Saturday, October 20, 2018

OMNI GROWTH WATCH NEWSLETTER #2


OMNI
ECONOMIC GROWTH WATCH,
October 20, 2018
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and ECOLOGY

GROWTH, EXPANSION the Dynamo of Capitalism
Of the dozen or more chief features of capitalism, growth is always at or near the top.   Understanding it (and other features of capitalism, and patriarchy, overpopulation, wars) is important for our opposition to fossil fuels emissions.  The System: Industrial Revolution, Fossil Fuels Binge, Free-Market Capitalism, Empire, Wars, Economic Growth, Population, Resources Exploitation, CO2 and Temperature Rise, Climate Chaos 


Earlier Newsletters

TABLE OF Contents: #3, OCTOBER 20, 2018
PART ONE:   ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE, OCTOBER 2018, ON CLIMA TE
ADG’S LATEST TEA PARTY EDITORIAL AGAINST CLIMATE TREATIES
NADG REPORTING ECONOMIC GROWTH: BUSINESS AS USUAL
(JAMES HANSEN, “CRIMINALITY, INDEED”)
THE LATEST IPCC REPORT: IN NADG A FEW PARAGRAPHS FOR 728pp.
PRINTING GARY KAHANAK’S LTE on URGENCY (and Art Hobson earlier)
PART TWO:  GROWTH
ENGELHARDT, ENDLESS GROWTH: DISASTER CAPITALISM
YATES, CAPITALISM’S INHERENT GROWTH IMPERATIVE
PART THREE:  ALTERNATIVES, RESISTANCE
Meadows, Limits to Growth
Jackson, Economics for a Finite Planet
Klein, Capitalism v. the Climate
Arkansas Climate Change Lobby
OMNI Climate Book Forum
Galtung, No Growth Towns
PART FOUR: CLOSELY RELATED
Overpopulation
      Grant, Too Many People
      OMNI Overpopulation Newsletters
Patriarchy:
     Books by Mies, Eisenstein, Moghadam.
     OMNI Patriarchy Newsletter
Making War Illegal
     Kellogg-Briand Pact
     OMNI Anti-war and Nuclear Abolition Newsletters

CONTENTS

PART ONE:  ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE, OCTOBER 2018 VS. FOSSIL FUELS ACCORDS

ADG’S LATEST TEA PARTY EDITORIAL in Two Parts
Part One, “Forget Paris”:   A defense of Bush and Trump for withdrawing from the “useless” Kyoto and Paris Accords
Part Two, “Forget Paris II”: ridiculing a misrepresented description of the Paris Accords.
(both forwarded by Charles Sisco, CLL)

STRIKE UP THE BAND WITH THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Here’s a handful of recent celebratory reporting of growth in the business as usual NADG during June-Oct. 2018. 

WAR PROFITEERS, WARFARE NATION
Dana Hull and Richard Clough.  (Bloomberg News).  “Defense Contractors Harris, L3 Agree to $33.5B Merger.”  NADG (10-16-18).    “…poised to capitalize on military spending increases under President Donald Trump,” the “behemoth” will be “one of the industry’s largest players” to “challenge weapons-makers such as Raytheon Co. and Northrop-Grumman Corp.”    “The combination adds to a flurry of aerospace and defense deals fueled by higher government spending….”
TRANSPORTATION
AIR TRAVEL
“LR Airport on Pace for 2 Million Fliers.”  NADG (7-17-18).
“Bill and Hillary Clinton National airport “is on track in 2018 to top 2 million passengers for the second consecutive year….2.4 percent higher than the same period in 2017.”  June a “4.08 percent more than in June last year.”    (At NA Regional Airport, Highfill, “a 9.24 percent increase over the same month last year.”)  Read George Monbiot’s essay, “Love Flights.”
Ron Wood.  “Parking Deck Set to Open in August.”  NADG (6-14-18).  The new parking deck at the NWA Regional Airport, Highfill.  “The four-level deck with 1,400 parking spaces….cost about $30 million.”   Take that and stuff it George Monbiot, you and your anti-flying “Love Flights.”    Ron Wood.  “Airport Group Hopes to Speed Access Road.”  NADG (7-14-18).  Melissa Gute.  “[Bentonville] Private Money to cover Work at City Airport.  Projects planned to Widen Runway, Improve Traffic Flow.”  NADG (6- 27-18).   Laurinda Joenks.  “[Springdale] Airport Project Closer to Taking Off.”  NADG (7-3-18).   Frank Lockwood.  “Airport Aid Program Gets Infusion.”  (I missed the date, probably on or around 10-7.).   Melissa Gute.  “NWA Flying Club Taking Off.  Membership Grows Leading Up to Fieldhouse Opening.”  NADG (10-7-18).
 TRUCKING
“FEDEX’S 4q Gain Grows 10% to #$1.13B.”  NADG (6-20-18).    
“J. B. Hunt’s Earnings Hit $131.1M in 3Q.”  NADG (10-16-18).  “…up from $100.4 million a year ago.”
OIL COMPANIES
Shea Wilson.  “Murphy Oil’s Net Income Tops $45M in 2nd Quarter.”  NADG (8-9-18).  “The company produced 171,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day….” creating $618 million for the second quarter.
“Refinery Builder Aims to Sidestep Panel.”  NADG (8-10-18).Meridian Energy planning a $800 million plant 3 miles from Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota seeks state dismissal of complaint by environmental groups.
BANKS
“Bank of America’s 3Q Profit Jumps 32%.”  NADG (10-16-17).   As “lower corporate tax rates helped it save hundreds of millions on taxes.”
 “How Arkansas’ Congressional Delegation Voted.”  NADG (10-7-18).  “Aviation Programs….”  Approved 93-6 HR302 “$90 billion for aviation programs” and other budgets, thumbs up by Boozman and Cotton.
MONOPOLY:  Growth Through Mergers for Profit
AMAZON ACHIEVES $1 TRILLION IN EQUITY VALUE (up there with Apple, Facebook, Netflix, and Google).  “…the rapid ascent is a validation of the growth-at-all-costs ethos that has defined Bezos vision.”  NADG (9-5-18).
“U.S. Clears $68B C VS-Aetna Tie-Up.”  NADG (10-11-18).  “…would create a giant with a hand in insurance, prescription-drug benefits, and drugstores across the United States.”  The Justice Dept.’s antitrust division signed off on the deal, but “consumers could end up with far fewer options and higher expenses.”
“Tyson Moves Closer to Deal for Keystone.”  NADG (10-17-18).  “The all-cash acquisition expands Tyson’s domestic production and global reach into Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.”
       In his Foreword, “Criminality, Indeed,” to Unprecedented Crime by Peter Carter and Elizabeth Woodworth, Dr. James Hansen writes:  Carter and Woodworth “make an overwhelming case that the public…are victims of ‘Unprecedented Crime,’” “crimes against humanity,” particularly against young people.  The fossil fuel companies invested enormous funds in developing and fully understanding those fuels, then denying their harms, and then developing even more poisonous fuels from tar sands and shale oil.  The officers knew the truth about CO2 early but not only did they not cease, they increased production, to this day.
       Similarly, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette owner and managers knew the truth and to this day are defending fossil fuels.  But not totally; they know a little conflict sells newspapers.

    SO THE NEWSPAPER DID GIVE A FEW PARAGRAPHS TO THE URGENT REPORT BY THE Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).    “Climate Panel Sees Little Hope of Action.”  NADG (10-8-18).  Only a 4” column on a back page for the 728 pp. IPCC report calling for sharp reductions in emissions but seeing “little chance of the needed adjustments happening.”  This report for the 6th Assessment reveals damning truths about the fossil fuels industry, when the story should have covered page one with screamer headlines.  Instead, as it has done since 1991 when the IPCC assessments began, the ADG dramatically underreported the latest IPCC studies and steadily beat the drum for growth.

AND NOW TODAY 10-18 IT PRINTED GARY KAHANAK’S LTE CALLING ATTENTION TO THIS IPCC REPORT (distributed online by Charles Sisco of ArkCCL). http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2018/oct/13/nwa-letters/?opinion  

“A Message of Danger” by Gary Kahanak, NADG (10-18-18)
      The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just released a report, and it’s stark. Keeping the planet at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times is barely possible, but will still cause suffering and death from climate disruption and weather extremes. The conclusion: Greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2020, then drop 50 percent by 2030, then achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
      That’s a tight schedule, a big ask. Unprecedented international cooperation and infrastructure transformation are required. Physically possible, but not probable politically, says IPCC. This is a “Danger: Iceberg dead ahead!” message.
      Eighty-five percent of the world’s energy still comes from burning fossil fuels. No longer may we be content knowing that we have done a little bit that helps. We have been given an evidence-based emissions target and a timeline for achieving it. We can set verifiable milestones of accomplishment.
      Time is short. We must use every tool and technique at our disposal in the most effective manner. That includes nuclear power, which currently provides 76 percent of the clean, zero-emission electricity for Arkansas. Summing up the IPCC report: If the entire world gets its act together and pushes—hard—starting today, we might just miss hitting the metaphorical iceberg, and sustain only “tolerable” damage to our vessel. Or we can head down to the lounge for another cocktail and strike up the band, secure in our belief that no action is required, that all will be as it has ever been.
      The choice is ours. This is our “Titanic” moment.
      GARY KAHANAK
      Fayetteville


PART TWO
CAPITALIST ECONOMIC SYSTEM OF ENDLESS GROWTH
 “The present capitalist model. . .is also a model for planetary decline, possibly of a precipitous nature.  The very definition of success—more middle-class consumers, more car owners, more shoppers, which means more energy used, more fossil fuels burned, more greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere—is also, as it never would have been before, the definition of failure.  The greater the ‘success,’ the more intense the droughts, the stronger the storms, the more extreme the weather, the higher the rise in sea levels, the hotter the temperatures, the greater the chaos in low-lying or tropical lands the more profound the failure. . . .This process. . .gives a new meaning to Naomi Klein’s term ‘disaster capitalism.’”  Tom Engelhardt, Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.  2014.
 (94-95).

EXPAND!
Michael Yates.  “Nothing to Lose But Their Chains.”  Monthly Review (October 2018).   “To grasp Marx and Engels’s meaning, it is necessary to understand just how radical capitalism is.  Of great significance is the fact that it is the first economic system in which there is an inherent growth imperative.” (p. 17).  [This essay is an excellent 101 introduction to capitalism from perspective of the independent socialist journal, MR.]

PART THREE
ALTERNATIVES, RESISTANCE TO GROWTH 1972—
Academy for Systems Change
« A Different Vision of the Path To International Security Thirty Years Later:  the Idea of Limits to Growth Is More Important Than Ever »
A Synopsis: Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update
 By Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and Dennis Meadows.
The following piece is a short synopsis of Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update.
The full length book (2004) is available at Chelsea Green’s website.

 The signs are everywhere around us:
Sea level has risen 10–20 cm since 1900. Most non-polar glaciers are retreating, and the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice is decreasing in summer.
In 1998 more than 45 percent of the globe’s people had to live on incomes averaging $2 a day or less. Meanwhile, the richest one- fifth of the world’s population has 85 percent of the global GNP. And the gap between rich and poor is widening.
In 2002, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN estimated that 75 percent of the world’s oceanic fisheries were fished at or beyond capacity. The North Atlantic cod fishery, fished sustainably for hundreds of years, has collapsed, and the species may have been pushed to biological extinction.
The first global assessment of soil loss, based on studies of hundreds of experts, found that 38 percent, or nearly 1.4 billion acres, of currently used agricultural land has been degraded.
Fifty-four nations experienced declines in per capita GDP for more than a decade during the period 1990–2001.
These are symptoms of a world in overshoot, where we are drawing on the world’s resources faster than they can be restored, and we are releasing wastes and pollutants faster than the Earth can absorb them or render them harmless. They are leading us toward global environmental and economic collapse—but there may still be time to address these problems and soften their impact.

We’ve been warned before. More than 30 years ago, a book called The Limits to Growth created an international sensation. Commissioned by the Club of Rome, an international  group of businessmen, states- men, and scientists, The Limits to Growth was compiled by a team of experts from the U.S. and several foreign countries. Using system dynamics theory and a computer model called “World3,” the book presented and analyzed 12 scenarios that showed different possible patterns—and environmental outcomes—of world development over two centuries from 1900 to 2100.  MORE   http://donellameadows.org/archives/a-synopsis-limits-to-growth-the-30-year-update/

While the past 30 years has shown some progress, including new technologies, new institutions, and a new awareness of environmental problems, the authors are far more pessimistic than they were in 1972. Humanity has squandered the opportunity to correct our current course over the last 30 years, they conclude, and much must change if the world is to avoid the serious consequences of overshoot in the 21st century.

When The Limits to Growth was first published in 1972, most economists, along with many industrialists, politicians, and Third World advocates raised their voices in outrage at the suggestion that population growth and material consumption need to be reduced by deliberate means. Over the years, Limits was attacked by many who didn’t understand or misrepresented its assertions, dismissing it as Malthusian hyperbole. But nothing that has happened in the last 30 years has invalidated the book’s warnings.

On the contrary, as noted energy economist Matthew Simmons recently wrote, “The most amazing aspect of the book is how accurate many of the basic trend extrapolations … still are some 30 years later.” For example, the gap between rich and poor has only grown wider in the past three decades. Thirty years ago, it seemed unimaginable that humanity could expand its numbers and economy enough to alter the Earth’s natural systems. But experience with the global climate system and the stratospheric ozone layer have proved them wrong.

All the environmental and economic problems discussed in Limits to Growth have been treated at length before. There are hundreds of books on deforestation, global climate change, dwindling oil supplies, and species extinction. Since The Limits to Growth was first published 30 years ago, these problems have been the focus of conferences, scientific research, and media scrutiny.

What makes Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update unique, however, is that it presents the underlying economic structure that leads to these problems. Moreover, Limits is a valuable reference and compilation of data. The authors include 80 tables and graphs that give a comprehensive, coherent view of many problems. The book will undoubtedly be used as a text in many courses at the college level, as its two earlier versions have been.    MORE


Prosperity without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet by Tim Jackson.   2016.  
Is more economic growth the solution? Will it deliver prosperity and well-being for a global population projected to reach nine billion?  In this explosive book, Tim Jackson - a top sustainability adviser to the UK government - makes a compelling case against continued economic growth in developed nations.

No one denies that development is essential for poorer nations.  But in the advanced economies there is mounting evidence that ever-increasing consumption adds little to human happiness and may even impede it.  More urgently, it is now clear that the ecosystems that sustain our economies are collapsing under the impacts of rising consumption. Unless we can radically lower the environmental impact of economic activity - and there is no evidence to suggest that we can - we will have to devise a path to prosperity that does not rely on continued growth. 

Economic heresy? Or an opportunity to improve the sources of well-being, creativity and lasting prosperity that lie outside the realm of the market? Tim Jackson provides a credible vision of how human society can flourish within the ecological limits of a finite planet. Fulfilling this vision is simply the most urgent task of our times.

This book is a substantially revised and updated version of Jackson's controversial study for the Sustainable Development Commission, an advisory body to the UK Government. The study rapidly became the most downloaded report in the Commission's nine year history when it was launched earlier this year.

Capitalism vs. the Climate
That is the subtitle of Naomi Klein's book, This Changes Everything.  If you’re really short of time, read her Intro. where she explains the CONTRACTION needed against the fierce, ceaseless drive to EXPAND by our economic system. (See OMNI's Growth Newsletter  #2: http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2016/07/growth-watch-2.html,  and Capitalism, Newsletter #22: http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2015/04/us-capitalism-newsletter-22.html).
     Klein divides her book into 3 parts:  I. the barriers to life-saving, planet-saving climate action.  II. All the false solutions (dinner with a green billionaire anyone?).  III. Blockades.  Because “our economic system and our planetary system are at war,” become a climate warrior with Native Americans.  Blockade everything that grows and expands and are killing us.   Join the global revolution.   

ARKANSAS CLIMATE CHANGE LOBBY, CHAPTER OF FEE/DIVIDEND CAMPAIGN

Dear Friends,
Partnership is our core.  It is who we are and how we work at Arkansas Citizens' Climate Lobby and Arkansas Citizens' Climate League.   We view the necessity of climate solutions and ecological conservation, as a challenge that requires fluid, meaningful, and respectful collaboration between individuals and organizations.
We are fortunate in Arkansas to have so many opportunities to join forces in raising awareness and building momentum for action.  In September our collaborations stretched across the state from Mountain Home to Little Rock to Fort Smith, Conway and Russellville.

We tabled with the Twin Lakes Sustainability Volunteers at the Baxter County Fair, partnered with Interfaith Power and Light and Arkansas Audubon for a showing of Happening: A Clean Energy Revolution at the Little Rock Oyster Bar, joined in speaking at the Peace One Day event at UA Fort Smith, took part in the University of Central Arkansas student volunteer fair, had a conversation with the Arkansas Tech Campus Environmental Coalition, united with other advocates at the Arkansas Citizens' First Congress Meeting, and teamed up with UA Fayetteville rice researcher Kosana Suvocarev for a presentation to the Mind Stretchers Fort Smith group.
October brings more chances for working together, including an invitation to you to take part in our Climate Change Costume Contest.  You'll learn more about this fun Fall Fundraiser and other upcoming community collaborations in the photo stories and articles that follow.  Please take a quick moment to scroll through and find your favorite collaboration.
Once again my heartfelt thanks to your for your partnership in preserving a livable world.
Jan Schaper   State Coordinator   Arkansas Citizens’ Climate Lobby
janschaper@live.com
OMNI CLIMAT E BOOK FORUM
Meets first Sundays of each month with a new book.  This month Goodell’s The Water Will Come, next month Grant, Too Many People.


NO GROWTH
Johan Galtung.  TRANSCEND Media Service, #519 
A small but important signal from La Nucia…in Spain: no more permits to build new houses for some time. La Nucia wants to stop growing.  30,000 inhabitants in 2030 is the limit; with no limitation on restoration, beauty, art, well-being.


PART FOUR:  CLOSELY RELATED
REVERSING POPULATION GROWTH
Lindsey Grant .  Too Many People: The Case for Reversing Growth.     January 7, 2001. 
 This book explores a fundamental but seldom asked question: has the recent growth of human numbers and economic activity imperiled our well-being, social justice and even the natural support systems on which we and other creatures depend? Challenging a nearly universal enthusiasm for endless growth, Grant makes the unassailable point that perpetual material growth on Earth is a mathematical absurdity. Growth, moreover, is already an unrecognized root of environmental and social problems, not simply a potential danger.
Grant summarizes the evidence concerning food, water, land, climate change, the energy transition, chemicals and pollution and their threat to living systems. He observes that most people object to crowding — but without identifying the source. He recognizes – indeed emphasizes — the limits of our knowledge, but he suggests, in broad terms, what world population might be sustainable at a decent standard of living. The numbers are something like those the world passed two or three generations ago.
We are already at war with the biosphere that supports us. More than any other proposed solution, a solution on the demand side — population — offers an effective way to end or ameliorate the problems I have described… and, remarkably enough, it will save money rather than demanding more investments. (p.71).  MORE   http://www.npg.org/library/books-by-lindsey-grant/too-many-people-the-case-for-reversing-growth.html
OMNI Overpopulation Newsletters   OMNI OVER-POPULATION, GROWTH, CONSUMPTION, WARMING, CLIMATE CHANGE  NEWSLETTER #11,   June 10 , 2018.   http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2018/06/omni-overpopulation-newsletter-11.html   # 12 under construction .

PATRIARCHY
Maria Mies.  Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour.  Zed Books, 1986. 
Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism.  Edited by Zillah R. Eisenstein.  1978.
Patriarchy and Economic Development : Women's Positions at the End of the Twentieth Century.  Edited by Valentine M. Moghadam.   Clarendon Press,  1996.

 

Outlawing War

Ground Zero Center For Nonviolent Action
Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action offers the opportunity to explore the meaning and practice of nonviolence from a perspective of deep spiritual reflection, providing a means for witnessing to and resisting all nuclear weapons, especially Trident. We seek to go to the root of violence and injustice in our world and experience the transforming power of love through nonviolent direct action.
http://www.gzcenter.org/
“Outlawing war? It actually worked”, an article by Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro (NYT 5 Sep 2017) refers to the 1928 Kellogg-Briand pact that brought “an end to the right of conquest and changed the way states behave” [growth, expansion]. The pact did not abolish war but tried to make it illegal…making war for conquest a crime. Like slavery, like colonialism….” 
OMNI NUCLEAR WEAPONS ABOLITION NEWSLETTER #23, JANUARY 15, 2017.  http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2018/01/omni-nuclear-weapons-abolition.html   #24 in preparation.
OMNI ANTI-WAR, ANTI-IMPERIALISM, PEACEMAKING  NEWSLETTER #5.  December 19, 2016.    http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2016/12/anti-war-newsletter-5.html    (#1 April 2, 2012; #2 Jan. 18, 2013; #3 March 25, 2014; #4, January 25, 2015).  #6 in preparation.


GROWTH WATCH NEWLETTER #2

END GROWTH WATCH #3

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

OMNI VEGETARIAN/VEGAN ACTION NEWSLETTER


OMNI

VEGETARIAN/VEGAN ACTION NEWSLETTER,
WEDNESDAY (2ND WEDNESDAYS), OCTOBER 10, 2018.
Edited by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

Forward this newsletter to help advance vegetarianism and veganism.
To be removed from this mailing, drop me a note unsubscribe.

     OMNI’s OCTOBER VEGETARIAN/VEGAN POTLUCK is Wednesday, OCTOBER 10, 2018 (2ND Wednesdays), at OMNI, Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology.  We start eating at 6:00.      All are welcome. 
      OMNI’s director is Gladys Tiffany.  OMNI is located at 3274 Lee Avenue parallel to N. College southeast of the Village Inn and south of Liquor World.  More information: 935-4422; 442-4600.     Or take College to Harold St (at Flying Burrito), turn east (right if you’re heading north). Go one block to Lee and turn left.  Go one block to Bertha.   We’re the gray brick on the corner, 2nd house south of Liquor World, solar panels on roof! 



CONTENTS: OMNI’s Vegetarian/Vegan Action Newsletter #53, http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2018/09/vegetarianvegan-action-newsletter.html

October 10, 2018

Health, Nutrition
Cookbooks
Good Medicine published by Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Protection of Animals, Empathy, Compassion
Arkansas
“Happy Columbus and Other Cannibals Day”: End Columbus Day
Vs. Ag-Gag Laws, by Joe Loria, Mercy for Animals
Climate Chaos: Mitigation and Adaptation
National Advertising for Vegan
Avoid Extreme Climate Change: Stop Eating Meat
    Book: The Climate Majority: Apathy and Action in an Age of Nationalism (UK)
Animal Food and Greenhouse Gases

Vegetarian Action #52 Contents

 

TEXTS

Health, Nutrition
Cookbooks
Bryanna Clark Grogan.  World Vegan Feast: 200 Fabulous Recipes from Over 50 Countries.  Vegan Heritage P, 2011. 
Chapters:  World Vegan Kitchen Essentials, Brunch Around the World, International Munchies, Soups, Salads, etc.!
Donna Klein.  Vegan Italiano: Meat-Free, Egg-Free, Dairy-Free Dishes.   Home/Penguin, 2006.  Chapters: Soups, Salads, Pasta, Rice and Other Granins, Vegetables, etc.!
From Good Medicine section on Nutrition:
Diet-Related Diseases Are Leading Cause of Death in U.S.” 
“Plant-Based Diets Reduce Heart Disease Risk Factors.”
“Grilled Meat Increases Risk for Hypertension.”
Section on Prevention & Nutrition:
“Doctors Urge St. Louis Residents to Go Vegan.”
Plant Protein, Fiber, and Nuts Lower Cholesterol, Improve Blood Pressure.”



Protection of Animals, Empathy, Compassion
“Turkey Numbers Up in State, USDA Says.”  NADG (105-18).   Carnivorism ARK: “about 2 million more Arkansas-raised turkeys are going to slaughter this year compared with 2017.”
LTE.  William Carlyle (NLR).  “Unspeakable Cruelty.”  NADG (7-30-18).
Lauralee Darr (Mena).  “Kindness and Respect.”  NADG (8-14-18).
The Humane Society of the United States.  Dedicated to stop the pain and suffering inflicted on animals by the ruling animal.
Happy Columbus and Other Cannibals Day!
Seven Stories Press 10-7-18  sevenstories@sevenstories.com via uark.onmicrosoft.com 
10:01 AM (35 minutes ago)
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif

to James


Columbus and other Cannibals
The Wétiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism

For several thousands of years human beings have suffered from a plague, a disease worse than leprosy, a sickness worse than malaria, a malady much more terrible than smallpox. . . .


Celebrated American Indian thinker Jack D. Forbes’s Columbus and Other Cannibals was one of the founding texts of the anti-civilization movement when it was first published in 1978. His history of terrorism, genocide, and ecocide told from a Native American point of view has inspired America’s most influential activists for decades. Frighteningly, his radical critique of the modern "civilized" lifestyle is more relevant now than ever before.

Identifying the Western compulsion to consume the earth as a sickness, Forbes writes:

"Brutality knows no boundaries. Greed knows no limits. Perversion knows no borders. . . . These characteristics all push towards an extreme, always moving forward once the initial infection sets in. . . . This is the disease of the consuming of other creatures’ lives and possessions. I call it cannibalism."

This updated edition includes a new chapter by the author.


Free download is available through October 15, 5PM EST


https://mfa.cachefly.net/mfa/images/mercy-for-animals-logo-color.png

 https://mfa.cachefly.net/mfablog/images/uploads/users/50x50/joe.jpg
By Joe Loria November 22, 2017
According to Utah news outlet KUTV, the state has agreed to pay $349,000 to animal rights groups to cover attorneys’ fees and other costs from the lawsuit that resulted in the overturning of the state’s unconstitutional “ag-gag” law.

Filed in 2013 by a group of organizations including the Animal Legal Defense Fund and PETA, the Utah lawsuit was the first of its kind. In July of this year, a federal judge ruled on the case, declaring the state’s ag-gag law unconstitutional. Writing for the District Court of Utah, Judge Robert Shelby criticized the law for “[s]uppressing broad swaths of protected speech without justification" and upheld the right of groups like Mercy For Animals to continue going undercover and exposing abuse at factory farms in the state.

Just last month, Utah waived its right to appeal the ruling. This means the court’s decision stands and remains a victory in the fight to overturn these dangerous laws.

In 2011 the factory farming industry started pushing hard for ag-gag laws designed to prevent animal protection groups from exposing abuse and other crimes at farm facilities in dozens of states. Most of the bills were defeated, but a handful of states passed them into law. While ag-gag laws in Idaho and Utah have been overturned, laws in Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and North Carolina remain on the books.

Recently, the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, along with ALDF, PETA, and other organizations, filed a suit against the state’s ag-gag law.


MFA is committed to providing this vital public service for as long as it is needed, and we are hopeful that courts will overturn the ag-gag laws still on the books. To learn more about MFA and how you can support our lifesaving work, click here.



Climate Chaos, Environmental Mitigation and Adaptation
Advert. in The Nation (9-24/10-1/2018)
(in caps)“There’s no such thing as a Meat-Eating Environmentalist. Go Vegan.
It takes about 1,800 gallons of water and up to 10 lbs. of grain to produce just 1 lb. of beef.  Order a free vegan starter kit at PETA.org.  Photo of woman dressed in or painted on map of planet.  Maggie Q for PETA .

Leo Barasi.  to stop climate change, we need to eat less meat
Share on Facebook Tweet Email     15 September 2017, NEW INTERNATIONALIST
 Food
When Jeremy Corbyn expressed interest in shifting to a vegan diet, he was met with surprised comments. But if we want to avoid extreme climate change, Leo Barasi  argues that we can’t put off confronting the consequence of our diets for much longer
Earlier this month Jeremy Corbyn made headlines in a new way – expressing interest in becoming vegan, after being a vegetarian for decades.
Although he later denied he was considering the switch, the episode provided a glimpse of a conversation that few people want to have – but which we can’t keep putting off if we are to avoid extreme climate change.
Campaigners have been trying to persuade the public to eat less meat for years. It’s more than four decades since Peter Singer’s consciousness-awakening book and rallying cry Animal Liberation was published. The Vegetarian Society has been going four times as long, since 1847. Over those years, there have been countless exposés of cruelties in factory farms and of the damage that farming can do to the local environment, and doctors increasingly warn of the risks of eating too much meat.
But if the aim of all this was to reduce meat consumption, those efforts have failed. Vegetarianism might now seem part of mainstream culture rather than an eccentricity, but there’s little sign that more people are quitting meat. Nor is there evidence that many people are reducing the amount they eat – data suggests individuals around the world are eating steadily more of it. Even in the US, where meat consumption per person fell during the 2008 financial crisis, consumption is now rising again.

It looks like economics was the driving force, not ethics.
The world won’t prevent extreme climate change if it doesn’t deal with this. Meat and dairy production is responsible for around a seventh of all of human greenhouse gas emissions. If this continues, livestock emissions alone will exhaust the world’s ‘carbon budget’, the amount the world can release before committing to the dangerous warming threshold of two degrees celsius, within around 100 years – even if every other source of emissions is cleaned up. And, with farming emissions set to grow 30 per cent by 2050, meat and dairy may burn through the budget even faster.
There are solutions to this. There’s been a shift in tastes, with chicken becoming more popular and beef becoming less so. This has cut emissions – beef warms the planet about four times as much as chicken. But the switch has been so slow that population growth means the total amount of beef eaten is still rising. And, though cleaner than beef, chicken is still several times more polluting than vegetarian alternatives.
Technology might help. Meat substitutes like the vegan Impossible Burger, which release a fraction of the emissions of beef, could make a switch more palatable. As a recent convert to being mostly vegetarian I’ve found that even the limited range of meat substitutes now available help me cut down on meat, as vaping does for smokers (though I’m still far from convinced by cheese substitutes: they’re fine in cooking but on a cracker are about as appealing as their plastic packaging).
But technology won’t fix the problem on its own. Even if vegan alternatives keep getting better, most people will need more motivation to switch. As long as the substitutes are neither tastier nor cheaper, many people will wonder why they should stop eating cheeseburgers.
This could be one of the hardest problems the world will have to face as it tries to avert extreme climate change. Other possible ways of cutting emissions – like switching from coal to clean power, or ditching inefficient fridges – bring obvious benefits and are supported by most people. But it will be much harder to persuade nearly everyone to cut down on something they enjoy for the sake of the climate, when arguments about health, animal welfare and the local environment have failed.
My book The Climate Majority: Apathy and Action in an Age of Nationalism sets out some of the ways that more people could be persuaded to do so.
The surprised response to Corbyn’s comment demonstrates how far public debate still has to come. If this is one of the world’s hardest problems, it’s also one of the most ignored – few people outside the green movement are prepared to admit that consuming less meat and dairy is necessary. All Corbyn did was saying he’s considering changing his own diet.
Just imagine the outrage if he’d suggested that others should do the same or mooted taxes on high-carbon foods.
But we can’t put off confronting the consequence of our diets for much longer. Cutting emissions is only getting harder, as targets get tighter and easier measures are ticked off. Soon we will have to look at our plates and admit it won’t be possible to prevent extreme climate change as long as we keep filling them with cheese and meat.
The Climate Majority: Apathy and Action in an Age of Nationalism by Leo Barasi is published by New Internationalist on 21 September
Help us keep this site free for all
New Internationalist is a lifeline for activists, campaigners and readers who value independent journalism. Please support us with a small recurring donation so we can keep it free to read online.

https://mfa.cachefly.net/mfablog/images/uploads/users/50x50/joe.jpg
By Joe Loria November 22, 2017
According to NASA, at least 97 percent of publishing climate scientists agree that climate change is real. The debate over whether human activity is causing global temperatures to rise is finished. Quite frankly, it has been for well over a decade. But recognizing climate change while supporting animal agriculture, one of the leading contributors, is just as bad as denying it altogether.

If we don’t do something now to curb climate change, scientists warn the planet faces disastrous consequences—from intensified storms and rising sea levels to the extinction of millions of species. And while not everyone can afford an electric car or solar panels, there is something we can all do: go vegan.

Raising animals for food produces more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars, planes, and other forms of transportation combined. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, carbon dioxide emissions from raising farmed animals make up about 15 percent of global human-induced emissions, with beef and milk production as the leading culprits. In fact, even without fossil fuels, we will exceed our 565-gigaton CO2e limit by 2030—all from raising animals for food.

Furthermore, simply by avoiding animal products, we can cut our carbon footprints in half. Keep in mind that a pound of beef requires 13 percent more fossil fuel and 15 times more water to produce than a pound of soy.

In a recent article, the Alliance of World Scientists, a group of 15,000 scientists from 184 countries, concluded that humans must change their behavior and switch to a plant-based diet to prevent environmental destruction.

It’s time for anyone who recognizes that human activity is a real threat to our planet to take action. There is no such thing as "sustainable" meat, and plant-based alternatives to meat, dairy, and eggs take a mere fraction of the resources to produce as their animal-based counterparts.

But a vegan diet isn’t just good for the planet—it also spares countless animals a lifetime of misery at factory farms. Pigs, cows, chickens, and other farmed animals suffer horribly. From birth to death, these innocent animals are caught in a nightmare: crated and caged, cut and burned, and brutally killed.


Just as there is no question that climate change is real, there is no question that animal agriculture is terrible for the planet. Join the millions of people who are helping protect farmed animals and the planet by switching to a vegan diet. Click here to get started!

CONTENTS: OMNI’s Vegetarian/Vegan Action Newsletter #52, September 12, 2018


Health, Nutrition
Good Medicine (Summer 2018), Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
VegNews (Sept. Oct. 2018)
NADG, Government Consumer Protection
Protection of Animals, Empathy, Compassion
Morton, Humankind
Good Medicine
Peta Global (Summer 2018)
VegNews
LTE
Climate Catastrophe Mitigation and Adaptation
PETA Global, outstanding articles on vegetarian/vegan opposition to meat

 

END VEGETARIAN/VEGAN ACTION NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 10, 2018


Dick's Wars and Warming KPSQ Radio Editorials (#1-48)

Dick's Wars and Warming KPSQ Radio Editorials (#1-48)