In Just 60 Years, Neoliberal Capitalism Has Nearly Broken Planet Earth This post first appeared at Common Dreams. Humanity’s rapacious growth and accelerated energy needs over the last generation — particularly fed by an economic system that demands increasing levels of consumption and inputs of natural resources — are fast driving planetary systems towards their breaking point, according to a new pair of related studies. Prepared by researchers at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the first study looks specifically at how “four of nine planetary boundaries have now been crossed as a result of human activity.” “It is difficult to overestimate the scale and speed of change. In a single lifetime humanity has become a geological force at the planetary-scale.” In addition to the four boundaries that have already been crossed, the study looked five other ways in which the planetary systems are under assault by human activity. “I don’t think we’ve broken the planet but we are creating a much more difficult world,” Sarah Cornell, another report author, told Reuters.
Scientists: Human activity has pushed Earth beyond four of nine ‘planetary boundaries’ Clmate change: A severe drought plagued a third of Queensland, Australia in 2013. Destabilizing the global environment could make Earth less hospitable for humans. (David Gray/Reuters) At the rate things are going, the Earth in the coming decades could cease to be a “safe operating space” for human beings. That is the conclusion of a new paper published Thursday in the journal Science by 18 researchers trying to gauge the breaking points in the natural world. The paper contends that we have already crossed four “planetary boundaries.” “What the science has shown is that human activities — economic growth, technology, consumption — are destabilizing the global environment,” said Will Steffen, who holds appointments at the Australian National University and the Stockholm Resilience Center and is the lead author of the paper. Forest cover and land system change: Farming, mining and infrastructure projects are consuming the Amazon rainforest. It’s not just a list of F’s.
Forskare: CIA kan försöka militarisera vädret CIA försöker hitta nya sätt att manipulera vädret för militära ändamål. Det misstänker en klimatforskare som nu slår larm till sina kolleger. ”Det här är inte är hur jag vill att mina skattepengar ska användas”, säger Alan Robock. Forskaren Alan Robock vid Rutgers University i New Jersey hävdar att han för tre år sedan blev kontaktad av två män som sade sig arbeta för CIA. Männen ville veta om det gick att upptäcka om fientliga krafter hade börjat manipulera USA:s väder. – Jag fick ett telefonsamtal från två män som sade att ”vi arbetar som konsulter för CIA och vi skulle vilja veta hur vi skulle märka om något annat land kontrollerade vårt klimat”, sade Alan Robock vid American Association for the Advancement of Sciences årsmöte i San Jose, Kalifornien enligt The Independent. Robock svarade att både satelliter och markbaserad utrustning troligen skulle kunna upptäcka utrustning som placerar partiklar i atmosfären för att reflektera solljuset. Robock kände sig rädd.
Germany warns citizens to avoid using Wi-Fi - Green Living - Environment Its surprise ruling – the most damning made by any government on the fast-growing technology – will shake the industry and British ministers, and vindicates the questions that The Independent on Sunday has been raising over the past four months. And Germany's official radiation protection body also advises its citizens to use landlines instead of mobile phones, and warns of "electrosmog" from a wide range of other everyday products, from baby monitors to electric blankets. The German government's ruling – which contrasts sharply with the unquestioning promotion of the technology by British officials – was made in response to a series of questions by Green members of the Bundestag, Germany's parliament. The Environment Ministry recommended that people should keep their exposure to radiation from Wi-Fi "as low as possible" by choosing "conventional wired connections". It added that it is "actively informing people about possibilities for reducing personal exposure".
These 29 Clever Drawings Will Make You Question Everything Wrong With The World Polish artist Pawel Kuczynski has worked in satirical illustration since 2004, specializing in thought-provoking images that make his audience question their everyday lives. His subjects deal with everything from social media to politics to poverty, and all have a very distinct message if you look closely enough… Even if you don’t agree with the messages behind some of these illustrations, it’s impossible not to appreciate the creativity involved in them. Like this article? Check out Pawel’s website here! H/T: imgur.com Source: Following the Money: Who’s in Control? Human beings are beginning to question the environment around them more so than ever before. Our capability to step outside of the box and observe events taking place on planet Earth from a neutral standpoint continues to increase at an exponential rate. Observing the entire Earth experience from an open mind has cleared the way for a change in perception, which has the potential to change our planet and the way we operate on it forever. Political, media, food, education, health, energy and financial industries are now under intense scrutiny as people continue to let go of fear, speak up and ask more questions. We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented – The Truman Show
Researchers May Have Created A H1N1 Flu Strain Capable Of Evading The Immune System Back in June, we heard of a controversial study conducted by a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers that generated an influenza virus with similar characteristics to the infamous 1918 pandemic flu virus. The research was criticized by many and branded as crazy, foolish and dangerous by experts. Now, according to The Independent, lead researcher Yoshihoro Kawaoka has gone one step further by manipulating the 2009 H1N1 flu strain so that it can evade the immune system. The 2009 influenza A H1N1, or swine flu, pandemic is estimated to have resulted in between 151,700 and 575,400 deaths within the first year that the virus circulated. While that may pale in comparison to the 1918 pandemic “Spanish” flu virus that killed an estimated 50 million people, given the number of people exposed to the 2009 virus it is likely that a large number of individuals worldwide are now immune to this particular strain. We are sure many of you are yelling “Why?!”
The Five Biggest Threats To Human Existence In the daily hubbub of current “crises” facing humanity, we forget about the many generations we hope are yet to come. Not those who will live 200 years from now, but 1,000 or 10,000 years from now. I use the word “hope” because we face risks, called existential risks, that threaten to wipe out humanity. These risks are not just for big disasters, but for the disasters that could end history. Not everyone has ignored the long future though. Mystics like Nostradamus have regularly tried to calculate the end of the world. But had these pioneers or futurologists not thought about humanity’s future, it would not have changed the outcome. We are in a more privileged position today. Future imperfect Yet, these risks remain understudied. If humanity becomes extinct, at the very least the loss is equivalent to the loss of all living individuals and the frustration of their goals. With that in mind, I have selected what I consider the five biggest threats to humanity’s existence. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
10 Shocking Photos That Will Change How You See Consumption And Waste As individual and anonymous consumers, it's seemingly impossible to even estimate the physical ramifications of our daily consumption and waste. While our personal imprints may not seem in themselves worthy of alarm, the combined effect of human's habits and rituals is hard to look away from. Cell phones #2, Atlanta 2005 Photographer Chris Jordan works with the debris we as a society leave behind, photographing massive dumps of cell phones, crushed cars and circuit boards. Squished together in dizzying quantities, the discarded goods resemble hypnotic puzzles, abstracted color fields and hallucinatory fractals. The series, dubbed "Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption," shows the unmistakable imprint of our American culture in all its horror and strange, dark appeal. Crushed Cars, Tacoma 2004 Faced with Jordan's unshakeable images, we lose our ability to shrug off the consequences of our consumption, a small but necessary first step on the way to lasting change.