By Tom Engelhardt
TomDispatch (Tom Engelhardt)
May 15, 2008

Kiss American Security Goodbye

15 Numbers That Add Up to an Age of Insecurity

Once upon a time, I studied the Chinese martial art of Tai Chi -- until, that is, I realized I would never locate my "chi." At that point, I threw in the towel and took up Western exercise. Still, the principle behind Tai Chi stayed with me -- that you could multiply the force of an act by giving way before the force of others; that a smaller person could use the strength of a bigger one against him.

Now, jump to September 11, 2001 and its aftermath -- and you know the Tai Chi version of history from there. Think of it as a grim cosmic joke -- that the 9/11 attacks, as apocalyptic as they looked, were anything but. The true disasters followed and the wounds were largely self-inflicted, as the most militarily powerful nation on the planet used its own force to disable itself.

Before that fateful day, the Bush administration had considered terrorism, Osama bin Laden, and al-Qaeda subjects for suckers and wusses. What they were intent on was pouring money into developing an elaborate boondoggle of a missile defense system against future nuclear attacks by rogue states. Those Cold War high frontiersmen (and women) couldn't get enough of the idea of missiling up. That, after all, was where the money and the fun seemed to be. Nuclear was where the big boys -- the nation states -- played. "Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S.…," the CIA told the President that August. Yawn.

After 9/11, of course, George W. Bush and his top advisors almost instantly launched their crusade against Islam and then their various wars, all under the rubric of the Global War on Terror. (As Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld pungently put the matter that September, "We have a choice -- either to change the way we live, which is unacceptable, or to change the way that they live; and we chose the latter.") By then, they were already heading out to "drain the swamp" of evil doers, 60 countries worth of them, if necessary. Meanwhile, they moved quickly to fight the last battle at home, the one just over, by squandering vast sums on an American Maginot Line of security. The porous new Department of Homeland Security, the NSA, the FBI, and other acronymic agencies were to lock down, surveill, and listen in on America. All this to prevent "the next 9/11."

In the process, they would treat bin Laden's scattered al-Qaeda network as if it were the Nazi or Soviet war machine (even comically dubbing his followers "Islamofascists"). In the blinking of an eye, and in the rubble of two enormous buildings in downtown Manhattan, bin Laden and his cronies had morphed from nobodies into supermen, a veritable Legion of Doom. (There was a curious parallel to this transformation in World War II. Before Pearl Harbor, American experts had considered the Japanese -- as historian John Dower so vividly documented in his book War Without Mercy -- bucktoothed, near-sighted military incompetents whose war planes were barely capable of flight. On December 8, 1941, they suddenly became a race of invincible supermen without, in the American imagination, ever passing through a human incarnation.)

...continued

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"It's Not Easy Being Green" by Kermit The Frog
(written by Joe Raposo for the first season of Sesame Street 1969-1970)

It's not that easy being green
Having to spend each day the color of the leaves
When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow or gold
Or something much more colorful like that

It's not easy being green
It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things
And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
Not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
Or stars in the sky

But green's the color of Spring
And green can be cool and friendly-like
And green can be big like an ocean, or important
Like a mountain, or tall like a tree

When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why
Wonder, I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful

-

THE GREEN GENERATION: It's Easy Being Green!
by Aireen Joven
http://thehotpotato.org

15 May 2008

IN FASHION AND CULTURE, green is the new black. There are so many reasons to buy and wear organic clothing. One you may not have heard is that organic cotton feels softer than non-organic cotton. New textile entrepreneurs and designers are now exclusively using organic cotton, hemp, linen (made from flax), and recycled fibers in a fusion of their business' green ethics and rising consumer demand. Though not totally organic, clothing giants like H & M, whose European organic 2008 spring collection will boast 1,500 tonnes of organic cotton, and Nike, who is the top organic cotton clothing manufacturer in the world, are riding the green wave as well. Did you know that non-organic cotton consume 25% of the world's total toxic pesticides while using only 2.5% of the world's agricultural land?

In the business world, green is fast becoming gold. Just this past week, AOL News featured a business article about what industries are projected to be favorable in the future job market. Their top three picks? Healthcare, education, and green living. It's all about what Paul Hawken elucidated in his highly influential book published over 10 years ago, The Ecology of Commerce. Green businesses do business using the Triple Bottom Line: people, planet, and profit. Did you know that several top universities in the United States now offer a Green MBA (www.greenmba.com)?

RAINBOW CONNECTIONS

And in our homes and communities, green means not just one color, but a rainbow of all the choices we make every day to create a more peaceful, sustainable, and healthy world for ourselves, the planet, and future generations. We are worth the investment! Every action we take adds up over time, like saving pennies in a piggy bank or dollars in a retirement plan. Let's stop emptying our eco-wallets. The source of all wealth, after all, is the Earth. And the Earth will only survive, let alone thrive, when we restore nature and re-imagine our communities to be self-sufficient, interconnected, and in partnership with eco-systems that create zero waste.

Back in the late '60's, early '70's, Jim Henson's Kermit the Frog made famous the phrase "It's Not Easy Being Green". That was some 40 years ago, when the environmental movement reached mainstream consciousness along with civil rights, feminism, flower power, peace, and human rights. Today's generation, the Green Generation, will enjoy walking the paths cleared by decades of work accomplished by those who came before them. Simultaneously, the Green Generation will inherit the planetary mess we're in and the mission to make things right. The Green Generation will also have the benefit of "being green" from the beginning. Changing our personal habits and greening our lives happens over a long period of diligent and exciting transition. Our children and grandchildren, however, will be eating organic, calculating their carbon footprint, and using planet-friendly transporation from Day One. Just imagine. Their generation's mantra will be "It's Easy Being Green!!!"

Those of us new to going green are just that, still going green, not yet gone green. Every journey begins with the first step. So here are just FIVE steps that we can take to GO GREEN! Kermit the Frog would be proud of us. And so will the Green Generation.

FIVE STEPS IN THE JOURNEY TO GO GREEN

There are a lot more than five steps in this journey, and we hope you will enjoy each one! If you're looking for a tune to hum or an affirmation to repeat while you compost your food scraps, install new CFL bulbs, or grab your reusable bag before hitting the store, remember what Kermit sang so long ago, "I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful."

STEP 1 - Put on your thinking cap. Being green means being aware of your choices and their impact on the health of you and the planet. This requires learning what is green, greener, and greenest in all of our choices, big and small. Search the internet. Attend community lectures. Go to the Chicago Green Festival this weekend, May 17-18 at Navy Pier (www.greenfestivals.org). Pick up a free copy of the monthly magazine, Conscious Choice, or read online (www.consciouschoice.com). Check out a children's book about nature from the library and share it with a young member of the Green Gen while going for a picnic!

STEP 2 - Enjoy the outdoors and nature. Remind yourself often what going green is all about. Trees, rivers, animals, delicious, local, organic fruits and vegetables. It can be as simple as growing herbs on your windowsill, shopping at the farmer's market, going for an evening stroll, or keeping track of the phases of the moon. A deep breath of fresh air. Stopping to absorb the scents of spring, like lilac, hyacinth, and magnolia. What a gift. Summer will be upon us soon!

STEP 3 - Eat green. Buy organic at the grocery store. Support organic restaurants and cafes. Eat less meat or go vegetarian. Connect with local, organic farmers for meat, eggs, dairy, and produce (try www.localharvest.org and www.illinoisfarmdirect.org). Plant a tree or garden!

STEP 4 - Appreciate mobility. It's a bird! It's a plane! Wait - it's Superman and Superwoman getting from here to there using green transportation! Flying would be a super green way to get around. For us mere mortals, we can walk, bike, take public transportation, telecommute, carpool, drive green cars, ditch our cars, or just drive less, fly less, and explore wonders close to home.

STEP 5 - Make a commitment. You could commit to a more green work commute at least one day a week, buying only organic food, replacing every lightbulb in your home, going vegetarian on Fridays, switching to all green cleaning supplies, or investing in non-toxic organic paint, carpeting, and mattresses for you and your family (check out www.healthygreengoods.com). Whatever that commitment is, it's up to you. Going green? That's up to you too - and all your green friends all over the world.

the rainbow connection

HT: Nuke

2.  Because I didn't do any political items in the last edition of Twenty Items of Interest.  I present to you... the many faces of Hillary Clinton.

HT: Kevin Stilley

I hope you enjoyed this picture as much as I did.  Ahem, moving along...

3.  I discovered, thanks to Brent Thomas, a blog called Stuff Christians Like.  It is a strange mix of the serious and the humorous.  One serious blog post is on "Lying because I love you"  He said many Christians do it, but if we are to be honest with ourselves we lie to protect ourselves not the other person involved.  The non-serious post is "turning ushers into the Secret Service" it made me laugh out loud.

4. Brooke Bouma blogged about Einstein videos - are they bad or not?  I think every once in awhile they are fine, but I swear it seems like some people raise their kids on these things.  So the end result will likely be a bunch of people with like two-second attention spans (ok I'm exaggerating).  Seriously though, have you noticed that the number of cases of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) increased with the number of children's TV shows increasing?  Do we not think there is some correlation?

5.  it drives me nuts when people don't use caps in e-mails and blogs.  like it is some hip, cool postmodern thing to do.  what do you think?  use caps or not?  is it really that burdensome to use caps?  are they too sexy for capitalization?  are we afraid that we will pull a pinkie to reach over and press that shift key?  the chicago tribune talks about using caps versus not using caps.

it is a pet peeve of mine along with the e-mails i get THAT ARE IN ALL CAPS LIKE THAT PERSON IS SCREAMING AT ME, but i digress.

6.  A dad has been jailed for six months for daughter (now 19) skipping school and not graduating.  A judge ordered her father to be responsible for her education when she was 17.  Apparently he will be in jail until she passes her G.E.D. which apparently she is unable to do.  Crazy... while I think parents need to be held accountable when the kids are younger -  I think a 17-year-old needs to take responsibility for her actions.  My thoughts are why are we, as taxpayers, footing the bill for a kid's education when that kid clearly has no desire or motivation to be there?  That is why I am, in principle, against raising the compulsory age of education to 18.  (Source: Alisyn Camerota)

7.  Hey NEWS flash!!!!!!  Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons are vastly different than born-again Christians!  Duh.  Somebody actually paid to have this survey done?

8.  Bible names top the list for newborn boys.  Names like... Jacob, Michael, Joshua, and Matthew were the favorites.  I think that is awesome.  My wife and I have been kicking around having a fourth child, and I think if we do and the baby is a boy we should name him Nimrod, a great Biblical name.  We like being different.  I also think that Ham is a good name.  I am also partial to Riphatgh, Togarmah, Dodanim and Methuselah.

9.  Apparently there is a Jedi Church, and Darth Vader was spared jail time for attacking its founder.  To my readers from Great Britain... I thought the U.S. religious scene could be pretty weird, but I have to say this is one of the strangest things I've seen in some time.  May the force be with you!

10.  One of our mentors, Darin Wogen, shared his testimony at our banquet last week.  He did an awesome job!

11.  My friend Eric is concerned about Evangelicals who seem to be grasping for political influence and power.  Particularly with the Evangelical Climate Initiative and their seemingly quick embrace of the global warming rhetoric.   I won't use the word he used for these Evangelicals actions because I try to keep my blog family friendly ;).

12.  I encourage you to read Out of Ur's commentary on the Evangelical Manifesto.  Richard Land shares why he didn't sign it.

13.  John Edwards endorses Barack Obama... gee I'm shocked (please read sarcasm)!  You can read a first hand account of this earth-shattering news at One Mom's blog.  Why exactly is Hillary Clinton still in this?

14.  Bob Barr announces his candidacy for President of the United States on the Libertarian ticket.  He is taking an anti-Iraq stance.  This may slow a flow of conservatives who don't want to vote for McCain from going to him, but may garner support for Blue Dog Democrats who are against the war.

HT: Kevin Tracy

15.  Pistol Pete blogs on mysterious love letters found that could possibly be between Judas and Mary Magdalene.  It made me laugh out loud.

16.  I love this cartoon... Appreciation by David Hayward

17.  Interesting post by Velvet Hammer about the connection between Nazism and Islam.

18.  It's official... Californians no longer live in a democracy, but an oligarchy.

19.  This commercial reminds me of when my son was born.  The nurse took him over to clean him up and while he on the table she had to jump to miss this nice arch of pee.  Yep... that's my boy.  This kid has a great future putting out campfires.

HT: Joe Carter

20.  Brian McLaren's non-sequitur.

McLaren answers a question about truth:

Obviously that's a challenge. The flip side of that question is look at the Catholic Church: For all of its orthodoxy, it could have bishops covering up for molesting priests. And evangelicals, for all their claims of orthodoxy, can be barbaric to gay people and can blindly support a rush to war in Iraq and can be, as we speak, fomenting for war with Iran. ... Obviously, I have a lot of critics and they often say, 'You're wanting to water down the Gospel to accommodate to post-modernity.' I say, 'No, I really don't want to do that. But what I do want to do is acknowledge first the ways we've already watered down the Gospel to accommodate modernity.' ... I think the naivete of some of those critics is that they're starting with a pure pristine understanding of the Gospel. It seems to me we're all in danger of screwing up.

Melinda at Stand to Reason points out that a common mistake that emergent types tend to make regarding absolute truth - that it is taken to mean that we are infallible in our knowledge of the truth.  That isn't what it means though.  Absolute defines the truth, not our knowledge.  She suggests that we should refer to absolute truth (which Josh McDowell defines as "something that is true for all people, in all places, at all times.") as objective truth.

When you take the bus, carry your own bags to the grocery store, and lug those recycling bins to the curb, remember - you are not alone.

Take for instance the second airport issue. The government finally decided to build the much-awaited second international airport in Panvel, just outside the city. But the area is covered with mangroves and any construction was forbidden. So what does the state government do? It just changes the law and construction is possible. Problem solved. End of discussion.

Why do we take the environment so lightly? Do we actually believe that we can abuse it all we want and nature will let us get away? Global warming is a natural phenomenon but what is alarming is its speed. The end result will be a regular occurrence of storms, droughts, famines and floods. India cannot escape it.

Neither can Mumbai. Let us not forget that we are a coastal city. If the ocean turns against us we will have nowhere to hide. Rising temperatures will increase sea levels and in a few years it may be virtually impossible inhabit Mumbai. Can we take such a chance?

A lot of countries including India are under the misconception that when the time comes they will deal with the environment. My advise to them is…please do watch the movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow.’ In the end there will be nothing left to be done except sit on the sidelines and watch millions meet their end in water and/or food wars. The time to act is now or the future will be lost.

Let us not forget that we are just custodians to the planet we inherited from our forefathers. The earth belongs to our future generations and we must do all we can to ensure that they inherit a better future than we did.

Basic physics also tells us that it takes more energy to move larger people around in planes, trains or automobiles. And unless that transport is driven by sustainably-sourced power, it makes sense that the bigger people are, the bigger (on average) are their contributions to transportation-derived climate change.

That thesis is codified in this week's edition of the medical journal, the Lancet, by a team from the London School Hygiene & Tropical Medicine which finds that global obesity is a contributing factor to global warming.

"The researchers pegged 40 percent of the global population as obese," reports Reuters. That's a lot of extra food and fossil fuel being consumed that could be saved if people just had healthier body mass indices.

This statement of the somewhat obvious might have the unfortunate effect of contributing to prejudices against the obese, for whom achieving a healthy weight is often far more than a mere matter of will power.

But it might drive something positive, too, in the shape of further pressure upon us all to ask hard questions about why so many people make the kind of nutritional and lifestyle choices that result in their becoming obese. If this research helps further discredit the US subsidization of 'junk' calories that reside in products like high-fructose corn syrup, for example, we might be able to both help slow the warming of our planet and give its human citizens a healthier, and longer, life upon it.

However, I went to practice Yatta with my 5 friends, to compete in TJ's 2008 cosplay contest, I'll be cosplaying as the burger king >_>.

Snake from metal gear solid

Burger king

Arashi Kishuu from X/1999

Sakura Tsubasa

Hao Asakura (from Shaman King)

Dr. Doom

All of us dancing Yatta :]

Change is needed to prevent the planet from making adjustments that are beyond most people's current understanding. These planetary adjustments could involve catastrophes such as a possible pole shift.
Humanity needs to know that this planetary change is a possibility, and will cause major catastrophic upheavals. This could be avoided; however, humanity is running out of time.
Should each person take responsibility and gain understanding about his or her own outflow, in regards to the planet's ecological damage, most of these future, potentially catastrophic possibilities will no longer have to be an option.
The planet is our only platform for living; it is in great trouble, which is not always understood.
(Channeled 2006)

More details can be found on Mia's website

The planet is no longer coping. Its own functional mechanism is no longer able to maintain the planet in the required ways. Many years of man-made diminishing of the environment, as well as the atmospheric pollution have resulted in a worsening of the planet's own natural ability to support itself.
When the planet's own ecosystem no longer has the capacity to operate in a way that supports the planet and the planet's own functional mechanism, it may come to a point where the planet will need to align itself to a better state. This realignment is at present very near due to the enormous stresses placed on the environment.
(Channeled 2006)

More details about this subject can be found in the book New Concepts for Business and Humanity written by Mia den Haan

The good news? Polar bears are being added to the protected species list. While there are currently as many as 25,000 polar bears currently in the Arctic, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey predict that two thirds of the world's polar bears will disappear in the next 50 years. The culprit? A decline in Arctic sea ice because of global warming. This is the first time an animal has been added to the protected species list because of dangers posed by global warming. Which is where the bad news comes in. While the being added to the protected species list will make practices like the trading of polar bear hides illegal, it won't really affect global warming that much.

But in announcing the listing, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne said the decision should not be "misused" to regulate global climate change.

'Listing the polar bear as threatened can reduce avoidable losses of polar bears. But it should not open the door to use of the Endangered Species Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, power plants, and other sources,' said Kempthorne.

'That would be a wholly inappropriate use of the ESA law. The ESA is not the right tool to set U.S. climate policy.'

What a shame. I really liked polar bears.

Polar bear now listed as 'threatened' species - [CNN.com]

Change has already begun through weather changes, but most of humanity has not noticed this yet. Climate change has begun to impact already and will begin to worsen within the next few years.
Around 2011 most people will begin to see that the consequences of climate change will be far more severe than currently understood.

At present the general consensus is there could be minor consequenses resulting from the damaged environment. The truth is it will be far worse than expected.
As the planet is under enormous stresses, which are continuously increasing, it will soon no longer be able to support its population.
Scarcity of resources, overfarming, lack of clean air, not enough clean drinking water and drought are some of the issues that will all play a much greater role in the near future.

The kind of future we will have will depend on everyone of us. It will depend on how all of humanity will start to contribute in creating lifestyles that will support the ecology and all the life forms living on the planet.
Humanity has created serious ecological devastation by creating lifestyles it likes and is benefiting from. The lifestyles of many people are improving faster than before, however, this will eventually result in a lack of some precious resources.
When this resource scarcity will begin to happen, most people will no longer be able to have sustainable lifestyles.

The planet cannot cope with the enormity of the ecological devastation that is taking place on every continent. This ecological devastation is not coming to a halt, instead it is still increasing and making it worse for the planet to support its population.

It is important to understand that everyone plays a role in the overall process of life. Each person's decision can ultimately affect the future. These decisions, all combined, can have a very good result on what the future will be like for humanity.
So please bear in mind the future is not predetermined, but is dependent on the choices we, as a collective group of human beings, make in the NOW moment.
The future is not always how we see it. This is true for many aspects of living and is in particular true for global warming, as global warming has many implications that most people have not yet fully understood.

While more and more people are becoming aware of climate change and other environmental problems associated with global warming, not all are fully understanding how far-reaching its effects will be.
These effects are such that most people will not believe or accept what we have to say about this future, as most people do not wish to make changes.
Most of the human race is aware that the planet is not functioning well, however, they do not understand that this is creating a major problem for the future survival of humanity.

From a spiritual perspective every person holds the key to a much improved future, should they wish to make the necessary changes to reduce their impact on the environment and help create a more sustainable future.

Chinese PM, Wen Jiabao, was quoted as saying that the 7.9-magnitude quake that hit southwestern Sichuan province on Monday had the "most wide-spreading impact" of any earthquake since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, Xinhua news agency quoted Wen as saying.

[Note, for reasons unknown to FEWW moderators, the earthquake cluster's mainshock was previously reported as magnitude 7.8, erroneously!]

The aftermath of a large earthquake cluster. (Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee) Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Related Links:

• Chinese Leaders Incapable of Handling Quake Aftermath

• China quake heaviest since 1949, says PM: state media
• China quake rescuers face huge hurdles
• Rumours fly as China quake victims seek news
• Dam cracks add to China quake fears
• China quake deaths estimated over 50,000 in Sichuan

MORE lINKS:

• China Quake Death Toll Nearly 10,000
• China Quake Kills 9,000
• China quake death toll nears 9,000

• Chaitén Volcano: No End Seen to Second Massive Eruption
• Will one or both of New Zealand islands break up and sink in the south-western Pacific Ocean?

And as always, thanks for taking the time to check this out.

Are you fed up with the rising price of gas ? Want to help clean up the environment as well ?

Well now YOU can with the technology I present you with right here !

What would you pay to be able to get at least 35% better gas mileage on your current vehicle without making any major changes to it's engine ?

Think about it.. if you currently get 28mpg you could raise that to 38mpg or more by installing this hybrid system.

That's a major difference ! In fact just think how much money you could have saved in the course of just 1 month and that's not to mention the fact that you would have polluted the air we breath 35% less all at the same time !

OK let's talk money.. at the time this is being published the price of gas here in Florida is $3.85 a gallon for 87 octane.

If you travel 50 miles a day, to-and-from work 5 times per week, that's 250 miles and 1000 miles per month. Let's add another 50 per week for weekend travel. Now were looking at 1200 miles per month.

Let's take that 1200 miles and multiply it by that $3.85 per gallon @ 24mpg. We end up spending $192 per month in fuel and $2502 for the year in this example.

With the system being installed we would have spent about $124 per month and only $1625 for the year !

Wow that's a huge difference isn't it ?

So how much would you be willing to spend in order to get that better mileage now ? ? lol

FIND OUT MORE BY CLICKING HERE

But how is this perceived by the consumers? And how this clean side of the car, is the one that will motivate people to buy a hybrid when they could as well buy a less expensive compatible car? 

Eco-driving is a way to promote hybrid cars by suggesting a smart way of driving that contributes to the decrease of fuels and CO2's emissions, which are the main reasons for the global warming phenomenon and needless to say it also promotes a 'driving safely' message.

Last year, America set a record in the sales of hybrid cars. The following video shows why there's such a demand...

What happens if cans have nowhere easy to go when you're done with them? Here's an interesting solution that the guys at the Niles club came up with: A can & bottle chute disguised as a scale gas storage tank!

You can use a small office trashcan for personal layouts, or for clubs, use a full-sized trashcan.

By taking all those pre-sorted cans to a recycling center, it will probably pay for itself in a couple of trips! Who would have guessed an industry on the layout could actually make you money?

The numbers I have heard recently are really disconcerting. More tornado touchdowns to date than at any time recorded, the driest March, April and May on record here in the Bay Area and as I just heard on NBC11 news that this is probably the hottest May 15 on record here with every city recording a high temperature.

As my wonderful girlfriend put it,

"It’s all kinds of hot right now in California.

Like I’m wearing a t-shirt and I’m hot kinda hot, which is beyond weird for SF.

And since the spring rains never came, we’re already starting the water rationing and fire warnings.

Meanwhile, back home in Missouri, it won’t stop raining long enough for the farmers to plant their crops.

I’ll let you connect the dots."

Link

Things are only getting weirder.

Like most share owner meetings, the event was designed as a corporate love-fest. Nancy Henchel, a Sierra Club volunteer, and I attended the meeting to speak on behalf of the NGOs calling for the cancellation of the coal plants. Since I called ahead and spoke with the Corporate Secretary, I was given a sport on the agenda to speak at the meeting and a packet of materials I prepared was distributed to each member of Dynegy's Board of Directors.

CEO Bruce Williamson's presentation included a 7 or 8 min piece focused on their work to decrease their plants' pollution output. This mainly focused on reducing NOX and SOX, although one sentance about climate change and a discussion about "increased barriers to entry for building new coal plants" (due to financing/ the capital market crises and future regulation) was mentioned. The presentation also mentioned the company's focus on "diversification of fuel sources," although the graph that was up during this discussion showed energy production from only coal and natural gas. During the question and answer period I pointed out that this was not a truely diverse portfolio, since it excluded renewables, the only type of energy production that has no carbon risk. Williamson's response to this was that they only build new plants which have long-term buyers lined up in advance and if he could find someone willing to buy a long-term contract for a renewable facility, he would consider building a production facility to meet that contract.

Then I had a chance to make my presentation, which focused on the climate risks that shareholders will have to deal with:

We, as Dynegy Shareholders, will have to deal with the negative financial consequences of a large coal portfolio when carbon regulation is implemented. Thankfully, this impending regulation does not have to hurt the company. Renewable energy sources like wind are demonstrating increased profitability with each year that passes.

Coal is last century's technology. Renewable Energy is the future. Dynegy can invest in the past or lead the way to a new energy economy. The choice is yours.

Click "Read more" for the full text of my statement. CEO Williamson thanked me for my comments but did not respond directly. Nancy Henchel then spoke from the heart about her concerns, which focused on the health and well being of future generations

I'm glad that I got the chance to deliver the message of No New Coal to the inside of the corporate beast. I'm confident that we made it a bad media day for Dynegy and shifted the focus from profits to climate change the people it effects. The power that I had inside the corporate boardroom was that I represented not only the 10,000 Co-op America members that signed my letter, but a movement that has held two Step It Up events in over a thousand communities nationwide, a movement that has convinced the Supreme Court, the leader of the House and Senate, and every major presidential candidate that carbon must be cut 80% by 2050. I got inside the belly of the beast and I told them that our government is going to regulate carbon and that we are going to continue to fight every plant they proposed until they invest in renewable energy instead. I only have that power because of the work that we all do together. So keep up the good work and keep on organizing!

My statement to Dynegy:

Good morning Mr. Williamson, members of the Board and my fellow shareholders. My name is Yochanan Zakai and I am here to speak on behalf of Co-op America and the Sierra Club, two nonprofit organizations which have gathered over ten thousand signatures calling upon Dynegy to cancel plans to build new coal-fired power plants and instead make a serious investment in renewable energy. Outside this meeting one hundred leaders from the six communities in which Dynegy plans to build new coal plants have gathered to ask you not to build new coal plants in their communities.

I would like to commend you for listening to your shareholders and agreeing to investigate adopting greenhouse gas reduction goals. I look forward to reading the report's conclusions, but this first step in addressing climate risk does not go far enough to protect the value of the company.

Coal-burning power plants are not a viable long-term means of providing safe and affordable energy. Coal-fired power plants produce about 40% of the CO2 emitted in the U.S. and there is legislation pending before congress to cut carbon emissions 80% by 2050.

Many voices are calling for carbon regulation:

• Supreme Court has declared that carbon is a pollutant and ordered the EPA to regulate it.
• Utilities such as Duke Energy and Pacific Gas and Electric are calling for government regulation of carbon
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, quote "There's not a coal-fired plant in America that's clean. They're all dirty."
• Every major presidential candidate supports a cap on carbon.

Considering the inevitability of impending carbon regulation it is surprising that Dynegy is proposing to build more new coal-fired power plants than any of its competitors.

Why does Dynegy continue to make investments in coal when its competitors are abandoning their plans for new coal plants?

Now is the time to cancel plans to build dirty coal plants. Proposals now before congress will tax all carbon sources, including those power plants already built. According to Speaker Nancy Pelsoi, there will be no "grandfathering" of existing plants out of carbon regulation.

If Dynegy builds six new coal plants the company will face higher costs once carbon regulations are implemented. These are costs your competitors, who have already shunned new coal, will not have to deal with in their new facilities.

We, as Dynegy Shareholders, will have to deal with the negative financial consequences of a large coal portfolio when carbon regulation is implemented. Thankfully, this impending regulation does not have to hurt the company. Renewable energy sources like wind are demonstrating increased profitability with each year that passes.

Coal is last century's technology. Renewable Energy is the future. Dynegy can invest in the past or lead the way to a new energy economy. The choice is yours.

Global warming is causing significant changes to the Earth's natural systems and it is highly unlikely that any force but man-made climate change can be blamed .

Researchers who analysed 30,000 academic studies dating back to 1970 said man was responsible for changes that ranged from the loss of ice sheets to the collapse in numbers of many species of wildlife.
[....]
On a planetary scale the changes include the melting of glaciers on all continents; earlier spring river run-off; and the warming of oceans, lakes and rivers.
[....]
In Europe, they found evidence of glaciers melting in the Alps; earlier pollen release in the Netherlands; and apple trees producing leaves 35 days earlier in Spain.

In Asia they reported a change in the freeze depth of permafrost in Russia; and the earlier flowering of ginkgo in Japan.

In Antarctica, the population of emperor penguins had declined by 50 per cent. In South America, the melting of the Patagonia ice-fields were contributing to a rise in sea levels.

Prof. Barry Brook, of the University of Adelaide, described the evidence that mankind was altering the world as "overwhelming".

He said: "These changes are only a minor portent of what is likely to come."

Ahem. (Just clearing my throat....) "BULLSHIT".

All these conclusions from, what was it, 38 years of "data". My , my. How extraordinary. What far reaching studies these must have been. Sorry, but I don't buy into it.

All these things go on every once in a while and have done so for millennia. It's called a natural cycle. 800,000 years ago Greenland was ice free. 1000 years ago it was green. Why do you think the Vikings called it "Greenland"? And Newfoundland as we call it now, was then called "Vineland" by the same Vikings. Not many grapes growing there now I suppose? I can't seem to find a bottle of Newfoundland Chablis anywhere. Must have been all those horse drawn SUV's that Erik the Red imported. But let's not mention the medieval warm period that lasted just 400 years, and was a good deal warmer than anything we are experiencing here and now. That only confuses the MMGW crowd. In fact, it allowed Europe to blossom and thrive. Just before the little ice age set in. Which we are still recovering from, globally speaking.

I wonder who pays these people to say these things? Read the whole idiocy for yourselves and try not to laugh out loud.

The Telegraph.

Our leaders in Washington have allowed people like Al Gore to convince them that the global warming scare is something that should take high priority. The irrational, liberal environmentalists have been able to influence our lawmakers on Capital Hill to put regulations on oil companies, and car manufacturers opening the door for further regulation of the free market. They put regulations on these business and at the same time the federal government continues to grow more and more beyond its limitations. The Supreme Court has defined carbon dioxide as a pollutant. I was always under the assumption that the Supreme Court existed to interpret law, and not make decisions based on what constitutes a pollutant. Under such a decision should people be considered walking pollution distributers? Should Volcanoes be considered giant pollution manufacturers? I am in no way an expert on environmental sciences, but I can't help but wonder how a natural gas could be considered a pollutant. You would think if the environmentalists who buy into this crap were concerned about the environment they would keep in mind that the plant life on this planet feed off carbon dioxide. My question is, why is the Supreme Court wasting time and taxpayer money on coming up with decisions like this?

Our country is facing more important problems than global warming, and as long as liberals on Capital Hill try to grip the country in fear of a natural phenomenon like global warming then we are never going to get what needs to be done, done.

Now the “dark tints” have returned. The World Bank recently announced that thirty-three countries are confronting food crises, as the prices of various staples have soared. From January to April of this year, the cost of rice on the international market went up a hundred and forty-one per cent. Pakistan has reintroduced ration cards. In Egypt, the Army has started baking bread for the general population. The Haitian Prime Minister was ousted after hunger riots. The current crisis could push another hundred million people deeper into poverty. Is the world’s population about to be “checked” by its failure to produce enough food?

Paul Roberts is the second author in the past couple of years to publish a book entitled “The End of Food”—the first, by Thomas F. Pawlick, appeared in 2006. Pawlick, an investigative journalist from Ontario, was concerned with such predicaments as the end of the tasty tomato and its replacement by “red tennis balls” lacking in both flavor and nutrients. (The modern tomato, he reported, contains far less calcium and Vitamin A than its 1963 counterpart.) These worries seem rather tame compared with Roberts’s; his book grapples with the possible termination of food itself, and its replacement by—what? Cormac McCarthy’s novel “The Road” contains a vision of a future in which just about the only food left is canned, from happier times; when the cans run out, the humans eat one another. Roberts lacks McCarthy’s Biblical cadences, but his narrative is intended to be no less terrifying.

Roberts’s work is part of a second wave of food-politics books, which has taken the genre to a new level of apocalyptic foreboding. The first wave was led by Eric Schlosser’s “Fast Food Nation” (2001), and focussed on the perils of junk food. “Fast Food Nation” painted an alarming picture—one learned about the additives in a strawberry milkshake, the traces of excrement in hamburger meat—but it also left some readers with a feeling of mild complacency, as they closed the book and turned to a wholesome supper of spinach and ricotta tortellini. There is no such reassurance to be had from the new wave, in which Roberts’s book is joined by “Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System,” by Raj Patel (Melville House; $19.95); “Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood,” by Taras Grescoe (Bloomsbury; $24.99); and “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto,” by Michael Pollan, the poet of the group (Penguin Press; $21.95).
All of these authors agree that the entire system of Western food production is in need of radical change, right down to the spinach. Roberts opens with a description of E.-coli-infected spinach from California, which killed three people in 2006 and sickened two hundred others. The E. coli was traced to the guts of a wild boar that may have tracked the bug in from a nearby cattle ranch. Industrial farming means that even those on a vegan diet may reap the nastier effects of intensive meat production. It is no longer enough for individuals to switch to “healthier” choices in the supermarket. Schlosser asked his readers to consider the chain of consequences they set in motion every time they sit down to eat in a fast-food outlet. Roberts wants us to consider the “chain of transactions and reactions” represented by each of our food purchases—“by each ripe melon or freshly baked bagel, by each box of cereal or tray of boneless skinless chicken breasts.” This time, we are all implicated.

Like Malthus, Roberts sees humanity increasingly struggling to meet its food needs. He predicts that in the next forty years, as agriculture is threatened by climate change, “demand for food will rise precipitously,” outstripping supply. The reasons for this, however, are not strictly Malthusian. For Malthus, famine was inevitable because the math of human existence did not add up: the means of subsistence grew only arithmetically (1, 2, 3), whereas population grew geometrically (2, 4, 8). By this analysis, food production could never catch up with fertility. Malthus was wrong, on both counts. In his treatise, Malthus couldn’t envisage any innovations for increasing yield beyond “dressing” the soil with cattle manure. In the decades after he wrote, farmers in England took advantage of new machinery, powerful fertilizers, and higher-yield seeds, and supply rose faster than demand. As the availability of food increased, and people became more prosperous, fertility fell.

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Sen. Gail Schwartz's SB08-215 would direct Colorado's Chief Information Officer to identify broadband telecommunications service areas within Colorado and develop a map of those areas. That map would later be used to plan the deployment of broadband service to unserved areas of the state. As Sen. Schwartz noted, rural access to broadband has fallen way behind access in the Front Range.

Which is interesting, because the telecom corporations were given billions of welfare dollars as long as they deployed high-speed broadband to everybody within the U.S. Hasn't happened has it? Neither broadband nor high-speed is really all that available. The U.S. ranks 25th in the world in broadband penetration. Japan's broadband delivers data at an average rate of 14176 kb/s, nearly twice as much as the second place country, Sweden. The U.S. doesn't appear in the top 10. We do however, place high on the list of cost for access. We pay the most for slow service.

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Sen. Dan Gibbs HB08-1269, which would provide incentives for products that use timber killed by the mountain pine beetle infestation, passed the CO Senate unanimously. Good: wildfire is nonpartisan.

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Gov. Ritter did sign HB08-1270, which extended the types of energy efficiency items HOAs must allow in Colorado. Now, wind generators, awnings, shutters, attich fans, swamp coolers and retractable clothes lines will be permitted.

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More good energy news: HB08-1164 was sent to Gov. Ritter. This bill asks the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to consider purchasing utility-scale solar energy when it's feasible to do so, and to take into account the future cost of carbon-based energy sources and the impace of greenhouse gases when purchasing energy. The local energy market will be opened to large scale solar energy production. To put "large" into perspective: one large scale solar plant could generate 250 new high-skilled jobs and $2 billion in private investment.

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