Good evening and welcome a more ancient world, the world of biodiversity. Tonight let's take a tour of one of the great wonders of this world, the great barrier reef. I had the great privilege of spending a day snorkeling on the reef in May 2009. It was also the first time I used the underwater housing for my camera. Let's learn a bit about the reef and put away the cares of the day.
Today 44 volunteer 'reclamation workers' (activists) illegally marched onto a supposedly reclaimed mine site to plant trees. Why? Because the 'reclamation' efforts done by the mining company resulted in a barren hillside with sparse grass and baking sun - a far cry from the lush and diverse forest destroyed in the process.
After negotiating with the police and planting all the trees, all 44 were allowed to leave the site without repurcussions.
One of the most important trends (and least understood) in the water industry in the last two decades has been the selling out contracting of private companies to operate existing facilities or build and operate new facilities. I don't have to remind you that the fate of the world rests principally on mitigating climate change and on its water policies as Daniel Zimmer (executive director of the World Water Council) explains:
Water is a political issue, but politicians need to understand why they should care more about water.
Yes, one would think so but unfortunately the commoditization of water is rife, aided and abated by the IMF and the World Bank, never mind that it is unethical and environmentally unsound. Like a case of déjà vu, we are rapidly losing control of our most vital resource to a handful of monopolistic corporations.
Corporations don’t care about the environment, and they certainly don’t care about human rights. They only care about profit.
Our free market economy is nothing more than a huge auction called 'Supply and Demand', which - very efficiently - puts a price on on everything.
The problem is that it allows us to sell everything - the last drop of oil, the last tree, the last fish, the last of everything. It's called growth - but it is, obviously, growth into oblivion - the exact opposite of EcoEconomics. It is a fatal flaw of our present economic system.
Or, as Greenpeace puts it: "When the last tree is cut, the last river poisoned, and the last fish dead, we will discover that we can't eat money..."
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The eco-economic price for a natural resource is, therefore, the price you would have to pay if our planet were to release that resource only at a sustainable level.
Who can put a Price on the Environment? ... We all should.
Afterall if we end up decimating the planet's EcoSystems -- trying to sell off their once abundant natural resources -- We can't eat the money ... or gold either, can we?
I'm a decent bird photographer, but I'm not a great bird photographer. For those of us with average abilities, a big part of looking like a halfway decent photographer is just knowing what not to show anyone else - don't annoy them with bird-dots (unless that tiny little object is actually quite rare and this is your only documentation and you can actually see some identifying marks on that little sesame seed of a bird...), don't post a lot of out of focus, underexposed/overexposed shots where the bird is half-obscured.
Except, sometimes those photos really work...
Pileated Woodpecker... they always feel like they're part of a dreamscape when I see them. Even this blurry, they're so iconic that there's never any doubt. (BTW, this is a color photo. srsly.)
You are in the current BP Catastrophe Morning Edition - AUV #413. ROV #412 is here.
Bookmark this link to find the latest Gulf Watchers diaries.
Please RECOMMEND THIS DIARY, the motherships have been discontinued.
The digest of diaries is here.
Please be kind to kossacks with bandwidth issues. Please do not post images or videos. Again, many thanks for this.