"Over 200 insurance companies have stated they do not provide (re)insurance services to companies operating in Burma. They have set an example ..."

Image: Aung San Suu Kyi, TIME 100


"Over 200 insurance companies have stated they do not provide (re)insurance services to companies operating in Burma. They have set an example ..."

By Richard Power

Some of us have not forgotten the monks that were slaughtered and dumped into irrigation ditches after they rose up to march against the Thugocracy.

Some of us have not forgotten the democracy activists who were arrested for burying the dead in the aftermath of Typhoon Nargis.

Some of us have not forgotten Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who still lives under house arrest.

The Burma Campaign has issued an important study, "Insuring Repression: Exposing how the insurance industry supports Burma’s dictators."

Please look into it and ask yourself what you can do.

Here are some excerpts with a link to the full report:

Foreign trade and investment doesn’t contribute to the social and economic welfare of the people of Burma. Instead profits from such trade and investment have helped the regime to dramatically expand Burma's armed forces and enriched a narrow elite closely connected to senior military personnel. Nearly half the government budget is spent on the military while only 1.4% of GDP is spent on health and education, less than half that spent by the next poorest country in Asia. Burma's people meanwhile have grown ever poorer. Having witnessed this, Burma’s democracy movement, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, asked foreign companies to stay away. Our campaign against insurance companies is part of a carefully targeted policy designed by Burma’s democracy movement to put economic pressure on the regime and force them into genuine negotiations with the Burmese democracy movement.
We are encouraged that over two hundred insurance companies have stated they do not provide (re)insurance services to companies operating in Burma. They have set an example to the rest of the industry. We urge all companies that haven’t done so already to immediately stop providing insurance services to companies in Burma.
Recommendations:
* The European Union should impose targeted financial sanctions, including a ban on the provision of insurance services from member countries.
* Governments should impose sanctions banning the provision of insurance services to companies operating in Burma from companies based in their territories.
* All insurance, reinsurance and insurance brokerage companies should immediately stop providing insurance services to companies in Burma.
* Insurance associations worldwide should make their members aware of the human rights concerns and reputational risk associated with providing insurance services to companies operating in Burma.
* Investors and shareholders should examine the human rights abuses committed by the Burmese regime and urge their company to implement a ban on the provision of insurance services to companies operating in Burma. "Insuring Repression
Exposing how the insurance industry supports Burma’s dictators," the Burma Campaign, 7-29-08

For a Words of Power Archive of Human Rights Updates on Burma and other crises, click here.

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

Burma, Insurance Industry, Human Rights

Wonders & Promises from the Ring of Fire, Lake Baikal, the Bones of the Aborigines & 100 Species of Bat Within Two & A Half Acres in the Amazon

Medicine Wheel, a Native American sacred site and National Historic Landmark in Wyoming

Wonders & Promises from the Ring of Fire, Lake Baikal, the Bones of the Aborigines & 100 Species of Bat Within Two & A Half Acres in the Amazon

By Richard Power

Despite humanitarian crises and crimes against humanity in Somalia, Iraq, the Congo, Darfur and Burma; despite the accelerating pace of destructive climate change, despite the multiple sustainability crises (i.e., water, food and energy), despite the deepening chasm between the poor and the rich, this planet, and the universe in which it whirls, is full of wonder and promise.

The goddess Pele is a beautiful, powerful and dangerous goddess. She lives within the Ring of Fire.

Currently, she is dancing along its Western edge from Chile to Alaska:

The Llaima volcano, one of Chile's most active, erupted again on Saturday, sending a stream of lava down its slope and spewing a long plume of ash, authorities said.
At the same time, the Chaiten volcano rumbled once again and could be preparing for another eruption, according to a Chilean volcanologist.
Recent seismic activity and ash emissions from Chaiten could lead to the "worst-case scenario" for reactivation, said Jorge Munoz of Chile's geological service. (International Herald Tribune, 7-27-08)

Okmok volcano's alert level went up to code red-warning status early Friday afternoon.
The volcano blew more ash into the air at midday.
Pilots reported ash to 40,000 feet, with satellite data confirming the cloud.
Winds are carrying the ash southeast. Some ash-fall could occur around the immediate area and on the eastern portions of Umnak Island.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory says lava or mud flows could also occur in the caldera.
The Aleutian arc volcano has been restless since it resumed activity earlier this month. (KTUU, 7-25-08)

Lake Baikal, located in southern Siberia, is the world's deepest body of fresh water.

It holds one-fifth of the planet's fresh water reserves. It also contains 1,700 species of plant and animal, many of them found nowhere else.

UNESCO has declared it a World Heritage Site.

Russian scientists are descending into Lake Baikal in two mini-submarines to explore its depths (approximately 1,700 meters) for the first time. (ITAR-TASS, 7-27-08)

What will they find?

In the Northern Territory of Australia, and perhaps more critically in Washington, D.C., powerful healing magic is being conjured:

A group of Aboriginal elders on Saturday left Australia for the United States to bring home the remains of 33 ancestors from the Smithsonian Institute, the first Aboriginal remains to be returned from the United States.
Aborigines have fought for decades for the return ofancestral remains from overseas universities and museums wherethey have been taken for scientific and anthropological studies.
Aborigines have inhabited Australia for some 45,000 years and have the world's longest living culture. They believe that their spirit can not settle until it is reunited with theirland, which they regard as their mother. Eco-Diaries.es, 7-26-08

In the Amazon, scientists have discovered over 100 species of bats co-existing within a few "ha" (i.e., approximately two and a half acres) of rainforests in the Ecuadorian region of the Amazon:

“The forest at Tiputini Biodiversity Station is known as one of the global biodiversity hotspots with extremely high numbers of plant, insect and bird species” explains Dr. Christian Voigt (IZW, Berlin). “We expected a high number of bat species when we started our study, but we were amazed ourselves by our final estimates. This forest is just super diverse in life forms, including bats. ... The forest is like a large city with people of various professions, some are specialised and some are generalists. The ecological role of bats in the forest is quite similar. Among bats we observed dietary specialists and generalists” states Voigt. (Science Daily, 7-16-08)

The bat is a strong and mysterious totem animal.

There are profound messages in that two and a half acres of rainforest.

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

Bats, Pele, Lake Baikal, Amazon, Volcanos,Ecuador, Aboriginals,Australia, Sustainability, Russia, Chile, Alaska, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Late Night: Concierto de Aranjuez de Joaquín Rodrigo Performed by Narciso Yepes

Hard Rain Late Night: Concierto de Aranjuez de Joaquín Rodrigo Performed by Narciso Yepes



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Obama in Berlin: The Context? Think Kennedy at American University, Think the Farewell Speeches of Eisenhower & Carter, i.e., Bravery & Prescience

Photo: NASA

Obama in Berlin: The Context? Think Kennedy at American University, Think the Farewell Speeches of Eisenhower & Carter, i.e., Bravery & Prescience

By Richard Power

Obama's speech in Berlin ranks with Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address in 1961, Jimmy Carter's farewell speech in 1981 and Jack Kennedy's commencement address at American University in 1963.

This speech is as brave and as informed as those speeches were, this speech is as prescient and timely as those speeches were.

Pray that he survives the blowback that such bravery and prescience always provokes, pray that he succeeds where they did not.

And stand with him -- not behind him, but with him.

Yes, the stakes are that high. Yes, the moment is all that dangerous and all that pregnant.

We are at the barricades of an age.

Here are some excerpts from Obama's remarkable speech.

To view the video, click here.

People of the world – look at Berlin!
Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle.
Look at Berlin, where the determination of a people met the generosity of the Marshall Plan and created a German miracle; where a victory over tyranny gave rise to NATO, the greatest alliance ever formed to defend our common security.
Look at Berlin, where the bullet holes in the buildings and the somber stones and pillars near the Brandenburg Gate insist that we never forget our common humanity.
People of the world – look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.
Sixty years after the airlift, we are called upon again. History has led us to a new crossroad, with new promise and new peril. ...
As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.
Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow. The genocide in Darfur shames the conscience of us all. ...
The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down. ...
This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. The two superpowers that faced each other across the wall of this city came too close too often to destroying all we have built and all that we love. With that wall gone, we need not stand idly by and watch the further spread of the deadly atom. It is time to secure all loose nuclear materials; to stop the spread of nuclear weapons; and to reduce the arsenals from another era. This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons. ...
This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many. ...
This is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East. ...
This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands. ...
This is the moment to stand as one. ...
Now the world will watch and remember what we do here – what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?
Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words “never again” in Darfur?
Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? ...
People of Berlin – people of the world – this is our moment. This is our time. ...
I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.
But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived – at great cost and great sacrifice – to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom – indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares. What has always united us – what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America’s shores – is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please. ...
People of Berlin – and people of the world – the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again.

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Power, Words of Power

The Arrest of Radovan Karadzic -- "Triumph for the rule of law"

Salvador Dali's One Second Before Awakening from a Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate

The Arrest of Radovan Karadzic

Long-overdue, but encouraging nonetheless. A reaffirmation of humanity's guiding principles. Hopefully, the Hague is going to get crowded in the years ahead. If it does, after awhile, it will rarely have to be used for war crimes tribunals. -- Richard Power

The arrest of Radovan Karadzic, the wartime Bosnian Serb leader, is a triumph for the rule of law, the pursuit of justice and the development of real peace in the war-torn states of the former Yugoslavia.
It has taken too long for the man accused of organising Europe's worst atrocities since the second world war to be caught and put on his way to the international war crimes tribunal. But now that he has been captured, nearly 13 years after he was first charged with war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, Europe should breathe a collective sigh of relief. ...
His capture is welcome vindication of the principle of pursuing alleged war criminals. ...
The main challenge now is to arrest General Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military commander, who is accused, alongside Mr Karadzic, of responsibility for the murderous Sarajevo siege and the Srebrenica massacre. Both deny all charges. Financial Times, 7-23-08

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

Radovan Karadzic, Serbia, Bosnia, War Crimes, Croatia, Genocide Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Late Night: Yo-Yo Ma Performing First Movement of Elgar's Cello Concerto (1997)

Hard Rain Late Night: Yo-Yo Ma Performing First Movement of Elgar's Cello Concerto (1997)



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Sustainability & Human Rights are Inseparable -- The Blind Will to Drill and Dam is Not Only Absurd, It is Obscene

Where Indigenous People Live, UN



Sustainability & Human Rights are Inseparable -- The Blind Will to Drill and Dam is Not Only Absurd, It is Obscene

By Richard Power

We are in the grip of a global sustainability crisis. That grip will only tighten.

Conflicts over oil and water threaten to consume us all.

It is absurd to imagine that we can drill and dam our way into the future.

And here are two poignant reminders -- one from Malaysia and one from Canada -- that the blind will to drill and dam our way of out of this crisis is worse than absurd, it is obscene:

A secret document accidentally posted on the internet reveals plans to build a series of massive hydroelectric dams in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, submerging the homes of at least a thousand Penan, Kelabit and Kenyah tribal people.
The document is a presentation by the managing director of the company Sarawak Energy Berhad, and gives the location of twelve proposed hydroelectric power projects to be constructed between now and 2020. Sarawak Energy Berhad controls the production and distribution of electricity within the state. ...
The Penan are nomadic hunter-gatherers. Many have now been settled, but continue to rely very much on the forest for their existence. About 300 still live a completely nomadic life.
The Sarawak Energy Berhad presentation was posted on a Chinese website and has now been removed. Survival, 7-17-08
To write a letter in support of the Penan, click here.


A "new world oil order" may be emerging for oil, but one of the world's indigenous oldest communities isn't prepared to race into it.
Arnie Bellis, vice-president of the Council of the Haida Nation, said in an interview on Monday that the skyrocketing value of oil and gas resources off the British Columbia coast holds little interest for his people compared to the natural environment they have resolved to protect.
"We're on record as being against the development of gas and oil in our territory -- in any territory that would have an impact on our environment," Bellis said in an interview from the Queen Charlotte Islands, known to the first nation as Haida Gwaii. Vancouver Sun, 7-15-08

See The Eleventh Hour and Spread the Message to Your Friends and Colleagues

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

Haida Nation, Penan, Canada, Malaysia, Indigenous People, Sustainability, Human Rights

"The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more ... the future of human civilization is at stake."

United States of Climate Change, Sightline


Climate Crisis Update: "The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more - if more is required -- the future of human civilization is at stake."

By Richard Power

Al Gore issued a challenge today to both presidential candidates, to the US mainstream news media, to the political establishment at every level, to the business community as a whole, and directly to each individual US patriot and citizen of the planet.

Gore is leading, and his plan is a real plan.

Unlike the 2050 date that some political leaders posture around, Gore's deadline of ten years from now is realistic, it reflects the dire urgency of the situation.

Who will embrace this plan? Who will even report it?

Imagine what would happen in this country if Sen. Obama embraced Gore's plan and called on Gore to run with him. Imagine what would happen if he called on Gore to return to the Vice Presidency in order to assume personal responsibility for implementing this plan over two terms in office. Of course, it is highly unlikely, and of course, there is no way Al Gore would want to be Vice President again, but this is an emergency, yes, a deepening crisis, and Gore knows the way out of it.

With Gore's strength and gravitas added to Obama's strength and newness, they would be unstoppable.

Please share these excerpts from Gore's remarks with your friends and colleagues, go to Gore's site and read the full text, and join the We Can Solve It wecansolveit.org campaign.

It is not too late, but it soon will be.

There are times in the history of our nation when our very way of life depends upon dispelling illusions and awakening to the challenge of a present danger. In such moments, we are called upon to move quickly and boldly to shake off complacency, throw aside old habits and rise, clear-eyed and alert, to the necessity of big changes. Those who, for whatever reason, refuse to do their part must either be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside. This is such a moment. The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more - if more should be required - the future of human civilization is at stake. ...
In my search for genuinely effective answers to the climate crisis, I have held a series of "solutions summits" with engineers, scientists, and CEOs. In those discussions, one thing has become abundantly clear: when you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices. Moreover, they are also the very same solutions we need to guarantee our national security without having to go to war in the Persian Gulf.
What if we could use fuels that are not expensive, don't cause pollution and are abundantly available right here at home?
We have such fuels. Scientists have confirmed that enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world's energy needs for a full year. Tapping just a small portion of this solar energy could provide all of the electricity America uses.
And enough wind power blows through the Midwest corridor every day to also meet 100 percent of US electricity demand. Geothermal energy, similarly, is capable of providing enormous supplies of electricity for America.
The quickest, cheapest and best way to start using all this renewable energy is in the production of electricity. In fact, we can start right now using solar power, wind power and geothermal power to make electricity for our homes and businesses.
But to make this exciting potential a reality, and truly solve our nation's problems, we need a new start.
That's why I'm proposing today a strategic initiative designed to free us from the crises that are holding us down and to regain control of our own destiny. It's not the only thing we need to do. But this strategic challenge is the lynchpin of a bold new strategy needed to re-power America.
Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.
This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans - in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.
A few years ago, it would not have been possible to issue such a challenge. But here's what's changed: the sharp cost reductions now beginning to take place in solar, wind, and geothermal power - coupled with the recent dramatic price increases for oil and coal - have radically changed the economics of energy. ...
So I ask you to join with me to call on every candidate, at every level, to accept this challenge - for America to be running on 100 percent zero-carbon electricity in 10 years. It's time for us to move beyond empty rhetoric. We need to act now.
This is a generational moment. A moment when we decide our own path and our collective fate. I'm asking you - each of you - to join me and build this future. Please join the WE campaign at wecansolveit.org. We need you. And we need you now. We're committed to changing not just light bulbs, but laws. And laws will only change with leadership.
On July 16, 1969, the United States of America was finally ready to meet President Kennedy's challenge of landing Americans on the moon. I will never forget standing beside my father a few miles from the launch site, waiting for the giant Saturn 5 rocket to lift Apollo 11 into the sky. I was a young man, 21 years old, who had graduated from college a month before and was enlisting in the United States Army three weeks later.
I will never forget the inspiration of those minutes. The power and the vibration of the giant rocket's engines shook my entire body. As I watched the rocket rise, slowly at first and then with great speed, the sound was deafening. We craned our necks to follow its path until we were looking straight up into the air. And then four days later, I watched along with hundreds of millions of others around the world as Neil Armstrong took one small step to the surface of the moon and changed the history of the human race.
We must now lift our nation to reach another goal that will change history. Our entire civilization depends upon us now embarking on a new journey of exploration and discovery. Our success depends on our willingness as a people to undertake this journey and to complete it within 10 years. Once again, we have an opportunity to take a giant leap for humankind.
Al Gore, 7-17-08

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

For the Words of Power Climate Crisis Updates Archive, click here.

To participate in the 350 campaign, click here.

Click here for access to great promotional tools available on The Eleventh Hour action page.

To sign the Live Earth Pledge, click here.

For analysis of the US mainstream news media's failure to treat global warming and climate change with accuracy or appropriae urgency, click here for Media Matters' compilation of "Myths and Falsehoods about Global Warming".

Want to participate in the effort to mitigate the impact of global warming? Download "Ten Things You Can Do"

Want to join over one million people on the Stop Global Warming Virtual March, and become part of the movement to demand our leaders freeze and reduce carbon dioxide emissions now? Click here.

Center for American Progress Action Fund's Mic Check Radio has released a witty and compelling compilation on the Top 100 Effects of Global Warming, organized into sections like "Global Warming Wrecks All the Fun" (e.g., "Goodbye to Pinot Noir," "Goodbye to Baseball," "Goodbye to Salmon Dinners," "Goodbye to Ski Vacations," etc.), "Global Warming Kills the Animals" (e.g., "Death March of the Penguins," "Dying Grey Whales," "Farewell to Frogs," etc.) and yes, "Global Warming Threatens Our National Security" (e.g., "Famine," "Drought," "Large-Scale Migrations," "The World's Checkbook," etc.) I urge you to utilize Top 100 Effects of Global Warming in your dialogues with friends, family and colleagues.

Barack Obama,We Can Solve It, 350, Global Warming, Energy Security, Environmental Security, Alternate Energy, Sustainability, Green Power, Renewable Resources, Climate Change, Human Rights, Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth,Laurie David, Stop Global Warming!, The Eleventh Hour, Organic Gardening, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Late Night: Dave Matthews Band -- Crash Into Me (Folsom Field)

Hard Rain Late Night: Dave Matthews Band -- Crash Into Me (Folsom Field)



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Darfur Crisis Update: If You Have Ever Held the Door Between Life & Death Open for a Loved One, then You Should Stand Behind Luis Moreno Ocampo

For More Compelling Photos from Mia Farrow's Journeys, click here.

Darfur Crisis Update: If You Have Ever Held the Door Between Life & Death Open for a Loved One, then You Should Stand Behind Luis Moreno Ocampo

By Richard Power

What is the worth of the world's conscience?

Well, apparently less than 26 helicopters. Because the UN Peacekeepers in Darfur have needed them for months. (The G-8 leaders could manage a 18 course meal for themselves, but they just can't seem to scrounge up those helicopters.)

We also know that the worth of the world's conscience is apparently a lot less than the profits to be realized through the sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics. (None of the corporations involved have forsaken their opportunity to reach the couch-potatoes among us.)

Yes, it has gone from bad to worse.

On the eve of the G-8 meeting, George W. Bush -- ever wrong, ever insipid -- cavalierly announced he is going to the opening of the Beijing Olympics, and thus gave Karthoum’s protectors something for nothing.

On Hokkaido, the G-8 once again failed to meet the challenge of the Darfur genocide. The leaders of the great nations said nothing new, promised nothing new, and did nothing new for the terrorized people of Darfur.

Meanwhile on the threshing floor in the Sudan, seven more UN peacekeepers have been killed by Karthoum’s thugs.

While all of this was going on I was experiencing something familiar in my heart, in my bones, along in my spine, in my eyes, and reverberating through my psyche.

I asked myself, “What is this sensation?” "Where, when," I wondered aloud, "have I felt this way before?" Ah yes, at those times in my life when I took on the vigil over a loved one who was dying to live or living to die.

It is a long hard tour of duty when you stand at the doorway of death and hold it open for a loved one, waiting to see if the suffering person will come back into life or leave the body behind and move on.

Those of you who have experienced this vigil in one way or another in your life know exactly what I am talking about. Time seems to suspend. Life itself seems to suspend. Well, actually, it goes on all around you, but you slip out of it into a shadowy, chimerical netherworld between life and death, where a cold compress is a sacrament and a glimpse of recognition is a symphony.

As you drift in the neither here nor there place with the one you love, whether it is a parent, or a teacher, or a friend, or a lover, or a child, or even a stranger, you do not know if the ordeal will ever end, or how you can continue much longer in that stifling air, or if you will ever again feel the sun or hear the ocean.

Yes, you know this place if you have loved and served personally.

And you also know this place if in your life and your consciousness you live and serve the planet itself.

Those of us who will not rationalize away what is happening in Darfur live in this netherworld.

Mia Farrow lives in it.

Shame on us all ... Major Jill Rutaremara, a Rwandan military spokesman, condemned this week's devastating Janjaweed/government attack on UN peacekeepers. He also blamed the high level of causalities on the poor equipment of the forces. "Our peacekeepers are ill equipped in a situation where they come under attack from heavily armed people,"
Though UNAMID force is supposed to have 26,000 members, only about 9,000 troops are on the ground now. The Sudanese government continues to block an effective deployment of the force and the international community has acquiesced . We have failed to support the peacekeeping mission in every essential way. If the peacekeepers had had appropriate intelligence capacity and equipment this tragedy almost certainly would have been avoided. The peacekeepers have been pleading for 26 helicopters. No nation has offered even a single helicopter. Mia Farrow, 7-12-08

Nicolas Kristof knows that place.

... there is a serious argument to be made that genocide is overrated as an international concern. The G-8 leaders implicitly accept that argument, which goes like this:
Genocide is regrettable, but don’t lose perspective. It is simply one of many tragedies in the world today — and a fairly modest one in terms of lives lost.
All the genocides of the last 100 years have cost only 10 million to 12 million lives. In contrast, every year we lose almost 10 million children under the age of 5 from diseases and malnutrition attributable to poverty. Make that the priority, not Darfur. ...
I tilt obsessively at the windmills of Darfur because, quite simply, its people haunt me: the young woman who deliberately made a diversion of herself so the janjaweed would gang-rape her and miss her little sister running in the opposite direction; the man whose eyes were gouged out with a bayonet; the group of women beaten with their own babies until the children were dead.
Yes, genocide truly is “that bad.” Nicholas D. Kristof, “Is genocide really that bad? The Pain of the G-8’s Big Shrug,” New York Times, 7-10-08

Thom Hartmann knows that place.

Offering tangible evidence that, as Shakespeare promised, the "gentle rain" of mercy is "twice-blessed," Hartmann recently took his radio show to the threshing floor itself. (Click here.)

Those of us who taken on the vigil for Darfur, who stand here day after night after day, holding open the door between this world and the next, understand what International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is going to do in the Hague.

The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court announced his intent to ask for an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, which the United Nations worries may prompt a violent response by the Sudanese government against peacekeepers stationed there.
The Washington Post reports that ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo will put forth his case against Mr. Bashir on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity on Monday. The Post writes that Mr. Moreno-Ocampo's action would be "first time that the tribunal in The Hague charges a sitting head of state with such crimes, and represents a major step by the court to implicate the highest levels of the Sudanese government for the atrocities in Darfur." …
The news of Moreno-Ocampo's impending request has put the UN on edge, reports The Times of London, as it could prompt a violent response from Bashir's regime ... Arthur Bright, ICC prosecutor to seek arrest of Sudan's president for genocide, Christian Science Monitor, 7-11-08

Luis Moreno-Ocampo is right in what he is going to do.

Because it is not just Darfur that is dying a slow, agonizing death, it is the conscience of the world that is terminally ill. But it does not have to end this way.

Whatever flag they wrap themselves in, however high and mighty they are, they should be hunted down -- like Augusto Pinochet and Byron de la Beckwith (the murderer of Medgar Evers) -- even into their old age. Whatever flag they wrap themselves in, however high and mighty they are, you should leave them nowhere to turn.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center understands this spiritual imperative.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has strong evidence the leader of their list of most-wanted Nazi war criminals is still alive and residing in southern Chile or Argentina.
Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Israel director of The Simon Wiesenthal Center and Latin America director, Sergio Widder have been dispatched to Argentina to track SS doctor Aribert Heim, known as 'Dr. Death'. Heim murdered and committed experimental medical atrocities on hundreds of inmates at Mauthausen concentration camp where he was the camp doctor during WWII. Media Advisory-Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center: Hunt for the World's Leading Nazi War Criminal Leads to South America, 7-10-08

And yes, Philippe Sands and Vincent Bugliosi understand it as well.

I do not know if Moreno-Ocampo will make it to the Hague on Monday. I do not know if he will name Bashir and thus set an important new precedent, by naming a sitting head of state. But I hope he does.

Many obstructionists and denialists will attempt to block his way and then attempt to block his forward journey afterward.

Some voices have risen up in a cacophony of fretting and second-guessing.

Here are some excerpts from the dauntless Eric Reeves' brilliant refutation of the two of the most prominent of the denialists:

Are peace and justice incompatible pursuits in responding to the Darfur crisis? Do efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute atrocity crimes in Darfur deserve robust international support or exhortations of caution? Is justice fundamental to a resolution of the crisis? Or is it a luxury too costly, too threatening to the chances for peace? Would senior officials in the Khartoum regime be more or less likely to engage in meaningful peace talks if they faced forceful and compellingly researched indictments from the ICC? Would international support for the Court and for justice lead Khartoum to retaliate against civilians and humanitarians? Answers to these questions depend upon which of Darfur’s historical realities are accepted, which are denied or ignored. ...
Let us first of all be clear what de Waal and Flint are urging: it doesn’t matter whether Moreno Ocampo has overwhelming evidence of genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity committed by Minister of Defense Abdul Rahim Mohamed Hussein (also former Minister of the Interior during the most violent years of the genocide)---the senior NIF official most likely to be indicted. The ICC Prosecutor should simply sit on this evidence, no matter how compelling, and allow Khartoum to contend only with the April 2007 indictments of junior interior minister Ahmed Haroun and Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb (the “colonel of colonels”). ...
What we see here---and in the argument de Waal and Flint offer---is not a serious pressuring of Khartoum, but rather forms of accommodation. In the sixth year of unfathomable violence, destruction, and displacement, “urging” Khartoum to “cooperate” seems little more than a cruel sop thrown to the people of Darfur. In the case of de Waal and Flint, such accommodation of Khartoum extends to an expedient abandonment of justice in the interest of rendering Darfur somehow manageable, a situation requiring certain forms of acquiescence---at the very least not the site of ongoing genocidal destruction. ...
The status quo in Darfur is simply unacceptable; monstrous crimes against humanity are perpetuated amidst a climate of impunity that is acknowledged by all. The question is not whether indictment of a senior National Islamic Front official will provoke retaliation against humanitarians or further obstruction of UNAMID. The real question is what the international community---and in particular specific member states of the UN, and most particularly of the Security Council---will do to forestall not just immediate or short-term retaliatory responses by Khartoum, but to secure long-term security for all Darfuris. Eric Reeves, Pursuing Peace and Justice in Darfur: The Role of the ICC, 6-30-08

I encourage you to follow events in Darfur on Mia Farrow's site, it is the real-time journal of a humanitarian at work; the content is compelling, insightful and fiercely independent.

Click here to sign the TURN OFF/TUNE IN Pledge.

For a Words of Power Archive of posts on the Crisis in Darfur, click here.

Here are other sites of importance:

Dream for Darfur

Enough: The Project to End Genocide and Mass Atrocities

Genocide Intervention Network

Divest for Darfur.

Save Darfur!

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

Darfur, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Olympics, Divestment, Thom Hartmann, G8, UN, Genocide, Eric Reeves, Mia Farrow, Dream for Darfur, China, Sudan, Investors Against Genocide, Richard Power, Words of Power

Imagine What Would Be Happening Right Now If They Had Just Cut the Heart Out of the Second Amendment?

Image: Salvador Dali, Premonition of Civil War


Imagine What Would Be Happening Right Now If They Had Just Cut the Heart Out of the Second Amendment?

By Richard Power

For the historical record, four important points --

1. The issue of immunity for telecommunications companies is secondary. It pales in contrast to the damage done to FISA and to the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

2. Senator Obama and others are being self-serving and misleading when they characterize the legislation as a "compromise" in an effort to justify their votes.

3. Yes, if Senator Obama had voted against it, he would have been walking into a political trap; but, of course, he also walked into a political trap by voting for it.

4. As wrong as this legislation is, and as shameful as Democratic support for it is, it is not the only issue is at play in this election, and there is no sane alternative to doing everything within your power to get Sen. Obama elected.

Beyond these four points, I refer you to the ACLU:

... in a blatant assault upon civil liberties and the right to privacy, the Senate passed an unconstitutional domestic spying bill that violates the Fourth Amendment and eliminates any meaningful role for judicial oversight of government surveillance. The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 was approved by a vote of 69-28 and is expected to be signed into law by President Bush shortly. This bill essentially legalizes the president’s unlawful warrantless wiretapping program revealed in December 2005 by the New York Times. ...
The FISA Amendments Act nearly eviscerates oversight of government surveillance by allowing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to review only general procedures for spying rather than individual warrants. The FISC will not be told any specifics about who will actually be wiretapped, thereby undercutting any meaningful role for the court and violating the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure.
The bill further trivializes court review by authorizing the government to continue a surveillance program even after the government’s general spying procedures are found insufficient or unconstitutional by the FISC. The government has the authority to wiretap through the entire appeals process, and then keep and use whatever information was gathered in the meantime. A provision touted as a major “concession” by proponents of the bill calls for investigations by the inspectors general of four agencies overseeing spying activities. But members of Congress who do not sit on the Judiciary or Intelligence committees will not be guaranteed access to the agencies’ reports. ACLU, 9-7-08

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

Barack Obama,ACLU, FISA,, US Constitution, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Late Night: Pete Townsend -- Behind Blue Eyes (Acoustic)

Hard Rain Late Night: Pete Townsend -- Behind Blue Eyes (Acoustic)



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Pete Townsend,You Tube, Late Night, Music, Richard Power, Words of Power

What the Real News Tells Us -- You and I and the Lions of the Serengeti are on Our Own.

Image: Yves Tanguy, The Dark Garden, Le Jardin sombre. 1928.

What the Real News Tells Us -- You and I and the Lions of the Serengeti are on Our Own.

By Richard Power


News of delusional pronouncements are emerging from the G-8.

Rajendra Pachauri, the Nobel Prize winning chief of the IPCC explains: The head of the UN's Nobel-winning panel of climate change scientists said Tuesday that a pledge made by G8 leaders to at least halve global warming emissions by 2050 had a major flaw.
The world's wealthiest nations failed to specify a target for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions in the coming decade, a vital stepping stone for meeting the mid-century goal, said Rajendra Pachauri. Agence France Press, 7-8-08

So to compensate, here is some real news.

Real good news and real bad news.

First, the real bad news: An international research team has published the first clear example of how climate extremes can create conditions in which diseases that are normally tolerated singly may converge and bring about mass die-offs in wildlife.
In a report issued June 25 by PLoS ONE, an online peer-reviewed research journal, researchers examined outbreaks of canine distemper virus (CDV) in 1994 and 2001 that resulted in unusually high mortality in Serengeti lions. ...
The study, led by scientists at the University of California, Davis, the University of Illinois, and the University of Minnesota, showed that both of the deadly CDV outbreaks were preceded by extreme drought conditions, which led to debilitated populations of Cape buffalo, the lion's prey. ...
This study suggests that extreme climatic conditions, such as the more frequent droughts and floods expected with global warming, are capable of altering normal host-pathogen relationships and bringing about a "perfect storm" of multiple infectious outbreaks, potentially triggering epidemics with catastrophic mortality. Terra Daily, 7-8-08

And now, the real good news: The organic food market has been growing slowly but surely in Chile over the past eight years. The market, which was worth US$200,000 in 2003, today represents US$7.4 million in sales and is expected to grow to US$53 million by 2013. Chile’s internal demand for organic products is increasing by 20 percent every year, with consumers currently purchasing US$200,000 in organic products per month.
Still, Chile’s organic fruit and vegetable production is mainly for export - directed to Europe and the United States, where organic food has been part of consumption habits for a longer time. ...
In the current global warming context, more and more consumers are professing the need for slow and nature-friendly agriculture. Santiago Times, 7-8-08

You and I and the Lions of the Serengeti are on our own.

The leaders of the great nations are still fiddling with themselves while the planet slowly burns.

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

For the Words of Power Climate Crisis Updates Archive, click here.

To participate in the 350 campaign, click here.

Click here for access to great promotional tools available on The Eleventh Hour action page.

To sign the Live Earth Pledge, click here.

For analysis of the US mainstream news media's failure to treat global warming and climate change with accuracy or appropriae urgency, click here for Media Matters' compilation of "Myths and Falsehoods about Global Warming".

Want to participate in the effort to mitigate the impact of global warming? Download "Ten Things You Can Do"

Want to join over one million people on the Stop Global Warming Virtual March, and become part of the movement to demand our leaders freeze and reduce carbon dioxide emissions now? Click here.

Center for American Progress Action Fund's Mic Check Radio has released a witty and compelling compilation on the Top 100 Effects of Global Warming, organized into sections like "Global Warming Wrecks All the Fun" (e.g., "Goodbye to Pinot Noir," "Goodbye to Baseball," "Goodbye to Salmon Dinners," "Goodbye to Ski Vacations," etc.), "Global Warming Kills the Animals" (e.g., "Death March of the Penguins," "Dying Grey Whales," "Farewell to Frogs," etc.) and yes, "Global Warming Threatens Our National Security" (e.g., "Famine," "Drought," "Large-Scale Migrations," "The World's Checkbook," etc.) I urge you to utilize Top 100 Effects of Global Warming in your dialogues with friends, family and colleagues.

Rajendra Pachauri, Serengeti,Lions, 350, Chile, Organic food, Global Warming, Energy Security, Environmental Security, Alternate Energy, Sustainability, Green Power, Renewable Resources, Climate Change, Human Rights, Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth,Laurie David, Stop Global Warming!, The Eleventh Hour, Organic Gardening, Richard Power, Words of Power

Climate Crisis Update: The Price of A Barrel of Oil is Not the Number You Need to Focus On, The Number You Need to Focus On is "350"

Variations of the Earth's surface temperature: year 1000 to year 2100, IPCC


Climate Crisis Update: The Price of a Barrel of Oil is Not the Number You Need to Focus On, The Number You Need to Focus On is "350"

By Richard Power

Year after year, it becomes painfully clear that even though many (if not most) people now accept the Climate Crisis as real, they are still in denial about what must be done. Each year that the governments of the world fail to make Climate Crisis their number one priority is another grain of sand in the hourglass.

The number of grains is finite. There are already more grains at the bottom of the hourglass than at the top. There is not much time left.

I do not know the exact number of grains left, but I do know that just like the sparrows of the air and the hairs on your head, they are numbered.

There is another number that I do know: 350.

"350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide--measured in 'Parts Per Million' in our atmosphere. 350 PPM--it's the number humanity needs to get back to as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change." (For more information, click here.)

This number is the most important number in your life, it is the most important number in the lives of your children now and for the rest of their journey on Earth. Dr. James Hansen gave us this number 350 in a paper he published earlier this year. (To read the paper, click here.)

Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy, puts the number in perspective:

We haven’t come up with words big enough to communicate the magnitude of what we’re doing. ... But a number works. And this is a good one. Arcane, yes-parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere. But at least it means the same thing in every tongue, and it even bridges the gap between English and metric. And so we secured the all-important URL: 350.org. (Easier said than done.) And we settled on our mission: To tattoo that number into every human brain. To make every person on Planet Earth aware of it ... The weekend before we officially launched the campaign, for instance, 350 people on bicycles rode around the center of Salt Lake City. ... We need 350 churches ringing their bells 350 times; we need 350 spray-painted across the face of shrinking glaciers (in organic paint!); we need a stack of 350 watermelons on opening day at your farmers’ market; we need songs and videos; we need temporary tattoos for foreheads. We may need 350 people lining up to get arrested in front of a coal train.
It makes sense that we need a number, not a word. All our words come from the old world. They descend from the time before. Their associations have congealed. But the need to communicate has never been greater. We need to draw a line in the sand. Say it out loud: 350. Do everything you can. Bill McKibben, When Words Fail: Climate change activists have chosen a magic number, Orion Magazine, 6-29-08

Meanwhile, there is a danger that instead of acting on the desperate need to change our economic model before it devours itself, and decimates the environment (i.e., climate, natural resources, etc.) on which it is predicated, the world's leaders are going to choose short-term political advantage and waste this window of opportunity.

The Guardian's indefatigable George Monbiot explains:

Almost everyone seems to agree: governments now face a choice between saving the planet and saving the economy. As recession looms, the political pressure to abandon green policies intensifies. A report published yesterday by Ernst & Young suggests that the EU’s puny carbon target will raise energy bills by 20% over the next 12 years. Last week the prime minister’s advisers admitted to the Guardian that his renewable energy plans were “on the margins” of what people will tolerate.
But these fears are based on a false assumption: that there is a cheap alternative to a green economy. Last week New Scientist reported a survey of oil industry experts, which found that most of them believe global oil supplies will peak by 2010. If they are right, the game is up. A report published by the US department of energy in 2005 argued that unless the world begins a crash programme of replacements 10 or 20 years before oil peaks, a crisis “unlike any yet faced by modern industrial society” is unavoidable.
If the world is sliding into recession, it’s partly because governments believed that they could choose between economy and ecology. The price of oil is so high and it hurts so much because there has been no serious effort to reduce our dependency. Yesterday in the Guardian, Rajendra Pachauri suggested that an impending recession could force us to confront the flaws in the global economy. Sadly it seems so far to have had the opposite effect: a recent Ipsos Mori poll suggests that people are losing interest in climate change. Opportunities for energy populism abound: it cannot be long before one of the major parties abandons the pale green consensus and starts invoking an oil cornucopia it cannot possibly deliver. George Monbiot, This Economic Panic Is Pushing the Planet Right Back Down the Agenda, The Guardian, 7-1-08

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

For the Words of Power Climate Crisis Updates Archive, click here.

To participate in the 350 campaign, click here.

Click here for access to great promotional tools available on The Eleventh Hour action page.

To sign the Live Earth Pledge, click here.

For analysis of the US mainstream news media's failure to treat global warming and climate change with accuracy or appropriae urgency, click here for Media Matters' compilation of "Myths and Falsehoods about Global Warming".

Want to participate in the effort to mitigate the impact of global warming? Download "Ten Things You Can Do"

Want to join over one million people on the Stop Global Warming Virtual March, and become part of the movement to demand our leaders freeze and reduce carbon dioxide emissions now? Click here.

Center for American Progress Action Fund's Mic Check Radio has released a witty and compelling compilation on the Top 100 Effects of Global Warming, organized into sections like "Global Warming Wrecks All the Fun" (e.g., "Goodbye to Pinot Noir," "Goodbye to Baseball," "Goodbye to Salmon Dinners," "Goodbye to Ski Vacations," etc.), "Global Warming Kills the Animals" (e.g., "Death March of the Penguins," "Dying Grey Whales," "Farewell to Frogs," etc.) and yes, "Global Warming Threatens Our National Security" (e.g., "Famine," "Drought," "Large-Scale Migrations," "The World's Checkbook," etc.) I urge you to utilize Top 100 Effects of Global Warming in your dialogues with friends, family and colleagues.

James Hansen, Bill McKibben,George Monbiot, 350, Global Warming, Energy Security, Environmental Security, Alternate Energy, Sustainability, Green Power, Renewable Resources, Climate Change, Human Rights, Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth,Laurie David, Stop Global Warming!, The Eleventh Hour, Organic Gardening, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Late Night: Melissa Etheridge -- Come to My Window (Unplugged)

Hard Rain Late Night: Melissa Etheridge -- Come to My Window (Unplugged)



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Melissa Etheridge,You Tube, Late Night, Music, Richard Power, Words of Power

Food Security: Tell the G-8, "Listen to Your Madre!"

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Food Security: Tell the G-8, "Listen to Your Madre!"

By Richard Power

A dynamic human rights organization, Madre, has written a letter to the G-8, calling for meaningful action on the global food crisis: The root cause of the food crisis is not scarcity, but the failed economic policies long championed by the G8, namely, trade liberalization and industrial agriculture. These policies, which treat food as a commodity rather than a human right, have induced chaotic climate change, oil dependency, and the depletion of the Earth's land and water resources as well as today's food crisis. ...There are viable solutions to the food crisis, but they will not emerge from a narrow pursuit of the financial interests of multinational corporations. A Women's Declaration to the G8: Support Real Solutions to the Global Food Crisis

The G-8 meets next week.

Will this letter from Madre be heeded? Of course not.

But imagine a planet on which these eight great economic, political and military powers actually did listen to their Madre; imagine the good that could be realized.

Unfortunately, since 2001, the G-8's output has been disjointed and ineffectual; consequently, its positive impact has been minimal. Furthermore, in its present malaise, it can't be expected to repudiate its own long-held illusions on trade, economic growth, etc.

The G-8 has failed to lead the world on Darfur, it has failed to lead the world on the Climate Crisis. There is nothing else to say.

Those two statements are the most damning evidence that could be offered against the G-8, and nothing in its defense counterbalances either one.

The G-8 has become -- at least until January 2008 -- a Ship of Fools.

Will it rise again to lead the world in this era of deepening crisis? Or at least to articulate a meaningful response from the developed world? Certainly not until there is regime change in the USA.

And if there is continuation rather than regime change in the USA?

Well, then this Ship of Fools that the G-8 has become can be christened anew, with the best of champagnes, as the second voyage of the Titanic.

Here are some excerpts from the Madre Letter to the G-8, which articulate what should and could be done, by acting on the twin imperatives of sustainable agriculture and sustainable economic policies, to avoid the worst that is to come:

The Imperative of Sustainable Agriculture
We call on the G8 to:
Recognize gender discrimination as a threat to global food security;
Uphold the rights of agricultural workers under the International Labor Organization's Conventions;
Support national policies that provide small-scale farmers with access to land, seeds, water, credit and other inputs and that uphold the rights of farmers to make informed decisions about land use and food production.
The Imperative of Sustainable Economic Policies
We call on the G8 to:
Move beyond the partial commitment it made to debt cancellation at the 2005 G8 summit in Scotland and enact immediate and unconditional debt cancellation for all developing countries;
Allow governments to determine their own agricultural policies in consultation with citizens;
Institute international mechanisms for market stabilization that protect the livelihoods of farmers and guarantee affordable food for all people;
Endorse the call of Jacques Diouf, Secretary General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, for developing countries to be enabled to achieve food self-sufficiency. ...
We call on the G8 to:
Recognize that food is first and foremost a human right and only secondarily a tradable commodity;
Support a process for an international Convention to replace the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture. Such a Convention must uphold the full range of human rights standards and should implement the concept of food sovereignty, whereby communities control their own food systems;
Respect the rights of small farmers to save and exchange seeds between communities and internationally;
Initiate a conversion of national agricultural subsidies from support for agribusiness to incentives for sustainable farming, including small-scale and organic farms. A Women's Declaration to the G8: Support Real Solutions to the Global Food Crisis

Some Related Posts

The Monstrous, Two-Headed Crisis of Climate Change & Sustainability is Devouring the World's Food Before It Is Produced

Madness of Pursuing Last Drop of Peak Oil, Instead of 21st Century Renewable Energy Model, has Caught Up w/ Us -- the Food Security Fuse has Been Lit

More on How Our Climate & Sustainability Crises Impact Food Security: “Once the oceans are gone, we’re gone. The oceans sustain the planet.”

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

Food Security, Madre, Global Warming, Sustainability, G-8, Renewable Resources, Climate Change, The Eleventh Hour, Richard Power, Words of Power