Social Justice News, 4-7-07

Hey everybody,
This cold snap has gotten everything messed up. Brrrr! My trees and flowers don’t know what to think. I had to shave my poodle this week because he got into some thistle and got his fur all matted. Predictably, it got cold the very next week. So now he’s in one of his little garage sale sweaters and keeps huddling under blankets and in my lap for warmth. He also looks like a naked mole rat. It’s quite funny, really.

FEATURED ARTICLES
Monitoring Criminals –From the Cradle On: Britain is going to start monitoring kid’s behavior to identify those who will begin criminals. They say that they can identify most future offenders almost from birth. I wonder, why not just go the extra step and lock them up as infants? Skip the middle man. Of better yet, just take DNA samples from fetuses, screen them for these “traits” and then force an abortion if they’re found. That way, you’ll have all your bases covered! Is it just me, or has Britain gone completely crazy? Orwell, you were SO wrong –things are much worse than 1984.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/28/ncrime28.xml

Have we hit the limits? A BBC reporter takes on the thorny issue of population growth and food production, and concludes that the only way to feed the burgeoning world population is with another ‘Green Revolution’. Will it happen? Not likely.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6496585.stm

Creation Science: A chilling description of this phenomenon from Alternet.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/49811/

GOOD NEWS
The EPA CAN regulate CO2: So said the Supreme Court yesterday, in a landmark ruling. Now if we can just get them to do it!
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/02/scotus.greenhousegas.ap/index.html

The New Rules of Food: An organization in the Midwest is trying to promote organic, sustainable, and fairly traded farm goods –and succeeding.
http://www.counterpunch.org/mammoser03232007.html

CLIMATE CHANGE
Perennial Arctic Ice Melting: The Arctic is losing its perennial (read: supposedly permanent) ice cap at a rate of 7-10% per decade. Which means it will be ice free within a hundred year. Simple arithmetic. But, that’s if things don’t accelerate. How fast has climate change been accelerating? Um, it might be time to sell that beach front condo…
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070403/sc_afp/scienceclimatearctic_070403220958;_ylt=AkxshZ3gQkuEh074DrRRiCdrAlMA
The Lethal Non Solution: Turns out that some biofuels produce up to TEN TIMES the emissions of fossil fuels –in addition to other ecological and human rights atrocities.
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/03/27/a-lethal-solution/

Check Your Climate Change Risk: A new website will check your home’s climate change risk for $30. Fair Warning: It seems to me that the model they use is a little outdated, and that things are much more dire than it would lead you to suspect. But its still a good ballpark.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2007-03-28-climate-risk_N.htm

We’re NOT in it together: It turns out that those suffering the worst from climate change, thus far, are the ones who had the least to do with it. The rich exploiting the poor. Gee, what a shock!
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/science/earth/03clim.html?em&ex=1175745600&en=61f7d0ebcafa354d&ei=5087%0A

New Climates: Climate change may create entirely new climates, while destroying others.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/03/26/climate.change.ap/index.html

POLITICS
4% Inflation? Try 100% Government stats say inflation is running at 4%, but that excludes food and energy. Factor those in and its more like 100%. When was the last time you met someone who didn’t buy food or gas? And of course, the poor are being impacted the most.
http://www.counterpunch.org/stillwater03282007.html

The Lights Are Out: Nigeria is rich in oil, so why can’t it keep the lights on?
http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/070325/1/47hnf.html

Vermont Considering Secession: Will it work? Who knows. But its an interesting idea. Unfortunately, several Southern states have the same idea –and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what their constitutions would be like.
http://www.alternet.org/story/50056/

POLLUTION
Plastics Running Away From Frisco: The City by the Bay has just banned plastic shopping bags. Score!
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2401714.ece

ENVIRONMENT
What if Coal is about to Peak, too? We’ll face an energy starved future, for sure. But I’ll also throw a party!
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/4/2/22553/79871

OTHER
10 Things Wrong With Sprawl: A very intelligent critique of our suburban development pattern.
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3641&src=QHA289

Happy as a pig in mud: It turns out that exposure to dirt makes us happy –which shouldn’t be a surprise, given our horticultural and forager roots.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6509781.stm

Website of the Week: The No Impact Man experiment blog. Check it out!
http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/

UU Joke of the Week: How many UU's does it take to change a lightbulb?
Why would anyone want to change a lightbulb?

Have a good weekend everybody!
-Rebecca