It is gravely unethical and ecologically devastating to expand production of biofuels by allowing land to be stolen from local Afro-Colombian communities; and at the expense of Colombia's ancient primary rainforests, food security, water resources and regional climate

TAKE ACTION! Plantation expansion for agrofuels remains a major threat to the lives, livelihoods and the environment of Afro-Colombian and other peasant communities in Chocó, Colombia. This is one of the world's most biodiverse regions, with large areas of rainforest now facing destruction. The Chocó rainforests [search] are home to 7,000 to 8,000 species, including 2,000 endemic plant species and 100 endemic bird species. Even before the current palm oil and agrofuel expansion, 66% had been destroyed. Communities and rainforests are under threat from palm oil and sugar cane expansion for agrofuels in other parts of Colombia, too, for example around Tumaco, near the border with Ecuador, in Santander and in Magdalena. If agrofuels -- growing food for fuel -- continue to expand in Colombia, food prices are bound to rise and the nation's food security erode as is happening around the world. Please ask the government to stop and reverse those policies and to protect Colombia's communities and rich environment from further destruction for agrofuels. TAKE ACTION!

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It is easy to rail against "illegal" logging [search], when in fact typical "legal" commercial logging is far more extensive and destructive in total to the world's biodiversity [search], climate [search], water [search] and biosphere [search]. Both liquidate life giving natural habitats, and more people are realizing they are mostly ecologically indistinguishable [ark]. Ancient primary forests industrially harvested for the first time are in fact destroyed -- in terms of being a fully intact ecological system with a unique, unimpaired evolutionary trajectory -- regardless if society considers it legal or illegal. Natural and planted secondary forest ecosystems managed industrially as tree farms become further ecologically diminished with each successive harvest including continued toxification, soil diminishment, species and genetic loss, reduced carbon and water holding potential, and so many other symptoms of ongoing biological homogenization.

Humanity's relationship with all forests must be transformed if we are to stop the hemorrhaging of lost species and halt transformation of the atmosphere. Industrial forestry [search] is incompatible with sustaining the full range of natural forest values [search] -- from species to genes, from soil microbes to local microclimates, from a forest stand to the Earth system and everything in between. Solving the biodiversity [search], climate [search] and water [search] crises requires a new forest protection paradigm that optimizes ecosystem, biodiversity and climate values while ecologically sustainably harvesting the annual growth increment (minus ecological restoration of natural capital to account in the future for past damage).

Continue reading "Legal Logging Destroying the Earth's Biodiversity, Climate, Water and Biosphere" »

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Patagonia's wild rivers to be dammed, destroying ancient temperate forests, for 50 years of electricity; please let supposedly environmentally responsible Home Depot know they should not be doing business with the project's primary Chilean advocate

TAKE ACTION! One of Chile's last true pristine and intact wildernesses is to be dammed and logged to provide hydroelectricity. The dams -- two on the Baker River and three on the Pascua River -- would irretrievably damage Patagonia [search], one of the Earth's wildest and most beautiful places. The HidroAysén project will flood river valleys containing several thousand hectares of ancient primary forests. The project's transmission line would require extensive clearcutting of further pristine Chilean native forests [search], clearing more than a 1,500-mile swath that will impact fourteen national parks and wilderness reserves.

Shockingly, the main Chilean project proponent -- the Matte Group -- does extensive business with U.S. mega-corp Home Depot [search], broadly perceived as being "green". In consultation with International Rivers, Ecological Internet is working to get Matte to withdraw from the project by highlighting their business interests with Home Depot. Please challenge Home Depot to live up to their green image and refuse to participate in the greenwashing of Patagonian wild river and ancient forest destruction. Insist Home Depot cease doing business with Matte until they withdraw from HidroAysén. TAKE ACTION!

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It use to be that stockpiling food and supplies, owning land and canning garden produce, and otherwise preparing for likely societal upheaval caused by ecosystem failure [search], resource scarcity [search], economic turmoil [search], pandemics [search] and other unknowns was seen as a bit kooky. But no longer as a "New Survivalism" emerges [ark] in response to widening recognition that the civilization we take for granted is but a thin veneer on existence.

What is increasingly evident is that stores of foods, tools and other supplies conducive to self-sufficiency [search] is just prudent -- a type of insurance. People are relearning what it means to prepare for self-sufficiency and investing in energy frugal homes [ark], seeds and other self-evidently worthwhile protections for them and their family. There is no need to withdraw from society and arm yourself, though you may choose to do so. It just makes sense to be prepared even as we work to prevent global ecological and other crises.

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A new report indicates the US West is heating up [ark] almost twice as fast as the rest of the world, causing severe drought [search] conditions, while threatening cities. Gee, who would have thunk ? You mean building metropolises in the desert with little more than the mid-sized Colorado River and diminishing mountain snowpack to provide water is not a good idea? Add to this ostentatious water use for agriculture and temperate gardens, and automobile and air conditioner dependent communities causing further warming (and you guessed it, much of the electricity powered by hydro dams), and all the ingredients are in place for apocalyptic ecological collapse.

Much of Western development on arid and other ecologically sensitive lands was gravely ecologically misinformed. I expect these cities to be depopulated within decades. How soon sanity and ecological knowledge comes to our economic growth, land use and energy policies will determine whether their population and other climate refugees can be absorbed by other areas already exhibiting various ecological stresses. One cannot help wonder just when those ensconced within their air conditioned, bottled water, energy dependent lifestyles will realize they are living in a mirage that threatens their families lives. Fasten your seat belt, society and you are in for the ride of your life as collapsing regional ecosystems [search] and climate refugees [search] become part of life.

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TAKE ACTION!
South Korea must be convinced not to sacrifice its natural river ecosystems for a cross-country concrete canal that will severely damage the hydrology of whole river systems and have enormous negative impacts upon South Korea's water resources, wetland ecosystems, and riparian biodiversity.

South Korea's new President Lee Myung-bak has proposed a project to connect with canals South Korea's four major rivers (the Yeongsan, Geum, Nakdong and Han). The "Grand Canal" is intended to accommodate 5,000 ton cargo ships and would require dredging, deepening, widening and laying concrete along approximately two thousand kilometers of shallow river courses in South Korea, and perhaps more in North Korea. Such massive canalization of rivers will severely damage the hydrology of whole river systems and have enormous negative impacts upon South Korea's water resources, wetland ecosystems, and riparian biodiversity. Join Korean environmentalists in highlighting the importance of natural ecosystems for national well-being. TAKE ACTION

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The world's glaciers are melting faster [ark | more\ark] than any time in the past 5,000 years as a result of global heating. Huge population centers, particularly in South Asia and Latin America, depend upon glacial fed water sources [search]. As these glaciers melt we can expect hundreds of millions of people to be threatened with drying water sources, rising seas, failing crops, mass migration and resulting conflict.

Ecosystems [search] matter. To speak of economics, energy policy or other aspect of human endeavour is totally meaningless without them. Natural habitats and their ecosystems [search] provide not only water -- but also soil, pollinators, carbon storage and many other processes -- upon which life depends.

Loss of glaciers as a result of climate change is going to devastate river systems and their attendant watersheds and ecosystems. We have entered a vicious cycle where ecosystems are destroyed for resources, causing climate change, which results in more ecosystem destruction and so forth. To speak of additional resource utilization from dwindling ecosystems -- such as biofuels from trees -- is remarkably disconnected from what ecological science tells us regarding how the Earth System [search] works and threat it faces.

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TAKE ACTION! Only soy products that do not directly or indirectly destroy ancient rainforests, or intensify climate change and other problems inherent with large-scale industrial monocultures, will be tolerated in international markets.

The greatest emerging threat to Amazon rainforests and communities is industrial soy plantations. Huge mechanized, soy monocultures destroy tropical ecosystems, accelerate climate change and cause human rights abuses primarily to produce agrofuel and livestock feed. The soya industry wipes out biodiversity, destroys soil fertility, pollutes freshwater and displaces communities. Soybean production expands the agricultural frontier not only through fire and deforestation to clear ancient rainforests, but more importantly by pushing cattle ranches and displacing forest peoples further into natural rainforest ecosystems.

With rising soy and other agricultural commodity prices, there has been a marked increase in fires and Amazonian deforestation to clear new agricultural lands from primary rainforests. In reaction Brazil has again announced increased agricultural deforestation enforcement. Amazon rainforest sustainability critically depends upon new soybean production being kept out of ancient primary rainforest ecosystems. Let's continue the commitment of Ecological Internet's Earth Action Network to strongly speak ecological truth to intransigent power. TAKE ACTION!

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A major new study warns that continued rise of global average temperatures from emissions of man-made greenhouse gases is likely to result in sudden, dramatic, out of control changes to major geophysical elements of the Earth. The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences identifies nine manners in which climate change could cross "tipping point" thresholds [ark | search] and lead to abrupt, non-linear ecosystem change.

Global warming crossing tipping points [ark] could trigger a runaway thaw of Greenland's ice sheet [search], dieback of Amazon rainforests [search], and failures of the Indian and West African Monsoons [search]. The report rejects complacency based upon smooth projections of global change, calling upon governments to note potential for small change to be amplified into massive, abrupt and potentially irreversible ecosystem failure. Though surrounded with uncertainty inherent in complex systems, the authors indicate some of these tipping points may be closer than thought.

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TAKE ACTION! Oil shale deposits across 17,000 square miles of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming hold an estimated 800 billion barrels of oil, more than three times Saudi Arabia's stated reserves. Both mining and processing of oil shale involve a variety of environmental impacts. The process produces four times the amount of greenhouse gas emissions compared to normal oil production. Vast amounts of water are required in the mining process, up to 4 barrels of water for every barrel of oil.

It would be a reckless and short-sighted to allow full-scale commercial production of synthetic crude oils from oil shale and other non-conventional sources. Wide scale use of such oil will result in decades of further carbon emissions from dependence upon fossil fuels, making it impossible to stop climate change. Please send a message today to the U.S. Department of Energy noting that a sustainable energy future does not include oil shale. TAKE ACTION!  

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