Governments must protect quarter of world’s land to avert environmental crisis

10/15/2010

October 15, 2010

New analysis argues for protection of 25% of planet’s land and 15% of oceans by 2020

Washington, DC – World leaders gathering in Japan next week at the UN’s biodiversity summit must agree to put at least 25 percent of the Earth’s land and 15 percent of the oceans under protection by 2020 if they are to be successful in their efforts to solve the current global environmental crisis, a new analysis by Conservation International showed today.

Putting a larger area of the planet under protection is crucial to secure important biodiversity and the delivery of vital services from nature to people. Natural habitats – and the species and genetic resources they harbor – support the global economy and billions of people who directly depend on them for immediate needs, like food, income and shelter. Currently, about 13 percent of the world’s terrestrial areas and less than 1 percent of the open oceans are protected.

The analysis shows that at least 17 percent of the Earth’s land is necessary to protect priority areas for known biodiversity and an additional 6-11 percent is needed to ensure adequate storage of carbon in natural ecosystems. The analysis clarifies that protected areas are not just strict nature reserves, but can also refer to areas managed for multiple uses, such as recreation, sustainable economic activities or for their unique beauty and cultural value.

When world leaders meet at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which starts next Monday in Nagoya, they will discuss a set of 20 targets to slow biodiversity loss over the coming decade – one of them being about the need to put areas under protection. The numbers being discussed are around 15-20 percent for land and a yet to be determined percentage for oceans.

“The current targets are clearly inadequate in protecting biodiversity and ensuring key services to people. Science shows us that we need more places to be protected and where the key places are,” said Conservation International’s Frank Larsen, lead author of the analysis. “There is also evidence that the costs of expanding protected areas are compensated by the many benefits, including new jobs and people’s ability to withstand the effects of climate change.”

Lina Barrera, Conservation International’s Director of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Policy, added: “The problem is that most of the costs are local, while most of the benefits are global, so politicians do not see much incentive to make things happen. This is the time to be brave and get real about the need to put us on the path for a more sustainable future.”

According to the analysis, protecting 25 percent of the lands and 15 percent of the oceans is still a preliminary and conservative estimate. It takes into account the needs to address only carbon storage, but when other important ecosystem services -- like water supply, crop pollination and fisheries -- are added, the numbers will be higher. Also, in regions highly impacted by environmental degradation, protected areas are likely to be the only intact natural environments that will remain.

###

Full document can be downloaded here: www.conservation.org/CBD

Photos available for download here (please note that these images are just to illustrate the story and do not refer to any specific places or species that might be mentioned in the analysis): http://bit.ly/daZXNO

For more information:

Patricia Yakabe Malentaqui, International Media Manager
Mobile: +1 (571) 225-8345 / Office: +1 (703) 341-2471
pmalentaqui@conservation.org

Kim McCabe, U.S. Media Manager
Mobile: +1 (202)203-9927 / Office: +1 (703) 341-2546
kmccabe@conservation.org

Frank Larsen, Conservation Scientist
flarsen@conservation.org

Lina Barrera, Director of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Policy
lbarrera@conservation.org

Conrad Savy, Biodiversity Analyst
csavy@conservation.org

Notes for editors:
Conservation International (CI): Building upon a strong foundation of science, partnership and field demonstration, CI empowers societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature, our global biodiversity, for the well-being of humanity. With headquarters in Washington, DC, CI works in more than 40 countries on four continents. For more information please visit www.conservation.org

California condor population hits 100

California condor population hits 100

October 6, 2010 | 6:12 pm

The number of wild, free-flying condors in California has reached 100, the most in half a century.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced the landmark Wednesday, crediting a captive breeding program started in Southern California in 1982, when there were only 22 wild condors in the state.

Young condors born in captivity are released into the wild every fall at Pinnacles National Monument in Central California and Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge on the southwest side of the San Joaquin Valley. The flock will get another bump over the next few months with the release of 11 juveniles.

The big birds are also reproducing on their own in the wild, adding 16 young to the California population since 2004.

The carrion-eating birds, known for their huge wingspan (9.5 feet) and memorable visage, soared from Mexico to Canada at the time of settlement. Their numbers plummeted with loss of habitat and the decline of the large mammal populations they fed on. More recently, lead poisoning from ammunition and the ingestion of bits of trash have taken a toll.

Arizona, Utah and Baja Mexico also have wild populations. But even when captive birds are counted, there are fewer than 400 California condors in the world.

--Bettina Boxall

The costs of oil addiction

Take a look - this is the devastation that dependence on oil is inflicting. This culture has literally become a vampire - a cannibal culture - sucking the blood of its own mother. This time it is no minor wound - a major artery has been hit.

Its been over a month and tens of billions of gallons spilled and no end in site. This is the worst environmental disaster in the history of the country and may eventually become the worst in the history of the world.

This is one of the last warnings this culture is going to have...

- Jeff

Here is a video of satellite images of the spill that NASA made:



For up to date info please take a look at the NASA website on the spill

These photos were all taken early June, 2010

Click on the photos to see original size and look into the eyes of these birds.

BP forced to admit leak is bigger

Success collecting oil with a milelong suction tube shows that the spill may be far worse than thought.

By Julie Cart and Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times

May 21, 2010

BP's success at drawing oil from a leaking pipe has proved that official estimates of the size of the Gulf of Mexico spill have been too low.

The company effectively admitted as much Thursday when it said that a tube inserted into the broken pipe connected to its blown-out well is collecting as much as 5,000 barrels of oil and 15 million cubic feet of gas a day, even as a live video feed shows large volumes continuing to billow into gulf waters.

"There's still oil leaking there. We're not saying otherwise," BP spokesman Mark Proegler said Thursday.

After the company released a video of the gushing leak last week, independent scientists estimated the amount of oil spewing into the gulf could be 14 times as great as the 5,000-barrel-a-day figure officials have used for weeks to describe the month-old spill.

"From the beginning, we've been working with the [ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] and the Coast Guard, and they are the source, using visual observations, of the size of the leak," Proegler said. "We have asserted that there's no way of accurately measuring from the end of the flow pipe. Others are taking issue with that, and that's fine."

NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco said Thursday that 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, "was always understood to be a very rough estimate. That number was useful and the best estimate at the time." She added that the federal government established an interagency task force this week "to get to the bottom of the flow rate in a scientific fashion."

Since the company placed a 4-inch suction tube into the broken riser pipe Sunday, it has gradually drawn off greater amounts of oil and gas and sent it 5,000 feet to the oil-processing ship Enterprise. Engineers had to ramp up the process carefully, Proegler said, to avoid pulling in water that would mix with natural gas and promote the formation of pipe-clogging hydrates.

"We're not done," Proegler said. "We're going to continue to increase the rate on the insertion tube as high as we can."

The company plans to attempt a "top kill" this weekend or early next week that could plug the blown-out wellhead by injecting heavy fluids into it.

The oil giant has come under sharp criticism for not being more forthcoming about the results of testing and monitoring of the spill. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson on Thursday sent BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward a letter demanding that the company make available all data and information it has collected on the disaster, including reports of internal investigations.

Capitol Hill lawmakers investigating the disaster also posted a live BP video feed of the leak, dubbed Spillcam by one congressional aide, at http://globalwarming.house.gov/spillcam.

In an apparent bow to pressure from Congress and marine scientists, the EPA gave BP until Monday to begin using a less toxic oil dispersant to break up the growing slick.

Nearly 700,000 gallons of dispersant have been applied so far, the most ever used in a U.S.-based oil spill. Most of it has been released on the water's surface to break oil into droplets that will more quickly decompose with the help of oil-eating bacteria. But in a move that has worried some marine biologists, the EPA and the Coast Guard have allowed the unprecedented release of dispersants near the damaged wellhead, nearly a mile deep.

Carys L. Mitchelmore, a toxicologist who studies the effects of pollutants on aquatic life at the University of Maryland's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, called the prolonged use of dispersants in the gulf "one big experiment."

Using dispersants has the effect of exposing marine life to more oil, imperiling deep sea organisms, she said.

Federal officials have acknowledged that not much is known about the long-term environmental effects of dispersant, but they countered that the oil was far more toxic and posed a greater threat to marine life, wildlife, marshes and wetlands.

The EPA also posted on its website the results of BP testing that concluded that the two types of the dispersant Corexit in use so far were effective and posed no significant risk to aquatic life. The EPA did not explain the apparent contradiction of its order and the test results.

Some cleanup workers in the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill developed health problems that were blamed on a chemical found in Corexit 9527, one of the dispersants the EPA ordered BP to stop applying. The chemical, 2-butoxyethanol, was removed from the other version used in the BP spill, Corexit 9500.

BP said it was complying with the order and had been testing alternative products for some time.

Bruce Gebhardt is president of U.S. Polychemical Corp., which manufactures Dispersit, a water-based product that proved more effective and less toxic in EPA testing than Corexit. He said his company was contacted by BP two weeks ago and provided samples.

By Thursday, an overwhelmed Gebhardt said his office based in New York state had been flooded with calls, including from BP. "They wanted to know how much we could make and how fast we could get it there," he said, adding that BP had not decided which dispersant it was switching to.

bettina.boxall@latimes.com

julie.cart@latimes.com

Times staff writers Margot Roosevelt in Los Angeles and Richard Simon in Washington contributed to this report.

Attack the Root!: No to SB 1070, No to Border Militarization, No to NAFTA-101

We just wanted to share a flyer put together by our good comrade Chaparral Respects No Borders, it sums up not just SB1070, but the overall threat that this bill represents. These threats are not new, but now bring to surface the global context of these threats: neo-liberalism. Border security is needed to ensure neo-liberal projects (NAFTA!), and really should be read for what it is: border "regulation/militarization" of indigenous land to ensure capital exportation of people and resources .

As you have seen, and will continue to see, politicians from both parties and reformist immigration activist organizations, push for "Immigration" Reform" which, directly or indirectly, calls for border "militarization". . As cited in an earlier piece, the "political" solution will bring forced removal and relocation of the many indigenous tribes that span "their" borders by means of a reinforced physical barrier. Regardless of the politics, pseudo-calls for movement unity and Pan-American Indigenous "Perspective" (the use of indigenous themes/imagines/icons of liberation, while ignoring the indigenous of the land they organize on), it must be clear that the immigration struggle is also an indigenous struggle.

In order for the state to pass immigration reform, it has called for the "securing" of the borders first, in order to manage the flow of migration. This securing includes and is not limited to a physical wall to be made on indigenous land (Tohono O'odham/Lipan Apache to name a few). The state's power to waive pre-existing laws ( such as NEPA, NAGPRA) in the name of security, directly attacks indigenous autonomy/sovereignty. We understand that our voice, the O'odham voice, is greatly undermined by the mainstream media, state/national politicians and sadly, even self proclaimed immigrant/human rights activists. Regardless of their politics, our voice will stay strong in the face of 21st Century marginalization/colonization.

Our people have survived and kept our him'dag (O'odham way of life) strong through three waves of colonial settlers (Spain, Mexico and United States). OSABC feels, in order to move forward, and attack the State's new wave of colonization, we must understand "where we are at". The very land we all walk on. This has, is and always will be O'odham jewed. If others cannot acknowledge the indigenous people of the land, and call for policies that attack them (O'odham! Yaqui!), such as Berlin Wall-like barrier, in the name of "reform/security", then we will witness the cycles of capitalist imperialism continue long into the 21st Century!

ATTACK THE ROOT, NOT EACH OTHER!

IN SOLIDARITY!

Oaxaca: Two dead and three missing after paramilitaries attack peaceful caravan

Two people are dead and three are still missing after a peaceful solidarity caravan was attacked by paramilitaries in Oaxaca, Mexico.

The caravan "came under fire" on Tuesday (April 27) "as it passed through La Sabana, a town controlled by UBISORT, a paramilitary organization that is allied with the ruling Institutional Revolution Party (PRI)," reports the freelance journalist Kristin Bricker.

"One young woman managed to make it to a hospital where she is being treated." In her initial report, the young woman, Monica Citlali Saniago Ortiz, said at least 15 people were wounded.

The caravan was accompanied by about 40 human rights defenders, international observers and two journalists.

The number of injured are still unclear, however, it has been confirmed that CACTUS member Beatriz Alberta Carino Trujillo and an international observer from Finland, Jyri Antero Jaakkola, were shot dead in the attack. The young woman, Monica Citlali Saniago Ortiz, was shot in the back. Three people are also missing, and it is feared that they have been captured by the paramilitaries.

At the time of the attack, the caravan was en route to the autonomous Triqui municipality of San Juan Copala witha fresh supply of food, water, clothing and other basic necessities.

The town has been closed off by a paramilitary blockade for the past 6 months, making it virtually impossible to leave or bring in supplies.

Kristin Bricker explains, "San Juan Copala declared itself autonomous following the 2006 uprising in Oaxaca, and the autonomous government declared itself adherent to the Zapatistas' Other Campaign. The autonomous municipality has been the target of paramilitary violence ever since. Countless San Juan Copala residents have fallen victim to paramilitary violence. The most prominent case was the execution of two young Triqui radio journalists. This past November, paramilitaries opened fire on San Juan Copala's town hall during a caravan that was traveling to San Juan Copala from San Salvador Atenco. UBISORT had put up a highway blockade to stop the caravan, which was comprised of People's Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) members. While the FPDT was trapped outside the town, paramilitaries attacked the town hall. They shot four children, killing one of them." The paramilitary group ultimately took control of the Municipality's offices.

They reamined there until just 7 weeks ago, when the "Independent Movement for Triqui Unification" (MULT-I) peacefully forced them out. It was, however, a sombre victory since the paramilitary blockade has continued to tie down the Municipality.

Since the initital attack in November, at least 17 indigenous Triquis have been murdered.

Concerning the recent attack, Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom (VOCAL) have released a statement demanding "the government of the killer Ulises Ruiz put an end to all paramilitary attacks in the Triqui Region, and to the financing, provision of arms, and impunity enjoyed by these paramilitary groups in our state." They are also demanding "the immediate presentation of our disappeared comrades."

They are also calling on "the people of Oaxaca, Mexico, and the international community and different social organizations, collectives and groups to make a visible show of solidarity and support, demanding the live presentation of our disappeared brothers and punishment of the responsible people. We also ask that you demand an end to the conditions of violence imposed on the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala.

As a starting point, people should direct their attention to the Governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz Tel. +52 951 5015000 ext. 13005 Fax. +52 951 5015000 ext. 13018 Email. gobernador@oaxaca.gob.mx

Gulf Oil Spill Far Worse Than Officials, BP Admit, Says Independent Analyst

Close to 5,000 barrels of oil a day are pouring into the Gulf of Mexico following the destruction of an offshore oil platform last week, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Operator BP originally argued that the amount was far less (only 1,000 barrels or so), but today it concurred with the government's numbers.

Too bad they're both wrong, according to a group of independent analysts who are watching the spill via satellite and aerial data from their offices in West Virginia. They say the spill is far worse than either the company or the government has acknowledged so far.

Five thousand barrels a day is "a bare-bones limit," says John Amos, the president and founder of the nonprofit firm SkyTruth, which specializes in gathering and analyzing satellite and aerial data to promote environmental conservation.

Amos estimates that the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf is more like 40,000 barrels a day -- eight times the Coast Guard estimate, and 40 times what BP originally claimed. That would add up to about 12 million gallons of oil so far, making this spill worse than the 1989 wreck of the Exxon Valdez, which dumped 11 million gallons into Alaska's Prince William Sound -- one of the nation's worst environmental disasters. (NRDC is calling for a temporary halt to plans for new offshore drilling in light of the Gulf explosion. See update below on President Obama's response.)

Amos previously worked as a consulting geologist, "using satellite imagery as a global geologic tool," in his words, to locate natural resources for major oil and mining corporations. Now he assists advocacy organizations, government agencies, and academic researchers with data collection and analysis.

SkyTruth receives a bit of foundation funding, and it also partners with green groups in the United States and overseas on specific projects. Last year, when a Montara oil rig exploded in the Timor Sea off the northern coast of western Australia, SkyTruth tracked and documented the spill for a coalition of groups advocating for protected marine reserves in the area. That spill lasted for 10 weeks.

"On this Gulf spill, we're not officially partnered with anyone," Amos says. "We are doing what we think is the best thing we can do right now, hoping at some point groups will work with us to make it sustainable over the long haul." He's assisted by a technical volunteer and consultations with professional cohorts.

The Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, about 130 miles southeast of New Orleans, exploded and caught fire on April 20 and sank a week ago today. There were 126 people on board; 11 are missing and likely dead. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency today because of the spreading oil slick -- which is expected to reach the state's coast late tonight -- and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano called it a spill of "national significance."

SkyTruth has access to much of (but not all) the same data that the government and BP are using. It's publicly available from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the agency's Aqua satellite, as well as other sources, including aerial flights.

Based on a map released from a flyover on Wednesday and compared to "the last good satellite image that we got, from the afternoon of April 27," Amos believes that the slick covers about 4,400 square miles. Official estimates to date have put the slick at about 2,200 square miles.

So how did Amos calculate the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf?

"We saw a published statement by a BP executive that about 3 percent of the slick was about 100 microns thick, and that the rest was about one or two molecules thick," he says. "We took him at his word on the microns, but not on the rest," because to see an observable sheen of oil at sea, the petro-goo needs to be at least 1 micron thick, explains Amos.

"A molecule's thickness is measured in billionths of a meter. For a micron, we're talking millionths of a meter," he says. And over thousands of square miles of ocean surface, even millionths of a meter add up.

Using BP's estimate that 3 percent of the slick's area is 100 microns thick, and assessing its size at around 4,400 square miles, Amos calculated that this part of the spill contains about 9 million gallons of oil.

Allowing for the remaining 97 percent of the slick to be 1 micron thick (the minimum necessary for that visible shimmer), Amos estimates another 3 million gallons of oil.

Total: 12 million gallons of slick, give or take a couple hundred thousand, and more oil pouring into the ocean every day.

To make even a rough estimate, Amos used BP's higher-end figure of 100 microns. But the oil is actually much thicker in some parts of the visible spill, he says. Aerial imagery is showing "thick ropy strands of oil, oil that's much thicker than 1 micron," according to Amos. "That's floating froth of oil mixed with water and probably bacteria ... the sloppy thick end of an oil spill where it could be anywhere from a millimeter thick to centimeters thick."

Amos says he doesn't question the Coast Guard's sincerity -- just its data analysis. "They are swamped by the magnitude of this spill and their effort to control it, and stop it from doing worse damage," he says. "I don't blame them for not questioning the numbers they've been provided by others, or spending their precious resources just trying to come up with better number."

From the Coast Guard's perspective, Amos say, "It's just a heck of a lot of oil."

The Coast Guard has not responded to requests for comment.

As for how BP arrived at its initial, much lower estimate of 1,000 barrels per day, Amos says: "I hope it was based on some real thoughtful analysis. But I haven't seen any justification."

UPDATE 4/30/2010: In response to calls from NRDC and others for a halt to drilling expansion in light of the latest disaster, the White House said today that no new offshore oil drilling will take place until a full investigation into the Deepwater Horizon explosion is completed.

Image: Gulf oil spill, captured on April 25 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/MODIS Rapid Response Team

Leonard Peltier to the climate conference attendees (Bolivia)

Monday, April 19, 2010 lpdoc.blogspot.com

My warmest regards to our host, Bolivian President
Evo Morales.

To Presidents Rafael Correa, Daniel Ortega, Hugo
Chavez, and other esteemed Heads of State;
national representatives; and all concerned
citizens in attendance at the People’s Conference
on Climate Change: I send warm greetings and thank
you for your participation.

Today, environmentalists are often portrayed as
marginal intellects and labeled “lunatic fringe,”
rather than progressive thinkers with the ability
to foresee the true cost of destructive corporate
practices. I applaud your intent to ignore your
detractors and admire your efforts to refine the
proposals from the Copenhagen meetings ­in
particular, towards the creation of a world
tribunal for climate issues and a global
referendum on environmental choices. I know the
calculus of this work is difficult to solve.
Listening to the voices of so many to create a
common solution is a unique and difficult
challenge, but also a special opportunity.
I offer prayers for your success.

My name is Leonard Peltier. I am a citizen of the
Dakota/Lakota and Anishinabe Nations of North
America. Like many of you, I am a tribal person.
As Aboriginal peoples, we have always struggled
to live in harmony with the Earth. We have
maintained our vigilance and bear witness to a
blatant disregard for our planet and sustainable
life ways. We’ve seen that the pursuit of
maximized profits through globalization,
privatization, and corporate personhood has
become a plague that destroys life. We know that
it is not only the land that suffers as a result
of these practices. The people most closely
associated with the Earth suffer first and most.

The enormous pressures of corporate profits have
intruded on our tribal lands, but also on our
ancient cultures ­even to the extent that many
Indigenous cultures have virtually disappeared.
Just as our relatives in the animal kingdom are
threatened, many more cultures are on the brink
of extinction.

In America, we are at ground zero of this war for
survival and most often have been left with no
mechanism to fight this globalization monster. On
those occasions when we are forced into a
defensive posture, we are disappeared, tortured,
killed, and imprisoned. I myself have served over
34 years in prison for resisting an invasion
intent on violating our treaties and stealing our
land for the precious resource of uranium. The
same desire for uranium has decimated and
poisoned the Diné Nation of Arizona and New
Mexico. The quest for land for dumping and hiding
the toxic waste from various nuclear processes
has caused a war to be waged on the Shoshone
people of Nevada, as well. These are just a few
examples of what “progress” has meant for our
peoples. As many can attest, the same struggle is
occurring throughout Central and South America.
While my defense of my tribal lands made me a
political prisoner, I know I’m not at all unique.
This struggle has created countless other
prisoners of conscience­ not to mention prisoners
of poor health and loss of life way, as well as
victims of guilt and rage.

To live as we were meant to live is our first
right. To live free of the fear of forced
removal, destroyed homelands, poisoned water, and
loss of habitat, food sources, and our overall
life way is our righteous demand. We, therefore,
continue our struggle to survive in the face of
those who deny climate change and refuse to curb
corporate powers.

It is time for all our voices to be heard.

It is time we all listen, too­ or else our
collective Mother will dramatically and forcefully
unstop our ears.

The Indigenous Peoples have been the keepers of
knowledge and wisdom­ long ago bringing forth
foods, medicines, and other products from which
the world population still benefits. The loss of
our lands and cultures, therefore, is a loss for
the entire human family. We are all citizens of
Earth and this planet is our only home. What
affects one, affects us all. We are all
interconnected and our fates are intertwined.

We can indefinitely survive here, but only if we
work together to adopt sustainable models for
living responsibly. We cannot continue to destroy
Creator’s work, or allow others to do so, in the
belief that there will be no consequences.

I pray for a new age­ a new understanding,
consciousness, and way of being­ a new path for all
the peoples of the world.

Aho! Mitakuye Oyasin!

(Thank you to all my relations. We are all related.)

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,



Leonard Peltier 89637-132
USP-Lewisburg
US Penitentiary
PO Box 1000
Lewisburg, PA 17837
USA

April 11, 2010

Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again

By JOHN TIERNEY

As a retired clinical psychologist, Clark Martin was well acquainted with traditional treatments for depression, but his own case seemed untreatable as he struggled through chemotherapy and other grueling regimens for kidney cancer. Counseling seemed futile to him. So did the antidepressant pills he tried.

Nothing had any lasting effect until, at the age of 65, he had his first psychedelic experience. He left his home in Vancouver, Wash., to take part in an experiment at Johns Hopkins medical school involving psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient found in certain mushrooms.

Scientists are taking a new look at hallucinogens, which became taboo among regulators after enthusiasts like Timothy Leary promoted them in the 1960s with the slogan “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Now, using rigorous protocols and safeguards, scientists have won permission to study once again the drugs’ potential for treating mental problems and illuminating the nature of consciousness.

After taking the hallucinogen, Dr. Martin put on an eye mask and headphones, and lay on a couch listening to classical music as he contemplated the universe.

“All of a sudden, everything familiar started evaporating,” he recalled. “Imagine you fall off a boat out in the open ocean, and you turn around, and the boat is gone. And then the water’s gone. And then you’re gone.”

Today, more than a year later, Dr. Martin credits that six-hour experience with helping him overcome his depression and profoundly transforming his relationships with his daughter and friends. He ranks it among the most meaningful events of his life, which makes him a fairly typical member of a growing club of experimental subjects.

Researchers from around the world are gathering this week in San Jose, Calif., for the largest conference on psychedelic science held in the United States in four decades. They plan to discuss studies of psilocybin and other psychedelics for treating depression in cancer patients, obsessive-compulsive disorder, end-of-life anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction to drugs or alcohol.

The results so far are encouraging but also preliminary, and researchers caution against reading too much into these small-scale studies. They do not want to repeat the mistakes of the 1960s, when some scientists-turned-evangelists exaggerated their understanding of the drugs’ risks and benefits.

Because reactions to hallucinogens can vary so much depending on the setting, experimenters and review boards have developed guidelines to set up a comfortable environment with expert monitors in the room to deal with adverse reactions. They have established standard protocols so that the drugs’ effects can be gauged more accurately, and they have also directly observed the drugs’ effects by scanning the brains of people under the influence of hallucinogens.

Scientists are especially intrigued by the similarities between hallucinogenic experiences and the life-changing revelations reported throughout history by religious mystics and those who meditate. These similarities have been identified in neural imaging studies conducted by Swiss researchers and in experiments led by Roland Griffiths, a professor of behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins.

In one of Dr. Griffiths’s first studies, involving 36 people with no serious physical or emotional problems, he and colleagues found that psilocybin could induce what the experimental subjects described as a profound spiritual experience with lasting positive effects for most of them. None had had any previous experience with hallucinogens, and none were even sure what drug was being administered.

To make the experiment double-blind, neither the subjects nor the two experts monitoring them knew whether the subjects were receiving a placebo, psilocybin or another drug like Ritalin, nicotine, caffeine or an amphetamine. Although veterans of the ’60s psychedelic culture may have a hard time believing it, Dr. Griffiths said that even the monitors sometimes could not tell from the reactions whether the person had taken psilocybin or Ritalin.

The monitors sometimes had to console people through periods of anxiety, Dr. Griffiths said, but these were generally short-lived, and none of the people reported any serious negative effects. In a survey conducted two months later, the people who received psilocybin reported significantly more improvements in their general feelings and behavior than did the members of the control group.

The findings were repeated in another follow-up survey, taken 14 months after the experiment. At that point most of the psilocybin subjects once again expressed more satisfaction with their lives and rated the experience as one of the five most meaningful events of their lives.

Since that study, which was published in 2008, Dr. Griffiths and his colleagues have gone on to give psilocybin to people dealing with cancer and depression, like Dr. Martin, the retired psychologist from Vancouver. Dr. Martin’s experience is fairly typical, Dr. Griffiths said: an improved outlook on life after an experience in which the boundaries between the self and others disappear.

In interviews, Dr. Martin and other subjects described their egos and bodies vanishing as they felt part of some larger state of consciousness in which their personal worries and insecurities vanished. They found themselves reviewing past relationships with lovers and relatives with a new sense of empathy.

“It was a whole personality shift for me,” Dr. Martin said. “I wasn’t any longer attached to my performance and trying to control things. I could see that the really good things in life will happen if you just show up and share your natural enthusiasms with people. You have a feeling of attunement with other people.”

The subjects’ reports mirrored so closely the accounts of religious mystical experiences, Dr. Griffiths said, that it seems likely the human brain is wired to undergo these “unitive” experiences, perhaps because of some evolutionary advantage.

“This feeling that we’re all in it together may have benefited communities by encouraging reciprocal generosity,” Dr. Griffiths said. “On the other hand, universal love isn’t always adaptive, either.”

Although federal regulators have resumed granting approval for controlled experiments with psychedelics, there has been little public money granted for the research, which is being conducted at Hopkins, the University of Arizona; Harvard; New York University; the University of California, Los Angeles; and other places.

The work has been supported by nonprofit groups like the Heffter Research Institute and MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

“There’s this coming together of science and spirituality,” said Rick Doblin, the executive director of MAPS. “We’re hoping that the mainstream and the psychedelic community can meet in the middle and avoid another culture war. Thanks to changes over the last 40 years in the social acceptance of the hospice movement and yoga and meditation, our culture is much more receptive now, and we’re showing that these drugs can provide benefits that current treatments can’t.”

Researchers are reporting preliminary success in using psilocybin to ease the anxiety of patients with terminal illnesses. Dr. Charles S. Grob, a psychiatrist who is involved in an experiment at U.C.L.A., describes it as “existential medicine” that helps dying people overcome fear, panic and depression.

“Under the influences of hallucinogens,” Dr. Grob writes, “individuals transcend their primary identification with their bodies and experience ego-free states before the time of their actual physical demise, and return with a new perspective and profound acceptance of the life constant: change.”

2010 Annual Gathering to Protect Quitovac

"Respect Indigenous Rights; No Toxic Dumping or Mining on Indigenous Lands!"

www.solidarity-project.org

O'odham Ofelia Rivas imprisoned for four days in southern Chiapas while supporting Zapatistas

Thursday, February 25, 2010

O'odham Ofelia Rivas imprisoned for four days in southern Chiapas while supporting Zapatistas

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

O'odham human rights activist Ofelia Rivas was imprisoned in southern Chiapas for four days and crossed safely onto O'odham lands Wednesday night.

"There are inhumane border policies all across the world. My personal experience at home dealing with the Border Patrol helped me deal with confinement in the prison cell," Rivas said after crossing the border to her home.

Rivas was imprisoned in the Tapachula Immigration Prison in southern Chiapas near the Guatemalan border on false charges of crossing the border of Guatemala without documents. Rivas, however, had not crossed into Guatemala.

"Throughout our travel, by plane and bus, federal authorities reviewed my documents and allowed me to pass without problems. The federal police in Tapachula saw that an American was traveling with an Indigenous woman and arrested us.

"They wouldn't talk to me directly because I don't speak Spanish," said Rivas, who speaks O'odham and English.

Rivas was not provided with a translator when charged or during the four days she was imprisoned. "I signed papers without a translator when I was released. I still don't know what I was charged with."

"I was not read any rights," Rivas said. "When they were doing the paperwork, they said we were not being arrested. When we got to the detention center, they said 'You're not being arrested, you're not in handcuffs.'"

However, she had been arrested. She was taken to her cell, which she shared with a family from Colombia, which included a four-month-old baby and nine-month-old baby. They had been there for two months.

"What struck me was the powerful Somalian women that had walked across Central America and were in prison for two months in Panama. They have been waiting in Chiapas for two months for refugee status to be released to the United States. One Somalian woman said, 'I lost all my family, my mother, my father, my brothers, my sisters, all killed in front of me. I only know of one uncle who survived.'"

"The strength of those women, everyday they sat together and sang their songs and told their stories, and it kept us all together. We were a community. We all took care of the babies and watched out for the rest of the children to make sure they ate when it was time to eat."

Rivas became ill from the chemicals used for cleaning the prison, which was done at night when she was locked in her cell. One morning, she felt too ill to get out of bed.

"I couldn't get up, but the women insisted that I get up and go eat."
The women's and men's cells were separated only by partitions and the noise was loud throughout the night.

At night, she could hear a man screaming in English and rattling his cell gate, "Get me out of here! Get me out of here!" he would scream, yelling for a bathroom.

"It was the jungle by the sea, so it was hot and sticky and there were mosquitoes."
"Everyone is sitting there waiting for papers. Someone somewhere is delaying those everyday."

After four days of imprisonment, and the intervention of the American Embassy in Mexico City and family members in the United States, Rivas and her traveling companion were released.

"We cancelled the rest of our trip and came directly home, since we don't know what we signed." "This severe enforcement of borders is because of the militarization of the Zapatista communities which continue to face threats."

"My entire trip was to build solidarity with the Zapatistas and to tell the story of the O'odham on the border. We were received with great respect and were honored to be invited to the communities to share our story. They made a statement to acknowledge our story and that our struggles are the same. They said they were honored to hear from the traditional O'odham people."

Ofelia Rivas is founder of O'odham Voice Against the Wall. She lives on Tohono O'odham land on the US/Mexico border and exposes the human rights abuses of the US Border Patrol and ongoing militarization of the border and O'odham land. She exposed the digging up of O'odham ancestors' graves by Boeing during construction of the border wall in Arizona. She has been held at gunpoint, harassed, threatened and detained by the US Border Patrol on O'odham land in Arizona.

The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates

Marlowe Hood – Wed Feb 17, 11:02 pm ET

PARIS (AFP) – Seldom seen species of lemur, monkey and gorilla are among 25 primates facing near-certain extinction unless urgent measures are taken to protect them, according to a report released Thursday.

All told, close to half of the planet's 634 known primate species are to some degree threatened with dying out, said the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and other conservation and research groups.

That percentage has risen quickly -- only three years ago the IUCN put the ratio of vulnerable primates at one third.

"Primates are among the most endangered of all vertebrate groups," said Russell Mittermeier, head of the IUCN's primate specialist group.

Of the top 25, five are on the island of Madagascar, six on the African continent, three in South America and 11 in Southeast Asia.

The least likely to survive might well be the golden-headed langur of Vietnam, found exclusively on the island of Cat Ba in the Gulf of Tonkin. Only 60 to 70 individuals remain.

Two other species hover in number at around 100: the northern sportive lemur of Madagascar, and the eastern black crested gibbon of northern Vietnam.

Human encroachment has reduced the population of cross river gorillas, found in the mountains along the Cameroon-Nigeria border, to less than 300.

The most threatened species are not always the rarest, experts point out.

How well governments protect dwindling animal populations against deforestation and hunting is at least as critical.

More than 6,000 Sumatran orangutans, for example, are thought to survive on Indonesia's largest island. But poor enforcement of conservation measures has led to plummeting numbers and an unenviable place on the list of most critically endangered primates.

By contrast, the Hainan gibbon -- named for the Chinese island where they are found -- "is actually the world's rarest primate," said Simon Stuart, head of the IUCN's Species Survival Commission.

"But the Chinese government has some very strict conservation measures, so it is not on the list because there is not much more that can be done," he said in a phone interview.

Even so, he added, "it is one thing to stop a species from going extinct, and it is another thing to talk about recovery."

Globally, habitat destruction, especially through the burning and clearing of tropical forests for agriculture, has been the main driver toward extinction.

But in Southeast Asia, hunting for food and traditional medicines made from animal parts -- fueled by an illegal trade in wildlife -- is an even greater threat.

"It comes out again and again from all our studies, tropical Asia is by far the worst place to be for any animal bigger than a rabbit," said Stuart.

The situation in Vietnam and Laos, he added, is "particularly desperate."

Researchers hope the 'top 25' list will garner public and government support for urgently needed conservation measures, especially ahead of the next meeting of the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity, set for October in Nagoya, Japan.

"We have the resources to address this crisis, but so far, we have failed to act," said Mittermeier.

Click here to view the IUCN information page and report

Direct link to the report

EPA to investigate cluster of birth defects at Kettleman City - latimes.com

EPA to investigate cluster of birth defects at Kettleman City - latimes.com

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Shame on the New York Times for Fueling Border Misery

Monday, January 25, 2010

Shame on the New York Times: The truth could have meant one less person would have been beaten, raped or murdered this year by US Border Patrol agents

(Photo: Angie Ramon at the site of her son Bennett Patricio's death)

By Brenda Norrell

Narcosphere

UPDATE: Ofelia Rivas response to article

SELLS, Ariz. -- Shame on the New York Times for failing to tell the real story of the Tohono O'odham border and the complicity between elected Tohono O'doham officials, tribal police and US Border Patrol agents. The truth could have meant that one less person would have been beaten, raped or murdered this year by US Border Patrol agents.

Today's article in the New York Times, "War Without Borders," is the typical mainstream article on the Arizona border, which supports more militarization and abuse at the border. News reporter Erik Echholm offers a superficial view of the situation, focusing on drug trafficking, rather than revealing the real story. If the reporter had spent more time here, knew more Tohono O'odham, and listened more to the Tohono O'odham, instead of the profiteering politicians, the New York Times would have told a different story.

Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham on the border, describes her encounter with the reporter and what he failed to include in the article.

"He came to my home under the pretense of writing about the real border issue. He tried to twist my words. He asked me the same question in several different versions so I told him that exactly, any written word about the ongoing American drug war will only justify in bringing more military and Border Patrol to my lands. "The United States needs to stop their drug operations in South America, stop supplying arms to protect their drugs and stop using our lands for their passage way. Our people are sitting in prisons for drug smuggling charges as a result of American drug trafficking and their policies, which they hide behind. That is all I can say about the drug business. He didn't publish any of that.

"I told him do not twist my words to justify your story. I said, 'Are you going to write about all the Border Patrol abuses on the O'odham and that the American government waived all protective laws to justify all these violations?' I told him of the right of the O'odham to remain sovereign.

"I told him, 'The O'odham are endangered by these policies including our language and entire culture. Do not write anything that will further endanger my people.'

"It the same old business, nothing but that. And what does Ned (Charmain Ned Norris, Jr.) say, business as usual, justifying and verifying the loss of his authority to be a true leader for the people," Rivas said in response.

If you count the number of paragraphs written about drug trafficking in the New York Times article, then count the number of paragraphs quoting Ofelia Rivas concerning the human rights violations, you will discover that the reporter came in with a preconceived story to tell and did not listen.

If the reporter had spent time getting to know the Tohono O'odham and listened, he would have discovered that the Tohono O'odham elected leaders, the chairman and district officials, have been coopted by the United States government and work together with federal agents to violate the rights of the Tohono O'odham people. Since 9/11, a climate of fear has led the US Border Patrol and tribal police to ignore laws and basic human rights, and get away with it.

It is not just harassment. O'odham, including women traveling alone and the elderly, are terrorized and held at gunpoint by the US Border Patrol. O'odham are beaten and killed by the US Border Patrol.

Bennett Patricio, Jr., 18, Tohono O'odham, was walking home when he was run over and killed by a US Border Patrol agent. His family believes that he walked upon Border Patrol agents involved in a drug transfer in the predawn hours in the desert and was murdered. Patricio's family has taken the case all the way to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. (Nearby, the FBI had to shut down Operation Lively Green in Tucson because so many US soldiers, prison guards, military recruiters, etc., wanted to smuggle cocaine for cash, from Nogales, Ariz. to Phoenix.) In federal court, in Bennett Patricio, Jr.'s case, as in the majority of cases filed against US Border Agents who have murdered people of color, injustice prevailed. The Border Agent was not held responsible. (The case files are in Arizona federal courts.)

The Tohono O'odham government is dependent on the US government for funding dollars and does not support the Tohono O'odham people who are abused by the US Border Patrol.

The testimonies at the Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas, held in San Xavier District on the Tohono O'odham Nation in 2006 and 2007, compiled for the United Nations, is available. (Audios at www.earthcycles.net) The summits were organized by Mike Flores, Tohono O'odham, to document the abuses of the US Border Patrol. This testimony reveals the long standing abuse by the US Border Patrol working in complicity with the Tohono O'odham government, including the chairman, legislative council, district officials and tribal police.

When members of the Mohawk Warrior Society visited the Tohono O'odham border, and witnessed the federal spy towers and arrests of Indigenous Peoples during the border summits, they were outraged, disgusted and saddened. An outdoor migrant detention facility, called "a dog cage," by Navajo Lenny Foster, was just one of the human rights violations.

Today, the US government has spy towers on the Tohono O'odham Nation and continues to arrest Indigenous Peoples. The Tohono O'odham Nation made it a crime for O'odham to offer water or aid to migrants, including Indigenous Peoples, even if they are dying. Still, many O'odham do offer aid to their fellow human beings.

"The US Border Patrol is an occupying army," says Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham, who puts out water for migrants at water stations against the wishes of the Tohono O'odham Nation. Wilson points out that non-O'odham have failed to hold the Tohono O'odham Nation, the elected politicians, responsible for crimes against humanity. Today's article in the New York Times only encourages the half-truths promoted by elected politicians and US federal agents. It fails to reveal the true story of the militarization of Tohono O'odham lands and the suffering of the people. Perhaps if this reporter had searched for one body, the body of a Mayan mother walking with her children from Guatemala in scorching temperatures over 115 degrees, his life and his story might have been different. Perhaps if he had talked to the family of one young man from Mexico, who was murdered at close range by a US Border Patrol agent, the reporter's story would have been different. Perhaps if he had seen the grave of one tiny child in the Sonoran Desert, draped with Mayan beads, his life and his story would have been different.

The New York Times article also fails to question the Tohono O'odham's lucrative Desert Diamond Casino, packed with crowds. The Times fails to question where the millions of dollars are going from this casino. It only takes a look around on the Tohono O'odham Nation to see that the millions are not going to the O'odham people. The people are suffering and in desperate need of housing and jobs. If you talk to O'odham, you will find that many need food and firewood, including women, children and the elderly.

The New York Times article fails to describe the abuse by the US Border Patrol when O'odham living along the border cross for family and ceremonial reasons. The situation on the Tohono O'odham Nation is compounded by the fact that there is no freedom of the press here. In fact, news reporters who want to tell other than the politicians' side of the story are followed, detained and harassed by the US Border Patrol. (This was the case when I conducted radio interviews for BBC at the border and during other visits with news media.) In silence and secrecy, oppression and cruelty, these crimes against humanity flourish.

If the New York Times reporter had spent more time listening to Ofelia Rivas and other O'odham, he would have told a different story.

But that requires listening, and time. It requires spending years in an area and getting to know the people and the land. It requires knowing and listening to the people, instead of rushing in for a few days or a week and simply quoting politicians and US federal agents.

New York Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/us/25border.html

Japanese Whalers Ram Sea Shepherd Ship Ady Gil

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Japanese Whalers Ram Sea Shepherd Ship Ady Gil
Famed trimaran is sinking in the Southern Ocean

Six crewmembers Rescued by the Sea Shepherd Ship Bob Barker

In an unprovoked attack captured on film, the Japanese security ship Shonan Maru No. 2 deliberately rammed and caused catastrophic damage to the Sea Shepherd trimaran Ady Gil.

Six crew crewmembers, four from New Zealand, one from Australia, and one from the Netherlands were immediately rescued by the crew of the Sea Shepherd ship Bob Barker. None of the crew Ady Gil crew were injured.

The Ady Gil is believed to be sinking and chances of salvage are very grim.

According to eyewitness Captain Chuck Swift on the Bob Barker, the attack happened while the vessels were dead in the water. The Shonan Maru No. 2 suddenly started up and deliberately rammed the Ady Gil ripping eight feet of the bow of the vessel completely off. According to Captain Swift, the vessel does not look like it will be saved.

“The Japanese whalers have now escalated this conflict very violently,” said Captain Paul Watson. “If they think that our remaining two ships will retreat from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in the face of their extremism, they will be mistaken. We now have a real whale war on our hands now and we have no intention of retreating.”

Captain Paul Watson onboard the Steve Irwin is racing towards the area at 16 knots but still remains some five hundred miles to the north. The Bob Barker has temporarily stopped the pursuit of the Nisshin Maru to rescue the crew of the Ady Gil. The Japanese ships initially refused to acknowledge the May Day distress of the Ady Gil, but ultimately did acknowledge the call. Despite acknowledging the call, they did not offer to assist the Ady Gil or the Bob Barker in any way.

The incident took place at 64 Degrees and 03 Minutes South and 143 Degrees and 09 Minutes East

Until this morning the Japanese were completely unaware of the existence of the Bob Barker. This newest addition to the Sea Shepherd fleet left Mauritius off the coast of Africa on December 18th and was able to advance along the ice edge from the West as the Japanese were busy worrying about the advance of the Steve Irwin from the North.

“This is a substantial loss for our organization,” said Captain Watson. “The Ady Gil, the former Earthrace, represents a loss of almost two million dollars. However the loss of a single whale is of more importance to us and we will not lose the Ady Gil in vain. This blow simply strengthens our resolve, it does not weaken our spirit.”

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is requesting that the Australian government send a naval vessel to restore the peace in the waters of the Australian Antarctic Territory. We have 77 crew from 16 nations on three vessels, six of them were on the Ady Gil. Of these, 21 are Australian citizens: 16 Australians on the Steve Irwin and five on the Bob Barker. Sea Shepherd believes that the Australian government has a responsibility to protect the lives of Australian citizens working to defend whales from illegal Japanese whaling activities.

“Australia needs to send a naval vessel down here as soon as possible to protect both the whales and the Australian citizens working to defend these whales,” said Steve Irwin Chief Cook Laura Dakin of Canberra. “This is Australian Antarctic Territorial waters and I see the Japanese whalers doing whatever they want with impunity down here without a single Australian government vessel anywhere to be found. Peter Garrett, I have one question for you: Where the bloody hell are you?”