tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-161351182024-03-08T02:54:50.531-03:00VISIONSHAREStories, Photos, Videos and Mental Meanders Hopefully for Your Viewing PleasureLou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.comBlogger1215125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-78405797959006878292020-09-09T14:13:00.003-03:002020-09-20T19:05:37.446-03:00<span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">The Daime, </span>
<span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Caetano </span><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Veloso </span>
</span><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><span style="font-size:180%;">& Gilberto Gil</span> </span>
<a title="caetan e gil 69 by visionshare, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/2533997685/"><img height="199" alt="caetan e gil 69" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2167/2533997685_88a823b152_o.jpg" width="200" /></a>
<a title="exilio_londres_69 by visionshare, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/2534812586/"><img height="176" alt="exilio_londres_69" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3286/2534812586_939a0ef57a_o.jpg" width="230" /></a>
<a title="Gilberto-Gil-e-Caetano-Veloso292 by visionshare, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/2534812620/"><img height="206" alt="Gilberto-Gil-e-Caetano-Veloso292" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3014/2534812620_e90819ca74_o.jpg" width="292" /></a>
<span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">An Amazing Story</span>
<span class="fullpost">
Translated from the Portuguese by <a href="http://eco-rama.net/">Jose Murilo</a><a></a> and Lou Gold
<a href="http://visionshare-pt.blogspot.com/">Go to Portuguese Version</a><a></a>
THE DAIME, CAETANO AND GIL
<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">by Juarez Duarte Bomfim</span>
<span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">The journalist Carlos Marques </span>, who is today an adviser at UNESCO living in Paris, was 20 years old when the managers of Manchete magazine decided to send him, accompanied by a photographer, to do an article about the distant city of Rio Branco, capital of Acre state, in the year of 1969. [1] Among the many interviews, Marques talked with the Italian bishop Giocondo Maria Grotti, who two years later (1971) would die in an airplane accident in the region of Sena Madureira.
When asked about the problems he was facing in the region, the bishop complained about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santo_Daime">Santo Daime Doctrine</a><a></a>, which was founded by a black man from Maranhão state, Raimundo Irineu Serra.
Marques decided to meet Master Irineu Serra, who was working in the cut field on his property when the journalist arrived.
<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">- That meeting was the most extraordinary experience in my whole life. Master Raimundo said he knew I would come, and that he was waiting. He said my name, that I had recently been released from prison, and that I had a scar on my leg.</span>
Marques also said that he spent 3 days at Alto Santo and drank Daime, but he did not reveal details of his experience.
<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">
- He told me I would some day come back to Acre, but I never believed in this possibility.</span>
During his farewell to Master Irineu Serra, surprisingly he was offered a bottle of Daime with the recommendation to drink its contents along with his sensitive friends. [2]
Back in Rio de Janeiro, Carlos Marques handed the bottle and its contents to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropicalismo">tropicalismo</a><a></a> musician and composer Gilberto Gil, describing it as "a sacred indigenous beverage that produces gorgeous visions and the highest states of soul". [3]
On that same day Gilberto Gil took a dose of the drink, and soon afterwards he went to Santo Dumont airport, in Rio de Janeiro, to take a flight to São Paulo.
Once he was in São Paulo's Congonhas airport lobby, where a military exposition from the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) was being launched, the effect of the Daime fully came on, and Gil "caught indescribable contents from the presence of the military". [4]
It was during the time of the military dictatorship and the Brazilian artistic and intellectual class was being brutally persecuted, and these very artists -- Gil and Caetano from Bahia state -- would soon be arrested and "invited" to leave Brazil.
Under the influence of the Daime, Gilberto Gil in the fashion of Glauber Rocha [a famous exiled Brazilian film maker also from Bahia] felt "as if he had understood the ultimate meaning of our people's historical moment as a nation under authoritarian oppression"... and even influenced by the fear that the military evoked then... he felt that he could "love -- beyond the terror and his convictions or political leanings -- the whole world in all its manifestations, including the oppressive military". [5]
There was the Christian message arriving in the heart of the artist, despite all the persecution and fear: "Love your enemies". [6] That was the Daime operating...
After this solitary experience during a Rio-São Paulo flight, Gilberto Gil gathered a group of friends in the apartment of the musician and composer Caetano Veloso and he proposed that they all should make a collective trip. Following Carlos Marques' recommendation, Gil serves to each one a little more than a half glass. [7]
Caetano narrates: "the thick and yellowish beverage had a taste like vomiting, but it did not cause any nausea". [8] From now on, the poet's inspired prose transmits a compelling report of the visions and perceptions of what he saw and felt, from the life he could perceive from inanimate objects, "the story of each grain of matter" from a prosaic nylon carpet in his apartment, for example...
Listening to the sounds of Pink Floyd's progressive rock, in the tiny limits of the twentieth floor of a São Paulo building, the experiment unfolds:
<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">"Sandra (Gil's wife) was coming in and out of the bedroom with hard eyes and serious face. She was scared. I thought she looked like an Indian. Gil had his eyes full of tears and was saying something about dying, having died, I don't know. Dedé (Caetano's wife) was circulating around the living room saying that she was seeing herself elsewhere. I was very happy to observe that the people were so clearly themselves... Some colored points of light surged in the infinite space of darkness... Circular forms were composed by beautiful dancing points of light. Little by little I knew who each of these illuminated points was. And soon they were showing themselves as human beings. There were many of them, from both sexes, all of them naked and resembling Indians. These people were dancing in complex circle designs, but I could not only understand all the subtleties of this complexity but also had a calm concentrated awareness to know about each person the same amount I know about myself and my close and loved ones".</span> [9]
It is said that it is from experiences such as with the Daime, particularly the peak experiences like this one -- from Gilberto Gil ("Gil... was saying something about dying, having died"...) -- that there came about beautiful songs from his repertoire, such as "If I would speak with God".
Here it is being sung by Elis Regina
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<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">If I would speak with God
I have to be alone
I have to turn off the lights
I have to shut the voice
I have to find the peace
I have to unfold the knots
From the shoes, from the necklace
From the desires, from the fears
I have to forget the date
I have to miss the count
I have to have empty hands
To the soul and the body naked
If I would speak with God
I have to accept the pain
I have to eat the bread
That the devil stretched
I have to turn myself into a dog
I have to lick the floor
From the palaces, from the castles
Magnificences of my dream
I have to see myself sad
I have to see myself as scary
And despite an evil so big
Rejoice my heart
If I would speak with God
I have to adventure myself
I have to climb to the skies
With no ropes to hold
I have to say farewell
Turn my back, walk
Decided, along the road
Which in the end reaches nothing
Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing
Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing
Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing
From what I thought I would find.</span> [10]
And, in ecstasy, Caetano would watch his "Indian angels" in this "celestial experience".
<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">"I would alternate -- while opening and closing my eyes -- the observation of the external world and the experience of this [internal] world of images that would become each time more dense... soon I started to recognize that the beings I watched with closed eyes were undoubtedly more real than my friends who were in the room, the sound, the room's walls and the carpets".</span>[11]
With awareness expanded by the miração [vision], Caetano acknowledges a new conception of space, different from the standard and precarious "conventionality" -- the <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">"time was equally criticized by this higher stance in my lucid consciousness: Benevolently and with no anguish, I knew that the fact of being experienced in that moment was irrelevant in front of the evidence I already had -- or would have -- of being born, alive and dead -- and also never being -- even though the perception of my 'self' in that situation was an inevitable illusion".</span> [12]
[Caetano] the artist from Santo Amaro [a city in Bahia state] continues this inspired narrative of his experience -- which we recommend to be read with care, because it is not possible to transcribe all of it here. And remember the one who speaks is also the philosophy student from the University of Bahia: facing the representation of the "idea of God" declares not knowing that he had the "sudden retraction of one who had learned that the face of the Creator cannot be viewed...." There comes the doubt in the heart of someone who was experiencing an extraordinary ecstatic moment, and while being taken by Dedé to look at himself in the bathroom mirror, to see his 'everyday' face after the whole experience... he then was certain that "he was mad". But "this 'self' who was certain was indestructible -- this one does not get mad, does not sleep, does not die, does not get distracted...."
What a beautiful experience... We see that the light of the Daime was revealed to this sensitive poet and composer from Bahia with the merit to see himself as spirit, discerning his own essence -- which is Divine -- as it happens with all of us.
Inebriated by the divine and marvelous which is God, playing with the philosophical doubts in a Rogério Duarte style, the future Hare Krishna devotee says, "I don't believe in God, but I saw it!" or "It's obvious that God doesn't exist, but the inexistence of God is only one of the many aspects of its [God's] existence" ... Parodying Nietzsche, Caetano will cry out to all Brazil, "God is released!" under the boos in the festival presentation of his "It is prohibited to prohibit".
From this transcendental experience, Caetano reflects: "...for more than a month I felt like living one palm [floating] above every existing thing. And for more than a year some remnants were maintained. In fact, something of an essential kind changed inside of me from that night on".
Miracles From the People - Caetano Veloso
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eZneaIFqyOw" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">"The one who is an atheist,
and has seen miracles like I did
Knows that the gods without God
Don't cease to blossom,
and don't get tired of waiting
And the heart that is sovereign and is the lord
Doesn't fit in the darkness,
doesn't fit in his 'no'
Doesn't fit in itself of so much 'yes'
It's pure dance and sex and glory,
and floats beyond history
Ojuobá would go there and watch
Ojuobahia
Xangô ordered to call
Obatalá the guide
Mother Oxum cries tears
Tears of happiness
Petals of Iemanjá
Iansã-Oiá would go
Ojuobá would go there and watch
OjuoBahia
Obá
The one who is an atheist..." </span>
(Miracles from the People - Caetano Veloso) [13]
Going back to the start of our story... can you believe that journalist Carlos Marques returned to Acre after 40 years? At the end of an audience with then Governor Jorge Viana, he was asked if he already knew Acre. Marques reported what we have just narrated, and to his surprise the Governor showed him the invitation he had received to participate in the celebrations of the 50 year marriage anniversary of Master Raimundo Irineu Serra with Madrinha Peregrina Gomes Serra, the leader of the Center of Christian Illumination Universal Light - CICLU Alto Santo, on the next day, September 15th, 2006. And [thus] he convinced the journalist to stay in Acre one day more.
Marques again met with Madrinha Peregrina Serra, Irineu Serra's widow, to whom he apologized for the offensive content that his report carried in the edition of Manchete magazine, because many pages were published with the prevailing version of the bishop that we were speaking about a diabolical sect. "That was the first among many other [reports] to annoy Irineu Serra and his followers". [14]
<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">- "I could not reveal that I had found God" - said Carlos Marques.</span>
On the night of April 30th, 2008, in the headquarters of CICLU Alto Santo, there was an official event where the Elias Mansour Foundation from Acre state, the Garibaldi Brasil Foundation from the city of Rio Branco, and representatives from the centers that integrate the three branches of the Ayahuasca doctrines (Santo Daime, Barquinha and União do Vegetal), made a request to the Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil, that the National Artistic and Historic Heritage Institute (IPHAN) begin the process of recognizing the use of Ayahuasca in religious rituals as a Brazilian Non-material Cultural Heritage.
The event was a full success and a milestone in the Brazilian Ayahuasca universe. In the closing speech of this religious work of the April 30th, 2008, when the authorities (Minister, Governor, State Secretaries and politicians in general) had already left, the official speaker of CICLU - Alto Santo recalled the unique story of the journalist Carlos Marques, concluding that (in my words from my memory's account): Master Irineu, knowing about the past, present and future of the journalist Carlos Marques, gifted him exceptionally with a bottle of Daime so that he could make it reach the singer Gilberto Gil, in a way that he could take it and get acquainted with it, so that, 40 years later, he could come to Alto Santo as a Minister of State to mediate the request of recognizing ayahuasca as a non-material heritage of Brazilian culture.
<a title="Mestre Irineu (cropped) by visionshare, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/2535253532/"><img height="500" alt="Mestre Irineu (cropped)" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3255/2535253532_681688fbca.jpg" width="449" /></a>
<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">VIVA! MESTRE IRINEU! VIVA!</span></span>
NOTES
[1] The information was extracted from Altino Machado's blog: "40 Years Later"
http://altino. blogspot.com/2006/09/40-anos-depois.html
Viewed in September 15th, 2006.
[2] Speech from journalist Antonio Alves in the CICLU Alto Santo headquarters on May 30th, 2008.
[3] VELEOS, Caetano. "Tropical Truth". São Paulo, Cia das Letras, 1997, p. 308.
[4] Ibid, p.308.
[5] Ibid, p. 308.
[6] Luke 6:27.
[7] The old ones say that this was a recommendation of Master Irineu.
[8] VELOSO,, 1997, p. 322.
[9] VELOSO, 1997, p. 324.
[10] Listen to "If I Would Speak With God" - Elis Regina - http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=tWuQc7W0O-A
Viewed on May 26th
[11] VELOSO, 1997, p. 324.
[12] Ibid, p. 324.
[13] Listen to the videoclip Milagres do Povo - Daniela Mercury, at http://www.losacordes.com/videoclip/daniela-mercury/milagres-do-povo
[note: a different version is presented above because of the youtube code allowing it to be embedded in this post]
[14] MACHADO, Altino. "40 Years Later" http://altino. blogspot.com/2006/09/40-anos-depois.html Viewed on September 15th, 2006.
</span><span class="fullpost"></span>Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-2953164313419850922012-07-05T16:59:00.000-03:002012-07-05T17:04:13.506-03:00TAKING THE STEP<br />
Yup! I'm starting a new walk. I've been toying with the thought for awhile. I liked my <a href="http://lougold.blogspot.com.br/2012/02/im-going-on-retreat.html" target="_blank">previous retreat</a> from the Internet and I'm doing it again, this time in an open-ended way. I'm not sure where the path leads but, as the sage says, a long journey begins with a singe step. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/7414396156/" title="achoqueexisteumrecome25c325a7o by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="achoqueexisteumrecome25c325a7o" height="379" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5312/7414396156_04a8b0a488.jpg" width="500" /></a>
<br />
<br />
Thanks to all and I hope to see ya down the trail. <br />
<br />
(The photo above is from a lovely blog post called <a href="http://gruponossacasa.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/gratidao/" target="_">Gratidão!</a>)Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-6070523176230913132012-07-03T01:38:00.000-03:002012-07-03T03:19:43.701-03:00STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/7492132350/" title="289968_10100357394136278_2104120727_o by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="289968_10100357394136278_2104120727_o" height="327" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8023/7492132350_64a81d0511_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">photo by Shanti Martin </span></i><br />
<br />
My old Oregon community. May God bless and keep them well.<br />
<br />
<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text">AND it's important to note
that there are ecological conditions that do or do not support this. For
example, if there was no spraying in my tropical home of Rio Branco,
Brazil, the result could be more denge fever or malaria. Obviously, there are limits to "crazy" and that's what we are trying to figure out nowadays as we enter the times of great change.</span> One thing is for sure -- health and survival are local, one size does not fit all.Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-1577958365663011792012-07-02T14:26:00.000-03:002012-07-06T07:39:38.997-03:001776 AND ITS LEGACY<br />
It was quite a year for visions of a possible future.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/7449468090/" title="U.S. Declaration of Independence by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="U.S. Declaration of Independence" height="331" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8145/7449468090_85aaceabf7.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
January 15 –
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Paine" target="_">Thomas Paine</a> publishes Common Sense justifying dissent and popular rule.<br />
<br />
February 17 –
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon" target="_">Edward Gibbon</a> publishes the first volume of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.<br />
<br />
March 9 –
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Smith" target="_">Adam Smith</a> publishes The Wealth of Nations laying out an economic theory of capitalism.<br />
<br />
March --
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Watt" target="_">James Watt</a> completes construction of the first steam engine, signalling the coming Industrial Age<br />
<br />
May 1 –
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Weishaupt" target="_">Adam Weishaupt</a> founds the Bavarian Illuminati marking the beginning of one of the world's most persistent banker conspiracy theories.<br />
<br />
July 4 – <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence" target="_">United States Declaration of Independence</a> formally starts the revolution against British rule and leads to the founding of the world's first democracy and eventual world power.</blockquote>
Nowadays, in our globalized world <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottdecarlo/2012/04/18/the-worlds-biggest-companies/" target="_">dominated by US corporations</a>, we are asking who is in charge of what's been created, is it sustainable and what can we do about it? <br />
<br />
Recently, Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil -- the world's biggest company -- said of global warming, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/06/27/507710/as-exxon-ceo-calls-global-warmings-impacts-manageable-colorado-wildfires-shutter-climate-lab/" target="_">"it's manageable" and "we'll adjust"</a>.<br />
<br />
I imagine that Tom Paine, Edward Gibbon, Adam Smith, James Watt and Adam Weishaupt might all be watching with great interest.Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-91716637189847298422012-06-26T17:55:00.000-03:002012-06-26T18:34:25.208-03:00EULOGY FOR RIO +20 AND A DECLARATION OF HOPE<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/7450171522/" title="rio20collapse by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="rio20collapse" height="413" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8146/7450171522_510421bfe8.jpg" width="500" /></a>
<br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">RIO +20 Collapse -- photo <a href="http://avshithappens.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/rio-20-collapse/" target="_">source</a></span></i><br />
<br />
Powerful words from George Monbiot:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">After Rio, we know. Governments have given up on the planet </span><br />
<br />
The post-summit pledge was an admission of defeat against consumer capitalism. But we can still salvage the natural world
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(re-posted from <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/25/rio-governments-will-not-save-planet?newsfeed=true" target="_">The GUARDIAN UK</a>)<br />
<br />
It is, perhaps, the greatest failure of collective leadership since
the first world war. The Earth's living systems are collapsing, and the
leaders of some of the most powerful nations – the United States, the
UK, Germany, Russia – could not even be bothered to turn up and discuss
it. Those who did attend the Earth summit in Rio last week solemnly
agreed to keep stoking the destructive fires: sixteen times in their
text they pledged to pursue "<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2012/jun/08/rio-20-earth-summit-un-draft-text" title="">sustained growth</a>", the primary cause of the biosphere's losses.<br />
<br />
The
efforts of governments are concentrated not on defending the living
Earth from destruction, but on defending the machine that is destroying
it. Whenever consumer capitalism becomes snarled up by its own
contradictions, governments scramble to mend the machine, to ensure –
though it consumes the conditions that sustain our lives – that it runs
faster than ever before.<br />
<br />
The thought that it might be the wrong
machine, pursuing the wrong task, cannot even be voiced in mainstream
politics. The machine greatly enriches the economic elite, while
insulating the political elite from the mass movements it might
otherwise confront. We have our bread; now we are wandering, in
spellbound reverie, among the circuses.<br />
<br />
We have used our
unprecedented freedoms – secured at such cost by our forebears – not to
agitate for justice, for redistribution, for the defence of our common
interests, but to pursue the dopamine hits triggered by the purchase of
products we do not need. The world's most inventive minds are deployed
not to improve the lot of humankind but to devise ever more effective
means of stimulation, to counteract the diminishing satisfactions of
consumption. The mutual dependencies of consumer capitalism ensure that
we all unwittingly conspire in the trashing of what may be the only
living planet. The failure at Rio de Janeiro belongs to us all.<br />
<br />
It
marks, more or less, the end of the multilateral effort to protect the
biosphere. The only successful global instrument – the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Protocol" title="">Montreal Protocol</a>
on substances that deplete the ozone layer – was agreed and implemented
years before the first Earth Summit in 1992. It was one of the last
fruits of a different political era, in which intervention in the market
for the sake of the greater good was not considered anathema, even by
the Thatcher and Reagan governments. Everything of value discussed since
then has led to weak, unenforceable agreements, or to no agreements at
all.<br />
<br />
This is not to suggest that the global system and its
increasingly pointless annual meetings will disappear, or even change.
The governments which allowed the Earth Summit and all such meetings to
fail evince no sense of responsibility for this outcome, and appear
untroubled by the thought that if a system hasn't worked for 20 years,
there's something wrong with the system. They walk away, aware that
there are no political penalties; that the media is as absorbed with
consumerist trivia as the rest of us; that, when future generations have
to struggle with the mess they have left behind, their contribution
will have been forgotten. (And then they lecture the rest of us on
responsibility.)<br />
<br />
Nor is it to suggest that multilateralism should
be abandoned. Agreements on biodiversity, the oceans and the trade in
endangered species may achieve some marginal mitigation of the
full-spectrum assault on the biosphere that the consumption machine has
unleashed. But that's about it.<br />
<br />
The action – if action there is –
will mostly be elsewhere. Those governments which retain an interest in
planet Earth will have to work alone, or in agreement with like-minded
nations. There will be no means of restraining free riders, no means of
persuading voters that their actions will be matched by those of other
countries.<br />
<br />
That we have missed the chance of preventing two
degrees of global warming now seems obvious. That most of the other
planetary boundaries will be crossed, equally so. So what do we do now?<br />
<br />
Some
people will respond by giving up, or at least withdrawing from
political action. Why, they will ask, should we bother, if the
inevitable destination is the loss of so much of what we hold dear: the
forests, the brooks, the wetlands, the coral reefs, the sea ice, the
glaciers, the birdsong and the night chorus, the soft and steady climate
which has treated us kindly for so long? It seems to me that there are
at least three reasons.<br />
<br />
The first is to draw out the losses over
as long a period as possible, in order to allow our children and
grandchildren to experience something of the wonder and delight in the
natural world and of the peaceful, unharried lives with which we have
been blessed. Is that not a worthy aim, even if there were no other?<br />
<br />
The
second is to preserve what we can in the hope that conditions might
change. I do not believe that the planet-eating machine, maintained by
an army of mechanics, oiled by constant injections of public money, will
collapse before the living systems on which it feeds. But I might be
wrong. Would it not be a terrible waste to allow the tiger, the
rhinoceros, the bluefin tuna, the queen's executioner beetle and the
scabious cuckoo bee, the hotlips fungus and the fountain anenome to
disappear without a fight if this period of intense exploitation turns
out to be a brief one?<br />
<br />
The third is that, while we may have
no influence over decisions made elsewhere, there is plenty that can be
done within our own borders. Rewilding – the mass restoration of
ecosystems – offers the best hope we have of creating refuges for the
natural world, which is why I've decided to spend much of the next few
years promoting it here and abroad. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Giving up on global agreements
or, more accurately, on the prospect that they will substantially alter
our relationship with the natural world, is almost a relief. It means
walking away from decades of anger and frustration. It means turning
away from a place in which we have no agency to one in which we have, at
least, a chance of being heard. But it also invokes a great sadness, as
it means giving up on so much else.<br />
<br />
Was it too much to have asked
of the world's governments, which performed such miracles in developing
stealth bombers and drone warfare, global markets and trillion-dollar
bailouts, that they might spend a tenth of the energy and resources they
devoted to these projects on defending our living planet? It seems,
sadly, that it was.</blockquote>Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-28007053565106209992012-06-25T14:17:00.000-03:002012-07-12T22:15:04.595-03:00THE CHINA PRIZE: IN BRAZIL AND IN THE USA<br />
It's all about trade and commodities.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/7441458868/" title="commodities by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="commodities" height="290" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8167/7441458868_76b796bb1f.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Last week, on the sidelines of RIO +20, Brazil and China have jointly reinforced their financial cooperation with a financial reserves $30bn swap arrangement aimed at reinforcing trade and resistance to financial shocks from Europe and the USA.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
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According to the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/22/china-brazil-bilateral-swap-deal" target="_">Guardian</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
China has overtaken the US as Brazil's major trading partner with a
17% share of the total. Critics say the trade is unbalanced because
China buys commodities and sells higher-value goods. Mantega said
the new deal would involve more trade diversification, including Chinese
purchases of aircraft made by Embraer, a Brazilian manufacturer and
Chinese investment to build oil drilling platforms in Brazil. The two
countries will also jointly launch two satellites, one this year and
another in 2014 and set up culture centres and language networks in each
other's countries.<br />
<br />
Trade will also continue to focus heavily on
China's demand for commodities, which have helped Brazil resist the
downturn in the global economy. "The expansion of trade with China
can be infinite," said Mantega, who was speaking on the sidelines of
the Rio+20 sustainability conference. "China is fast growing and wants to stimulate consumption so they will continue to buy our commodities. There are no limits."</blockquote>
In Brazil, the global export of meat and commodities has been one of the biggest drivers of deforestation in the Amazon for cattle and conversation of the <i>cerrado</i> (native savannah) for agriculture.<br />
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In the US, where native prairies are long gone, the global demand is playing out like this:<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/7441084352/" title="Factory_Farm_pig by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="Factory_Farm_pig" height="325" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7113/7441084352_b0c35cdd85.jpg" width="500" /></a> <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Meatifest destiny: How Big Meat is taking over the Midwest </span><br />
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<header class="bottom-padding-x4">
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By <a href="http://grist.org/author/twilight-greenaway/" title="Posts by Twilight Greenaway">Twilight Greenaway</a></div>
</header><br />
(reposted from <a href="http://grist.org/factory-farms/meatifest-destiny-how-big-meat-is-taking-over-the-midwest/" target="_">Grist</a>)
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When the <i>Des Moines Register</i> ran a <a href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120622/BUSINESS01/306220029/0/VIDEONETWORK/?odyssey=nav%7Chead">front-page story</a>
last week, calling into question the growth of concentrated animal
feeding operations (CAFOs) in the state, it wasn’t environmentalists or
animal rights activists who went on record against the facilities. No,
the article featured ex-hog farmers who have been vocal in opposing new
factory farms, as well as several Iowans who don’t want to see huge
facilities — nor the “poo lagoons” that go along with them — take over
the landscape.<br />
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Some 19.7 million pigs are raised in Iowa CAFOs every year, and that
number is likely to keep climbing. A chart of livestock construction
permits that ran with the <i>Register</i> story certainly projects growth. It reads:<b></b><br />
<blockquote>
2006……………<b>310</b><br />
2007…………..<b> 252</b><br />
2008………….. <b>218</b><br />
2009……………. <b>60</b><br />
2010…………….. <b>62</b><br />
2011……………. <b>132</b><br />
2012 (by 6/07).. <b>91</b><b></b></blockquote>
That’s right, after a “slump” in 2009 and 2010, the industry is back
to its CAFO-building ways, with 91 permits issued so far this year. And
remember, these are not small facilities; according to the <i>Register</i>, each facility contains around 4,400 hogs in two buildings.<br />
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<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_113727" style="width: 260px;">
<a class="cboxElement" href="http://grist.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/screen-shot-2012-06-22-at-2-30-06-pm.png?" rel="lightbox"><img alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-113727" height="168" src="http://grist.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/screen-shot-2012-06-22-at-2-30-06-pm.png?w=250&h=168" title="Screen Shot 2012-06-22 at 2.30.06 PM" width="250" /></a><br />
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Click to embiggen.</div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
Looking at these numbers, it’s easy to wonder: How much longer can
the state (or the region for that matter) handle this kind of growth?
When the nonprofit advocacy group Food and Water Watch created <a href="http://www.factoryfarmmap.org/#animal:hogs;location:US;year:2007">this Factory Farm Map</a>
back in 2007, Iowa was already one of the states most saturated with
CAFOs (see image). According to the chart above, over 500 CAFOs may have
been built <i>since then</i>. Of course not all that growth has to
mean new operations — some permits may be for the expansion of
preexisting buildings — but if even half that number resulted in new
facilities, it’s a cause for concern.<br />
<br />
Why exactly do we need so many new CAFOs if American <a href="http://grist.org/list/2012-01-12-american-beef-consumption-is-at-a-50-year-low/">meat consumption has gone down</a>?
The answer — as it is with so much economic growth these days — is
China. Apparently, they’ve gone a little pork-crazy over there. And
China <a href="http://grist.org/food/its-official-china-now-eats-twice-the-meat-we-do/">just surpassed us as the nation with the biggest meat-tooth</a> in the world (we’re still ahead of them on a per capita basis, but they have a <i>lot </i>more people than we do).<br />
<br />
Another <a href="http://www.iowafarmertoday.com/news/livestock/pork-industry-leaders-praise-fta-expansion/article_6342717e-bc7f-11e1-a5cc-0019bb2963f4.html">recent article in the <i>Iowa Farm Journal</i></a>
reports on new free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia, and
Panama, but zeroes in on China as the ultimate target of U.S. pork
industry expansion. It quotes Laurie Hueneke, U.S. director of
international trade policy, saying, “The biggest prize is China.” </blockquote>Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-18331479667958322512012-06-24T14:47:00.000-03:002012-06-25T13:00:51.701-03:00SÃO JOÃO VIVE -- SAINT JOHN LIVES<br />
Saint John lives in Brazil, for sure in the music.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/7433379282/" title="Viva São Joåo by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="Viva São Joåo" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7120/7433379282_97e30f6b2b.jpg" width="405" /></a><br />
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<br />Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-78073992568888348902012-06-23T04:51:00.000-03:002012-06-23T11:15:16.186-03:00VIVA SÃO JOÃO - VIVA XANGO<br />
More music for the night of São João and Xango:<br />
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<br />Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-3564408714491636322012-06-23T04:19:00.000-03:002012-06-23T10:52:08.315-03:00VIVA! SÃO JOÃOAll across Brazil, tonight belongs to São João. Here is some (sorry that it's incomplete) of Gilberto Gil's documentary about the traditions of the Nordeste. <br />
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<br />Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-85436001119165468892012-06-23T01:14:00.000-03:002012-06-23T14:34:27.521-03:00RIO 1492 + 520I didn't expect much from RIO +20 but it was hard to see the world leaders so unable to come up with anything but <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2012/jun/22/rio-20-earth-summit-brazil" target="_">words</a> that attempt to mask their inaction. <br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/7423645068/" title="RIO 1492 + 520 by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="RIO 1492 + 520" height="322" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7139/7423645068_84be016865.jpg" width="500" /> </a><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">photo -- stage set for Verdi's opera, "A Masked Ball" (1999 Bergenz Festival)</span></i><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></i><br />
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It's been about 520 years since that day when Columbus made it across the Atlantic and placed a fatal foot on the America's. The killing of people and forests <a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0619-hance-land-killings-rising.html" target="_">continues</a> to this day. I sure hope that we may yet figure out how to be here on earth in a peaceful and sustainable way.Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-8923554878012922282012-06-21T04:31:00.001-03:002012-06-22T13:20:38.160-03:00AIR CONDITIONING FOR ALL<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/7412660394/" title="Coolant-articleLarge by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="Coolant-articleLarge" height="300" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8154/7412660394_b2629cc12f.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Air-conditioning in Mumbai, India -- Photo: Kuni Takahashi for The New York Times </span></i><br />
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[UPDATE 22 June -- There's a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/06/21/should-air-conditioning-go-global-or-be-rationed-away/" target="_">follow-up debate</a> today at the NY Times -- "Is it a good goal for everyone in the world to have access to
air-conditioning — like clean water or the Internet? Or is it an
unsustainable luxury, which air-conditioned societies should be giving
up or rationing?" The focus on the developed world is good. It really drives home how our lifestyles make us complicit.]<br />
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<br />
The likely response to a warming world is more use of air conditioning wherever it can be afforded. But, according to this <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/world/asia/global-demand-for-air-conditioning-forces-tough-environmental-choices.htm?pagewanted=all" target="_">NY Times report</a> by Elisabeth Rosenthal and Andrew W. Lehren, the new non-ozone-damaging gases are by weight thousands of times more potent as CO2 and "up to 27 percent of all global warming will be attributable to those gases by 2050."<br />
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This is not only an urban Asian problem. Here in Brazil I am watching air conditioning follow the cars and rural electrification (Luz para Todos) into the Amazon forest where people want it for the same reasons as Asians, Australians, Europeans and North Americans do -- to deal with the heat.<br />
<br />
Suely Carvalho, the Brazilian-born chief of the United Nations
Development Program’s Montreal Protocol and Chemicals Unit, said: “The
developing countries are already struggling to phase out, and now you
tell them, ‘Don’t do what we did.’ You can see why they’re upset.”<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a> Here is the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/world/asia/global-demand-for-air-conditioning-forces-tough-environmental-choices.htm?pagewanted=all" target="_">NY Times report</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h1>
Relief in Every Window, but Global Worry Too<span itemprop="creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"></span></h1>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h1>
<span itemprop="creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="font-size: small;">By <a class="meta-per" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/elisabeth_rosenthal/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by Elisabeth Rosenthal">ELISABETH ROSENTHAL</a> and <a class="meta-per" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/andrew_w_lehren/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by Andrew W. Lehren">ANDREW W. LEHREN</a></span></h1>
<span itemprop="creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">
</span><br />
<div itemprop="articleBody">
In the ramshackle apartment blocks and sooty concrete homes that line the dusty roads of urban <a class="meta-loc" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/india/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" title="More news and information about India.">India</a>,
there is a new status symbol on proud display. An air-conditioner has
become a sign of middle-class status in developing nations, a must-have
dowry item. </div>
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It is cheaper than a car, and arguably more life-changing in steamy
regions, where cooling can make it easier for a child to study or a
worker to sleep. </div>
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But as air-conditioners sprout from windows and storefronts across the
world, scientists are becoming increasingly alarmed about the impact of
the gases on which they run. All are potent agents of <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="Recent and archival news about global warming.">global warming</a>. </div>
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<div itemprop="articleBody">
Air-conditioning sales are growing 20 percent a year in China and India,
as middle classes grow, units become more affordable and temperatures
rise with climate change. The potential cooling demands of upwardly
mobile Mumbai, India, alone <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-needs-of-tropical-mega-cities-c-2010-08">have been estimated</a> to be a quarter of those of the United States. </div>
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Air-conditioning gases are regulated primarily though a 1987 treaty called the <a href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/ENVIRONMENT/EXTTMP/0,,menuPK:408237%7EpagePK:149018%7EpiPK:149093%7EtheSitePK:408230,00.html" title="About the treaty.">Montreal Protocol</a>,
created to protect the ozone layer. It has reduced damage to that vital
shield, which blocks cancer-causing ultraviolet rays, by mandating the
use of progressively more benign gases. The oldest <a href="http://www.epa.gov/ozone/defns.html" title="About the coolants.">CFC coolants</a>,
which are highly damaging to the ozone layer, have been largely
eliminated from use; and the newest ones, used widely in industrialized
nations, have little or no effect on it. </div>
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But these gases have an impact the ozone treaty largely ignores. Pound
for pound, they contribute to global warming thousands of times more
than does carbon dioxide, the standard greenhouse gas. </div>
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The leading scientists in the field have just <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6071/922" title="Study on the topic.">calculated</a>
that if all the equipment entering the world market uses the newest
gases currently employed in air-conditioners, up to 27 percent of all
global warming will be attributable to those gases by 2050. </div>
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So the therapy to cure one global environmental disaster is now seeding
another. “There is precious little time to do something, to act,” said
Stephen O. Andersen, the co-chairman of the treaty’s technical and
economic advisory panel. </div>
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The numbers are all moving in the wrong direction. </div>
</blockquote>
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Continue at the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/world/asia/global-demand-for-air-conditioning-forces-tough-environmental-choices.htm?pagewanted=all" target="_">NY Times</a>.
</blockquote>Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-68060535208100213192012-06-20T16:42:00.000-03:002012-06-22T09:43:39.506-03:00"DEFEAT OBAMA" IS THE LATEST PRONOUNCEMENT FROM THE PRINCIPLED POMPOUS PROFESSOR<br />
I am no fan of Obama but the principled pronouncements of the pompous professor Roberto Mangabeira Unger fall clearly into my major "GIMME A BREAK" department.<br />
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Who is this guy? <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<a href="http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/jun/18/curse-political-purity/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nyrblog+%28NYRblog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader" target="_">Gary Wills</a> begins his critique the notion of purity in politics by noting Unger's claim to fame:
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<blockquote>
Roberto Unger, descended from a famous Brazilian family [and Brazilian citizen], is a respected philosopher, a famous political activist, and a professor at the Harvard Law School (tenured there, thirty-six years ago, at the unusually young age of twenty-nine). He has many just grounds for being famous. But he is best known now, in recent news items, for having taught Barack Obama two courses at Harvard. The professor has released a special video saying that he is too principled to have any further dealings with his former student. His message is that “Obama must be defeated” for failing to advance the progressive agenda.</blockquote>
But wait, there's more to the Roberto Unger story. This is also the "principled" guy who in 2005 called the government of Brazil's ex-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva the "most corrupt in Brazil's history" and then did an about face and accepted Lula's appointment as Brazil's Minister for Strategic Affairs where he <a href="http://lougold.blogspot.com.br/2008/05/can-development-save-amazon-roberto.html" target="_">developed the plan</a> that included the Belo Monte monster dam (and <a href="http://lougold.blogspot.com.br/2012/04/destruction-of-amazon-forest-part-2.html" target="_">many more</a>) and so much infrastructure development in Amazonia that it was the "last straw" causing <a href="http://lougold.blogspot.com.br/2008/05/brazils-minister-of-environment-marina.html" target="_">Marina Silva to opt for resignation</a>. You can read his rather delusional views about nature <a href="http://lougold.blogspot.com.br/2008/05/managing-brazilian-amazon-harvard-law.html" target="_">here</a>.<br />
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[UPDATE - 21 June 2012: I really urge readers to check out Unger's <a href="http://lougold.blogspot.com.br/2008/05/managing-brazilian-amazon-harvard-law.html" target="_">nature essay</a>. He is the one who guided the design of the devastating strategic development plan for the Brazilian Amazon -- the plan that is now being implemented aggressively by the government of President Dilma Rousseff. In a sense, I'm rather happy that Obama is not posturing at RIO +20. If one has nothing to offer, it's best to shut up.]Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-51636306904830319382012-06-19T20:06:00.000-03:002012-06-19T20:06:09.481-03:00DEEP LISTENING... and much more from Rumi through Coleman Barks<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/14Ft1Oo3cQQ" width="480"></iframe>Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-22770845153190782652012-06-19T11:56:00.000-03:002012-06-19T11:56:36.549-03:00UNDERSTANDINGThe word "understanding" literally means to "stand under" or to be at the root of things.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/7386261728/" title="385769_302704943151679_1251507963_n by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="385769_302704943151679_1251507963_n" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7092/7386261728_0531295b51.jpg" width="500" /></a>Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-18987043695287817802012-06-10T12:30:00.000-03:002012-06-10T12:31:13.322-03:00AYAHUASCA RESEARCH<br />
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EXCELLENT! Thanks to the production efforts of David Suzuki, who can be counted on to cut through the confusion and sensationalism to find a meeting ground between modern science and ancient wisdom.<br />
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(Hat tip to Hans Boger)Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-14017410946579897322012-06-09T15:11:00.001-03:002012-06-09T17:49:53.662-03:00A PILLOW, A ROCK AND MEMORIES OF A FRIEND<br />
Late last night I was contemplating the up-coming <a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/" target="_">RIO+20</a> UN Conference on Sustainable Development. I was, realistically (I believe), not feeling hopeful about what might emerge from this global theater of leaders, agendas and postures. Indeed, I was feeling rather depressed about where the world seems to be heading.<br />
<br />
In the midst of a mood plunging toward grief, I stumbled upon a wonderful film and concert about two great 13th Century Sufi poets -- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi" target="_">Rumi</a> from Iran/Persia and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amir_Khusrau" target="_">Amir Khusrau</a> from India/Pakistan -- both of whom transformed their grief into a great love that endures in spiritual practice, in artistic performance and in personal inspiration to this day.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RcwcL_IfKZg" width="480"></iframe><br />
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<a name='more'></a>The film carried my memories back more than thirty years to my University of Illinois friendship with <a href="http://www.koausa.org/Tributes/Tikku.html" target="_">Giri Tikku</a> -- an extraordinary poet and scholar from Kashmir whose poems danced upon three cultural roots -- the Sanskritic and Hindu, the Persio-Arabic and Indo-Islamic, and the English or Indo-Western -- traditions that often clash tragically in that volatile region.<br />
<br />
A poem Giri wrote says:
<br />
<br />
In the anguish of joy<br />
create<br />
and be a witness<br />
and see
how one can<br />
and be
one and two . . .<br />
and nothing<br />
and all the thing<br />
and beyond
the form<br />
and yet
the form.<br />
<br />
And speak
with dance<br />
dance of eyes.<br />
and shape forms.<br />
circles, squares;<br />
and confuse shapes<br />
geometry; and<br />
call the bluff<br />
for they say one can't<br />
but in shape be.<br />
<br />
Once, after hearing this poem and feeling in a cantankerous mood, I said, "Giri, what do you do in the anguish of despair?" I'll never forget his response. Laughingly, he offered, "If Karma says that you must fall, then you will fall. BUT, you can try to fall on a pillow rather than on a rock."<br />
<br />
I think that's the expectation that we might hold for RIO+20. The world is crying for limits -- limits to the old exploitive ways. Perhaps, we (all of us) can find a softer way to walk the earth, to fall (or rise) on a pillow rather than a rock. I suspect that, stripped of arrogance, hubris or romantic idealism, that is what the search for sustainability is about.<br />
<br />
I hear again Giri's words,<br />
<br />
call the bluff<br />
for they say one can't<br />
but in shape be.Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-2577126867279970902012-06-02T13:27:00.000-03:002012-06-02T13:27:49.986-03:00IT'S ALL ABOUT WATER (con't)<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/7320887678/" title="ant-pushing-water-droplet-500w by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="ant-pushing-water-droplet-500w" height="280" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7095/7320887678_bedf9ba3bb.jpg" width="500" /></a>
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<br />
<a href="http://www.auroville.org/" target="_">Auroville</a>, the South Indian visionary community flowing from the legacy of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurobindo" target="_">Sri Auribindo</a> has a video about making spiritual works (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadhana" target="_">sadhana</a>) and earth works one-and-the-same. Returning to the garden ("on earth as it is in heaven") is here linked to water conservation and reforestation. It's a lovely vision.<br />
<a name='more'></a> <br />
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More information about the <a href="http://sadhanaforest.org/wp/about/" target="_">Sadhana Forest Project</a> and it's vision of a worldwide grassroots movement.Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-52203380952428898092012-05-30T13:19:00.000-03:002012-05-30T16:32:10.985-03:00GREENPEACE DECIDES TO KISS BRAZIL'S NEW FOREST CODE<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/7301804644/" title="codigo florestal brasil by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="codigo florestal brasil" height="500" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8014/7301804644_bf8215f9d1.jpg" width="474" /></a><br />
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Yup, you read right. After the recent series of line-item vetoes by President Dilma Rousseff, no one knows what Brazil's latest Codigo Florestal text means, only that there will be <a href="http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php?page_id=9068&section=news_articles&eod=1" target="_">another period of time for wiggling the weasel words</a> to get final passage in Congress. This places the tough negotiations beyond the global spotlight of the upcoming RIO+20 (June 15-22). Many, suspect that this was the smoke-and-mirrors strategy in the first place. When the Senate compromise that satisfied no one failed to gain support in the lower House, the ruraliststas (extremists among the agribusiness interests) were allowed free-rein, resulting in an ecological nightmare and allowing Dilma to veto the most onerous clauses without defining a clear forest policy. Cleverly, Greenpeace has decided to challenge the whole process.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Greenpeace.brasil has chosen a KISS strategy -- Keep It Simple Stupid -- with a petition campaign for a proposed zero-deforestation law that would eliminate large-scale clear-cutting while creating exceptions for small farmers, indigenous communities and ecologically sensitive logging.<br />
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If the petition gets 1.4 million signatures -- one percent of Brazilian voters -- then Congress must formally consider and vote on the proposal. Greenpeace has launched a <a href="https://www.theamazonismyfriend.org/#/animation" target="_">Brazilian Friend Finder</a> so that everyone can contact their amigos basileiros and share the process of kissing -- GOODBYE -- the recent devastating Forest Code changes. <br />
<br />
[UPDATE: Here is the direct link for the <a href="http://ligadasflorestas.org.br/" target="_">petition for Brazilians</a>.]Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-27397439006604226412012-05-30T03:11:00.000-03:002012-05-30T09:07:05.175-03:00TRUST HER AND GIVE LOVE<br />
Here in Brazil (and many places), May is the month of the Mother, of the great feminine force.<br />
<br />
Now, at the end of May, seems like a perfect time to share Robert Happé celebrating the love She offers. An added bonus is a marvelous mix of English and Portuguese, of mind and heart.<br />
<br />
The message is simple: TRUST HER AND GIVE LOVE<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/E6vFYSVjRdc" width="560"></iframe>Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-29301834519760813952012-05-28T18:32:00.001-03:002012-05-28T18:33:49.995-03:00IT'S ALL ABOUT WATERMAGNIFICENT - best to watch full screen...<br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MOKseXu8FOs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-46744481833517237012012-05-26T11:00:00.000-03:002012-05-26T11:00:31.107-03:00SOIL, SOUL AND SOCIETY<span style="font-size: large;">A brilliant call from spirit through Satish Kumar </span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/uSLUd0veioU" width="560"></iframe>Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-83258436568289887062012-05-24T08:38:00.000-03:002012-07-16T01:00:16.845-03:00TOMORROW IS D-DAY FOR THE AMAZON<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"D" is for Dilma's Decision, Deforestation, Development, Dams and Drought</span><br />
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<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/7256206858/" title="Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil" height="450" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7231/7256206858_c6163700d2.jpg" width="364" /> </a><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil</span></i><br />
<br />
Tomorrow, 25 May 2012, is the deadline for Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff to decide whether to accept or veto (in whole or part) the <a href="http://www.brazzil.com/component/content/article/246-may-2012/10576-brazils-forest-code-turns-from-a-green-dream-law-into-anti-green-nightmare.html" target="_">devastating new national Forest Code</a> that was passed recently by the Brazilian Congress.<br />
<br />
Andrew Revkin of the NY Times blog <a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/" target="_">Dot Earth</a> suggested that I might submit a <a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/brazils-new-leader-mulls-fate-of-forest-protections/" target="_">"Postcard From Acre"</a> describing the view from my perch in Brazil's western-most Amazonian state which borders on Bolivia and Peru.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/5064378153/" title="IMG_3616 by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_3616" height="375" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4105/5064378153_e0753c0033.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Andy said, "You can keep it short, Lou -- just a quick review of what's been happening with Brazil's dream of development, the new Forest Code and some good links." I thought, "Right, a short review of the complex choices that now face Brazil -- choices with enormous domestic and global ecological and economic implications! Ha! It would be more like a tome than a postcard."<br />
<br />
That was two weeks ago and I've been fussing over it ever since and asking, "what is the bottom-line organizing theme that might allow a thoughtful layperson (I'm not a scientist) to relate to an issue of such complexity?" As my mind swirled through the complications, confusions and controversies, I kept arriving at one simple thought, IT'S ALL ABOUT WATER.<br />
<br />
But how can water possibly be a problem in the world's largest rainforest -- the Amazon basin that receives 20 percent of the world's over-land rainfall, that drains, via over 100 tributaries larger than the Mississippi, an amazing 17 billion metric tons of water into the ocean each year?<br />
<br />
Let me explain.<br />
<br />
Below is a bag of Atlantic water vapor that was gathered in Rio Branco, Acre -- 3,000 kilometers away from Brazil's east coast -- during a teaching demonstration that was given to me 2 years ago by <a href="http://www.whrc.org/about/cvs/fbrown.html" target="_">Foster Brown</a> who is a Federal University of Acre ecology professor and Woods Hole Research Center Senior Scientist .<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/4500284946/" title="plant evapotranspiration in Rio Branco by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="plant evapotranspiration in Rio Branco" height="375" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4034/4500284946_9e7343f440.jpg" width="500" /></a> <br />
<br />
In a process called evapotranspiration, water vapor is
released into the air by the vegetation of the Amazon forest which
supplies about three-quarters of its own rainfall. <span class="fullpost">David Campbell tells the Amazon water-cycle story gloriously in his book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Land-Ghosts-Braided-Western-Amazonia/dp/039571284X" target="_">"A Land of Ghosts":</a></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Even though we are only about <strike></strike>600 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean [in western Acre], most of the air and clouds overhead originated on the other side of the continent in the Atlantic
trade winds. During the journey from the Atlantic to the Andes, water
vapor is repeatedly absorbed and recycled by the vegetation. In fact,
the typical Amazon forest returns roughly half of its own rainfall to
the sky through evapotranspiration. Rainwater is absorbed by the roots,
transported in the vascular tissue of trees, shunted through the
metabolic pathways of plants, utilized in various physiological
processes, and eventually released back into the atmosphere through the
leaves. Another quarter of the rainfall evaporates from the surfaces of
trunks, branches, leaves, and other components of vegetation. Only a
quarter of the rain is carried away by the rivers. The forest,
therefore, creates about three-quarters of the moist climate on which it
depends. The forest and the air above it are an integrated system.
<br />
...
<br />
How do I know I am breathing Atlantic vapor? After all, the raindrops here look the same as any others. The raindrops carry the secret [isotopic] information of their source, and the discovery of this fact, by Eneas Salati and his colleagues at the National Amazon Research Institute, was one of the greatest but least celebrated insights of twentieth-century science.
<br />
...
<br />
The startling result was that by the time the atmospheric water vapor
reached Manaus, 1,500 kilometers from the Atlantic, it had been recycled
as many as fifteen times; by the time it reached Benjamin Constant,
about thirty times. Each passage takes about five and a half days;
therefore, the water vapor that I am breathing today on the Rio Moa [in Acre] blew
in from the Atlantic five or six months ago and has been incorporated
into the very substance of this vast forest. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In this manner, the westward passage of the atmospheric water vapor is
slowed down and the capacity of the land and its mantle of vegetation is
greatly enhanced. If the forest is cut down, rainfall will decrease
substantially, not only over the Amazon itself but also in areas to the
south, including Brazil’s grain-belt states of São Paulo, Paraná, Santa
Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul, where seasonal winds shunt Amazonian
water vapor. When first published in the mid-1980s, this information
created a stir in agricultural and economic sectors of Brazil, because
it showed for the first time that Amazonian deforestation could decrease
agricultural production hundreds of kilometers to the south. For the
first time the consequences of Amazonian deforestation on the pocketbook
of the nation was clear.</blockquote>
More recently scientists have discovered a "River in the Sky". The evapotranspiration of the 600 billion trees of the Amazon basin functioning as geysers results in sending 20 billion metric tons of moisture up into the sky annually. That's 3 billion metric tons more than the rivers drain into the Atlantic and the upward flow of energy is so powerful that it sucks moisture inland from over the Atlantic and charges the easterly flow of wind. Below is the powerful TEDx presentation by the Brazilian climate scientist Antônio Nobre explaining, with a spirit as strong as the science, how it works. <br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HYcY5erxTYs?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[note: to see the translation subtitles, start the video and watch for the red CC button at the lower right of the player frame. Clicking on it gives a choice of English, Portuguese or Spanish subtitles.] </span><br />
<br />
Sadly, this science has had <a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0808-nobre_forest_code_interview.html" target="_">great difficulty</a> making it's way effectively into forest management policy, local on-the-ground practice and law enforcement. Indeed, the forces of expanding crop and beef production were able to act for many years with impunity. By 2006, 20 years after Salati's pioneering research, the deforestation was surging and map of Amazonia looked like this:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/4860427530/" title="Arc of Amazon Deforestation Brazil by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="Arc of Amazon Deforestation Brazil" height="374" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4118/4860427530_0a06bdab97.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Arc of Amazon Deforestation Brazil - source: <a href="http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss1/art23/figure2.html" rel="nofollow">Ecolgy and Society</a> </span></i><br />
<br />
Scientists are seriously concerned about what will
happen as several stress factors combine into a feedback loop. A special report from the <a href="http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123586650/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0" target="_">New Phytologist</a> concluded that, "although mass die-off is not inevitable, ...
when expected feedbacks between vegetation and climate are combined
with fire incidence and land-use change scenarios, we conclude that
Amazon rain forests are highly vulnerable to loss during the coming
decades."<br />
<br />
There seemed to be a hopeful change during the Lula Administration (2003-2011) as Environmental Minister Marina Silva and her colleagues put in place a new policy architecture of protected areas and sustainable development, and her successor Carlos Minc instituted a "shock-and-awe" campaign of aggressive enforcement of the Forest Code which resulted in -- along with mega-economic trends such as the 2008 economic crash -- dramatically reduced rates of new deforestation.<br />
<br />
But it also triggered a push-back from the "ruralistas" (the farm bloc in Congress) and their allies among the more unscrupulous developmentalists who were not offended by laws that were not enforced. When faced with the prospect of having to compensate for past illegal actions and stiff enforcement, they demanded the amnesty and generally weakened regulations which now threaten to unravel the progress that Brazil has achieved in recent years. (The environment group WWF lists the negative features of the new forest code <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?204650/Countdown-starts-for-presidential-veto-on-Brazil-Forest-Code" target=" ">here</a>.)<br />
<br />
The changed forest law is not only opposed by the usual assortment of environmentalists and social activists. The NY Time's Simon Romero reports that President Dilma is facing a Forest Code decision, on the eve of the UN's World Sustainability Conference <a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.html" target="_">RIO+20</a>, that will probably be for Brazil a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/world/americas/brazils-president-dilma-rousseff-faces-defining-decision-over-forest%20bill.html" target=" ">defining moment</a>:
<br />
<blockquote>
Prominent voices in Brazil ... have weighed in against the new Forest Code, including the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science, two of the country’s leading scientific groups. Anger over the bill has spread into popular culture. Exemplifying the sentiment in the entertainment industry, the actress Camila Pitanga broke protocol at an event here this month, calling on Ms. Rousseff, who was present, to veto the bill. Video images of Ms. Pitanga’s statement spread quickly on social media throughout Brazil.
Stunning some of the ruralistas, support for a veto has also emerged among some corporate leaders in São Paulo, Brazil’s business capital. Valor Econômico, the country’s top financial newspaper, likened the moment to the battle over President Obama’s sweeping health care law, calling Ms. Rousseff’s choice “one of those decisions which define a government.”
“This bill leaves Brazil in the Middle Ages,” said Paulo Nigro, president of Tetra Pak Brasil, a food packaging and processing company, who was one of several prominent São Paulo business leaders quoted by Valor voicing their opposition to the Forest Code.
</blockquote>
The Forest Code is not the only challenge. The leading Amazon researcher Philip Fearnside -- author of over 450 publications and identified in 2006 by Thompson-ISI as the world’s second most-cited scientist on the subject of global warming -- has an <a href="http://lougold.blogspot.com.br/2011/12/threats-to-amazonia-excellent-analysis.html" target="_">excellent analysis</a> of the many threats to the forests of Amazonia. Nowadays, making the threats much worse, is Brazil's quest for energy to support its expanding economy and its massive rush toward large hydroelectric projects. Thus, water appears again as a central issue.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/5790069725/" title="Dams in Amazonia by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="Dams in Amazonia" height="369" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2417/5790069725_439c49ed37.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Amazon Basin is being targeted for large hydroelectric projects. <a href="http://www.dams-info.org/en/about/us/" target="_">See full map database.</a></span></i><br />
<br />
In a <a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0323-fearnside_op-ed_belo_monte.html#ixzz1vlVQy9vX" target="_">recent op-ed</a>, Fearnside says:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Brazilian government has launched an unprecedented drive to dam the Amazon’s tributaries, and Belo Monte is the spearhead for its efforts. Brazil’s 2011-2020 energy-expansion plan [pushed into place by Dilma Rousseff when she was cabinet chief in the Lula Administration - ed] calls for building 48 additional large dams, of which 30 would be in the country’s Legal Amazon region. Building 30 dams in 10 years means an average rate of one dam every four months in Brazilian Amazonia through 2020. Of course, the clock doesn’t stop in 2020, and the total number of planned dams in Brazilian Amazonia exceeds 60. </blockquote>
Simon Romero of the NY Times recently reported the violent labor unrest and the dismal general scene at the building site of the large Jirau Dam on the Madeira River in Acre's neighboring state Rondonia. The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/world/americas/brazils-rush-to-develop-hydroelectric-power-brings-unrest.html?smid=fb-share" target="_">article and accompanying video</a> are a must read-and-view. And, here is a powerful set of NASA satellite images showing how a decade of road-building (before dams) has already impacted the forests of Rondonia. (The area of view is about 500 km wide.)<br />
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<iframe align="middle" frameborder="0" height="500" scrolling="no" src="http://www.flickr.com/slideShow/index.gne?group_id=&user_id=43008179@N00&set_id=72157626312008330&text=" width="500"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
The future of the forests of my adopted Acre home now looks frighteningly problematic. Here's a computer graphic for mid-21st-century where Acre is shown as the epicenter of projected intensified Amazon basin drought according to the modeling of Aiguo Dai of the National Center for Atmospheric Research:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/7260562038/" title="AcrePredictedDrought-NCAR-Mid-Century by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="AcrePredictedDrought-NCAR-Mid-Century" height="300" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7077/7260562038_abbe331e74.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image source: <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/05/13/483247/james-hansen-is-correct-about-catastrophic-projections-for-us-drought-if-we-dont-act-now/" target="_">Climate Progress</a> Darker red means more intense drought and the white circle is around Acre.</span></i><br />
<br />
However, long-term computer model projections are known to be quite variable for a specific region so, I asked Foster Brown who said, "Well, crystal ball gazing like this is incredibly uncertain but we do know that Acre was the epicenter of the record-setting Amazonian droughts of 2005 and 2010. Maybe the problems have already begun"<br />
<br />
This past year record-setting extremes have been seen in Acre. Below, are photos of the Acre River with a very low water level in August 2011 and near-record flooding six months later, in February, 2012 which conforms with the climate science predictions of more frequent and more intense extreme events.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/6081204522/" title="IMG_0297 by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_0297" height="375" src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6087/6081204522_3b923f72e3.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Low water in the Acre River at Rio Branco (August 23, 2011) </span></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/6920668623/" title="Flood in Acre -- photo by Sérgio Vale by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="Flood in Acre -- photo by Sérgio Vale" height="333" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7197/6920668623_4023e03782.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Flooding in Rio Branco (February 22, 2012) -- photo by Sérgio Vale
</span></i><br />
<br />
Although Acre is still blessed with about 80+ percent forest cover statewide, the eastern portion of the state has already been hit with a lot of deforestation.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/7256042798/" title="Deforestation in Eastern Acre up to 2006 by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="Deforestation in Eastern Acre up to 2006" height="283" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7095/7256042798_76fa5d938b.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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One result of the deforestation has been the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/world/americas/land-carvings-attest-to-amazons-lost-world.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all" target="_">discovery of around 300 geoglyphs</a> or mound-like geometric land-carvings that date to the pre-Columbian Indians who are now thought to have occupied with large populations many areas of Amazonia.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/5065321174/" title="IMG_3753 by visionshare, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_3753" height="375" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4148/5065321174_00ee7cb3d0.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<i>Geoglyphs in Acre. </i><br />
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Inspection of these sites in Acre and Bolivia strongly suggests that much of the region was <i>cerrado</i> grassland as recently as 600 years ago. But, following the massive Indian die-off due to the introduction of the European diseases, large-scale agricultural impacts vanished and the forest returned. Indeed, across the long timeline, whole sections of the Amazon basin may have transitioned back and forth between grassland and forest.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[UPDATE: 19 June 2012 -- a new scientific paper published in <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=1380264f0c2707ba&mt=application/pdf&url=https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui%3D2%26ik%3D7a596248f4%26view%3Datt%26th%3D1380264f0c2707ba%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dsafe%26zw&sig=AHIEtbT-FU9KwLyb3NuHg2QVcUbicBnYrQ&pli=1URL" target="_">Science</a> presents convincing data that large pre-Columbian populations were concentrated in the East and Central Amazon and were small and shifting in the West. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that Indian agriculture deforested Eastern Acre. It is more likely that climate change created a cerrado at an earlier point and a return to forest when the earth was cooled (the little Ice Age) by volcanic eruptions. Since these eruptions overlapped the period of plagues that wiped out the indigenous populations, it seems more likely that climate change triggered a return of the forest. This important data is highly relevant to the astute comment by Ishmael Angelo (below).] </blockquote>
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<blockquote>[UPDATE #2: 15 July 2012 -- The paper cited above has touched off a <a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0705-hance-precolombian-amazon-dispute.html" target="_">serious academic challenge</a> concerning the impacts of pre-Columbian Amazonian populations and leading researchers are doubting it's conclusion of low populations in the western Amazon.]</blockquote>
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Since human populations survive in both forest and savanna settings, does it matter which way Amazonia swings? I guess it depends on whether or not one wants to maintain the forest as a vast storehouse of carbon and hedge against global warming; as home for an incredible number of plant and animal species; and as a biotic pump that draws rain inland for Brazilian agriculture which feeds many people in the world.<br />
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IT'S ALL ABOUT WATER.<br />
<br />Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-65192075295345636582012-05-23T09:47:00.000-03:002012-05-23T09:47:59.140-03:00A DREAM OF TREES<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/elsilencio/3399317788/" title="El tiempo ayuda a perdonar by el silencio, on Flickr"><img alt="El tiempo ayuda a perdonar" height="500" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3557/3399317788_69ee44f1d7.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<i>El tiempo ayuda a perdonar (Time helps to forgive) - image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/elsilencio/3399317788/in/photostream/lightbox/" target="_">el silencio</a></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua; font-size: medium;"><strong><em>A DREAM OF TREES</em></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua; font-size: medium;"><strong><em> </em></strong></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua; font-size: medium;"><strong><em>There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees,<br />A quiet house, some green and modest acres<br />A little way from every troubling town,<br />A little way from factories, schools, laments.</em></strong></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua; font-size: medium;"><strong><em>I would have time, I thought, and time to spare,<br />With only streams and birds for company,<br />To build out of my life a few wild stanzas.<br />And then it came to me, that so was death,<br />A little way away from everywhere.</em></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua; font-size: medium;"><strong><em>There is a thing in me still dreams of trees.<br />But let it go. Homesick for moderation,<br />Half the world's artists shrink or fall away.<br />If any find solution, let him tell it.<br />Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation<br />Where, as the times implore our true involvement,<br />The blades of every crisis point the way.</em></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua; font-size: medium;"><strong><em>I would it were not so, but so it is.<br />Who ever made music of a mild day?</em></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua; font-size: medium;"><strong><em>~Mary Oliver</em></strong></span></div>
<i> </i>Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-49146248407809091212012-05-23T00:27:00.002-03:002012-05-23T00:27:24.688-03:00HEALING SONG<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nRBo4Vk9hgU" width="480"></iframe>Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16135118.post-53634053852956506792012-05-22T09:38:00.004-03:002012-05-22T09:40:37.429-03:00SAD... BUT VERY BEAUTIFUL<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/XQz76UgHSzk" width="420"></iframe>
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This music came to me as a lucky late-night find at YouTube. Unfortunately, no information is given about the artist.Lou Goldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225133924452033458noreply@blogger.com0