Convenience, Black Blood, and War

I’m sure by now that you have all heard the story about the “attempted terrorist attack” on the Northwest Airlines jet that was bound for Detroit. This was an attack that was apparently only NOT SUCCESSFUL because the bomb didn’t go off properly.

From the moment I heard about this my skeptics glasses went on; this just seems too, what’s the word? CONVENIENT. It seems to me that whenever public opinion of the war(s) goes down, something happens to reinstate the fear that lets people forget their rights, personal freedoms, and opposition to wars.

I was skeptical before I started reading about Yemen and the United States. Yemen is where the accused terrorist, Abdulmatallab, reportedly made contact with Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda has taken responsibility for the botched terrorist attack and says it was in response to attacks on them in Yemen. The US did actually attack Yemen. This is what ABC news had to say about the attack:

On orders from President Barack Obama, the U.S. military launched cruise missiles early Thursday against two suspected al-Qaeda sites in Yemen, administration officials told ABC News in a report broadcast on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.

ABC's Brian Ross details missile strike on al-Qaeda militants in Afghanistan.

One of the targeted sites was a suspected al Qaeda training camp north of the capitol, Sanaa, and the second target was a location where officials said "an imminent attack against a U.S. asset was being planned."

The Yemen attacks by the U.S. military represent a major escalation of the Obama administration's campaign against al Qaeda.

In his speech about added troops for Afghanistan earlier this month, President Obama made a brief reference to Yemen, saying, "Where al Qaeda and its allies attempt to establish a foothold -- whether in Somalia or Yemen or elsewhere -- they must be confronted by growing pressure and strong partnerships."

The entire article can be found here: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/cruise-missiles-strike-yemen/story?id=9375236&page=1

Okay, so in the war on terror America is going to find the terrorists wherever they are hiding. This is old news, Bush loved saying stuff like this, and apparently Obama does too. There is another similarity besides terrorists between Yemen and the other countries America is attacking however. What is this similarity?

OIL.

Here’s some information on Yemen’s oil industry: http://www.mbendi.com/indy/oilg/as/ye/p0005.htm

Yemen is a small, non-OPEC oil producer. The country’s economy is highly dependent on oil production, with the country’s oil exports accounting for around 85 percent of export revenues and 33 percent of gross domestic product. According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Yemen had proved oil reserves of 2.78 billion barrels at the end of 2007 or 0.22 % of the world's reserves and produced an average of 336 thousand barrels of crude oil per day, 0.4% of the world total and a change of -11.5 % compared to 2006.

Though the government of Yemen is fairly stable following the re-election of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2006, security remains a concern of foreign firms doing business in Yemen. Yemen is divided into 87 blocks, of which 12 actually produce oil.

The oil is concentrated in five areas: Marib-Jawf in the north, Masila in the south and East Shabwa, Jannah and Iyad in central Yemen. Oil production in Yemen is heavily reliant on private foreign companies, with more than 20 foreign firms currently operating concessions. International companies currently operating in Yemen include Canada’s Nexen, Hunt Oil, Total, Occidental and DNO.

The national oil company, Yemen General Corporation for Oil & Gas/Mineral Resources, is an affiliation of several state-owned subsidiaries including: the Yemen Oil Company (YOC); the Yemen Refining Company (YRC); the Petroleum Exploration and Production Authority (PEPA) and the General Department of Crude Oil Marketing (GDCOM). All branches report to the MOMR. The national oil company is responsible for managing the industry contracts and relations with operators and partners, as well as the government's share of crude exports.

According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Yemen had 2007 proved natural gas reserves of 0.48 trillion cubic metres, the bulk of which are concentrated in the Marib-Jawf fields. Despite Yemen’s longstanding plans to develop an export-based natural gas industry, Yemen has yet to produce any natural gas.

What is an OPEC producer vs a non-OPEC oil producer? Here’s the answer http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/ftproot/presentations/ieo99_3im/sld010.htm :

By the middle of 1998, declining world oil prices caused renewed efforts to lower oil production under the sponsorship of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). In both March and June, OPEC and key non-OPEC producers Mexico and Norway agreed to restrict crude oil sales, and there were indications from several other producers that they would cut back production. Their efforts were not supported by Iraq, which wanted to increase oil sales. As a result, oil production management efforts had only modest success.

WAIT A MINUTE! So IRAQ is non-OPEC too…hmm. Just thinking here…

Stand By Me

Stand By Me by: Ben E. King (with photos added by me)

When the night has come

And the land is dark

And the moon is the only light we'll see

No I won't be afraid, no I won't be afraid

Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darlin', darlin', stand by me

Oh now now stand by me

Stand by me, stand by me

If the sky that we look upon

Should tumble and fall

Acid Rain Damage

And the mountains should crumble to the sea

I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

Link

And darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me, stand by me-e, yeah

Whenever you're in trouble won't you stand by me, oh now now stand by me
Oh stand by me, stand by me, stand by me

Darlin', darlin', stand by me-e, stand by me
Oh stand by me, stand by me, stand by me

The Navy Does it Again

As if killing marine life with sonar wasn’t enough, the US Navy now has plans to take out Manatees too.

I read an article today that is (obviously slanted in the way I lean) pointing out the incredibly destructive nature of the U.S. Navy along with how little it cares for any living creature but the American Human (and is shortsighted even in their care for them). Below is the entire article, originally appearing here.

“Having defeated the Japanese fleet and faced down the Soviets, the U.S. Navy faces a new obstacle, one that hides behind a deceptively gentle, seagrass-munching façade.

Manatees may rank lower than such traditional menaces as torpedoes and air-to-sea missiles. But a proposal to protect additional habitat for them, the Navy says, could end up reducing habitat for destroyers, aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service soon will make a decision on whether to expand what's called critical habitat for the manatee in Florida and southern Georgia, in response to a petition from several environmental groups.

The coastlines of these states bristle with naval installations, such as the historic Pensacola Naval Air Station, where World War II aviators trained; Kings Bay in southern Georgia, home to nuclear-armed Ohio-class submarines; and the South Florida Ocean Testing Facility in Dania Beach, where the Navy operates an undersea range to determine ships' acoustical signatures.

Although the Navy doesn't object in principal to an increase in protected areas — and indeed points out the many measures it takes to prevent harm to endangered species — it says too broad an expansion could have "significant impacts" on Navy operations.

"Manatees and their habitats overlap Navy training and operation areas through the southeast," states the letter from C.R. Destafney, regional environmental program director, Navy Region Southeast, in Jacksonville. "Navy's training involves activities necessary to maintain proficiency in mission-essential areas such as mine warfare, strike warfare, electronic combat and maritime security."

Among the concerns: Security arrangements for Ohio-class submarines entering and exiting their base at Kings Bay. The Navy does not want protections for a marine mammal, no matter how loveable, to compromise security arrangements for submarines approaching shore armed with nuclear weapons.

Another concern is the Navy's ability to dredge channels for deep-draft ships .

Navy spokesman Steve Strickland said the Navy works hard to leave a minimal environmental footprint. For example, he said the Navy conducts aerial surveys of endangered right whales off North Florida to alert Navy ships.

"Certainly the Navy coexists with various endangered species," he said. "We do all kinds of things to help minimize the impact."

The habitat expansion proposal came in a 2008 petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Save the Manatee Club and Wildlife Advocacy Project.

These groups argued that the current critical habitat, drawn up in 1976, is outdated. Since then, they said, a skyrocketing population has brought more boats and more waterfront development, worsening habitat for one of the state's best-loved endangered species, an emblem of Florida's natural heritage.

A critical habitat designation doesn't prohibit construction or other activities. But it does require the wildlife service to review federal activities or decisions that could affect it, such as permitting development, oil drilling, boating or shipping.

Katie Tripp, science and conservation director of The Save the Manatee Club, said there may be ways the Navy could alter operations to protect manatees without any impact on naval operations or training.

"In the past, manatees have not kept the Navy from doing what they need to do," she said. "In this state, endangered species and the military have coexisted."

The petition calls for the protection of dozens of natural springs, seagrass beds, travel corridors and coastlines throughout manatee habitat.

In Broward County, where no critical habitat is currently designated, that includes the entire Intracoastal Waterway, New River system, Whiskey Creek and many other waterways. In Palm Beach County, which already has critical habitat designated in Lake Worth and the northern part of the Intracoastal Waterway, it includes the entire Intracoastal Waterway and connected waterways.

In September the Fish and Wildlife Service made a preliminary determination that a revision of manatee critical habitat "may be warranted." It is now completing a more extensive review, with a decision expected within the next few days or weeks.

Rules to protect manatees have irritated boaters and the marine construction industry for years, and the proposal could face a fight if it moves forward.

Chuck Underwood, spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said any increase in critical habitat would almost certainly be a fraction of the habitat proposed by the wildlife groups.

He down-played the significance of expanding the species' critical habitat, saying any changes would simply reinforce protections already in place. Of the Navy's comments, he said, "We understand they have concerns, and they're legitimate concerns."’

Okay, so the navy is concerned because of: nuclear weapons, dredging the ocean floor for large ships, and possibly being unable to maintain readiness for warfare. Perhaps if ONE of their reasons was based upon anything but economics and the destruction of environments for warfare and corporate (governmental) greed I would be willing to listen. The navy keeps claiming they are environmental while they continue to destroy the environment (or refuse to let others protect it).

Stop Shooting the "Big Bad Wolf"

The superiority complex of humans is truly remarkable. Our species has driven hundreds of animals extinct and will drive more to that horrible fate before this week is out. In America, the gray wolf was almost gone for good due to an unwarranted fear and hatred for the animal. “Kill what you don’t understand” seems to be the human way of things.

Even with advances in biological studies of wolves and reintroduction of many groups into the wild there is still such ignorance that I want to scream. Just when the wolves looked like they were making a (partial) comeback, hunting of them was legalized (again). I say partial comeback because it is impossible for them to truly come back to what they once were when most of their lands have been “claimed” by farmers that need to protect “their” livestock.

Billings Gazette: “An examination of Montana’s first public gray-wolf hunt showed at least nine of the animals were killed in an area prone to livestock attacks — a finding that could blunt criticism that the hunt was ineffective.

Confident state wildlife officials said they could increase the quota on the predators next year. They want to zero in on a number that would strike a balance between protecting the wolf population and stopping increasing attacks on livestock and big-game herds.”

Let me get this straight, not only are farmers mad about wolves killing cows that are not a natural food source for wolves, but “big game herds”? What exactly is a big game herd you ask? Typically this refers to herds of elk, a food staple for wolves. Referring to them as “game” only illustrates the point that only human hunting is being taken into effect here. Everything is NOT just for humans. The wolves can’t kill cattle because they are our source of food and money, yet they can’t kill elk, because we want to hunt them. What can they eat may I ask?

A counterpoint to the Montana article, from the USA Today : “The Yellowstone pack hardest hit by the hunt is nicknamed Cottonwood. Hunters killed four members of the pack, including the breeding female, her mate and her daughter in a Montana wilderness area bordering the park.

"The wolves have it hard enough inside the park," says Rolf Peterson, a wildlife biologist at Michigan Technical University "The Yellowstone wolves should be treated like national treasures and protected."’

It is not the fault of a wolf if another species (humans) have singlehandedly killed off almost every indigenous food source and taken over most of their lands. There is no choice when put in a situation of survival to eat things that aren’t normally on the food pyramid (for example the cattle that are grazing on the land stolen from the wolves and all of their indigenous brethren).

From one of the ignorant people care of the Billings Gazette (link earlier in post) in Montana: “Ranchers like Jerry Ehmann, 63, counter that the state’s hunt is not doing enough. Ehmann said he used to run about 200 head of cattle on 25,000 acres of public land in southwestern Montana’s Bitterroot Range. After wolves started harassing his animals this year and five calves went missing, Ehmann decided to cut back to only 72 animals and keep them fenced in on his ranch near Sula. He sold off the remaining cattle in November.”

Heaven forbid that someone needs to limit their stock of animals that are not natural to the environment they live on!

WISDOM

Seek always, for by looking for one thing you will surely find another

-this is the path to wisdom.

Finding Nemo is Getting Tough

“The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) chose a top ten of animals in danger in order to highlight to leaders attending the Copenhagen climate summit the consequences of global warming.

Top of the list in the report is the clownfish that live in the Indian and Pacific oceans. The bright orange fish became famous following the Disney film Finding Nemo but it is less well known that they are in danger of extinction because of rising carbon dioxide levels. According to the IUCN, as the sea absorbs CO2 the oceans turn acid which disrupts the clownfishes’ sense of smell and their ability to find the anemones they rely on for protection. Ocean acidification will also bleach staghorn corals, which include some 160 species, as the acid weakens the skeletons.”

Link to article.

It’s really starting to piss me off that people are so damn blind when it comes to the environment. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the oceans are dying; it’s been obvious for over a decade. Marine Biologist Sylvia Earle wrote about it in a book over ten years ago (Sea Change).

I’m trying desperately to figure out who the mysterious “they” are that everyone keeps counting on to solve the problems we failed to stop while they were happening (and happen for that matter). We buy our 100% recycled pulp toilet paper and produce at farmers’ markets and are taught by the wondrous media and the propaganda surrounding us that we will somehow save the world by doing this.

Meanwhile Disney makes a movie about a fish that is caught out of the ocean for an aquarium while keeping dolphins in tanks at Epcot and selling tickets.

Meanwhile unwanted zoo animals and pets that never should have been are sold in an underground market that is not policed.

Yet people watch Animal Precinct and feel informed and like they are doing something good for society.

Perhaps it’s the children I need to talk to, because the adults sure as hell aren’t listening. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, everyone out there, here’s what I want you to do:

Pull up a chair next to the child in your life and watch Finding Nemo with them. When you are done and the child is happy, content, and excited about oceans, tell them that nearly every (if not all) type of animal in there might be gone from the oceans forever in a matter of years. Tell them that unless we stop destroying their homes this will happen for sure. Then ask the child what to do. They will likely have more insight on the matter than you know.

Let’s not make it any harder to find Nemo than it already is.

Stop Protesting and Start Doing Something

I am starting to get (well, okay let’s face it, I have been) really annoyed with people who are convinced they can change the world with peaceful protests. When I was in college I was in a “peace” group, but we did a lot more than protest. We were more a group that spread the opposing viewpoint’s opinion on major issues (Veterans Against the Iraq War, etc). But now I talk to my friends who are still in college and all they seem to do is plan marches, and march against war, for LGBT rights, and many other things. I am quite frustrated. These are some of the most intelligent people I know, and they are wasting their time walking down streets with signs when they could be doing something that might actually change the world.

GreenPeace can hang all of the banners they want off of the sides of buildings and bridges but if they believe that the hardened heartless CEOs and politicians are going to change their consumer driven goals because of a banner they see, they are sorely mistaken.

The fact that we even “need” an Animal Planet channel is sad in and of itself. If the network thinks they will change things by spreading the word and knowledge about endangered and extinct animals that lived half a country (or even half a block) away from the couch the viewer is sitting on they are wrong.

These silent campaigns are far too easily ignored by both the general public and the leaders of Western civilization. Activists and protestors that go far enough to actually start to change something are promptly silenced and most of the world continues on without even realizing it happened. The news media will cover a business opening (or re-opening) before it will cover the loving soul who is living in the branches of a doomed redwood.

So, what should you do? Well you can continue signing your petitions and making your signs and practicing your chants for your marches, or you can actually change the world. You can join that activist in the tree, and bring a camera along. You can stop the pollution that is constantly streaming into our already quite toxic waterways. You can plant a garden for yourself. You can do all of these things but still it is not enough. It is never going to BE enough when our planet is dying before our eyes. Let me rephrase that, our planet is being murdered before our eyes and we pay less attention than we do to a mid season recap of American Idol.

This world will change all on its own in time, as the oil runs out and the infrastructure crumbles. I, personally, am not willing to wait for it to happen on its own. Humanity may not even be around to see it. 90% of large ocean fish are definitely not going to be around to see it. 23,000 dolphins a year will not be around to see it. The salmon, koala bears, arctic foxes, polar bears, emperor penguins, and clownfish might be gone as well, along with so many other beautiful and intricately necessary species.

So what are you going to do?

Book Review

Walking on Water

By: Derrick Jensen

As I am sure most of you know by now, I am a huge fan of Derrick Jensen. I have read several of his books and each time I am enthralled. I start sending quotations and statistics from them to friends who (typically) ignore me and hope I’ll finish reading soon. The most recent book I read by him, however, is one that even my least liberal of friends would appreciate: Walking on Water.

This book is, on the surface, about the education systems in western civilization and how they form children into the wage slaves they will need to be in the “real world”. Derrick Jensen reflects on his own experiences as a student as well as those as a teacher at both a prison and a university. He mentions numerous times that the places didn’t vary “as much as you’d think” when it came to the classrooms.

What interested me the most about the book were the descriptions of how he taught creative writing classes in both the university and the prison. As an English major myself there were many aspects of his teaching that I recognized from my own experiences (arranging the desks in circles and being respectful while using praise in work-shopping to name a few). There were, however, many examples of things he did in his classrooms that I wish would have been done in mine.

He made sure that throughout the course he read an example of everyone’s writing. (He points out the fact that we have all felt left out at one point or another waiting for a teacher to read a “great” example of something we did only to have them reach the bottom of their good examples pile and read nothing of yours).

The level of respect he fosters in his classrooms is also a commendable thing. Although his views vary greatly from some of his students he finds a way to not let that effect his grading practices. The answer: don’t have grades. The struggle of creating a classroom with no grades when he is required to give them by the university is played out well in the beginning of the book.

All of these things were fantastic in the book, but the most important and powerful thing Jensen did within it is to teach readers how to find who they are. He talks about exercises he did with his classes not to make them better at grammar or to teach them the forms of poems, but rather to have them find out who they are. He challenges his class (at the end of the book) to “walk on water”. What he means by this should be clear to you by the time you get to the conclusion.

I read the entire thing cover to cover in less than a day, refusing to set it down for anything. This is a faster (and shorter) read than most of Jensen’s other works and I’d definitely recommend it. For those readers who are less radically-minded than me this is a good place to jump into Jensen’s works, for those that generally agree with me it will be an amazing supplement to your current reading base.

City Sidewalks

Today was a hard day for me to live in the city.

There's something magical about the first snow of the year here in Wisconsin. Something...sacred, special, and unique. The first snow in the city however, is just sad.

I went for my yearly walk to take pictures of trees and snow and cold and the progression of seasons, and found myself more worried about getting hit by people driving recklessly than noticing the season shift. I found some trees, but they looked lonely with only houses to keep them company. The snow seemed to hang sadly in their branches, upset that it was mostly buildings that caught it in its fall to the ground. A roof is a far more depressing resting place than the crook of a tree.

Two years ago I slipped on slick pavement and broke my wrist in several places. Ever since, even with proper footwear, I find myself grimacing whenever walking on slick sidewalks. I longed for the happy crunch of freshly frozen grass, the way I could feel the mud beneath refusing to freeze just yet. Moonlight and snow are amazing things when combined correctly. A winter's night in Wisconsin can be nearly as bright as a summer morning if the moon is out and the ground is coated with the right kind of snow. I'm talking of that kind with the crust of ice on top and thin fluffy flurries underneath. The type that dogs and cats try to balance on, and look devastated as they fall through.

Winter in the city just reflects the street lights, drivers' fear accidents, and everyone praying to make it through.

I'm going to join the prayer. The city is not for me.

Architecture's Hidden Truths

I have been struggling to think of something to write about since I got back from visiting my home town for Thanksgiving…I’ve decided to expand on a topic I brought up in a forum I’m a member of.

Architecture.

It amazes me that some of the most valuable architecture in the country (houses, office buildings, etc.) is modeled after the nature it inherently destroys. The more windows, skylights, patio doors, balconies, wood flooring, exposed trusses, the better.

It is true that having the feeling of being outside is comforting (consciously to me) apparently unconsciously to most. This civilization has so skewed the way people look at where they live that they have made the indoors as much like the outdoors as possible without it being “wild” or “uncontrollable”. In a mansion covered with windows you can successfully disconnect from nature while still watching and hearing the rain.

“Buildings, too, are children of Earth and Sun.” –Frank Lloyd Wright

Yet what is a spring shower without the drops pummeling off your face as you grin from puddle to puddle?

Folks will sit out on their balconies and patios for hours reading, writing, watching…yet they do not sit in their (often well manicured) yards, or go explore the last remaining stand of wood in their communities.

Property sells for more when located next to a city park than it does when located next to barely charted wilderness. This is a good thing for those like me that love the wilderness, but it’s strange to me at the same time. People want only concentrated and well controlled doses of nature in this society.

A potted plant, a skylight. Mention a large expanse of unfenced wood or a day out in rain gear splashing through mud and these same people who paid top dollar to feel close to nature will cringe in fear.

“God is the great mysterious motivator of what we call nature, and it has often been said by philosophers, that nature is the will of God. And I prefer to say that nature is the only body of God that we shall ever see.” –Frank Lloyd Wright

This applies on a large scale as well. Let’s take central park for instance. Humans need greenery, nature, life, and so we put it in the middle of our zones of destruction and death (cities). The apartments/condos overlooking the park sell for more money than I and ten of my friends will likely make in a lifetime.