Over the last several days, I have been writing a series of diaries on the slaughter of dolphins in Taiji. Japan. The same town now known for the infamous killing cove as depicted in the film The Cove. Follow me after the jump for an update on the dolphins.
One of the main reasons our era is faced with intractable environmental problems is that we tend to look at the world with capitalist eyes, as an ensemble of commodities. Specifically, our world is forced into a cycle of commodities, in which the ultimate end of things is determined not by regeneration but by commodification. When something can no longer be a commodity, then, it is "externalized" -- made into trash. This diary will explore the cycle of commodities, and suggest an alternative way which doesn't present such intractable environmental problems.
(crossposted at Docudharma)
In a rare instance of honesty for one of the reprehensible political operatives in our nation's history, Karl Rove told a shale gas drilling association that "climate is gone."
"Climate is gone," said Rove, the keynote speaker on the opening day of a two-day shale-gas conference sponsored by Hart Energy Publishing L.L.P. And Rove told the trade show, "I don't think you need to worry" the new Congress will consider proposed legislation to put the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing under federal rather than state regulation. The procedure, known as "fracking," is responsible for the dramatic growth of shale-gas drilling in formations such as Pennsylvania's vast Marcellus Shale.
He meant that the climate bill is dead, but the unfortunate reality is that livable climate for future generations is likely to be equally dead thanks to climate zombies elected in 2010.
Hurricane Tomas was downgraded to a tropical storm early Saturday as it passed over the Turks and Caicos Islands, losing steam a day after battering seaside towns in Haiti.
Haiti was pummeled with 85 mph winds and from five to ten inches of rain. A foot of standing water fills the capital of Port-au-Prince, where four people are dead and two are missing. ...
Please join me in the flood.
Starting at around 3:45 a.m. EST, the BOP was unlatched from the well, and pulled at around 3:55 a.m. EST.
Videos below the fold.
Last month, I spent 2 weeks in Bolivia, researching food and agriculture there. Toward the end of the trip, we headed south to the department of Oruro (they divide the country into 9 departments, which are then subdivided into provinces). The trip began with a few presentations on the climate crisis, and throughout the trip, our guides pointed out the receding glaciers on the mountains. People we met commented again and again about the flood last January, the rains being late this spring, etc.
But this was all known. Then, on the 9th day of the trip, we ran into a surprise. It was one more indication of global warming, but it was something that even our guide had not observed before.