Man, this blows my mind!

Thank you!

Hello.
Once again, I must apologize for the lack of posts. Thanks so much to everyone who responded to my last post and provided some feedback. It's been very helpful, and I was glad to received it. It was generally very positive, which was a relief!
I'm also sorry about that last post; re-reading it, I guess I came down kind of heavy. I want to try and do that only when necessary from now on. So I apologize if that post came off as angry or accusing or anything like that. Especially for the ANONYMOUS person who left the comment that initiated it. Thank you very much for your opinion, and everyone who added their two cents.
It's getting down to the wire at school now, but I'm gonna try to keep up with the blog. I'm sorry though if I end up posting tons of youtube videos, and other quick things.
One of the main reasons I wanted to start this blog, as well, was to try and empower people. The fact is that one of the main drivers of environmental and social damage is our society. We know that, to a large extent. It stems from Consumerism, Commercialism, and Capitalism. This means our institutions, like the World Bank, the Corporations, the Government, as well as our lifestyles. It's not something that we should be putting to the backs of our minds, but something we need to keep in mind as we make decisions in our day to day lives. I personally believe in slowly changing the ways of our society today (though not TOO slowly). One of the most important changes which has been taking place is people taking responsibility with their dollar, and buying fair-trade and/or eco-friendly products. These people are labelled by market researchers as "Conscience Consumers" because of their ethical habits.
This is a great thing that should be more widespread and pervading in our lives. The fact is that solutions start at home, and everyone should stop feeling so powerless. Especially these days, with the economy and so forth. The thing is that economic, social and environmental solutions go hand in hand; potentially meaning profits for all, in all areas. A win-win.
But seriously, we have the ability to better ourselves and our planet, for our own sake as well as for the sake of Life On Earth. We have the power to seek the truth, and live the lives we want to live, AND solve these problems. We don't need to be afraid, and we don't need to be powerless. In the words of Neil Young: "You can make a difference, if you really try!"
If you want to start off, you can check The Environmental Blog. It's got lots of great green ideas, for now, and for the future, when you've got a house and a job and kids and whatnot. Also, tomorrow night is EARTH HOUR! From 8:30 to 9:30 pm, dedicated people around the world are turning off their lights and their appliances. I'm super excited; back in the summer of 2003 we had that gigantic blackout, which at the time gave me the idea for an annual Blackout Day. This is close enough, so YEAH! LET"S HAVE A BLACKOUT!

Thank you so much to those who like Peaceful Seeds; and anyone who has any ideas or criticism - please share it so that I can try to improve.

Peace be with you all!
☮

Business

Hi!
I apologize to anyone who has been checking here over the last few days and been disappointed with any lack of posts. Thanks for reading!
The thing is along with a seriously busy schedule now and thus having to focus hard on schoolwork, I received a nice dose of feedback which made me need to have a long, hard think about the blog. It was posted by ANONYMOUS, who had some interesting things to say.
So first of all, i have some questions for any readers of Peaceful Seeds.
First, do I seem to be reducing these issues to black and white representations of greedy corporate interests against the individual and collective future interests of the world?
Because that is something that I really, really never wanted to do.
I do have some serious blame to lay on greedy corporate interests, specifically those of the World Bank and the IMF. The whole racket that they have going on is very serious, and I was hoping to gradually present information on them to build the case. However, not all corporations are greedy, destructive, or environmentally unfriendly. Unethical corporations, and their increasing power, manipulation, and control, are truly a huge problem in the world today. The Ascent of Money in general is. However it's a problem that I do seriously think too few people in the world think about, and too many people in the accept.
But the fact is that we are all a part of the problem. And the problem is very complex, and my intention has been to slowly showcase the scope and intricacies of what's going on. And just as we are, corporations are an essential part of the solution.
I know this blog isn't perfect, but it's MAD young. This is only my 14th post, and I'm low on free time, but I am aware that I'm not yet providing the whole picture. I want to help people be aware of how their actions affect the world, and how our collective societies affect the world, as well as how we can change things to solve the problems we face.
And the solutions aren't always hard to figure out. An example of positive action/sustainability is in the video I posted called "How we regrew a rainforest." This video shows these things: working with local people who are eager to make a living, be self-sufficient and learn how to do it, and directly involving them in both environmental protection and sustainable economic practices; working against deforestation, soil destruction, and biodiversity loss - a lot of people need to be aware of the importance of rainforests to the global system, as they remove carbon, regulate the climate, retain water, and foster biodiversity, as well as a whole lot more; and the win-win correlation between helping poor people in poor countries, animals and plants and their habitats, ecosystems in general, and the profits of sustainability.

But seriously, I have really been trying to get this blog off the ground without just posting things about problems and laying blame or grandstanding or being an ideologue. I mean, my first two posts were sort of introductory, and I've tried to include stuff about the IMF and the Global economy, and how it works, as well as the crimes being committed, but also I've been trying to make posts about how incredible nature is, and sustainable solutions, as well as some stuff about myself. So I'm really sorry if I seem to be just posting stuff impugning the problems and reducing things to black and white.

My next question: have I been too angry, or coming off as just someone who's angry and ranting about problems?
I've been trying not to, but I couldn't help my outburst a week ago about the amount of garbage in the ocean. The truth is though that I do get very angry at the senselessness. But what I'm trying to do now in the early stages of this blog is show some of my interests, some of what's going on, some of the problems we face, some of the solutions, but mainly just provide food for thought.
I'm hoping to gradually raise awareness of the complexities of the issue, and why we have these problems today, what we can do, and also what needs to be done on the global scale. I'm trying to do it slowly, though, and preferably focus on one thing at a time. But I don't want to pretend like I'm totally right, or that I know everything or have all the answers, or rant on about problems or things that piss me off, nor be some kind of ideologue.
I've been trying to not reduce these issues to a black and white context, and I've been trying to introduce the problems so that I can examine them as well as introduce the possible solutions. I don't want to completely discount the opinions I night not agree with, but also I want to help inform people about specific problems so that they can think about them. Hopefully they can start coming up with possible solutions that they'll want to discuss and debate with people. But I also don't want to rush the blog because of the information overload I've been receiving weekly. I'm also trying not to be presumptuous about the solutions.

If I may however directly address something which ANONYMOUS asked: Yes, we do need to raise environmental awareness. As we can see today, people are aware of environmental destruction, and the need for change, yet very little is actually being done. But environmental damage isn't all; a lot of people today are still buying Nike, going to the supermarket, and whatnot, without thinking about the impacts that their day-to-day decisions have not only on the environment, but on the world. For example, we here consume the vast majority of the world's resources. That's no news. But the thing is most people who are starving in third world countries live in places with food surpluses, but they have to produce that food for export to rich Western countries because they are trying to pay off their debt to the IMF. The food that's produced throughout the world is then shipped elsewhere to be processed. Industrial food processing actually began as a response to rising incomes in countries like ours, to increase the price of food. However, with industrial food production and processing comes "vertical/horizontal integration", which leads to monopolies. It's called the Agri-food Chain, and each link in the chain is dominated by a handful of multi billion dollar multinational corporations.
But you're right; none of this is news (not to mention the whole picture is a lot more complex). But why do we keep supporting this unjust system? People may be aware of it and think: "oh, but what can one do about it??" The first step is being conscious, informed, aware, and making a decision as to how you are going to live. The solution starts with education, as well as action. I'm hoping to be getting all of my food from local organic fair-trade sources by next month. Raising awareness is crucially important to solving the problems because the majority of people around here go about their lives as consumers without thinking about it, and the majority of the world is living in poverty because of it. And not only are we over-consuming resources, but we're wasting disgusting amounts of it. But this isn't news either!
Yes, solutions need to be focused on, but so do the problems because they stem from us, and our ways. If you want to implement solutions, you cannot stop raising awareness. However, I also kind of want to get people mad, because then they might want to DO something about it.

As far as solutions for the people who have no choice because of their situation: Education is probably the most important key for solving the problems in the 'developing' world. And if we want to help the environment, we have to help those people. I said that in the post right before the angry one about the garbage in the oceans.

So anyway, anyone who's reading this, please let me know what you think of Peaceful Seeds so far. I'm sorry about this long post, but it's been bothering me, and I hope I haven't been coming off as some guy who's pissed off and divorced from reality. Please send me your feedback, so that I can try to be a better blogger.
Thanks; peace be with you.

It's been 50 years

Om triamba kam ya jamahe
Sugan dhim pushti varda naam
Urr va ru kamiva banda naat
Mrityor mukshee ya mam ritaat
OM

HOLY FUCK!

Ok, I just finished posting this morning, and then I went and watched something so disgusting, heartbreaking, and enraging, that I have to post this shit right fucking now.
When I was a little boy, I became an environmentalist for two main reasons: deforestation and pollution. At the time they seemed to me like the two stupidest and most senseless things anyone could do. They still are.

Helping the rainforest from total destruction/The Oil Sands project

Hi. It's finally feeling a bit like spring here in Montreal! HUZZAH!
This week, however, is forecast to be back below freezing. God damn it. Yesterday I posted a video about one project in Borneo. My good buddy Liam showed it to me after checking out this blog, so thank you, Liam! Cheers, bro.
This video covers a whole scenario. The rainforest is in serious trouble, because of deforestation. The deforestation is part of people consuming and destroying natural resources to try and survive. These people in these countries are very poor, and are trying to improve their lives, their country, and their economy. But to do that, they cut down the rain forest. And the fact is that all rich countries got rich by exploiting their natural resources, as well as colonizing poorer southern countries a couple centuries ago and depleting their natural resources for raw materials as well as slave labour. And today, these countries are used for the same reason. They either can't support themselves, and they need to borrow money, which comes from the IMF. Or else they don't need to borrow money and so a military coup is backed by, usually, the US, who set up a tyrannical dictator who's there to play ball with the IMF and the investors and the Structural Adjustment policies. These things effectively enslave countries through a mechanism of debt. This is now known as Neo-Colonialism.
Part of this whole scheme is the myth that Structural Adjustment leads to economic development. This is part of a very set doctrine of what economic development is and how it's achieved. And the doctrine takes no account of environmental costs. Cutting down a forest therefor is seen as a good thing. Around the world, the environment is being destroyed in order to make money. The problem with that, of course, is that we need healthy natural ecosystems to survive.
Willie Smits, in his lecture, describes how educating the local people as well as directly involving them is key to solving these problems. The rainforest is in a bad way. People around the world are cutting it down relentlessly. There was an article about a year ago in Time magazine called "The Clean Energy Scam". The article is about the problems with using biofuels. I found it last semester as source material for my paper on biofuels and rising food prices. But the introduction to the article showcases the destruction of rainforest, plain, and wetlands in Brazil. It gives you a good idea of what's going on. And you really do need to take the people at work in this into account. When it comes to either cutting down a tree, or feeding your children, the people will cut down the tree. In order to help the environment, we must also help the people. We must help them gain sustainability, we must help integrate them into the environment, we must enlist their aid in environmental projects, we must educate them and offer them stewardship over the biodiversity around them, and either help them become economically independent or, even better, become self-sufficient and self-sustaining.
That's what Willie Smits managed to do!
Unlike that positive story, another friend of mine, Andrea, posted a Youtube video on Facebook on the Alberta Oil Sands. Andrea has a Bachelor of Environmental Science, and has done lots of cool field work. I learned all the details about the Oil Sands last semester in Canadian Environmental Issues. Here's some basic details:

This Gives Me Hope

TIBET

Hi.
Man, there is so much going on, and so many things to blog, and talk and think about, I sometimes don't know WHAT to do. The other day I posted a short video on net neutrality. Barack Obama during his campaign promised to keep the internet open and neutral. Let's hope he delivers.
Today though, I'm going to hear a lecture about Chinese poetry. It's part of the Montreal Zen Poetry Festival, which started last night. As a big fan of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and poetry of all kinds, I definitely have to go and
alight upon the tree leaf,
forgetting
that I am.
However, there is a bit of a bleak, bittersweet irony here, in that it happens to be Chinese zen poetry, (or "Chan", the chinese word for "Zen"), when a great injustice is turning 50 years old on Tuesday.
Tuesday, March 10th, 1959, was the day of the Tibetan Uprising.
The Chinese had invaded Tibet nine years before, in 1950.
The Chinese Government, at the time under Mao, has always maintained that it was/is a peaceful liberation of Tibet, that China is sovereign over Tibet, and that it should be integrated into the People's Republic of China, and that it's trying to help the people of Tibet escape a feudal, serfdom system. However, it is well known and well documented that this is untrue. It is also well-documented that the Chinese government-controlled media is constantly distorting the truth to create propoganda, and quell anyone who tries to question authority or the truth in the Government's statements.
FOR EXAMPLE:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7920656.stm

(I don't know why, but for some reason this isn't letting me post links!)

That news report is a counter to the reports about a group of monks being surrounded in their monastery by armed PRC forces.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iiYHLvUW5tUiEUyjIZtO7gQTppeQ

This time of year is always tense in Tibet. The Dalai Lama is one of my heroes; he was 15 when the Chinese invaded his country, and he was prematurely enthroned as the Dalai Lama, the political and spiritual leader of Tibet. The Tibetan Resistance Movement was working hard, and 1959 became the year of the Uprising. The Dalai Lama was invited to a performance at Chinese Military Headquarters outside of Lhasa (before the invasion, Lhasa was the Forbidden City, the capital of Tibet and its holiest centre).
then, on March 9, the head of the Dalai Lama's bodyguard was visited by Chinese army officers. The officers insisted that the Dalai Lama would not be accompanied by his traditional armed escort to the performance, and that no public ceremony for the Dalai Lama's procession from the palace to the camp should take place, counter to tradition.
At the time fears of the Chinese trying to abduct the Dalai Lama were already high.
On March 10, 300,000 Tibetans gathered around the temple, trying to protect him. That became the beginning of the Uprising, as it became a public demonstration of the Tibetan Resistance Movement, which had been using guerilla warfare tactics before that.
The Uprising and the Resistance Movement were crushed, The Dalai Lama was forced to leave his country and had to sneak into India to live in exile.
Thousands, if not over a million Tibetans have died throughout the history of this conflict.
On March 10th, every year, there's always something that happens. Last year there were violent riots on the anniversary of the Uprising.
Tensions are high enough, it being the 50th anniversary, and word of monks demonstrating seems to have stopped for the last few days. The local people aren't speaking with Western reporters for fear of reprisal from the Chinese troops. After China denied that anything had happened, they released this Nugget:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7918713.stm

Now we have no idea what the situation is for those brave monks. And now who knows what will go down on Tuesday? Weirdly, 50 years ago, March 10th, the day of the rebellion, was also on a Tuesday. I know that I will be meditating and praying for peace and justice for Tibet.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT NET NEUTRALITY.

HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THIS?

I have been following this over the past few weeks.
The West Cork Oil Spill happened sometime around Valentine's Day. It was noticed and identified by satellite on Feb 14. I heard about it a few days later. I haven't been managing to blog as much as I want; things have been pretty crazy. But I knew immediately that I had to post something about this, mostly because of its conspicuous absence from the news around here.
For some reason when I try to post links it's not letting me, so here's the URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Cork_oil_spill
The reporting on it seems to be mostly by the BBC and the Irish Times. I found out about it through Wikipedia! It certainly has never appeared on the Latest Headlines feed on my Firefox bookmarks bar, and has been completely absent from any Canadian news reports. There is coverage of everything that's going on, but it seems to all be in the UK, and no one else is hearing about what's going on.
Not even The Evironmental News Network (http://www.enn.com/ ) has any information. It's all on the Wikipedia page, the Irish Times, the BBC, and other UK sources. There's alot of coverage from The Irish Times especially, if you search for info on Google News.
Searching ENN for it yielded nothing on this oil spill, but lots on oil spills going on throughout North America. Last semester, I took Canadian Environmental Issues, and my professor told us that in Canada there are approximately 12 reported spills of 4000 litres or more each day. I asked where she got that figure, and it was from Environment Canada
(http://www.ec.gc.ca/envirozine/english/issues/50/feature2_e.cfm). In fact it was Environment Canada's 'Envirozine', which I've found to often be a relatively poor way to keep up to date on the true state of the Canadian environment because of how the Harper government tries to cover its own ass. However, it's a good place for facts like oil spills per day in Canada.
The lack of news exposure of this is really unbelievable, and concerning. I'm pretty sure that this oil spill off of Ireland is the largest in Ireland's history. You may or may not remember the Terra Nova Oil Spill, in November of 2004. This was an accidental spill caused by "mechanical failure." 170 000 liters of oil spilled from an extraction platform off Nova Scotia, covering 60 km². It was the largest spill ever on the east coast of Canada.
The response was absurd: nothing was done. Biologists didn't arrive on site until 6 days later!
According to Ian. L. Jones, (Memorial University of Newfoundland) the conclusions that can be drawn from the Terra Nova spill:

Canadian government's short term response : inadequate
Release of information: inadequate
Monitoring of chronic oil pollution from offshore oil and gas activity in general: inadequate.
Seabirds and other migratory birds: have no clearly defined legal protection.

What were the consequences for Petro-Canada?
$120,000 to federally administered Environmental Damages Fund.
$100,000 for environmental science merit scholarships at Memorial University and its Sir Wilfred Grenfell College campus.
$70,000 fine

Petro Canada's third quarter 2005 profits: $614 million

According to Ian. L. Jones:

Fine for the Terra Nova spill: ridiculously low.
Offshore oil and gas developers: unaccountable for damage they cause.
Canada's environmental policies related to preventing damage from offshore oil and gas extraction: product of negligence and incompetence.

This shit is unacceptable.

David Attenborough is one of my Heroes.