Thursday, September 15, 2016

turning desert into forest :)



An amazing forest in the desert
Forests are springing up in the Egyptian desert. But they're not mirages. Scientists have found a way to grow trees there using sewage

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xkcd: Earth Temperature Timeline | #climate




Permanent link to this comic: http://xkcd.com/1732/
Image URL (for hotlinking/embedding): http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/earth_temperature_timeline.png



Monday, September 12, 2016

#NoDAPL :: Native American Activist Winona LaDuke at Standing Rock: It’s Time to Move On from Fossil Fuels |




While Democracy Now! was covering the Standing Rock standoff earlier this month, we spoke to Winona LaDuke, longtime Native American activist and executive director of the group Honor the Earth. She lives and works on the White Earth Reservation in northern Minnesota. She spent years successfully fighting the Sandpiper pipeline, a pipeline similar to Dakota Access. We met her right outside the Red Warrior Camp, where she has set up her tipi. Red Warrior is one of the encampments where thousands of Native Americans representing hundreds of tribes from across the U.S. and Canada are currently resisting the pipeline’s construction

transcript: Native American Activist Winona LaDuke at Standing Rock: It's Time to Move On from Fossil Fuels | Democracy Now!


North Dakota v. Amy Goodman: Arrest Warrant Issued After Pipeline Coverage

As we reported on Monday, Sept. 12, 2016 – In other Dakota Access pipeline news, last Thursday, Morton County, North Dakota, issued an arrest warrant for Amy Goodman. The charge: criminal trespass, a misdemeanor offense. The case, State of North Dakota v. Amy Goodman, stems from Democracy Now!’s coverage in North Dakota over the Labor Day weekend of the Native American-led protests against the Dakota Access pipeline. On Saturday, September 3, Democracy Now! filmed security guards working for the Dakota Access pipeline company using dogs and pepper spray to attack protesters.



more: Dakota Access Pipeline @ Democracy Now!





Saturday, September 10, 2016

#NoDAPL :: Federal Agencies Step in After Judge Denies Tribe's Request to Stop Dakota Access Pipeline, and A GRAIN OF SALT



Friday afternoon brought a roller coaster of emotions for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and supporters in the battle to stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) near the tribe's North Dakota reservation. Shortly after a federal judge rejected the tribe's emergency legal challenge, a joint statement by three federal agencies effectively stopped work on the pipeline until significant questions are answered about potential environmental and cultural impacts.








A GRAIN OF SALT

"Here’s the real story: This fight has neither been won nor lost."


Erased By False Victory: Obama Hasn’t Stopped DAPL


All Native struggles in the United States are a struggle against erasure. The poisoning of our land, the theft of our children, the state violence committed against us — we are forced to not only live in opposition to these ills, but also to live in opposition to the fact that they are often erased from public view and public discourse, outside of Indian Country. The truth of our history and our struggle does not match the myth of American exceptionalism, and thus, we are frequently boxed out of the narrative.
The struggle at Standing Rock, North Dakota, has been no exception, with Water Protectors fighting tooth and nail for visibility, ever since the Sacred Stone prayer encampment began on April 1.
For months, major news outlets have ignored what’s become the largest convergence of Native peoples in more than a century. But with growing social media amplification and independent news coverage, the corporate media had finally begun to take notice. National attention was paid. Solidarity protests were announced in cities around the country. The National Guard was activated in North Dakota.
The old chant, “The whole world is watching!” seemed on the verge of accuracy in Standing Rock.
And then came today’s ruling, with a federal judge finding against the Standing Rock Sioux, and declaring that construction of the pipeline could legally continue. It was the ruling I expected, but it still stung. I felt the sadness, anger and disappointment that rattled many of us as we received the news. But then something happened. Headlines like, “Obama administration orders ND pipeline construction to stop” and “The Obama Administration Steps In to Block the Dakota Access Pipeline” began to fill my newsfeed, with comments like, “Thank God for Obama!” attached to them.
Clearly, a major plot twist has occurred. But it’s not the one that’s being sold.
To understand that this isn’t the victory it’s being billed as, you have to read the fine print in the presently lauded joint statement from the Department of Justice, the Department of the Army and the Department of the Interior...










#NoDAPL on twitter (top posts) –



Thursday, September 8, 2016

Ever wondered what happens when an oil pipeline bursts underwater?




Ever wondered what happens when an oil pipeline bursts underwater? 
This footage of a oil spill in Moscow that caught on fire last week will give you an unforgettable picture.

via Standing Rock Sioux Tribe on Facebook


Monday, September 5, 2016

Te Urewera national park has been granted legal personhood, meaning nobody owns it, and it has the same rights and powers as a citizen


Te Urewera national park has been granted legal personhood, meaning nobody owns it. The park has the same rights and powers as a citizen. The ruling could set a new precedent for land rights and conservation around the world.


original post on Facebook:

The Guardian

Dakota Access Pipeline Company Attacks Native American Protesters with Dogs & Pepper Spray - YouTube



Dakota Access Pipeline Company Attacks Native American Protesters with Dogs & Pepper Spray - YouTube
Published on Sep 3, 2016
On September 3, the Dakota Access pipeline company attacked Native Americans with dogs and pepper spray as they protested against the $3.8 billion pipeline's construction. If completed, the pipeline would carry about 500,000 barrels of crude per day from North Dakota’s Bakken oilfield to Illinois. The project has faced months of resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and members of nearly 100 more tribes from across the U.S. and Canada.


Democracy Now! 






#NoDAPL on twitter –

Sunday, September 4, 2016

Economics is a form of brain damage



original post on Facebook

David Suzuki on Economics
Geneticist and climate activist David Suzuki explains how conventional economics a form of brain damage in this clip from the 2011 documentary "Surviving Progress." (available on Netflix)

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Jane's Traffic Stop:The Fight to End Illegal Wildlife Trafficking | #JanesTrafficStop



People are selling and exchanging wild animal parts – including food, pets, leather, ornaments, “trophies,” or “medicine,” at a crisis level illegally and unsustainably. This is not a simple issue, but one filled with examples of the intense pressures of poverty, lack of training in enforcement, governmental corruption, and the careless demand for wildlife products by global consumers. Poachers, the pawns of a much larger international game of illegal trade, enter protected areas or target endangered species prized for their “parts” (worth hefty sums in black markets), armed with weapons like grenades and AK-47s to create devastation. They are markers of economic desperation, fueled by the prospect of payouts from buyers, kingpins and smugglers from domestic and foreign markets demanding those rare commodities or “trophies” like ivory, horns, skins, pets and meat. Defeating just individual poachers is not the answer, but part of a much larger puzzle of international trade and demand. And it is a problem which is only growing...
more: Jane's Traffic Stop:The Fight to End Illegal Wildlife Trafficking

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