Serious consideration is being given to the mad proposition of engineering the biosphere as a solution to climate change [ark]. Technological pseudo-scientific proposals for humans to engineer atmospheric processes are dubbed "geoengineering" [search] and generally seek to either reflect solar radiation or absorb greenhouse gases. They include such shortsighted, ill-conceived and risky ideas as mass release of aerosols into the atmosphere, fertilizing oceans with iron, and others, including my personal favorite, stationing mirrors above the Earth. Given the complexity of the Earth System, almost certain unintended consequences and the risk of doing immense further damage to global ecology; geo-engineering amounts to ecological vandalism.

Geoengineering is indicative of both humanity's ignorance and laziness when confronted with tremendous challenges of their own making such as climate change. Don’t try to change society to massively reduce emissions, don’t sacrifice or give up anything, don’t try to change the government through protest or revolution. Instead, take a craps shoot and bet the whole planet that you can engineer the biosphere. This "Plan B" comes as there have been little serious efforts at a "Plan A". What of using all resources at our disposal -- including politically engaged ecologists and other Earth scientists -- to conserve energy, reduce emissions and pursue renewable alternatives? Have we really, fully tried that yet? We are unable to control even most invasive species, for example getting zebra mussels out of the Great Lakes. Yet now humanity is going to be responsible for engineering a livable biosphere forever?

Throbgoblins International: Cantankerous Frank, by Marc Roberts

Continue reading "Geoengineering a Biosphere: Stupid, Dangerous and Doomed to Failure" »

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As Brazil and the world mourn and memorialize the great Amazon rainforest advocate Chico Mendes [ark], two things have become abundantly clear. First, to speak and organize for Amazonian rainforest ecological sustainability still remains virtually a death sentence in Brazil. Hundreds of Brazilians activists are routinely threatened with assassination [ark]. This is so sad, and lack of a massive government response unforgivable, given increased ecological sensitivity and desire to act nationally.

And secondly, despite improved efforts at least rhetorically by the Brazilian government, the Amazon's rainforests, and thus global atmospheric and ecological sustainability, remain deeply threatened. With deforestation having increased [search] by 64% this past year, it is difficult to envision a future solution -- based upon continued piddly policy half-measures and NGO token projects -- that keeps the Amazon intact and fully functional as a whole.

Clear prohibitions in the Amazon and rest of the world's rainforests on any industrial logging and development, backed up with a well-funded and trained enforcement, would be the sufficient place to start. If this massive planetary ecosystem engine is fragmented and diminished, collapsing into pieces, Brazil and the Earth's habitability will be deeply threatened. Only responses at scales commiserate to the problem can save the Amazon now.

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President Morales must be encouraged to live up to his grand rhetoric, and end his government's hurried measures to decimate massive indigenous rainforest protected areas and their biodiversity and climate values, in a manner eerily reminiscent of the capitalistic system against which he rallies

TAKE ACTION! Bolivia's Madidi National Park [search] and Pilón Lajas Biosphere Reserve are communal lands containing some of the most biodiverse areas on earth. With the assent of President Evo Morales, the oil giant Petrobas and collaborators have begun an oil exploration assault that threatens not only these remarkable ecosystems, but also the culture and livelihood of the resident indigenous peoples. Mr. Morales must be encouraged to live up to his grand rhetoric, and end his government's hurried plans to decimate indigenous protected areas, local sustainable livelihoods and their rainforest lands' biodiversity and climate values. TAKE ACTION!

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EARTH MEANDERS
By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet
From Earth's Newsdesk

Using carbon funds, the world's governments are poised to subsidize ancient forest logging, claiming it benefits the Earth's climate. REDD's potential support of "low impact" logging of ancient forests, and conversion of natural forests to tree farms, fails the climate, biodiversity and biosphere.

Plans to pay for rainforest protection using funds from carbon markets progressed during this week's UN climate talks. I have long promoted the deceptively simple idea of paying to keep rainforests standing, yet am far from jubilant with the results. It appears first time, industrial logging of ancient forests -- through so-called low-impact and certified logging, and the conversion of these and other natural forests to plantations -- is falsely considered as having carbon benefits, and will be paid for with our tax dollars and carbon offsets.

The concept of paying for rainforest protection with carbon money has become known as avoided deforestation, or alternatively, as REDD for "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation". Like many promising concepts before it (i.e. "sustainable development" and "certified forestry"), REDD is in danger of becoming empty jargon meant to legitimate continued environmentally destructive activities.

Continue reading "EARTH MEANDERS: Light REDD: The Looming Tragedy of Carbon Markets Paying to Destroy Ancient Forests" »

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President Obama now has chance to protect America's forest legacy, and allow Oregon and the nation's overworked forest biodiversity and carbon stores to recover ecologically

(Seattle, WA) -- Ecological Internet (EI) welcomes Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski's decision to block Bush administration plans to sharply increase logging [search] on 2.2 million acres of BLM forests in Western Oregon. Kulongoski concluded that President Bush's hastily arrived at logging plan did not conform [ark] to federal environmental laws such as the Endangered Species Act, and failed to protect and restore mature forests to sequester carbon. It would have locked in Bush's anti-environment, industrial forestry model for decades.

By waiting until the deadline and calling for revisions and a 30-day extension for public comment, Kulongoski put off final approval until the administration of Democratic President-elect Barack Obama. This decision will ultimately be made by the new U.S. Secretary of the Interior and Congress. This forbearance was not a foregone conclusion, as Oregon has a long history of forest patronage and destroying terrestrial ecosystems for short term economic gain causing long term environmental pain.

This is a major victory for Ecological Internet and others that campaigned for this outcome, and portends greater ecological restoration of America's biodiversity and carbon stores once the "Toxic Texan" has left town, and the much anticipated era of ecological hope commences. EI's Earth Action Network got just what we asked for, and this most recent victory once again demonstrates our global leadership in using the Internet to facilitate environmental conservation.

Continue reading "VICTORY RELEASE: Oregon's Governor Stymies Bush's "Midnight" Forest Raid" »

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Ecological Internet's campaign to end ancient forest logging as the keystone response to the climate and biodiversity crises continues to gain both scientific credibility and prominence within the environmental movement. A new atlas from the UN Environment Programme shows not surprisingly that most of the world's terrestrial biodiversity and carbon storage hotspots [ark] are found in Earth's last great primary and old growth forest expanses. Find ways to maintain these areas in an intact condition while meeting local development aspirations, without stealing their land, and the world is well on the way to global ecological sustainability.

For several years Ecological Internet has informed the forest movement and the world that perhaps the greatest impediment to doing so is greenwash perpetuated by the likes of Greenpeace, WWF, RAN and FSC that the world's last primeval ecosystems should be logged. The Ecologist magazine notes in their current issue Ecological Internet's campaign discrediting the myth that ancient forests can be logged in an environmentally acceptable manner. To make the green mainstream media after years of ridicule (Greenpeace would never support ancient forest logging, hah) is gratifying. There we get FSC's first response to two years of campaigning, answering how logging ancient forests benefits the environment:

"The FSC counters that in order to be effective as the demand for timber grows, it is forced to work with industrial logging companies and allow the sustainable cutting of old-growth and primary forests... allowing logging places an economic value on the forest ecosystem, which in turn helps avoid the ground being clear-cut for pasture or crop monocultures."

Continue reading "Ecological Internet's Campaign to End Ancient Forest Logging Gaining Support" »

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Like his Presidency, it is time for President Bush's looting, plundering, and pillaging of America’s natural beauty, ecological treasures and vital ecosystems to end

TAKE ACTION! The Bush Administration is rushing out long-term plans that would convert over 2 million acres of Oregon's national forests, with their towering trees, rushing rivers, and superb wildlife habitat, to empty clearcuts. Much of the forests under siege are in the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion [search] nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the Cascade Crest, which contains some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the continent. There are some 20,000 miles of rivers, where wild Pacific salmon thrive. Ancient old-growth forests are abundant -- home to huge Douglas fir, western hemlock and western red cedar trees -- some well over 400 years old.

The plan increases logging by 400% and would target 100,000 acres of old-growth forests for destruction. Oregon Governor Kulongoski is the only elected official standing between the Bush Administration and western Oregon's forests, rivers and salmon. He is allowed a 60-day "consistency review" period to propose recommendations for changes to land use plans. Please encourage the governor to propose significant amendments, pushing this decision to the Obama administration. TAKE ACTION!

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PRESS/SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE

Ecological Internet's latest offering focuses upon truthfully knowing global ecological crises in order to effectively develop and implement ecologically sufficient solutions

By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

(Seattle, WA) -- Ecological Internet, the world's leading provider of on-line environmental portals and action opportunities, is pleased to announce New Earth Rising, a new fiercely biocentric online magazine (e-zine), committed to thought and action to achieve global ecological sustainability. The green publication launches today at http://www.newearthrising.org/ and free subscriptions can be made at http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/subscribe/ .

The inaugural issue, entitled Ecological Truth and Transformative Action, features original and diverse green essays that seek to more fully know Earth's crises -- including climate change, water scarcity and forest diminishment -- in order to achieve ecologically sufficient solutions. New Earth Rising links what is known regarding global ecological crises with specific personal and social transformations necessary for shared survival and to sustain being.

Continue reading "RELEASE: New Earth Rising -- a New Biocentric E-zine -- Launches as Time to Achieve Global Ecological Sustainability Grows Short" »

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PRESS/SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE

Cursory review of FSC's controversial certifications completely fails to question false premise that primary and old-growth forest logging is ever "well-managed", instead calling for better training manuals for ancient forest destruction

By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

(Seattle, WA) -- Today Greenpeace International released a report entitled "Holding the Line with FSC"[1] which reaffirms Greenpeace's unflinching support for the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) [search] past and on-ongoing industrial first-time logging of hundreds of millions of hectares of primary and old-growth forests. Greenpeace and other "forest protection" groups like the Rainforest Action Network and WWF continue to provide crucial greenwash for the false premise that ancient forest logging [search] is desirable and can ever be considered "well-managed".

Greenpeace was the target of a series of protests in 2007 led by Ecological Internet, as Greenpeace held FSC's international chairmanship, regarding their continued support for ancient forest logging given widespread irregularities. At that time they agreed to review problematic FSC certifications, and to respond to criticism regarding FSC's dependence upon ancient forest logging. Their new report fails miserably on both counts.

Continue reading "Greenpeace Reaffirms Support for Ancient Forest Logging" »

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New research in Royal Society journal Philosophical Transactions A "suggests that chopping down forests could accelerate global warming [ark] more than was thought, and that protecting existing trees could be one of the best ways to tackle the problem." The report quantifies how the release of the chemical terpene from forest canopies [search] leads to cloud formation that cools the climate. Given ancient forests' massive canopies, the findings further clarify intact forest wildernesses' critical role in maintaining an operable atmosphere.

Much remains to be learned regarding Gaia's workings, forests' interaction with climate, and the need for ecologically sufficient policy-making, yet it is gratifying to see formal science continue to catch up with Ecological Internet's biocentric campaigns. Given additional recent scientific findings that old-growth forests continue to remove atmospheric carbon indefinitely, and primary forests lose much of their carbon permanently when first logged, there is no longer any justification for destruction of ancient forests. And presenting "sustainable" logging of such sacred and life-giving primeval treasures as having environmental benefits is ecologically bereft and criminally negligent (you know who you are, and we are coming for you).

Through a combination of ecological science and intuition, Ecological Internet and predecessors have long known that loss of intact forest habitats is the key cause of climate change, as well as general biodiversity, ecosystem and biosphere collapse. We know that ending humanity's cutting and burning of itself to death is key to our shared survival. In particular, global ecological sustainability is going to require giving up timbers accessed from ancient forests, and restoring old-growth forests worldwide. Ecological Internet is going to keep on saying this, confronting those that say otherwise, whatever the costs, because it is the ecological truth necessary to sustain being.

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