Archive for the ‘Climate Change’ Category
28/01/2010
Peru slide kills tourist, guide near Machu Picchu
From The Times
Flooding at Aquas Caliente near Machu Picchu. Image: Reuters
A mudslide on the famed Inca trail to Machu Picchu killed an Argentine tourist and a Peruvian guide, as authorities evacuated hundreds of tourists by helicopter from a flood zone where more than 1,500 others were still stranded
Cuzco government spokesman Hernet Moscoso said the Argentine, identified as Lucia Ramallo, 23, and the guide, Washington Huaraya, were in their tents when a slope gave way and their tents were crushed. Three other tourists were injured.
Authorities closed the Inca trail, a popular tourist trek that follows a stone path built by the ancient civilization from their capital, Cuzco, to the Machu Picchu citadel.
The deaths raised to five the number of people killed by heavy rains that have caused floods and landslides and collapsed homes, Moscoso said. Read the rest of this story
Image: The Times
Tags:Machu Picchu Slides, Tourists stranded, Urumbamba Flooding
Posted in Climate Change, Traveling | Leave a Comment »
04/01/2010
The Real Story
Too many bottles, The new faux pas
I recently received a flyer in the mail from Food and Water Watch, with the title: “America’s water should belong to each of us, not the companies that bottle and sell it. Not the corporations that want to privatize is. Take the pledge to protect your right to clean safe drinking water. Here’s what I’ve learned.
American consumers drink more bottled water every year, in part because they think it is somehow safer or better than tap water. They collectively spend hundreds or thousands of dollars more per gallon for water in a plastic bottle than they would for the H20 flowing from their taps.
Rather than buying into this myth of purity in a bottle, consumers should drink from the tap. Bottled water generally is no cleaner, or safer, or healthier than tap water. In fact, the federal government requires far more rigorous and frequent safety testing and monitoring of municipal drinking water. Read more
Bottled Water: Illusions of Purity :
Not safer than tap water
Bottled water manufacturers are good at implying things. With glossy ads and labels depicting quiet mountain streams, a consumer is led to believe what they’re drinking is healthier than what comes from the tap. But chances are it’s not. In fact, municipal water is more tightly regulated than bottled water.
(more…)
Tags:bottled water, Environment, Food and Water Watch, Mountain Spirit, take back the tap
Posted in Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Health, Holistic Living, Sustainable Living/Communities | 1 Comment »
22/12/2009
Rooibos Tea farmers on the Front Line of Cimate Change
By Amanda Richards
Rooibos - The Frontline of Climate Change
I was born in South Africa, and we all grew up with Rooibos or, red bush tea. I was saddened to see this recent article covering this important plant being threatened by environmental and man-made factors.
In this article in The Independent newspaper, Virginia Marsh explores how this valuable plant is threatened by climate change – and with it the independent farmers that depend upon it for their livelihoods.
By Virginia Marsh
"Red Bush" or Rooibos Tea
Unusually, the entire global supply of rooibos comes from a single production area in the west of South Africa that measures just 200 x 100 kilometres. Efforts to cultivate it outside of the Suid Bokkeveld have not been successful: it draws on the region’s unique soils and climate and needs to grow alongside other components of its ecosystem.
Read the rest of this article:
Tags:Climate Change, Mountain Spirit, Red bush tea, Rooibos, South Africa, The Independent Newspaper, Virginia Marsh
Posted in Climate Change, Conservation, Environment | 1 Comment »
07/11/2009
The 350 and 2030 Challenges
*By Harry Seidel, Owner
Alae Design
Going Places: 350.org
Last Saturday, Oct. 24th was the International Day of Climate Action, the single most widespread day of political action about any issue, our planet has ever seen. To attract global attention to the “350 Challenge” over 4,000 events took place simultaneously in more than 175 nations. Rather than describe the multitude of events here I would encourage you to visit www.350.org and see for yourself how very big this event was. Most of the events were digitally recorded and collected electronically into a massive compilation. So, what’s the fuss all about? What is the 350 Challenge? And why should we care?
(more…)
Tags:350.0rg, C02, Cameron Wake, Ed Mazria, GHG, green construction, Greenhouse gases, Harry Seidel, International Day of Climate Action, Intertown Record, League of NH Women Voters, Mountain Spirit, New London NH, Newbury, NH, Sunapee NH, Tracy Library, UNH
Posted in Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Sustainable Living/Communities | Leave a Comment »
30/10/2009
Which Comes First?
A look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
By: Craig Cimmons
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
As an environmentalist, I paid close attention to the candidate’s environmental stances and solutions during the Presidential election of 2009. However, the more I listened, the more apparent something became. American citizens are not going to devote their full attention to the needs of the environment until their own needs are met. With America’s health care system in need of desperate repair, the average citizen is worrying about problems closer to home then the large scale, hard to understand, global environmental problems.
Families that are losing everything they own to fight a disease, (or live in fear of this happening) do not have any resources (time, energy and money) to devote to anything outside of these problems. A family that is watching cancer slowly consume their loved one (and their life savings) should never be expected to fight enormous problems like global warming, peak oil and the steady decrease of drinking water.
Tags:Craig Cimmons, Environment, Health Care, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Mountain Spirit, Mountain Spirit Institute Board of Directors
Posted in Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Health, Sustainable Living/Communities | 3 Comments »
06/07/2009
Commencement Address to the Class of 2009
University of Portland, May 3rd, 2009
By Paul Hawken
Help Wanted: Good Custodians
When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” Boy, no pressure there.
But let’s begin with the startling part. Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation – but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement.
Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades. (more…)
Tags:2009, Commencement Address, May 3rd, Paul Hawken, University of Portland
Posted in Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Health, Holistic Living, Sustainable Living/Communities | Leave a Comment »
12/06/2009
Indigenous Rights in Amazon
Peru is witnessing violent clashes between indigenous groups trying to protect the Amazon. The government has pushed through legislation allowing intensive mining, logging and large scale farming in the rainforest.
If government and extractive industries proceed, the Peruvian rainforest and its people will suffer unfortunate consequences for the global climate, indigenous cultures, local and global environment.
Interested readers of this blog can sign a petition addressed to the President of Peru, to support the struggle of the indigenous peoples to protect the Amazon. A well respected Latin American politician has plans to deliver the petition to President Alan Garcia on the signer’s behalf.
Petition to the President of Peru, Alan Garcia:
We urge you to immediately cease the forceful suppression of indigenous protests, to suspend laws that open up the Amazon to extractive industries, and to engage in a genuine dialogue with indigenous groups to end the conflict and address their legitimate demands and rights.
UPDATE: To date 112,881 people have shown their support to the indigenous struggle by signing the petition in response to the people’s voicing there opposition to this plan. Peru’s legislature has just temporarily suspended two of the controversial decrees because of this pressure.
Mountain Spirit Institute, as an organization, doesn’t advocate on political behalf’s but believes by disseminating information, readers of this blog, and participants of our programs may make informed choices. For information on MSI’s core values, which include learning from indigenous peoples click here.
Tags:Amazon, Climate Change, indigenous rights, logging, mining in South America, Peruvian government, President Alan Garcia, rainforest protection
Posted in Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Leadership, Mountain People, Sustainable Living/Communities | Leave a Comment »
07/06/2009
Is there a link between Frozen Woolly Mammoths and Pole Shift?
When I first read parts of John White’s 1980 book, Pole Shift, what left an indelible mark on me, was reading the link between the green veggies found the stomachs of frozen woolly mammoths and possibility of relatively rapid shiftings of the earth’s magnetic poles called “pole shift”. Then again, maybe I didn’t read correctly, as the excerpts from an old nhne.com article indicate below, where White is interviewed by David SunFellow.
- Pole Drift
I’m not well versed on the subject, but from what limited knowledge I do have on the subject, I find the the correlations interesting. Also, the way that the poles are “drifting” more every year, (also according to NASA scientist turned author/mystic Gregg Braden) has my attention. According to Braden, airports are having to repaint their runway compass coordinates so often, that some have stopped the procedure. (Check out his books, two of which are The Isiah Effect and Awakening to Zero Point.)
Pole Shift Torpedoed by Author
By David Sunfellow
When John White first published “Pole Shift” in 1980, his book sent re-affirming shocks waves through the earth changes community. Many (including this reporter)
- White mentions Mammoths
believed White’s book “proved” that Edgar Cayce, and a host of others, had correctly foreseen a global catastrophe that would destroy much of the planet along with major portions of the human race. White’s book was particularly powerful because it was written by a man with serious professional credentials and, perhaps more importantly, because it seamlessly wed modern scientific data with contemporary psychics and ancient myths and prophecies. While White refused to say in “Pole Shift” that he was absolutely certain that a pole shift was coming, he left no doubt that he thought one might strike sometime near the year 2000.
Now, however, White has publicly said that he doesn’t believe there is going to be a pole shift — at least the kind of cataclysmic variety envisioned by Cayce, Gordon-Michael Scallion, and others. (more…)
Tags:Apollo 14, David Sunfellow, Dexter Randall Richards, ecospiritual psychology, Edgar Mitchell, Experiential Education, Frontiers of Consciousness, Frozen Mammoth, Holistic Living, Institute of Noetic Science, link to pole shift, Mountain Spirit, Mountaineering, mtnspirit.org, New Hampshire, New Zealand, nhne.org, Peru, Pole Shift, Spiritual, Sunapee, Sustainability, Utah
Posted in Books, Climate Change, Environment, Glaciology | 1 Comment »
06/05/2009
New Zealand glacier findings upset climate theory
Mt. Brewster Glacier, Image:R.Richards
Research by three New Zealand scientists may have solved the mystery of why glaciers behave differently in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Geologist David Barrell of GNS Science, Victoria University geomorphologist Andrew Mackintosh and glaciologist Trevor Chinn of the Alpine and Polar Processes Consultancy have helped provide definitive dating for changes in glacier behaviour. They were part of a team of nine scientists, led by Joerg Schaefer of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York, who used an isotope-dating technique to get very precise ages for glacial deposits near Mt Cook.
Mt. Brewster, glacier's tongue
They measured the build-up of beryllium-10 isotopes in surface rocks bombarded by cosmic rays to pinpoint dates when glaciers in the Southern Alps started to recede. The technology is expected to be widely applied to precisely date other glaciers around the world. Glaciers are sensitive indicators of climate changes, usually advancing when it cools and retreating when it warms. The first direct confirmation of differences in glacier behaviour between the (more…)
Tags:Climate Change, Fox Glacier, Mt. Brewster
Posted in Climate Change | Leave a Comment »
18/04/2009
Tom Bogdan & his Prius taxi
A Wellington, New Zealand taxi company called “Green Cabs” has thought of a better business plan. They have a fleet of Toyota Prius’s not only in the nation’s capital but in two other cities as well. According to taxi driver Tomislav Bogdan, pictured at right, Green Cabs has forty-five Prius taxis in Wellington alone. When we asked about the price comparison of taking the Prius taxi versus a non-hybrid we were surpised to learn the rates were actually cheaper. Bogdan adds, “The rate around town is NZ$2.50/kilometer (About US$1.50), which you won’t see our competitors offering such a price. The operating costs are cheaper, less gas! We are getting very low in-city fuel consumption rates because of the hybrid.”
Cool Graphics promote sustainability
The bright green Prius sports a cool logo, big global graphic, a catchy phrase stating “Safer for you and safer for the environment”, and a driver with matching green tie. The model Tom was driving was a 2007 standard Prius, with right side driver’s wheel of course. I doubt the paint color is standard!
Maybe other capital cities will encourage and invest in such green taxis, if they’ve not done so already. City managers take note. For information or if you’d like to take a ride in a bright green hybrid taxi you can contact Green Cabs at http://www.greencabs.co.nz
Posted in Climate Change, Leadership, New Zealand, Sustainable Living/Communities | Leave a Comment »
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