Forest Protection Blog

EARTH MEANDERS: Raping Kids and Earth

2012-05-14T22:23:04Z

What kind of sickos destroy children and ecosystems? Well actually, a surprising number do. Most are against both types of victimization of innocence and purity - as long as you don�t talk or do anything about it when it happens.

By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet
Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk

Earth is so beautiful, so perfect in its intimate interconnectivity, as are humans in their ability to create and transcend, to pass down knowledge, love, and ecological habitat to our children. Yet we know �especially direct victims of childhood rape and ecocide � that Earth and her humanity are filled with a dark, narcissistic self-destructiveness as well.

Two of the very worst evils stalking the land are those who sexually abuse children, and those who wage ecocide upon ecosystems. In fact, they are two sides of the same coin. This is going to be a deeply revealing and challenging essay. If you don�t think freely with an open mind; and are, well, dumb and insensitive, you may not want to try.

]]> Earth and childhood innocence are two of the most profoundly truthful things ever. Yet humanity�s increasingly predatory nature threatens both. The urge to penetrate and destroy the souls of old forests and young children are a grotesque perversion, illustrating the evil that exists � within depraved soulless modernity � cut off from community, nature, and knowledge of right-living.

One of the worst aspects of both childhood sexual and ecocidal abuse is the extent to which talking about these pervasive and perverse ills are taboo. There are other similarities. Both desecrate what is good, loving, truthful, and required for continued human and natural life by dirty, ugly, vulgar, and deathly power. There is of course the penetration � the perverse, evil desire by some to place their drill in warm and wet crevasses to extract energy while destroying the energy source.

Logging primary forests is very similar to raping children both in moral terror and lasting horrific consequences � the difference is largely only one of scale. The rhythmic pounding of the chainsaw into ancient forests reminds me of being raped. The same impulses that lead us to unquestionably destroy 60 million year old ecosystems for lawn furniture are on display as children are treated like flotsam, indeed trafficked as a commodity, for momentary ejaculatory self-gratification.

I was terribly sexually abused as a child, and have only recently emerged � damaged but mostly recovered � from the acts, the cover-up, and the continued demands by perpetrators and their protectors for silence. Being sodomized and forced to participate in sex acts by an Uncle were horrific enough. But even more detrimental, hurtful, and damaging to my development as a fully actualized human-being was an entire childhood growing up in an environment where my father was routinely sexually abusing a sibling, and where sexual abuse was epidemic in the extended family.

Growing up in a home rife with sexual energy directed at children is devastating, the degree of which was only fully revealed to me as an adult. I look back and realize how these criminal acts � sexual abuse, titillating sexual contact, man boy sex, and a massive cover-up blaming the victims � change your whole way of viewing the world. I am now clear � during what was otherwise a decent upbringing � I and others around me were dramatically and permanently impacted upon by the sexual crimes and cover-ups as family roles, boundaries, and sexual morals didn�t exist. Speaking openly on such matters helps me with my mostly completed yet always tenuous recovery.

I was also born onto a dying planet, where ecocidal and wide ranging human psychosis � destroying all that is natural, good, truthful and life-affirming � is hailed as advancement and development. The personal victimization I experienced occurs daily on a local, regional and global scale as ecosystems that provide for our water, air, food and culture are brutally pillaged � along with all their bounteous life �without regard to anything but the lust for profit. As a trained ecologist, I am privy to Earth�s historic rape in every tarnished ecosystem I see, as I bear witness to Gaia�s and our death.

Earth is routinely ripped open with over-eager, hammy hands, reaching between her legs for treasures that should remain buried. Old forests are not meant to be logged for toilet paper, nor are gas and oil to be ripped from deep within Gaia�s body to poison the air life breathes. Humanity�s long-time rape of the natural world is killing Earth and will result in all life�s final demise unless the ecocidal rapists are stopped � using all means necessary.

The next frontiers in civil rights and natural law are allowing nature, animals, and ecosystems to exist without threat of ecocide, and stopping the rape of our children. Some things need to end because they are objectively wrong and against continued truthful and sacred existence. Much of the abuse and harm we do to others is the result of abuse done to us, and everyone needs to break the cycle. Healthy children and ecosystems are needed simply for Earth and civilization � such as it is � to survive, much less continue to advance and thrive.

I am not looking for pity or making excuses, I just want it to stop � the silence, the lies, and the protecting of family reputations over justice for the abused, and the shame being redirected and falling upon the abusers. The belief that I could not, must not tell � that I was voiceless as I remained a silent victim in both regards � was deeply engrained as I and others are groomed to be sexual playthings of the powerful adults we love on a dying Earth.

Those concerned with children and ecology � whether victims yourself or not � must turn the focus back upon the perpetrators, and stop being victims of crimes that were no fault of your own. The shame belongs squarely upon the perps, and this will only happen when we talk of the evils of penetrating children and ecosystems. Abusive destruction of childhood innocence and life-giving ecosystems must be stopped � again � using all means necessary.

I really have little patience or desire to hear from people the same banalities of "get over it", "forgive", "move on". Anyone who as a child had their trust ripped away as they were raped and sodomized by those that said they loved them knows the permanent damage it causes, and I will not be silenced. I hope forgiveness comes, but not until responsibility is taken by the guilty, and the victimization ends.

It is not all right to rape and sexually arouse children, and I�m not going away, and holding my silence to protect the perpetrators any longer. I am not going away or stopping talking about the rape of Earth and children because it may make you feel uncomfortable talking about it.

About a year ago � after years of being rebuffed, put down, estranged from, and shamed by family members for asking what they knew about my abuse � I informed my small family that I would no longer remain silent about being raped and dealing with consequences of other family members around me being raped.

No longer would I be the victim, living in quivering shamed silence, because my uncle forced me into group sex with an aunt when I was five. Or stop trying to understand my memories of being sodomized with objects by the same uncle, and fondled and sexually aroused by just about any relative that wanted to cop a feel.

I would speak honestly of what it meant to grow up in a household where sexual abuse was routine, about how it changed all the family dynamics, led to over-compensation to get attention, and caused me other lasting developmental harm that I still struggle to overcome. And that I would continue to seek out information regarding who had done this to others and me, who knew � and were and are protecting the perpetrators � and why upon coming forth I am subjected to a whole new round of abusive victimization.

One family member in particular � my brother-in-law � feels justified in routinely threatening me if I speak publicly about having been sexually abused as a child, how it ran rampant in my family, or refuse to keep family secrets. Apparently as a victim of childhood rape, I do not own my body, my history, or my voice. Anyone thinking I will be silenced on these matters is deeply misled. Nor will I allow myself to be damaged by the victimization foisted upon me by other less grounded in the Earth and connected to the humanity of its most small, weak and hope-filled people.

The message of this essay is to call upon each of us to protect what is sacred and good in the next generation and their ecological habitat. It is these sorts of abuse � that we expect others to bear, unsupported, in silence and shame � that cause so much of Earth�s ills. Childhood and ecocidal abuse must be spoken of until there is justice and resolution, until they are ended for a more just, fair, and sustainable world.

Ecological Internet: Small Is Beautiful

2012-05-08T21:23:43Z

2012 Mid-Year Fund-Raising Launch - http://climateark.org/shared/donate/

Dear Earth friends,

There is nothing like Ecological Internet on Earth, for Earth. For two decades this lean, highly effective effort has pioneered the use of the Internet for ecological protection. Our half a million strong global network has facilitated hundreds of environmental victories through online protest, biocentric advocacy tools, and sharing of deep green thought. Together we are having the same or greater impact for Earth as much larger organizations, without the greenwash.

Today we launch our 13th annual mid-year fund-raiser to continue doing so. Together we must raise a minimum of $25,000 to pay for staffing, computers and bandwidth. Will you please donate $10, $35, $100 or what you can afford � right away � to get us started? http://climateark.org/shared/donate/

]]> Ecological Internet has proven decisively that it is not the size of the environmental group that matters; it is size of the ecology vision and fight, and dedication to ecologically sufficient policy to sustain global ecology. Now is the time for you to support one of the Earth�s most important voices for biocentric policy � such as ending old forest logging, fossil fuels, and industrial growth - adequate to sustain Earth�s ecosystems.

Small � ecological science-based, people power environmental activism � is beautiful, and just more effective that the corporatist environmental movement.

Ecological Internet and I are honored to serve global ecology by speaking on Earth�s behalf. These efforts epitomize selfless service to sustain Earth's ecology, human family, and all life. I have built Ecological Internet through decades of extreme personal sacrifice, including taking on considerable debt, and I need your financial help to move forward.

Please support Ecological Internet at http://climateark.org/shared/donate/ as we fund-raise until the goal is met. And please understand that public broadcasting type appeals like this allow us to raise funds unencumbered by special interests and greenwash. In subsequent appeals we look forward to sharing our big plans moving forward, and to meeting and surpassing this modest financial goal together.

For Earth,
Dr. Glen Barry

P.S. Your tax-deductible gift of $50 or what you can afford will keep the loudest, most persistent voice for Earth � and policies needed to sustain global ecology � online and running at full speed. For the cost of less than one big NGO staff person, you will continue Ecological Internet�s speaking of ecological truth to power. You, Earth and I will be glad that you donate to sustain global ecology right now! http://climateark.org/shared/donate/

ALERT! End Old-Growth Temperate Rainforest Logging in Alaska�s Tongass National Forest

2012-04-29T18:58:00Z

TAKE ACTION to protect key Asian elephant habitats and their ecosystems

TAKE ACTION!

It is time to end US old-growth logging, most of which exists in Alaska�s Tongass National Forest [search]. Please urge the federal government to see the salmon and ecosystems through the dwindling old-growth trees for timber, and shift the focus from logging to an ecological protection economy in Earth�s largest temperate rainforest. With only 0.5% of Tongass�s old-growth remaining � the last areas still containing very large 300-800 year old trees � it is unconscionable that the United States of America continues with proposals to log these last tiny patches. If proposals to further log Tongass� last old forests advance, it further clearly illustrates the United States has zero international credibility on issues of primary forest protection, climate change, and policy to achieve global ecological sustainability.

EARTH MEANDERS: The Great Rainforest Heist

2012-04-16T14:36:03Z

How environmental groups gone bad greenwash logging Earth�s last primary old forests

Essay by Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet
Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk

The world�s pre-eminent environmental organizations, widely perceived as the leading advocates for rainforests and old growth, have for decades been actively promoting primary forest logging [search]. Groups like Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network (RAN), The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, World Wide Fund for Nature/World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Environmental Defense Fund actively promote industrially logging Earth�s last old forests. Through their support of the existing �Forest Stewardship Council� (FSC), and/or planned compromised �Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation� (REDD), they are at the forefront of destroying ancient forests for disposable consumer items � claiming it is �sustainable forest management� and �carbon forestry�.

Rainforest movement corruption is rampant as these big bureaucratic, corporatist NGOs conspire to log Earth's last primary rainforests and other old growth forests. Collectively the �NGO Old Forest Sell-Outs� are greenwashing FSC�s destruction of over 300,000,000 acres of old forests, destroying an area of primary rainforests and other old forests the size of South Africa (two times the size of Texas)! FSC and its members have built a massive market for continued business as usual industrially harvested primary forest timbers � with minor, cosmetic changes � certifying as acceptable murdering old forests and their life for consumption of products ranging from toilet paper to lawn furniture. Some 70% of FSC products contain primary forest timbers, and as little as 10% of any product must be from certified sources.

]]> FSC has become a major driver of primary forest destruction and forest ecological diminishment. Despite certifying less than 10% of the world�s forest lands, their rhetoric and marketing legitimizes the entire tropical and old growth timber trade, and a host of even worse certifiers of old forest logging. It is expecting far too much for consumers to differentiate between the variety of competing and false claims that old growth timbers are green and environmentally sustainable � when in fact none are. While other certification schemes may be even worse, this is not the issue, as industrial first-time primary forest logging cannot be done ecologically sustainably and should not be happening at all. FSC�s claims to being the best destroyer of primary forests is like murdering someone most humanely, treating your slaves the best while rejecting emancipation, or being half pregnant.

To varying degrees, most of the NGO Old Forest Sell-Outs also support the United Nations� new "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation" program (UNREDD, REDD, or REDD+), originally intended to protect Earth's remaining and rapidly diminishing primary rainforests and other old forests, by making "avoided deforestation" payments to local forest peoples as an international climate and deforestation solution. Large areas of primary and old-growth forests were to be fully protected from industrial development, local communities were to both receive cash payments while continuing to benefit from standing old forests, and existing and new carbon was to be sequestered.

After years of industry, government and NGO forest sell-out pressure, REDD+ will now fund first time industrial primary rainforest logging and destruction under the veil of "sustainable forest management" and "carbon forestry". REDD+ is trying to be all things to everybody � forest logging, protection, plantations, carbon, growth � when all we need is local funding to preserve standing forests for local advancement, and local and global ecology; and assurances provided REDD+ would not steal indigenous lands, or be funded by carbon markets, allowing the rich to shirk their own emissions reductions.

Sustainable forest management in old forests is a myth and meaningless catchphrase to allow continued western market access to primary rainforest logs. Both FSC and now REDD+ enable destruction of ancient naturally evolved ecosystems � that are priceless and sacred � for throw away consumption. Increasingly both FSC and REDD+ are moving towards certifying and funding the conversion of natural primary forests to be cleared and replanted as plantations. They call it carbon forestry and claim it is a climate good. Even selective logging destroys primary forests, and what remains is so greatly ecologically reduced from first time industrial logging, that they are on their way to being plantations.

Naturally evolved ancient forests are sacred and primeval life giving shrines, and standing and intact, large and contiguous primary rainforest and other old forests are a requirement for sustaining global ecology and achieving local advancement. Old forests are a vital part of the biosphere's ecological infrastructure � and have a prominent, central role in making the Earth habitable through their cycling of carbon, energy, water, and nutrients. Planetary boundaries have been exceeded, we have already lost too many intact terrestrial ecosystems, and what remains is inadequate to sustain global ecology.

Primary rainforests cannot be logged in an ecologically sustainable manner; once logged � selectively, certified, legally or not � for throw-away consumer crap, their primary nature is destroyed, and ecological composition and dynamics are lost forever. What remains is permanently ecologically diminished in terms of composition, structure, function, dynamics, and evolutionary potential. Logged primary forests' carbon stores, biodiversity and ecosystems will never be the same in any reasonable time-span. Selective, industrially logged primary rainforests become fragmented, burn more and are prone to outright deforestation.

Primary forest logging is a crime against Earth, the human family and all life - and those doing the logging, profiting and greenwashing the ecocide are dangerous criminals - who must be stopped and brought to justice. There is a zero chance of protecting and ending first time industrial logging of primary rainforests when the NGO Old Forest Sell-Outs say it is sustainable, even desirable, and continue to greenwash FSC old growth timber markets � now to be expanded with potential REDD funding � providing crucial political cover and PR for forest ecocide through their presence in the organizations.

Each of the named organizations� forest campaigns are a corrupt shell of their former selves � acting unethically and corruptly � destroying global ecology and local options for advancement, for their own benefit. The rainforest logging apologists have chosen power, prestige and money coming from sitting at the old forest logging mafia's table, gathering the crumbs fallen from the table to enrich their empires, rather than the difficult yet necessary job of working to fully protect rainforests and other primary forests from industrial development.

WWF, Greenpeace, and RAN are particularly culpable. With rainforests threatened as never before, RAN targets the Girl Scouts, Greenpeace supports Kleenex�s clearcut of Canadian old growth boreal forests for toilet paper, and WWF runs a bad-boy logger club who pay $50,000 to use the panda logo while continuing to destroy primary forests.

The only way this NGO old forest greenwash logging machine will be stopped is to make doing so too expensive to their corporate bureaucracies in terms of lost donations, grants, and other support � whose sources are usually unaware of the great rainforest heist. Ecological Internet � the rainforest campaign organization I head � and others feel strongly, based upon the urgency of emerging ecological science, and our closeness to global ecological collapse, that it is better to fight like hell in any way we can to fully protect and restore standing old forests as the most desirable forest protection outcome. Greenwash of first time industrial primary forest logging must be called out wherever it is occurring, and resisted by those in the global ecology movement committed to sustaining local advancement and ecosystems from standing old forests. There is no value in unity around such dangerous, ecocidal policy.

Despite tens of thousands of people from around the world asking these pro-logging NGOs to stop their old forest logging greenwash, none of the organizations (who routinely campaign against other forest destroyers, making similar demands for transparency and accountability) feel obligated to explain in detail � including based upon ecological-science � how logging primary forests protects them. Nor can they provide any detailed justification � or otherwise defend � the ecology, strategy and tactics of continued prominent involvement in FSC and REDD primary forest logging. They clearly have not been following ecological science over the past few years, which has made it clear there is no such thing as ecologically sustainable primary forest logging, and that large, old, contiguous, un-fragmented and fully ecologically intact natural forests are critical to biodiversity, ecosystems, and environmental sustainability.

We must end primary and other old forest logging for full community protection and restoration. The human family must protect and restore old forests � starting by ending industrial-scale primary forest logging � as a keystone response to biodiversity, ecosystem, climate, food, water, poverty and rights crises that are pounding humanity, ecosystems, plants and animals. There is no such thing as well-managed, sustainable primary forest logging � first time industrial harvest always destroys naturally evolved and intact ecosystems.

Humanity can, must and will � if it wishes to survive � meet wood product demand from certified regenerating and aging secondary growth and non-toxic, native species plantations. Humanity must meet market demand for well-managed forest timbers by certifying only 1) small-scale community eco-forestry practiced by local peoples in their primary forests (at very low volumes for special purposes and mostly local consumption), 2) regenerating and aging secondary forests regaining old-growth characteristics, and 3) non-toxic and mixed species plantations under local control. Further, reducing demand for all timber and paper products is key to living ecologically sustainably with old forests.

Local community development based upon standing old forests including small scale eco-forestry is fine. Small scale community eco-forestry has intact primary forests as its context for seed and animal sources, and management that mimics natural disturbance and gap species establishment. It is the industrial first time logging � selective logging, defined as selecting all merchantable, mature trees and logging them� turning primary forests into plantations, that is problematic. The goal must remain to maximize the extent, size, and connectivity of core primary forest ecosystems, to maximize global and local ecosystem processes, and local advancement and maintained well-being from standing old forests.

By dragging out the forest protection fight on a forest by forest basis, until ecological collapse becomes publicly acknowledged and society mobilizes, we can hold onto more ecosystems, biodiversity, and carbon than logging them a tiny bit better now. Soon � as abrupt climate change and global ecosystem collapse become even more self-evident � the human family will catch up with the ecological science and realize old forest destruction and diminishment must end as we ramp up natural regeneration and ecological restoration of large, connected natural forests adequate to power the global ecosystem. As society awakens to the need to sustain the biosphere, having as many intact ecosystems for models and seed sources for restoration as possible will be key to any sort of ecology and human recovery.

Rainforest protection groups engaged in greenwashing primary forest logging (an oxymoron misnomer if ever there was one), particularly while offering no defense of doing so, while raising enormous sums for rainforest �protection�, must be stopped. We must continue to call upon all big NGOs to resign from FSC and REDD, and join us in consistently working to end primary forest logging, and protect and restore old forests. Until they do, they must be boycotted and their funding cut off � even if this impacts other good works they may do, as old forests are such a fundamental ecological issue � until they stop greenwashing the final destruction of primary forests. And it is past time for their supporters to end their memberships as ultimately these big NGO businesses are more concerned with their image and money than achieving global forest policy that is ecologically sufficient, truthful, and successful.

As a rainforest movement, we must return to the goal of a ban on industrially harvested primary forest timbers. This means continuing to resist and obstruct old forest harvest, businesses (including NGO corporate sell-outs) involved, timber marketing, transportation, storage, milling, product construction, product marketing, and consumption. The entire supply chain for ecocidal primary forest timbers must be destroyed. More of us must return to the forests to work with local communities to build on-the-ground desire and capacity for ecologically inspired advancement from standing old forests, and physically obstructing old forest logging. We must make stolen, ill-gotten old wood from life-giving ecosystems an unacceptable taboo, like gorilla hand ash-trays, only worse. Together we must make old forest revolution.

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Join and follow the End Old Forest Logging campaign at http://facebook.com/ecointernet

ALERT! Indonesian Oil Palm Fires Threaten Important Orangutan Population with Extirpation

2012-04-01T13:30:47Z

By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal

TAKE ACTION to stop the massacre of Tripa�s orangutans

In a global tragedy for wildlife, rainforests and ecosystem sustainability; rainforest peat fires and land clearing by palm oil firms could finish killing off within weeks about 200 orangutans in an important rainforest habitat [search] in western Indonesia. The Tripa swamp rainforest in Aceh, Indonesia � home to one of the largest remaining populations of wild orangutans in the world � is ablaze as palm oil companies rush to clear forests before a court case stops their plantation expansion. Up to 100 of an already much diminished population may have been killed in recent months, and unless the land grabs and rainforest burning are immediately stopped, the local population of critically endangered Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) may soon go locally extinct, and the whole species soon thereafter.

TAKE ACTION
http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/alerts/sendsm.aspx?id=orangutan_oilpalm

ALERT! Congo's Rainforests � Including Gorilla Rich Virunga National Park - Targeted by UK�s SOCO Oil Company

2012-03-22T17:37:13Z

By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal

TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!

The Congo Basin [search]� home to some of Earth�s last large, ecologically intact, biodiversity rich rainforests � may soon be decimated by oil rigs, pipelines, deforestation, and oil spills. SOCO International � a London-listed oil company � has announced oil exploration plans in Virunga National Park - Africa�s oldest national park. Virunga is an UNESCO World Heritage site, home to a large population of wild gorillas, and many other important wildlife species, ecosystems, and local forest-dependent communities.

Oil exploration in these globally vital rainforest ecosystems will further set a dangerous precedent that nowhere � whether protected, or ecologically and socially important - is immune from oil industry destruction. Given record oil prices and growing global demand, it appears every last bit of Earth's large, wild and intact ecosystems will be sacrificed to industrial development � to extend our dependence upon fossil fuel, and delay transition now to renewable energy sources � while ensuring abrupt run-away climate change and global ecosystem collapse. Further rainforest ecocide for oil must end if we are to sustain global ecology. And standing old forests offer hope for advancement to the world�s forest dependent peoples.

TAKE ACTION
http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/alerts/sendsm.aspx?id=congo_oil_virunga

ALERT! Critical Indian Elephant Habitat Threatened Again, Must Enact Important Elephant Corridor

2012-03-10T15:38:08Z

TAKE ACTION to protect key Asian elephant habitats and their ecosystems

TAKE ACTION!

More than 6,000 Asian elephants [search] and hundreds of tigers still roam wild in South India, but rampant development and rapidly growing villages in the Sigur region of the Nilgiri foothills are choking off critical access corridors utilized by elephants to travel between still viable habitat areas. Following a 2006 national government declaration to protect elephant corridors (which Ecological Internet and YOU played a critical role in achieving), the Madras High Court of Tamil Nadu in 2010 issued an order to declare the Sigur Region an Elephant Corridor to regulate development and other activities affecting elephant habitat. Nevertheless, vested interests are vigorously opposing the order, causing the Tamil Nadu Ministry of Environment and Forests to delay action.

RELEASE: Top Earth Scientists Warn of Global Ecological Emergency

2012-02-27T00:27:13Z

Ecological Internet � leading provider of Internet biocentric ecology news, action and analysis � joins with Earth�s best scientists in warning the human family faces imminent collapse of the biosphere � the thin layer of life organized into ecosystems � that makes Earth habitable and human well-being possible.

From Earth's Newsdesk and New Earth Rising, projects of Ecological Internet (EI)
Contact: Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet, glen.barry@gmail.com, +1 (608) 381-5865 for interviews

(Madison, WI) - Ecological Internet (EI) reiterates its declaration of a planetary ecological emergency [1], first issued two years ago. Since then abrupt climate change [search] has revealed itself in all its fury, habitat loss and extinction have intensified, food and water have become increasingly scarce, and human inequity and injustice have grown. Yet there have also been promising signs of a global awakening regarding global ecology, rights, and workers � seeds of revolutionary social change necessary to sustain global ecology.

�There is no question global ecological systems are collapsing, as important planetary ecological boundaries have been � and continue to be � crossed. The human system�s fantastical growth, based upon liquidating nature, has finally caught up with us, and key ecosystems necessary to sustain global ecology are failing,� explains Dr. Barry. �An Eco-Earth Revolution to overthrow the industrial economic growth machine destroying ecosystems may well be the only option left to sustain global ecology.�

]]> This past week the world�s leading international Earth scientists issued their own similar warning � that we face a perfect storm of ecological and social problems driven by overpopulation, overconsumption and environmentally damaging technologies. In a paper prepared for the upcoming Rio+ 20 Earth Summit to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June, they also noted the failures of the economic �perpetual growth myth� and called for �dramatic action to avert a collapse of civilization� [2].

Ecological Internet�s first declaration was based upon scientific findings in �Planetary Boundaries: A Safe Operating Space for Humanity,� published in 2009 in the journal Ecology and Society [3]. Humanity was found to have already overstepped three of nine planetary boundaries � biodiversity loss, climate change and nitrogen cycle � and to be approaching boundaries for the use of fresh water and land, and ocean acidification. An overwhelming amount of other scientific knowledge supports these warnings.

Dr. Barry continues: �Ecological Internet calls for an immediate people�s power Earth Revolution on behalf of Earth, all life, and the human family. Revolutionary actions � composed of billions of acts of personal resistance to the industrial growth machine � are required to end coal and tar sands, dismantle industrial agriculture, and protect and restore old forests and other natural ecosystems. These are some of the requirements for living well within the biosphere�s carrying capacity.�

###ENDS###

[1] First made on April 13, 2010, Planetary Ecological Emergency Declared.
[2] Environment and Development Challenges: The Imperative to Act
[3] Journal Article: Planetary Boundaries: A Safe Operating Space for Humanity

For more information see http://www.ecoearth.info/ and discuss at http://facebook.com/EcoInternet

ALERT! Only a Couple Days to Support European Union Labeling of Tar Sands as Highly Polluting

2012-02-21T16:55:40Z

TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!

The European Commission � the executive branch of the European Union (EU) � will be voting in the next couple days whether to designate Canada�s tar sands [search] as being �highly polluting�. Given tar sands� terrible ecological impacts upon our shared global atmosphere � and Canadian boreal forests, water, and indigenous peoples - the answer should be painfully obvious, and a resounding YES. Such a designation would be a significant setback for tar sands growth. Yet given the power of the ecocidal oil oligarchy which rules Canada and much of the world, empowered global citizens need to let the EU know the world expects, indeed demands, the EU do the right thing in condemning tar sands � in order to establish a level playing field for a renewable, efficient, and conservation based energy future.

EARTH MEANDERS: On Violence and Earth Revolution

2012-01-31T11:46:03Z

Imagining the human family coming together to take well considered, decisive, and minimally or non-violent action to sustain global ecology

By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet
Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk

Human Family�s Ecocidal Death Wish

The ecological foundation of being is unraveling before our very eyes. Without ecosystems there is no life. Fiercely loving Earth is the answer. Let's sustain global ecology together like our shared survival and abundance depends upon it. And while we set out using classic civil disobedience tactics, let�s not dismiss out of hand any obstruction, uncivil disobedience, sabotage and targeted insurgency tactics � that are non-terrorist � and that may be necessary to achieve global ecological sustainability. The human family�s shared survival depends upon passionately defending Earth using all means necessary.

Earth's ecosystems are collapsing under the burden of human growth, destroying our one shared biosphere that makes life possible. Industrial growth � frantically destroying ecosystems to feed insatiable, ever-growing appetites � is an aberration, a mistake, a disease. If left untreated, this will be the end of the human family, all life, and Earth's very being. Infinite economic growth at the expense of ecosystems is impossible, and seeking endless and inequitable growth in consumption and population can only lead to collapse and massive die-off.

Humanity�s last best chance to justly and equitably sustain a livable planet is to protect and restore ecosystems, end fossil fuels, and a people's power Earth revolution to utterly destroy the ecocidal industrial growth machine. We are all bloody fools to tolerate and not immediately overthrow a violently ecocidal system that is killing us all. If we all understood the implications of global ecosystem collapse, we would go now, together, and slay the global growth machine. It is too late to escape profound ecological decline, yet complete disastrous social and ecological collapse � and possible end to most or all life � may yet be avoided.

Sustaining ecology must become society�s central organizing principle or humans and all species face horrendous death. Globally it is time for radical change to simply survive converging ecology, food, war, water, inequity, population, climate, jobs, ocean, and extinction crises. It is deeply troubling most "environmentalists" deny the severity of ecosystem collapse, rejecting out of hand revolutionary measures sufficient to sustain ecology.

]]> Earth is dying a death of a billion lashes as ecosystems are liquidated for consumption as if nature has no worth. 80% of old forests are gone, 50% of top soil, 90% of big ocean fish, bee populations are collapsing, we are undergoing abrupt climate change, and two billion are hungry and thirsty � to say nothing of acidic and dead oceans, nitrogen pollution, fracking and tar sands, extinction, desertification, water scarcity, pervasive toxics, and how all these ecological crises interact and reinforce each other.

Yes, you read this right � EARTH IS DYING � not that humans are going extinct, but Earth will recover. A whole body of global change and ecology science and intuition indicates Earth is well past its carrying capacity and planetary boundaries, that enough ecosystems have been lost, diminished, and changed forever, that the biogeochemical process that make life possible are failing. We face an unprecedented planetary ecological emergency.

Earth�s ecology crises go unaddressed because of lack of justice, equity and rights �and 1% elite rule with big NGO environmental group greenwash. Earth is dying NOW. The thin layer of life known as the biosphere is collapsing NOW. Life giving ecosystems are being destroyed NOW. Being is ending NOW. It could be different if we acted together to stop the forces of ecocide. The human family embraces a sustaining ecology ethic, or all die brutal, needless deaths, gasping for air, hungry and cold, at each other�s throats.

Most of us have lost contact with Earth that made and sustains us, so we kill our creator, life and ourselves without knowing or caring. It is everybody�s responsibility to stop this self-fulfilling death wish. Those who have yet to have this ecological revelation and are killing Earth must be compelled to stop, using all means necessary. There is no escaping the ECOLOGICAL FACT that global ecosystems and our one shared biosphere are literally falling apart as we continue to incautiously pull pieces from them.

Don�t Ever Say Never to Earth Revolution

True peace is not the absence of conflict as enslaved and hurdling towards mass ecocidal death. Peace is rights, equity, justice, jobs, sustainability � for which we sometimes must judiciously fight. It is ridiculous to suggest that these pernicious trends in ecological destruction � caused by industrial economic growth, which is nearly universally accepted and enriches the powerful 1% elite � will end without a full-scale people's power revolution � with all available tactics readied for if, and when, needed � by a small but enlightened and dedicated minority.

NO one seeks or desires violent revolution, yet Earth is dying, and we need to enter into revolution with all intentions of using civil and disobedient means, but if necessary we may need to cross the Rubicon and embrace uncivil and more confrontational means. Never before has such fundamental social change � challenging the deeply entrenched industrial growth paradigm, and the more is always better growth mentality, eating Earth�s ecosytems � been attempted.

A time may well come soon when it is necessary to use all means necessary against real eco-terrorists � those who are destroying with impunity our shared global ecosystems and our one biosphere, which make life possible and are necessary simply to survive.

All enlightened planetary life wants and deserves an Earth Revolution that is done wisely, escalates carefully, and is ultimately successful in bringing humanity and Earth�s ecosystems back into equilibrium. We of course want the right resistance, exerted by the right people, at the right time, calling for the right things. And as defenders of Earth and all life�s being � we find all violence repugnant, and do not seek any violence ever. But the stakes are high and we are not leaving any possibilities off the table, except for random terrorist targeting of innocents, which would not be tolerated.

Some people are simply taken aback � after several decades of being indoctrinated that civil disobedience is the only legitimate resistance to oppression and imminent death � and are unable to even hear and consider these academic thoughts. Yet, I do not recall ever reading words from Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi saying never, ever, ever will there be another instance where physical confrontation may be necessary or tolerable.

Both Gandhi and King provided a great service in making clear non-violent protest is always the preferable option, and that a great deal can be accomplished over time wielding this powerful tool. But they did not foreclose upon ever using traditional revolutionary activities in times of great danger, when it is thought there is not time, exclusively peaceful tactics have not worked, and when life�s very being is imminently threatened.

A faith-based movement � as was the basis for both King and Gandhi�s struggles � to bring people power to bear upon global ecology sustainability will not work as the primary motivator of the profound social change necessary to sustain ecology. Organized religion is simply too divisive, and bereft of knowable truth, to address what are fact-based, scientific ecological crises.

Organized religion is part and parcel of the history of ecological decline. It is vital to prospects for achieving just and equitable global ecological sustainability that all mythical gods be kept out of government, are made to tread lightly upon Earth, are kept off non-believers� bodies, and remain within the realm of personal faith. Sustaining ecology must depend upon other more truthful and observable sensibilities such as global land, ecology, family, justice, equity, knowledge, and community ethics.

In fact, these two singular men � whose faith based movements brought about important social change � nonetheless have very little to say to inform the necessary dramatic changes needed now to achieve global ecological sustainability. The issues are different, the stakes higher, and the urgency greater. A single charismatic figure appealing to one religious tradition or another is not going to rise to bring Earth to ecological sustainability � our dependence upon destroying ecosystems to meet our desires is too deeply entrenched.

Earth Revolution has to come from the people globally. What is needed is a revolutionary Earth sentiment that arises organically from the people. Earth Revolution aiming to equitably and justly sustain global ecology would be well advised to first go through an escalating serious of protest tactics until a well-developed, and sufficient set of demands are met or rebuffed. If the latter, change of the magnitude necessary in a very short time may well come only from an empowered minority practicing leaderless resistance tactics based upon an underground cell structure.

People globally would participate in such an Earth insurgency to the degree and using tactics that are consistent with their conscience. It is common sense when you lose the ability to sustain yourself � through despotism, ecocide or injustice � that you have the right, indeed a duty, to defend ourselves. If enough people � perhaps 3% of the human family � all at once rushed and destroyed the sources of ecocidal power � Earth, humanity, and all life could be saved with very little if any violence.

Things would be difficult for the formerly rich (broadly defined as those living detached from nature in a comfortable but Earth destroying technological cocoon, including much of the global bourgeoisie) for some time � as they readjust to living within ecological limits. But they would adjust, and all could survive leading simpler, more grounded and meaningful lives, rather than face a final and brutally violent apocalyptic end under the status quo.

To refuse to even consider more robust revolutionary tactics � which for many have brought freedom, and ended monarchy, slavery and other ills � to protect all life's shared survival from global ecocide in the short time we have, is copping out on Earth and virtually assuring an end to being.

Non-Cooperation, Obstruction, Sabotage, Insurgency

The timing for Earth Revolution is so right: Earth is dying, people are suffering, species are going, freedom is failing, uber-inequity reigns, economic injustice is the norm, yet people are awakening. There has never been such high hope regarding the prospects of achieving global human and economic rights, equity and justice, and of the need to sustain ecology. And given the terrible state of global ecology, equity, justice, freedom, and rights � governments have in fact abdicated.

Only profound, revolutionary, gut-wrenching social, economic, political and personal change will save Earth, humanity and all life from ecology collapse and an end to being. Failure to accept revolutionary change tactics means we are accepting ecosystems and society will collapse, and you just want to enjoy living excessively awhile longer. Surely it is not rational to fail to pursue revolution because it may become violent, when violence orders of magnitude greater exists now daily under the status quo growth machine, and will only intensify as apocalyptic end of the world approaches.

We should pursue Earth Revolution using aggressive civil disobedience and non-violently as long as we can and they are effective. But the successes achieved have thus far been tiny compared to what is required to abet ecocidal trends. If accommodation and compromise continue to be rebuffed, and Earth is dying, and thus our very survival depends upon ecosystems which are being killed by ecocidal evil, we have an obligation to look at other well-known uncivil disobedience, non-cooperation, sabotage, and insurgency tactics � as well as emerging transnational protest opportunities presented by the Internet � to bring about social change for a living Earth.

Given the political and economic systems� inherent and profound violence to people and nature � as well as urgent global justice, equity and ecological imperatives � strategies and tactics are going to have to continue to be evaluated and evolve. Violent or non-violent is not the main consideration, and rarely are they exclusive. Other aspects of radical social change tactics � such as effective or non-effective, civil or uncivil, timely or too late, accommodating or not � are just as important.

Leaderless resistance tactics used by current global revolutionary movements could morph into underground cells waging revolution for global freedom, rights and ecosystems. The necessary Earth Revolution to sustain global ecology could escalate to non-cooperation with the ecocidal system, agro-ecological gardening while obstructing industrial agriculture, protecting and restoring ecosystems, and love-making and sharing.

And maybe � and only if absolutely necessary � Earth Revolution could embrace wisely conceived and targeted sabotage and insurgency to utterly destroy the global growth machine that is devouring ecosystems and destroying being.

There are many soft targets in the under-belly of the industrial growth machine that is liquidating ecosystems for throw-away consumption. Poorly defended fossil fuel, old forest logging, communication, pipeline and other industrial infrastructure abound. We know the primary perpetrators of ecocide profiting from Earth destroying activities, and they could be made to pay a heavy price, dissuading others from doing so.

Throughout history there are instances where revolutionary violence has been a liberating force, and other times where it has been oppressive. The coming Earth Revolution need not be overly violent. Like most revolutions, there will almost certainly be some. Again, NOBODY SEEKS VIOLENCE, and revolutions which don�t emphasize violence, while acknowledging the rights of others to act within their conscience, and which do not try to use violence to control its members, can often be remarkably free of physical coercion. Other times, where vital social change cannot be delayed � yet is highly contested by privileged elite � this may not be possible.

Ongoing institutionalized violence by the elitist economic growth machine, military legions, resurgent fascism and corporate ecocide far exceed what has occurred historically during liberating people power revolutions (and much of this is often incidental and caused by fringe forces). The level of violence during any possible Earth Revolution would largely be determined by the responses of the oppressors to legitimate and enlightened opposition to end ecosystem destruction, injustice and inequity.

Nature and I Fight Back

As I have spent a lifetime studying global trends of ecological decline, it has become clear that current remedial actions are going to be orders-of-magnitude inadequate. The over-population, ecosystem loss, toxics, injustice and inequity are just too pernicious. And I have also long had a fascination with the topic of non-violence, and when violence may be justified and necessary. These life-long observations have led me to become a reluctant member of the revolutionary left.

I am well aware of what humans are capable of in terms of violence, and the damage it does. I grew up in a family rife with childhood sexual abuse � in which I was violently sexually abused by a "favorite" uncle. My own topsy-turfy relationship with my lovely wife � who I love so much we have been married twice � was nonetheless marred by emotional and physical abuse on both our parts. Paradoxically, I excelled as a private in the army, yet left seeking conscientious objector status.

After leaving the army, I was quite proud of my commitment to peace, as I am now. And some former acquaintances are undoubtedly put off by the cognitive dissonance of a peace activist embracing revolution. But now, unlike then, I can envision something for which I would be willing to fight � other than god or country, which I have long rejected as the basis for killing � and that is continued existence for all life. We are one human family utterly dependent upon Earth's ecology for shared being. And if we don�t fight the forces of ecocide win and everything dies.

Knowing this, I have followed big dreams with my life, with no guarantees, and very few fundamental regrets. Giving your life to Earth is deeply satisfying. Nonetheless, sometimes I feel so traumatized by what I know is being done to Earth, and what will be the consequences, that I can hardly carry on. I am comforted by the expectation that at some point � those that realize Earth is dying � will have to take matters into their own hands, and will succeed. Indeed, people are coming together now for ecology, workers and rights. Such a people power Earth uprising is the only way we survive together.

** As I always do when writing about Earth Revolution, let me be clear that I am a political ecologist writing of these matters academically. Anyone carrying out Earth Revolution would be solely responsible for their actions.

ALERT! Stop Peru's Road to Rainforest Ecocide and Genocide of Uncontacted Indigenous Tribes

2012-01-25T16:13:28Z

By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal

TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!

Plans are to build a highway through Alto Purus - Peru�s largest national park � comprised of vital intact Amazonian rainforest ecosystems and inhabited by at least two 'uncontacted' indigenous tribes [search]. The Alto Purus protected rainforest in south-east Peru is an area of incredible biodiversity covering some of the most pristine forests in the southwestern Amazon and home to jaguars, monkeys and pink dolphins. To cut it with a road would compromise the integrity of the entire Amazonion basin and trigger the swift demise of some of Earth�s last isolated hunting and gathering tribes. One of the 'uncontacted' tribes in the park is known as the 'Mashco-Piro', thought to be the largest group i

ALERT! NAMING NAMES: UN REDD+ Forest Carbon Fund to Log Primary Forests with Corporate NGO Greenwash Support

2012-01-03T19:07:46Z

By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal and ClimateArk

TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!

Earth is facing the twin global ecological emergencies of abrupt climate change and land being scoured of natural ecosystems. Sadly, corporate American NGOs and the United Nations are responding to these crises by further promoting logging ancient forests. The United Nations REDD+ program to protect primary and old growth forests as a climate change and deforestation solution has been hi-jacked by logging interests [search] and their big pro-logging NGO friends, and will instead subsidize primary forest logging for new plantations. REDD has become a gravy train for consultants, greenwashing NGOs and charlatans of many sorts - claiming logging ancient rainforests for the first time protects them! Old standing natural forest ecosystems are key to sustaining climate, ecosystems, biodiversity, local livelihoods humanity and the Earth System. Corporate NGOs supporting REDD+ must be compelled to stop their old forest logging greenwash - or face ridicule, protest, and an end to public support, until they do.

ALERT! Brazilian Forest Code Revisions Threaten Amazon Rainforest, National Advancement, and Ecological Sustainability

2011-12-22T19:14:02Z

By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal

TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!

Brazil's industrial agriculture lobby has forced through their Congress changes to the forest code [search], the primary legal instrument related to Amazon rainforest protections. It has been done without any scientific inputs, and in a way that will greatly expand industrial agriculture by reducing ecological protections. Newly elected President Dilma Rousseff must be encouraged to veto the bill, something she promised to do during the election. Efforts to address forest code deficiencies must recommence in a manner that incorporates the latest agro-ecological science regarding sustainable agriculture and the importance of large, connected and intact rainforest ecosystems within agricultural landscapes. Without a veto, recent progress in Amazon rainforest protection is at stake just as Brazil is to host the Rio+20 Earth Summit in 2012.

RAINFOREST ALERT! Protest Belize National Park Being Opened by Corrupt U.S. Oil Exploration to Illegal Logging

2011-12-14T03:00:22Z

By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal

TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!

Belize�s renowned rainforests [search], beaches, and Mayan homelands are threatened with a resource rampage by a corrupt government confronted with massive foreign debt. With the Prime Minister's permission, Colorado-based oil company US Capital Energy is drilling seismic testing lines through the ecologically spectacular Sarstoon-Temash national park - against international treaty commitments and a Belizean Supreme Court ruling. These cleared lines are now being used by poachers to ransack the rainforest, with stolen timbers transported to Guatemala and onward to China.

RELEASE: Another Tar Sands Pipeline Postponed in Major Victory for First Nations and Ecological Internet

2011-12-12T20:48:05Z

Firm opposition by Canadian First Nation, Ecological Internet, and innumerable others delays the Northern Gateway tar sands pipelines through British Columbia temperate rainforests, threatening the native salmon economy, and onward to Asia.

By Ecological Internet, http://www.climateark.org/
Contact: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

Last week the Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline [search] approval process - meant to transfer filthy tar sand oil from Alberta, Canada to Asia � was delayed one year until at least the end of 2013. The $5.5-billion, 1,200-kilometre double pipeline would transport up to 525,000 barrels per day of crude from Alberta�s environmentally devastating tar sands oilfields � traversing innumerable waterways, temperate rainforests, and sensitive coastal ecosystems � to ocean-going tankers for transport to Asia. The Enbridge Northern Gateway joint review panel announced the decision by email, noting �significant public interest in the Northern Gateway project.�

The pipelines would go through B.C.'s sensitive Pacific North Coast ecosystem, and threatens First Nations� land and salmon economy. One mishap � such as project developer Enbridge�s recent broken pipeline fouling the Yellowstone River � will bring disastrous results and long-term loss of marine life, pristine waterways, and sensitive coastal ecosystems. First Nation opposition is strong and united, making clear the pipeline will never be allowed over their land, and with suggestions of massive civil disobedience if approved. The pipelines could not be constructed without breaking First Nation unity through financial inducements, or simply taking their land.

]]> According to Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet�s President, �Tar sands are ecocide, plain and simple, and what has occurred in the Northern Gateway delay is essentially a native coup. Following indigenous peoples� lead, the sustaining global ecology movement must contain and rollback tar sands to maintain a habitable Earth. Recent tar sand pipeline delays show clearly people power protest � whether it be being arrested outside of the White House, or protesting en masse on the Internet � works to bring about social change. The only real question is whether it will be fast enough.�

Ecological Internet has been and remains the only global action network campaigning against the Canada Northern Gateway tar sands pipelines. Over the past year, and peaking over the past few weeks, Ecological Internet�s massive and diverse network has sent nearly a quarter of a million protest emails � and rising � to the Northern Gateway joint review panel. The review panel�s decision to delay the pipeline was undoubtedly made in response to this massive opposition from First Nations supported by Ecological Internet�s global network. Our campaign continues to permanently cancel the Northern Gateway and all tar sands pipelines [1].

### MORE ###

There continues to be good and bad news in stopping the tar sands ecocide. On the same day of the Gateway pipeline delay announcement, a new tar sands production field by Total energy was approved in Ottawa. Earlier in the year, protests against the Keystone XL oil pipeline outside of the White House were successful in delaying that pipeline for an unknown period. Given that important victory, it is critical for tar sands� continued growth that the Northern pipelines commence as soon as possible.

�Ecological Internet is thrilled to play a small part amongst such massive anti-tar sands opposition. These delays make it possible for us together to continue highlighting how clearcut mining boreal forests, fouling water and land, to transport haphazardly through important ecosystems, to be burned causing abrupt climate change is simply not acceptable. We believe that given the momentum from delaying two pipelines, the movement must reject tinkering greenwash responses, and continue to take biocentric positions that tar sand production and its transport must end. Further, the anti-tar sands movement will benefit from a variety of mutually reinforcing actors and tactics,� says Dr. Barry.

[1] Action Alert: Tar Sands Not Over Yet: Enbridge Northern Gateway Tar Sands Pipelines Heading West to Asia Must Be Stopped Too