Amazonian Deforestation Going Ahead At Unprecedented Rate

In a deeply troubling reversal, estimations of the deforestation taking place in the Amazon rainforest have accelerated from a once positive decline. Rising commodity prices are prompting farmers to clear more land to plant crops like Soya, threatening forest life and global climate.

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A Defense of the Humanities

We cannot count on the humanities alone to create better human beings. Stanley Fish is correct on this account in the first two parts of “The Uses of the Humanities” in the New York Times: http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com. We certainly cannot expect the common reader to view the pre-lapsarian Eden and the ensuing downfall of humanity in Milton’s Paradise Lost and find the value of uncritical adherence to authority and the dangers of worldly temptation. Milton’s reader has interpretive power that lies beyond any sort of authorial intention that he may have had as to the moral and spiritual implications of the work. A reader may readily accept the arguments of Milton’s sexy and rational Satan as the true key to worldly wisdom in the text. Readers likewise might cast aside Milton to find moral virtue in The Turner Diaries or discover fascist themes in Ezra Pound’s Cantos. Literature contains a multitude of ideologies and comments extensively on the human condition but is ultimately ambivalent to simple notions of right and wrong. Thus constructing the humanities as a “civilizing,” or “morally enriching” enterprise is fruitless activity.

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EU Caps Airline Emissions by 2012 – US Takes A Small Step With Energy Bill

EU Ministers have passed carbon emissions quotas on the airline industry. The US, true to delusional form, as threatened legal action. This comes on the heels of the US passing an Energy Bill which contains very limited improvements toward reversing climate manipulation.

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Bali Climate Change Conference: US Still in Denial

As we know, the United States is the only developed nation that refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocols. Kyoto is now near it’s tenth anniversary, as well as its end. While the rest of the world is working toward developing new, stronger policy prescriptions to stop the effects of climate manipulation, the US is still dragging its feet. It failed to send a true top level delegation to Bali, and it flatly refuses to entertain any real change in environmental policy. We suppose it’s because our president, who thinks the Flintstones were a documentary, is too busy robbing other countries of their oil, and torturing the dissenters to be bothered. Our only hope is that the rest of the world fights back.

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Holidays and Heirlooms

For us, fall is the start of a baking season that lasts until spring. Cookies, pies, holiday treats, the cold, and all the family gatherings drive us in and toward the kitchen. It’s one of the few things we enjoy about the winter, which is why we were glad to see this new take on a food story in the New York Times.

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“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men…”

In an article at the Washington Post more details have no come forward on the controversial energy meeting held by Dick Cheney in early 2001, with, surprise surprise: all oil men. Oh well, we take that back, there was one meeting with the environmentalists, but only after the bulk of the policy had been written. But it shows, you know that Cheney is fair and balanced just like Fox News. And as if this wasn’t also completely obvious the article says:

Cheney appears to have played a more behind-the-scenes role in the task force’s deliberations, the document indicates, listing only a handful of meetings with the vice president.

Cheney behind the scenes? No, no we don’t believe it.

Further:

Halliburton will move headquarters from Houston to Dubai

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Why can’t the US do this?

We ran across an ad for this over the weekend and wondered, why can’t the US do this? The Home Information Pack gives a run down of the energy performance of large homes, and it’s not optional. Imagine looking for a house and know going in a basic estimate of energy costs, and repairs needed going in. And further, all the value added to the housing market by encouraging more energy efficient homes. Lets go beyond lightbulbs, and start making things happen.

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China Addresses Climate Manipulation

China rolled out its plan for addressing climate change, a modest plan to be sure, seeking only to reduce emissions by a fifth by 2010. That said, it serves to put the US even farther behind the curve going into the global warming themed, G8 with nearly every other attendee working to address climate change while the US is still debating whether or not it exists. Or, that it might be “arrogant” to try to address it.

Which countries has the US been calling backward recently? Glass houses…

Further Reading:
U.S. Cuts Back Climate Checks From Space

WWF rips U.S., Canada environment records

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