Photo: Marv Lyons |
As we all brace for our inevitable offensive response to terrorism and its subsequent consequences, the sky is blue and the birds sing. For one more day. Planet Earth feels especially precious right now … so small, fragile, and vulnerable. Is it possible there are human beings that simply do not value LIFE? That they would coldly snuff it out?
What does this say about the state of our world society? What can we do to spark the love of life in everyone on this planet? Without this, we will always live in fear.
Human beings rise to the top in times of crisis and make the greatest changes. This is high time to reflect – deeply – on the times we live in and what we must do to feel safe on this planet once more.
Does it matter if we drill for oil in the Arctic now? How can we worry about some caribou in this situation?! To me, drilling for oil that we do not need is tantamount to sending a message that indeed, we also do not care about life on Earth. For the first time, New Yorkers are taking trains to work on masse – automobile traffic is 30% down. This is what shows we care about life.
Do you care about life on earth? Leave your SUV in the garage. Buy a solar panel today.
Rona Fried, SustainableBusiness.com
Here’s what others are saying:
From Guy Dauncey, British-Canadian author and publisher. His most recent book, Stormy Weather: 101 Solutions to Global Climate Change, was released in July 2001, New Society Publishers.
guydauncey@earthfuture.com http://www.earthfuture.com/
Bin Laden’s plan is clear. By bombing America, he wants to provoke U.S. retaliation against Muslim countries, awakening the mass of Muslim people to join his holy jihad against America. His plan is a trap: you take my queen, and it’s checkmate next move. If you allow the call for vengeance to over-ride the need for justice, you will walk into it, and the unintended consequences will be enormous.
Bin Laden’s terror groups are willing to give their lives while attacking nuclear power plants, spraying nerve gas across American cities, or dropping cyanide into reservoirs. The solution lies in being cool-headed. It involves opening our hearts to realize that the pain of death in New York is no different to the pain of death in Palestine, Iraq, or in Chile, Guatemala, El Salvador and other countries where American foreign policy has supported grief. Our hearts all suffer in the same way.
It involves adopting a sustainable energy plan for the US, replacing oil with a solar/hydrogen economy. It involves foreign policies that favour democracy and freedom over dictatorships, and cancelling IMF and other debts, which impoverish so much of the world (Pakistan alone has a $40 billion debt). It involves re-joining the global community, by supporting the UN and its various treaties, instead of standing so proudly aside.
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From Adam Davis of Natural Strategies, a leading sustainable business consulting firm. Davis@naturalstrategies.com; [sorry this link is no longer available]
It’s becoming clear that some will use the current crisis to take us down roads we really don’t want to travel. Yesterday, for example, the San Francisco Chronicle carried the headline, “Renewed calls to drill Alaska wildlife refuge.” In the article, the House Republican whip, Tom DeLay of Texas, says, “We can’t wait another day – The strength of our security rests on expanding our domestic energy supply immediately.” This argument has been utterly discredited in many quarters, perhaps most convincingly in the article entitled “The False Promise of Alaskan Oil” (July/August 2001 issue of Foreign Affairs).
The New York Times (September 27) reports that financing for the Farm Bill, which contains significant Federal funding for conservation measures, is now in doubt. Senator Lugar of Indiana, the senior Republican on the Senate Agriculture committee, said it was: “irresponsible to even consider such a bill” because it “spent too much money in a time of war.”
Despite the challenge of responding to the threats that face us, this is not a time to abandon our beliefs and principles. At Natural Strategies, we’re convinced that continuing to press for environmentally responsible ways of conducting business is not only ethical, but patriotic as well. Our real security interests are served by maintaining a healthy natural environment, by using efficiency to reduce dependence on material and energy imports, and by conserving the clean air and water on which we utterly depend.
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From Marv Lyons, photo illustrator and founder of the San Diego EcoFILMFEST & EXPO which will debut in Balboa Park, February 1-3, 2002. gaiamarv@pacbell.net
What if our pursuit of justice and neutralization of terrorists was simultaneous with our declaring and waging Peace? What if you, George W. Bush, were to be the first American President, the first Global Leader, to actively and vigorously wage PEACE?
If we were to shift a fraction of the billions we spend waging war to a deliberate waging of peace and well being, imagine what we could do in the devastated and impoverished areas of the world, as we did after the Second World War.
If we were to lead the developed countries to begin a process of creating basic housing and infrastructure, sustainable agriculture, energy and water systems, with training for contemporary living all over the world (in harmony with the global ecology), we would not only bolster the economies of the developed nations but expand peace, markets and cooperation over our whole little planet.
Suppose, for example a team of Americans and Russians were to work together to rebuild Afghanistan, which already has been bombed back to the Stone Age.
We can help clean up water supplies. We can introduce health care programs where there are none. We can enhance the micro loan business to launch small enterprises and personal economic independence. As a nation, Americans have an optimistic outlook. It is time to bolster it for ourselves by giving the rest of the world a reason to be optimistic.
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From Bill Moore, www.EVWorld.com:
It’s time for dramatic action, its time to declare our energy independence.
I firmly believe that America – and the rest of the civilized world – needs to launch a “Manhattan-class Project” to develop and deploy renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.
At its very core, renewable energy is a distributed energy source. The sun shines and the wind blows everywhere. Because it is so
widely dispersed, it would be nearly impossible for terrorists to disrupt the energy systems that use it. Imagine trying to knock out millions of solar panels on homes and businesses and tens of thousands of wind farms scattered across the countryside. It simply couldn’t be done. Yes, transmission towers and wind generators could be blown-up, but they can be repaired or replaced relatively quickly. Not so damaged or destroyed central generation facilities or nuclear power plants.
A decentralized, renewable energy-based power system would create tens of thousands of new jobs at a time when tens of thousands are being laid off. New industries and businesses would spring up to retrain autoworkers, airline personnel and others for the build out of this new energy infrastructure. Just as Kaiser turned out a Victory ship every couple days in World War II, GE could be turning on a wind farm a week!
As in WWII, factories that once turned out cars could be converted to turn out mass-produced solar panels, wind turbines and fuel cells. In a massive, war-time effort, America could be transformed from the world’s leading producer of greenhouse gases to the leading exporter of renewable energy and energy efficiency technology. We could begin today the transition from a carbon-based to a hydrogen-based economy.
Detroit ought to immediately volunteer to begin full-scale production of hybrid electric vehicles, stationary fuel cells, battery electric vehicles and other advanced, fuel efficient automotive drive systems. They’ve done this before. During WWII, plants that turned out Packards and Chevrolets, within a matter of months were turning out tanks and planes.
As part of this patriot effort, carmakers would cease all non-essential production of any type of vehicle that does not achieve at least a 30 mpg fuel economy with the goal within 5 years of 40 mpg. To help stimulate interest in this new technology, industry and government should immediately launch a nationwide public education campaign to encourage Americans to shift to more fuel-efficient means of transportation as part of their patriot duty.
Imagine a “Stick It To the Terrorists” campaign where patriotic Americans voluntarily park their SUVs and demand carmakers give them electric commuter cars powered by free wind, water and sunlight.
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From Glen Barry, www.Forests.org: gbarry@forests.org
Forests.org supports an aggressive US response to the tragedy that respects innocent lives and protects the civil liberties of all people. Many non-traditional threats to global security are emerging – terrorism being only one highly visible recent example. Collapsing ecosystems – including habitat loss, desertification, climate change and lack of clean drinking water; over-population, abject poverty, crushing foreign debt and concentrated corporate power all contribute to an environment of extreme hopelessness that spawns terrorists and their violent acts.
Efforts to stop terrorism and establish a secure, just and equitable future must go beyond military solutions. Establishment of a secure, peaceful, equitable, just and environmentally sustainable world requires pursuit of a holistic program that includes massive development aid in support of ecologically sustainable development and environmental protection throughout the World’s poor but peaceful nations.
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From Karl F. Ohm, Publications Mgr., Brady Marketing Group: kfohm@bradymg.com
Let’s sever the stranglehold of foreign oil once and for all by investing in “Renewable Energy Bonds.” This campaign, like that during World War II, could serve as a hub for strength and unity.
The U.S. Department of Energy has laid out a well-thought out and comprehensive national Bioenergy Initiative Plan. It has the enormous potential of insuring national self-sufficiency and completely transforming our economy from one now based on nonrenewable resources, such as petroleum, into one fueled by renewable resources from farms and forests.
A “Renewable Energy Bonds” campaign could offer farmers loans to form cooperatives or augment existing ones to serve as large, commercial-scale biomass energy plants. These plants would generate electricity or produce liquid fuels, such as ethanol, bio-diesel (made primarily from vegetable oils), or chemical feed-stocks for industries that currently rely on chemicals now made from petroleum. This money could also be used to form a Renewable Energy Foundation or Trust to provide a stable funding source for cooperative programs and projects between the public and private sectors.
Full text of opinion article can be accessed at the New Uses Council web site:
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