The Global Stewardship Initiative (GSI) is one person's vision of a platform for environmental reform. Success is not measured by popular vote here; there is only one planet to support many ecosystems and their inhabitants, and reform is not going to be an easy transition for those of us who embrace industrial technology. Success can be measured only by how well the earth is processing the demands made upon her resources, and right now there are more demands than resources to supply them.
Solutions come by way of dialog between the principle interests in the environmental arena, and GSI is taking a serious interest in environmental reform. GSI is making a call to concerned individuals to become stewards of their planet by reducing their carbon footprint, taking an active role in discussion and problem-solving, to stop using plastic, seek out alternatives to petroleum-based fuels, contemplate solutions that are both environmentally sound and economically feasible, and demonstrate a more active role in environmental reform initiatives.
We have the technology, we need only to commit to compromise for the planet's sake. The current production of greenhouse gases cannot be sustained by our environment indefinitely, and bio-failure is imminent. GSI is about sustained acceptance of responsibility for the environment by more individuals on a wider scale than previously seen.
The next time you buy bottled water - ask yourself why. Is it the purity that motivates you? GSI is suggesting that you let the need for clean water motivate you to action on behalf of the planet; we don't need more plastic bottles dumped in landfills, but we might need to conserve local water resources because of drought and over-consumption or pollution.
The Global Stewardship Initiative is actively seeking to network with like-minded individuals who can take the initiative to educate themselves about the issues of global climate change, deforestation, fossil fuel emissions, and the domino effect that occur with these issues. Individuals who may not have given this discussion much thought can visit the Environmental News Network or the BBC - Science/Nature and find many thought-provoking news articles regarding the rapid decline of the earth's ecosystems.
Many of the global climate changes that we are currently experiencing have only started to develop in the last forty years; in theory, science never anticipated such a rapid decline. Deforestation coupled with widespread industrialization is causing the collapse of our environmental infrastructure. We are literally overwhelming the world's ecosystems with chemical, physical and environmental waste products; it can't keep up without the trees and other nitrogen consuming flora.
Couple that with a steady rise in nitrogen producing, carbon-based people who are living longer due to medical advances, and it gets downright scary. If you haven't seen the pictures of starving and dead Polar Bears along the Arctic coast, you can still imagine how severe this crisis is if the environment can no longer support the mighty, iconic Polar Bear.
Al Gore's book, An Inconvenient Truth depicts startling images of entire glaciers melted in a matter of a few decades. I've lived in Alaska over thirty years, and even with the 'take it for granted' element, I'm stunned at what I'm witnessing; stunned and ashamed that it could happen in my lifetime.
I can no longer ignore the frightening changes in my world, which has come to encompass the entire planet now that the internet has created a global community. Fortunately, I was raised a steward of the land by my parents, and I have hope for the planet and humanity.
So, let the call go out: one planet, many stewards to protect and preserve it.
Kat signs off~
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Ranting on Irrationalities
In 1938 a machine was invented and went in to production that would strip hemp fibers from the stalks quickly and efficiently. Hemp promised troubled farmers a cash crop that was easy to grow, naturally disease resistant and one that made little demands on the soil. The market for hemp was established and generating billions of dollars worldwide. The era is marked by the Depression and the dust-bowl effect (soil erosion caused by successive growths of cotton crops), and also the derisive term, Marijuana.
Marijuana is the Propaganda's moniker for hemp, however marijuana and hemp are two different things, but since Propaganda fails to make that distinction, the American public is introduced to the War on Drugs AND deprived of a cash crop that could save the fields and the farmers - not to mention the troubled economy - when it is illegalized in the U.S in the late '30's.
Propaganda is everything that is wrong about society - not just a word and a social institution - a compilation of distilled deceptions that is cumulative, insidious, pervasive, and toxic. Propaganda is about agendas of the elite and misinformation. Propaganda is supported by such entities as the United States government, Corporate Law, the Religious Right, the Moral Majority, political party politics in general, a host of publishing agencies and houses, big businesses which employ lobbyists and/or wield political power or influence, and monopolies of any kind. Propaganda is marked by the appearance of vast differences in status or social standing within its ranks. Propaganda is the enemy of the common man, common law and common sense. Propaganda tells us what is "normal" and represents an authority to be challenged above all else ...but alas, Propaganda is elusive because appearances are EVERYTHING, and Propaganda is nestled cozily in civil society.
Propaganda is, in fact, the pattern and the fabric of society. Propaganda encourages individuals to trade their perceptions, intuition and their conscience for a perspective that does not even closely mirror reality or even civility, for that matter. Propaganda encourages the ME generation, the X generation and basically divides and conquers social structures. By their very destruction, complex social structures like the extended family and the small town are replaced by the anonymous, the apathetic, the disenfranchised and the down-trodden. Support systems fail, and Propaganda is there to set a new standard and soothe the weary.
Hazing rituals are more humane than the process by which Propaganda asserts its agenda. And just what is that agenda ... one might wonder. With global climate change and the ecosystem on the threshold of failure, with increased demand of petroleum products surpassing the supply and becoming so expensive that the middle-class socioeconomic base can barely live with the financial and environmental cost and yet, at the same time most of these consumers could not fathom a world without plastic. This juxtaposition of core values has a lot of people caught up in a values versus convenience two-step that has them totally distracted from the action behind the scenes. This author thinks that is the agenda: keep 'em off balance and focused on the mundane.
Most people think that if they read the paper and watch the TV news well, they're informed. Yet, how many individuals are aware of what transpires in the U.S. Congress at any given time or date? Even though there is TV coverage of the daily proceedings in Congress, the news media fails to take much notice unless they catch someone picking their nose. Honestly, that's the only news I ever heard about the proceedings one year.
Thing is, party politics has polarized society and that should be illegal. And a lot of folks spend a lot of time imposing their moral judgement upon others, which simply makes them part of the problem, rather than the solution. Divide and conquer. Propaganda hard at work there ...
Kat signs off, and thanks you for reading.~
Global Stewardship Initiative
Marijuana is the Propaganda's moniker for hemp, however marijuana and hemp are two different things, but since Propaganda fails to make that distinction, the American public is introduced to the War on Drugs AND deprived of a cash crop that could save the fields and the farmers - not to mention the troubled economy - when it is illegalized in the U.S in the late '30's.
Propaganda is everything that is wrong about society - not just a word and a social institution - a compilation of distilled deceptions that is cumulative, insidious, pervasive, and toxic. Propaganda is about agendas of the elite and misinformation. Propaganda is supported by such entities as the United States government, Corporate Law, the Religious Right, the Moral Majority, political party politics in general, a host of publishing agencies and houses, big businesses which employ lobbyists and/or wield political power or influence, and monopolies of any kind. Propaganda is marked by the appearance of vast differences in status or social standing within its ranks. Propaganda is the enemy of the common man, common law and common sense. Propaganda tells us what is "normal" and represents an authority to be challenged above all else ...but alas, Propaganda is elusive because appearances are EVERYTHING, and Propaganda is nestled cozily in civil society.
Propaganda is, in fact, the pattern and the fabric of society. Propaganda encourages individuals to trade their perceptions, intuition and their conscience for a perspective that does not even closely mirror reality or even civility, for that matter. Propaganda encourages the ME generation, the X generation and basically divides and conquers social structures. By their very destruction, complex social structures like the extended family and the small town are replaced by the anonymous, the apathetic, the disenfranchised and the down-trodden. Support systems fail, and Propaganda is there to set a new standard and soothe the weary.
Hazing rituals are more humane than the process by which Propaganda asserts its agenda. And just what is that agenda ... one might wonder. With global climate change and the ecosystem on the threshold of failure, with increased demand of petroleum products surpassing the supply and becoming so expensive that the middle-class socioeconomic base can barely live with the financial and environmental cost and yet, at the same time most of these consumers could not fathom a world without plastic. This juxtaposition of core values has a lot of people caught up in a values versus convenience two-step that has them totally distracted from the action behind the scenes. This author thinks that is the agenda: keep 'em off balance and focused on the mundane.
Most people think that if they read the paper and watch the TV news well, they're informed. Yet, how many individuals are aware of what transpires in the U.S. Congress at any given time or date? Even though there is TV coverage of the daily proceedings in Congress, the news media fails to take much notice unless they catch someone picking their nose. Honestly, that's the only news I ever heard about the proceedings one year.
Thing is, party politics has polarized society and that should be illegal. And a lot of folks spend a lot of time imposing their moral judgement upon others, which simply makes them part of the problem, rather than the solution. Divide and conquer. Propaganda hard at work there ...
Kat signs off, and thanks you for reading.~
Global Stewardship Initiative
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