"To Uphold the World: A Call for a New Global Ethic from Ancient India" by environmental attorney Bruce Rich

Here’s the playbill for this coming Monday’s Blue Planet Almanac radio show at 8 AM Los Angeles time on HealthyLife.net. There, you’ll click, “Listen Live:”

Sustainability is cross-disciplinary. From anywhere you stand you could pick up a figurative pebble or rock, toss it as lightly or hard and you like, and strike a subject which involves environmentalism, its law, policy, farming, food, water or a myriad other important things. Environmental lawyer Bruce Rich, American farmer Eric Herm, and personal development wizard Mick Quinn will explain the interactions of those things for us.

Bruce Rich – Man Across Time

And modern humanity weren’t the ones who first thought of these interdependencies. It wasn’t John Muir, Gifford Pinchot or Rachel Carson. At least 2,000 years before the 1973 United States Endangered Species Act, before 1970′s first Earth Day – two widely feared and respected characters, Ashoka and Kautilya were conservationists who recognized what the Earth had going for them. Although they were respectively conqueror and politician, Asoka and Kautilya were also east Indian conservationists who laid down laws with stiff penalties and state policies to preserve natural resources.

That kind’a puts what we thought we were doing in a different perspective, eh? And in a story arc that exceeds the wildest expectations of any movie mogul or American consumer, Ashoka arrived at his moment of power and fame in an especially bloodthirsty fashion. But then he converted himself to Buddhism! Kautilya was Ashoka’s architect of state, and is said to have made Machiavelli look like he’d not yet graduated from the sandbox into realpolitik.

So what does this mean for us today? How can we use what Ashoka and Kautilya did in today creating our means to live? Bruce Rich answers, “In many ways.”

Bruce Rich, author and White Hat attorney

Rich is widely recognized for his role as a senior attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund and Natural Resources Defense Council. That should be good enough for you to get your own copy of this excellent reflection on economics, history and current environmental concerns. But if you’d like the usual superlatives that many people crave, the fact that The 14th Dalai Lama wrote Rich’s afterword and the Nobel Prize winning, “Mother Teresa of economics” Amartya Sen wrote its forward, now you have your recommendations.

Wikipedia says Rich is: “…an American writer and lawyer who has published extensively on the environment in developing countries and development in general… was awarded the United Nations Global 500 Award for environmental achievement for his research and advocacy… Since the 1980s Rich worked as an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Defense Fund. He has also worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, the United Nations Environment Program, the World Resources Institute, the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment and the World Bank…”

Rich also: “…testified in Congressional hearings on U.S. participation in international financial institutions… has written numerous articles and opeds on international development and environment in publications such as The Nation, The Financial Times, The Ecologist, and Environmental Forum, the policy journal of the Environmental Law Institute. He has lectured widely at universities and colleges around the U.S.”

Mick Quinn – Why We Do What We Do in the Moment

Mick Quinn, serial CEO who began teaching personal growth

Personal development expert Mick Quinn is someone I’ve been interested in talking with for some time, after his wife, Debora Prieto suggested the idea through a Facebook connection. Mick understands the fundamental imperatives of consciousness toward healthy lives. Personal values are absolutely key to sustainability, and nothing on Earth will ever change until we change ourselves through our daily habits. Mick is an expert in habitual behaviour.

By our nature, we never do things that others tell us to do, especially as a species. We all try and do things in the easiest fashion conceivable. Enter personal development and growth, or how Blue Planet Almanac’s April 2009 guest and NY Times best-selling author Thomas Kostigen would ask you to, “Care.”

The Uncommon Path by Mick Quinn

Although there are many important topics we bring to you in Blue Planet Almanac, personal choices are the most critical to positive change in sustainability. Don’t let the succinct brevity of this little post lull you into thinking there will ever be anything more important. Consider for one instructive example, that The 14th Dalai Lama wrote the afterword to Bruce Rich’s book about the application of sustainable economic ethos to modern life. Everyone needs good tools to make decisions about their values. Mick’s work is basically in the same kind of field as the Dalai Lama’s and they both specialize in the means to create your own happiness.

The Irish Quinn has penned an Amazon best-seller, The Uncommon Path of Awakening Authentic Joy. In this era of lightning fast information, a bestseller on Amazon is as good in my book as the waning signature-bound tradition. I find that people who matured in other countries often have perspectives on American behavior which are often fresh and unusual.

In a little digression – I must also admit some pride in hearing this about Quinn because I’ve plenty of Irish blood. Before I grew sick of pickle jokes my surname was Dill. As a nation the Irish have a reputation which involves liberal rock ‘n roll, elbow exercise and quick tempers. Some of that’s deserved, but no more or less than the notion that the United States is a resource-rich nation of spoiled environmental usurpers. Touche. ;)

There are likely to be some surprising things Mick will say to you about your values in sustainability and environmentalism. For a preview of his personal energy, take a look at this vid:

Think of the positive change Mick’s work could bring you as your filling of choice between the bread of Bruce Rich’s and Eric Herm’s means. If instead of just listening to a pleasant radio show about sustainability, you want to move your own growth in different directions which you choose, Mick’s methods are among the best. Many will find that his methods suit them in a manner that others haven’t. Mick is also experienced in the black and white world of business, which will assist and appeal to those of us involved in it.

Eric Herm – a Simply Spoken, Savvy American Farmer for Our Future

Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth, by Eric Herm

If you pay attention to what’s happening in the world of sustainability right now, you’ll often hear experts discussing the most critical “limiting factors” to environmental health. Many of these factors arise from common sense, but arriving at solutions for them takes time, considerable thought and energy. Geopolitical consultants and most American thinkers often cite food and water as the two most important factors every nation will face, now and in coming millenia. If your people are hungry or thirsty, there will at least be unrest and very often war. Lester R. Brown’s Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization discusses this if you’d like a primer.

But if we move our focus to an American level as an example of what affects us directly, you wouldn’t find information that’s more accessible and understandable than from Eric Herm, author of Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth. Eric’s understanding of American agriculture – and what’s put on your table each and every night – is second to none. He backs up his claims with facts, charts and tables, which is pretty unusual for someone of his experience. One of the most interesting things about Eric is although he’s an expert young farmer, he completely understands commerce, corporate profit motives and our government’s incestuous relationship with modern agriculture.

Eric Herm. This man grows your food.

Eric’s got experience in the close examination of the massive, unsustainable scale of commercial American farming. He shows us the many ways in which large companies and even our federal government have turned agriculture into a completely chemical, commoditized enterprise which is now hurting us. And we’ve let them do it because we thought it was O.K. and that someone else would take care of it for us.

The book’s Foreword by Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow of the ‘Take No Prisoners’ Post Carbon Institute, tells us what’s really in store if we are to succeed in sustainability: “America needs enormous numbers of new farmers to follow in Herm’s footsteps. The 20th century saw the replacement of farmers with machines running on oil, and with chemicals made from fossil fuels. In this century, as oil and other resources dwindle, we will need generations of children of the Earth to take up once again the venerable occupation that feeds us all. That means we require a revival not just of the many skills that farmers need, but a renewal of rural farming culture, and the creation of an economic system what rewards what really matters – healthy food and healthy planet – more than it does speculation in imaginary claims on ill-defined wealth.”

If you want to find out what this means on a practical basis, and what to do to help your family and everyone else, tune-in and also read his book. This vid below gives you the underpinnings of Herm’s philosophy, while his book and interview with Blue Planet Almanac will give you specific examples you can use in conversation.

Blue Planet Almanac radio airs live with host Mike Austin on HealthyLife.net on the 4th Monday of each month at 8:00 A.M. Pacific Time. Blue Planet Almanac is also re-broadcast later in the week and shows are archived three days after airtime at that same site. HealthyLife.net is an all-positive talk station and has over 3 million listeners monthly in 104 countries and all 50 United States.

Blue Planet Almanac offers thoughtful perspectives on conscious, green living on Earth. With fascinating interviews, breaking news and product reviews, caller participation about Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability are encouraged, including science and policy of importance to Earthlings. Listeners can have their say in an environment that matters or simply listen to leaders in their field.

Check this out! I couldn’t believe my eyes. BP has really turned their misfortune into a profitable opportunity! Those guys are good! “Gulf Wax!” Who would’a figured?

;-)

They write that it’s for, “CANNING, CANDLEMAKING AND MANY OTHER USES”. Wow. I think one of the first uses BP devised was as ear plugs.

BP makes the best of a sticky situation.

And, as an extra, unadvertised feature, the raw oil from the April 20th, 2010 disaster will also appear in a marine gyre near you, in a garbage patch, serving as the chemical glue to attract all sorts of toxic stuff!

ISPMB's Gila herd

There are many things we’re doing right as humans learn their way ’round Earth. In this Monday’s Blue Planet Almanac, at 8:00 AM PDST, we’d like to devote some time to some positive things while still keeping our challenges in mind.

Karen Sussman of the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros

Starting us off will be a fascinating interview with Karen Sussman of the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros (ISPMB). Formed in 1960, IPSMB operates from the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Although today’s horses and donkeys were imports from America’s conquistador days, many United States laws and activities have been drafted over the years to help protect them. ISPMB is about trying to help feral horses and burros thrive.

Karen Sussman, ISPMB

Karen has 58 years as a successful advocate for horses and burros. Since she works for a nonprofit, Karen has no time for the PR common to women in her executive role. Her bio’s longer than could be given justice here, but she’s the sort with story upon story about her wonderful activities.

From ISPMB’s site is this: “What We Do – The International Society for the Protection of Mustang and Burros is an effective international leader in our field because we have earned the respect and credibility of the many diverse participants in the Wild Horse and Burro program. Our approach to problem solving is unique… Our main thrust is one of education and of becoming a model, a way of ‘being’ on this planet… One can make no greater impression than to lead by example. ISPMB honors the wild horse and burro and realizes the interdependence of all living things in this universe.”

ISPMB’s list of achievements is long. Be sure and be with us to hear about Karen’s experiences with these beautiful, wild creatures!

A friend near Sydney, Australia

Patrick Ramage of the International Fund for Animal Welfare

And, there’s more good news! Although the International Whaling Commission has recently been suggesting that the worldwide ban on commercial whaling be lifted, they just agreed not to – just last week. Many of us were worried about this, including President Obama’s support in lifting the ban. It’s not like the decades-old whaling ban is something many of us wouldn’t expand greatly. Most environmentalists would prefer that Norway, Japan and Iceland discontinue their controversial whaling practices. But a whole bunch of us are now wiping our brows in slight relief there won’t be a massive step backwards.

From the respected International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Blue Planet Almanac will talk about this new International Whaling Commission development with Patrick Ramage, IFAW’s Global Whale Program Director. See IFAW’s specialized page about it’s anti-whaling programs.

Patrick Ramage (right) at the Agadir, Morocco IWC meeting with Australian Broadcast Corporation/ABC News.

Although they now have many active programs advocating for sustainable policies about animal populations, the International Fund for Animal Welfare was founded around 40 years back from a common interest in stopping the slaughter of white-coated harp seals and their pups. These days they have upwards of 1.2 million supporters worldwide, making (from IFAW’s Website), a “…broad base of support… to engage communities, government leaders, and like-minded organizations around the world and achieve lasting solutions to pressing animal welfare and conservation challenges-solutions that benefit both animals and people.”

IFAW’s Website says, “…the founders of the International Fund for Animal Welfare… rejected the notion that the interests of humans and animals were separate. Instead they embraced the understanding that the fate and future of harp seals – and all other animals on Earth – are inextricably linked to our own.”

This thought is directly related to what any biologist worth his salt would say, including Tom Lovejoy of the H. John Heinz, III Institute. Biodiversity depends directly upon us and is now in our hands.

In the spirit of protecting all animals, they declare at their Website: “IFAW continues to document and expose abuses of… commercial hunt(ing) and press for an end to this cruel, unsustainable slaughter. Over the years, the small team of committed campaigners… has grown to become the world’s leading international animal welfare organizations… with teams of experienced and dedicated campaigners, legal and political experts, and internationally acclaimed scientists working from offices in countries around the world.”

Anna Cummins & Dr. Marcus Ericksen, with their artful "logo." Like a Buddhist sand mandala, no? Just with different materials.

Marcus Ericksen, Ph.D. and Anna Cummins of the 5 Gyres project

And, wrapping this Monday’s Blue Planet Almanac with us will be the adventurous and courageous Dr. Marcus Ericksen and Anna Cummins, both of the 5 Gyres project and the Algalita Marine Research Foundation.

Anna and Marcus’ pictures are in every dictionary’s definition of peripatetic. When we were setting up this interview, these two marine scientists wrote that they were in Wyoming. On vacation. ??? Gathering dinosaur bones. !!! Anna told me that Marcus has done this every summer for the past 19.

Marcus, their friend Joel Paschal and Anna also staged the 13 week voyage of their Junk Raft project with Algalita, sailing from California to Hawaii on a raft of 15,000 plastic bottles. Try that in your spare time to publicize marine debris ;)

Anna and Marcus have been our guests before, but they have some important news to report about their research and education programs. Many of us know about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, first brought to light by Anna and Marcus’ friend, Charles Moore of Algalita Research Foundation. The garbage patch is called by other, different names, too, including the Eastern Garbage Patch.

The characteristics of the plastic debris, toxic chemical sludge and trash in this patch usually makes individual particles small and diffuse, so the Pacific Garbage Patch’s scale is massive. Anna and Marcus say to think of a soup of debris instead of floating islands or patches. Here’s a good interview with Anna by Discovery News’ Jorge Rivas, showing you what a marine garbage patch really looks like.

Of course, these plastics and chemical sludge are now both in the marine food chain. The sludge and plastic eventually become small, and are ingested by the same animals we eat. The same animals other predators eat. Plastic is well-known to attract toxic organic compounds, concentrating them. Maybe the Pacific Toxic Soup would be a more memorable name? In this manner more effective bio-accumulation occurs in the organisms which eat the Toxic Soup.

Use your common sense and instincts and let that soak in for a moment.  I’d say seafood vendors won’t be putting toxic chemical sludge and plastic among the ingredients of what they sell you anytime soon. And it’s astonishingly safe to say that the United State’s particularly permissive chemical food ingredients programs and the E.P.A. won’t be saying there’s any problem with this. The E.P.A. just this year, for example, finally decided further study was needed on BPA (bisphenol-A), so they’ll be the opposite of shining examples of chemical safety. If you want someone with a big name to tell you this, see Sanjay Gupta’s excellent reports over CNN, “Toxic America.”

Dr. Marcus Ericksen does the backstroke in a microsea of junk.

Wikipedia writes that this one gyre’s patch could, “… range from 700,000 square kilometres (270,000 sq mi) to more than 15,000,000 square kilometres (5,800,000 sq mi) (0.41% to 8.1% of the size of the Pacific Ocean), or, in some media reports, up to ‘twice the size of the continental United States.” This makes it much, much bigger than a Texas-sized garbage patch. Think of a massive cauldron at temperatures lower than a crockpot.

But – get this – there are at least five such patches of Toxic Soup in our oceans. There are five major ocean gyres collecting the stew efficiently, 24 hours of each and every day. Mother Earth is very predictable and reliable. The five major gyres are the North Atlantic Gyre, the South Atlantic Gyre, the Indian Ocean Gyre, the North Pacific Gyre and the South Pacific Gyre.

Bringing together the knowledge needed to assess and solve this problem are what Anna and Marcus are working on right now, in cooperation with the partners of their forward-thinking, creative 5 Gyres project.

Blue Planet Almanac radio airs live with host Mike Austin on HealthyLife.net on the 4th Monday of each month at 8:00 A.M. Pacific time. Blue Planet Almanac is also re-broadcast later in the week and shows are archived three days after airtime at that same site. HealthyLife.net is an all-positive talk station and has over 3 million listeners monthly in 104 countries and all 50 United States.

Blue Planet Almanac offers thoughtful perspectives on conscious, green living on Earth. With fascinating interviews, breaking news and product reviews, caller participation about Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability are encouraged, including science and policy of importance to Earthlings. Listeners can have their say in an environment that matters or simply listen to leaders in their field. Join us live!

Comparative volumes of water and air on Earth, from Adam Nieman

At first, I wasn’t really sure why I was attending yesterday’s symposium, Climate & Sustainability: Moving by Degrees. Years of experience, instinct and intuition have taught me plenty about environmental issues, enough to know what to report to my Blue Planet Almanac audience. But I had clear feelings I should simply show up, taking a day out of busy reporter’s life.

But, as I sat listening to keynoter Andrew Revkin, I then realized that I was sitting among some of the best and brightest minds our culture has to offer. A scenario like that is always worth riding. Kai Ryssdal and Andrew Revkin were recognizable names to me. Ryssdal, because I’ve willingly heard his excellent reporting for years on Southern California’s Marketplace. Revkin, because he’s a friend of a friend-at-arms, John Amos.

When Revkin projected scientist Dr. Adam Nieman’s conceptual photos of the Earth (above) on the screen at the symposium, I knew I’d spent my time wisely.

Nieman calculated the total volume of water on Earth, shown on the left, and our air from the Earth’s atmosphere, on the right. Each are shown respectively as blue and pink spheres.

The water sphere measures about 864 miles in diameter, with a volume of of 335,877,862 cubic miles. This includes all the water in the oceans, seas, ice caps, lakes and rivers as well as ground water – and in our atmosphere.

The air sphere measures 1,242 miles across. Because it’s not quick and easy for me to convert from Nieman’s metric tonnes, I’m leaving that number alone to convert on your own if you like. But he wrote that it weighs about 5,140 trillion tonnes. Two things worth remembering about atmosphere: As it arises from Earth it becomes less dense. Half of our air lies inside the 3 miles closest to us.

This helps put everything we do in perspective, eh?

Now attending the live Webcast of Climate & Sustainability: Moving by Degrees. Watch live at Moving by Degees. Go now and see what’s happening! This is being staged by Southern California’s Public Radio Marketplace.

Here’s Phillipe Cousteau, Jr.’s interview with Rick Sanchez on CNN from 5-31-10, titled, “Swimming in the oil slick.”

Phillipe mentions a noteworthy fact – our government spends 1,000 times more on space exploration than on deepwater exploration. Toxicologist Susan B. Shaw of the Marine Environment Research Institute is also quoted.

Phillipe is co-founder and CEO of EarthEcho International and Planet Green’s Chief Ocean Correspondent.

There’s really no upside to enumerate the reasons to boycott BP products and services in this post. If you’re reading this, you’ve been keeping track of the news. But please remember BP is acting at every step and turn like a company which is trying to control everything it touches, and none of us should ever accept that.

Here are the BP brands to boycott in North America:

...

Update 6-7-10 about North America: Safeway Fuels had a marketing partnership with BP around two years ago, a “PowerPump Rewards Program,” according to press releases widely available on the Web. Safeway customers received discounts for their patronage of BP and ARCO fuel stations. When we can make the time to see if this arrangement still exists, we’ll update this post. Safeway’s 2009 annual corporate reports states that 22% of its stores have fuel stations. A recent quarterly report says it has around 388 of them.

And if our friends-at-arms in other countries could help us out with this, we’d really appreciate that. Any company which acts the way BP has deserves to be put out of business. In other countries, BP owns these additional brands:

...

These were cobbled together just this morning. Please feel free to use them; companies with dark conscience deserve all the bad press we can provide.

Phillipe Cousteau, Jr. has a very knowledgeable, approachable style. From Blue Planet Almanac’s conversation last year with his sister this is apparently a family trait.

Phillipe is co-founder and CEO of EarthEcho International and Planet Green’s Chief Ocean Correspondent. We should all be grateful and thank Phillipe for his voice and legacy, and support what he recommends regarding the BP-Transocean-Halliburton, Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

This is an excellent, short sensible interview with many good points. Some of them seem especially simple, but don’t let them slip by you because Phillipe makes it sound easy. Things to consider and extrapolate from what Phillipe says include the external costs of oil production and the socialistic government subsidies we provide the oil companies. Lester R. Brown’s book, Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, mentions that if all the external costs of oil use are included, such as health problems, pollution and dramatic reductions in environmental services (like the Gulf disaster), gas would cost upwards of $15 per gallon in the United States. You can either buy Brown’s book or download it for free.

A generation’s said to be around 33 years. There’s an interesting conclusion I’d draw from this, if you “listen between the lines.” Accelerated by the two most recent generations, the 50 years Phillipe mentions are now bequeathed to our children as a toxic, life-killing legacy.

Thanks to Bill Maher for his inimitable ability to cut through mental and verbal baloney and understanding how to guide an interview. Thanks to MEDIAite for making this clip available.

Blue Planet Almanac brother-at-arms, guest and marine biologist David Guggenheim, provided this beautifully magical video. It gives all of us a sense, a feeling, whether or not we’re in the Gulf of Mexico, of what it means to the world. These wonderful moving images just touch the surface of what takes petabytes of words to describe. Please enjoy it!

David is founder and president of 1Planet1Ocean, and wrote this about it,“This video highlights the vast diversity of marine life throughout the Gulf at risk from the BP [also Transocean and Halliburton] Deepwater Horizon disaster. The video provides an underwater tour of the Gulf by sub and scuba, encompassing the U.S., Cuba and Mexico. Produced for the opening of the first State of the Gulf of Mexico Summit in 2006, it was also shown before Congress on 5/19/2010 as part of the testimony of Dr. Sylvia A. Earle.”

Here’s Blue Planet Almanac’s last Monday’s guest, John Amos of SkyTruth, discussing their estimates of the scale of the BP – Halliburton – Transocean Gulf of Mexico oil disaster with Chuck Todd of MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown. Chuck talked with John just yesterday.

Pay careful attention to SkyTruth’s disaster estimates with what our government, including Thad Allen of the Coast Guard and President Obama’s scientists are telling us.

Now, ask yourself, are you inclined to trust numbers from government scientists, who work with the bureaucracy which has admitted to consistently underestimating the scale of the spill from day one? Or would you be more inclined to trust the numbers provided by John and his colleagues who published their Op Ed piece in last week’s NY Times? And if you want to hear even more voices in support of this, look at this piece by Andrew C. Revkin in the NY Times.

To put this in a different light, would you be more willing to trust the scientists’ numbers from universities and NGOs who make these estimates their professional business, or would you prefer to trust the organization that brings you the skill of the IRS or the Census Bureau and which consistently rewards mediocrity?