The Price of Our Comfortable Lives

Denmark's support of the Faroese whale slaughter - the EU must act

Denmark's unlawful support of the Faroese 'grind' whale hunt is now open and obvious for all to see, writes Captain Paul Watson, as the supposedly 'civilized' Scandinavian nation turns its military might against protestors seeking to save whales and small cetaceans from cruel and barbaric massacre.

Men, women and children flocked to the beach, laughing and cheering as if they were at a birthday party, eager to see and smell the spurting blood.

Following the massacre of 33 pilot whales last Saturday, Sea Shepherd volunteers woke up to a bag of dead birds tossed on their doorstep - and it is now quite clear that the Danish government has thrown their cards on the table in support of cruelty and slaughter.

During the last 85 days, the Sea Shepherd look-outs on land and the Sea Shepherd boats on the water were able to divert back to sea, three large pods of pilot whales, and for 85 days not a single whale or dolphin was slain in a drive slaughter.

However we all knew that eventually the logistics and the geography would allow for a breach for the whalers to seize their opportunity.

Last Saturday the six-person team on Sandoy Island at Sandur spotted six boats leaving the harbor. They immediately informed the closest Sea Shepherd boat crew, the nearest being Bastien Boudoire from France and his crew on the Mike Galesi.

read on: http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2539438/denmarks_support_of_the_faroese_whale_slaughter_the_eu_must_act.html

Love Always
mudra

Botswana government lies exposed as $5bn diamond mine opens on Bushman land

Oliver Tickell

4th September 2014
Ten years after promises of 'no mining' in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve, a $5 billion diamond mine opens a few miles from a Bushman village. Elsewhere in the Reserve, fracking is under way. And President Ian Khama, a director of Conservation International, denounces the Bushmen as 'poachers' and evicts them from their land.

The program of assisted relocation of Basarwa (Bushmen) from areas of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve ... was in no way related to any plan, real or fictitious, to commence diamond mining in the reserve.

A $4.9bn diamond mine opens tomorrow in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), the ancestral land of Africa's last hunting Bushmen - exactly ten years after the Botswana government claimed there were "no plans to mine anywhere inside the reserve."

The Bushmen were told they had to leave the reserve soon after diamonds were discovered in the 1980s, but the Botswana government has repeatedly denied that the illegal and forced evictions of the Kalahari Bushmen - in 1997, 2002 and 2005 - were due to the rich diamond deposits.

It justified the Bushmen's evictions from the land in the name of "conservation".

read on: http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2542508/botswana_government_lies_exposed_as_5bn_diamond_mine_opens_on_bushman_land.html

Love Always
mudra

Why bees are disappearing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY7iATJVCso


Love Always
mudra

Botswana government lies exposed as diamond mine opens on Bushman land
4 September 2014


In 2004, a Botswana Minister said there was no mining nor any plans for future mining anywhere inside the CKGR. In 2014 a $4.9bn diamond mine opens.

A $4.9bn diamond mine will open on September 5 in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, the ancestral land of Africa’s last hunting Bushmen, exactly ten years after the Botswana government claimed there were “no plans to mine anywhere inside the reserve.”

The Bushmen were told they had to leave the reserve soon after diamonds were discovered in the 1980s, but the Botswana government has repeatedly denied that the illegal and forced evictions of the Kalahari Bushmen – in 1997, 2002 and 2005 – were due to the rich diamond deposits. It justified the Bushmen’s evictions from the land in the name of “conservation”.

In 2000, however, Botswana’s Minister of Minerals, Energy & Water Affairs told a Botswana newspaper, "the relocation of Basarwa (Bushmen) communities from [the Central Kalahari Game Reserve] is to pave way for a proposed Gope Diamond Mine”; and in 2002, the Bushmen told Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, "Foreign Minister General Merafhe went to the reserve and told us we had to be moved because of diamonds.”

The mine opening has also exposed Botswana’s commitment to conservation as window dressing. The government falsely claims that the Bushmen’s presence in the reserve is “incompatible with wildlife conservation,” while allowing a diamond mine and fracking exploration to go ahead on their land.

read on: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/10410

Love Always
mudra

A New Reason To Care

Posted by Nick Polizzi

Have you ever wondered what a shaman’s responsibilities are? We often think of them as healers of the sick, but it turns out this is only half of the picture. The word for this sacred profession actually comes from the Turkic dialect, originating in a remote region of Siberia thought by many to be the birthplace of shamanism. One of the earliest interpretations we have found for the term shaman is “one who heals the sick and honors the forest.” So in essence, their duty is to look after the wellbeing of both man and mother nature.

1826.JPG.opt391x521o0,0s391x521Today, I’d like to focus on that second obligation. I am not a shaman, but working alongside them in the course of this work has taught me that in addition to their obligations as tribal healers and the keepers of the ancient ways, the shaman also leads the conservation effort in their tribe or community. They take responsibility for the protection of the forest, the ecosystem that supports the sacred plants.

If you follow the news, you’ve probably noticed some big demonstrations and summits about the global climate crisis lately. In fact, the Peoples Climate March in New York City last month was the largest demonstration on US soil in over a decade. This is some rare good news for mother nature, but still many bemoan the abstract and indecisive rally cry of these movements and feel that this cause is a headless serpent moving without any real strategy. Today, I’d like to pose a new message from the Sacred Science team, specifically regarding the preservation of the most essential natural sanctuary left on earth – the Amazon Rainforest.

The message is simple – we are unwittingly destroying the earth’s medicine cabinet and shredding the pages of its built-in manual.

The environmental crisis in the Amazon is not a new issue. From the time I was a teenager I can remember watching commercials and reading magazine articles about the mindless destruction of the South American jungles. In fact, it became such a popular topic back in the eighties that it might have even over-saturated our awareness and become one of those shamefully ignorable tales of devastation.

But in the fight against deforestation in the Amazon, there is one angle that doesn’t seem to have been emphasized enough. There is plenty of talk about our moral duty and obligation to do the right thing, but what about the 100% selfish reasons for preserving this incredible resource that is burning down before our very eyes?

There are over 60,000 species of plants in the Amazon Rainforest and of these, less than 3% have been studied by western medicine for their medicinal value. Of this small number of plants that have been extensively researched, over 25% of our conventional treatments are derived from them. Aren’t we curious about the potential cures that the other 97% of these plants hold?

Unfortunately, we don’t have much time to find out. The tropical forests of South America are rich in natural resource value and are being bulldozed and burned by government backed businesses who are willing to do whatever it takes to squeeze money from them. Each year, hundreds of plant species go extinct and countless indigenous tribes of the Amazon are displaced because of this type of “forward progress”.

As renowned ethnobotanist, Mark Plotkin puts it, “If you look at the Amazon Jungle as an encyclopedia of medicinal plants, the indigenous tribes that live there are surely its index and table of contents.” Without their guidance, you are lost in your search.

read on:[url=http://www.thesacredscience.com/blog1/a-new-reason-to-care]http://www.thesacredscience.com/blog1/a-new-reason-to-care[/url

Love Always
mudra

Beautiful, Terrifying Google Earth Images That Expose the Planet’s Rapidly Changing Face

Mind the Earth,” an upcoming exhibition at the Danish Architecture Centre, is a carefully curated exhibition of stunning yet terrifying Google Earth images that offer stark photographic evidence of urban change and environmental destruction over time on the ever-changing face of the planet.

The bird’s-eye view from above can sometimes obscure the hell on the ground, as in these photos of slums, intersecting Los Angeles freeway loops, ice floe in Antarctica, or the deforestation of a Bolivian rainforest that are deceptively abstract and often beautiful from a distance.

What may look like a solid green square next to a static-filled square is actually a shocking aerial photo of a portion of the Amazon rainforest in 1975 vs. the same area in 2008 after being virtually destroyed by logging. It's a terrifying example of the human impact on the earth, thanks to satellite photos from Google Earth

Areal photo of a portion of the Amazon Rainforest in 1975


Same area in 2008


read on: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2014/11/07/google_earth_images_of_urban_change_and_environmental_destruction_mind_the.html

Love Always
mudra

Biblical-Prophecy (as interpreted by many churches) points toward the complete destruction of the world (and most of humanity) -- but the faithful are promised that they will be taken to a better place. It almost seems as if trying to save the world exhibits a lack of faith in God (and God's Word). In my participation on this website -- I seem to be at war with all concerned -- as I seek to save the world and humanity. People do not wish to be questioned and contradicted (even when the motives are pure -- and the logic is clear). I find the phenomenon of welcoming destruction -- and kneeling in submission -- to be highly suspect. This sounds like surrendering to a conqueror who is anything but love. Is God a Conqueror by Definition?? What if the history of religion is the history of conquest?? What if a God of Love wouldn't survive in a Violent Universe?? What if primitive-humanity had to make a Deal with the Devil (in order to survive)?? What really concerns me is how many people have suffered and died over the past 200 years (compared with the previous 2,000 years). What also concerns me is how badly the environment has been trashed over the past 200 years (compared with the previous 2,000 years). I do not see a Loving and Responsible God in Charge of Earth (going back hundreds [or even thousands] of years). I realize that humanity is often stupid and irresponsible -- yet I sense something wrong at the very top of the pyramid. The more I try to save the world and humanity -- the more attacked and miserable I feel. This misery is almost unbearable -- and it seems to be getting worse and worse. It wouldn't surprise me if I end-up in the nut-house (or worse) by the end of this decade (if not sooner).

The exotic pet trade is a global evil that must be stopped



Behind the relatively sanitized façade of the exotic pet industry resides a vast chronicle of species decline, ecological disruption, animal suffering, mortality, and the global dissemination of pathogens, writes Clifford Warwick. We are in the midst of a profit-fueled frivolous wildlife biocide, as animal traders strive to bring the next curiosity fish, turtle or primate into our homes.

Die-off between pet retailer and the home is 81% in a year. The aquarium and reptile industry manifests nearly the same lethality as a slaughterhouse.

For three decades I have worked as a scientist traversing swamps, deserts and forests tracking wildlife hunters as they scour to catch diverse animals for their sacks and boxes. From this moment on, the meter of destruction is already running.

Next, the hunters' swag is readied for a new and commonly shortened life in captivity as part of the growing international market for unusual pets.

Unfortunately, despite shuffling tons of trade permits - many of which can be obtained illegally - few, if any, civil servants, CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) managers or other so-called 'competent authorities' ever physically enter the hard end of the wildlife trade to witness, let alone control, the destruction.

CITES aims to " ... ensure that international trade in endangered species of plants and animals is sustainable." Not only are CITES' aims and achievements somewhat fanciful, but in my experience CITES is often a mere tool for wildlife traders.

Investigate the sources of trade and you will find no controllers, no scientific observers, just exploiters. Anyway, 25% of trade is thought illegal - hardly well under control. Safe 'sustainable' trade is mostly a myth.

read on:http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2626664/the_exotic_pet_trade_is_a_global_evil_that_must_be_stopped.html

Love Always
mudra

orthodoxymoron wrote:Biblical-Prophecy (as interpreted by many churches) points toward the complete destruction of the world (and most of humanity) -- but the faithful are promised that they will be taken to a better place. It almost seems as if trying to save the world exhibits a lack of faith in God (and God's Word). In my participation on this website -- I seem to be at war with all concerned -- as I seek to save the world and humanity. People do not wish to be questioned and contradicted (even when the motives are pure -- and the logic is clear). I find the phenomenon of welcoming destruction -- and kneeling in submission -- to be highly suspect. This sounds like surrendering to a conqueror who is anything but love. Is God a Conqueror by Definition?? What if the history of religion is the history of conquest?? What if a God of Love wouldn't survive in a Violent Universe?? What if primitive-humanity had to make a Deal with the Devil (in order to survive)?? What really concerns me is how many people have suffered and died over the past 200 years (compared with the previous 2,000 years). What also concerns me is how badly the environment has been trashed over the past 200 years (compared with the previous 2,000 years). I do not see a Loving and Responsible God in Charge of Earth (going back hundreds [or even thousands] of years). I realize that humanity is often stupid and irresponsible -- yet I sense something wrong at the very top of the pyramid. The more I try to save the world and humanity -- the more attacked and miserable I feel. This misery is almost unbearable -- and it seems to be getting worse and worse. It wouldn't surprise me if I end-up in the nut-house (or worse) by the end of this decade (if not sooner).

We may not be able to fix this world Oxy but at least we can raise our voice and tell our truth. Much better I believe than all those sleepers around that aren't aware there is something wrong with the way life is heading today and that happily or not so happily snore while heading straight into the wall.
But by doing so Oxy we need to take a reasonable distance to it all otherwise all this madness will swallow us too and that's not very constructive is it ?
That's why I consider important to make order in our own private kingdom and find that radiant , eternal being that is our essence. When this is clear would we waver from it at times because the force field we find ourselves into in this game is tough we can nonetheless always return to it and find peace in the middle of any storm.
Don't let yourself go nuts Oxy. There is a way to peace.



Much Love for You
mudra

Thank-you mudra. I've basically built a science-fictional house to live-in. I've made my bed -- and now I'm attempting to sleep in it -- but I keep having horrible nightmares!! I am out of step with everyone -- the church -- the atheists -- the new-agers -- and even with The Mists of Avalon!!

orthodoxymoron wrote:Thank-you mudra. I've basically built a science-fictional house to live-in. I've made my bed -- and now I'm attempting to sleep in it -- but I keep having horrible nightmares!! I am out of step with everyone -- the church -- the atheists -- the new-agers -- and even with The Mists of Avalon!!

Oxy there are many things wrong with this world and they should be confronted.
But there is a lot of good and beautiful things to.
Pay attention to these too my friend for they are a vital part of keeping balance.
As you do so you'll will see more and more.

Much Love from me
mudra

Moral-Ambiguity and Looking the Other Way work wonders when seeking a Beautiful-Wife and a Comfortable-Life. Hyper-Morality and Whistle-Blowing work wonders when seeking Firing, Defrocking, Excommunication, Lawsuits, Jail, Divorce, Nervous-Breakdowns, Bankruptcy, Suicide, Etc. "You'll Never Work in This Town Again!!" or "You'll Never Work in This Deep-Underground Military-Base Again!!" Pain is the Cost of Doing Business in the Universe. There's Positive and Negative Sides to Positive-Thinking and Self-Esteem. I've tried to be open, honest, and trenchant -- and this has been an utter-disaster. Joining the Masons and Going to Church might've been a better plan.

Fracking is safe. Radiation is harmless. And pigs have wings

Dr David Lowry

21st November 2014

Jim Ratcliffe of Ineos, Environment Secretary Liz Truss, the Environment Agency and its ex-boss Lord Smith all suffer from a blind spot, writes David Lowry - the dangers of fracking, its radioactive emissions and the toxic chemicals that threaten to pollute our aquifers. As for official advice that 'regulation needs to be strongly and robustly applied' - pass the Tippex!

More than 700 chemicals are used in the fracking process, and many of them disturb hormone function. With fracking on the rise, populations may face greater health risks from increased endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure.

Ineos chairman Jim Ratcliffe yesterday announced his company's £640 million new investment into hydraulic fracturing of shale gas, asserting:

"Ineos has also hired some of the world's leading shale gas experts to make sure the gas can be safely extracted in an environmentally responsible way."

He echoed similar statements by the independent peer Lord Smith of Finsbury - until 2005 Chris Smith, Labour MP for Islington South & Finsbury - made during an interview on BBC TV's The Daily Politics programme.

More recently Smith has been the chairman of the Environment Agency, holding the post for five years until he retired at the end of June 2014. He was also Tony Blair's shadow environment secretary from 1992-94, and went on to shadow the health portfolio.

At issue was Smith's new role as chairperson of an 'independent' inquiry into fracking, the Shale Gas Task Force - which will be funded by the fracking industry. He insisted that fracking would be "safe" if properly regulated.

Which side is the Environment Agency on?

The Daily Politics presenter asked if the Task Force would ever publish a report that was critical of fracking, despite the provenance of his inquiry's funding. Smith insisted: "If that is what the evidence points to, that is what we will say."

A week ago he told the Guardian: "We will assess the existing evidence, ask for new contributions and lead a national conversation around this vitally important issue."

Just before he left office at the Environment Agency, I wrote to Lord Smith about his support of fracking as revealed, for example, in a May 2012 lecture to the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Shale gas would be a "useful addition" to the UK's "energy mix", he told his audience, provided that certain requirements were met.

National anti-fracking group Fracked Off were unimpressed. "Lord Smith's endorsement of commercial-scale fracking in the UK suggests the Environment Agency are either ignorant of the facts or ignoring them", said Frack Off activist Nathan Roberts. "The Environment Agency is not regulating fracking at present as they do not consider it an activity that requires a permit and hence are not actively monitoring the activity."

In my letter to Lord Smith I specifically raised concerns over radon risks from fracking, as extensively aired in the US, but barely at all in the UK, and the health hazards posed by endocrine disrupter chemicals - so called 'gender-bender' chemical additives - used in fracking fluids.

In his letter of response dated 8 July, Lord Smith, confirmed the Environment Agency was "aware of the use of endocrine disrupters in some parts of the USA".

He went on the stress "the way we will regulate shale gas fracking in England will reduce the risk from endocrine disrupters by appropriate management of chemicals and the treatment and disposal of flow back fluid." Note - he did not say 'eliminate', but only "reduce the risk" of these hazardous chemicals.

read on: http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2643773/fracking_is_safe_radiation_is_harmless_and_pigs_have_wings.html

Love Always
mudra

Devastating Oil Spill Threatens Rare Dolphins and Bengal Tigers

Bangladeshi villagers are using spoons and sponges to clean up fuel leaked by a tanker.

Villagers in the coastal Sundarbans mangroves of Bangladesh are using spoons, sponges, and shovels to try to mop up a major oil spill in an area that is home to two rare dolphin species, Bengal tigers, and a diverse array of birds and fish.

The spill began Tuesday, when a tanker carrying about 77,000 gallons of fuel oil collided with a cargo ship. By Friday, according to reports, the oil had spread across 50 miles of rivers and canals.



Oil spill threatens UNESCO world heritage site in Bangladesh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h08XDWyk9CQ






Love Always

mudra

Secret video of 'exhausted workforce' in Chinese factory making Apple products \
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QYaOyUdm8E



Love Always
mudra

Santa's real workshop: the town in China that makes the world's Christmas decorations
Inside the ‘Christmas village’ of Yiwu, there’s no snow and no elves, just 600 factories that produce 60% of all the decorations in the world



There’s red on the ceiling and red on the floor, red dripping from the window sills and red globules splattered across the walls. It looks like the artist Anish Kapoor has been let loose with his wax cannon again. But this, in fact, is what the making of Christmas looks like; this is the very heart of the real Santa’s workshop – thousands of miles from the North Pole, in the Chinese city of Yiwu.

Our yuletide myth-making might like to imagine that Christmas is made by rosy-cheeked elves hammering away in a snow-bound log cabin somewhere in the Arctic Circle. But it’s not. The likelihood is that most of those baubles, tinsel and flashing LED lights you’ve draped liberally around your house came from Yiwu, 300km south of Shanghai – where there’s not a (real) pine tree nor (natural) snowflake in sight.
Christened “China’s Christmas village”, Yiwu is home to 600 factories that collectively churn out over 60% of all the world’s Christmas decorations and accessories, from glowing fibre-optic trees to felt Santa hats. The “elves” that staff these factories are mainly migrant labourers, working 12 hours a day for a maximum of £200 to £300 a month – and it turns out they’re not entirely sure what Christmas is.

read on http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2014/dec/19/santas-real-workshop-the-town-in-china-that-makes-the-worlds-christmas-decorations

Love Always
mudra

Argentina: The Country that Monsanto Poisoned

American biotechnology has turned Argentina into the world’s third-largest soybean producer, but the chemicals powering the boom aren’t confined to soy and cotton and corn fields. They routinely contaminate homes and classrooms and drinking water. A growing chorus of doctors and scientists is warning that their uncontrolled use could be responsible for the increasing number of health problems turning up in hospitals across the South American nation. In the heart of Argentina’s soybean business, house-to-house surveys of 65,000 people in farming communities found cancer rates two to four times higher than the national average, as well as higher rates of hypothyroidism and chronic respiratory illnesses. Associated Press photographer Natacha Pisarenko spent months documenting the issue in farming communities across Argentina.
Most provinces in Argentina forbid spraying pesticides and other agrochemicals next to homes and schools, with bans ranging in distance from 50 meters to as much as several kilometers from populated areas. The Associated Press found many cases of soybeans planted only a few feet from homes and schools, and of chemicals mixed and loaded onto tractors inside residential neighborhoods. In the last 20 years, agrochemical spraying has increased eightfold in Argentina- from 9 million gallons in 1990 to 84 million gallons today. Glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Round Up products, is used roughly eight to ten times more per acre than in the United States. Yet Argentina doesn’t apply national standards for farm chemicals, leaving rule-making to the provinces and enforcement to the municipalities. The result is a hodgepodge of widely ignored regulations that leave people dangerously exposed.via denverpost.com

Read on: http://overgrowthesystem.com/argentina-the-country-that-monsanto-poisoned-photo-essay/
Love Always
mudra

Belo Monte, Brazil: The tribes living in the shadow of a megadam


Next year the Belo Monte dam will flood vast swathes of Amazon rainforest. Indian tribes living on the river have lost their fight to halt the project – now they await the floods that threaten their entire way of life

By the Great Bend of the Xingu river in the depths of Amazonia, the Juruna tribe is being drowned by what seems at first sight to be a flood of TV game-show prizes.
There’s a shiny new motorboat moored by the old canoe, the latest four-wheel drive parked beside a chicken coop, satellite dishes outside every home and wide-screen plasma TVs inside.
But these are not the spoils of victory. They are the consolations for defeat in an existential battle against Brazil’s biggest engineering project, the Belo Monte dam.
For three decades, the Juruna have been in the vanguard of the fight against the hydroelectric plant – the world’s fourth biggest – which is being built on the edge of their territory in one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.
The community have marched, lobbied, seized hostages, burned buses and taken to their canoes to try to stop the project. But they have failed.
Next August, the Xingu river will be closed by a 5km-wide dam. The first turbine will come into operation a few months later.





read on: http://www.theguardian.com

/environment/2014/dec/16/belo-monte-brazil-tribes-living-in-shadow-megadam

Love Always
mudra

40 Years Ago the World 'Discovered' Mexico's Monarch Habitat -- Today Its Survival Is at Stake



MEXICO CITY -- Forty years ago the winter habitat of the monarch butterfly in Mexico was supposedly discovered. After searching for decades, on January 9, 1975 the Canadian scientist Fred A. Urquhart, an entomologist at the University of Toronto's Scarborough College, received a phone call from an American living in Mexico City named Kenneth Brugger, married at the time to Mexican-born Cathy Aguado (known today as Catalina Trail), who told him that "We have located the colony. We have found them -- millions of monarchs -- in evergreens beside a mountain clearing."
The "discovery" had taken place a week earlier in northern Michoacan, in an oyamel forest on Cerro Pelon, 10,000 feet up in the mountains of Mexico's Transvolcanic Belt, and a few days later the Bruggers happened upon other monarch roosts at El Rosario and Chincua. The Bruggers were volunteer "research associates" in Urquhart's longstanding monarch tagging program, in which tiny labels reading "Send to Zoology University Toronto Canada" were stuck onto thousands of southbound migrating butterflies.

But it was only a year after receiving the news that Urquhart and his wife visited the site, and a full 20 months after the find that a stunning photo of Cathy Brugger amidst thousands of monarch butterflies perched on trees and on her, and the headline "Discovered: The Monarch's Mexican Haven" were emblazoned on the cover of the August 1976 issue of National Geographic.

In his article, Urquhart did not reveal the location of the monarch sites the Bruggers had told him about. When asked for details by Dr. Lincoln Brower, today the world's foremost monarch butterfly expert, and colleague Dr. William Calvert, Urquhart steered them to a bay on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Brower, Calvert and photographer John Christian figured out the general area from some clues in Urquhart's article and a paper he published in the Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society, and they located the sanctuaries on New Year's Eve of 1976.

In his article, Urquhart affirmed that "Cathy Brugger and her husband Kenneth discovered the site where millions rendezvous." This undisputed claim that has been widely repeated in the Canadian, U.S. and Mexican media would lead one to believe that the overwintering sites of the monarch butterfly in Mexico were unknown to Mexicans before the Bruggers made their call to Urquhart.

This January, as the 40th anniversary of the "discovery" is commemorated, isn't it time to revise the telling of history? What date should we put on the discovery -- that generations of Mexicans have made for themselves -- of a phenomenon that has been taking place for thousands of years?
We local residents always knew where the monarchs settled at the end of October, but we had no idea where they had come from, nor where they went each spring. The Canadian and American lepidopterists knew that. Just as the discovery of America is a misnomer -- because America had been discovered ever since it was inhabited by human beings, and what Columbus so momentously initiated was a meeting of two worlds -- so we can say that what occurred in January 1975 was a mutual enlightenment for people at both ends of the fabulous 3,000-mile-long migration of the monarch butterfly.

In celebration of the arrival every autumn of millions of monarchs to Altamirano Hill and the streets of Contepec, the village in Michoacan where I grew up, I wrote in the autobiographical El poeta niño (The Child Poet), published in 1971:

In Contepec that morning, thousands of monarch butterflies were crossing the village. The air, like a river, bore currents of butterflies through the streets, above the houses, between the trees and people as they made their way south.

I have said and written many times that the presence of the monarchs in my town is part of my childhood memories (I was born in 1940), and I have described the yearly pilgrimages made by Contepec's residents to the Plain of the Mule on the summit of Altamirano to picnic and glory in the spectacle
"Blanketing a thousand trees, monarchs converge in November on a mountain slope at 9,000 feet," wrote Urquhart 40 years ago. In [url=https://books.google.com.mx/books?id=Tal4zbDjQIwC&pg=PP1&dq=La+monta%C3%B1a+de+las+mariposas+Aridjis&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1Ky6VIGrFof4yQTZ2YGgDg&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=La monta%C3%B1a de las mariposas aridjis&f=false]La montaña de las mariposas[/url] (Butterfly Mountain), I marveled at the abundance of butterflies we observed during a school trip in the 1950s: "The monarchs were there, a million-strong colony in the sun-swept patches of the ancient crater." I return to these memories as if to a lost world.

In 1996, the butterfly population in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve was estimated at one billion, occupying 21 hectares of forest.
The 2013-2014 population plummeted to 33 million, covering 0.67 hectares, the lowest ever in the 20 years since measuring and counting began.
The main culprit for this precipitous decline is no longer logging in the reserve (although that still takes place) but the huge increase in land planted with genetically modified, herbicide resistant soybean and corn crops (93 percent of total soybean acreage and 85 percent of corn acreage in 2013) in the U.S. Corn Belt. Relentless spraying of glyphosate herbicides on the fields has destroyed the once abundant milkweed, the only plants that monarch caterpillars can eat. The monarch butterfly is literally being starved to death.

read on: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/homero-aridjis/mexico-monarch-survival_b_6501656.html?utm_hp_ref=politics&ir=Politics

Love Always
mudra

Sweatshop: Deadly Fashion (2014)

A five-part Norwegian documentary series examining the lives of sweatshop workers in Cambodia through the eyes of three young, relatively wealthy Norwegian citizens.  From the day they arrive in Cambodia they begin to see how different their lives are from the lives of people nearly half way around the globe.  By the time their trip is over, much more than their outlook on the clothes they wear is changed.  Their whole perspective is forever altered after a few days of living, working, and speaking with fellow human beings who spend most of their lives working long hours up to 7 days a week for only a few dollars each day in sweatshops throughout the world like those in Cambodia.  

Only Part 1 of 5 is available here on FFA.  For the rest of the series, please visit here.

http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/sweatshop-deadly-fashion-2014/

Love Always
mudra

Ocean Life Faces Mass Extinction, Broad Study Says

A team of scientists, in a groundbreaking analysis of data from hundreds of sources, has concluded that humans are on the verge of causing unprecedented damage to the oceans and the animals living in them.
“We may be sitting on a precipice of a major extinction event,” said Douglas J. McCauley, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an author of the new research, which was published on Thursday in the journal Science.
But there is still time to avert catastrophe, Dr. McCauley and his colleagues also found. Compared with the continents, the oceans are mostly intact, still wild enough to bounce back to ecological health.

read on: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/16/science/earth/study-raises-alarm-for-health-of-ocean-life.html?_r=2

Love Always
mudra

Evicted and Abandoned: How the World Bank Broke Its Promise to Protect the Poor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6KzEo8WzBY



An estimated 3.4 million people have been physically or economically displaced in the past decade by projects funded by the World Bank. The bank has regularly failed to protect the poor and vulnerable people it claims to serve, a new 11-month ICIJ investigation has revealed.
The mass evictions of the devoutly Christian Anuak people from Ethiopia were enabled by money from the World Bank, former officials say. Across the globe, communities are being pushed aside by projects that the bank has financed.
Backed by a team of more than 50 journalists from outlets including The Huffington Post, the Guardian, El Pais, and more, this investigation sheds light on how homes have been destroyed and livelihoods lost from Nigeria to Peru and dozens of countries in between.
For more, go to huff.to/worldbank.

Love Always
mudra