Let's talk 'sustainability'

I'll edit the rest of the links later, computer is misbehaving, but wanted to post this for now.
For complete links go to my tribe blog.

Article excerpt:
"Like whales, pandas, polar bears, and tigers, shaggy orange orangutan are
classed 'charismatic megafauna' by academics - endangered animals whose plight
provokes compassion and concern.

Cute as they may be, their supporters need to keep perspective, said Derom
Bangun, executive chairman of Gapki, the Indonesian Palm Oil Association, and
an RSPO member.

'We should see the whole picture, not only the orangutan. They try to
manipulate emotional side of orangutans so that housewives in Europe find it
very pitiful,' he said."

Hmmm...yes, by all means let's take a look at the WHOLE picture and not just stop at where it is agreeable to the interests of industry.

I will keep posting this link to this article from the Ecologist: The Elephant in the Room

Economic growth is worshipped like a god – blindly and without any concern for reason.

Nothing on a mass scale is 'sustainable' ... I will keep saying this, because so far no one has shown me this is false. All the new 'green solutions' are just more of the same; tools to keep mass scale corporate industry going. You can't take sustainable practices and outfit them to many large scale production models that by the nature of their size are inherantly unsustainable.

sus·tain·a·ble (sÉ™-stā'nÉ™-bÉ™l) Pronunciation Key
adj.

1. Capable of being sustained.
2. Capable of being continued with minimal long-term effect on the environment: sustainable agriculture.

(this feels to be an inaccurate definition of 'sustainable', especiallly if the following ' * ' are true...)

sus·tain (sÉ™-stān') Pronunciation Key
tr.v. sus·tained, sus·tain·ing, sus·tains

*1. To keep in existence; maintain.
*2. To supply with necessities or nourishment; provide for.
3. To support from below; keep from falling or sinking; prop.
*4. To support the spirits, vitality, or resolution of; encourage.
5. To bear up under; withstand: can't sustain the blistering heat.
6. To experience or suffer: sustained a fatal injury.
7. To affirm the validity of: The judge has sustained the prosecutor's objection.
8. To prove or corroborate; confirm.
9. To keep up (a joke or assumed role, for example) competently.

How does 'sustainable agriculture' do what 1, 2 and 4 says if by it's own definition it:: causes "...minimal long-term effect(s) on the environment."? Which is most likely 'safe language' for PR purposes.

Keep this in mind: anything being touted as a 'wonder' of some kind that is supposed be helpful, saving the environment and the wildlife, if it is being massed produced and consumed, is not what it is being ADVERTISED as. Plain and simple.

All the popularized corporate co-opted 'renewable energy sources' are included in this. This reminds me that I have a unfinished writing that I will include with this one now started....

Sustainability, renewable 'green' energy and the myth of economic growth (originally started 3/06)

What is 'sustainability'? It's one of the biggest and most widely used words in the world right now. Mostly because it is becoming all too obvious of the instability of society and environment that has been wrought from the unsustainable manner in which a large number of humans have chosen to live life. But it is also being used to deflect from that awareness as well, in the attempt to sustain the current structured perception of 'reality' that promotes and perpetuates unsustainability that contradicts and apposes the natural world and laws.

There is a lot of talk, in spiritual and entrepreneurial circles, of 'the world is what you make it' and 'you create your own reality', but it is often misunderstood and denied that as human beings there is a natural limitation to this ability. These attitudes are often coopted to justify, rationalize, behaviors that continue to ignore Nature. I will not say that there is no relative truth to these sayings, because there is, only that the mistake is when it is taken too literal, the individual is believed to be the ultimate reality and perceives the world and makes decisions in this light.

Or perhaps it could be said 'shadow'. Because the more there is attention on perfecting the imperfect, the more attention is drawn away from the perfection of Life that is 'within and without', the true light of consciousness that is inherent in all beings. The more there is a struggle to 'become something more', the less we are in knowing of what we *are* that is naturally aware and 'connected', inseparable from all Life.

I cannot claim to know how or when or even why, but at some point humans stopped paying attention to the natural law of life, to the essential sustenance and true source of life, and formed a belief that they were separate from Life Source and all it's various forms of life.

One could speculate it has to do with survival/safety of 'me' and 'mine', and this fear has been continually played and preyed upon.

There came to be an apparent desire or 'need' for MORE things, more than what was provided by nature. And in identifying with that 'need' there became an irresponsibility to the natural relationship of life. The desire for less work or struggle, the selling of 'the good life', has been capitalized on and has ironically created more strife and suffering on a grander scale that has ever been known in human history.

This is what the current system of 'capitalism' is sustaining on a global scale: wage slaves, over-consumption, ecological destruction, famine, insurmountable dept, war industry...and all the issues that are connected with this that branch out throughout the world. Competition can be fun and good natured, but what does it serve if taken beyond a simple game? And how does it affect relating?

It's perhaps past the point where we can stop a lot of the potential devastation that has been set in motion, but how will we choose to live out what may be the remainder of time that humans have on this beautiful earth? Will we continue to fight over semantics on 'spirituality', who 'owns' what and how much more can we get? Or will we stop enough to take a good look around and see how we can truly live in peace?

Here's some perspective on the 'green' movement:

From Rio to Johannesburg: Renewable Energy for the 21st Century
World Summit Policy Brief #10

Why Renewable Energy Is Not Cheap and Not Green

Wind Power is Not Sustainable; UK Climate Levy Harms Small Businesses
(thank you Wayback Machine! )

Researchers Alarmed by Bat Deaths From Wind Turbines

Wind Chill? U.Va. environmental scientist swept up in wind power controversy

Birds of a Feather Don't Always Stick Together
www.grist.org/news/maindi...m/index.html
(an interesting insight on how 'activist organizations' can be used and not necessarily how we may be lead to think they are)

Both sides of the wind farm debate (Australia)
web.archive.org/web/200608...s/wind.html
(thanks again WM!)

Corn for Fuel: Not Such a Hot Idea?
Commentary by Alan Hall, contributing editor
www.working-minds.com/solutio...biofuels
(scroll down a little for article)

Ethanol fuel from corn faulted as 'unsustainable subsidized food burning' in
analysis by Cornell scientist
www.news.cornell.edu/release...hrs.html

San Francisco Solar Initiative Too Costly
www.heartland.org/Article.cfm

California Utilities Commission Approves Costly Solar Plan
www.heartland.org/Article.cfm

And some on the current capitalistic paradigm and 'civilization'

The Elephant in the Room: Economic growth is worshiped like a god blindly and without any concern for reason.
billtotten.blogspot.com/2005/1...om.html

[Guest Blogger] Dr. Ralph Metzner on the Collapse of Civilization
nonprophet.typepad.com/nonpro..._d.html

A risk of total collapse
www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,...7,00.html

How to Survive the Crash and Save the Earth
ranprieur.com/essays/saveearth.html

These are only a small portion of the perspectives on it all, but I feel there is enough evidence of the nature of big scale business and the effects it has wrought to see through the language of 'self interest'.

I cannot, and would not, say how one should live life, but I offer this in the support of the inherent ability within, to stop and possibly see what may not have been seen, to have the courage to face fear that may keep from being aware and to honestly consider what it is you really want. To be willing to see what is truly of value to you and to ask yourself what you are willing to do or to stop doing to support this.

As ever...Peace, Skeye

(The article that prompted this post...)

Palm oil puts squeeze on Asia's endangered orangutan

By Gillian Murdoch Mon May 28, 9:25 AM ET

PALANGKARAYA, Central Kalimantan (Reuters) - Bound hand and foot, disheveled
orangutans caught raiding Borneo's oil palm crops silently await their fate as
a small crowd of plantation workers gather to watch.

Lacking only hand-cuffs and finger-printing to complete the atmosphere of a
criminal bust, such "ape evictions" have become part of life for Asia's
endangered red apes.

Thousands have strayed into the path of international commerce as Indonesia and
Malaysia, their last remaining habitats, race to convert their forests to
profitable palm crops.

Branded pests for venturing out from their diminishing forest habitats into
plantations where they eat young palm shoots, orangutans could be extinct in
the wild in ten years time, the
United Nations said in March.

Fighting against this grim prediction is the Nyaru Menteng Borneo Orangutan
Survival (BOS) centre in Central Kalimantan, which rescues orangutans and
returns them to the wild at the cost of US$3,000 per ape.

"They will kill the animals if we don't go ... It's cheaper to kill the
orangutan than put up a fence or snares," said Lone Droscher-Nielsen, the
Danish-born founder of the centre.

While harming the apes is illegal, her centre has amassed a slew of photographs
of the grisly fates of some plantation trespassers: Apes with their hands cut
off and slashed to death with machetes, and others with bullets through their
foreheads.

With dozens captured this year, cages are full, and finding secure land for
releases is a constant challenge for the centre.

"It's not just orangutans -- bears, gibbons -- everybody is losing their home,"
said Droscher-Nielsen.

"If it was only the orangutan, people just say: 'Well it's only one species
that's going to go extinct'. But it's not just one species. Those forests have
millions of animals in them that are all going to go extinct if we continue."

SQUEEZED OUT

Indonesia and Malaysia together produce 83 percent of the world's palm oil.
Made by crushing fresh fruit, the reddish-brown oil is riding high in the
commodities charts, with crude prices up over 15 percent this year after rising
40 percent in 2006.

Used in cookies, toothpaste, ice cream and breads it is the world's second most
popular edible oil after soy.

Demand is also soaring for palm oil-derived biofuel, despite objections from
critics who slam the "green" alternative to pricey crude oil as "deforestation
diesel" because of the destruction wreaked on forests to make way for palm
plantations.

Of 6.5 million hectares cultivated in Malaysia and Indonesia in 2004, almost
four million hectares was previously forest, environment group Friends of the
Earth calculated.

For orangutan, the clearances are a matter of life and death.

"You can see how desperate the situation is," said forestry department official
Sugianto, 43, as he gestured at row after row of palms in the ape's last
stronghold, Central Kalimantan.

"The company knows the orangutan has a protected status ... if they have a
permit to clear 60,000 hectares they clear 60,000 hectares, orangutan or not.
They only care about their profit."

Caught and reported to the Borneo Orangutan Survival centre by plantations who
say they are trying to be responsible stakeholders, healthy animals are
re-released deep in the forest. Those too injured or too young to survive alone
join 600 others at the rehabilitation centre.

Forty local Dayak women look after the current crop of 18 palm oil "orphans,"
whose mothers have been killed; bottle-feeding them milk, administering
medicine and supervising their climbing and nest-building.

"Some people still think it is a strange job, but others think it is normal
now," said 31-year old Sukawati.

After "forest school," the apes graduate to eventual release.

"They are cute and funny," said Sukawati. "They make me laugh."

BALANCING ACT

Orangutans once ranged across Southeast Asia. Now an estimated 7,300 remain on
Indonesia's Sumatra island and 50,000 on Borneo island. An estimated 5,000
disappear every year.

Decades of habitat loss through rampant illegal logging, lethal annual forest
fires, and poachers who earn hundreds of dollars for capturing orangutans for
the illegal pet trade have all taken their toll.

But this latest threat is the worst, experts said.

"The orangutans can withstand a certain degree of logging, as most loggers
don't take the orangutan food trees," said Bhayu Pamungkas of the World Wide
Fund for Nature.

"But they have no chance with oil palm -& there's no chance for the orangutan
if they clear-cut all the forest."

To rescue the industry's green credentials, several Indonesian and Malaysian
palm oil companies have joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO),
whose voluntary criteria include a ban on clearing primary forests and areas of
high conservation value, such as forests containing orangutan.

Its more than 150 members also include major European end-users like
Cadbury-Schweppes, Unilever and the Body Shop, that together take 40 percent of
Asian exports, and who want to buy non-destructive palm oil.

But securing private sector support is a balancing act, said Fitrian
Ardiansyah, 32, an RSPO board member.

"There is some genuine intention from progressive companies to distinguish
between them and the bad guys," he said.

"But if the push is too hard for them it's not going to be too difficult to
switch the market to China and India, and emerging markets like the Middle East
and Africa."

TREES AND PRIORITIES

Like whales, pandas, polar bears, and tigers, shaggy orange orangutan are
classed "charismatic megafauna" by academics - endangered animals whose plight
provokes compassion and concern.

Cute as they may be, their supporters need to keep perspective, said Derom
Bangun, executive chairman of Gapki, the Indonesian Palm Oil Association, and
an RSPO member.

"We should see the whole picture, not only the orangutan. They try to
manipulate emotional side of orangutans so that housewives in Europe find it
very pitiful," he said.

The country's clearance of almost 1.9 million hectares of forest a year between
2000 and 2005, Asia's worst deforestation rate, also needs to be seen in its
economic context, Bangun said.

While the government does need to better define which forest areas are to be
preserved, not all will be kept, he said.

"Other countries chopped down their forests when they were developing their
countries. If they would like us to preserve more than we can, they should do
something to help us."

But while plantation workers have some choice whether they want to buy into the
motorbikes and mobile phones offered by palm's economic opportunities,
orangutans have no such choice, those on the front-line point out.

"I'm not against palm oil," said Droscher-Nielsen. "(But) if there's not proper
protection of the forest the orangutans are not going to make it."

(Additional reporting by Mita Valina Liem in Jakarta)