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Show THE ZEPHYR/AUGUST-SEPTEMBER gy mind... I try to work the radical middle not the far left. Ask me again (he suggested, when his circumstances had changed). My answer will be very different. Thanks for making us all think. He insisted later that the two points of view were compatible. He also offered to take an ad in The Zephyr when it goes online...I declined. A few weeks ago, another Associated Press story appeared... WASHINGTON (AP) —— Exactly 20 years after warning America about global warming, a top NASA scientist said the situation has gotten so bad that the world’s only hope is drastic action. James Hansen told Congress on Monday that the world has long passed the “dangerous level” for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and needs to get back to 1988 levels. He said Earth’s atmosphere can only stay this loaded with man-made carbon dioxide for a couple more decades without changes such as mass extinction, ecosystem collapse and dramatic sea level rises. “We're toast if we don’t get on a very different path,” Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences who is sometimes called the godfather of global warming science, told The Associated Press. “This is the last chance.” To cut emissions, Hansen said coal-fired power plants. that don't capture carbon dioxide emissions shouldn’t be used in the United States after 2025, and should be eliminated in the rest of the world by 2030. That carbon capture technology is still being developed and not yet cost efficient for power plants. is almost 2008 criminal—or criminally insane. Wake up old friends. Remember B. Traven’s admonition: “This is the REAL world, muchachos...and we are all in it.” Even David Bonderman. A GLIMMER of HOPE... THE WEALTHY MAN WHO far north How, then, can the “leaders” of the environmental move- they choose to talk out of both sides of their mouths?’ ZEPHYR 19 of Australia, Kakadu National Park sprawls across almost 8,000 square miles. The wildlife habitat is stunning. The park descends from a high stone plateau to forest woodland. There are monsoon rainforests and flood plains marked by thousands of billabongs, and mangrove-fringed estuaries. The park stops at the coastal beaches of the Arafura Sea. then the waffling, contradictory, hypocritical posturing by the mainstream environmental community of this country is almost criminal. Or criminally insane. 6 “I'm not interested in white people offering me this or that.... I'm not interested in money. I’ve got a job; I can buy tucker; I can go fishing and hunting. That's all that matters to me.” 4...POINTBLANK THE WISDOM of NATURE: and why we try so hard to avoid if By Harvey Leake 7..-BULLETIN BOARD OF DOOM Population to 7 Billion by 20127 Dirty beaches...Dirfy energy... Farm animal poop... and so much more! 8...LOSING SOLITUDE By Martin Murie "Pristine" Jeffrey Lee Jeffrey Lee resides in a small corner of this great park. He is a 36 years old Aboriginal, and the sole member of the Djok clan. He is also the senior custodian of the Koongara uranium deposit, a piece of land surrounded by the park but not a part of it. The French company Arvena wants to mine 14,000 tons of uranium and claims the deposit is 12...THE GREENING of WILDERNESS part 2 How the Mega-Rich are Co-opting Environmentalism & Turning IT into a Big Business worth $5 billion. if Mr. Hansen and 99% of the scientific world are correct, NUMBER February/March 2008 The last chance. Mass extinction. Ecosystem collapse. Dramatic sea level rises. ..Just how much time is left for equivocating, before we choke to death on our collective, politically correct rhetoric? “Drastic action” means drastic changes in our lifestyle—for all of us. It means acknowledging the absurdity of our greed-driven culture and showing the will and the determination to do something about it. And the _ determination to do it with great urgency. ment expect anyone to take them seriously, when 1) their “movement” is funded by the worst lifestyle role models one could possibly find in their worst nightmares, and 2) VOLUME SAID ‘NO’ TO $5 BILLION In the IN THIS ISSUE OF THE By Jim Stiles But years ago, then Australian prime minister John How- ard announce that no new mine would be approved in the Northern Territory without the consent of the traditional owners. And so, Jeffrey Lee, who stands to become wealthy be- - yond his comprehension simply said “no.” The Sydney Morning Herald asked him why. Here, in part, is what he said: “This is my country. Look, it’s beautiful and I fear some- Can you imagine an environmental organization, with a straight face, asking citizens to conserve, to live more simply, while its largest benefactors live in multiple, 15,000 square foot homes and commute daily to global parts unknown on Gulfstream GV jets? And here is where “the weird turn pro,” as Hunter Thompson might have suggested. Do you know what answer you'd get? Do you know how they’d rationalize their contradictory condition? They'd say, “Well, technically, asking people to conserve.is not our specific goal. Nowhere are we required to, nor should we, in any way, adapt such a message as an integral part of our mission statement, or imply that severe conservation measures are mandated by our group. That is not our specific objective. We are here to pass legislation to establish wilderness, or to protect the air quality of the Colorado Plateau, or to stop overflights by scenic planes of sensitive lands.” As if their tightly restricted “vision” has nothing to do with the broader picture. As for the Gulfstream excesses? I’m sure theyll let us know that the owner of that private jet has just purchased equivalent carbon credits from terrapass.com. May the gods forgive them. It’s like listening to Professor Irwin Corey, the Dean of Dissembling, explaining bullshit to a turd. It would be like a civil rights group from New York, hearing that there were ongoing race riots across the Hudson in Newark, choosing to disassociate themselves from the debate with the disclaimer: “Hey that’s Jersey...not in our domain.” If Mr. Hansen and 99% of the scientific world are correct, then the waffling, contradictory, hypocritical posturing by the mainstream environmental community of this country body will disturb it. There are sacred sites, there are burial sites and there are other special places out there which are my responsibility to look after. I’m not interested in white people offering me this or that ...... it doesn’t mean a thing....I’m not interested in money. I’ve got a job; I can buy tucker; I can go fishing and hunting. That’s all that matters to me. “There’s been a lot of pressure on me, and for a very long time I didn’t want to talk or think about Koongarra. But now I want to talk about what I have decided to do because I fear for my country. I was taken all through here on the shoulder of my grandmother ...... I heard all the stories and learnt everything about this land, and I want to pass it all on to my kids.” Mr. Lee took the SMH reporter to a rocky jut of land that oversees the Koongarra deposits. It is a sacred place. He believes a blue-tongued lizard still lives here and cannot be disturbed. Rock paintings, hundreds of thousands of years old, memorialize the blue reptile. Lee calls it a djang—a place of “spiritual essence.” Jeffrey Lee has closed the place 20...THE MOB RULES Suggestions for the Honest Environmentalist By Doug Meyer 23...FROM THE CRAWLSPACE of HISTORY notes from the desk of .NED MUDD to the 230,000 tourists who visit Kakadu annually. “My father and grandfather said they would agree to opening the land to mining, but I have learnt as I have grown up that there’s poison in the ground. My father and grandfather were offered cars, houses and many other things, but nobody told them about uranium and what it can do. “It's my belief that if you disturb that land bad things will happen ...I can’t allow people to go around disturbing everything.” Because of Jeffrey Lee, the Koongarra deposit has its best chance yet of being incorporated into the park. And he can keep hunting and fishing and being the wealthy man that he truly is. 28...FEEDBACK The Readers Respond... 3 |
