Social Justice

Existence is a Continuum, Dr. Zohara Writes

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dr-zoh-species-link-winter-2016-cover

Dr. Zohara Hieronimus’ article Existence is a Continuum appears in the Winter 2016 issue of Species Link Journal. She writes:

“Animals, like indigenous tribal people, view existence and non-existence as a continuum. Animals, like many in the human population, are more concerned about the entire Earth and its ecosystems than themselves specifically. For instance, Bear, Wolf, Lion, Elephant, Whale, and Bison are all apex animals in their ecosystems. If any of them become extinct, everything under these capstone species dis­assembles. Their message to us, as I write about in my upcoming book on the White Spirit Animals, is ‘to save as many of us as you can.'” Read the full article.

The Great Deceleration

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Wrong Way traffic sign

by Alex Jensen

In 2015, a major study of 24 indicators of human activity and environmental decline titled ‘The Great Acceleration’ concluded that, “The last 60 years have without doubt seen the most profound transformation of the human relationship with the natural world in the history of humankind”.[1] We have all seen aspects of these trends, but to look at the study’s 24 graphs together is to apprehend, at a glance, the totality of the monstrous scale and speed of modern economic activity. According to lead author W. Steffen, “It is difficult to overestimate the scale and speed of change. In a single lifetime humanity has become a planetary-scale geological force.”[2]

Every indicator of intensity and scale of economic activity — from global trade and investment to water and fertilizer use, from pollution of every sort to destruction of environments and biodiversity — has shot up, precipitously, beginning around 1950. The graphs for every such trend point skyward still.

“Death Economy” Goes Global

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When Zohara interviewed John Perkins on 9/23/12, she shared with him the terms she coined almost two decades ago for our situation planet wide, the current Death Economy versus the Life Economy we need to create. During that conversation Zoh suggested to John that he run with it as a banner to the world’s people, given […]

We are the Soil

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We are the Soil

The claim that the Green Revolution or genetic engineering feeds the world is false. Intrinsic to these technologies are monocultures based on chemical inputs, a recipe for killing the life of the soil.

We are made up of the same five elements — earth, water, fire, air and space — that constitute the Universe. We are the soil. We are the earth. What we do to the soil, we do to ourselves. And it is no accident that the words “humus” and “humans” have the same roots.

This ecological truth is forgotten in the dominant paradigm because it is based on eco-apartheid, the false idea that we are separate and independent of the earth and also because it defines soil as dead matter. If soil is dead to begin with, human action cannot destroy its life. It can only “improve” the soil with chemical fertilisers. And if we are the masters and conquerors of the soil, we determine the fate of the soil. Soil cannot determine our fate.

History, however, is witness to the fact that the fate of societies and civilisations is intimately connected to how we treat the soil — do we relate to the soil through the Law of Return or through the Law of Exploitation and Extraction.
The Law of Return — of giving back — has ensured that societies create and maintain fertile soil and can be supported by living soil over thousands of years. The Law of Exploitation — of taking without giving back — has led to the collapse of civilisations.
Contemporary societies across the world stand on the verge of collapse as soils are eroded, degraded, poisoned, buried under concrete and deprived of life. Industrial agriculture, based on a mechanistic paradigm and use of fossil fuels has created ignorance and blindness to the living processes that create a living soil. Instead of focusing on the Soil Food Web, it has been obsessed with external inputs of chemical fertilisers — what Sir Albert Howard called the NPK mentality. Biology and life have been replaced with chemistry.

External inputs and mechanisation are imperative for monocultures. By exposing the soil to wind, sun and rain, monocultures expose the soil to erosion by wind and water.

Monsanto, Factory Farms, Climate Change and You

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Monsanto, Factory Farms, Climate Change and You

Monsanto loves to claim that its GMO crops are needed to feed the world.
But what the Gene Giants don’t want you to remember is that the chemicals they sully our food, soil, air and water with were originally developed to make bombs.
When the Big War ended, in order to keep the profits rolling in, Monsanto convinced farmers that the only way to grow food is Monsanto’s way—with GMO crops, and millions of tons of toxic chemicals.
Fast-forward to today, and the impact of Monsanto’s GMO crops can be measured in terms of degraded soil, nutrient-deficient foods, billions of sick animals on factory farms, an increasingly obese and chronically ill human population and, last but surely not least, global warming.
And we can all agree that if global warming, with its droughts and storms, continues unabated, farms and food are in trouble.
Up against multi-billion dollar corporations, what can one consumer do? Start by avoiding not only GMO-tainted foods, but all meat, eggs and dairy from factory farms. Because most GMO grains go to feed animals in factory farms, or what the industry calls CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations).
We can’t turn global warming around solely by transitioning away from fossil fuels. But we can turn it around by using nature’s natural ability to return all that carbon to the soil. And we can only do that if we abandon the factory farm model and return to sustainable, organic farming and ranching practices.

Looking for ‘the Disappeared’

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Looking for ‘the Disappeared’

March 18, 2014

The UN estimates that each year, nearly 4,000,000 men, women, and children are sold into slavery through human trafficking. Ships, planes, trains, trucks and vans worldwide transport them. The victims of this $10 billion industry (40% of whom are women and children sold into sex indenturment) do not willingly purchase tickets for their rides — they are victims of kidnap, extortion, and trickery.

While the international collaboration to find the likely sunken Malaysian aircraft 370, and the lost lives in its cabin, (12 crew members and 227 passengers from 15 nations) is a good sign, the failure of technology apparent, the lack of military psychics who are trained to see ‘everywhere and everywhen’ not surprising, but disappointing none the less. Forensics might reveal gas warfare-like traces in the bodies of the passengers, explaining the lack of cell phone texts to loved ones, and perhaps notice one male and one female no longer on board who parachuted to their sea rendezvous, where they were secreted away by boat, having put the plane on auto pilot knowing its fuel supply would only go so far, who were in fact hired by Russia to distract attention from their invasion of Ukraine. Everyone can imagine a good story line when no one yet knows what the true one is. That’s the power of TV, to draw us into stories other than those that are true. That any of it passes for news is dubious, that it brings higher ratings, obvious.

‘US Foreign Policy Blowback’: How US Disregard for Intl Law Set Stage for Crimean Crisis

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‘US Foreign Policy Blowback’: How US Disregard for Intl Law Set Stage for Crimean Crisis

Eleven years ago this week, the U.S. decided to sidestep international law in its rush to invade the sovereign nation of Iraq. In doing so, charge critics, it has helped open a pandora’s box of imperial lawlessness that is now rearing its head in Ukraine.

Amid warnings that what’s taking place as Russia battles the U.S. and European nations over a new government in Kiev and Crimea’s vote to officially secede from Ukraine is the beginning of a new ‘Cold War,’ many observers have called out western hypocrisy when it comes to the White House and Downing Street pointing fingers at the Kremlin.

“In an era in which exceptionalism has become the norm, where the cavalier disregard of domestic and/or global objections is considered politically acceptable, and where powerful nations can exercise a free hand in determining the future of less powerful ones when strategic interests are involved.” —Randall Amster, Georgetown University

Supreme Court Sides With ‘Notorious Patent Bully Monsanto’

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Supreme Court Sides With ‘Notorious Patent Bully Monsanto’

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a group of farmers the right to challenge Monsanto’s seed patents, a decision critics charge allows the biotech giant’s “reign of intimidation” to continue.

The plaintiffs in the suit, Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) et al v. Monsanto, sought to protect themselves from lawsuits by the corporation for patent infringement should Monsanto’s genetically engineered seed contaminate the farmers’ crops.

Monsanto has sued over 100 farmers for patent infringement.

Jim Gerritsen, president of lead plaintiff OSGATA, previously explained, “We are not customers of Monsanto. We don’t want their seed. We don’t want their gene-spliced technology. We don’t want their trespass onto our farms. We don’t want their contamination of our crops. We don’t want to have to defend ourselves from aggressive assertions of patent infringement because Monsanto refuses to keep their pollution on their side of the fence. We want justice.”