30 Dec

Wake Up! Wake Up!

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So many Americans are struggling to survive in the current money system. What most don’t realize is that it is not their own personal finances that need changing, but the economic system itself. In Running on Empty, Peter Peterson, former Secretary of Commerce and Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank, wrote that “America may well be headed for a financial meltdown. In Jan. 2004 … the IMF took direct aim at the U.S., warning the world that we are careening toward insolvency. They point to a huge and growing imbalance between what the federal government has promised to pay in future benefits and what it can reasonably expect to collect in future taxes. Its long-term deficit now exceeds 500% of GNP. Closing that gap, the IMF calculated, ‘would require an immediate and permanent 60% hike in the federal income tax or a 50% cut in Social Security and Medicare benefits.’” In his assessment, Paul Volcker, former chair of the Federal Reserve, warned that the U.S. faces a 75% chance of a crisis by 2009. Continue reading

30 Dec

Ecology

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Until we start applying some logic into ecological to resolve the world’s interconnected crises, we’ll never be able to remove the stain in sustainable. That stain is the legacy of the everyone-for-themselves system that has been in place unquestioned for thousands of years and is at the core of the environmental dilemma. Continue reading

30 Dec

Regarding Againstness

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“The time has come to break out of past patterns. Attempts to maintain social and ecological stability through old approaches to development and environmental protection will increase instability.  Security must be sought through change.  This Commission has noted a number of actions that must be taken to reduce risks to survival and to put future development on paths that are sustainable.  Yet we are aware that such a reorientation on a continuing basis is simply beyond the reach of present decision-making structures and institutional arrangements, both national and international.”1
—World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) Continue reading

30 Dec

Something More Than Changing Light Bulbs

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We are in the midst of a major environmental crisis, and the current solutions presented by the media are not enough to change the tides.  While it’s great that people and businesses are thinking and acting more “green”, small changes alone will not be enough to bail ourselves out.
Here are the steps that we need to take: Continue reading