Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

RELEASE: Victory as Ecological Internet Applauds Greenpeace’s End to Greenwash of Canadian Old-Growth Logging

After years of greenwashing Canada and the world's "certified" old-growth forest logging as sustainable, and cutting inside deals with industrial loggers, Greenpeace's rejection of their own logging deal in Canada shows they may be poised to start working to protect – rather than log – Earth's last primary forests. Standing old forests are vital for local advancement and the environment – and old-growth forest logging must end to maintain local, regional and global climate, ecosystems, and our one shared biosphere. By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet (EI) CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org (Canada) – Today Greenpeace Canada announced it is withdrawing from the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement [search] which it secretly negotiated and endorsed in 2010, and which relegates 43 million hectares of Canada’s old growth Boreal forests to industrial logging, for a temporary moratorium and vague promises of future caribou habitat protection elsewhere. Not surprisingly, as Ecological Internet predicted at the time [1], these promises have been violated. Greenpeace itself now alleges the largest destroyer of Canada's boreal forests, Resolute Forest Products (formerly AbitibiBowater) has been cutting new logging roads into caribou habitat in five sites in the northern parts of the Saguenay Lac St-Jean region of Quebec ...

Continuing to Protect India’s Asian Elephant Habitat Together

EI "Back to Our Roots" Fund-Raising Update: $9,318 raised from 56 donors, 23% to goal Ecological Internet is making great progress in raising our operating funds for next year. We should reach our goal if we can continue apace with many small donors and occasional larger gifts. In one minor setback, our new donation page has been attacked, by repeated fraudulent donations of 1 cent to check if credit card information is correct, and/or to disrupt our fund-raising. Thus, we are back for now to PayPal, Google, and mailing checks as the long-tested, secure, and dependable means to donate to EI. Please make a tax-deductible donation of what you can afford now. ********************** Continuing to Protect India's Asian Elephant Habitat Together Ecological Internet needs your help to continue protecting Asian elephants and to define cutting-edge science on protecting ecosystems and sustaining humanity's one shared biosphere. Please donate now: http://www.rainforestportal.com/shared/donate/ . November 26, 2006 Dear colleagues, Because of our success together protecting South India's Asian elephant habitat [search], I have been granted the honor of being the academic convener of a major ecological sustainability conference in Kerala, India, in mid-December. There I will be presenting a paper on the need to protect 50% of terrestrial ecosystems for the ...

ALERT! End Industrial Logging of Congo’s Old-Growth Rainforests

By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal TAKE ACTION! Recent revelations of illegal logging in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) rainforests [search] demonstrate yet again that globally logging of old growth forests remains irredeemably corrupt and inevitably devastating to rainforest ecology. After years of international assistance and a "moratorium" on new rainforest logging, it is revealed that local permits for individuals to clear rainforest are being abused by the government and industrial loggers, even as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and NGOs pressure for "sustainable" industrial destruction of Congo's primary rainforests. For DRC's local people and the biosphere, it is time to ban old growth logging in the DRC and globally. The DRC government must be convinced to abandon inherently corrupt industrial-scale rainforest clearance for log export – before the nation's rainforests, ecological sustainability, and future development potential are gone forever – and be justly compensated for doing so. Instead they must focus upon developing ways for local communities to benefit from standing old forests. Both local and global ecological sustainability depend upon doing so.

ALERT! Implore President Obama to End Climate Appeasement by Supporting a Carbon Tax

TAKE ACTION HERE NOW! There exists near unanimous scientific consensus that abrupt climate change [search] is occurring, that it is caused by burning fossil fuels and clearing natural ecosystems, and that observable and escalating impacts indicate it may be worse than worst case predictions, threatening the habitability of our one shared biosphere. Almost certainly there is no way to stop entirely the warming and climate weirding; it is already too far progressed. Yet our immediate actions in the short term to cut – or fail to cut – carbon and greenhouse gas emissions will determine its severity, whether it will eventually stabilize or become runaway, and whether it is survivable. The single policy action that could occur most quickly, and significantly reduce emissions, is to place a price upon emitting carbon through a tax. The funds raised from a carbon tax [search] can replace other taxes, be returned to low-income earners, and be used for other laudable goals including paying down the deficit, developing low-emission energy systems, and protecting and restoring global ecosystems. Abrupt climate change will not be appeased, but it can be taxed, and thus reduced, through first a national and eventually a global carbon tax. TAKE ACTION! http://www.climateark.org/shared/alerts/sendsm.aspx?id=carbon_tax ** ...

Ecological Internet: Back to Our Roots

2012 year-end fund-raiser kicks off to raise $40,000 by the end of the year – first $6K in small donations is matched 100%! Use our new online donation site that allows more options for secure giving! Please gift Earth now by clicking here! Dear Earth loving Colleagues, It's that time of year again, when Ecological Internet – Earth's largest biocentric ecology action network committed explicitly to global forest, climate and ecological sustainability – raises the majority of our annual budget. And we are getting back to the basics of what we do best. After a half dozen recent major environmental conservation victories, we invite you to be part of this ground-breaking biocentric ecology advocacy by donating now. Ecological Internet must raise $40,000 by the end of the year. A $6,000 matching grant has already been pledged, so if you donate now, your gift is doubled! We are using a new online donation management web site called "Clover Donations"– widely used and respected by churches and NGOs, which allows for easy recurrent donations, bank transfers, and more types of credit cards accepted – all without the need for cumbersome account logins. It is secure, easy to use, inexpensive (1% of donations) and offers us many ...

ALERT! Stop CNN – the Coal News Network – Fossil Fuel Greenwash, Abetting Climate Silence

TAKE ACTION HERE NOW! CNN has jumped the shark and is no longer a reliable, independent news source, as it has become increasingly indebted to fossil fuel advertising, and greenwashes abrupt climate change. CNN coal funding in particular has resulted in infrequent and biased daily news coverage of ecological issues, and has abetted US Presidential candidates' silence on climate change. As currently funded, if CNN told the truth on abrupt climate change, global ecosystem collapse, and the role of fossil fuels in these crises; it is doubtful whether CNN would even exist after the coal and other fossil fuel industries pulled their advertising. CNN must indicate how they will change their business model to allow improved, propaganda free, and increased coverage of the huge amount of daily news regarding our fossil fuel addiction; North America's tar sands, coal and fracking ecocide; and the many looming global ecological emergencies.

EARTH MEANDERS: Mr. President: Earth Does Not Have Forever

With under a month remaining before the U.S. Presidential election, it is not clear whether either candidate will address abrupt climate change and global ecosystem collapse, and related rollbacks of civil liberties and a state of drone-based perma-war. Clearly President Obama's general rhetoric on the environment is more promising, and Governor Romney is avowedly anti-nature, but the President's record on the environment is weak, and we are running out of time to stop abrupt climate change. Unless I hear specific policies from the President on climate, civil liberties, and drone warfare – I will not be voting for him – instead writing in "None of the Above". War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. – George Orwell Ecocide is jobs. God is hate. Fairness is socialism. Science is lying. Education be dumb. Goodness is climate change. Truth is money. Ignorance is strength. – Romney and Republicans Drones are love. Waiting is hope. Ecosystems are resources. Rhetoric is action. Justice is murder. Climate change is votes. Obama is god-like. War is peace. – Obama and Democrats By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk Listening to the US Presidential election, you wouldn't know Earth faces ecological emergencies including abrupt climate ...

RAINFOREST ALERT! Tell Liberia: Industrial Primary Rainforest Logging is Corrupt, Ecocidal, and Must End

By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal TAKE ACTION! New logging contracts have been issued across 40% of Liberia's primary rainforests [search] in only two years of resumed industrial logging. A full one quarter of Liberia’s total landmass – half of its best primary rainforests – were granted using secretive and illegal logging permits. Malaysian logging giant Samling, who has a long history of illegal logging from Cambodia to Guyana to Papua New Guinea, is a major beneficiary. Such major corruption – after years of logging fueled war, $30 million in international subsidies for "sustainable" rainforest logging, and a resumption of logging only since 2010 – shows clearly that Liberia's rainforest logging remains irredeemably corrupt and inevitably ecologically devastating. What if the $30 million invested in resuming "sustainable logging" had been used instead to find ways for local communities to benefit from standing old forests? For local peoples and the biosphere, it is time to ban primary forest logging in Liberia and globally.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Announcing Major Kerala, India Ecology Conference

Dr. Glen Barry of Ecological Internet to serve as Academic Convener, and present on the global biodiversity, ecosystem and biosphere imperatives for biocentric land planning and strengthened legal protections for Kerala's Asian elephants - and their corridors, particularly the Sigur plateau - as an umbrella species for other ecological values. Dear forest protection colleagues, I am pleased to announce a major international conference on conservation of India's forests, wild life, and ecology; and to issue a call for academic papers and attendance. The conference will occur in mid-December, 2012, in Kerala, India, located in the Western Ghats, which is known for its lush ecosystems, tremendous biodiversity - including viable Asian elephant populations - and high levels of human development, as well as human encroachment upon these vital ecosystems. Noted ecologist Dr. Madhav Gadgil, author of the important and controversial Kerala ecological land sensitivity designations, as well as Dr. V. S. Vijayan, Chairman of Salim Ali Foundation and Former Chairman of Kerala Bio-Diversity Board, have indicated they will be participating in the conference. The Kerala Eco Conference will emphasize global aspects of Kerala's ecological sustainability issues, placing issues of Western Ghats' broad environmental challenges within the larger international perspective of climate change, mass ...

ALERT! Support Swedish Forest Blockade Targeting Limestone Mine in Important Old-Growth, Water-Rich Ecosystem

Support Swedish Forest Blockade Targeting Limestone Mine in Important Old-Growth, Water-Rich Ecosystem TAKE ACTION! The Finnish mining company Nordkalk, and national logging company Mellanskog, have started work on a limestone mine on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, threatening a sensitive and unique natural environment of ecologically unique ancient forests [search], moorlands, and swamps. There is a major ongoing forest occupation against this logging and mining of critical ecosystems and groundwater destruction, which just this past Saturday managed to stop the initial forest clearing, pending an important Supreme Court decision that may establish a legal precedent for ecosystem protections nationwide. Supporting these sorts of community rebellions against ecocide, and for healthy local ecosystems, is what Ecological Internet's global network is all about.