Aug 24th, 2010
by Rick Whaley.
In July, 1987, John Mohawk spoke to the first National Green Gathering in Amherst, Massachusetts. In his keynote, he
warned that industrial societies were threatening the very biology of the planet: climate change, species lost, acid rain, tears in the ozone layer, and biochemical disruptions (including reproductive) from toxic pollutants. Climate change has come home to roost as fast as any.
Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben keynoted the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair (MREA) this past June and his remarks on catastrophic climate change follow. He was introduced to the overflow crowd at the MREA big tent as America’s foremost green journalist; a former staffer at The New Yorker; founder of Carbon-free Future; author of 14 books including the incisive The End of Nature (translated into 14 languages); and a founder of “Step It Up 2007: National Day of Climate Action” (asking candidates and Congress to cut CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050) and founder of 350.org (international climate change organizing). McKibben said:
We’re losing (planet-wise, planet wide). Since the 1980s we’ve known of the Greenhouse Effect and Climate Change. We didn’t know how quickly it would pinch. The 1 degree rise in average global temperature has happened faster than we ever thought. We have learned that he the earth is more intricately balanced than many have thought.
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Posted in: Environment, Politics.
Tagged: Environment · global climate change · Politics
Jul 11th, 2010
by Rick Whaley.
Aimee Cree and Jessica Koski NMU summit 2010
(A report on the Indigenous Earth Issues Summit,
April 5, 2010, Northern Michigan University)
I journeyed north to the Indigenous Earth Issues Summit at Northern Michigan University (April 5, 2010) with Ben Yahola (Muscogee) and Dona Yahola (Bad River Ojibwe and Oneida) of the Sacred Sites Run. The Indigenous Earth Summit featured remarkable organizers from Indian country, particularly from the Midwest and the East Coast. The gathering raised hopes in the face of ongoing and historical tragedies, and some of the issues it raised have come home to roost in the intervening months. This third annual activists’ conference near the shores of Lake Superior opened with a prayer and traditional ceremony by Dona Yahola. Native spirituality and culture centered the conference, and the proceedings were anchored throughout the day in common concerns for preserving the waters for the seven generations.
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Posted in: Politics.
Jun 24th, 2010
by Rick Whaley.
“Hands Across the Sand,” Saturday, June 26, 2010: Stop Off-Shore Drilling
On Tuesday afternoon, June 22, 2010, a Louisiana judge overruled President Obama’s suspension of offshore drilling. This decision leaves Big Oil free to resume operations off the Louisiana coast, despite the obvious risks.
It’s clearer than ever before: offshore drilling will continue to expand unless we keep the pressure on government leaders and the oil industry. This Saturday, we have a chance to focus the world’s attention on this crucial issue through a massive coordinated action: Hands Across the Sand.
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Posted in: Politics.
Apr 21st, 2010
by Rick Whaley.
live-the-solution.com
I’m Rick Whaley. I’m a plastics enabler. No matter how hard I try, the collection of plastic bags under my sink just keeps growing like mold on the food scrapes I save in the same spot for red worm composting. It’s not so much that I rarely get those free cloth bags I think will come from donations to environmental groups. I have plenty of Co-op cloth bags and Sheryl Crow-approved Whole Earth bags. The collection just multiples every time I end up coming home with unplanned purchases or from visits from kids or grandkids. Sometimes I tire of harassing store clerks to give me paper or no wrapping at all, when they’re only trying to help.
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Posted in: Environment, Politics.
Tagged: Environment · Plastics
Mar 2nd, 2010
by Rick Whaley.
Celtic Cross sculpture by Redmond Herrity in Letterkenny, County Donegal
How About a Traditional St. Patrick’s Day?
March, 2010
St. Patrick didn’t drink. In fact, one of the things the Celtic chieftains admired in him was that he could get a good night’s sleep without the drink. Sausage and salted pork are traditional Irish meats; corn beef is American. Cromwell’s armies brought cabbage to Ireland. The Celts wouldn’t have worn green, either—it’s the color of things that die. Purple was the color preferred by royals.
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Posted in: Culture, History, Politics.
Feb 8th, 2010
by Rick Whaley.
Is Nuclear Power Suddenly Clean and Safe?
Feb. 3, 2010
When did nuclear power suddenly and miraculously become “safe and clean,” as President Obama said in his recent State of the Union address? Or has it merely become miraculously “spun,” as the nuclear industry once again takes taxpayers, citizens, and government regulators for a ride. Wisconsin is considering easing the consumer and environmental protections so new nuclear power plants can be built in Wisconsin. Please join the Carbon-Free, Nuclear Free Lobby Day! The lobby day will take place February 23rd at the Wisconsin State Capitol, and will start at 9:00am. (see call to action at the end of this article and the notice of a Monday, Feb. 15, hearing, also in Madison).
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Posted in: Economy, Energy, Environment, Native Americans, Politics.
Tagged: Energy · Environment · Nuclear Power · Wisconsin
Jan 23rd, 2010
by Rick Whaley.
“Kreyol pale, kreyol komprann.”
Speak plainly, don’t try to deceive.
On January 12, 2010, the shifting tectonic plates beneath the Haitian peninsula snapped from centuries of built up tension, bringing earthquakes, pain and misery to this already impoverished island. The fault lines of poverty, starting with the already-a-mess health care system, followed by urban building construction practices, only exacerbated the suffering and loss. (See emergency relief sites following article.) According to the mayor of Port-au-Prince, 60% of the buildings in the city were shoddily constructed and unsafe in normal conditions, and they were only worsened by severe hurricanes in 2004 and 2008. There are no building codes in Port-au-Prince, built on the geological fault line, despite recent foreign investment that President René Préval has secured and that benefit some in Haiti. These free trade agreements heightened the rural exodus to the city that first began following the 1950s when Port-au-Prince was a small town of 50,000. The pressures to leave the countryside have brought the capital’s population to 2 million, many of whom come to work now in sweatshops.
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Posted in: Politics.
Dec 18th, 2009
by Rick Whaley.
The following article by Brian Kaller appeared last year on the winter solstice on the wonderful site restoringmayberry.blog.spot.com. It is a beautifully written look at raising a child on an imperiled planet. It is a message of hope against the backdrop of global realities. The Restoring Mayberry blog provides excellent coverage of Ireland/ecology news and planetary issues such as peak oil and climate change. Check out the article “The Moment of Darkness” (used by permission) and the Restoring Mayberry site. Rick Whaley
Almost vibrating with excitement, my four-year-old carefully carried ornaments to the pine sapling in our living room last night, cradling each one like they were diamonds. We have decked our halls with literal holly from our land, bought a Christmas goose, and are planning a quiet and intimate family Christmas here in rural Ireland.
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Posted in: Culture, Environment, Politics.
Tagged: Environment · Ireland
Dec 7th, 2009
by pablito.
While I found some parts of John Perkins’ book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man slightly lurid and others pompous, my critique focuses on his admittedly vague suggestions for resolving current crises such as world hunger. This critique may apply to other techno-modern optimisms too.
But first a warning not to use my argument, or anyone else’s, including the NSA’s, as an excuse to dispose of Perkins’ entire work. Using a flaw in one argument to dismiss all of them is fallacious, and often wishful, thinking.
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Posted in: Economy, Politics, Protest.
Tagged: Economy · Politics · Protests · Seattle · World Bank · WTO
Dec 4th, 2009
by Rick Whaley.
Traditional Values: Mooningwanekaaning-minis Anishinaabeg Maawanji’iding—Madeline Island Anishinaabeg 
Gathering
The Madeline Island Anishinabe Gathering on Friday, September 25, 2009, was a remarkable weekend of reunions and networking, serious talks, festive meals and a ceremonial dance on Friday night. The island’s first name was Moningwanekaaning-Minis, the place of the golden-shafted flicker, and was the place the Lake Superior Anishinabe came to (returned to, some say) in their great migration in the early 1400s, before spreading out into the lands, now reserves, in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and beyond. The organizing group for this autumn 2009 reunion gathering was the Madeline Island Anishinaabeg Gathering Committee with resolutions of support from the Town of LaPointe, Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC), Red Cliff Band of Ojibwe, Bad River Band of Ojibwe, and others. The town of La Pointe passed a resolution welcoming Anishinaabeg again to this island in Lake Superior, and the community of La Pointe provided a wonderful lunch to everyone. “It was wonderful that the townspeople fed everyone,” said Lorraine Norrgard, one of the organizers, “and the committee fed everyone back—a beautiful exchange of food offerings.”
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Posted in: Culture, Native Americans, Politics.
