frightening. The home of the Orangutan and many other wildlife species in Indonesia is being decimated at an alarming rate by the widespread practice of 'slash and burn' to clear the lush rainforest to make way for extensive palm oil plantations...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRPmqNPHALs&feature=related
GREEN has now won top awards from the two most prestigious wildlife film festivals in the world...and more than 30 others...
Make sure everyone you know watches this documentary. We owe it to our friends, the gentle Orangutan, we owe it to our planet, and we owe it to ourselves so that we can learn from it.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRPmqNPHALs&feature=related
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE THE SECOND IN THE TRIOLOGY BY PATRICK ROUXEL
"ALMA"
A journey into the soul of humanity
A powerful statement about the global industrial economy
"ALMA" explores the devastating impacts of the cattle industry on the Amazon and a powerful statement about the global industrial economy.
Beautifully shot, alternately joyful and horrifying, Alma captures the ecological, and even spiritual, cost of meat, dairy, and leather production in the Amazon. http://sco.lt/5miKgL
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE THE SECOND IN THE TRIOLOGY BY PATRICK ROUXEL
"ALMA" is a journey into the soul of humanity - A powerful statement about the global industrial economy
"ALMA" explores the devastating impacts of the cattle industry on the Amazon and a powerful statement about the global industrial economy.
Beautifully shot, alternately joyful and horrifying, Alma captures the ecological, and even spiritual, cost of meat, dairy, and leather production in the Amazon. http://sco.lt/5miKgL
▶ HUMANITY HAS EXCEEDED 4 OF 9 'PLANETARY BOUNDARIES' THAT KEEP HUMANITY IN A 'SAFE OPERATING SPACEhttp://sco.lt/7Ji72v
THE ANTHROPOCENE: OUR PLANET'S THRESHOLDS AND BOUNDARIES. As scientists learn more about how our planet works, both now and in the past, they are increasingly aware of the existence of environmental ‘tipping points’ – points of no return. These are thresholds beyond which environmental change becomes hard to stop....http://www.anthropocene.info/en/thresholds-boundaries
THE ANTROPOCENE: THE EARTH SYSTEM
We aren’t an outside force disturbing the natural order of things – we’re an integral part of the Earth system ourselves. But as our societies have grown, the impact of our actions has increased too; we’re now among the main causes of environmental change....http://www.anthropocene.info/en/earth-system
Patterns In Nature Blog, October 26, 2014 -▶THE ANTHROPOCENE - NATURE'S BROKEN LINKS. The impact of humanity is so huge that much of our planet is undergoing large changes in many ways. The momentum of unstoppable exponential human population growth, coupled with a political and social will that ignores Nature, has produced an uninformed and irresponsible worldview about Nature. With time and despite our technology, this worldview could result in the destruction of our race.
-▶LIVING IN THE ANTHROPOCENE: TOWARD A NEW GLOBAL ETHOS
A decade ago, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Paul Crutzen first suggested we were living in the “Anthropocene,” a new geological epoch in which humans had altered the planet. Now, in an article for Yale Environment 360, Crutzen and a coauthor explain why adopting this term could help transform the perception of our role as stewards of the Earth....http://e360.yale.edu/feature/living_in_the_anthropocene_toward_a_new_global_ethos/2363/
August 5, 2013 - Seed Magazine -▶ EMBRACING THE ANTHROPOCENE - The Earth has entered a new geological period in which human influence dominates the state of the planet, compounding uncertainty about the future....http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/embracing_the_anthropocene/
IN 40 YEARS WE HAVE DISAPPEARED HALF OF THE WORLD'S WILD ANIMALS http://sco.lt/8fK5eT
New York Times, September 05, 2014 -▶ 'THE HUMAN AGE' - FUTURE FOOTPRINTS. Since the late-18th-century industrialization that marks the Anthropocene’s beginnings, humans have shaken Earth’s life systems with a profundity that the paleontologist Anthony Barnosky has likened to an asteroid strike.http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/books/review/the-human-age-by-diane-ackerman.html?_r=0
Truthout, December 01, 2014 -▶ ARE HUMANS GOING EXTINCT?. We've never been here as a species, and the implications are truly dire and profound for our species and the rest of the living planet... there is nothing to indicate, in the political or corporate world, that there will be anything like a major shift in policy aimed at dramatically mitigating runaway anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD).http://truth-out.org/news/item/27714-are-humans-going-extinct
NPR FreshAir, February 12, 2014 Interview With Elizabeth Kolbert, Author
▶ IN THE WORLD'S "SIXTH EXTINCTION": ARE HUMANS THE ASTEROID?Elizabeth Kolbert is the author of the new book The Sixth Extinction. It begins with a history of the "big five" extinctions of the past, and goes on to explain how human behavior is creating this sixth one — including our use of fossil fuels and the effects of climate change.
"We are effectively undoing the beauty and the variety and the richness of the world which has taken tens of millions of years to reach," Kolbert tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "... We're sort of unraveling that. ... We're doing, it's often said, a massive experiment on the planet and we really don't know what the end point is going to be."http://www.npr.org/2014/02/12/275885377/in-the-worlds-sixth-extinction-are-humans-the-asteroid
UNPRECEDENTED STUDY
LANGUAGE AND CULTURE DISAPPEAR WITH WESTERN DEVELOPMENT AND GLOBALIZATIONhttp://sco.lt/9EV0jZ
Bolivia pilots new social and economic model based on protection of and respect for nature.
BOLIVIA GIVES LEGAL RIGHTS TO THE EARTH
Earth, October 13, 2014
Bolivia is to become the first country in the world to give nature comprehensive legal rights in an effort to halt climate change and the exploitation of the natural world, and to improve quality of life for the Bolivian people. Developed by grassroots social groups and agreed by politicians, the Law of Mother Earth recognises the rights of all living things, giving the natural world equal status to human beings. Once fully approved, the legislation will provide the Earth with rights to: life and regeneration; biodiversity and freedom from genetic modification; pure water; clean air; naturally balanced systems; restoration from the effects of human activity; and freedom from contamination.
Bolivia’s government will be legally bound to prioritise the wellbeing of its citizens and the natural world by developing policies that promote sustainability and control industry. The economy must operate within the limits of nature and the country is to work towards energy and food sovereignty while adopting renewable energy technologies and increasing energy efficiency.Preventing climate change is a key objective of the law, which includes protecting the lives of future generations. The government is requesting that rich countries help Bolivia adapt to the effects of climate change in recognition of the environmental debt they owe for their high carbon emissions.
The legislation is based on broader principles of living in harmony with the Earth and prioritising the “collective good.” At its heart is an understanding that the Earth is sacred, which arises from the indigenous Andean worldview of ‘Pachamama’ (meaning Mother Earth) as a living being. An initial act outlining the rights – which was passed by Bolivia’s national congress in December 2010 and paves the way for the full legislation – defines Mother Earth as a dynamic and “indivisible community of all living systems and living organisms, interrelated, interdependent and complementary, which share a common destiny.”...More
(Skip Ad) -▶ BOLIVIA'S MORALES WINS THIRD TERM AS PRESIDENT IN LANDSLIDE VICTORY.Bolivian President Evo Morales declared a landslide re-election victory on Sunday, hailing it as a triumph for socialist reforms that have cut poverty and vastly expanded the state’s role in the booming economy.http://www.france24.com/en/20141013-bolivia-morales-wins-third-term-president-landslide-victory/
GreenLeft, October 20, 2014 -▶ BOLIVIA LEADS CLIMATE CHANGE FIGHT.On a global scale, Bolivia is punching way above its size in drawing attention to the climate crisis and formulating answers to it ― within the limits of its situation as a small landlocked country in South America. https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/57571
New York Times, February 16, 2014 -▶ TURNABOUT IN BOLIVIA AS ECONOMY RISES FROM INSTABILITY. Morales’s enduring popularity is a result of his extraordinary socio-economic reforms, which have transformed Bolivia from an “economic basket case” into a country that receives praise from such unlikely contenders as the World Bank and the IMF – an irony considering the country’s success is the result of the socialist administration casting off the recommendations of the IMF in the first place.http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/17/world/americas/turnabout-in-bolivia-as-economy-rises-from-instability.html?_r=0
▶ PROTECTING BOLIVIA'S DELICATE ECOSYSTEMS.In Bolivia's remote Chaco region, poor natural resource management coupled with changes in the climate are making family farming a very risky business... http://www.new-ag.info/en/focus/focusItem.php?a=2362
DW.DE November 19, 2014 ▶ REPORT ON BOLIVIA'S CHILD WORKERS. In Bolivia, one of South America's poorest countries, some 850,000 children are working instead of attending school. The Bolivian parliament has recently passed a law which permits even 10 year olds to work under certain conditions. Child workers themselves campaigned for the law because they hope that it will help improve conditions for child workers http://www.dw.de/top-stories/world/s-1429
Once fully approved, the legislation will provide the Earth with rights to: life and regeneration; biodiversity and freedom from genetic modification; pure water; clean air; naturally balanced systems; restoration from the effects of human activity; and freedom from contamination. The legislation is based on broader principles of living in harmony with the Earth and prioritising the “collective good.”
Set in Indonesia. Meet "Green" an orangutan and victim of human impact. Follow the devastating journey as her home is destroyed by logging, clearing for palm oil plantations, and the choking haze of rainforest fires. Hauntingly poetic and without narration, the film creatively depicts the effects of consumerism on tropical rainforests as we are faced with our personal accountability in the loss of the world's treasures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WNgoqBGw4Y
Why is palm oil still a leading driver of deforestation?
Eight Years Later Palm Oil is Still a Haunting Reality…As palm oil continues to be a key ingredient in chocolate and candy, this Halloween has us thinking back on our Kit Kat campaign from 2010.
In 2010, Greenpeace launched a video that had us all thinking twice before taking a bite out of Halloween candy. With gory detail, the Kit Kat campaign drove home the death and destruction of rainforests for the expanded production of palm oil. Watch the horror:https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/eight-years-later-palm-oil-is-still-a-haunting-reality/
INTERACTIVE Guardian Sustainable Business, November 10, 2014 ▶ FROM RAINFOREST TO YOUR CUPBOARD:
Palm oil can be used in everything from cosmetics to fuel, and is cheap and efficient to produce. But this versatile crop has a dark side — its incredible popularity has caused widespread environmental destruction.https://p.dw.com/p/32jIg
DW environment, July 25, 2018
▶ PALM OIL PLANTATIONS THREATEN THE RAINFORESTS
Indonesia is the scene of massive deforestation - Most of it illegal slash and burn
An Exquisite Dedication To the Stewards of Our Planet
Solutions For A Sustainable Planet
We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate. The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.
Mongabay, October 21, 2014 ▶ INDONESIAN LAW NOW BARS PALM OIL COMPANIES FROM PROTECTING FORESTS. A law passed by the Indonesian government last month makes it even more difficult for palm oil companies to conserve tracts of wildlife-rich and carbon-dense forests within their concessions, potentially undermining these producers' commitments to phase deforestation out of their supply chains, warns a new report. This new law requires them to clear all their concession within 6 years. http://news.mongabay.com/2014/1020-palm-oil-conservation.html
THE BAIT AND SWITCH
Palm Corporations Knew This Law Was Coming Up, Making It Easy to say "No" To Deforestation. They Can Now Blame Deforestation on the Law A Billion Dollar Ecocide Business, they will do everything they can to find a way around any moratorium. (pdjmoo)
▶ PALM OIL GIANTS ANNOUNCE DEFORESTATION MORATORIUM - - REALLY?!Five of the world's largest palm oil producers have announced an immediate moratorium on palm oil sourced via clearance of potential high carbon stock forests. On Friday, Asian Agri, IOI Corporation Berhad, Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK) Berhad, Musim Mas Group and Sime Darby Plantation said they will suspend forest clearing until they have completed a year-along study that aims to establish a threshold for defining what constitutes high carbon stock (HCS) forest.http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0920-palm-oil-deforestation-moratorium.html
Green Global Travel, January 25, 2015 ▶ PALM OIL THREATENS PALAWAN PHILLIPPINESFor anyone worried about what GMOs are doing to our agricultural system and how Monsanto is patenting plants across the planet, there’s another dangerous devil on the horizon. Plantation palm oil has been around for years, but its evils largely go unnoticed by the average consumer. If you’ve not gotten the dirty details on palm oil yet, then buckle up for a bumpy ride we all need to take. Because the palm oil industry is not only endangering Palawan Philippines (named the Best Island in the World in 2014 by Conde Nast Traveler readers), but the health of our entire planet.
Mongabay, October 14, 2014 ▶ INDIA PLANS HUGE PALM OIL EXPANSION, PUTS FORESTS AT RISKPalm oil, a ubiquitous ingredient in supermarket products ranging from shampoos and cosmetics to processed foods, comes at a huge environmental cost. Between 1990 and 2010, palm oil monocultures replaced over 3.5 million hectares of forest in Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. This large scale deforestation has resulted in a massive loss of biodiversity and wildlife habitat, best illustrated perhaps by the annihilation of orangutan populations. Moreover, conversion of large peatlands to oil palm plantations releases millions of metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Mongabay, December 16, 2014 ▶ NEW REPORT: PALM OIL FACILITATES LARGE-SCALE LOGGING IN INDONESIA. Oil palm plantations provide a major loophole for evading the country's new protocol — the Timber Legality Verification System (Sistem Verifikasi Legalitas Kayu, or SVLK) — aimed at improving forest management and rooting out illegal logging. The report, titled Permitting Crime: How palm oil expansion drives illegal logging in Indonesia, shows links between illegal practices and local officials, illustrating continued problems with corruption and resource capture by well-connected businessmen. Forests and local communities lose out. http://news.mongabay.com/2014/1216-palm-oil-logging-indonesia.html
Mongabay, November 03, 2014 ▶ INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT'S PALM OIL CONCESSION POLICY PRIORITIZES COMPANIES OVER FOREST COMMUNITIES. A report by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) analyzes 100 of these conflicts around the world in the mining, oil and gas, logging and agricultural sectors and examines how and why they come about. The report focuses on several emerging economies, including Brazil, Colombia, Liberia, Peru, and Indonesia. In Indonesia, the report says, 30 percent of the country has been handed over by the government to some type of extractive industry. Often permits are granted without the knowledge or approval of local communities, raising “grave” human rights concerns. “It’s crazy that local communities are not often seen as equal partners in the decisions regarding their land,” says Bryson Ogden, Private Sector Analyst at RRI. http://news.mongabay.com/2014/1103-sri-eshelman-indonesia-industrial-concessions.html
▶ INDONESIA IS ENCOURAGING A NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM: PALM OIL DEFORESTATION - ECOCIDE FOR PROFIThttp://sco.lt/88hVFx
▶ MAJOR PALM OIL CORPORATIONS ACCUSED OF ECOCIDE, BREAKING ETHICAL PROMISES IN AFRICA AND ASIA http://sco.lt/8TkGjh
▶ PAPUA : 226 THOUSAND HECTARES OF VIRGIN FOREST WILL BE CLEARED FOR CORPORATE PALM OIL DESTROYING ALL LIFE WITH IN THEM AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIEShttp://sco.lt/8mSxaD
▶ MASSIVE PALM OIL PLANTATION IN CAMEROON WILL "CUT THE HEART OUT" OF RAINFORESTS - THREATENING GREAT APES http://sco.lt/7pufxp
Inter Press Service, October 03, 2014 ▶ NEW GLOBAL DECLARATION "INSUFFICIENT" TO TACKLE DEFORESTATION. “The 2030 timeline would allow deforestation to continue for a decade and a half. By then the declaration could be self-fulfilling, as there might not be much forest left to save.” -- Susanne Breitkopf of Greenpeace http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/10/new-global-declaration-insufficient-to-tackle-deforestation/
WWF, February 05, 2015 ▶ MORE TO CONSERVATION THAN APP's FOREST CLEARING PLEDGE - Not much has changed on the ground - forests continue to disappear, peat soils continue to be drained and social conflicts remain unresolved. The company has even failed to protect forests they are legally required to conserve.” not much has changed on the ground - forests continue to disappear, peat soils continue to be drained and social conflicts remain unresolved. The company has even failed to protect forests they are legally required to conserve.”http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?uNewsID=238430&
▶ WORLD BANK AND UN CARBON OFFSET SCHEME 'COMPLICIT' IN GENOCIDAL LAND GRABShttp://sco.lt/5IxW2j
LAND GRABS
HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBE
▶ MEGA MINING, FOREIGN LAND GRABS DESTROYING LOCAL COMMUNITIES, ENVIRONMENT AND ECOSYSTEMShttp://sco.lt/8nJQf3
▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALE http://sco.lt/9KW9wn
▶ DEFORESTATION IS DESERTIFICATION - A DEADLY GAME FOR ALL LIFE - GLOBAL ECOCIDEhttp://sco.lt/7xeu1Z
-▶ TREE HEALTH, FOREST HEALTH LINKED WITH HUMAN HEALTH - OUR INTERCONNECTED LIVEShttp://sco.lt/85WZ2v
-▶ WALL STREET TAKES AIM AT FARMLAND: THREATENING FUTURE OF U.S. AND WORLD AGRICULTURE http://sco.lt/9HBsPZ
LAND GRABS
HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBEhttp://sco.lt/5YJpKb
MintPress News, April 01, 2015 -▶ GEORGE SOROS LOOKS TO CO-OWN UKRAINE AND AFRICA.The Hungarian-born economic hitman may be more interested in helping his, and other investor’s, pockets, rather than the people of Ukraine. http://www.mintpressnews.com/george-soros-looks-to-co-own-ukraine/203866/
GRAIN, October 23, 2014 ▶ HARVEST OF HARDSHIP: YALA SWAMP LAND GRAB DESTROYS KENYAN FARMERS' LIVELIHOOD.Dominion Farms arrived in Kenya's Yala Swamp basin in 2004 with big promises. The company claimed it would turn a defunct state demonstration farm into a modern rice plantation, provide locals with good jobs, and build hospitals and schools. The American owner of the company, Calvin Burgess, presented himself as a 'man of God', on a mission to bring US-style progress to Africa. The locals, sold on this grand vision, decided – with some hesitation and dissent – to allow Dominion to farm on 3,700 ha of their lands...http://www.grain.org/article/entries/5061-harvest-of-hardship-yala-swamp-land-grab-destroys-kenyan-farmers-livelihoods
▶ CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE IS CORPORATE GREEN-WASHING - AGRAhttp://sco.lt/8Ry4Wn
WATCH "BIG MEN" (1:23:00) Big Men provides an unprecedented inside look at the global deal making and dark underside of energy development in Ghana, Nigeria, Africa — a contest for money and power that is reshaping the world. http://www.pbs.org/pov/bigmen/full.php
HuffPost Politics, November 28, 2014 ▶ OBAMA'S PLAN TO 'POWER AFRICA' GETS OFF TO A DIM START.As with many African aid projects, rights groups have criticized Power Africa as mostly being a vehicle to subsidize U.S. companies.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/28/obama-africa-aid_n_6234774.html
World Development Movement
▶ THE NEW SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA. - INFOGRAPH
In the nineteenth century scramble for Africa, European colonial powers took control of the continent’s land, resources and people. Today’s multinational corporations, aided by governments, are taking control over Africa’s food system.http://www.wdm.org.uk/new-scramble-africa-food-monsanto-syngenta-yara/
THE 21st CENTURY CORPORATE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA World Development Movement -▶ STOP THE CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF AFRICA'S FOOD. Under the guise of tackling hunger, initiatives like the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, will help corporations take control over Africa’s land, seeds and markets - at the expense of small farmers. Join our campaign to oppose this twenty-first century corporate scramble for Africa. - See more at: http://www.wdm.org.uk/food#sthash.dgDwkdF0.dpufhttp://www.wdm.org.uk/food
WATCH
"LAND RUSH - WHY POVERTY?:
THE UGLY RISE OF MONOCULTURE FARMING AND GLOBALIZED FOOD
-▶ FROM GROWING PROFIT TO GROWING FOOD: CHALLENGING CORPORATE RULEhttp://sco.lt/7Dg37p
Inter Press Service, August 04, 2014 ▶ THE 'GLOBAL' LAND RUSH.The first years of the twenty-first century will be remembered for a global land rush of nearly unprecedented scale.Today, enthusiasm for agriculture borders on speculative mania. When the price of food spiked in 2008, pushing the number of hungry people in the world to over one billion, it spiked the interest of investors as well, and within a year foreign land deals in the developing world rose by a staggering 200 percent.http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/08/the-global-land-rush/
Pambazuka, July 24. 2014 -▶ GMOs AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: WHICH WAY AFRICA? African governments are under intense pressure from within but also from big agribusiness and Western governments to embrace GMOs. Governments must resist all forms of arm-twisting and food colonialism and make their biotechnology choices based on the factshttp://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/92594
▶ GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS NOT THE SOLUTION FOR "FEEDING THE WORLD"http://sco.lt/9Gdbxh
Pambazuka -Voices for Freedom and Justice in Africa
▶ HOW COMPANIES FRAME ISSUES OF FOOD AND GLOBAL HUNGER FOR THEIR OWN SELF-INTEREST AND BOTTOMLINE PROFITS
There is a new, but deceptive, foreign drive to end hunger in Africa through large-scale agribusiness. Yet helping poor households in rural Africa feed themselves in an affordable manner means introducing low-cost, sustainable enhancements to farming.
History is riddled with examples of the poor dying of hunger when food was plentiful. Classic amongst these is the famine which wracked the West African Sahel during the early 1970s. While people were dying of hunger in Senegal, Mali and Niger, peanuts — a key sauce ingredient and source of protein across the region — were being exported to Europe....
...The rise of philanthrocapitalism in the US, where former and current business leaders, through the strength of their foundations, have increasingly come to influence the shape and direction of US international development programmes. Central to the philanthrocapitalist worldview is a belief that private enterprise is the fundamental agent of progressive change and that business acumen trumps other forms of expertise...http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/85291
-▶ THE CORPORATE 'PHILANTHROCAPITALISTS' TAKEOVER OF AFRICAN AND GLOBAL FOOD SECURITYhttp://sco.lt/6CHP3R
Mongabay, August 20, 2014 LOOMING MINING 'TSUNAMI' SET TO TAKE AFRICA BY STORM. A new report published by a team of scientists from James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, documents a surging tide of foreign interest in mining in Africa and cautions that the sector’s unchecked development and expansion could devastate the environment.http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0820-gfrn-john-cannon-africa-mining-tsunami.html?n3ws1ttr
AFRICA - SOLD
OBAMA PUTS G8, BIG 6 BIOTECH CHEMICAL GMO GIANTS IN CHARGE OF "ENDING HUNGER" IN AFRICA
farmlandgrab.org, August 04, 2014 ▶ CORPORATE INFLUENCE THROUGH THE G8NA AND OBAMA'S NEW ALLIANCE FOR FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION IN AFRICA. In recent times, new partnerships models between governments, business and civil society are increasingly gaining attention. One prominent example is the "New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition" (G8NA), inaugurated at the G8 summit 2012 in the United States.
This working paper concludes that the approach and objectives of the G8NA are highly problematic. The initiative serves as an enforcing mechanism for corporate driven blueprints for agriculture and sidelines national plans and international standards. It is dominated and tailored towards the interests of big corporate actors and is based on a reductionist approach of agricultural “development”. And lastly, the G8NA is poorly institutionalized and disregards fundamental principles of transparency participation and accountability. http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/23793
INDEPTH REPORT
GRAIN, September 16, 2014 AFRICA'S AG GIANTS "GREEN" REVOLUTION THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF AFRICA' BURGEONING CHEMICAL FERTILISER RUSH
Action Aid Report, May 23, 2014 ▶ GLOBAL POLICIES ENCOURAGE LAND GRABBING AND WORSEN HUNGER AND POVERTY.“Allowing land to become vehicles for wealthy corporations and individuals to become richer while pushing vulnerable rural people into poverty and hunger is unjust, unwise and unethical,” it said in the report.http://www.trust.org/item/20140523061928-bn12w/
▶ A PRIVATE AFFAIR: REPORT SHOWS HOW DEVELOPMENT FINANCE INSTITUTIONS BENEFIT THE RICH IN WESTERN COUNTRIESThe European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) launched today the study A Private Affair in which it shows how the world’s biggest multilateral lenders are using billions of euros of loans in developing countries to finance Western-based companies while excluding governments and citizens of countries they are meant to assist from decision-making.
▶ 226 THOUSAND HECTARES (558,458 ACRES) OF FOREST IN PAPUA WILL BE CLEARED FOR PALM OIL PLANTATIONS BY CORPORATIONS.This condition is very worrying as it not only could it damage the forest ecosystems, flora and fauna but also threaten the existence of communities, http://tabloidjubi.com/en/?p=2254
All the Papuan peoples have suffered greatly under the Indonesian occupation which began in 1963. The Indonesian army has a long history of human rights violations and genocide against the Papuans, and the racist Indonesian soldiers generally view the Papuan people as little more than animals.
Mongabay, February 23, 2015 ▶ 24% OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA'S RAINFOREST DESTROYED OR DEGRADED BY LOGGING IN 30 YEARS
AL Jazeerah, October 13, 2011 WEST PAPUA: A HISTORY OF EXPLOITATION WEST PAPUA NEW GUINEA: A HISTORY OF OUTSIDE EXPLOITATION NATURAL RESOURCES AND DESTRUCTION OF INDIGENOUS SOCIETY. West Papua was illegally taken over by Indonesia in 1969, and a legacy of oppression and environmental devastation has followedhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201182814172453998.html
Survival International, January 15, 2015 ▶ PAPUANS FLEE BRUTAL MILITARY INDONESIAN CRACKDOWN
August 14, 2013 Mongabay ▶ PALM OIL LICENSES TO FOREIGN CORPORATIONS BEING USED TO PERPETUATE FRAUD, LAND GRABBING PROVIDE COVER FOR LOGGING IN NEW GUINEAForeign companies stripped Papua New Guinea of community-owned forests...Developers are seeking palm oil concessions as a means to circumvent restrictions on industrial logging in Papua New Guinea...foreign companies stripped Papua New Guinea of community-owned forests...Eleven percent of Papua New Guinea's land area has been handed over to foreign corporations, displacing indigenous owners, stripping them of their land rights http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0814-palm-oil-png-sabls.html
Survival International URGENT ACTION: STOP KILLING PAPUANS “Civilians have been shot and killed without reason. These actions show that security personnel have treated residents not as citizens but as enemies who must be eliminated,” Rev. Neles Tebay, Papuan leader http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444&id=38d15dc9e0&e=[UNIQID
Papua’s natural resources are being exploited at great profit for the Indonesian government and foreign businesses, but at the expense of the Papuan peoples and their homelands.
When international companies come to Papua, the Indonesian military accompanies them to ‘protect’ the ‘vital projects’. The military presence is almost always associated with human rights violations such as killings, arbitrary arrests, rape and torture.
Mongabay, November 19, 2014 ▶ PALM OIL INTEREST SURGES IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA DESTROYING MILLIONS OF ACRES OF PRISTINE FORESTS, INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES. As the lands of traditional palm oil powerhouses like Indonesia and Malaysia have become saturated with plantations, companies looking to profit have turned to vast areas of seemingly untouched tropical forest in other parts of the world – places like Papua New Guinea. But, in fact, say advocates of local communities, those forests often support the lives and livelihoods of millions of people who must have their rights taken into account.
Mongabay, August 14, 2014 ▶ PALM OIL LICENSES PROVIDE COVER FOR EXTREME LOGGING IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Eleven percent of Papua New Guinea's land area has been handed over to foreign corporations, displacing indigenous owners, stripping them of their land rights http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0814-palm-oil-png-sabls.html
100 Reporters, November 21, 2013 ▶ PAPUA NEW GUINEA LANDGRAB: RAINFOREST VANISHING IN SHADY DEALS, REPORT SAYS. Spurred by increasing food prices and demand for biofuels in Europe and North America, one of the world’s largest rainforests in Papua New Guinea is quickly disappearing under a voracious land rush that has handed 12 percent of the country’s entire land area to foreign companies over the last decade, according to a new report. http://100r.org/2013/11/global-land-grab-rainforest-vanishing-in-shady-deals-report-says/
Mongabay, August 22, 2014 -▶ INDONESIA TO HEAR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' GRIEVANCES ON LAND DISPUTES. "the government's refusal to acknowledge the rights of indigenous people continues to create conflicts throughout the country. He likens the situation to colonial era rule, and hopes this national inquiry will expose all prolonged conflicts that have arisen from the governments failure to protect indigenous peoples' claim to forest lands" http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0822-lbell-indonesia-land-disputes.html
▶ PAPUAN ACTIVISTS' WEBCAST SILENCED: WAS INDONESIA BEHIND IT?The Papuans are members of the Amungme tribe, whose land is home to Grasberg, the world’s biggest corporate copper and gold mine. They were highlighting the problems facing the tribe in the face of massive environmental damage and human rights violations.http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/10043
▶ WEST PAPUA - WORLD'S LARGEST MINING CORPORATIONS RAVAGE ENVIRONMENT. Some of the world's largest transnational mining corporations have been active in exploiting West Papua's oil and minerals, including Union Oil, Amoco, Agip, Conoco, Phillips, Esso, Texaco, Mobil, Shell, Petromer Trend Exploration, Atlantic Richfield, Sun Oil and Freeport (USA); Oppenheimer (South Africa); Total (France); Ingold (Canada); Marathon Oil, Kepala Burung (UK); Dominion Mining, Aneka Tambang, BHP, Cudgen RZ, and CRA (Australia).http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~cline/papua/mines.htm
The Global Mail, December 17, 2012 ▶ UP THE FLY WITHOUT A PADDLE. The Global Mail investigates rumours of a mysterious plague down-river from a giant gold mine in remote Papua New Guinea, and uncovers disturbing questions about the flow of benefits from the resources boom.http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/up-the-fly-without-a-paddle/523/
VIDEO:
Narrated by Robert Redford, Winner of the Goldman Prize THE INDIGENOUS MOLLO PEOPLE IN TIMOR STRUGGLE TO PROTECT THEIR SACRED NATURAL WORLD FROM FOREIGN MINING CORPORATIONShttp://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/aleta-baun
- ▶ PALM OIL COMPANIES IGNORING COMMUNITY RIGHTS, NEW STUDY SHOWS, Members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) are violating the rights of local communities in tropical forests and failing to live up to social and environmental commitmentshttp://news.mongabay.com/2013/1107-dparker-palm-oil-rights.html?n3ws1ttr
- ▶ MINING, FOREIGN LAND GRABS ENDANGERING ENVIRONMENT, ECOSYSTEM AND LOCAL COMMUNITIEShttp://sco.lt/5M5eLp
▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/9KW9wn
▶ LAND GRABS: HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBEhttp://sco.lt/96H2yv
▶ THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM. DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY LIFE, INDIGENOUS LAND AND LIVELIHOODS IN THE NAME OF "GROWTH" http://sco.lt/5nT3OT
ECOCIDE:
A PLAGUE OF DEFORESTATION SWEEPS ACROSS SOUTHEAST ASIA WITH TERRIBLE LOSS OF WILDLIFE AND BIODIVERSITYhttp://sco.lt/4lJ5ZR
"Guardianship is a word that rings out in my head. We are meant to be guardians and trustees of this planet. For me, and for many others, the collective goal of humanity is towards the stewardship of our people, the planet and our ecosystems. We have a duty to protect and enhance our communities and ecosystems for the betterment of future generations"...Nicole Tilde
Earth Justice, August 11, 2014 ▶ THE CLEANUP BUCK SHOULD STOP WITH POLLUTERS:Earthjustice is challenging the EPA’s 30-year-long failure to require that polluters pay for the cleanup of their own messes, rather than stick taxpayers with the often-hefty bill... https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2#inbox/147e3f44615e9d70
September 11, 2013 Common Dreams -▶ CORPORATE DESTRUCTION OF OUR ENVIRONMENT IS OUT OF CONTROLIt doesn’t take much to envisage what the world would look like if activists such as those in Romania who are systematically opposing this pillage of the earth are silenced: it would be barren, grey and empty, bereft of birds and butterflies, of the clear streams and biodiversity that once bejeweled the landscape...Indigenous people, first nations people, farm laborers and peasants who, all over the world, have to pick up the pieces after such corporate ransacking; who pay the price in terms of debilitating illness and unrelenting poverty as their crops fail and animals succumb to the poisoned land. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/11-7
▶ MORE THAN HALF OF U.S. RIVERS ARE TOO POLLUTED TO SUPPORT LIFE. REPORT REVEAL SCALE OF WATER CONTAMINATION http://sco.lt/5Gpafx
▶ PALM OIL BONANZA FOR CORPORATIONS WHILE DESTROYING FORESTS AND ALL LIFE WITHIN THEMhttp://sco.lt/5VN27l
▶ MEGA MINING, FOREIGN LAND GRABS DESTROYING LOCAL COMMUNITIES, ENVIRONMENT AND ECOSYSTEMShttp://sco.lt/8nJQf3
▶ WHO OWNS NATURE? CORPORATE POWER AND THE FINAL FRONTIER IN THE COMMODIFICATION OF LIFE?http://sco.lt/8Bx5er
VIDEO REPORT
"BEYOND GDP"
The Search For a New Economic System -- With Meaning
"WALLS AND THE TIGER" - Documentary Rampant consumerism divides the world. People in the West get cheap fashion and cutting-edge electronics at a fraction of the real cost. People in developing countries pay the hidden price. Farmers and fishermen in sustainable communities are relocated to slums. Fertile farmland is turned into industrial parks. Oceans are poisoned by chemical waste. All of this will be illustrated through stunning images in the film. By understanding the interdependency of our consumption and the rest of the world, we hope to inspire change in our audience.http://www.ejolt.org/2014/10/walls-and-the-tiger/
▶ MODERN SLAVERY WILL CONTINUE IF CORPORATIONS KEEP PASSING THE BUCK: THE SUPPLY CHAINhttp://sco.lt/87TMnJ
OnEarthMagazine, February04, 2015 ▶ CLOTHES HAVE AN ECOLOGICAL PRICE TAG, TOO: OUR TOXIC SUPPLY CHAIN. The companies that make and sell most of the world’s clothing insist they want to operate without endangering workers, polluting waterways, or using toxic chemicals. But clean practices can be a hard sell.http://www.onearth.org/magazine/trying-sustainability
Mongabay, August 11, 2014 ▶ INDONESIA'S CHILDREN SEE RAVAGED ENVIRONMENT IN THEIR FUTURE. A generation ago, Borneo was one of the wildest places on the planet, a stronghold for species like orangutan, pygmy elephants, Sumatran rhinos, and clouded leopards among tens-of-thousands of other. But decades of logging and oil palm plantations has changed the landscape of Borneo forever: in fact a recent study found that the island has lost 73 percent of its intact lowland forest and 30 percent of its total forest cover since 1973. In the face of this large-scale environmental destruction, a new study in PLOS ONE finds that Indonesian Borneo's children have a pessimistic view of their future, predicting rising temperatures, wildlife declines, and continued destruction of the island's great rainforests.http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0811-hance-kalimantan-children.html
WATCH "INSIDE THE GARBAGE OF THE WORLD" (80 min) We're living on a beautiful planet and as a human race we've been here for thousands of years. Our planet didn't need to be protected; life was flourishing on its own, with its own agenda. However for the past 100 years we've made a tremendous impact with our footprint due to the growth of world population and the industrialization of our everyday life. Economy, profit and capitalization became more important than respecting our planet and an ancient knowledge to advance a new way of life.http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inside-garbage-world/
▶ LARGE CORPORATE SUBSIDIZED FISHING FLEETS EMPTYING OUR OCEANS: THE $400 BILLION OCEAN FISHING INDUSTRY http://sco.lt/7ABxHV
▶ THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM. - DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY LIFE IN THE NAME OF "GROWTH"http://sco.lt/5nT3OT
▶ FUTURE GENERATIONS TO PAY FOR OUR MISTAKES: BIODIVERSITY LOSS IMPACT DOESN'T APPEAR FOR DECADEShttp://sco.lt/5kP4Of
-▶ BILLIONS OF POUNDS OF PLASTIC IN OUR OCEANS: IMPACT ON SEA LIFE, YOUR SEAFOOD AND YOUR HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/768Gsz
▶ THE ENVIRONMENT IS A PUBLIC GOOD We all share and depend on clean water, a stable atmosphere, and abundant biodiversity for survival, not to mention health and societal well-being. But under our current global economy, industries can often destroy and pollute the environment—degrading public health and communities... http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0429-hance-teeb-externalities.html
Mongabay, May 14, 2014 ▶ NEW REPORT REVEALS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES BY CORPORATIONS, GOVERNMENTS IN THE AMAZON.
The report took over six months to complete and gives an in-depth account of the conflicts activists and indigenous peoples (IPs) are having with corporations and governmental agencies. It relays a situation that does not look good. The report details everything from physical attacks to “systematic pressure” by corporations and governments. According to the report, conflicts over land and territories have reached a ten-year peak in Brazil. In Peru, social conflicts have tripled since 2008, with two-thirds of the reported cases defined as “socioenvironmental” conflicts.http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0514-dulaney-regnskogfondet.html
WATCH
DR. VANDANA SHIVA "RIGHTS OF NATURE"
2014 Tribunal President Statement - Environment, Biodiversity
▶ AS CORPORATE DAIRY FARMS GROW BIGGER, NEW CONCERN ABOUT POLLUTION. Dairy operations in the U.S. are consolidating, with ever-larger numbers of cows concentrated on single farms. In states like Wisconsin, opposition to some large operations is growing after manure spills and improper handling of waste have contaminated waterways and aquifers.http://e360.yale.edu/feature/as_dairy_farms_grow_bigger_new_concerns_about_pollution/2768/
WATCH:
"A RIVER OF WASTE"
The Massive Pollution and History of Factory Farms - CAFOs (Confined Animal Feed Lots)http://sco.lt/6PQUk5
▶ OUR INDUSTRIAL, WESTERN AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM IS DESTROYING THE EARTH AND OUR HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/7Ueckb
▶ BUSINESS SHOULD CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIAL HEALTH AND WELL BEING OF THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITIEShttp://sco.lt/8aEijR
UNPRECEDENTED STUDY
THREATENING OUR OWN EXTINCTION WITH LOSS OF BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL DIVERSITYhttp://sco.lt/64XtcP
▶ A CULTURE SEPARATED FROM NATURE CANNOT SURVIVE: BANKRUPTING NATUREhttp://sco.lt/7HFVYH
Earth, October 10, 2014 ▶ BOLIVIA GIVES LEGAL RIGHT TO THE EARTH.Law of Mother Earth sees Bolivia pilot new social and economic model based on protection of and respect for nature. Bolivia is to become the first country in the world to give nature comprehensive legal rights in an effort to halt climate change and the exploitation of the natural world, and to improve quality of life for the Bolivian people.http://earthweareone.com/bolivia-gives-legal-rights-to-the-earth/
▶ RESPECTING HUMAN RIGHTS: SHAREHOLDERS SHIFT FROM POLICY TO ACTIONhttp://sco.lt/7hwpBB
▶ THE STATE OF THE WORLD: IS IT TOO LATE FOR SUSTAINABILITY?http://sco.lt/4ueEQz
FOOD AID FOR THE 21st CENTURY
MEETING THE OBJECTIVE OR FEEDING CORPORATE COFFERS
▶ TERRACIDE: The Biggest Criminal Enterprise in History - Destroying the Planet for Record Profits http://sco.lt/8poZIf
-▶ STATE OF THE WORLD'S BIRDS REPORT INDICATES A PLANET IN PERILhttp://sco.lt/4yq6z3
▶ UN IPCC REPORT AND NASA-FUNDED STUDY: INDUSTRIAL CIVILIZATION HEADED FOR "IRREVERSIBLE COLLAPSE?http://sco.lt/8lOuIr
Common Dream, April 22, 2014 -▶ CORPORATE COLONIALISM: PROTESTERS SLAM TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP. .These secretive trade pacts are really about restoring global U.S. military power and economic dominancehttp://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/04/22-3
It is crazy to see the costs of the pollution and impacts of big companies that are having an impact on the environment around them put into a dollar value. It really gives a better view ti the picture. Hearing that in 2009 alone the damages exceeded the worth of $7 trillion. That is a giant amount of damage that is being done to the world we live in. The article states that a great deal of companies would not be able to continue making a profit if they stopped making the damages. This is very sad.
This article gives insight about what kind of trouble our generations have gotten us into throughout the years and some of the damage done is irreversible. It emphasizes the importance yet struggle to improve how we do things that impact around us. With the discussion we had in class regarding the increase in population and what will happen in 2050; this will have a huge influence in the future. Becoming more sustainable should be a top priority for the world to approach together.
▶ Eight Years On, Why is palm oil still a leading driver of deforestation?
Eight Years Later Palm Oil is Still a Haunting Reality…As palm oil continues to be a key ingredient in chocolate and candy, this Halloween has us thinking back on our Kit Kat campaign from 2010.
In 2010, Greenpeace launched a video that had us all thinking twice before taking a bite out of Halloween candy. With gory detail, the Kit Kat campaign drove home the death and destruction of rainforests for the expanded production of palm oil. Watch the horror:https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/eight-years-later-palm-oil-is-still-a-haunting-reality/
DO YOUR COOKIES AND SHAMPOO CONTAIN "DEFORESTATION"?
▶ CROP-BASED BIOFUELS IS UNSUSTAINABLE. GROWING PALM OIL COULD SPEED UP CLIMATE CHANGE , WHILE DEVASTATING BIODIVERSITY AND NATURAL ECOSYSTEMShttp://planetark.org/wen/67793
May 24, 2013 100 Reporters -▶ TWIN FACES IN PALM OIL LAND DEAL.An affiliate of a New York-based venture capital firm has been forced to halt a major palm oil project in Cameroon, amidst charges of misleading investors and violating government agreements in the multi-million dollar land deal...http://100r.org/2013/05/twin-faces-in-land-deal/
UNCOVERS TOP LEVEL CORRUPTION IN SARAWAK, MALAYSIA OVER INDIGENOUS FORESTS AND DAMShttp://sco.lt/6fd6C9
▶ THE CORPORATE PALM OIL HOLOCAUST: ORANGUTAN CLINGS TO LAST REMAINING TREE IN IT'S FORESThttp://sco.lt/6JcGOn
▶ MAJOR PALM OIL COMPANIES ACCUSED OF ECOCIDE, BREAKING ETHICAL PROMISES IN ASIA AND AFRICAhttp://sco.lt/7DsLLd
-▶ 226 THOUSAND HECTARES OF VIRGIN FOREST IN PAPUA WILL BE CLEARED FOR CORPORATE PALM OIL, DESTROYING ALL LIFE WITHIN THEM, DEVASTATING LOCAL COMMUNITIEShttp://sco.lt/8OGE2T
▶ PALM OIL BONANZA FOR CORPORATIONS WHILE DESTROYING FORESTS AND ALL LIFE WITHIN THEMhttp://sco.lt/5VN27l
-▶ MASSIVE PALM OIL PLANTATION WILL "CUT THE HEART OUT" OF CAMEROON'S RAINFOREST, DESTROY INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES AND WILDLIFE HABITAT http://sco.lt/8lmMBF
▶ ECOCIDE: A PLAGUE OF DEFORESTATION SWEEPS ACROSS SOUTHEAST ASIA WITH TERRIBLE LOSS OF WILDLIFE AND BIODIVERSITYhttp://sco.lt/8aPgp7
INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES, ECOSYSTEMS, FORESTS DEVASTATED: BIG MONEY DRIVES EXTINCTIONhttp://sco.lt/6zxQWX
-▶ ERADICATING ECOCIDE: WHY BUSINESS LEADERS MUST STEP UP TO THE CHALLENGEhttp://sco.lt/56vkOH
- ▶ NO TO BIODIVERSITY OFFSETTING: CONSERVING OUR BIODIVERSITY IS BECOMING DEPENDENT ON IT DESTRUCTIONhttp://sco.lt/6ZjXGr
-- WATCH--
Documentary -CALL OF LIFE: FACING THE MASS EXTINCTION (2010)
Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction is the first feature documentary to investigate the growing threat to Earth’s life support systems from this unprecedented loss of biodiversity. Through interviews with leading scientists, psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers, and indigenous and religious leaders, the film explores the causes, the scope, and the potential effects of the mass extinction, but also looks beyond the immediate causes of the crisis to consider how our cultural and economic systems, along with deep-seated psychological and behavioral patterns, have allowed this situation to develop, continue to reinforce it, and even determine our response to it. Call of Life tells the story of a crisis not only in nature, but also in human nature, a crisis more threatening than anything human beings have ever faced before. http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/call_of_life_facing_the_mass_extinction_2010/
VIDEO:
ETHOPIA - LOWER OMO LOCAL TRIBES UNDER THREAT FROM FOREIGN LAND GRABShttp://sco.lt/4ixwsT
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WATCH
AWARD WINNING DOCUMENTARY (47:46)
"REMEMBERING "GREEN" - AN ORANGUTAN'S JOURNEY
Winner of Best Short Documentary - Don't Miss This
allAfrica: African news and information for a global audience
AllAfrica, January 07, 2014
▶ OUR CONTEMPORARY, WESTERN AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM IS DESTROYING THE EARTH AND OUR HEALTH
Over the course of the past century our food supply has shifted from local to global. Most food our grandparents ate was grown regionally, often by neighbourhood farmers.
Today our food comes from across the world. More importantly, it is often produced in highly destructive ways, at the lowest possible cost.
Consequently our food production system is responsible for accelerating the rate of destruction of the very ecosystems we are reliant upon in order to maintain our delicate global environmental equilibrium.
We cut and clear the lungs of the world, our tropical rainforests, to feed livestock or grow dishonestly named "biofuels". We bulldoze natural filtration systems and the nurseries for life like wetlands and mangrove swamps to produce luxury foods for obese populations... http://allafrica.com/stories/201401071158.html?viewall=1
TakePart, July 10, 2014 -▶ FORGET AG-GAG LAWS. THIS SUMMER'S LEGAL FIGHT IS OVER CORPORATE INDUSTRIAL AG'S RIGHT TO FARM: State constitutional amendments and other legal measures would protect industrial agriculture. http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/07/10/right-farm-laws
Motley Fool, March 05, 2014 -▶ GMOs AND ECOCIDE: RENOWNED EXPERT SAYS GMOs POSE MORE RISK THAN WE THINK. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have the ability to cause "an irreversible termination of life at some scale, which could be the planet." says Nassim Taleb, distinguished professor of risk engineering at New York University http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/03/05/renowned-expert-gmos-pose-more-risk-than-we-think.aspx
EcoWatch, February 22, 2014 -▶ STOP FEEDING THE BEAST AND START FEEDING THE PEOPLE. We have a system of predatory agriculture in which corporations pursue private gain relentlessly regardless of the social consequences. Social consequences can be defined as anything from polluting our water, land and air to impacting the health of our families to making the business of farming economically unsustainable. http://ecowatch.com/2014/02/22/stop-feeding-beast-start-feeding-people/
BIG FOOD:
Michael Pollan thinks Wall Street has way too much influence over what we eat http://sco.lt/5kQ8Lh
▶ DESPITE CLIMATE CHANGE, AFRICAN CAN FEED AFRICA. There is a continuing argument as to whether the industrial agricultural revolution will solve some or all of Africa's climate change problems. However, experts maintain that industrial agriculture currently accounts for one third of all greenhouse gas emissions--the very element most responsible for climate change. Additionally, they believe that the resources and infrastructure required to operate an industrial agricultural system in Africa are impractical for smallholder farmers... http://allafrica.com/stories/201402191455.html
Guardian Environment, March 06, 2014 -▶ FOR AMERICANS TO TALK ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY IS A BIT OF A JOKE. Influence of local food effort is tiny but industrial agriculture is blasting ahead at a great rate, says author, farmer and activist. Wendell Berry argues against industrial agriculture and for small-scale, local-based farming http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/06/wendell-berry-americans-sustainability-joke
WATCH: Deutche Welles
LAND GRAB - SPECULATORS BUYING UP EASTERN GERMANY
Corporations and investors are buying into agriculture in Germany’s Eastern states on a big scale and pushing out long-established businesses. In some areas, investors now own almost a third of total arable land. Many farmers are worried they’ll be forced out of business entirely. http://www.dw.de/land-grab-are-speculators-buying-up-eastern-germany/av-17511574
▶ UNPRECEDENTED STUDY: THREATENING OUR OWN EXTINCTION WITH LOSS OF BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY http://sco.lt/64XtcP
Lowell Bergman investigates the hidden reality of rape on the job for immigrant women working in America’s fields, farms and factories
VIDEO INVESTIGATION Frontline, June 25, 2014 "RAPE IN THE FIELDS" For the women who pick and process the food we eat every day, getting sexually assaulted, and even raped, is sometimes part of the job. Frontline and Univision partner to tell the story of the hidden price many migrant women working in America's fields and packing plants pay to stay employed and provide for their families. This investigation is the result of a yearlong reporting effort by veteran correspondent Lowell Bergman, the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley and the Center for Investigative Reporting.... http://sco.lt/6RWQU5
▶ WALL STREET BANKS, CORPORATIONS BUYING UP AMERICAN/FOREIGN FARMLAND, THREATENING FUTURE OF U.S. AND WORLD AGRICULTURE http://sco.lt/4nG6Ur
▶ TOP TEN DISTURBING NEWS STORIES AND WHY CORPORATE FOOD IS THREATENING OUR FOOD SUPPLIES http://sco.lt/5QMaqv
-▶ THOUSANDS OF SRI LANKA FARMERS DYING: STUDY LINKS KIDNEY DISEASE TO AGROCHEMICALS, PESTICIDES http://sco.lt/7iOgin
RT News, February 24, 2014 ▶ FINALLY, SOME ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: GMO MONOCROPS MAY CAUSE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL (AND HUMAN HEALTH) RISKS, USDA ADMITS http://rt.com/usa/usda-gmo-risk-report-537/
▶ TOP TEN DISTURBING NEWS STORIES AND WHY CORPORATE FOOD IS THREATENING OUR FOOD SUPPLIES http://sco.lt/5QMaqv
- ▶ AFRICA G8 - FOOD SECURITY FOR WHOM? CORPORATE PROFITS v SMALL HOLDER FARMERS INTEREST http://sco.lt/8JKbIn
-▶ INDIGENOUS DIETS CAN FIGHT MODERN ILLNESSES, SAY HEALTH EXPERTS Unprecedented levels of chronic non-communicable diseases are prompting calls to revert to the diets of our ancestors to regain lost nutrients. It is believed that such a shift would help to improve society's relationship with the Earth and restore human and environmental health. "The rise of the industrial model of agriculture has contributed greatly to people being disconnected from the food on their plates," says Sarah Somian, a France-based nutritionist. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/feb/03/indigenous-diets-fight-modern-illnesses
One World News, December 9, 2013 -▶ INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE VITAL FOR BIODIVERSITY, SAY EXPERTS With species disappearing up to 1,000 times faster than the natural extinction rate, biodiversity experts say knowledge co-production with indigenous peoples has growing importance. http://oneworld.org/2013/12/05/indigenous-knowledge-vital-for-biodiversity-say-experts/
AFRICA - SOLD:
OBAMA PUTS G8, BIG 6 BIOTECH CHEMICAL GMO GIANTS IN CHARGE OF "ENDING HUNGER" IN AFRICA http://sco.lt/7ENN8D
Common Dream, February 27, 2014 - ▶ ORGANIC AGRICULTURE: THE WAY FORWARD IN THE AGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE. Cling to a food system that contributes to climate change and jeopardizes food security, or adopt a regenerative system that strengthens food security and helps mitigate the climate crisis—"The choice is ours to make," a new report states. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/27-6
-▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEMS, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALE http://sco.lt/4l725B
-▶ THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM. DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY LIFE, INDIGENOUS LAND AND LIVELIHOODS IN THE NAME OF "GROWTH" http://sco.lt/5nT3OT
SUSTAINABLE PEASANT'S AGRICULTURE - STATEMENT OF THE 2014 FARMERS FORUM
The world needs to "wake up before it is too late" and usher in a paradigm shift in agriculture that moves away from industrial agriculture in favor of “mosaics of sustainable regenerative production system" that favor small-scale farmers and local food production, a new report from a UN body states.
...was written with contributions from over 60 experts, and finds that "urgent and far-reaching action" is needed to address the "collective crisis" of "rural poverty, persistent hunger around the world, growing populations, and mounting environmental concerns."
However, the call from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) flies in the face of the goals laid out by trade deals now being negotiated including the secretive Trans Pacific Partnership....
▶ THE DANGEROUS NEW SECRETIVE GLOBAL TRADE PACTS WILL IMPACT US ALL. THREATENS SOVEREIGNTY AND PUBLIC OWNERSHIP http://sco.lt/74uPth
-▶ OBESITY PLUS: HUGE INCREASE IN DIABETES, STROKES, HEART ATTACKS ON A GLOBAL SCALE -- THE AMERICAN DIET AND CONTEMPORARY FOOD PRODUCTION http://sco.lt/80rmld
The Wildlife Trusts, February 27, 2014 - ▶ U.K. - FARMING WITH WILDLIFE AT THE HEART OF NEW FUNDING SCHEME: Farming with wildlife, not against it, is essential to our future food security. Farmers and land managers who deliver benefits for wildlife will receive funding in a new environmental land management scheme. http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/2014/02/27/farming-wildlife-heart-new-funding-scheme
Global Research, January 2, 2014 ▶ MONSANTO ROUNDUP: BIG AG PESTICIDES AND THE IMPACTS OF GLYPHOSATE HERBICIDE ON HUMAN HEALTH The foodstuffs of the Western diet, primarily grown by industrial agriculture, are increasingly being produced using a two-part system of engineered plant seeds and toxic chemical application. Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. http://www.globalresearch.ca/monsanto-roundup-the-impacts-of-glyphosate-herbicide-on-human-health-pathways-to-modern-diseases/5342520
ROUNDUP - THE ULTIMATE KILLING MACHINE
New Charges Against Monsanto's "Pesticide" Roundup
▶ MASSIVE PALM OIL PLANTATION WILL "CUT THE HEART OUT" OF CAMEROON'S RAINFOREST, DESTROYING INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES AND WILDLIFE HABITAT http://sco.lt/8lmMBF
▶ THE CORPORATE PALM OIL HOLOCAUST: ORANGUTAN CLINGS TO LAST REMAINING A ENTIRE FOREST BULLDOZED http://sco.lt/8lT2Ar
NPR FreshAir, February 12, 2014 Interview With Elizabeth Kolbert, Author
▶ IN THE WORLD'S "SIXTH EXTINCTION": ARE HUMANS THE ASTEROID? Elizabeth Kolbert is the author of the new book The Sixth Extinction. It begins with a history of the "big five" extinctions of the past, and goes on to explain how human behavior is creating this sixth one — including our use of fossil fuels and the effects of climate change.
"We are effectively undoing the beauty and the variety and the richness of the world which has taken tens of millions of years to reach," Kolbert tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "... We're sort of unraveling that. ... We're doing, it's often said, a massive experiment on the planet and we really don't know what the end point is going to be." http://www.npr.org/2014/02/12/275885377/in-the-worlds-sixth-extinction-are-humans-the-asteroid
HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBEhttp://sco.lt/5YJpKb
VIDEO
-▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEMS, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/4l725B
BillMoyers.com, November 21, 2014 ▶'FOOD CHAINS,' A NEW DOCUMENTARY BY 'FOOD, INC."Food Chains, a new hard-hitting documentary about the battle between Florida farmworkers and the giant supermarket and fast food conglomerates. Farmworkers are among the lowest paid workers in America, averaging about $12,000 per year in wages, and many of them, especially women, have been subjected to human rights abuses in the fields. In its review of the film, The New York Times calls Food Chains an “emphatic and empathetic documentary” that presents farm laborers as modern-day slaveshttp://billmoyers.com/2014/11/21/food-chains/
WATCH
▶ FILM: ***"HOME"
An Exquisite Dedication To the Stewards of Our Planet
Natural Capital can be defined as the world’s stocks of natural assets which include geology, soil, air, water and all living things.
“Offsetting treats nature such as forests or rivers as if it were an exchangeable item you buy in the supermarket. Destroying one forest or river with a promise of protecting another fails to recognise that they are part of a wider ecosystem and intrinsic to human and cultural landscapes. Destruction of complex and site specific biodiversity cannot be offset. It is time to be clear that offsetting will not tackle biodiversity loss but may impoverish communities.” http://www.redd-monitor.org/2013/11/22/no-to-biodiversity-offsetting/
Biodiversity offsetting is a simple idea that makes no sense whatsoever (except for corporations that profit from destruction): Nature can be destroyed in one place as long as it is conserved somewhere else does not equal maintaining healthy, balanced ecosystems
Redd Monitor, October 21, 2014 - ▶ STOP BIODIVERSITY OFFSETS: THOUSANDS SIGN LETTER TO THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION. More than 9,000 people and 67 organisations have signed on to aletter urging the European Commission to drop its plans for biodiversity offsetting. Biodiversity offsets would “harm nature and people” and “give power to those who destroy nature for profit”, the letter states. http://www.redd-monitor.org/2014/10/21/stop-biodiversity-offsets-thousands-sign-letter-to-the-european-commission/
▶ LAND GRABS: HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBEhttp://sco.lt/5YJpKb
-▶ MEGA MINING, FOREIGN LAND GRABS DESTROYING LOCAL COMMUNITIES, ENVIRONMENT AND ECOSYSTEMShttp://sco.lt/8nJQf3
VIDEO
FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEMS, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/4l725B
Ensia, August 12, 2014 -▶ ECOSYSTEMS ARE NOT MACHINES.If we want to save the world, we need to treat nature more as an organism and less as disposable and replaceable technology. http://ensia.com/voices/ecosystems-are-not-machines/
-▶ CLOUD FORESTS FADING IN THE MIST, THEIR TREASURES LITTLE KNOWNhttp://sco.lt/6F54E5
Our Planet ▶ THE LIVING PLANET REPORT 2012 - United Nations Environment Programme : Nature is The Basis of Our Well-Being and Our Prosperity
"We are living as if we have an extra planet at our disposal. We are using 50 per cent more resources than the Earth can provide, and unless we change course that number will grow very fast – by 2030, even two planets will not be enough. "But we do have a choice. We can create a prosperous future that provides food, water and energy for the 9 or perhaps 10 billion people who will be sharing the planet in 2050." Jim P. Leape Director General, WWF International
▶ APPROXIMATELY 229,729 ELEPHANTS KILLED WORLDWIDE AND TRAFFICKED IN FEWER THAN SIX YEARS - INVESTIGATION REVEALS A HIGHLY ORGANISED IVORY TRADE ACROSS ASIA AND AFRICA -
▶ NEARLY 90 ELEPHANTS FOUND POACHED FOR THEIR TUSKS IN BOTSWANA
The deaths discovered follow action taken by the government of Botswana to disarm its anti-poaching unit without explanation in May 2018 after president Mokgweetsi Masisi took office, undoing its strong shoot-to-kill policy for poachers.
-▶ 62% OF ALL AFRICAN FOREST ELEPHANTS SLAUGHTERED IN 10 YEARS = INFOGRAPH More than 60 percent of Africa’s forest elephants have been killed in the past decade due to the ivory trade, reports a new study published in the online journal PLOS ONE. The study warns that the diminutive elephant species — genetically distinct from the better-known savanna elephant — is rapidly heading toward extinction....http://focusingonwildlife.com/news/62-of-all-africas-forest-elephants-killed-in-10-years-warning-graphic-images/
VIDEO BBC News, September 04, 2014 THE ELEPHANT THAT FLEW.
A baby elephant is filmed standing in a small aircraft, eye-to-eye with the pilot, Gary Roberts - an American nurse and missionary. The orphaned calf is the only survivor of a 100 elephant massacre by poachers. This is how Roberts did his best to keep the animal alive.http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29060814
-▶IMAGINING A WORLD WITHOUT ELEPHANTS. A poacher’s bullet kills more than elephants — an elephant’s death ricochets through the ecosystem, affecting everything from other animals to the vegetation where the pachyderms roam.https://www.thedodo.com/world-without-elephants-832031961.html
The elephant, Earth’s most charismatic and majestic land animal, today faces market forces driving the value of its tusks to levels once reserved for gold. This groundbreaking National Geographic special goes undercover to expose the criminal network behind ivory’s supply and demand. It also demonstrates how the elephant is far more complex than ever imagined.
Mongabay, July 07, 2014 -▶ PRICE OF IVORY TRIPLES IN CHINA. In the last four years the price of ivory in China has tripled, according to new research from Save the Elephants. The news has worrying implications for governments and conservationists struggling to save elephants in Africa amidst a poaching epidemic, which has seen tens-of-thousands of elephants butchered for their tusks across the continent annually.http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0707-hance-ivory-price.html
MAPPING THE GLOBAL TRADE IN ILLICIT ELEPHANT IVORY
On August 27, 2014, Born Free USA and data analysts at C4ADS released a new groundbreaking report, Out of Africa: Mapping the Global Trade in Illicit Elephant Ivory which focuses on the ivory supply chain and the trafficking of ivory from the bush in Africa to retail markets tens of thousands of miles away in Asia. We would like to thank the Giles W. and Elise G. Mead Foundation for their generous support.
World Wildlife Fund, May 15, 2014 ▶ HONG KONG SET TO DESTROY RECORD IVORY STOCKPILE - 28 TONS (HOW MANY DEAD ELEPHANTS IS THAT?) - The Hong Kong government has begun the destruction of a staggering 28 tons of illegal ivory, the world’s largest illegal ivory stockpile and more than every other country in history combined. Advocates believe this public stance against ivory trafficking is a hopeful sign that Hong Kong’s centuries-old ivory worship traditions are crumbling.http://worldwildlife.org/stories/hong-kong-set-to-destroy-record-ivory-stockpile
The Dodo, May 08, 2014 -▶ CHINA STEPS UP: PLEDGE A WHOPPING $100 MILLION TO STOP POACHINGChina, a notorious source of demand for a massive illegal wildlife trade, is stepping up its game to save wildlife with a massive $100 million donation to combat poaching in Africa. The Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang, announced the fund during a visit to the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa. The fund is not a moment too soon -- an estimated 22,000-35,000 elephants are killed every year by poachers, while last year poachers killed over 1,000 rhinos in South Africa alone...https://www.thedodo.com/china-steps-up-politician-pled-542006018.html
Mongabay, November 06, 2014 -▶ CORRUPTION IN TANZANIA FACILITATES IVORY TRADE. Corruption in Tanzania is enabling large volumes of illegal elephant ivory to be smuggled out of the country, alleges a new report from the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) The report, titled Vanishing Point, says that high ranking officials are involved in the illicit trade, which have devastated the country's wild elephant population. http://news.mongabay.com/2014/1106-tanzania-corruption-drives-ivory-trade.html
IFAW, October 14, 2014 ▶ WHY I LASHED OUT ON NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC AGAINST ANOTHER CALL FOR MORE IVORY TRADE
National Geographic, August 29, 2014 ▶ CAN ELEPHANTS SURVIVE A LEGAL IVORY TRADE? It's one of the more incendiary questions discussed in wildlife conservation circles: Should there be a legal trade in elephant ivory? Elephant deaths from poachers skyrocketed after a one-off auction of stockpiled ivory was allowed in 2008. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140829-elephants-trophy-hunting-poaching-ivory-ban-cities/
Yale Environment 360, August 11, 2014 ▶ POISONED BY ELEPHANT POACHERS: AFRICA'S VULTURES THREATENED BY AN ASSAULT ON ALL FRONTS. Vultures are being killed on an unprecedented scale across Africa, with the latest slaughter perpetrated by elephant poachers who poison the scavenging birds so they won’t give away the location of their activities.http://e360.yale.edu/feature/africas_vultures_threatened_by_an_assault_on_all_fronts/2792/
Environment News Service, November 06, 2014 -▶ TANZANIA'S ELEPHANTS FALL TO CORRUPT OFFICIALS CONSPIRING WITH CHINESE GANGS.Chinese-led criminal syndicates are conspiring with corrupt Tanzanian officials to traffic huge amounts of ivory, a trade that has caused half of Tanzania’s elephants to be poached in the past five years, alleges a new study released today by the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency. http://ens-newswire.com/2014/11/06/tanzanias-elephants-fall-to-corrupt-officials-chinese-gangs/
Science Daily, November 1`8, 2014 -▶ AS ELEPHANTS GO, SO GO THE TREES. Overhunting has been disastrous for elephants, but their forest habitats have also been caught in the crossfire. A first-of-its-kind study shows that the dramatic loss of elephants, which disperse seeds after eating vegetation, is leading to the local extinction of a dominant tree species, with likely cascading effects for other forest life. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141118124534.htm
-▶ POACHERS KILL 300 ELEPHANTS (AND OTHER ANIMALS) WITH CYANIDE AT WATER HOLE IN 'WORST MASSACRE IN SOUTH AFRICAhttp://sco.lt/7WbG9R
Wildlife Extra News TROPHY HUNTING IS BACK IN ZAMBIA
WHEN KILLING WILDLIFE BECOMES AN ECONOMIC BOON
Zambia’s 2013 ban on hunting has been lifted, its Minister of Tourism and Arts, Jean Kapata, has announced. This means hunting wildlife, with the exception of big cats, is now legal across the 19 hunting blocks. Hunting elephants, though, will be allowed. This news comes at the same time as new research has revealed that an estimated 100,000 elephants in Africa were killed for their ivory between 2010 and 2012 and elephant population numbers are declining by two per cent to three per cent a year. This effectively means that more of the animals are being killed than are being born. http://www.wildlifeextra.com
WATCH
"ASIAN ELEPHANTS IN PERIL"
Link TV
In Sumatra, Indonesia, just 2,500 Sumatran elephants remain. As their last great forest habitat is being logged at a feverish pace to make way for palm oil plantations, elephants are pushed into conflict with local people. In Thailand and Myanmar, an illegal and brutal trade in wild baby elephants is contributing to declining elephant populations http://www.linktv.org/video/9160/asian-elephants-in-peril
-▶ THE PALM OIL HOLOCAUST - DEFORESTATION DESTROYING ALL LIFE WITHIN IT -- AND WE STAND BY AND ALLOW CORPORATE ECOCIDE?http://sco.lt/5wsAPh
"It is better to die from bullets than from hunger" In the Philippines, activists put their lives on the line to fight the military and corporations ravaging their country.
-- WATCH --
September 15, 2013 The Real News VIDEO REPORT
"It is better to die from bullets than from hunger" CORPORATE AND MILITARY FORCES DESTROY INDIGENOUS LANDS, FORESTS AND LIVELIHOODS
Corporate agri-businesses like U.S.-based Dole, Del Monte, Monsanto, along with international and Philippine mines, are polluting waterways and destroying the surrounding farms. Chinese, European, Canadian, and Filipino mines are stripping away the mountains to get at what some estimate to be the largest iron deposit in the world. There also some of the most significant gold, nickel, and copper reserves in Asia. http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10725
- ▶ INDONESIA RELOCATES, DISPLACES FAMILIES TO BUILD RESORTS. The People's Coalition for Fisheries Justice Indonesia (KIARA), a sea and land rights advocacy group, says the fate of Mustiadi and his community will become more common under a new government programme to promote investment in islands and coastal areas. KIARA says many more islands will effectively be sold to foreign buyers, trampling the rights of fishermen and threatening traditional livelihoods.... http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/01/indonesia-relocates-families-build-resorts-201412941833390.html
One World News, December 9, 2013 -▶ INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE VITAL FOR BIODIVERSITY, SAY EXPERTS With species disappearing up to 1,000 times faster than the natural extinction rate, biodiversity experts say knowledge co-production with indigenous peoples has growing importance. http://oneworld.org/2013/12/05/indigenous-knowledge-vital-for-biodiversity-say-experts/
- ▶ SHOULD COMPANIES COMPENSATE SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION FROM WHICH THEY PROFIT? http://sco.lt/72Hsf3
- ▶ MINING, FOREIGN LAND GRABS ENDANGERING LOCAL COMMUNITIES, ENVIRONMENT AND ECOSYSTEMS http://sco.lt/5M5eLp
- ▶ THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM. DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY LIFE, INDIGENOUS LAND AND LIVELIHOODS IN THE NAME OF "GROWTH" http://sco.lt/5nT3OT
- ▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEMS, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALE http://sco.lt/5vdZgH
- ▶ LAND GRABS: HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBE http://sco.lt/96H2yv
A journey into the soul of humanity - A powerful statement about deforestation and the global industrial economy.
-▶ "ALMA" explores the devastating impacts of the cattle industry on the Amazon and a powerful statement about the global industrial economy.
Beautifully shot, alternately joyful and horrifying, Alma captures the ecological, and even spiritual, cost of meat, dairy, and leather production in the Amazon.
A cinematic journey into the world's forests and the industries that are destroying them, this time heading to Brazil to explore the devastating impacts of the cattle industry. Here he creates a powerful statement about the global industrial economy and the speed with which virgin forests are being cleared for timber and new grazing land...http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8uVOYQPobzo
-▶ LUXURY LEATHER, SUPPLY CHAINS AND AMAZON DEFORESTATIONCattle ranches are threatening the Amazon thanks to our love of luxury leather goods. But, reports Lucy Siegle, Brazil's forests could have an unlikely ally: Gucci ...
... the more I see of the (fashion) industry, the more I am convinced the supply chain has become so confused that brands genuinely don't know where their raw materials are from.... Currently the luxury market is the key growth area in the fashion industry, so it's vital that this sector engages with ethical issues.
Mongabay, December 18, 2014 -▶ IMPACTS OF DEFORESTATION ON AMAZONIAN RIVER ECOSYSTEMS COULD BE FAR REACHING. Vast areas of the Amazon forest are being destroyed for agricultural uses, mainly industrial-scale soybean crops, and turned into pasture land for livestock.
Mongabay, May 14, 2014 ▶ NEW REPORT REVEALS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES BY CORPORATIONS, GOVERNMENTS IN THE AMAZON.
The report took over six months to complete and gives an in-depth account of the conflicts activists and indigenous peoples (IPs) are having with corporations and governmental agencies. It relays a situation that does not look good. The report details everything from physical attacks to “systematic pressure” by corporations and governments. According to the report, conflicts over land and territories have reached a ten-year peak in Brazil. In Peru, social conflicts have tripled since 2008, with two-thirds of the reported cases defined as “socioenvironmental” conflicts.http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0514-dulaney-regnskogfondet.html
Environmental Protection, February 01, 2013 -▶ THE VULNERABILITY OF AMAZON'S FRESH ECOSYSTEMS. River, lake and wetland ecosystems—encompassing approximately one-fifth of the Amazon basin area—are being increasingly degraded by deforestation, pollution, construction of dams and waterways, and over-harvesting of plant and animal species.http://eponline.com/articles/2013/02/01/the-vulnerability-of-amazons-freshwater-ecosystems.aspx
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YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW MY NEWS AGGREGATES [url=/u/179070 x-already-notified=1]pdjmoo[/url]
▶ CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY http://www.scoop.it/t/environmental-and-human-health
▶ CLIMATE CHANGE WILL IMPACT US ALL http://www.scoop.it/t/changingplanet
▶ BIODIVERSITY IS LIFE http://www.scoop.it/t/biodiversity-is-life
▶ OUR OCEANS NEED US http://www.scoop.it/t/our-oceans-need-us
▶ OUR FOOD, OUR HEALTH http://www.scoop.it/t/agriculture-gmos-pesticides