Monday, June 16, 2008

Anthony Marr's new book sneak preview

Anthony Marr's new book sneak preview
Homo Sapiens! SAVE YOUR EARTH


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Sunday, June 8, 2008

Open letter to Alberta Premier & EM on tar sands

Open letter to the Premier and Environment Minister of Alberta, Canada
This will not be a respectful letter, because you deserve no respect. Positive-reinforcement has no place in this matter, because there is nothing positive to reinforce.
I will just tell you straight what we, citizens of our planet Earth, think about you, and inform you about what we intend to do for your future victims – our children’s children and all life on Earth.
We see it as our sacred duty to our future generations to first keep them from harm, and failing this, to at least let them know the truth – of what, who, when, how and why - while they roast in an atmospheric oven, and see no beauty in any direction wherever they live, even in the middle of the Amazon basin which may have become desert, the only way to escape which being death, involuntary or otherwise.
You, sirs, are committing the gravest crime against nature and humanity ever, graver than even the Holocaust, by far. Instead of 6 million, the future toll due to your current atrocities will number in the billions, in both the number of human lives lost, as well as the number of species pushed to extinction. All their blood is on your hands.
There are only two possible reasons why you are doing what you’re doing with the tar sands and the native people living nearby. First, you are scientifically illiterate and simply cannot grasp the gravity and urgency of the climate change situation, and the catastrophic future consequences of your atrocious actions at the tar sands. Second, you are fully aware of them, and yet are blinded by greed and the desire to go down smelling like a rose in the future history of Alberta . Of the two, the first of course is more generous, and God save the world, but the second is likely more truthful, and God save your soul.
I won’t deny you your moment of glory, which might last as long as a decade or two, but, wrong, if fragrant immortality is what you have in mind. In the long run, and, trust me, it won’t take that long, you will begin smelling like the pile of dog excrement that essentially you are - to the rest of the world. Soon after, Alberta will join it - roundly denouncing you as the Criminal Against Nature and Humanity of All Time. The EVIDENCE against you will then have sufficiently surfaced – all over the world – to have you damned for all time, and no one can come to your rescue.
Of course you will try to manipulate your political machine and control your media to stave off the condemnation for as long as you can, and you will try to write history with words, not results. But you can only do it for so long. For the truth will set itself free.
This is how it will happen. Over the next three years, Heal Our Planet Earth will launch into the future a collection of several hundred time capsules from all nations of the world, each titled a Time-Capsule-of-HOPE-2060, with its own serial number. The time capsules will contain locally relevant material, but all will contain one item in common – a brass plaque with a bright side and a dark side. On the bright side will be engraved the names and titles of the locally nominated heroes; on the dark side, of villains. And every plaque in every time capsule will contain something in common – your names, and your titles, and the title we have bestowed upon you:
For the Alberta premier:
CANADIAN CRIMINAL AGAINST NATURE AND HUMANITY OF ALL TIME #2
And for the Alberta Environment Minister:
CANADIAN CRIMINAL AGAINST NATURE AND HUMANITY OF ALL TIME #4
Our regrets, Mr. Premier, for not giving you the number one spot I know you crave. Unfortunately, and indeed reluctantly, we have awarded the honour to someone else. “Reluctantly” because we actually despise him less than we do you.
Oh, and, by the way, at the launching media conferences from city to city, the plaqrandomonium@shaw.ca, rapt_lfpn@hotmail.com, reina.rosenbaum@att.net, rflores@ifaw.org, rex@veganswerman.com, riverside4@uniserve.com, rhabgood@shaw.ca, robbmead@cox.net, s-thompson@shaw.ca, sandy@bluefrog.com, sandydejager@hotmail.com, saseris@shaw.ca, savethesealswithcaryn@yahoo.com, sbest@stephenbest.ca, scooteranne@rochester.rr.com, sealme@sbcglobal.net, seeloveverywhere@gmail.com, sehiker@yahoo.com, shamrock51475@hotmail.com, SharonLChristman@aol.com, simcha@poetworld.net, spiraluprising@yahoo.com, ssforever@earthlink.net, stageworxpro@yahoo.ca, stkaufman@mindspring.com, stopabuse@columbus.rr.com, sue@wildernesscommittee.org, susannadfuller@gmail.com, t.wofford@live.com, tamaraalexis@rogers.com, teresa@wlpa.org, tiasmail@animail.net, tigers@islandnet.com, tinkru@yahoo.ca, tkachyk@wspa.ca, TkHandsoff@aol.com, tmarris@snader.com, tonicarl@juno.com, tracs@shaw.ca, triciaglynn@sbcglobal.net, trinity@cableaz.com, twyla.1@mts.net, trueblueanimalover@hotmail.com, vegaia@juno.com, vegan904@warwick.net, VeganD@verizon.net, veganvirago@comcast.net, Vivian_salamanca@adp.com, viviansalamanca@verizon.net, voicesforanimals@gmail.com, wcwcqb@shaw.ca, wembar@veganpeace.com, wildwatch@verizon.net, write2Taina@shaw.ca, Zan14@optonline.net,
Global Green Fund
The locations and coordinates of these time capsules will not be made known to the general public. They will be known only to a privileged few, myself not included. There are instructions as to how they will be launched, and how they will be opened at the destination date. The media, if they still exist then, will definitely be involved. The media may no longer exist in 2060 because what you are doing today may doom civilization to disintegration and collapse, when the first to go would be high technology. Perhaps you could then wish for these as another temporary refuge for your reputation, though I would not recommend it.
We are not vindictive, and would say the same words and do the same things no matter who and what party are in power. So don’t take this personally. And we believe in giving someone a second chance. Here is our condition:
If you shut down the tar sands once and for all within three years, we shall erase your names from the plaque, or give you a better title if you wish. If not, we will throw away the key. This is not a threat, and the ball is in your court.
We will be monitoring every politician’s word you say and every political move you make over the next three years, to begin with, and promise to be fair, a leniency that you certainly have not earned.
Just one last question for you both before we close this door: How do you sleep at night?
Sincerely,
Anthony Marr, founder and president
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Emergency Operation (GEO)
www.HOPE-CARE.org
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Open letter to BC Premier & EM on tar sands, pipeline & tankers

Open letter to BC Premier and Environmental Minister on the tar sands, pipeline and tankers

Dear Sirs,

Former American president Harry Truman had a sign on his desk saying, “THE BUCK STOPS HERE”, referring to the passing of responsibility and blame. It is a statement of leadership.

The American and Canadian people say to their elected leaders, “Put your money where your mouth is.” This is a requirement of trustworthiness and accountability.

All peoples of the world elect their leaders for their courage and wisdom, not cowardice and stupidity.

We the people of British Columbia expect our elected leaders to be responsible, trustworthy, accountable, wise and courageous in discharging their duties to British Columbia and British Columbians. We expect the Environment Minister to take full responsibility of the environment, and the Premier to take full responsibility of the Environment Ministry.

To give one specific example, an oil spill in British Columbian waters is not only the responsibility of the BC Environment Minister, but more so that of the BC Premier, and ultimately that of the Canadian Prime Minister, regardless of who is in office or which party is in power.

The BC Environment Minister, and the BC Premier and the Canadian Prime Minister should all be aware that given tanker traffic in British Columbia waters, the probability of an Exxon-Valdez-level oil spill has been determined by scientists to be once every 16 years. “Just a probability”? Bear this in mind: the sinking of the ferry Queen of the North 135 kilometers south of Prince Rupert in March 2006 has a much lower probability than a tanker oil spill, yet the ferry did sink. And since the Exxon Valdez accident happened 19 years ago, the next one is 3 years overdue.

But there is no oil tanker traffic in BC waters, you say? True, for now. As we speak, however, a pipeline is being planned to be built across northern British Columbian to drain the crude oil from the Alberta tar sands into tankers to be docked at Kitimat, BC, destined for the United States and China.

If this pipeline is to be built, there will be precarious oil tanker traffic in BC waters. Conversely, if the British Columbians allow lumbering oil tankers that require kilometers just to slow down to prowl the treacherous waters of the unforgiving BC coast, the pipeline will be built, which will damage huge swaths of pristine wilderness. And both tanker and pipeline will support the environmentally disastrous Alberta tar sands, about which the Premier of BC himself, a pioneering champion in North America of the carbon-tax, has expressed disapproval. Which begs the question: Is this trustworthiness?

And: Why?

Is it money? Canada paying BC to support Alberta ? Alberta itself paying BC for support? BC somehow extracting a fee for the service? BC, the gateway to the Pacific – dollar? If so, take a look at the downside of money.

To name a front-line example. While the ecological effects of the Exxon Valdez 11-million-gallon spill is still felt today, back in 1989, the cleanup effort cost to Exxon alone was upwards of $3.5 billion, equivalent to $25 billion in 2008. Although it was Exxon who paid the bill, the size of the bill reflects the enormity of the environmental and health damage. The death toll in terms of wildlife along the effected 470-mile Alaskan coast was staggering; but the full impact we’ll never know. The Exxon spill has precipitated health problems in wildlife and humans alike. In terms of impact on humans and cultures, the impact is inestimable.

The University of Florida reports:

“Refusal to Accept Responsibility In addition to its slow response and insufficient communication, the company's attempts to remedy its damaged reputation fell short of their intended goals. Initially, Exxon blamed state and federal officials for the delays in containing the spill. When asked how Exxon intended to pay the massive cleanup costs, one Exxon executive responded by saying it would raise gas prices to pay for the incident. These attempts to evade responsibility and defer blame angered consumers. Ten days after the spill, Exxon spent $1.8 million to take out a full-page ad in 166 papers. In the ad, the company apologized for the spill but still refused to accept responsibility. Many saw this approach as insincere and inadequate.

“The End Result Exxon paid the price for its actions in several different ways. The cleanup effort cost the company $2.5 billion alone, and Exxon was forced to pay out $1.1 billion in various settlements. A 1994 federal jury also fined Exxon an additional $5 billion for its "recklessness," which Exxon later appealed. In addition to the upfront costs of the disaster, Exxon's image was permanently tarnished. Angered customers cut up their Exxon credit cards and mailed them to Rawl, while others boycotted Exxon products. According to a study by Porter/Novelli several years after the accident, 54 percent of the people surveyed said they were still less likely to buy Exxon products.”

Double-hulling the tankers will prevent spills? Wikipedia reports:

“Opposing viewpoints have argued that the double hull is actually more dangerous than a single hull. Most of the collisions that the double hull prevents are so minor that they would typically spill little to no oil on a single hull tanker... In addition, there is a much larger potential for explosive accidents happening due to the increased element of oil mixing with air during a high-energy grounding, as was the case with the Aegean Sea oil spill.

“Possibly the most disturbing fact about the double hull is that it does not protect against major, high-energy collisions or groundings which is what causes the majority of oil pollution… the damage to the Exxon Valdez penetrated sections of the hull (the slops oil tanks) which were protected by a partial double hull. The double hull required by the new regulations would not have prevented extensive loss of oil from the Exxon Valdez, though it might have somewhat limited the losses.”

While on Exxon, the Financial Post reported (May 29, 2008) that Rex Tillerson, chairman and chief executive, argued that the science of climate change was far from settled and that his company viewed it as its "corporate social responsibility" to continue to supply the world with fossil fuels. He said that since global warming is “not fully understood”, we should keep on debating about it, while developing the tar sands at all speed, “rather than acceptance that it is occurring, with the potential consequence that governments will implement policies that put world economies at risk.” This is in spite of the fact that Exxon Mobil is the only oil company which is a member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Metaphorically, Tillerson is an officer of the Titanic sailing through thick fog, saying, “Icebergs may still be a hoax. Full speed ahead!”

A side note is that when Neva Rockefeller Goodwin, the great-granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller who founded Exxon's predecessor 125 years ago, proposed that Exxon Mobil prepare a report on the impact of climate change on emerging countries, and embrace greener energy, it was rejected by 90% of Exxon shareholders, a stark illustration of “bad capitalism” in action (vs “good capitalism” as in green investing). They are the societal root of all evil.

One last note on tankers is that as their size grows ever larger, so will the magnitude of the disaster when it happens.

Yes, “when”, not “if”, which begs another question: Has the BC Ministry of Finance taken this inevitable future expense into account? No. To be paid by whom? Our children’s children, who will already be suffering the consequences of global warming we are right now precipitating upon them. Is this what accountability means?

We often miss the obvious while looking for the unusual. It never ceases to amaze me how financially responsible we have trained ourselves to be on a personal level, where one day late in credit card payment will brand us unreliable, when our highest echelon leaders show such gross irresponsibility on a global level and multi-generational scale. Our elected leaders may have 20/20 hindsight, but definitely very shallow insight, and near-zero foresight.

Now, if we step farther back and look at the greater picture, the hazards of the BC government’s self-conflicting policy and involvement with the Alberta tar sands has such wider global impact that makes the Exxon Valdez spill look like mere spilled milk.

We don’t even need to look to our future generations yet to see this suffering, for it has already begun. Where the Alberta tar sands are concerned, the native people are the biggest losers. The Chippewyan people living near the Alberta tar sands are suffering sky-high cancer rates, and at that with exotic forms of cancer associated with ingesting deformed fish in the Athabasca watershed. A Chippewyan saying: “When you see a duck land, do not expect it to take off again.” The tar sands consume as much water as the whole city of Calgary , and where does the waste water go? The Athabasca watershed.

And what does the waste water contain? The PAHs (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) and other organic compounds, along with a range of heavy metals, all in all a cocktail of carcinogens.

The Alberta government and oil companies boast of benefiting the Chippewyan by building for them infrastructures not there before, including modern hospitals equipped with state-of-the-art cancer-treatment technology. What is wrong with this picture?

Speaking of technology, the way by which oil is extracted from the tar sands is ridiculous, absurd, wasteful and polluting in the extreme. It burns one unit of natural gas to produce two units of crude, which will require even more energy to be transported to distant refineries through pipelines and tanker transport, where even more fuel is burned to refine the crude into gasoline, which eventually is all burnt. What is wrong with this picture?

And where does the natural gas come from? Russia , via an already built natural gas pipeline through northern BC. So, Canada buys natural gas from Russia, to extract crude oil from the tar sands in Alberta, which will then be shipped by pipeline and tanker to the US and China, where the crude will be refined into gasoline, some of which being shipped back to Canada for Canadian consumption. What is wrong with this picture?

These incongruent and almost nonsensical pictures, though huge, are tiny compared to the biggest picture in climate change and global warming – how much carbon is currently locked up in the tar sands, to be eventually all released into the atmosphere when burned as gasoline in the US and China? Quantitatively, according to Wikipedia, “Oil sands may represent as much as two-thirds of the world's total petroleum resource, with at least 1.7 trillion barrels (270×109 m3) in the Canadian Athabasca tar sands and perhaps 235 billion barrels (37×109 m3) of extra heavy crude in the Venezuelan Orinoco tar sands. Between them, the Canadian and Venezuelan deposits contain about 3.6 trillion barrels (570×109 m3) of oil in place, compared to 1.75 trillion barrels (280×109 m3) of conventional oil worldwide, most of it in Saudi Arabia and other Middle-Eastern countries.” If all the carbon in the tar sands goes up in smoke, we can kiss our children’s future goodbye.

And how much of the carbon in the tar sands do the oil companies and the Alberta government intend to release into the atmosphere? All of it, of course.

Oil will become more and more expensive as the years, months, even just weeks, roll by, so how can these agents of greed resist it?

And what will this mean? Runaway global heating, civilization collapse, global chaos, widespread famine, mass extinction. Is this wise?

Now, back to British Columbia , British Columbians and the BC government. If we permit the pipeline to be built, and allow tankers into BC waters, not only will we be endangering the ecology of British Columbia, but the global environment, and our children’s survival, and life on Earth, and the life of Earth itself.

One small request to the Premier and Environment Minister of British Columbia . It is not something colossal and global, nor are we asking you to vigorously oppose the Alberta tar sands. All we are asking of you is this:

Please guarantee to me and all British Columbians that there will be no chance, not just a slim chance, but zero chance, of any major oil spill in British Columbian waters.

That’s it.

Please do not say that there is no way for a 100% guarantee on anything. There is a very simple way. No oil tanker traffic in BC waters, period.

Mr./Ms. Environment Minister, if you cannot make this promise, what good are you to us nature-loving British Columbians as the person we trust to protect our environment? Mr./Ms. Premier, if you cannot make this simple yet all important promise, what good are you as our leader?

As I said, we are not asking you to vigorously oppose the Alberta tar sands, only to end British Columbia ’s support for it, and association with it. Even this little bit will take courage, but, as I said, we elected you on grounds of courage and wisdom, not cowardice and stupidity.

Without tanker traffic, there is no reason for the pipeline to be built, and British Columbia ’s complicity in the Albertan tar sands atrocity will be cleared, and the global conscience of British Columbians will be at peace.

Then and only then will you go down in history as the responsible, trustworthy, accountable, wise and courageous leaders that we British Columbians and our future generations require and deserve.

Sincerely,

Anthony Marr, founder and president
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Compassion for Animals Road Expeditions (CARE)
Global Emergency Operation (GEO)
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.MySpace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.ARConference.org

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Thursday, June 5, 2008

Runaway global heating has begun!

Runaway Global Heating HAS BEGUN!

by Anthony Marr

The most alarming phenomenon occurring in the world today is not skyrocketing fuel or food prices, not looming terrorism, not even precipitous deforestation, alarming as these may be. It is something more dangerous than all the nuclear weapons in the world combined. It is almost unnoticeable – silent, stealthy, patient, remote, almost picturesque and poetic to the untrained eye. It is lethal without seeming lethal until it has killed you. And it is emerging from the underworld as we speak. It is called methane.

Globally, we are talking about permafrost methane release (see www.HOPE-CARE.org, global warming section, Arctic subsection) as well as oceanic methane release. Once these releases have started, global warming will in short order take a quantum leap and become RUNAWAY GLOBAL HEATING. It will be inexorable, relentless, merciless, exponential, unsurvivable. When it is all said and done, almost all life on Earth will have been extinguished.

Oceanic methane release is currently mainly a matter of projection, but permafrost methane release is not. Permafrost melting has begun (see the numerous pictures of permafrost melting in www.HOPE-CARE.org, global warming section, Artic subsection), and therefore, so has Runaway Global Heating.

Let me explain why this is an inescapable conclusion. It is very simple really. You don't need to be an Einstein to understand it.

· The Earth has warmed up less than one degree Celsius since the Industrial Age began in 1880, and this has been enough to begin melting the permafrost.

· The permafrost contains frozen methane to the tune of about 1,000 billion tons, or 1 trillion tons, which will gradually be released into the atmosphere in gaseous form as the permafrost melts.

· As a greenhouse gas, methane is 75 times more potent than carbon dioxide within 10 years of release, and 25 times within a few decades.

· The Earth will certainly continue warming up (by 6 or more degrees Celsius by 2100) from the existing and projected carbon dioxide alone – currently about 700 billion tons in the atmosphere, 385 parts per million (ppm) in concentration, and increasing by 8.5 billion tons per year from human activities.

· As carbon dioxide and methane concentrations increase in the atmosphere, a positive feedback loop will result where the atmosphere will warm up more, which will melt more permafrost, releasing more methane, which will warm up the atmosphere even more, which will melt more permafrost, releasing even more methane... This is not a cycle, but a spiral, a spiral towards oblivion.

· This warming can certainly bring about a complete permafrost meltdown within decades, releasing all 1 trillion tons of methane-based carbon into the atmosphere, totaling over 1800 billion tons, or over 950 ppm in concentration. This will certainly drive the global temperature well over the 6oC/10oF threshold where 85% of species will be driven to extinction, to perhaps higher than 10oC/16oF. This will be more than enough to warm the oceans sufficiently to begin releasing their methane from thawing marine methane clathrate deposits.

· The Earth has undergone five major mass extinction bouts. Of the five, only the fifth – the End Cretaceous 64 million years ago – the one that eradicated all dinosaurs - was caused by anything other than climate change. The third, the End-Permian 251 million years ago, experienced a global warming of 10oC/16oF, resulting in the extinction of 75% of all land species and 95% of all marine species. Today, we are in the 6th, the Anthropocene Mass Extinction, which promises to be worse than even the End-Permian, because there is an extra factor in play today not there before - anthropogenic carbon dioxide.

· Here is the most frightening part: The amount of submarine methane clathrate far out-weighs permafrost methane clathrate – by a factor of 10. The submarine methane currently locked up in ocean trenches and continental shelves totals some 10,000 billion tons, or 10 trillion tons. If even a small percentage of this submarine methane is released, the entire biosphere will be toast. Although various deposits are stable to various extends, there are continental sill methane clathrate deposits that can be destabilized by an ocean warming of no more than 5oC/8oF.

The one big question. WHAT IS THERE TO STOP IT?!

Corn/soy/cane/palm-derived ethanol won't do it, since it still releases carbon dioxide (CO2), besides destroying tropical rainforest to accommodate ever expanding soy plantations.

Conservation won't do it. Even if we have cars running on 300 miles per gallon, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere will still increase, and the temperature will still rise. Even if we stop burning fossil fuels altogether, the temperature will still keep on rising, albeit at a slower rate.

Clean energy – solar, wind, geothermal, wave and tidal – can help reduce CO2 emissions, and can even eventually reduce CO2 emissions to zero, but cannot decrease the atmospheric carbon concentration, and therefore cannot stop, much less reverse, runaway global heating.

The only technology that can deal with runaway global heating is Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS), which by definition absorbs carbon from the atmosphere and actually reduces the carbon concentration.

We are not talking about those small, auxiliary CCS systems attached to coal-fired plants. We are talking about gigantic free-standing CCS systems actively gobbling up carbon by the ton out of the atmosphere every day – on a global scale.

Anthony Marr, founder and president
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Compassion for Animals Road Expeditions (CARE)
Global Emergency Operation (GEO)
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.MySpace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.ARConference.org

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