BluePlaneteer

President Nasheed of the Maldives Address at the Climate Vulnerable Forum.

As you watch this, consider who should take action and who should pay for clean-up. The more I look into this, the more convinced I become that the only way to get anything done will be to holler and wave our arms at President Obama, [...]

One of the oldest ways to get someone’s attention about environmental concerns is to holler at them and wave your arms in the air. While that still has its place, the best way to get a bear’s attention is with honey, not vinegar. Over recent years thousands of forward-thinkers worldwide, including Michael S. Hopkins, Karen [...]

From Adopt a Negotiator, here’s Ben Jervey’s report on the United States’ absolute absence of action at the pending climate crisis talks. America’s lead negotiator was appointed by Hilary Clinton, but takes his marching orders from President Obama. There aren’t many times when I embarrassed to admit I’m an American to citizens of other countries. [...]

Test Colbert

Above: Actor and marshal arts expert Jet Li speaking on climate change for Cop15.
Here are some excellent questions which, if you've come to read this, will strike you as the sort which could be answered:

Is our species' environmental clock really at 11:01 P.M.? With perfect prose and profound metaphor I would like to assure you it is, but half-a-century of experience and intuition about how humanity lives can't help me put that into a sound-bite or paragraph. But, with patient, long-suffering experts like Tom Lovejoy telling us that we can expect that 1/4 to 1/3 of all species on Earth will perish unless we quickly pull our act together - now - that should get your attention and make you step into action. Tom also agreed that there's no computer or scientist's consortium - no modeling process - to accurately estimate the outcome of our species' environmental influence.


Above: Desmond Tutu speaking on climate change for Cop15.
So if one assumes for the moment that we're really in the middle of a big problem, what would be the next big step we could take to solve it? Would a multi-national conference with our best leaders be a good place to get rolling? Then the process of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change would be that place, known lately in the media as Copenhagen, Cop-15 and other slang.


Above: Denmark's Prime Minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, speaks about climate change for Cop15 and mentions the YouTube setup to send your video directly into the meeting's conference rooms.
If the things above are what's happening, and they are, then what has the United States done about its part in the Cop15 process? Who are the players? What's the agenda? The meeting of our elected and appointed officials starts on December 7, 2009 in Denmark. If you look around the Web or listen to the old broadcast media you won't find anything of substance about what's being done. Do you want anything positive to come of this?

Why would the process, goals and name

Time marches on. Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod inspired the crew from XPlane Visual Thinking to produce yet another version of Fisch's "Did You Know?" Here's the latest, 4.0:



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Here's Karl's blog, The Fischbowl, at which you could find all the history behind the "Did You Know?" series.

After talking with a new friend this morning who described himself as a Luddite, I was inspired to nose around in my old e-mails to reflect on my relationships with actual living humans. The truth is I could relate to what he says; I often feel like a Luddite although I've run a computer network and I'm involved in new media.

And although my friend feels like a Luddite, I find his thoughtful perspective on humanity to be infinitely valuable. Because we've become enthralled with our new technological toys, he understands things about human social structures most of us either forgot - or never knew.

As I mined my e-mails, I re-discovered the 2006 land of Herr Fisch's original, phenomenal viral vid, "Did You Know?," more affectionately remembered with its catchy tagline, "Shift Happens." When I found Karl immersed in his creative datacloud in 2007, I corresponded to thank him. Here's his original vid:

Everything environmental you do is preceded by subtle, fundamental and progressive changes in consciousness. As you tune-in to Blue Planet Almanac radio this Monday, 10-26-09 at 8:00 A.M. Pacific time, you’ll hear fascinating revelations from our two expert guests - on worldwide drought or the greening of higher education. Blue Planet Almanac will be rebroadcast at 8 P.M. Pacific that day, and also later available at HealthyLife.net’s Website as a podcast download.
In humankind's consciousness of water scarcity or sustainable higher education, the Deepak Chopras of the world got nothin’ on James Workman or Mark Orlowski. Of course Chopra would agree. He would say what matters most is what one thinks about oneself - and Workman and Orlowski have spent countless hours on their Heart’s work. Tune-in and find out, first-hand, what both of these men are doing to change the world's perceptions about drought, water shortages or the greening of America's universities.

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Native Californian and Ivy Leaguer James Workman is adept in water management. For those of us new to the scene of humanity’s latest environmental challenge, drought is frequently cited among the factors looming largest in our Earth’s climate change. Workman has discovered hundreds of examples in his work on how to manage our water, but one of his favorites in expressing how people handle their needs involves his experiences with Africa's Kalahari Bushmen.

Although you might think at first that the Kalahari Bushmen's predicament about water has nothing to do with us, that would be a mistake. During trips to Africa Workman concluded that, "The Bushmen's story could well prefigure our own." Workman's dharma is to show us what lessons the world needs to learn about water policy and water management from the people generally accepted as the oldest on Earth, from the cradle of our kind.

Did you know that (from Heart of Dryness):

“Today we are facing the worst hot dry era in thirty thou

It was renowned environmentalist David Suzuki's reputation which got my attention about 350.org. This coming Saturday I'll be participating in an aerial photo which enumerates the safe measurement of 350 ppm CO2, organized through 350.org. It's easy to do and is the right thing because most people aren't on the same page as us about this as you and I.

Wanna participate? Head on over to 350's Website and take action!

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From 350.org's Website:



"What does the number 350 mean?
350 is the most important number in the world—it's what scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Two years ago, after leading climatologists observed rapid ice melt in the Arctic and other frightening signs of climate change, they issued a series of studies showing that the planet faced both human and natural disaster if atmospheric concentrations of CO2 remained above 350 parts per million.
Everyone from Al Gore to the U.N.’s top climate scientist has now embraced this goal as necessary for stabilizing the planet and preventing complete disaster. Now the trick is getting our leaders to pay attention and craft policies that will put the world on track to get to 350.

Is 350 scientifically possible?
Right now, mostly because we’ve burned so much fossil fuel, the atmospheric concentration of co2 is 390 ppm—that’s way too high, and it’s why ice is melting, drought is spreading, forests are dying. To bring that number down, the first task is to stop putting more carbon into the atmosphere. That means a very fast transition to sun and wind and other renewable forms of power. If we can stop pouring more carbon into the atmosphere, then forests and oceans will slowly suck some of it out of the air and return us to safe levels.

Is 350 politically possible?
It’s very hard. It means switching off fossil fuel much more quickly than governments and corporations have been planning. Our best chance to speed up that process will come in December i

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Because it blindsided my insulated view of the world and expanded my field of sight, The 2009 Freedom Awards got my attention about the fact that large-scale slavery exists as this is being written. Even in the United States. Boom. There it is, right between the eyes. About this notion you might want to read Free the Slaves' page titled, "Slavery Today." You could also glance at Free the Slaves' map. The darkly humorous throwaway line used in jest when talking with your boss about overtime, "Don't you know they already freed the slaves?," now has new meaning for me.

Since I'm friends with someone who performed at the event, I expected I'd be attending the The 2009 Freedom Awards ceremonies as an interested audience member instead of media rep. The Freedom Awards were streamed live and you can see some back story at Peggy Callahan's Huffington Post feature. I surmised that I'd find a well-organized, thoughtful group of people celebrating their successes and tragedies in a cause dear to their hearts, but that I'd come home unaffected. I've done more than my share of professional fund raising and I thought my Heart of causes was 'spoken for.'

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So like a thorough reporter, I always do homework before I attend anything and I even listened to an NPR interview of Free the Slaves co-founder Kevin Bales. I found his interview to be educated, thoughtful and interesting. I take comfort and pride in being someone who, when they show up for anything, is confident they've enlisted into a cause which is all-encompassing and unavoidable.

I saw the list of notables presenting and attending included Ashton Kutcher, Camilla Belle, Carla Gugino, Demi Moore, Isabel Allende, Rickie Byars Beckwith, Tom Shadyac and the Agape International Choir. I've talked with celebrities before and always found them to first be people who are interesting or pleasant. But although I knew both celebrities and media alike would attend, I wasn't expecting to have any life-altering

For all but a few of us, humanity's way of life these days is characterized by our striving to separate and insulate ourselves from any rough and tumble wilderness remaining on Earth. This is a natural condition for us and will permanently influence our behavior. From that we have a learned tendency to separate most things into elements instead of working with them as an organic whole. Depending on our individual personality, mysteries can make us uncomfortable, curious, or both.

Because of this cars, for example, are designed in subsystems. When something goes amiss with our car, our first tendency is to dissemble the problem into subsystems and sections - diagnose the car and again make it run right. It's what we do and we're used to it. Our specie often takes this reductionistic approach with most problems and challenges. But, training ourselves to think this way also tends to make us lazy when we encounter something ineffable, such as a blue planet with mysteries we've forgotten.

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Often it's hard for us to see how things on Earth are holistically connected to each other. Does the phosphate detergent with which you clean your dishes or clothes poison the Earth's lifeblood, water? Is the computer monitor you threw in last year's dumpster going to affect you after it's stacked into an electronics boneyard in Mumbai, gradually leaching toxics? Is the palm oil in your supermarket snack food, from a slash and burn Indonesian monoculture plantation, really having an effect on global warming? Do the ingredients of most sunscreens cause life-altering endocrine disruptions in both people and fish? Absolutely proven, all of them, but most of us prefer not to think about them.

And there are exactly many bazillions of these little connections. But although we've grown far away from our ancestral roots, like a 12,000 year old creosote bush in a Sonoran desert, it doesn't mean we don't share the same physiological needs and DNA of our forbears. The inescapable fa

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Aired on the Sundance Channel, the excellent Addicted to Plastic caught our eye. But although Addicted to Plastic's vaguely apocalyptic, 12-Step title made us nervous, producer and director Ian Connacher crafted a thoughtful, well-researched foray into THE cultural phenomenon which has permeated every aspect of our lives and bodies. Addicted to Plastic is even fun at some points to watch. So, breathe easy, Monsanto and Dow Chemical, we're not comin' to get 'ya. We just decided to find out why fish, plankton and us have plastics in our tissues.

Connacher adventured across 12 countries, five continents and many oceans to bring us these fascinating stories. To hear the exciting, real-life discoveries behind Connacher's making of this film and its research - including his leap of faith in quitting his position with Discovery Canada to make it - be sure to tune-in this coming Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 to HealthyLife.net. Listen to the next installment of Blue Planet Almanac as host Mike Austin interviews Connacher live.

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Most of us take plastic for granted, and expect it to be involved in literally everything we do. Think about it. And that's one of Connacher's primary points in the telling of the story. Plastic came to us via our mid-20th century interests in the science of a better life. It has been a boon to our existence, and has also proved itself to be our curse to our long-term fortunes because of unanticipated side effects to our very health, and of course, the health of the Earth. Enter Ian Connacher and his pleasant suggestions about the means to solve plastics pollution.

But the coolest thing about Connacher's take on plastic isn't that he's trying to make us suffer through yet another dystopian vision of what we've done to ourselves through the miracles of modern chemistry. Instead that he thoughtfully considers sustainable solutions throughout the film. To which we'd respond with a variety of salutary, happy and even politely profane

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To make your world your own, you have to act and do what you love. No matter who you are, you start where you stand and get moving. Whether or not you're a pioneer, to do something important it's never enough to take the reins your family gave you and simply guide your horses down the road. Because change is the way of the universe, you have to think about where you're going and only then will the journey become your own. And, of course, everyone wants their own journey, right?

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Alexandra Cousteau got busy on her own philanthropic mission. Honoring her family's tradition as champions and stewards of the earth, National Geographic's recognition of Alexandra Cousteau as Emerging Explorer shows that she has developed and cultivated her own voice in Mother Earth's favor. Nodding to her family, Alexandra's bio explains, "When asked about the impact that her father and grandfather have had on her life, Alexandra explains, 'the best example they gave me was the importance of living a life of consequence, value, and meaning. I honor their memories by creating a legacy of my own in speaking out for the preservation of our blue planet and all its waters.”

Because of her experience and perspective, Alexandra founded Blue Legacy - and these days its principal project is Expedition: Blue Planet. Imagine trekking for 100 days across five continents to chronicle what our specie is doing and what needs to be done and you've got an intimation of what her and her fellow explorers are up to.

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From Blue Legacy's Website, "Expedition: Blue Planet will chronicle the interconnectivity of water. A key aspect of the project will be its ability to show how individual stories are part of the larger, universal story of an interdependent, global water ecosystem. In this way, we will create a new vision for what it means to live in a world where water is our most precious resource, and a plan for what we must do to protect it."

So if you've surfed to this

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AUDIO of BLUE PLANET ALMANAC 4-14-09 - it's a good-sized file so please be patient if it takes a minute or two to load. Happy listening!

With over 20 years experience reporting environmental news, Thomas M. Kostigen will be Blue Planet Almanac radio's honored guest on the April 14th, 2009 live broadcast. Live calls will be accepted from listeners at 800 555 5453 or 310 571 3444. Tune-in to HealthyLife.net at 2:00 PM Pacific time! Get your questions ready now, because the opportunity to ask good questions of an intrepid journalist of Tom's caliber doesn't happen often.

To bring us the freshest, most relevant environmental news possible, Tom has traveled the Earth to far-flung locales like Jerusalem, India's Mumbai, Southeast Asia's Borneo, China's Linfen City, Alaska's Shishmaref Village, as well as The Amazonian jungle. New York's retired but massive Fresh Kills Landfill provided his perspective in his story for us about the world's newest, largest and most unintentional dump, The Pacific Ocean's Eastern Garbage Patch (a.k.a trash in ocean size of Texas,  garbage patch like Texas,  garbage patch,  Good Morning America Great Pacific garbage patch,  Texas sized trash in ocean, garbage in the ocean size of Texas and Oprah garbage patch the size of Texas). Tom is the "Go-To Guy" for the mission-critical environmental decisions involved in solar power, smart electrical grids, coal power, cap-and-trade emissions schemes, water scarcity and much more.



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Tom's distinguished career as an environmental journalist continues strong while he writes the "Ethics Monitor" column for Dow Jones Market Watch and the Better Planet column and blog for Discover magazine. He also just launched a new streamcast, Saints and Sinners. But his work has also culminated in authorship of two excellent books -  "You Are Here: Exposing the Vital Link Between What We Do and What That Does to Our Planet" is his latest and has a foreword and video by Kevin Bacon. Tom w

People have been asking about that Blue Planet program they've seen on American television, the wonderful and exciting 2001 BBC television series, Blue Planet, narrated by Sir David Attenborough. There's also a link to America's Discovery Channel which credits Pierce Brosnan as well, here at this link.

Here's a YouTube clip of this spectacular series:



Also, David Attenborough also narrated the 2006 Planet Earth series from BBC.

But, wait! There's more! In 2007 was released a feature-length documentary, Earth, narrated by James Earl Jones and Patrick Stewart. Here's an IMDB reference link, and here's a trailer at YouTube with Jones' basso profundo.

Indonesia, according to the Rainforest Action Network's vid, is the world's third-largest producer of climate change gases like carbon dioxide. And, we're paying them to do that every time we go shopping. Let that sink in. Ahem...uh...

Here's how: giant agribusiness, like ADM (Archer Daniels Midland), Bunge and Cargill are slashing and burning many thousands of acres of rainforest to create palm plantations. Plantations can often be monocultures which instantaneously destroy ecological balance, habitat and species. Then, under our daily radar, we're sold products containing the palm derivatives produced from those plantations.

Palm derivatives are used in everything from Whole Foods' "organic" peanut butter, to shampoo, to Ivory soap, to Ritz crackers and microwave popcorn. If you're really interested in this you can start checking labels like I did. Rainforest Action Network's site has examples to watch for, but the easiest thing to remember is to read the label, and if it has "palm" anything in it, put it back and select something else. Palmitic acid, palm oil, palmitate, whatever. Problem solved.

In his syndicated feature in the Los Angeles Time's op-ed section from 5-19, author and activist Glenn Hurowitz discusses how agribusiness and other consumer conglomerates are selling us things containing palm oil, palm kernel oil, palm fruit oil and palmitic acid. Generally, the offending ingredients contain a "palm" prefix. We're paying them to create global climate change, destroy species, and start a cascade of environmental problems which we can't yet see an end to.

And, for any of us who like to be careful what we eat, consider the high levels of saturated fats in palm oil. I'd sooner drink a Crisco cocktail. See Wikipedia's entry about palm oil, under the subsection, "Chemistry and Processing" for a primer.