RAVE: Zara's Seasonal Green

Greenpeace announced yesterday that Spanish fashion giant Zara had finally relented to pressure by the eco-activist group to commit to cutting down on its hazardous chemicals used in the making of its garments and supply chain.


 Courtesy of Greenpeace International

As reported on the Greenpeace site:

Zara, the world’s largest clothing retailer, today announced a commitment to go toxic-free following nine days of intense public pressure. This win belongs to the fashion-lovers, activists, bloggers and denizens of social media. This is people power in action.

Greenpeace campaigners began a dialogue with Zara (a brand within the Inditex group) in 2011 about eliminating releases of hazardous chemicals from its supply chain and clothes. But it wasn't until this week that the fast-fashion giant caught on to the urgent need to solve its toxic pollution problem.

Zara has now committed to eliminate all discharge of hazardous chemicals from its supply chain and products by 2020. And they're going to get rid of some of the worst chemicals, such as PFCs, even sooner. As a significant user of PFCs, Zara's commitment to eliminate this chemical group by the end of 2015 is a breakthrough.

The Detox commitment announced today covers Zara and the seven other brands in the Inditex group: Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe.

I was just one of the many, many thousands of people who signed the online petition sent to me by Greenpeace, and I was really happy to see the outcome of this global petition targeted at Zara be so swift and so positive. 

I get one of these online petitions almost every other day, whether it be from or through the likes of Common Dreams, Greenpeace International, Greenpeace Africa, Avaaz and others. I diligently sign up to most of them, adding my name to the countless others from around the world. But I'm sure I'm not the only one who sometimes wonders: do all these online digital signatures and letters en masse really work??

Well, it seems that they do work. As Greenpeace pointed out in their press release about their victory with Zara:

Last Tuesday we launched the Detox campaign globally with a fashion show and press conference in Beijing. Related images and comments began to rise like a spring tide on social networks within hours of the story breaking. Zara's Facebook Page quickly filled with comments from fans calling on the company to Detox. Thousands of people began to share their desire for “fashion without pollution!” and demands for Zara to Detox on Twitter and Sina Weibo, China's leading microblogging site.

You can see who's commenting about the campaign on Twitter and Weibo in one place – people around the world speaking out in a dozen languages to a combined reach of more than 7.1m followers. On Twitter alone there were at least 43,800 mentions of Zara and the Detox campaign this week. More than 300,000 people signed up to join the campaign to Detox Zara, and many tens of thousands of people emailed and tweeted directly to the company for an ambitious Detox commitment.

Well, I for one am glad that not only were Greenpeace so successful in this Zara campaign, but that 'people power' in its most digital guise really can work...at least sometimes. 

And I will take every such victory, however small it may seem, as a major step forward for all of us....and for all the right reasons.

Do you get my point?

RANT: (Mostly) Shameful Numbers

As this is my 100th post of 2012 (and the first time I have hit the 100-post mark in a given year with this blog), I thought it only fitting that I mark the occasion by looking at some important numbers:

Here are some important numbers at this moment in time - shameful numbers at that:

455: the number of rhinos killed in South Africa this year to the end of October:

 
    Courtesy of Eye Witness News, South Africa


729:   The international barcode number designated for products from Israel:


   Courtesy of Zazzle UK


918: The number of days Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without trial:


   Courtesy of The Bean Blog


150: The number of acres of rainforest burnt every minute of every day:



 Courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory

37: Number of Palestinian children killed by Israeli attacks in 2012:



18-month-old Eyad Abu Khosa, killed in the November Israeli airstrikes - photo by Mahmud Hams, courtesy of Russia Today


0: Number of Israeli children killed by Palestinian attacks in 2012:



 Courtesy of Al-Jazeera

They are in no particular order, as they all carry their own gravitas, and there are many, many other important numbers out there. The above were just a few numbers that have caught my attention thus far this year.


But there was a good number that came out of New York City last night:

138: The number of countries who voted in favour of Palestine being granted observer status (like the Holy See has) at the UN - 41 nations abstained and only 9 were opposed (I am proud to say that South Africa, Italy and Portugal all voted in favour)


   
    Courtesy of Mondoweiss
  
There are indeed statistics, statistics and more statistics, but sometimes a number can tell the story.

Do you get my point?

RAVE: Thank You, Michael

This past weekend saw not only the end of the 2012 Formula 1 season, but also the (second) farewell of the all-time greatest Formula 1 driver, Michael Schumacher.



Courtesy of SuperSport South Africa

Schumi came back to Formula 1 in 2010 after a three year hiatus and his first retirement from the motorsport at the end of 2006. Expectations by all, fans (like me), detractors and sober commentators alike, with his return were HUGE. Everyone, myself included, fully expected Michael Schumacher to come back with a bang and take up his rightful place at the very top of this most supreme and elite of motorsports. 

Alas, it did not turn out that way. Having left Ferrari in 2006 at least having had some race wins and a shot at the championship that year, he was forced to wallow for three long years from 2010-12 in a Mercedes team that was unreliable, usually not that quick and totally undeserving of his huge talents.

It was a waste, and for even some of his most ardent fans (and he has many) his baleful return for the past three years did go some way to tarnishing his incredible and awe-inspiring legacy. It was a pity, yes, but he gave it his all without ever once running down his team or the technical crew at Mercedes, as only Schumi only knows how to do.

Always the consummate professional and here and there he showed glimmers of the speedster and racing genius many of us came to love (like his blistering fastest time at qualifying for this year's Monaco Grand Prix). If only he had been given better equipment with which to take the fight to the likes of Vettel and Alonso and Hamilton, etc. 

His always had his haters and detractors, and he did do some questionable things in his time. But, quite frankly, Scarlett: I don't give a damn. The man was a racing genius and a pleasure to watch on the track.

And it was only Michael Schumacher, together with a dream team that only joined Ferrari because of him, that managed to finally pull Ferrari out of years in the politics-riddled doldrums and downright embarrassing mediocrity. As an ardent tifoso, for that alone I will be forever grateful to him.

This is how I will always remember Michael:


Courtesy of Mibz

Although I am forever a Ferrari fan and those two scarlet cars are always foremost in my undying support and anguish on a racing weekend, it was still always good to be able to watch Michael in action. And just simply know that he was around, taking part in the action and having the time of his life. Always smiling, always waving at the camera.

I was truly devastated when Michael Schumacher retired the first time at the end of 2006. I remember having a knot in my stomach for days after his last race that season. For those, like my mother who had loved him since his early days at Benetton, it was as painful. He had been my unfailing hero, my touchstone for all those glorious years with Ferrari and, suddenly, he was gone.

Now this time around as he retires for a second time, I am not devastated nor was I that sad. I do wish he'd remained for longer, and I do believe he still had it in him to fight for wins. But, as I and so many other tifosi needed to move on when he left Ferrari (which has never really since been the same, by the way), Michael deserves now to finally rest on his enormous laurels. Yes, he too must move on.

It is sad to think of a 2013 Formula 1 season without Michael Schumacher on the grid, but, just like the first time, those of us who loved him as a driver will continue to be left with memories few other fans can profess to have.

And, oh boy, does he leave us 'Schumisti' with some terrific memories!

Danke, grazie, thank you, Michael - auf wedersehen...if only for now.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Oscar Wilde

I feel that this quote by the simply brilliant Oscar Wilde really speaks to me:

"Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong."



I wonder just how many people will completely miss Wilde's point with this quote.

I, a fellow misanthropist to the hilt, know exactly what he meant - and how he felt.

Thank you, Oscar - how very prolific you would have been had you lived today...

IT SAYS IT ALL: Israel the Indignant Aggressor

It's fitting that I conclude my current crop of anti-Israel posts with this brilliant cartoon by the ever-excellent Carlos Latuff, courtesy of QW Magazine:



It really does say it all. Israel is really hardly the 'victim,' now is it?

RANT: Boycott Israel, Boycott the 729 Barcode

As I am on a determined anti-Israel tirade, so I must once again make a plea (and continue my own pledge) regarding the boycott of all Israeli goods and services.

However, it's not always easy to know which products indeed come from Israel. One enormous help is knowing that the international barcode number assigned to Israeli products is (mostly) 729.

The following graphics serve to highlight the international campaign for the boycott and disinvestment of all things Israeli with the help of this barcode number:



Courtesy of OpEdNews

 
Courtesy of Indymedia of Ireland




Courtesy of the Misswinthrop blog



Courtesy of the Politically Confused blog




Courtesy of My Catbird Seat





Courtesy of Live From Occupied Palestine (an Australian blogger)


If South Africa had to endure boycotts, embargoes and sanctions in the 1970s and 1980s, then why not the Israel of today?

It's the very least every person with a conscience should do.

Do you get my point?

RANT: Proud, Apartheid Israel

My last post was a rant about how Israel is undoubtedly an apartheid state - if not identical in its racist and segregationist policies to that of apartheid South Africa, it nevertheless meets all the criteria for having its own brand of Zionist-inspired 'apartheid.'

Just over a month ago a poll of Israeli Jews was published by the Israeli liberal left-leaning daily, Ha'aretz, that subsequently provoked a firestorm of controversy against Israel around the world, and even perhaps some serious soul-searching within Jewish Israel itself. It also inspired the al-Jazeera article by Ben White that formed the basis of my last post, and to which I made many references. Below is a graphic breakdown of that poll's controversial findings:



NB: The "famous American author who is boycotting Israel" as quoted in the above Ha'aretz poll is Alice Walker, the African-American author of the best-selling novel The Color Purple. 

They are very telling results indeed. They strongly suggest a (Jewish Israeli) nation that is at somewhat odds with the oppression of the Palestinian people by their state of Israel, but who seem somehow resigned to being the oppressor and, even more bizarrely, to being okay with living in what is essentially an apartheid state. 

Even the article in Ha'aretz by Gordon Levy about their own poll had the headline: "Apartheid, by any other name."

But then the byline to the that very headline reads: "No, Israel is not an apartheid state, but the occupation in the territories is apartheid." 

Excuse me?

That's a bit like a headline back in 1985 in, say, the Johannesburg daily newspaper The Star having stated: "No, South Africa is not an apartheid state, but the homeland system is apartheid."
Yeah, right. Talk about cognitive dissonance on a grand, national scale.

The journalist Christopher Bollyn wrote an excellent article in his blog in response to this poll in late October, entitled "Israel - Apartheid Without Shame or Guilt." Here are some of the points he makes, even further evidence of the apartheid state that is Israel, if any was needed:

• Israeli checkpoints prevent Palestinians from moving freely in their own country. Jews, and cars with Jewish license plates, however, are allowed to pass without stopping
• Three out of four Israelis support the use of segregated roads for Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank
• A third to half of Jewish Israelis want to live in a state that practices formal, open discrimination against Israeli citizens who are not Jewish. An even larger majority wants to live in an apartheid state if Israel annexes the territories

Bollyn makes the telling observation that the Ha'aretz poll shows how it "...lays bare an image of Israeli society, and the picture is a very, very sick one. Now it is not just critics at home and abroad, but Israelis themselves who are openly, shamelessly, and guiltlessly defining themselves as nationalistic racists." 

He continues, "We're racists, the Israelis are saying, we practice apartheid and we even want to live in an apartheid state. Yes, this is Israel." And makes the further salient points that, "The "Jewish" part of "Jewish democracy" has won big time. The "Jewish" gave "democracy" a knockout, smashing it to the canvas. Israelis want more and more Jewish and less and less democracy. From now on don't say Jewish democracy. There's no such thing, of course. There cannot be. From now on say Jewish state, only Jewish, for Jews alone. Democracy - sure, why not. But for Jews only." 

Bollyn then makes a very serious conclusion about the state of the state of (Jewish) Israel: "the image of Israel 2012 is this: We don't want Arabs, don't want Palestinians, don't want equality, and the hell with all the rest. Values-shmalues, morals-shmorals. Democracy and international law - those are matters for anti-Semites, not us. We will vote for Netanyahu again, recite that we're the only-democracy-in-the-Middle-East and wail that the whole world is against us."

Because that is indeed the Israel of today - democratic, yet for whom?; defiant, yet so very scared; oppressor, yet always the victim. 

Hypocritical, shameful Israel.

Do you get my point?

RANT: Israel the Apartheid State

I've said it before in my blog, and I'll say it again: the state of Israel is an apartheid state. 



My anti-Israeli stance was sparked (yet again) by the recent bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces on the (yet again) trumped up charges that Hamas was threatening to send missiles into Israel. There was even talk of an all-out assault on Gaza by Israel. At least Hamas responded with over 1000 short-range missiles. At the end of the week-long battle between the two sides there were 160 dead Palestinians, with over 1000 wounded, whilst Israel had six reported dead.

According to a BBC report cited in Workers World, Israel were only held back from a full-on invasion on Gaza due to a "“a shift in international support” away from Israel."

One marvels at how there can still be any international support for Israel, given its many atrocities against Gaza, the West Bank, southern Lebanon, etc., over the years, let alone support that can still "shift" away from them.  

Once again, many more Palestinian lives were lost compared to Israeli lives in this latest assault. Once again, an Israeli life is worth a lot more than a Palestinian life. That is how it has always been throughout history when comparing the life of the oppressor to the oppressed.

I was quite surprised to come across a piece of online journalism posted on October 29th that is highly critical of Israel's track record to date, and by no other than al-Jazeera. I say surprised, because  over the past year or so I have lost a lot of the respect I once had for their once-vaunted television station. More and more al-Jazeera looks and sounds like CNN with an Arab face - and that's not a good thing. So it was heartening to read the said article written by the British freelance journalist, Ben White, who specializes in Palestine/ Israel.

Ben White provides a laundry list of Israeli transgressions second to none, which is why I found the article so  compelling and worth blogging about. White is correct when he states how, "To talk about Israeli apartheid is not to suggest a precise equivalence with the policies of the historic regime in South Africa. Rather, apartheid is a crime under international law independent of any comparison..." He then quotes former UN Special Rapporteur John Dugard, who makes the excellent point that, "It [apartheid] is Israel's own version of a system that has been universally condemned."

The neverending land grabs since 1948, the anti-Arab laws, even against Arab Israelis, the broken promises and treachery by Israel in international law 

White makes interesting reference to Israeli and other polls in recent years in which Israeli Jews have been shown to have the following clearly racist views [links within the actual article by White to other articles on the given data are shown here in blue bold]:

• over half of Jewish Israelis saying marriage to an Arab is "equal to national treason" 
• 78 per cent of Jewish Israelis opposing Arabs joining the government
• 62 per cent of Jewish Israelis encouraging the emigration of Palestinian citizens
• 36 per cent of Jewish Israelis being in favour ofrevoking the voting rights of non-Jews

White quotes more examples of how Israeli society sounds remarkably apartheid-esque:

• Kadima MK (Member of the Knesset) Otniel Schneller praised the decision for "articulat[ing] the rationale of separation between the peoples and the need to maintain a Jewish majority and the [Jewish] character of the state", linking this to the formulation of "two states for two peoples"
• Ironically, this slogan of Zionist "moderates" (yes, it's all relative) echoes the rhetoric of Apartheid South Africa's politicians, who warned that "either we must follow the course of equality, which must eventually mean national suicide for the white race, or we must take the course of separation"
• In 2007, Israel's internal security agency the Shin Bet stated it would "thwart the activity of any group or individual seeking to harm the Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel, even if such activity is sanctioned by the law"
• In 2008, the agency's then-chief told US officials that many of the "Arab-Israeli population" are taking their rights "too far"
• Israeli law provides for the banning of electoral candidates who deny "the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people"
• Proposed bills can be rejected on the grounds that they undermine "Israel's existence as the state of the Jewish people"
• In Jerusalem, constantly touted by Israel's leaders as the country's "eternal" capital, Palestinian residents in the illegally annexed East face planning restrictions, home demolitions, discrimination in municipal services, and the community-shattering Apartheid Wall. 
• Speaking to BBC's Hardtalk in July 2011, Mayor Barkat openly confirmed that he seeks to maintain a Jewish majority in the city (White asks, "imagine if the mayors of London, New York or Paris stated that Jewish residents must not rise above a certain proportion.")
• There are over 300,000 Israeli citizens living in West Bank settlements (plus 200,000 in East Jerusalem), a network of colonies among a Palestinian population without citizenship.
•  Palestinians' freedom of movement is controlled by a bureaucratic "permit" system, enforced by some 500 checkpoints and obstacles. 
• The vast majority of the Apartheid Wall, 700km in length and 70 per cent completed or under construction, lies inside the occupied West Bank. 
• The illegality of this de facto annexation [of the Wall] was confirmed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in their 2004 advisory opinion.

And it goes on:

• In 60 per cent of the West Bank ("Area C"), Palestinians must apply for building permits from Israeli occupation forces; yet according to a 2008 UN report, 94 per cent of applications are denied. Building illegally means demolition.
• In 2011, Israel demolished 620 Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank, part of what the EU has called a "forced transfer of the native population". 
• Israel also exploits the West Bank's natural resources, such as its "discriminatory" control of water access and usage: Palestinians, over 80 per cent of the population in the West Bank, are restricted to 20 per cent of the water from the main underground aquifer. 
• Human Rights Watch have called Israel's regime in the West Bank a "two-tier system" where Palestinians face "systematic discrimination" (the same terminology they have used to describe policies inside the pre-67 borders as well)
• The Gaza Strip, home to some 1.7 million Palestinians a majority of whom are refugees, is blockaded by the Israeli military behind perimeter fences and "buffer zones" (including at sea)
• Restrictions on movement began in the early 1990s, with an intensified siege being implemented in 2006-'07. Until today, Israel blocks almost all exports from the territory, and pursues what it calls a "separation" policy for the purpose of cutting off Gaza from the West Bank.
• In March, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) described Israel's violations of the right to equality in unprecedented terms. Noting "segregation between Jewish and non-Jewish communities" and a lack of "equal access to land and property" inside Israel's pre-1967 borders, CERD found a regime of "de facto segregation" in the West Bank severe enough to prompt a reminder of the "prohibition" of "apartheid".

The list could go on and on and on and on and on...

Gosh, how very, very familiar this all feels to me. Ah, yes (and as I too have spoken about before), it all sounds terribly reminiscent of how my fellow whites were thinking about blacks and black majority rule and the 'black threat' back in 1980s apartheid South Africa. Different racial issues, same racial prejudices. 

EXCEPT, back then South Africa was a pariah state - as a white South African teenager I was even spat at by a Belgian couple when touring Austria with my mom in 1984. We were constantly harangued because of being white South Africans then. Do Israeli Jews really put up with that much antagonism today?

Apartheid South Africa was banished from the United Nations, the Olympic Games and most 'civilized' pursuits of nations, whereas Israel today is, for the most part, quite comfortably a member of the 'family of nations.' THAT is what I continue to fail to understand.

Israelis, Zionist Jews and their legions of apologists keep making the position of Israel seem somehow 'unique'  in world history, somehow tenuous because of its very 'unique' racial and religious and geopolitical realities. 'Unique' in so many ways, and therefore fully deserving of being able to 'defend' its uniqueness by oppressing an entire people. It's as if Israel is indeed infused by some divine providence to oppress at will, even if conveniently leveraged on the rampant Islam-phobic fears that permeate the West and, in particular, the United States. 

But it's all smokescreens and mirrors. Israel is not unique in any way. For all its so-called religious, racial and geopolitical 'uniqueness,' Israel is little more than a shabby, oppressive little apartheid state, wearing its quasi-racist 'right to self-determination' like a suit of armour with missiles attached.

Israel may be all gleaming and 'modern' and 'Western' to those who care not to look any deeper (as Johannesburg most certainly was back in 1985), but it is still a wretched, oppressive and racist nation at its core, hell-bent on oppressing an entire people at any cost. 

It has no moral imperative because it lost the moral argument a long time ago.

Israel is nothing more than a shabby, tatty little state. I just feel for the millions of second class citizens (and non-citizens) who have to live and die in its malevolent, racist shadow.

Do you get my point?

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Fawzi Ibrahim

 

In light of the stark and troubling statistics regarding global greenhouse gas emissions that I blogged about a short while ago, I thought the following quote that I came across on the Adbusters site especially pertinent:

 

"Today, humanity faces a stark choice: save the planet and ditch capitalism, or save capitalism and ditch the planet."

 

-Fawzi Ibrahim



Fawzi Ibrahim is the author of the book Capitalism versus Planet Earth (with the telling sub-heading of An Irreconcilable Conflict), a copy of which I must absolutely get ASAP, because it sounds like a read and a half.

The review of Ibrahim's book on the A World To Win site states how, "Scientists have at last begun to establish limited statistical associations, evidence pointing to a causal connection between 150 years of industrial production and at least some of the extreme weather events occurring around the globe. Fawzi Ibrahim goes further, however, deploying some powerful theoretical weapons learned from electronic engineering and economics, extending beyond the work of the natural scientists. He shows why it is the capitalist system of social relations that necessarily leads to the disruption of the planet’s ecological system and threatens all life on the planet."

The review further states that, "The importance of Ibrahim’s theoretical explanation cannot be overstated, because it gives us the chance to attack the problem with surgical precision. If you know where the cancer is to be found, and act quickly enough, it can be removed."


 
The review continues: "...now the deepening financial and economic crisis has largely discredited the versions of classical, Keynesian and neo-liberal economics taught to most students. And the worldwide revolt against the consequences of the crisis provides the best chance of building a movement that can bring capitalism to a conclusion and thus provide the solution to its ecological impact. It is in this context that Ibrahim’s boldly titled book Capitalism versus Planet Earth takes on its importance, dusting down, as he admits, conclusions he came to in the 1970s, to inform and help educate an understandably confused new generation."

A book to be read, no doubt, and easily the Quote of the Day for my humble little blog.

Irreconcilable differences indeed.

Do you get my point?

RANT: No, I Won't Just Do It

I have to share these spoof ads from the excellent site Adbusters. As ever, slick corporate slogans and advertising memes that are endlessly shoved down our throats by the global advertising mafia are given a makeover that is savage and entirely appropriate.

Here are a few of my favourites from the anti-Nike category of the said site:







Ah, yes...how's that swooshy smile these days, Tiger?

The culture jammers at Adbusters continue to be an essential read whenever I have the time, and it is absolutely urged that they be read and their site accessed by those who are plain sick and tired of the mind pollution to which we are subjected in this uber-consumerist age.

Mind pollution - just another tangent in the thought control web.

Do you get my point?

RAVE: Viva Hugo

It's not difficult to have a soft spot for Hugo Chavez. He may have his democratic flaws and some of his demagogy may make some uncomfortable at times, but there's no denying that the President of Venezuela is a wily politico and a man with impeccable timing at times. 

Take what he had to say in the aftermath of Obama's victory in the US Presidential election two weeks ago, as quoted by the excellent progressive site Common Dreams: 

"Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez on [the Thursday after Obama's victory] urged newly re-elected President Obama to "stop invading" other countries and "think about his own country" which suffers from social and economic problems. Chavez made the comments during a cabinet council meeting broadcast on the state channel, VTV.

"President Obama has been reelected.  Hopefully he and his government reflect, first about their country, which, unfortunately, has plenty of economic and social problems," said Chavez. "It is a divided country... [It has] poverty that grows every day, misery and an elite, a superelite, that exploits the country and society, and even poisons it, tricks it and manipulates it through a media war," he added."

The article continues by quoting Chavez as saying that Obama should rather, "dedicate himself to governing his own country and stop invading and destabilizing countries." 


Photos courtesy of The Prisma, a UK-based online newspaper.

I, for one, think it's superb rhetoric by the most despised Latin American leader in Washington D.C. Chavez himself was convincingly re-elected as President of Venezuela for a fourth term in October.

And I revel in his sheer audacity and even his sense of self-righteousness. Because, whatever anyone may say, I don't believe Venezuela is involved in any foreign wars at this time of writing this post, which is more than can be said about the uber-bellic, highly destructive (and very dangerous to all) current foreign policy of the United States. 

Chavez has deeply divided his country, no doubt about it, but his focus has been primarily on the economy and the socio-economic upliftment of many his people, warts and all, mistakes and all. 

Can Obama say that he has done the same for his people?

Yes, Obama should focus instead on alleviating the growing poverty and hugely eroded middle class of America today. It is an America decimated by the unbridled avarice and gangster tactics of a banking and elite super-class that is the very antithesis of what is really American and what was once good about that country.

But will Obama do so in the face of the military-industrial complex juggernaut that rules him and his foreign policy? Of course not. That would take courage of conviction and huge moral resolve by Obama, something he has sorely lacked in his entire tenure as President. And which I never believed he had in the first place, by the way.

And that is why Chavez can afford to give lessons on leadership and doing the right thing to the likes of Obama.

Do you get my point?

RANT: Gases A-Rising

Greenhouse gas emissions in the Earth's atmosphere, which are the leading contributor to human-caused climate change, went up even more in 2011 when compared to previous years. This is according to the United Nations World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), and as published online yesterday by Common Dreams. 

The graphs below for the three worst greenhouse gases, namely carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, and courtesy of Common Dreams and the WMO, say it all:



As stated in the Common Dreams article, "Greenhouse gas emissions in our atmosphere shattered all previous records in 2011, according to a new report by the UN World Meteorological Organization released [on Tuesday, November 20th]."

The article went on to say, in quoting the findings by the WMO, "In particular, planet-warming gas methane reached new highs in 2011, at 1813 ppb -- 259 percent above the pre-industrial level."

Something I almost shout from the rooftops every time I do a conference or seminar or training on climate change is the fact that the emissions are not going anywhere quickly, as evidenced on this statement by the WMO's Secretary-General Michel Jarraud: ""These billions of tonnes of additional carbon dioxide in our atmosphere will remain there for centuries, causing our planet to warm further and impacting on all aspects of life on [Earth]."

The Common Dreams article concluded by stating that, "The WMO report placed the blame squarely on human activities including fossil fuel use, cattle breeding, rice agriculture, landfills and biomass burning. Five major gases emitted in such practices account for 96 percent of the warming climate the groups said."

Yes, the usual culprits:

• Fossil fuel use: Where are our electric cars and renewable energy on tap?
• Cattle breeding: Note to all meat-eaters: enough said
• Landfills: The best waste management strategy anyone can have? Try not to generate it
• Biomass burnings: Thank you. Hence why I have never advocated biofuels as a truly renewable energy

And a not-so-usual culprit:

• Rice agriculture: There's one I was not aware of...that does put my next Indian or Chinese meal in a new perspective...

Data like this that is released, however sensational and however worthy, can still make very depressing reading. Where does one go from here? How much of a change can one make in one's own life that is of any real meaning or benefit, never mind in the greater scheme of things?

What next indeed with knowledge and facts like these?

It can get overwhelming at times, all this doom and gloom about our ecological future. Or perhaps it's just that time of the year, where any new knowledge or foresight can hit a wall of humiliating inertia.

It can make one feel rather defeated. The trick is to try and force oneself to be galvanized once more.

Do you get my point?

IT SAYS IT ALL: The US Presidential Election

This was an excellent cartoon that I came across today on the Before It's News website, and as drawn by Olle Johansson of Cagle Cartoons (Sweden):



Is this presaging a Romney win...?

It really does say it all about the fantastic 'choices' facing American voters today.

Talk about blah...

Do you get my point?

SHRUG: Who Cares?

The American Presidential election: As important as it is, as unimportant as it is. 

The photo above is courtesy of Forbes, which I thought very appropriate, given how very, very good both of these candidates are for the very, very rich...

Enough said.