Net Beacon

May 7th, 2010

Please help with the Gulf of Mexico oil cleanup by contributing your hair here. The Gulf Restoration Network is also working to maintain healthy fisheries and communities around the Gulf. You can support them here: GRN

Earth 2010

This is a picture of the Earth's operating capacity. Each section represents a major system of our planetary operating system. The green section in the center represents the safe operating zone while the red sections represent current levels, with the dotted lines showing their change since 1950. The image is a snapshot of recent work by an internationally renowed group of scientists in the Earth and life sciences.¹

In the April 2010 issue of Scientific American, a host of measures were proposed to redress this alarming picture, but surprisingly, limiting population growth was not among them, even though population growth is a common basis for all these problems. And since the measures offered are insufficient by themselves, the need to focus on the population basis is essential.

Fittingly, 2010 was declared the International Year of Biodiversity. Biodiversity is the most out of bounds system. In fact, its loss couldn't even fit entirely into the diagram! So society really needs to make more progress in this area. (Biodiversity is hugely valueable, not only in terms of providing the genetic blueprints for biological products, ecosystem services, and esthetic and spiritual value, but also in the synergistic and evolutionary ways in which all these things interact to create new life, services, and possibilities.) The links in this site's sections will take you to some of the most effective organizations working on this problem.

As global warming is now irrefutable and reports of the consequences are leading to increased concerns, climatologists are talking about dramatic tipping points^2,3. Take a look at this video and ask yourself: "How serious could this be for me, my family, and our future?"

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo.

Opinion: "America should lead the World out this uncomfortable situation just as it's been leading the World into it. Two ways to help do that are to put better mass transit (like light-rail) in more of it's major cities and put a moratorium on new coal powered plants." -Rod Silvers

Does securing America require killing off imperiled whale species? In fulfilling its mission, that's what the U.S. Navy is helping to do autoposies have shown.⁴ Learn more and help stop this atrocity here, and here.