Tuesday 31 March 2009

Pig Business - More 4 tonight 2200

The flurry of important environmental events at short notice continues apace.

The latest is
Pig Business, a film by Tracy Worcester, which is being shown tonight on More 4 at 2200.

Tracy did a brilliant job chairing the launch of the groundbreaking and quite possibly historic
Wild Law research paper last Tuesday, by all accounts. More on that later.

While if all of us had her commitment to building a better world, just imagine how much better things would be. Here's what she does according to
Wikipedia - amongst other things.

In 1989, Tracy Worcester began working with Friends of the Earth. Since then, she has been active in green politics as Patron of the International Society for Ecology and Culture, a Trustee of the Gaia Foundation, the Schumacher Society and the Bath Environment Centre, Patron of the UK's Soil Association, and as a member of the advisory board of The Ecologist magazine and a member of the International Forum on Globalisation.



And still has time for making movies!

Pig Business exposes the unconscionable costs of bringing home the bacon on four fronts:

- animal rights

- destroying small farmers - at an astonishing rate as the market is globalised by multi-national farming conglomerates

- polluting the environment - in a big way...

- jeopardising our lives


For example on the environment (my bolding throughout, other than titles)

'One-third of the world’s total cultivable land is dedicated to growing cereal and soya to feed livestock, while a further 7% is used for grazing animals. Eighty per cent of the world's soya beans and 60% of its maize and barley are grown for livestock feed.

'Much of this land is acquired by destroying forests, a major cause of CO2 emissions and loss of biodiversity. Between 2004 and 2005 around 1.2 million hectares of rainforest were cut down as a result of soya expansion, almost entirely for animal feed and livestock pastures.

'How livestock production contributes to 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions


Livestock greenhouse gas contributions pie chart

Source: McMichael et al. (2007) Food, livestock production, energy, climate change, and health. The Lancet, 370(9594), 1253-1263


'In Latin America the land devoted to soya crops doubled between 1994 and 2004, and deforestation, particularly of the Amazon rainforest, now accounts for around 75% of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions. Soya cultivation in Brazil to date occupies an area of land the size of Great Britain.'


On the threat to our lives:

'Because of the crowded and unnatural conditions in which factory farmed animals live, they are frequently given antibiotics to prevent disease or bolster their weakened immune systems. Across the world half of all the antibiotics used are administered to livestock. Around 80-90% of all antibiotics used for humans and animals are not fully digested or broken down, leaving them to pass through the body and enter the environment intact through waste.

'Evidence suggests that this over-use of antibiotics is helping to spread drug-resistant strains of diseases such as MRSA and E. coli, which can cause humans serious illness and death. The transfer of MRSA from pigs to humans is already recognised in the Netherlands, and it is feared this new strain of MRSA affecting pigs in some countries will spread to the UK, exacerbating the existing problem.

'Workers at risk
'... at least a quarter of factory farm workers consistently suffer from respiratory diseases, including bronchitis, mucous membrane irritation, asthma-like syndrome, and acute respiratory distress syndrome.


'A deadly environment
'Studies repeatedly show that air and water quality are threatened in and around factory farms. Noxious gases in the atmosphere from manure containing hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, and dangerous pathogens cause ill health not only to those working with the animals but those living nearby. Many local residents report unusually frequent headaches, eye irritation, excessive coughing, nausea and asthma. Hydrogen sulphide may cause nausea, blackout periods, headaches and vomiting, and breathing in too much ammonia can cause severe respiratory damage.

'Excessive spraying of faecal material onto fields results in run-off into nearby lakes and rivers, poisoning the water table, eco system and drinking water. The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources has discovered that 1 in 10 drinking-water wells near factory pig farms contains unsafe levels of nitrates, which has been linked to risk of blue-baby syndrome. Six-month-old infants, pregnant women and adults with immunity deficiencies are especially vulnerable.

'President George W. Bush, in one of his last acts before he leaves office, has proposed to free industrial-scale pig and cattle farms from the Clean Water Act if they declare they are not dumping animal waste in lakes and rivers.


'Exploiting the poor
'In the US, intensive pig farms are clustered typically in non-white areas near low-income communities where people are extra vulnerable to the hazards of factory farms because of existing problems of poor health, poor housing, low income, and lack of access to medical care.

After all that, one may ask why not go the whole hog, keep the poor old hog whole, and just go vegan? George Monbiot came to that conclusion, at least intellectually, in this article last April:

Credit crunch? The real crisis is global hunger. And if you care, eat less meat A food recession is under way. Biofuels are a crime against humanity, but - take it from a flesh eater - flesh eating is worse


While there are some telling environmental arguments put forward by the Vegan Society here and in the side links dealing with land, water and energy.

Perhaps most telling, particularly for those inclined to blame climate change on the growing human population is this:


'World meat production has quadrupled in the past 50 years and livestock now outnumber people by more than 3 to 1. [2] In other words, the livestock population is expanding at a faster rate than the human population.'

And consuming a substantial proportion of the available resources, particularly land, food and water.

More than enough said.



Friday 27 March 2009

Put People First! Tomorrow - London

Hard to find a more worthy cause than this. To confirm that, just take a scroll through the organisations supporting it listed on the Put People First website.

Short notice undoubtedly - its tomorrow in London. But if you can possibly get there, think profoundly about dropping everything and going - regardless.

If not, lend your voice in cyberspace by filling in the message box now. It need only take a few moments.

Nothing could be more important in the run up to the G20 summit than a massive demonstration that fundamental values have got to change - right now. That we are no longer prepared to sleepwalk into annihilation following leaders irretrievably stuck in the old paradigm - the one which has got us into this enormous hole in the first place, environmentally, socially and financially.

Could turn out be the best thing you've ever done. It has the promise to be the catalyst of changes that will improve life on the planet for billions of people and our fellow travellers here - to save lives even. Maybe yours!

The thing which will make the difference is massive numbers of bodies on the street, standing up peaceably and positively for a better world for us all.

Only one way to make that happen - be there!


PS Apologies for the short call - the request to circulate this was only received a couple of hours ago.

Saturday 21 March 2009

Film Premier Crude 23 March

Along with the leaves and blossoms, it seems that spring is a profusion of premieres for some reason.

Monday 23 March sees the UK Premiere of CRUDE at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at the ICA in London.


'Filmmaker Joe Berlinger’s latest documentary focuses on the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” case, a 13 year battle between indigenous communities in Ecuador nearly destroyed by oil drilling and Chevron, one of the world’s largest oil companies. In a sophisticated take on the classic David and Goliath story, Berlinger crafts a portrait of the incredible team in the US and Ecuador who have pursued this case against all odds. He is at pains, too, to show the case from all sides: the scientists and lawyers employed by Chevron, Ecuadoran judges, activists and humanitarian organizers, and the dramatic intervention of Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa. CRUDE looks beyond compassion for the disenfranchised and the corruption of power to ask how justice itself is being defined in the 21st century. *Official selection, Sundance Film Festival 2009'

The
film stars Trudie Styler, married to Sting who


'...stunned fans at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah at the weekend
(18Jan09) when he showed up unannounced to support a pal's rainforest preservation documentary.The rocker and longtime rainforest activist stepped up to the stage at a Gibson Guitars-sponsored suite to perform hits with a house band.But he was keen to point out that he never intended to play at Sundance - the bearded star was there to back Joe Berlinger's movie Crude, which chronicles the plight of Ecuador residents who are battling the bosses of oil giant Chevron for allegedly contaminating water supplies around the headwaters of the Amazon River.Sting's wife Trudie Styler stars in the film, and the rock singer is
featured.

Obviously this will help everyone to understand what they are contributing to when they cruise the planet in their chosen form of haste, gas up the tank or whatever, so well worth seeing.

For those who like films called 'crude' about peak oil and the woes of the oil industry, googling this also turned up these offerings:

A Crude Awakening
http://www.oilcrashmovie.com/index2.html

Crude Impact (here reviewed and recommended by Transition Towns)
http://transitionculture.org/2006/12/12/review-new-peak-oil-film-crude-impact/


And The Age of Stupid was also going under the name Crude when previewed last year.

Popular kind of choice, then.


Be happy


PS Here are the URLs for plain text readers.


http://www.crudethemovie.com/

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/sting%20supports%20crude%20film%20with%20sundance%20show_1092250





Friday 13 March 2009

The Age of Stupid premier Sunday 15 March

Very briefly this is something positive and vitally important. The Age of Stupid takes up the baton from An Inconvenient Truth. It promises to make the vital change perceptions to climate change on a grand scale. The film made a big impression when previewed in the House of Commons tea rooms packed to the limit. Here's what some famous people have already said.

Equally important is that Polly Higgins will be speaking at the premier to give The Trees Have Rights Too campaign its first large scale public airing. The campaign calls for a United Nations Universal Declaration of Planetary Rights to fundamentally repair our broken relationship with the planet, and is the best chance we have of salvaging something from our self-imposed predicament. More on this later.

Little time to say more, so below are some other folks' take on it.


From Wise Women

FIRST SOLAR POWERED PREMIERE LIGHTS UP LEICESTER SQUAREEveryone invited to world’s biggest film premiere!At 6pm on Sunday 15th March, London’s Leicester Square will be hosting the world’s first premiere in a solar cinema tent for the highly anticipated climate change film, The Age of Stupid.The Age of Stupid stars Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living alone in what is a devastated world of 2055, looking at “archive footage” from 2008, asking “why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?”. Directed by Franny Armstrong (McLibel) and produced by Oscar-winning John Battsek (One Day in September), the £450,000 budget for the film was raised entirely by “crowd-funding” whereby 228 people invested between £500 and £35,000.Held in a tent in the gardens of the square, the premiere also gives the British public an opportunity to be included in the events on the night. Green carpet arrivals and a post-film Q&A will be beamed around the UK via live satellite link-up to over 70 cinemas including the Eden Project in Cornwall, creating a truly exceptional experience and a “People’s Premiere”.Tickets now on sale. You can buy tickets at your local participating cinema for the record-breaking People's Premiere on March 15th (16,000 seats simultaneously at 64 cinemas across the UK!)


From Embercombe

The Age of Stupid has arrived!See the trailer at: http://www.gmx.com/fm07/cgi/derefer?TYPE=2&DEST=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ageofstupid.net%2Fvideo%2FtrailerHere’s the press release: FIRST SOLAR POWERED PREMIERE LIGHTS UP LEICESTER SQUAREEveryone invited to world’s biggest film premiere!At 6pm on Sunday 15th March, London’s Leicester Square will be hosting the world’s first premiere in a solar cinema tent for the highly anticipated climate change film, The Age of Stupid.The Age of Stupid stars Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living alone in what is a devastated world of 2055, looking at “archive footage” from 2008, asking “why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?”. Directed by Franny Armstrong (McLibel) and produced by Oscar-winning John Battsek (One Day in September), the £450,000 budget for the film was raised entirely by “crowd-funding” whereby 228 people invested between £500 and £35,000.The UK Film Council, which is keen to support new and groundbreaking methods of distribution, is supporting the film’s distributor Dogwoof with funding towards the live satellite transmission of the premiere and Q&A to cinemas across the UK. Oscar Nominee Pete Postlethwaite stars as the narrator of the film and will be joined on the “green” carpet by a glittering array of British talent all lending their support to the film and the climate action campaign, “Not Stupid”. Held in a tent in the gardens of the square, the premiere also gives the British public an opportunity to be included in the events on the night. Green carpet arrivals and a post-film Q&A will be beamed around the UK via live satellite link-up to over 70 cinemas including the Eden Project in Cornwall, creating a truly exceptional experience and a “People’s Premiere”. The public can buy tickets at their local participating cinema.With 16,000 expected attendees across the country, the Guinness Book of Records expect to confirm it’s the largest ever premiere.See the trailer at: http://www.gmx.com/fm07/cgi/derefer?TYPE=2&DEST=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ageofstupid.net%2Fvideo%2FtrailerTickets now on sale!1. For the record-breaking People's Premiere on March 15th (16,000 seats simultaneously at 64 cinemas across the UK!): http://www.gmx.com/fm07/cgi/derefer?TYPE=2&DEST=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ageofstupid.net%2Fpremiere2. For the national cinema release on March 20th (10 cinemas so far): http://www.gmx.com/fm07/cgi/derefer?TYPE=2&DEST=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ageofstupid.net%2Fweekone>>>



Aberdeen: THE BELMONT>>> Bath: THE LITTLE THEATRE>>> Birmingham: VUE>>> Blackburn: VUE>>> Bristol: VUE>>> Bury: VUE>>> Cambridge: VUE>>> Cardiff: THE CHAPTER CINEMA>>> Carlisle: VUE>>> Cheshire Oaks: VUE>>> Clones, Co. Monaghan: Clones Film Club>>> Croydon Purley Way: VUE>>> Edinburgh: VUE>>> Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh: FERMANAGH HOUSE>>> Exeter: EXETER PICTUREHOUSE with talk by Mac Macartney of Embercombe>>> Glasgow: GLASGOW FILM THEATRE>>> Glasgow: ODEON Braehead>>> Guilford: ODEON>>> Harrow: VUE>>> Hartlepool: VUE Hartlepool>>> Hatfield: ODEON>>> Hull: VUE>>> Inverness: VUE>>> Kingston: ODEON>>> Leeds Kirkstall: VUE>>> Leeds Light: VUE>>> Leicester: VUE>>> Lincoln: ODEON>>> Liverpool: FACT>>> Livingston: VUE>>> London: ODEON Greenwich>>> London: ODEON Wimbledon with talk by Suzy Edwards of Embercombe>>> London: SOLAR POWERED CINEMA TENT Leicester Square>>> London: VUE Acton>>> London: VUE Finchley Rd>>> London: VUE Fulham (Youth)>>> London: VUE Islington>>> London: VUE Shepherds Bush>>> Maidenhead: ODEON>>> Manchester-Lowry: VUE>>> Naul, Co. Dublin: THE SEAMUS ENNIS CENTRE>>> New Ross: ST. MICHAEL'S THEATRE>>> Newcastle West, Co. Limerick: DESMOND ABILITY RESOURCE CENTRE>>> Newcastle-under-Lyme: VUE>>> Newcastle: TYNESIDE CINEMA>>> Oxford: PHOENIX PICTUREHOUSE>>> Plymouth: VUE>>> Portlaoise, Co. Laois: DUNAMISE ARTS CENTRE>>> Portsmouth: VUE>>> Preston: VUE>>> Reading: VUE>>> Romford: VUE>>> Scunthorpe: VUE>>> Southport: VUE>>> Staines: VUE>>> Swindon: EMPIRE>>> Tinahely, Co. Wicklow: THE COURTHOUSE ARTS CENTRE>>> Tunbridge Wells: ODEON>>> Watford: VUE>>> Wigan: EMPIRE>>> York: VUE


Enjoy and be galvanised

Tuesday 10 March 2009

Exclusive? Gulf Stream to weaken by 25 to 30%

'It is very likely that the northward flow of warm water in the upper layers of the Atlantic Ocean, which has an important impact on the global climate system, will decrease by approximately 25-30 percent.'


Well here's one that seems to have gone straight under the media's radar. Probably because its scare-mongering, you might be thinking.

Who is it making these exaggerated and irresponsible predictions? Some group of eco-nuts way out west of Greenpeace, skeptics might well presume.

Unfortunately not. In fact it is the Geological Survey of none other than the United States of America - good 'ol Uncle Sam in person, in effect, previously a.k.a. the self-proclaimed climate change skeptic in chief.

Astonishing what a change at the top will do. Let us just hope its not too late. It is now perilously close to it - wait for the update on CO2 and others, later this week, Inshallah.

An unimpeachable source, then. Or as near as we are likely to get to one. Here's what they have to say in their Newsroom feed March Science Picks released on 6 March (all bolding is mine):


'The United States faces the potential for abrupt climate change in the 21st century that could pose clear risks to society in terms of our ability to adapt. A new report led by the USGS makes the following conclusions about the potential for abrupt climate changes from global warming during this century:

'Climate model simulations and observations suggest that rapid and sustained September Arctic sea ice loss is likely in the 21st century.

'The Southwestern United States may be beginning an abrupt period of increased drought.

'It is very likely that the northward flow of warm water in the upper layers of the Atlantic Ocean, which has an important impact on the global climate system, will decrease by approximately 25-30 percent. However, it is very unlikely that this circulation will collapse or that the weakening will occur abruptly during the 21st century and beyond.

'An abrupt change in sea level is possible, but predictions are highly uncertain due to shortcomings in existing climate models.

'There is unlikely to be an abrupt release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, to the atmosphere from deposits in the earth. However, it is very likely that the pace of methane emissions will increase.'



The feed summarises US Climate Change Synthesis and Assessment Report 3.4. Abrupt Climate Change. Assessment and Findings which is a quick read in 4 pages replete with graphs, excellent diagrams and some pretty pictures.


It all sounds positively reassuring until you adjust to the cool scientific language. Then you may not find statements like those that follow quite so reassuring.

(The AMOC referred to is the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, of which the Gulf Stream is perhaps the most famous component.)

'Inclusion of these ice-sheet and glacier processes into future modeling experiments will likely lead to sea-level rise projections for the end of the 21st century that substantially exceed those presented in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change fourth assessment report (IPCC AR4).'


'It is very likely that the strength of the AMOC will decrease by approximately 25–30 percent over the course of the 21st century in response to increasing greenhouse gases, which will affect the distribution of heat in the North Atlantic. Even with the projected moderate AMOC weakening, it is still very likely that on multidecadal to century time scales a warming trend will occur over most of the European region downstream of the North Atlantic Current in response to increasing greenhouse gases, as well as over North America.'


'It is very unlikely that the AMOC will undergo a collapse or an abrupt transition to a weakened state during the 21st century. It is also unlikely that the AMOC will collapse beyond the end of the 21st century because of global warming, although the possibility cannot be entirely excluded.'


'The summer arctic sea-ice cover has undergone dramatic retreat since satellite records began in 1979, amounting to a loss of almost 30 percent of the September ice cover in 29 years. Climate model simulations suggest that rapid and sustained September arctic ice loss is likely in future 21st century climate projections. It is notable that climate models are generally conservative in the modeled rate of Arctic ice loss as compared to observations, suggesting that future ice retreat could occur even more abruptly than simulated in almost all current models.'


'While a catastrophic release of methane to the atmosphere in the next century appears very unlikely, it is very likely that climate change will accelerate the pace of persistent emissions from both hydrate sources and wetlands. Current models suggest that wetland emissions could double in the next century. Methane release from the hydrate reservoir will likely have a significant influence on global warming over the next 1,000 to 100,000 years.'



On the last, my suspicion is that the data used did not include the latest findings which came in right at the end of the Arctic summer last September covered previously in 'Apocalypse shortly? We should know next summer.'


As to a 25% to 30% reduction in the Gulf Stream, for those living in the atypically warm areas on the west coast of Europe bathed in its currents the best analogy I have been able to come up with so far is someone turning the central heating down permanently by that a quarter to a third.

Enough to make most folks complain, it would seem fair to say. As well as reach for the duvet jackets...if not take to bed permanently, were it not for the countervailing effect of global warming

'a warming trend will occur over most of the European region downstream of the North Atlantic Current in response to increasing greenhouse gases, as well as over North America.'

expected to result in a net rise in temperature.


Put the two together,and that sounds like they are expecting the planet to heat up. I suppose you could say 'quite radically'. Which all sounds like bad news all around - particularly for most of the rest of the world that does not have the countervailing effect of a weakening Gulf Stream to cool them.

Add in unstated, highly uncertain effects on the weather, and there is a lot to be concerned about.


Anyone for dinner?