The Global Situation

Warning Image (credit to www.bibliotecapleyades.ne) 2015

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.  Barack H. Obama

President, United States of America (2009-2016)

––––––––

© 2016 Quinton Douglass Crawford  / Paperback   ISBN# 9781463675097

eBook ISBN # 978-1-329-80855-3

––––––––

THE EARTH CHARTER

Preamble

We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.

Earth, Our Home

Humanity is part of a vast evolving universe. Earth, our home, is alive with a unique community of life. The forces of nature make existence a demanding and uncertain adventure, but Earth has provided the conditions essential to life's evolution. The resilience of the community of life and the well-being of humanity depend upon preserving a healthy biosphere with all its ecological systems, a rich variety of plants and animals, fertile soils, pure waters, and clean air. The global environment with its finite resources is a common concern of all peoples. The protection of Earth's vitality, diversity, and beauty is a sacred trust.

The Global Situation

The dominant patterns of production and consumption are causing environmental devastation, the depletion of resources, and a massive extinction of species. Communities are being undermined. The benefits of development are not shared equitably and the gap between rich and poor is widening. Injustice, poverty, ignorance, and violent conflict are widespread and the cause of great suffering. An unprecedented rise in human population has overburdened ecological and social systems. The foundations of global security are threatened. These trends are perilous—but not inevitable.

The Challenges Ahead

The choice is ours: form a global partnership to care for Earth and one another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life. Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living. We must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more. We have the knowledge and technology to provide for all and to reduce our impacts on the environment. The emergence of a global civil society is creating new opportunities to build a democratic and humane world. Our environmental, economic, political, social, and spiritual challenges are interconnected, and together we can forge inclusive solutions.

Universal Responsibility

To realize these aspirations, we must decide to live with a sense of universal responsibility, identifying ourselves with the whole Earth community as well as our local communities. We are at once citizens of different nations and of one world in which the local and global are linked. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of the human family and the larger living world. The spirit of human solidarity and kinship with all life is strengthened when we live with reverence for the mystery of being, gratitude for the gift of life, and humility regarding the human place in nature.

We urgently need a shared vision of basic values to provide an ethical foundation for the emerging world community. Therefore, together in hope we affirm the following interdependent principles for a sustainable way of life as a common standard by which the conduct of all individuals, organizations, businesses, governments, and transnational institutions is to be guided and assessed.

-  Please Endorse the Earth Charter here, before continuing: http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/pages/Endorse.htm

-  GreenPeace International (Take Action)

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/take-action/

-  Natural Resources Defense Council

http://www.nrdc.org/action/4

-  Defenders of Wildlife

http://www.defendersactionfund.org/action.html

[Gret video to watch] Search: The Girl that stopped the World

––––––––

Or search: Earth Charter/ endorse  - Please support the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), Environmental Defense Fund, and others.

http://savenubia.org   http://www.themotherland.info/

http://earthcharter.org  earthguardians.org/pledge

Video: The Story of Stuff  (Video): Genetically Modified Food

http://falundafa.org  http://anonhq.com/ (Anonymous)

http://worldlandtrust.org

––––––––

At the Paris climate conference (COP21) in December 2015, 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal. 

The agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C.

The agreement is due to enter into force in 2020.

Key elements

The Paris Agreement is a bridge between today's policies and climate-neutrality before the end of the century.

Mitigation: reducing emissions

Governments agreed

a long-term goal of keeping the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels;

to aim to limit the increase to 1.5°C, since this would significantly reduce risks and the impacts of climate change;

on the need for global emissions to peak as soon as possible, recognising that this will take longer for developing countries;

to undertake rapid reductions thereafter in accordance with the best available science.

Before and during the Paris conference, countries submitted comprehensive national climate action plans (INDCs). These are not yet enough to keep global warming below 2°C, but the agreement traces the way to achieving this target.

Transparency and global stocktake

Governments agreed to

come together every 5 years to set more ambitious targets as required by science;

report to each other and the public on how well they are doing to implement their targets;

track progress towards the long-term goal through a robust transparency and accountability system.

Adaptation

Governments agreed to

strengthen societies' ability to deal with the impacts of climate change;

provide continued and enhanced international support for adaptation to developing countries.

Loss and damage

The agreement also

recognises the importance of averting, minimising and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change;

acknowledges the need to cooperate and enhance the understanding, action and support in different areas such as early warning systems, emergency preparedness and risk insurance.

Support

The EU and other developed countries will continue to support climate action to reduce emissions and build resilience to climate change impacts in developing countries.

Other countries are encouraged to provide or continue to provide such support voluntarily.

Developed countries intend to continue their existing collective goal to mobilise USD 100 billion per year until 2025 when a new collective goal will be set.

Lima-Paris Action Agenda

This initiative of the Peruvian and French COP Presidencies brought countries, cities, businesses and civil society members together to accelerate cooperative climate action in support of the new agreement.

EU's role

The EU has been at the forefront of international efforts towards a global climate deal.

Following limited participation in the Kyoto Protocol and the lack of agreement in Copenhagen in 2009, the EU has been building a broad coalition of developed and developing countries in favour of high ambition that shaped the successful outcome of the Paris conference.

The EU was the first major economy to submit its intended contribution to the new agreement in March 2015. It is already taking steps to implement its target to reduce emissions by at least 40% by 2030.

Next steps

The agreement will be deposited at the UN in New York and opened for signature for one year on 22 April 2016.

The agreement will enter into force after 55 countries that account for at least 55% of global emissions have deposited their instruments of ratification.

Chapter-1

Disrespect for Nature

Normal Oceanic Currents

(In Danger)

Global Warming has already slowed the North Atlantic Current to critical levels years ago, no guess what?

––––––––

––––––––

Earth Pledge:

I pledge allegiance to the Earth and to all the life that it sustains. One planet in our care; irreplaceable, with sustainance and respect for all.

The North Atlantic Current is Almost Gone

The latest satellite data of 2010 established that the North Atlantic Current (also called the North Atlantic Drift) no longer exists and along with it the Norway Current. These two warm water currents are actually part of the same system that has several names depending on where in the Atlantic Ocean it is. The entire system is a key part of the planet’s heat regulatory system; it is what keeps Ireland and the United Kingdom mostly ice free and the Scandinavia countries from being too cold; it is what keeps the entire world from another Ice Age. This Thermohaline Circulation System is now dead in places and dying in others. This ‘river’ of warm water that moves through the Atlantic Ocean is called, in various places, the South Atlantic Current, the North Brazil Current, the Caribbean Current, the Yucatan Current, the Loop Current, the Florida Current, the Gulf Stream, the North Atlantic Current (or North Atlantic Drift) and the Norway Current.  (A Report by Mr. Lord Stirling on August 30th, 2010)

[Remember the movie- The Day After Tomorrow]?

––––––––

Ocean Currents and Normal Life

The THC Thermohaliene Circulation and chiefly the North Atlantic Current influence the atmosphere above and below water. The jet stream winds in the northern hemisphere greatly affect temperature changes in Asia. Very recently an increase due to air temperature has motivated more forest fires in the Russia/Siberia zone, flooding of Pakistan, and China. Some flooding could have been prevented if those nations did not destroy or damage the native natural habitats. In Europe the disturbance is shown in parts of the middle of the continent in the form of increased flooding, and southern Germany now looks more like it should in November during the month of September. Snow is now falling a month earlier than normal, and gradually starting earlier in the year. 

In the southern hemisphere, much more Antarctic ice is being witnesses floating in the ocean near Australia and the southern tips of the continents. If nature is not capable of restoring the stream, the results will be disastrous.  North America, Asia, and Europe will get more extreme weather conditions as crops are destroyed. Within an Ice Age, many parts of the world will get very high temperature extremes, droughts, and some will gain huge flooding. This climate change has begun in a gradual pace, but a breaking point will come when dramatic weather phenomena happen. The expected affect would be billions of deaths and a dramatic change in the worlds food supply. 

––––––––

What is Global Warming?

The Biosphere (living area) of our Earth is changing in a negative way, which is attributable to the effects of Neo-Eurocentric industrial globalization. The spread of wasteful technologies, whether as stolen, destructive or misappropriated use and suppression of alternative fuel machines have been created with a philosophy that nature is to be controlled. More carbon dioxide is now in the atmosphere than has been in the past 650,000 years. Massive destruction of the earth’s plant based ecosystems like forests is a major part of the problem.  Plants breathe in carbon dioxide, and exhale oxygen.

As many plants are being killed by bad, poorly raised, and less intelligent humans, the amount of plants that keep CO2 to a minimum & Oxygen at a high healthy level is decreasing. This carbon stays in the atmosphere as a thin blanket that holds in a moderate amount of heat. The levels of CO2 have been increasing, tending the name ‘global warming.’ The reason we exist on this planet is because the earth naturally traps just enough heat in the atmosphere to keep the temperature within a very narrow range creating the conditions that give us breathable air, clean water, and the weather we depend on to survive. People that have centered their lives around the European & American technologies over the past 200 years have tended to disturb the natural balance of their lives. Extreme temperature changes; a 50ft(plus) rise in ocean levels, many category 4 and 5 hurricanes, super thunderstorms, extended high temperature season days, and a quadrupling of seasonal tornado’s in naturally common & uncommon places are expected.

The North Atlantic Current is actually on a critical verge of being altered to Ice Age inflicting activity. Those that have become complacent about the death dealers of life on Earth should be dunked into the center of an ocean for an hour.  What would happen if the North Atlantic Current should stop or change direction? What would happen if the North Atlantic Current should stop or change direction? In its present normal state, the North Atlantic Current carries warm seawater and thus heat from equatorial latitudes all the way to Baffin Sea and the Arctic Ocean. On the way, it releases warmth into the atmosphere from the waters surface. This means that the sea in the North Atlantic is relatively warm and the weather in Western Europe and Iceland is mild in relation to the latitude, much milder than regions at similar latitudes in the North Pacific or on the east coast of North America.

Research during the past decades has shown that the North Atlantic Current has changed in geo-historical times. Sea temperatures today are estimated to be 7 °C higher than in the ice age and air temperature is 10 °C higher. Drill cores from the Greenland ice cap and cores from sea bed sediment have been used to conclude that fluctuations between warm and cold periods during an ice age are caused by changes in the sea currents in the North Atlantic, particularly with relation to the process called Thermohaline Circulation (Underwater). Most surface currents in oceans are related to prevailing air currents at the oceans' surface. Thermohaline circulation is a global ocean circulation where relatively warm saline water flows north via the North Atlantic (the Gulf Stream) and transfers heat to the atmosphere.

This process cools the seawater, causing its water density with greater mineral salinity. Some scientists believe that the stoppage of the Gulf Stream would probably happen in three to five years from October 2003, as a theory. But what they didn’t know was it was beginning at the actual time of the release of their report. The change of shape of the Gulf Stream is the beginning of the breakdown and stoppage of this warm water current and an anti-naturally produced action that will end much of current day civilization.

Recent Major Heat Waves

1988- Summer U.S.: a severe drought and heat wave killed an estimated 8,000–10,000 people, including heat stress-related deaths.

2000- Spring–Summer, Worldwide: severe drought and heat killed an estimated 20,000 people.

2003- May–June: a month long intense heat wave claimed more than 53,500 lives worldwide.

2006- July 16–25, California: a two-week heat wave killed at least 160 people.

2007-August: Up to 500 people are estimated to have died across Hungary

2009- The U.S. had 291, 237 record heat waves.

2010- 113 degrees in Los Angeles, California on September 28th .

2010- 129 degrees in Pakistan on June 1st.

June 2010 was so far, the hottest month ever recorded on our planet, post the last ice age.

––––––––

Current effects of small to moderate global warming

Slow, gradual sea level rise due to melting glaciers and the thermal expansion of the oceans as global temperature increases

Massive releases of greenhouse gases from melting permafrost and dying forests.

Growing risks of more extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts and floods. Current incidences of drought have doubled since 1976.

Severe impacts on a regional level. Increasing numbers of category 3 & 4 hurricanes. Raising potentials for category 5 mega hurricanes. In Europe, river flooding will soon increase over much of the continent, and in coastal areas the risk of flooding, erosion and freshwater wetland loss may increase substantially. 

Natural systems, including glaciers, coral reefs, mangroves, arctic ecosystems, alpine ecosystems, boreal forests, tropical forests, prairie wetlands, native grasslands, and even deserts are severely threatened.

Un-natural human relational behavior with the environment is now also compounded with species extinction and biodiversity loss, with global climate damage.

Potential for retaliation from the indigenous peoples of Africa, Asia, the America’s, and the Pacific against European and descendant people may grow as they could be viewed as the main parasites of the earth.

Longer term catastrophic effects if warming continues

Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet melting. Unless checked, warming from emissions may trigger the irreversible meltdown of the Greenland ice sheet in the coming decades, which would add up to seven meters of sea-level rise, over some centuries; there is new evidence that the rate of ice discharge from parts of the Antarctic mean that it is also at risk of meltdown.

The Atlantic Gulf Stream current slowing, shifting or shutting down, having dramatic effects on virtually all continents, and disrupting the global ocean circulation system;

Catastrophic releases of methane from the oceans leading to rapid increases in methane in the atmosphere and consequent warming. Potential radical creation of a new short-term Ice Age. All industrialized nations of the northern hemisphere will cease to exist. 

2011-2017 Worldwide: An estimation of 6x more human deaths compared to 1995 are expected.

At the current and growing levels of human population, the only way to prevent exceeding harm to the Earth is for a radical cease of births for 1.8 generations, and/or natural eradication of near 2/3 of the human population. A constructed move could be a measured ending with focus on those noted as parasites of our world, or a natural one with little or no boundaries. The population in 2006 was been estimated at reach well over 9-billion people. Many of those people are moving or building homes further into the spaces other life forms have developed in before humans ever existed. Whether natural fail-safes create a sudden and greater drop in human population, or some humans themselves create ways and means to reduce population remains to be observed. Never before has humanity been forced to grapple with such an immense environmental crisis.

Ocean life comes in an incredible array of shapes and sizes - from microscopic plankton to the largest of the great whales. Many species have been, or are being, driven towards extinction through devastating human impacts. As mentioned in vol. #1 of this book, we still have pirates in the seas. At a certain points of food web, loss of life here leads to losses of life on land.

––––––––

Ocean Life Health Check

More often than not in the U.S., the fishing industry is given permission to proceed each season before the impacts are assessed. Regulation of the fishing industry has been found to be inadequate worldwide. The indulgent Chinese, Japanese, other Southeast Asians, Some West and East Africans, and the new western craze for Omega rich foods have become the greatest threats to ocean life. Technology has been increasingly advanced for the purpose of more efficient killing with gigantic ships that far out-match nature's ability to replenish. Giant ships using state-of-the-art fish-finding sonar can pinpoint schools of fish quickly and accurately.

The ships are fitted out like giant floating factories containing fish processing and packing plants, huge freezing systems, and powerful engines to drag enormous fishing gear through the ocean. This process is lowering the food supply of ocean life to critical levels, bordering towards starvation in the oceans for the life cycle. Populations of top predators, a key indicator of ecosystem health, are disappearing at a frightening rate, and 90 percent of the large fish that many of us love to eat, such as tuna, swordfish, marlin, cod, halibut, skate, and flounder - have been fished out of existence since large scale industrial fishing began in the 1950s.

The depletion of these top predator species can cause a shift in entire oceans ecosystems where commercially valuable fish are replaced by smaller, plankton-feeding fish. This century may even see bumper crops of jellyfish replacing the fish consumed by humans. These changes endanger the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems, influencing reliant land life, as well as people that rely on that food source.  Instead of living sustainably in balance with nature, many people actually think capitalization on life as property is a way to live. You may find this as the reason there is less oxygen and fresh water.

The commercial whale-hunting program of Japan is identical to the operation that was in place before whale hunting was banned. Corporations like Gorton have continued to sell and distribute whale meat products across Japan, even today. The big difference between commercial whaling before and after the moratorium is the role of the Japanese government. Without the annual subsidies, loans, market interference and artificial demand created by the Government of Japan, commercial whaling would have ended with implementation of the moratorium. 

Pirate Police?

Far from policing the rogue traders, governments around the world do little to check their activities or what is landed in their own ports, despite the various international commitments and plans. The pirate booty is often illegally items transferred to factory ships, mixed with legally caught stocks and then knowingly sold in legitimate ports like Las Palmas and Suva. The countries that are the victims of this wholesale robbery are usually those that are least able to enforce the laws in their own waters.

The owners and operators are not impossible to track down. Around 80-countries tend to play host to them including the European Union, Taiwan, Togo, Somalia, Belize, Mexico, and Honduras. International enforcement could shut down this trade, poaching, and corresponding human trafficking. Each of these illegal and uncivilized activities tend to use the same methods & transportation routes.

Make Piracy—History

The European Union; like most European national associations, is an agent in support for destruction of select bio-systems. A well-organized group of pirate fishing operators, based in the port of Las Palmas (Spain), plunder West African waters with total disregard for national fisheries legislation, international regulations, or laws. The EU is a major market for their illegal catches, and EU companies are behind many of these pirate operations. Consumers within the EU are, therefore, unwittingly purchasing fish stolen from some of the world's poorest people, losses that are jeopardizing food security and ruining the livelihoods of legitimate fishermen. Incursions by trawlers into the inshore areas reserved for traditional, small-scale fishing commonly result in collisions with canoes, the destruction of fishing gear, and even the deaths of local fishermen.

The extent of illegal fishing in some West African territorial waters is truly phenomenal. Between 1997 and 2001, aerial surveys of Guinea's territorial waters found that 60% of the 2,313 vessels spotted were committing offences. This is another form of exploitation, a basic of the cultures stemming from Europe throughout history. Guinea is estimated to lose US$110 million worth of fish to pirate fishing every year, Sierra Leone US$29 million, and Liberia US$10 million - a potential source of income these impoverished States can ill-afford to be without. Across the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, losses to non-disruptive profits for fishing are estimated to amount to 1/3 of Africa's total annual fishery exports.

How Pirates Slip the Net

When it comes to catching these fish pirates, the odds are very much stacked against the West African authorities. Efforts to detect and arrest pirate fishing vessels are restricted by a fundamental lack of resources, both financial and technical, and political instability in many countries - both Sierra Leone and Liberia, for example, are recovering from lengthy civil wars. And even when they are caught, penalties do not in many cases serve as sufficient deterrent given the lucrative gains to be made from illegal catches.

Fish pirates also elude detection using a variety of tactics, making the beneficial owners of these illegal operations extremely difficult to identify and penalize. Changes in vessel name and flag are common and some vessels even have dual identities - using one name or flag while fishing in West Africa and a different one when using port facilities and landing catches.  For many vessels spotted in the region, there is no information available whatsoever in the public domain.

Another activity that appears to be on the rise is the transshipment of catches to another vessel whilst at sea, rather than directly offloading in ports. This serves to conceal any connection between the fish and the vessel by the time the fish arrives on the market, meaning the true origin of the catch is unknown. Transshipping and re-supplying at sea also allow pirate vessels to stay at sea and continue to catch fish rather than transit to port when their holds are full, where they could be confronted with port inspections or control of their activities.

Due to the sheer scope of the billions of endangered animals, plants, and fungi; I have provided a link to the information being kept updated....

http://www.earthsendangered.com/

A few endangered species as of January 22nd, 2010. (1/16th of current list worldwide)