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by Jan Lundberg
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“GDP -- Gross Domestic Product -- is dangerously inadequate as a measure of quality of life.” - Robert Costanza et al
In a rapidly changing world posing more deadly risks, it is time that the average working person takes part in the debate on economic growth. To date it is only at a rarified level that specialists and visionaries are saying that out-of-control growth, or growth for its own sake, is tantamount to the philosophy of the cancer cell. Meanwhile, growth in quality-of-life stalled decades ago and is falling, according to key measurements.
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by Jan Lundberg
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It's a probability of less than one in seven billion that you are here, alive on Earth.
The probability of being alive in the Universe in any form is one out of .00000000000...1 -- absolutely unknown, teeny-tiny.
So, don't blow it! While you have life, it can be about enjoying good health while appreciating all life and humanity. If not, it is to diminish yourself and waste the full cosmic experience you are receiving. |
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by New Dawn Traders
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The adventures of the Tres Hombres, 32-meter schooner brig, continue. In Sail Transport Network's previous report Sail Freight Voyage: Holland, Norway, Portugal, Caribbean and Back we neglected to mention the port of call of Belém, Brazil. Joyfully, she made good time across the Atlantic, accomplishing her trade missions as scheduled. Here is the press release from New Dawn Traders, that has assisted Tres Hombres on this voyage with fish trade and supplying crew: |
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by V.I. Postnikov
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 Kiev mass protest
A growing sense of “oppression” has had ecological roots – less visible, perhaps, but more inexorable than the ideologically touted tyrannies of ruling classes or regimenting activities of overzealous bureaucracies. – William R. Catton, Jr, “Bottleneck: Humanity’s Impending Collapse”, p. 187
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by Aaron G. Lehmer-Chang
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 corporate capture
If we environmentalists were honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that several decades of heroic efforts to curb carbon emissions have yielded very little progress. Despite repeated warnings from scientists and the inspiring rise of climate activism, global emissions continue to grow, having recently passed the dangerous threshold of 400 parts per million (ppm). |
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by Peter Crabb
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 A consensus appears to have been reached that the world's production of conventional oil peaked in recent years. And to many observers, it means that from this time forward the supply of oil and natural gas, along with peaking coal and uranium, will decrease toward zero, leaving global Industrial Culture without the precious energy that made that culture possible. With such a precipitous future awaiting the Industrial Tribe, it is curious that one does not hear much about declining energy supplies in the mainstream media. Instead, we are bombarded daily with the “Industrial Progressive Narrative” (Princen et al, 2013), a comforting meme that portrays society as having ever-more energy resources that will drive never-ending growth into the future: |
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by Jan Lundberg
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 New peer-reviewed research has found that just 90 entities are responsible for extracting most of the fossil fuels that have been burned over the past 150 years. These “carbon majors” include 50 investor-owned companies, such as ChevronTexaco and Exxon-Mobil, 31 state-owned companies, such as Saudi Aramco and Pemex, and nine government-run industries in the former Soviet Union, China and other countries.
Emissions from burning these fuels total nearly two-thirds of all the carbon that has been emitted into the atmosphere during the industrial era. |
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by Jan Lundberg
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 The Tres Hombres, the celebrated engineless 32-meter schooner brig owned by Fair Transport, is on her longest voyage yet. She set out from home port Den Helder in Holland on October 18, 2013. By way of Norway and Portugal, she has just arrived in Las Palmas, Canary Islands in the eastern Atlantic.
For the fourth straight year, Tres Hombres begins its trade-wind romp across the Atlantic. In a few weeks she will make landfall in the New World and begin once again the loading of high quality goods to sail -- with no petroleum power -- to northern Europe. [See map at bottom.]
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by Jan Lundberg
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 [This report covers, not surprisingly for followers of this publication, the SAIL consortium conference in Rotterdam Nov. 6-8, 2013.]
There comes a time when everything else must stop, when a crisis is staring you in the face. Perhaps like a speeding train coming at you. This is one of those times, far and away the biggest event in human history.
Coverage and commentary: Methane Levels going through the Roof - from Arctic-News.blogspot.nl, Nov. 11, 2013:
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by Jan Lundberg
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The young man sat on the pebbly beach, looked out over shades of turquoise framed by pine-studded points of sunlit land, and said to himself, "This is the place to be."
The next minute he noticed around him a couple of cigaret butts and bits of degraded plastic, and wondered aloud, "How can anyone harm nature?" Then in a matter of seconds he questioned who the hell he was to point a finger at any polluters, when he had taken a jet plane and used a car to get to this almost unspoiled spot. It was great to be in the Aegean instead of back in the States, but what was the worth of running around the globe trying to spice things up for a more meaningful life?
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by V.I. Postnikov
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Loitering the central streets of my native town, Kiev, where I had lived for 63 years, I involuntarily examine the passers-by. Gosh, how changed the appearance of citizens! I notice some subspecies that I never met before--such as a subspecies of managers--short-haired young people in white shirts, a subspecies of guards--stern-looking lads with bull’s napes, a subspecies of builders--lads from other towns. The old age people are rarely seen on the streets. I peer at the faces, hoping to recognize familiar ones. But no, no way, they are all long gone. The species, the environment have changed irrevocably. Sad, but true.
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by Fernando Agudelo
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The size is 39 inches x 39 inches, oil on strectched canvas ready to frame. The selling price is to be $900-US.
The fossil fuels corporations are on the hot seat right now. Fossil fuels are the modern slavery, and have murdered millions of white, black, hispanics and asians, a mass Holocaust Worldwide. In my study, the number of deaths that the fossil fuel industry have caused surpass the number of the total deaths from the First and Second World Wars combined.
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