Did you know that humpback whales can swim through thousands of kilometers of open ocean in an almost perfectly straight line? New high-tech tracking devices have enabled scientists to learn this, but they have no idea how the whales manage to navigate. One whale also can sing a specific song that will then travel, literally, around the world's waters from whale to whale. When I heard this reported on NPR, I was humbled, and guilt-ridden, because I had the overwhelming suspicion that whales are much smarter than we are. Also, we know so very little of the complex inter-realtionships between trees, and microbes in the soil, and all the other factors that influence one another in an ecosystem.
So we just go ahead and smash it because we can. I can't wait to see this film. Maybe it will change the world. If you go to the youtube, there are more clips, and you can contribute to the fund to finish the documentary if you want - a project 10 years in the making.
Someone at CP posted a link to a PBS American Experience program about the birth of the Earth Day in 1970. Pretty well done with many images from the 50s and 60s that we don't see very often except in not-quite-correct recreations. But about half way through I realized that more than 40 years ago people were acting on the known science of the day and actually making a difference.
ReplyDeletepollution kills trees
global warming from the burning of fossil fuels is a threat (Huntley-Brinkly news from 1970.)
Lead in gasoline was a health threat.
http://video.pbs.org/video/1463378089/
My point in this is that we're still talking about the same science at CP and other blogs. The video makes it clear why the Earth Day 0f 1970 was such a tremendous success, but why not so much this year.
Those evil capitalists just went out and bought up all the media, so, whereas the media that wanted clean air and water in 1970 because real people worked for that media, today's corporatist owned media doesn't care about such matters. See the Lady Gaga report.
"Mindless, soulless, amoral, nonphysical, and able-to-exist without the need for human necessities" partially describe corporations, and corporations rule. Where will corporations lead us? To corporate nirvana. Is that where we want to go?
Outlaw 'limited liability'. If you own a share of a corporation, you own a share of any financial liability that it may incur.
Criminalize compound interest. Only simple interest can be charged.
Put a tax or fee on the transfer of stocks and bonds.
Do these three things and you'll have gone a long way towards fixing what's wrong in the world today. Good luck!