Sunday, February 27, 2011

Man's Greatest Mistake

Man's Greatest Mistake: "It has come to light that some individuals have been surreptitiously storing 12million tons of their own property on the public highway. The material, a toxic combination of metals, plastics, rubber and highly flammable liquids, is estimated to take up 90,000,000m2, or 17,000 miles of road space"

Monday, February 21, 2011

Permafrost Melt Soon Irreversible Without Major Fossil Fuel Cuts By Stephen Leahy

Permafrost Melt Soon Irreversible Without Major Fossil Fuel Cuts By Stephen Leahy: "UXBRIDGE - Thawing permafrost is threatening to overwhelm attempts to keep the planet from getting too hot for human survival.

Without major reductions in the use of fossil fuels, as much as two-thirds of the world's gigantic storehouse of frozen carbon could be released, a new study reported. That would push global temperatures several degrees higher, making large parts of the planet uninhabitable."

Car-dependent rich countries prop up brutal dictators to get oil

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Starving people to feed cars

Food Prices: Crisis Deepens as Biofuels Consume More Crops - Yahoo! News: "In America, 40% of the corn crop is currently diverted to make fuel for cars. 'Ethanol uses 4.9 billion bushels of corn in the U.S.,' says Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, an environmental think tank. 'That's enough grain to feed 350 million people.'"

Libyan people reject murderous oil puppet


Thursday, February 17, 2011

Greenhouse emissions to double unless action taken

Greenhouse emissions to double unless action taken: "GREENHOUSE gas emissions are escalating so rapidly they will double between 2005 and 2030 if nothing is done to stem their growth."

Monday, February 14, 2011

Humans flirting with point of no return for biosphere

In 5 years the Amazon has experienced 2 extremely severe droughts. (Earth Week) 
Living on Earth: Amazon Forest as a Source of Carbon Dioxide: "In recent years there's been a distinct lack of rain in the Amazon rainforest. 'The drought of the century' is what they called the first in 2005, but the second, just 5 years later, was even worse. The forest is drying and the trees are dying, destroying the vast region's ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. University of Leeds researcher Oliver Phillips says instead of acting as a carbon sink, the Amazon forest is becoming a huge source of climate changing gases."

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Americans: How we can support democracy in Egypt

By the end of World War II, it was clear that control of oil was critical to geopolitical power. The major powers vied for influence in the Middle East. The U.S. made a deal with the Saudi government to keep them in power in return for oil. The Saudis used extremist religion to enforce their rule. This extremism was, and still is fine with the U.S. government which over time has come more and more under the control of the oil industry.
This ample supply of oil enabled the U.S. to develop the auto and sprawl -- autosprawl. Autosprawl is extremely wasteful in many ways. The costs of autosprawl have been kept off the balance sheets of the oil companies (externalized), and passed on the the taxpayer, the environment, and future generations.
Propping up the Saudi government has been difficult and the U.S. has hedged its bets by backing other brutal regimes in the vicinity. Even resorting to outright invasion.
Egypt has played a key role for U.S. interests. But the regime has been so corrupt and brutal that people have finally had enough and have risen up. Our suburbs were built on their suffering. We must help them. Here is how.

1. Fight for free public transit: when transit is fare-free, ridership will go up, and more people will demand better service.
2. Oppose autosprawl subsidies. There are many. We detail them whenever we can. This is a good way to expose the fake "conservatives" who are all for cutting pensions, social security, and health-care coverage, but won't even mention oil subsidies, sprawl subsidies, or the highway lobby.
3. If you cannot do the first two. Then try to go car-free or at least ride public transit more.

Join us. Together we can make a difference for the heroes of the democracy struggle, in Egypt, and everywhere.  

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Arab World’s Turmoil May Spell Sudden Petrocollapse – Carbusters


Arab World’s Turmoil May Spell Sudden Petrocollapse – Carbusters: "Egyptian and other Arab people’s calls for more political freedom highlight the vulnerability of the oil economy. Jan Lundberg, independent oil industry analyst, argues that such unrest could even herald its collapse. And that means we should think about alternatives now."

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Car-dependency in U.S. leads to oil-driven foreign policy

Brave people of Egypt have had enough of the brutal regime propped up by the U.S. in its need and greed for oil.